#why is the first picture so desaturated

[charlunday]

Outfit ideas, if they should help inspire. The dolls are AMAZING

-White tshirt and smock or apron stained with paint or flour/baking supplies

-cozy pajamas and sleepy eyes

-warm flannel for fall

Basically anything comfy and cozy and snuggly or work clothes

And yes he can [long bleep sound]

Here he is, with Katniss, to remind you people he has a WIFE. (And because I drew her a pretty outfit too)

Okay @millennium-queen we're getting slightly sluttier now...

Now THIS........ this I can get behind...

NOW THIS ‼️ THIS IS SLUTTY ‼️‼️ @bellairestrella

Anyway. You guys are monsters and I am feeding your sins. Hope you enjoyed today's episode of Objectify That Man.

[goomyloid]

What was your process for making the Noelle amv, if you don't mind sharing?

hii! im not sure how eloquently or clearly ill be able to explain it but i definitely have some pictures you can look at!

(the video)

i actually got the idea while i was away on a trip with very limited wifi -- it wasn't Trust Me that i got an AMV idea for first, but instead it was one of 4syu's other songs, There's Nobody. for such a happy sounding song it really made me so sad, to the point where if i tried to sing it to myself id get choked up by the chorus LMAO. it was baddd

but basically i was rapidly trying to find both songs on spotify so i could listen to them offline, and it only took me a few loops of Trust Me and thinking about the original MV to make me go "ohhhh. how can i make this about noelle." And so i did .

i was thinking about doing a storyboard, but in the past, i've found that doing storyboards for animations/AMVs lowkey... kills my motivation altogether... SAD... but i saw the whole video so clearly in my head, and i didnt want to make the same mistake i made before... so i went right to doing quick sketches (while still on my trip...) just so i could get the ideas out of my head

i was torn on what to do with my style at the time, whether i wanted to make it more similar to the original video, or to her canon appearance, or to MY style and how i draw her. i think it kind of ended up as an amalgamation of all three...? at the very least, her light world color palette definitely was more bland and desaturated, like i purposefully wasn't trying to do anything special with her colors.

after that point, and getting maybe a few of the actual drawings done, my motivation crashed again, and i left it all to marinate for nearly a week. it was baking, guys, it wasn't abandoned, listen to me, why are you throwing tomatoes at me,

i had up to about the "I dreamed about that again" animation done and stopped, and it wasn't until i decided to sit down and start editing it anyway that i really got in my groove again. i got all my little assets into a workable state so i could really try to sit down and make the video come to life and all

the really fun part was honestly working on the desktop backgrounds. i really wanted to limit colorpicking from the original video as much as possible, but i decided that making look as similar as possible to the original could help with the contrast i wanted to add later.

i drew these two backgrounds first. i was hoping i could somehow fit the bunker into the second one, but decided to do something different anyway. the second one's ui didn't actually change until later in the editing process.

drawing THESE were fun especially, and im happy with how they came out. i think the dark world icons are really cute still. one thing i really did know i wanted to do from the beginning was to turn the soul/undertale icon into the deltarune one.

i was worried if the shift from the Windows Field Background to the dark world would be too sudden, like you would just blink and suddenly it was all different, but i think it ended up all right...?

the not so fun part was drawing all the different boxes, lmao. it go really tedious by the end, so i tried to reuse as many of the same ones as i could.

a lot of copy-pasting and tracing rectangles for sure.

i also had to make sure the animations didnt Suck. i brute forced those things and used every last braincell i had in order to make those pictures move bros

fun fact. ive never animated hair like this before. or in any complex manner really. i had to use sooo much brain here... heres how it started vs. how it ended up

had my animator gf hype me up thru the whole thing... i was having a great time based on the filenames alone

aaaand then ummmm i edited it. i learned after effects like 1 month ago. never touched it before. i learned it for internship purposes and then used my newfound powers for evil it seems

i split the whole thing up into multiple compositions of course, but i probably could have split things up more... im sorry for having 84 layers on comp 3 its not my fault

editing a video in 12 fps was a fun change though -- very easy for my brain to go frame-by-frame, and yet still some of the timing ended up being off... tis the goomy way

like i said before, i started editing when i barely had half the drawings done, but seeing it all start to be in motion really pushed me to finish it up. and i mean Really. like i finished the whole thing maybe 48 hours after i first started editing.

and...i think that's it? i do a lot of discord art streaming to friends lately but i kinda kept this one more under wraps compared to usual, i think i just wanted to surprise everyone... look guys i remembered how to make a video! and it's three minutes! waow

sorry if this is way more than you asked for LMAO

also, the AMV hit 5k views on youtube today! ive never had a video do well like that so quickly! thank you!!

[hyperray]

(1. There's a second reblog continuing this) So I've been looking into Helluva Boss 4Chan threads to see if any new leaks have come up cuz let's be honest it pretty much is the most reliable source for unannounced Hellaverse content, and I found these leaks:

..I I i- i uggghhhh WHAT?! Is Viv making people pay to read uninmportant trivia??? My mind is failing to grasp at the reasoning in this logic, like what? Okay, let me explain why I think this is a bad idea. So Viv makes people pay for them to see useless trivia she could've posted on Twitter? I have never seen anyone else do something like this, I've seen no project runner market on trivia when they just post them on Twitter. I don't know if doing something like this is normal and common so I apologize if that's the case, but I still think that is a stupid thing to do, and also very greedy of her. And they are barely useful information, for example the first picture where all hellhounds are colored desaturated and have red sclera with white irises. W- Wh- WHAT? That is not a trivia to sell upon, that's literally what everyone has noticed for the entirey of the show! A casual fan could make that claim and they'd be right because of what we observed! And even then what is this suppose to bring, confirm that there are no canon hellhounds with saturated tones? That little thing is more likely to upset more people because drawing hellhound OCs that break off from that rule would feel more, well, I think 'dissapointed' would be too strong of a word here, Idk, in short that trivia is something almost everyone accepted before it was confirmed and adds nothing.

[ginariima]

Chimata is pretty neat :) SO I just want to talk about Chimata for a lil bit because I think she's pretty cool. First off is her design, it's a rainbow design which most of time can look really ugly. Due to a lack of color consistency making it really hard to focus on the character. However, Chimata's design circumvents this by using colors' natural values.

Some colors are just naturally darker (or have lower values) than other colors. Chimata's design uses these natural values. Just in case if you're a bit confused, I have all the colors all the way to the top right, yet, some of them are still darker.

Our eyes naturally tend to look at what is the lightest. In this case, you're going to look at Chimata's center, her face and her white coat. Then they're going to travel downwards to the yellow, portion, then to the blue/green, then to the purple. Then again from chimata's center, your eyes travel to the orange, and then to the red of her arms.

This is such a clever way to do a rainbow design and I love it so much cause of that. It might still look off to some people though because of the really high saturation, which is why some artists desaturate her colors just a teensy bit. Ok now i wanna talk about her theme, "Where is that Bustling Marketplace Now ~ Immemorial Marketeers", specifically the Rainbow-Colored Septentrion version of the theme. Unlike most Touhou final boss themes, these theme feels desperate and powerless. The closest theme that I think gets to the feeling of desperation this theme has is Sukuna's theme with it's final part. Zun described the song as being split into two halfs, a 'wailing' section and a 'upbeat' section. The trumpets that appear 50 seconds into the song which really emphasizes that wailing part, they're slow and completely cut off the climax that the song was building up to at that point. Then once more, it builds tension up and up again, but once more it fails to capitalize on it and goes into THE BELL SECTION (my fav part !) A calm before the storm before the actual climax with a cool fast piano! This part always feels like a last resort, I know to many it sounds upbeat but to me it always sounded desperate. It has barely any long notes, and is a super frantic. The melody also has this funky lil shape I like Picture from chronondecay's transcription of Chimata's theme

The melody is constantly going up and down in fast sucession. The stops within it, especially with the zunpets, feel like gasps of air to just barely continue. Until it falls down again into a repeating zunpet part that sounds like it's trying to recapture the feeling of the previous section, but just can't. That thing this song does, of rising to a climax that just doesn't come is so cool in my opinion. It feels so desperate and confused as to the direction of where it has to go. Showing Chimata's feelings during the incident where she is completely at a disadvantage due to the pandemic of the outside world, and being a newcomer to Gensokyo. She's trying to survive, but doesn't know how to go about it. Well thats my best try at an analysis of a song 😎 since my knowledge of music just comes from looking at midis lol. I'd like to talk about some of her story stuff too, like the incident and her relationship with Megumu that get's explored in Lotus Eaters but I AM TIRED. Instead of doing my homework thats due in 5 hours I did this for like an hour so I'mma stop for now. Hope you all like Chimata a bit more!

[sanepersonhere]

Human train(s)!

This is a gift for @bruhstation's cstm anniversary!! Thank you so much for creating Casa Tidmouth!

The blog was 70% (at least) of the reason of why I first started getting into the ttte fandom and also the reason why I actually got back into art. I'd found the account when I had lost a lot of inspiration in drawing and it motivated me to create more pieces!

Cstm and the ttte art community also made me get back to social media too!! (Made this acc to follow train peeps and was originally supposed to be about ttte before I got obsessed with witch hat hehe)

The blog got me into reading/watching chainsawman and witch hat atleir aswell

Thank you also for making my friends think I'm crazy over talking about cstm and human train shenanigans. Though one of my friends now succsesfully simps for human trains so :D.

extra below

Hmm

hilarious.

desaturated ver because for some reason when I download the pictures with characters designs, they are more saturated than how it looks when i screenshot ^^

I hope the pictures aren't blurry :,)

Thank you again for your brilliant stories and creative au!

[genericpuff]

Rachel "Retcon" Smythe Strikes Again!

Okay, so I've been seeing pictures of Volume 4 of Lore Olympus floating around, and people are ALREADY FINDING RETCONS.

Most notably so far, some added panels in the Hades and Apollo confrontation that happens outside Artemis' house (when Persephone steals Apollo's lyre) in Episode 81.

This is the original scene, for anyone who needs a refresher:

Aaaand here are the panels that were added.

(all pictures of Volume 4 are courtesy @iwannagutyou on IG!!! thank you for giving me permission to use these! <3)

First of all, the art. It's so noticeably bad. You can tell Rachel has completely lost her ability to draw these characters in the S1 style, I'm fairly certain she took the panel of Hades from the old version and just copy pasted it to try and get around it (look at the posing) but it's incredibly obvious looking at that third panel that LO is not and can never be what it was back in 2017-2019. Those first two panels seem like they were copy pasted from the previous ones, which is just sad if those are the lengths she has to go to to come even close to replicating the older style.

Now, this just might be due to camera translation, it could very well look better IRL, but the colors just look so incredibly desaturated and the lines blurred out, to the point that people are doing double takes over whether or not panels have been directly changed - they haven't been, they've just been so sucked dry of their colors that they look off enough to cast suspicion.

If anything it's a harsh reminder that LO has kinda always had art problems, especially with its lazy humor and stupid meme faces.

Of course, to be fair, color loss can happen in print, but seeing how slapped together these books tend to be, I wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't put in the effort to convert the page art to CMYK or at least tinker with the saturation in editing some more to ensure it would come out more vibrant in print.

Now. Excuse me while I go on a bit of a crackpot rant here. Newbie puff pals beware, because this is gonna get dicey and you're about to learn where my tinfoil-hat rep comes from but I just have to talk about it.

Back to the added Apollo panels, where Persephone asks Hades not to hurt him and he looks nervous before she says "I just want him to leave".

Maybe it's just me, but it's a little weird that THESE are the panels they decided they needed to add. It's weird that she's asking Hades not to hurt Apollo when she's about to break into his car and steal his lyre just a few moments later. It's weird that the implication seems to be that she's referring to Hades' act of violence towards Tori... but Persephone doesn't know that's happened yet. So this feels like an unnecessary retcon that's doing more harm than good.

But I feel like the timing of this is kinda messed up as well, as this book released just days after the release of the last FP episode in which Apollo has his 'side' of the assault story told through his perspective, which is often considered a HUGE no-no in writing assault stories because it often comes with the implication that it's asking for empathy from the audience. We already know Apollo is delusional, we already know he thinks him and Persephone are meant to be despite her constant rejection of him, we didn't need a flashback from his own warped perspective explaining that very thing, the only purpose to do such a thing this late in the game would be to try and get the audience to 'connect' with him (it's giving S3 Bryce from 13 Reasons Why vibes). Now we have this scene of Persephone asking Hades not to hurt him (despite the structure of the episode being literally fine before, this change wasn't needed) getting snuck into the physical book release just a couple days after the newest FP tried to present Apollo in an empathetic light (and let me tell you, that's a whole essay and a half that I'll be getting into eventually).

Shit, if I wanted to get REAL Pepe Sylvia with it, I might say that hypothetically, the whole point of the random Leuce abuse episode - despite Persephone having no way of knowing what she attempted as Hades hadn't told her and she wasn't there to see it and we weren't shown her overhearing them in any way - and the following episode that was mostly padding of Hades and Persephone having sex - no consequences or follow-up whatsoever to the Leuce scene - was just to pad out the episode release schedule and buy time until the book came out so that Rachel could release that Apollo POV episode right before the book came out and revealed those new added scenes of Persephone asking Hades not to hurt Apollo, in what could be a sly artificial attempt at minimizing the SA plot so Rachel can finally just brush aside the one major plot point she regretted writing the most. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Rachel's controlled the pace of her comic to release certain moments at certain times that line up with IRL events.

But, y'know. I'm gonna quit on that thought while I'm ahead because it's probably making my credibility meter drop into the red. My ADHD has been real bad lately and it's really starting to show LMAO All ima say is that IDK who Rachel thinks she's fooling here, this kind of shit is stupid easy to fact check when the digital version of the comic is available online to read.

To end on a much funnier and lighter note, remember how Rachel tried to retcon the Demeter/Hera/Hestia relationship by changing the line "I miss my sisters" to "I miss my friends"? Well, there was one panel that had been missed in the webtoons version that still refers to them as sisters. You can still find this unedited line in Episode 78.

And uh. They forgot to fix it again for the book.

It's permanent now. That's permanent marker. It would have cost them nothing to find this in the webtoon version and fix it before it got sent to the book editors. Now it's gonna cost them thousands because the book editors didn't bother (or know) to check.

There's also this... weird shit going on with the speech bubbles. Like, they're REALLY FUCKING OVERDOING IT with the speech bubble outlines. I don't know who made this choice but it was a bad one. Gross. Don't do that. It looks so cheap.

But let's be real, at this point I feel like the book editors are just outright sabotaging Rachel because who the fuck calls themselves a professional when they do this shit-

Oh, and there's no bonus episode, just sketches. Which is fine. But it makes me chuckle to think that Rachel just didn't have time in her already razor-thin buffer to draw up a new episode to pass off as "cut content".

[nabnab-official]

dissecting catnaps design

i wrote this post after the trailer came out and before the release of chapter 3, so thats why the wording in this is a bit weird in some places

catnap is not bipedal, but quadrupedal. i figured he was after the first trailer when we saw his silhouette, but its nice to have confirmation I think the reason he is on all 4s instead of 2 legs like most experiments we've seen so far is his design. in his experiment file, found within the chapter 3 arg [and accessible via the wiki], its stated his body can contort to a third of its normal size. Catnap is huge, and it makes sense he has to crawl around on all 4s, hes likely too big to fit anywhere were he to rise up onto 2 legs. his head is level with the top of the door frame, he is massive

the bones in his limbs are also twisted and strange, having too many bends, almost like he has extra elbows and knees. as stated in the experiment reports about him, its probably so that he can more easily squish himself down. having those extra joints helps him be more nimble

On the topic of bones, catnap is practically skeletal. In this particular frame we get to see him from the side, and you can see his spine very clearly. it also looks like he has a pretty long neck but its hard to tell because this is the only side shot we have of him.

catnap also has a chip in his ear. this has been known since the plush release, where the catnap pin features a chip in his ear. Its harder to see in his actual model, but in this art of him on the official shop makes it more clear.

the models in these 2 pictures look slightly different. the one in the original trailer, apparently, lacked any fur. the lighting also makes it look more desaturated. the feet in the new one are the same as the original, hairless and almost reptilian. definitely not paws. its also said in his experiment report his claws are retractable. in the thumbnail image you can kind of see his zipper, closer to his pelvis, which means catnap has a zipper just like his toy form. he also has his extremely long tail, which has been present since his first appearance.

[birindale]

This time: Catra goes fishing, She-Ra has most of Aquaman's powers, and the scripts get even more unbearable to type. We all learn a lesson about capitalism, but perhaps not the one intended.

Transcript/Image ID below the cut

[Image Description: 14 comic pages from the She-Ra mini-comic, “A Fishy Business”.

Cover: Mermista (in her mermaid form) and Starburst She-Ra swim around underwater, smiling at a school of seven bright yellow fish. The Princess of Power logo is up top as always, and at the bottom of the page in blue, outlined in a desaturated red, is the issue title, "A Fishy Business". Below that, the copyright info reads, "Illustrations: (copyright symbol) Mattel, Inc. 1986. Hawthorne, CA 90250 U.S.A. PRINTED IN TAIWAN. All Rights Reserved. (registered trademark symbol) and TM designate U.S. trademarks of Mattel, Inc."

Page 1: A desaturated pink caption box reads, "In the forest near a stream that began at Crystal Falls, Catra was busy making mischief. She stood back to admire her handiwork, a big waterwheel over the stream. Along the wheel were small fishnets, and on the bank was a giant goldfish bowl filled with water." We do in fact see Catra standing before a giant wheel, though it can't really be described as a waterwheel because there's no way for the water to turn it; its only adornments are the 'nets', which look more like baskets but you saw the caption! Who am I to disagree? A slanted, equal-angle channel runs from the wheel closer to the bank, a sort of reverse salmon cannon into the fish bowl. Catra isn't wearing her mask, her clawed gloves are only silver bracers here, and her outfit still strays closer to red than pink. She has a crosscut or rip-cut saw in her right hand (can't say for certain without a closer look at the teeth), and a claw (heh heh) hammer in her left. Her gloves are only silver bracers here, so she doesn't have any claws, and her outfit is straying closer to red than pink. 

A yellow caption box at the foot of the page reads, "PRODUCED EXCLUSIVELY FOR MATTEL BY: PENCILIER—JIM MITCHELL. INKER—TODD KUROSAWA. COLORIST—CHARLES SIMPSON. EDITOR—LEE NORDLING." 

"'There. As long as I don't get wet, this water-stuff is a snap to handle," says Catra, with an evil little grin. 

End Page 1. 

Page 2: ""Now to see if it works." She said. Catra pulled a lever that released the wheel, and the wheel turned in the water. As the wheel went around, the fishnets bought up fish from the stream. The fish were then dumped into a trough that emptied into the goldfish bowl." [sic] on that whole paragraph. It's like they took a concept script for a picture book and just turned it into a comic with absolutely zero editing or forethought. 

Speaking of no forethought, Catra sure has made this contraption within sight of the Crystal Falls, notorious hangout of Mermista and Friends. She's gripping a lever with both hands (now gloved) and looking back over her shoulder instead of facing the wheel directly. Skip Simpson, bless his heart, seems to have colored her skirt black on autopilot despite Todd Kurosawa's careful delineation. In his defense, Skip was colorist for the whole first wave as well, so he's still getting used to Scratchin' Sound Catra's adjusted color palette. Four concerned-looking fish are scooped up and deposited in the goldfish bowl. 

Catra seemingly lies down in the sand to prop her chin dramatically on one hand and smirk at the captive fish. ""You don't know it yet, Fish-face, but you and I are going into business together."" Seriously though, who put all of these quotation marks in the dialogue bubbles? Why didn't Lee Nordling stop them? What kind of editor are you, Lee? Whatever. Three of the fish gape at Catra in shock. 

""I can see it now. I'll open the first marine world in Etheria," says Catra. This seems to be an attempt at genericizing Marine World (now called Six Flags Discovery Kingdom), which at the time of publication (1986) had just moved to Vallejo, California and was moderately big news, featuring such wild headlines 'professional basketball player called in to pull bolt out of dolphin throat', 'tiger bites the shit out of football player at pep rally' before Vallejo moved them over from Redwood City. The year after the move they dropped an orca on William Statner (who was, tragically, completely fine). Basically, I think Catra is envisioning an animal theme park with a heavy aquatic slant, rather than a flooded planet situation. But it's the kind of theme park which puts chimps on motorcycles and an elephant on water skis. So look out. 

End Page 2. 

Page 3: A pink caption box reads, "Catra saw herself as master of the show. The fish would do wonderful stunts! Catra herself would be the star. And how the crowd would cheer! Handsome men—maybe even Bow—would be madly in love with her." Oh so I didn't need to explain Marine World. Okay. Well I'm leaving that in anyway. This one's for you, Norcal.

Catra imagines herself in a series of fanciful situations, whipping the fish into a cheerleader-style pyramid (her gloves are bracers again, but the rest of her costume is Scratchin' Sound Catra-accurate, including ripped silver tights and a silver skirt); staring dreamily at Bow, who's offering her a bottle of milk; and waterskiing behind four moderately sized fish, which feels optimistic even for this fantasy. 

""So do some aerobics while I sew up your little swimsuits," says Catra, actually looking pretty reasonable despite the fish's shock. Can a fish do aerobics? I guess it doesn't specify that you get your oxygen through air instead of water, but I feel like it's implied.

End Page 3. 

Page 4: A pale pink caption box reads, "A few days later, Peekablue was riding in the Sea Harp near the beautiful Crystal Falls while Mermista swam alongside. Adora and Spirit stood on the shore. "Peekablue! Mermista!" Adora called. "Let's pick some berries for lunch." But just then a young seal swam up to Mermista with a message. 

We see the Crystal Falls in the background, and Mermista with her seal friend in the foreground, but the midground is the Sea Harp sitting on dry land next to Adora and Spirit. Is it not a boat…?

""Oh no! He says his friends, the sunfish and the tuna twins, are missing. And no one has seen the bluegills since yesterday,"" says Mermista, translating for a distressed seal with emanata that seem to indicate seal-speech. 

""Hmmmm, this could be trouble. I'll go look for help!" says Adora.

End Page 4.

Page 5: A pink caption box reads, "Hidden in a spot behind some trees, Adora raised high the Sword of Protection and said "For the honor of Grayskull, I am She-Ra!" And in a magical flash, she became the Princess of Power. Then, she changed Spirit into Swift Wind." Because god forbid we draw an action pose, I guess. 

Starburst She-Ra raises both arms to show off her cape, and Crystal Swift Wind raises both wings. They're so sparkly that light refracts all around them, twinkling and vibrant.

End Page 5. 

Page 6: A pink caption box reads, "Peekablue and Mermista were glad She-Ra had come to help. She-Ra suggested they split up. Peekablue said, "I don't want to get my lovely feathers wet, so I'll follow the stream leading into the forest. With my many eyes I'll be able to see any fish who went that way. Then I'll meet you later."" She-Ra stands beside Peekablue in front of the Crystal Falls, and Mermista watches them from the water.

A pink caption box reads, "Then She-Ra and Mermista dove into the Crystal Falls pool." 

She-Ra dives, Mermista just looks like she's floating downwards. It must be hard to slow down enough for a human (super-powered or not) to keep up. 

End Page 6. 

Page 7: A pink caption box reads, "Deep in the blue-green world, the two friends passed great sweeping fronds of sea moss, sparkling stones, many-colored shells, and the broken columns of old ruins. But, oddly enough, no fish. And no one seemed to know where they were!" She-Ra and Mermista swim past a coral reef, some decaying, vaguely Grecian ruins in the background. There's not a fish in sight. 

""Have you seen our friends, the fish?"" She-Ra asks an octopus, who shrugs and says, ""Nope."" Apparently She-Ra can breathe underwater in this one. 

""Fish should stay in one place, like I do," says a bivalve, "Then they wouldn't get lost!"" 

End Page 7. 

Page 8: ""Then I hope Peekablue has already found them,"" says She-Ra, looking concerned. 

A pink caption box reads, "But Peekablue found something else. As she followed the stream through the woods, her eyes searched the water. "I can see all the way to the bottom!" She exclaimed. But then her special eyes noticed something further upstream." Oh shit. Her brand. 

Peekablue is shown wandering alongside the stream, Catra's contraption bleary in the distance.

End Page 8. 

Page 9: ""Why, it's a wheel! I wonder what…?"" says a pink caption box, which was probably supposed to be a thought bubble. 

Another pink caption box reads, "Suddenly Catra rushed out of the forest. "What do you want, Feather-head?" "Catra! What are you doing here?" Peekablue asked. "I was taking a catnap. Now go away!" "Hummph!" Peekablue said as she walked away. But she thought, "I'm going to tell She-Ra about this.""

I really think they're doing this dialogue-within-captions schtick to torture me, specifically. 

Peekablue is shown looking startled, the Crystal Falls once more in the background, as Catra leaps out of the bushes in front of her. 

End Page 9.

Page 10: A pink caption box reads, "A little later the three friends met at Crystal Falls. Peekablue told what she had seen. She-Ra said, "I suspect Catra knows where the fish are. Let's find out." "Wait," Mermista said. "I want to go along." She dove, then flipped out of the water, her silvery tail dancing on its surface for a moment." We see Mermista, surrounded by a few perfect tendrils of water, suspended above the surface as Peekablue and She-Ra watch. 

A pink caption box reads, "Then with a spin she landed delicately on the shore on two legs!" and we see a four-stage, Animorphs-style transition between her two forms. 

""There. I'm ready!"" says Mermista, to a smiling She-Ra. Her hair is a little more purple than usual, but it plays off the yellow in the background well. 

End Page 10. 

Page 11: A pink caption box reads, "The friends soon found Catra's waterwheel and watched as more fish were caught in the nets. She-Ra said, "I thought so!" On the ground nearby were blueprints for Catra's plans, and She-Ra looked them over. "An amusement park! Leave it to Catra!" She-Ra stopped the wheel, but Catra, who heard their voices, came running. "

She-Ra stares at the plans in apparent wonder as Peekablue and Mermista look over her shoulder. Fifteen of the yellow fish are trapped in the fishbowl. Mermista's pants are orange. Peekablue is smiling for some reason. 

""Just what do you think you're doing here?"" asks Catra, who looks mildly affronted with her hands on her hips and a single eyebrow raised. She's missing her gloves again. 

End Page 11.

Page 12: ""Saving my fish friends from your clutches!"" says Mermista, with no expression whatsoever. Her necklace, which is a shell on the toy and a simple pendant in the Filmation show, is a tiny yellow fish. Presumably it spits water the same way. 

""They're mine now, Miss Scaley-tail! Now go away before I…"" says Catra, with a mild frown. 

A pink caption box reads, "But Catra had no chance to finish her threat because Mermista quickly drenched Catra with her water spray. "Yeee-ow!" Catra screeched, as she jumped back. "I think you're the one who should leave, Catra," said She-Ra "while we try to undo your mischief.""

Catra is soaking wet now. Would have been nice to show that action, instead of just telling us about it! Would have been a nice break from shot-reverse-shot close-ups! She-Ra, Mermista, and Peekablue all smile at her. Her gloves are still missing. 

End Page 12. 

Page 13: A pink caption box reads, "As Catra ran off, She-Ra lifted the giant fishbowl overhead and dumped it into the stream. "I think it's time you fellas went back home to Crystal Falls," she said. And the fish were very happy to do so." The illustration shows She-Ra doing that. You know, redundantly. 

""I don't think we should leave this here either, She-Ra. Catra may use it again," says Peekablue, pointing at the wheel contraption. 

""You're right, Peekablue. And I think I have a good idea," says She-Ra. 

End Page 13.

Page 14: A pink caption box reads, "Later, under the water at Crystal Falls, She-Ra and Mermista turned Catra's wheel into a ferris wheel. The nets were replaced by little seats. Their friends rode happily 'round and 'round! Mermista said, "I wish Catra could see her waterwheel now!"" The fish have set up a tiny admissions booth and everything. Various sea creatures gambol about. 

In an oranger-than-usual 'moral' font color, She-Ra says, ""Yes, and I wish Catra would learn that it's not right to use others to get ahead."" Girl, what? You mean the fish? You guys just assaulted her, stole her waterwheel, and undid days of work because she didn't immediately agree to your demands. Now is the time for a moral about how removing species can negatively impact a biome, or against cruelty to animals (not that 1986 was necessarily ready for that). Is this a good time to mention Mattel owned The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for a couple years?

""Now—how about a ride?"" She-Ra suggests to Mermista, beckoning her on. They won't even fit in the tiny little seats. Stop benefiting from using others, She-Ra. It's immoral. 

End Page 14. 

End ID.]

[vt-scribbles]

Color Theory Confusion [long post/call for help]

There is a concept in color theory [it might have a different name?] that NOBODY talks about/teaches that I cannot wrap my head around, and it frustrates the hell out of me.

SO every video or w/e I find is like 'this is complimentary colors! Tri-whatever color palettes! blah blah blah' and I'm like YES. I know how to PAIR UP color types! But they're only! Talking about HUES!!!

They're talking about THIS:

Like! cool! I know how to use THIS part! I know my bullshit of like. All these colors technically work together. [READ MORE]

But these are all at full saturation. My knowledge stops here. And this is where I get frustrated. they'll whip out palettes like this:

Monochromatic:

Complementary:

Etc:

AnD THIS IS WHERE I GET GRUMPY. I understand 'this has red and blue so it works, this has different shades of green and blue so it works' but HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THE VALUES? THE SATURATION??? Each of these palettes has varying values and saturation for each color, and it looks great! SO HOW DO YOU FIGURE /THAT/ PART OUT??? Why doesn't anyone talk about this part of color theory? I can only ever find people talking about how to pair HUES. I'm going insane.

HOW DO THESE COLORS GET PICKED??

Sources: Girl and the Glim

Sources: Magnum Bullets

Some of these palettes have SO many colors, but they're completely cohesive. And like! I understand why the HUES work together. Yellow and pink and blue, yellow and red, pink and green and brown, etc.

But all of these palettes have massive ranges of value and saturation. And that's why they work. But how do you figure that stuff out??? I hate trial-and-erroring my way through every project. Or worse, trying to make palettes for model sheets. I just don't get why I can't seem to find info/teachings on this specific aspect. It's like every 'color theory' video stops at 'here's how to pair up hues on the color wheel' or completely skips over this step like you should just. Know what to do.

Like, let's say I have a picture I wanna do. It's a forest scene. so I go 'okay, blue yellow and green. Those work together.' And I start with full saturation. But okay, I don't want full saturation... I want a muted palette. If I just choose randomly inside blue, yellow, and green, I get shit like this:

only ONE of these even remotely looks okay! And that's cuz they're ALL desaturated. But then look at this piece!

This does exactly what I WANTED to come up with, but like. How do you land on these colors? How do you pick them?

Bah

I am lost and confused and this is something seriously holding me back in my art. I'm so tired of doing Local colors on a character and then shading them with effects layers. I want to know how to /color them/ to be cohesive with a background. Or just... how to make colors for a background in the first place.

[diezmil10000]

Hi hi, hope you're doing well!! Wanted to ask if you could explain how you pick colours! They're always so appealing to look at... (If you could also explain how you pick blush colours it'd be great! I never manage to pick good ones, no matter how hard I try :'))

hi anon, i'm doing fine!! it's summer right now where i live and that's healing all my problems (⁠◡⁠ ⁠ω⁠ ⁠◡⁠)

i have recorded the process of some of my drawings and everything is posted in my youtube channel (in twitter too), so i'll drop the link here and try my best to explain the coloring part to you. the short answer is that none of the colors you see in my drawings are similar to those i initially picked.

i try to keep my lineart loose but i pay attention to the outlines so i can quickly select the outer parts, invert the selection and fill it with the bucket tool. my base colors are all 100% opaque and i don't use any fancy brushes here.

as to how i pick colors, i never use the color picker tool, i eyeball everything. that's important for me because i tend to make all of them warmer: the greens are dark yellows, the pinks are light reds, and everything that's close to blue is very desaturated. i do this even for drawings that turn out much different later, unless i have a very specific vibe in mind from the beginning. i also never use pure whites for anything, and if something is black i make it part of the lineart.

then i always color my lineart!! there's no trick to that, the layer is in normal mode and i just paint it with a darker color than what's below it. i usually add the shadows and highlights at this stage of the drawing too. you're going to kill me for this but shade with gray set in color burn or linear burn (never multiply). i just don't want to think about color variety at this stage because it makes things more difficult for later. sometimes i add textures and some basic color correction here (curves, color balance, layers set in overlay, etc.) but i mostly leave that for the next part.

as to how i choose blush colors, i usually pick the base color and move it towards the saturated end of the color wheel, and a bit more pink. sometimes i add a multiply layer and airbrush hot red over the base colors at low opacity. coloring the lineart with hot colors surrounding the blush areas helps a lot too :)

i also almost always duplicate the lineart, blur it and set it in linear burn (i paint this layer in a light gray). this adds a lot of depth to the drawing, especially if later combined with the bloom effect.

the key to why the colors in my art pop so much is that i don't enjoy drawing as much as i enjoy postprocessing pictures 😂🤣😅👌✌️👍 once i'm satisfied with the "base" colors i merge everything except the background, open a new canvas and go crazy with filters and textures. that's why i use ibispaint X even if i do the lineart elsewhere (krita), and even if it works a bit wonky with big canvases.

i do something different for each drawing here, so first i'm going to explain my reasoning so that you understand my process: i used to have a problem of using very strong colors that overshadowed my beloved lineart into which i had put a lot of effort, so my goal nowadays is to make everything look less contrasted without losing the visual impact of saturated colors. that way the lineart remains a strong point and not just a way to separate one color from another.

what i usually do is duplicate the new merged layer, set it to exclusion mode, add a gradient map and play with the opacity. then i duplicate that and do the same thing with another gradient or another blending mode. i tend to add like 3-6 layers of bullshit over my drawings, including textures and other filters like "bloom" or "sharpen". i understand everything that's going on there but i don't think too deeply about it, i just pick whatever looks best.

for the final touches i always pull up the saturation and contrast (since a lot of it gets lost in the process), and i usually have to manually change some colors (ibispaint X has a filter to do that) or tweak the curves. then i add chromatic aberration, noise set to overlay and little polka dots set to linear dodge.

here are some comparisons of the before and after of recent drawings. the 1st one is very subtle, but you can clearly see how much warmth and depth it gains it gets after all the postprocessing. the 2nd one is so different that i understand why you're curious about how i pick colors. i don't think i can replicate that look just from picking nice colors, there's a lot more going on!! the 3rd one personally feels like it had potential lost (i liked the yellow highlights), but the colors were too strong and all over the place, so the finished result looks more intimate and calm and i like it a lot more.

thank you for the interest anon, i'm very happy that you like the way i color things and i hope i have explained myself. good luck with your own journey!!

[lord-aldhelm]

Aldhelm | The Last Kingdom 4.05 (Part 1)

Aldhelm, Aethelflaed, and Uhtred return to Aegelesburg to deal with Aethelred and meet with the witan.

Poor guy looks so haggard in the first picture. I really honestly wonder what the hell he is actually doing in this season, and for that matter what he was doing in between this season and the last. It was clear he wasn't working for Aethelred anymore, yet it seems like he was still staying in Aegelesburg, for whatever reason. Aethelred made Eardwulf his replacement, so Aldhelm was no longer captain of the guard nor was he doing errands for him, so what exactly was he doing there?

Another thing that bothers me about this season (just a nitpick, but irks me), which I did not pick up on the first time I viewed it, is Aethelflaed mispronounced Aldhelm's name. She says it like Old-helm. I know nothing of old English pronunciations, but his name was said correctly, even by her, in S2&3 then all of a sudden she says it differently here, but no one else does. Why didn't the director or whoever correct her?

This show is so dark! Like, physically, the video is just so dark and desaturated, and green-tinted, and overly compressed. Once I brightened the caps enough so I can actually see what is going on, a and not just some grey and black blobs, the compression artifacts are just the worst. So I have to strike a fine balance between bright enough and not too much jpeg.

[aemiron-main]

These Are Two Extremely Strange Shot Choices

So, these two shots are very weird:

Why? Well, the first shot of El is NOT from Brenner’s POV- it’s too close up and too short/not tall enough. And the shot of Brenner is too tall and too close up.

And if you’re thinking “oh, Em, its just an artistic closeup choice,” then please answer this next question- why is the Brenner that El DID just see from her POV a completely different Brenner than the one we get a closeup of? The following Brenner is the one El sees as soon as she turns around:

Like, the blood on the screen right side of Brenner’s dace completely vanishes, and there’s way less blood on his forehead/bridge of his nose on the first image:

And you’ve got the colour grading change too, with the first picture being more desaturated grey and the second one being a more saturated greenish. So, whose eyes are we seeing through when we get that Brenner closeup?

[freebooter4ever]

Havent done this in a while so here's a WIP breakdown :) the above sketches are the first thumbnail versus the initial under sketch, versus the final sketch. You can tell from the left that im a total natural at drawing planes. Especially the corsair whose wings go 'flap' up like a bird \o/

The three above are the lighting and flat color. The light is on the left, the flat color is in the center, and on the right is the added shadow. The lights are roughly 3 separate layers (rim, fill, bright), and the shadows are 5 or 6.

When im lighting, I have my main 'folder' set with a toggle option to see the desaturated version, this way i know if im hitting my goals for the luminosity of the composition. In the photos above, the first is the flat colors desaturated. In the center is the flat colors with the light and shadow desaturated. And the far right is the final result.

Ok here's the real key point - the references. Cause i feel like i was mostly just copying in this art LOL. So, you can probably tell that the airplane was taken from that center photo. I must have spent hours trying to figure out how to draw a damn corsair, and eventually i said fuck it and picked the angle i wanted from a grainy photograph of 3 on guadalcanal or somewhere. I basically fitted it into the scene where i wanted and traced it. Then the original inspiration for the whole thing are my two favorite pilot portraits on the right - these were used as recruiting posters and stuff. I really, really love the black and white one especially, and I knew that for my poster I wanted the contrast to be in shadow in the foreground, and then lighten as it receedes in space. Which is why in the desaturated version the propellers are the darkest, and the scene fades to white in the background. I wanted it to look like eugene was emerging from the light kinda like the portrait. And then, for color you can see I used the cheesy '70's tint from South Pacific, lots and LOTS of goldenrod. I wanted it to feel warm, and sunny, and beach-like, and as far from the reality of the pacific theater as possible. This is an optimistic version of eugene (i think pilots really had to be), probably during the golden hour of sunset after a long day of flying. LASTLY but definitely not least lmao, are the joe references. Poor joe, these ones aren't the most flattering but I was using them purely for how the light hits his face and that bright carrot top hair. Not pictured are the 16 or so gifs I picked out in particular of his face in as similar an angle as i could get it. I think i found a few exact matches - i cant rememeber cause i deleted them all once i was done with it.

[spectrum-core]

1 14 23 + the black haired dude you draw a lot

Longass rant ahead because I Am So Normal About This Dude He's Like A Brother To Me

Short answer: he's very hot

Long answer: honestly as it always happens i joked so hard about this guy that without realizing he had become my favorite character from ruina. There's also that I just, tend to resonate a lot w characters who are just Some Guy and he happens to have the feeling of being a secondary character even in the singular cutscene where he shows up (before dying a death that's so pointless and absurd it almost comes off as comical, pour one for my mans 😔✊), there's also the fact that he has this cold and emotionless and professional exterior but his dialogue lines, specially during gameplay segments (as opposed to in cutscenes), show that he actually has a very emotional/caring inner self and he's just suppressing that side of him, either because he feels like he needs to act cold and professional to be taken seriously or just to cope with the nature of the universe he lives in and his job and it's like Yeah Maybe That Hits A Bit Too Close Home, to add to it ruina has this feature akin to like a bestiary (?) of sorts where you can read little blurbs of text implied to have been something each defeated enemy character said/thought at some point of their lives, and ofc Mr. Irrelevant McBackgroundCharacter here has a worldbuilding exposition (as do most of my favorite characters in the game let's be real 😔) but it has this specific cynical tone of him trying to rationalize why things are the way they are while still questioning them/thinking it doesn't fully make sense and it's like you go little guy! keep pondering the concepts of power and freedom and if they're even possible to achieve in your universe without losing your sense of self and therefore not gaining them because the person who achieved them is no longer yourself!

Conclusion this guy was probably engineered in a lab to be appealing to me in particular and I love him so much and he makes me feel way too many things for a guy with like 10 dialogue lines and a worldbuilding exposition.

Some sort of like... industrial/military-esque... goth style? Some sort of mostly practical but still stylish kinda thing, loose fabric that allows for movement, mostly grey, black and cold desaturated tones, straight cuts, lots of pockets when needing to carry lots of stuff (not too many bags as the straps can limit mobility if you carry too many of them + having a bag hanging around gets annoying at times), materials made to last long (and probably some patched up/manually repaired stuff just for that sweet extra durability), probably also with some emphasis on layered clothes as to be prepared for a varied weather (<- delusional, proyecting) and so on, while still keeping it stylish and wearing accesories if/when possible (but not too many of them, after the main focus would be practicality i think), and belts, lots of belts, stereotypical jrpg protagonist levels of belts here, also this guy 100% wears eyeliner to me, just look at his sprite.

idk I don't know about fashion terms so i just described the vibe of how I imagine he usually dresses like.

Out of official artwork, this one, 100%, it gives me the vibe of a guy trying too hard to look edgy and badass and reverting to be absolutely silly without realizing, absolute cringefail loser behavior (affectionate)

Out of fanart... there's like 3 people who make fanart of him me included so I may as well focus on my stuff, it's these 3: first one bc while I still wasn't used to his dessign it manages to convey such a Vibe (him showing the emotional/caring side I mentioned in 1), I don't feel like he's the kind of guy to smile a lot, if ever, so I feel like when he actually smiles it's something extra special for the people around him and I think I managed to convey that in the picture, the second one because the stylization goes hard + I managed to get juuuuust the right amount of spikiness on his hair (very important) and also I like how I made his eyes in there, and third is just what I feel has been my best take on his dessign in general, specially facial features, that is how I Imagine He Looks Like.

[tfbsattic]

Huey, Dewey, Louie, and a Magyar PM’s Demise

While touring Budapest during the Balkan Explorer Tour via Expat Explore in 2023, the free day coincided with Philippine Independence Day – also MY 34th BIRTHDAY. Being a Disney fan myself, the city’s sights brought up DuckTales.

And I do mean the original 1987-1990 run.

Photo taken 6/12/2023.

So what does a Disney animated series have to do with Budapest – or rather, the whole country of Hungary? Ask any resident who was between 3-12 years old and living in said country on December 12, 1993, and they’d likely tell you that something somber interrupted an episode of it.

Picture if you will being a kid watching Disney Sunday, the equivalent of America’s The Disney Afternoon in a post-Cold War Hungary (or a few other European countries) on that day. The theme song plays as normal.

“It will never leave,” said Doug Walker, the Nostalgia Critic. “it will never leave. It's like an addiction. You think you're over it. You think, “I only know a few lyrics of the song…’”

“Life is like a hurricane Here in Duckburg Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes It’s a Duck blur Might solve a mystery Or rewrite history." “DuckTales, woohoo! Every day that I've been making DuckTales, woohoo! Tales so daring, do-bad and good Luck tales.” “D-d-d-danger lurks behind you There’s a stranger out behind you Gonna find you What to do?” “JUST GRAB ONTO SOME DUCKTALES!” “WOOHOO!“

“I mean once you hear it once, it will never, ever go away. And you wanna know what the creepy thing is? I think this show stayed on the air strictly because of the theme song! I mean think about it, what do you actually remember about this show?”

Many a Magyar ‘90s kid’s disturbingly thorough answer came to a head during Uncle Scrooge’s breakfast conniption in the Catch as Cash Can story arc episode, “A Whale of a Bad Time.” He was dismayed and enraged when he lost half of his fortune via the boat containing it being eaten by a sea monster. As Huey, Dewey, and Louie restrained him, every TV screen in every Magyar household open to DuckTales desaturated, changed to static briefly, and went black for 15 minutes.

The Magyar Televízió logo appeared in a gloomy grayscale, accompanied by a track of the 3rd movement of Fredric Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 35. It signified to Magyars of all ages – even and especially the perplexed ‘90s kids trying to make sense of whatever abruptly interrupted their DuckTales fix – that someone very important had died.

That someone very important was József Antall, the first democratically elected prime minister.

Shortly after his inauguration in May 1990, Antall was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He underwent surgery that October, with him having an interview on the response to the taxi blockade in ihis sleepwear. His cancer recurred in May 1991.

Antall died in his sleep due to complications on December 12, 1993. Magyar adults and well-informed teens who knew and loved him were bereft of a strong leader in Hungary’s post-communist history, whereas befuddled kids wondered why the TV cared more of about a prime minister’s death over a Disney animated series.

Those children who grew up back then were dubbed the “DuckTales Generation.”

“I wanted to switch channels to see if there was another cartoon,” recalled one Magyar adult, “but my parents wanted to watch M1 because – unlike me – they knew who PM Antall was and why the news of his death was important.”

“As a result of the shock, I rushed to the bathroom,” recalled another, “but I could barely tell what had happened all the way through. My mom cried to my dad, ‘Antall is dead!’ And then they looked at me, over my head. The children watching DuckTales at the time experienced a minor trauma as they were torn out of the safe world of Disney magic – and the unknown, incomprehensible blackness came.”

“Chopin's funeral march and the deep blackness cast a pall over the country for just a couple of minutes.”

“I called my parents, ‘Dad, I think (Antall) had died,’” recalled the owner of conservative blog Meanwhile in Budapest.

The death announcement of Antall wasn’t the only kids’ show interruption in history. On June 2, 2020, Viacom-owned TV channels (including Nickelodeon) around the world interrupted TV shows with an 8:46 PSA.

The white text, “I Can’t Breathe,” faded in and out to the cadence of a sound effect of a human breathing. The duration matched the one in which Derek Chauvin held his knee down on George Floyd’s neck till he suffocated. Either a Color of Change text number or the Amnesty International website (depending on country) appeared alongside it.

The PSA scared some kids, which lead some of their parents to rant about it on the Viacom channels’ social media accounts, some with some political rebukes.

But whichever their political views, most Magyar children who grew up when a death of a beloved dignitary interrupted a Disney TV show in the ‘90s knew that their moment was a blindingly brighter lightbulb memory. Even a traveling exhibit by Magyar artists on the childhood children in Hungary spent between the late ‘80s and noughties was APTLY named after that episode of which doleful breaking news interrupted it.

As Walt Disney said, “Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality.”

Simply put, life HAS BEEN like a hurricane, anywhere in the world, whether kids and parents like it or not.

Especially in early ‘90s Hungary.

Photo taken 6/12/2023.

[castle-dominion]

don't tell my family but I want to try out liveblogging an ep I haven't seen before. Maybe it will make me finally Shut Up during the family watch

4x17 I think, once upon a crime.

little red riding hood lol I recognize that bridge from the spy episode I think Sexy big billowy red cape btw, oh & falls like a dame

It's like TUA I'd believe that. This a biography? Also as a mentally ill person heck yeah I love a good scribe! martha just taking over his office lol "I'd like to write another one"

RC: First Alexis is interning for Lanie, now my mother is taking over my office. (again, don't u remember life coaching in I think s1?) I feel like my whole life is being invaded. KB: You'll get used to it. I did.

Oh she's barefoot! & those are deep facial gashes LP: they're shallow Me: ?????? Castle obv it's little red riding hood, but the story was not a prophesy. KB: Great, Castle. I'll call in an APB for the Big Bad Wolf. RC: Do you have a better theory? [Beckett chews on her lip. She keeps walking.] KB: Hey, Ryan? [Ryan walks over. normal jacket, not a coat & not rly fancy, def not a dress coat, he has a scarf, no tie but pinkish shirt with white stripes.] KB: Do you think you could call dispatch, see if there are any reports of a violent animal running around the park? KR, castle jr: Like a wolf? A Big Bad one? KB: Really? KR: *points* That is exactly how I pictured her. It's freaky. My older sister used to read me that story.

RC: "…when he leaped up and gobbled down poor Little Red Riding Hood." Well, the good news is the Wolf can talk. So, if we can find him, we might be able to get a confession.

I love love love love love folktale, it is such an important part of folklore & culture. I want a Métis story at some point but we are such a small community that nobody is going to do it except us. But hey that's what fanfiction is for!

Ok why does esposito's hair keep growing? I prefer this to the hair in s3 but s1+2 hair was nice. I like how he has opinions on fairy tales at least. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would share that.

KB: Are you drinking Castle's Kool-Aid now? Oh btw espt's outfit: nice grey suit jacket with a square pattern on it, nice dark blue (but obv blue) shirt, dark desaturated blue tie with thin white stripes & thick grey stripes. Sometimes he comes to work looking like this, other times he is wearing what I'd wear as pyjamas.

Oh it's always the person the family member brings in with them. It's going to be this man. Also dang she needs to join a union or smth bc no human should be working 100h/week, no human should be working 80 hours a week, heck no human should be working 40 hours a week! We have machines & automation now, we have more PEOPLE now, why are we working MORE? We should all be living our lives singing & dancing & making music & drawing & painting & writing & conversing & sleeping & petting animals & cooking & eating & smiling. Besides, every job out there? Someone wants to do it. The world is a wonderful beautiful place (I say as a person with a severe case of major depressive disorder) full of love & fulfillment & community. It should not be a place where people work 100 hour work weeks.

Holy crap I'm not even at the titlecard! Capes are coming back into fashion! People have been talking about it lately! (beckett looks so... boring, so normal. I want her to look cool again, her pixie cut was good

Long hours high pressure? She's probably really into kink or smth. Or that steampunk bar. RC: There’s this whole adult role-playing subculture obsessed with fairytales. (castle...?) KB: RC: No-- not that kind of adult role play. Although, there’s that one, too. KB: And you know this how? RC: Did a little research. KB: 🤢 RC: (chuckle) Bo Peep. KB: ._. RC: Anyway, these people get dressed in the outfits, they play the characters, they even reenact the stories. Maybe that’s what Amy was doing when everything went horribly and tragically wrong. KB: Castle, that is a surprisingly reasonable and grounded theory. RC: Yeah. *JE enters* Frankly, I’m a little disappointed in myself. JE: We all are, bro. KB: : ) (I'm assuming that's disappointed in castle not "we all" as in disappointed in ourselves)

KB closeup: Contact her bank. See if they know why she made that withdrawal. JE heading out: As you wish. jafsdhajsdkfhas Apparently huertas & katic are both fans of the princess bride & so when they have beckett closeups huertas will respond with "as you wish" to make her laugh but this time they kept it in or scripted it in bc it's a fairy tale episode & I think that was cute af. yk I would actually think it would be great if espt was a princess bride fan. It's a story full of torture & sword fighting & politics & giants & war & pirates & revenge & poison & miracles & mountains & oceans & bloodthirsty eels & he gets the sexy lady in the end.

reminds me of that episode in murdoch mysteries. The guy spoke ojibwe & said ma'iingan but I, knowing some cree (& having context), figured out that it meant wolf since the cree word is mahikan. So proud of myself.

Ok I understand trying to blame a wolf but dressing her up as red riding hood? This was NOT for the purpose of pretending the killer is a wolf & getting away with it. Or maybe he drugged her with K & brought her to the park, maybe so he could hunt her & roleplay, maybe it was consensual nonconsent or smth, but then why would he drug her?

hOLY CRAP that is One Nice Vest! Look at that! Ryan has a beautiful vest with a blue back panel & omg is it nice, with that light pink shirt? (& those fkn eyes) Oof I think it suits him SO well. Who is the costume designer? Who dressed ryan? I need to speak with you & bake you a pie.

*casually uses a sexily tanned gal instead of idk like an anemic or smth* but then again black hair doesn't really occur in white ppl (except my gramma but she's technically Métis)

OH SO ONLY NOW IS THE INTRO? I FEEL LIKE I'M ALREADY A THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH THE EPISODE

ok also what's going on with ryan's hair? he looks like me rn, we both need to cut our hair, I have a mohawk but I'm brushing it back instead of up bc it's too long (I have thin hair, product sometimes just weighs it down)

I might actually call them a spree killer bc of the closer proximity in time & location Ok I always thought that it was just esposito furrowing his eyebrows but I think that's actually a scar that jon huertas has & now I feel bad lol Lunch at what time? (thanks ryan) wait I just had a thought: don't look into the victim, look into the killer. Evil stepmother & big bad wolf? What is in common with them?

at least ryan says "excuse me" before taking his call, unlike OTHER people That's a palindrome number. 50 605? Ryan *just standing there with his head in the door*

AC: about you too *taps her dad's nose* WAIT SHE DID MAKE EXAGGERATIONS RIGHT? BUT DID MARTHA REALLY SLEEP WITH HIS FIRST PUBLISHER? OH PLEASE LET THAT BE TRUE Oh well at least it was after the book was out......... StiLL, WhAT Castle *pours himself a finger of scotch after seeing his mom flirt with the playwrite younger than him* Martha: Oh, darling, I invited Beckett to the reading tomorrow night, so you two might want to make a date of it. Rick: *pours more booze*

Remember when rick said "if I ever choose to write a biography remind me to Not"? Yeah Martha is doing it now KB: Oh, so you don’t like it when someone writes their own version of your life? Interesting. RC: Okay, are you referring to the Nikki Heat books? Because this is completely different.

oh fu heck yes ryan in that pink shirt that's so good. Maybe the costume design is putting him in so much pink lately bc he just got married. & then esposito with his layers upon layers? He's breaking down the homo headcanon/au in favour of a bi one with all them those layers. it's going to be martha's acting studio

Woah ok this is interesting camera work, I'm on my period & I have a headache & I'm in pain & I'm overheating & so I feel nauseous, this camera work is not the best for me rn. But hey espt & ryan have p big guns & their vests are black & called nypd not blue & police. But the other ppl (who are actually wearing helmets) do say police. Yay ryan gets to break the door this time

Oof I Looooove a creepy doll, I love haunted dolls I love creepy collections of things I love my auntie doris's house with all her creepy dolls i love my bone collection, also poor ryan with a fear of dolls ever since he watched that movie as a kid lmao

she's so right tho. She was coming to the door she was just slow! Tho she could have said "coming" ig. Maybe she was waiting to hear another knock on the door. Ooh yk I'd like to have a teenager in their room not notice breaking down the door bc they are listening to loud music. or a deaf person. I'd love that. having been an emo teen & also being deaf. I love when they break down old ladies' doors & they offer them candy or tea & cats Ji: No, dearie, nobody else lives here, just me and my friends. KR: *looks up at all the dolls, then looks down again in deep discomfort* (ngl I love seeing him uncomfy like this. this is why i read fanfiction. i get to put characters in pain or i get to put them in comfort, either way it is cathartic.) "Yes they are" "I can't imagine" Ji: Do I look like someone who has a habit of wasting money? I—I’m on a fixed income. the dolls: *sitting on every available surface* *slowly removes a doll from behind his back* Yep, keep it in your bra babes.

I was totally expecting her to send EACH of the cops home (or at least each of the detectives home) with a doll or a small figurine

JE+KR: On it *look at each other in jinx*

castle writer moments yeah of course she would have withdrawn the-- WAIT THAT'S HOW YOU FIND & PROTECT HER

Jessie: I’ve never been questioned by cops before. You mind if I tweet about this? KR: ??? Uh, yeah, yes, we—we do mind.

I thought maybe the third woman killed them like the table of last supper electroplating sex worker story from murdoch mysteries. Maybe this third friend just woke up from a coma & used to actually be friends with them but these two friends stabbed her in the back while she was coma'd.

that was NOT typing was it? Who types like that? Is castle on the phone at the same time ?? Oh wait i'm dumb, I THOUGHT he was calling someone else but I doubted myself

Charlotte's already dead Nice angel wing Yep she be dead. NOPE SHE'S ALIVE what if it was suicide?

KB: So, what, you’re Prince Charming now? RC: Well, if the shoe fits obv the 4th is the killer but who are they? SEE I TOLD YOU 50605 the killer really does have a psychological motivation

Ooh I love photograph nerds oof welp he def can't be the killer but-- hold on, 6th of may 2005? in USA speak that's 05/06/05! (in normal speak it's 6/05/'05). I'm guessing the police report is about his death? Those three did smth to get him killed? I didn't know ikwydls was from 97, I got ads for it on youtube, must have been a remake. I was actually thinking of that.

I still think she did it, it was a spree-murder-suicide. Where are her injection marks? Girl don't mix drugs if u don't know what u'r doing Yeah b'y they were kids with a lot to lose Maybe he never intended for you to live & just thought he could get money out of it at the same time

You know I want an adhd killer/victim who can't be tracked bc they keep forgetting to put the money in the bank, or castle thinks the victim is a spy bc they keep losing their toothbrush & buying new ones, I want them to say "it wasnt [adhd killer] because look at how they acted in the interview" but it's just emotional dysregulation, I want them to think "[adhd killer] never would have been able to do xyz bc they're not smart enough, they didn't even finish high school" but [adhd killer] had a hyperfixation on that thing & is really skilled at that thing, I want the ME to say "there is a bunch of drug residue on them" & then beckett assumes they were on or selling drugs but when ME runs tox "they were on a prescription dosage" Or maybe I want a busker who gets paid in cash so they think it's money laundering or smth when they're actually a fiddler.

Called it. husband that the sister brought in.

(ryan always gets played off as the feminine one but he is not necessarily, his voice gets so deep sometimes but in such a way it gives me gender envy, his voice seems to have a wider range of speaking voice than esposito but because of this sometimes I can't tell which one is talking)

Ok he's lying? Yeah he did it wait... he only blackmailed & didn't killl...

yo always get a lawyer y'all, don't ever talk to cops. I THOUGHT IT COULD HAVE BEEN THE SISTER, I KNEW IT. Or no, the way she's scting, it's too much to be an act. (I say knowing this is fiction.) why is nobody breaking up this fight? Maybe bc they hate him maybe bc she's a girl (& apparently teachers are told to break up fights between boys but not get between girls)

KB: Don’t underestimate him. I mean, the only reason that he copped to the blackmail was to avoid murder charges. And like any psychopath, he’s a great actor. Oh, speaking of… RC: Psychopaths or actors? KB: I was thinking about your mom. RC: Oh, so a little of both. KB: I think we can make the play. RC: Really? So you want to venture into the dark, scary woods? KB: Don’t worry, Castle. I got a gun. I’ll protect you from the Big Bad Wolf. RC: You’d use your gun on my mother? KB: RC: I’m touched. Thank you. KB:

Slip-on shoes are the way to go

What bow? Whose bow?

Was it her? Can't be her I already ruled that out. Where was she injected? Unless it wasn't a suicide attempt but just an overdose to get the cops' eyes off her She is getting teary but not crying bc she's faking & she just Can't Quite Cry whut that makes very little sense tbh Why would you kill two more ppl if you're trying to save your life? I mean unless u got away with it by successfully playing the victim She's literally in the hospital

What the fudge I love the way ryan is walking backwards, point for the adhd headcanon (gosh has roofing taught me nothing? Even in the kitchen I walk backwards) Wow sappy af. (I love the way rysposito look at each other) what's castle got there? a recording device to prove beckett is actually a softie? Little peace sign up there

"Hey I'm right here" The role of a mother <3 *living in his house* *holds his hand*

Ok so I think I like watching it first bc I can write my theories without forgetting them but it might be shorter if I watch it first & then I always notice stuff more the second time through & I can make note of that stuff for future reference when I know it doesn't make sense

I also realize that I probably should have skipped a few episodes so I'm not watching the same one twice in one day but rather have some time in between. idk when mum is coming home so maybe I can watch another one but from way later in the season. Probably not tho since it will take MORE than half an hour.

I do think that maybe it will let me SHUT UP during the show or it will make me overly talkative once I know how it works. Maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut bc I don't feel the need to share my theories or I'll be afraid of spoiling so I'll actually be quiet for once