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occasionally-victor · 1 year

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"Let's dance! (The dance of death)" — Last Life!Grian&Mumbo playlist

+ songs that are not in the playlist for one or another reason, but they need to be mentioned as they were in the first drafts of a playlist year ago: Madds Buckley - The Red Means I Love You (G); Hamilton - You'll Be Back (G); Tom Lehrer - The Masochism Tango (M); Ferry - anger management – жаль (Both); Hooverphonic - Mad About You (G);

some notes (mostly doing the *points on lyrics* "THEM!" thing):

The part where i do a bit more talking for one or another reason:

Ferry's songs (DEAD HAND, Occam's razor, dopamine_machine, Convergence) are talked about in this post (clickable).

Danse macabre is here because i was describing their dynamic as "some sort of 'danse macabre'" because this tone poem (i looked it up in Wikipedia lmao) was getting recommended to me the whole time and i guess the name of it really got into my head (oooh dance, ooooh of death). The fun part of it, i haven't even listened to it until after 7th session, so i was very pleasantly surprised to hear that it actually fits (here my criteria was "can i daydream about an animatic with this song?" and yes, i could (basically, the pacing and the vibe of the Danse macabre fit the story))

The Front Bottoms - Be Nice To Me & Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man: so, these two are grouped together. Why? Because when talking about my boys I'm mostly looking at first verses (well basically everything before second verses) of each (as you could see in my little spreadsheet, Be Nice To Me is applied to Mumbo (theres also an animatic (clickable) i found, it basically shows what i mean here) and Little Lion Man is applied to Grian). But hey, what about the second verses? Well, it's just theres another LL duo these two songs fit very well (Ethubs. I'm talking about Ethubs. Be Nice To Me - Bdubs, Little Lion Man - Etho). This makes sense in my head and i needed to explain my vision and it does go deeper than that.

Will Wood and The Tapeworms - -ish: i added it here because of this animatic (clickable). what more do you want from me, i am a simple man.

Unknown Mother Goose - Will Stetson (English cover, og - wowaka): ok, so at first i wanted to just put some lyrics here, but then i realized i just started copying the whole song, so yeah. i will just put this part, because i really like it: "I’ve grown to take it, the pain welling in me, the breaking and hurting//Joy, grief, rage, and pleasure, they all blend together, through every endeavor//If happiness that I cherish is real and is out there somewhere lost on this earth//Will I wander forever and ever in agony in this darkened and cold world//As the blackened, the sheep that will never belong anywhere as I live forever?//--Don’t leave me like that!"

Jhariah - The Great Tale Of How I Ruined It All: "In the lens through which some eyes will see//This tale is one of failure//And though I don’t think I’m your enemy//I’ll never be your savior//And in the lens through which some eyes will see//This tale is one of victory//And though I don’t think I’m a failure//I don’t deserve your sympathy" - this part is totally the only reason this song in this playlist HOWEVER! The whole song is actually very much post 6th-7th session Southlands vibe.

Kenshi Yonezu - Décolleté: funny example of "I'm aware that this song in fact doesn't fit at all (i have read the translation), but the vibes captivated me so much so i just. decided to ignore text at all"

The main part №1:

The Puget Sound - Terrified of You: ok i was trying to get some of the lyrics here (specifically the part from 1:40 to 2:05-ish), but i literally cant understand what some of the words are. Like, i get the meaning of the sentence, yeah, but the words. That's what i get for putting an old ass song with less than 70 views here.

Flira - My Eyes Your Eyes: another one of "bitch i wish there were some lyrics online" because im annoyed that i can't pick up all words. However, i can say, that it was 5:19-5:42 part that made me add this song to the playlist.

Shayfer James - Bayonnettes: "And his eyes speak his past//Colorful, wild and totally ruthless" • "In a fight to the death//Where these broken promises fix bayonnettes" • "And that look in your eye//Is certain to try and divide us//As the sun in it's sky//Is threatening, is threatening violence"

Will Wood - Kill me if you can: "Fix that twitch, it makes me fiddle like a schizophrenic, how am I gonna get through my life like this?//Neurotic and catatonic, idiotic, not enough psychoticism to corroborate the sin" • "Take me towards the light//When it leaves my eyes//Give me a sec to catch my dying breath//Forgive me if I cross the flatline" • "Six-feet deep from six-foot-tall, don't bother, give it some, or lose it all//Please come kill me, kill me if you can"

The Brobecks - Die alone: "Can I die away from you?//What you do, it isn't ordinary too//There's nothing to do, but lie//I guess I'll die, guess I'll die a lonely guy"

Shayfer James - Grind My Bones: "I am a moment slowly dying//Soon I will only cross your mind from time to time" • "Now as the walls around us crumble//Watch all the idiots and hypocrites rebel//You are two dashes and a number//And all of your complaining couldn't save you from yourselves" • "Oh I was lost and nothing found me//You better know that when I go//I'm going fast"

Jhariah - PRESSURE BOMB 3?!?!: "Slow down//Those words mean nothing//My brain just revs up faster//Pressure bomb in a goddamn knife fight" • "Ecstatic pathways runaway, flood my mind//Overstimulation makes me feel like I’m alive" • "It drives me forward every moment//Makes sure I don’t stop too long to//Smell the flowers//I been here too long, I might burn up and explode"

The Crane Wives - Curses: "There's a fire in my brain and I'm burning up//Oh my, oh my//Keep running for the sink but the well is dry//Oh my, oh my" • "Every word I say is kindling//But the smoke clears when you're around//Won't you stay with me, my darling//When my walls start burning down, down, down?" • "Oh ashes, ashes, dust to dust//The devil's after both of us//Oh, lay my curses out to rest//Make a mercy out of me" • "All my aching bones are trembling//And I may yet fall apart//Won't you stay with me, my darling//When the war starts in my heart?"

Des Rocs - Used to the Darkness: "I've made mistakes, the Lord struck me down//Caught in a landslide, lost underground" • "And then my eyes got used to the darkness//And everyone that I knew//Was lost and so long forgotten after you" • "Now would you pray before you twist the knife?//Yeah, would you take my hand and take a life?" • "And now there's no one else left to love//I'm used to the darkness, I'm used to the darkness"

Ricky Montgomery - Snow: "When I go, bury me six feet in snow" • "Here we are wasting our chances for the last time//Oh, and when we go I'll try not to be so slow" • "Say it once, say it twice, try to be nice//Well, let's not lose ourselves" • "Summer's over, love had left her screaming at the screen//Oh, and it's understood that the both of us are no good"

QUEEN - Will Stetson (English cover, og - Kanaria): "Lie, bye Baby//My, my, my life//Give me your hand, we'll dance a tune throughout the night so//Lie, bye Baby//My, my, my life//That's the signal you're fading from the light//My love" • "One, my only self is jumping for love//The dreams are never enough//Too far away to touch" • "Overflowing, Overflowing//It really takes me back into the end we left to die//You never know it, You never know it//It's falling//Cry cry cry" • "Nebulous, abandonment, a weapon//I'm none and no one, never needed I cling//With hazy eyes in the night, loving words to disguise//Stuck crying out for the world that wasn't mine//Those fates all just remain in place, no matter//How hard you fight the future never will change//My vision's starting to fade//Heart's a smoldering flame//They sing in shame for a spark we couldn't make, my love"

Jhariah - Needed a Change of Pace: "I’m so glad I woke up today//A different life in a brand new place//I think I maybe outgrew the last//I needed a change of pace//No more talk of what my burdens say//They’ve been left behind, and that’s where they will stay" • "Oh, how could you love me so?//Oh, with all I’ve done and the things you know?//My dearest, you better never forgive me//'Cause if you forget what I’ve done, I’ll do it again" • "I died that night and killed god in the morning//Left without a warning or even informing the coroner//I was a foreigner//Never belonged in that place, played along in that place//Till I had enough of the games//I couldn’t find the time from the afterlife//To apologize or even say goodbye"

GARANDO/AIRHEAD - djalto (English cover, og - Picon): "So it was just me and you//Such a stupid rendezvous//And now look at us both//Indifferent and disconnect, just barely hangin' on. Just what i thought" • "Sure, I already know what I'm crying for//The same old "goodbye", i've seen it all before//Is it okay if i stoop this low, low, low?" • "Remember those glaring eyes of yours//Just stabbed my soul straight down to the core//While we danced in room number 10884//From dusk till dawn" • "Living life everyday just sucks me dry//Even "sleeping forever" sounds way more fun//Then it's fine for me to stoop this low, low, low"

EYE - Will Stetson (English cover, og - Kanaria): "Pray for me while my mind is flickering, burning//Thirteen, fourteen, rotting and eating spices as we please, see//Watch me sleep with a dagger up my sleeve, hurting//Thirty, forty, stabbing like crazy, smiling as I bleed, see" • "L-L-LIFE, you and me, E-E-EYE, and so we//Play bad and hold on tight and lie and lie and lie and lie//K-K-KNIFE, you and me, E-E-EYE, already//There’s evil deep inside, a lie and lie and lie and lie" • "Without behaving to please//They flow and bleed, all of the words I set free"

Will Wood - and if i did, you deserved it: "and we're alone now//high up and low down" • "you know i'm not the type of guy to turn my back on a knife//it's just my luck these motherfuckers talking smack on a guy//but i'm deserving every word they could begin to apply" • "i really don't care what you think or what you say//i'm a cancer, i'm malignant, yeah, you oughtta stay away//my heart's fucking empty and i trying to fill it up//but it's not big enough for the both of us//no it's not big enough for the both of us" • "if i keep beating myself up//i'll keep on winning the fight//and get my ass kicked//i'm poisonous, not toxic" • ""don't meet you idols"//hey, fuck you, i'm your idol!"

The Crane Wives - Know How: "I am not brave, I am not brave//I blind my eyes to what won't stay//You kissed my mouth, you pushed me out//And now I'm struggling to free myself" • "I gotta wrap my head around//What my heart is telling me//I've been trying to drown it out//Just because I know what I am//I am supposed to do now//Doesn't mean I know//Doesn't mean I know how"

Mother Mother - Burning Pile: "All my style, all my grace//All I tried to save my face//All my guts, try to spill//All my holes, try to fill" • "It goes, all my troubles on a burning pile//All lit up and I start to smile//If I catch fire then I'll change my aim//Throw my troubles at the pearly gates"

The Crane Wives - Never Love an Anchor: "And I tried to do the best that I could//But try as I might I couldn't bring myself to hold you" • "With this heart of mine that's guilty not remorseful//There is love that doesn't have a place to rest//But it would have buried you if it had settled on your shoulders" • "I am selfish, I am broken, I am cruel//I am all the things they might have said to you//Do you ever think of me and my two hands//... //And wondered why they never held you gently//And wondered why they never had the chance to lose you?"

Shayfer James - Godspeed: "There’s many ways to hide a heart that bleeds//But I prefer the ease of rolling up my sleeves" • "I used to be someone that you could believe//But it’s been a while, been a while" • "Let me not make mazes with words//Get yourself, get the hell, get yourself out of here" • "Good luck, godspeed, I know I’ll see you again//I’ll always call you a friend indeed"

Fall Out Boy - Miss Missing You: "Don't panic, no, not yet//I know I'm the one you want to forget//Cue all the love to leave my heart//It's time for me to fall apart" • "Now you're gone, but I'll be okay//Your hot whiskey eyes have fanned the flame//Maybe I'll burn a little brighter tonight//Let the fire breathe me back to life" • "Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger//The person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger//Oh, we're fading fast, I miss missing you now and then"

Eva - Kuraiinu (English cover, og - Hiiragi Kirai): "I want you who’s dying to look at me//Greedily, I hope for what’s blasphemy//All alone, purity then devours my heart//Oh, I wish I could be the Lord of the Flies and restart" • "Hey, how mediocre//Hey, peaceful time is over//I’m so fed up, I’m burning up//I think I’ve had just enough//Hey, how mediocre//Hey, peaceful time is over//Abandon all, just make your call, I’ll still leave after all" • "Tell me why, ah…tell me why//Like a waterfall, all the pain flows down torrentially?//When I desire all your love to only be for me//But it the end it’s all a fantasy" • "In a moment, daydreams are all destroyed//From the core of my being, they rot me away//Those who persevere and survive today//Worry all about the future—who they’ll be, who they’ll betray//They try so hard, but they can’t deny the human nature calling out" • "Don’t dare to be irrational!"

Jhariah - BAD LUCK!: "This time around’s no different//I’ve played with chance like you//I loved to toy with fate//But, oh, I didn’t have a clue//That I would lose, oh, I would lose//... //“You’re not like me, I’m not like you, I’m not who these things happen to“//And that’s exactly what you say before they do" • "Still somehow they’re looking down on me//Laughing ’cause I got what I deserved//(You got what you deserved)//And I would do it again//I’m not sorry, but thank you for enduring me//As long as you did//That’s more than I’d ever ask of you"

Des Rocs - Don't Hurt Me: "But now is not the perfect time//To say I was lonely//To say I wanted the trouble" • "I bet the stars and stones//One hurts and one glows//I bet you think love was none of your business//None of your business" + honestly the chorus part ("Baby, don't hurt me, baby//...") vibes with them really well

Will Wood - I Can't Wait To Die: "You shook my soda, should've owned it, my mistake//Took my volcano, shifted my tectonic plates//I'm at rock bottom out of options or so I hope//'Cuz if I'm not then how much lower should I go" • "I can't wait to die//You've got me so god damn excited, I've been waiting my whole life//I can't wait to die//Can't wait to die, 'cuz you remind me of what it's like to be alive" • "You're close to me enough to breathe secondhand smoke//My misery's now your disease and it loves your company and" • "Never letting no people before I look through the peephole//See no evil, speak no evil, speak to me, no I don't hear you"

Jason Webley - Dance While the Sky Crashes Down: "We've all begun to die and don't know what to do//Since it hurts to pray to God when God is dying too//Takes strength to laugh when you start to drown//And we dance while the sky crashes down" • "Like that the earth begins to quiver//And all the oceans turn to black//A ship of maniacs with knives are playing blackjack with their lives//To kill the time until the giant rats attack" • "A band of skeletons is playing//Don't act like you don't know the tune//Your part is echoed in the path of every dead leaf blowing past" • "And every one of us is damned until we start to understand//That living is to gorge ourselves at our own wakes"

MIRA - Will Stetson (English cover, og - Kanaria): "Too old that I can't get a shake//From dreams a crumblin' away, a self centered hate//Worn down but I'm feelin' the weight//While slowly loosing my place//Too starved of love to wait" • "A superficial trust, an agonizing touch//A portrait drained of blood//Keep away from me my love//I'm doubtful of my love" • "Keep away from me my love//A lame lying love//Burn away your trust, never feel much"

Shayfer James (feat. Will Wood) - Ferryman: "Never again can be innocent//And everything ends, well, it just makes sense//If up has a down there's another side//In there's an out so it's worth a try//People want each other but they want themselves more//Even when your lover's something new to live for//Is to die for, therefore to kill for//Black has white so go to the light, my love" - if I'm being honest, the biggest reason i added this song here is because i really liked the vibe. Like, it works in my head, plus the vibe is the first thing i look in the songs i want to add in this playlist.

tallyhall - Misery Fell: "Why, oh, why this//Town without love too much faith in above?//Can you feel the//Force that it brings not to worry 'bout things?//Just the stars in the sky all enjoying their time//With a hope for peace" - another one of "based on vibes tbh" songs.

tart - enigma: "here we go again//the devil's watching from below//so just keep writing//see it in my eyes//i never wanted to survive//so i'll show you who i've learned to be" • "i've seen a perfect crime//... //i've seen an angel watching devil with his greedy eyes" • "Next comes the pain of the way//You’re falling into me[You’re crashing into me]//I know it’s closed reign[‘Cause in the domain]//But the flame[Of my brain]//Is sinking in again[I’m getting lost again]//See thousands of words through my eyes//And when you finally realize//That you’re the one holding the gun[That I'm the one holding the gun / That you're the one holding the gun]//I’ll say my first goodbye[just recite my goodbye / I'll say my last goodbye]" • "Time’s still turning, yet my memory is running low//... //Tell me now, how do you want this to go//I’ll cast my hand, don’t wanna know" - i decided to color it because it was getting confusing.

Will Wood - Cicada Days: "She said "It just feels inhumane to lose this much."//'Cause when you leave you know you take more than your love//Just one week of cicada days, we're losing touch//And I know it just feels inhumane to lose this much" • "Let all my red flags fade to white, yeah, I give up//Don't let me leave, I'll only take more than I gave//Okay, I'll pack my stuff//Here at the end of days, my god, what have I done?"

cavetown - Pigeon: "Fuzzy feelin' and I miss you//Why can nothing stay the same?//Fuckin' stupid head, I’m gonna kill you//Melt all your art and drink the paint//I am not a beast, I’m not a monster//I don't care what you say//You can’t have the bad guys without a hero//And I’m the only one who’s got a cape" • "Didn’t give me time to say goodbye in the way that I wanted to//So honey close your eyes and stay like you’re supposed to do//Don’t know how I’m gonna live without//But I’ll stay strong for you"

The Amazing Devil - Elsa’s Song: "Your voice it carries over//The hubbub and the hum//And it paints the sky and circles high//Like the beating of a drum//You will scream "I won’t forget you"//But I’ll cover my cold ears//It cannot be a lie//If no-one hears" • "'Cause although you say good day to me//I know I don’t belong//And although you hold my hand and say//"I love you," you are wrong//Because love does not exist here//In this garden, there’s no feeling//And you say the words so often//That I barely know the meaning" • "And then you’ll cry to our painted sky//"I loved him then, I love him still""

The Crane Wives - How to Rest: "Go on stack the cinder blocks in a cold sweat//Build yourself a citadel amid the foothills of regret//And though you've convinced yourself, you're safe and sound within//The thing you fear the most never need get in" • "Those of us who vow never to love again, to love again//Are making liars out of honest men//It's not something that you put to bed//Hang your head and just forget//No, love don't know how to rest"

Mother Mother - Arms Tonite: "I fell in your arms tonight//I fell hard in your arms tonight, it was nice//I died in your arms tonight//I slipped through into the afterlife, it was nice//White light in your arms tonight//I lost sight in your arms tonight, it was nice" • "And hey, you, don't you think it's kinda cute//That I (I) died (Died) right inside your arms tonight?//That I'm fine even after I have died?//Because it was in your arms I died"

The Vultures - Risk It All: "Do you know this certain feeling//This feeling inside of you//Well, maybe you´re not clearly seeing//But I have that feeling too//I´m living an empty heart//Got no reason to feel unwell//But still I crave for more" • "You only live once//You better give it all you got//Yeah you live only once//So you better take that shot//Again and again and again and again//´Till your time is up" • "Truth be told//I can´t hold that feeling anymore//I´m living a lifeless heart//I feel so outworn"

The Vultures - Get What You Want: "It's that time of the night again//I'm thinking of us//My head in the clouds and then//You doubt my trust//I can't change the way i am//At least i would try to do//I want to be together, babe//Together with you" • "You and me, we could be free//Why is this so hard to see?" - more of "based on vibes tbh"

The main part №2 (these songs are not on english, so it's a bit if a warning: in this post i will just use some english translations i found)

Dirt Poor Robins - Enchanté: "Alas, the muses through their glasses//Drift away as only madness//Drowning in the din//Of our animal skins" • "From chagrin I've been released//Paint me in a portrait sans//The fig leaves, fig leaves//And I will not be concerned//Or ignore the things I yearn//My hunger is the rule I cannot overturn" • "Alas, the virtues through their glasses//Hid themselves from our madness//All we have within//Is our animal skins" • "Greet your beast and let 'em streak//Into the fray" • "Enchanté, enchanté, enchanté, enchanté//Name the powers "meteors"//And let us go insane//It's okay, it's okay, it's okay//If we can't raise the dead//We're gonna raise, we're gonna raise//We're gonna raise hell instead"

mewithoutYou - Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt: "Heard you call for me//Saw you die for me//Only you'd burn for me//If only you'd come for me" • "And so you'll be to me//Who must obliquely run//Thy firmness makes my circle just//And makes me end where I begun" • "There's nothing wrong//As I'll be somewhere singing all along//No! Tell me, where have you gone, my love//Where have you gone my love"

Arctic Monkeys - The Jeweller's Hands: "Fiendish wonder in the carnival's wake//Dull caresses once again irritate//Tread softly, stranger//Move over toward the danger that you seek" • "And now it's no one's fault but yours//At the foot of the house of cards//You thought you'd never get obsessed//You thought the wolves would be impressed//And you're a sinking stone//But you know what it's like to hold the jeweler's hands//That procession of pioneers all drowned" • "The inevitables gather to push you around//Any other voice makes such a punishing sound//He became laughter's assassin//Shortly after he showed you what it was"

Eve ft. 38ban - Therefore You and Me: "Paired up, they mean something//My avatar!//It's two-in-one//You and me//Don't ever let go of what's beloved" • "Therefore//You and me, you and me//You and me, lovey-dovey//As a result of loving//As a result of forgetting//... //As a result of acquiring//As a result of losing//... //As a result of living//As a result of dying" • "Because, I and myself, we're all ghosts//Very selfish ghosts." • "You and me, you and me//You and me, lovey-dovey//As a result of trusting//As a result of being betrayed"

しとお - 枉ゲラルルラララ: "I want a talking partner who yells and fidgets around, badly//I'd just get bored with a sympathetic person//As partners, we'd talk while making weapons with our hands" • "If someone goes bad, grudges will start//If living at limits is a fun thing, well then...//"So, this is a fun thing?"//So basically, you don't even know"" • "Claw-like bullets replaced words, you know, right?//Hey, rely on me//Tell me if it hurts, tell me what you can't say//... //Well, it's definitely your "right thing", so...//Come on, let's play, like we're gonna throw up and really start living!//While being strangled..."

WADATAKEAKI - Green, Green: "We are just hopelessly//Small to make a difference//No matter how much we cry out and butter up//Nothing will change anymore" • "Not so much anymore, fall in line, loss of identity//Hold hands to each other, just to be saved, just to be robbed" • "I don't wanna die without having done something//No afraid if we all hit it"

Kenshi Yonezu - Flamingo: "I can't even laugh at this cheap and lowly fight//The crimson hair ornament you wear. Hated love enemy//I wanna touch the velvet tail of your eye//And that slight cold smile of yours" • "You're floating with a smile, never to return//Leaving only sorrow and jealousy behind//Thanks as always, darlin', can you love me better next time?" • "Oh King of Hell, i appeal to you//Please judge her charms for me//The story of drunk paper-mache doll//Playing this silly game till the day i die"

Lacrimosa - Alleine zu zweit: "At the end of truth//At the end of light//At the end of love//At the end - there are you//(The heart empties - there goes a part of me )//Nothing has survived" • "Lonely - together//We have forgotten to find us a new//Habit gaggs//Dullness suffocates//Arrogance makes you drunk//and closeness drives to flight"

Mozart l'Opéra Rock - L'Assasymphonie: "Tonight, intolerable insomnia//Madness awaits me//I am what i flee from//I endure this cacophony//Which saws my head//Trite harmony" • "The enemy lurking in my mind//Celebrates my defeats//Without respite, he defies me//I renounce the fatal heresy//That eats me away//I wish to be reborn//Reborn" • "The violins of my life weep//The violence of my desires//Deranged symphony" • "I drown my boredom in the music//I kill my fears in the disharmony//I devote my nights to violent symphonies//To requiems//Killing out of spite what i sow//I devote my nights to violent symphonies//And to blasphemies//I admit that i curse all whom love one other"

Hiiragi Kirai - Galleria: "We have nothing left now//That's why we can't be healthy and well//When i realized that//It was too late//Too late//Theres nothing i could do//That's why there's no turning back" • "Please, give me//The life of my dreams//Even though i have nothing left//And couldn't do anything//Are you still going to corrupt my tower of fantasy?//The room with you in there//Was supposed to connect out future//Like a galleria//It should have been like that//Yet here we are" • "I'm sorry//So sorry//I have finally realised//That it's impossible to fulfill my dreams" • "Now i have lost it all//Like nothing left in our galleria//Shouldn't end like this"

Ophelia's English cover of Galleria: "We've not a thing//So it seems, so it seems//That's just exactly why we can't be healthy and free//Deep within my grief//Late to see, late to see//There's nothing I can do//I can't turn back there and leave" • "Begging you, begging you//Vesting in me//Give me a life of all my dreams//If i can't do a thing with nothing, it would seem//Would you still kill my towered fantasy//You're in that room and you stayed there, my love//Joining out futures in galleria//That should have been, that should have been//How we would live" • "Sorry dear, I realised, i realised//The dreams of my own mind//Would've been impossible to bring to light" • "I have lost everything//Even my love//Empty as ever, a galleria//This shouldn't be us"

Segodnyanochyu - Герда, икай: "Listen to the new CD//Don't build illusions and schemes//We all will end badly//Who cares with whom" • "But what are you gonna do if I stay here//If I go off again, go off the slippery rails again//But what are you gonna do if I stay here//Do you want us both to go off the slippery rails?" - i had to translate those bits from russian myself if you even care.

TOOBOE - oxygen: "“Shall we try defiling each other?”//To say everything about thinking like that is beautiful//doesn’t hit the mark, not even close" • "With my bloodshot eyes, everything around me has gone pitch dark//We put it on the table and enjoyed it as if it were delicious" • "I’m sorry, ah, dear sun, please, if I can see it, show your face one more time//How absurd, to think I could just wash it off//Ah, all my life, I’ve been mediocre. You’ll be outnumbered to confront them//if you think it’s going to be easy down the road" • "My heart grew hotter, making my head spin in an instant//If you want to hear the melody that you’re imagining, let out your voice" • "Ah, the treat that we’ve finally got hold of,//as if it was a dream, disappeared with the fog//We took a long hard look at it as we held our breaths"

natori - 猿芝居: "Weatherbeaten and suspicious of you//Only bittersweet irony here//Not even making the slightest movement//At any rate, I've got no time to lose//Intertwining together briefly, hand to hand to hand" // "Ah, let us play, let me play, towards the sound of the applause//Atrocious, boisterous, fastidious//Without any place to go, that's merely rubbing salt into the wound//Look, this night is making a fuss" • "A restless breeze blowing through the greenery//Locking eyes with the quiet beauty, eye to eye to eye//Is that person my rival in love?" • "The two of us, unable to mix//If you leave yourself in the care of this disordered world//I'll say goodbye for now, let us meet again in a city we don't know" • "Ah, what a shameful sight, saying goodbye forever//Becoming more sinful as we seek for one another//Drink it all, until the end, until it's finished//At any rate, I'll be alone in this world"

MARETU - ナミダ: "Getting hurt, you curse the colorful blue sky//With your sadness, you hope for a stormy weather to come" • "A rusted steel, a slashed and tattered armor//For how long will you be wearing it?//The one and only, crystal-clear sincerity you held//Unable to protect it, you let go of your hand and gave it away" • "What must be finished is this resentment//Flowing out with blood, the tears, the tears//Dyeing you in a dark, in a dark color//Unsheathe and draw out, the blade, the blade//The one thing that hasn't stop yet//is your heart." • "I don't know them//All they do is laugh and laugh//All the things I treasured, they were taken away" • "Over and over//as time passes//you are still//unable to be recovered//Now//let's end it//Why//the pain//the blood//the hesitation" • "Get out of my way, these tears! these tears!//You will be burned into crimson red, crimson red, flames.//Cut and slash them down, with the blade, with the blade.//Let the thoughts of yours, awaken from now on." - i found several english translations to this song with slightly different wordings, so of course ive just chosen the one that fits the most (from this video (clickable))

Superfly - Kakusei: "The black sky is appearing//The repeating thunder pulses//Before the storm begins//I will cast that spell on you" • "I will resuscitate//Your lovely heart//Throw off that body//Now it’s time for you to return to me" • "No mater how many times the thunder hits//I will go beyond the darkness while singing"

Mozart l'Opéra Rock - Le bien qui fait mal: "Now where does this strange feeling//Come from//That fascinates me//Just as much as it disturbes me//I shiver, stabbed by the beauty//It's like a knife in my soul//The wound going right through my heart//And I feel joy in the pain//I intoxicate myself with this poison//Until it makes me loose my mind" • "I can feel//A violent urge//I feel like//I'm sliding towards the ground//If I don't find out//Where this plague is coming from//I adore//Having it under my skin//Bewitched by mad ideas//Suddenly//All my cravings take off//The desire becomes my prison//Until I loose my mind"

#occasionally victor talks #music playlist #mcyt #last life smp #traffic smp #trafficblr #mumbo jumbo #grian #last life mumbo #last life grian #grumbo #some songs in here are a bit /r so playlist might be a bit shippy lmao #i was making this playlist for over a year jeez

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beastars-takes · 4 years

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Zootopia Takes: Darker’s Not Better

The Shock Collar Draft

So, it sounds like people are largely positive on me doing some Zootopia posts on this blog, and I wanted to talk about this tweet I saw the other day:

I’ll punt on explaining why Beastars isn’t “Dark Zootopia”--that’s a great topic for another post. But I would like to talk about why this popular yet stridently uninformed tweet is so, so wrong. Why the shock collar draft was not better, actually.

And obviously, I’m not writing several pages in reply to a single tweet--this is a take that’s been around since the movie came out, that the “original version was better.” It’s been wrong the whole time.

Let’s talk about why!

Part 1: “Because Disney”

Let’s start with this--the assumption that the film’s creators wanted to make this shock collar story and “Disney” told them to change it.

That’s not how it works.

I try to keep stuff about me out of these posts as much as possible, but just for a bit of background, I’ve worked in the animation industry for about half a decade. I know people at Disney. I have a reasonable idea of how things are there.

There is this misconception about creative industries that they’re constantly this pitched battle of wills between creative auteurs trying to make incredible art and ignorant corporate suits trying to repress them.

That can happen, especially in dysfunctional studios (and boy could I tell some stories) but Walt Disney Animation Studios is not dysfunctional. It’s one of the most autonomous and well-treated parts of the Disney Company.

The director of Zootopia, Byron Howard, isn’t an edgelord. He made Bolt and Tangled. He knows what his audience is, and he’s responsible enough not to spend a year (and millions of dollars in budget) developing a grimdark Don Bluth story that leadership would never approve. It wouldn’t just be a waste of time--he would be endangering the livelihoods of the hundreds of people working under him. Meanwhile, Disney Animation’s corporate leadership trusts their talent. They don’t generally interfere with story development because they don’t need to. Because they employ people like Byron Howard.

Howard and the other creative leads of Zootopia have said a dozen times, in interviews and documentaries, that they gave up on the shock collar idea because it wasn’t working. They’ve explained their reasoning in detail. Maybe they’re leaving out some of the story, but in general? I believe them.

But Beastars Takes, you say, maybe even if Disney didn’t force them to back away from this darker version, it still would have been better?

Part 2: Why Shock Collars Seem Good

I will say this--I completely sympathize with people who see these storyboards and scenes from earlier versions of the movie and think “this seems amazing.” It does! A lot of these drawings and shots are heartbreakingly good, in isolation.

I love these boards. They make me want to cry. I literally have this drawing framed on my wall. Believe me, I get it.

But the only reason we care this much about this alternative draft of Zootopia is that the Zootopia we got made us love this world and these characters. You know what actually made me cry?

Oh, yeah.

So let’s set aside the astonishing hubris of insisting Zootopia’s story team abandoned the “good” version of the story, when the “bad version” is the most critically-acclaimed Disney animated feature in the past SIXTY YEARS.

“But Beastars Takes!” I hear you say. “Critics are idiots and just because something’s popular doesn’t make it good!”

Fair enough. Let’s talk about why the real movie is better.

Part 3: The Message (it is, in fact, like a jungle sometimes)

This type of thing is always hard to discuss, in the main--a lot of people don’t want to feel criticized or “called out” by the entertainment they consume, and they don’t want to be asked to think about their moral responsibilities. But it’s hard to deny that Zootopia is a movie with a strong point of view. Everything else--the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot, grows out from the movie’s central statement about bias.

And the movie we got, with no shock collars, makes that statement far more effectively.

To dive into the full scope of Zootopia’s worldview and politics (warts and all) would be a whole post on its own, so I’ll just summarize the key point of relevance here:

Zootopia's moral message is that you, the viewer, need to confront your own biases. Not yell at someone else. No matter how much of a good or progressive person you consider yourself to be--if you want to stand against prejudice you have to start with yourself.

That’s a tough sell! For that message to land, we need to see ourselves in the protagonist.

Judy’s a good person! She argues with her dad about foxes. She knows predators aren’t all dangerous. She’s not speciesist. Right?

Ah fuck.

Let’s fast-forward to the pivotal scene of this movie. In an unfortunate but inevitable confluence of circumstances, Judy’s own biases and prejudiced assumptions come out, and she shits the bad.

Nick, who’s already bared his soul to her (against his better instincts), is heartbroken. But not as heartbroken as he is a minute later when he tries to confront her about what she’s said, and she makes this face:

Whaaaat? Come on, Nick. I’m a good person. Why are you giving me a hard time?

People like to complain about this scene. That it’s a hackneyed “misunderstanding” trope that could be easily resolved with a discussion. They’re wrong. Nick tries to have a discussion. She blows him off.

This isn’t Judy acting out of character, this is her character. Someone who identifies as Not A Racist, and hasn’t given the issue any more thought. This is not only completely believable characterization (who hasn’t seen someone react this way when you told them they hurt you?) it’s the film’s central thesis!

Yes, Nick somewhat provokes her into reaching for her “fox spray,” and her own trauma factors in there, but she’s already made her fatal mistake before that happens.

(As an aside, people also make the criticism that the movie unrealistically deflects responsibility for racism onto Bellwether and her plot. It doesn’t. All the key expressions of prejudice in the film--Judy’s encounter with Gideon, her parents’ warnings, the elephant in the ice cream shop, Judy’s early encounters with Bogo, Judy's views on race science--exist largely outside of Bellwether’s influence. She is a demagogue who inflames existing tensions, she didn’t invent them. Bogo literally says “the world has always been broken.”)

So, anyway. But we love Judy. She’s an angel. She also kinda sucks! She’s proudly unprejudiced, and when her own prejudice is pointed out to her she argues and doesn’t take it seriously. This is bad, but it’s also a very human reaction. It’s one most of us have probably been guilty of at one point or another.

Look at Zootopia’s society, too--it’s shiny and cosmopolitan, seemingly idyllic. Anyone can be anything, on paper. But scratch too deep beneath the surface and there’s a lot of pain and resentment here, things nobody respectable would say in public but come out behind closed doors, or among family, when nobody’s watching. It’s entirely recognizable--at least to me, someone who lives in a large liberal city in the United States. Like Byron Howard.

Wow, this place is a paradise!

Wait, what’s a “NIMBY”?

Part 4: Why Shock Collars Are Bad

So, with the film’s conceit established, let’s circle back to the shock collar idea. Like I said, it’s heartbreaking. It’s dramatic. It’s affective.

It also teaches us nothing.

If I see a movie where predator animals are subjected to 24/7 electroshock therapy, I don’t think “wow, this makes me want to think about how I could do better by the people around me.” I think “damn that shit’s crazy lmao. that’d be fucked up if that happened.” At a stretch, it reminds me of something like the Jim Crow era, or the Shoah. You know, stuff in the Past. Stuff we’ve all decided couldn’t ever happen again, so why worry about it?

The directors have said this exact thing, just politely. “It didn’t feel contemporary,” they say in pressers. That’s what it means.

If anything, the shock collar draft reifies the mindset that Zootopia is trying to reject--it shows us that discrimination is blatant, and dramatic, and flagrantly cruel, and impossible to miss.

And...that’s not true. If you only look for bias at its most malicious and evil, you’re going to miss the other 95 percent.

The messaging of this “darker version” is--ironically--less mature, less insightful, less intelligent. Less useful. Darker’s not better.

Part 5: Why Shock Collars Are Still Bad

So what if you don’t care about the message? What if you have no interest in self-reflection, or critical analysis (why are you reading this blog then lmao)? What if you just really want to hear a fun story about talking animals?

Well, this is trickier, because the remaining reasons are pretty subjective and emotional.

The creators have said that the shock collar version didn’t work because the viewers hated the cruel world they’d created. They agreed with Nick--the city was beyond saving. They didn’t want to save it.

The creators have said that Judy was hard to sympathize with, not being able to recognize the shock collars for the obvious cruelty they were.

Fuck you, Judy!

But we haven’t seen the draft copies. We haven’t watched the animatics. We have to take their word for it. Anyone who’s sufficiently invested in this story is going to say “well, I disagree with them.” It doesn’t matter to them that they haven’t seen the draft and the filmmakers have. The movie they’ve imagined is great and nobody is going to convince them otherwise.

But the fact remains that the shock collar movie, as written, did not work. And, if behind the scenes material is to be believed, it continued to not work after months and months of story doctoring.

There’s even been a webcomic made out of the dystopian version of Zootopia. It’s clever and creative and well-written and entertaining and...it kind of falls apart. The creator, after more than a little shit-talk directed at Disney, abandoned the story before reaching the conclusion, but even before then the seams were beginning to show. How do you take a society that’s okay with electrocuting cute animals and bring it to a point of cathartic redemption? You can’t, really. The story doesn’t work.

Does that mean people shouldn’t make fanworks out of the cut material? That they shouldn’t be inspired and excited by it? Hell no. This drawing is cute as hell. The ideas are compelling.

But I suppose what I’d ask of you all is--if you’re weighing the hot takes of art students on Twitter against the explanations of veteran filmmakers, consider that the latter group might actually know what they’re talking about.

See you next time!

#zootopia #zootropolis #zoomania #zootopia takes #judy hopps #nick wilde #disney #chief bogo #byron howard

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cobalt-knave · 2 years

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Tagged by @thewrongshop Thank you for tagging me!

1- Why did you choose your url?

My favorite character from Once Upon A Time In Wonderland (which is one of my favorite show with a great central friendship) is Will Scarlet, the Knave of Hearts. And I did a project where I made cobalt pigment not too long before making my account. Thus: Cobalt Knave.

2- Any side blogs?

I run the account for the aro characters exchange.

3- How long have you been on tumblr?

Uhh. About a year now? Yeah, I think my first post was a little before Halloween 2020.

4- Do you have a queue tag?

No.

5- Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I kept having the incorrect quotes ideas run through my head, and I really liked the idea of comparing Buffy and The Magnus Archives, so I finally bit the bullet and started a tumblr blog.

6- Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

It’s an art piece I had done around the time of starting the blog, and I was really happy with how it turned out. It is a person who has been chosen by a [biblical] angel. I really liked designing the angel as seen through the person’s eye. So I thought I’d make it my profile picture.

7- Why did you choose your header?

Another piece I did around the time of making my blog. It’s actually named after a TMA thing though not directly a fanart. It’s called Ex Altiora. My original concept had been for an animatic with Mike Crew where his veins would flash like lightning. It evolved a really lot to the point where it was not a fanart idea, but I still loved the thought of veins of lightning. The version in my header is actually not the final draft of the picture. Anyway. I mostly thought it looked cool even with the crop from becoming a header.

8-What’s your post with the most notes?

Oh, that would be the one where Michael has an ace up his sleeve, and it is just Jon falling out of the corridors. The incorrect quote with the most notes is, I think, one of the ‘Jon and Gerry save the world’ ones with “Don’t speak latin in front of the books.”

9- How many mutuals do you have?

Uhhh. I have no idea. A few.

10- How many followers do you have?

208.

11- How many people do you follow?

265.

12- Have you ever made a shitpost?

Yes.

13- How often do you use Tumblr each day?

I tend to be on it often, but if I am, I’m usually also doing other things.

14- Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

No, not really. I remember one time getting into a joking argument over “the Magnus Archives is a podcast” vs “The Magnus Archives WAS a podcast” and then me and them became mutuals.

15- How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

I don’t reblog them. I dislike them.

16- Do you like tag games?

Yes!

17- Do you like ask games?

Yes!

18-Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

I do not know!

19- Do you have a crush on a mutual?

I am far too aromantic for this question!

Thanks again for tagging me! I will tag @nonbinaryeye @aroaceawesomeness @lucymason217 and @all-hail-i-guess

#tag game

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purity-town · 3 years

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Whoops, didn’t mean to post this so late. Time’s gotten away from me this week, haha. Anyways, a few ask replies are below the cut!

Aw, I’m glad you’re enjoying the comic! It’s the best feeling knowing that folks are liking what I’m putting out. ^^

And yep, bosses are being done in order! I’ll list them out below with how I’m handling each of them for simplicity’s sake:

King Slime -- Will be mentioned, but won’t appear. Probably defeated by a previous hero? I’m not sure, but Chris won’t be fighting it.

Eye of Cthulhu -- The first boss Chris fights.

Eater of Worlds -- Most likely an on-screen boss fight? I’m debating.

Brain of Cthulhu -- This is a Corruption world, so it’s not included.

Queen Bee -- Mentioned, though cut for time.

Skeletron -- Plot important boss battle!

Wall of Flesh -- Also plot important boss battle; actually one of the first scenes I had figured out for the comic, haha.

Mech Bosses/Plantera/Golem -- These most likely will be fought, but I’m not sure how I’ll be handling them. The Mechs at least are plot relevant, we’ll see about the other two.

Optional Hardmode Bosses -- Queen Slime, Duke Fishron, etc. will be cut for time.

Event Bosses -- Things like the Pumpkin/Frost Moon and so on won’t be included.

Other Events -- Solar eclipse, blood moon, etc.; may or may not be included depending on how the story flows with them.

Lunatic Cultist/Celestial Events/Moon Lord -- again, plot important.

Do keep in mind that the above is subject to some change depending on what I want to include, as well as just what I want to be on/off screen. I never really know how I’m going to handle something until I’m actually writing/drafting/sketching that chapter, save for a few scenes that I’ve had planned from the beginning, haha.

Firstly, 🎉🎉🎉 for 200 followers!!!

And as for the question -- it’s a really long story actually, haha. Hence why I’m putting this ask last.

So, I’ve owned a copy of Terraria on Steam since early 2016; I had bought another game and needed something cheap to finish off the gift card. Spent like five minutes on it, said no thanks, and went on. Opened it again a few years later, played for an hour and got frustrated at the controls/opening doors/not understanding tools and put it down again. I only got into it come 1.4 -- having access to journey mode meant I had a lot more freedom to do what I wanted, and since I had previously played a little, I was no longer totally confused by the game.

I went through my first playthrough pretty much blind, and had a lot of fun! I tend to make up little stories while playing open world games, and since I only started playing Terraria after the NPC happiness mechanic came out, I put a lot of effort into getting everyone little houses with their friends and such. I put in a few dozen hours, had a blast, and that was that.

Because it was my first playthrough, I was mostly relying on the Guide and a boss progression list I had pulled up on my phone to get through the game, though to figure out housing I ended up spending a while screwing around on the NPC pages, and realized...hey! Terraria doesn’t have *much* of a story, but it does have enough content to work with.

And then I spent an evening putting together a 20 page document about the game’s lore and characters because I wanted to share my latest fixation with my partner, but didn’t want to annoy them. I don’t recall if they ever did read it -- I think they did? -- but the point is that I had it, and started playing around with the idea of writing a little fanfic based off of it. I planned a few things out, but didn’t end up writing any of it, and then shelved the idea after a little bit.

After that I went through a phase of doing a lot of commissions to get some money for college shopping, then classes started and I was busy, then I got really into HLVRAI, etc. etc. Finally, someone I used to watch years and years ago on youtube posted a Frankenstein: A New Musical animatic. I said “cool!” and then Frankenstein was my latest fixation. I found someone on Tumblr (@/reanimationstation) who draws a lot of Frankenstein art, saw they were doing a cute little gothic lit slice of life comic, and said...hey, comics are pretty neat! What if I did one? I had been recently thinking about my Terraria story, that could be fun to mess with.

So, I drew a two-page comic with the Guide and Old Man talking about their curses, posted it to Reddit, and got tons of nice comments and PMs from people saying that they really liked it and hoped I did some more. I had mentioned it was part of an old fic of mine (I was still debating picking it back up and writing it at the time), and people interpreted that as there being more to the comic. There wasn’t, but I figured: eh, why not? I’ll go for ten pages, enough to squish in a whole first chapter if I keep it short, and if I don’t like it, I’ll stop. I’d always wanted to do a webcomic, after all. This could be fun.

And you know what? It has been fun! I need to get better at managing my time most certainly, since pages take so long, but it’s also serving as a way for me to actually be forced to improve, haha. I can already see how much my style has changed since the first chapter, just from the weekly drawings! Plus, I really do love the characters, haha. It’s been a good while since I’ve been so passionate about stuff like this, and while I don’t post them, I do pretty often write goofy ficlets about the characters just to work on their “voices” and all that. Mostly about Andrew and Chris, since they’ll have the most screen time, so to speak, but overall whatever my latest silly idea is.

So, yeah! Just a bunch of things coming together in such a way that I ended up doing a comic.

#pt asks #Purity Town #not an update

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yellowhearther0 · 4 years

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good morning have these ideas i started writing out in my drafts a couple of months ago and then never posted lol (everything under this is the original post) (also apologies to the remus and janus stans, they dont make any appearances😔):

Okay no one wanted this but you’re getting it anyway haha

Story/animatic ideas that i’m never going to make (probably) Welp at least i’ll have them written for reference

1. Since it’s playing right now, I’m start with the story/animatic based off of ‘A Wistful Waltz’ by Teddy Hyde (The idea originally came from ‘Sex with a Ghost’ also by Teddy Hyde but shh) Logince Royalty AU lets gO. I’ve thought about this before, and it’s actually surprisingly fluffy considering that if their love for each other got found out there’d be a bit of a problem hm.

So basically Roman is royalty™ and logan is something along the lines of his advisor/servant. And they’re in lOvE. This thing is more centric around their relationship then an actual plot (Also bc most of these ideas came to me in the form of something to be presented as an animatic) Typically their dates take place in Roman’s room at night and they stargaze. Yup. Thats it lol.

(Edit: Theres one more under the cut but it’s a bit long haha)

2. ‘Strawberry Blond’ by Mitski. This is one is honestly super cute and wholesome too. Hm, there are also alot of relationships in this one ehh,,

I’ll just say them anyway: We’ve got past romantic patton x someone random, who i’ll call Y, platonic moxiety, logince, familial analogical and familial royality. That actually wasn’t as bad as i’d expected lol. (Just as a quick note, one of the central locations is a flower field in a more rural area. I’ll add a reference at some point. But i’ll try to describe it to the best of my ability ig. Basically there’s a road, and the field is on the left. There are alot of wild flowers there, and there is a tree closer to the road.)

K, story. So basically Roman is Patton & Y’s adopted son, and they go to the flower field every so often to just,, hang. Roman and Pat would make flower crowns, while Y watched under the shade of the tree. It was cute. Anyway Y kinda just disappears (divorce or death its up to yall) bc he was not really even relevant to begin with i just needed someone for the first verse of the song oops. MoVinG oN, uh time goes by Pat and Ro still go to the flower field alot.

Cut to Roman meeting Logan. Roman likes Logan, they become really good friend, and then both get crushes on one another. So now it’s Roman’s birthday and since they go to the flower field every year, roman begs patton to let logan come this time around. pattons like ‘sure haha i’ll just have to ask his parents’ and so obviously virgil is logan’s dad and virgil’s cool with it as long as he can come too.

i’m getting lazy so the rest of it is just wholesome shenanagins lol. logan and roman get married, virgil and patton become really close friends and uhhh yeah

#good morninggggg #there would've been more but uh #im lazy #ts sanders sides #roman sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #there's no janus or remus in here at all and im >:( at past me #i think Y used to be Janus until i went... yeah im not killing of janus #platonic moxiety #woahhh thats alot of logince #logince #familial royality #familial analogical #my writing style is 'insert rather detailed and over explained story here' 'uh yeah got lazy here the rest in the format of a shitty summary #jbvjhfhdfh #death mention

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alunclewe · 4 years

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Recomputered

Well, I haven’t posted anything for a while, and as usual, I have an excuse, and it’s maybe not even quite as bad as my usual excuses. I’d been without a laptop for more than a month; I’d posted before about the issue with my laptop, but, well, it took longer to get any sort of resolution than I had expected.

I won’t go into all the details of the reasons for the delay, but to make a long story short: The e-mail updates from Best Buy’s Geek Squad say that "It's important to us to keep you informed during every step in the repair process." This is a lie. The old laptop turned out to be irreparable, which didn’t come as a surprise, but which I should have been told about a lot sooner. I’m still getting it back, though, because aside from the broken screen it’s still perfectly good, and there are still uses to which I can put it.

Anyway, I have a new laptop now, with more RAM than my old laptop, albeit a smaller hard drive, although it’s an SSD drive, which... I guess is good? And I’ve got all the software I use the most often installed on my new laptop: the Adobe Creative Suite, Blender, Microsoft Office, Finale, Final Draft, Notepad++, browsers that aren’t Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge... (Not Toon Boom Harmony or Storyboard, though, because I can only have those installed on one computer at a time, and it makes the most sense to have it installed on my desktop since that’s what has the bigger monitor attached to it and, more importantly, my Wacom Cintiq. I didn’t have it installed on my old laptop, either.)

And yeah, on the one hand you could argue that not having a laptop shouldn’t have prevented me from updating, since I still have my desktop, and I do almost all my art on my desktop anyway. However, not having a laptop still limited my productivity for two reasons: first, that obviously I can’t take my desktop with me and work on the go on it, and second, that when I was home I had to use my desktop to do what I’d normally be using my laptop for. Also, typing was kind of hard on my desktop because it has a cordless keyboard which has been very glitchy lately, which is probably just because its batteries are low, so I really ought to find the new batteries that I know I have around here somewhere...

So, now that I have a laptop again, I should once again be able to ramp up my productivity. Which includes but is not limited to the following items:

Inktober. Yes, I know October is over. But I only got through the first five days of Inktober, and I figure I may as well eventually finish the rest. Better late than never? (That doesn’t mean this is going to be a high priority for me, though, so there won’t be a new drawing every day. Maybe I’ll shoot for at least every other day, though.)

NaNoWriMo. I have completed novels for Nanowrimo three times, I think? Two of those times were novels that were, ah, based on existing IP so I couldn’t really publish them even if I wanted to. The third time, though, resulted in a novel that’s in serious need of rewrites (yet another thing I really need to get around to), but that with some rewriting and polishing I think really stands a good chance of publication. But having completed NaNoWriMo three times, I decided to set myself more of a challenge now and start completely from scratch. That is to say, the three times that I succeeded I’d had a basic outline of the plot and characters before I started, although they evolved quite a bit during the writing. This time, I figured for a bigger challenge I’d approach it like 24-Hour Comics Day—that is, I’d go in with no idea of what I was going to write, and all the plotting and outlining would be done within the time limit (the 24 hours for 24-Hour Comics Day, the month of November for NaNoWriMo). This is not the first time I have set myself that challenge, and... I admit, I haven’t yet succeeded. I think maybe I tend to be a little overwhelmed and sabotage myself. But I’m going to try again and see what happens this time. And I think what I need to do, maybe, is approach it more, again, like 24-Hour Comics Day. On 24-Hour Comics Day, I don’t plan and thumbnail the whole comic before I start. I plan out my general idea, maybe I plan the ending or maybe I have no idea how it’s going to end until I get there, and then I just get started and make up the details as I go... and so far, despite every year worrying that this will be the year I don’t finish, I have yet to fail to complete a comic. I have a general idea for my NaNoWriMo novel this year now; I have names and basic concepts of the six main characters; I think it’s time to start writing. Yeah, I’m getting a very late start on that, but I just need to write at least, let’s see.... 2,500 words a day. Yeah, that’s definitely doable. It should be noted that in my last successful NaNoWriMo attempt, my novel was about twice as long as the 50,000 “required” by NaNoWriMo, so I actually wrote more than three thousand words a day... so this isn’t unprecedented.

The Very High Seas. That’s that animated pilot project (that isn’t Teras Terrace) that I’d been posting about lately. I have plans to pitch it, but at this point realistically I think I’m shooting to have the pitch ready by January or February 2020. Even so, I want to have a completed pitch document, a pilot script, and a complete pilot animatic (this last item is probably overkill, but eh), so if I want to get it done by then I have a lot of work ahead.

Speaking of which, I do hope to update with one new piece of art later today, so I have a recent post that isn’t just a wall of text like this one. But it’s such a relief to finally have a laptop again...

#computer issues #nanowrimo #inktober #the very high seas #24-hour comics day

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dragonofyang · 5 years

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Form Podcast: A New Defender Transcript

A transcript of the Form Podcast episode covering VLD season 4 episode 6 “A New Defender” with Nora Lewis-Borbely, Alex Eby, Lauren Guerard, and Lika Leung interviewing with Kyle Anderson.

Vrepit Sa!

[Chimes]

Female voiceover: Now entering Nerdist.com

[Intro music - VLD opening theme]

Shiro’s voice: Paladins, welcome to Form Podcast.

[Intro music continues for a few more bars, then fades out]

KA: Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of Form Podcast, the official Voltron commentary podcast. My name is Kyle Anderson, thank you again for joining us. We are here at the end of season 4, everybody. It’s “A New Defender”, season 4 episode 6, and I’m here with four people who help make Voltron happen. And they’re going to go around the room and introduce themselves. They are:

NLB: Hi, I’m Nora Lewis-Borbely, I’m the production manager on Voltron.

LG: I’m Lauren Guerard, I’m one of the production coordinators on Voltron.

AE: I’m Alex Eby, I’m a production assistant on Voltron.

LL: I’m Lika Leung and I’m also a production coordinator on Voltron.

KA: Alright, we will talk about what that means once we get started on the episode. So everybody at home, get your, uh, Netflix episodes all queued up to 0:00, and we will hit ‘play’ in 3, 2, 1, play. [pause] And we’re off and running, everybody. Thanks for joining us. [laughter] So what do you--yeah, what does--what does that mean, “p-production coordinator”, w-what does, for people who don’t know, uh, the ins and outs of animation and television-making? What does that mean?

NLB: So, uh, in short as a production manager, basically I work with a line producer to oversee the crew, to oversee the budget, and then to oversee the overarcing schedule from pre-production all the way to post-production and delivery. And then our production team are really the kind of the unsung heroes of our show because they do a lot of--they’re kind of the core of our team and they do a lot of facilitating.

LG: So basically, when you’re looking at these shots, sort of everything that you’re seeing of the screen is an individual design. So a lot of our jobs are tracking those designs. Um, I think right now in our database there’s something like 13,000 total designs? Um, so, it’s a lot to keep track of. Enough to--enough to warrant a job.

KA: Sure.

AE: Uh, and then as the assistant, I just help all the coordinators in any way that they need it, and then I also have a little bit of coordinating things, as well. Um, just… yeah. [laughter]

KA: Sounds like you got a lot to, uh, l-lot on your plate at any given moment.

NLB: Yeah. The tasks are coming from a lot of different directions because, like, we work with Studio Mir in Korea, so, like, it’s a lot of back and forth with them, like, trading designs back and forth, making sure they’re approved or if they’re noted, like, um, that they know what needs to be addressed. Uh, and then we also do CG designs in-house, so, like, and with a different studio, so going back and forth with that, like it’s a completely different group of people who are working on the CG-specific designs. Um… Yeah, it’s a lot.

LG: Yeah, and then I think the other thing to kind of note is that every single stage of production basically has to be tracked and make sure we’re on schedule, and everything’s on time. As you move through different drafts of a script, or, uh, different variations of a storyboard. All of that information needs to be tracked. And that is a lot of what our production team does. It’s really helping the artists make sure that they have everything they need to be able to create this amazing show.

KA: Mm. Is everything s--very, uh, detailed and color-coordinated?

LL: Yes.

[laughter]

KA: It has to be.

LG: Yeah, I mean, like each lighting environment, that’s the thing, there are, like, hundreds and hundreds of variations of our main characters because it’s every single different lighting situation that they’re in. Um, each time a character changes costume, that’s considered a brand-new design, so that’s why we get to a number like 13,000. [laughter]

KA: Is that high? I mean, I don’t know, have you worked on programs that are much lower than that?

NLB: It’s very high.

KA: Okay.

LG: Uh, yeah, it’s a very high number.

KA: It sounds super high.

LG: Yeah, it is.

NLB: It is a high number. Um, there’s a lot of detail that goes into a show like Voltron that is kind of unique to a show like this. Um, as Lauren briefly hit upon, every single character is colored to that environment and it’s something that’s a really, really special touch that our artists do because what that does is it makes the character feel like they’re actually in that environment. Opposed to if they just have the same color scheme in any location, uh, they don’t blend into the world quite as well. But, that means that every single character that goes to every single location, not only do you need a design for that location and that character, then you also need a color design of that character in that location.

LG: And then, also a thing I think that’s--I have, like, I’ve worked on shows where I haven’t seen this level of detail where I’ve worked on another show where, like, you’d make a design and it’d be for a chair. And that’s the chair you have in that show. Every time you see a chair.

KA: [laughter] That’s the chair.

LG: That’s the chair. And in this show, it’s like, “Well this is an Altean chair and you really need to think about how the Alteans would, like, go about designing a chair.” And so it’s, like, different from the Galra chair. It’s--

KA: Right.

LG: --a lot. [laughter]

AE: But you know, it’s that level of detail that really makes the show special.

KA: Mm-hm.

AE: It’s something that Joaquim and Lauren and Ryu and Christine and [Beyond? I know that’s wrong but the name isn’t familiar and sounds like that so I’m going with that for now], uh, as well as Kristy Sang and Anthony Wu. Um, all of those producers and design supervisors care a lot about all of those little minute details. And that’s what really makes the environments as, uh, I mean, as immersive and encompassing as they are.

KA: Yeah. And as we’re seeing here, the Galra--every-everything in each of the, uh, different species even has their own specific set of colors and designs, too, which… yeah. Which, I guess, y’know, viewers can almost take that for granted because it is such an immersive show, but that’s, you know, that’s why--it’s good you guys are here to tell me all this stuff because I’m just like, “Aw, fun! Spaceships!” LL: I think the other fun tidbit about our show is how unique compared to other 2D shows is the technology on the screens. There’s a lot of--oh! There’s a screen right there, actually. Yeah, that screen has its own design. Every screen, every UI that shows up in their cockpits, that has--oh, there’s one, too--has its own design attached to it. And it’s a unique design. And every single one of these screens, not only do we have to call it out, which means we make note of when it appears in that scene, we also have to design it.

KA: Mm.

LG: Yes, that’s a pretty interesting thing that I think Lika has to deal with in particular is, uh, so she does the initial phase of looking at the storyboard animatic, which is just when they put all the storyboards together to make basically a rough version of the episode. She watches that and calls out every single object and character that is in each in--like each individual shot, and then particularly with the screens it’s just, “Okay here’s this screen and here’s the specific thing happening on the screen.” Sh-she does it all the time. [laughter]

KA: She’s nodding.

NLB: She’s nodding.

[laughter]

KA: She agrees.

NLB: She’s nodding.

KA: So do you get--did you get a chance to--like, do you still watch it and-and as a “fan”, quote-unquote? Because everybody who’s come in here so far has been like, they love working on the show but they also enjoy watching the show. But do you--do you just sit there and go, “Well there’s this element, and this element, and this element”, like, ‘cuz you’re the one who knows, like, all that stuff. You’re like the-the keymaster of all that.

NLB: I think for me in particular it’s super fun when we do the, um, crew screenings together. Like that’s the first time we’ll watch it all put together. So, like, we’ll see all these individual designs and then, like, it’s its own unique fun thing to get to see it all animated. Like, we don’t get to see that until much later in the process.

LL: Yeah, I think a little-known fact is, uh, when we’re dealing with production or pre-production is actually what our stage is, we’re doing all of these design call-outs off of that animatic. So we’re dealing with a black-and-white or very rudi-rudimentary colored, um, animatic, and while our animatics are beautiful ‘cuz our artists put a lot of effort into them, they’re not--they don’t look like the final show. So, when you are dealing with day-in and day-out with that black-and-white animatic and then you actually get to see those designs appear in the show and everything animated for the first time, it’s--it’s really amazing because I know our team, like I said, we deal with the black-and-white animatic and then we see the designs come in and out. So that design of Naxzela we just saw, we got to see the planet getting designed, the actual design for the planet, but we’ve never seen it animated until the actual show came out.

KA: Mm.

AE: I personally get very excited to hear the sound effects and the music because that’s not something we get to experience until the very end.

KA: Mm-hm.

AE: So yeah. Not watching silence is pretty cool. [laughter]

[laughter]

KA: And it’s such a--like a--I got to host the panel at Comic-Con this year. We watched the first episode of season 3 in a huge room with like big, booming bass and everything like that I’m like, “Yeah, that’s how you want to watch a Voltron episode, I think.” Um… AE: I do miss the scratch, though.

[laughter]

LG: So, uh, to those who don’t know, when we have to do our storyboards, our actors record all of their lines. They record all the lines in the script. And sometimes if a line gets changed, or if, um, an actor was unable to come in and record at that point, we do what’s called a scratch record, where somebody on our team is assigned to voice that character for temporarily just so that we have the lines for rough timing. And some of our crew are particularl--particularly talented at scratch. And, uh, they’re always really fun lines, so that--we always get to deal with those in the animatics. They’re not in the final episode, though.

KA: But do you keep those? [stammering, others laugh] Also, could you then go back and, like, re-- “I’m gonna put the scratch track over the finished episode.”

LG: Oh, totally.

KA: That… yeah. [laughter]

LG: That would be amazing.

AE: I should do that.

LG: You should do that.

[laughter]

LL: It would be wonderful and awful.

[laughter]

AE: Gonna do it.

KA: Uh, have there been episodes--because you deal with so many elements in each episode, uh, I don’t know--do you know offhand the episode that had the most amount of individual--or what number that might’ve been?

LL: I always feel like I take special note of the ones that have less because I’m so excited about it.

[laughter]

KA: Because you’re like, “Look at that!”

LL: I know those episodes. [laughter]

KA: What if there was an episode where it was just like, “Eh, there’s a bunch of people in a room talking, no lights on or anything.”

LG: Oh, wow.

[laughter]

AE: That would be... whoo.

[laughter]

NLB: Sorry, I just got really excited because that’s a really nice low design-count episode. Um, no, I would say the episodes that have the highest design count are gonna be the ones where you go to a new location for the first time.

KA: Mm-hm.

NLB: Because all of that is new, so all of that needs to be designed. Uh, episodes where you’re seeing lots of people, new people, those also need to get designed.

KA: Mm-hm.

NLB: So those are going to be really high episode countsa--er, high design counts, sorry. The--these finale episodes, uh, interestingly enough, tend to be low design counts because, for example, in this episode, uh, a lot of these locations we’ve already been to in the previous episode. And there’s a lot of fighting in space and it’s very exciting to watch it, but a lot of those designs we’ve seen in other episodes, so it’s actually lower new design count, but there’s still plenty of designs being used in that episode.

KA: Sure. Yeah, it’s not like there’s four.

[laughter]

LG: The mermaid episode has already come out, right?

AE: Yes.

LG: Okay. Because that was a high count ‘cuz that was like a new environment, lots of new characters, they all had food.

AE: All underwater.

LG: All underwater.

KA: Yeah. Then there would’ve had to been designs for Hunk and Lance.

LG: Mm-hm.

KA: Things that I’m sure if they’re--if they’re done properly people don’t notice these new changes and things like that, but maybe people don’t know that that’s what goes into it.

LL: Yeah, I--before I actually joined this industry, I had no idea how much work went into these.

KA: Yeah.

LL: And I didn’t realize that every single one of these scenes you see, there is somebody who has to call out every single design that’s in that scene, and then every single one of those designs has to be drawn and created.

KA: Mm-hm.

LL: And you kind of don’t think about that as a viewer sometimes.

KA: No. And that’s good, that is a good thing.

LL: [laughter] That’s the goal right?

KA: That is the goal. If you wanna be invisible, it’s like sound effects, too. You don’t want to notice the sound effects, unless it’s, like, the silly stuff.

[laughter]

KA: Allura’s hand magic, that’s a different element. Now all I’m gonna do when I watch the show is count all the different things.

AE: Yeah. Would that be a comp element?

NLB: I know, that was the one thing I was thinking, like, “I think that was comp.” So, like, there are certain things that we’ll call out, like, that we just, like, say, “Hey, animator, we trust you, like, go for it.” Most of it we don’t because that’s just way too much responsibility, like, then you’d get so far into the process and be like, “We have to redo this entire sequence.” It’s ridiculous, so--that’s sort of the thing is like, you’re--you’re calling these things out and you’re designing these in advance so, like, they have that to start animation. And animation is such an involved process, like if you’re waiting ‘til after it’s already animated to realize you didn’t like the color for that, then it’s way too late.

KA: And since you guys--most of what [stammering] you said what your job does at the beginning of the process of an episode, how long is it from what you’ve done your job to when you get to see even a mostly-finished episode?

LG: There’s…

[laughter]

LL: Lauren’s doing calculations.

LG: I am doing calculations. Um...

KA: We’ll add a sound effect for that.

[laughter]

LG: It’s a lot of months.

KA: Okay.

LG: Um, I mean--I mean I can, yeah, I don’t know how much detail I can truly kinda go into for the schedule for that, um, but it’s--we’re talking several months between the time that we send that design, um, set overseas for them to actually start--for Studio Mir to start animating the product, ‘til we actually see the final product come back here. So, a lot of months.

KA: A lot of months. And i-in the interim time you’re working on an episode, you know, several more episodes, do you ever find yourself being like, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that” when you--

All: Oh yeah, all the time.

NLB: I mean, you’ll definitely go, like--especially when you’re dealing with an episode that’s in storyboards versus all, like, sort of, like, at the point of color designs, even though that’s all pre-production, that’s all pre-animation, those are so far apart in the process that they can be, I mean, [laughter] you’re like, you go from one meeting to the next and you’re like, “What’s this episode?”

KA: [laughter]

NLB: Like, what is this?

AE: Yeah, it’s even--it’s really fun, kind of, seeing the fan response for things and actually kind of watching the episode when the fans get to see it. But sometimes it gets confusing because uh-- our story, events happen and things change. And someone will talk about something, and then you’re just like, “wait a second.” Uh- as an example when uh- when seasons one and two came out where Keith was piloting the Red Lion, and then the uh change happens where Keith gets into the Black Lion. There was a period of time where we had associated Keith with the Black Lion, and fans had only seen Keith in the Red Lion. KA: Mmm

AE: So it kinda-- Sometimes you get confused.

KA: Yeah, yeah. [Laughing] As it would. Because you’re so far ahead and the fan [laughing] reac-- yeah it means you’re having to remember what people are talking about online like “what is this?”

NLB: I think that there are things that fans assume were put in the show because they’re like “aww they saw we responded to this in Season 1.” And we’re like, dude, no. [laughing]

KA: You have no idea.

NLB: It’s been there. KA: You predicted it.

AE: Our fans are really great at predictions. [Laughing] Um yeah after season 1 came out there were some great predictions and then season 2 came out. I mean, they were true, they came to fruition and it was--it was fun to, kind of, see some of the fandom predictions sometimes.

LG: Yeah. We read them all.

KA: You do?

LG: Oh yeah. [laughter] I hound for fanart and, like, reactions when it comes out on Netflix I’m just on the internet reading all the Voltron tags to see what people are saying.

AE: And then she’ll post it onto our group chat so the whole crew gets to see

LG: I do. And there’s a whole board dedicated to fanart that I have picked out that we just hang up so everyone can see it. So we do see the things that fans post a lot.

KA: But it in no way impacts how the show is made, everybody.

[laughter]

LG: It’s true.

KA: Way too far in advance.

LG: We do enjoy it, though. We absolutely love to see fanart, and it, um--and i-it’s just so great that the show is appreciated and the show is loved, and it makes us feel really great to see that, so, we--yeah--we look for it, we seek it out, we see it, and we-we love it.

KA: Do you--do you all have favorite characters?

AE: Yes.

[laughter]

LG: Uh, mine’s Pidge. I always try to voice her in scratch recordings.

[laughter]

NLB: Of the main… I think probably Hunk. Yeah, Hunk is pretty solid.

KA: Mm-hm.

AE: Ooh, that’s hard. I really like Allura. I mean she is just such a powerful female character and I love that about her, but Lance is also a ton of fun. So… [laughter]

KA: Whoever’s piloting that Blue Lion, that’s all you really care about.

[laughter]

AE: Yeah, I mean, really, I’m just attached to the Blue Lion.

[laughter]

LL: Oh yeah, I just, you know, go for the comic relief, so Coran is definitely my favorite.

KA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

NLB: I know, can we shoutout, like, Bii-boh-bi?

KA: Yeah.

LL: Oh, Bii-boh-bi’s so good. Definitely.

KA: Bii-boh-bi is the noise of anyone who if anybody does swear--

NLB: That’s what we--oh, fabulous.

[laughter]

KA: This is a particularly beautiful episode, I think, visually because, I mean, it’s a culmination of so many things, but it is so… it has such a unique style, I think, to it.

LG: Yeah, I really love seeing these fight sequences with the ship and I think--I think it’s because I really… So, Voltron is a CG design, and I think it’s… you know, that decision was made for a multitude of reasons, but I love the fact that our team at Studio Mir is so talented that they can take the CG design and, uh, basically integrate it flawlessly into a 2D show where if I hadn’t been told that Voltron was CG, I probably wouldn’t have assumed it. So, seeing these fight sequences involve a lot of these CG elements mixed with our 2D elements, and I think that’s--it’s--from a production standpoint it’s really special to watch that happen.

KA: Mm-hm. Well it’s very singular in terms of, uh, animated programming to have that kind of integration. But yeah, I remember the first time y-you see the new design or updated design of Voltron it’s like, “Oh my god it’s so cool”.

[laughter]

NLB: And then you’re just like, “And I’m working with those people every day, so… the people who made that. That’s neat.” [laughter]

KA: Now we’re just watching the episode. This is what happens sometimes.

NLB: Yeah. It’s definitely like watching that shot and knowing like, “Is that Haggar’s phase 1 or 2 in the background?” Like--

KA: [laughter]

NLB: That’s Keith with his helmet off.

LL: Yeah! Oh, that’s right, so every time a character has a helmet on or helmet off, that’s a new design.

KA: Mm.

[laughter]

KA: Helmet on, but with--er, helmet off, but with suit on is diff--

LG: Yup, 100% different for sure.

[laughter]

LG: Yeah, I mean we have sheets and part of our job is we have these sheets that we’ll say, “Okay, this is scene, you know, 100”, and every single design that’s in that scene from background to character to prop to all the different color variations, they all get called out just for that scene. So pretty much we go through these episodes with a fine-tooth comb, decide, writing down every single design and color design that happens in that--in each individual scene.

LL: So it’s like, if you like Excel, or databases, a career in production might be for you.

[laughter]

AE: We’re all organizational nerds. [laughter]

KA: Which isn’t what I--yes. That’s a fun--it’s a fun thing to be. I don’t have the patience to be one of those, but I always want to be. I was--I was in college I was always like, “God, if I could just have, like, the perfect spreadsheet.”

[laughter]

AE: Lots of folders. So many.

LL: It’s true.

LG: I don’t know. I think it’s fun and satisfying. [laughter] But that’s a true sign that I’m an organizational nerd, so…

NLB: It is, like, probably one of the favorite parts of my job because I keep a lot of, like, physical paper from, like, the Excel spreadsheets that we print out and stuff, and when I get to, like, move one to my “done” folder, like, physically take a piece of paper from one folder to the next folder. It’s like, “We finished all the designs,” and it’s the best.

KA: Do you--what do you do with all the, like, the finished ones? Do they eventually go into an even bigger drawer?

NLB: I just keep them forever. I just keep them, and I look at them, I’m like, “I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

[laughter]

NLB: Like, “Look at that paper. That’s obsolete now.”

KA: Do you all still have all your old school papers, too?

LL: I do.

[laughter]

LG: Wow.

LL: Yeah, they’re in the closet.

NLB: That’s impressive. How many boxes?

LL: It’s like two boxes, I kept it from my favorite classes, but I was like, “We paid for this.”

[laughter]

NLB: That’s true.

LG: That’s very true.

LL: This is what I have left of college.

[laughter]

KA: An old en--old textbooks that are way out of date now.

LL: Yeah. Exactly.

KA: So we’ve reached the end of the episode, and I feel like we barely scratched the surface of you guys’ jobs.

[laughter]

KA: So, we’ll have to have you guys come back, uh, later on, if you would like once we get into season five, which as we record this does not exist yet. As far as we know.

[laughter]

KA: You guys are on, like, season 28 probably. But anyway, um, thank you guys for joining us on the podcast. If you have social media you would like to plug, feel free to do so now. If you want people to follow you on Twitter or Instagram or anything.

AE: Do I. [laughter]

NLB: I know, it’s like, well that’s the thing, is I’m like, well I have artist friends that I know. I mean I could plug their stuff. I’m not… [laughter]

KA: Alright. Well that’s okay. You can follow me on Twitter, everybody, if you want to, because I’m, ya know, a dumb [Bii-boh-bi] who talks a lot at @funcitonalnerd, um, and thanks for watching and listening along with us, uh, and we will see you once season 5’s around here on Form Podcast. Thanks, everybody.

NLB: Bye!

LL: Thank you.

AE: Thank you.

LG: Thanks!

[outro music, the rest of the VLD theme]

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[chimes]

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