#~bell rants

[jdopes-recorder]

OMYGOHS I GOT THAT CHARACTER AI THING AND I'M FLIRTING WITH LOKI THINGS ARE GETTING 18+ HELP

[krillbot]

"the shark does not bother itself with the krill"

Unless it's a basking shark

Or a mega mouth shark

Or a whale shark

Get your facts straight Ludinus

Actually while we're at it "I have no aspirations of leadership" motherfucker you're the leader of the Cerberus Assembly which at this point is controlling the ENTIRE Dwendalian Empire

Try saying things that are true idiot

[clouvu]

Desiderium

[liamthemailman]

Flowers from the cold war

and a Bell

Russell Adler as requested by @rekakamado and extra

[entropyfox]

I’m not a Micah apologist, but…

I think, all concern aside, Micah is an incredibly interesting character, and I’m honestly disappointed that we didn’t get to learn more about what’s going on in his head.

He doesn’t really talk about himself, not beyond the obvious. The only reason we know of his family is because of the letter Amos sent him.

He’s afraid of being vulnerable, and talking about his past leaves him exactly that: vulnerable.

The less people know about who he is, what makes him who he is, and why he acts the way he does; the less people can hurt him for it.

He knows he’s disliked. He’s lonely. He usually doesn’t hang around the campfire while the others are awake. He’s elsewhere, at the outskirts. When there’s a party, he seems to wander even further away, as if he’s trying to resist the human instinct to be in the company of others.

“Well, I… I want a friend, Arthur. I want hope. I want tomorrow to mean more than today. I want this whole damn shitshow… to have some kind of meaning…”

He knew that everything they did only made their situation get worse.

I don’t think he was much of a rat before Guarma.

I think he was desperate for some kind of consistency. He tried to get along with Arthur early on in the game, but quickly realised that it was leading to nothing.

No one is pure evil, no one is born that way anyhow, but being raised by a hateful person is bound to shape you into someone with just the same hatred and rage.

This is obviously a generational issue, this Micah isn’t a first case, he’s the third of his kind, and I can well imagine that with every generation the expectations got higher and the acts more grotesque.

He’s been groomed no matter how you look at it. Some people manage to develop their own will and step out, like Amos did, and others stick around with what they know, like Micah did.

He doesn’t know how to put that gun aside, he never had to. He was never taught how to.

He sticks to what he knows.

And he doesn’t know love. He doesn’t know empathy and mercy.

He knows anger, he takes comfort in rage.

He knows violence, and taking revenge on every little thing that dared to hurt him.

We never quite find out what he wants vengeance for.

Does he suck? Yes. Am I excusing his behaviour? No.

Am I still obsessed with his personality and feel the need to dissect his brain to find out about every tiny thought and doubt that’s hiding away in there? Yes.

[paperhandsexe]

i'm trying to draw like. a collection of doodles/comic on graham and flint's romance™ but i just made friend visitor but flipped. :(

[that-ari-blogger]

Critical Role's Cameraman

So, Critical Role (@criticalrole) just released their newest opening title sequence, an animated sequence in the same style of Your Turn To Roll and I would be remis as a film nerd to not pick apart every detail.

What fascinates me about this introduction, however, is the camera movement and shot composition. Allow me to explain.

I DONT THINK THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD, BUT JUST TO BE SAFE

So, we open with a hand, this is a close up, I don't think that is unobvious.

But this stops being a close up rather quickly, before it starts moving away. The shot just gives the hand context, and suddenly you aren't in an extreme close up of a hand, you are in a medium shot of a very large person. Then the camera pans backwards, and you can see villains and places spring up, although the perspective on Matt remains weird. Is he a few metres from you, or a hundred? How big is the Game Master here? There's a sense of mystery, of incomprehension. This is setting up some cosmic horror shenaniganry.

Then, we get Fearne. This is a wide camera motion, swivelling around her in a tracking shot that focuses on her face, and those eyes. It is like a reverse panorama, where Fearne is taking in the world, the world is observing Fearne.

But I want you to take note of the leaves here, because they are used to form a connection between her and Orym. The transition uses them, while it isn't a direct wipe transition (the leaf just flies close to mask an abrupt cut), it is framed as one. The name of that isn't important, though, what's important is the leaves. By being in both shots, they emphasise the relationship between the two characters. But where for Fearn they show off her sense of wonder, for Orym, they take on a very different meaning.

Notice, however, how still this shot is. There is no sense of danger here. This is a scene of a warrior with a sword and two people passing on from this world. But it's calm. Because this is a memory. Orym might not be at peace with the death, but the memory isn't a violent one, it's a memory of his family's lives.

Cut to a close up. Orym creates a gust of wind.

And cut to the next shot.

I will not lie, Bertrand is my favourite character across all of Critical Role, so this shot of him made me smile, but it isn't the point here. The point is Imogen's introduction.

Although is Bertrand not actually the point? Because take a look at how Imogen is shown here. Do you notice anything?

She's shown in the exact same way. Imogen is shown doing the exact same thing that those who have died have done. And she can see them ahead of her. The camera panning back shows a wider perspective here, showing her as she tries to run, tries to get away from the same path as Bertrand.

The wind from Orym's blade that came to this scene gets across a consistent element: Memory. This is a dream. But dreams can become nightmares.

As Imogen loses her footing, the camera gives some of its wildest movements yet. It tumbles around her, then looks up.

The camera stops moving when it sees the red moon, because now the viewer has something to orientate themselves around. There is a constant point, and we can see Imogen falling down. And getting closer, and closer, and closer, until.

These are the three frames in order, there is nothing in between.

Imogen crashes into the screen, and we get an abrupt impact frame (that's the black and white one) then Ashton. This is so cool to watch, in my opinion, but it is quite possibly the opposite of smooth in camera work. So why is it so cool? Motion.

The motion is in towards Imogen and out away from Ashton. They are both falling, just in different directions. And the impact frame both helps smooth over and accentuate the abrupt transition.

The camera around Ashton is a tracking shot. They are falling, but they remain the exact same in the screen (shrinking slightly). The rest of the world moves. And when Ashton lands, the screen cracks. The tracking shot is used to show Ashton's disassociation with their surroundings. Not in a "I feel nothing" type of way, but in a "it's me vs the world" type of way.

Then, there is an abrupt cut away. Nothing hides or smooths this at all, because Ashton's memory isn't smooth, and neither is Ashton. Remember the disassociating thing I mentioned, now it changes again to someone who gets lost in his thoughts. Medium.com calls this an "anxiety stare" and as someone who does that on the regular, I can attest to this abruptness being exactly what that feels like.

I'm not going to talk too much about the ship, but just be aware that there is a Dutch angle (the horison is diagonal) here to heighten the stress of it.

Likewise with this shot, there isn't much to talk about. The slow outward zoom and triangular composition are neat, and the tiered reactions (bottom row reacts, then middle, then Fearne) are amusing, but other than that, not much.

Then we meet Laudna, playing with Pate and giving him life. That's a neat little shot, I wonder if there's a metaphor there.

Oh.

This is a super cool visual because it establishes exactly who this character is in two seconds. But I also want to point out the symmetry of this. The hair becomes the blood which becomes the hair again, and then the tree.

Laudna is introduced as big and scary and imposing, and that is very intentionally undercut by making her look small.

Being small means you are less likely to be the focal character, so shrinking Laudna takes away her agency. Only to give it back through Imogen, and when the camera pans back outwards, Laudna is the same size, but the colours and the surroundings make her feel less alone, and as a weird result of that, less small.

And last but not least in this moment, there is the delayed drop of the hands. Laudna finally feels safe and finally breathes a sigh of relief.

That, however, imediately match cuts to this. FCG's vision. The red tinting has obvious implications that I don't need to explain, but the match cut heavily implies a connection between this group and the Bells Hells. There is a fear that this might happen again made clear by a single transition.

Here's something else. FCG doesn't move. At least, the camera doesn't treat them as moving. It's a slow panning out as if nothing is happening. It's the disassociation vibe that you get from Ashton's falling shots now repurposed to someone who isn't in control of their own actions. This is what FCG is afraid of, this is the important pieces of his character. This is FCG.

And just like Laudna, FCG finally gains agency when surrounded by their friends who hug them, and FCG finally moves.

Chetney Pock O'Pea, outlaw of the RTA, alpha of his own heart. A fundamentally chaotic character who takes rules as suggestions to be intentionally ignored. A man who's first instinct upon meeting you is to consider how you could be killed. And he is introduced whittling, with a steady camera and warm light illuminating his face. This is a peaceful side of Chetney, there is a duality to him.

Speaking of which, notice how Chetney draws back from the light as he transforms. His eyes begin to glow, but they don't illuminate him, until this:

Chetney is now backlit by the cold light of the moon itself (There's a neat reveal of Ruidus caused by the pan, but that's only tangentially relevant). Notice how much further you are from him here than in his first shot. But notice how much of him is visible, and how much of the screen he takes up. It's the same, this is still the same character. It's a true Doctor Jeckyl and Mr Hyde character. This isn't split personality, but a character who can be a different person in each form, while still remaining Chetney at all times.

There is more in this video. I encourage you to watch it, but unfortunately, Tumblr has a limit on how many images I can include, so I will leave you with this final shot. A group of heroes looking up at a threat that is so much bigger than them, a threat that is literally controlling the light. But the Bells Hells are closer to the camera, they take up more of the screen. The battle isn't lost, instead, it is just starting.

[arthursfuckinghat]

There's thousands of details in rdr2 that I really love, and I say it all the time, but if I had to pick one as my favourite? It would be the campfire interactions.

From chapter one to even the epilogues, there's always something going on around a campfire.

It's always touched me in an emotional way, but the vulnerability, honesty and silliness that comes out of gang members during late night/early hour campfire conversations? It's truly a beautifully written and well executed feature that I spend a lot of time paying attention to.

The campfire is almost like the gang's communal safe space. They're free to talk, vent, sing or play instruments, and the others around will simply sit and listen or sing along. They bond over sharing these funny stories and tall tales, you have the opportunity to learn so much from the gang members by just listening around the campfire.

Lenny will talk about his father and their hardships, Hosea will talk about how much he misses Bessie or how special Dutch is to him, Reverend Swanson will be open about his addiction and the relationship he has with religion, Abigail will voice her frustrations about John, Bill will talk about how he got discharged from the army, John will talk about his worries regarding Dutch's leadership, Micah will talk about damnation and being prepared for hell, and Javier will be open about Mexico or his mother passing away and not being able to bury her.

There's plenty more, there's hundreds of different campfire interactions, but on a rare occasion - Arthur will talk. He'll sit down and begin apologising for how things have turned out, he'll admit how he's struggling to find a way forward for everyone and that he doesn't want to die but is willing to, then he'll ask for their forgiveness and excuse himself shortly after.

I find it hard to describe how despite gang members having differing options of each other, there's an unspoken mutual closeness that they share whilst talking around the fire. They'll jest and laugh and quip, but they'll also simply listen when they need to.

It's so wonderful.

[purpledaisiesthings]

Maxton Hall gave me the perfect enemies to lovers trope that I've been craving for some time now. The type of YA storyline and angst that I haven't gotten in a long time.

The "playboy turned lover boy" trope.

The "this girl makes me a better person" trope.

The "girl is intelligent, hardworking, not so rich but is content and has moral compass" trope.

The "opposites attract" trope.

The "boy is rich, handsome and seems to have it all but is unhappy" trope.

The "rich boy's family hates poor girl" trope

Can't wait for season 2.

[teashh]

So I just binged Maxton hall and as a certified opinionated person- I have opinions. First let me start off by saying; this series is reminiscent of 2000s elite school tv. And I'm here to eat that shit up. But what this show does better than those series is this:

Each character is multilayered. Who starts off as the alleged mean girl (Lydia) is smart, intelligent, calm and quiet and understands the nuances of the relationships around her. James is a huge red flag but his red flag is his possessiveness and aggression. He has been nothing but a sweetheart to the people he loves and cares for which makes it easy to sympathise with him.

It does the studious girl trope really well. It doesn't go the "I'm not like other girls" route. In fact, most students have been very supportive and uplifting of each other. The hate we see toward Ruby is class difference rather than a gendered one.

And our previous Ruby Bell is a likeable character. She is strong. Opinionated. Doesn't back down from a challenge. And she knows what she wants and she goes for it. Not once have her priorities taken a backseat when she finds love. Which is such a cool thing to see. I was so scared she'd be another Elena Gilbert- helpless, self absorbed and what not. But she's actually caring and has self respect. Which is mwah.

Then we have our very own loser of the year, James Beaufort. He's protective of his people. But he definitely has some red flags he needs to work on. But he acknowledges when he's wrong. And we like that because a lot of red flags in series don't. Plus he's such a simp for Ruby Bell and we love to see it. Bro isn't ashamed to transfer quails and catch them AND make his friends work as well if his lady needs it.

Lastly if I had a nickel for every strawberry blonde character named Lydia who seems like the mean girl but is sweet smart and caring and VERY VERY intelligent; I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. (I'm looking at you Lydia Martin)

My favourite new look is James Beaufort in love. Bro looks like a puppy and I'm here for it. We need more loser men honestly.

[miraculousbohemian]

i'm so fucking tired of heteros ffs GIVE ME PEGGYNAT

also natasha in this entire episode is just *gay yearning* for a certain Brit

Melina just goes slipping shit like "ah go for her left knee she fucked it up in third grade" LIKE MA'AM.

WANDA?! WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA WANDA

[jdopes-recorder]

Hehe I fainted on my mum in public today

[royalarchivist]

[A sad violin song plays over an image of a sad hamster]

Pac: This doesn't have anything to do with me – I wear a blue sweatshirt, you're crazy, this mouse doesn't even have a sweatshirt, this hamster! [Reading chat] Am I a depressed hamster?

[ Transcript continued ↓ ]*

–

Pac: Actually– that's fine! I embrace that idea – of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy? [He hits his desk, then starts counting off people on his fingers] Fit is gone, Richarlyson is gone, Ramon is gone, Bagi and Empanada who were always there when we were there are also gone, I haven't seen them! It's just me and Tubbo, and sometimes Philza shows up.

Pac: I lost Chume Labs, I lost the Favela, I lost Murder Mystery, I lost Ilha Chume Labs, it's crazy! Look at how much I've lost, and I've gained nothing! Of course I'm going to be depressed, are you crazy?! How am I supposed to be happy?!

Pac: [Reading chat] "You have us Pac," that's true, thank you. No, that's true, sorry.

* NOTE: Please note that this is an incomplete transcript, as I was primarily relying on Aypierre's translation mod at the time and if I am not confident of the translation, I do not include it. As always, please feel free to add on translations or message me corrections.

[beedreamscape]

Regardless of how this relationship will end or be established, the important part of what Braius was suggesting is that a conversation happens. Ashton knows who Fearne is but to say he's not developing feelings is silly and neither have set the expectations of how they'll move forward (I assume from a feeling that the world will end or they'll die in the process of preventing that).

[tiredcowboyy]

Random but I so badly wish that they’d have swapped john and sadies position in the photo so that john was up against javier and sadie against bill.

John and javier are very similar in the sense of they aren’t 100% on board with dutch, just at different times. We see john rebel and question dutch a lot, he even left the gang at one point, but he eventually becomes more and more committed to the gang when he starts following arthur not dutch. Whereas Javiers always been a committed follower, rarely ever questioning or doubting dutch, however we see that similar hesitation and desire to rebel, the distant questioning of dutch when javier points his gun at the sky. Javier followed because thats what he believed in, that he owed his loyalty to dutch, similarly to john earlier, but neither of them were fully truly convinced it was right.

ALSO bill and sadie both stand by their respective sides angrily, theyre ready to fight and get messy over it. Both of them ready to spew words and hurt others, not remotely caring for the opposing side.

Charles and micah are great because theyre the polor opposites. Charles always tried to do whats right, not innocent but as close as the gang are getting and micah… well I mean you all know!

And then dutch and arthur just make sense.

[doodle-doodie-doo]

If they’re not in the Minecraft movie I’m not going