#ALSO WHY WERE ALL DOGS 3D

[tiofrean]

Oh boy... OH BOY... I was reading through comments and tags under that Flint vs. Stede post (and before that in Silver vs. Oluwande post) and OH BOY RANT INCOMING

Feel free to ignore. No, I'm prickly about this.

I LOVE how people are like "Black Sails fans are so mean why are they like that T.T ?" in the tags and comments.

LET ME TELL YOU.

So we have this show that has been marginalized and has been pushed to the side for years. A show that has excellent plot, wonderful intrigue, magnificent representation and well-written, 3D characters that are complex and relatable. You get your edgy queer men (whether you want to characterize Flint as gay or bi, doesn't change the fact that he likes dick whichever way), you get your edgy queer girls (Anne), you get your flamboyant whatever-the-fuck-Jack-Rackham-is (<3), you get sweet gays (Thomas), you get confused bisexuals (Eleanor, Silver), you get straight sweets (Miranda) and straight angery dicks (Woodes Rogers), and competent, edgy straights (Vane). Oh! A competent, master-of-the-house lesbian? Check (Max). You even have asexuals, or that is what I shall forever classify Billy as. You have a f/f sex scene in the first damn episode, ffs. You get threesomes (sexual, romantic), you get couples, you even have Silver in a brothel orgy.

But sexual representation is not ALL! You get goofy pirates (Jack Rackham), you get serious pirates (Blackbeard), you get balls of rage (Flint), you get chill, laid-back sea dogs (Gates), you get competent little weasels (Silver), you get incompetent rats (Dufrense). You also have marvelous extras and side characters (Beauclerc the marksman, Captain Fruit-Fruit, Idelle... OHMYGOD IDELLE <3333).

There's the political plot that's historically accurate, the story's plot that's Flint's big gay rage, there's the sociological context of being painted as a monster, there's the gold hunt, there are ships correctly operated by crews of more than five fucking people, there are guns, blood and realistic injuries. You get quotations and allusions to Shakespeare, Cervantes, Julius Caesar, Marcus Fucking Aurelius, a metric ton of other classical writers. You get so many tropes done right it's astonishing and too effing long to list them all here.

On top of that, there is the picturesque landscape, absolutely gorgeous ships and very accurate portrayal of how life looked back then.

We had to defend that show when it first came out, the actors had to fucking fight homophobic assholes upon the airing of season two (IMAGINE THAT), people who loved it had a hard time going around, although admittedly it's a "fandom" hard time, not a "real life" hard time. We persisted, we persevered, and now we're here, clinging to what's left of our fandom, because we are admittedly all over the place and we don't have "troops" on any one social media, which makes our numbers small in comparison to other fandoms, and makes fandom interactions very limited.

Now imagine that there aired a show... a pirate show promising a lot. And then the show turned out to be an office-type comedy with no lesbian/bi women representation (I may be wrong, but I did watch it out of curiosity, didn't see any, just guys). A show that the whole plot of is just a rendition of the Beauty and the Beast for pirate times with so many historical inaccuracies (couching your crew like a bunch of office workers? Plz. The way they speak and the concepts they talk of that weren't there? It's like they were sitting around a fire, holding hands and singing kumbaya). And don't get me wrong, there's place for those shows as well, and maybe it works for you (and great for you too!).

We tried to ignore it, really we did. We basically gave it the eyebrow-raise-huff-ignore thing that you do on the internet when you want someone to enjoy their stuff and are not interested in it yourself.

But you know what happened? Suddenly there were people on twitter tagging everyone and their dog from Black Sails with renditions of Flint/Izzy (Izzy who comes across as an extreme asshole at best and a homophobic shit at worst and you can't fault people for reading it like this). Let that sink in - our fandom babe Flint, who had his whole life ruined due to homophobia and homophobic assholes is suddenly being shipped with a guy who suspiciously fits the description a bit too much for our tastes. Wouldn't you get angry? Of course you would, we're all very protective of our babes. We are, you are, everyone is. We asked you not to do this, and while I admit that hurling curses your way might not have been the most polite way of asking you to stop, the message was clear enough. What does OFMD fandom do? They all double down. Double fucking down on fanfiction and tagging everything in BS again, pairing Flint and Izzy together, writing things way out of the realm of any possibilities because most of the writers didn't watch BS (I did read their comments on that. They weren't even sorry). If you take such character and throw him into a work of art that can and will be seen as controversial, you should at least have the decency to do your homework on the original work he comes from. Otherwise, to our eyes, you're taking the most wronged man from our beloved show, wronged due to his sexuality, and throw him together with a literal asshole just to see them fuck because they would look pretty (and that's an actual comment from one of the artists, I shit you not). Wouldn't you feel a bit angry about that? I bet you would.

What's worse, people loving Black Sails and not liking OFMD usually point out how narrow the representation is, how improbable the show is and how they're not remotely invested in the plot. It's a cheesy show for your average Sunday afternoon, don't make it into something it's not. It's not a political statement any more than Guess The Tune is.

What's more, when I've seen attempts at people pointing out the obvious flaws in plot, in logic (how many people crew that ship exactly? How is he not dead after being stabbed clean through with a sword?), all we've gotten was "Oh it's not that type of show, OBVIOUSLY", "it's just a comedy, duh" and my personal favorite "you just DON'T UNDERSTAND IT BOOMER". (I'm a late Millennial, thx). Every attempt was chucked out the window. What got me most, tho, was the high praise of OFMD IS THE FIRST SHOW TO [insert whatever queer thing it did supposedly]. No, it's not. There was even a post on twitter that debunked all those claims one by one. I get it, you're happy that you got your gay pirates, good for you. But give credit where credit's due, otherwise you're gonna piss off a lot of people. People who watched our show struggle and crawl so that your show can run today and be fine and accepted widely.

And personally, I felt disappointed watching it because of the lack of representation. Disappointed that Ed turned out to be just as rainbowy as Stede. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against rainbowy, ultra-sweet characters that are big softies. I love them. But not everyone in the lgbtq community is like that. Actually, it's the minority. There are your sweets, there are your glittery rainbows, but the majority is on the more... inconspicuous part of the scale. And there are edgy people (like myself) who don't like glitter, pink, feathers, fluff and a shitton of other things this show had in abundance. You know what made me wince while watching? When I realized that the only person who I could remotely like for the way they weren't so glittery-rainbowy-sweet was Izzy, and I hated him because he was an asshole. Even Jim got the fluffy af oranges arch. So not my (and others') cup of tea.

So yeah, our recent anger and rabidity is not based solely on one post about an insignificant poll (that you're winning only because our fandom is significantly smaller and most people are dispersed between different sites). It's all those things combined and it's the result of them.

And no, I'm not going to finish it with a "please forgive us if we seem a bit angery, we're coping". Flint wouldn't.

#black sails #rant #im not sorry #flint vs stede #silver vs oluwande #ofmd #the only time im using that tag #were angry and heres why

[animeyanderelover]

Ah yes, there is nothing more beautiful than watching the Crunchyroll Awards when I am in a masochistic mood and still come out crying. I’m not even a seasonal watcher but even I could predict all of the winners when I checked out the nominations. I didn’t vote by the way since I don’t even use Crunchyroll. Since me and my friend already complained about it, I’ll rant a bit too so please take my salt.

I don’t think that Jujutsu Kaisen should have won Anime of the Year for the simple reason that apparently the Shibuya Arc didn’t even count for this nomination since it aired in Autumn. That means that pretty much only the first 5-6 episodes were a contender for this nomination and that isn’t even half of the show. They should have either completely excluded it from the nominations this year and instead nominated it next year or should have put in all of Jujutsu Kaisen. Instead now the season was split in parts and I will bet my liver that the Shibuya Arc will be nominated next year again. 5 episodes of an incomplete season are not better than other nominated Anime like Vinland Saga or Oshi No Ko. I’m not even sure if I would put Demon Slayer as a nomination since I liked this season but it just did not reach for me the same level that previous seasons had reached and I am sure that there were other Anime that were a lot more deserving of a nomination instead of Kny.

Best Continuing Series I already suspected either One Piece or Jujutsu Kaisen to win. I can’t say much about One Piece since I am currently at the Water 7 Arc but I will take it over freaking Jjk with its 5 nominated episodes. Once again I would be hesitant to put Demon Slayer in here since for me best continuing series implies that the newest season is either on the same par or even surpasses the previous season. Demon Slayer did not do this with the Sword Smith Village Arc for me for a couple of reasons. The antagonists felt very shallow and boring, the fights weren’t as good for me and whilst the last episode was quite good, it did not reach for me what the Entertainment District Arc did. Bungo Stray Dogs would have been in my opinion a better nomination than Demon Slayer.

Not surprised with Chainsaw Man winning Best New series but since I haven’t watched any of the shows nominated, I can’t say much about it. Same goes for Best Movie with Suzume as the winner and Best Original Series with Buddy Daddies as the winner.

Is anyone surprised by Demon Slayer winning Best Animation? I’m not and that was the only thing that for me was as good as previous seasons, although I do know the whole argument of them using 3D this season for some of the demons but honestly, that was nowhere near the worst CGI that Anime has given us such as Berserk 2017. I see why people would be upset since other contestants for Best Animation were shows like Mob Psycho 100. With Jujutsu Kaisen as a nominee I am conflicted due to the whole arguments of this season having the worst Animation in comparison to the first season and the movie but the poor Mappa employees were on such a tight schedule and the fact that they still delivered such amazing fight scenes despite the terrible treatment deserves respect. Also, where is Bleach in this nomination?! You cannot tell me that they couldn’t nominate it since Disney owns it considering that there were actually some categories where Bleach was still nominated for some reason!

Best Character Design went to Jujutsu Kaisen… How??? How did school uniforms win against the character designs of Hell’s Paradise, Oshi No Ko and Demon Slayer? Is it just Gojo that carried this category?? Am I the blind one for not loving him as much as other fans do??

Best Direction went to Jujutsu Kaisen.

Best Camera Work went to Jujutsu Kaisen.

Best Art Direction went to Demon Slayer.

Best romance was won by Horimiya: The missing Pieces. I’m not sure if that’s true but isn’t this series basically some sort of flashback where the characters look back on their school time. I’m pretty sure My Happy Marriage, Insomniacs after School or Skip and Loafer can beat what, if my memory is correct, is basically a series that shows all the scenes they couldn’t feature in the first season.

Best Comedy was won by Spy x Family and my friend was quite upset by that since she is a big Bocchi The Rock fan but I haven’t watched any of those shows.

Best Action was won by Jujutsu Kaisen. Considering that only the first arc of the series was nominated, I do not agree with this win. If Shibuya Arc would have also counted, I wouldn’t have complained but as it stands I would have preferred something like One Piece or Bleach to win this award.

Best Fantasy was won by Demon Slayer… Again. Guys, what is this? I love Demon Slayer but you can’t tell me that a show playing in a real historical period of Japan with the only fantasy element being the demons as well as maybe the Breathing Forms is a better fantasy show than Mushoku Tensei or The Ancient Magus’s Bride.

Best Drama was won by Attack on Titan The Final Season Chapter 1. What does that mean? Will the second chapter be nominated again then next year?! Oh, come on. How did an incomplete season win Best Drama against Mister I have no enemies?! Vinland Saga should have won that category.

Best Slice of Life went to Bocchi the Rock and since my friend was happy, I was happy too.

Best Main character was won by Luffy. I guess I can live with that. I’m actually surprised that they didn’t nominate Gojo in here but since the whole award show was basically sucking Jujutsu Kaisen off, I am happy to have a few categories where I am not haunted by Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen. I am just more biased towards Thorfinn in this category since his character development was amazing. If they really only counted the First Chapter of Attack on Titan in these Awards, I am not sure about putting Eren as a contender in this category since he had barely any screen time.

How are you going to take Jujutsu Kaisen’s Hidden Inventory Arc for the 2024 Crunchyroll Awards and then nominate Gojo as a side character?!?! He was the bloody main character in that arc since it was his past!! And then Gojo also wins this category where he absolutely doesn’t belong!!! The same counts for Suguru!! How can you nominate two guys from Jujutsu Kaisen who were on top of that main characters in this short arc?! Why not nominate someone from another Anime instead?! What about Bungo Stray Dogs?! What about Hell’s Paradise?! What about literally every other Anime that aired this year with an actual side character?! Why did Gojo win?!

I don’t care about the Must Protect At all Costs award going to Anya Forger. It’s just a weird award in my opinion.

Best Anime Song going to Idol from Yoasobi was no surprise and was deserved for the sheer impact it had not only on the Anime community but also the international success it earned.

Best Soundtrack going to Attack on Titan is no surprise. Hiroyuki Sawano, if you worked there again I will accept it.

Best Opening and Ending go to no one’s surprise to Jujutsu Kaisen and at this point I have no energy left anymore to be angry. Congratulations…not.

Best Japanese VA performance goes to Yuichi Nakamura for voicing Gojo Satoru… Why is Eren here again? That dude barely spoke any lines in the first half of the Final Chapters. There are a ton of other Japanese Va’s that not only spoke more than Eren but were also far better. Whilst I am not really suited for picking any since I don’t watch seasonal Anime, I think Uemura Yuuto for his performance as Thorfinn or Miyano Mamoru in his role as Dazai were far more deserving of a spot in here. Yuki Kaji, I really love you but you shouldn’t have been nominated in here for your performance as Eren in here due to the lack of a performance.

#crunchyroll awards #demon slayer #jujutsu kaisen #vinland saga #i call bullshit #angry rant

[magnetictapedatastorage]

Claims to be A-Life... dies anyway

it's wild when you look at old A-Life games that were at times so ridiculously, comically advanced that they barely ran. Artificial life games weren't even particularly aimed at mega nerds! No, they were also aimed at kids who wanted a puppy!

or... some kind of alien thing.

The PC game series of Creatures 1, 2, and 3, Petz 1-4 (unrelated to the later console games series) are prime examples of this genre. Creatures leans more heavily on the science element, but still had a meticulously crafted art style of cute huge googly eyes and big smiles that used pre-rendered sprites. Petz used a very unique 'slap together orbs until you've got a dog' art style.

It's absolutely wild that that genre has withered away. Sure there are tiny indie games that have some similarities, modern petri-dish style games like Gridworld don't quite hit the mark, and it's obvious why:

It's missing the mass appeal. It's missing the googly eyes. This is never in a million years going to pass muster to a kid who asked for a puppy for christmas. This isn't to disparage on the Gridworld dev (singular), it's just a bit odd that the mass-marketed type of A-Life disappeared from the mainstream.

The shallowest argument would be that the dominant art style changed, or that 2D games are no longer popular, but that's not an argument, because it would be possible to make a similarly cartoony animal system in 3D (Spore! Spore has that! but NOTHING EVOLVES IN THAT DISAPPOINTMENT-), and because there are plenty of 2D games still.

I dunno man. Both Creatures and Petz have small, scarily dedicated fanbases wringing absolute miracles out of decades old engines. But what happened to the zietgiest of A-Life? Why, when AI is on the upswing stronger than ever before, is nobody saying "put that shit in a cartoon cat... we'll all be millionaires!" like they used to?

#Alife #artificial life #ai #retro gaming #pc gaming #creatures 3/ds #petz #catz #dogz

[inevitablemoment]

My Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Experience

First, I just want to say.... HOLY CRAP, I had so much fun! I have waited for this movie for so long, and while there are a few things that I were waiting for that didn't happen, it still lived up to the hype.

Spoilers under the cut.

So, my parents and I saw this in an MXC theater at our local Marquee. The seats were recliners that went back and forth with a button, and I loved that. But the sound system was... very loud. Let's just say, it's like if an audio version of 3D and THX had a baby. It was cool, but I didn't like that. And there were a lot more room in the aisles than their standard theaters.

The previews were surprisingly short, which was a relief. I have been waiting for this movie for MONTHS!

So, first, THAT CHASE SCENE AT THE BEGINNING!

It's no secret how much I love Callie, and seeing her as a Ghostbuster makes me so happy.

When Phoebe called her mother "Callie," my heart dropped a little and I just knew that we were in for a rocky ride.

Hearing that familiar staccato motif just put a smile on my face... which then turned into tears when Egon was mentioned.

But knowing that the music video for the title song is in-canon as well is fucking hilarious.

Ah, Dickless. I did NOT miss you.

Also, how did Peck get elected mayor? He is probably the most unlikable character in the Ghostbusters universe. But then again, a certain someone involved in many legal battles was elected President, so why should I question it?

I LOVE the domesticity of the firehouse scene; dinner, movie night, laundry, all the background.

Also, there's something hot about Callie wearing her flightsuit as pants with the top half tied up.

"GHOST DOG!"

"We both got some action." "Yeah, we did." Okay, already, this film has solidified my love for Callie and Gary as a couple. I am soft for them.

Gary trying to be tough and then apologizing instantly.

Callie Spengler laughs and it cleared my acne.

I know that they're trying to stop the containment unit from blowing, but PHYSICAL CONTACT!

Also, Callie is surprisingly BUFF. Can she hold me, please?

RAY STANTZ, MY SWEET BOY!

He's all but adopted Podcast, he just needs the paperwork.

"The hammer gets the views."

Honestly, I think the Stay-Puft company should just go defunct, with all of the paranormal shit.

JANINE, MY GIRL! SHE'S BACK!

Callie lounging on the couch, scrolling through her phone while sipping a drink is a whole ass mood.

Poor Trevor... but goddamn, it's still as funny now as it was forty years ago.

That longing look on Ray's face as the Ecto passed by the shop...

I did not have "Phoebe Spengler likes girls" on my bingo card for this movie, but... I love it.

Part 2 will be coming soon. I just don't think that I can fit in everything that I loved about this movie into one post.

#Ghostbusters #Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire #Callie Spengler #Phoebe Spengler #Trevor Spengler #Gary Grooberson #Ray Stantz #Podcast Ghostbusters #Podcast GB #Podcast Afterlife #Janine Melnitz #Callie x Gary #Spenglerson #Callie Spengler x Gary Grooberson #Carrie Coon #McKenna Grace #Finn Wolfhard #Paul Rudd #Dan Aykroyd #Logan Kim #Annie Potts #Ella Says Shit

[trashpandacraft]

so this past weekend was the bendigo sheep and wool show, and i'm finally feeling human enough to talk about what i bought?

spoiler: so many.

we went on friday, which i think was smart--it's a huge event, and i imagine it only got way more busy once the weekend hit, plus i really, really needed several days of recovery time afterwards. i think i slept something like fourteen hours after we got home on friday, and spent the rest of the weekend in bed.

incredibly worth it, though.

there was so much fibre!!! and yarn, though surprisingly, we came home with no new yarn.

there were also sheep, and herding dogs, and shearing demonstrations!

very importantly, there was also a twisty potato on a stick. i should have eaten another twisty potato on a stick.

before we went, we talked about reasonable things to buy and limits about what we could purchase, and we stuck to that. except--and this is important--my wife's birthday is this week, and obviously when you're both real weird about fibre stuff, you get fibre stuff presents, but it's stupid to buy things online when you know that you're going to be there in person, touching things with your hands, literally the weekend before birthday time. so i didn't, and instead created a clever backdoor into oops! it's all reasonable, it's a birthday present! i'm a genius.

so we got some spindles, obviously. these are half mine, but after i lost my spindles in a move, we've only had two mediaeval style ones and obviously needed more.

they were all made locally and (other than the 3d printed one) with native woods, which i thought was neat. the biggest of them is still under 40 grams, so they're all pretty small. (which was the point.)

on the birthday present side of things, we came home with some tablet weaving cards and a little shuttle for them. i was really excited to find these, because looking online for people who made nice ones but would ship here was... like, i'd found options, but i didn't love them. the guy who makes them apparently has no website but specialises in making mediaeval games and weapons, and was convinced to make fibre tools by a friend.

that maker also made the wooden turkish spindle, as well a diz/wpi gauge we bought, and also a naalbinding needle that neither of us knows how to use--yet.

apparently there's a ten photo per post limit when you're on the app (why??? like i'm not already suffering enough, using the app??) so i guess i'm gonna do bendigo pt ii: FIBRE as a separate post. tomorrow, though.

#bendigo sheep and wool #fibre craft #fiber craft #shopping #smartest raccoon i know

[factorialsotherfandoms]

TW: homeless children, sick children.

Pac is thirteen, and Mike is finally asleep. His best friend got sick a few days ago, the pair having been caught out in the rain. Pac had avoided the worst of it, only to be up all night anyway, keeping track of Mike's fevers.

It broke last night, but then they had had to run - the owner of the cafe they were sheltering behind had returned from her holiday, and released a pair of dogs to scare them off. Thankfully they did not get close to either child, but the running and the searching for another place to sleep had it return.

Maybe it would be better, to try and beg there way into the keeping of another orphanage?

... Pac takes four seconds to remember why that is a bad idea.

Mike whimpers, sweating more than their water supply allows for as he shifts under stolen blankets. Pac brushes his forehead, and gently, mentally shushes him.

Pac is thirteen, which means that Mike is eleven, which means that Pac has to be the one to look after them both.

The dogs? He would have fought them. When they steal? Pac is the distraction, the one starting a showpiece of a fight as Mike scoops up the bags. When they are sick?

When they are sick, Pac pretends he does not feel his own fever, and dedicates himself to looking after Mike.

He isn't really sure what to do, but he knows someone is supposed to watch people with fevers when they sleep. They don't have enough water to waste on wetting a rag, like people do in books, but he puts one on Mike's forehead nonetheless. Mike gets the blankets, and the cushion they found lying in a puddle, and the driest spot under the overhand. Pac, meanwhile, has scraps of fabric, and cold concrete, and a very sick best friend.

It is very hard to stay awake, sick and exhausted as he is from days of looking after Mike. He would give him the world - has given him the world - but it is very hard to keep his eyes open.

Pac needs to do something, else he will fall asleep. And he is not sure why that is bad, but he knows that it is.

... One of the bags they stole was not a bag at all, but a sewing box.

Inside are threads, and needles, and buttons, and little scissors and offcuts of larger pieces of fabric.

Really, Pac should use them to fix their clothes, or save them for when things are even worse. He remembers just enough of the right classes to know that both he and Mike have growth spurts still to hit, and that will mean needing to lengthen their clothes.

But...

Pac is thirteen, and Mike is eleven, and also in the sewing box are a couple of small glass circles, like teddy bear eyes.

Pac looks at the missing button on his coat, then looks at Mike, sleeping and distressed and reaching for something that is not there.

Pac picks up the fabric, and begins to sew.

Sewing is not one of his greatest skills, but Pac knows a little about it; when Sister Isabela has been in charge of discipline, she had tended to making him help her with repairs rather than the usual punishments. Pac had been in trouble a lot, and so he had learnt to fix many things - clothes and buttons and electrical sockets and plumbing and all sorts. He had not been allowed to help fix the gas stove, but he had been made to watch it happen.

Fixing things is not quite like making things, but... but Mike is eleven, so Pac has to look after him, and the books he learnt to read from say sick children are supposed to cuddle toys.

Pac thinks it might be wrong - even before his parents hated him, he did not get to cuddle toys, and the Nuns and the Priest certainly never gave them any. Still, he has no water to make the rags wet, and he needs to steal some energy drinks in the morning and force Mike to drink them, and it's late and if he does nothing he will fall asleep too.

So, he grabs the scraps of fabric, and the needles, and the thread, and does his best.

None of the scraps are the right shape, and he is scared to cut them. Working fabric in 3D is very different to flat, but Pac does his best. The head is two approximately round shapes stitched together, with bits poking out for ears. It has a body and two arms and two legs, even if all of the limbs are different sizes and the stitching stretches a bit too much. It is a patchwork of colours - and an actual patch where some of the fabric tore, Pac does know how to patch things - stuffed not with proper stuffing but instead the remaining fabric scraps.

It is an ugly, ugly thing.

Pac, desperate for some way to help, tucks it under the blankets with Mike anyway.

In feverish sleep Mike clings to it, and clings to Pac's sleeve too. In the morning, still sick, Mike holds it even tighter when Pac has to go.

Pac comes back to their camp with a bag of stolen energy drinks, and a few sandwiches grabbed from the same rack, to find that Mike has named her Alegria.

Alegria does not survive the winter.

But two boys do, and that is what matters in the end.

#qsmp pac #qsmp mike #qsmp tazercraft #qsmp fanfic #i wanted to mention mike still keeping the eyes from the bear in his pocket but it didn't flow nicely #so just have that #maybe pac doesn't know about it #i'll probably add this to an au on ao3 when i upload it in the morning #but for now it can be by itself #this is like the flip of that fic where mike was looking after sick pac #but without the resources for a shitty hotel room #also with the toy idea i mentioned earlier

[ginnyrules27]

Okay so I saw 'Once Upon a Studio' yesterday and I mean...I did not ask to be punched in the gut with emotions Disney! Spoilers under the cut in case you haven't seen it yet

-First off, just the concept of the animation studio almost being like Night at the Musem where the pictures come alive was so much fun.

-TREASURE PLANET GOT ACKNOWLEDGED! I GOT TO SEE JIM IN HIS JACKET ON HIS SOLAR SURFER!

-Dodger with Vanellope in the candy racer was adorable!

-Hearing Peter Pan say 'Here we go!' felt so weird when it wasn't followed by Jack Sparrow saying 'We have our heading', those commercials were the pinnacle of my childhood

-Did I mention Treasure Planet?!

-The 2D and the 3D animations really melded well together, especially the scene where Moana's holding Flounder!

-There's an elevator gag that made me burst out laughing when I first saw it

-ROBIN WILLIAMS' VOICE AS GENIE! And no, it's not AI! Disney got permission from Robin Williams' estate to use outtakes from Aladdin for this.

-Milo Thatch getting ready in the men's bathroom with Gaston, Chicken Little, Prince John, the Headless Horseman, Thomas O'Malley, and Doc! Oh, and the Cheshire Cat!

-Antonio Madrigal happily making his way to the photo with Pascal, Cri-ki, Pua, and Meeko and saving Jaq and Gus from being eaten by a lizard-type thing (okay I haven't seen the Rescuers Down Under so I don't know all the characters by name lol) with some help from Pluto!

-Kristoff and Sven hanging out with Ryder!

-"Come on puppies, you're going to get nightmares" is Kristoff's only line and it's to the 15 Dalmatian puppies watching Night on Bald Mountain and yet I feel that's peek Akiho energy and it may find itself into one of my fics

-ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN STEALING MONEY FROM SCROOGE AFTER THE PUPPIES KNOCKED HIM OVER!

-Pat Caroll's voice is the voice of Ursula and I'm loving the thought that the original voice actors stay the voices of these characters after their deaths

-Also what movie is the blue blobby thing from that's following Ursula?

-Also also why did Flounder need water but Ursula can walk around in her half octopus form?

-Can't have a Cinderella cameo without someone losing a shoe

-CINDERELLA HAS THE CORRECT COLOR FOR HER DRESS!

-"Eric, get your dog!" You can pry the fact that the princes are friends out of my cold dead hands!

-"Go Max go!" Aww, I love the fact that Cinderella can be goofy when she's not living with her abusive step family!

-The moment with Mickey and Walt's photo and 'Feed the Birds' in the background...yeah it's okay, I didn't need to do anything but cry for the next seven days

-Jeremy Irons as Scar!!

-"Make it pink" "Make it blue" was such a good bit

-The classic Goofy scream!

-STITCH!

-All of them coming to sing When You Wish Upon a Star...Mirabel playing with Scat Cat, Belle singing with Beast, James Woods as Hades' voice, Jodie Benson reprising the voice of Ariel...just all of it!

-Snow White bringing Asha from Wish to stand next to her with Mulan on the other side and characters from Disney's 'Dark Age' on either side in the background

-Speaking of the Dark Age characters, how do you think they were treated during all this at the time? Especially Black Cauldron since that almost saw Disney Animation close its doors but it was nice to see all the characters be part of the short

Safe to say I loved every second!

#once upon a studio #once upon a studio spoilers

[zvmz]

Writing down my thoughts while watching monster high for the first time Pt. 2

alright y’all now we’re watching why do ghouls fall in love let’s go

oh oh new and improved intro

the one long shot as the intro is so cool

ohh shoot we 3D now

actually might like it better than the 2D

wait r they saying Valentine’s Day was literally made for Draculara?

im confused 😁

can I get a sugar daddy like clawd

CAN I GET DRACULARAS DAD?????

oh

um this is awkward

so guys it was all in our heads apparently 😊

clawdeen is kinda slaying this new animation style

oh this song goes so hard

the bats flying out of clawds wallet is so real

come again how old is draculara

why is she still in school

was she held back a few hundred years

and I thought my grades were bad

the cat people make me uncomfortable. stranger danger

damn these cats are menaces

arent they always

not the driving lessons book

just pass it the first time fr 🙄

GUYS

GUYS

GUYS

CUPID

SHES HERE

LOLL NOT THE STOOL CLAWD 😭😭

vampire daring charming???

“misunderstanding with the locals”?? 😭 what did girlie do??? 😭😭

is ghoulias back okay like fr

the collection of broken hearts is so extra

kinda metal idk I almost cant be mad

imagine eah characters trying to navigate the catacombs

girls would not last a minute

actually can someone make a fic I would totally read that

why am I just now realizing ghoulia can’t talk

like idk I just thought she was a bit quirky this whole time

WHY DOES DRACULARA HAVE KNIVES ON THE CEILING OF HER CAR

oh my god Draculara HIT HIM

FLOOR IT DRACULARA

she missed her chance :( vampire Elvis lives

The shot of them running towards each in slow motion just to maintain a 3 feet distance was so unnecessary

WAIT A MINUTE DRACULARA YOURE BETTER THAN THIS. YOU ALREADY HAVE A BOYFRIEND

why is dueces animation specifically so rough

he kind of reminds me of sparrow

i kinda like him

yes Draculara break it off

oh- um

THE ANIMATION ON THEIR PHONES OF DRACULARA DUMPING CLAWD?? WHO MADE THAT?? WHERE DID IT COME FROM?? 😭😭😭

wait a minute I recognize Frankie’s voice. Is that Barbie?

why does some random cow go to their school

CUPIDDDD

LOL NOT CLEO BREAKING THE CLASS

yeah Cupid shoot her

pow pow pow 💥🔫💥🔫💥🔫

okay now what the hell

get it together cupid

why does Cupid keep accidentally getting love enchanted? First clawd then Dexter lolll

the dog whistle?? 😭

clawds like. I guess you can say I got… W rizz...

”what u want” ABBY 😭😭 BEST CHARACTER ONG

this party looks kinda fire ngl

not sure how I feel about the food being served next to the body odor pit

okayyy frankieee kinda slaying her party look

cleo barely changing after being love enchanted to herself

Could this be considered a school shooting? like legally

um anyway Kitty Cheshire supremacy

rizz lord clawd

hell yea body odor pit for the win ✊🏻

why was the kiss sound so um squishy

abby is such an icon

okay it’s over

I liked this one a lot better than the last movie. I hope we see Cupid again or else I’ll rage

the pacing was like SO much better than the last movie.

my only complaints are that toralai and vampire Elvis's motivations either weren’t really explained or made no sense to me. Also the animation still isn’t great but what do you expect lol

oh wait one more complaint. where is Frankie’s personality. I do not see it

hopefully we get a good frankie episode to get to know her a bit more

also it keeps telling us clawdeen and draculara are best friends but not really showing it??

In conclusion clawd is the rizzard and Abby solos

#monster high #ever after high #eah #draculaura #abby bominable #clawdeen wolf #frankie stein #c.a. cupid #daring charming #kitty cheshire

[gay-jesus-probably]

So like, last night I stumbled upon your discussions of why a lot of TOTK’s whole… everything is messed up, and it had me thinking about it so much I had troubled sleeping afterwards. So uh, thanks for that lol (/lh). In all seriousness, your takes on how imperialist Hyrule is in this game, how much less like unique cultures the various towns feel like, Ganondorf being both completely flat and also seemingly not meant to be, and how weird it is that Zelda is back in power really put into words a lot of thoughts that had been nagging at me as I’ve been playing. Like, the amount to which the writing has suffered from BOTW is staggering when you actually lay out the problems. Out of curiosity, do you have any idea what the fuck happened? Like did the writing team change? The game had so much potential, as seen by the numerous fan theories/AUs etc. So what went wrong?

Honestly? I have no idea. I'm not usually that big on behind the scenes stuff anyways, and I'll be real here, I went into this game pretty much 100% blind - I didn't even watch any of the trailers, I knew NOTHING about TOTK except from a few details I absorbed from hearing other people talk about online (basically, I knew Ganondorf was going to show up as a talking corpse, Link would lose an arm, and the Master Sword would get rekt).

I rarely buy games as soon as they come out anyways tbh; I can only think of three games that I've actually gone out of my way to get as soon as possible after their release, and that was the 3DS remakes of Superstar Saga and Bowsers Inside Story (two of my favourite games ever, and Superstar Saga having literally been my first RPG), and I picked up the Mario 3D All Stars collection on launch day as a favour to my older sibling (who was stuck at work), and got one for myself in the process. The only reason I bought TOTK like a week after its release was because one of our dogs was literally days away from having a puppy, and so I knew that the next few weeks of my life would be entirely dedicated to keeping the other two dogs busy, assisting mom with the newborn puppy, and just generally being on call to provide literally anything mom needed as soon as she needed it. Which meant a lot of sitting around waiting to be required, and I'd need something to do that I could easily pause at a moments notice. So... new video game seemed a good way to fill the hang time.

And it was a good call, like I said, I've been having loads of fun with this game. There's a reason I've almost got 300 hours of gameplay, and it's not (just) because I haven't had anything better to do in between taking care of dog stuff (though that number is somewhat inflated due to me leaving it open and paused for hours at a time while busy with dog stuff). It's just that the story is a fucking mess.

As for what happened with the story... I have no idea. I've seen some people suggest that they might have been planning something a little more ambitious, and then technical limitations forced them to walk it back, so the story had to be hastily reworked to match. And I've heard that the abilities in TOTK were just ideas they had for BOTW that they couldn't fit in, which honestly I can see - the abilities are cool and all, but let's be real here, they aren't nearly as distinct as the BOTW runes. Magnesis, Cryonis, Stasis and Remote Bombs were unique powers with different uses in different areas; now the powerset is just Recall, Get Around Slightly Faster, Ultrahand, Ultrahand But In Your Inventory, and Ultrahand But Faster. But I don't know if that's actually the case.

But honestly, I really don't know why the writing is so awful. To be fair, some of it is definitely just the English translation team shitting the bed - like come on, they didn't need to have Sidon and Yona repeatedly exchange the exact same line about how he's scared she'll die like Mipha. They could have at least changed the fucking wording to make it sound more natural. And I know that other translation teams managed to inject some more nuance into the story - the French translation actually managed to call Rauru on his imperialist bullshit! For the throne room scene, they had Ganon refer to Rauru with 'vous', the formal form of 'you', but Rauru refers to Ganon with 'tu', the informal form of 'you'. 'Tu' is for use in casual settings or between friends, and if someone is using 'vous' for you, referring to them with 'tu' is a MASSIVE insult; it's very condescending, and implies that you have literally no respect for that person whatsoever, but they should continue treating you as a figure of great authority. To sort of translate that into an English equivalent, it'd be like if Ganon walked into that scene using formal language and referring to Rauru as a fellow King, and Rauru responded by treating Ganon like a small, dumb child. Hugely insulting. Also the vous/tu disparity has a History with French colonialism, so that adds some implications as to what Hyrule's really doing with their 'allies'. And in the scene where Ganon takes the secret stone, the French translation has him say Rauru tried to force him to submit, which is an outright accusation of imperialism (as opposed to the English saying Rauru wanted to control Ganon, which suggests the problem was Rauru thinking he could find a peaceful solution instead of just executing a foreign leader for thought crimes)

So the english translation definitely had the room to put some more nuance into things if the team had wanted to; honestly I kind of wish I knew Japanese so I could compare it to the original script and see if any of the problems I've been bitching about were part of the script from the start, or if the English translators were just particularly bad. But Nintendo is a very conservative company, and Japan is a very conservative country with a serious nationalism problem, so I kind of doubt it, especially since the game portrays Hyrule pretty much the exact same way that Japan is portrayed in propaganda justifying their own imperialism. That... does not suggest the English team went apeshit. That suggests that the awful shit was in the script from the start, and the English team was just totally on board with it.

As for the writing teams... I mean, to be fair it's been like seven years, of course the writing team isn't the exact same as BOTW. But honestly, the main issue is just that they've recycled a lot of old problems from the Zelda games, and somehow stripped them of what little nuance they had before. Like, Ganondorf trying to take over Hyrule because Evil has been an issue since Ocarina of Time (which this game was clearly heavily pulling from), but even though OoT never told us he had a deeper motive, the worldbuilding still showed exactly why he would have such an issue with Hyrule. We knew there had been a bloody civil war only about a decade before Ganon's takeover, we knew that the Gerudo were treated with disdain by Hyrule, and we saw that Hyrule's alliances with the Gorons and Zora were pretty flimsy, and neither race felt like Hyrule actually gave a damn about them. But most importantly of all, OoT gave us the Shadow Temple, a horrific prison meant to inflict unspeakable torture on its captives... all on orders from the Hylian royal family. Hyrule's hands were never clean. We weren't supposed to side with Ganon in OoT, but we were shown a long list of reasons for why he was so pissed off.

Someone else said that TOTK feels like a retelling of OoT that's just pro-Hyrule propaganda, and that's a pretty good summary. I don't know what the fuck Nintendo was thinking, but honestly it kind of seems like they're trying to stick to the formula of Zelda games at all costs, while also making the entire game just a huge 'gotcha' to all the fans that have spent the last 25 years seeing Ganondorf as a sympathetic character with depth and reasonable motivations. I find it ironic that they decided to include the Wind Waker boomerang and shield in the game, considering that the whole game feels like an attempt to get everyone to forget Wind Waker ever happened. That's still the most human we've ever gotten to see Ganondorf - he didn't have many lines in that game, but the ones he did have mattered. At the end of the day, WW Ganondorf wanted to have a better life for his people, and he knew Hyrule would never let that happen. But now apparently Ganon just wants to dropkick puppies into woodchippers, and he doesn't give the slightest hint of a fuck about trying to wipe out the Gerudo people entirely by attacking them with an endless sandstorm plus zombie apocalypse. His only character trait is Evil.

If I want to get really cynical for a minute here, I think it's basically just a cash grab. If your game prompts a moral debate, then it can offend people, which means they won't want to give you money for it. But if it's a simple black and white conflict with no nuance, the fans will love all the right characters in the right way, and everyone will love hyrule and want to see more of it! It's like the fucking MCU; they're not willing to tell a fresh story, or make any serious commentary. They just want something safe and formulaic that has been statistically proven to make money. Fucking cowards.

#tears of the kingdom spoilers #tears of the kingdom

[straw-beret]

The significance of the claw machines in the opening of season 2

This is the first theory I've ever really posted or even MADE, and I haven't seen anyone else address it so apologies if I'm just repeating what someone else has already said; but yeah, these are just some observations I made recently, and they mostly have to do with the the intro to season 2 and how that potentially relates to the future of a rather significant main character.

More under the cut! And spoilers for season 2, if you haven't already guessed.

Every week I tune in to watch Link Click with my friends, and only at episode 10, i.e. a week ago, did i notice that in the opening, all the stuffed animals surrounding the claw machines are bunny rabbits.

It's a bit hard to see on account of the dim lighting, but I assure you that every single plush on the outside of those claw machines (and inside, at least in this shot) is a bunny rabbit. You can check the OP out on youtube if you want as well, if you want to confirm.

At first I thought, "Maybe the animators were just trying to save money on the budget!" But then I remembered that in the very next shot, we see other stuffed animal models that aren't rabbits:

This is the interior of one of the claw machines, presumably the one from episodes 4-5, and we can see 3D models of plushies such as bears and cats, alongside the rabbits of the outside.

And even in episodes 4-5, which are conversely animated in 2D, we can see there are a variety of other animals in each of the claw machines. And although the outlines aren't the clearest, it's still easy to discern they aren't ALL the same plushies as in the machine Tianxi is focused on:

From left to right as seen in the second image, I'll call each claw machine CM1, 2, and 3.

In CM2, we can see there's many different animals, majority with tails. I had a theory that they might be related to the animals of the Chinese zodiac, but you can't see them too clearly, so I'm not too sure.

CM3 isn't clear either, but the plushes/toys are definitely different to the other ones. On close inspection, I think there are bears and rabbits, but coloured red and white instead of pink, brown and greys/whites, like in CM1.

So clearly they didn't just have just one bunny plush model they had to reuse, and they put in the effort of hand drawing different plushies in the other claw machines. Plus, the budget for the intro must have been enormous— they weren't exactly pinching pennies. So why pile ONLY rabbits on the outside of the claw machines in the intro?

My theory is that it has something to do with my beloved Qiao Ling.

From the very first episode season 1, the show has set up a recurring rabbit motif in relation to Qiao Ling. We see this first in her phone case:

I put in a second photo of her phone for reference, and that one is from season 2, either episode 9 or 10.

So, bunny ears on the phone case. Big deal, probably just a fun piece of visual storytelling to add to her character— maybe she's into 'meng' culture. She's about the age to be into it, right?

Well, let's look at the chibi spinoff, Daily Life in Lighttime!

I don't think it's at the end of every episode this animal segment appears, but after the main events of each episode, we get to see the main characters as animals, doing animal things. Pretty straightforward— LG is a cat, CXS is a dog, and QL is a rabbit. Another thing connecting QL with the motif of rabbits.

In the official art by INPLICK, who did the character designs for the show, Qiao Ling is also commonly depicted with rabbits/a rabbit motif, and the boys with their respective animals as well.

On top of that, we know the show is set in 2021. Based on her character profiles, we know Qiao Ling is 22 years old, making her birth year 1999 (March 16th, if anyone cares). This makes her, you guessed it, year of the Rabbit!

So, let's tie this back to the claw machines. We've got a character who is established in show and in official art to be associated with rabbits, and we've got an abundance of rabbit plushes on the outside of the claw machines. Link Click is always very intentional with their imagery and mise en scene, this isn't an accident. So, what exactly does this mean?

My theory is that Qiao Ling will come to play a very significant role in the finale and upcoming season 3.

Initially, when me and my friend discussed this (shout out to Lara if you're reading this); we figured it might just be another reference to how Qiao Ling is metaphorically on the outside of the supernatural happenings. She is the only main character without powers, she didn't know what CXS and LG were doing with the photos, she was the first of the mains to get possessed by red eyes, who we now know are a wombo combo of Li Tianxi and Li Tianchen. But why go to such lengths to compound on something we already know?

So then I started to wonder, maybe it means she is less protected than the others? After all, she was the first to get possessed, she is the only one without any supernatural powers. I thought it might mean imminent doom for Qiao Ling— which would suck, because (and this is especially applicable if you've seen the most recent episode, i.e. s2e11) Link Click is not the best when it comes to leaving female characters alive!!!!!

It adds up— the animals on the inside of the claw machine are "safe", metaphorically and literally. They are protected by the glass (and also the impossibility of winning anything from a claw machine). But on the outside, they are up for grabs, easy to be destroyed or harmed. The claw machine ensures safety, and when you're outside the machine, nothing is guaranteed. So when we see the inside of the claw machine in the shot of that pink cat plush, i.e. the second image in this post, we see that there aren't as many rabbits in the claw machine, meaning less safety for QL.

(also if you want to strengthen that argument, that stuffed cat that liu lan and li tianxi won from the claw machine was torn apart by li fan when they got home).

((and even in the est. shot where we do see rabbits on the inside, there are much less than on the outside.))

So, Qiao Ling the outsider in this situation, who has as far as we know no powers and not much of a clue as to the supernatural happenings (and who let's be real only became plot significant recently, as much as i love her), her animal is on the outside of the claw machines. Simple.

And then the trailer for the finale of s2 dropped, and we got this lovely frame:

My friend and I thought it might be Qiao Ling's powers awakening, some others think it might be Tianxi transferring her powers to Qiao Ling. However, if you watch the rest of the trailer, you'll notice that Qiao Ling is left entirely defenseless, just sitting by Tianxi's body.

While the rest of the fight is presumably happening. These characters have guns and tasers! Why is she turning her back on them when she has no natural defenses of her own (save for those sick martial arts skills)?

Especially because Qian Jin, who has been established to want to harm QL and even rigged up a god damn BOMB to set off for when she and CXS went to retrieve LG:

Is on the scene with a gun!

I think that something bad is going to happen to Qiao Ling, the "outsider", either in the finale or in season 3. Could be death, could be a major injury, but whatever it is, it will have been foreshadowed through the stuffed rabbits and the claw machines.

-

kudos if you read this much lol i'm not sure if i structured my arguments well but i got really into this theory. and maybe i might make a post about the symbolism of the pacman machine in the intro as well? idk. lmk what you think!! i'd love to know if there's anything i'm missing or if there are any other interpretations to glean from this :)

#link click #shiguang dailiren #link click season 2 #link click theory #shiguang daili ren #cheng xiaoshi #qiao ling #lu guang #link click spoilers #sgdlr #sgdlr spoilers #时光代理人 #fan theory #theory #speculation

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers

Eh...gotta be honest, I found this pretty underwhelming. It had its moments, don't get me wrong, but the plot felt pretty generic and the ending was rushed. Still had fun, but the emotional investment was lacking.

Notes:

Reddit told me to watch this after episode 18, so I got the timing a little off, but I felt like it'd be good to watch prior to the digiworld episodes. The only timeline wonkiness is that this takes place before Culumon's kidnapping, which I've already seen, but that's fine.

In another moment of ~fate~ the movie begins with Guilmon dying of heat (not literally lol) and it was "feels like 101" where I am today so...can relate.

I was a pretty sheltered kid, so IDK how I would react to my parents making me travel by myself at 10...not that I'm against that, I just know 10 year old me woulda been a big crybaby about it.

Kinda weird that they gave us 2 title screens for this, one of which was just ripped from the TV show. The whole vibe was kind of a mixed bag in this, sometimes the animation felt pretty much the same quality as the show and sometimes it felt like they were stepping it up, not super consistent.

"Battle of Adventurers" is a pretty uninspired title. I feel like they could have either put something about Okinawa or the v-pet virus in the title instead so it would stand out a bit more...

Speaking of the V-Pet, I thought it was super charming with its crappy CGI lol. I totally would have fell for it in 2001. Kinda hard to believe that literally everyone downloaded it though (doctors, pilots, etc.) Or was it more like that one U2 album that was automatically distributed to everyone?

Guilmon begging to get out of the suitcase was stressful! How did he not suffocate? D: (do digimon even need to breathe?)

They really did the movie-only character (Minami) dirty this time. She had to be re-traumatized about her dead dog so many times! Just felt cruel...

All of the Okinawa cultural stuff was fun, especially the Okinawa-inspired digimon. If Digimon Go was a thing, you know they'd be region specific.

When Ruki's mom was like "oh, it's so comfortable flying on the plane!" I was like "okay, rich." That's the only explanation because flying economy is always a bad time.

Although a lot of the character animation was kinda meh, the battle animation is where this movie really shined. It was like little pockets of hype and there was a really good variety of enemy digimon. I was especially excited to see Anomalocarimon cuz it's been a minute and there was a lot of attention to detail with his bit.

Siesamon's design was really pretty, but I don't like his resting angry face. I wish they would have made his face more emotive because it kind of diminished some emotional moments...

There was one scene where it showed some buildings blowing up (because of the virus) and one of them suspiciously looked like a power plant...hopefully I'm wrong cuz oof...

Loved Mephismon's design, but with Gulfmon they did that thing that they did with VenomVamdemon where he has a second face by his crotch area...don't like that (although he is a centaur, so not technically his crotch)

There were some legit scary moments in this! The car crash scene was pretty violent and Minami screaming as she ran from the lasers also felt pretty intense for a kid's movie. (I haven't peeked at the dub yet, wondering if anything was cut)

I thought the final battle was weak as heck. Phase 1 took like 2 seconds and then phase 2 just felt kinda arbitrary like we were going through the motions. We did get a new attack though (trinity something or other). It felt kind of weird for them to just show that without any acknowledgement, but oh well. I'm sure it'll come back at some point. I was a little disappointed tbh because I thought they were doing some sort of 3-way jogress fusion

The shot with 3D MegaloGrowmon and 2D Rapidmon and Taomon was a glorious 2000s moment

IDK why but it gave me Power Rangers vibes

Yeah so this felt pretty disposable, they tried to kind of tie things to Digimon Adventure with Omegamon and Apocalymon, but the connection was pretty vague and forced. I rather Tamers just be separate without the callbacks

While I'm a big fan of short runtimes, I do wonder if this one could have benefitted from being a little longer, just to let things breath more

#Digimon Tamers: Battle of Adventurers #digimon tamers #digimon #movie

[captain-mommy-issues]

[Not really Pelipper Mail… Under-The-Tree Mail? That you’re pretty sure was put there by Clavell? Anyways! Once the tornado of four very excited children has rolled through and woken everyone in the house, Arven’s left with a good few things for himself!]

[Firstly, there’s a printed image of an upper-end cookware set! There’s Clavell’s handwriting on the bottom saying “We Delibird left it at the Academy, since your kitchen is there”. You don’t think Delibird know how to write.]

[There’s a few smaller wrapped boxes too! Each one contains a video game: Super Mario RPG, Super Mario Wonder, Super Mario 3D World… the last one seems to be the Wii U version? There’s a sticky note that says “We didn’t know which one :-)”.]

[Wrapped far more cleanly, it seems like Aunt Melony’s enclosed some new picnic blankets (one with the Dogs of Paldea on it, one with the Galar League’s symbols on it) and some custom silverware with dogs at their base. There’s also a hand-knitted scarf there in yellow and purple, with a “welcome to our family” note tucked in, written in clean cursive. Melony’s kids have copied the message below that, with varying levels of cleanliness. Gordie just left his autograph.]

[Finally, for Mabosstiff… there’s a load of home-baked dog biscuits from Aunt Melony, four squeaky Maushold plushies, and a big old squeaky sandwich-shaped chew toy. The sandwich toy’s wrapped in an appropriately-sized dog bandana, with some Herba Mystica printed on it.]

[Happy Delibird Day, Arven!!]

@swagtastic-bougie-pompadour

//I usually don't do this but I feel like this would be cuter if I wrote this one out as an in-person :)

Arven stared in complete awe at all the gifts. He picked up the photograph and laughed to himself, reading the handwriting. Dad, really...

"That actually looks awesome! Arc, don't make me wanna go home already. I'm so excited to use that."

He laughed again and shook his head, then began opening the other gifts. The boy had to do a double take on all the video games. SERIOUSLY? THREE?! That's like $180 right there! But in Pokedollars that I don't feel like converting right now!

"Fucking HELL. Why did you spend so much on me?! I- I thought I told you you didn't have too!" Arven immediately covered his mouth. Right. Children. Don't swear. Contain your 15-year-old edgy potty mouth, Arven.

"Flipping heck," he mumbled to himself awkwardly.

Arven just turned back to his presents, moving onto Melony's. He pulled out the baskets and silverware and examined them, smiling.

"Arc, these are adorable! Jeez, the dogs are so cute... I am gonna use these every day."

He picked up the scarf, taking a glance at the note that fell out of it. He grabbed it, and started tearing up. Just... Wow. Family. He had family. This is his family. Don't Cry, Arven. Don't Cry. Don't Cry. Arcdamnit he's crying. He turned his head down, avoiding eye-contact with everyone.

"T-hank you..." His voice was soft, and slightly shaky. However, he had a huge smile on his face, despite all the tears flowing rapidly down his cheeks. This entire trip has made him so emotional... This poor guy has never spent time with family like this...

His tears were then interrupted by a soft woof. He looked next to him where Mabosstiff was pawing at a present.

"Go ahead, Buddy."

The Pokémon excitedly ripped open the package, very happily wagging its tail at the sight of all the gifts. It excitedly spun around in a circle and barked surprisingly loudly. Arven chuckled, looking back at the others. He stood up and pulled Clavell into the biggest hug ever, burying his face into his shoulder. Most likely because he was still embarrassed about the whole crying bit...

"Thank you," he looked over at Melony. "You too, of course. I... I appreciate this. A lot..."

"Happy Delibird Day."

#//you don't gotta respond btw. you can if you want but i just felt like it'd be super cute to write it out this way #//instead of how i usually handle stuff like pelipper! #ask arven #pokemon #pokemon irl #irl pkmn #pokeblogging #pokeblr #rotomblr

[ivebeencursedbygays]

Kai: But when all hope seemed lost, I had an epiphany! 

Kai, earlier: I'm going to throw myself into the sea.

Zane: Kai, you can do anything! 

Kai: Anything? 

Zane: Anything! 

Kai, holding a torch: ANYTHING?!?! 

Zane: Wait, not that!

Cole: Guess who just found out the difference between wax paper and parchment paper the hard way? 

Nya: Wait, what’s the difference? 

Cole: One you can use in the oven safely, and the other you can also use in the oven... if the thing you are trying to make happens to be fire.

Kai: Time sensitive question how flirt boy. 

Pixal: Throw rocks at he. 

Cole: Hot Dogs. 

Morro: Kill him. 

Kai: Thanks guys.

Nya: Clownery. Tomfoolery. Absolute fuckery, I am going to revoke your life privileges.

Pixal: You use emojis like a straight person. 

Kai: That’s literally the worst thing anyone has ever said about me.

Kai: Hey, random question, what are your favorite flowers? 

Jay: Peonies, why? 

Kai: 

Jay: Were you going to get me flowers? 

Kai: 

Jay: 

Kai: ᶦᵗ’ˢ ᵃ ᵖᵒˢˢᶦᵇᶦˡᶦᵗʸ

Jay: Wow, that was quick thinking on that phony sacrifice stuff. 

Nya: Oh, that was all real. 

Jay: Wait, you were trying to help them kill us?! 

Nya: If I’m gonna be sacrificed, I’m gonna do it right.

*The gang is about to do something dangerous* 

Cole: Shouldn’t someone give a pep talk? 

Kai: Go ahead. 

Cole: Be careful. 

Cole: Don’t die. 

Pixal: *Holds back a laugh* 

Kai: Great. We’re all bloody inspired.

Jay: FIGHT ME, YOU NERD ASS SLUT! 

Cole: At least try to sound slightly more sophisticated when you threaten someone. 

Jay: Oh, I'm sorry. I should ask; dost thou want to engage in a duel, my good bitch? 

Cole: Somehow that's worse.

Kai: I can’t believe my birth certificate says F... 

Kai: ...How did I fail being born?

Cole: Look at me straight in the eyes and tell me the truth, Zane! 

Zane: You can’t expect me to look into your eyes and be straight.

Pixal: You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon. 

Pixal: It's me.

Cole, in a room with Jay, Kai, and Nya: It’s calm in here. 

Cole: It scares me…

Nya: Fight me! 

Kai, standing behind them and holding a knife: *mouths* Do not.

Zane: Nya got into a fight. 

Kai: That’s bad. 

Kai: 

Kai: Did she win?

Cole: Jay, I don’t think I can handle any more of your tomfuckery. 

Jay: Oh yeah? Well I can keep going until you’re all tomfuckered out!

Kai: Is that a gun?! 

Jay: It's not what it looks like! 

Kai: It looks like a gun! 

Jay: Okay, maybe it is what it looks like, but in my defense, it doesn't have anymore bullets, so I technically can't shoot it anymore. 

Kai: ...ANYMORE?!

Kai, to the Squad: I’d die for you. 

Jay: Then perish. 

Pixal: You will. 

Nya: Please don’t. 

Cole: Cool. 

Zane: I’d die for you first.

Nya: If you got arrested what would be the charges? 

Jay: Theft. 

Zane: Disturbing the peace. 

Cole: Aggravated assault. 

Kai: Arson. 

Pixal: All of the above. In that order, probably.

Nya: You know what I asked Santa for Christmas this year? 

Jay: If you say me, I swear I’ll— 

Nya: You? What? No, I asked him for that cool Ninjago Lego set we saw in Target!

Cole, texting Zane: Zane there’s a moth on the outside of the bathroom door can you get rid of it? 

Cole: Pls hurry because I’m going to cry 

Cole: Zane 

Cole: Zane 

Zane: Zane is dead. You’re next. Love, Moth.

Pixal: A sprite is anything not static. 

Jay: A sprite is a variable object, be it 2d or 3d. 

Cole: A sprite is a fucking soda. 

Cole: You god damn geekass bastards.

Kai: *sighs* I have no friends... 

Jay: 

Jay: *coughs* Bitch, what am I? A roach?!

Zane: *tapping fingers on table* 

Cole: *taps fingers back furiously* 

Jay: …What’s going on? 

Pixal: Morse code. They’re talking. 

Zane: -.-- ..- .-. / - …. . / -.-. ..- - . … - 

Cole: *slams hands on table* YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

Jay: *finds half a watermelon at Whole Foods* 

Jay, holding it up for everyone to see: LIES!

Kai: Don't break someone's heart, they only have one. 

Nya: Break one of their bones instead, they have 206 of them.

Kai, singing: I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need— 

Zane: A family. 

Cole: A better love life. 

Nya: Mental stability. 

Pixal: *clueless* Bagels?

Zane: Don't joke about murder. I was murdered once and it offends me.

Jay: I'm sorry. Please talk to me. 

Kai: 

Jay: Hello? World's most amazing person?? Sweet pea? Precious cinnamon roll that's too good for this world, too pure? 

Kai: 'Sorry' doesn't bring back my fucking M&Ms.

Nya: You think that’s cringe? Moms around the world wait 9 months just to end up naming their kid Jay. 

Jay: Hey, fuck you.

Jay: Of course I have a lot of pent-up rage, you fool! I've been the same height since I was twelve!

Pixal: Why is Kai crying? 

Zane: They saw a leaf on the sidewalk and- 

Kai: IT LOOKED SO CRUNCHY! 

Pixal: Please don’t say what I think you’re gonna say- 

Kai: AND WHEN I STEPPED ON IT THERE WAS NO CRUNCH! 

Pixal: NO, NOT THAT!

Zane: Hey, what have you two been up to? 

Nya: We were helping Kai write his vows, but he kicked us out because Cole was making inappropriate suggestions. 

Cole: How is “Jay, I love your sweet ass” inappropriate?

#ninjago #cole ninjago #kai ninjago #jay ninjago #ninjago nya #ninjago pixal #ninjago zane #plasmashipping #glaciershipping #hotwireshipping #jaya #ninjago jaya #oppositeshipping #bruiseshipping #geodeshipping #conya #mudshipping #crack #long post #incorrect quotes #source: ??? #source: various #ninjago morro

[junkyardisles]

informative version of my parody post

imaginators was noted multiple times to have ran out of time and money, which is why the character creator was so good but the rest kinda doesn't exist

ssa 3ds was made in six months a couple of times giants was mentioned to have been in progress for 11 months and began its cycle before ssa launched. skylanders games on average are made in two years (ssa taking three and a half) i-wei huang talked about adding one more paint chip would be one cent, but multiply that by how many figures are produced. he also mentioned that 3d printing began with giants (they had third party companies copy their figures for ssa) and every figure being hand painted i forget who it was that mentioned the teams rebuilding the previous game's skylanders with every new game. but say, for trap team, tfb had to import and rebuild all of the swap force skylanders, while making everything else ray west roughly said around when the first game's "scope" increased, it switched from being wii only to also being made for xbox and playstation. xpec had to re-engineer everything and some things were left out because they didn't notice them while playing on the wii version and the hog dog thing was meant to be a haha funny to break up the rest of the facts. anyway alex ness mentioned that he thought it'd be funny to have a dog speak with a really intelligent and refined voice (aka an rp accent) [x] highly recommend listening to the portal casters interviews and tealgamemaster's developer commentaries

#story scrolling

[littlegreekhero]

Lonnie Machin (a.k.a. Anarky/Moneyspider) headcanons

Thank you again for inspiring me to think more of him @megaaceofspades <3 (i also have a lot of timlonnie ones but the post would be too long, i have it queued up)

I think in the current timeline Lonnie is still stuck to machines(AND HE'S BALD), only having bodily autonomy over in the Ünternet, and boy has he been there for a decade now, i think he's already founded the anarchist utopia whose sparks we were shown at the end of Red Robin(2009).

Ünternet can be an escapade for Tim and anyone aware of it when life is too much, Gotham is too much, when there is no hope left etc. They go over there and have a picnic with a few books aside, eat snacks produced 100% ethically and regain faith in humanity again. Lonnie is like a never extinguishing candle of hope and in every situation he can bring a hopeful smile to his visitor's face.

When Leslie Thompkins, having read Moneyspider's conversations from the monitor, comes to the conclusion that Lonnie shows strong signs of autism, he absolutely rejects the label. He thinks psychiatric associations are no authority in naming behaviours for the sake of classification.

He isn't actually bald. His poor health condition has surely affected the number of hair follicles, but it's the doctors that keep it shaved to facilitate access to all those equipment around his head. He still has the cool asf mullet in the simulation.

His body is still a child's, around 15, but his eyes do not seem to belong to one. His gaze tells you he's seen so much. It's almost as if he is watching every corner of the world with the same attention and seeing everything from a unique universal perspective not many can achieve. If they had been alive, their parents would confirm it's been that way since his perception of the American Dream (TM) has first shattered.

He's still a anarchocommunist, and those canon ancap tendencies then neotech propaganda never happened (there is no anarcho corp in ba sing se ^-^) (why did he say "eat the rich" then took the money to himself in comics i will never understand)

He continues to publish after his book, it's little booklets, articles, forum posts, whatever reaches to the people.

Newer modern devices and softwares no longer support acces to Ünternet. When Tim claimed no responsibility over this (it's singlehandedly his doing, as much as HE trusts Anarky, several forces around the world including Batman dont want the threat of worldwide madness resurface again), Lonnie laughed at his face and started a global technological device preservation movement. He could not risk losing an entire civilisation to consumerist propaganda.

Somewhere around the world, an ecology movement constantly recieves donations from some guy named Lonnie.

Anarky's bots indirectly control the Bats' communications and systems. If there's a problem Babs is first to know, then she decides if its worth sharing to Tim, who shoots it over to Moneyspider, who has quite a few AIs and bots to work on it and ensure ethicality in every step. (This is also how i legitimize his acess to 3D models of Batman's gadgets in Urban Legends) (there's no urban legends#22 in ba sing se)

One time Lonnie requested Tim to collect some memorabilia from the remains of his old bases. Once arrived, Tim found a dog wandering around the same place over and over again. It was Yap!!!! Lonnie's old friends had kept it in good care and it was thrilled to go back to snuggle on its companion's lap in the hospital.

His caregivers and doctors suspect he might have started to reject rehabilitation to stay forever in the simulation because his condition seems to stay stable in one state no matter what they do. It's not the case. With every single thing from his old life gathering around him slowly, he is more than thrilled to regain mobility and participate in everyday life. He's also working on transporting audio files that technically don't exist outside of the Ünternet to create a voice box for himself. He already has the plans for a wheelchair suited just for his needs ready.

I think he's extra sensitive about earthquakes and helping those who survived in the aftermath since he lost his parents under rubble. He's there to support every rescue team after every earthquake no matter how small scale the destruction is, wherever in the world it is.

#lonnie machin #anarky #anarky dc #moneyspider #headcanon #red robin 2009 #anarky 1997 #anarky 1999 #dc comics

[adamwatchesmovies]

Hugo (2011)

Martin Scorsese is not known for his family films. You associate the name with gritty crime stories. So what drew him to Hugo? Perhaps he wanted to try something different? On top of being suitable for the whole family, the picture makes impressive use of 3D and special effects. If you’ve seen Hugo the whole way through, you’ll know why. I suspect Scorsese connected to this story on a deeply personal level.

In 1931 Paris, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) maintains the clocks at Gare Montparnasse railway station. His alcoholic uncle Claude officially does the work but he’s been gone for months and as long as the machines keep the time, Station Inspector Gustave Dasté (Sacha Baron Cohen) won't ask any questions. This means Hugo is free to focus on the automaton he and his father were repairing before he became orphaned. Hugo keeps to himself, occasionally stealing parts from a toy store owner, Georges (Ben Kingsley). After he is caught and his book on the automaton is confiscated, Hugo befriends the toy maker’s goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz). He hopes she can help him get his book back.

There’s no way you can guess where this movie is going. The surprises along the way are a big part of the fun and the screenplay by John Logan (based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick) is in no hurry to get to its big reveals. As Hugo goes about his day, we meet all the characters who frequent the station. Richard Griffiths plays a man pining for a dog owner (played by Frances de la Tour) whose pooch can’t stand him. Shy Inspector Dasté wants to approach a beautiful flower saleslady (Emily Mortimer) but is embarrassed by an old war injury. Christopher Lee plays the owner of a book store who probably knows more than he lets on, Papa Georges is hiding something from Isabelle. And then there’s the automaton Hugo is repairing. How is it tied to his father? There’s enough going on with these characters that it doesn't matter if you don't know where the plot is going. You’re having a great time simply getting to know them, admiring the performances (Moretz does a flawless accent) and enjoying Scorsese's direction. Check out the way the camera moves down chutes, through crowds and then into the secret openings into Hugo’s home or the breathtaking shots of a long-gone Paris.

Ultimately, this is a small, personal story. The world’s fate does not rest in the hands of Hugo. The secrets we uncover deal with very human tragedies but it’s shot like all of reality hinges on the lonely boy finding a friend. After Hugo is over, you remember specific shots, specific characters and the emotions you felt while watching them. These would attract any director but I suspect Scorsese wanted this project specifically because the film contains numerous references to specific events in the history of cinema. We see a clip of Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last! and the film’s most iconic shot is re-imagined later on. The Montparnasse derailment of 1895 is reimagined and Scorsese gives us to opportunity to relive the shocked reaction audiences would’ve had while viewing “L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat” - that famous shot of a train coming towards the camera that supposedly had audiences falling out of their seats in terror - by shooting it in 3D - literally having the train come right towards the screen and frighten us. There are many other references to the history of cinema throughout. If you love movies, you’ll get an extra kick out of these scenes.

Hugo is moving, warm, romantic, tragic and exciting. It goes in unexpected directions and the surprises make the movie feel big while also keeping it small and intimate. The performances are excellent, the characters fully realized. The only mark against it comes from the presentation. This movie is meant to be seen on the big screen and in 3D. Few people will be able to see it that way now. If that’s the only flaw you can find in a movie, it's doing a lot of things right. (On Blu-ray, September 25, 2020)

#Hugo #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Martin Scorsese #John Logan #Brian Selznick #Ben Kingsley #Sacha Baron Cohen #Asa Butterfield #Chloe Grace Moretz #Ray Winstone #Emily Mortimer #Jude Law #2011 movies #2011 films