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#And if you do change it don't add more of the same shit people disliked
luckthebard · 1 year
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So this is a very niche rant that is probably only something I've noticed or been annoyed by, but:
The longer Critical Role has gone on and the more changes they've made/content they've created, there's been an increase in weird people who are desperate and determined to prove that changes or content they don't like are "an objective failure" - but often lie or deliberately misunderstand viewership statistics to do so.
There are a few big "facts" I see repeated by people to argue that CR has "gone in the wrong direction" that are just plain wrong, and I think what annoys me most is seeing so many people engage with those "facts" without bothering to double-check them or push back against the certainty with which people state them. An example of one I keep seeing now is "twitch streaming numbers are down" and it's like, yeah, sure, in comparison to when they didn't simultaneously air on YouTube. If you add up the YT and Twitch numbers these days it's about the same as mid-late C2, but people love to act like YT streaming doesn't exist to make a point that "people don't like C3". And I tbh don't care if people like or dislike C3 but why this determination to falsely quantify and validate a personal preference?
The earliest I saw this was an intense agreement on reddit that Exandria Unlimited was a "failure" for CR, "unlike Undeadwood," because viewership numbers were lower. And it was tbh baffling to not see pushback against that narrative, because it's just objectively untrue. Original EXU's VOD streaming numbers are higher than every single episode of Undeadwood, and it premiered literally years later. It also has a lower "drop-off" in viewership (comparison of how many views episode 1 vs the finale has) than Undeadwood, despite frequent claims to the contrary. And don't mistake me here, I really enjoyed Undeadwood, but it actually was a viewership misstep for CR to the degree that they didn't try anything like it again for a while after and significantly changed how they approached marketing and airing miniseries. (A big one being: don't air a long miniseries simultaneously with the main series, it's too much content for most people to invest in during a week.)
(Sidebar, but another great miniseries CR did that didn't get a lot of viewership love is the Elder Scrolls Online trilogy, so I'm going to plug it here. It has some weirdly low viewership numbers on episodes 2 and 3 and I promise you they're both well worth it.)
The other one I keep seeing is "4 Sided Dive has lower numbers than Talks" which is also just not true. Most 4 Sided Dive VODs have nearly twice as many views as Talks VODs (and I'm using the ones that aired directly on the CR channel as a metric here, not the ones re-uploaded from G&S which lost numbers in the change-over). And I'll tbh chalk that up to the fact 4SD airs much less frequently - people are more likely to think it's necessary to watch whereas with Talks if you weren't interested in the guests you might skip a week. I'm not making any claims about the quality of either show, but the use of false viewership statistics to support "one of these sucks" is so rampant and so weird.
All this to say that yesterday I saw a weird viewer-hungry YouTube clickbait video titled "Midst a FAILURE for Critical Role!!" with a truly absurd confidence on what the VOD streaming numbers for the Midst YouTube videos mean for the series mere days after the premier and snapped.
tl;dr, people just make shit up and say whatever on the internet all the time and we hopefully all understand and expect that BUT (and here's the more annoying thing) 9 times out of 10 people just engage with that WITHOUT LOOKING INTO IT THEMSELVES
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joyce-stick · 1 year
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The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)
So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say
For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.
Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.
Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.
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So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,
Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese
(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)
So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth
And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!
(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)
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Moving on!
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horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song
Anyway, here comes the first major difference!
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So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.
"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.
Now here's another interesting change:
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Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,
Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.
Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!
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"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.
Now, here's an interesting one!
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In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.
Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)
There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know
They may not, but they could!
Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.
And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people
Mew!
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velnna · 7 months
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This might sound like an odd question but I’m planning on making my own comic at some point and I was wondering if you had any advice? Specifically in making the plot, deciding what each character does and maybe panel/page composition and how to make harmonious colour palettes?
Also one more question but when you were at the beginning of developing Stray Souls did you post little lore/plot snippets and character doodles/info or did you mainly wait until the comic was out?
(Sorry I know this is a lot but I was just wondering sort of what your process is because everything seems so seamless and well-put-together :> )
Ehh first of all the seamless and put-togetherness is an illusion 🫠
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A lot of my work is built organically (fancy way of saying I just sorta wing it) and very dependent on what makes me excited at each given point. Generally, I come up with an idea for a character or a plot point and from there start branching out.
Say, I create character A. A needs a story so I create some beats for them, a beginning-middle-end type thing. While thinking of this, characters B, C, etc pop up as placeholders/devices for A's story, and the world gets shaped around it as well. Then suddenly something in the world gets decided that in turn changes A's story a little, and so on. Then I go into B, C, etc and do the same thing (build a story, let it bleed into the world and let the world bleed into it).
There's pros and cons to this sort of thing of course. Most of the time I over-develop characters or world bits that are completely unnecessary and clutter the narrative (especially when it's something like a comic, where things need to be explained visually and economically), and because of this sort of chaotic process I also tend to get entangled in my own concepts and lose track of my main threads. I don't dislike it entirely so it's just a matter of figuring out what works best for your own goals and processes.
Some general advice for comics that I've learned from trial and error: try stripping your story down to its bare bones and see what you absolutely need VS what's there for flavour or added context. Only add flavour once you're sure you can tackle the minimum, both in writing and artwise. Keep your character designs simple if you value your hands lol. It's fun to design complicated details but you WILL get tired of drawing them after a while. Sometimes it's ok to tell and not show 🤷‍♂️ if you're a one-man team sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet. Bear in mind that long stories will take YEARS to complete in comic format. Not an end all be all, but you do need to think about that. Also just go for it once you've got a structure you feel good about. I personally don't like over planning and don't even script things, so I don't think you need to have everything on paper before getting some chapters rolling. Most of what I've learned about comics has been making them, not thinking about making them. Oh, and readers tend to be more lenient than we give them credit for - if you're passionate enough about your world or characters, chances are at least some people will be interested regardless of whether you think art or writing are up to par
As for the other question, I spoiled the shit out of stray souls before launching it and still kinda do it for fun LMAO. Nothing too serious ofc but I've always loved giving people an insight into characters and world outside of the comic since the comic itself is a little peek into the whole thing. It also kinda serves to keep people interested imo
And I just can't keep my mouth shut about my stories lol
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rielzero · 3 months
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Nymrod ''A Silver-y coated Fool''
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Backstory Blurb;
Nymrod was a High Half Elf Silver Dragonic Bloodline Sorcerer who tried to become a fashion designer despite his family's high demands and expectations. He particularly disliked his innate magic as he had the tendency to freeze things when he got nervous.
As a result of his unstable powers and clumsiness, no one would take him as an apprentice so he had to teach himself how to sew. Struggling with what to do with his misfortunes, he briefly joined a band of friends on a few adventures, realizing he really disliked contributing to conflict and fighting. During a tour to Elturel, he got really drunk and passed out.. Only to awaken when Elturel was pulled into Avernus. The sudden shift of planes for some reason changed him into a Dainty, soft looking Tiefling, unrecognizable to himself and his friends. They swiftly abandoned him in order to flee. Left with little else to hold onto, Nymrod is who he became. Acting docile, foolish and helpless, his appearance and behavior gave him his name, a combination of ''Nymph'' and ''Nimrod'' Passed around several devils as a pretty pet to look at. Hiding his intelligence and using his charm to remain unharmed. When Nymrod was about to be sold to one particularly cruel Devil in exchange of dozens of soul coins, Raphael ended up coming to his rescue. The Cambion recognized Nymrod's facade, becoming the only safe space were Nym's intelligence was genuinely recognized. Nym is very indifferent about the conflict surrounding Avernus as he had to prioritize his own survival. Due being abandoned by his only friends in his time of need, he stopped caring for those who do not value him. Since then he has gotten used to his body, still feeling somewhat strange about it. Some inconsistencies might exist in the blurb, but he is an OC, casual oc. He wouldn't exist in the same universe as the videogame per sé, so no tadpole or mindflayer business. He's not an adventurer, so not very experienced in combat- avoids it.
Idk I like the idea of ''very evil half devil has soft spot for a very unlucky dude'' cuz I enjoy fluff as much as I enjoy angst.
*people in the house of hope literally being tortured, screaming in the background* Nymrod: Hmm. I feel inspired.. *sketches outfit ideas* Raphael: *sips from a glass of brandy* The songs they sing in the morning are the most spirited. Nymrod: Oh, should I add some more skulls in this pattern??
I don't think Nymrod is evil, but rather- indifferent? He had no room to care for others, being isolated for so long. He no longer has that passively active empathy he used to before Avernus. Too much shit happened..
Might write some fic later, idk. I don't feel confident in writing Raphael to be honest, but I want to describe Nym's story a bit more. I don't really intend on drawing it actively as I have other projects.
Nym would get along with Haarlep pretty well, sassy bitching.
Some other things about Nymrod.
-Freezing things when nervous still happens, but given that they're in hell- it just turns into water right away half of the time. ''Did you have an oopsie?'' Haarlep would probably joke around that Nym is a bedwetter.. -He sometimes sheds the scales, but they regrow on the exact same locations. Skin gets a little overly sensitive during this time. -He purrs! Isn't sure why, but it happens. -As a Half Elf, his hair was much darker, he used to wear very dark clothing, but after settling in his new form he prefers light colors. Mostly pink. -As a Fierna Tiefling and sorcerer, Nym's charm spell happens mostly subconsciously, it's gotten him out of trouble many times. -He sold his previous name to a Fey who was wandering in the Hells while he was still held captive as a caged pet. The fey gave him a blessing that makes him naturally lucky out of pity in exchange. He doesn't remember his old name or previous personality much, but he does remember his life before Avernus. He has no attachment to his old life. -Nym had no close friends or relatives when he was abandoned by his family. His only friends were the adventuring group, or so he thought.. -He is clingy, bit of a damsel. Would still throw ice at someone as a last resort. Not great at aim though. Would probably die in 2 hits. -Plays with his tail absentmindedly when he's bored, still unfamiliar with the limb at times. -Tailwag when he's excited. -He really really really likes how his body looks after the change, but it did take some getting used to. -His horns have very sensitive nerve endings. -Insecure in the bedroom, but only because he's inexperienced. His only previous sexual encounters were while drunk, has an alcohol problem but isn't addicted. He just doesn't know when to stop drinking. When given the chance he will drink until he passes out. -Whenever possible, he will make or design clothes for Raphael and Haarlep. Has his own little atelier room to work on these things. -Throws little pouty tantrums when his clothing or work gets stained. -Crybaby, very easily overstimulated. Cries when stressed. -Smarter than he makes himself out to be, loves puzzles. Has solved very intricate and difficult puzzles on a whim before. -Raphael exclusively calls him ''Nimphy'' when greeting him. -Settled for being spoiled or treated as a pet pretty easily, has kept the collar with his name on it since he first got it. He feels safer while wearing it. I might draw responses to specific questions about Nymrod actually. Feel free to flood my inbox lol, if you want me to draw this oc in specific situations..
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styrmwb · 9 days
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I beat Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
There's gonna be spoilers in this just in case you care, hopefully I tagged it correctly, and also yeah this is a long one (I don't have it tagged game ramblings for nothing)
Anyways, loved this game. My gripes with it are very few, but unfortunately one of said gripes is very major and hasn't changed from Remake; but in the effort to Pretend like my thoughts are organized, I'm gonna section this cause sectioning is fun :)
Actually, one thing I wanted to note here (writing this after like, 3 paragraphs), is something that influences a lot of my love for this game is the fact that it... Doesn't suffer from translation problems like the OG. It brings factors that i never truly appreciated into the forefront, and clears up a lot of confusion. I wanted to put this here because I realized it would be weird to say all of my nonsense without clarifying this.
Gameplay
Rebirth (and Remake) is what I think is What modern FF should be. I absolutely love this style of combat so much. I do wish there was a very small passive ATB charge cause sometimes I get stuck in a situation where I can't do anything, but other than that the rotation of hack and slash then classic menu, and switch between party members is so fun, in the best of times I can make a really cool action scene, everyone showing off their own moves; it's a blast. I'll go a little deeper into the characters when I go to That section, but overall I found everyone really fun in some way, even though end game I ended up using the same party as I did in Remake (and also the OG VII lmfao).
I know to some/possibly most, the amount of open world (and Chadley) and the side quests might feel like a bunch of fluff and garbage, but I actually kinda really enjoyed it? I loved how the world intel all changed slightly as you progressed. Moogles as an example, annoying as they were, did add an extra level of challenge every time you saw them. When you had to catch a chocobo, it was a different style of stealth minigame. Summon crystals all had increasingly complicated patterns. Hell, even the towers were slightly different every time with how you had to climb or even reach them! I think this being the strength solidifies itself when I think of my least favorite intels being the Fiend Intel, because I think they were the most samey the entire game through. The side quests I compare to XVI. XVI's side quests were... like XIV. A LOT of dialogue, run here, more dialogue, fight one enemy or gather 6 items, then go back. Rebirth's quests felt... a little more alive? A little more varied? Sure, side quests are usually going to be the same in these styles of game, but I think of chasing a dog through the region while the dialogue happens along the way, I think of the options to gather more resources than the bare minimum for different rewards and dialogues, picking different flowers, having to pay attention to notes, having to interact with the minigames: it all felt more interesting and like I actually wanted to do them. The varied nature of everything is what made me enjoy it.
Oh and Queen's Blood? Greatest FF card game don't even @ me I had so much fun with it it better stay
Characters
One of my favorite parts of Rebirth is how much it helped or made me love the cast. Even characters that I did not care about or possibly actively disliked, this game made me enjoy. Main characters were all expanded on, side characters were silly, and brought back into relevance when I would never expect (Like holy shit I swear every named NPC from Remake came back which is so cool), and they all make the journey an absolute joy to take, and the world as colorful as FFVII SHOULD be. But let me talk about a cast that went from "yeah I like them" to possibly one of my favorite parties in the entire franchise.
Cloud
I honestly already considered him my favorite character in VII (which is a very hard thing to admit without the fear of people thinking you like him for the wrong reasons), and Rebirth being essentially half the game lets me get to see why again. A man who presents himself as serious and uncaring, but OOPS he actually does care and is really silly but unfortunately has some major mental problems! (please help him he is NOT ok). Sure, they kinda speed up his realization of certain aspects, and maybe they go a Little too hard on the fact that Something Isn't Right, but I really enjoyed seeing his declining mental state, its effect on the world, and his relationships with the party. The Sephiroth juice is intense at this point in the story, and I am very excited to see him in the next game. His gameplay is classic yet fun, with big swordy slashes and huge hits that don't have to be slow (they're sometimes slow).
Barret
My favorite part of Barret in Rebirth compared to Remake is how he didn't wear his sunglasses for most of the game. He's open, he's feeling, he's emotional; he's the big tough softy I love. This is where him and Cloud's relationship really gets to shine, where you can tell there is respect, trust, and concern between both of them. The Gold Saucer and side quests are where I think this is at its strongest, and I love seeing it. His gameplay makes him a really fun support, and just like Remake I had him as a sort of paladin healy tanky type, staying behind with GUN as he takes care of the party, which is really fun and consistent.
Tifa
This game does wonders for Tifa enjoyers (it's me I'm Tifa enjoyers), giving her a lot of focus and emphasis on that caring, observant nature that is her strongest suit. Her concern for Cloud and friendship with Aerith feel very strong here and it makes me happy to see. Her gameplay had her in my party the entire time no other reason, her fast attacks, dodges, ATB filling, and stagger damage multiplier being extremely huge in every single fight.
Aerith
The big one. Honestly, I'm gonna keep my real big story thoughts for later, but I will say I loved seeing her enjoy life, the open world, and helping others in the side quests. She's a great character to see happy :) Also, her scene in the Gold Saucer is probably now one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. It was so fucking stunning that I cannot get enough of it. Unfortunately, her gameplay is easily my least favorite out of the group, as her slow attacks and dodging (yes I know she has an ability to boost her attacks but that takes a while to get to) makes her kind of a slog in my hands, and better off in the computer's.
Red XIII
One of two characters that I did not expect to grow to love as much as I did. I'll prob mention this again later, but... I didn't REALLY know the extent of his change when I played the original. Yeah, I knew he was young for his race, but he always felt like just that wise grumpy dog man (some of this could be on me not reading well enough but between poor translation and Advent Children and the fact he didn't make it into DFFOO I'm gonna give myself a break). Rebirth showed me how much of a joy Red is. Despite the trauma and pain he went through, he's silly, he's excited for life, he has fun and loves his family. But also, despite this and his youth, he doesn't COMPLETELY lose his knowledge and wise nature after his reveal; he just relaxes more. I care about Red so much more than I originally did now because this change was made clearer. His gameplay is also really fun, fast attacks, strong defenses, and even stronger abilities (stardust ray my beloved).
Yuffie
We already got a good amount of Yuffie in Intergrade, so having her again here felt like anyone else from last game. However, I do absolutely love how she was integrated into the main plot instead of just being Girl in Forest. She served as great comic relief (and literally says this!) for her appearance in the story (although I do think there were a couple occasions where it was a bit much but that's ok her arc is next game), and I really enjoyed that she started to become a cared for member of the group (really shown by Cloud in the Skywheel date and her and Barret's relationship). Gameplay was just as fun as Intergrade, the throwing/ninjutsu swapping being a joy, and I loved using her doppelganger attack in combination with elemental weaknesses and Sonic Boom. Yuffie was key for some of the harder fights, the MVP fr fr.
Cait Sith
The other of two characters I did not expect to enjoy, and Cait Sith here is the absolute king of it, as I DID NOT like him in the OG. But here? He's a larger character, he's more sympathetic, he's a little more understandable, and his gameplay doesn't suck shit lmfao. His betrayal I think was done a lot cleaner this time around, where he really Felt like part of the group, and his return was done pretty smoothly but honestly doing anything other than being like "hi hello I'm back!" while Cloud beats the shit out of Aerith is an improvement I really enjoyed his melee/ranged nature being similar to Cloud, and his heavy hitting attacks. Despite the fact that he still had RNG, it was RNG that felt good no matter what and I appreciated that.
Cid and Vincent
Our poor poor "you're not allowed yet" boys. No gameplay section here cause they ain't got any! But that's ok, because for what little role they had, I really enjoyed their presence. Early Cid was very interesting to me, and while i do feel like he loses a little not being introduced as a complete dickwad, I still love having Cid around and giving him a little more connection to the party. He didn't seem as aggressive and %#*^-y, but I kinda hope we get more of that in part 3 when Rocket Town happens. Vincent, similar to Yuffie, gets tied into the story in such a great way. Getting to fight him was super super cool, and I loved that small amount of comic relief he gives by being Overly edgy yet out of touch with the world. I'm very excited to see where both of them go.
Zack
It took me some time to... Accept what Remake did to the timeline. Once I did, I was all in on the train for more Zack. I love Zack! He's my other favorite VII character other than Cloud! This game gave me more Zack, and I appreciate it for that. Not to mention his whole interactions with Aerith and Cloud made me very happy and filled a void in my heart I needed (that fucking synergy attack between the two of them???? DUUUUUDE) Unfortunately however; he didn't get to... get the story treatment I would have liked. Gameplay wise; I don't care much for his charge mechanic, sadly.
Sephiroth
I don't have much to say here. Sephiroth is Sephiroth. He appears, says "pee your pants cloud", then fucks off, and he's really good at that, and that's what he's supposed to be. My grudges against him aren't against him and more against who's writing him. Playing him was hype though, and I enjoyed his counter mechanic which I feel got later reincarnated into Red.
As for people other than in the playable cast, Dio was incredibly fun, Elena felt like a treat and a more threatening than the original but still showing that silly nature (pink gun???? no tactical advantage whatsoever I love it), Hojo is still the scum of the earth as he should be (he never gets better!), I got to actually understand what Bugenhagen is, and so on and so on. Nobody was worse than their original appearance and I loved that.
ALSO CISSNEI GANG RISE UP WE LOVE OUR GIRL AND I'M SO GLAD SHE GOT TO RETURN
Story
So. This is the big part. If I had to choose where my biggest gripe with the game would be, it would be in the aspect of story. This is the Exact Same Gripe I had with Remake, that being the aspect of whispers, alternate timelines, and whatever Sephiroth is cooking. This being.... I don't really like it? I don't think it adds anything?? It's confusing, intentionally vague, and it really ruins the flow that these games have otherwise. Cause aside from this singular (big) aspect? Dude! This game fucks! It takes every story beat that was in the original, and expands on it in a way that i feel makes me love the story and world way more! I feel like a lot of aspects got tied together a lot more smoothly (although again, I also attribute this to not terrible translation), and every experience that I expected from the original was a joy to watch in this game. The swamp, Junon, the boat, Costa del Sol, the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, the Temple of the Ancients. These were all done so well. All of the side content and side stories were really fun, added a lot of character to the world. And with the slight changes they did make, like with Cait Sith's arc being changed to be more sympathetic instead of blackmailing and Cloud being controlled by Sephiroth NOT beating Aerith I think were actually done really tastefully and improved the experience (actually thinking about it Dyne's just felt like they wanted to hurt Barret more why would they do that). I just... I wish if they were going to do this whole alternate timeline dealy, they were a little more clear on it? i wish I could feel like it actually mattered to this series, but what i get is "oh wow the unknown journey" that turns into "yeah here are these extra bits that are confusing and don't change anything and actually instead ruin the impact of one of the most well known scenes in video game history)
With that I will talk about the ending. I was willing to ignore the fact that we didn't get to walk through the City of the Ancients more. I was still shaking and nervous until the very end, thinking "oh man what's going to happen???? oh fuck!!!" and what i was instead rewarded with was a constant whiplash of emotions and confusion that left me numb to what should have torn my heart out. I shouldn't have to be left wondering if a character truly died or not for the sake of "OHHH MAN TIMELINESSSSS WORLDS???" that didn't DO anything when I could have gotten either a successful changing of timeline, or a 4K edition of something to tear my heart out, and hearing the absolute pain in Cloud's voice in his speech afterwards. I am Really Hoping that part 3 will clear this up, and retroactively improve an ending and story beats that I think single-handedly knock this game down from a 10/10. I shouldn't have faith in them, cause they've beefed two endings in a row, but I do, because they've shown that everything else they can create are honestly perfect.
Graphics
shortest section in the world this game is beautiful the landscapes are beautiful the characters are beautiful (or ugly when they needed to be and it still worked) my eyes were given a treat this entire 80 hours
Music
shortest section in the world this soundtrack is amazing hamauzu and suzuki cooked and made so many good songs
it's like they knew tifa's theme was one of my favorites and proceeded to give me 20 versions of it also gold saucer getting individual remixes???? a top 5 battle on the big bridge? NO PROMISES TO KEEP???????? GOD FUCKING DAMN.
Unorganized Ramblings/Finale
I really did have a lot of fun with this game. I didn't feel soured until the end for the most part, even during some frustrating game segments (fuck you Rufus and Odin and then Odin again and also that last Fort Condor). I really appreciate getting to see the wider world of FFVII in a modern sense, and I think overall I appreciate what I didn't previously a lot more. I also loved how with the addition of a card game and Gilgamesh, it got to match up with VIII and IX, the other 2 PS1 FFs to really feel like a unified FF vision. This game kept the silliness that the original had on top of its incredibly dark setting for something that I love to describe as the same vibe as Yakuza. I laughed seeing Red get a whole scene instead of a single bit in his person outfit, and then cried at a newfound caring for Cloud, Tifa, and Barret seeing Jessie's poster in the Gold Saucer. The vibes were immaculate and I'm really really excited to see what they do for the final part (which is going to be called Reunion I'm betting my left materia on it)
9/10. The peak of modern FF gameplay that enhances a classic, but fails its mission of being different.
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utilitycaster · 1 month
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Oof, the first half of the episode is a little rough ngl. I like the second half with Aabria a lot more. The first group does get better as the episodes go on if that helps at all.
Also, to add a bit more context to Kollok: the creators - Hyper RPG - are filmmaking nerds and are mostly known on Twitch for their various virtual productions.
So Kollok has a lot of those post production visual effects and sound effects, which is them using their strengths to create a show, similar to CR and voice acting and D20 and improv comedy.
Obviously that's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea and it can get a little too much I admit, but it's not that bad of a show.
Hi anon,
I am...not sure if you read this in the necessary context (this provides some, and this some more, and if I'm being totally honest based on this I don't feel like you read my entire weird rant, which to be fair, it is long and weird but covers quite a lot of issues I have) but I am coming in with the premise of "I think heavy post production of actual play is a poor choice." It don't care that it's their strength; I think that if that's your strength you would do better to apply it to scripted works or to improvised non-actual play shows.
I will freely admit that I went in expecting it not to be my cup of tea for that reason, and with an added grudge of "being hyped up and cited as brilliant by Polygon's AP/TTRPG team, with whom I almost always disagree," but did genuinely want to give it a shot in as good faith as I could muster, instead of solely talking shit about. I hoped the acting, premise, and GM-ing might shine through even though the effects were unlikely to win me over and indeed were likely to annoy me.
That was not the case. I found the GM-ing (Driving?) style profoundly grating and pretentious (and I have a very high tolerance for pretension), the premise nothing to write home about, and honestly I don't know jack about sound mixing but I do know I have perfectly good hearing and had to crank my laptop speakers up to higher than I have to for CR or D20 for the prologue to the prologue only to subsequently hear some of the most irritating static sounds at top volume for the prologue, so I'm not even impressed by the production.
And to be clear: that's all fine. I think people are drawn to different aspects in actual play, and there's room for all sorts of shows. I might even finish this episode simply because if I were recommending something to someone else, and they quit an hour into a 3.5 hour episode, I'd feel a little miffed. But I really don't expect it to ever be my thing, and I watched it mostly because it felt uninformed to be criticizing heavy production in actual play without watching a notably deliberately heavily produced actual play show.
I do want to wrap up, and this isn't specifically directed at you but: when it comes to my opinions on a work, I'm not going to say I'm never going to be swayed by an anon ask because who knows, it could happen, but it's very unlikely. If I dislike something, I don't really care if other people like it - I'd never send anons or get on their posts or maintag something like the post I just made (and which I made nonrebloggable specifically to prevent it from spreading into fan spaces) but I hope that people who like something can show me the same respect and permit my dislike. If you're a fan I will not be offended nor resentful if you unfollow or block me or whatever you need to do, but I can pretty confidently say that new cast members or improved acting will not change the fact that this is extremely not for me.
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eddiediass · 1 year
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You don't need to answer this if you don't want to, but you said you disliked Buck's storylines and him in general atm- what do you think it would take for you to like them/him again? Besides the taking accountability thing (which, i have to admit, i don't agree with 100%, but is definitely a fair point), what would you like to see happen?
I think this is a good question!
I'll try to keep it relatively concise, so the tl;dr answer is that the taking accountability issue is by far the largest one in my opinion, and it would resolve a lot of the other issues I've been having with respect to his character.
(putting the rest under a read more. this got so much longer than I expected. So much for brevity lol.)
I started to go off on a rant, but I deleted that in order to focus more directly on the question you're asking me lol. So here goes:
I would like to see Buck apologize to Chim for hiding the fact that he knew where Maddie was and for minimizing the severity of the situation. I want him to say that he misjudged the situation, and I think that conversation can be really interesting as an extension of the conversation Eddie had with Buck on Buck's balcony. This isn't gonna happen either, but I wish he was called out for dragging his relationship on with Taylor and also for deciding to do the sperm donation. Why does he get a free pass where no one calls him out on his shit?
He fucked up. That's not the end of the world. But I'm not getting any sense that he even understands that. Suddenly he's so chill about "donor, not dad?" And I don't think this is an issue of not having seen the entirety of the season yet (because I know so many people love to bring that up as a point). If he is okay with that now, why are we not seeing him get there? It's like the writing is saying "okay, here's point A. There's point Z. We won't show you how we got there, but that's where we're at."
So I think the way that the arc is being developed (or has developed) adds to this effect of Buck seemingly not taking accountability for his actions.
Next:
I can't change this part, so I don't know how to "solve" it, but to have Buck's arc culminate into a "be yourself <3" message was a slap in the face to all the work that every other character had to undergo (outside of Chim because unfortunately, he hasn't yet gone through a proper arc of his own since season 2) and the responsibility they had to take for the repercussions of their own actions.
Bobby worked so fucking hard to get to a point where he chose life over lying with his dead family and the guilt that carried. Maddie nearly committed suicide, but also chose to get out of the ocean for her baby and Chim—and we were there for her conversation with Chim about her leaving and what that did to them as a family. Eddie has consistently shown that, where he fucks up, he will apologize to Chris and, not only that, he has taken the actual steps to not make those same mistakes. Also, Eddie apologized to Bobby after what he said in 5x11. He was out of line, and he, again, acknowledged that.
So, since I can't do anything about that disappointment, I need to see him make an active effort to believe that the people around him love him and want him in his life. I think for him, that would manifest as acts of service as the golden retriever that he is.
I think I've said this already, but a lot of suicidal ideation is, for lack of a better word, selfish and disingenuous to the people around you who are begging to love you and who want to see you happy. It's not easy to believe that that's true nor is it easy to believe that you have a place in this world—especially when life isn't panning out exactly how you expected. But you have to make that effort. And you have to acknowledge that your depression doesn't happen in a vacuum.
A lot of the things that I'm discussing are what we saw in season 3, actually! Buck apologized to Eddie and acknowledged he was too much in his own head to see how his actions affect everyone around him. He also showed up for Eddie and Chris with the skateboard. I also loved how he and Chim worked together because they both sensed Maddie was in danger! The key thing too is that Buck was endearing and eager throughout most of the series, but has lately been written as almost... dumb.
It doesn't help that what was meant to be this big emotional arc was turned into one long masturbation joke for 6a. How am I meant to feel compelled by that? If they want to continue with his healing journey, then I need to see a change in tone from what they've been doing before. Give it weight.
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sketching-shark · 7 months
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Ngl sometimes i feel bad abt disliking LMK so much because some of my friends like it alot and one of them hyperfixates on it. But then i remember just how badly it fucked up in depicting Sun Wukong's character that im pretty sure even villainous portrayals of him in media have given him more dignity, how Six ears basically got woobified and Karma Houdinied despite the show itself showing him as a pretty fucked up villain in S1, how much the Eng Dub butchered the hell out of the Bull Demon Family's dynamic and that this show basically removed one of the core aspects of the story (Buddhism) and then i suddenly dont feel that bad anymore.
Plus its not like they know my actual opinions abt it. As long as they dont ask i think im good lol
Monkie Kid spoilers & complaining & likely exaggerating things below so avert thine eyes if you don't want to see all that
gterewfs not to add even more to the apparently intolerable trend of bringing up Xiyouji when talking about Monkie Kid but it is kind of funny how I've now seen multiple people say a lot of their dislike of the lego show comes from knowing how Sun Wukong can be depicted when he's not being written as a cringefail hermit (X_X). And as is @seasonalsummers if pressed you can probably just tell your friends that Monkie Kid just isn't your thing & leave it at that. Because yeah I've spoken before how it's not fair to expect people to make their way through the ~1,400 pages of the best English translation of the og classic in developing their sense of the journey and Sun Wukong's whole deal, and the vast diversity of depictions of the Monkey King in retellings does seem to stand testament to how much this monkey can be changed to suit the needs of a story. And as is the existence of Zaju Xiyou Ji does demonstrate how even in China this monkey's had bouts of being depicted as little more than a selfish clown, so maybe this is just the west's version of that lol.
THAT SAID, aaaaaAAAAAAA yeah genuinely is baffling and frustrating watching many people cheer and clap for what feels like the constant traumatization of Qi Xiaotian and the constant use of Sun Wukong as Monkie Kid's punching bag. Like heavens to betsy Flying Bark has so relentlessly focused on how thoroughly SWK screws up everything in both the past and the present and apparently, on his own admission, spent the entirely of his immortality doing little except making one mistake after another (i.e. routinely fucking up his life and the lives of everyone around him) that one really is left wondering why any of the show's cast would want to be even within 50 miles distance of this monkey, which is definitely something made all the more awesome by the sense that maybe the main reason is because the obvious villains of every season are explicitly trying to take over/ blow up the entire world rather than blundering their way into that position :(. And that's a dynamic definitely made even MORE awesome by everyone's favorite poor little meow meow never did anything wrong ever the Six-Eared Macaque spending the majority of his screen time both beating the tar out of Qi Xiaotian and telling anyone who will listen what a dumb bitch Sun Wukong is before the show then bends over backwards to validate his claims all while making sure he's never even slightly called out for the shit he pulls, with the clear favoritism made all the more clearer by such facts as Sun Wukong got screamed at by Long Xiaojiao in an extensive and dramatic scene for putting basically the monkie gang and the entirety of reality in danger through his doofus decisions and yet even though she literally watched the shadow simian beat Qi Xiaotian into unconsciousness and literally had her life seriously threatened by this same monkey until Tang Shifu started oh yeah the Fire of Samadhi ritual she's apparently perfectly fine with working with Mr. Six not long after. Add on top of that the way it now feels like SWK's not even really allowed to be friends with anyone except Macaque or even to interact with any of his other former besties in any meaningful way, and well this is really making for a not fun situation that keeps steering the plot away from some of the most interesting fun and heartfelt things that Monkie Kid could have done. And then on top of that Flying Bark has now shown themselves to have this habit of spending the majority of each season focusing on what a screw-up SWK is before waiting until the last possible episode before characters who up to that point couldn't have made their hatred for the Monkey King and Qi Xiaotian by extension more clear start pulling out abrupt and honestly hand-wavey reasons for why they suddenly like him. IDK! I like a good redemption arc but that's not something you can speedrun and then pretend like it's even remotely satisfying! And definitely doesn't do SWK any favors with the way he just stands there maybe looking kind of sad while someone yells at him for sucking entire before he runs off to suck at everything again and is barely ever allowed to be explicitly and messily upset about that or about what a colossal failure his life is or idk mayhaps what happened to the og pilgrims that apparently resulted in their premature deaths!! For as much as people keep saying they want characters to redeem themselves through living and working to be better and be upset and fucked up about their pasts well it sure might be nice in this situation if we actually got to spend some time on that instead of just relentlessly piling one catastrophic blunder on top of the other! tsetawraer sorry for the rant but yeah still pretty shocked on how much a silly lego show that started off as having fun adventures with the Monkey King would turn into the grimdark adventures of Young Man Traumatized, Asshole Goku, and the Stalker Shadow (X_X)
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redtail-lol · 1 year
Text
It's autism acceptance month which means it's time to light it up #redinstead and listen to autistic voices! If you're an allistic ally or especially a parent or guardian of a child with autism, here are some things to know:
Autism speaks is an organization that has hurt many more people than it helps. We really don't like it. If you've been a well meaning donor and participant of Light it up Blue in the past, make this month the month you change that. We will forgive you for not knowing.
High and low functioning labels are disliked by the community, especially people who are considered "low functioning." Everyone can function when their needs are met. We seek to replace high functioning with low support needs and low functioning with high support needs.
You do not know your child best. Your child knows your child best. Speaking about being a parent of an autistic child is okay but don't ever use that to speak over autistic people.
Take your kids out of ABA if they're in ABA. I don't care if they behave better. They're not having the roots of the problem fixed, they're just being rewarded for suppressing their symptoms. If you really want to healthily deal with problems involving meltdowns and self harming stims (hitting themselves, banging their head on things, the like) find what's upsetting your kid that makes them do that and avoid it. If your kid doesn't speak, speaking is painful. Don't force them. Learn ASL with them, most nonverbal autistic kids can learn ASL. Other symptoms ABA is "fixing" do not need to be "fixed." People who support ABA may say it's only old ABA that's bad, and there are good results, but even without punishments, ABA just forces autistic people to mask and appear neurotypical in a way that causes them immense distress. Don't listen to the people who make money off of it. There is no good ABA. It was created by the same piece of shit that created gay conversion therapy and has the same principle: suppress your feelings and pretend to be straight even if it makes you uncomfortable and unhappy.
If your autistic kid who is NOT in ABA and never has been is not having meltdowns or hurting themselves: they're happy. You've succeeded as a parent in meeting their needs.
Picky eating can be solved by not feeding your child things they do not like. Especially older kids, they know what they do and don't like. If your child, autistic or allistic, has consistent dislikes, then stop feeding them the foods they dislike. Food texture aversion is a real sensory sensitivity and certain flavors and textures don't go together. Whatever the reason is, don't feed any child things they don't want to eat after they've passed the phase of only eating ice cream or only white food turned no white food (I had that phase.) They know what they enjoy.
When talking about the struggles of caring for moderate to high support needs autistic people, be mindful of the struggles they're going through too. It'll always be worse for them. Don't demean us, and when you talk about the struggles, add in "I know it must be much harder for them, though, and it's worth it to make my kid happy and comfortable."
Aspergers is an outdated term named after a nazi. Some autistic people may identify as people with aspergers, but avoid using the term unless you know someone considers themselves that way.
Most autistic people use identity first language. Other people with autism use person first language. Some of us don't care.
While some autistic people do want to have a cure, donating to cure research will either be wasted or, in the event one is found, will lead to cures forced onto children who cannot decide whether or not they want to be cured.
A lot of this is sentiment shared by others! Please listen to other autistics, especially higher support needs autistics!!
Oh and medical papers stop assuming the reader is a parent and can't be an autistic person looking for their own symptoms challenge. Especially when it's centered on autistic teens.
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heretherebedork · 6 months
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I’m not defending Mew I’m just saying it’s wrong that Boston hasn’t committed crimes. Plus everyone is gonna have their own interpretation of scenes in the show. For me, Boston isn’t really the least worst of them, that would probably be Sand. IMO Boston didn’t really take no for an answer bc he continued pushing Top on multiple occasions and he didn’t get consent before touching him multiple times, that’s pretty bad in my book. It might not be for other people but it is for me. That doesn’t mean I dislike Boston or that I am defending Mew, Boston is one of my favorite characters. But he’s also done some fucked up shit. I’d put it at worse than cocaine and not as bad as drunk driving. It doesn’t mean his friends aren’t also assholes too, it’s just a fact about him without bringing other people’s actions into it.
Okay? As I said. All toxic. Everyone is going to have their opinion and their own view.
So why are you trying to convince me?
Honestly, I sort of disagree. I think that Boston is still the least wrong. Sand deliberately used Ray in order to get revenge on Top as well as using his friendship with Nick to get the recording that is now haunting the entire friend group.
Boston is an ass and a selfish person but he's damn close to Sand levels for me. Because he also owns everything he does and doesn't push back against accusations unless they're genuinely untrue.
The other question of Boston's actions goes to an entire part of this that I am not an expert on which is discussing the gay sex scene and understanding in Thailand which is one reason I have been avoiding judging Boston for his and Top's moments because I have seen a lot of discourse about how many non-gay Asians misinterpreted those scenes though foreign eyes and I am not going to add my voice to the chorus of things I don't fully understand.
But at this point? I am a staunch Boston apologist because I feel like the show is setting him up to suffer more than the people doing this to him. As much as I want to trust Jojo, I don't know that I do trust him and GMMTV to actually handle Cheum seeing her own mistakes or owning up to them because her mistakes fit the morality they follow. Same for Mew.
Look, it's great that you feel different about Boston's actions and I'm very happy you do. Please... make a post about it! Share all your reasons with the world! Write some great meta! Go and do it!
But trying to convince me to change my mind is not gonna get the answer you want.
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iravaid · 1 year
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Art tips I beg of you share your wisdom
Oh god oh fuck I'll try, a lot of my art process is vibes only, i kind of just zone out and Draw and a picture appears
I have to stress that practice is the most important part of art, even if said art looks shit and you feel like the world is ending because you're not doing well/making tangible process/it's not turning out how you want. Gotta push through that by accepting that hey, sometimes your art turns out looking Janky, so what? You still took the time and effort to make art, and you're more of an artist than you were before starting the piece. You can sit back and figure out how to constructively criticise yourself without destroying your own self confidence for the sake of a viewer who isn't there. Practice being neutral about noting the parts you dislike - 'this anatomy is awful and I'm shit at it, why do i bother' isn't going to help as much as sitting back, going 'damn that looks weird, lol' and then looking up reference photos similar to what you'd been hoping to draw and figuring out where things went wrong.
When starting with a drawing, person or animal, I find myself focusing on the silhouette initially. Sometimes i might play around with a solid colour, or focus on the outline with a thin-ish pen. It helps to be aware of certain curves on a form and how it relates to other features of the body proportionally. Look at the empty spaces on the piece and look back to those in the reference, or your own intuition, flip the canvas etc, and see if it looks 'right'. Get funky with it when in the draft stage
Tracing for practice and reference also helps - but don't trace blindly, instead use it as a chance to figure out how the lines of a person/animal/construct move, and how can you replicate that in art. Make guidelines and notes on how things are proportionate to each other, isolate singular lines and practice them over and over to build up the muscle memory.
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kind of like the above, where I used photos of an oc's faceclaim (Andy Lau) and traced over them, isolated certain features, made guidelines, and so on
When figuring out how to draw faces, I use a couple little anatomy tricks to keep things in line before tweaking some of the features to make things more unique:
Corners of the mouth tend to align with the top of the jaw. The corners of the mouth also align with the pupils if a front-facing figure is looking straight on. The inner corners of both eyes align with the outer nostrils. Top of the ears align with the top of the eyelid and earlobes align with the bottom of the nose.
This can change depending on feature size etc, some people have bigger or smaller eye or theyre close together or further apart, or they have large earlobes or none at all, or their nose is small or big. I just use it as a guideline to make sure features are in order because. Uh. I keep forgetting to draw in the guides during the draft stage.
Variability of the human face lends well to avoiding same face syndrome as you can stretch the features quite a bit. It may feel weird or wrong drawing a face with different features to how you're used to, but that's the point of practice and progress.
For rendering I found using the colour zones of the face (shown below) adds a lot of oomph and depth after finding my own rendering attempts falling a bit flat.
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(above, from Gurney Journey describing the colour zones of the face)
(below, by ArtofYorugami on twitter)
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I make the three colour bands, blend them to the contours of the face, then set the layer to multiply and lower the opacity to around 10-20%, and make further tweaks there to where it best suits the face being drawn.
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Other little things
Eyes aren't totally white, make them a touch grayer and also add a little bit of blue to give it some depth. Same with teeth but I've yet to figure those freaks out
Hands are the devil but draw them enough times and you can flub your way through them until they feel normal. Would recommend having at least one finger in a different position to the rest, as our hands naturally rest with the index finger away from the rest. Again, use a reference, trace for research and building muscle memory, be cognizant of the muscles and bones at play in the hand and wrist. There are reference compilations on pinterest I've found in the past that have been helpful, and taking a photo of your own hand is an option as well.
A hand's palm width across is also the height of your lower face. That sentence doesn't make a lot of sense - but if you put your hand over your mouth, the top will be touching the bottom of your nose, and the bottom of your hand will align with your chin, more or less. Again, this can change from person to person but is helpful when eyeballing proportions.
Reference sites like x6ud is very helpful for angles of people and animals. Apps like Handy are helpful with figuring out how certain angles of light interact with the face. Videos like this one and this one are also good lighting references. Just looking up 'face under different light angles' on a search engine or pinterest will also be fruitful. Books like Michel Lauricella 's Morpho - Fat and Skin Folds is also very useful and you can find free pdfs online with enough safe digging. And there are a number of tutorials by tumblr artists on a number of desired topics
For expressions, it can be difficult to word the search right to find the specific look and angle you want as a reference. If you're willing, I'd recommend taking a photo of yourself making the expression at the intended angle. No one but you has to see the photo lmao
Uhhh. Multiply, overlay, add (glow) are your friends if you use CSP, play around with pens and layer effects until you get ones you like. I'm partial to the CSP textured pen for lineart and the watercolour pen for rendering
I think that's all i have ahjfjdks 😭 sorry, hope this helped a little bit!
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noccolibroccoli · 11 months
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18, 21, 23
im probably just gonna answer these for xs mostly bc that's what i've spent the most time in but if i have thoughts on other fandoms i'll add those too
anyway
18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...
raijack raijack raijack raijack raijack raijack raijack raijack raijack
like ok they barely interacted in canon but it just baffles me that there's so little content for them STILL after all this time. like. hello? they're foils to each other? they both struggle a lot with trying to play the role they're in? they're the same age? in the bean inception episode rai literally pictures himself in jack's clothes at one point? im not even reading ship shit into that it's just, there's a lot of narrative potential there for how they see each other as extensions of how they see themselves???? anyway
21. part of canon you think is overhyped
ok i can probably think of a couple of things for this. uhhhh...sly cooper, the first game. i think probably because i actually played the second and third ones before i ever played sly 1 but as much fun as it is I don't think it holds up nearly as well as the others do.uhhhh sonic ummmmmmm..........the 90s animated shows. they're fun, they have good bits, but again I don't think they hold up super well especially when you look at what the franchise has been doing storytellingwise in the last couple of years. not to say i don't like them, because I do, but I feel like people hold them (specifically satam) up as some like, untouchably good shows and they're. they're low-budget animated saturday morning schlock from the 90s. i can't actually think of anything for xs.
23. ship you've unwillingly come around to
HMMMMMMMMM this one is tough. uhhhhh. hm. HM. hm. I guess I hate Chuya a lot less than I did when I was more active in the fandom just because it's funny to think of them as being Extremely Divorced (which is pretty much canon anyway). uh...............................god i remember back when i was into danny phantom i didn't like grey ghost but now i feel like if you have to pair danny up with ANYONE then valerie makes the most sense? i still don't really ship it though. I don't really ship him with anyone. other than that idk. i don't really have a lot of ships i actively dislike and the ones I do I haven't really changed my mind on.
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ac-liveblogs · 1 year
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Love how the payoff for psychologically torturing a woman is said woman showing up in the background as an extra during nilou's dance cutscene. Great use of time. Great characterisation for Nahida.
Also love how Cyno is like "Treason against an archon is the greatest crime." Violations of privacy? Kidnapping? Discrimination against desertfolk? Stealing dreams? Not worth mentioning!
Like, this is clearly the part where under a competent writer Cyno lays down All The Crimes and then adds up All The Years spent in jail as a pre-battle taunt, but bc HYV is absolutely OBSESSED with archons and nothing else it all has to come down to Nahida.
Additionally, the obsession with archons really harms narrative tensions and discourses around legitimacy. Are the sages illegitimate because they've done bad things and tyrannically centralised power? Or because they stole Sumeru from Nahida? is Nahida a good god because she's trying to protect her people? Or is it just because she's an archon? The way the traveller is constantly saying "you've always been a good archon." instead of "I believe in you. Until now, you've been imprisoned, but now you're free, you'll do amazing." Implies the latter which is frankly kinda basic.
At least this quest was a lot more consistent than Inazuma. They have a proper resistance, the cast is involved, the plan makes sense, when the status quo is bad, they don't wait like 9 months to change it in Nahida story act 2.
The Akasha thing is funny, though. We get like 15 minutes of people shit talking it, then Nahida says it's the greatest invention ever, also we're shelving it permanently because even though it was integral to defeating Scara and represented the combined wisdom of all humanity it's bad.
One unironically good thing tho! We finally have an opponent who the national team cant shit on bc holy cow do you need skill healing to deal with scaramouche! Or at least I do (my bennett doesn't heal enough OR get his burst back in time). I do kinda dislike how they shoehorn you into ranged attackers for phase two, though. I guess it's another Yoimiya buff?
I was wondering if the Setaria thing would actually be addressed in Nahida's personal quest, which I haven't played yet. But yeah I was at least expecting Nahida to mention off hand something about apologising/explaining to her in some way. Guess we'll see!
The issue, imho, with having Cyno giving the Sages the verbal smackdown for All the Bads They Did is that, as General Mahamatra, he's complicit in a lot of them himself - though as an enforcer. You could handwave about how he mostly targets runaway scholars or whatever, but he was still absolutely part of the Akademiya's upper echelon and condoned everything else the Akademiya did that he was aware of - at least by association.
Which at the very least is the discrimination and dumping of mad scholars in Aaru Village and apparent authorization of torture on suspects. And I do kind of wonder how much he knew and didn't speak up about? He's way too high up the chain to have been completely out of the loop. Same deal with Alhaitham, honestly, but at least the narrative acknowledges he's shady.
The dream stealing at least was in the Akasha by design...? I did wonder about the Akasha, being controlled by the Sages, as an analogue to China's Great Firewall - especially regarding the threads about the people that rely on it too much becoming unthinking automatons that blindly and uncritically swallow whatever information (or propaganda) they're fed. "Internet good, but also, internet bad." I wonder how intentional that was.
Additionally, the obsession with archons really harms narrative tensions and discourses around legitimacy.
YES!!! YES SO MUCH!!! They wasted so much time focusing on dead gods that half the cast barely did anything interesting at all! The concept of a character besides the Archon having a character arc during the main story is apparently beyond HYV entirely! What's the point of upping the playable characters in the cast if most of them aren't doing anything interesting? We really spent all that time talking about Deshret and meeting Rukkha's Ghost of Validation instead of building up Scaramouche as a credible, relevant threat? Making use of Collei's character at all???
Like, I acknowledge the ways this quest is more technically competent than Inazuma - the pacing is more level, use of the playable cast has improved dramatically, etc. But man, Genshin is still struggling to find ways to use it's non-Archon characters, and even then it only seems to do so reluctantly. I don’t think anyone changed or grew at all during the main story, which is buck wild to me when the cast is so large. 
Is Nahida a good Archon because she cares about her people and her people would prefer her? I don't know, should we have her interact with the main cast in any meaningful way before the epilogue? Nahhhh, she's the Rightful Archon and the Sages Are Mean, so she needs to be rescued (valid) and returned to power because... she's the Archon and... she's nice? Is she a good Archon? I don't know, but she's certainly Nice and Cares About Them.
I’m honestly more interested in the new 6 Sages. Also, the sages are doing fucking community service because Nahida is too goddamn nice, gh-----
Honestly, I found the plan extremely convoluted and unnecessarily so - problems you run into when you go out of your way to establish how COOL AND POWERFUL AND AMAZING the Traveller is, but the Traveller also can't just kick down the Akademiya's front door and storm right in - even once we've recruited Cyno. It's a particular pet peeve of mine when a team sits down, lays out a plan, and then it goes off without a hitch. The plan should always go wrong! The game faking out the plan going off the rails and then going back to reaffirm "no, actually, all according to keikaku!", flashbacks and all, really annoyed me. It actually reads as lazy, even if the writing is more involved.
The closest we got was the mess with Dottore, but even then the takeaway was "eh we're fine after all", so. Whatever.
/squints at the Scaramouche boss/ I honestly wasn't impressed with his boss design. It's baffling to me that the first really giant boss we get... in the region that spent a considerable amount of time training us to use their ziplines to get faster/higher easier... didn't incorporate that gameplay into the fight at all (beyond letting you jump a couple metres at a time to grab bunny-cannon ammo). I also just used Kazuha DPS because I wanted to pretend that storyline had any climactic payoff whatsoever. I don't use meta teams and quite honestly the idea of burning through a boss as quickly as possible kind of annoys me on principle so... eh.
on the plus side, the kaveh and alhaitham scenes were actually funny. kudos to whoever wrote those, they felt like actual characters with history and an established, amusing dynamic and distinct personalities! unlike cyno, who still hasn’t told one bad joke-
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druid-delaluna · 1 year
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may i ask what happens between you, the fandom, and the crew if you're comfortable recounting? im thinking about getting back into eddsworld after a rocky start in the fandom, but if stuff is worse then..
I want to say firstly if you want to join the fandom don't let my views or story sway you in any way. It's all under the cut please don't go harassing people on my behalf or because you feel you're doing anything good.
A lot of people were victims, including myself of the crew (and by crew I mean those active in the Eddsworld discord before the Patreon change) aggressive and just mean behavior and actions. I'm talking a lot of mad shit spoken, arguments, fights, petty ass drama, and in my case. A lie created by Oblivion/Neep/Prince Jayden to have me kicked from the server. (from what I understand Collin/Jon and a few other crew members were involved as well)That I leaked the Patreon when I never had paid for it. I never had access to it. Either they knew this and didn't care or Bing forgot to mention old mods didn't have to pay for it. I really don't care who did it as most of them dislike me. They didn't like that I was quite blunt with my disapproval and had harsh opinions on their behavior and what was going on with the show. So since they couldn't actually just outright kick me, they figure getting me with this lie was good enough. Bing coming to apologize wasn't because he actually cared, it was more or less damage control pushed by another person, who I got all this information from. Then, you add in all the past grooming and SA crap that happened last summer. On top of these same people going to harass server members and their ex-friends. It is toxic, it is shameful. You think people who have done such bad things would wake up to the fact maybe you're the bad guy in this. You are doing terrible things for what? Your name on a show riddle with issues? Don't you have anything else going for you? I realize I'm tired, I got burnt out fighting and fighting for what I thought was the right thing but man I'm getting old myself I got a lot of opportunities elsewhere.
Regarding fandom, those very same people are now working on the show (SKL was involved too) so it's like I don't want to see them of course. So better I leave, block it all, and try to find some calm back in my fandom/internet life. As well as my own friends being targeted by them or by others over very petty nonsense. I feel bad that perhaps Jayden and the rest are targeting my friends cause of me, maybe they're trying to get at me. So leaving might make it easier on them. I'm not sure. There have been some awful harassment and bullying issues. The fact fandom rightfully opens the discussion of using fascism tropes with the red army but then ignores the rampant racism going on. Also since so many of the older fans are leaving, the younger ones are starting to repeat the same harmful discussions of irl vs show and using that dead man name to push their views.
(Take this next part with a hard grain of salt) Down to the fact that we might not know 100% what happen between Edd Gould and Cal from the google docs. But when I asked Matt about it he couldn't seem to tell us that Cal was an adult at the time of their relationship. I know England laws are different than the states but if you can't just say your friend was dating an adult and kinda avoiding the discussion something very weird going on.
Now if you wanna come back, just stick in your own lane, make your little friend groups, and just have fun is my best advice. Avoid these users as they are very twoface like the rest of the crew. During my time as curator and I got to see those masks drop when they realize you didn't suck up to them. It wasn't just me they acted like this with and I feel so bad for others they hurt to get the positions they have today. It wasn't fair and I understand why removing the one person who stood up to it all was in their mindset as they continue to harm others. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was just all in my head but after finding out from one of them what really happen, it fucking disgusting why they did this. Hope this help explain why I left the fandom and why I dislike the crew so much.
UPDATE: 5/1/2023 As of today Oblivion and Neepin have reached out to apologize for their involvement and behavior towards me and others. I appreciate this and I'm glad they are coming to see what they did was very wrong.
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I like the concept of fae. I think they can be really interesting if done well. However, popular YA/NA fae books left me utterly allergic to touching any popular books with fae in it, specially if they say "read this book if you like SJM". I think fae are really interesting supernatural creatures and it has so much potential to be intertwined into different unique concepts and cultures, but in a lot of NA/YA they're essentially horny humanoid beings with a big dick and wings. I think one of my favourite depiction of fae is probably Holly Black's books, they're not my favourite but she does fae a lot better than most in my opinion because she adds some of the folklore to it as well as some twists and delves into the trickery and sly nature of the fae which is pretty cool. I don't hate far, in fact I ver much like them I just often dislike the execution of their portrayal. I think SJM's fae kind of inspired a generation of smutty books with little to no plot or character development disguised as fae fantasy novels. Like if you changed what the supernatural creature in a lot of these books to vampires or to something else apart from some details the story would still remain the same, them being fae doesn't affect the story in any way shape or form. I don't know if im making sense but forgive my rant. I know I haven't read your novel but from the little snippets I've seen I personally really like what you did with the way you write fae, I think it's really cool, so I hope I get to see more depictions of fae I enjoy. Also gl with your query lovely! I can't wait to read your book!
Yeah, I agree with pretty much everything you said! I don't like Holly Black's books mainly because (from the books I've read) her characters are always so mean and hateful and it's hard to sympathize or even like any of them. BUT I do think she has fae figured out quite well, and I think partly why they work in her particular storytelling style is precisely because they're all universally such massive, inhuman assholes that not relating to them kind of works in her favor? That being said, I still prefer to like the characters I read about or find at least some of them sympathetic in some way, so even if she portrays fae in a fun and compelling way, I just can't find it in me to enjoy her work.
And thank you so much for your kind words about my book! I don't think the querying will go well tbh, because publishers are (once again, understandably) sick and tired of fae shit that isn't from HB or SJM (aka the moneymakers), while indie is so filled with fae stuff that mine will probably be drowned out for not being horny enough. I don't have high hopes for it lmao, but I'm still excited to show it to people like you, who might enjoy it for what it is! <3
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eyeballtank · 1 month
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Do most games look similar? Kinda
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This image is clearly made to spark shit on /v/ but it does make me think a lot about videogame aesthetics and graphics.
Maybe one reason the games on the right look alike (Besides the cherrypicked screenshots because each has moments where they don't look alike) is because they chase "realism": Videogames may never be "truly realistic" and since the 8th gen, it feels like we hit a wall.
So if anything, these games are going for a rather "shared idea" of realism: That's how you think these games might as well have the same engine, same universe and same people behind.
Of course, you can still point out how stuff like lightning, fire, smoke etc isn't easy to do and even a cel-shaded game with 2D visuals may have some weird oddities in terms of visuals.
And then there's also the usual effects: Motion blur, chromatic aberration, bloom, lens flares, SSAO etc. Stuff tied to post-processing or something.
Is it inherit to games becoming 3D in general? Not sure.
But I believe it can't be because of "realism in general" because with 6th gen games, certain titles were always aiming for "realism" and still have a different "feel/vibe/whatever you call it" compared to 7th gen and beyond.
Maybe how Death Stranding or GTAV look and feel is something Kojima or Rockstar always wanted to achieve even during the PS1.
But it won't change the fact that how MGS2/3 or how GTA VC/SA "feel" may resonate more with people.
Remakes are another good example when you compare Resident Evil 4 to its remake.
Even Crysis, a game once praised for being graphically impressive, gets a remaster and I swear the differences barely mean shit.
I can see someone saying "is this why Zoomers think Half-Life 2 or GMod are creepy?" because of liminal space memes but it shows that even a "realistic enough" game can offer different moods not present in games with generic realism.
And people also associate boring realism with "boring colors" so you have 7th gen shooters being brown/gray and then you get a "counter trend" of Fortnite clones and "looter shooters" with overuse of purple vomit.
Another thing worth bringing up: Yellow paint, which is a result of "realism" where everything blends in visually, when good art direction of making stuff apart can work even in "realism".
Maybe why people disliked the "it knows it's a videogame" direction of Doom Eternal is because it was still a graphically advanced looking game but the yellow paint thing also gets worse because it's applied to remakes, as in, RE4 for example which never needed yellow paint before... but now it does?
It's a side effect of an issue with "realism" where stuff becomes harder to read, so developers come up with these goofy solutions that wouldn't be needed if they had a better art direction.
It also happens that "realistic" games are more likely to age compared to cel-shaded/stylized games like LOZ Wind Waker or Okami (And sometimes, some cel-shaded games get remasters that add bloom or weird color effects).
But one thing is realism, another is fiction or rather, influences/inspirations and certain trends in sci-fi and fantasy.
There's that one image of Everquest 3 I think, that shows a contrast between old and fantasy aesthetics.
One has an image that's essentially a fantasy painting with neat designs and a level of atmosphere/realism, the other shows that specific Warcraft adjacent art style you see more often.
That style people associate with Blizzard, League, Dota, Smite, DarkSiders and more.
Besides the style in itself being overused, I think people hate it because they associate it with being corporate and safe, which adds some irony to its history coming from Blizzard being into Warhammer: A series rather known for being "grim and epic" (But even WH itself would have stuff that's tame and boring).
The Demon Souls remake is a good example because you go from From Software being inspired by dark fantasy and Berserk to something with generic lightning/colors and an official reference for the Flame Lurker literally admitting using Diablo 3 as inspiration.
Even sci-fi in terms of aesthetics has its trends: Part of why Halo fans dislike the 343 art style.
(Mostly because of when tech is meant to be grounded and when it feels like "fantasy" to some degree).
(Oh and this also reminds me of that "magic tech" fantasy in stuff like Immortals Fenyx Rising which I wonder if it's inspired by the Disney Atlantis movie).
So if the fantasy side of things has WoW, Dota, LoL, etc then the sci-fi gets what: 343 Halo? Destiny? Anthem? Warframe? Gears of War?
Even then, these aesthetics could use some "studying" so one can why X feel this way and why Y doesn't etc.
The modern Doom games are at times criticized for having these trends (Specially because Doom is technically both sci-fi and fantasy).
One can at least say that even classic Doom wasn't the only thing in the 90's inspired by Aliens/HR Giger (See Metroid or Contra) and old DnD.
But I guess it also depends of why people like certain aesthetics and the mindsets behind them AND of course: Personal preferences.
A lot of iconic gaming franchises were born out of devs copying media from outside the medium, from Link being inspired by Peter Pan to MGS being a mix of movies, hence Kojima says "My body is 70% made of movies".
Gravity Rush is as unique as it is because Toyama and his team were influenced by Moebius, while the pointless movie will definitely be inspired by the MCU.
We can also bring up Signalis being inspired by Blame! but the aesthetic itself isn't trying to be an old Nihei manga.
Another id example: Hunter from Quake 3 being inspired by Simon Bisley's Full Cirkle.
I was wondering if it counts when certain artists or studios are involved in some games, like Ni No Kuni looking very Ghibli because Ghibli was sort of involved in the first game's cutscenes.
Maybe this is why some don't care that PalWorld may indeed copy Pokemon: Lot of games might as well copy each other already.
Whether it's in AAA or indie games (Even in indie, people will be aware of some trends but not others, like making fun of "quirky Earthbound clone about depression" label that probably applies to only one game but nobody mentions the amount of "boomer shooters" that exist... just saying).
And this isn't just videogames: Think of mediums like films where you see something with good setpieces and then you see something more recent with generic "ahh so pretty" special effects.
Like how people prefer older horror movies that make good use of practical effects or that one time a LOTR movie gave people headaches because of its visuals.
I just saw some images of a Wizard of Oz remake being made and how boring it looks compared to the 1930's one.
Like in general, ask yourself: At what point does this type of realism becomes part of someone's vision and not either a decision by the publisher/executive/etc or just guessing by what mass audiences supposedly like?
Pretty sure Hitchcock had a quote about realism and art: How art being too good at copying realism can make it boring because it's just reproducing nature.
Maybe a lot of amazing paintings from certain eras like the Renaissance are amazing, not because of how realistic they art, but because they're a rather "idealized" form of realism.
Edit: Might as well mention "Uncanny Valley" because of both realisitc games reaching it at times but also how a certain "idealized realism" is lik the opposite of Uncanny Valley.
And I guess how some people deslike stuff that is otherwise impressive to casual viewers like artists such as Sakimichan.
Edit 2: I could've also mentioned how some games do gore, scars, disfiguration etc and how some make it seem "plastic" looking. Look at Ghouls in like Fallout 3 and compared them to FO4, where they looked creepy in the former and look like someone in a rubber suit in the latter.
In general, I like to think there are ways to make a game more impressive nowadays.
Basically, make your game copy great illustrations instead of "realism" or live action movies.
Pay attention to how colors and brushes are used in some artworks.
Copy some designs if you have to, since you'd be less likely to end up with some designs you'd see in an ArtStation account (Even if you just mindlessly follow blogs that post old sci-fi art).
AI art may not work because you need to understand what makes some art good (And if anything, AI art is already used to mimick the more generic art styles out there).
You may not need that many polygons, maybe go for a 6th gen style at best.
Do a good job with colors, textures etc.
And while your game does a good enough job at copying Moebius, Druillet, Barlowe, Nihei etc, I guess you could also try neat tech shit like reflections or "portals", like the 2006 Prey game.
In general: Make your game look like a painting, not a movie.
And about my stuff?
My game looks ugly for a lot of reasons like its weird resolution, me focusing more on other stuff, the fact that it's my first game, etc.
But I do hope someday to not only get better art but also better at taking influences more seriously.
Lot of stuff in Nortubel already copies some things and I hope to be better at copying some things even if I can't do it alone.
Chances are that even in Nortubel itself, I'll end up with some trendy elements but I still wanna give an impression of some creativity and preferences.
In general, this blog post could've been an article or video done better by someone (So feel free to use this as a reference), because if I'm terrible at "critique" or "essays", I hope to be much better at making games and actual stuff.
This post should also be useful for anyone who wants to be a dev.
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