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#but no piece of Lion King media really Goes There
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darkest secrets (part 2 of FRIENDSHIP TEST)
Pairing: jack harlow x famous!reader
Genre: fluff
A/N: i think you can read this part alone, but for more context it is better to read the first part. Also, originally this was going to be just one part, but I already wrote a third one today 💀, I really liked this concept of the interviews, so i'll post it soon!
PART 1 HERE
enjoy! hope you like it
Ever since the Friendship Test video, the world has gone crazy when it comes to your friendship with Jack. And not only the fans, obviously also the media: all the magazines, all the youtube channels, all the late night shows, etc, each and every one of them wanted a piece of you and Jack.
After thousands of calls, emails, conversations between your manager and Jack's, finally his schedule coincided with yours, and you agreed to give the world more of the two of you.
This sudden interest in your relationship was a great opportunity for both of you careers, but none of that mattered to you seconds from seeing Jack again.
your makeup artist was doing the finishing touches when you heard a knock on your dressing room door.
"come in!" you yelled, and saw the figure of jack appear behind the door. your heart skipped a beat, and you couldn't help but smile, as jack felt exactly the same, the butterflies in his stomach almost unbearable as you got up from the chair and hugged him with all your strength.
“I missed you” he whispered in your hair.
“missed you too” you said separating yourself from his body and looking at his eyes, you couldn't help but squeeze his face and he smiled harder.
***
“okay guys, the game it’s just questions and answers, there are cards face down on the table that have the questions, if the conversation flows from one of them, just continue, until there is nothing more to say, you pick another” the producer said and you both nodded.
first you recorded your greetings and then continued with the game.
“who goes first?” you asked
“ladies first”, jack answered and you rolled your eyes, but you picked a card.
“what is your worst fear?” you read, “uhh, we started off hard” jack smiled and thought for a few seconds before answering
“losing the people that I love” he said, and you pouted. smiling, he put his thumb to your lips, undoing the pout, "don't pout, luckily it hasn't happened to me yet" you smiled, but inside you felt your pulse quicken from the brief contact, too intimate for the cameras, but too natural between you. He picked his first card.
“how do you see yourself in ten years?” he asked and you thought for a few seconds.
“I hope starting my own family… with someone who loves me and that i can trust” you said.
“so cute” he commented, and you felt the heat permeate your cheeks.
"Which animal do you identify with?" you read, "ohh, let me guess please" you said, and jack nodded, the smile never leaving his face, "with a lion"
"I quite like that answer" he said, leaving you in suspense
"But is that what you were thinking?"
"yes", he confessed, "they are the king of the jungle... besides, I think I look a bit like them" he said, touching his beard and then his hair, you laughed loudly
"you're so stupid"
“but you love me”
“yes” you quickly admitted, making him smile
“love you too”
“I know”
“cocky” he joked, and you shrugged your shoulders, smiling. He picked another card.
“Who is your celebrity crush?”
“Ummm”, you thought, “well, I have two actually”, jack raised his eyebrows in expectation, "first one is leo dicaprio, but but I'm on the verge of failure, I only have a year to conquer him” you said, making the behind-the-scenes crew laugh. you smiled hoping not to get in trouble for that comment, “and the second one is harry styles, but this time i’m too young for him, since he likes older women” you said pouting and jack laughed
“obviously one of your crushes was going to be harry styles”
“are you saying I’m too predictable?” You said pretending you were offended
“nah, I’m just saying that he seems the type of guy you would like”
“Reallyyy?”
“Yes”
“And how do you think is the type of guy I like?”
“physically? tall, with curls, light eyes. personality, well, i don't know what harry is like, so I don't know if I'm going to describe him or not, but i know you like to laugh a lot so he must be funny, and i know you like to have deep conversations, so he must be interested in different types of art and things like that”
“Wow, i didn't know you knew me so well” he winked at you and you laughed, “ok, who is your celebrity crush?” you asked, emphasizing the word "your"
“You”, he said without hesitation, you rolled your eyes
“Be for real jack”, you said and he laughed almost nervously
“Im being for real!”
“I know who your celebrity crush is” you said crossing your arms over your chest and jack had to use all his willpower not to look away at your cleavage
“oh, yeah?”
“yeah”
“And who is it?”
“Alexa Demie”
He laughed, “you caught me”, he said, and even if you didn't want it your stomach fell in disappointment, you would have liked him to keep insisting that you were his celebrity crush, but you knew you weren't.
“You know… if you had admitted that, I would have give you a free pass to be with her” you said without thinking
“Oh, you would give me a free pass?” He said, emphasizing the “you”, and you blushed
“Yes, because I own you”, you said quickly, trying to make your slip pass as a joke, not letting him see your nervousness. He laughed loudly.
“although you’re not wrong”, he said this time and you blushed harder, but rolled your eyes in an attempt to seem calm.
“It drives me crazy when you roll your eyes”, he said almost in a whisper, like only for you to hear, but he knew he was using a microphone. You gulped hard.
“Would you give me a free pass to be with harry styles?” You said, trying to ignore his comment, getting back on topic
“Oh, so you’re implying that I own you?”
“Maybe”, you said elevating one of your shoulders and one of your eyebrows, he smiled widely.
“I would not”, he answered, and your smile dropped.
“What!”
“I don’t like to share”
“I gave you a free pass! I take it back”
“Fine by me, I only want you”
“Jackkkk”, you whined, “stop it!” he just smiled at you, he knew he was making you nervous and he loved it, for a second you just looked at each other, and then you spoke, “you want to pick a card? Since I made the last question” you said, but he ignored your instruction, asking you directly
“Who was your first celebrity crush?” He asked, really interested to know the answer.
“Mmmm, my first celebrity crush was Daniel Radcliffe, you know who he is?”
“I don’t think so”
“The actor that played harry potter, I remember seeing him in the first movie when I was five or maybe six, and found him cute, but when I saw the third one, oh my god”, you widened your eyes and jack raised a brow, “I fell in love”
Jack was trying so hard not to show his jealousy, he couldn’t believe he felt this way about your childhood celebrity crush.
“then I saw the fourth one and I fell harder”, you said
“did you see any of the movies in the theater?”
“Yes, I did, the fifth, and wanted to see part two of the seventh, but I was too sad to do it, I didn’t wanted it to end, i even saw it three years later because I refused to believe it ended”
“I didn’t know you were such a big fan of harry potter”
“Oh, there’s a lot you don’t know about me”, you joked
“That’s not fair”
“Why?”
“You know everything about me”
“No, I don’t”
“Yes, you do”
“I don’t know your darkest secrets, just as you don't know mine” you said and jack thought for a second
“Well, I can tell you one, but since it’s a secret…” he said, removing the microphone from his shirt and indicating you to come closer, you did and he brought his lips close to your ear, “I’m in love with you” he said, and your breath hitched. Jack didn’t know where the urge to confess his feelings had come from, perhaps from the silly jealousy of talking about your celebrity crushes.
“Jack”, you said serious
“You don’t believe me?”
“No, but I'll still tell you one of my darkest secrets” you replied
“Ok”
You also took off your microphone and put your lips close to his ear, “I’m in love with you too” you confessed to him, hoping with all your heart that his had not been a joke, because otherwise the damage would be tremendous.
***
After the game was over and the goodbyes were recorded, you ran to your dressing room as if death itself were chasing you. jack asked his and your team to give you a few minutes alone before he came after you.
"why are you running away from me?" he said opening the door you had left unlocked, finding you in your chair looking at yourself in the mirror, “stop playing”, jack spoke again, approaching you
“I’ll stop playing if you stop playing” you answered, without taking your eyes off the mirror, and you looked at it through the reflection. he quickly turned your chair so you could look him in the eye, and leaned towards you, with each of his hands resting on the armrests, encircling you between his arms
“Ok, I’m being totally serious right now”, he said, feeling the nerves run through his entire body, “what I said was completely true”
“what I said too” You said completely serious, and Jack didn't wait a second before bringing your lips together in a hungry kiss.
Fortunately, Jack already had locked the door.
***
the video came out only a week later, and the comments were crazy again:
user 1: I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEIR DARKEST SECRETS WERE
user 2: WHAT WERE THE DARKEST SECRETS? I CAN'T DIE WITHOUT KNOWING
user 3: he described himself as the boy she would like 💀 love him
user 4: IT'S SO EVIDENT THAT THEY LIKE EACH OTHER, JUST DATE ALREADY, OR AT LEAST FUCK
user 5: THE SEXUAL TENSION
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Liked by yourinstagram, urbanwyatt, lilnasx, shawnmendes and 5.728.748 others
jackharlow we read your comments, and here is the answer… the darkest secrets were: we’re in love with each other 😚🥵🤤
jackfan1 I FUCKING KNEW IT
user1 it was so obvious bro 💀
jackfan2 THE EMOJIS AJLDK stoppp
urbanwyatt 🖤
yourinstagram 🥺 i’m so fucking in love with you
->yourfan Y/N 😭
->user2 I've never seen her in love before, it's surreal
jackfan3 WHAT IF THIS WAS MY LAST STRAW
jackfan4 this is my 13th reason
->jackfan5 girllll 💀
emmachamberlain BEST COUPLE EVER
yourfan2 mom and dad
troyesivan the IT couple
user3 hearts are breaking rn
yourfan3: WHAT ABOUT HARRY yourinstagram?
->yourfan6 LMAO
->yourinstagram my heart is big enough ❤️
->jackharlow yourinstagram stop playing
->yourfan7 she's so funny 😭
->youandjackfan LMAO LSADKJASDJ
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beyondthisdarkhouse · 2 years
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Ok, your post about the Celtic burial with the adorably-repaired Greek lion cauldron came across my dash, and I just have to ask - is your URL on this blog an intentional Guy Kay reference? And if so, do you have good Guy Kay blogs recs? He’s my favorite author of all time and I feel like he’s desperately underrepresented on my dash.
Yes, it absolutely is! And the short answer is, alas, I do not know any good GGK blogs.
Beyond this Dark House is my favourite poem, found when I was living in Calgary, breaking my heart. There was a boy I'd once driven from Edmonton to Saskatoon in four hours flat just to see who didn't love me enough, or in the way I wanted, and also I wasn't ready to be loved, which was its own kind of tragedy.
So it caught me with its prairie soul, the knowledge of the richness of life and also that things die out here and take a long long time to fade, all
The shortest night wheels past this window, stars dropping behind the trees.
Somewhere there are bonfires for St John, somewhere fires for the summer king.
It's so late. For this, for everything, for being still awake beside a window
And then the lines I took for my blog:
Beyond this dark house a train is running away into the night plain. We've all had dreams break fantasies we shaped.
I dragged the boy I was in love with and a few other friends to GGK's book tour pit stop in Calgary, where I was savagely disappointed by how badly he read a sample of Ysabel. Displayed no talent for vocal performance at all. Read almost as if he didn't know how the sentences would end, in a bad way. But you know what, we're human. Everyone's allowed to have flaws.
So the answer about GGK blogs is... I don't seek them out, and don't particularly want to be fannish about them on Tumblr. Some books are like that; some I want to shout about like I've been doing about Tamsyn Muir's Nona the Ninth on @with-my-murder-flute for the last two weeks, and some I just want to take back to my secret cave and devour them where other people can't see.
I love The Fionavar Tapestry with my entire soul, but not my entire brain, and that's uncomfortable. It's a discomfort I'm especially not up to addressing on Tumblr, because like... I don't love how tied he is to a paradigm of queerness being weighed down by heteronormativity, so that queerness is salacious and risqué or just societally sidelined and we don't address the pain that causes because everyone just takes that for granted. But I also think in some senses it's a more accurate reflection of the past than modern queer-positive fantasy, and it's important and useful to keep around reminders of what the world before gay liberation was like. I will candidly admit that I don't actually want to praise him unconditionally and hold him up as an author I would recommend to everybody. He's problematic, you know? I think a lot of his books are him trying to approach a concept, and only capturing it in wisps, and that's especially true when he tries to write about sex and gender relations.
But, the thought of sitting through Tumblr discourse about how he's homophobic and bad gay representation/not homophobic at all and very important and validating actually? Gag me with a spoon. I hate doing that about media I'm enthused with but have no personal stake in, so doing it with something I love so intimately, with pieces of my soul poured into the honeycomb of its matrix, would be torture. When I was fourteen, The Summer Tree convinced me that I'd have a life outside the depression that was crushing me like a stone. It showed me how to imagine a future for myself. I really don't want that tangled up in Tumblr wrangles.
Oh, I do have a fic rec: the late legionseagle wrote The Road Goes Ever On and On, a non-Ysabel-compliant story about a Toronto cop who can't get past the old cold missing persons case of Jennifer Lowell.
And several times a winter, especially when the icicles start to melt, I look up and chant to myself,
Too much of Greece can sear the soul. I am a northern man. Where I come from the sky is wide and far away and March is mired in snow.
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veliseraptor · 1 year
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Top 5 animated movies?
I see asks like this one for this meme and I'm like "lise what if you just wrote a short and simple response listing movies, then maybe you would actually end up answering all your meme asks" and then my brain goes "nope <3" and I end up with five paragraphs. I'm just not very good at shutting up.
anyway!
1. The Last Unicorn. This is the "no-brainer" one for me because I always feel like this is just...such an important piece of media, and it's one of those things where when I show it to new people I feel very vulnerable about it and kind of go "please understand that in sharing this with you I am showing you my vulnerable underbelly and if you hate it don't tell me." I don't even know that I could articulate why exactly, but it occupies a very particular place in my heart that few other pieces of media can claim to have. I have watched it so many times and here I am going "maybe I should rewatch it today, actually. plug in my external cd drive and pull out the dvd and everything." It's like that.
2. Princess Mononoke. Another one that came to me immediately as I was coming up with this list. I'm pretty sure I watched it a little too young and the opening scene with the boar creature vs. Ashitaka kind of scarred me a little bit but...lord, what a movie. It's beautiful visually and as a story I also love it. I feel like chronologically Spirited Away was my first Studio Ghibli I remember, but this was the one I latched onto. ngl, the fact that there are wolves in it probably helped.
3. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. It started to get a little harder here, but then I remember how I felt when I saw a caption referencing a song from this movie's soundtrack (thanks for the bangers, Bryan Adams! unexpected but I'm grateful) and went "!!!!" like my brain was lighting up like a lightbulb. So yeah, I'm going to say this is an important one. You can take the horses away from the horsegirl but you can't take the horsegirl out of the girl. or something like that. And this was one of my horsegirl movies. I also just now remembered the paint by numbers extras that were on the dvd that I was weirdly obsessed with, so that's cool.
4. Watership Down. Actually this one should've been third and I don't know how I forgot it! I joke that the fact that the animated movies I rewatched most as a kid were this one and The Last Unicorn and that probably explains a lot of things, but honestly it might. This movie has a reputation that's in some ways bigger than it deserves (though the destruction of the warren segment is pretty much as awful as everybody says it is), but it is also just legit a really good story and well-adapted into a movie, in my opinion. I watched the remake and was profoundly disappointed mostly because I felt like the animation style was boring, and one thing this movie definitely had going for it was the style.
5. Atlantis: the Lost Empire. I almost went with The Lion King but then I remembered this movie, and, yeah. What a film. Truly everyone who has talked about the brief period where things were very weird and therefore very interesting at Disney were right. Also Helga probably turned me gay (and specifically gay for female villains), I just didn't notice until later.
Honorable mentions to The Lion King, The Rescuers Down Under, and Mulan. And probably several others I'm forgetting that I'll think of as soon as I hit post.
There are definitely the animated movies I want to see, most notably Song of the Sea, because I suspect I would really like them. I am just terminally bad at watching movies, you know.
shout out to The Secret of the Seal though, which was a movie where I sort of thought one of my sisters and I shared a collective hallucination until finally I managed to track it down with something like "seal macaroni penguin animated movie." not to be confused with the 1992 anime film Tottoi, mind you.
...though considering now that I'm looking again all I can find to prove its existence is a cover, I'm beginning to wonder again. The Rotten Tomatoes page I thought was going to take me to it returns a 404 not found.
IT WAS REAL she screamed as they dragged her away. I SWEAR IT WAS A REAL MOVIE
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the-evil-authoress · 5 months
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"i didn't sign up for this isakai shit" I'M SIGNING UP FOR THIS SHIT PLEASE SHARE
Haha xD okay so this is actually Twisted Wonderland fanfiction cuz I restarted the game a few months ago and started a running commentary between my notes app and my friends on discord about how BUCKASS WILD the logic of the game is. Of course the commentary spawned into actual fic ideas because that just how my brain works (always plotting rarely writing). And it starts with "you" the player being isakaied into the freshman opening ceremony of Hogwarts for Disney Villians Night Raven College.
I'm honestly no longer sure if I want to keep the fic as a player insert or change the pov character to a character from an entirely different piece of media that sunk his fingers into my brain but there’s next to no fan content of him so he's been my favorite lil guy to just *put in situations* in the brain space.
But for now please enjoy these player insert snidbits from Leona's blot xD (also yes slightly canon divergent because Leona's whole thing wasn't that sympathetic to me as it was conveyed by canon)
I didn't sign up for this isakai shit
Oh no. Oh no. Why is that hot? Focus! This is evil berserk mode here! He's been taken over by his negative emotions! Do not be ogling the crazy evil lion man. I have never truly understood the phrase 'if evil why sexy' but ya know this is coming pretty damn close. The mane of fur, the gold accessories, the way his hair flares out and floats around his face, even the black lines where blot drips from his arm only serves to add to the image. He'd look really good in stressed clothing. And then he smirks. FOCUS. ... Ah, it's happening again. A rush of emotions crashing over me like a tide- bitterness, resent, envy, frustration, but most of all longing. A longing so wide and deep it aches. Memories of whispered voices - "why must he always be so moody?" "Why can't he be more like his brother?" "His power is so terrifying!" - and stern faces that do not even blink no matter how impressive the feet accomplished. Why. WhywhywhyWHY. Acknowledge me damnit! Is being first born such an impressive feat? Does being king truly matter more than anything else a person could do? Why couldn't that be ME? If I was first born, if I was king, they'd… Ah. Perhaps 'to be king' wasn't Leona's greatest desire. That was just the sentiment that got tangled up in all his resentment. In the end, maybe he just wanted to be recognized, to feel of equal worth. So the cat wants to be pet on the head and praised? I can do that. Well I could at least, but I'm likely to get my hand bit. It's such a silly thought, and yet I don't mind the idea. This asshole is still unfairly attractive and if he mellows out the same way Riddle did, well… ... "I'm sure you did great out there. I wish I could have seen it." For a moment, his eyes go wide and he goes very still, surprised and caught off guard as if this is the first time he's ever been praised. The fact that it might be, or might be the first time he's ever been unblinded by resent enough to acknowledge it for what it is, is terribly sad. Then he looks away. "Yeah, whatever. Probably didn't look very pretty, battered and struggling." "Still, you kept going, and even made it to the finals. I think that's amazing." Self detrimental perhaps, it's always best to know one's limits and avoid hurting yourself, but this guy has been coasting on minimal effort for years now. So learning to go all out again is a step in the right direction. Leona goes quiet again, not meeting my eyes and it's very hard not to smirk a little bit. Oh, yeah, the cat just needs a little praise.Maybe it's possible to turn a lion into a lap cat. UGH okay brain that image is totally unfair.
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byfurries4furries · 8 months
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The Fandom (Documentary)
So for this post, we're going to do something different. Instead of just a piece of media made by a furry, we're going to do a piece of media made by furries about furries. The Fandom is a documentary film based on a web series by the same director, Ash Coyote. The film takes an in-depth look at the history of the furry fandom from its inception to its modern form. The soundtrack is also done by Fox Amoore and the guy who made the "No Cock Like Horse Cock" song who I'm not naming here, because he turned out to be a weird transphobe.
Now it's important to note there's a lot of ways you can approach the history of the furry fandom, because the fandom as it exists in its current form is the result of many convergences with other fandoms like the "funny animals" fandom of the 70's and 80's to the Lion King fandom of the 90's and early 2000's. So the story of the furry fandom can either take the approach that it started out as the "funny animals" fandom with the release of Fritz the Cat or it started separately in the 80's sci-fi/anime fandom or that both were started separately before merging. The film focuses on the second approach for the sake of simplicity, but if you want to see the first approach, you can try out the Down the Rabbit Hole video on furries.
Anyways, the film goes over the furry fandom's roots in the sci-fi fandom, and its even more niche anime subfandom, of the 80's. Not only that, but it draws attention to its history in the context of its queer presence. It does not shy away from the fact that the fandom's abundance of queer members starting in the 90's can be pretty clearly linked to its subtly queerphobic backlash. It also shows the history of how it's successfully kept fascists out with the history of the Burned Furs, a queerphobic hate group within the furry fandom who wanted to "cleanse" the fandom of kink, queerness, and vegetarianism weirdly enough. It also tackles the fandom's reputation, its recent efforts to be more inclusive, and what people can learn from it. It also features interviews with important figures like the founders of the first furry convention, Confurence.
This is a really strong recommendation for anyone who likes documentaries. It's really so refreshing to see the furry fandom's history told by its own members and not from just some Youtuber who decided to research it for a video. That isn't to say there aren't really good videos that do a good job of teaching the history of the fandom without being in it. I again point to Down the Rabbit Hole's episode on furries. However, it's nonetheless really great to see our story told by us in such a beautiful love letter to the community. Also, it's completely free on YouTube, and Ash is currently working on a sequel of sorts. I don't know a lot about it. I could maybe take a guess that it focuses on the furry fandom during and after the internet boom, which is where the Lion King fandom would actually play a large role. Still, the original film is good to watch, so until next time, keep on yiffing
Links
Youtube
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bestworstcase · 2 years
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I'm sorry, but claiming that the people who are upset with how Cassandra and Varian were handled are not only part of the fandom, but misogynistic is absolutely insane. I'm sorry that I don't think one measly apology to Rapunzel, and no one else, after going out of her way to try and hurt and KILL Rapunzel and her loved ones is enough to redeem her or make her any type of hero. She was handled SO poorly, and so was Varian. Varian played an important role as the antagonist and to Rapunzel, challenging Rapunzel's morals and having to force her to ask the question: who do I prioritize, my friends or my kingdom? and then he was left to rot in a prison for an entire season. And then he was brought back and used as essentially bait and nothing more. But then the next season with Cassandra goes against her entire arc with Varian, because then she just drops everything, ignores her duties as a princess, and fixates on Cassandra. She ignores the fact that Cassandra is hurting her subjects and her loved ones, kidnaps Varian, and tries to fucking KILL Rapunzel, but somehow, she's more important to Rapunzel because "she can fix her", which is a problematic concept in itself. So, yeah, I think it's entirely unfair to assume that people who don't like how your favorite and least favorite characters were handled are part of the hatedom, and even worse, misogynistic and racist. It's really bold and disgusting and downright delusional. Please, think about how your words affect others and realize how the world doesn't revolve around you.
beloved are u trying to insinuate that i think the writing in season three was good? SKDHKLGSKDF
you must be new here
so to break it down:
s3 was objectively bad on technical merits
s3 is where the myriad structural weaknesses in the tts narrative collapsed, after two seasons of the story mostly making the 'grand overarching quest narrative but rigidly episodic storytelling' thing work. this is largely because cassandra is, structurally speaking, the protagonist during s3
the character writing from ep to ep was exceptionally poor for everyone in the cast, with cass, rapunzel, & varian getting the lion's share of the fucking-over
i am categorically anti-redemption arc for reasons i have discussed at length, literally just search 'redemption' on my blog lmao
the primary reason cassandra's villain arc got fumbled so badly is that tts was unwilling or unable, as a narrative, to tackle the actual legitimate grievances she had against rapunzel, and therefore resorted to using the gothel fig leaf and not allowing rapunzel to reflect or grow or change meaningfully throughout the season; varian's s3 arc suffered in a similar way but to a lesser extent from the inability of the disney princess cartoon to actually like. focus on the systemic problems that harmed him. the blame for this lies squarely on disney and corporate fiction in general
being cognizant of / acknowledging / talking about narrative weaknesses or failings and/or expressing disappointment or irritation at the way a story turned out =/= participating in hatedom, hatedom is the toxic phenomenon that emerges when subfandom spaces begin to revolve primarily around vitriolic vivisection of a piece of media
i want u to look me in the eyes and tell me that the tts fandom by and large taking the arab-coded man whose central motivation is attacking the kingdom that conquered his people a few hundred years ago and going 'this is a sadistic insane child rapist here are a hundred fics about him viciously abusing varian often so the white protagonists can brutally retaliate' isn't racist jesus christ anon
tts put the 'don't be blatantly racist about the racially diverse separatists of saporia' bar under the ground and the tts fandom collectively pulled out a shovel
anyway,
let me put it like this:
in s1, varian slips through the cracks of corona's non-existent support network and is let down by his friends while the king sends secret police to hunt him down after the traumatic (apparent) death of his father, and as a consequence he slides into a downward spiral which ends in him terroristically attacking the capital, grievously injuring many guards, kidnapping and threatening to murder the queen, and then trying to personally murder three people before he's stopped.
the typical hatedom stance here is that varian did nothing wrong because he was just a child and how dare that bitch rapunzel not help him like she promised (even though she...did, without hesitation, as soon as he got in touch with her and she discovered that her father was lying to her about having handled his problem!)
in s2, after two years of being taken for granted and having her boundaries stomped into the ground by rapunzel--who for all that she does truly care has zero experience with what it takes to be a good friend and fucks up a lot--& a LIFETIME of being expected to do two or three times the amount of work for a tiny fraction of the reward as anyone else, cass gets her hand burnt to a blackened husk by her best friend, who then 1. does not apologize for this, 2. gets mad at her for being upset, and 3. blames her for the injury. as a consequence, cassandra decides to trust the weird ghost who is kind and sympathetic to her and grabs the moonstone, then spirals hard on account of the ghost being a malicious demon bent on manipulating her, and eventually returns to corona to... terroristically attack and eventually raze the capital and try to murder rapunzel.
the typical hatedom stance here is that cassandra is a narcissistic abusive power-hungry bitch who had zero reasons for doing what she did and deserves to be executed or at least imprisoned or otherwise harshly punished for it. (even though the entire point of varian's imprisonment and subsequent radicalization by the separatists, and his hasty redemption arc after rapunzel offered him a second chance, was to illustrate the vague stance tts takes that punitive measures are not the answer to criminal behavior and are in fact actively counterproductive and harmful. which. is a stance that the folks in the tts hatedom will largely agree with as long as you are talking about varian instead of cassandra)
like u see the contradiction here, right. i invite u to explain to me why "boy does bad things because trauma = boy did nothing wrong, girl does bad things because trauma = girl is evil bitch who should die" isn't a misogynistic double standard gmksdfh
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If were talkin bout how characters have similarities to other Disney characters I will never be able to get the thought out a post I saw of vil & jack kinda being like beauty and the beast ?,and I think about that a lot
Oh!! That's a very common thought you see in the fandom! It's honestly really sweet 🥺 the thought of Jack being there for Vil and protecting him from bullies (even though Vil could fight them off himself) and it being based off of the scene where Belle was trying to flee from the wolves when the Beast came in to protect her. It's really nice how even though Vil is mainly inspired from Snow White and Jack from Lion King, they can be related to another Disney work. It goes to show that there's a lot of thought put into their character writing because the writers aren't sticking mainly to just one piece of media for each character but rather drawing inspiration from everywhere else.
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everwen · 2 years
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About the Halo tv show
I'm gonna preface this by saying that I have never played any of the Halo games, have never delved into any of the extended media (books, comics, animation), and what I know about the lore is due to pop culture osmosis; with all that said, I'm actually enjoying the show. It's not perfect, it has clunky exposition, and the plot convenience can be a little too much, but for the most part I'm actually looking forward to see where it goes.
Would I say that having little knowledge of the games, and no real expectations helped? Probably, but having no knowledge of a piece of media before watching the adaptation doesn't necessarily means you're gonna like it, there's for example Netflix's Cowboy Bebop, which I watched before watching the original anime, and while I like some of its parts, like John Cho's performance, for the most part I think it was really mediocre.
Now, most of the complains I've seen about the Halo show is that "It's not lore accurate!", and while there's a part of me that wants to call the people who have that complain a bunch of babies, I do understand how it feels when you see a story that is near and dear to your heart disappoint you (I'm looking at you 2019 Lion King remake). There's also the argument that what is the point of an adaptation if you're not gonna adapt the parts that made the original popular to begin with; and while I agree with that sentiment to an extent, it shouldn't be required that adaptations should always be 1:1, for example the Marvel adaptations pick and chose freely from the original material they're adapting, and whether they succedd or fail it's not necessarily due to they're faithfulness to the source material.
I guess what I'm saying, I get why some people don't like it, but I don't think the show is bad per se, and honestly, it's been 2 episodes, we still 7 more to go, so let's see where it takes us.
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frog-whisperer · 3 years
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I need to get in on the video essay game before someone makes the 5hr Lion King retrospective that only I deserve to
#not that I ever will...but I’ve thought about it#I saw one for Warrior Cats today and it took me tf out#and not to be all ‘I like this incredibly popular Disney movie more than anyone else the Lion King is MY movie’#because that’s really reductive I hate when people say that like they’re the only ones to think it#and it’s not even my favourite Disney movie. Lilo and Stitch all the way#but I AM in the top 0.0004% of monthly Lebo M. listeners so gleam from that what you will#but who else but me could talk about...the tv shows. the sequels. the Broadway show. the remake. the books. the fanbase..the Zazu Tiki Room.#I’m sure there are people who like and are more knowledgeable about every one of those specific things more than me but all together?#and I feel like the way I like the Lion King is Different to the way most do. Again not to be all Not Like Other Fans#but I feel like there’s one side that likes the original movie just for the message and the music and the characters and the stage show#like they’ll have tattoos of the Simba painting and have Timon and Pumbaa on a t shirt#and there’s another section who were really introduced to it via the sequel#so they like the idea of interpersonal lion drama and romance and new lion ocs and kingdoms and breeding Cubs on deviantart#and at a certain point it just becomes scaled up warrior cats#but I’m into like...the core concept. Animals can talk and have a functional monarchy. what are the ethics of that? who can eat who and when#that’s the stuff that’s interesting to me#but no piece of Lion King media really Goes There#actually this might be better as a series of videos instead#oh well I’ll just lay the groundwork so they hire me to write for the re-remake in 20 years
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omegalomania · 3 years
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I think tumblr ate my ask or it just didn't sent but what are your favorite Bastille songs / what are some songs you recommend?
i did NOT get this ask im very sorry anon.
it's genuinely hard for me to narrow down cause bastille is pretty up there in terms of favorite artists. i love all their shit, but a special mention goes out to their second studio album wild world since it's the one that made me a Fan
uh so here's a primer i guess i spent too much time on this lmao.
if you wanna listen to their big hits:
flaws - their first single in the uk. if you ever listened to ship playlists on 8tracks in like 2013-2015 then you've probably heard this song or a variant on it at some point.
pompeii - this is the song that really put them on the map and you definitely know it. it dominated the charts all over the place.
happier - the marshmello song that you've definitely heard before too. i think bastille wrote this for justin bieber or some shit but then decided they liked it too much to give it to him? lmao. anyway if you're not digging the version you hear on the radio all the time i recommend trying the stripped down version
good grief - their big hit off their second album. big in the uk, didn't really make as many waves elsewhere, but it's a really solid song anyway. one of those "upbeat tunes that's actually really fucking sad" ones
things we lost in the fire - another one off their first album. if you live in a wildfire area this might not be one to turn to. or maybe you'll find it cathartic idk i certainly do!!
quarter past midnight - a song about escapism, as was fitting when it was released in 2018 and equally fitting now. running away for a night of fucking around with friends, craving any kind of brief departure from the chaos of the modern world
skulls - this one was not a hit or a single and is technically a bonus track but i'm including it because once again if you ever clicked on a ship playlist on 8tracks in like 2013-2015 you've heard this one. and you know what that was justified this one is also good
if you wanna feel existentially depressed:
their whole discography. i mean i kid but i also don't. that's just kind of how bastille does it. BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS ones that hit me in particular would beeee
two evils - kind of a grim, haunting one introspecting about morality of the self.
oblivion - musing about the afterlife, love, and how time changes all of us.
those nights - contemplating what it is we seek when we plunge into reckless escapism, and the inherent loneliness of it; how even when surrounded by people there's still the pressure of the world outside, continuously coming to pieces
the draw - this one was written about the pull of pursuing a career in music vs. staying home with family and friends. in a broader sense, it can apply to a lot of things. i always felt it resonated with feelings of paranoia and displacement
winter of our youth - discusses childhood, nostalgia, and regret. if it feels like everything's slipping away, is it easier to relive the past, especially if the past is tinted rose?
sleepsong - loneliness, desperation, and the cyclical, abyss-like nature of all it encapsulates
if you want discussion of serious topics:
final hour - a bonus track off their second album that also became a bonus track off their third album? anyway this song talks about climate change and gun control. happy stuff
doom days - this one talks about, uh, everything! doomscrolling, political divides, escalating national tensions, climate change again, etc.
the currents - a song centered on political rhetoric and the power that figureheads have over the masses, the way they can orchestrate hate. basically it's not so subtly aimed at donald trump lmao, dan's literally sung it as much in a few live settings
WHAT YOU GONNA DO??? - social media addiction and the way capitalism and corporate interests have annexed our online experiences, fighting desperately for our attention as they seek to monetize every available aspect of our lives
four walls (the ballad of perry smith) - well this one is about uh. perry smith. who was charged with the death penalty for killing 4 people in the late 50's. but it's less directly about him and more a discussion of the morality of the death penalty and capital punishment
snakes - burgeoning anxieties and the impulse to turn to easy outs, like ignorance or alcoholism, to escape the world's global problems
if you want some pop culture sprinkled on top:
icarus - greek mythology. i like this one because it addresses something that i feel isn't addressed enough in discussions of this myth, which is that icarus is a very young lad. less about the pride of the fall, and more about the inherent tragedy of that.
laura palmer - the whole song is a david lynch shoutout. i've never seen twin peaks myself but the song still slaps.
daniel in the den - christian mythology. discusses the biblical tale of daniel in the lion's den and links that up to themes of betrayal and family.
poet - this one's a double feature, referencing both william shakespeare's sonnet 18 and edmund spencer's sonnet 75. also one of my favorites.
send them off! - this is another one of my favorites of theirs. it's also been described by dan as "othello meets the exorcist" and it very much delivers there
if you want something uplifting:
joy - while bastille (understandably) has a bit of reputation as a band that makes sad music about sad things, they've definitely got some happier songs in their catalogue. pun intended cha ching. this one's one of their more straightforwardly happy tunes
survivin' - this was a song they wrote while they were touring and then felt weird about releasing once the panini hit because it felt a bit on the nose. they ended up releasing it anyway and i am so glad they did cause it's a mood
act of kindness - the "happy" part here is debatable but i'm gonna include it anyway. it’s when someone does something nice for you and that impulse Changes you way down deep you know???
warmth - one of those "the world's going to shit but at least we have each other" kinds of tunes
the anchor - one of those "the world's going to shit but you're the one fucking thing that's still keeping me here" kinds of tunes
give me the future - their latest single as of this writing and one of the more optimistic tracks in their catalogue imo! it's yearning, but it's also with a genuine hope for the future.
and LASTLY. because im going to take every chance i can to plug this band. im going to throw some collabs and covers at you because there's one thing this band does SUPER well and it's collabs and covers.
of the night - this is the big one. it mashes up rhythm of the night by corona and rhythm is a dancer by SNAP! and it's so good they still do this one live and it goes off every time.
no angels - a mashup of "no scrubs" by TLC and "angels" by the xx, poured into a strangely mournful tune with clips from the hitchcock movie psycho. doesn't sound like it should work but it does. kinda really does.
torn apart - with GRADES and lizzo no less!!! it's got two parts but they're both excellent listen to them both
weapon - collab with angel haze, dan priddy, and F*U*G*Z and one of my absolute favorites
remains - remix of their song "skulls" but featuring rag'n'bone man and skunk anansie that adds an entire new dimension to the song, really fucking excellent
old town road mashup - lil nas x's old town road meets lizzo's good as hell meets radiohead's talk show host meets talking heads' road to nowhere meets the osmond's crazy horse. "what the fuck that shouldn't work" i KNOW and yet here it is!! BLATANTLY BANGING!!!
we can't stop - one of the few times dan smith subtly changes the lyrics of the song he's covering (most of the time he opts to keep the original pronouns and the like, which is very nice to see). anyway this one mixes miley cyrus's we can't stop with eminem's lose yourself and billy ray cyrus's achy breaky heart. and also the lion king's i just can't wait to be king is there. yes i know it sounds batshit especially because the whole thing is surprisingly melodic and heartfelt and you know what it works.
anyone but me x nightmares - mashing up joy crookes' anyone but me with easy life's nightmares and absolutely one of my favorites.
bad guy mashup - how many songs can they include with the word "bad" in the title? we've got bad guy (billie eilish), bad decisions (bastille), bad romance (lady gaga), and bad blood (taylor swift). bastille even has a song called bad blood and they didnt use it. they used taylor swift's version. also the distinctive guitar riff from dick dale's misirlou is there.
somebody mashup - how many songs can they include with the word "some" in the title? someone like you (adele), somebody told me (the killers), somebody to love (queen), use somebody (kings of leon), and someone you loved (lewis capaldi). seriously these guys take mashups to a new level.
final song - this is a cover of MØ's final song. it also adds in craig david's 7 days and, impossibly enough, europe's final countdown. how does it work. how.
ALL RIGHT. THATS ALL IVE GOT IN ME. HOPE THIS HELPED ANON AND IM SORRY IF THIS IS TOO MUCH
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sukalaap · 2 years
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My Porn Pet Peeves
No kids, this ain’t about a new type of animal you can keep as a pet. Thought I’d write up something in order to express, loud and clear, stuff I don’t like about smut content. Basically, things I prefer to avoid than to see or take part of any of them. So be sure this is going to be a really opinionated one. Consider this a guide to what I will and will NOT draw when I’ll open NSFW commissions in the future. KEEP IN MIND: It’s okay to be into most of those things, I’m just not comfortable to associate myself with any of them.
Don’t like these rules and boundaries I made for myself? There’s plenty of fish in the sea, fellas. Fetish Porn The usual “normal” (very ironic use of that word) fetish content is already something I distance myself from and have a distaste for. Y’know, stuff like vore, feet, bondage, transformation, inflation, diapers, tickling, the list goes on. Not touching those, not even after the sun burns out. Who tf even fantasizes about getting burnt alive by gastric acid, anyway? I know these are the tamest ones, compared to more extreme, messed up shit like scat, snuff/guro etc. (Please Fur Affinity, put a blacklist on your site, I swear to god), but they still count as deviance, thus things that in my opinion, were never meant to be associated with sex. BDSM isn’t really my thing either, tbh.
Feral Porn I already brought it up in a previous journal of mine, still gonna bring it up again anyway. Honestly, pornographic depictions of feral animal characters gross me the fuck out. If I were to draw NSFW of certain inhuman characters, you better believe that they better be bipedal, thus not only mentally, but also physically anthropomorphic. Also, I never truly got the appeal of smut based around The Lion King, or any other pieces of media featuring feral animal characters. That shit's nasty. I would tolerate it more if not for the abundance of not only the feral stuff, but also the following aspects of porn I’m going to talk about next.
  Adultery/Cuckoldry Yeah, nah. Can’t get into that stuff, nor do I want to. This whole concept just doesn’t sit right with me at all, not even if it’s justified. Cheating is something that’s heavily frowned upon in society, and, for once, all the right reasons. I don’t like seeing a character being psychologically harmed for the cruel pleasure of their significant other, not even if they’re into it as a form of masochism. It saddens and angers me more than it arouses me. So nope. Don’t want it. Incest, Pedophilia, Necrophilia, Scatophilia & Zoophilia If you genuinely support or draw ideologies based around these, and are fantasizing about them, I don’t want anything to do with you. Bye bye! “Reverse” Rape/Non-Consensual Just call it what it is. Rape. That’s it. Also no to it. Bye! “Hyper” Exaggerated Body Features/Stretching Hyper breasts. Gigantic asses. Michelin Man with a serious eating disorder. MoistCr1TiKaL’s moby huge dildos. Can’t take any of ‘em seriously. Don’t even get me started on the one thing that makes me physically cringe. Stomach Bulges Y’know, that kinda shit happening on the abdomen of a character when getting penetrated by full force? Like they’re Kermit the fucking puppet frog getting fisted? Yeah, that kinda shit. May as well get a fucking alien burst out from there.
Do not want. Nuh-huh. Also… Cervical Penetration
OUCH! My fucking uterus! And finally… Body Humiliation
Again, a form of psychological harm I do not want in my double cheeseburger of eroticism! I’m really tired of seeing this toxic cliché where small penises are always depreciated. It ain’t about the boat size, y’all! It’s about the motion of the ocean. Small dicks ftw!
Every body type is valid! From reading all this, you’ve probably have come to a conclusion. That I am just some basic bitch who’s into boring vanilla shit. I don’t blame you. I might not make bank off these controversial ideologies, but I’d rather be recognized for the things I truly love and enjoy, even if they might seem a bit tedious. I have a weakness for anything sweet, simple and wholesome. They’re just enough for me. Plus it’ll encourage a much healthier and positive idea of what intimacy is truly about. I think we truly need more of them honestly, and I’d be more than happy to provide the world with them.
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Andy on Asian Animation or SYAC: The Master Review 2
Let’s talk a bit about anime and Dobson’s work relation with it.
I think we can all agree, that starting from the late 90s and early 2000s on, anime and manga became extremely popular in the western world. Sure, Japanese animation was nothing completely new to us (Speed Racer, Nadia-Secret of Blue Water, Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Kimba and Akira e.g. come to my mind as properties already known in the west before 1995) but it really was around this time that thanks to “mainstream” stuff like Dragon Ball and Pokemon people became aware of how different Japanese animation was from western. Eventually resulting in the really good shit (like Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, Kenshin and Heat Guy J) coming over and enriching nerd culture for more than just a few people who knew of it as an obscurity at that point. Now, if you know anything about Dobson, you likely know that his relationship with anime is rather… complicated to say the least. Or, to let him explain it with his own words…
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Dobson essentially likes silly and wacky 90s anime. But later on he hated anime in general, because it got too popular and a bad experience with an anime club in college soured his enjoyment of it. Furthermore, he put the blame on his lackluster art style and storytelling capabilities as seen in the likes of Formera, Patty and Alex ze Pirate, on anime in general, while also claiming that Disney pulling the plug on 2D animation is the result of the “anime inspired” Treasure Planet, meaning anime in a sense deprived him of his chance at working at his dream job and “ruining” western animation.
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Which to me has always been ignorant as fuck. For starters, I can understand not liking certain stories or genres, either for objective or subjective reasons. But to hate on an entire nation’s form of entertainment (not just individual shows or genres), depriving yourself of the chance of potentially watching a lot of good stuff while also being rather insulting to these other works and people enjoying them? Especially when the stuff you can supposedly “stomach” has been rather simplistic compared to other things?
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 Second, blaming Japan for “poisoning” your art style? What, did the ghost of Osamu Tezuka possess you and FORCE you to put sweatdrops on your characters forehead while also going for the rather simplistic character style of Rumiko Takahashi, as well as emulating the slapstick of the likes as Slayers and Ranma ½?
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 Next, if he had emulated them successfully, I say he would have actually managed to tell decent enough stories worth to read online. Not create Uncle Peggy aka “Discount Happosai” or the bland proto-Isekai known as Formera.
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I mean, let’s give some context here: There have been people who successfully managed to emulate certain anime and manga aesthetics into western animation and make it work. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten the likes of Avatar-The last Airbender, Samurai Jack, the Animatrix, Thundercats 2011, Super Robot Monkey Hyperforce Go, Kim Possible, W.I.T.C.H, Megas XLR and Wakfu. You know, shows that are actually awesome as hell.
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Heck, Dobson’s favorite animated show of the last decade, Steven Universe, is heavily inspired by anime aesthetics to the point of being embarrassing.
 But Dobson… well, he emulated anime aesthetics in his work the same way as these crimes against animation did.
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Combined with his general shortcomings as a storyteller it is no wonder his initial comics did not do well.
 Lastly, and sorry for digressing here a bit, but if the Wikipedia entry on Treasure Planet is something to go by, there was no real inspiration by anime involved in making this movie.
Supposedly the idea of making an animated Treasure Planet in outer space movie was already pitched by Ron Clements WAY BACK in 1985 but only came to be after Michael Eisner greenlighted stuff in the late 90s. Design wise the movie was supposed to look 70% traditional and 30% sci-fi inspired and people took inspiration for the art style by illustrators associated with the Brandywine School of Illustration. A western style of illustration established in the 19th century, that had a big impact on the illustration styles for many 19th and early 20th century adventure novels and short stories.
What, is anime supposed to be the only form of animation allowed to have sci fi elements or steampunk in it? Fucks sake, The Lion King and Atlantis, which came out one year earlier to Treasure Planet, were likely more inspired by anime. Don’t believe me? Watch Atlantis and then a certain anime by Studio Gainax called “Nadia-Secret of Blue Water”. Or read up on the controversy surrounding the two.
The truth is, it is not entirely clear what caused Disney to shut down 2D feature film animation in the early 2000s. In fact, if anything, most people put the blame on Michael Eisner and a certain change in the publics taste in movies in general, combined with Disney trying to turn almost every movie they had into a franchise via cheap follow up movies on video and DVD.
And even if Disney did not shut down, are we really supposed to believe that a certain guy with fedora would have made it big at Disney to the point Alex ze Pirate would have been made into a feature film?
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But Dobson could never quite understand this and instead of “reinventing” himself properly, he would rant about anime and its fans in one form or another…
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 And on the peak of his hissy fit create this little art piece he baptized Anime Sux. Alternatively “West vs East”. Or as I like to call it, slap a jap.
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Now, the pic was done in 2008 and Dobson claimed sometimes in the last decade, that he no longer holds his old opinions. Unfortunately, by that point he would also more or less use the chance to vent in his webcomic about anime (or rather its fans), which brings us finally back to SYAC.
 While Dobson never outright thematized in more detail WHY he hates anime and manga in SYAC (likely cause if his comic reasoning was even slightly like his reasoning in his blogs, people would have torn him apart like a bag of paper) he did use the format to punch down on anime fans and their preferences.
 For example, for someone who has a 4chan story going around of having been rather arrogant towards others in college for not liking Ranma ½, Dobson has THIS little college related comic to show off, where he portrays an aspiring manga artist as a delusional jackass.
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Then in this strip titled manga, his manga fan is essentially portrayed as a young woman dressing up like a very stereotypical high school anime girl, who is in the wrong for even just DARING to draw her comics in the direction manga are read.
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On one hand, I get Dobson’s point. She could be at risk of alienating a market of readers as she is obviously drawing for a western audience. Then again, if she doesn’t draw a traditional western comic but a manga, why shouldn’t she? I mean, as long as she enjoys it, which I assume she does as she seems genuinely just happy when stating that she likes manga, why not let her? Plus, this comic was drawn in the late 2000s. I think by then most people kinda knew how to read from right to left, so Dobson’s claim she would alienate or confuse people is kinda redundant. If anything I find a) Dobson getting angry at her just very petty (just let her have fun) and b) portraying a western manga fan as someone who would be confused by the sheer idea of reading stuff from right to left is also in itself just really dumb and insulting. What is Dobson trying to imply? That anime fans are so stuck in the way they consume certain media, they can’t act according to “western standards” again?
Then there is this strip where yet another female anime fan is essentially portrayed as the embodiment of how “ignorant” manga fans are of the idea of different art styles...
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Which becomes rather laughable once Dobson describes his style as a mixture of European, American and  Japanese. Why? Because he is the one oversimplifying things, rather than the anime fan.
You see while anime and manga of all sorts do share certain aesthetics (like the black and white art style, emphasize on the eyes of characters, the way hair is drawn, recurring tropes within certain genres and so on) style wise (both in art and storytelling) there can be severe differences, depending on the artist alone. Akira Toriyama’s style differentiates significantly from the likes of Eichiro Oda, Rumiko Takahashi, Kentaro Miura, Tezuka, Kaori Yuki and so forth.
The same also goes for many western artists. Herge had a significantly different style from Uderzo and Goscinny. Don Rosa has a different style in which he drew Scrooge McDuck than Carl Barks did. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee draw mainstream superheroes differently compared to how Jack Kirby, George Perez and others did. Heck, Ethan Van Sciver and Jim Lee were closely associated with Green Lantern in the 2000s and look how they differentiate.
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 Which btw is the kind of skill level Dobson would have needed to have, to make it in the mainstream industry
So when Dobson says “I draw in a combination of American, Western and Japanese” all I can think is the following: THAT DOESN’T NARROW IT DOWN! WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU LEARNT IN COLLEGE ABOUT COMICS? WHICH ARTISTS, WORKS AND STORYTELLERS DO YOU TRY TO EITHER EMULATE OR HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY?
Then there is this little thing…
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Where do I even begin? How about the fact that Dobson’s hand in the last panel looks like he has lost a thumb? The fact that the little boy, anime fan or not, is aware of Sae Sawanoguchi, a character from a short lived OVA and anime series from the 90s, which considering his age, I kinda doubt he would be aware off. Unlike Dobson, who got into anime in the 90s and admits in fact within the posts I loaded up earlier, that he had watched the anime in particular, known in the west as Magic User Club.
Then there is the implication by Dobson, that anime is so “corruptive” as a medium, little kids don’t even know the most basic characters in western animation because of it. I expect in a next panel, that all of sudden some 50s PSA guy comes along and lectures me that if I want this kind of thing not to happen at MY convention, I need to teach little kids more about the GOOD western animation, instead of the BAD eastern one. Then there is this rather unflattering portrayal of a shonen ai/shojou ai fangirl…
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 Which makes me laugh cause honestly, even some of the worst shonen ai and shojou ai can do better in portraying a “realistic” gay relationship than Patty if you ask me.
Also, as much as I think fangirls can be extremely thirsty (I have read my fair share of extremely stupid yaoi and yuri fanfics) I think that in hindsight Dobson is really not anyone to complain about shipping obsession and sex when he himself has KorraSami, the Ladybug fandom and a certain rat pirate under his floppy belt.
As you can imagine, Dobson would get heat for those comics, considering how he himself has been greatly inspired by anime and manga for his major comics. And while I don’t have any explicit deviantart posts of him reacting to criticism in that regard, I do have this comic which addresses it directly.
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 And yeah, if I were schoolgirl number 4, I would just sigh and walk away after telling Dobson that his mistakes and shortcomings are not related to having consumed anime, but rather by what sort of anime (and other stories) he had consumed and the amount of effort he had put in creating his stories instead of emulating just something more popular. Plus, if you really want people to draw more from life, how about drawing more from life yourself down the line? And no, tracing Star Wars movie frames does not count.
Finally, Dobson, considering how very little most people think of your work, I say mission accomplished: People have learnt from your mistakes and know not to be a Dobson.
And at last, there is this comic, which kinda wraps up Dobson’s “vendetta” with anime and manga fans within the pages of SYAC.
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By trying to mock anime fans and make them look just as shallow as he is. I at least suppose. Honestly, the message of this comic is rather muddled. On one hand, I would say the strawman accusing Dobson hates anime just because it is popular is very simplified. After all, Dobson has made his reasons for not liking anime clear in a few more details. It’s just that the details in and on themselves in real life are still rather shallow and boil down to a lot of personal bias rather than an objective criticism of actual flaws. Which I think is worth pointing out.
But frankly, what is Dobson trying to say or point out here? That the strawman is not so different or even dumber than him, because he hates Justin Bieber for “shallow” and superficial reasons too?
Okay, this doesn’t quite work as well as Dobson wants. First, the argument Dobson’s strawman makes is in huge parts based on some verified statements Dobson made for not liking anime. Second, he just says a name and that triggers the guy to express his hatred for Bieber. We don’t know why the guy hates Bieber and you could make in fact the case, that he hates him not because he is popular, but because he has a genuine issue with the artist, his work or his behavior as a human being. Third, if you want to make yourself look like the better person Dobson, try to argue with the guy and make solid arguments why you don’t like anime. Instead you just deflect the criticism by changing the subject and then try to make yourself look like the “smarter” person in the room by mocking your critic in the most condescending manner.
Which as I think about it, sounds like your modus operandi on twitter and tumblr.
Weirdly enough, that more or less marks the “end” of Dobson tackling anime fans and the beef he has with them within the pages of SYAC. Despite how much Dobson’s negative reputation especially in early years was build around him hating on anime and belittling its fans, he didn’t really do more afterwards in the Dobson focused pages of SYAC. And mind you, those strips were also separated by other strips in-between, focused on Dobson just being at conventions.
Unfortunately for him, the strips didn’t really help in any way to diminish that negative reputation and instead just confirmed for many, that Dobson can’t handle criticism about his flawed opinion on anime. If anything, it just made people think even less of Dobson, as the strips just painted him as someone who would rather portray his critics as strawman he can be “rightfully” annoyed at, instead of fellow humans with slightly different tastes in entertainment, who are still worth listening to.
So, now that we have the anime fan related “annoyances” out of the way, what other sort of silly problems in making webcomics would Dobson cover in his strips and are “relatable” to everyone?
Lets see some of these examples in the next part.
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aloera · 3 years
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The ask prompt is too long to fit into an ask TT_TT but here's the doc for it docs(.)google(.)com/document/d/1yDI7iFRhOJ8ENv_IwZAo3rDSUqj80EiJROS10RzRbj4/edit
the lengths u are going for this,,, much appreciated you're very sweet!!!
prompts + answers under the cut!!
INTRODUCTION
Name: aloera
AO3 account: aloera
Fandoms you write for: bnha
How many stories have you written so far: 19
FANFICTION PROFILE
What's your favorite fandom to write for? hmm,,, used to do pjo and eah (ever after high) and eah was fun as fuck i will say!!! i think bnha is my fav mostly bc i made the most friends in this fandom :D
What's your favorite character/person to write for? bkg and kirishima!! cannot choose do not make me <3
Fic you'd want to improve? probably what we deserve? i rushed the beginning and the confession is a bit stilted imo
Hardest fic you've written? between lion and men -_- bc there is so much canon compliant stuff i've gotta write out before i get to the divergence and its HARD
Easiest fic you've written? come home to me!!! it happened so easily,,, no second guessing no writers block just vibes <33 was lovely i miss it
What would you say is the most "famous" fic you've ever written? also probably come home to me? its got the most interaction
first line of the first fic you've ever written and published. [not including my 2014 ffnet fics] "The bell rings, class starts, and Katsuki and Midoriya are inexplicably absent." from come home to me
Have you ever done a collab with another writer? yes!!!!! on two separate occasions and its so fucking fun i highly recommend trying it out its the best
Do you beta? if asked but honestly im a shit beta lmao
Do you like joining fic fests/exchanges? depends on what i have going on irl but in general yeah!!
FANFICTION PREFERENCES
Fluff or angst? definitely fluff
"OCs" or "Reader" inserts? reader inserts!! have been going ham on them recently
Blurbs or drabbles? blurbs!!
One thing you love about fanfiction i just. i really love slice of life romance?? and most media doesn't give you that bc its dedicated to plot and action and that's valid!! but fanfiction fills in the gap which is really nice
One thing you don't like about fanfiction most of the stuff i don't like is less about actual fanfiction and more about how people behave about it
What is/are your favorite fandom author/authors? IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE!!! TURN IT UP!!!
bnha: hiuythn, rae_tnub, Moniix, Ata_Lanta, wrunic, chezka, PurplePersnickety, surveycorpsejean, mahadevi, arxaris, deviance, Oceanbreeze7, MikeWritesThings, bonnia, wonhaebunny, dinosuns
voltron: hiuythn, Oceanbreeze7, DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee, arahir, dinosuns,
and honorable mention to loveclouds im not even in the haikyuu fandom i just love their fics So Much
these are just the ones off the top of my head i have so many favourites idc if i'm only supposed 2 have one!! die mad about it!!!
What is your favorite trope? secret relationship + relationship reveal til the day i die babie <3 <3
Least favorite trope? hm,,, probably just like. angst lmao i cannot stand 90% of it
A fanfiction cliché that you can't help but love? coffeeshop aus,,,, so good
Do you have a type when it comes to pairings? the otp where its like. piece of shit + himbo = love. ex. krbk, catradora, jade/beck
Favorite setting/au? hm,,, truly i cannot pick one KGKSJNHKj but i really like college aus!! and modern aus!! and roommate aus!!
Explain the meaning of your favorite line of dialogue you've written as if someone hasn't read it in context. “He doesn’t know,” Katsuki says, softly. “My timer stopped and nothing happened. He’s not mine.”
the line is from what we deserve!! it's a soulmate au where your timer counts down to the moment that you meet your soulmate!! bakugou's timer ends at USJ when he and kirishima attack kurogiri at the same time (impulsive kings <33) but kirishima's timer doesn't end until kamino because that's when he accepts himself as bakugous soulmate!! unfortunately, when bakugous timer has reached 0, he turned to see that kirishima's was still ticking and therefore believes that kirishima isn't his soulmate.
this line just,, idk. it's really sad. bakugou is such an action-driven character? if something doesn't go his way he Makes it go his way. he's got this insanely volatile quirk and he's got impeccable control of it!! but his love for kirishima isn't something that he can change and he's not going to ruin kirishima's chance of finding his own soulmate because he loves him and wants him to be happy. i really wanted to focus on how resigned he is? and how unusual that is for a character like him.
Favorite trope/genre to write? again, secret relationship with relationship reveals <33 fluff in general is my wheelhouse!!!
A trope/genre you haven't written but think would be a fun challenge? idk if this counts?? have been working on some dead dove concepts!! its super different from what i normally write so its a cool challenge
The one trope/concept you'll never touch and why probably cheating/infidelity?? it just looks,,, super difficult to write well and i don't have enough of an interest in it to try it out
Which do you prefer to write: longer or shorter fics? shorter!! low attention span gang <3
Ideal length to read? 5-10k?
Ideal length to write? 4-8k!!
How long was the longest fic you've ever written? control fraek is around 28k i think?
Have you ever written an AU? yeah!! i've done restaurant au's, soulmate au's, pro hero aus, and fantasy aus (general, not the bnha fantasy ending)
What's your favorite AU trope? hm,, probably when two people in authority are in a secret relationship? ceo's/uni professors/etc etc
Have you ever written smut? yeah!! was. difficult tho
What's your comfort genre? (the one you fall on most in writing/reading) fluff,,, hurt/comfort,,, fix-it fics with happy endings <3
If you were to start writing in other fandoms, which would they be? maybe jjk?? the characters are really cool!!!! fr i might go back to my ever after high roots i love the characters and setting so Much its so fun!!! idec if no ones into it anymore!!!!!
Is there a trope you think you could be easily recognized by in your writing? i've had people say they saw the mention of buff hagakure and recognized it was me so. probably that skdjhnksjd
WRITING STYLE
How would you describe your style? i tend to use shorter sentences and pretty simple words i think? and i gravitate towards lighthearted concepts that allow for ensemble casts and humour!!
Describe your style in three words romcom but fanfic
Favorite words to use when writing? the word reverent!! fuckin love including it!!
Dialogue tags or no dialogue tags? (she said, he said, they said, etc) dialogue tags!!!
Favorite dialogue tag (other than said, if you use them) again idk if this counts but "they said softly" is unmatched
Long sentences vs short vs a mix short <33
What colors would you use to describe your writing? hm,,, depends on the fic i would say?? control fraek is dark green to me?? kinda like a forest at night yk?? scary but there's still life there. sugar cookies is yellow like early morning sunlight, when it rains is yellowy-orange like a caution sign. not gonna list all of them cause theres a lot its just. do u get it? the colours change based on the vibe of the fic.
What song or music genre would you use to describe your writing? think. i am constantly trying to emulate that moment at the end of wasteland baby when hozier goes "im in love/im in love with you."
What kind of metaphors do you rely on? religious metaphors my beloved <33 they're just so pretty!!! i also love comparing stuff to water for some reason?? like that ocean vuong quote thats like "what are you now?/water." it goes hard!!!
What's something you'd say is experimental in your writing at this time? definitely action!! i have,,, no idea how to write it so anything i do is really just me playing around and seeing what works and what doesn't
Do you prefer to write by hand or to type? i've tried both!! personally i prefer typing because it goes way faster but i will say that writing by hand lets me get words down when i'm going through writer's block
What is your preferred place to write (notebook, laptop, cellphone, etc.)? laptop!!
What app/apps do you use to write (word, notepad, etc.)? google docs skjdnkjh its fine on desktop but mobile is,,,,, disgusting
Do you keep a notebook or file/notes page in your phone/device for notes on your writing? ngl i just have everything organized in my drive?? one folder per fandom and then sub folders for ideas+hcs, unfinished wips, and finished fics. multichaps get sub sub folders so i can organize outlines and drafts
Do you listen to music to help you write? yeah!! playlists organized by fic vibe :D
Where do you usually go to write (bedroom, living room, etc.)? mostly in my bedroom??? but moving around to different stops helps too i think!!
How long does it usually take for you to write? again this depends on what i have going on irl, how attached i am to the idea, my mindset at the time, etc!! i am,, the least consistent person skjnhdkjh.
What's your favorite font to use when writing? times new roman my beloved
Other writing habits? sometimes i'll write in the dark?? bad for my eyes but for some reason it gets the words flowing
CONCEPTUALIZATION
How do you conceptualize your ideas? (See specific moments like they're a movie, writing specific lines in your head, don't know until you put the words on paper, etc.) i tend to get inspiration from movies, books, poems, or other fics!!! sometimes one line just makes me go oh,, i want to write something like that,,, and then it helps me create an idea that makes me feel the same way?? i did this with control fraek!!!! i wanted a scenario where bakugou was cold and calculating and i was like hm. to do that he’d have to be focusing on something important. and from there i was able to flesh out the rest of the idea.
Which comes first: the pairing or the plot? with krbk its always always the pairing,, i'll be sitting there like wow <33 i love them <33 what if one of them had amnesia <33 (which, yes, wip!!) otherwise it's usually the plot!! and i slot in characters that i feel make sense
Have you ever used a prompt? yeah!! used a prompt for wlw week 2020 and it was fun as hell
Do you write around the story around a specific scene you want to get to or do you start from a plot idea definitely the first!!!! i almost always write like,,, a super messy scene thats 90% dialogue, keep it in my head, and then write the entire fic around that one moment
Do you find that you include a projection of some part of yourself in the way you write a character? a lot of the time when i write love confessions or love in general i'll have one of the characters think or say that the other person makes their head quiet? and it's because that's what i feel whenever i'm in love?? a quiet mind. i project on characters yeah but i think most of the projection actually goes to the way that i write love
Do you research some of the things you write deeply, partially and kind of wing the rest, or play entirely by ear (in this case, go with whatever base knowledge of the subject you have)? most of the time if i do research it'll be about the setting (ex. the izakaya in to have and to hold) or if i'm having the characters interact with an object that they like. need to know how to use (me, in control fraek: google. hey google. does someone die if they get shot in the foot??? no???? awesome thank u <3)
Have you ever had an idea for a story and forgot about it? lmaoo yeah all the time i'll find like 500-2k words of concepts in my gdocs like i do. not remember this at all
Is there a trope you think you could be easily recognized by in your writing? probably krbk secret relationship lmao
Are there concepts you've tried that turned out better than expected? yeah!! i fully thought the action in control fraek would be awful but it turned out not bad??? which im happy with
Are there concepts you've tried that turned out worse than you expected? again, what we deserve, i personally think it would have worked out better if i'd paced it slower and drawn out the pining but i. do not feel like going back to fix it so its staying the way that it is. pining is so fucking hard to do AHHHH i get so tired with it!!! im like just date already!!!!
PROCESS
How do you come up with titles? in rare occasions (literally. all my multichaps for some reason) the title comes after writing like .5 words of the first chapter im like YES this is it!!!!! sometimes i write the whole thing and pick out one line that fits (what i did with come home to me) a lot of the time i just. steal from songs or poems that i like
What's your favorite emotion to cause on your readers? i like making people happy!!!! love when people comment saying they're cheered up
What's your favorite emotion to write? lovelovelovelovelovelove
Have you ever cried or felt any emotion while reading something you've written? never cried?? but sometimes i'll rereading my hurt/comfort fics 4. yk. comfort
Do you write in order or whatever comes to you? in order!! unless i have a scene that i Need to write and i'll quickly jot it down so that i don't forget
Usual way you procrastinate while writing? ...doing asks like this, making playlists, discord, watching netflix. what don't i do smh
Do you outline or free write? i am. so shit at outlines. i mostly free write and write lil notes for stuff that i wanna add later
Do you set word goals or scene goals (scenes you want to include)? yes!! like i said i'll write loose notes for scenes that i want to add later!! it gives me something to write towards :D
What do you consider when writing your scenes? what goes into making the atmosphere and mood you want? to set a scene i do two things? the first is like,, the five senses bc that always sets the scene really well and makes it feel Real. i'll visualize stuff in my head like its a movie and write out what i would want to tell the set designer?? if the lights are low, if the space is busy, if it's supposed to exude comfort or not.
for putting forward the character's mood one thing i've found that makes a difference is sentence length!! long sentences are good for making a character seem flustered and nervous or not really in control of their emotions? good for love confessions. short sentences are good for when the character is focused on something or short on time. good for fights!!
What's something you never considered to include in your writing that you can't leave out now? def buff hagakure,,,, once i thought of it i was like. if i don't include this at least once in every single fic how could i look at myself in the mirror!!!!!! how could i face anyone!!!!
How do you start a story? establishing a fact about the character or describing the setting! option a is one single thread of gold, option b is between lion and men
How do you end a story? either by tying it back to the beginning or doing like a funny kind of closing??? option a is sugar cookies, option b is a godless society
How do you get out of writer's block? change something!! move something!! i go from typing to handwriting, moving from my bedroom to my living room, switching wips to work on something else!! i do sprints as well?? give myself like fifteen minutes to write something and sometimes 200 words opens up the way for another 2k. sometimes i'll just delete like 500 words and start fresh
Do you edit? or do you toss your writing out there? i edit!!! i'll go over it myself then send it to one or two betas (bee my beloved <33)
How do you edit? do you use spellcheck, grammar checkers, etc? bee is my grammar checker bc he is So Good with grammar. i use grammarly as well for spellcheck stuff mostly?? sometimes my edit process is just like "am i tired of looking at this!! yes <3" and then i post it
PROGRESS
Do you usually like what you write? yeah!!! i post stuff that makes me happy and that i'm fine with rereading!!! i write stuff for self-indulgence reasons first and foremost and i think my writing reflects that sjhnksj
Have you ever written something you didn't like but posted anyways? nope!! even what we deserve i LIKED even if i see a lot of room 4 improvement!! if i don't like smth it's not getting posted
Do you find yourself rereading your writing often? yeah!! the reason i wrote so much krbk secret relationship is because i loved it but i'd read all that there was so i just,, wrote more,, ngl its kinda nice being in a place where i actually like my writing bc i can write stuff that i want to see and really enjoy it!!
Can you tell us anything about your current WIP? sure!! i'm currently working on when it rains which is a fic where bakugou gets hit by a crying quirk!! i'm gonna be using it to explore So Much of all might's character and his relationships with bakugou and aizawa (and i think some people from his past!!)
Can you give us a sneak peek on your current WIP? “You did something. What the hell did you do?” Kirishima sounds pissed off. It would amuse Katsuki if he wasn’t fighting just to stay standing.
“Nothing he didn’t ask for,” Shinsou replies.
“K’ri… shima,” Katsuki croaks out. “‘S fine. Not him.”
His chest collapses back into the familiar dry heaving after that but Kirishima shuts up. He doesn’t apologize to Shinsou.
Kirishima’s a good friend, stubborn and loyal. He stands by Katsuki’s side like an attack dog, blocking him from the view of anyone ogling at his tears.
The last line you've written Ochako knows more than she'd realized. She knows enough to keep her guard up.
It’s not enough.
Open a wip. what’s the first line?
Katsuki wakes up feeling like absolute fucking shit.
INSIGHT
What's your favorite thing about writing? touched on this before but it's mainly just being able to write the things that i want to see and actually enjoy them!!! actually reread them!!!! i thought "wouldn't it be cool if bkg and kirishima owned a restaurant together" and then i wrote it and i like it enough to reread it!!!! being able to create content for myself makes me. so happy
How do you keep yourself inspired? this is gonna sound narcissistic maybe but honestly i'm just really excited about my ideas and where i'm gonna take them and the idea of "i'm gonna get to That scene" keeps me going through the entire thing. also my friends!!!! i'll talk to them about fics and their reactions keep me hyped up enough to finish!!!!
What is your favorite thing to write? just,, slice of life romance,,, stuff thats silly and makes people laugh!!
What do you think your strengths are in writing? i'm good with dialogue!! i do lil voice acting sessions with myself to make sure everything sounds natural and like it's coming from that character skhjnskj
i'm comfortable with my portrayal of love as well??? i spend a lot of time thinking about what it is exactly that i'm trying to get across and i think it turns out well!!
What are things you wish you could practice more? on one hand i wanna get better at writing angst on the other hand i dislike writing angst. do you see my issue
One way you've improved your writing since you began? characterization!! i think i've gotten better at writing characters that are all Different and bring different things to the table!!! i used to project a lot more and it would compromise the characterization because the character was like 70% me and 30% them? not to say that projection is bad but if you do it too much it just,, doesn't read like the character and from a reader's standpoint the narrative can become less compelling
One aspect of writing you're still working on? writing action!!! i. literally hate writing it but i write for a fandom about superheroes so. Unfortunately i gotta learn.
A piece of writing advice you've learned while writing saw this on another tumblr post but they said sometimes if you're struggling with a scene, the problem is five lines back. i've found that to be true!!!! sometimes u gotta delete a chunk and start a little ways back!! i did this with too busy being yours because i was stuck for Weeks and i deleted like 25% of what i had but it helped me actually finish it :D
A bit of writing advice you can't stand when people shit on show don't tell for being overrated lmao bc when u read their writing you can Tell
Something you wish you knew when you first started writing? ,,,,honestly i kind of wish i could know some of the stuff that i used to when i first started writing?? technically i'm better now but creatively i was must better when i wasn't stressing about whether anyone would like what i was writing. so i guess i wish i knew that i should keep that confidence? i kinda wish that i wasn't as insecure about other people's writing styles because i never used to be!!
Something you've learned in life that you apply in writing there's no point in feeling inferior?? writing one genre isn't better than the other. being in one fandom isn't better than being in another. the kind of language you use or the length of your paragraphs- none of that stuff like. matters. what matters is that you're having fun and happy with what you're creating!!!! enjoy other peoples writing but don't let it make you feel worse about yours :D
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intersex-ionality · 4 years
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I read your post on your other blog complaining understandably or you mention the photorealistic animals on his dark materials and the lion king. I am not sure I like over- I do not mind hyperrealistic paintings but- I think you mentioned its harder for photorealistic animals to emote and they kind of look freaky. Pikachu looked more expressive in Detective Pikachu. Though I guess he is photorealistic in those trailers? Havent seen the movie. I wish the lions had more expressive faces
There’s a set of terms for describing this visual trend, and I don’t actually know it. So I’m using my best approximations, because I lack the technical terminology. In fact, I so thoroughly lack it that when I try to look it up, I end up being given weird unrelated resources because search engines aren’t telepathic.
But, there’s different kinds of realism. Which, I mean, that sounds so fuckign stupid when I say it like that?
But there’s realism in the sense of, “this is live action stuff that can and does exist in real life, albeit sometimes touched up in effects to make it more visually coherent.” That’s stuff like the sheep herds in Brokeback Mountain, which were at the time considered a breakthrough achievement in CGI. They’re visual re-creations of real things that really exist in the real world. So, realism.
Photorealism, as I use it in that post, refers to making versions of fantasy things that don’t actually exist (such as talking lions, or pikachu), but which have physics and designs that are approximately compatible with our perception of the real world. Much like taking a photo of a sculpture of something that doesn’t actually exist. In the picture, it makes sense. It looks like it fits. It matches our sense of realism as it applies to visual media, even if there’s no equivalent thing in actual reality.
This degree of... I guess fictional realism?
This degree of fictional realism doesn’t necessarily have to conform to anything about actual reality, however. It’s lions that can make human-like vowel shapes with their lips, it’s a robotic suit of armor that a normal ass man climbs into and becomes deific, it’s whole ass pokemon. It’s clearly a fantasy element, but it blends well with our expectations of reality within the medium. Much like the physics of Captain America’s shield tosses don’t actually match real world physics. They just look normal enough that the average audience member doesn’t question their presence in the art piece itself.
Hyperrealism goes one step further. It doesn’t merely concern itself with looking good enough not to disrupt the average viewer’s focus. It wants to make these fantastical elements as close to indiscernible from the real world as possible.
That’s where we start running into trouble.
Because, they’re fantasy elements. They’re not real. They can’t behave realistically, because there’s no real for them to approximate.
So, someone decides on what the “realness” they’re trying to achieve “should” look like.
And those someone’s are often not concerned with how well these effects integrate into the actual story being told, the emotions trying to be evoked. They’re often concerned more with pushing the boundaries of technical achievement. 
And, let me be clear: pushing the boundaries of technology is a good thing. It’s how we develop better tech!
But, if you push those boundaries based only on making an even better version of the thing you did 5 years ago, then stagnation is inevitable because you aren’t pushing the boundaries in the direction of what you need to do now, but what you needed to do in the past. Likewise, eventually, you move out beyond what is actually useful.
Using the lion kind as an example, because it’s just so very rife with good examples.
Ten years ago rendering a full coat of multiple-hair-colors and multiple-hair-lengths fur was an ungodly process. It was expensive, it was difficult, and the results were often clunky.
However, the resurgence of film franchises like Star Wars and the MCU have spent the last decade doubling down on hair-and-fur techniques in CGI, to the point that they’re.... basically solved? I mean there are obvious failures, but the techniques and tools now exist, where they didn’t before.
Compare the modern Lion King big cats to the at-the-time groundbreaking big cat in Life of Pi. The difference is staggering, right? It almost makes you think, holy shit, the Lion King remake actually did open the medium up to a whole new level.
Except... did it?
Compare the modern Lion King now to a modern peer, say Rocket Raccoon in Avengers, and you can see that the “great technical strides” aren’t actually that significant in terms of the utility they bring to story telling.
By focusing on making the animals as realistic as they possibly could, they sacrificed a lot of the empathy-building expressiveness needed to make an audience connect with their characters.
It’s not bad, but it works more as a tech demo than it does as a story.
And then, because of the deep conflict between the fantasy elements and the intense sense of “real world” physics and limitations that they’re going for, flaws that wouldn’t even be noticeable in a less obsessively engineered product become so obvious as to be jarring.
For example, the dance sequence in Hakuna Matata. Because we have these animals that are designed to be so realistic that even actual footage of actual lions doesn’t look as crisp and integrated into the environment, the fact that they’re singing and dancing is really jarring. And then the singing and dancing is also, necessarily, limited by the heavily restricted ranges of motion that the models are allowed to perform...
It’s an attempt to make something too real, to bring into reality something that cannot exist in reality, and it often comes at the expense of basic storytelling techniques.
Now, this is not to suggest that hyperrealism cannot be used for artistic and storytelling purposes in its own right. Of course, it can!
But shoving it where it was neither warranted nor wanted creates a conflicted, muddied end product that doesn’t express what it needs to express.
In short, let fantastical elements be fantasy. Accept that they’re not going to look like the stepped out of the real world, and then take advantage of that necessary disconnect to create something that really expresses and emotes.
Now, again, I don’t think these are necessarily the best words to describe the phenomena I’m trying to describe. But I don’t know what those words are, so I’m doing what I can with what I have.
If you happen to be more involved in visual media and the technical aspects thereof, and you can help me out here by telling me the actual right words, I would appreciate that a lot.
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60b3r · 4 years
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Memes Kill Creativity?
Memes vs. Genes
In the 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins coined the term 'meme' to describe something with symbolic meaning that spreads by imitation from person to person within a culture. This idea is an analogue to the nature of selfish gene, described similarly as a piece of genetic material possessing information required to be able to replicate themselves inside a living. The only key difference in both terms is that the gene is natural, while memes are artificial. The rest of memes' operating schemes completely mimic the genes perfectly. In our current timeline, memes as we know today are taking many forms: as image macros, short videos, and rick-rollicking music. Memes in imageboards and forums have been pushing internet porn traffic into a stalemate and putting our power grid into unnecessary burden. Of course, memes are not to be regretted, but otherwise need to be taken seriously, since they are able to put our current understanding of media industry and economic system into shame.
As with every other thing that have existed, memes are not exempt in its dualistic nature. If you ever venture to the depths of dark web, you may know that memes also took part in the infamous mimetic Tumblr-4chan War. Not only that, some memes are reportedly causing harm towards some users, even though it is often disguised or said to be a dank joke or mere sarcasm. Memes have seen its share of use in online bullying, mass shootings, and hate crimes, cowering behind the freedom of expression tag. Regardless, memes are also an extremely effective form of information transmission. Like all living systems with no set moral standards, memes do evolve and are subject to natural selection. Memes, like genes, actually work like a mindless machine. Again, this is eerily like the performance of DNA in living systems. The last thing we want from this thing is virulence.
Every day, something went viral on Twitter. Hashtags are flaring into the top trends, some videos are being watched billions of times, and another cat vs. cucumber pic garnered thousands of likes. Viral properties of a virus (duh) is defined as the capability to multiply quickly in relatively short amount of time. The term saw a huge increase in usage during the dawn of the internet age and the rise of computer malwares spread through unsecured ports of network protocol. This term is being applied to memes, as it is like a virus (which is a pure embodiment of a selfish gene). Now, a lot of people are utilizing memes to create art, because it enables them to cater the short-attention spans of current internet users. They create shorts, illustrations, inside jokes, and small comic strips. Some of you might not agree with me on this one, but stay with me now and I will explain to you why I would like to treat memes and art as a single unit of interest in this argument.
The dawn of meme-technology
Viral memes and their popularity are now often considered important in defining a time period in the internet culture. Now every netizen can somewhat distinguish the approximate age, sex, and political views of other users from the usage of rage comics, meme songs, and meme platforms they use. Intuitively we can make a generalized difference between the userbase of Reddit, 4chan, 9gag, Vine, and now Tiktok. Others, by the share of relatability with sub-genres of different areas of interest (film memes and game memes). Some others, even, in the perspectives of different social and economic class system (first world problems and third world success memes). Meme preferences to us netizens are ironically giving away our anonymous identity. Identity which the media companies are vying to get their hands on. That's where I would like to come into my opening argument: both memes and genes which originally possesses no intrinsic value, suddenly become a subject of value with technology.
How do we draw the logic, I say? The ones and zeros inside electrical systems are value-free, so does DNA in living cells. As we meddle ourselves with biotechnology to manipulate genetic material for profit, we also simmer ourselves in the computer sciences and tweak physical computation to perform better. We give value in the inanimate object by manipulating them. In our world, we often heard these expressions: that communication is key, sometimes silence is golden, and those who control the information wields the power. What’s these three statements have in common? Yes, information and expression. Memes are the simplest form of both. This is the beginning of the logic: memes are no longer in and on itself independent of external values. The infusion of utilitarian properties in memes as artificial constructs are seemingly inevitable, and for the better or worse shapes our current society.
We might have heard that somewhere somehow, the so called ‘global elites’ with their power and wealth are constantly controlling biotech research and information technology—or, in the contrary, they control these knowledge and resources to keep shovelling money and consolidate their power. Memes are one of their tools to ‘steer’ the world according to their 'progressive agenda', seemingly driving the world ‘forward’ towards innovation and openness. Nah, I am just joking. But, stay with me now. It is actually not them (the so-called global elites) who you should be worried about. It is us—you and I, ourselves—and our own way of unwittingly enjoying memes that are both toxic and fuelling the age-old capitalism. Funny, isn't it? We blame society, but we are society. But how are be becoming the culprits yet also be the prey at the same time?
Middle-class artists are hurt
Now, aggressive marketing tactics using memes are soaring. Media companies are no doubt cashing in the internet and viral memes to their own benefit. Streaming and cataloguing are putting up a good fight compared to their retail, classic ways of content delivery. This is quite true with the strategies of Spotify and YouTube, other media companies alike. They can secure rights to provide high-quality content from big time artists and filmmakers and target these works directly to the end consumer, effectively cutting the cost of distribution which usually goes to the several layers of distribution line like vinyl products, radio contracts, and Blu-ray DVDs. I believe this is good, since it is like an affirmative action for amateur artists to start a career in the art industry. Or is it? Does it really encourage small-time artists to begin? Yes. How about the middle-class artists? Not necessarily.
You might sometimes wonder, “how the hell did I get somewhere just by following the trending or hot section in the feed?”. This toxicity of memes often brings some bad things to our tables. Social media algorithms handle contents (like viral memes) by putting those with high views or likes to the front page, effectively ‘promoting’ the already popular post and creating a positive feedback cycle. By doing so, they could capitalize on ad profits on just few ‘quality’ contents over huge amounts of audience in a very short amount of time. The problem is most of the time, these ‘quality’ contents have no quality at all. They just happen to possess the correct formula to be viral, with the correct SEO keywords and click-bait titles with no real leverage in the art movement. This way, I often find both the talented and the lucky—of which the boundaries between them are always blurred—overshadow the aspiring ‘middle-class’ artists who work hard to perfect their craft.
If you are already a famous guitarist with large fanbase, lucky you, you are almost guaranteed to top the billboards. What, you have no skills? Post a video of you playing ‘air guitar’ and… affirmative actions to the rescue. Keep on riding the hype wave and suddenly you get to top trending with minimal effort, thanks to your weird haircut. Those haters will surely make a meme out of your silly haircut, not even your non-existent guitar skills. But still, hype is still a hype, and there’s no such thing as a bad publication. This also answers why simple account who reposts other people’s content could get much more followers than the hard-working creators. Not only being outperformed by the already famous artists taking social media by storm, now the ‘middle-class’ artists are also dealing with widespread content theft and repost accounts because of the unfair, bot grading system. It is unimaginable how many nobodies got the spotlight they don’t deserve just because they look or act stupid and the whole internet cheers around them. Remember, this is not always about the artist, but also the quality of the art itself. I believe a good art should be meaningful to the beholder.
Why capitalism kills creativity
The problem in current art industry is that we are feeling exhausted with the same, generic, and recycled stuff. We indeed already see there’s less discourse about art now. Sure, the problem lies not in the artist or medium, but is in the viewers—the consumer of the art form—and how the capitalist system reacts to it. The hyper efficient capitalist system doesn’t want to waste any more time and money trying to figure out what’s new or what’s next for you. What we love to see, what is familiar to us, the market delivers them. The rise of viral memes phenomenon in the social media pushes the market system to the point where they demand artists to create the same, redundant, easy art form. Listen to some of The Chainsmokers’ work and we'll see what music have become: the identical 4-chord progression, the same drop, the predictable riser, and the absence of meaningful lyrics. We sat down and watch over the same superhero movies trying hard to be the next Marvel blockbuster. The production companies are also happy not to pay writers extra to come up with new ideas and instead settle with borrowed old scripts from decades old TV drama. Disney's The Lion King and its heavy use of the earlier Japanese Kimba The White Lion storyline is one guilty example.
Despite it initially being an economic system and not a political ideology, it is untrue that many Marxist philosophers usher the suppression of art. While it is ironic that Stalinist policy intends to curb ‘counter-revolutionaries’—in this case his enemies—by limiting freedom of press and media; American propaganda added further so that it seems that the ideology is also limiting art and kill creativity. We all know the Red Scare in the U.S. during the Cold War saw a popular narrative of communism and socialism that is devoid of freedom of expression. This state propaganda then further become ‘dehumanization’ and make freedom of expression invalid under the guise of equality. Marx argue that total equality is not possible, and the uniqueness is being celebrated by having them doing what they do best and provide the best for their community. Thus, an individual's interests should be indistinguishable from the society's interest. Freedom is granted when the whole society is likely to benefit from an action. According to Mao in his Little Red Book, freedom of expression in art and literature, after all, is what initially drive the class consciousness. It is capitalism, not communism, that kills creativity.
If left unchecked, the threat of this feedback loop is going to cause a lack of diversity, resulting in stale content, less art critique, and overall decline in our artistic senses. Artists’ creativity that are supposedly protected by the free internet are destroyed within itself through the sheer overuse of viral memes. Capitalism has successfully turned the supposedly open, free-for-all, value-free platform that is the internet against the people into a media in which they are undeniably shaping new values on its own: the art culture that's not geared towards aesthetics and appreciation, but towards more views and personalized clicks. How social media and media industry caters to the demands of the consumer are, in Marx's own words, “digging its own grave”.
Spare nothing, not even the nostalgia
Well, people romanticize the oldies. The good old days, when everything is seen as better and easier. Look at the new art installations that uses the aesthetics of naughty 90s graphic design to become new, the posters released in this decade but with an art deco of the egregious 80s pop artist Andy Warhol, or the special agent-spy movies set frozen in the Nifty Fifties. Nostalgia offers us a way to escape from the hectic choices of our contemporary: different genres of music, dozens of movies to watch, and different fashion to consider. We choose to settle with our old habits, that we know just works. Remember how do we throw our money on sequels and reboots and remakes of old movies we used to watch during our younger days? We don’t even care about new releases at the cinema! Did you remember how Transformers 2 and their subsequent sequels perform at the box office at their opening week?
The huge sales of figurines and toys of Star Wars franchise—if we could scrutinize them enough—came from the old loyal fanbase of the late Lucasfilm series, not primarily from new viewers. Then suddenly, surprise-surprise. Our love for an old franchise deemed dead enough to be remembered and treasure soon must be destroyed to pave way for three new outrageous sequels (the ones with Kylo Ren and Snoke) by the grace of our beloved capitalism. Sadly, nothing is left untouched by the capitalism’s unforgiving corruption. Nostalgia has become a gimmick that makes people like some art more than they should, because it’s familiar. It is another way of squeezing your pocket dry.
Not that it is bad to make derivatives like covers or remixes, but the trade-offs are far too high. Consequentially, the number of original arts is now very little, because artists don’t bother making new stuff if they just aim for a quick buck. Most of the young adult novels are essentially the same lazy story progression with only different time setting and different character names. Most of them even have the same ending! No more a beautiful journey like the thrillers of Dan Brown or the epic adventures of Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings, which defines their respective times. Do we seriously want to consider Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey as a unique work? Isn’t the Hunger Games and the Maze Runner essentially the same?
If you play video games, you must have known that the trend always starts over. Game developers are making gazillions of sequels, and only a few of them that are actually good. Most are outright trash. Oh, wait, old video games like Homeworld are also getting remasters to cater the demand of nostalgic consumers. No new Command and Conquer release from EA Games? Re-release the 25 years old Red Alert because people will re-buy it! Profit!
15 June 2020 8.03 PM
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daehwifmd · 5 years
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it’s bea (SHE/HER), taehyun’s mun, trying her hand at a second muse again. this time i bring you my baby lion cub, daniel aka IMPULSE’S LUFFY! (yes, like one piece) he’s a ‘97 LINER, making him the maknae of the group, in addition to a main dancer and vocal. he’s from seoul, but definitely has soaked up all the ‘canadian’ one possibly could while studying in vancouver from ages five to fourteen. if your muse needs a little sunshine and laughter to spice up their busy lives, heart and i’ll reach out to you for plotting! check the cut for a run-down on dae. a plots page and daehwi’s bio information will be up soon. (don’t mind the theme.)
x danny was born in seoul, but discovered himself in canada. boarding school is not a personality trait. x he’s fluent in english. x danny has four siblings who all have doctorates in medicine. he works with music, they work with scalpels. x danny is a dance prodigy, and he’s pretty confident about it. he really wants to be a rapper though... x danny basically treats his fans like friends and it’s earned him a temporary social media ban. yikes. x danny was popular in high school so he’s got that class clown vibe. he’s still a good kid. x danny’s real name is daehwi. he goes by any one of daniel, danny, dae, daehwi, and of course, luffy. x he’s trying to grow up but nobody’s listening?? rip. x he plays the drums and is currently learning how to produce. x currently looking for a mentor! x he’s honestly a good boy. he’s kind and respectful to higher-ups. he’s just mischievous and also gets in a bit of trouble on accident. help him get in trouble. x variety and social media king??
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