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starseneyes · 1 year

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Chenford REWIND - Lucy Chen / Tim Bradford - The Rookie - Season 2 Eps 15, 16 & 17

Season 2 is such a fascinating era for Chenford, especially post-DOD and with the Rachel subplot. I'll be honest, I never hated Rachel. So, forgive me if I'm a little nicer to her than I am Ashley/Chris AKA Season 4's Obstacles of Awful.

SPOILER ALERT: If you are spoiler-averse, you are Rachel Meta-averse, as well. I will spoil the entirety of these episodes, as well as anything that has come before. I do try to write these without foreknowledge, though.

I'll be honest, the first two episodes here make me super uncomfortable. See, I'm a former journalist, so that one gets under my skin. And then the other with the medical stuff is tough, too, for someone with a fun list of issues.

Everyone squared away? Huzzah! Let's dive in together.

"Hand-Off" AKA Go Back to Mayberry

"What exactly is being assessed?" "Occupational integrity. From how we maintain our equipment to the upkeep of all of our certifications."

Lucy directs her question at Grey, but I do like how Tim jumps in here. His Rookie asked a question, and he's actually answering it instead of making Lucy jump through sixteen hoops to figure it out herself.

"So, are you nervous about meeting Rachel's dad?" "Please." "It's gotta be a tick nerve-wracking. Rachel adores her dad." "And he's gonna love me. Colin was a sheriff for 30 years." "Yeah, in a town with two stoplights." "LA or Mayberry, cop's a cop."

First off, I have to say I love seeing Tim's confidence, but I'm torn because it stems from his position as a cop.

That's Tim's default. He leans into his profession, using that as a measure of his worth while completely missing his value as a human being.

And, yes, there are a lot of reasons for that (that Season 2 Rachel wouldn't know), but future Rachel wants to give Tim a big hug, take him out for a beer, and explain to him that while he is a great cop, he's also a great human.

"No, he's from Sweet Home, not Mayberry." "No, I know. It's Mayberry, like the TV show." "What TV show?" "Nevermind."

That. Hurts. Me. Look, I know I'm getting older, and I'm much closer to Tim's age than Lucy's, so this moment hurt me. Ouch. I need to go adjust my dentures and invest in prune juice.

These young folks are carting me off to the Nursing Home so I can watch TV in black-and-white with a nostalgic smile on my face.

Also, it makes sense that Tim would invest in a show like that—a cop who loves his son. Someday that'll be you, Timmy, my boy.

"Lopez and her TO were first on the scene. Officer Rowland died in her arms." "That's awful. Ten years ago, Lopez would have been a Rookie." "It was her first shift."

It wasn't Lucy's first shift when she was tugging a shot, bleeding Tim out of the line of fire, but it was close. Coming into this job, there's no guarantee that your introduction will be smooth.

But Lucy also remembers what it was like with Tim... and while she might have imagined it going the other way, Lopez lived it on Day 1.

As I've said before, there but for the grace of God go I.

"So, have you decided where you're taking Rachel's dad for dinner?"

Lucy has this knack of getting Tim to talk personal stuff in the Shop. Yes, I know they both know Rachel (since Lucy set them up), but it's still a breach in protocol for TO Tim. Love it.

Look, these two aren't anywhere near ready to shack up in a hotel all night testing the stability of the earthquake protection systems. But, I love how Lucy draws him out.

Once she talked about someone liking him and he cut her off with a reminder that he was married and saying they don't talk about that.

Now, neither of those statements is true. Tim's dating, again, and he's talking to Lucy all about it.

"Auto burglary cases have a 0.02% solve rate. How is failing to recover her Dad's suitcase my best foot forward?"

They were actually kinda cordial before that, falling into a rhythm that's closer to their Season 3 banter.

But, now Tim's worried he's going to start off on the wrong foot, so, in the words of Marlin the Clown Fish, "Good feeling gone."

"Smokehouse. I love their bread."

Is this where the world-famous Twitter Crumb-o-Meter came from? I could believe it!

"Look at you in that uniform." "It's so good to see you, again."

It's so bloody nice to have someone in Lucy's circle support her who is in the same age-range as her parents. It's a shame he lives so far away.

"Sir, why don't you climb in the Shop? We'll drive around, do some hunting. See if we get lucky."

Yikes, Rachel's dad is coming in with some bark. He does NOT like what he's seeing in Tim Bradford, for whatever reason, and he's giving him grief. And it sucks to see Tim's confidence deflate so swiftly.

Like, I'm fine with him ending up with Rachel. *ducks* I know someone just threw a shoe at their screen. I hope it didn't break!

But, hear me out. Chenford at this point is a fantasy, a hope, a wish. In the grand scheme of ships, we're only 2 seasons in, and there's plenty of time to change direction.

Would I prefer for Tim and Lucy to get together? Hell, yeah. That's the Endgame dream, right? But most of the time when shows set up a "placeholder character", I hate them. I can't wait to get them off my screen.

Rachel's a decent, kind, hard-working, heart-filled human who really does like Tim Bradford very much. At a time when he's just easing back into the dating scene (well... Tim kinda dove in head-first, if you know what I mean), she's fairly easy-going.

Also, we share a name. And I like 90% of Rachels. (Yes, there is one exception. Yes, I've given her many chances over the last two decades to change my opinion... not yet).

A far as Tim and Rachel goes, let's see how it plays out, yeah?

FAST FORWARD: YES, future Rachel knows how this plays out. But I write these as though I'm watching them for the first time! Part of the rules! ... Please stop throwing shoes at me. I can almost feel my own screen shaking from the impact.

Back in the scene, I can't keep my eyes off of Lucy, because Melissa O'Neil is crushing her reaction game in this scene. I laughed every four seconds because of her.

"I know. But try and stay positive, okay?" *arm tap*

Yes, Lucy got this into this mess. But she was trying to be helpful. And while she is very aware of the tension here, Lucy always has that can-do, positive attitude that tries to lighten Tim's grump.

And the fact that she's retained that brightness post-DOD says a lot about her as a person. Lucy is resilient, yes. But also determined not to lose that part of herself.

It'd be easy to let trauma swallow it... but she chooses each day to reclaim who she is, to never let the bastard win, even in death. What a fuckin' inspiration.

"The thing is, if he's smart, he hit as many cars as he could in 10 minutes and then jumped on the freeway. He could be in Barstow by now."

Lucy with the assist! Again, Tim and Lucy are in friend-mode, so she is trying to help him with Rachel's dad, who she knows.

But it ain't helping.

"Look, clearly you're a good cop." "I appreciate that." "Dedicated, selfless, and takes pride in his work. A little sphinctered, maybe, but that can be good, too. Just not for my daughter."

Ouch. So much ouch. And, look, my Dad was never a fan of any of the guys I dated. He even told me when we were preparing for my wedding that "Matt's the one I disliked the least".

Yes, he loves Matt. This is one of the dangers of having an ex-stand-up comedian for a Dad. Never feed him a straight line.

But, oof, Rachel's Dad's being a little tough, right? Right? Stay tuned...

"I'm so proud of you." "Thank you."

Lucy needs that more. I mean, can you imagine how much she wants to hear these words from her own father? To know that her family accepts and loves her and supports her? That's the dream, right?

And, you absolutely can lead a fulfilling, beautiful life without the approval of your parents. Tragically, too many parents cut their children off for not meeting a certain list of expectations. Lucy's parents are about a thread away from that.

But she wants them to be proud of her. It would be nice, ya know?

And, I get it. You leave that door open to them, hoping that one day they'll knock and be ready for a real relationship. But, in the meantime, you have to keep living. And that's what Lucy's doing.

"What are you talking about?" "Uh, I thought she had told you." "Told me what." "Rachel may have Huntington's Disease. It's a fatal genetic disorder. "

Oh. Suddenly it all comes together, and it all makes sense. This is why he's been so hard on Tim, so tough on him, coming at him from every angle to distance them.

"But she may not have it."

Is that hope, Tim Bradford? Or more confidence in the science knowing it might not've been passed down? Either way, I appreciate Tim taking the opposite position where Rachel's father is waiting for the perceived inevitable.

You can't live your life based on a "maybe", yes. But ignoring it entirely might not be the best answer, either. It depends on the person.

My grandmother (mi abuela) died of small cell lung cancer. She went from diagnosis to death in 2 weeks. It was fast. It was sudden. It was heartbreaking.

My employer at the time told me to take my laptop and stay at the hospital with my Dad while I worked so I could be there for him, help walk him through losing his mother. "I trust you," she said. I'll never forget that.

Mima and her last living sister (my tia) spoke on the phone one last time, about a week before she passed. Neither mentioned to the other... they both had cancer. Neither told the other. We didn't tell them, either. Not until she passed.

And, oh, what a tough decision. But that meant their last conversation was filled with joy, love, and light. And for Mima, I think that's what she needed.

So... it depends on the person, I think. I'm not really here to judge.

That said, if you're dating someone, and this is a possibility, I think it's definitely something to discuss if you're see a future together. But, that's just me.

"... if the worst comes to pass, Rachel's gonna need someone who'll put everything else aside just to care for her. And we both know that's not you."

This pissed me off. Because, we all saw Tim with Isabel, and this guy didn't. We saw what he was willing to do to save Lucy from Caleb, and this guy didn't. He's making assumptions about a man he barely knows, and that pisses me off.

Yes, I hear his point. But he's allowing perception to color perspective. If he got to know this man—Tim Bradford—instead of jumping to conclusions, he might see a different picture.

"You had no idea Rachel might have it?" "No. She never told me."

I have such mixed feelings about this. Tim should not have shared his girlfriend's medical information with his Rookie. At all.

But the fact that he did is fascinating, and yet another step toward them growing closer.

But, Tim really shouldn't have said anything.

"We should go talk." "No, we shouldn't. This is none of your business."

If it's none of his business, truly, then this relationship may not have a future.

Look, it is her call to share or not share her medical history and information. Absolutely. But blind-siding Tim ten years down the road and giving him no time to prepare mentally and emotionally is a bad look.

Again, it's just my opinion. And Tim and Rachel aren't walking down the aisle, yet, so there would be plenty of time to address it before then. But, I do think it would be better to be honest upfront.

It's the first (but not last) time that someone in a couple on this show conceals medical information pertinent to the relationship.

And, honestly I'm more understanding about this one than that one simply because these two are dating, haven't yet moved in together, or talked next steps, and there's still an easy out.

Tim and Lucy look to one another as Rachel leaves, and I feel the air of partnership between them. It's them against the world, sometimes. And their bond is only growing stronger with the passage of time.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Tim doesn't scare easily, so he's not running from this. Just like we knew. We know who Tim is, and he loves deeply and completely.

He invests in relationships with everything in him, partly from a desire to be known and loved, and partly because he wishes that's what his father did with his mother.

Yes, spoiler alert, but I'm not saying too much, I don't think.

And I totally support her not wanting to know. Because she doesn't want to live her life around something that might not come. She wants to live freely. And isn't that all any of us want? Yeah.

"The Overnight" AKA Do Android Cops Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Canadian Idol Goes American

Did she just? She... I... WHAT!?!?!

Rachel on her first viewing had no idea Melissa O'Neil was Canadian Idol's Season 3 winner. Her singing was beautiful in the barrel. But this was a powerhouse vocal performance. Gee. Freakin' Whiz!!

How did we get so lucky to have this multi-talented performer as our Lucy? Wow.

One thing that really struct me about this performance was the joy that bubbled out of Lucy as she sang.

In the barrel, she sang as a source of comfort. Of strength. Of hope. She was dreaming the dream... that someone would find her.

Today, she's singing from a place of joy. The song bursts out of her, full-voices and strong. Lucy has reclaimed the joy of singing.

And while the convention might be a little forced... I love this moment. I love listening to her, watching her, and marveling at Melissa O'Neil's performance as a very layered character reclaiming her joy in front of us.

Powerful stuff.

"What are you doing in here?"

Tim bringing her back to earth as they try to pass her a Golden Ticket. And Lucy goes to him. Because, much as Lucy is an incredible singer, police work is her heart.

And I kinda love that message. Just because you excel at something doesn't mean it has to be your profession, or even your passion. Only you know your passion... so pursue that.

"Ever given blood before?" "Every 8 weeks, like clockwork." "Good for you." "Yeah, save lives. Get a personal oil change. It's win-win."

This is so Tim Bradford at his best. He likes organization and routine. But to choose the routine of donating blood to save lives? Oh, how beautiful!

"I didn't know machines had blood."

Nyla, I cackled aloud at that one. Well-played.

"You know the media will say or do anything to get you to back up their headline."

Oh, the stories I could tell. I started as an intern in a nationally broadcasted news room as 19. My first job was to watch 9/11 and Iraq War raw footage and mark the sections that were usable for broadcast.

I worked there a few years as a freelance Associate Producer after before determining I couldn't keep up with my full-time university schedule, my voice over job, and being called in randomly at 5AM for work after finishing class at Midnight. I was also a Student Teacher, at that point, and had papers to grade, lessons to plan, and lessons to teach.

Yes, Rachel has always been an overachiever.

After uni, I went to work at a local station. I was there a year and a half before I moved on because it was one of the most toxic places I've ever worked.

So, this episode makes me super uncomfortable because a lot of hit hits close to home.

This is not to say we should automatically distrust all journalists. But, I think a bit of skepticism is always a good place to start. They don't all have our best interests at heart.

"You shouldn't let him talk to you like that." "He's my Training Officer. That's just kind of his style."

Lucy really is accustomed to Tim at this point. And while I hear miss Journalist, Tim doesn't cross the line. Okay... Season 2 Tim doesn't cross the line. We can have words about Season 1 Tim in another Meta.

And Eric Winter's wife gets to check him out in-character. Yes, that's his beautiful, talented wife, Roselyn Sánchez!

She's built her own incredible career, and is currently on a television show, herself, in addition to the podcast these two share. Plus they have kids. IRL. Power. Couple.

I didn't know it the first time through. So, in case none of y'all knew either, now you know!

"I'm telling you, reporters always have an agenda." "To get the truth? Sounds horrible."

Lucy... you should listen to your husband on this one. I'm not saying all reporters are bad, but, speaking from experience, he's not entirely wrong.

"God, you don't trust anyone." "'Cause trust has to be earned."

Tim looks to Lucy, and she doesn't talk back. Because, that's not a bad way to live. And she knows he trusts her.

Look, you might think I'm quick to trust because of what I share here. When I tell you that's barely scratching the surface of my life, I mean it.

In this space, I get to control what I share and what I don't. But, if you get to know me and become a real part of my life, I'll definitely give you more. But, I need to build that trust, first.

And a default of not trusting journalists who want something out of you isn't a bad one. Just sayin'.

"He's not gonna make it. Animal Control's 10 minutes out. EMT's won't step foot in here until that snake's been neutralized."

Tim says it so matter-of-factly. He can accept it, but Lucy can't.

"You can't kill it." "What the hell are we supposed to do with it? Snuggle?"

Oh. My. Gosh. I so hope Lucy bought him a stuffed snake and had Rachel sneak it into his bed (and took pictures when he found it) because that would be hilarious.

Seriously, I watch this scene over and over just for that line and die laughing every time.

"Boot! Don't be a hero. It's venomous."

Clever girl. As she steps into the garage, she looks back to Tim with her, "I'm gonna do this" look. He answers with his, "I don't like this but I'm not stopping you" look. And I'm sitting here marveling at Eric Winter and Melissa O'Neil communicating so much with just .25 seconds of screentime each on that.

Tim is anxious the entire time. But he knows enough to stay out of her way, sometimes. He knows she's tough, and he knows she's capable.

"What are you doing?" "I'm texting Tim. I need a senior officer here." "No you don't. He'll just steal the credit." "Look, I am out on a limb here, okay? And as a Rookie, that could get me fired. So, either we do this by the book, or I walk."

This is how Tim trained her. Valerie is jumping into this situation without knowing how anything works. She wants the glory, but she's not putting the work in in the right way.

Lucy has worked her ass off, and she's not letting anyone take this away from her.

"Hey, thanks for coming." "Mmhmm." "I'm in trouble, aren't I?" "Mmhmm."

Lucy being the one to let me in makes me happy. Yes, she's in trouble, and she knows it. But, "when it counted" she made the right call, again, right? Yeah.

Wopez Proposal

Oh, I have future things to say about all this. This is so Wesley and Angela. And that is what matters. It's them. Each couple has their own story and path. Yes, there's a formula to television, but there isn't a form you fill out.

So whenever we get to Tim and Lucy stuff (If they get their acts together), I'm not holding out for grand speeches. Tim is a "show" guy and Lucy isn't overly flowery. They're going to do their stuff their way.

That's why we gravitate toward certain characters. These characters are unique, as are their relationships. So how they get together, propose, etc, is going to be unique to that relationship and those characters.

I think that's important to keep in mind.

Control AKA

"Sorry. We're not real cops."

Welp... this just went Meta... in a Meta. Seriously, I was rolling laughing.

"Do you think Rachel's disappointed I canceled last night?" "I don't know." ... "You might find this surprising, but we don't talk about you. Ever." "Wow."

Considering how much Lucy and Tim talk about Rachel, I can see why this would be a little surprising to Lucy. But Tim drawing hard lines makes total sense.

He isn't at a point, yet, where he needs/wants to talk about Lucy in his off-time. He gets enough of her every. single. day.

"Bradford's your TO?" "Yeah." "My condolences." "That's what everyone says."

Lucy laughs it off, but Tim does have a reputation. He's good at whipping Rookies into shape or scaring them off.

"He seems nice." "Sure." "Do you know him well?" "Play a little pick-up basketball together."

Lucy is vibing with this guy. And while I'm not ecstatic for her to find "the one" and it not be Tim, Emmett seems like a decent guy, and there's definitely some chemistry there.

"No." "What?" "No, forget it." "What?!" "Your social life is not my responsibility. I learned that lesson the hard way."

That line kills me on every watch. Because Tim used to distance himself from her solely because of his hard lines between personal life and professional. Now, Lucy is quickly becoming a friend, someone he cares about. The lines have gotten a bit more blurry.

But he still has hard lines he's not willing to cross, again. He truly believes that he overstepped and she got hurt because of it. We all know that's not what happened, but Tim has a knack for blaming himself.

"Oh my God. I am the third wheel."

This is said in such a hilarious manner, but I struggle to laugh because I genuinely hurt for Lucy. I feel like pre-DOD Lucy never would have fallen into this role. It just wouldn't have happened.

But, much as she wanted to jump right back into "normal" life, she has been changed by her experiences. They're a part of her, now, and sometimes they sneak up on her when she least expects it.

Lucy has been clinging so hard to "safe" that she's forgetting how to live.

"Chen. Grey need another team on the DEA op. You wanna put in some OT?"

Awww. He's inviting her to spend the evening with him. But, seriously, Grey needed a team, and Tim asked if she would join him. He didn't demand it. Progress!

"I mean, obviously I've been using Jackson and Sterling as a crutch. Together they kind of make the perfect boyfriend."

Tim's already rolling his eyes. He looks over, like, "Are you kidding me? because he already knows she's talking to noone.

"More importantly, they're safe-"

"Safe". That thing she wants. That thing she needs. She's just not ready to take the leap, quite yet.

Nyla and Angela tried throwing her to the wolves to get her moving, but that's not how Lucy works. Lucy needs time. She just didn't realize that in taking that time, she was encroaching on someone else's.

"Who are you talking to?" "Rachel."

You're talking to me!? Damn, and I forgot to respond. I'm so sorry.

Yes, I know it's fictional. But when you were born in the 80's and had a very popular name, you hear your name everywhere. That's why I started going by an abbreviation of my last names at age 9. I became SL (Yes, that's where Esselle came from).

"Hello?"

I'm dying. I don't think I can finish the meta because I am laughing so hard, I can barely breathe. Lucy, honey, you did not just answer the call and then say hello when he's a foot away.

"Hello."

And he said it back. Nope. Definitely can't breathe. Laughing too hard.

It makes it all the funnier that they say, "Hello" since they are both more of "hi" or "hey" people. It's so formal and that makes it all the funnier.

"Rachel is in a staff meeting, which means you are talking to no one."

In a move of synchronicity, they hang up at the same time. Love those touches, even if it's purely accidental because the script reads, "They both hang up" or something similar.

"Not no one. Me."

He's watching her, but she can't look up at him. Much as she is strong and confident in who she is, she's feeling vulnerable right now. The last time she went on a date it didn't end too well, and she's unsure of her instincts.

Nyla said she needed to be confident in her intuition... and she's not quite there, yet.

"I talk things out to process them, and I knew you wouldn't do it with me, so—" "Why would you even care what I think?"

He doesn't think his opinion holds weight beyond the badge. When he holds her fate in his hand, damn straight, his opinion matters. But beyond that? Why would she care what he thinks?

"The last time I gave you romantic advice, I pushed you towards Caleb and... you almost died."

Now he can barely look at her. The shame. The pain. He thought he was helping her blow of steam, and she ended up buried alive. He still blames himself.

He can't even look at her until he gets that last word out.

"That's, that's ridiculous."

Lucy shifts so she's fully facing Tim in the seat. Tim shakes her head, not believing her, still internalizing the guilt.

"There was no reason to expect anything. What happened- What happened wasn't your fault."

He finally looks to her, again, wanting so badly to believe her. Can she absolve him of his guilt? Find a way to forgive himself for something he never even did wrong?

He looks quickly away after their eyes meet.

"It wasn't mine, either."

Hell, no, it wasn't. No victim blaming here for psychotic assholes.

"Look, I wouldn't ask your advice if I didn't value your opinion."

Tim. Has. Value. Of course he does, but he's hearing it. It's good for him to hear it, and important that it's coming from Lucy. Because, much as he isn't ready to admit it, her opinion matters to him. So, it's nice to find out that's reciprocal.

He looks away, licking his lips as he tries to fight back the tears. He switches gears, fast.

"You can do better than Emmett."

Hell, yeah, she can! There's this guy (maybe you've heard of him) named Tim Bradford. And he's just about perfect for our girl. Well... not quite yet, but I really have a good feeling about him. You should send her his way.

"What? Why, why would you say that."

Because, girl, he's gonna marry you. (shoutout to my RoomFriends on that one!

"He's a firefighter for God's sake." "I know, he's hot!" "Okay, no. No. See, if you're gonna act all contrarian, I am done with this conversation." "I'm not being a contrarian." "You know, I-I think you're threatened by his hunkiness." "Hunkiness?" "Mmhmm." "That's not even a word."

Future Rachel has so. much. to. say. But, because we're in the past, I can't really talk too much about it. But, Tim and trying to get Lucy to admit his handsomeness is gonna be a running theme... just sayin'.

"Chen."

He comes around and the first thing he says is her name? Yes, it's Season 2. Yes, they're nowhere near that, but I can have my immature moment, right!?

"You okay?"

I don't know if there are two words combined like that he says more to her. Tim constantly needs to know that Lucy is okay.

And... that wraps it up. I think it's important that Lucy dates someone before she considers Tim, just as I'm glad Tim's not jumping right from divorce to Lucy, like Nolan did.

But I also think these episodes show a lot of growth between them, and I think Rachel helps with that. She becomes this common thread between them.

FAST FORWARD: And once she's gone, that closeness don't disappear. It's lasting. Tim and Lucy are on their journey of growing closer and closer.

I'll admit, the first two were really hard for me. Personal discomfort and whatnot. But, I'm glad I got through them, and I hope you enjoy.

Now, I gotta finish up my waiting in the parent pickup, wait anxiously to hear back about the car loan (yes, we're getting a car!), and check quotes from the 2 roofers thus far.

Thank you so much for reading! Can't wait to see you on the next.

#Chenford #Lucy Chen #Tim Bradford #Melissa O'Neil #Eric Winter #The Rookie #Meta

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edwardos · 3 months

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[Minecraft Blog 2024 500th Post]

Edwardos is a small blog, but it's come a long way. So has my modding skill in the last 15 months. Welcome to an incomplete exhibition of what I've spent that time working on, a work-in-progress Minecraft Beta 1.8 revision mod. It's called Noticeably Beta 1.8, and here come some of its sparkly images!

Starting out this afternoon with a fresh NBODE survival world so I can naturally show you what's in it, you can see I have no hunger bar... Note also the orthogonal grass.

I think that tall grass looks way better. It was a real challenge to implement, too. One of the first changes I did!

Hunger has no place in a mod like this. The purpose of Noticeably Beta 1.8 is to revise Beta 1.8 until it's still familiarly Beta 1.8, but considerably good. I am trying to turn a copy of Beta 1.8 into the ultimate patch based on Beta 1.8 (for now).

Tall grass cuttings and dead bushes can be obtained easily by attacking them with any sword.

I deliberately wrecked the achievement system's shit - e.g. I got rid of that annoying notification to open your inventory every time you start the game from scratch - but it's more unintentionally broken than I thought, more to come on that later.

I have reprised my Chain Links days by adding the logical chainmail armour crafting to this mod as well. The chain links are in the inventory's bottom right.

We have a Survival Test style score counter in NBODE. Actually, we also have one for experience.

In a new house. It uses four of my new blocks in this image alone. I'll leave you to work that out...

Noticeably Beta 1.8 is spooky. There are a lot of Creepers. I'm not responsible for that part, I think Beta 1.8 just literally spawns more Creepers. And you can't sprint. I'll let you off the hook, that ceiling is hard sand. I was inspired by a grungy sand castle in a cartoon I saw to make a variant of sand that doesn't fall. It's smarter than you think.

Emeralds generate at high altitudes, but not in a way that you just see them plastered all over the sides of rock cliffs.

The emeralds can be crafted into tools. But not armour. It's smarter than you think.

I was being chased by this Creeper in SECOND-PERSON MODE.

In a stroke of fortune he revealed two of the other features I was supposed to showcase, invisible clay deposits and mineral gravel.

Mineral gravel has random drops of dust stuff, and like emeralds it's in the mountains.

You can do this.

It wouldn't be Beta 1.8 without newly having access to these.

The idea with building blocks in this mod is that you don't find different kinds of rocks in the ground to craft those. Instead, you collect OG rocks and gravelly deposits and you mix them together until you get tarmac, or soilstone. Or soilstone cobble (which was a totally original texture and REALLY hard to draw). Or varnished sandstone. Or broad sandstone. Or hard sand. The underground stays classically uniform.

I didn't have time to find that other one, but this isn't the only new gem I've added. My take on balancing is goooooooood...

Giant mushrooms in Beta are fantastic. Now you can make food out of any of them.

And they stack to two now.

That's not very noteworthy in a hunger system Minecraft game, but when starvation is totally gone and food instantly heals hearts, having 8.0 points on your hotbar slot at once is a big deal.

I'll be real with you, this is an annoying bug I have to fix. You may have noticed that this is the second time this post has seen me get the wooden sword achievement now. It's a pretty bad one. I only discovered it while playing this version tonight.

Now, some of my other vicious fix attempts on the other hand, now those...

Those are on point.

And that leaves us with the end of Post 500 for this convenience storefront of Tumblr. But before I go, I gotta say something... I started this mod in December 15 of 2022, and it's been a real journey. I've been proud of my idea to do this with Beta 1.8 since it was just an idea. And it's more than an idea now, it's the tangible result of a newbie modder with not much Java experience spending months of effort to get better at the job than he ever dreamed.

However, there's a sad side... With Minecraft, I've for a long time been absolutely terrified of plagiarists, or people otherwise getting to claim my ideas before I can. Actually my life on every topic is like that. I have too many ideas and I want to somehow protect all eleventy of them. I can't really say why, but I am feeling the pressure to get the full release of the first patch of Alpha of this mod done in a short amount of time so I can release it publicly as fast as I can. I'm feeling halfway certain my time is running out. I don't want to lose the race, if there is one. See, I had it within reason that I was going to be the first to make a revision mod of Beta 1.8. It makes sense, right? And as far as I know I'm the only person who calls this genre of mod a "revision mod". Nobody in the Minecraft community seems to popularly take Beta 1.8 seriously, not retro fans or people on the new edge. I was smart enough to realize it might have a special set of hidden talents, even though it's known as the "hated" update. But somebody else might screw with that. Can call it paranoia, hopefully.

Thanks for reading my blog. It's not "taken off", but on any posting day I see random 5 note clusters in my activity immediately when I get posting, and honestly I guess I just want to say that makes me happy. Now let's hope I can achieve another one of my dreams.

#Minecraft mod development #Minecraft Beta #The Adventure Update #retro Minecraft #Minecraft WIP mod #Minecraft mod #Minecraft devlog #devlog #Minecraft Beta 1.8

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dreamwritesimagines · 9 months

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It’s CMA-

Dream do you watch TTRPG’s at all? Specifically I’m thinking of a court of fey and flowers on dimension 20 because the regency vibes are just MWAH and I was wondering if you were at all familiar with it.

Either way, getting on with it and taking notes as I read as usual:

Awww Lottie!! Love her and I love that we’re activity the entire support system for this. Also Lottie promising to always be with her??? I love her your honor

Wait is Lottie either going to tell Benedict off or does she know what the secret is????

“I’m quite familiar with that concept” BEN NO omggg that’s so sad 😭

Plot twist teddy has a crush on Ben now not Lottie lmao /j

OH I bet lady Margery was helping him get that rose middlemist or something??? That’s why they’re in the greenhouse???? Right???? Please dream let that be the reason

Fuck clover did u rly have to do him dirty like that??? I know ur insecure but damn lmao

Also yayyy I’m glad I was right!! And that’s so sweet of him to prepare all this for her

Lmao I feel like the house staff would’ve known that Ben was preparing a surprise for clover or at least seen the packages of plants and gardening supplies being delivered so like why they gotta be spreading rumors and saying stuff like that lmao.

Ur telling me the gardener kept this 100% secret… sure jan /j

Also I bet she’s going to say ily but I lowkey kind of want Ben to not reply right away because what she said was so hurtful. Like damn clover every time ur a little bit stressed you say the meanest shit /hj

Girl he literally sketched the flower for you when you fainted. He had to look that shit up in a book so he knew what to draw and ur saying he doesn’t remember ur favorite flower??? Have you forgotten how down bad he is for you??? Facepalming all over the place lol

Fuck ben that’s so much work and he got this plan started before they were even married or if he knew she liked him back

This is like the greatest gesture of love of all time. And like even him continuing it by having it so that he can have the other greenhouse set up so that she never has to be without her garden even though she’s not even using it right now and I just-

Thank god she finally got her head out of her ass lmao. Finally clover, it’s a long time coming

Lmao thinking of flowers even when they’re about to fuck like yeah that tracks. I wonder if Ben is offended tho lol

Oh I forgot! This is in the rain! (Sort of. They’re wet is my point). It was a dark and stormy night… v romantic haha

Awww well I’m glad they’re happy at least. I hope her parents don’t ruin it…. (To which I’m sure Dream’s reply will be ‘😏😈’)

Awww sweet chapter; good job gang it all worked out.

CMA hi my love! 🥰

I don't watch them actually but they look so much fun😁 I'd love to get into it sometime ❤️

Lottie immediately turned overprotective just like Anthony 🥰 They both care about her a lot ❤️

Oh Lottie had no idea what the secret was ❤️ She just went there to tell Benedict off and also forgive him loll😂

Omg 😁 Oh Teddy just looks up to Benedict so much, he's his role model ❤️

Asdfghjkl an air raid siren started going off in Clover's head the moment she heard Benedict and Margery were alone in that greenhouse at night 😈 While she wasn't homeeee😈

I feel like people knew for sure, but they were told to not tell anyone, especially Clover 😁

I don't think Clover realizes just how in love with him he is 😂 THE DRAWING YES! 😁

Fuck ben that’s so much work and he got this plan started before they were even married or if he knew she liked him back THIS! ❤️

Exactly, he started on that after they talked at that flower exhibition, while she was still being snarky with him whenever they had a conversation 😂 Like, they weren't even courting! ❤️

Loll I think Benedict found that amusing 😂 Her thinking of flowers even then 😁

I love rain scenes so much! ❤️

Awww well I’m glad they’re happy at least. I hope her parents don’t ruin it…. (To which I’m sure Dream’s reply will be ‘😏😈’)

😏😈

Thank you so so much for this my love! 🥰

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disventurecrab · 25 days

Text

Crab’s Disventure Super Hero AU:

I came up with the idea of this au at 12:30am and then asked my fiancée who knows nothing about DC what powers they think the characters would have based on vibes (and then changed half the answers to actually fit vibes or be drama)

Heroes

Tom - Shadow Powers, can dissolve into shadows and use darkness to obscure himself/others or blind others.

Aiden - Hydrokinesis. Basically water bending. Can also boil or freeze water with it.

Ally - Technology/Electronic sync. So long as she is touching a piece of tech, she can hack/control it. But her body is completely useless while connected. She can take control of a security system or a giant mech, but her body can’t do anything while she’s doing that.

Hunter - enhanced reflexes/senses and increased durability. Good at weapons, so he is basically like a hawkeye / nightwing hero.

Connor - semi-retired hero, but still on call for major crisis or for the annual work party. Has the ability to emit chemical gases with different effects, but can only due it a limited number of times per day and in large quantities, so he typically bottles the gases and uses them as bombs in combat.

Ashley - super strength but fights in a more Wonder Woman style. A classic.

Lake - telepathy and minor telekinesis. She is essentially a Professor X character but she rocks wigs.

James - Flight. Gotta give him a power that would both be very showy for the tiktok, and cause some initial drama with Aiden.

Riya - minor time manipulation. Can basically rewind time for up to a few minutes. If she does longer than that or a multiple times she physically exhausts herself. Is useful if something bad happens that she can prevent. Is also useful for being an actress as she never misses a take. (Is also useful for whenever her and Connor get into a fight, she just rewinds it so it never happened :-) )

Lill - physical adaptability. Basically if she is in a situation that is life or death, her body will adapt to safe itself, but she has no control over what it does. So if she is submerged underwater she might grow lungs, or she might develop skin that absorbs oxygen through it. More useful for saving others/being a rescue hero

Karol - animal communication. One of the most obvious powers.

Dan - Drawing Creation. Anything he draws temporary comes to life. Allows him to also communicate with little drawings like the Sandman in Rise of the Gaurdians.

Drew - Heightened intelligence. He runs management back at the hero command and actually does the hard work in locating villains and stopping attacks before they happen.

Villians

Jake - Can command/charm speak. Basically could order you to do something, but can only do it to one person at a time or else he over exerts himself. Is primarily a thief who is doing the villain stuff cause the system is broken and he needs money.

Fiore - a literal cyborg child. Is physically 2, mentally 6-8 years old, and also heightened intelligence. And she has a fun for a hand :D

Alec - probability manipulation. Can basically change fate/chance and manipulate the probability of something happening. But the greater the change in probability the more energy it takes. For instance, if there is a 95% chance he makes a jump, he can change it to a 100% chance with relative ease. But if there is a >0.01% chance he succeeds in making a jump, raising it to even 20% would cause him to pass out.

Ellie - physical destruction/dissolving of molecules. Great for breaking into buildings. Also good at combat if you really want to mess someone up. Also here primarily to steal things and make money, but unlike Jake, she’s not “half-assing” this being a villain thing.

Gabby - plant manipulation. She is an eco-terrorist and is essentially Poison Ivy with Harley Quinn’s personality. Doesn’t so much as do villainy as she attacks fur farms and people who abuse animals.

Yul - combustion powers like Bakugo from MHA. He can create explosions and start fires with them.

Nick - no powers. Is essentially a Batman/superman villain who buys a lot of weapons. Wanted to be a hero but was not allowed in because he didn’t have powers.

Kristal - Stamina stealing. She is able to take the energy/lifeforce of another person she touches and grow her own. Technically she could kill someone by stealing years of their life away, but usually just steals someone’s energy for the day so they fall asleep. Has great control over her powers.

Trevor - Undetection. He can be ignored by anyone. And by technology and cameras. Great for sneaking around and causing problems for heroes. Not for getting Derek’s attention.

Derek - blood/body manipulation (fiancée suggestion). He can basically control the blood in a person’s body. Would be great if he actually studied anatomy and learned how to be more precise with his powers. But instead he can either give you a massive bruise and a ton of pain in your legs when he makes them physically stop moving, or could just kill you by making you instantly have massive internal bleeding or a stroke.

Emily - hearing. She lives to listen in on the gossip and see what’s up. And then sell that info to the highest bidder.

Jensen - Electrical powers. Literally has enough voltage to shock deliver a shock that can stop a heart from several feet away. Super dangerous alongside Derek.

Non-combatants

Tess - local artist and subsequent “therapy friend”. Has friends who are heroes and friends who are villains. Somehow manages to not let either side know she is a neutral party in these shenanigans by just being chill.

Miriam- grandma figure/roommate/co-business owner with Jake. Lost her family in the same freak accident that killed most of his family and also gave him powers. Is the one to bandage Jake up after his fights. Wishes he wouldn’t do bad things, but understands why he does it.

Grett - former villain who is currently retired and reformed. Occasionally acts as an informant/advisor to the heroes since she has underground connections. Her super power is that when she is in direct sunlight/strong uv light she is basically invincible and has super strength, but she gets weak in darkness.

Rosa Maria - super powered (wind/storm manipulation) but only a hero to her daughter. The heroes have her number in case “it’s a world ending scenario” and she is Lake’s foster parent/roommate.

Will - no super powers, just Ashley’s super supportive boyfriend.

Kai & Maggie - lumping them together. Kai has healing powers and uses them to aid heroes and some villains when injured. Maggie is his gf, and is stronger than an average person but doesn’t have a super power.

Oliver - villain sympathizer. No powers. Runs a safe house for villains/people who need to get away from society. A primary contact of Kristal’s for when she needs something but also has hero connections.

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everygame · 3 months

Text

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

Developed/Published by: Jeff Minter, Digital Eclipse / Digital Eclipse Released: 13/04/2024 Completed: n/a Completion: Played and viewed all of “The Early Years” and part way through "The Hairy Years" and still digging into the rest of it.

I know, I can’t believe it either. Every Game I’ve Finished topical for two weeks and even posting a write up of a game on its day of release (well, for supporters, anyway). It’s like I’m a games journalist again (spit).

I was hugely excited for this after enjoying what I’ve played of Atari 50 (better than those flashback collections!) and The Making of Karateka, and although this is absolutely, 100% not what I would choose to put out if I was attempting to be commercial after The Making of Karateka, I’ve gotta say… fair play to them. Though they’re pretty much nailing their flag in the terrain that says the Gold Master Series is not so much The Criterion Collection of games as it is like… Vinegar Syndrome or something. I mean there’s nothing wrong with that! Someone’s gotta put out deluxe versions of Bruno Mattei films [checks notes] oh hang on, no.

(To be fair, it’s actually a lot more like my buddy Justin’s boutique label Gold Ninja Video, which actually does insane work to put out work by filmmakers who should absolutely be known better.)

Anyway. They say there’s a stonking 42 games on this, but that’s a slight exaggeration because there’s technically on 33 different games with a few offering different versions based on system (Gridrunner, for example, is on VIC-20, C64, Atari 8-bit and as a remastered version) and most of the games are pre-1985 so there’s a lot of stuff here that’s really only going to be of interest if you like diving into some very dusty cupboards. This is something I honestly enjoy very much, so I loved pulling out a VIC-20 game and trying to make sense of it, but for many, I assume, the main draw here is the fact that it’s a proper re-release of his beloved Tempest 2000, a well that Minter has been back to a bunch of times–I loved TxK to pieces. It’s a slight bummer that this doesn’t re-release Minter’s more recent games which have been delisted like the iOS “Minotaur Project” (of which only a couple of games have been re-released as Minotaur Arcade.) However, it seems pretty obvious that would be a ton of fucking work to port, as would, say, getting a Nuon emulator up to spec so people could play Tempest 3000, so that's... fine.

(There’s also no Defender 2000, but that’s rights issues, and as far as I remember people don’t think that’s any great shakes.)

Presentation-wise, you know what to expect with this release, the same wrapper as in Atari 50 and The Making of Karateka with some different colours and music. This is fine! I think I’ve settled into this three releases in. You get a ton of interesting images, details, and box art to look at, though I still have issues with the layout of the documentary/museum (I can't remember which terminology Digital Eclipse would prefer.) I have small quibbles: in “The Early Years” if you go through it in order you play a version of Bomber on ZX Spectrum before they introduce the system into the narrative (admittedly the kind of thing you won't spot unless you're brutally anal on these kind of things like myself.) Then the final video you watch recaps everything you’ve just learned in a way that makes you feel like it should either have come first, or been split up into more videos.

But I’d argue there’s deeper structural issues if you’re really trying to get people excited about video game history, and I again place it at the decision to go pure chronological* (as I did in The Making of Karateka.) If you play each game as you go, you’ll play a series of games so old and so ropey that you have to already be interested in this story to see it out. If you don’t know why you should care about Jeff Minter, I’m sorry, but a video of some talking heads and then immediately playing 3D3D, a baffling and slow first person maze game for ZX81 that has literally no analogue in the entire rest of his career is… not going to help! And I have to again bang on that I feel they just don’t place the games in enough context of the wider games industry at the time.

(*There's a quirk in that it's not exactly chronological, because all the Atari 8-bit ports are later in the documentary, which is a bit weird when you, for example, play two versions of Gridrunner and then the Atari 8-bit version several games later. I'm unclear on the exact reason if it, and if you're going to be even that irreverent, feels like you might want to just wildly reorder the whole thing for the audience anyway.)

I think Digital Eclipse’s counter overall would be that I probably want something more verbose and detailed which wouldn’t be as accessible, which isn't wrong. They might even argue that I'm basing my criticism on a hypothetical consumer who isn't even their intended audience! It's a hard line to ride, but I’d still argue that there’s a sense for storytelling in the curation here that’s missing--and I really don't want them to limit their audience because as critical as I might be, I love this series already and I want it to go on forever.

So yes, this is still the exact kind of thing I want to be released and if it’s opening up people to learning more about Jeff Minter and Llamasoft on their own time then I think it’s brilliant. I just think that anyone who picks this up who isn't already steeped in this era needs to be a bit forgiving and skip past all the ropey old games after looking at them for a couple of minutes tops and just enjoy reading the text and watching the videos until they get to the good stuff, so consider this fair warning before you buy it (because you should buy it.)

I mean if you only want this to play Tempest 2000 (and Llamatron 2112, actually) there’s nowt wrong with that, and that’s already worth the money.

Will I ever play it again? I’m still working through it!

Final Thought: I will, of course, be playing every game on this, and although I won’t be giving every Llamasoft release a full post, I have at least started with a write-up of each of the games in "The Early Years", as an introduction to the kind of things you’d be playing if you pick this up (and which sadly explains why you probably won’t want to play most of them... it gets better by the time you get to The Hairy Years, and significantly). If you want to read it, it's a supporter-only post over at my ko-fi. I suppose saying that makes my usual please subscribe stinger a bit pointless but let's hammer the point home why not. Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

#gaming #video games #games #txt #text #review #nintendo #nintendo switch #llamasoft #llamasoft: the jeff minter story #jeff minter #digital eclipse #gold master series

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carpisuns · 3 years

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anatomy tips for anon

(someone asked me for this but tumblr ate the ask lol so I’ll just answer it here)

hi anon, I actually really struggle with anatomy so i was kinda surprised to get this ask hdjsksjs but i hope my answer is at least somewhat helpful!

first of all, there are a million methods for drawing a full body. some people like sketching out a skeleton first and building on top of it, some people start with a super loose/flowy general shape of the pose, some people use ovals or 3D boxes or cylinders—i'd recommend looking at various tutorials and trying them out to see what works for you!

unfortunately none of those methods worked very well for me,, i found them kinda cumbersome and counterintuitive so I usually end up just like. going for it lol. I don’t really have a System cause my method is honestly just “try your best, hold back the tears, fix it until it looks as passable as you can get it” DHJSKS but idk maybe it will help you to see my "process" lol

(ok i've never done a speed drawing thing before so i'm about to Expose Myself but im doing this for you anon haha)

(putting the rest under a cut bc it's long, sorry lol)

as u can see, it's a lot of trial and error for me. you may have noticed how i redrew every single thing like 50 times, how i initially made her arm ridiculously long and had to shorten it, how i general just Abused the lasso and warp tools....the list goes on haha. the point is, i make a lot of mistakes and my final products are still very flawed, but that's okay because i know i'm getting better the more i practice! if you scroll back through my art tag you will see some anatomical horrors that would make picasso cry, but at the time i was really proud of them LKJDFSKJLF

ok let me break it down a bit

i usually start with the head, neck, and like a vague indication of the shoulders lol. then i add these slightly angled lines to build the torso from and leave a little gap so i can come back for the arms

then I add the legs!

i used to be so allergic to legs lol but i've been drawing them more lately and i decided i actually kind of love them?? who'd have thought. (but not feet. dni)

here are some basic examples of how i draw legs. keep in mind that i am still learning and these are not like the best examples ever! i don't tend to put a lot of detail in my anatomy and mainly stick to very simple lines and curves, partially because i prefer a simpler style and partially bc i currently lack the skill to be fancier about it lol

i usually start with basically two lines slanted slightly inward for the upper leg and then for the lower leg i do a straighter line and a line with a bump for the calf. pay attention to what direction the knee is facing because that will determine where your bumps go

once i've got the legs, i have the basis of the pose in place, so i add the arms

shoulders are a weird struggle for me lol but i usually add like a little circle or triangle to indicate the joint so i can attach the arms. and then i build the arms kinda similar to how i do the legs—like with two slanted lines and then the bump for the lower arm

once I’ve got the whole body down, there is usually a fair amount of adjustment haha. I gotta ask, does the pose actually work? like, where is the character putting their weight, and does the pose make sense that way? are the legs and arms and torso the proper length and width? and then at some point after a lot of fiddling i give up and voila, done :)

as far as proportions goes, my advice is to pay attention but not sweat too much about it. I used to try to like Vitruvian Man it lol and count how many heads tall the character was and try to be super precise about the proportions according to one of those proportion chart things. and ofc that stuff helpful and important to know! but in the end, worrying that much about it was a hindrance for me and I ended up with really stiff and unnatural-looking poses. so I mostly just follow a couple rules of thumb:

1. The elbow should hit around the waist/mid-torso

2. The arm, fully extended, usually hits the upper thigh. like, wrist at crotch level I guess?

3. The length of the legs is like roughly equalish to the length of the the whole upper body (head to bottom of hips)

these are just basics and not very Scientific haha but that’s vaguely what I go for. also remember that proportions can be pretty stylistic too! for example, a real human body is normally like 8 heads tall, but I probably do like 6ish heads normally. that’s pretty common for more cartoony styles, and the bigger heads also make the character look younger bc kid proportions are different than adult proportions. just kinda play around with it and go with what feels natural and good for the character you’re drawing

if you feel like your pose is stiff and weird rather than natural/dynamic, it often helps to make sure the shoulders and hips are tilted slightly at opposite angles. that's a tip i picked up from this tumblr tutorial a long time ago and i always come back to it, haha

ok that's about all i have for specifics but i have just 2 general tips to end with:

1. Use!!! References!!! seriously. i use references every time i draw. i look at photos of real people and screenshots from the show and i even sometimes take pictures of myself for reference. often i'm using multiple references for one drawing, like piecing together elements of various refs to create the pose i want, but sometimes i work from a single reference. i also study my favorite artists' work pretty frequently to see how they do things. getting familiar with what good art and real life looks like will help you get better at mimicking it and noticing when things are off.

2. Be patient with yourself. You’re gonna mess up a lot. Sometimes you may even post something and realize months later that you made chat noir’s upper arm literally twice as long as it should be :/

but fear not! you don’t have to live forever in the shadow of Long Arm Chat! lol. you will get better just by trying, I promise.

Part of the process of making art you like is making a lot of art that you don't like, or art that you like at first but hate later. Your skills and your eye are developing simultaneously, and sometimes your eye passes up your skills, so that you're better at noticing your mistakes even if you struggle to fix them. that's okay! that gap can be really frustrating and discouraging, but it's still a sign of growth and your skill will catch up. just keep studying, keep drawing, and keep having fun! it gets better, seriously. when i first started drawing like two years ago, i thought i'd never be able to do a passable full-body pose. it was SO hard. and it's still hard for me! but i can do it much better now than i could then, and when i get bummed out about my limitations, it helps me to remember that even though i still have a long way to go to get where i want to be, i've also come a long way. and you will too! if your current self could see what your future self can do, you'd be so impressed 😌

P.S. just to reiterate, I am Not an expert At All and these are just some methods/tips that are working pretty well for me right now. i hope they help you out too, but my methods may not be the best fit for you, and if that's the case, don't sweat. try out a lot of stuff and see what clicks and makes sense. art is a learning process and it's so individual so i encourage you to experiment!

Good luck, and have fun!

#anon #ask #art tips #tutorials #drawing ref #ref #man i need to be more consistent about these tags lol #mine

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lazyliars · 3 years

Text

/rp

Before I get into it, I want to state that is EXPLICITLY an analysis of the Characters, and is not intended to touch on how the cc’s played them in a meta sense unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, this is technically a part two to my other post, which took a more in depth look at Techno and Phil’s reactions to Tommy’s death. It’s not necessary when reading this post, but I don’t address their reactions here.

So. The question must be asked.

Are we [the Syndicate] the baddies?

Yes.

The End.

Why are the Syndicate the baddies?

They got damn logo is a wither skull.

The End.

That's not how this works.

Yeah, yeah. You’re right.

The Syndicate's goals as an organization are not inherently bad. They seem to have good intentions behind them, and the focus on the freedom of it's individual group members is important to remember when talking about it; It is not a government. There is no hierarchical power system. No one is forced to do anything against their will, or surrender any of their rights or power to remain a member. It is not a government.

I also want to address Techno and Phil backing Ranboo into a corner – I see them getting a lot of flack for this, but I personally do not think it is relevant to the greater discussion, or necessarily representative of any contradictions within the organization. It was clearly played for laughs, and after they back off they clarify to Ranboo that they won't force him. Then later when Phil and Ranboo are alone, Ranboo feels safe enough to express that he felt like he was pressured into it, and Phil assures him he is allowed to leave whenever he wants; He is not being forced to do anything, and he is not being coerced or blackmailed.

None of the Syndicate members have done any wrongs against each other in the context of the Syndicate, OR gone against any of the Syndicate's core principles.

That, said, holy shit are they the baddies.

Listen, there's trying to telegraph a meaning or message to the audience and then there's having your logo be wither skulls on blackstone. That is straight out of the skit I keep referencing, seriously.

Okay, but, they laughed at it! It was played as a joke, just like the Ranboo thing!

The Ranboo thing was improv, the Syndicate's headquarters were planned – the artistic choices that they made reflect on what role they want the build and the organization inhabiting it to play in the future storylines.

Wither Skulls kind of have some CONNOTATIONS. Techno is an English major, I don't think he chose the most threatening imagery possible on accident, and then joked about the way people would interpret it just to stir the pot. This reads as hugely intentional.

And beyond that, the jokes they make during this part aren't “haha yeah, we look bad but we're actually good!” they're “you can tell by looking at these that we're the good guys wink wink, this is good guy stuff right here :)” It is a joke about how they are definitely not the good guys. This isn't even a case of unreliable narrators, this is one step down from flat out saying the meta intent.

But okay, I hear you, I'm talking about things that haven't happened yet. The Syndicate hasn't used any Withers, they could be an aesthetic choice. Lets look at what they do in practice.

So, they barge into private property, assess Snowchester's right to continue existing based entirely on their own ideals of what Freedom is, and then only once Tubbo assures them that they have no standing leader do they grant the place their approval to, and I gotta stress this part, continue existing.

In my Quackity meta, I already talked about how Government in the context of a M1necraft RP cannot be compared to IRL Governments on a one-to-one scale. They don't serve the same purposes or have the same type of power. What I didn't talk about was Agency in the context of m1necraft governments.

In an irl government, if you are born into one, you can't really leave without committing a massive overhaul on your life, which can be expensive and difficult, if not impossible for many people. Even in a “benevolent” government, the simple physicality of where you were born can prevent you from leaving it easily.

The same hurdles do not exist in the Dream SMP. People who join M1necraft governments choose to. They want to, either at the beginning when they form one, or later on when they join up. So far, no Government has just Sprung Up and forced the current residents of an area to become dependent on them, except maybe the Eggpire, who's status as a government is... shakey.

And even when people want to leave or separate from the government, they have been historically able to do so without any trouble or any effort from said governments to stop them. Jack Manifold emancipated from Manberg. Fundy and Quackity both left to start new nations. In all cases they were allowed to do so without any attempts on the part of the governments to stop them, either through force, or institutions preventing them from doing so.

The most anyone has lost when leaving a government is their house, which is still usually their property anyway, and is something that is easily rebuilt elsewhere and is inconvenient to move anyway.

The only exceptions to this might be Schlatt exiling Wilbur and Tommy - but even then, they weren’t trying to leave, they were trying to get back in, and of course the original L’manberg revolution, where Dream attempted to force L’manberg back into the Dream SMP, which wasn’t even a government at that point in time.

I don’t consider Phil’s house arrest an example of a government forcing someone to stay a citizen - that was treated less as a matter of a citizen wanting to leave the country and more as a threat to national security. Still pretty fucked up, but it’s a different issue.

What I'm saying is, If Tubbo wants to create a government out in the middle of nowhere, threatening no one, forcing no one to join either through force or desperation, and allowing people to join willingly because they want to, then he should be allowed to do that.

The Irony of the Syndicate, a group of people consisting of some of the richest, strongest people on the server, going around and enforcing 'Freedom' that entails no one person having more power than any other, is absurd.

It shows an extreme lack of self-awareness and/or self-righteousness, as they seem to think that they deserve to be the ones who decide what constitutes a government.

Snowchester is a small independent nation - they shouldn’t have to live in fear of being obliterated if they don’t walk on eggshells to meet an arbitrary standard decided by people who’s only authority on the matter COMES FROM THEIR PERSONAL POWER. No one elected them! No one chose them! They were not “approved” by the server at large to enact this kind of law.

The Syndicate are not a government, but they are an unsupervised power structure exerting their ideals on a land that did not ask for them. Like, These people have invented an actual Authoritarian-Anarchist faction. How the hell did they manage this?????

Back on topic.

Tubbo shows them the crater left by his nukes. The reaction is oddly positive – the nukes are fine by the morals of the Syndicate, apparently. I'd argue that they come across as more impressed than anything else; they seem to respect Tubbo for having gotten ahold of “real” power.

(There's a few good memes out there about “We can excuse nuclear weaponry, but we draw the line at Government!”)

So. By the Syndicate's standards: A single person or group of acceptably equal persons with weapons of mass-destruction are only worth “keeping an eye on” because they might provoke other people.

Like, I consider Project Dreamcatcher to be one of, if not the most morally ambiguous thing Tubbo has ever done, largely because it was all on his own initiative. He holds some culpability for The Butcher Army and Phil's house arrest, but they weren't his ideas and he was mostly following Quackity at that point.

And Phil tells Tubbo, IMMEDIATELY AFTER SEEING THE NUCLEAR CRATER:

“Looks like you've reformed a little bit Tubbo, I'm proud.”

And it's fine. Crimes against nature? Fine. A sign of healing in fact!! Tubbo is having a sweeeelll time and he definitely didn't make these nukes specifically in fear of being attacked by these exact people! Tubbo is doing great. Tubbo is doing fine. Tubbo. is. FINE.

Anyway.

I don't think this presentation of the Syndicate was an accident. Looking at the greater lore of SMP right now, after the Egg is done, their list of enemies is slim, and considering that they seem solely invested in taking down governments, that leaves maybe Snowchester, Kinoko Kingdom, and Eret and the greater Dream SMP.

Snowchester has not been shown to be corrupt, evil, or have any intent to go down that route. The most ambiguous thing they've done is, again, is the nukes. Other than that, it's pretty much your average cottagecore snow village.

Kinoko is presented in an even more morally 'good' light, Karl having founded it specifically for his Time-travel library purposes, which are currently being treated by the narrative as a selfless act, if not downright heroic.

Eret is also a fairly 'good' aligned character atm. He's been on that redemption grind since the og betrayal, and doesn't seem keen on backtracking. He's actively tried to leverage his position as king to make things better, and hasn't been quiet about that. He was also 'validated' by Tommy*, a character who has been described both by his allies and enemies as “the hero,” so take that as you will.

What I'm getting at is, all of the current potential enemies for the Syndicate aside from the Egg, are currently being cast as 'good,' and if they were to be attacked, they would undoubtedly have the moral high-ground, unless something drastically changed.

The only potential shakeups I can think of is are a Dream escape and/or a Wilbur revival, both of which could draw the Syndicate's attention and ire, depending on how things go. That said, it's just as likely that either or both of them would join the Syndicate – Dream still has that favor, and Phil and Techno both seemed to think Wilbur would've agreed with their blowing up L'manberg.

Both of those characters are currently **villains – the fact that they're both prime candidates for the Syndicate is a huge indication of the direction it's going to go as the plot moves forward.

((*I know some people are gonna come at me for painting Tommy as the “deciding factor” of what is morally good, so lemme just stop you there. I'm not talking about Tommy somehow having the 'right' to decide who is and isn't good, and definitely not the right to decide who should and shouldn't be king. I'm saying that Tommy, a character who the narrative treats as, if not a good person, then a person who is trying to be good, was in support of Eret, a character who has also been trying to be good.

Eret doesn't gain the moral highground because Tommy said so, he gets it because a character who the narrative treats as trying to do better, acknowledged Eret's earnest attempts at doing the same.

**I'm referring to Wilbur here as a villain because Tommy seemed convinced he would be if he were to be brought back. There is always the possibility that he's wrong.))

So, to summarize this: I read the Syndicate as being intentionally positioned as future antagonists, if not outright villains of a future arc. They are NOT a Government but their goals are contradictory with their means, and it is important to keep in mind that they plan to enforce their own brand of freedom on people who did not grant them either the authority or permission to do so.

So, uh. Can you tell I loved these streams? They were seriously so good. I kept switching between Ranboo and Techno's POV's trying to keep up with everything. I still have to watch Niki's!

All in all, I'm super, super excited for whats coming next, egg stuff, Syndicate stuff, Tommy stuff, all of it.

#dream smp #tubbo #the syndicate #c!techno critical #c!phil critical #dream smp analysis #lazytext

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thefoundationproject · 2 years

Note

I was having Thoughts ( aka procrastinating exam revision) and then I thought about the mayhem that will happen when Torrents Littlest Twins start dating...

I mean Han and Leia who have been raised by Vode will start a war ( both in terms of Vode freaking out but also literally going to a place and inciting riots)

lmao at the thought of Han going to Fox for dating advice. "Because Ponds can't really help with this kind of stuff."Fox has had relative peace for years but now his War Time Stress Headache is pinging. And I mean if you thought the Guard-Torrent feud was bad before...

But then also Luke and Din..... I don't know if you had any ideas for Din but him meeting the Vode as Lukes maybe possibly 'we haven't had that talk yet Ba'Rex!' boyfriend would be hilarious. Yet to decide if I want Bacara to be like 'yes hello you remind me of me so you're cool' or here is a 3000 page document on what I expect of you. And every Torrent having the 'what are your intentions ' talk. And oh Fox.....

We all know they didn't have to do that with Leia and Han because both are Vode raised but also if anything she can't be charmed so Han doesn't stand a chance

Hi there! I started responding to this, then started ficcing to this then it went way off the rails as is usual. So this doesn't actually address any of that but here you go anyway. Pottymouth warning!

“You should just marry Qi’ra,” Leia says manner of factly. Fox pauses, hand on door.

Does he want to know? If he’s honest with himself, like really fucking honest, the answer is a quick and cutting kark no. But with this particular set of his brats, well. Ignoring them was a pazaak draw. They’d either quietly get on with their banthashite with no one the wiser, or it’d all blow up into a three-system Fucking Incident.

“I can’t marry Qi’ra,” Luke snaps, as much as Luke ever snaps. It’s closer to a grumbly whine. “I asked Qi’ra and Qi’ra says I gotta be fiscally independent first.”

Heh. Good girl.

“We’ll shelve that for later,” the most stubborn of kids decides for both herself and her twin.

“You should just go marry Han-”

“Han’s whole entire everything is some banthashit and that’s the kind of stress I don’t need.”

“‘We all gotta make sacrifices’,” Luke quotes and that snotty tone he’s definitely picked up from the little blond shit.

Leia sighs loud enough Fox can hear it from the karking hall. “Fine,” she groans. She’s definitely not the kid that spent two days stomping around the house in a shitting snit because of how well Han’s filled out his new synthleathers, no of course not. And Ponds definitely doesn’t have pictures. “I can start an argument with him,” she offers, begrudging. “We can probably be married in about eight insults. It’d be faster than you seducing L3 and Lando, anyway.”

“Why are we plotting marital entrapment in my house?” Fox wonders.

There’s a guilty pause, broken by frantic shuffling.

At least they’re not fucking whispering while hiding their crimes, Fox consoles himself. He’s managed to offset that much Torrent pissery at least. In their bedroom, they’ve mimicked a tableau of normality. No one is sitting atop a pile of evidence, or is bodily blocking view of a cupboard of suspicion.

The staged card game they’re dithering over’s even accurate. Luke’ll lose in less than a dozen hands. Neatly done, some good attention to detail right there. Guard kids are fucking peak.

“Hi Ba’Fox,” Luke chirps, ever the most cheerful distraction. He glimmers like a sunflare cross a front view port. Leia subtly adjusts her skirts, as if Fox doesn’t know she only ever wears that much fabric when she wants to hide shit in the seam pockets.

“Leia stop chewing on your hair.”

They’re really going to have to keep it all bunched up on top of her head aren’t they? She’ll keep fucking with it til she looks clanless, elsewise. Fox is gonna go annoy Thorn again, make sure she really doesn’t have some sort of who fucking knows, keratin deficiency in her diet or whatthefuckever.

“Now. Fraudulent matrimony.”

“Ba’Fox,” Leia chides. “The marriage would be perfectly legal.” Sure, and Fox is a fucking senator. “The idea of marriage legitimacy only being on the basis of romantic feelings is so Old Republic Ba’Fox. Legal convenience and affordability are all completely legitimate reasons, and anyway the legality of marriages isn’t the same as the legitimacy and the government just wants to-”

“Force fuck a senile sith,” Fox sighs. He snags her by the knees and flips her upside down over his shoulder. Her building rant disappears beneath an aggrieved squawk and stays buried under muffled muttering.

Her skirts clink. That’ll be one of Han’s blasters, likely. Ponds and Fox know how to keep theirs locked up, and Boba’s had to learn that too, if he ever wanted to keep any. Qi’ra doesn’t carry blasters until suddenly she does and no one can figure out where she’d hidden them. Han, however, still struts around with his blaster on his hip, and he still falls for the distraction-quibble. Kot, kid.

Luke glitters like a Star. Damn brat. “Alright,” Fox allows. That right there is Colt’s own ‘I’m about to like my ass off with no remorse’ face. “Serve up the shit. But make it good.” Luke pretends he’s not deeply calculating.

“Ba’Fox,” sparkles Luke. “We just want a starship.”

That…is probably not a lie. But Fox was decanted buckass naked twenty fucking minutes ago if he believes that’s all there is to it.

“Uh huh. And what are you planning to do with a starship?”

Luke opens his mouth. Darts his eyes to Leia and tries to suppress a teeny wince when he realizes he’s done it. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that?” He tries.

Buckass naked and still fucking wet from the tank.

“Uh huh. And why do you need to marry someone for this starship?”

“Assured access to airspace,” Leia offers promptly from somewhere in the vicinity of Fox’s armpit.

“Uh huh. And why-”

“Ughhhh,” they both groan. “The ‘Why Chain’,” Luke complains.

Fox grins. “You brats opened the airlock,” he points out. “Anything that flushes out is your own damn fault.”

“I’d like to speak with my lawyer,” Leia prims.

“Shoulda started with that. Anyway Hound took your lawyer out for fucking walkies so tough shit.” The sulk is pure Neyo, except in stereo. Heh, this must have been the shit 6 had to deal with, when Fox and Neyo were knee-guard-nibblers. “You need a starship, you ask Boba,” Fox says, “nicely.” Unspoken is that Boba will be keeping a close eye on their shenanigans and divert the worst of them. Probably. If these two brats don’t convince him it’ll be fun.

… if these two brats don’t convince the other two brats it’ll be fun, and the two of them neatly boss the lead brat round to their way of thinking. There’s a reason Boba, Qi’ra and Han are fucking crime bosses on at least a half dozen fucking planets, and it’s not cuz Boba had designs on it.

On second thought, maybe banking on Boba being the voice of reason is some Pondsian optimism banthashit.

Luke and Leia share a look. Probably throwing thoughts at one another with the silent speaky shit. Fox knows whatever comes next is clearly a diversion.

“Not Boba,” Luke says sweetly. “Can’t marry Boba for his ship. Boba is.”

“Currently unavailable for dalliances,” Leia finishes, just as saccharine.

It’s a distraction, and a clumsy one. Doesn’t matter, if it fucking works.

Fox right-sides one little brat and snags the other, and the pair of them are overwhelmingly gleeful and shit at hiding it.

“What,” Fox demands, “the fuck does that mean exactly.” They grin Gree’s knowing little grin and this is gonna be a long fucking day.

#my writing

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koshicoast · 3 years

Text

A few shinkami headcannons because I love them more than anything

Shinsou has a growth spurt and practically towers over Denki by their second year (for all intents and purposes, Shinsou has always been in class 1A)

Denki grows a little bit but not that much, he’s not complaining though, he gets Shinsou to grab stuff on the top shelve for him or has him hang up posters in higher places in his room (the only downside is that he has to get on his tippy toes for kisses but usually Shinsou will just bend down like a good boyfriend)

They go on dates every Sunday, It’s their day and it doesn’t matter what they’re doing as long as it’s just the two of them

They could be studying or doing homework or exercising or anything really and they’ll call it a date

The rest of the class knows better than to try and contact either boy on Sunday

“Normies worship Jesus on Sunday but I worship Shinsou” - Denki, at one point in time

Shinsou loves playing with denki’s hair, he buys different kinds of hair clips just to put them in denki’s hair

he just likes how the colors pop out

He especially likes to see purple hair clips in denki’s hair

Tbh it doesn’t have to be hair clips, it could be a scrunchie or a rubber band or a headband; as long as it’s purple it does wonders to shinsou’s heart

Denki likes playing with shinsou’s hair too but more than that he likes seeing Shinsou in yellow clothing

Shinsou doesn’t wear bright colors a lot usually sticking with black or cool tone colors

But when he does wear yellow, Denki just gets all mushy no matter how small it is

It could be yellow earrings or socks or something and Denki will wear a love sick expression all day

Despite being in the hero course, Shinsou still gets incredibly insecure about his quirk and how some people only see him as a villain

Denki, without fail or hesitation, tells Shinsou what a great hero he’s gonna be, he talks about how Shinsou is gonna inspire a new wave of underground heroes and how he’s gonna be some kid’s Aizawa one day and how proud he is of him (The first time he said that, it makes Shinsou sob. It makes denki cry too bc he’s a sympathetic crier so they just lay in bed holding eachother)

He also tells Shinsou how no matter who’s the number one hero, Shinsou will always have first place in his heart. And that Shinsou is just as much as any other hero out there and even a little more because he’ll be underground

Denki just loves his boyfriend so much and whoever planted the idea that some quirks are just made for evil is going to get electrocuted >:(

Denki will also pepper Shinsou in kisses saying things like ‘you are so kind’ ‘you’re an amazing person’ ‘I love you so much’ ‘You’re my hero’ and just a bunch of stuff so by the end of their heart to heart Shinsou is feeling a lot better

Denki gets insecure about how ‘dumb’ he is and how he’ll probably just end up hurting civilians or himself before he hurts a villain

Shinsou hates how that’s how Denki views himself because Denki is one of the kindest people in the world and doesn’t even realize it like the first time Denki told him that insecurity, Shinsou looked at him and was like ‘are you..you’re serious? Denks, You’re one of the most clever people I know’

Whenever Denki mentions it, Shinsou he just squeezes the blonde and lets him cry out his frustrations before telling him that ‘he’s not an idiot or stupid and that it’s okay not to understand something as fast as others and that it’s okay to learn differently and it’s okay’ (Shinsou will always try not to cry but a few tears fall anyways bc he just wants denks to be happy without feeling like he’s a fuckup)

Shinsou never lets Denki call himself an idiot or stupid, even in a joking way.

They don’t fight a lot because of their personalities like

Denki is a people’s person and is really in tune with other’s emotions and by default is a pacifist unless otherwise

Shinsou isn’t a people’s person but he’s observant due to his quirk bc of how he’s been treated in the past, he’s also good at picking up on people’s body language

Most times it’s just small disagreements and even then they communicate the best they can and try to compromise

If that doesn’t work then they’ll give each other space so the disagreement won’t turn into something ugly

They’ve only fought once and it was the worst (and best) thing for them

The fight happened after a mock rescue mission goes wrong and there were weeks of stress and tension leading up to it

It was messy and bad like really bad

“I just don’t get why you have to run into danger!” Denki screamed. The whole dorm could probably hear them but he didn’t care, not when his boyfriend was looking at him like he just lost his mind.

It was supposed to be a simple training exercise. Simple. Go in, defeat villains, rescue the ‘hostages’. It was not that simple.

*insert how badly the mission went and Shinsou ran towards the danger to help or smth idk*

It gets pretty rough between the two of them because they’re both pretty emotional people

Shinsou thinks denki doesn’t want him to be a hero and denki thinks Shinsou doesn’t want to be with him

It’s a lot of insecurities + stress + yelling

Denki is the first one to break, he’s a lot more emotionally sensitive than Toshi and everything is just crashing down and he hates it

“Do you just not want to be with me?!” He cries, unable to keep the tears at bay any more. He hates arguing with people, especially when that person happens to be his boyfriend. He gets it, he does! Toshi is training to become a hero and so is he but that doesn’t make it easier. Doesnt stop the shot of fear whenever he watches the other get hurt, doesn’t stop the late night self deprecation, doesn’t stop the anxiety he gets whenever he sees Toshi run head first into danger.

But he gets it and somehow it’s a bitter realization.

Because Hitoshi’s priority is the job they signed up for and Denki’s is Hitoshi.

The fight ends with tears on both their parts and they call it a night, too tired to scream anymore

They sleep in their own rooms that night

The next morning they agree to take a break, not a full break up, but some time away. Space away from each other to prioritize and think.

(Now ive seen fanfics where everyone picks denki over Shinsou and i hate that so fuck you, class 1A are both their friends and they’re all family and try and to help each other I will die with that statement)

Surprisingly the two most helpful people are Bakugou and Kirishima

(Actually not that surprising, they’re the longest couple in the whole class, dating immediately after Kamino)

Bakugou and denki have a heart to heart

“You’re both dumbasses” Katsuki sighs heavy, passing another tissue over to the sobbing blonde. He’s not good at these kinds of things, but Kirishima told him he could help the electric blonde more than he could so here he is. “You gonna tell me what’s wrong or just cry?” He asks, not without a hint of worry though. He pretends to ignore it.

So denki tells him everything and his insecurities

Oh. Yeah, Kirishima was right.

“You think I’m an idiot” Denki mutters quietly, harshly rubbing his eyes.

“No” The older blonde shakes his head, plopping down on the bed next to the other. He doesn’t turn to meet yellow eyes, his own trained on the All Might poster hanging directly across from them. He feels Pikachu’s curious gaze on him so he decides to elaborate more, knowing the sooner he helps the sooner he doesn’t have to deal with this anymore. It’s totally not because he’s gotten soft. Absolutely not.

“Trust me, Zombie Eyes looks at you like you put the fucking stars in the sky. It’s disgusting to watch.” He crinkles his nose in disgust earning a small laugh. “People like him and I, we gotta work twice as hard. Not saying that no one else does but it’s different.” He stresses the last word. “People like Ei or Deku or even you, people already see you as good so all you gotta do is get stronger. They don’t question your character, your morals, they don’t look down on you for having a weakness. People like Zombie Eyes and I though?we gotta work hard just to prove that we’re good. That we were meant to become heroes. Every action we do is put under a microscope and analyzed.” He explains.

“We’re assholes by default, It’s how we were raised. Not saying it as an excuse though. He was in the shitty system and I had shitty parents, no adult taught us shit like love or how to properly deal with feelings.”

Stupid Deku tried with him but he didn’t even know how to deal with his own much less some angry blond kid’s.

He takes a deep breath, pushing back faint memories of his childhood. The younger hasn’t said a word but he can tell he’s listening so it’s fine. “We can’t just turn off how we are. If it’s frustrating for you and Ei, It’s worse for us. Like we know logically that we’re good people, that we changed but that’s now how our brain sees it. We push ourselves because that’s all we know how to do, it proves to us and everyone else that we bled for our spot here. That we made it. Having friends is hard because we compare ourselves to them and draw our own conclusions to their actions. Being nice? Our brain says it’s a trap. Showing some human fucking decency? Our shitty brain says it’s an act. Being in a relationship? Laughable. We’re just villains pretending to play heroes to everyone else.”

He takes another deep breath, forcing himself to look away from the poster, flashbacks to their first year briefly passing in his head. Okay yeah, not going down that route. He looks over, making eye contact. He wonders if this is how Kirishima feels whenever he’s trying to cheer him up. Wonders if it’s just as hard. This better be worth it, everyone has been miserable. (Shitty thing about having been through life and death situations together is that everyone has bonded and become close like a family so when one of them is sad it’s like everyone is fucking sad.) (He loathes it because even he gets worried.)

“But despite that he still loves you.” He says softly, almost whispering like he’s telling the other a secret. “Fights his demons to hold your hand and all that shit”

Shinsou loves him? Loves him?

“How do you.. how do you know?” Denki whispers, throat sore. “We fought so badly last night, we were screaming at eachother.”

“He treats you the same way I treat Ei.” He answers,

“He changed his priorities around to try and accommodate for another person in his life, you became more important than training or studying. He takes days off to be with you, cuts his studying short if you need a break. It might not seem much to others but for him that’s huge. He came in with this one track mind but then you came along and he scrambled to balance everything. And then you two got your shit together and started to go out and I’m pretty sure he got scared”

“Scared?” Denki asks, the thought almost funny to him.

“I did.” Bakugou admits as Denki’s eyes grow wide.

“I was petrified. When Ei started to become more important than hero work, I freaked. It’s not that loverboy is choosing being a hero over you, It’s because he doesn’t understand that he can have both. He thinks everything important is a choice- that if you want something you have to give something up. He chooses hero work and he loses you. He chooses you and he loses hero work.”

“But he’s not going to lose me or hero work”

“Kinda sounded like you did give him an ultimatum though”

The realization hits him like cold water.

Shinsou gets a similar talk with Kirishima

It helps, a lot

They don’t immediately go back to eachother, instead spending the week with their everyone else and just taking time for themselves

Shinsou knocks on Denki’s door Sunday morning and they finally talk things out

It’s also the first time they say ily!!

Anyways after that fight they work harder on communicating especially when it comes to things like hero work

It’s not perfect bc their dumb traumatized teens but they’re trying and they know their lil family will always be there

I haven’t slept but yes thanks for sticking around if you’re reading this

If ur interested in shinsou’s talk with Kirishima lmk

#shinkami headcannons #shinkami #drabble #snippets #shinsou x kaminari #shinsou hitoshi #shinsou #denki kaminari #kaminari #my hero academia #kiribaku #Kirishima #bnha bakugou

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

Note

I’d love your thoughts on BTS and their current image and music if you have them and aren’t afraid of the mindless internet hoards.

Personally, I liked a lot of their older stuff, but haven’t liked anything since I think the Fake Love promotions 3+ years ago. They’d started losing their personality and soul before that album cycle, but it feels like the sanitization of their image and artistry really kicked into hyperdrive after that. Now most of what they do seems like a sterile money grab driven by the Hybe hive mind which is a shame.

ok alrighty (cracks knuckles) let's get into it.

now that i've fully given myself a headache watching the majority of the bts videography, here are three points i'm going to cover:

performative character and the lack thereof

interesting aesthetics and the lack thereof, and

the inevitable cracking of perfection

ready, set, let's begin.

idol music is very clearly definited by spectacle based aesthetics. and it's had that structure for its entire existence. so i gotta hand it to hybe for this one, because they managed to revolutionize being utterly fucking average. the triumph of bts is that they're just some guys and they look like just some guys. hybe found a niche in the system and then gamed that system to the tune of one of the largest musical acts in the world. they're not marketing bts as a romantic parasocial relationship, they're marketing them as your friends. and that is just as insidious to lonely kids as a run of the mill romantic fantasy. but that's not what i'm here to talk about today.

there's a pattern i find very interesting with bts mvs and that is that i don't remember anything about them. specifically, i don't remember the stuff that's happening IN the video; not the styling, not the setpieces, if i didn't know the members i doubt i would remember them either. what i DO remember, is how expensive the production is, and specific shots. i couldn't tell you what a single member was wearing, but i sure as hell remember that first upward angle shot of jungkook and the rusted park ride in spring day. or every single time they do that birdseye shot of jin in like every video. honestly as far as i'm aware jin has only ever worn a loose fitting beige longsleeve shirt.

it took bts a long time to establish any kind of consistent visual character. and the character they did establish.... i don't know if you can call a family-friendly-style clean aesthetic 'character'. they debuted as a hip hop group to little (comparative) success, and then made a switch to doing an early version of where they're currently at right now. if you've seen any of the mvs, you know that this is a pretty significant visual change. i don't think it is inherently a bad change, since the visual branding for hiphop based groups always tips over into iffy terrritory, but it is dramatic enough and early enough that it doesn't strike me as a natural evolution. concept switch ups are common, but they usually work because the members have established a bit of character for themselves, used their performance abilities and presence to fit into a niche in the group. the idol mould is perfect for showcasing the performers; that's its function. the groups that are the most fun to watch are the ones with stage presence, the ones who know how to perform, who can act all the parts they need to play. and bts? 4/7 actual performers on a good day. in my personal opinion it's 2/7.

i'm gonna expand on what i said about jimin here (this is technically the first part of this series), because it does apply to the rest of the group on the whole:

and i think here is where we see the main crux of the difference between taemin and jimin as performers: taemin has both an artistic and an idol persona. we know and understand him to do solo work that has a separate artistic meaning to just him being an idol. even though this performance was pre-move, i would still say this applies, because he's hot off press your number, where he's acting in a story based mv. jimin on the other hand just has his idol persona. he's not known for creating the same kind of storytelling that taemin is.

bts has been very insistent on the image of the group as a single unit. despite having the size of fanbase and the revenue that would make any official solo debut a massive success, none of them have done any substantial solo work. this isn't artistically a problem, and i think it's very admirable of them to be so dedicated to the image and the legacy of the group, when that can be an uncommon trait in the industry. i do however, think it starts to become an issue when we want to discuss what the artistic visions and images of groups are. shinee taemin and solo taemin have two distinct artistic representations, and taemin himself will attest to that. it's the same with all the shinee members that have solo careers, and the same with other groups. jackson, bambam, yugyeom, and jaebeom's solo work is all very different from got7. yixing's solo work is very different from exo's. even the subunits within exo all have their own character (cbx and sc). kpop groups all ostensibly are trained under the same system, so why the disparity with bts? mostly, it's their brand of "authenticity." it's impossible to perform authentically, by the nature of performance as a medium it is unnatural, and tragically, not everyone is naturally interesting, or suited to performing: that's why the performing arts even exist in the first place. it required painstaking training to be good at performing; it is a complex set of skills and those skills are not learnt by "being authentic." being an idol is not just the singing, dancing, rapping; that's only half the work. you need to be able to act to be a compelling performer. pulling your true self and emotions out on stage every night is a fast track to burnout and psychological issues, there's plenty of evidence. the only member of bts of whom i can say for some certainty has a persona and a stage presence is jhope/hoseok, a) because he's kept up a very specific brand in the solo work that he has done, and b) he has actual dance training, not just kpop dance training. the rest of them may have the kpop dance and the kpop vocal training, but what they do not have is the ability to market themselves as compelling performers on stage. taehyung is the only other member i would hesitantly give a semblance of persona and ability to, but i think he stumbled onto that mostly by accident. and if all the pieces don't each have a distinctive colour, how can the whole machine be visually interesting?

bts may never have been able to establish an aesthetic brand, but what they did establish is an intellectual one. if you talk to a fan, the schtick they give is that "it's about the lyrics." as noble as having an intellectual or cerebral message is, what does that look like? how do you portray intellectual on stage, on film? what about intellectual is interesting to watch? cerebral, by it's literal nature as a descriptor, is very difficult to communicate in visual language because it is internal. to successfully communicate cerebrality and intellect in a short form medium like music videos requires a deft hand with metaphor that can elude even an experienced designer. and honestly? i don't know whether to applaud hybe's visual team for being the most successful subtle contemporary designers i've every seen, or to decry them as worst kpop designers i've ever seen. maybe both. regardless, i don't think they're able to cross the gap.

there are exactly four mvs where i actually remember the content of the mv and not the frame it sits in, and those are dna, idol, the singularity comeback trailer with taehyung, and war of hormone. and of an eight year career......that's not very many. these four mvs have at least an inkling of interesting spectacle and character, but even then, it's still a stretch. there is absolutely nothing to write home about in the styling for dna, other than it's well colour matched. I don't even know if I should include singularity because it involves none of the other members. idol is probably their most interesting mv because it actually has alternative styling and varies (at least a little bit) from the standard hybe boom crane shot-that-shows-off-how-we-can-afford-big-studio-spaces-and-locations. the company and the group would be loathe to admit it, but war of hormone is a well designed and interesting mv for the time it was made, with a well crafted gimmick and some actual showing of character from the members. it was the start of a potential that they squashed quite quickly because it wasn't picking up in the hiphop-group-saturated market of 2014. but the rest of their mvs? remarkably uninspired styling. like it's truly impressive how boring the styling is. and like i've said, that is the triumph in their aesthetics: they all look like normal dudes (if you had professional skin + makeup techs looking after them for the last 8 years).

all of this is a carefully crafted image that's tailored to hooking an audience, especially an international one. the mvs are boring in the relative scale of kpop, but they're just different enough from a western pop mv to catch attention. and once you do sink a hook, there's a direct clickfunnel of content that bills itself on these men being "authentic" and "self-producing," which is a huge draw to international fans, because people are racist and believe that the kpop industry is a factory that produces idols like clones, where none of them know how to do anything other than sing and dance and all the music is just handed to them by companies. and they have SO much content that there's no way a new fan can get to it all in a timely manner, so they'll never have to engage with any other kpop artists' work if they don't actively seek it out. but that's another essay for another time.

that brings us to current day, in which at least the last five bts releases have been in the same aesthetic vein of positive, sanitized, and pristine. i said it in one of my txt responses and i will say it again here: money scrubs the humanity from the aesthetic of living. minimalism is for rich white people. hybe and bts may have pivoted their style and brand directly into the lane of mass appeal, but when you pair that with the amount of money funding them, there's a cognitive dissonance between the message and the aesthetics in which it's portrayed. some people do like the clean cut looks, and i won't say that they don't work, but as you've likely gleaned from this response, it isn't my style and if you've been around and reading my writing for longer you'll know that my tastes runs much closer to the messy and the weird, so very little about any of bts' visuals have appeal to me. i do find the contradiction of applying the appeal of radical relatability with the aesthetics of expansive (and expensive) minimalism interesting; it's an extremely fine line that hybe is walking and eventually they are going to tip over, the porcelain mask will not hold forever. maintaining the all ages aesthetic is going to be difficult now that all of them are grown ass men. with other groups of this member age and generation there's very obviously been a shift to a more adult tone, and not necessarily explicitly. got7, mx, nu'est, btob, shinee, 2pm, and groups that have older members like a.c.e and sf9 have all made slow shifts in tone that are undeniably aimed at a maturing audience: they know their core fanbases are aging with them and they (the fans) are not as interested in the 'boy' in boy group. and most of them have telltale visual styles, enough so that i can distinguish a specific group's mv. the last year and change of mx mvs have a very distinctive character; got7 too, since easily as far back as if you do. i can always tell an a.c.e mv by its impeccable fashion and formic styling, and although shinee has always had a more experimental aesthetic edge, their sound and voices are unmistakable.

honestly, i can't predict what bts is going to do in the future, but i personally don't believe they can keep up their clean aesthetic indefinitely without some fallout. part of the fun of following bands is watching them grow musically, and the last couple of years of bts haven't felt like growth. there are fans that have already started realizing it, and there's likely to be more soon.

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the third part is here, which is a short followup about some of bts' industry influence.

#this is long one dear readers #a very long one #strap in #i've sat on this for probably a week now in the hopes my brain can make some interesting connections but honestly?#not a lot about bts is interesting in comparision to the rest of the kpop industry #personally i am of the opinion that lyrics do not matter in idol music and i am not interested in them in the slightest #and bts videos ARE extremely bland visually #unless you like looking at expensive production. whatever floats your boat i guess #they make a lot of sense as an entry kpop group but once you get actually into the industry there is SO much happening #which i talk about in the third part a little bit #this is way too long i am so sorry anon and everyone else who has been asking about this topic #im not entirely sure it's coherent at this point but whatever. its out there now #i wanted this to be under 1k and that emphatically did not happen #it is double that. why am i like this #875 #kpop questions #kpop analysis #group analysis #text #answers

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