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twig-tea · 3 months

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Lately I’ve been feeling like Thai bl is truly all over the place with so many shows airing at once and some of the best ones flying under the radar while discourse is focused on a couple of the big messy ones. I think you’re the only person I know who is actually watching ALL of them and has been here for the whole evolution of the genre, so I’m curious what stands out to you about this current moment. Do the shows feel different to you? Is the way fandom is interacting with them changing? And what are your current favs?

I ended up writing a thesis, sorry friend lol To be fair to me there are 3 questions in there, all of them meaty! I've done my best to give a sense of where I'm at with Thai BL and how it feels like it's changed over time.

Caveating all of this: I am just one fan who I'm sure has had specific experiences that will colour my opinion, also a lot of this is just vibes so I'm open to being told I've forgotten something major or misremembered what it was like! If you are reading this and your opinion or experience is different please share, with stuff like this I'm always interested in hearing about differing opinions because the fandom experience will depend at least partly on where you hang out. For years, my main fandom space for BL was the YouTube comments section (RIP me).

Overall feel

Honestly, things overall don't feel all that different to me in Thai BL in particular, even though I'm about to talk about a lot of changes and ways it actuallyd does feel very different below lol And after reflecting about it, I think it's because these things still feel very much in flux, in a way that they've felt in flux this entire time. Producers are still figuring out the best funding and distribution models and merch models to make money; creators are still calibrating how queer these shows can be and still be popular; actors are still figuring out how to do BGP (business gay performances) without having fans interfere in their private lives off the clock. Writers are still trying to figure out how to write 12-episode arcs that don't drag in the middle or fumble the ending (which is also not new). The tension between established ships, fan expectations, and genre requirements has honestly been there almost the whole time, though the reverberations of missteps is louder now because of the larger fanbase that is (comparatively) more plugged in to live viewing. The core question in BL has always been 'how do we make this marketable', and that unsurprisingly hasn't changed, though the answer to that question has over time, if that makes sense?

Shows

Do the shows feel different? As a whole, I'd say yes. The biggest differences are of course total quantity and overall quality, but the actual distribution of % of shows that have high(er) production values (i.e. quality) feels close to the same--it was close to 50/50 in the late 2010s and now is maybe more like 40/60 with a higher percentage coming from more smaller production companies. But the numbers we're talking about are something like 15 shows in e.g. 2018 and something more like 50 shows in 2023 (being vague because there are shows that people could argue over whether they should count). The quality overall has increased, even the pulps look better, sound better, and tend to feel a little bit more put together than the pulps of even 2020 (please note that these are all relative qualifiers, most of these shows are still not objectively good). 2020 in particular was a watershed moment for high production value BLs; we get colorists and special effects artists, and sometimes decent sound production now!

There has also been an improvement in terms of what is depicted and how certain subject matter is treated very generally, though I think that's still in flux. Things like evil ex girlfriends are less common than they were and the women in BL are more likely (in general, still not always) to be treated as realized characters. We've gotten more and better femme representation in ensemble shows, and the "gay for you" trope is much less common. Consent is now considered sexy and is much more common than it was; non-consent as "sexy" has eroded and is much less common. Things that used to happen in almost every BL now happen in a much lower percentage. I also feel a little bit less worried about some of the actors on pulp sets because there is more general scrutiny about things like minor actors, intimacy coordination, BGP (business gay performance) expectations, and sexual exploitation. Overall, show recommendations these days come with fewer caveats.

The assumption that if you worked with someone on a BL once you would stay with them as an established pairing was surprisingly early in BL; I don't know if it's just because there were a few shows that had side pairings then get main shows, so the actors did work together on a few shows in a row, which made them feel established, or whether it's because the BGP started early to build hype both before and after shows aired, or whether audiences just made homophobic assumptions about how if two actors had chemistry they had to be gay for each other, and otherwise nobody would want to "play gay" more than once, or would want to have to kiss too many other men....in any case, there were huge scandals and blow-ups around this in BL on even the earliest shows, and some early shows were snubbed because of the pairing alone. Similarly, it was established very early in BL (i.e. 2016-17) that an unhappy ending for a pair would result in your show being panned; cheating was also a guaranteed flop in BL circles (though some ensemble shows that had gay relationships in them such as Friend Zone did fine with cheating plots and unhappy endings). Overall it feels like some things were only depicted in early Thai BL and creators have avoided them since due to the audience reception at the time. I will say, generally, that there have now been enough examples of people in a "branded pair" moving on to a new pair or multiple shows, that it feels less like a death knell to a BL career if one of the actors says they no longer wanted to make BLs, or if they switched companies.

I pay a lot of attention to queerness in BL, and that has changed a little bit too, though not in the way I expected. I had been expecting a more clear and steady trajectory in BL, but we've instead had real swings, and I've realized there will just always be shows that feel more or less actually gay or queer than others, and that's ok. Early Thai shows really spoiled us for good queer content, GayOK Bangkok and Diary of Tootsies are still shows by which i measure what we get now, and both of those are from 2016. I would say that more "mainstream" BL (i.e. by one of the major production companies) hit what turned out to be queer saturation around 2020 and that's where I was most surprised not see a more clear trajectory; rather than things getting more queer from there, I'd say a greater percentage of shows overall feel more queer, but we haven't (and I now suspect won't) reach the queerness we had in Thai tv in 2016. That being said, my secret running list of things I want to see in BL gets shorter every year as entries get crossed off, so I would say the range of queer experience is slowly getting captured as more content continues to be made by a wider range of production houses (PrEP being mentioned in a mainstream show is my white whale).

I know some people assume that shows are higher heat now overall, but I don't think that's true. I do think Thai television producers and directors have overalll gotten better at capturing sensuality, and acting workshops have improved chemistry-building overall too. But from what I can tell the ratio of high head and low heat content is still pretty similar to what it's always been, maybe slightly higher (e.g. at a quick glance I'd guesstimate 30% of shows had a sex scene in 2018 vs 40% in 2023).

Fandom

The main differences in fandom from the really early days and now are the ways we, as international fans, are able to engage with each other, with thai audiences at the same time, and with content creators, and the entitlement that comes with that. In the 2010s we were almost always watching after Thai airing, with either fansubs or, later, official subs, trailing online releases by days or weeks, which themselves may have trailed the Thailand airing date by days or weeks or sometimes even months. That became less true around 2019ish, and especially in 2020 when I think Thai producers were desperate to reach audiences during the start of the pandemic (and when audiences were desperate for something to distract us from what was happening in real life).

As a fan in the mid-late 2010s, watching something was either unofficial via a fansubber, or you were wading through hundreds of Thai comments to find anyone else writing about the shows in English. Now, it's actually rare we don't have immediate international distribution, though it may be paid. If the subs are not up at the same time as the official upload, even on free sites, fans get furious. It's a bit surreal to see people complain about waiting a few hours for subtitles, especially on YouTube, when we sometimes waited months for a series to finish being subbed (not to say people didn't complain back then too, because they sure did! But there were fewer international fans overall, and it wasn't an expectation that there would be subs, so fewer people complained when it happened). This meant that a lot of people only watched shows when they were complete, and people were not watching with any kind of synchronicity.

With international fans moving into simultaneous watching with Thai audiences, we suddenly had the chance to talk about shows as they were airing and affect the conversations about them and even, sometimes, the decisions. Folks seem to have differing opinions about what makes a BL, and what makes a BL good, and they are vocal about when a show doesn't meet their standard. This has always been true, but the strong opinions have more of an effect on the discourse when they're expressed in real-time to the show being aired. Also, when we have literally 3x the number of Thai shows being aired (nevermind other countries which have also increased), it seems so much more egregious to me to complain if a single show doesn't meet your particular taste. Just go watch something else! That was less possible in 2016, but now nobody has any excuse lol Please note here that I'm not saying shows should not be criticized. But when you have one loud faction saying shows should have nothing but innocent kisses if any skinship at all and showing more is distasteful and possibly homophobic, and another faction saying a show should be panned if they don't have at least one sex scene and if there is no good kiss it's homophobic, I don't know where that leaves content creators but I see the tension and how it sometimes results in my least favourite tropes like "blushing maiden" even after a couple has canonically had sex. These factions have always existed in BL fandom, this is not new, they just both seem particularly silly now with so much content to choose from.

The shows that get attention and the shows that get snubbed feel the same too, in all honesty. You can ask yourself the following questions:

Is the show a little slower paced?

Are the story beats less melodramatic?

Do its characters feel more human?

Do they feel more queer?

Is it a comedy?

Is there any risk of an unhappy ending?

Do people not think one of the lead actors is hot?

Do people ship one of the lead actors with someone who isn't his costar?

Do people have to do anything other than go to YouTube to watch it?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, and especially to the last one, fewer people will be watching, even if the show is good. That's always been true. [Shows I'm thinking about when I say that: Make it Right, He's Coming to Me, My Ride, You're My Sky, Oxygen (though the sides in this one are also at fault), YYY, Something in my Room, Ghost Host Ghost House, Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Soul, Cooking Crush.] All this is to say, there have always been shows that have been ignored, though I agree with you OP that with more shows airing, more are being ignored at any given time.

The other thing is that when a show is good, it doesn't necessarily invite discourse. The messes are often what encourage people to dig in, fill in gaps, linger in the adrenaline. The part that does feel different is also related to the increase in genre BLs; genre stuff in general tends to get more attention in fandom spaces, and the way people are functioning as fans feels different in that they're bringing the way they interact with genre content to BL as BL has started having larger and better funded genre content. I'm thinking about those early genre BLs like He She It, My Dream, Love Poison, Golden Blood, So Much In Love, Why R U....we started getting genre shows in BL in I think 2017 and basically had 1-2 a year until 2020ish and then it increased from there; and the ones that had funding and decent distribution got engagement until they started going off the rails, and then they had even more engagement and then fell off. I don't think it's a coincidence that the shows last year that got people to write meta were La Pluie, Be My Favorite, and I Feel You Linger in the Air. When a show is building a world, there's more to say and interrogate about it, and when a genre show fails, it can fail more spectacularly than a regular romance story. The most popular BL shows used to all be straight-up BL bubble romances, but I think genre shows really started to take over a greater percentage of the popular spots in 2022 and 2023. Again, the main difference here is that there used to be 1-2 stand-out shows per year, and now there are closer to 6+ per year, and as we got more stand-out shows the variety of what type of show stood out as popular has expanded. I do think the overall percentage of shows that are more standard romance plots has reduced, partly because Thai production companies are running out of popular y-novels to adapt. So I'm anticipating we'll continue to get more genre content going forward, and maybe a higher percentage of original works too.

Shows I'm Enjoying Right Now

Right now, the Thai shows airing that I'm watching are:

Cooking Crush

Dead Friend Forever

Cherry Magic Thailand

City of Stars

The Sign

Playboyy

PitBabe

7 Days before Valentine

For Him

Of those, I'd currently most recommend Cooking Crush as a generic BL recommendation. Dead Friend Forever is very good, but is not a romance and is difficult for some to watch (there are a lot of dark themes in addition to the gore and scary bits).

Cooking Crush is doing so many things I love. I've written about the way it's set up its major conflict to be amongst the friend group here, and way the show is depicting communication between the two main characters and how they improve their communication with one another as they get closer here. Two of my biggest BL pet peeves are a conflict for the sake of a dramatic penultimate episode that ignores or retcons a character's growth or the building of trust that a couple has already gone through in the series, so the fact that this show is working so hard to establish strong communication between its leads and then setting up the significant drama to actually about friendship rather than romance is something I cannot overstate my excitement about. To tie this back into what I wrote above, this reminds me of Diary of Tootsies and I mean that in the best possible way.

Dead Friend Foreever is, like I mentioned above, not a romance; it's a slasher horror melodrama with a very well established mystery, an ensemble cast of mostly hateable characters (which I admit isn't usually my thing, but since they're likely all going to die as a result of the genre they're in I'm finding that more tolerable than usual, and there is at least one character I like). DFF did a great job of structuring the story for the ultimate payoff of information reveals. There are a lot of shows that have been messing with non-linear storytelling recently, Cooking Crush being one of the ones that actually does this poorly in my opinion, but Dead Friend Forever effectively uses non-linear storytelling so that we find out important pieces of information about particular characters at a time when that information will have the most emotional impact on what is happening in the "present" of the storyline. Every time there is a reveal, it informs what we've already seen, recontextualizes it, and means we understand some of the character motivations and actions differently from when we saw them the first time. I mentioned above that there are dark themes in this show; one of the things that I really like about this show is that the impact of class is not glossed over, and that the consequences of these events feel very real for the characters; people do terrible things in this show, but these actions are not treated lightly by the show itself.

You'd think these two shows would have nothing in common, but there are things that they share that put them both in my top category. Generally, in both of these shows, the character arcs are clear and logical; when a character does something, even if I don't like the action itself, I can understand exactly why they that and can see how it matches where they are in their arc at the time. The shows show change in characters as a result of what they experience, and the relationships in this show really matter. When characters start acting in ways that feel out of character or against their own arc because they have to in order to drive the plot forward, I struggle to remain invested; that's not happening with either of these shows. Both of these shows also treat serious topics with seriousness, and consequences for actions are real and felt by the characters in the show (and if someone gets away with something, the show is clear that this is not just). Nothing has happened that hasn't been signalled or implied earlier. Both shows also have clear class consciousness and represent the disparity caused by classism in a critical/harsh light.

Whew! I think I got to everything you asked. Thanks again for the extremely interesting question!

#ask game #bl meta #long post #typed so that I can stop thinking it #fandom meta #multi bl #thank you for the ask!

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annamarabella-grumble · 11 months

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quick and dirty game review: KILLER FREQUENCY

it's really good!! why?

it's all your favourite 80s/onwards slasher flicks rolled into one

the premise is ropey as hell but it's self-aware enough to know that and make it FUN

the references are gonna be really obvious to horror connoisseurs but tbh for me they were subtle enough that they weren't overpowering the experience; it's not just fanservice held together by gaffer tape and string

there's one (1) jumpscare right at the beginning, so be aware of that, but it didn't send me running for the hills and while i haven't finished the game yet, it's fair to say the rest of the game does not rely on cheap thrills and scares

that said, the fact that there's a crouch mechanic deeply worries me

but still: without giving too much away, you experience the game by manning the radio station and taking calls from people being pursued by a serial killer. there's no narration or visuals, the tension relies entirely on voice acting and sound design -- and i think they did a spectacular job with that

there were so many moments where i (and chat, i was streaming it) was on the edge of my seat

the puzzles are absolutely doable but still really satisfying when you work them out; and there's timers only on some dialogue choices, so you have enough time to work things out in steps -- also makes it easier/more fun to let chat help hehe

when you do fail, you don't feel railroaded or tricked, which is important, though once or twice a lack of information can be a little frustrating because you're just gonna have to go with your gut

the characters have really interesting backstories, i can't wait to find out more 👀

according to the devs, the dialogue and backstories were all written collaboratively across the team, and the game somewhat responds to how well you do in keeping people alive

there's also clues throughout the story so you can try and put it together as you go -- delighted to find out what's the biggest red herring

devs say all players will get a satisfying resolution re: the killer's identity, but players who do well get a more complete picture -- raising the incentive for multiple playthroughs

there's moments of instant karma that are just *chef's kiss*

the environmental storytelling at the radio station ohmygod

is something lgbt happening to Peggy 👀👀

the dialogue choices match up with the tone of what your character actually says, so it's easy to mould his personality a little bit (and the bits where they get creative with punctuation to help convey that tone are really funny)

i'm about halfway through and so far nothing seems overplayed; instead the game just fully commits to the bit without being obnoxious

mechanics are simple: play records, play ad tapes, take calls, and occasionally run through the station for clues

sadly, you can't photocopy your butt

BUT you can shoot hoops from your desk (with paper balls) and the game tracks how many you got

if you're a horror movie or game fan, if this sounds like you'd enjoy it, i can only recommend it! i'm not super good with horror or survival games, but i had an absolute blast with this. here's a couple of screenshots so you can see the aesthetic they're working with:

it's got that cell-shaded telltale look -- easy on the eyes, colourful. and the carpets. my god

#killer frequency #game review #video games

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soundbluster · 23 days

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for a while since i got into transformers 3 years ago and i loved the franchies instiantly even since i was a kid especially the designs of transformers and Seeing fan arts and fan Designs and fans make thire own continuity made me me want to start learning to draw when im ready but i don't know how to draw cybertronians so do you have any tips and advices for someone who want to learn to draw transformers characters both Traditional & digital art?

Biggest advice I can give is: "Break a character apart into simple components!"

Drawing bots is honestly not that difficult, I find it much easier than people because you can more easily break a character apart into simplified blocks.

When it comes to designing characters it can take a few times to get one you're happy with so doing lots of basic sketches can help. References are always useful too! Every artist uses references.

Here's how I do it (In this case I'm doing an alt design for tfe Nightshade):

(It's not a definitive guide as you kinda have to figure out what works best for you both in terms of technique and art style. I'm aware my art style is definitely not for everyone, as it veers more on the cartoony side. I've had comments about how my faces all look effed up etc XD)

Initial sketch

Break a bot down into basic shapes, circles and sausage shapes for more rounded characters and boxes for squarer ones. I normally start with the head and draw the rest of the body down from it (torso and arms then legs then any back kibble that might be visible) Think of it like the protoform beneath the armour.

To help with figuring out a pose I'll often use my toys. It can help you visualise where their arms and legs etc go along with whether part of a bot is actually visible from a certain angle. For example in this case:

(Yes that's my cat chilling in the background)

This can help you to figure out if a certain design can pull a given pose, for example would a bot with kibble on their hips or arms be able to move their legs or arms a certain way. I used POTP Elita one as a reference for my SG Megatron a lot for example as they've got very similar builds. But this is not essential.

(There are mannequin apps on mobiles etc. you can use to help with pose references too, and image searches are always useful for references.)

For more dynamic poses it helps to think about how the character is moving, so add a curve to the torso/spine to add to any implied motion etc.

Details

Once I'm happy with the basic shape and pose I typically add the armour over the top. Again the head is usually the first bit I do. You can see I got a bit lazy with their left hand and just did a scribble here XD

Inking

Normally when inking I do the edges of each armour piece first then add any details on afterwards in a finer pen. Generally I'll do one body part at the time eg. fully ink the arm before doing the head etc. Its best to make sure you do parts that are in front first!

Here's the finished picture:

Though it'll need some digital cleaning up at another time.

As for digital art...

I can't really give much advice on starting a drawing digitally as I never quite got the hang of it (colouring and corrections I do digitally but all my line art is traditional), I need the feedback of a pen in my hand and pressure on the paper to get it right.

These days the Hardware I mainly use is a refurbished huion art tablet (it was about £120 when I bought it) that's probably the cheapest your going to find a graphics tablet with a screen. BUT it's really not essential to get one especially if you're just starting out. Basic graphic tablets without a screen (just a pen and a pad) are much cheaper or you can use a mouse. I used a mouse for ages when I was first starting out.

In terms of software, for colouring and edits on the PC I use GIMP (I've been using it since like 2009 so I'm not really going to change any time soon!). It's freeware software and can do a lot of stuff, but it's user interface isn't the most user friendly especially if you're not familiar with graphics software but there are plenty of tutorials available for it. I'll try to remember to make a post showing how I use that another time :) as I'm not at my computer at the moment.

There are plenty of alternative image manipulation/graphics software to use as well, some free, some free but with ads, and some paid for (either one off payment or subscription). It's best to see what other artists have to say about them though as I've never really used them!

#my asks #my ask box #fan art #art stuff #how i draw #my ask is open #ask me stuff #nightshade #transformers nightshade #earthspark #transformers Earthspark #tfe #tfes #nightshade malto

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dimplesandfierceeyes · 11 months

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So @lurkingteapot's post about Pat's Calvin Klein undies reminded me that we've seen this little colour combo before!

Red boxers wrapped in a beige package. Red, if we follow @dribs-and-drabbles's colour theory symbolises Pran, and beige (as a light brown) is representative of surrender.

The beige seems to signify Pat backing down from his fight with Pran. He's no longer trying to hinder Pran's efforts with reconciling Phupha and Tian. In fact, he's the one that suggests another way to help: roleplaying the couple's significant moments so that they can try to figure out for themselves when Phupha and Tian both first fell.

And then red boxers... well, I wonder what that could represent... I think it's safe to say that PatPran's little roleplay was always going to turn out horny haha.

But I said we'd seen this little combo before, didn't I? Well, I'm sure my fellow brain rotters know exactly which moment I'm referencing but let's bring up the pictures anyway. For science.

The most iconic 'surrender' scene in the entire original series perhaps. And here we get a nice indirect parallel. In both scenes, Pat stops fighting and stops pushing back. He signals that he's happy to give in. Pran almost relents in the episode 7 but then holds off in the last second. In Our Skyy, Pran pretends not to relent but then continues to let Pat help by roleplaying a second scene in the house that night.

They're also both scenes in which Pat offers up his body to Pran's desire. "Look at me. You want me, don't you?" and in both scenes Pran denies his interest. (Though he's much more successful in appearing unaffected in the newer scene. Perhaps because he's not suffering from extended blue balls syndrome. That being said, he does still seem to completely forget both his shirt AND shoes in his attempt to appear disinterested. He also couldn't quite resist leaving those abs alone, could he?)

I don't think the Our Skyy wardrobe choice was meant to be as significant as the original but I did think it was a fun little homage to the moment. Once again we see Our Skyy is a special very much produced for the fans by the fans. P'Aof and his crew are the biggest Bad Buddy nerds out there for sure.

#bad buddy #patpran #our skyy: bb #our skyy 2 #our skyy x bad buddy #bad buddy episode 7 #bad buddy wardrobe #pran parakul siridechawat #pat napat jindapat

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crying-over-cartoons · 4 months

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INTRODUCING:

The Elemental Serpentine AU!

In this AU, each Serpentine species is getting reworked! They're all getting new, more varied designs, and I'll be making a lot of new species to align with each elemental power in the show!

I'm also reworking much of the lore surrounding Serpentine, since what we are given is inconsistent, and quite vague.

As of now, I have new designs for each of the Serpentine species that appear in the show! Designs for new species to go with the missing elements will come later.

Please note that this AU is a work in progress; the designs I have here are subject to change!

Details about each species are included under the cut~~~

GENERAL AU STUFF

I decided that I want all of my Serpentine to have tails, instead of just the generals. If they have legs, they end up looking more like anthro lizards than anthro snakes. I'll let them keep the arms, though.

In the show, the Serpentine are covered in intricate details. As nice as these details are, they make it difficult to draw Serpentine in 2D. So, more for my own sanity than anything else, the patterns are getting toned down.

CONSTRICTAI - EARTH

I genuinely hate a lot of aspects of the canon design for the Constrictai. Their non-existent necks and random spikes make them look more like horrible little dinosaur gnomes than snakes. For my design, I let them keep the spikes, but moved them so they weren't sticking straight up out of their head. Most important of all, I gave them necks.

Inspiration: Boa constrictor

HYPNOBRAI - MIND

In spite of how it may seem, I did not remove this species' hood! Real snakes with hoods only 'hood up' as a threat display. I decided to incorporate this into my AU. It's not visible here, but my design has false eyes on the back of the hood. I noticed that the original design has snakes in the patterns, so I've incorporated that in a few places. I think I may have gone too far with simplifying their design, so we'll see how it changes as I continue to iterate.

Inspiration: Spectacled cobra

VENOMARI - POISON

This one has received some of the biggest changes in the AU. I felt the Venomari's extra eyes looked quite out of place in my new lineup, since it would be the only one out of a now larger number of species to have four eyes, so I lowered the number to two. I don't like the original colour scheme all that much, so I decided to take a page out of the poison dart frog book and make them bright and varied in colour. They can have a variety of colours and patterns. Like the Hypnobrai, the Venomari have a hood that can't be seen in this image.

Inspiration: African bush viper

FANGPYRE - FORM

I changed the shape of the head pretty drastically, but the colours are the same, even if the pattern is different.

Inspiration: Coral snake

ANACONDRAI - LIGHT

The colour-changing ability of the Anacondrai is so underutilized that I literally forgot about it until I started rewatching the show with my brother, so I've decided to make it more prominent. In this AU, Anacondrai change colour as a method of communication and expression. They can also change their colour to disappear, just like in the show.

Inspiration: Green anaconda, RainWings from the book series Wings of Fire

VERMILLION - FUSION

Each of the Serpentine are born or hatched without visible limbs, appearing as ordinary snakes to the untrained eye. While most species undergo a metamorphosis at a young age, emerging with two limbs, Vermillion do not, and remain in a larval state for their entire lives.

Inspiration: Garter snake, axolotl

MAARAY - WATER

According to the fan wiki for Ninjago, these guys are supposed to be eels, but I thought they were Serpentine when watching the show, and they have the same head model as some of Aspheera's lackeys, so I've made the executive decision to make them Serpentine in this AU.

Inspiration: Yellow-lipped sea krait

#ninjago #ninjago serpentine #ninjago constrictai #ninjago hypnobrai #ninjago venomari #ninjago fangpyre #ninjago anacondrai #ninjago vermillion #ninjago maaray #ninjago elemental serpentine au #crying over art #btw PLEASE google some of the snakes i used as inspo they are so beautiful #especially the african bush viper and yellow-lipped sea krait

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georgegraphys · 2 months

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Ari's PR/sponsor/managerial yaps! (Disclaimer: i'm just an enthusiast, a bored fan. I'm not a professional, actively learning about this for my own career so take this lightly)

Last year, a lot of people were concerned about Monster Energy exiting Mercedes. A lot of people were concerned and immediately got blamey-blamey on George regarding what happened (insert "oh that tory twink will chase out all merc sponsors ewww" kind of shit)

I honestly think that Monster Energy leaving is not something to worry because:

-We're not like the Yamaha Monster Energy MotoGP team, they're not TITLE sponsors. They're just like any other Mercedes sponsors. They've been there since the beginning but their presence doesn't really define what Mercedes is because Mercedes doesn't brand Monster Energy clearly unlike Yamaha on MotoGP. Mercedes' title sponsor is Petronas and I would've worried a LOT if they left because Petronas and Mercedes have a strong connection in F1. Mercedes has always been defined with the Petronas green and they've branded themselves with Petronas' colour for years so it'll create a significant impact on the brand image. But Monster Energy? Not really.

-I've speculated about Monster Energy leaving tbh? Since when I did my research for my GR63 paper, I've noticed that GR did campaigns for most of the sponsors but I never saw a ME campaign on his instagram (except that one soft selling campaign of George drinking from ME bottle then tagging them) as I did my research nor he follows ME's acc too (joked with my friend on how he doesn't follow ME but follows RB Energy Drink lmaooo). Dk what happens but guess they just don't click (image/brand rep wise) or simply don't have time to work w/ each other? (Do tell me if ME collaborated with George in the past)

Why did they leave?

Mostly the reason, other than drivers' vibes/image/brandjng would be either rules and regulations changes in the contract or financial matters. I've heard someone mentioning Mercedes is putting some expensive prices for brands to put their logos on their liveries/team kit.

(more on the reasons regarding sponsorship dynamics in Mercedes here)

Each team demands $$$ from their sponsor as an agreement. Those $$$ can raise as the team valuations raise. Mercedes might demand a lot of money as they are one of the biggest teams in F1. They could demand a lot that only a small percentage could afford and would pay for it and in this case ME might not see it as worth it. For example: Petronas started with a $30M deal in 2010 and they now allegedly paid $65M-75M a year to be the title partner of Mercedes and Tommy Hilfiger allegedly paid ±$4M a year.

Conclusion : It is very normal for sponsors to come and go even though Mercedes seems to commit to long-term sponsors more. But it is not something to be concerned about except if it were about a principal/title sponsor of years or even decades leaving the team. So there is nothing to worry about. As we enter Georgecedes era, sponsor/PR/comms dynamics in Mercedes will shift a little to fit in George's branding (as he is going to be the number one driver)

#sponsor talks #pr talks

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fvckinnefor · 4 months

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how can i get more into black metal and the culture? coming from someone whos most heavy band in my wrapped last year and probably this year was cannibal corpse

Hii, I've had this in my inbox for a while I'm sorry :(

Well there are no rules when it comes to listening to music. It's really up to you whether you like it or not and that's totally understandable. I've been in the scene for a while now, and I've listened to a lot of other genres before, needless to say in some aspects of the music it can sound relatively similar to other genres. There are black metal bands that are less melodic and ones that are more melodic. As well as a decent amount of subgenres. ↓

Quick guide to black metal ★

Starting off from the history that black metal is quite known for, I'd say Mayhem and Burzum as well as Darkthrone had the biggest impact on it. You're probably familiar with Pelle's suicide and the album cover so I will not get that much into the whole story as well as pretty much any conversation regarding Mayhem since I'm not really a fan of the band. — Summarized: Lots of murder, lots of suicide, lots of sacrifices, and burning churches. There are documentaries that explain it quite well, and I recommend you to watch "Until the light takes us" rather than wasting time watching "lords of chaos".

Instead of getting into the scene with Mayhem as most people do, try listening to bands that overlap with your favourite genre. For an example, if you like thrash maybe try checking out blackened thrash metal. If you're a fan of stuff that is more melodic maybe go with symphonic or melodic black metal. My personal favourite when I first started listening to black metal was Bathory, Burzum came second and from then on I took a liking into Darkthrone.

As I mentioned, there are numerous genres that you can explore and every band has a different execution !! — Lifelover and Xasthur are both DSBM but are fairly different.

I'd say the scene is the most important part of it. Ranging from the way they dress, how they act on stage, their personal beliefs and so much more.

Corpse paint: Corpse paint is the face paint worn amongst the black metal community, it is used to, of course, make you look like a corpse. Necrobutcher from the band "Mayhem" insisted that they were the first in the scene to wear corpse paint, with Pelle (Dead) Ohlin (their vocalist) being the origin. Today it is heavily mistaken for other styles of face paint. It is not clown paint, it is not anything similar to Jazmin Bean's old makeup style, it is not Joey Jordison's mask style and it definitely isn't the juggalo face paint. For reference, here's a sheet of numerous corpse paint designs:

No paint on the nose, black all around the eyes and usually lines exaggerating your mouth into a frown, as mentioned before it is called corpse paint because it is supposed to make you look like a corpse.

Themes: Black metal's main themes are anti-religion, Satanism, nature, suicide, darkness, and many more. It all depends on the subgenre, really.

DSBM → Depressive Suicidal Black Metal

NSBM → National Socialist Black Metal

It has a high range of genres, as I said. For an example Kellersynth, which still falls under the black metal umbrella (because it branches from DS) even though it sounds NOTHING like it and has no elements of black metal. It originated from Dungeon synth. Now I am not so familiar with the scene of KS as I only got into it last year but it is mainly known for it's designs with the contrast between the dark colours and the highly saturated neon ones, witch hats, gnomes, mushrooms, etc. Pretty sure Kellersynth started the whole gnome hunting trend on TikTok that was popular a while ago but I'm not so sure on that? If someone could tell me more about it, I'd be thankful. It branched off the Dungeon Synth subgenre, except DS is usually gloomy and mysterious sounding whereas KS sounds sort of like techno according to the newer versions of it at least, one of my friends even compared it to the "Jumpstyle" music or whatever it's called. Pretty sure Kellersynth was started by friedhof/grollfried or so I've read a while ago.

Note - Just like with DSBM and other genres, KS also ranges depending on what artist you are listening to. For example Hexenmeister is a lot different than B.S.o.D (mentioning him because he had, I'd say, a great impact on both DS and KS)

PS !! For more info about Grausamkeit here is an article that I think really does a great job at explaining his discography.

[ 1 ] - Wizard of uralia [ 2 ] - Hexenmeister [ 3 ] - Hirtenmörder

Note - Hirtenmörder is tanzelcore but I'm still gonna include it

The difference between KS and Tanzelcore is that Tanzelcore draws from techno and KS draws from dungeon synth, most of the examples I've named up there are pretty much more tanzelcore than Kellersynth but I am putting them out as a perfect example of the cover art. → Bright neon colours, contrast.

These were the first few bands I came across, but my personal favourite is Morkesis. If you happen to like this kind of music and want to find more bands like these, check out the official DEATH FETISH youtube channel.

DSBM is a subgenre that's main themes are suicide, self mutilation, heartbreak, sadness, depression, etc. Again, there are a lot of bands and each one has their own execution. Here is my playlist with some of my favourite DSBM songs!!

The Community is quite toxic, by quite I mean really lol. If you decide to dive into the scene don't be surprised when you come across a lot of neo-nazis and white supremacists, ESPECIALLY in the KS and true Norwegian scene (not even gonna mention NSBM). The gatekeeping is a classic, of course. I'm pretty sure there is no community that gatekeeps like the BM community. In conclusion: Keep your favorite underground bands hidden if you don't want death threats coming at you by other fans of the band for making their favourite artists "mainstream". But even though there are a lot of gatekeepers, there are a lot of posers as well. Now don't get me wrong, "poser" is a very harsh label and I truly only intend to put it on those who are apart of the community for the aesthetics and fangirl/boy typa reason. By far, I don't think any band has a worse fandom than Mayhem, just a simple google search of their name will get you into a rabbit hole of fanart, fanfictions and other gross stuff.

Some fun subgenres worth exploring: (★ on my favs!)

psychedelic black metal ★

kellersynth

tanzelcore

DSBM ★

dungeon synth ★

blackened thrash metal ★

Industrial black metal

black gaze ★

war metal

NSBM (only for the music)

atmospheric BM ★

symphonic BM

melodic BM

folk BM

raw BM ★

blackened death metal ★

Blackened speed metal

Blackened gothic metal

Progressive black metal

Viking metal

Orthodox (or any religious) black metal

Black n roll, etc...

Back in the day, "black-metalheads" were referred to as Blacksters, though I am not sure if that term is still used to this day. But you probably came across the term "Trve Kvlt".

→ Trve Kvlt is basically a joke amongst the community now, I have never seen a true black metal enjoyer unironically use the term. I am pretty sure it originated it originated amongst the true Norwegian scene but is today only used as a joke. "That's so trve kvlt."

Note - As I am writing this I searched up the term as I was curious on it's origin and haven't learned about it before, I found this comment from a reddit user (u/noscope360gokuswag) that I feel like provides a decent enough explanation to the term.

"There is a big explanation in the book "Lords of Chaos" which is solely about the rise of Black Metal following the bands Mayhem, Burzum, and all of the chaos that came from them.

The term originated in the Norwegian black metal sub-culture of the early 1990s to describe ground-breaking artists including Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone and Emperor, whose militantly satanic ethos exemplified the era's black metal feel. Non-satanic bands expressing Norse paganism or strong anti-Christian sentiment may still be regarded as kvlt.

It was originally used by early black metal artists and fans to attribute authenticity to certain bands and was spelled that way due to spelling in Old English (v was used instead of u)

Now it has been transformed into a joke word and used to make fun of bands that try way too hard."

So in conclusion, knowing the history of the subculture and enjoying the music is enough to make you a Blackster. The community has a knot up their ass, everybody faces discrimination amongst it no matter what you do at this point lol. But my advice is to slowly start from the genre and/or band that's the most similar to your music taste now.

Melodic music → Melodic black metal, symphonic black metal, dungeonsynth, blackgaze etc

Heavy → Raw black metal, True Norwegian, blackened death metal, war metal etc

Infamous people in the black metal scene;

[ 1 ] - Count Grishnackh / Varg vikernes (Burzum, Mayhem, Old funeral. (I think there were more though)) [ 2 ] - Per Yngve (Pelle/Dead) Ohlin (Mayhem, Morbid) [ 3 ] - Gylve Fenris Nagell / Fenriz (Darkthrone, Valhall, Neptune Towers, Storm, Isengard (And I'm positive that there was more but these are just the ones I know of as of now.)) [ 4 ] - Øystein Aarseth / Euronymous (Mayhem (lmk if there's any that I'm missing))

Since I skipped over Mayhem's history, here is a documentary that you can watch if interested;

youtube

UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US:

youtube

A Playlist You Might Want To Check Out:

(( Another thing is I see a lot of Blacksters online saying that if you don't want to be a poser you have to exclusively listen to black metal only. I don't agree with that and believe you can be into black metal without only limiting your music taste to only black metal and it's subgenres, but then again being a Blackster also includes mainly listening to black metal → So it's your top genre. ))

You can be a black-metalhead and be a Christian, listening to black metal does NOT make you a nazi even if you listen to NSBM (as long as you're not actively supporting the artist and their beliefs) Not everyone in the black metal scene is a nazi and most of those who spread around such bullshit are not even educated about it. Ps to all of the haunted mound, "skinhead", sped up songs retards that are getting into black metal over TikTok and spreading around nazi propaganda YOU ARE A POSER!!!

At the end of the day black metal is only music. Those who like it will like it and those who don't, don't.

That's all I could come up with for now, I am very tired and I don't have the time to proofread all of this. If there are any troubles, grammar mistakes or gaps in my explanation/knowledge LMK!! Hope this helps at least a little bit. ♡

#｡⁠☆*⁠.⁠asks✧∘⁠˚⁠˳⁠°#black metal #☆ﾟ⁠.⁠*⁠･⁠｡ﾟ

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cozmicclown · 7 months

Text

WELCOME HOME TRANSCRIBED: #1 Howdy & Poppy

This is a fan-made transcript of the first Welcome Home secret bug audio clips. I took great care to ensure the dialogue is as ACCURATE as humanly possible. That being said, any visuals or actions taken by the characters are generated through my own creative presumptions. I already have #2 and #3 written out, so I’ll be posting more of these. These are a fun exercise to practice script writing. Plain text version of the transcription is below. Enjoy!

1 - INT. POPPY'S BARN - DAY

POPPY, BIGGEST NEIGHBOUR, CHICKEN AND SWEETHEART, SITS KNITTING IN A HUGE ARMCHAIR AMIDST BALLS OF YARN OF EVERY COLOUR, OCCUPYING EVERY AVAILABLE SURFACE.

POPPY (Mutters to herself in concentration)

Oh, stitch. Dropped a stitch again...

HOWDY, LOCAL MULTI LIMBED CATERPILLAR SHOPKEEPER, ALSO LOCAL PUSHY SALESMAN, IS HEARD APPROACHING POPPY'S HOME.

HOWDY (O.S.)

Delivery here! I've got a deliver here for one Ms. Partridge...

HOWDY APPEARS IN THE HALF OPEN DUTCH DOORS OF POPPY'S HOME, BROWN PAPER WRAPPED PARCEL IN HAND, AND CONTINUES HIS SPIEL.

HOWDY (CONT'D)

Courtesy of Howdy's dependable, door to door to door delivery service!

POPPY (Light surprise)

Oh! Oh my feathers, Howdy! You frightened me.

POPPY SETS DOWN HER KNITTING AND CAREFULLY APPROACHES THE DOOR.

HOWDY

Terribly sorry ma'am. 'Suppose I shoulda knocked?

POPPY

Oh, no, no, that would have frightened me too.

(Nervous laughter before excited OH!)

Oh! Is that my order of yarn? Thank you.

POPPY TAKES THE PARCEL FROM HOWDY AND STOWS IT UNDER HER WING.

HOWDY

It sure is Poppy. Hot off the shelves, just the way ya like'em.

(Notices all the yarn laid about inside)

Boy, looks like you already gotta hoard that'd make a dragon jealous.

Whatcha need even more yarn for? Not that I'll turn down a sale, heh heh.

POPPY GIVES A SOFT LAUGH AT THE JOKE BEFORE SPEAKING.

POPPY (light stuttering)

Oh, I'm just working on some scarves and sweaters and such. I want everyone in the ne- neighbourhood to have something warm to wear in-when, you know, winter comes along. Feels like these changing seasons keep sneaking up on me, heh.

HOWDY

Hah, I hear that, not enough daylight ta get everything done. Course, it helps ta have an extra pair of hands!

HOWDY CRACKS UP AT HIS OWN JOKE AND POPPY AWKWARDLY JOINS IN SHORTLY AFTER.

HOWDY (CONT 'D)

'Seems like you know that already, though. I can see you've recruited an extra pair of your own today.

HOWDY GESTURES OVER TO THE PUPPET SHAPED YARN PILE SAT ON A POUFFE BY THE ARMCHAIR. A PAIR OF YELLOW HANDS STICK OUT, PINK YARN NEATLY COILED BETWEEN THEM. THE STRING RUNS FROM THE HANDS TO POPPYS CURRENT KNITTING PROJECT.

POPPY (Referring to the yarn pile)

Oh, heh heh, yes. Thank you again for your help dear. And thank goodness for it, I was worried I was going to get all tangled up with all these colours of yarn.

HOWDY (In serious agreement with POPPYs joke)

Hmmm, I can see why, it's a real risk.

A MOMENT OF QUIET BEFORE POPPY TURNS BACK AND RESPONDS, SURPRISED AND NERVOUS.

POPPY

It- it is?

HOWDY

Well, sure. But lucky for you, I think I might have something ta help.

HOWDY REACHES INTO HIS APRON POCKET AND PULLS OUT A METAL DEVICE WITH A FLOURISH, IT'S ARMS SPINNING WITH A RATTLE, REMINISCENT OF A SNAKE.

HOWDY (CONT' D)

BEHOLD!

POPPY GIVES OUT A VERY FRIGHTENED, CHICKEN-LIKE SQUAWK! BEFORE STICKING HER HEAD UNDER HER WING IN FEAR.

HOWDY (Continues over a few more squawks)

N- no, no, nothing to fear here. What you're looking at is a bon-a-feeday yarn spinner. Perfect for keeping all your extra neatly spooled up.

HOWDY TURNS THE CRANK ON THE SPINNER TO DEMONSTRATE AS HE SAYS THE LAST PART, THE MECHANISM RATTLES AGAIN.

HOWDY (CONT 'D)

Safe. Effective. And...No pesky batteries or electricity to fret over.

POPPY PEEKS OUT FROM HER WINGS BEFORE TAKING HER FULL HEAD OUT SHEEPISHLY.

POPPY (voice shaking)

Well, oh, well, that-t does sound helpful, doesn't it?

HOWDY CUTS IN BEFORE SHE FINISHES HER RHETORICAL QUESTION.

HOWDY

Sure does! Here, heh heh, tell ya what, today only, as an extra special deal for an extra special customer, you can give'er a whirl, no strings attached. Well, no strings but yarn that is. Hah ha!

POPPY STARTS TO INTERRUPT HIM AT "BUT YARN THAT IS" AND CONTINUES TO TRY. SOMEHOW HOWDY GOT POPPY TO TAKE THE DEVICE FROM HIM.

HOWDY (Talking over POPPY)

Well, I've already overstayed my welcome. Got a whole shipment back at the shop I've gotta sign for.

POPPY

Oh, t-t ah- heh eh heh. Ehhhh, buuu-... oohh but - *exhales*, *inhales*, welllll, alright then. Oh.

HOWDY

I'll check in on you and your new wonder device next time I bring you an order Poppy. ‘Til then.

HOWDY DISAPPEARS FROM THE DUTCH DOOR WITH A TWO HANDED WAVE. POPPY STANDS IN HER ENTRYWAY, PARCEL UNDER WING, AND BEGINS TO INSPECT THE YARN SPINNER.

POPPY

Oh, I don't know how to work these things but- well he was so insistent it'd be helpful, do you think you can help me figure this thing out WallE€*YY??

End Scene

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raayllum · 2 years

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I feel like the owl house fandom takes things way too srsly esp with ships and preferences on characters. idk I love hunter and amity's backstory and I love luz but I'm more interested in hunter and amity's backstory that doesn't make me racist their storylines are more interesting

So this probably won't be what you expected or asked for but I'm grabbing the opportunity anyway to address some of the ways I think TOH falters from a Storytelling perspective and why I think those issues (as well as how young a lot of the fans are, although when I was 11-13 in fandom I was much more chill and "live and let live" so just shows what a decade can do in terms of fan community) unintentionally perpetuate some of what you mention.

Also don't think you're racist for preferring Amity and Hunter (Hunter, Gus, and Luz are my faves) but I do think TOH has some issues with how it handles its characters of colour, so I am going to touch on that. While I'm white. this is reflected on / verbatim from conversations I've had with Black and Asian friends / fans of the show and how racial stuff can tend to play out in fandom (circa 2013 onwards from personal experience of how people have treated fave characters, like Finn from Star Wars, in the past).

That said, I do still like the show. I love the strong found family, everything surrounding Eda and her allegories for mental health are super solid and important, I'm thrilled by the queer rep (I’m queer & watched Korrasami happen live), and I don't think a show has to be perfect or to check off my personal preference to be good. But I do think the show is... an interesting mixed bag for a few key reasons I haven't seen anyone talk about, so here they are.

Under a read more bc this gets long, like, real long, even though there’s only four things on this freaking list, LMAO. For whoever reads it, have fun!

1. The Owl House writes like first impressions don't matter.

This is one of the biggest things in the show that breaks elements of setup + payoff. After all, if your setup is misleading or unaddressed by payoff later, characters and plot lines may come across as stilted. This also ties into other areas (such as screentime) that I'll touch on later.

By far the character who has broken setup the most, though, is Amity. For example, Amity is introduced as someone who has bullied Willow for years, even when no one else is around (i.e. it's not a pure performance), and even though they used to be friends when they were young. Their friendship fall out / Amity distancing herself from Willow is explained by Amity being forced to by her parents, and understandably struggling with how to deal with and explain it as a child.

I haven't seen the last few episodes of S2 (aka I got up to "Hollow Mind") and I was disappointed in S2A when it seemed like this plot element would never be addressed again. So I was very pleased to learn that there is an episode in S2B that talks about their friendship. Except... it doesn't address the bullying. Because yes, Amity tried to protect Willow by distancing herself... but Amity also didn’t need to Bully Willow, like, at all. Not within the confines of the story and not within the landscape of the character; her parents didn’t tell her to be cruel to Willow. She chose to do that. Repeatedly. And that facet of their bond... has never been adequately addressed. It could be, in the future (but I personally doubt it).

It’s particularly strange, because Luz was 1) canonically bullied in the human realm and 2) perpetually struggled at making friends. It makes sense that she’d be extra against bullies and protective over the friends she does have, and wanting to see real change before bonding with a practical stranger (even if Amity did show a slightly nicer side at the end of “Covention,” it wasn’t an even ratio whatsoever, either of her niceness or Luz’s meanness). But we’ll circle back to this.

We see this issue of initially bad behaviour being overruled, sometimes retconned, or ignored to the point of being rewritten a few more times in the series.

The one that ties into Amity’s character are her siblings. In their debut episode, they have plans to share private pages of their little sister’s diary. This is mentioned in another episode as something they’re trying to make up for, but they weren’t there when shit hit the fan at the library, anyway. So we never see 1) why they were going to be so cruel to Amity in the first place (and I have siblings myself, so no, it’s not a sibling thing, or just a sibling thing), 2) what exactly made them change their mind, and 3) this type of behaviour never reappears or is addressed in the show, either. While Luz gets called a bully for it, the twins get off basically scot free. Yes, they’re obviously affected by their mother, too, but there’s never even a whiff or a hint about why they felt the need to humiliate Amity on a public scale besides thinking she was uptight.

We see this one more time with Darius, which was the most baffling and completely jarred me the first time I watched it. Darius was being cruel and dismissive to Hunter, but warms up when he realizes the kid does have a spine and will stand up for what he believes this. This is not the heart warming moment or message the show seems to think it is. All I heard and saw was an adult going “Oh, this kid is too indoctrinated and abused to be worthwhile until he proves otherwise, I’ll treat him like trash and ignore that I’m exacerbating his symptoms of abuse until then.” And no matter what comes latter, this is a downright weird set up, emotionally.

I’m not saying that none of these characters can be set up this way, but the introduction and how different they are in all other preceding episodes — or even when information is given to re-contextualize certain things — feels like whiplash. So the setup is a little weird, making pay off either non existent or unnecessary. This stumbling block makes the emotional continuity feel disjointed too, in some aspects. The way this affects emotional continuity can best be seen in Gus, Willow, and Luz’s friendship — but again, more that later.

As for set up and pay off, it can lead to missed opportunities, namely: why the hell was Amity Lilith’s protege in Convention? Again, not saying the show is bad or this is a bad writing choice, but it’s a weird one. I remember watching that episode, seeing Amity be introduced as Lilith’s pseudo apprentice, and being excited. It meant Lilith-Eda, Luz-Amity, and possibly the two menor-mentee relationships could all be developed simultaneously! It’d be interesting to see the parallels and differences.

At the very least, it would give a personal stake to Amity and Luz’s possible developing bond, with Lilith at the very least going to disapprove, and give Amity and Luz a chance to compete against each other and to see that progression.

Then it was never addressed again. And it wasn’t set up as a “one day thing” either. It seems that Lilith possibly tutored Amity for months, maybe even years, for Amity to be considered her “strongest protege” (exact line). So we miss out on that possible, episodic but still connected plot line (especially because after Convention, we never see Amity caring a whole lot about actual school, even though that as her whole thing in her intro and second episode). Then, even when Amity and Lilith are back on the same side (imagine how interesting exploring that fracturing could’ve been!) they... never interact, never mention, and never act like they know each other.

They’re two characters with the same theme and similar arcs split down the middle, have an interesting setup, and it goes.... Nowhere.

Because first impressions don’t matter in the show, which is particularly weird, as typically 1) what you set up in the very beginning of the show is what you want the audience to be invested in, and 2) the audience is going to / has to pay more attention in the beginning of a show because they’re actively trying to learn the rules of the world and character dynamics / personalities.

And it’s not the only time TOH does this, so let’s talk about

2. Screentime, Race, and Chosen Diaspora

Specifically that Gus and Willow barely get any, and how this ties into race. So I’ve touched on this before in an article I wrote on Vocal where I share meta-adjacent stuff that doesn’t fit my tumblr vibe, so if for some reason this is your thing, they may be other stuff you enjoy on there, whatever. I’m not gonna repeat myself too much here, but basically:

The majority of the Owl House cast is white, particularly when it comes to who matters in the plot. Eda, Lilith, and their family are all white. Hooty and King exist in what we’re going to call an aracial space, as they don’t have race and aren’t coded as any particular thing, either; just tried and true demons. Hunter is white; Belos is white. Gus and Willow are regulated to background characters and most of the time when Willow is being developed as a character (“Understanding Willow,” “Any Sport in a Storm”) it’s typically also used to further a white character’s growth of... learning to treat her better? Gus fares a bit better, but gets less screentime.

So not only is Luz the only primary character of colour, she’s largely cut off in forming meaningful relationships with other characters of colour, and having those bonds highlighted and given strong screen time (as thus far in S2, every time Gus and Willow have gotten significant screentime, it’s been largely removed from Luz, with her often doing something else with Amity). Remember when “Star Wars: Rogue One” came out, and there were discussions being had of “a lone woman only having meaningful relationships with men and no other women”?

[ Side note: as for the first point, I’m not going to say things I love, like TDP, don’t fall into the “woman surrounded by men” trope for its two main female leads, as Rayla is friends with the boys and was raised by her dads, and Claudia’s primary relationships are also with other men. However, I believe this is mitigated with plot lines like Ellis and Lujanne in S1, as well as Janai-Amaya-Khessa in S2 and particularly in S3, and I think this will only continue to grow moving forward into S4 and beyond ]

At the same time as Rogue One, there were conversations regarding the films status of “people of colour purely as the supporting cast but never as the primary lead”? TOH meets in as a weird hybrid in the middle, with a person of colour as the main lead, but largely surrounded by white people — and this is the case for most characters in the show.

Raine’s main relationship is with Eda. Darius is in the rebellion with them, but his only meaningful relationship on screen in any way is really with Hunter and the past golden guards. Gus and Willow are mostly side characters. We basically never see their families/parents (and know far more about the Blights / Edric and Emira in every way. Gus and Willow ultimately don’t get the time with Luz for me to call their relationship meaningful. This is especially strange, given that often times kids who are bullied (like all three of them are) cling harder to the friends they do have, and that while S1 was better about making Gus and Willow be extremely important to Luz as her First Friends Ever, S2 has dropped the ball even more so.

Luz is like an island, ironically on the Isles and cut off from her cultural community and from other characters of colour even when they do exist in her new community. So that’s talk about that in full.

Now, there is Luz, who is the primary protagonist (honestly, you could argue Eda is her co-protagonist) and she’s lovely and I love her. However, more than once, Luz’s plot line for an episode is a B plot or less plot relevant compared to other characters (particularly Eda). I touched on this in my Vocal article, but Luz is living in diaspora in the Boiling Isles. Yes, the demon realm suits her much better than Earth largely did, but I would still love to see elements of her culture in ways other than her / her family’s name and her occasionally speaking Spanish. What about holidays, what about missing her mother’s cooking and the cultural connotations it holds?

The show does engage with aspects of the Isekkai genre that are sometimes overlooked, namely Luz being torn between two worlds (and given that she’s mixed, it’s not like the allegory isn’t already there), but it only goes halfway. It only shows Luz wanting to be in the Boiling Isles with none of the possibilities about cultural shock, assimilation, and other aspects that can play into immigrating countries — or realms. I’m not saying the the show not engaging with Luz’s diaspora is a bad thing, but it does feel like a missed opportunity (as most of this is) particularly since they do try to engage with her on a cultural level with her speaking Spanish and writing her as purposefully Afro-Latina and from the Dominican Republic.

But honestly, basically everything I’ve talked about already — occasionally misleading set up w/ a lack of follow through, screentime (both considering and not considering its racial elements) — are all compounded into my biggest issue with the show, however, which are its

3. Disengaged stakes

So while I love Luz, I mostly love her for her personality and sweet hearted nature. I don’t actually love her that much for how she drives the plot forward — even though she does, and even though she’s the protagonist. And this is largely because Luz — and many of the characters — exist in a limbo of what I’m going to call Disengaged Stakes. Basically, they have stakes, but due to a lack of set up, or pay off in regards to emotional continuity (never mind a lack of consistency, i.e. sometimes Eda needs to hide, sometimes she can be flashy in public with zero consequences, sometimes getting caught by guards matters when the story decides it needs a conflict, and sometimes it doesn’t etc) it’s hard to actually be invested in those stakes. At least for me.

For most of S2, this meant I wasn’t really invested in Luz’s efforts to get a portal to see her mom (although this improved when we actually got a singular episode with Camila). It’s clear Luz isn’t going to live full time, if at all, in going back to the human realm. I also wasn’t worried for Camila, as she hasn’t been fearing for Luz this whole time, instead believing things are perfectly fine if not better than they were before.

Let me give you an example, and this was actually pointed out in a youtube review of the S2 finale that helped me put my finger on why it... felt weird as a finale (again, even though I haven’t fully watched it yet, but I have watched the bulk of it).

The four kids are stranded in the human realm, but what does that actually mean, for most of them? For Luz, this carries a lot of weight. She’s spent all season trying to find a way home to see her mother, but is now there under awful circumstances with no way back to the place she actually wants to be. It will also offer Camilla the perfect opportunity to see why the Boiling Isles and her family there is so important to Luz.

But what does this mean for the other three kids? Shockingly little. Like I’ve touched on before, we know nothing about Gus and Willow’s families. Yes, I’m sad they’re separated from them, but I’m sad because generally, kids being separated from their parents is sad. I’m not invested in their specific relationship (same issue I had with Rogue One and Jyn’s relationship with her father, as well). All Luz actually wants, in her core, is to stay in the Boiling Isles. Amity’s relationship with her father is on the mend and her siblings are there for her, but Luz is still clearly the most important person in the world to her, and they’re not separated. Hunter has absolutely nothing back for him in the Boiling Isles, largely, and he’s actually as safe as he can be from Belos’ machinations in the human realm.

So you have four kids tossed into the human realm, and it only really matters for one of them.

This is amplified in their relationships. Willow and Gus rarely have anything beyond interpersonal stakes; Amity had her mother, but now her father has turned over a new leaf, there are no interpersonal stakes any longer for her family (and she radically stood up to her mother very early on in S2 as well). She and Luz have had no problems in their relationship besides very brief miscommunication and Amity’s mother. Amity has hardly any stakes outside of Luz. The characters who are dealing with very high stakes, such as Raine, are largely shuttered away outside of the story — or Hunter.

Dear lord, Hunter. Which, now that we’ve gotten here, let’s talk about what I think could have aided in remedying a lot of these issues

4. Merging

Now I know TOH had to jump through a lot of executive hoops (including the existence and plot relevance of Hexside particularly in S1) so I don’t know what sort of orders came down, or mandates they have to follow but:

TOH has too many characters, and plenty of them could have been condensed as pairs into half as many characters.

I know this, because I went through a similar process of originally having a central group of thirteen characters, and cleaved that shit down to seven. So what are my proposed mergings?

The twins become one character. They more or less are now, fulfil the same purposes and character points as one another (flesh out Amity’s family, tease her and be a listening ear, show their mother’s control, operate as illusionists, etc). Whether it’s brother or sister doesn’t really matter.

Gus and Willow become one character. I would say keep more of Willow’s backstory (w/ Amity), dads, and plant magic alight, as the merged-twin character could substitute as the group illusionist whenever need be. It means that instead of only having splintered individual episodes with Luz or for their development, the small collection would be bolstered and improved marginally. It still wouldn’t fix where screentime or set up fails them, but it would be a significant start. I adore Gus, he’s one of my favourites in the whole show — but he’s less plot relevant than Willow, who is already largely not plot relevant (at least, not outside Hunter’s arc in S2) and we gotta be economical somewhere.

Economical storytelling is when a character, scene, or plot beat is doing at least three things at once, largely — and right now Gus is doing the least, as much as I love my boy, with Willow right next to him. Thus, there we go.

Now for the big, perhaps flat out unpopular one:

Hunter and Amity should’ve been one character. Like the twins, and even Amity and Lilith, they’re largely one theme split down the middle. The show draws intentional parallels between their world views, callousness, and need to be the best due to their abusive families, their strong relationships / connections to Luz, who works to friendship and who are changed by her kindness. There are also less thematic but still overt parallels, like their artificial wands, opposing palismans (bird vs cat), travelling into mindscapes where they uncover secrets. Hell, they both even have a reformed father figure who works with the Abominable coven with a shittier parent who believes in their own superiority at any cost.

Say Golden Guard Amity is enrolled in Hexside — she has to be trained somewhere — and throughout the season we hear her refer to her uncle, who raised her. He just wants the best for her, and for her to be a worthy member of the Emperor’s coven! It’s only at the end of S1 we learn that Amity’s uncle is Belos, and that her growing bond with Luz may be tested in the future. Then, in S2, she has to make a choice between her familial loyalty, ideological defection, and Luz and her friends (who will have more time to be friends, because there are less characters running around). You can even keep the condensed twin as a surrogate sibling mentor — perhaps one of Belos’ more successful grimwalkers, or flat out not a clone at all.

This merger gives Luz and Amity real stakes in their relationship, a higher sense of drama amid the sweet fluffiness, gives more characters more screentime... And amplifies everything that already exists in Amity’s arc. Yes, seeing a quieter form of child abuse from Odalia is worthwhile, particularly for abused children — but as of S2 she’s basically gone full bad guy and has already done so before in early S2, as her abomaton nearly kills Luz in “Escaping Expulsion” so... moot point? Sorta? Is what I’m saying.

It would also, for the love of god, give Amity a solidified reason to dye her hair after she finds out she’s a grimwalker. She wants to reassert her own identity, she wants to be different than her successors while also honouring their good nature, etc etc. Imagine “Hollow Mind” but with Amity in Hunter’s place, and all the weight that would hold for each of them, and for Hunter’s character, now condensed into Amity’s. Also stronger parallels of Belos’ clones becoming less like his brother (because Amity is a girl) over time and with parallels of the implied plot line, of Belos killing his brother because Caleb fell in love with a witch, and it’s happening again, this time just with Luz and Amity, directly.

Basically the only things that would have to change would be a little of S1′s pacing, some of S2′s Blight parent related episodes (so largely two until the finale, which again, Darius or the condensed twin could easily substitute)oOr, to come full circle, you could have Lilith also play a factor, the way she did in Amity’s arc in the beginning. This would provide a greater sense that characters actually had lives and connections and little ship passing in the night moments before Luz showed up, and they would all feel more like!! REAL PEOPLE!!

The only thing that would possibly, likely have to go is Willow’s history with Amity.But given that the show has never really addressed the bullying, perhaps that backstory element would be better left dropped, in general. Amity can be a jerky bully without specifically bullying Luz’s friend for like, 4-6 years beforehand, y’know.

Anyway I will never not believe in the validity of what I call TOH Merger and how it would strengthen basically almost every single aspect of the show, take it or leave it.

Conclusion / Nitpicks

Other notes before we wrap up.

I got bored with just how many episodes relied on the “Character A doesn’t want to fess up to something bc they’re insecure, scared, or trying to look Cool, but inevitably lie and make things ten times worse, and then learn it’s important to be honest” in S1 (hi King, Luz, Willow, and Gus eps respectively).

Amity’s laser character focus on Luz stifles her relationships with both Willow and Gus (as it is more or less non existent outside of a few lines or group scenes); all of Amity’s character growth is largely because of her relationship with Luz, but the same cannot be said for Luz, leaving their relationship lopsided. This is particularly true for me (and is a total personal Aro-spec induced nitpick) and is all the more glaringly obvious considering they barely had one episode where the two were on friendly / friend-ish terms before crush feelings on Amity’s side came in. This makes me feel less invested in their relationship as a whole, as while it’s exceedingly cute, it feels like it’s based on nothing but Crush™ Feelings and that will also be less compelling to me than a strong Foundational Friendship that develops into a crush. I don’t mind that development happening fast, but this was a little too fast in my book.

Final disclaimer: Still like the show, still think it’s good, these are just some of the reasons I don’t think it’s Great. The lack of a Merger will haunt me. Thank you goodnight

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glitchcel · 4 months

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15 people 15 questions!!!!

Tagged by @suzufield thank you yay ^^

This is a long one so it's under the cut and also idgaf I love hearing myself talk I love the sound of my own voice!!!!

Not really, my given name is that of a saint like most names from here tbh, but my mom picked it because it's short and she wanted people from everywhere around the world to be able to say it which is kind of cute. I don't have chosen name I have like 3 nicknames people alternate between, one of them is Ani or AniGC which I use on the internet and I don't plan on picking one I think not having a name is cool!

1. Are you named after anyone?

2. When was the last time you cried?

Nope, too young, and also having my own kids or parenting/fostering is not something I am fit to ever do I don't think I would be a good parent. I'm a lesbian so biological kids are kind of out the window (not really but don't want them regardless, better safe than sorry on this matter I think). I would love to work with kids though at least once in my lifetime.

Genuinely yesterday I love crying I cry all the damn time it helps me fall asleep. What the libs don't want you to know is that depression is actually awesome because you can cry all the fucking time and you don't need sleeping medication! Yay for mental illness!

3. Do you have kids?

4. What sports have you played/do you play?

I did karate for 8 or 9 years from ages of like 6-14, loved it, then I fell down the stairs and fucked up my spine and had to quit. Then I did swimming for a bit but nothing too serious and I quit that because I got bored now I do fuck all.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Yes a lot but I try to not get too irony poisoned lol, I mostly just say outlandish shit but I do use sarcasm.

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

I couldn't tell you if you put a gun to my head. I don't fucking know 😭

7. Eye colour?

Brown! ^^

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

This is a strange one I'm not really big on either of these things. When it comes to horror I'm not really a fan of movies I feel like a thing inherently becomes a little less scary when you show it to me or when it's moving you know? Idk I like some of them but I really do enjoy horror books those are awesome. And for the other thing I don't know is it a happy ending for me or the characters? Like I enjoy all plot threads being tied together well but if that doesn't make my fav happy GOOD. Let that bitch suffer. To actually answer the question I think scary movies lmao.

9. Any talents?

Why yes I'm very awesome. Idk I'm a fast learner genuinely that's the biggest thing I've got going on I think almost everything I know I learned on my own accord, it was never given to me, and idk I'm kind of proud of that idgaf if it sounds corny. I can also dislocate my thumb that's kind of cool.

10. Where were you born?

In the hospital (Serbia but I don't like saying where I'm from too much I want to remain a Mysterious Figure On The Computer and now you have to ignore the fact that I frequently post about this)

11. What are your hobbies?

Running the risk of sounding like a loser nerd I love studying I love learning things if I could stay in school for the rest of my life I genuinely would. I love learning how shit works and I'm gonna be honest organic chemistry has been among my favourite things to study ever it's so perfectly logical and awesome one of the best sciences ever for sure. Besides that I like doing fuck all and taking the piss on the internet.

12. Do you have any pets?

Nope! Small apartment and not enough money or time to take care of them. One day I will get a cat though trust.

13. How tall are you?

184cm that's like 6'0" I think?

14. Favourite subject in school?

Idk probably physics. High school level chem was incredibly fucking boring I didn't even have to fart to get good grades. Math and programming were my original beloveds but I fell out of love with them very soon after starting high school due to bad experiences with teachers. So yeah probably physics idk the only subjects I think about at this point are the ones I'll have next year in college I can't fucking wait for atomistics.

15. Dream job?

I feel like a fucking idiot being at my age and telling people I want to be a scientist but like!!!!!! I do I genuinely do!!!! I want to be a researcher and do cool things I want to be entranced by the work I do maybe this sounds so incredibly optimistic because it's likely that if I become a researcher I'll be eating packet noodles for the rest of my life but!! That's my dream!!!

I cannot be assed to tag 15 people I'm sorry also I think everyone and their mom has done this at this point so I'll tag. 3 take it or leave it! Sorry if any of you have done this already 😭. Also if you haven't but don't want to that's fine lmao no pressure

@k-ru-h @viegoinahoodie @schrodingers-catgirl

#THEY LET ME OFF THE FUCKING BUS FINALLY

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nakitengoku · 4 months

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oc interview: 💙Vex💙

Shoutout to @mail-me-a-snail for tagging me in this post and also egging me along with getting into Cyberpunk 2077 and subsequently creating Vex 💫

(I don't have a single good photo of Vex so you instead get the Compilation of sillies I've drawn, many featuring Snail's Vance!)

💙 Name?

"Name's Vex, but call me anything you like."

💙 Nickname?

"Some people used to call me V, but that was a while ago."

He used to be called Ghost when he was younger, being able to slip into the background unnoticed at any moment, but he later grew out of that. When he eventually adopted the name V, it was less of a nickname and more of a stage name. It's mostly forgotten now, but some hardcore fans will still recognize and call him V.

💙 Gender?

"Prettyboy 💖"

💙 Star sign?

"Oh, I used to be really into these! If I remember right, My sun and moon are both Libra. Missy could probably tell you more about what that means though."

I decided to take one out of Max's book and use the first time i drew him as his birthday, which if we're going by the absolute first concept, was September 26, 2022. He's changed a Lot since then. Also, reading up on libras with Vex in mind is just 💥

💙 Height?

".....5'8."

He's actually 5'7 and a half.

💙 Orientation?

"Anyone able and willing. Why, you interested?"

If he cared enough about labels, it'd probably be pansexual. But by the end of the day, he doesn't really care what he gets called. As long as he gets what he wants out of it, anything's fine.

💙 Nationality/Ethnicity?

"White."

💙Favorite Fruit?

"Oh man, okay so I've only had it once at an after party forever ago, but it was this round, redish purple thing. When I bit into it, it was a little tart at first, but the inside was such a sweet taste that I was in heaven. By the time I finished and threw the pit away, there were no more left and I nearly cried. I haven't seen it since and I can't remember the name but man. Best organic thing I've ever tasted."

If you give this man a plum, he'd kill someone for you. Which isn't a lot given that that's his job, but still. He'd do it without expecting to be paid in money.

💙 Favorite season?

"Fall, for sure. While I was in Atlanta, they had these parks with trees that would change their colours to these gorgeous shades of reds and oranges. God, kinda makes me wish I could grow something like that here."

I don't actually know the plant life in Nevada or how much the temperature differentiates between the seasons in Night City, but I imagine that what shrubbery they do have there have leaves that are always green or simply non-existent. Vex saw a plant change colour outside of blooming and immediately fell in love with it.

💙 Favorite flower?

"Officially, Lilacs. But between you and me, I'm very partial to forget-me-nots."

He used to be gifted Lilacs all the time during his first career by Jonathan, his producer, but Vex always found himself enjoying the little forget-me-nots that acted as accent flowers than the actual lilacs themselves.

💙 Coffee, tea or Hot chocolate?

"Hot chocolate. Although, I will drink coffee in a pinch."

This man has the biggest sweet tooth. The amount of sugar he puts in his coffee before he chugs it down for the caffeine should be illegal. [I cannot judge bc I am the same way <3]

💙 Average hours of sleep?

'We talking Mean, Median or Mode?"

It varies so much that the actual average ends up being about 6, but um. Do not be fooled into thinking he's actually sleeping 6 hours every night. Think more along the lines of several all-nighters followed by crashing super hard for a day or two.

💙 Dog or cat person?

"Oh, a cat person. I'm just not home enough for a dog."

💙 Dream trip?

"I saw a pamplet once of Crater Lake in Oregon. It was something about the ten deadliest lakes in the world or something, but I'm just into how Blue it is. If I could, I'd visit the rest of those lakes too, but. Eh, I doubt it."

💙 Favorite Fictional Character?

"Hmm, it's a toss up between a side from this really long and old comic from the 2010's and the protagonist from a just as long manga from the 2000's. I think their names were Kanya and Ruffy? It's been 15 years though so don't quote me on that."

It's Kanaya from homestuck and Luffy from One Piece. He likes Kanaya because of her fashion sense and her dealing with the responsibility of her entire species on her shoulders. And he likes Luffy for his optimism and stubbornness. At one point, he imagined finding friends like Luffy did, being surrounded by so much devotion. The reasoning has since faded and he just barely remembers much about them now.

💙 Number of Blankets you sleep with?

"Eight. I like the weight and warmth."

His AC bill is through the fucking roof but he refuses to take a single blanket off, instead insisting on just making the rest of the room freezing. Giving him a weighted blanket wouldn't fix it, but he'd probably go down to five instead of eight.

💙 Random fact?

"When i was really little, my mom used to take me to a church. Don't think it exists any more, but I remember the Stain glass windows, how the light shone through and fell onto her. In normal lighting, I remember her looking pale a sickly, but once a week, with a statue of a half-god watching over us, my mother glowed. She was gorgeous.

"Anyway, I stopped going after she died. For a while it was because I never remembered what day it was, but later it was because I realized I only ever went to see my mom glow."

Thank you for tagging me, Max! This was much longer than what i thought when i was getting into it but I'm still glad I did it.

I can't think of anyone specific who'd want to do this, so if you see this and want to give it a try, please do and tag me! I'd love to see your little blorbos :)

#cyberpunk 2077 #cbp2077 #cp77 #male v #vex #my art #quinn draws #i've been sitting on Vex for so long that this doesn't even cover the basics of him #so if you have questions. please come into my inbox and ask #he is my beloved right now

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bluebudgie · 8 months

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So I have this long-standing tradition where, after I finish a video game, I sit down and listen to the soundtrack outside of the game's context.

It serves as a sort of "conclusion" to the experience and simultaneously helps me evaluate the game as a whole a little better... After all the soundtrack is often what sticks with us long after we're done actively playing a game. It preserves the memories we've made along the way.

That means: I have finally found the FF Sixteen OST online in its entirety and could finally follow through with this tradition. (Debatable how much it applies considering I didn't actually play the game myself, but it felt necessary.)

The final missing piece to the pissbaby gamer rage essay. Significantly less raging this time, though.

It's okay. I don't love it. There's worse.

I had very unfavourable opinions of the OST during the game itself which might have been due to the overall pacing issues, where large stretches were filled with the same hub music and then everything bombastic all happened at once and either side of the coin was exhausting in its own way.

I still can't believe there are over 200 songs in the OST when I could have sworn I heard like. Maybe 10 or so during gameplay. A lot of it is very same-y. A large part of the OST can be split into "loud choir explosion" or "sad piano". There isn't a whole lot in between. Good for people who like it, not so much for me.

Which means my biggest issue is the very subjective "I just don't like the style". It's not a bad soundtrack, but I'm just really not a fan of the direction the music took. The battle themes are over the top (fair for the equally over the top DBZ kaijū battles, annoying with 3 wolves that show up on the side of the road). The calmer songs don't really hit right for me. No chord progressions or melodies that hook me. Unfortunate. I did however appreciate the electronic influences in the music when the alien baddies were on screen. (in this fantasy game that is based on medieval reality and that's why people of colour cant exi-)

I have also since learned that there isn't one acoustic guitar song that plays for 20 hours straight. There are like 6 or so that all sound the same. I don't know if that makes it better or worse. I hate them all. (I don't hate acoustic guitars. It's these songs in particular.)

That said - I was curious about which ones are people's favourite tracks of the OST and went checking those out in particular. Consistently in people's tops was Ascension and I can't deny that one's been plagueing (semi-endearing) my memory a bunch the past days. Probably the theme that stuck out the most to me while watching the game. If not the entire theme, then at the very least That Violin Part. If you know, you know.

You know what. If you don't know, here:

(footage stolen from here)

Like damn. Good rhythm going on there with the off beats. Also fits the relevant character nicely in terms of mood. And I like that the battle phase before this one has a more low-key version of this song playing before it goes into this full ham version.

I just kinda wish more of the battle music had been a bit more... this. A bit more... subtle. Like yes it slaps hard but this song legitimately feels calm in comparison to the other battle tracks. This drives me nuts.

There's one other song I keep getting stuck in my head which is one that plays fairly close to the end (in the final... "dungeon" (cutscene? sequence? QTE battle?)). I figured out today that I don't actually really enjoy listening to the song on its own but I like it in-game in combination with the voice perfomance. There's an interesting dissonance in it that blends super nicely with the voice acting. (I'm being held hostage by the game's voice acting. It's unfortunately way too good. Voice actors are once again holding too much power over me.)

Other than that... I have one final criticism. The prelude theme. We must. Leave it. Alone. Enough. It's fine playing once as a gimmick somewhere in the game (I do genuinely like the menu (pause screen?) arrangement) but having it woven into what seems like every 5th song feels like someone is smacking a sign into your face that screams "YOU ARE PLAYING A FINAL FANTASY GAME." Seriously it's unbearable. (Also I did take notice of the FF1 overworld theme being rearranged into a battle theme for the final segment of the game. I don't know why, but fine. Not complaining about that one.)

Overall it's a solid "mh" from me. Not the worst OST we've had in the series (thirteen trilogy exis-COUGHAGFNJKN) but definitely on the lower end for me. Not of bad quality, but not my cup of tea at all. Dark Souls III OST executed the epic orchestra choirs better somehow. More interesting composition. Spaced out better throughout the game. Idk.

Welp. Back to getting haunted by voices and violins now o/

#at some point i will have made 122 posts about this game and every single one will be about the exact same battle sequence #like a horse wearing a blinker

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