I'm feeling vintage, so I'm going waaaaaaay back to a time when spiral sequences were a required element in the SP. Few skaters mastered the spiral sequence like Sasha Cohen, so let's take a look at the sequence from her 2005-06 Dark Eyes short program.
First, I-spiral (which Sasha popularized!) into a fan. No struggle for the I position and superb balance into the fan position.
The sign of a great fan spiral position isn't just the height of the free leg but minimal bend in the working leg. Bending the working knee can help cheat the position by offsetting a lack of strength or flexibility. Note the minimal knee bend here!
Then the spirals dreams are made of: a nearly 180 degree arabesque held over a change of edge. I love how she tugs it just a little bit higher to get the full extension and the point in the toes is *chef kiss*.
And finally, just because she can, a Beillmann position to round out the ice-spanning set:
Spiral sequences are a hallmark of early IJS programs. When I watch them now they feel like an attempt to reconcile some of the showiness of 6.0 skating with the bullet points of IJS. Not every skater survived the transition. For every sublime Sasha Cohen moment there were a dozen skaters with limp Kerrigan spirals and dodgy catch-foots.
The spiral sequence was replaced with the choreographic sequence as of the 2012-13 season, a nod to changing tastes and shifting technical priorities. Few skaters now could hit a 180 arabesque, which is why I get so excited when I see a classic, well-supported spiral in the competitive wild.
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this piece caused me so much hell and pain lmaoo but this idea was the namesake of this blog so i persevered 💪😔
anyway the Battle of Narak inspired by van Gogh's style!
i don't remember how and when this idea popped up in my brain, but i guess i made some connection between the highstorm and Starry Night and i wanted to do my own take
i swear i did a thumbnail sketch to figure out what in the world i was going to do but apparently didn't do a value sketch, or not in a concrete way because i had so many lighting problems lmaoo like this whole affair would have been so much easier if i did the bright highstorm on the left with narak for contrast, rather than the dark on dark sigh. this isn't even going into the horrible time i had trying to do the everstorm because i wanted it to contrast in style as opposing forces
actually the thing that unlocked something in my brain was to go light to shadow (the opposite of my typical process) and i suppose it can tie into the dark otherness of voidlight perhaps?? anyway i just embraced the chaos, with the help of volcano eruptions with storms for references lol
i did have the shattered plains more brown, but i did the distant background to reflect van Gogh's Wheat Field vibes and it was so weird to look at, but when i made them more cool toned it kinda brought everything together?? i hope??
anyway hope you guys like this hahah <3 bon appetit or whatever
The Starry Night (1889) and Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889) by Vincent van Gogh
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot and basically Danny is Beelzebub from Hellva boss with his own casino performs and the entrance defies reality and all his ghost rouges come in and go as they please and some humans and or mortals stumble in and think it’s just some place where metas party their fucking asses off which wouldn’t be that bad if this wasn’t FUCKING GOTHAM. Danny doesn’t know how they got in Gotham but they just want to party but unfortunately for him the bats hear a rumor some meta trafficking ring has been planning a big raid on a certain casino that’s new ish and they have to stop it so they go in disguise and they get to witness Danny and his rouges beat the every loving snot out of some traffickers
maybe Danny is a clone, maybes he’s reincarnated, maybe he lost a bet, maybe he moved to Gotham for fun, maybe he got tossed across the universe into Gotham
who knows certainly not Danny
but to add even more maybe he travels around the casino on trapezes and circus rings that he just flips around it and has a pole it the middle that reaches the ceiling and at the top there’s this disco ball thing that he can activate to make a small nebula or stars surround the casino and make it pretty
oh oh and maybe with him having the title of beelzebub is like gotten after he beat them as in right of conquest, or maybe beelzebub is kinda like a shared name so Danny fuels them and they go around getting mortal action without having to do work, or maybe it was given to him as a present with a bow on top idk
I have no words for this and just had to draw because the idea of a casino or whatever with like, everywhere looking like galaxies and auroras that shift to the music was such an amazing visualization lol
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ICE UMBRELLA
LISTEN. TO. ME.
ICE
UMBRELLA
WRIOTHESLEY MAKING AN ICE UMBRELLA FOR NEUVILLETTE
SHUT UP - NO - I CAN’T -
This thought just hit me and I am writing this out of pure mania at like 2 am
We all know that the rain brings comfort to Neuvillette but is also a metaphor for his emotions yea? And everyone and their great-grandmother knows about the Umbrella Scene™ between Wriolette, I DON’T NEED TO EXPLAIN IT AGAIN-
SO PICTURE THIS
Pre- or Post- relationship, doesn’t matter, but Wriothesley knows about Neuviellete’s relationship with the rain, and how he can be found standing in it after long, difficult days in the court, but never really finds the rain itself to be a bother.
Now, he came up to see Neuvillete a bit last minute, a bit of a spontaneous choice for that day. He gets to the Opera Epiclese to try and catch Neuvillette after work before he heads back to his office. However, he’s not there, even though Wriothesley knows that the day’s trial has long gone overtime and it is nighttime already.
And then suddenly, it starts raining outside.
Aight, Wriothesley knows the drill by now, and he’s ready to get his umbrella and go out to find Neuvillette - except, drat.
He forgot it.
He can see Neuvillette’s silhouette in the dark outside, he knows where to look after so many times of this happening.
But Wriothesley didn’t get to his current position of power without some creativity on his end, a forgotten umbrella wasn’t about to stop him from reaching Neuvillette.
Cut to Neuvillette just outside in the rain, lost in his thoughts. It was a long hard trial, another gruesome showing of humanity, and he’s just trying to get his bearings under the rain.
He’s lost in thought enough to not hear the heavy boots coming up behind him, but not enough that he isn’t brought back to reality once he realizes he can’t feel the rain anymore.
It’s familiar to him, he’s gotten used to Wriothesley finding him in the rain and providing shelter with an umbrella. He finds comfort in the action, and so he turns around to once again politely thank him, even if he was perfectly fine in the rain unlike humans. He stops though when he sees Wriothesley holding what seems like a frozen handle of ice.
He follows it up only to see the thinnest layer of ice connecting it and forming a delicate canopy over the pair.
He can see the faint swirls of frost patterns at the top, as well as still see the raindrops forming and sliding off the edges.
A beautiful umbrella made of ice is above them, sheltering them from the rain yet still allowing Neuvillette to enjoy the weather.
The rain clouds cover just enough of the sky for it to be dark while they also stand quite away from the Opera to be out of the light. It’s not the same sort of privacy as Wriothesley’s usual dark umbrella, but there’s something enchanting in being able to see the rain from above as light bits of snow fall off from the edges of the umbrella, surrounding them in a different barrier from the outside world.
They spend a while in comfortable silence under the umbrella, taking in the sound of nature as the rest of the world seems to fall away.
Idk wtf just happened. I blinked and suddenly this was all written.
I JUST WANTED TO RANT ABOUT HOW PRETTY AND THOUGHTFUL IT WOULD BE IF WRIOTHESLEY ACTUALLY USED HIS POWERS FOR A PRETTY ICE UMBRELLA, I DIDN’T MEAN TO WRITE A FICLET!!
I guess if we’re here-
I just like the idea of Wriothesley still wanting to keep Neuvillette company in the rain, but he’s still a human who can catch a cold under the rain. But he also knows Neuvillette likes the rain and the cold, so he makes an umbrella made of thin ice, so it still allows Neuvillette to feel the cold and see the rain while keeping Wriothesley dry (AND I’M A SUCKER FOR WATER AND ICE PAIRS USING THEIR POWERS TOGETHER. NEUVI AND WRIO DANCING ON WATER WHILE WRIO MAKES ICE FLOORS AND NEUVI MAKES PRETTY WATER MOVES AROUND THEM??? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)
Give me Wriothesley and Neuvillette using their powers to be thoughtful of each other while still keeping their boundaries, give me loving verbal AND non-verbal communication showing how well they know and care for each other!
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(Cyrus @ Blackjack) "I've been recounting something recently, so I find it necessary to ask- do you have a particular reason in choosing to evolve? Most 'mons that I am familiar with evolve at one point or another... I would be curious to hear your tale, that is, should you wish to share it."
Blackjack: “Aha, well, the first time was actually by accident! W-when it started happening, I knew what was going on, but I didn’t do anything to stop it. It was a little embarrassing!”
Blackjack: “Th-the second time, w-well, um…”
Blackjack: “…It was a-after we left the forest. E-evolution stones are pretty rare, and I’d—I’d given up hope of it ever happening. But…”
Blackjack: “...When Tricky found that stone... L-let's just say it wouldn't have been the first time he saved my life.”
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