#insane mash era

[thebreakfastgenie]

For the character bingo thing- My favourite trash human Joshua Lyman

MY BOY MY DARLING MY FILTHY RACCOON

LIGHT OF MY LIFE

BINGO BABY

when I say everyone but me is wrong about them I mean that on the few points where Bradley Whitford and I disagree I would defeat him in ritualistic hand-to-hand combat and he would acknowledge my superiority. done dirty by the fans is simply that there are a few popular characterizations that are not good and also that fandom tends to shove ships on him at moments when they really should not (we do not need shippy Noël fics). done dirty by the creators is about the seasons 5-6 writers and to a less extent season 7. wasted potential is just that I think his mental health arc could have gotten a little more attention and specifically 2162 Votes is a crime for his role in the Dotty Baker thing. it could have been a really interesting moment for him but nooooooo. has he done things wrong? yes. but also. no. never. I followed my heart and said he was the best character but then I remembered Toby and I think in seasons 1-4 it's Toby with Josh as a close second but if you take the show as a whole unfortunately Toby is so badly written by the end that it's Josh.

#see you people who only know me from my mash era #you don't know that i'm like batshit insane about josh lyman #completely and utterly unhinged

[yiangchen]

#absolutely crazy to me that there are so many songs.... #something is just so off about the production in a lot of these #first off the lover first dance remix is superior and should be the album version #the strings and the piano???? INSANE. #would have fit so well as an album closer actually #the man i want to love because the lyrics are so fun but joel little ruined it... #theres a synth pop remix on youtube though that i ADORE #the archer has an unsatisfying build (production wise) #i understand that it's supposed to represent anxiety but it just doesnt hit for me...which is tragic because i have a LOT of anxiety #someone mashed it up with the instrumentals in one million reasons by lady gaga and its so good!! #it hits so different as a piano ballad #i think he knows....EXCELLENT bridge. #like....so so so so good #but i cant stand the falsetto in the chorus??? #it sounds so bad to me im sorry!! #the acoustic version on the eras tour though...IM OBSESSED #the ways she sings the chorus is fucking wiiiiiild and i loveee #miss americana i kind of like but the cheerleader part ruins it... #i know its part of the metaphor and i appreciate that but i just dont like the execution of it #theres a mashup with the instrumentals of physical by dua lipa though AND ITS SO GOOD #Me! would have served as a piano ballad and thats all i have to say and idc that taylor thinks it would be too sad!! #she is incorrect ! #daylight drags for me #i love the callback to red #and i love the little talking outro #but the song itself drags... #the production is lacking something #theres a mashup with chemical by post malone that makes the song a bit more upbeat and it elevates it so well! #taylor swift

[x-on-the-calendar-business]

ryan ross iceberg explained (masterpost and tier 1)

tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 7, tier 8

if somehow you have no idea how icebergs work/what they are, then i’ll give a tldr: it comes from the saying “it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” so basically, the entries at the top of the iceberg are the stuff the average person would know, and as you go deeper, the content becomes more obscure. for example, if you’re a more casual panic! fan, then a lot of the entries in the sky tier are more likely to be things you would know, whereas you’re probably only going to know the stuff at the very bottom if you’re an insane person (me).

i got most of the entries from this iceberg from a couple of others that i found on twitter, here and here [i]. i combined them, shifted some stuff around, and added some things to make this one. of course, a special thanks to the twitter users areyouIlooking and checkyesjuul for making the ones i used to create this one.

i also want to give a special shoutout to the tumblr blogs @pathetic-at-the-disco and @prettyoddfever because i got so much info from them for this iceberg and they are just incredible sources of information for panic! fans.

finally, i'm really hoping everything on this iceberg is correct; of course, i did my research and there was a lot of it i already knew. however, i was not actually there for presplit panic! so i can't speak off of firsthand accounts for a lot of things. with that being said, if something is wrong, or if there is something you think should be added, please feel free to let me know, and i will go back and edit the post.

enough introduction, let’s get started.

the sky (tier 1):

guitarist of panic!:

what he is most well known for. ryan was the original guitarist of panic! and one of the true founding members. he departed the band in 2009 with former bassist jon walker, which we’ll come back to later.

rosevest:

this refers to an iconic piece of clothing that ryan wore while they were touring their debut album, a fever you can’t sweat out. he wears it in live in denver as well.

(side note: the post i got this pic from is a very interesting look at their outfits from that tour so i would recommend checking it out here!) [ii]

good at makeup:

during the fever era, ryan was really well known for doing makeup looks, some elaborate. i’m inserting some examples here, but i’m also going to link a post that showcases more pics of the makeup looks he did. there are more that he did than just the ones shown in that post or here (like the god awful blue eyeshadow he did on that red carpet), and there were a lot of times he just did the classic black smudged eyeliner.

and the tumblr post as promised: the makeup styles ryan ross wore in summer 2006 [iii]

ryden:

oh boy, where do we even start with this one. there are actually going to be quite a bit of ryden references in this, but at the end i’ll link a masterpost for further reading (although most of it will be covered here). but to be keep it short and simple, ryden is the ship name for ryan ross and brendon urie. it was arguably one of the biggest ships in early 2000s bandom, as evidenced by the litany of fics written with them as a pairing. this ship (unfortunately) still lives on in people’s hearts today even though ryan and brendon don’t speak anymore.

also, i know it would seem to make more sense if their ship name was ryDON not ryDEN because of how brendon’s name is spelled, but the ship name comes from the mashing of their nicknames ryro and bden (which still doesn’t make any sense but i digress).

unfortunately, all of the ryden content on this iceberg will probably be long because i am a former rydennie (yes u can make fun of me for it go ahead) so i have a lot of knowledge on that ship. but trust me i know that ryden was not real.

“creative differences:”

this entry refers to the july 6th, 2009 split where ryan and jon left the band. the most cited reason for the split was musical differences, as stated in these interviews with brendon and spencer [iv]. however, most people believe the band actually split due to personal reasons since they basically all stopped speaking afterwards, and because of some comments jon made [v]. in fact, one MTV interview specifically singled out ryan and brendon as not getting along, but it has since been deleted [vi].

cheez wiz:

this references a clip from the pretty. odd. short-film called american valley [vii]. the video went viral circa 2015/2016 and became a huge meme in the bandom community, especially in the crankthatfrank yeemo fanbase (that sentence wasn’t in the bible). if you were a panic! fan during that time, you know the cheez wiz jokes were inescapable.

milk fic:

“ryan was kneeling in the bathtub…”

this is also unfortunate. to be blunt, this is a ryden fic in which brendon gives ryan an enema with milk. it catalyzed a trend of other shocking fics within the bandom sphere, such as the comb fic. it’s just cringy. sadly, it became so iconic that brendon knows about it and even made a vine referencing it [viii].

i would link it but i’m not going to because the author, druscila, is a pedophile. so there’s that.

onceler jokes:

i’m going to put a picture of the onceler, who is from the lorax, and ryan side by side. and that should explain this.

now let’s move on to the next tier.

tier 2

references:

[i] https://twitter.com/areyouiooking/status/1366887508441718790?s=46&t=srOJ3YueMMsx9_sm96odQQ, https://twitter.com/checkyesjuul/status/1368794897499615233?s=46&t=srOJ3YueMMsx9_sm96odQQ

[ii] https://prettyoddfever.tumblr.com/post/628882839458512896/panic-at-the-discos-2006-summer-tour-costumes

[iii] https://prettyoddfever.tumblr.com/post/629161631117656064/the-makeup-styles-ryan-ross-wore-in-summer-2006

[iv] https://patd.livejournal.com/2943372.html, https://patd.livejournal.com/2928377.html#cutid1

[v] https://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/131968366779/jon-walker-and-ryan-ross-from-a-2009-interview-in

[vi] https://whisperdlullaby.livejournal.com/9051.html

[vii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBot_X9pquo

[viii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyWlisnfrm0

#ryan ross #the young veins #panic! at the disco #jon walker #ryan ross iceberg #spencer smith #brendon urie #patd #ryan patd #panic at the disco #this is bigger undertaking than it may seem #but at least my ten year panic/ryan obsession will finally come to good use #citing my sources because i come from academia

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

Say what does HoM means and will there be other heroes joing the AU?

Heroes of Millennium AU aka HoM AU aka AU about my HoMies ! lol i probably should tag it with a full name before abbreviating it everywhere xD

Hm, that depends:

Like am I planning there to be more than 9 for the 'main' cast? No. I would probably go crazier if I had to figure out how to fit everyone/thing together lol (I'm already struggling because in addition to 9, each of them have like 3-4 supporting characters + antagonists and im still floundering with figuring out plot details xD).

If you are asking if there are other shows/protagonists that would make appearances in this AU, than Yes! There are a couple of other 'heroes' that would appear in some story parts/stories, in various capacities. I have several levels of involvments for them (from 'vital to AU's ecosystem' to 'cameos just for fun' kinda stuff).

Though I have to say right away, im aiming to involve shows more from the same era, so its less likely the 'newer' shows (most shows from 2013 & up) would appear in any important way (so, like Star vs Forces of Evil and Steven Universe would be more of a small AU cameos than actual full-fledged crossover). And some of the shows from the same era are too hard to incorporate in the AU because they are already too self-sufficient, so e.g. DC universe shows (Static Shock, Teen Titans, Justice League & etc) and the like, won't be appearing in the main AU.

Im not that good at making AU,s so I could never somehow mash all of those together and not go insane xD so im trying to aim my ambitions low.

But hey I have great hope to at least pull off some of my ideas. ;D

#que? #hom au #heroes of millennium au #hom au Q&A

[thealogie]

So I started reading you for mash and housemd, and now apparently I'm going insane over David motherfucking Tennant? I managed to emerge out of the superwholock era unscathed by anything and low key thought those dr who guys looked amazingly unappealing in such different ways and why tf people tied themselves in knots over them and which one is better, and now this? I checked Good Omens because of you (!) and then I watched season 1 of Broadchurch and just started Jessica Jones, and all this in the span of 3 days. And I just watched Tennant at SAG-AFTRA and I' m so shook I'm probably going to rewatch it again immediately... The fuck is that? How can this guy be so f attractive in every possible way? And what sort of person was that past me who was passing him by on Tumblr with mild disgust and zero interest? How the fuck this new obsession happened, I don't need it!

I vaguely liked him from being a theatre kid but I too scrolled past him a lot like “tumblr stop showing me images of this bland looking British man” and now I’m flying to London to stand at the Donmar’s doors like “please sir can I stand in the back to watch this man play Macbeth”

He truly comes for us all in the end 😔

[jakowskis]

@buffetpallascat doing a good ol' days reply because i had enough thoughts on this to warrant some meta, in my typical rambling fashion. hope you don't regret engaging by the time im done dfhkdsf

for starters, you're very welcome, i'm glad you enjoy the post :D

as for your question - i meant moreso that it was typical of the fandom, although it was also very much influenced by societal trends of the time, too. fandom's always had a rocky history with women, especially women who supposedly 'get in the way of "slash" couples', but the way fandom misogyny is performed has changed; i see more willful erasure of female characters these days than flat out blatant misogyny. in tw fan content from the 00s, i've seen gwen hatefully AND casually called some pretty horrible things that i rarely see fictional or real women called nowadays, simply because standards have changed. hell, one of the comms i linked, the twgenre finders one, there was several entries requesting fic where gwen experiences, like, bodily harm? not in a whump-y way, they actually wanted to recreationally read fic about her getting physically injured and suffering, out of some bizarre sense of malice towards her. simply because she 'gets in the way of janto'. and i can't even fathom that existing nowadays. pretty much everyone outside of weird little 12 year olds knows that's not acceptable. not to mention it's just weird.

interestingly i've also noticed a lottttt of change in how the fandom... reacted to and treated janto as a couple back in the day, versus now. people in 2006 were not normal about gay people. we know fandom's history with fetishizing gay men, and it was even worse in 2006 with an exceptionally rare canon gay couple being received by a jarringly hetero-but-'slash'-obsessed fanbase.

i mean, i don't wanna generalize. i saw a poll recently about how fandom is not mainly composed of straight women, contrary to popular belief, at least anymore, and i guess the question is, was it ever? i have seen a lot of the people involved in fandom in the 00s identify themselves as straight, but was that partially because of the culture of that era? have any of those people since come out as some type of queer? maybe, for some of them, that was them exploring their queerness in a safe environment, when the culture around being gay in real life was a lot different.... the same way modern fandom culture continues to be for those of us who aren't in accepting homes. if they were 20smth year olds in the 2010s/2020s, rather than the 2000s, would they still identify as straight?

not sure. but i've made a habit of going on the profiles of old lj accounts, and i'll sometimes wind up going through the journals and the personal posts of authors i respect, etc etc. a significant amount of mid 00s fic writers were straight women in their 30s - 40s, many married, some with kids. very different demographic to modern fandom. very different climate they lived in vs the one we're in.

(although, bonus note, i also once found a thread of bisexuals in 2006 praising torchwood's depiction of bisexuality, and that made me exceptionally happy. but also maybe a little sad, because torchwood's my personal fav bi rep, too, in 2023, and the fact that we've had nothing better in seventeen years is a bit of a bummer. but i digress.)

anyway, this is all to say, i've seen some insanely fetishy shit about jack and ianto that rubbed me exceptionally wrong. that gross dehumanizing, severely homophobic place where it's like... ahh, ok, so you don't see them as people, you see them as sexy dolls you can mash together. but, ofc, that's how i view it as a bisexual person in 2023 who's been on tumblr far too long. they didn't see any problem with it. they might've even seen it as progressive. how can you be homophobic when you're obsessed with the little gay people on ur screen? but it's the opposite end of the 'homophobes reducing gay ppl down to what they do in their beds' trope, and it comes across as dated and icky now.

i mean, i consume a lot of older media, i know how to turn off my 21st century sensibilities and remind myself things used to be different, but it's honestly an impressive difference. there's some fantastic fics from that era of the fandom, in fact most of my favorite fics are from that era, but i often get quite a bit of culture shock reading things. particularly, i'm always impressed by people in the 2000s, an extremely biphobic era, applying their impressive period-typical 'bisexuals aren't real' beliefs to The Bisexual Show. torchwood's rep's not perfect (again, a product of its era), but i've seen a fantastic amount of gay!ianto and straight!owen, because bisexual men don't exist, obviously, and jack's not bisexual, he's the amazing slutty space man, except he's mostly gay because all that matters is janto. and i don't even really see explorations of gwen or tosh's bisexuality at all, because, again, women who?

i found a comm a while back, i didn't include it on my list because it wasn't torchwood-exclusive and didn't have much content in the tw tag, but it was a lgbtfest, and contained fics about the team and their relationships with their bisexuality, and it was really intriguing to me to see queerness as understood by regular people in 2007/2008, y'know, not by gay writers or activists or films. i have no way of knowing if any of them were speaking from any personal place, but it was just interesting, because none of the fics i read in that comm had that same brand of tone-deaf sex-focused homophobia to them, they were progressive for the time, but it was still apparent to me that they were written by people with a mid to late 00s understanding of being gay, and i do think it's interesting, that substantial difference.

got a bit off topic, but now that i mentioned the initial fandom being overwhelmingly composed of women, i can also add that i think internalized misogyny factored hugely into the fandom's disdain for gwen. the 'strong female' trope doesn't just annoy straight men, it also annoys a lot of women (though not consciously) - not because they're opposed to well-written women, but because society tells us certain things that'd be admirable and complex and sympathetic out of a male hero are unacceptable out of a female one. it's the double standard. jack does some awful shit, but i rarely see him criticized. i've straight up seen fans go "jack's kind of a bastard, but it's ok because he's hot", which is fine in jest, i've joked about shit like that with characters, but it's not so cute when those same people turn around and condemn gwen for her actions. hell, or owen. i've literally seen someone say they'd like owen more if he was more conventionally attractive. like, ok, you're clearly just here for the janto eye candy. you haven't brought any substantial critical thinking skills. pls take ur shallow ass and leave. but back to gwen - she was held to a standard none of the other characters are held to. they picked on her for the stupidest shit. and her worse sin, the infidelity, it's bad, sure, but i've seen countless male characters who cheat on their partners who are beloved by their fandoms. it's just fucking gross. i fucking hate hypocrites.

dude, yknow what?? i've even seen fucking tosh bashing. WHO THE FUCK HATES TOSH????

ok im done. sorry for my babbling. but yeah, i think it's a fascinating thing. i love how humans change and develop with the times and how we can map the changes and how they affect media, and it's fun to observe in fandom because it's there, too, but no one's looking so i get to feel like a little scientist fdskjfds. ok i will cease with the excessive babbling now

#mine #txt #torchwood posting #i love writing essays where i say nothing at all

[notasapleasure]

I had this draft for the 8 shows to get to know me meme that no one tagged me in, but then @batri-jopa tagged me for this other meme, so I'm doiing them as a mash-up.

10 comfort shows -

- that tell you more than you wanted to know about me. reasons below the cut, but the tl;dr is:

The Terror

Garrow's Law

Ripper Street

The X Files

Utopia

Interview with the Vampire

(BBC) Ghosts

Futurama

Avatar: the Last Airbender

Detectorists

Honourable mentions: Andor (will probably make the list once season 2 is out, but my trust of Disney Star Wars is *so* thin, I can't commit until then, no matter how excellent season 1 is); The Great (it's so good. The script is still one of the most astonishing works of art I have ever encountered. But comfort TV? hell no.); see also, Bojack Horseman (objectively great. Not comfort TV); Grease Monkeys (I've got to get hold of season 2, but I'm really fond of its coarseness, wish-fulfilment and sureallism).

Tagging 10 people if they wanna join in, but others feel free to say I tagged you! @stripedroseandsketchpads, @notfromcold, @notabuddhist, @donnaimmaculata, @erinaceina, @boogerwookiesugarcookie, @elwenyere, @kheldara, @bellaroles, @jimtheviking

List 10 comfort shows and then tag 10 people

The Terror: Like Ripper Street below, I feel this show deep in my bones and think I must be actually insane when I try to explain to people what I like about it (watching it literally made my husband's depression worse so I'm not allowed to talk about it. Jk. Sort of. About the last bit anyway). The sheer ridiculousness of that era of exploration has been a firm fave for years and I love how the show weaves horror and hubris together, how it's not a straightforward 'natives get vengeance on colonisers' story, but the colonisers ruin it for everyone, poison life for Silna, too (all without any threat of sexual violence towards her CAN YOU BELIEVE IT). I love all the attempts to impose 'civilisation' on the life the men try to live as they come to realise how doomed they are, how key the trappings of their life become - objects as tethers and talismans. I love how utterly futile it all is. How much they all care, and the audience cares despite that. Self-destruction and salvation all jumbled up together. Two full crews go into the ice and die. The end. They do everything they can not to die and it happens anyway, it's the ultimate 'the love was there and it didn't change anything'. And no one learns anything. Perfect TV.

Garrow's Law: Sometimes I do want my historical drama to be wish fulfillment actually, and this is the actual og fave. No, most of the cases weren't actually Garrow's, yes, it's a fluffy liberal take on things that played out in a more complex way, but the cast is so good, and Garrow is such a likeable guy, but then you see his flaws emerge in such a gentle way through the four series, and it really does case-of-the-week with characterisation so well, and it's got that amazing British TV character actor cast where there's always someone in the background you know, and the building romance between Garrow and Sarah, and the real repercussions of it for her are handled so sensitively, augh the culmination of the series with their own personal legal cases is so good.

Ripper Street: in my head this show was so much more than the sum of its parts. Season 1 was on the surface a fun BBC historical romp. Season 2 I had to watch through gritted teeth because Susan's situation quicked me out too much, among other reasons. Season 3 leaned into the more sinister side of the protagonist and came through as something weirder and darker, a vein which ran through Seasons 4 and 5, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I live for my alternative reading of the migration stories and nightmarish flipsides of people that we get running through the background of seasons [3/]4/5, but uh. the show's tumblr fandom is not a place for me. Reid is actually monstrous, and I like him despite/because of that. Oh man, I have so many feelings about this show, and I'd love to do a rewatch and blog about all my crazy theories but I'd probably have to go into witness protection afterwards. But rest assured, it isn't a show about the Ripper, and it's all the better for that. It does class and trauma so well, it also captures all the optimistic curiosity and the utter hypocrisy and hubris of the Victorian era so well.

The X Files: I mean, it's a formative influence, innit. Seasons 1 and 3 are the best, a lot of the 'classic' favourites are episodes I actually really disliked, even though the early seasons are the best a lot of my favourite episodes are from later...the beauty of TXF is that there's so much of it you can hold contradictory opinions about what makes it good, though, and my theory is that it's at its best when it's early and still being allowed to take its course, where even the mytharc hasn't tied itself in knots yet so every episode is of a higher standard, and then later, when the actors have wrested control of their characters from CC enough to play them like they want, but the good episodes are really just MotW ones because the mytharc has vanished up it's own fundament and I've lost track of whose turn it is to have a near-death season arc. Not technically the TV series, but still, Fight the Future is just so much of its time, watching it is like having a warm bubble bath in childhood nostalgia. Even the later series have things to recommend them - I always enjoy Doggett much more than I'm expecting to, and it's about bloody time Scully got a decent female friend in the form of Reyes...I haven't watched seasons 10 onwards though, I don't feel I'm missing much. Five fave episodes: 1.13 Beyond the Sea, 3.4 Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, 5.4 Detour, 7.17 all things, 6.19 The Unnatural.

Utopia: Tragically incomplete at 2 seasons, but what a pair of seasons they are. Brutal and uncompromising, horrible and compelling, but also frequently hilarious and full of the warmest, most fascinating characters who are all on a journey to Getting Much Worse. It's not something I've been able to watch since the pandemic *weak laugh* but I know when I do go back to it it will remain painfully prescient and uncomfortable. The longing for a 'balancing' and a righting of a historic wrong that drives it, and the desperate failures between people who are really just searching for love and don't know how to give/receive it...ugh so good.

Interview with the Vampire: Just rewatched season 1 and I'm just. No notes, five stars. The way Louis think he's a narrator in control, the way Daniel knows such a thing isn't possible, the way Louis does let himself get drawn on things, the way Armand sees the danger in this but it's not in his control any longer. Memory is a monster. The Odyssey of recollection. Fucking won my heart with those lines alone.

(BBC) Ghosts: Ok, I will say that I think the last season was actually a bit weak. They were in a hurry to finish, and they got away with wringing the feels from the important bits (The Captain's death was perfect and I will say this over and over again), but it felt like it was in a rush to come up with scenarios that would force admissions like The Captain's, whereas the show is at its best meandering around in a buffonish way that suddenly results in a Big Oof moment. Robin's arc in season 4 was a great example of this, as was Mary's. But basically it's still simply perfect comfort TV: silly but not malicious, unfair but kind to its characters. I'm going to miss them all so much, but I'm also going to rewatch so much.

Futurama: bit basic maybe, but I have watched it so often and I can watch any episode (ok, except for Jurassic Bark) again and again and again. I don't think I've binged any TV show so often with so many different people. Not sure how I feel about the immanent revival, but this has always been my favourite Matt Groening product, so fingers crossed.

Avatar: the Last Airbender: without getting into like...fandom discourse, man, this is a really perfect show. No need to say 'ooh it gets good after--!', it's just good from the beginning. A really well fleshed-out world, great characters who grow through the series, enough self awareness that the 'clip-show' episode Ember Island Players actually builds on the characterisation and addresses ambiguities in its own plots. A show that sticks to its principles and doesn't fudge the ending and also consistently looks gorgeous.

Detectorists: I had to put it on because no other show has literally made me fall off my chair laughing. Are the main characters useless? Yes. Is it often perplexing that the women in their lives spend any time with them? Yes. But that's forgiveable, because it's ultimately so kind to its beleagured characters and things work out despite their stupid decisions. Also it just captures rural English eccentricity so well. They're all such freaks (affectionate).

#comfort tv #look of course about half of these are bbc shows #of course that's comfort tv! #*ok not bbc but uk terrestrial tv anyway #memes #tv #ughhh i wanna rewatch so many of these but not until the house move...

[bright-and-burning]

thank you for the tag @albonoooo <333

star sign: leo (attention whore signs 4 the win)

favourite holiday: my neighborhood does neighbor day every year and that’s a solid percentage of my favorite childhood memories. my neighborhood is very very close (very much so an “it takes a village” mentality) so i grew up with essentially twenty aunts and uncles. and also like ten dogs and thirteen vaguely cousin-esque figures on my block. anyways it’s like a massive potluck barbecue thing, it goes from like noon to whenever the last person heads in (which can be quite late). think like. potluck barbecue to casual day drinking to big bonfire w smores as the day goes by. as a kid i spent the whole day roaming the neighborhood and coming back every so often to grab food from the tables before heading off again. as an adult i got to get drunk on seltzers with a bunch of 50 somethings and it was incredible

last meal: omg it was my last ohio meal… i got it from this really special like local version of sonic’s (like a drive up food place). they make their burgers w a little bit of brown sugar and mashed banana (they’re the best burgers i’ve ever had). so i had a double hamburger w fries and a mint shake w brownie spindled in. if you’re ever driving through ohio PLEASE hit me up to get this place’s name it’s GLORIOUS. 1980s pricing (admittedly 80s portions too lol). neon signs everywhere. what i will miss the most

current favourite musician: i tend to just hit play on my liked songs so whatever i liked most recently gets played wayyyy more. a lot of the backseat lovers rn

last music listened to: mama’s gun by glass animals (BANGER OF A SONG!!!)

last movie watched: the muppet christmas carol i think . yeah according to letterboxd that lmfao

last tv show watched: i just binged monarch: legacy of monsters w my parents (amazing godzilla tv show but godzilla’s only in it for like. 10 minutes total lol. gay people <3) and then we started lockwood & co tonight on a whim

last book/fic finished: the invisible library by genevieve cogman !!! so good. librarian spy thieves…

last book/fic abandoned: oh gosh. i am such a completionist that i don’t think i ever leave books unfinished. technically i won’t be able to finish the masked city (the sequel to the invisible library) bc it belongs to the library and i am moving. but i will be picking it back up as soon as i have a library card in my new area so? does that even count? yeah i don’t really dnf things

currently reading: the masked city by genevieve cogman technically. lol. i’m trying to read at least a page a day in january. some days that means literally reading a page other days it’s reading 300. since i started the masked city like four days ago ive only made it through 30 pages bc moving is a nightmare so.

last thing researched for writing/art/hyperfixation: hm. technically for the last thing i like posted that would be the drug testing guidelines for f1 (tldr fun fact party drugs are fine out of competition). i read like. 60 pages of legalese. and a bunch of medical stuff and then several wikipedia pages and guides for athletes. the last wikipedia article i opened was for NATO and i have no idea why LOL

favourite online fandom memory: i have the memory of a goldfish… i’m also pretty sure f1 is the first time i’ve been involved w a fandom like. as it’s happening. i’m usually a latecomer . i did enjoy whatever the fuck went down w supernatural and putin that was fun second hand (literally thru a groupchat bc i was in my significantly less terminally online era aka i was in college)

favourite old fandom you wish would drag you back in/have a resurgence: newsies (1992) my beloved… i plotted out a fic that would stretch over like. 40 years. i went INSANE on historical accuracy research. and then i got depressed… someday my magnum opus (slice of life polyamory through turn of the century nyc) will come to fruition

favourite thing you enjoy that never had an active or big fandom, but you wish it did: i feel like there’s been a million times i’ve walked out of a movie (or finished a book, or a tv show) and gone to ao3 and then it has like. 4 works. the rivers of london series by ben aaronovitch only has like . 1k fics on ao3. and not a lot of ppl posting on tumblr. so maybe that?

tempting project you're trying to rein in/don't have time for: all of them tbh… runners au really (it’s spawned into like three different fics of plot lines Plus an epistolary type companion…). i literally constantly come up w ideas (usually hyper specific aus) all the time ask dees it’s a PROBLEM for me. bc i have no time for any of them…

no pressure tags if u wld like <3 @userkritaaay @leclercenjoyer @drivestraight @oscarpiastriwdc @eyes-likepilotlights (i have not paid a ton of attention to who has done this/been tagged sorry)

#tag game #wow i’m like so long winded lol. sorry!!!!!!!!! leo moment #or smthn .

[pep-rambles]

The Tortured Poets Department First Impressions

So upon listening through only once here's just a few of my thoughts.

Definitely not what I expected but I LOVE it. Definitely jamming out all the way through, I honestly would be hard pressed to find a song I'd consider skipping on this. It definitely pulled me in right away.

I don't want to rank it yet because I need to listen to it a few more times but I can say with certainty it is above Midnights (sorry Midnight stans) Honestly it's probably pretty high up!

So at the beginning I was getting the vibe that "Oh this is a Midnights sister album" But then the sound changed. Like does anyone else feel it was almost like a send-up to previous Eras? "ICDIWABH" felt very 1989, "MBOBHFT" was giving me Red vibes. You could tell me "WAOLOM" was a Reputation vault track and I would ABSOLUTELY believe you. I could go on

Also, "But Daddy I Love Him" just feels like a snarkier and spicier version of "Love Story" and I DO NOT THINK THAT IS ON ACCIDENT!

Also speaking of "WAOLOM" I CRAVE a music video for that

Taylor Swift and Florence + The Machine is such a perfect and obvious mash-up I can't believe I never thought of it before!

The references to Lover and Folklore (and maybe some others I missed) at the end of "Fresh Out The Slammer" KILLED ME absolutely had me tearing up. Supports my theory this was meant to be a mash-up of the previous Eras.

Can't figure out if the vibe is supposed to be Hospital or Jail. Or Maybe psych ward for the criminally insane.

Anyway that's it for now! Gotta sleep almost 2am (lol) but I am HYPED to come back and listen again tomorrow!

EDIT:

The Anthology First Impressions

#Taylor Swift #the tortured poets department #swiftie #TTPD #Hi can someone explain to me why my computer doesn't think Midnights is a real word?

[miidnighters]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘɪᴄᴋ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ(ꜱ) ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ?

so way back in the day when I was rping on forums I was on this one vampire vs werewolf forum that probably had the very very first iteration of Bella? and then I came here and got my start with canons but I was picking the most obscure canons that were essentially OC's anyway. my first RPC OC here was actually not Bella but an acrobat named Wings, IIRC. All the others spiralled after that.

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ?

listen. i am a soft bean. Anything with like, heavy angst, explicit horror, some physical fighting stuff is not really my cup of tea - partially because it's not my cup of tea to read so writing it doesn't come naturally to me

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ?

i love anything that lets me explore my characters, whether that's backstory in a shipping/slice of life sense or exploring something new, in new verses or in different situations. I'm pretty open to most things tbh

ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ?

I don't make a lot of headcanons tbh? but a lot of them I think up early in the morning while my mind is just kind of drifting, or while driving

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ɪɴ ꜱɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ?

i am a big music girl - i do everything with music lmao.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴘʟɪᴇꜱ ᴏʀ ᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇᴍ?

i would say 95% of the time I just wing it, which reflects my general preference in rp for going with the flow over hard and fast plotting. that said, quite often I will read a reply and think immediately "x character is going to do or say this in response to that" and obsess over that detail until I can write it down.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘɪɴɢ?

so much ! I don't necessarily go into every interaction expecting a ship but I do think there are some you can pick straight away as having insane chemistry and some that develop over time, even if you're not trying. of course, jumping straight into it is fun but I usually chat ooc about that first

ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ/ɴᴀᴍᴇ?

brodie ! I never stuck to any sort of alias lmao

ᴀɢᴇ?

thirty

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ?

6 August

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ(ꜱ)?

pastels - butter yellow, baby pink, so on

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴏɴɢ(ꜱ)?

i rotate thru songs tbh. State of Me by Meghan Tonjes is always up there. Moon Trance by Lindsey Stirling. Save Me or Moon by BTS. Heartbeat by Nightcore was my top song of last year and North Star by Tyler Shaw the year before (it came 4th in 2023). So many honestly

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

It was probably actually Knives Out with my dad like a fortnight ago but as I'm typing this I remember I watched the TSwift Eras movie since then but I'm not sure that counts cos I cried thru the whole thing

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

We've been watching Physical 100 s2 the last couple of nights

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱᴏɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ?

Twin Flame - Brennan Story

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜰᴏᴏᴅ?

mash potato and gravy tbh

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ?

i like autumn tbh, but becasue winter is too cold, summer is too hot, and spring has birds that swoop you and draw blood

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ?

i'm going to say no. I have quite a number of dear friends that I've made through rp and who I hope I would continue to talk to if one or both of us left rp but I'm not going to pick just one lmao

tagged by: no one! I stole this from @abysswarden 😘

#x. ooc | ☾ #x. mun | ☾

[sharkneto]

For the Pick Any Passage ask game:

Searching for Good Times is still one my most favorite fics ever. Do have any more thoughts or feelings on how you built the Hotel around Five, particularly when describing things like Five's house.

some bits i really liked:

Her fully grown, adult, man of a brother.

How fucking long has he been in here?

Adult Five is recognizable, which is a relief. Same dark hair, cut short and flopping over his forehead, same sharp green eyes, same slightly curved nose. His face is more angular, longer and without the baby fat, and there’s a slight shadow of stubble along his jaw. He’s shorter than she would have expected, maybe an inch taller than she is.

. and .

Her first discovery is that Five doesn’t actually have any plates. Or bowls. There’s some pots and pans stored by the stove and a few miscellaneous utensils in the drawer by the sink. There is a can opener that has obviously never been used, which she finds a little funny. The pantry where he got the wine has more bottles stored inside, along with an entire shelf of coffee and a wall of plastic bins that protect boxes of cereal, crackers, oatmeal and protein bars. The double storage is a little strange but after the truly insane number of cans that are in the other cupboards, it’s easy to overlook.

. and .

No paying here then, either.

She frowns to herself as she steps onto the street. Why doesn’t anyone use money? There was a cash register in the deli, just like there was in the café yesterday, but it was ignored. There for decoration, again.

Five, she needs to think about all this in context with Five. Why doesn’t Five’s world use money?

Ah, designing the HOb around Five for Searching for Good Times was so fun. The whole point of it was to be Five's Perfect World, which isn't where everything is perfect but instead is a world Five understands perfectly. My overall concept of th HOb was that it works with the occupant's experiences and memories to create a place they can't leave by being a place they don't want to leave. The two biggest pieces for building Five's world (after "his family will be here Tomorrow" to keep him strung along) were 1) Five Lived In The Apocalypse For 40 Years and 2) Five Saw Thousands Of Years Of Human History. Those two things have to merge into a functional world for Five to wander around in and makes sense to him. How he looks prioritizes him Fitting In with his family (his greatest want and his priority over looking his actual age) and smooths over any niggling questions he could pull at for why he has the same birthday as his siblings but looks so much older (or younger). The merging of eras is just fun - what bits and pieces stuck out to Five, what parts did he particularly like. He's seen an insane amount of history. It's hard to wrap your head around, so I slapped it all right in front of Allison so she had a chance to understand that.

As fun as mashing eras together was, thinking about how the apocalypse shaped Five's idea of the world was even better. The angle I wanted to get across is that this is all the idea of what Five thinks the world is like. Five's house has a full kitchen he doesn't use because he knows what kitchens look like and that houses have them, but he also didn't cook on a stove or use a refrigerator for half a century, didn't use plates or dishes. Shops and restaurants have cash registers because That's What Stores Have but Five also grew up a billionaire and then, again, spent 50 years in the apocalypse. Money is Meaningless to him, an inconvenience drilled into him by the Commission so he would stop drawing attention to himself dining-and-dashing. It's the charade of normalcy, Five playing house with the best idea of it that he has, which is genuinely rather childish because he hasn't been home since he was 13 (as much as the Academy counts as a Home) and then glimpses of ones as he bopped around time murdering. On top of that idea of what the world is like, we have survival needs and instincts from the apocalypse so that he feels safe and secure - a woodpile in the living room, fully stocked cupboards and pantry with shelf-stable food, a pharmacy's worth of medical supplies in the bathroom.

And then, of course, he has Delores. You didn't specifically ask about her, but she's a pivotal part of the illusion. I thought a lot about how Delores fit in, if she was Actually Delores or if she was the Hotel, and I don't think I really settled on it until I wrote her Wall of Words in chapter four. What I settled on is that Delores was the linchpin to the entire illusion working but also the Hotel's downfall. Five would not have stayed without Delores, but he also would not have gotten out without Delores. The Hotel did supply a fake Delores as part of the initial illusion to keep Five there, but Delores has always been Fake. She's just Five. The Hotel accidentally gave Five his survival tool for compartmentalizing and figuring shit out. Once she was there, Five could shape her to be His Delores (and the Hotel had to oblige because if she didn't act right, Five would figure it out and Leave). Delores lets Five relax into the illusion - like the Hotel wants - while also being his emergency escape the second he needed it. A tricky, painful emergency escape.

send me ~500 words from one of my fics for director's commentary

#this got long #but i spent a long time thinking about the HOb #and had a lot of fun doing it #i miss thinking about it sometimes #i do not need more wips but if i figured out a fic that let me play with it some more that would be fun #maybe a prequel - five getting there and figuring it out and then letting himself fall into the illusion #anyway - here you are sail friend :) #the fic that started our friendship too :) :) :) #ask game response #ficblogging #long post

[lemonprick]

thoughts on puss in boots 2: the last wish

spoilers for puss on boots 2 if anyone cares enough about it. you’ve been warned!

i didn’t even know there was a sequel until i saw the thumbnail for schafrillas productions’ video on it, now i’ve watched it and um. it’s actually kinda good?

i had such a weird fondness for the first one. the spanish aesthetic, score, the animation, just the absurdity of this tiny adorable cat, that looks so much like mine, being voiced by antonio banderas. (this is coming from someone who didn’t watch any of the shrek films except the first.) but the story did suck, and humpty dumpty is easily my most disliked character in all of dreamworks history, barry b benson included.

so i figured i’d enjoy this one the way i did the first too; cool fight/dance scenes, good soundtrack and animation, bonkers ideas. turns out i was right in all the wrong ways.

first of all, the fuckin animation?? holy crap what is dreamworks doing? where is the realistic lighting and fur/leather textures you’re known for and why have you given us such gorgeous painted landscapes and layered models?? are you out here trying to steal sony animation studio’s thunder because you truly are! every single fight scene in this is a delight (as expected from dreamworks), was not expecting the 2.5d effect thing they’ve got going on and was straight up blown away by the colours. the kung fu panda influence is strong in this movie. i do think the effects are not quite as earned as in spiderverse of kung fu panda, since its styles are kind of all over the place and not as thematically cohesive, but it’s such a surprising departure from the usual dreamworks look. of course i hope they don’t completely move away from that era, but the designers have really shown us what they can done and i am here for it. i will say the way the frame rates noticeably slow down every time a fight goes on can get grating, but i got used to it halfway in.

secondly the story. yes it is rushed, yes it’s a mish-mash of ideas, yes it doesn’t quite explore each character’s motivations or conflicts to warrant any strong emotional responses, yes it was resolved all rather quickly; all these were issues in the first one as well. goldilocks is especially egregious since we know that she loves her family; look at all their little interactions! they’re the crime family! the writers did drop the ball by making her wish for another family. whatever was that all about?

but jesus christ i was not expecting death to straight up be the antagonist of this film. what an unexpected plot point for what i assumed was marketed as a family fun adventure film, but at the same time oh so expected, because a cat using up his nine lives makes for such fun storytelling? sure it can get a bit too on the nose, but death’s design and entrance is so darn cool i can forgive it a thousand times over.

also the writing. it was pretty clear that they’ve started running out of jokes at some point in the middle and so it did get a lil sluggy in the dialogue, but otherwise? holy fuckin hell how is this a movie for children. you have raw-ass lines like “has the legend gotten so big there isn’t any room for anyone else”? plot-twist-gut-wrench-holy-crap moments like santa coloma?? “it wasn’t just one bad heist. it was a church with priests and guests”?? “lives flashing through your eyes? / no, just one”??? telling death himself to pick up your sickles because i know i can’t win, i’m just going to go down fighting anyways????

and the absolute explosion of bleeps and curses that was perrito. seriously, how did they greenlight that? they put “shit-for-brains” in a kids movie??

(also, the side characters are so casually killed in this movie that it’s kinda insane. dreamworks has never shied away from a good “oh he’s dead now” gag but the way the girl just turned to gold and the baker’s dozen were straight up thanos-snapped away without a moment to spare. chilling to think about.)

not much to say about the acting, it was fun enough to service the film without being outstanding i guess. antonio banderas is having fun as puss as always, for some reason i always thought penelope cruz voiced kitty? but she’s cool in this anyway, finally the comedic relief third-trio-character doesn’t have an annoyingly comedian voice and just sounds like a sweet little dude. florence pugh is fine but there are moments where you know she’s not a voice actor, whoever voiced baby bear sounded a tad too much like james corden and i got chills whenever he spoke. i’d say john mulaney does a decent job selling jack horner, the way he delivers absolutely horrific sentences with such nonchalance and glee is so entertaining to watch; guy may have problems but he is still a comedian with iconic joke delivery.

more of a subjective preference than commentary, but the score was a bit of a let-down. i was so hoping to hear more of the gorgeous spanish acoustic sound that i loved from henry jackman’s previous tracks but this film seems a tad too eager to introduce electronic sounds. some parts do get real castanet-y and brassy, which were my favourite parts; a bit sad diablo rojo or the puss suite didn’t get an encore but oh well, it has been a while.

so i guess the takeaway is that i’m so well-versed in how the studio uses comedy that i was yet again able to predict the “leeches!” line about ten minutes in right before the barber said it.

an objective 7/10 because of the weird pacing and ending, a subjective 9/10 just because i would never have taken a puss in boots movie seriously enough to rank it like i would with other movies. incredibly high-quality absurdity, stellar action, amazing antagonists, absolutely insane lines, a better magical forest adventure than frozen 2. go watch it guys.

(additional comment because i haven’t said enough: this also marks the third 3D animated movie set in a hispanic country where a character dies by being crushed by a bell. only in the case of the book of life the guy was exploded inside the bell but still. a bell.)

EDIT: UPON SECOND WATCH i immediately watched it again the next day because i was so baffled by this movie. i loved it a whole lot this time around! revisiting this makes me realise how good the voice performances actually are, like now with the context that antonio banderas is 62 and still voicing puss with such energy and rigour, just how different john mulaney sounds than his other roles but still delivering deliciously evil lines so well, and i found myself enjoying goldilocks a lot more. also i realised i judged the soundtrack too quickly, even though i’m still not eager on the synths i did appreciate the orchestrals a more (i’m just really stuck on henry jackman’s score). pacing-wise i had initially thought it ran too fast, but now i’m realising maybe it’s just because i loved every single moment in the film that it didn’t feel like it had any room for downtime; too full of fun interactions and chilling moments for me to realise time was passing. still a 9/10 subjective rating, holy fuck this has been one of dreamworks’ recent strongest and it's a shrek spinoff movie

#puss in boots #puss in boots 2 #puss in boots the last wish #have a feeling people are going to start simping for death!wolf and i don’t look forward to it

[whatwouldvalerydo]

AUs I wish I would wrote for but won't (because reasons)

Bodyguard AU

Something about it just speaks to me. A bit of action, spending time with a stoic bodyguard that falls in love with his/her employer, yes please.

Bridgertone AU

Still sort of kind of want to though. I would have mashed up all the characters into one era, set the main type of characters in a random generator, let that dictate the queen, dukes etc and go from there. Chaos of the highest order.

Asylum AU - horror

Have you ever played creepy asylum games or have seen American Horror story asylum? That type of stuff right there, crazy, insane, gore that's what I want.

#name the oc #fanfiction #fanfic #fiction #val rants #val talks

[starscelly]

“cel, you said you referenced dee dee ramone a lot for miro in the flying stars au just so you could make a joke about miro having a dee dee king era and recording shit like mash potato time. what from dee dee actually inspired stuff with miro!” i know you are all DYING to know (nobody asked). EVERYBODY is asking me this (not one person)

i suppose i can share the knowledge of miro’s bass playing style if i must. all coming from a non bass player so. peace and love grain of salt etc

there’s a couple of reasons i chose dee dee for miro’s reference. basically i’m gonna be talking about the: casual style. speed. stamina. and also drawing lengthy comparisons between skating style and bass playing below. beware.

the biggest factor was how fucking insanely low he held his bass? like i watched a lot of videos and sought out a lot of photos and am also just an avid ramones enjoyer lol . that shit was to his Knees. and that like casualness i guess of hanging ur bass ridiculously low felt miro esque to me?

and then i watched a video or two abt it and learned that he basically fucking did that so he could play faster because all the movements would then just be in his wrists?? speediness is very miro core!!! it fits so well. he would be the fastest bass player ever while not only maintaining a casual stance, but having this style be like How he is so speedy.

this from my basic understanding is also rlly similar to how his skating style works!! i’m not an expert and people have written longer better explanations of this (this blog is rlly helpful with stuff like this. shoutout) but. some guys you watch skate and they look like they’re moving a lot and working hard and they are. getting nowhere. smthn smthn u lose speed the more u lift ur foot and push down and if u don’t have the push off speed down similar to like. what mcdavid does . it’s not gonna work for u. its all explained really well in that post and others of theirs idk. i’m not a professional

miro as a skater is particularly Phenomenal at speed when gliding along (he is good with like speed straight off the push off but a lot of my favorite shit to watch is him not lifting a foot once and maintaining insane speed) looking like he’s floating down the ice. ALL OF THIS TO SAY LMAO. him gaining/maintaining speed in long strides rather than lifting his skates a lot and almost looking like he’s running on ice feels. fundamentally. similar to dee dee hanging his bass low so he can have the repetitive fast wrist movements to maintain rather than trying to move his whole forearm at that speed.

and obviously this style of playing doesn’t just automatically make playing bass at that speed easy as hell. you need INSANE amounts of stamina even with how short ramones songs are. i know this because dee dee’s successor - cj ramone - said himself he could not do what dee dee did! even when hanging his bass the same way the stamina is insane and unique. and miro and stamina go hand in hand baby!!! not to glorify it because it’s horrific but we all know the absurd amount of minutes he’s able to play.

but yeah!!! those are the main reasons why dee dee felt like the right inspiration to choose for miro.

stream too tough to die and brain drain and pleasant dreams and all the other ramones albums and also all the imaginary flying stars albums xoxo

#art break to ramble a bit 👆 #that’s a little bit of a lie i’ve had half of this written for a life time but #always wearing a sign that says ask me abt silly details in my punk au #miro would write 53rd and 3rd. just saying. no further comment on that in this moment #flying stars band au

[highly-important]

I don’t have anything to say about the game, but Leisure Suit Larry 6 has such an insane aesthetic, I don’t even know how to describe it. Its like a mash-up of several different design trends from the early nineties.

I wonder if some of the textures in the game are meant to evoke the surreal aesthetics of early 90s CGI animation. The really bizarre mix of dense textures, near photo realism, intense metal gradients, and objects with 0 texture at all.

What is also likely is that this is just the product of them using early 90s graphic software to create a “photo collage” look. You end up with something that fits in the aesthetic at the time because you’re using the tools of the time.

Image on the left by David Hofmann, 1993  / the right image from Leisure Suit Larry 6. They both have that incredibly textured wall. The frame-less photos. Even similar treatment of gold metallics.

3d artwork from the time was a lot more rigid and geometric. LSL6 has really fun, wonky perspective that is reminiscent of Pee Wee’s Playhouse. The  truncated rectangle shapes were just really popular in a lot of graphic design and cartooning of the era.

LSL6 on left, New Wave by Chuck Beeson on the right. I think some of the shape language also comes from some of the Punk / Pacific Wave styles from the 90s.  The use of triangles and zig zag shapes, animal prints and a paper-cut out feel. A little bit of 50s googie kitch in some of the shapes as well. It gives everything a fun feeling.

Look at these two. Detailed, photographic-looking plants mixed with impossible perspective and skewed lines, the 2d carpet pattern, areas of concentrated texture, mixed with smooth gradients and flat, solid colors.

Just incredibly bizarre. I kind of think its genius.

UPDATE

No one asked, but I found the LSL6 design document on archive.org. This is what it has to say about the art direction. “ultra-luxurious, artistic, tasteful, ultra-post-modern.”  ““Toon-like” buildings set in photo-realistic backgrounds. Scanned photographic images of clouds, oceans, trees, mountains, etc. are combined with cartoonish, impossible, wacked-out Bill Davis buildings.” “The contrast of photographs, rendered art, and Toon characters even looks like fun.”

This confirms that they were intentionally using photo collages.

Bill Davis was an art director at Scierra games. I want to make a post about some of his other stuff.

#aesthetic #80s #90s #Leisure Suit Larry 6 #bill davis #sierra online #art direction

[jessicajagg]

King of Fighters: Maximum Impact (2004) PS2 Review

SNK was in a weird spot during the early 2000s. Their contemporaries had shifted nearly all of their focus on 3D games made to be played at the home but SNK continued to produce their coin-op titles for a dwindling arcade industry.

In an era where arcade games were largely released in collections, SNK put out single game home conversions with little to no extra features while Neo Geo emulation became more prevent online.

None of this is to say SNK's output at this time was lackluster. Metal Slug, Garou, Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters continually pushed the standards for pixel art, still looking gorgeous to this day. But the market trends had shifted and without a digital market place to sell shorter arcade games they had trouble finding an audience outside of hardcore enthusiasts. Hence in 2004, rather than another yearly entry of KOF we would receive a 3D spin-off "King of Fighters: Maximum Impact"

Maximum Impact ditches the staple team battle system for a traditional 1 on 1 bouts. Team battles are only available in versus mode and have loading screens inbetween each round. The game still mainly takes place on a 2D plane with the only 3D manuver being a side-step that I personally didn't find particularly useful. What is incredibly useful are the 'body slams'. Simply hold forward or back while mashing punch or kick and you'll perform a little combo string, no doubt a mechanic implemented to help newcomers but it can go boths ways and you can easily find yourself cornered.

Which brings me to the most frustrating aspect of this game, the final boss Duke. Now we all know and accept SNK final bosses are bullshit but Duke has to be the cheapest and most uncreative version of an SNK boss. Duke has an aoe super that will drain more than 80% of your life in a single hit. He can activate it instantly and unless you hit him just before it activates he has super armor, meaning most of the time if you press a button he can just activate his super and get you. Said super also breaks your guard when you block it, can't be jumped over and because Duke has infinite meter he can just spam it over and over again.

But the thing about Duke is that it's also insanely easy to break the fight if your character has a good jump kick. I've had fights last between 1 minute to an hour entirely depending on my characters ability to bullshit their way through the fight.

The game features 20 characters, 6 of them being original. The story sees two lead characters, brothers Alba and Soiree take on the KOF Tournament to wrestle control of Southtown from the aforementioned Duke and avenge their friend Fate. If you play as anyone else you basically get the same intro and outro cutscenes for everyone with minor dialouge changes.

The original character designs are rather hit or miss. The only real stand out is the disciple of Kim Kaphwan 'Chae Lim'. The others range from unremarkable to bland, it's not surprising alot of them haven't made any return appearances.

The game does however feature some stellar alternate costumes and models for each character. Some of which are so good, you have to wonder why it isn't the default. The alternate costumes for Mai and Yuri in particular are ones I'd love to see make a comeback.

The visuals while they don't match the visual splendor you'd see in the previous years KOF 2003 or Namco's 3D fighters of the time they get the job done. The music doesn't quite hit the mark but there are a few standout tracks. The english voice acting however is hilariously horrendous as nearly the entire original KOF cast are given voices that don't match the characters at all. The voice acting was the biggest point of contention from reviewers of the time, so much so that the Xbox port gave the option to swap to the Japanese.

Maximum Impact for all it's faults is a fascinating time capsule of the times and SNK's efforts to break into the mainstream. The game was successful enough to see a sequel 2 years later that would greatly expand on the foundation this game laid out.

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