#paralyzed by choice

[chaz-the-weasel]

Man, I should really create an introductory post or comic telling everyone who I am and what I'm about

... and make some character profiles

... and proper references...

#paralyzed by choice

[everywhere-all-around-the-world]

#Skz #stray kids #스트레이키즈 #bang chan #lee know #changbin #hyunjin #han jisung #lee felix #seungmin #i.n #jeongin #han #stray kids minho #doesn’t it suck when you have so many that it’s literally physically impossible to click just one button so you just stare at your own poll #unmoving and unable to make a decision #paralyzed by choice

[lowpolyotakuconvention]

someone tell me what to draw man I'm struggling over here

#several good ideas #paralyzed by choice

[enviousjam]

Man I don't know what to eat for brekist

#env.typ #paralyzed by choice

[merrilark]

Have some time and a teeny well of energy... trying to decide what fic I should slowly work on. Nathan/Alisha exploration? Nathan/Simon/Alisha if you squint character study from Nathan's POV? Cale and Katie? Sean and Derek? Sean/Katie??? BJ character study?? Wanted: Dead or Alive longfic???? etc. etc. etc.??

I have way too many ambitious WIPs for someone who can't focus on anything for very long.

#paralyzed by choice #i'll poke around on a few and see what happens ig #merri mumbles

[skulliesweet]

Been thinking about posting some of my preproduction work for stories n' stuff[might make books or videogames idfk]. On the one hand, I might get more people interested in my bigger projects and some good feedback, but the cons are some internet gremlins stealing from my dragon hoard of incomplete concepts and designs. But, then again, if I don't post, how shall I ever get attention I so dearly crave from them random internet gremlins?!?!

#justforfun #i have a few screws loose #paralyzed by choice #plz no steal my concepts #my brain is tired #pls help #anxiety #internet gremlins #joke

[charlottan]

writing is so harrrrd what do you mean i have to decide what happens

#paralyzing choice anxiety

[avocadoraisin]

man you are never gonna guess who I drew again

#mark hoffman #saw #saw fanart #drawing #i have too many ideas i went paralyzed with choice so i drew another profile view of hoffman #his profile is fun to draw i try to not overdraw it but i like drawing itttttttttt

[hoofpeet]

emmet: you can have a bite. just a little.

eelektross, an animal who does not understand moderation: slorp

emmet, waking up on the gear station office couch with a juice packet loosely held in his hand: what year is it

ingo, handing him a cracker; apparently hisui times since you’re performing bloodletting in public

I feel bad for the subway staff that have to put up with these guys

#mailbox #hoof draws #submas #depot agents routinely placing bets on what made boss emmet pass out this time: #choices: 1) joltik paralyzed him 2) he let eelektross leech from his arm #3) ingo is getting poisoned somewhere in hisui and emmet is taking telepathic damage from it

[pleuvoire]

btw my personal covid mask recommendation is honeywell n95s. they loop around your head instead of your ears which i’ve always found 1) makes for a tighter fit 2) makes me less prone to taking off and forgetting to put back on in a fit of absent-mindedness. and they have a little foam pad over the nose to make a tighter seal and be more comfy. i got a big pack of them at a yard sard in 2022 with the assurance “these are the real good ones, like what medical professionals use” and they haven’t let me down

#for a while i was really paralyzed by different mask choices and then i was like #oh wait! i can just buy more of the ones i got for free that i really like! duh

[xanandhix]

Choose one

It’s always funny to me how different from each other the way they pray to Athena are.

#the iliad #odysseus #diomedes #athena #nat art #this was from last week I kinda just forgot to post it here #It’s for merch btw (which is the only few time I drew chibis) #it took 3 weeks to print… the wait is agonizing #btw stream Epic the underworld saga!!!‼️‼️‼️ #I want to draw so many things from it so now I’m paralyzed from choices #have been crying since the morning I can’t focus

[ghoulsnghosties]

#opinions please #this choice is so hard i am paralyzed

[ashanimus]

Owl House Face Reveals and Why They Work

I'm so behind on my Huntlow week contribution but I have to exorcise these bees from my brain.

One thing I have noticed that The Owl House does really well are face reveals. Each time we've had them they have been genuinely unexpected and interesting. Now, face reveals are nothing new in media, and in many genres within the speculative fiction box they kind of have their own language and preset expectations depending on the assumed archetype of a character.

Growing up in the 90's, this was quite consistent (particularly with anime). When a Cool, Masked Character or Villain shows up, there's usually an instant of the mask getting revealed in a moment of vulnerability that shows us what the character looks like--but in a wide variety of these reveals...the conclusion is often along the lines of:

Protag: Oh. They're a lot cuter than I was expecting!

There's often a little romantic subtext here too, but not always.

And for all the benefits (and true banes) of anime-type character design, it was/is very common for the resultant revealed face to be conventionally attractive (or drawn to be perceived that way). I know that this is a sort of gentle pushback to the historical VILLAIN=UGLY trope that is nowhere near as prevalent as it used to be, but after thirty years of prettyface mask reveals, it ended up paving the way for strong, sleeping expectation of mask=pretty underneath instead.

And as a result, we're not taking away much more information that what was already expected (re: masked character not so bad) when the character showed up masked to begin with.

Now, this isn't always bad. But in the case of a face reveal, it's supposed to be a moment that establishes really important visual information quickly--and if it's doubled with the "masked character is unconscious/injured" there's a good chance they wouldn't normally let our hero get that close to begin with. The point is, the scene has heavy lifting to do!

Which brings me to our first big face reveal in Owl House, Hunter.

So at this point, the Golden Guard has made his debut--he's been set up as a "genius teen prodigy". This is loaded language that anyone who grew up watching anime instantly understands. Even if you don't though, the way Lilith talks about him sets him up for this expectation well. In this scene, he shows up as a cocky little asshole with a lot of bravado but also, importantly, some key visual indicactors of power. He's got a staff in his right hand, a cage in the other, and is wearing heavy armor and of course the mask. He shows up in a fifty foot fist made of boiling salt water.

Without showing us his face, the show has already laid a pretty strong, unconscious foundation for what the audience is going to see under there! So when we get our classic moment:

This scene moves so much VERY quickly.

First, the Golden Guard's face doesn't resemble the archetypal expectation the audience might have had based on what had been set up. If anything, we're getting a lot of traits all at once we're not used to on a sympathetically portrayed character (more on this in a second). They also wisely destroy any possible interpretation of romantic subtext by giving us a sibling slapfight immediately. But the biggest takeaway from this quick scene visually is the fact the Golden Guard here very young, about Luz's age, maybe a little older--a detail highlighted by our hero herself--and VERY vulnerable. Very murderable. See how his torso (heart) is twisted up, head is tipped back and the eyebrows are scrunched up? Makes him quite a bit "smaller" looking even though he's quite tall compared to the other kids.

But what does this do for visual understanding of a scene? When expectations are subverted, the viewer in a way is able to absorb the visual information with new eyes. When a mask reveal shows us something actually surprising, it actually allows us to absorb the visual details without sorting them into an archetype. So what do we see? Who is the Golden Guard without his mask, his armor, or the trappings of his power?

Well...he has a lot of traits classically associated with unsympathetic characters, to start! He has dark heavy brows, reddish eyes in an ashy face, an aquiline nose and a big ol' gap in his teeth. He's got a ragged ear. Now lately, eye bags and facial scars have come into vogue for heroes, but not usually in combination with all of those other traits (if it was just the scar or even the ear, it wouldn't have told us much). And even here, they're startling because no other character in the show displays eye bags or prominent scarring--not even the mercenaries or adults. He's also fabulously expressive and earnest regardless of emotion, which takes the edge off any potential ability to intimidate (and we know he's about as intimidating as a kale salad as shown when he tries to order the Coven Scouts around at the precinct).

At this point, now that whatever preconceived vision of the mysterious Golden Guard has been blown out of the water, we're able to absorb what each individual character design choice is actually telling us.

This is one busted-ass teenager.

The eyebags show he's exhausted/stressed. The facial scar is a brutal fucking injury and the kind of thing that you get when someone is deliberately trying to hurt you (in combat or...well. what's implied to later be the actual reason). The ripped ear highlights the idea he's seen a lot of combat. The gap teeth highlight the childish imperfection and youth.

One of the things that struck me most about watching this for the first time and watching other reaction videos (a lot of them of different ages and demographics to get a decent sample size) was the incredible consistency of the response to all this visual information! Almost every single one of them were some variant or combination of these two thoughts: "Oh no, he's so young, poor thing! Is he okay?" And even better--the audience understands the answer to that question the minute they ask it, even before the conclusion of the episode. No, he is certainly not! This brainwashed child is in a lot of physical and emotional danger!

Which is GREAT! That's clearly what the intent was. An given how much of a little shithead he was in his first appearances, it was really amazing to see how thoroughly he was able to go from that to instantly sympathetic--as well as visually very interesting.

The Owl House demonstrates a lot of mastery over animation and writing techniques/tropes. You could fill a book on the topic (please oh please let there be an art book at the end please please please). But I REALLY loved how they handled face reveals especially, and to date this one in particular is probably my favorite.

#toh #the owl house #toh hunter #hunter wittebane #the golden guard #I was mulling over these face reveals with boyfriend last night #and I had to write them down because theyre really well done #With how much anime has influenced this show #I have no doubt how deliberate this all was #and Im really glad they made such bold character choices in this show! #ash's owl house meta #ari don’t look! #if I have time coming up I'll maybe break down Belos and Del's but I havent had time to take a fart in peace lately so we'll see #also about that damn scar #Ive talked about it before and i probably will again #as the owner of a few Large scars myself #he probably cant feel much in that side of his face and Im reliably told its a miracle its not paralyzed! #fridge horror!

[zeawesomeness]

Now to wait for you to post an uncolored drawing of your ocs 😈

Oooohhh I am planning on making some OC animatics again, when I do, I can give you some of the outlines/frames! 👀

#only issue is I'm not sure what to animate first #should I animate the silly lil guys just livin life #or should I animate something plot related and important #TOO MANY CHOICES AAAA #watch me sit here paralyzed by indecisiveness hhhh #answered asks

[pinkfey]

it's crazy that gamer bros are still complaining about player choice in a game like bg3 which already does a phenomenal job.... like girl this is a video game. these are scripts <3 if u really truly want free reign go play dnd

#except they'd need friends and an imagination to do that so. unlikely. #maybe they just don't realize just how difficult 'your choices matter' actually is to code into a game lmao #i'm fine w little choice tbh yesssss curate a couple of experiences for me..... less stress for me!!!!! #so like i don't get How they could still complain about bg3 which paralyzes me w the vastness of what u can explore #anyways.txt #bg3 posting

[greyias]

You find a magic telephone, one that can call any place, anytime (including past or future), free of charges, and there are no rules except you can only make one call. Who will you call? And what will the conversation topic be like?

Oh god, just once? I would hoard this magical phone call, because what if I wasted it on something stupid like calling my future self to ask for the lottery numbers when I could have used it for something actually useful? I would treat it exactly the same as I treat all my inventory items in RPGs, as something to be coveted, hoarded, and never used because what if I need it later? And don't have it??

#anonymous #thank you for the ask #i honestly have no idea who i would call or ask #limitless possibilities paralyze me #all the choices mean none of the choices