#the Flipside saga

[weeb-polls-with-pip]

Hi, I'm not the previous anon but I feel like they do have a point with some of the characters in this tournament, especially Tae from Zombieland Saga. It's really demeaning and bordering on offensive to have her in this, honestly. I know it's not your fault and you're doing your best to run this and can't investigate every character, I'm not blaming you at all I promise. You're doing your best! But Tae is literally just a zombie, that's her whole thing. She's literally just a monster, and I'm not trying to be mean, as someone who's watched the whole show, that's genuinely all her character is. She's only ever known as a destructive, feral, brainless zombie. To call her autistic feels like an insult to autistic people, like whoever submitted her thinks autistic people are monsters and no better than an actual mindless zombie. It's hurtful and demeaning that people would think of people like us like that.

I'm not like expecting you to do anything about it now, you've worked too hard setting up all the polls and tournaments and I would never want you to feel obligated to have to rework things over one person's complaint. I guess I just... am hoping my message reaches whoever submitted that character, so that they can reconsider their own internal ableism? I don't know. It's just been bothering me for a while now, and I just wanted to voice my thoughts.

You're doing a great job running this, thank you for setting up this whole tournament! I hope you don't take this as any sort of grudge against you, I promise wholeheartedly it's nothing to do with you. And I really hope nobody gets mad at you for anything like this, because again it's definitely not your fault. <3

I definitely understand where you're coming from. I'm sorry that I didn't more thoroughly investigate the characters I am unfamiliar with, and I don't like to think that the people who submitted Tae had bad intentions (there is after all a very prevalent history of marginalized groups relating to monster characters for the reasons of their 'otherness' and I didn't want to discredit that when I saw those types of characters being suggested, but I understand the flipside of it too). All in all it's a conversation that requires more nuance than I feel comfortable weighing in on at the moment, but I'm not trying to invalidate what you've brought up at all.

#poll asks

[artgletic]

Dimentio lore recap + hot takes

Hi everyone. Im here to talk about my own takes on Dimentio lore. Most of it is analyzing ingame stuff from a narrative, thematic and metatextual way, but I’ve got my own baseless headcanons sprinkled in. I indicate when something is just headcanon and when something is based on lore below so there’s no confusion. I’m posting this because ive got art on the way related to this lore and these hcs specifically and want to have a masterpost to link back to LMAO.

Discussion under cut

For the uninitiated, Garson and Carson are two NPCs in flipside and flopside respectively that will give you lore in exchange for coins. Relevant to Dimentio is the fact that while Carson has a story/theories on every other minion, his information on Dimentio is notably slim. He only says that Dimentio befriended the count all on his own (contrary to the count approaching all other minions aside Nastasia, but she's a special case) and was initially turned away by him, only for the count to read about someone like him in the dark prognosticus. He describes this as ‘fishy’. I will come back to this at the very end of this section.

There is also lore on the creation of the pixls. The story goes that 3,000 years ago, there was a ‘master magician’ who transferred spirits into vessels created for specific purposes. He managed to make 12 pixls before he died (11 of which are in-game; the 12th’s absence is explained in a moment). These pixls were then passed onto his apprentices, and his method of creating pixls was utilized to make many more after his passing, leading to the success of the Ancients society.

2,000 years ago, a huge pixl calling herself the pixl queen appeared wielding the dark prognosticus. She was capable of commanding all other pixls and used her power and army to enslave the ancients. The inheritors of the 12 original pixls appeared to defeat her, and one by one were picked off until only one remained. The pixl queen used its “powers of illusion” to hide from the remaining inheritor, and unleashed horrific images upon them. However, this was ineffective as their pixl could “see the truth”, and together they defeated the pixl queen. However, this pixl was killed in the process, hence 11 remaining pixls.

It’s not clear if the wielders of the 12 original pixls are the same throughout history. 1000 years of time had passed since the first pixl’s creation to the pixl uprising which is quite a lot fo time for one person to live, but we are also operating under fantasy rules so it cannot be ruled out. The language (at least in the english translation) uses the words ‘inheritor’ and ‘apprentice’ interchangeably, describing the appearance of the wielders of the 12 original pixls as “the inheritors of the twelve original Pixl” and the last survivor who took the Dark Prognosticus as “the last surviving apprentice” [‘surviving’ in this context likely not indicative of having live for millennia but rather having not died to the pixl queen]. The use of the word ‘inheritor’ and its synonomy with ‘apprentice’ leads me to believe they are not the same individuals. There is also no textual evidence for ancients living as long as 1,000 years and all appear to have somewhat regular lifespans (even one of the most powerful of the ancients, Merlumina, appears to have died in her own time and only remains as a guardian spirit).

The end of the pixl uprising saga ends with the last surviving apprentice learning that the pixl queen was made by the master magician studying the dark prognosticus. There is also a separate Carson lore dump on the theory of the pixl queen’s origin, where the discussed theory is prefaced with: “In one book left behind by the master magician's apprentice [...]”. I note that this passage is told right after the end of the pixl uprising trilogy where the only apprentice we heard about was the last survivor, so the use of ‘the’ in this excerpt makes me think it’s referring to the same person as the one who vanquished the pixl queen. The theory itself describes the magician’s personal life, wherein he had a wife, a daughter and a son. His son and wife died in an accident, and his daughter died of an illness later on. It’s hypothesized that the master magician transferred her spirit into a pixl vessel, and that this was how all other pixls were made: using game-overed souls. None of this contradicts what the survivor realized in the pixl uprising saga, and in fact establishes a method of doing this. 

It’s also interesting that this apprentice, having lived 1,000 years after the master magician’s time, would have this specific information on his personal life that seems to be lost to time (why else would it be given the title of “theory”?). This excerpt also seemingly randomly ends with “Oh, and some say the son of the magician miraculously recovered from the accident. If so, the bloodline of the magician could endure... Did they find happiness? Or otherwise...“. Structurally, starting off with this apprentice who lived a thousand years after the master magician with seemingly lost-to-time information on his personal life appearing and confirming the death of the son, only to have that abruptly contradicted leads me to believe there’s at the very least a connection present here. Additionally, in that final dialogue about the magician’s son, Carson says: “Did they find happiness? Or otherwise…”. I think this is especially important. The phrase “find happiness” is most commonly associated with the dark prognosticus (“But no person, after obtaining this amazing book, ever found happiness.”), the exact thing the apprentice is said to have gone into hiding with. I also like this line from a foreshadowing perspective: Dimentio’s life becomes inextricably linked with the dark prognosticus, and Carson chooses to not end the thought asking if they found happiness but rather emphasize the negative alternative. It really leads your mind to think about what this person’s life became-- certainly not anything good from the sounds of it. And from what we see of Dimentio ingame, he never did achieve his ultimate goal, his exceptional longcon. I can’t say he did find happiness.

Additionally, if we take the son and the apprentice being one in the same, the not-the-same-apprentice-other-time theory makes sense: if they were the same, then that would mean Dimentio inherited a pixl directly from his father who believes him to be dead. Unless Dimentio was rendered unrecognizable somehow, this does not make sense. Considering SPM’s power-of-love theming, I just don’t think it makes any narrative sense to have a father not recognize his own son. Ergo, different generations of inheritors.

Something interesting is that this apprentice  later discredited the dead-daughter theory of the pixl queen. From a meta perspective, I’d have to ask why it’s even mentioned if it’s not actually true, especially considering this is the first and only time the master magicians family, particularly the son who is confirmed dead and revived in the same breath, is mentioned. So instead of assuming it’s just a random untrue lore tidbit, I view this retraction as the first evidence of Dimentio’s deception and (potentially) the beginnings of his scheme. 

I don’t think Dimentio wrote the dark prognosticus. It wouldn’t make sense given this timeline, considering his father was studying it. In fact, I don’t think anyone wrote it. I like the prognosticus being this eternal, haunting tome that ruins the lives of anyone who possesses it. Less a product of someone and more a force of nature. I do, however, think Dimentio was arrogant enough to modify it, adding his own passages and truths and such to try and set up the perfect sequence of events to let him become godking of the multiverse. He’s longconning the dark prognosticus in an attempt to set up the exact right conditions to be able to potentially usurp control from it. Publishing and then retracting the “theory” on his dead sister was either something he read in the prognosticus he knew needed to come true, or something he edited in and brought into fruition to further his goal.

[The next three paragraphs are entirely headcanon, but relevant to my take on Dimentio]

 I personally choose to believe the mask Dimentio wears is what remains of the pixl that died during the uprising. Its shape being so masklike invokes imagery of a ‘mask of truth’, in line with this pixl’s power of seeing through deception. I also like how him wearing this embodiment-of-truth mask adds to the irony of his character, considering all he does while wearing it is lie and manipulate people. It also adds an element of apathetic cruelty to him: He’s wearing around what remains of a fallen comrade-- perhaps he only ever saw the pixl’s as tools despite their clear sentience and the fact that his sister was literally one of them. However, I don’t think he started wearing it (and doing the jester schtick at all) until actually meeting the count, almost as a means of subliminally pitching himself to him. Jesters are made to work for nobles, counts included. It also would grant him a  bit of jester’s privilege, allowing him to make comments otherwise not tolerated by Bleck. This lets him jeer people into thinking and acting in ways that forward his goal in a way that people won’t question too much and instead brush off, but still be affected by. I also think he just likes the aesthetic. Surely in his millennia of being alive he dabbled in performance; his schtick is too solid to not have!

There’s also the ‘standard chocolate’ item which has always fascinated me ever since I was a kid. Why is it shaped like Dimentio's mask? Standard chocolate is made by combining a mild cocoa bean with either a poison shroom or a ghost shroom. When eaten, inflicts a prohibited status condition, basically making it so Mario, Peach, Luigi and Bowser can’t use their special move (ie. flipping, parasol, fire and high jump). My out-of-nowhere headcanon for this is that like how this 12th pixl negated the deceptive powers of the pixl queen (perhaps better phrased as inflicting prohibited status on her), this sluggish chocolate was shaped in its image as a result. It’s simply a residual cultural facet of the ancients honouring this pixl’s actions. 

I also have this out-of-pocket headcanon about Merloo. So all three of the other sages (Merlumina, Merlimbis and Merlight) have descendents or some kind of living relative (Old Man Watchitt, Merlee+Merluvlee and Merlon respectively), but Merloo does not. I’m not saying Dimentio is his son-- the timeline does not check out as Merloo was one of the authors of the light prognosticus which was written 1,500 years ago, not 3,000 as would be required. However, Merloo’s major power described by Tippi was being able to control dimensions. I like to think that as a part of Dimentio’s longcon, he became Merloo’s mentor and led him to writing the light prognosticus as a counter to the dark prognosticus. Why do this? Well, Dimentio wants to use the dark prognosticus’ prophecy of multiversal destruction as a means of creating his own worlds. But this prophecy is airtight. I imagine he thinks that light prognosticus could potentially open up a vulnerability in the prophecy, allowing him to stick his fingers through these cracks and rip his desire into being.

Getting back to canon information… Time passes, and we reach the point of the game where Count Bleck is recruiting minions. Dimentio pulls up, friendly and charming, and promptly gets rejected. Then Bleck reads the prognosticus and finds someone who suspiciously matches Dimentio's description, and he changes his mind allowing Dimentio into the team. I think Dimentio added that little passage in himself, hence it being fishy like Carson said!

TRIBE OF DARKNESS:

So what we know about the tribe of darkness is that they originally were a sect of the ancients who were more magically potent. They stole the dark prognosticus from them when breaking off from the ancients ~1,500 years ago, and went to live in a castle deep in the woods. The reason for stealing the book is unclear: Could it be they were guarding it? They wanted to use it to enhance their own powers? These are theories proposed by Carson, but considering the two people known to have had the book really made a splash with it (the pixl queen and Count Bleck), I think it’s safe to say the tribe of darkness didn’t intend anything nefarious with it. Additionally, they also forbade marriage outside of the tribe for fear of diluting their magic powers, hence the whole Blumiere-Timpani debacle. Considering Count Bleck is a direct descendent of the tribe of darkness, it is likely that they outlived the ancients.

After Count Bleck failed to find Timpani after his father banished her, he stole the dark prognosticus and used it to destroy his dimension and decided to do the same with all worlds. I personally choose to believe Castle Bleck is what remains of Count Bleck’s home dimension.

What IS unclear is how the ancients got possession of the dark prognosticus for it to be stolen in the first place. There’s no canon evidence pointing this way or that, but if Dimentio was the surviving apprentice of the pixl uprising and one who took the book and hid it, it’s reasonable to conclude that within that 500 year timespan between end-of-uprising and tribe of darkness breaking off that he simply returned it to the ancient’s possession for one reason or another.

Another out-of-pocket headcanon furthering Dimentio mentoring Merloo and the reason for the tribe of darkness splintering off in the first place: The tribe of darkness breaking off is about the time Dimentio was having Merloo write the light prognosticus. I think the tribe thought the project was asking for someone to read the dark prognosticus. Like someone would have to want to do harm with the dark prognosticus in the first place for the light prognosticus to be worth anything, and at that point it would be too late. Unless, of course, the light prognosticus was a part of some kind of scheme unrelated to simply countering the dark one. I think they took the dark prognosticus and hid it to prevent the light prognosticus, and by proxy the bad vibes surrounding its creation, from ever being necessary. They were arrogant enough to believe their own magical prowess could prevent the book from ever being used hence keeping their bloodline pure (Carson does say in his tribe of darkness tidbits that the reason for them wanting their magic so powerful was lost to time, so this is as good a reason as any). Ironically, this pride surrounding their own magic bloodline is what led to the dark prognosticus being used in the first place.

SHADOO AND THE PIXL QUEEN:

Shadoo, the mysterious boss of the flopside pit, claims to be created by the ancients, but emphasizes that they do not work for them. They then state they intend to use their shadow clones of Mario & co. alongside their pixls to defeat the ancients. Shadoo seems unaware of the fact the ancients are a peoples long past. I read the emphasis that Shadoo does not work for the ancients as a spiteful jab at their origins as a pixl, and their desire to overthrow the ancients via the pixls is in-line with the pixl queen’s MO. As well, this is a meta connection, but SPM’s lore is so thought through (even if not in the spotlight) that I refuse to believe the devs had no plan for Shadoo. There is no other real connection to be made with them than the pixl queen.

On Shadoo/the pixl queen, despite apparently having the motivation of being repulsed by how pixls are made, has no problems using them as tools, what with Shadoo wanting to kill and clone mario and co. to use their pixls and the pixl queen’s ability to “command” all pixls (not to be confused with her having convinced them to join the rebellion; this is stated as a power. She ordered them to rebel, and they did). I think it’s important to emphasize here that in her uprising Shadoo being “horrified by the deeds of her father... That she wanted no one to ever use Pixls again.” Does not mean saving the pixls that currently exist. Based on her actions, it means one of two things: exacting revenge on the ancients as a whole for taking her from her afterlife and stuffing her into an object (and depending on her selfishness, the other pixls as well), or destroying all ancients AND pixls, most likely out of revenge and mercy respectively. Regardless, she uses the other pixls as tools despite being one herself. There is much to think about in regards to how the ancients thought if this much dissonance can be built up, but that is all speculation. I just wanted to draw attention to it as I find it very interesting to think about.

In regards to powers: A connection between shadoo and Dimentio/her brother is in the pixl queen’s powers of illusion to hide from sight and the manifesting of horrible images. Dimentio has both of these powers, regularly disguising himself  to eavesdrop on Castle Bleck’s comings and goings. And while it is funny to joke about Mario & co. going to hell and dying, Jaydes does confirm that Mario and the gang are not actually dead, instead just having been warped there. The explosions were just Dimentio memeing on them (ie. manifesting horrible images). Additionally, the pixl queen also had the power to brainwash all pixls into following her orders. I’m sure we all remember who else is known for their brainwashing. Perhaps Dimentio took some familial inspiration?

Finally, despite the pixl queen being vanquished, a shadow of her still remained to be dealt with and was subsequently locked in the pit. This parallels the final act of SPM, wherein even after Super Dimentio’s defeat, "a shadow of his power" is left behind still controlling the chaos heart, leading to the ending wedding sequence.

FINAL TIMELINE:

For convenience, I will TLDR the timeline (including HCs) into a list of bullet points:

-3,000 years ago, a master magician had a family consisting of a wife, daughter and son. His wife and son die in an accident (the son being presumed dead), and his daughter dies of an illness soon after.

-master magician, studying the prognosticus, uses its power to take his daughter's spirit and place it into what would become the first pixl. He does this 12 more times before dying.

-His knowledge is used to create more pixls on top of these original 12, leaving to the golden age of the ancients

-for the past 1,000 years the son, Dimentio, has been doing unspecified activities, likely related to magic, maybe performing if he's gone full quirky-mode. In recent times he has gained enough status and honour to inherit one of his father’s original pixls, one capable of seeing the truth.

-2,000 years ago the master magician’s daughter emerges as the pixl queen and uses her powers to control pixls and enslaves the ancients

-Dimentio, alongside the 11 other original pixl inheritors fight tooth and nail to defeat the pixl queen. All of them die, including pixls, aside from Dimentio.

-The pixl queen only exists as a shadow of herself. (There is a slight complication lorewise here, with flipside being implied to be built 1,500 years ago. However, this is never directly stated, only implied as its designer, Merlight, is hung alongside murals of Merlumina (who states she was alive 1,500 years ago), Merloo (author of the light prognosticus and as such had to be alive 1,500 years ago) and Merlimbis (creator of the purity heart; had to be 1,500 years ago). However, I can find nothing on flipside being confirmed 1,500 years old. I CAN find that the pit of 100 trials was made to experiment with the power of the pure hearts, so we DO know they were constructed 1,500 years ago. Where was Shadoo in the meantime? I suppose it can remain up in the air; she did wait 1,000 years after her creation to start her uprising! Maybe she just likes existing fashionably late.)

-Dimentio publishes, then retracts the theory that the original pixl was his sister. It is unclear if he knew this from the start, or only realized this confronting her. I think it’s far darker if he knew from the start and simply didn’t care, and as such I like this one more.

-At some point Dimentio returns the dark prognosticus to the ancients

-1,500 years ago Dimentio mentors Merloo in dimensional magic and influences the light prognosticus to a certain extent. The pure hearts are created, tested, and distributed across dimensions.

-The tribe of darkness steals the dark prognosticus and splits off from the ancients due to skepticism regarding the light prognosticus project. They set up their new home in a castle in the woods

-Time passes.

-Blumiere and Timpani fall in love.

-Blumiere and Timpani are forced apart

-Blumiere scours dimensions looking for his lover, bumping into Nastasia who tags along (see Carson’s “Nastasia” and “of Bats and Men”for a recap; this ones pretty straightforward)

-Count Bleck steals the dark prognosticus from his people and destroys his home dimension

-Count Bleck recruits minions for his cause of destroying the world. He lies about reshaping it into a better world. 

-Count Bleck is approached by the master of dimensions, pleaser of crowds.

-game start.

KAY, SO WHAT ABOUT HIS MOTIVATION?

I don’t know! There’s not much to really go off of for Dimentio. We know he wants to remake the world as he sees fit, but what caused this desire and when it happened is left completely unexplored. Did it happen when the light prognosticus was being written? Or maybe during the pixl uprising? Was the revelation his sister was the pixl queen a surprise or did he know and use it to further his goals? When he was presumed dead alongside his mother? Maybe even before that; was he the one responsible for the accident that killed his mother? Was he responsible for his sisters’ illness so she would become the pixl queen so he could get his hands on the dark prognosticus? How much of his life was simple tragedy and how much of it was him manipulating the world to get his way? 

I personally don’t think it matters. Narratively, I’m quite charmed by this question existing unanswered in the first place. It’s the embodiment of the dark prognosticus: how much of its events are predetermined, and how much of it is just random, tragic chance?

"This prophetic book was a mysterious tome full of stories of future events. Of course, many people craved this book, wishing to glimpse their futures. But no person, after obtaining this amazing book, ever found happiness."

Dimentio’s motivations being unclear just cements the introduction to the game as a whole: perhaps glimpsing this knowledge we want so badly will not be worth it. Sometimes, knowledge just leads to misery. Like the book, it should “fade back into history.” And fade it did.

#dimentio #spm #super paper mario #analysis

[littjara-compleated-sage]

Yo! I was thinking about the last Praetor cycle recently and something interesting clicked for me: i think they are foreshadowing an eventual return. The sagas on their flipside shows what each praetor is leaving behind either physically or idealogically and its lasting effects. The final chapter, of course, is the return of each praetor to begin the cycle again. If I had to guess, I'd say that the invasion of the multiverse created a whole slew of Rona-esque un-compleated devotees who will be working in the shadows to bring about either the literal return of the praetors, and/or a revival of their ideology, perhaps even using magic to reactivate the oil. The only question is how long it will take to return to this plot thread lol. But this would make the Argent Etchings and True Scriptures make more sense when looked at alongside the other praetors sagas. Sorry if this is obvious or old news, just wanted to run it by the resident tumblr praetor since it blew my mind lol

Oooooh. Fascinating! I'd never actually thought about it quite this way, and that's exciting. That's definitely a new hope for me, as none of the praetors were done justice in MOM and their stories ending there feels utterly insulting to put it nicely. I would especially hope your interpretation extends to Urabrask and the Great Work, since the Phyrexian rebels are still very much alive and active. Not known to other worlds, so Urabrask wouldn't have extraplanar devotees, but very existent.

For the record, Vorinclex at least has a "mysterious fate" instead of being pronounced dead. (Tbh, I don't think any of the praetors' "deaths" in MOM are things that could actually kill them, save for maybe Norn.) This was revealed in uhh... frankly a really strange way to distribute set lore.

I am so flattered to be the resident Tumblr praetor! Hope I'm Urabrasking it out here and not... any of the others

#mtg #magic the gathering #new phyrexia #march of the machine #askbox #skapun

[comicaurora]

Could you please remind me why redrawing old works is a bad idea? I'm conflicted about redoing some old designs.

It's a matter of the mindset. The creative process is ultimately iterative refinement. You start with a first draft, and then you keep polishing and changing and tweaking it until it looks good enough to release. As a natural consequence of practicing this process, you will become better at art over time as your process of refinement is itself refined. As an unhappy consequence, this means your older work will no longer measure up to your newly improved standards.

When this revelation hits, you have two choices:

Pick the project back up and refine it until it's up to your new standards ("actually good this time")

Accept that your old work is imperfect because all art is imperfect and move on to new progress.

Option 1 is very tempting. It can be galling to recognize flaws in your art after it's been released, and can make you feel deficient as an artist for releasing something you now recognize as subpar.

But ultimately? At that point, that's not your call to make. The work is already out there. It's already impacted people, already benefited its audience - you don't get to decide "actually this was worthless" once you can spot flaws in it, because flaws don't always diminish the impact of a work. Once the art exists, it's already shown its worth. Recognizing imperfection in your work is inevitable, but depriving your whole audience of your art because it no longer measures up to your personal standards of quality means nobody benefits. The impulse to fix old work and the impulse to bury and hide old work are two sides of the same coin - an ego that cannot stand to be associated with the creation of something deficient or flawed. How many times has George Lucas re-edited the original Star Wars trilogy to splice in more CGI monsters and wobble Han's head around? Has anyone ever felt that those changes improved the viewing experience? Succumbing to that impulse ultimately means depriving your own audience of the vast majority of your work that they might enjoy. Your standards are not their standards, and sometimes you need to trust your audience when they say they like something, even if all you can see is everything wrong with it.

The big hazard of this mindset is also a slippery slope. Iterative refinement never stops. There's always more room for improvement, and as long as you're creating you're going to get better at creating. Your old art will never measure up to your current standards, and if that's something you can't handle or step back from, you'll spend your entire artistic career constantly revisiting the same works over and over again, trying to get them to a level your current standards will allow you to be proud of. The end result is you'll create very little. Also, when you retread old ground, you frequently lose creative momentum - it's tempting to wallow in the past or feelings of creative inadequacy, or to notice structural problems that make you question the validity of the whole project from the ground up. Once you no longer believe in what you're creating, it'll be very difficult to keep it going.

There was a webcomic I no longer remember the name of that I followed for years and years - a standard-issue urban fantasy slice of life starring a big pile of OCs that started off as a gag-a-day thing with a very standard pseudo-anime style and eventually grew into a dimension-hopping saga with about a million subplots. There was magic, villainy, jokes about hammerspace, angsty demon curses, all that good stuff. And eventually I saw the creator write themselves into a corner, decide to reboot the entire series, start a new and improved run of the comic with their shiny polished art style - and stop before the new chapter 1 finished. To my knowledge the comic is still in limbo and very unlikely to ever return.

On the flipside there was the webcomic Archipelago that, when I started reading it, had already been running for a hot minute. The artist had actually already redrawn the first chapter, leading to a somewhat jarring dip in art quality afterwards - and I observed that the later chapters were significantly better-drawn than that redrawn first chapter, indicating that the artist had redrawn it some time ago and hadn't revisited it since.

I followed the story as it updated and watched as the art and shading style evolved. To my surprise, it actually finished, and I quite enjoyed the resolution. And I sometimes thought about what it would've looked like if the artist had succumbed to that redrawing temptation again. Their art had gotten so good by the end that to bring the rest of the story up to that level of quality would've taken years.

Would it have been worth it? I had just as much fun with the jagged black-and-white animesque early art as I did the fully shaded and highly polished finale. This was a story being crafted by someone who loved the story more than they needed it to be absolutely perfect. Just from the preview images you can see how the art style evolved over time.

It was a good story and I liked that it existed, and if the artist had gotten stuck in an ego-loop over making it look perfect I might not have gotten to see it through to the end.

There are also webcomics where redrawing or "fixing" the early installments might remove things I thought were really fun about them. The ludicrously long-running webcomic Girl Genius has what could be considered a coloring error throughout the entire second and third volume - it was the first part of the comic to be digitally colored, as the first volume is kept grayscale for in-story stylistic reasons - and, like many artists when first exposed to the glories of digital art, the Foglios went pretty ham on the saturation and gradients.

It's, as the kids say, A Lot Going On. But it gives this early volume an extremely distinctive aesthetic compared to later volumes, which are more sedate and balanced in shade, even in very colorful panels.

This means the first volume is black and white, the second and third volumes are incredibly intense, and everything after that feels much more grounded and balanced. As a happy coincidence, this follows the emotional arc of the protagonist, who spends the first volume subdued and miserable, the second and third flung headlong into a world she's fully unprepared for, and everything after that figuring out how to handle herself in the real world. If this were "fixed" it'd remove a lot of the aesthetic impact of that supersaturated arc, and I have very fond memories of appreciating the stylistic wildness the first time I read it.

On my end, I rewrote and rescripted the first chapter of Aurora probably half a dozen times in the years leading up to its initial release. I wanted it to be perfect. I had drafts from my "glowy rune tattoos are the hypest shit ever and I want to put them on everything even slightly magical" phase. I had my "just found the texturing brushes in Photoshop" phase. I had a version that started with flashback chapters showing key moments from the pasts of every primary character. I was running in place and making no forward progress on anything, and the more I reworked the beginning, the less confident I was in ever showing it to anyone. I only started going anywhere when I said "fuck it, this one's for REAL" and bunkered down to draw a real, proper beginning and the two chapters that'd go after it. The first chapter I released isn't perfect, obviously - it was never going to be. Sure, there could've been a version where my lineart was smoother, with fewer coloring errors and more consistent styling - but frankly if I was redoing the first chapter now I couldn't limit myself to correcting coloring errors. I'd find more things to "fix", more structural goofs and jagged bits of writing to smooth out, and in the end I'd create something paced and laid out completely differently - another first draft to add to the pile. And once I indulge that impulse I'll need to get a glass of milk to go with that cookie, then a straw, then a napkin, and by the time I'm done the storyline is in pieces and I've made no progress.

If you're not susceptible to this kind of slippery slope mindset, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing with old art concepts and redrawing old work. But I know how I work, and I know I can either continue making forward progress or I can go back and polish my old stuff until it gleams, which will be appreciated by a tiny fraction of all of my audiences and will absolutely guarantee that I can produce no new content in the interim. I'm willing to be 80% satisfied with chapter 1 if it means I can actually do the story.

#asks #behind the curtain

[loopingpyre]

talk to us about RPG skill systems. progression, freedom, pacing, whatever you want.

I think there's no really good balance between a tactical rpg that focuses on like <mix and Matching classes> and tactical rpg that has a chapter to chapter story and difficulty.

Focusing on one means you need to cut down on the other, or you start scaling to keep difficulty up and nearly everything that starts scaling loses the luster.

This is the biggest flaw with the Tactics Ogre remake because the further difficulty makes it less interesting to play because now you need to find the perfect solutions for each map which are intentionally obsfucated for 'difficulty'. Games that copy it like, Crimson Tactics, also miss the point in favour of difficulty, when I feel you get the best out of a class customisation and gearing game by crafting a fun combination that wrecks shop.

What makes this system fun is entirely different to what makes a fire emblem or an x-saga game fun, and this isn't even taking story into account. It sucks when you have a good story and the game feels like it is now actively fighting against you to stop you from seeing it instead of like, being part of the story.

On the flipside is where Disgaea is all about making this, and I think the number absurdity ties into the general tone of their stories.

#ask tag #this is incomprehensible and half done #phantasyhalation

[ccarrot]

random fnaf theorizing mind decay:

there's that theory that Jeremy the game dev who sliced his face off in Help Wanted 1 is Cassie's father but. what if Jeremy is related to Gregory in some way. maybe his dad. I mean, Jeremy got glitchtrapped (which resulted in the face-slicing) and if Gregory is GGY (which he likely is. annoyingly enough) close proximity to the game development that held the Glitchtrap virus was why he got controlled too. Maybe JeremyHW1 cut his face off because Glitchtrap found a better host in Gregory so it got rid of the unnecessary player. If Jeremy is his dad maybe his death is the reason Greg gets sent to therapy(being patient 46), and the reason he's orphaned and homeless in SB

i'm sort of Ambivalent on the GlamMike theory. Freddy being possessed or at least influenced by the remains of Michael's spirit is pretty gratifying though, and it would be cool if the Vanessa-Gregory-Freddy trifecta that we end SB with are all previous/current protagonists

I had a sort of different theory that Michael's personality encoding has been used for MXES but I don't like that as much.

Cassie becoming the next vanny. absolutely no idea who that would play out but it would be kinda cool, especially depending on how long she stays trapped beneath the Pizzaplex. I'm just somewhat annoyed because Fnaf has a tendency of treating it's characters a plot devices and so far, Cassie and Gregory (glamfreddy to an extent) are the only two who actually DO feel like characters.

Arcade machine's being connection to the Flipside?? I guess. I actually have this somewhat half baked idea that the realm that Glitchtrap is in i.e. the VR world of Help Wanted, the Princess Quest Arcade Machines, and the minigames from the first saga are all conecceted and part of the Flipside in some way. Completing Princess Quest and freeing Vanny is functionally the same as completing Happiest Day in Fnaf 3 and freeing the souls inside the animatronics....

#but that's just a theory #fnaf

[peppermintedspice]

kinda silly shingo and k' character thought dump but i keep comin back to it

i know snk would never really go deep into it but i'm surprised they never tried exploring shingo and k''s dynamic post-'99. like yeah, sure, they were just teammates bc nests invited them together, but if you think about it there's. something there? shingo, as established from the start, is kyo's biggest fan. there's probably nothing he wants more than creating the kusanagi flame himself. and who does he get paired up with right after kyo's disappearance? k', the guy who had those same flames pushed onto him through nests. on the flipside, k' doesn't really have much going on outside of dealing w/nests and kof. no memories, only a handful of guys like maxima and whip he could rely on, no real sense of safety since nests/nests related things are always some threat, etc. but then shingo's over here w/family, friends, and the reassurance/safety a normal kid in high school could have. sure, he'd gotten hurt as the series went on, but it was his choice to join kof to begin with and not like. external circumstances in a way, one character has what the other doesn't. overall, it's nice that k' was able to be a character that could stand on his own outside of kyo during nests saga- and i kind of wish shingo would be able to have that kind of development himself (i guess we technically got a bit of it in xv and kof gaiden, but its kind of a stretch). at least we have like a handful of win quotes/written things? the progression in shingo's is interesting- (from 2001 and xv in order)

the xv quote checks out considering this was an answer he had in his interview on the xv website

maxima i get since he's already a chill guy to begin with, but where did that opinion on k' come from? not like looking at k''s dialogue/written things help much since he doesn't have any special dialogue/interactions with shingo in any game, so did something happen behind the scenes? we know that k' does have a soft side (as much as i think the kula running away plot from xv was kinda pointless, seeing k' care about other people in his own way was cute), though i do wonder how shingo saw that from him. where was i going with this- idk i just think it'd be nice if k' had like. an actual friend to talk to instead of being moody teenager 200% of the time, plus shingo would have somebody that wasn't an older character/mentor type to hang around in the off hours of kof. thanks for listening to my ted talk lol

#pepper rambles about things #king of fighters #local idiot has way too many thoughts about the series' resident joke character + others

[dragon-ball-meta]

I find it interesting how some people complain about Krillin and 18 as a couple yet they think that Bulma and Vegeta were very romantic with each other at the start when in reality Bulma kicked Vegeta out because of how unbearable he was. Do you think this is because people don't read the manga or just another fandom misconception?

I think lack of reading the manga and lack of paying attention to things even in the anime is part of it. But also additions to the anime via filler. Case in point, the manga makes it rather clear that Trunks is more-or-less the result of a hookup. No relationship there. But the anime changes that. Not sure if they did it because they felt that concept was too "mature" for the anime's target audience, but an entire filler section in which Yamcha is kinda harshly downplayed and Bulma seems to inexplicably deeply care for Vegeta even up to two years before Trunks was born was inserted. The whole thing with the Gravity Chamber exploding and Bulma nursing Vegeta back to health at his bedside? Complete invention, but I think a lot of the romanticizing of their early relationship stems from that and people not paying attention to the revelation that Future Bulma's story to Trunks about how Vegeta totally cared in his own way was a lie to give the boy someone to look up to. She was legitimately shocked to learn Vegeta actually cared after Trunks died, certainly enough to actually attack Cell for it. But between that and Bulma later on being all sweet to him, even if in some cases it's meant to pick on him as much as anything else, and people have a very heavily romanticized view of their relationship despite Bulma sharing a lot of the same complaints as Chi-Chi about Vegeta at times. (There's also that party ep in the Buu saga where they actually have Chi-Chi get so frustrated with Goku she suggests swapping husbands to Bulma after she defends him, but Bulma thinks she'd get the worse end of that deal, so that doesn't help, but I'm not sure how much of that was the dub vs the filler itself. Never saw that ep in Japanese). But as I’ve said in the past, I feel that the romanticizing of them is just... painfully generic, and really hurts part of what made them interesting as a couple, to say nothing of what spurred Vegeta’s change. Doing it does them a disservice, I feel. On the flipside, in the K18 realm, I think it also doesn't help that the anime inserted a few things for them that were... less flattering. Sure, there were a couple of cute additions too, but there were also more than a couple of insertions in the anime (and even other media) that weren't so flattering. 18 can actually be seen being frustrated or almost annoyed by Krillin more often than not, and frankly Meredith McCoy's dub delivery didn't really help soften that impression, given how she almost always sounded monotone or annoyed then even in instances where Miki Ito's delivery would be softer or more nuanced. Toss in a scene of 18 being molested by Roshi right in front of her daughter yet Krillin and her still living at Kame House after (which almost single-handedly started the whole weird Roshi/18 thing in the fandom) and 18 snapping at Krillin and calling him a coward for not entering the Budokai at the End of Z (again, never present in the manga) leading into the way she would then treat him in GT (the fact it took his death for her OR Marron to be much more than cold or mean to him in that series and even having to try to handwave that behavior at the end of the arc) and even in some storylines in some games (the "World Tournament: Couples Edition" in Raging Blast 1 comes to mind) and... well, honestly? It's not too hard to see why some people downplay them, especially here in the West. K18 getting love from Official Sources is a fairly recent thing, and I just really hope it keeps up. Might help course-correct the fandom to a degree.

#Krillin #Android18 #Android Eighteen #Android 18 #DBZ #Vegeta #Bulma #fandom #Dragon Ball #Dragon Ball Z #Dragon Ball Super #DB #DBS #Dragonball #Dragonball Z

[ichijager13]

Ichi l She/Her l Almost 30 l INFP l AO3 l My original stories l Spotify l Guidelines

Hello there, welcome to my blog!

Check out the new christmas event!

I'm an all-time smiling person, a bookworm, an enthusiast baker, and a lazy couch potato who loves great music, writing, art, and long and calm walks.

I'm an extroverted introvert if this makes sense... A history geek and completely obsessed with Oskar Von Reuenthal from Legends of the Galactic Heroes.

I’m here to share with you my writings about my favorite characters from my favorite animes.

I majored in electrical engineering and now I’m a physics middle school teacher

Favorites

Books : The pursuit of happiness of Douglas Kennedy, The century trilogy by Ken Follet, Six years by Harlan Coben, When the dawn breaks by Emma Fraser, and A Thousand splendide suns by Khaled Hosseini

Songs: Black gives way to blue by Alice in Chain, Flipside and Cinnamon girl by Lana Del Rey, Et s’il fallait le faire by Patricia Kaas, and What sober couldn’t say by Halestorm

Anime: Legend of the galactic heroes, Nana, SNK, Given, BSD, and Vinland saga

Movies: The wind rises, Whisper of the heart and Porco Rosso

Favorite characters (aside from Oskar): Odasaku, Eren Jäger, Walter Von Schönkopf, Toshizo Hijikata (Hakuoki), Itachi, Akane Tsaunemori, Yoshinobu Maeda, Ichinose Guren, and Nana

Non-anime series: How to get away with murder, blacklist and war and peace

Attack on Titan

Eren Jäger

Various characters

Them Discovering You Are Pregnant

Bungou Stray Dogs

Dazai Osamu

Oda Sakunosuke

Legends of the galactic heroes

Oskar von Reuenthal

Some of my works are NSFW, so please, if you are a minor do not interact, I have other SFW stories.

#masterlist #Ichi #attack on titan fanfiction #bungou stray dogs #legend of the galactic heroes #aot fanfiction #bsd fic #logh fanfic

[quietwingsinthesky]

the flipside of that is the video i found with like 100 views of a guy who was fascinated by cupcakes spin-offs and then put himself through reading the muffins saga as research. and i dont even agree with like 90% of what he said in the video or think he had a very interesting take, i just respect him so much for bothering to read them. i mean, he shouldn’t have, they’re insultingly bad and actually offensive. but i respect the dedication.

#dont read muffins <3 dont <3 #you want a good cupcakes spin-off? rocket to insanity. the comic. or the original fic but the comic is fantastic.

[staringdownabarrel]

I've just finished Rides a Dread Legion by Raymond E. Feist. As always, here's my thoughts.

Out of all these books that I've read so far, this one is probably the most painfully average. There's nothing particularly offensive about it--it doesn't go down to the same lows as some of the early books in the series or anything like that, but by the same token, it doesn't really reach any of the same highs, either.

This isn't to say it's entirely without merit, though. In terms of plot structure, this is a much better representation of what I think the Darkwar trilogy should have been like than the actual Darkwar trilogy. Instead of introducing a couple of characters that despite being main characters in the first book, ultimately don't ever really contribute a lot to the story after that, every character here does get to do a plot relevant thing at some point.

Rides a Dread Legion also has a more complex plot structure than most of the previous books. Instead of it being just an A plot, or maybe an A plot with a very small B plot and a borderline irrelevant C plot, it starts with what are apparently four or five different plots and then slowly interweaves all of them into a single A plot.

I think in some ways, this makes this book one of the most effective books in terms of setting up a series. For the most part, the books before this duology worked as well as standalone works as they did as part of an overarching whole. This is to the extreme that I think there's times where you could pick up the second or third book in a Feist trilogy and more or less follow what's happening without ever having read any of his other books.

The flipside to this is that Rides a Dread Legion is one of the books that suffers the most from middle book syndrome. There isn't anything here that isn't just setting up what happens in the next book.

It's also the book that assumes the most prior knowledge of what's happened previously in the series. I think it was always going to be inevitable that there was some level of continuity lockout with these books--there's thirty of them, of course; at some point they would become inaccessible to a new reader. Really, the surprising part is that it didn't happen until this late in the series.

Much like the Darkwar trilogy, this book also introduces a new breed of elf. Fortunately, these elves aren't just a sideshow to the main plot; these ones actually are part of the main focus.

I think it is sorta interesting that as this series has gone along, it's more or less become to elves what the Dresden Files series is to vampires. Like, in The Dresden Files, they have the various different vampire courts, some of which get more development than others, and here in the Riftwar saga, there's now five or six different varieties of elf.

The difference is that I think overall, Jim Butcher does a better job at developing his vampire courts than Raymond E. Feist does at developing his various elf cultures. Some of this is just that I think Jim Butcher is better at world building in general. However, I think the other problem is that before now, the elves have never been the main focus of these books; usually either being relegated to being allies of the main cast or, in the case of the Dark Brotherhood, minor villains or pawns of the current Big Bad.

Overall though, I feel like Rides a Dread Legion is okay, but nothing special. A lot of whether or not this book is good really depends on the payoff in the next book. It definitely does have a couple of interesting elements in it, but they aren't really that exceptional.

#rides a dread legion #raymond e. feist #riftwar #demonwar #books #rant

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #619

Top Ten Things That Might Happen in 2024

January is always the time I do kind of “year-end” style lists about the year just gone and the year that we’re all getting used to. After my mini review of 2023 last week, now I’m turning my gaze to the horizon and thinking about all the exciting-seeming things that I’m going to end up being disappointed by in 2024.

I think these lists used to be a little bit easier as there were huge “things” hanging over the horizon – an Avengers, a Halo, a bunch of comics – but whether it’s just fatigue, time, or my interests narrowing a little bit, I tend to be happier to wait and see. This is also because a lot of the things I really end up loving are ones that kind of come out of nowhere – Everything Everywhere All at Once, Only Murders in the Building, Driver’s Licence – and I couldn’t have predicted how much I’d fall for them beforehand. The big franchises tend to rumble on and I love them to bits – well, the MCU at least – but I’m happy just taking them as they come.

Despite all that, there are quite a lot of things that I’m excited about this year. I’ve tried not to just say “everything that’s on Game Pass” or whatever, and look in the nooks and crannies for things that really seem like they’re going to be incredibly cool. I remain, of course, a basic bitch; there’s Marvel stuff on here, Xbox games, a bunch of movies… same stuff as always. But it looks cool!

Anyway, that’s enough for now. Here we go, gazing into my Palantir of futureness to see what there is to see. Catch you on the flipside!

I’m Seeing Hamilton!: I’m a very big fan of the musical Hamilton, which I’ve only ever see on Disney+, and listened extensively to its soundtrack. So I’m obviously incredibly excited by the fact that next month I’m going to see the show here in Manchester. It’s going to be weird hearing the songs sung by people other than the famous Broadway cast, but I can’t wait to actually see it live and for real.

Great Films Set in Deserts: the two biggest films of the year to me are Dune: Part Two and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, follow-ups to two of my favourite films from their respective years. Dune I adored as a huge-screen epic adaptation on the scale of The Lord of the Rings – and in its own way just as earnest and successful an adaptation. The second half of the book is when things really kick off so I’m expecting some audacious IMAX action and Josh Brolin playing a baliset. And then Furiosa, the gonzo prequel to Fury Road, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as a young Charlize Theron, and an almost unrecognisable Chris Hemsworth. Fury Road is a landmark, stunning achievement in action cinema, so whatever George Miller wants to do in that world is of tremendous interest. And, yes, both these awesome films are set primarily in the desert. Who’d have thunk?

Doctor Who Continues to Return: pretty much my favourite thing about 2023 was the return to form of Doctor Who, one of my favourite shows which I felt had gone off the boil a wee bit. Ncuti Gatwa has already impressed in the Christmas special episode, and now we get to see a full season, with nice, enjoyable arcs and mysteries and weirdness. Russell T. Davies’ social conscience continues to ensure Who remains a terrifically progressive, forward-thinking show, which is also very nice; and we might even get some sexy spin-offs too.

Deadpool 3, aka The MCU’s Year Off: the MCU took a bit of a kicking last year; partly at the box office but especially from critics OD’ing on schadenfreude. This year is almost a bit of a reset, as the various strikes of ’23 have pushed back almost everything that was due out in the next twelve months. As such we have one film to look forward to, but what a doozy: Deadpool’s MCU debut, the first R-rated movie in the canon, with Hugh Jackman back as Wolverine to boot. And it appears it might be making fun of the entire Fox buyout and the end of their X-Men universe. True, there will be some shows – Echo, Agatha, maybe Daredevil – but it does feel like a chance for the studio to exhale, take stock, and kick everything down again in 2025. And Deadpool 3 could be utterly fantastic.

The Rohirrim Ride Once More: I’ve already mentioned the Lord of the Rings movies in this list, and here they are again. Basically, I think they’re the best movie trilogy of all time, the best literary adaptation of all time, and in general are just flippin’ fantastic. So I’m beyond excited for The War of the Rohirrim, an animated prequel focusing on my beloved pseudo-Celtic horse lords. Brian Cox is playing Helm Hammerhand, the visuals are based on Peter Jackson’s trilogy, and Miranda Otto narrates the whole thing as Eowyn. The Ride of the Rohirrim scene in The Return of the King is a stunning piece of cinema I rewatch time and again; I hope this can be just one-tenth as good.

Spider-Man Gets Hitched (Again): I don’t often talk about comics on here anymore as I’m not going into comic shops that regularly, so I just feel a bit out of the industry, so to speak. But this year we do get a new comic about Spider-Man that touches on one of my favourite aspects of the character: his married life. Ultimate Spider-Man – which launched this week but which I have yet to read – is a whole new universe and new take on the character; but as I do really like it when he’s a bit older, married to MJ, and has a kid, it’s definitely right up my street.

Great Games Incoming: last year I think I was most excited about Starfield, even if maybe it didn’t quite live up to expectations (I still really like it though!). This year I don’t think there’s one “big” game that’s frothing me up; but all the same, there’s a lot on it’s way. Next week, for instance, we’re going to see more of Hellblade 2, Avowed, and Indiana Jones just for starters; and personally I can’t wait for Ara: History Untold, Xbox’s Civ-a-like. And that’s before all the weird and quirky games that just look damn cool: Plucky Squire, for instance, and hopefully Lightyear Frontier, the Stardew­-meets-Transformers game that was delayed from ’23. Despite having more than enough to play already, I think 2024 is going to drip-feed a steady stream of excellent games throughout the year.

…And a Whole New Console (Probably): the games are exciting enough, but it looks almost certain that we’re going to get a sexy new console too. The Switch 2 (Super Switch? Switch U? Switcheroo?) is probably coming out in 2024; I doubt I’ll be getting one right away, but it’s always incredibly exciting to finally see what Nintendo have up their sleeves. I imagine a refined, sexier, more umph-y Switch; how it lands price-wise and with issues regarding backwards compatibility really determines how crazy it’s going to make me. And on the subject of hardware, we may be getting a cool new Xbox controller, with haptic triggers and all sorts; that’s Christmas 2024 sorted, then.

A Good Year for Star Wars: I’ve gone a bit lukewarm on Star Wars recently; although it’s been in the news this week with the announcement of The Mandalorian and Grogu movie and it’s really made me want to catch up with the series I missed. Anyway, 2024 is a big year for the franchise; presumably we’re going to get at least one film finally in production, and on TV we should have (I believe) the second season of Andor and Skeleton Crew, the intriguing Jude-Law-is-a-Jedi-mentor-to-a-bunch-of-kids thingie. If that wasn’t enough, Ubisoft’s Star Wars: Outlaws looks like a bit of wish fulfilment in game form, and we’re getting an amazing-looking remaster of one of the best games in a galaxy far, far away, Dark Forces. More did you spake?

Transformers, at Last: I finally started reading Transformers by Daniel Warren Johnson, the new iteration of the franchise published by Skybound and Image. As it’s only three issues old, I’m really intrigued to see how its story plays out this year; its interesting tweaks on the old G1 Sunbow/Marvel storyline have enough contemporary wrinkles and the artwork is excellent. Yes, obviously, it’s nowhere near as good as the highs of IDW; but, really, we’re looking back nearly ten years to those fascinating stories. This is an intriguing start and I wanna see where it goes.

#top ten #movies #games #books #2024 #2024 preview #things that might happen in 2024 #dune #hamilton #star wars #transformers

[picture-review]

On the whole, KHUFIYA is a well-made gripping saga.

Khufiya Review {3.5/5} & Review Rating

KHUFIYA is the story of a mole in India’s intelligence agency. The year is 2004. Krishna Mehra (Tabu) works for the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) and is based in Dhaka. She comes across Heena Rehman (Azmeri Haque), who offers to spy for India in exchange for money, which she desperately needs for her father’s illness. Krishna agrees and while working with her, both fall in love. Unknown to Krishna, Heena is sent on a mission to eliminate Brigadier Mirza (Shataf Figar). Before she can do so, Mirza is informed of the plan. He eliminates Heena. A few months later, Krishna's boss Jeev (Ashish Vidyarthi) learns that Ravi Mohan (Ali Fazal), an employee at RAW, told Bangladesh about Heena's involvement, leading to her death. His office is bugged and that's when the RAW finds out the truth about Ravi. But to gather more evidence, his house too is riddled with surveillance cameras. Krishna, too, is made a part of this operation which she names 'Brutus'. While spying on them, Krishna learns about Ravi's bond with his wife Charu (Wamiqa Gabbi), son Kunal (Swastik Tiwari) and Ravi's mother Lalita (Navnindra Behl). At the same time, Krishna also gets the shock of her life when she finds out who Ravi is actually working for. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

KHUFIYA is based on the book 'Escape To Nowhere' by Amar Bhushan. The story is one of the strengths of the film as it's very arresting. Rohan Narula and Vishal Bhardwaj's screenplay does justice to the superb plot in hand. The focus is chiefly on the characters and the madness that ensues in their lives. Vishal Bhardwaj's dialogues are sharp and well-worded.Vishal Bhardwaj's direction is exemplary and this is one of his best works. We have seen films in this zone like PARMANU (2018), RAAZI (2018), BABY (2015) or even in Hollywood like MUNICH to name a few. Thanks to his execution, one doesn't think of these films or draw parallels with them. Not a single moment is boring as a lot is happening. A few twists are unexpected and will leave audiences amazed. At the same time, the way the equation between certain characters changes is seen to be believed.On the flipside, a few developments are confusing. It also takes a while to realize that the flashback has commenced or ended. A simple text like 'Dhaka - 6 months ago' would have been helpful. Secondly, the way our agencies are able to hoodwink foreign officials in multiple places is a bit hard to digest. The climax is gripping but could have been more nail-biting.KHUFIYA begins with a very memorable scene and sets the tone. If you feel the film will drop as the makers would take their time to introduce characters, you are mistaken. The makers waste no time in explaining the situation of Ravi. A few scenes that stand out are Krishna and her team bugging Ravi's house, Charu dancing to 'Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani', Krishna's son blasting her mother, and what could be said as the interval point. In the second half, the scene where Ravi argues with his mother is funny. The pre-climax and climax are too good.

Speaking of performances, Tabu yet again gets to play a meaty role and she makes good use of it. There's no false note in her act and as always, it’s a pleasure to see her in such challenging parts. Wamiqa Gabbi once again hits the ball out of the park after her acts in JUBILEE and CHARLIE CHOPRA & THE MYSTERY OF THE SOLANG VALLEY. She is fully convincing as the bored housewife who is at heart a filmy bug and a devastated mother who has lost the will to live. Here's hoping she continues her great work as a talent like hers is rare. Azmeri Haque is the surprise of the film. She's sure to become a talking point after the film's release. Ali Fazal gets a bit overshadowed but leaves a mark nevertheless. Navnindra Behl is a bigger surprise of the film. See it to believe it! Shataf Figar and Ashish Vidyarthi are decent. Atul Kulkarni (Shashank) is fine in a special appearance. Swastik Tiwari, Lalit Parimoo (Home Minister Naren Mishra), Rahul Vohra (Wasan), Disney James (Kutty), Jan Graveson (Rachel Mcclane), Meet Vohra (Vikram; Krishna's son), Virendra Vashisht (Sardar old man in RAW), Shashi Bhushan (Michael; who is spying from milk centre), Geeta (Priyanka Setia; Michael's associate), Alexx O Nell (Dr David Langley) and Monica Rae (Langley's wife) are fine in small roles. Rahul Ram (Yaar Jogiya) is superb.Vishal Bhardwaj's music doesn't have a shelf life but is well woven into the narrative. 'Mat Aana' is the best of the lot followed by 'Bujhee Bujhee' and 'Mann Na Rangaave'. 'Tanhaai Hai' and 'Naa Hosh Chaley' are okay. Vishal Bhardwaj's background score adds to the thrill and mystery.Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi's cinematography is commendable. The locales of Alberta are well captured. T P Abid's production design is detailed. Karishma Sharma's costumes are realistic. The same applies to Harpal Singh's stunts. A Sreekar Prasad's editing is razor sharp.On the whole, KHUFIYA is a well-made gripping saga. It works big time due to the intriguing plot, tight screenplay, twists and turns and exemplary performances by Tabu and Wamiqa Gabbi. #KHUFIYA #wellmade #gripping #saga Read the full article

[cinemacentral666]

Richard Jewell (2019) & Spencer (2021)

Movies #1,067 & 1,068 • TWO FOR TUESDAY

In many ways, this was the perfect double feature: a pair of recent(ish) biopics made in opposing styles, one on a topic I was vastly interested in, and another which I wasn’t at all.

2019’s Richard Jewell by Clint Eastwood is indicative of his recent work: it’s competent and informative and just entertaining enough (though so visually flat, it almost has no style at all). And on the flipside, Pablo Larraín’s Princess Di Christmas movie Spencer is largely all-style (what substance is mostly imagined, fictionalized to the point of it being labeled a “fable” at the onset of the film). For the latter, I had to pivot about 45 minutes in and start thinking of it as a story about "a woman in trouble" (in the INLAND EMPIRE sense) and not a biopic about the Royal Family, which is just something I couldn't give less of a shit about. Honestly, on the "Less of a Shit Pantheon," they are at the very very top (or bottom feels more appropriate — this Pantheon is a pit and I've kicked this trash in it first). Equal parts insufferable and uninteresting, those blokes.

Though it was amazing how much drama they were able to milk out of a story which is essentially "lady doesn't want to eat dinner with her in-laws." And Kristen Stewart does (somehow) manage to transcend ‘Kristen Stewart doing a Princess Diana’ impression, which when you first see her on screen feels impossible. So, needless to say, I was able to enjoy this one much more than I anticipated at the onset. It’s well-acted and its lovely 16mm cinematography gave it a timeless vibe which really worked.

Conversely, my appreciation for Eastwood’s Jewell worked in a totally different manner. I was invested in the story from the get-go. I remember the Olympic bombing and subsequent hoopla surrounding the titular character but I was just a tween when it happened, so all of the details of this fascinating saga felt fresh to me. And I was able to overlook some of the bad writing (Olivia Wilde’s characters is a total mess) and stock pandering and/or exaggerated biopic stuff. Plus. Paul Walter Hauser is the real deal, and I’m not sure if the film would have worked at all with a lesser actor in the role.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (for both)

#2019 #2021 #biopic #drama #7 #pablo larraín director #clint eastwood director #kristen stewart #timothy spall #jack farthing #sean harris #sally hawkins #sam rockwell #kathy bates #jon hamm #olivia wilde #paul walter hauser #🇺🇸 #🇬🇧 #two for tuesday

[junkyarddemento]

BACKROOMS - REUNION

We can’t have 2022 end without taking a trip back to our beloved, yet highly creepy, Backrooms. The uber talented teen filmmaker Kane Parsons, known as Kane Pixels, continues to impress with his elaborate and engaging series of The Backrooms. Each episode brings new lore and characters into this mysterious Creepy Pasta created dimension. At this point, I’m a little surprised a production company hasn’t turned this into a bigger project. The flipside to that is getting Hollywood involved, which might ruin the magic of what Kane has brought to life! Here’s to hoping for more chapters of this saga in 2023!

#backrooms #the backrooms #backrooms reunion #kane pixels #kane parsons #short #short film #creepy pasta #filmmaker #horror #horror short #scifi #scifi horror #scifi short #dimension #monster #monsters #terror #fright #genre #junkyard demento

[longfactor]

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But there is hope, for according to prophecy a Great Champion shall appear to challenge the evil invaders - the Realm awaits YOU to be this Champion!FEATURES STEAM Version:Now Supports Steam Multiplayer up to 8 Players with support of Steam LobbyAutomap Fog of WarNew additional ActionBar added with 12 additional action slots using F1-F12 as hotkeysActionBar items can now be moved around in Inventory or Equipped and retain viability in the action barRevised Difficulty SettingsEnhanced Skill, Inventory and Spellbook FeaturesRevised Spells, Consumables and usable ItemsFEATURES:Co-op story mode for up to 8 players and full single-player game experienceNew Hero Classes, new and improved Class Skills, and new unique Class action abilitiesFull World and Character Re-mastering for enhanced gameplay experience50-70 hours gameplay timeAll new intuitive Graphic User Interface and Action Bar systemEnhanced Multiplayer features (includes Trading and Friendly Targeting for buffs and heals) Dual Switchable Interface Modes (supports Hot-Key action play and Point&Click play)Improved Graphic & Visual EnhancementsUpdated full hardware Screen Resolution support (16:10, 16:9, 1920x1080 etc. His chief ally, Lord Davenmor, now struggles to save his kingdom from the dark forces of the conspiracy and the onslaught of Lord Barrowgrim’s army of marauders.

SOCOM 4: U.S.The great wizard Galdryn of the Meadows has been vanquished by a deadly conspiracy within the Circle of Mages.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising – (JPN, Disc).

Need for Speed: The Run – (USA, Digital).

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 – (EU, Disc).

Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom – (EU, Digital).

LittleBigPlanet Game of the Year Edition – (EU, Disc).

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga – (EU, Disc).

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle – (EU, Disc).

Ghostbusters: The Video Game – (EU, Disc).

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – (USA, Disc).

List of PS3 Games that are currently unable to get Patches:

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No Patches for some PS3 games Thanks John! Nexus Mod Manager version 0.15.7 has just gone live on the release server and should be available when you start NMM (if you can start NMM) or from the download page for NMM. We’ve reached out to Sony for clarification on why this may have happened. You can find the full list below, compliments of DeidaraTV on PSN Profiles. This is partly why people praised the idea of putting Witcher III, and all of its DLC, on one self-contained Switch cart. Some companies were tying a lot of content solely to digital releases, and folks were asking constantly “physical edition when?” You’ve probably seen the chant before and rolled your eyes at it, but if this is the fate of the legacy PSN, it just goes to show you how important preservation really is. It all falls back to the warning signs of digital many years ago. In a few cases this process can lock folks out of DLC they’ve purchased without the new version to authenticate. There’s 35 known games in all, with a living list that grows by the day. The games range from Dante’s Inferno to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow to Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, all of which currently cannot obtain patches from the PSN.

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Our database contains 12640 files with mods and game add-ons. These mods will make your games batter, add new mechanics, locations, characters and game modes.

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But on the flipside, Sony is shutting down entire marketplaces for multiple devices, and now it seems like the PSN’s backend is shoddier than we thought.Īccording to myriad users on the forum PSN Profiles, a handful of games no longer patch at all. This site contains mods, free game modifications created by the fans, and official add-ons for your favorite titles. The ripples of their efforts to actually allow people to play their old games have been felt for some time, especially when it comes to preserving games as old as the original Xbox platform. Just recently, we were talking about how great it was that Microsoft actually valued game preservation. 48 games (that we know about) are still impacted to some degree, including some bigger games or exclusives like White Knight Chronicles and LittleBigPlanet 2.] However, since our first report, a ton of games have also been added to the list and do not have patches. Alien: Isolation, Battlefield 4, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Dante’s Inferno, Dark Void, Dead Nation, Dungeon Siege III, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Gran Turismo 5, Jet Set Radio HD, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, Just Cause 2, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, LEGO Lord of the Rings, LittleBigPlanet: GOTY, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Mortal Kombat, Need for Speed Shift/The Run, Resogun, SoulCalibur IV, Sports Champions 2, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike Online Edition, Tekken Tag 2, Twisted Metal, WRC FIA World Rally Championship, and Zombie Tycoon 2 have been patched. [ Update: The PS3 community is starting to discover that some games are getting patches back, mysteriously, as of this week.

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