#this design is probably 2 years old at this point but i still love it

[mspaint-flower]

bug

#vflower #v4 flower #v4flower #vocaloid #vocaloid flower #my art #my designs #ms paint #this design is probably 2 years old at this point but i still love it #yes they like bugs

[koimethehorizon]

Fionna and Cake theory: Simon the Artist

Nothing like a good old creative panic attack.

Fionna and Cake good. Haven’t been excited about a show like this in a long time, though it being a part of Adventure Time does help quite a bit. I was holding on to some cautious optimism for the show when it was announced as yet another big IP series covering the multiverse (still waiting to groan at THAT scene where Prismo has to explain to us about there being infinite universes), but as usual, Adventure Time’s crew continues to surprise me with its creativity, humor, and thematic resonance.

The most striking part about Fionna and Cake so far is just how deliberately the show wants us to differentiate it from the original Adventure Time.

We’re getting shots where Simon pops an artery from his arm, a theme song that explicitly talks about suicidal ideation, discussions of rent and financial problems, and curses no longer disguised with AT’s usual dialogue. Adventure Time has always had violence, thematic density, and juvenile rating pushers, but they were always reserved at small points. Meanwhile, these are factors that are just casually shown and discussed in Fionna and Cake every 3 minutes or so. This is not an all-ages miniseries, it’s for young adults. (hint: this will be relevant later)

Let’s get right into it. This is much less a speculative lore theory and more on what thematic direction the story may be going.

Before we do, let’s get this out of the way first. This theory assumes that the current Fionna and Cake world is all a part of Simon’s head and not merely a separate multiverse, which… I’m certain is fact for the following reasons.

The immediately obvious piece is that Fionna and Cake was always the Ice King’s fanfiction. Now if you’re versed in AT’s continuity you’re probably going to be asking about the red light in Fionna and Cake + Fionna and… I’ve no answer for it unfortunately. It’ll probably be relevant later in the series and possibly age this post like milk but for now, we’re not here to focus on the how, but the why.

Second is that the intro and the ending of Ep 2 literally show Fionna’s world spilling right out of Simon’s head like an animated world out of a frozen brain. If that isn’t clear enough-

Didn't realize this until writing, but these glasses are just plastic made to look like Betty's

There’s no other explanation for this other than that this world is artificial or influenced by Simon in some sense. Fionna even specifies that the statue went under renovation 12 years ago, but nobody seems to know who it is. Considering how Finn looks in the episode, it’s likely that it’s been that long since Betty’s sacrifice in the finale.

With that out of the way, here it goes.

The reason Fionna and Cake exist in the first place is because the creators found Natasha Allegri’s genderswap designs charming and wanted an in-universe reason to use them the Ice King wanted to create trashy, wish fulfillment through art. It was a phase.

Definitely changed that image for publishing.

Simon can argue if they’re good or bad but it’s undeniably his art. It’s not just a portfolio he left behind in a closet, it’s an experience that was shared with a larger audience.

And even if wasn’t liked at first, the citizens of Ooo seemed to have come around to it. And some of them love it!

Whether Simon likes it or not, he has a fan base that is so endeared to the story he made all those years ago that they demand he makes more. Why let a good story, loved by many, go to rest when you still have some life and creativity left in you?

Can't move on in more ways than one.

Except, the problem is that Simon isn’t Ice King anymore. He’s aged out of it.

His real passion is history, he's an adult who who finds passion in the mundane and antiques from the past. And frankly, there isn’t much room for wish-fulfillment and fantasy anymore. Simon has responsibilities. He has a job and a daughter in a world that is moving faster than he can process.

And where Ice King wrote about looking for love, Simon has already had it.

And lost it. His mind isn’t focused on the rosiness of finding new love, it’s grieving the one he already thought was the one.

Wasn't he supposed to be good with kids?

Despite his new life experiences, all his peers seem to want from him is to make more of what they’re familiar with.

A story made from wants and wishes that he doesn’t even have anymore.

A story that was literally made by someone else at a different time. It’s a fiction he cannot connect to anymore, art that he’s embarrassed by. Yet also jealous of. Because at one point, the body Simon used to be in understood what exactly was missing from his life and could express that easily.

Seeing it again is like experiencing a retrospection of a cringey loser you don’t want to imagine having ever been. It’s not you anymore, and you don’t want to be reminded of that.

Because despite him having a new creative passion, no one seems to care about that. All they want is Fionna and Cake. And what is more lonely than other people misunderstanding what you’re trying to express?

If I failed to make it clear somehow, my theory is that: Simon’s relationship with Fionna and Cake is a metaphor for creators growing out of their art. And this new Fionna and Cake world is still comfort art born out of Simon’s current desires and perceptions.

The snippet subtitles this “child holding a phone”. I guess I’m wrong. Essay over.

Episode 1 and 2 both have direct parallels with each other. They’re both about a protagonist who are feeling displaced from their world, living a phase of losing a significant other, leaving a thankless job, wearing a mask of stability in front of the people they care for, seeking a guru at the heart of the forest, and concluding that they no longer belong in their current world.

But more importantly, Fionna and Cake (the characters, the world, and the show) are no longer for an all-ages crowd. Fionna and Cake now feature young adults, curses, gore, alcohol, partial nudity, financial issues, morning routines, mid-life crisis, and overt suicidal ideation. These are the feelings that Simon relates to and possibly desires to express through art. Thus, his story and our new miniseries have warped that way.

Am I overthinking this? No. How dare you assume that.

Is equating the unconscious writings of his dementia-ridden self to Simon as his younger self seem a bit odd? ….Kinda. Again, it’s not the how but the why that matters in this case. I'm NOT crazy, I have proof that there is some acknowledgment of this directly in the show.

Rewatch the bar scene and apply this reading of the episode to what Simon says there:

“Your old stuff, Fionna and Cake, honest to glob my man, is an inspiration to me.”

“My old stuff, I don’t really want to talk about my old stuff…”

“Why not? You should be proud! You wrote an entire extended universe in a fugue state if you think about it.”

"Simon cringes"

If you have ever shared art with a group of people in the past, you’ve had this conversation.

Not likely, not possibly, no perhapses. You HAVE.

And Fionna and Cake being an epilogue to a massive award-winning, near-decade-spanning, cultural sensation 5 years after it ended, might result in its creators feeling very retrospective about what audiences want from them now.

And how difficult it’s going to be to tell new experiences and tones from what’s come before. Also, come on. “Extended Universe?” That doesn’t sound like Fionna and Cake. That sounds a lot like something else.

Again, seems bad with this kid.

One of the more profound shots in the main trailer for the show features the inconspicuously Finn-like kid crouching at her Fionna and Cake book in Simon’s trash. I believe this character is going to have a major role in two ways. Convincing Simon to be proud of what he’s accomplished and/or embracing that Simon wants to move away from his original work in order to create something new, or perhaps more likely, reinvent Fionna and Cake into what Simon relates to now.

We’ll just have to see what Simon thinks of his new Fionna next week.

PS. Talking as a fan now, WHAT IS UP WITH THE 1000+ TREEHOUSE IN THE INTRO?!!! ARE WE REVISITING THIS TIMELINE AGAIN?

SOMEONE TELL ME NOW!!!

#television #adventure time #fionna and cake #simon petrikov #fionna campbell #animation #speculation #theories #fan theory #character analysis #discussion #adventure time spoilers #fionna and cake spoilers

[juliaandthephantoms]

Time for my annual "winning performance according to the official Winning Song Guidelines", aka the Love, Love, Peace, Peace Ranking. This one's gonna be fun.

Get everyone's attention She's literally lying on the floor. Groundbreaking. 0/1

Drums! There has to be drums, +1 for gorgeous topless men and/or a grandmother Nope. Though at least literally every other drummer on stage looked stoked to be there 0/2

Using an old traditional folklore instrument, +1 for an old man, +1 if he has a beard Unless her body counts as an old traditional folklore instrument it's zero points from me 0/3

A violin Would probably be hard to use one with those fingernails anyway but she DOES mention one 0.5/1

Add A DJ who pretends to scratch She scratched the screen a few times I guess? 0/1

Costumes, something that the viewers will notice Her hair was giving me Na'vi vibes 0.5/1

The song is about love or peace I'll give her that 1/1

2/10 not really off to a good start, let's see about the execution

Let the song beginn with passion There was some heavy breathing and I guess you could say she was going for seductive passion? 1/1

Let the wind begin to flow As far as I could tell no wind 0/1

Look into the TV camera It was pretty hard to follow with the camerawork and her eyes looked mostly closed on close ups but I think there was an attempt 1/1

Smile She was smiling after the music was over so 0.5/1

Fill the stage with light The screens above and below her in addition to the flashes made for some interesting lightning design 1/1

Dancers will join us No additional dancers, just Loreen by herself 0/1

Old women baking bread Again no bread this year. As a German I'd walk through fire and trough rain for some but Loreen was too focused on her tattoo 0/1

A man in a hamster wheel Sounded like she was spinning the person she was singing about like a hamster wheel in her head but nothing on stage 0/1

Our hands will touch She probably wanted to touch someone but there was only a screen 0/1

We change the key The chorus picks up a bit so props for that 1/1

It begins to snow No sudden weather changes 0/1

Burning fake piano I'll never get over this. Where is the fire? 0/2

Russian man on skates Russia is still banned from the stage entirely 0/1

Party for everybody Going by the reaction of the crowd during the announcement of the votes I'd say the party was for someone else 0/1

More tricks in the hamster wheel Maybe her tattoo was of a hamster wheel but we'll never know 0/1

End result:

6.5/26

Devastating. The jury should really check the Official Guidelines next year before voting. That's all I can say.

Here's the results for Kalush Orchestra and here's how Måneskin did

#esc23 #esc 2023 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #esc #love love peace peace rating #for disclaimer reasons this post is mostly a joke but this year i'm very salty #maybe I'll do finland too just for fun and because he won according to the votes that actually count in my heart

[fuckyeahbaldursgate]

Viconia - Plot Support extraordinaire

Just to preface this as I don't want this to seem like I am hating on BG3 as a diehard fan of the original series because I really do love BG3. I've completed it twice now and think it will absolutely be joining my annual rotation of BG1/SOD/BG2 playthroughs but it has its problems, much in the same way that the originals themselves have problems as well.

So after my Sarevok post I wanted to treat Viconia to the same critical analysis as unfortunately I think she also gets the short end of the evil plot stick. I get it, evil characters can be hard to get right but again similar to Sarevok, in my opinion, her character regresses to evil Shar mook number one rather than actually being Viconia. Worse still she's entirely at the mercy of being wrapped up in ShadowHeart's backstory.

Anyway this is a bit of a deep dive into Viconia's issues in BG3. Spoiler warning for both BG3 and BG2.

1. No Grey DeLise.

Again, similar to Sarevok, another prolific voice actor that has done recent video game work seemingly not approached for the role. I can't help but think that some of this is down to the rushed nature of act three generally and Larian just having to get whoever they could for the job in the time that they needed it. Unlike Jaheria and Minsc there's no attempt to mimic her original VA or get someone who sounded like her so she ends up sounding completely and utterly different.

This version of Viconia sounds haughty and stuck up which while the original Viconia VA has a degree of arrogance, she is also pretty sultry. Haer'dalis even comments that she has 'the throaty voice of the most expensive courtesan' and Viconia deliberately plays on the stereotype of the sensual female drow with certain male party members for her own benefit e.g the male Bhaalspawn, Edwin, Sarevok and even Anomen (I cover this a bit here and here).

2. Her in game design...just isn't great.

Let's be honest, combined with the voice, Viconia's design basically makes her unrecognisable. She looks like a generic old drow lady to the point that I did have 'Is that meant to be Viconia?' moment when I first met her.

Now I appreciate there is minor controversy with Viconia's original BG2 portrait (which is probably the most recognisable image of her) because the artist actually used a famous porn star as the base for it.

For info, this was a common practice at Bioware at the time as they used to use lots of different images as bases for portraits. They finally got into legal trouble for it in NWN where due to various copyright claims they had to change quite a few portraits.

More recently, I think that Beamdog actually did quite a good job of recreating a faithful adaption of her original portrait in Siege of Dragonspear while presumbably navigating the original copyright issue.

In comparison to her BG3 portrayal, my first impression was she looks incredibly old. Now as far as I'm aware we've never been given a canon age for Viconia but we do know she was around for House DeVir being defeated by the Do'Urden house so she has to be at least 100 years old by the time of BG1... but her character level is between 2 and 6 (depending on the party's XP) so a relatively inexperienced cleric. With that in mind I definitely assumed she was on the younger side (maybe 200-300?). Either way 5e elves can live between 750 to 1000 years although there are instances in the Forgotten Realms books of drow living to over 2000. Now tack on the additional 120 years for BG3 in my mind it would definitely put her in the middle aged category but not necessarily anywhere near the end of her life. Critically she would be aging much slower than Jaheria but with those wrinkles she looks WAY older than her. I honestly feel cheated of an interaction between the two about how hagged and old Jaheria looks in comparison to herself.

In terms of her outfit, although initially she wears the Sharite mask and hooded outfit, which is good for concealing her identity, we eventually end up with Viconia in a spider adorned dress. This seems like a strange choice given the spider motif when she literally stopped worshipping Lloth for Shar - maybe she's being ironic? The lack of armour,when she's a cleric that knows there's a good chance she's about to have a fight seems kind of stupid. If you do choose to fight her, she then looks entirely comical in her light dress accompanied by an enormous oversized shield and mace.

For me though this really identifies her design problem: her leather armour was a critical part of her original design. Given that we only see portrait style headshots of BG characters, the decision not to include her leather corset with the three straps and the head band is really what makes her unrecognisable. It would be like removing Minsc's head tattoo or Jaheria's braids or Sarevok's armour (which even with all the problems I talked about in my post, at least he got to keep that).

My hope is that some enterprising modder out there makes a more BG2 accurate version of her in future. Larian, please give my lady her leather armour back or maybe even a justicar outfit!

3. Ignores her BG1/2 alignment, motivations and twists her original epilogue.

Now I do appreciate BG3 deliberately assumes that the events of BG1/BG2 are a little bit fluid, which Jaheria confirms this when she talks about the bards that tell stories of her slaying gods or bedding them depending on which one you listen to. But the game goes onto confirm certain events in Viconia's history that don't really make sense:

A.) The game confirms that Viconia did travel with the Bhaalspawn but not for the entirety of the game. Minsc informs you that after trying to dissect Boo she was expelled from the group. I have to admit this story didn't gel with me at all because it implies Viconia is some sort of chaotic evil idiot (reminder: Viconia is neutral evil with a 16 INT score and 18 WIS score in BG2) who would deliberately provoke a giant raging berserker man by murdering his beloved pet. Like that's the sort of thing I could see Xzar (who is completely and utterly mad) doing but not Viconia. What benefit would she get out of it? Maybe it would be a good tribute for Shar but that would be a pretty short term benefit. In fact in BG2 Viconia offers begrudging respect to Minsc for his effectiveness in battle, she knows he's powerful and she wants to be on the right side of that. Minsc for his part does what he does with many of the female characters, particularly in BG2 and makes her a proxy substitute for Dynaheir offering to protect her. That's not to say she won't insult people (Aerie and Jaheria or characters who she perceives as weak often get the brunt of it) but she's generally smart enough to stay out of an actual fight. Important to note that in any of NPC conflicts that end in a fight in BG1/2 (e.g. Kivan, Ajantis, Keldorn) it's never Viconia that's starts the fight.

B.) The Waterdeep cult.

In Viconia's epilogue, which you only get if you kept her for the end of Throne of Bhaal and you didn't romance her, Viconia goes on to do a few things which you can see below (obviously massive spoilers for BG2) :

So it feels like Larian has taken the first part of this ending but nothing else, which really leaves a lot of questions. We know Shar isn't entirely happy with Viconia based on her diary entries so why is Shar still giving powers to a woman that basically killed a whole bunch of her followers? Why is Viconia still working for a goddess that hates her? Why is she so accepting of Shar's plot to groom Shadowheart as her replacement? Why on earth hasn't Viconia got the fuck out of dodge, which is pretty much what she has been shown to do in the past? And this comes neatly onto my next point.

4. Viconia is just a plot device for Shadowheart.

I love Shadowheart and I love her arc but honestly Viconia being the Mother Superior just felt like a way of inserting her into the game in a way that didn't really fit especially when Viconia's diaries in BG3 show that she knows that Shar intends for Shadowheart to essentially replace her as one of her prominent followers/chosen. The whole plot ignores two critical points about Viconia and her backstory:

Firstly the reason Viconia left the Underdark in the first place was because she refused to sacrifice a child to Lloth and Lloth turning her brother into a drider after he saved her from being sacrificed. Now Viconia is many things, she's self serving, cruel and dedicated to her own survival at the expense of anything and anyone else (quintessential neutral evil through and through) but at the same time she threw away her position, caused the downfall of her house and got most of her family murdered to save a child. You're telling me she would then willingly go along with Shar's plan to deliberate plan to kidnap and repeatedly torture a child for YEARS whilst also training said child to replace her? My girl doesn't have many lines in the sand but harming children definitely seems like one of them. I actually wandered whether Shadowheart not liking to harm children / prefers saving them is not just about her being a secret Selunite but also a potential a hint of Viconia's influence.

Secondly, that plot seems to ignores Viconia's other primary driver, which is to survive: it's why she leaves the Underdark, it's why she travels with the Bhaalspawn, it's why she worships Shar and it's why she murders an entire cabal of Shar's followers after one person betrayed her. Now if we ignore that she has qualms about children, you're telling me that she would instead essentially train her replacement to be an amazing cleric who is 99% likely to murder her? I'm pretty sure Viconia would have tried to kill Shadowheart way before her becoming a justicar or simply skipped town as she has done before.

The alternative?

Personally I would have liked to have seen Viconia ultimately involved in a plot to overthrow the Mother Superior or maybe doing something even crazier like going after Shar herself out of revenge following her fall from grace after the events of the Waterdeep cult. Maybe she works with the Absolute to get her revenge and keep her divine powers - hell who better to help Ketheric with the Nightsong in Shar's temple then an ex priestess of Shar?

If not the Absolute then Shar's got plenty of enemies and Viconia has converted before. Maybe she could have joined the team to achieve a particular goal while giving fans of the original series the opportunity to have one of the original evil characters to join the crew. I would have loved to see the contrast with Minthara who is still fairly fresh from leaving drow society and a complete blunt instrument compared to Viconia's more subtle ways. Maybe Viconia would take the paladin under her wing, maybe introduce her to a new patron god (something I don't think is ever explained is how Minthara still retains her divine powers given neither Lloth or the Absolute are fueling them anymore). Shevarash the elven god of revenge, would be a fantastic fit for both of their back stories (which would also be a nice little throw back to Viconia's heated / sometimes fatal arguments with Kivan in BG1) presuming that Viconia could get over her disdain for the elven pantheon by that point in the timeline. The fireworks with Jaheria of course would be grand while Minsc I feel would be very conflicted given his mind's tendancy, as noted above, to sub in any female magic user as Dynaheir.

#baldur's gate #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 2 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #viconia #viconia devir #discourse #spoilers

[kerubimcrepin]

An Afterword: talking about Welsh and Shedar

While we are done with the movie and the show, it cannot be understated, just how much we still have to cover. Both in terms of canon, and things out of the realm of canon.

And this includes interviews, and things that never got made.

[source]

The thing that often bothers me, is that the creator of the franchise that my most favorite cartoon of all time is a part of, probably despises said cartoon.

I can't not think about that, when I see Simone and other Aux Tresors characters reused in Wakfu season 4 as background character assets, or when I think about how every show except Aux Tresors has had an OST released, or how the only Aux Tresors companion in Waven is Lou. Though I know, logically speaking, that it's more likely because it's just not very popular.

Funnily enough, I personally, and rather selfishly, think that Welsh & Shedar's demise is probably the greatest fortune to happen to this franchise. What was one of the worst things to ever happen to Tot was one of my greatest fortunes. (I would not care about Joris as a character, had Kerubim never existed. The cartoon, and their relationship, mean a lot to me, for personal reasons.)

To Tot, the thing that I love the very most has cannibalized one of his life's dreams. Starting with the resources, and ending with character designs themselves. Even the character design of a fucking cat??

As an artist myself, I can't even begin to imagine the horror of that, and yet... I feel nothing but joy. It's quite weird, how life works.

The good news is that Welsh and Shedar has been resurrected by Ankama (watch as it gets a full artbook and an OST release before Aux Tresors, an 11 year show that still doesn't have those, yes I am bitter), so, it is mostly water under the bridge. We will hopefully get to enjoy both, in a couple of years.

[source]

But I feel like it's very likely, that a lot of Aux Tresors and the way Tot may feel about it, was influenced by this disaster, and I couldn't begin this post without addressing that.

So, what was, or could be in the future, Welsh and Shedar?

A plot summary from the youtube trailer's description, just as filled with Tot's overwhelming sadness as everything else relating to W&S's cancellation, man, goes as follows: "Here is the trailer for an animated series project launched in 2012 which has very little chance of arriving on your screens. The story is that of Welsh, a young boy forced to fight for an inheritance he never knew existed: that of the throne of the Kingdom of Bonta. Ankama’s “animation” department has plenty of ideas behind its graphics tablets: series, special episodes, films, our brains are always buzzing! However, not all projects are lucky enough to reach you…"

So basically, it was/is/will be a story about a young man, or boy, who finds out he is the next in line for Bonta's throne, and is taken there by Joris. How all of this happens is rather murky, AKA:

Anyway,

Tot has reported that his idea for this series was quite similar to the anime "Ranking of Kings", which I had sadly not watched. Make of that what you will.

When does Welsh & Shedar take place?

Firstly, I will say that, because of how much Tot loves this series, for years it was in a state of vague canonicity. AKA "it did likely happen, but it has never been produced so we don't know WHAT it is, that happened there. There sure was a guy named Welsh at some point."

What points to this is 1. Khan's old man design still being canon,

And 2. This usage of Welsh & Shedar-era Joris in an official timeline. It says that Joris would have been 60 years old, in this series.

Obviously, this timeline is subject to change, if/when Welsh & Shedar becomes real, and there are a lot of things we don't know!

Some curisities...

Funnily enough, there exists this image, which was leaked by a French site when Aux Tresors began airing, — mistakenly used as promo for the series.

It could be depicting some other draft of W&S where Joris is a kid. Or, it could be depicting something between Aux Tresors and W&S, from when Ankama had to make something new up to take W&S's place.

It yet again makes me yearn for an Aux Tresors art book. Because seriously. What does this even mean.

Anyway thank you france for killing W&S, making Aux Tresors (the PEAK.... the SLAY.....) real, and now resurrecting W&S. We truly do live in the kindest timeline 🙏

#welsh&shedar #ro liveblogs dofus #dofus #wakfu #krosmoz #Youtube

[paracosmicessence]

Hey! I love your art so much 💖 I wanted to ask what program you use for 3D modelling?

aw thank you!! :3

and to answer your question i’m going to warn you this is going to be kinda long because i’m gonna use this post as an excuse to show my 3D models that aren’t awful (sorry lol).

i actually use two different programs, both for different purposes, but you don’t need to get both, it really depends on which kind of modeling you want to do.

1) the first is called Nomad Sculpt on the iPad, you do have to pay for it unfortunately but it’s definitely one of the best modeling apps for the iPad. i know Blender is free but my computer is really old and doesn’t run the program very well, and at this point i’ve already gotten used to nomad sculpt.

anyway tho, i use it for art-related things like the obvious 3D models, but recently i’ve been playing around with just making scenes to use as references for my drawings. they’re not anything impressive, most of the time i actually use it to make little figurines to print and turn into earrings/little friends that sit in my room just for fun.

i’m gonna show this first bc they look cooler once they’re printed and colored (also you can tell i printed mini crowley and aziraphale when my sonadow hyperfixation started bc i never actually painted crowley) (he’s just kinda sitting there oops).

the little red guys are actually my favorite bugs (goliath beetles), i made them about a year ago but i still wear them like every day.

and here’s what they look like in the app, it’s a little intimidating but once you get used to it it’s actually kinda fun just playing around and seeing what you can do.

2) the second program i use is Shapr3D (also for the iPad, but i think they made an update where you can run it on windows/mac). you also have to pay for this as a subscription which sucks, i’m only able to use it since the engineering program i’m in pays for it.

Shapr3D is one of the many CAD software programs out there, but it’s nice bc it’s very beginner friendly and very easy to use. CAD is mainly for architecture/engineering but i honestly think more 3D artists should give it a try. it’s really nice once you get the hang of it and (i’m probably biased bc i’m a student) i honestly prefer it over just normal modeling software because i feel like you can be a lot more creative with it.

right now for my engineering class, our semester final is to design and present something that’s functional, and we can either explain the math behind it or just 3D print it and demonstrate how it works, and i’m making a functional mini model of “the rack” trap from Saw III (i’m not psychotic i swear i’ve just had a Saw hyperfixation for 5 years).

i’m definitely gonna post it when it’s finished just bc i’m already excited with how it’s turning out, but for now here’s a couple at-home projects i’ve done:

(above) i have a bunch of wet liners and i designed a stackable holder thingy with bolts between the shelves and a little cute star screw to fasten it at the top.

(above) i also made a few rotating brush holders at home (bc the ones that actually rotate are like $40 for some reason) by buying a set of small sphere bearings at home depot for like $5 (that’s what those little metal things are inside the third one, i took it apart bc i don’t know how to put a video and a picture in the same post) (just pretend they’re spinning rn).

anyway that’s all!! if you actually read this whole thing i love you so much bc engineering and design is one of my special interests so thanks for letting me tell you about the silly things i’ve made :3

#asks #3d art #3d model #engineering #infodump #special interest #ermmmmm not sure what else to tag #this was just a really long post lol #bugs #good omens #autism creature

[blauequuleus]

Okay so I’ve never played any Kingdom Hearts games and I’ve only watched the first 2 hours of a play through of the first game.

I’m gonna list everything I know through just internet osmosis. So tell me how off the mark I am on some of this (If I spell names wrong I’m sorry and be nice please)

Sora, Riku, and Kari(?), have all grown up together and play on this island with no parents in sight or a house or anything but island kids running around (do they have parents and houses to go home to? Or is this just Peter Pan style island of lost kids)

They want to leave the island and go on an adventure together

Kari just kinda showed up one day

Sora has a crush on Kari but has not a lot of interactions with her but is constantly talking about Riku and chasing after him

Kari I’m sorry sweetie as far as I can tell you’re the old trope of “this is girl character who is girl and main love interest that will spend 99% of the plot damsel’d and doing nothing -probably knocked out- and the last 1% she spends reassuring the main male lead in some way and has no personality outside of that” (this could be radically different in the games and she actually has a personality that doesn’t revolve around the main lead Sora needing to rescue her but all of the scenes I’ve seen from the games she’s either just standing there or is knocked out)

Riku and Sora have so mush chemistry people are convinced they are in love (to be fair every thing I’ve seen from the games has them constantly obsessing over each other more so than anyone else. Half their lines seem to be each others names. So yeah big rainbow energy coming off of them)

Also don’t they like combine swords or something into a big weapon… 👀🏳️‍🌈

Isn’t there matching wedding rings for Sora and Rikus swords cause if so that’s cute

Main game plot point is Sora, Goofy and Donald jumping around in a Gummy Ship?? to all the different Disney properties and movies and these are all treated like different worlds (is Star Wars in there now cause that’s a galaxy in and of itself, how does that work????)

Donald was dunked on for years as a terrible healer until he nuked a guy and the internet went insane over it

Micky Mouse is a king

Idk where the fuck Minnie is or Daisy

This is all connected to Final Fantasy games somehow. Cloud and Sephiroth(??) are connected to this (I have not played the Final Fantasy games either so idk what this means. I know it’s the same developers but haven’t they been in the KH games??)

The Halloween Town designs are cool looking

Sora gets a wardrobe change per world (species change for little mermaid?? And maybe others??)

Why his shoes too big lookin for his feet

Heartless are little shadow guys that are made from people having their heart/soul ripped out

There’s basically an apocalypse on every world cause of these heartless little creatures (but only main characters seem to notice them??? Everyone else going about their day which is a mood)

The Pirates of the Caribbean one is hyper realistic but Sora still looks like anime guy which is weird

Maleficent is keeps being a boss bitch but still dies for it

Doors and keys are super important

Sora and Riku have heartless but theirs get people forms but they don’t look like who they come from that shit is reversed for some reason

There’s like 3-4 just for Sora and none of them look like him

Riku got a stalker in some guy named Xnort(???how spell???) who possesses Riku at some point

This Xnort little old ass seems to have a habit of this possession thing and uses time travel?? to just keep possessing people

Eyes turn yellow when he does

He started a war for a specific heart??

Keyblade War (no idea what this is or means I just know it’s a thing)

There’s another trio that timeline wise came before the OG trio from the first game that was in the war

Xnort got the buff guy one, the other guy is in Sora but not?? turned into sparkles and possessed Sora but also didn’t, and the blue haired girl is out here working the hardest but she on a deserted island in the void

Micky also ends up chilling with her there at some point

Woody roasts a guy

How the fuck does the Toy Story world work if there’s people and sentient toys???? Why does Sora become a toy there if he a people

Sora wasn’t supposed to wield the keyblade Riku was but his dumbass got corrupted so Sora got it (?)

Riku got another one

I think everyone has kinda died at some point but they all got better

Sora got trapped in dream world by blonde Kari that drew pictures about it

Blonde Kari isn’t evil she was just chilling with a comatose Sora

Riku went through a lot to get his boyfriend back

There’s an organization that’s connected to Xnort guy that wears black robes

There is another set of Riku, Sora and Kari copies there

The third Kari black haired goes out Master Oogway style but with glitter

There’s a red haired guy there that talks big shit but is constantly getting his ass kicked

There are so many spin-off games that have a lot of lore in them and the titles only make sense to people deep in the fandom trenches and lore

Those titles got fractions and shit in them

The Disney princesses played a major role at some point but idk if that’s still a thing

Those stain glass window levels are gorgeous

Sora is a people pleaser who dies for it

But unlike everyone else getting better from it, as he also has in the past, Sora is now gone gone but also not and next game may be in basically purgatory which is kinda our world (so many jokes there)

Riku gonna be on quest 2 of save his boyfriend and is sad now cause of it

Poor Riku he went through his emo phase in the first game and now his punishment for it is running after and saving a serial self sacrificing people pleaser that can’t say no and who keeps dieing from it

Let me know if I was close at all to being right about some things and what I got wrong.

#kingdom hearts #kh #idk this isn’t in any order just what I could recall #I’ve mostly just seen fanart of the games

[mdhwrites]

Five Reasons Why The Owl House Isn't Inclusive

Someone on Twitter asked me to elaborate on the concept of TOH not being inclusive beyond LGBTQIA+ labels, which I'm still happy it has, and I accidentally just made a five part list of them that helped bring together a lot of the points I've tackled not only recently but also in the past so... Why not? Let's actually make a kind of master post for this. These are five reasons why The Owl House isn't inclusive.

The demons

I don't entirely have an order for this, this isn't a top five thing, but we'll start with probably the thing that's the easiest to never even think about: It's treatment of the demons of the Isles of the DEMON REALM.

Every demon in the show is either a gag, a villain... Or the ones who get to have nuance or be good are the ones who pass the most for being 'human', much like how the witches are just humans with pointy ears. The first point is pretty obvious. A lot of random demons show up just to be made fun of for looking strange and then move on.

The villain accusation though is because like 90% of one off villains in this show, with no nuance or real personality and are obviously evil just because they're evil are demons. They also aren't allowed to be amongst the good guys for the most part. In the main cast, the only demon is Hooty who... Boy his treatment is AWFUL. It actually says TERRIBLE things about Luz that she treats him just as poorly as everyone else, especially when someone else manages to befriend him... Which the show uses as signaling to treat Lilith as lesser than the rest because now she's comic relief.

Finally the passing part. This is actually big for the fact that it's actually kind of racist in general. The only demons who are allowed actual nuance are the ones who look the most like witches or humans. Boscha and Steve are both theoretically demons as far as we know and they get kind of redemption arcs but much lesser ones than any more human character and both start as villains. Then there's Vee who is the only unequivocally 'good' demon and her whole thing is that she can pass for a witch or human. In fact, she's better at being human than LUZ is.

So point one and we've already got a weird undercurrent of an entire race being lesser than the conventional ones or... that'd be it if not for

1.5: Take a lot of what I said about demons and apply it to the guys of TOH because they're also treated like shit by the writers. They are either villains or jokes when they first appear and the only exceptions are either still pretty questionable for fitting one those roles... Or dead. You know, like Manny. I think Dell is literally the only ALIVE male character who isn't a joke or villain at one point.

2. Everyone's really fucking pretty. Like... period. Every character in the main cast is ready for the runway. The only main character who really comes close to being transgressive in their looks is Willow and like... Overwatch came out 7 years ago with Mei and that she wasn't a daring design choice then and Willow wasn't four years later. They're the definition of 'more to love'.

Admittedly, I'm normally fine with things just having pretty people. Yokotaro is based for giving an android a big ass because he likes pretty women. I don't think people should feel ashamed for that. It's just a problem when a lot of your contemporary competitors, or even old school competitors like Recess back in the NINETIES, who aren't even trying to preach inclusivity, have better body representation than the show that does.

And yes, that does tie back into the demon thing too as you might notice that all the demons who are accepted by the main cast or given more nuance are the ones who look the most conventionally attractive. Good job show.

3. Nothing here is actually transgressive.

So now we're getting away from looks and the like and actually getting into how well the show sells its theming and representation of those society rejects. The embodiment of this should be Luz if the show wishes to say that it accepts those with weird interests or behave oddly. The only problem is that Luz doesn't. At all. When she is, the things she's transgressive about are things like the safety of others and common human decency.

Luz never really defines herself by her interests after all. Azura exists sure but it gets like... A handful of forced references in S1 and then maybe a couple in S2, often not even by Luz eventually but Amity, which is literally what happens in S3 as she abandons the series effectively. This isn't technically bad. She has a healthy relationship to it for the most part. She doesn't hyperfixate or try to interject it into every part of her life. She's just a nerd... Which wasn't even a brave thing back when I was in High School a decade ago.

Straight up: I was a part of JROTC, the American school fast track into the military and people the first guy I ever heard squeal about how the Avengers were gonna happen, he swears, was a really dude in that ecosystem. He was more of a nerd than any of the drama kids I eventually hung out with and no one cared.

And Luz is less extreme than THAT. The only time she actually is is during her character introduction where she, you know, releases spiders on a classroom and also snakes that attack people. Or how about those fireworks? What was her plan with those? Set them off inside and kill burn down the whole building in the BEST CASE scenario? Because if she's been bullied so much, why would she expect her class to come outside for that? Regardless of the fact that you'd get expelled just for bringing that much gunpowder into school, let alone the other reasons she should have been expelled.

The worst part of all of this though is Lilith. Lilith actually hyperfixates. She cares a LOT about her interests and gets giddy about them... And it's almost always framed as mocking. Everything to do with her interest in history is almost always setup for a joke of some sort or to make her look smaller. She is also more genuinely interested in learning and excited about the Isles and its potential than Luz commonly but when she becomes that character, she isn't taken seriously anymore. She's a joke, just like her best friend Hooty.

So now we've rejected nerds. Can we really go deeper? Well, how about the oppressed themselves?

4: The oppressed are inconvenient to the show so they don't show up.

Because the Isles is meant to be bigotry free except for Belos (an ENTIRELY different topic that has bunches of problems of it own) the only people actually oppressed in the show, who are ever actually forced to conform and mind that conforming, are wild witches. But not only is their plight poorly shown but it's also inconsistent.

Eda is our ONLY representation of it and the show ever struggles to decide how genuinely illegal her presence is. She's allowed to just stroll into an Emperor's Coven funded school and enroll her student there. All it takes for her to be free for a day is burning some posters. But also on the other side, she is literally threatened with death ONLY for the crime of being a wild witch and not the rest of her rap sheet.

And why shouldn't it be? Systemic oppression isn't actually that bad by what the show depicts. Dana herself wrote Reaching Out where the coven system is treated like not going to college instead of a crime so severe as to have the death penalty. She also was one of two writers for The First Day where they treat the coven system as just tradition and not like multi-tracking is going to get these kids literally killed, if Bump himself isn't removed by Belos for enabling people to break the law in an episode where he SPECIFICALLY NEEDS GOVERNMENT FUNDING.

And as the coven system is the only form of oppression, no one has to actually deal with the social and sometimes legal pressures that makes one hide who they are. It can't say anything about those actually struggling because it's inconvenient. You can't just have Luz be accepted by all if her dream makes her illegal to most. You can't have her easily fall in love because that relationship is illegal. You can't have members of the government who have done literal witch hunts just turn around and be good guys because they are active participants in bigotry.

So the oppressed, the people actually other'd by the story that's being told, are pushed out of frame for the sake of the escapist fantasy of Luz getting to runaway to a magical world and save it. They exist solely to claim there IS a reason to fight but actually showing their struggle is one step too far apparently.

5. It leans into extremely harmful stereotypes of people with mental disorders and disabilities. Content warning for those topics until the BUT at the end.

This is the last one because not only do I think it's actually the most dangerous but it's also the most personal as someone who is literally disabled due to their depression. Who had to be really careful when writing about characters in crises not to peddle the same narratives most stories do. Extremely hazardous, painful narratives.

Hunter and Eda are both disabled by the logic of the world they live in. Both are incapable of magic in a world that expects it from them and it causes real difficulty in their lives, forcing them to require equipment and/or meds to aid them in dealing with the struggles these cause, doubly so for Eda because of the curse. It actually is good representation... Until you start thinking about and people start getting 'cured'.

Eda's is definitely more of a mental health disability with how much it's connected to emotions, stress, etc. like that than her physically being incapable of doing more. She suffers from not having enough spoons on any given day to do things with some being worse than others. Again, face value, this looks kind of nice.

Here's the insidious part: When she isn't medicated, when she isn't able to hold back her symptoms... she's literally a monster. Anytime she shows her pain, she is actively dangerous to those around her. Full stop. And there is no way to stop this except her murder. She will ALWAYS be a threat for the rest of her life, even after making peace with her diagnosis. After all, in the final episode she literally has to warn someone to get away because she's going to lose control. Worse yet, part of her getting a reprieve from it is to ruin another life. Lilith is made disabled because Eda's illness is so out of control that only through other people's sacrifices can she find help.

If none of this raises red flags, GOOD FOR YOU! You haven't ever had to be told you might lose your apartment just because they don't want to one day find you having done something terrible because they assume that will eventually happen, SOMETHING THAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME. You've never been told to hide and lie about your condition, to pass as just a normal person, so you could get a job or just so you didn't appear wrong to others. So you don't seem like a ticking time bomb that will explode.

Hunter is a mixed bag comparatively. He's better because his disability, not having magic, isn't inherently dangerous. He's not going to kill anyone someday because of it. The problem is that he is still mostly framed as lesser because of his lack of magic and that he is helpless due to it minus one time he gets to show off his skills while without his staff... To no avail. Otherwise, everytime he doesn't have a staff, he is completely at the mercy of anyone around him. His heart to hear with Willow is even about feeling like less of a person due to it and how they've both struggled with the problem, which, you know, feels disingenuous when at the end the plant goddess forces him through the ground against his will because she has her own magic and is one of the strongest witches on the Isles. It's like telling someone missing an arm that yeah, when you were young you broke your arm too but you got better while the other person is still MISSING AN ARM.

And then he is cured... By the death of his best friend. At which point, he is whole, a complete person with his own magic... at the cost of a life. You know, just like how Eda only got the curse to back off by hurting someone she cared about too.

What the fuck?

And finally, for a bit more mental health rep: Luz. People like to claim that Luz is suffering from trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. in the second half of show and especially S3. The problem with this is that after S2A, Luz is just categorically is a worse person. This culminates in what most consider to be her lowest point, Thanks to Them when she has a speech in class that potentially hints at suicidal ideation. However, in the episode she decides that instead of taking responsibility and trying to fix her mistakes like she used to, she is going to just stay home and let an entire world die. Yes, she frames it as self sacrifice and having learned from her mistakes... but it's not. It's self preservation if anything.

Anyone on the Isles should be presumed dead or something akin to it with what she experienced during King's Tide. Anyone who goes back is going to fight a GOD to try to reclaim it. To have to beat someone who is leagues more powerful than any entity they've even fathomed before. Her friends have been trying to get home and planning for this all with the expectation that Luz would be by their side. But despite the fact that she explicitly blames herself for the situation, she's staying. There's no talk about how this means dooming her found family, how it means breaking up with Amity or anything like that. Her focus is entirely on herself and the mistake she made. They can all go rot while she gets to stay home with her mom.

This doesn't even go into Luz's lower empathy or her CONSTANT LYING that was more prevalent in the second half of the show. It all says one clear thing though in this context: Because she is damaged due to trauma and depression, she is a generally worse person. She cares less about others than a functional person would, as she was a better person before all of this, and loses her morality as she is willing to let people die instead of fix her mistakes.

All of this just makes it bluntly better if Luz isn't actually depressed during this time period and more is just being a bad person because things have gotten tough. Otherwise this feeds into a LOT of bad stereotypes for those who are mentally ill.

BUT.

I do not think any of this is done with malice. Any of the five points. It's just careless. I pointed out the narrative problems for properly including a couple of them and I could easily tell you why others regurgitate issues without blinking for many of the others. It's easy to make these sorts of mistakes if you're not thinking about it. If you're just taking tropes you like instead of trying to craft towards a genuinely coherent theme. It's made worse when you know you're in a landscape that is hungry for representation so being praised for it won't be hard so you don't need to fully commit.

As I said earlier though, this is kind of a problem for a show that wants to be about inclusivity. Who's main themes, at best, are about self actualization and self acceptance. About being who you are and finding the spaces that allow you to do that. And yet... So many are left to the wayside. Abandoned because the show has a very narrow definition of a 'correct' identity and if you don't fill those definitions, it will leave you behind.

If you want a show that actually accepts everyone, that allows for all parts of identity, I've seen only one season of Craig of the Creek and it is EXCEPTIONAL at it. All are welcome in the creek. No exceptions. If someone is alone, it's because of circumstance or self selection and even they are given chances to be a part of the community.

I wish TOH had believed in something even close to similar.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house

[foxieflower]

3, 19 and 28

3. your favorite piece(s)?

The easiest question of these three! It would be this 2 part set I did of Vanquish and Aywin based on Renaissance paintings. The Fallen Angel has always been a favorite of mine so I always had wanted to recapture it on my own!

A close runner up is probably this piece I did while fixating on Spiderverse

19. where do you find inspiration?

Oh a lot of places! But I do think Digimon probably has the biggest style and design inspiration.

I just like the way they design and articulate creatures and clothing. Both so fantastical but they never felt so impractical to me. Somethings a design was just to look cool, yes, but it never felt out of place.

If we're talking more so everyday I spoke, a lot of inspiration comes from music. A lot of my overall story or scene ideas come from listening to music and imagining something going with it. And my music can vary a lot ao there's no way I could narrow it down to just a few genres haha.

Another thing is weirdly enough is types of animated or indie/internet horror, whether it be video games, shows, or films. I'm always fascinated about how different people choose to take what most see as simple slasher films and turn it into such a niche thing. Movies such as Corpse Bride or the Secrwt of NIMH. Series such as Outlast, Fnaf, or point and click indie games like Franbow have shown a lot a different ways to play with horror and gore elements. Theres also analog horror, args, and creepypastas. All of which inspire me. Despite my want for happy endings and colorful palettes, I have a deep fascination on how a character can be scared or hurt and it's fun to play with that.

28. whats a piece you would like to redraw at some point?

Just about anything 2 years old at this point haha. But more real talk, I'll leave it more focused on my digital rt, despite it not being quite as old as a majority of my sketchbooks... it's when I got the most ambitious with full pieces.

It would be one of these two pieces. The one on the left was the first full drawing of Eddie Gluskin from Outlast that I drew, and despite everyone reblogging it at this point I can see all the things I would want to update and show my advancement of skills.

The second was when I was deep in my Biker!Eddie au and while I do still enjoy it, I would love to tackle more profile shots with better detail. And either just do a direct redraw or redraw it as Vanquish.

But woo! These were fun questions! Thank you 😊

#vanquish #aywin #my art #foxie thoughts #eddie gluskin #outlast whistleblower #thank you for the ask!!! #ask game

[talaok]

hello! So, Joe mentioned in an interview that he bought a guitar and practiced a lot for his scene. Could you write about him going to buy a guitar and asking the reader who works at the store about 80's rock for his investigation? Something fluffy and flirty. thank you ✨💕

Pairing: Joseph Quinn x fem!reader

Warnings: None

a/n: ngl I had to do some research for this one but I absolutely LOVED writing it and loved the idea (I probably got a bit too carried away in the first part). Also, If anyone who knows their shit about guitars reads this, I'm sorry, I tried, I swear.

Btw funny story I was writing this on the bus and I completely forgot I had to get off and I arrived late at the cinema.

Part 2

A GOOD DEED

Today had been slow, it was 4 o clock and only two customers had come into the shop since you opened this morning, and only one of them actually bought something. It was a miracle this place was still standing and hadn't gone bankrupt yet. The shop wasn't yours but it felt like it. You were basically the only employee. There was another one, this very unusual,overly-enthusiastic, and jittery 19-year-old who had just finished high school and perpetually arrived late or not arrived at all, but he would only do a few shifts because he claimed to be a "free soul" and that working here "killed his vibe", so, practically, it was just you. Your boss, Luke, was a 56-year-old man who had inherited the shop from his father and he was probably the coolest person you knew. he knew everything about music and he could play every single instrument in the shop. He once told you that there was no point in telling people to buy an instrument if you didn't know what it felt like to play it. At first, you thought he was just being dramatic, but as time went by you started realizing how right he was, and noticed how it was much easier for you to sell guitars than anything else.  You had been working here for 1 year and a half and in that year and a half, he had become your hero. I mean, the man had a rock band, him, a 56-year-old, had a band with other 50-something-year-olds, and the best part was that they sounded amazing. You loved when he came into the shop because after you would beg him desperately, bugging him all day, he would always play something for you and you just adored watching his expert fingers dance on the guitar's strings effortlessly while you lost yourself in melody. Unfortunately, he wasn't coming today and you were really starting to lose your mind because of how bored you were. You looked outside the windows to see if anyone was coming, but the street was deserted except for two women walking by on the opposite sidewalk who seemed to be having a really fun conversation. Lucky them, you thought. You grumbled and looked around you. all the electric guitars were perfectly placed on your right, some on the wall and some on their designated supports on the ground. As you scanned through them, mesmerized by how cool they all looked, one caught your eye. Fuck, You had forgotten about her. How was that possible? Luke had bought her a month ago and the moment you saw her you fell in love. She was a Gibson Les Paul, but not the usual kind, he had customized her, so she was covered in silver glitters with blue flames coming down from the top. You had never seen something so sexy in your life. You sprang to your feet and dashed across the counter. "you are a real beauty" you whispered to the guitar as you cautiously took her from the wall. You weren't allowed to do this, if your boss were to enter now you would probably get fired. The guitar costed more than all of your belongings put together, but you couldn't resist, you just couldn't. She was too beautiful and you needed to know how she sounded in your hands. You peeped at the windows one more time to make sure Luke hadn't magically appeared to beat your ass and was relieved when you didn't see a single soul.  the shop had a little aisle where people could try playing an electric guitar put there on purpose and you made your way there. you attentively placed the Les Paul on the ground, unplugged the guitar from the amplifier, and plugged in instead the one you had just taken. You sat on the stool and took a deep breath. You could hear your heart pounding in your chest "calm down Y/N, it's just a guitar" you murmured to yourself. You exhaled deeply "Ok babe, what shall we play?" you asked the inanimate object "Oh, who am I kidding" you laughed at yourself as you positioned your fingers on the strings. There was only one song you wanted to play. You took one last deep breath before you started playing Sweet child O' Mine, your go-to song since forever. You learned to play it at 15, your dad always used to make you listen to it in his car and after he passed away you promised yourself you would learn it for him, as a tribute, and to this day, even if it's one very difficult piece to play is the one you know how to do better. You closed your eyes and started swinging your head to the melody, you had played this song millions of times before, but this guitar somehow made it sound even better. You started humming to the beat as you felt the deep and resonant sound's vibrations in your whole body. this was heaven, you thought as your fingers continued dancing on the strings. Your favorite part of the song was coming and you almost wanted to rush to it just to know how it sounded on that beauty, but you didn't, you continued and as the part started you bit your lower lip, shut your eyes, and smiled widely. It was like hearing angels sing, that is, of course, if angels sounded like 80's rock music. You began rocking your head to the music while rhythmically tapping your foot on the floor. "You're really good" you heard a voice in front of you. You jumped in your seat and widened your eyes. "Woh woh woh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you" The man in front of you apologized holding his hands in front of himself. You exhaled deeply relieved and, peered up at the person who was talking to you. he was a tall young man, wearing jeans and a very colorful t-shirt. his wavy and brown hairs were somewhat messy, as if he had just woken up. You thought that was cute. his lips were turned into a nice and genuine smile and his big, brown, and gentle eyes were looking straight at you.  Oh shit, You realized you were basically checking him out and you widened your eyes and cleared your throat to try and salvage the situation "Oh, I'm sorry I thought you were my boss" you spat out. he gave you a reassuring smile "Oh, is he an asshole?"  You laughed softly to yourself "No, not at all actually. but I'm kinda not supposed to be playing that guitar" you said, standing up, propping the guitar on the wall, and turning to look at him. "Well don't worry, your secret is safe with me" he joked and you smiled at him gratefully. You were about to say something when he licked his lips. Any sound you wanted to produce got stuck in your throat as your brain blanked for a moment. He noticed your reaction and his lips twitched into a smirk as his eyes traveled down your body ad up again quickly. His eyes found yours again and you swallowed thickly, hoping for your brain to start working again soon.  "Uh- Wha-What do you want?" you spat out and immediately regretted it. he frowned at you and chuckled softly "is that how you treat all your customers? because then it's no wonder you don't have many" he joked waving his hands generally at the store. You smiled at him "No, you are right, I'm sorry. Can we start over?"  "with pleasure" he grinned. "Ok. Hi, my name is Y/N. what do you need help with?" you asked with your nicest tone, offering him a wide smile. "Hello Y/N, nice to meet you, you have a really beautiful name. I'm Joseph" he introduced himself "And to answer your question, I need to buy a guitar" he explained. "Well, then you are in the right place, Joseph. What kind of guitar did you have in mind?" He laughed softly "Well, see that's the thing. I haven't played guitar in a long time and... well, all I know is that I need an electric guitar" he confessed a bit shily. "Oh, that's totally fine. You know, I actually think it's really cool that you want to get back into it"  "Thanks, I'm actually doing it for a role" he explained " a role?" you asked, intrigued "Yes, well, I got cast in this show and they just told me yesterday that I'm gonna have to play the guitar in a scene, so...here I am" he finished with a contagious smile. "Cool, I am allowed to ask what show or is it like a secret?"  "I actually have no idea" he laughed "but" he bit his lip "you know what, It's only right for you to also have to keep a secret of mine" You tilted your head to the side and frowned, confused. He nodded to the guitar next to you and your lips formed an o in realization "You're right. come on, spill the beans, Joseph"  "ok, it's stranger things" "Oh" you said, a bit disappointed He chuckled "Well, that's not the reaction I was expecting" You widened your eyes, mortified "Oh, no sorry. I'm very happy for you and I have heard it's great, but I've just never watched it"  He laughed "no worries, if I have to be honest I had only watched season 1 before getting the role, so it's not like I'm a huge fan myself. But don't tell people that" He joked and you mimicked zipping your lips. "My mouth is sealed" you smiled " Now, let's talk guitars" you said intertwining your hands. He nodded "So would you say you are like a beginner or do you remember some stuff?"  He paused a moment to think "No, I think I can still play, I just need a refresher" "Ok, well in that case I recommend you to buy a Yamaha Pacifica 112V which has very high levels of playability and build quality even though she doesn't cost too much. But... if you happen to have a bigger budget then I definitely suggest this Squier Classic Vibe ‘50s Stratocaster." you said, walking towards the guitar "she's very well-made, well set-up and overall she just sounds great" You looked up at him and noticed a sly smile on his face. "She?" he asked obviously amused You felt your cheeks redden. Usually, you didn't care when people found out you liked to treat guitars like people but for some reason he intimidated you. You cleared your throat "Yes, guitars are females, Joseph. Honestly, I expected you to know that" you answered sarcastically. He chuckled"You're right, I'm sorry. I should know better" he pretended to apologize. He looked at the guitar you were pointing out to him and then at you again. "you really know a lot about guitars" he commented "Yeah, well, as surprising as it sounds I wasn't hired just for my pretty face"  "Oh, so that's just a plus," he said with a smirk. You swallowed. As much as you pretended to be confident and not at all affected by him your heart hadn't stopped racing since you saw him. "E-Exactly"  There was a moment of silence as he admired the guitars around him. "the song you were playing before, Sweet- sweet something" "Sweet child o' mine" you helped him "Yeah, that one. When was it released?" he asked, finding your eyes again. " '88" you answered " Wow, that was quick" he chortled  " Well, you asked" "Yeah, you're right. so you know a lot about 80's music, don't you?" "I'm more of a 90's gal myself, but I think I know the basics. Why?" you asked "Well, the show is set in the '80s and chances are I'm gonna have to play a song from that time, so Y'know, I should probably learn more about that decade and you seem like someone that could help me with that" "So you want like a list of famous songs" "Rock songs, yeah" "rock?" "My character is kind of a metalhead" You smiled "Sure, I would love to help " He widened his eyes and beamed "Oh, thank you so much" "Ok well, first the classics so obviously: crazy train by Ozzy Osborne, Wrathchild by the Iron Maiden, Welcome to the Jungle by Guns 'n Roses, Photograph by Def Leppard "You stopped as you noticed his face, he was staring at you, frozen "You may want to write them down"You laughed softly, bringing him back to earth. He cleared his throat "Yes, you're right, I'm sorry" he said, pulling his phone out of his back pocket."Ok, I'm ready" he informed you after a few moments. "Ok, then of course Jump by Van Halen, Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue, Ace of spades by Motorhead.. and then basically everything by AC/DC and Metallica" you finished your list "Wow" he whispered, stunned  "That's all?" "Well, these are the basics but there's a whole world out there" you smiled "What's your favorite one?" he asked intrigued You bit your lip and caught his eyes dropping to your mouth  “Is that part of your research?” his eyes came back up to yours. “I was just wondering” he smirked You smiled “ well, other than Sweet Child o’ mine, I know it's basic, but I absolutely love back in black” you answered truthfully, suddenly feeling shy. “Oh well of course, who doesn’t?” “Right? It’s THE classic. It didn't even take me too long to learn” He looked at you shocked, his eyes basically out of his skull “you know how to play it?” “Well yes, I mean, I’m not exactly Angus Young, but I’m decent” He grinned widely “ oh, now I need to hear it”. You bit the inside of your right cheek nervously. This guy... “Come on, it's for research purposes” he gave you his best puppy eyes and you swore you got butterflies in your stomach. Get a grip Y/N, what are you, 13? You scolded yourself. “Ok, I’ll play you the beginning if you promise to buy a guitar after. This place could really use the money” you gave in. “Deal” he said immediately, making you smile. You walked to the stool and sat down again, carefully taking the guitar propped against the wall. “You’re not allowed to make fun of me, ok?” you threatened and he smiled genuinely “I’m sure It’s not even gonna be a passing thought” You fished your pick from your pocket and took a deep breath, shutting your eyes. You positioned your fingers on the guitar and with a decisive strum, started playing. God, you loved the beginning, so iconic and yet never boring. Your fingers were moving swiftly on the strings as you were biting your lip to concentrate better while closing your eyes. That's how you liked to play.No distractions. Just you and the music. You kept going, putting all your passion into the movements as you started rocking your head and tapping your foot on the floor following the rhythm. You had forgotten all about where you were and what you were doing until you heard a faint "wow" coming from Joseph. You opened your eyes and looked at him. He was staring at you,him mouth slacked open while his eyes kept darting between your face and your fingers. You finished playing the first part as you promised and stopped to look at him. He was immobilized, you laughed softly "Are you still here Joe?" you asked waving your hands in his direction. He shook his head as if waking from a dream, "Y-Yes, I'm sorry" he chuckled to himself "it's just that, that's gotta be the hottest thing I've ever seen" he confessed with an incredulous smile. You blushed as you felt your heart skip a beat at the compliment. "Uhh, well" you swallowed "thank you" you smiled timidly at him as he reciprocated. You peeked at each other smiling for a few moments before a car passing by brought you back to reality. You exhaled deeply "now it's your turn to keep your part of the promise" you stated getting up and placing the guitar against the wall. he licked his lips "You're right,I think I'm gonna go for the most expensive one" he decided You laughed "Are you trying to impress me?" He tilted his head to the side and smirked "Is it working?" you narrowed your eyes and smiled subtly "kinda"

"she's all yours" you spoke, handing him the guitar he had chosen. Your hands touched as he took her from you and you felt a sparkle ignite from the touch, starting from your fingers and spreading through your whole body. Holy hell. You were pretty certain he felt it too as he stopped his movement and glanced at you briefly. You swallowed thickly and took a step back "If you have any problems with her or just need some help, don't hesitate to come back" "Will I find you?" "Probably yes, as I said, this place isn't exactly not-bankrupt " you joked "Well then I'm gonna come back for sure" "I'll count on it" you said as he walked towards the door and turned to look at you one last time before walking out.

You went back behind the counter and placed your hands on it. That was intense you, thought as you huffed closing your eyes. "So I was thinking"  You jumped out of your shink and widened your eyes It was him again. What was he a ninja? "You gotta stop doing that" He laughed "You're right, I'm sorry" "That was fast” you joked “How did you manage to already break the guitar?” He smiled and bit his lip” No, that’s actually not why I’m here. She’s fine, don’t worry” he said patting the guitar. “No, see. I was thinking…since I have to learn everything about playing guitar back again I might need some help” he explained “And you look like the perfect teacher” he said looking at you hopefully. You smiled at him “And what do I get back?” “You get to hang out with me” You rolled your eyes playfully ”fine, I felt in need to do a good deed today anyway.”

#joseph quinn #joseph quinn x fem!reader #joseph quinn stranger things #joseph quinn x reader #joseph quinn fluff #joseph quinn x y/n #stranger things x reader #stranger things #request #stranger things season four #stranger things season 4 #starnger things #fluff #joseph quinn fic

[suzuran777]

Revisiting Gakuen Handsome: Backstory + short review

I think every BL fan has seen something related to Gakuen Handsome at some point in their lives, it's a parody BL visual novel with quite the legacy. It was originally released in 2010 by Team YokkyuFuman and it also got its own OVA and anime adaptation in 2015 & 2016. The protagonist, who is an unnamed seventeen year old boy, moves back to the city after a seven year absence. He enrolls into Baramon High School, a prestigious all-boys school which takes pride in being the best of its prefecture. From now on, his life will be changed forever...

First of all, the developer team's backstory is probably one of the most unique ones. In 2008, eight film students from the Tohoku University of Art and Design formed Team YokkyuFuman (チーム欲求腐満). Their blog mentions that a year later, they attempted to submit the Gakuen Handsome opening movie to the 9th edition of the Niconico Film Festival (their submission was completely ignored). After that, the opening movie was uploaded on NicoNico Douga, where it was quite well received. The description of the video mentions “to be released in 20009”, as they originally probably had no intention to create a full game.

After it became a hot topic on NicoNico Douga, their university gave them permission to organize an official exhibition: Gakuen Handsome Matsuri (or just Gakuen Handsome Festival). Visitors could watch the opening movie, learn more about the characters and take pictures together with the life-sized cardboard cutouts. The exhibition also featured rare merch: A drama CD which would be released in "20009" and canned bread.

This exhibition was apparently not only held once, but many times according to their blog. The game was finally released in 2010 and many fans were happy to finally play it, supporting the team that created it. Togo Mito, who many of you know as the creator of (in)famous BL game Hadaka Shitsuji, also collaborated with them. These are some pictures I found on Togo Mito's old blog, Mizoguchi and Juro drawn by Togo Mito and the Hadaka Shitsuji cast drawn by Team YokkyuFuman.

Even after graduation, it seems like they would occasionally invite some of Gakuen Handsome's creators. In 2014, the university tweeted that they would not be able to host the exhibition that year due to renovations, but visitors could take pictures with the cardboard cutouts. There's also an interview from 2016 on the university's website, in which they talk about how things have been after graduation! I absolutely love how the university supported all of this.

Now about the game itself... Where to even start? You'll have to trust me, but the game is actually good. Many parody games can be quite a hit or miss, but this visual novel is something I still catch myself laughing at years later. The inconsistent art, pointy chins and strange jokes really create an experience unlike anything else. I don't think any commercial company would be able to create something like this, even if they tried. One detail that the anime adaptation doesn't really show is that many different artists worked on this, whose styles widely vary from each other, making absolutely no attempt to create one consistent artstyle. Most characters have at least 2 ~ 3 sprites that often look completely different from each other. For example, sometimes Saionji sensei looks like a clean-shaven teenager/young adult, but in the CGs he suddenly turn into an older looking man with a stubble.

Yes he's talking about eating paint in the screenshot above, why not. Anyway... the voice acting in this game is something else I wanted to talk about, because it adds so much to the game. Of course it's not professional, but I think that's what makes it amazing. You can sometimes hear the voice actors trying really hard not to laugh, and they will occasionally completely mess up their lines. Of course all of those lines are kept in the game and they didn't re-record them. I also loved it when they started swearing in English for seemingly no reason. Also, instead of just avoiding the name of the protagonist (who you can give any name you want) they pronounce it... by improvision. Just imagine how one would try to pronounce a "adfgdf" keysmash and you'll get an idea what it sounds like.

There are 6 characters in this game who you can romance. The protagonist's childhood friend Takuya, who is a bit obsessed with the protein bar Calorie Mate (which is censored in the new version of the game, so you just hear a BLEEP sound), outlaw teacher Saionji, school principal Juro who basically only functions as a save point, student council president Kagami, chuunibyou transfer student Shiga, and last but not least, the captain of the soccer team Mitsurugi, who also murders people with his chin sometimes. The protagonist's sister also has a (non-romantic) ending, which you need to play in order to unlock the extra scenario (which... is a ridiculous murder mystery story for some reason). I also could not find the guide I used a long time ago, so I just looked at some videos on NicoNico to see what others were doing and that worked pretty well...!

My favorite scene is probably still that one scene in Mitsurugi's route, in which he stabs people with his chin. It's also one of the scenes that gets referenced the most in fanart. The context makes it even more ridiculous, Mitsurugi gets really upset that some people like the chunky variant of red bean paste (tsubuan) and decides they should die. After stabbing his teammate and multiple other people he runs outside. The protagonist however, isn't safe either and also gets accused of being a "tsubuan supporter". If you survive though, you get a chance to marry Mitsurugi!

Honestly one of the reasons I wanted to write about this game is because many people only know the OVA and/or anime, but the game is so funny I think everyone should play it if they're interested. I also think the team behind it has such a funny backstory and I love seeing how supportive their university is. Right now the team is still active on their Twitter account and they sometimes create new content. Last year they released Gakuen Handsome Fighters, a short fighting game featuring the Gakuen Handsome characters.

If you are interested in purchasing it, I recommend getting the "Special" edition which can be purchased on DLsite! I couldn't find a working download link anymore of the older version, but I think the creators deserve the support, so I don't regret buying it (it was about 15 USD). It includes the original game and 5 shorter stories which were originally released as smartphone apps. While I think the original game is still the best one, it's fun to explore some of the extra scenarios as well. One of the shorter games takes place in an alternative universe in which the boys live in the Heian period, and for some reason some of the sprites are animated... yeah.

#gakuen handsome #blvn #blvnreview #visual novel

[mooncaps]

Childhood Joy: Sailor Moon Edition

In the midst of re-examining my life, I've dug up a bunch of old photographs and I thought it might be fun to share some of these.

I forget the year, but judging by the wrapping paper I'll assume this was a Valentine's Day gift from my mom. And of course I loved to make goofy faces for the camera.

I think this was later that same day. The candy heart suggests that it probably was.

Not sure what occasion this was, but I was very pleased with these curtains.

This was one Christmas or another when I got Mercury and Jupiter.

Me with some fanart I drew. Try not to get jealous of my artistic talent.

Guess which bunk was mine, lol. (We did have matching bedspreads at one point.) I shared a couple of pictures of this ages ago on this blog.

I loved this comforter. It's one of the things my grandmother made disappear when I made the mistake of leaving it at her house. Nearly 30 years later and I'm still kinda salty about it.

This was my 9th Birthday. My mom made me a Sailor Moon cake.

And she drew this super cool picture.

I got a lunch box too.

A Lego fanwork next to a shampoo bottle. Presumably I had used the bottle as a reference to try and approximate her design with the Lego bricks. I think my mom helped me. I shared another image of Lego Moon a while back.

She was accompanied by Lego Mars. You can also see the lunchbox behind them and the curtains from earlier on the right.

Not sure when this was, but there's Venus. I know I had Mars and Princess Serenity too, along with various other toys and VHS tapes, but I haven't found any photos of when I received them.

And there's a season 2 poster I had on my wall.

These memories still make me smile. Sailor Moon was really important to little me. I'm sure I've talked before on this blog about some of the ways the show influenced me. I can also remember playing as Sailor Moon with my Crescent Moon Wand and Crystal Brooch. I think I remember accidentally leaving the Crystal Brooch outside one time and going out to find it the next morning after it had been rained on. I can remember brushing the hair of my dolls. For some reason I was determined to un-twintail Usagi's hair. I can remember doing several drawings of the characters.

I think I'd stay in the warmth of those memories forever if I could.

#Sailor Moon #Usagi Tsukino #Ami Mizuno #Makoto Kino #Chibiusa Tsukino #Rei Hino #Minako Aino #Artemis #Luna #Mamoru Chiba #stuff about me #nostalgia #cool fanart

[discluded]

rewatched some old mileapo interviews and I just find myself smiling every time mile retells his and apo's history because he tells it so excitedly with a huge smile on his face even though he probably told that story a hundred of times already. also I never realized that he said he watched apo's dramas before. he really is apo's biggest supporter 😩

anon, Apo is sooooo famous, many people have watched his series! 🥺 From Mile's Wan(der) Day where the street vendor they bought scorpions from recognized Apo (which didn't make the cut SOBSSS. I know it was because Apo didn't want to take away from Mile's shine BUT STILLLLL LET MILE BRAG ABOUT HOW HE SNAGGED A FAMOUS HOTTIE)

Here's this perspective from a Thai fan who's been a fan for several years about Apo's career:

I wrote this because i saw some comments from interfans insult Apo about his famous in the past. As a thai fan for several years , I accepted that Apo is not superstar in thailand. And at that time, in previous company DID NOT EXPORT their soap opera/series, their focus market is in local thai only. But i can say that Apo is an artist IN TREND as always among hundreds artists in same company. And fandoms culture is not strong for Thai artist.

And i would like to top up a bit more that , he got a lot of choices from organizers asking to join their series especially action role which his outstanding talented , but because during that time he was studying in university.

So attend 2-3 series in a year might made him tough on time management.

In 2014-2018 under previous company contract , he was 11 filmography both main and support roles, 8-9 shows, >20 cover magazine. Also he was a model in several fashion shows. And his series still 2-3 times re-run until now.

His name&face still be remembered by wide ppl.

Hope all of my explanation can clarify you all on his famous.

From a mommy who humbly proud on son.

Which makes it even more sad Apo felt pressured to quit an art he loves to make since the terrible working environment made him so unhappy, because it seemed like he was building a strong career for himself domestically and he was beloved by TV producers and fashion designers.

So we also really need to thank Mile for making sure KPTS stayed afloat because Apo really talked about KPTS like it was a last ditch effort in acting and would have left probably for another [permanent] hiatus if it had fallen through. Maybe would have returned much older like Ke Huy Quan did in EEAAO (not that age is a problem! just so many years of projects that wouldn't have happened...).

But what we should be really envious of is Mile's Y/N Wattpad fic life... "So like, I'm rich and smart and was a model and I met this hottie while modelling but I didn't know I liked guys then and then he became super famous but then he quit acting and then fate brought us back together again and now we are very cute and gross" 💀 if I didn't love Mile so much, I'd probably hate his fortune.....

And yeah, the way they both tell the story together in the early days of their casting relationship (e.g. Funday Show) is soooo different compared to even the way they tell the story even during Kinnporsche series promo as it was airing

(starts at 2:55 here)

There's one in particular I'm thinking of during KPTS promo where Mile talks about seeing Apo on the catwalk but being too shy to talk to him before Apo approaches him… (drop the link if you have it, I gotta run to a meeting in 5 minutes).

Yeah, Mile's enthusiasm for their first meet-cute story is so obvious from the start and he progressively remembers/reveals more and more details, while Apo's is initially more reserved but now super enthusiastic about it. As @sinnadreams pointed out, Apo in Funday was testing the waters while also making Mile work for it/chase him and now he is confident and secure and Mile is even more *continues to tell longer and longer versions of the same story*

It really feels like one of Those Couples Stories couples tell about themselves. I think you know what I mean if you know.

And yes, Mile is #1 apocolleague, watch out ofc admin, Mile is not letting you have that spot!!!

#mile is apo's biggest fan #famous apo #actor apo nattawin #apo nattawin #mileapo #old but gold #mileapo x funday #mile phakphum #mile phakphum's y/n wattpad fic life #mile wan(der) day #kinnporsche

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase Character Discussion (for your local Cyberchase trivia quiz) - #1: Inez

Since I have been archiving data from the Cyberchase section of the old pbskids.org website for the FlashPoint Archive Project lately, I thought should share some content I have dug up, particularly information that was provided on the different characters. Much of the information is no longer on the site. While much of it is available in the FlashPoint Archive Project now, and I would consider the project easy to look into and setup, not everyone will take the time to do so. #1: Inez I figure the best place to start is with her official "Meet the Cybersquad" character bio from back in the day. This was placed on the pbskids.org website way back in 2001, before the series initially started airing in 2002. This is no longer on the pbskids.org site, so I can't promise that it is still canon.

So, we start off learning that Inez is the youngest of the group, at nine years old. We never see the kids in school together, but I would not be surprised if Inez jumped forward a grade or two. The page emphasizes her curiosity. Now, would you call the parkway vs. driveway thing pedantic? For me: no comment.

The second page tells us that her favorite color is purple, her favorite food are popcorn and mangoes, and her favorite book in "By the Shores of Silver Lake", by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That is part of Wilder's autobiographical "Little House on the Prarie" series, with this particular book being published in 1939. I know its a classic that has been republished numerous times, but I do find it interesting that she went for such an old book. Her favorite music is by Mac Anthony. The page doesn't mention specific genres, and Marc Anthony has done several different genres over the years. I don't know his discography very well, but it looks like he was best known for Latin Salsa in the late 1990s and early 2000s, so that's probably her favorite music genre overall.

The third page tells us that her favorite move is "Harry Potter", as she loves Hermione Granger. Because this bio came out in 2001, only Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone would have been released as a movie at the time.

Her pet peeves are listed as heights, bad sportsmanship, and whenever Matt calls her "Nezzie". According to TVTropes, she did conquer her fear of heights by the time The Cyberchase Movie came out. She has one pet, her cat, Gatito. We do see Gatito in a few episodes of the show.

Now, there's something odd about Inez's design on the "Meet the Cybersquad" page. The star on her shirt is purple, as opposed to the yellow we got in the show. I'm not sure how this happened, as Inez had the yellow star as far back as the 1999 pilot.

This reminds me of another piece of trivia. During Season 4 Episode 2 "The Icky Factor", the kids get wetsuits for the first time, as they need to swim around Aquari-yum. They had already been to Aquari-yum twice by this point. However, they stayed in the sub the whole time during Season 1 Episode 16 "Codename Icky". Then, during Season 3 Episode 6 "The Grapes of Plath", they just wore their regular clothes with a bubble helmet to walk around the bottom of the bowl.

Look at their wetsuits. Matt gets plain blue wetsuit, Jackie gets a plain yellow wetsuit, and Digit gets a plain orange wetsuit. Inez gets a green wetsuit with a yellow star on the front and a purple vest. I like this detail. It's about as close to matching her color scheme as they could get without making the top half of the wetsuit pink, which would have just been weird. Maybe a full pink wetsuit would have been a little better? I don't know. If they did that, she would be missing out on the green from her shorts

Anyway, the next piece to look at is this page from Cyberchase: How It All Started: Webisode 3. This was an official prequel web comic that come out before the show started airing, so its a little off. I promise that this is the original image without any edits.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080610025304/http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/webisode_3/7.html

They got her skin-tone and hair color very wrong, as they showed her as white with red hair. The lenses on her glasses aren't as opaque. They did get the yellow star right this time, but I would consider her skin tone to be far more important. I would love to hear the story of how this mix-up happened. You know what? I'll add my attempt at fixing their mistake below, based on skin, hair, and glasses colors picked from "Meet the Cybersquad". I don't have much GIMP experience, but I think I did a pretty good job.

Anyway, the main reason I brought this image up was that she is noted as being a computer whiz who loves to go on the Internet. As far as I remember, she never uses her computer skills in the show, probably because they played it so fast and loose with the terminology.

So, that first image only showed her from the waist-up, but we do get a shot of her riding her bike to the library to meet her new friends and start the first episode. They did it again.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080607121655/http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/webisode_3/8.html

I honestly wouldn't care if it was just the shirt, vest, or shorts being the wrong color. Alright, I have added a color-corrected version below.

The second page gives us "Oh no, this is not good at all!" That is the prototype for her iconic phrase: "This is not good! This is not good at all!".

Did you know that on her way to the library, Inez road her bike all over town to run other errands? She went to Betty's House, the Post Office, and the Video (VHS) store before arriving at the library just in time to make some new friends and upload her mind into the Internet.

As far as character trivia goes, Cyberchase did have official printable trading cards. Here's the one for Nezzie. I love this card. One of her favorite things is E-mail. Her other favorite things include experiments and big words, but we all knew that already. They picked a more optimistic, but less iconic, favorite line for her with, "Hey, I've got an idea!" rather than "This is not good! This is not good at all!". She is great at basketball, which may be surprising to some, given her height. We'll come back to that. She is also great at reading, standing up for herself, and singing. We do get to hear her sing "Brahm's Lullaby" in Spanish for Chewcrocca's baby during Season 3 Episode 1 "EcoHaven CSE".

I can think of two pieces of official Cyberchase media related to Basketball. There was Season 6 Episode 7 "Jimaya Jam", which had a sport of the same name, except it took away dribbling. However, Inez was actually separated from the group at the time, with Creech taking over her role during the Jimaya Jam game. Presumably, Inez was just too powerful.

The second piece is from the singular Cyberchae chapter book, "The Search for the Power Orb". The story actually starts with Inez playing basketball against Matt. She is frustrated that he is able to block her shots due to his clear height advantage, and his teasing about her height doesn't help. Towards the end of the story, they retrieve the titular Power Orb, which is roughly the size of a basketball. It needs to go back into its basket to save Cybersite Serentia from complete deletion. Inez is able to use her short stature to run between The Hacker's legs, get a boost from Izzy, and slam dunk the Power Orb.

What else? I found this early concept art on the Cyberchase wiki. It seems like the biggest change was the style for her boots.

There is also this write-up from a "Who's Who" document. I don't know whether this was always available to the public, or if this was an internal document when they were developing and pitching the show. It doesn't add too much information to what I already posted, but it does state their intent to make her a tomboy, and it talks about her tendency to giggle, give inspirational quotes and stand on her head.

I figure no Inez compilation is complete without her standing on her head at some point. Here she is in Season 2 Episode 12 "The Guilty Party" flinging herself out of a handstand, twisting around, and landing on her feet.

#cyberchase #inez #cartoon #2000s #2000s childhood #she slam dunks the fucking thing #it's incredible #longpost #archived web content

[disastergenius]

Celebrating 15 years of Team Starkid with my (current) ranking of all of their shows and brief thoughts on them.

VHS Christmas Carol

I don't know how this became my favorite. The music is top tier, I've liked every version of it.

I was initially nervous to watch it because I wasn't sold on the original format, but it grew on me.

Also it's the second best adaptation of A Christmas Carol (the best is still the Muppet Christmas Carol)

2. A Very Potter Musical

My first ever Starkid show.

I watched it with my sister on our very old computer. I was in maybe 6th grade and had become quite obsessed with musicals and Harry Potter, so it perfectly combined my interests.

I truly was not totally sold on it just because 6th grade me was not prepared for all the cursing and the dirty jokes (6th grade me was a very different person) but Granger Danger fully hooked me

I still hold that Granger Danger is the best Starkid song, i do not care that it gets (over)played all the time. I also love that they keep having to come up with new ways to perform it (my favorite/the best being the LeakyCon one with Meredith directing the rest of the cast who only half-remember it)

Definitely ranks high just because it was the first and nostalgically I love it so much

3. Trail to Oregon

It's so fun as a concept and one of the few shows I like that really uses audience participation and makes it work.

Joey credited as "Everyone Else" and every shot with Clark in the background

I like the smaller cast, it's such a feat to run a show like that with 6 cast members

4. A Very Potter Sequel

it's ranked 4th but it probably actually ties with Trail to Oregon

I watched it after AVPM (so my second starkid show) and it did not disappoint

I do think it is stronger than AVMP for most of it

I quote Draco a lot

5. Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier

Definitely my favorite parody they've done. There's a great video that breaks down why it works so well: they've nailed the style.

Around the same time I first watched Twisted was also around my Wicked phase so that helped a lot.

Dylan Saunders knocks out it out of the park as Ja'far, he puts so much depth into the role. It works as an actor and for the part and helps a lot of the humor since Ja'far is the straight man of the show.

The entire soundtrack slaps including the bonus demos

6. Nerdy Prudes Must Die

The songs are great

The production value on their shows has gone up exponentially, and they make good use of it. The effects are so so good

I've never been more uncomfortable as when the words "dirty girl soup" were first said

7. Black Friday

probably tied with NPMD but

I think plot-wise it is better than NPMD, and overall so are the songs. I think maybe the live version that's on youtube is what makes it slightly below NPMD because everyone was sick so it sounds very different between the live and recorded.

the garland and lights becoming wiggly is peak set design

I think it has some of the most memorable songs

the return of Dylan Saunders and his lovely ballads

Take Me Back is a top tier love song for Starkid

8. Starship

Probably the 3rd Starkid show I saw

Joey Richter absolutely sells the performance (he's not carrying it because the whole cast is great) and is fantastic as the lead

puppets! so many puppets!

9. Holy Musical B@tman

my previous exposure to Batman at this point had been the 60s Adam West TV show so really this is like the spiritual successor of that, so honestly i was totally unfazed by the number of puns, I just assumed that was how Batman media was

Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth is great, but I also love Joey Richter's in the Apocalyptour

"you got my hopes up so high, then mugged and shot them in an alleyway!" i quote an unreasonable amount

10. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

tbh I did not super like the show when I first watched it but it grew on me overtime. I think i really started to enjoy it when I went back to watch it after they announced Black Friday was going to be a sequel

11. A Very Potter Senior Year

it's so long guys

I think Joey Richter is the best part of it, Sidekick was fantastic

i do love that they got basically everyone they could to come back and do it

most of the callbacks work really well and make it fun

12. Ani: A Parody

fully gonna admit I haven't seen the full show itself, but I do really like the music

it is truly in the Star Wars spirit

13. Firebringer

I really wish I liked this show more, I think it's a fun concept and overall was fun

the opening number is really good musically

i think the humor and the unnecessary cursing didn't really work for me

14. Me and My Dick

I just think overall this show isn't to my taste but it's quite fun

#team starkid #starkid #starkid 15 year anniversary #15 years of starkid

[dominustempori]

TWO MORE MONTHS, PEOPLE!!!

Quick thoughts to follow up after my post on the teaser trailer (SPOILER WARNING!) In honor of March the 22nd…I’ll go for 22 observations/opinions.

1. Slimer’s back!

2. JANINE IN UNIFORM! WITH A BLASTER!

-Definitely a call back to 1) one of the ORIGINAL storyboard designs for the backpack/neutrona wand in the first movie, and 2) the IDW comics when Janine and other “new ‘Busters” take over when the OGs disappear.

3. Definitely another secret society/cult that must’ve worshipped Garraka ( hidden room with the demon’s horns/frozen eyepatch guy that shatters in the supposed flashback scene..?)

4. If that’s Coney Island where the big ice storm is coming ashore…then THAT could very well be a throwback to the RGB episode “Collect Call of Cthulu.”

5. GB’s got a new van! Ecto 1c?

6. Research lab? AWESOME!

7. Big question- what’s the connection between the arrival of Garraka and the red light on the containment unit? Is it coming after GBHQ to get more power (much like Gozer?)

8. OK…James Acaster is NOT a grown Oscar…damn. I’m sure his researcher character is gonna be brilliant though. Poor guy…frostburned hand? Eesh.

9. I REALLY hope they explore more of Callie (and therefore, Egon’s) background story. That scene where Trevor’s in that attic…aw.

10. DRONE TRAP!!! Next level! Fans lost their minds with the RTV…someone will surely try to build a model of a freaking FLYING ghost trap.

11. Modified proton packs? Makes sense now, that thing can FREEZE the positron stream! WHAT!?

12. Grooberson’s driving Ecto 1! F*ck yeah, Paul Rudd!

13. LIBRARY GHOST IS BACK!

14. So how does Kumail Nanjiani’s character come into possession of that mysterious golden orb? I’m still thinking it’s his apartment with the secret door.

15. Imagine being an old time NYC firefighter and seeing men frozen to death, in fear. When did NYFD form, I wonder?

16. Patton Oswalt is the new Ray…love it.

17. Bill Murray…still got it, man.

18. Swear to god that’s his old orange jacket from the first movie.

19. OK…on one hand, Gil and Jason are probably not counting the GB Video Game as part of the canon, and yet, the IDW comic universe IS built on some plot points of the game. So…does the PCOC exist in Frozen Empire? Is Peck mayor? Perish the thought?

20. Bring on the mischievous Mini-Pufts! Evidently some survived the “Summerville Massacre.”

21. PLEASE have Egon’s unknown life history be in the story somewhere, PLEASE Gil and Jason! It’s almost 10 years since the world lost Harold Ramis…PLEASE pay his beloved character some more tribute.

22. I have to admit…I do like Annie Potts back with not just her red hair, but those new blue-frame glasses. Good nod to the animated series, I will bow to that piece of fan service, not sorry.

TWO MORE MONTHS!!!

#ghostbusters #frozen empire #who ya gonna call? #sony pictures #columbia pictures #cannot wait #ghostheads unite #Youtube