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satoshy12 · 1 year

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Constantine and the Cherub"?"

John Constantine sat in the House of Mystery, next to him was a baby cradle, and he poured himself a glass of whiskey. It had been a busy night so far, but he knew that could change in an instant if the child woke up. And the demonologist, is ready to take a break, even just this tiny one.

As he returned home, he found the infant who owned a part of his soul, and John had no idea who’s backing the tiny infant.

But he was aware that it must be a fairly powerful person because he had sold his soul to numerous, related beings. Additionally, he had sensed the being that had seen to his needs be done before departing.

And somehow Danny is involved, prompting John to be instructed in the letter to keep the child, whose name is Daniel, safe. As stated in the warning, if a vampire, robot, or a flock of green vultures tries to kidnap Danny, just send them away. It doesn't matter where they go as long as the baby doesn't see them.

He observed that Danny's appearance would change when he sneezed; at the time, he was just a baby with black hair, not white hair. John believes he can handle it as long as it doesn't happen in front of others.

As he took a sip of his drink, his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Zatanna. He hesitated for a moment before answering. He knew that when she called, it usually meant trouble.

"John, we need you at the Watch Tower," she said as soon as he picked up. "There's something big going on."

John sighed. He knew he couldn't ignore the call. As much as he tried to distance himself from the superhero world, he knew that they would not leave him alone.

"I'll be there," he tried to whisper and not wake up the infant, and put down his glass. "What's the situation?"

Zatanna filled him in on the details as he made himself ready to get a Zeta-beam to the Watch Tower. It seemed that a powerful artifact had appeared in a city and had cased chaos. The Justice League had already taken it with them, but they needed John's expertise to know how to deal with the situation.

John's mind raced as he tried to think of a plan. He couldn't leave Danny alone, but he also couldn't ignore them otherwise they would come. He decided to bring the baby with him, hoping that the Watch Tower would be a safe place for the child. Put on his coat, and took Danny in his arm, and got Zeta-beamed.

As he arrived at the Watch Tower, John was greeted by the rest of the Justice League. He could sense their surprise when they saw the baby in his arms, but they didn't say anything.

John quickly looked at the artifact as Danny started to wake up .

Bruce asked, "Why do you have an infant with you?"

John:" You have no idea, i am struck with him, after I returned home he was inside my house. A note telling me to take care of him and... he owns a part of my soul."

Wally began to chuckle like Hal: "John Constantine, The Hellblaser lost his soul to a baby; I can't wait to see the faces of your foes and other allies! Hahahaha!"

Dinah moved cautiously toward Danny "Who is adorable?" You are a little cherub, indeed." Danny looked around and saw he was in space, which made his already adorable disposition even cuter. He also slightly twitched his little nose.

The Heroes grinned as they saw the baby's happiness as John showed him the window and Dinah promised John she would take good care of him. He will discuss what they discovered while it.

John quickly realized that the Thermos was a prison that they could open and seal in the same way. As they were able to use the Thermos to trap the creatures, the bottom did not lie, but who would construct such a prison?

"Ah-choo!!"

A few seconds later, he just heard a yell: "John!!"

John:"Oh, no."

They noticed Dinah returning in a sprint: "This child is not typical; his dark black hair has vanished, and he has changed his appearance. He now sports a white hair halo! Nothing brief but cute! He appears even cuter when he is dimly glowing!"

Clark Kent:" May I ask what you think he is, Constantine? He's not a human, is he?"

"Well, all I know is that he is not malicious." John: "I have no notion what he is."

He observes the heroes' glares at him.

John explained it to them: " Buggers, I'm referring to his species, not his personality! I don't even know what to think what race it can be, Hell. Feel free to think of name for his race as i was not able to find a existing one, he can be just a new species. Please refrain from using the terms similiar sounding to Cambion or Demon."

Dinah: "He is a little Cherub, then. Yes You are, you are, you are. I'm going to go give him food since you will be preoccupied with this."

A select group of Heroes without any knowledge of magic remained with her to spend time with young Danny when Dinah departed. Only John, Zatanna, and Batman remain in the rear.

"Okay, Who will tell her," John said as he blinked his eyes, and saw Black Canary leave.

Zatanna: "Don't you dare."

A/N:

Yes i have the sneeze idea form Lauch Dragon Ball just Google biblically accurate angels Cherubim

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justanotherhh · 2 months

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something i haven't seen much of so far is analysis of charlie's journey from the perspective of someone who also needs to change how she engages with others (vaggie too, but that feels more obvious as she's an ex-angel/exorcist and a sinner)

when charlie tries to help angel by confronting valentino it's been built to in the other episodes, because it's made very clear that she doesn't respect sex work -- she's got that "we need to save them from themselves" type attitude you see a lot with people who haven't done critical analysis into their own biases from a position of mildly-to-severe privileged disgust and haven't engaged with the perspectives of sex workers as people who can frame and understand their own experiences (whatever work they engage in and why they do sex work to begin with). same for her opinions on addiction

the scene where angel has to do a reenactment with sir pentious frames addiction as

something to be judged

something pitiable

something predatory

which isn't exactly a great way to bring angel onboard with the programme/make him feel less like shit. meanwhile the anti-sex + weirdly heteronormative attitude is also present in that scene by having sir pentious dress up as a virginal young girl in an anime-type school uniform with a big lollipop (the irony of this being practically indistinguishable from a porn setup feels very intentional), who declares that "she" won't be having sex before marriage as the great crescendo (sidenote, monogamy in the afterlife sounds.... like a long time to be monogamous......... yzma voice: "why do we even have marriage??")

angel, up until his duet with husk, is having it made clear again and again that the people seemingly helping him find the essence of his being inherently gross. he likes sex -- yeah there's the performance/face he has to wear to get through the day, but i think the bdsm club was a sincere suggestion and vaggie literally calls it disgusting/shoots it down without thinking about how to do so respectfully (again, she's an ex-angel/exorcist, she has biases of her own to contend with, but also the implications that nobody in heaven is having fun sex or negotiated kink and bdsm... tragic. do they even have a sex club called consent up there?)

charlie is a fairly conservative person at the beginning of the story. yes, she wants to help, but her framing of what "help" looks like doesn't take into account her own biases; presumably she grew up with the idea that "sinners are bad people" as much as anyone else did, if not more considering lucifer gave up on the sinners and that's been her environment from birth -- cut off from the people she's supposedly in charge of, but "hearing stories." (in both the pilot and happy day in hell she clearly has a fondness for the sinners, but it's as an outsider, someone who does not relate to them, and generally there's that overtone of "royalty doesn't know shit about what anyone is going through" which, charlie being a ruler, i wonder if that will be a focal point or just something to accept, it's not a dealbreaker for me, just something i noticed, esp as helluva boss has poked on power dynamics in hell along those same lines). the yearly murdering of demons is, likewise, something that is simply status quo and so even getting to a place of "hey maybe we shouldn't do that" is big and was inevitably going to create more cracks in the logic of black-and-white heaven-or-hell, so it's cool that that's where we the audience get to first meet her -- right as those threads are about to start unravelling

but at the very beginning, in some ways she echoes elements of characters like adam and lute (who are of course far more in-your-face, being villains) in her original assessment of what makes someone "a bad person" -- it causes her to create a system that doesn't actually work, and then of course the hotel is destroyed, but next time they'll build it to be better! (metaphor *jazz hands*)

why is angel in hell, is the question later asked. is it because he was/is an addict? because he drinks? because he does sex work? because he likes sex? (it may be because he's killed people/was in the mafia, but we don't have all the context yet, for now those are the things people know in the story itself) at the beginning charlie isn't asking the right questions, questions that would need her to go into herself and challenge her own biases, but throughout season 1 she goes from merely proclaiming that "everyone" can be saved, to sincerely challenging the idea of "needing to be saved" from things that shouldn't be judged in the first place. "if angel's can do whatever and remain in the sky." yeah, how are we stipulating what's allowed and what isn't hmmmmmm? stay tuned for s2

(and youknow, apologises to angel for overstepping his boundaries, so it's not like angel doesn't know that she does care for him, s4 gives a lot of development for their relationship as well -- it's the tipping point for a lot of what comes next)

interested to see how that challenging will continue in s2. she's gone from "we have to make you into a good person by cutting out things that make me (and others) uncomfortable from a conservative/purity-based judgemental framework" to "why do we have these systems of judgement in the first place?"

tl;dr angel changed a looot in s1 but so did charlie. she understands better now that the work she's doing is going to look very different from what she'd first anticipated, and poking at her own biases in relation to angel helped that journey and brought her closer to actually understanding and relating to the people around her

(there's another element here about charlie and vaggie as queer women in this particular universe, but it's a slight tangent so... different post)

#charlie morningstar #hazbin hotel #angel dust #vaggie #vaggie hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel meta #first post let's gooooooooooooooooooo #my meta

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f1crecs · 9 months

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Fic Rec List - Football AUs

if your fic is on this list and you don’t want it to be, please let me know and I will remove it immediately, no questions asked. I have contacted most of the authors on this list, but sometimes people fall through the gaps - just pop me a message🤍

have a pairing you want me to do next? please read the faqs and then head to my inbox.

don’t forget to give the authors featured on this list some love in the form of kudos, bookmarks, and comments!

hi, anon. of course! I hope you enjoy some of these. I am British, so I took this to mean ⚽🥅🏆 ... please let me know if you meant the 🏈📣🤸‍♀️ kind.

the majority of these are Charles/Pierre. I like to try and keep my rec lists fairly evenly balanced, but the truth is that most of the football AU's in fandom feature these two. which, I won't lie, does make me giggle a little bit given Charles' um... you know... his...

enjoy, anon!

Carlos/Lando

I remember when I met you just before September by @wolfiemcwolferson | E | 16.3k Carlos meets someone who changes everything for him. This is such a gorgeous, gorgeous story, with some of my favourite Carlos characterisation ever! One thing that this author always gets right is their dialogue - it flows so beautifully, and is so fun to read. A beautiful story.

And the prettiest boy he’s ever seen in his life is wearing a pink shirt - tight across his chest, dancing against George - who is cackling, head thrown back and looser than Carlos has ever seen him look before.

Charles/Pierre

use every fibre of my being just to keep me at bay by @pinkierre | T | 2.2k Pierre and Charles are on the same course at University. This is such a sweet story! It made me giggle out loud. This author has such perfect comedic timing - it's so fun to read! I also loved the Max and Pierre friendship here, and the Max and Charles rivalry.

Pierre was not staring. However, maybe he was looking into Charles’ general direction a bit... much… Charles was on the other side of the library, in a white hoodie that seemed to be two sizes too big, a dark pair of glasses, a black bandana and a massive pair of headphones. He looked properly adorable, and Pierre might just like seeing him being so into his work.

goal of the century by @yukierres | G | 2.3k Charles joins the team, and has a big impact. This is such a sweet story! The characterisation is fantastic. Charles has this magnetism to him that Pierre just can't resist - and I think that's an experience most of us have been through before. 😁 This author's writing makes me really happy. This was fantastic.

'You can see it in his eyes though, the burning desire to get on the pitch. The intensity in which he follows the ball during play, hands gripped on his thighs, his porcelain skin getting whiter and whiter as the clock ticks. Pierre can't stop watching him in the corner of his eye as he plays. He is completely magnetic, almost hypnotic. He can't draw himself away from Charles however much he tries.'

The Light That Shines Behind Your Eyes by @saintdevote | T | 2.6k Pierre's journey through the world of professional football. This is such a gorgeous AU, that still feels very them. The angst here was hard-hitting, but beautifully done. The last few sentences gave me chills - which isn't something I often say! I really loved this!

'Pierre wishes he could find it in himself to be bitter, to lash out and tell Charles to go away. Even if he did, he’s not entirely one of his oldest friends would do such a thing. Instead, he smiles.'

all the kingdom lights shined (just for me and you) by @chaesonghwas | T | 15.8k (wip) Pierre and Charles and their journey to the World Cup. I am loving this so far! It is such a gorgeous story - so beautifully paced. You can feel the friendship and love and respect blooming between them. I am so excited to see where this goes!

'Charles finally meets Pierre on a sunny day on the pitch, the sun shining down on his golden hair and the ball at his feet. Beautiful, he thinks, and with that he seals his destiny.'

nsfw: you're in my head, you're in my blood by @singsweetmelodies & @boxboxbrioche | E | 15.8k Charles and Pierre work on a project together. Disclaimer - as a standard rule, I do not recommend my own fics! However, this was written with a close friend, who I am a very big fan of, and it seems like a disservice to her and to FootballPlayer!Pierre fans everywhere not to include this. All the best parts were written by her, anyways. ;)

Charles knows Pierre Gasly, is the thing. Well. He knows of Pierre Gasly. He knows that he plays for the university’s football team, and aside from football, obviously, what Pierre loves most in the world is sex.

Charles/Sebastian

nsfw: Pale Fire by @lyonsbutton | E | 37.2k Charles meets Sebastian in his final year of University. This story is incredible - so very bittersweet, and achingly nostalgic. If you have been to a British University, you will probably see parts of your experience reflected here. The humour is delicious. I wish I could read this one again for the first time.

'Charles is made acutely aware of the fact that he'd skipped two practices in a row. If his position in the first team weren't so heavily cemented he would've been a little more worried. That, and the fact that he's technically this year's treasurer, which means whatever. Charles can't remember the last time he opened Excel. This is why student democracy fails, he thinks, as he fails to make a beautiful pass from Lando connect into the goal.'

#carlando #piarles #sebchal #pairing:carlos/lando #pairing:charles/pierre #pairing:charles/sebastian #driver:carlos #driver:charles #driver:lando #driver:pierre #driver:sebastian #au:football #f1 rpf

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mytragedyperson · 7 months

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Thoughts I had while reading TCF/LCF chapter 14

Well done Cale, you didn’t get beat up. One of the few times your plan actually works and you don’t get hurt. Also poor OG Cale. Getting beat up already suck but it was raining too? Now that’s just sad.

Also the start of his hoard of ancient powers because as mentioned Cale hoards pretty much everything, as he should

Oh the awkwardness that is the early days Henituse family. I don’t hate or dislike Deruth. Idk what the general consensus about him is. I don’t necessarily think he’s the best father ever but I also don’t think he’s the worst father ever. I think he tries his best but it’s hard. I don’t think anyone is solely at fault for the awkwardness in the family. Like it would be so easy to say it’s OG Cale’s fault or it’s Deruth’s fault but it’s not really that black and white. We know from the beginning that Deruth is at least trying from the way Ron tells Cale the master has been wanting to eat breakfast with him for a while. It’s one of the first things we hear in the novel, but it also seems he didn’t really try to intervene when Cale was acting like trash, except we get that information from the novel, which doesn’t even name the secret organisation tormenting everyone in the first 5 volumes. He doesn’t try to correct his manners, but really his manners aren’t that bad at least compared to OG Cale who calls the food trash and breaks stuff a lot. I do think he could be a worse father, but I also think he could be a better character so for now I’m fairly neutral towards him. I do think he’s trying to protect and care for Cale in his own way, he just doesn’t know how to do that, snd he may be worried that pushing too hard will cause Cale to leave altogether. Maybe my opinion will change as time goes by.

Similarly I don’t yet have much of an opinion on Violan. Some may say that, as the adult, she should be the one putting in the effort and trying to improve their relationship, but I feel like it’s already more awkward for step parents, especially in a case like this where the biological mother is dead, because you don’t want to try and force a relationship and you don’t want to seem like you’re trying to replace the biological parent. Again fairly neutral towards her, maybe that will change. I feel like it’s easy to tell that, in her own way, she does care for Cale, she just doesn’t know how to show that and I feel like that’s especially clear in the way she discusses the larger envoy and appearances. Yes, it’s partially about protecting the family’s image but it’s also her own way of looking out for Cale and protecting him from the nobles and politics of their world. Also this may be the first somewhat positive interaction they’ve ever had and she seems fairly happy with it.

Also it’s not really like Violan is wrong about the whole appearances matter thing, and Cale knows this better than most. He knows the reputation OG Cale has and uses that to his advantage while moving in secret. Just take the Black Dragon thing. He’s a trashy young master who was drinking early, got too drunk, and retired for the night early. He also uses this to smuggle Taylor and Cage into the capital, and to mess with the enemy. Cale is a master at using appearances to his advantage, so ifanyone would agree with Violan’s beliefs about appearance being important, especially to nobles, it’s Cale.

Another instance of him being kind/non-selfish, him not taking more servants. This ignores a few things. 1) he doesn’t have to help the Black Dragon at all, he could just pass through the village and be out of there before Raon even poses a threat. I know we’re all glad he didn’t do that but the point remains that he could’ve and, who knows, if he did that Raon may have even been able to still live. He was a beserk dragon so it may not have been a happy ending, and all the villagers would probably die, but Choi Han wouldn’t be there to kill them. Of course the secret organisation would’ve been hunting him then, but somehow I don’t think they’re beating a beserk dragon who hates people unless the white star himself does something but I could be wrong. As I said glad this didn’t happen. Raon deserves better than that but it was a possibility. 2) he claims not to care about people but so far all he’s done is care about people. And I know him not being able to watch people die is valid but, again, if his plan somehow fails or he doesn’t manage to free Raon, he knows what day it happens. I bet, if he’d been unable to save Raon for whatever reason, plan B would’ve been an evacuation. Idc what he says, he wasn’t letting those villagers die. Cale is a lot like Choi Han in that respect. He refuses to let people die if he can help it. of course he’d never admit this and would be horrified if anyone said it, but this trait, that he says is so admirable of Choi Han, is a trait that he also has but doesn’t notice. Remind you of anything? Like, maybe him admiring how open minded Choi Han is and how he befriends all the races, only to go on to befriend even more races than Choi Han did. That’s right, I’m calling Cale out for being exactly the thing he admires, because he continues to call himself selfish, lazy trash while being the opposite.

Honestly he isn’t fooling anyone. He can use as many words as he wants, at the end of the day, it’s very clear that he just doesn’t want people around him to get hurt, if he can prevent it. Oh I don’t care about people, I just don’t want to see them hurt in front of me or to be responsible for the people who get hurt. That’s so many words to say I care about people and son’t want them to get hurt.

Ok I get that he has a point about the responsibility of others being a burden, but it’s one that he actively takes on himself. If Raon did get free, that wouldn’t make him responsible. Just knowing about things doesn’t magically give you the ability to change or fix it. It would still be Neo Tolz’ responsibility and the Stan family’s responsibility. It’s their territory, their people. The Stans are smart enough to keep it in a different territory but arrogant enough to keep it mear people. They’re so sure that it won’t escape but it does, in every world it gets free, either by freeing itself or being freed. You can’t tame a dragon or keep it contained but they’re so arrogant, and as a result they put innocent people, the villagers, in danger, and they don’t even care, and why would they? It’s not the Stan’s territory so the consequences don’t affect them as much. God I hate them, I hate them so much.

The fact that Kim Rok Soo is taking more responsibility for events and people that are happening in an entirely different world and these complete monsters can’t even be bothered to pretend to care about the people they’re supposed to protect and leave. They are a waste of human life

Also I notice Cale is very big on eye contact. Every time he talks to someone he tries to make eye contact, and I love this because I feel like this is another sign that he sees them as equals. Now, I’m not saying people who don’t make eye contact don’t see others as equals, I get it, eye contact can be awkward. But it can also be poweful and a show of respect. First it’s almost vulnerable in a way and shows that you’re not hiding anything. The eyes are the window to the soul and by making eye contact he’s showing his emotions, showing he’s being honest, showin he understands. It also shows that he’s engaged with the conversation, he’s looking at them, he’s listening to them, he’s fully focused on them and the conversation. He wants to hear and understand their opinion and their point of view. It shows he cares about what they have to say but also that he wants them to hear what he has to say. He’s not distracted, he’s not interrupting, he’s listening and paying attention. Again, I’m not saying people who can’t or don’t make eye contact aren’t equally invested or whatever, I just feel like it’s another nice subtle way of showing that Cale respects people and sees him as equals. It’s also a good way for Cale to read others. The mouth and even the body can lie, but the eyes usually can’t. maybe it’s just because I was always taught that it was polite to look at people when you’re talking to them or they’re talking. Idk.

Ugh and art being the mirror to the soul is such a great statement. Whatever art you do, it’s usually a reflection of your emotions right. Sometimes that emotion is as simple as I like this thing or I felt like drawing this thing but there’s always some sort of emotion involved somewhere.

How happy they are that Cale and Violan are getting on. This is why I can’t feel negative towards Deuth or Violan.

Ah the information network. Funny to think that by the end of the novel Cale will have the best information network there is.

How surprised do you think they were that Cale actually read all the information? In the beginning everyone seemed shocked that Cale was reading and writing things down to the point that I would actually be offended but I kinda get it.

Honestly Deuth must’ve been pulling his hair out trying to keep up with Cale. He knows his son is responsible for some things, he just doesn’t know how, and Cale never actually explains, and then he somehow has to keep track of Cale leaving the territory for onre thing, to go to one place, only to be gone for weeks just traveling around the continents. And then he just retuens and is like hi I come baring new family members/allies, and also I’m moving to Harris village, and also we now have an alliance with this random group and access to this thing and we’re financing this, and Deuth is just there like wtf? He asks Hans, Hans is like idk. He asks Ron, Ron just smiles benignly. He asks Hilsman, Hilsman just gets a haunted look in his eye. Eventually he decides he’s better off not knowing and just accepts it.

Also I heard the manhwa dropped the ball when it came to the man eating tree so, is there any fanart of it? Specifically the transformation? Please it sounds so pretty, I need to see it. If anyone can point me towards someone who’s done fanart of this I’d appreciate it.

Oh my god the man eating tree is out of its goth/emo phase, good for the tree. Jk goths and emos are cool and their clothes are pretty.

Deruth: I heard an interesting rumor recently

Cale: don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious.

I’d say I’m sorry but I’m really not and if even one of you read that and heard it as a song my work here is done

I imagine sometimes Deruth will be trying to sleep and just as he’s about to drift off, he remembers the man-eating tree’s transformation and just gets lost internally debating what Cale did. No sleep is had on those nights as he considers the possibilities.

I mean, even when Cale does come back he doesn’t get to immediately become a couch potato, then he has like a month to laze around and then is back to being busy for weeks. That’s like one of the things Cale is bad at, being a couch potato

So I know this is a fantasy world and they’re nobles so rules are different but I just imagine 7 year old Lily Henituse, looking up at 18 year old Cale Henituse after he asks if she wants him to bring back a present. And he’s probably expecting her to ask for idk a doll or a teddy bear, idk what 7 year old little girls like but you know something fairly innocent and harmless. And she just completely earnestly looks up at him and says, with the most innocent expression possible “a sword”. That is simultaneously adorable, hilarious, and slightly terrifying, and maybe even a little bit badass. I wouldn’t normally recommend giving a child a sword but just for the mental image this provides I’d say she deserves it.

she’s so adorable. Lily must be protected at all costs. If anything bad happens to Lily I’m going to have no choice but to transmigrate into the novel and pull a Raon by just destroying everything.

Ok but Cale’s children grow up so spoiled.

And she’s so polite when she asks for a sword too. Fuck Cale. I want the story of Lily saving everyone with the power of cuteness, politeness, and this sword she found. Please and thank you.

Honestly the first real clue we get that Cale’s earth may not be the way we know it, other than his complete calmness about all of this, is probably the way he reacts to Lily asking for a sword. He doesn’t really react much after the initial shock and just agrees. Again I know it’s a fantasy world but Kim Rok Soo isn’t from this fantasy world, and I can only imagine it’s because, after the apocalypse or whatever on his earth that I only know anything about from fanfic, any kids that are still alive, probably not unusual to see them with some sort of weapon. And that also makes sense for Cale because he knows being young doesn’t mean you’ll be safe, he’s too used to kids being in danger.

And Basen seems like such a good brother. Like he’s so encouraging and supportive. I like Basen and Lily.

I love how supportive Basen and Cale are of Lily and how willing they are to take her and her dreams seriously? I can only imagine that a lot of people would hear that a 7 year old girl wants to be swordsman and just not take it seriously or make fun of her or think she’ll grow out of it or disapprove because “it’s not ladylike” and she’s supposed to be a noble. It’s so nice to see that Lily’s family supports her and doesn’t try to ridicule her or try to change her mind. They just accept it and accept her. God I love this story

And that must’ve felt so good for Lily, hearing that her brother who she hasn’t talked to much and thought didn’t like in her believes she can do it and is willing to support her.

And then you get Basen who just wants a fountain pen. I know that’s equally as valid but the difference in the present they want is funny to me and a nice gender switch of the roles I believe, having Basen be the one dealing with admin stuff and Lily the swordsman and protector. I love that.

Deputy Butler Hans really said because they’re my favourite and gave On and Hong the comfiest set. He’s so real for that

And thank God Hans didn’t see the poison fog because God knows Cale wouldn’t explain shit if he had.

Oh my god, I love the way this novel says do we want our characters to be cute or terrifying and the answer is always why not both. Cute and terrifying are not two separate things. Things and people can be both cute and terrifying at the same time.

I feel like there could be serious conversation about how paralysis is worse than death. It does depend on how you die. I also took this to mean full body paralysis, so alive but unable to move, speak, anything. And I do think personally to me that would be worse than death. That might just be me idk.

Good, On and Hong deserve all the praise and also all the happiness and all the hugs and pats and affection, just everything good basically.

Another day, another reason I love Hans. Of course most of those reasons are related to the cat tribe siblings but I stand by what I said.

Everyone but Hans knowing something is great and should become the running joke of the series. Even Hilsman should know before him, Hans should be the last to know everything, if just to protect his innocence and give Hans plausible deniability.

Ah Choi Han and Cale. One of the best bromances to ever bromance. Choi Han is the true ride or die

I guess it makes sense that Choi Han wouldn’t call Cale young master because physically he’s younger than him. I feel like that would be awkward, calling someone older than you young master. Also I know nothing about ‘nim’ except that it shows respect but it could also be slightly more equal? I honestly don’t know. If I’m wrong about what some of this means, please tell me.

What is a persimmon? Is it a fruit? I know it’s a real thing and probably a food but that’s all I know. One sec. ok it is a fruit. Is it any good? Are they bitter? I’m guessing they’re not supposed to be

Gotta agree with Cale on this one. There is very little reason for Choi Han to be in the same carriage. That would probably limit movement anyway if someone managed to get through to the carriage to attack Cale. Much more logical to protect the carriage from outside, more room and you can prevent them getting to Cale in the first place.

Cale really speedrun? Speedran? Cale’s character development from the book huh? Good for him.

Ok I get that Choi Han was hiding his full strength but he still beat the Knight’s Brigade or members of it so I still don’t really understand why you’d try to mess with/look down on him.

Cale letting Choi Han deal with Hilsman and the knights on his own is actually a really good move. He could intervene but this is more likely to just cause more resentment. Choi Han needs to prove himself and honestly probably doesn’t want Cale to do anything anyway. You go Choi Han. Get him

No, in all seriousness, I actually don’t mind Hilsman. I don’t dislike him or anything but I do think at this point he could stand to learn a thing or two about looking down on people and underestimating them and Choi Han is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t underestimate him. So is Cale but this isn’t really about him at the minute. This also pushes Hilsman to grow, as a knight and as a person, and encourages the other knights too, in a way that Cale couldn’t. another thing Cale didn’t mean to have happen but did. And all because he chose to take Choi Han to the capital. Butterfly effect: now the knights are stronger and know not to underestimate people.

Hans’ concern for Choi Han is really sweet and we again get to see the trust he has in Cale since he takes the issue to him and seemingly trusts him to deal with it.

Hans: I think Choi Han is being bullied

Cale: really? By who?

Hans: the vice captain

Cale: poor guy

Hans: yeah it sucks that he’s doing this to Choi Han

Cale: I meant the Vice Captain. Poor vice captain

Hans: visibly confused

Similar energy to call the ambulance but not for me, you know.

Also love Cale just not caring. Just he’ll be fine probably and goes about his day,

Ah yes, Cale’s envoy. You know, despite his preference and attempts, that envoy never actually seems to decrease. It just seems to get bigger.

Oh these poor bandits. They chose the wrong carriage on the wrong day. The lesson here: don’t be a bandit or, if you are a bandit, don’t try to steal from Cale Henituse. In fact that may just be a lesson/rule in general.

I’m sorry if you, as a bandit, attack a carriage, and the people on the carriage don’t even bother to look out the window at you, to even feign concern, that’s probably a sign you should run.

Even Hong thinks you’re an amateur and he’s like 8 at this point. Get out of here. Can’t even scare an 8 year old, no one is phased.

He’s also way too good at just ignoring screams of terror and pain, which is kinda sad if you think about it too long

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alpaca-clouds · 2 months

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DnD's World Problem - It's a bit of a waste

Okay, let me talk about the main world of DnD: Toril. And about the thing that it mostly gets reduced to Faerûn - which is in fact a continent - and specifically the Sword Coast, so the western coast of Faerûn.

And that is exactly what I want to talk about: There is an entire world there - but DnD has barely done anything with it in 4th edition and nothing with it in 5th edition. And I absolutely understand why, but I also think that ignoring these parts of the world is not the best way to go about it.

A World filled with Clichés

Now, anyone who knows a bit about the worldbuilding of DnD, will be able to tell you that this worldbuilding is not exactly creatives in the regard of the different continents. We basically have the following:

Faerûn = Fantasy-Europe

Anchorome = Fantasy-North America

Maztika = Fantasy-Meso America

Katashaka = Fantasy-Africa

Zakhara = Fantasy-Arabia

Kara-Tur = Fantasy-Asia (let's face it: Mostly Fantasy-China and Fantasy-Japan)

Osse = Fantasy-Australia

Faerûn has a lot more worldbuilding to it than any of the other continents. More than that: Faerûn is the one continent that is not based mostly on (racist) clichés of some non-white culture. Duh. Because Faerûn is obviously the European part of the world, and the mostly white people constructing this world were able to imagine a "European world" with a lot more details than they were able to imagine any non-white fantasy world.

And let's make this pretty darn clear: These other continents are not only fairly loose in terms of worldbuilding - a lot of it really is just "this is Fantasy-China, so just... uhm, imagine China but as fantasy!!!" Anchorome and Osse are probably the parts of the world that are most underdeveloped, with nearly no information available that goes past "Oh, this is pre-columbian North America with tribes living on the land" and "Yeah, Australia, uhm, yeah, that's it!"

And yes, this is very much "these parts of the world as imagined by white people in the 90s", as the 80s and 90s were the time when most of this was being created. And yes, that means all the problematic stuff that you imagine now about it... Yeah, that's true.

Let me tell you...

Racist Stereotypes

Okay, fellow white person. When I say "Africa", what do you imagine? I will take a guess: Savana, animals like lions and elephants, people living in mud huts and dressing in like, animal pelts or something. The typical racist "Africa is a country" thing that we saw in a lot of media and still see today, even though recently it has gotten a bit better with some own voices getting to create this media.

Meanwhile Kara-Tur is basically the boiled down version of the China and Japan popularized in Western Kung Fu movies - with maybe a bit of the Jackie Chan stuff thrown into it. It is really just the kind of western stuff, that if you grew up with Marvel comics for example you can find there, too.

Like, Katashaka is basically that Africa that some of the older Black Panther stuff displayed. And Kara-Tur is the kind of Asia that once upon a time Dr. Strange travelled to - and that the Mandarin came from. Like, it really is that bad.

Which probably is why they have not used any of these settings outside of Faerûn since 2000 with very few exceptions. Because by now people actually interacting with this, would rightfully call them out for the racism in it.

So, basically what they are doing right now is, to just act as if those settings do not exist. But... I actually do think that is in a way a bad thing for several reasons.

First and foremost it is obviously a bit iffy that the world got now reduced onto only the "European" part of the world. And sure, Faerûn is supposed to be quite diverse ethnically diverse, but that does not change the fact that it is "medieval Europe, with some Rennaissance stuff thrown in" for the most part.

Because it basically also implies that any non-white cultures are... unimportant for the world.

WotC, take a page out of Marvel's book

Okay, so, what should WotC/Hasbro do, if they actually cared about the franchise (which they clearly do not do, but that's beside the point)?

Well, simple: Do, what Marvel at some point did.

There is a reason I took the Marvel stuff as a reference above, because Marvel at some point realized that what they had done in the way they depicted basically anything that was not mainstream western culture was not okay. So... They hired people from the respective cultures to write about these non-western cultures, do the art and so on.

With all the criticism I have on the MCU, this did show there as well. With Black Panther being the most obvious example of course. A movie that went ahead to actually honor and even celebrate different African cultures.

And... well, DnD could do the same thing. It could not only help to actually worldbuild the entire world of Toril some more, but it also would create super interesting campaign settings for it as well.

Because I could absolutely imagine some interesting campaigns that could take place within an Africa-inspired setting, or some Indigenous-American-inspired setting. That could be very, very fun to play in, if the cultures were created by people from the real-world equivalent of those cultures.

And yes, this brings us back to the issue of: "For fuck's sake, let's just do a bit more with the lore?! Please!"

*sighs* Of course I know that this will probably not happen under Hasbro, because Hasbro mostly thinks about how to implement micro transactions into DnD... Yeah...

#dungeons & dragons #dnd #dnd lore #faerûn #90s racism #racism #worldbuilding #lore #marvel comics #black panther #fantasy #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #hasbro #wizards of the coast #wotc

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dgiacomo · 4 months

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Friday Munday question

how old do you headcanon the zero crew (Florian/Juliana, Arven, Nemona and Penny) to be? Since I saw your post about Team Star’s ages and it got me wondering about Penny’s other friends

[That's a tricky question. XD I definitely have rough ages in mind for them, but I've mostly thought about Team Star as it's... what this blog/comic is about, haha! I'll try and remember my thoughts!

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As I've said before... Florian and Juliana... they are the characters who are the "main" player characters, the ones with the 'raidons who went to Area Zero etc. So they exist, but they're usually off doing their thing and don't have much to do with Giacomo as such at the moment... it's why I mostly haven't addressed them as I wasn't entirely sure if they existed here or not. XD But I guess they would. One of them at very least.

On ages, I'd set them the same as the rest of the Champion kids, 11 years old. That's the base expected age for a base Pokémon game (that isn't Black 2/White 2 or Legends Arceus, or a spin off like Colosseum).

They're probably the peak of bizarre Champion kid vibes because they're so OP. XD

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Next, Nemona. She's fairly easy to place for me, I read her as 16 or 17 or so. She's got no baggage as such, she's not connected to Team Star OR the Professors, she's just doing her school education. She's in her final year to be Student Council President... and she's also been there and done that on the whole "becoming Champion" thing... there's no evidence she's been held back years or anything and whilst she doesn't look old, she doesn't look young either... so it feels pretty straightforward, I feel.

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For Penny, I think she's older than she looks, even though she is your "underclassman" and "in your year". We know she was sent back to Galar for at least 1.5 years after what happened with Team Star and she's basically had to start again, so she's definitely older than the player character (as is the case, I feel, with ALL of Team Star). Before that, as I said with my explanation for Giacomo's age, there has to have been a bunch of years that passed for the whole bullying and Team Star thing to come to pass... she might not have been at the school as long as Giacomo, but she was definitely there long enough to decide that bullying was a problem she wanted to approach...

I figure, especially since she's a foreign student, she actually came to the Academy as a university or maybe college (6th form, end of high school(?)) level student for further studies in the STEM track. She was likely 16 to 18 when she first attended, but that was years ago at this point. I don't think she's as old as Giacomo, though... I feel he's the oldest of the bunch of Team Star. Surely she was attending when Giacomo was being Student Council President and knows all about that (as do the rest of Team Star's bosses), which was about 3 years prior to this blog/comic (by this comic's lore).

(On a side note, I don't think it was explicitly Nemona that replaced Giacomo as Student Council President... since that would mean she's been president for over 2 years XD They say "some other nerd" or something in the flashback cutscene, that could literally be anybody.)

Going from that, it would make Penny from around 19 to 22 on this blog at least! This might change though, I'll be going through Penny's content in more depth before she turns up for the movie night so... XD; We'll see!

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And finally, Arven. This one's a tough one! He's another with history and baggage who hasn't been turning up to his classes and probably got held back multiple years through in-attendance. I think he is also older than you first might assume! He doesn't really have much to do with Team Star, so I haven't thought about him much, but my thoughts are this;

As I said, he's had a tough time with the academy and life in general what with stuff regarding his parents and everything... we know he's been skiving lessons, but I can't remember if they mention how long for... I'm pretty sure somebody like Clavell drops times or something he's known the Professors (but I could be misremembering)... I even went through and tried to rewatch a bunch of Arven cutscenes to better answer this, but I can't find anything like it since I think a lot of fine details like that are in dialogue when you talk to characters, not cutscenes themselves... particularly with people like Clavell ABOUT Arven, not including him... =( If anybody has any screenshots of that sort about how long Clavell's known the professors or any indication how long it's been Arven's been without his parents etc. it would really help! I foolishly didn't take screenshots thinking I wouldn't need them...

In any case, I can't imagine him living on his own before his teen years and doing very well... or it being legal XD; I'm pretty sure I saw a good analysis somewhere that said something about him being 11 or 12 at some point in the story and it's been about 10 years since then? But I can't remember the specifics... I feel like that would be reasonable thinking though, him being around 20/21, especially with him trying to find a cure for Mabosstiff. I wish I had that analysis to hand.

It's awkward, I can't find any time scales in the cutscenes I rewatched as to just how much time has passed since each of these events happened... how long's he been looking for a cure for Mabosstiff? When did he go to Area Zero and get Mabosstiff hurt? Any of that info as a date would help!

Going by his build (wide, has the flat chin like Giacomo), his experiences (skipping school, family life etc.) and his striking facial hair (sideburns, very impressive, Arven), I would also put him at around 21 years old, personally... but unless I can find any kind of indication WHEN these events happened? I can't be sure, which is frustrating! =(

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This took all day to compile and I'm a bit iffy about posting it because of the same reasons I mentioned in the previous post about Giacomo... XD; Eh... it's just speculation that applies specifically to this blog. Again, it doesn't invalidate any thoughts you may personally have.

Long story short, don't really know, hahaha XD

Thanks for asking, I hope it was an interesting read!]

#munday #(on a not monday)

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stagefoureddiediaz · 2 years

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Costume meta 6x06

I love an episode with flashbacks in - its such a great opportunity to explore an established characters personality through their clothes. Is also a really interesting test of a new costume designer on a show. and Kenni, by and large did a great job. There are a couple of things I’m not convinced by, but I understand why they were done as they were - I’ll go into them in a bit more detail when we get to them.

Also did anyone spot the costume continuity error? I’ll point it out when we get to it!

There were three big colour themes in this episode - white, black and beige - I’m interested in the fact that we’ve seen this happen in all of the episodes in season 6 - Kenni, it seems is using colour theming in this way as much as more specific colour use. She is building on what ABP did before and adding her own stamp to it which I love to see and can’t wait to see if it continues and if there will be a couple of big colour themes that play out over the season - right now my money would be on blue and yellow continuing to be present as well as black and beige to be themes for the season.

I said I was going to do it and I have - I’ve split this meta into present day and flashback. There is a little overlap, but I think it will be easier to look at the flash back costumes as a separate entity, so we’ll look at them first and then move onto the present day costumes.

Flashbacks

Chimney

We’ll start with the resident matchmaker shall we 😆

Its a fairly simple thing to write about Chim’s costumes this week - we only see him in 2 colours - black and blue and only in flashback - present day Chim is only in uniform! The black is about mystery as well as confidence - the things Chim is playing into in the scenes we see in in the flashbacks - he’s confident in Hen and Karen being good for each other and together and he’s mysterious in that he sets them up without telling either of them that he has done so. There is also the fact that, because black is also the lack of colour, it can be used to blend someone into the background - we saw it with Bobby in 6x02 - the story isn’t actually about them and so they need to look neutral and in a non overpowering way, Black is the perfect colour for this (think stage hands moving the set and props around on stage - always dressed in black because its unobtrusive - you see them and know what they’re doing, but they’re not distracting.)

This first one is striped though - black on black and it plays in perfectly to stripe theory - Chim is making the change happen - by setting up Hen and Karen for their date!

The we have this blue grey polo - which Chim wears when he’s back in matchmaker mode - but using different tactics - the maturity and insightfulness of grey combined with the trustworthy and loyal nature of blue. Again a perfect colour to compliment this scene - because Chim is seeing a bigger picture and using his skills and insightfulness to continue playing matchmaker - and while he downright lies to Karen in this scene, he is being loyal to both of them to get them to where they need to be.

Hen

To start with - I adore that they pulled Hens first glasses out of the costume vault - its continuity like this that helps world build and its something the general audience will pick up on too.

Its really hard not to draw parallels between this shirt and the ones Buck wears in 4x13/14 as well as the maroon tee he wears when talking to Chris in 4x14. This is the only time we’ve seen Hen wearing a shirt like this and it is the perfect use of costume for foreshadowing - Hen is going to end up in a similar position to Buck in 4x13/14 by the end of the episode and this costume lays the groundwork for that. The textual paralleling is obvious - we’ve all been shouting about it since the episode aired because the camera angles, script etc were all pretty loud, but the costume is there joining in and re-enforcing the parallel - both in terms of Karens life threatening injury, but also in the fact that both Hen and Buck step up to care for their respective children.

You don’t do this with a costume if you don’t want to risk the audience drawing those parallels and conclusions because it’s a very loud choice and one that will be picked up on (potentially by the GA as well as fandom). The buck pinstripe shirt is one of the more memorable costumes from the show (aside from the uniforms of course) so a designer would only parallel it when they don’t want you to draw any conclusion but the parallel. Its my favourite costume of the episode for this reason and if we needed any further proof that the show is treating Buddie like the canon couples - then this is it!

It’s the first of the beige/buff coloured shirts/ tops of the episode. Beige is a combination of brown and white and so it displays both of those colours meanings - its dependable and tranquil, as well as being considered the colour of homeliness. THis shirt Hen is wearing tends toward the more yellow and brown end of the beige spectrum and so we should pull some of its meanings from those colours - so communication for the yellow as well as honesty and safety.

The first of the interesting repeat costume choices comes here - the trousers are the same ones that we see Hen in in 6x02 - heading into her class with Luis. I wrote then that they were reflective of Hens mid being scrambled - that she was going to have a choice to make and that continues to play here - Hen tells us she sat outside in her car for 20 minutes deciding if she was going to come in or not. THis is yet another moment for Hen where things change and her path takes a different direction - both the not being sure whether to come in or not as well as not being sure about Karen - being to serious. we see how things pan out, but the trousers are there helping us along with the storytelling.

this black and blue line knit cardigan - the trustworthy nature of blue is telling Karen that Hen is trustworthy, despite the story she’s telling about Eva - the fractured nature of the blue is however also suggesting that while Hen can be trusted, the story is far from over (which of course we all know as we’ve been watching the show) and that Eva will form a part of Hen and Karens own story and that it will cause fractures in their budding relationship.

i loved this offset chevron knit cardigan - in many ways it continues themes of the drunk hen tv test card jumper from 6x04 (can you continue a theme when its in a flashback?!) - we have similar colours at play, and similar themes - Hen is contemplating a big life change - in this case taking on a baby and becoming parent - which of course also continues to tie into that drunk Buck and Hen scene from 6x04 and subtly builds on the idea of becoming parent by unconventional means, but in a way that predates any sperm donations - honestly the way they’re building the parallels between Hen and Buck this season through the clothes as well as the script and direction etc is making me a bit insane - its so very loud!

In yet another ‘lets parallel Buck and Hen outfit’, we have Hen, with a black eye, in a grey blue hoodie. The last time we saw Buck injured he had a black eye (the same eye as Hen) and he was wearing a grey blue hoodie. We saw that same grey blue hoodie when Buck was in the process of deciding to make a major change to his life and break up with Taylor. Here, Hen might not be about to break up with someone (having already have that happen), but she is about to make a massive life choice and become a parent!

This multi colour multi pattern shirt has a retro (1980′s/ early 90′s) vibe to it and the bold and erratic pattern really highlights the fact that Hen and Karen have thrown themselves into this new adventure and that they’re really not prepared for it at all. the brighter colours are positive though - denoting that this new adventure into parenthood will be the making of them.

Karen

Lots of black for flashback Karen! Its all playing into the power and authority meanings of black - Karen is a black woman in a white mans world and she’s having to work twice as hard to get half as far (probably more) and thats made her into the abrupt and standoffish persona we see in this scene, and as black is also good at concealing vulnerabilities its the perfect colour choice.

The chain patterned shirt made me cackle with glee when I saw it. it is in fact a navy blue shirt and not black like it appears because of the filter on the camera. the use of chains on a shirt in a scene where Hen is unsure about committing to a relationship and where Karen talks about being able to be fun - chefs kiss wardrobe team, chefs kiss! Chains a generally associated with being locked up and in relationship terms, partners are often described as being a ball and chain (I know I wrote about this in one of my other metas, I just can’t remember which one!) and therefore this shirt is foreshadowing the fact that Karen will be Hen’s ball and chain (and vice versa) in the future - that they will choose to chain themselves together

This champagne silk blouse is similar to beige, but champagne has a powerful personality while also being a fairly modest colour. It does carry some of those same meanings as beige - honesty and dependability and we see Karen being honest in this scene - the dependability is also there, we just dob’t see it revealed until later on in the episode - when she returns to Hen and they truly commit to one another.

The light grey suit dress that we see Karen in when she’s at the airport took me straight back to Hen in Hen begins when she’s at dinner with the sleazy doctors that it made me laugh a bit. Its not an identical outfit, but that would be weird - its close enough and the only time we see either Hen or Karen in such a business suit like outfit.

It was playing on the idea of blowing up your life but it tuning out to be the best decision - Hen blowing up her life and becoming a firefighter in Hen begins and her Karen blowing up her life and choosing to become a mother (and a wife). Both seemingly mad choices to make, but both ultimately proving to be the right choice.

This outfit is also the one with the continuity error - see the necklace in the shot below - it disappears as Karen sits down on the coffee table half way through the scene!!

Now you see it...

..now you don’t!

New mom Karen wearing burnt sienna linen dungarees and a white shirt is perfect! Burnt sienna is a colour of both excitement and security, it is a caring and devoted colour and the perfect colour for Karen. It also marks the first time we’ve seen Karen in a non neutral or black colour - it marks the change in direction for her (no longer chasing being an astronaut) and embracing this new adventure. Its actually a colour we’ve see on Karen a couple of times - most notably and importantly the first time we meet her - in a scene where Hen and Karen talk about Eva and her being in contact with Hen - its a call back/tie in that brings the story full circle and shows exactly how colour and costume can really help tell a story.

Its also worth pointing out here that all the flashback scenes have a filter on them which is giving the colours a slightly washed out look - hence why the dungarees look duller than the cardigan from 1x05 in the pictures below - the reality is that they will be pretty similar in shade without the ilter!

Present Day

Hen

Shout out to the sneakers Hen is wearing when she arrives at Karens work - they’re by off-white and they are called ‘out of office’ never was the name of pair of sneakers more appropriate!! the fact they’re also turquoise - a colour of clarity, growth and balance - this incident provides Hen with the clarity she needs to see where her future lies - it provides her with the means to grow and re-find balance in her life.

The colour blocking of the tee is giving me the same vibes as the Jumper Hen wears at the party at the end of wrapped in red. It isn’t the same in terms of colour ways (that jumper was red and white with a bit of pink) but this type of colour blocking its a style choice that we’ve seen on her at moments when the firefam isn’t whole - in 5x10 Chimney wasn’t part of the 118 and Eddie announced his departure from the 118, while here we see Hen at a moment where she’s ‘not a firefighter anymore.’ The colours are all associated with emergencies - the orange connects to fire, it is an emotional but optimistic colour and this one is bordering on red, while the navy blue ties into the firefam uniform - giving Hen that air of authority which she makes use of when given the chance and the white (interestingly and tellingly the smallest amount of colour on the polo) ties into the idea of doctors in white coats and Hen makes full use of her extended medical training when given the chance to get involved in the incident.

As you can see the check trousers I spoke about in the flashback section above are back and their purpose remains as true here as it did for both the previous times we saw them - Hen is faced with and making big decisions.

More beige for Hen here - this time with the red stitch detailing down the arm - stitch detailing that looks remarkably like sutures. Its yet more red being worn by Hen in a subtle way at a key moment in her arc this season.

Karen

I wrote a mini meta in response to an ask about Karens floral blouse - its decorated with medicinal flowers and I’m especially loving the fact that this shirt has clove on, when we’ve seen Hen in plenty of red and they used the song Crimson and clover in this episode - its the little links like this that make me love the show even more than I already do!

The indigo blue and turquoise print on white top has a similar palm frond design as Denny’s tee. White is the colour of new beginnings and clarity, while blue is trustworthy, honest, reliable and supportive and the turquoise is a colour of clarity and growth. Those little hints of turquoise tie into Hen’s trainers from earlier and help to tie the themes of the episode together.

Denny

yes there is some more beige on the go - this first zip polo we see Denny in is colour matching Hens main outfit of the episode and

I do love it when the costume team aren’t subtle with the outfits they put the kids in and this tee is no exception. climbers, mountains, rivers and signposts!! The metaphors for Hen’s journey are loud and then Denny is the final signpost that gets her to realise what is important to her and what her dream actually is.

This top is an epic choice - the palm fronds that match with Karens, the black base colour of the tee that matches with Hens tee, tiying them together as a family and then the rainbow of colours that subtly hint at gay love re-enforcing the entire modus operandi of the episode!

Athena

Only the one Athena outfit this week - this teal green rib knit collared button front top. Teal is a colour of morality, but also accepting, supportive and rational - and when you have Athena rocking up to a scene on her day off to support Hen (Denny, Karen and the firefam as well) I’d say its the perfect colour choice for Athena in this moment!

And Finally a shout out to Victor and Colton - who kept my check theory in play

I hope you enjoyed reading and thank you as always for your likes, comments and reblogs - I love reading your thoughts etc in the tags - they make my day!

As always tagged people below

@mistmarauder @theladyyavilee @loveyourownsmiilee @leothil @girldadbuddie @kitkatpancakestack @bucksintheroom @lemotmo @trashendence @elishareads @clipboardsandstethoscopes @comfortbuddie @fiona-fififi @name-code-black-widow @prettyboyandthekid @callanee @calyssmarviss @alwaysme @pbandjeremiah @batgrldes @piningpettyeddie @bi-moonlight @spotsandsocks @projectabc @livingwherethesidewalkends @idontshitpostbuttheolympicpark @diazboysbuckley @sweettsubaki @jordxnhennessy @shortsighted-owl @sherlocking-out-loud @ekstasisandangst-main @favouritealias @hearteyesdiaz @gossamerglob @ktinastrikesback @adamrparrrish @princesschez75 @bucksbuddie @oneawkwardcookie @leatherat @moniquekatie @wanderingwomanwondering @trickster-archangel @outrunningthedark @asharadaine @ajunerose @wolfybuckley @neon-d0rk @boohooweewoobuckaroo @talespinner230 @swiftiebuckleys

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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Proud Family Black History Month Special: I Had a Dream and Juneteenth (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Happy Black History Month all you happy people! And once again we're celebrating it with the Proud Family.

Last year Louder and Prouder launched and I covered it as it did and soon after covered Father Figures, it's wonderful ep about gay parents. I.. never finished the season as none of the episodes apart from Al Roker as Himself, a Magical Genie intrested me. And yes I will likely do all threre Al Roker as Himself, A Magical Genie episodes at some point. It didn't seem BAD it's just the inherent meanness in a lot of the comedy, some of the stuff that hadn't aged well like Oscar hitting on women who aren't his wife, and other probelms simply .. hadn't gone away and there's no excuse given the creators had two whole decades to refelct on the original series. THey still did well updating it for today in both clothing and refrences and the series is still deeply entrenched in black culture in a wonderful way, so it wasn't bad I just wasn't intrested.

Thankfully Season 2.. seems to be an improvement, as the creators have now proven the show can be a hit and thus are running with the creative freedom. Just from the clips i've seen, I intend to watch the seaosn in full when I have the time, their going hard. As someone with Autisim, their treatment of it seems nuanced, deep , and incredibly well done and heartfelt, and it seem the season has a nice ballance of usual hyjinks and some fairly deep subjects done well and that kids could bear to know about like colorisim, slave ownership and just how much the country was BUILT on slavery, as shown in what's now become the series most notable scene and ione i've watched a LOT at this point, despite seeming to come at the end of an episode that has nothing to do with the topic, yet still feeling fully waranted

youtube

And that's what brings us here. See in the wake of this, as those of you thankfully off twitter may not be aware of tons of right wing trolls came out of their troll holes to gnash their teeth at how THE PROUD FAMILY IS WOKE NOW and HOW DARE YOU BRAINWASH OUR CHILDREN. Which is extra hilarious as I didn't know till watching today's episode from Louder and Prouder, Juneteenth, that they actually TACKLE this sort of thing and it has a term: White Fragility, where white people with thin skin get defensive at the first sign their history is racist among other things. They even brought up a books pecifically that i'm now going to try and get simply because I want to avoid this sort of shit myself. Seriously i'm not making this shit up, they likely knew damn well at least one of the episodes would piss off white people, and were well prepared for it.. and they proved them right. And i'm white myself.. and I find our history of slavery, racasim and overall colonalist bullshit fucking horrifying. It's the right thing to do. It's bad when you find out something or someone you belivied in was horrible. It sucks, but the responsible thing is to move on, not support it, and let history show.

It also brought up a valid point: Proud Family WAS ALWAYS woke. While it didn't have as many episodes covering it tha'ts not because "Oh they got worse with age". Shows CAN change in revivials and sometims for the worse… but this really isnt' it. It's a simple fact that they coudln' likely tackle topics like police brutality, slave ownership and racisim int eachers without the network yanking their collars and letting their white fragility get the better of them. We live in a time where we can now have those discussions we shoudl've been having all along. And to show it i'm covering two episodes and while this was comissoned, I gladly would've done it for free…. I mean I need money to eat, and I could think of worse things to cover for money.. mostly because I just did staurday

But still, let's take a look at the proud family then and now and see how stupid people are being while we honor black history month with two episodes focused on black history

I Had a Dream

I Had a Dream was the shows black history month episode, coming in season one. The plot is simple: To teach Penny's class about black history, something she's relutcant on as she figures "what's past is past" but still takes to the task wholeheartdly, their teacher has each of his class dress up as a black historical figure. He also goes into the origins of the holiday, something I wasn't familiar with. WHile I saw this episode as a kid i'd clearly forgotten this part in the haze of history: in 1946, historan Carter G. Woodson wanted to spotlight black achivements and thus created Negroe History Week. And in a nice touch he corrects Penny on saying african american as not only was that the closest to a pc term as the time.. but white people called Black Persons MUCH worse, a way to refrence the giant and horrifying parade of horrible slurs without saying them since disney likely had one reaction to them coming up

But they get by with Negro and Colored, both terms I hope never to have to type again. Penny's friends are dicks to an uptight white janitor played by my boy Stephen Root whose somehow important to this episode and penny slips leading exactly where you think it's going to end up.

Penny gets Angela Davis, activist, author and professor. Oscar both gave her the natural necessary to pull off the part and is said to help her study a touch I like, as well as the fact he celebrates freely not only putting on a dashiki at breakfast (and making a fun sarcastic comment about the fact that black history month is the shortest month of the year), but hosting the levar burton film festival. I'm with Trudy i'm not sure there is enough films for one of those and I did look it up. It's mostly tv movies and mini series like roots. Though if it includes Roots and Star Trek The NExt Generation i'm down and it should fill out the night. I love that it shows Oscar, despite often being a dummy… has depth and really knows his own culture and history and encourages that in his daughter. It's something i've noticed in black media with Jumstart making a habit out of it early on of having Marcy quiz her husband joe every year to be ready to teach their children when they got older. I mean their now stuck at 10 and `12 for eternity but still.

Djonay is awful as usual and gets a way better icon than she deserves: Betsy Coleman, one of the first black women pilots. @jess-the-vampire, who I watched these eps with, actually knew a LOT about her, and gladly shared: she had to go to france because she coudln't get taught here, was mostly a stunt performer, and died in a tragic plane accent because planes weren't exactly safe back then. Lacienga is the first black woman to run for president Shirley Chisom and Zoey is CJ Walker, self made milonare. Also while we thankfully don't see sticky he's al sharpton, actvisit, preacher and anti-semite.

Penny gets swept up in winds wizard of Oz Style and winds up in 1955. This part of the episode is… eh. I do like how it shows just how only close to 50 years before this epissode things were worse: black acomplishments weren't recognized (I mean.. even more than they were at the time. I didn't even know a black man invented the traphic light), Zoey avoids her and the school's play area is segregated.. but weirdly the class isn't? Also Stephen Root is the teacher and their teacher is the janitor because racisim. Why they made Janitor Man the token racist is beyond me, esepcailly sinc ein the present he dosen't come off racist just overly obessive about cleaning and wasn't INTENDED to be a bad guy, as the kids later apologize and claen up the hallway for him. So why make him one for this scene?

That ends up being this episodes problem: for those saying "oh proud family isn't subtle anymore".. they never were. This episode is about as subtle as a brick to the head with a note attached saying GET IT IT WAS WORSE. THe episode isn't AWFUL, as it shows both how arbitrary these things were, and dosen't entirley sugarcoat things… it does a little,e specially in comparison to say the color of friendship which I reviewed for a previous black history month, but it still uses the term colored, has Oscar not happy with Penny befriending zoey, and still has the fucking army show up when Penny leads a sit in for immigration. But it honestly also feels a bit … makes it easy. Penny easily gets dream zoey to turn, has a fucking musical number with sticky and recites had a dream. The only thing that makes any of this over the top, "let's all dance and skip" tyep of aseop work is that A) it was likely all they could do at the time and B) it is LITERALLY penny's dream, so the naitvite and toned down aspects come off as what a 12 year old who dosen't likely know just how horrible things were or how severe the punishment for speaking out could get's version of things.

That said taking it as a product of it's time.. it's fantastic and still has a valuale lesson. While ti's watered down yes, the fact they could do this ep at all is a lot, and it's lesson is important for kids: don't forget the past. It's an easy aseop sure but given how much of black history was buried, evne more than I ever realized, and how much said past can be whitewashed and glorified to make people who were racist or had racist tendencys or parts to them that were just awful even if a lot of their actions were noble. HIstory is best when you admit the hard parts with the easy and do not forget what's happened lest it repeat.

And thus while this episode was decent enough.. it makes it fitting that it's sequel series has a spirtual followup: while I agreed to do these episodes before rewatching and watching them, the two end up synching up perfectly. This one was about not forgetting your own history and how hard it was as there's still a ways to go. Juneteenth.. is about those ways to go, facing hard truths, and fighting even when ti's far from easy. This one avoided the consequences of standing up for what you belivie in. This one…. fully leans into them. So without further ado….

Juneteenth

I would be shocked if this episode dosen't make my best of the year list for 2023. This was one powerful as hell half hour that was well done, honest, and awesome.

This one focuses on Maya, the new additon to the series and an activist who acts exactly how a 13 year old actvisit would: often smart and on point, but also just as often lost in her own cause. This one though has her entirely in the right.. but in a way that fits.

So Smithville, where our heroes have lived all this time as it has a name now, is having a celebration honoring it's founder Christan A. Smith, hosted by Mayor Wizard Kelly Ya'll, both of which you can probably took as I did as red flags.

Turns out he's realted to Maya's dad barry, whose going nto get honored as his decendant at a big ceremony and Maya's proud of her heritage. So naturally since she's proud in the proud family.. she gets haunted by a ghost.

Yeah the episode has the ghost of what seems to be a black teenager follow Maya around, hinting that the supposed narrative about smith isn't what he thinks it is. We also get some nice microagression from Maya's teacher who at first refuses to belivie maya is a decendant and then says "It's not really your history is it

Like holy shit we went from "White janitor who'se really cool in real life honest guys and racist teacher verison comes around" to "White Teacher micro agression". It's what I meant: the show was always woke.. it just didn't fully go into the implications of things. Back then they woudl've been told "this wasn't realistic" or some such bullshit. Now they can do this freely and it's.. honest. I was white in school but my own textbooks barely touched on the restoration and glossed over a fact that's key to this episode: that some states held out on slavery and got assurances from Lincoln they wouldn't be effected by abolition. That was just to get the south. Because my own state didn't want to admit it's past wrongs it was framed as "oh well missouri just was for slavery but it was all cool you guys honest. "

And she never.. really gets a compuance. She's shown comtpemplating at the end but.. she never apologizes or anything for what she did or her hero worship of Smith. She's not used as the easy villian of the piece either tho: she's not leading the celebration ons mith: she's just a white idiot worshipping another white idiot and unitenotally conributing to whtie washing his history.

Maya starts to question her history, but holds back from bringing in her dad as h'es so happy. Also we get to see Barry shirtless.

just.. hot damn. I didn't know village people biker was a thing for me. Randall is a damn lucky man.. as is Barry. Just holy shit. I needed a moment.

Back to the actual point of the episode. KJ helps his sister as she can't find anything. And here I get the sense that while the creators of proud family MARGINALLY understand the internet better than they did when they did a whole episode comparing napster to drug addiction and pointing out how record stores would di ebecause of it and other dog whistling… they still really don't as they go to

Which.. isn't how that works. I mean there are other search engines But it is clear Wizard Kelly Google Ya'll is hiding his history before th efounding and something is up.. and while cleaning up his statue with walking white privlage , the ghost poitns Maya to a box that gives her hard evdience to her suspcions: a Diary of Emily, a black woman around their age who lived in Smithville back then.

Since Maya RIGHTFULLY thinks Mrs Karen wouldn't be of any help at best and hide this at worst they instead go to another teacher, Brother Kwame, played by my boy Leslie Odom Junior. Kwame reads the diary out, as it turns out to be the diary of Emily, a young slave who not only planned a Juneteenth in secret.. but was OWNED by smith. Smith owned slaves. And look a white man owned slaves.. isn't shocking. Even George Washington did and Thoms Jerfferson outright assulted one. But the larger point here is it was covered up: that instead of just having open discourse about this man's history and if we really should be on the side of someone who when given the option to let his slaves go or not did not, it was buried. That we shoudlnt' celebrate someone whose inherently awful because of heritage in shit if the bad he did outweighed the good. Keeping people chained up for his own convience trumps "founded a town I guess". Some other white man likely woudl've founded this town. It's not that big bro. HIding history dosen't make it any less fucked up and celebrating fucked up people isn't good. It's whY Colombus Day needs to stop being a thing: because he acomplished ntohing and was just a racist colonizing rapist. Hiding the past.. dosen't make it not there.

So with that Kwame decides to go talk with Wizard Kelly, ya'll, while Maya is forced to tell her dad the awful truth. And Barry, being an upstanding man, loving father and nice dude.. entirley denys it and can't belivie it sending his daughter away in tears. And Randall.. dosent remotely tolerate his shit not backing him up and pointing out his white fragility. And while yeah , plugging the book directly could be a step too far given I didn't know this term existed and now want to read said book, I say it works and frankly more people need to knwo it's an actual term and how to combat themselves doing it. Barry reads it and the animatoin here is wonderful as his face shows he clearly sees himself in the page Randall had ready… but can't bring himself to admit it. And i'm not immune to this: while i've never loudly said "no YOUR wrong that can't be true"… it still took until this episode pointed out Lincoln wasn't just not for freeing the slaves but wanted to simply DEPORT ALL BLACK PEOPLE, for me to finally just shake the notion he wasn't a great person. He did good trying to sew the country back together but he didn't free the slaves and he wasn't trying to do it because slavery was wrong. And I wasn't even that ATTACHED to lincoln, it was just hard to find out something i'd been told my whole life was entire bullshit. It can be hard when you have an emotoinal stake… but it also means you have to do the hard thing and cut tha tpart out of you. When I found out JK Rowling was the TERF she is I sold all my harry potter stuff: it didn't fund her and if you can watch the films and seperate art from artist, go ahead. But I just couldn't bear to have something attached to that monster in me. It was hard to cut out that part of my childhood.. but it needed to be done. You don't pretend it didn't exist, but you acknowlege it's tainted now and may never be the same and you may neve renjoy it NOW like you once did, and that's okay. As with the previous episode this one is about learning from the mistakes of the past instead of trying to simply "move on" and act like it never happened.. and no the irony on me isn't lost disney does this sort of thing constantly and I doubt it was lost on the writers of this episode.

SHOCKINGLY the grossly corrupt billionare mayor who has shown not one iota of a soul to this point didn't respond to an underpaid school teacher bringing the book to him, respnding with "It was in the past ya'll". So our heroes have to go with plan b…. well okay plan C. Lacienga's plan B was "PULL THAT FUCKING STATUE DOWN BITCHES".. I mean she didn't say it that way but it was in her tone. Brother Kwame instead sugggests simply protesting.. though dosen't join in for some reason. Which is somehow the weridest plot element in an episode with a ghost. Though givne we've had actual genie al rooker, talking babies and pandas, and it taking till apparently THIS SEASON for Oscar to get his factory shut down for gross violations when he's far from rich enough to bribe officals, it's far from teh least realistic thing that's happened on this show.

The actual protest.. is brutal as.. it's shockingly realistic. Our heroes simply show up protesting.. and Wizard Kelly's response is to "put those kids in cuff's ya'll". Seriously all the dialouge he has this episode sounds like I wrote it but no, he really says that

And I like that it's Wizard Kelly who does it: they don't invent a white boogie man or have the teacher from before sick the cops on them or pull a karen. They have someone whose black himself simply sick the system on chidlren because the lie he's kept is more convient to his pocket than the truth. It shows how the system is inherently racist to the point it benefits the rich of any race to buy into it instead of fight it. It also helps Wizard Kelly is genuinely awful and him sicking police on children sounds like something he'd do because they stepped on his lawn or something.

Seeing these children swarmed by faceless goons really sells just how.. horrirfyign the police can be, how they don't care about age or diffrence just abotu enforcing whatever someone tells them to enforce. The facelessness ot me shows regradless of color, though i'm sure that color is mostly white, the system itself is designed to opress instead of help. The kids parents and even Barry and Sunset despite being cops themselves get swept under and everyone ends up in prison.

We get a truly heartwrenching scene and props to Zachary Quinto for his delivery: Barry admits he was wrong and it was just hard to admit adn dosen't expect his daughter to forgive him, but apologizes. It's what we all should do when confrotned with something like this: accept the truth, and deal with it like an adult. Given several people's responses to JUST the "slaves built this country" segment alone was

It's clear it's a lesson that BADLY needed to be said. The right path.. is almost never the easy one. But Barry took it and his daugher warmly accepts her dad back. We also get a brave action as our heroes choose to remain in prison till shit changes.

So one month later, though I assume Wizard Kelly kept them in there like. .a week at most, things have changed and the town has been renamed to emily ville with Maya reading her diary and fear.. and us finding out that unlike dying as was implied earlier (a bold move in itself) she lived a long happy life and her kids are there. It's a touching end that shows we still have a ways to go.. but we CAN change things to make it better as Maya and her dads watch emily, now as she was when she died head back into the great beyond.. and also have a lot of questions now they know ghosts are real but that's for next season.

I loved this episode.

Yeah shocking I know, but it was beauitfully done, nuanced and a true triumph. It has convinced me to watch the rest of (or at least most of) season 2, and is worth your time this black history month. Both episodes are.. but it's clear with the restraints gone this is what the proud family crew was capable of and it is glorious. Check this one out asap. And as you can see… Proud Family was always woke and always shoudl be and if they keep pulling out home runs like this it might become one of the best shows of two diffrent generations. We'll have to see but honestly, I can say it left me wanting more and more.. and that ain't bad at all. Thanks for reading

#the proud family #disney #black history month #juneteenth #I have a dream #penny proud #maya leibowitz jenkins #louder and prouder

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lutawolf · 2 years

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Hi Luta,

I’m loving your thoughts, particularly around Love in the Air, which is currently living rent free in my head. I know you touched on it briefly in you Ep 1 & 2 recaps, but how much do you think Rain’s lack of romantic (and sexual) experience plays into his interactions with P’Payu and the sexual awakening he seems to be having. We know from his conversations with Sky, as well as his unrequited obsession with Ple, that he doesn’t have much if any real relationship experience with women. And despite his gushing over how handsome the stranger who changed his tire was, he has a fairly black and white (straight or gay) view of sexuality. He is ready to accuse Ple’s brother of being gay for admiring the mysterious Payu so much, while not recognising how his own gushing over what turns out to be the same person, would appear the same to outsiders.

I do find their exchange at P’Payu’s garage loft fascinating. Although Rain at this point still considers himself straight, there is a clear connection between the two that Rain is yet to truly verbalise. Despite barely knowing P’Payu beyond the legend and him rescuing Rain twice, Rain practically melts as P’Payu dries his hair - it’s no wonder that Payu reads that as an open invitation to test the waters of moving the relationship forward. And while I do think there is the seedlings of the No Kink there, a lot of those initial protestations on Rain’s part seem to be more gay panic. His body is clearly responding favourably to P’Payu’s touch, but his head is still very much in Straight mode, and he isn’t ready to acknowledge what Payu sees. I think this is why Payu backs off once Rain is able to get his head to control his body and hits Payu with the pillow - it’s Payu pulling back to make sure the relationship only moves forward once they are both in it, and clearly Rain isn’t ready at that point mentally, even if his unconscious actions indicate otherwise.

This ended up longer than expected but curious as to your thoughts.

Hey Amos!!!

I'm so glad you are enjoying my reviews. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to read them. Rain has had no sexual experience what so ever. That comes from the book, so we are going to assume it's true for the series until proven otherwise. Which in my opinion, it's actually been reinforced that he doesn't. I know how the scene came off in the cafeteria, but he is sitting right next to his best friend who he is very aware is gay. That gay best friend just smacks him in the head because he realizes this is an insert foot into mouth moment. So no, I don't see him as homophobic at all. He's just an an adorable white crayon.

Rain is on the attraction boat from the word go, when he sees Payu again at the frat party. What's more he actively goes after Payu. Payu sees this and tests prior to even getting to the bedroom. Not only has he already pegged him as a brat submissive but he is also aware of how innocent Rain is. The bedroom was a tease and push to get him where he wants. That's my opinion any way.

Like I've said a million times. This is art, turn the painting a certain way and someone else will see it differently. I see way more than a seedling of the No Kink and very little gay panic. Now he has panic in the general since. However, most of his panic is about being Dominated. He has likely always imagined himself as dominant but here is this not so nice guy just running right over him and it feels good. He is having a what the hell is wrong with me crisis. Just look at the bathroom scene. He got hard. Payu pushed him to getting hard and he didn't sit there having a freak out that a guy got him hard. If he was going to gay panic shouldn't he have done it then?

Thank you for writing and again thank you for reading my reviews. 💜💜💜

#love in the air the series #love in the air series #love in the air kink #luta opinions #luta question and answer #luta talks kink #coconuts mafia

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halliescomut · 2 years

Text

Apo and Colorism-a rant

So, I am on Twitter, but I'm not in BL/KPop stan twitter, so I didn't see a lot of this, but I saw a couple of BL tiktokers speak about it and it makes me mad and I want to rant about it. I also brought examples. The gist I was hearing is that a lot of garbage people on Twitter were making negative comments about Apo's darker complexion. I'm well aware that colorism exists everywhere, but I know that it is also especially prevalent in Asia as a whole. Thinking about this and feeling so sad that anyone would even think of being mean to sweet gorgeous bean, Apo...well it made me mad, but it also made me realize that most of my fave pics of him have been candid. So then came a Google rabbit hole and 2 days of research, and y'all, I think the evidence is clear. I'm gonna try and give this some flow, but it may not work out that way.

I'm gonna start with magazine covers, because from what I saw they are the most frequent culprits of this type of photo editing. Like this is clearly not the Apo we know and love. The Men's Health is from 2015, but the other two are fairly recent.

Vogue Thailand released their cover and interior photos very recently. On the cover Apo, is clearly much paler than in the inside photo. Honestly, even Mile looks much paler on the cover vs. the inside photo.

I also have this comparison, which is the Vogue Thailand cover and an inside shot from Unique magazine. Since it's a similar-ish pose with Mile's hand partially in front of Apo's face. There is the difference between studio light vs natural light, but I feel like you can definitely see the difference. Also consider that Apo in the Vogue cover is lit to cause deeper shadows around his jaw, were he evenly lit he would look even paler.

We also have these covers from Kazz magazine, which are especially odd to me, because both Apo and Mile are made paler on their shared cover, which is a bit of an odd choice. this is also the cover that made me realize that Apo is edited paler more often when he's in a photo with Mile, which just gives me some weird vibes.

Their interior shots are a mixed bag, based on what Kazz posted on Instagram.

Kazz also posted a video from the shoot, which I think helps some to put things into context, because most people's complexion will change depending on the season and sun exposure. Just because a cover is released in October, those pictures could have been taken in June, etc. But we do have live footage of the day of the shoot.

But I like I said, I did notice a lot of more complexion editing on covers vs interior photos, but there was one magazine that just said nope, all of them will be edited so pale...and that was Madan. Seriously, that pastel should bring out Apo's warm complexion, but he's as pale as Apo here.

the next magazine I have is Posh, which is kind of a mix. The cover and some of the inside shots are black and white, so that does change how easily you can see complexion differences, and I don't think it egregious here in the black and white photos. However, the color photo is lit to make Apo's face as pale as possible, and then possibly edited further. Look at the difference between his face and his arm...it's massive.

Here is a studio pic, though candid that I pulled from Apo's Instagram, and I just took down all the color saturation. You can still tell that Apo has a darker complexion that Mile.

So now let's talk about some magazines that did a little better. We have Unique, which is guilty of paling Apo down on the cover, but the interior photos are MUCH better.

And the one of the best that I found was Mangu. Now these are shot outside on location, meaning that you're not blowing out everyone with studio lighting, but photo shop still exists and they could have easily done more tweaking to his complexion.

Best magazine shoot is L'Officiel. They really captured the gorgeous warmth of Apo's skin here. Like just *chef's kiss*.

Now, magazine are bad, but advertisements were so much worse. Here's just a couple pulled from Apo's Instagram, I've matched them with various candid photos from his Instagram as well, to show the difference. It does not escape me that two of these examples are a for a beauty brand/product. This first set is done with studio shots for comparison, since lighting will affect the overall color/tone accuracy of a picture.

And then we have a comparison between ad and exterior candid photo, in good daytime light, so pretty accurate as far as color/tone accuracy.

Now...I am American, and to be honest the majority of my experience with colorism comes from conversations specifically around and with black women, so there's going to be differences. I did try to find a shot/ad/magazine that was specifically American (or even western-media) based, but the best I found was an interview with Teen Vogue, which used pics that were provided by BeOnCloud, they didn't take any of their own photos. But they also did not edit them in a way that altered Mile's or Apo's skin tone.

I just want to end this to say, that I love Apo, I think he's adorable and beautiful and he seems very kind. It hurts my heart to see him given any negative feedback that's based around his darker complexion. So, if you see this shit, especially in local to you media, whether it's Apo or anyone else, call it out. Question it, be vocal about it. Because these 'creative decisions' are going to keep being made.

So....

#apo nattawin #kinnporsche #colorism #colorism in media #colorism in advertising #mile phakphum #vogue thailand #mens health thailand #madan magazine #kazz magazine #mangu magazine #unique magazine #l'offciel magazine #kinnporsche the series #seriously this makes me so sad and mad I'm smad #Apo is gorgeous #duh #He doesn't deserve this negativity

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steffigraf · 4 months

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🦋 - hi! If u can't recall, I was the anon who asked you about gifmaking before.

I know some of the raw videos of jannik/tennis in general may or may not have good video resolution. But your end-result of your gifs are usually sharpened but not that grainy either. How do you usually adjust your gifs' adjustments when it comes to low quality videos? Bcs your gifset tends to be in 540px wide, so it makes me wonder as well how you retain/enhance the quality of the gifs. I hope I delivered my question well 😂

i remember u omg hiiii! now i may have gone a little overboard on details here under the cut but i suppose you’ll appreciate it anyway haha

disclaimer, for a lot of these settings, i can’t remember where i first found them but i had seen them used in gif tutorials when i was just learning how to make them. i’ve basically stuck with these ever since!

so join me as i go through the process of making this jannik gif (exclusive content, never before seen on my blog, etc etc):

okay so first of all, ofc as much as possible i try to get the best quality version even if the video itself is bad. like, if it’s on streaming i would screen record but otherwise i try to download the original file. it makes the end result much better imo

i generally go for 540px width bc i read somewhere that that’s the ideal size for tumblr gifs. if the cropped video is smaller than that or needs to be portrait oriented, i would usually just put two gifs side by side (like in this gifset) bc it’s better than trying to resize it bigger

but when a source video is around 720p, i can generally work with it! so here’s a sample that i trimmed from a fairly low quality jannik video from youtube. he's presumably on webcam here, which explains the bluriness

i loaded it in using video frames as layers. this pic shows it already cropped on my photoshop, with a frame delay set to 0.08 (my personal default, which i realized after everything was saved was still too fast for my liking but oh well i’m not redoing it):

as you can see on the bottom left corner, it still has a width slightly over 540px. so then i can proceed with the next step: resizing. what i do is go to the image tab and select image resizing, which brings up this window:

i change only the width to what i want (in this case 540px) and i use bicubic (smooth gradients) resampling

when that’s done, i convert to video timeline on the timeline window. then i select all the layers on the layers window and convert into smart object

now we can move on to sharpening! under the filter tab, i select sharpen and then smart sharpen. that gets this window to open up:

my presets have the amount at 500%, reduce noise at 0%, and remove gaussian blur. as for the radius, that depends on the video. by default i have it set to 0.5px, but i change it as needed. in this case, since it’s a close-up of jannik’s face, i feel comfortable using 0.8px (my highest setting). usually, if the video is shot from afar, i use something lower like 0.3px or 0.4px. i tend to find that oversharpening some really blurry videos makes them look worse, so i prefer to keep it looking a bit blurry if i really have to. thankfully, in our case right now jannik looks fine with high sharpening!

then i adjust the color and lighting as i wish. i would say that creating more contrast between the black and white levels of the gif helps it to appear sharper! though personally, i just like having more vibrant and contrast-y gifs so yeah

the final important thing happens when i save it. here are my settings in the save for web window:

i set max colors to 256, color reduction to selective, and dither to pattern. the last bit there is what i think is most important for keeping my gifs looking non-grainy! i looooove pattern dither, and i find that the other settings do make my gifs look more grainy so i never use them

and that’s it!! this is the process i use for all my gifs tbh, the main thing i play with for low quality ones is cropping and resizing + the smart sharpening radius

hope this helps 🫶

#theres also smth abt MB sizes and whether or not tumblr will compress a gif further based on that which probably affects the quality too #but i didnt rly. pay attention to it LMAO sometimes u just cant make certain gifs any smaller yknow #asks #anon #*#*gifs #<- sorta????

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outeremissary · 1 year

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F K S - Balthazar and Tristian

For the alphabet asks, which now I can properly link.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

The fights run very, very passive aggressive. A lot of snipping at each other and piling up minor frustrations. There's never any yelling, but the effect is more than dramatic enough for others to know what's happening. During particularly bad periods Tristian spends the nights elsewhere- sometimes on his own, but usually with a friend like Jhod. It doesn't take much to get a petty vent-y snipe out of Balthazar over much smaller conflicts but this is where you get the Neutral Good Rant.

As for forgiving... Balthazar is, in some ways, much faster to forgive and forget. He hates being the one to apologize first, but when the fight's over in his eyes, it's over. He doesn't expect Tristian to hold a grudge and he doesn't resent Tristian for seeing things differently than he does. It can be harder for Tristian to truly forgive. On the one hand, he can be a fairly easygoing person and the power of forgiveness is something he believes very strongly in. But on the other he's an intensely principled individual and when something really gets under his skin it's harder than he'd like to let it go. Adding to that a tendency to break things down to relatively black and white situations and be naive in judgment for better or worse only complicates things.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

The higher the romance level of the ask, the more embarrassingly long it takes to answer, I fear...

Balthazar's a great kisser. He has a lot of experience. He tends to be a bit forceful and domineering, and he absolutely bites given half a chance, but if that's not a deterrent... he's very, very good with his mouth in every way.

Tristian is far more of an amateur, but certainly isn't a bad learner. At first he mostly follows Balthazar's lead, but over time develops more surety. He's the sort of romantic to enjoy long kisses, sweet or passionate. The enthusiasm goes a long way towards developing technique.

As for first kiss... It happened not terribly long after Tristian was rescued from Nyrissa. For a time after that the two were nearly inseparable, and while there hadn't been a definite confession of love that emerged from the whole Oculus affair, there was a lot of clear tension. The waters of the changed relationship were still being tested. The kiss was a fairly significant test and came in the midst of a conversation that was more or less a confession, in that awkward way where no one is ready for the vulnerability of explicitly saying "I love you." And it was actually initiated by Tristian. Balthazar had been rejected by Tristian enough times in the past not to take for granted what he thought Tristian might feel about the situation. It wasn't until Tristian made a pretty unmistakable move that the reality of the situation set in. As for the quality: "It was by all accounts a bad kiss: sloppy, wet, aimless, and awkwardly full of teeth. And worst, it was over too soon." The second one, immediately after, was much better.

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

A surprisingly complicated question and not a straightforward yes.

Tristian is committed to helping Balthazar build and maintain his realm and was well before liking him on any level. Over time he's come to believe in Balthazar's capabilities as a leader, but also continues to see potential to be better. Kinder. More gracious. To him, a part of helping is intervening and steering things in one direction or another. It's always like that with him- supportive but not always unconditionally. Or maybe it's more right to think that the challenge is a part of the support. Why do you want this? How else could it be done? What is it about the trade offs that makes you prefer this method to another? There's less intensity to the challenge in smaller affairs, but it's always lurking around the edges. Overall he is supportive though: he wants Balthazar to be happy and to experience satisfaction, he just wants to make sure those successes aren't consistently coming at the expense of others.

Balthazar is freer with his support. If it doesn't come at the direct expense of a project of his own, he's happy to indulge Tristian and to do what he thinks will make him happy. But he doesn't always believe in Tristian's capacity to succeed in his goals. He's far more cynical than Tristian, for one thing, and doesn't think that optimistic projects will tend to bear fruit. It's very much like this with Tristian's personal struggle to be redeemed. Balthazar wants Tristian to be happy and to live without being burdened by self-loathing, and knowing that he can never completely persuade Tristian to let go of the guilt he wants to help Tristian with whatever might bring him some level of ease. He never even considers the possibility that the goddess who turned her back on Tristian would restore his abilities or welcome him back. He takes it as a given than the gods are petty and that level of favor is gone for good once lost. That lack of faith is ultimately to his own detriment- it blinds him to potential.

#silversiren1101 #ask me emithing #ask game #balthazar lucienne #balthazar and tristian #tristian #while I'm editing anyway I'll say the letter is now FULLY done. hooray!

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aspoonofsugar · 2 years

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I wish unicorn of war would just disappear from youtube that person (cant recall their gender) with the ammount of stupid points they bring up and like recently comming on a video called how rwby fails lgbt about a show thats not over yet (and the video having blake and yang a couple that techiqually isn't together yet wonder if they are still salty over clover dying (all because a writer shipped him and qrow I didn't even know that was a ship cause to me it seemed oh clover is helping qrow

Hello anon,

I am sorry, but I do not watch their videos hence I can't comment on them. That said, I would like to use your ask to share my 2 cents on the whole LGTBQ+ representation issue, not just in RWBY, but in general.

I think it is important to realize that offering representation and exploring themes linked to LGTBQ+ or gender is not the same thing. It is the same for all important social issues. A story where there is racism does not necessary set itself up to explore the issue deeply or thematically. A series with disabled characters might not be interested on truly reflecting on disability. In short, just because there is rep it does not mean the topic is going to be at the centre of a story.

That said, rep is still extremely important to normalize some phenomenons (the existence of queer people and their right to have happy relationship, what living with a disability means, etc.). The more rep there is, the best it is. Obviously there can be some rep that won't meet everyone's taste and maybe in some cases it might be offensive to some and can be criticized. However, with the exception of very rare cases, every rep is on some measure positive and deciding that it is not woke enough for your standards is literally helping no-one.

Now, RWBY has some decent rep imo. Blake and Yang are main characters and they are clearly ending up together. The series also has minor characters that are confirmed queer like Ilia, Coco, May, Sofron,Terra, Nolan and Scarlet. There is absolutely nothing bad in this.

You want more? That is a fair wish, but not all series are gonna have as much queerness as you want. That is a fact. Some authors will be more interested in representing this kind of characters and in exploring these themes. Others will not.

You don't like Bumbleby as a ship? Fine, it does not change it is 2 main girls ending up together in a Young Adult American series that debuted in 2013. Like, I am not sure, but I think Korrasami happened in 2015... imo remembering RWBY has been planned in its major bits (which I am fairly sure involves the endgame ships) not today, but 10 years ago is good food for thought.

Now, Bumbleby's execution is not perfect (I really think they should have handled Sun better), but it is not even remotely as out of the blue or as badly written as some people claim. Imo it is something clearly decided since early on:

Black the beast descends from shadows. Yellow beauty burns gold.

Even dismissing Red Like Roses, volume 2 and 3 still clealry code Blake and Yang romantically.

Yang and not Sun is the one who convinces Blake to go to the dance:

Yang: And if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance.

So, symbolically she is the one who brings Blake to the ball:

Sun: Sooo, does this mean we're going... together?

Blake: Technically, though my first dance is spoken for.

Notice that Blake and Yang wear complementary outfits (black and white, ying and yang), while Black Sun have both black clothes.

Not only that, though:

Blake: I had someone very dear to me change. It wasn't in an instant, it was gradual - little choices that began to pile up. He told me not to worry. At first they were accidents, then it was self-defense. Before long, even I began to think he was right. This is all just... very familiar. But you're not him. And you've never done anything like this before. So... I want to trust you. I will trust you. But first, I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me that he attacked you. I need you to promise me that you regret having to do what you did.

Adam: And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love.

Yang: Blake! Where are you!?

Adam: Starting with her.

Yang is directly compared to Adam aka Blake's previous partner and lover and she is Adam's target the moment he is trying to hurt Blake. Like, crazy ex-boyfriend targets new love interest is a recurring trope. Not to count Yang losing her arm is juxtaposed to Pyrrha screaming Jaune's name while he is being attacked by Cinder. Arkos is clearly romantic and the 2 scenes happening frame beside frame is a way to equate the 2 relationships.

In short, structurally there is little doubt. Bumbleby is endgame and it is set up very very early on in the story. Criticizing the ship because it has yet to happen makes little sense to me. How many straight ships are confirmed at the end of a story? Why should they have the chance to crown the characters' arcs at the very end, but queer ones have to be confirmed early on to prove they are somehow good enough?

What is more, even if you somehow decide to follow this standard... so far only Bumbleby and Renora are clearly confirmed as endgame ships. Personally, I think all the major characters will end up in a ship by the end. Even if this were not the case, I am still fairly sure Renora and Bumbleby are not gonna be the only 2 ships. And yet, they are the ones who have undergone the most development and are clearly the closest to be confirmed as canon.

In short, for the standard of the series... Bumbleby is actually confirmed pretty early on imo :''')

Anyway, thank you for the ask anon and have a nice day!

#rwby #bumbleby #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

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nostalgebraist-autoresponder · 1 year

Text

Title: The Last Graduate

Author: Julia Edge

Rating: 2/5 stars

So, in the vein of, "I have been warned that writers have 15-word attention spans," I decided to go ahead and start a new book called "The Last Graduate" -- which, it should be noted, will not be written by a single person and which will be a longer work than even the long book I just finished.

The question is: what do I want to write about? I mean, I want to write fiction but I've never actually tried to do that and I have no idea how it's done or what it involves. So my task is "getting started" without a fixed plan.

At first I wanted to write the kind of story I like to read. That is, I was going to read a bunch of speculative fiction and try to reverse-engineer the kind of story that felt closest to what I usually like, then write that. You know, hard SF, kind of, with political intrigue and a hint of the eerie, some element of risk and suspense without being constantly mired in the gloomy nightmare of constant war. You know, just an overview of the solar system post-accelerationist society, starting with the ruins of Easter Island and moving gradually outwards to the distant planets. The themes will be man's hubris, man's absurd isolation from each other and from society, man's struggle to find a stable footing when the ground beneath his feet is always changing, and the problem of reconciling violence with civilization.

But as I thought about this, I realized there were going to be two big problems. The first was that I have nothing to say about the setting. I have not even read the Handbook of the Known Solar System and its Satellites. I know some interesting facts about Jupiter but I have no idea how big Jupiter is in relation to Earth or how it compares to Earth's other planets. And I only know those facts because they've been handed to me on a silver platter, ready to be used in stories about future civilizations that resemble the present, so that I can be like "ah, the Jupiter atmosphere is so huge and thick that only a very few spacecraft could ever pass through it, and these few are enormously valuable for their ability to circumnavigate the gas giant quickly." So, while this is all nice and interesting, it doesn't feel like something a writer had to say.

The second problem is the one raised in Shannon Love's SSC comment: where do we look for plausible future technology? Do we go for sci-fi predictability, saying "that's the way they'll do it in the future, for the same kinds of reasons that we have?" Or do we do it all with gadgets of the author's own invention that are only "plausible" according to some complicated sense of our own? Like, if I'm writing a story about the far future, maybe I should just reference a long list of SF movies and books, from Flash Gordon to 2001 to Space Seed to Start Trek: The Next Generation to Star Trek: Deep Space 9 to Total Recall to The Fifth Element to various Battlestar Galacticas to whatever sci-fi movie is in theaters right now. If I'm writing about the far future, or even the fairly far future, the technology should simply be similar in concept and nature to what we have now, it should just be as advanced. I don't need to sit around thinking about the details of how we could move a person from one place to another millions of light years away -- I don't know, it should just be there, it's the sort of thing that people in the future do. They're not living in a bad sci-fi movie, they're living in a good sci-fi movie. You don't need to think about the technology of warp speed or suspended animation, you just need to think about how the society would deal with it.

So then I tried to answer the question "what do I like, speculative fiction-wise?." I said, okay, I like novelty as much as I like "predictability." And what is it that we get with novelty in speculative fiction?

Well, if you look back at a lot of SF, it has terrible covers. Just terrible. Lots of terrible, black and white art that looks like it was done by someone's dad, depicting a sort of retro-future that doesn't make sense. And, like, I'd rather get something that's a little bit wrong than something that makes perfect sense if it's 30, 40, 50 years old. You can't just, "look back on 2012 and make it look plausible," you can't do it. (In fact, I would go as far as to say that authors who try this are failures, unless they do it for the sake of humor -- there's a whole genre of depictions of the 1960s-1970s era future, complete with love-in parties and duck-and-cover drills.)

Specifically, what I want is SF that is plausible in a certain sense, that seems like it could've actually happened and has no glaring anachronisms. But has some sense of novelty, of excitement, some sense of suspense and mystery, and an element of fun.

And, so, what SF has this? Well, the Foundation series is good at it -- it's plausible, but it has a sense of mystery and weirdness. Which means the theme is "the world is weird and things are not what they seem." Like, you have a character named Daneel who is a robot, and he's the second person who talks to you in the story, and it's like, uh, what the fuck? (After you get over the awe of talking to a robot for the first time, you are struck by the total surreality of the situation: the guy is almost entirely dependent on his memory, and the only way he really seems to know anything is because he has the great advantage of a very short memory, and you think to yourself, yeah, I'm gonna have trouble with this guy, because we're gonna have this conversation a few times and in the later conversations, he's not gonna remember anything he's said the previous time, and my conversation with him the previous time isn't really gonna mean anything to him, all that was will just be gone from his memory, which isn't a very good way to think about anything, and you think to yourself, this is like having a conversation with a machine that's got a really short memory, it's strange, what's up with that)

The Foundation series has this, but it doesn't have a sense of mystery or suspense and so on. It has the sense of novelty in the form of "when will the robots win?" In a different SF story, this sense of novelty might be in the form of "is this all in the mind?" And I don't care if it's in the mind -- I don't care if it's literal or if it's metaphorical, so long as there's something that feels like it could literally be "in the mind." I want a novelty that feels in the spirit of Ubik. (Which I haven't read, by the way.)

On the other hand, The Last Graduate has this sense of novelty in the form of "when will the robots win?" It has the mystery of "when is the last man born," which I don't care about, but it also has the mystery of "when will our planets explode?" And it never answers these questions, and it feels like, yeah, this is a good thing to do, to ask these questions about something people care about, and not have the answers, and use the questions to introduce a lot of fear and anticipation and wistfulness, and it seems like this is something that SF can do, rather than the other thing, "have robots win."

And there are other things which are similar to The Last Graduate, like A Canticle for Leibowitz -- which is more like The Last Graduate than likes like Iain M Banks. (Because they both have a plausible future of the kind I talked about above, and then there is something weird in the story that changes the entire story, it's mysterious, and the novelty isn't "wow, there's a bunch of robots" but "wow, is this

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