#and this is not even me getting into the worldbuilding of the story its so . very confusing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

satancopilotsmytardis · 3 days

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⭐️✨🌟⭐️✨I want to hear about something you’ve been dying to talk about😊

🥺👉👈 I want to talk about chapter 2 of Prince's Consort, pls

I love this chapter so much, and I love this story so much. I have really been getting into the weeds of worldbuilding for this one as much if not more than when I started Changing Currents.

One of my favorite things to think about when designing a culture is what the fashion would look like and why people would be dressed like that, so in chapter two I really got to start showcasing that with their clothing and how it changes for festivals. In Ennonata, and specifically in Shigaraki's kingdom, fashion is modeled after armor and fighting, but it's not meant to be functional. In demonic society, the average person, and even the average warrior doesn't wear armor to protect themselves from being hurt because if they die, they will come back, so what's the point? And if non-fatal wounds can be healed in a matter of seconds with magic, why bother at all? It creates a sharp distinction between how demons consider the world and combat over mortals. I also had fun then showcasing that attitude in concert with the fact that the guards do wear real, functional armor, with the implication behind that being their conflicts could be more drawn out and they may not have access to healers during them, making it more important for them over everyone else, including their Prince, to be able to endure more.

And the fabric!!! Oh, I love the fabric so much. So in most hot environments, especially deserts, clothes are made to cover up the body to keep sun exposer lower, but the clothing is made with lighter materials and fibers that can wick away sweat and promote its evaporation to help keep people cool. But in Ennonata, because it is just ambiently warm from the temperature of the burning souls, there is no sun, and demons don't sweat nearly as much as mortals do, their clothing is designed to be decorative and flowy. It is open so that they can be cooler from any breeze, and it reflects a culture that has a very limited concept of modesty.

And the way that clothing and jewelry are used to denote occupation makes me fucking insane!!!! Pets get piercings on their genitals! Outside of just blatantly having them wearing cuffs or chains which could be mistaken as the marks of a slave, this makes it impossible for them to ever escape because they are as good as branded (slaves are the ones who actually get branded in this society), because anyone who ever sees them naked will know what they were supposed to be! The Prince barely bothers with jewelry, but all of the other higher up demons drape themselves in symbols of wealth and luxury to showcase how much power they have. This decadence from those kinds of demons is meant to parallel how "new money" people tend to go for flash while "old money" people go for more classic designs of an extremely high quality. But!! There's another layer of it for Shigaraki because he is on the "new money" side of this equation! He started off enslaved as a gladiator, and rose to the position of Prince! He should be, more than anyone, trying to showcase how powerful and wealthy he is now, but he doesn't!! What does that say about him as a character? I can't wait to get into it!!!

Uh, yeah, I have a lot of feelings about Prince's Consort, sorry for exploding about them

#ask #tanco speaks #asks #directors commentary ask

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stevethehairington · 4 months

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book 5 of the year done!!!! im literally one book away from halfway to my goal and the first month of the year isn't even over yet fjsksk i am DEFINITELY going to hit it this year!

#SUUUUPER bummed to say tho that ive made it to the first book of the year i havent enjoyed :/#the worst part is — its the first in a series apparently and like. i WANT to know what happens next #but also i dont CARE enough to want to keep reading the rest of the series yknow?#like. this first book was just SOOOO disjointed #it was ALL exposition #it spent 500 pages giving individual backstories for each of the characters. as in each character l i t e r a l l y told their story #which first of all absolutely BORING way to get to know your characters and second of all NONE od these characters were even likeable!!!#and the worldbuilding was just. weird. it kind of didnt make sense and felt all over the place #and FULLY felt like he was just throwing random sci-fi-y words around to make it sound cooler but like. it wasnt.#and like all these characters are together on this pilgrimage right #but it is NEVER really revealed why/what they plan to do when they get to their end destination/anything like that #and im between each of these character backstories it feels like the same stuff one person is like oh wow what a story lets get some sleep #and then they do and they wake up and they do the tiniest bit of traveling #(which is like. described in the most lackluster barebones way) and then they eat and share another story and rinse and repeat #it was SO boring #it honestly reminded me of the movie the eternals LMAO #all these characters and you get to know a little about them but not enoguh to become invested and none of them are all that interesting #and the purpose of their journey/the purpose of THEM is completely unknown is completely devoid #like it felt like there was no plot #it was. ough not good.#so yeah would NOT recommend hyperion by dan simmons :/#mack reads

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selkiecoded · 2 years

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What isekai are you reading if you don’t mind me asking?

okay... but youre not allowed to make fun of me... its called "50 tea recipes from the duchess." korean woman gets fired, gets isekai'd into the body of a duchess who is timid to the point of patheticness and everybody fuckin hates her. is like uggghh well i dont care if im hated as long as i have my special interest: TEA. and with her autistic girl swag (label pending) she makes both the society and her cold intimidating husband love her. 70% of it is her infodumping about tea to the delight of everyone around her.

#ask me no questions and ill tell you no lies #started reading it on tapas bc i was bored and it was free. embarrassingly got invested.#more uhh romance isekai? rather than like an action based one. its cute enough. not really groundbreaking but i like the FL.#we did manage to achieve a conversation between the protag and her body swapped soul so that was fun.#generally i dont support ppl who go on abt art that they only engage w for mindless fun or whatever bc theyre usually talking abt fuckin.#idk marvel movies or the latest army propaganda films or whatever. and generally the media they talk abt verges to harmful.#but i am an avid supporter of reading dumb shit you know is silly. all art has value including stupid stuff.#other dumb stuff ive read: at least two ~sexier~ manga/manhwa. former had surprisingly decent world building.#latter had an INCREDIBLY TOXIC cast of characters. it was absolutely fascinating.#those are the more embarrassing ones and the ones i WONT be dropping titles for.#others include furry shoujo isekai; aromantic shoujo; mousou telepathy (ive mentioned that before)#gag comedy where a dude gets ~magicked~ into a girls body but the joke is hes so lazy that he doesnt give a shit (mood)#stupid bl manga with a hot fat character who is very much the main object of desire #a lot of it is manga/manhwa bc its easier to get into something kinda dumb if its bolstered by having nice visuals rather than like a book #or whatever where you have to slog through it with your imagination alone. even when reading 'dumb' art i try to engage it properly bc i #very sincerely believe that every story has some form of meaning if youre just willing to engage with it #(<- plot of orv btw for an ACTUALLY good story)#like i said the sexi manga has surprisingly good worldbuilding. the toxic story the sexu manhwa was telling was earnestly fascinating.#idk! sorry i know you were just looking for the name but while i do consider it just kinda silly its broader impact has a deep effect on me #this is why i love orv❤️ please read orv. while i already had these fond feelings prior to reading orv it really cemented it for me.#oh and i read romance novels sometimes. i like stuff thats cute and silly! idk. youve been on my blog you can see my icon this isnt news.

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eggbagelz · 6 months

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I will say tho the little personal scenes with the companions are the best part of the entire game like THAT is why im playing it

#and obvs theres the character animation and voice acting #oh and the music is beautiful #but i think. and god im gonna get shot for saying this. bg3 is extremely overhyped its not as brilliant as people make it to be #''paydja you play fo4 thats a bethesda game'' fo4 may be full of glitches but at least i dont feel like its gonna call me a slur #and the worldbuilding is far more immersive #and the themes are richer like #theres some stuff in bg3 [the xenophobia for one] that could have been portrayed and dissected #in a really interesting way but it does the bare minimum of going hey xenophobia bad and even then its not much #so much effort was put into the companions and their stories [and the graphics and music and such] that they forgot #about the rest of the game and its themes so it feels like. a rush job #like WHOOPS we spent too much time making you care about the companions that we forgot to not be racist #also like. why can i choose what my genitals look like but i cant be fat. i #i really enjoy this game and i think the stuff i complimented really is masterful #but it is NOT what people make it out to be #at least for me anyway #chattering

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gothamcityneedsme · 1 year

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sorry about the continuing spammage. i knew this would happen as soon as i started replaying arkham. sometimes i just need to get really into arkham knight again. its mandatory. jason todd‘s story in that game has imprinted in my brain since 2016. every once in awhile i have to replay it

#shitpost #and i think about him all the time but like. man #getting to arkham knight at last is Something #the arkhamverse in its entirety is someting really. theres a lot #in the character arcs and the plot progression/worldbuilding #how its named arkham but its all about arkham falling to pieces #Origins is obvious. you see the cogs. the policiticalism #Asylum doesnt seem like it'll extend larger but at the same time you can still see the plot shifting behidn it all #City is when it realy shows its face. and the fall of City IS the death of Arkham.#The Arkham Knight is ARKHAMS LAST VICTIM. COMING TO HOLD BATMAN TO TASK #THATS ALL. I HAVE TO SAY.#(no it isnt)#love how scarecrow is the headliner but really his movements are so. typical. unassociated to arkham really #hes such a fake headliner to me #the story is ABOUT jason. it is ABOUT arkham as an entity. why it existed why it was built how it shifted and how it falls #about how many people arkham both created and destroyed #and of course. jason. both created AND destroyed by arkham. the final representative of it #even his red hood costume still calls to the Arkham symbol. it gets subtle but the bird he wears (BIRD. not a bat!) has that shape inside

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munamania · 1 year

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anyway. i am going to be SO incredibly livid and angry and throwing an absolute tantrum on thursday if i dont get good feedback on my script.

#and by good i mean anything actually helpful not just 'omg wow this is amazing' tho ofc that's acceptable too #like a month back now u. might remember that the day i was supposed to get feedback on my outline i literally ended up #holding back tears in class bc it was so. just. pointless and rude and genuinely not helpful #and last week everyone was soooo boring about the scripts that were due like no one was giving helpful critiques or anything #it was all just sooo insufferable u people are not being constructive about like actually helping someone develop their story or whatever #ur just being stupid. and by that i mean it. like they didnt even try to just understand the humor or worldbuilding of this one kid's scrip #t it pissed me off.#and i actually had fun with my script finally it's a first draft so u know it's gonna have its weak spots but eye had fun hanging out #w my girls <3 so. if people could attempt to be helpful this time around that'd be awesome.#like last time a few people made snide comments like 'um about this - well i can't even remember this one's name' hey girl. you could #probably look at the very contained outline i wrote that's right in front of your face instead of saying annoying shit like that to the #writer's face!#the vibes have just been off. that class was so fun for a while and lately it's been such a bitch fest.#they were so mean about mine and my friend's i think people r jealous that that's our bestie prof's class but like. he doesnt treat us any #kind of way you know. and he's supportive of everyone like u dont have to make this weird #sorryyyyy for complaining about what i THINK is wrong with everyone but like! idek how to deal with their passive aggressive shit anymore #they're mean to each other too sometimes #just gonna go crazy with it on thursday #abby talks

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iamthescalesofjustice · 2 years

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i definitely share the problem many people have of whats in my head vastly outpacing what ive actually written, but i sort of have the opposite problem with other parts of the creative process bc the thing is when i do actually write its never so much bc i sit down to write, more like the ideas that have been pressurizing finally burst forth in a chaotic torrent that drags me into a fuguelike state where there is nothing but feverishly getting the words out with minimal mind to editing or organization and eventually after at least several hours i surface and find myself with like 8k new words of writing to sort through, and hope the spell is broken rather than being only a brief window of lucidity bc it wont properly be done for the next couple days actually, which is what happens sometimes

#these days i am lucky bc i usually have a typing medium at hand and can get the new writing in the form of typed files #in the past i have definitely used all sorts of things that were less than ideal bc the writing frenzy hit in inconvenient circumstances #i have covered paper plates front and back. scribbled in pen on the inside of water bottle wrappers. literally stolen paper from nearby #printers or on a few occasions /ripped blank pages from unattended notebooks belonging to others/ bc thats how bad the Need to write is #obviously at that point i had already run out of room on my hands arms and available sections of my legs so i was desperate #i once had no better writing tool available than green icing so guess what? i used it and later had to transfer the notes worth salvaging #to actual pen and paper once available bc icing attracts ants so it couldnt stay #in drama i covered a piece of scrap wood all over with writing while having a psychotic episode and people called it the board of prophecy #and this is just counting the times it has actually been story/character/worldbuilding notes and scene/dialogue fragments and timelines #yknow actually useful creative stuff? as opposed to just randomly Needing to Write Anything Just To Be Writing And Have Written which #has produced stuff of wildly varying content and quality over the years lmao #anyway under no circumstances be jealous of 'actually being able to get the words out' lmao its losing days of your life to it #its not being able to eat or drink or sleep even when your brain is released from the frenzy enough to remember that those 1) are things #and 2) you need to do them. its missing important events you needed to go to and important things you needed to do #and not being able to explain why without gambling over your continued freedom and autonomy #etc etc anyway guess why im mentioning this? hint it has to do with the new folder in my notes app with a total of ~32k new content in it #most of which is Fun and Fresh but with a dash of Throwing In Some Revitalized Versions of Old Ideas and which holds so much potential as a #new thing to occupy my days with for the next few months at least and which also. crucially. stole several days of my life from me #i only stopped bc i hit cluster headache time and was forcibly jolted from being able to process anything that wasnt overwhelming pain

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arolesbianism · 1 month

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Sorry for failing to post more than once every 3 am anyways more stalien icons 👍

#keese draws #eternal gales #oc art #oc #ocs #now sprinkles is the only one left icon wise and ref wise Ive finished aris mase and the snake triplets #oh and then icons for the human kids all need to be made but thats a future me problem #Im probably gonna go for dodie or sier next for new ref #although idk when thatll be since Ive been once again burnt out as hell #but yeah I've been thinking abt the eg cast again I love them all sm #idk maybe I should make them lil summary pages so I can better introduce them all #I dont want to go too deep into actual plot stuff tho as while I dont have issues with spoiling things pre actually making the comic just #due to the fact that things are still prone to change I also would rather not basically live script out the story to summarize one scene #its the eternal problem with talking abt eternal gales its the kind of story where you really arent meant to know more than the characters #and as such while the worldbuilding is important to understanding the plot from an overarching perspective thats not rly how the story is #meant to be told as quite frankly I dont think that is or should be the appeal of this story #eternal gales is pretty much set to be an aquired taste of a story since the core of it is less abt watching characters in a plot and more #abt watching said characters having a plot happen at them while they try to navigate the situation and their relationships with eachother #basically it's hard to summarize cause while there is a plot thats not really how Id advertise it as a story #theres a reason Im not jumping straight into this project rn even tho I do wanna make it real some day and its how damn ambitious it is #Ill get there some day but itll likely still be several years at least until I go for it #mostly because Im gonna need to learn some programming skills or get someone who has them already to help #I also ideally wanna finish spiraling upwards first which will also likely be a several year project #tbf thats mostly because Im just being slow as hell to work on that one #but it's a warriors fan comic so Im trying not to put too much pressure on myself

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infizero · 5 months

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also having now actually seen the whole thing adventure time has skyrocketed into one of my favorite shows ever. like for real i liked it as a kid and have always had a fondness for it ever since but rewatching it now has made me realize Just how fucking good it is and how unlike anything else it is. its so good and appeals to ME specifically in so many ways please for the love of god if you haven't watched adventure time WATCH IT. WATCH IT RIGHT NOW

#ALSO. i think i may have mentioned this before but i really do think AT has one of the best senses of worldbuilding and continuity #i've seen in a cartoon. other than like steven universe maybe (gee i wonder how that happened)#but seriously like the fact that its able to be so goofy and weird a lot of the time while still constantly keeping in mind all these thing #and having them inform the story and world in realistic ways is so good it has really blown my mind #nothing is ever retconned nothing is ever forgotten about. even the seemingly most meaningless things will still be remembered #and referenced by the characters because thats how people are!! they dont just have stuff happen to and around them and then never #bring it up again!! but they also dont constantly go ''remember when we did xyz?'' stuff just comes up naturally if it makes sense #for it to do so. and i think thats so fucking incredible and admirable #AT's flavor of weirdness and comedy and raw emotion is something so wonderful and perfectly aligned with how i like my stories #and it really does have a vibe that is unlike anything else. i am going to cry thinking about it #like the closest thing i can think of. and lord forgive me but im being genuine in terms of vibes closest thing i can think of that #i've experienced at least is dsmp. in the way that there are things that are so fucking dumb and strange and things that are so gut #wrenchingly emotional and beautiful and simple and often those things are intertwined. its stupid and weird and funny and sad #its silly its dark its fun its tragic #something about both of them just feels like a representation of the human spirit in its purest form to me. they impact me the most #because they represent all sides and experiences of existing #idk. but ive always felt like this even before i got into AT again. i said a while ago if dsmp was made into a show it would HAVE to #be an adventure time style cartoon. and every time i see fanart drawn in the AT style or whatever it makes me so happy even now #ANYWAYS. sorry to derail but i really have missed the vibes of the dsmp and in a weird way AT felt a lot similar and i really love that #FUCKKKK not me getting emotional over the indominable human spirit. im gonna go saw my legs off BYE I LOVE ADVENTURE TIME #serena.txt

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fragmentedblade · 6 months

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Huohuo and Tail give a very Sakura and Touya vibe and I love it

#Huohuo already reminded me of Sakura before with her fear for the supernatural but her role to catch the source of such events #but I wasn't expecting Tail to be so fond of her xD #Touya was perhaps my favourite character in that story and their relationship and interactions were my favourite thing #So I am against all expectations really enjoying Tail as a character xD #I find him amusing and endearing #And I think it actually makes sense with what they've established with heliobi getting the humans' 'sickness'#That was very interesting and prettily worded #The disdain and longing for a body and emotions #Anyway... The Xianzhou shouldn't have them caged I totally agree with them there even if they use that as an excuse according to Cirrus #It's something awful #I love this worldbuilding and how they further develop it in every patch #And no it goes well beyond my love for fire. I really think it's neat on its own #I talk too much #I should probably delete this later

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tossawary · 5 months

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One of my personal nitpicks for historical fantasy is a lack of servants, staff, subordinates, and... idk... subjects? Like, their absence is not... a total dealbreaker for me, depending on the situations the characters are in and whether or not I can just assume that other people are there in the background... but so many of the protagonists in historical fantasy stuff are higher-ranking (very often royalty), and/or have busy jobs, and/or have enormous houses that would necessitate having at least part-time staff.

Like, girl, you should have a maid! WHERE is your chaperone?! WHO is driving this carriage?! Where are your footmen? Are you trying to imply that a WEALTHY DUCHESS is taking a CAB?! You know that you probably have tenants, right? Where is your steward?! Where is your lawyer? Your accountant?! (Like, yeah, you're not going to have your lawyer living in your house, but you HAVE one, right???)

Or, man, you're supposed to be a military commander and you don't even have a single secretary?! Where is your SQUIRE?! (In the spirit of historical fiction, I am jumping wildly across time periods with every sentence here.) Man, I know you aren't looking after your own boots. Where are your GUARDS?! Who set up this tent for you?! Who is looking after your horse?! Who is making and carrying the incredibly valuable maps people are recklessly stabbing daggers into?!

SOMEONE has to be scrubbing these floors and delivering the mail and cooking the meals and doing laundry, and they're probably all DIFFERENT people! My dentist has at least three different receptionists and we can't even get ONE for our court wizard here? A sorcerer's apprentice to take notes? Someone like Sherlock Holmes could get away with just having a housekeeper and taking taxis, sure, but your character is supposed to be a KING?! Why is he answering his own front door? He's going to get assassinated. His SERVANTS should have SERVANTS.

Like, yes, I understand that a lot of servants in certain places at certain times were supposed to make their labor invisible, but there have always been servants who still had to interact directly with the masters of the house?! Yeah, there are potentially really messy ethics here, class divisions are bullshit, but I don't think that completely ignoring the reality that humans have ALWAYS been doing work for other humans is better than just including some well-paid and well-treated servants and employees? Because a complete absence of them, especially where logically for the worldbuilding there MUST be servants (and probably exploited servants, or worse, for some particular worldbuilds to work), often makes me think that your main characters just don't care enough to notice the "lower class" people or know their names.

Also, even Frodo Baggins had a gardener and Samwise Gamgee might be the best damn character in the story?! Sam saved the world?! Servants are PEOPLE. Servants are often the funniest and most interesting characters, tbh, with the most to say about a society and its workings (yes, Discworld is a very good book series, highly recommend), and also the joke of some romantic scene being carefully orchestrated by a stage crew of servants frantically diving into bushes to stay out of sight never gets old to me. Teamwork makes the dream work!

I don't want to gatekeep historical fiction, especially not historical fantasy, because the worlds don't necessarily have to conform to our own and may have magic and characters are often in very unique circumstances, but... sometimes I pick up a story and it's like... "Author, please tell me that you know there is a difference between a butler and a valet?!"

#tossawary reading #tossawary watching #I don't know what to tag this as #tossawary fandom #long post #where are your servants

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thesugarhole · 10 months

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man i woke up thinking about this but then forgot but then remembered again

this is like ten pages behind me by now but. in snippys short lived 'am i captain?' moment where hes considering that captain was like an imaginary friend or split personality(?) of his that he came up with at brink of loosing it. and its short lived because hes like no tf im charles. last sane bitch on the planet (he is not). and at no point during all that he considered he could be/could not be captain because. others could see and interact with zee? and AGAIN i bring this up because AGAIN its relevant yet overlooked, if you were captain at this moment how would you even begin to explain pilot hating you but loving zeer. and being so angry at you for not believing in zeers magic and etc like come on man. same for engie treating captain as separate from you

actually i can justify it easily since were just pilling up on it by now: they respect the split personality and go along with it

i dont need this whole ass thing laid out and picked apart of course but i just think that for a character as annoying about being sane and logical as snippy is, 'i could have been captain on my off time as a high stress?/concussion?? reaction like being almost dissected by aliens. i cant be captain because pilot is inexplicably attached to zee before i even met him. engie talks to captain but not to me. what does that mean' etc etc is not that far a reach in logic train for him me thinks. but what do i know

i think part of this text was already somewhere in the original though so you cant blame the rewrite for every single thing when the story in itself has always been messy. fractal temporal wordcount wont save it.

#he looked only inward to justify not being captain instead of also outward is what i mean #also if this goes in a similar fashion as the first run. it lingers in the air because i never saw it confirmed nor denied with my #own eyes. but if its like that. for reasons unrelated you are still captain like snippy being captain is a thing thathappens #i cant wait to figure it out for myself though. it was always in the back of my mind as a popular theory that was also kinda implied/#/explored in canon but... i didnt like it. for the nth time i will say i didnt like it and hope captain was a rando that got caught up in #the luckiest person search query and then All That happened #reading romac #sugar.txt #and this is not even me getting into the worldbuilding of the story its so . very confusing #when writing cosmic horror inspired things its always meant to be confusing but i think this confusing comes from bad storytelling not the #eldritch/scifi elements themselves lol.

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butcharyastark · 11 months

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not hating on it bc it was a fine movie, it was coherent and consistent which is still way better than most mainstream movies released rn lmao, and besides like the casual orientalism that the sci-fi adjacent genre loves doing i can't say there was any bad writing or decisions that stood out to me as a whole, but it felt like pacific rim was doing a lot of things and not really excelling at any of them tbh.

#maybe im just not an action movie girlie idk #my post #like im not trying to be mean ik it gets hyped up a lot but it wasnt compelling me #didnt rlly feel connected to the characters. the worldbuilding wasnt as thorough as i thought itd be with the intro it has.#the story is Fine but its not outstanding or even that fun. it didnt rlly make me laugh.#the best thing is the cinematography tbh but even that isnt rlly allowed to shine and only takes up a third of the movie maybe #and bc of the aforementioned orientalism of the aesthetics i couldnt enjoy half of it anyway #i guess im not surprised by the hype bc it is fandom tradition to get attached to media with potential as opposed to existing quality #but i am disappointed esp bc i do like other guillermo del toro movies so far

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bittervalentine · 8 months

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legitimately no shade at all to the post thats going around rn about demystifying homestuck, but i feel like any homestuck fan who claims its not that weird or difficult to understand has just gotten too used to homestuck being the way it is to remember how fucking incomprehensible it is on first contact. "the plot/worldbuilding isnt that hard to understand" sure, if youre willing to just roll with shit as it comes. the problem is that homestuck is structured and paced like an insane person wrote it, because an insane person did write it. theres a lot of narrative shorthand and convention we take for granted in stories and homestuck throws so much of that out the window that at first glance its barely recognizable as a narrative at all. the first, second, and third time i read it, i felt like my brain was melting out my ear. dont get me wrong, i think its fantastic and highly recommend it if youre someone willing or even eager to listen to the sound of your brain sauteeing inside your own skull, but it isnt for everyone for a very good reason and the reason is that in many ways, both purposeful and accidental, homestuck is less a coherent narrative and more a test of endurance

#homestuck

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thankskenpenders · 8 months

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Amy's fortune cards

The Sonic fandom has long been the kind of fandom that takes minor details very seriously, for better or worse. On the one hand, this means fans will really dig for the diamonds in the rough, latching onto fun character interactions, animations, bits of background worldbuilding, and more in pieces of Sonic media that many would write off as "the bad ones." But it also feels like every week another needlessly hostile debate over Sonic minutia erupts on Twitter, whether it's over individual lines of dialogue, fanart that makes Tails' shoes blue, or the ideal length and volume for Sonic's quills.

So it was probably inevitable that a fandom-wide debate would erupt upon seeing Amy's new gameplay style in the DLC for Sonic Frontiers, which takes the once-obscure fact that she enjoys reading tarot and shines a spotlight on it like never before.

I mean:

The thing is, while I basically always try to tune out Sonic fandom bickering... for once, I kind of sympathize with the detractors? Don't get me wrong, I like Amy's tarot stuff, and people on all sides of the discussion are being overly nasty about their opinions, as usual. (Sonic Twitter remains my personal hell.) But when I set aside the hyperbole and zoom out, I do think I understand why some fans are put off by the sudden shift in focus for the character, even if I think it's cool.

It's complicated. Let me attempt to present the cases for and against Amy's fortune cards

For years, I was always one of those fans who thought it could be fun if they played with Amy's tarot reading, or even leaned into some kind of magic with her. Part of that is my own biases showing, but there's just something that makes sense there, especially when you look at Sonic, Tails, and Amy as a trio. (I would argue that's the real "Team Sonic" these days, especially in the comics where Knuckles is more likely to be stuck on Angel Island or otherwise doing his own thing.)

You could argue that Tails is all about logic, relying on science and technology and deductive reasoning to solve problems. But Amy is all about emotion. She wears her heart on her sleeve, is extremely empathetic, and is very prone to magical thinking - both figuratively and sometimes literally. Her origin story has always been that her tarot cards told her it was her destiny to meet Sonic on Little Planet. She's claimed to be able to "sense" peoples' presences - particularly Sonic's. She's the type to believe that The Power of Love is a literal magical force. So, on some level, it makes sense to mirror Tails's science by having Sonic's other best friend believe in magic. And then Sonic is somewhere in the middle, primarily following his own gut instincts but taking advice from both of them as needed. This isn't totally accurate to how their dynamics actually function in canon stories, but I think it's a mode that could work for them.

Going off of that, it's fun to lean all the way into Amy being a magical girl, or even a witch, using her fortune telling as a foundation. Take, for example, this version of Amy from Diana Skelly's old Sonic cast redesigns from before she freelanced for Archie and IDW. This is one of MANY such redesigns for Amy.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and Amy's tarot cards are, in fact, finally getting brought up again in canon. Which is fun! I like seeing that. I like all of the individual stories involving Amy's fortune cards. This is a fun character trait for Amy, a fun nod to old lore, AND a fun storytelling device, all in one. It's really cool that the Sonic universe has its own thematically appropriate arcana, and that the cards are getting made as physical merch. And sure enough, the official card backs and borders were designed by none other than Diana Skelly, in yet another cool example of an ascendant fan leaving their mark on the series.

BUT... when you step back and look at the big picture, I get why some fans find this shift in focus jarring. At the moment, it's starting to feel like every new story about Amy involves her fortune cards to some degree.

The most recent mainline comic arc to feature Amy as the lead character, 2021's Trial by Fire arc, prominently features a sequence where she reads fortunes while camping with the girls. The Origins version of Sonic CD now bookends the game with scenes of Amy and her tarot cards. Sonic randomly mentioned it in a scene in Frontiers. And now, just this week, we got the (very cute, gorgeously illustrated) Amy's 30th Anniversary comic with a story revolving around Amy's tarot cards, followed the very next day by the Frontiers DLC in which she gets a brand new tarot-based moveset. Even her base melee attack now has her throwing tarot cards instead of swinging her hammer. Again, I like all of these individual things, but after years of it almost never coming up at all, it's VERY noticeable that Amy's tarot cards are suddenly everywhere.

To be fair, I'm looking at this from the perspective of a superfan who's actively following ALL Sonic media. Casual fans - especially kids - aren't necessarily going to be reading the comics every month, buying the thousandth rerelease of the Genesis games, or playing the ultra-hard new alternate ending DLC for a game that came out last year. Each of these stories is going to be someone's introduction to the idea that Amy can read tarot, and that's probably part of the idea behind this unified push.

But to play devil's advocate, for my fellow superfans, I understand why it feels like a very minor footnote of Amy's character is suddenly becoming the entire focus of her personality. While Amy has always been said to enjoy fortune telling, that wasn't really a character trait in and of itself, but rather an example of her being a typical girl who hopes she'll be able to find true love one day. It's less that Amy can literally predict the future and more like her using a cootie catcher or going "he loves me, he loves me not" while picking the petals off of a flower. So I get not vibing with this stuff, or feeling like it's being pushed very hard out of nowhere.

What I don't agree with are comparisons like "it's like if they made Knuckles' moveset revolve around him liking grapes." Like, I get it. Ian Flynn loves shoehorning in his little winking references for us nerds, and mentions of Amy's tarot cards were previously on the same level as other random bullet points from old Japanese manuals. But a multifaceted hobby like fortune telling that opens up so many narrative and aesthetic possibilities is obviously very different from having a favorite food. It's ALWAYS been a part of her story, not just a random fact, and there's no reason why the fortune telling can't be elevated to something more.

And, hell, even if it wasn't an established character trait, there's nothing inherently wrong with injecting new ideas into a character. One of the best Amy stories in recent years, the Free Comic Book Day special "Amy's New Hobby" written by Gale Galligan, came up with the idea that Amy's secretly been drawing little comics about her and her friends. Is this based on Lore? No. But it's cute, and helps tell the story of a younger Amy who's still coming out of her shell as both a hero and a friend.

Certain fans are also looking at Amy's Frontiers moveset and using it as evidence that once again the Vile American Contributors like Ian are CORRUPTING Sonic Team's perfect vision of Sonic with their misinterpretations. And like. Come on. Ian does not control the gameplay. He's a freelance writer. The tarot stuff is clearly something that Sonic Team likes if they made it the basis of Amy's new moveset - and, you know, if they keep approving comics and animations about Amy's fortune telling. None of this gets made without their blessing, and lord knows how much they can micromanage shit and shoot down ideas over the most minor of details.

Like, yeah, Amy's fortune telling was probably conceived less as a sign that she Knows Magic and more as a pretty mundane hobby for a lovesick young Japanese girl to have. But you're gonna sit there and tell me that using Amy's tarot cards for more than that could only be the result of a cultural misunderstanding? That nobody in Japan uses tarot card theming and aesthetics (or the general idea of magical cards) for the cool factor? Stardust Crusaders? Persona? The Astrologian class in FFXIV? Cardcaptor Sakura?? Hello??? Do you think Capcom put Gambit in Marvel vs. Capcom ironically because they thought using magic to throw cards at people was stupid? There's tons of precedent for this! It's nothing like Knuckles throwing grapes at people, be for real.

Giving Amy a very magical girl-esque moveset also just makes a lot of sense. For decades her hammer attacks have literally made sparkly heart shapes appear around her. Leaning into both that and her tarot cards in her new moveset makes a lot of sense to me.

But, admittedly... I do think it's very odd that her hammer is treated as a secondary element here, rather than having her primarily use her hammer and adding the cards for extra flair. If hitting the attack button made her swing her hammer instead of throwing cards, I'm not sure we'd even be having this discussion right now.

But the tarot-cycle and Amy riding her hammer like a witch's broom are fucking SICK and I will not concede on this point

The thing is, this whole fortune card discourse is but a small piece of a bigger problem. Amy's been a character who needed some work for ages, but there's basically nothing you can do with her without pissing SOMEONE off.

Years of stories where Amy's crush was her primary motivator and Sonic went "Ew, cooties!" have lead many casual fans to believe that being Sonic's obsessive fangirl is Amy's entire personality. At best people might call her Sonic's Minnie Mouse. This isn't just a matter of Amy having haters within the fandom - venture outside of that bubble and you'll realize that this is how MOST video game playing people seem to see her to this day. I don't feel like this is a fair assessment of the character, but this idea didn't come from nowhere. No matter how much good deeply entrenched Sonic fans may see in their old dynamic where Amy perpetually chases Sonic, this is a very real problem that Sonic Team has to contend with for their leading girl. Of course all those games where the way-past-cool protagonist thought Amy was annoyingly clingy and tried to get away from her made people think less of her.

If new stories were to go back to emphasizing Amy's crush on Sonic a little more, they'd probably be taken as confirmation that Amy's just the girl with a crush on Sonic and that this is her entire personality. Conversely, when the crush is played down, you piss off the hardcore SonAmy fans who don't seem to understand that they're Charlie Brown and Sega is Lucy holding the football. You can't win.

And so here we are. In the absence of what was once her defining trait, now reduced to an occasional blush or wink in Sonic's direction, new stories are trying to mine Amy's past for additional material to work with. Having been a thing fans wanted to see for years, right now we're getting a lot of tarot, but we're also getting reminders of her compassionate nature and her desire to go out of her way to help the little guy. This is an ongoing process. I continue to hope that her bubbly, exuberant demeanor can shine more in future stories. Now, I also hope that the tarot stuff gets balanced out a little better with other traits of hers. But I don't want it to go away. I think it's fun.

This course correcting is far from exclusive to Amy. Knuckles is getting stories that remind us that he's a competent fighter, an experienced treasure hunter, and even a self-taught archaeologist after years of him being perceived as either the dumb one or just the guy who stands in front of the Master Emerald all day. And Tails has been getting some stories reminding folks that he's a capable hero in his own right and not just Sonic's timid kid sidekick.

But no supporting character will ever compete with the sheer number of new ideas Sega has tried with Sonic himself. Like Amy, his Frontiers moveset has also given him half a dozen new superpowers that he never had before, from the Cyloop to air-slicing projectile attacks to his own take on Shadow Clone Jutsu and beyond. He's also been a hoverboarder, a swordsman, a time traveler, an Olympic athlete, a racecar driver, cursed with a Flame of Judgment, imbued with alien power, a fucking Werehog with stretchy powers, and on and on and on.

If Sonic can do all that, Amy can try out using a tarot-cycle.

Anyway TL;DR the REAL problem with Amy's current characterization... is where the FUCK is Amy's bestie, Honey the Cat???????

#tkp post

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