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brotherconstant · 4 days

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GIFMAKING TUTORIAL: PHOTOPEA (for Windows)

Screencapping

Gif Width/Size Limit/Ezgif

Loading Frames

Cropping and Resizing

Rasterize/Make Frames

Sharpening

Coloring (not detailed. Links to other tutorials included)

Exporting

Obligatory Mentions: @photopeablr ; @miwtual ; @benoitblanc ; @ashleysolsen Definitely check out these blogs for tips, tutorials and resources, they're a gold mine. Finally I recommend browsing the PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL / PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL GIF tags. DISCLAIMER: English is not my first language and I'm not an expert on what I'm going to discuss, so if anything's unclear feel free to drop another ask.

1. SCREENCAPPING -> PotPlayer (the one I use) or MVP or KMPlayer

INSTALL PotPlayer (tutorial)

Play your movie/episode and press Ctrl + G. The Consecutive Image Capturer window will pop up. Click Start to capture consecutive frames, Stop when you got what you needed.

Where it says "Image Type -> Format" I recommend picking PNG, for higher quality screencaps.

To access the folder where the screencaps are stored, type %appdata% in windows search, open the PotPlayerMini64 folder (or 32, depending on your system) and then the Capture folder. That's where you'll find your screencaps.

Admittedly MVP is a lot faster but I prefer Potplayer because it generates (at least in my case) higher quality screencaps. MVP kind of alters the hue and it made it harder for me to color my gifs. Still, if you're interested in how to use it, I recommend this tutorial.

As for KMPlayer, every tutorial out there is outdated and I couldn't figure out the new version of the software.

2. GIF WIDTH/HEIGHT, SIZE LIMIT, EZGIF OPTMIZER

At this point you should already know how big your gifs are going to be. Remember the ideal gif width(s) on tumblr are 540 px / 268 px / 177 px. These specific numbers take into account the 4 px space between the gifs. No restrictions on height. Here are some examples:

You can play around with the height (177x400, 177x540, 268x200, 268x268, 268x350, 268x400, 540x440, 540x500, 540x540 etc) but if you go over the 10 MB limit you'll either have to make your gifs smaller/delete some frames.

OR you can go on ezgif and optimize your gif, which is usually what I do. The quality might suffer a little, but I'm not really (that) obsessed with how crispy my gifs look, or I'd download photoshop.

Depending on the gif size, you can decrease the compression level. I've never had to go over 35. It's better to start at 5 (minimum) and then go from there until you reach your desired ( <10mb) gif size. Now that I think about it I should have included this passage at the end of the tutorial, I guess I'll just mention it again.

3. LOAD YOUR FRAMES

File -> Open... -> Pick one of your screencaps. The first one, the last one, a random one. Doesn't matter. That's your Background.

File -> Open & Place -> Select all the frames (including the one you already loaded in the previous passage) you need for your gif and load them.

(I recommend creating a specific folder for the screencaps of each gif you're going to make.)

WARNING: When you Place your screencaps make sure the Crop tool is NOT selected, especially if you've already used it and the width/height values have been entered. It will mess things up - I don't know why, could be a bug.

You can either select them all with Ctrl+A or with the method I explained in the ask: "when you want to select more than one frame or all frames at once select the first one, then scroll to the bottom and, while pressing Shift, select the last one. this way ALL your frames will be selected".

WARNING: Depending on how fast your computer is / on your RAM, this process may take a while. My old computer was old and slow af, while my new one can load even a 100 frames relatively fast, all things considered. Even so, I recommend ALWAYS saving your work before loading new frames for a new gif, because photopea might crash unexpectedly. Just save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Now you can go ahead and delete the Background at the bottom, you won't need it anymore.

4. CROPPING AND RESIZING

Right now your screencaps are still smart objects. Before rasterizing and converting to frames, you need to crop your gif.

Technically you can rasterize/convert to frames and then crop, BUT if you do it in that order photopea will automatically delete the cropped pixels, even if you don't select the "Delete Cropped Pixels" Option. Might be another bug, unclear. Basically, if you crop your gif and then realize you cropped a little too much to the left or the right, you can go ahead, select the Move Tool (shortcut: V) and, after selecting ALL YOUR FRAMES, move them around on your canvas until you are satisfied. You won't be able to do this if you rasterize first and then crop, the excess pixels will be deleted. I don't know why, I found out by accident lol.

CROPPING

(Cropped pixels: the gray/opaque area outside of the selected area. That area disappears once you press enter and crop, but the pixels are retained, so you can move the frames around and reposition them as you like. In this case I could move the frames to the left and include Silver's figure [curly guy in the foreground] in the crop)

After deleting the Background, you will need to select all your frames (using the Shift key), use the C shortcut on your keyboard to choose the Crop tool. Or you can click on it, whatever's more convenient. Once you do that, a dropdown menu is going to appear. You need to select the "FIXED SIZE" option, as shown in the following screencap.

Once you do that, you can type in your desired width and height. Do not immediately press enter.

Your work area should now look like this. Now you can click on one of the white squares and enlarge the selected area until the edges are lined up. You can then move it around until it covers the area you wish to gif.

WARNING: to move the big rectangle around, you're gonna have to click on a random point of the work area, PREFERABLY not to close to the rectangle itself, or you might accidentally rotate it.

See? When your cursor is close to the selected area it turns into this rotating tool. Move it away until it reverts to your usual cursor, then you can start moving the rectangle. Press Enter when you're satisfied with the area you selected.

RESIZE

This isn't always necessary (pretty much never in my case) - and it's a passage I often forget myself - but it's mentioned in most of the tutorials I came across over the years, so I'd be remiss if I didn't include it in mine. After cropping, you'll want to resize your image.

IMAGE -> Image Size...

This window will pop up. Now, should the values in the Width and Height space be anything other than 540 and 400 (or the values you entered yourself, whatever they might be) you need to correct that. They've always been correct in my case, but again. Had to mention it.

5. RASTERIZE & MAKE FRAMES

Now that your screencaps are cropped, you can go ahead and convert them.

LAYER -> Rasterize (if you skip this passage you won't be able to Sharpen (or use any filter) on your frames at once. You'll have to Sharpen your frames one by one.

Photopea doesn't feature a timeline and it's not a video editor, which makes this passage crucial. When you select all your smart objects and try to apply a filter, the filter will only by applied to ONE frame. Once you rasterize your smart objects and make them into frames, you can select them all and sharpen them at once. Unfortunately this also means that you won't be able to - I don't know how to explain this properly so bear with me - use all smart filters/use them in the same way a photoshop user can. For example, you can sharpen / remove noise / add noise / unsharp mask... but you can't act on those filters in the same way a photoshop user can. When you work on smart objects you can change the blend mode - which is critical if you decide to use a filter like High Pass. If you simply apply a high pass filter on photopea you won't be able to change the blend mode and your gif will look like this (following screencaps). Or rather, you will be able to change the blend mode by clicking on the little wheel next to "High pass" (circled in green in the 2nd screencap), but you'll have to apply the filter to each frame manually, one by one.

Then you can rasterize/make into frames, but it's extremely time consuming. I did it once or twice when I first started making gifs and it got old pretty soon haha.

Layer -> Animation -> Make frames. This passage will add "_a_" at the beginning of all your frames and it's what allows you to make a (moving) gif. As I said in the ask, if you skip this passage your gif will not move.

6. SHARPENING

Some people prefer to color first and sharpen later, but I found that sharpening filters (more or less) dramatically alter the aspect of your gif and already brighten it a bit (depending on your settings) and you may end up with an excessively bright gif.

Now, sharpening settings are not necessarily set in stone. The most popular ones are 500/0.4 + 10/10, which I use sometimes. But you may also need to take into account the quality of the files you're working with + the specific tv show you're giffing. I've been using different settings for pretty much every tv show I gif, especially in the last couple months. Some examples:

followed by

AMOUNT: 500% RADIUS 0.3px followed by AMOUNT: 20% (or 10%) RADIUS 10px

You'll just need to experiment and see what works best for your gifs.

Some gifmakers use the UNSHARP MASK filter as well (I think it's pretty popular among photopea users?) but it makes my gifs look extra grainy, makes the borders look super bright and it clashes with my coloring method(s), so I use it rarely and with very moderate settings. Something like this:

Again, depends on the gif and on what you like. I've seen it used with great results by other gifmakers!

REDUCE NOISE

Sometimes - and this is especially the case for dark scenes - your gif may look excessively grainy, depending on how bright you want to make it. Reducing noise can help. Keep it mind, it can also make it worse and mess up the quality. BUT it also reduces the size of your gif. Obviously, the higher the settings, the more quality will suffer.

These are my standard settings (either 2/70% or 2/80%). It's almost imperceptible, but it helps with some of the trickier scenes.

ADDING NOISE

Adding noise (1% or 2% max) can sometimes help with quality (or make it worse, just like reduce noise) but it will make your gif so so so much bigger, and occasionally damage the frames, which means you won't be able to load your gif on tumblr, so I rarely use it.

You'll also want to create ACTIONS which will allow you to sharpen your gifs much faster.

HOW TO CREATE AN ACTION ON PHOTOPEA

The Action Button (shaped like a Play button as you can see in the following screencaps) may not be there if you're using photopea for the first time. If that's the case click on the magnifiying glass next to "Account" (in red) and type "actions". Press Enter and the button should immediately show up.

Once you do that, click on the Folder (circled in yellow)

and rename it however you like.

now click on New Action (circled in red). now you can press the Recording button (circled in green)

Now

FILTERS -> Smart Sharpen

and you can enter your values. Then you repeat this passage (WITHOUT pressing rec, WITHOUT pressing new action or anything else, you just open the smart shapen window again) and, if you want, you can sharpen your gif some more (10%, 10px, or anything you want.)

Maybe, before creating an action, experiment with the settings first and see what works best.

When you're satisfied, you can PRESS STOP (it's the rec button, which is now a square) and you can DOWNLOAD your action (downwards facing arrow, the last button next to the bin. Sorry, forgot to circle it) .

You need to download your action and then upload it on your photopea. When you do, a window will pop up and photopea will ask you whether you wish to load the action every time you open the program. You choose "Okay" and the action will be loaded in the storage.

When you want to sharpen your gif, you select all your frames, then you click on the Play button, and select the Action, NOT the folder, or it won't work.

Actions can also be created to more rapidly crop and convert your frames, but it doesn't always work on photopea (for me at least). The process is exactly the same, except once you start recording you 1) crop your gif as explained in step 4, 2) convert into frames. Then you stop the recording and download the action and upload it. This won't work for the Rasterize step by the way. Just the Animation -> Make Frame step.

7. COLORING

Now you can color your gif. I won't include a coloring tutorial simply because I use a different method for every tv show I gif for. You normally want to begin with a brightness or a curve layer, but sometimes I start with a Channel Mixer layer to immediately get rid of yellow/green filters (there's a tutorial for this particular tool which you will find in the list I mention in the link below)

[Plus I'm not really an authority on this matter as my method is generally... fuck around and find out. Two years of coloring and I still have no idea what I'm doing. 70% of the time.]

Simple Gif Coloring for Beginners -> very detailed + it includes a pretty handy list of tutorials at the bottom.

8. EXPORTING

Now you can export your gif. Some gifmakers export their (sharpened) gifs BEFORE coloring and then load the gifs on photopea to color them. I'm not sure it makes any difference.

FILE -> EXPORT AS -> GIF

(not colored, just sharpened)

As you can see, unlike photoshop the exporting settings are pretty thread bare. The only option available is dither - it sometimes help with color banding - which, and I'm quoting from google for maximum clarity:

"refers to the method of simulating colors not available in the color display system of your computer. A higher dithering percentage creates the appearance of more colors and more detail in an image, but can also increase the file size."

SPEED

When you export your gif, it will play at a very decreased speed (100%). I usually set it at 180/190%, but as for every other tool, you might want to play around a little bit.

GIF SIZE/EZGIF OPTIMIZER (See Step 2)

And that's it.

P.S.: worth repeating

Save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting.

#photopea #my inbox is open if you have any questions <3 #image heavy under the cut #photopeablr #tutorials #gif tutorial #allresources #photopea tutorial #completeresources #gifmaking

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bonesbuckleup · 23 days

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Hi, random q. I saw in your tags that you swear by Scrivener for original fic. I’m still plugging away in ye olde Word and now I’m intrigued to know what about Scrivener you like so much. I’ve def heard about it but never used it, so I’m curious :)

YES I would love to tell you about my lord and savior software Scrivener. I hope you don't mind I published this long, long answer publicly.

So. The main issue I have with Word and Google Docs is that you hit a certain length/word count, and it starts to lag and load kind of jerkily. You know? Also, navigating chapter to chapter or scene to scene is awkward for me--you either have to have a whole bunch of individual documents and multiple windows open, or you have to use headers and the table of contents...which is fine for quickly finding chapters but less so for scenes within those chapters.

Messy, basically. Does not spark joy for me.

Enter Scrivener.

Now, before I evangelize a bit, I will say that Windows Scrivener and Mac Scrivener are not 100% created equal. They are both better, I think, than Word or Google docs, but the Mac version is a bit slicker and a little nicer to look at. I only say that for if you're using Windows, because if so my screencaps below won't exactly match what you see if/when you download the program.

ONWARD.

So, the #1 thing that Scrivener has over Word is that it's a one time fee, not a subscription. So while it is a little pricey (Just went and looked, $59.99 USD), it's only the one payment. All updates and such are covered and available as free downloads. I will also say that Scrivener gives you a 30 day free trial. That's not 30 consecutive days, but 30 days of use--if you only use it every other day, you'll have the trial for 60 days. They make it really easy to figure out if it's for you or not.

This is also going to feel like a lot, but there are built in tutorials and it's actually pretty intuitive, depending on how your brain works. Anyway! The basic gist of Scrivener is that it's a digital binder. You can keep all your book stuff in one place:

As you can see, there's the manuscript (aka my book), notes, research, more. Tbh, I mostly just use notes and Manuscript, but if it floats your boat, you can store maps, place names, worldbuilding, playlist links, moodboards, a whole ton of stuff, all in one menu that's easy to access and in a single window. You can organize it however itches your brain the best way.

But like I said, for me, the best is that Manuscript part, which I'm going to go into now. I use a three act structure for books (but break the big ol' middle act into two pieces because it makes my brain happy), so each act gets a folder.

When I click and expand that act, each chapter has it's own folder. However, it also shows quick-reference index cards, so I can have an at-a-glance at what's going down in each chapter. (I'm using a outline system called Save the Cat for this book, which is why all my chapters have titles like 'Catalyst', feel free to ignore those...I also have a very compact timeline, so to help me stay organized, I labeled each chapter with when it happens.)

You can do the same with each individual chapter and the scenes, where when you click on the chapter folder, each scene gets a card. If you don't type in a summary, it'll just auto-populate the start of whatever content you were writing. You can see this in the 'Copper's Candids NEW' card.

And, of course, it is writing software. When you click on the individual scene, it opens the blank document, and you can get cracking.

So. This system is nice for a few reasons. My favorite is that it makes navigating, reorganizing, and/or rewriting scenes extremely easy. It's just point and click, drag and drop. You can also open two docs in the same window at once, like this:

Which is a nice feature for several reasons--you can work on a new version of a scene with the old one pulled up next to it, or if there's something you wrote earlier or that comes later that's important to what you're working on now, you can have them both up for quick referencing.

Another slick thing is each doc has a notes section off to the right side of the screen--which is optional! I use it for future revision notes/descriptions of how I want the scene to go:

My other favorite part of Scrivener is that it makes it very easy to hoard your deleted scenes like a deranged dragon in case you want them later. My garbage looks like this:

There are SO MANY FILES hanging out in my trash, and you know what? I so rarely actually need them, but my god am I glad they're there on the rare occasion that I do. Word, again, can make it more difficult. I always had a massive 'cut' document that was longer than the actual project and again, awful to navigate. This just makes it easier.

Scrivener also makes it easy to compile the manuscript into other doc types--pdf, doc, docx, etc--for easy printing and sharing.

ANYWAY. I'm sure there are approximately 1 million other things I'm missing, but basically Scrivener takes all your book/long project bits, puts them in one centralized file, and makes it super easy to navigate. I've also found that outlining is easier, because I can just make the folders and scenes and drag them around while I noodle through the plot.

10/10, would recommend to any long-form writer. If you have any other questions, please let me know! If anyone has read this far and has a thing about Scrivener to add, please do! I love Scrivener, and a lot of my writing buddies love Scrivener, and it really kinda has revolutionized the way I write original fiction. I'm always happy to yell about how great it is.

#mail #story-monger #long post #Scrivener #free yourselves from the shackles of Word and Google Docs my long-form-writing friends #there is a Better Way #writing

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oc-challenges · 4 months

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WELCOME TO THE OC NEW YEARS CHALLENGE!

Since the winter challenges struck out, we're crawling home. Luckily, the new years oc event is here and hopefully it will be the toast of the town. So before we all have to clean the glitter off the floor after the party, we're going to hold onto the memories of 2023 and looking forward to 2024. This event comes from @aliverse (me) and @elmunson with suggestions and feedback from the OC Challenges & Potluck discord, and it spans from the 26th of December 2023 to the 1st of January 2024. With the hope that you may never become a stranger to the oc community, let's go over the rules and then get to the challenges!

Rules

DO NOT copy others edits, if you feel someone has stolen your edits, follow these guidelines!

If you are doing crossovers, PLEASE make sure that the creator of the other oc is okay with crossovers.

If you want your post to be reblogged onto this blog, it must contain the hashtag onyc23.

Feel free to ask any questions, I promise I'll stay even when your scared, and I'm lost, and you're running away.

Everything is up to the creators interpretation, although I have tried to include some examples for help!

Have fun!

Day One: What A Tangled Web We Weave

On the first day, let's take part in one of my favorite trends this year—web weaving! Weave a captivating web incorporating quotes, images, screencaps, and more for your OC. If you're not familiar with the concept of web weaving, here's an account with a lot of examples.

Day Two: I Polish Up Real Nice

Sometimes we get tired or bored of an oc or an edit, but there still things we love about them. To reignite our love for these things, we're going to revise and revamp. Choose an oc, a story, or an edit to to refine and enhance to its fullest potential.

Day Three: In My ＿ Era

On the third day, let's reflect on the defining periods that have shaped either us or our original characters. Despite the initial impression, and my well known obsession, this is inspired by The Eras Tour but doesn't have anything to do with her.. We delve into the various eras within our OCs' lives, whether categorized by tv show season, movie, age, or any other criteria you can think of. Alternatively, share insights about the current era your in as a creator, like "in my hunger games oc era" or "in my gifset era".

Day Four: Everything New

Now that the studios have stopped being bitches, we can acknowledge all the remarkable releases of 2023 (a special shoutout to the talented individuals who contributed to their excellence). On day four, craft something inspired by a creation that emerged this year, whether it's an entirely new series or just a fresh installment in an existing one.

Day Five: Don't You Forget About Me

Though 365 days sounds like a long time, it doesn't always feel that way. In the midst of our activities this year, some things may have been unintentionally overlooked. Fortunately, there's still time to make up for it. Take this opportunity to craft something for an OC that took a backseat this year, bring to life that edit you've been yearning to create all along, or share that chapter you've been gradually working on throughout the year.

Day Six: In With The New

Let's not do out with the old, but we could certainly do in with the new. For day six, introduce a brand new oc or story you hope to be your newest muse for 2024.

Day Seven: Exchange The Experience

Tidings, tinsel, and a year of beginnings. It's start of a new chapter of our lives, especially for our original characters. Be sure to celebrate this new chapter by signing up for the OC Potluck New Years exchange and spreading joy.

#ocappreciation #allaboutocs #queerocs #onyc2023 #n: 2023 #origin post #new years challenge

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puppypuppypuppypuppy · 6 months

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How did your human spam and jevil meet?

OK. This took a while I had to scour the underground cave system of me and yashas dms to find all the relevant convos and such. I'll put them under a readmore bc. Yeah.

Also, the moment of first contact as depicted by the magnificent @naggingatlas

So, surrounding info: The au takes place in Hometown ofc. Eugene, after being released from jail (no murder here just manslaughter. he does tell ppl it was murder tho) has lived there for maybe like, 5 or 6 years (seam pulled some strings (hehe) to get him the place and peaced tf out) He's since been living as a hermit in the forest in this decrepit spooky house. He was once a prolific poet/philosopher/whatever and ig kind of still is? but he has a complicated relationship with his old work and resents how misinterpreted its been by the majority of his fans. His only real friend is dess. He's also a ukrainian immigrant, came to the us before the collapse of the soviet union. No desire to go back bc he had no attachments...

Meanwhile Esteban's deal is much more similar to canon... was once a big shot, the powers that be abandon him, he loses everything, now he's homeless, so it goes. He was once in a super bowl commercial with spuds mackenzie and is VERY proud of that fact, don't bring it up. At this point, h'ed been living in the streets of new york freakin city, too proud to go back home (el paso, texas, second generation mexican immigrant), getting by taking shady gigs and reselling garbage, scrap, old electronics, etc... One such gig being what brings him into hometown thus beginning our au. I've got some screencaps abt the gist of it all

(these are so funny bc some aspects of it get immediately retconned. also the reason I say he finds eugene familar is because they've technically "met" before multiple times in their lives just very informally. might go into that later idk)

(Here is where yashas images above the cut take place ^^)

(his door knocker is shaped like a dragon btw. very cool.)

(We wrote more of this encounter but frankly it's incomprehensible and this post is getting way too long just know that they're engaged in spamvil typical psychic warfare.) (it's like this.)

And thaaaat's basically it. Some details prone to change but overall this is how their first official meeting goes. Esteban comes by every day trying to sell shit but other things happen too like they go fishing, sit in a dusty abandoned car, smoke weed, eat cherries... .. ., lot's of fun stuff. Maybe I'll even make another post abt it if there's interest.

If you've read all of that have this in consolidation:

#stebjek #spamvil #sure.#this took way too long sorry... ill answer more asks soon but ill be sure to make them more brief

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nothinggold13 · 7 months

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I said in the tags of my recent screencaps of Nick and Daisy dancing, "do you ever think. that all daisy really needed was a friend?" and apparently those tags resonated with more people than I thought they would. Now I think they call for a little elaboration.

On their first meeting in the book, it is established that Nick neither attended Daisy's wedding nor met her baby (who is 3 years old). Daisy says herself, "We don't know each other very well, Nick. Even if we are cousins." And yet in this same scene Daisy says that his arrival has her "paralyzed with happiness" and refers to him as "an absolute rose." She speaks of him and to him as if they are dearly close despite her own admittance that they hardly know each other at all. (Of course, this is easily explained when Nick says, "[She looked] up into my face, promising that there was no one in the world she so much wanted to see. That was a way she had." Daisy has a way of drawing people in, and making them feel important. I'm sure people make different things of this, some positive and some negative, but I won't dwell on it.)

But, perhaps more telling than the way she talks to Nick, is the fact that the first thing Daisy does when she has a moment alone with him is to confide in him. She says, "We don't know each other very well," and then, moments later, begins a story asking, "Would you like to hear?" She says she's grown cynical. She says she felt abandoned. She says — famously — "That's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

And then she laughs it off.

Nick himself calls it insincere, "[...]as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me."

But... I don't know. I've been a Daisy defender since high school, and that's never gone away; Nick's perspective may communicate a lot of truth that we wouldn't know otherwise, but he is not infallible. And, personally, when it comes to the depths of what's going on with Daisy, I think he's rather blind.

Daisy has a philandering husband who a) physically abuses his mistress and b) canonically bruised Daisy in a way she brushes off carelessly but confesses, again, within her first meeting with Nick, so I don't believe it's a big jump to say he's likely been physically abusive towards her, too. And with that in mind, I think it's strange to expect anything Daisy does to be perfectly and infallibly sincere, when, at her core, she is always in a fight for survival.

(It's the same reason I believe she stays with Tom at the end, and lets Gatsby take the blame. Tom is the only security she knows. Gatsby hangs in the balance. She can't run away with him, now.)

So, to get back to my point, I don't think Daisy was being dishonest in her confessions to Nick. I think she was being painfully honest— so painful, in fact, that she had to cover it up with that cynical mask she's gotten so good at wearing. Daisy is not a beautiful little fool; she only wishes she was.

And then Nick appears, and they're not close, but they could be, and she jumps to trust him: to tell him everything she's scared to say aloud: to have him listen. "Would you like to hear?" she asks. It's more than a question. It's a plea.

I think of Daisy knowing her driver's name, and thinking it important to use it. I think of Daisy knowing Jordan's name when they were younger, when Jordan was two years her junior and admired her desperately. I think of Daisy calling Nick "my dearest one" along with every other kind word she ever said to him. I think of Daisy reaching and reaching and reaching, clinging desperately to anyone who might hold on to her.

And they all let her down.

I guess those who see Daisy as disingenuous at her core wouldn't read it this way at all, but I do. I think Daisy loves desperately, trying to fill a hole that is never filled; I think she's looking for someone to save her, and nobody ever cares enough to listen.

Not Jordan. Not Nick. Not even Gatsby, despite his obsession.

And maybe none of them could have saved her, but they could have listened. They could have cared. They could have asked her about the letter that made her nearly call off her wedding to Tom, instead of dressing her up and pushing her to go through with it. They could've supported her, and not gone out to party with her cheating husband and his mistress. They could've stopped asking for too much and accepted the fact she couldn't give it. They could've done something.

Because all Daisy really needed was a friend. And she never truly had one.

#thanks a lot folks now I'm back in my Daisy feels #the great gatsby #daisy buchanan #nick carraway #jordan baker #jay gatsby #tom buchanan #I just think that Daisy and Nick's friendship could've been something #that he could've offered her something #she never could've gotten from Tom or Gatsby #and my heart hurts about it #shoutout to the girl in my english class who accused me of rooting for the villains because I felt for daisy #tom literally exists but yeah let's blame the victim

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mrghostrat · 4 months

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Hi! First of all, I just wanted to say that I absolutely love your BNF and Streamers AU, I read every chapter religiously. I also adore your art style! I'd very much like to be able to make fanart myself one day but. It's just so hard and overwhelming? I don't even know where to start. I mean, I've followed a few tutorials, learned the proportions for drawing a face/body/etc. But I don't what to do next? How did you learn to draw characters? Do you have any advice? I'm quite lost.

ahh u got bit by the old "not good enough to start yet" bug that paralyses a lot of us comic artists. we have a project or an end goal in mind, but we don't think we could pull it off yet, so we don't try.

the only way you're gonna get to the next stage of drawing is to draw 💛 and draw a lot. so the most important thing for you to do right now is be self indulgent.

what do you wanna do? redraw screencaps, put your fave characters in outfits you found online, make em kiss, draw moments from fics as little panel-by-panel comics, your-character-here (ych) memes, fill out expression/outfit/hairstyle meme templates, hell even redraw your fave artists' art (with permission, or privately)? whatever fun lil things pop into your brain or make you want to be creative, follow them ardently and let yourself have fun.

and be kind. your early art isn't going to turn out on paper exactly as you picture it in your head. but doing it is still an accomplishment. you can always redo an idea later once you're more confident, but the only way you're gonna get to that point is by drawing now ✨

#ask a rat #im sorry i dont have much advice for 'how to learn to draw characters' this is like the first time ive managed to get it right #and i think that's just because i draw so much im confident in my style and i know how to Look At Things

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twinsunstars · 2 months

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Thoughts on The Bad Batch Episode 5 - The Return - A Discussion Post (PART 1)

This episode was so healing. It was really something I needed. Let's look back on an episode filled with family joy!

SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE YET! all screencaps are from cap-that.com! (https://www.cap-that.com/starwars/the-bad-batch/305/)

(NOTE: This post is split into two posts! I didn't know Tumblr had a limit to how many images you can add, and there's a lot I want to talk about in this episode. So here is Part 2 once you finish reading this one: LINK TO PART 2)

The episode opens with Omega sleeping safely in her room on the Marauder, the warm sun signaling her to awaken. Omega is safe and happy, having the real Lula to sleep with again.

Hunter and Wrecker are relaxing in the ship with some hot cups of tea, and Omega wonders where Crosshair is. I'm happy to see them relaxing after a long time of searching for Omega.

Crosshair is found on the beach, training with his sniper rifle. He has AZ to help him get a target, and AZ is happy to see Omega. I'm glad AZ is safe too since I've been wondering where he went after the finale of Season 2. Crosshair's hand keeps on trembling, and he sighs, worried about it. It's sad to see him this way, especially since he's the guy who never missed a target.

Crosshair still hasn't properly talked to Hunter, and Hunter and Wrecker keep their eyes on Crosshair. Omega tells Crosshair to relax and be patient, as things would eventually work out. She's really being their older sister.

Echo arrives on Pabu, and Omega immediately runs to see him again. I'm glad Echo finally came, the squad really needs the mom of the batch right now. Crosshair asks, "No hug for me?" Boy really needs one though.

The boys and Omega gather near Pabu's sunset, discussing the clones left on Mount Tantiss. All they have is Nala Se's datapad that Omega took to help her and Crosshair escape, but nothing else. Echo mentions Tech, and they all look down in silence. Tech was always the one who was able to figure things out, but now it's harder without him. Crosshair looks down sadly, and I could not get over this part. He lost his twin, and he wasn't even there for it. He didn't know when. All Crosshair can do is mourn like the others, but he never got to see Tech for one more time. The datapad is also shut down, so it's going to be even harder to use it.

Crosshair mentions that they can go to an Imperial facility that will be easy for them to use, and Hunter says that he will go with him and Echo, needing Omega and Wrecker to stay on Pabu. Omega has her heart set on rescuing the clones on Tantiss, and Hunter doesn't want to risk losing her again. After a little debate, Hunter lets Omega come with. Echo raised this girl right; she knows when to never give up.

While getting ready on Echo's ship, Crosshair and Hunter avoid each other like the plague, refusing to talk to each other. Honestly, I don't blame Hunter; Crosshair performed a lot of mistakes, but Hunter would need to talk to him.

Omega keeps talking to Crosshair, being the only one who Crosshair can trust right now. Omega calls him "little brother", and Crosshair smirks and lets out a small chuckle. I swear, Crosshair was so soft this episode.

Wrecker comes up to Crosshair and hands him a large crate with Crosshair's old armor inside. They never got rid of it, no matter how long Crosshair was gone.

They arrive on the planet Crosshair is directing them to, and it turns out to be the planet where Crosshair had killed that Imperial officer, and the same planet where Mayday died. A place now buried with even more snow. Crosshair puts on his old armor, and he looks better than never before.

Crosshair sees the same bird again flying overhead, and he often saw it throughout this episode. I love the symbolism with this bird, and now Crosshair is free.

As Batcher locates facility sensors and the team decide what to do next, Hunter and Crosshair begin to argue with each other. Echo breaks up the fight, since this is not the time for any. Omega scolds Crosshair, and Crosshair replies, "He started it." If that isn't peak sibling energy, I don't know what is.

They manage to get the facility open to hook the datapad up, while Hunter continues to watch Crosshair. Crosshair knows and senses this, but doesn't say a word.

Crosshair looks around and finds Mayday's helmet, along with the helmets of the other clone troopers Crosshair had met before. He puts them up, remembering his friend. Hunter watches him do this, but he doesn't know what happened here. Crosshair went through a lot here.

PART 2 OF DISCUSSION (explained above): https://www.tumblr.com/twinsunstars/744497062228492288/thoughts-on-the-bad-batch-episode-5-the-return?source=share

#star wars #the bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch season 3 #the bad batch hunter #the bad batch crosshair #the bad batch omega #crosshair the bad batch #star wars tbb #bad batch crosshair #clone force 99 #the bad batch wrecker #the bad batch echo #tbb #sw tbb #crosshair and omega

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starlit-mansion · 4 months

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I've been rewatching a couple older hbomb videos and hey

halcyon dreams: the legacy of dragon's lair watches a lot more like a dry run of the oof noise video than i remember. it is a deep dive into an obscure section of video game history, complete with its own misattribution to a famous studio head. it's fun, both on its own terms as a spectacular technological failure that was a bit too ahead of its time, and as a running thread within harry's ouvre.

outsiders: how to adapt h.p. lovecraft in the 21st century is. well, it feels very weird because in a way. it reads a lot more like somerton's work than i would have expected, while predating it entirely (i think. it's a five year old video and well. i can't check somerton's timestamps cause he did the dirty delete). harry is darkly and thematically lit, addressing the camera straight on without the high-energy that his other videos tended to have, speaking thoughtfully about how queer and marginalized fans of Lovecraft relate to his work despite being hated and feared by the author himself, and that his understanding of the mythos was upturned by a quiet adaptation that centered around a gay man's alienation from his home town loosely based on the shadow over innsmouth. it engaged thoroughly with queerness as a place of vulnerability and strength without inventing some infinitely weak yet unfathomably strong queer agenda. there's no real hint from the thumbnail that it's about queer themes, but that's because harry is doing the same thing that happened to him, creating a piece of overt lovecraft media that might shock the viewer that was here for cosmic horror as a lore element.

i'm genuinely not trying to say that somerton ripped off harry's one video specifically or anything, but it does make if feel more personal, to be reminded that harry did this once, when he had something incredibly personal to say on the subject and years of genuine passion and systematic research to back it up, with intent to reach out to other people who loved and were repulsed by lovecraft the same way he was. and at 1.5 million views, it's not like the video was languishing in complete obscurity or anything, but it's not culturally significant in the way that sherlock or some of the later videos are. people keep making a bit of a joke of harry reminding everyone that he's bi to dodge the homophobia allegations, but people genuinely do not really talk about hbomb as a queer creator, to the point where a good chunk of posters just. genuinely did not know about it. i'm not really sure what to say about it either way, other than... yeah, this happens a lot to bisexuals who don't make their entire brand pink purple and blue, and it's not like. THAT funny to keep using the sonic fandub screencap about a real person who's been out for half a decade, even if it was news to you.

#hbomberguy

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technovillain · 8 months

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Obsessed with your alt Gisu design, you have so much talent! 💙💙💙💙 I was wondering how you came up with each of the interns alt designs. Also hope you make a comic using that Alt design for Gisu one day!

tysm!!!! i'm glad u like them ehehehe ^_^ i can give u some design notes. it will be a long post sooooo I will put it under the cut. always love an excuse to ramble abt design choices.

Gisu: I do like her dinosaur shirt swag, but i feel like her layering doesn't have a lot of clarity in terms of like. what is going on with the shirts (vest?) and since the dino thing is never relevant to her character, I decided to lean into the electrokinesis theme with the lightning bolt jumper & under-cape pattern. Which is just a headcanon but I always forget it is!! I just like the idea of her being into electrokinesis bc it would make a lot of sense for someone who is paired up with Otto. Changed her bag to be a strap for her board so she doesn't have to carry it around all the time. Asymmetrical bun for some of that PN1 asymmetry flavor. Mismatched shoes bc she seems like the type to think that's cool (also maybe bc i do this and i'm projecting) Missing toof from skating incident + torn jeans. Electrokinesis scars on her hands, bc I like to think that psi-powers can leave physical damage if not used properly.

Morris: tried to balance out his proportions a little bit because sometime i feel like his head is so big you can't even see his body in screencaps. tried to make his head less round and his eyes too, I kind of like the thing that PN1 did where the heads sort of just fade into necks with less of a cutoff so I did that too. Nasty teenager moustache just felt right + some freckles. I changed his nose scar to face the other way bc I thought it was supposed to be nostrils at first. No notes on his levball-lawnchair wheelchair bc it is everything to me.

Lizzie: wanted to up the 80s goth influence on her. Imagine her hair as the super-teased puffy fried Siouxsie hair of the 80s goths. Nerfed her amount of patterns just for the sake of there is no way I am ever going to draw all of her details ever bc I don't have that kind of patience. again the graphic liner to lean into the 80s goth style. Also took away her chin/neck priveleges bc I did that to norma first and wanted them to still look similar. denim vest for more 80s influence.

Adam: (his is the only one i haven't stuck to drawing like this yet bc i like his canon round head) but I made him more square in general bc I feel like he's the most grounded and straight-edged intern. gave him more pattern on his dress (tunic?) and hat bc everybody has more pattern than him. the linked lapel pins and hat dangles are meant to evoke his use of the yo-yo weapon. Unified his color palette more with more green and purple. Strings tied around his fingers, again for more yo-yo imagery but also bc he seems like a workaholic who would be overscheduled and have a lot to remember.

Norma: this girl knits!!! she was the first character i tried to "PN1-ify" and she just felt like she needed a big old backpack. for her overprepared freshman who thinks she knows everything energy. also symbolizes her putting a ton of weight and expectations on her shoulders when she really doesn't have to (which is kind of a core tenet of the little bit of canon personality she has) orange glasses bc my tinted glasses addiction is quite evident. the yellow pompom on her hat matches Lizzie's, giving them a sibling connection, also saying that she knitted her sister's hat :]

Sam: the first thing that I thought when I first saw Sam's canon design was that she looked straight out of 2013 with her ugg boots and that particular shirt pattern, which maybe isn't exclusive to the early 2010s but once i thought that it was burnt into my mind. So I tried to make her look more 80s with the short skirt and buckled boots and off the shoulder sweater. the too-long sleeves give her kitty energy (and i put cat hair on them). Gave her whale earrings bc she seems to really like whales in canon. gave her a cleft palate scar because i drew her with that once, plus I kind of see it when she makes the :3 face. revoked her neck priveleges altogether because if compton and dogen don't have them why should she!!!

#redesign #psychonauts #ask #anonymous #.txt

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unluckyxse7en · 5 months

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So I've been sitting on this thought for a bit but. I want to make an informal propaganda post for Gaiaonline! It's a site that's got its pros and its cons, but I feel like it'd really appeal to some of the tumblr crowd, and also I just like to gush about things I like and Gaia is one of those things

So: What is Gaiaonline?

Gaiaonline is essentially a social/avi dressup site, with a lot of love poured into the site's setting! The big draw of course is having an avatar to personalize and plenty of items to dress them up in, but there's other features as well:

Such as numerous minigames (more on one of those later), and even manga featuring backstory and escapades of the site's npcs (don't let the cool panel crops fool you though - a lot of it is silly gag bits lol)

There's also a few options for socializing, as well - you can of course dm people, but there's also forums, profile comments, and statuses. The forum even has semi-recently gained the option for night mode! The site also has their own selection of emojis, some standard and some... not so much xD

Speaking of profile - you can have a decently customizable profile! Gaia provides options in-site, but if none of those are your cup of tea then you can use an external url (or photobucket, but they both watermark nowadays and also are switching to pay-only accounts so I don't recommend that option) - you can add images on the profile, and a background, and have multiple text boxes that can be customized for various uses! Gaia also has aquariums that can display on your profile, but I don't use those anymore so I can't say much on them.

So your avi isn't the only thing you can stylize! Speaking of which... How about those avis?

You can get a wide array of items, and with the right inventory the world is your oyster! There's even a slew of franchise/fandom-inspired items, either from old promotions or just designs made as homages!

(Example Adventure Time-inspired item on the marketplace - Many users sell their items there, so it's wise to check in from time to time!)

Gaia also historically turns to its userbase for item inspiration, and sells the winning designs from the contests it hosts in the shops, so you could show off your own design tastes if you feel like they're lacking your dream item.

^ Example store - complete with a storefront where you can see other user's avatars out front if they're shopping there! The screencap of Moira the NPC is from the middle of the Halloween event they host yearly, hence her dialogue box and Harley Quinn Cosplay.

Don't have money? Not to worry! Gaia offers "Daily Chance" items and money, sometimes including random chance mini-events that can give you some sweet loot AND a fun time.

Still, maybe you want something more... Interactive? Not to worry!!

Allow me to introduce.... zOMG! A flash game - yes you heard that right, FLASH game - where you can run around and kill things, take on quests from npcs, and earn more gold, make friends and more! As stated, it's a flash game, so they had to come up with some workarounds - but they offer suggestions on-site that work with some success in my experience! The drawback is it can be a bit laggy, but sometimes it's just fun having an excuse to see your avatar run around and shoot things. Or slash things. or fling flaming meteors at things. You know how it is.

All in all, it's a very silly site, but one that I find holds a lot of charm and a place in my heart even now. I can't recommend it enough, and hope this appeals to someone reading. :)

P.S. : CONS OF GAIA

This post is already too long so I put cons (and some general disclaimers) under the cut, feel free to read at your discretion:

So as much as I like to gush, there are some notable cons to Gaia, which feel noteworthy to share. I only spend my time in the areas of the site covered above, so apologies if there's anything I fail to mention:

The economy. Good Lord, the Economy. It got so bad Gaia literally had to change from Gaia gold to Gaia platinum because the inflation got so bad - and then they never properly addressed the setup that led to this in the first place. If you buy from the Gcash stores or from the regular storefronts, it's nbd - but the marketplace with its auctions and its user-established prices can get downright brutal. Gaia has also taken recently to flooding the daily chance items with high-quality items from days past - which may not be the worst (especially not for new users) but I do strongly suspect it isn't helping the economy front much.

GCash - Personally I find this a drawback, but a lot of Gaia's push, especially of late, is GCash. This makes sense - there aren't a lot of users left atm, so no point in hosting events, but it does get a little old removing announcements for items only available for real money sometimes. This is something I hope would see a change though, if enough people decide to join.

Filters - there are unfortunately some curses and the like banned to keep the site 'friendly' to younger ages which. Sometimes backfires on their own announcements or npc dialogue. You can type and send the word, iirc, but it will get automatically filtered accordingly. That said, avatar items can get exceedingly raunchy, or have curse words in their displays even, so the bar is.... Nebulous, here.

Flash Player - Gaia has been around for a long time, since 2003. A lot of functions are defunct or buggy, or in the case of zOMG! as mentioned above, require an outside party tool to help it run smoothly. They do what they can do address it but it has impacted things and probably will continue to do so.

Social media - I would say this site doesn't quite qualify as such, as the ability to share media is middling at best. You can post writing, or art, using the forums or the journal function, but it's far from ideal. Other aspects, like profile comments, can be clunky for communication purposes, so while Gaia has some decent options, it's not up to speed with the big giants in social sites nowadays.

Mobile app? - there IS an app for phones. But at the moment, it's only for dressing up your avatar - none of the other functions are available. If you use this site for avi dressup, this is no big deal, but it could be better.

There's other cons, but these feel like the big ones to mention.

Lastly, unrelated but disclaimer: Most of these pictures are my own screenshots, avis, etc, with some minor exceptions - I tried to stick to my own content and accounts (yes I have Several accounts) for showcasing here, when not using official resources. If anyone recognizes themselves or a friend in here and wants it removed/changed/blacked out/etc just give me a shout.

Also, shoutout to @shyyren who features in a few of the screenshots, edited the economy meme, and is my current gaia buddy who encouraged me to make this post lmao

#long post #social media #gaiaonline #gaia online #websites #avatar maker #blablablah

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veryloovy · 1 year

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The "Uzi is Cyn/the unknown mansion drone" Theory Masterpost because I have been driven insane by stuff I've noticed.

Choosing to believe I was right in my post-episode 2 theories in that the unknown drone in the mansion and Uzi were connected, but specifically because of these screencaps.

N, J, and V had white eyes in the flashback (if you level adjust the colors), unknown drone girl clearly has yellow eyes. Uzi's color briefly turns yellow in the pilot when Absolute Solver becomes enabled on her. Unknown girl's introduction glitches her eyes a few times in a purple tint.

So now I'm returning to this observation after episode 4 where this goldmine was dropped:

This goldmine, whatever it means.

This goes in one of two ways. One, Cyn is a disembodied AI/horror that can possess drones with Absolute Solver enabled. Cyn possessed the body of the drone from the mansion before. Or...

Or: It's MUCH more fun to consider that Cyn is the drone from the mansion... and is Uzi's previous identity. Or at least is part of Uzi's psyche somehow. Before I get into this idea, let me talk about N's reboot message from the pilot. It's "STRING "ABSOLUTE SOLVER" BLOCKED BY ADMINISTRATION "CYN"" and I wanna point out that it doesn't actually refer to Cyn as an administrator. It's "Administration" and Cyn is placed into quotes, perhaps as a codeword? We know now from episode 4 the mansion drone did something terrible using Absolute Solver, so her name may have become the name of a failsafe placed on N, J, and V.

So, where is evidence for Uzi and Cyn being the same drone? I wanna point out something from the season 1 teaser:

Wow, that looks a lot like the mansion from N's flashbacks!

Same record player, wall lights, maybe same window even? It's very similar. So why's Uzi in this place she's supposedly never been in? Perhaps "Uzi" never lived there, but her life as Cyn did. If this theory is right, then the killed drones on the floor below her may represent J and V, whom she saw as competition to N's attention.

And also consider this:

Uzi sees this figure while investigating the campgrounds. This figure looks a lot like Tessa. That, or it's Cyn (with black hair for some reason?). They both wear bows so that's no help lol. It'd be very strange for her to see either of these characters in this sort of hallocination way because she should have never seen either of them before. Perhaps it's old memories resurfacing? There's also a hand she sees peeking from the side, which is exactly what Cyn does when she first introduces herself to N, V, and J.

On a weird note, it'd been pointed out to me that if you brush Cyn's hair down and cut her longer locks shorter, it would pretty closely resemble Uzi's hair style. I only find that interesting because Cyn's bangs are so weird there's gotta be some reason for them looking that way. Idk take a look.

Also while I'm at it, potential other clue to this theory or something AS-specific. When Uzi turns the arrow to flesh, her AS ability turns yellow. It turns red when it actually overheats later in the cabin (one wonders how this works on Doll). Every time we've seen AS and flesh it's yellow? Note Cyn showing off the tasty human hand in her mouth while her naturally yellow AS is activated. Uzi turns yellow when she decides to kill humans and later again when she turns the arrow to flesh. It was at the arrow scene where V became convinced that Uzi was Cyn. Yeah, this is all mighty suspcious lol.

Let's get into some weird stuff. Solver Drones have this zombie theme going on and Uzi does Fatal Error during this episode, so she's technically dead. Whether or not she's only dead now or has been for a while is debatable. See my last theory post on if she's even a Worker (anymore?) for additional doubt into our understanding of Uzi because we have never seen her Worker symbol at all for some bizarre reason.

On a related note, Eldritch J telling Uzi that "it hurts our feelings you don't remember us" is curious. It proceeds to show her an image of her and Nori. Nori's the key to whatever this is, this theory or not. Considering the "Uzi is dead" flags, perhaps the original Uzi died and whatever happened at Cabin Fever Labs led to Cyn becoming Uzi, who is only now beginning to remember this other past she had. The old Uzi being "reborn", so to speak, would provide an actual explanation for Khan thinking she had a totally different personality during the talk with the teacher and her classmates forgetting who she is. Might be a reach, but hey that's how it be when you talk about Liam's stuff.

Also wanna point out that Eldritch J's VA has been liking tweets about Cyn/mansion drone, most of which are theories like this where Cyn is the mansion drone. I can see that as only a confirm on her being Cyn's VA, but maybe a point for this theory.

Alternatively, this was all a huge red herring and Cyn is something entirely different. I am merely trying to read into this specific theory and see what connects.

#murder drones #murder drones theories #long post so read more #this theory is such a Design moment #Internecion Cube too since Uzi and Ic-0n share a lot of traits apparently #shoutout to the server that went insane with me over this theory #I need to make the MD sideblog already

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suffersinfandom · 4 months

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A Summary of The OFMD Meta (Part IV)

This is part four of an incomplete summary of A Meta-Discussion Of The Subtext by meratrishoslee (Mera) on AO3 (linked to, as the author requests). I’m trying to stay impartial and present the content fairly and with context. Like, I started reading this 140K beast after I saw a wild screencap and thought, "Surely there's context that makes this make sense," so I do want to provide at least that much.

This part includes interviews and a response to one of the “concern trolls that couldn't quite manage to wipe the foamy froth from their mouths long enough to keep it from dripping on their keyboards.”

No more chapter numbers because they keep being reordered.

Other posts Part I Part II Part III

Chapter The Vanity Fair Article - A Wondrous Fuckery

Here’s the article that chapter is about.

Mera suspects that the interview happened via text, giving David Jenkins time to sort out what he was going to say. They note that they’re “going on vibes and subtext, which is really more [their] wheelhouse.” You’re welcome to disagree with them.

“First off, I was trained in the House of Moftiss/BBC Sherlock fandom, where we just assumed that every word the showrunners spoke in an interview or on social media was a shameless distortion at best, and an outright lie at worst -- so that's where my mind goes first. [...] Having said that... so much of the Vanity Fair interview is an actual gift. You do have to cherrypick somewhat... but again, DJenks just released an episode with a major character death. He can't go back and reverse himself and suggest on any textual level that the death was less than permanent.”

VF mentions the happy endings in the finale, and Jenkins says, same-sex relationships end on a dour, downbeat note, where one of them dies and it’s unrequited or it’s unrealized; something horrible happens and they’re punished in a way.

“That's not a happy ending -- and that's exactly what you apparently fucking did with a central character. Gosh, how weird of you to bring it up here. So why? Is it... is it something you left open for a third season? That the horrible death of an unrequited love isn't what it appears?”

Jenkins says that Izzy is kind of a mentor to Blackbeard and that he is kind of a father figure. Mera says that “this is the closest he gets to queerbaiting us” because Izzy is definitely not Ed’s father figure.

“Notice we are still given the subtext here: mostly dead is slightly alive, and "kind of a father figure" feels like a limp gesture in the direction of explanation. The rest of it... if you feel insulted on Con's behalf, that Izzy Hands was reduced to an old dog being put down at the vet's office here ("beautiful arc", "does a lot of things", "it's time", "full meal" -- god, a day at the dog park and a last fucking supper with cheeseburgers and pie and all the human food he never got to have otherwise she says sarcastically) -- YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO.”

Jenkins keeps mentioning “magic, love, turning, losing, changing, rebirth, resurrection, present tense about Izzy Hands, ghosts/life after death, or anything of those flavors.” He is “legitimizing repetition” in order “to prime your mind to see the subtext. You can only look for something if you know what it looks like: he is giving you the key to the season.”

Jenkins reminds us that “he was not a straight white guy alone in that writers room, and he's telling you the story worked for everyone in that room of all queerness/genders.”

“And then he brings our head back around and goes ‘hey, look at Izzy again. It's almost like he's the key to everything. Hey, look at me using present tense on a character that's supposed to be dead and gone which would be past tense. God I love Con O'Neill, and I need you to hear that in every single interview I ever give EVER. His character IS a joy to write.’”

Mera mentions all of the “subtextual queer references and coding” put into Izzy. “You don't create a Queer Avatar by fucking accident. And these professionals certainly did not.”

Mera encourages their readers to read the Q&A that wraps the article “with the mindset that we will have an S3 where a queer self-sacrificing man rises from the dead in a damn near explicit Christ metaphor and our Izzy Hands is safe and whole and loved.”

“The Vanity Fair interview, as far as I'm concerned, is not some painful/cruel gloat. It is a subtextual love letter back to the fans, published just in time to be ready to soothe our hurting hearts -- if we know how to parse it.”

Chapter "Who Do Ya Trust If You Can't Trust God?"

“I'm finding myself tired at being the point of the spear. No one prepared me for how exhausting it is to be among the first to realize a massive truth.”

This chapter is about coping with fandom and contains some solid advice: “The block button is our friend. The unfollow button is our friend. The mute option is our friend. If someone's relentless negativity hurts your feelings or drags you down, mute/unfollow/block them as needed.”

But then:

“I choose to believe my daily-growing mountain of evidence that Izzy Hands is alive and that the writers intend that he be hollered home from the gravy basket.

“Furthermore? If I can be painfully real for a minute? I am amazed at the trust the writers have given us.

“Because we the Unseen Crew have been put into the position of Izzy's future lover -- to be to Izzy what Stede was to Ed. We are called on for our audience participation now, to hold his hand and beg his return -- not for a minute, an hour, or a day... but potentially for the next several months, over a year or more, until we get Season 3.

“I do tend to have this fatal flaw of wanting to uphold others' trust in me, and to be loyal to those who show loyalty in return.”

Mera reminds us that her word is not canon. She isn’t affiliated with the show and is just trying to provide hope and positivity.

“Even though I often will get tired... I am determined to stay positive. When I can't say something nice, I close the window or the app and say nothing at all. You will find me on my social media being as unrelentingly kind as I know how to be.”

Next: interviews and what we can take from them. “Interviews have exactly two purposes: pocket money for the subject of said interview, and promotion for the show. I was trained to never fully trust what is said in interviews.” Engagement and getting people clicking is more important than imparting useful and truthful information, and nothing engages people like anger.

That’s how we get the early “interviews that are half touching and half enraging, with seriously tone-deaf seeming self-conflicting statements from the writers/showrunners [...]. We can trust that if the interviews are live/verbal, they'll be more irritating rather than less. The showrunners would much rather say too little or say something wrong than give away something too big or too true accidentally, and in the pressure of the moment they will fall back on phrases they've memorized as safe to use.”

Don’t trust that interviews are telling you the truth (but they might be saying something truth-adjacent).

Mera has doubts about Jenkins telling O’Neill about Izzy’s death mid-season. She doesn’t think that Jenkins is that stupid. “It's not too far a stretch to think that this "mid-season" conversation occurred in the middle of filming the first season, and all DJenks is prevaricating about is the timing thereof.”

Jenkins realized mid season one that Con is an amazing actor, so he takes him out for dinner and says, “Next season I want to kill Izzy 3 times. The first time will be Stede's dream sequence, and the next two will be actual Passion Plays, because we're setting Izzy up to be Jesus and Westley from The Princess Bride and Han Solo from Star Wars.”

“And Con takes up the challenge of being coded as an OVERT Queer Messiah (with an additional layer of subtextual HIV/AIDS)... because of course he does. Of course he fucking does. If he can pull it off -- and if anyone can, it's him -- it's the role of a fucking lifetime. It's a role for history books and media studies for the next fifty or one hundred years.

“Doesn't that sound a bit more likely? Doesn't that sound a bit more real?”

Mera predicts that interviews and articles will start publishing ideas about Izzy still being alive, and talking about how weird and off the end of season two was. Everyone involved with the show, after all, will “know we inspect every frame and every pixel of every BTS and teaser they release,” so they’ll feed us enough to keep us guessing at the truth.

“Here is my promise to you: if/when I'm wrong about any of this, I will edit this chapter only to admit I was wrong and when and how. I will not remove my evidence. I am comfortable being wrong. If I was never wrong, I would never have tried and failed and learned from my failures!”

Chapter Until You Come Full Circle

This chapter is about interviews. “We’ve had, just in the last week, two very sweet and classy interviews with Con (which I did predict, although that was about as safe as saying the sun would rise in the east this morning) – and one that seemed… less so, with Taika.”

First interview with Con.

Con says to trust David Jenkins, which immediately makes Mera think of Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. “Now. Am I delulu, as the kids are calling it these days, suggesting that Con might intentionally be throwing some religious vibes at us?”

Con is also “earnest and intense” in his praise of OFMD’s writing. This is a good sign; that means he thinks the show is written well, and that’s further evidence that Izzy will be back.

Second interview with Con.

Con “seems to me to be very reluctant to outright lie, which is awesome for a meta writer and squares with my experience of him. Lying is easy in the moment and difficult in the future – a person has to remember what lies they’ve told in order to remain sufficiently consistent in their stories. It takes more skill to tell just enough of the truth that it's both vague in the moment but pays off later.” This makes interviews with him extra valuable.

A short analysis of one of his quotes: “Everything Izzy is in Season 2 was there in Season 1, only understated and repressed. According to the actor who played him: he didn’t change who he was. Izzy just got safe enough to let what was inside him out to where others could see it too.”

One of Con’s quotes backs up Mera’s Sacred Heart meta, namely the part about Izzy trying to serve the crew that loves him.

Now a Taika interview.

This interview bolsters Mera’s idea of Ed as Judas.

From the article: When Consequence asks writer/director/actor Taika Waititi if he’s feeling optimistic about a third season of Our Flag Means Death, his initial response is this: “Have you seen the end?”

“I think we can safely assume that Taika’s not asking the interviewer if he’s literally seen the last episode of Season 2. This feels to me like the blunt, sardonic, dry humor Taika’s evinced (and occasionally gotten into trouble over) during other interviews, aimed at the word ‘optimistic.’ ‘Have you seen the end? How optimistic did you think it was?’”

It’s not an optimistic ending. The interview mentions the inn’s renovations, but we don’t see anyone doing any renovating. Ed and Stede don’t even have food as the Revenge sails away.

From the article: For Waititi, though, the Season 2 finale “feels like a natural end to their story. Just because I feel like, you know, they’ve been through so much and then wind up in that nice place at a happy ending.”

What nice place? What happy ending?

From the article: Waititi says, though, that “I don’t want it to feel like Rambo III suddenly, you know, when you’re like, ‘Oh man, they have to leave their idyllic life again.'”

“Okay, everything else was fucky as fuck… but that feels wrong enough to be a lighthouse.” So Mera went and watched Rambo III, which is more relevant than she expected.

Rambo’s “idyllic” life isn’t that great. “We don’t see an emotional, human connection. We see a white guy who’s on tolerance in a place he doesn’t really belong, separated by a language he doesn’t fluently speak. We see a man tormenting himself with boredom and isolation.”

“When you look at John Rambo through most of this movie, you see a pretty good correlation to Edward at the start of the last episode of OFMD S2: on tolerance in a place that’s not truly his home, trying to fit a life and do a job he’s not suited to… and he gives it up without another thought because a man he cares about is in danger.” A hint to season three?

Chapter My Ridiculous Obsession With Love

In this chapter, Mera addresses one of her “haters.”

For anyone who forgot the thesis of this meta: “The overarching hypothesis I'm building in this meta-discussion is that Izzy's death was more serious because HIV/AIDS and queer grief is serious. He had to go into the grave and take the full journey of the passion play to be able to leave it behind him, and to re-emerge as someone that can touch, kiss, and love again.”

Commenter: “None of that makes this a definitive interpretation, or one that the creative team can reasonably be held responsible for.”

Mera: “... yes? Okay, sure? (Dear non-haters: just picture that John Travolta confusion gif again, because if I threw it in here every time I rammed up against an example of begging the question in this comment, there'd be like 30 of them and we'd all get tired of them.)”

Commenter: “The crew hold back because Ed is the person Izzy dedicated his life to and has not yet fully reconciled with- they're giving him space to sort things with Ed so he can go in peace. Etc etc.”

Mera: “I see a rapid parade of images and sounds. "He's a dick, but he's our dick." Jim snarling "He was your friend" up into their captain's face, even though they know for a fact that could get them killed. The crew make the unicorn's leg for him together but they leave it at his door because they know he can't (yet) let himself accept it if anyone's watching: what an incredibly emotionally intelligent maneuver. The easy way that we see Jim and Lucius and Frenchie and Fang interact with Izzy in later eps-- all touching him or letting him lean on him, just never skin to skin. The way that we see Izzy go into Wee John's arms and stay held there for a while as he commits the incredibly vulnerable act of singing for them. The way that Izzy lays his hand on Stede's knee while they're talking at Jackie's bar, and there's no real animosity from them on either side then.

“So I'll give you this one, 100%. I can't say that you're wrong or prove it in any way. Your reading is absolutely as valid as mine, no more and no less.”

Commenter: “Isn't it heavily implied that people touch him with bare hands while dealing with his leg? And if he is coded as having AIDS and being untouchable, why would the crew be so willing to dive in and get covered in his blood when they treat his leg, especially when they're also scraped up at the time?”

Mera: “I haven't had a chance to write up this meta yet, but in a nutshell: we see Jim and Archie amputate his leg (with their hands pressed together in visual union atop it). They're covered in blood and this is one of the least realistic depictions of a survivable amputation attempt in media ever, frankly... and yet Izzy lives through it! [...]

“Notably we do NOT see Fang cleaning up. I need to go back and verify, but I'm like 99% sure.

“Why? Is Fang lazy or unhelpful? No, I'd say two reasons. One, he's paralyzed with grief (and the men in this show are so emotional, as Auntie rightfully notes). But two, certain classifications of men were more susceptible to Izzy's subtextual disease. [...]

“I think it's a direct subtextual sign post to the part that lesbians/wlw/AFAB people had to play in the care of queer men dying of AIDS. [...] Jim won't catch Izzy's subtextual HIV/AIDS, ever. Jim's hands heal and comfort, with both Izzy and Auntie -- repetition (usually) legitimizes, as I've said elsewhere.”

Commenter: “...while I know I have no control over this... it's alarming to see other commenters accepting this elaborate interpretation as if it's definitive.”

Mera: “Ooooh, I'd pay a dollar to find out how many comments you leave on fix-it fics. Are they also dwelling in their delusions of a world where a fictional character in a show overcomes a fictional death in the same show? Is it a sign of mental illness to indulge in word count or WORSE -- for them to irresponsibly leave those insane words just out there online where other people can also continue their madness by READING THEM?!?! The absolute horror. We writers should be ashamed, etc etc.

“There's every possibility all the words I'm spilling over this are worth just as much as you paid for them: exactly nothing.

“So thank goodness we have you and others like you, willing to do the purely altruistic and entirely virtuous work of... leaving comments to tell us you didn't agree? I guess? Honestly I don't have a full lock on what your goal was here, if something other than trying to make people feel bad but fortunately not being very skilled at it.”

Commenter: “I wish you and every other fan nothing but the best, and for that reason, I find this hard to watch.”

Mera: “My sibling in Shiva: the 'back' button and the 'x' to close the window are available in every single web browser I have ever used in the history of the internet, ever. But I appreciate your martyrdom in staying here and nobly suffering so hard in an attempt to save me and my readers from ourselves!”

Commenter: “It seems like you are setting yourself and others up for even more rage and heartbreak than there would otherwise need to be.”

Mera: “I want to point out that I've tried to be very careful in not speculating about Season 3; I think it's reasonable for any fan to assume all characters living at the end of S2x08 will return in S3 unless real life status of the actors, scheduling, or budgetary considerations prevent that.

“I want to point out that all I have are the first two seasons, and I am telling you that Izzy Hands, inside the last second of S2x08, is "mostly dead but slightly alive" -- and he's in the house, being the cause of the smell that Edward doesn't want to recognize (as he is at least twice before shown refusing to recognize what he's done as Blackbeard after the fact) but does actually recognize all the same.”

Mera admits that there are two options: “Either I'm correctly parsing the absolute bounty of subtext available in every aspect of the show, or I'm not.”

“On the day that we get that confirmation, I will feel one of two things: either the delicious vindication that I was right -- or amazement that they could build such a wondrous sky castle of subtext, whether consciously or subconsciously, and fail to complete it satisfactorily.”

“I've been wrong before and will freely and cheerfully admit it [...]. That's also why I put in my first meta post that I had been a TJLC'er -- and why I've left it in there, actually. It's correct and it's honest. Straight off I admitted I was wrong about Something Big.

“See, it's [...] ‘hater bait,’ and it's already caught several. Lots of concern trolls that couldn't quite manage to wipe the foamy froth from their mouths long enough to keep it from dripping on their keyboards, because all of them had mentioned it... until you.”

“I've cackled my way through all of the writing of this post, even as I've tried to be very kind in reply -- you should have seen some of the shots I chose not to take due to their cruelty (even though they were fucking hilarious) -- so thank you for a most diverting morning. I even got more meta and more word count out of this, so it wasn't actually a waste of productive time!”

Commenter: “I urge you to reconsider this approach that you're taking.”

Mera: “Here's where I'm gonna get all the way real again. Because I'm not talking to [...] that poor dear any more. I'm talking to the ones who are here with me in the stinking dark of the Pit of Despair, holding onto Izzy's naked right hand with no glove between us any more or hopefully ever again, hollering him back home out of the gravy basket.”

“If one sound had been added, everyone would know what the author knows. “We have the house. We have the grave -- with Izzy's collar on it like the dog collars on the dog graves in Pet Sematary -- where whatever comes back often comes back wrong. We've got the concept of a bad smell. We've got Stede reacting to something awful with a scream [the one thing Mera’s adding in this scenario].

“DONE.

“Now the fandom is convinced that Izzy is alive, just as most of us were convinced in the last 18 months that Lucius was still alive.”

“This is part of what convinced me in the first seconds after the episode was over that Izzy wasn't dead. If I could both change the story and prove it to everyone else with just one small addition... then he's not dead.”

After Lucius was pushed overboard in season one, “I just trusted that this soft and sweet little show wouldn't actually permanently kill one of its gays. [...] And I still trust that it didn't actually permanently forever and truly kill the most gay-coded of its gays.”

#ofmd #izzy critical #not really but it's for that crowd tbh #“you don't create a queer avatar by fucking accident”#i want to type unkind things #keep not reading that meta it's way too long #and not even that fun to read #i promise i brought all the fun parts over

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gildedmuse · 2 months

Text

If anyone is wondering why I haven't updated, there are a number of reasons. However, a major one is that Crunchyroll will no longer allow you to use old versions of the app. What this means is I am no longer able to take screenshots of record small scenes so I can transcribe them or basically do most of what I do here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this blog, I am a broke ass bitch with a chronic, genetic kidney diseases I had the pleasure of being born with, which severely limits me in a number of ways. One such way is money: medical bills at expensive and even with insurance I owe something like $1,462.78 and that's just the past year. Nevermind the bills I collected from other hospitals/doctors. The result is I live a pretty simply life, including the fact that I don't own any sort of fancy recording equipment like "a pc". Every screenshot, every gif, every artistic and not so artistic edit, every video recording, every single post and fanfic and reply, that is all done from my phone. It's my one and only portal to the Internet and sole tool to do whatever is is I do.

With that in mind, while I am proud I managed to take my degree in English Literary Theory and learn how to do all of that on an older model Android I've had for a few years now, I also know that then bulk of internet denizens are just WAY more skilled/knowledge at this then I will ever be.

Keep in mind, I have no money (so advice along the lines of "just buy this $99 program, it's so easy!" or "why not just get a cheap laptop, you can get one for under $600 EASY these days" or even "you just need a monthly subscription to this OTHER streaming site, that doesn't have a film blocker" just doesn't help, especially since I don't even have my own subscription to CR so there is no just dropping that to pay for another.) I was hoping someone out there knew a method I could use to record the "latest" episodes.

I say latest but I left off at 1078. I know, I'm ages behind, but there is a good reason for it.

Please, anyone who knows how I can take screencaps (recordings would be useful but not required) PLEASE contact me and let me in on your secret.

I won't tattle, I swear. I just want to be able to watch the show and react about it on this blog since, sadly, I've recently lost all my OP watching buddies to various life circumstances.

Failing that, I need someone to agree to watch every single episode along with me as my "recorder", recording long swatches of each episode and then sending to me when we're done so I can get my screencaps and gifs and the likes. The good news? You'd have someone eternally thankful for your contributions, who would credit you in every post, and I wouldn't even use any jokes/observations/thoughts you might share while we watch without permission. And.... errrr. Did I mention the gratitude? Shit, that's really all I have.

But I have so much of it!

Guys, I hate getting all emotional, but I am having a hell of a year between the dogs, the bad diagnosis and, hey, this is currently my face:

For comparison, when I'm not dying:

Just any help or even attempts at advice would be welcomed. I know it's stupid, but a lot of what I personally get from reading/watching/playing things is in sharing it with others. I shouldn't have to explain that, it's part of why places like Tumblr and AO3 EXIST.

Feel free to reach out in a reblog, comment, tag me, DM, message me on discord (gildedmuse). Whatever is easiest. And thank you, so, SO much for any potential advice or help you can offer.

#please help #one piece #screenshots #crunchyroll #desperate fan #need help #looking for help #looking for advice #looking for a goddamn miracle #why don't they want me promoting their show and getting people excited about it #I'm sorry for the post length #it honestly left me so depressed learning I could only watch the episodes and no longer had a way to communicate about them so easily #roronoa zoro #trafalgar d. water law #trafalgar law #dracule mihawk #tagged BECAUSE IF SOMEONE HELPS ME FIGURE THIS OUT YOU KNOW I WILL GET YOU THEIR SCREENSHOTS #I literally don't know what to do if I can't take screenshots #I was so excited for the egghead arc & now I have no one to watch it with and no way to share it #I promise if you knew about my health/personal situation this reaction over being unable to doc & share this kid's show would make sense #Hey I've EMBRACED being a pathetic fan who is unshamed in her love of media analysis and fandom excitement

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