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boysplanetrecaps · 3 months

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Build Up Episode 0: Getting to Know the Boys Part 2: Team Soul

Hey friends! Continuing my introductory posts about the guys on MNET's Build Up before I can dive into proper recaps, here's the low down on Team Soul -- their background, basic info, and my opinion on their teaser performance (and other performances). (I did Team Allround last time.) Let's go!

Same disclaimers apply -- 1) these are all excellent vocalists and I am just splitting hairs here 2) this is taking forever and screencaps with my video source are tricky, so please forgive my awkward screencaps and occasional typos. Thank you!!

Ma Jaekyung

Jaekyung is 27 and from a group called Romeo, where he was the main vocalist and performed under the name of Kyle. He also appeared on Mixnine, that blighted show that produced a group that never debuted. It was such a fiasco, ugh, and so many trainees went through hell for nothing. Bitsaeon from M.O.N.T. , Jeong Inseong from KNK, and Donghun from A.C.E. all went on that as well, so they all might have gotten friendly then.

Jaekyung (and the other members of Romeo) also went on Peaktime, a show for idol groups that had already debuted but weren’t super successful, including Vanner (who won!), M.O.N.T, and BDC, so he may have met Taehwan, Bitsaeon (again), and Hong Seongjun. When Romeo was on Peaktime, they performed the SHINee song Juliette, which is a cute choice since that’s the name of their fandom. And then MNET didn’t bother airing that performance. Thanks, MNET! Themnet.

So, as for his group itself. Romeo was a 7 member group that debuted in May of 2015, when he would have been 18 years old. The group did slightly better in Japan than they did in Korea, but none of their Korean singles charted at all and most of their MVs have fewer than 200,000 views. Their biggest hit appears to be Lovesick. When the guys from Romeo went on Peaktime, they revealed that Romeo had disbanded at some point in the past.

In Jaekyung’s k-profiles listing, it says he’s” a 4D” kind of guy, so I guess we should watch out for his personality, if MNET will show it. It’s hard to picture a guy in a tan blazer as wacky, but we’ll see!

His teaser song was V25, Passing by Kim Bum Soo. For me, he has a really nasal tone to his singing that isn’t my favorite, and I am not a huge fan of his kind of wobbly vibrato, but like everyone on this show, he’s essentially a very good vocalist, with what seems like a very good sense of pitch. Again, it’s a ballad and my ears sort of turn off, so I’ll keep an open mind.

Seokhwa

Here is Kang Seokhwa, who is in WEi. He also went on YG Treasure Box, where he would have met CIX’s Seunghwan, and Produce X 101, where he ranked 35th and would have met two of the all rounders on this show, Choi Suhwan and BDC’s Hong Seongjun.

WEi, pronounced something like “we-eye”, is a six member group that debuted in 2020. WEi is almost entirely made up of contestants from Produce 101, Produce X 101, and Under 19, including some who won their seasons. Seokhwa is their main vocal. The WEi song Spray spent some time on my playlists recently, but I don’t know many of their other songs. WEi’s most popular member, Johan, is significantly more popular than the others; he came in first place in Produce X 101. Their videos get around 10-15 million views each, putting them slightly lower in the popularity ranking than CIX and AB6IX, but leagues ahead of IMFACT and Romeo.

I checked out an MR removed video of Spray and Seokhwa was really stable, so I can see why he’d come on the show. He’s V37, and it’s a ballad and you know me by now so it’s hard for me to give this a chance but he has a sweet voice that sounds best when he’s singing more softly, which can’t be said of everyone on this show. We’ve got a lot of belters here! He strains a bit on the higher notes, and I feel like he closes his throat a bit when he belts, but doesn’t get too nasal, which is good. He’s young yet -- he’s only 23, one of the younger people on the show -- and I hope he keeps working on his voice, because he has a lot of potential.

Donghun

Donghun will turning 31 at the end of February of this year (2024), and he’s already done his military service.

He is the main vocal of A.C.E., a five member group under Beat Interactive/Swing Entertainment that debuted in 2017 with the song Cactus. Their songs don’t chart in Korea, but they get into the top twenty on the US World Chart, because USA has taste, yo.

If there’s one song of theirs that I think you’d know it would be Goblin (Favorite Boys). But there’s also Under Cover, which is also a banger. Whoever did the subtitles on their older videos puts the names of the singers in, so you can easily find Donghun in their videos. Some of their older songs have 15-20 million views, but their newest comeback, an English language mid-tempo ballad called Effortless, has less than a million views, maybe because it’s in English? Or because it’s a mid-tempo ballad? I don’t know, if you like Who Do You Love by Monsta X, songs like that, you might like Effortless. Really, their songs are good. I feel like it’s a weird situation where everyone likes A.C.E. but somehow they’re still kind of nugu. I know, that doesn’t make sense.

Donghun went on Mixnine (he won 8th place and should have debuted), so he probably knows the other Mixnine contestants on this show: Bitsaeon from M.O.N.T., Ma Jaekhyung from Romeo, and Jeong Inseong from KNK. He may also know Park Jeup from when they both went on I Can See Your Voice 4.

He set himself up for a tough time by singing an EXO song for his teaser song (V20, Miracles in December). Literally no one can sing it like they can. Still, he does pretty well. He has an appealing warm vocal color and he really goes for that long held note, holding it with good breath support. I just worry because I can almost feel his throat straining on the higher notes. He hits them, but it’s got to hurt. He also relies on some pretty loud background vocals so it’s harder to tell how much of it is live. Despite that, he’s an excellent idol singer and I’ll always support A.C.E. and him.

Lee Minwook

Minwook is 23 and is in a group called Newkidd. I guess he likes vests? What, oh what, what on earth is up with the styling for these guys? Most of them are dressed like they’re going to a college interview. I don’t get it!

As far as I know, Minwook hasn’t been on any other survival type shows, making him one of the 15 members of the cast who haven’t (and 4 of those are musical actors).

Newkidd is a 7 member group under J-FLO Entertainment, an agency that manages only them, and the debuted in 2019. Most of their MVs get a million views or fewer. From what I can tell, their most popular song is Tu Eres, featuring the Spanish refrain “tu eres, tu eres, tu eres bonita” (you are, you are, you are pretty). The comments on the video are mostly in Spanish and show a lot of excitement about hearing Spanish in a Kpop song, and I can’t blame them! Representation! So maybe Newkidd is more popular in Spanish speaking countries and is courting that market. That’s smart -- it’s a huge market!

In his teaser, Minwook was V09, The Manuel by Eddy Kim, an example of a ballad I actually like -- it has some interesting chord progressions and isn’t sappy at all. I also like his performance. He seems to just be singing live while accompanied by just one guitar, which gives me faith in his vocals. I think his voice might be more “unique” than “soul” but these categories are pretty reductive anyway. He puts a lot of warmth into his lower notes and makes you almost feel like you understand what he’s singing. He doesn’t display his higher register or belt as much here, so I’ll be waiting to see more of what he can do.

Lim Sanghyun

Sanghyun is listed as a singer-songwriter, and he’s 27. He’s considered a ballad artist specifically, and is signed to MNH entertainment, where he releases mostly digital singles. I know the ballad market in Korea is really big, even if it’s not my favorite, so go for it, Sanghyun!

His teaser was V14, one of those kinds of ballads I hate so much that it’s hard for me to be fair. He sings in that classic K-ballad style, that kind of gruff whisper-sing, which can go either way for me depending on the song.I don’t think he ever really lets go and belts in his teaser, so I’ll be curious to hear what that would sound like.

Bain

This is Bain, age 22, and I adore his voice. (His name is pronounced “bane”, if you’re wondering, based on the hangul.)

Let me talk about him for a moment.

No, wait. Instead of me talking, you should just listen to this. It’s just a straight forward, earnest cover of Oliva Rodrigo’s Driver’s License, with no winky “ha ha I’m a boy singing this,” no sarcasm. Just a pure performance. His vibrato is so sweet. He exhibits barely a trace of nasality, and when it’s present, it’s for the emotion of the song. The notes he hits in his full chest voice? I can’t believe it. And his mixed register is like, chef’s kiss. I can’t. I just can’t. I’d never heard of him before this show, but I heard this performance and I was good. Even my fella was like, “wow, this guy has technique.” So you’re going to have to accept that I’m a Bain fan and will be cheering for him.

I had to look into Just B. They’re a 6 member group under Bluedot Entertainment, a subdivision of Kakao that manages only them. They debuted into 2021, and their members were contestants on Under 19, I-land, and a few other survival shows. (Side note: I watched a lot of I-land, but never saw any of Under 19. Starting to think I should add it to the list.) JustB has a few title tracks out at this point and they usually get about 10 millions views each. I listened to a few of them over the last few days (it’s taking me a while to write this recap) and I’ve come to like a few of their songs. Their most recent comeback is called Medusa, and though the lyrics make negative amounts of sense, it’s pretty catchy. I also liked Damage quite a bit. The group doesn’t seem to have set positions, but it seems that Bain and Geonu are more or less the main vocals.

Jay

Jay Chang, V02, age 22, famous for almost making it into Zerobase1, landing in 10th place. He’s American, with a white-Filipino-Chinese ethnic background, and on Boys Planet, he was extremely popular among the “Global” voters, but not very popular among the Korean voters. He also went on another show called Under 19 at some point, if you watched that -- I didn’t, but maybe I should. In case you didn’t watch Boys Planet, here is his initial audition to Rush Hour,and here is his performance of Exo’s Love Me Right (he was main vocal).

I know that most of my 3 or 4 readers are Jay fans, and that is cool by me. I’ve always thought he has a really really lovely, clean vocal color, he has good stage presence, and I think he’s basically a nice guy, though he sorta gives me fuckboi vibes sometimes. I also think -- and don’t get mad at me, ok? -- I also think that he needs to work on his pitchiness and nasality. That’s true in both the opening notes of his Rush Hour audition, and at points in his Baby Baby teaser song. He was one of the top 3 or 4 vocalists among the Boys Planet boys, but he’s in a different setting now and might just be outsung by the other vocalists here. I hope that you’re ok with that. I’m not saying that he’s a bad singer. Everyone on this show is a very good singer, and Jay is also a very good singer! I’m just looking for a voice that can compete with D.O.’s voice, and my standards are up in the sky. (Hanuel wilo fly fly!)

Jung Soomin

Jung Soo-min loves slightly goofy, informal outfits that scream “Hi, I’m American!” Which he is -- born in Chicago. That's about all I know about his background.

Check out his performance, V30, a really sweet cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” in which he accompanies himself on the guitar. I think it speaks for itself, but I’ll say a few words anyway. I really like his voice -- sweet, light, a little textured. Great agility, and good performance of the emotion/feeling of the words. Just delightful. I’ll forgive your hat.

Here he is on tiktok talking bout his experience on the show (in English). He says that his attitude toward competition is to just do the best he can, that the competition is really with himself. He seems like a nice guy.

Kim Seongjeong

Seongjeong is a musical actor, and his performance in V16 shows that. It’s not a style of singing that I tend to respond to, but I respect its natural quality and hard-earned technique. Vocally, he wouldn’t at all be out of place on Broadway. Considering his rich timbre and excellent breath support, I’d be interested to hear him sing something more in the pop or r&b style to see what it would sound like. My sleuthing tells me that he’s 25 (born in 1999) and acted in Hadestown and West Side Story. And look at that smile! Totally transforms his face.

Park Joohee

Joohee is another one of the contestants I just can’t find much info on. His teaser song was V15, Stand by Me by SHINee, and it was perfectly nice. Not mind blowing, but easy to listen to. He has good agility and a nice vocal color, but seems to lack breath support -- either that, or he was just really nervous, which seems likely. Also, the camera hardly ever shows him, so it was really hard to get a screencap of him.

Ok, that's team Soul! Feel free to go on to the next post, Team Power.

And thanks for your amazing response to my first post -- I was really worried you all would murder me for saying slightly negative things and thus far that hasn't happened, so thanks! You're all peaches. Have a beautiful day.

#bpr recaps build up #mnet build up #build up mnet #park joohee #kim seongjeong #jung soomin #jay #jay chang #boys planet jay #bain #just b #lim sanghyun #lee minwook #A.C.E.#Donghun #WEi #Seokhwa #wei seokhwa #ma jaekhyung

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userjohndeacon · 3 months

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hi! i'm a huge fan of your gifs, especially the queen ones and i was wondering if there's any tips you use, any programs? i want to start giffing but have no idea where to start 😅

aw that's really lovely to hear 💚 i'm still a baby gifmaker really so there isn't a lot that i can provide in terms of advice that hasn't already been said but here's what i got:

the biggest thing to start out with is finding HQ videos, 4K if your computer can handle it but 1080p is still good (it's part of the reason i gif a lot of montreal and budapest because the video quality available is so good). i mostly get my videos from torrenting (like TV shows or movies) or downloading from youtube at the highest quality available (just search "download youtube videos" and use one of the sites)

i've been torrenting since i was like 15 so i've been doing it for awhile, but get yourself a client like bittorrent and a VPN and just dig through the internet. torrent host sites are always being taken down and being put back up so sometimes ya gotta just trial and error it to find the files you're looking for

for screencapping these days i use MPV and a .conf file. here is a good tutorial for that

for the actual editing i use photoshop which i also torrented but if you don't feel like dealing with that process or paying for it outright, there's photopea. my wonderful friend @miwtual started a photopea source blog for tutorials you can check out here

if you are using photoshop, there are like a bazillion tutorials out there on how to upload your screencaps, how to color, how to sharpen, etc etc and those are my lifelines. follow blogs like @pscentral @usergif @gifmakerresource etc and just like dig through all of their tutorials

my biggest advice is follow other creators and share their stuff. you can get lots of inspiration and support from other creators. plus other gifmakers leave the best tags on your edits, like it's pure serotonin

the number one thing to remember is your gifs might be ugly at first and that's so normal and okay. when i was moving blogs and reblogging my old edits over to this blog to have under my edit tag, i fully didn't include a lot of my older edits cuz they were just bad. you'll only get better with practice!!!!

i hope this helps! sometimes the best thing to do is google "gif tutorial tumblr" and just scroll through all the amazing tutorials folks have created over the years. i hope you have so much fun on your giffing journey!!!! 💖💖💖

#lovely anon

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wawamouse · 2 months

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Oz Rewatch 3: S3E01: The Truth and Nothing But…

This episode flew by! I have no complaints. I feel like it was another strong season start.

Plotlines

Weitgart takes over health maintenance with Dr Garvey; Alvarez is taken off his antidepressants and spirals; it is revealed he is being starved by the hacks

Simon Adebisi is released from the psych ward

New hacks: Clayton Hughes, Claire Howell

Ryan plays Jaz Hoyt against Schillinger as revenge

Hanlon moves into death row

Said meets Patricia Ross; Hamid Khan is introduced;

Metzger chokes out Busmalis; McManus plots to take him down; Beecher gets out of the hospital; Chris confesses to McManus about what happened to Beecher; Beecher kills Metzger

Sister: How is cutting $28 million from the prison health budget not going to cut quality? Like I could understand if they cut the budget and it was like $3million or something relatively small in terms of a state budget. Me: The way they were having a press conference with the Weitgart guy in front of those two random inmates in the hospital beds…. 😂

Sister: She’s like “oh no, I got another one”. Miguel: [Tosses the pills] Sister: You know, I was hoping she’d have her doctorly victory this season, but she already failed to watch him take his pills. That’s like Doctor 101… She was even championing for him to get his pills and she didn’t even watch him? He’s already putting himself in the very position the company guy (Garvey) was trying to put him in anyway. Me: Maybe it’s a nurse’s job so she didn’t do it. Sister: Pshhh Doctors should know that, too!

Sister: What’s the holy sacrament? I thought he said he was going to give holy communion. Me: I think you need to confess to get the sacrament to go to communion. Sister: What does that mean? Me: I don’t know. You get the cracker. Sister: You have to confess to nibble on Jesus...

Sister: Ew, what is that, pee? [after Miguel drinks from the jug] Sister: Don’t they get water from the toilet and the shower? Why’s he drinking his pee? You know, he should be dead, then. You can’t actually survive off your own pee. Wait, but if he’s flushing his pills down the toilet and then he’s drinking from the toilet, isn’t he taking his pills after all? Where’s my phone. I need to google if prison toilets have water… And doesn’t he have a sink? He has like three sources of water… I don’t think he needs to drink his own pee. I think he’s just doing a survivor thing. Me: Like Bear Grylls. Sister: Yeah. One of the questions on google is ‘why do prisoners remove water from their toilets’, so I think that must mean they have water in their toilets. Me: But maybe they shut off the water to Miguel’s cell somehow. Sister: But I think they’d have to shut off the water to the whole block—the whole area. Then they wouldn’t have water, either. Me: Well, either way, he decided to drink his own pee, so. Just goes to show his state of mind, I guess. Sister: He saw his grandpa and he thinks he doesn’t have water…

Sister: He looks more like a Simon now. He’s going to be like a little lamb who’s thrown to the wolves and then becomes bad again… Me: Do you think he's changed? Sister: Well he grew out his hair and he's wearing all his clothes, so who knows.

Sister, without hesitation: WHAT is there to cut on this bald man’s head?! (Sister, walking behind me as I add this screencap to the post: Hmph. Bald-ass man....)

Sister speculated greatly about the Big Lesbian Romance of Diane and Claire in the locker room but I forgot to record exactly what she said because I was still laughing at something she was saying about Clayton Hughes, which I also failed to record.

Howell: Speak of action, who's the cute guy who's running Emerald City? Sister (as Diane) (dumbdumb voice): I dunno. Wanna go out? [...] Howell: You used to fuck him? Sister (as Diane) (elf voice): No. I'm a lesbian! [Etc]

Sister: She’s like the new Samantha of the group. Me: I don’t know what that means. Sister: Why did she look at everyone in this place and decide that this was the cutie? Me: She has ulterior motives. Sister: Hmm.

Sister: Aw, not this lady again. Why are her curtains on the inside of her cell? They should put it on the outside so she can’t keep opening it to try and seductively peek outside.

Sister was howling with laughter throughout most of the Hanlon dick-showing conversation because she just thought the premise of it was so funny and pointless. She said Shirley complimenting Hanlon’s dick was equivalent to “when an old man compliments you and it doesn’t even mean anything because he has no idea what he’s talking about and it doesn't mean anything to you”.

Sister: Why is this bald guy in every corner of this prison??

Sister didn't understand why Said talking to Patricia was suddenly a big deal or a surprise to everyone, considering it had already been established that his ex-fiancee was white and we'd already seen her last season. So I think this whole story line is already down the drain in her mind.

Me: Ehh… Sister: I don’t know ‘bout that.

Sister: WHAT?! No they’re not! Me: 6 months, I think, depending on the break. Sister: Are you kidding me? His bones broke like a pizza pocket. They turned him into a chicken nugget. He was like a rotisserie chicken when they were done with him.

Stray thoughts:

I wonder what Adebisi’s various colored bands that he wears after coming out of the psych ward mean

Sister, who eats like 7 potatoes a day, was really impressed by Poet’s potato skinning

I told Sister that Hamid Khan's actor is the warden's actor's son and she asked me why I said it like that and then immediately started suggesting that Khan was Glynn's secret son

Sister got excited about Miss Sally at first but because she just actually just really finds children’s shows interesting. She was very 😑 when she realised what the gag was.

Sister: I like the biker dude (Jaz). He's very chill but he also seems too soft. I feel like he can be easily manipulated.

I told Sister that Metzger was the voice of Patrick Star and she nonsensically replied that he “looks like it”.

Sister didn’t understand that Beecher had killed Metzger with his fingernails until she was halfway through critiquing his “poor nail cutting technique”. Then she laughed and said “so dumb…”

New characters introduced: Malcolm Coyle (Snake), Claire Howell, Hamid Khan, Patricia Ross, Carlo Ricardo, Clayton Hughes

Sister: [singing Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dame] I wonder what would happen if you sang that song to Sister Peter Marie. Would she think that was weird? If you slammed your lunch tray down and went ♪deSTrOY ESmERALDA♪?

Sister wonders what Miguel’s girlfriend is doing because she randomly remembered that she was also in a prison; "I wonder if it's like this one or if there are no deaths..."

Jaz tattoo artist proof (someone said something about it the other day, but I forget who 😭):

After the episode

Sister: We didn’t see Pedro (Chico) this episode… Me: Yeah we did. He eats a cookie.

^ He eats a cookie

Me: Did you have any favorite new characters? Sister: I liked the biker dude. But he seems like he’s going to get taken advantage of 'cause he's kinda dumb. Me: He was in the show last season. Sister: Well I don’t remember anyone else. Who am I supposed to like? Who was there? There was the new female hack, I guess. The new Samantha… Me: That guy. Carlo Ricardo. Sister: What am I supposed to like about him? All we know about him is he has a family. Me: Yeah, I guess there wasn’t really enough screen time for any of the new characters. Hamid Khan was also introduced, and the white lady. Sister: There was the black guy who got beat up. Am I supposed to like him? His name was Snake. That’s a terrible name. “My name is Snake”; “And what’s your last name?”; “The One Who Will Betray You”...; “What was that?”; “Huh?”…. That would not be me. If I was in prison, I’d make my nickname something that sounds good, like Clever Rabbit or Strong Ox or something. I’d virtue name myself. I’d be like “Hi my name is Undying”; “Oh, what’s your last name?”; “Loyalty.” ... I’d be there the entire show because they could never kill me. You can't kill Undying Loyalty. Snake?? So dumb. The other guy? Poet? That’s fine. That’s neutral. The names in this show tell you everything, though. “My name is Snake”? Yeah, I bet you are… They got that cabbage (Nappa) guy… and his name is cabbage so you know he probably cooks. Metzger? Nazi. Ryan “O’Reily”? He probably worked at an auto parts place, and he's Irish. The warden's secret love child? The Khan guy? Oh, he's one of the Muslims. Miguel? Latino. And there’s a “mi” in there so you also know he’s a little bit about himself… There’s no guy in this show who’s just named Josh or something.

#text #oz rewatch #oz hbo #hbo oz

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p-redux · 2 years

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What do you think about that time Sam was seen at a dodgers game with caitriona but then met up with MM to walk out with her?

I think you've been drinking the last few sips of the Kool-Aid Extreme Shippers left in the back of the fridge. But boy, did you give me a good 😁🤣🤭

But since you're here and asked so "innocently," 🙄 let me actually answer you, AKA you're about to get your ass handed to you...nicely...on a silver platter, of course...as is my specialty. Here we go!

The Dodger Game you're referring to is the time in June 2016 when Sam and his then girlfriend, Mackenzie Mauzy were seen at a Dodger Game in Los Angeles acting like a couple...and Extreme Shippers LOST THEIR DAMN MINDS...Uhgain. And then proceeded to fabricate a whole convoluted story about "Cait really being the one there with Sam, but TPTB-The Powers That Be decreed Sam and Cait had been bad bairns by going "public" at a Dodger Game, where 50,000 people could see them, so they hired Mackenzie to be the "decoy date," and swoop in at the last minute to be videoed leaving the game with Sam." Um, please make it make sense. 🙃🤯

I posted VIDEO source proof and TWO other separate eyewitness accounts CONFIRMING that Sam and Mackenzie were seen together at the game, definitely acting like a couple. And Extreme Shippers couldn't deal with REALITY, so they scoured the internet high and low and found this random couple 👇 and proclaimed that was Sam and Cait at the baseball game.

Uh, except there was irrefutable multiple third party source PROOF Cait was not with Sam, Mackenzie was. Oh and BTW, the couple above is NOT Sam and Cait. Cait is taller than that brunette, and the shirt Sam was wearing that day had stiching on the collar. Here he is with one of the people who recognized him at the game and got a pic with him. 👇

Notice the light gray stiching. FAUX Sam's shirt didn't have any stitching. Here's a comparison (credit to the owner) 👇

Sadly, as soon as Extreme Shippers got hold of the pic of FAUX Sam and Cait, they then spread it throughout Shipperville. And thus, ALL of my independent and confirmed sources at the game were deemed null and void. And the FALSE NARRATIVE that this 👇 was Sam and Cait at the game became fandom shipper canon forevermore. 🙄

Soooooo, let me hit you with some FACTS...and TRUTH...and actual REAL SOURCE PROOF of Sam and Mackenzie being at the game as a REAL couple.

(FYI: back in 2016, I had my original Tumblr blog, @fortruthseekers . In what I can admit was one of my worst fandom decisions, I deleted all my posts off that blog. 😔 Luckily, people reblogged most of my posts. And Tumblr reblogs are forever, so I can post my previous Dodger Game posts via reblogs. Also, if you see the term Super Shippers, that's what Extreme Shippers used to be called).

PS. I know Sam and Mackenzie are ancient history and she's very happy with her fiance, but I'm posting this because this LIE continues to be spread by Extreme Shippers, and it's important to keep posting THE TRUTH. If this bothers you, don't keep reading. 🤷‍♀️

Anyhoo, buckle up, bitches...here come the reblogs of ALL my posts (both from @p-redux and @fortruthseekers ) that SHOW ALL the source proof of Sam and Mackenzie at the Dodger Game, June 2016. And this includes video of Sam and Mackenzie, screencap pics of Sam and Mackenzie, and copies of the DMs of the people who were also at the game and shared the details of what they saw.

Up first: a refresher I posted here on @p-redux 👇

Below, are the reblogs from my old blog @fortruthseekers of all the source info originally posted in 2016. I can't guarantee they will be in order, but I can guarantee it is PROOF POSITIVE that Sam and Mackenzie were indeed a real couple, that Cait was NOT at the game, and that Extreme Shippers are lying liars who lie.

Put your feet up and dive right in. 👇

Up first, screencaps of videos of Sam and Mackenzie at the Dodger Game June 2016. I posted these before my source gave me permission to post the video she filmed of Sam and Mackenzie 👇 (BTW Dogs and Cats Living in Sin is the name of the Tumblr blog that was reblogging my @fortruthseekers posts back in the day)

Next, the actual video my source filmed of Sam and Mackenzie, as they got up to leave their seats. 👇

Here is the original post reiterating the picture proof that the "Sam" Extreme Shippers sold as real Sam was wearing a different shirt than REAL Sam 👇

Here are the DMs from the FIRST fan, crystalnliu, who saw Sam and Mackenzie and got a pic with Sam. She CONFIRMS Sam was sitting with Mackenzie and they were acting like a couple. 👇

Here are the comments from the second person laallday_ on IG, who saw Sam and Mackenzie at the game and left comments on the IG account of crystalnliu, the fan who go the pic with Sam. 👇

And here are laallday_ 's DMs CONFIRMING Sam and Mackenzie were acting like a couple 👇

In summary, DON'T DRINK THE KOOL-AID. It's verra bad for you. 🤷‍♀️😘

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fallloverfic · 1 year

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Sharing panels from ENNEAD

Mojito, author/artist of ENNEAD, the boy's love manhwa, has asked that people not share more than 2 panel screencaps per post. She's tweeted about it a couple times, starting with March 29, 2017:

Machine English Translation Text: "Thank you for liking it. However, please do not make the capture too large ;ㅅ; Just one or two, please. And the source please."

Mojito also pinned this to her profile for over two months starting with August 29, 2023:

Machine English text: "To prevent spoilers, only 2 cuts are allowed. Please also cover the speech bubbles. And those who illegally spread and translate! No thank you at all. I am grinding and making my body every day. You drain my mind. Stop right now."

It's also listed on her twitter profile:

캡쳐는3컷이상X

Machine English Translation Text: "Capture more than 3 cuts X"

This is generally understood to mean 2 panels or less, not no more than 3. So please respect Mojito's wishes and only post screengrabs/captures/screencaps of no more than 2 panels when sharing around. You should also remove/blur out any text, and indicate where you got it from (e.g., Ennead by Mojito, S02E41).

Sharing the panels that Witchcomics/mcomics puts up for their previews is probably fine because those are made freely available, but I would stick to just what they put on their twitter, which have watermarks on them, not screencapping the unedited versions from the paywalled episodes. A number of the legal sites offer at least a few free episodes to read, if not something like what Tappytoon does with its Time Til Free program, where you can get all but the last 48 episodes entirely for free (which is currently all of season 1, and part of season 2).

And it goes without saying, please do not share scanlation panels. This is different from screengrabbing from the actual comic, and is typically pretty obvious because scanlators cover their work with their watermarks, identifying the scanlator. Mojito hates scanlation, most manhwa authors hate them. They put the comic's future at risk. Works have been taken down in the past because pirating is so bad. If you really want to promote the comic, you can link to Mojito's twitter, or the various legal places to read the manhwa, one of the animated trailers, or link to the Witchomics/mcomics episode previews, which are freely available on their twitter. Witchcomics puts up a preview for the new Korean episodes generally within 24-48 hours prior to a new episode. The trailer and previews are intended as advertising to be shared.

#ENNEAD #Ennead by Mojito #엔네아드 #panel sharing

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causticsunshine · 1 year

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if he’s gonna claim to be a man of the people, indie artist, he needs to do better. imma need him to be more vocally progressive than this bullshit.

hiii anon i'm going to reply to you and some other anons i got on this topic as well, just because this has now turned into a Discussion and it seems people may be taking my initial annoyance at any potential interest louis may have in AI—and whatever direction that potential interest may go, but that is hopefully largely anti AI in regards to how it's largely being used rn—as possibly misdirected due to the space he was in being titled 'Is AI the end of humanity?' (+ comparing two differently functioning AI engines)

but i want to reply to you first, and say: yes!! it just doesn't make sense to me how someone who preaches artistic integrity, being true to yourself and your work, yk, that the Big Boss Man Indie Artist himself, could have any vested interest in tools that are used to literally steal art for profit, unless it was to try and find a way to make these tools obsolete!

now, to the other anons i got, which had to say this:

(my reply to these inquiries btw will likely give more support to my reply to our original anon on this post as well! also put it behind a cut because i get a bit wordy soz)

as the space was over before i even saw the post—or i at least couldn't access it, simply couldn't find it, etc.—i couldn't listen in and find out what exactly the discussion was deducing. while it would seem by the first half of the space's title that they were just talking about potential pros and cons to AI usage, the subtitle of the space, putting musty elon's AI machine up against ChatGPT, made/makes me a bit more apprehensive of how the subject of AI was being discussed.

(unless, of course, the goal was still to discuss the differences between two different AI tools, as well as their individual pros and cons and how both may end up relating to the first part of the space's title: is AI the end for us?

because i think it is really important for us to discuss the ways we can use different forms of AI to help us, as well as the ways we can use it to hurt us.)

while i definitely appreciate the anon in the first screencap for pointing out that while AI (as it's being used most currently) in general is still very much bullshit, that ChatGPT does have potential to be helpful as a writing aid and did offer them help in school, i'm still apprehensive of how it was being discussed in the space, and what pros and cons were possibly being touched on. especially if this was louis', or really anyone else's, primary education source.

(also while i do know at its core what ChatGPT is, i haven't personally used it, so i can't vouch for its overall efficiency or even it's morality as a writing AI tool!)

i say this because i personally already have a fundamental issue with AI tools 9.8 times out of 10, because of how these current big AI tools work, are being marketed and used, and what purpose they truly end up serving in the end, which is: to data mine and steal from artists/creatives/people putting their work up on the public internet to turn a profit without doing any of the actual work!

plus, as someone who actively draws and writes, puts their work out on the internet for consumption, and who's been trying to do freelancing for years—as well as someone who has also had their work stolen on more than one occasion before! without the help of machines!—i know firsthand how much most artists are underpaid and how much our professions and accomplishments are belittled, all while being demanded to work constantly for people to largely enjoy our content for free.

so tldr: even if louis was in that space just to hear about the dangers of AI, or how one system may be better/worse than another, the pros and cons of both, what have you, i don't really think you can blame anyone for being nervous of him having any vested interest in the subject due to how he approached NFTs, and i say this because there's a lot of crossover between people who utilize(d) NFTs for capital gains, and people who use AI for the same reason, as well as people who are trying to market AI as they did NFTs: as a business model rather than huge source of creative theft (and in some cases, data mining too!)

i will say though, in argument to AI, that at LEAST AI art theft machines can/could be altered and thus used as a tool to help the communities and people they're currently stealing from, such as being used to help create art references, alter your own works in a new method of editing or bolstering your end product, even protecting from art theft (which i believe a university tech team somewhere in the US is actually working on rn!)

if louis were to clarify that he's wholly against the misuse of AI as a pocket-lining theft module, i'd gladly redact my earlier statement and proudly thank him for educating himself on the matter and speaking up against it! like, i'd genuinely love that! but, because of how much crossover exists between AI and NFT users and how he initially approached NFTs in a pro-model sort of way (from what we were able to see), it makes me honestly exasperated to see him engage at all in discussion on AI, without true clarification on how that discussion is being put across.

especially seeing as how much he promotes originality and being proud of one's own work and ideas.

#soz i switched the desktop so i could type easier and now tumblr won't let me edit my draft from mobile so i had to start #all over again so sorry for making you all wait for a reply :(#also kinda copied what i said on twitter over here as well bc i think i nailed the point home better there than i did in my #original reply here?#anyway i'm done discussing it like ik he's not gonna clarify what he was doing or his takeaway so i'm just gonna #drop the subject move on and we'll see what happens #as i have to go to bed very soon too i just want to say if i get any more replies on this in the morning #specifically replies that are aggressive or confrontational etc etc i will be deleting because #i think this conversation has already been drawn out enough and i don't think it's ultimately worth the energy being put forth #anyway i'm sending these anons and the rest of you good vibes and let's focus on something nicer now #anon #answered #discourse #< just because this is very wordy and mildly argumentative

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boiling-files · 2 years

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Okay so the promo art by Bridget Underwood for Labyrinth Runners

(Portfolio is linked)

According to programming hi-lights of DisneyABC press the episode synopsis is:

“when the Emperor’s Coven comes to Hexside, Gus teams up with an unlikely ally.”

First of all the episode title is obviously a reference to the book series “Maze Runner” whether or not this episode will actually have anything to do with the series is to be debated upon. At least I hope not for the mental health of the cast

But I wanna get into the “unlikely ally” part of the synopsis. A lot of people think it’s gonna be Matt which is understandable but I think it may be Hunter.

Yes, Amity and Willow are also in this promo art but that’s not the only thing I’m getting at.

Gus is the only member of the four that Hunter hasn’t had a one on one episode with, not to mention this piece of promotional art by Dana herself:

Art by Dana Terrance source

Flapjack is on Gus’ shoulder! And while it could be a Gus + Palismen team up I doubt Flapjack is gonna let Hunter out of their sight after the events of “Hollow Mind”

That along with the fact that Zeno Robinson is already credited on the wiki as Hunter gives me hope that these two are going to team up to take down the Emperor’s Coven invading Hexside.

Yeah, I know people can edit the wiki pretty easily and it ultimately… proves nothing.

As for my actual plot predictions for this episode beyond just Hunter and Gus working together against The Emperor’s Coven:

As to why would Hunter even be at Hexside in the first place? Besides The Owl House that’s the first place Belos would look for him.

But we do know Hunter now has social media and (presumably) has Willow and the rest of The Emerald Entrails contact information. Perhaps for Hunter it’s a matter of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And if the episode takes place in a maze perhaps other members of The Emerald Entrails are in the maze with Hunter and Gus but they’re split up and the two are forced to work together to save their mutual friends.

Gus still having a dislike towards Hunter for multiple reasons but putting their friends first as the great friend he is.

Maybe Gus doesn’t know about Hunter’s general (gestures to everything) situation and thinks he’s at Hexside with The Emperor’s Coven.

If this one screencap is anything to go off of Gus looks angry and terrified and possibly confronting someone?

Hunter catching Gus off guard maybe? if the Illusion Coven Head is in this episode it could also be them catching Gus off guard or trying to provoke him.

We already know Gus has insecurities around his illusionary magic having a Coven Head possibly slap that in your face would have those thoughts swimming back tenfold.

As to what or how I believe the Illusion Coven Head will be like or how they will behave if they are in this episode (which I believe they are) I believe them to be quite manipulative but not outright malicious about it like Terra Snapdragon is.

Considering the natures of illusions and how Coven Heads are their magic themselves the Illusion Coven Head could be watching over the students the entire time or pretending to be one of them, tricking them and manipulating them from the inside.

(Enter outdated among us joke here)

The whole “maze” set up could be similar to what Terra tried to instigate with the “Us vs Them” mentality.

Gus and Hunter are both characters desperate to prove themselves and their worth to other people. I however do not think they’d fight each other if it came down having to rely on each other to save their mutual friends.

I think there’d be internal conflict on Hunter’s side sure, the feeling of that conditioning lingering at the forefront of his mind and wanting to be recognized by any adult and be praised but not wanting to let down his new friends again after he just barely got their trust.

I also wouldn’t put it past Gus if he struggled as well. Hunter has threatened to kill his friends and tricked him and his friends into joining the Emperor’s Coven and he didn’t seem too pleased about it either.

I doubt he’s forgiven Hunter about it and he may not throw it in his face but it’s definitely not forgotten.

As for further thoughts on The Illusion Coven Head those will be in a separate post.

#toh #speculation #my theory #labyrinth runners #predictions #adrian graye vernworth #gus porter #hunter noceda #proven correct #cw: abuse #cw: child abuse #via Adrian’s fuckening

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bylrndgm · 1 year

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you do edits and gifs right? i am trying to find a good screen recorder (preferably free and without a watermark. kind of a tall order. i know) i just wondered if maybe you knew of one? also curious what programs/process you use to create your gifs and edits if you don't mind sharing ty

Hey! I've been making gifs for the last ten years and I got some tricks up my sleeve. It's going to be such a long post (as I'll discuss my process in detail and depth, explaining all the little things), so if anyone is interested, just read under the cut! (❁´◡`❁)

Step one: finding the video

To make an HQ gif, your video has to be HQ. The best choice is to go on YouTube and download the highest-quality video:

Example -> if there is as quality option 4K, download the video in 4K.

Remember that .mp4 videos have a lower quality, because it's a compressed file.

A better extension is .mkv, which I find preserves the quality better.

If you can't get the video from YouTube, you may still want to have a good quality video -> you can still record your screen and I suggest this open source program: OBS Studio (Win, Mac and Linux!)

Here you can play with the settings -> on the output menu, remember to select the .mkv output! (NOTE: you need to play around with the settings because depending on how powerful your PC is, some will be better than others!)

Now all you have to do is press start recording and once you recorded your video, press stop recording (it's pretty intuitive!!)

Step two: screencapping

It's the slowest way to make gifs, but it helps preserving the quality.

Once you have your video, you need to make the screencaps!

Download KMPlayer

Right click on the middle of the screen > options > preferences

These are my settings:

Open your file (you screen recorded in OBS studio) and put the cursor to the point the scene you want your gif starts

Then right click (on the screen) and select this

Make sure these are your options:

Press start and press play on the player -> now let it play until you finish your scene -> then press stop.

On the folder you chose as destination of the extraction, you should have something like this.

Step three: making the gif

Open Photoshop (I have Photoshop CC - 2018).

Go on File > Scripts > Load files into stack

Click on browse -> select all the screencaps you previously made -> once they're loaded, press on OK

Now, lean back, relax, grab some coffee because it's gonna take a while!

Turn on your timeline (Window > Timeline)

And press on Create frame Animation, there in the middle

Then press on the little burger menu on top right of the timeline and click on Make frames from layers

Click again on that menu and select Reverse frames

Now, select all the frames (the ones you see on the timeline) and right click where you see "0 sec" and choose Other ...

Put 0.04 as delay!

Step four: cropping and sharpening

Select the Crop Tool (shortcut: C) and you should have something like this

Move the handlers like this (don't reduce the image size!)

I just eliminated the black stripes on top and bottom and resized the width

Then confirm

Go to Image > Image Size and these are my settings:

If you want to make a ONE COLUMN gifset -> width has to be 540 px

If you want to make a TWO COLUMN gifset -> width has to be 268 px

Height doesn't matter! Press OK.

Now, back to your Timeline, press that little icon on the bottom left

Now, this is what should happen:

On the layers panel, select all the layers and right click -> Convert to Smart Object

Now, you can use whatever sharpening option you want -> go on Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.

I usually do that twice:

OPTIONAL -> duplicate the layer and set the opacity to 30% -> add Gaussian Blur (radius 1.5)

Step five: coloring

Now this is the fun part, and it's always different! So, just play around with the adjustments and find what suits the scene the best!

Step six: saving

File > Export > Save for Web

NOTE: .gif files must be under 10MB to be uploaded on Tumblr

REMEMBER TO SET LOOPING TO FOREVER!!!

And that is it!? If you have any questions please DM me, or send in another ask + there is a quicker way to do this, let me know if you are interested in that.

#ask #elz:explains #OMG I WAITED TEN YEARS TO RECEIVE THIS ASK!!!!#😭#sorry for typos #english is not my main language #gif tutorial

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bbcmerlinvault · 2 years

Video

youtube

Audio version of “Bradley James talks Buffy, Merlin, and much, much more” article on cliqueclacked.com

From “When CliqueClack spoke to Bradley James: the audio “

by Julia Hass for cliqueclacked.com, first published 15:04 EST September 7th 2010.

[Original source]

Want audio from our interview with Bradley James? Well, you asked for it, and you've got it.

Do not ever let it be said that I don’t respond to requests.

The day before I went on vacation I had an interview with Bradley James, which, as was mentioned in the transcript, had some technical difficulties. We had an audio delay, for one, and then in the middle of the interview our connection actually cut out in the middle. I had intended to do an audio recording with the transcript, but after all that I cut my losses, transcribed it the best I could (editing out all the “oh, no, I’m sorry, phone delay, you finish talking first” and “what? Can’t hear you, bad connections”), and put it up. And you all liked it! You really liked it! So I was pleased, and I went on vacation with no internet for a week.

And then I came back.

Now, as anyone who leaves their inbox for a while knows, you get a lot of e-mail when you’re gone for a week. When I came back, I had over 100 messages (which is a weirdly large number, even for someone who e-mails as much as I do), and not one, not two, but about ten of them (at least) were asking for the audio from the interview. So the moral of this story is this: nag, my friends, and ye shall receive. And don’t say I didn’t warn you about the audio delay.

(under the cut are screencaps of the post)

#youtube #article #video #audio #audio: Bradley James #cast: bradley james #year: 2010

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ciaossu-imagines · 2 months

Note

Hope it’s alright that I’m responding to your admin chatter now with your inbox being open or the day. If it’s still too early, I’m really sorry. Damn. I hope you still got plenty of rest after pulling your all-nighter. And that’s very understandable. I’m also looking forward to finally talking about it since I didn’t say so much when you first mentioned the new chapter but would love to (or at least I hope to) say more about it. Super quickly even 😅 And I’m glad people are since you do deserve that. Yeah, it’s a romance anime and the summary (which I can DM you if you want) does sound quite nice. Do you not generally watch romance stuff? And thank you or saying that 😊 I’m currently rewatching Demon Slayer and I’m at the latest season, but I’m also rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender so it will probably be when I’ve finished with those two series. I see and it makes sense that that kinda stuff would take up so much room. And what you’re saying about the screencaps is very true. And I hope so as well because it does deserve so much love 😊

Sure thing 💕 And I’ve finally caught up on all of the posts, which is nice. Oh that bit about your manga app really does sound handy and nice. It that website really is. And it’s also colour coded so that also makes it easy to quickly see which episodes are filler and it also even says if an episode is mixed filler. And I see, that makes sense. Sometimes filler episodes can be good but yeah, it is indeed handier going for the source material so you don’t have to worry about filler. It’s nice to hear that you had so much un reading the Iruma-kun! manga 😃 And I see. That’s nice to know and it’s great that there’s still great stuff to come. Did / Do you watch it in the sub or dub?

That’s interesting. Thank you so much for saying all of that. Yeah, not only that but since we last spoke it updated on my computer and now the section that shows all of your conversations has become ever so slightly longer and I just don’t understand why and I do hate the constant, unnecessary updates on the PC. It’s like they just love changing the way it looks since apart from that, the updates don’t really do anything good (that I can see). I’ll give you a breakdown sine it’s easiest like that. Seasons 1 to 3 are amazing adaptations, just so beautifully done in all ways (so that’s till chapter 190). But then there are two important matches of a different school and instead of putting them into the next season or something, they just shoved them into two OVA’s (so one match per episode), which is so rushed. Still looks great, just probably missed out on some bits. I mean, it definitely did miss out on this manga bit that I saved which is so cute, but since it’s been a while that I’ve read it, I can’t say just how good or bad the adaptation was. Then we have the first part of the fourth season and I honestly don’t know how good or bad an adaptation it is beause I didn’t read the manga for that but it is really nice, and the second part has great music (including one of my favourite OSTs) and stuff but I think it’s not as great as the previous seasons. So yeah, everything until the end of season 3 and the first two OVAs are amazing, it’s just afterwards that the quality unfortunately drops. But yeah, I can’t really quantify it in how much you’ll be missing beause we do get important bits, it’s just not the same quality (when it comes down to the last season) as in the manga. So I’d recommend watching the first three seasons and hopefully it’s back on your manga app or somewhere for free. I almost forgot to say that there are movies which kind of summarise the main match of the first three seasons (so one movie per season) and not only that but they have added scenes from the manga that weren’t put in the actual season. The one for the second movie is really feelsy and there’s this added scene in the third movie that I really love beause of how funny it is. It’s between two of my faves and the way the owl baby just says something is just so funny and gods I love that scene so much. But yeah, since I’ve saved it, I can just as well send it to you if you don’t feel like watching the whole movie. There’s also an extra scene at the end of the movie, which they have on YouTube. Either way, you’ll have to go to the manga if you want to continue since there’s still so much after the latest season, not only the babies grown up but also a very important match that I know is best read because it’s been put into a movie of 1 hour 25 even (that came out last month) though it deserves to be an at least 8 episode long in my opinion season, so yeah, hopefully with all this info, you can make an informed decision. True. It’s very nice. I’m looking forward to hearing all your Haikyuu!! opinions and who of all of the guys ends up being your fave, whether you end up with multiple like me and just anything really. And that does sound like a good plan. And thank you for that 😭

I hope the spoilers were so out of context that it turns out better than you fear. And that’s very understandable. The characters remain their lovable selves after all so no matter what, you’ll always have their scenes to look forward to in the manga. Glad to hear that you’ve recovered from your cold 😄 Oh that sounds so horrible and disgusting. I’m so sorry to hear you had to deal with something like that. And it is good to hear that your workplace is stocked up on those kinds of things. True. And I’m a sucker for justified text so I’m glad that I can always do that to my stories. No problem 😄 Glad to have been of service.

That’s perfectly all right! Just as a heads up, by the way, when I shut down my ask box, I’m only closing it to actual new requests like ‘can I have a scenario for reader reacting to Gojo SPOILER ALERT’ (by the way guys, it’s really not nice to toss spoilers into the ask box – while I had guessed at that particular one happening, I hadn’t read it as of that moment)! It’s always open for general chattering and talking to me though, so feel free to send these in! And thank you for that! I slept and slept well for once, that was for sure. I’m always running on not enough sleep, to be honest, so I’m pretty used to being tired anyhow, haha. And please, always feel free to say more about it! It was a great chapter and makes me happy and I’m genuinely interested in your thoughts on it 😊 Okay, that makes sense with the title! I generally don’t watch or read anything that focuses exclusively on romance, nope. I don’t mind romance around other things in the story – for example, YYH definitely has some romance elements, but it’s not the entirety of the story, Ouran has very romantic moments but there’s also comedy and drama elements of it, etc. It’s just not my cup of tea, but I’m always happy when other people enjoy things like that! I hope both rewatches are going well! A:TLA is just one of the most beautifully done shows and stories, in my opinion, and I’m sorely overdue on a rewatch on it myself, honestly! How are you enjoying the rewatches of both?

Wow, you got caught up fast! Thank you for catching up then and I hope you enjoyed most of the posts! It is really handy and I definitely had to search up that website. If it’s the one I found, it has a crap-ton of shows done up too, and from what I can gather, it’s all fans writing these up which is amazing and really shows just how useful fandom can be 😊 There are some good filler episodes, I do agree with that…but some filler arcs really, really drag on or sometimes shows (like Bleach, which is an excellent example) just have wayyy too many filler episodes and it makes it hard to get into them for me. As for watching Iruma-kun! I watched it in the dub, just because I can speed through dubbed stuff compared to a sub. I can get maybe two or three episodes of a sub in a complete day off, but I can get double that for a dub, since it doesn’t hurt my eyes as much. The dub was well done, with some really good voices and the English music was still catchy, though I’ve looked up the songs for the sub and they are amazing as well.

Wow, that sounds like a pointless update! It doesn’t really sound incredibly well-executed, but maybe they wanted more room for people who have to use larger fonts? I can only guess because otherwise I see no point, haha. Thank you so, so much for the thorough and clear explanation! It’s good to know that seasons 1 through 3 are well done at least. I’ll have to google the chapters following that point though, the ones for the OVA’s to see if any important details were missed, just because I’m that sort of person. I like to know all the details and the little bits and pieces. Good music is enough to interest me in the fourth season though…or any seasons of anything. Music is definitely something that can sway me to looking favourably on something, haha! I’m sorry to hear the quality drops though. I’ll definitely keep checking my manga app for it after I finish the first 3 seasons and the movies (which thank you for letting me know about them!) I really do want to read the manga for both that and Demon Slayer, so I might have to use that app at some point, even if I hate the chapter limitation. If I could pay and not be limited on chapters, I would be more okay with that, honestly. I’m still on the first season (again, struggle with subs) but I haven’t really gotten any favourites yet, it’s more like I enjoy everyone for their own individual quirks. They’re all cute and charming in their own ways, even the ones with slightly more noticeable flaws.

Oh no, that spoiler I’m hoping is completely wrong was very specific in that certain beloved characters of mine turn out to be bad guys and it really, really upsets me. But you are right – the characters are their loveable selves in what I’ve read before and I’ll always have those chapters to go and read however many times I want. And thank you – people can be really gross when out in public, haha, especially sick people but at the same time, I try to keep a kind mind. I am with you – a good bit of justified text is always nice and again, thank you! I hope you’re doing well, my dear 😊

#admin chatter

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thetruthaboutnolan · 3 months

Text

WERE YOU ON LUNAR COVE?

I had to look up what that was and when I saw the group my immediate reaction was ‘ohh this place, hell nah.’ I remember checking it out some time last year and being interested and then looked at the species page, didn’t care for it, and just forgot all about it. Checking it out now, I see it has a trigger list, nope, not for me. And looking into their recent unfollows I’m already assuming someone got kicked out because the staff got harassed it ‘was me’ as that’s happened a lot in the past. Jack Fah…. Whatever, hate that guy never use him. And the other was Gabriel Basso, hot Night Agent guy…… he’s tatted and hairy…… I hate both of those things and actively don’t use resources of the face claims I do have that have them displayed or photoshop them out. But a whole arm sleeve? Way too much work to edit out. And his only resources are the same 6 scenes from the show giffed over and over. I already did a face claim that had only one source for gifs and while I loved that face. It got bored using him as I’d just keep using the same gifs over and over. You think I’d do the same with one with even less for variety? Ok

So sorry @lunarcovehq and werewolf guy (looks like they deleted their blog), you guys are just the most recent victims of the psychopath that is targeting me. Yes, it’s one person who has a habit of pretending to be multiple people at once and sending themselves anons. And she is pissy that I ultimately got ‘the man’ in our little ship war in the end. Hopefully you guys recover and have a great time after this nonsense because trust me, this girl is psycho. I’m talking pretending to be a dead friend, stealing and posting pics from facebooks of family members of someone she thinks I am, and threatening to have rolled up at their houses. Very likely a lie but the fact they thought it was ok to do that and post that shit?…. And she tries to say I’m problematic? HAaaaaaaaaa.

THE TRIGGERS STUFF?

Preemptively doing this one as I know those that don’t know me don’t know my actual opinion on them. It’s a well known fact I hate the whole ‘triggers’ thing. And don’t really believe in it in the way tumblr uses them. Do I have triggers? Yes, do I respect others people? I respect they have them, do I believe it’s stupid? Yep.

Yes, when you bring my triggers into play it does upset me but its effects have been less and less over the years. I don’t care to run and completely avoid them. It’s better to face them and deal with them in a healthy way so they don’t have power over you anymore. Running from them isn’t going to do anything for you and the world itself isn’t going to protect you from them so toughen the hell up. A lot of people don’t even use them properly. A good chunk of the people that are the ‘MaH TrIgGeRs!!!!’ Type use it as an evolution of the ‘mAh AnXiEtY’ and those people only brought that nonsense up when they got called out for their crap. Turned calling them on their own shit into a traumatic effect on them….. you got caught, cut the dramatics. Others don’t know what a trigger is.

A lot of these times they are actually just fears someone has, they are afraid of that thing. Triggers are trauma based. That’s why my triggers are rape, incest, and making fun of/under playing someone mental illnesses. I’ve been raped, twice, once by a related authority figure. And one of my grandmas and tumblr have underplayed/selectively forgotten about/made fun of my mental illnesses and my suicide attempts. Would I check out these blogs who have recently and in the past made fun of my mental illnesses? Or who openly said I deserved to be raped or that call me a failure for not properly killing my self? No, they are toxic and unsafe and I would never encourage putting oneself let alone myself in that situation. Would I have someone else screencap and archive it , then spend 30 minutes or more ugly crying while telling myself no one deserves those things because I have to relive those painful times, then slowly spread it around that this person says someone deserved to be raped and was a failure for failing at killing themselves? Then spread the image and archive? Yes.

DOES PEOPLE BEING CALLED YOU HAPPEN A LOT?

Why do you think I’m suddenly like 6 different people now according to my psycho fan? YES!!!

And it’s normally over the dumbest thing. Like I once had a witch character whose last name was O’calahan which I literally took from a bridge from GTA3. Then someone in a different group of the same genre would have a character with the name Calahan who maybe was on the same show one time that the face claim I was using was on. And that group would get harassed as it was obviously me and they had to kick me. Blah blah.

Hell I even compared the bingo card for ‘obviously Nolan’ and all the generic ‘has to be him’s were basically marked.

1) did they mention anywhere especially in their application a name I used for any character I ever had.

2) is the face claim attractive, muscled, and has good hair?

3) did the character have a job that matches their species? Example: most of my werewolves were cops, military, or hunters. All of these things have a pecking order and structure like a pack, and they all have some way to work with aspects of a werewolf. Aggression, hunting, fighting, puffing out their chests crap etc etc.

4) do they say anything I normally do. I say ello a lot and I’ve been told people get sus to others when they say it as ello is apparently unique to me.

5) does their writing in any way big or small reflect mine? This one made me laugh about the latest guy. I had to chase down his posts on other blogs then compare it to mine…….. girl, his writing shits on mine. Like this is a person who sits with a Thesaurus next to them as they type. That’s someone who doesn’t need to run it through grammar 2 times to make sure it makes sense and is readable. He’s used a lot of commas like I do, way more though.

It’s a stretch and takes many mental gymnastics to pull off. However, it seems stalkers that attack you over everything don’t care

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arotechno · 2 years

Text

Jughead (2015), Aromanticism and Representation Part 1: The Mark Waid Fiasco

So, here’s the thing.

I was going to finish my arc-by-arc reread and review of the Jughead reboot. I was! But that was nearly a year ago now, and I kind of got distracted with a busy summer and moving and then a bunch of other stuff got in the way. And so really, I was going to finish. But the truth is, the last volume is either not super interesting for me to talk about or it’s the Mark Waid bit that I just really didn’t want to go through the trouble of getting screencaps and doing analysis for and so on. But I’m also not done talking about Jughead (I never will be) and I said before that I had some more overarching commentary I wanted to eventually put out, so here we are. So let’s talk about representation. Namely, I want to talk about the differences between Zdarsky and North’s portrayals of Jughead’s aromanticism. But in order to do that, we have to address the elephant in the room. We have to talk about Mark Waid.

First, a brief summary of volume three, just for context, since I never got around to it: Ryan North finishes off his run with a relatively lighthearted short arc where due to Jughead fucking up in a video game bet, the gang is forced to treat Reggie like a king for a week and do everything he says. They end up starting a really terrible band, things get out of hand, Jughead accidentally uploads a public video of them that implodes all of their social lives… it’s fun and goofy and can be basically summed up as Jughead Experiences Consequences, Wacky Hijinks Ensue.

The last two issues of the Jughead reboot ever released were written by Mark Waid and Ian Flynn. For the sake of focusing on the source material itself, the final arc consists of Sabrina accidentally casting a spell that makes everyone obsessed with Jughead. The problem is, since Jughead is super aroace and touch averse, this very quickly becomes a very uncomfortable situation. Now, I actually don’t hate these last two issues, and it’s not like Waid and Flynn retconned Jughead’s orientation or anything as drastic as that. The problem was with how the storyline was promoted and sensationalized prior to these issues even being released, and with Waid’s attitude in general.

I can’t find any record of Waid’s tweets about this because he deleted them all. Literally, I’ve searched his profile and all of his tweets from 2017 after January 5 are gone, or else Twitter is glitching like crazy. But there is this one that he wrote in reference to Trump not long before his Jughead run was announced, and uhh…

I don’t know how to explain why this is bad, but it made aspec fans very nervous to see this kind of behavior and then find out that Waid was picking up Jughead, an aroace character.

Further alarm was raised when the synopsis for the new storyline was announced. It originally read as follows:

“Sabrina the Teenage Witch tries to do something nice for Jughead, but it ends up creating a comedy of errors in which he is the most desired bachelor in town! From the new writing team of Mark Waid (Archie) and Ian Flynn (Sonic the Hedgehog).”

This was… concerning, to say the least. A cover art in which Jughead is depicted surrounded by women and grinning was also circulated, which made a lot of aroace fans very uncomfortable (though it should be noted that this was an alternative cover, and not the one drawn by Derek Charm that ended up in the issue):

Once issues 15 and 16 were eventually released, things kind of died down a bit, at least from where I was standing. Like I said, the storyline as it actually appears in the comics is not really all that bad. As a basic plotline, I don’t find it particularly problematic; however, the issue that I still have with it to this day is that it doesn’t feel like it was written or promoted for aspec people to enjoy. It was a storyline about borderline sexual harassment that was played entirely for laughs for a straight audience, right down to the way it was described in the initial synopsis for issue 15. Zdarsky and North, in different ways, both wrote with what I felt was a great deal of care and attention paid to making sure Jughead’s orientation was portrayed respectfully without being his entire character. I don’t know what role Ian Flynn had in all this, because all of the criticism and back-and-forth that eventually got deleted seemed to be focused on Mark Waid—but needless to say, issues 15 and 16, while not bad writing, feel a lot more careless than aspec people deserved.

I don’t think Mark Waid is an awful person and my intention isn’t to restart the discourse or “cancel” Waid by posting this. I think he’s a deeply flawed person and kind of an asshole who wasn’t the right person to write Jughead and treated fans very disrespectfully in response. I think he’s a coward for deleting the evidence, and I’m disappointed that issues 15 and 16 were the last that we ever got, but at the same time I shudder to think what worse damage he may have done in later issues had he been given the chance. This is the exact opposite of how I feel about the Zdarsky and North arcs, and I want to talk about that more in a later post (that one will be more fun!), but for now I felt that I could not get into a deeper commentary on aro representation in the Jughead reboot without addressing Mark Waid first. It felt disingenuous not to.

Anyway, before I go I just want to add that when I went onto Mark Waid’s Twitter, I found out that today, by complete coincidence, happens to be his birthday. So I hope he enjoys this gift of continuing aro rage. <3

And if any of you happen to find those tweets (or anything else pertinent to this discussion that I missed), please let me know!

#techno's jughead reread #aro #aromantic #aro representation #jughead #jughead jones #jughead comics #aro characters #aro jughead #actually aromantic #long post #op

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ghoste-catte · 3 years

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I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

#answered #anonymous #writing advice #i guess?#am i qualified to give this?#no #but im doing it anyway

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felassan · 3 years

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Some DA trivia and dev commentary from Twitter

There’s a lot of different tweets, so I’m just pasting and linking to the source rather than screencapping them all or making several different posts or something. Post under cut for length.

User: Was dragon age 2 your favourite in the franchise?

David Gaider: DA2 was the project where my writing team was firing on all cylinders, and they wrote like the wind- because they had to! Second draft? Pfft. Plot reviews? Pfft. I was so proud of what we all accomplished in such a brief time. I didn't think it was possible. [source] DA2 is, however, also where the goal posts kept moving. Things kept getting cut, even while we worked. I had to write that dialogue where Orsino turned even if you sided with him, because his boss battle had been cut and there was no time to fix the plot. A real WTF moment. >:( [source]

Mike Rousseau: I remember bugging that! And then being told it wasn't a bug, and being so confused. Doing QA for DA2 was an experience. Trial by fire. [source]

DG: So I think it's safe to say DA2 is my favorite entry in the DA franchise and also the sort of thing I never want to live through ever again. Mixed feelings galore. [source]

User: (I personally blame whoever it was for ruining most romance arcs in other games for me; they don't live up to Fenris's romance storyline)

DG: I wrote Fenris, so uh - me, I guess? Or maybe his cinematic designer, who put in the puppy dog eyes. [source]

User: If DA2 had just been an expansion, do you think it would have been better received? There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I think my initial dislike of it was because of the zone reuse. If it hadn't needed to be a full game, would that issue not have arisen?

DG: Hard to say. It was either going to be an over-scoped expansion or an under-scoped sequel. If it had stayed an expansion, it might never have received the resources/push it DID get. [source]

User: I'd love to visit the universe where you had an extra year or so to work on it. You did a very good job as it stands, but it definitely had rough edges. Not just the writing team either. The whole game had hit and miss moments, that just a little more dev time could have fixed.

DG: On one hand, DA2 existed to fill a hole in the release schedule. More time was never in the cards. DA2 was originally planned as an expansion! On the other, if we had more time, would we have started doing that thing where we second guess/iterate ourselves into mediocrity? [shrug emoji] [source]

Jennifer Hepler: This is what I love about DA2. Personally, I greatly prefer something that's rough and raw and sincere to something that's had all the soul polished out of it. Extra time would have helped for art and levels, but it would have lost something too. [source]

DG: Right? I think we could have used some time for peer reviews (and fewer cuts), but I think the rawness of the writing lent a certain spark that we usually polished out. [source]

JH: Definitely. I think the structure (more character-driven) and the tightness of the timeframe let each individual writer's voice really come through. Polish can be very homogenizing. [source]

DG: I should add I'm not, by any means, against iteration. Some iteration is good and necessary. The problem that BioWare often had is that we never knew when to stop. Like a goldfish, we would fill the space given to us by constantly re-iterating on things that were "good enough". [source]

Patrick Weekes: I appreciate your incredibly diplomatic use of the past tense on "had". :D [source]

User: DA2 was my gateway into the series and I’m so happy it is. I love the game the way that it is. It’s one of my favorites of all time. But I am also aware of everything that was said here. If it were remastered, do you think it would change?

DG: I'd be surprised if it was ever remastered. If it was, do you really think they'd change things? Do remasters do that? No idea. [source]

User: Both sides got undercut as I recall. Didn't that whole sequence also end with the mage leader embracing blood magic? It was very much "a plague on both your houses" moment, at least for me.

DG: Yep. Orsino was supposed to have his own version of Meredith's end battle, which only happened if you sided with the templars. That got cut, but the team still wanted to use the model we'd made for him. So... that happened. [source]

DG: I would personally say that DA2 is a fantastic game hidden under a mountain of compromises, cut corners, and tight deadlines. If you can see past all that, you'll see a fantastic game. I don't doubt, however, that it's very difficult for most to do that. [source]

PW: I love DAI with all my selfish "I worked on this" heart, but DA2's follower arcs and relationships are probably my favorite in the series. [source]

User: As I've expressed many times, I love the game, especially it's writing and characters but, for me, the most impressive aspect of it, in consideration of it's lack of time for drafts and revisions, is the 2nd act with Arishok. What amazingly complex character and fantastic duel

User: Just played it again and I have to agree. Though he is bound by the harsher tenants of the Qun, he makes valid points about free marcher society. Though it is obvious that he and Hawke will come to blows eventually, the tension builds gradually and understandably

DG: Luke did such a fantastic job with the Arishok I found myself sometimes wishing the Qunari plot had just been THE plot. [source]

User: What do you think would have changed, story wise, if you had more time for DA2?

DG: I would have taken out that thing where Meredith gets the idol. It was forced on me because she needed to be "super-powered" with red lyrium for her final battle. Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that. [source]

User: I deeply lament that there wasn't/couldn't be some sort of DA2 equivalent of Throne of Bhaal's Ascension mod.

DG: I'd have done it, if DA2 had allowed for anything but the most rudimentary of modding. ;) [source]

User: I mean, and I think I understand where you were trying, but how much legitimacy did the Templars and her as top Templar have after they're keeping the mages locked up against their will in the old slave quarters? Feel free to not reply.

DG: I think it's the kind of discussion which requires nuance, and which discussions on the Internet are not prone to. [source]

User: Was a compromise that the quest lines don’t branch? It felt like it was supposed to be that way but then you end up in the same place later regardless of what you pick. Like I hoodwinked the templars so good to help the apostates escape but in Act II they were caught anyway.

DG: I remember us having a lot more branching in the initial planning yes. Most of this got trimmed out in the first or second wave of cuts, in an effort to not cut the plots altogether. [source]

DG: "If you could Zack Snyder DA2, what would you change?" Wow. I'm willing to bet Mark or Mike (or anyone else on the team) would give very different answers than me, but it's enough to give a sober man pause, because that was THE Project of Multiple Regrets. [source] I mean, it's the most hypothetical of hypotheticals. It's never gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised if EA considered DA2 its embarrassing red-headed stepchild. We'd also need to ignore that in many ways DA2 was as good as it was bad BECAUSE of how it was made. But that aside? [source] First, either restore the progressive changes to Kirkwall we'd planned over the passing of in-game years or reduce the time between acts to months instead of years... which, in hindsight, probably should have been done as soon as the progressive stuff was cut. [source] I'm sure you're like "get rid of repeated levels!" ...but I don't care about that. All I wanted was for Kirkwall to feel like a bigger city. Way more crowded. More alive! Fewer blood mages. [source] I'd want to restore the plot where a mage Hawke came THIS close to becoming an abomination. An entire story spent trapped in one's own head while trapped on the edge of possession. Why? Because Hawke is the only mage who apparently never struggles with this. It was a hard cut. [source]

User: I would LOVE to hear more details about this! I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a short story?

DG: I don't even remember the details of the story, sorry. There was a fight, and you caught the bad guy and then realized none of it was real and woke up idk [source]

DG: I'd want to restore all those alternate lines we cut, meaning people forget they'd met you. Or that they knew you were a mage. Or, oh god, that maybe they'd romanced you in DAO. So much carnage. [source] I'd want to restore the Act 3 plots we cut only because they were worked on too late, but which would have made the buildup to the mage/templar clash less sudden. Though I don't remember what they were, now. Some never got beyond being index cards posted on the wall. [grimace emoji] [source] As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd want to restore Orsino's end battle so he wouldn't need to turn on you even if you sided with him. And I'd want an end fight with the templars that didn't require Meredith to have red lyrium and go full Tetsuo. [source] Heck, maybe an end decision where you sided with neither the mages nor the templars. Because it certainly ended up feeling like you could brand both sides as batshit pretty legitimately, no? That was never planned, tho. No idea how to make that feel like an actual path atm. [source] Maybe an option to go "umm, Anders... what are you DOING?" 👀 [source] And, of course, a Varric romance, because Mary took that "slimy car salesman" character we'd planned and did the impossible with him. I can feel Mary glaring at me for even suggesting this, tho. [source] Lastly, the original expanded opening to the game which allowed you to spend time with Bethany and Carver BEFORE the darkspawn attacked. And, um, that's about it off the top of my head. Zack Snyder, WHAT PANDORA'S BOX HAVE YOU OPENED. [source] Shit, I remembered two more things: 1) Restore the "Varric exaggerates the heck out of the story" at the beginning of every Act, until Cassandra calls him on it. Yes, that was a thing. 2) Make DA: Exodus. Yes, I am still bitter. [source] God damn it, I meant "Make DA: Exalted March". The DA2 expansion, NOT Exodus since that was DA2's original name and makes no sense. Because the expansion ended with Varric dying, and that will always be on my "things left undone" list. [source]

User: Whaaaat?

DG: Well, you know that scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock goes into the dilithium chamber because he's a Vulcan? Well, imagine that but with Varric and red lyrium and because he's a dwarf. ;) [source]

John Epler: I distinctly remember referencing the bit from MGS4 where you crawl through the microwave corridor in the split screen, while cinematic battle rages on the other half. [source]

DG: It would have been glorious, John. Glorious. [source]

JE: I don't think I've ever been so certain what a shot should look like as I did Hawke coming in and finding Varric in the broken throne, just like when he was telling Cassandra his story. [source]

DG: It would have come full circle! Auggghh, it still kills me. [source]

User: Lord, you folks are a little too good at this.

JE: The true secret behind videogame narrative is knowing how to make yourself seem a lot more clever than you actually are. [source] 'Oh, we TOTALLY planned that.' [source]

User: Ok, this thread [the DA2 regrets thread, which is the big chunks above] but Inquisition.

DG: My regrets about Inquisition are, more or less, the normal kind. Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid. [source]

User: You can keep your Varric romance, I want a Flemeth romance goddamnit!

DG: I would allow for one flirt option, and then a recording of Kate Mulgrew laughing for three minutes straight. [source]

User: I had a hypothesis about the repetitive caves in DA2. They're repetitive because it's Varric telling the story and he didn't consider them important. They're like sets in a play. (Okay, I really suspect it was a time/money/resources thing but I like my fake explanation better.)

DG: Hang a lampshade on it, maybe? Cassandra: "But that's the exact cave you were in last time?" Varric: "Whatever. They all look the same, I'm not THAT kind of dwarf. Can we move on?" [source]

User: that makes sense, hypothetically to make Varric romanceable and keep his arc—that had to happen for the main plot—I imagine you would have to make double the content (or more)? which would've been a tall order given the time/budget constraints the game was under

DG: Right. When it comes to "romance arc" vs. "follower story arc", we generally only had time to do one or the other. Never both. Romancing Varric would have meant not getting the story of his that you did. [source]

Mary Kirby: The one exaggeration I really, REALLY wanted, that we never got to do was Varric narrating his own death scene with Hawke weeping over him, then cutting to Cassandra's pissed off glaring at him. [source]

DG: Haha! The one I wanted was Varric's plot where he takes on the baddies single-handedly, sliding across the floor like Jet Lee, action movie-style, until finally Cassandra gets irritated and he has to admit Hawke & the rest of the party showed up to help. [source]

MK: We did that one! (He didn't do any Jet Lee moves, though.) Jepler gave him letterboxing to get The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly showdown vibes while he shot a ton of mooks single-handed. [source]

DG: Wow. Shows how much I remember. [source]

JE: I found it! I remember seeing this sequence as my treat for doing a bunch of much more challenging work. It was fun to see how far I could push our limited library of animations. [link] [source]

DG: Heh awesome. I could have sworn it was cut, honestly. I think I was even in that meeting. [source]

User: no disrespect but that’s surprising and rich of Mary “Hard in Hightown” Kirby to think DA2 shouldn’t have had a Varric romance when she wrote an entire book of Varric’s self-insert character pining over his Hawke insert character… HIH is the reason we had VHawke Summer 2018

DG: I can't *really* speak for Mary, or how she feels about it now compared to back then. I only know how she felt about it back then, and I'm not sure it was as much the concept of the romance but that Varric's entire story would be bent to "romance arc" ...a very different thing. [source]

JH: I remember pushing to have the first DLC start with Hawke having an option to ask Varric, "Did you tell Cassandra about us?" and if you picked it, Varric would answer, "Of course not, baby. I told her you were sleeping with X..." and then proceed as if you had had a full romance. [source]

DG: I still wonder how that would have gone over. x) [source]

JE: Okay, one more DA2 thing. Putting together the cinematics for this scene was a blast. [link] [source]

MK: These lines are my greatest legacy. I want "Make sure the world knows I died... at Chateau Haine!" inscribed on my tombstone. [source]

JE: I was so glad no one said 'no' to the crane shot. [source]

MK: It needs that crane shot. It's the perfect icing on that cake made from solid cheese. [source]

DG: The designers were all "we need more combat" and I think we were all "I think you underestimate just HOW interesting we can make this dinner party". [source]

JE: And finally. I think @SherylChee wrote the one-liner. I think we had a collection of like, 20. [link] [source]

Sheryl Chee: Yeah! Something like that! I remember submitted a whole bunch and Frank said you only needed one. Wish I'd kept the other fifteen. [source]

JE: A random chooser where, each time through the scene, you get a different one-liner. [source]

JE: DA2 is the project I'm the proudest of. I also absolutely get that it didn't land for a lot of people. But I don't think it's inaccurate to say that, in a lot of ways, DA2 defined my career. [source] Everyone spent a year working at their maximum ability. I was a fresh cinematic designer and was given all of Varric's content, as well as the Act 1 Finale mission. It was a lot for someone who had been doing the Cinematics thing for literally 6 months. [source] There's some stuff in there I can't look at without wincing. And there's some stuff I'm genuinely proud of. Not to mention, it was my introduction to most of the writing team. Several of whom I'm still working with today! Albeit in a different capacity [source] Also, weirdly, one of my most enduring memories of Dragon Age 2 is how much Bad Company 2 we'd play at lunch. It was a LOT. [source] Every game I've worked on has a game I played attached to it. ME2 is Borderlands. DA2 is Bad Company 2. DAI is DayZ. I, hmm. There's a progression there. I don't know how I feel about it. [source]

User: Is DA4 going to be tarkov then?

JE: I've kind of churned out of Tarkov for now. Probably Hunt Showdown, at least right now. [source]

User: I think people also don't take nuance into consideration -- like I FULLY acknowledge the flaws in my favorite games and will openly criticize them, but that doesn't mean they're not my favorite games anymore??? You can like and thing and still be critical of it.

JE: A lot of my favourite shit is deeply flawed! I acknowledge it and I think it's interesting to dissect the flaws. [source]

User: I still wish Justice was an actual character in DA2 rather than a plot point.

DG: There was a moment during DAI where we *almost* put in you running into Justice with the Grey Wardens, and he's all "Kirkwall? I never went to Kirkwall" [source]

User: Does that imply that Justice was shoehorned in to DA2?

DG: Nah, it was an in-joke where we thought it'd be fun to suggest that "Justice" was simply some demon that tricked Anders in DA2. Wooo those tricky demons! We didn't do it, though. [source]

User: [about templars] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves [source]

User: Can you shed some light for us on how DA was able to do multiple same-sex romance options for different genders but the Mass Effect team treated them like the plague? What process existed for your team that just wasn't their for the other tentpole franchise?

DG: Different people making the decisions, almost different cultures. I don't know what it's like now, but for many years the Mass Effect team and the Dragon Age team were almost like two different studios working within the same building. [source]

User: It truly boggles the mind. Kudos for doing demonstrably better on consistent queer representation than the ME teams. Y'all never needed us to make petitions to try to get the studio's attention and ask them to do better by us. That's the fight we're once again embroiled in now.

DG: Honestly, I don't feel like tut-tutting the Mass Effect team. They did their part, and if they were a bit later to the show than the DA team they certainly did more than almost every other game out there -- and willingly. [source]

Updates begin here

User: So what was the reason for naming Dragon age 2 "Dragon age II" and not using a subtitle?

DG: As I recall, that was purely a publisher decision. I think they wanted to avoid the impression it was an expansion. [source]

User: Is there no chance of ever remaking DA2 under better circumstances? -Somehow remove the repetitiveness of gameplay by making changes and updating the tech and adding much more to the storyline. It could almost be a new very exciting game.

DG: I'd say there's zero chance of that. Let's keep our hopes up for the next DA title instead. [source]

User: I am a little confused here, help me out here please! How exactly was the cut boss battle with Orsino supposed to work out? How it would've kept him from turning against the player?

DG: It means that, if you sided with the templars, the entire boss bottle at the end would have been against Orsino and the mages. No fight against Meredith. The end decision would have been more divergent. [source]

User: I do remember that one of the reasons going around for that, was that resources were going to the transition to Frostbite. I'm still not fully sold on that having been a good choice. I felt that more time should have been given for that transition considering it was made for FPSs

DG: We didn't transition to Frostbite until DAI. Given our time frame for DA2, I don't think we *could* have transitioned to a new engine. [source]

User: Since your talking about the what could have been for DA2. Could you say what your script was for Anthem? Cause I remember reading that you wrote the plot on that game.

DG: I created a setting for Anthem and scripted out a plot - but, as I understand it, almost none of that ended up being used. So it's a bit pointless to talk about what I'd planned, as that'd be for some completely different type of game. [source]

User: [in reference to the exchange above where DG said “Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that.” re: Meredith] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

If I missed a tweet, got the wrong source link or included a tweet twice, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct.

Edit / Update: Post update 22nd April

#dragon age #bioware #video games #fenris #the Fenaissance #long post #longpost #cassandra pentaghast #my lady paladin #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #mass effect

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butt-watch · 3 years

Text

Deltarune Chapter 2 Theory

DELTARUNE SPOILERS AHEAD

I'll put under a read more, but just in case it doesn't work. Here's your warning to block "#delatrune spoilers" or scroll really fast.

Spoilers for end game and bonus boss, and a long ass dump of all the ideas I have in my head before I forget them. So, sorry if I got anything wrong or it's a mess.

I've seen a lot of theories flying around, but haven't seen this one yet. (Sorry if it is already out there and I just haven't seen it, I'm sure somebody will already have put it together better than me.) This is just some funky ideas I've been throwing around, because I'll be honest here, I love the main 3 so much, and would be sad to see any of them turn out to be evil like so many theories are suggesting.

Maybe I'm just trying to be optimistic, maybe it's the weird nb kid deep inside me latching onto a kindred spirit, maybe I'm on to something.

So here's the thing. I don't believe Kris is the knight.

I know, I know, but stay with me here.

There's no denying that at the end of the chapter, Kris created a new fountain, and with it, likely a new dark world. But I'd like to argue, this is the first one they've created. My evidence is shaky, but I think there's something there that could blossom.

I'll start off with the simple fact that multiple characters who have met the knight, Spades King especially, didn't recognise Kris at all, and you would have thought they'd recognise the person who's been feeding them so much information. You do also have a couple of dialogue options with the king this time, and definitely with the Queen, so it seems strange that neither of them recognise the voice of their Knight in shining armour.

This is where stuff starts to get a bit flaky, but also, a lot more intriguing.

At the end of the chapter Kris opened a fountain, and the night before, we saw Kris remove the soul inside them and brandish their knife. Assuming that Kris spent that time without the soul creating a fountain is a fair assumption to make, and I think it's possible that was Kris's intention, perhaps they have some connection to the knight, and knew how the fountains could be opened. But, they were missing one important ingredient.

In Chapter 2 we get an explanation from the Queen about how dark fountains are created, and with it a word that has largely been missing from Deltarune.

That's right, good old Determination.

Fountains are created when a determined Lightner plunges a sharp object into the ground. And here's where the theory comes in. I believe prior to the end of chapter 2, Kris didn't have Determination. Throughout the game, they've been filled with various sources of power, from Fluffy Boys and Mean Girls, to Cat signs. But at every save point we've been missing the signature Determination.

The closest we get is at the end of Chapter 2, just before the fight against the queen, when "a certain power" is alluded to.

And that lack of Determination, would have made opening the fountain impossible for them, after all, Queen spent the whole game building Noelle's determination high enough to open a new fountain. A smidge of determination doesn't seem to cut it.

So how did Kris get the determination?

Through the good old power of Friendship. Through the trials with their new friends, Kris has gained determination, even without the soul inhabiting them. And even though that started as half a joke (only half), whilst writing this post and trying to find screencaps, for the next section, I realised it's actually more likely than I suspected.

And that brings me to everyone's new favourite:

Spamton. During his dialogue and initial boss fight he offers a deal, rewarding Kris with [[Hyperlink Blocked]] if they accept. As far as I'm aware you're forced to accept the deal. (If anyone else tolerated more than a few minutes of smashing no deal like I did and managed to get a different outcome, kudos to your perseverance.)

What is [[Hyperlink Blocked]]? Well I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this. I believe it may well be Determination or something similar.

During the initial confrontation, Spamton refers to the players Soul as [[HeartShapedObject]].

But prior to the boss fight against Spamton NEO, he has no qualms about saying SOUL.

I've seen a lot of people theorising Spamton is being censored, and I agree that definitely seems to be the case. From a meta standpoint though I think it's interesting that the [[Hyperlink Blocked]] he mentioned so much in his first encounter doesn't seem to be mentioned at all, now the he has slightly more freedom of speech. I personally believe it's because revealing whatever Spamton was offering would have given too much away.

So how does this come back to the power of friendship? Well, upon defeating Spamton, whether through ACTing or beating the crap out of him, he realises the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.

He suggests that together, the three of them could "break their own strings"

Following the fight, there's a moment, where Susie notices that Kris is acting out of sorts. Whichever option you choose, it's obvious that Kris is shaken by the event, even going as far as to yell the answer if you let them admit how they're feeling.

The similarity to Kris's own situation, being puppeted by the player is a valid reason for the response. Whatever shook them did so with enough effect that the fear showed despite the players control. Either that, or Kris has something they didn't have, more control. More... Determination to overcome the soul.

That last part is reaching a little, which is saying something, given the amount of shaky evidence presented in this post, so I want to wrap this up mostly with something slightly unrelated, but still a Kris theory.

Why do they open the fountain?

There are a lot of theories, about being a pawn for Gaster, being an asshole, etc.

I'd like to think Kris is just a weird kid who's gotten caught up in a mess they don't really understand. They created a scenario where Susie would be forced to stay the night, and opened up a new dark world, that Susie, their friend, expressed a want for before they left the dark world.

A place where they could get away from their lives for a little while and have more adventures together. And I can understand the reasoning, opening a new fountain isn't bad, I mean, as long as they close it at the end, nobody gets hurt and they have more memories. Where's the harm in that? Right?

As much as Kris obviously wishes to be free of the soul's control, that very soul has helped them make real friends. It's taken them on adventures and well.

Somebody had to let it out before the morning.

So to summarise, the strongest power known to man is a group of lonely teenagers, if you run through a peaceful game murdering everything and then blame a video game character for the decision you made, I'll kick your ass, and I guess I'm a Kris stan now, oh god.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #kris deltarune #kris dreemurr #The amount of people I've seen jumping on this weird kid and calling them a murder makes me feel... uneasy #Kris sweetie I got your back #and I pray to Toby that he shows mercy and doesn't do you dirty

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