#if not only for how this is a switch design based off their parents. 'princess of nohr soleil.' well. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

drwcn · 4 years

Text

@cloudyfromoobsession

Hi! :)

On the topic of talking in third person when referring to yourself, it is actually quite prevalent in cdrama, especially the historical ones, but it never shows up in translation because well... it sounds really weird in English and often there is no direct translation. So most translators just do away with it.

In modern spoken Chinese, third person speech is no longer used (in fact it would be very weird if you did), so below is only pertaining to historical or fantasy dramas.

If I could insert my personal opinion on the matter: there’s no need to use third person speech in English. Chinese third person speech is incredibly nuanced depending on context and person, and it is incredibly easy to misuse it in English. Writers end up not conveying their intentions and actually making things really awkward. As someone who is fully bilingual, I personally find that third person speech, when used in excess, makes the writing stilted. Another example is Lan Wangji’s “concise speech” which I see very often. It does not work in English. It makes him sound like he doesn’t know how to speak properly and is grammatically incorrect. Chinese is a language that is designed to be able to be shortened in certain ways and still follow all its grammatical rules. English’s syntax does not work the same way at all. Speech is a major contributor to a fictional character’s personality. Sometimes those subtleties cannot be transposed directly from Chinese to English. To still capture the character when writing in English, each writer has different ways of doing this, but personally I like to keep Lan Wangji’s speech - for the most part - simple and concise. No complex or compound sentences but all his sentences should still obey the grammatical rules of English.

Okay, onto third person speech, since I find it interesting and it’s like a cool language quirk.

NOTE: below is about referring to oneself in the third person. Referring to someone else in the third person is a whole thing on its own.

The “talking in third” person you’re probably referring to stems from the episode when LWJ got drunk with One Braincell Trio, and the next morning he went to his uncle and said 忘机知错 or 忘机有错. I can’t remember specifically which one he said, but essentially it means “Wangji knows his faults” or “Wangji is at fault”. Using one’s own name to speak in third person is actually less common than some of the other examples I will explain below. There are many ways to speak in third person depending on the situation, your position and the person you are talking to.

Before I do that, I’d that to point out that the pronoun “I” 我 is seen as rude or not following etiquette if you use it inappropriately with people who you shouldn’t be using “I” with. For example, a girl entering the palace to serve as a maid will be trained to stop using “I” when she is speaking with nobility, royalty and anyone of higher rank than he. She will in fact be verbally corrected by her supervisor (and may even be punished) if she used “I” inappropriately. A palace maid’s “noun” that she will use in place of “I” is nubi 奴婢. Instead of saying 我不知到 “I don’t know”, she will say 奴婢不知 “nubi does not know.”

Notice the grammar issue that we’re presented with. Because there are no verb conjugation changes in Chinese, substituting “I” with another noun doesn’t change what happens to the verb in Chinese, but in English, you have to make conjugation changes. This makes dialogues sound even more weird in English.

“I” can be used amongst friends, close siblings, family (with exceptions) individuals or colleagues of relatively equal ranking or (sometimes) strangers on the street. Children, especially civilian children, almost always use “I”. As a general rule, civilians mostly use “I” with each other, it’s only when they speak to someone of rank that they switch their pronoun to a "non-I” noun. Also! Chinese doesn’t differentiate between the subject ‘I’ and the object ‘me’. They are both 我 “wo”, so both “I” and “me” are affected in the same way when switching to a ‘non-I’ noun.

So now I will list some of the “nouns” that are used in place of “I” in c-dramas. They will be listed in categories based on people’s station in life.

It’s important to note that Chinese can and is spoken passively, especially in old speech and in dramas. You won’t get the same flack for not using “active tone” the way you do in English. In fact, using “I” or “you” in old Chinese speech actually makes it sound informal. However, this again is one of those language quirks that doesn’t translate and can’t really be transposed. When writing in English, when in doubt, always follow English’s grammatical rules and syntax practices.

I have no degree in Chinese history or even East Asian studies. These are just some of the commonly used terms I’ve seen over many, many years of drama watching. Sometimes, drama gets it wrong, and these misconceptions will get passed to the audience, but it’s not like we’re submitting manuscripts for academic publication, so does it really matter if it’s slightly inaccurate?

Citizens, when talking to Officials, Royalty or the Emperor:

1) cao min 草民 - “grass” “citizen” 2) min nv 民女 - “citizen” “woman” 3) min fu 民妇 - “citizen” “married woman”

An average jo farmer when speaking with any government official or nobility or royalty including the Emperor will use cao’min to refer to themselves. Cao’min is gender neutral, so both men and women, old or young can use it. For example: “M’lord, I didn’t kill anyone!” -> “大人，草民没有杀人!”

“min’nv” on the other hand is used exclusively by women, usually younger women, while “min’fu” is used exclusively by older married women. The context of their usage is the same as cao’min. Both married and unmarried women can use cao’min as well. (nv is a weird word isn’t it? It’s because there is literally no alphabet to make the 女 sound. The closest we can get is nu, but that’s actually another word, so pinyin uses nv to as substitution.)

Notice, all three of these nouns are actually more... “formal”, as in these are the nouns people will know to use when they are being brought before a local judiciary court, or being called to testify before the Emperor himself. In a street setting, nouns #4 and #5 are usually used.

Sidenote: da’ren 大人 is an honorific that can be used for any government official that holds some kind of public office or police status. A citizen can use “da’ren” with officials as high as the prime minister all the way down to their local mayor or even just the guards patrolling town. A lower official refers to his superior as {Last-name-da’ren}, and a higher official ALSO refers to their subordinates (who are not close friends of his) as {Last-name da’ren}. More nuances apply but generally these are the rules.

Worker/Trades person/Citizen, when talking to someone of higher class and wealth:

4) xiao de 小的 - “of little” 5) xiao ren 小人 - “little” “person”

Example: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walks into an inn, the busboy greets them and says: Chinese: “二位公子，[小的]是这里的小二，二位打尖还是住店？” English: “Young masters, [xiao’de] is the busboy/waiter of this place. Would you like to take your meal here or check in for the night?” or basically “Hi! I am your waiter and I’ll be helping you today. Are we eating or checking in?”

Adults of Scholar/Gentries Status/Martial Artists in Pugilist Society/Cultivators:

6) zai xia 在下 - “is here” “lower” 7) wan bei 晚辈 - “later” “generation” 8) di zi 弟子 - disciple 9) lao sheng 老身 - “old” “body”

zai xia - The thing with old Chinese speech is that it inherently is overly politely. In many many cases, you always put yourself in the lower status when speaking to a stranger of unknown status because you don’t want offend the person you don’t know. Zaixia can be used by men, women, usually not too old. If you’re a senior man or woman you usually default to 9). Example: two cultivators who’ve never met fought off a ghoul together. After the fact, they introduce themselves. One of them says: “在下云梦江氏魏无羡，多谢仙友相助。” Meaning translation: “I am Wei Wuxian of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. Thank you so much for your help.” Literal translation： “[zai’xia] Yunmeng Jiang Clan Wei Wuxian. Much thanks cultivator friend for help.” This entire sentence contains neither ”I” nor “you”. But that’s just not... feasible to talk like that in English.

wan bei is used in CQL. Ex: A disciple of Yunmeng Jiang may refer to themselves as wan bei when speaking to a senior of another sect. When a disciple is speaking to a senior of their own sect, they will use “di zi” (disciple).

Family:

10). xiao xu 小婿 - “little” “son in law” 11). hai er 孩儿 - “child” 12). sun nv 孙女， sun er 孙儿 - “granddaughter” , “grandson” *there are more, but I’m use putting these up for examples*

In most families, there’s no need to refer to yourself in the third person. You’re family, just use “I”. But! In certain high society families, the rules are stricter and etiquette is everything. For example, places like Cloud Recesses with a stick up its collective butt would probably follow these rules. If Lan Wangji’s parents were still alive, he’d refer to himself as “hai er” to his parents. He would also refer to himself as “xiao xu” to Cangse and Wei Changze if they were alive. In Story of Minglan, Minglan refer to herself as “sun nv” when she’s speaking with her grandmother.

Government Officials

13). bei zhi 卑职 14). xia guan 下官 both of these mean the same thing “subordinate”. People use it when speaking to their superiors. Foot soldiers in the military will use 13, not 14.

15). wei chen 微臣 {wei chen} is used SOLELY with the royal family. If you are a government official of ANY rank, when speaking to the emperor, empress, dowager empress, you must use wei chen in formal settings. To a prince or princess or a royal concubine, government official can use 14 xia guan. Using “I” in front of royalty is very disrespectful. Exceptions do apply, but this is the overarching rule.

臣 - the word “chen” means subject. The term 君臣 refers to the special relationship of respect that exists between 君 the emperor, and 臣 the people who work on his behalf and whom he rules.

Royalty 16). zhen 朕 - no translation This is a special pronoun used ONLY by the Emperor and he uses zhen a lot. Like, there is no need for him to be humble or whatever and avoid using pronouns. It is his “I” and he can use it as freely as he likes.

17). ben gong 本宫 - “self” “palace” An Empress or a concubine of higher status (ie. a Noble Consort) use this to refer to themselves when they are talking to anyone of lower rank: citizens, servants, a government official, or a lower concubine. This places them in a position of power. Everyone who they’re using ben gong with should be lower than them in ranking. Remember when I said using “I” is rude, well in this case, a noble consort will not use “I” with a servant because she is more noble them, and they not “noble enough” for her to use “I” with. If it’s her close servants, her confidants, she can and often do use “I”, as a sign of familiarity.

18). pin qie 嫔妾, chen qie 臣妾 Lower concubines use “pin qie” and higher concubines use “chen qie” when speaking to the Emperor, Empress or Dowager Empress. The Empress uses “chen qie” when speaking to the Emperor or Dowager Empress. When chen qie or pin qie is used, the speaker is in a lower position than the person they’re speaking to.

19). er chen 儿臣 Princes and Princesses will use “er chen” with their fathers (the Emperor). In front of their mothers (Empress or concubine) and grandmothers, they usually use “I” or 11 “hai er”. If it’s a formal situation, they will switch to “er chen”. An Emperor will also refer to himself as “er chen” when speaking to his mother the Empress Dowager.

20). ben wang 本王 - “self” “lord/duke” An Emperor’s sons, brothers or male cousins are often qinwangs or junwangs (princes, lords, dukes). They will use “ben wang” to refer to themselves in formal settings to any one who is lower than them. In informal settings, they will use “I”. In formal setting when they’re talking to the Emperor, sons of the Emperors will use 19 “er chen”, brothers of Emperors may use “chen di” 臣弟, and cousins or more distant relatives will be simply “chen” or 15 “wei chen”.

21). ai jia 哀家 - “sad” “family” Empress Dowagers: literally the most respected and highest ranking person in any Chinese dynasty. She might not have any real power, but by rank she kneels to absolutely no one. No exceptions. Not even to her son who is the Emperor. He kneels to her. An Empress Dowager will use “ai jia” when she wants to be more formal, but to her family with whom she is close, she can and do use “I”.

Lastly, Jiang Cheng gets a special mention:

When Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen bring Wei Wuxian to Jinlintai at around ep 41, Jiang Cheng, being a total shit disturber says, “不知是那位名士大能，可否为江某引荐一番？”

Translation: “Who is this famous and talented cultivator? Could you introduce him to me?”

But lemme break that sentence down for you.

可否 = can or not 为 = for 江某 = Jiang “mou” 引荐一番 = make introduction.

He does not make use of “him” “you” or “me”. In English, when speaking in the imperative mood, aka, “put the dishes in the dish washer”, it is implied that ‘you’ are the person putting the dishes in the dish washer. Similarly, the ‘him’ and ‘you’ are implied in Jiang Cheng’s sentence, and the only “pronoun” he uses when referring to himself is “jiang mou”. If Jiang Cheng had used “you” or “him” in his sentence, it would’ve been ruder. As is, his sentence was still (albeit falsely) courteous.

The ‘third person’ speech in this context is the use of 江某 “jiang mou”. It is a fairly neutral third person noun. Unlike the above 21 examples, ‘mou’ doesn’t place a person in a position higher or lower than the person they’re talking to. They’re just saying “hey I am a person with the last name Jiang”. It is gender neutral and can be used by both men and women. It’s not limited to cultivators. Scholars can use it, nobility can use it, government officials can use it. (Your average farmer... probably doesn’t use it, because it’s just... not used.)

So that’s it.

There are definitely MORE nouns that are used in third person. These are some of the commonly seen ones. I hope it helps.

Again, this word vomit I just wrote is for general interest. It is absolutely not necessary to use it when writing fics in English. When in doubt, stick to using pronouns the way we would normally.

#language #cql #the untamed #cql reference #master list

402 notes · View notes

slade-neko · 3 years

Text

Saw this video game tag thing pop up on my dash a few days ago. Wanted to do it.

1. First game you played obsessively? Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I believe I was 5yo. Still waiting on that FF7 Remake treatment.

2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc. Well if I play a game and like it, then I'll create sims of it. Does that count?

3. Who did you play with as a kid? My brother from the day I was born.

4. Who do you play with now? My brother FROM THE DAY I WAS BORN.

5. Ever use cheat codes? I wasn't lying when I made this post. {link}

6. Ever buy strategy guides? Yes! Mainly to look at the artwork though. (Don't need no guide!)

7. Any games you have multiple copies of? Lots of games, most being Left 4 Dead with 6 copies (3 Xbox 360, 1 PC case, 2 PC digitally.) What can I say, its a GOOD GAME!

8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection? Gold cartridge Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (maybe that's rare?)

9. Most regrettable purchase? I don't regret my purchases, but I have received games I have never played like Cubix (PS2) no clue where that game came from, but I have it somehow. Madagascar (Xbox 360) came with my Xbox 360, never opened it from its case. And Monsters Inc. Scream Arena (Gamecube) or something... it was a gift.

10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.

11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games? I'm only friends with people BECAUSE of video games, so yes.

12. Ever get picked on for liking games? No, that'd be ridiculous.

13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has? Probably a lot, I'd say Call of Duty, but I technically played CoD 1, 2, and 4. The campaign mode was alright, but I don't really care for CoD games at ALL.

14. Favorite game music? Koji Kondo and Grant Kirkhope are two BIG ones.

15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick? Triforce is the most basic option, but I'd rather not get a tattoo.

16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL? Super Smash Bros. Brawl with hacks, but that was over a decade ago.

17. Ever lose a friend over a game? No, that'd be ridiculous.

18. Would you date someone that hates gaming? No, that'd be RIDICULOUS.

19. Favorite handheld console? PSP. 3DS is great, but PSP Monster Hunter has ALL of my portable gaming memories. Like playing in school after End of Grade tests with my friend.

20. Game that you know like the back of your hand? Sims 4 I like to think I know everything about Left 4 Dead. Quite a bit about Monster Hunter, more so of a series though than a specific game.

21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now? I'd say Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I loved it as a kid, but had a lot of complex pen & paper RPG mechanics that I never understood. I understand a lot more of it now, but its still complex as all heck. I just know you hit things, they die.

22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories? That's the only thing I wear.

23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into? Not sure so I'll list a few. Sims 4, Smash Bros. Brawl, Monster Hunter (its a series though), or Left 4 Dead

24. First Pokemon game? Leaf Green

25. Were you ever an arcade game player? No, don't like paying to play.

26. Ever form any gaming rivalries? No.

27. Game that makes you rage? I don't get mad at games, but I had a custom modded Hard Eight mutation in Left 4 Dead that is absolute bullsh*t!

28. Ever play in a tournament? No, because then I'd have to interact with people.

29. What is your gaming set up? A giant wall of video game consoles spanning from NES to Switch, 4 TVs, but I sit at a desk with a PC.

30. How many consoles do you own? "I own every console that's ever existed." - I Don't Play Games When I Play Games (My STRENTH) original song by Smooth McGroove BUT no seriously I own 32 consoles including handhelds.

31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches? Yes. 3DS gave me headaches though I only really played with the 3D feature in Ocarina of Time 3D. I think my eyes broke because I couldn't get my 3D to work very well after.

32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic? Sure I play games based on a lot of things. Literally any anime game. If I had to pick Dragon Ball Xenoverse is kinda like a dream Dragon Ball game. Oh, Attack on Titan 2 is pretty neat too!

33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games? Some SEGA plug-n-play thing once. Played it like once and now its lost to time (or my closet.)

34. Do either of your parents play video games? Yes. Mom and Dad played NES Super Mario Bros. My Dad went HARD at that game until he saved the Princess. Then he quit forever.

35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop? "Hi. Welcome to Gamestop!"I never want to hear that again, but it was my main store until I went full digital/ online orders.

36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game? No, I don't tend to get upset or emotional, but Bill dying in Left 4 Dead made me pretty pissed.

37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination? Never played it. I don't really play "bad" games, but maybe Sims 4.

38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like? The Sims 4

39. A sequel that you would die for them to make? Dragon's Dogma 2 WHICH I think is actually in development, so I'd have to say Fallout New Vegas 2. C'mon Bethesda you cowards, hand the keys back over to Obsidian so they can make another good Fallout game!

40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls? Two part question, two answers. VR Headset to immerse in world, yes. Motion Controls, no.

41. A genre that you just can’t get into? MOBAs and MMOs. I don't like paying to keep playing.

42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness? Nintendo 64 opened me up to what video games could be as a kid. Sad to say my parents' NES didn't really do that for me. And years later Fallout 3 was a big game changer for me too.

43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else? Every day of my LIFE.

44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters? None. I'd rather emulate.

45. How are you at Mario Kart? Pretty dang good. 3-STARS MARIO KART WII, BABY!

46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon? Yes, both of those. I preferred when Animal Crossing had more character to it. New Horizons looks so pretty, but feels so bland compared to classic AC.

47. Do you like competitive games? No. Not really. Usually amongst friends or if I can get competitive against AI Bots. I love my machine bot friends cause they don't cry like 10 year olds when they lose.

48. How long does it take your to customize your player character? Too long. I've seriously restarted games because I wasn't happy with my character's appearance.

49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character? Yes, I am always the magic man, my brother is always brute warrior, and my friend is the ranger.

50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create? I don't really know. Honestly, I'd rather mod already good games to make them better than create something completely new.

51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep? No, that'd be ridiculous. But I've had a friend fall asleep playing games at my house 3 different times and currently dozes off during our Minecraft sessions. So, maybe that's not a completely ridiculous thing after all.

52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid? Kirby 64 apparently. My brother tells me we had to count out pennies to buy it. I must've been too young with no recollection, but I believe it.

53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days? It's good if its not in the game's files from the beginning and is actually developed AFTER launch... and pre-order bonuses should be standard DLC a month or two later. Some games have content lost to time because of that pre-order bullsh*t.

54. Do you give in to Steam sales? Of course. If you want a game and its on sale then why not? I typically wait just for Steam sales to get games.

55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them? No? I typically make people and characters I like in Sims. I've made villains like Dio, but he's an anime villain and I don't really HATE him despite the horrible things he's done.

56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests? No. Never played that game.

57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements? I try to for all the games I really like.

58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick? The Sims 4, Skyrim, & Fallout: New Vegas. Mods make them live forever. Left 4 Dead and Monster Hunter are good choices too.

59. Do you play any cell phone games? Those aren't games.

60. Do you know the Konami Code? No? But I'll take a guess. Is it make an IP and forget it exists?

61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever? Keep forever... even the bad ones.

62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game? PS4 Pro for Monster Hunter World. It was basically for early access since the PC version was being developed and releasing after PS4, but I don't like waiting.

63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? Sort of. Been to anime cons and walked into the gaming tournament rooms only to walk out less than 10 minutes later.

64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming? No, but I'm going to be doing that soon, hopefully.

65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file? GameShark for N64, PS2, Gameboy, and Action Replay for Gamecube, DS, 3DS. And no not really, I would cheat responsibly... but there was this one time at school my friend and I borrowed another friend's Gameboy game, loaded it up with my Gameshark, tried playing, it crashed, loaded it back up, save file corrupted... we just stared at each other jaws dropped, "Here's your game back, dude. Make sure you don't play it til you get back home!"

66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it? No, but I remember seeing them on billboards in the game DRIV3R on PS2.

67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share? Every game I play is filled with happy memories (mostly.)

68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool? These tiger plushes. My brother got white and I got orange. They were the coolest. Got a butt load of tickets from some jackpot spinning light game thing as I was good at the timing with repeated jackpot hits.

69. In your opinion, best game ever made? I've played quite a few masterpiece games, but to pick one, I'd say Fallout: New Vegas

70. Very first game you ever beat? Super Mario 64. I was a mere child on a Sunday morning and ate celebratory pancakes made by my Dad.

Wow, that was long... I get the feeling this was supposed to be a "send me ask with numbers" thing, but answering all at once is more fun.

#personal #video games

8 notes · View notes

thewickedmerman · 3 years

Text

My Redesigns of The Specialists

Well, since I finished with the Winx Club girls and The Trix, I figured it was time to do my redesigns of The Specialists. However, not all of them are going to be just powerless fighters. I felt it would be more fun to make their team be made up of fighters, fairies, and sorcerers. Plus, they get to have their own transformations too. The fighters get transformations similar to the Power Rangers/superheroes (Because it makes no sense for there to be an emergency and they just rush off to change clothes, which is an INSANELY dangerous time waster), the fairies will have transformations similar to the Winx Club themselves, and the sorcerers will have transformations similar to the ones from Miraculous Ladybug (Honestly, I don't know what to think for the sorcerers). Why? Because it's so much more fun that way.

Sky

Well, I got the most BORING of the boys out of the way, so that's something. For his design I used Eric's body from The Little Mermaid, the face of Derek from The Swan Princess (Or at least from a specific poster), used his second hairstyle from the show because it suits him better and look less like a surfer dude, and I used the uniforms The Specialists get in the later seasons because it's BADASS. Plus, considering that Eraklyon is related to geology, it makes sense to have some armor that looks like stones. I did change the shade of blue to match his signature color, which is sky blue (I mean, it's in his name). He is the prince of Eraklyon and the son of a sorcerer and a fairy, but they still loved him despite that he had no magic. However, that made them even more protective of him since he was a child and there was a threat of him being kidnapped and held for ransom by Yoshinoya. So Sky's best friend/squire, Brandon (Who is a fairy and has magic to protect himself and Sky) was to switch places with Sky for public appearances and in school, so that no one would know who Sky really is. The only ones who knew the truth were the royal family, the castle staff, members of the royal court, and Diaspro & her parents (Who Sky was betrothed to since they were babies). Despite having no powers, Sky refused to be helpless and studied fighting hand-to-hand combat and weaponry. Sky is a boring character but could be good if put in the right hands. Give him flaws, have him held more accountable for his actions, none of the bullshit conflict that happens with him and Bloom from seasons 4-8.

Brandon

For his design, I used the face of Edward from Enchanted, the nose of Rameses from The Prince of Egypt, the eyes of Joseph from Joseph: King of Dreams, and the body of Bolin from The Legend of Korra. I've always questioned what race Brandon was supposed to be coded as because he seemed pretty ambiguous. Was he just white but with a tan? Was he Middle Eastern? Was he Filipino? Was he Hispanic or Latino? I saw someone say he was Middle Eastern and pointed out some areas in the Middle East where they have lighter tan complexions, dark brown hair, and similar features to him. So I thought for some representation, I would go with the Middle Eastern coded option. I made him a little darker than he was in the original show by giving him Flora's skin color from the original show (Since I gave her a darker skin-tone in my redesign of her), sharper eyes, and more Middle Eastern looking nose. I didn't want to use Aladdin's nose because the noses of Aladdin and Jasmine were a little too exaggerated the same way that the noses in Lilo and Stitch were too exaggerated (Polynesians don't have potato noses). I also wanted to show some body diversity by giving him a plus-sized body. NO, Bolin's body isn't fat but it's very much plus-sized. Brandon was a fat little boy growing up because he was just built differently. However, as he got older and started training, he bulked up. He's still plus-sized but is also muscular. You're probably wondering why I decided to make Brandon a fairy. I don't know but it just works. He is the fairy of geodes! I got that idea from Diaspro's fairy form and powers. They come from Eraklyon, so the magic in that world must be related to geology. So he's basically an Earthbender lol. But his powers are rooted on rocks, stones, gems, ect. so it's no wonder his body is so solid like a rock. I also modeled his wings after Diaspro's, which I noticed are solid instead of transparent like other fairy wings. I figured that must be part of the geology themed powers. As for his costume, I based it on one of the background fairies that were seen during the destruction of Bloom's home planet, Sparx. It just looked like it suited him. He and Sky have been friends since they were little and he is Sky's squire. He's the son of one of the palace guards. Since Sky was in danger of being abducted since he was a little kid, Brandon was made to pretend he was the prince for Sky's protection. Brandon's parents were dead against it, but the king demanded it. However, it was ultimately Brandon who decided to do it, even if his parents disapproved of putting their son in danger. You may ask, how would people believe that two white parents had a brown son? No idea! I guess they just said he was naturally tan lol.

Riven

For Riven's design, I gave him the face/head of Proteus from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, the body of Shang from Mulan, and the eyes of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. For his outfit, I didn't want to just give him the same outfit as Sky but with a different color because I wanted more individuality. So I gave him the outfits that were worn by Nex and Thoren (Sky's cousin). They looked less heroic and epic as the outfit I gave Sky, which suits Riven's more roughish nature and how he hasn't had an easy life compared to Sky (More on that later). It also has a bit of a low-key bad boy vibe to it. I still stayed true to his signature color, magenta, while making sure it didn't clash with his magenta hair, and giving him some purple to match his eyes. And I just had to give him an angry look on his face because it's Riven, so of course. Riven is my absolute LEAST favorite of the specialists. Sky may be boring as hell but Riven is ANNOYING as hell. He's poorly written, has terrible development, is always an asshole for no reason, has no backstory to justify the way he is, doesn't really change, and his relationship with Musa is absolutely toxic. In my version, I give him a backstory and better character development. His backstory is that he was born to a father that was a sorcerer and a mother that was a fairy while he was born without the ability to perform magic, which was a MASSIVE disappointment to his parents. They neglected him, emotionally abused him, and on occasion physically. This makes his actions and attitude all the more understandable. He's a show off because of how he never really got attention growing up from his own parents and is trying to make up for it, as well as prove that he is capable of great things and isn't useless just because he doesn't have powers. He's angry and a hothead but has more of a secret gentle side that he sometimes shows, MUCH MORE than the original Riven, which helps make it more understandable why Musa would have a crush on him. His emotional baggage also made it easier for Darcy to manipulate him, even giving him some magic (But takes it away when she dumps him). His backstory also gives him a reason for why he lashes out at his fellow teammates. In my version, Brandon is a fairy and Timmy is a sorcerer, so they can perform magic while he can't. He especially resents Sky because of how he was also born with parents that could perform magic while he couldn't but was still given love and attention despite this. It made him VERY angry and jealous because of how Sky manage to have parents that adore him, despite being born unable to do magic, while Riven had neglectful and abusive parents because of his inability to perform magic.

Timmy

For his face/head I used some old concept design of Milo from Atlantis: The Lost Empire and the smile, eyes, and body of Aladdin. I went with Aladdin's body because of how Timmy wouldn't be as masculine as the others but wouldn't be lanky. Aladdin has some muscles on him but he's not super built. I also gave him freckles because it's just too perfect for him. His outfit was tricky because of how I had to find a way of making him look like a sorcerer but also incorporate it with technology to go with his powers because of how he is the Sorcerer of Technology. For his scepter, I went with Tecna's Mythix wand, with some adjustments. Redheads look surprisingly really good in the color yellow. I decided to make Timmy a sorcerer because of how I feel it suits his personality. He's not as action-oriented as the other guys but more intellectual, even though he still fights. Imagine how amazing he'd be with technology with magic. He'd excel! No, I don't have him being from Zenith like Tecna but from another technology planet, though one that isn't considered as high up as Zenith. So this makes him feel a little intimidated by Tecna, that and him having a MASSIVE crush on her. He always is trying to prove that he is capable and isn't just some weak nerd. Out of all of the specialists, he's one of my favorite, if not my number one favorite. He's just absolutely awesome with how much of a dork he is.

Helia

Helia was the one that I was looking the most forward to doing a redesign of because of how I made him a fairy. Out of all of the Specialists, he's the one that really benefits the best from being made a fairy, especially when I got to his Believix and Enchantix. He has more of a feminine personality while still proving he isn't a wuss but rather a badass, despite being a pacifist. This gives him layers and depth beyond just being a typical good looking hero. Plus, his hair is just AMAZING! I used the body of Mako from The Legend of Korra, the eyes and nose of Shang from Mulan, and the head/face of Little Creek from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. I also gave him Brandon's skin tone to make him look more brown instead of just a light Asian. His outfit is very feminine but also clearly meant for a man because of how it's kind of toga looking. But I did his toga in a way that looks more Asian inspired instead of Greek inspired. Plus, this look suits his chill and relaxed personality. I made his outfit salmon pink with some orange because those colors just look so good on him and just suit his character. I made him the fairy of art, the same way that Musa is the fairy of music. So he can make art literally come to life, turn things like paint into ropes, can control paper (Particularly when in an origami shape), create portals, can jump into paintings to hide, and you get the point. Basically, his powers are awesome!

Nabu

And now we've come to my favorite of The Specialists, Prince Nabu. First of all, I want to make VERY CLEAR that in my version, Nabu DOESN'T die! That was a bunch of BULL CRAP! I mean, he's introduced in season 3 and then close to the end of season 4 they kill him off? Not to mention that out of all the boys, they chose the darkest one, who was also the love interest of black woman! She ended up having to suffer more than any of the other girls because of this. Not to mention that in season 5 they tried to replace him with a brown (But much lighter) man with terrible blonde hair and a terribly bland and boring personality to match, Roy. Then when that didn't work, they did a dumb love triangle in season 6 where the white man that has a personality mixture of Riven and Brandon, Nex. Yeah, all of this is TOTALLY not racist! And that's coming from a white man. Also, I wanna also point out that Nabu is NOT black! He is Indian, so he is coded as South Asian. Now that we got my rant out of the way, for his design I used the face/head of Naveen from The Princess and the Frog, the body of Flynn Rider from Tangled (I wanted to use Naveen but there wasn't a base of him to use or a tasteful nude picture of him), and the eyes of Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I also chose to keep his super long single braid instead of the two shoulder blade length braids he had in season 4. Why? Because it just looks SO MUCH better and is more badass. Non-white men just look amazing with long hair. He is still a prince but he doesn't come from Layla's planet, Andros. Why? Because that planet is water themed and his powers aren't related to water. His powers are illusions and healing, so it only makes sense that he comes from another planet, especially when the rules of Andros are black while Nabu and his family are Indian. He and Layla are in an arranged marriage, which she refuses and their relationship still goes the same way it did in season 3. Except, I'm having them meet during my Sirenix story line because that season would be about Layla, due to it being water themed. He still went by a disguised name, Ophir before revealing his true identity once they fell in love. So I'm giving true respect to the Sorcerer of Healing and Illusions.

And now for Brandon and Helia's Believix!

Just like the girls, Brandon and Helia are getting Believix and Enchantix forms. For the Believix forms I took inspiration from @teawithlemonacid, who did some fanart of The Specialists as fairies. I did make some adjustments of my own but still did take inspiration from that artist, so credit where credit is due. As I said when I did the girls with their Believix, the way they earn their Believix is pretty much the same way they earned their Charmix in season 2. They have to believe in themselves and overcome a personal struggle. I also took liberties with the Believix aesthetic because of how I want the fairy looks to be more timeless rather than dated-looking.

Brandon's Believix

For Brandon's design, I gave him a new hairstyle because if the girls get new hairstyles for each new fairy form, so do the boys. I gave him Nex's hair, apart from those dumb looking sideburns. I embroidered some stoned onto his outfit because of how he's the fairy of geodes. Since I also decided to have his race be Middle Eastern, I decided to incorporate some of that into his look as well. I gave him some curled toed shoes and some Middle Eastern inspired accessories. That was hard because of how most Middle Eastern jewelry are women's jewelry. I gave him Tecna's Mythix wings because they just really suit him for some reason. As for how he earned his Believix, well he had to overcome some hidden resentment he had for Sky that was starting to show during a trust exercise. He resented that he had to put his life on the line for Sky ever since they were kids. That really effects a child when they are having their lives in danger in order to protect someone else. Yes, Brandon did agree to do it in order to protect his friend but he also knew that if he didn't do it that he and his parents would be in trouble with the King and Queen. Sky's parents didn't really show much concern for Brandon's safety and that caused more resentment because Sky didn't really say anything to his parents about their poor treatment of his friend. Sky could tell something was up and it was only when Brandon stopped bottling up his feelings that things started to get better. It was emotional and difficult but Brandon felt better when he finally let it all out. It was then that he earned his Believix.

Helia's Enchantix

homeworldHelia's Believix was A LOT of fun to do. I loved getting to have his hair loose because it looks amazing. I didn't make too many changes to the outfit I modeled this after. I love how the gold has a paint-like feel to it. It really adds to his powers being art based. I used Flora's prototype Bloomix wings for his Believix wings because they just seemed to suit him. I also had the magic coming from his hand looking even bigger and more powerful than it was during his Magic Winx form. The way he earns his Believix was different from how others earned their Believix. instead of mainly being an emotional struggle, it was also a physical struggle because he had to overcome his passive nature. He has a lot of power but he holds himself back because of an accident that happened when he was a kid. Because he didn't restrain himself, a friend of his got badly hurt. The friend lived but his parents wouldn't allow him to be friends with Helia anymore. After that, Helia kept to himself, chose not to be aggressive, and wouldn't live up to his true abilities because of that accident. His grandfather, Saladin (The headmaster at Red Fountain), has been trying to break him out of it and live up to his true potential. It was only when his friends, specifically Flora, were in danger that he finally overcame his passive nature and started using his full power. This caused him to earn his Believix.

And finally for Helia and Brandon's Enchantix

We have come to Helia and Brandon's final transformations, Enchantix. Just like the girls, they must earn theirs by saving someone from their homeworld by making a big sacrifice. The boys were hard to do, due to how there wasn't really anything for me to go off of. However, I think I managed to do a pretty good job. I also wanted to have them be in revealing outfits just like the girls. I mean, fair is fair, after all. Let me know what you think.

Helia's Enchantix

For Helia, I wanted to do something that had an Asian influence to it that also showed his art powers being influenced. I gave him something that was very flowing to go with his sensitive and feminine personality while also having a rainbow theme to go with his powers. I didn't use the colors of the rainbow because I didn't want him to just look like a Pride themed look, which ended up looking awkward and busy when I first attempted it. So I limited the colors to the ones in his wings to make it look better. I still wanted to include his two main colors, salmon pink and gold while still making the rainbow colors pop. I went with a very Asian inspired hairstyle, which actually shows both of his eyes. The eye that is usually covered is actually blind, which goes with the childhood backstory I gave him that helped him earn his Believix, which will also play a part in earning his Enchantix, which I will get to in a little bit. I felt it would show him embracing himself while also showing the Asian culture. I took some liberties with the jewelry because of how most jewelry is meant for women, which is why most male looks are boring. I tried to butch up his shoes to make them look less girly and making the gems resemble a paintbrush. For his wings, I used Stella's Mythix wings because they look like a rainbow, which really suits Helia. I made his powers in his hand the biggest and strongest they've looked out of all his fairy forms. As for how he earns his Enchantix, I had him save his old childhood friend, who Helia had accidentally caused to become permanently blind because of his powers, which also caused Helia to become blind in his right eye. He had seen him but was avoiding him because of his guilt, despite his old friend trying to reach out to him during this time. He saves his old friend from an avalanche that was caused by The Trix, specifically Stormy. Helia not only almost died but his wings were crushed, so he wouldn't be able to fly. He said that he lost his friend once because of something he did and wasn't going to lose his friend again when he could do something about it. However, it was due to this sacrifice that he was able to earn his Enchantix and gain a new and MUCH stronger pair of wings. Not only that, but he had his old friend back after all this time. Helia apologized for what he did to his friend when they were kids, but his friend forgave him and said he missed Helia.

Brandon's Enchantix

Brandon's Enchantix was even more difficult than Helia's because of how Brandon's not as feminine as Helia. I took some inspiration from Tynix because of how Brandon's powers are related to geodes. I made his vest and best/waist thing look like diamonds. I even incorporated gems into his sash. I took major liberties with jewelry because Middle Eastern (Which is the race I decided Brandon is) jewelry is very limited in jewelry for men, at least from the google search I did. I love the one sleeve look I gave him with his emerald vest/armor. I even gave him some gems on the bottom of his pants. I gave him very Aladdin looking pants, only without the crotch being so low lol. I gave him the hairstyle of the character Thoren from Winx Club and Stella's Tynix wings. The way he earns his Enchantix was by saving Sky from being eaten by one of Valtor's minions, causing Brandon to be eaten instead. This cause Brandon to earn his Enchantix and his powers were enhanced to where he could destroy the creature from the inside. This earned him not only his Enchantix, but also finally getting respect from Sky's parents, who, AT LAST, apologize for how they treated him. Yeah, this is simple but you get the point.

ENJOY!

Credit for the character bases goes to SelenaEde, Credit for the backgrounds goes to SparxGuardian, credit for Helia's Believix wings goes to darkfairyofmadness, and credit for the Enchantix wings and Brandon's Believix wings goes to AstralBlu. All of whom are on DeviantArt.

17 notes · View notes

katewaliss · 3 years

Text

! write with me or fight with me!

you either die by my sword or the most painful head canons imaginable! *merida vc* choose yer fate

just kidding!

hey there gaymers, i am crissy! i am 22, live in pst, go by she/her pronouns and honestly would very much like a distraction from life -- preferably in the form of 1x1 and rp in general. i am currently doing online school plus trying/failing at adulting, being a crazy pink haired college student living on microwave dimsum with my crazy fluffy demon cat, but that still leaves me with a lot of time and what better way to spend that time then crying and dying, am i right, boys?

so without further ado ( adieu? idk gusundheit ) here are a list of discomboblulated plot things that have been floating around in my head that i might be fun to do ( plot fragments, ideas, ocs, fcs i like, settings, genres etc )! i’d prefer a message if u liked any of these in the inbox or dm form, my tumblr ims are open and my discord user is mr. worldwide#2918 ( pitbull supremacy ) but if ur shy i will message u and be annoying!

lastly: i prefer hcing in the dms to replies, however i will do replies/ask memes slowly, i don’t really like making blogs and prefer google docs/discord and i ask ( gently and respectfully ) that minors do not interact.

thank u and happy hunger games! xx

COLLEGE TOTALLY SPIES -- i was really obsessed with this picture right here and i thought that the picture would be a good premise for a little four person group based on totally spies. i was thinking that these three college students/young adults some friends maybe not some enemies or just on completely different ends of the social agenda get bonded together when they accidentally end up roped in a top secret spy organization that is fronted by a record store. the details and flesh of the plot i think would be cute to figure out all together maybe in a google doc or a big discord so we can make the rp to perfect world building specifications. right now i have two spots open!

my friend lexi over at comradc has taken the cool goth asian girl and is using lyrica okano

i am playing the freckly backwards hat lesbian in the red polo named aj mccallis and i think im using diana silvers ( not sure might switch to tati rodriguez )

we also have the cute blond girl w the dyed hair who is giving me kind of like sydney sweeney energies, blonde girl maybe like lalisa manoban/jinsoul,

and we have the rad black girl with the bandids who i would only accept black fcs for for such as diamond white, ryan destiny, salem mitchell,

i’d prefer if this stayed kind of sapphic and female and enby friendly. we can def make make npcs and characters but i’d prefer if the characters looked like they do in the picture ( minus the white girls who can be racebent as long as there are vibes ) mostly bc i want the poc people to stay the correct poc! but yeah! if u like this message me specifically!!!!! seperately and hit me w a role ud like maybe an fc an idea anything < 3 im working on a google doc and discord sever

- i really want to play a himbo skater boy evan mock like its my dream i know nothing abt him other than he probably goes by something like mouth or juice or tris or dex or dante but !!!! he has buzzed hair he buzzes designs into, does stick n pokes, hates cops, will kiss anyone, likes to mosh at house shows, smokes a lot and sounds like crush from finding nemo, probably ur parents worst nightmare if im honest rodrick heffley energy -- adopt him for any plot

- i also really am obsessed with simay barlas who is my mascot rn -- i want to play her in some sort of dark academia setting with like gossip girl blair waldorf energies lu from elite and have her be really mean and cold and pretentious and play the cello and probably have secrets and be uptight idk the name mallory is resonating hard w me ( we could even do a gossip girl the secret history type group if people liked that )

-ok i also really really want to play streak aka silas montgomery who is like very like sidekick best friend to the golden boy main character, does a kick ass goat impression, class clown, relentlessly hits on like the most difficult person in school, does crazy things for laughs and attention, just wants to make people happy, only wears hawaiian shirts, finger guns, is going nowhere in life, his dad is probably the dean at whatever prestigious school also he is very very depressed and drinks often! love u! a I Feel Like Im The Worst So I Always Act Like Im The Best electra heart baby PINTEREST

also yes his hair is pink reg verse he did it on a dare but hp verse he did a potion wrong and it never came out

SOMEONE DO A LADY HANNIBAL WILL GRAHAM RP KILLING EVE RP W ME! i made this will graham adjacent gal for a genderbent hannigram rp her name is bisexual disaster enida johnson and sometimes goes by needy or will bc her middle name is willamena! has basically all the will things wears flannels is a mess but has a bunch of cats instead of dogs in her woods log cabin and im using crystal reed bc it fits perfect in my head idk if u like her hmu hit me w a lady hannibal PINTEREST

other stuff

ok i really want to do a princess and knight plot but with knight zendaya and princess anya taylor joy ???? ALKHALKSHALK LITERALLY HELLO literally modern or like dnd style i do not care but know i love dnd! we could make it like them goin on some skyrim quests like hi

speaking of dnd and skyrim if anyone wants to do like anything based in dnd stuff or skyrim stuff i am DOWN

jennifers body plot!!!! maybe set in college!!!!! sounds spicy i will do a f/f or m/m version leggo leggo

UNTIL DAWN UNTIL DAWN!!!! i wanted to do a little like 6 person or mumu until dawn thing where everyone either makes new characters or characters based on the existing six! i made a girl adjacent josh character named riley PINTEREST who i love very much ( fc might change im thinking maybe medallion rahimi ) pls hmu if ur down

i looooooove breakfast at tiffanys!!!! like i really love breakfast at tiffanys we love a call girl broody author ship and i want to play a mishti rahman holly golightly type character so so bad

pygmalion plot!!! basically like an author and the main character of their book comes to life and the book character is probably from a different period of time or realm so doesnt know how to do modern 2020 stuff like microwaves and the tv! and then maybe they get sucked into the characters book world thats written by the author and have to navigate that! enchanted! w the kdrama! energy!

GOSSIP GIRL PLOT ENERGIES

any sort of the secret history murder society until dawn ahs horror type setting i am on a kick rn

i still really want a deaf sailor and siren plot bc that is so spicy or even like anything involving sirens like maybe one thats like vegetarian and doesnt like to eat humans so it ariel rescues one and keeps it safe!! or like only men are susceptible to the sirens song but aha! i am a woman! Romance!

anything in the realm of percy jackson i love mythology lets go i kind of want a echo narcisuss plot and i want it to hurt me so bad

i will do harry potter stuff but only if its completely removed from the current canon like years in the future no existing families also maybe beauxbatons salem and drumstrang plots bc thats what matters

iiiiiiiii really like anime so i will do anything kakegurui, soul eater, ohshc

i kind of like grew up on the hunger games so i will gladly take any hunger games plots like young effie and haymitch is spicy or like a career tribute and one of the weaker poorer distracts enemies to lovers leggo

i have a kind of oc that had their parents die in a factory gas leak that was the governments fault and it turned them into a vigilante assasin that is slowly picking off bootlicker government people one by one pretending to be one of them until bam! gets attached to the rich asshole son or daughter of the head hauncho or one of the higher ups ... drama

rich little celebrity fussy wussy being held captive by the mafia and the tired stoic mafia guard but they fall in love

i kind of like any plot that involves one person that is really loud or angry or dramatic or whiny and the other one is kind of sweet and gentle or does not talk much idk make brain happy

speaking of!

no nonsense law student studying abroad in a european country and an artist there falls in love w them and is all romantic and gush and is like ur my muse!!! and they are like Go awAy and they explore the city together and themelseves its nice!

i want to be an avan jogia super villain idk why i need to but i do

not to be a disney adult bc i am not but anastasia princesses dont kiss kitchen boys

rival cheer captians? best friends brother? pop princess celebrity singer and like antiestablishment really angry rockstar in a publicity relationship? broody detective and sunshiney diner person that works at the diner they eat at everyday?

idk i will think of more hmu these can all be made f/f or m/m if they arent

#1x1 #1x1 rp #1x1 roleplay #plots #this is so long and messy and weird idk it repeats a lot hit me up im emabrrassed already

27 notes · View notes

kurokrisps · 4 years

Text

Based off of one of your posts. I hope you like it.

Hold up...a concept...Queen Essence's handmaids or fashion designers singing "Upgrade U" by Beyonce when working on a teen Quincy's wardrobe and making him over for dinner with Essence and her parents.

////////////

Essence shifted from foot to foot as she waited by her apartment for Quincy. They have been dating for almost two years. She never realized how serious the two had become until he sang lead for his first song and he asked if he sang well enough now to be her king. Essence had told him he’d have to meet her parents, but he was on the right track. After that, she realized it was time for him to meet her parents and made a reservation for their favorite homey restaurant in their hidden section.

The only thing to take care of was Quincy’s… eccentric outfit choices. Sure he could pull off the loose side tie, and long footless socks, the messy hair was adorable, but that wasn’t going to cut it to meet her parents.

Five minutes before she told him to meet her at her apartment and she saw the walking fashion disaster. He had tightened his tie, slicked his hair back, and changed his socks to bands. Essence knew she made the right choice in having him meet her early.

“I’m not late, am I?” Quincy painted.

“Nope, early as always,” Essence kissed his cheek, “I hope you had a snack first because dinner is in a few hours. We need to take care of something first.”

Quincy smiled and started blushing when Essence led him into her apartment by his tie. The smile fell and eyebrows crinkled together when he saw a group of four girls in her spacious apartment. “I didn’t know you had roommates.”

“They're my handmaidens, they help me get ready for big events and make my clothes. Today, they're helping you,” Essence pushed Quincy into them and they circled around him, picking at his clothes and hair, “ladies, this is my fashion disaster boyfriend, Quincy.”

“I thought you liked my style,” Quincy pouted as one of the girls started measuring him and another took off his tie.

“It’s adorable, but this is the king and queen of funk, your adorable won't cut it,” Essence grabbed the tie that was tossed to her, “besides, why would you think a straight cut tie and slicked back hair would look good?”

“We’ll take good care of him,” the lead waved Essence off to her own bedroom as the girls ushered him into the bathroom to get out whatever gunk he put in his hair. “You should be flattered. Essence seems to really like you. I mean, no boy has lasted a month with her before. She has talked to us about you and it seems the only upgrading that needs to be done is singing and fashion.”

“Which is a far cry from the king if I remember right, Queen Starr had to teach that man some manners,” a second handmaiden chuckled as she turned on the music.

“Let us upgrade you,” The leader smiled and started taking out the braids on half of Quincy’s head, straightening it so the multi colored hair stuck out.

“How you going ta upgrade me,” Quincy took a step back, only to get his head pushed up so one of them could trim his fur.

“Daw, he has an accent when he’s nervous,” they cooed before they started singing and working on his makeover.

“Come harder, This won't be easy, Don't doubt yourself, Trust me, you need me,” the leader tossed the arm bands aside, “This ain't a shoulder with a chip, Or a ego, But what you think they called me for?”

“You need a real woman in your life,” the leader held up some hair clips.

“That's a good look,” the girls chorused back.

“Taking care of home and still fly,” they tackled his eyebrows while another fixed up his growing beard.

“That's a good look.”

“Believe me.” the leader pat his face and they took a step back. They dragged him back into the main room.

“Partner let me upgrade you, Audemars Piguet you, Switching necktie to purple labels,” Essence had left the discarded tie on a chair. The leader waved it in his face before tossing it. They slipped some rings on his fingers and out came the tinsel. It was only a few shimmery neck pieces, nothing terribly fancy, but Quincy took a step back. Only the high class, lead singers, first rate funk trolls wore tinsel and Quincy was hit hard with the realization that he had somehow charmed the princess of funk. He was so out of his league as a third rate backup dancer.

"Upgrade u, I can up, can I up, Let me upgrade u, Partner let me upgrade u," the leader smiled at him, her hand on his shoulder. She nodded before clasping the tinsel bit around his neck. Only a few more tweaks were done as the song continued on.

When the song ended, the handmaidens appreciated their handy work. "Not a bad look for a walking fashion disaster, lets see what Essence has to say about it. "

The leader sauntered to Essence bedroom and knocked. Essence came out, straightening her own silver tinsel and stopped when she saw Quincy.

He still had his beard, Essence was ecstatic they let him keep it, but it had been shaped. His hair was now half dreads and half straight, Essence was already fantasizing running her fingers in it. It took a minute for her to even see the tinsel they put on him, she was too busy mapping his face, "gold nice." Essence went over and kissed Quincy on the lips, "sorry I sicked the wolves on you, but you look great."

"You better be planning on marrying me," Quincy chuckled and nuzzled her, "I'd hate to think this work going to another girl."

"Try not to make a fool of yourself at dinner and you can almost guarantee there will be a wedding in our future," Essence kissed his cheek before walking to the door.

"To each other, right?" Quincy raced to open the door first.

The handmaidens laughed and cooed at him.

"With the effort I've put in you? I won't let another reap my rewards."

-----

Dude this is absolutely AWESOME! KICKIN! JUST SO DANG GOOD!

Thanks for submitting this to me, this is almost exactly how I pictured the scenario in my head! Seriously man, great job!!

#submitted by wxey #submission #trolls #twt #king quincy #queen essence

33 notes · View notes

ladyreapermc · 4 years

Text

Fic: Parent Trap 3/? (Keanu x Reader)

Summary: Annie and Hallie are twin sisters who never met until they end up in the same summer camp together. They decide to switch places to see how the other lives. Hallie heads to Los Angeles to meet Keanu, owner of Arch Motorcycle Company, while Annie goes to New York to meet you, rising fashion designer. Their plan is simple: get their parents together to make the perfect family. If only it could be that easy…

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Author’s notes: This chapter is a little shorter, but I hope you all enjoy it. And as usual, feedback is always appreciated.

Wordcount: 1885

Warnings: none (just a ton of domestic fluff)

Hallie’s cheeks were hurting from smiling as she flopped on the bed of Annie’s room. Well her room now since she was pretending to be her sister. She propped herself on her elbows to survey the space, the string lights and delicate pattern of wallpaper such a contrast to her plain walls covered in band and movie posters.

She had been feeling weird the entire day, doubting this crazy plan of Annie and being absolutely certain she would be caught at the first second, as soon as Keanu laid his eyes on her in the airport. However, instead of Keanu, there was Karina and Hallie had been slightly disappointed that he wasn’t there to greet her. Maybe it was for the best, easier to pretend with her aunt than with her dad.

Annie’s aunt. Annie’s dad.

Her brain corrected and Hallie sighed, staring at the ceiling. It was such a weird feeling because in a way, Hallie felt like she knew them from what Annie had told her. Karina had been exactly what she was expecting, fun and cool and so interested in every detail about camp.

Keanu, on the other hand, took Hallie by surprise because Annie hadn’t done him justice. There was this warmth on his hugs that made Hallie want to stay in his arms all the time and such love in his eyes whenever he looked Hallie’s way. It was overwhelming and Hallie found herself jealous of Annie.

Not that Dave wasn’t affectionate and loving. She was and Hallie loved her aunt with all her heart, but it was different. She and Dave expressed their care in different ways, like nicknames and inside jokes. They were great, sure, but the tactile affection Keanu seemed to have with Annie was something that Hallie missed without even realizing it and definitely get used to it if Annie’s plan really worked.

Hallie jumped startled as the sound of her phone. Well, Annie’s phone, because she would never have Taylor Swift as her ringtone willingly.

“Yeah,” she answered, not even bothering to look at the caller ID.

“I really hope you haven’t been talking with that New York accent the whole day!” Annie complained in the line, making Hallie roll her eyes.

“I literally just said yeah,” she replied sitting up. Annie could be so dramatic sometimes. “No one has an accent saying yeah.”

“Whatever!” she could almost picture her sister’s eye roll and smiled to herself. “How is it going over there?”

“Good,” Hallie said, playing with a loose thread on the duvet. “Dad… I mean, Keanu,” she corrected quickly, embarrassed to be calling him like that to Annie. “Took me out for pancakes. Huge ass pancakes!”

“Griddle?” Annie asked, excited coloring her voice and Hallie hummed in agreement. “They’re the best!”

“They really are!” Hallie grinned. “And how are things on your end?”

“Salem hates me,” Annie sighed, and Hallie could hear the pout on her sister’s voice. “He runs and hides whenever I come around. Dave is finding it really weird.”

“Just slip him some pieces of ham. He’ll love you,” Hallie said, her chest suddenly feeling tight. She missed her cat. “How’s Dave?”

“She’s amazing,” Annie sighed again, but this time it was a happy little sigh that had Hallie grinning. “Just like you said. But you didn’t tell me they were twins too. She and our mother.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

It was all Hallie could say really, because she had kept that detail from Annie. Not on purpose, but because it always slipped her mind that Mary and Dave were twins. As a matter of fact, Hallie avoided thinking about Mary altogether. She wasn’t her mother; she was the woman that left her. And yes, Hallie understood that she was sick and probably couldn’t be held responsible for her actions and all, that but it didn’t change the fact that Mary abandoned her as much as she abandoned Annie and Dave was the only parent Hallie ever had. Until now anyway.

They chated a little more, but Hallie hurried to hang up the phone when Keanu poked his head inside the room after a quick knock, giving Hallie a funny look and she bet she had a guilty expression on her face.

“Who was that?” he asked, leaning against the doorframe, eyes narrowed.

“Just a friend from camp,” she replied, trying to sound as innocent as possible. For a second, Keanu just watched her, and alarm bells shrieked in Hallie’s head. That was it. she was caught. He knew.

“Do you remember the conversation we had about dating, right?” Keanu said, coming to sit on the bed with Hallie and she tried to stifle her relieved giggle. “I still think you’re too young, but if you met someone that you like, boy or girl, I hope you know you can talk to me about it.”

“Err, thanks?” Hallie managed, giving him a look. He was right, she was way too young to date. “But it’s really just a friend. She’s more like a sister, really.”

“Ok, good,” Keanu grinned, throwing an arm around Hallie. “Because that was just a bunch of bullshit. I would freak out if you told me you had a boyfriend or girlfriend.”

“Don’t worry, you’re safe,” she said, laughing and she hugged her dad back. “But points for being going for both genders.”

“I’m a cool dad,” Keanu declared with a big grin.

“If you have to tell people you’re cool then you’re not cool,” Hallie joked, squealing when he tickled her sides.

“I show you who’s not cool!” he said, making Hallie bend over laughing and battling his hands, struggling to breathe.

“You’re cool! You’re cool!” Hallie shrieked breathlessly and Keanu stopped, chuckling and looking over at his daughter with a victorious grin.

“And don’t you forget it!” he teased, getting to his feet.

“Can we have pizza for dinner?” Hallie asked, still grinning.

“We just had pancakes. Lots of pancakes.” Keanu pointed out with a frown and Hallie just shrugged. That was three hours ago.

“Yeah, sure.” He nodded, heading to the door.

“Hey, dad?” Hallie called in an impulse, making Keanu paused and look over at her. “I love you.”

Hallie wasn’t sure why she needed to say it. She didn’t even care if it might be out of character for Annie to say it out of the blue – and by the frown on Keanu’s face, it must have been. She just wanted to make sure he knew. Because she did love him, despite only knowing him for a day.

“Love you too, princess,” Keanu replied with a wide smile, before walking out.

She sat there, watching the doorway for a few moments, before grabbing her phone and texting Annie.

This plan of yours better work. Keanu and Dave need to be together.

----

Annie set her phone down when Hallie hung up all the sudden, the last thing she heard or thought she heard, was her dad’s deep baritone on the background and it was enough to rekindle the ache that had been living on her chest all month but that had been dulled a little when arriving in New York.

She missed her dad like crazy and even though she had been loving to spending time with Dave, that wouldn’t just go away. If her plan worked, however, Annie wouldn’t have to worry about missing any of them, because they would all be together like the family she had always wished for.

It was the whole reason why Annie suggested this plan in the first place, even if she didn’t admit completely to Hallie. She grew up watching her friends’ parents together, painting that perfect picture that she craved for. Annie loved her dad and knew he did his best, but she longed for a mom to teach her how to do her nails or talk to boys and stuff like that. And maybe she was being a little too gender normative, but right now, she couldn’t care less.

With a sigh, Annie stared at herself in the dirty mirror in Hallie’s bedroom. She was getting ahead of herself here. First, she needed to make sure Dave and Keanu would be a good match, then she could start planning the wedding.

She pulled her hair in a quick, messy braid, before walking out of the bedroom, catching sight of Salem dashing away from the kitchen as Annie walked in and made a mental note about trying the ham thing Hallie suggested.

“I ordered pizza,” Dave declared with a big smile. “Cute braid. Did you learn in camp?”

Annie froze for a second, quickly running through all her interactions with Hallie in the month the two girls had spent together and realizing she had never seen Hallie with anything other than a ponytail.

“Yeah,” she hurried to say, forcing a smile. “A friend from camp taught me.”

“Cool,” Dave dismissed with a shrug and Annie was relieved. She needed to be more careful. “Grab some sodas and we can eat watching a movie.”

Annie nodded, turning to the fridge to grab the drinks while Dave settled on the couch, pizza box opened on the coffee table in front of them.

Once again Annie froze, this time at the sight of the pizza in front of her. She had completely forgotten that Hallie, unlike her, ate meat.

“What’s wrong?” her aunt asked with a frown of confusion and Annie shook herself. Good thing she was great at thinking on her feet.

“I forgot to tell, I went off meat while on camp,” Annie said, taking her seat and handing over the can of Dr. Pepper. “I mean, most human beings are perfectly capable of going into a plant-based diet and carnism is actually completely ideological and unjust. Why is it ok to kill a cow and eat it while also keeping a cat and dogs as pets? Besides, meat production and consumption are slowly killing our planet. Do you have any idea how much water goes into producing a pound of meat?”

“Whoa! Ok!” Dave interrupted the girl’s rant, raising her hands in surrender. “Who are you and what did you do to my niece?”

Annie knew it was a joke. She really did, but the panic set in anyway and she let out a high pitched, awkward laughter.

“I’m Hallie! Of course, I’m Hallie,” she babbled. “I was born on September 31st, I’m a Libra, I love cats and rock music and…

“Hal, I’m only kidding.” Dave once again interrupted her, this time with a half-amused, half confused smile. “I think it’s very admirable you want to go vegan, but you’re still growing, and I’m not let you cut off animal protein on a whim without talking to your GP first ok?”

“That’s reasonable,” Annie replied, the panic finally dissipating. “Sorry. I just…”

“It’s fine, kiddo,” Dave said with a wink, before glancing to the pizza. “You’re gonna have to pick out the pepperoni from your slices, because I’m starving and not calling the Primo’s to have it changed.”

“I can do that,” Annie smiled, still slightly nervous as she finally took a seat.

“And of course, you’re Hallie,” Dave said after a moment, mouth full of pizza with a quick smile Annie’s way. “I mean, who else would you be?”

xxx (tbc) xxx

Tag list (give it a shout to be added or removed)

@toomanystoriessolittletime @meetmeinthematinee @theolsdalova @krazycags01 @beyond-antares @cumberbatchbaps @sgt-morgan @futuristic-imbecile @howtoruin-someones-perfect-day @a-really-bi-girl @fanficsrusz @nonsensicalobsessions @poisonedjoinery @soarocks @tnu-ree @babyspiderling

#keanu reeves #keanu reeves fanfic #keanu reeves imagine #keanu reeves x reader #keanu reeves x you #fanfic #series #alternate universe #parent trap

45 notes · View notes

emsartwork · 4 years

Note

Can I ask why you chose those specific fairy tales/mythological/folk figures for the Mythix redesign? Very much enjoy how unique the designs are and how they draw from multiple different cultures thnx

Yeah so Mythix was a process and had a lot of concept brain work before i ever put anything down on paper. I think I had a few ladies in mind from the very beginning (Scheherazade is one of my favorite folk lore ladies just in general lol) but i wanted to pull from as many different cultures as possible, and have fit the winx girls’ ethnicity when possible.

So for a character like Musa, who is Asian even if she is technically from an alien planet, I wanted to draw from mostly north east asia(even tho south and south east asia have super cool stories too), and I know a good amount of japanese folklore because of...... anime reasons and at first I was trying to find a japanese figure related to music, voice, or mouth, but I kind of hit a wall with that one because the only one i could think of/find was the tongue-cut sparrow story or the Split mouth woman which, while interesting, aren’t all that fitting for a powerful magic lady. You of course have momotaro, princess kaguya, or, a personal favorite, the boy who drew cats but none of those felt right either so I expanded my range to China and IMMEDIATELY landed on Mulan, I like to think at least some of her story was true, but even if she is just a legend WHAT A FUCKING LEGEND AMIRIGHT. she was perfect for a powerful magic lady, strong, honorable, selfless, protective, and smart. Even if her “power” wasn’t realted at all to music she was a perfect fit.

With Flora I wanted to draw from Mexican or native american(aztec or mayan) folklore, I actually did consider making her Scheherazade for a hot minute cus I draw a lot of inspo for Flora and Lynphea from Persia/the middle east in general, but ultimately decided against it. La Muerte is another favorite figure of mine, partially because she has such an interesting origin from an anthropological point of view. with the blending of catholic saints and native cultures in Mexico and possibly some influence from what would eventually become voodoo. Also, Dia de Muertos has that whole marigold flower petal association which perfectly links to Flora.

Aisha was a little more difficult because she’s black, and black people are, ethnically, from Africa, and Africa has SO MANY DIFFERENT CULTURES AND STORIES AND EVEN JUST GEOGRAPHY. and i know from past experiences its stupidly hard to find good reliable references for any of the native cultures in Africa, or america for that matter, because racism and colonialism. So I tried going by Aisha’s name, which is of Arabic and Swahili in origin, but arabic and swahili are both spoken in many countries across south Africa North Africa and the Middle East, so I used her parent’s names Niobe and Teredor which are both Greek sounding so that pulled it towards North Africa/Saudi Arabia(where there was a lot of Greek influence). SO i thought to myself, what about egypt??? Didn’t the Cinderella story originate in Egypt with an eagle and a sandal and a prince or something?????? UNFORTUNATELY THAT’S A LIE(as far as my research showed). So I was mega stumped with Aisha, and I tried applying Scheherazade to her as a last ditch effort because Saudi Arabia, and.,,,....,, it fit???? like weirdly well???? like Aisha and Scheherazade are both BAMFs with unrelenting determination, an urge to protect the innocent, and punish the unjust they just do it very differently, but I liked the contrast between Aisha’s more active aggressive style and her switching to a more subtle story teller’s methods. So somehow I got it to work out ethnically, geographically, personality, and using my lady Scheherazade AND the design + the colors came out fantastic imo.

Stella was easier, I knew I wanted to pull from Greece, and possibly link to Apollo if possible so I looked up the temple of Delphi to see if there were any notable priestesses. Pythia came up right away, and had a gorgeous classical painting to use as reference so that was a snap tbh

Bloom was pretty easy, I’ve based Domino off of Scotland and a lil’bit of China but appearance wise she’s VERY white. But I was already pulling HEAVILY from Scotland and Ireland for Morgana and Tir Nan Og, so I broadened to Europe in general(which means I had a lot to work with because fairytales are so Eurocentric *eye roll emoji*) I decided to go with cinderella because CINDERS come from FIRE(aren’t I clever) and glass making requires a lot of heat. I mentioned earlier that there are theories as to where the “cinderella” story truly originated, The most popular being China, Egypt, or Germany(as far as I researched the Egyptian and Chinese “versions” of Cinderella barely resemble the story?). Aschenputtle is the iconic one from Grimm Brother’s collections in 1812 but I chose to use the edition that popularized the story in 1698 by Charles Perrault since thats the “classic cinderella” modern audiences still recognize(even tho i am very partial to the more violent german version lmao). Her outfit design was a bit of challenge but I really like what I came up with.

Tecna was..... troublesome. Pink hair doesn’t exist irl unless it’s dyed, so I had only a partial appearance to base ethnicity on. I pull a lot from Russia for Zenith tho, so I figured I would start with Baba Yaga(who is already a villain in world of winx so I wasn’t gonna use her anyways) and see where that lead me. I came across Vasilisa the Fair/Beautiful/Wise, she featured in a lot of Russian folklore and had a lot of different aspects/personalities/stories so I kinda tried to pull from all of them (which gave me difficulties later on in the design process) She was one of the only Fairytale figures I could find that had a direct connection to intelligence (not that other fairytale ladies aren’t smart ofc). Because of Vasilisa’s many different roles and some physical transformations (russian frog princess) I made her the Fairy of Transformations. Tecna is probably the one I’m least satisfied but I’m not changing it lmao

#winxems #abt me #fairytales #mythix #askems #anonymous #i will literally go on for AGES about folklore and fairytales they're like my fave things

51 notes · View notes

techouspeaks · 5 years

Text

Rip Off Reviews: Angel’s Friends

A new title, same old ripping to shreds of things that have ripped off another. I go back and take a look at a show that tries to soar high like the Winx but is actually crashes down to brim stone!

Also, what is actually considered a real rip off? I may have the answer!

Decided to change the title for these from “Reel Rip Offs” to “Rip Off Reviews” since, if you known the Animated Heroine, she has a section called “Reel Rip Offs” and granted, at the time, I didn’t know what to call these reviews. So, yeah..You can say I ripped off another reviewer but without meaning to.

Honestly, since I rarely review movies, I really should have called it this title anyway. Granted it’s not that original of a title but I at least gave effort and admit to it. It’s hard to be 100 % original and even the term “rip off” has lost it’s meaning these days. So why I do I still slam and call shows rip offs when I know nothing can be 100 % original?

Well, here’s the thing, you can usually tell when something is trying to do it’s best to be it’s own thing and not a rip off. People say that Winx ripped off of Witch because they both contain 5 friends (later 6) that are fairies. However, Winx does try to include it’s own story and characters and the World of Winx is much different. In Winx, almost anyone can be a fairy if they’re born with magic or just somehow gain it. In Witch, only those chosen by the Heart of Kandrakar can become fairies. The Witch control the basic elements (water, fire, earth and air as well as energy.) and the Winx have their own powers including technology, something that you wouldn’t think a fairy of all creatures would have the power over of. Shoot, Aisha/Layla has her own unique power called “morphix”, which is this pink kinda slime like substance she can control. It can become anything from a shield to a weapon to even something she can ride on.

Same with Pokemon and Digimon. People say Digimon ripped off Pokemon but the only thing they have in common is that the monsters evolve, can fight other monsters and their name as well as kids to even adults occasionally having one. The rest of the story is completely different and told in a different way. Digimon focuses on the kid’s adventures of growing up and dealing with real situations that kids do face like being adopted, having a family member pass away, getting bullied, ect. While Pokemon is more focused on the Pokemon and taking care of nature while battling out to get stronger in a competition. Sure they focus on the human characters from time to time, but it’s more so their interaction and having to do with the Pokemon. Rarely do they focus on a human character that has a career/dream that doesn’t have to do with Pokemon, but granted that’s the purpose of the show. Pokemon surprisingly is about taking care of the pet, which is ironic because Digimon was originally based on Tamagachis than it was based on Pokemon. In fact, the creators for Tamagachis were the ones that pitched Digimon to be a boy’s version of Tamagachis, making a show to market the product like most toy lines did back then and still do.

So as long as they do something to make it their own, than yeah, it’s okay for them to have similarities with each other. Angel’s Friends hardly does this and even more shallow is when we get talking about the original 2007 comic books.

“ Four Angels (Raf, Uri, Sweet and Miki) and four Devils (Sulfus, Cabiria, Kabale and Gas) are sent to Earth, in an unused area of the Golden School, where they learn everything they need to become Guardian Angels and Guardian Devils. The Angels and Devils are required to form pairs as part of their education, each of which will have to deal with a human being, known as Earthly Ones, and help them choose between the right and wrong way in life without being discovered. Angels and Devils cannot operate at the same time, so they decide, clashing in the Challenge Room, who will work first. Moreover, they are subject to the V.E.T.O. (Vetoed from Exposing, Touching or Obstructing/Overhearing in the comic – Italian: Vietato Esporsi, Toccare, Ostacolare/Origliare).” ~ Wikipedia

To make it more clear, the V.E.T.O basically means they cannot touch or expose each other or fall in love with each other. Now that does sound like an original premise and it is, but sadly, this show fails to take it anywhere deep or less predictable.

In the series, Raf finds out that she was born on earth and has to find out what happen to her parents. Gee, where did I've seen that from before? I know it’s been done before even Winx but hang on, I’ll get to the other parts in a bit.

Granted, yes they try to switch things around by having Raf already have powers and be an angel, rather than her being human and finding out she’s an angel, but switching it around doesn’t make it that interesting or at least, they don’t write it very differently. Raf finds out her true origins, is in denial at first, tries to leave her friends and her destiny to mope. She even thinks about joining the bad guys because the main villain pursues her that she will tell Raf anything she wishes to know about her parents and true origin. It’s the same as the Winx. Nothing is different and you can predict the plot easily!

Again, Witch and Winx are written differently from each other that the only thing they share in common is that the girls are fairies. That’s it! Even the tone and how the characters and story are written is different so you know that Winx isn’t a rip off. Angels Friends the tone is the same as Winx but unlike Winx, the other characters don’t get much development. Yes, Bloom in Winx is the main star and gets a lot of attention but we do cut back to some of the other characters and their development. At least more so in the first few seasons, but even later seasons the characters get some focus occasionally. Here hardly any development is made to the other characters and by season two, it seems like none of the characters have learned anything. They’re just back to square one!

There’s also forbidden love which is also in Winx, kinda. Bloom is at first, not allowed to be with Sky because Sky is a prince and Bloom’s kingdom was destroyed, thus no longer making her a princess by law standards, until the Secret of the Lost Kingdom plot. In Angel’s Friends, the forbidden love was staged by the villains and it turned out their love may not be even real at first. There’s later plots where they do show they’re in love but it’s again pretty cliched

Not to mention the designs are the same as Winx just with a weird head and this is where we enter the comic book series. Angel’s Friends started off as a comic book series in 2007. The characters look way different in the comics than they do in the cartoon.

First, in the original comics they were actually kids! They weren’t teens in the comics! The story is a bit the same but still different. Yeah, I will admit Raf is kinda odd looking in the original comics but, give credit, her attitude and how she is personality wise matches her appearance. She isn’t perfect nor perfect looking and at least here she has her own appearance. She doesn’t look like all the other characters. She looks like her own character. All of them do!

When they made the cartoon, you can clearly see they decided to go the Winx route and give up all the originality that the comic book was trying to go for and make it a Winx rip off. Shoot, the bodies are the same shape as the Winx. The only thing they did was change the head and face to be...Honestly, I don’t even know what that is! That face is just off to me! As odd as Raf was originally, I can see why they went with the design in the old comics. Her eyes are big and expressive and give off more personality. She’s cute in her own way.

In the cartoon, she’s kinda got them “Barney eyes” as Nostalgia Critic once said about Barney, where they’re big in the wrong way and small in the wrong way. At least with the Winx their eyes are big and show more expression. Here their eyes look like they’re stoned half the time and their faces seem really off! I honestly say that Raf is uglier in the cartoon than in the comic! At least the original design was meant to be cute and again you can tell what her personality is by her expressions and body language even seen in the comics!

In the cartoon, even Raf as well as the other’s clothing is shallow and uninspired. I get they want to give them some cool designs but again it just feels like they ripped off Winx, especially with how their wings are with this modern-esc outfit. They look like Magic Winx outfits if they decided for everyone to have the same wings.

Shoot, people say that Bloom is a rip off of Usagi from Sailor Moon but at least Bloom has her own colors and powers too! Raf has the same exact colors as Sailor Moon and is meant to be a klutz and your typical goodie goodie girl since she’s an Angel, but her “Barbie Doll” look makes her even more manipulative! It’s like if you were to fuse Sailor Moon, Bloom and Barbie to make an abomination from hell, that’s Raf in a nutshell! (Shoot, sometimes, Raf looks like Stella from Winx in some shots, just with again an ugly face and stoned out eyes.)

Not to mention but Sulfus, I still dunno what the actual hell they were thinking with his hair style! He looked fine with his long hair and his jacket outfit in the comics. To me personality wise, Sulfus is basically Riven if he went grudge or tried to go goth but didn’t know what the heck goth actually was!

Let’s not forget they made the main boy angels in the comic books background characters, because well...girls hang out with girls only and guys are just for dating only unless of course, they’re bad like the devils and the boy angel that has a crush on Raf, is of course, changed from video game loving, smart boy to just eye candy with no personality and hardly any facial expression!

Plus, scream as you will against Winx sexualizing teenagers and making them so skinny. Angel’s Friends did worse! They took a character originally kinda thick (well hard to tell because she’s a kid and always wears a sweater like all the time) and made her basically Musa from Winx, well if Musa had no interesting back story or personality outside slightly attitude that occasionally has some wisdom but not much else. Even kind of changing her race from an Inuit girl to an Asian girl of some sort.

At least with the Winx, they were always intentionally to be design with a thin body. I know I did a thing on why they use the same body shape because it’s just easier to do that, but come on! They could have made this series about cute angels and devils in training, than going for a plot we’ve seen a million times, that Winx and Sailor Moon already did better! At least then it wouldn’t be so much a rip off and rather it’s own thing! The comics actually did have something going on but they decided “Eh, scrap it! We’ll make them superficial and unrelatable!”

At least with the Winx characters, they actually go through stuff. They have personal problems that kids can relate to. Bloom’s adopted and has to deal with that crisis of wanting to know her real parents. In fact, the creator of Winx, Iginio Straffi, said that Bloom was based on a girl he met that was adopted and said the same thing, that she wanted to know her birth parents. Musa lost her mother at a young age, Aisha’s parents have high expectations of her and had strict rules to follow. Stella’s parents are divorced and she tried to cover it up that it doesn’t bother her, but you can clearly tell it does but she’s trying to be strong, which a lot kids do that! Flora is soft spoken and has a hard time standing up for herself. Tecna is an awkward nerd and has a hard time relating to people.

None of the characters in Angels Friends ever shown to go through that. In fact, the ones that ever really do get development are they main two love interests. The other characters don’t go through any kinda of dilemma that would involve them personally, outside of tempting and guiding their human I would say friends, but more so human projects or whatever.

The humans they guide aren’t very interesting either. They’re just kind of the blank slates for the kid to fit themselves into to teach and learn the lesson. The situations are hammered down a bit too much but for real little kids, this might be fine.

Now, yes, the story has it’s own idea, least the concept of the angels and devils guiding people is interesting, though I wouldn’t say it’s that original. It’s been done before. In fact, many of the first magical girls did similar things. The idea though is made more shallow because the characters are one note with little to no development.

Winx fans complain that Bloom takes the spotlight from the other characters and they get least development. Not true, at least they do focus on the other Winx from time to time and they do have development. In this series, only Raf and Sulfus get a deep story (if you can call it deep...) and none of the other characters ever do! I looked back and there’s none! By season 2, the characters are exactly the same as they were in the first season!

Now is there anything to like about this show? Well, the first season teachers are kind of interesting, the world about angels and devils guiding and tempting is pretty interesting. While the lessons are pretty hammered down, they aren’t bad lessons. I would even recommend the show if you had a kid and wanted them to watch something that was slightly educational in terms of life lessons without it being too close to home. So, it’s not really that bad in terms of teaching kids morals, but I would recommend say Miraculous Lady Bug or My Little Pony even before I even recommend Angel’s Friends.

If you like this show, more power to you. I will admit I do like at least the two devil girls, Cabiria and Kabale, just simply because the voice actors do give them some nice dialog and a little personality despite, yeah it’s the typical bad girl troupe. Shoot, Cabieria is voiced by Lisa Ortiz aka Lina Inverse of Slayers and you may recognize her Pokemon! In fact, the voice acting in this show is pretty good. It’s just shame the rest is left to be desired.

I’m going to give Angel’s Friends 2 1/2 stars out of 10. The acting is good and the concepts are interesting, morals are hammered in your face but aren’t bad morals so it’s not terrible for your kids to watch it. Rips off so much from Winx Club and has a lot of cliches that they don’t do anything different with. Not horrible for kids but I would recommend something else before flying into this one!

2 1/2 Stars

Level: Not Good!

#angels friends #winx club #Winx #world of winx #tales of ladybug and cat noir #reel rip offs

47 notes · View notes

bicon-korra · 6 years

Text

home is where you are

[Allurance, word count: 3,470, post-S7, canon-compliant]

Summary: Allura feels out of place at the Garrison (and Earth in general) and Lance provides some hecking support, Pidge and Keith make an appearance, Allura gets flirty and we get a first kiss

[Read it on AO3]

Allura woke up with a start to the sound of silence, her senses buzzing. It was early morning, telling by the white light streaming through her window. She began to hear birds chirping, signaling the start of a new day. So strange, this planet…Their sporadic lilts were a sharp contrast to Keith’s morning drill calls. She felt poised to jump into action but remembered that they were on Earth now, in a state of temporary peace.

She rubbed her eyes and took in her surroundings—the Garrison quarters didn’t feel like her room back in the Castle of Lions, or even her cramped space in the Blue Lion. The walls were painted cream. Old photos of the Garrison campus hung on the wall. Her new Garrison uniform was folded neatly on a wooden chair. Allura sat up and stretched, yawning loudly. She instinctively reached for her tiara at her bedside table and found nothing. That’s right. She lost it when she used its crystal for Shiro’s arm. She was utterly relieved that it stabilized him—something as inconsequential as giving up her crown was nothing in comparison to saving her dear friend. Still, she felt off not having it.

She slipped on her orange uniform jacket, its sleeves stiff and wide. Her pants were not as fitted as her paladin underarmor, with sharp creases running along each leg. Allura frowned as she looked down at her outfit. It was a far cry from her Altean uniform, which was safely tucked away in Blue. She tightened the belt at her waist to make it look more feminine. Not a vast improvement but one she could work with. She put up her hair hastily, using several pins to hold her heavy curls in place. The hologram of her parents on her bedside table caught her eye, and she felt a heaviness seep into her chest. The alarm clock next to it rang quietly and broke her stare. It was time for breakfast.

Allura walked to the end of the hall where Lance stood leaning against the wall waiting for her.

“Morning, Princess!” he chirped. He was always eager to start the day with her.

“Morning,” she smiled. She took in his clean-pressed Garrison look. His hair was still as mussed as ever, but he looked really sharp and handsome in his new suit, the jacket framing his torso perfectly. Allura felt something stir in her chest. Odd.

“So today’s breakfast is…you guessed it! The superfood combo again! Tomorrow they’ll probably shake things up and switch the skim milk to 1% milk,” Lance joked.

“I could really use a milkshake instead,” Allura sighed. The Garrison was not normally as rigid with their meal options, but the lack of supplies demanded a diet designed for nutritional sustenance over pleasure.

“Right there with ya.”

“Will we be sitting at our usual spot?”

“Sure, unless you wanted to sit somewhere else? I think Hunk is away doing systems checks right now but Keith and Pidge will be there.”

“No, it’s not that. I just—I feel like people…stare at me.”

Lance stopped walking and tried reading her expression. “Stare at you how?” he asked, his brows knitting in concern.

“They’re not bad stares, just…” She gestured to her face. “An Altean in a cafeteria is like a choferiak in a yelmore’s den.”

Lance smiled. “You know half of the people are trying to wrap their brains around the fact that an Altean princess is one of humanity’s last hopes for survival. The other half just wants to be you because you’re awesome,” he grinned.

Allura blushed, the warmth on her face a welcome surprise since they landed on Earth. So this is the effect Loverboy Lance has.

“You’re giving me too much credit. You know they’re staring at you too,” Allura said shyly. Lance’s eyes widened and he gave a lopsided smile.

“You, and the rest of the paladins,” she quickly added. Quiznack, why was it so hard for her to be honest with him?

Lance’s face relaxed a little. “I do feel pretty badass right now, after our fight with…whatever that thing was.” He scratched his head nervously.

“We’ll find out more about it, in time,” she reassured him. “We’re here. Let’s eat.”

---

Allura and Lance picked up their trays of food and walked over to where Keith and Pidge were sitting. Pidge was explaining something sciency, gesturing wildly with her hands, while shoveling food into her mouth. Keith seemed lost in thought, swirling his spoon in his bowl of oatmeal, but kept nodding to show he was paying attention.

“Hi guys!” Lance plopped down next to Keith and Allura next to Pidge.

“Hey,” Pidge and Keith greeted them.

“What are you guys talking about?” Lance asked.

“I was trying to explain Atlas’s construction to Keith, starting from my dad’s early designs. When he was imprisoned, the Galra found out he was an engineer and used his knowledge to design their weapons, which also drew power from quintessence.” Pidge chattered then paused. “He took a lot of what he learned—was forced to learn—and brought it here to Earth.”

Allura recognized the pain in Pidge’s eyes. “Your father is a strong man. His work has been instrumental to ensuring Earth and the entire universe’s survival. I’ve learned a lot from him since coming here, and I’m constantly in awe of his knowledge and perseverance. He must be so proud of the work you’ve done as a paladin. You’re a lot like him,” Allura said with a soft smile. She meant every word.

“Thanks, Allura. That means a lot.” Pidge said shyly, shifting in her seat. “And the feeling’s mutual,” she smiled. “My dad’s also impressed by you. He said you two are investigating the mecha that attacked us. Just thinking about that thing gives me nightmares.”

“I don’t know how you do it, Allura, jumping right back into work after our fight,” Lance chimed in.

“Do you know what’s powering that thing?” Keith asked. He looked worried, as if the thought had been nagging him all day. Their theories led to Haggar the witch whose Komar utilized quintessence in a similar way.

“We’re not sure yet,” Allura said, frustrated with their slow progress. “Just that it’s related to Haggar.”

One of the cadets walking past slowed down a little, his eyes darting to their table and back, and then quickened his pace. Allura stiffened and looked down at her untouched muffin. She curtly patted her mouth with her napkin and pushed the tray in front of her.

Lance’s eyebrows furrowed and he looked back at the cadet to give him the stink eye. “Allura, is that what you were talking about?”

Allura nodded. “Yes. I’ve been noticing it more and more each day. Even though I work with Sam and his team every day, a part of me still feels out of place,” she said sadly, propping her head on her hand. A strand of hair fell to obscure her face. She wanted to hide, shut herself in her room, something she hadn’t felt in a while when they were in space.

“Hey…” Lance said gently, reaching forward to push the strand behind her ear. The brush of his fingers made Allura shiver as she looked up at him. Pidge and Keith exchanged a quick look and Keith suddenly seemed intensely focused on his oatmeal.

“I’m sorry that they’re making you feel uncomfortable,” Lance said. “I don’t know what’s going through their heads, but I’m sure its nothing bad. You, Coran, Romelle…you’re the reason why we’re here. Alive. People here respect you, but they might not have a good way of showing it since they still don’t understand things that aren’t…human.”

“Yeah, I was talking with my dad and your tech is all anyone in the base can talk about,” Pidge added. “It’s some of the most advanced science that Earth has ever seen.”

Keith looked up from his plate and locked eyes with Allura. “Allura, I understand what it means to feel like an outsider here. Even growing up here, it felt so different from home,” he said.

Allura nodded, remembering her past conversations with Keith about growing up near the base with his father. Keith continued. “My mom, Kolivan…they’ve been getting weird stares too. Like Lance said, I don’t think they’re afraid, maybe just intimidated.”

Allura considered all of this. She commanded the room when they had their military briefings with little push back. That, and her meetings with Sam to investigate what was powering Haggar’s ship. People did respect her…so why did they stare so much? What else was going through their minds?

“Thank you all,” Allura said. A part of her still felt insecure, but their words did help soothe her anxiety. When they finished eating, Pidge and Keith excused themselves to go to their next assignments. Pidge gave her a quick hug and Keith squeezed her shoulder gently before leaving. Allura loved the feeling that only physical comfort could provide.

Like clockwork, Lance rose and scooted next to Allura, his thigh touching hers.

“Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Lance. I feel more at ease,” Allura said, hyperaware that their arms were touching too.

“Of course. I’m glad you do,” he soothed. He broke off a piece of her muffin and tossed it in his mouth, smiling at Allura.

“Lance, you’re like a vacuum,” Allura teased. She became well acquainted with the human appliance after Kosmo became her roommate in space despite her loud protests.

“I just really love blueberries. Do you want a bite?” he asked, breaking off another piece.

She felt her walls go down just a bit. Just because she was in the Garrison didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun. She smiled coyly. “Sure.”

Lance paused. “Um, do you want to—or do you want me to—” he stammered. Allura opened her mouth slightly, knowing this would be the death of him. She relished his expression as he fed her the muffin. Mmmm. Delicious.

“Christ, Allura.” Lance said, raking his hand through his hair as his face reddened. Allura chewed slowly, her expression smug.

“I could use another—” she jokingly crooned.

“Nope!” he said, throwing his hands up in defeat. They both laughed. Loverboy Lance bested again by the princess of Altea.

People were staring again but for an entirely different reason. It didn’t matter now to Allura—not when she and Lance were together.

“Well, this has been fun, as always, but I have work to do in the Altean database room,” Allura sighed. She wanted to take him with her. “They want me to keep combing the records for the Galra’s methods of extracting quintessence. It’s actually quite disturbing subject matter. And so tedious. Pidge and I have been working for what feels like phoebs.” She rolled her neck thinking about all the unexplored files that remained.

“Do you need a hand?” he asked earnestly. “You can teach me how to navigate the records. Or I could just give you a neck massage and back rub. Your pick,” he winked.

Allura smiled. “Sure, that would be great.” She was thinking about the back rub.

---

When they arrived at the database room, Allura led him to her workstation, data pads and archaic texts sprawled all over the desk. She gave Lance a simple coding script used to unpack the files so that she could transcribe them. During her explanation, Lance nodded occasionally, his eyes glazed over with the more technical parts, but eventually he got the hang of it.

“Easy peasy!” Lance said, cracking his fingers before getting to work. Allura rolled her eyes—this boy—and sat at her computer monitor to extract data from the unpacked files. Navigating through the records felt like flying the Castleship—her mind sharp and fingers swiftly typing in several commands. She and Pidge made good progress recently by finding one of the earliest robeast’s structural designs, similar to the one they fought on Balmera. They knew that Haggar’s dark alchemy was what powered the one on Balmera, so the ancient robeast must have thrived on similar magic. The thought of it set Allura on edge, raising the hair on her arms. She thought of Oriande, the birthplace of alchemy. She could only remember its ethereal pink-white glow in her dreams. The kiss of knowledge placed by the ancestors of alchemists before that radiated through every fibre of her being. How could such power be used to corrupt? Her memories harshly transitioned to her most recent reminder of home. Sendak’s disturbing holographic message that shook her to her core: If a planet refuses to give up, then we annihilate it. But only one planet has ever refused: Altea.

Allura stopped typing and seemed lost in a trance, thoughts of Altea, of home, flooding her mind. Lance rolled his chair toward hers, peering at her.

“Allura, are you okay?” he asked.

“I—I was thinking about Altea. I hadn’t thought of it in a while. Especially after traveling through space for decaphoebs. I guess losing the Castle of Lions made me remember what it felt like, growing up there and the work my father did.” She felt a lump in her throat and briefly glanced around the room. Everything was as it was yesterday but looking closer things felt so…alien. Lance nodded slowly, waiting for her to continue.

“Earth feels so different. I was so happy to see you and the others reunite with your families. Coran is my family, and I’m so grateful to have him. But…I still feel out of sorts. Being the daughter of King Alfor, my role as a diplomat was my birthright, so to speak. I always thought that I would carry out his work in space where I grew up, among all the planets we’ve fought to free. It’s hard for me to distance myself from this responsibility—being a recognizable representative of the Coalition across galaxies. I know our efforts as paladins and diplomats have not been fruitless—the people of outer space are being welcomed on Earth now, as allies and refugees. It’s what my father wanted, what Voltron has always fought to secure. I guess the distance from space makes me feel less needed as the Princess of Altea, if that makes sense,” she said, her voice tapering off at the end. The heavy feeling in her chest returned.

“Allura, I’m sorry you feel like all that responsibility is on you. And that you’re not needed as a princess,” Lance said softly.

“What’s more,” she continued, “when I arrived here on Earth I thought I’d feel like same responsibility, that same weight. But I don’t as much. Everyone here is doing the work at a much faster pace than I could have ever hoped to achieve. It sounds so selfish—I know it’s selfish—because that’s the entire purpose of the Coalition, but…Who on Earth is going to remember King Alfor the alchemist one hundred, one thousand decaphoebs down the line? I feel like a stranger in the room at present.”

Her voice began to shake and she reflexively reached to adjust her tiara—like she did whenever she was stressed—but again found nothing. This place survived on Altean technology but still felt far removed from home.

Lance moved closer and draped his arm around her shoulders. Comforted by the warmth of his body, she slowly exhaled, tears running down her face, and let her head lean against his chest. He rested his head on top of hers and his other hand reached for hers to hold it. She looped her fingers through his. Allura felt her muscles relax as Lance rubbed the back of her shoulder in a slow, soothing motion.

“Was it new to you too?” Allura whispered. “This place, new hallways to explore, people to meet?”

“It was,” he reminisced, his voice soft and wistful. “I grew up in Cuba, as you know, and life there is very different. In my hometown during the summer as a kid, I used to wander around the streets talking to shopkeepers and running errands for them. I guess it’s ‘cause I was a really fast runner. They would treat me with a Coke at the end of the day. School was fine, kind of boring, but space exploration? That’s something I could only dream of doing. When Veronica got accepted into the program, she was really nervous about leaving home. She cried the entire first week she was here.” The hum of his voice made Allura desperate to hear more.

“Veronica cried for a whole week?” she asked incredulously, wiping her runny nose with her hand. Veronica seemed like a paragon of strength among her colleagues at the Garrison, which Allura deeply admired. Lance chuckled and wiped some of the wetness from her face.

“Hard to imagine, huh?”

“Not really, considering she’s related to you,” Allura teased. Lance tousled her hair a little, making Allura squeal in protest. God, she’s so cute, he thought.

“But you know,” he continued, smoothing her hair, “I found another family here too. I thought going to a space academy would be an entirely different world—no pun intended—and it was. I was scared to be in a completely new terrain. I mean, it’s freaking Arizona, where there’s, like, no water. But there was still that sense of togetherness that I loved back home. Even though weekend training hours sucked, that’s how I got to know Hunk and we became best friends. Pidge came later in the picture, and she spent hours tutoring me before my physics tests. I was barely scraping by before I met her. Keith was a year ahead of us, so I only saw him when we did flight drills. Watching him was actually really helpful for nailing down flight patterns. Keith being Keith, I tried talking to him and got brushed off, but I know he remembers me,” Lance said smugly, and Allura giggled.

“All of us took the same classes, flew in the same simulators, pulled pranks on Iverson and got stuck in detention. I saw Keith there a lot too, actually…” he smirked.

Allura chuckled again, and the feeling of it on his chest made Lance want to melt.

“And…then I met you,” he said so affectionately it sent a pang through her chest. She looked up to meet his gaze. “I felt like all the pieces were being put together, like I was becoming the person I always wanted to be. I guess home is wherever I’m happy with my friends and family.”

Allura squeezed his hand. He looked so sure of himself, so unlike the time he first shared his insecurities with her. Something was definitely different about him. She saw it in the way he carried himself. In the way he sacrificed himself countless times for his teammates. They were here on Earth, in a dim room lit by pulsing monitors, and yet, when she looked at him she saw stars.

“I can imagine how much of a change it is for you,” he said. “But you’re still Altean, no matter where you are. And the people here respect you so much and your culture. Hell, your crystals saved Shiro. Again! And they made Atlas fly, and that thing is huge. I think the Garrison will start to feel more familiar over time. You have us. Whenever you’re feeling alone, I will always be here for you. Please know that.” His expression was serious this time. The weight of his promise began to sink in. It had always been there.

“It is a big change,” Allura agreed. She could continue talking for hours, but something inside her demanded exploring another option. “I guess I just need to give it some time to feel more adjusted. But hearing you talk about it makes me feel better. A lot better.” Their hands were still interlocked. She looked up at him, her eyes drinking in his vulnerable expression. He raised his eyebrows and swallowed hard. She fought the instinct to bottle her feelings. Her heart was racing. “Having you here already makes it easier.” She shifted his hand from his lap to hers and reached up to kiss him, trying not to laugh as his face spanned several emotions.

“Allura, what’re you—”

“Just stop talking, Lance.”

Her lips met his and she was instantly swept away. Lance buried his fingers in her hair and deepened the kiss, his movements swift, almost instinctual. She saddled herself on his lap, knocking down some papers in the process, and wrapped her arms around his head, her lips tight over his. They pulled away from each other, breathing hard.

“Allura?”

“Yes, Lance?”

“We should do this more often.”

Yes. She could definitely get used to this.

#writing #allurance #legitallurance #voltron #vld #voltron season 7 #lance #allura #pidge #keith #long fic #gimme an al kiss plz #blah blah

123 notes · View notes

vmficcatalogue · 5 years

Text

AU: Movies

Based on the plots of classic or not so classic films.

Coming Home to You by PinkGerberDaisies -- Montreal fashion designer Tessa McCormick suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor.

Finding Christmas by KingdomLights -- When an on-air mishap has the entire country believing Tessa Virtue hates Christmas, the morning television host is given an ultimatum - either find her Christmas spirit or find another job.

and what came before won't count anymore by hwrites -- You would have to be living under a rock to not know who Scott Moir is.

to the best partner ever by restlessvirtue -- When Scott's older brothers decide his love life needs a little kickstart, it's Tessa who ends up in charge of damage control.

When in Rome by PinkGerberDaisies -- Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule touring European cities on behalf of her royal family, Princess Tessa takes off for a night of adventure while in Rome.

Back To You by ShesJustLikeAMaze -- Tessa Virtue moves to Montreal to Nanny for a family when her Long-Time boyfriend ends their relationship after a shocking discovery that Tessa is unable to have kids.

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving by PinkGerberDaisies -- Tessa Virtue is an awkward and shy thirteen year old ice dancer who just wants to be one of the popular girls and get her first kiss.

In Your Dreams by ExcuseMeMissT -- Scott Patrick Moir is a is a lonely fare token collector for the London Transit Authority.

how far do i have to go (to get to you) by bucketofrice -- Scott is on a train heading to Vienna, where he has one night to kill before flying home. A Before Sunrise AU.

safe in my heart by schuylerhamilton -- Monumental Pictures doesn’t need a miracle, just a very good singer.

The Proposal by heretowriteshit -- She is his boss.He is her assistant.

like the waves meet the shore by echoesofstardust -- If only their story had a happy ending, or, a prince of the land, a princess of the sea, and a love that was never enough.

I hate you, but I love you just the same by everymagicalprice -- When Scott is really scraping for money, he receives an offer that could get him one step closer to his dream.

Tessa and Scott's Very Sensible Arrangement by Golden_Ticket -- Because Tessa and Scott don't want to mess up their future (separate) relationships by having children, they decide to have a kid together and be platonic co-parents.

every kind of mischief by PinkGerberDaisies -- Tessa Virtue is a wealthy, pretty, self-satisfied young woman who has switched careers from ballroom dance to professional lifestyle coach, event planner, and matchmaker. Emma AU

#masterlist #au #movieau #vmficcatalogue

7 notes · View notes

0poole · 5 years

Text

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Good God.

I finally managed to watch the final episodes of the show, and even though it wasn’t the most pitch-perfect ending ever (and even though I skipped like all of the final season), I still gotta dish out my thoughts on the whole thing. It’s not my tippy-top most favorite show, but it’s definitely the one with the most lasting impact on me. I mean, considering it created one of the biggest fandoms of all time, I’m pretty sure I’m far from alone there.

Obviously have to start from the beginning. I think I got into MLP around the 2nd season, maybe in the middle of it but definitely before the 3rd. I don’t exactly remember, since it was so long ago, but the first two seasons might hold some of the most saccharine, mindless nostalgia of all. Every single episode holds some spot in my memory, even the filler episodes with the cheesy notes to Celestia at the end of them. Honestly those were adorable, even if they were the classic kid’s show trope of “Let’s explain the moral to the kids who don’t have half a brain” but it’s actually pretty charming. That’s nostalgia talking, by the way. Obviously. If I found a new show today that did that, I’d roll my eyes a little, and I probably did when I was first watching the show.

But, it’s an understatement that this was my life. Of course, I was at that time of my life where one thing could very easily become my entire world, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t matter to me. The pretty solid, unchanging artstyle gave me an opening to try and draw it, and for years I exclusively drew ponies, and even when I had a human character, I’d only be able to draw them in pony form, so I ended up meshing their stories into fanfiction on how they could become ponies. My “Icon” character at the time, Satyr, was probably the first original character I drew, and I can still remember the exact drawing I made of him. Obviously a pony, he was sort of larger and masculine, conveniently blinking eye so I didn’t have to deal with that, basic hair/tail styles, and for some reason a jagged zig-zag pattern going laterally across his body, like those “How would a horse wear pants?” memes. I thought it was really good, so I kept going, and here I am ages later still drawing stuff. I couldn’t even bare to fully ditch the shitty characters I made (and I’m going to explain them without context because I just feel like it): Satyr got split into his immortal and prince-ly side; Diane, a manic serial killer, shrunk down but kept her impossibly anxious personality; Gaseous is basically all the same, except he doesn’t meet the rest of the crew in what parts of his story I know about; Sistenagon (here we go with the weird names, they don’t mean anything) still kept his (her? Don’t actually remember which I called it) wasp-y nature, except in the form of an insect-based fairy tribe leader; Stelerachyt, who I drew as a Diamond Dog, is still a big, fluffy, dog, but turned into a more regal and kingly type of person; and Myriad Alloy (the only one with an actual pony name) got a complete makeover, and actually became my favorite end result after all is said and done.

Like, I love ranting about these guys. They were basically my own Mane Six. And yes, Satyr TOTALLY dated Twilight. Why wouldn’t he? Main character a Main character. Plus, he was supposed to be me, and I totally wanted to hit that. I’m not ashamed to admit it.

I mean, I guess a big part of why I actually went down that path was because of the large fanbase. I didn’t begin with the beginning of the show, but I guess I came in with the first large wave, so all of the stuff I made got just enough attention to make me think people wanted to see what I was making. If I started out with OCs, no one would’ve cared, and I very well could’ve stopped.

Even apart from that, this show definitely kick started my downward spiral into femininity. I mean, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Everyone “knew” MLP as being something super shallow, only to be enjoyed by shallow little girls, then they pumped out Friendship is Magic and everyone else loved it, so I gave it a shot, and I loved it too. Obviously every fandom has the people who openly, irrationally hate them, but the whole thing was welcoming enough to keep it solidified in my mind, and bish bash bosh, it kept going and will probably keep going into eternity. It’s funny, even then I drew Satyr with the more feminine pony design (not entirely because drawing the male pony type was harder), so I was setting myself up for the future.

I guess this kind of gives me a window to talk about My Life as a Teenage Robot, because for as long as I could remember before actually watching the show, I seriously despised any instance of XJ9 I could find. If an image of her popped up on screen, I would close it faster than if it was porn found while around my parents. I don’t know why she was so harshly ingrained in my mind. You could argue I just hated “girly” stuff before I realized I actually loved it, and didn’t want to face my emotions, but I wasn’t exaggerating at all about that porn thing. I actually couldn’t look at her for more than a second. But, one day I decided to cave in and see what was up, and soon enough she became one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time.

Back to ponies, some of the content produced by the fandom also had some extremely fond memories in my mind. I think I still have some songs by The Living Tombstone and WoodenToaster on my MP3 player (partially because it’s just good stuff) and for some reason playing on MLP-themed TF2 servers was actually really fun too. Some notable fandom people reacting to recent episodes was a spectacle I always looked forward to, and I still am subscribed to Saberspark and Ratchet on Youtube after all this time, probably as well as various other people who are still there but haven’t posted anything since the settling of the fandom. I just remembered, Hotdiggetydemon probably qualifies for all that too, since his .Mov series was the talk of the whole fandom. That, and Friendship is Witchcraft. I had to re-look up the name of that one though, but I still loved it.

I guess I should play favorites, huh? Favorites was the one game everyone in the fandom played.

Favorite episode: Can’t not be a tie between the 2-parters of Season 2. Discord is a riot, and Chrysalis is actually one of my favorite villain designs of all time. I’m a sucker for both shapeshifters and bugs, so you can’t expect me to not like her. Glad she rode the villain boat till the very end, although reformed Discord is definitely fine too. Plus, the rest of the Changelings turned anyway.

Favorite song: You expect me to not tie things up here? The Flim Flam brother’s Super Cider Squeezy 6000 is great, as are the brothers themselves, and I also love This Day Aria, since it’s the focal point where people realized this show seriously wasn’t just colorful, cute ponies. The Art of the Dress is also pretty catchy.

Actually, just remembered. Under Our Spell might be it. Took me a while to remember the EQG stuff, but that song is seriously good, and unironically better than the generic dribble that somehow magically beat it.

Favorite background pony(ies): Vinyl and Octavia are a pretty cute duo, and with the killer duet in the Slice of Life episode, ya gotta love em. Funny thing, though: There’s this background pony that looks almost identical to my current self-insert pony OC, with purple hair and a grey coat, with a seemingly writing-based cutie mark and green eyes. He’s even a unicorn too. It wasn’t intentional, I swear.

Favorite CMC: Sweetie Belle is too much. Her little squeaks are too pure. I can’t take it. Applebloom has nice colors, though.

Favorite Princess: If you don’t say Luna you’re a cop

Favorite non-pony species: Obviously Changelings, but after their reformation the honors actually switch to the Kirins, just because of how cool they look. The Yaks are pretty fun too. Speaking of…

Favorite nu-Mane Six (or are they called the School Six? Whatever, you know what I mean): All Yona. And yes, I had to look up her name was, who cares? She’s adorable.

Favorite of the Pillars of Equestria: I honestly love that they made Starswirl an actual character in the show. For the longest time, people just assumed he would stay in the form of Twilight’s Nightmare Night costume forever, but then they actually made him real! That’s really cool.

Favorite Equestria Girls design: Once again, Sweetie Belle steals both this spot and my heart.

And, of course… Favorite of the Mane Six:

Honestly, it just depends on the mood I’m in. Not even remotely lying there.

Fluttershy would’ve been my answer way back then, since I was into the shy types. There’s definitely something still there. You can’t deny that she’s the most cuddly of them all.

Twilight might’ve been a tie for the top around then too, since I was also the too-smart-for-humanity type. That leads into you liking the “smart” ones. Plus, in the latter half of the series, she did feel like she was put one step above the rest of the cast. That kinda makes her feel slightly off, I guess. Still like her, though.

Pinkie Pie’s one of those that I can imagine liking, but if I ever actually had to deal with that much energy I might actually melt. And, not in that I’m-totally-in-love kind of melting. Literal, actual melting.

Rarity, in terms of concept, is easily my favorite type of character for the show. On the surface, she’s the generic fashionista type that every girl’s show has, but instead of her being someone who “just makes clothes” she’s actually seriously hard working and goes through all the regular motions you’d expect from an artist. Turning such a cliche on its head and giving it a much more realistic image is perfect for this show. Also, she’s purple. I like purple.

Not much really needs to be said about Applejack. She really seems like the most logical one of the group, even at the very beginning. That’s great to have when everyone else is acting like spoiled/sheltered brats (at least, when she’s not acting that way either).

But, I really gotta be honest… I’m never really in the mood for Rainbow Dash. She’s like the opposite of AJ, where she’s always some degree of arrogant, and even though watching her achieve her dreams is nice, her big head gets a little annoying for side gags. Also, if you showed me a plain picture of the Mane Six, I would’ve told you she was the main character instead of Twilight, just because she stands out so much more. I mean, the show isn’t called “Twilight Sparkle: Friendship is Magic,” but still.

If you really want a straight answer, I’m in a Rarity mood right now, so I’ll go with that. It’s probably the safest bet, because, like I said, I do love purple. Not just purple, but purple AND white put together. One of my favorite color combinations. Just add a little gold, and you’re, well, you know...

But… Yeah. All good things had to come to an end. I feel like its time came. Plus, they ended the show with the little story book thing they did in the very first episode, so as far as I’m concerned the series is complete. It did its job, anyway.

#mlp #mlp fim #friendship is magic #my little pony #rant #rambling #opinions #nostalgia #poole #cute #mlp 10th anniversary

1 note · View note

alexllove-blog · 5 years

Photo

Although it rained the night before, it’s done little to cool the air. Even at 9am, the sun is already blazing down. The thermometer shows 39 degrees Celsius and is poised to climb further. It’s Easter, so the schools are closed, and there’s a snaking queue at the ticket counter of Ramoji Film City (RFC), on the southeastern edge of Hyderabad, in the Indian state of Telangana.

The set of popular Telugu mythological TV series Sri Bhagavatam

Sprawled across 810 hectares, RFC features in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest film studio complex in the world, specialising in Telugu-language cinema. It’s widely visited by movie buffs from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the two southern Indian states that share Telugu as their main language. If that sounds niche, Telugu is in fact one of the 22 major languages in India, ranked third in the country by number of native speakers. Moreover, according to US-based publication Ethnologue, it’s also the 12th-most spoken language in the world, with 82 million speakers.

Introducing Tollywood

It makes sense then that, as well as being a working film studios, RFC is one of the most popular tourist attractions in India, welcoming around 1.5 million domestic and international tourists each year. On any average day, the studios see a footfall of 2,500 visitors. During last year’s summer holidays, it topped 16,000 in a single day. The crowds come for a chance to wander through the sets of their favourite films and shows, with secret hopes of catching famous actors at work.

Models of trains and vintage cars from the props department

Also known as Tollywood, this strand of Indian cinema dedicated to producing movies in Telugu may not be as well-known internationally as Bollywood, but a handful of its past deliveries have seen it go toe-to-toe with its Mumbai-based cousin, in terms of budgets and box office numbers. A recent example is 2017’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, the second of two period films that follow a young villager who discovers his royal heritage and saves his fictional kingdom in medieval India.

“Entertainment is the only mantra in Telugu films; they spend lavishly on costumes, sets, special effects, action scenes and musical scores”

This lavish production, shot entirely at RFC, cost INR2.5 billion (S$49 million) to shoot and went on to capture worldwide attention. A dubbed version was the highest-grossing Hindi movie of all time. Also made available in Tamil, Malayalam, Japanese, Russian and Chinese, the film grossed INR18.1 billion (S$353 million) at the box office worldwide. Buoyed by its success, there have been a series of even more ambitious Telugu productions in the works, including one titled RRR, from Baahubali director SS Rajamouli. Another action movie, this time set in pre-Independence India, the film will cost INR4 billion (S$78 million) and is set for release next year. Sci-fi action thriller Saaho, featuring Baahubali star Prabhas, is coming to cinemas on 15 August this year and cost more than INR3 billion (S$58.5 million) to make. Needless to say, both films were shot at RFC.

Remnants of the Baahubali set

A cinematic visit

Beyond the ticket counter and after a brief security check, I join the visitors to get into a bright red, vintage-style, hop-on-hop-off coach that will take us around the complex. Each coach seats about 25 visitors and includes a guide who points out the different landmarks where iconic scenes of popular films were shot.

Our coach makes its first stop at Eureka, a huge courtyard that acts as the entry area into five major attractions. Designed to mimic with white marbled floors, lavish staircases and landscaped gardens, the threshold to this cinematic town hints at what lies ahead.

Princess Street is one of the many urban city sets in RFC

Despite Telugu cinema’s long history dating back to its first silent feature film in 1921, it was only in the early 1990s that the Telugu Film Industry (TFI) completely shifted base to Hyderabad, as major Telugu producers started setting up their own sets and studios in the state capital. RFC was founded in 1996 by film mogul and producer Cherukuri Ramoji Rao.

Recognising the need for an infrastructure of pre-designed sets and ambience, Rao shaped RFC while at the peak of his career “to provide comprehensive filmmaking facilities under one roof,” explains RFC vice president AV Rao. “The tourism potential was only realised in later years when people expressed a desire to have a glimpse of where their favourite films were made.”

Entrance to the five live shows in RFC

According to Rao, over 2,600 films in various languages have been shot at RFC so far. There are around 50 shooting floors, the largest being the size of two football fields. RFC also has dedicated departments for set construction, props, craft services and camera and lighting rental.

Back at Eureka, I find shade under a flowering bougainvillea, as traditional Rajasthani music floods the open compound and early visitors fill in. At 9.45am, the music switches to a more energetic number as two wooden plank-doors leading to the Central Court start to ancient Indian forts and palaces, complete swing open and a group of dancers dressed in golden costumes and ornate jewellery appear to draw in the mass of visitors.

A hop-on-hop-off coach takes you around the film city

“Which way is Fundustan?” A hassled parent with two young children in tow breaks the calm that descends after the music stops. Our guide, a burly man in his forties, directs them towards the themed children’s play area, where thrilling rides and fascinating games await. Adjacent to it is Borasura, a spine-chilling walk-through designed as a magician’s workshop.

Globalising entertainment

Largely devoted to mainstream filmmaking with a wide commercial appeal, Tollywood has in recent years shed its regional character, delivering colossal productions that are dubbed in multiple languages worldwide. “Entertainment is the only mantra in Telugu films. They spend lavishly on costumes, sets, special effects, action scenes and musical scores,” enthuses Himavati Kurup, a college student from Coimbatore and my fellow passenger in the RFC coach. “And we love watching them.”

Setting up a scene at a pre-designed railway station set

Another college student and amateur filmmaker Venu Nagaraju, who is also on the tour makes another interesting observation. “In most Telugu films, you will see a surprising storyline,” he says. “We, the Telugu people, love fantasy and horror and will lap up any film that gives us these. And if the story is not strong enough to hold your attention, the costumes and sets will definitely do it.”

As we chat, our coach passes by a replica of the Hawa Mahal, the pink palace in Jaipur, a doorway of Fatehpur Sikri – the Mughal city just outside Agra – before driving past rolling, landscaped fields. My fellow passengers raise a cheer whenever our guide names the popular Bollywood and Tollywood films – such as Dilwale (2015) or Mirchi (2013) – that were shot at the locations we pass.

A visitor walks past part of the Baahubali set

The coach pulls to a stop near North City, where permanent sets resemble a suburban neighbourhood in a north Indian town, with multi-storied buildings featuring adorned columns, arched doorways, winding corridors and wooden carvings. A film is being shot inside one of the palatial houses and some of us try to sneak in, only to be pulled back by our guide.

“When a location is rented out for a movie, the producers take over and arrange for props to further dress up the scene. The area then belongs to the producer and we are not supposed to trespass,” he explains.

Guests enjoying a Rajasthani dance performance

As such, visitors are unlikely to witness a film being shot. However, some guests do get lucky and chance upon film stars. R Lakshmana Rao, a Hyderabad businessman on his third RFC visit, shares how he met Bollywood superstar Salman Khan here two years ago. “He was awesome and very humble, and took pictures with us.”

Just down the street are façades of rural village homes that can be found in South India, and around a corner, a street dressed up to look like a generic urban thoroughfare in Europe or the US. Our guide quips: “This is the only place in the world where you can travel from a North Indian city to a South Indian city by crossing a street, and to Europe or America without a passport.”

At these permanent railway sets, the hoardings, letterings and billboards can easily be changed to match the film

The bus halts next at the indoor sets of Sri Bhagavatam, a popular mythological Telugu television series from 2013, based on the life and deeds of Lord Krishna. Diagonally opposite this fantastical set is the façade of a tiny airport, with a huge parking lot. Our guide reveals that the fight scenes from the 2015 Shah Rukh Khan romantic action film Dilwale was shot here.

“This is the only place in the world where you can travel from a North Indian city to a South Indian city by crossing a street, and to Europe or America without a passport.”

“I am here to see the sets of Baahubali,” 75-year-old Manorama Nair from Kochi tells me, pausing for breath as she braves the noon sun while her granddaughters run up the staircases to reach the famous throne. “Baahubali was a great entertainer, and I am curious to know how they made the film. I have read almost every article written about the movie.”

The massive wooden entrance that leads to Central Court

It’s almost past 1pm and I am ravenous. Over the buffet spread at Superstar, one of the most luxurious restaurants in RFC, I reflect on the meaning Telegu cinema holds for its fans. Telugu viewers hold their films and their film personalities in high regard. I think back to the words of Anna Kowalski, a young Polish tourist I met on the coach earlier today. She and her partner were struck by their fellow riders. “We will take back with us the exuberance and craziness of the people here, and how they relate to films as well as they relate to life.”

Indeed cinema here is not just entertainment; it’s a way of life. It’s the high emotion, the grandness of life as it appears in Telugu cinema that pulls people into its fold – and why a visit to RFC is such a draw.

SEE ALSO: Taste of summer: India’s love for mangoes

This article was originally published in the June 2019 issue of Silkwinds magazine

The post On set in Hyderabad at the largest film studio in the world appeared first on SilverKris.

1 note · View note

beeinmybonnet · 7 years

Text

The Trouble With Women in Tech (hint: it's not biological)

There is disproportionate representation of women in tech and yes, it is a problem.

Advocates of the devil will ask questions such as: Why is it a problem? If women and girls don’t gravitate towards STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) why force the issue? Well, when the global population is increasingly reliant on technology, from a grass root level through to government, military, education, law, it is important that the 3.5bn female humans on the planet are represented. If the only tech inventors, scientists and luminaries of a generation are boys and men, then women and girls will be at a constant disadvantage in every aspect of life. Using literacy as an example, there is undisputed correlation between a child who can read and write faring better in life than one who can’t. ‘Success’ is subjective and personal, but life is easier for the literate person – and now we need to consider technological literacy as vital alongside reading, writing and numeracy. London School of Economics MSc student Marie Misund-Bringslid puts it beautifully:

“So why should women work in tech? To me the answer is quite obvious. After all, we make up half the users of technology. Tech is all too often designed for great big man bodies, and not for women. This includes vital inventions such as the air bag, artificial hearts and mobile phones. As we are becoming more and more dependent on technology, it makes up an increasingly important part of our everyday lives. It is obvious that women should be as influential in development and creation as men.”

Men and women are different; but they should also be equal in terms of representation in, and benefitting from the outputs of, STEM fields.

Why are girls not as drawn to STEM subjects as boys? Why are there fewer women in STEM careers? What puts women off working in the tech sector? How do we fix the problem?

Many leaders in STEM do appreciate the benefits of a diverse workforce and would gladly hire more women, but they are finding that only 5% of applications for tech positions come from women. Tech sector recruiters concur – not enough women are putting themselves forward in the first place.

This leads to the ultimate question: what do only girl children experience that steers them away from science, tech, engineering and mathematics?

Let’s put ourselves in a girl’s shoes from the very beginning and take a hypothetical journey with her. This should go some way towards highlighting the hurdles and obstacles that she may be forced to navigate in order to become a successful female leader in a STEM field. We are hypothesising and empathising – this is absolutely not a description of every woman’s experience; there are countless differences, factor combinations, levels of privilege, nuances. But all these experiences are going on, in the developed world, right now, to girls and women.

First steps

In the US in particular it’s increasingly common for parents to find out a baby’s gender months before her birth. Whilst not completely mainstream, gender reveal parties are a growing trend – cakes are sliced, balloons are released, powder crackers are pulled with the resulting pink or blue emerging to much excitement from all involved. Unconsciously, and certainly without malice, parents build up certain expectations and ideas about their unborn child based on the result of this ‘revelation’. Even before such celebrations were invented, the first question on anyone’s lips on the arrival of a new baby is “boy or girl?”. This stuff is given real meaning.

There are so many assumptions and unchallenged beliefs based purely on a child’s gender that it is be nigh on impossible to raise a child without any gender bias; those who do try are widely lambasted and mocked. Sugar and spice / slugs and snails. Princesses / superheroes. Beauty / brawn. Of course, many boys and girls fit comfortably into their assigned roles, and many are none the worse for it.

But what of the girl child who asks too many difficult questions, thinks critically, shuns her ‘cute’ toys in order to explore and build and dismantle? She gravitates towards “boy’s” toys, books, games, TV shows and pursuits which are so often based on bravery, discovery, adventure, strength, heroics, risk taking, problem solving and competing. At the very least she is labelled a ‘tomboy’, which serves to let her know she is different, not a ‘normal’ girly girl. She may even be forced to comply, to play the girly girl role, and is denied the chance to follow the interests that lie outside of these parameters. Of course there are the 'girly’ engineers, the super-feminine scientists, but they exist because their environment has allowed them to nurture all sides of their character rather than just one, and they are even more in the minority. Chances are there are few, if any, realistic female role models who she can emulate and look up to. And all this before she even starts school.

School days

Already carrying the weight of feeling “different” from her peers, our inquisitive and scientifically-minded girl child joins the education system. We can now add to the passive, unconscious gender expectations, with some more active gender stereotyping by those around her. Teachers are unwittingly deterring female students from taking maths and science subjects by implying that they are more difficult than other subjects, according to a report published in 2015. Gender stereotyping is a broader issue in schools and the problems associated with gender bias affect boys as well as girls - in some cases secondary school pupils are deterred from choosing subjects traditionally associated with the opposite gender because they feared homophobic bullying. This is particularly an issue for girls in maths, physics and engineering, and for boys in modern foreign languages.

A large number of pupils, both male and female, reported living with a daily barrage of sexist “banter”. These pupils “were aware that some of their behaviours and subject choices are heavily gendered, and often driven by peer pressure”.

Peer pressure can be a minefield, most children want to feel ‘normal’, no teen enjoys having their differences pointed out. It will be even tougher if a school girl is relatively uninterested in all the pursuits that are expected and even encouraged amongst her female peers – such as beauty / appearance, female-dominated subjects, and being popular / sociable. She may start to quieten her voice, withdraw into herself, and feel less brave when it comes to participation in her science, technology or maths lessons. She may feel all too conspicuous – school years are hard enough when one does blend in to the crowd and stick with the mainstream.

Dame Mary Archer, chair of the Science Museum Group, explained “Girls switch off from maths and science around the age of 14… Young role models between the ages of 14 and 16 are really important in showing girls that science and maths are for people like them."

In addition to this she is subjected to the usual deeply ingrained mainstream misogyny, along with all her female peers; she is expected to be aesthetically pleasing, to take up as little space as possible, to be accommodating and apologetic, to avoid being 'bossy’, to take responsibility for any affect she has on her male peers, to behave well, and to not question rules or authority. The aforementioned report also highlighted “casual sexism in class, such as cat-calling, sexist jokes and derogatory language. Often senior leaders would assert that there was no problem with sexist language at their school but students would report it as an “everyday reality”. In extreme cases this language 'verged on bullying’.”

Higher education

So, our young female protagonist has stuck with her STEM interests thus far. She now carries passive, unconscious, preconceived expectations, active stereotyping, gender bias and peer pressure, few relatable real-life STEM role models, a magnified self-consciousness, and she looks to the STEM community for inspiration on what to do next. She is bright, she is still inquisitive and diligent, and she is all the more resolute and resilient having taken a trickier path than many through school. But her proverbial voice is not as loud as it could be, and certainly not as confident as the majority of male voices around her – there is not necessarily a correlation between their volume and the skills and talent behind them.

Indeed, bright girls are much quicker to doubt their ability, to lose confidence and to become less effective learners as a result. As explained by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D in her 2011 article The Trouble With Bright Girls:

“Successful women know only too well that in any male-dominated profession, we often find ourselves at a distinct disadvantage. We are routinely underestimated, underutilized and even underpaid. Studies show that women need to perform at extraordinarily high levels, just to appear moderately competent compared to our male coworkers.”

Workforce

She overcomes unconscious (and conscious) bias in the hiring process and joins the workforce in a STEM field. She knows that she is at least as skilled as her male co-workers but she watches as those with the loudest voices are progressed and promoted. She is in the minority, and fellow female colleagues are noticeable in their absence. The culture is often competitive, ego-centric and sometimes aggressive. She is none of those things (although she does know some young women who are, and they are labelled unfavourably too). But she is ambitious, and brave. The majority of female friends she has made along the way were dissuaded from even considering a career in STEM, despite their great skill and qualifications, by the reputation that preceded it. Or perhaps they dipped their toe in the water and decided that no, it would take too much extra emotional – and literal – labour to be a woman in STEM.

The Elephant in the Valley was a collaborative effort between seven women in Silicon Valley with backgrounds including venture capital, academia and entrepreneurship. They compiled a list of several hundred senior level women from their collective contact lists and invited them to participate in a survey about gender in Silicon Valley between April and May 2015. 100% of respondents were women, and 100% with at least ten years of experience; 25% of whom were at CXO level, and 22% were venture capitalists or company founders / entrepreneurs.

The results are alarming. 84% of women in tech have been told they are ‘too aggressive’, almost half have been asked to carry out lower-level tasks that male colleagues are not asked to do, two-thirds have felt excluded from key social / networking opportunities, 59% have not had the same opportunities as their male counterparts and an astonishing 90% have witnessed sexist behaviour at company events or industry conferences. When it comes to unconscious bias, 88% of women in tech have had clients / colleagues address questions to male peers that should have been addressed to them, 87% have been on the receiving end of demeaning comments from male colleagues and 60% have experienced unwanted sexual advances - 65% of these were from a superior, and half were repeat offences.

As Bethanye Blount’s and Susan Wu’s examples show in Liz Mundy’s infamous piece in The Atlantic, “succeeding in tech as a woman requires something more treacherous than the old adage about Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels. It’s more like doing everything backwards and in heels while some guy is trying to yank at your dress, and another is telling you that a woman can’t dance as well as a man, oh, and could you stop dancing for a moment and bring him something to drink?”

So, are women in tech doing anything to help themselves? The answer is yes, but of the women who do report sexual harassment, 60% are dissatisfied with the subsequent course of action. 40% don’t report at all because they believe it will negatively impact their career, with a further 30% keeping quiet in order to forget presumably traumatic or at the very least unpleasant experiences. Women in lower paid positions fare worse still as their ability to ‘fight back’ legally is limited financially.

Glass ceilings

Our young woman continues on her journey. She now carries the weight of a lifetime of passive, unconscious, preconceived expectations, active stereotyping, gender bias and peer pressure, few relatable real-life STEM role models, a magnified self-consciousness, the effort of treading a fine line in terms of character traits (she can’t be perceived as too hard OR too soft), casual and recurring sexual harassment or unwanted advances happening to her or around her or both, and the effort required to ensure she cannot be seen to invite it, discrimination (both assumed and literal) around childbearing and family, and prevalent unconscious biases at every level from entry to C suite… and she navigates the casual sexism that ripples throughout in every industry, but is magnified still in STEM.

Sexist conversations infiltrate her consciousness and undermine her confidence. Harassment and discrimination suits abound, and these are just the tip of an iceberg of all the incidences that go unreported or are settled privately in non-disparagement agreements.

She draws on the resilience and resolve that got her through the tough school years, and she ‘leans in’. She collaborates with like-minded and diverse counterparts. She studies, networks, learns and absorbs, seeks inspirational mentors – male and female – and she aims high. She is judged on her appearance more than any male counterpart. There is a perception that she has less gravitas. She has to continually break through the threads of old boy’s networks. She endures and overlooks gender-based (and often patronising) labels such as ‘mumpreneur’ (‘dadpreneur’?), ‘girl’ (no male tech leader is ever called ‘boy’), ‘bossy’ (that old chestnut), ‘feisty’, ‘ball-breaker’, or the classic ‘bitch’. She dreams of the day she is only ever referred to in terms that are applied to both men and women.

Role model

She is accomplished and successful not just because of her natural strengths, interests and conspicuousness, but also in spite of them.

She is a board member or a thought leader or a tech evangelist or a CTO or a luminary or a key note speaker – a celebrated Woman In Tech. She becomes the role model that she needed. And the unborn girl babies will have one more role model to look to for strength and inspiration as they deflect all the outside forces that work to discourage or distract them from their STEM destinies.

In her Fortune interview back in January 2015, hugely influential tech venture capitalist Eileen Burbridge displayed the balanced, logical and inspiring attitude that STEM needs more of:

“I actively seek out strong entrepreneurs – regardless of gender or demographic. For obvious reasons, I take a great interest in women entrepreneurs in particular. Therefore, I try to make myself available to anyone who is interested in connecting, getting feedback – or pitching. Over the years I’ve seen more women entrepreneurs emerging and I look forward to this trend continuing.”

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she and her VC partners refuse to invest in “jerks”, a business policy that would go a long way towards eradicating the objectionable behaviour that’s disproportionately rife in STEM, but such progressive and outlandish business practices are unsurprisingly rare.

The future

We’ve not even touched on the can of worms that is the gender pay gap, nor examined the extra discrimination experienced by non-white women and men. These are hugely important issues in and of themselves – only when we achieve equal pay for equal work and eradicate racial bias and under-representation can we even begin to congratulate ourselves.

In the meantime, let’s celebrate the ones who have made it, acknowledge all that it took to get there, and work to remove the obstacles that we’ve historically put in girls’ paths to STEM success for those who wish to follow in our hypothetical heroine’s footsteps.

#womenintech #brightgirls #women in stem #women in tech #bright girls #silicon valley #eileen burbridge #liz mundy #lean in #bethanye blount #susan wu #heidi grant halvorson #elephant in the valley #dame mary archer

2 notes · View notes

itdisneymatter · 7 years

Text

Day 02 - Epcot

TLDR: Epcot. A slightly later start today though a pretty full and non stop day once we began. Spaceship Earth up first, squeezed into the Ellen's Energy Adventure, then Test Track with a touch of competitive spirit. Living with the Land, Circle of Life and then Soarin’ in quick succession. Finished off with the new ride - Frozen Ever After and decided to skip out on World Showcase in favour of heading straight to Miller's Alehouse for my first proper meal of the trip. Walmart, then home, early (earlier).

The future is what you make it!

Sooo Robert had been unimpressed by the shops we had visited to far, mainly because they didn’t stock Pokemon cards. With the thunderstorms last night, we promised we visit Walmart first thing, which we did prior to picking up my Mum & Dad for Epcot. That meant skipping breakfast. Again. Picked up a wee rucksack so we could carry around all our rain jackets and little extras. Robert got his Pokemon cards and Gracie managed to find yet another collectable in the form of Hatchimal miniatures. Patrick and I had been speaking prior to the holiday about another card collection called Magic: The Gathering, but neither me nor him knew much about them. He picked up a starter pack to have a look. As someone who like his RPG and Fantasy things, I was a little intrigued. I dont think it will take Patrick long to become an expert.

Swung back around to pick up my Mum and Dad who were waiting for us at their Hotel with coffee in hand - result! The other party (which I'll cover in just a sec), were heading to Mass first and planned to catch us up at Epcot when they were done. So let me backtrack a little and explain who is actually all here as I havent yet done so and were already two days in - thats just impolite, so sorry.

Fifeteen of us in total. First off we have our wee family of five, Me, Ann, Patrick, Robert & Grace - Ive went on at length about all of us at some point in the past - yeah, you know who we are. Then its my mum and dad, Sadie & Wullie, Orlando veterans and all round great parents. My brother Michael is up next, with Sarah Jane, Corrie, Alessio and their wee baby who recently had her first birthday - Isabella. And finally we have my sister Pauline with Kevin & Emily. Both Emily and Isabella are first timers to Orlando and all things Disney, so makes it an extra special visit. Ourselves and my parents share the first car, My brother, sister and their families share the second. I'll refer to the latter as 'the other party' at times but this is entirely for brevity. Now, back to the story...

We ended up getting to Epcot around 10:30 which was right in time for our first Fast Pass - Spaceship Earth. A big slow moving train through the anals of Civilization, located in the big multi-faceted ball that Epcot is renowned for. Y'know its a fairly simple ride and I've done this it a fair few times now, but this like many others, never ceases to amaze me. If you've ever seen Inside Out, I imagine this whole place to be a core memory and have its own wee island somewhere in the depths of my brain, churning out little orbs of Joy. If you haven't seen Inside Out, then all of what I've just said will sound really really weird, but trust me - go watch it. Good start to the day!

Hey You Guys!

Next we checked out Test Track but it was down for some unknown reason, so grabbed some coffee and pastries will we waited for the other party (that being, oh wait right we did that already, didn't we?). By the wonders of Whatsapp and Feel at Home from Three (shameless plug), Kev let us know that they'd arrived and we arranged to met them back at the entrance. We'd coordinated our t-shirts today, those being our new Celtic Champions 6-in-a-row tee :) which made it real easy to spot them. On the subject of attire, zipped pockets - how amazing are they? I know I sound like I'm getting old, but they're definitely the way to go if you're on holiday!

Ann really hurt her eye over the course of the morning and it was progressively getting worse as time went on. I suggested that she patch over her eye to give it a rest, however this led me to call her One Eyed Willie, which didnt go down to well, so stopped in fear of my life (or having to walk the plank - right, sorry Ann, that was the last one, promise ;) x )

Next we headed to Ellen's Energy Adventure, a big moving cinema all about th wonders of energy hosted by the hilarious Ellen DeGeneres & Bill Nye, the science guy. Funny as well as factual too, couldnt go wrong.

Now came Test track, a ride where family loyalty went out the window as we went head to head to design the most efficient car. Super fast, fun ride and good to see the competitive spirit from everyone - even Gracie was doing a little trash talking (well she was in my team, otherwise I wouldn't have encouraged it ; ). In the end, we failed to hit top spot, but our car was easily the best looking one out the lot (all designed by my lovely co-pilot Gracie).

Scores on the doors were as follows:

Ann, Kevin & Pauline - 208 Michael, SJ & Emily- 205 Me, Dad & Grace - 204 Patrick, Robert & Corrie - 156 (who intially claimed 226 - what a bunch 'a chancers!)

All in all great fun and everyone loved it (especially Gracie who wanted go back on it straight away).

Living With The Land Fast Pass (on the other side of the park) up next, which we made it with 5 minutes to spare. Nice boat ride about farming and such (seriously) with Patrick even enquiring about the Behind The Scenes tour (or Behind The Seeds as they called it) - he just loves learning new things! He also managed to spot 2 hidden Mickeys on the ride (thats disguised Mickey symbols all over the Disney parks) - so well done PG!

Quick stop at The Circle Of life, a wee environmental film featuring The Lion King's Simba, Timon & Pumba, which began with the song of the same name. That song gives me goosebumps every single time! *shudder*

After that was Soarin', which we had passes for, but everyone wanted to ride so meant we had to split up into two groups, one to watch Isabella while the other went on the ride. While we were waiting to ride (with views of an cool looking India Jones-esque style journey being mapped out on the screen before us), Robert asked the attendant out of the blue if we could get in the first row - good ole Ro! :)

This ride was Epic - its the only word to describe it. Flying through the air, over different landmarks of the world aking in hugs vistas, they even had different smells. Everyone loved it and even my Dad rearked it was the best ride yet as we walked off the ride.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

During the wait and switch-over of groups we came to the decision that the five of us and my mum and dad would head home after the last ride and try getting a proper bite to eat when it was a little quieter, whilst, Pauline, Michael & Co would remain in the park and finish off the remaining rides.

So onward it was to Frozen Ever After, Epcot's newest ride based on the extremely popular Disney movie and set in Norway (well Epcot's mini representation of Norway on their World Showcase). On our way, we bumped into Pluto (the dog, not the planet-oid-y thing), so used the opportunity to grab our first character autograph! Kids were really excited! There was a Disney Photo-pass photographer there too so managed to get some nice groups shots (except for ours, so had to use one of my own photos here as a backup).

The ride was a great little boat trip through the Kingdom of Arendelle with Anna and Elsa (who is my favourite princess without red hair, ok ok, she isnt really a princess, yeah I know, but still). Even the Snow-gies made an appearance! And with the ride came another ride photo from the Memory Maker - excellent! :D The kids loved it and Emily was skipping out of the ride singing Let It Go at the top of her voice! :)

So we said our goodbyes and left the other party then, who planned to continue their travels around the World Showcase and possibly grab Spaceship Earth, which they missed, on the way out. The World Showcase is an awesome thing, but I think the allure of a hearty meal after a long day was far too tempting for us.

We headed straight to Miller's Alehouse from the park in an attempt to avoid the queues and wait times... which we did! However once we were seated and after a quick scan of the menu - the Snow Crab that Gracie had set her heart on to share with me was no longer on the menu - she was more gutted than me! :( In its place I opted for a nice wee Flat Iron Steak & Coconut Shrimp combo, which was awesome. Grace and Ann chose to share the 35 Shrimp menu item (which was 35 shrimps funnily enough) and Grace inhaled about 18 of them. Man, that girl loves her seafood! The Nacho starter that Ann thought she might need however was an absolute mountain and in the end, defeated all of us (its really big enough for two peeps to share as a main meal if Im being honest). The food and menu options in the place are second to none so were definitely planning a return visit in the next few days with our entire group!

A second trip to Walmart rounded off the day in order that we could take a slightly more relaxed look at what they had to offer. The last time I was here I picked up some amazing Cinnamon Pecan coffee, but alas they appeared to no longer stock it or any equivalent. The boys picked up more trading cards, Grace picked up more Hatchimals and we got a variety of non-essential items including a Star Wars decal for the car, a Pecan pie (obviously I have a thing for Pecans) and some Harley Quinn Comics (and I have a thing for her too ; ). Had a look at the laptops too, which were ridiculously cheap, so toying with the idea of picking one up, but Ill need to do some in-depth investigations first.

Rest day on the cards for tomorrow with shopping planned in the am, so should a relatively quiet one. I'm kinda looking forward to it in all honesty, following the two successful but extremely packed days we've all had.

1 note · View note

lvnce-mcclain · 7 years

Text

Interior Design and Other Possibilities

Hey! I was the back up secret santa gifter for @simply--miraculous for the mlcreators’ secret santa! I hope you like it!

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Ship: Adrienette

Word Count: 1560

Rating: G

Summary: Moving is always better with good friends with good taste.

AO3

“Adrien, you know I love you, but I can't let you do this to yourself.”

“Yeah, dude. This is kind of sad.”

“I hate to say it, but I agree. Very sad indeed.”

“Et tu, princess?” Adrien pouted, hands falling dejectedly from the god-awful curtains he had been eyeing. Marinette shrugged, unapologetic for the greyish-greenish-yellowish color of the fabric he had picked.

Alya sighed, hip cocked out and a look that said she was ready to fight if he didn't step away from the paisley. “Listen, I don't know how you could be in fashion for so long and not be able to pick out some decent curtains for your first apartment, but that's why we're here.”

“And why we’re being honest, bro. Good bros don't let bros get the wrong pop of color.” Nino gave him a cheeky grin, pulling Adrien towards the bold solids.

Adrien let himself be dragged, giving one last longing look toward the pretty swirls of the paisley. “I'm just not that good at interior design. Fashion is easy, there's only one me to decorate- not an entire room! Ugh. This is the worst.”

“You could always go with a minimalist style,” Marinette mused, flicking some sheer white curtains his way.

It didn't seem like a half bad idea, but Alya balked. “Our little ball of sunshine with a minimalist apartment? Psssh. It needs to shine has brightly as he does.”

“Aw, Alya, that's so-”

“Plus, you know we're going to be hanging out there all the time so I want some big comfy chairs and it clashes with the minimalist look.”

“Nevermind, moment ruined.”

“What? She's not wrong, dude. Minimalism doesn't exactly scream maximum comfort.”

“Fine, fine. No minimalism, be picky.” Marinette knocked shoulders with Nino with a small huff and playful smile.

“Then what should I be looking for?” Adrien asked, tossing a throw pillow at Alya from a nearby display of coordinating pillows and blankets. She caught it easily, tossing it back with a roll of her eyes.

“Well, what do you want? Besides those seriously ugly curtains.” Alya joined Marinette on a lounge display, both girls watching as Adrien sighed dramatically clutching the throw pillow to his chest.

“I don't knooooow. I guess I just… Want it to look like a place people would want to be. I wanna walk through the door and feel warm. I want it to be a home for all the people I love.”

“Dude.” Nino sniffed, crushing Adrien into a hug as the girls turned it into a group hug and mumbled things about being too pure.

“But seriously, big comfy chairs, Adrien. Think of the possibilities.”

Adrien hefted a bag of groceries up higher in his arms as Marinette stole the keys from his pocket. “I didn't know Alya had such a passion for interior design,” he chuckled, following Marinette's laugh through the front door and to the kitchen of his new apartment.

“I'm not sure if it's design, or the fact you're the first of us to get your own place. Either way though, I think she has a pretty good future in it if she wanted.”

“Pssssssh. I don't think so. I for one thought the curtains you picked out were awesome, Adrien. The color reminded me of camembert.” Plagg interjected, flying out from Adrien’s collar. Tikki pushed herself out of Marinette’s purse, glaring over at her counterpart.

“Cheese isn't a good model for good taste, Plagg. I think Alya could definitely make a career with her eye for complementary furniture.”

“True. She could convert her journalism blog to a design blog pretty easy, probably. Who needs life long dreams? Overrated, I say.” Plagg teased, twirling around Tikki as she batted him away.

“Maybe it would take her attention off the Ladyblog too,” Marinette mused, helping Adrien sort through the groceries as their kwamis played tag throughout the bare apartment.

Adrien hummed, nabbing the bottle of wine from the bag and rummaging for two glasses out of the sparse cabinets. “I'm pretty sure Alya will follow us to the ends of the earth, my lady.” He triumphantly turned to her with two mismatched glasses and filled them up. “Or at least until the end of her phone battery life,” he teased with a grin.

Marinette rolled her eyes but didn't deny it, taking her glass and inspecting it. “You got more,” she accused without much heat, switching their glasses before taking a sip and taking in the space. It wasn't much, not yet at least, but it was coming along.

Adrien leaned against the counter next to her, clinking glasses. “Well, at least it's over. The big stuff is now ordered and should be delivered in a week, Nathalie is sending over some odds and ends she said she found while going through storage, and Father is well. Supporting my decision in his own way.”

“Still only sending you emails with links to articles about why it's better to stay at home as long as possible?”

“... It’s progressed to statistics on success rates based off people who live at home longer, but at least now I know he misses me. Too bad he didn't while I was actually there, but it's a start. I guess.”

“He'll start actually speaking to you on a regular basis within a year at this rate,” Marinette predicted dryly. “I guess all parents handle change differently. I don't know how my parents will take it whenever I eventually move out.”

“I'll miss your dad’s freshly baked cookies,” Tikki sighed, zipping away from Plagg and landing on Marinette’s shoulder for a nuzzle.

“You and me both, Tikki.” Adrien mimicked her sigh.

“Well, I'm sure it won't be for a while, so both of you can stop looking so heartbroken.” Marinette lightly shoved Adrien’s armed with a laugh, finishing off her glass before she crossed over to the living area.

Adrien’s eyes followed her, watching as she twirled slowly, seeming to enjoy the bare wood floors while in her socks. He idly thought he should get a rug, but then he'd miss out on views like the one before him. “You don't think you'll move out any time soon?”

“Oh, chaton, I don't know. I didn't think I would want to, but…”

“But…?” When she didn't seem to want to answer, he stepped over to her and caught her hand, twirling her himself. “Something change your mind?”

She didn't miss a beat, letting herself be spun out gently before being pulled back into a closed position. “Well yeah. I know actually managing to get your apartment was a hassle, but now look at you. This is nice, this whole actually having your own space thing. But also…isn’t it a little lonely?” Her nose wrinkled like that wasn't the word she was looking for, but continued anyway. “I mean, I know your father’s house wasn't the most welcoming, but at night at least you knew there were other people in the house as well.”

Adrien hummed to some music only he could hear, moving them through a few steps before answering. “I get what you mean. I guess the thought doesn't really bother me. Yeah, some nights might be a little quiet but I'll have Plagg.” There was some sort of vague shout of agreement that came from the fridge, where Plagg was already pigging out on all the cheese they had bought at the store.

“And I like to think I'll have you around too.” Adrien whispered, shyly meeting his partner’s eyes at the suggestion.

Marinette melted, falling in a little closer. “Oh, mon chaton, of course I'll be around.”

Adrien sighed, nuzzling the top of her head. He was so glad to have his own place, so he could be free to do things like this. He savored having her close for a few minutes more before pulling away, going to get something out of a kitchen drawer while her curious eyes followed him.

“I was actually hoping you wouldn't mind taking this.” He said carefully, not sure how to word the proposal. He walked back over to her, taking her fingers and wrapping them around the small key.

She was silent, lips a little parted as she examined it carefully. “Oh, Adrien, I-”

“It's not a big deal, I just figured since you know, my apartment is centrally located in the city it's a good place to detransform and I thought it would only be right for you to have it. And in case you ever need anything, you know this is your home too. If you want it to be that is! I mean, I'm not asking you to move in, I know we're not ready for that yet, but I thought it was only right that you have it.”

Marinette's heart thumped at how he said yet, the curves of the key pressing into her palm as she gripped it tight. “I do.”

“You do?”

“Want this to be my home too. I do want that.” She breathed out, watching as his eyes warmed and his smile grew.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Yes.” She laughed, feeling light all over, hugging Adrien close as he picked her up around her waist to spin them in a circle.

In that moment, Marinette couldn't help but think, no, maybe moving out wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

#simply--miraculous #adrienette #adrienette fic #ml fanfic #mlcreators #my fic

58 notes · View notes