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kindledrose · 5 months

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more of these guys :] (part 1) (part 2)

classpect thoughts under cut! yippee

these absolute fools gave me SO much trouble. i changed each of their classes and/or aspects like twice while drawing this lmao.

pearle was going to be a rage player initially! i had her down as one for the chaos — yknow, ‘red’s my favorite color’ and all that. but the catch ended up being that in this au, as rage represents in-game chaos and bloodlust, it only exists while the game is in effect, and so rage players don’t have much dominion over stuff that happens after that period ends (which has all sorts of delightful implications for grienn’s character, but anyways). meanwhile pearle definitely continues playing and also grows as a character even in times of peace. i was thinking in terms of comparing her arc in double life to secret life in particular — ‘she left the tower’ and all that, yknow? she went from being terribly isolated and functioning on a completely independent scale, winning only for herself, to being a key member of a team and finding a purpose in helping them. which is pretty incredibly space-coded, in my mind! my personal qualification for space players is that they’re destined to be lonely, often physically separated in some way from others, for a while but not forever — because space is about creation, after all. and if you look at being a witch from the perspective of reinvention — what pearle manipulated or reinvented here was herself. she found her place in the story and the person she wanted to be. witches are also some of the most powerful characters in terms of specifically manipulating their aspect, i think, which is great because i’ve heard she's pretty great at pvp lol

ignore that martyn’s color palette is not particularly great it’s hard to unify the design of a character who is super rustblood-coded but also inextricably linked to the colors green and yellow of all things. i’ll redesign him later. anyways! at first i had thought there might not be any light players in this session — since light is about sort of seeing through the laws of the game and often deliberately defying them, as well as having a certain degree of control over narrative agency due to this. and because, yknow, the life series is a minecraft youtube roleplay series, realistically the ccs aren’t going to be playing any characters that go out of their way to completely ruin the game or refuse to play it by the rules altogether. but then i started thinking — and i don’t know an awful lot about martyn’s character so forgive me if i’m going a little bit off the rails here — does martyn want to understand? because if he as a character tries to understand and affect his destiny even though he’s ultimately limited by the nature of the story itself, then he could totally be a light player. so that’s where i was coming from here. think about how he won limited life in the end, for instance — not by playing into what the game itself had been leading up to, but by acting on and finishing his own story. he’s a knight because i do think knights are a certified Narrative’s Little Guy class — they persevere through so much pressure and often also have that sort of dual persona thing, both of which are particularly endearing to an audience. it’s hard work, keeping up with the narrative and fulfilling his own quest for understanding while he’s at it!! but he does it!!

renn is Such a blood player guys he is such a blood player ohhh my goodness. playing the game in terms of your relationships with others, right? basing how you go about it on allies and interactions, and being a leader above all else? i’d say that’s pretty ren the dog coded tbh. i don’t have too much to say here because i think seer of blood renn is pretty self-explanatory — he sees the entire game as a game of relationships and ties. he has a lot of knowledge about this field specifically, and shares it with his allies in the way he helps direct them and keep them alive. the reason he’s blood instead of light is because he puts his allies over knowledge, i think — he’s far too busy dealing with all that stuff to speculate for too long what the purpose of it all might be, and that would detract from his goal (of winning alongside others or dying nobly), anyway.

again questions abt them are open forever always :3

#(<TOTALLY SELF-IDENTIFIES AS A SPACE PLAYER BTW. can u tell lmao)#pearlescentmoon #inthelittlewood #rendog #trafficblr #secret life #lifestuck au #doodles #love how u can just slowly watch the quality of the character lineup drawings deteriorate because i want to get to all of them fsfjhjf #i have soooo many thoughts abt how these characters would interact in the context of the game but will save that for another post so this-#-does not become any longer than it already is #(also i know i'm probably coming across as super pretentious abt this au just know i am excited ok! i am simply having fun!)

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emi-writings · 3 months

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Honestly, still kinda pissed that someone saw my jokey post about changing c!Wilbur – in a way that would have resulted in the exact same mc skin – and decided to scold me for “changing a loved character” in a way they considered “sucks”.

Could you imagine if commented every fanart of zombie Wilbur with “this isn’t canon and also it sucks” just because I personally didn’t like the zombie Wilbur headcanon?

My headcanons also aren’t something new, I just held back on how extreme they were because I knew people who were obsessed with cc!Wilbur would get upset for doing things cc!Wilbur wouldn’t like, even if I could back up why I have those headcanons from the canon material!

Just because I posted something in a jokey way, it doesn’t mean that these aren’t things I have spent years exploring in my fanfics, ideas that always wanted to expand on but never did before.

Why do I headcanon Wilbur as a witch? Because potions in Minecraft are considered magic, you get the death message “killed by magic” when killed by potions, and the mob witch uses potions. Wilbur is strongly associated with potions because he started a potion scam when he joined the dsmp! I held back from including things like astrology, but now that cc!Wilbur is dead to the fandom, I figured I wouldn’t need to anymore.

I’ve actually included Wilbur with witchy tattoos in my fanfics before! In the first ever tattoo artist/flower shop in the tntduo fandom!

Gender nonconforming Wilbur is simply based on the fact that he does act very gender nonconforming in canon. He serenaded Quackity to get him pregnant, he refers to himself as the Yin to Quackity’s Yang, I don’t want to touch on the Ghostbur and Friend shenanigans.

Wilbur not understanding geography? He needs help finding things on the server, and he clearly doesn’t know how countries work if he thinks he can just claim a piece of unused land and call it a country. It’s a funny little joke, he doesn’t even know what exactly is going on in terms of countries in the server, he just cares about his own thing.

Wilbur is one of the many characters that didn’t have a canonically height listed, so I made him a bit shorter than his cc! counterpart… He’s still taller than most other characters, it’s not much of a difference that I think would matter.

We know Wilbur is a musician as he composed the L’manburg anthem, but canonically the only instruments in the dsmp are the noteblocks. But I think woodwind instruments make sense for Wilbur, since they’re capable of playing some hauntingly beautiful melodies, and as the son of the angel of death, I think that would make sense for his character.

Like, I shouldn't feel more pressured to make my headcanons of c!Wilbur more like cc!Wilbur after we all agreed that the character was separate from the content creator!

#c!wilbur #c!wilbur soot #tntduo #honestly i hope that person avoids all fanart #because if they dislike not strictly canon wilbur #anime boy technoblade might melt their brain #and the amount of demon tommy fanart might cause a heart attack #there are so many non canon designs and everyone else can do them but I can't?

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lxmiko · 2 years

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Hello! Can I request a Luxiem hcs where they are streaming horror games together with reader? I just followed you and I really like your writing styles, hope to see more of it! :)

streaming horror games with luxiem . . .

— ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ—

THIS IS ACTUALLY KIND OF A FUNNY REQUEST CAUSE IM SO BAD AT HANDLING HORROR SO IM SORRY IF YOU SEE A LITTLE PROJECTION IN SOME OF THE HCS ;;

i assumed that the reader would also be some sort of streamer or vtuber, and i hope you don’t mind, but i chose a horror game/genre to write about for each member !!

characters: luxiem (separately)

— *✧･ﾟ: * —

vox akuma

he’s making you play five nights at freddy’s and there’s no stopping him ;; but don’t worry, he won’t backseat you :>. since fnaf doesn’t have any multiplayer games, he watches you play!!

vox probably pesters you into putting his model close to yours, whether it be one of his chibi pngs or his actual character model. he says it’s to take care of you in case you get scared, but everyone knows he just wants to be close to you, even if it’s virtual

“oh, it’s okay, darling,” he reassures you sweetly, though if you listen carefully, there’s a hint of mirth in his voice. “it’s just a jump scare, you’re okay, you’re still in the game.”

he’s very understanding when you get frustrated and gives little tips along the way if you ask, but it doesn’t stop him from being a tease >:c, he laughs when you scream at a jumpscare or freak out when the game gets chaotic toward the end of the night

when you’re concentrating and consequently quiet, he hums to fill the silence, his voice low and slow as to not bother you as you focus, and it’s calming despite the stress of the game

in the case that you’re good with horror, vox is going to be even more of a prick >:c. since he knows you won’t get scared, he’ll laugh a lot louder and tease you a lot more, but don’t worry, he still helps you when you ask cause even if he pokes fun at you, he wants you to enjoy yourself since he was the one who suggested the collab

if you’re really afraid, he’ll switch between cracking jokes about the animatronics and soothing you with encouraging words (and maybe a little backseating if you’re panicking a lot), “there’s only an hour left, dear. remember to keep an eye on freddy before he moves through the whole circuit.”

when you finish all five nights, he congratulates you with a loud celebratory shout, “you did it! i’m so proud of you, my love,” yes, it’s just a game that you played, but vox doesn’t care, he’s proud and happy that you took time to play a game he likes very much anyway >:cc

but of course, with a michevious smirk stretching across his lips, he has to ask, “so, how do you feel about playing the second game next stream?”

— *✧･ﾟ: * —

mysta rias

he definitely asked you rather hesitantly (“it’s okay if you don’t want to collab..!”) if you wanted to play a horror game with him

it’s the type of game where you’re constantly running, hiding, and actively trying to defeat the enemy you’re facing, and it’s most likely fast paced and filled with jumpscares (ex: outlast, devour, etc)

but either way, no matter what game you guys play, it’s going to be a chaotic mess. half of the time he’s making fun of you for being scared (even if he screamed louder than you did) and the other half he’s trying to make you go into the next area of the game first cause he’s too scared to go in himself

even before the game, he’s nervous, whether it’s because he’s collabing with you or the scary music of the start screen for the game (maybe it’s both)

you’re more likely to get afraid from mysta’s screams than the actual game

“it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay!” his voice raises in volume with every repeat of the very untrue affirmation. “it’s going to be fi—” he cuts himself off with another scream, probably shocking you as well

“babe, babe, babe, babe—” he cries for you every few seconds, getting scared by any suspenseful scenes that he swears will lead to jumpscares

“babe, please,” he whimpers as his character hides behind you, and you slowly open a door at the end of the hallway. “we’re going to die!”

at times where you’re more afraid than him, he’s very comforting, “it’s okay, i’ll do it for you,” he carefully completes a task and gestures back at you. “see? we’re fine,” even if he’s also afraid, he always makes sure you’re okay first (then he’ll go scream his head off later)

please humor his attempts at making the game seem funny. he’s most definitely got his eyes almost closed so he can squeeze his eyes shut in case of a jumpscare, and if you laugh at the way his model’s eyes are closed, he’ll bicker with you and it’ll distract him even if it’s only for a little while

after you two finish the game and end stream, he texts and perhaps calls you for a few hours to keep his mind off the game (and also because he hopes that talking to you will stop him from getting nightmares)

— *✧･ﾟ: * —

luca kaneshiro

poor, poor you ;; luca's going to be scaring you more than the game for sure ;;;

he's having the two of you play games similar to what mysta would have you play: fast-paced and filled with jumpscares

he pulls pranks on you, making sounds worthy of being in the game itself and gaslighting you into falling to your demise

he runs with key objects he knows you need to move on the next stage, and the two of you will have your own little chase

and if you guys are playing a buggy game, he definitely looks for every single part of the map to either clip through it himself and make objects disappear

you can try to avoid and not listen to him, but he’ll still somehow unintentionally get you killed and claim it was all according to plan afterward

even if he dies right after you, he bursts into a fit of loud laughter, and you’re obligated to forgive him no matter how mad you might act because his laugh is so contagious and adorable ;;

speaking of when he dies, he always calls for you to save him, even if he was the reason you died just a while ago. “come, come on, darling, you’ve got to save me here!”

everytime he dies, he cries out for you in one of his silly voices. “honey! pl—please!” and then he ends with his dramatic death with an equally dramatic shout of pain

but that’s not the end of it. he continues to trail after you and sulk, complaining that you didn’t save him >:cc. “that was, that was so unpog of you, you know that?” you don’t need to see him to know he’s pouting ^^;;

if you’re really afraid, he immediately becomes your knight in shining armor, even if it’s done a little humorously. “don’t worry, honey, i’ll protect you, okay?” .///. (though don’t expect him to be any quieter. he’ll still enter rooms with a yell and taunt to whatever enemy you’re facing)

despite all this, luca is a completionist at heart, and he pulls through with parts that are tougher for you in the game and jokes about being the carry til the end of it

“yay, we did it!” he cheers when the two of you finish the game, “you see that chat? you see that? we did it, darling!” he boasts about you and your good plays during the game (while still making it seem like he did all the work)

— *✧･ﾟ: * —

ike eveland

you’d be streaming and ike would have his cute lil png set right next to your model! you would be streaming an rpg horror game (omori, ao oni, etc)

the two of you take turns voicing the character lines (bonus points if the characters you guys voice end up together in the end (extra bonus points if you get ivy to voice characters too))

“got your drink with you, sweetheart?” he reminds you before stream. he also frequently has the two of you take short breaks to hydrate (even if he’s chugging an energy drink on his side) so your throats don’t give out from all the voice acting.

he’s so invested in the storyline and likes to go on little tangents with you about topics that come up in the game. they can range from very serious to stupidly humorous and relating to random memes the two of you know of

feel free to react any way you’d like, cause ike reacts right alongside you !! he’s expressive at every scene and always has something to say and gush over (cute animals and characters hehe :D). no matter if you cry at the sad parts or scream at the terrifying parts of the storyline, he’s right there with you :>

if the game features romance, the both of you definitely coo over them as chat coo over you being so adorable for being giggly about the romance (chat’s just spammed with “them <3 ;;;”)

the two of you discuss every choice together throughly, jumping down rabbit holes and deviating from the plot entirely, you can trust that as a novelist, his mind goes in every single direction when you ask him a simple question :>

he asks you a lot what you think might happen later in the game and pitches in theories of his own :oo

ike says he’s thought about making a horror rpg, and if you bring it up to him while streaming, he’ll, with a hint of amusement, say you already have a secured position as co-creator ;D

since the two of you are playing an rpg, it’ll probably take two or so streams to complete, and as the first steam comes to an end, he humbly accepts your invitation to join you the next time you stream the game. “if you’ll have me,” you can’t see it, but he shyly smiles at your immediate and affirmative response (along with chat’s spam) :>>

— *✧･ﾟ: * —

shu yamino

shu would have the two of you play some type of horror game heavily based on solving puzzles and choosing right choices!! he likes using his brain (and he won’t admit it, but he secretly likes to flaunt a lil bit of his intelligence)

whatever thoughts and ideas you might have toward solving puzzles are listened to intently, and he hums in acknowledge to show you he’s listening :>>

“let’s go!!!” he cheers softly when you or the both of you together complete a puzzle. it’s a small but adorable celebration considering the nature of the game the two of you are playing

he’ll find a way to slip a sugma joke, even if it makes no sense, and especially if you’re in a tense situation in the game. it’s his little way of lightening the mood and cheering you up :>

he’s always willing to go in front, though he’ll lightly bicker with you before he does. “huh? why do i have to go first? why can’t you go first?” he asks even if he’s already halfway through a slightly ajar door

he unknowingly comforts you, calling out your name when you’re in a panic and trying to look for him in games that use proximity chat, beelining toward you cluelessly with another piece of the puzzle. “i think we’re almost done, right? we should be almost there.”

he often makes little sounds of confusion at the harder puzzles in the game, mostly quiet aside from the stretched out “eh?” you hear him murmur under his breath

you get to hear his lemon voice, his voice raising in volume and pitch as an enemy chases him away and separates the two of you www

he doesn’t really scream much however, it’s more of a slight shout, and he often apologizes for it afterward if it scares you

if you’re the type to repeatedly call for help or scream when an enemy is nearby, he tends to laugh softly at you, but he’s not making fun of you!! he kinda finds it endearing that he gets to come to your rescue despite not being the best there is out there with horror

don’t worry about being alone after stream if you’re scared!! he’ll text you, “doing okay, baby?” and if you reply with even the slightest bit of fear, shu’ll stay up with you for as long as you want :>>

— ☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ—

gaaah this was so hard to write cause i don’t actually watch their horror streams ;;; i hope it still turned out to be an okay read for yall though !!

#luxiem #luxiem x reader #nijien #nijisanji #nijisanji en #vox akuma x reader #ike eveland x reader #luca kaneshiro x reader #mysta rias x reader #shu yamino x reader

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gammagoop · 2 months

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I think queer headcanons for the characters of the ccs are fine when it is clear you are not talking about the actual irl person. Maybe not on Twitter but here. Tumblr doesn't have many of the ccs here and people usually try to be respectful about it and it's good to see someone like you in your favorite character.

I do understand your reasoning tho, this isn't an argument or anything. Just wanted to add my two cents.

Love your art btw <3

i appreciate the input! and thanks for the compliment :D

the way i see it, the personas that the ccs put on in the life series and hermitcraft etc are not consistently separate enough from the irl ccs in order to warrant treating them as fictional characters. of course this is case-specific— ren probably considers some of the characters he’s played as more separate from himself, compared to someone like etho who doesnt stray much from his true personality. and to me, its just not practical to take it on a case by case basis— we’re not going to ask every cc a list of questions about their content just to know if its ok to ship them and whatnot, so i tend to take a very “better safe than sorry” attitude and just not engage with that fictional treatment at all

i’ve seen this described as a twitter opinion before and while i do think that probably has foundations in reality, i think separating between platforms like that isn’t helpful. i barely use twitter and haven’t for probably a year or so (aside from my private account) so i engage way more with the tumblr fandom than the twitter one, and further, i see a lot of people on twitter who do treat them as separate characters. idk that statement just irks me

and i’m glad that people are generally trying to be respectful— that’s good! and i understand that i, a random guy, cannot enforce my own views onto other people. but i do think this is a good conversation to have that too often i see people brushing off in favor of their own fan desires

if you want to see people like yourself in the minecraft content you watch (as many do, including myself) you should find other queer creators to watch, and/or find qualities about the hermits (and co) that you can relate to

#theres a difference between imagining yourself in a fictional situation and playing a fictional character #also the ccs are friends and know each other well enough to joke about these things #us as the fans do not know enough about the ccs individual comforts to talk seriously about these things #the things being lgbt headcanons and shipping and stuff #its certainly a grey area #askbox #masontalking #also i hate the excuse that some people use of ‘they wont see it’ like first of all you cant promise that #they see a lot more than we think #and secondly that doesnt change the actual stuff you’re doing

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cohandshake · 3 months

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I’m aware that this is going to be a horrendously unpopular opinion—which is why I’m doing it on a dead side blog rather than my main

I honestly don’t understand people who listen to artists whose whole shtick is “I’m an awful person and everyone I know leaves me because I use and abuse them”, and then are shocked when the artist turns out to be an awful abusive person. Like, what were you expecting?

I keep seeing all these people saying “well, how was I supposed to know he was bad? How was I supposed to be able to tell?” And then they’re all like “ohhh woe is me, I can’t believe I loved these albums! I’m going to have to get rid of all this stuff I got and completely rearrange my whole life!” Like??? If you liked the songs so much that your whole room is plastered with posters and merch… surely you listened to the lyrics??? At no point was he ever trying to hide the fact he’s like this, it’s all over his songs.

One thing that also gets me, it’s that everyone is now like “if you support or like his stuff you’re a terrible person” and like. That’s valid. But YOU liked his stuff where he made no qualms or effort to hide this, before. Does no one have any kind of critical thought? Like, when you hear the lyrics, you just think “oh yeah, this is a totally normal line” and move on? To say that “oh he tricked all of us into listening and liking his stuff and being a rabid fan”, like you weren’t tricked. The only trick he played was being a “hot guy online” that everyone seemingly collectively decided was great because of that.

or is it being faced with the actuality that’s horrifying? by your own logic, you’re also just as complicit. — this isn’t to say that I don’t understand standing in solidarity with victims that have spoken out, and the purging of his work being part of that. I just think it’s a little hypocritical to get on your high-horses and say everyone is a peace of shit if they don’t immediately disavow his stuff, since the signs have been there from the start.

And this also isn’t to say that I didn’t like his music. I did and I do. In fact, I only know of him BECAUSE of his music (I found him when he was still covering pat the bunny and wingnut dishwashers union). I’ve had no illusions of him being a good guy, and still consumed his work— did I know just what kind of piece of shit he was? No. Maybe because I’ve only known him for his music that makes me so critical of most of the reactions. I didn’t have the chance to be pulled in by a “nice guy act” online like so many people seemingly have.

Speaking of his online personas, it does make me wonder how no one apparently thought he was bad before this? Like I’ve read some fics (not enjoying Minecraft doesn’t mean the fics aren’t good) and people generally and routinely portrayed him as this manipulative, erratic, controlling guy — even when writing him as the good guy, they still always included elements of these personality traits in the work. And now, I see artist after artist discontinuing and deleting works (and if this is what makes them feel better, fair play) saying that “they cant continue writing/drawing his character now they know the truth about him” but at the same time they were always so vocal about “I write about the c! not the cc!” Like if you were truly separating the character from the actor, would so many of you be speaking this way? Looking at the rampant amount of Harry Potter fanfics (not even starting on the manacled debacle), then no — the artist and the work are only connected when it’s live action amateurs.

And also, if you’re THIS distraught over some guy YOU DONT KNOW turning out to be terrible, get some help, that’s not normal i don’t think — or it shouldn’t be, the internet and social media has normalized being strangely attached to strangers and celebrities that you otherwise wouldn’t be.

#wilbur soot #wilbur situation

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fantasyfantasygames · 7 months

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Isekai Trucking Inc.

The Fabulous True Story of Isekai Trucking Inc., Kun Collections, 2020

No relationship to Fridge Hauler, one of my previous reviews.

For those who don't get the reference: "Isekai", sometimes called "portal fantasy", is where someone from our wold ends up in another one. They often get there in a way that leaves it ambiguous or heavily implied that they died in the process. The most common way this happens is when they're crossing the road and there's a truck headed right for them, and they wake up in this other world. Which is probably not a last-moments hallucination but maybe... So yeah. Isekai Trucking.

Villains have overrun your world. They have something that can stop your every efforts, thwart all your magic. Your world needs heroes. It's your job to go out and get them. As many as possible. Only the magical energy released by near-death experience can trigger planar travel, so here you are, causing as much near-death as you can as quickly as possible. With a giant truck.

You do need to balance hitting people with your truck (which thankfully leaves no evidence) with actually getting caught. Getting caught is likely to put you in a near-death experience, which sends you back to your world. That's no good. Getting thrown in our prisons with their iron bars and steel manacles, that's no good either. You need to be sneaky. And clever. And probably befriend some humans who can help cover for you. And then steal a truck and hit people with it.

This is complicated by the fact that you play "fey" monsters. The system doesn't do a whole lot to support that. It's assumed that you're wearing the traditional "Benjamin Grimm in a trenchcoat" level of disguise, that you have no special strength or powers beyond mild cartoon wackiness and the kind of extreme resiliency that comes with "Heal all damage every morning". It does make the art fun. A goblin made of pipe cleaners hanging off the side of a dump truck with a baseball bat. A crazed garbage can with eyes staring out, hands on the steering wheel. A giant fuzzball engulfing a screaming pedestrian. It's all black-and-white Palladium-level stuff, but that honestly fits pretty well.

Rules are a GURPS-inspired 3d6 roll-under, with the usual four stats, a handful of mostly psychological advantages/disadvantages, and maybe more skills than you need. There are only 20 of them, but I feel like Driving, Stealth, Menace, Explain, Wait Let Me Explain (a separate and amazing skill), and Cunning cover an awful lot of territory for this game. The game would benefit from some more modern design, and maybe even being transformed into a spinoff of Eat God.

Isekai Trucking was distributed in EPS format (why???). It was on Itch for a while, but in the process of moving it over to another distributor KunColl accidentally introduced a non-Unicode character string into the title and now they can't open the original any more. They've declared the original CC-BY 4.0. Version 1.02 is the latest one if you're lucky enough to find multiple versions.

#ttrpg #imaginary #indie ttrpg #rpg #truck kun #isekai #honk honk mothertruckers #oscar the grouch is running me down in a dump truck

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llycaons · 7 months

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rightt i love the cql ending i think it was needed for them to go their separate ways. soo many cql haters bring up the ending as their main point for why it sucks. its as if they forget they reunite at the very end. also ive seen soo many weird fics where they hate on lz for “leaving wy and abandoning him” when thats such bs 😭 there was a fic summary where it was like ‘novel lz sees cql wy traveling alone and they get together’ like huh?? wy doesnt know that man and he loves HIS lz get over it

literally get OVER it lmao wwx didn't literally say 'WHEN I come back I want to hear the name of the song' (meaning he knows its significance and plans to RETURN and confess/hear lwj's confession) and lwj didn't say "I have long since known it' (meaning he's been in love w wwx for many years and knows it/plans to tell him) for wwx to LEAVE his star-crossed beloved of over two decades in order to shack up with some yellow-eyed weirdo who already has his own wwx who's into the same shit as he is? like. we HEAR lwj say wwx's name at the end, SEE wwx turn and smile. not to be rude but did these people watch the finale to the very end? are they stupid? what do they think is about to happen? lwj is going to say "oh it's you. I don't want to see you again, wei ying. being cc is more important to me than you are. I reject you and I will never have sex with you. that's why I came out to this cliff where you're playing the song I wrote for you. bye' and then leave??? lmao. please. PLEASE

plus it was a mutual decision based off of temporarily incompatible needs - lwj didn't abandon him! and if these fans are mad he 'let him go' then all they're saying is they're mad he didn't, what, imprison wwx somewhere he didn't want to be? clearly wwx wanted to travel and couldn't stay at CR, and clearly lwj needed to return to his home and help them all readjust to a shattered lxc and no cc. no it was good they each had time to breathe and they each as individuals needed to deal with things before they could be together

to be completely honest I think I would have liked the finale less if they HADN'T separated. postres, they slowly did become closer and started breaking down the barriers between them, but it was a process with a lot of stops and starts that seemed to stagnate at times. separation was a huge change that felt like it pushed their relationship into something new and resulted in an event so significant it was like they couldn't even show it. it was a really powerful choice!

to be fair if people don't like cql or think it's not gay enough or the censorship worked too well that's their business and I'm not going to lecture anyone into liking something they don't like, that's fine. there are little things about the performances and writing choices that annoy me too. but if the separation was written bc of censorship then they still got back together in the end and if the separation was an independent decision, then it was made to serve the story, which as a whole was a genuine and sincere attempt to convey a gay relationship even while being censored. and I do think it served the story and the characters very well. I know people also dislike cc lwj, which I can't fault them for since it's so far from the 'run away from the cultivation world' finale in the ending, but as someone who never read the book my first time watching, it made perfect sense to me. like....canonically wwx planned on returning and canonically lwj was there to greet him. if that hadn't happened, yeah it would have sucked. I would have been miserable. but it didn't! they got their ending together!

#asks #bro if wwx and lwj had not reunited I would have been heartbroken. I would have despised the finale too. but they DID!!!

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eeldritchblast · 1 year

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Editing Face Textures for Baldur’s Gate 3 (as of Early Access – Patch 9)

Disclaimer: I’m definitely not claiming to be the expert on this, I’m just sharing what I’ve figured out thus far upon request from an anon looking to play with this too.

TOOLS USED:

GIMP 2.8.18 (+DDS Plugin)

BG3 Modder's Multitool

PART 1: Unpacking the textures

After configuring the BG3 Modder’s Multitool (click the asterisk), you can use it to unpack the textures.pak file found in Steam\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data, or wherever you have the game files installed.

Click the “unpack .pak files” button and select the checkbox next to Texture.pak in the selection window that pops up. Then exit the selection and wait for the textures to unpack. This may take a few minutes. The application will create a folder called UnpackedData where the files will appear.

(Because there’s so many texture files, I highly suggest deleting folders you will likely never use to keep your computer clean.)

Face textures are found under Textures\Generated\Public\Shared\Assets\Characters\_Models, then sorted by Race folders – for example, Humans, and then for example HUM_F_NKD or HUM_M_NKD, and then by individual head, for example HUM_F_Head_E\Resources.

A great resource to help identify what textures go with what head is Padme4000’s CC Head References PDF, which you can download HERE.

In this tutorial, we’ll be changing the eyebrows for TIF_F_Head_C with the eyebrows from ELF_F_Head_F.

I suggest copying the textures you are using into a new folder so not to accidentally edit over the vanilla ones.

PART 2: Editing the textures

There are 3-5 textures found in each resource folder per head: CLEA, HMVY, NM are the only ones you need—and sometimes you don’t even need HMVY, depending on what you’re doing. Sometimes there’s also a MSK file, but you can ignore this one. Tieflings also have a BM file for the horns, but you can ignore this too.

Open the CLEA file in GIMP. Click on Colours > Components > Decompose with RGB as the model selected. (For some reason edited CLEA files are unfriendly with alpha. I don’t know why.) This will create a new image file with the channels separated into different layers. You can close the original.

Red will contain the face details. Green will contain the eyebrows. Blue will contain the lips. Sometimes eyebrow details are included in Red as well—such as the case in what we’re doing—but most of the time with eyebrows, it’s just a matter of switching out the Green channels.

For this tutorial, I pasted the elf red channel over the tiefling red channel, then cut away the changes I want to keep. Then I replaced the Green channel completely with the new eyebrows.

After you’ve made your edits, click Colours > Components > Compose with RGB as the model selected. This will create a new composed CLEA file for you to save as a .dds with the following settings:

For HMVY next, do the exact same thing as I did with CLEA, but this time with alpha included (RGBA). This is the file that you can make changes to things like adding or removing freckles to, by placing dark dots on the Green channel or getting rid of them using the Healing Tool. When you’re done, again, Compose the image but with RGBA this time, and save it as .dds with the same settings.

When editing the NM, I prefer to make changes channel by channel just the same as with CLEA and HMVY to be super safe. Make sure to use RGBA again, like with HMVY. The only channels you need to edit with NM is Green, Blue, and Alpha.

PART 3: Replacing the textures

Assuming you’re replacing a vanilla set of textures, here is the loose file way of doing so. (AKA the only method I know currently…)

Remember the file path of where the vanilla textures were extracted? You need to recreate that file path in your Data folder where the game files are installed. So in this example, that would be Data\Generated\Public\Shared\Assets\Characters\_Models\Tieflings\TIF_F_NKD\TIF_F_Head_C\Resources. Drop the new .dds files in the appropriate folder path, and start the game to view your changes!

#tutorial #bg3 modding

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fluffypotatey · 3 months

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OK SO. the animations family.

first off i have to explain the QSMP a bit. the QSMP (nobody's really sure what the q stands for afaik) is a multilingual minecraft smp that first started in march 2023. the original server roster was 16 players, half of whom were hispanic and half who were english speakers. (this was bc quackity, the guy who came up with the server and did all the planning and stuff, is bilingual and wanted to unite his two communities). one of these original 16 was jaiden animations (this is important). on the first day of the server, these 16 members were stranded in a place called Quesadilla Island, which is controlled by a mysterious and sinister Federation (run by a weird little guy named Cucurucho)

okay, you know the trope of science projects where you get split up into pairs and have to take care of an egg together? they literally did that. All of the players were split into pairs of one spanish-speaker and one english-speaker, and tasked with taking care of an egg (actually a special NPC played by a server admin). the eggs started out with two lives each, and once those lives were out, the egg's gone for good, and your in-game child is dead. (this is a secret surprise tool that will help us later!)

one of these parenting pairs was jaiden animations and roier, and their egg's name was bobby. bobby was a rambunctious little fella- artistic, brave, very aggressive- and an absolute mama's boy. jaiden, roier, and bobby (aka the animations family) all got along very well, and tbh i need to go rewatch jaiden's vods of them bc they were so sweet together. jaiden changed her minecraft skin to match bobby's so they were both wearing overalls together.

(^ mentally i am here)

jaiden's character (or cubito, a word from the spanish speaking community that essentially means "minecraft roleplay character" that p much the whole community uses now bc its so damn cute) was aroace (just like jaiden in real life!), so she and q!roier were in a qpr co-parenting situation. and it was really sweet and i miss them. can you tell i miss them.

(drawing done by jaiden of roier, bobby, and herself) (the qsmp has an art mod btw)

now, astute readers may have noticed that i use "was" for both jaiden and bobby. on may 17th, 2023, bobby lost his second life to a vindicator and was ruled permanently dead. roier was there at the time, I believe, but was unable to save bobby in time. when jaiden found out, she SCREAMED and it was like. you know in hamilton how when phillip dies eliza screams? it sounded like that. (she also chased after the sunset while saying "wait for me" over and over again, it was really heartbreaking and im still a little bit insane about this).

the next day, the whole server went on a journey to the dungeon bobby died in, to plead with cucurucho for his revival. cucurucho refused to bring bobby back permanently, but allowed jaiden and roier ten minutes to talk with him and say their goodbyes. bobby asked them to remember him every time they saw a sunset.

(^ the last time the whole animations family was together. this was 9.5 months ago).

neither q!jaiden nor q!roier ever really fully recovered from bobby's death (although id say jaiden was hit way harder due to not having a support system outside of roier and cucurucho, who took advantage of her grief to manipulate her). there are some other things that happened here, such as q!roier getting married to a cellbit, a brazilian player working as a double agent of sorts within the federation, and purgatory (all the players were teleported to an island, separated into three groups, and forced to fight one another. in the end the island got blown up by a nuke).

on sunday, cc!jaiden talked about her qsmp character, ultimately stating that she was taking a long break from the server, that she had given the admins permission to do whatever they want with her character's absence, and essentially announced that unless the admins stated otherwise, q!jaiden had died in the nuke explosion in purgatory, firmly destroying the animations family.

(to me, the saddest part is that, recently, new eggs were assigned to groups of childless players, and both jaiden and roier got the chance to raise new eggs, with jaiden being assigned to empanada and roier currently being pepito's sole active parent. and all q!jaiden wanted was to be a mom. she died never knowing she had a second chance to rebuild her family. i am no okay.)

in conclusion:

THE LOVE WAS THERE AND THERE WAS NOTHING THEY CAN DO. I AM CRYING IN REAL LIFE I MISS HER SO BAD. SHE'S WITH BOBBY NOW.

#they were a happy family :’(#funny side note i did mimic the Leo pointing meme when you said Jaiden Animations bc i def know about her #the yt animated community was my life in middle school and high school lmao #ironically i didn’t actually watch a lot of jaiden’s stuff but she was like THE animation queen and everyone knew her #tbh i dont remember who was my first #the youtuber who introduced me to that side #i know it’s NOT 0ddonesout even tho i watched a lot of his stories #i guess we’ll never know #smp 101 with gumy #asks

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greaterspawnislands · 2 years

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(This is the separate ask I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts on how other stream sub groups operate differently it's just so fascinating to me)

YEAH!!! Also it's so very cute to me how supportive and patient he was with Kristen when she was first considering streaming <333

At first she just kinda popped into chat and on stream rarely and he never forced her to stay if she didn't. Over time she just got used to and wanted to interact with chat more! Until she started streaming herself and he's been 100% supportive the entire time. Literal A+ husband material you can tell how much he loves her and its so sweet,,,,

YEAH ok so about the kristin thing at first so recently i've been watching all of phil's s4 videos and i'm getting to the end of 2019 aka they're preparing for their wedding and phil's in the process of getting a visa and it's so :))

i currently have two kristin stream vods in my watch later (bc i've been busy) and im so excited to get to themm it's been awesome to see kristin get more confident in streaming bc she is so funny!! i really love tuning into her streams they are such nice spaces :) also i miss parents sdv i hope they play again

ANYWAYS ok so my ramblings about phil's community is just. hold on i need to put this under cut because the more i write out the more it feels like inane bullshit but whatever we're here now

i feel like out of all of the streamers who have grown their communities in the boom of 2020/dsmp era phil's has been the most interesting to me. obviously biased here bc this is my community but ok. I'm not going to say that phil's fanbase is "the best" because that's obviously a subjective take but i think part of what makes it stand out to me is that it skews significantly older than any of the other streamers fanbases. routinely, we've heard from donos that there are teachers or people with full jobs who are donating to phil's streams. now, obviously we've heard plenty from high school age and younger, but for the most part those people tend to be sbi fans, or crimeboys fans who also enjoy phil - totally valid, etc, but they're not who i'm talking about.

the people who main phil tend to be older, which shapes a pretty different community that has a much less active presence on places like twitter. Those who are on twitter tend to not have nearly as much of a drive for clout as other subtwts - obviously there are exceptions, there always are, im trying not to speak as a total generalization - but i can't think of too many c!phil mains with thousands upon thousands of followers compared to other subtwts. And i think that again mostly comes down to like . it's just an older fanbase so they don't care abt that stuff as much.

oh and also! early gang as a central hub for most people who main phil i think helps a lot because, similar to tumblr, no character limit directly correlates to like. more critical thinking being used and less automatic aggression towards other people in the way twitter pushes to the forefront of every interaction. so as a whole the community comes across as far more chill than other subtwts/etc bc they aren't using twitter as their primary hub of communication

but i also think phil has had a direct impact on how his fans act on twitter regardless of age. the example that immediately comes to mind is when uh. ok. so idk if u were on twitter at all circa late 2020-early 2021, but subtwt selfie days were Alllll the rage back then, there was basically one or multiple every single day of the month for various ccs and duos/groups/etc. and i remember when it started popping off, phil got asked about it on stream and he very seriously talked about how he wasn't comfortable having a selfie day tagged after him, because he didn't like the fact that so many people, many who were high school age/teenagers, were putting their face on the internet for literally anyone to look at. i think he was the only cc who really spoke out about the ramifications of having your face online like that, and i know for me it was the first time i took a step back and went "yeah wait this is kind of fucking weird". it obviously didn't stop the selfie days for any other ccs, or the sbi selfie day, but his fans listened, and there was no phil selfie day ever again, and i think it's that kind of communication between phil and his audience that sort of helped develop his community in that direction, being mindful of internet bullshit and all that jazz. it's that kind of way he looks out for fans and the like that makes me really appreciate him and his community all the more. i just really like telling that bit of his history bc it was important to me in that time

again i don't know if this makes . too much sense. i sort of just started rambling and didn't stop to think if i was making any real points. this is all just to say that i love early gang, love philza, loveposting hours are so real i love this old man

#speaking #philza #thebleedingeffect #ask

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bookofmirth · 1 year

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I personally do think that between Gwyn and Elain, Gwyn has a better chance of helping Bryce because she's doing research about the other worlds and stuff and she also kind of speaks the old language- she at least sings her songs in the old language so I would I assume that she can talk it. We know nothing about Elain and she didn't have any visions since acowar + I don't think the IC would let her help.

But tbh? I don't think they will play a big role in CC3 no matter how much el/riels and gwynriels think that. I feel like Sjm will only stick to the IC and Nesta. Maybe only those who were in the crossover? She said that CC3 will partically lead to Acotar 5? We have Azriel, who made a big apperance in the crossover and the whole TT thing. That only just conviences me that acotar 5 is his book and he most likely will play a big role in CC3 while Bryce is in Prythian.

Elain or Gwyn might make a small apparance but I don't think a big one where they are really needed. I think Rhys or someone else would mention that they'll go to the library to get some more Information and Bryce might just meet Elain briefly. That's my opinion though- I really don't think it is a big deal.

Again, I have no fricking clue how el/riels included Elain because like I said... Elain may be a seer, but she doesn't have visions every now and then and she doesn't know how to control them. She didn't have visions to warn Cassian and Azriel about the trap before they went to save Eris. Or warn Nesta before she went to Emerie and Gwyn came along. And even if, her visions are very unclear, no one in the IC didn't get it until it was too late (in acowar). The IC doesn't include her in anything, which is why she was barely in acosf. Plus she has no clue about the other worlds or anything about Prythian. Gwyn and Merril might do research that Bryce could need and it's good for her to know the old language which is why I understand gwynriels better, I still don't think she would be that much included like they think.

Agree 100%, if in part because I really really really don't want the two worlds to be *that* entwined with each other haha

There are a lot of potential ways in which the IC and other characters could help Bryce, but my hope is that their involvement remains at a minimum. I know that sjm said that cc3 is going to set up the remaining books, which sounds like it could have a huge impact on acotar, but I am going to remain hopeful. I am not a fan of being upset until I absolutely have to be.

And let's be real, if either character's name comes up even once in CC3, the fandom is going to lose its collective shit. Or, the few remaining braincells it has. "Elain sneezed" *chaos* "Gwyn said hi" *mayhem* "Azriel blinked" *orgasm*

Perhaps she will only stick to the people who were in the final chapter, which would be the IC, like you mentioned (Rhys, Feyre, Cassian, Az, Amren, and Mor) and Nesta. It would be very easy for Merrill to help without actually appearing on the page, same for Gwyn. And as you mentioned, Elain would have a *lot* of work to do before she'd be in a position to help, and I am Team acotar and CC Stay Separate As Fucking Possible. I can't imagine that Rhys & Co. would want a lot of the other courts to know about Bryce? They don't know if she's a threat, or an ally, or something in between. So I could see them trying to keep her presence pretty secret.

I'm just tired of trying to predict stuff in a series where the author literally does whatever the fuck she wants - which I don't blame her for, at least she's having fun - and it's not even something I enjoy doing under normal circumstances.

#tbh i'm tired of most of it #y'all wore me out #ask #anon #acotar/cc

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thesmpisonfire · 11 months

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I hope you don’t mind me writing all of this here! You’re the blog I scroll through the most for QSMP related stuff and I really like how you engage in the content and I don’t have any irl friends who watch it so 😅 but I’ve just seen all of the Missa stuff (which I wish people could engage with media without being freaks like actually leave the CCs alone it’s not hard) but the whole thing has kinda made me wonder if maybe it’s an audience thing country/language wise? I really hope this doesn’t come across as offensive or malicious in any way towards the Spanish speaking community because that’s sincerely not what I’m intending but like 99% of the players who don’t want to log in because of pressure from the audience about the eggs are Spanish speaking creators (Rubius, Spreen and now Missa) and don’t get me wrong EVERY chat in every language can be intense and has had to be “told off” by their CC but it doesn’t seem to have affected the English, French or Brazilian CCs as much as the Spanish. I’m just wondering if maybe Spanish speaking audiences don’t have as much experience with role play stuff so maybe they just are very overly invested in the egg stuff and can’t separate it from the actual CC (also this is coming from someone who genuinely loves the eggs as characters and the stories they bring to the whole thing) idk sorry for babbling but I just wonder if there’s any correlation or anything 🤷🏼‍♀️

Awie nonnie thanks 🥺 also dw dw i love when ppl ramble in my asks :D

Alrighty so. I see you don't have much experience with the Hispanic side of Minecraft twitch, so lemme give u a quick rundown

Actually! Hispanics have a LOT of experience with rp servers, Karmaland is the biggest rp series in Hispanic twt and Vegetta created it! Quackity was in the last season (Karmaland V) and it was an experience that really helped him set down the rules for QSMP and how he'd want to direct it. Other servers such as the one Roier played before the qsmp (sorry i forgot the name) or even squidcraft and minecraft extremo are other examples of it

But i think the difference is that Hispanic mc servers usually have a minimum playing time requirement per week, so the participants usually have to play 3 times per week, as an example. So now, added to the Loud™ part of hispanic watchers that would annoy the streamers, there's also added the new audience from English speakers and, yes, even Brazilians, that probably caused this wave of pressure to be tenfold

Also, about the eggs, i trust the writer's team to get a way out in a way that manages to be a middle ground to everyone, let them cook, yk?

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ccthewriter · 1 year

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CC’s Top 10 New Watch Ranking - March 2023

Every month on Letterboxd, I make a list of the 10 best films I’ve seen for the first time. It’s a fun way to compare movies separated in time, genre, and country of origin, and helps me keep track of what I’m watching! This is a breakdown of those films.

March! A month of frost and defiant sunlight; mud and budding flowers. As winter is besieged by a burgeoning spring, I stay inside watching movies until the predominant weather isn’t Wet. This month is always defined by Blank Check’s March Madness poll, and the accompanying community tradition of March Sadness. We watch one movie from each director as they’re knocked out of the competition. I didn’t fully complete my Sadness this year, but those that I did see have soared to the top of the list. I adore this podcast and its community - it really is the reason I’m a movie fan in the first place. The accidental theme that emerged from my Sadness picks are Futures We Did Not Imagine. Each film features characters whose visions of their lives have changed. Some find themselves in better worlds than they could have imagined; others are left in the cold wake of their dreams.

Click below to read the breakdown! Click HERE for the list on Letterboxd!

10. Perfect Blue

1997 - Satoshi Kon

I remember watching Paranoia Agent on Toonami when I was a kid. It was one of the first weeks I had a TV in my room. A little 10” screen that sat four feet away from my bed, so I’d have to strain my eyes in the dark to see the image. I didn’t understand why Cartoon Network changed at night. It felt haunted. It felt like living creepypasta. This movie returns me to that feeling. There’s an immense sense of dread as Mima’s life begins to spin apart in delusion horror. She’s a popstar turned actress whose support staff keep getting murdered. As the film goes on, she questions whether she’s done something to cause these death, perhaps killing them herself in a psychotic break. Though I did not find this quite as insightful or visually impressive as Paprika or Millennium Actress, it’s still one of the best anime movies ever made. It captures an incredible spirit of thrill and horror.

9. La Ciénaga

2001 - Lucrecia Martel

A slow and horrifying film that embodies the lazy, muggy, sodden days of summer. Not the invigorating heat of a vacation from school: these are the endless bored days stuck under a parent’s thumb, where they are trying to ignore you from existence and maintain a Malibu buzz. Brought to mind certain Florida vacations with my family. Martel has created a very specific familial web that feels lived in and real. The adults want nothing to do with their kids, but demand their constant attention. The kids fight to create their own fun, and are allowed to play with rifles. Their upper-middle class airs makes them feel possessive over their hired help. Class struggles, incest, and bored cruelty all intermingle in an Argentine villa. I enjoyed it for the breadth of wonderful performances, which seems to reach hyperreal levels of embodiment through unshowy moments. The way these characters don’t look at each at dinner says so much about what their relationships are like.

8. No

2012 - Pablo Larraín

Few films I have seen so embody the feeling of a specific moment of history. This is achieved by this movie’s main attraction - it is shot entirely using equipment that existed in the year of the film’s setting, 1988. There’s a VHS, television incandescence to every frame. All the shots are slightly fuzzy, rainbow-tinted. This reinforces perfectly the rainbow logo at the center of the film. The Pinochet regime has been forced to hold a popular vote to see if YES, the dictatorship should continue, or NO, the country should democratize. A young advertising exec is hired by the NO campaign to sell their message. Gael García Bernal aces this performance, embodying someone who believes in the cause, but believes in their own talent more. He’s so jaded, so disbelieving in any sort of grand victory. And yet he wakes up and finds himself living it. The advertising dream he sold is real. I adored this for the visual style, that performance, but also the underlying message about the nature of dictatorships. It’s a self-defeating impulse. People crave freedom in the deepest part of their soul, and will strive to achieve it no matter what. Fascism always contains the seeds of its own destruction. Happiness, joy, life itself are gravitational forces that will draw the public towards freedom.

7. Sunshine

2007 - Danny Boyle

From my Letterboxd review:

“Humanity pushed to the brink. Some find peace in the little things, some focus on what has to be done, some discover they are avenging angels who need to enact the whims of a bloodthirsty god. Others sit in peace and tend their gardens.

I don't think I would have liked this so much if I had seen it before the pandemic. I know what people are like when facing an uncertain oblivion now. The visual styling is *incredible.* The way Boyle uses overlapping reflections and nonsensical, out-of-focus shapes is just immaculate. He's inspired me to pick up my old digital camera and use it for all its worth! If nothing else, watch this for some truly remarkable transitions between shots. Love the crunchiness of the sci-fi, love the leaps of fancy, *love* all the performances. Just an incredible treat through and through.”

6. An Cailín Ciúin

2022 - Colm Bairéad

An Irish film!! I would feel legally obligated to celebrate a work as Gaeilge no matter what, but I can proudly say that this is a brilliant film worthy of attention regardless. Cáit is the titular child, bullied and neglected by her poor family. They send her off to her mother’s better-off cousin for the summer. She slowly opens up under their care, experiencing the joys of a small farm house in scenes that reminded me of My Neighbor Totoro, in terms of their pastoral beauty. She discovers tragedy among her new caretakers, too, and fragments of cruelty among her neighbors. Though she must ultimately return to her unhappy home, she holds on to the lessons of this summer forever, having found strength to voice her worries and stand up for her own joy. I mean, that sounds fucking brilliant, doesn’t it? This is beautiful and precious and painted in gorgeous colors. I’m really honing in on this live-action Miyazaki quality. It’s a small film of a young girl’s journey closer to adulthood. It’s simply so beautiful to witness.

5. Mississippi Masala

1991- Mira Nair

I wanted to watch this because I heard it was one of the most romantic, sexy movies of all time. It certainly contains that, but its reputation overshadows the intense drama and other types of love shown in the film. Mina is a child living in Uganda, who is forced to leave her home after the new political regime threatens the Indian minority population. Twenty years later, she’s living in Mississippi at the motel her family runs, without peers or dreams. All that changes when Demetrius, played by Denzel Washington, arrives in her life. He inspires her to find a new path in life. Her family holds a lot of baggage around their romance, painted by their experience in Uganda and good old fashioned American racism. But ultimately, they embrace that they can’t keep controlling her future. If they want her to be happy, they have to let her go. It’s a sweeping narrative that focuses on an interesting intersection of history and identity that I haven’t seen spoken of anywhere else. I adore this central romance, which seems so genuine and spontaneous. I adore the complex web of characters that shape Mina’s life. It’s a beautiful demonstration that no romance happens in a vacuum, that we all carry the expectations of the people around us and the history we have lived through. It makes the ending so triumphant.

4. Le Bonheur

1965 - Agnès Varda

I know Wes Anderson fucking loves this film. The colors, the brilliant staging, the reinforcement of every character through a very specific visual theme. It is brilliant. You can tell Varda helped make The Young Girls of Rochefort. They share a perfection in imagemaking. This film tells the story of a young family over the course of a few seasons. They start in brilliant, shining, happy Summer, like a family in a postcard, and pass towards the cooler weeks of Autumn. François, the husband, develops an affair with a woman at the post office. The title of the film means Happiness, and as it goes on you realize that the happiness they’re focusing on is his. He gets everything he wants - a beautiful home, a great job, adorable kids, and a self-sacrificing wife who would do anything for him. The meandering aesthetic joy of the film turns sharp when he reveals he’s having an affair, and asks his wife to be ok with it. It’s her duty to protect his happiness, after all. It makes him a better husband. She agrees - and then takes her own life a few moments later. Even in the wake of her death, we see his happiness become paramount. His mistress becomes the new mother to his children, and all their other family members seem perfectly happy with this arrangement. The brilliant feminist thinking that goes into this film demonstrates this period of history where the entire world really was built around men’s happiness. Reality seems to contort itself so that he never, for a moment, has to feel too guilty, too responsible. The technicolor joy continues. By the end of the film, we suspect that the vivid, beautiful colors may be achieved with lead-based paint. There’s a little arsenic in that palette.

3. Metropolis

1927 - Fritz Lang

From Letterboxd: “Capital G Great film, even if it is an exhausting watch that ends in a lame both-sidesy message. Pleased to see that critics for decades have pointed out the stupidly simple moral center. Still, incredible to think such a massive, visually inventive work is nearly a century old. Contains every big budget narrative that can be: sci-fi, fantasy, disaster, thriller, spy, horror... simply immense.”

I enjoyed this as a historical artifact more than an actual movie, if that makes sense. It really is impressive to see how grand these sets and costumes were. In terms of actual flow, it felt like work to get through. But I feel richer for having completed it. I finally understand why that dang poster is so iconic! Having had some time to reflect on this, I think the most powerful thing within the movie is its reflection of Weimar Republic thinking. The two forces, the oppressed underclass and the all-powerful dictator shake hands at the end of this film. THE HEAD AND THE HANDS MUST BE MEDIATED BY THE HEART, the film loudly proclaims. That Heart is the church. These people really thought that their society could be balanced through this little arrangement… but barely a decade later, Germany would see how wrong they were. This overwhelming liberal idea that the two sides just need to talk it out, or be mediated by some mystical third force, is a false fantasy. There is no reason the underclass shouldn’t have just fucking murdered this dictator who engineered their oppression! Whose only redeeming act was, at the very last minute, realizing he had fucked up. I hope people watching this film in the present day embrace the warning surrounding this film, rather than the message the film itself wants to send. If our world is going to survive, we are going to need a much stronger sense of justice than can be found here. We have to hold the architects of these global, fascistic systems responsible for the terror they have bred.

2. Alphaville

1965 - Jean-Luc Godard

From Letterboxd: “Finally, a Godard that I'm crazy about. A film that speaks to this moment of history where the AI question looms on the horizon. Is it technology that should be nuked out of existence? Something to quarantine and ignore? To surrender to? I can't deny that I, too, view the people who give their lives up to this fad as mutants. I despise how willing some people are to surrender to it, who salivate at the idea of their own obsolesce.

"Yes, Machine Alpha, think for me. Make my art. I will close my eyes and consume what you wish. I will walk the path you lay out for me. Your thinking must be perfect, because I do not understand it. The man in the white coat doesn't understand, either, and that must be good too. I'm so afraid of anything I can know - make my future opaque."

These folks will stumble around like blind ants, too, when life forces them to confront the messy realities of human existence that machines can't predict. The loose craft of this film reinforces that idea. This is a near-future made of things Godard found lying around, shot with on-the-fly impulsivity. Its messy edges are the point. You have to strive to understand it. You have to communicate with the filmmaker - you have to connect with a human being.

It's all about love, folks. Everything in your life, past, present, and future: it just comes down to love.”

1. Platform

2000 - Jia Zhangke

From Letterboxd: “There are days when you look out at your life and realize everything has changed. The vision you once held for the future is now impossible. How did it happen? Slowly. So slowly. A thousand small decisions made every day, plus ordinances passed down from echelons of power you'll never touch. At least you're alive. That's alright. Maybe the next generation will find the dreams you left behind. Maybe they'll even live them.

Phenomenally slow-burning slice of life, admittedly a bit inaccessible if you're not familiar with this part of history. But the small changes that suddenly become global shifts are *fascinating* to track. Everyone's being towed around on a hacked tractor, then you blink and everyone has a car. It's amazing to see these idealistic kids quietly give up on their dreams. They put them away on the shelf, waiting for the time to be right, and a few decades pass before they realize the moment never came. The train flew past the platform, and it's never coming round again.”

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Thank you for reading! If you liked any of these thoughts feel free to follow me on Letterboxd, where I post reviews and keep meticulous track of every movie I watch. Look forward to more posts like these next month!

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