#it's just about it looking cool or having a gimmick so influences will come take pictures and give you tons of free advertising | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deafeninggardenerpanda · 3 years

Text

Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee arrived at the tower. On the way, Kirby inhaled a lots of big peaches, so he was full.

"Huhh ... I ate too much. My stomach is satisfied for a little while, but there’s an all-you-can-eat party soon, too."

"It's not an all-you-can-eat party, Kirby. King Dedede and Meta Knight are waiting for you at the top of this tower."

"The top of this tower? Oh yeah, I’ll get hungry if we head to the top. Then, King Dedede’s kind heart is really doing its job well!" Kirby jumped up energetically. "Let's go! We'll be hungry right away if we climb such a tall tower!"

"H-hmm ... " Kirby’s misunderstanding was pretty unlikely to be cleared up. Bandana Waddle Dee was troubled, but he tried to enter the tower with Kirby anyway, when suddenly—a pair stood in front of the two and quickly blocked their path.

King Dedede and Meta Knight.

Bandana Waddle Dee was stunned. "Huh? His Majesty King Dedede and Sir Meta Knight ... those two, aren’t they in the tower?"

"There was a change of plans!" King Dedede said, seemingly distinguished.

However ... his voice was strange, somehow. It was higher-pitched than the Great King’s usual voice and felt cute, in a way.

King Dedede continued, becoming increasingly arrogant, "Let us teach you the rules of the tower before we start fighting all out!"

"That's why we were waiting for you here!" Meta Knight said. Him too, his voice was a little cute.

"Um, excuse me ... are you two really real?" Bandana Waddle Dee said in doubt.

"Eh?"

"Your voices are different than usual ... "

King Dedede and Meta Knight flapped their arms in a kerfuffle.

"W-w-what did you say, Bandana Sir ... err, Waddle Dee!"

"Of course we’re real! You see, I also have the treasured sword, Galaxia!" Meta Knight pulled out his sword.

"Hmm ... the shine of the blade, it’s like aluminum foil has been stuck on it ... " Bandana Waddle Dee said, increasingly suspicious.

"N-noisy! Let’s do this!" Meta Knight thrusted at them with his sword.

"Wah!" Bandana Waddle Dee panicked, but Meta Knight staggered and lost his balance.

"Whoops~!"

Next, King Dedede raised his hammer. "Such insolence! Take this!" Kirby jumped with joy as King Dedede attacked him.

"It's an exercise to make me hungry! Thank you, King Dedede!"

Kirby skipped and hopped around. King Dedede couldn't keep up with his movements and immediately sat down, out of breath.

“Hah ... Hah ... Kirby ... is a scary guy!" Bandana Waddle Dee snuck up behind the slumped King Dedede and pulled on his robe as hard as he could.

"Waah! What are you doing!" The robe came off.

No, not just the robe, but the costume of King Dedede was taken off as well. What appeared—was a Waddle Dee.

"After all! I thought it was strange!" Bandana Waddle Dee shouted as he pulled on Meta Knight’s mask.

"Waah! Stop it, stop it~!" Meta Knight struggled and uttered in a pitiful voice. The mask came off. After all, its contents were Waddle Dee. Kirby blinked in surprise.

"What! I thought you guys were too weak for those two! Where are the real ones?"

"Maybe they’re at the tower’s summit." Bandana Waddle Dee turned to the two Waddle Dees with a slightly angry look. "Why did you pull such a prank! As the leader of the Waddle Dee Corps, I’m ashamed!"

"We’re sorry, Bandana Sir."

“But it wasn't a prank."

The two Waddle Dees apologized, downhearted. "We were waiting here to explain the rules of this tower to Kirby."

"Rules?"

"Yes, this tower is the Buddy Fighters Tower. Buddy, as in a partner, that is. If you don't have one, you can't enter!"

"His Majesty King Dedede is preparing various gimmicks in this tower! You can't proceed unless you make it past us!"

The two Waddle Dees seemed to be here to explain the rules.

"I appreciate you two explaining the rules to us, but why were you disguised?" Bandana Waddle Dee asked.

"Well ... " The two Waddle Dees struck a gallant pose. "Because it looked strong, because it was cool ... Grrrrr!" they shouted.

" ... I see."

Everyone was getting aggressive because of the shooting star’s influence on this place. They were sorely itching for a fight. The Waddle Dees longed to be strong, so that was probably why they disguised themselves so boldly. Bandana Waddle Dee looked back at Kirby.

"Sorry, Kirby. I didn’t explain it to you properly. To enter the tower, you need to have a buddy. Let's go find you a buddy."

"A buddy? Oh, you mean a partner? Because you dance at a party, and it's more fun to dance with a partner!"

"Err ... well ... It's not really like that ... "

"Then, I like you, Waddle Dee!" Kirby shouted, his voice full of energy.

"I’m no good," Bandana Waddle Dee said in a hurry.

"Why not?"

"Because I can’t fight ... "

"Ehh? But it'll be more fun with you, Waddle Dee!"

"This tower is full of danger. You need to team up with a strong buddy to reach the top floor ... "

"Oh yeah, King Dedede challenged me to a battle to make me hungry, but it’s okay!" Kirby did a somersault. "If any enemies come out, I'll beat ’em up!"

"But ... "

"Let's go early! The party will start!" Kirby rushed into the tower.

"Oh, wait, Kirby!" Bandana Waddle Dee had no choice but to chase after him.

Kirby finally stepped into the tower and began looking around restlessly. Inside was like the halls of Castle Dedede. The floor sparkled and many elegant pillars stood proudly. Already, it looked like it was ready for a dance party.

"Will we have a party here, I wonder? But there's no feast or music."

"Be careful, Kirby," Bandana Waddle Dee said on high alert. "His Majesty King Dedede is definitely supposed to be making a gimmick to catch you off guard ... "

"There is no gimmick! Let's go upstairs!" Kirby found the stairs and tried to run up them, however, two enemies appeared before he could.

"T-that’s!? Kirby!?" Bandana Waddle Dee shouted involuntarily.

Two warriors blocked Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee’s path. Their faces and bodies looked just like the real Kirby’s, but their colors were different. One was light blue and carried a long whip, while the other was yellow and carried a bomb. Kirby’s eyes widened as he looked them over.

"Just like me ...!? Oh, are these guys Waddle Dees in disguise too?"

Bandana Waddle Dee nodded. "Looks like that for sure. Hey, both of you, drop your disguises and lower your weapons ... " But the enemy attacked without a word. The light blue fighter lashed out his whip and tried to strike Bandana Waddle Dee. "Ah! What are you doing!"

Kirby jumped out and protected Bandana Waddle Dee, taking a direct hit to the head while doing so. Bandana Waddle Dee raised his voice.

"Kirby!? Are you alright!?" he shouted.

"Totally! I’m not worried at all!" Kirby grabbed hold of the whip. The light blue warrior staggered as he snatched it away.

"Eyaah!" The two warriors, light blue and yellow, were thrown into each other. Their eyes spun as they toppled over. Already, it seemed they didn’t have the strength to get back up. Bandana Waddle Dee approached the two and pulled on their faces.

"Huh? It doesn’t seem like these Kirby’s are a disguise."

"Really? Then, who are they?" Kirby looked at the two lying on the floor. "Hey, who are you guys? Why are you just like me?" he asked. No reply.

"Maybe these two are the gimmick made by King Dedede," Bandana Waddle Dee said.

"Gimmick?"

"He made warriors that look exactly like you to fight the real you."

"How?"

"Hmm ... I wonder how, too. I wonder if he used the Kirby Printer ... but that machine should’ve been broken ... " Bandana Waddle Dee and Kirby thought about it, but had no clue.

"It’d be a big mistake if this is the idea that King Dedede came up with. They’re really weak," Kirby said.

"Yeah ... but that’s because this is still the first floor," Waddle Dee said anxiously as he looked up at the ceiling. "The higher you climb, the stronger the enemies that appear will be."

"No matter what kind of guys come out, they’ll be no problem, no problem at all! I'll beat them all with a great big whomp!" Kirby climbed the stairs enthusiastically.

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

#kirby #bandana waddle dee #king dedede #meta knight #waddle dee #kirby fighters 2 #Kirby: Kirby Fighters the Destined Rivals!!#kirby light novel #translations

62 notes · View notes

bubmyg · 3 years

Note

hi hannah! idk if you’ve talked about it before, but if you don’t mind could you expand on how 3J’s dance style/presence has changed and how you can tell jungkook trained in LA? i really love reading about your perspective on dance :) hope you have a good night!

as always this is me rambling incoherently and trying to organize my train of thought in the easiest way. im not a professional i've just danced since i was four and have a decent amount of time as a choreographer/teacher if u want my perspective <3

there isn't a super complicated way i look at jihope's evolution. they both obviously have retained and polished their respective styles over the years and have leaned way more into their personalities. as i've always said, the dancers that stand out for me are those that can convey something other than just the movement the choreographer taught them. jihope have always been outstanding dancers, they both came from dance backgrounds, and obviously idol choreography and idol stages are an entirely different beast than a classic ballet/contemporary school and the underground hiphop/street dance scene. but, as the years have gone on, they've certainly settled into themselves and their styles and their abilities and are absolutely two of the best dancers and performers in the entire industry. it's just a basic coming into your confidences as your professional career develops, nothing too complicated imo :-)

as for mister jaykay :'-) i look at it similarly to jihope. he was a child when they debuted so of course he's going to grow and evolve. but from a purely dance perspective, he came in just naturally "good" at a whole bunch of little things. he was a pretty good singer, a pretty good dancer, a pretty good rapper. of course he was sought by several companies, i imagine, because he had these little skills in a lot of things that could eventually be developed with training AND he's also just. very wonderful n willing to learn n eager n a hardworker so. who wouldn't want to hire him basically u know JFKLSFDJ

what i mean by "you can tell he got his initial training in LA" is the commercial aspect to his dance from debut to about hyyh. LA studios are very much tailored, for the most part, to producing commercial, marketable dancers. i'd say the demand for hiphop/jazz funk dancers is far bigger than a ballet dancer in for example like an old navy commercial lmao. this is especially true now. any LA studio with a youtube channel is full of dancers who essentially have built their image around being "influencers", going from studio to studio taking class from the big named choreographers set to popular top 40 hits and, when their videos get enough likes, are cast in random netflix originals and are seen on back to school commercials etc etc etc. it was the same vibe in 2012/2013, social media and the concept of an "influencer" just didn't exist as it did now. the target of the classes/studios was the same tho.

like i said earlier, idol choreography and idol performances are commercial in nature. that isn't meant derogatorily, of course they are artistic and beautiful and creative. but at the root of it, companies and the artists want to create something that draws in an audience, thus, the commercial aspect of it. with jeongguk having little dance training other than natural ability, some of his first exposure to dance was from this commercial, marketability approach. and yeah like i said, you can tell up until about hyyh era. but you can tell with....all of them imo. the early concepts and choreos were meant to draw in an audience. they were incredibly complex but at the very root of them, very commercial LA hiphop. obviously, they did it well and with something different that made them stand out. imo, it was their work ethic and creative passions but that's another discussion lmao

back then, i think jihope tended to execute the personality aspect of their choreography better than he did. their facial expressions and sharp movements didn't appear as forced, for the lack of a better word. but like. he was 15. bighit had like three dollars and a cricut to their name. the concept a lot of the time called for it. i don't fault him for it. i think him growing into himself makes him that much cooler.

now, jeongguk is just jeongguk. nothing, imo, about his dancing seems "forced" or because he was taught to bite his lip at a particularly count in the music. he's the true center, their shining main vocalist, a dancer that most certainly holds his own without needing any cheesy LA gimmick. that's just growing up, being a professional, finding yourself, and being yourself. he's rlly cool and i rlly love him, is all.

tldr; this was a rlly long winded way for me to say i think 3J as a whole have just matured into themselves and have become confident in their abilities but i think jeongguk is the particularly interesting member of dance line purely because of where his professional dance training came from in comparison to jihope.

#i went to go look at his LA blog posts for this and he's just so cute and such a dork i just LOVE HIM SO DEARLY #okay anyway sorry i wrote a book holy sht #long post #<- in case the read more doesn't work #anonymous

12 notes · View notes

eyesaremosaics · 3 years

Text

TRIGGER WARNING:

The past few days, I have been shocked, saddened and disgusted with an artist who I have admired since I was a child. I remember seeing the sweet dreams video when it came on MTV in 1995 when I was 6 years old. I remember being frightened, but mesmerized by him. I pretended to hate him whenever he would come on TV, and my dad would tease me: “oh, there you go it’s your boyfriend Megan.” I would shriek in disgust and say “no!” Secretly I would watch his music videos when no one else was home, there was a hypnotic quality to his voice...something that drew me in. I know many females my age can relate. I bought his albums in secret, and until I was 15 years old I had this very real fear that if my family found out I listened to Marilyn Manson—they would stop loving me. Which seems silly and absurd, I often laugh about that.

However, once high school hit, he became more gimmick and less rock and roll. More self aggrandizing and less of a nihilistic commentator on society. He was once a major influence to me, my style of art, expression and creativity. The women he dated became icon’s to me, something to be emulated. I became a vintage girl because of my interest in Dita Von Teese at age 14. I wore high heels to school, seamed stockings with a garter belt, dressed like a 1950s housewife. I was voted best dressed in my high school senior year (2006).

I never had a crush on him or anything, it wasn’t really like that, it was more like he was a person I looked up to. After his interview in bowling for Columbine, all his interviews, his book, tv appearances etc. he came across as a highly intelligent and creative person who challenged social norms and societal constructs. I appreciated his androgyny, and admired his fearlessness. I listened to his music a great deal in high school, and it got me through some very dark and angsty times.

As the years went on, it became apparent he was losing his edge. I loved Rose McGowan, she was one of the women I modeled myself after as a young person (next to Winona Ryder of course), and she always spoke highly of him, saying he was a good boyfriend, but the drugs were something she couldn’t hang with. When he was with Dita, I fell in love with her too, and found her to be just as cool and interesting.

When he cheated on Dita with Evan Rachel Wood I was devastated. I felt like my idol fell. The stand-up man I thought he was—wasn’t real, and I am ashamed to say I blamed Evan, vilifying her as some “scarlet woman” who destroyed what was (to me) the perfect marriage. Little did I know that this poor girl was suffering. In ways many of us can relate to, and many we can’t begin to understand.

A few girls that I follow on IG have come forward with graphic accounts of the abuse to which they were subjected by Brian Warner (aka Marilyn Manson), and it made me sick to my stomach. I mean... I wrote him off as a has been in 2007, but I still thought he was an ok person, I still respected him for the art he made that inspired me as a kid. Now I feel like a huge chunk of my childhood was a lie. All the things I thought he stood for were merely conjecture.

All this background was necessary to get to what I really wanted to say: this whole ordeal was very triggering for me as a survivor of narcissistic/sociopathic, sexual, emotional and physical abuse. I stand with these girls, because though I can only begin to imagine some of the things they have described in their testimony... other things I know all too well. In fact many of the situations these poor girls were violently subjected to, have happened to me as well. It actually broke me down in tears to read.

My heart goes out to the survivors, you are strong and beautiful. It takes YEARS to survive this type of abuse. I know because I am living proof. I have been in more than one relationship like this, which led me to have zero self esteem, resort to substance abuse, risky self-destructive behavior, attempted suicide etc. I have been in extensive therapy for these traumas for over five years now, and only in the last two, was I able to get a full sense of self back.

There is so much to say on this issue. I am proud of the girls who came forward, it takes an insane amount of bravery to call out your abuser publicly... I still haven’t had the courage to call out mine. However it gives me strength to know there is a movement of women empowering each other to break their silence and speak their truth.

I am disillusioned and sad about this person I used to think highly of, but it’s the same feeling you go through when leaving a narcissistic/sociopathic relationship. In my own situation... I left feeling like Marion Cotillard’s character in “inception”. The top forever spinning...Not knowing when I would wake up into the real world....Not knowing which was the real world, and which was a dream. Wanting to die, so you can finally wake up.

There are stages of grief that you go through, accepting that this person never cared about you, and saw you only as narcissistic supply, or as “food” for their ego. They see matters only as a means for power and control. They don’t feel things the way you or I do. It is in this that you should pull power from. You are not the one who is weak, it is they who are weak. They who lack the emotional depth or compassion to function as a normal human being. They will never know love, or real friendship—and you should feel sorry for them. What a terribly lonely and meaningless existence that must be. To be a parasite.

You ( the survivor) still have a chance for life, YOU will love again. It may feel like you will never reach the other side of it, through the panic attacks, the sleepless nights, the terrorizing anxiety, the bouts of crying, the humiliation, the silence, the nightmares—but you will. I learned a long time to let things build and not destroy me. To any of you reading this who may be able to relate: you can do it too.

I never thought I would survive my demons, I have a history of abuse that goes back to my childhood, which is why I am so protective of children now. It’s almost like I have made it my personal mission to assure that no child will ever be hurt the way I was, not on my watch.

Keeping your inner child alive is so crucial to survive the darkness of this world. We have to be the architect of our own reality, and rebuild a new world, a safe one to live in. One where a man can treat us with love and kindness. That doesn’t mean we should forget. We forgive the abusers not because they deserve forgiveness, but because we deserve peace.

I stand with all women out there living with this kind of abuse. Living with domestic violence. You are not alone. I hear you, I see you. There is a deeper systemic problem going on here enabling this kind of violence, and it Must. Be. Stopped.

#breakthesilence

#me #marilyn manson #break the silence

29 notes · View notes

mk-wizard · 3 years

Text

Live Action Mr. Freeze: Still Not Quite Right

Hello, friends. Today, I want to do analysis of an actual comic book character who is most likely one of the most iconic comic book antagonists there is: Mr. Freeze. Specifically, analysis of how to make a live action version work. To get the iconic ice man, you need to look back into his history since before his rebooted definitive history.

In the beginning, Mr. Freeze was just another evil one dimensional villain whose gimmick was ice and all things cold. He was a typical moustache twirling villain in the truest sense with his motives being based solely in evil for evil’s sake or robbing a bank. He was also very campy with a comical edge, so his live action take was like this though it would also give him a somewhat German accent which may have influenced his rebooted definitive version and it came to be before reboots were a popular trend.

In Batman The Animated Series, Mr. Freeze was rebooted as a tragic character whose motives were based on love for his lost wife Nora who he was seeking to cure and he was finally given a backstory as well as an actual name; Victor Fries (a German sounding name was was possibly inspired by the German live action take of him in the Adam West live action kid’s show). From this point on, THIS would be the version of Freeze we would all come to know and see in almost all media and while almost every cartoon version of him paints him this way, the live action versions have yet to drop the campiness of the old version and embrace the true Mr. Freeze. Now, as always, I am all about constructive criticism, so instead of ranting about everything wrong with the current live action takes of Mr. Freeze, I’m going to point out what should be done in my opinion.

1- Mr. Freeze is a huge nerd and that’s part of what makes him great. - As nice as a muscular hunk or full head of hair rockstar is to look at... it just isn’t Mr. Freeze.

He isn’t a cool guy in that way even if he was the type to stay in shape. He is a geek and it has been confirmed even in the comics that he is at best plain. In fact, Nora’s family did not like Victor for her because he was deemed as being too ugly for her. And instead of changing his look, I say we embrace it because that is what makes him beautiful and unique. The thin lanky frame and completely hairless head and form is also part of what makes him look intimidating to look at. That combined with his mutation made him look like an alien. So casting matters here. A more appropriate actor would be someone who visually has those traits like this gentleman here.

And I am serious. Imagine him with no hair, no eyebrows and snow white skin that slightly glitters and glowing red goggles that completely covered his eyes. He would be perfect!

2- His costume needs to make sense and look like it serves its purpose. - As most fans know, Mr. Freeze’s mutation after his accident left him unable to survive in any environment that is above subzero hence why he wears the suit. With that said, it makes sense that it would look something like a spacesuit/hazmat suit and he would especially need the glass dome to cover his head. Even the slightest bit of warmth would burn him. Though having his head exposed would showcase his face better, it looks wrong because as you and I know, just having air conditioning blown on you without insulation is not very effective. And the insultation doesn’t just end with the face. It is for the entire body. Mr. Freeze’s suit is thick and covers his entire body for that reason. It isn’t muscle. The entire suit is a machine. It needs to look mechanical not like a suit of armour.

3- Mr. Freeze is a very sad man. - I have nothing against him saying clever quips every now and then, or very occasionally cracking a smile, but most of the time, Freeze frowns, he is cold and moody. And understandably so because he is either worried about Nora or he is mourning losing her in some way all the while being absolutely alone. Such a man should be cold, depressed and angry most of the time. Making him the type to tease and laugh all the time makes no sense unless he is doing it as a coping mechanism and even then, his true pain his obvious. It isn’t for nothing that in Batman Beyond, he was suicidal.

4- He is not above doing the right thing. - A rather admirable thing about Mr. Freeze is that because he is motivated by love and his heart, he is not above being convinced to do the right thing. In the comics, he has even been an ally to Batman and not double crossing him in the end. This is because underneath it all, Freeze isn’t evil. Just extremely hurt and angry at the hand he was dealt with, but he is capable of slivers of compassion and even understanding others if their situation is similar to his own which also shows how complex he is and how he has the capability of being an anti-hero.

And that is all I can say. Those are the four key elements. Casting, costume design, personality profile and moral code. I am wondering what you all think and whether you agree or want to add to this.

Stay cool and stay safe.

#batman #batman villains #batman mr. freeze #batman freeze #freeze #mr. freeze #cold #ice #frozen #villain #dc villain #dc comics #dc #comics #comic character #live action

11 notes · View notes

androgynousblackbox · 3 years

Note

The anon tries to listen to POC, but often there's an extreme distance between how their Asian colleagues interpret a piece of media and how it's interpreted by American diasporas. For example, Asian friends interpreted the anarchist themes of Joker and praised the film, while the American fans focused on the fandom grown around the character and the "white characters get away with murder, Black characters don't get away with shouting" epidemic in American fandom and hated the idea of it. (1/2)

Anon observed similar situation with Shadow and Bone fans - Asian fans disliked how the racism subplot was executed, while American fans loved how the canonical couple is between two Asians (both actors are mixed & none of them is American, but fans neveral talk about the nuances). The anon's Russian self can't help but laugh at the Russianess being little more than poorly applied decorations in the setting. Of course, they're generalising, but those are the trends they observed happening. (2/3)

So, there's this. In Russia, Japanese teachers teach students how to wear a kimono properly and how to perform a tea ceremony while many Japanese Americans hate the idea of foreigners doing it. In several Asian countries, Joker became the face of rebellion while many Asian Americans see him as face of far right. Shadow and Bone has many Asian American fans, but the series is seen as clumsy at best by many Asian and Russian viewers. What do you think takes priority? (3/4)

The anon cannot write reasonably short, for which they are sorry! They remembered an earlier discussion about how Captive Prince is anti-Black and arguments like "it's not chattel slavery and the characters are not Black" are sealioning. But the story is written by an Australian and rooted in Australian understanding of race (the author is of the same raciallized ethnic group as the protagonist). The anon, who knows USA realities only from social media and fanfics, is really worried. (4/4)

Okay, this is a lot and before saying anything, I think is fair for me to say that I am nothing but a white latino on the internet trying to navigate english speaking fandom so there's only so much I can even say at all because my own knowledge is limited. I try to educate myself whenever possible but there's stuff I still have yet to learn. Having said that, yes, discourse such as any of these are always going to be vastly different from one culture to another because any form of racism is always intrinsically tied to the culture of the place where it happens. This is not to say that there aren't universal forms of racism, like how darker skin is generally considered less attractive or desirable on many places (including Latinamérica), but a lot of it is related back to the history of each country and whatever relationship they have to any particular race. The issue you mentioned of cultural appropiation is a very american one because america reunites so many people from so many different cultures that want to be seen and respected like everyone else. Again, not to say that it's not an issue on other places, but the way the discourse is handled and talked about is very much an american because of the way America is at the center of so many discourses and also the history of America dealing with different cultures, which is to say, not good. Anti-asian racism is a very well and alive thing right now that has resulted on hate crimes against asian just trying to live their lives, promoted and kept alive by even people in power who don't care about what happens to them. Imagine how terrible it is to hear a ex-president of America blame you, your family, your country, everyone who just looks like you, because of a disease that is killing other people. Your culture gets mocked, you get told cruel jokes about the food you eat, about your broken english, get questioned about stuff you had nothing to do with... and the same people who do that, then turn around and are using that same culture they treated less for to make themselves look cooler and trendy? And that doesn't translate at all in you being treated any less shitty, it just means that any meaning your culture had before is reduced to pretty things for other people to use and then forget about the moment other pretty thing caughts their attentions. Wouldn't that make you feel like shit? When asian american or black american or native americans talk about cultural appropiation, it's not about just saying that you can't do this or that because they are meanies who don't want to share their fun pretty things. It's about asking people to please reflect in why it's only cool when others do it but they don't, in how it feels insulting to see things that have a cultural significance to you reduced to a gimmick like any other, on asking why their fun pretty things can't be enjoyed by them and get mocked, insulted and ignored when they tried to do so. Sometimes it also means literally taking away business from communities that needs them without any recognition or payment. I have no clue about the history of Russia with Japan specifically, but if it's a Japanese person the one chosing to share that element of their culture with other people who, I assume, respect it and want to learn about, then that sounds like cultural appreciation for me and it's not at all what anyone in America is talking about when they talk about appreciation. Using a kimono and serving tea on a traditional way is a neutral act that only gains significance because of environment where it happens. About everything else... it's complicated and I am 100% with you when you say that it's very difficult to navigate as a non american don't wanting to come across as insensitive or uneducated or a full blown ass without meaning to. Unfortunately for us, the online discourse is not especially gentle for anyone who doesn't know everything American related and all the intrincated race relations on a first moment. I know this is especially hard for asian fans when americans ones want to insert their own

intepretations into their works just to make it look worse. I get it, because people say "listen to POC" but that really doesn't tell you shit of WHAT to listen for and how to understand when different cultural perspectives clashes with each other, which is almost entirely inevitable because we all come with our own cultural baggage. And even between two black americans or two asian people from the same asian country you could have vastly different opinions about the exact same topic because of them prefer to concentrate on different aspects of it. I guess the best thing to do is... do try to know what people are saying. If these group of people are saying this show is this or that, try to come to understand why they say it. And if other group is saying otherwise, listen to why. Sometimes you don't need to interject at all, sometimes your own opinion is not really needed, but at least try to see where everyone is coming from and realize that everything is an ongoing conversation where nothing is set in stone forever, especially when you account for reclamation, parody and other things that influence the way we percieve anything. Ask questions if you are confused, because you are going to be confused a lot and I am sorry, but that is part of the process. Read books if you need to. Google a lot, but also talk with people, watch videos of people talking about it and, if you want to engage, do it with a mentality of wanting to learn and understand. I hope any of this can be helpful at all. If not, I am sorry. I am still trying to figure out things myself.

#long post #racism mention

4 notes · View notes

gross-gal · 4 years

Note

yo!! i dont know jackshit about Darkstalkers!! What's it about?? What do you like about it?? What do you NOT like about it?? Tell me alll!!!! (@gamer-gremlin-gf-ships)

AAAAAA THANK YOU @gamer-gremlin-gf-ships

SO. I’LL PUT THIS UNDER READ MORE BECAUSE THERE’S A LOT.

Darkstalkers is a fighting game developed by Capcom. The main gimmick is that, most of, the fighters are based off of horror archetypes. So ya got vampires, zombies, frankensteins, fishmen, ghosts, all that shit.

There isn’t really much story wise I can elaborate on since, fighting games don’t usually have that much of a story to begin with. BUT, in Darkstalkers 1 and 2, main story is that this big bad dude named Pyron kinda wants to determine if the Earth is worthy to be ruled under him or if he’ll destroy it. Pyron is a shape shifting alien dude from the planet, Hellstorm and he’s really looking for a good brawl so he goes and fights the most powerful Darkstalker, which is whoever you choose to play as.

Now then, to avoid confusion, Darkstalkers 1 and 2 (or Vampire Hunter/Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge) are basically the same game. 2 is more of an updated version of 1, has two new characters, better gameplay, and it also changes some part of the story because Demitri (the vampire dude) actually was the one who originally started the whole tournment thing in determining who was the most powerful and I think? Pyron kinda ends up in the way. In 2, it basically is changed to Pyron is the one that starts the tournament, and that’s the canonical version.

So 2 isn’t really that much of a sequel, while Darkstalkers 3 (or Vampire Savior) is an actual sequel to the series. This introduces the antagonist, Jedah Dohma, whose plot is that he wants to collect all the powerful darkstalker souls and put them into this big demon baby, which then be used as a vessel for him. Jedah’s whole thing is that he’s basically disappointed in what has become of the demon world (makai world) and decides that he’s going to annihilate both the demons and humans. He sees himself as a savior, and while there really isn’t a protag, Jedah kind of is considered to be one in 3.

NOW. WHAT IS A DARKSTALKER? It’s literally just...fucking monster? I guess? There really isn’t a specific definition but just know, everyone, besides B.B. Hood because she’s the only true human in the series, is a Darkstalker.

Just gonna get my problems out of the way. Obviously, the series has some sexual stuff, which is fine but it can get uncomfortable. Demitri is a pretty big example since he literally has an ability that just involves transforming the opponent into a younger, more desirable person so that he can drain their blood? I won’t go to into it since it’s gross but yeah. Then of course there’s Lilith and yeah...REALLY WISH THEY DIDN’T MAKE HER LOOK LIKE THAT BECAUSE SHE’S A PRETTY COOL CHARACTER.

Darkstalkers also doesn’t offer much as far as a story, this is sort of good because it offers a lot of freedom as far as writing, but to be honest? A lot of stuff which tries to elaborate on the Darkstalkers lore or whatever, KIND OF SUCKS. I myself, am not into the Udon comics or the mangas, the OVA also doesn’t offer much of a great story. Which is a shame because Darkstalkers has a lot of potential but so many attempts, just kinda fail because they miss the point in the series. Udon and the Vampire Savior manga in particular because they take the series way too seriously or just characterize really strangely? The OVA probably offers the best in terms of story but it’s not even much because the only actual good and satisfying one, is Donovan’s story. His is the only one that actually has a conclusion. Otherwise, the OVA suffers from poor pacing, lots of exposition, or just OOC moments. LIKE??? REALLY DOESN’T MAKE SENSE AS TO WHY FELICIA GETS ALONG WITH ZABEL OR MORRIGAN ENDING UP WITH DEMITRI?

And then I guess a more minor complaint. Darkstalkers has a very specific style, I really think the series look best in the first two games and in the OVA. I personally am not a big fan of the character art in 3 jdskal

NOW FOR THE POSITIVES.

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW MUCH I ADORE THE ART AND ANIMATION IN THE SERIES????

The main artists for the series are Bengus (Gouda Cheese) and Daigo Ikeno. Bengus really fucking nailed how the series should look. It’s got that perfect balance of the gothic, sensual aesthetic with exaggeration and fuckin weirdness of the series. Darkstalkers is a series that completely embraces it’s wacky side and just how campy it’s influences are. I mostly love Bengus’ earlier works from 1 and 2. Daigo’s stuff is much more casual and less elaborate compared to Bengus’ works but I kinda love that, he’s really great at showing off the characters in more casual situations and showing off their goofier sides. I’ll share some of my favorite pieces at the end.

OH GOD. AND HOW CAN I NOT BRING UP THE ANIMATION???

While I wouldn’t say it’s as fluent as Street Fighter Alpha 3′s sprites, because Darkstalkers is able to be more creative with it’s moves, the results are some super wacky and fun animation. Darkstalkers animators heavily referenced old Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera cartoons when it came to animating. I really don’t know a whole lot of fighting games, especially from Capcom, that look the way Darkstalkers looks. And a lot of that comes from the fact that Darkstalkers isn’t very limited. Characters can launch missles, fireballs, fucking blood?. Characters can extend or manipulate their body. Or just do weird shit like transform characters into basketballs, make characters perform in a rhythm game?, A CHARACTER STRAIGHT UP USES HIS ASS CHEEKS TO GRAB YOU AND SUMMON LIGHTNING?? Everything is super fucking wild and that’s what makes the series.

A lot of people say Darkstalkers needs to be gorey and sexual but that’s really not what the series is about. Yes, Darkstalkers is def sensual but it also really doesn’t take itself seriously. That’s what so many people miss. And honestly? Even though it was terrible, the American cartoon ends up being the most accurate to the source material because it gives no fucks and so much weird shit just happens.

Another thing I love about Darkstalkers is how much it subverts it’s characters and just how creative they got. You have an Australian zombie rockstar, a catlady that’s also an idol and a nun??, a demon possessed samurai ghost armor guy. The character design is genuinely fucking brillant and not at all what you’d expect to get when given the idea for monster characters. I would talk about the characters but you see how long this post is starting to get.

And I haven’t talked that much about gameplay but Darkstalkers feels fucking great. If you’re curious about which game to get into, absolutely go with 3/Vampire Savior. It feels great, combo inputs are relatively simple, you can straight up beat the game just by button mashing, and no character really feels too similar. It’s also a very fast game too, if you ever watch tournaments, they go by so fast and when you play it, you’re very much engaged. It’s a game that requires a lot of attention and I enjoy that. I also have to mention this but, pretty much every character has their own unfair, bullshit tactic that, if you plan on getting good, will require you to figure out how to avoid depending on what character you use. There’s a sorta popular joke with the game that, it’s balanced if all the characters are broken. I’ll admit, probably not the best game for someone like me that sucks as far as remembering stuff and being able to plan ahead, but I still have lots of fun with the game!

I really didn’t expect to become as engaged in the series as I did but there is a lot to appreciate about Darkstalkers. It’s unfortunate to because, sadly, Darkstalkers likely will never get another game.

While the series is technically popular, it’s still way too niche compared to most fighting games. It just never had the same impact as other fighting games, and ultimately, no matter how good those games feel to play, there’s always shit like Marvel vs Capcom that just is more well known and features more stuff that just is what people prefer going to. I think Capcom will pretty much stick with having Darkstalkers characters appear in crossover games vs actually giving the franchise another game

They tries reviving it with Resurrection, which was a re-release of the games on Xbox and Playstation, but it hardly even sold that many copies. Which is where the phrase “Darkstalkers are not Dead” originated from, a phrase that has become a joke now in the fighting game community. Even if they were to revive the series, it’d be difficult recapturing that same vibe since most of the original crew are working on completely separate projects. There’s also a part of me that does fear the idea of another game because of how it’ll be handled. I’ve heard people mention possibly having the Skullgirls team develop or maybe Arc Systems, I just don’t want a lot of the charm to be lost in a sequel.

Since a fighting game isn’t really possible, I do hope for maybe a show or comic series that explores the characters and story more.

My brain is kinda blanking rn but yeah. I just fucking love this series a lot. I hope maybe someday I can contribute something great to this franchise and I hope you listened to me ramble about it.

#i am so fucking sorry #but thank you djsakljdskalda #Anonymous

10 notes · View notes

rwby-redux · 4 years

Text

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Genetics

If any of my Deconstruction posts were going to turn heads, I had a hunch it would be this one. You’ll probably find this topic incongruous with the others simply because—unlike Aura, Semblances, Dust, and Grimm—genetics isn’t one of RWBY’s unique gimmicks. If I’m being entirely honest, part of why this post exists is because I still had some miscellaneous talking points to address, but lacked a proper heading to file them under. Call it what it is: a dumping ground for wayward thoughts.

But there’s a bit more to it than just that. The reason why I want to talk about this is because, much like the other mechanical aspects, genetics does have a bearing on RWBY’s worldbuilding, and the stories that were subsequently built around it. It has an undeniable impact on the sociopolitical human-Faunus schism that set the stage for Remnant’s immediate past, and the present-day terrorist acts committed by the White Fang. Genetics is also an extension of RWBY’s adherence to color theory, reflected in the hair and eye color choices of the ensemble cast.

Before we can finally conclude Part 1 of the Worldbuilding posts, we need to discuss this topic from both a narrative and a production standpoint. Genetics is firmly rooted in the development and design choices of the writers—choices which, as you’ll quickly see, had long-lasting consequences for the show.

Today we’re going to be dividing this topic into two sections. Since I’m sure it’s already on your mind, let’s get the obvious one out of the way first:

The Genetics of the Faunus

The Faunus are going to have an entire post dedicated just to them, but it’s impossible to talk about genetics without at least a passing mention of one of Remnant’s two main species.

Subspecies.

Races?

Yeah. You can quickly see where this is going.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me provide some context. Just like the conception of the Maidens, the Faunus can trace their developmental history to a rather impulsive design choice:

“Monty really wanted a character with cat ears,” admits Miles Luna. Shawcross expands on how Blake Belladonna’s look resulted in a cornerstone of the show’s lore. “So if Blake has cat ears, does that mean anyone can have cat ears? Could they have other animal traits? It’d be cool to see someone with scales or a fox tail…” [1]

Let me clarify by saying that there’s nothing wrong with basing a decision on aesthetics (in principle, anyway). And RWBY isn’t the only franchise guilty of doing this. It only takes a few seconds of consulting TV Tropes to see that zoomorphism is extremely pervasive. And while I have a tendency to complain a lot on this blog, I’m not such a kvetch that I’ll deny that animal-people with lion tails and ram horns look fucking sweet.

The problem I have with Faunus (from a genetic standpoint) is the way they’re inconsistently described in relation to humans. While Qrow unambiguously refers to them as a separate species, [2] we have Faunus characters that contradict him by describing themselves as a race. [3] This leads to the inevitable issue of whose account do we trust? On one hand, the information provided to us by Qrow is through World of Remnant, a spin-off series whose entire purpose is to clarify information and teach the audience about core worldbuilding concepts. On the other hand, what we’re told about the Faunus being a race comes directly from Ghira Belladonna. In this context, who would you expect to be the better authority on Faunus—a human, or a Faunus?

Even if we set aside the complicated implications of an outgroup member talking over a minority, we’re still left with the issue of well, which is it? Are they a race or a species? And why does it even matter?

Before we can answer any of those questions, let’s quickly define both terms:

A species is a taxonomic rank used for classifying groups of organisms together on the basis of being able to participate in genetic interchange via sexual reproduction, to produce fertile offspring.

A race (in biology) is an informal/unrecognized taxonomic rank below subspecies, defined as unique subgroups with either geographic, physiological, or genetic distinctions from other subgroups within their species. In anthropology, however, a race is typically regarded as a social construct. In this case, it refers to an identity held by members of a population that share physical or social qualities that are seen as categorically distinct.

The answer, if we’re being objective, is probably something along the lines of “RWBY’s writers thought that the two terms were interchangeable, or they didn’t think the distinction mattered enough to do the research and settle on a definition.” Unless someone specifically reached out to a Rooster Teeth employee and asked, we’ll never truly know. Speculation will only get us so far, and where this blog is concerned, we need a definitive answer—or at the very least, we need to talk about why the distinction matters to us.

So, are Faunus their own race? Meaning, are they a self-identifying ethnic group with a common language, ancestry, history, culture, nation, or social treatment within their residing area?

Common language: That’s a definite no. RWBY still hasn’t managed to explain how everyone across the four kingdoms speaks the same language, let alone develop any conlangs.

Ancestry: We actually don’t have a canon answer for this. The show has yet to tell us where the Faunus came from, so we can’t make any assumptions about how related they are to one another.

History: Technically, yes. But the series has a gross tendency to homogenize the experience of Faunus across Remnant, so the history of Faunus in Vale is virtually identical to that of Mistral. This trend results in storytelling discrepancies, like the Faunus in culturally-unprejudiced Vacuo [4] being equally threatened by and involved with the Faunus Rights Revolution, when there shouldn’t have been an in-world basis for this scenario.

Culture: Don’t make me laugh. RWBY couldn’t even be bothered to give any of its four kingdoms distinct cultures. Apart from a few scenes in Menagerie where you see a bunch of background characters hanging out in the Shallow Sea district of Kuo Kuana, there really isn’t anything culturally unique to the Faunus.

Nation: I guess? I personally wouldn’t consider Menagerie a nation, simply because it’s not one the Faunus originated from, but were rather given in the aftermath of the Great War. As far as we know, Faunus have always been just as widespread across Remnant as humans.

Social treatment: We’re told that social treatment for the Faunus as a whole is shitty, but that the degree of shittiness varies from place to place. Forgive me if I don’t buy that. Not after we’ve seen students in Vale physically harass a Faunus, [5] shops in Mistral refuse service to Faunus, [6] and companies in Atlas extract labor from Faunus. [7] If social treatment is contingent on shared experiences, then why are we told that these experiences change depending on the kingdom? And if the kingdoms vary in levels of racial acceptance, then why are we repeatedly shown the exact opposite?

Based on the aforementioned criteria, I’m inclined to say that Faunus don’t fit the definition of race.

So, are the Faunus a separate species from humans?

“History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point, but we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible, from a—a biological standpoint.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

That’s a resounding no.

As much as the taxonomist in me wants to talk about things like the multiple competing species concepts, or the fact that plants frequently violate the definition of species by producing fertile hybrids through polyploidy (chromosomal doubling), I have to restrain myself. For simplicity’s sake, we’re accepting that Faunus and humans are members of the same species on the basis that they’re not reproductively isolated.

The reason why genetics matters in regards to the race-species discourse is because we have yet to learn what the Faunus truly are. If we ignore the fact that they exist because Monty Oum wanted to stick cat ears on a girl, then we have to figure out what their existence means to Remnant’s past: Did the Brother Gods intervene in the early evolution of Humanity v2.0, by creating a subset of people with animal traits that would sow discord, for the sole purpose of giving Ozma another obstacle to overcome? Did Salem (who watched Humanity v2.0 evolve) try to influence their evolution, and somehow managed to bestow animalistic traits upon select groups of early hominids? Is Dust like a magically-radioactive fossil fuel that by pure chance mutated early people through exposure, resulting in their animalistic traits? Are the Faunus’ animal traits completely irrelevant to the plot, and are only there for the sake of style?

That’s why the Faunus’ genetic background matters—because as the story progresses, it’s going to inform what questions the audience asks.

There’s a good chance that all of this will end up being nitpicky conjecture, and there won’t be any storytelling payoff. But I think it’s still important to address, if for no other reason than to illustrate why pre-production worldbuilding is essential for telling a coherent story. But I digress.

Genetics, and Its Relationship with Color Theory

It goes without saying that RWBY is defined by color. It’s reflected in nearly every facet of the franchise—team names, wardrobe, Dust color, Aura color, emblems, characters’ names, even the show’s title—and it’s just as important from a worldbuilding standpoint as it is from a narrative one. [8]

Where color theory and genetics cross paths is in the field of character appearance—specifically, hair and eye color. For the moment, let’s set aside eye color as a visual device for foiling and paralleling characters (like Yang Xiao Long’s purple eyes compared to Blake Belladonna’s yellow eyes). Instead, we’re going to talk about these phenotypes from a hereditary perspective.

We’re going to streamline this discussion a bit by focusing on hair for the moment, and picking three colors that would be considered unnatural by our world’s standards. Let’s go with blue, green, and pink. Here’s a handful of characters who have these traits:

Blue hair: Neptune Vasilias, Ciel Soleil, Henry Marigold, May Marigold, Nebula Violette, Sky Lark, Trifa

Green hair: Emerald Sustrai, Marrow Amin, Bartholomew Oobleck, Reese Chloris, Russel Thrush, Sage Ayana

Pink hair: An Ren, May Zedong, Nadir Shiko

Now we’re going to take those lists and swap out the characters’ names for their inferred country of origin:

Blue hair: Mistral, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale, Menagerie

Green hair: Vale, Atlas, Vale, Mistral, Vale, Mistral

Pink hair: Mistral, Vacuo, Mistral

We can conclude that these hair colors are natural on the basis that we never see characters dying their hair, and that similarly unusual eye colors (red, pink, purple, yellow) would also be natural in Remnant. Unless we’re assuming that everyone is wearing custom contact lenses, then it’s safe to say they’re legit. With the example of hair color, you’ll notice that they’re distributed across a wide number of nationalities, with little hint of consistency among them.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to write this off as “the writers wanted to have cool character designs and not have to think too hard about the worldbuilding implications behind them.” But there is a worldbuilding implication behind them, and it’s one that I’ll be focusing on in later Deconstruction and Amendment posts, so I want to make sure we talk about it now:

RWBY has repeatedly shown us that people are fairly geographically isolated from each other, and travel between kingdoms has always been difficult due to the Grimm. It wasn’t until eighty years ago, when the Great War ended, that a combo of international political cooperation and technological advancements made travel safer and more commonplace. Keep in mind that when populations of humans are geographically isolated from each other over prolonged periods of time, it results in those populations evolving specific anatomical traits.

Let me give you a few real world examples. Epicanthic folds are predominantly found in East Asian, Polynesian, and North Asian ethnic groups. Red hair, while not exclusive to any one nationality, is statistically highest in people of Northwestern European ancestry. Darker complexion is most common in equatorial populations, where high melanin production (especially eumelanin) protects against UVR exposure.

RWBY has every reason under the sun to ascribe certain phenotypes to the ethnicities of each kingdom, and for some reason it just doesn’t. Like, why not make green hair a trait common to people with Sanus ancestry? How about red eyes originating from Anima?

Avatar: The Last Airbender pulled this off by making dark skin, brown hair, and blue/gray eyes features of the Water Tribes. The Fire Nation, to reflect its broader geographic distribution, has a much wider range of phenotypes, with both light and dark skin tones and black or brown hair. However, it still retained golden, amber, and bronze eyes as a distinguishing characteristic of people descended from this ancestry. Frankly, I love that the show took the time to establish those traits among its ethnic groups. Not only was it a great way to visually communicate to the audience the ethnicity of the characters, but those traits took on entirely new meanings in the sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. When we meet the brothers Mako and Bolin for the first time and see their respective eye colors—amber and green—we’re immediately able to deduce that they’re the products of successful multiculturalism, something that would’ve seemed impossible seventy years ago when the world was gripped by war. It’s a powerful statement that was conveyed through careful attention to detail and excellent worldbuilding. Given that RWBY also takes place several decades after a global war, the writers had the opportunity to pull off a similar feat. And I don’t think it ever occurred to them once.

At the end of the day, it’s not the worst thing RWBY could’ve done. I think I’m just disappointed by the missed opportunities. The show already has so little going for it when it comes to shaping the identities of its four main kingdoms, so with color being such a vital motif for the show, this feels like it should have been a natural progression of those ideas.

On a more positive note, we’ve finally reached the end of Worldbuilding (Part I) - Mechanical Aspects! Next time, we’ll get to introduce the second section of worldbuilding topics: history.

[1] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 42.

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 3: “Unforeseen Complications.” Ghira Belladonna: “[Adam’s] actions not only tarnished the reputation of an organization originally created to bring peace and equality to all, but to our entire race.”

[4] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 4: “Vacuo.”

[5] Volume 1, Episode 11: “Jaunedice - Part 1.”

[6] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[7] Volume 7, Episode 1: “The Greatest Kingdom.”

[8] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 44.

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #genetics #oh thank god it's done #time to go slither off to bed

22 notes · View notes

luminisvii · 4 years

Text

anyway i’ve been playing three houses on maddening lately because i hate myself, and i also hated looking at tier lists that put some characters who are actually quite bad for high difficulty up top, i made my own tier list of suggested feth characters for if you do a maddening run. this is really just so i can scream about what characters i think are best (spoiler alert: it’s lysithea)

so, here we go, tell’s three houses tier list!

disclaimer: based on personal experience, not all characters have been used on maddening, but i have played the game like... eight times. on my ninth run. so i have some pretty decent data on majority of the characters.

tier is determined by how easy a character is to use, how much investment they require, and stat growths. crests+relics also influence this, since people who can use relics effectively are better. the game tells me not to judge based on crests, but come on!

lords are not included, jeritza is also not because he’s CF post skip exclusive, but come on, we all know where he’d place anyway

the real tier list is this: if you’re playing on normal or hard, literally anyone is fine. follow your heart. invest in who you like. on maddening, you unfortunately need to be a little more discerning. and sometimes, you just get rng screwed, even with the best, so rip lmao

TOP TIER (FOR COOL KIDS ONLY)

-lysithea: the coolest kid, doesn’t need a bed time. obvious bc her spell list and stats and access to relic are great. also look at her. shes bappy. she says so herself in her support with cyril (the only valid cyril support) all jokes aside, she can go down the basic mage line and mow down anyone who comes within her insane range. she also does well as a valkyrie, but with the speed penalty, i don’t recommend her staying in the class for long. just get uncanny blow! then hades will never miss!

-felix: he may be a shadow the hedgehog motherfucker but he has one important thing that shadow doesnt: crest of fraldarius. i guess shadow has a gun, though. felix is just straightforward gameplay baby. you send him at something and it dies. go crest boy go!

-mercedes: im legally obligated to put mercie in here because of her personal, her crest, and fortify. although restore is also super neat! miss mercie is just plain reliable as a healer. easily goes through the priest line to gremory.

-balthus: extremely helpful early game, doesn’t fall off later either. his personal skill of str/def +6 when below half health means he can either straightforwardly tank or just punch shit so hard it doesn’t have a chance to strike back. also gets a relic, healing focus, and a major crest that allows him to heal, so he’s a one man army. he does one thing really well and that’s use his fists to liquefy his opponents. also gets rally strength if you care about that. my favorite strategy with him is to let the damn poison strike archers knock his health down and then just go to town, combined with vantage for REAL fun. forget war monk, this guy should just go to war master

-sylvain: this little slut will join you if you’ve got boobs so he’s real handy to have around. plus he’s got some great qualities: flexible, strong, free relic, and maybe kinda hot i guess. you could make him a paladin, but you should give him a giant lizard. he can basically become any of the master classes with ease, although i would not recommend putting him into magic classes that much unless you wanna do a wholly mage sylvie build. will still perform just fine as a dark mage even without dedicated magery. but seriously, dragon

-petra: you want crit??? you got crit!!! this little lady can not only crit like hell but also dodge tank really well. i had fun making her a falcoknight once and just watching her line it all up and tear it all down. petra is reliable and stronk and also horrible to fight against so just. recruit her, please

-constance: entirely here because of bolting. for the low price of her reason being A you can nuke enemies from across the map. while you could make her the canon class of dark flier, i for one think the warlock line is better, because that’s four uses of bolting and even more if her crest activates. she also has a similar statline to lysithea and hits like a truck with other spells, and with bolting can supply long range support, so really, what’s not to love? the rest of her spells are good too. i go for gremory over dark flier bc while the mobility is great, x4 bolting is even better.

PRETTY GOOD TIER

-ingrid: extremely reliable, only down here instead of in the cool kids category bc her strength kinda sucks. i love ingrid though! she’s got a gambit gimmick and a crest+relic! ingrid with the chalice is super funny and i highly recommend it. i watched her fucking OWN every single siege tome user like that

-ignatz: some will say he sucks. some would argue his utility as a debuffer and rallybot. i will argue this ungodly crit. ignatz is a very luck man, blessed with great opportunities and a base crit value beyond any other. the little man will strike you down in the name of the goddess before you even know what’s going on. with a little help his strength will match the others and if you slap as much crit up on him as possible then it’ll never end. ignatz could be a one man army if he could crit more than one person at once. unfortunately he’s stuck to one divine judgment at a time. you can either use his 55% luck growth and archer level dex to gamble on a high crit rate, or you can stack his personal with another hit +20 to basically never miss anything. if you play deer, this man is a must.

-hilda: the usual, a crest, a relic, good times, a nice personal, but also like. she slaps. in general. pretty sick with an axe but works nicely as almost any physical class (i haven’t tried sword, though) because she naturally goes down the warrior line she can get some real fun times going. or just give her a lizard! women love swarms of lizards. she is a delicate little flower who will end a motherfucker

-ferdinand: fairly reliable as a cavalier class, and comes with some natural dodge tanky capability and access to seteth’s spear of assal and ochain shield which make him restore health like crazy and his personal will stay on. also a counter attack block is nice! he’s got some nice combat arts too. just a pretty straightforward cavalier. good times

-seteth: and while we’re on the crest of cichol, seteth is gonna make sure you never raise a finger against him again. you won’t survive. the only prepromote i use. he has good base stats, good growths, and he just does really well at what he does! he may come in a little late but he’s strong as fuck and is shredded. i tend to favor him over ferdie for the cichol linked items, but also i’m biased towards this anxiety dad, so take that as you will

-marianne: she tends to get left out of the healer talks because like most of the deer, she’s kind of weird. i will make an argument for her. what she lacks in utility she makes up for sheer raw power. while her crest won’t be of much use until very late and even then her sword prowess is not what you should be using her for, her spell list is all high power and she also comes with easy access to silence, which can nicely stall for some time against powerful mage enemies. she also gets a heal to herself if she’s standing next to an animal since all her friends are horses. still kinda slow as most healers are and not as much of a res tank, but a formidable edition nonetheless. blutgang is a good pinch hitter relic as well

-caspar: like most gauntlet users, caspar is good at one thing: punching. he is just really good at it. he’s perfectly geared towards being a war master. and he’ll perform that very well. he gets healing focus as one of his arts, so he can run off on his own if he wants. solidly reliable, will work at just. punching. go short king!

-yuri: the man’s utility is unrivaled. he’d go top tier if it weren’t for the fact that he’s got unreliable strength/magic growths. he could go either way as a physical attacker or a mage, but he naturally fits well in the assassin class along with trickster, and even dancer if you like (i’m trying that and honestly the male dancer animation is so sad. like. why can’t you put as much energy into it as the women.) but this man can go. hes fast. he’ll fuck you up

-hubert: while not as hard hitting as lysithea, the man still fucks things up with dark magic like she does. he lacks her double crests but he makes up for it by still smacking people’s nuts clean off and with the added bonus of range and debuffs dark magic provides. even better, you can make him a dark mage/bishop! however points off because they won’t let me stack fiendish blow. love u vampire man!!! unfortunately locked to CF so rip.

NICE TIER:

-lorenz: i adore him but hes a little unreliable as things go. in house, hes the better paladin than leonie, and his personal grants him a nice damage bonus with a battalion. lorenz shines as a dark knight the most, he has a heavy hitting spell list and if you really want to, thyrsus is technically his relic even though everyone puts it on lysithea! i really like him and he can perform really well but unfortunately like most of the deer he is Weird and this can put him in strange places with his growths. tis a cruel world, being a lorenz stan!

-dorothea: also suffers from strange statline. for some reason they’re pushing sword with her. honestly, because she’s outperformed by other mages, even on black eagles i tend to put her into dancer and kinda forget about her. she has quite a bit in heavy hitting spells and her personal skill grants a very nice mini heal to people around her, but honestly, i usually favor lysithea over her. she functions best as pure support but can still pull through on the offense. sadly, the competition is really rough.

-ashe: does his job, and does it well. not as heavy of a hitter as some of his fellow archers, but still good nonetheless, and has access to deadeye for extra range (although don’t count on it on maddening). his personal means he can unlock things no matter what class he’s in, so you can focus on others! i personally think that, you guessed it, he should get a giant lizard.

-annette: she does well, sadly outperformed by other house mages. functions as a rallybot and gets crusher if you care about that. i missed crusher completely in my first lions run, whoops, and then in my second one i had constance so uh. sorry, annette! she’s so very sweet, but her spell list has her down here.

-leonie: im hiding before the leonie stans get me. sure, like sylvain, she has his ability and shared flexibility for any class, but unlike sylvain she lacks power, a crest, and a relic. i see people keep arguing that she’s a massive damage dealer, but i honestly never see it. she falls off damage wise really quick, even if she’s got more than enough speed to deal with it. she’s basically just a lamer sylvain or ingrid without the crest abilities that those two have to make them stronger. what? the game keeps TELLING me crest = bad but as far as i can tell, all the best characters have one! on maddening GD, she’ll be good at first, but she’ll drop.

-dedue: i would rank this man higher since i simply adore him but he’s SUPER difficult for me to use. his defense is unrivaled, this man will flinch at nothing, but his speed is almost always shit and he tends to get nuked from orbit by mages. i love him, i really do, but man he can be a lot to manage. he does really well early game but can’t keep up. which is a shame, i really like him :(

-flayn: she has quite a bit of capability with rescue and fortify, and her major crest means her healing is even more potent. however she’s a little slow, extremely fragile, joins low leveled after you’ve already invested in a different healer, and is not very strong. she IS a res tank, though, and learns seal magic, which adds to her res tanking capability. she also synergizes with the caduceus staff, so she can be very self sufficient, and hit from farther away! flayn does very well. the major penalty is a lackluster spell list and significant investment buy in.

-hapi: she’s… weird. i like hapi quite a bit but she’s got it worse than lorenz in terms of stat growth. her personal ability makes her an extreme aggro target for monsters and she can’t even avoid their attacks, and the bonus damage it grants unfortunately isn’t better than fellow DLC mage constance, who hits harder just out of sheer momentum. for having a healing crest, she doesn’t have a particularly interesting white magic line. her dark magic grants her utility similar to hubert, but she’s slower and can’t quite strike like he does. sadly miss hapi has to be down here. id like to put her higher but boy did she struggle

-raphael: well, he’ll do his job. he’s only beat by caspar since caspar has a little bit better tools at his disposal, but they’re basically the same character. raph will do very good at punching the living shit out of things. starts off better than caspar, but unfortunately in my current run i have balthus so raph had to get benched

YOU CAN DO BETTER TIER

-bernadetta: she’ll work alright, but only with lots of attention, and her personal doesn’t seem to make up the difference. for a sniper she seems to have far less hit than her rivals in ashe and ignatz, especially since ignatz makes him more reliable. her crest doesn’t actually grant her much since it has such a low trigger rate and by the time it does work she probably already can double. also she gains no levels between pre and post skip which is hilarious but like. HELLO? ive also been told she has the worst starting stats. personally, i only use her on BE runs. i know she’s a popular character and a lot of people rank her highly for persecution complex and the fact that she learns both encloser and deadeye, but deadeye is unreliable in maddening and she’s a lot of work to keep up with the others.

-cyril: he can become a killer, he honestly does really well, but he starts so far behind you need to invest a significant amount into him. i don’t recall him having a particularly stellar combat art line either, but if you choose to put in all the work of catching the kid up, he will do well. but it’s not worth it most of the time. i use him on church route runs bc it feels right. on other runs, you’ll already have someone who fits his niche--the guy becomes a wyvern rider, and the likes of sylvain can do much better in this line.

-linhardt: kind of a shittier flayn, without fortify or rescue. lackluster spell list for both black and white, and terrible growths. he’ll do fine if you play eagles, but if you’re going to import a healer, mercie or flayn is the better option.

-anna: oh lord, anna is difficult. her offensive stats are horrendous. flayn hits harder than her. with her unique stat line, inability to get supports, weakness in authority, and all around just odd set up, anna is not a reliable character and you should use yuri instead. they’ve basically got the same crest.

DIDN’T USE SO NO OPINION TIER:

-hanneman

-manuela (heard she’s not good anyway)

-alois

-gilbert

-catherine

-shamir

(yes there’s a trend to this which is past FEs have trained me away from using prepromotes!)

and there we go! im still biased towards GD but the characters who do best are the ones who have a clear class line to follow and a statline that matches it.

#don't tell me tell #i should just write ridiculous game guides and analysis at this point #i enjoy it even if no one reads it

10 notes · View notes

typinggently · 4 years

Note

First of all thank you for answering my ask!! You didn’t sound like an influencer at all haha it was really exciting reading your thoughts!! Second: I agree! While the costumes are definitely toned down a lot it also still has a certain vibe to it? The costumes still feel interesting (I mean Riddlers trash bag, goggles and tape mask? That’s a fun idea imo!) and individual to the character - unlike if they had just toned it down but still had e.g. the Riddler wear a suit, but a black one (1/2)

(2/2) and had the only ‚odd‘ thing about it be a green tie like you said in your post. I also feel it fits cause like Batman most villains in this movie are just starting out -ofc. Catwoman wouldn’t yet have the money to get a custom leather suit and cat mask, ofc. The Riddler wouldn’t be able to buy a custom tailored green suit and bowler hat (those hats are ridiculously expensive) it makes sense! And also at least they kept some things, like their color schemes (his coat is green!) and shticks

Oh also this whole ‚gaffer tape‘ gimmick they gave the riddler in the new film is actually kind of fun too - it definitely is creepy and gives the sound designers the option to have him announce his presence by the sound of tape getting ripped off the role which I can imagine could be used for great dramatic effect (also it’s fun to imagine him as a civilian just go and buy the whole tape stock from gothams local home depot much to the annoyance of the cashier)

I’m glad it didn’t come off that way!! And this was such a delight to read, thank you ❣️

The whole money aspect 100% makes sense. That’s something I didn’t think much about, but yeah, true. Considering it’s set in Bruce’s second(?) year as Batman. Everyone is still figuring shit out.

And OH, I didn’t even notice that his coat was green!! That’s really cool! As I said, you’re so right - it does make sense for them to have that DIY element to them! Which really makes me curious to see more of them. In general, Riddler’s costume and his whole introduction made me very curious.

Apart from the realism of it, the gritty DIY look can definitely have it’s charm. The main problem I have with it is if it’s just just “downplayed and a bit muddy/de-saturated”. But this has character, it’s fun. The tape mask?! We love to see it!!! I definitely agree on the sound design as well!! That is such a cool tool, especially in contrast to his soft voice.

(Now that you mentioned him buying it? that could legit be how Bruce finds him, couldn’t it? But either way - I love the idea that due to the ongoing and ever-present gang and mob activities, there are a ton of shady seemi-chain “brands” in Gotham that were used to launder money at some point before Batman kicked the main bosses out but the places are still in business since there is no more competition, so Riddler can buy his tapes at something like, Mr Freeze’s craft store or something.)

It would be really fun if they’d go with that DIY Look for Bruce, too, making the suit look more improvised and giving it a little more character. Which they don’t, as far as I can tell, and I have to say that’s completely valid and I genuinely love his suit from what I’ve seen. But wouldn’t it be fun? It would make sense with parts of his “original” costume, too, like the belt, considering that’s literally just an utility belt he uses to carry shit around in. Which could be used as a really cool tool to show that he’s a self-made detective slash crime fighter, as opposed to someone sponsored by his own firm. But as I said - I do love his look so far and I’ll take the eyeliner as a hint in that “do it yourself” direction.

#dc #battinson #I like the Nolan films but they really did a lot of that de-saturated down-playing imo #especially w the J*ker #but also the Batman suit #I feel like they're always those plastic shields #and I wish people got a little funky w that #really the 60s show just had the hottest takes on all of those things imo #anon #ask

6 notes · View notes

gaybaumans · 4 years

Note

will you elaborate on your mike is willy wonka post?

i would LOVE to anon.

So, first off, I’d just like to say that I’ve always loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and was super excited to see the guys talk about it on re:view. Mike clearly has a deep love for this movie and for Gene Wilder’s performance and that is at the root of my thesis. Willy Wonka was clearly a very formative film for Mike, one he grew up with, and knows so well he could quote it verbatim.

Many of the gimmicks on botw in particular are Mike’s brain children. You can tell he takes great joy in coming up with new ways to fuck with the format AND torment the rest of the crew. I think the most obvious example of this is the Black Spine Edition episodes.

The fact that he literally dons a top hat, cape, and cane... i mean that’s pretty obvious. But the whole “magician Mike” persona is so close to that of Willy Wonka it’s insane.

Willy Wonka himself, as discussed in re:view, has both an imaginative child like wonder about him as well as a more sinister side. I personally think that Junka is one of the best alterations to the botw format in recent memory. It’s a ridiculously fun and clever way to plow through a bunch of tapes that may not have otherwise been viewed. And for the crew? It’s t o r t u r e, lol. And as much as Mike complains about having to get through a slog of shitty tapes, he CLEARLY enjoys putting his friends through it and that just screams Wonka to me.

Now, we look at Rich Evans and my oompa loompa metaphor: Rich is largely responsible for building the larger botw set pieces as well as the crew’s set pieces in general. He works to bring Mike’s ideas to life, much like the oompa loompas work to keep Wonka’s factory running.

All the guests who visit the show, some of which never return? The Golden Ticket winners who excitedly agree to be a part of the show only to realize that sitting around for hours watching REALLY bad movies is not as fun as they may have thought it to be (best example being Patton Oswalt lol).

Some have theorized in tags that Jay is the Slugworth of this metaphor, which is an interesting thought, Jay being Mike’s right hand man etc. The idea of Mike using Jay to test guests as Wonka used Slugworth is VERY entertaining, though I don’t know how well that applies in reality.

I like to think of Jay as a sort of Charlie-esque equivalent. It is Charlie who ultimately wins, Wonka taking him under his wing and teaching him all there is to know to prep him for eventually running the factory. While Jay is certainly on more equal ground with Mike, they regularly bounce ideas off each other and work together to create some really cool shit that wouldn’t have been possible without the other’s input.

ANYWAYS to sum up, much like Willy Wonka bringing all his fantasies to life for his own enjoyment as well as the enjoyment of others, Mike Stoklasa is constantly introducing new and entertaining ways to present botw for both his and our amusement. While Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory may not be the DIRECT inspiration, I think that the film was definitely a formative one for him that may have influenced him in his creative projects.

And that’s that on that!

#i recently opened my ask box!#come talk to me about rlm!#rlm #red letter media #Mike Stoklasa #ask

10 notes · View notes

the-sheep · 4 years

Note

ID GO ABSOLUTELY BONKERS IF U TYPED OUT HIS ENTIRE HISTORY FBFBFBFB i would like 2 see it..........

alright right right

This ended up being A HUGE POST so all info is under the cut.

Unless you’re on mobile, in which case, enjoy scrolling.

It all starts on flight rising. Well, Heart starts on FR. It REALLY starts with my webcomic/animated series.

It wasn’t well drawn or animated at first, but it steadily got better. One of the plot holes, back in 8th grade, was “who created priscilla and Jake?”

It was mostly summed up to “Penny made all the bots its all simple” but i was a middle schooler and i needed a complicated (and edgy) story.

Thing is I had already made Fandragons of a good chunk of my ocs on flight rising.

I bred two dragons to get my main characters, so why not just use them?

Christy Suggested the name Cavet, and I liked it.

Yeah this is my first digital image of him as a human and he DOES NOT LOOK RIGHT

no necklace, no beard, orange eyes…

horrific.

So I made human designs for them both, but Chrysanthemum remains forgotten, not even canon to Mechanical Fury anymore.

Here’s old art of her and Cavet back before she got wiped out from existence.

the art is bad btu the Heart gimmick is there

Here’s him in his second image ever. The one that pretty much defined his design.He also quickly gained a husband

Anyway he quickly morphed into a villain several time more dangerous than the main villain

He’s responsible for the deaths of not ONE, not TWO, but THREE children.

Two his kids, one the younger sister of a character that one of the dead kids liked.

One of his dead kids got his own story, the other was literally a main character.

Chloride, (Charlie) in all his glory, lucky enough to get resurrected as an android but after finding out he’s not who he thinks he is, has to attempt to live a normal Human life… when his two best friends are paranormal investigators, his love interest having lost their arm and their only remaining sister to the main villain.

He originally found out he was an android by finding his own blueprints, hearing his Mom cry about it, and then cutting open his face (for his signature scar) and running off.

Running into Cavet’s husband, Nathair Liu. He stitches him up, know all about robotic n all that but he is.

also a secondary villain….

youtube

I hate the art in this video but its not my worst.

(Video was Vendy’s debut, too. tho Vendy was more Nate(logan/mind/princi/whatever)’s kid than Cavet’s)

Okay i’ve gotten off track.

Yeah at this point I was really loving Cavet, on FR, and wrote an entire long story between him and Skittles based on the events of Mechanical Fury.

This was where I got the idea for reincarnation.

I needed an explanation for why the same character was in two different universes, and it was perfect. In fact, it lead to an amazing way to end it.

But what is in control of all this? What does he see in the in between?

Well, Death was packaged with two other red herrings to keep people from thinking she was more important than them from the start, when in fact, she was. One of the plot points is that Cavet dies. He continues causing havoc, but nobody can figure out why or how. he doesn’t have a body.

Except he does. Death.

She was scary, but that was just her, she was a literal robot grim reaper. Nobody suspected she was spreading a virus to make robots susceptible to Augap’s control everywhere she went. Not even her. Cav liked hanging out in the AI scape, AKA the robot afterlife or virtual heaven.

What a fun way to make a real grim reaper.

I never really kept track of the transition from “cute robot char” to “cute real god char”

and i guess it never happened. Heart still thinks of her as she was, as cute little Litty. Except when she’s not. He gave form to the literal concept of DEATH. And became her friend. She still calls him Papa, sometimes.

In any case, Cavet’s doodles started being more and more revolving around his angst with the reincarnation.

in fact, i had a few character in the same boat as him, as I had made a couple dragons into MF characters as well.

I called them The Artifacts. It didn’t seem rounded out with only four, so I added a 5th. To give me more leeway in case I make a character i like enough to bring with them.

and turns out. I did.

I was sad enough about Cavet losing the love of his life, betraying him, creating a rift between them with his descent into obsession.

So he came with them.

They’re inseparable.

after a few lives of getting revenge on him for killing his sons and some adult humans and a BUNCH of robots, (not even counting his crimes in the vampire life he committed because he thought he lost Liu forever) Soul revealed to him something about Heart’s 6th life, which Mind doesn’t remember.

But he was there.

Long story short, he was Captain Shuggazoom. Yeah 10 lives of stuff he forgot before he started remembering his past lives. Messed Heart up.

ANYWAY BACK TO DEVELOPMENT!

I went around, making original characters to fill in Heart’s lives. I put him in a LOT of stories, but a notable one is My Old Ask Blog, @ask-musical-monsters

In which Heart is our lovable Tweedle, Bean.

He’s the bird. (this is also the blog where Willow was made!) (also a character i referenced when putting antauri on the baldi blog)

I still hadn’t abandoned MF so Bean has a lot of influence from Cavet.

I REALLY liked bean. It occured to me here-ish that Heart isn’t constrained by being my oc. He can be whoever he wants and nobody will care.

So of course I immediately declare him purple guy. No drawings of him, but I know I said he was purple guy at some point. Also at this point in time I started organizing the lives by number order, and making a simple arc for Heart and the others to follow.

1000 lives.

I made a brief description of heart’s 1st life, but made it purposefully very superfluous so i can change it whenever i want. All i know is he had albinism, and a desire to live forever.

That summer I got an amazing idea. I would take advantage of the Baldi’s basics trend with a ASK BLOG.

It was a mathematically calculated success. I did as many things as possible to generate more audience. MAIN thing being posting as often as possible, and being REALLY funny.

But knew I wasn’t going to like adding to the ask blog if i didn’t like the main character

I already knew he was going to be Baldi, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to characterize him either.

Turns out making him heart solved both of those problems. He’s always been Heart.

And Princi has ALWAYS been mind.

Even if they don’t always show their artifacts, they always were the same people as all these other things ive made. They have a DEEP connection to both each other and me.

At some point, I re-re-discovered SRMTHFG. The first few seconds I saw SK I knew he was Heart. It was so perfect it scared me.

HE EVEN DOES THE POSE!!!!! RED EYES!!!! AAAH!!!

I got an idea for a storyline based on formless and regret and monkeys… so.. uh

Anyway that kinda brings us to today, where the events of the blog have happened based on Heart things, and i can play around with Heart as much as I want.

And Willie’s next life? Well, 23 is my favorite number. It’ll be cool, but I’m not sure how. All I know is 23 wears a striped shirt, and is a vamp again.

In summary, Heart is the most important character I’ve ever made, and I will never come close to anybody as wonderful and as complicated as him. He’s the greatest formless, the best villains, the heroes, and one character i want to hold out for finding irl.

I love them even in scribbles i find on bus seats, in fanart of him, love her in songs i hear, in flowers i see in the wild.

Whoever they end up being, it’s safe to say I’ve fallen in love with Heart.

If you want me to describe his in universe story, I’ll need a seperate post.

Other Heart Resources:

The Spreadsheet

The Playlist

#heart id tag #long post #baldis basics #my singing monsters #mechanical fury #fnaf #the mind electric #srmthfg #hfytus #IM SORRY IF THIS ENDS UP IN THE SRMTHFG TAG SHOWOFF

30 notes · View notes

noellcfms · 4 years

Text

chicago’s very own noelle washington has been spotted on madison avenue driving a mclaren 720s , welcome ! your resemblance to normani kordei is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty-fourth birthday bash . your chance of surviving new york is uncertain because you’re deceitful, but being benevolent might help you . i think being a gemini explains that . 3 things that would paint a better picture of you would be sunset picnics , fruit smoothies , and the smell of vanilla . ( cis female + she/her ) + ( elle , 20 , she/her , cst )

my name is elle! i was here like a month ago then i left to vibe and clear my brain but i’m back and better than ever! this is my absolute BABIE noelle, most of you will remember her, and those who don’t i am so sorry this fake bitch has to enter your life, enough about me let’s talk about noelle!

* --- biography

noelle washington was born into an extremely strict Christian family, the middle child of three children. her family did everything by the bible. her dad was an extremely famous tv preacher, and her mom was a lawyer turned preacher’s wife. perfect family dynamic, no gimmicks, just wholesome family love.

her and her siblings went to church everyday, noelle grew up believing the things that her family told her.

family was very fervent in their beliefs and noelle kinda just had to stick behind them because they were family? ya know?

noelle grew up with her housewife mother! who was constantly cooking and cleaning and taking care of household tasks, so noelle followed in her footsteps

she developed a love for cooking and baking, and it became a passion to her. her parents were proud! they raised such a positive child

but she wanted more, she had bigger aspirations than being good at cooking for somebody else one day

middle child vibes are your parents forgetting that you even go to gymnastics in the first place, but that’s what she did! and she was great!

but her parents wanted her to focus on the cooking thing so she did, went on chopped junior and she won!!!! would later go on to win an actual episode of chopped but that’s different tea

ANYWAYS from that her family was offered a reality tv show because wow what wholesome family activities! and their children are so talented!! wait noelle who again? yeah she was...ignored per usual love that for her

she continued to practice gymnastics and she was heckin good at it i’m proud of my bb, she went on to by the youngest female to win three gold medals a talented queen i know

her family finally wanted to put her on their show because she was bringing in views everyone wanted to know how she was so well behaved and obedient and performed on the level that she did

she was a really good student! was valedictorian, student council president, and a bunch of other extracurriculars that would make her family proud of her

honestly she was jus tryna get into a good college ngl...as far away from her family as she could get

BUT THE WORLD DEMANDED NOELLE and so her family delivered for her, finally she graduated and phew she couldn’t wait to get as far away as possible from them

she ended up going to Stanford for...law....and although her family could pay her way and she was offered a full ride...she didn’t want to have to depend on her family for anything SIS DIDN’T EVEN WANT TO CALL HOME

she went to Stanford and worked a normal job...and everyone was so shocked! to see Noelle Washington working a normal job and being you know a fucking human but despite the gawking she continued to do so

she graduated college with her law degree and as valedictorian so she was like cool i appeased my parents time to move back...and she moved back!

she was like ‘guys i don’t wanna be a lawyer i wanna...open a bakery’ and so she did

you can catch her there literally anytime in the morning because she might own the place but she also you know works there because it’s hers....fun times!

she’s just began releasing her music! and her vc is normani

but this america’s sweetheart bitch has a secret

everything i told you was the truth! but i mean one version of the truth here’s the side of noelle nobody gets to see

* --- second biography?

noelle’s family seemed perfect one the outside but her father was a serial cheater, and her mother was a borderline alcoholic

they didn’t love her or her siblings so they often all fell to the wayside unless it was maintaining appearances in public, then it was all smiles, and how they lived by the word, a bunch of bs

noelle stopped believing in what her family force fed her early on...but she kept that shit to herself

the cooking and cleaning and literally every other responsibility fell upon noelle and her siblings, she sorta despised her parents, but still craved their validation, it was a really messed up cycle

all of her achievements are true tho! she got valedictorian, student council president, youngest person to win three gold medals, etc etc

her family really did get their own reality tv show, and put on extreme appearances for the cameras...and noelle was pushed to the wayside because middle child vibes again

she did go to Stanford for law...but let’s get into the main portion of her double life

she didn’t work a normal job! she wasn’t a waitress or a cook or even a dishwasher nope she did none of that shit

she became a stripper! but she couldn’t show everyone her face obviously...so she developed a plan!

she would go on stage in a really extravagant masquerade mask...like to the point where nothing was recognizable but her eyes

and that shit worked! she was a hit! an icon! people loved her...she made mad bank

well one day an agent approached her and was like...do you want to do porn? and this extra ass bitch said more money? hell yeah

the one condition she did have was obviously she kept the mask, but she could change it during scenes, like different colors and shit love that for her

it was amazing that this bitch managed to graduate with all the hours that she was pulling...lowkey would be proud when annoying frat boys that called her a ‘prude’ would talk about how much they wanted to fuck her

ANYWAYS she took her work with her when she moved back to new york mostly her work in the adult entertainment industry...but she continues to do porn and that’s where a big majority of her money comes from

that’s her secret lmaoooo she hasn’t told her family or even her friends because you know appearances

so when she’s not at the bakery during the day she’s usually filming a scene...and when she’s not around at night she’s stripping

* --- personality

PUBLIC LIFE

extremely sweet

literally doesn’t have a mean bone in her body...but not nice to the point where anyone’s suspicious...just nice enough to teeter that line a little bit

fun loving young girl, or at least she tries to be, she tends to let her emotions get the best of her tbh, but despite that she’s gentle and kind and would never hurt a fly if she could help it

she always gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, believing the best in everyone and always looking for the good, you could tell her a million and one bad things about someone and she’d still only care about the one positive aspect

noelle has the biggest heart, and often thinks she’s mislabeled as naive, although in reality she truly is and is often easily lead on

not gonna lie, noelle apologizes for just about everything, even if it isn’t her fault, bam there’s another apology coming out of her mouth

she’s sorta of the mom friend in a way? like she can barely take care of herself, but she literally tries to take care of every single person there is to ever exist

is resilient and to this day there isn’t a problem that she hasn’t overcome, even if she did have a little help from alcoholic beverages

lowkey a hopeless romantic??? like she’s the kind of girl who falls in love with strangers, or sees people in coffee shops and then envisions their wedding, she’s hopeless

SECRET LIFE

extremely outspoken

will fight for what she wants deadass she’ll punch you don’t play with her she doesn’t take shit from anybody

extremely comfortable with herself and her body and just embraces who she is i love that for her

she talks mad shit ngl but she’ll back that up with a punch dw

judgmental but like lowkey not about your looks or clothes or anything but she will talk about how you act and carry yourself since that’s important to her

ngl lowkey has this whole ass superiority complex

hella sociable, she loves meeting new people

sexual!1!1!1!

if you can’t tell she do be having anger issues

* --- wanted connections

don’t feel limited by this list, italics means i’m open to more than one

best friend / ride or die

roommates

basically her son

bad influences around each other

pr romance

little brother

step siblings / ex step siblings

pals

childhood & high school friends

awkward situation

frenemies

bad terms

FIRST LOVE THAT ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED HER

big heartbreak ex-fiance OR alternatively an annulled vegas marriage

will they ? have they ?

exes, on bad terms

exes, on good terms

skinny love

high school sweetheart

friends with benefits

one night stand

industry friends