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#this is just scene setting lmao but it'll do take it
comicaurora · 7 months
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thoughts on Castlevania: Nocturne?
HO BOY WHAT A RIDE
ok to start off, the short list of things I wasn't a huge fan of
The dialogue was a little bit wack in places; Richter's extremely badass "there's something you've forgotten about belmonts, I'd forgotten it too" line fizzling out into "ok I was gonna do a one-liner but eh fuck it" was a pretty representative example. Kinda snapped me out of the scene when I was otherwise hella invested
Erzsebet's dumb onion haircut
this is a nitpick but solar eclipses are only visible from very small areas of the earth because the moon's shadow is much smaller than the earth so even if Erzsebet is magically holding the moon in place it'll only produce eternal night in like a third of france
castlevania let even one mom survive a season challenge 2k23
On to the good stuff!
Every character, even the nastiest antagonists, being clearly and consistently motivated by core traits that sometimes lead to them switching between opposing and helping Team Good Guy, I lost it when Olrox smoked his way into Casa Good Guy to give them a plot device in the most unnecessarily threatening way possible
Love that Richter's brand of snark is a blend of Trevor and Sypha's, he's just as sassy as Trevor but all his quips show Sypha's chipperness. Also love that he copes with the Belmont Trauma by constantly deflecting and light-heartedly downplaying The Horrors until he finally cracks
Maria's cute lil pokemon
Richter getting his magic back!! What a beautiful scene, what good animation, what powerful shots
Richter's unique fighting style! As soon as his magic comes back it's All Throwing Hands All The Time and I really appreciate how anime protagonist he is about it
ALUCARD'S RETURN
Edouard's singing being so good it keeps giving people their souls back, also one of the most gorgeous night creature designs ever put to paper
Annette's entire deal is so profoundly powerful and I love how they're using her ancestral magic to expand on the ramifications of Castlevania's "all legends are true" undercurrents
This show feels extremely focused on the specific political landscape of the historical period it takes place in unlike Castlevania's more loose historical setting
The THEMES of colonialism and vampirism being one and the same
Olrox being like "oh you want to make a new world empire of absolute conquest? heard that one before" and somehow none of the other bad guys pick up on the subtext of "and it was FUCKING BAD"
Sekhmet-Erzsebet's cape shoulder-halo thing being the Egyptian sun-on-a-boat symbol is subtle and it slaps
"who's dracula" lmao
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libraryofgage · 4 months
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A Hop, a Skip, and a TARDIS Jump
Part of: Steve Deserves Good Parents, Actually Debbie and Fester Addams One | Two Rick and Evelyn O'Connell One | Two (on the way!) Harley Quinn One 10th Doctor and Rose One (you're here!) Scooby Gang (there are plans for this one lmao, so plz be patient with me orz)
I know it says 10Rose up there, but this series starts with 9Rose, because 9 is also special blorbo in my heart hfjdks Christopher Eccleston didn't have to put his whole chest into the role but he did and I love that for him
Anyway, have fun with this one! We're getting time travel shenanigans coming up (and angst, def some angst, but it'll end sweet I promise), and a little meme at the end
As always, if you see any typos, no you didn't :)
Satellite Five 200,000
Running into the woman was an accident created by the chaos of something changing on Satellite Five. Steve doesn't know what that is, exactly, but he can feel it in the air, in the way the humans around him have started rushing, in how the food stands have suddenly ground to a halt. And he comes to a halt with them, his hearts speeding up in his chest as the frenzy reminds him of another time, another planet, another chaotic scene that ended with him being launched across time and space while his home died.
When he finally gathers his wits enough to move, he turns right into a woman's leg, bumping his nose hard against her and falling to the ground with a startled cry. He holds his nose, the bridge smarting and causing his eyes to water as he looks up at a pretty young blonde woman who immediately crouches in front of him.
"Sorry about that. You all right?" she asks, her hands hovering in the air like she wants to check him for injuries but doesn't want to make him uncomfortable.
The funny thing is, Steve has seen this woman before. He saw her earlier in the day, getting into the elevator with a journalist and a man, and he assumed he'd never see her again. Nobody who got in the elevator came back. He's so overwhelmed by the shock of seeing her again that he almost misses the familiar aura around her, the lingering traces of golden space dust and passing time.
Almost.
He stares at her with wide eyes, his tears actually falling now, and then throws himself into her arms. "What took so long?!" he cries, clinging to her shirt like he'll be thrown across time and space one more time if he lets go.
"Woah, hey now, no need for crying," she says, utterly confused but gently smoothing down his hair anyway. "What's wrong?"
After taking a few moments to calm down, Steve starts to answer when he realizes something. The woman only has one heart. He can only hear one set of beats in her chest. He jerks away, his hands trembling as he stares at her. She's still covered in that familiar aura, practically swimming in it, but she's not like him.
It hurts. Steve can feel the bitter cold of disappointment replacing the hope that had started to grow between his hearts. He thought...he thought he'd get to be with someone like him again. Maybe not his original family---they're dead, long gone, and Steve is never getting them back---but a new one that wouldn't let him feel quite so alone anymore.
Maybe she was just injured. That would explain it well enough.
"Where....where's your second heart?" he asks, his voice small as he grips the hem of his shirt to steady himself. "Y-you...why do you--"
Before Steve can get the rest of the question, a man in a leather jacket, looking slightly annoyed as he checks his pockets, appears next to the woman. "Right then. C'mon, Rose, we got dead weight to drop off," he says, his tone hard.
The woman, Rose, looks up at him. "Hold on a minute, Doctor," she says, "we've got to help him find his parents first."
Steve opens his mouth, wanting to say that won't be possible, as he looks up at the man. Their eyes meet, and the words get stuck in his throat. If Rose carried lingering space dust and passing time, this man is made of it. Steve can see the gold around him, swirling and calling, singing in a way he'd forgotten about. Even the name is familiar---not that Steve knows this particular Time Lord, of course, but he knows the conventions and traditions.
"I'm afraid that'll be impossible, Rose," the Doctor says, his voice softer and full of disbelief as he crouches next to her on the ground.
"What? How do you know?"
The Doctor doesn't answer her. He just holds a hand out to Steve, waiting patiently. When Steve takes it, the world finally rights itself. He can feel the blood pumping through the Doctor's veins, fast and powerful in a way only two hearts can manage. He can practically taste time and space coating his tongue as he steps closer. When Steve places his hand on the left side of the man's chest, feeling the beating of one heart before sliding his hand over to feel the other, he cries even harder than before.
And the Doctor cries, too.
It's not a loud crying, but he pulls Steve into his arms and holds him with the same desperation and fear that he'll disappear if he loosens his grip that Steve felt when he hugged Rose. "I thought...I thought I was the only one left," the Doctor says, moving his hand to cradle the back of Steve's head.
"Doctor, what's going on here?" Rose asks.
Steve peeks out at her, and then he's lifted into the air, still held in the Doctor's arms. His jacket smells like the past and future, a soothing scent that gets Steve to relax like he hasn't in a long time. "Long story short," the Doctor says, his voice still rough from crying but recovering, "you somehow bumped into the only Time Lord child in existence." A few moments pass before he speaks again, the smile and awe clear in his voice as he says, "You're just fantastic, Rose. Fantastic."
Despite his best efforts, Steve can't keep his eyes open long enough to see how she reacts or what the Doctor does next. The exhaustion of fending for himself and pushing away the despair of losing everything sweeps over him. This could all be a dream, and the Doctor might be a figment of his imagination that disappears when he wakes up, but Steve lets himself dream for now.
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Hawkins, Indiana, 1971
"Okay, Steve, go ahead."
Steve glances up at his father, shifts his gaze to his mother, and then approaches the console. He reaches up and starts turning a dial, ignoring his mother's excited noise and his father's interested hum. Once he's turned it enough, he walks around the console and pulls a lever, flips a switch, and yanks another dial two notches to the right. Then, when he's sure his parents can't hear him, he leans in close and whispers, "Take me wherever you'd like me to be, TARDIS."
He feels something warm and happy surge under his fingers where he's holding the console. Not a second later, the familiar whooshing sound of the TARDIS fills the room, and Steve hang on for dear life as his father shouts, "Fantastic! Where do you think we'll land, Rose?"
"Somewhere child-friendly, hopefully," his mother replies, grabbing his father's arm and holding on for dear life.
Steve grins, his hearts beating fast and hard behind his ribs as the TARDIS slowly comes to a stop, its engine quieting to a gentle whirring as it parks. "Go on then," his father says, appearing behind Steve and nudging him to the doors. "See where you've brought us."
With his breath stuck in his throat, Steve slowly pulls the left door open. Sunlight streams into the TARDIS along with the delighted shrieks of other children and a warm wind that can only mean summer. Steve blinks, staring at the playground a few feet away.
"Oh," his father says, his tone duller than before, "seems boring."
This statement is followed by both the TARDIS making an offended noise and Steve's mother smacking his father in the chest. "Don't be rude! Boring is safe, which is good for Steve's first drive."
"Can...can I go play?" Steve asks, his voice soft as he feels a sudden longing sweeping through him. He hasn't played with people his age after leaving Gallifrey. In fact, he hasn't been around them. On Satellite Five, Steve didn't see other children. They were cared for on a different floor, and he never risked getting into the elevator.
Since leaving Satellite Five (since finding another Time Lord and basking in the TARDIS and crying together when Steve accidentally called the Doctor "Dad" and Rose "Mom"), Steve has been surrounded by Daleks and nanogenes and older humans and every alien under the sun, but he's never been around children.
The thought is exhilarating and terrifying and alluring all at once.
"Of course, Steve," his mother says, placing her hand on his head and brushing a few stray hairs from his face. "You go play, and we'll call you back in a few hours for some ice cream, yeah?"
Steve grins and nods eagerly, throwing a quick goodbye to his parents before running out of the TARDIS. He dashes across the street, coming to the edge of the playground before stopping. The grass turns into tiny rocks and pebbles beneath slides and swings and monkey bars and a merry-go-round. And kids. More kids than Steve really knows what to do with, which gives him an unfamiliar feeling of anxiety that makes him wipe his palms on his shirt.
"Hey, why are you just standing there?"
The question is asked by another boy Steve's age. His hair is a little frizzy and curls around his ears, and he's got band-aids covering his arms and stretching across the bridge of his nose. He's standing to Steve's left, holding a red rubber ball and ignoring the other kids around them.
"I've...never been here before," Steve says, meaning that he's never been in this situation.
The boy doesn't understand that, though. But when he says, "Oh, so you're new around here," Steve doesn't disagree. "Well, nice to meetcha. I'm Eddie."
He shifts to hold the ball against his chest with one arm and holds out his other hand. Taking it and shaking once, Steve introduces himself and asks, "Can we be friends?"
Eddie's eyes brighten, and he nods. "Yeah! Let's be bestest friends. Can I call you Stevie? Mom says you can give nicknames to friends."
"Sure! So, uh, what do we do now?"
Eddie pauses, looking at the playground with a slight frown. "We could play games," he says slowly.
"Oh! How about Weeping Angel?"
"What's that?"
Steve thinks for a moment. "Weeping Angels are these statues that move when you don't look at them. In the game, someone will face away, and the other person will start sneaking up on them. If the first person turns, the second has to freeze in place. If the first person sees them move, they lose. If the second person reaches the first and touches them, they win."
"It sounds like Rad Light, Green Light," Eddie says, tilting his head slightly. "But, sure! Let's play it."
Steve smiles brightly and follows Eddie to a clear patch of playground. "I'll be the Angel in this round," he offers, waiting for Eddie to agree before walking a few feet away. "Let me know when you're ready!"
Eddie turns around, still holding the rubber ball, and glances over his shoulder. He stares at Steve for a few seconds before looking away and saying, "Ready!"
As lightly as he can, Steve takes a few steps forward, doing his best to make no sounds like the Weeping Angels he's seen before. When he notices Eddie moving, he freezes, quickly placing his hands over his eyes but leaving enough room to peek between his fingers.
When Eddie turns, he's frozen in a classic Weeping Angel pose. Eddie studies him for a few seconds, eyes narrowed before slowly turning around again. Steve exhales softly, and the game continues.
Steve wins exactly three times, Eddie wins twice, and there's one round in which they both dissolve into laughter because of the position Steve freezes in, so they don't count it. When Eddie gets bored of playing, he introduces Steve to foursquare, which is why he has the rubber ball. When he gets bored of that he drags Steve around the playground, introducing him to each piece of equipment with pride.
By the time the sun has started to dip low on the horizon, Steve is sweaty and dirty and happier than he's ever felt as he hides under the slide with Eddie. They're pressed close together, sharing a popsicle Eddie's mother had given them, purple juice making their hands sticky.
"You're really cool, Stevie," Eddie suddenly says, his lips and tongue purple as he offers the last bit of popsicle to Steve.
After taking it and letting the cold ice melt on his tongue, Steve asks, "Hey, do bestest friends keep secrets that only they know?"
"Of course! Nothing is stronger than a bestest friend secret."
"But you gotta promise not to tell anyone. Not even your mom."
Eddie seems to realize this is serious now, and he straightens up a bit. "I won't," he promises, "cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye."
That seems a bit extreme to Steve, but what does he know of human customs? He leans in close, his mouth almost pressing against Eddie's ear, and whispers, "I'm an alien."
He pulls away in time to see Eddie's disbelieving look. "What? You look human. No way you're an alien."
"I am!" Steve says. "How many hearts have you got?"
"One. Duh."
"I've got two."
Eddie snorts. "Yeah. Right. Nobody has two hearts."
"Here, you can feel them," Steve says before grabbing Eddie's hand and placing it over the left side of his chest. He waits a few seconds, making sure Eddie can feel that heart, before sliding his hand to the right side. He watches Eddie's face turn bright red, and Steve figures it's from excitement or shock at realizing Steve is, in fact, an alien.
Before Eddie can say anything, Steve hears his mother calling, "Steve! It's time to go!"
He pouts, letting go of Eddie's hand. "Aw, man," he mumbles, crawling out from beneath the slide. Eddie scrambles after him, his cheeks still flushed and his eyes wide. "I gotta go now, but I'll see you again soon, Eddie."
"Yeah, soon," Eddie mumbles, seeming dazed until he shakes his head. "Your, um, secret is safe with me, Stevie."
Steve blinks and flashes a blinding smile. "Of course it is," he says, "You're my bestest friend."
With that, he hugs Eddie and then runs to his mother, brimming with excitement at getting to tell her all about the park and Eddie.
------
If you'd like to be tagged for this series, let me know!
And, finally, a meme for your viewing pleasure:
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dropthedemiurge · 2 months
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youtube
Love for Love's Sake final episode BTS were released, and I really don't want to let this story go x) But I loved watching cast play around and tease each other. And in this particular video, everyone went really heavily on flirteasing and especially... on joking about Myungha's drowning scene x))
(tw suicide for following translations)
We saw on IG that Joowan (Yeowoon) and Minsoo (Sangwon) were playing and throwing flip stones on a beach. While fans joked Taevin (Myungha) would get jealous, he actually was watching them from behind xD He was preparing for diving, and those two played around.
PD: It's the day of Myungha submerging, any words? J,M: *said they were gonna go home but since they were worried for him so they stayed.* PD: But I saw you having a lot of fun throwing stones right now? J: Well, if the atmosphere is happy and playful, Myungha will have a hard time dying:D
Then they came back to Taevin.
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T: You two are having so much fun playing with stones... M: We laid down stones so you would die a little bit later~^^ J: It's too sad I really won't be able to live! Т__Т
And then Myungha went into the water, and after the first take everyone shouted that it was perfect (for real! it looked so good! woah!) I think it means they got this long difficult and emotionally heavy shot on their first try? Taevin, you should really keep being an actor!
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Taevin arrived to the underwater filming set.
T: It looks fun! Woah, it's deeper than I thought so I'm a bit nervous. Today is the day when Myungha dies... I'll do my best dying!^^ (/I'll be diligently dying!)
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After practicing swimming, rehearsing and dressing up:
PD: Say something before you go? T: Let's die well! Fighting! (i can't with his excitement for emotional scenes lmao)
My comments: Woah, Taevin actually is such a pro at swimming! Especially lowering yourself in the water, I wonder if the water for such shoots have some special addition to make sinking easier.
Anyway, there were cute scenes as well and I'm annoyed I can't understand 100% Korean because it's too noisy or quiet and I wish I knew what their banter was about. But Taevin just casually joking and then easily crushing his suicide scenes while the viewers were all emotionally suffering for days... I can't with him xD
Btw, guys, I also started writing notes while I was watching their livestreams, does anyone need brief translation summaries of LFLS lives? There are edited videos on youtube that put together well the funniest moments so idk whether anyone needs other casual comments but I have them partially in my drafts. But it'll take a lot of effort to finish %)
Or let me know if you want me to translate some other moment from BTS (I'm not really good with translating by ear yet but I can try my best, at least these videos have Korean subtitles xD)
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yourhighness6 · 2 months
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NATLA Debrief: Episode 3 (by yours truly)
Hi again! If any of ya'll are interested here's episodes 1 and 2. Thank you to those who have been following these deranged, unorganized posts, especially @phoebester (Just an fyi this will be hella long, just like the other two)
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First of all, the way they framed the opening resistence scene was genuinely so cool because I immediately thought back to the cold open for the first episode. The streets are so similar that's where my mind went RIGHT AWAY and if that is not good set design and filming I don't know what is.
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The resistance scene was so powerful for so many reasons besides those small details, too. The concept of a resistance within the FN was never addressed at all within the cartoon and I can't express how glad I am that they added this. It just makes logical sense that some people would resist, especially while so many are dying in war, and it really serves to humanize the FN people in a way that's reminiscent of book 3 ATLA. Perfect way to expand on the source material and introduce core themes earlier in the show (M Nite should be taking notes).
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It was also a perfect way to introduce both Ozai and Azula's characters. Ozai is this menacing figure stepping out of the shadows (quite literally), an almost larger than life villain who seems to have every move planned and everything calculated. He's brutal and efficient and we can see that. Azula is conniving and smart, the kind of girl who can fool anyone and come out on top, but is ultimately still a weapon under her father's control. You can tell from the moment Ozai mentions Zuko that she is the underdog, but she is determined that it will not stay that way, and she seems just terrifying enough to succeed. (also idc what anyone says Elizabeth Yu has mastered Azula's look and general vibe. I feel like the whole 'miscasting' debacle was a mix of fatphobia and being shown the wrong stills before the show came out. She looked sort of sweet and innocent in those but I get absolutely none of that from this scene)
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Ugh the exposition was great and then they have to give us this. What the absolute hell did they do to my Katara? Like there was a whole ass episode in the cartoon devoted to her getting mad because she wasn't progressing as fast as Aang and then in this fucking adaptation the maddest she sounds is when she emotionlessly declares, "I don't get it" to convey mild frustration. I'm sorry Kiawentiio, you're acting is great but the writers clearly have no fucking idea how to put your emotional range to good use. The same problem was present in the last episode and I just don't see them being able to fix it significantly enough at this point, even if they have a desire to. Not to undermine that, but there were a couple good points in this scene: Aang mentions something about bending being "beyond thought" which gives bending a more spiritual aspect that I like, and Katara's PTSD is brought up again in an intelligent way, but still, that doesn't matter if they're going to completely butcher her character. (side note: when is Aang going to learn waterbending? they haven't shown him training at all and I'm getting worried)
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This scene was fine or whatever but what in the absolute fuck is going on with Zuko and Zhao? Are they not going to do the agni kai? Like I know there's still animosity there but they were really just sitting there (semi)-calmly enjoying a cup of tea and demonstrating only mild dislike for each other. All I have to say is if they remove the agni kai altogether I'm gonna be so fucking pissed it'll bug me forever and I'll be fucking insufferable.
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Also Zuko is so mean to Luitenient Jee for no reason. I know it's because his abuse makes him see any kind of comradery as weakness so it's a good detail if that's what they're going for but ngl I also find it a bit funny. Like what did he ever do to you? And Zhao taking three tries to pass his officer exam is so perfect too like what a fucking looser lmao.
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Ba Sing Se looks beautiful. There's something so mystical about it, especially in the way Aang describes it as they walk up to the gate. It's this hub of culture and science and art, but it's also incredibly militaristic and so changed due to war it's almost unrecognizable to someone who was there a hundred years ago. The adaptation of cultures during times of change is something ATLA does so well and I'm glad to see that it's continuing in the LA.
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AHH Katara was so awkward during this whole scene and I loved it. For one thing Sokka's commentary was absolutely hilarious but it's also this reminder that Katara has been relatively isolated from other children her age and her brain is like "cute boy flirt how" and its so fucking funny. It might not be the same Katara as the cartoon who is effortlessly comfortable wherever she goes but this is so much more realistic and if she's going to be a bit different this is probably the best thing for them to change (now keep the awkwardness and give her back her anger Netflix I'm begging you)
I am slightly concerned because it looks to me like they're trying to condense at least four episodes into one and I'm not sure if that's going to be a cohesive plotline or a complete mess or not but if handled carefully I think they might be able to pull it off.
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Ooooh the explosion was super unexpected and totally cray cray thanks for keeping me on my toes. I'm assuming it was Jet that planted the bomb although I cannot for the life of me think why. Anyways Teo was adorable I'm adopting him.
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Also I am so so so happy that they gave him a little more depth beyond just 'happy glider kid' and gave a bit more nuance to his character. Of COURSE kids who grew up in war are going to be desensitized to the bloodshed OF COURSE they're going to be a little vengeful and be thinking about ways to win the war OF COURSE Aang is going to be uncomfortable with that because he didn't grow up with that militaristic mindset even if he did loose everything OF COURSE that's not going to change the fact that kids grow up hearing about death and experiencing loss as extremely young children versus Aang being suddenly thrust into this responsibility and grief because he didn't grow up like that he grew up in peacetime it just makes sense. Good job Netflix this was wonderful this was perfect I loved it.
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Okay don't get me wrong I love the way Aang wears his heart on his sleeve I love how their in-the-face storytelling makes a bit more sense with how open and emotional of a person he is it's just part of his character that was improved upon by the LA in my opinion but this is also just... such a misunderstanding of the group dynamic. Like why isn't Katara seeing these people and thinking "I can help with this I have to help with this" and Aang giving this speech to Sokka jumping on the bandwagon? I would even accept them seeing the destruction together and mutually deciding that they need to help the people there (this would probably be best as it allows us to see both character's compassion) or Aang saying something about it and Katara immediately being like "ur absolutely right" but of course they can't do that all we need is a lengthy speech from the protagonist while Katara stands there like robot girl. My mistake.
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STOP because her mocking face is so fucking perfect I love Elizabeth Yu she's perfect. Anyway, I think that they're kind of... adjusting her trauma a bit? I mentioned earlier how I feel like she's shown as a little more scrappy and an underdog as opposed to perfectly calculating and not a hair out of place, but after this scene I feel the need to expand on that. In the cartoon, Azula's abuse from her father centers around his unattainably high expectations for her that eventually cause her ultimate breakdown and the conclusion to her devastating character arc. But in the LA, they're portraying her as less of a prodigy and more of a hard worker. She still has incredibly high expectations, but in this version, she never meets them all the time. Her brother is almost leveraged against her in a way. Even if she feels like she is the best and has the constant need to prove she is the best to her father, there's always going to be this nagging insecurity that she won't be good enough to measure up to her brother. She's not being told she's worthless like Zuko, but she's not reaching every goal like cartoon Azula, either. This also might explain why she has arrows. In the cartoon, weapons are viewed with disdain by firebenders, making Zuko using them so controversial, but Azula definetely doesn't seem to be hiding her talent for the bow and arrow and even if it was a her-sneaking-away-to-practice sort of situation that's not very in character and I don't think she would do that. I think in this version she probably has them because she's trying to find every possible way to prove herself to her father beyond just firebending, and mastering a weapon is a way to do that. I'm not sure how I feel about these changes but she is clearly a different character in this version than in the cartoon and moving forward I'm going to treat her as such. (I've noticed this a bit with all of the characters except possibly Sokka: they're different people. I think this actually might be intentional. [even so I still don't like their characterization of Katara her trauma hasn't changed very much to my knowledge she should still have the same core drives and character traits])
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As well done as Azula was, there was relatively nothing in the Ty Lee and Mai department. They're just kind of existing, watching her train. Ty Lee is vaguely cheerful (and her costume is great btw) and Mai has one line about exploring the world that gives a bit of insight into her character and has a monotone voice. They're both clearly a little scared of Azula but that's basically it. Hopefully we get more on them soon.
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Back in Ba Sing Se, I noticed a bit of a parallel between Teo and Katara. The Mechanist mentions that they lost his mother due to the war, which reminded me specifically of Katara. Throughout this scene, we see that Teo remembers his mother's philosophy and adopts it into his own mindset far more than his father's. Their situation is different because while Katara is arguing for compassion Teo is arguing for fighting back, but they are both fundamentally saying the same thing. It's not enough just to accept their lot in life and try to survive or fight, it's about the big picture, and about defending the things they love. While Katara and Teo both approach this subject from a very different front, the core idea is the same. It's also telling how they are dismissed initially as idealistic for their values when they are really upholding what their mothers stood for in their eyes: for Teo, a symbol of hope in her retellings of the stories of the avatar, and for Katara, a symbol of kindness in her reminders to remain empathetic despite the horrors of war. Make of this what you will, I just thought it was a nice little parallel.
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Anyway, allow me to have a few words on the whole Jet thing (in bullet points because I don't have enough brain power to do this)
I'm glad Jet got his freedom fighters outfit. I was a bit worried when I saw what he was wearing in the first scene he was in because the fit is iconic, and so are the swords
God he's so fucking dramatic "they call me Jet" while the sun glints off his swords and he turns slightly for affect it was so funny I laughed out loud
He and Kia have no on-screen chemistry I'm sorry. Like even the fight scene was so awkward and every time they speak to each other they sound so stiff. They're good actors independently but whoever was watching their chemistry check (I'm assuming they had one pre-production but judging by this crap I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't) was either asleep or it was their first day because there is NOTHING there
What the hell did they do to the Freedom Fighters? They're so cheesy and the costumes are so bad (especially Smellerbee's). Like seriously that entire fight scene was so awkward idk what the hell happened there but it was nowhere near the quality of the rest of the episode so far
Overall, I'm not a huge fan. Also where is Sokka I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be there somewhere
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Okay here's Sokka finally. Are they just taking him out of the Jet shenanigans entirely? I wouldn't be surprised considering how many episodes they had to condense but still I would have liked to see that. Oh well, I guess they had to have Katara do something in this episode instead of just stand around while her brother and Aang have huge plot points. Anyway, this scene was very interesting to me. Sokka and the Mechanist bonded in the og but not to this extent, and I honestly liked that they did something a bit deeper with it considering they don't have as much screentime to establish Sokka's daddy issues (for lack of a better word). Anywho the Mechanist mentioning that there are other career paths to take besides just being a warrior was super cool and I think we can glean a lot from it about Sokka's future character arc. Maybe in this version he doesn't perfectly live up to his dad's expectations and instead finds his own way? It was nice to see Hakoda proud of him in the original but if they go down this path I definitely won't be mad. It's interesting while staying true to the character, it's just a different direction.
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The scene with Aang and Teo was cute. They're both good actors who play off of each other nicely, and Teo talking about how he doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps lends a bit of insight to the conversation the Mechanist had with Sokka. He probably mentioned Sokka's dad because he wondered if his parents were engineers too and maybe is looking for a bit of an apprentice since his son doesn't take after him as much. This is also another way Teo conflicts with the Mechanist's way of life and may be more similar to his mother.
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The jetara scenes at the Freedom Fighter camp had a much better dynamic. I think the fight scene was probably just them figuring each other out as actors, it just sucks that it seeped into the final take. I confess I was a bit disappointed that the Freedom Fighters didn't live up in the trees, but I guess that would be a bit difficult to engineer. I also noticed how Jet repeated Teo's "if not us, then who?" statement, which is probably just your basic commentary on how the future generations are our hope blah blah blah. It's a major theme so I shouldn't be as disinterested as I am in it but as it stands I'm still not totally thrilled with the Jet plotline as a whole and I think that may be affecting it. I feel like Sokka should be here to add some variety and spice things up a bit it's kind of boring.
The last jetara scene was definitely the best yet. I can't get over how happy I was to hear Jet say his mother taught him to fight. So often we hear how dads or older brothers are teaching the women in their family to fight but here we have a canonically badass male character saying that an older female relative was the one who taught him. One of the major complaints I have from the cartoon was how for all its talk about women being able to fight and its supposed feminist message, there were no women of the older generation fighting at all except for Jun, who wasn't even a particularly moral character like all these older men. We do have to remember that the cartoon started production over twenty years ago so it is a product of its time, when feminist issues weren't very mainstream. Another factor that might have contributed to the lack of feminism in the original was the generational discrepancies; millennials were the first to have widely accepted equal educational opportunities in the US, and even though educational opportunities are still affected by sexism, college became the norm for both male and female students at that time. This isn't to say women older than millennials didn't go to college, but this is around the time women and men started to become relatively equal as of percentage seeking higher education. Basically, they were the first generation of women expected to have careers, and therefore the writer's minds were probably shaped alongside a similar number of female peers, but primarily by men. This could have contributed to the lack of older women, but as times changed, so to did the amount of older women in professional fields. This line is a reflection of that, and I hope we continue to see more badass older women and older warrior women and women in power as the LA continues.
Other than that, I did take my shipping goggles out during this scene at the "sunrise" bit, and it wasn't about jetara. I heard from other fans in the zutara tag that the "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" line was removed but I keep thinking about how Katara is legitimately drawing power from remembering the sun rising, a time when the opposite element, Zuko's element, becomes more powerful. I know I'm reaching, but while I mourn the loss of our beloved "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" I have to find a new version. Anyway I think we should call this sunrisegate lol
Also, the way Katara is extremely hesitant to talk about her trauma whereas Jet seems completely fine with being emotional and dumping out exactly what he was feeling may have been a device but it does remind me of something I read about how ppl with PTSD will often react very differently when sharing their trauma and the same is true for many other trauma induced disorders. It was probably unintentional but I still thought it was a nice detail.
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Anyway on a less serious note Iroh and Zuko's dynamic is still top tier. I've seen a lot of people complaining about Iroh's character but I don't see anything wrong up to this point. I might be in for a shock in future episodes but I have genuinely no idea what they find so off putting. He's a great actor and the character has legitimately not changed. The line above was a bit undercut by the fact that he's standing in the middle of an enemy city with a cloth half wrapped around his face to keep part of his face from being seen, but I'm just gonna take it at face value (haha pun). I think the thing Zuko despises most is cowardice, and it affects his perception of the war in a huge way. He calls Aang a coward for escaping from prison because he was running away or whatever and I've never considered Zuko a particularly logical character but it's like... bruh he's outnumbered like fifty to one what he is gonna do? Anyway his definition of cowardice is directly tied to his honor and his perception of it in relation to his trauma and the way he held back in the agni kai and him perceiving that as cowardice maybe... Ya'll got me? This isn't fully formed because I obviously haven't seen this new rendition of the agni kai but I'm guessing the events are basically the same. Do with it what you will.
I skipped over the Azula and Zhao scene because I don't have any groundbreaking commentary except to say that I liked it. It ties Azula into the story nicely and gives Zhao something actually interesting about him (I don't hate him as much as I did in the cartoon so whenever he comes up on screen I just sort of yawn).
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Anyway, it was nice to see Katara get a bit angry. I think this captured the gaang dynamic pretty well. Aang being relatively neutral/ quiet while the siblings argue and Katara gets twice as mad as Sokka. Also he may have had the last word but she had the last laugh:
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Again, the sibling dynamic was really great but I didn't feel like Katara was carrying it as much as in previous episodes. Sokka actually played his part in making it interesting and realistic. I don't think this single argument is enough to redeem Katara's characterization in my eyes but at least we know now there is a little spark there.
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AHH THE SCARF SCENE! Scarfgate was everything I could have asked for and more. Like why does he appear directly behind her like that unless he's trying to fight her? Why does he just let her go by like that? Why does he hold out his hand in the first place? Truly is the Watergate of our time it deserves that name. (also in the same episode as the whole sunrise thing? come on) I'm probably being baited but at least I'm enjoying it.
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So I was right about the bombings! I can't believe all those cute little kids are terrorists but I couldn't believe it in the cartoon either so I guess that checks out. Either way I find the bombing far less forgivable than trying to take out the Mechanist. Innocent civilians were hurt and even though I know there was a real possibility that civilians could have been hurt in the attempted bombing for whatever reason it just seems... more brutal somehow. Like the first one was in the center of town, you know? Anyway terrorism is wrong I hope Jet finds his way.
(I was worried about how they were going to tie all the seemingly unrelated plotlines together but I think they pulled it off. Again my main problems were all concentrated around the Jet plotline but when the Mechanist was tied in it became a lot more interesting)
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When I heard this I was like "son ur about to get ur ass kicked" but the funny part is he was kind of right. Like when neither of them were bending he was winning. I guess in all fairness he is a lot bigger than Aang but I don't feel like that was an accidental detail. Anyway, I think this fight scene was the most entertaining yet and so much better than jetara against the firebenders earlier. Maybe the affects for water are just worse than air and fire (it feels slower somehow) but I'm very partial to this fight. And that's saying something because I usually fast-forward through fight scenes or just kind of tune them out or barely watch, so you know it was really good.
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I think the reason I liked it so much was that it was funny, honestly, not in the same way or to the same degree the cartoon was but I laughed out loud a couple times. For instance Zuko gets hit in the face three times in the span of ten seconds, once with a plate, once with a wicker basket, and once with his own little stick thing. Aang also put a basket over his head and some random ass lady started whacking him with a fan. Kudos to whoever choreographed that it was the best.
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Also I liked how Sokka and Katara saved the day together. Cute sibling bonding excersize. And it ended on a cliffhanger with the characters separated! My favorite kind of cliffhanger! It definitely left me wanting more.
Anyway, to recap, things I didn't like:
No Zuko and Zhao agni kai
Mai and Ty Lee were just sort of there
Katara's characterization is still so-so
Jetara plot line was boring and chemistry was not the best
It was kind of a lot for one episode, even if they managed to do it well
Things I did like:
Opening scene
Azula characterization
Teo
The Mechanist plotline
Teo and Katara parallel
Katara DID actually seem a little bit more firey in this episode
SCARFGATE
Zuko and Aang fight scene
Surprisingly good handling of all those loose ends
Cliffhanger
Overall, I would give it a 9/10. That's the highest score I've given an episode so far and I'm standing by it. I know others might have a very different opinion on it since it was condensed so much and differed a lot from the cartoon, but I agreed with many of the changes they made. One thing I would urge everyone to remember is that these are different characters from the cartoon. They're going to act slightly different and have slightly different journys and that's okay. I think it is worth comparing to the original, as it is an adaptation, but we need to remember that an adaptation is not an exact replica, nor should it be. That in no way means that we should make allowances for anything we found negative or mediocre, but it is going to be different and change in it of itself isn't a bad thing. Anyway thank you guys so much for sticking with me! I'll probably have the next episode's debrief up by tomorrow.
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jybyls · 3 months
Text
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Tease
Part 1
Warning: Teasing, R is kinda jealous, sexual tension but no smut, R is an actress too, and I think that's it.
Synopsis: Part 2, so you're visiting Jenna on the set of Finestkind, and you wanted to get your revenge after her teasing you but you end up in one damn of a situation
Words: 1k~
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Jen <3
You: Loveee ! Do you know what day it is ?
So today I finally get to see Jenna again and I'm terribly excited.
Jen: Hi love, did you sleep well ?
It's sweet she asks if i slept well because she knows I have trouble sleeping even more when I'm not with her. But currently I couldn't give a fuck less about my sleeping schedule.
You: Who gives a shit I FINALLY get to see you today !!
Jen: Oh yes that's right ! Omg I forgot it's already the day !
You: How could you forget ? I'm terribly offended.
Jen: Come on I'm sorry I really can't wait to see ya love ❤️
You: Yeah sure
Jen: Don't be like that
You: Ok ok I'm sorry
I'm really excited to see you tho ❤️
Jen: Me too ❤️
When's your flight ?
You: At 6pm.
Got everything pack already and I'm just gonna clean the house and feed the cats
Jen: Omg bring the cats with you !
You: Lmao I wish I could, but my best friend gonna take care of them while I'm gone
Jen: Really wish you could bring them :(
Miss them
You: More than me ?
Jen: That's a trick question and I won't answer
You: That is not a trick question woman 🤨
Anyway you're gonna pick me up at the airport right ?
Jen: Yes ofc
Need my little princess passenger
You: Tbh that's one of the thing I missed the most
Jen: Being my princess passenger ?
You: Yeah
Jen: You're unbelievable
You: I can't wait to see in your Mabel outfit in real life
Jen: Oooh right I forgot about that
I really bet you can't wait
You: Ok now don't be a teaser
Jen: I didn't do anything !
You: Aren't you suppose to work ?
Jen: Lunch break
You: Right
What scene do you gotta do after you're break ?
Jen: A lovey dovey scene
Oh right so whenever me or Jenna are doing a scene where we're kissing someone else we call those scenes "lovey dovey scenes" to not make the other one jealous. Which never works by the way.
You: Right I forgot that's basically all the movie is about.
Anddd now I'm jealous and she knows it.
Jen: Don't be jealous
We can recreate that scene if you want. It'll be soo much better than the actually scene
Will they make you feel better ?
You: Probably yeah
Jen: Alright. I gotta go my love I love you can't wait to see you ❤️
You: I love you too, work hard. I'll reward you when I'll get there ❤️
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Jen: Oh God.
She can't be the only one to tease.
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My plan arrived, and I've been looking around for Jenna until I saw a small figure looking around like I was. She turned around, and a smile immediately grew on her face. She ran up to me, hugging my waist tightly. "Hi baby. I've missed you so bad." She said, her face buried in my chest. "I've missed you too, love." My face in her neck holding her for dear life. She pulled away to kiss me softly. That's only when I realised she's still wearing Mabel's outfit. Oh God.
"You're still wearing Mabel's fit." I said while checking her out. "Yeah, you like it ?" She smirked. Fucking tease. "Yeah it looks even better in real life," I look up at her, not looking away from her mesmerising eyes, "you look so good, love." She just smiled at me, taking my hand in her. "Thank you sweetheart," she took some of my baggage and start walking toward her car, "by the way you know I worked real hard today." She made an allusion of our conversation earlier, I like to think that she kept thinking about that all day. "Remebered that huh ? Could you even think of something else all day ?" I teased her, I'm getting my revenge today.
"No I couldn't this is why I worked so hard, I mean, I had to think about something else than you which was really considering the pic that you send me so I think I deserved my reward." She started to ramble as she opened the door for me, I mumbled a small 'thank you' before starting to talk. "Right, you do deserve your reward." I smirked, seeing how hard I affected her.
Jenna is usually the one who has an effect on me and totally controls me, but from time to time, she lets me take control for a moment, so I'm enjoying it. Plus, I know as soon as she asks me to get down on my knees, I will.
On the way to the set of Finestkind, we talked about our day, going back and forth on random topics too. Once there, she made me meet everyone, but she hurried our way to her trailer.
"Remebered what I told you about recreating that lovey dovey scene ?"
"Yeah, I do, but what exactly was the scene ?"
"Let me show you ? You're Charlie, and I'm Mabel, ok love ?"
I only nodded, letting her guide me for now.
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Jenna is currently lying on her back while I'm kissing her stomach, begging for her to let me taste her. "Please, pretty please." I'm so desperate for her, but how could I not be? She has been teasing me for the past hour. It goes from pulling my hair away from a kiss to denying me pleasure her. It's driving me crazy and she's loving it, maybe too much.
"What do you want, baby ?" She smirked down at me. "You. Just you, please." I'm turning into a whining mess. She pretended to think for a moment before answering me. "Mmh, I don't know. Why should I ?" She's being cruel. She knows it, a small tear run down my eye. I buried my face in her thigh, holding her like my life depended on it. "Because you worked so hard today, you need to release some stress." She can't deny me for too long she'll eventually give in.
"Okay, then have me, baby." She caressed my hair softly, I looked up at her checking if she was playing with me, but I realised she wasn't and immediately started to get to work.
We're having a long night.
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starflungwaddledee · 7 months
Note
Okay you gave me permission so now it's time to go fully autistic
*inhale*
So something I'm really interested in (mostly for my Bandee x Marx bias) is that comic with Marx and Bandee interacting, like, what's their relationship in this au, how'd they get to that point and heck, what was even happening? also it kinda seems like Bandee may be the main guy in this au or is just really important which makes me happy as Bandee isn't treated the best by Nintendo at all (hell, Sakrai said he didn't add Bandee into smash because he didn't like him) so seeing Bandee get the spotlight always brings me joy
And about the Meta and Galacta comic, it seems like Bandee plays a factor here too, with the mention of him being what gets the most reaction out of Meta and that makes sense because canonically Bandee is the weakest of the four and most likely to die quite easily, so it would make sense for the others to be protective of him
ALSO META BEING SEALED AWAY AND GALACTA SAYING HE'LL TAKE GOOD CARE OF, I'M ASSUMING BANDEE, DOES THAT MEAN GALACTA TAKES META'S PLACE??? HELLO???
anyway hi im really invested and also your art is fucking astounding
hell yea, fully autistic! the best kind of message! thank you also for the sweet words about my artwork ahhh! but hoo boy isn't this The Ask Ever. okay, let's get into it!
Bandee is, i think maybe obviously, my most specialist little guy ever and everything i make is likely about him in one way or another. so you're correct that he is indeed the main guy in both these AUs; he is the central protagonist which i think he deserves!!
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(but he does also go through the angst blender a bit, just like... a warning. i adore happy endings but before that i do tend to meat-grind my faves pretty well in the drama machine.)
clockwork heart is actually a spin-off of awtdy (we do a little AU-ception in my household) which is our* primary au. (*a lot of my au work and headcanons are fleshed out very collaboratively with my girlfriend! the initial concept for awtdy was her idea, which i then very meanly shoved my bandee-important agenda into lmao)
awtdy sets this basic alternate world-state: during the Haltmann invasion, Galacta Knight defeats Meta Knight in battle and makes a wish on Star Dream to trade places.
this causes all sorts of terrible fun problems for everybody and basically gives rise to a bad timeline that a lot of folks do not come out of intact (rip floralia)
the Meta Knight vs Galacta Knight comic covers an important turning point in the story, where Meta Knight lets slip that he cares about Bandee the way he cares for Kirby. Meta Knight has an especially strong reaction to this for two reasons:
one is because, as you said, of the three remaining heroes Bandee is the most vulnerable-- seasoned and experienced fighter he may be, but against someone like Galacta Knight? 💦 he's still ultimately just a mortal dude. this obviously puts him at terrible risk, because Galacta Knight also considers him far more expendable than Kirby.
"i'll take good care of him" is transparently a threat and not actually... you know, kind.
secondly is because (unbeknownst to Galacta Knight) Bandee uniquely remembers Meta Knight. he knows that the timeline is screwed up and Galacta Knight is not meant to be there, and is actively working to rescue his real dad mentor. Meta Knight knows that if he's found out, Galacta Knight won't hesitate to kill him.
suffice to say the guilt of this would drive him capital i Insane!
as for the Marx "hurt like hell" comic, I am actually sorry to have to tell you that that scene is their first ever interaction in this au! 😂 in this alternate version of the story Marx is also aware of the timeline fuckery (due to his existence as an eldritch, temporal little creature) and he tracks Bandee down late in the game with a risky trade offer; which Bandee refuses. that's what's pictured in the comic!
it goes on for quite a long ways after that; though I don't know if it'll tickle your ship dynamic quite right because Marx is mildly antagonistic towards Bandee (and everyone) the whole time. so while they are cursed to be Stuck Together By The Narrative they are not really close or even particularly friendly.
they do indeed interact in it quite a lot, and I personally think Marx would gladly shoot his shot if he was offered it; but Bandee is neck-deep in a different ship for the entirety of awtdy and is especially miserable/pining as hell throughout clockwork heart.
but that's okay because Bandee is, uh-- totally fine!! he's normal. he's fine. he's very very fine and things will be very very okay.
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dramatical · 3 months
Text
screencapping with ffmpeg
hey friends, long time no write! today i'm gonna explain how to get image sequences (aka screencaps) from any video files using ffmpeg in the command line.
First, if you don't have ffmpeg please go an download from HERE and install it, here's how WINDOWS / MAC and once you're good to go we can start!
i have a windows os so i'm going to explain for that but i don't think it should be more complicated for macs if you know how to work on the command line, under the read more bc i used a lot of images lol
what we need:
a video player to get the proper timestamps we need, i use mpv but any video player will help tbh
make a folder for our screencaps
okay! so i'll be taking caps from a 4k video and i find my timestamps, this is my start (i don't have 4k movies on my computer, so you'll see my kpop boy lmao)
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and this is the ending
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i would recommend to set the timestamps a second earlier and a second after the video ends so there isn't frames missing if you want a complete scene, deleting caps from a folder is easier than doing the whole process again lol
on the folder your video is while having it selected, click on this icon to copy its path
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now i go to the folder i made! in the path bar it should be like this on windows
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we click on the blank part and write cmd and hit enter
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the command line should open right now
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we proceed to write the following command
ffmpeg -ss hh:mm:ss -to hh:mm:ss -i [paste path to the video] -compression_level=0 output_%04d.png
hh:mm:ss is how you imput your timestamp, it's the most accurate way of doing it
output_%04d.png: name the files will have, if you're capping several timestamps from the same video i would change the name output to anything (example part1_%04d.png for scene 1, part2_%04d.png for scene 2 and so on) otherwise ffmpeg will overwrite your caps every time, i know there's probably a workaround but i haven't researched to that point yet, i'll update later!
compression_level=0 : makes the png the highest quality possible, pngs are essentially lossless, but without this command i've found the file size is rather small even if the finished image doesn't have much difference. you could try not putting the command and see if there's a difference for you, the files will just be smaller
Update (240402): my ffmpeg doesn't seem to recognize the command for compression level as it's written here anymore, but fear not! If yours doesn't either it's just a matter of adding a space instead of an equal sign between the command and the 0. It works as it's supposed to!
on your command line should look like this
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you hit enter and ffmpeg should start processing, once it's done it'll open a new line for you to keep doing things on that folder, but if you don't want to do anything else just close it. your folder should be filled now with your screencaps
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to compare, i capped the same scene with mpv to see if there was any frame drop and i was pleasantly surprised that the amount of caps was basically the same (there wasn't frame dropping! just the regular more frames bc you were a little slow on stopping the process on mpv)
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and the size is what mpv usually gives when screencapping too so it was a win for me
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if you have any doubts ask me! or if you know more about ffmpeg and want to add on to the command i shared please do!
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one-piece-aus · 7 months
Text
Whumptober Day 1
Uta
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Lmao so we're starting off with Uta this year because I noticed October 1st is her birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to give her the first Whumpday hororororororo TW: Mention of destruction, abandonment, guilt of unconscious criminal actions, and Uta considering herself a monster
For as long as she could remember Shanks and his crew had been there for her.
Until that fateful day, the music island had been destroyed.
With the pirates being the only survivors, they fled the scene with her before the Marines arrived. Uta slept in Shanks' arms, unaware of what they were discussing.
"What do we do?" Roux asked pushing the plate of food away from him. "If the Marines found out she was the one behind this..."
The members worriedly glanced at Uta who clung onto Shanks' arm. Heavy silence only fueled the anxiety clawing in their minds.
"She might have a higher bounty than the Devil of Ohara." Hongo set the stack of bounties he had been looking through on the table.
"It's not right for kids to have bounties," Yasopp said, his arms folded and staring at the ground.
"She would've gotten a bounty eventually," Limejuice reminded the group. "We're pirates, and marines don't discriminate who to make an outlaw."
"Well, we didn't expect it this soon."
"It'll be dangerous if she stays with us."
"We can't just drop her off and leave her behind."
The last statement ceased the others from conversing further. Shanks, who had been quietly looking at his daughter, at last spoke up, "Let's head to Dawn Island."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luffy waved goodbye to the pirates, shouting he'll meet them again someday with his own crew, when a thought wormed it's way into his mind. He dropped his arms and scratched his head in search of his memory. Did he say bye to Uta? She didn't talk to him as the crew was packing up to leave, which was weird. Uta would've been right by Shanks, teasing him before Red Hair gave the strawhat to the boy. Maybe she was already on the ship sleeping, her devil fruit did take up a lot of her energy. Luffy shrugged it off and walked back to Makino's bar.
"Makino, can I have some juice?" Luffy requested as he climbed onto a stool in front of the bar.
"Of course, Luffy." She smiled and got out a glass.
Luffy happily waited, kicking his legs back and forth, when he heard a girlish yawn behind him. He spun around, eyes going wide. "Uta?! What are you doing here!?"
"Hmm?" Uta shot him a confused look as she rubbed her eyes. "Why wouldn't I come here? I'm hungry, I want breakfast."
"Luffy-" Makino tried to explain the situation but Luffy opened his mouth first.
"BUT SHANKS LEFT! I THOUGHT YOU WERE WITH THEM!"
"He wHAT?!" Uta snapped awake not processing what he just said.
"Shanks and his crew left earlier this morning, why aren't you with them?"
Uta's face contorted to one of horror and she dashed out of the bar, unable to hear Makino calling out to her. Her little legs carried her to the docks, she glanced around in devastation at the empty port.
They left her.
They actually left her.
She thought the conversation she overheard was a bad dream. They wouldn't abandon her, right? They loved her, she loved them. So why? Why did they leave her here?
Just as the question appeared in her mind, a brief memory from Elegia's destruction popped up and for now her questions stopped. She bawled her fist as rain fell onto the ground in front of her. Luffy ran up to the docks, Uta wiped away the rain before turning to the boy wearing her dad's strawhat.
"Did-" she paused to get a hold of her emotions. "Did he say if he was coming back?"
"No, he said they won't be returning," Luffy bluntly said but quickly scrambled to fix it. "But- uh- I'm sure they'll come back for you. I mean- we can get Makino to call them and have them pick you up-"
"Don't bother." Uta brushed past him. "He's not going to come back."
Just like her world shattered. Her family, that she could fall back on, disappeared. All that remained were gaps that needed to be filled with answers explaining why they would leave her, and she had a vague idea of what they were.
As the gaps filled with her thoughts of the music island's destruction, a seed planted itself in the back of her mind.
'Monster.'
Tags: @bookandyarndragon @roseoftrafalgar
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daisymae-12 · 6 months
Text
weekend WIP game
thanks @welcometololaland for this fun game (the perfect way to spend my saturday night 😂) and @kiwiana-writes for the tag ❤️ I only have one art WIP right now so I opted to do the writers questions !!
Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only write one fic at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more). (questions for artists/gifmakers here).
1. WIP List: ok this question made me actually label my WIP's because they're all just titled "Fic #1", "Fic #2" etc in my google drive 😅
Roommates/College AU
5+1 bestfriends to lovers [Alex accidentally keeps friendzoning Henry lmao]
Supermarket meet-cute (but not cute because Henry manages to piss off Alex)
Fake Dating/College AU [inspired by how my husband and I met]
Vampire Henry
Artist Alex [Bea commissions a gift for Henry]
Canon Divergence from Kensington
Roommates AU ft. stardew valley
Coffee Shop AU
Canon Divergence from Lakehouse
Neighbours AU
Fake Dating/High School AU [also inspired by how my husband and I met lol]
2. Which of your WIPs is currently the longest?
Fake Dating/College AU !!
3. Which WIP do you expect will end up the longest?
Fake Dating/College AU - it's the only one so far that I've made an outline for because I think it'll be long-ish 😂
4. Which WIP is your favourite to write/the most enjoyable to write? Why?
Right now it's my Vampire Henry fic ❤️ enjoying it because I'm not struggling too much to write it - and the ideas have been coming easily 😌
5. Which WIP do you find the most intimidating to write? Why?
ooo probably the two canon divergence ones? mostly because they'll probably be the fics with the most angst - yikes
6. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why?
gosh - all of them? I haven't published new fanfic in over 6 years so it's definitely been nerve wracking even sharing snippets over here for wip wednesday 😅
7. Which of your WIPs will you seek out a beta/sensitivity reader for? Why?
Maybe for the longer fics? I'm not sure if I will! We'll see if I ever get to writing anything long enough 😬 I am sort of warming up to the idea of google doc cheerleaders? I dno, I'm such a slow writer though so it might stress me out 😂
8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of writer's block?
yess the Roommates/College AU - this was the first rwrb fic I started all the way back in June LAST YEAR 😭 I wrote bits and pieces of the first two chapters and still haven't picked it back up since 😩 I've also hit writer's block with the 5+1 - I thought this would be the first fic I'd publish for rwrb AND the first fic I'd ever finish but I got triggered when writing one of the scenes which shocked me because I didn't expect it to? I'd even say this fic is light-hearted but yeah I had to stop. Hoping to finish writing that one after Vampire Henry though !!!
9. Which WIP has your favourite OC? Tell us about them?
ooo so far the only fic with an OC is Fake Dating/College AU but I can't say more without spoiling 👀
10. Which WIP is the sexiest?
Everything is such bare bones atm, so I truly don't know 😂
11. Which WIP is the angstiest?
Probably Canon Divergence from Kensington 😅😅😅
12. Which WIP has the best characterisation (in your humble opinion)?
Hoping the characterisation is ok on all of them but right now they're all so short still that I can't pick one out 🙃
13. Which WIP has the best scene setting (in your humble opinion)?
Gosh I am BAD at this - will probably end up being the Coffee Shop AU because cafes are my second home but we'll see 😅
14. Which WIP have you worked the hardest on?
As of right now - been working the hardest on Vampire Henry fic but I anticipate it'll be outdone by Fake Dating/College AU - that one will take me a long time to write based on the outline I've done 💀
15. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for? Why?
ahh I'm not sure! Maybe Fake Dating/College AU? I can already tell that fic is going to be my baby and I hope everyone will like it too
16. Do you dream about any of your WIPs?
Not really but I do daydream about them in the shower 😂
17. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that your other fics don't?
hmm not sure since everything is still quite bare bones so I'll answer this next time !
18. Which WIP is the funniest or has the most humour?
Right now - Vampire Henry 😅 but not really ??? but yes the most in comparison to everything else so far LOL
19. Do any of your WIPs contain outside POVs or a deep dive on a character other than the main ship? How are you finding that process?
Nope but I do want to write a fic with an outside POV one day!
20. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs.
Vampire Henry fic will probably be the first fic in a series 😬 I have ideas for a sequel OR extra scenes that will be ficlets 🥰
Yay that was so much fun! Love reading about everyones wip's but no pressure ❤️ @myheartalivewrites @heybuddy-drabbles @read-and-write- @suseagull04 @gwiazdziarka @adreamareads @sprigsofviolets @cultofsappho @anincompletelist @lizzie-bennetdarcy @notspecialbabe @littlemisskittentoes @happiness-of-the-pursuit @affectionatelyrs @heartitinthesilence @inexplicablymine @raysletters @tintagel-or-cockleshells @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @sherryvalli
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thefreakandthehair · 5 months
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20 Questions for Fic Writers
tagged by @steddieas-shegoes like, forever ago and I keep forgetting.
1. How many works do you have on AO3? 42! most are steddie with some criminal minds fics from over ten years ago buried deep.
2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 252,271
3. What fandoms do you write for? right now, just stranger things! I've been toying around with writing destiel again but if I did, it'd be anonymous. (after my entire portfolio was wiped from livejournal, I'm still in pain about it.)
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 1. and if I get burned, at least we were electrified.  2. i made this mess with love.  3. what you feel is what you are (and what you are is beautiful)  4. the answers are all inside of this.  5. Livin' On A Prayer 
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? yes! eventually! sometimes, it'll take me awhile because I just get backed up but I read them and smile and kick my feet, and even though it takes me a bit to reply, those comments are what keep me writing. <3
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? happy endings are guaranteed in this house, always. I'll never write an angsty ending-- canon hurts me enough. the most bittersweet ending though would have to be scar-crossed lovers. 
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? oooo, that's tough because they're all happy endings! but I think over the hills and far away because, by virtue of it being a long fic, the happy ending feels deserved. those two went through it to get to that ending which made it so satisfying to write!
8. Do you get hate on fics? I haven't, no, and I'm very grateful for that. but I'm also like, super liberal with the block function. we cultivate our spaces here, friends!
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I do, but only in the context of like, what else is happening in the fic. I just can't write pwp lmao, major kudos to everyone else who does it so well! I'm in awe of your talent perpetually.
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I wrote a supernatural/charmed crossover au many, many years ago. but recently? kicks cracky supernatural/stranger things crossover au scrivener wip under the couch. nope.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? not in this fandom!
12. Have you ever had a fic translated? not that I know of, but that'd be super cool.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? not yet... but I have some plans. keep an eye out next year. 👀
14. What’s your all time favorite ship? steddie broke something in my brain, but destiel laid the path for it be broken to start with.
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? liturgies & devotionals, unfortunately. or at least in its current existence in scrivener? it's a big undertaking but if I can make it less complicated, maybe it stands a chance.
16. What are your writing strengths? not once have I been able to answer this and feel comfortable with it, but I do really enjoy the omniscent third person point of view and have gotten compliments on it. and narrative writing, I like setting the scene and developing introspection.
17. What are your writing weaknesses? there are several but god, fucking dialogue! it's my kryptonite. that, and actually ending a story. context disease is so real.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? the only other language I've ever used is a snippet of Klingon, but I'd also feel comfortable using bits of French because I know a good bit of French. anything else would just feel super inauthentic because idk what the fuck I'm saying.
19. First fandom you wrote for? uh, it was around 2001 and it was for a fandom that I no longer associate with.
20. Favorite fic you’ve written? to the surprise of no one: over the hills and far away <333 so much of me is in that fic and it was hugely healing.
no pressure tags: @withacapitalp @stevethehairington @steves-strapcollection @henderdads @patchworkgargoyle @inairbinad @steddieasitgoes @starrystevie @judasofsuburbia @fragilecapric0rnn @kkpwnall @fastcardotmp3 @penny00dreadful @cranberrymoons @catknives @hbyrde36 @cuoredimuschio @wormdebut @wynnyfryd @sidekick-hero @t-boyeddie @scarcrossdlvrs + anyone else who hasn't been tagged and wants to participate!
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youredreamingofroo · 3 months
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Long winded rant of me talking about NSB, doing a new series, storytelling and whatever else I talked about under the cut, feel free to read it's just me rambling, I don't really care if ppl read it or not it's VERY long 😭
I've been painfully itching to start a new series, I know I'm doing NSB rn, and I do plan to at least finish the normal NSB legacy (up to Gen 9), although I might finish or take a break at around Gen 5 or 6, just because I don't wanna lose motivation and also because it takes A LOT to make some of these posts (for example, the last NSB post... took a lot out of me), and I'm only on Gen 2, almost Gen 3 rn, and I was originally planning to do all 30 or 40 Gens in the updated ver of NSB, which def doesn't seem like it'll be happening right now, because at the current rate at which I post, and how fast things in my game move, Sims 6 will be out before I even finish Gen 30 😭😭
Anyways, I don't know what the series would be about, if I were to do a new series, it would definitely be a lot more story based, if not completely story based, I don't know if I'd do/include gameplay, but I really wanna dive into more storytelling and setting up scenes, I'm not a film or theatre kid by any means, and I really don't know much about writing and setting up scenes and stuff, to be honest, i don't even know how I storytell, I guess it's just regurgitated content molded to shape the statue of my story if that makes sense lmao, I guess it's also the art of using so many fucking metaphors and similes that doing something like comparing love to drowning in a cold ocean comes sorta easy to me? I'm not grammatically inclined and don't know a lot about punctuation, my teachers all kinda gave up on me in English class, so all of my writing is basically self taught, which I guess is the case for a lot of things I do- I feel like starting a new series would help me learn how to write better, even though it seems like a lot of ppl love my writing, I still feel like I could improve so much and do so much better. I already have a couple ideas in mind for a new series, I don't think I'll say much rn just in case I decide to make them a series, but as for right now, I've got plans for Gen 3 NSB (aka Calico), and if I were to start a new series, I would not stop playing NSB, but due to how I function and shit, I would have to put NSB on hiatus, I kind of have a hard time doing two stories at once, hence why Sharkie's story got put on hiatus, because it was too stressful for me to double up, especially with how often I post (at least 3 or 4 times a week), I would like to go back and play Sharkies story and share her story up to this point where I last played her, her story is a lot more gameplay centered (for example, I am more inclined to make a blender scene for NSB, then Sharkie, for Sharkie, I'd do stuff like go to the bar and see how it plays out and take screenshots and just edit those) which I like more, but that's not to say I don't enjoy NSB, because I equally LOVE storytelling as I do gameplay.
While writing this, I did think of something I could do, which would be posting NSB every other week (so one week I do Sharkie or some other series and then the next week I do NSB, then a diff series, so on so forth), the only problem is that usually when I get an idea, and I finish that idea, I like to post it asap, I'm not good at scheduling posts lmao, but it might be worth it if people want to see another series (that is if anyone is still reading up to this point lol), I'd like to channel my storytelling into a more story based save/story, but idk! I'm just kinda doing my thing rn and I'm at a point where i wanna do something different. I especially wanna start doing more in blender, it just takes fucking forever to do some of the stuff I wanna do, and some of it means learning new stuff which is thrice as hard and takes thrice as long compared to normal posing and stuff 😭
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raayllum · 11 months
Note
Hey! In retrospect, this might be kinda obvious to some, but I was just thinking about the scene early in Season 4 where Callum recalls the fact that he's destroyed multiple powerful magic objects/artifacts and I realized that that scene was probably meant to highlight/make it hit harder later in the season when Callum can't do the same thing to the cube and I got excited lmao
So I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about what gets lamp shaded / referred back to specifically in S4 and possibly why, re: exactly what you pointed out, dear nonnie, in 4x02 (which made me Yell the first time around because I loved it as a lamp shade), as well as Rayllum's scene on the Pinnacle in 4x05. So why not talk about about them? If you are curious about more on Callum's "breaking magical objects" pattern I'd recommend this meta as well as this one, although there shouldn't be too much repetition here
Let's go
4x02 - Accidentally on Purpose
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Including this shot because it has the Ocean-Star rune combination for the cube, my beloved.
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The primal stone, Ethari -> Rayla -> Callum's pendant, and the Moon Henge all shudder. The mirror, too, will shortly be broken, although by Aaravos' own hand rather than Callum's (at least, not directly). This line and pattern also underscores one of Callum's key flaws, as his impulsive flippancy ("'It's the winter lodge, Rayla, no winter no humans' ugh" / "He tried to copy Claudia's lightning spell, but he doesn't know how to finish it!") when it comes to magic is ultimately related to how Selfish he can be. He, like many characters in TDP, can tunnel vision so hard he doesn't see or fully consider the possible consequences of his actions, but I do think Callum has a thread of like internalized focus that makes it stem from selfishness (more akin to perhaps Claudia and Viren) than it does shortsightedness/shame (Rayla) or inadvertent steamrolling (Claudia, Ezran).
For Callum, just knowing magic isn't enough. He's always focused on how he can use it.
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"I just don't want to be useless," he said (S2 novelization, set during he and Rayla's late night talk about "I have to be a mage again").
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He'd always known that cube was important. Maybe now Rayla would start listening to him... and maybe now he would find out how he could use the mysterious cube. [...] But Callum was awake obsessing over the Key of Aaravos. What could he achieve with it?
Now, does Callum ever mean to be selfish? No, of course not. He doesn't mean to put Rayla and Zym in danger with his pursuit of magic (or his lie to Amaya), but that's what happens anyway. 2x04 has always stood out to me as a particularly interesting episode, precisely because it shows this flaw on full display in ways that S1 could've neatly resolved. In 1x04, Callum pursues magic ultimately to the group's detriment (just how much, depending on what the cube does, remains to be seen). Then in 1x09, through smashing the primal stone (which we'll talk about more in a minute) he puts the group above his pursuit of magic. It's a nice little full circle, and it could've easily been the resolution of this behavioural pattern. But it isn't, so I'm curious to see if/how it'll come back in future seasons (maybe S5) in some capacity.
To me, this is one of the things that make TDP's characterization so realistic. Callum can learn one lesson partially in 1x04 (don't take unnecessary risks) and apply that portion fully in 1x07 (regarding elves and humans), be willing to sacrifice a more tangible pursuit of magic for Zym ("But without this, I'm nothing") in 1x09, but still not fully learn his "Look before you leap when it comes to magic" lesson by the time we roll around in 2x04 or even 2x07 (although the context for the latter is vastly different). Just like how if saving Zym or being a good enough protector could solve Rayla's self worth issues, she would've been totally fine after 1x09, but we see her have the exact same kind of breakdown two seasons later ("This is all my fault. I dropped it. I let you both down. I let the world down" / "It's me, and it's all my fault. I failed them! I let them all down") because well - issues and emotional wounds are not so easily solved.
Anyway, back on topic: what does any of this have to do with S4's lamp shading of Callum's tendency of breaking magical objects?
Well, I think you're right: the Key is seemingly rare, powerful, and possibly sought after by Aaravos. At the very least it's connected to him, and Callum is now terrified of him. But he won't relinquish/destroy it at this present time, so there's a nice contrast there. The cube has a pull over him for whatever reason, whether that's curiosity, it being Harrow's last parting gift to him, or even possibly the fact it was the first thing he and Rayla really bonded over ("Hey sad prince. Let's go get your cube") and his own potential as a mage. He does, after all, look at the moon rune specifically after lowering it.
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But I also think it's indicative that the object and conversation Callum is most directly referencing is this one with Claudia in 2x02 about breaking their joint primal stone:
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Which was pretty noble, and inspired a very strong character arc for Callum, full of struggle and interesting character aspects. Breaking the primal stone wasn't the ideal situation for him by any means, but it was undeniably the Right Thing To Do. On the surface, there's nothing to be worried about... except:
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I have not seen the stars in centuries. But when I see them again—when the stars are forced to look upon me, their dark brother—they will know how I have waited. And when everything they have built lies shattered, I will savor their fall from the sky. (Patience, TDP reflections)
The Whole World is like a Giant Primal Stone. When backed into a corner and able to save someone he loves and/or cares about, Callum is willing to sacrifice his own source of power. He's willing to bend his morals and do dark magic. He's willing to jump off a cliff with just the faintest hope he can grow wings and save them both. We also know that Callum, either within a possessed state or outside of it, has to play into Aaravos' hands, otherwise it is unlikely the Startouch elf would be released (and he has to be released).
Which, all of this also works fairly well in tandem with
4x05 - You saved me
So Rayllum's scene on the Pinnacle is one of my favourite scenes between them in the season, as well as one of the most interesting. After all, the Pinnacle is the place for quite a few important Rayla and Callum moments in season three: Rayla finding out the truth about her mum and dad, thanks to Callum; Callum trying to tell her that he loves her for the first time (which Soren's interruption also lampshades); and of course when Callum jumps off the Pinnacle to save her. And while Soren's dialogue is a more comedic callback to the second one, Rayla's dialogue calls to mind the latter:
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(Callum's face only falls in the second screencap when she gets to "certain death," by the way.)
It's not entirely clear why Callum starts crying when he looks away, as he has a lot of reasons to (the fear of what Aaravos may make him do, thus turning him into something that hurts people rather than saves them; the fact that he's had only like, 1.5 days to process the return of the love of his life and all those complicated feelings) but he does start crying. Rayla then does her best to help, but doesn't get a chance to, and it's not clear if Callum would've let her, either.
But I thought the emphasis on "saving" was interesting, to say the least. Why not be more explicit about the way this was the first time they said "I love you"? Some note of "so much has changed, but not everything's changed" from Rayla, if they wanted a nudge of some sort. Or it could've been something about Rayla's parents, grateful that she was able to forgive them and realize the truth, that'd they'd left for "a good cause".
Well, I think the most straight forward thing is first, that Callum and Rayla are a couple who has always been very defined by reciprocally saving each other; Callum defends them from the smoke wolves, Rayla defends them from Runaan, etc. Rayla saves everyone (Bait, Ezran, Zym, the downed dragon), and Callum saves her (1x05, 2x04, 2x07, 3x09). The second is that S5, if it brings back Callum's possession plot line (and it likely will, with the emphasis on darkness and drowning from some of the TDP shorts for the season: "Soren gasped the darkness like water into his lungs. He could not breathe. He was drowning") Rayla is probably going to the one to ultimately save him from it, somewhat due to the light and dark symbolism as well (Rayla showing up haloed in moonlight with the cube on her shoulder).
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An emphasis on how Arc 1 culminated in a big show of love as Callum saved Rayla, if Rayla is going to be the one to successfully save Callum from brainwashing next season (and restore to her that "We can't save everyone" isn't true after all) makes a lot of sense, especially with it foreshadowed / spelled out more directly in this quote from the Book One Moon novelization:
“Wow. So they look identical, but they might kill you or they might save you,” Callum said.
“Exactly. Just like me…” Rayla smiled.
She's certainly not going to kill him and thus, Rayla has to save him. There we get that mutual reciprocation, especially when she left in TTM to try and save/spare him - it'd be a good way for her to realize that the best way to save/protect him is to stay, right here, with him instead. She'll risk the world ("You let him live but you killed us all" "You have two choices: you all die, or just the evil wretched human dies"), and it'll be worth it.
However, as I've already said, Callum has to play into Aaravos' hands in order for the Startouch elf to get out. And Aaravos is clearly pretty confident it'll happen, whether precisely because Callum is worried because of the possession (a more likely manipulation tactic) or due to the possession itself (less likely, as why reveal your checkmate move ahead of time?).
Rayla realizing she can save Callum is also, indeed, only one piece of the puzzle. She also has to realize that she deserves to be saved, which 4x05 seems like a step in the right direction of (she's happy and lovey about it, not guilty) even if her self worth issues are still very prevalent: "This is all my fault. I left [Soren] alone. I shouldn't have—" as well as trying repeatedly to go off on her own.
So 4x05 emphasizing the last time Callum saved her, setting up that he'll also save her again (and possibly risk the primal stone world again, helping to free Aaravos in exchange for also freeing Rayla) in S5?
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He'll risk the world, and it'll be worth it.
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qrjung · 8 months
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*this isn't organized.
I think it's sad how little opportunity Josh and Simon were given to develop. Like, at all. Even their dialogues sounds terrible, almost like they're speaking for the game instead of as actual human beings. [Edit: Ha, this is so funny I'm keeping it in. "As actual human beings" bruh]
A scene on the Capitol park chapter is the clearest example of this. If he's still alive, Simon says (ha!); "Our broadcast is all over the news. Now the humans know what we want. We have to think about public opinion." Or something similar. At first it sounds like normal conversation, right?
Until you realize he's talking to Josh and North who all have the same amount of information as him so they already know what he's saying is true. And Markus isn't there so he can't be speaking to him. Which means he's talking directly to the player, literally spelling out everything for us and it makes me 😭😭😭 is that what people sound like irl? Like mouthpieces?
He's literally telling us "public opinion is really important in this game, just so you know. Think about all those blue arrows you're going to get *wink wink*" to remind the player to go pacifist.
For all the terrible ways David Cage handles North's character, in contrast to the other two Jericho leaders, she looks so fucking well written lmao. Most of what comes out of Josh's mouth when he's talking about the revolution doesn't sound like it's personalized. He's just spewing words to push the player in the direction the game/David Cage wants. Where's the personality? Where's the fucking motive behind his words???
Anyways, I could talk on and one about how unfair that shit is but that would be too depressing.
JOSH
I've talked about Josh here and there but never this indepth
From what we see of Josh, he's pretty opinionated. Just like North, he has his own set of beliefs and he's willing to die for them. Unlike North though, we never know why. And sure, he doesn't have to spell out all his motivations but it would have been nice if we'd known why he so strongly believes freedom can be won with dialogue. Especially in a world that is determined to prove him wrong.
Because ignore how happy the pacifist ending looks, there's androids still being executed while Markus is giving his hopeful speech. And the ending tag literally says "androids won their freedom. For now." What kind of ominous sentence is that?
Anyway, Josh reminds me of Rose; pacifism that exists not because the person is naive but they've choosen peace while being surrounded by violence. In DBH, choosen violence is easier and it pays off more. So while that doesn't necessarily make it the wrong option, it does make the people who go against it stand out.
But also, his stance could come from a place of fear. There's also that to consider. Maybe he's scared of what the humans will do if the revolution kicks off and he'll prefer they stay silent. Because that's his reasoning against the Stratford Mission
He's the one that expresses hesitance the most to the other missions Markus assigns. North is usually the first to agree with Simon agreeing too. But then in Freedom March, Josh is all for the March but Simon (later on) and North are hesitant. It makes me think Josh prefers taking risks when he's sure it'll actually pay off. Because like he says, that mall and the surrounding areas will go down in history. No matter the outcomes.
We also don't know anything about his past except that he was a university lecturer and hot attacked by his students. It's a shame this information doesn't come from Josh himself but from the character gallery. I wonder how long he's been teaching for?
His relationship with Markus is also very impersonal. He doesn't seem to like him much no matter which route you take but will somewhat tolerate him if he's pacifist. I think they're differences are beyond what Markus chooses for the revolution. He also doesn't like North much and Markus and North have a few things in common; they're action oriented, have a tendency to take risks with unknown chances of it paying off and Josh might not like that the risks they're taking could mean the end of android life if it fails.
He starts to warm up to him in night of the soul though but Markus has to save him first.
This adds to my theory that Josh chooses peace because he's cautious. He doesn't like the risky decisions Markus makes because he's scared of the consequences.
SIMON
I think Simon falls somewhere in the middle of the Violence - Pacifist scale. I wouldn't say neutrality (it's not the word I'm looking for🤔) but being able to go both ways should the need arise. Some people in the fandom frame him as a coward and I think that proves to be incorrect when you start thinking about it.
He's usually not vocally opposed to any options the player chooses and will be supportive. If you choose violence, he's ready to fight but if you choose pacifism he's also ready to march. But, he chooses to back down in some moments: high risk moments with opportunity to retreat.
It's almost like he's willing to take risks but when there isn't much on the line.
He agrees to missions when it just his life and the lives of the other three at stake but when something greater is on the line, he backs down. For instance, he'll agree to the spare parts mission, but will express hesitance after the bags of thirium have been gathered. His reasoning is because he doesn't want to lose the spare parts they've gotten and the mission be for nothing.
"We can’t bring them back with us. It’s too dangerous!"
"This is suicide, Markus. Our bags are full. We got what we came for, let's go before they catch us."
Hmm.
And in the freedom march chapter, he agrees at first. Not strongly though. He simply suggests if Markus wants to go through with the March, he should convert more androids to increase his chances of success. He disagrees later on; after he realizes that things might not go well and with the hundreds of androids gathered, that means more casualties.
"And dying here won’t solve anything. Markus, we need to go, now, before it’s too late."
It's insanely difficult to get a read on the guy though: he's really non vocal. He hovers in the background during conversations, only getting involved when it looks like conversations are getting heated. Does that make him the glue of the team?
He's also been in Jericho the longest of the four. Unlike Josh we never even know what he operated as before deviancy but I guess it's easy to see that he was most likely taking care of a child. If he's also been there for a while, did he have some form of "power" in Jericho? I like to think so.
But North also seems important too but she hasn't been in Jericho for very long so I can't say I see her as the pre revolution leader. She gets her opportunity to shine when Markus arrives and she's suited for more action oriented leadership. She seemed eager to get out and do stuff; if she was Jericho's leader before the game starts, it would show.
I wonder if Simon had a similar experience with Daniel though. But instead of acting on his feelings of betrayal, he choose to run away instead.
That's about as much as I can think of for Josh and Simon while still remaining within canon. Outside canon though, it opens a world of possibilities. I suppose it's no secret that I'm not a big fan of Simon's fanon characterization (especially in relation to Markus and how their relationship tends to take on tones of racial prejudice) so I won't be talking about that.
But Josh though, I can talk about him——he's an almost blank slate in the fandom since people tend to forget him.
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whywhatswrongwithblue · 8 months
Text
DW REWATCH
S1E2 THE END OF THE WORLD
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The Doctor takes Rose on her first voyage through time, to the year five billion. The sun is about to expand and swallow the earth. Amongst the alien races gathering to watch, a murderer is at work. Who is controlling the mysterious and deadly spiders?
WHAT was he doing in this scene.
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You think you're so impressive. ---I am so impressive baby’s first flirt….
2. You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. i adore this line. Iirc i read somewhere that this episode was made when a lot of negative climate focussed media was coming out and rtd wanted to assure young viewers that there was always hope? Not sure where i saw it but it’s stuck with me
3. Is that why we're here? I mean, is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?-- rose we are literally here so i can trauma dump. Haven’t you heard of healthy coping mechanisms??
4. He's blue RTD my beloved. What an incredibly realistic, human observation—i feel like companions simply do not do this anymore. And they should!
5. Love the bark makeup. It’s so pretty!
6. The air from my lungs….this episode is so good damn it
7. Moxx of Balhoon better known as the CEO of sex. I give you the gift of bodily salivas lucky Rose
8. CASSANDRAAAAA
9. Rose being overwhelmed and running out. I can’t get over the amount of care and detail RTD put into writing her. She really is his baby. Can’t wait to see how he brings her back now (because he will. He will.)
10. Jabe’s device is unable to identify a timelord, probably because the rest of the universe thinks them dead? Although her reaction is very different from that of the Nestene Consciousness (who is implied to have lost quite a bit in the Time War), whereas Jabe doesn’t seem to have any personal connection. I wonder what the other outsider perceptions of the War were!
11. Ahhh Rose being kind to the plumber. I love my girl. LMAO at her realising she just hitched a ride with a complete stranger w/o thinking about it. The metal spiders are very Minority Report.
12. Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask? the WRITING. Just chef’s kiss. Even in this sort of power dynamic, you never ever feel like Rose doesn’t have agency. She’s so smart and capable and fierce. i love her.
13. Gotta love how fast they switch from arguing to flirting. Jiggery-pokery <3
14. I might be late home. and then she comes back a YEAR later JESUS
15. Bad Wolf mention!
16. Hahahah i can’t watch the Jabe scene without thinking of plant sex now, courtesy of Katie
17. I was born on that planet, and so was my mum, and so was my dad. I love how much Rose loves her dad. Like if you’ve never even known a parent, you probably wouldn’t bring them up in a context like this, but the addition implies that Rose thinks of her dad quite a bit, and this is a nice little subtle setup to my favourite episode of the season, Father’s Day
18. The sun filter scene! It’s unexpectedly tense. I remember being really worried the first time I saw it
19. This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Jack set them up….god that’s so sweet. The fact that he knows that they’re properly together in Pete’s World at this point <3333333 he is Literally Us. Putting his blorbos in Situations.
20. What are you going to do, moisturise me?
21. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. HUHHH?? LMAO
22. I love the turning fan trope, every time it’s in any movie ever, it’s got me on the edge of my seat
23. Everything has its time, and everything dies. OOF. Appreciate Rose still wanting Cassandra to be saved! Something something parallel with how she changed the Doctor so much that he’s willing to give Cassandra a peaceful death in New Earth <3 the power of love, folks.
24. The Earth death scene is beautiful. I remember feeling so sad that everyone just missed it! And the Doctor finally realising that maybe this wasn’t a great first trip for his young companion xD
25. I'm left travelling on my own 'cos there's no one else.---There's me. What a beautiful moment of intimacy. And such great acting! The Doctor is finally beginning to let her in, and Rose has attached to this stranger so quickly, despite how prickly and condescending he can be. Soulmates <3
Loveee this ending. 10/10 again!
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vangh17a · 8 months
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How do you go about formatting your comics? I’ve always wanted to make a comic but formatting it has always been a struggle..
Also don’t forget to drink water and care for urself
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Drink has been acquired! Grab yourself one too, it's "Vane might ramble too much" hours!
Keep in mind that my formatting is what works for me, so it might not work for everyone. I also use Clip Studio Paint (EX), so some bits might work for other programs, while some might not. I also can't for the life of me remember the difference between CSP Debut, Pro, or EX so I'm sorry if I mention features you might not have.
I'm gonna cut the post here, so it doesn't take up too much space on the dash :D
Alrighty! I'm not completely sure what you mean by format, so I'll just do a quick rundown of my process!
Script
I usually start with a script. It can be as loose or detailed as you want it to be, but mine usually are something like this:
Character A: "Says a word!" Description of scene or action
Character A: "Says more words!" Character B: "And more words are said"
I use gaps in the text to signify a panel break. So this would be two panels! Keep in mind your workload, and don't put in too many if you're not ready for it.
Sketch
After I finalize, or at least have a general understanding of my script, I get a canvas around the size that I think it'll be. I usually start out with about 1800x8000, but you can adjust it based on your needs.
I like to try and sketch out a rough idea of how I want the comic to flow. Using my script, I sketch out the panels and toss in where I think the text bubbles will go. Here's the latest Wanderer update as an example! (Yes I usually use the first draft sketches for the final product, don't worry about it lmao)
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I do a sketch of the entire thing, which helps me resize as I need.
Panels
The panels were always the hardest part for me to figure out before I started working on Wanderer. Again, this is what works for me. It might not work for everyone, and this is also just how I set up this specific comic.
Let's get some boxes going. Go to the Frame Border option, and select rectangle frame.
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It needs to be on create frame!
Click and drag one giant box over your sketch. I'm using an excerpt from the above sketch for example! You can click the frame layer itself, hold ctrl down and adjust the width of the box.
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Delete this layer:
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and move your sketch above the frame layer so you can see it!
Now we just split the panels up how you want them. Next to where you found the Create Frame option earlier, there should be a Cut Frame option. I personally use Divide Frame Folder, so everything is contained without bleeding through to other panels.
You can mess with these:
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The "gutter" is just how much space is made between panels.
When making your panel splits, you can hold ctrl to snap to a 45° angle.
It might end up looking messy to the side, but each new frame folder will be like a new mini canvas for each panel. I find that color coding the layers helps me find which ones I need if I start getting too many.
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Here's a look at what it might look like based on what I've done for just this example.
And if we go to the actual file for the upload...
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It keeps everything nice and organized, imo!
Okay, I thiiink that about covers it. Text boxes/bubbles and the such are easier to find tutorials for, so I'm not gonna cover those unless people specifically want those. But I'm more than willing to divulge... most... of my secrets haha.
As always if I need to clarify anything, just ask and I'll do my best to clear it up! Best of luck on your comic making adventures!
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boltlightning · 9 months
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ok. saw sweeney todd revival on broadway. i went from not knowing any songs to seeing two productions in one summer so. thoughts:
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because im me my immediate takeaway was: it's been a hot second since i saw a show with the orchestra in a pit down in front of the stage AND it was a 26-person orchestra with refreshed orchestrations! it was so crispy and tight and the energy of being able to see the conductor is difficult to put into words. i'm beyond glad they didn't hide the musicians backstage
there were a lot of people there just for josh groban — i was with family whom i persuaded to see this show because of josh groban, and i heard many people in line being like "hey so is josh groban the bad guy? how much does he kill" and there were some changes i feel reflected that. there was so much physical humor, and sometimes lines were added to further give context to someone's actions. i think it works overall, but you could feel the crowd paying less attention when mrs. lovett or sweeney weren't on stage lol
and it's so unsettling! the chorus has some incredible and strange choreography; the light coming through the steps up to the second story is so ominous; the harmonies SOAR through the theater. it's good stuff.
potentially spoily stuff about the production itself below:
and yes OF COURSE the leads were incredible. i feel like len cariou's sweeney is so angry and yet refined, and michael ball's goes hard on the madness and revenge, but groban's is so...sad. he's such a dad, he sings like an angel, it is so uncomfortable when he does something violent. groban's epiphany is HAUNTING and ELECTRIC and the way he interacts with the razors is incredible! and the way he plays a little priest is hilarious but makes it very clear that it is an extension of his mental break. genuinely and eye-opening experience thank you mr. groban
and ashford takes the more emotional cues from the 2007 movie, but makes you actually care about her lmao. like compared to lansbury's frenetic and absent-minded lovett, ashford is laid back and casual and almost lazy about all the weird shit happening around her. she feels bad about locking toby up, sure, but she's still gonna use it as an excuse to get sweeney to pay attention to her! she's funny she's heartfelt she's insane she wants to fuck sweeney todd so fucking bad. it's an incredible combo
and. yeah the rumors are true. she climbs josh groban like a jungle gym the entire time, and on the rare occasion sweeney snaps out of his brooding to reciprocate the flirting, it is HOT. their camaraderie on and off stage is potent. and it works in the other direction too — when he starts to flinch away from her in the second act it's painful.
i do think that the ending sequence in particular is kind of messy up until the last scene in the bake house; there's not a moment to breathe and not in a way that seems intentional? and some of the scenes with the judge/johanna/anthony subplot could have used some love. but. minor qualms. i am biased because kiss me through pretty women is probably my favorite section of the show 😵‍💫
my last takes are: johanna and the beadle in this production are unbelievably good. johanna leaned so into the bird motifs, as well as the idea that she is done waiting around and ready to do violence, much like her father. and the beadle is delightfully amoral and hates his job and delights in the power it affords him. i am so glad they didn't cut parlor songs and let him really eat it up
and. the last shot of sweeney and mrs. lovett is so so so good and i hope they do a professional filmed production of this so people can experience that alone. josh groban's in this it'll sell like hot cakes PLEASE just do it
my first experience with sweeney todd was a local production i saw this june, in a deeply intimate 300-seat theater. i was sitting so close i could've set my drink on the stage. the sweeney was elegant and suave and tortured; mrs lovett was so casually and affably mean. i will think about them forever! and it's very interesting to compare it to the big fuck-off money production considering they both got roasted for having a more emotional sweeney!! here's the theater's 40 second promo for it!!!
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nothing will ever replace the original soundtrack in my heart. but i'm gonna be unwell about this revival for a bit
anyway that's all i got!! thanks for reading if you read this. attend the tale and all that (obligatory tag for @r-osehips thank you for the interest ❤️)
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