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fujocoded · 14 days

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Final Campaign Showcase

It's time! With our campaign concluded, and our energy replenished, let's do a final campaign tally and look at all the amazing contributors that helped make this fundraiser an astounding success. Hold on to your seats, we're going for a ride! For obvious reasons, this is going under the cut 👇 If you're curious about what this is all about, check out our (now concluded) BackerKit campaign here!

First of all, the final numbers: as you know, we raised $9,258 from 170 backers, 309% of our goal for an average of more than $50(!!!) per person. Our most backed tier was "Mandarin Seed" with 41, followed by Lime at 34. (hope you enjoyed all the citrus-y references 🌱)

For the high level tiers, we got 4(!!) Bronze Fujin backers at $250+ and 1 Gold Fujin at $1,000. There are no words to quantify our gratitude for this amount of support. But there's a sponsor wall on which we'll soon showcase our generous patrons' names (or not, as they wish)!

For add-ons, the winner is "Additional Sticker Set" (SO glad you love them as much as we do), followed by the "Shipping on Company Time–AO3 edition" sticker. This was our "target audience"-bait stretch goal, so we're glad to see it worked! FujoBoards are also ever-popular.

And speaking of stickers... let's talk about our sticker sets and the people who made them! We didn't get to shout out our artists quite as often as we wanted to during the campaign (the rapid pace of “all that needs doing” made it hard), so it's time to put names to the art!

Our Brand Sticker Pack mostly features graphics and art like the logo and raccoon) by anonymous collaborators who 💜 their privacy! The stickers themselves were designed by @essential-randomness, and the brilliant "fujin inside" joke was a last-minute stroke of genius by @enigmalea.

For the slogan pack, "Boba-tan's Big Integers" features art by @moksutinn, the "be gay commit code crimes" chibi are by @ikam177, and office lady Boba-tan is by @ymkse–all long-term collaborators! Once again they were assembled by @essential-randomness with help from our community

Next is the amazing "fujin/sickos" parody by Ererifan (as sticker and shirt/tote), and our 88x31 badges by Goblin. And don't forget the anonymous artist for our teasers!

They too had already collaborated with us in previous initiatives! As they say, "the gang is all here".

Now, our website! It was primarily coded by @essential-randomness, but is heavy in community contributions. Check code (and contributors) on GitHub: https://github.com/FujoWebDev/fujocoded

Even here, a lot of long-term collaborators, some in their first foray with git!

For the art (once again, have you tried moving the browser windows on the site?), we have two amazing artists to thank: @brokemycrown, our FujoGuide KS art director, created the "web" trio pics, while the rest is the work of @ymkse, with us since the very first Boba-tan art!

As you know, more goes into a project than coding and art. Between writing, proof-reading, alt-texting, cat-herding, pep-talking, and "running around getting things done" so many community contributors pitched in! We're still confirming who wants public credit, but here's a few:

@enigmalea, without whom so many of our projects wouldn't exist in their current form, did a bit of everything: from styling, to design, to wording, to typing... not even technical difficulties can keep her down!

VCat, without whom our website wouldn't have shipped in time

@starfieldcanvas, at their first big projects with us, gets the credit of "first volunteer to write a @bobaboard retrospective" (rather than founder @essential-randomness), which alone would be an incredible feat. However, Dove did a lot more, handling all our newsletters through the lead up to the campaign, thus making it possible for the team to make everything that needed happening actually happen. She also helped with design, FujoVerse copy, and even picked up coding (!) and GitHub (!!) to help update things here and there!

@elendraug picked up everything that needed picking up! From the humongous task of adding all our collaborators to @fujowebdev, to writing most of our alt text, to proofreading, to helping with drafts...

@xieliansbignaturals who took care of alt text, proofreading and cheerleading

@tarantasina, who kept the team on track and delighted us all with their Signature High-Spirit Emotional Encouragement™

@thebiballerina, who gave us social media wisdom, help with proofreading and wordsmithing, and other invaluable support

...and then me, @essential-randomness, who has written most of the posts delighting your days, manned an inordinate amount of social accounts, did everything-not-done-by-others, and somehow managed to get a company started on the wings of being a fujoshi–the highest of achievements.

With all of this said, the plan for the future: this campaign took us months to prepare on top of working on our other projects. We're now going to take a deserved couple of weeks to rest, then regroup to discuss next steps and priorities.

Formalizing all this into a company won't always be straightforward, and there will be decisions to make we haven’t even encountered yet. Our first priorities will be finishing FujoGuide Issue 2 and producing + shipping the rewards for this campaign.

Alongside this, we'll start contacting the lawyers you all recommended (seriously, thank you) so we can begin hiring with confidence, and continue the work making @bobaboard's governance independent so we can finally onboard more volunteers and push the project forward.

There's a lot to do (as you can see), and it will take time to realize the full potential of what you've helped us launch. We're incredibly excited to get to work, even more so now that we have some seed (money) to help lighten the load. And with this, we say (a temporary) goodbye.

Thank you everyone who supported us, and thank you everyone who's been at our side all along, and everyone who is joining our journey for the first time.

Looking forward to the future, The FujoCoded LLC Team

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laugtherhyena · 4 months

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So, what's up with Udon comics Karin?

Recently i got a hold of physical copies of the Sakura ganbaru manga and after reading through the whole thing i decided to organize this character analysis of sorts where I'll be comparing this awful iteration of the character to her versions from the game's canon and the manga where she originated from in order to highlight where the Udon comics completely missed the mark when it came to portraying her.

First off, who is Karin?

She's the sole heir to the Kanzuki Zaibatsu which is one of the biggest and wealthiest business organizations in the Street fighter world. She has an incredibly strict father and has been trained pretty much since birth to become what he considers a worthy heir, being set to live by their motto that's something along the lines of “In all things be victorious”.

Karin is very obviously SF’s version of the ojou girl character trope, she's filthy rich, snobbish, mean and has a condescending attitude from her mannerisms to her laughs. These are traits present in all of her iterations, however, there's one key element about Karin that completely flew over the heads of the udon comic writers;

Karin is not spoiled, she is proud.

At age 15 this girl was on her way to becoming the leader of one of the biggest business conglomerates of the world while also being proficient in several different fighting styles, remaining undefeated for god knows how long. Karin is good at what she does and she knows it, she's proud of her accomplishments and that's exactly why she acts the way she does.

Her attitude was never solely out of her fortune and status, it always came off as being mostly out of her own merit.

Meanwhile, in the Udon comics Karin is portrayed as a huge spoiled brat. They essentially removed every aspect that made her a rounded likable character and amplified all of her worst traits, a complete disservice to a character that in her proper characterization feels almost like a spin on the standard ojou girl archetype.

As research for this post I tried to find the first time she appeared in the story and as far as I'm aware that was on Street fighter issue 8 in a small backup/extra comic. In it, her initial fight with Sakura has already happened and Karin is after her for a rematch, Sakura is running late for school but Karin corners her so they can have their match, she beats her up fairly quickly and then runs off.

While appearing at the most inconvenient times is not out of character for her (Example: in Sakura ganbaru she breaks into Sakura's house at night by smashing her window solely so she could invite her to this fighting event she'll be hosting) one thing that stood out to me is how Karin talks about their previous fight.

She says that she only lost because of a fluke in their previous fight, implying that she would have won otherwise. And this is something that gets shown again and again in her later, major, appearances in the series; Street fighter legends Sakura (top left) and Street fighter Sakura vs Karin (Bottom left + right)

Karin seems to genuinely believe that there's no way she could lose to Sakura, and if she did, then there must have been some kind of casualty during the match that prevented her from whining, foul play involved on Sakura's part or she straight up says that the fight in which she was bested by her doesn't count for whatever reason.

This inability to accept defeat not only paints her as a whiny sore loser, but shows a clear misunderstanding on the writer’s part on the reason why Karin goes after Sakura.

She's not after this rematch because she refuses to accept that Sakura could win or even because she hates this girl, she just wants to prove herself as the better fighter to uphold her family's motto of being the winner at everything. In both the game's canon and in Sakura ganbaru she accepted that she was bested and worked towards growing stronger so that she could defeat Sakura in a rematch.

That's literally it, but for some reason the Udon comic writers seem to think that Karin has some sort of obsessive vendetta against Sakura and just can't stand her. In Street fighter legends Sakura she breaks a tv just because she saw Sakura being praised on it and in the prologue of this short series she's seen destroying several punching bags with Sakura's picture on it and makes one of her employees dress as her for them to fight.

(I'm sure there's a version of these with more dialogue but i couldn't find it in english :[)

This is downright atrocious because Karin NEVER hated Sakura. Her infatuation for her (because you really can't call it an obsession) came from a place of genuine admiration for her skills.

In Sakura ganbaru she orders her butler to give her a full resume about Sakura's life just because she saw her fighting from afar and was impressed by her skills, even calling her a “special commoner” when the butler asks her why she's so set on wanting to fight a girl like her. And in Alpha 3, Karin straight up tells Sakura that she admires her.

Hell, even after winning against Sakura in a match, Karin proclaims her as the better fighter. A level of humility that's almost nonexistent in her Udon comics counterpart.

Because yes, Karin can be nice. We see this first-hand in Alpha 3 where after losing to R.Mika in a fight she tells her hasn't studied enough about pro-wrestling (admitting that she had underestimated her fighting style) and even offers to sponsor Mika's wrestling career.

Later on in Street fighter V she pays Birdie to be her bodyguard and pretty much lets him lay around her mansion doing nothing all day after finding out Shadaloo was after him.

Something similar to these acts of kindness on her part happens in Legends Sakura, where she lets her employee keep the trophy of the hot dog eating competition they were in. But the thing is; they have made Karin such a bitch in these comics that this act, which would be in character for her game counterpart, feels out of character in this because she's just so mean and victory focused all the time.

And speaking of victories, another thing this characterization of her gets wrong is her approach to them. Udon comics Karin will go above and beyond in order to achieve a victory, it doesn't matter if it's unfair for her opponent, all that she cares about is if she scores that win.

In Legends Sakura she challenges Karin to a hot dog eating competition since she wasn't feeling like fighting her physically, Karin cheats in it by shoving the food down her employee’s throat under the table, when Sakura and her friends out her as a cheater she quickly changed the challenge into a fighting match even tho Sakura has eaten like 30 hot dogs by now and is in no condition to fight her.

And in Sakura vs Karin, where the two are competing in a game tournament, Karin buys the company that made the game and adds herself as a character on it. Something Sakura was previously not aware of and as such had no chance of knowing how to play well against the new character.

This is wild to me because it's quite literally the exact opposite of how Karin acts in her other iterations. She strives for a fair fight because otherwise her subsequent victory on it will be meaningless, after all, there's no merit in winning against someone when you've got an unfair advantage over them.

Even when she had the perfect opportunity to give herself an advantage, manga Karin still strived to keep things fair. After her initial loss against Sakura, she organizes a tournament around the district that's essentially a battle royale with several fighters of the region. She made this whole event with the sole purpose of challenging Sakura by the end of it since she expected her to defeat all the other opponents.

As the organizer, she could absolutely have abstained from joining the tournament herself and stand there high and mighty as the final challenge for the whole thing, but not only did she actively participate on the tournament, Karin strived to defeat more people than Sakura because she saw that as a way to redeem herself after losing to her a few days back.

She is so set in winning this tournament that she refused to even stop for a moment and get her injuries treated.

Cheating legitimately feels like something Karin would frown upon so to see her doing it more than once in the Udon comics feels like the pinnacle of character assassination.

Another thing that stood out to me is that even after being outed as a cheater during that hot dog eating competition, that not only had an immense live audience but was also being televised, Karin faces absolutely no repressions for it. Meanwhile in the manga Karin's father makes her undergo a series of trials in which she fights an eagle while balancing on a tightrope over a ravine, a bear in a waterfall, and a lion otherwise he would basically disown her.

All of this because she lost twice, first to Sakura and later to Ken during the tournament.

And speaking of Sakura, they messed up her and Karin's relationship so badly in the Udon comics that it's only when the two of them are adults that they become friends. Meanwhile, in both Alpha 3 and Sakura ganbaru volume 1 they're left on a good note with each other right after their stories wrap up and implied to have become friends in the following entries of the series.

In Street fighter IV this is done via Sakura's win quotes and in volume 2 by Sakura sending Karin a souvenir from her travels.

By the time we see them as adults in Street fighter V we are shown that yes, they are friends! And seemingly have been for quite a while now.

This is honestly kinda sad to me because we learn first hand that Udon comics Karin had no friends growing up and it seems like this lack of positive figures in her life, Sakura specially, stunted her growth as a person since it's also only when she's an adult that she comes to the realization that fighting it's not about winning or losing, but the moment of the battle, and that some defeats are more valuable than victories since it's from our failures that we can learn to grown stronger.

Something that both the manga and game versions of Karin discovered much sooner, truly showcasing how Udon’s version of her is always 5 steps behind the others.

#can you tell this is my favorite Sf character can you tell-#i had to learn how to mess with Tumblr on desktop just to add all the images to this #street fighter #Karin Kanzuki #hyena ramblings

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oldhalloweentape · 5 months

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if it isn't too much trouble or rush, perhaps a request about the first kiss with vinny santorini?

💐💣Vinny (atlantis) x reader First Kiss Headcanons💥🌹

(Yeah so um… Sorry guys for making you wait for so long on something fresher— I’m just going through it when it comes to my writing, incredibly unconfident in my skills… But I saw how many of you guys liked ‘em. For that I am extremely thankful, I love being able to provide where not many people would get it. Anyways, sorry for the long rant, here it is 💖)

(Edit : all of my headcanons are gender nonspecific when it comes to the reader, and it usually will be if no one specified)

Alright, your first kiss with each other, this sign of love transpires shortly after he overcomes the whole frigid stage of your relationship at the very beginning.

When things started becoming more... Vulnerable and soft started making themselves known, you weren't the only one to notice, your comrades, your amigos did as well. (These are certain people you may or may not know- Who are very supportive of your relationship from the get-go. Wink wink, nudge nudge.)

Um, this expedition crew sees the more than platonic relationship between you two, and all of them have varying opinions on the matter.

For example, Audrey, being the teen she is thinks it's pandering but adorable, Mole? … Not so much.

That stinky little fuck thinks it's nasty, even though he's the one who bathes himself in dirt and grime.

ANYWAYS, going back to Audrey, as I mentioned in an earlier post, (this one right here) Audrey is impatient, and not into the slow-burn trope as she tries to… Quicken the process.

And as the story progresses… Somehow Audrey lassos KIDA of all people into these evil master plans.

These teen-concocted shenanigans are good-natured of course, but they come off as… Odd to say the very least. You see… A kid who is more into mechanics isn't exactly the doctor of love, and an 8,500-8,800-year-old Atlantean woman isn't either.

Their attempts may include the following (let's start up the clown music, shall we?):

- Trying to learn more about the relationship as much as they possibly can (Audrey TRIES to ask somewhat subtle… Kida straight-up demands to know 💀)

- Posing as one partner via love letters… With those letters being very terribly written ones.

- Well, they were kinda bound to be wonky if they were written by an Atlantean warrior woman as a teenager spectates intently… And let’s be honest they could've been believable with how romantically INEPT YOU BOTH ARE, but they didn't take the time to copy your guys’s writing style/handwriting (And Sweets is the one who usually snatches these letters before you guys read them to spare you both, say thank you to Doctor Joshua Strongbear Sweets 💖).

- Putting you guys into DANGEROUS SITUATIONS. This is mainly Kida’s idea, with her being frightfully confident about it due to it working with Milo and her… Thankfully Audrey had enough common sense to dismantle the idea.

After attempt after attempt fails, Audrey finally tries to get Sweets, a man she believes would have far more experience in this kind of thing… But the doctor tells her to NOT interfere, as painful as it is to look at you two being fucking romance failures.

With Milo backing it up of course… This effectively ruined the amusement (I can see Mole just giggling and snorting at all of this, this is COMEDY GOLD TO HIM) that Mole had as Kida and Audrey ran around like two headless chickens, all the while Vinny and you were for the most part unaware of.

But of course, the doctor knew that they all just had to be patient and let things move naturally between you two, a quality that Audrey and Kida were lacking in their plots.

This moment comes to fruition as you both get time alone and find a rather nice spot in Atlantis, which… May or may not have been suggested by Sweets to one of you.

After some heartfelt words and lingering touches, you both were able to share your first kiss, which as many might expect was both sweet and awkward, as God intended 💖☺️

#vinny santorini #vinny santorini x reader #disney atlantis #atlantis x reader

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eyesthecolorofarson · 1 year

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The batfam meet Danny Fenton and after weeks of research and one lucky blood test later there’s no doubt I’m anyone’s mind that he’s Damian’s long-lost twin brother.

But the day they go to his apartment to break the news someone else answers the door. Someone who looks identical to both Damian and Danny but is very obviously not them.

The new boy was albino and obviously a meta of some kind, his eyes a cherry red and his hair literally flaming white and styled a crowd braid. But his face shape was the same as Bruce’s, his eyes had the same curve as Talias, and his height the same as Danny’s.

“Oh, hi! You must be the Wayne’s. Danny’s told me about you. Sorry we haven’t been able to meet, I’ve been busy with classes.” He invites them in and the batfam take notes of his personality.

Danny was nearly entirely composed of snark and wit, able to run endless circles around not only rouges but their vigilante personas. He was wickedly intelligent, morally grey, and not afraid to resort to violence. He had a heart of silver; good intentions and beliefs but not afraid to get his hands dirty to achieve his goals.

As they talked with this boy, Daphne he said his name was, they learned he was just as sarcastic and witty but was also trying to stay on the positive side of things. He was intelligent like Danny, but had a chaotic lawful attitude similar to Danny’s chaotic neutral.

finally, Tim asked the question they’d all been wondering. “So, Danny’s never mentioned you before. Are you a new roommates or friend?” Daphne laughed, “Yeah, he’s really protective. He once got in a fist fight with someone for insulting me.”

Daphne smiled, and he was a carbon copy of both Danny and Damian. “I’m his twin brother.” There was a problem with that though. They knew for a fact that Daphne Fenton didn’t exist.

Everything was going great, Danny had though two weeks ago. He’d though that word for word and he knew it would come back to bite him in the ass. He just didn’t know when.

Dan–or Daphne, as he likes to be called now, said that the reason bad things happened after he said something hopeful was because he was ‘putting that energy out in the universe’. Daphne was always so positive, or trying to be, and it made it hard to remember that he used to be his future self hellbent on destroying the world.

Therapy had been a big help. They had Clockwork to thank for that, and for Daphnes new form. They couldn’t change his hair, no matter how hard he tried at first. It had made him incredibly upset and insecure, but nowadays he’d grown to accept his hair, saying ‘it’s a reminder of who I was and where I came from, and that everything’s ok now. I’m allowed to exist as the person I’d always wanted to be.’

Honestly, Danny couldn’t even begin to describe how proud he was. He’d come such a long way from the tyrannical King of the Infinite Realms to a scared, traumatized kid to the kind and gentle teen he was now. It’d been amazing watching Daphne grow not only out but in, growing as a person and a spirit.

And Daphne had helped him grow as well. It was nice, having someone so close to him and so aware of what he was thinking and how he acted because they were the same. So different but so similar. The first time they’d introduced each other as brothers, as twins, it’s felt right. Like that was exactly what they were supposed to be.

He got in a lot of fights after though. Not that any of them were Daphnes fault, who was holding him back most of the time, but there were just some assholes who, assuming Daphne was a meta, decided to insult him and even call him a few slurs. Of course, he knocked out one and broke the others nose.

There were a lot of people like this, people who felt it was ok to insult his baby brother–because no matter what Daphne said, he practically screamed ‘little brother’ vibes–felt it was ok to say hurtful things to his face because they didn’t consider him fully human.

So he got into fights a lot more often now, no matter how much Daphne begs him not to. But despite all those assholes things had been going great, despite it being, y’know, Gotham. He’d even made friend with a revenant and his family, who were weirdly nice and open about the whole ghost thing.

What a great surprise it was too when he got home and found that not only was Daphne back from school–he’d joined a lot of clubs and band–but that the Wayne’s were there and they seemed to be good friends already! Maybe Daphne was right; it was time he started projecting good vibes only.

#Danny Fenton is Damian Wayne’s twin #danny phantom #danny phantom au #damian wayne #batfamily #dan phantom #Dan phantom redemption

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daughter-of-melpomene · 2 months

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🌟 + Mara Yang, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs ✨💛✨

Ooooh, Mara ask, yay!! Thanks so much, Alexandra!! (And I shall also tag the other Glee babes @luucypevensie, @ginger-grimm, @ginevrastilinski-ocs, and @manyfandomocs.<3 )

My girl Mara is a huge Swiftie - her favorite album is Fearless, and she and Quinn definitely make a date out of going to the Eras Tour in the future.

She has a nervous habit of fiddling with whatever bracelets she might be wearing, and there always is something there to fiddle with, because she’s always wearing bracelets.

She absolutely adores the old Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella movie from the fifties, with Julie Andrews, but of course she also really loves the newer one with Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother - during the club’s tribute to Whitney, she actually does a performance of the version of “Impossible” from that movie.

Her favorite books growing up where the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L’Engle, and she still has her old copies on the bookshelf in her room, their spines all creased and some of the pages stained from the times she tried to read while eating.

Her first pet was a sweet little grey hamster that she named Hermione, after Hermione Granger.

She has a certain yellow hoodie that she always wears on lazy days - it’s a bit stained and worn thin, but it’s also incredibly soft after so many washes and it’s perfect to wear just laying around or working on her latest jewelry-making project.

She loved The Powerpuff Girls when she was younger, and always wanted Bubbles’ powers.

A few times during Pride Month and every day during Lesbian Visibility Week, Mara will style her makeup after the lesbian flag. It’s her own way of showing pride, and the colors compliment her really well too.

She had a brief crush on Santana in fifth grade, but it didn’t last long, as she moved on to crushing on Quinn almost as soon as they started middle school. (She is kind of proud of herself for picking up on Santana’s queer vibe so early, though.)

Mara is very afraid of large dogs, having been attacked by her neighbour’s Rottweiler when she was four years old.

send me an oc and i’ll give you ten facts about them!!

#asks about my ocs #oc: mara yang

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weatherman667 · 5 months

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Gungrave G.O.R.E

I never played the original Gungrave. The reviews at the time had it be more flash than substance. In fact, the main reason I bought this game, (other than it being on sale), was every - single - game, other than Gungrave.

You see, nowadays, we have a long tradition of remaking old games. This is becasue

The original games were good, at least for their time.

All of the major production houses have been bought up by evil megacorporations will take creativity behind the wood shed and shoot it in the name of profits. This, for some reason, has proven to be less than sustainable.

So, every company wants to remake the old games, because $$$, but they don't want to pay $ to make $$$, and so normally just increase the quality of the graphics, without changing anything else. Anything else includes the polygon count.

Gungrave G.O.R.E was the exception. It looked like they had LEARNED from the games that had come and gone, and improved themselves. Not the least of which was the introduction of the classisc Japanese Waifu to do the narration, instead of the main character.

If anyone else had done it, my automatic assumption would be CURRENT YEAR!!!!!!!!11111!!!

But, my love of Gungrave was so strong? The developer was the one I still have faith in? Never played Gungrave, and the only developer I have faith in is Firaxis.

So see, this is a classic narrative tool. You have you epic, awesome, brooding hero. He's too awesome and brooding to... talk. Well, this is going to put a hamper in his ability to... do anything really. Other than fight. Okay, yes, you are here to see him fight, but there still has to be some attempt to tell the story. And you can't tell the audience that he secretly cares. Well, what are you going to do?

Introduce a non-combat, or less-combat character to do the talking for him. This is been used in works ranging from Okami to Conan,

"He is Conan, Cimmerian, he won't cry, so I cry for him." -- Mako

You see, tropes are tools. They can be horrible clichés, or they can dramatically improve your story. And Gungrave G.O.R.E is the latter.

In fact, the Japanese waifu actually advises you in battle, and maybe for the first time ever, in a productive way. You see, the game recognizes the limit of it's engine, the limited field of view. So, she will just flat out tell you if you are being flanked or overwatched.

What's the story? Something-something evil corporation that's secretly telling drugs. This isn't an insult, whatsoever, as some of the simplest premises can make the best movies, see: John Wick. What matters is emotional engagement and storytelling, and this was done fantastically well. The game definitely recognizes that the story isn't good enough to spend too much time on, and so quickly gets you into the action, while having enough of an emotional hook to get you to care.

So, how is the combat? Beautiful. Not because of any individual thing, but because it just works, extraordinarily well. This is the difference between Devil May Cry, and almost every game that tried to copy Devil May Cry, is that the gameplay works well. It's fair, fluid, functional, and, most importantly of all, fun.

For the gameplay, think Devil May Cry, but more focus on gunplay. It gives you a charging shield, to get you to run into combat, and then move out. And this works incredibly well. Like Devil May Cry, each level is it's own, contained area, and you are ranked on style afterwards. Unlike Devil May Cry, they don't care about how much you get attacked, just how much damage you take, (remember: recharging shield). So, the game encourages you to spend a lot more time walking through gunfire, as you shoot everyone trying to hurt you. You then have to dodge or take a hostage to allow your shield to recharge. You can actually heal with certain attacks, and executions, and only your final heath matters.

#gungrave #gore #video games

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ottiliere · 2 years

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I like to periodically check in on ur blog because you do some of the best Dirk analysis out there and to come and find that since I last checked you posted both JTHM and psychonauts was so awesome, especially because me and one of my pals have been really into talking about both recently since I just bought the reissue of all 7 JTHM comics with extra content and he’s been playing psychonauts 2. I hope to see more of both on ur blog in the future (although please don’t feel pressured you’re content is always good anyways) !

ohh this is lovely to hear...have always felt like there's a through line between psychonauts 05 and jhonen's stuff. which does make sense given that they were made around the same relative time period! I'm assuming you're talking about the director's cut release of JTHM here...I believe this is the first physical copy of the comic i owned as well, it's really nice! have always been fond of how barebones the spine was, i'm sure some people don't like it but I kind of miss how charmless (using the word affectionately) a lot of the design was for books like this.

i wish i could say something nicer about psychonauts 2...I'm not a fan of haterism like that's just not what i care to put out into the world, especially on this blog. but i have to be completely honest with you and say i just did not enjoy this game. if it had been anything BUT a psychonauts sequel it would have been entirely inoffensive to me, but as a sequel it's just kind of incredible the extent to which the charm, style, humor, love, etc. of the first game was just, removed completely, with absolute surgical precision. very little traces of these things. it's fun to play and mostly nice to look at, a good game in all technical respects, but it's just not psychonauts 2005.

my friend dane davestriderdeathcult4568 has been my psychonauts buddy and was running through the first game again recently which is what made me get back into it... neither of us had really engaged with the sequel yet so i watched him play it and it was just; legitimately devastating. the state of the writing is so tragic i remember specifically there was a point at which we had to physically get up and and go stand around on the balcony outside for a while clutching our drinks and cigarettes in the wind looking up at the sky trying to recover emotionally. this sounds like a joke but it totally isn't this game made me so incredibly sad.

like initially i was a little worried my first impression was just nostalgia or something but talking around a little it really obviously...isn't. there's something really vital missing from psychonauts 2. a lot of really vital somethings actually. outside of the writing, even, like, glossing over how just objectively not good the story is....the character design is so egregrious held up to the designs of psychonauts 2005. it feels like they tried too hard to make everyone appealing and "cute"....but they all already were! there was so much lovability in the violent asymmetry and crooked strangeness of the original designs. raz is a great example of this here i think, in the second game he's too...puppy-cute, where in the first game he was cute like kind of an ugly little insect. that was special! and of course there's dear sasha....like look at this look AT this. i don't even know what to say :(

side note it must be said and i will admit that i was so was so upset about everything i was witnessing under dane’s hands that i went home and moped for days and days. and i couldn't even find sasha's p05 model uploaded anywhere and i became alighted with such a fervent spirit i learned specifically how to rip models and textures specifically to recover him (will upload soon of course). unrelated did you know his model is missing buttons when they’re specifically textured in his texture sheet....lost buttons of the world.

and of course i've got “wife” bias with sasha (a/n: he’s a clinically diagnosed homosexual) but I think this is applicable to pretty much every character we see. especially tertiary background characters got... I don't even know a word for this. the janky grotesqueness of the original style is just completely gone, you can see they tried to emulate some of that a little with the asymmetry but what remains is just barely a ghost of an idea of what made the 05's designs memorable. so much of pn2's design work is just absolutely forgettable like leaves no impression at all, and that wouldn't be such a crime if the first game wasn't so criminally without flaw. example:

I'm aware the sequel was in devhell for a while and a lot of this is probably the consequence of necessary streamlining. like i get it, of course I am sympathetic to this. but it doesn't make the final product any less tragic to me...if anything it's worse knowing that there could have been better designs somewhere in there along the line.

there's something to be said for the loss of atmosphere, too....like, the first game was so murky and oppressive; you really got the feeling of a humid, kinda dirty summer camp. all the angles and the spaces and the colors...it was compact in the best way, just absolutely as tightly woven as it needed to be. the low-quality background textures... lovely. the wide-openness of the second game is comparatively so personally uncompelling...it's beautiful and well-crafted but the world of psychonauts 2 lacks the misshappen crackedness of the 05 game. i'm not called to spend hours larping anywhere here...

there's so much more i could say on this, like i sincerely hope this doesn't come off as snotty or pretentious! it'd be one thing if this was just how i felt personally but dane myself and a few other friends have spent copious time idependently of one another poring over both the 05 game and the sequel and come to a lot of the same conclusions as to what's..."missing". the game isn't a complete trashfire and it has a whole handful or maybe even two of redeeming features, but that only makes it hurt more that it feels so devoid of life! loboto in particular is a highlight, like out of everyone i think he's the only character from the first game who truly benefitted from the transition to high resolution...which only goes so far because they shelved him so quickly. I think i actually cried watching him in the game he was so fucking wonderful, genuinely everything about him harkens the ambiance of the first game more than anything else present in the second. he is additionally one of my favorite characters of all time, so I’m... happy he got what he got, at least...

i'll probably end up talking about this again in a little more detail. i wish i could make peace with psychonauts 2 but manpower and research efforts seem to indicate that this is not possible. 2005 reigns undefeated, best game ever all time forever, accept no substitutes, you get the idea. regardless I hope your friend enjoys it still and does not allow this ersatz of love to corrupt their spirit and joie de vivre.

#ask #psychonauts #this is a very long post. but it is how it is.#elaboration on too many friggen dudes: eliminating so so many unnecessary bg characters who didn't do anything would've carried this game t #the championships... would have been extremely funny if they kept up the concept psychonauts being a pretty shitty organization that #struggles to maintain employees. like imagine being a 10yo so excited to join this organization #and then seeing that the hq building is a total ghost town and nobody likes working there #like. please...#you'll never guess who I met at the future parking lot

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theneighborhoodwatch · 5 months

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WH Fandom Wiki admin here again! Thanks you so much for replying! I didn’t expect a reply, and so soon as well to be honest. It make me feel much better after seeing your message.

You are really kind! You should feel really proud of your work as well. Your wiki is so well keep and cared for… From one wiki editor to another, you did an outstanding job! I really like going to your wiki from time to time, but I also fear accidentally copying your wording style or the information you added, so I need to avoid getting influenced with what I see in other wikis and stuff. It’s a bit difficult because people write beautifully sometimes, included you. English is not my native language either, so my brain usually tries to “imitate” what I see written in other places.

I’m really glad you liked the citations and stuff! The trivia section in articles was not all, but was mostly my doing. The trivia is my favorite part to edit in the WH wiki and in several other wikis, but I fear I add too many citations sometimes and this can confuse some people. I’m relieved to see that another wiki editor find them useful. I’ve also seen people online talking well and having fun with the trivia of our wiki, so it makes me feel really proud! It’s heartwarming to see.

The idea of moving a Fandom Wiki to another non-Fandom/Wikia platform has crossed my mind several times. But with what I’ve been seeing and the situation right now, I don’t think it will be possible for the Welcome Home Fandom Wiki. But I’ll still have your recommendations in mind in case one day we manage to do so!

It would be like creating a brand new wiki, and with that I mean that we can’t copy what we wrote in the original wiki because it’s against the rules. The Fandom Wiki policy says that the content of a wiki shouldn’t be plagiarized from another wiki and platform. And even if we “move” the wiki, they don’t let us actually “move” it or delete the original because it’s now part of the community. They only let us do something they call “forking”.

What’s forking? It’s letting the original Fandom wiki completely intact with the information we added, and they strip us all of our staff rights so we can “focus” on the other wiki, leaving the Fandom wiki completely exposed to vandalism. Even if the majority of admins and editors are now in another wiki and the Fandom one is abandoned and exposed to vandalism, the Fandom Wiki will still be the fist result if you search it online (since Fandom pays to be the first result and thus gain clicks and views for their invasive ads). And like I mentioned, when working on this other wiki, we’re not allowed to copy the information we added in the Fandom wiki because that is plagiarism, so everything should have to be written down from zero.

This is, of course, a pretty heavy problem and the main reason I don’t think it’s possible for us to “move” right now, between other reasons. I admire those wikis that managed to do that, like the Zelda Wiki and recently the Hollow Knight Wiki, but I don’t think we are able to do so as well if we wanted.

That’s why I think what you did was the best. I don’t know if this was your first wiki, but if so you did an incredible job. When I started editing I didn’t know how to do a lot of the things I know now and that you have done in your personal wiki. Seriously, you need all the support and love there is for creating this for everyone to enjoy.

(context)

i apologize for the late response, first of all. part of it was because i was getting my ass kicked by the weeks leading up to my finals, and part of it was because i just felt bad about not having an adequate response. obviously i'm preaching to the choir, but this is a really shitty situation to be in, especially when it involves Your Own Writing. i know i already listed some resources in my last response, but seriously if there's anything else i can do, please let me know, and thank you for your support.

#anonymous #ask

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oswincoleman · 10 months

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Some of Jenna Coleman’s comments from her interview for Elle UK:

Here she talks about Wilderness:

As for Coleman’s latest project, a Gone Girl-style ‘twisted love story’ revenge drama called Wilderness in which she plays the protagonist Liv, she notes how cleverly her character’s story arc is reflected in the costume choices. ‘Liv doesn’t really know who she is,’ explains Coleman. ‘So at the beginning, her wardrobe is very understated, very safe, because she doesn’t want to sit in any camp too much or stand out. It was all very tentative, and she’d throw on socks knitted by her mum or a Fairisle cardigan or something. In the first episode she wears this beautiful pink Emilia Wickstead dress, but even then you can see she’s just wearing what she thinks she should wear, but she’s not comfortable in it at all.’

Without giving too much away – because we’ve had a preview and trust us, the show’s well worth a watch – Coleman’s character soon finds herself jealous of another woman (Cara, played by Ashley Benson), and decides to try her style on for size. ‘It’s typical, really. She copies her nails, borrows her clothes… Tries to be exactly like her, even though it doesn’t fit her character at all. She bounced around a lot.’

Much like Coleman herself, however, once Liv ‘discovered her own skin and found her voice’, a strong sense of personal style quickly followed suit. Thankfully Coleman never had to murder anyone to get there.

So a preview of the show has already been shared with the media. This must mean that it can’t be too much longer until it is released!

And about changing fashion between filming and the time afterwards:

Coleman admits that finding your way back to your own style can be a little tricky at times. ‘You’re in a character’s outfits for so long, I always find there’s a period when you finish the job and you’re a bit like, “oh, I get to be me again. Who am I? What do I actually like?”’

There have been times that Coleman’s character and real-life wardrobes have crossed over, however. ‘I mean I obviously wouldn’t want to start walking around in Queen Victoria’s dresses, even though the costumes were pretty amazing because we copied so much from the actual portraits,’ she laughs. ‘But my character in The Sandman had this really chic white trench that I kind of wish I’d stolen, and she had an incredible sunglasses collection too. I always try to take something from a job as a little reminder… I have this beautiful antique gold watch from The Room At The Top that I’m particularly fond of.’

#jenna coleman #jenna louise coleman #interview #wilderness #wilderness tv #Elle #Elle uk

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ordinaryschmuck · 9 months

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Quick Thoughts on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

For those who don't know, I LOVE the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Next to Scooby-Doo, the Turtles defined my childhood, being a franchise I'll watch and be interested in until the day I die. So needless to say, I was already excited for Mutant Mayhem just from the first trailer alone. And it paid off because this movie rocks!

First thing of note is that this might be the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that feels like it's made for teenagers. Sure, Micheal Bay tried...He certainly tried. But this one feels like it speaks their language without pandering to them with cheap lingo and references.

...Well, there IS that, but you learn to forgive it when you remember that the Turtles themselves are voiced by actual teenagers this time, with a lot of their lines being improvised and the chemistry bouncing off the kids. I love that change because it makes the movie focus more on the "Teenage" aspect of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where most iterations took that as a suggestion if anything else. This time, it gives the Turtles more of a charm to them. Like we're watching them as they start out while leaving room to become the bigger, more mature heroes we know them more as.

And speaking of maturity, hot DANG does this movie earn its PG rating, large in part because of Ice Cube's Superfly. The guy feels like he thinks he's an R-rated movie, but no one told him it was PG and were probably too scared of him to say so. He's incredibly violent and curses way more than I thought he might, with every other sentence he says having the word "damn," "hell," and even "pissed" at one point. When was the last time you heard a character say the word "pissed" in a PG movie?! On top of that, he's a solid villain who manages to strike that perfect balance of charming and threatening. You get why others want to listen to and fear him in every way possible.

And as for the rest of the characters, they're all pretty great. The Turtles, as I've said, are all pretty darn charming with their core personalities throughout the franchise shining through, but altered to fit the teen aspect of their characters.

As for April O'Neil, despite people hating her because she's black and fat, is a solid friend to the Turtles and their chemistry together is believable. Plus, dang it, I'm a sucker for losers making friends and finding strength with fellow losers. I can't get sick of it.

And Splinter is also great, having a strong character arc and a believable conclusion to it. They DO beat you over the head with the symbolism of how he learns his lesson, to the point where a character outright states it, but it's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I'm not looking for a masterpiece, I'm looking for fun.

Speaking of, this movie really is fun, having some great action, solid jokes, and WONDERFUL animation. The look of Mutant Mayhem is perfect and adds to the whole "made for teens" aspect, as they said they wanted to copy the feel of sketching in your notebook as a teen, and they nailed it with grungy character models and hand-drawn scribbles and pencil marks to add to it. Best of all, they didn't need to torture the animators to give this movie it's great style (TAKE NOTES, SPIDER-VERSE!). The overall look is definitely not for everyone, as I can see people being put off by it, but I think it works great for what the people behind this movie was going for...I just wish I could see it.

Now, I don't know if it's the movie's fault or my theater screen, but this movie looks too dark during a lot of scenes. And I'm willing to blame the movie, because even with certain trailers it was hard to see what was happening a few times. Which is a shame too, because there was so much effort into making this movie look as amazing as it did, I just wish the people behind it turned the brightness up a few notches so I could see all of it.

And since we're talking negatives, another nitpick I have is how big the cast is for this movie. There's, like, ten more prominent characters in this film, each with a celebrity voicing them, yet they're VERY minor to the plot. I don't get why they had John Cena of all people to voice Rocksteady, when all he says is probably less than ten lines throughout the movie. But then you remember, "Oh, right. They're making an animated series based off this movie." At that point, the bigger cast makes sense and turns Mutant Mayhem into less of its own film and more into a pilot episode. It shows fans the cast, the world, and the set-up so future installments can continue it. And I'm...mixed on how I feel about that. Because I DO want to see more, especially with how this movie ends in a way that no other Teenage Mutant Ninja property. But at the same time, it kind of leaves off on a perfect ending where I don't NEED to see more? It's hard to explain, so you might as well see it yourself.

In fact, watch the movie anyways. It's GREAT fun. It won't top movies like Across the Spider-Verse or Nimona, which includes stronger themes along with their incredible animation, but Mutant Mayhem still wins points for being a fun film throughout. If you're a Turtles fan, you'll likely get a kick out of it. I sure did, and I'll watch this movie more and more in the future...On a better screen just in case it WAS my theater's fault.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles mutant mayhem #teenage mutant ninja turtles #april o'neil #master splinter #superfly #mutant mayhem #quick thoughts #what i thought about

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the-autistic-duck-fan · 10 months

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Alright, first analysis and we're starting with Season 1! Also I'm still finding my style, so sorry if my analysis seems strange.

I quite like season 1, it's a great start to the incredible legacy and franchise that it would become later. There's definitely some awkwardness and growing pains to it, but there's bound to be, it's season 1. And there's still plenty to like about it.

Season 1 is actually a bit hard for me to talk about. (I've tried to write this analysis three times). I'm not 100% sure why this is, but I'm trying my best here without copying others.

First thing I wanna get out of the way. I like both the Ringo Starr narration and the George Carlin narration for this season. I actually grew up with a bit of both. I can't say I think one is better than the other, they both have their own feel and their own strengths in my eyes. Ringo's monotone also makes me laugh in some spots. George Carlin does a good job of giving characters different voices.

Watching it, you can tell they definitely weren't used to the models yet. Things are more static and less detailed in this season in comparison to the following seasons, but it's not bad. They just needed some time (and a bigger budget) to improve the sets. Another interesting thing is the way it's shot, oftentimes with objects in the foreground and engines in the mid or background. I don't know why it's shot this way, but it's not bad, it just caught my attention. I'm no expert on cinematography though, I can't explain it. It kinda feels like photography sometimes (I mean, I know videos are just many pictures being taken all at once, but still), especially with the more limited motion for the season. I think overall they managed to balance it between taking enough time to tell the stories and moving along enough to keep the children's attention, seeing as the show continued on for a long time.

Another thing I like are the mini arcs for the characters. The one that stands out most to me would have to be Henry's. I actually didn't like Henry as a child and I don't really know why. Now that I'm older, I can relate to him actually. Not in the first part of his arc where he's afraid of rain and goes into tunnel, mind you, but once we get to the second part of his arc, where he needs special coal and needs to be sent to crew. I am someone who struggles with chronic pain and autism. I spent a lot of my life being told that I didn't try hard enough or that nothing was wrong with me except me being lazy, much like Henry. (I've learned to cope much better now, thankfully). Seeing Henry get the support he needed just felt nice and I was rooting for him (despite the fact I know exactly how his arc goes). I've heard others say that The Flying Kipper is their favorite episode and I have to agree.

Another smaller arc I like are Gordon and Thomas' shared arc, where both end up in disgrace and the two agree to work together. It ties up the season in a nice little bow, since the season started with Gordon teaching Thomas a lesson.

James' introductory arc was the one I remembered watching the most. I also remember his rather snazzy theme very well. James was my first favorite character. James entered with a spectacular crash and through a few misadventures learned his lesson. (Well, somewhat, but not really). Despite how many times I watched the James episodes, I don't have much to say about them.

I used to never think much about Toby, but I definitely like him more now that I'm older. He's kind and polite, but also takes no shit. I also like his musical theme.

For now, I don't have much to say about Percy, but I'll definitely have more to say about him later on, since he was introduced late into this season. I just wanted to make sure to note that I didn't forget about him. I do like his cheek though, like when he calls out Gordon for saying he's never had an accident or scares Henry with his wheeshing (is that how it's spelled?)

Season 1 overall is a good start to the series. It's definitely iconic and has made a lasting impact. It's not my favorite season, but it's always fun to revisit. Hopefully I could do it some justice here. I actually enjoyed this analysis, even if it took three tries to get anywhere.

#thomas the tank engine #ttte #ttte analysis #ttte james #ttte henry #ttte gordon #ttte thomas #ttte toby

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power-chords · 1 year

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random mannsgiving question: have you ever written about the art in heat? i've tried googling "why do vincent and justine have a GIANT NAKED MAN in their bedroom", but no dice, lmao. am also v fond of "Painting of a Man with His Face Half Hidden" that justine always purposefully stands in front of, and whatever that not-at-all-symbolic twins/lovers painting is that neil passes at van zant's.

Excuse my incredibly shitty “screenshots.” The HUGE NAKED MAN painting is insane, it’s one of so many details in Mann’s strategic placement of art within the Gustafson home, a structure I am especially fascinated by because it exists specifically to menace Vincent Hanna and to reflect his deepest fears and insecurities back at him.

Is he dying? Is he having an orgasm? It’s difficult to tell, and symbolically, the difference doesn’t actually amount to much, lol. But it is a male figure who looms behind the marital bed, visually duplicating the shadow of the Absent Biological Father, whose existence was just introduced to us with Lauren.

There is of course the painting of the figure next to Justine, whose gaze is cast downward and whose mouth is obscured — he will not look (what should he be looking at?), and he will not speak (to whom, about what?).

My favorite: the kitchen wall! We are being shown that this is Lauren’s art, what is probably a self-portrait, and some pretty bleak foreshadowing: her eyes are red (with rage? From tears?) and her lips are blue, suggesting a cadaver. The rest is hard to see clearly, but there’s pretty obviously a suit, masculine totem of the Profession, hanging there facing the wall, with no one inside it. It's empty. [KILL BILL SIRENS]

WHY ARE THERE DOLL BABIES HANGING FROM THE CEILING? WHAT???

A common motif in Vincent’s associated visuals is black encased in white, or white encased in black: it’s in the house, it’s on his ring, it’s even on his gun (ivory, to mark him as a hunter). He first sees Neil’s face in black and white. He speaks of a dream in which dead bodies accost him with their black eyeballs. There’s too much to pick apart here all at once, but that symbolism of duality and containment, darkness and light that engulfs the other rather than integrating, or that strains to break out, is heavily loaded.

What’s also black and white? A photocopy, usually — at least in 1995! — or a facsimile.

Van Zant also gets some fun black and white decor, and in this case the “bad copy” is a of a colorless jungle, zebra stripes and another naked man (lol) and monochrome plant fronds. The suggestion is of a sterile, inauthentic masculinity-by-proxy, Van Zant thinking he can win a war in the streets against Neil by ordering his cronies to fight it for him, engaging in the kind brute violence he could never endure or enact himself. It is contrasted in the same scene with Neil’s authentic immersion in the gritty, razor-wired jungle of L.A.:

Neil is positioned very frequently next to patches of greenery and nature within the urban matrix, symbolizing this pastoral escapist fantasy for which he yearns, that he has been trying patiently to defer but is tempted by Eady to pursue too fast, too soon. Eady as in Eve, greenery as in a certain garden…

In Van Zant’s house, we see that painting of the Doubles, and there is the suggestion of the Lover but also of the Twin, the Bad Copy. Van Zant is doing under cover of legality and propriety, or the trappings of them, that which Neil and his crew served hard time for by putting their bodies on the line. Breeden’s quote comes to mind: I did hard time for what that motherfucker does every day. When Neil executes Van Zant, he is also raging against that inauthenticity, that fundamental capitalist hypocrisy.

I could go on: the architectural stylings of Chris and Charlene’s house foreshadowing his whole character arc in Heat 2 (no way!), the painting in Eady’s house that is clearly a hand reaching out (ooohhh noooo), that in Mann’s rendition of the iconic Alex Colville painting he makes sure to show us the gun paired with the set of house keys (WOAGH), it just goes on and on. He’s a genius.

#michael mann #heat 1995 #heat (1995)#robert de niro #al pacino #neil mccauley #vincent hanna #justine gustafson #lauren gustafson

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alliluyevas · 5 months

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3, 6, and 16 for the book asks?

What were your top five books of the year?

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (2008).

My parents and I went to Monticello about a month ago and I picked this up in the gift shop. My parents had visited in 1972 (my dad) and 1991 (my mom) and I had never been, and obviously a LOT has changed in how they talk about history at Monticello in the last 30-50 years. I think that the current exhibitions and tours at the site are really doing a good job of engaging with the stories of the enslaved people who lived at Monticello, both Sally Hemings and her children + the extended Hemings family and members of other families, but I definitely wanted to know more. (side note: for my Virginia/DMV followers or anyone who ever happens to be in the Charlottesville area, it is really worth visiting! Absolutely fascinating and they're doing great public history work.)

I literally could not put this book down, I read it in a week while working full time and finishing up graduate school applications. It's beautifully written and absolutely captivating. Gordon-Reed does fantastic work both with existing primary sources and fleshing out some of the things we will never know because no one wrote or spoke about them. It's a deeply sad story and left me feeling very raw, but also thinking about resilience and the eternal complexities of the human heart.

Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young by Virginia Kerns (2021).

Copy-pasting my Goodreads review: This is an incredibly powerful book that tries to give voice to the story of a woman who was profoundly marginalized both in life and in history, and to the complex dynamics between peoples as Mormon settlers colonized Utah. Kerns does a magnificent job of weaving Sally's story out of source material that is rich in many respects and deeply limited in others. Her writing style is also really compelling: lyrical, poetic, and deeply felt. It also gave me a completely new frame of reference for the history of women in Mormonism and for the dynamics of the Young household. A deeply upsetting book but also one I could not recommend enough.

I actually posted about this last night, but there are a lot of interesting thematic similarities between this book and Hemingses of Monticello. Again, directly copy-pasting from last night's post: They're about very different cultural contexts but deal with similar subjects in many ways: race, gender, slavery, and very complicated familial dynamics...I think both books also do a really good job of portraying the life of a woman (poignantly, the two women actually share the same first name) who left nothing in her own words.

I used the word "painful intimacy" in my first post about Sally in Three Worlds, and I think it very much applies to the household dynamics portrayed in both books.

Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith by Stephen Taysom (2023).

Again, stealing from my own Goodreads review (I'm the only person who has reviewed this book on GR, rip): I think a non-hagiographical full-length biography of Joseph F. Smith was long overdue, and I was very excited to read this, but I did not expect to find it as emotionally compelling and thought-provoking as I did. Taysom does a fantastic job of telling the story not just of Joseph F., who comes off by turns as both deeply sympathetic and deeply unlikable, but of his expansive polygamist family and their environment. I think this was a very compassionate, nuanced portrait of someone who had deep and profound unaddressed trauma that affected his whole life, and who was capable of both overwhelming love and cruel, controlling and even violent behavior towards his loved ones. I think the book is very aware of that dichotomy and the factors that shaped Joseph F.'s life and choices and is full of really fantastic analysis. I thought the discussion of gender roles and how they related to Joseph F.'s struggles with both anger and anxiety and his interpretation of those feelings was particularly well-done.

These were definitely my top three books of the year, and honestly just fantastic works of historical/biographical storytelling period. I read Sally in Three Worlds in May, Fiery Meteor in June, and Hemingses of Monticello a month ago, and all three of the books have really stuck with me. They're all quite haunting, and very thought-provoking, even months later.

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner (1942).

I read this much earlier in the year, but again it actually intersects really well as a fictional counterpart to The Hemingses of Monticello. Go Down, Moses is a novel formed out of seven interconnected short stories, centering on the black and white halves of the same family, unacknowledged cousins. I've loved Faulkner's writing since high school (well, really since I read A Rose for Emily in seventh grade, but I read The Sound and the Fury in high school) and I wanted to expand my exposure to his work. I have yet to read anything by Faulkner where I wasn't just blown away by the literary quality of his prose, and I think the interlocking stories setup of the book was very effective.

I did think back to this book and Southern Gothic in general several times while reading about the Hemings-Jefferson family--it's not like I wasn't aware of the historical context behind southern gothic as a genre but it really made it very explicit. Especially during the parts of the book talking about Jefferson's white family and their efforts to create a family legacy that explicitly left out the Hemings relatives, and then thinking about future generations of white southerners like Faulkner engaging--or not engaging--with this past. Like--this is the ghost haunting the house, this is the rot at the heart of the family tree.

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland (2007).

This feels a bit odd thematically tacked on at the end here, because while it's not like this book is just totally light-hearted, it's not literally about intensely traumatic interpersonal relationships in the way that the previous four are. It is, however, a really great historical fiction novel! It's about the creation of the painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that shares the same title, with several narrators--Renoir and some of the people who sat for the painting--telling an overlapping story. The prose is fantastic, which you don't see as often as I'd like in histfic, I really felt the rich sensory development of the historical world, and Vreeland does a great job of fleshing out complex and compelling characters and relationships.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

Oh, so much, lol. As well as long-term TBR stuff that will roll over to next year, there are a couple newly released books that I just picked up from the library that I hope to read in the next couple weeks before the year is over/before they go back to the library. (The Vaster Wilds and Master Slave Husband Wife. I can't renew them because they're "hot picks" and a bunch of other people have them on hold.)

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I already answered this one in a previous ask, and honestly I can't think of another book I read that I would call over-hyped per se.

#this is soooooo long sorry i got hype. lots going on this year

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the---hermit · 1 year

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Which books did I dnf in 2022?

I thought it might be interesting to look at the few books I decided to dnf this year. I have also put a few books on hold although I am sure I will pick them up again in the future. The books I did dnf have a much lower chance of being picked up again, but never say never, I guess.

From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Vernes

This is the first book I dnf-ed this year. I started listening to the audiobook and gave up on it after a couple of hours at best. I very quickly realized I had no interest in the story nor the way it was being told. It felt too technical to follow for some reason and it took out any excitement I might have had for this classic. I have never read anything else by Verne but to be honest now I am intimidated, because I am not sure whether his writing style was the problem or the story itself. I doubt I will give a second chance to this book in particular but as I said never say never.

Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov

Yet another book I started as an audiobook and gave up because I realized I had zero interest in it. I had appreciated Bulgakov's writing in audio form with The Master And Margerita, so in this case I am pretty sure it was just the story that wasn't for me. Again this is one of those books I dnf-ed knowing I'll probably never pick it up again.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlì Clark

I would have never thought I'd dnf this book and yet here we are. The base idea is genious in my opinion, having people from the kkk being actual demons and having people hunting them was a really cool take, but for some reason this book failed to pull me into the story. I am not sure whether it was the slower pace, or the writing. I think I will probably give this book another chance in the future, but not in the near future I think. As I said I was really hyped for the book, but I am not sure where we didn't connect tbh.

The Secret Life Of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

I tried to get into this non-fiction book twice, because the informations in it are super interesting, and this should be totally my cup of tea, but I really did not like the writing. I feel like the author was trying to be funny when he could have just simplified the informations to make it accessible. I don't even know, I just really did not like the way it is written. I am still interested in the informations, so I might try it again in the future, but at the moment I cannot read straight through it.

Van Gogh's Letters to his brother Theo

I don't consider this book a dnf, I consider it being on hold. I starte reading it while I was working on my thesis, and I felt like it was not a read I was enjoying at the time as much as I could have so I simply decided to save the rest of the epistolary collection for another moment of my life. I might even decided to slowly get to it bit by bit, but I have not yet planned for it, because I'll wait to be in the right mood to enjoy it fully.

Genderqueer and Non-Binary Genders reviewd by Christina Richards and Meg John Barker

If I had a physical copy of this book I would have probably read it in a week. Unluckly I have a digital copy, which is the main reason this book was put on hold just like the previous of the list. I have grown to despise digital books, my focus is terrible on them for some reason, and I always inevitablly end up being incredibly inconsistent. I want to finish this book, but it's painful to even think about reading it digitally. What I read of this book was incredibly interesting ,and I really want to learn more, but I believe I'll have to plan this reading if I really want to finish it on the future (and spoiler, I want to).

#book #books #dnf #reading #2022 books #studyinspo #studyblr #bookblr #booklr #bookish #2022 dnfs #not finished books #reflections on reading #mine #the---hermit

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just-my-latest-hyperfixation · 1 year

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Get to know your fic writer numbers: 2, 10, 16, 32, and 55

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

I’m very firmly on the “planner” end of the “planner vs. pantser” spectrum. My multichapter fics all have an outline in a separate doc. It doesn’t have to be super detailed and I’ll also deviate from it if I notice that something isn’t working out as planned. But I do need to have a general idea on where the story is going, how it’s supposed to end and how I wanna get there, or I’ll give myself anxiety attacks. I actually wrote and published the first chapter of Hic sunt dracones without having a complete plot outline down and I nearly peed myself until I figured it out. 🤣

10. Cltr + f “blinks” on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up

The kid is babbling excitedly, but Steve can't make out a word over the deafening roar of his own blood in his ears, needs to swallow and blink violently to focus.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Besides Hic sunt dracones, I’m currently working on my fic for the Steddie Big Bang, which I obviously can’t talk about yet. 😏 Apart from that, my To Write list contains four ideas right now, which are in various stages of being fleshed out.

One of them is a modern AU in which Steve owns a restaurant and tries to seduce Eddie through food. Eddie, who thinks that putting grated cheese on top of your SpaghettiOs is haute cuisine. Or, alternatively: Steve soft doms Eddie into basic self care. (It would most probably be Eddie’s pov, which is a first for me, so I’m a bit nervous about it.)

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

That’s a tough one. There’s so many amazing fics by so many incredibly talented writers out there and I don’t get around to reading half as much as I wanna in the little free time I have. That being said …

Azriel Green's fame is well deserved. I’m pretty sure You’re Divine changed me on a spiritual level. I am always awed and humbled by how they use language to build scenes and atmosphere.

Ayes comes up with the most mindblowing AUs, their writing style is absolutely beautiful and the stunning art collaboration with itskleo is the cherry on top of the sundae, really.

Gorgeousgreymatter writes the most wonderful stuff at incredible speed and their smut is what I aspire to, honestly. They are also an incredibly cool person who I am proud and happy to be friends with. I legit died the first time they told me that they liked my writing. 😭

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

Listen, there’s a reason why I have churned out over 150,000 words worth of Steddie fanfic and (almost) all of it in the same pov. Steve Harrington is my little emotional support blorbo. I relate to him on so many levels. I too, am perpetually stressed and lowkey annoyed, as well as a chronic people pleaser who puts others before myself, so most of the time, his perspective comes real easy to me.

Apart from that, Robin Buckley is my spirit animal and I squeal every time somebody tells me that they like my take on her.

And, obviously, I'm beyond thrilled that ppl are liking my dragon!Eddie so much. 😏🐉

#steddie #steddie brainrot #steve harrington x eddie munson #steve x eddie #steddie fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #fanfiction writer #my writing #ask game

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