singmanyfaces

I’ve really been enjoying Maul: Shadow Lord and I’m looking forward to the finale tomorrow—but last week’s episodes do have me wondering how far out they’re going to go. From the trailers my partner and I noticed the Inquisitor that was originally introduced during Ahsoka’s last Tales of the Jedi episode. And, of course, back when we watched that we noticed that he was voiced by Clancy Brown. And while the chances may be slim, I don’t think they’re zero that that Inquisitor might end up being a resurrected Savage Opress.

The Creeping Fear spent a lot of its time reminding the audience (or introducing them for the first time, depending on how much of TCW they’ve seen) of Savage. They had the Inquisitor run through the other Night Brother in a way that looked a lot like Sidious running Savage through, and sending a horror version of his brother after Maul to kill him sounds like exactly the type of fuckery Sidious would do. Plus, he’s partnered with Marrok who—we know from the Ahsoka series—will eventually become a Night Sister-magic zombie. Oddly enough, for me, the fact that he hasn’t spoken a word yet really stands out. I will not be disappointed if this doesn’t turn out to be the case, but I would also not be surprised if the finale has a dramatic reveal about it either.

I’ve been getting a lot of ads lately for a specific face tuning app, one that seems to focus on defining the user’s cheekbones. They’re some of the more annoying ads I see, so I just sort of zone out when they start. But then the other day they gave me a new one—that just straight-up uses an unedited pic of Attack of the Clones-era Hayden Christensen. XD On one hand I get it, you could cut glass with teen!Hayden’s cheekbones. And I know that, logically, most people probably aren’t going to be able to clock it. But, like the title says, it is hilarious to me, and it was just such a surprise. XD

Trying to get back on the stick with my round-up posts. This January I went for one of my traditional Winter Prompt fills.

Slide
Shippy Gen; Obi-Wan/Anakin
Modern AU, Fluff & Humor, Meet-Cute
757 words
What’s worse than a silly slip-and-fall? Doing it in front of an audience. A winter meet-cute.
A fill for the prompt “I watched you wipe out on your ass because it’s really icy out and you call me out for laughing at you. I’m sorry, let me help you up.”

I gave Obi-Wan the slip-and-fall a few years ago, now it's Anakin's turn. XD

Not to product-place on main, but I’ve fallen absolutely in love with The Woobles’ kits. Crochet was something that I’ve wanted to learn for a long time—I actually tried to teach myself years ago but, using only written instructions, I couldn’t wrap my head around anything beyond the most basic stitch. But after seeing an especially detailed, glowing review for The Woobles I decided to give one a try. It worked out really well for me!

I think what really helped me was the super granular videos—not only because I’m actually seeing it demonstrated to mimic instead of guessing at the intention of a still illustration, but because each step is broken down into so many smaller parts. (And they’re incredibly easy to navigate if you need to see something again, or go back and refresh yourself on something you’ve gotten rusty on.) I made my first one—Scooter the Raccoon—about this time last year, being very on-brand for myself and accidentally choosing one of the more complex Beginner level designs for my first. Now I’m up to ten full-size amigurumi and fourteen tiny accessories!

The skills are sticking with me even without the videos at every step, to the point that it’s activating my cosplay-pattern brain. XD Like, the way I used to look at different patterns to piece them together into something new and different for clothes is something I’m starting to be able to do with the crochet patterns I’ve used too. I’ve actually just finished my first ‘original’ design that way, an amigurumi based on the Squishable Doctor Plague plush. It came out really well, and I’m super proud of it! :D. Now I’ve begun my first Intermediate kit—it’s also my first of their collab kits, being the sandworm from Beetlejuice. It’s off to a pretty good start!

I’ve learned a bunch of skills that I really enjoy and, especially when it’s long stretches of stitches I’m especially comfortable with, it’s a really soothing hobby. I can never have too many of those! I’m really glad that I decided to give it a try, and I think The Woobles in particular are a great place to start. :D

I wish that when folks started adapting things, and got to designing make-up and costumes, they didn’t see cosplay as such a dirty word/concept. Like, that it’s somehow not good if a character that already exists in a visual medium (like comics or animation) looks as close as possible to the original design when they’re done in live action.

I’m generally very pro-Dave Filoni, but I’m not happy with how he changed Ahsoka’s appearance for her live action series. Especially when, while discussing it, he says something to the effect of “we wanted to come up with something fans of the character would like.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen fans say anything positive about her make-up.

Then there’s Morpheus from the Netflix Sandman which, honestly, is what got me thinking about this in earnest. Someone involved with the production said that they’d done makeup tests on Tom Sturridge that looked more page-accurate but ultimately decided to go a different way because they looked like “someone cosplaying Morpheus.” But the costume that they put together still generally looks like someone cosplaying, just more lazily.

It’s been a sticking point for me since the early 00s. I see amazing cosplayers—in person and photos—who look like they stepped right off a page or animation cell, and they’re just out there doing it for love of the game. I just wish production companies would share that commitment more often.

I think it’s great that productions are trying to be more inclusive of less “mainstream” sexualities but, if they’re actually trying to provide better representation, they can still fumble the bag hard. The Corinthian from The Sandman is on my mind.

In the comic, he’s gay full-stop. In the first season of the Netflix series, he shows interest in men and women—not necessarily a bad thing, but when fans asked about it, official sources said that he should be considered pansexual for the show. For my mileage, it would’ve been better if that designation could have come up explicitly somehow; I’m a big believer in the stance that if it’s not in the text/on the screen it doesn’t really count as ‘canon,’ even if it’s an official writer or staffer saying it. But okay.

Then the second season comes around, and he doesn’t express interest in any men. Again, not necessarily a bad thing on it’s own. But then he’s also given a show-only romance plot with a female character (who is herself already a character that’s been swapped into the narrative in place of a male character) and frequently reminds people that he’s a new Corinthian, “different from the first one.” Even though that bit is true to the comic, it doesn’t mix well with the rest of the elements.

Like, this doesn’t feel like a queer diversity win. This feels like a production that wanted a gay character to kiss women instead, but didn’t want to lose it’s queer cred points.