#inktober2017 Day 1: Swift Of Course I Would See The Word Swift And Think Of The Pokemon Move Of The

Thought it was funny how the year ended/began with two self-sacrificial bikers with a red/black colour scheme.

For some reason though, Mavuika's biker outfit actually makes more sense for Shadow? (Chest window matches his chest fluff placement, unzipped back zipper for his back quills and tail)

My first knitting project is complete! Just in time for the arrival of the new Fantastic Beasts movie! It's not exactly like the one in the movie as I made it a bit too long, the colours don't go in the right order, the yarn is thicker and the pattern is different, not to mention a few mistakes here and there, but I still love it all the same. It shall keep me warm for my first ever winter.

Inktober Days 4 and 5: Underwater and Long These two are Shā Wùjìng and the White Dragon Horse from Journey To The West. The characters are based on the ones made by Red from #overlysarcasticproductions on YouTube. It’s a great channel with interesting storytellings of history, literature and myths, so check it out. I found out a little bit about Journey To The West from there. It’s a shame I can’t read the original story because its in Chinese. Either way, I would eventually look for a translated version of it.

Fr tho bro was really chill about having fun with Ifa without Cacucu

The Rewrite:

Episode 1: The Arrival

Before the Beginning part can still be kept — it’s interesting to see how Azicrow were before Crowley’s fall and how Az kind of caused it. It would be better however if there was some inkling of Aziraphale being guilty in modern times about how he thinks he caused it, as that would contribute to his desire to change Heaven and make Crowley an angel again.

Gabriel arrives at the bookshop naked with the box. Let’s have a shot of Aziraphale opening the box, swatting away the fly that zooms into his face from inside the box (and commenting about it, just a simple “Ugh, shoo, fly!”, maybe miracling it out the window for good measure), and then a shot down into the empty box.

The angel-demon miracle thing… my friend wishes that was Gabriel’s doing. It’s like okay if Neil’s trying to set up something for next season but like, why did they just handwave it away in the last episode. Idk I feel like it really didn’t need to happen, so let’s not have it happen.

Episode 2: The Clue

The Job minisode is… fine? I guess.

Honestly idk what to do with the rest of this episode. Maybe a more organic friendship with Nina and Maggie would be nice rather than whatever awkward thing we got. And while we’re at it, a more organic friendship with them and Azicrow before they start giving unsolicited advice about their relationship and lack of communication.

Episode 3: I Know Where I’m Going

The grave-robber minisode is actually quite good on its own. Elspeth and the not-doctor were actually well-written humans!

The number one thing that would improve this episode is the bartender at the Ressurectionist actually describing what Bee looked like. Azicrow would be like “wait a second, they sound familiar” and Crowley could ask Bee what they want Gabriel for with this new info. Bee hesitates, a bit of back and forth between them and Crowley, but they eventually give up the reason with Crowley’s dangling of a clue of Gabriel’s location.

Sure, the Bureaucracy reveal comes a whole half season early, but they all still don’t know why Gabriel lost his memories, why Heaven is looking for him, and how to restore those memories.

Bee is here to talk about their weird human feelings for Gabriel with Crowley. It’s not an admission of love on their part yet, mostly because I don’t think they actually understand what love is. Maybe they say that it’d be a shame to lose the only person they can complain with about managing Hell.

Episode 4: The Hitchhiker Every Day

We’re cutting out the whole magic show business from this episode. It doesn’t contribute to our themes. If we want a minisode here, it should be something that builds up Az’s motivation to change the way Heaven is run, or maybe show Crowley’s struggles with being a demon, or Az’s indoctrination of “we’re the good guys, hell’s the bad guys”. Personally, idk what situation that would be, but like, at least have something that contributes towards Az’s decision in ep 6.

Bee can do the miracle that hides Gabriel from heaven and hell now, cos who’s gonna question the miracles of the Duke of Hell? Also, this means Gabriel won’t be confined to the bookshop anymore!

Since we have the Bureaucracy thing revealed, it would be fun to have Bee and Jim interacting. Maybe Bee tries to recreate old memories with Jim to see if he remembers anything, maybe they take some time to learn what love actually is? Maybe we can do this by actually making Nina and Maggie relevant again??? Or honestly just with any better written mortal tbh. It doesn’t have to be purely based on romantic love, it can be an exploration of all types of love. Adam might know something about that. We miss the Them :(

This would be a great opportunity to expand on Bureaucracy’s shared history and have Bee learn to love Gabriel when his memory of that shared history (like complaining about managing angels and demons) is gone and can’t be relied on as a way to relate to each other. Let’s see Bee get frustrated with the naive, bumbling idiot that is Jim, see Jim get a bit upset that he can’t totally remember the memories Bee said they shared, let’s see them have a fun time on Earth together in spite of that. Maybe reiterate Jim’s speech about everything feeling alright as long as you’re with a certain person.

As for Azicrow, they could plan for a way to sneak into Heaven to get info on Gabriel. And, you know, maybe we could have AN ACTUALLY GOOD HEIST SCENE??? With SUSPENSE??? Maybe we can,, oh you know,,, use that little miniature Crowley from the minisode to sneak him into Heaven??? Ratatouille moment fr (or yknow, demon in your pocket moment)

A Critique of Good Omens Season 2 by 4 Random Girls (+ for fun, a rewrite of S2's outline)

Did you feel after watching GOmens S2 with your friends that this season could have been… better?

I was excited for S2 and I had some high expectations due to spoilers (yes, I am the kind of person to seek out spoilers to raise my personal excitement for the show). But after a watch party with some friends that had me gaslighting myself into denying the letdowns of this season (I was going through the first stage of grief okay), I’ve come around a few days later to bring a list of problems, gripes, and some suggestions for improvement for Season 2.

(EDIT: I reposted this bc I originally tagged Mr Gaiman according to my friend's suggestion. That was insensitive of me, I'm sorry. Thanks to the person who commented and knocked some sense into me, even if I did get a severe increase in heart rate and my hands were literally trembling after seeing your comment)

Mr. Gaiman, if you're reading this somehow, please don’t take any of this criticism as a personal attack. Like, you’re a prolific writer, we’re just 4 girls with opinions, so I don't think you'd really need to take much of these words to heart. I know I wouldn't.

And to the fandom, well, if you enjoyed S2, good for you! I enjoyed it too! If you enjoyed it in a way you understood but I didn't, that's fine too! This is just the perspective of like 4 girls on some writing decisions we found kinda weird. We all have opinions, we can express those opinions as long as we're not attacking anyone.

Also, spoilers for S2 of course.

Anyway, let’s get to it shall we, starting with the most controversial of decisions in episode 6!

Controversial reveals in episode 6:

Halo Ex Machina

Like for god’s sake if you wanna pull that out last-minute, at least show it being used in an earlier episode in a flashback from the war

Ineffable Bureaucracy

Aziraphale agreeing to be the Head Archangel to change heaven with Crowley

Ineffable Divorce

More annoying things in S2:

The purpose of the body swap in S1 feels undermined in S2. Like, that was to scare Heaven and Hell into thinking that they’ve grown so powerful that they’ve made their own side. Shouldn’t Heaven and Hell be like, a little more cautious with these two after agreeing to leave them alone?

The Divorce really feels like it’s written solely for the purpose of milking a certain reaction from the audience rather than a natural development for Azicrow’s relationship. Also, with the amount of times these two ‘break up’, it gets boring, okay

Nina and Maggie were just kinda,, there. I’m not quite sure what themes they’re here for, I was lowkey bored anytime they got on screen. Maybe Nina’s abusive relationship mirrors Aziraphale’s relationship with Heaven, but like, idk it’s really not the best mirror. I don’t care about them, okay, they didn’t need to be here and if they did, at least cut down a bit of their time please? The part at the end where they stayed to help was kinda ehhh, the part where they had to tell Crowley about his feelings was even more eh. I’m not sure why they cared so much to tell Crowley about it. I don't hate them, I just wish they could have been written better.

Crowley just waltzing into heaven. In S1 they were undercover and it’s so nervewracking. This time a bunch of demons just see him go up into heaven and don’t even question it. And then a bunch of archangels just come down the lift with him. Like what???

The miracle that hid Gabriel was kinda handwaved away? What was up with that

What was Bee’s plan with storming the bookshop. Wouldn’t that attract a lot of unnecessary attention from the demons and angels? Is discretion not a thing?

They never really explained what was up with Az’s bookshop and the vampire entering rules like???

Angels and demons really do feel like much less of a threat this season somehow

Guess who had “I’ll Follow You Into The Dark” on their playlist? Guess who didn’t follow someone into the dark.

So, I challenged myself to rewrite S2 to make the reveals a little less jarring than them all coming at you one after the other in episode 6 like Voltaire tormenting Candide.

Things we’re building up to:

Aziraphale’s desire to change the way Heaven is run, thus accepting Metatron’s offer

I know the Job episode was a thing, but again, that was only one scenario and not a consistent running theme throughout the season. The Victorian doctors do not count — that’s Aziraphale learning to become more flexible with his morality like Crowley. It doesn’t have anything to do with changing Heaven except maybe showing how much better Crowley is than everyone/j. The magic show definitely doesn’t count.

Also to all those ppl who say that Aziraphale has religious guilt or is going through religious trauma or smth along those lines… idk it feels more like they’re projecting than that being an actual thing shown by the show. If that was the intention, it doesn’t come across like it well enough

It might be believable that Az’s indoctrination by Heaven might cause him to think that being in charge would improve things, but like,, that needs to be actually shown in the show. Show us his doubts after the end of the world. Give us better foreshadowing of his concerns over the past 6000 years, how he’s seen Crowley struggle with being a demon/how he imagines being a demon is like/how heaven has indoctrinated him. Otherwise it’s like he’s learnt nothing over these past 6000 years!

Gabe and Bee’s relationship

This really suffers by being revealed only at the end because the way they act seems suddenly out of character of how we expect them to. We’re all left kinda unsure if they’re actually in love or even know what love is.

An earlier reveal of their relationship and maybe some Bee/Jim interactions in earlier episodes would help with a more gradual acceptance of expectations vs reality

Also, would it kill to have one close-up of the fly? Or even like, Aziraphale swatting the fly away as it flies into his face when he opens the box? That thing is so tiny it’s no wonder it’s so easily missed. Please, I’m myopic

Divorce

I want Crowley to snap so bad at Aziraphale. And with better dialogue than “no nightingales”. I know it’s a reference, but surely we can do better than this!

Aziraphale really caught the idiot ball this season in the most narratively unsatisfying way, and if it weren’t for Michael Sheen playing him it would be even more annoying.

What can we cut from S2?

A lot of the coffeeshop/recordshop AU

The whole storming the bookshop thing. What was Bee’s plan really

The angel-demon miracle. The damn thing was what attracted heaven’s attention anyway and in the end it was just handwaved away? Let’s toss it out, and by extension, we’ll have to toss out… (checks notes) the Archangels’ visit to the bookshop, lying about getting Nina and Maggie together and the further matchmaking attempts for them, Constable Muriel, Shax’s storming of the bookshop, and god knows what else.

Inspired by a scene from "Death and All His Friends" by @balderdashofafool. The image of Sanji in the blue Thriller Bark hoodie hugging Zoro's swords,, it struck something in me.

Just in time for Sanji's birthday too omg

I went with my cousin, aunt and sisters to @thecompanyofcats to interact with cats. I drew a few of the cats while most of them ignored me since they found my pencil case and my mother’s old mechanical pencil more interesting. Either way, it was a fun time just being surrounded by cats and slowly drinking hot chocolate. Unfortunately, the cafe company is closed now.

#pwainktober Day 14: Moon Metis Cykes because her Japanese family name, Kizuki, can translate to ‘Rare Moon’ or 'Moon of Hope’. Also she isn’t appreciated enough. With that, my journey with this sketchbook is coming to an end. It’s time to open up a new book.

Zorojuro and Sangoro (after Rekisentei Eiri's Tamaya Shinbei and Mikuni Kojoro)

Was learning about Ukiyo-e in Asian art history and got a little bit obsessed with kabuki.

Rekisentei Eiri's Tamaya Shinbei and Mikuni Kojoro, a portrait of a kabuki couple from the play "Tomigaoka koi no yamabiraki" (富岡恋山開) by Namiki Gohei I. Kojoro is a courtesan sold by her older brother Kujuro to the Fukagawa Pleasure Quarters. Shinbei eventually kills Kujuro.

For the first time in a million years, I do something digital. Just an attempt at painting portraits and digital art. The guy is an OC of mine and a friend.