Is This Anything

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Balatro Animator Vs Animation/ Animation Versus Retextures!

Watching AvG's Balatro video inspired me to draw my own card faces for the game! I actually got them to work too!! :D

i didnt do all the jokers and tarots bc lord this was already a ton of work but ITS REAL!! If you want to use these, you can download it here! This will only work with the PC/Steam version of Balatro! Also, this is the tutorial that I used to get the files in the game! It's not exactly a mod, but more just replacing the files. Feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer to the best of my ability, otherwise, hope yall enjoy!! :D Here is also a bonus video of me testing things out at the dead of night

Hewwo guys :> It s been while -v-/ I hope youve been good

Be I miss something :0

Purple's monophobia has nice roots to some parental issues, and I can't emphasize enough on the honers AvM29 executed through their unique style of auditories and visuals in a headspace minimalist. Not only introducing the main climatic conflict and turning point of a character, but simultaneously expanding on those same elements through metaphorical lenses in a way where it doesn't feel.. cramped, forced, nor fast paced. Because while it is something that is handed to you, it's something you're deliberately left to dive into because of just how subtle it is. It can honestly be quite easy to miss if you're not someone who likes to unravel detailing meticulously.

Note Block Universe is a musical based short. They're acknowledging and signing instruments to these respective characters. Purple having a signature violin, and Green having a clarinete. In research, people who play the clarinet have unique and similar personalities. They're very bright, outgoing, sociable, aware, empathetic, and passionate. People who play the violin are shown to be more closed off. They are dedicated, emotional, passionate, and intelligent. While both instruments hold their own musical difficulty, they work well together in duets as well.

Getting into Purple's elaboration, their father was such a big part of their life. His role served as a tutor, a guide. (Someone who wasn't completely in his biases, but a tutor nonetheless.)

Purple was not provided an ounce of comfort following the split. To say they didn't have the best household would be an understatement. They are glued to their mother's side and catering to her health. After her death, after seemingly implying that they had buried her, they don't move from their position, and the violin starts increasing in its shaky E strings. They're locked in place. Their head stays low, and their limbs sag. They're paralyzed, a bit similar to how Orchid stood following Navy’s abandonment. Wind blows beneath the petals, and the graphs sway to reveal Purple's dad. Only then, does the motif pick up.

But It's with amusement that you note the usage of shots.

Longshots are used to highlight a character's body language and to establish their relationship with the environment. The cinematographer wants you to be indulged in the scene entirely, so there isn't a specific focus for this very purpose. Close-ups are used to communicate an intensive focus on a character's body language, expression, or a symbolic piece entirely seperate from the character. The transitions between shots delivers an emotional emphasis in compliment to context, pace, and narrative.

This clip is a follow up to the autoscripted note visuals, focusing on the transition to a headspace environment. This communicates to us that this is their nadir. A longshot; Purple's sombre, her grave, and those petals. A close-up with Purple's casted shadow and blank stare, then a close-up to their focus in question, which is their mother's grave and those petals. The wind picks up, and the graphs follow the petals, revealing their dad. A longshot, and every trace of Orchid completely vanishes. Purple lifts their head, and their concentration is completely locked. A medium-shot, Purple reaches out, and thus, their venture begins.

This transition is an immediate culmination to what we were presented with. It becomes extremely futile, restrictive, and useless if you were to not treat the autoscripted notes bit with the same field of analysis as the headspace bit. It doesn't just haunt the narrative, it's the literal motive.

Purple's father's methods in tutors weren't appropriate nor comprehensible to someone so young. (Or rather, someone who wasn't particularly made to be a candidate for sparring..) Their mother rather distanced herself from either discomfort, fear, or perhaps even both from the observings of sessions, as there isn't nearly enough to imply that Navy was physical with her before.

When Navy stomps her away, you would usually expect a parent to protest to defend their child, protest to be involved. But here is where she proves you wrong. She doesn't make it known that no, I'm not going to let you treat our child this way. While she doesn't comment on his style in parenting in the clip, the pure disgust and judgement is apparent enough.

Regardless, she still bystands until she doesn't, but it already affected Purple.

Only stepping in once she's certain they're in danger, once she believes it's a necessity. And this isn't to demonize Purple's mother, she's just a character with flaws. But being a bystander to “training” to the extent of feeling obliged to defend yourself when up against those foundations is morally unjustifiable and screams volumes on the situation. Having such an inconsistency ultimately results in Purple confiding in themselves, becoming stubborn to those outside their defensive field, because they don't think they're ready to let anyone in. Something that wasn't made by their own hands, but is left with their responsibility to break.

Navy was a tutor, as much or as less as he was a parent. Purple was distressed, begging, while Orchid did not look back once. Purple was dazed, and only then does Orchid's legs giving out from underneath her snap them out of their musings.

Because if they had done anything different, would the outcome remain the same? Would it be any different from what it is now? Is it their fault?

While they can't change the past, there's a possibility to retrieve it, isn't there?

Because Purple was a child of two people, even if they didn't particularly have a childhood. With one parent deceased, another absent, they're alone. They stood paralyzed until something itched, because they don't need to be alone. They didn't want validation, they wanted their remaining parent back into their life. Of course, keeping Navy’s style in mind, this includes validation as a narrative product, but not in the way I often see portrayed in the fandom.

Because not only is Navy huge, centered in their mind, it's his animation upon the abandonment. That head turn, the way his shoulders slightly sagged upon returning back to his motion. It's the most traumatic memory that Purple has of him. It's what they obsessively analyzed, what plays over and over again. It's the reason they're going through these drastic heights to begin with. The current situation they believe they can protest and what they believe they can accomplish by redirecting that choice.

And as Purple has to manually and metaphorically climb their depths to get to their father, they're deliberately burying and repressing their grief for their mother. Deeper and deeper as they go higher and higher.

If it be a dragon egg as the supporting figurative amongst the climb or an abrasive king who takes that spot. And the king who takes that spot is a bit more.. well, major. He's really major. Because this is an authority figure. In Purple's mind, this figure was the first to offer them a sense of belonging since their bout of being alone. The bout being (presumably) 8 years.

And latching onto the first authority figure that offers you inclusion as an immediate response because you were alone for so long, Isn't.. you know, good. That isn't healthy.

Because when they're close, their father turns his head the other way, and they fall. It's a brutal reminder. It's a shove to reality. But they're not back at the beginning. They're on a platform due to other's presence. They have a group, and they can be a part of this group. Because it's not the end just yet. Because there's someone that notices them. And he's whispering something, something they're not ready to understand, and they completely discard them.

But before the quintet even made their introduction, before they even made their appearance, before Purple can even process the potential friend group, it was their own refusal to accept Navy's choice that the platform stood to begin with.

Despite having their elytra throughout the entire span of the series, this is the only time it's actually included in their headspace. It's to emphasize a callback. Their likening to their elytra grew double in size because that was the material that gave King that greenlight approval nod. If it be their response on retrieving the elytra back onto their body after the strike from King, or if it be being held back by Green. Fishing rod in hand, and by that elytra nonetheless.

When King’s betrayal forced them back into those depths they repressed, they reflect. They're right back at the beginning, the very beginning, and those shaky E strings pick up once again. They didn't accomplish anything, and everything went to waste. But at the same time, was there really anything to waste to begin with?

Purple is back in those pools of petals, there isn't a grave to compliment, just her petals. Their head low, their limbs sagging, and Orchid’s petal falls. It's just one petal, and they extend their hand.

But it flakes right past.

Because she isn't here anymore, they don't need a grave for clarification. We don't need a grave for clarification. Only then, does Purple stiffen.

They look to their father, and his back is already turned. But that's because it always has been.

But this time they don't reach out. Because it was his choice. Because they have to accept that.

And that means they're all alone.

Or are they?

Animation vs Addiction was okay. Addiction is a very bold and diverse topic to discuss in itself, and I feel like a character whose only experience with "addiction" being a poke-fun running gag isn't the best candidate for said topic. It just comes off as a bit.. lame? Insensitive? It rubbed me off the wrong way is what I'm saying. But hey, that's just me. Still enjoyed it for what it is

Hurt/Comfort

I think Purple n King should definitely talk to each other bout, their own whole thing(Gold and Cobalt[aka Purple's dad]), and be for each other

I'm still processing ep30 and these two, so yeah. Have this drawing of them talking bout their emotions! and them sleeping after it

(heavily related to drawing, I feel like, King would be to have more of a breakdown when talking bout his emotions than purple. Purple already let it out with Green at ep29 and properly felt his own emotions and not much of a weight on him, but King on the other hand didn't really have a moment to properly feel it, he tunnel-visions his anger, and aimed to end Minecraft without caring about anything else[and perhaps he included] so, to finally talk about it must've been such a rollercoaster of emotions)

OH NYGOSDD???

it’s actually insane to me in retrospect that viktor got the arc he did. I need to go back and count his screen time minutes, but it’s clear that he’s up there numerically, and his story has so much weight within the narrative outside of just numbers as well.

beyond that, though, is the fact that viktor's narrative is fundamentally one about internalized ableism and the systemic structures that encourage it.

(obligatory disclaimer #1 that I have a significant mobility disability and a progressive chronic illness, but I am only one disabled person.)

imagine this: you are a child. you are disabled. the world you live in is one where you cannot afford healthcare; no one is there to teach you how to even use your cane correctly. your world is inaccessible and, worse, even the people who would normally show class solidarity with you don't, because you are not even able to do what they expect from you. characters like vi, powder, claggor, ekko, and mylo are all shown care and solidarity that viktor isn't — because they are able-bodied and therefore able to "pull their own weight."

this, at least, is an environment that can probably be overcome or mitigated by age and meeting people in your community who do care about you. this is an environment comparable to that of many, many, many disabled people who manage to thrive in a deeply unfair and ableist world.

but then you encounter a man who sees that you have talent and tells you as much. he does not ask much of you and he does not care that you are disabled. all he asks is for some help, which you give, and in return he teaches you the things he knows. what comes of this, after all is said and done and your understanding of the world has been fundamentally changed, is that you do have something you can give to your community, to the world. you have a talent which you can use to make yourself useful. you're not strong or sturdy but you can make machines, and that is always in need.

but you can't skate by on being useful like a normal child. the onus is always on you to prove that you're worth the air you breathe and the space you take up, that it's worthwhile to keep you alive. and the place to go to make yourself the most useful, where the most change can be made, is not a place you have any traditional way of accessing. you, through tenacity and grit, manage to get there anyways. (the show doesn't depict this, but any way viktor would have managed to get to the academy would have involved significant difficulty and possibly deception).

and when you get there, to that towering city of bronze, you find that nothing you do actually matters all that much.

everyone looks at you and sees your disability. everyone looks at you and sees where you're from. no matter how smart or accomplished or helpful you are, your behavior will always be, in their eyes, representative of your people. you could handle the stares, the rejection. but their judgement is dangerous to you and your people.

so, in order to survive, you must be perfect. you must project confidence or at least indifference to their cruelty. you must do as you're told and accept meager promotions and toil away as an assistant. you might be the only disabled zaunite they'll ever meet, so you have to make it count. if you fail, if they decide everyone from the undercity is lazy and useless, it's your fault.

you tell yourself you won't let them get to you. you tell yourself that you believe in your abilities.

it's a convenient narrative, and it's wholly untrue.

you, after all, are only a human being. a lifetime of the chips stacked against you is nearly impossible to overcome.

and so the image you build of yourself is that of a man far more self-confident than you, one who is quiet and reserved but proud of his accomplishments. the man you actually are, though, is one desperate for acceptance. desperate to assimilate. you chase your dreams, yes, but you can't bear to take credit, can't bear to be the face of them. you don't let yourself get close to anyone except the man you've built all of this with, who you love more than anyone else. you don't let anyone touch you (except him) and you don't touch anyone. you convince yourself you don't deserve his love or anyone's, that you're not whole enough for that.

you take it so far that, when you finally have the technology you think can cure your terminal illness, the first thing you try to fix is your leg. not the thing eating at your lungs and cutting short the time you thought you had, but the leg which has marked you as Other your entire life. and even though it doesn't quite work, even though it still causes you pain with every step, you force yourself to run on it — faster and faster until you're outrunning the ships and screaming because you may have visibly "fixed" your leg but it still hurts the same.

and when the system is not only oppressive in the material sense but also set up to make you hate yourself, there is almost no escaping this cycle of self-hatred. throw in the fact that in season 2 viktor keeps getting tossed from resurrection to resurrection against his will and it's no wonder the man did the things he did. it doesn't excuse them by any means, but arcane is not interested in excuses — it's interested in what makes people do the things they do. everything that he did to the people in the commune was a reflection of his own self-hatred, both because he still possessed it after death but also because, since he was programming the hexcore to try and save his life but started with "fixing" his leg, it is designed to make people as physically "normal" as possible. the faceless, identical machine people are a metaphorical representation of the ideology viktor has bought into in his pursuit of self-hatred and internalized ableism. his whole arc across both seasons is a demonstration and condemnation of the ways that systems of oppression reinforce self-hatred in the people they are oppressing.

obligatory disclaimer #2 that I don't think arcane did everything right. I'm frustrated with the direction of season 2 away from the piltover/zaun class conflict and towards the broader league of legends universe. but I do think, as a disabled person with a very similar experience of my disability to viktor, that this arc is well-done and very compelling. in the end, what saves the world is viktor accepting that he is deserving of being loved. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a good long while.

I THINKKKK I think solar may like this image just a little tiny bit, just maybe I'm not sure

hmmmmm maybe just maybe...... just a little..... i dunno it would be really hard to telll............

I always found it a bit interesting to view Orchid and Navy through sexist pair of lenses within their writing because you wouldn't be wrong for thinking that. Looking at the couple's design, it's just blatantly allegorized as such; It's rather encouraged throughout their ingrained positioned roles. It's a different perspective to partake for sure. In a general observation, the best part is that it appears just as explicit as it is consistent in the two.

But if you're asking me on a deeper, personal level, I like to explore the nuances within that frame of enlightenment. The out of bounds of that construct is so incredibly fascinating to me. I enjoy my share of speculations, after all.

As a couple, the two are ever hardly mentioned or brought up. As someone who developed such an attachment, you can imagine my shock in the newsletters’ one truth, two lies.

And then you consider what their cameo was in the episode itself. The complications are the timeline.

When escaping the frame, Purple seems as though he's a fully grown stick, and his first reaction is to reach out for his dad. If you were to consider his bout of chasing and longing, the reaction seems a bit underwhelming from my takeaway when acknowledging just the severity of his state, which is why I personally don't agree with Navy's state in abandonment in the period just yet.

As valid is this concern is, what bugs me the most is the thumbnail.

The thumbnail of the file has the trio in the frame. It's a bit ironic considering how.. catering and loving the family is when we only ever familiarized them as not the best via Purple's presentation. Oddly enough, Purple appears roughly young in the frame. Somewhat between the height of his first presented sparring and the second.

The first bargaining versus the second bargaining has a drastic and visible difference in a general observation. It's quite a gap with Navy's eagerness and roughness alongside Orchid's lack of accompany. This can suggest the frame in which their written canon got altered from the attack in an attempt to make sense with the sudden disruption.

When thematically, the two’s writing are still ongoing, not properly constructed. Perhaps they didn't have the time to be. Perhaps because they can't be. And that causes many, many issues. (being in which we know of)

To consider the 5 second scene as an “origin” seems so utterly.. lazy and jagged when you're viewing it from a writer's standpoint. Things start to drastically change when you portray the bit as a potential kickstarter to what we are presented later on, and everything just seems to click.

The file withering away without the security of their rightful positioned page on Newgrounds. Without their predicament in coding, it completely discards alongside speculated hundreds (if not thousands) of others.

While not directly stated, the implications of Dark and Chosen's rampage conquencing and ingrained not only in their victims’ traumatic nightmares and loss of loved ones, but instantaneously in disconnection with their coded writing and platforming—makes an incredible poetic combination.

StickWave on X

The severity of the two's actions and how Chosen's intricate reluctance (but bystanding) will be contributed in the long run, as Alan stated his plans on exploring the emotional depths and development of his character. (As hilariously traitorous and belittling it sounds when Chosen is already quite in-depth. He already has much exploration, careful thought, naunce, and a lot going for him as a stand-alone character in his established arc.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself for the PowerPoint.

Without the uploader's ability of continuation in their chain of chronology and writing in a digestible format (as it contradicts the already decaying code from the displaced file), it practically leaves this family stranded. How the two will continue on with their nurture and catering from here is plausible to one's eye.

I find Purple as a character very useful when understanding Navy and Orchid as individuals, as their styles are very well coreherent within him. As anonymous as they are, they appear familiar when keeping Purple's responses in mind.

Navy's design is a simple dark blue color. Commonly associated with masculinity. Displayed in authority, strength, solitude, power, responsibility, care, and common sense. His programmed positioning well highlights and compliments that standard. His role stems as a husband and as a mentor for their child, giving strict tutorings.

Orchid’s design is a light pink color. Commonly associated with femininity. Displayed in carefulness, dignity, delicacy, kindness, tenderness, and usefulness. So shocking when her programmed positioning consists of that standard. Her role stems as a wife, a mother, and a comforting and supporting role.

Their creator redirects these socially constructed (and vaguely misogynistic) choices into their original characters. It's gender essentialism. It's an extremely patriarchal thought to have. This is what happens when writers don't want to look too deeply into their own biases and replicate them into a fictional construct thats still based on the society that generally formed those said biases.

It only ever feels encouraged with Alan's own odd choices and remarks toward the topic of diversity in a female cast. But then again, I digress.

The two play as role models. The two are parents, after all, as much as they are lovers. Or supposed to be. It's a general faux relationship.

And then you have Purple—whose role is simple in itself; a child of the two. Children who are nurtured, raised with careful precision, and molded on whatever methods they are conditioned to. It reflects on them.

What stood out to me the most was how Navy's adamants in strict authority, which was not only directed to Purple but to Orchid as well. So it only ever appears as strange when he does the same with her.

This only ever came off as an odd question to me of course. Navy's methods were not only coherent within Purple but began to rub off on Orchid as well. Orchid isn't even a subject for sparring, unlike Purple, yet she's treated with the same field of intellect. Not offering a hand, not offering help. His methods appear as a "You help yourself or no one will." Directed for everyone in general, not just Purple. In Navy, it's all for oneself and their ability in defense. Combat is quite a normalized bat of action in-universe regardless, and he still offers a gesture. He's just as alarmed, of course. That's his family.

It's such a huge gap for someone who we saw as so, so loving and catering. Someone who was made to be so loving and catering.

And you wonder where Purple's nasty tendency of running away from his responsibilities stems from. And you wonder where his longing for validation stems from. And you wonder where his difficulty of forming and maintaining relationships stems from. And you wonder where his warped perception of belonging stems from. How he ends up defying (most of) these very traits and facing them head-on. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As someone who is characterized and coherent within Purple via harsh training and micromanagement, he's cold. Navy wanted only the best. He wanted to raise someone who was special, someone who knew what they were capable of, someone who knew how to fend; to fight. Someone who was good. It's what he was made to do. From an interrogated perspective, these ideals can be a very parallel to what Navy forces within himself. To be held high, to feel validated, to feel worth. A beg that he's living up to phantom strings of a no longer existing story, something that doesn't hold strength in necessity anymore, but a necessity of confirmation.

And if Purple isn't cut out for those expectations? It's like a betrayal to life itself. But what is the purpose to life itself when the purpose withered away long ago? And if there was supposed to be something more, he wouldn't know.

He's trapped in a fading prison that is not essentially out of his making but is left with his responsibility to escape. But how can you retrieve the digits when you have no conscience of the fact that it was rotting with your own independence to begin with? How can you care, when all you can think about is the emotional hurt that brings out the worst of you, the part that your lingering hubris and negligence doesn't want to fathom is the worst of you?

In his worst, he stays clinging to the structure because it's beneficial for him. In his best, it's the only thing he can comprehend. And he sticks to it.

It's an endless cycle of dysfunctionality, a constant feedback loop. Though not by his own hands, but kickstarted by his utter ignorance to process his emotions that he deems unfitting for a role as his. A sublevel degree of dependency of an origin that no longer exists, and his inability to move on. Someone who metaphorically runs from his consequences, fear of accountability, but someone who is willing to subject those steps away if it contributes something for the only other obliged and existing role he has. He's a husband as well, after all.

And Orchid.. doesn't look back once. Not even a glance. Something that bugged me from the get-go was Orchid's flinching/covering herself when confronted by Navy. If you're in a safe, healthy relationship, you shouldn't feel the slightest bit of obligation to defend yourself. Because you trust your partner. This implies that Navy had either

1] Laid his hands on her before (which I highly doubt)

2] Grew anxious from watching his sparrings with Purple

And if 2 is the case, it comes off as intricate. You would ask why she wouldn't just leave him? If the viewing of sessions made her so wary to the extent of self-defense, why would she submit her child to go through that?

You could assume there was denial and codependency playing out and you wouldn't be wrong for thinking that. You would think that her ability on leaving that relationship would be so difficult within herself that she would chase when Navy redirects that choice.

But she proves you wrong. She doesn't beg, she doesn't interfere, she doesn't digress, and she doesn't look back once. From what we were shown during that time frame, it just didn't make any sense.

If you were to separate Orchid from her role and ask of her within her identity, you would get plainly nothing. She's a mother, a wife, and what else? She is empty behind them.

She doesn't attach herself to Navy and Purple. If anything, she isolates and disappears away from the scene. It's only ever evident in her discomfort with Navy and how he acts out in his conflict. How he treats their child. Stomping her away. As loving and empathetic she is for Purple, she doesn't interfere unless she's positive that it's a necessity, thus her flaw.

And you wonder where Purple's adamants of independency and self-soothing stems from. Once again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Motherhood in Orchid is equivocal. It's both the desire and loss of identity. But what identity is there to be loss if there's plainly nothing if not her role? Nothing in store for her? In her writing? You really can't be alienated either way.

In her assumed relief, it's all of that. She's dazed. She's paralyzed, up until her legs begin to give up from under her, and she needs Purple's help to stay upright.

Using Alan's interpretation of death within animations, their code is disconnected, but still very there. It's the inability to be altered by one in the real world, so it's left as unadulterated (unless with the acceptable scenario of Second) as death in-universe doesn't abide by human biology. But what code is there to detach when they detached long ago?

...or rather, the last strands of code taking those steps in separation. In whom by definition, was Orchid's last strand of function.

In their discarding canon, it's the loss of functionality in both the pursuit of it and in the defiance of it.

It's the self extertion to the point it is actively damaging to not only yourself, but everyone around you versus the other whom is so out of touch that it causes unintentional hurt to the self and those around you. (In which both parties can't be communicated properly.)

Or as I love to put it in trope, the burning hatred of the figure you were made to love versus the boundless affection of how at the end of the day, you were still made to love them.