Haunted 1-19
Continuing the trend of trying to boost other creators for Pride, Let’s Have a Quarantine was a masterpiece and deserves to have over a million views.
(Unrelated: y’all, I am PUMPED for the Stardew Valley expansion. Mainly for one reason that anyone who has read the Rabbit Facts comments on BBD can guess immediately. BUNNIES! BUNNIES! BUNNIES! BUNNIES! Cat & dog people, we are FINALLY CATCHING UP. RABBIT PEOPLE UNITE. BUNNIES!!!!)
I like the style shift for the exposition bit! Oh, and what is Ari’s favorite Pokemon?
Good question. You can help pick. A void or earth one, maybe?
(Yuan’s and Bernard’s are, respectively and obviously, “I don’t waste time on such things” and “Cyprin.”)
Bunnies!
I really like how the people in the exposition didn’t have faces!
The bunnies. They floof! They go hop!
I’m happy with the exposition style, too. There’s even a bit of sketch in there.
HAHAHA I THOUGHT OF YOU WHEN I WATCHED THE TRAILER. If you don’t think BBD is about to get a whole lot more plot points involving rabbits, then you just don’t know me LOL.
Listen, I am in love with this artwork. And I feel similarly to Cathytea: I also love that the people in the exposition didn’t have faces. It made me think of tons of artists rotating in and out under Yuan’s wise counsel.
Speaking of which, I loved the way this comic played with the idea of myth and legend. Like is Yuan amazing? Yes. Absolutely. But also, does he just seem amazing because we remember the ones he gets right and those take on a mythology all their own? Also yes.
And I will not get too nerdy and talk about Albert C. Barnes, I promise, but holy shit this gave me Barnes vibes. Tying the art gallery to educational classes? Valuing pieces that other collectors didn’t notice or care about until BAM! everyone wants them…
Bunny. Bunny!! I have nothing coherent to say about rabbits getting loads of screen (?) time in BBD, so YYEESSSSS. HOP HOP HOP HOP HOP. But let me say I hope Vlad and Gwendolyn stay away from snacking on the floofs. They’d best stick to innocent sims instead.
Good point about myth and legend. That’s an angle I hadn’t considered as much. But yeah, Yuan’s central dichotomy is one of the funnest things to write, and it relies on the strong, refined persona Ari explains to us. His new coworkers have seen the version of Yuan that posts essays about Così fan tutte, but sooner or later they’ll get slapped with his “why do guys always freak out when I ask them to spit in mouth” side. Gonna be a shitshow. A. Shitshow.
(Note to self: consider myth & legend themes in BBD, beyond the obvious that they’re written by people and the presence of immortal or long-lived creatures is going to alter how mythology works in the sim world.)
Please do talk about Albert C. Barnes, because I looked him up but am side-eyeing the heck out of the sites that say “Barnes collected some of the world’s most important paintings, including works by Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso, Van Gogh, and… uh… oh yeah, I guess there were some other people there but they don’t get names so let’s just refer to the artwork as African or Native American.” But those are some damn good vibes. Though I’ll admit Ray deserves most of the credit for the educational classes, given that he’s San Myshuno’s entire grandpa.
Um, yes, side eye away. Like I do like that museums are being forced to grapple with the ways they perpetuate the status quo. But it’s a long road to haul. Though I feel like we can celebrate things and still be critical, especially of ourselves and how we talk about his work. So like, Barnes was one of the first to start collecting African Art and he considered it art, not “sub par” art, not “primitive art”, but art. Very dope. But we can applaud that and still talk about colonialism lol.
Shout out to Ray for the educational classes!
Vlad and Gwendolyn have a strict anti-rabbit eating policy. This does not apply to innocent sims, a fact which I cannot wait to write a very dark but hilarious chapter about 😂😂
Oh, totally! Maybe this is just projection on my part, but I feel like he’d be mortified to hear it phrased that way, and would be gesturing wildly at the artists he supported, yelling THEM look at THEM this is about THEM.
(Ugh, he died before Bring It On came out. Why, cruel world, why?)
Gwendolyn Bennett (who appears to have invented ‘fabulous’) and Aaron Douglas are mentioned on his Wikipedia article, and it took some digging to locate their actual works. Now it’s time to quietly stare at the screen because I grew up idolizing Harlem Renaissance musicians—Charlie Parker Omnibook all day every day—and still can’t process everything that had to happen for them to get the recognition they deserved, or what the world would have looked like without them. WELP. Time to read about the Harlem Renaissance.
Me: tries to be cool about the Harlem Renaissance and not talk about it for 4,347 hours
Aw, but it is cool! It paved the way for so many modern artists, like Ryan Gosling in La La Land!
(/s in case any Tumblr antis stumble on this and lack the context of Xiyuan’s/my take on a movie where Gosling’s character ‘splains to us that John Legend’s character is doing jazz wrong)
Yuan is a legend. Looks like he already has his name on tongues…. I mean….
Dang, is Arvi trying to one-up somebody with all that info? (I noticed the shirt….lol)
HAHAHA THE ARI-NESS JUST KEEPS COMING
Wait. Is the name the thing that’s supposed to be on tongues?! News to me.
I love Ari. She’s so relatable. I feel like her favourite Voidcritter could be Kampos.
(Yuan’s favourite Voidcritter, if he had one, would be Avesu.)
I’m also going to join the people commenting on the art style of the flashback, I really like it. And I’m impressed with how expressive Yuan’s face is considering his only facial feature is the glasses!
You know Kampos is her favorite for an obscure lore reason she tells everyone about constantly, too.