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☆ About Me
- January 23rd, 1998
- ENFP, ♒ (Sun + Rising) ♐ (Moon)
- Mostly go by she/her. Will respond to they/them and he/him.
- Mostly stuck in JoJo brainrot
☆ Things I Post
- Incorrect quotes
- RP via asks
- Theories and headcanons
- Project promotions (fandub, fanfics, playlists, etc.)
- Yap Sessions: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
☆ Profile Pic & Banner Creds
- Profile Pic colored by @pocketpauling
- Banner colored by @theonetheseus
this new stand's ability is summarized as metaphorically and literally going for the jugular to force people to turn around and be attacked, sometimes morphing into the faces of people we do not want to hear those words from to really sell the point.
and we end up with these subtle details of each character's affected as a result. usagi's religious trauma surfacing shortly after we learned about his time in conversion therapy seeing how he keeps calling the attack an act of an evil spirit, how the people that attacked them are possessed, and how it's all coming from hell rather than just say it's a stand attack. paco's struggle with his family as an immigrant's son who has been abused all his life now tied into him being guilty for prioritizing himself over others and how that ties into his reaction to dropping the kid.
that being said, i'm very afraid as to how araki will show dragona getting attacked and what the enemy stand will do or say to her.
sometimes i still think about my headcanons about barbara ann joestar's past.
how joseph and suzie were actually horrible parents this whole time but no one knew except their children who experienced it. how a child prodigy like holy kira-joestar grew up under intense pressure to be nothing but the best in their eyes, how she escaped to japan to become an opthamologist in her own right, and how joseph and suzie are in denial by claiming it was "their" hard work that made holy extraordinary. how barbara ann was their biological child but came unexpectedly years after holy cut contact. how she was neglected because she "ruined" their retirement and wanted nothing to do with her at first. how joseph and suzie realized they can get their daughter holy back by making barbara ann be a holy 2.0.
how barbara ann grew up constantly compared to her significantly older and famous sister that never calls home and discouraged barbara from being her own person. how the whole house had nothing but all of holy's old trophies, photos, and even newspaper clippings of her latest work in opthamology frequently cleaned and polished by suzie but neither parent refuses to hang even a single achievement barbara ann earned because she hasn't earned the right to have it displayed yet. how barbara ann was told to wear the same hairstyle and clothing like her older sister even when neither clearly did not fit her preferences or appearance.
how barbara ann went through phases of believing holy would agree with their parents or holy would one day appear and take barbara ann to japan to escape from them. how she never knew what happened to holy but ultimately believed her sister was disappointed in her the whole time. how she's stuck in an impossible expectation of not just being good enough to her parents but rather not being like holy in any way. how barbara ann would get sick because her parents would feed her foods holy like despite her allergies yet pretend they never knew she had them or feigned memory issues caused by aging when doctors asked. how there were times where barbara ann excelled better in certain things than holy or blossomed in ventures holy never touched but her parents either refuse to acknowledge it or find another excuse to say holy was still better in other ways. how offer letters and scholarships that didn't align with what holy studied or pursued were hidden or refused by her parents, sometimes without barbara ann's knowledge. how the parents wanted her to go into neurology to cure joseph's declining memory issues like how holy apparently went to opthamology to find a cure for suzie's growing blindness.
how barbara ann finally stood up for herself one day and that led her to be disowned by her parents. how the last words she heard from suzie was complaining about how ordinary she became and from joseph was saying he only had one daughter named holy from that moment on. how she still keeps the door open if reconciliation happens one day and only tells her children their grandparents are just "too old" to be visited in the meantime. how her experiences sometimes slipped into the way she raised her children and tries to stop herself from continuing the cycle. how her relationships with her parents contributed to her own marriage and its breakdown. how she wonders if she just kept her mouth shut, she could have also become a famous doctor like her sister with a nice home and good reputation. how she wouldn't be destitute in hawaii working multiple jobs because she was abandoned by her husband and now left alone to raise two children instead.
how she is now free to be herself rather than someone else.
Chapter 12 is another single chapter after a double we had with Chapter 10 and 11, and marks the end of Volume 3 of The JOJOLands. It is also the chapter before the very controversial Chapter 13 that we will begin work on soon.
Chapter 12 was a fun challenge nonetheless; it was also the most experimental by far.
We have previewed Charming's voice in sketches and many noted how he has a peculiar accent contrasted to everyone else. While the story takes place in modern Hawaii, USA with the main characters having a "General American" accent (non-regional, primarily heard in US media like the news, etc.), Charming ends up standing out with what I call a "British" accent. I get the feeling that viewers from Great Britain or from countries currently or previously part of the British Commonwealth may have heard Charming's voice and wonder why it seems like an American is doing a British accent rather than an actual British person speaking the actual accent instead. The truth is... We didn't expect Charming to be British-sounding in the first place and it ultimately reflected the character he is so well that we kept it. When Pettrull started working on the voice, he initially considered Charming to sound like "an American Southern lawyer" in verbatim. Technically, the American southern accent is a drawn-out version of a British accent, so the transition from one to another is not very stark.
However, as he worked on his voice and particularly for our beloved "McBama" sketch, it became British and I came up with a few reasons why his voice seems to stand out compared to the rest. In addition to be seen as an outsider and Charming's connection to "The Smiths", a notably British band via his name and Stand, I proposed that Charming intentionally gave himself a British accent in hopes that it would make him appear more likable (despite otherwise based on how he is treated by the lead investigator in his flashback) and it also reflects on how theatrical and expressive he actually is when he speaks to the team. At the same time, there's a sort of historical, cultural, and political aspect to this. Great Britain (and the US) had a hand in not only the creation of the Hawaiian Kingdom but also the destruction of it, and both their involvement both culturally and systemically led to the socioeconomic disenfranchisement and discrimination faced by Native Hawaiians to this day. Charming adopting an "English-sounding" accent and possibly localizing his name to a "harmless" English definition reflects how indigenous cultures end up being reduced or erase as a result of whatever dominant culture enforcing the assimilation or erasure oftentimes out of fear or coercion. For the sake of survival, indigenous cultures are broken down and even commercialized to suit the dominant culture's views and repackage the other culture as inferior by comparison, and a cycle of reclaiming a lost culture or changing the oppression into empowerment ends up in the discovery of a new way to oppress and discriminate. To Charming, his British accent is less about him wanting to be well liked or "charming" and more as an attempt to be seen as a regular person and given decency that he is denied due to his Hawaiian heritage.
This concept ended up greatly influencing how his flashbacks came to be. We've mostly seen how Jodio's flashbacks are portrayed and there have been brief glimpses of Usagi's, Dragona's, and Paco's up to this point and the idea is for characters to have flashbacks that either reflects how they view the world or how the world views them. In Jodio's case, his flashbacks could be described as "raw footage" from a VHS tape: there is a timestamp, the speech bubbles and dialogue boxes are the same and the panels are mostly unchanged. The most notable thing is that it is aged based on its color and the audio sounds old. Jodio is someone who wants to understand why things happen (i.e. mechanisms) and will go to great lengths to find what he is looking for and achieve his goal. The reason why his flashbacks look like old tapes is due to him constantly "rewinding" his memories in hopes to find an answer he missed, a detail he can use that was overlooked. There's also a sense of nostalgia given he is a young boy thrown into the world of crime and having a childhood cut short as a response, so he may look at these videos almost like how one looks at childhood films to recall a more happier youth. Like Jodio, given how similar their characters are, Charming too has a past that resembles old footage in hopes that it can help show credibility to his words. However, unlike Jodio's it's clearly edited. There is a sense of coldness as if someone took his footage and manipulated it to be a show that suits their agenda rather than amplify the truth. In a way, Charming's "footage" has been turned into entertainment like how some "true crime" reenactments or retellings are made to entertain and end up reducing real lives into characters with no consideration for how the manipulation can affect the people actually involved in the tragedy. Faces are censored and voice filters are put on, especially on the people hurting Charming with their treatment and words, as if they want to avoid accountability for what they do. Interestingly, only Charming and Mauka have their voices rather unchanged aside from a bit of echo, and I'm thinking of basically keeping those who Charming love or sees him as a person would also have their voices unchanged in his flashbacks.
There's also a hidden sound (because you know I love putting in details that can go unnoticed) that causes the lava tubes to appear more nefarious and terrifying than expected. I asked Koby to make some horrific screams that sound like they're coming from the tubes as Mauka is being pulled. Fun fact: Koby portrays Mauka in this chapter and he was Mauka in the Christmas album. I remember when he created the meows for Wild Cat Size for Chapter 7 and i got the same chills from the lava tube screams this time too. If the lava tube situation is the result of an unknown Stand attack, it's possible we can reuse the sound as a Stand cry when the opportunity comes. Alternatively, because of Charming's flashback being an intentionally manipulated footage, the sound could be something edited in to add to the whole "theatrics" aspect of it. Meanwhile, music choice has been... interesting. We have a mix of old songs being reused, new songs that have in added to our track list, and our "when in doubt, use SpongeBob music" tactic has yet to fail us. One of the songs we reused is "Feng Shui" by Yugo Kanno, which was first used in Chapter 5 when Rohan explained to Jodio about why it was important to hold onto the lava rock as a means to become filthy rich. In a way, Rohan's words with the music makes the power of the lava rock seem enticing, almost glorifying, but with a layer of warning underneath that makes things feel like an odd feeling to brush off because the potential benefits overshadow the reality that is to come. The music is then used in Charming's flashback when he begs the police investigators to find his brother; suddenly, that odd feeling comes back and makes itself more known and the excitement has disappeared. We also have some new music made by Paperwerks that I initially wanted to reveal in Chapter 13 but decided to use bits and pieces in Chapter 12 as a preview instead.
Of course, one of my favorite things to incorporated in the project overall is making background conversations that contribute to building on not just the Joestar siblings' relationship but the rest of the gang. Both Mike and I had a lot of fun coming up with lines that portray Jodio and Dragona fighting over the aux cord (it was also way to incorporate our "Dua Lipa in the car" rule we have been following without having to play the song in full). Matheus added into that by having Paco sound like a classic tired parent and I still laugh at him going "I will turn this car around" while the two of them argue. And, of course, Usagi being a loveable dork trying to butt into everything and be helpful; I need to write a post about Reee's performance eventually. I also had a lot of fun showing how Charming is starting to incorporate himself into the group and it gave me an excuse to reference the jokes we tend to make in this project (i.e. Paco's aversion to being pointed at) as well as make new ones. In a way, I've been trying to get as many jokes as I can in before the tone shifts to Chapter 13.
I know, at the very least, this next chapter is going to be something that requires extreme care and attention and I'm honestly scared. What the investigation team says to Charming in the background is a bit of a means to test the water on how the kids on the school bus will interact with Dragona in Chapter 13. The fandub's goal at the end of the day is to portray the part in a way that celebrates and reflects the spirit of JoJo's but still acknowledge the realities it has taken inspiration from. Given how serious Dragona's experience is, the team and I will do our best to present Chapter 13 as best as possible. You can expect a long hiatus as a result of our team making sure the next chapter will be done at least respectfully or close to what Araki may have intended.
Hello! I remember seeing you were into jojolands and wanted to ask you your thoughts on Usagi's canon bisexuality.
yesss just got caught up on the new chapter today!!
congrats to Usagi for his bisexuality and jojolands for two queer main characters
Glad for Usagi, cannot lie a lil worry in the back of my head of what this might do to the jojo fans in denial of transfem dragona and them going harder against any thought of her being a trans woman because usagi likes boys
either way happy bisexuality hotdog boy
also when tf did we learn Howlers stand name, ive been keeping up and that went right over my head until i saw it on the wiki today, when did that happen
