My Back Hurts

If you are unfamiliar, the essay basically talks about how in superhero movies in particular, but also culture at large, actors are more sculpted and perfect than ever. But in a sanitized way. Everyone is the platonic ideal of hot, but no one is down bad for each other, no one gets dirty, it's all entirely sexless. (And the essay goes off in a few directions that I think are a bit of a stretch, but I agree with the overall point.)

The character design in Arcane is so effectively *hot* precisely because of the imperfections, the flaws. That's what ends up making them interesting to look at, it gives them some grit that's easy to latch onto.

Yes, a lot of the characters fit traditional beauty standards to some degree, but they also have asymmetries. They have harsh edges. They have little scars or tooth gaps. Caitlyn's hair is a little thin. Jayce’s mouth is a little small. Vi has a bump in her nose. Even Mel, her eyebrows are not on fleek, but it's that unusual little imperfection that's precisely one of the most beautiful things about her.

And then on top of that you just get the sense that Fortiche knows exactly how to animate and film the characters in a way that revels in their physicality.

Animation is all about capturing physicality, almost to the point of caricature. You have to exaggerate weight and movement in animation for it to be believable; rotoscoping feels floaty. And Fortiche does *something*, I can't put my finger on what, that highlights the hotness of their characters.

I think one other way that the medium lends itself to, "wow this show is full of hot characters," is the idea of recognizable silhouettes. It's a general principal in animation that you want all your characters to have distinct silhouettes from each other (Steven Universe is actually a really good example of this). The result of that in Arcane is that you have all these different body types represented, who are hot in different ways. It's not just cookiecutter hot people as you get in live action with actors trying to fit into narrow beauty standards. It's all those differences that add yet another layer of texture.

To kiss every line and scar etched on his face

To trace a finger down the recesses with light touches

and here are some more photos from it

Punk Girls in Stockport, England, July 19, 1983.

Photo by Shirley Baker

–"Templars, Qunari, and politics don't meow and attack your feet when you're buying food."

wanted to illustrate one of my favorite banters in da2!! merrill, my beloved<33