Category Archives: Stream of Thought

Labyrinth Test

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misscrazyfangirl321:

Okay, so let’s talk about the labyrinth test at the end of Season One of Sanctuary, shall we? 

I have two issues with it, one small-scale and one large-scale. 

1. So these tests were supposed to be incredibly difficult and intense, designed to push each of them to their limits, right? Well, then, why was Nigel Griffin’s so easy? 

Don’t get me wrong: that test nearly doomed them all, but that was because Nigel Griffin wasn’t there to take it. Clara had spent her whole life hating her abilities, and fighting against who and what she was, so having to place all her faith in those abilities knowing that lives hung in the balance? Incredibly difficult. 

But assuming Nigel Griffin was as comfortable with his abilities as the rest of the 5 seem to be with theirs, his test would have been the easiest by far. Walking into that room invisible would probably have been the default, frankly. 

And unless Helen’s father knew something he shouldn’t have, the test should have been designed for Nigel, not Clara. 

2. Then we have the major issue: for a labyrinth that was supposed to be so specialized that only the 5, using their powers, could have completed it…. Two of them alone could have done it. 

Specifically, John and Helen could have. At most they might have needed James for the Latin, but unless I’m mistaken, Helen’s fairly proficient in Latin herself, right?  And she’s familiar with her father’s thought processes. The two of them could have handled John’s, James’, and Helen’s tests with ease. 

As for Nikola’s, unless there was some sort of force field or something we didn’t know about, John could have just teleported in there, gotten the key, and teleported out. 

Then, he would have just had to teleport into Nigel’s room, get the key, and get out. Sure, it would have triggered the collapse, but Clara did that anyway, and frankly, the light would have hit John for less time. Thus, the collapse wouldn’t have gotten as far along.

Maybe they all had to turn the keys at the same time, so they could have needed three more people, but any three other people could have turned the keys. 

In conclusion, that test was really weird. Or else Tesla was wrong, and Helen’s father simply preferred Helen and John as a couple. 

I hope it’s ok to add to this? If it’s not I apologise.

I really liked everything you said! I agree completely. The labyrinth was no challenge at all for The Five – but I don’t think it was supposed to be. If it was supposed to keep them out, then it wouldn’t have been tailored to their abilities. I think it was more to keep out everyone else BUT The Five.

As Helen said (paraphrased) “I know how my father thought, if he anticipated one of us wouldn’t have made it, he would have allowed for another of us to complete the task” – she said something like that in reference to Nikola’s test but as you’ve pointed out it could have worked for all of them in a variety of ways.

Plus re: your point about Helen and John. When Gregory set up the tests they were engaged as it was before John was cursed. Making it so his daughter and son-in-law (family in other words) could complete all tasks just makes sense. He would trust them above the others.

However the biggest issue for me with the labyrinth is that it’s the 21st century. I love Nikola I do but he clearly had a failure of imagination re: getting the blood. If he’d done some x-raying imaging of the walls he’d have located the blood where that turning concrete pillar thing was and then a plasma torch could have cut a nice hole around it.

And yes I have thought way too much about this haha. This is probably my favourite episode 🙂

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You know how I initially came up with the idea of a Sanctuary Appreciation Week because I had a long list of gifs I wanted to make, and I thought having some focus so I got them done would help?

Well that really didn’t work out as planned.

On March 3rd when I had the idea I had 28 gifsets on the list. Two days later (after posting about the appreciation week) I had 45 on the list…

I have posted 3 since then. I have 6 in my drafts ready for the appreciation week (and another 8 to make) which *counts* equals 17.

So does that mean I’m back to 28? No! That’ll still leave me with 44 /facepalm. I believe that gives me a total (counting ones I’ve already made) of 64 which is 5 more than there are episodes AND I very much doubt that I’m done adding to the list. I just keep thinking of more.

I think I have a problem haha. Maybe I need to accept that there is no bottom to this list, that I’ll probably never be done. Such is the nature of obsession.

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They made me like fake Captain America how dare!

Seriously he looked so smarmy at his introduction last week and I was all set to hate him. Then his wife/girlfriend came into the locker and he had humility, he wants to do the best he can, he has a long history of service etc.

Sam is still my Captain America but that John Walker guy doesn’t seem all that bad which sucks a little bit as I did really want to hate him. I think Steve might have liked him too. I mean they were deliberately drawing parallels with the “you can’t punch your way out of this one” and how he threw the shield to protect his friend when he fell off the lorry.

He got a bit heavy handed with getting Bucky out of jail and saying that “they’d be working together” when Bucky had already said no. Then there was the warning to “stay out of my way” which wasn’t very friendly. On the other hand with the repeated refusals what else could he say? Would Steve “I’m not asking permission” have been any different?

I’m trying to be fair to Walker I guess. I 110% side with Sam and Bucky but I’m trying to see both sides. Even the bad guys came off a bit sympathetic in this episode. It was quite well done.

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Feeling more positive this evening about finishing my March drawing in time. I finished off the line art and started block colouring and it’s amazing the leap forward that makes. There’s still a long way to go but it looks more like it is coming together I guess.

I’m going to try doing the hair a bit differently than I have been. The way I have been doing it last few drawings is light years better than my embarrassing first attempts (seriously I’m mortified that I put those on the internet) but it’s still not part of a consistent style. I need to go for realism or comic – not in between.

I’ve also done some more research into lighting. I struggle with getting my shading because there’s the contours of the face right, and so I mark those out but the shadows/highlights obviously change dependant on the light source. Then there’s the battle of likeness as obviously I want the people in the drawing to look like they are supposed to. I think the key to that is mostly proportion. I have done some practicing with pencil lately but thats a different style again. It’s hard.

Still I guess by noticing and thinking about it maybe that means I’m learning? On my goals for the year I put “choose an art style” and this is working towards that. I have 9 more months so minimum of 9 more drawings this year to confirm that. I signed up for a video class on pencil art and I need to find the time to work on that. Techniques are obviously different depending on medium but core principles apply across method. Hopefully anyway!

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I haven’t done a writing update in a while!

I guess I don’t really like to so much when I’m not talking about fanfic. I’ve been working on my Arthurian retelling which was supposed to be a novella but nooooo it had to explode (it’s going to be another 50k job I know it). I mean yes technically 50k is still a novella but it’s a lot more than the 20k I had originally estimated!!

Today I did the math and to get to 50k (and hopefully The End) I’ll need to write approximately 2,500 every single day for the rest of the month /facepalm. Although I should probably get used to that because if I want to finish my novel next month (in true NaNo style) then to hit the estimated 75k then 2,500 is the pace I need.

I also did more math and I’m going to need to create 1 gifset every single day if I want to make them all in time for April 5th and the start of Sanctuary Appreciation Week. Now obviously I do have the week itself which gives me an extra couple of days for the gifsets that are intended for the end of the week. I don’t want to rely on that too heavily though.

In other news I picked up my march digital drawing again yesterday (after the program crashed a couple of days before corrupting my file). It went ok and I have the beginnings of the line art. I need to finish it and tidy it up but I have a solid start now at least.

10 days left in March.

This is going to be brutal. No clue if I’m going to be able to pull this off.

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Finally started my March drawing.

I had gathered references but nothing else and suddenly panicked as I realised there was only two weeks left in the month. How does that happen to me every time?

Anyway I started it and it wasn’t going great but I had a beginning.

Then Clip Studio Paint crashed.

I had saved it but it corrupted and the file is unrecoverable. I’m pissed off. I have a particular hatred for having to redo things. So I walked away from it. Which means I’m no further forward and another day has gone.

Ugh.

Got some more nice comments on today’s Sketch of the Day though. Used my new drawing pencils which have a greater value range. It looked ok. Not great. It didn’t have that wonderful artistic look that some people’s art has but maybe I’ll get there one day. I doubt it but I can dream.

As for my digital drawing I will try again tomorrow /sigh.

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Got a comment on my Sketch a Day this morning. The prompt was ‘chilli’ so I drew two peppers. The person said “wow they look real, what make of pencils do you use?” and I promptly fell over.

a) I didn’t think it was that good

b) that’s the kind of thing I say to other people. It’s the kind of envy born of admiration because damn they made a good thing and I want to know how to do that!

so WHY THE HELL DID SOMEONE SAY THAT TO ME???

Yes, ok maybe, they didn’t mean it how I would mean it. I’m not in their head, I don’t know what they were thinking. But *staggers back and falls over* because ??? I am legitimately reeling. It was a nice comment regardless.

I suppose when I look at anything I do I only see how far I have to go. I see what’s wrong with it. I see how displeased I am as it doesn’t yet look how I’d like. I guess other people might not see it that way. I only see the flaws, they can maybe see that it has some good points.

But yeah *shakes head* I’m a little bit stunned.

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Hmm the more I look at that sketch of Nikola, the more I see that is wrong with it /facepalm. You see this is why at the end of the day I prefer digital.

I get a kick out of doing art with pencils these days because I never thought I could. Producing something by hand, just from making marks on paper, blows my mind. I was the kid that always failed art class. I didn’t get on with a single art teacher I ever had. I found the entire experience frustrating and humiliating. So I like trying to draw by hand, feels a little bit like looking back a couple of decades and sticking my tongue out at all the teachers who didn’t think I had it in me.

Anyway, digital has some major advantages. With digital if there are lines that aren’t quite right you can move them, without having to rub everything out and start again. So looking at that drawing I’m thinking I need to shorten the nose and move it slightly to the left, maybe warp it slightly. The hairline on the right needs to drop down a bit etc. etc.

It’s not terrible but it’s not perfect either. When I draw I still see the lines and try and copy those. From googling I know I should break it down into basic shapes. Apparently that’s better for getting proportions more accurate.

I need to work on my pencil control. I don’t get very good highlights as I overly smudge. I think I also need to do some studies of specific elements like hair. How to draw different materials is still a mystery to me. I need to investigate that and practice so I know how to render metal, fabric, skin etc. I have a lot to learn.

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I’ve been working hard on Fall of Camelot and I’ve run into the same problem that I had with Choosing Fate. I don’t know if you recall but I reached a point with that where I realised I’d written the start a bit wrong. I’m quite linear, I’m not someone that can write out of order, and so I stalled writing as continuing when it’s wrong felt wrong.

So I went back and fixed it and I’m going to have to do the same with Fall of Camelot. That’s not ideal. I do try and tell myself – first draft, fix later – but ehhh whatever gets me to the finish line I guess.

There was a planning party on the WriYe discord this evening. I didn’t really need to plan but it was good to remind myself a bit of the novel I’m thinking I’ll try and write next month (if I finish Fall of Camelot). That doesn’t feel very likely at the moment but that’s probably my tiredness talking. I’m reminded of the tumblr post I read about not getting 8 hours sleep regularly, and I’ve been waking up way too early for weeks now. I am so tired 🙁

Anyway, I’m not sure if it’ll ever see the light of day but in my frustration I started a little Warehouse 13/Sanctuary crossover ficlet. Basically so far I have Pete geeking out over the fact that mythical creatures exist, and HG is having far too much fun pointing out all the things that people believe about vampires that aren’t true. I’m just building up to the revelation that it’s Nikola Tesla, who she recruited for Warehouse 12 hehe.

I’d like to cross the Librarians and Sanctuary somehow but it doesn’t really work because of vampires. They have them on the Librarians and they are the burn up in the sun, turn to ash with a stake through the heart etc. type aka not the badass “get down from there” Nikola Tesla kind. Which is a shame because Nikola is mentioned in the Librarians. Although not in a good way as he did this experiment which shifted an entire town into a different phase and they had to do body snatching to interact with the real world.

Maybe I need to do invasion of the multi-verse. The Librarians have a problem and only Nikola Tesla can solve it. The solution is a magical artifact which they think reaches across time, so they can talk to him in the past, but instead it reaches across dimensions and they get a suspicious vampire. That’s a fun story to tell myself when I can’t sleep later at least 🙂

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Haha I just realised I forgot to say yesterday that I finished Choosing Fate. Whoop! *pumps fist* 🙂 🙂 🙂

Do you want to know why I forgot? Because I immediately started making a header for it for tumblr. I was undecided about what to do. I considered doing a drawing but I couldn’t think of a pose I liked. I considered doing a photo manip but again the pose stumped me. In the end I did a gif thing which doesn’t exactly look how I’d like but I’m going to roll with it.

(That’s the problem with making stuff with only a vague image in mind. It’s hard to bring something into reality that doesn’t really exist.)

Anyway the story is just over 51k at the moment. I need to do a mini-revision/editing pass to make sure I didn’t screw up too badly. It’s Monday and knowing me and my lack of impulse control… I may start posting on Friday. I don’t know how many chapters there are yet but given the length I’d say approximately a dozen. I’ll post on Tuesdays and Fridays again until the story is complete.

So today I started on Fall of Camelot again. I’m pressing ahead with my ‘plan’ to see if I can finish that this month and then start something fresh for Camp NaNo. I’m currently pondering doing this sci-fi detective thriller novel as the Camp project. As tempted as I am to do another Sanctuary fanfic I did promise myself I would complete at least one original novel this year.

Plus if this plan works then I could totally write my season 4 AU/colouring in the lines fic in May guilt free!