When You Thought It Would Be Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy But It Turns Out To Be Difficult Difficult Lemon

When you thought it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy but it turns out to be difficult difficult lemon difficult.

My Dragon Prince Boards season 7, episode 705, part 2: The Moonberry Surprise.

It's true, the Moonberry Surprise moment, it is my fault

I hope you can forgive me for my sins. Hahahaha.

Ok, let's talk about this little sequence. But first, some... context?

Ok, so, Dragon Prince was my first job as Storyboard Artist, before coming to DPR I was working as a Storyboard Revisionist in Lego NinjaGo Crystalized. So I applied to Dragon Prince with not hopes that they will hire me, and when the offered my the job I was in awe.

So basically I arrived to work in season 4 as a Junior Storyboard Artist. they gave me little sequences during season 4 (I was mostly helping my unit director with revisions) they gave me more during season 5 and 6, working on my strengths, emotional moments, long talking sequences and some combat. You know what was not there? comedy, because was not one of the things I knew well how to do. But after a year and a half working in the show, I was seasoned enough to be a proper Storyboard Artist, not a rookie anymore. So they finally assigned me a comedy sequence.

I was terrified. Today after years in the industry, I can say that I am not scared of comedy anymore. But when I read the script and I realized that they were expecting a big comedy moment from me , I knew I was in trouble. But as they say, "you fake it until you make it" I took a deep breath and smile to my unit director like "Of course I can do this!"

But ok, lets talk about the sequence. We start nice, with the moon fam enjoying some time together. Was an opportunity to work with Runaan and Ethari, and that is always cool! I love how Ethari is just happy of everyone being there, and Runaan just wants to kill Callum (in an affectionate way, like he is just a protective dad, you know, a no nonsense dude)

So yeah, they talk a little and Rayla handles Callum a slice of Moonberry Surprise. Is like this almost mythical dessert that is said tastes like nothing else in all Xadia. And Callum is so excited to try it!

So, the script did not call for anything you saw in that sequence. The script instructed to reveal the Moonberry Surprise like something out of this world, and then have Callum almost having an epiphany when he tries it. My first idea was to have Calum almost levitating on his seat while eating it, while the rest of the moon fam looked at them in confusion. But during the launch of the episode (this is the stage where directors and in the case of DPR writers, tell SB artist what they want for every sequence we will board, se pitch ideas, and so on) was more clear to me that they were expecting something more of an "out of this world experience". Like the "I love books" moment that Callum had on season 5, episode 2 but on steroids.

So I was ok, lets make it as trippy as possible. So we have this fast zoom in into Callums face, that lead us into this "dimension of flavor" he is being transported to.

And he opens his eyes and he is floating in this space of color and flavor, his spirit being lifted by this experience.

He is experiencing all this flavors, eating this huge blue berries (this was my Unit director idea, Thanks Katherine!!), when something catches his eye. A figure, looking to him from the above, almost like a god.

And Callums looks up, revealing... this:

So, I have a really particular sense of humor (not unique, because I feel a lot of people share it, particular because really specific things make me laugh a lot). I was born late 80's grew up on the 90's with all the weird cartoons and anime of that time. For me adding muscular arms to things is the best joke ever.

This is peak humor to me:

So I was like, what if, Callum does the Titanic spinning thing, with a muscular slice of pie? So I did that... And I was SURE they will reject it.

So I finished my roughs, and I sent them to my Unit Director. She was "this is so stupid" (in the best way) so, she added some placeholder music, and send it for review from the directors, while both of us were expecting to have it rejected.

A couple of days after, our Storyboards Supervisor was like "WHO DID THE MOONBERRY SURPRISE SEQUENCE??" And I was like "me?", and he was like "Aaron LOVED IT!" and I was like "?????" so, yeah, was approved.

So yeah, that is my legacy, I guess. I am Runaan in this shot:

So well, those are all my sequences in episode 705.

Sorry again for being responsible for the birth of that thing. But that is my son now, and I kinda love him, even if he looks like that....

Next post will be my last! So yeah, stay tunned for my last post about my boards in The Dragon Prince, episode 708!

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moonpeaches143

2 months ago

valid but uh dabihawks..!

Just a friendly reminder that Horikoshi always intended for Tomura and Touya to be the closest thing to soulmates/eachother’s identical parallel. Their thoughts and the reasonings? Practically the same. They’ll tear themselves apart just for a shred of validation; a plea for someone to see them, even as they destroy the others around them. Who cares is innocents get hurt, right? In the end, the result will be far more valuable than a couple of stranger’s lives.

Dabi’s entire philosophy is quite literally to burn everything around him into ash, including himself and Endeavour, all to liberate himself and others from the false shackles of hero society. This ideology *perfectly* coincides with Tomura, who not only wants to carve out a place in this dejected world for all of his followers, but to also liberate and destroy. Even as children their ideologies would have agreed with one another, which is, “Why should my father’s limitations on me restrict who I am? I just want to be free.”

The meaning behind their names. Tenko ( 転弧) & Touya ( 燈矢); Tenko’s name has the kanji with the meaning “bow” in it. and Touya’s name has the kanji with the meaning “arrow” in it. Hand in hand. Another interesting fact of their names is that 燈(Tō) means "lamp", or "light”, and 転 (Ten) means "turn", or "revolve”, which could signify the instinctive nature of humans (or Tenko himself?) to ‘revolve’ around light (or Touya’s fire/heat in a metaphorical sense).

If we also want to talk metaphorical, ‘light’ could be used to describe the lightheartedness of Touya’s character before Enji destroyed him at the seams, and we know that as a child, Tenko was a loving, empathetic child, attracted to ‘light’ (the softness and kindness of others). He played games with rejected children, defended them, and acted as a ‘hero’ in his own way. This parallel of Touya needing a savior and Tenko readily taking in others who need it, is very interesting to see, especially when we literally see this acted out later on in the LOV!

One more theory I have…now hear me out…also alludes to their name meanings. 矢 (Ya) means "arrow”…but 弧 (Ko) means "arc," indicating a curved path or trajectory. Now, arrows typically travel in a straight line or path when shot. Except for when they’re deemed, “defective.” You know where I’m going with this. It’s almost a completed story with those two characters. A defective arrow that lead a curved path, all because of a manufacturing/crafting issue. Sorry if that hit you hard, me too.

I’m so delusional about them. It’s totally okay.