Challenge Mini-Games Challenge (Now Open For NEW 2024 Challenges!)

Speaking of Mod Approved, on a modly note, we're excited to announce that we're happy to wipe the slate clean again for new challenges. That means: feel free to post a new challenge, even if you have already posted one before. We just ask that any further ideas than that be ran past us first.


As for the current challenge, I know I really shouldn't, but I just can't resist for a BNHA challenge. #1 feels fitting for this, if you please, @ViariSkywalker?

 

The Index has been updated with the latest challenges! I can't wait to see what you all come up with next!

And, since all the slots in the last few roulettes have filled up, I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring with the . . .

Remembering Romanticism Roulette!


​

What is Romanticism, you may ask? Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. In a way, Romanticism was a combined reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the numerous political revolutions of the time. Instead of embracing modernization, the artists of the Romantic era emphasized nature and emotion in a direct contrast to the advancements being made in science and technology. When expressing nature, they focused on its power and ability to construct and destroy. When expressing emotion, they sought to capture intense emotion – the sublime, be it through awe, horror, mystery, or fervor. In direct opposition to Classicism and Neoclassicism, where harmony, balance, and precise proportions were considered key to convey the rational reasons behind human thought, imagination and individualism were valued by the Romantic artists above all else. Sense and feeling were what made a paining of the Romanticism, well, romantic. (You can see that on display in the painting above, Wanderer Above the Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich.)

Now that we know what Romanticism is, I've picked out five paintings from the masters of this age to inspire new masterpieces here on the boards! All five are somewhat bittersweet, even melancholy; these paintings invoke strong emotions, but not necessarily positive emotions. Yet they are open enough to interpretation that you, the author, can take the mood in one direction or another as you so desire. Just be forewarned that the term romantic can be a little misleading at first glance. (Though I threw one truly romantic painting in the mix, just to balance things out. )

So, step right up and see what the classics from the past can inspire today.


The Romantics
1. @ViariSkywalker - A Lighthouse on Fire at Night, by Joseph Wright

Spoiler: Image and Summary

Joseph Wright was an English painter most known for – admittedly in contrast of the summary of Romanticism I first gave – painting scenes that expressed the spirit of the Industrial Revolution along with elements of Romanticism. He was fascinated by light, and science’s attempts to explain how both light and vision function, in particular. For his fascination he became a master of chiaroscuro – an Italian technique from the Renaissance, made famous by artists like Da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt – that focused on making lights more intense through the contrast of deep shadows. Wright also credited his witnessing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius to leading to his experimenting with unusual lighting in his art, as many of his landscapes feature such dynamic effects as depicted here.

Also, you can ask yourself: can the lighthouse keeper put out the fire at night, if it would smother the light needed to guide ships to safety? What about the people on that tiny boat in what could be a rising storm? What of the moon rising? However the painting speaks to you, personally, may lead way to a plot bunny or two.

2. @devilinthedetails - The Ninth Wave, by Ivan Aivazovsky

Spoiler: Image and Summary

Ivan Aivazovsky was a Russian painter who specialized in marine scenes. “All artists who paint seascapes are his students,” was once claimed, and that holds as true today as it was then. Aivazovsky was a genius with color, and had a gift for depicting “the romantic struggle between man and the elements in the form of the sea,” in his own words.

As for this particular painting, the ninth wave is a sailing term that depicts a large wave that comes after a series of smaller waves. It is a dangerous wave, the type that sinks ships. Here, the sunrise is breaking after a night of storms. Survivors of a shipwreck are clinging to the debris, clearly exhausted as they gird themselves to face this last wave. Will their perseverance be rewarded? The warm, gentle colors juxtaposed with the violence of the sea suggest that they just might. Some critics have even posed that there’s religious symbolism in the scene, with the idea of salvation being attainable no matter the hardships of life. But, of course, that interpretation is up to you as both the viewer and the author.

3. @Findswoman - The Fighting Téméraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, by John Mallord William Turner

Spoiler: Image and Summary

J. M. W. Turner was a British artist who was most well known for his expressive colors and imaginative compositions. “Light is therefore color,” he was known to say in his lectures, which you can so vividly see portrayed in this painting.

Here, the HMS Téméraire is being tugged up the Thames by a steam powered tug-boat to be broken up for scrap. This composition is unusual in that the main subject, the warship, is to the left and set back from the foreground. The ship rises in regal, almost ghostly, splendor against a triangle of blue sky and mist. Juxtaposed against the beauty of the old ship, the modern tug-boat is black and ugly to dominate the viewer’s attention in the forefront of the painting. Overhead, the sun sets on both the scene and the age of sailing as a whole, reflecting red over the otherwise still river, while the clouds reflect the smoke back down over the horizon. The symbolism here is poignant for the end of an era, with an accomplished and glorious past now confronted with its own mortality. Sir Henry Newbolt later wrote a ballad titled The Fighting Téméraire, describing the same scene: "And she's fading down the river, But in England's song for ever, She's the Fighting Téméraire."

4. @Pandora - The Course of Empire: Desolation, by Thomas Cole

Spoiler: Image and Summary

Thomas Cole was an American artist who immigrated from England as a teenager. Largely self-taught, his paintings captured the wild beauty of the American landscape through a Romanticist view, and his work inspired the founding of the Hudson River School of Art.

This painting is the conclusion of a series of five paintings that were inspired by his travels to Italy. This series is rather unique amongst Cole’s portfolio of landscapes, as it shows a fictional city over the ages, with the rise and fall of an imaginary kingdom serving as a warning of too much power in government. Critics suggest that this could have been satirical for his opinions of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party at the time. In the finale of Desolation, the sun has set where it was rising in the first painting of the series. Violence and time have torn the city apart, and now nature has reclaimed the scene for its own once more, with just ruins to show where mankind went astray. The single column in the foreground is now a resting place for birds, with the indomitably of the earth surviving man’s transience.

5. @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha - Il Bacio (The Kiss), by Francesco Hayez

Spoiler: Image and Summary

Fransesco Hayez was an Italian painter who was considered one of the foremost artists of the Italian Romanticism in Milan. He painted everything from grand historical paintings, political allegories, to portraits.

This piece is considered one of the most passionate depictions of a kiss in Western art. Nothing about this pose is restrained; the couple here clings to one another in a blatant display of emotion. That alone would be enough to call this painting Romantic. (And, it’s the only truly romantic painting in this challenge, heh.) The lovers in this piece are nameless, which adds to its timelessness. Besides a vaguely Middle Age setting, no knowledge of history or literature is required to understand the subject. Instead it is the feeling that is on display. Yet, true romance isn't the only feeling captured here. There’s a sense of desperation to the composition between the shadows cast from the couple and the faceless figures lurking in the dark on the left. These elements add an atmosphere of conspiracy and danger, from which many a story can stem.

The Replies
1. Turn Ourselves Into These Ashes, by ViariSkywalker
2.
3.
4.
5. [Star Trek] A Temporary Parting, by WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

 

You're going to want #5, then. (And I had a feeling you would ask for this one! )

5. Il Bacio (The Kiss), by Francesco Hayez



Francesco Hayez was an Italian painter who was considered one of the foremost artists of the Italian Romanticism in Milan. He painted everything from grand historical paintings, political allegories, to portraits.

This piece is considered one of the most passionate depictions of a kiss in Western art. Nothing about this pose is restrained; the couple here clings to one another in a blatant display of emotion. That alone would be enough to call this painting Romantic. (And, it’s the only truly romantic painting in this challenge, heh.) The lovers in this piece are nameless, which adds to its timelessness. Besides a vaguely Middle Age setting, no knowledge of history or literature is required to understand the subject. Instead it is the feeling that is on display. Yet, true romance isn't the only feeling captured here. There’s a sense of desperation to the composition between the shadows cast from the couple and the faceless figures lurking in the dark on the left. These elements add an atmosphere of conspiracy and danger, from which many a story can stem. ​

 

Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, I love the Romantic era and aesthetic… this is going to be very, very difficult to pass by…

…so I won’t even try! May I ask for #3, please?

 

How very dare I, indeed? I thought this might be a challenge you couldn't resist.

Honest to goodness, it would be hard to pick the most melancholy piece, anyway, because they all are rather moody in a sense. But if had to I would have flipped a coin between this one and another, so I think your sixth sense struck gold yet again with . . .

1. A Lighthouse on Fire at Night, by Joseph Wright



Joseph Wright was an English painter most known for – admittedly in contrast of the summary of Romanticism I first gave – painting scenes that expressed the spirit of the Industrial Revolution along with elements of Romanticism. He was fascinated by light, and science’s attempts to explain how both light and vision function, in particular. For his fascination he became a master of chiaroscuro – an Italian technique from the Renaissance, made famous by artists like Da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt – that focused on making lights more intense through the contrast of deep shadows. Wright also credited his witnessing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius to leading to his experimenting with unusual lighting in his art, as many of his landscapes feature such dynamic effects as depicted here.

Also, you can ask yourself: can the lighthouse keeper put out the fire at night, if it would smother the light needed to guide ships to safety? What about the people on that tiny boat in what could be a rising storm? What of the moon rising? However the painting speaks to you, personally, may lead way to a plot bunny or two.
​

How's that?

Yeeees! Give into the Romanticism. For number three you have one of my personal favorite paintings of all time . . .

3. The Fighting Téméraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, by John Mallord William Turner



J. M. W. Turner was a British artist who was most well known for his expressive colors and imaginative compositions. “Light is therefore color,” he was known to say in his lectures, which you can so vividly see portrayed in this painting.

Here, the HMS Téméraire is being tugged up the Thames by a steam powered tug-boat to be broken up for scrap. This composition is unusual in that the main subject, the warship, is to the left and set back from the foreground. The ship rises in regal, almost ghostly, splendor against a triangle of blue sky and mist. Juxtaposed against the beauty of the old ship, the modern tug-boat is black and ugly to dominate the viewer’s attention in the forefront of the painting. Overhead, the sun sets on both the scene and the age of sailing as a whole, reflecting red over the otherwise still river, while the clouds reflect the smoke back down over the horizon. The symbolism here is poignant for the end of an era, with an accomplished and glorious past now confronted with its own mortality. Sir Henry Newbolt later wrote a ballad titled The Fighting Téméraire, describing the same scene: "And she's fading down the river, But in England's song for ever, She's the Fighting Téméraire."​

I love all the how dare yous I've gotten already! I feel that means I'm doing something right. That said, I do hope that number four inspires with . . .

4. The Course of Empire: Desolation, by Thomas Cole



Thomas Cole was an American artist who immigrated from England as a teenager. Largely self-taught, his paintings captured the wild beauty of the American landscape through a Romanticist view, and his work inspired the founding of the Hudson River School of Art.

This painting is the conclusion of a series of five paintings that were inspired by his travels to Italy. This series is rather unique amongst Cole’s portfolio of landscapes, as it shows a fictional city over the ages, with the rise and fall of an imaginary kingdom serving as a warning of too much power in government. Critics suggest that this could have been satirical for his opinions of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party at the time. In the finale of Desolation, the sun has set where it was rising in the first painting of the series. Violence and time have torn the city apart, and now nature has reclaimed the scene for its own once more, with just ruins to show where mankind went astray. The single column in the foreground is now a resting place for birds, with the indomitably of the earth surviving man’s transience.

​

And with those gems gone, that leaves just #2 up for grabs! Any takers?

 

@Mira_Jade I'll claim #2. Sounds like a great challenge!

 

You got it!

2. The Ninth Wave, by Ivan Aivazovsky



Ivan Aivazovsky was a Russian painter who specialized in marine scenes. “All artists who paint seascapes are his students,” was once claimed, and that holds as true today as it was then. Aivazovsky was a genius with color, and had a gift for depicting “the romantic struggle between man and the elements in the form of the sea,” in his own words.

As for this particular painting, the ninth wave is a sailing term that depicts a large wave that comes after a series of smaller waves. It is a dangerous wave, the type that sinks ships. Here, the sunrise is breaking after a night of storms. Survivors of a shipwreck are clinging to the debris, clearly exhausted as they gird themselves to face this last wave. Will their perseverance be rewarded? The warm, gentle colors juxtaposed with the violence of the sea suggest that they just might. Some critics have even posed that there’s religious symbolism in the scene, with the idea of salvation being attainable no matter the hardships of life. But, of course, that interpretation is up to you as both the viewer and the author.​

Alrighty! And with that the Remembering Romanticism Roulette has filled up! I can't wait to see what these paintings will inspire!

Soooo . . . who's next with a challenge?

 

I'm glad to have Lord Space Byron's approval.

It would have been hard to choose between that and The Ninth Wave if I was being deliberate. So I was thrilled when you picked it all on your own. I can't wait to see what it inspires, specifically!

 

Ooh, I love my prompt! What an amazing contrast between the ocean and the warm colors of the sky in that picture. Very powerful imagery indeed!

And now I am back with my own challenge.

The Dead Poets' Society Quote Challenge



This challenge is a tribute to one of the most moving and profound films I have ever seen. The Dead Poets' Society itself is a tribute to life in all its creativity and pain, fleeting youth, powerful poetry, and the concept of seizing the day. An ode to carpe diem. A celebration of gathering rosebuds while ye may.

To participate in this challenge, pick a number, and you will be assigned a quote from the film. Once you have received a quote from the film, you can write a fanfic, whether Star Wars or Non-Star Wars, inspired by the quote.

Quotes Claiming:

1. @Kit' -"They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones. Just like you. Invincible. Just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe their destined for great things. Just like many of you. Their eyes are full of hope. Just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make of their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see, gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen. You hear it? Carpe--hear it?--carpe, carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."

2. @Briannakin-"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, and engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."

3. @Thumper09-"You must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are going to find it at all."

4. @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha-"There's a time for daring, and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for."

5. @earlybird-obi-wan -"No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world."

Index of Entries:

1. The Best Advice I Ever Got by @WarmNyota_SweetAyesha
2. Aspect Ratio by @Thumper09
3. Changing the World by @earlybird-obi-wan
4. Tidepool by @Kit'