Round 18: Episodic

[neonspider]

This challenge is all about creating an episode sequence with your icons: pick a tv show or a movie series, and create a sequence where each icon comes from a different consequent episode. Yes, this is the rare single-fandom challenge, we'll get back to multifandom challenges next time! There's no need to claim shows, any number of participants can use the same subject for this. This round is a callback to an LJ community called watchnicon that I used to mod many years ago; feel free to check this community for some inspiration, but note that the rules were a bit different.

HOW THIS WORKS

When you know which series you want to icon, first pick a starting point. This doesn't have to be the first episode, so if your favorite characters first appear in the middle of the show, no worries! Start wherever you like. From that episode on, create exactly one icon for each consequent episode until you have 5-20 icons. Your episode sequence may span multiple seasons, but obviously the seasons must be in order as well. So for example, if a show has three 10-episode seasons, you could start with 1.01 and continue up to 2.10, creating a full set of 20 icons, or you might start with something like 2.08 and continue up to 3.02, creating a five-icon mini set (2.08, 2.09, 2.10, 3.01, 3.02). Please ask if this explanation is unclear :)
To fully create an episode sequence, the icons should be posted in the correct episode order. Please label what series you're using and which icons is from which episode, this makes it much easier to check if the entry fits the challenge. As always, remember to state clearly which mode you're using.

In some cases you may need to use your judgment about what constitutes an episode and what the official order is. I'll give you the freedom to make the judgment in unclear cases such as weird episode orderings (a show may have originally aired the episodes in a different order than what the DVDs later had), longer episodes that may be seen as multiparters or not, as well as special episodes that may not officially be part of any season. I suggest picking one source, whether it's a DVD set, Wikipedia, IMDB or the show's official website, and sticking to it as a baseline for all such calls.

While this challenge is best suited to iconing a tv show, there are some movie series that are long enough to be usable for this. So if you want to icon all the Star Wars movies or even some of MCU (and you can figure out the order for it), go for it! Extra Hard mode is only recommended for shows that you have already seen, remember each episode distinctly and can analyze them in depth, but the other modes can also be used if you want to icon alongside your first watch of a new series, or using a show you don't remember quite that well yet. Web shows and others with very short episodes may not have enough content for Hard or Extra Hard mode, but can well be used for Normal.


NORMAL MODE: Make one icon per episode for 5-20 consequent episodes of a series. Anything goes as long as all the used screencaps come from the right episode.
HARD MODE: Same as Normal mode, but the icons should also somehow reflect the episode in question, so that a fan who knows this series well would know which episode the icon is from. Some potential ways to achieve this are using iconic scenes, working with original backgrounds to keep context, using quotes, using symbolism related to the plot and themes of the episode - this is fully interpretative, so any other ways you can think of are ok as well! You may also take additional inspiration from the prompts provided for Extra hard mode below, but the icons still need to fit the main criteria for this mode.
EXTRA HARD MODE: Same as Normal mode, but each icon should be based around a randomized prompt from the list below. These prompts will make you focus on a specific aspect of each episode. Use any random number generator, such as this one, to pick one prompt for each episode (please ask if you're unsure how to use random number generators; the idea is very simple and in this case you'd just need to randomize between 1-10 every time you start making an icon for the set). On this round Extra Hard and Hard mode are not cumulative, so sets made for Extra Hard don't need to fit the criteria of Hard mode.

Since Hard and Extra Hard modes are interpretative, feel free to include explanations for your interpretations if you want to!


PROMPTS FOR EXTRA HARD MODE

1. MVP Character: Icon your favorite character in this episode - doesn't mean your favorite overall out of those who appear in this episode, but specifically the character that has the best content in this episode and is therefore the Most Valuable Player in it.
   
2. Favorite Scene: Icon your personal favorite scene out of this episode; doesn't have to be the most epic or important scene, just the one you like the most.
   
3. Favorite Interaction: Icon the pair or group of characters that has the most enjoyable/entertaining interactions in this episde. May be a pair you ship romantically, but definitely doesn't have to be.
   
4. Favorite Quote: This icon must have text. Use the line from this episode that stands out to you the most. If you're not up for a rewatch, try Googling episode transcripts or check the episode's quote collection on IMDB.
   
5. Plot: The icon should reflect the most relevant plot point(s) in the main plot of this episode; what scene, cap or quote would best represent what actually happens in this episode?
   
6. Arch Relevance: This icon should reflect something in the episode that moves the "big plot" forward, something that ends up mattering not only in the scope of this particular episode, but especially to the overall bigger arch of this season or even the series as a whole. There are some shows where this prompt will be very close to the plot prompt and ones where these are completely different things, depending on how arch-based the series is. If your show doesn't have any continuity between episodes, so that there is no arch to speak of, you may randomize another prompt; this may be the case especially for older shows and sitcoms, but should be rare.
   
   DHARMA hatch appearance (LOST) | Possessed Sam arch (Supernatural) | Bad Wolf reference (Doctor Who)
7. Character Development: The icon should reflect character development that takes place in this episode.
   
8. Most Known For: Icon the most iconic and remembered part of this episode; if you bring this episode up among fans, which scene or aspect of it will be talked about the most?
   
9. Underrated: Icon something in the episode that doesn't have a big part OR that isn't well regarded by the fandom, but you enjoy anyway; could be a character that has a minor role in the episode, a funny throwaway line that nobody remembers, a controversial plot twist - any aspect of the episode that gets overshadowed, is unpopular, or otherwise underrated!
   
   Unpopular ship: Stiles/Malia (Teen Wolf) | Unpopular character: Wesley Crusher (Star Trek) | Unpopular choice: child Anakin as lead character (Star Wars Episode I)
10. Random Scene: Even more randomizing! \o/ Use a random number generator to pick a single minute from the entire length of the episode*. The screencap(s) used must come from this minute, be as accurate as possible. Requires some carefulness if you're using screencaps taken by someone else, but do your best by comparing the caps to the video! Skip this and randomize a new prompt if you don't have access to the episodes at all. If you get something completely unusable, such as credits only, a minute full of only scenery or only nameless one-episode extra characters, you may randomize another minute, but please only use this as a last resort. Don't rerandomize just because you got a darker scene or characters you don't like.
    
    Random inspiration icons

*How to randomize a scene from an episode, if you get prompt 10:
1. Check the length of the episode. Let's say the episode length is 45:36.
2. Randomize an integer between zero and the last minute, so in this case, 0-45. Let's say we got the value 18.
3. Watch the part of the video starting from this even minute and lasting until the next minute starts. So in this case, the timespan that your caps would need to come from would be 18:00-18:59.

(Extra care is needed for Netflix users. Iirc Netflix has a strange way to display the time that is left in the episode and not the actual timestamp of how much time has passed, but the same algorithm works there as well, you just need to add one to both ends of the randomizing limits and "watch backwards" starting from the random full minute. So in this example you'd randomize between 1-46, start from the point where there is that much time left in the episode, and watch one minute, so in this example case you'd watch the parts where the Netflix timer goes from 18:00-17:01. I hope this makes sense!)


Rules
+ Create 5-20 icons for the challenge.
+ Icons must fit DW standards (100x100px, gif/jpg/png format, 60kb or less)
+ All icons must be new and made specifically for the challenge
+ Post either a link to your icon journal post, or post the icons directly to this community (in a new post)
+ Each entry should have three example icons before the link or the cut
+ If linking to your icon journal, the post must be public at least until the end of the challenge.
+ Use title Round 18: yourname
+ Use tags maker: yourname, round: 18
+ Please make an effort to look at and to leave comments to other participants' posts
+ Deadline: September 30th 22:00 UTC+3 (COUNTDOWN)

Comments

QUESTIONS?

[neonspider]

Ask them here!

Re: QUESTIONS?

[erinm_4600]

OMG that Wesley icon ♥

Re: QUESTIONS?

[tinny]

I'm pretty sure you already stated this in the rules, I just... want to ask anyway?

Would it be allowed to make multiple sets to get to 20 icons, like make 10 consecutive icons from Farscape and 10 from Buffy, for example?

I'm just having a hard time deciding on *one single show* for this - although I can if I have to. :)

Re: QUESTIONS?

[littlemissnovella]

^I have the same exact question!

Re: QUESTIONS?

[neonspider]

As usually, it's ok to enter multiple sets, as long as each one is 5-20 icons. They'll be considered separate in the votings. So yes, two 10-icon sets would be totally fine :)

Re: QUESTIONS?

[tinny]

Oh, I'd forgotten about that! Thank you!

Re: QUESTIONS?

[aurora_amethyst]

I wanted to icon some period dramas, but some of them have fewer than 5 episodes. Would it be okay to do two icons per episode?

Re: QUESTIONS?

[neonspider]

For this round the only rule really is that there's one icon per episode, so I hope you can find a show with at least five episodes. If not, you only need to wait a week for the next round to start, I promise that that one has no fandom restrictions :)

ENTRIES OUTSIDE DW

[neonspider]

Drop your entries outside of DW here. Please provide three sample icons, a link to your entry, and optionally some advice on how to comment there (not needed for LiveJournal).

[longerthanwedo]

omg YES!!! love this, another pirate set incoming