floofymeow

[floofymeow]

Preface: dont wanna hurt any feelings! I just wanna chat about this and maybe get people thinking. Nothing is intended to come off as insulting to any fans of either translations/patch.

this is a really interesting read! my friend and I have been trying to unpack the patch discourse as well and I came to a similar conclusion on that familiarity point—it only became a contesting point of perspective once we had JAST’s pov version of the VN first.

I was thinking about a few things. First off—media draws its fan base. And how do the types of fans find, engage, and stick with media? By its content!!

I’ve been wondering maybe that the way JAST translated slow damage attracted an English speaking audience that enjoys what JAST enjoys—and thus, will stand and find unenjoyable the verboseness or whatever else there have been critical thoughts on. I think that essentially people are speaking to each other with such difficulty because, to so many people, the game actually does feels different enough to no longer resonate with what they started with and enjoyed from slow damage (or likely also a lost comfort). This isn’t a bad thing! Just observation/speculation.

I also went to think about how, in the context of gay media, the internet and queer community / people engaging in gay media have a history of being extremely extremely hard and critical on anything queer, by virtue of there being so little queer media to begin with. Its also the difficulty of the protective nature over queer media—because everyone wants what little there is to be represented correctly—and that manifests in very different, opinionated ways for everyone. Sadly, this also has manifested in the queer community ripping itself apart into rags. I’ve seen happen before over many many yaoi mangas/manhwas.

For slow damage, im almost shocked by how angry and accusatory these discussions have gotten. I just don’t think there’s a need to be so hurtful—especially when im seeing many valid points from multiple sides of like and dislike of translations. I also think that… slow damage of all games is so open minded, in how there’s something for everyone in the themes, h scenes, characters, issues, aesthetic, etc. and yet as fans we don’t respect that same idea for each other.

These I've also shared on Twitter, but I thought I'd share them here before someone tries any sort of libel.

You know what's funny about this whole discourse about the Slow Damage patch ? The whole discourse reminds me of game mods, in a way.

Game mods are made by fans, for free no less, for you to download, and only if you wanted, to help improve your experience with a game.

Whether it's improving the aesthetic (character or background design) or tweaking some of the gameplay elements itself. Or adding new elements, or even changing things purely for shits and giggles.

That way, mods are akin to patches. More often than not, mods are made because the base game had flaws in their design (technical or otherwise) that the mod intended to fix or improve.

But these mods are optional. And naturally, most mods are going to use preexisting assets from either the game they're modding or from another game, assets that they'll either refine or combine with other assets to make something better.

While some mods earn a raised brow, if the mod isn't to one's liking, most generally just ignore it.

Except in this specific instance, some don't like the mod that is the patch and feel that it doesn't sit right with them for whatever reason, believing that its existence would be "spitting" on the original game or because it no longer sounds as snarky as they themselves would like to read it as.

But instead of ignoring the patch, which they were explicitly advised to do if they take offense to it, they decide to make their dislike everyone else's problem, and by poisoning the well, no less.

And one quick way to ensure that is to accuse the patch of bigotry towards the LGBT community.

I'm already aware that this same accusation is spreading like wildfire, both in Reddit and especially in Twitter, and in some Discord spaces, most likely.

But did anyone, and this includes the accusers, even play at least 40% of the patched version, and intensively at that, before making that claim?

Oh, I'm all too aware that bigotry is a real, serious and widespread issue.

But in most online circles nowadays, accusing something of bigotry right off the gate is also one surefire method of turning people off of it before they can even check it out for themselves.

I mean, what better way of publicly dragging something you don't like through the mud than to spread accusations/misassumptions that are quick for others to believe before anyone can even try and personally fact-check anything?

Especially in a place like the internet itself.

The note stating the avoidance of using a specific pronoun for some characters to not assume their identity could've been phrased better, yes, and the patch team did clarify their stance on the matter. Alas, anything can still easily be misinterpreted and used as flame bait.

But what's odd is that the people who first touted this claim (either here or in other platforms) have one thing in common: they never checked out the patch (let alone played through one certain route in full) to personally confirm if that really is the case.

Taking all this into consideration, I think that no matter how the patch was presented, it'd get backlash.

Even long before any of us knew this patch was even going to be a thing, even giving constructive criticism about the localization and any mistakes/goofs it made already drew ire, and it's those same people who took offense that are spreading the hate about this patch.

It all really boils down to the matter of the patch even existing, since - as some detractors point out - it's what they call to be a disrespectful spit to the face, even without factoring the false accusations of transphobia and plagiarism.

Let's say they used the JP game files instead and have the patch work with that version. They'd get decried for copyright infringement and they risk a C&D order.

Use the EN files? We already get the claims that they barely did anything to the text, among other things. Why?

Because they didn't adjust every single syntax and change every single word in every single sentence… when English isn't exactly the most versatile language and there's only ways you can translate something, especially in the simpler sentences like "Who are you?".

Using a thesaurus on everything would make it sound weird. Heck, the patch being more verbose and detailed and impersonal (which is what's to be expected when it's third person and in a visual novel, no less) already got it accused of being no more than a fancy MTL.

And it doesn't help that many already assume that the statement that MTL can be a helpful tool is also the same as "MTL being the superior translator of all time", and people will find anything and I mean anything to hate on something and discredit it.

And as for the preferring 1st person over 3rd person and vice versa? It's a matter of preference, yes, and that can't be helped.

But let's get one fact out in the open: Out of N+C's 5 main VNs, only one is told in first person POV in the JP/original version, and that's DMMD.

The other game that used 1st person narration is Slow Damage's spinoff game, Clean Dishes, but not the main/parent game itself.

And even years before they got licensed, the fan patches followed the intended narration viewpoint of the first 4 VNs. Third person for Togainu no Chi, Lamento, and Sweet Pool, and first person for DMMD.

Their respective localized versions (except Lamento), also followed the intended narration viewpoint, and nobody complained because that was all they knew.

But because Slow Damage's localization took the creative liberty of changing the narration from third to first person, with people exposed to it, it's not really surprising some have gotten accustomed enough to end up preferring it.

Even when another version that retells the game in original narration comes up, for the past two years, the localization has been what they knew, and that is what many usually then decide to stick to.

In the scenario where the localization - even if it would still be a mess - never changed the narration, would people still say "Oh but they should've changed it to 1st person since it would've enhanced the story"?

It's telling that it never happened with Togainu no Chi, Sweet Pool and DMMD, no?

And before anyone tells me that I just hate localizations overall, you don't hear me complaining about the official translation of any of the BLVNs that Mangagamer licensed, do you? I also have plenty of gripes with DMMD's fan translation over what it did to Mink.

[floofymeow]

Its so cute ars!!! Gahhhhh

"Ratio, is that... you?" "...Cease your gawking, gambler."

[floofymeow]

CaLoserrr_

[floofymeow]

INTRODUCTION

Hello, and welcome to BLBL ~ The Brilliant Library of Boys Love!

As the wonderful genre of BL continues to gain a sizable worldwide audience, more and more English language works inspired and influenced by the OG BL of East Asia are being created.

Some time ago, members of our BL writing and reading community thought it would be nice to have a comprehensive online index of English language BL, so that BL lovers everywhere could easily find these works.

We are pleased and excited to announce that the Brilliant Library is on the way!!!

On our website, you’ll find links to original English Language BL (M/M) webnovels, webcomics, ebooks, traditionally published novels, graphic novels and more! The index will be searchable by subgenres, tags, and filters, and we’re working on features such as user reading lists and recommendations.

And, while our initial focus will begin with BL, we have future plans to expand the list to include all expressions of QL media!

We’re still hard at work building the site, but you can stay tuned for updates by following our socials ~

BLBL-Official@tumblr

BLBL-Official@bsky

or by joining the BL Palace discord server

[floofymeow]

The votes are in, and our website has a name!!!

After voting, the name “BLBL” (Brilliant Library of Boys Love) accrued the most points and won!

Many thanks to everyone who voted in the Great Name Debate!

Stay tuned and get the latest updates by following us at

BLBL-Official@tumblr  

BLBL-Official@bsky  

or by joining the BL Palace discord server

[floofymeow]

BLwrimo, this November 2024!

69 words a day

6969 words a week

696,969 words in total across the server!

Come to the BL Palace discord server to write with us!

Thanks to ars and floofy for the banner.

[floofymeow]

Minamoto Shinji

[floofymeow]

BL Thoughts (review…?) #1:

90 chapters with about 80 chapters of main story and 10 of extras!

I started reading this one like in the evening bc I was looking for smth extremely brain dead — hence the active choice to read MTL. I find that mtl is just the fast food of webnovels. It’s so easy to consume and mind numbing that I read it to bed gnjghvfjdkssss

It’s abt an MC with a small cub orphanage in an interstellar world who has downloaded this virtual lover game and has to pretend to be his lover — amused, the MC continues to play the game, only to find out the virtual lover has real life effects and ends up face slapping everyone who gets in the MC’s way.

I was so entertained by how many random arcs of things the MC would do — cooking, gaming, cub raising, singing, and streaming — and seeing random antagonist characters get out in their place scratched the usual trashy itch of face slapping bl.

I’m also just a trashy reader who likes the bl trope of online NPC lover is actually real sooo im pretty biased in enjoyment

The game scenarios featuring the ML were super funny, but sometimes they would only converse for maybe a scene while switching in and out ( I really wanted to see the ML more he was the typical attractive ML and I still ate it up) of the real world

Ok but the crazy part is I read it SO casually and by the end I was highkey tearing up from the attachment I built on the characters. Like the mc is so lonely 🥹🥹and he misses his parents so much and it randomly just kinda bludgeons u in a chapter where he just like mourns that his parents aren’t alive and he’ll never see them again 😭😭😭😭

Ignoring the fact that they were alive all along lol and got not even a single extra chapter cameo …… lfmaooooo

The ML was highkey decently fun and a chill break from the usual toxically obsessed “u are the only reason I don’t destroy this world” type deal… ok kinda not really lol!!! But but he actively worked on doing good for the world as it’s like AI ruler or whatever. The plot kinda cracked me up that it was a reversal of evil AI good government lolollllfhfhjfdjddds

The twists and overarching plot were very consistent and in line with what I expect from an 80 chapter wbenovell I really liked em!!

The worst part is despite how mediocre / rough the story was it still got me sniffling with tears for a few chapters near the end, bc I got really attached to wanting to see the MC succeed. It really felt like he deserved happiness bc it came across very well that he had been struggling for a long time before the ML came around 💗💗

Anyways blah blah no stakes ever blah conflicts non existent and could get easily bored binging blah blah ml and mc don’t actually have chemistry or personalities blah blah blah the usual stuff lol

pretty decent read overall would never subject someone to it

3 stars for making me look forward to bed every night hahahaha

⭐️⭐️⭐️

[floofymeow]

I swear trying to write smut feels like:

His hands were hands and then the fingers were in the hand and the hand was with the fingers and the fingers had the hand in the other hand then the fingers dragged to the hand with the fingers and it was hot

[floofymeow]

Life of Lea Volume 1 Prologue: Chapter 0: Last Day of Normal

[Note:Drawn back in 2017 and will now be rebooted and updated]

[floofymeow]

BUNNY TOWA INTEREST CHECK

[Reblogs are really appreciated! <3]

I have designed a Towa plushie and I would like to make him a reality 🥺👉👈 If you like the design and would like to get one fill out the form!

[floofymeow]

I wish more English-subbed Cdramas would leave the Chinese subs there as well. My Chinese learning is greatly helped by having both.

Ah, well, there are always the song lyrics.

[floofymeow]

Warning: self-indulgent writer moping ahead.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the day I began writing Salvage, and I'm looking at about 20-25 chapters until it's finally finished. It currently stands at 162,000 words.

I had no idea it would end up this long. It was supposed to be a 25 chapter NaNoWriMo style thing. Oops.

I really wish I had been able to keep it to that length. This whole experience has been a rollercoaster of pride in accomplishment vs. soul-crushing disappointment. I started posting it online in hopes that I'd get some readers to give me feedback and cheer me on, but that never really happened. It's only got a handful of regular readers, and of those only a spare few are at all interactive, so a downward spiral began where I'd get discouraged about it and take long hiatuses, which certainly didn't help with reader attraction or retention.

I've been on a pretty good streak of getting chapters out lately, and I really don't know where this boost in motivation has come from. At this point I suspect it's just a grudge match to get the thing finished.

After that... I have ideas I've been putting off because I'd feel guilty for writing anything but Salvage just now. Let's see if I haven't burned out my remaining optimism by the time I finish this one.

Ok. 20-25 chapters. I can do this let's go.

[floofymeow]

BL Readers/ Writers

Feel free to wax philosophical and fanatical in a post, tags, or the comments! Have you written a BL in these settings? Have you read one you can't forget? Let's hear about it!

[floofymeow]

adding them to reading list rn lol!

BL I'm currently reading

There are two BL that I'm currently obsessively reading. Both of them are xianxia-setting stories, and both of them involve making cool things!!!

Industrial Cultivation / 工业修真[直播]

修仙也要双休日 (Cultivation also requires weekends off)

[floofymeow]

explain your gender in 10 words or less without using boring words like “male”, “female”, “nonbinary”, “masculine”, “feminine” or “androgynous”.

go!

[floofymeow]

OC Picrew Tag!

Use this beautiful picrew to show us your ocs!

This is one of the prettiest Picrews I've some across and I'd love to see your ocs 'crewed in style!

There's no rush, take your time to find all of its features, and if you do multiple ocs feel free to make multiple reblogs as you add them.

Here are my four mains from Salvage - Kazia, Kelvaran, Abrizhen, and Tamyn.

Gently tagging @the-golden-comet, @wyked-ao3, @floofymeow, @ladymoonpearl, @bafflinghaze, @gioiaalbanoart, @oliolioxenfreewrites, @ashfordlabs, +OPEN TAG the more the merrier!