#''Why be interested in them? They're just random people. I'm just watching their videos I don't really care who they are or what they do''

[royalarchivist]

In case you missed it, Jaiden just uploaded a new video! Congrats to her for 10 years of beautiful, funny, and heartfelt storytime animations!

[herejusttosufferalong]

So did N post the Brazil restaurant pics and talk about it in an interview (a bit randomly) because she knew a lot of people were taking pics of them, and she wanted to control the narrative? Play it down and hush rumours? I don't recall her posting any other dinner photos during the tour?

Given the precise timing, I suspect the new photos/video that were released today may have been taken by staff who were under a 90-day NDA (from Part 1 release). I know of other photos that were posted in real time of L and N at the hotel restaurant. For some reason, they were not restricted to post? Maybe just a casual diner or guest? It just occurred to me that the two photos of them (on different nights) taken from a distance may have been screenshots from a video, as the quality is so poor? That's an interesting thought.

Then there's the NY Premiere videos. Why were some released in real time while others were released precisely 90 days after the release of part 1? Why would NDAs apply to some people but not others? Unless the videos posted today were purely by influencers via their official accounts and the other videos posted in real time were from random guests and anonymously leaked?

I'm confused as to why NDAs would be in place? Is it just a safeguard in case anything scandalous happened that would effect viewership numbers? And in the case of the Brazil hotel, just a general privacy thing? But why would it be limited to 90 days if that's the case? Unless they thought something would happen at the hotel that could effect viewership numbers?

Idk. I'm so confused about today. Particularly when you pair it with the week of posting from N. No surprises she posted something social awareness related today (all eyes on her) either because she anticipated today's events OR she had a look at her socials and saw that things had been posted and wanted to make the most of public interest. But still, why the lead up with her own cryptic and love-struck posts? And radio silence from L and all adjacents since he posted the Bridgerton bloopers?

Here are my key takeaways from today (and this week):

They spent a shit ton of time together in Brazil, and didn't get sick of each other. Even going to two separate restaurants in the hotel on one night. They had at least two outings together, without their teams in earshot, across two nights.

He enjoys grabbing her hand unnecessarily just as much as she enjoys grabbing his. Their level of physical affection is unsettling to me, even when certain adjacents are around.

Certain adjacents are just hanging around, whether they know they're being filmed or not. Where is the affection or physical comfort?

A few days before the Premiere, N posts a song about waiting for someone, asking them to give her 'a look again' to get things going. Then in the week leading up to the end of a 90-day period from Part 1 release (and possible NDA expiration), she proceeds to post about someone giving her a call after not hearing from them in a while, and admitting their love for one another (the caller expressing their feelings first). She then posts a song about getting it on with a person where there's no pretending, who knows her so well. Someone who makes her want to dress up and go dancing. Makes me think of that song she posted after S3 filming (I think) and possibly again during tour? - "we should kiss like real people do". What's this whole theme about pretending vs. reality? Being real/yourself vs. fake? What's this in relation to? I mean, I have a few theories...

I can feel it in my loins that the next few days are going to be enlightening, and could literally go in any direction. But did any of us predict this turn of events in what was suppose to be the 'dry period' before s4 filming begins??? This is honestly the best show I've ever watched.

.

[tumb1rprincess]

Random Thoughts About the Magnus Archives

I feel like something's being said about your personality depending on which avatars you like and which ones you want to drop dead, I just don't know what. Like, anytime Peter showed up, I'd be like "You're a bitch ass, go away." But anytime distortion Michael made an appearance, I'd be like "That's my baby boy!" And there are a few that are kind of in between. Like with Nikola, I was like "You freak me the fuck out, but you're funny, so I guess that evens it out."

I think it's so interesting how despite a lot of the characters not getting any physical descriptions, a lot of artists in the fandom draw them the same way. Like, Melanie almost always has colorful hair, usually blue. Jon's hair gets longer with every season. Helen is almost always wearing purple. I just wonder how everyone unanimously agreed on some of this stuff.

I thought the Leitner rant was a canon thing, so I avoided anything about it 'cause I wanted to be surprised. I think near the end of the series though I finally looked it up and I was like "What!? This was a fan thing?" Totally hilarious though, I kind of felt the same way about Leitner.

The inside jokes are fucking hilarious, like the "homophobic vase." Or we have classics like "I just listened to the episode where the guy has sex with a bug." "Oh, which one?" and "Peter and Elias are definitely divorced."

Seeing what episodes scared people and which ones had people going "Actually, that sounds kind of nice" was very interesting. Like, episode 57 where the guy was stuck all alone in space? Emotionally destroyed me. But then others would be like "Yo, being able to be all alone in space with no one to bother me? Sign me up."

Also interesting to see which Fears scared people the most and which ones they think they would end up serving. I think the Buried scared me the most. Episodes 15, 132, and 195 freaking terrified me. I'd probably end up serving the Lonely, I remember thinking "Oh, that's me," with a lot of episodes, particularly episodes 159, 170, 186. It was a weird combination of "I'm in this statement and I don't like it" and "I actually feel seen." Like a weird mix of being called out and also kind of validated because I felt like my thoughts and feelings were finally being put into words and that meant somebody else had gone through the same thing.

What were some popular fan theories that ended up not coming true? I think I saw somewhere that a lot of people were theorizing that Martin would join the Web before he ended up serving the Lonely instead. People often say Gravity Falls fans grew up to be Magnus Archives fans and I remember Gravity Falls fans going crazy with some of the theories. And even if some of them ended up not happening, they're still really interesting.

I love how a lot of the characters do shitty things, but you completely understand why. Like, Melanie's wrong for blaming Jon for a lot of things that go wrong, but you understand that she feels trapped like an animal in a cage, so she's just lashing out. Or Tim is kind of an asshole in season 3, but you understand because he went through a lot of the same trauma that Jon did, he's just reacting with anger instead of paranoia.

I've been watching a lot of fan animations for this show and a lot of the comments are like "I checked out the Magnus Archives because of this video!" And the same thing happened to me too. Did you guys see any fan animations that made you decide to give this show a go?

When people draw Jon with long hair, they draw him like he’s the prettiest man alive and I love it. That or ends up looking like Jesus or Bruno Madrigal

I see every day things like a spiral shaped object or a spider and I jokingly think “Is that a Magnus Archives reference?” Or I’ll be listening to a song and think “Hmm, that could go in a Lonely playlist” or “Ooo, that so fits with the Vast.”

[shakingparadigm]

For the ask game: Hyuna!!🔥

HI TOON THANK YOU!!

favorite thing about them:

Man, what's not to like... she's just a fantastic character all around, probably the most likeable character in my personal opinion! I love her perserverance and her incredibly strong sense of self. Her character design is also just so incredible, probably the most unique and distinct character in the cast (shades?? almost 6ft?? abs??? a prosthetic leg???)

She's just so badass.... save me noona......

least favorite thing about them:

I don't really have anything that I dislike about Hyuna honestly. Maybe a cause of concern would be her habits of drinking and smoking but hey she's grown and reclaiming her freedom so really she can do whatever she wants with her life!

favorite line:

This might be a weird one but "A bird is set free​" from All-In has always stood out to me. It carries a certain feeling and just perfectly encapsulates Hyuna. The shot that's presented during this line is one of my favorite Hyuna frames too.

(Honorable Mention: "c-cheers!" man I love Hyuna.)

brOTP:

MIZI AND TILL!!! I love the idea of Till acting as an adopted little brother to Hyuna (is this a Hyunwoo coping mechanism? Who knows). Of course her fellow rebels Dewey and Isaac as well! I also think Hyuna and Ivan would get along (suprisingly enough). She'd have a hard time figuring him out at first, but eventually they'd warm up to each other and probably be gym buddies or something.

OTP:

Hyuluka is the given of course since they're paired together.... while I don't have any particularly strong feelings about it in a romantic sense I find their relationship incredibly interesting to analyze and think about. Hyuluka and Ivantill are really in the same boat of obssessive perfect guy x rebel who does not like them back 😭

A ship that I genuinely do find adorable (and super underrated) is offrec/actor Hyuluka!! Offrec Luka seems much more chill and down-to-earth but also kinda jaded because he had to go through the whole idol thing which he hated. Offrec Hyuna is bright, innocent and the youngest of the cast which I find really cute.... there's this one offrec fancomic I like where Luka gets flustered because Hyuna approached him and then immediately deflating when he finds out she just wanted an autograph 😭 cute

nOTP:

Honestly haven't seen many other Hyuna ships besides Hyuluka.

random headcanon:

Hyuna has accidentally seriously fucked people over with her voice mimicry talent. At one point she was begged to stop doing it because she kept freaking people out.

unpopular opinion:

Okay, this one is a bit long and kind of less an opinion and more of a story, but I will admit that at first I really did not like All-In. LISTEN TO ME OKAY SAVE THE GUILLOTINE FOR LATER.

I fell off of Alien Stage after ROUND 5. I saw ROUND 1 and ROUND 2 and while I found them interesting, I didn't really think about them that much. ROUND 5 was the only one that caught my attention enough for me to come back to the video maybe 4 or 5 times after my first watch, even searching about Alien Stage on social media and stuff. Still, I wasn't too invested yet.

When I saw All-In freshly released on my Youtube page I was like "oh hey it's this thing again. there's a new one? okay" and out of curiosity I watched it.

I don't know what it was, but something about All-In just did not click with me at first 😭 I remember feeling as though it sounded kind of dissonant? Like something was a bit off with the instrumental, maybe it sounded a little low in volume or something. The rhythm of the song threw me off a little and I could not for the life of me explain why. This is purely personal by the way, I'm no professional music analyst or anything, it just seemed weird to me personally at first.

But that's the thing. Because I found it so strangely off, I kept coming back to the video (it helped that the visuals were absolutely banging). Everytime it showed up on my homepage I would just sit there and watch it entranced like a zombie and I couldn't even explain why. At one point I woke up at 1AM, opened my phone, and watched All-In completely unmoving expressionless unblinking in the dark of my room, then shut the phone off and immediately knocked out again. Once again I cannot explain this. That video had me in an absolute chokehold no joke. Eventually I started to understand it more and it really grew on me, to the point where I played it in the shower on loop and then proceeded to start the rest of my days with the damn thing. I began to get curious about the deeper aspects of Alien Stage, took the plunge, and now we're here.

Anyways, that's the story of how my opinion on All-In went from "this sounds kinda off" to "this is the best thing to ever be created by human hands". All-In is now one of my most favorite ALNST songs and Hyuna absolutely killed it in her debut video. Sorry I couldn't understand the true extent of your genius back then queen, but at least I do now.

song i associate with them:

Eight by Sleeping At Last

When I see fragile things, helpless things, broken things,

I see the familiar

I was little, I was weak, I was perfect, too

Now I'm a broken mirror

But I can't let you see all that I have to lose

All I've lost in the fight to protect it

I can't let you in, I swore never again

I can't afford to let myself be blindsided

favorite picture of them:

It's come to my attention that Hyuna was being taken away by the guards. I didn't notice because she just looked so cool in this shot 😭

[chrysalis-the-butterfly]

People who have been following me since 2022 will know that I have a bad habit of becoming obsessed with things I haven't actually watched. The Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers film became my new special interest in 2022, but I didn't watch it in full until 2023, when I finally got Disney+.

Well, it's happening again.

Right now, I'm mildly obsessed with Hazbin Hotel.

Now, I haven't seen none of it. I've watched the pilot on YouTube, and I've watched the first episode of the Prime Video series (which is freely available on YouTube). I don't have Prime Video, so I haven't seen the rest of it.

But I have been listening to the songs, browsing Tumblr for talking points, and watching scattered clips and reviews and essays on YouTube - which is basically what I was doing with Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.

I'm a Christian (awkward!), and it initially bothered me that the show didn't mention God or Jesus at all. Not that I'd have wanted them to poke fun at God or Jesus ... but I'd assumed the series was meant to be a satire of Christianity, pointing out how much it sucks that its believers can be so judgmental and unforgiving when the faith is supposed to be about love and forgiveness. So I was quite surprised by the reveal that the angels don't actually know what gets you into Heaven. What, you don't even have the Ten Commandments? You don't have any rules that you impose? You can't satirise Christianity if you don't understand what you're satirising!

But upon reflection, I guess Hazbin Hotel is meant to be seen more as a cautionary tale about hypocrisy and second chances and redemption - about those concepts in general, rather than how they're (mis)used specifically by Christians. It's about how the people preemptively labelled "bad" who do bad things are clearly proving they're bad, while the people labelled "good" who do bad things are defended and justified because there must have been a good reason for what they did. Even if a good reason isn't apparent. And the settings of Heaven and Hell are just being used as vehicles for that social commentary.

It seems as though Hazbin Hotel is not really about Heaven and Hell, it's about life on Earth. But there are still some things that are interesting to think about from a theological viewpoint.

To close this slightly rambling post, here are some even more scattered thoughts, which may evolve if I actually get to watch the full thing:

EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!

"You Didn't Know" is a banger!

As is "Poison". Kind of reminds me of "All You Wanna Do" from Six: The Musical - in that it's a bop, but the lyrics are dark because they're about sexual abuse.

I really enjoy the "I'm a Disney Princess in a Hellish landscape" thing that Charlie's got going on.

EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!

I hope we get to see more of Emily and more of Heaven in the second season.

I wasn't sure about Vaggie at first, but she's grown on me.

My favourite characters are Charlie, Vaggie, Emily and Angel Dust. I refer to them as Charlie's Angels.

EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!

After a year of basically binge-watching loads of kids' cartoons on Disney+, it's still feels jarring to watch a cartoon where people say the F-word a lot.

Wait, Angel Dust has a twin sister? Molly? And she might be in Heaven? Is that girl with four legs we see in Heaven supposed to be Molly, or is she just a random background character? Why is she in Heaven when Angel Dust isn't? Are they going to be reunited? Is Molly friends with Emily?

EMILY IS PRECIOUS AND MUST BE PROTECTED!

[james-stark-the-writer]

terrible news, i tried to watch the Friendly Space Ninja Riverdale finale video again and i think i've pinpointed my problem with his videos, specifically the Riverdale ones but also just his general approach to media criticism, it's just the terrible wave of "objective criticism" we had on youtube with shitheads like Mauler but framed as just a more subjective opinion and it tries to pretend like that makes it any better, which it doesn't, like it really doesn't, because the underlying assumption that there is only one way to tell any type of story is just such a terrible thing for art but also he just fundamentally doesn't understand what type of art Riverdale is and there's just such a sheer lack of even attempting to treat it as a serious piece of art because the assumption is already that because popular consensus is that it sucks (the critical consensus has actually been consistently fucking great, you could just go look at the Rotten Tomatoes scores or even check out the legacy section on Riverdale's Wikipedia page), that means it automatically is trash, it never gets the opportunity to fight for itself because it's never given the chance to be thought of as a piece of art. it's an insistence that writing is the only way to analyze an audio-visual medium and like sure, writing doesn't "age" the same way other elements might, but audiences do age and change and evolve, media criticism does too, there's a reason people appreciate the Star Wars prequels more now than they ever did at release because we understand different ways of appreciating art now beyond the base insistence that conventionally "good" writing is the only thing to aim for (the prequels are actually well written but let's not get into THAT rn), that doesn't make the prequels "bad," it just means the prequels are different. i find the whole good/bad paradigm pretty suffocating in the first place but this is just so exhausting and i cannot believe that I've just managed to articulate it bc it seems shockingly obvious in retrospect.

also the video in question is just like factually wrong multiple times, he flat out admits he skips a lot of the season but then complains that the season doesn't make sense when he's jumping in at a random point, he complains that the previous seasons are meaningless but it's like has he forgotten that the audience doesn't forget stuff even if the characters have (and they even get their memories back in a thematically important and resonant moment the defines who the characters want to be so it's not really even entirely sound criticism) and that the show is intentionally trying to do interesting parallels and reversals of the stuff we've seen before, it's like commenting on itself because season 7 is a nostalgic look back at what the comics have been and what the show started from, and about the nostalgic feelings of that time and their appeal contrasted with the brutal truths of the reality of the situation, like this is just basic art criticism, i'm not even like trying to defend the season, like i don't even like season 7 that much, i think it's one of the more boring seasons and it ranks towards the middle for me, but like this is not like deep criticism where you're thinking and analyzing a lot, this is just seeing what the plot of the episodes is and what they're trying to communicate, it's just maddening how fucking exhausting the objective criticism shit is but it's actually even more grating when you don't pretend to be superior about it because it makes it seem like you're not even bold enough to stand by your opinions and actually embrace the implication present in the shit you are saying, like it's just cowardice, honestly. but anyway, glad i figured it out, because it was honestly irritating me that i couldn't articulate why i didn't like those videos beyond just them being wrong about Riverdale on like a factual level and him just not understanding what it's trying to say as a piece of art.

the point of this isn't to say that i think he's making these arguments in bad faith or anything, i do think these are genuinely opinions he holds, and they are valid opinions for him to hold, i'm not saying they're invalid, you can prefer one aspect of a piece of media over other aspects because it's more important to you, that's okay, i'm just saying they're misinformed takes and generally display a shocking lack of imagination and respect for art and no desire to broaden his horizons.

anyway, if you actually want to understand the appeal of Riverdale, the Super Eyepatchwolf video is pretty good, i still disagree with it a lot but at least the man tries to understand why people like the show and he even gets some part of the appeal, and we are going to get 4 5-hour videos from Lily Simpson over the next few months so i'm looking forward to those, bc Lily generally tends to at least understand the appeal of the stuff she talks about, and the title of the first video ("the captivating madness of Riverdale" [though i don't love the use of "madness"]) is already enough to make me feel like somebody kinda gets it and hopefully it'll be more coherent actual art analysis.

[i-like-anything-water]

Hey, me again! I was curious: What would your thoughts be on a Chloenette AU in which both Chloe and Marinette play video games as a way to vent stress, and end up starting to date online... while totally unaware who the other is IRL? Hey, the question mark is working this time! But yeah, I kinda picture Chloe as the type of person who SAYS she doesn't like video games because they are for "nerds," but actually has a bunch of really expensive gamer gear, and Marinette is a confirmed gamer in the show.

Hello!

Oh god, this would be very hilarious and fluffy. At first Chloe really doesn't like videogames cause why would she spend her day staring at a damn screen when she can do other things? (Like staring at her phone screen while shopping lmao). But she changed her mind when Adrien started inviting her over to watch and boy, was he super ridiculous.

"Adrikins!" She cries out, snatching the controller from the boy, "You are an Agreste! You do not lose to anyone, especially commoners over a stupid game!"

She actually managed to win third place but being the competitive brat that she is, she was pissed and vowed to get first place. What started as merely watching and commenting became her and Adrien's 'training' to beat random people online.

She still insisted it was kept a secret though. She was a Bourgeois, utterly unacceptable!

I'm not good with videogames myself so I don't have a specific game in mind. But I'm thinking of some rpg or where there's roles and heroes and stuff and Chloe meets a player who's ticked her off.

Marinette was sleep deprived and just had to beat an annoying akuma and wanted to play in peace and relieve her stress when this very flashy and expensive looking player just...poked her. She poked her back. And it ended with them just running around and decided to go on one adventure. Just one, she was intrigued after all.

Chloe didn't mean to poke her. She accidentally pressed her controller and it poked this player that just gave her some sort of... something. And it poked her back! She got an invite and despite being confused about the whole thing, she accepts.

And that's where it all started.

They became friends after learning how compatible they are during missions. Chloe was still wary of people finding out about her interest in games so she kept some part of her life vague, especially her name. Marinette didn't mind, she was just happy to talk to her friend.

They open up, learn stuff about each other and one thing leads to another and bam, they're girlfriends!

This bleeds on to their personal life and since Chloe is mostly on cloud nine, she doesn't bully people like usual and everyone is surprised (and slightly worried that the apocalypse is near or there's a reality bending akuma). Everyone including Marinette.

Marinette is also ecstatic (she's told Alya and some others about her girlfriend and they were very happy for her) but she can't help but notice and be curious about her rival's sudden change of attitude. She wanted to ask but they're getting along more easily (by this, they don't try to go at each other's throat by just locking eyes) so...maybe as long as nothing major changes....

It's during the upcoming competition does certain major changes come. Marinette is with Max, Adrien and some other kid talking about signing up for the competition. Chloe overhears and being the girlfriend of an amazing gamer, she couldn't help but brag.

"Hmp, your skills are no match to my girlfriend's! She'll wipe the floor with your tears when she's done with you." Her girlfriend had mentioned last night she was thinking of signing up for their school's competition and Chloe found out it's different schools battling each other. She had been excited! Her girlfriend shared her excitement and planned to see each other and introduce themselves formally when the competition comes. Chloe wanted to support her girlfriend after all.

Max looks like he stopped working, Adrien is beaming and Marinette is shocked. Wait...

"Girlfriend?!"

"Anything wrong with that, Dupain-Cheng?!"

"What? No, no! Oh god, no! I was just..shocked." so that explains the happy moods. Max still looked shocked. Then again, this was Chloe. It wasn't even the girlfriend part. It was the, uh, someone actually wanted to date Chloe? That wasn't Adrien or some famous celebrity? And Chloe wanted them too?

"Whatever, Dupain-Cheng. My girlfriend is one of the best and she's trying out for the competition and I'll be there to support her! I feel sorry for any of you who'd be up against her."

Chloe rolled her eyes and walked away from the shocked group, muttering how they're definitely going to lose.

"Marinette." Max finally speaks.

"Hmmm?"

"There's a 89% chance you will experience sudden dizziness and faint, but didn't you just tell me you also had a gamer girlfriend who happened to be blonde and is coming to support you?"

Oh. Oh.

"She has ten seconds before she - oh wait, no, she's already fainted. Thank you for catching her, Adrien."

[epickiya722]

I do not know if it was you, or another blogger that made a character analysis of Gojo that made me like the character and discover more about him through the manga.

While I never read the manga before or watched the anime, I had been exposed to it by my friends and some BNHA bloggers. Back then, I found Gojo to be overhyped (discount Kakashi) while liking the animation(?) style, bit still no interest.

BNHA and its Endeavour Redemption arc in the doing was tiring me to the point that I stopped reading it and manga altogether. For mayne six months or so, until now, at least. I randomly found your blog last week , and it got me a new hyper fixation 😃. You got me to start reading JJK (Megan cos playing also helps).

I bought Number 0 and Number 1 of the mangas. Only to remember midway in Number 0 that Walmart Kakashi will be snapped in two like a Kit Kat🥲. I saw that leak in one of the BNHA blogs, and I didn't mind it back then since I wasn't in the fandom, but Lord, now it sucks.

Anyways, all this long rant to say that I like reading your posts.

Gojo, rest in pain, I guess?

Probably was someone else, I don't write much analysis posts about Gojo. I think once or twice I did, I can't recall. Probably reblogged one though you saw!

I don't know, they're really just two different characters to me. Also... I was never really an active reader or watcher of Naruto like that (just very familiar) so when I first saw Gojo, Kakashi didn't register to me at all.

Like, I did not get similar vibes at all. And it actually annoys me that people will be like "He copied Kakashi's flow"! Kakashi ain't the only white haired, face covering character out there with magical eyes, y'all stop. 😆

Even funnier when, by this point, Gojo has probably been unmasked more than he has been wearing something on his face and switches up what he puts on his face. Kakashi been wearing the same mask for...? Also, didn't it take years for Kakashi's whole face to be shown or something? Took like seven episodes for Gojo to show that face.

**

I always been a fan of Megan's music and then when I found out she was into anime I was like "YYYYYEEEEEAAAAH". She cosplayed as Miruko one Halloween and it made my year. I am a former believer that Miruko would vibe to her music.

Just seeing other Black women being unapologetic fans of anime (or anything) does wonders for me and I hate it when people act as if it's such a foreign idea to understand. Honey, we can have interests, too, like everyone else. It's normal.

**

I always try to be careful about spoilers for anything I'm into. Like, I can talk about a chapter that happened two years ago, but I'll still mark as a spoiler because I know some people don't read Mangas or even if they do haven't caught up to that specific part.

That actually what set me off when Usher cosplayed as Gojo because he literally put "rest in peace, Gojo" or something along those lines and the amount of people who weren't even aware of 236... like bro, come on.

I knew it just had to be a marketing tactic because I know damn well Usher ain't seen JJK a day in his life and how convenient it is he comes out with that cosplay around the time when "Daddy's Home" becomes a fairly popular song used in Gojo's edits. I can't go watching one video on YouTube without hearing that song play when Gojo pops up. And even if he has... WHY WOULD YOU TAG IT LIKE THAT?!

Oh, but Megan definitely doesn't know any of the characters she be cosplaying, alright... okay... 🙄

I'm just going off on a whole tangent here, I apologize for that. I've been sick for like three days and just woke up from a nap. 😅

**

Also, thank you! Glad you enjoy my posts!! Anytime anyone says they like reading my posts, I still get shocked. They're really are just random thoughts I been having and really I'm still learning grasping the characters and story myself. And this is just for any. I don't even for them to get read, let alone for anyone to actually agree with me. I guess because, at the end of the day, I really just needed to throw a thought out there before I lose it or keep rethinking about it over and over.

[riddlerosehearts]

okay, the other day i watched a playthrough of the emperor's new groove video game for playstation 1. a game which, for various reasons, i have never actually played myself. but i wrote down a lot of things about it that i'd now like to share. this is basically a combination of my own thoughts on the game and a summary of all the insane things that happened in it:

the game begins after kuzco has already been turned into a llama and pacha is saying he can't help unless he builds kuzcotopia somewhere else. in the movie this is the scene which leads into kuzco going off into the jungle by himself, but the game has you start by exploring the general area of the village around pacha's hut, where his kids hang out and teach you the mechanics. kuzco also knows from the beginning that yzma is trying to kill him and encounters her as a boss multiple times in the story.

it's fully voice acted, and this is the first time that j.p. manoux had voiced kuzco. he would go on to voice kuzco in the emperor's new school and in various other projects, and while it would've been nice if they could've gotten david spade for these, i think he does a good job. pacha's voice actor is different from either the movie or the show--it's john goodman in the movie + season 2 of the show, fred tatasciore in s1 of the show, and brian cummings here--but he's not too bad either.

pacha: "don't take the villagers' coins!" kuzco: "the villagers are MY people, so those are MY coins."

tipo: "by pressing your action button, you can smash these red pots" kuzco: "good, i feel like smashing something!"

i'm kind of obsessed with the fact that these sort of standard mechanics that you don't normally think about, like keeping money you found on the ground and destroying people's belongings in order to steal their money and items, are explained in this game by the protagonist being an entitled asshole. also obsessed with tipo encouraging kuzco's destructive behavior.

chaca: "this pad raises the columns to form steps! once they're triggered, you better be quick before they lower again." kuzco: "uh, ever thought of making them stay up for good when you press the pad?" chaca: "uhh... no." kuzco: "don't tell me, you got the brains in the family."

KUZCO DON'T BULLY A CHILD AKJDSFHHDJSKGSG

there's a mechanic where you can continue playing from your last checkpoint after dying as long as you've collected a wampy. what's a wampy? it's the name of the funky looking plushie that kuzco has as a baby in the first movie and then again in kronk's new groove:

the above screenshots are from the emperor's new groove, kronk's new groove, and the video game respectively. this is a bit of a tangent, but something i find interesting is that in the emperor's new school kuzco secretly carries a plushie named wampy around everywhere for comfort and that plushie has the same basic design but completely different colors:

and the purple wampy is never seen in the show, so i can only conclude that kuzco keeps multiple of these plushies that all share the same name. maybe he leaves the purple one at home so it doesn't have to endure the horrors of high school.

anyway, back to the game--every time you collect a wampy kuzco hugs it and says things like "awww, it's my wampyyyy" in a cute little baby talk voice. fucking dork <3

there are several little scenes during the village section of the game where chaca and tipo keep showing up to give tutorials and he just keeps making snarky comments at them and asking why they're there and if they don't have anything better to do.

in one of these scenes, tipo shows up to teach kuzco how to open doors and kuzco just goes "how did you get here so fast?". to which tipo replies that this is a game. another time, when chaca explains to kuzco how the wampy mechanic works, he asks how she knows all this and she goes "i don't know! beats me!"

there's a part where some random villager tells llama kuzco to stay away from his statues and kuzco goes "i'm the emperor! open the door or i'll smash your statue to pieces!"

the guy runs off screaming "DEMON LLAMAAAAA!!" and then tipo suddenly shows up to teach you how to smash the statues. i think chicha may need to keep a closer eye on tipo in the future.

SPEAKING OF CHICHA. SHE'S NOT IN THIS FUCKING GAME. if i were actually playing the game and doing a proper review of it i would automatically have to dock points for the lack of chicha.

at the beginning kuzco breaks some kid's llama bike and then the kid keeps showing up in every single chapter with a new bike and challenging kuzco to races. he somehow manages to show up everywhere from the top of a waterfall to the middle of yzma's roller coaster and never once questions why this llama is such a jerk or why he can even talk. also, toward the end of the game you race him one last time and his bike breaks for the millionth time and he says he learned a valuable lesson. that lesson? that these llama bikes suck and he needs to stop buying them.

kuzco hates being touched so much that anytime a guard, bug, bird, etc touches him he says "no touchy" and then loses health.

at one point kuzco gets turned into a turtle and kronk shows up and asks if he's there to enter the annual village race. he refuses at first but then it turns out kronk has an item that kuzco needs to progress, sooooo you have to have turtle kuzco slide on his back down the hill and try to beat kronk in the race.

kronk is voiced by patrick warburton again btw. eartha kitt also returned as yzma for the game. they both returned for each season of the emperor's new school as well, and i believe eartha kitt in particular loved voicing yzma so much that every time they needed her, right up until her death, she showed up.

kuzco cries if you lose the race against kronk, which is understandable considering that losing means he has to climb up to the top of the hill as a turtle again.

at the end of the village section you have to run from yzma as she throws bombs at kuzco and once you manage to get away, kuzco says "you call yourself an end of level boss, yzma? you're rubbish! toodles!"

after this, kuzco ends up going into the jungle despite pacha's repeated warnings that it's too dangerous. and now instead of chaca and tipo, a talking bug trapped in a spiderweb appears to teach him additional mechanics.

when the jaguars from the movie show up kuzco says "time out" and then the frame freezes while he explains to YOU, the player, what you'll have to do to save him.

during the waterfall section chaca is somehow there AGAIN, at the top of the waterfall in a pink llama pool floatie, and is like "oh wow, another llama tied to a log!" (apparently one showed up the previous week) but does not react at all to her dad also being tied to a log. she just explains to them how this level is gonna work and then leaves.

she pops back up again a little later (still on the waterfall. they stretched this part of the movie out a lot) and calls kuzco "kinda short for a llama".

speaking of the game stretching things out a lot, pacha literally says during the waterfall levels: "this scene was much shorter in the film".

there's a whole other jungle section where kuzco spends an extensive amount of time having been turned into a frog. tipo randomly appears to help again during this section.

there's another race with kronk in an icy area that shows kronk to be an excellent ice skater. i would probably be terrible at this if i played the game.

when they finally get into the city kuzco tells pacha he knows the streets like the back of his hand and pacha replies, "but kuzco, you're a llama, you don't have any hands!"

when they separate and kuzco sneaks on his own into the palace, he gets confronted by a naked guy who's conveniently being covered up by a peacock and says the peacocks stole his clothes. he's blocking a path we need to go through so we are forced to find his underwear for him. this guy also does not question wtf is up with the talking llama.

when you get him his underwear back he, uh. well. he uses his magic sparkly underwear to fly away:

what is this guy, the incan version of captain underpants? kuzco then says in a deadpan voice, "this has gotta be the weirdest day of my entire life". can't argue with that!

i've gone way too long without mentioning that this game is primarily a platformer, which is a genre i kind of suck at and don't play often, but appears to have a lot of variety in its gameplay that makes it look pretty fun! the races with kronk, the part where you guide pacha and kuzco down the river, the part where you have to run from the jaguars, the stealth sections, and the various parts where kuzco is transformed into non-llama animals all have different types of gameplay to switch it up. the city is also huge and full of puzzle sections.

when kuzco defeats yzma in his throne room and then meets back up with pacha, they have to take the roller coaster down to yzma's lab and there's a level based on this as well. you have to control the roller coaster and turn it at just the right time to collect coins and avoid falling to your death. this looks like it could be a lot of fun to me.

tipo somehow shows up on the roller coaster to give another tutorial and kuzco tells this 6 year old to make him a sandwich and then insults his haircut 😭 kuzco i love you but why are you like this

before the final battle against yzma she says she's gonna drink a potion to turn herself into a hideous monster and rule the empire forever. and kuzco says "are you sure you didn't drink it already, you old bag of bones?"

there's this huge dramatic buildup to her drinking the potion. and then. it turns her into a cat like in the movie. and that's the final boss battle. you have to race against cat yzma to get the last potion to turn back into a human.

just from the video i watched, this race seemed very short and easy and therefore anticlimactic? but idk, maybe the person playing was just really good at it.

the final scene of the game immediately following this is kuzco visiting the village as a human again and we see scenes like kronk playing jump rope with chaca and tipo, the incan captain underpants guy flying around the roof of a house, bucky the squirrel chasing cat yzma, and kuzco + pacha's family all having a dance party while fireworks go off.

again i must reiterate that this game is missing chicha's legendary and iconic presence. my assumption is that since the characters seem to know they're in a video game, she didn't wanna have to help give kuzco tutorials because it would put too much stress on her while pregnant. still, though, it would've been nice to see her in at least the opening or ending sequences.

in conclusion: as i mentioned, i've never played this game, and the main reason for this is that i didn't know it existed when i was a kid--but even if i had i still most likely wouldn't have played it because i didn't care much about the emperor's new groove back then. the only reason i looked up a playthrough of it was because my autism brain suddenly told me i needed to learn about all of the official emperor's new groove media in existence. however, it really does look like fun and the playthrough i watched wasn't even 5 hours long, so now i kind of wanna give it a try someday? the writing is hilarious. not as hilarious as the actual movie, of course, but it was just so bizarre in such a great way and was very faithful to the movie's complete lack of a fourth wall.

also: this game has the best "game over" screen of all time. whenever kuzco dies it literally just plays a clip of the funeral scene from the movie, all the way through the "he ain't getting any deader, back to work!" bit.

[amyisherenowitsokay]

I was wondering if you've seen MatPats Film Theory on Invader Zim? And if you have, what your thoughts were on the conclusion?

Okay so since I'm sick I finally got around to watching this video to fulfill this ask.

TLDR for the people who don't want to watch the video below the cut.

TLDR: the theory is that Professor Membrane is an Irken, based off of his lack of ears, goggles that hide is eyes, complete lack of mention of who Dib and Gaz's mother is, his random advanced technology, etc. It would also be an interesting self-folly for Dib, who's made it his life mission to seek out the paranormal, never realizing he is in himself a paranormal entity. There's also some hints that while Dib is oblivious, Gaz might know ("I have a squeedily-spooch" quote), and her acceptance/knowledge is why she's Membrane's favorite kid.

Onto my answer:

I can definitely appreciate the thought that went into this video. I'm a big fan of fan interpretations and secret messages. The Invader Zim lore is so open-ended in a lot of areas, leaving hints about character personalities and motivations all over, it's real fun. That being said, I have to firmly disagree with MatPat's conclusion (with the disclaimer of: to each your own fanfictions).

I think the reason we just can't see Membrane's ears are because they're just under his goggles.

I think this is a pretty good angle to emphasize that the goggles don't go OVER his ears, but under. I actually have a facemask that does that, as it's more comfortable than something going over your ears for hours. The heavier duty safety goggles also have thick ass bands. I think Jhonen and the art team just took insp from that and upgraded it to look futuristic, to where they cover his ears.

Another reason I disagree:

Membrane had a childhood. (The comics also show him with his parents, but I'll stick to strictly show material, since a lot of the comics are not canon). Yes, it could be argued that this was just a younger Professor Membrane, when he was still short. However, I think the childhood wonder of still believing in Santa Clause, even as a super-genius, is more pro-human than pro-secret-Irken. Zim studied Christmas, whereas Professor Membrane experienced Christmas, if that makes sense.

To explain his kids, I do think Dib and Gaz were clones. I subscribe fully to the theory that the Membrane also told them already, way younger than was probably appropriate lol. I think if they didn't know for sure where they came from, they'd both have way more questions on the regular about their theoretical mom.

As funny and interesting as it'd be to have Dib be chasing proof of, well, the existence of himself, I think the reason Membrane tries to keep him away from the paranormal is as stated: Membrane believes, and has always believed, that science is the only career worth chasing. He doesn't believe in the paranormal, because the spookies are just things that science doesn't yet understand. I think if we're lending to the clone theory, it'd also trouble him that his clone-son doesn't like science, and therefore is not the perfect clone. Dib's disinterest is a sign of something going wrong in his experiment, which is simply unacceptable. Furthermore, I think we don't give Membrane enough credit for just being a sentimental guy sometimes. Like any other dad, he just wants his son to think what he does is cool, and join in on his favorite thing.

I think Gaz's comment about a squeedily-spooch was just her being a glib little sister. Also, Dib literally had his organs stolen in that episode. Zim stole his organs to replace organs that he don't exist in Irken physiology. Sure, Dib could be part-human-part-Irken DNA, but if that was the case, Zim still would've noticed by now. He literally steals Dib's DNA signature on multiple occasions. Zim turns him into bologna one episode, and the both of them take extensive cultures of their DNA to try and cure themselves from being turned to meat. If not one, the other certainly would've noticed some Irken in there and pointed it out.

I can't find the episode immediately, but there's also episodes where Zim gets electrocuted and we get the humorous x-ray shots. There's also an episode where Membrane gets an x-ray shot. In both, their bone structure is different.

As neat as the idea is, especially in terms of a 'wow Dib's his own worst enemy' idea, I can't say the video swayed me, or that I could be convinced towards adding it into my own personal fanon. Very neat video though. Thanks for the rec homie

[shinra-makonoid]

Ahhhh... Not again. I don't know if you heard it but you probably will in a few days. One of Mr Beasts buddies Kris Tyson (who also outed as a trans woman) has been accused of being a p*do. I know you should first and foremost be sad for the victim or whatever but I'm honestly just pissed of of being represented by people like that because for Normie's who happen to watch MrBeast this was probably the only exposure they got to a trans person.

Like of course that's going to be a negative association. I really wish all the media attention would shift away from us. I'm so frustrated because of this... And sorry for the rant but how do you deal with this? Or are you even taking it to heart / care about trans people of public interest and how they behave?

I mean I know I shouldn't care either but whenever someone tells me "hey do you know (youtuber/influencer) X? He/She is trans you should check it out". Then I can't help but sometimes catching up on them to see if they didn't do some questionable things because I don't want our " collective reputation" as trans people be tarnished even further. Which is also stupid I know because the transphobes hate us anyway. I just fear that normal people who were not radicalised yet will "take" this opportunity to jump on the trans hate and grouping us all together.

*raises his head from studying*

Kris what

I totally didn't check any of those and I don't watch Mr Beast lmao

I didn't have the faith to look at 2 hours of videos... From what I quickly gathered however it was just inappropriate jokes on a discord with minors? Like... Can we really talk about victims then? One minor with whom she had a more serious relationship says that she's fine (she's now 20). Is there really any victim in there? Looks like it's a ploy to fuck up a trans woman rather than a real defense of victims. The fact that it's bad to tell inappropriate jokes or flirt with minors isn't because it's bad per essence, it's bad because it has a significant probability that it can hurt them. There was no harm done there from what I could gather. The question is, were any of those people hurt/traumatized? If not then why the fuck people go on people's business. Being considered a public victim when you're not certainly can do harm too. Vigilante justice also sucks too. I feel bad for Ava tbh, I don't think anyone deserves being dragged publicly, independently of what she may or may not have done. It's a matter of justice if there is a victim, not a matter of YouTubers capitalising on that. Harassment is bad, period.

I used to take to heart how people behaved and what they said on TV but now I'm whatever. Probably comes from the fact that I have the privilege to pass so whatever is being said there doesn't really have any repercussions on me/my life. So nobody comes to me saying "hey you should check that youtuber they're trans" and honestly it's better that way because that would annoy me too much.

If random people are incapable of understanding one person is one person, rather than generalising a group of people based on one person, then they were already a bigot to begin with tbh. Normal people don't draw such conclusions from one instance.

[tobiasdrake]

Spicy hot take incoming, of the "They're going to take away my critic's badge for this" variety.

So I recently watched F.D. Signifier's video on anime and I was thinking about some of the things he said about the Isekai genre. Why it's often both attractive and yet shallow all at once; A Power Fantasy more interested in having fun letting characters be powerful than in putting in the effort to earn their power.

This got me to thinking about Isekai stories that I've consumed. I'm a big fan of Digimon Adventure, particularly the first series. Existing before Isekai became such a huge thing, Digimon Adventure played more to the fear and uncertainty of random kids being dragged into this other world and forced to become child soldiers - While still managing to retain a relatively light tone.

But as I was thinking about this, I realized something. One of the best uses of the Isekai concept for storytelling that I've seen... was from a shitty internet comedy webseries made on a $5 budget.

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of The Legend of Neil. It's a very shallow parody of the first Legend of Zelda game; The kind of parody where the jokes they're using are things like, "LOL Why do we keep leaving items around the dungeon for the hero to use?"

As gaming satire, it's bottom of the barrel. It's crude and vulgar, and there are more than a few elements that haven't aged well, such as aggressively Q-coded villains, a particular character death that seems more mean-spirited than tragic, and multiple references to Harry Potter.

But there's something there, underneath it all, that comes to my mind when I think about Isekais. Because The Legend of Neil, for all of its faults, has something it wants to say. There's a dissertation on masculinity and abuse buried beneath the dick jokes and "LOL Enemies drop healing hearts?"

The main character Neil comes from a comically abusive home life. He suffers endless deluges of abuse from his family, his girlfriend, and the customers at his retail job. And yet for two seasons, his top priority is just getting back there. The game world is different and weird and scary, and it expects a lot from him. And he just wants to go home.

This isn't uncommon fare for the Isekai brand. "Life sucked but now you're here and you're the hero! Go be awesome!" But for Neil, there's something deeper here. First, because it isn't a power fantasy. Neil gets his teeth kicked in constantly. He's frequently outmatched and forced to drag himself to the Faerie, blinking on critical HP and begging for another round of her healing.

Neil is, suprisingly for the Isekai genre, a survivor archetype rather than an Action Hero archetype. He's not actually that powerful. In fact, there are some enemies that are so strong, he never overcomes them.

But also because Neil gets what he wants. At the end of season two and start of season three, Neil gets to go home to his girlfriend that cheats on him, his family that abuses him, and his job that demeans him. And then he gets to make an actual choice about whether or not he's truly happy in this environment. Whether the way he's treated is actually the way he wants to live.

It's here that the Isekai transforms into something... Different. Neil returns to the game world of his own volition. Again, it's not unusual for the protagonist to like the Isekai world better than his shitty life. But the lack of "Neil is powerful!" elements coupled with Neil's own personal agency in choosing the Isekai world makes it something more.

The Legend of Neil uses Isekai, not to tell a Power Fantasy, but to tell a Recovery Fantasy. By choosing the game world, Neil self-actualizes and accepts the responsibility being placed on him there, but he also makes a statement that maybe some people need to hear: "It's okay to burn your bridges, cut your abusers out of your life, and walk away. Even if the future seems uncertain, even if the alternative is scary, it's okay for you to leave. There are better things out there waiting for you to find them."

And so throughout the third season, we see a very different Neil. One who is here because he actually wants to be here. A Neil who opens up to the people around him, rebuilds his relationships with the people in the Isekai world, and puts in actual effort to try and make himself strong enough to face the challenges ahead because this is the life he chose for himself.

...I mean, he never really appreciates the Faerie and that subplot drags down the whole show. It's. It's still not great.

But the point is, in an ocean of "My life sucked but now it's great because I'm in an Isekai" stories, this vulgar, low-budget webseries was using that framework to actually sit down and talk about topics of abuse, rather than slapping on an Unearned Power Fantasy and calling it a day.

And I think a lot of Isekai writers could learn from that.

[chaoticgalaxycats]

First post and random rant but regardless I shall continue. Okay so I like I was thinking back on the progression of my ongoing Internet horror phase and how my relationship to it has changed over the years specifically the Creepypasta/Slenderverse aspect of it. Running down the timeline would be interesting in and of itself at least from my perspective but it would be way too lengthy so I'm just going to talk about one of my favorite tidbits on it. Specifically how I got into Marble Hornets.

So I guess the best place to start is by the point I even heard of Marble Hornets I had already been into Creepypasta for a bit at that point and I only was aware of the fanon versions of Hoody and Masky. Basically fanon versions in a nutshell are the quiet shy uwu soft boy who is best friends with the blue eyed cheesecake obsessed twink looking ass who is essentially Dwight Schrute but lame and they work for Slenderman willingly and they're totally loyal to him (this is not at all accurate fuck the fanon versions).

Basically one day when I was doing character research and checked the wikis for them it turns out they were from a series called Marble Hornets and Marble Hornets kept being referenced when I was consuming content. So eventually I stumbled upon a video compiling the full series and I watched the first few entries without any context to the story and then I immediately dipped out because I was too scared. I had a very low fear tolerance at the time hence the reason why I dipped out.

Essentially from then on I kept ignoring the existence of Marble Hornets until I would like to say 2 or 3 years later I started reading headcanons of characters and one of them was a mixture of Creepypasta and Marble Hornets this caused me to slowly incorporate stuff into my characters and universe is also an entire other rant that I'm not going into detail on. This is what caused me to learn of Jay's and Alex's existence as I really did not pay attention to the first few entries I watched of the series. Over time as I used characters from Marble Hornets without actually watching it. It became more and more apparent to me that I actually needed to eventually get into it.

I remembered how long it was from when I was a kid and I didn't want to spend 9 hours of my time on it so instead I looked up and explained the series and lo and behold I found Night Minds explained. So late one night I watched all of it and I was enthralled this was one of the best pieces of Internet horror that I have consumed to date. The story was cohesive, The characters were compelling, and The horror was good even while watching the summarized version I was able to be disturbed. but this is also how I realized two things how really different Masky/Tim and Hoody/Brian were from there fanon counterparts and I had been portraying them incredibly inaccurately this entire time and that Jay had been completely fucking ignored by anyone who was not watched Marble Hornets that was a shame because I love his character.

This revelation was huge for me at the time and this caused a giant hyperfixation on Marble Hornets. And it entirely shifted how I created my stories and how I had characters interact. It also introduced me to the existence of ARGs. Like I had watched videos on horror series before but I had never heard of an ARG up to this point so I was intrigued. That is an entire other can of worms so I will just stop it there and continue on talking about my experience with my Marble Hornets.

Regardless after that point I would introduce Marble Hornets whoever I could I used the Night Mind explained series to show people it rather than watching the actual series though I have to embarrassingly admit that I did not actually watch the entire series on the original channel. In fact I had not watched Marble Hornets in its full until recently.

For a long time while doing research on marble Hornets I had heard about news of follow-Ups such as Clear Lakes 44 which by this point is now canceled and I have not watched at all. About a year after this I heard about ECKVA as well, but I haven't bothered watching it because it was on pause and I don't want to get into something that I know is not going to have a continuation for a while if ever. But who knows, maybe I'll watch it eventually.

Soon after I heard about the comics I just couldn't find anywhere to read them. And there were three times I would do searches before I finally got my hands on the comics. My first search started with searching for comic dubs at the comics on YouTube but then I did not find any so I soon gave up and didn't revisit the search. The second time I tried I eventually found the comics actually existed through searches on Amazon but I wasn't able to find listings for the physical copies just copies through Amazon Kindle. It wasn't until the third time looking into this that I finally found the website and due to having the financial means to purchase the first comic I soon purchased it and waited for its arrival. By the time I had purchased the comics I had watched the summarized series from Night Mind on YouTube about three times. I read the comics over the course of a few months and had finally finished reading them around February of this year.

So very recently a few weeks ago I was showing another one of my friends Marble Hornets. I again used The Night Mind summarized series but slowly over the course of rewatching the series I had another realization. I owned all the comics, was incredibly into the series, and talked about it all the time but I had never watched the original in it's full which gave me a crisis and made me feel like a fake fan. So after I had that entire crisis a week later I finally bit the bullet and decided to watch the full series in its entirety for the first time.

I sat down and was preparing myself for a long 9-hour binge and expected it to be a lot to get through. It turned out not to be though I got through it over the course of a week. Watched season 1 in one day, Season 2 in about 2 days, and watched season 3 over the course of 4 days. Now I'm here. I can confidently say I have watched Marble hornets in its entirety. Honestly Night Mind was right. The best experience is watching it on your own and not using his as a substitute like I did. I was intimidated by how there were tweets to follow along with and codes but If you watch the series on YouTube with all the entries and To The Ark videos it's a pretty easy and comprehensible story to follow without the tweets.

So yeah that's my experience getting into Marble Hornets I have watched the series either five times or One time and four times on the abbreviated one. For anyone reading this thank you for taking interest in my shitty ramblings on the experience of how I got into Marble Hornets I hope this was interesting at the very least.

A lot of me watching Marble Hornets was also me doing research on how to accurately portray characters in like personal AU/Story I have on Creepypasta and Marble Hornets. I doubt anyone would want to hear about that but if people do I guess I might talk about it if there's enough interest. But I doubt this post will get any attention since it's Tumblr.

[the-habbit-reviewer]

(PSA)Racism & Ableism. Typical. | Trident Business Review

First off I want to talk about the creators of the series.

I've had nothing but poor interactions with these guys. the second I was active, trying to fit in and be funny, I could clearly tell they didn't like me

the creator, Mark, wanted me to show my face to him, saying I type like a kid. Then he banned me

After a bit where I was admittedly being kind of an asshole to them, I was allowed back in. Before this I joked about people not liking me always end up as bad people one way or another, like they're pedophiles or they're racist(keep that in mind)

Mark seemed to freak out, going into one of our servers and starts defending himself... even though I told no one, and I was just joking. Then I'm allowed back in the server.

I read his defense, and I jokingly call them ableist for the things his friends said about me, and he backtracked, saying they weren't using autistic as an insult(keep this in mind for later as well)

And just today, I was doing my usual shtick, sending unfunny gifs and saying random shit, and the cast are being particularly antagonistic towards me, and then...

they call me a vegetable, even though I've told Mark that I'm autistic. So he and his friends should already be aware by now.

I bring this up to Mark, and he just says it's the type of insults they use. It's just their type of humor. Then....

...Yeah, they're racist too.

to sum it all up: The creators of Trident Business are racist, ableist assholes :D. Why can't Slenderverse creators just be normal?

Okay, now onto the actual review.

TRIDENT BUSINESS! It's... not good! It's very basic, full of the typical cliches most modern Slenderverse series have. I tried watching this myself multiple times, and I genuinely struggled to get past the first handful of videos.

1: The Pacing

The pacing is really, really bad. Every single episode is just a slog of silence, bad distortion, bad acting, mediocre editing...

You could probably remove MOST of the episodes from season 1, leaving 10, or even less, and the series would most likely improve.

Let's take the first three videos for example: Intro, 1. Hector's DVDs, and 2. Lost Media. Why were these three separate videos? Each video is drawn out for no reason, and you barely learn anything plot relevant in them, so they should really all be one video.

2: The Characters

The characters are flat. All of them are. No real personality traits, or anything to make them interesting. So there isn't anyone to actually care for. I can't even remember their names.

3: The Story

What story? Just watch Marble Hornets, it most likely does everything this series does but better, and I'm not even a big fan of MH!

4: Personal Nitpicks

The editing. It's is really poor, especially during the earlier videos. The distortion is loud and obnoxious. The Collective ripoff videos are also pointless. They have NO reason to be there, and barely anything is ever learned from most of them. They're just there for the sake of it. And they don't even have decent visuals like TribeTwelve.

The Red World/The Minds Eye. What a shitty addition tbh. It's only there because TribeTwelve did it. Mark making the Red World an open source concept is just laughable.

tHe cOnTRoLlEr. What a silly name for the Slender Man. The series give no reason for why he's called that, so I can only assume it's because TribeTwelve/Marble Hornets did it!! The Slender Man doesn't even do anything in the series. He just stands there.

Final Thoughts:

1/10. Trident Business is REALLY basic, so it doesn't deserve a higher rating. It does nothing new, nothing interesting, and is overly long, bloated with filler and pointless videos. It only has one decent looking Slender Man appearance. Like c'mon, even the most mediocre series can be saved by good Slender Man appearances. (TribeTwelve)

[pumpumdemsugah]

lol I enjoy putting on video essays and the like while i'm doing random stuff around the house, but one thing I've noticed it's that many are just Wikipedia reads. Like I have an interest in lost media and some articles I've read so much I've got them memorized, so sometimes i'll click on a video discussing lost media and I realize the guy talking is literally just reading the lost media wiki, not even bothering to change even one word. I guess that's plagiarism and it's more common than people think, I just don't feel like going through those channels again to denounce them since it'll take me a while and many of them are smaller channels, but it does irritate me how lazy these youtubers can be. I hope that the hbomber video will change this and these youtubers start worrying about making their content unique, even if only for fear of being called out.

Another thing that I've been realizing is how many of these video essayists and others talk about things that could be said in five to ten minutes but extend it to 25 minutes to an hour, padding it with unnecesary info, a long dragged out intro, weird silence here and there, and some even speak slower to make their videos longer lmao.

The last issue for me is those that spout false information in their videos, or narrate events and certain facts that are disputed and unconfirmed like they're the truth. I guess it's to make them more interesting or engaging, though in some cases it could be that they simply didnt know the info they shared was false, but that just shows to me they didnt care enough to make sure all of their facts were verifiable and their sources trustful. Like how many "Mysterious photos that have never been explained!!!" videos are out there with photos that actually have been debunked many times already, the worst offender being the Solway Firth Spaceman which has the easiest explanation yet always appear in the top 3 of these videos.

All of this is why I don't watch video essays

Once you know enough about the subject you can tell someone is reading wikipedia and so many of them stretch shit out to make the video longer

If you don't have anything to say then leave it or learn more

I mainly use YouTube for recipes and to watch news from news channels. In fact I might make shortbread today

[prettyinpunk]

a ridiculously detailed catalogue of matt's guitars for my show*! aka a collection for people who have maybe an unhealthy obsession with Manson guitars

*4/14/23; in order of how excited i was to see them! this isn't necessarily a ranking of how cool i think these guitars are! this ranking is based purely on the amount of deadly chemicals released by my brain upon seeing them.

#10 Matt Black FR(Matt Black Whammy)/Chrome FR(Chrome Whammy)

i'm pairing them first since they're almost identical in build(though the MBFR is in drop D) and i was expecting to see both of them/have seen them used in past shows :)

Chrome Whammy also gets used the most in this era and both of them have given me so much grief when trying to identify these guitars. the dark chrome finish looks SO much like the Matt Black FR under certain stage lighting and it's nearly impossible to tell them apart by hardware, there've been so many times when i confidently think oh hey he's using the Matt Black Whammy but no its Chrome FR. and vice versa. even at certain points during the actual concert i was second guessing myself, they make me feel delusional.

used for: MBFR: Psycho; Chrome Whammy: WOTP, (Interlude)Hysteria, Compliance, Thought Contagion, KOC

#9 Matt Black 3.0

i was excited to see her with visible wear and tear from the obvious, so much so that i specifically took a picture of the broken headstock foregoing any attempt at pretending matt was supposed to be the subject of the picture.

used for: WAFF

#8 M1D1 Stealth

even knowing i would see her, i just got so excited about the kaoss pad. as one does. its a special little joy to see hardware thats so uniquely Muse. like in what other performance are you going to get to see a kaoss pad in a guitar(or bass)!

this picture is a screenshot from my video because ngl most of my image capture for SBH was spent filming dom. for a friend.

used for: SBH

#7 MB-1 Blue(Blue Steel/Blue Beast)

i just think she's sooooo pretty, the blue is such a beautifully rich shade and i love the gloss finish, as much as i love the play on "matt" with the matte guitars, i'm weak to pretty shiny things. it was also so exciting to see her because i really wanted them to play Resistance and when i saw matt with the MB-1 Blue i knew they were going to! (barring the fact that they were alternating every night and i knew that night it was Resistance's turn, for some reason i was still worried we wouldn't get it lmao) i did accidentally call her Bluebell at the time though. which i don't think has been used at all this tour(🥲).

TIRO, Resistance, Madness

#6 Oryx

somehow i neglected to take a picture of her specifically??? i'm really kicking myself because i didn't get any closeups during WSD or KOBK but the whole time i was holding my tongue from talking about her during the show 😭 because who in their right mind wants to hear some random screaming fan yelling about how the Oryx is matt's first Manson with 24 frets during the show 💀 i did get to see him use it earlier this year at my last Muse show which is why i've put it before my #5. but she is so unique and interesting, there are so many cool fun facts about her! i don't know how i didn't get a good shot, i was probably too busy headbanging.

i did get this pretty cool picture from KOBK though 🥲

used for: WSD, KOBK

#5 MB-S Prototype(Verona Sky)

to finish off the trifecta of newbies(2022/2023 additions, barring remodels)! suuuuch a beauty and makes watching Verona just that much more magical! a brand new Manson special for the WOTP era for the most tender moments of the show <3. both Verona and TDS instrumental have a dreamlike energy live, which to me is elevated by the MB-S in her beautiful sunburst orange and strat-style shape. matt was pretty far from us while perched on will's shoulder so i didn't get a great pic of it but i tried! its just such a gentle, almost pensive little moment in the set between two heavy bangers(WAFF/SBH) which i love, it feels oddly intimate in spite of being in a full arena as matt coaxes each note out of the MB-S and it echoes into the open space.

here she is pre and post-confetti shower(she did not come through unscathed)!

used for: Verona, TDS(AR)

#4 Red Alert

since there are three red guitars in use for Uprising this tour, i really didn't know which one we were going to get! the last time i saw them in january, matt used the MA EVO Sustainiac Satin Fire Red, which is fun, but like the other Fire Red, has a matt(e) finish. i was really hoping we would get to see Red Alert and we did!!! she looks like cherry candy i need to take a bite. uh, that is to say. she's very pretty and my eyes sparkle in her presence. and she has a special name which is always important to me. i wouldn't say Red Alert ranks higher than some of the other beauties on this list in terms of how cool i think they are, but since there wasn't a guarantee we'd get to see it, it ranks highly here!

used for: Uprising

#3 Mirror 2.0

notoriously a nightmare to get a good picture of live, what with the whole... mirror finish and all, here she is!! our beloved veteran of the lineup, Mirror Manson <3. what a joy to see her, even though she's not the original. i couldn't confirm which Mirror he was using at the time since they're almost identical, but the fuzz factory knobs are slightly further apart than the OG, and 2.0 is fit with a MBK-1 on the bridge rather than the original Mississippi Queen P90s. not sure if Chrome Fuzz is in the rig for this leg, but theoretically she also had potential to be used here in place of the Mirror, so another happy slight surprise there for Mirror enjoyers. it really is another special little joy to see and hear Plug in Baby with such an iconic guitar, and especially when we get to play call and response with the fuzz factory!

used for: PIB

#2 Chrome Whammy 2.0

now i know it seems like an odd choice to put her here especially considering i had Chrome FR as my #10, but let me explain.

YMMFLIH is one of my favorites on WOTP so as it is, i was already losing it from the moment matt sat down to play the intro(WHICH IM CRAZY ABOUT). about halfway through the second verse, i regained enough mental consciousness to realize matt was using the new Manson Origin Etch pickups on the bridge!!! this was a huge surprise since MuseWiki isn't updated and i had been totally drooling over the pickups on instagram for weeks(months??)(<- still has never touched an electric guitar) so getting to see them in person and being used on stage was SO EXCITING!!! unfortunately by the time i realized, i wasn't able to get a clear picture of the bridge since matt was playing the final chorus. thus began the search for my new white whale.

after the concert, i scoured my pictures and videos for a shot of it, confident that i saw it during Halloween and on the Chrome Whammy. i looked at every picture i had, but found that all my pictures of the Chrome Whammy just had the MBK-2 humbucker on the bridge, so i thought maybe i made my usual mistake and thought it was Chrome when it was actually Matt Black. i checked my pictures of her too and it was the same so at that point i felt like i was going completely mental. i checked every video and picture from the Muse instagram with manic obsession and could only find a tiny glimpse of it in one of the mini clips from a concert reel.

i went back to MuseWiki to see if i could find it there and thats when i realized. it wasn't Chrome Whammy. it was Chrome Whammy 2.0.

live reaction to this realization:

in hindsight i should've realized the guitar matt was using for Halloween had a humbucker on the neck instead of a single coil Sustainiac which is a dead giveaway, hence the above reaction. the problem still remained though, i had no photographic evidence. though MuseWiki reminded me it was 2.0, it still says the bridge is a MBK-2 and the pictures remain un-updated. i had confirmed for now that i was not delusional, but i still didn't have a picture and i wanted so desperately to talk about it. but then my savior appeared right under my nose. my dear friend @domwhoreward found this picture from one of her shows and i was FINALLY VINDICATED!!! HERE SHE IS IN ALL HER GLORY!!!

used for: YMMFLIH

anyway. that brings us to...

#1 HOLOFLAKE MY BELOVED

words cannot describe how absolutely insane i went when i saw her!!! Holoflake is my favorite guitar currently in use(though it's very close with the Black 7-String 2.0), i just love the glittery, glossy black finish so much, it's so pretty!! not only that, but the only song it's being used for this tour is MOTP, the one song i wanted to hear MOST out of all the songs on rotation and one of my favorite muse songs of all time!! it was such a personal moment for me because if they hadn't played MOTP, we wouldn't have gotten to see Holoflake at all. this was my most special moment from my show, i think the guy next to me probably wished i was dead though. this is once again a screenshot of my video since i spent most of it in a manic panic screaming crying and throwing up. its a miracle i was even still alive after that. or anyone within a 5ft radius.

used for: MOTP <3