#(That Can Actually Work because lately Theyve All Been Interacting Very Well!!!)

[lunatic-fandom-space]

I just finished season 4 and unlike with the others I didnt have a whole lot to say as a was watching, mainly because I was actually enjoying myself and thought the season was mostly really good ? absolutely wild. Nevertheless I have some thoughts

I LOVE Alya and Marinette working together, its a delight. When I talk about "man can you imagine if MLB did like a magical girl show and focused on female friendships instead of catfighting" THIS is what Im talking about!! And Idgaf about how this affects the Love Square at this point, this is all Ive wanted! Also, I feel like Alya and Nino knowing each others identities cheapens the Love Square conflict more than anything but I cant fully articulate why so I'll just leave it at that

The Love Square is in a very strange place where, when the identity reveal finally does happen, its simultaneously going to feel like its too little too late (a la the destiel confession bc this fucking show is just straight queerbaiting) and rushed because like. what kind of development is there between these two. They barely focused on romance this season (which is definitely part of why I think its better lol) but I dont mean that in the sense that we had less catfights and Marinette making a fool of herself for no reason, I mean that in the sense that it barely felt like they interacted at all, atleast to me so thats kinda odd

In the past Ive complained about how the civillian plotline usually feels very disconnected from the superhero/akuma plotline and I think theyve done a much better job, my favorite episode of the season is probably Qilin both for tying the akuma into the civillian plot and for having a somewhat unique conflict resolution. In general, I liked that we had people rejecting akumas as well as preventative measures in form of the charms, although I do think it sucks that a few episodes afterwards Shadowmoth just figures out a way to circumvent them and then its back to business as usual. I feel like a better workaround would be that the charms can only protect you from one akumatization each, so like, the charm Ladybug gave her grandfather in Simpleman can only protect him from becoming Simpleman again, but if he turns into Bakerix, she needs to give him a different charm. But I do find the charms cute

The new heroes all suck tbh, the only design I liked was Purple Tigress and Pigella came close to looking kinda good but then they made it this intensely unflattering shade of pink, which I find impressive because Rose is already wearing an completely different intensely unflattering shade of pink in her civillian form. One thing that I appreciated about whatever Mylenes superhero form is called, Pigella and Purple Tigress is that they had more justifiable reasons for Ladybug to pick them than most of the heroes in the last season, who were mostly just picked because They Were There ig. And then Penealteam rolled around and we were back to doing exactls that kind of bullshit. great.

Also, Ive already talked about this in a seperate post, but if they absolutely insisted on looking for a replacement for the Bee, it shouldve been Sabrina and they shouldntve invented a whole new character for it

Adrien got a little more focus this season and we actually got some insight into his character when hes not either The Object Of Marinettes Idolization or Ladybugs Punny Sidekick Thats Slowly Becoming Obsolete which I enjoyed because he has a lot of potential from a dramatic standpoint what with being Hawkmoths son and all, but hes usually so bland that I dont really care too much so this was pretty nice. And it only took us 4 seasons for him to get some focus, yknow, the other superhero in the title? Well better late than never I guess

Speaking of Adrien, Ive made quite a few posts where I said that this season would be ruined for me the second the Sentiadrien reveal happens but it never did, we're getting that in season 5 and I am not looking forward it especially considering the small taste Ive already gotten of it with Adrien being very obviously controlled by that ring. Like, I'll probably talk about it in more detail when it gets fleshed out in the show but for now I'll just say it doesnt make the stakes higher like the writers seem to think, it make the story wayyyy less interesting and it feels like its supposed to be an explanation for Adriens behaviour towards his father when we absolutely do not need one beyond "hes being abused"

I know I said that I thought this season was really good and now Im just just complaining mostly like I always do but idk, Im not as good at formulating my positive thoughts as my negative ones. The last thing I'll say is that I loved Scarabella and I loved her design and I loved the whole episode she was in, as well as the entirety of Sentibubbler, Alya really served this season

Thats it, thanks for reading :D

[yeoldontknow]

🖊writerly conversation tag

tagged by @j-pping to do this amazing interview/reflections tag. of course she put together one of the most amazing tags ever because she is brilliant. thank you for tagging me angel! 

questions below the cut!

2020

what was the most challenging part of writing this year?

gosh...i think for me the hardest bit was staying both motivated and inspired. a lot of my inspiration comes from being out in the world. im an introvert but i enjoy being out in the city around the noise and the people and the buildings on my own. the majority of my writing used to be done while riding the subway or on a weekend after id gone out somewhere. a lot of my fics are inspired by locations, and experiences within those locations. being inside for the majority of the year made it hard for me to remember how...people interact with or relate to the spaces around them. so i felt like a lot of the time staying inspired was coming from places within just me that felt inauthentic. i think my writing benefits from my ability to see multiple perspectives, so i felt like a lot of dialogue or writing itself was suffering just coming from me alone. it took a lot of work to ensure that it wasnt like that. 

and then, motivation was also so hard. the internet and the news and everything about america, the planet, the everything was unrelenting and draining. we as people were privy to so much trauma this year, to the collapse and fracture of communities, lives, governments. there were several weeks at the end of may and into june where i just...couldnt. i had no energy for anything. it happened again in november after the election and the windfall of it. energetic tensions were so high it just felt so hard to push out words when things were breaking everywhere. like there were more important things i needed to focus on, and healing was one of them.

what was the most enjoyable/rewarding part of writing this year?

i enjoyed the new community of writers/friends i found by writing for bts again. they challenged me and pushed me to better myself. @jamaisjoons is so inspirational in the way she generates community and encourages relationships between storytellers. doing the summer bucket list pushed me out of my hermit hole for camp nano, and i cranked out molotov cocktail and felt so proud of it. it mattered so much to me because it was the first long thing id written after a period of feeling deceased, and it was so enjoyable because there was a sense of community around it. its easy to forget how essential having a support system in your creative community is.

what piece has left the most impact on you and why?

probably ciperion. words cannot express how proud i am of that story and the direction its going in. i read it back sometimes and i realize that my writing was elevated because of that piece. tbh molotov was responsible for that lift, but ciperion was just a whole other tier. ive also never written anything like that story before and it felt so good exploring the themes of seafaring and pirates. 

what have you learned about yourself through the process of writing in the past year?

that i absolutely am someone who took for granted how inspiring the world is even if i see it as a stressor. but also that writing isnt necessarily about being inspired. its about pushing on when its hard. some of my best pieces came from that kind of push this year. 2020 felt like...a slog through most of it, but i kept pushing myself to write even when i was low and tired. i realized that some of my best writing comes from that push, when its not easy and when its difficult and i have to think harder. thats where i grow. 

how has your writing changed in the past year? how have you grown?

i think im more syntax and detailed focused than i used to be. lately ive been experimenting with making the act of reading feel like pleasure. my favourite books are the ones where i read a sentence, and im moved because it felt nice to read or it felt powerful. the sentence itself had power, not the image it was trying to convey. somehow separate, if that makes sense. theres a lot i need to learn before i could go off comfortably and try to write a book, and this is what ive been trying to master. my attention to detail has grown, and sometimes i think thats a detriment. i think sometimes im too detailed and i dont leave my reader enough power on their own. im still finding that balance, but i think im pleased right now with what im trying to push myself to master.

2021

ignoring your wips for a second, if you had all the time and energy in the world to write your magnum opus piece, what would it be about? why is that the dream story you’d write, all other things controlled for?

ive had two books in my mind forever. one was originally being written as a fanfic in a different fandom before i stopped and realized its too big and so much more important, and is worth being a book id like to write. if i wrote an opus like this it would actually be a book id submit to publishers but ~

- hundreds of years in the future, society has learned how to cure most diseases. for those we cannot, the sick person can be cryogenically frozen for a period of time until a cure is found. there is, however, a limit to the length of time they are frozen. no one has ever been frozen for over 100 years, and the main character is a scientist embarking on the experiment to do just that. it is, effectively, time travel. the main character is rash, selfish, sarcastic - not a very nice person; invested in their work and science and little else. they freeze themselves and wake up in the future. during their time in rehab they have to confront the horror theyve made of themselves, the horror people have made of the future, learn to be vulnerable. they end up falling in love with another scientist etc etc. theres so much more to this story and the world is enormous. one day ill revisit it

- a fictional play on orpheus in the underworld where a female main character’s brother was sold by their mother to the goddess of the underworld (helena instead of hades) for eternal youth. the gods all live in a hotel (the concept of this main thing is being used in elysian fields but its not remotely the same) after they were removed from the heavens. main character (ophelia) must gather several totems from the gods to prove her worth and survive her trip into the underworld to rescue him. id like to not focus on a woman finding romance, and instead a woman finding herself, her strength, her devotion to family, her power, and connecting with her history.

how do you want to grow in your writing this year?

this year id like to find balance, like i mentioned above, with my need for detail and my trust in my readers. the balance between detail and dialogue. i want to try to condense my writing again so not everything is a goddamn series. the ideas i have are huge and thats great but i need to remember how to parse things again, while still maintaining impact.

what’s one thing you’d wish to see in the fan-writing community this year?

i want more community, in general. as a multi fan, i see pockets in the kpop fandom where it exists and im well and truly aware that its recently become incredibly hard to foster on the exo side. ill just say that. maybe i dont witness it or its happening amongst blogs i havent found or have not found me. i want to see less dialogue about ‘popular blogs,’ whatever that means; less focus on notes; less worries about statistics. i want people to remember that fandom is not about numbers, and the moment you make it about that is the moment you stop having fun. i want less fear from writers regarding sharing work they read and liked, less shame around it. i want to see more vocal communication for the things people like and don’t like, more engagement and more interaction. the concept of popular blogs is so ridiculous to me, because no one has any control over the metrics. no one has control over who follows them or reads their work except the person doing the actual reading. i want people to realize they hold so much power - a person with 10k notes has as much power as a person with 2 notes because sharing is what fosters community. i want this fandom to remember to share again.

name one new thing you want to try doing in your writing this year.

gosh i really love postmodernism in writing. think like mark z danielewski, who plays with the shapes of words or the act of holding a book - the physicality of it. id like to maybe write a choose your own adventure, or do something that encompasses multiple platforms. or even, more importantly, finish as still as sound and time runner. those are more reasonable goals. time runner actually is done, i just need to stop pressuring myself about it and edit it to get it up. asas, too, is largely done i just need to get my ass together. i have so many other ideas no one has ever seen i need to finish what ive started. thats a real goal.

tagging: @yehet-me-up @jamaisjoons @kyungseokie @jenmyeons @luffles424 @yoonia @shadowsremedy @chillingkoo @onherwings @inkedtae @ninibears-erigom @imdifferentshadesofpurple @readyplayerhobi @ditzymax @sugaurora @snackhobi @yeojaa @sahmfanficbts @xjoonchildx @johobi and anyone else who wants to do this. as always please only do so if comfortable or you want to!

[pandylovepost]

what are your headcanons for andy and panchos relationships with the other characters in the kingdom? ❤❤❤ I love your blog!!

ohhh i love this question & tysm!! 🧡

it ended up being rlly long so here’s the cut ;)

Pancho

•Julien; Julien is like a brother or cousin to Pancho! He trusts the king more than anything after Julien basically saved .. well himself, but also him. any scheme Julien comes up with that he knows Maurice wouldnt approve of, he’ll go to pancho

•Maurice; maurice has a kind of wary vibe around Pancho ever since Pancho suggested eating him on the sub in exiled. he’s suspicious of him mainly because he wants to protect Julien tho, & he cant shake that Pancho is (or was) a sleeper agent programmed with the sole purpose of killing his best friend so

•Clover: Pancho is kinda cautious around clover since she’s always round the corner ready to bust him & Andy’s schemes. when it comes down to it they DO work together as they aknowledge each others skillsets. literally pancho is the only lemur (from the kingdom) who’s beaten Clover in combat. just once though.

•Mort; Pancho just......aknowlegdes his existance. he’s there i guess. doesn’t find mort as terrifying & creepy as the average citizen but Panch has probably seen worse. or he just doesn’t care. mort also does crimes so theyre just aware of each other.

•Becca & Abner; he’s kinda friends with them cus Andy’s friends with them. he goes round to deliver them stuff sometimes like moonshine or weapons from Andy. He probably shouldn’t pay too much attention to their government conspiracy theories though, they tend to really freak his paranoid ass out

•Timo; Timo is scared of Pancho or at least wary. He admittadly would like to study him tho & Panch is often a great help to him doing manual labour for any of Timo’s big projects

•Masikura; she mindmelded with him once & swore never again. she just doesn’t wanna know.

•Ted; Ted has a lil crush on Pancho (he’s one of Ted’s many crushes) & Panch will lightly flirt with him sometimes when he’s in the mood to. Pancho will bicker & grouch with him but they are really tight friends especially after their time together during exiled.

•Dorothy; at first she saw Pancho as this ideal bad boy type, but then realised how bad he smells cus he hates bathing. She’ll offer him tea like she does with everyone & (begrudingly often) lets him crash with her & Ted when they all stumble back drunk after a night out. Literally her & Ted both just have a mutual crush on Pancho is that not canon though

•Willie; despite being mean to Willie like EVERYONE ELSE IS Pancho and Willie are quite good friends. He’ll go stay with him whenever he’s worried about something cus he knows Willie will understand. sometime’s he’s too panicky for Pancho to be around though cus it sets him off

•Hector; I WANT THEM TO BOND OVER MILITARY HARDSHIPS & EXPERIENCE I THINK IT WOULD BE HELPFUL & HEALING FOR THE BOTH OF THEM! I should write about this sometime..........

•Horst; the DJ friend who he can always have a crazy sesh with; they actually get along pretty good. except when Pancho’s out here stealing his bolos. Like with everyone, Horst just rambles to Pancho when he’s drunk.

•Tammy, Butterfish & Todd; no real connection to them besides that him & Butterfish will often do the same jobs. They usually just make casual work chat. Tammy thinks Pancho is posessed by demons but he doesn’t let that phase him.

•Karl: he’s not rlly a “kingdom citizen” but he’s about there enough so. anyway Pancho just doesn’t treat Karl like the evil genius villain he portrays at all, since Pancho’s own morality is in the grey area, which kinda infuriates Karl that Pancho just talks to him like hes a normal person. he wants Julien’s people to FEAR HIM!!

•Dr. S; Absolutely not. they don’t even really have a friendship of any kind & Pancho is terrified of going to see the doctor as Dr. S literally experiments on lemurs...he’s not about that after what happened with the previous king.......Andy often has to drag him to the hospital kicking & biting to get him to go to checkups

•Nurse Phantom; u know what they’ve never interacted in canon but I think Nurse Phantom senses how troubled & anxious he is & takes a lot of time to talk to Pancho like if ever Andy or anyone else manages to drag him to the hospital, Rob will hold his hand if it comes to it; he goes into major helpful mode like offering him fruit & telling him he’s gonna be alright. He’ll also scold him for getting into so many dangerous scrapes & tells him he’s gotta look after himself!

Andy

•Julien; for some reason Julien just refuses to exile him even after all the bad shit he’s done BUT i think that’s because Andy is overall helpful to him like he ignores all the weirdness for example when they walked in on him & that rat holding a body wrapped in leaves because hey! we need tropheys Andy fast! thats the issue here!! perhaps its Julien’s awful adhd memory though & he just genuinely forgets. Julien is close with Pancho of course so Andy’s been round to the plane for parties & dinner as Pancho’s +1 of sorts— heck even he can be “polite” when he has to be.

•Maurice; Momo hates him. hates him hates him theres no turning back. i mean its hard not to when most of the citizens suffer from rediculous lemur stupidity & ur the only one who can see through this bat when he’s just standing there chatting shit. Very suspicious of Andy— plus he just thinks he’s creepy

•clover; LMAO bUT .....like obviously she hates him for good reason. but i do have this hc that’s way too long to write out that after Julien, Maurice & Mort literally fucked off to go with the zoosters in madagascar 2 Clover was literally responsible for two kingdoms cus she couldnt just leave them with a gecko in charge. I just want some situation where theres a proper twist & Andy ends up mellowing the hell out & actually being useful to her & the kingdom...he has skills but he uses them for nefarious reasons. She’d probably save his life somehow in the post-Julien chaos & he’d b like....”why would YOU of all people save ME?” n she’d b like... “well you are technically a citizen of this kingdom and ....i’ve gotta make sure you’re ALL safe for when ..... if King Julien ever gets back.....”

•mort; ??? sometimes theyre legit business partners. Mort can get in on a good scam. that second rub’s gonna cost ya. theyve probably been in the same prison before at one point. Mort’s so old.

•Becca & Abner; his fellow anti-establishment pals!! he doesn’t fully believe all of their ideas & theories but he loves em cus they’ll always buy self defence scorps off him. They get along & they drink a lot together by the stagnant watering hole. they’ve seen Andy in horrible states; all 3 of them are an idiot squad when theyre together. Becca & Andy argue a lot cus even she thinks some of the things he says are wack sometimes

•Timo; i have this hc that Timo, Andy & Karl knew each other when they were kids they kinda bonded together during school cus they were three non-lemur losers who got bullied for their eccentricity & varying levels of intelligence. Timo will sometimes go to Andy for stuff but he is his last resort really

•Masikura; probably mindmelded with him once & just saw a vision of him daydreaming about being kissed by Pancho & since then she was like. “Im not scared of the bird demon he’s just a big softie. where is my shipment of “ect” for my tea, that bird demon’s late again—“

•Ted; Ted is such an easy mark he can sell almost anything to him if he’s cheery enough. Helps that Ted thinks he’s really cute so Andy can just easily sweet talk him into buying whatever dodgy product he’s got at the moment. he knows & interacts with Ted mainly through Pancho being his friend!

•Dorothy; rlly wild hc actually that Dorothy used to be a propper crime don before she settled down with Ted— or when Ted was shifting into Snake more frequently back in the day for whatever reason—so Andy knows her from the criminal underworld. Cus of this he’s very respectful towards her... he’s seen what she’s capable of

•Willie; Andy could walk round the corner with his wings outstretched & say “boo” & Willie would pass out from shock. He’s also very easy for Andy to sell to- his fearmongering really works on Willie he’s very suseptable to it

•Hector; Hector doesn’t take any of Andy’s crap he’d probably just hit him with a broom if he came round his hut to sell him dodgy hand cream honestly

•Horst; Andy keeps him topped up with a steady supply of beverages...........Horst will actually sometimes ask him & Pancho for help with importing various new vinyl records

•Tammy, Butterfish & Todd; that family buys a LOT of product off him since they’re just typical americans basically he finds it rlly easy & reliable to sell stuff like drinks & toys to them. Tammy kinda hates Andy though & like Pancho, thinks he’s a demon. Doesn’t help that Mort nicknamed him “bird demon”.

•Karl; like with Timo i hc he knew him when they were in highschool—! Karl found Andy infuriating & so annoying though & didn’t consider him a friend at all. a lot of his early lazer guns were born from Karl’s growing need to shoot Andy out of the sky cus he’d fly up to get out of reach of his claws when he’d annoyed him.

•Dr. S; i hc that Andy and Dr.S are business or trading partners of sorts but they keep it very lowkey. Andy probably handles hits and the crazy snake doctor requires bodies and “test subjects” for his manic experiments. Andy is the perfect guy for the job! When Nurse Phantom is unable, Andy will hide the evidence of Dr.S’ malpractice for a reasonable fee, of course. He dislikes going to checkups himself though— he doesn’t like people knowing too much about him! Plus Dr.S always “””jokes””” about “””studying””” him because he finds the fact Andy is a flying mammal facinating & talks about using Andy’s wings to create a frankenstein flying lemur.

•Nurse Phantom; Rob just lectures him about being reckless & getting into fights everytime he sees him. Kinda the same as Dr. S really, but he does tell him like.. Hey I used to be pretty mean & put people in danger too. And that there’s always time to turn another leaf. Andy usually just scoffs, collects his paycheck, & leaves.

[rigginsstreet]

Tell me more about Jonathan and Fp being friends

ok this one we gotta take back to elementary school for their origin story.

so jonathan as we know is very antisocial and cant be bothered with anyone not in his family same so he and fp never really interacted unless they had to in school. 

and lets say fps mom had just died, or left, choose your dramatic depressing backstory, and he’s been real sullen lately and things arent good at home and he wears it for the whole world to see. 

jonathan feels bad but like, he doesnt exactly know what to do, so he just leaves it.

UNTIL

one day when joyce is picking him up from school (late because she couldnt get off work) she notices this sickly looking boy hanging around, now the last kid to get picked up (his dads probably passed out drunk somewhere forgetting to pick up his kid) (also for the sake of this lets say fred was out sick that day cuz obviously fp wouldve just gone home with him. ok. great. plot hole filled). so joyce and her need to adopt every kid she sees cannot allow this. she asks jonathan who he is and jonathan gives a brief explanation of who fp is and whats going on with him and thinks thatll be the end of it but oh no. then joyce is asking jonathan to go invite fp over and like.... its not that jonathan has any problems with fp.... but like.... maybe dont ask your anxiety ridden kid to go invite a stranger over to their house for a play date ?? but joyce cant very well go and ask. thatd be weirder. so. jonathan gets out of the car and goes. 

fps not really sold on this whole situation but then jonathan mentions his mom is making lasagna that night and fps stomach grumbles. he hasnt had a decent meal in weeks and who is he to pass up free lasagna? so he goes over to the byers’ house. (and maybe it should not be that easy for a woman to take a random child home with her from a school but this is the 70s/80s dont ask me what timeline im working under and child safety laws were not great and its joyce so its fine.)

ANYWHO! fp and jonathan have a real awkward time at first because theyve never really spoken to each other before and they dont really know how to make friends, but joyce is shooing them off to jonathans room while she goes to cook dinner. and thats when jonathan and fp realize they actually have a bunch of interests in common. fps looking through the few albums jonathan has and gets excited when he sees one of his favorite bands. and they find out theyre both huge horror nerds and jonathans showing fp some of his horror comics and then theyre playing dracula like a couple of weirdos and its just fun. 

also fp takes a real liking to joyce and that plays a big part in why he hangs out with jonathan so much. joyce fills this maternal role fps been looking for since he lost his mom. fps just up here stealing everybodys moms good for him he deserves it. hes been through enough (i mean obviously no one holds a candle to bunny andrews but ya know)

and fp starts inviting jonathan to hang out with him and fred at school and whatnot. and as they get older they form a unit. steve comes into the picture at some point through fred. and things of course get real awkward when the whole nancy debacle happens but we dont need to get into that right now.

also i can imagine like around late middle, maybe even earlier, jonathan starts feeling like a third wheel whenever hes with fred and fp and its not like how he used to feel like an outsider when he first came into their friendship. this is different. he suspects theres something more than platonic going on between those two but he doesnt say anything and he doesnt judge. he doesnt even know if theyve really figured their feelings for each other out yet so he just waits for that to unfold. 

ugh and when fp eventually comes out to jonathan and hes all nervous about it and scared jonathans not gonna wanna be his friend anymore but jonathan tells him its fine and he even saw this coming, even cracks a joke about what a couple of misfits the both of them are, and that makes fp feel better. 

and i wanna think about them having sleepovers an staying up late watching creature features and actually having someone who enjoys it with them cuz god knows fred gets scared shitless nancy doesnt particularly care for them but jonathan and fp get real into it and its just fun and basically theyre just a couple of closeted nerds with a penchant for depressing music and thats what bonds them together

[renmaru]

you know. sometimes i love something a lot so i need to scream about the things that piss me off about it. i don’t think this is a particularly negative post but it’s just like sheer frustration and if you dont get some satisfaction from articulating your frustration into tumbler dot coms longposts and destroying the capital of this website because you are not a gemini sun then like fair i guess feel free to disregard this. tonbokiris kiwame is cool go look at that.

now to the lukewarm tea ive been simmering for five years. the one thing i always think about all the time is that tkrb is a popular game despite itself. the piss poor gameplay with only the barest of bare QoL in the five years its been up, the seeming complete lack of direction and the frankly nonexistent worldbuilding is held up purely because of its attention to detail and reverence to the original culture and history of the swords combined with some very good character design and subtle but nuanced character writing that can be openly interpreted. just enough flavour to imply something larger but chickening out on actually making anything y’know. concrete. basically allowing the fans to draw their own conclusions. but even then a game like that would not survive cause there have been countless, hundreds of games with high quality and fervent attention to detail and respect for the source material that just died completely because they have such little to actually offer in terms of engagement. i think the main thing that bugs me about tkrb is that it has one of THE most creative, dedicated and strong fanbases of this genre of game who go out of their way to engage with any and all of the content and the devs seem kind of oblivious to this.

in comparison to modern gacha style games, touken ranbu releases barely any new content and frequently recycles content but somehow it’s still relatively popular with approx. 1mil active players daily but the maddening thing is that tkrb can reach much MUCH further. the fans are there, the curiosity is there, it’s just the game content is not fucking there. it does not put the effort into commissioning seasonal art, pushing new events with actual plotline/story content, creating promotional materials, tie-ins etc. but somehow its still in the top 5 comiket circles for nearly five fuckin years straight. here are your badley compiled receipts: c89(w2015), c90(s2016), c91(w2016), c92(s2017), c93(w2017), c94(s2018), c95(w2018), c96(s2019)

 it can launch itself from laughably low in the appstore ratings, hovering in the middle of the 200′s to TOP 30s in the appstore at the flick of a switch. what is this magic button that fucking quadruples revenue and skyrockets your app into the top 50 grossing apps? 3/4 of your characters getting static CGs that you cannot use at all anywhere in the game but will do a powerpoint transition and appear for 5 seconds at login. oh and like a few free mats i guess. and i kid you not it fuckin worked.

wanna know why that worked? it’s cause otherwise characters, especially fan favourites just don’t get anything at all. it’s like most characters outside of the very popular ones rarely get new art, new recollections, new anything outside of their kiwame upgrade which is more often than not years down the line and only recently, four years in, they decided to add alternate costumes but even then there’s a catch which has me feeling some kind of way.

and yes, i fully understand that tkrb is a multi-media franchise, i get that it’s got its fingers in so many pies like the stageplay, musicals, various manga anthologies, the animes, hell its even got live action but man, would it hurt to give some love in game? i’m not asking them to go full fgo route and commission the industry creme de la creme to make 6 full CE illustrations, lots of promo art and tonnes of new merch every single month. but the fact is for such a big franchise, reusing the same sprite art on nearly every piece of official merch, going so far as to add NEW costume art which is just the heads of the old default sprites edited onto new bodies? it screams cost cutting, it screams lazy, the path of minimum effort. it’s almost like the game itself and the original materials are an absolute afterthought at this point with only the most dedicated hanging on to it. i guarantee that the majority of people still playing tkrb are the committed day1 players and the actual rekijou cause it’s just painfully offputting to new fans, with other fans even going out of their way to specify the game is not integral to enjoying the series which sucks, but it’s true.

its a real damn shame to think that something you are so invested in is not particularly invested in itself. sometimes, just sometimes i wish they dev team for tkrb was more hands-on, more adventurous, more willing to listen to players, invest in the game and genuinely try and make the game the best it can be. i’m not asking for balls to the wall summer events, beautiful animated CMs from the likes of the industries best animators, i’m not asking for pages of supplemental lore compiled into books, character backstory novels or whatever i’m just asking for the lore and the characters that we love to sometimes occasionally be remembered in the actual game outside of like ... the two years between their kiwame and the vague possibility of a recollection. i want to feel like this game puts as much effort into itself as the fans do towards it.

it’s a painful truth but there’s one shining light which is that the fandom for tkrb is genuinely one of the most committed and transformative ones ive ever seen. i have never been involved with a fandom that varies so widely and puts in so much effort for these characters and this world. tkrb exists solely as a popular franchise due to the sheer legwork of the fans carrying it on their backs collaboratively. ultimately, tkrb is very very lore-light, there’s so much thats missing and the characters in-game rarely rarely interact with each other. the characters are contained solely in however many voice lines they get at implementation, their kiwame letters, and their updates kiwame lines and the only interaction they get with other swords is recollections or depending on the sword, the odd custom sparring lines.

but despite that there has been so much fan effort to explore everything in so many different varied ways, and amazingly there are certain tropes, relationships, lore etc. that have started off fanon and become canon. the fan community, especially the fanartists, doujins, writers, animators etc. being given a small indulgence by the anime is one of my favourite things about tkrbs relationship with its fanbase. that’s not to say that the fans dont give back in kind a hundred fold.

there’s so much i love about tkrb fans going out of their way to go SEE historical swords in japan, single-handedly reforging swords using crowdfunding and revitalising lots of small-town tourism having real world impact. shit makes me unbelievably happy. the stage plays and musicals are always met with warm reception and are always well attended and even though its hard to access, there are lots of western fans who have dived into a whole new MEDIUM that most of us arent really familiar with but out of their love for tkrb theyve done that. they have hosted the musical as far out as india and france, making tkrb a truly worldwide franchise and there theyve met full seats! as far out as india! then theres the fantranslators, who always have the drive the commitment and energy for the thankless work, the wiki always always is well maintained and they have new content up so fast, and there are so many people willing to help you out. even when crunchyr*ll got hanamaru s2 (i think) a week late and we were left without subs for the premier episode for a whole ass week, fantranslators who had never subbed before stepped up to translate a whole episode for FREE, encoding, subbing and timing it all despite never having done so just so others could understand the episode faster than cr*nchy themselves could. even, as well, it’s made so many history nerds out of a whole bunch of people, it’s created an appreciation for nihontou and japanese history that would otherwise probably never be in their orbit because of how inaccessible it is, especially in english. even on a personal note, i started learning japanese primarily so i could understand tkrb and the history behind it better and to read jp fanart/interact with fanartists.

 no matter what, i am forever warmed by how much i love tkrb and its fanbase and im glad that tkrb is still going strong, even despite itself sometimes and i hope that moving on tkrb tries new things, and becomes better for everyone.

[humblesun]

I have never written a post on here before. I haven’t been on here in a very long time, actually. But I want to write something, because I think I experienced something worth writing about. I feel like I should do the millennial thing and write about it on a site my parents can’t see. It really isn’t that deep, but I really want to share it, even though I think the only person that’s gonna see it is zabreena lol. 

Last night I did shrooms for the third time in my life. The other two times were pretty good, very good experiences. I’m sure from that sentence you can guess that last night was not a good trip at all. I respect hallucinogens, always. There power is amazing and it is quiet beautiful when having good experiences. Even the bad experiences, I can appreciate them. 

I decided to trip with two of my 3 of my friends I trust a lot... One of them being someone I would literally die for. ANother being a genuine man that only wishes the best for other humans. The other one is a little iffy, but I always find the good in people, or i try to. 

I get off work and I go shower and my good friend and I head over to the iffy dudes dorm... I take a little over two grams and these shrooms are the real deal man... not even 20 minutes later I am having mad visuals. They are beautiful... I could not stop smiling. I was looking outside of the window and it was one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen in my life. The trees were blowing in the wind in sections. Every tree had 5 or six sections that were growing into the sky. It looked like they were breathing. I look at this poster this iffy dude has in his dorm and theres trees on it, and the trees were growing inside of the room. There were colors everywhere. GOD IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I looked at my friends and I just told them I loved them. I felt so at peace with myself and the world. I was thinking about how proud I was of myself. I really had been getting my shit together. Then the genuine really cool guy was kind of freaking out. both of us had went into a spiral and I was thinking about how fucked up it is that people don’t know how to do the right thing. How it is so easy to do the right thing, but somehow people never know how to do it. I am someone who is always respectful and openminded to everyones opinions and thoughts. But people know what the right thing is and people constantly pick the wrong thing, because humans are so selfish. I was getting so angry at people. I eventually stood up because I was just zoned out looking at the ceiling. I looked at everyone and I said “what the fuck is going on,” I also said, “Im so hot, but I am so cold. jesus what the fuck.” I was peaking and so was everyone else. When tripping with people, I have felt very connected to them. Usually we are all thinking the same thing, but I was only on the same page as the genuine guy. We kept looking at each other because I felt like he could hear my thoughts, and he thought I could hear his. The iffy dude was getting pissed off because the genuine guy started crying because he was just so sad. I told him that it was okay to cry and my friend of many years was doing the same. 

Eventually he stopped crying... The genuine guy and my friend of many years have had a thing for a few weeks, theyve been makin out, doin things, ya know.... And chandler wanted to kiss tyler, so I guess they started making out, but I didnt know because I had zero peripheral vision.. I could not see them at all. I could not feel my body at all. I felt myself getting hot again and I felt someone touching me. It was that iffy dude!!!! he was groping my stomach and was in my shirt... shit was fucking weird. I yelled at him “get the fuck off of me, stop touching me dude.” and he backed off. I could not get up and leave, other wise i would have left that second. I was paralyzed on the bed dude. Aint no way in hell i could've left. I felt hot gain. this dude was holding my hand and playing with my hair and groping me, AGAIN. I fucking yelled again!! I grabbed this dudes arm and pulled him off of me....... I was sitting there thinking about how I had to go to school for some reason. I said “man i gotta go to school.” everyone was like “what the fuk.” Oh well, I was being semi responsible even on shrooms on a saturday night. I felt hot again. I could not feel my body and this dude was fucking on top of me. HE WAS ON TOP OF ME. I pushed this little dude off and I was fucking pissed. the genuine guy had his pants off for some reason, and I was like what is going on. iffy dude yelled at the genuine dude to put his pants on lol. And genuine guy left the room and iffy guy got mad at me and said “what the fuck, why are you so angry. Is this what rejection feels like.” Yes mother fucker. Fuck you. He justified his actions by saying that he thought it was weird that genuine guy and my friend of many years were interacting like that, but we weren’t. 

We could not find genuine guy to get our ID’s so we can leave. Iffy guy thought I should go and help him find him. Friend of many years and I yelled at him and said “Fuck you, you go find him.” we waited and he finally came back and we left. Genuine guy ran away and I went to my room. I thought iffy guy was gonna go get genuine guy, but iffy dude left his friend stranded and he ended up in the hospital. Genuine guy called the iffy guy to get him out of the hospital and iffy dude said no. WHAT THE FUCK. what kind of friend is that.... 

NOW COMES THE CRAZIEST PART. Person reading this. I experienced an ego death. It was the scariest moment of my fucking life. I went to the dorm and I felt better, but there was something spiraling, but I thought it was okay. I’m usually the babysitter, so I told myself I’m fine alone. My friend of many years left to meet up with her new lady friend, and things got very very bad.... I thought I shit my pants so I told myself I was disgusting. I was smothering my face into the floor saying I hated myself, that there was no point in living. I heard someone say outside of my dorm, “why is there blood everywhere, did someone kill themselves?” All of a sudden I get up and open my eyes and there is blood everywhere. I look at my desk and there is a hannah baker razor sitting there with blood on it. I look down at my arms and there are huge gashes. I feel the blood dripping out of my body. I i start to cry. I start saying “It’s too late. I just killed myself. I’m just an article about drugs and suicide.” I was looking around and i felt myself fall to the ground. I was talking and breathing like I was dead. I laid there and I heard nothing. I was deaf. I realized I was talking way too long to be bleeding out. I got up and realized I was alive, and I had scissors in my hand for some reason. I was holding them saying how worthless I am. There is always a part of me that does what is right, so I set the scissors down and I called my mom and realized it was my mom and hung up. I called my roommate/friend of many years, and I told her to call 911. She sprinted up to me and I was on the ground, in a ball, just crying. I didn’t have a shirt on and she spooned me while I cried. 

I didn’t know what had happened to me until I googled it this morning. I have had very scary suicidal thoughts before, because I have been very depressed before this, but feeling like I had died was the scariest thing ever. I never want to die and the fact that that thought has ever crossed my mind, makes me so sad. Alls I wanted to do was call my family. I wanted to see them and hug them and talk to them. The fact that I thought they would never get to see me alive ever again, was so so terrifying. I called my sister and told her about it, and she cried because i started to cry because that experience had left me traumatized for a minute. 

I want to make a point to this post, but I just wanted to write about what happened. If you ever want to die, don’t die please. Don’t make any action, because someone loves the shit out of you. I promise. I promise you are okay. I promise it isn’t worth it. I know I didn’t really die, but i cannot emphasize enough... I seriously thought I died. I felt my body shut down. Everything was okay and everything is okay. I love breathing and my family. 

Ps. 13 reasons why is the dumbest show ever. Hannah baker is fucking stupid. & I don’t support anyones liking towards it. 

[prevsapphism]

i.graine + small talk! like / reply if you read and wna interact w modern!ig/raine because this is like Vital to her modern verse.

igraine got the idea for small talk when she was in her late teens and realised she ‘cldnt make a career out of painting’ because her work wld almost never b consistent, and inconsistency is rlly bad for igraine. and also this stigma that ‘’’’’artists starved’’’’ or whatever. 

so her idea was to create somewhere where artists cld hang out and create art and make small talk in a safe, warm, friendly environment. 

which brings me to the next point. its name, small talk arts centre, came from when igraine was trying to name her Vision so that graeme wld go through w it and bankroll them. they realised that whenever she described their project to other ppl, they always said the same thing: ‘somewhere where artists can hang out and make small talk.’ small talk arts centre sounded cute and catchy so it stuck :,)

the building was actually given to igraine as a belated birthday present in august of 1991.

 it was an old cafe building that was down on its luck in downtown portland. graeme pretty much only agreed because he ‘loved’ his wife ( read: he wanted them to shut up ) and it was rlly cheap because it was going out of business. 

it was very slow going at first....

‘small talk in 1991 was nowhere near the artistic hub it is now ; bustling, cosy, seemingly alive. it was sleepy and esoteric, known only amongst portlands art students and struggling local artists looking for ig.raines loving enthusiasm and free use of paintbrushes, coloured pencils and charcoal. 

but it soon blossomed under igraines care and drive. it was one of the most popular artists hangouts on the west coast by 1998.

from the outside, small talk looks like this, and im gna transpose copy and paste my tags on that photo into text for more description:

the bldg w the blue trim in that photo is literally what small talk looks like from the outside, although the trim is carmine-red. it has old fashioned storefront style letters on the front, rlly big windows, and climbing plants up the walls when its warm out. the sign hanging is wooden and handpainted. it has a light on top so you can read it when its dark out.

small talk is rlly big inside, and it shld b-- its always bustling. the inside / main floor is never empty-- ppl r always sat at the tables drawing or painting w watercolours or colouring on the tables themselves ( the tops r chalkboard and washed at the end of every day ) and talking. hardly anybody in small talk is ever idle.

theres a rainbow flag on one wall and this is stencilled on the other, w each phrase in rainbow colours :,)

downstairs in the bldg is the merry widow tea parlour, which is a victorian / gothic-themed teashop owned by a guy and his boyfriend. they opened there in 2011 and theyve been a smash hit since, esp round hallowe’en. igraine knows the owners rlly well and they let the small talk team get free tea all the time, esp because they pay rent to igraine now!  they arent a cat cafe, but they do have a cat!! shes a three year old tuxedo cat and their mascot. shes called the honourable miss lucinda and sometimes if its quiet on small talks main floor she gets loose and wanders round upstairs. ( the merry widow is a great date spot btw ;0 ) 

upstairs in the bldg is a loft-type lvl, w skylights overtop. theres a Bigge expanse at the forefront, which overlooks the main floor below over a balcony. ‘messier’ crafts, like painting and sculpture are to b done up here. the upper lvl has easels and painting / other art supplies, and also a corner w beanbag chairs and a power strip for ppl to Chill in. 

towards the back of the upper lvl r the four, five personal studio spaces, which can b bought and paid for monthly ( it costs less for students ) as well as igraines personal studio in the very corner, and lys office. 

at the very top / on the roof, theres a beautiful expansive patio, which igraine opens for normal activity when its warm out, does summer group stuff, her pride activities and their midsummer festival! there r flowers growing up there and kids like to draw on the patio w chalk :,) its one of igraines favourite places in small talk, esp when the sun is rising

these r igraines coworkers and they love them with all her heart.

holland will probably b the one to greet you first, as thats basically her job, and hes friendly and funny, yea, but hes goddamn LOUD shes even louder than igraine. seriously holls its 9.15 am why r you so :VVVVV. also shes never not wearing a hawaiian shirt or SOMETHING tropical print, no matter what time of the year it is. 

if its not holland, itll probably b caesar, who is much more laid back by comparison. he looks intimidating-- hes quiet and outwardly calm, has two sleeve tattoos, and usually dressed in blacks and greys-- but florians easygoing and a softie. theres a reason he leads the tiny picasso programme there w mads.

talking of which, the tiny picasso programme is Wildly Popular at small talk. its an art programme in the summer led by mads and caesar for kids aged preschool-age to about second grade, and usually they ‘make their own masterpieces, learn to follow directions thru art and the power of self expression’ as it says in the desc on the tiny picasso sect of small talks website. sometimes they have like. a concrete craft to make. they r occasionally seasonal, if a season or holiday is coming up, but they keep their creations strictly secular. ( eg flowers for spring, beach stuff for summer, snowflakes for winter etc. ) 

come late winter / early spring, parents r CLAMOURING in caesar and igraines email inboxes to get their kids into tiny picasso-- it operates on a first come, first served basis because it Blew Up when it was introduced in 1995.

igraine also talked to several local school gsas and worked w them to do programmes during the school year where leetle lgbt kids can make gӓÿ art at small talk. 

there r also a couple interns of varying degrees of paid / unpaid floating round small talk on Any Given Day.

small talk has SO MANY inside jokes. 

one of them is ‘caesar....’ ( read the tags on this post )

another one is holland and caesar being ~In Luv~ because they fuckening R and they jokingly flirt w each other all the time and REFUSE to ADMIT IT and its like GODS GUYS just KISS ALREADY

another is caesars nickname, queso. a lot of the kids he works with cant pronounce ‘caesar’ as ‘seezer’ instead of ‘kay-sar’, ( because theyre all like 4-6, ) which gradually devolved to ‘queso,’ and now all the kids call him that and so does small talks staff :,) 

small talk is rlly famous locally and there r accolades of photos and newspaper and magazine articles where its been featured framed on the walls!!

you can also get a membership at small talk!! i dont know what a membership entails but! you can. b a member. 

they have tshirts on their website and also in person probably!

theres a paper shop down the block from small talk and igraines like. in there every week for supplies. 

its funded by ppl who donate to it, members / studio renters and the programmes!