#At this point starting tv shows late into the 2nd season and then coming on here w screencaps is my thing

[cruelyear]

She's something, your Claudia / A spark in the dark

i. screencaps from Interview with the Vampire (2022-) S1E3: Is my very nature that of the devil, S1E4: the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding, S2E1: What can the damned really say to the damned & S2E7: I could not prevent it

[seventhrounder]

I went thru my folder with old hockey magazines I had saved from around 2011 to 2015 and came across this one and thought it could be a fun to make a post about now in hindsight.

This is Jääkiekko magazine from May 2012, they always have a section of "99 questions with ..." and in this issue they interviewed Teräväinen.

I’ve translated the questions I found interesting under the cut! It ended up being about half of the interview. (*) are my additions.

On the cover "seuraava superjokeri" means the next super joker, he played for Helsingin Jokerit so it's a word play from that. Under, on the blue print it says: "The 17-year-old forward will become a first round draft pick in the summer. The natural goal scorer can dominate in SM-Liiga as soon as next season."

In the 2nd photo the headline and lead paragraph goes:

"A post with dents* - A year ago Teuvo Teräväinen was known only within a small number of hockey insiders. Few passers-by recognize him now either but after a flashy rookie season the Jokerit sensation is on the radar of every NHL team and is a strong contender to become a first round draft pick. Next season with Jokerit the talented second line center will be one of the main talking points in the SM-Liiga."

(*references the net Teräväinen had in his backyard and into which he practiced his shooting)

3. You've been described as a magician, top scorer, wunderkind and a prodigy. What do you think of these descriptions?

TT: Heh, those are some descriptions yeah. What can I really say? Don't really wanna comment on them much.

4. How nervous are you about the Draft?

TT: I try not to be nervous as best as I can. In a way I don't have anything to be nervous about since I don't care which team picks me or at what number I go.

6. Which is stressing you more, English interviews or physical tests?

TT: Maybe both. Bench press (laughs) and English interviews can be tough.

12. How far along have you planned your career with, for example, your parents or your agent?

TT: Haven't really planned things with others but I've thought about them myself. I try to go step by step and not jump too far ahead.

14. How does it feel to be so young with all the star players in Jokerit?

TT: How to say it? I haven't felt like I was young but a part of the team instead. The team's been very good with me and they haven't been looking down at me like: "oh he's young". It's been fun to play in an experienced team.

15. Is there a generational gap between players?

TT: You can see the age difference, older players look older but we're all childish, at least with our topics.

17. What does a 17-year-old do in the sauna nights of the team?

TT: I actually haven't been in any yet. I've always been at national team's camps or something.

19. Did you get the number you wanted?

TT: I did, yeah. I could've taken #18 but Semir (Ben-Amor) has it. But i'm happy with #86, it's good.

23. What are your strengths as a player?

TT: Offensive play and with that playing with the puck, passing, IQ, power play and skill, just the usual skill - skill with hands.

24. And weaknesses?

TT: They are to do with defensive play, strength and physicality. Battles and such but I think I took a step forward last season. That's a good thing.

25. Have you ever been "pressed into a mold" or has your playing style gotten to develop naturally?

TT: As a kid the play was mostly offensive/attacking, I didn't have to think about playing defence. Up until 15 years old, I got to attack pretty freely. Playing defence became more important when I started to play in A-juniors a couple seasons ago.

26. On a scale from 1 to 10 how determined are you?

TT: Maybe 8, feels like an 8.

32. What kind of role are you planning to take with Jokerit next season?

TT: I think a pretty big one. I try to be a top player and not just take others' example but give others example myself too. So that someone in the team can take something out of the way I do things on the ice and off the ice.

35. If you could pick anyone, who would be your car driver?

TT: Nico Manelius for sure. He's been my driver this season. I've had others too, like Riku Hahl but he's not nearly at the same level. Nico’s clearly the best.

36. What are the most important qualifications to be a good driver?

TT: The car is obviously important. Hahl's car is totally awful, he takes a lot of heat for it from the guys too. I wouldn't dare driving with him. Manelius is a steady performer, never lets you down.

38. What sports did you play as a 10-year-old?

TT: Hockey and floorball, probably football (soccer) during the summers at the time too.

42. When did you decide to focus only on hockey?

TT: So when I stopped playing other sports? Three years ago, before that floorball was kind of a side thing, I played a couple of games in the regular season and playoffs.

45. Do you follow floorball or other sports? Go to games?

TT: I don't go to games but I like to watch floorball on TV, it's an interesting sport. Sometimes I watch football too but I don't follow it much. Feels like they never score there.

47. Have you ever played with a wooden stick?

TT: As a kid I did play with a wooden stick.

49. You won the hockey players' golf tournament last summer even though there were more experienced players too. Are you good with all stick games?

TT: Well, I've been pretty good in all of them. I've played golf for a long time and still play it.

50. How is your swing?

TT: Pretty bold, kind of a hockey swing. I don't really care where the ball goes - as long as it goes far.

52. What do you think of off-ice training?

TT: Let's just say it's more stupid than being on the ice but you still gotta do it to be better on the ice.

56. Which word describes your professional relationship (with his coach, Tomek Valtonen), tranquil or colorful?

TT: Colorful of course. At times we're joking around, other times it's more serious but the relationship is really good.

57. Coaching you has been described in many words: good, bad, worse. What are they?

TT: Heh, well... I won't tell them here. He (Tomek) keeps the discipline during practices but sometimes when things haven't gone to a plan I've had to jump on an exercise bike in the middle of a practice.

58. What have been the reasons?

TT: I'll quote Tomek: "when I haven't been present".

59. Have you ever tried to turn the resistance of the bike to zero?

TT: (Laughs) Of course I have and sometimes I've even succeeded.

60. Describe your diet in three words?

TT: Greasy, healthy and good!

64. Your first name is not common for people your age. How did your parents come up with it?

TT: I actually don't even know. Maybe they didn't want a usual Ville*....

(*very common name for men of all ages in Finland)

66. Which of these is the most important: skill, unexpectedness or courage?

TT: Skill!

68. Your longest video game stint?

TT: Six hours, at least. I've played a lot of War of Duty lately.

72. The dumbest thing that has made you upset in hockey?

TT: Probably if I didn't get an assist on a goal even though I should have. Or even worse is if I score and they mark it down for someone else.

79. Have you had any concussions?

TT: I haven't had any, I've managed to always dodge them.*

(*ouch, tho it's good the recent one is his only as far as i remember)

84. In 2011 Team Finland finished in the 5th place at the U-18 tournament. Why only as 5th?

TT: Because we lost to Team Russia in the quarter final, just as well we could have won that game too.

89. You didn't get to be on the ice to accept the SM-Liiga bronze medal (because of the U-18's). When and where did you get it?

TT: I actually still haven't received it, I don't know where it is.

93. What is the population of Helsinki?

TT: There's like 5 million people in Finland so maybe around 500k in Helsinki? (to be exact 596k) Did i really get it right...?

94. Who's the mayor of Helsinki?

TT: I don't know, I barely know the president.

95. Do you think the municipalities in the capital city area should merge?

TT: Luckily I don't have to decide but they probably shouldn't.

96. What do you check first in the news paper?

TT: The sports section.

97. Your favorite tv show?

TT: Putous* was pretty good, I liked a lot of the characters. The grandma was pretty good.

(*Finnish live improvisation comedy/sketch show (there are still new seasons, the latest just finished). Every actor comes up with a humor character with a catchy phrase and one of them wins. "The grandma" is Marja Tyrni and I just got such flashbacks from typing this sentence.)

98. Last book you read?

TT: I don't read many books. The last book was a study book, a Finnish book. I wrote an essay on Tiki (Esa) Tikkanen's biography. An eventful book, great career and a lot of chirps.

99. Who should we ask the 99 questions next?

TT: Riku Hahl could have good stories, he's also seen a lot of the world.

[hopeshoodie]

Ok so in light of the Independent article (see my tag #fusebox layoffs for more info), I’ve been trying to piece together the sequence of events that lead to FB Going to Shit™. 

All of the below is based on articles, tweets from the staff, and dates from screenshots. Especially with the Matchmaker stuff, I’m using the dates I personally accessed the stories- that might not be accurate to when they were actually released to an international audience, just when my phone updated the app. In hindsight, I’m not a great person to do this because I have a shit memory and don’t keep receipts, so if you have any corrections PLEASE lmk either in the dms or replies. 

In sum, the timeline appears to be:

1. Key players left Fusebox in early 2020. 

The one that people are probably most familiar with is David Gallopim, one of the artists who helped define the S2’s distinct style, leaving sometime before March 2020. He seemed to indicate that there was conflict over the new art style of S3, and released assets he’d designed of Harry in his own style (notably way prettier than Harry looks in-game). 

But probably more important to the direction of the company, Michael Othen, one of the co-founders and former CEO, left in July of 2020 (I had thought it was earlier in the year but according to LinkedIn it was July). It’s much more unclear why he left, but it’s notable because he was a huge force in making the game inclusive of LGBTQ characters. 

So all in all, not a great sign when employees who had a huge hand in creating the content and direction of a game that defined its success jump ship. Especially after the game was seemingly hitting its stride, with the host of Love Island (the TV show) doing a sponsored Let’s Play of S3 and projects in the works like Boat Party and CMM.

2. It seems like Fusebox‘s CEO/executives hired new management, either in 2020 or early 2021. Employees complain that the executives don’t understand what it takes to make a game and are pulling the studio in the wrong direction. It’s unclear if the newly hired execs had experience. 

Wil Stephens, the CEO/founder, has been with FB since its inception but also appears to have only founded game distribution ventures and not worked in any development or employment capacity. If that’s the case, maybe the complaints about lack of experience/knowledge about the mechanics of making games work are about him. If not, then some of the newly hired execs would likely be to blame. 

Paul Virapen, COO, was brought on in November of 2020. He’s worked with Disney’s gaming division, Big Pixel studios, Wooga. The quality of that experience is dubious since he headed up the ‘let’s make apps for Apple watches, it’ll be the next big thing’ department… Lol. Notably also, all of his roles had been in the executive/managerial realm, not the development teams, so the complains might have been about him. THIS IS SPECULATION, but I’m willing to bet that Virapen was a if not THE driving force in switching Fusebox’s focus entirely to matchmaker. All the studios he’s worked with have primarily produced and promoted Match 3 games, and he has a background working with big studios that produce games for large international audiences, not small studios making narrative games for limited audiences.

A new Manager of Finances, Ruth Erskine, was brought on in December of 2020

Rob Goddard, a new producer, was brought in January of 2021

Several key operations positions were filled by existing employees being promoted to management- 2 as far as I can tell. But as a whole it seems like December 2020 was a huge shift in leadership for the upper management while a lot of the other teams expanded but kept their old players as well.

3. At some point in late 2020- mid 2021, the executive team made the decision to switch LITG’s focus from a narrative pass-based game to a Match 3 incorporating romance narrative cut scenes. In early 2021, Fusebox teased more content to come while releasing S3 (seemingly referring to Matchmaker and not S4). In the interim between S3 endings and Boat Party’s release they put out an interview confirming the new game will be Match 3 but did seem to indicate that the plan at that time was for Matchmaker to be a side project with a different development team and not replace the main game. Notably, the LITG writers and artists were reassured that their roles will continue to exist (according to the independent article) as they’re working on S4.

3. In September of 2020, Matchmaker became briefly available in the US. That’s when I first downloaded it, at least. It would be added/removed from the google play store multiple times before having a unilateral release in July of 2021. 

Throughout 2020, Matchmaker is available to Asian audiences solely with LITG S1 getting rolled out in incremental updates. 

Eventually, Beanie Quinn is released (March 2021)

LA Noir is released (May 2021)

Seduction Games is released (late May or June 2021- I got the update and played it June 3rd, but hadn’t opened the app for a month or so. It might have come out before then, which is unfortunate for this timeline since it’s so inextricably linked to the open letter and layoff dates)

LITG S2 is released (only like 20 levels of it) the same month- June 19th for me. Notably, all of these stories are only released to an international audience, with the UK and USA still not having access to the app.

4. At the same time, Fusebox’s internal affairs are pretty quiet from 2020-2021, at least on social media. 

S3 comes out in 2020, Boat Party comes out later in the year and finishes in 2021. Post S3 in October of 2021, a survey goes out gauging player interest in new art styles and representation, which was pretty in keeping with past actions and seemed promising for S4. 

Boat Party features a promising cross promotion implementing irl brands into the game. It’s unclear if enough money was made from this on FB or the sponsor’s end to make that strategy viable, but that might’ve impacted management’s outlook for the profitability of LITG.  

Fusebox teases more content for the summer on Instagram, and then follows up and confirms it’ll be a proper season.

5. More key players leave in early 2021

Ed Sibley is still listed as Narrative Direction on LinkedIn, but he’s not credited as a writer on Season 4 (he was on 3,2,and 1) and started work with NetSpeak games in May of 2021, so we can assume he left around then or at least transitioned away from Fusebox then.

Fred Francis, another writer who had been on the team since S1, turns in his resignation ‘weeks’ before the layoffs were announced in late June. So we can assume he made his exit sometime early June or late May.

6. Prior to the release of Seduction games in May/June, staff expressed concern about the biphobia in Seduction Games. No sources have given a specific time when this took place. They were reassured that the problem would be corrected prior to release, but then the story was released as is to an international audience in June. The article released by the Independent is unclear- there might have been discussion prior to the open letter where staff expressed concerns and then were reassured before the game going live. OR the open letter might have been the first expression of concern by the staff. I tend to think the former, and the open letter was a response to Matchmaker going live with Seduction Games anyways, but I have no proof for that. On May 24th, 31 employees sent an open letter of concern regarding the problematic content in Matchmaker. This letter isn’t public, so we don’t know the scope of the employees' concerns or who the employees were.

7. To resolve the situation, a meeting between the staff and at least the COO (likely more than just him though) was held sometime after May 24th. Allegedly, Virapen was disrespectful to the employees who had questions, refused to answer, and ended the meeting early before any resolution was had by closing his laptop and leaving the room. At least 4 HR complaints were made in the wake of that meeting, we do not know the nature of those complaints. 

8. Some time mid-July (maybe July 26th? A writer tweeted about their job ending soon on that date), employees were made aware that the LITG app would move into ‘sunset mode’. It’s unclear what was communicated, but it seems as though S4 will be heavily delayed or cancelled altogether and no future seasons would be made. Writers begin to post about looking for work on Twitter

9. June 30th- The majority of Fusebox writing staff announce on twitter they’re out of work. In addition to the entire writing staff, unity engineers and producers are also let go.

10. July 5th - Fusebox executives respond to an article by MCVUK with a statement asserting they were ��consulting with [their] employees on a proposed change to its business model” that would focus on producing Matchmaker content. They also expounded that the move was to secure “cash injections and and continued support from respected investors across the media and gaming industry”

11. July 6th- Fusebox announces that S4 will be delayed from the summer release date and that there is no fixed release date. 

12. August 2nd- three jobs are posted to Fusebox’s careers page on their website, one being Head of Narrative Content. In the job listing, it specifies that they’ll be maintaining existing properties as well as new ones, and that because of the co-development model (re:fusebox outsourcing Matchmaker to another studio) the new Narrative Lead must collaborate with external content creators.

Hopefully posting this timeline gives players a better understanding of how radically Fusebox has changed in the course of 2021 (and how royally they screwed over the people who made LITG what it is). Again, please let me know if you have receipts showing dates are different or things to add. 

[yan-twst]

CYOA - Twisted Wonderland

aaand here it is, finally! Chapter one of my choose your own adventure fic for twst! This is the very first chapter; it’s a bit of a slow start, establishing the plot and all, you know? As was decided by the poll, the reader is in Diasomnia (however, I’m sure y’all can probably figure out a way to worm out of the dorm quickly and meet more characters). Anyways, without further ado, here’s the fic!

You sometimes wished that your dorm wasn’t so… Gloomy. Sure, Diasomnia had some cool things; the whole “Valley of Thorns Castle” aesthetic was cool, and the fact the hallways were lit with green torches always looked cool at night, not to mention the TVs and games in the common room, but… As you tried to study for the upcoming quiz, you quietly cursed the controlled climate. Yes, you knew that rain and storms were natural in the area; but didn’t the school control the dorm’s climate with fae magic?! It was way too difficult to concentrate on your potions notes when the rain outside felt like it was lulling you to sleep as it fell against your windows.

Your roommate was snoozing in his bed- either he’d already studied, or he’d given up on the quiz. Either way, you couldn’t deny that it was alluring to just forget the damn thing and go to bed. It wasn’t that late, but you’d been going to sleep at awful hours lately, and your body sorely demanded you get some sleep. And yet, glancing down at the recipe for the minor memory erasing draught you’d have to concoct tomorrow, you knew that if you went to sleep now, you’d be dealing with Crewel’s biting critique and a terrible grade tomorrow.

A snore from your roommate broke your concentration, and you glared at the sleeping boy. Usually you and him got along just fine, but in this moment, it felt like he was testing you, as he slept sweetly and your sleep deprived self stressed over a notebook. Hearing another snore, you decided to move to the common room- maybe there you’d concentrate a bit better, and also not be tempted by the siren’s call of your bed. Picking up your phone and your notebook, you left the room, closing the door softly so as to not disturb your roommate, and made your way down the eerie halls of the dorm.

“Vice dorm leader…?” immediately, you noticed that Lilia was in the common room. After that your nose registered a smell so odd it almost made you turn around and leave. It wasn’t a bad smell, just… Incredibly odd and off putting: and you quickly pinpointed the source of it to be some charred, blackened and bizarre dish that your vice dorm leader was holding. 

“Oh? Hello there.” he said with a chuckle. You wouldn’t call Lilia a close friend by any means, but you did know him well. As a vice dorm leader, he did his best to help out the Diasomnia students, and he was also fond of pulling small pranks here and there; you’d been a victim of his tricks and also gone to him for help a couple times in your two years of being at NRC. “It’s an odd hour to be hanging out… Or could it be the smell of my cooking that brought you here?”

“Your… cooking?” so that charred thing he was holding was… food? You’d been warned- mostly by your fellow second year Silver- that Lilia was not a good cook (in fact, Silver had made it seem like his food was somehow a health hazard), but you’d imagined the usual cooking oopsies. Too much salt, not enough seasoning, maybe burning some of the food; the usual mistakes people made when cooking. However, looking at the blackened and mysterious substance in the plate he held… You wondered if perhaps Silver had been right in making Lilia’s cooking sound like some sort of biohazard.

“Indeed, I’ve been cooking some cookies. I wanted to cheer Silver, since he’s been studying hard for a quiz. And there’s nothing quite like some cookies to snack on while studying, right?” said Lilia. Cookies…? You walked closer and squinted at the plate; so those were Lilia’s cookies…? You were pretty sure you could see eggshell shards on the otherwise charcoal black pieces of what you hoped was dough. Did he… Did he not see the problem with them?

“Oh, the potions quiz for tomorrow? Yeah, I’m sure he’s been studying… I doubt Crewel is going to go easy on us.” You said with a nervous laughter, trying to divert the topic from the so-called cookies. The last thing you wanted was for him to ask you to taste test or something. A bite of those cookies would probably take you out of commission for a good week or two, and while being sick to miss class tomorrow and avoid the quiz was tempting, you really weren’t sure if it was worth it to risk some crazy horrible food poisoning for that. 

“Fufu, you’re also working quite hard, I gather? Did you come to study here?” asked Lilia, pointing to your notebook. You nodded. 

“Mhm, my roommate was being a bit loud, so…” you shrugged with a smile. You weren’t gonna throw your roommate under the bus and tell Lilia he was snoring like a train and that drove you out of the room, you were at least kind enough to omit that particular piece of info. “Well, I’m probably just going to look over the notes a bit and then go to sleep. I can only study so much to make a potion without actually being at the lab, after all.”

“Ah, Silver did mention that Crewel was making you all make a draught from memory.” Lilia hummed. “Are you having trouble with this? I can always try to help, after delivering these delicious cookies to Silver.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly bother you with this, it’s ok, vice dorm leader!” you said, quickly shaking your head. You didn’t want to waste Lilia’s time; he was a third year, after all… If your work was hard as a second year, he was probably drowning in schoolwork and studying, right? Not to mention you kind of felt like you should show more respect to him: he was an ancient fae and you were pretty sure he was a war veteran despite being in high school. 

“Oh, please call me Lilia. We’ve known each other for too long for you to be using titles, (name). I still remember the day the magic mirror sorted you into Diasomnia, right after my dear Silver was sorted.” he said with a smile, his pointy fangs catching your eye. “You’re close friends with Silver, aren’t you? I’m quite grateful you spend time with him, he’s a good boy.”

“Oh, um, well… Then I’ll call you Lilia, if that’s really ok…” you said, a bit bashful. You didn’t miss how he talked about Silver; you knew that the 2nd year did constantly refer to Lilia as ‘old man’, but you’d brushed it off to perhaps him being close enough to Lilia to use that as a nickname, but… The way Lilia spoke, it almost sounded like a father being happy his son had found a friend. “Yes, me and Silver are close. We’re in the same class, I usually give him my notes when he falls asleep in the middle of lectures. He also helps me study, sometimes.”

“Oh, you do? I must thank you, then. It’s quite kind of you.” Lilia said with a smile. “Oh! How rude of me, I haven’t offered you a cookie, have I? They’re freshly baked, you should try them. It’s the same recipe I made for Silver when he was younger.”

“Er-!” you paled. Crap, this was what you’d been fearing. The stress of the request made you not even stop to think about the odd wording of ‘making cookies for Silver ever since he was younger’ or the implication Lilia had somehow raised Silver; your brain was blaring alarms telling you to NOT put those… Things anywhere close to your face. But at the same time, Lilia was smiling so happily as he picked one of the charred objects and stuck it out in your direction.

“Lilia. You shouldn’t be giving that to humans.” a deep voice made you freeze before you accepted the cookie with a reluctant hand. You quickly turned around to spot the dorm leader entering the common room, arms crossed as he stared at Lilia. “You’re going to kill them if you make them eat that.”

“Oh, come on Malleus, don’t say that! My cookies are delicious.” Lilia sighed, taking back his baked treat and taking a bite for himself. You internally cringed at the noise of what you now absolutely knew to be chunks of eggshell and god knows what else in the object. “Don’t you see you’ll give (name) a bad impression of my cooking if you say that?”

“... It’s my duty to protect my dorm members.” said Malleus, walking closer to you and warily eyeing Lilia’s cooking. You held back a sigh of relief- yup, he’d definitely saved you. If even Malleus Draconia was scared of Lilia’s hellish cookies, you probably would have keeled over and died if you’d put that in your mouth. “Besides, it’s late. Why were you baking?”

“I was making a treat for Silver, since he was studying. This little one just happened to walk in when the cookies were ready- they’re studying for the same quiz Silver is cramming for.” said Lilia, gesturing to you. “It seems Crewel is having his fun in stressing out the first years, fufu. What potion is he making you all make?”

“Oh, um, it’s… A minor memory loss draught. It’s got a lot of steps and ingredients, and it’s way too easy to mess up, so…” you said, a bit nervous. You felt… A little bit silly now, for stressing so much over it. Right now, you were surrounded by one of the strongest mages in the world- who was also the prince of the dark fae- and an ancient and wise fae who had probably fought in great wars and aided the Valley of Thorns royalty. To them, making a weak potion was probably as easy as blinking. 

“A memory loss draught… That does indeed have many steps to its preparation, if I’m not remembering wrong.” said Malleus. His words made you relax a little- you’d half been expecting some comment like a minor memory loss draught? That’s child’s play, why are you stressing out? or something. Your dorm leader was known to be a bit haughty at times. “You look exhausted. I assume you’ve been studying a lot?”

“Wait, I look tired…? Crap, is it showing in my face?” you said, cursing internally. You had a few friends in Pomefiore and you just knew they’d be fretting over you if your eyebags and exhaustion were so evident your dorm leader, who was not too good at picking up clues, could notice.

“I’m afraid so, my dear. You look like you’re ready to drop any second now- I know you’ve got a lot of work, but perhaps you’re pushing yourself too hard.” said Lilia. You grimaced; great, now you’d somehow managed to worry the two of them. It felt… Wrong to have two powerful and important beings even express concern over your wellbeing: you were just… Some puny human who got sorted into Diasomnia, you weren’t even particularly close to either of them. Hell, you’d only spoken to Malleus a couple of times before, for fuck’s sake.

“Hmm, Malleus, could it be that you still remember how to make that potion?” said Lilia, tilting his head. The taller fae nodded, making Lilia hum in understanding. “I see, I see. Well, (name), I’m sure you’d get an amazing grade if you were to study with Malleus. He’s quite good in potionmaking when he concentrates, I promise you. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt at all for him to get closer to his own dorm members now, would it?”

“That’s-!” you visibly stiffened, looking at Malleus. Sure, you weren’t as scared of him as some of the other students were, but…! You still couldn’t just treat him all willy-nilly like some random kid; he was one of the most powerful mages in the world and crown prince from the Valley of Thorns. The mere idea of dragging him off for a study session that benefitted only you made your gut twist. Although the idea was anxiety inducing, you couldn’t help but notice a spark of… Curiosity? In Malleus’ eyes, almost as if he was entertained by the idea of it all; still, you couldn’t just accept something like that.  “I couldn’t possibly-!”

“... or you could go study with Silver. I was going to go check up on him, so you could come with me.” said Lilia, perhaps sensing your panic. 

--- time to make a choice! vote in the poll linked below to choose how to advance in the story!

poll: https://www.strawpoll.me/20971117

[onenettvchannel]

#OnlyOnOneNETnews: The Upcoming 9th Season of RWBY downfalls thru a New Location as Announced between the RTX-VAF & SDCC 2021

IMPORTANT SPOILER WARNING: The following news article may contains an extremely sensitive spoilers. Readers frankly discretion is STRONGLY ADVISED! Also, Reporting our news article without the consent is punishable by law. We are honestly NOT responsible in our small news organization experience for any of it’s wrong doing. Read our disclaimer first, at the end of this article. Thank you.

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- A virtual online panel in both separate places between the Austin & San Diego. Rooster Teeth Expo-Virtual Animation Festival (RTX-VAF) and San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) 2021 announces for the upcoming 9th Season of RWBY (much actually as Volumes).

For those you don’t know about the show of RWBY, a computer-animated web series was made by the Rooster Teeth Animation (RTA) and a show creator was late named by Monty Oum. He died from the Anaphylaxis of Comatose before Season 3 by the end of October 2015. The real acronym of RWBY stands for the names of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna & Yang Xiao Long. It's a fictional sci-fi world of Remnant where the Huntsmen & Huntresses to be trained and become warriors to protect the world from monsters called Grimm.

In reality for it’s both places, minus the physical convention panel in America... Austin City at a Travis County in Texas goes for a 2nd Stage (known for as General Community Quarantine or GCQ). While in San Diego City at a same county name of California however (as according to our Research Team of OneNETnews and a local mainstream media like KDFW-TV's FOX 4: Dallas-Fort Worth for example), there is a possibility of Stage 4 (known also for the Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ). These stage numbers are subjected to be translated from the Austin Government to a Philippine Quarantine Classification status of Corona Virus Disease-19 (CoViD19).

RWBY was started in mid-July 2013 from a web streaming service of Rooster Teeth. Crunchyroll, VRV and Amazon Prime Video secures for a streaming rights in a legal way possible within the coming years as simulcasted for the entire animated show until today in the present.

RTX-VAF was virtually held last July 8th-17th, 2021 and the SDCC follows individually a few weeks later by July 23rd-25th, 2021. The RWBY Panel commences at the RTX-VAF 2021 at 1pm EDT last Friday afternoon by July 9th & SDCC 2021 ends with a developing conclusion by July 25th, 2021 at 1am EDT. Casts and Crews from this show reveals for the announcements of Season 9 starts with the entire RWBY voice actresses team, along with a Lead Writer & Director named Kerry Shawcross and the 2 show writers were named by Eddy Rivas & Miles Luna.

In a latest pre-recorded panel of RWBY at the RTX-VAF & SDCC 2021, the official work-in-progress (WiP) was released first globally from this said panel, and the same thing follows a few weeks later at the SDCC. OneNETnews had first obtained in an exclusive tidbits of Season 9 as Laura Yates (Supervising Producer of RWBY and RTA) showed a sneak peek with us to the public.

Season 9 is now currently in production as Yates told exclusively to OneNETnews through our independent news media in Dumaguete as virtually from a group of video conferencing of RTX-VAF 2021, "We’re not quite ready to share Season 9’s release date yet, as the productions team being going well thou. We actually have a longer production run in Season 9 which is typically do, as upon allowing some of the animation departments when proceeding to move on to it’s next project such as fully animated, script writings, voice recording sessions, etc., which is very super exciting. We got a lot of big stuff coming up and a lot more updates to share soon". Several productions and preparations are meant to be fully completed for Season 9 by later this September 2021 onwards as Yates added.

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As from a start of a sneak peek of Season 9, the entire Pocket Dimension known for as the Evacuation Central Location (ECL) is much more urgently ongoing. Ruby Rose is the ONLY perspective point-of-view, among the rest of her team of Yang, Penny, Weiss and Blake; while Cinder Fall continues for a serious opponent against the remaining team members of RWBY.

Most of it's selected pathways are under attack, the muted suspect against the victim named Neopolitan Torchwick (probably not an actual last name in regular). She was the legal age above her 20s at this said moment.

Yang immediately pushes to safety for Ruby but, Neopolitan was slained to her like a half-moon. Almost everyone else (except the evacuees themselves), the rest of the RWBY team were defeated for now (even with her weapon of Crescent Rose destroys or felled off alone).

Cinder lets herself go with Neopolitan and/or Ruby during the 8th Season FINALE, both of them are in downfall the void at the end of the episode (as well sadly with Blake and others) upon passing out for a while.

Ruby woked up temporarily with an a space travel from this said void. She checked out possibly for what is going on, as even with her left hand if it's related to fireflies or something else.

Until one muted suspect sucker-punches her victim's face in the center as Neopolitan did for a domestic battery.

Ruby tries to stop her muted suspect with a severe craziness of anger, Neopolitan shapeshifts herself within a few seconds in disguise. She was backed off with her both hands and punches again, leaving a muted suspect strangles for an attempted throat suffocation to her victim's point-of-view. Ruby grabs her disguised muted suspect's arm, she was quickly felled back for a gravity distance with it's separation.

Neither both of them were landed from this scene through a mysterious island, as she plunged down the hydrosphere waters and washed ashore to sleep for this early morning (Solitas local time).

Just a few hours later, Ruby woken up the 2nd time and notices a single voice to help with. Most of a gigantic size of sea shells and a medium-sized sea starfish are subjected to investigate and explore this mysterious island. It's a good sunny weather today to start off the entire journey of Season 9, immediately after it's said post-credits from a previous season. The main feature sits from this place of a gigantic tree above.

The troubles of a fictional world like Solitas isn't over. Upon jumping it's entire conclusion, Ruby is about to be checked out on foot and went herself with a jungle trees first to see what it goes.

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At the end of a Sneak Peek clip, a similar conclusion with a different web series on YouTube called "Meta Runner" in Episode 1 as possibly connected to RWBY. A single commented basher says, it feels like an animated production company as seeking with Rooster Teeth will be cheated out from the another animation company in plagiarism at a later seasons but, the reference points of RTA looks okay with a permission as long as the homework-like copy is prohibited to do so.

As for Neopolitan Torchwick (the muted suspect herself), she will be automatically committed and charged with a Thrice Violation of Article 250 or the Revised Penal Code of it's Frustrated Homicide for the victim of Yang, Republic Act #9262: Section 3b or Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 & Republic Act #9745 or the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 as also for the individual victim of Ruby.

All of these 3 charges books into her jail sentence of 40 total years in prison for a heaviest result of Reclusion Perpetua, as included with a simple fine and punishment between almost U$D2,000 and a mandatory psychological private counseling (as to be scheduled by every other weekends at the Interrogation Room by August 7th, 2021 until further notice for an eligible later parole). She is now confiscating all of her deadly weapons, as soon as a different location arrives but not on this mysterious island this time (in our possible theory).

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The excitement at sunrise in Season 9 is almost here, even with a post-Pandemic of CoViD19 in America. We carefully mentioned to OneNETnews from these 2 separate conventions of RWBY panel for what does the Season 9 release date happens but, it isn't ready at the moment as according to Yates. Rooster Teeth Animation is working hard to produce at these tougher times until a final version were soon to be made available to the Rooster Teeth First members.

Season 9 of RWBY commences possibly later this year in 2021 onwards.

#TravelResponsibly

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EDITOR's NOTE: As expected from your immediate feedback last Thursday afternoon (July 29th, 2021), we updatedly corrected the final grammar issues from this said news report. We frankly apologize for that, mga Ka-Bandera.

SCREENGRAB COURTESY: RTX-Virtual Animation Festival & Rooster Teeth Animation

SOURCE: *https://www.austintexas.gov/page/covid-19-risk-based-guidelines [Referenced Stage Numbers in Quarantine Classifications from the Austin Government] *https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2021-05-26/rtx-at-home-announces-animation-festival/ + https://www.awn.com/news/rtx-home-animation-festival-announces-line [Dual Reference Schedule of RWBY Panel] *https://archive.is/FS4vD [RTX at HOME - Reference Schedule] *https://roosterteeth.com/watch/rtx-2021-rwby-panel [RWBY V9 SNEAK PEEK - Skip to 31m35s for an Actual Clip] *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR7bfwwd3l0 [Comic Con at Home 2021 - RWBY Panel] *https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/The_Final_Word and *https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Unnamed_Shore

EXTREMELY HONEST DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed from this Exclusive News Article are not necessarily those from the Rooster Teeth Animation. This medium-rare suspect like Neopolitan Torchwick does not be imitated in any matter. Furthermore, the assumptions of this Exclusive News Article will NOT state, intervene or reflect those of our Radyo Patrol reporters. The show, the station, the management, interwebs and the network. Thanks for reading! Stay safe and may the Celestia blesses you. Later!

-- OneNETnews Team

[ohnobjyx]

Plum blossoms in the snow (II)

Part 4: April and May (II)

Disclaimer: I try to keep things objective (if I include my personal opinion, it’s in cursive and in brackets), but I’m biased because of the XZ friendly content I’m usually exposed to and by my own views of their situation. Open to discussion, but please make sure you’ve enough information to do so.

(There was a mistake in the last post, that an anon pointed out. I’ve edited the post. Thank you!)

In May, some of the controversy resurfaced, in the topic of how idols and celebrities affect the younger generations, and, even how they affect younger generations by affecting those in charge of their education.

TV documentary

At the beginning of May, a documentary appeared on the news about a mother worried for her high school daughter, who neglected her studies “because she was infatuated with XZ”. Among other things, she’d ask for money to buy XZ’s new song (0’5 by the way) and she’d borrow money from her classmates to buy things he endorses.

Her daughter also appeared on the documentary, saying that her academic performance has nothing to do with XZ, but rather with the pandemic situation, as she’s not used to online classes. It turned out that she had skipped a grade, and entered high school directly from 2nd year of middle school, so she lacked the support of a network of friends and encouragement in her new situation. She said that as soon as she got her motivation back, she’d keep studying.

However, general public sided with her mother, and said that this kind of obsession with an idol was leading the youths astray.

Interview with Economic View

XZ also gave an interview, for the first time since 2/27, for Economic View, alking about many topics, the “XZ fans incident” among them (I found this video with subtitles, and I think the subtitles are quite good).

He said, among other things:

“Everything happened in the climax of the country’s fight against the epidemic. I was deeply troubled and worried while I was quarantined at home. I also felt very if this incident has brought trouble to netizens. If that’s the case, from here, I want to say a sincere ‘I’m sorry’.

Since my debut to now, I’ve never ceased to receive well-meaning criticism and guidance. I went from being a normal person to go on to the stage. From my friends, from seniors… I’m always open to them. But of course, there is malicious criticism, some fake rumours and slander, that I think don’t affect just me, but also my friends and family. I don’t feel wronged. I just don’t understand.

When I was 19-20, and I first used w/ibo, I didn’t realize. That in such a public platform, I made inappropriate comments that have hurt other people. I apologize for the consequences of the inappropriate comments I’ve made in the past.”

He also said that the fans always did public welfare projects in his name, and that he got energy from them.

“I hope fans can live their own lives well, and don’t resort to extreme actions to hurt others or themselves.”

This interview was of course praised for showing responsibility and answering almost all questions. We can all notice that his responses are very carefully worded, that he takes his time thinking about what he’s going to say and how, and that his answers are very calculated. Don’t misunderstand me. He did it very well in this interview, and I don’t think he was insincere, but he needed to be very careful about what he said at the time.

Other idols and their sasaengs

On the 9th of May, WYB posted the following:

“I work very hard, can’t I even nap for a bit in the car? My staff stood in front of your car, and you still dared to drive forward? For a long time, strangers come and knock my hotel room’s door, they install tracking devices in my car, there’s people following me no matter where I go… unbelievable! I really can’t understand you!”

A crazy fan had followed him on her car. When the security had tried to stop her, stepping in front of her car, she still tried to drive forward.

To this, UNIQ OFFICIAL account expressed their support like this:

“Against this kind of vile behaviour, report to the police! Let the law investigate their legal responsibility! To those who go against other people’s security and don’t respect your privacy, zero tolerance!”

The teacher’s incident

On the 10th, XZ posted:

“Please listen to me carefully once more! I wish you to take good care of your studies, careers, personal lives, and to place them before “chasing stars”. Study hard, take your job seriously. Be responsible and assume your obligations, follow the rules of your career and abide by professionalism. I don’t your help.”

This message may seem harsh to some of their fans. So, why did XZ publish such a comment?

A primary school teacher had posted a video of his students cheering for XZ. This angered a lot of netizens, who said that she was using a position of power to “indoctrinate” young children to like this idol. The haters affirmed that she was guiding the children to “chase” stars, and that she’s a bad influence (I actually agree with this one, you really shouldn’t do this in a classroom, but to involve XZ again is going too far).

XZ and the teacher were reported to the authorities. The Ministry of Education answered that the teacher had been suspended from her job and the school’s director had received a formal reprimand. The teacher’s w/ibo account had also been blocked. This is the main reason for XZ’s post.

Talking about unreasonable responses, after this incident with the teacher, the next day the topic “XZ’s supertopic teachers group” went on hot search in w/ibo. A group consisting of more than 1000 teachers, all fans of XZ, had been formed inside the supertopic. This was widely questioned by the netizens and haters.

To be fair, this didn’t happen just to XZ. Around the same time, another video emerged, with a teacher encouraging his kindergarten students to cheer for Wang Junkai. So with this incident, the Ministry of Education started to pay attention to similar content.

On the 14th, XZ forwarded an article by People’s Daily about teachers using their students to cheer for their idols and asking 

“Don’t go beyond the limits of your professionalism. Don’t leave the circle of rationalism. The fan quan can’t circle everything” (”quan” means circle)

Many more teachers were reported, and in response, the XZ’s fans association posted this:

“There are many voices criticizing XZ’s fans right now. We accept the criticism. XZ has told his fans to “pursue the idols” in a civilized and rational way, but some still display unreasonable behaviour. These actions have a great negative impact on him. We apologize to him and to other fans in their name.”  

This even extended to a teacher teaching a course of cyber-violence. She used XZ as an example of cyber violence and haters’ attack. This was brought again to the authorities by the haters, and she was suspended from her job. Luckily, her students and their parents were very supportive and defended her, so she came back to her post.

(This was just ridiculous. Really).  

This is quite a curious thing: even though we can see that objectively, this teacher didn’t do anything wrong, the department deemed her at fault due to the large number of reports.  

(It’s a thinking that goes along the lines of “if a lot of people think she has done something wrong, then she must have done something wrong”.)

So if haters can’t find anything to criticize in XZ, they’ll turn to his fans.

More support...

15th of May. A screenwriter and director posted a comment praising XZ and lamenting about his situation. The next day, he updated saying that he had been attacked in private comments because of his post, so he was very angry by it (he was angry with haters, not with xz).

On that day a photographer that had worked with him also praised him, saying he was humble and polite. He was also attacked by haters and antis, saying he had only praised XZ out of all the idols he had worked with, so he had to have ulterior motives, such as being paid by his studio or insulting the other idols in disguise.

People noticed that if someone defends XZ, no matter who they are, they’ll be attacked. No matter what XZ does, he’ll be criticized by some. If he doesn’t do anything, the haters turn on to his fans. Hater were trying to destroy every effort he made, and they managed it easily at first. After each appearance in public, he faces all kinds of comments. So conspiracy theories surged, about a mastermind behind the haters.

Even the lawyer that was managing XZ’s case was attacked by haters.

(Who in his right state of mind calls a lawyer with their own mobile phone to insult them? This logic and rationale amazes me…)

... and a little disappointment

At the end of May, the photos of him filming a episode of the season 2 of 青春环游记 were leaked on S/na News. He did participate in the recording, but the episode didn’t include him in the end (aired mid-June). A worker said they had been feeling pressure from various fronts, and finally felt that it’d be best not to include him (I suppose they feared the pressure from the antis).

In the midst of disappointment, his fans mostly reacted by keeping a positive attitude: “he posted two selfies lately, he shot a cute video making a drink (the douyin video), he seems in a good mood in all them. With them he was trying to cheer us fans. He has told us not to be used by others, not to get carried away by antis, not believe rumours, and to not be suspicious of his studio. What’s an episode in a variety show? He got paid anyway just for recording it. Let’s not cry over it.”

Truly, in spite of everything that happened at February and March, I think this is the kind of comments he deserves from his fans: people who are a little bit sad because he didn’t make it to the episode in the end, but who are still supporting him, waiting for his next project and listening to what he says.

←Part 4 (I): Plum blossoms in the snow (I) | Part 5 and 6: A snowy summer→

[leapingtitan]

The Final Season - Episode 1 Thoughts

I've watched the first episode around 3 times on my own and over a dozen times from anime-only live reactions on YouTube. Those are always something to have a field day with every season, and are part of the whole enjoyment post-watching the episode on your own.

Obviously I'm only reviewing this based on the first episode, so it's way too early to judge The Final Season as a whole. However, I will say that my strategy to keep my expectations low definitely worked. I was very hyped, don't get me wrong, but after Season 3 Part 2, I realized that production and scheduling has never been this show's strong suite and things behind the scenes were always chaotic. And it was my mistake to realize it this late and have unrealistically high expectations of the manga's adaptation.

But enough about that. I'm just gonna say it right now. I absolutely loved this episode and was completely blown away by it. It was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish and boy, the staff wasn't kidding when they said the first episode was like a movie. It definitely felt like that, and it went by in a flash. Now, on to the individual points.

Story/Adaptation

Flawless. Everything was executed perfectly and went beyond my expectations. The thing that stood out to me the most was how many things were changed from the PV in terms of scene construction, camera angles, and overall storyboards. There was only one shot that we reused from the PV, namely the one with Zeke and Reiner inside the airship where they're referred to as the spear and shield. Everything else was redone, which was a huge surprise. Wit was always very faithful to the original manga panels with how they used them as a big reference for most of their cuts, but this one changes them up a lot. Personally, I am 100% fine with it and as someone who has read these chapters in the manga dozens of times over the past few years, seeing them like this was a pleasant and very welcome surprise.

The anime-only additions here are notable and also quite welcome. Falco's line in the beginning in particular stood out the most in the long-run, but the addition of the Eldians' terror being shown as well as the scene before the ED was very welcome. I would like to assume that this was Isayama's doing as whenever the anime usually adds/changes up things, it's his request to do so. He sort of considers the anime to be the "definitive" version of the story that he, for one reason or another, couldn't do in the manga himself when that particular chapter came out. Season 3 Part 1 (The Uprising Arc) is a prime example for this. Once again, I'm very content with what was done here and I trust MAPPA will do the story justice.

A small but very neat thing is the fact that we got to keep the title cards and the info eyecatches mid-episode. Really added to the whole sense of consistency.

Animation

When the initial trailer came out, many people were concerned about Shigeki Asakawa (Director of Photography)'s odd and excessive usage of blur filters on top of the scenes and were wondering if they would remain in the final product, given her track record with other shows like The God of Highschool. Luckily, that is not the case here as the scenes look very clean and the minimal blur on top adds a bit to the muddy/gritty atmosphere of what's going on. Personally, I don't mind it at all and I barely notice it anyway. MAPPA's biggest strength to me is the usage of effects like blood and explosions. You feel the impact of everything and with such an action-packed episode, it made everything so much better.

The usage of 3D CGI for the Titan Shifters has been the biggest controversy surrounding this first episode. When I first watched it, it didn't bother me at all. Personally I care more about a model fitting in the action sequence rather than how it looks for the most part. Right now I would say I'm neutral. It's not the greatest CG ever conceived in anime but it definitely does not look out of place and is pretty decent. For the Jaw Titan, I couldn't tell what was CG and what wasn't for the most part. For the other Titans it's more obvious, but it's not too jarring. Obviously, if it was up to me and the production committee/NHK didn't push their scheduling shenanigans onto MAPPA, I would have gotten every Titan in 2D, but you can't have everything. If they choose to focus on more important scenes later on and cut corners in this first episode as a result, that's understandable. I can live with it. And again, even then, it's not that bad in my eyes.

Now, the character designs are just absolutely stellar. In multiple interviews, it’s been stated that they wanted to stay true to Kyoji Asano’s designs at Wit while also being consistent with Isayama’s style in the manga. And boy did they absolutely nail it. It’s exactly what as they said. Tomohiro Kishi could not have done a better job with the characters we’ve seen so far and I am beyond impressed with his work. I look forward to seeing the rest of the characters in this arc.

Sound

I've been following Kohta Yamamoto's works for a few years now, ever since he started working with Sawano (and being mentored by him to an extent) in early 2017. Although he's been involved with AoT before, particularly with the character songs in Season 2, whenever those two would collaborate on a project it would usually be because Sawano is too busy to compose a full soundtrack. So what usually happens is, Sawano does one track and variations of it (think ShingekiNoKyojin, ThanksAT and T-KT), and nothing else. Meanwhile, Yamamoto handles the rest of the music for the show. On top of that, Yamamoto's style as a composer is different from Sawano's as he comes from a rock/guitarist background as opposed to Sawano, who is a pianist and is classically trained. My biggest concern for The Final Season was that we would get a similar case as with the other shows where Sawano doesn't put in too much effort, while Yamamoto essentially becomes the main composer. Although it looks like this is in fact the case after this first episode, let me explain why I don't think it's a bad thing.

After the premiere of the first episode, both Sawano and Yamamoto tweeted that it was in fact Yamamoto who is handling the majority of the Marley Arc's music. And after this first episode, I have to say I'm impressed. His initial track that he made for the PV was a bit off-putting to me because it sounded like every epic blockbuster Hollywood trailer background track ever, but after the way it was used in this episode alongside a few other tracks, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. It fits what's going on, and overall delivers a fresh sound to the show that is very appropriate given the massive change in narrative. Back during S3 Part 1, Sawano stated in an interview that he was already burned out and had trouble coming up with new music for AoT given how many tracks he had already composed for it. Given how few new melodies were in S3 Part 2;s music, I think this should be clear. Especially now that we're going into yet another season. To summarize, I think Yamamoto's work here is a result of three conditions that just happened to line up perfectly. The change in narrative, which the new composer style reflects. Sawano being busy. And Sawano being burned out with AoT. Now personally I still believe we're going to get at least one new original Sawano track with variations of it for the big climax moments this arc, and he may compose more music for the 2nd half of this 16-episode season, since that's technically a new arc. But we'll see. As a whole though, I'm satisfied with what I've heard from Kohta Yamamoto in this first episode.

The last point to make in regards to the sound is Masafumi Mima who, apart from Sawano, the voice cast, and some freelancers, is the only one from the previous seasons' staff members to return here. And once again, his work here is absolutely phenomenal. The mixing and usage of sound effects in this episode was stellar and truly felt like I was watching a war movie. It enhanced the action tenfold and I could not want it any better. Music usage is something that goes through the director (Yuichiro Hayashi), but ultimately the sound director is the one who implements the track (instrument layering/stem editing) and does the mixing. The usage of Kohta Yamamoto's music here was very well done, and although the track from the PV repeated quite a bit, it didn't get repetitive at all. Also, the sound director remaining consistent here means we got to keep things like the titan transformation sound effects, which may be a small thing but was very welcome and added to the whole consistency.

Opening/Ending

I'm gonna wait until Shinsei Kamattechan releases the full version of the opening in a single or album to fully judge the song, but boy do I love this opening. Although I'm not sure if the TV-size version is my favorite AoT opening yet, I have to say that it's without a doubt the most fitting OP this show has had until this point. It perfectly showcases the themes of war that this arc focuses on and has this lowkey disturbing eerie vibe with the dissonant chords and mixing of the vocals that feels just as "mysterious" and "tense" as the show itself. I love it so much, honestly. Now, Isayama was a fan of Shinsei Kamattechan prior to them doing the S2 ED, and was the one who got them on-board to do it. Although that song isn't really my thing it's also a perfect fit, which leads me to believe that Isayama himself most likely chose the band again, namely to do this OP. And it's fantastic. I love the song. The visuals also have a very distinct style with all the colors and white backgrounds and I love how it's more metaphorical and symbolic (I guess "abstract" as well?) rather than flat-out just spoiling everything like the last arc's OP did.

The ED by Yuko Ando is fantastic. The first time I listened to the full song on its own I couldn't stop getting chills. Love the production aspects of the song and it's just really nice altogether. The visuals are quite interesting especially towards the end and I also like them a lot. Not much else to say about the ED. It's amazing. Go listen to it.

Conclusion

As a whole, I kept my expectations extremely low prior to the premiere despite my hype. As a result of that, not only were they exceeded, I was absolutely blown away by this first episode in pretty much every way. It may still be too early to judge, but from what has been shown here so far, I am absolutely looking forward to see MAPPA adapt the rest of this amazing story, or about as far as they can get with 16 episodes.

[battlekidx2]

Kipo Season 2 Review

I know this is late, but better late than never right?

Every cartoon I’ve watched on Netflix that dreamworks made has blown me away. Kipo has managed to continue their streak of fantastic cartoons. I got to Kipo season 1 late and only saw it a few weeks before season 2 dropped. I’m really glad I did because the wait would have been unbearable. Kipo has an inventive world with a lot of potential, fun characters that I enjoy every time they are on screen, a great soundtrack, and beautiful animation. There were some things in Kipo season 1 that I wish were expanded upon and I think a lot of them were addressed with the 2nd season. Kipo still has a lot of room to grow, but it has all the building blocks to be a great show and seems to be heading there. Dreamworks is probably my favorite animation company. I have been very happy with everything they have released recently.

Characters

I think I have to start with Scarlemage.  He was built up perfectly in the first season and I really liked the payoff. Dreamworks always has a knack for writing villains be it for their movies or their tv shows and they’ve once again created a very interesting and fun villain. Scarlemagne managed to be fun and sympathetic yet disturbing throughout the season. And while I’m typically all for redemption arcs I liked that he didn’t get one in this season. I think him not changing in the way kipo wanted was a learning moment for both her and her father. For her father it showed him his greatest flaw, giving up on people/things too soon, and how damaging that can be. For Kipo it showed her that as much as she may want to believe in the best in everything that’s not how it will always work out. I think these are major lessons that will effect the characters moving forward. My favorite villains are the ones who challenge the hero’s worldview and that’s what Scarlemagne does. Scarlemagne himself was very compelling this season and I do believe that while he wasn’t redeemed this season there is the possibility for change in the future. 

I got chills every time his musical motif played. I loved the logic behind his obsession with classical music and clothes. How it initially stemmed from his innocent wonder. I think it’s fascinating how in one episode everything we knew about Scarlemagne was flipped on its head. There was a sort of tragic inevitability to his “villain’s journey”. It was all born from one choice on the side of Kipo’s father that was completely understandable from his perspective, but heartbreaking from Scarlemagne’s perspective. (I’m also a big fan of tragic villains where there’s one choice or factor that makes it so that them and the hero can’t see eye to eye)

Kipo: 

I like Kipo as a main character. She isn’t my favorite main character and I chalk a lot of that up to the fact that until the second half of this season her worldview wasn’t really challenged all that much. She was constantly proven right again and again which I think was framed really well for a large part of the first season. It’s because she doesn’t have any preconceived biases against mutes that she is able to find common ground and see the best in everyone, but this view that everyone is good and that everyone can change isn’t challenged in any meaningful way until Scarlemagne and even then we won’t get to see the fallout of that until season 3. More experienced humans like Benson and Wolf are show to have distrust of mutes and we see in Wolf’s backstory exactly why and yet despite having much more experience with mutes and living on the surface the second Kipo comes along everything they previously thought and experienced is proven wrong. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that. Again I think with this season we are starting to see a shift away from that. Kipo has just seen that her philosophy isn’t always correct with mutes and I would assume with how the season ended next season will deal with her coming to that realization about humans as well.

I think Kipo has a lot of room to grow as a character. And they seem to be taking steps to address the problems I had with her. I want to once again emphasize that I do like her. There are just things that I would like for them to address in the future. (also it’s nice to hear Glimmer’s VA again)

Wolf:

Wolf is the character I am intrigued by the most. Her past, while only briefly explored in flashbacks, was hard hitting. The fade from her attacking the mother wolf to the wolf skin she had on her head was chilling. Everything we learn about her childhood is fascinating because I like hearing about how she survived on the surface alone. It’s an interesting concept because unlike Kipo she had to adapt from a young age to survive, but she was left with little to no people skills and attachment issues because of it. She was the main character who had the most room to grow in my opinion and, while her arc may be predictable, I like how it has been handled so far. I do want more information about her past and maybe a run in with some of the wolves that betrayed her (I have a hard time believing that she killed all of them). I just think there is a lot of untapped story potential with her character and I was a little sad that outside of episode 4 and the finale she took a lot more of a backseat compared to the first season. Though it was understandable considering how much they had to cover in a 10 episode timespan.

Benson:

Benson was given more to do this season, but still took a bit of a backseat. His relationship with Kipo isn’t given nearly as much attention as Kipo’s relationship with Wolf. I would like a Benson backstory because there is still so much left up to the viewers imagination about everything he went through pre-series. He’s a really fun character that I wish were utilized to his full potential. He has a fun dynamic with just about every character he interacts with and I look forward to seeing more of him in the future. I also like his blooming romance with Troy. It was really sweet and funny.

World

Kipo’s world is actually what drew me to this show in the first place. It was a unique take on the post apocalyptic mutant world and I was excited to see where they would take it. I really liked the worldbuilding and how unique each mutant society was and how they managed to very even the burrow cities. This world is just rich with so much wonder and potential. There are still a lot of questions like “What caused the apocalypse?”, “Did the mutes cause the apocalypse or did the apocalypse create the mutes?”, “How did society evolve the way it did?”, “How can it evolve from here?”. I am so intrigued by everything about it. The worldbuilding is probably the strongest point in the show. 

Music

That being said, the music is a very close second. The score and soundtrack of Kipo is one that you can just pop on and listen to whenever you want. I don’t think there’s anything I can really say about the music other than it’s great and reminds me of spider verse with how the music is used in the story and how each type of music associated with a character tells you a lot about who they are. It does just about everything that I feel music should do in the audio-visual medium. It’s really amazing.

Overall

I’m a really big fan of this show. I have a lot of fun anytime I put it on. While it isn’t my favorite of the dreamworks cartoons I still find it to be amazing. It manages to have moments and episodes that hit me hard even on a rewatch. There’s just so much creativity and heart put into this show. I really want to see more of it because with how the show is going and growing I believe that a lot of my questions and problems will be addressed. I hope others can find the enjoyment out of Kipo that I do.

[andaleduardo]

How to Break Your Heart and Make Sure It Stays Broken

2. Send them your favorite songs through Bluetooth    

- Read on ao3

Summary:  12:28 a.m.

Spaghetti: It’s not gonna be weird today

Richie: absolutely

Spaghetti: We’re not gonna make it awkward

Richie: definitely not

Spaghetti: Yeah we got this

Everything is just fucking fine.

7th January 2011, Friday

10:30 a.m.

“Congratulations, you just called the best family in town. What can I help you with?”

“Hu-hey Richie.”

“Billy boy! Happy birthday, man!”

The sound of Bill’s chuckles turn into wind over the phone. “Thanks.”

“So, what’s up?”

“I wanted to check if you’re s-ss-still coming today?”

“Course I am, what time do you want me there?”

“Come around 3. It’s t-too cold to go out so we’re just guh-gonna stay in the attic.”

“Well alright, chap. I’ll be there.”

“And don’t forget my dad’s driving everyone home.”

Richie did, in fact, forget about that.

“Oh yeah, right.”

There’s a second of silence before Bill speaks again. “Are you okay? You huh-haven’t been online lately.”

“Just peachy. You know how it gets, holiday season, kinda busy ‘round here.”

Although Bill knows Richie usually spends the holidays with just his parents (small family’s downside) he doesn’t say anything.

“We’ll have s-some fun today, don’t worry.”

“Indeed we will. See you at 3, birthday boy.”

“See you, Rich.”

And he hangs up.

  12:28 a.m.

Spaghetti: It’s not gonna be weird today

Richie: absolutely

Spaghetti: We’re not gonna make it awkward

Richie: definitely not

Spaghetti: Yeah we got this

  Richie is absolutely exhausted.

The entire week was a failed attempt at learning how to deal with the situation.

Sleep is an utter joke with a mind that runs as if it’s training for a marathon. Looking at food makes him nauseous, not eating food makes him nauseous, but eating it makes it worse.

Perhaps it would help if he could untie the knot in his throat, but then again he can’t cry properly when his parents are always around and poking a head through his bedroom door.

He wants school to start, he doesn’t want school to start. He wants them to go back to work, he doesn’t want to be left alone with his feelings.

And on top of it all he knows he’s overreacting. Absolutely over-the-top reacting. He’s fifteen. It’s not like he knows love.

But doesn’t he?

It hurts and it’s love. It burns as it makes its way up his throat and it’s love. It was amazing while he kept his mouth shut and now everything seems to be falling on him and his chest is heavy and caving and hungrier than his stomach and he caused it and it’s love.

Unrequited love, if you will. A fancy word for a fucked up thing.

To top it off, Eddie doesn’t stop.

 January 1st, 3:45 p.m.

Spaghetti: I hate you

Spaghetti: No wait I don’t hate hate you

Spaghetti: But

Spaghetti: Ugh

Spaghetti: I’m gonna be thinking about this now!

Spaghetti: And I don’t want us to change

Spaghetti: Like, I said “I hate you” and I would never second guess that before but now I feel like I need to tell you “I don’t actually hate you” because

Spaghetti: Well

Spaghetti: I don’t know why

Richie: sorry

Spaghetti: !

Spaghetti: Stop apologizing

Richie: … i really wanna say sorry again

Spaghetti: I don’t blame you

Spaghetti: It’s not like we control our feelings

 Damn right, they don’t. Richie isn’t sure how to answer that, so he doesn’t. But Eddie brings it up again one day later.

 January 2nd, 9:10 p.m.

Spaghetti: I think I kinda knew

Richie: ??? are u serious

Spaghetti: Well yeah

Richie: am I that predictable?

Spaghetti: You’re the least predictable person in the whole world Richie

Spaghetti: Except with the mom jokes

Spaghetti: I can always see those coming

Richie: yet you walk right onto them every time

Spaghetti: Fuck you.

Spaghetti: It’s just that the others aren’t that subtle

Richie: the losers?

Spaghetti: Yeah they try too hard

Spaghetti: Tease us a lot for being close and saying things and leaving us alone everywhere

Spaghetti: Guess I kinda wondered why they did that if they didn’t know something I didn’t

Richie: uh, they kinda don’t tho

Richie: at least I never told them

Spaghetti: Wait really?

Richie: maybe they’re just bored?

Spaghetti: Oh

Spaghetti: Maybe

 It’s only been a week so far (the longest week of Richie’s life) and Eddie texts him every day with the same topic. This, as predicted, isn’t helping the situation much.

It’s Tuesday. There’s Richie, staring at his cereal while Maggie studies him from the other side of the table and surprise, a brand new text from Eddie.

It’s Wednesday. There’s Richie, staring at the news channel because he forgot to press the button on the tv remote when he sat down on the couch 6 minutes ago. And then there’s his dad, looking at him from his vintage recliner and coming up with ten different ways to start a conversation without actually starting one. The phone’s screen lights up with against his leg with a new notification. Yes, from Eddie.

Finally, it’s Friday. Out of habit, Richie leaves the phone on the bathroom countertop as he showers. It takes a lot of self-control not to pull all his hair out while washing it when the phone vibrates against the counter. Once, then twice, then thrice. And so on to make up the total of 9 new messages.

Thank God he doesn’t walk out of the shower right then to check them out of curiosity, because 10 minutes later he’s sitting on the toilet seat and staring at “I hate you” for so long his mom actually knocks on the door and asks if he died in there.

He didn’t die in there, he’s just crying. Buy hey, mom, that’s the dream!

All the messages fall in the same lines. Eddie doesn’t want this to be awkward. He doesn’t want this to be weird. He doesn’t want anything to change.

Logically, Richie draws conclusions. He fucked up big, ruined them forever and now everything is inconvenient for Eddie. It’s not that hard to get it after six variations of:

 ‘You’re not gonna be different around me now right?’

 How can he not be different around Eddie now?

What if their knees touch and Eddie thinks it’s on purpose? What if Richie smiles in his direction and Eddie takes it as flirting? Christ. Richie doesn’t even know how to flirt! Should he sit far away from him now? Should he sit by his side like always and have Eddie think he’s doing it out of interest?

Richie didn’t just make everything inconvenient for Eddie, he made everything inconvenient for himself, too.

However, it’s Bill’s birthday, and that’s more important than a broken heart.

  5:48 p.m.

 “You’re cheating!” Everyone jumps on their seats when Stan shouts and slams his hand on the coffee table. It sends all the plastic houses on the monopoly board in different directions.

“What? No I’m not!” Bev defends herself.

“Nah.” Mike crosses his arms. “I don’t believe that.”

“You don’t believe she’s cheating?” Stan angrily inquires.

“I don’t believe she’s not cheating.” Says Mike.

“I am not fucking cheating, you guys are just awful at managing money.”

Stan’s chin drops in her direction. “You- I manage money wonderfully, thank you very much-”

While the arguing continues, Ben takes his time putting all the houses back on their places. Bill tries to make them stop fighting while Mike destroys all those attempts by teaming up with Bev and Stan alternately. Eddie furiously counts and recounts his money, being the one closest to bankrupt. And Richie silently organizes the contents of the bank. He doesn’t like monopoly that much.

“Maybe our bank over there has something to do with this?” Richie feels everyone’s eyes on him so he looks up at Mike from above his glasses.

“How could you ever think such things about me, Mikey?” He dramatically puts down the stack of property cards he had been sorting. “I do nothing but humble work for this community and this is how I’m treated. Unbelievable.”

“Richie, I swear.” Stan glares at him. “You won’t make me lose, even if you cheat.”

“How can I be cheating? I’m not even playing.”

“You’re passing Bev extra money!”

“Geez.” Eddie moans in annoyance. “We forgot Stan gets off on Monopoly.”

At that, Richie barks out a laugh, unable to keep it in but still trying to by slapping a hand over his mouth.

“Okay, fine.” Stan crosses his arms. “I wasn’t even the one suggesting this game, I voted for scrabble.”

“Oh, so the only other game you get off on?” Surprisingly, it slips from Richie’s mouth. He wasn’t at all expecting jokes to be coming from him today.

It’s just wonderfully entertaining to piss off Stan. At this point, the boy’s gotten himself so worked up that his whole face is pink.

“I’m going to shove birthday cake up your a-”

“-Wow! Okay let’s all chill.” Ben kindly tries to stop them.

Richie lifts up a hand full of fake-cash and makes a jerking off motion with the other, which finally triggers Stan into motion. He manages to jump away from the table on the exact moment Stan reaches over to try and jam his hand on his weakest spot, the armpits. But in the process, his knees collide with the bottom of the coffee table and all the board pieces end up flying everywhere. Again.

Ben throws his hands up. “Thank you so very much for that.”

“We will never f-ffinish a monopoly game…”

  6:23 p.m.

“How about Uno?” Ben suggests. “You can’t cheat at Uno, right?”

After being chased by Stan around the attic everyone ended up scattered around, staring at the ceiling and discussing which game to play next. So far it’s been twenty minutes of quiet chatting.

“You can grab three cards when you get a plus four.” Richie offers. “You can also slide in a six while playing some nines, might get lucky.”

There’s a brief second of silence and contemplation.

“How you can turn Uno into a sex joke still amazes me.” Eddie frowns at the ceiling.

Richie shrugs. “I’m pretty amazing overall.” Sweat pools up on the back of his neck with the effort of trying to sound so nonchalant. Richie wants to scream at the normality of his afternoon. Why does life keep going when you’re dealing with heartache? Isn’t the world supposed to stop spinning after you get friendzoned? Show a little compassion, earth.

“I still can’t believe your mom let you keep the phone.”

At Mike’s words, Eddie flops around on his bean bag, looking like a hanged potato sack. “Right? Didn’t see that coming, either.”

“Does she really go through it, though?”

Recently, Eddie’s contact list was updated to include everyone. His mom complained that he didn’t need to be in contact with “those friends” of his any more than he already does. She’s obviously wrong.

Eddie groans in agreement. “She keeps finding the lamest excuses until I give it to her. Then she checks whatever it is she wants and gives it back.”

A wave of fear passes through Richie. Almost on cue, Eddie steals a glance at him and adds. “But I archive the stuff she doesn’t need to read. And I keep Facebook as a hidden app.” Proud of his schemes, he smirks to himself.

Richie sinks back on his bean bag, slightly relieved. The past week of awful sleep is weighting him down, tying him to his worst and holding him back from pretending to be okay a little better. With time, he hopes to learn how to put this behind his back, but right now, Eddie is right in front of him.

“Hey, by the way. Can any of you tell me how to download songs?” The boy at matter asks.

“You know thu-that’s illegal, r-right?”

“Oh.” For a moment, he stares at Bill with a conflicted expression. “Well, I still want my music.”

“Richie, don’t you have a fuck ton of songs downloaded?”

“Yup. Illegal downloads are my number one occupation, Marsh.” Then, he gets it. “Oh, you’re right. Eds, turn Bluetooth on.”

He regrets saying ‘Eds’ oh so quickly, overly nervous that he isn’t allowed to say it anymore. Not that he was ever allowed to say it before, if the way Eddie complains about it 90% of the time means anything. Quickly, Richie spirals into thoughts of their bickering coming to an end, or even worse, becoming one sided and sad if one of them doesn’t feed into it. That would leave the other one hanging, and Richie was already left hanging, Richie is still hanging and he will be hanging on these feelings, on this rejection, for life. That’s what he has to accept, that he loves the only person in the world he could ever love and they don’t love him back. That his future seems sad from the present. That Eddie might drift away when he realizes they can’t mess around like best friends anymore, even if he had said he wouldn’t do that and it wouldn’t happen. But what if he does? What if it happens? Where does that leave him? What is he supposed to-

“Don’t call me that, asshole. And how the fuck do I do that?”

Oh.

The way Eddie speaks drips of familiarity. Just the way it always was with them, just the way it will always be. Richie can’t decide if that’s good or bad, but it pulls him together enough to talk.

“See that weird looking B icon up there?” He waits for Eddie’s answer but the other boy is looking at his phone as if he could catch it on fire with just his eyes.

Richie bites the inside of his cheek, breathes in some bravery and pushes himself up from the bean bag.

“Here,” he walks over and crouches down at Eddie’s side, quickly opening the Bluetooth settings and pairing up their phones while paying too much attention to the space between their hands. Just to make sure they don’t touch. “Do you wanna pick out the songs you want?” He starts giving his phone to Eddie but gets a headshake in return.

“Uh no, that’s fine.” Eddie says, turning his head and therefore putting their faces incredibly close. Richie barely catches himself from falling on his butt right there, and Eddie leans away quickly, obviously not meaning to cause any of this. “I- uh, just chose the ones you think I’d like.”

Richie nods stupidly and rushes back to his seat. While he goes through his music library and picks off songs, all he can think about is ‘This is so hard, too hard, way more difficult than I could possibly imagine and I don’t know if I can go about my life pretending everything is fine when it all feels anything but that.’

“How about Ludo? There’s no way you can cheat at that…”

Simply as if a switch was flipped, Richie multitasks and answers Ben by listing off all the possible ways to cheat at Ludo.

And to the outsider eyes, everything is just fine.

Everything is fine as they order pizza and Richie and Eddie have to ask each other if they can still share their regular favorite, olive and pepperoni. Everything is fine while conversation flows at dinner, except Richie puts his half of the pizza on a plate instead of sharing the box between their laps, and Eddie doesn’t question it. Everything is fine as everyone watches a movie after, and there’s no one to lean his head on Richie’s shoulder, or jab an elbow in his arm when they itch to comment certain scenes.

Then Bill’s dad comes upstairs to remind them it’s time to drive everyone home. And for the first time in his life, Richie is thrilled to hear those words.

On their way home, Eddie sits in the back, earphones plugging his ears deaf to his surroundings. Richie wonders if he should have left out all the love songs, now it’s too late for that. But it’s fine, right?

Everything is just fucking fine.

 perma taglist: @constantreaderfool   @mrs-vh  @eds-trashmouth @girasol-eddie  @reddieforlove @madi-personal  @cheekaspbrak

[pinkyshy101]

So I got bored and decided to type out a list of the cartoons/tv shows I’ve watched, cause why not! I think this is all I’ve watched, or at least recent enough (I’m thinking like…. 2014/15 onward, when I actively started to watch more cartoons)

It’s kinda long, and I’m kinda rambley, so I’ll put it under a keep reading thing (if I can) so you don’t have to scroll through that if you don’t want to. Idk who will actually read this, but hey maybe it’s an idea of what kind of things I might reblog on here! I’m always taking any suggestions for shows to watch, I love learning about and watching more and more cartoons! So if there’s something I didn’t list as something I watched and you think of be interested, feel free to please recommend it! I may update this with a reblog or an edit or something at some point in the future, idk though. For now, its September 19, 2020, and here’s what I got for ya

This ended up way more rambley than I meant for it to be but I started writing it at maybe 12:30ish am and now its almost 2am when I’m getting ready to post it so oops 👀 I’m not really expecting anyone to read this but hey, it’s something! Read if you wanna know what shows and other stuff I watched lol idc

Cartoons I’ve watched in their entirety (or what’s all aired as of today 9/19/20):

(updated 12/2/20 as starting with ATLA)

Gravity Falls - watched since late 2014

Steven Universe (including the movie and Future) - watched since mid June 2015, right before the second stevenbomb/sworn to the sword (early season 2)

Over The Garden Wall - watched back around when it first came out, can’t remember exactly when but sometime in 2015

Star vs The Forces of Evil - watched the first 2 seasons as they aired, then stopped watching for a while and rewatched the whole show in June 2019

Hilda - watched for the first time in I think October 2018, rewatched in May quarantine

She-ra and the Princesses of Power - watched all 5 seasons about/not even a week after season 5 came out, idk why I waited so long to watch it

The Owl House - started watching it after the grom episode aired, idk why I waited so long to watch it but molly and noelle and everyone was screaming about grom on twitter, so of course I had to watch it then

Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts - watched it all in early August, right before I watched The Owl House

Infinity Train - watched the pilot back in 2016, then the first season when it came out, but then I started college and didn’t get the chance to watch the 2nd/3rd season until I decided to watch the whole series (s1 again, 2/3 for the first time) this past week

Ouran High School Host Club - ok I know it’s anime not a cartoon and I can’t see myself reblogging anything from it but it’s literally the only anime I’ve watched more than like 1 or 2 episodes of/the only one I’ve seen in its entirety so I figured eh I’ll mention it

Camp Camp - I almost forgot to mention this one! I started watching it when there was I think only 3 episodes of season 1, so back in 2016, and I’ve loved it since then! I guess this summer’s season couldn’t happen cause of covid.... But I’m still excited for when/if it does eventually come out!

Avatar the Last Airbender

Shows that I’ve partially watched but not completely:

We Bare Bears - I’ve seen the first 2 seasons, maybe some of the third I can’t remember, I watched it when it first came out but I haven’t watched it in a while, so I would probably need to rewatch a bunch of it (I did rewatch I think the first season sometime this year? But it was while working on school projects so I wasn’t giving it my full attention), apparently there’s also a movie now???

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - I was huge into the brony fandom from roughly 2013ish-2017ish, I’ve seen up to season 8 and a few episodes of season 9, and the 4 equestria girls movies, and the mlp movie; I probably know seasons 1 - 4 the most, maybe a little of 5, 6 and 7 are kinda fuzzy but I’ve seen them, 8 I watched over quarantine (since it’d been a few years since I had watched any of it, I also rewatched bits of 5-7) as well as I think the first episode or so of season 9, but I don’t remember them too well. I watched the movie (the pony one, not eqg) when it came out in theaters, and not too long after that I drifted away from the mlp fandom (tbh I was drifting a little bit before it came out, but I knew I had to stick in there at least until it came out since I had been waiting for so long for it). The equestria girls movies, I saw them all when they first came out (I even saw rainbow rocks in the theater). I think there’s like, half hour shorts or episodes or something?? That’s in the eqg universe?? But I don’t think I’ve seen any of them, and if I have it was probably a really early one a long time ago because I haven’t really kept up with anything after Legend of Everfree came out

Animaniacs reboot - I’ve seen the first 5 episodes and it’s nice!

Shows that I’ve only seen an episode or few of that I (probably) intend on continuing to watch:

Glitch Techs - I saw the first episode! Definitely want to continue it

Rick and Morty - I watched a few episodes of the first season in like March/April quarantine, but I was still dealing with online school at home finishing out last semester then. I think I want to watch this eventually, but I have other shows that I want to catch up on/watch before I’d get to this one

Tangled the Series - idk if that’s the name I’ve seen multiple names but I hope you know what I’m talking about, I saw a handful of episodes from the first season I think sometime around fall 2019, but I’d probably have to rewatch the whole thing

Adventure Time - I’ve never had cable/cartoon network so I didn’t watch this growing up, but I’ve heard really good things about it and seen a bunch of stuff from it (I’d have to be living under a rock to have not seen anything lol) but it’s so long and I just haven’t gotten around to it yet! Well I’ve seen maybe a dozen or so episodes of the first season but it was a while ago so I’d have/want to start over probably

Shows I haven’t started

Amphibia - I’ve heard it’s good! I just haven’t gotten around to it yet

Avatar the Last Airbender - probably next on my list to watch, I’ve been meaning to watch it for years but I haven’t yet, its on Netflix now so that should make it easier to watch and a friend from school made me promise that this would be the next one I’d watch so that’s what I’m doing (I did watch the last 2 seasons of infinity train that night though, since I was really wanting to finish it first… But atla is next) watched it! (updated 12/2/20)

The Legend of Korra - obviously I’m waiting to watch it until after alta, and I’m probably going to watch it right after I finish atla

The Dragon Prince - idk really anything about it other than I think it’s on netflix? and apparently it’s good and maybe gay idk but I’ve heard it’s good thus why it’s on here lol

Black Horseman - idk too too much about this other than apparently it’s good but also kinda depressing. Similarly to rick and morty I want to watch it eventually but its not insanely high on my list

OK KO - don’t know a ton about it other than it’s decent, a step up from r+m/bojack on where I want to watch it but not urgently

Ducktales Reboot - similarly to OK KO, don’t know much about it other than it’s decent, same level of want to watch

Milo Murphy’s Law - saw a couple episodes when it came out, haven’t watched it in forever so if I ever do want to rewatch it I’d have to restart it, not super high on my priority list though

Bee and Puppycat - another one I almost forgot! I don’t know a ton about this but I’ve heard its nice! Plus from what I’ve seen I like the artstyle so  👀 maybe someday

Animaniacs (original) - I started to watch the reboot and I think I want to watch the original eventually! Just haven’t gotten around to it yet

Clone High - listen it’s not that I desperately WANT to watch this, I just have friends who are like, hey, watch this lol it’s apparently not super long so why not

Other non cartoon shows I’ve watched:

Brooklyn 99 - idk when I started watching it, maybe around season 4/5ish? I think sometime in 2018 so idk the season, idk, most of the episodes I’ve only seen once so I couldn’t tell you exactly what happens in every episode but I still like it

Rise - ugh I miss this show, I started watching it after/around when the 3rd episode came out (end of March 2018?), and I don’t think I’ve watched any of it since it ended (mid may 2018) cause its not on any streaming services anymore :/ at least not that I know of but I loved it and would love to rewatch it

Andi Mack - I’d heard it was good but hadn’t watched it after it ended (early august 2019 I think I watched it), haven’t rewatched it since then but it was decent, I mainly watched it cause I had seen clips of gay but yknow it was alright

Sex Education - watched 1st season sometime in 2019, when rewatched it/watched season 2 when it came out January 2020, this is like WAY more mature than like anything on this list but like it has an interesting story

Love Victor - watched first/currently only season when it came out mid june 2017 (how was June so long ago what)

Queer Eye - I’ve seen a couple seasons of it idk I figured why not add it lol

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist - I think I watched this around when there were maybe a few episodes of season 1 left (well there’s only one season now but still), idk I liked it cause like musicals and stuff idk

Idk what else to add to this section but if I think of anything (to any category on this list) I’ll probably update it later maybe idk (again I’m not necessarily going to be reblogging stuff from all/any of these but like, I figured I’d mention it cause idk)

Musicals:

Another thing I love is musicals, like I’m a design/tech major in college rn so yeah I like theatre lol so I’m going to list some I’ve seen (mostly watched bootlegs of, but I’ll list some professional/tour ones I’ve seen in person)(but if it doesn’t say anything special I probably just watched a bootleg, 2017 was a big year for me and my google drive being filled with bootlegs…) This might not be all of them and I won’t go into as much detail (I hope, I haven’t typed it yet) but we’ll see:

Broadway tours I’ve seen: (I swear this isn’t bragging they were cheap seats way up high lol)

Dear Evan Hansen (May 2019)

Wicked (first professional show I saw, October 2017, haven’t watched a bootleg or anything of it since then and I went in completely blind)

Mean Girls (November 2019, last professional show I saw before quarantine)

Come From Away (September 2019)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (November 2018)

The Book of Mormon (August 2018, was hoping to again this August but quarantine :( )

Non professional/high school/college/other shows I’ve seen in person/been on crew for (not all of them, but some) (assume I’ve also seen bootlegs/proshots if there are any)

Newsies

Spring Awakening (spot op)

Shrek (props)

Legally Blonde

I’ve seen done way more but I don’t feel like listing them or that they’re anything I’d want go reblog/actively look at fandom content for (that’s not saying it reblog stuff from shrek the musical but still lol)

Other shows I’ve seen only in proshot/bootleg form:

Basically every Starkid show

Spies are Forever

The Solve it Squad

Hamilton

Heathers

Be More Chill (yes I was in that big amalgamation of musical fandom stuff with these and deh in 2017 aaaa)

Falsettos

Beetlejuice

Spongebob

21 Chump Street

Les Mis

Phantom

(Again maybe not necessarily all but some there’s a slight chance I might reblog things about)

Musicals I still need/want to watch/listen to:

The Prom

Six

The Great Comet (not typing it all out)

Hadestown

Waitress

Bonnie and Clyde

Something Rotten

Tuck Everlasting

Again there’s more I want to see I’m sure but I haven’t really watched bootlegs in a while…. Idk feel free to suggest shows tho

Movies I’ve seen/like: obviously I’m not gonna just every single movie I’ve seen but heres a few I like:

The Sound of Music

The Wizard of Oz - these 2 have actually always been my favorite movies since I was little, I can’t dee myself reblogging much of anything about them but figured I’d mention them cause why not

Love Simon

Some but not all Disney movies (I grew up with no cable/mostly just pbs)

Most pixar movies?

I don’t think John Mulaney shows count as movies but eh whatever I’ve seen them on netflix

Idk what else lol I know I’ve seen more movies than this but eh

If anyone actually read all of this... Wow I’m surprised honestly lol have a free cookie or something for your struggles or smth, idk, thanks for reading this though lol I appreciate you (but also slightly worry, this was a lot of words and a lot of rambling)

[bearpillowmonster]

Top 15 Animated TV Series!

,

In a similar fashion to my top 15 movies and games, I came up with a list of animated series. With that 3D or 2D is acceptable and anime doesn’t count because it’s its own type of thing and isn’t the same as cartoons (and potential for another list) Again, no particular order, let’s do this!

House of Mouse: I said no particular order but this is number 1, no lie, it does everything it needs to. You have a crossover event of all the Disney characters at the time in a club. It’s a cartoon character about cartoon characters trying to handle the establishment and watch cartoons...it breaks every wall, it’s something I almost wish was updated just so we could see a new generation of cartoon characters together.

Rugrats: What can I say? What can’t I say? This as well as All Grown Up and the movies it started just click, something about the characters and breaking it down to a child’s perspective is soothing to me. 

Avatar: the Last Airbender: A lot of these I’ll admit, I have nostalgia for, but at the same time, a lot of these I didn’t watch until I was older, this is one of them. I knew this existed and watched a few episodes, I liked the concept but never truly got into it (partially because of the live action movie) I thought they were just running out of ideas when they gave Aang hair...then I watched Korra. That’s right, I watched Korra before this too and I liked it, naturally I came back to it after everyone said this was so superior, I was like “Yeah alright sure.” I saw the whole thing and I must say...it’s considered a masterpiece, I realized just how superior it is pretty quickly and I started feeling so sad that the live action movie was like it was but you’ve heard people complain about it to the end and back so you don’t need to hear it from me, nor do you need to hear that I like it, I know that you already know that it’s good.

Infinity Train: I was around when they launched the pilot and it got popular, I liked it and was down for more but everybody acted like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, I wouldn’t go that far...Then it came out and it was, but don’t say “Oh I knew it was going to be that good.” You COULD NOT tell from that pilot alone just how good it was going to be, that was just a taste to get you interested. I like the darker tone and themes it’s not afraid to shy away from such as divorce and loss, I can personally really connect to that.

Recess: I usually take a break after a season of something because I’m afraid I’ll get tired of it and leave it for a year but during all 4 seasons of this, not once did I get tired of it. I liked how the episodes were more compact to fit into a shorter episode. This is another one I didn’t like until I got older, it just grew on me and hit that 12 year old spot (which I’ll get to in a little bit and I was actually in late high school by the time I watched this so...) I mean it’s called recess for crying out loud!

Tron Uprising: It just isn’t a list without Tron on it, is it? It’s only natural that Uprising would be here. I can’t say that I was hooked after just the first or second episode but that’s because it builds you up, each episode gives you more interest than the last and ends on a bit of a climax that left Tron fans in a despair that season 2 was canned. However I can say that even though we all wanted to see Tron turn into Rinzler, what we got was about as good, something we didn’t even know we needed. #TronLives #FlynnLives

The Replacements: One of the wild cards of this list. I remember being fascinated by the idea, just replacing people, but each episode had a valuable lesson that maybe these people don’t need replaced and some problems are sometimes best solved on your own.

Miraculous Ladybug: If you’re a fan then you know, if you’re not then let me explain. I was dating someone at the time and they said they got deep into Miraculous Ladybug, I was like “Are you joking?” and of course they weren’t. I thought it was just Chat Noir as a boy toy and average girl power nonsense that I’m not interested in. She said to just watch it. I did. Oh boy I did. I’m probably more of a fan than that girl ever was now, I wait patiently for the next episode, seeing leaks drives me nuts, I start screaming and cringing and jumping up and down during an episode. I can’t say I’ve had another series get more of a reaction out of me than this because I want to see Adrien and Marinette get together so bad and the way they tease just makes me feel like Swiper “Aww man” but at the end of the day you still get a good action cartoon with good characters that make you feel attached. Look at the chemistry they have, Marinette (Ladybug) likes Adrien but just sees Chat as a friend, Adrien (Chat) likes Ladybug but just sees Marinette as a friend. They don’t know each other’s identities and have to learn to like the other half of that person, it’s genius. All my previous thoughts before watching it were wrong, just because they’re in skin tight suits, doesn’t make it some souped up kink of a fan service. Just give it a try, I don’t care what it looks like, it’s what’s on the inside that matters.

Big Hero 6: The Series: It was either this or Lilo and Stitch: The Series, I have a soft spot for Baymax so I chose this. I’m almost done with season 2 and it’s solid, I would argue that this should be content included in the sequel, the canon as a whole, this is something that carries on the story in an interesting way, if only it was given a little more love and attention but hey sometimes underdogs are the best.

Dexter’s Lab: I wanted to pick one of my late night shows, the stuff that came on around 8-9 as a kid, this was one that I liked. I always kind of had an inventive side to things and this was that come to fruition. 

Spectacular Spider-Man: This is one of the best art styles I’ve seen, done by Sean Galloway, it has a pleasurable atmosphere and design to these characters that we already love. This takes stuff and plays around with it, they dabble in a little bit of everything in a measly 2 seasons and somehow make it some of the best in Spider-Man history.

Sofia the First: Another wild card that I knew people would question. A Disney Junior show though? As much as it pains me to say it, yes...a Disney Junior show. Sofia is just a girl in a village doing alright then she becomes a princess overnight, now she has to figure out how to do it right, so much to learn and see. It’s all right there in the opening theme, it has the crossover element of some of the famous Disney princesses while building on Sofia (Ariel Winter) it’s interesting to see her adjust to her new life and these new people, and yes it’s past my generation but my sister watched it and now I can’t get it out of my head. The music is actually really good as well as some of the fantasy elements, I can’t help but compare stuff to it. It may say Disney Junior on the cover but dee down it’s just another show, similar to the Dragon Prince actually, except not as keen on squashing creatures, they skip that part which in my opinion makes it superior (yeah I said it).

Regular Show: I said earlier about the 12 year old spot, well this is it. It’s very much something that 12 year old me would like, it’s got weird jokes, cool characters, awkward romance, what’s not to love? Me and my friends would reminisce about the episodes (especially that coffee one) then when my parents would walk in they would be like “What even?” especially with Muscle Man, a whole character based on ‘my mom’ jokes instead of ‘your mom’. It’s just enough weird without going into adult swim territory.

Ben 10: Alien Force: Yep, ACTION. CARTOON. It was either this or the original but when I got into the first series whenever ‘Race Against Time’ came out, I still missed quite a bit so I had to catch up. I was there for the whole thing whenever Alien Force came out and I would consider it just as good, Ultimate Alien was still good (maybe not as high) but I came to that late to the party because Alien Force seemed like it was on hiatus so I kind of forgot about it and then Ultimate Alien comes out and I thought it was just a new Alien Force I missed, turns out I watched all of Alien Force and it was technically a new series. It also introduces a majority of my favorite aliens, Spidermonkey, Echo-Echo, Rath...

Phineas and Ferb: What? You think I wasn’t cultured? I was there when this came out in 3rd or 4th grade and people were getting those Subway toys, we were all like “104 days of summer vacation so 104 episodes?” Nope! We were all bamboozled, this was one for the generation because of the amount it introduced and by the sheer worth that it went on past that original 104 and was still good. It’s iconic, it’s crazy, it’s inventive, it’s...Ferb. Then they came out with Across the 2nd Dimension and had Slash!?! Like it’s a phenomenon at that point.

I’ll give an honorable mention to Sponegbob for being Spongebob...thank you.

[donkey-hyuck]

Desire

^^Song based off Jeremy Zucker I love him sm

Word Count- 3.5k

Genre- ANGST/ some fluff/ humor (?)

Pairing- Na Jaemin X Reader/ includes dreamies+Mark, sorry Jeno is the ex but he’s mentioned a few times and they see him a couple times .

The lyrics of the song that are mentioned are NOT in order of how the song goes

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══��

Why do you cry with your hair tied up? And my t-shirt on?

You were in your best friends t-shirt, crying your heart out. Your, now, ex-boyfriend, broke up with you and it’s a few days post break up, but you were still hurting. He was your first love, how could you not? In the midst of all this commotion, your, very concerned, mother had called your best friend.

“Jaemin, they need you. Now.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Jaemin. Na Jaemin. Your best friend of over eleven (11) years. You’ve always envied him, for being so outgoing, for being the exact opposite of you. He was a total, natural, flirt, and a pro at dating, stealing the hearts of many.

So, here he was, barging through your door, eight (8) at night, with snacks, movies, and his hoodie, finding ways to help console you as you’re going through your first ever break up.

I’ll be outside when the sky falls down

He was your best friend. There for you from the start. He was there for you when you got bullied, he fought them for you, helped you get over those mean people that hurt his best friend. Whenever someone tore you down, Jaemin was always there to bring you back up. And you were thankful enough to have someone as special as Na Jaemin in your life.

You’ve never had the imagination to think of you and Jaemin together. It’d be nice because he was the sweetest person you’ve ever let into your life, but you just didn’t see it. Though, your mother had thought otherwise. Telling you that he is the perfect man to go out with. He was kind, generous, selfless, and so much more. Yes, you love him so much, but only as a friend. He was your best friend, nothing more, nothing less.

Little did you know, all that was going to change.

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

It was now a few weeks post break-up with Jeno, and the crew all decided to go roller skating, back where Jisung and Chenle work. Mark being the oldest and wisest, as his stupid ass claims, came to pick you all up.

Once you get to the destination, everyone agreed to play two (2) rounds of laser tag first. It was a blast, and it really did help you get over your seven (7) month relationship with Jeno. After the laser tag, you walked to the counter for the roller skates and greeted Chenle, who was giving your roller skates, and Jisung peering from the back to the front to see his friends.

“Hey Lele! Jisung!”

“Hi besties! The usual, right?”

You all nodded in excitement, ready to go to the rink and just have some fun.

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

As the night was coming to an end, well, for the roller skating bit, you and Jaemin were seen playing some of the arcade games. As you were trying to beat him at an intense game of street fighter, someone glanced your way and it was none other than Lee Jeno. Your first love, but also, your first heartbreak. And as soon as Jaemin saw him, he tried to distract you from looking behind you. The only thing he could resort to, or more like the first thing that came to his mind.

He kissed you.

And you were in total shock. Never in your life did you believe that your best friend would mold his lips to yours in a kiss. And you never in your life believed that you would kiss back. The kiss lasted a few seconds before Jaemin realized what he did and pulled away instantly.

“I-I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I just saw Jeno and remembered how much he hurt you. I’m so-”

I’ve won and I’ve lost but I fell and I fucked it up

The words that were going to come out of his mouth quickly dissolved as you push your face into his chest. Reassuring him that it was fine and everything will be okay. When you lifted your head from his chest and met his gaze, his eyes were brimmed with tears and his face was turning pink out of frustration and embarrassment. A single drop of his tear cascaded down his cheek and you were quick to cup his cheek to wipe it, leaning your forehead against his in the process whispering, “it’s alright. We’ll be alright, and we always will.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

By the time it was ten (10) o’clock, everyone was crowded on your bed and the space near your bed. You were all currently reminiscing the past by watching old Nickelodeon and Disney tv shows and movies.

Falling asleep to the soft chatter and laughter of you friends, your eyes grow heavy and you soon drift off to sleep dreaming of god-knows what.

The following morning, you are awoken by the sound of laughter and plates being set down on the table. And once you realized your friends weren’t in your room, you lazily got out of your bed to get ready. When you came down everyone shouted a, “good morning Y/N!” And you responded with a, “morning guys~!”

But when you glanced at Jaemin, he looked like he was trying to avoid any contact with you. After that whole incident, he hasn’t paid much attention to you, now that you think back to last night when you guys came home. “Jae? Are you still thinking about, uh, what happened last night?” He lookd straight into your eyes and apologized again, hugging you with his face pressed against your stomach. “I’m so sorry. I was so stupid to do that. You’re my best friend.”

I hate to be the one to make your fears fire up

You chuckled again and ran your fingers through his hair, telling him that it was really okay and it didn’t mean much because it was so abrupt. He looked up at you and pouted. “So, were good?” He asked. “We’re good.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Fast forward to school, first (1st) period, which wasn’t really a period, it was more like a chill advisory before school actually started.

You were in the midst of a conversation with Ryujin when she pointed out Jeno, your first love, walking towards the two (2) of you.

“Hey, Ryujin, can I borrow Y/N for a sec?”

You desperately looked at her, pleading her to say no as your pupils dilate. “Sorry, we’re kinda busy right now.” And that made you sigh in relief, “thanks.”

First bell had already rung and you were in your second (2nd) - though you think technically your first (1st) - period. Fortunately for you, Yeri and Hyuck were in the same class. Yet, unfortunately for you, so was Jeno.

You quietly told them what happened not even fifteen (15) minutes ago concerning him. “Ugh, what does he want? He broke it off with you, didn’t he?” Questioned Yeri. “He did. But I don’t know what he wants.”

But you can’t help to think about the kiss that you shared with Jaemin. He did claim to see Jeno constantly looking at the two (2) of you playing your arcade game. “What a weirdo,” chimed Hyuck, you and Yeri laughing and agreeing. “Indeed.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

By the time the second bell for lunch rang, you ran to your locker to put away your things whilst your friends try to look for a lunch table to sit. And unluckily for you, so was Jeno.

His locker wasn’t far from yours. Yes is was past halfway the hallway, but the hallways weren’t that long to begin with, so if you were to avoid him, he still could’ve easily saw you. And that he did.

“Y/N wait!”

You stopped in your tracks and groaned, slowly turning around and clenching your jaw as well as balling your fists together.

“Yes, Jeno? Is there something wrong?”

“Listen, I know that I broke up with you, but, I want to get back together. My life has been horrible these past few weeks and I’ve missed you. My parents have too. Please come back?” You didn’t know if you could believe him. You know the real reason he broke up with you. He was cheating on you. You caught him texting some girl who didn’t go to your school, you also passed by them while you were at the mall with your cousins. They were in the hallway of the bathroom. Pressing their lips together. “Bullshit,” you spat in his face and turned on your heels to leave. Until he grabbed your wrist. “What do you mean, bullshit? I meant what I said,” he pleaded. “Yeah right. You could’ve said anything other than that. It’s too clichè for me to fall for that. Besides, I saw you two (2). You were basically eating each other’s faces. Just get over us, because I already have and I don’t plan on coming back,” with the final word, you left, leaving him paralyzed by your words.

Easier to blame with a broken heart. Hate me now that we’ve grown apart

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Later that day, Jaemin swung by to greet your mother from his mother, but also to tell you about the project your supposed to be working on. You were both busy that day and hadn’t had the time to really start on it.

“So, our bio project is about the energy of life. It says that we have to create a manipulative poster of some-sort regarding to the energy of life, based on cellular respiration and photosynthesis. I’m free any day except for Monday’s, Wednesday’s, and Thursday’s, but, you already know that,” you explained. “Mhm. I have basketball practice coming up but we can work on it on the weekends and some free periods,” he, too, explains. “Okay then, it’s settled! I’ve got to go to work soon but I’ll see you tomorrow okay Jae?”

“Of course.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

“Y/N! I’m coming home late today so will you be able to get a ride home with someone?” Your mother tells you as you get into the car for her to drop you off.

“Yeah, I’ll have Jaemin drop me off today. But he has basketball practice until four (4). Just in case you come home during that time.”

“Okay. I probably will be home later but thanks for letting me know! I love you, bye!”

“Love you too mom. Bye.”

You enter your, what you consider, advisory class as usual and sit down to talk to Ryujin, Chenle, and Yeji. Yeji was someone you’ve known of, but you didn’t really consider each other as friends. All you knew was that she was friends with Ryujin and she currently has a crush on your best friend, Na Jaemin. “So, Y/N, how’s Jaemin? Basketball season is coming up and was wondering when their first game was.”

“Oh, uh, well, he’s doing fine I guess, and their first (1st) game isn’t until Friday this week.”

“Great! I’ll see you all there?”

“Of course! We never miss his home games. We’re his biggest fans!” said Chenle.

It was now free period and you walked into your bio lab looking for your presentation on the energy of life. You texted Jaemin to meet you in your bio class to find the poster and clarify some things listed in the rubric/instructions. “Hey, I’m here. Sorry I’m late,” he said, walking through the door to find you talking to the teacher. “You’re fine. I got all our questions answered anyways. Let’s head into the library.”

Once about forty-five (45) minutes have passed on you both working on your poster, some messing around included, there were about fifteen-twenty (15-20) minutes left of your free period and you both decided to just talk, like usual.

“My mom asked if you could take me home today. I’ll stay after school to watch you practice.”

“Okay, sounds great. I would be glad to have my best friend there to support me.”

“Oh, shut up, idiot,” you laughed and playfully pushed him. “By the way, Yeji asked about you. She asked when your first game was.”

“Did you tell her?”

“Of course I did. I was with Chenle and Ryujin anyways, I couldn’t lie.”

“Ugh, I hate her. She’s so obsessed with me and I barley even know her. I just be nice to her because she’s Ryujin’s friend.”

“Me too Jae, but we can’t do anything about it.”

“Then wear my basketball sweater for the game on Friday, Y/N.”

“Why would I?”

“Because I want you to. You’re my best friend. Why wouldn’t you?”

Oh shit, he got you there.

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

It was the afternoon of the first basketball game of the season. You and your friends walked through the gym doors quite early to see the boys practice and to get good seats right at the front. However, before you could all sit, Yeji screamed to Ryujin to get her attention, or more like everyone’s attention. “Ryujin!” And everyone looked over to see where her voice was coming from. Then, she slowly walked towards your group of friends. “Hey guys! Can I sit with you? I want to see my star player,” she dreamily sighed, her hand covering her heart. She didn’t seem to notice that you had your best friends basketball hoodie, which was a good thing since you didn’t know what was going to happen once she saw you wearing it.

When the game was over, Jaemin ran to his friends and they all congratulated him with high-fives, hugs, kisses - it was only Hyuck but whatever - and when he came towards you he hugged you while lifting you in the air. “Nice sweater.”

“Thanks. I got it from the best,” you playfully winked.

“Jaemin!” Screamed Yeji, while she was running towards him, pushing you all the while. She jumped into his arms causing him to stumble back. They seemed a little busy so you walked back to where your friends were.

“Congrats,” she said to him.

“Uh, thanks. But I got to get to my friends, we have plans later.”

“Oh! Am I able to join? I can ask Ryujin.”

“Uh, sure. Ask her, I guess.” He sighed.

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*���══╝

Mark and Jaemin drove, in two (2) separate cars of course, to your favorite diner, Daybreak to celebrate Jaemin’s win. Yeji, of course, wanted to go with Jaemin. So, she went to his car, opening the passenger seat.

“Wait! Uhm, Y/N is coming with us, she can sit in the front,” he quickly said, catching your attention beofre you entered Mark’s car. “I am?”

“Yes. You are,” he pleaded with his eyes.

You sighed and exited Mark’s car to climb into the passenger seat of Jaemin’s car. That’s when she finally saw that you were wearing your best friends basketball hoodie. “Wait, Ryujin, you can come in Jaemin’s car too, there’s enough room,” you shouted, glancing at Yeji’s face when she realized you were wearing his sweater. She obliged and got into Jaemin’s car before she could enter Mark’s.

On the way to the diner, Ryujin and Yeji was laughing, though, Yeji’s laugh was getting more obnoxious the more she did so, at least, she got more obnoxious in your opinion. When you looked up at Jaemin, you could tell he was annoyed too. His nose scrunching every time Yeji laughed.

After, what seemed like an eternity, you reached the diner and Jaemin immediately clinged onto you, not wanting any contact between Yeji. And being the touchy Leo he is, wrapped his arm around your waist while walking into the Daybreak.

You and your friends grabbed a booth and combined a table together to fit the ten (10) of you. By now, the owner, Taeyong, was pretty used to your regular occasions and always greeted you.

“Hey guys! Another win?”

“Yes! You should’ve been there, the people on the team is so cool!” Said Chenle and Renjun.

“I call sitting next to Jaemin!” You rolled your eyes and mentally face-palmed yourself. “Sorry, I’m sitting next to Y/N.”

“Oh, well, I can sit on the other side of you, right?”

You knew how much Jaemin wanted to decline, but being the nice person he was, just sighed a small, ‘okay.’

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

It was killing him inside. Having a one-sided love. Love that will never happen. He’s hurting. Jaemin has loved you since the dawn of time. He remembers when he first met you, instantly falling in love. It was as if God created something so perfect. Someone for him to cherish and love. But that someone didn’t love him the way he did. He just wanted all the pain to go away. He wished he never met you, he’s glad he did, but, you never returned his feelings. And you probably never will. He just wanted to end it all. He wants to numb all the pain so he could live a day without torture. So that’s when he did it. He confessed.

All these shots poured down the drain, I tried but it tastes like novicaine

“Hey. Y/N, can I talk to you.”

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

“Oh my gosh! I’m so happy for you two (2)!” Your mother exclaimed when you broke the news about you and Jaemin. “I knew you two (2) would end up together!” Her reaction made you both laugh.

It was a tough decision to make. Yes, you only saw Jaemin as a friend, but something - some sort of spark - knocked you out of your daze and your reality when Jaemin kissed you that night. You then thought to yourself, yeah, maybe I do desire Jaemin. And, for the time being, it was the best.

Breaking the news to your friends and his family was exhilarating, but it was also nerve wracking. They were all happy for you, and shouted different sayings with the same meaning like

“Yes! I told you they would get together,” or, “You guys finally came to your senses.”

Everyone was happy for the two (2) of you. And you were happy for each other. You were happy to have Jaemin and he was happy to have you.

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Wanna get the fuck out this lonely town

It was now your second (2nd) semester of college. Graduating out of high school a year ago. You and Jaemin have been dating a little over a year. But that all was about to change.

“Why? Why don’t you spend any time with me anymore?” He scoffed.

“Jae, we’re in college. We can’t spend all of our time together anymore. Hell, you almost failed three (3) of you classes. You have to put your all in the work you’re given.”

“Yeah, but we never spend any time together. You’re in all of those three (3) classes. I try to ask you but you’re always blowing me off with ‘homework’ or your work.”

“We’re adults now. This is reality Jae. It’s not that great for the time being but it will have to do. Just do your work, it’s not that hard. Plus, you have your job,” you sighed. “You’re so frustrating,” you muttered under your breath.

“I’m frustrating? Do you hear yourself? I just want to spend a little more time with you. Can you not wrap your stupid ass head around that? We never see each other because every time you’re in those damn classes, you sit in the front listening to the stupid professor.”

You sigh letting go of the pencil you were clenching so hard in your hand.

“Look, this argument isn’t going anywhere. I need to finish this report for one of my classes. Please, can we just get over this pointless argument. And please leave, I have to work on this,” you pleaded.

“I’d be glad to,” he huffed, taking his sweater and walking out of your apartment.

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

You wanted to cry. You haven’t spoken to Jaemin in a week and a half. You don’t even remeber the argument at this point and you miss actually conversating with him. You had to confront him.

>>Meet me at the park by my apartment in five (5)

<< okay

Sitting at one of the swings, waiting for Jaemin, you go on your phone. You hear footsteps coming towards you. Knowing it’s Jaemin, you look up from your phone as he sits on the swing next to you.

“What did you want to talk about?”

It’s breaks your heart to say these words. “Let’s break up.” And his eyes widen, cupping your face into his large hands, tears already forming in his eyes. “Why?”

“Jae, we’re not happy. We don’t have enough tile for each other. Hell, we argued about our time management weeks ago. We have our own lives. I have to focus on mine and you have to focus on yours. You can’t fail you classes because of me.... we have to break it off.”

Na Jaemin. He was your best friend of eleven (11) years. Your boyfriend for one (1). He knew you like the back of his hand. He knew that you would continue to reject. And with two (2) broken hearts, he leans his forehead against yours. “Okay... but we’ll always stay best friends right?”

“Of course.”

If I’m honest, pretty sure I’m still alone, at loss for words

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

You leave Jaemin’s arms with a heavy heart. You can’t look at him right now. But he’s still your best friend, even if you dated for a year. You can’t give up everything you’ve ever known. No matter how much you desired each other, maybe you and he were only meant to stay best friends. Forever and always.

What do you desire?

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Okay, listen, Ik the argument was kinda (REALLY) stupid, but I tried to think of an argument that kinda made sense???? But, enjoy this anyways😭

[whatsnewcartoons]

What’s New In 2019: The Cartoons.

PART 1:

Separated by network. All premiere dates are estimated until confirmed. Timings are in EST.

NICKELODEON:

- Los Casagrandes (2nd Quarter 2019): Los Casagrandes features Ronnie Anne and her brother Bobby Santiago as they adjust to their new life in Great Lakes City, where they now live with their big, loving and chaotic multi-generational family, the Casagrandes. In the series, Ronnie Anne makes new friends, build stronger bonds with her relatives and explores the endless possibilities of city life. Bobby helps Grandpa Hector run the family’s corner store, and becomes familiar with the neighborhood’s quirky characters.The Casagrande family was first introduced in the The Loud House special, The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos. The special was just nominated for an Imagen Award, which recognizes positive portrayals of Latinos in entertainment media.

The Loud House is co-executive produced by Mike Rubiner (KaBlam!), who will also serve as co-executive producer on Los Casagrandes. Award-winning cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz (Coco) will serve as a cultural consultant and consulting producer for the five-episode arc of The Loud House featuring the Casagrandes. 

The first six episodes will premiere during the airing of Season 4 of its sister series The Loud House.

- Pony (4th Quarter 2019): Pony, an original 2D-animated buddy comedy that follows the life of an average girl, Annie, her (almost) average family and what happens when an excitable, unpredictable, loveable and talking pony comes to live with them in their city apartment. Pony is the first animated comedy series to be greenlit for the U.S. from Nickelodeon International. Created by Ant Blades, Pony is based off a short of the same name from Nickelodeon’s 2015 International Animated Shorts Program.Pony follows Annie’s everyday life as a 9-year-old, from working at her parent’s city farm, located on their apartment balcony, homework, school friends and, most importantly, her friendship with Pony. Pony is Annie’s biggest cheerleader and best friend, although sometimes his optimism and enthusiasm lands the pair in unusual situations.

The series will be starting with a 20-episode order and is set to premiere in the fourth quarter of 2019.

- Glitch Techs (TBA):  Glitch Techs (working title) is an adventure-comedy following two newly recruited kids as they battle video game monsters that come to life in the real world. The series comes from Eric Robles (Fanboy & Chum Chum, The X's, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan) and Dan Milano (Greg the Bunny, Warren the Ape), both hailing from Nickelodeon's Artist Collective, an internal artist-led development program, and is being produced at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, Calif. Nickelodeon has picked-up Glitch Techs for an initial 20-episode first season.

The series was announced to be in production since 2016 and was originally intended to premiere on Nickelodeon in 2018.

- Invader ZIm: Enter the Florpus (TBA): In Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus, Zim discovers his almighty leaders have no intention of coming to Earth, and he loses confidence in his own amazingness for the first time in his amazing life, which is the big break his human nemesis Dib has been waiting for. At some point, GIR rides a tiny donkey, and that’s all anyone should really care about. The 2D-animated TV movie is produced by Nickelodeon in Burbank.

The voice cast also features returning Zim alums Andy Berman as Dib Membrane and Melissa Fahn as Gaz Membrane. Additional voice actors reprising their original series roles include: Rodger Bumpass as Professor Membrane, Dib and Gaz’s father; Olivia d’Abo as Tak, Zim’s Irken nemesis; and Paul Greenberg as Poonchy, one of Zim and Dib’s human classmates.

CARTOON NETWORK:

- Infinity Train (TBA): Infinity Train tells the story of Tulip (originally voiced by Ashley Johnson), an analytical teenager with a fondness for order and solving complex puzzles. While it’s never exactly explained how she got there in the short, Infinity Train follows as Tulip makes her way through the titular locomotive and its seemingly infinite cars, each of which contains entire worlds that, for some reason, are in desperate need of her help.

Despite being joined by her sophisticated, bifurcated robot friend One-One (voiced by Jeremy Crutchley and Owen Dennis), the only information Tulip has about her predicament comes in the form of an ever-changing, glowing number etched into her hand that’s trying to give her directions she doesn’t understand.

The official premiere date of the series has yet to be announced.

- Victor and Valentino (TBA):  Created by Diego Molano, this supernatural adventure comedy follows two half-brothers who spend a summer with their grandma in Monte Macabre, a small and mysterious town, where the myths and legends of Latin American folklore come to life.

The series first appeared on Cartoon Network in October 2016 with its pilot episode and is set to premiere early 2019.

- ThunderCats Roar (TBA): Staying true to the premise of the original series, Lion-O and the ThunderCats -- Tygra, Panthro, Cheetara, Wilykat and Wilykit -- barely escape the sudden destruction of their home world, Thundera, only to crash land on the mysterious and exotic planet of Third Earth. Lion-O, the newly appointed Lord of the ThunderCats, attempts to lead the team as they make this planet their new home. A bizarre host of creatures and villains stand in their way, including the evil Mumm-Ra, Third Earth’s wicked ruler who will let nothing, including the ThunderCats, stop his tyrannical reign over the planet.

ThunderCats Roar features a talented voice cast with Max Mittelman (Justice League Action) as Lion-O and Wilykat, Erica Lindbeck (DC Super Hero Girls) as Cheetara and Wilykit, Patrick Seitz (Justice League Action) as Tygra and Mumm-Ra, and Chris Jai Alex (Star Wars: Battlefront II) as Panthro. Victor Courtright (Pickle and Peanut) and Marly Halpern-Graser (Right Now Kapow) serve as producers, with Sam Register (Teen Titans Go!) as executive producer.

The series is set to be released late 2019.

- DC Super Hero Girls (1st quarter 2019):  The DC Super Hero Girls universe is expanding on Cartoon Network and into more graphic novels. From executive producer Lauren Faust (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), the new DC Super Hero Girls cartoon will feature fresh redesigns of popular characters like Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Supergirl as they navigate high school and superhero life.

The series has been previewed with online shorts since 2015 and a short clip of an episode titled “The Late Batsby” was shown at San Diego Comic Con in Summer 2018.

For the upcoming shows from Disney and Netflix, go check out Part 2.

[arojenniferwalters]

No canon straight characters; using labels needed for canonicity? and period accuracy in fanfic

These are some random thoughts I have on couple of posts I've seen on my dash lately, so I'm just randomly writing down my thoughts:

1) most characters are not actually straight on canon because they don't specifically say 'I'm straight' or 'i'm only romantically and sexually attracted to people of the so called opposite gender'.

This is very true. In fact, most character never identify as straight unless there are non-straight or trans characters in the work as a counterpoint. Grace Adler says she's straight. Jennifer Walters is not lesbian. Peter whatever from Doubt is still straight when dating a trans woman. Kenzi from Lost Girl reciprocates Bo's coming out.

I recently wrote a long meta on another sideblog about how a character never identifies as straight and how the writing and portrayal lead to credible non-straight interpretations even though I know he's supposed to be straight.

So basically, straight characters are usually explicitly straight when it's known that not everyone is. If there exists character who are trans or not straight, other characters then might also express their straightness in response.

But mostly it's cisheteronormativity that makes us accept that unless they state otherwise, they are supposed to be cis and straight.

(Of course this gets complicated when we talk about rep bcus 'they didn't say they aren't x or y' doesn't really count as proper rep. But it's complicated, but like headcanons are fair game. Like, 'you shouldn't hc this canon straight character as not straight' isn't a good argument, because few character actually *are* canon straight. Most characters just have the potential to be or are in m/f pairings but that doesn't mean that straight is the only thing they can be.)

2) Labels are great. Labels tell people without a doubt who that character is and it is incredibly validating to see characters identify the same way you do (shoutout to Aled Last!). But does a character need to use a label to properly count as having this identity, if there is strong coding and word of god?

I'm conflicted. I really am. Because you can do a decent job of making characters gay/lesbian/m-spec without necessarily using a label (although not using it can be obnoxious, especially with m-spec characters), that's not necessarily the same with a-spec characters. Because there's not enough rep for us for people to read in and accept the subtext/coding. (Canon ace, coded aro is another issue but that's semi besides the point)

Here I'm mainly thinking of Raphael Santiago in books vs TV show, and comparing 2 word of god demi characters; Rivka of Mangoverse and Julian Blackthorn of The Dark Artifices.

So, book!Raphael for a long time was barely/maybe coded aroace and after he was killed off he became a word of god aroace through twitter. Then came 2017 and the tv show and new book appearances and suddenly he got to verbally say ace (and/or aro) things without using the label. I haven't read-read the books with that canonization yet but it seems to be very clear now that he is sex and romance repulsed aroace. Great.

The tv show canonized his aceness before the books did but they did it without using labels and basically making a mess of his romantic orientation (is he still aro? Arospec? Alloromantic who just didn't feel rom attraction much? He never did pursue a romantic relationship with Izzy after the addiction mess even though they acknowledged that they cared for each other, but was it romantic from Raph? We don't know! *throws hands in the air in frustration*).

As much as I love show!Raphael, "I'm just not interested in sex." isn't necessarily the best way to establish aceness. Mostly because if you google 'not interested in sex', you get articles on libido and how to increase it, with one article talking about aceness, but not in the title. But the fact that Raphael says he's always been like this, that he's never pressured into having sex and is at peace with his orientation does, to me, make it good rep. I still kinda wish he'd used a label though.

Then the demi rep: neither Rivka nor Julian identifies as demi in text. Shira Glassman didn't at first realize she was writing Rivka in a demi way, in fact the backcover identifies her as straight (kinda as a 'there will be no romantic tension between Rivka and Shulamit' way, similar to Bo and Kenzi in section 1). But when people mentioned that she seems like a hetro demi, Shira embraced that and while the world doesn't do labels the way we do, she is still demi. I love her and I am happy she exists and she is accepted demi rep.

Now, Julian is a different thing. In TDA, he is 17, the year is 2012 and the Internet exists. After the 2nd book, people started speculating that Julian is demi based on how he thinks about never being attracted to anyone but Emma, and how he had started to feel different from his peers when he didn't start experiencing attraction like they did. Someone asked about this from Cassandra Clare and she answered the ask privately, saying that if he was a modern, non-Shadowhunter teenager and he had access to information about the identity, that he would identify as demisexual. The issue is that considering the timeframe (2012) and everything about his situation, he doesn't have access to that label so he doesn't use it.

So. Here we have a canon demi character, based on coding and word of god who has semi realistic reason for not knowing the label and thus not identifying with it, even though he would if he could. But a lot of people don't want to accept that. And that's where my issues come from: Julian says and thinks some very demi things, and to me doesn't do anything that invalidates his deminess. Why is that not enough? Like, I absolutely want him to use that label, I want to read him say it and find comfort in it. But why is his character not demi rep enough because he doesn't use the word?

Rivka has similar reasons for not having the label (not our world and the terminology doesn't exist) and while I doubt there are that much overlap between the 2 fandoms, I am curious about the difference. Neither one is not identifying as demi because they aren't demi, they don't identify as demi because they don't know the identity exists. Yet both are still demi characters.

How much does a character have to emphasize that they've only ever been attracted to one person/very few people, with the author validating that reading, before they are acceptable demi rep?

Another point is Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess. That one has at least one demi character and maybe two acearo characters but they don't use labels. I love them all, but I feel uncertain about talking about Cid as an aroace character because she hasn't been talked about in that way the way Jayla has been. And I love Quinn and I cried when I read that the (pirate) ship has characters who identify as demisexual in a creator letter, but again, no one is using a-spec labels. It's frustrating. But it doesn't invalidate the rep.

3) I think the level of knowledge characters have on queerness should be an in-character discussion. Like, I've written characters as demi without the character using the label; I've written characters discovering a label; I have one fic where there's little possibility of the character having knowledge of the identity (because it's possible the label hasn't been coined yet). I try to stay in character about whether the character would know or have use for label and keep in mind the timeframe. There's a demi pairing I can't really write because neither characters exist in 2006 and beyond. Someone once complained that a book published in 2003 didn't describe the character as demi when the label hadn't yet been created while asexual worked as an umbrella term which included demis, so it still makes sense that the character would identify as asexual.

I don't think it's wrong to have a character be very knowledgeable about queer things if that's what you want to write, whether or not that's in character or realistic within the timeframe. Fanfic is about self indulgeance after all.

Some of that relates to what I'm in the mood to write. My magnum opus is 'this character is demi in all 78 eps of the show, but he'll only figure it out towards the beginning of the last season, just because I want that' and then I have another that's 'screw it, he has a better idea about his queerness but realizes the full picture in s4'.

I do try to be period accurate and think about whether or not the character would have access to the term. But sometimes I just want to have my faves identifying the way I want them to.

4) These are some very random, semi connected thoughts and I'm not even quite sure what the point was. I just feel like writing more about these things.

I am interested in discussing these issues. How much coding does a character need to be accepted as proper rep if the label isn't used? Can rep be valid if a random person reading it doesn't realize that there is that specific coding? If the book has queer readers, is there more leeway (sp) to not using the label, assuming that people reading a book with bi and trans characters or an f/f might also pick up the demi/ace/aro coding? If the author unknowingly wrote a demi character, does it still count if they accept that reading of the character and keep writing them as demi?

Anyway that was a lot of randomness.

[sol1056]

season release & demographics

Alright, I’ve gotten several asks about the speed of the upcoming season releases for DW/Netflix. Most asks amount to roughly

are they releasing that fast because they want it over, or because more stuff is coming? 

...with at least two asks attempting to make sideways snarky comments about the revelation of a canonically gay character. 

Behind the cut: some stats on how DW groups and broadcasts its series, some data-based theories on VLD’s scheduling, who the ‘real’ audience demographic is, and some speculation about show timing independent of VLD itself.

how DW groups and broadcasts its series

First thing I should note is that dropping a chunk of episodes at once onto Netflix is relatively new for DW, compared to their years of traditional weekly syndicated format on Nick, CN, etc. (You can find a list of all past and present television productions here.) Starting around 2014, their Netflix/DW works were mostly the usual children’s fare -- episodic shows made for syndication. 

Two shows changed this game: VLD and Trollhunters, both premiering in 2016. Each contain one continuous arc, requiring viewing in order, from the start. Unfortunately that means the only real comparison is Trollhunters, which had a 12-month gap between S1 and S2, and a 5-month gap from S2 to S3. Just before the final season broadcast, DW announced two sequels, which brings TH’s total ep count to 78. Remember that timing; it’ll be important in a bit. 

Looking across even the episodic younger-set stories, it does seem like releases try to stick to a general pattern, give or take a month. Across 8 multi-season shows, here’s the breakdown of cours (because you know I had to throw a visual in somewhere). A single cour is 11-14 episodes, 5-7 eps is a half-cour, with 26 being a double-cour. (One series released a 16-ep season, which I counted as a single cour.) 

I point this out just to make clear that half-cour drops are actually rather common, comparatively. Out of 31 episodes, 11 were half-cour. As for the length between seasons, the mode (most common) is 7 mos.

some theories on VLD’s scheduling

Now let’s look at the gaps between VLD’s seasons: 7, 7, 2, 5, 3, 2 (counting the upcoming release for S7). If we merge the half-cour seasons for comparison (so we’re dealing with consistent 13-episode seasons again), then we’ll posit the broadcast date would’ve been the date the 2nd half of the season aired. In other words, had we gotten the original S3 (now S3/S4) season as one, it would’ve aired on S4′s broadcast date, as one solid chunk. 

With the consistent pattern of S1 through S3′s data, that’s a 7-month break between seasons. Assuming that this would’ve originally been set as the scheduled dates, let’s compare those dates to the actual broadcast dates.

scheduled Jun 2016 ==> aired Jun 2016

scheduled Jan 2017 ==> aired Jan 2017

scheduled Aug 2017 ==> aired Aug + Oct 2017

scheduled Mar 2018 ==> aired Mar + Jun 2018

scheduled Oct 2018 ==> aired Aug 2018

scheduled May 2019 ==> aired ???

Yes, I’m aware DW spun the split-seasons as getting more episodes, sooner. It’s the reverse. We should’ve gotten all of S3 in August, but S3 was completed 2 months late. Same for S4, which we should’ve gotten in March, but compared to the original schedule, S4 was 3 months late. S7 (the original S5) is the first time we’re getting anything ahead of schedule, 2 months earlier. 

If we go by the usual pattern of 7 mos gaps -- and counting from the actual broadcast date of Aug 2018, that would put the concluding 13-ep drop at May 2019. However, at least two other series have dropped their final seasons with a much smaller gap: from 8 down to 3, 12 down to 5.

Which means that dropping S8 (the original S6) in December would be a gap of 4 months from S7′s broadcast, or alternately, a 2 month gap from the original schedule. That’s pretty dramatic, compared to half the time, which would’ve put us at March of 2019. 

why the last season comes so fast

When Dawn of the Croods dropped its final season, it came with the announcement that this would be its last. When Trollhunters dropped its final season, it simultaneously announced that two sequels were in the works. And check this out, with hat-tip to @ptw30 for the sharp eyes:

Voltron’s got a film in development, and it’s under the aegis of the Dreamworks Animation team. (Oddly, that ‘S’ notation comes with a note saying the film will combine live-action with animation. I have no idea whether that means rotoscoping or actual live-action with lots of CGI.) 

My guess is that on, around, or shortly after the final season of VLD drops, we’ll get an announcement about the upcoming film that will attempt to build on the series. That’s a matter of timing, though, so it’s just my guess (and things can change). 

the ‘real’ audience demographic

When asks make comments about VLD being unsatisfactory to the ‘primary demographic’ (and doubly so now that we’re talking about a canonically gay character, cue asshat-sounding commentary about gay hookups)... the assumption is almost always that the primary demographic is men. Probably men aged 18-30. 

Wrong. It’s women. Specifically women between 25 to over 50.

But since this is supposedly a for-kids show, let’s start with appealing to families. There are 73.7 million children under 18, and 69% of them are in two-family households. 23% of those children live in single-mother households. (The largest growing family demographic is gay families. Go ahead, explain to me why a kid watching television shouldn’t see a role model in a relationship like their parents have.) 

Guess who does the majority of the buying choices for families? Women.

A few facts about women as a market, in the US: the estimated purchasing power of US women ranges from $5 trillion to $15 trillion annually. Women control more than 60% of all personal wealth in the U.S., and 75% are the primary shoppers for their families. Women are buying 66% of all tech purchases, 65% of all car purchases, 89% of all bank accounts opened, 93% of all food purchased, and 92% of all vacation expenditures. 

Oh, and while I’m at it: 

45% of all gamers are women. 

Women over 55 spend more time gaming online than men aged 15-24. 

Also, millennial women (roughly early 20s to mid 30s) have 3.4 social media accounts on average, compared to 2.6 for GenX women; 61% of them are online and sharing content at least once a day. However, Gen-X women spend more time onine (7+ hrs/week) than Millennial women (6hrs/week). And then there’s Boomer women --- of the age to have seen Voltron when it first aired --- with a market share of $19 trillion. They tend to spend, on average, 250% more than any other bracket -- which is pretty phenomenal buying power when you consider that every fifth adult in the US is a woman over 50.

A show pays for itself with merchandise and toys --- and if you can swing the women’s market, you’ve got it made, ‘cause they’re ones doing the buying. That means appealing to mothers who make the vast majority of their household’s purchases, or women up to and including the over-50 gamer pop-culture-savvy women with spare income (who are also the fasting growing online demographic, while we’re at it).  

So, miss me with that 'primary demographic’ crap. If it doesn’t appeal to boys but appeals to women 25-50+, it’ll do fine. The reverse --- of appealing to boys but not to women --- is a visual media that’ll be lucky to break even. DW hasn’t made it this far by alienating the ones who are making the purchases. If they realized that Shiro appeals most to women aged 25 to 50+ (which he does; he’s that age bracket’s favorite character) then you damn well better believe they’re going to keep him front and center. 

why else dreamworks might be wrapping up

There are other factors in play. In 2013, DW partnered with Netflix for the first time, and since then it’s produced 16 series for Netflix. Only two series were exempt, one broadcast in France, the other on Amazon video. 

Of the 9 series currently in pre-production, 4 will be on Netflix (She-Ra, 3 Below, Wizards, and Fast & Furious). The remainder are broken up between Amazon, cable TV, Universal, and two most recent that don’t even have homes, yet. Dreamworks is moving out of Netflix, excepting the pre-existing contracts they can’t quite break. 

This is the result of net neutrality, to be perfectly blunt. 

Check out who owns whom, here. (Larger version at recode.net.)

Comcast owns Dreamworks, and a 30% stake in Hulu -- of which Netflix is a direct competitor. I’m on AT&T and already noticing throttling happening for Netflix, and at some points for Tumblr (Verizon-owned). Scuttlebutt says DW is going to be pushed into moving its content onto Hulu, to support its parent company’s business agenda. 

*** ETA: there is no good business reason (at this time) for DW to switch to Hulu. Netflix’s market share is easily ten times the size of Hulu, and switching will cut DW’s products off from a significant number of viewers. ***  

That means DW is probably being strongly encouraged to wrap up its Netflix contracts and start shifting to Comcast-owned or controlled markets. And that has nothing to do with VLD itself, or even how popular (or not) that it’s been on Netflix. It’s a command coming down from on high, and now that we’ve lost net neutrality, there'll be less and less gain from sticking with Netflix.

[hotarutranslations]

Hiroshima!

Evening

Sword Art Online

Today, November 6th 2022 is the service relesed date, its the day the link started, And its the date of the SAO incident, its and amazing amazing day......!!!

Actually I started watching the anime recently as well,

I'm a human who hasn't even been here for a month but, at once I'm like, what is this interesting thing!!!!!

I'm up to episode 15 in the 2nd season ��‍♀️

This anime released, in 2012......

The anime was set in 2022 but,

its the day when reality intersects with it......!!!!!

Probably for those who watched the show from 2012, Are surely crazy excited for it, It feels like I'm lagging behind 😭👏

But I would have liked to have watched it in 2012-----

Kaedy originally liked it, Recently Nonaka got into it, With that I also started watching it,

The 2 of them also went to the movie thats in theaters now 😳💫

I haven't seen up to that point in the anime yet, so like that, I'm late 🤦‍♀️ lol

I also want to watch the movie!!!!!!

With that, today,

Thank you very much, towards the Hiroshima live ☺️❤️

The audience was close!!! I probably saw everyone probably It was that close

I did my best, did my best ☺️❤️

Thank you very much for your support ☺️❤️

It was so fun that I stretched out my peace lol

It was Rairi's first time in Hiroshima 🍁

I took a photo of her eating fried momiji for the first time so I'll post it next time (don't forget)

Tokyo Sports note Series   #85 I Was Told Our New Songs Are Releasing on 12/21

📺 ️

11/1 (Tue) 1:56AM~2:16AM   11/8 (Tue) 2:01~2:21AM

TV Asahi "Horiken no Minna Tomodachi"

🐦️  Official Twitter is Here 🐣  If you missed it, you can stream it here!

📺️  

HOUSE 🕺  

10/20 (Thurs) 11:30PM~ #1 First Airs 11/3 (Thurs) 11:30PM~ #2 First Airs 11/17 (Thurs) 11:30PM~ #3 First Airs

JAZZ HIP HOP  🕺  

12/1 (Thurs) 11:30PM~ #4 First Airs

Hello Pro Dance Academy Season 8

🐣

Fukuoka Daily Kitakyushuu Daily Hiroshima Daily

📻️  

Morning Musume '22 Morning Jogakuin ~Houkago Meeting~

Radio Nihon (Sat) 12:00~12:30AM    STV Radio (Mon) 3:00~3:30AM   KBS Kyoto (Wed) 9:30~10:00PM

🎤  

12/29

COUNTDOWN JAPAN  🔥  

The applications are closed! I hope everyone wins!

🎤

December 10th (Sat)   Morning Musume '22 Nippon Budokan Performance

December 21st (Wed) New single release "Swing Swing Paradise/Happy birthday to Me!"

🔔  

Cheki Sign Talk Event Announcement

Announcement of Benefits, First Come First Serve We’ll be visiting 7 major cities nationwide from January 2nd to February 25th Winter Hello! Project Concert 2023 winter

Morning’s first performance is on the 3rd

see you ayumin <3

https://ameblo.jp/morningmusume-10ki/entry-12773033506.html