#But I do like the puzzle aspect to it

[kelbunny]

Beat the minor circuit in Punch Out Wii. But since I've not really gotten the hang of star punches yet I'm practicing against Glass Joe.

I might take a break though and go draw, bc I haven't drawn anything for a while haha.

[hplonesomeart]

Hey!! So turns out a video I made between a certain “well beloved but highly sensitive/emotionally reactive T.V” and an “orange haired inkling-turned-human” has managed to sweep my YouTube channel and accumulate 100k VIEWS!! THAT’S A LOT OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY?? My most widely viewed video EVER to exist in this moment in time?? AAAAA?? Not even mentioning the various comments and staggering increase in subs! It’s so much more then what I expected or even prepared for—might even be the most impactful thing to happen for me this year <3

…aside from graduating high school + the social connections I’ve been fortunate to make lol

BUT THE POINT IS I’d been closely monitoring the YouTube growth through the entirety of October. It’s make me smile like a dork, gawk in astonishment, dance frantically in my room from the energy boosts, and grow courage to stop being so selective/self-conscious with what I wish to share with the world! It’s kept my ambitions going!

I needed to find some way to celebrate the occasion and express my thanks—because I can’t NOT acknowledge this milestone jksjskp. Typically I try to avoid getting tunnel visioned focusing on the metrics/numbers. Mr. Puzzles had already demonstrated how much those things can mess with the minds of creatives. Caring too much about chasing views or placing your artistic value in attention seeking gets damaging. But at same time…it’s hard to deny the sense of pride the 100k achievement has filled me with. I understand that reaching 100k views doesn’t immediately make me any “better” or “worse” then I was before. I’m still just me! It only helps me feel seen by others—and that’s all I really needed. To hear some nice words & receive reminders that my ideas are cared about. So thank you SMG4 fandom for that, seriously thank you.

Please accept this Mr. Puzzle drawing as a way of sharing the happiness around. He’s so entertaining. Love him for simply existing. So glad we can all collectively be super attached to him (and the rest of the SMG4 cast of course). Can’t wait to see more incredible artworks from the fandom :)

Just incase anyone is confused by my vague description over which “animated video” I’m referring to here—hopefully this photo will help clarify lol. It’s this one!! Sorry about not outright stating the title at the start, I got carried away with writing!!

I’ve been in an odd place mentally when thinking about it. Wondering to myself if any of the attention is deserved considering it’s not even fully colored and could be dismissed as “low effort” content (despite taking several days making it). It’s easy to get into a trap of comparing yourself to others and questioning how much of the videos success is based on your skills, sheer algorithm luck, or only because you used popular characters and catered to a specific fandom. And then judging yourself by looking at other peoples videos. I’ve seen several artists post higher quality works then my own but it somehow gets less views. So why did mine succeed when others (who should have gotten just as much attention if not more) didn’t? Sometimes you feel like you’ve unfairly robbed them of that chance to be seen. However I’ve realized that I can’t ever expect views to be consistent—and comparing is pointless. So why worry about it or feel inadequate? I mean it’s pretty common for funny cat videos to go viral, so who am I to question the system lol. “Popular” YouTube videos can range from a passion project which took 7+ artists…to a clip of Toad singing Chandelier or a nonsensical Vine sketch. Anything can happen when it’s the internet! And just-so-happened my video was chosen. I should stay glad about that and get rid of all the overanalyzing. So that’s what I’ve chosen to do :)

[suddencolds]

.~

[thebramblewood]

Ulrike's Big Night: Part II

Let's just say it was a good thing they decided to leave, though not for the reason Helena thinks.

Previous / Next

Thanks to @whyeverr for another super creative lot that, again, I only used a very small part of! I can't take any credit for the tower of gnomes (other than adding a few extras to it), but I'm pretty sure I must've subconsciously given Ulrike a gnome obsession for this exact purpose.

Transcript under the cut.

Helena: “Oh, this is f-”

Ulrike: “Awful.”

Helena: “What, really?”

Ulrike: “Please. A life-size chessboard? It’s just lazy selfie bait to ensure it’ll be all over social media before tomorrow morning.” *gestures in annoyance* “Case in point. God, I need a drink.” *snatches first champagne flute in sight*

Helena: “Ulrike!”

Ulrike: “What?”

Helena: “I don’t think it’s safe to mix poisons that way.”

Ulrike: *rolls eyes* “You’ve come a long way, babe, but you’re still such a Puritan sometimes. It’s not hard liquor. We’ll be fine. Let’s mingle, if we must.”

…

Ulrike: “A giant martini glass. How revolutionary.”

Helena: “You’re so cynical!"

...

Helena: "I’m dying of anticipation! Are you ever going to show me your piece?”

Ulrike: “Actually, it should be right around the next- Oh, here she is.”

Helena: *eyes immediately widen* “It’s, it’s, it’s…”

Ulrike: “Kind of ridiculous, I know. What can I say? My inner troll took over.”

Helena: “It’s GLORIOUS!”

…

Yasmine: “Ms. Faust? Yasmine Jabari. I run a gallery of my own near campus. This is certainly a showstopper. I’d love to talk more about your work…”

…

Helena: *under breath* “Oh, shit.”

Ulrike: “Hey, there you are.”

Helena: “We have to get out of here.”

Ulrike: “What? Why?”

Helena: “I just saw that jerk from my writing workshop and he looked poised to unleash a monster rant.”

Ulrike: “Good call. We definitely don’t need to hear that.”

[starheirxero]

Genuinely I love what I've seen of the Mouthwashing fandom because everytime I look in the notes of even a simple silly doodle, there's people still deeply analyzing it and putting in their two cents on it and its So Joyous 2 me. I have just never seen analysis of a game's themes and messages be so commonly discussed in a fandom so its just rlly nice LOL

[dykedvonte]

you make really good points, I think I used the term karmic wrong sorry. I think of it more as not how I personally think he deserved all that happened to him (which thinking back os exactly what karma means, I messed up sorry), but as his fate being directly tied/parallel to anyas. I handnt noticed the toxicity of jimmy and curlys relationship, from the first playthrough I watched and the first interactions I had w fandom I saw so many ppl just. dismiss the terror Anya went through and focus too much on him as the "ultimate victim" and that just didn't sit well w me. I really dislike seeing ppl go "oh well nothing could've been done" I think it's much more complex than that. also I forgot to mention in the last ask that I really appreciate you bringing the point that this game isn't just about the harm of patriarchy but also very very critical to capitalism, I haven't seen too many ppl touch on this. I hadn't thought too deeply about how it makes "he deserved to become disabled as punishment" come up and I agree that's really messed up. I'll try watching a playthrough again with all of this in mind. but either way thanks! I really appreciate your answer 🫶🏼

I guess this is just part of being in a fandom like this. I've noticed a lot of people don't actually see posts outside of their curated view. So some people only get like anya posting or jimmy or curly and it can make it seem like that is what is saturating the conversation.

I mainly just follow the general tags and look for anything new because I'm like obsessed but I know some are only looking for what they want or believe to be the case and can get weird about other ideas.

Sorry if I came off mean its just a last few of the asks have been like circular conversations like this and its not draining per say but seeing all the nuance and details get overlooked to fit a straightforward and basic narrative really sucks cause there's a lot to explore character and theme wise.

[spacedlexi]

these 3 make me so Sillay i cant think about them for too long lest i succumb to my little thoughts

[anon-402]

interesting how many CC know what the event is instead of being mostly blinded like with Purgatory. Makes me think it may be more roleplay oriented...

[clowndensation]

x do u understand my vision.

[alienstage]

Ive never played Ib but i remember my friend did and rlly liked it. This was back in middle school!! What about the game do you like ? I know theres some guy named Gary ???

I PLAYED IT BACK IN MIDDLE SCHOOL TOO it was like my first rpgmaker game and i loved it. i obsessed over it n would show anyone i knew who came over but!!! what i like abt the game... i really like the characters! i think that mary specifically is an incredible character who only wanted to be friends with ib and wanted to live outside the painted world.... i also really like museums in general so a horror game themed around one was so cool to me!! i learned a lot of the painting names when i was younger by just playing the game over and over, and i've done the same with the updated areas!! also gary . i love that man. i would do anything for him

[red-dyed-sarumane]

i have a new theory for aru sekai fans & by new i mean someone else might have caught on already but i havent seen it said SO. the rute furutewoa melody is in kyuuyaku, touhikou, & now kannagi (maybe elsewhere bc i havent been looking for this motif before i only realized it today really & i havent had time to go thru all the songs again yet) & we have kyuu (past), something in touhikou im too tired to remember currently but i remember calling something similar a while ago when someone asked if there was a timeline to this, and now kannagi that uses the older language so im willing to bet this motif is a way of saying the events in the song happened in the "past". whether thats actually Long Ago or just to say its not the current situation or just happened before the songs without it i cant say for sure but i think it makes sense given what we have now.

just like we have the nami no ne no motif that signals which characters still have their "self" if its in the song or lost it if its not.

i have to do some more digging of course but with what i know right now this makes the most sense to me

[chalk-homunculus]

I've been once again maining Klee throughout this Veluriyam Mirage questline a nd while exploring the mirage, both because I did get her skin, but also because it cheers me up so much to see her having fun.

[arolesbianism]

Guess who's thinking abt eg au again

[waywardsalt]

tag rant but man i fuckin hate the new direction for loz

[the-clock-of-the-time-dragon]

Ariana Grande said in an interview regarding the loathing era of Glinda and Elphaba's relationship that they are immediately fascinated with each other and part of what makes them initially have a negative reaction is that they both recognize in the other aspects of themselves, and parts they don't yet accept or feel comfortable with. Now, I will be the first to say: that sounds gay af. But in a serious analytical sense: that interpretation by Ariana is incredibly insightful because when you think about it, yeah — Elphaba wants the beauty and popularity that Galinda has (but feels wrong for it because she finds it shallow and dumb and thinks she's above that, so she just suppresses it in the hopes that the Right People will be able to look past her unpopularity and value her for her) and Galinda truly wants not only the intellectual recognition but the peculiar power to say NO to established reality that Elphaba has (but she is constantly being overlooked and prejudged as a shallow airhead, and despite receiving plenty of surface-level attention and affection feels like an outsider: like she's always wearing a mask, never fully connecting with anyone because her truest self is much too ✨🌈Unusually and Exceedingly Peculiar🌈✨ to ever let anybody else witness). They're both the first and only ones to see what the other wanted everyone to see in them, and in the process fall in love both with each other AND with those hidden centers of themselves.

They don't loathe each other — they loathe what the other makes them feel, which is twofold: the ✨🌈Sudden and New🌈✨ feelings, obviously; BUT ALSO some very deep-seated, old feelings that nobody else could (or would) ever confront.

tl;dr: it's the good ol' sapphic experience of "Do I Wanna Be Her or Bang Her?™" — except the "be her" would involve radical self-acceptance (hard pass), and neither of them have figured out that "bang her" is an option yet. Which is what makes their relationship so beautiful: they don't merely complete each other in the "they fit together like puzzle pieces" way — they complete each other in the "they helped each other to fall in love with the parts of themselves they'd spent their whole lives loathing" way. "Handprint on my heart" and all that. The best possible resolution to the "Do I Wanna Be Her or Bang Her?" conundrum: "We're Being Us Together AND We're Banging".

[saccharinecoffee]

an unstoppable force (me studying crime for a living) meets an immovable object (my inaptitude to solve or even understand mystery and detective media)