#Dan is clearly a Meta

[mikami1992]

Finally, after some missions through time, Dan has managed to be approved as "Officially Reformed", and only with some supervision from Clockwork and Danny, will he be free to return to live in the human world.

So with the help of Clockwor, Tecnus and Tuker, an identity was created for him as a Young Adult, who after a few years of traveling around the world, returns to the United States to begin his University studies.

Dante Jackson Nightingale is a Young Adult recently enrolled in Gotham University to study Business and Finance with some elective classes in Engineering, being the place chosen for the high educational level as well as the level of ecto of the city… but the Phantom of the future has other hidden intentions.

During his 10 years of rampant destruction, Dan had a period of "calm", the reason, the strange relationship he developed with Batman, a relationship that was about to bring the angry spirit back to sanity by focusing his obsession on something else…

But it all ended when a surviving and better-funded group of GIW caught Red Hood to experiment on him, so the Batfam immediately went looking for him, and at first the rescue everything went according to plan, but it was until the end where everything went off the rails with the appearance of the Joker… it was never known how it all ended with the explosion of the bat, but it ended up costing the lives of the Bat and the Clown, and some permanent damage to some of the Batkids.

The death of the Knight of Gotham City ended up reviving and fanning the flames of anger and destruction within Dan, which would cause a destruction greater than anything known before.

So, in this new reality, Dan plans to continue with his original intentions with the bat, this time proving that he was a worthy partner for the Dark Knight.

[demonic0angel]

Prompt: Dan Phatom as an inmate of Arkham Asylum?

Part 2, part 3

Harley hummed. She eyed the newest inmate, a gorgeous hunk of meat with dark raven hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing the usual orange suit, but he wore it like a model, with the buttons opened and sleeves rolled up, highlighting his broad arms and tight muscles. He was as beautiful as a demon, and even though Ivy was way prettier, Harley still couldn’t help but be curious.

Harley nodded to herself, thinking for only a moment. Then she waved a hand, calling out, “Yoo hoo! You there! Hey, handsome! Why don’t you come here and spend some time with me and Ivy?”

Ivy rolled her eyes next to her. “Harley!” She hissed.

The man paused, tilted his head, and then smiled, flashing his sharp fangs before he crossed the prison yard to sit down with the two. People stared at them, but the man didn’t seem bothered.

“Hello,” he said politely, “what’s up?”

“You’re new here, ain’tcha?” Harley said rhetorically. “What’re you in for?”

The man chuckled. “I thought it was rude to ask?”

“Nahhh, in here? It doesn’t matter. Everyone already knows why we’re here, there’s no secrets around here. So? What’re you in here for?”

The man smiled. “I started teasing a little bird I found and then he started getting mad at me. I didn’t like how he made Batman go after me, so I made a building explode and I was tossed into here. I didn’t even kill anyone though!”

Seeing how large and old he was, Harley was a little worried and had to ask, “Which little bird?”

“The beautiful one with the black and blue suit and the pretty smile,” the man said dreamily, curling a lock of raven hair around his clawed fingers as he looked towards the sky in a daydream. “He was pretty funny too.”

Harley immediately cooed. Anyone who thought Nightwing was funny clearly hadn’t been hit over the head by his escrima sticks while he threw out obnoxious puns, but the way he described him was so sweet! He was clearly insane, so that was completely okay in her books!

“Awww, that’s so cute! Are you a meta or what? Those fangs o’ yours don’t look human!” Harley said, while Ivy shook her head exasperatedly.

The man shook his head with a small smile. “Not exactly. But I guess I do have meta powers.”

Ivy asked, “Then doesn’t that just make you a meta?”

The man shrugged and then asked, “What about you ladies?” Harley knew that he was just dodging the question, but she didn’t mind, so she began to prattle on about the recent museum break-in she and the girls did, but Selina got away while she and Ivy were caught. Selina was planning a break out for them soon, so they just had to sit tight and wait!

The man smiled, fangs appearing again. “Can I join you? I want to see that little bird again.”

Harley beamed, “Sure thing! What’s your name?” while Ivy groaned.

The man smiled and reached over to shake her hand. His hands were cold and large, like a chunk of ice. He smiled and his pupils sharpened into slits, but oddly enough, he still looked friendly, like a tiger in a way.

“Please. Call me Wraith.”

[papaya-inspiration]

Foreach 2024 Reader Survey Results

So, my buddy @lumsel makes a lil webcomic called Foreach. I help 'em out with it sometimes. The comic's website doesn't have a comment section, so I thought it'd be fun to do a little year-end survey to see who was reading and what they think!

We had an incredible response, with 279 respondents to the survey--more than are in the Foreach discord server! So let's get into it.

Character Popularity Poll

Alright, let's start with the thing I know y'all are most excited about. As the comic creators, we love all our characters equally... but clearly you guys don't!

☀️ SUNNY SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!! ☀️

Y'all REALLY like Sunny, eh? Don't worry, us too. In fact, 80.3% of you listed her in your top 3 favorite characters. Hell yeah.

The next top four characters are the four game protagonists, with Jiro ranking top, then Nix, Cliff and Coral. A lot of readers also mentioned Jiro as particularly relatable/lovable in the write in box at the end of the form. (Don't worry, I won't tell him y'all like him this much. Though with this many Love Warriors, Proteus won't stand a chance invading the island.) I was a bit surprised to see Jasper/Coral ranked as the lowest of the four protagonists! Given that the comic initially presents her as the "anchor" character and a jumping off point for the story as a whole--but that also means she's among the least unusual of the four protagonists, and thus stands out less? It's a hypothesis.

After that, we have Polyta (which makes a lot of sense, she's had some of the most page time of the side characters), then Mercy and Doctor Kree'zik. I wonder if some of this is recency bias, partiularly in Kree'zik's case, seeing as we haven't gotten much past xer character introduction yet. I'll be curious to see how these numbers shift if we run this again next year!

We also got some minor character write ins! Several people said they enjoyed various Aveans, with two votes specifically for the Avean Captains and someone else voting for the avean grunt from page 106 who says "Thanks a bundle!" And I agree: they're pretty adorable. Another person listed "the author" as their favorite character which... you know what, it is a fairly meta comic, so I'll allow it. (Even though, hilariously, Lum is the only member of the creative team to have not had a character cameo in the comic yet.)

Also shout out to the person who wrote in that they almost listed the character cameos for Peri and Kiki (the rat and the rabbit from pgs 24-25) as their favorites. I see you and appreciate you <3

Game Popularity Poll

Not a ton to say about this. People seem to like cozy-ish indie games and furry aesthetics. Makes sense to me.

Comic Info

How are people finding Foreach?

As always, word of mouth is CRUCIAL for indie webcomics getting off the ground. You guys sharing and linking it to friends and communities is really the engine behind getting eyes onto our art--so thank you!

We got another big boost from joining the @spiderforestcomics webcomic collective. So far, it's been a great experience and we've been loving the community over there. So if you're in the market for more comics, definitely go check out some of theirs!

I should note that there is definitely some overlap between these categories. We let people mark multiple answers, so many people marked "Word of Mouth (online)" in addition to other categories like Tumblr and other discord servers. In that broader category, there where several places that people specifically noted finding the comic including:

Our reader Digamma has been tirelessly reposting the comic to the Something Awful forums, and it looks like quite a few people have been keeping up from there! Thanks, Digamma, you're a certified super-spreader!

Dan of @thewebcomicsreview has linked to Foreach several times!

People also mentioned finding it through various discord communities, including the Star Impact server, a server for puzzle games, Foxglove Comics, and others

Rilly had a cameo in @erinptah's webcomic, Leif and Thorne!

Several people discovered it directly through the Neocities discover page!

Cohost, Cloudhiker, and a fairly lukewarm substack review... which nonetheless garnered us a few readers. I'll take it!

Currently, Foreach doesn't pay for traditional banner ads of any kind. So everytime you tell a friend about the comic or share a link to it, you're helping us out a ton! Thank you!

How are people keeping up with comic updates?

Not too much to say on this. Lots of manual checkers, and it looks like we're getting good mileage out of that RSS feed. Excellent!

Readership Info

Discord Membership

We had more survey responses than people currently in the Foreach discord. But even more excitingly, only about one third of survey respondents are also in the discord. Which is exciting, because it means there's more of a readership out there checking the comic updates than we knew previously!

Additionally, I'm personally excited by this result because hearing from those quieter members of our reader base is precisely why I wanted to put out this survey. We have a lovely, active community in the discord, but as a side effect that means we're hearing a lot of opinions from just one, disproportionately vocal part of our reader base. My hope with this survey was that we'd get a chance to hear some voices that we don't usually get to interact with... So for all you silent majority readers out there: Hello! Thanks so much for chiming in!

Patreon Membership

Most of our readers don't back the patreon. Which is to be expected! We actually got a few new patrons signing up after the survey was posted, which is absolutely lovely of y'all. (Hi new patrons! 👋)

If you're wondering what the Patreon money gets used for, it's a mixture of funding extras the comic and supporting Lum's future creative endeavors. This year, we used a big chunk of the funding to commission the Love Bomb portraits for the new Cast Page, which were done by the talented Beajrb (go check out their work!) In the future, some of it may be used for commission work related to the comic, and also for the long term goal for Lum to take some time off their day job to draw comics/make games/etc.

We also asked what else people might like to see us do with the patreon. Right now, we post author commentary on pages with about a 2-chapter lag time, and people seem pretty happy with that over all. There were a few requests for bonus character art, pin ups, or character-asks, and we'll keep that in mind going forward. Since all of us are working full time, there's only limited time we have for making additional content, but who knows what the future holds!

Reader Geography

So where in the world are our readers? Well, I I thought it'd be fun to make this cute little map:

...which turned out to be a huge pain in the ass and a little misleading with the color ranges. So here it is another way:

Our reader base is very American-heavy. Honestly a little moreso than I was expecting? Maybe it's the magnetic charisma of Cliff Mason that keeps drawing them in?

But is it a good comic?

According to our readers, it's a 5.35/5 star comic. Make of that what you will :3

Final Thoughts

At the end of the form, we had an open response box for anything else y'all might want to say to us. And let me just say: y'all blew us away. Thank you so much.

So many of the comments were incredibly kind. People told us about characters they connected to, about how excited they were for to see what happens next. Some of them were sweet, some were horny, some of you compared Foreach to some of OUR favorite webcomics, (which was absolutely unreal to read!) Some of you guys wrote whole freakin' essays! I can't recap everything, but please know that we read every single one of them.

Thank you again for joining us on this journey. Here's to a great 2025--and another year of Freachin' it together!

[vladdyissues]

so i've mentioned before how i think reign storm made vlad want danny's babies and i feel like you might like what i'm getting at when i expand on it because i am drawin' on ALL the lore for that headcanon

so in season 1, we absolutely got the arc that Vlad had a bit more in common with Jack than he wanted to admit (interests, skill, the ability to hyperfocus until the ectofilter makes their house explode), and that he was desperate for people to love him but unwilling to see them clearly enough to actually love them--he would happily sand off any traits incompatible with his vision, before accepting them as-is. he especially wants to sand off all the traits in danny he associates with Jack

if their relationship had changed in s1, it would be badger cereal all the way down for me. you could not get me to romantically ship it again, even with the chemistry, for love nor money. but it didn't

and then we got Reign Storm in S2

where we got to see vlad and danny being their most sincere and straightforward around each other. vlad was sincerely a magnificent bastard and danny was sincerely not putting up with his shit, but they're so much of their authentic selves only around each other. vlad still wants danny to be his son, to be influenced by him... up until the Pariah Dark fight

i am 100% certain he never meant for Danny to win there. he was waiting for Danny to wear Pariah down and pass out where Vlad could take his place in the suit and win, getting the credit AND the kudos for saving Danny. but that's not what happened

Danny, a younger, weaker, still half-mortal being in a suit actively draining him managed to win against Pariah Dark, who was so powerful it took multiple implied gods to seal him away the first time. all without Vlad having a single moment of true, lasting influence on him. and my theory...

is Vlad's ghost instincts saw this, finally saw Phantom as his own unrelated entity, and went "THIS ONE. MAKE BABIES WITH THIS ONE. LOCK HIM DOWN NOW, HE IS GOING TO BE A LEGEND"

(and so we get Dan and Dani in the same season)

and in every episode after, it is clear Maddie takes a backseat to Danny for him. he doesn't even plot the murder of Jack in any real way until the series finale. his focus is 100% on Danny and making his own Danny using the original Danny and/or putting Danny in a submissive/pliant position

i don't think he's consciously aware of any of this. or, if he is, he hates that he's thinking that way about someone nearly thirty years his junior. but i do think there's a hell of a story in half-ghost instincts being misinterpeted between the two halves of themselves and having to adapt to being their own, separate entity from humans OR ghosts

and that is my comprehensive explanation as to why I headcanon Reign Storm made Vlad's metaphorical ovaries start screaming for his attention

OH.

Shit. That's perfect.

Of course Vlad would wait until absolutely necessary to jump in and deliver the coup de grâce to Pariah. (Let the pawn sacrifice himself, do all the work, King takes credit, etc.) But the pawn... held his own?? The pawn fucking put that thing back where it came from or so help me?? By this time Vlad would surely know how to spot a good investment, and I just know the inside of his head sounded like hitting the jackpot at a Vegas casino when he saw Danny put the smack down.

Is there such a thing as Investments to Lovers? Arranged (Baby) Carriage?

Another thing you're absolutely right about is how Vlad's obsession with Maddie dropped off immediately after Reign Storm. Excepting Phantom Planet, naturally.

I love this meta. It's pure rocket fuel.

[lulu2992]

I’ve just found this interesting 10-year-old video I don’t remember ever seeing before in which Dan Hay, former “shepherd” (term they half-jokingly use in the interview) of the Far Cry series discusses the past but also the future of the franchise, a few months before the release of Far Cry 4. Mark Thompson, narrative director of the game, is also interviewed.

When he’s asked if he has “any interest in unifying the larger world and creating a larger meta-story between all the games” and if they’re all “in the same universe”, Dan Hay answers he’s “just gonna smile at that”, and after talking a bit about how invested the team is and how smart he thinks players are, concludes, “But your question is very intriguing, and it makes me smile.”

He then happily explains Far Cry is “near and dear to [his] heart” (he even has it tattooed on him because he lost a bet) and that he “[plans] on working on it for a long time” because he “can’t think of anything else”.

That was in 2014.

In June 2021, it was officially explained that Far Cry games were only loosely connected and each had their own world. In November 2021, Dan Hay left Ubisoft.

I don’t know what happened (or even if anything happened at all) and don’t blame the Far Cry 6 team for their decision to create a new timeline to tell their story (they didn’t really have a choice after the ending of Far Cry 5), but I admit I’m a bit sad we never got to see the full extent of that “meta-story” they clearly had in mind 10 years ago...

[lyledebeast]

I want to make an addition to the conversation with @fakehusbandgarbagedump and @malicious-compliance-esq without reblogging that long post yet again. Not only does Tavington kill with more efficiency than Martin but he also chooses his targets more efficiently in the first place. When Tavington murders one of his sons and orders the second taken into custody to be hanged as a spy, Martin has a choice to make. He can plead with the lieutenant, who already views him in a sympathetic light for taking care of British soldiers, who is actually tasked with carrying out those orders to spare his son and serve as a witness for his complaint to Cornwallis or O'Hara about Tavington's conduct, or he can do what he does. Even if we view those regulars singularly as faceless agents of an oppressive regime, going after them instead of Tavington directly leaves Tavington free to target civilians in the future, which he certainly does!

The privileging of the personal over the political in this fight is consistently strange. Almost every minute of interaction among the militiamen is spent highlighting familial attachments and personal grievances against the British at the expense of, I don't know, how these men would benefit from independence in the first place. The man who offers up Occam introduces himself with "They killed my brother down in Acworth. Every one of them redcoats deserves to die." I guess there's no chance his brother down in Acworth did anything that actually warranted hanging by redcoats. Then we have John Billings, who has clearly instilled his hatred of redcoats into the young son he brings to the recruitment meeting. When he later responds to the reverend's shrill "This is murder" with "They're redcoats, they've earned it, " he offers no particular cause for vengeance. Whatever it is, he leaves his young son with only a wooden pistol as defense for himself and his mother in pursuit of it.

Martin and his men's dehumanization of British soldiers ends up costing them dear. They're so focusing on killing them some redcoats, to paraphrase Baby Billings, that they aren't particular about which redcoats they kill. Targeting supply trains to keep the British in South Carolina is a sound military strategy, but it does nothing to deter British attacks on civilians. Indeed, it has the opposite effect when Cornwallis becomes so desperate to deal with the problem they pose that he's willing to allow Tavigton the use of tactics that previously repulsed him.

Unlike Martin and his men, Tavington is very particular about the enemies he kills. While Martin never so much as says Tavington's name, Tavington is honed in on him before he even knows his. The moment he gets Cornwallis's permission, he's off to learn that name from Wilkins, likely dragging Bordon behind him like The Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass. Once he has it, he makes straight for Aunt Charlotte's plantation and is walking through the front door before Martin can even arrive. He only targets other militiamen's families when Martin's eludes his grasp, and even then he has a list! He's not just killing colonials willy nilly, a I unjustly accused him of in previous meta. When he rides his horse into the nave and sees only women, children, and a handful of old or out of shape men, he knows he's in the right place.

The focus on Martin's emotionality clouds numerous other considerations at the end of the film as it has throughout, one of which is that he survives this war so much less scathed than many of his men. Despite monumental thoughtlessness on his part, he only loses two of his seven children, and he even gains a new wife. Dan Scott (Donal Logue) is the sole survivor of his family after the Pembroke Church burning, and the same is likely true for other, lower profile militiamen. There actually is a new world for them, but it is not the one they imagined when they signed up. Once the thrill of winning and independence have died down, they are still bereft of their families, and the redcoats are no longer around to take the blame. Where will it go?

[wherevenusholdssomeofficespace]

Hamster and Gretel Propaganda

Watch Hamster and Gretel cowards

Hamster and Gretel does have a VERY week first episode. However, it does get better and really hits its stride around episode 5 or so. So please don't write it off based on the first couple episodes. If you are a fan of PnF and MML, then you will probably enjoy it. It's full of the clever, slightly meta humor PnF and MML are known for. It's a little more modern in its humor, and that doesn't always work. But PnF itself ALSO had its contemporary humor that didn't really age, so that's nothing new. I'd say it falls in the middle of these two shows in terms of serialization, which isn't saying much, but it is in fact lightly serialized.

I understand preferring serialized shows (as usually I do too). However, that doesn't mean more episodic shows are bad. It's first and foremost a comedy. And it works at that. Granted, humor is pretty subjective, but I think its pretty funny. Its clever, and the unique situations the characters find themselves lends itself to originality. Obviously not all the jokes land, but I think each episode has something I laugh at every time. It is clearly a project that is dear to Dan Povenmire's heart, with references to his family practically everywhere. And that shines through in the interactions between the main cast. The characters are all very entertaining and our main cast show simple, but effective character growth. The characters I think are definitely the main appeal of the show. As is to be expected this show excels in wholesome and realistic family dynamics. Many of the characters echo previous archetypes shown in the Flynn-Fletcher and Murphy families. However, those families worked for a reason, and the Grant-Gomez family has enough of its own spin to keep it fresh.

"I gave birth to both of you. This is nothing."

If you haven't seen any episodes, here's a rundown of the characters. Kevin. The Guy with the minivan. He's the normie older brother, and the real main character, who feels overshadowed by his younger sister by the universe. But he's eager to insert himself into Hamster and Gretel's heroics and carves out a role for himself. While he works from the sidelines, he is a crucial member of the team. His actions often come from a place of protectiveness for his sister, in addition to the jealousy. However he never takes it out on her. Kevin is a teenage boy, and everything that entails. Awkward, a bit of a dumbass, and desperately trying to establish his identity. But he's also genuinely well intentioned, resourceful, and is a sweet and protective older brother to Gretel. I really appreciate how seriously the show, and the other characters treat Kevin and his contributions and struggles.

Gretel is an energetic, cheerful, reckless and stubborn girl. She's often oblivious to how Kevin feels about certain things. Despite her love for Kevin doesn't always take him seriously and is often annoyed with him and how he manages her superheroing, and tries to do things her own way, even when Kevin protests. Though she does value his attention and assistance. Kevin is the first one who Gretel will call out to for help in a pinch and he'll always jump in without a second thought, even if he's literally powerless.

The core of the show is the dynamic between Kevin and Gretel. They love each other, but also do get on each others nerves, and aren't afraid to tease each other. When they first received powers, Kevin was genuinely excited to be a superhero with his little sister, and though that didn't pan out the way he thought it was going to, both are genuinely happy to be a team. They trust each other immensely, and while the first episode is rather weak it does establish the amount of trust they have in each other. Despite Kevin's lack of powers.

The other titular character, Hamster is a talking hamster. He will not allow anyone to expect anything more than what he's already giving (he can talk what more do you want). But he's got a surprising amount out of depth. He's generally pretty inexpressive, but that contrasts with his petty hamster problems and his surprising variety of skills. Hamster's unflinching loyalty for Gretel, dry wit, and a penchant for messing with Kevin, really adds to team and family dynamic. Kevin and Hamster's growing friendship, built on friendly rivalry is another highlight of the show. Hamster may be a bit of a sarcastic grump, but we see him having to swallow his pride and ask for help and accept assistance somewhat regularly.

"We're more like neutral coworkers who live together."

Fred is an amazing character and rounds out the main quartet. Kevin and Gretel's cousin, a woman of many skills. A computer wiz, anime nerd, and talented gymnast among other things. Someone who on the surface seems far more suited to Kevin's role than he is. There's hardly ever a dull moment with Fred on screen who's constant cynicism contrasts nicely with Gretel and Kevin's more cheerful attitudes. Fred has grown up with the two of them and knows them well. She very clearly cares a lot about the two of them, though isn't afraid to call them out and isn't nearly as proactively concerned as Kevin. She's able to act as a mediator of sorts at times between the two of them. Fred also shows growth as she in individual episodes comes to appreciate people who aren't like her (emotional and cheerful), and comes to realize they have more in common than she initially thought.

"Yeah, they're still evil, 'cause you know, they're like teenage girls, but not supervillain evil."

The rest of the extended family is also delightful and has significant presence. Family is a central theme in this show, and the whole extended family often plays key roles in episode plots. It's very clear how important everyone is to each other and how family has made these people who they are. Carolina and Dave are very involved in their kids lives and have their own subplots and developed personalities. In addition Churro the family dog, Carolina's mother, her sister Meli, and Dave's sister (Fred's mom) Stacy really flesh out the family despite their limited appearances.

The rest of extended cast is also fun, really fleshing out the world. Bailey is Gretel's best friend and a particularly important reoccurring character. She starts as Hamster and Gretel's (superhero) biggest fan. Often oblivious, she's confident, energetic, intelligent and a genuinely supportive friend. She's still a somewhat reckless and obnoxious little kid, not unlike Gretel, but her passion, and strong principles help highlight Gretel's strength's and weaknesses. She's definitely the kind of weird little girl whose always got some weird facts on hand about some niche topic, which sometimes comes in handy. Her and Gretel's relationship is also a highlight as they unconditionally care about each other, but still often experience conflict, usually do to external forces.

Hiromi is the girl Kevin has a crush on, but a fully fledged character in her own right. She's goofy, passionate, hardworking, works at a comic shop, is the editor for the school newspaper, and ends up forming a fun friendship with Fred.

"I must point out again that vikings did not have canons. Or singing."

"mmm. Wouldn't be much of a musical without the singing."

"A girl can dream."

The villains are mostly one offs, but their often quite unique in premise and their motivations are often quite hilariously petty. Though, there is a slight overarching plot as the mystery behind the aliens motivations, which involves certain members of Gretel's rogue gallery. The plots are moving slowly, but developing nevertheless. The reoccurring villains also play a part in emphasizing the themes of family. Even minor villains occasionally have motivations related to their families. Two of the most frequent reoccurring villains, are Fistpuncher and the Destructress. A twins with the same powers as Hamster and Gretel who were given their powers by the same aliens, except to use for evil. They act as foils to Kevin and Gretel. Fistpuncher and Gretel are both impulsive younger siblings. Destructress and Kevin are both responsible older siblings, who want acknowledgement. Both sets of siblings are competitive, but care deeply for each other and have had their lives changed by powers beyond their understanding. Professor Exclamation, from the first episode, is also a reoccurring villain whose relationship with his son is also a major subplot. Nordle is a fun character who highlights Gretel's character strengths, as he develops out of his father's shadow.

I think some of Hamster and Gretel's main themes are family, trust and community, as it is in Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law. I'll probably got more into those eventually. But I think there is another theme here of not underestimating people or making assumptions about them. Without giving too much away, whether its people repeatedly underestimating Kevin's skills, Fred learning that cheerleaders are just people, Hamster having a rich life outside of the Grant-Gomez's, or even just a grumpy clown being nice, characters are constantly subverting expectations. It may not be anything particularly mindbreaking to the audience, but to the characters they are constantly having to break through others expectations, or adapt how they view others.

Music, as always is top tier. I don't have anything else to add except that they're funny. Admittedly the opening is pretty weak. But there are plenty of other fun songs. I particularly like Don't Steal From the Banks, My Best Friend Bailey's Birthday, Ropa Vieja, I Think We'll Break for Lunch and How You Feel About Me.

"I'm a lemur and I love it and I'm standing on my toes"

Overall, the writing is witty, and there is a sense of continuity, between episodes in a lot of subtle ways so even as the episodes are largely self-contained. Conflicts are largely comedic in nature, and often absurd, which leads to creativity in how they are resolved. While they often are pretty predictable, they aren't particularly repetitive. I'm not really one to comment on voice acting, but the delivery of many lines really elevates the writing. Hiromi, Fred, and Fistpuncher in particular have really had some solid deliveries in my opinion that make okay dialogue, hilarious. I wasn't sold on Meli Povenmire as Gretel at first, but as the show has gone on I think she's improved, and really brings Gretel to life.

Overall the show is just a good time, and a sweet show about family and superhero shenanigans. The show is just fun to watch, simple, but effective and its a shame to see it go not only overlooked by people but looked at with disdain. It is definitely in part the shows fault for its weak start, I can't defend that. It's also not a particularly dramatic or emotional show, so if your looking for something like The Owl House or The Ghost and Molly McGee, you're not going to get it here. Though that isn't to say it doesn't have it's heartwarming moments. And it's not exactly Phineas and Ferb or Milo Murphy's Law either. But it's not fair to punish the show for something its not. Hamster and Gretel is delightful. So watch it cowards.

[raeflora]

Hi again! I would really love your opinion on something, (since you said that if I ever want you to write meta on something specific I can ask)

Do you think that most D**ir shippers are Dan fans rather than Blair l fans?

I am going forward with the rewatch and I have been reading stuff here andvon other platforms and I have noticed that most D**ir focus on what Dan feels or what Dan does for Blair, ignoring Blair's emotional and mental state at the time

Furthermore they seem to want to rid Blair from all the things that make her Blair (like her ruthlessness and scheming)

Idk... For me Blair wouldn't be Blair without the good and the bad. So it makes me wonder if these people just.... Don't like Blair very much.....

hi!! this is such a good question tysm and this is gonna be long so I hope u don't mind 🫶🏻 I think generally yes d*ir fans do seem to be more fans of dan than they are of blair, and I think there are a few reasons (that I've seen) for this. some of it comes from penn badgley fans as a lot of ppl who discovered him from you on netflix have then watched gg and like dan purely bc it's him. some of it also comes from this rehash of the idea that chuck's "bad" bc of the pilot and ignoring his development, and dan's "good" bc... he's not chuck lol.

ur right in that a lot of them don't want blair to be, well, herself. as I said in my other meta post there's a lot of focus on how blair's "better" when she's with dan. she doesn't scheme, she doesn't do anything, really, except from talk about movies and artists. they think that this watered down version of blair is her true self, even though if u watch the previous 4 and a half seasons it's obvious that's just not true. they want blair to be this girl who's content to spend her days visiting museums and waiting around for dan who she's clearly not. there's nothing wrong with her that dan needs to fix, and chuck didn't corrupt her. she can be interested in art and movies and still scheme and be mean. there's no mutual exclusivity to any of her personality traits, they can all co-exist and are what make her blair. like chuck said in s2 it's stupid to want her to be anything other than what she is.

also, ur so right again in that they ignore blair's mental state. she's obviously not in a good place in s5 and probably shouldn't jump into any relationship after her divorce. but dan pushes her into it. throughout the show she belittles him, insults him, makes fun of serena dating him, and generally just doesn't like him. while they're dating she still doesn't seem that keen on him. there's talk of how she's happier and smiling all the time with dan, but she's not. she effectively throws a tantrum being seen out with him and she can't celebrate his career, she instead undermines and upstages him. her behaviour doesn't seem like someone who's found her perfect match. it seems like someone who's in a confusing transitional period of her life and clings to the nearest man, like she did with carter in s2. if dan was this great perfect man he'd say he couldn't date her right away, let her sort herself out. but no, he forces her to be more than just friends bc, where she's so isolated from everyone else, if she loses him then she loses her only support system (the fact that she becomes so reliant on dan humphrey in the wake of her miscarriage is something for another post) so she kind of has to get into a relationship with him, even though she's not ready mentally.

in terms of liking blair, I think that most d*ir fans like their own version of blair, instead of the canon version. this might be connected to them often preferring dan, and then they just project traits onto blair that aren't hers. I don't know why they don't do this to serena btw, bc her relationship with dan is significantly more important, and she was far more willing to do "ordinary" things with him than blair. ultimately I think they want d*ir, and blair individually, to be something they're not and were never going to be. d*ir isn't sethmer or paceyjoey or whoever else they compare them to. blair isn't someone they can shape into fitting their ideas like dan does, she's her own distinct character and if they don't like her then they should admit it instead of mischaracterising her

[gluffering]

12 16 and 19 for any media of your choice?

12: the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

As must as I want to point at an F/O that I don't see the fandom talk about as much.. let's be real most people on my F/O list aren't unpopular.

I know the question is essentially "character that is unpopular because people don't like them but you do" instead of "character who's unpopular because people don't KNOW THEM" but fuck it.

CYBERSIX THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE. From the 1999 animated show that lasted like.. a single season before being canned. Idk shit about the comics and I intend to keep it that way, I read like 5 pages of it and decided that was enough for me LOL. Anyway she is so cool I love her.

I don't even remember the episodes super well other than concepts and stuff (the Youtube videos I used to watch this ages ago have DEFINITELY been removed by now) but I adore her.

During the day she has a male disguise who's called Adrian Seidelman and like

She's my bigender awakening. Side note but the theme song for this show is gorgeous, I had that shit on LOOP for a while.

16: you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Pretty much any trope, headcanon or characterization that prioritises the fantasy over the character themselves. I could probably be ok with almost any trope if it suits the characters and it's written well (with obvious exceptions).

Ships are included in this. ESPECIALLY when the existence of the ship makes it clear that the shipper fundamentally misunderstands one/both/all characters that are a part of it. Blade X Dan Heng, I'm looking at you. If people could just stop bullshitting all over the place just because characters have tension with each other, that would be so awesome (mostly not related to the Dan Heng x Blade slight, just something else about ships that bugs me).

19: you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

I was a little ashamed about my Meta Knight fixation when I first had it, but I am hashtag over that shit.

Technically not a part of the question, but there's a bit of guilt whenever I get into a Hoyoverse game or just games in general that clearly have colourism (at the minimum) issues. It's kind of hard not to be when gacha games are like "WE'RE RELEASING A NEW 5 STAR!!" and it's another fucker who's so white you'd think they were ILL.

Genshin is particularly egregious for this, because what do you mean you're using their cultures yet there isn't a single black playable character? Not even ONE?? Give me a fucking break. This is one of the reasons why I take long breaks when I play these games because it's honest to god distracting. Beyond the fact that it's racist as fuck, how do they not understand that having almost every character who's the same colour as my WALL breaks the immersion? What the balls.

..

.. also blonde men.

[myblackcamera]

Pilot Blog: Hot Manhwa Semes That Will Make You Ignore Red Flags!

Category: Yaoi Title: Hot Manhwa Semes That Will Make You Ignore Red Flags! Meta-Description: Is your fictional man a red flag? I've listed all the hot manhwa semes that will make you go colorblind for them! _______

Toxic Yaoi often gets a lot of hate. But if we’re being real, they’re pretty solid reads.

Some people read it for the plot. But the cultured fujoshi? They read it for the plot.

The plot in question:



[Alt Text: Ahn Jiwon from BJ Alex Volume 1 Manhwa Cover]

That’s right - we’re talking about a manhwa semes with a lethal face card and a weapon that can kill - if you know what I mean. 

Manhwa semes who say “I’ll be gentle” or “Just one more round” even though we all know it’s a lie!

But with a lot of manhwas out there, it can be difficult to find a well-written and well-drawn seme. And by that, we mean someone toxic but HOT!

Here are the most toxic but hot semes of the season! (Spoilers ahead!)

1. Joo Jaekyung from Jinx manhwa



[Alt Text: Joo Jaekyung Jinx Birthday Art]

Coming from the left corner wearing the biggest red flag, the most toxic seme Mother Mingwa has created so far - Joo Jaekyung! 

Some people dislike Jaekyung for very valid reasons, and many of them concern our adorable uke, Kim Dan. 

The most memorable scene has to be when he throws away the Hermes keychain Dan bought for his birthday.

Now, Hermes is by no means cheap. But Dan thought he’d show some appreciation to his employee by buying him something nice and useful for his birthday. He even worked part-time jobs and skipped sleep because of it!

But for all his faults, Jaekyung is one hell of a man. He’s hot, he’s rich, and he’s well endowed. Who wouldn’t fall for a guy like him? (Well, if we ignore his personality)

When Jaekyung does the bare minimum, the entire fandom cheers. Yes - that’s how down bad his simps are for him.

And the smut scenes? Absolute art. Whenever he and Kim Dan smash, every panel is filled with their love juice. And when we see Jaekyung naked? That's the moment the spirit of feminism leaves a fujoshi’s body. 

Jaekyung isn’t nearly as bad as the other semes out there, but he certainly can do better. Season one just ended, and almost everyone is looking forward to his redemption arc when the next season comes. 

You can read Jinx on Lezhin.

 2. Kang Woojin from Love Jinx

 [Kang Woojin Love Jinx Lezhin]

If this is your man right here… Let me just tell you, you are BRAVE.

Now, there’s no shame in admitting that you love this man. Because Woojin is the type to sacrifice the world to save you - and that’s no exaggeration. 

He’s obsessive and possessive, but he will never lay hands on you. He will stalk you and invade your privacy, but he will also cut off everyone in his life to be with you.

Will he go that far? Yes. Yes, he will. He burned down the mountain his grandfather was buried in as an act of love and revenge. After all, he was the reason Haekyung (the uke) avoided him like the plague!

There’s just something about Woojin that makes us love him despite being such a huge red flag. You can call everyone who loves him crazy - there’s no changing the fact that this man will do anything for your love.

Read Love Jinx on Lezhin.

3. Cain from Yours to Claim



[Cain Yours to Claim Official Art Royal]

You might be surprised to see Cain here instead of Yahwi. 

Cain treated Jooin with so much love and respect from start to end. He accepted whatever he was given and stepped in for him whenever Yawhi would do him wrong. 

He did all that only for Yawhi to be the endgame. Imagine what Team Cain fans felt.  

Given it was a bit predictable, almost everyone felt it was a bit unfair, and Cain deserved better.

Cain also felt the same because he turned into a red flag from being a green one just so he could have Jooin. But even though he was controlling and possessive over Jooin, he always had his best interest in mind. If we compare him to Yawhi, you can clearly tell he was the better option. 

As frustrating as this manhwa was, at the very least, Cain had his happy ending. But Team Cain will forever stand for the fact that Jooin lost a good man.

Read Yours to Claim on Lezhin. 

4. Jaehyuk from Can’t Think Straight

 

[Yoon Jaehyuk Can't Think Straight Lezhin]

Jaehyuk is an a-hole. But he is a funny a-hole. And this ironically made him an icon in the BL community. 

Women don’t lie when we say we love someone who is funny. Why else are we turning a blind eye towards Jaehyuk, a homophobic playboy?

If we’re being honest, his only red flag is being homophobic. What's really ironic is the fact that he eventually turns gay. He turns so gay that he can no longer get it up with a woman. At least, not after tasting sweet Garam’s (the uke) butt. 

If you’re reading the current updates, you (and all the other fujoshi) must love how he’s become an absolute puppy for Garam. Cleaning the dorm for him, bringing him food, and, most especially, selling his stuff to buy a home for him. 

He’s not even boasting to Garam about it like he usually does!

The latest chapters made him even more lovable in our eyes. His redemption arc is ongoing, but we cannot wait to see how his character grows even more!

Read Can’t Think Straight on Lezhin.

5. Seungho from Painter of the Night



[Yoon Seungho in a bath from Painter of the Night - Byeonduck]

We all have a good reason to fear Seungho. Nakyum (the uke) does too. But if evil, why hot?

Seungho is a well-known sodomizer, and he kills whomever he feels like killing. Talk back to him? You die. Refuse his commands? You die. Well, you get the point. 

This is why Nakyum, despite being a painter, allowed Seungho to make advances towards him. And thank god he did. If not, we wouldn’t have found out how big Seungho's you know what was.

Now Seungho had a very valid reason for being who he was: daddy issues. That’s right, folks - he’s just like the rest of us.

Most people think Seungho’s backstory is a cop-out for the way he’s treated his bed partners (including Nakyum) in the past. After all, this is a common trope BL writers pull out whenever they have an irredeemable seme. 

But in Seungho’s case, this was well executed. It did not feel forced. Rather, it gave us a different perspective of his character. He was homicidal but also loving towards Nakyum. 

It’s no wonder why the “I can fix him!” girlies love this man. Not only was he willing to change for love, but he was also willing to sacrifice his life for Nakyum. 

Read Painter of the Night on Lezhin.

6. Ilay Riegrow from Passion



[Ilay Riegrow wearing a uniform]

If you like semes that will literally chase you to the ends of the earth, look no further. Ilay will find you no matter where you go. 

It’s as scary as it is arousing. It’s 'scarousing'. 

Taeui (uke) and the other Passion characters have called him a psychopath multiple times. With his track record of “accidentally” killing his subordinates? The claim isn’t too far-fetched.

By no means is Ilay excused for all his crimes. In fact, everyone acknowledges it. But a fujoshi is a lot simpler than you think. You see hot yandere, you simp. Crimes and all forgiven. 

With that attitude of his, it’s no wonder Taeui took revenge on him and ran away. He even changed his name and went as far as living in his future brother-in-law’s house.

But Ilay had a very logical plan in mind. He burns down an entire mountain. That’s right, people - we have another mountain-burning psychopath in our hands. Isn’t that hot? No pun intended. 

Read Passion on TappyToon.

7. Zhenya from Codename Anastasia



[Zhenya eating an orange — from Codename Anastasia Official Art]

If there’s any word that best describes Zhenya, it’s that he’s an absolute menace. 

This blondie looks like an angel but is actually the devil in disguise. (And if you haven’t read the novel and the manhwa, I suggest you skip reading this section.)

Still here? Well, here it goes:

He has assaulted him, kidnapped him, left him to die, and attempted to add his name to St. Peter's book. The worst part? He was behind Taekjoo's mom's death. 

So why are people still rooting for him despite all this? It’s because he has what we call pretty privilege. 

Look at the Tiktok edits. This man has over 359.3 million views! Almost all of these are thirst traps, and I'm not gonna lie; they’re mesmerizing. 

Does this man deserve the worst coming to him for what he did to Taekjoo? Yes. But is he also pretty? Definitely. 

But just as a friendly reminder to all the colorblind ladies: always keep these red flag acceptance in fiction only. After all, our preferences in fictional men do not necessarily reflect our taste in real life.

It's kind of like how we read Game of Thrones. Sure, we may root for the villains sometimes, but does that mean we condone their behavior in real life? Absolutely not. 

Read Codename Anastasia on TappyToon.

Did we miss out on your favorite manhwa seme? You can share more about who deserves to be on this list at the Otaku Community! Get to meet your fellow fujoshis and share your manhwa recommendations!

[blueiight]

I think Daniel is a proxy for the RJ though cause the show itself is a gay black man's story being told by an old [straight or so we think] white man. The black woman, Claudia, is not even in the room cause she's long gone [do they even have any black women in the writing team? certainly none of the credited writers for the episodes are black women...]. Hopefully it's done in a meta/self-critical way and not just taken as straight objectivity.

i dont think dan is a proxy insert for the showrunners or ‘what the show wants u to believe’ cuz of the sheer layers of storytelling in the first place but also.. daniel molloy is clearly bisexual [the bartender @ the gay bar in the 70s know him by first name] & 2) rj & co. have shown far more nuance in their interpretations of vc& the adaptive choices made in this show have suggest far more intelligence than daniel’s very cynical smug white lib pov. idk how showrunner teams work exactly but ive heard from @brightfelon the team incorporated a variety of black fem horror writers, phDs on local history of new orleans & the like…idk how high they r on the ladder exactly but i found their presence to make sense of why & how this adaptation reinvigorated my interest in the immortal universe.

[demonic0angel]

The Phantom gang try to determine what kind of supernatural creature Batman is, since he clearly couldn't possibly be human.

“Okay, so he’s definitely not a ghost, goblin, ogre, banshee, mutant, meta, or…. Actually, how are we sure that he’s not a meta? Or a mutant? It’s not possible to be that old and that springy, right?”

“Maybe he’s an alien,” Dani suggested. “Or genetically engineered? Like maybe he’s not a real human.”

“Ghost, goblin, banshee, mutant, alien…” Jazz muttered to herself. “If he heard this, I think he’d cry from the descriptions you used.”

“Can he even cry at all?” Dan muttered dryly. Jazz gave him a swat on the shoulder as he grinned.

“Ooh, maybe he’s an Immortal! Remember? We met them a few weeks ago at the diplomatic conference?” Danny said.

Dani shook his head. “Yeah, but they were like… all thin and skinny. Batman is like a tank. I still think he’s genetically engineered. What if he’s a clone like me?”

“Then who is the original?” Danny said, sounding horrified. They all wondered who was the original Batman, since the one they knew was grisly, buff, tall, and looked like the unholy offspring between a bat, a bear, a robot, and a ninja.

“I still think he’s human,” Dan said.

Jazz protested immediately. “But how can that be possible? He has to be over 40 years old with how long he’s been operating! And he’s still doing flips and jumping over roofs with who knows how many injuries from being a hero? If he’s human, then I’m the Queen of England!”

“Jazz, didn’t you actually become Queen of England before? In a couple of alternate timelines too?”

“Shhh, I’m trying to make a point,” Jazz said, waving a hand at Dani carelessly.

Dan shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

Danny perked up. “I got it! He’s like Skulker! But instead of being a ghost inside of a cyborg suit, he’s an alien! I’m a genius!”

“No, the fuck you’re not!” His siblings all denied at the same time with varying degrees of vulgarity, before a verbal and physical fight (that had the three Dannies all wrestling) broke out.

In a corner, outside of the window on the fifth floor of the building, Nightwing and Red Hood were muffling their laughter as they listened into this poor, crazy family’s spat over the species of Batman while they struggled to remain close to the wall. Everyone else was going to have a riot over this!

[bwabbitv3s]

Yes, he just “accidentally” made a super weapon very much like the one the hero’s evil nemesis that wants to kill them is making. Only his is done first and giving them a low stakes practice run of exactly the skills they need to stop the nemesis version. Which will be easy and not a surprise anymore.

~How it starts is an accident. Really the first time was a fluke that later spawned an idea.~

Danny trying to be retired from hero stuff in this new dimension, but getting the itch to still do something. You can only go so long without a good fight or spar. He just does not really want to go through the trouble of joining a meta gym with all the background checks needed to keep the dangerous people out.

Danny also does not want to admit to his family or friends that they were right and he does need to visit more often. Lastly he really can't lose the bet with Dan about how he could not last a year without becoming a hero again. He really does want to get a good aerospace career here and he is already part way through his first semester.

He ends up channeling his parents and makes his own sparing partner. Just one itty bitty robot to spar with. Nothing too serious just strong enough to get a good workout in his ghost form. He even made sure to put a emergency stop switch on it! The robot is great and getting really good at fighting with each improvement to the coding he has been tweaking after fights. It is just what he needs to burn off energy. Only the Fenton luck eventually strikes.

After one session Danny finishes sparing and turns back human before turning it off and into rest mode like normal. Robot does not compute that the opponent is still there and the spar has stopped. As the ghost signature of a super powered individual has dissipated. It had not been programed to fight humans as a precaution. The robot used to Danny turning intangible and means that the Opponent must be hiding to do a sneak attack. They must search out for them to keep the spar going! It quickly rushes off to search for where the opponent has gone.

Danny turns round to the robot gone. Along with a very obviously off its hinges door that he swore had been locked.

Danny: Oh no. Music station in background stops and a reporter starts speaking: This just in. A killer robot has started to tear apart the city! Danny: No. It can't be my robot they are a sparing robot not a killer robot! Must be another robot one of the villains set to hunt down the local hero. Reporter: The robot appears to be impervious to officers weapons who have tried stopping it.

Danny is able to catch up to the fight after the local hero has already been fighting for a while. Really he would have been there faster but he kept having to go around police cordons and avoid broken streets. Thank the Ancients that he did all those modification on his motorcycle. He arrives just in time to see the robot tanking hits from the hero and start shouting out directions of where the shut off is.

The reporters keeping track of the fight right away split off a camera to start filming the guy on the supped up bike that looks a lot like the robot. Who in a pleasant surprise instead of joining in the attack starts they instead start shouting out how to stop the robot.

Danny: I am so sorry! I don't know what went wrong. It has never gone looking for others to fight!

The robot throws the hero over their shoulder as they try to wrestle them into submission.

Danny: The emergency shut off it on the back shoulder! It is under the plating there.

The fight ends fairly quickly after that. Unfortunately the hero and accidental evil robot creator is just out of range to clearly hear on the mics. Only a few bits come through and the robot creator is still wearing their helmet making it a bit hard to read them.

Danny feels a bit down for the next week after the accidental evil robot event. He almost gives in and start the mountain of paperwork for the meta gym. Then a real killer robot start attacking the city and unlike his it does not pull any punches.

Out of town hero's get called in to rescue people it is that bad right off the bat. Well for the ten minutes until the hero is freed up by this and can fight the robot instead of save people. Then it is over within moments as they go straight into ripping off armour plates before seeming to find what they were looking for and smash something. Turns out yeah, most dangerous robots have some kind of emergency stop. Even the ones by crazy villains need something to stop it rampaging if it goes off too soon. They just put a plate over it so it can't be seen.

Maybe it does not need to stop making sparing robots. Just make sure that if they do get out when stopping them they can be useful test runs for hero's. Not that he plans on them breaking out again at all! Plus it would mean he can really experiment with some of the more crazy ideas he wanted to try fighting but was worried about.

Danny a Rogue in one of DC city, but not the "I'm gonna kill everyone cause' I HATE LIFE !!!" no, he's "Oops, call the hero I accidentaly made a superweapon that I cannot stop (for the third time this week) !"

The Super Hero doesn't know what to do with him and you cann see Danny cheereing from a stand while the hero is battling the thing in a désolation landscape

[shmisky]

Buckle up, guys. This is FORD HAS ALWAYS LOVED STAN VERY MUCH, the meta.

I think a big misunderstanding going on in this fandom, both in our cesty inner circle and outside it, is the idea that Stan was the one yearning for Ford while Ford was too busy passionately hating him (at worst), or indifferent (at best), too focused in his research and academic accomplishments to pay his repressed love for Stan any mind. Ambitious, self-centered Ford, who would be shocked at the preposterous idea that he still loved Stan deep down if, say, his post-Weirdmaggedon future self revealed it to him. “I thought I hated you, but I was wrong,” old Ford would say to Stan, regretful. Now, this couldn’t be further from canon 😭

My controversial take is: Ford has always known he loved Stan. Yes, even at his most bitter. He just didn’t think Stan was worthy of that love.

So I have dedicated this particular meta to pointing out not all (because that would make it longer than Tolstoy’s War and Peace) but the most telling moments re: Ford’s repressed but obvious love for Stan and their implications. With pictures and one (1) random gif I happened to find.

When thinking about Ford’s love for Stan, I often think of I Bet My Life by Imagine Dragons:

I’ve been around the world and never in my wildest dreams

Would I come running home to you

I’ve told a million lies but now I tell a single truth

There’s you in everything I do

Because Stan is in literally everything he does, sometimes in ways so subtle that people miss it, and in ways that Ford himself would love to deny, even if it meant lying to himself. Like I said in a previous meta, Ford is very, very sentimental, and that is reflected in his relationship with Stan through the decades, with all the different paths he takes to cling to his past and the idea of his brother.

Let’s explore some examples, shall we? We don’t need to go far.

First of all, the Mystery Shack cottage, commissioned by Ford and built by Dan Corduroy, is clearly based off a childhood toy he shared with Stan.

It doesn’t stop there, of course. Ford loves his boat motif decorations.

And would you look at that, his favorite place in his beloved Gravity Falls, a town full of wondrous places full of fantastical anomalies and literally a weirdness magnet, is, for some reason, a lake. A very weird lake? A very cool lake? No, a lake that reminded him of his childhood aka Stan. “There is no other place in Gravity Falls I would rather be than the lake.”

But that isn’t enough for Ford. He must keep, still, pictures and videos of Stan. People usually focus on the overall adorableness of, say, Ford leaning his head on Stan’s shoulders or Ford’s apologies to notice the implications of what Dipper says: “Ford even found an old film reel of them as kids, which he amazingly saved all these years.” Even Dipper himself is amazed. I’ve seen people assuming that Ford had these and forgot about them, or that Caryn (their mother) was the one to send him these and he simply agreed to avoid a fight (because there is a tendency in this fandom to think of her as a very loving mother). Years later, TBoB was like, “nuh-uh, children, that was all Ford Pines being Ford Pines!” How so? Ford not only does remember these itens, but he makes a conscious effort to hide them from Fiddleford, worried that his friend was getting “too close” (from what? from the inner depths of his heart and mind, where Stanley was?) “I’ve quickly re-hidden here, away from prying eyes.” Oh, Ford.

And a picture of teenage Stan, too! You would think he would just attach himself to the idealized version of baby Stan in his head to feed his nostalgia and completely ignore teenage Stan, the traitor, the one who destroyed his science project. But no, Ford wouldn’t be Ford if he acted normal about Stan. The funniest thing to me about the ripped yearbook page is that it implies Ford made the conscious decision to include Stan as he ripped the page off, when he could have just focused on his own picture. And then we also have his drawing of Stan, a perfectly accurate portrayal of Stan’s face as he got kicked out, implying that not only he paid an enormous amount of attention to his brother and how he looked like back then, but that particular image was living rent free in his brain. Very vividly. With details.

Now, folks, do we have any doubt whatsoever of the power Stan had in Ford’s psyche? Seeing that this is how the bedrock of Ford’s mind looked like? The boat, the swing set? I’ve seen it suggested before that these items represent Ford’s greatest regrets — I don’t know if I fully agree with that take, seeing as the swing set is fully intact, unlike in Stan’s mind, but one thing is true: they represent what Ford deep down thinks is most important, and two of three are directly related to Stan. Even the portal, from a certain angle, is connected to Stan.

But back to pictures. In a previous analysis, I’ve pointed out that, according to Alex, that picture of Stan has always been in Ford’s coat pocket, through all the decades, even before Bill’s betrayal. That’s why it’s so damaged. He was dimension hopping with it. I don’t think I even need to make any comment here, hahah.

But one last thing I would like to point out is: Stan Pines is very much his weakness. Ford knows this and accepts this with shocking ease. How so? Well, first of all, the nightmare he had. As he tells us about it in Journal 3, even though he attempts to make light of the situation, his hand is clearly trembling as he writes, making drops of ink splatter on the page. The climax of his nightmare, the peak, the scariest moment was when Ford realized he was not the one at risk; rather, Stan was. “I realized my hand wasn’t chasing after me at all—it was chasing after my brother, and it was going to squeeze him to death!” And then, may it be noticed, there was no hesitation whatsoever on Ford’s part about whether to save Stan or not, nor does he try to hide his protective reaction. It was immediate and instinctive. “I tried to run to help him, but my feet were frozen.” It’s very telling that the Dream Hipster, the nightmare inducing ghost, thought that Stanley Pines would be the most effective thing to make Ford shake in his boots. Not even, say, failing and being ridiculed by other scientists, considering how ambitious he was.

And you know who else has noticed this weakness? Bill Cipher, of course. After psychologically, emotionally, and physically abusing Ford in horrific manners (including but not limited to: forcing him to eat spiders, driving a nail into his hand, and making him wake up on the snowy roof of the Mystery Shack as a symbolic threat of forced suicide), Bill involves Stan, as the grand finale. “But then he crossed a line.” Oh, did he, Ford? Why was your brother that line? “No. He wouldn’t.” Ford couldn’t even believe Bill’s audacity in involving Stan, even though he very much already knew Bill was as evil as evil could get. Because Bill knew, having free access to Ford’s mind, how terribly important Stan was: the person Ford loved the most in the world, more than himself.

That is why, when Stan-as-Ford tells Bill, “My only condition is that you let my brother and the kids go!” Bill easily believes him. He thinks that it would be in-character for Ford. After all, he’d turned everyone into tapestry (including Fiddleford, whom Ford also cared greatly about), but spared Stan and the kids due to their value to Ford. And Bill wouldn’t be wrong, not at all. He wouldn’t, because Ford himself was the one to tell Stan: “We need to take his deal. It’s the only way he’ll agree to save you and the kids.” It’s blaffling to me how many fans seem to forget Ford’s own words, and the fact Ford was very, very much willing to damn the whole universe (with seven billion people living on Earth at the time) to save three (3) people, including Stan. That Stan himself was the one to oppose and stop him. I think that happens because people buy Ford’s facade of Cold Responsible Greater Good Guy, which couldn’t be more deceiving. At this point I’m begging you guys to look deeper!

[x]

And, as the grand finale, I choose to point out how young adult Ford, still in college, with his bitterness and resentment still very fresh, admits to missing Stan. He wrote, “miss you” in their Bro Code, the code he memorized and never forgot. He not only thought about Stan, which would be understandable, since all of us have intrusive thoughts, but he took the time to write it down, and in code, which would be even more difficult than just writing it in English. That requires at least some level of acceptance. You may not be able to filter your thoughts, but you are able to filter your writing.

Ford does attempt to filter his writing, I know, by crossing out a lot of lines in Journal 3, most of them about Stan. But he does not cross out all of it. He freely admits to having a nightmare about Stan, to wanting to protect Stan from the giant six-fingered hand, to having the lake as his favorite place, to missing Stan, etc. I think that Ford, if asked about his love for Stan back then, would also freely admit to it, as well. Stan is his twin brother. Of course he loves Stan. He just doesn’t like Stan, or trust him, or think Stan is worthy of that love.

The way I see it, Dipper was someone Ford loved (deeply rooted, complex emotion), liked (felt fondness towards), and trusted (to be capable of handling all the mystery stuff). Mabel was someone he loved, liked, but didn’t trust (due to his constant projecting). Stan was someone he didn’t like nor trust, not anymore, but still loved with a fierce intensity of one thousand suns.

[penuntutilmudotnet]

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[easygoodads]

Facebook deliberately drains the batteries of your smartphones

A persistent rumor claims that the Facebook and Facebook Messenger applications drain the battery of cell phones where they are installed. George Hayward, a former Facebook data scientist , revealed that Facebook could actually secretly drain the batteries of its users' phones for specific purposes.

The New York Post reports that this method, called "", allows companies to drain batteries to test certain features of an application or to observe the loading of an image. Hayward was fired by Meta, Facebook's parent company, after refusing to participate in these tests . He told the Post: “I told my manager it could hurt someone, and she said by hurting a few we could help the many. Any self-respecting data scientist knows not to harm people. »

Risks and consequences

Hayward, who was fired in November, first filed suit against the company in Manhattan federal court. The 33-year-old worked on Meta's Facebook Messenger app, allowing users to send each other text messages, make phone calls and video calls. Dan Kaiser, Hayward's lawyer, pointed out that draining smartphone batteries can put users in danger, especially "in situations where they need to communicate with other people, including the police or other emergency services . »

Meta's questionable practices

The complaint was withdrawn because Meta's terms of employment required Hayward to litigate his case in arbitration. Kaiser argues that most people are unaware that Facebook and other social media companies can intentionally drain their battery. Commenting on this practice, the lawyer added: “It is clearly illegal. It's disgusting that my phone battery can be tampered with by anyone. »

An ethical choice

Hired in 2019 with a six-figure annual salary, Hayward refused to comply with this request from Meta . “I refused to take this test. It turns out that telling your boss, 'No, it's illegal,' doesn't go down very well,” he said. At one point during his employment with Meta, the company gave him an internal training document titled “How to Perform Thoughtful Negative Tests.” This document included examples of these tests, and after reading it, Hayward concluded that Facebook had already used them. “I have never seen such a horrible document in my entire career,” he added.

This testimony reveals worrying practices in the technology industry , where the needs of businesses sometimes seem to take precedence over the security and well-being of users. In the meantime, Facebook and Messenger users should monitor the impact of these apps on their batteries.