#I HAD AN ANALOG HORROR SERIES PLANNED OUT

[me-theuser]

Not to take over your post but this is generally a topic that I have A Lot to say about—so quick responses before the cut and in depth ones bellow it!

(Also I realize I’m not sure how old this post is so it might be entirely useless for you now if it’s been a while)

-what kind of machinery is enjoyed?

As long as it’s not “looks exactly like a human but has [singular trait that indicates they’re a robot],” I’m all for it

-Homoerotic subtext? Never too much of that, keep it coming

-Good tropes Bad tropes? Here’s a Reddit thread of scifi enjoyers describing tropes that irk them and why

-Creator/creation pairings? Dependent on the setting and how they’re depicted. With nuance or even just the right set up you can have them without it being weird that one specific way

In depth takes bellow the cut here!

Is there a moral code for what types of machinery y'all enjoy?

Robot fucking is actually interestingly nuanced—my quick response was just personal taste as just knowing it’s a robot does it for some people, while others want to hook up with the furthest thing from human shaped as possible.

As a robot fucker I point you in the direction of media that’s full of mechanical characters and recommend you observe them as you would in a nature documentary (transformers, ultrakill, detroit become human, are bigger ones off the top of my head).

As a transformers fan however, this is an insanely interesting topic!! I Will Not be talking about it however—do that research on your own.

How much homoerotic subtext is too much when it comes to robots?

Depends on your audience, if you lean in too much it’ll turn some people away or attract a different crowd than expected if you had certain plans and ideas as to the type of people you’re trying to cater towards.

As a transformers fan however! It’s never too much, they’re all gay! Literally! In universe they’re a homonormative society

Are there any widely hated tropes, or very normalized tropes I should avoid or put a spin on?

As previously provided, check out that reddit thread! While it’s a list of tropes people don’t like, they explain why they don’t like it, allowing you to use those same tropes while avoiding what makes them bad. I recommend browsing TVtropes too, because it includes examples of where it’s used in popular media and related tropes as well.

 A personal gripe I have with certain tropes is projecting human ideas onto robots. They’re robots!! They do NOT see things the way we do! Robots probably don’t even have sex—that doesn’t make sense regardless of how enjoyable I or others would find the idea. They don’t learn or think how we do but that doesn’t mean it’s uninteresting! Check out this series on ao3 for some fantastic transformers worldbuilding that can be applied to any robot characters in general

Are creation and creator pairings seen as odd?

Very contextual question, though I would examine how their dynamic is portrayed on a case by case basis, as well as how they’re typically seen in universe.

An example of it being weird is if it’s specifically depicted as the creator raising the creation, such as Zane being raised by Dr. Julien the way a father would his child.

There are certainly examples of creator/creation being seen in normal lights—though I can’t immediately think of any beyond Tony Stark/JARVIS, which I once saw depicted in a way similar to what I believe you’re trying to achieve in this fanfiction on ao3

Have fun writing!!

QUICK EDIT: Here are media to look at for inspiration/references/general use when making machinery centric media

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - Short story with a terribly dreary aura you can listen to for free on YouTube, I recommend watching analysis’ of it to hear interesting ideas and takes on evil AIs

The Oracle Project - it’s part of the Tangi Virus analog horror universe made by Vintage Eight on YouTube, though you don’t need to know anything about the Tangi Virus series to get into The Oracle Project from what I recall. The Oracle Project has a lot of focus on creator and creation dynamics

Any Transformers media, but I specifically recommend fan analysis of character dynamics to fast-track yourself into the correct rabbit hole for your type of research

Ultrakill lore wiki pages - You play as a robot going down the layers of hell, while the game may not be to a persons taste,(shooter game), the lore is something to behold!

okay, have fun writing for real this time

Hey robot lovers. gear grinders. circuit clingers. I have a few questions for something I'm writing!!

Is there a moral code for what types of machinery y'all enjoy? How much homoerotic subtext is too much when it comes to robots? Are there any widely hated tropes, or very normalized tropes I should avoid or put a spin on? I wanna do my research because I feel like y'all are gonna end up as the accidental target audience. Ahh!!! Are creation and creator pairings seen as odd? I don't want it to come across as a parental relationship and make it feel Odd in that way. I certainly want it to be odd and uncomfortable and make the viewers think, but not in that way. For context, this is an active ARG that I'm creating. There's two characters so far, Creator and MECHA, who is a virtual companion that learns and grows as it is communicated with by different "users", or viewers.

[schnuffel-danny]

I hate being lazy when it comes to creating original stuff, because I'm always several years early to trends, but I never have anything to show for it!!! And then when I finally thing "Ok, maybe I could make that thing now" SUDDENLY the genre of idea I had BLOWS UP and nothing I make will ever live up to the hype xD maybe it's good tbh.... I love being lazy <3 I hope my uncanny ability to predict online trends keeps me unmotivated to create anything forever till the end of time, because I honestly am totally incapable to sticking to a single project :,D and I'd get bored so fast.....

[mixierupperc20]

Fanart of Z-TOON take on sonic schoolhouse :D

Have you guys ever heard of Sonic Schoolhouse? if not, congratulations, you were spared but not for long cuz I'm about to tell you

Sonic Schoolhouse was a SAGA game that came out in 1996. Its target audience were kids. However, it was not so well received due to its game play and unsettling visuals.

The game teaches basic things like math and spelling, etc, but the gameplay was repetitive, and the environment was kind of eerie. You had a character selection screen to choose animal characters that you could play as. It was also completely irrelevant since the game took place in a first-person perspective. we could have been spared from this analog horror/vintage VHS

Some of the character animations:

Character selection animation YouTube video here

I recently came across this when I saw a TikTok Made by Z-TOON. I did some digging and found out it was a reboot of a comic they did 16 years ago. This time, he flushed out the environment and added some spooky elements that it. It could be seen as slow burn analog horror with the first impression coming off as cute vibe. I am unsure if they plan to make it a series, but I am totally down for it. You can find their take on their Twitter(X) and TikTok

Games like Baldi's Basics and Sunky Schoolhouse we're based off of the original Sonic Schoolhouse, what I'm lead to believe

I watched Bijuu Mike gameplay, but LGR did a review in which you can see the reason why it was not well received as he goes over everything about the game

LGR's Review here

I'm just kinda surprised that it never got turned into an analog horror by Sonic Fan. Well given It did come out in the 90s, many people might not have known about it would or everyone else is focused on a more popular horror being Sonic EXE. I hope Z-TOON is taking spooky paths cuz I'm really looking to add this to my creepy Sonic list along with Shin Sonic and Sonic exe

No, he is not an EXE

Please correct me if I said anything incorrect

[kaz-oooo]

I’ve already done music recommendations so, you can check out these posts (playlists and list of artists) if you’re looking for that specifically. But Wilbur made a lot of content over the years and idk, i figured I’d make a a list of recommendations for similar content to fill that void as well :)

Minecraft SMP’s (specifically DSMP)

The same SMP’s but other POV’s — I’ll just start with this cos it’s the most iffy. There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had with these fandoms still, and I personally don’t think we need to let the actions of a couple shitty guys ruin the silly Minecraft roleplay we all enjoy. That said, if you aren’t comfy watching these anymore that’s perfectly valid as well, especially since Wilbur’s character will be lurking around in the background of plenty of these. But yeah, we can also uplift other creators by watching the fun stories they made, especially those who got buried by bigger creators at the time. So Dream SMP, QSMP, Origins SMP, SMP earth, SMPlive all have content you can enjoy.

Different, completely unrelated SMP’s — hermitcraft, the life series, empires SMP (shubble was involved in this one, I’m planning on watching her POV when I find some time) etc. I’ve had plenty of people recommend these to me before, from what I’ve seen they’re very enjoyable :)

Hamilton — not even joking, if you enjoyed the L’manberg era of DSMP and you didn’t watch Hamilton, I’d heartily recommend it. Great music, lots of politics but all in a fun and silly way, also tragic endings!

Editor Wilbur ARG (I’m a massive ARG fan so I have tonnes of recommendations here)

Generation Loss — Ranboo’s very awesome Horror project that they’ve been working very hard on!!! Ranboo’s been teasing new content lately as well so that’s exciting

Analog horror series — Local 58, Gemini Home Entertainment, Mandela Catalog, Kane Pixel’s Backrooms videos, etc. All very good and spooky videos, definetely an inspiration for Gen Loss, and I know Wilbur enjoyed this content as well (though the editor Wilbur arg predates a lot of this genre) those are some of the biggest on YouTube atm, and some of my personal favourites, but there’s plenty more to find (I recommend channels like Nightmind and Nexpo who do analysis videos for all this horror and ARG stuff if you wanna find more)

Marble Hornets — gets its own category! One of the original analog horror genres (predated the genre actually) it’s basically one of the biggest and most comprehensive Slenderman series out there. There’s a LOT of content here and lots of lore and mystery (though a lot of the game clues have been lost to time) (Jack Manifold also reacted to this on stream, it was very chill and good fun)

Horror podcasts — Magnus Archives and Magnus Protocol, Malevolent and Archive 81 are some of my favourites, but there’s plenty more out there to find and enjoy :). Also very spooky with lots of mystery to involved, the Magnus Protocol is very new as well so great time to get into that!

Just Chatting / Geoguessr / other chill content

Geoguessr streamers / YouTubers — honestly I genuinely didn’t watch much geoguessr content outside of Wilbur’s streams so, I don’t have many recommendations here. I know Eret has been doing geoguessr streams lately and their content is very good and chill. Jacksuckatlife plays as well and last I watched he was fairly good at it (like similar skill level to Wilbur), otherwise Rainbolt is a geoguessr legend, he terrifies me a little ngl.

Other streamers — I think the thing with the just chatting streams is that we watch for *that specific streamer’s* personality. It’s hard to really make recommendations other than just saying go watch more of the streamers you enjoy. Personally I enjoy Phil’s hardcore streams, and Sneegsnag’s Crime Time the most, but there’s plenty of other people both in this MCYT space and outside of it that you’ll probably enjoy :)

Sorry boys (unlike horror I don’t watch much comedy so, sorry, this’ll be lacking)

Just Roll With It — Charlie Slimecicle’s DND podcast. I’ve only listened to a little bit of this but it’s really good and REALLY silly (oh, and emotional sometimes, gotta have a bit of angst y’know) Wilbur was a guest on a couple of episodes, but you can always skip past those if you want.

Tommy’s videos — so Wilbur features in a lot of the early vlogs and *minecraft but* videos, but Tommy’s content has always been good fun, his recent stuff is excellent as well! He’s been doing a lot of comedy content lately, specifically a live show so definitely check that out if you want :)

Smosh pit — not something I’ve watched a lot of, but I’ve seen clips of their try not to laugh videos and they’re definitely on par with the bat shit improv you get from Sorry Boys.

Game changer — again, not something I’ve watched much, mostly consumed through osmosis, but the show is funny, the cast is always silly and it’s a lot of fun all round

Whatever else Sorry Boys make after this — judging by some of the responses to Wilbur’s “statement” I think it’s fair to assume if Sorry Boys do continue making content Wilbur will be cut from the group. Of course don’t feel obligated to stick around if you don’t want to, but Wilbur won’t be compensated if he’s kicked and the rest of the guys are still fun :)

YLYL and similar goofy stuff

Just… other streamers again — Jack Manifold does YLYL streams with his friends. James Marriott does a lot of reaction videos as well, sometimes YLYL, sometimes reacting to content his viewers send in (like TikTok’s and break up texts), those are my favourites atm.

YouTubers — that niche between video essay and reaction content, people like Danny Gonzales, Drew Gooden, Kurtis Conner, Pinely, all good fun YouTube channels that make good, silly, and easy to consume content.

Other gaming streamers and YouTubers — Slimecicle, Ranboo, Games Grumps, RT games, and SneegSnag all play a wide variety of games, they’re all relatively chill but none of them take the games all that seriously either so it’s fun and goofy as well :)

And of course Fanfiction!!!

I might be a little bias here cos I write myself but fic is created by and for fans and it exists to give you even *more* content about the stories you love, whether it be reimagining canon events or just dumping your favourite characters into a silly au.

I know a lot of authors (myself included) are feeling super conflicted and weird about writing Wilbur in the future. Plenty of authors have been moving onto new fandoms so if you find something you enjoy make sure you check out the author’s other work and who knows, maybe you’ll find some cool new fandoms that way!

And do the same for artists and other creators, or even go check out some of your mutuals fandoms, you guys might have more in common than you originally thought!

[jimmy-johns5382]

An obscure Interest of the Creeps

I’m trying to post on here a little more, but I’m redoing some plot stuff for my fanfic so I haven’t posted anywhere or anything recently. Very sorry, however I plan to post a few things today!

Jeff the Killer : It way to into the SAW franchise. Like horror movies are a big interest of a lot of people right? Nah, this guy takes this series way to far, knows all the lore and understands all the flashbacks

BEN Drowned : I know I’ve said this before but BEN is really into analog horror. Not sure where I saw it, I’ll give credits if I can find it, but someone said BEN would be really into Petscop and I agree with it so much.

Eyeless Jack : Cryptids, mainly the ones that live in the forest/pass through the forest often. Not only does he need to know them so he can fend them off if needed, but he just finds them really interesting.

Ticci Toby : BUGS. They loves bugs, change my mind. They totally got an ant-farm and whenever they see’s a bug on the ground they have to inspect it.

Tim / Masky : Cold cases for murders. Whenever he has spare time (which is rare), he loves to look at them, figure out what he can, and try and solve them. I would be willing to bet he’s solved a few.

Brian / Hoodie : Lord of the Flies. You know the book you had to read in like 10th grade??? This man fucking loves it. From beginning to end, he’s read it like 15 times now.

Jane the Killer : Jane really likes the Breakfast club, dirty dancing, footloose, and other movies like that. She knows all the words and every scene to those movies. Don’t ask why, she just strikes me as the person to like them.

Nina the Killer : Fucking Mothman. No, I will not explain.

[bendy-analog-horror-au]

Sorry if this is lengthy but I have a few questions actually I really wanna ask regarding this Bendy series [feel free to answer this privately btw since I know its mostly discord-related talk n long]

Do you ever think you'll maybe make tutorials on how to create 3D models and animations the way you do? I would kill to learn how you do it or get a closer look at them. Your ability to put rubberhose n cartoony flair into 3D is amazing and so inspiring to me, it's exactly what I strive to learn how to do right now as I learn Blender n such. Particularly those amazing ink demon walk cycles you showed off are the exact kind of animations I would love to learn more about. Such a beautiful blend of cartoony and creepy honestly.

Would you ever allow downloads of ur assets/models? I understand if not, just wondering because like I said I'd love to examine them to learn more on how you build such an amazing style in 3D. Esp with like rigging n such being such a mystery to me right now.

You have mentioned I believe that you wanted to one day make a fan-game based off this series. Are you looking for people to help with that or discuss that with yet? I am currently making my own super ambitious Bendy Fan-Game right now and am learning Unity to do so. So I'd be excited at the chance to help with that since I'm such a fan of ur work. I understand if that's more of a future thing though KJDHFGKJHDFGKJHSD

Are you working on any other Bendy-related projects right now? If not are u interested in that sort of thing? Or are you more focused on ur own projects which I totally understand. It's just like I mentioned I'd love any tutorials or tips on how you create such lovely animations but esp bc they are the style of animations I would love to be able to create for my game. I'd take any chance to learn more. Apologies for this being so long, probably should've been a discord dm but I felt like sending this on Discord out of the blue would've been really intimidating KJHDFKGJHDFKGJHSD. Sorry if this is hard to answer I've really wanted to ask these sorts of things for a while ever since I saw a lot of ur stuff over Discord but I overthink everything n felt nervous asking without knowing if u actually wanted questions over this series or not. [This is cobaltcreations btw we've talked a few times on the JDS Server, love love love ur stuff!!]

I’ve wanted to do tutorials for a long time now, probably a few years at this point. Unfortunately, I’ve been kinda stuck on where to start with something like that. Thanks for the compliments, though! I have a thing for rubberhose monsters. =)

I don’t really plan to put anything up for release until the series is done (that is if I don’t put it in a fan game first). I do end up doing a lot of model analysis to see how some models are done, though. It really helps me to optimize them for animation.

Speaking of fan-games, I at the very least HOPE that I can make a Bendy Analog Horror game in the near future, but I’ve no idea what it would focus on (I had wanted to do a remake of Chapter 1, but we all know what happened to Moving Pictures: Redrawn. =\).

I am working on a couple of one-off smaller projects—mostly music projects and song covers and have nothing to do with the analog horror series. I’d love to work with more people on their own projects though, but unfortunately, my schedule hasn’t been very reliable as of lately. XP

Lastly, you’re free to DM me any questions you have on Discord. I love talking about these sorts of things! ^^

- Roux

[rsadelle]

The best books I read in 2024

I read 104 books in 2024, which averages out to two per week. If you want more, shorter recs, I kept up an ongoing Twitter thread, which then moved to Bluesky, where I recced things as I read them. I've provided content notes where I remember them; as always, feel free to comment or message/email me if you want more information.

Top 12 fiction books/series I read in 2024

The Future by Naomi Alderman - The ideas she was playing with were fun, the storytelling was great, parts of it were funny, and I enjoyed the ways it was Jewish. She doesn't contend with fascism or Christian nationalism, which does impede the realism. It kind of made me want to reread The Power to compare it to this one - I think they both have a similarly simplistic view of humanity but opposite conclusions.

Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau - This was a book club book, and we all enjoyed it. It's a fun, short read that's a coming of age set in 1975 when a 14-year-old is a summer nanny. It seems like the kind of book where things could go very wrong, which I especially expected because of the other book by her I read, but they don't.

Watch Us Shine by Marisa de los Santos - This is the most recent book in her series about Cornelia Brown and her family, and it's absolutely lovely. Marisa de los Santos was a poet before she became a novelist, and her use of language is incredible. The story made me feel so many things. Content notes: child abuse, substance abuse, a cult, gun violence, most of it as stories people tell about the past.

With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson - This is a solid, compelling thriller with great character work. There was one plot thread I didn't pick up on but could see the clues to once it became clear. Content notes: stalking, past sexual assault, murder, teenagers in danger, some villain pov.

The Space Between Worlds and Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson - I reread The Space Between Worlds so I could read Those Beyond the Wall while the previous book was fresh in my mind. They're excellent and intense and queer, and I had a lot of feelings. They're not exact analogs, but there was something about Those Beyond the Wall in particular that made me think K. M. Szpara is an if you you like, you'll like for these books. Content notes: lots of violence and death.

A Shot in the Dark by Victoria Lee - This was a very good queer m/f romance (he's trans, she's bi/pan) that's also about art and difficult families and Judaism. I both laughed and cried. The author calls it a "rom angst." Content notes: addiction, grief/mourning/death, past child abuse.

The Golem of Brooklyn by Adam Manschild - This was funny with really good writing, and it's very Jewish. There's a chapter narrated by a bodega cat, and it ended on an idea that's extra interesting because I read it in two different books this year. Content notes: antisemitism, golem/genre-typical violence.

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall - I thought this would be a basic thriller, but it was darker and more haunting than I expected, and very well written. Content notes: genre-typical violence, past sexual assault, small-town secrets.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz - The worldbuilding was interesting, the conclusion was interesting, and I love iterative time travel changes things stories. It was darker than I anticipated and may not be what you want to read in the current political climate. Content notes: murder, abuse, all varieties of sexism and misogyny.

Outlawed by Anna North - This was right up my alley. It's an alternate history western with interesting religious stuff, reproductive rights, a whole group of queer/trans people, heist planning, a life vocation, and a cult of personality. Content notes: the horrors of forced-birth culture.

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer - This is a lovely book that has a children's book series, a romance, chosen parent/child relationships, and a happy ending. Content notes: grief/mourning, past child neglect.

The Hurricane Blonde by Halley Sutton - This is a Hollywood/LA noir novel, but modern-day and feminist. I stayed up too late reading it because I absolutely could not put it down. Content notes: substance abuse, murder, past sexual assault of teenage girls, terrible men and the people who cover up for them.

Top 4 romance novel books/series I read in 2024

The Leather & Chrome series (Reckless, Temptation, Yearning, Joyful) by Kiki Clark - These are m/m kink romance novels set around a motorcycle club that works with a domestic violence shelter to provide emergency help and intimidation of abusers. The motorcycle club has a pride flag hanging up and everyone is very chill about the kink. Fun! I enjoyed them a lot! But I desperately need Knuckles's book, and it was not the one that she published after I finished the rest of the series and had given up my evil empire mostly questionable ebooks free trial. Content notes: some scenes of violence, some domestic violence, some emotional neglect by a family, daddy kink, age play in one book.

The Brat and the Beast series (Hurt Me, Daddy; Comfort Me, Daddy; Away Games) by Misha Horne - This is a m/m daddy/brat high school (but they were both held back so they're 19) series that is unrealistic and probably unhealthy in real life but very emotionally satisfying. Like all of Misha Horne's books, it's very heavy on spanking kink. Content notes: child abuse and neglect, poverty, food insecurity, substance abuse (not by one of the main characters), past bullying.

Luke and Billy Finally Get A Clue by Cat Sebastian - This was the first book I read in 2024, and it's a cute, fast read. It's a m/m novella about baseball players in 1953 who are in love but haven't admitted it to each other yet ending up alone together in a house during a storm. Content notes: head injury, orphanage past.

The Theriot Family series (Remington, Corbin, Lancelot, Dax, Ambrose) by Silvia Violet - This is a five-book kinky m/m mafia series. Yes, it's nonsense that two sets of male cousins would all be into both men and kink, but the books are enjoyable. They have just the right level of plot and they daisy chain together well. Content notes: mob violence of all sorts. I have no idea if the author actually knows anything about New Orleans and the bayou, so there might be location issues I didn't recognize.

Top 4 books I read and then thought about a lot in 2024

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - This was way more compelling than it seemed like it would be. I read it for book club, and we all enjoyed it. I thought about it a lot because I have some questions about how it landed 25 years ago compared to how it does now. Content notes: colonialism, poverty, child death.

Prom Mom by Laura Lippman - This book made much more sense once I read the author's note at the end. It was interesting and Lippman's writing is always good, but (a) it was too deeply a realistic early COVID days novel to be comfortable reading and (b) there's no way to foresee the ending because so much of what leads up to it takes place off the page. I did keep thinking about pieces of it and her note about what she's trying to do with her recent work. Content notes: COVID pandemic, murder, terrible men, infidelity.

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai - This is a compelling novel about a woman who went to a boarding school re-examining both her time there and a murder. There's a repeated motif of a litany of crimes against women without identifying details that was both effective and (deliberately) upsetting. I appreciated that the time she's looking back on to look at the changing norms is the time I was also in high school. I thought a lot about those litanies of crimes. Content notes: discussions of all kinds of sexism and violence against women, including against teenage girls.

The Lady Upstairs by Halley Sutton - This was an interesting book with secrets, a mystery, and a toxic relationship. The answer to one of the central mysteries is obvious to the reader fairly early, but it was compelling to watch what the main character does without figuring it out. Content notes: con artists, murder.

The 1 book that most annoyed me into frequently thinking about it in 2024

Hatching: Experiments in Motherhood and Technology by Jenni Quilter - This was a book club book, and while we talked about it a lot, none of us liked it. One of my central problems with the book is that she gives lip service to queer and trans people developing alternative family and kinship structures, but she never applies that to her own life/family. Quilter is bi, which is why it was so surprising to me that even by the end of the book, it's clear that her idea of a family is still a cis man and a cis woman who are, or have been, in a romantic relationship and their biological child. She and her co-parent were already exes when they decided to have a child, and she still seems so reluctant to allow anyone else (the boyfriend she meets after she has a kid, the woman her co-parent meets and marries after their kid is born) to have the title of parent. Halfway through the first chapter, I thought, "Is she a TERF?" and then got to a note about queer and trans people existing and that much of the research/history is about cishet people. After finishing the book, I was still asking, "But is she a TERF?"

I was also skeptical about her grasp on history and science. There's a part where she talks about how the combination of the average lifespan and average number of children each woman gave birth to in colonial New England means that women spent half their lives pregnant. But that's not how historical average lifespan data works; the high levels of infant and child mortality bring the averages down. I spent some time googling and found data showing that the life expectancy of women who survived to adulthood was early sixties, which means that it would have been less than half of their lives that they were pregnant. Knowing that she was wrong about that made me less willing to trust the rest of her work.

Anyway, the book is neither bad enough nor popular enough for Maintenance Phase or If Books Could Kill, but I crave a Michael Hobbes looked up all the sources and read several extra books podcast analysis of it.

[caddeter]

A few months, I made a post talking about how the ‘planned from the beginning’ excuse the RWBY FNDM loves to use makes no sense.  I got into a very brief argument with @crimsonxe before deleting the post and apologizing for writing it out of anger.

I am now taking that apology back, because the RWBY FNDM has repeatedly proven it deserves no form of respect no matter how small or basic.

I was hoping to rewrite the post using the other user’s replies, but unfortunately I couldn’t find them in my email trash bin.  So I’m going to be rewriting it based on memory.

One of the points I made was that, in Volume 3, there was a short scene where Penny expressed a desire to stay at Beacon, specifically saying that she ‘had an idea.’ The person who responded to me said that this idea didn’t ‘go nowhere’ because Penny dies at the end of the Volume

...  Bitch, that’s why it goes nowhere.

It’s like saying the ending of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom where dinosaurs are now loose on the mainland wasn’t completely ignored by the next film because Dominion was all about an evil corporation trying to kill competitor crops with a swarm of prehistoric locus.  It doesn’t change the fact that Fallen Kingdom’s ending was very clearly setting up a different story.

Or that the Pokemon anime didn’t drop the golden Pokeball plotline because it was delivered to Professor Oak and we never learn what it was about.

They also said that all that really mattered to Silver Eyes was that the Grimm are afraid of them, and it’s perfectly okay that CRWBY didn’t figure out why until Volume 3

That’s like saying it would have been perfectly fine if Avatar The Last Airbender took three seasons to figure out what an Avatar is.

Ruby’s Silver Eyes are strongly implied to be the reason Ozpin let her into Beacon.  If I’m expected to believe they’re important, why the fuck wouldn’t you figure out what they do first thing.

A plothole is when there is a hole in your plot’s internal logic.  How are you supposed to avoid plotholes if not even you know what’s going on?

Another point they made was that the writers figuring out their worldbuilding before they start the story or where they want the plot to go is them ‘doing me a favor’

As I said in the original post:  No, that is the writers doing their JOBS!

Let me put it to you this way:  Imagine you go into a restaurant and order a cheeseburger:

Do you expect that burger to be cooked?

Do you expect it to have a bun?

Do you expect a plate or a tray to carry it with?

Do you expect the restaurant to have tables you can sit at?

Do you expect the floors to be clean with a wet floor sign warning you of when it’s slippery?

Saying that the writers are ‘doing me a favor’ when they figure out where they want their story to go or how their magic systems work or what their world is like is like saying that one manager I had was ‘doing me a favor’ every time he came in half an hour late rather than miss have his shift like that one time.  That’s not doing a favor, that’s doing the least they could.

Doing me a favor is when Ben 10 throws in nods to fan opinions and responses in their show as quick little gags without mocking the people who hold those thoughts.

It’s when William Hartnell, the actor who played the First Doctor, kept track of what every button and switch on the TARDIS console did because he wanted to make sure he never used the wrong one because he feared viewers would notice.

It’s when Arkhane Studios defines the world of Dishonored down to the calendar.

It’s when the Ink Tank makes And Beyond, a series dedicated the the culture and societies of each of Ben’s aliens.

It’s when Linkara, GOAT he is, makes an entire, full length analog-horror movie as an April Fools joke.

Doing the audience a favor is going the extra mile.  It is not figuring out your plot points the moment they become relevant.  If that’s what you define as good writer, than please, do tell me, what’s bad writing?  If your standards are this low, then what would you consider a bad story?

They also claimed that I was wrong to make such criticisms of RWBY because Miles Luna is just a human being

I could make an entire post detailing how ‘people make mistakes’ is a terrible way to counter criticism (and in fact, I did), but instead, I’ll just leave you with a choice quote that describes one of the biggest problems with it:

There are writers and directors out there who put painstaking efforts into their stories to make sure everything is as concise and logical as possible. There are also writers and directors who don't put in those efforts at all. If inconsistencies in plot and character action "don't matter at all", then how can you even appreciate those efforts made by filmmakers who legitimately care? You're not just delegitimizing those who discuss their films. You're delegitimizing the filmmakers themselves. You're saying there's no difference between a lazy script littered with inconsistencies versus a thoroughly researched, laid-out, thoughtful script that made every effort they possibly could to make the story, characters, and universe as consistent and believable as possible. That's just nonsense and it's upsetting that you refuse to see any value whatsoever in filmmakers who put those extra efforts into their work.

Adam from YourMovieSucks.org, a professional movie critic.

They also said that they, as a writer, have reworked entire timelines because they came up with one new character

First of all, what you describing here is the planning process.  It’s revise then release, not the other way around.

Second of all, real nice anecdotal evidence you have there.  Wanna hear some of mine?  I wrote up history and culture for vampires and werewolves, notes detailing my own soft magic system, and worldbuilt an entire underwater society down to the clock for fun.  At that point, it shouldn’t feel like I’m asking the writers to reverse the Earth’s rotation when I expect them to figure out why Ruby’s Silver Eyes are special or how Magic works.

Another one of their ridiculous claims was that foreshadowing could ruin a show’s mysteries

Dumbass, mysteries are where you need foreshadowing the most.  Ask any established mystery writer, they’ll all tell you the same thing:  The best practice is to figure out the ending first and work your way backwards.  It requires thought and care to make sure the ending is satisfying and the journey to it is enjoyable and engaging.

Even if the audience figures out where the story is going, that just means their paying attention and are invested enough to think about the story.  And last I checked, the audience being invested in your story is a good thing.  Take it from me, I have a very strong idea for where Slime Rancher 2′s story is going, and I would be elated when it turns out I’m right.

If the only quality your story has is that it’s ending is ‘a surprising twist,’ then that just shows how shallow the rest of the story is.

Edit:  Linkara has a quote that perfectly explains why this idea is stupid:  “Of course we can’t [solve the mysteries].  It’s not really a mystery.  It’s you guys making up random contrivances to resolve each new cliffhanger.”

The last thing they user did was perpetuate the conspiracy theory that the RWDE tag was created to somehow destroy RWBY and Rooster Teeth while also saying the show doesn’t need defending from us as they defended it.

Ah, yes, because criticizing something is such a threat to it and the people who make it.  Just look at what happened with Twilight.  That series became the laughing stock of the internet, and then it...  Kept going.

Or what about Sword Art Online.  Mocking it became ingrained in the anime community, and then it...  Kept going.

Or Sonic The Hedgehog.  That series has a bad game every other release, and then it...  Kept going.  And each time it actually listens to the feedback it gets and tries to fix the problems people had.

Criticism is not a threat to a piece of media or the people who made it.  If anything, we’re doing RT a favor by criticizing RWBY.

But even then, let’s pretend, for just a moment, that there somehow was a conspiracy to destroy RWBY and Rooster Teeth for whatever reason.  Do you know what our EEVIIIILLL plan would be?  It’d be a simple two steps:

Step 1: Sit back

Step 2: Watch

Anything we could say or do to Rooster Teeth wouldn’t be nearly as bad as what they do to themselves.  Or do you think all those ex-employees reporting workplace discrimination and crunch culture so terrible it caused PTSD are in on it too?  We aren’t the ones trying to destroy Rooster Teeth.  Rooster Teeth is the one trying to destroy Rooster Teeth.

And even if that wasn’t true, why would an easily blockable tumblr tag be any threat to them?  We say this about a hundred times a day, but the entire point of the tag is for the FNDM to blacklist it so that they don’t see criticism.

And just to articulate how easy it is to blacklist a tag on this website:  I figured out how to do that all on my own and I can’t find my blocklist.  If that’s not good enough for you people, then what do you want us to do, go to an entirely different website?  Yeah, like that would stop you from complaining about us.

Furthermore, out of all the series in all the media in all the world to try and destroy, why do you think we would target a low profile web animation from a company that’s only really popular in machinima?  Don’t you think a more high-profile franchise would get this treatment?  Like Star Wars?

They probably said some more dumbass claims, but these are all I can remember.

[arcticdementor]

TLDR: I wouldn’t recommend it, except for it’s maybe being amongst the most important films of the Century, and 100% necessary pre-watching if you plan to visit India. NSFW, NSFL, Warnings for everything humanly possible, refused rating, beyond NC-17, contender for scariest/most disturbing film ever made, IRL Infohazard, IRL Lovecraftian Horror, IRL Spiritual danger, might be a crime to view/own/recommend in Europe, probably read the review first.

…

It is said by the wise anons of 4Chan and Twitter that one can never be truly Fascist until they watch the first season of the anime series K-On. 

…

Only by immersing oneself in Japanese sentimentality can one see an approximation of what Victorian and Edwardian sentimentality was, and why Fascists were willing to fight so hard against the sudden imposition of Weimar’s Proto-21st-century culture and conditions.

…

In that case then, the “Nature Doc” India: The Worst Country on Earth, also known simply by the Anti-Indian Racial slur Pajeets (Akin to Cunts, Kikes, or Niggers), is a film much more unique than simply being the first AI Feature Film and the first proof of concept that an Amatuer with AI can now compete with Hollywood… or atleast with the BBC and Michael Moore. Made by the mysterious creator known only as “Thames”, It is the immediate opposite and ideological complement of K-On.  If the light of K-On’s innocence does not permanently kill your egalitarian universalist values and sense of human brotherhood, convincing you that some people and ways of life are uniquely worth fighting for, then, for the purposes of analogy, Pajeets’ pitch black horror would almost certainly convince you there are certainly some uniquely worth fighting against.

…

It is a testament to the writer’s extraordinarily refined sense of racist 4Chan humor that the film remains as watchable as it, indeed the raw quantity of racist humour and ironic references required to stomach any of these realities is almost certainly why so much of this is vaguely felt but almost entirely unknown and certainly unexpressed in the West.  Even then, by the time we reach the title card, precisely at minute 3, I wouldn’t be shocked if a great number of viewers had already turned off the film in sheer physical revulsion. Many who make it that far report turning it off by minute 16.  I’ve watched it in its entirety multiple times now. And still I find myself intuitively bracing for cuts and edits… not specific cuts and edits, but in general. Any shot that lasts too long creates a brief window of comfortable familiarity, and resultant nervous anticipation… knowing that safety will end any second. However those who bear through to reach the title and hear the inspired musical choice of Open Your Eyes by Guano Ape soon see the sight of men touching live high-voltage wires, dead bodies floating in the Ganges, dozens of deaths of stupidity, multiple rapes, scatalogical and hygenic horrors straining comprehenision, and even worse things I cannot bring myself to describe.

…

And, oh yes, it is all real. Artificial intelligence has only been used to digitally draw David Attenborough from his aged retirement, and add a few humorous cartoon-ish stills. Thames has assembled presumably hours of viral videos, internet memes, 4chan gross-out clips, liveleak clips, documentary footage, TikTok videos, and news stories to make this film. I recognize many of the clips, stories, and “cultural curiosities” having seen them make the rounds on Twitter and 4Chan to memery and disgust.

…

Thames has just assembled it all into a feature film length package so violently racist it is doubtful the likes of Goebels, Bull Connor, or the racist terrorist factions of Revisionist Ultra-Zionism such as Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira or Moche Orbach, have ever produced its approximation. The humor and conceit of the BBC nature documentary format, as well as his technical and literary mastery of the 2000s-2010s environmentalist polemic, merely serve as the artistic structure for perhaps the most uninterruptedly hateful film ever produced.

…

And this is why I think the film is artistically significant. Setting aside Thames’ Attenboroughian auditory appeal to abhorrence and animosity, as a connoisseur of horror films and shock productions I can't really think of anything so unbroken in its aesthetic hatefulness, its visual vitriol and verisimilitude of valueless violence. The pestilence of it! I’ve never seen such gross gangrenous gutter gore portrayed so unflinchingly and unbrokenly.

…

However aside from the depressing damage to the environment, epidemiology, world cuisine, animal welfare, and the gag reflexes of the poor viewer… the most disturbing part of the documentary is the Sexual violence: against woman, child, man, and beast.  I have never seen a documentary with so much real footage of real rape and sexual assault. I’ve seen footage of sexual assaults, one cannot peruse Twitter or 4Chan without the seeing the newest outrages, likewise the presentation of real criminal sexual assaults in documentaries is not unheard of, but on top of everything else you see in the documentary, if the cruel and unhygienic horrors imposed on animals and wallowed in by men did not tempt you to shut off the film, the sexual horrors certainly might.

…

Why make this the first film reviewed on Anarchonomicon if we don’t count Macbeth 2015 and Blackberry (neither of which anyone read). Am I just scoring points in my unending quest to become the great curator of Forbidden Knowledge, to gain clout amongst extremiscists and connoisseur of the callous?  Maybe… but I think there’s something more here. The Shocking is necessarily the surprising, and the disturbing is necessarily the confusing.

…

Meanwhile surgeons and anatomists do not find gore disgusting, they might find violence or jump scares difficult… but they’re used to bodies coming apart. Seeing it happen vividly on film doesn’t violate their intuitive subconscious expectations and models of the world the way it does for most people. Likewise veterans of major wars (notably several of Napoleon’s Marshals) have been noted to seemingly ignore gunshots or grievous wounds even to themselves the second they find they’re non-fatal. They’ve seen it countless times before and it’s merely a nuisance for it to have afflicted them as opposed to others. Likewise farmers, butchers, paramedics, and horror fans are often shockingly calm in comparable medical emergencies even when it’s themselves. So if even gunshot wounds and maimed limbs can be ignorable discomforts to those already familiar with their like, in the immediate second and even first person… How is it so much visceral shock, horror, and lasting disturbance can be attained through a screen… depicting archival and documentary footage!

…

This isn’t some great violation of all expectations and norms. When Samara crawls out of the TV Screen at the end of The Ring after an hour and half of built up tension and filmic and narrative tricks to get your mind feeling threatened and expecting a violation of all laws of physics, whilst employing every editing and pacing technique to subtly trick your mind into fleetingly thinking that she’s crawled out of your TV and she’s coming for you! That provokes a lesser reaction in most people.

…

Whereas India: TWCoE has people shutting off the video before the Title and opening song at minute 3. For archival and cellphone footage! Nothing fictional, no jump scares, no ghosts coming out of the TV itself, no tricks or spooky artificial atmosphere. The only filmic conceit: an AI voice changer meant to make the subject matter funnier, more tolerable, more intellectually distant. “It’s disgusting” Do you react to footage of farm animals in manure covered barns this way? What about photos of roadkill or decaying animals carcasses? I see both all the time on long bicycles rides through the country. I showed this to a family member who immediately wanted to turn it off… she regularly watches horror movies of the most disgusting violence, the film Ready or Not which she considered a fun horror/comedy, had a scene in which a woman shot in the hand falls into a “gore pit” of animal carcasses, and must crawl over the decaying flesh using her mangled bleeding hand to escape (it is a genuinely fun/funny movie). Yet she could endure that laughing and wincing, but not this.

…

This has been the state of a country of 1.4 billion, comprising 1 in 6 human beings on earth, for the entirety of your life. Why is this shocking? Why is this surprising?  What overwhelmingly massive truth has been purposefully concealed from you, such that this experience is maybe amongst the most violently unpleasant and soulshaking experiences a western can endure without leaving their living room?

…

But whereas most countries and societies are improving… India is one of the few countries in which such metrics are getting worse. Indian height and penis sizes are shrinking, both proxies for nutrition as well as exposure to pollution and parasites. Indian civilization is quite literally “degenerate”, they are physically deteriorating before our very eyes. And while I cannot bring myself to describe the hygenic horrors, one need not watch much of the documentary to more than sufficiently understand why.

…

Egalitarian minded Westerners, even after accepting that IQ stats measure meaningful differences within national and ethnic groups, or who accept many of the tests and proxies for intelligence, protest that if the average IQ was so low as the international scores suggest, then low IQ societies would not be able to function at all, that they’d go about in a violent, horrifying, screaming, shit-covered madness…  Such Egalitarian minded westerners react less than happily when you point out that they in fact do so go about.

…

The dark truth is that morality, cleanliness, and almost all ordinary exercises of will and judgement necessary for any human functionality, are all IQ tests. Very simple and easy IQ tests… but ones which billions of people are incapable of. Indeed according to many classical western definitions of “person” the bottom 1-2 billion are not “people”. If you define “man” as the moral or rational animal then these are not men. Many dissident linguists have noted many sub-Saharan languages do not have any functional way to express abstractions and indeed the concept of promises or other moral commitments are alien to the tribes who speak them, or only are expressed through elaborate metaphors taught to them by white missionaries.

…

But Whilst Africa has countless slums equally as horrifying, as of yet the population density is such that the Africans are not universally forced into the urban and sprawling horrors we see in india. Whilst they pollute at comparable rates, one may still see large areas that are tribal, post-tribal, and suitably primitive such that the median African settlement is not sickly and decaying as what is witnessed in India, primevally wild Africans still go in states of relatively noble health, analogous to the beautiful wildlife of Africa, they are not yet past the population density event horizon of becoming the sort of decaying hive societies beset by cults of Nurgle, which we witness in India. Median Height, intelligence and Penis size is not yet shrinking. Indeed the much maligned African Warlord, acting as apex predator, serves to keep various regions and populations thinned to a less than truly horrifying state of health. In India, and as Egyptian and other commentators have noted, in an expanding suite of countries, we see the true nightmare scenario of the modern state just barely existing in an anarcho-tyrannical form able to sustain and regulate the human organism well past the point of degeneration, and able to prevent the wars and violence so desperately needed to restore the slow march of IQ and other markers of genetic and physical fitness.

…

The violent discomfort and horror felt by the Western egalitarian at India: The Worst Country on Earth which is not felt upon viewing Pigs wallowing in manure or seeing roadkill or animals dead in equally bizarre, miserable or stupid manners, The reason we recoil at the sexual horrors of India but feel relatively little for the incest sexual assault and worse that occurs in the animal kingdom… is because the Western Egalitarian is trained to identify with the brown foreigner, in many instances even beyond their identification with their own ethnicity or race. In their religious and now post-religious ecstasies, purity spirals, and consciousness raising, in their more than decade of moral instruction under the priesthood of the public school teachers, and the legacy priesthood of the lamb of God; in their daily prayers and religious contemplations of diverse television, film, and media, the modern westerners are taught the belief in the universal moral merit, intelligence, worthiness, and nobility of man irrespective of race, religion, sexuality, and creed… it is not simply A moral good, but THE moral good. The Axiom upon which all civilization, moral worthiness, and hope of salvation rests. At the moment of death their passing or failing the final judgement of God or “History” depends on how sincerely they earnestly believed, in spite of the constant knawing of evidence, in this universal equality and brotherhood. India: The Worst Country on Earth inflicts violence of a spiritual and metaphysical variety upon the westerner. If only Samara was crawling out of their TV to kill their physical body, they might die cursing a white girl and their salvation would be assured. Instead India: TWCoE attacks their very soul. The Westerner MUST identity with the foreigner. MUST empathize. MUST psychically place themselves in the Indian’s shoes. MUST Imagine themselves one and the same.

…

They MUST empathize, and their gag reflexes must activate and they must feel their skin crawl as if beset by parasites and sexual diseases welcomed in through a million disgusting wallowing practices. They cannot do what Hundreds of millions of high caste indians and upper class third worlders do every day: Stop Empathizing. Stop looking on them as your fellow man, and instead look upon them as revolting stupid bottom feeding animals, akin to diseased racoons or possums…or various mamilians who wallow in their own filth, or seek their missing nutrition in the droppings of more noble creatures such as the bovine. For to stop empathizing, so the western thinks, to stop believing “there is only one race the human race” or “that all men are created equal” would be to abandon all that is good and true and transcendent in this world. Except for the what is obvious to plainly see: it is neither good, nor true, nor transcendent.

…

Of course if one disagrees, and still believes in the universal egalitarian brotherhood… they can just Watch the Movie. 

…

In the end I can guarantee you the most offended by this film or this review will be a white westerner. Intelligent and upper-class people from the third world are very aware of the decayed state of their lower-classes and keenly aware of the Caste, ethnic, class, and genealogical differences that separate them from those horrific masses. Amongst the intelligent aristocratic upper-classes of more decayed countries they develop very specific exclusionist identities to describe their separateness from the masses about them (mostly accurately, some are delusional… but none who read this blog). Ironically the people who suffer the most racial panic upon accepting HBD ideas are intelligent mixed race westerners who, in the egalitarian doublespeak of the west, never have anyone to tell them that they actually are exceptional or actually can achieve great things, or actually should feel empowered and confident… as opposed to all the fake empowerment, fake expectations, and fake encouragement we pour upon the 75 IQ illiterate urban criminal classes.  One need only speak to people in commonwealth countries to see many of the most opposed to mass immigration are earlier waves of Immigrants who had to pass a higher standard and were of that aristocratic upper class, and now don’t want the people they’ve escaped following them to the west.

…

But the most significant impact of the film, which is already showing a surprisingly viral interest, is going to be on Western political discussions around diversity and Immigration. “This is what we’re importing” as the warning goes.  But beyond that the wider politics of disgust, and its relation to conservative, fascist, ethno-exclusionist and other right wing politics is a long established phenomenon. A film this vomitously moving, cannot but become a modern staple of the online right. Like K-On it too immediately sums up the worldview of far-right politics to be ignored I may have been the first to write a review of this film, and I am almost certainly the best. But I will not be the last.

[noteverystarisasun]

ANNOUNCEMENT

This is a very important yet short announcement !

NESIAS is now it's own thing ! Meaning it will no longer have elements from the web series VITA CARNIS or THE MONUMENT MYTHOS, it will still have elements of analog horror, but it will only be inspired by these web-series for now on. (The Links will stay on the Disclaimer and Understanding for those who want to check out what I'm inspired by ! ) And I updated the info on the Disclaimer itself, changing the summary and other things I wasn't so keen on explaining,, [What's NESIAS about,,]

I only had elements of them until I figured out what exactly I was planning to do, and I finally pulled together and figured it out, what I'm doing will make the story a bit more interesting,,, hopefully

I might post/design some of the critters soon that will be seen,,

and to those who are asking, no I'm not abandoning the comic, I'm currently busy with life, I don't have that much free time like other comic artists on here. Which is why I'm working on small projects, other aus, more worldbuilding to what I'm trying to achieve with this story, so please stop asking, it's getting annoying, NESIAS will be back when it will be back. in the meantime, enjoy the side-projects, collabs, art-trades, etc. Ask about the side-projects, I'll answer them more freely than those related to NESIAS as they are not a comic and are for fun.

Mostly just asking ya'll to chill really, this stuff takes time that i really don't have for currently, so embrace the side-projects of aus and ships ! You'll get a lot more out of them than this one currently ! Thanks for reading

-ASW

[tinyozlion]

Addressing the Troubles: Part 2 / 3

A Brief History of Gundam in Japan and the USA:

Here is my go-to analogy: The Gundam franchise is to Japan what Star Trek is to America. And Gundam Wing is to the Gundam franchise what Deep Space 9 is to the rest of Star Trek.

Wing was part of an experimental phase in the franchise’s history; when they were intentionally trying to break away from the usual modus operandi. Wing, along with the earlier G Gundam, was intended to boost flagging viewership and sell model kits– like, expressly, openly, just to sell model kits. The plan was to start from a blank slate that would allow new viewers to hop on board, without having to be caught up on the sprawling canon of the UC timeline (Universal Century).

In Japan, audiences were already familiar with the general premise of A Gundam Show; rather than spend any extra time re-establishing details that an already Gundam-savvy audience would know, it skipped right to explaining on how this particular series was departing from the established material. In this case, the noteworthy information was that Wing takes place in the After Colony timeline, and is set wholly in its own universe– we have a different sinister organization with a ‘Z’ in its name, a different mysterious blond man who wears a mask, a different conflict between Earth and Space, and no mention of Newtypes. 

Perhaps the most significant difference between Wing and its predecessor was its tonal shift. In the original Mobile Suit Gundam (if seasoned fans will pardon my oversimplification), the good guys are a relatively wholesome bunch or reluctant civilian heroes coming together to survive, a found-family supporting each other and trying their best to protect the vulnerable. It’s just ONE Gundam, and a crew of overworked, under-supplied misfits. It’s still very much a complex narrative about the horrors of war, but like, there’s a goofy side-kick robot! Kids run around White Base causing shenanigans! The more the UC timeline progresses, the more complicated it gets, but the point is, it’s a different style of complicated. There's a relatable and familiar flavor to its protagonists and their struggles. 

Pan over to Wing, where we are served right away with the spiciest plate of the spiciest feral murder boys, possibly the LEAST reluctant people ever to get in a mecha and cause harm.

The protagonist pilots are remorseless teenagers who were robbed of their adolescence before the show even began, and thrown into the meatgrinder of revolutionary violence– not the most relatable bunch, and not one audience surrogate amongst them (that honor goes to Relena). None of them work together, everyone is morally ambiguous, and they’re all hyper-competent elite soldiers from the get-go. In MS Gundam, Amuro spends his first fight in the Gundam trying to learn to walk and shoot using a manual. 

Some Gundam fans were quite put off by this change, but in the USA, we had no basis for comparison. Gundam Wing was the only Gundam show we had, and furthermore, it was one of the first “serious” “cartoons” introduced to mainstream television. And it blew. Our. Fucking. Minds.

--I cannot stress enough how influential that early 2000’s Toonami programming block was in introducing anime to American audiences, and by extension, American television producers and toy companies. I recommend checking out this IGN article about the history of GW’s debut on Cartoon Network, and the effect it had on the industry at large: How Gundam Wing Found Its Home On Toonami 20 Years Ago Today . For another take on the phenomenon check out: Found in Translation: How Gundam Wing Became A Global Phenomenon (Opinions are those of the article writer, not mine.) 

For those of you who are of that Toonami-block generation who never encountered the original series: MS Gundam is truly gripping and powerful, and if you’re not already a Gundam fan but found that Wing tickled your fancy, the original line up of shows will probably be right up your alley too. Be prepared for a very different overall experience from Wing though– for one thing, you may be surprised to discover that the original series, with its earlier animation style and dated anime tropes, is absolutely fucking brutal.

Fundamentally, the original Gundam is a series that is steeped to its core in a very somber, distinctly post-war Japanese melancholy that Wing, for all its lofty philosophizing, lacks. I don’t mean to make that a criticism of Wing– it had a much, much shorter run to make its point, and it was intentionally trying to do something different from its parent series.

Gundam Wing may at one point had a reputation for being Gundam’s dark, broody, edgy cousin, but Wing is also as chaste as a Victorian romance novel, and obscures most of its violence in clean, bloodless explosions. In the first episode of MS Gundam you will be treated to first-hand mass civilian death. In the movie and at various points of the shows there are scenes deliberately and uncomfortably reminiscent of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Zeta Gundam, you'll get to explore a wide selection of Horrible Ways To Die In Space that I suspect would have the same effect on a child as accidentally watching Watership Down (1978) thinking it was a Disney movie. (That's right: It makes you a more interesting person with good taste!) There's also like, nudity. And adults, with messy, adult relationship problems.

The U.C. timeline is just a lot more, I want to say, earthy as a rule. The characters are normal people and they have a wide range of interests and relationships to each other. Even when it’s reaching those philosophical high-notes, the focus is closer to the ground level; you see the day to day struggles of the crew, of civilians, of couples, you see their private lives, watch them evolve over the course of many years, how they fall in love, eat burgers, hook up, make friends, and make bad decisions. It’s a rich, diverse world filled with believable, complex people; the world building has more time to fill out, with its roots firmly in the soil of classic science fiction writing and space exploration; and it does what it sets out to do, which is deliver a gut-punch of an anti-war story.

If you take anything away from this, it’s that developing a tolerance for older mediums and long-term relationships with particular stories will give you access to some of the most rewarding experiences possible. And that’s true of many things, but especially of stories that have had lasting cultural impact and serve as time capsules for the struggles of their era. It’s true of The Iliad, it’s true of Lord of the Rings, it’s true of Akira, it’s true of Gundam. 

“Just Make Us Five Gundams” – Wing’s Famously Troubled Production & Why You Should Read Episode Zero

Gundam Wing was created flying by the seat of its pants from start to finish. 

Hideyuki Tomioka, executive producer on Wing, was still early in his career when he was cut loose on a new Gundam series with minimal oversight.

“Just make us a show with FIVE new Gundams”, Bandai said. “It’ll sell model kits!”, they said. “It’ll be fun!”, they said. And they laughed, and laughed. 

But Tomioka agreed, and set out to assemble his creative team– notably, Masashi Ikeda (series director), Katsuyuki Sumisawa (series composition / head scriptwriter), and Shuko Murase (character designer). Many of his chosen production crew had never worked on a Gundam show before, but everyone knew their stuff, and had been selected for their outstanding work or for showing promise in their respective fields. 

--Please, pour one out for them now.

The production schedule for Wing was apparently one of the roughest in Sunrise’s history. In a 2017 interview, producer Tomioka explains: “With Wing, we delivered the episodes to the TV network a week early. All of them. I was told by the producers at the network that there would be hell to pay if this next Gundam wasn’t delivered a week early like clockwork, and I said sure. I also told Mr. Ikeda and the company that we would maintain a one-week-before-air delivery schedule, and we delivered every single episode a week before air.” 

Head scriptwriter Sumisawa recalls camping in the Sunrise studio and working all night without sleeping in order to turn in scripts on time (something I vividly recall doing with my senior thesis). 

Despite the entire staff being burnt out from the continuous workflow, the team apparently met every single deadline, and still consider Gundam Wing to be some of their best work. 

However, Wing’s trouble didn’t end with just the frantic schedule.

Significant, under-the-table leadership changes at the studio level made a bad situation worse. Just before the production of Wing, parent company Sunrise had sold the Gundam franchise to Bandai, apparently in secret, leaving their creatives and producers like Tomioka in a lurch. The sudden change in sponsors led to an attitude change that would filter through the company, causing significant friction and splintering within the organization.

In fact, creative control of the series was tossed in the air at multiple levels:

 When series director Masashi Ikeda was hired for Wing, he was coming off a few rocky dismissals / resignations from earlier projects due to his disagreements with sponsors. He was new to Gundam, but was known for being a talented, if contentious, storyboard artist / director. Right away he took Wing in an unexpected direction, apparently derailing the series from its original trajectory after only 10 episodes. Signing off on these provocative decisions may have painted a target on his back, but it certainly made Wing stand out from its predecessors! Perhaps predictably, Ikeda either “abruptly resigned” or was fired from the project after Episode 29, and was substituted by Gundam franchise veteran, Shinji Takamatsu. Takamatsu would ultimately finish directing the remaining half of the series, though he was left uncredited.

Sumisawa too withdrew as a the lead scenario writer. He reports having to cope with curve balls thrown in the script by different writers who hadn’t run their decisions by him first, leaving him to struggle with reworking episodes at the last minute in order to accommodate the unsupervised changes. 

All the crunch and chaos, the impossibly tight schedules, the directorial and creative control changing hands mid-series, led to many of the important plot points and connective tissue that had been slated for reveal at the midpoint of the series being severely truncated, or scrapped entirely.

--And this, friends, is why there are so many instances in the early episodes of Wing where characters make reference to events and concepts that simply never show up in the series– the material got cut for time, and the unexplained anecdotes were left to dangle. 

This includes by far the most unfortunate omission in the series: the pilot backstories. In the postscript of “Gundam Wing: Episode Zero”, the manga prequel released seven years after the series first aired– scriptwriter Sumisawa makes this plea:

“[...] I would like to make a request of those who have read this book. I would like you to watch the entire TV series and Endless Waltz again. By so doing, I think you will be able to fully appreciate the work, Gundam Wing. This series of stories of the past was requested of me by Director Ikeda, and it was supposed to appear in the to the p20the TV series after episode 27. However, it was pigeonholed roduction schedule being the worst ever, and the fact that I withdrew ws scenarist. When I returned to the show, there was no chance to fit in the past, and we had no choice but to table it indefinitely (though we did try in episode 31, The Glass Kingdom). It was able to become a graphic novel through the kindness of the editors at Anime V Magazine and Mr. Kanbe's (artist) cooperation. As one of the co-creators, I am extremely grateful, and this has become a very emotional work.”

In one interview, Sumisawa laments: “Nobody wants to write recap episodes. Episodes 27 and 28 were recap episodes.” Producer Tomioka notes that “Everybody worked some serious miracles for part two. We never would have been able to do part two [of the series] if we hadn’t put in those recap episodes. It really was rough.” 

--This Is why I recommend that people read Episode Zero around the time they get to the mid-series point in the anime, where the backstories were always meant to go. Many, MANY questions and frustrations that I hear from first-time watchers will be cleared up.

It’s a damn good collection of stories, too! As you can see, my own copy is nearing a level of decrepitude that ought to make it Nursery Real at this point. I took it everywhere with me in my school bag as a comfort item.

–A link to the manga can be found in the Bookshelf section!

[multifandom-brainrot]

Hi! I'm so sorry if this sounds rude, but what is tmc? And who is Natalia? Again, I'm so sorry if this comes across as rude, I genuinely am confused and just wanna know so I can understand, hehe.

TMC, in this context, is known as the Mandela Catalogue! An analog horror series that was pretty much the "golden child" of that sort of media. Natalia was an oc of mine that I had for that fandom. Ever since the discourse with Jonah's actor and then A.K. themselves, I've fallen out of the fandom and kind of lost interest. I didn't feel comfortable making tk content for that fandom, and even before everything happened I was very iffy on it (though don't take this on me shaming others, its just not my thing). I've hoped to get back into it but I'm still kind of nervous about it, so for now I think this blog will have no original content for that fandom anymore. I plan on repurposing Natalia though Also don't worry! You didnt come off as rude at all! You were just curious, you dont have to be scared to ask me about things, if anything I appreciate it ^^

[owlseeingchaos]

Welcome to the blog!

I'm Owlkhemy (she/they preferred, but no real issues with anything else)!

As I've stated back on my main @owlkhemy, I don't like to get too fandomy on main. So here's a non-main blog for me to fangirl in! Yay!

As with my other blogs, general warning here for the bucketloads of swearing I tend to do. Also a warning that some of my interests get a little... dark or heavy on occasion, so I'll do my best to tag them accordingly. If there's something I've forgotten, please let me know! I love tagging stuff properly.

A long, loooong list of all the stuff I'm a fan of is below the cut. I'll be updating it as I go along and inevitably add things I've forgotten. I'm willing to talk about any of these, so feel free to pop into my askbox!

(Anything with a blue asterisk is something I haven't actually read/played/watched all of, so please be patient with me if I get something wrong. In most of these cases, I've done a thing I like to call "consuming by proxy" - I've read a wiki extensively or watched a Let's Play or something.)

The "current fandom nonsense" indicator in my blog description is which one you're probably going to incessantly see for a while.

Queue is set to 4 posts a day. Initially I was going to say "hopefully it's enough", but more and more I've come to find that I actually don't do enough browsing on here to keep up with much more than that...

You will very quickly find out which characters are my favourite in everything. For the sake of your sanity, don't question why that might be too much in most cases...

The Long-Ass List of All My Interests!

Video Games:

Super Mario Bros. and its various subseries

Sonic the Hedgehog (I've only played the Genesis games, Heroes, Colors, Unleashed, and the "Storybook Series")

Crash Bandicoot, particularly the Radical games and Nitro-Fueled

Namco arcade games (my top four are Mappy, Sky Kid, Phozon, and Bosconian, so I'll probably focus on those)

Petz, especially Petz 5. I have a sideblog for my Petz nonsense, @hydrargyrykennelz .

I also like Petz Dogz/Catz 2. I had Petz Dogz 2, but they're literally identical except for dogs or cats.

Pac-Man, especially Pac-Man World (mostly PMW2, PMW3, and World Rally, which I've played more of than the first PMW)

Undertale* and Deltarune (and Undertale Yellow*)

Minecraft

Spyro the Dragon (I've played the demo of the original and Ripto's Rage, most of Enter the Dragonfly, and quite a bit of A Hero's Tail)

Star Fox, probably mostly 64* (it's on the list! I Will be playing it at some point! I practically have to or else I'll die at this point /j)

Yume Nikki* (also on the list; done extensive wiki reading and watched the occasional gameplay clip)

Bejeweled, especially Bejeweled 3, though I've also played Stars

Kirby* (I've played a bit of 64)

The Legend of Zelda (I put 5-10 hours into my roomie's copy of Tears of the Kingdom and have plans to play Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask)

No Straight Roads* (also on the list; I've done a good amount of wiki reading)

Team Fortress 2* (also on the list, but not an urgent one; wiki reading)

Speedy Blupi/Eggbert, which I played constantly as a kid

Bendy and the Ink Machine* (did extensive wiki reading)

Cuphead* (wiki reading, plus i was really into Casino Cups)

Cult of the Lamb* (watched a playthrough)

Web Series:

Dislyte (I've long stopped playing but it's very interesting still)

Pikmin* (watched playthroughs of all of them except Hey! and Bloom)

ENA

Happy Tree Friends* (I've only seen a few episodes, but I did read the entire wiki at one point)

I have passing interest in analog horror, even though I'm both an absolute scaredy-cat and dysprosophobic

Webcomics:

I also used to be a pretty avid reader of Handplates

Awful Hospital

I read all of Poppy O'Possum before it was cancelled

Other internet stuff:

I also have a passing interest in lost media

I spend a lot of time on TV Tropes (unfortunately), mostly to absorb random facts

I am a furry (and, if you want to get more specific, also a scaly and a feathery)

Other stuff in general:

Gravity Falls remains the only show I watched as a child that still has a bit of a grip on me, so the occasion content from that will pop up here.

Real life:

Science. I'm literally about to get my bachelor's. Emphasis on biology and chemistry, because physics and I have a mutual respectful hatred of each other.

Birds, especially owls (as my various usernames would suggest)

Insects and arachnids

Opossums

Really, just wildlife in general, actually?

Space.

Photography

Art

Music

Writing

I haven't read any books in a hot minute, but I like fantasy and sci-fi

[postmoderntongues]

why did you quit that job if it gave you joy?

I only worked 2 days a week, and was recently approved for disability so it was only about $200 difference between what id be given in disability and what I made in a month, so on that level it just wasn't worth it to keep working for such little reward. I also need to get a lot in order with a meds change (I may be changing my antidepressant after almost a decade), and with getting services in place and finding a new therapist and possibly spending some time away for PTSD and substance abuse treatment. Traditional work just wasn't sustainable for me, every day i had off i was either recovering from or preparing for a workday. My house fell into disrepair, I started to let my hygiene go, working was putting me in a really hard place mentally. There was also some stuff going on at work where I reported this family 3x to CPS because their 2 year old came in absolutely battered saying his moms boyfriend hit him and nothing was done. The autistic kids were neglected and not included and just left to pace the carpet and we weren't even allowed to suggest to the parents to get their kids evaluated so most of them were in complete denial and the program was not appropriate for their child and t was really frustrating, Id spend my whole day trying to help the one autistic kid in the room which meant the other teacher was watching 9-14 kids on her own because the kids i was working with were so behavioral (one of my favorite little boys gave me a concussion with a wooden block) . If I decide to go back to childcare I think I will look more into nannying/babysitting for a single family because the classroom environment was overwhelming and I felt like I couldn't help the kids who needed help the most. I was told to allow a 2 year old autistic girl to smash her head on a tile floor and smack herself during meltdowns because if I tried to intervene and she was injured I could be held responsible (which I said fuck that, when shed have meltdowns id bring her into my lap so her head was hitting my thigh instead of the floor and hold/rub her hands to keep her from hitting or scratching herself) There were a lot of upsetting incidents, including children bringing porn in on iphones or using the classroom ipad to look up zoosadism websites (they confused the analog horror "dog nightmare" with the zoosadism site "animals nightmare" and were discovered watching a crush video which like WHY THE FUCK WERE THERE NO FILTERS ON THE IPADS) and children commenting on home situations that sounded abusive (to the point where there were certain kids who I wouldn't write up because I knew they got spanked at home). It got to be really heavy and upsetting and I just started to burn out really badly. The final straw though was when I realized I hadn't written ANYTHING since I started working there. Since I have the disability benefits to fall back on, I kind of saw that as God giving me a sign to take some time away to work on my writing, so thats what Im doing now. I have a series Im working on, and I also have a book coming out hopefully by summer that Im going to need the time to do promotions for so Im still "working" in that my job is writing right now and editing/eventually promoting my novel.

TLDR: there were a lot of small reasons but my main reason was to focus on my writing, which is what I actually went to school for and plan to make a career out of

[harleyacoincidence]

Just realized that I never did an actual writeblr introduction. Whoops. Anyway!

No idea how to format this, but we're here now and there's no time like the present.

Hello writeblr, I've been with you for almost a year now (I think). You can call me Harley, and I've been writing as long as I can remember. While the stories I wrote back in elementary school aren't the best, I am still proud of how much I've improved since starting out. I've kept a few WIPs I worked on in high school (those are being finished and edited), as well as a few others I started in the past few years.

Speaking of which, here are some original WIPs you might find featured on here (whether as part of tag games, asks, or random snippets):

Tales of the Unfortunate Summoner - Demons, humans, and trauma galore! Yes, I finally named the WIP with the niece-uncle relationship between a human (Henriette) and demon (Hadeon), featuring nobody's favourite former Shakespeare demon, Blaise. If you enjoy more modern fantasy, this might be the one for you. Once I finish writing and editing it so it's up to standard, of course.

Love Corrupts Fresh Lilies (often shortened to LCFL, due to laziness) - Ah yes, another instance of "idiot protagonist messes up and now everything's destroyed"! Meet Rafflesia, the poor mistreated girl who finds herself lost in some bizarre world after escaping her cousin, Jacob. She soon becomes corrupted and ends up a machine of mass destruction. Well, that's the plan, if I ever finish it. If you enjoy dark fantasy and dark romance, you might enjoy this.

The Devoted Musician - Wow! An analog horror series based on other horror media, how original! Well, it's been seven years in the making and I'm hoping it turns out alright. If you enjoy graphic horror media, ghosts, curses, and comic relief brought to you by deceased teenagers, this is something you might be interested in. It will be available on YouTube (with the next episode coming out VERY soon), and I will post the links to the videos on here as well.

Undying Service - I've barely outlined this WIP, due to focusing on my larger projects (see items 2 and 3 on this list), but here's the gist: altar server dies and is buried in a church, which they haunt to annoy members of the clergy as well as other religious folk. They might fix the occasional thing, but this is a mystery/satire, so we can't have too much of that.

Organized Obsession - This WIP has a better outline than Undying Service (at this point, literally anything does), as well as some characters. If you saw the poll that involved "fandom discourse but turned up to 11", that's this one. This WIP has some dystopian elements to it, but is also a satire (taken more seriously, unfortunately). I don't want to spoil too much, but in this world, taking sides is a must if you want to survive.

I'm going to be releasing a WIP crash course soon (along with the next episode of The Devoted Musician, which will have a bit more substance), so stay tuned!

I hope to meet more mutuals and people to follow, and the ones that I have are the best writers I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with. If you have questions about any of my WIPs, feel free to send me an ask or tag me in a game! I try my best to respond to those as soon as I can.

(Also, obviously I have more things planned, such as smaller WIPs, possibly sharing completed works, ARGs, and even a game...but those are stories for another time.)

[pennycat83]

I keep seeing this debate about analog horror and I wanna real quick add one final dunk on Slug whilst I talk about this.

(saw this post on the analog horror subreddit so take it with a lump of rock salt)

(also I find it fucking hillarious Slug's the poster child for all of these)

I don't fully blame Urban Slug for this. I think in general a reason why a lot of people are starting to dislike analog/ digital horror is simple.

It's becoming repetitive. I keep seeing indie shorts/ series that take inspo from stuff like Lacy, TWF, GHE (etc.) that are good, but the same. Hell I don't even get scared by some of them at times, either the artstyle's too cutsie for it or they don't do that spooky of imagery. Like neither the concepts do much, like they could be interesting if they added that bit more thought or depth. People more or less jump in without much depth or planning into something and make good but not memorable stuff.

As for Urbanslug, he did it for fun. According to Wendigoon's vid about the series, he allegedly made the series to show off his art and make merch. Problem is, unlike most shitpost series, this wasn't made clear at the beginning, so people took it at face value. Don't get me wrong I fucking hate the series, every part of it makes my braincells drop. But it kinda also proves the slight fault in a lot of analog horror.

It isn't just dying because it's repetitive, it's dying because no one's putting that extra time and care into their projects. Like the same person who made this also praised Shipwreck, a project that was 2 years in the making complete with functioning websites inside the game, layers to the story and an underlining horror to it that isn't obvious.

Don't get me wrong it's still got familiar beats like the body horror of the Shipliners, but it isn't too much, it knows when to stop.

Hell even Slug put work into his drawings. It's not about the actual analog. It's the effort. How much work you put into something equals the amount of adimration you get. It's that simple, horror is as much of an art piece as any other, and should be treated as such.

Like the reason my series hasn't come out yet (outside of my dogshit ADHD and work anxiety) is because I had to plan out the series in full before hand. I deleted my old FNAF ARG because I wasn't pleased with it.

TLDR: Don't just shit out a horror vid on the spot, but some back bone into it.

Also please reblog this is if you want I need to start prodding people into reblogging my shit more.