#I also scuffed up the coloring on this real bad so don't look at it too closely

[silvers-starrway]

@teamdarkweek Day 5: Hurt/Changed

Sorry no Omega this time, assume he was out doing something cool. Ended up kinda doing both prompts though the second one is more tangentially related. Also got so inspired when drawing this that I wrote something right after finishing it??? So uh, if you're interested in Rouge taking care of a non-verbal Shadow and using some sign language feel free to read that under the cut. This will technically be my first published fan writing and I did not go back and reread it so it might be a lil rough in some areas.

UPDATE!! I ACTUALLY PUBLISHED AND EDITED THE FIC I WROTE FOR THIS!!

[lodane]

Tubi Testimony (pirate POV, tubi-n-chill x reader)

Context? i came to the site for gothic soap opera Dark Shadows on ABC in the late 1960s. if you're gonna do the same... look for "Dark Shadows: the Beginning" because that's the real 1966 start of the series (before Barnabas shows).

Ads... Like, ANY?

first things first... i assume tubi has ads but i use ublock-origin (win10, firefox/opera) and haven't seen any... at all... ever.

. n . o . t . h . i . n . g .

Account?

in my browser, you don't have to have an account. I REPEAT: NO SIGN-UP OR SIGN-IN REQUIRED. can't speak for the phone app, haven't used it 🤷‍♀️

Watch Party

i'm not sure if they're one of the services that black out the screen when you stream to friends on discord/etc. (tbh i don't think they do this? but...) if so they're one i've worked around by disabling hardware acceleration in the browser's settings. 🤷‍♀️ like candy from a babbyform.

Subtitles [CC]

the captions aren't perfect but they're a straight up SRT file 👀 you can rip with anything (including, just, like... the ublock logger showing you the direct URL). i don't know where they came from, and they don't seem *entirely* automagically generated... so, i can't tell if they're pulled from some (phoned-in) DVD, they're paying someone to caption, scraping some (really half-assed) fan subs...or some combo?

this is important to me since i'm going to be fixin' up my OWN fan subs for this show and it's great when someone saves you some legwork. i use downsub dot com (which is SHOCKINGLY not a k*nk site) to scrape the captions when i'm being lazy.

The Video Itself

the videos themselves are quite easily obtained, too... but... i'll tell ya... i never bothered ripping the show, and i stopped downloading it from elsewhere atm, because i legit enjoy just watching it on tubi... the vibes are good, the ux/ui are good, and they basically have the same files as i can find elsewhere (admittedly scuffed, for the example of Dark Shadows) on any archive or torrent for a show...

i can side-by-side a rip to a file and see there's basically no difference... so i don't think they attempt any reformatting/editing/etc. of the media they, uh, obtain... from... somewhere?

🤔

actually... i have a test for this... brb...

(pulls up Buffy's 'Once More with Feeling' on Tubi)

so, since it's shockingly different on various platforms and editions, it's a great little litmus test.

VISUAL DIFFERENCES? placing the file and tubi side-by-side, playing the exact same spot... yeah, i guess... there's a little bitsy change in color/contrast/fuzz (very likely just throwing a few less pixels on the screen) that's probably just some lossy compression they do to make it easier to house/stream all these files…

BUT WHICH VERSION IS IT? for Buffy's s06e07, OMWF, they have the 00:50:45 runtime version, which afaik is "the good* version" with all the original visuals intact. i'm sure someone is a bigger Buffy scholar than me, but i think this the "DVD version" (not an old DVR/TV rip, like i subsisted on for years, not the terrible blu-ray wherein they cut several minutes).

the captions are LITERALLY identical from the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 1 to 7 Mp4 1080p" torrent (which, again, are likely originally from the DVDs).

tangent: the entire scene before and after "I Have a Theory" is an amazing case study in why those Blu-Rays were strangely good 5% of the time but absolutely still ruined the show. why? well, tbh there are a couple edits this episode could use… changes that were made for the better in the blu-ray version, like... i guess i can understand taking out the donut/cruller Magnolia PUA joke, since it's very dated? along with Anya dropping the m-slur… we could lose that, for sure [which, i just checked, is in the tubi version, so it's def not blu-ray]. too bad the blu-ray also kills the pterodactyl joke??? they cut out the shared visual framing device of the shoppe's door/bell when buffy/dawn enter for one but leave the other? it feels like the level of brainpower that went into that Hitchhiker's Guide movie when they ruined the joke about "beware the jaguar" and all that in the first 10 minutes?

conclusion...

go watch Dark Shadows: The Beginning or Buffy the Vampire Slayer on tubi tv ig? do a fan sub for the first 365 episodes of an ancient soap opera in a desperate effort to get ppl to watch it?

fuck man idk...

💋

Tubi is the best streaming service because it captures the feeling of a video store, but not a corporate video store like Blockbuster, or even a good indie store, but a rundown video rental place under a overpass weeks away from closing down. You'll find, like, 2001: A Space Odyssey next to a unwatchable copy of a 70s exploitation film and a micro-low-budget indie and a movie called STRIPPER VAMPIRE MASSACRE III but you can find no evidence of STRIPPER VAMPIRE MASSACRE one or two existing.

This is a real, commercial streaming service and they've uploaded films with the DVD menu visible for the first few seconds bc it's a recording of a DVD copy. What a titan in the landscape of streaming

[vicea]

Hey! I watched the podcast live earlier and just blatantly decided to come to you since I saw you were watching it :) hope you don't mind

My review is honestly that it was so so much better than the last one Dream (and also the last one Sapnap) took part in.

The people there, for starters, were so much calmer and neutral and, while some are odd figures to see for the - probably - first time (case and point, Amouranth) they actually were all knowledgeable, open and not biased. Amouranth actually proved to be likeable in last hour or so if you overlook what her job is which is fine by me and everyone else was honestly not really prejudiced against Dream and Sapnap's fanbase which was a nice surprise. They all were very diverse in their communities which makes discussions more interesting.

Obviously I had chat closed, after the first few minutes of seeing them spam weird stuff, so neither do I know nor do I care what happened there and I advise everyone to follow that strategy.

The topics might appear dry to a degree but that's normal and I actually thought they weren't as bad as others made it out to be either. Cryptocurrency and E-sports may not be everybody's favorite stuff to hear about but it was actually somewhat interesting to hear the conversation. Also it wasn't all they talked about either and it was mostly enjoyable.

People have to remember that this wasn't a podcast about Dream and George, it's a podcast they take part in, it's about Twitch in general, not about Minecraft, and about stuff happening in the world like Covid-19 and whatnot. And the amount of interest the people there actually showed in them despite that was very nice to see. When they talked about Minecraft, others took part in the conversation and brought up own opinions and experiences, and they listened when they talked or asked questions about E-sports and Twitch con.

Onto Dream and Sapnap - they talked a lot more than in most other podcasts they were in before! They didn't seem particularly disinterested either in my opinion? It was just that they were doing stuff in the background, playing games or be on Twitter etc. so reaction times were sometimes a little bit slower and might've made it seem like that but -

The fact that Train wanted to close the podcast but Dream talked about Sapnap wanting to stay more and then they went on for another hour kind of cancels that out for me.

Memorable Dream and Sapnap moments I remember at the top of my head from that were (not in order):

Train tries to explain the 1v5 Manhunt and everyone is kind of confused what he's talking about until he talks about landing in a boat

Dream and Sapnap were asked what's new in the Minecraft community and deadass didn't remember MCC despite Dream streaming the practice server

Ultimately we got Dream doing a few laps in Ace Race from his POV and him dominating in Dodgebolt, even winning 1v2s (on the server)

Dream correcting people on what the best colors for marketing are

Sapnap mocking us with not talking and he's generally just there to fuck with Train and troll everyone

At one point XQC joined and asked to 1v1 Dream in Minecraft. He got demolished and then continued to get demolished by Sapnap

Dream talks about the SMP a bit (once when they proposed that he turns it into an org to make more money and he just blatantly says that he doesn't want to get a check of his friends money; later they asked how he picks the people for it)

Sapnap wants to do one live E-sports event for the experience but not go pro

(Something along the lines of:) Slasher: "You can just pay a million to do some real Minecraft event (probably for live E-sports or whatever) and do it yourselves right?"; Dream: "Oh yeah, let me do that real quick."; Slasher: "I mean, assuming you make like 30 million a year or something."; Dream: "Definitely not thirty."

They're hypothetizing on Obama in MCC

Sapnap is the only one to hear Myth say Goodbye

Train: how old are you; Sapnap: ²⁰

Sapnap just highkey trolling the whole group (Do you live in Canada? Yes. | Are you in New York right now? Yes.)

They talk about conventions and whether Dream and Sapnap would consider going to them. Sap mentions Dreamcon again

They talk about streaming for a bit (They explain the concept behind having alts; Sapnap streamed 6 hours on his main and averaged 177k viewers/19 hours on his alt with an average 48k viewers/everyone is just highkey baffled; Dream: "I have zero hours.")

They pull the George doesn't know what Dream looks like scam again

Sapnap is asking Train if he would give Sap all his Bitcoin for Sap to run into Dream's room and face reveal prank him on Train's podcast

They are theorizing on how they would market Dream's face reveal, Dream and Sapnap find their idea stupid

Train jokingly offers to give out his stream key to Sapnap and Dream and for them to organize a podcast "with the gang" and Sapnap bluntly agrees. Train is baffled. (Pls. Yes. Probably not and a joke but please. Yes, give it to me.)

Maybe I'll look up the time stamps later if you want me to, but yeah :) I probably spammed you. I found it honestly very enjoyable and I only saw people complain so I wanted to give my opinion

(I don't really post myself, so I go to my favorite blog when I wanna say stuff, sorry ,-,)

thank you eveee and don't apologize i'm happy to always read ! i'm glad to read another side of the scuffed podcast because sometimes they can talk about interesting stuff.