#I have zero tolerance for the kind of shit from fans

[chevelleneech]

Was going to watch The Amp Theory’s reaction to the Are You Sure? trailer, and had to click away.

I’m not going to complain about whatever they said about not shipping, because I don’t know what they said and that is not a problem for me. Shipping is fun and doesn’t really mean much if you’re someone sane, but I don’t like their comment section being filled with people praising them for “shutting shippers down”.

It tells me they chose not to entertain the thought, and that’s fine too, but this fandom overall is full of hypocrites and liars. People who pretend to agree that all shipping is bad, yet will secretly ship their faves or believe every heterosexual dating rumor that pops up. That’s what I dislike.

I dislike reactors who cater to that crowd, because it’s disingenuous. Not saying the guys over at Amp Theory ship in secret or anything, as they have a ton of kpop content on their channel and likely have zero time to care. But, if their comment section is anything to go off of, their views likely align with the idea that Jimin and JK aren’t dating simply because. No real reason, because reactors who claim to be against shipping (in this fandom specifically) only do so for as far as heteronormativity exists.

Not enough people in this fandom are willing to use gender neutral pronouns when talking about the group’s gender neutral lyrics. Not enough people in this fandom use he/him pronouns when talking about lyrics written by the members themselves that insinuate they have been in relationships with men. Not enough people in this fandom are even willing to acknowledge things said in interviews that insinuate the members have already been through their coming out stages in their personal lives. So why is it that inner band shipping is so often made out to be a joke or something a reactor refuses to engage with, when they do it already? They already believe all seven members like women, so what’s stopping them from thinking they like men too?

Again, I don’t know what was said, and I’m not complaining about them choosing to make it known they won’t tolerate ship discussions. But I always think of it like this, if shipping is disgusting to you or something you will never talk about, what would you do if the members being shipped actually turn out to be queer? Or in a relationship with one another?

It is obviously a hypothetical, because we’ll likely never know if any of them are queer outside of our assumptions. Based on many things, yes, but still there is no confirmation technically… kind of.

Point is, no one has to react to ship content. No one has to talk about ships if they don’t want to, but imagine spending years curating a BTS centric channel, and not once thinking about who they might be outside of their public images.

Imagine claiming to be a fan who supports them no matter what, yet the second you react to a video where two members who are often the target of hateful rhetoric are hanging out and having fun, and the entire aspect of their dynamic is almost completely rooted in their bond being much more couple-like than any of their friends, yet you choose to say, “We won’t entertain ship talk, because it’s not real no matter what.” (Again, not what the guys of Amp Theory said, I’m referring to reactors as a whole, because they aren’t the only ones.)

Reactors want attention, it’s how they make their money, I get it, but the members are in fact real people. They will not always match up to our expectations of them. Meaning, maybe they aren’t queer and we’re all just misunderstanding things. I doubt that though, and it truly irks me to my core that people will entertain just about anything except queerness. They will react to damn near whatever video is available to them that allows them to milk BTS for views, and Army will eat that shit right on up, making these channels huge, but the second any of them ask about or choose to watch Jikook content specifically, they have to either disclaim not believing JM and JK could have feelings for each other, or they ignore it entirely.

Then if Jikook antis are loud enough, they apologize and react to every other pairing a million times and Jikook never again. Because Jikookers are often painted as the worst within the fandom, because this fandom has a hard-on for Tkk. Which I would argue is because they’re not as questionable in their actions, so the reactors themselves don’t end up feeling any type of way, and they get to benefit off of the views.

Anyway. I was hoping to see more reactions to the trailer and I wish I hadn’t read their comments first, but I did so it is what it is.

[cherrybomb107]

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist (though that term was literally coined by the powers that be to discredit people who got too close to the truth, but I digress), but does anyone else think that we’re being primed to believe that fighting back is morally wrong? Think about it. In kids’ shows, it’s a running joke how the MC will slaughter the bad guy’s henchmen like it’s nothing, but when it’s time to face the big bad, all of a sudden they can’t kill them got whatever reason. “I can’t kill you, cause that’ll make me just as bad as you.” “I’m better than that.” “That’s not the way.” Or something to that effect.

And it’s just like, no??? Wtf are you talking about? Why is the evil intergalactic overlord who flooded our village, burned down his village, killed her whole entire family, and kicks puppies every Thursday still alive? Why, when he has told and shown us, time and time and time again that he has no desire to change his ways? Why would you ever think, let alone say, let alone actually BELIEVE that killing that mfer puts you on the same level as him? What the actual fuck are we even talking about rn? If you don’t put that mfer in the ground EXPEDITIOUSLY I SWEAR I-

Nah, but really tho, what kind of message are we teaching our youth? “Violence is bad, full stop, and even though I can’t/won’t do anything to help you, I want you to know you’re just as bad as the villain for hitting them back?” Huh??? And it’s not just that this message is peddled in media. Let’s say if you’re getting bullied and you get fed up. You already told your parents, your teachers, your school counselors, and the principal, but nothing’s changed. That mfer and their bum ass friends have bullied you for 99 days in a row. The ONE DAY you decide to fight back(whether that’s with words, fists, feet, etc) both of you are getting suspended. Why? Because the school has a “zero tolerance policy”. But wait, that can’t be right. You being bullied for God knows how long wasn’t just tolerated; it was practically cosigned by the school! So why, when you have your back against the wall and get desperate, do the powers that be FINALLY decide to step in? Why now?

Another example, the way the phrase “respect your elders” has been twisted. It’s supposed to mean, have respect for those who came before you, and they’ll do the same to you. Treat people how you wanna be treated, right? But instead, “respect your elders” usually means “tolerate their disrespect towards you, or else”. If not, then you’re the one who’s “being disrespectful”. You’re the one who’s “talking back”. You’re the one who needs to “stay in a child’s place”. Why is that? Why do we make up terms for people who won’t take that shit lying down?

To summarize, demonizing people who fight back against the powers that be and framing that will to fight as a “bad thing” that makes them “just as bad” as the person/people/corporations/institutions who are doing the actual oppressing is a terrible lesson. It’ll only serve to dissuade people from trying to make a difference by any means necessary. Instead, they’ll try to do things the “right” way, like voting for example, which sounds good, but still relies on the institution working FOR the people, when it doesn’t. It never has.

In conclusion, I always have been and always will be a fan of “don’t start fights; finish them. Do what gotta do to get a mfer off your back”. I hope all that made sense lmaoo 😭😭😭

[add-v-bae]

Hi. I'm sure that nobody expected me to come back, and I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to. I'm just so disgusted with recent events that I want to post my thoughts in a location where anybody will understand what I'm talking about, as nobody in my day to day life even really tolerates kpop

As everybody knows, a lot has happened recently. And yeah, I've got a lot of emotions. I'm devastated to find out how much of a disgusting human Taeil is, and just in general, the wave of disgusting misogyny that's been going on in South Korea is absolutely horrifying.

However, I'm here to talk about my disgust in the state of kpop fans and the abysmal behavior some show. Mind you, i know very well that its very much not everyone. I've spent enough time in the community to know that there are plenty of people who are capable of being normal about their relationship with the idols, even while being a stan who cares about nothing but them. I have a history of parasocial relationships and I firmly believe that you can absolutely obsess over celebrities without being a psychopath. That being said, it's also a very fine line and I've seen some absolutely disgusting shit here.

None of these men belong to you. None of these men owe you a fucking thing. They are there to make you music, give you dances that you can enjoy, and serve you looks, depending on your style per era. They don't owe you abstinence and this is frankly something I've hated even while I was frequenting this site. I know full well that i personally have gotten a little too deep into shipping and crushing on idols. Do you know what happened during the two time an idol that i obsessed over/shipped with people referred to being in a relationship while being an idol? I felt a pang of disappointment and then I decided that as long as they're happy, I'm happy. Do you know what happened to them? One of them could only talk about it after leaving the industry, and the other lost their contract at their company. There's absolutely zero reason why an idol can't live their life alongside being an idol. They're not dolls, they're human beings with human lives.

Now, I left the community years ago. I still listen to the songs I used to listen to, but that's about the extent of where my kpop Fandom journey is anymore. I've also technically started rewriting some of the story ideas I had while excluding the kpop aspects, but that's an entirely different thing.

However, I do still like the occasional kpop post on Twitter, and today, my page was full of learning of a man named Seunghan from a band Riize. I've never heard of him, nor have I heard of this band prior to this controversy. However, the shit that's going on with this is unreal. You're telling me that this 21 year old got bullied into going on hiatus because he smoked a cigarette and dated someone? And then as soon as he came back, people sent funeral wreaths to SM over it? That's abhorrent. The girlfriend thing I've already touched on, he doesn't owe you anything, let alone abstinence from a time before he was famous. The cigarette, sure that's not good. Death threats are so much worse?? Most people have done something bad at some point in their life that doesn't at all reflect who they are now, and frankly, even if he still smokes, what the fuck are you helping with this behavior? Show concern, don't act like he's your fucking doll who's not acting how you want.

I'll be honest, I don't think the people that have or currently follow me are the kinds of people to do this thing. However, if somehow one of the people who engaged in this see this (especially those girls dancing in front of the wreaths uggggh), in complete, 100% seriousness, get some fucking help. You're entering into a parasocial state that is far beyond the acceptable state and has passed into psychotic behavior, and you need to find how to work that out because you've already emotionally hurt people and you're well on your way to physically hurting people, if you haven't already.

And if you haven't been one of the people who have been doing this but you don't see a problem with it, you get some help too. You might feel that you're not doing anything to anybody but as far as I'm concerned, you're just as part of the fucking problem. You might not have engaged in this action, but you very well could to other idols in the future, or God forbid people in your life. This kind of obsession can very easily translate over to behaviors and entitlement to partners, friends, family, none of which are people you're entitled to either. I couldn't fathom looking at this and feeling like this is at all okay.

I can't say if I'm gonna uninstall Tumblr and go back to staying my nose out of things or if I'm going to pop in once and a while as a casual, especially since I'm sure my page has been dead long enough that nobody cares if I come back but I got so heated over this that I needed to put all my thoughts out there, even if nobody sees it

[magnorious]

Percy Jackson and Why the Best Villains are Right (update)

I feel like this post needs an update after the first two long-awaited episodes aired so here goes. This is long and I am not sorry one bit, but I made it its own post anyway because it's so long).

This is the original, read at your leisure.

First, let me set the stage: Last Olympian came out when I was in 6th grade. I had the first four books in paperback and couldn’t wait for book 5 to make a perfectly matching set, I needed to read it the day it debuted. I, like many fans heard they were making a movie adaptation of TLT and we all collectively lost our minds. Finally! We would see our heroes on the big screen, and it was the guy who directed Sorcerer’s Stone. This dude knew how to make successful franchise-starting movies.

We. Were. Hyped.

Then… the rumors started. The actors weren’t the right age. Annabeth wouldn’t be blonde. Grover was this… unrecognizable slick, smooth-talking lady killer. Camp Half-Blood didn’t look like we pictured. Chiron looked okay? The special effects looked decent?

I didn’t get to see the movie when it came out. In fact, I remember being on a road trip and seeing it for $16 on demand at our hotel and my grandparents just couldn’t reconcile with that kind of price. I was crushed.

Turns out, they were unknowingly sparing me from disappointment. Everyone knows the two movie adaptations were awful. If you never read the books, they were tolerable, I suppose. If you never read them, you didn’t have the emotional investment we did, and you didn’t see why all the little details mattered so much. You didn’t care if it didn’t follow the book exactly because it was kind of funny and a little bit ridiculous but not *awful*.

Those movies are up there with the M. Knight Last Airbender as some of the worst kids’ fiction adaptations in history. Then the years pass. Harry Potter releases Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, the end of an era while the fandom money machine keeps on churning. Percy and co get new books, and some tangential spin-offs, the foundations of a much larger world of multi-pantheon fantasy, but after the failure of Sea of Monsters, an adaptation of Titan’s Curse would never be made.

We’d never see emo, angsty Nico and Bianca, never see the development of Percabeth, never meet Thalia or Fred or Artemis. The fandom was in limbo, forever tethered to just being a series of books that would never compete with the Boy Who Lived.

Then, years pass, and we hear rumblings of a new adaption. This time, Disney is handling it. This time, Rick is neck deep in development making damn sure they stay faithful. This time, it’ll be good.

But, if you’re like me, and so many other people unenthused by Disney’s releases over the last decade or so, you were more than a little afraid that Percy would be twice-doomed by another awful adaptation. You heard the rumors again about tiny minutiae that didn’t exactly match the book but still dared to hold out hope that they learned from their mistakes. They’d succeed where so many stories in recent years fell flat.

Then, finally, we get trailers, and we get episodes.

Just so everyone is aware of just how much pressure is riding on this show to succeed. It’s not just an adaptation probably ten years late for those of us who grew up with the books and Percy. It’s a redemption.

So, I’m not Uncle Rick, and if he signed off on the tiny detail changes, then so be it, but I want to explain to all those who rolled their eyes the last time at why we were so pissed Annabeth wasn’t blonde the first go around: It represents that if the director didn’t give a shit about making sure the simplest of details were correct, he wouldn’t care about the big details like themes and the characters’ personalities and the actual messages of the story (which, surprise surprise, he didn’t). One wig would have been a sign of good faith with zero excuse to fall short.

We’ll ignore Annabeth this time around because she has an equally valid reason for not being blonde this time (for anyone who doesn’t know, Annabeth was meant to break the “dumb blonde” stereotype. Having her played by a minority speaks to the same spirit. The books were also written a long ass time ago in terms of the evolution of pop culture and I appreciate that Rick is evolving with the times where it fits, as his books have increased in diversity across the board beyond three white, straight, cis protagonists).

I’ll ignore Percy not having a NY accent (not that it’s crucial or anything, but he’s got the sass and sarcasm of the born and bread New Yorker that he is and it would have been a nice touch). I’ll ignore Percy and Grover playing Mythomagic – even though that’s Nico’s game and matters because Nico was such a dorky little nerd before everything went to hell and Percy just. Wasn’t. He specifically liked skate parks and trying to be at least a little cool. I do like that the game was even there in the first place for all of us who recognized it on the spot. I also liked the nod to the Minotaur’s tighty-whities in the textbook (though strange).

Details do matter. Percy’s got black hair and sea green eyes for a reason. All the children of the Greek Big Three have the black hair, and only them. Apollo and Athena kids are blonde for a reason. Characters tell Percy over and over again how much he looks like his dad and it matters. If Potterheads get to complain about Harry and Lily’s eyes, so do we. But maybe the actor didn’t want to dye his hair or wear a wig. At the end of the day it doesn’t break the immersion and ruin the story.

All I’m trying to convey is that usually, the curtains aren’t just blue for kicks. Characters are designed with intent. Color choices matter. The Sith aren’t running around with blue lightsabers just ‘cause they ran out of red LEDs on set. And if this tiny detail was waved away, what else will be?

But hey, that was just my first impression. I saw this kid pop up on screen and my immediate thought was: That’s not Percy (though it is Percy’s eyes).

So, did the rest of the premier change my mind? Does the show still capture the spirit of the books, even it if can’t quite capture an exact reflection?

I made a list while I was watching of all the other minutiae that I noticed, for better or for worse and here’s the positives:

Chiron’s actor hits that “best teacher I ever had” vibes perfectly.

Baby Percy is fricken adorable.

12-year-old Percy’s thick-ass eyebrows just work for some reason?

Grover’s actor is good, no notes, fits him well.

They still hit a lot of the beats (Nancy, Yancy, Mrs. Dobbs, the cabin, the wreck, the matador fight, Sally vanishing, the minotaur horn, the Hermes Cabin, dinner at the pavilion, the bathroom scene, capture the flag, claiming) in order.

How often they dress him in shades of blue and/or green before the orange camp shirt.

Annabeth’s signature line.

Dionysus is on point, what a dick.

Percy’s sass and disrespect for authority!

CHB is solid, no notes.

The wood nymph makeup on whoever that lady was is fantastic.

The cloven council is four books early. Points for continuity?

The nightmares are different than the books but fit the same vibe.

Percy sucking ass at every skill was perfectly executed (but it would have been nice if they showed him excelling at canoeing because it was funny).

The physical acting, the fight choreography, was excellently executed.

But, for all the inexplicable changes, there were many that were a disservice.

As much as events being out of order and lines and explanations being spoken by the wrong characters at the wrong moments pains me (Sally never got the chance to tell Percy anything, her grave mistake was not saying anything sooner, trying to keep him close to her as long as she possibly could and that’s things went so wrong at the start of the book, they also didn’t fight), I get how adaptations work. Sometimes page-to-screen just can’t be done.

That said: Grover didn’t sell Percy out to Yancy, but he did try to gaslight him. Gabe was way meaner and fuglier in the book and first adaptation and wouldn’t dare let Sally talk back to him, or say “please”. Sally also didn’t look quite as world-weary as I’d hoped, for being trapped in an abusive relationship and a minimum wage job. As Percy’s first taste of combat, they really speedran the Mrs. Dobbs fight. He didn’t have Riptide during the Minotaur fight; he beat that bastard with his bare hands. Chiron worked up to his centaur reveal after all the exposition dropped. Not a single character has a NY accent and that Di Angelo name drop is… cheap and nonsensical. It’s only there because of how insanely popular Nico became (for better or for worse).

For episode 2: Percy’s conversation with Chiron and Mr. D was completely different, mostly because all his lines were given to Sally and Grover and it suffered some pacing issues because of it. Exposition and when they decided to do it felt like purposefully stepping on all the cracks in the sidewalk. It was written in the book that way, in that order, because it worked.

Where tf was Annabeth? She didn’t make a real appearance until ¾ of the way through the premier. All but her signature line was stolen by other characters and, because of this, she has almost zero rapport with Percy at the start of their quest. All her attitude is there, with none of what makes her sympathetic, and it’s very telling, not showing. Luke and Clarisse exist. I only know it’s Luke because of his scar and his unnamed friend that skulks around with him is… somebody. One of the Stolls, maybe? We were 0 for 3 on characters having the correct hair color. Grover’s tangent to the Council was a mess and we have the PJO equivalent of midichlorians with “kleos” as if Percy needed another motivation to succeed in tangible hero points and, finally, there was no hellhound fight (for rating issues, I assume?). Not sure yet if they’ll keep the hippie in the attic and the entire concept of prophecies that are so critical to the plot and themes (see my first post).

Overall, it’s a shame that the performances feel so stiff and robotic. I get that they’re all kids and this is probably all their first acting roles but if the fight choreographer trained them so well, the acting coaches could have stepped up their game. So many lines are delivered without emotion, or too much emotion (like Clarisse screaming bloody murder at her broken Maimer), which causes some very important scenes to feel bland.

When Percy has the chance to choose his companions, the choices TV Grover and Annabeth have made make them incredibly unappealing candidates. Annabeth has been nothing but rude, vague, and unkind, and was absent for her most important lines. Grover sold him out to the headmaster, gaslit him, revealed how much he’d lied about the world of the gods, agreed to keep lying to him about what he now knows about Sally, and Percy still hasn’t forgiven him.

So, is this a worthy adaptation?

Honestly… I wish it would have been animated, like Arcane or Dragon Prince. Animators would have saved the inexperienced actors from such stiff visual performances. They wouldn’t have had to deal with creating lifelike CGI and could have made some events much more kinetic without the laws of reality getting in the way as this is a story about mythology come to life. It’s a shame, too, that animation is still bound to the shackles of seeming inferior to live action when people absolutely adore Spiderverse and Arcane, and both would have been worse off in the constraints of reality.

The whole thing feels like it tried its best to follow the roadmap of the book, but lost the soul of the book. Changes to the source material are okay if they improve the story, but a lot of the reordering of events and exposition just makes it clunky.

It’s not bad. Gods know it’s already better than the movies in spirit. Maybe it didn’t have the budget or the time or the resources, or Covid caused problems, but this is Disney Money. There are ten whole books in this series and a fandom rabid for a good adaptation. There is zero excuse not to invest the proper time, money, and effort into hitting it out of the park when you can commit to ten entire seasons of a show in the era of eight-to-ten episode stints.

Maybe I’m being too hard on it, you decide. I’m tired of giving the Mouse the benefit of the doubt when they have All the Money at their disposal to hire the best people possible for the job and to get it right this time.

[fioras-resolve]

I beat Virtue's Last Reward, thoughts under the cut

-Huh?

-Okay, not huh as in "I don't understand," I get it fully, I mean "Why was this the ending?" I guess I'll have to play Zero Time Dilemma to find out huh.

-This is definitely the kinda thing I'm gonna have to spend several days processing, similar to 999

-I'm thinking a bit about how the ending of a thing can overshadow so much else in a story, like even though I've experienced the rest of the story, I'm struck by just the ending right now.

-I think all-in-all the main thing I'll say is that this game got me to feel things, it got me to love, to loathe, to betray and be betrayed. I don't think a game has done that this well for me in a good while. It's inspiring tbh. Did I mention I'm a game developer? This will definitely influence my work moving forward.

-I cannot fucking IMAGINE playing this game in 2012 and having to wait 4 years for Zero Time Dilemma to come out. Y'all were hanging on that cliff so long, and it was very possible you'd never get up. As an Ace Attorney fan living on hiatus brain, I know the feeling, but also GOD, at least Ace Attorney had a consistent flow of games when I was most into it.

-I am... mixed, on how this game handles returning characters from 999. The big thing right now is This Is Not My Akane. She's basically unrecognizable, even in her past state where she looks the same. I was thinking during that whole ending, "Okay, but why did it have to be AKANE? She's been through this so many times and probably has six layers of PTSD from the thing, so why would she ever agree to this?" And it feels like the answer is a kind of puzzle-box solution that I find really strange all things considered. Like, yes, 999's ending was a mindfuck, but it also genuinely pulled at the heartstrings because like. Yeah, you were saving Akane, and this is someone that we'd built a connection to both as a character and as a player.

-I guess the thing there is that like, that kind of heartstrings ending is a single route of 999, but it's all over VLR. The ending feels like an answer to the mystery, but not to the themes, or the question of "why does this game exist?"

-It feels like Uchikoshi wanted to follow up on the cult success of 999 by making something Bigger, an even more complex mystery with even more paths and even more moving parts. And he got so invested in making this puzzle box cohere that the game ends up sidelining emotional resonance even when it's trying not to.

-I've been talking to a friend of mine who played it a while ago and felt physically ill after the ending, and like. First of all, yeah, different people just have different tolerable levels of bullshit. But also, I feel like plural systems like myself innately have more of a resistance to it because our minds are already fucky enough. Legit, during the reveal of the swap I was thinking "Oh so he dissociated for 45 years."

-Sidenote, Zero Escape feels intensely gnostic, from what little I know of gnosticism. It feels like these games are trying to use science as a conduit/justification for a philosophy I'm not sure if I vibe with. But I can vibe with it for the purpose of storytelling.

-I think I like VLR more than 999? Like, VLR is definitely playing with bigger ideas and following up on 999 in ways I really appreciate. And in general th--

-Midway through typing the previous thing I realized, holy shit, I have a similar relationship to this game that I do to Final Fantasy XIII-2. They're both sequels that follow up on their previous games with blanket improvements to both story and gameplay, but both have endings that leave me confused as to what these games are actually doing besides filling in plot before the next game. And yes, both VLR and XIII-2 are doing amazing things in the beginning and the middle, but the answer to "what is this leading to" for both seems to be "play the next game, fucker."

-I think the thing I'm pissed about is the justification given for the AB game. Like, the mechanic inherently carries interesting themes about trust, self-interest, game theory, etc. The reveals of what everyone else voted are some of the most gripping moments I've experienced in video games. I was ready for this to be going somewhere with these ideas! And then the reveal is that the reason the game was constructed like this was to give you more moments of choice to time travel through. And like, okay, fine, this game's got its higher level stuff about choice and agency and all that, that all works! But for the Ambidex Game to be primarily about making the player make the exact right choices to lead to the perfect ending, it's... Ugh! I thought the point was to explore all these other possibilities, that's why all the different endings!

-I need more time to process this game, but right now my take is this: Virtue's Last Reward is an amazing game until you realize what it is. It's a game that can raise your emotions high and get you truly fucked up. But as you play more of it, it reveals its true focus is this almost mechanical construction of plot. This construction is beautiful in its own way, but it's not what I come to a game like this for. Despite being a game designer who talks a lot about game mechanics and systems, I care so much about story. I want to get attached to characters, I want to see a narrative unfold, I want to have my heartstrings pulled. And the game seems too sure of itself to remember to pull it off.

-Or maybe this is the wrong way of looking at it? Maybe I'm criticizing what it isn't, rather than appreciating what it is. This game isn't trying to be 999 and failing, it's trying to be Virtue's Last Reward and succeeding. And I'm still along for this ride.

[lithiumflowerbri]

I am so angry right now. Over the course of the beginning of December and a wedding I found my Dad on Twitter. Holy shit, it reads like Qanon and Elon fan boy with zero empathy, zero understanding, and the typical right wing Boomer shit.

To be fair, I have been ignoring him after I exploded on him and Mom because they popped a transgender joke and didn't even have the courtesy to apologize. I did not know how far he had slipped down the q hole.

How do I cut them off is the question I ask. I do not depend on them for anything, and I'm to the point I am telling them that I don't want anything from them, ever. The only thing remotely tolerable is when they die, a decent portion of a 6 way inheritance comes this way, but it isnt even mine. It's my kids. I won't touch it, I won't ever use it, and I don't think it is worth continuing to out up with the BS that continues to rip my head apart. Mind you, I am still 6' tall, presenting as male with a beard... (All I am going to say is right wing US states will murder you if they find out.) And all of 230 lbs of muscle. They still didn't think twice to Crack that joke in front of my children who I am raising to be the most accepting and kind people they can be.

At this point, I think cutting my parents off entirely from my kids and family is going to be the best option because they are trying to force radical Christianity into my family and I cannot allow this. My only reaction has been violence or leaving to protect myself from initiating violence because I have no emotions left. None, I feel empty or angry, that's it. What is this and why do I not have the capacity to correct people I once loved without immediately resorting to leaving or violence?

I don't know, it hurts to lose parents to thier God of greed and mass shootings and know there is nothing you can do.

Any advice helps.

[syrupspinner]

I defeated Endica VII: The Dream King

I wonder how many people can say that?

I have a weird history with this game. when I was a kid, I loved reading fan wikis, and one of my favorites was the magaman database despite never playing any of the games. since I was terrified of emulation ever since I got a virus from angelfire, my only hope was fangames. and the game that looked the coolest was... Mega Man Perfect Harmony!

id attach an image of the gameplay, but all kid me cared about was having a million (24) playable characters, thats really all you need. I'd check the website for it from time to time, and eventually I saw that it had inexplicably morphed into something called Endica, an original story. from what i can tell, its a pretty thorough reskin, but a reskin nonetheless, you can see stuff attacks and level layouts that were taken over wholecloth.

i think it was just a kcikstarter at the time, but i didnt donate. sorry dev guy. I bought it when it came to steam later though! before it was unlisted. but then it was put on the devs website for free, so you can still play it if you want.

that's it for the history. I just wanted to give a little background about it, because I'm not sure if anyone else would.

so, how'd the game turn out? I... have my criticisms. I promise I won't be some caustic asshole about it, but it's hard to recommend.

so it's pretty clearly inspired by classic megaman in the controls, only you have a melee attack zero-style. as for the graphics, I'm not sure what they were going for. it's like, kinda retro? but everything is super shaded and like... the only thing I can compare it to is the cdi. like, the gameplay sprites and backgrounds and stuff. it's kinda cool, like an oil painting on a crt, but I'm taken out of it by how the enemies squash and stretch, and how the coins look so unshaded and layered on top, and how healing is just an Adobe aftereffect... I can see what they were going for but it doesn't stick the landing

there was a huge multiplayer angle for the game too. it was designed to let you have four players simultaneously, nsmb style, so the levels are all really wide open to accommodate. I can't comment on this, BUT I can comment on all the characters they added to facilitate this. they all play just differently enough, and they all have upgradable moves, so it's pretty impressive and surprisingly fun to- holy shit is that the kid from shovel knight

so quick aside. I played this game before shovel knight, but I knew that there's no way shovel knight was referencing Endica, so I looked it up and it turns out that he's a backer character... in a loooooot of games. his creator, seizui, just funds his roleplay OC into a bunch of Kickstarter projects. it's awesome and I love him

anyway yeah, gameplay. it's kind of a metroidvania? you can get character upgrades but im pretty sure it's all combat stuff. my advice is to skip it whenever you can, I got a ring that let me crash the game at any time by hitting c

there's a plot, I've been told. it's a pretty basic "go here and kill evil" thing. surprisingly, reize gets the most character development, he has this whole subplot with his dad and stuff. yeah other than that it just kinda feels like characters say things, y'know? it's all written like a cartoon that just came back from a commercial. "oh, no! we have to stop the giant goblin before it destroys the town!" kinda thing, where it's more establishing basic stuff instead of setting up the characters

so yeah, it's hard to sugarcoat how unenjoyable this was. I respect the work that was put into it though! this game wasn't a waste of time, but it's hard to articulate why without it sounding backhanded. it's... charmingly flawed? there are games I've hovered between completely uninvensted and dispassionately frustrated the whole time, and this wasn't that. there's genuine heart here, an artistic vision with sincere effort behind it. if you have a tolerance for roughness, it's sincerely worth checking out, especially if you're a developer. since it's a game that's bad without being abysmal dogshit, I think it'll be really worthwhile to analyze what doesnt work and why if you're designing your own game.

also, check out the devs other projects! I haven't had the chance to try it myself, but Azazel looks like it'd be fun to try!

[elisaintime]

It seems some people are still confused 🙄

The April 30 IWTV Premiere event is an invite-only event. The people AMC invites to events like these are journalists, reporters, content creators, influencers, anyone who they think could promote the show and spread news about it--something I've been committed to using my long-established vampire-focused platform to do ever since it was first announced.

The contest was a wonderful opportunity to offer 8 fans a chance to win tickets to this invite-only event. Those 8 fans were chosen at random, and the lucky winners get to attend despite not being influencers/content creators. I didn't enter the contest because I wanted to leave those 8 chances to the fans who deserve them.

I DID get invited along with all the other regular people who got invited, which came as a surprise to me, because I'm not a NY local anymore. A very pleasant surprise! And even though I no longer live there, I am going to invest hundreds of dollars to be able to attend. But the surprise wasn't a shock. AMC likes my videos, despite how I both praise and critique the show in many ways. Reviewers can be critical, and networks don't ever expect all reviews and analyses to be 100% glowing all the time. I talked about far more positive and exciting things about the show than negative, but some people only wanted to hear the negative and assume I hate the show, despite how obviously obsessed with it I am. AMC clearly doesn't mind any critical opinions I have of the show, as they emailed me long ago to praise my videos and ask to use clips from them in one of their promotional campaigns.

The friend/colleague I'm bringing as my plus1 to the event loves the show, and we are both so excited to experience it! I've seen it going around on twitter that there are actual show-haters who have "infiltrated" the event and plan to start shit. If I encounter any of them, I will shut them down to the best of my ability. This event is a celebration for this season I've been eagerly awaiting for a year and a half, and I am honored to be invited to it.

As a content creator, I will discuss the event in my videos, perhaps even be able to share footage or photos, and you can look forward to looking to me for more detailed and insightful information about it than you would be able to get from non-content-creator-fans OR from non-fan-content-creators. This show has a lot of hot button issues and sensitive topics associated with it that merit much discussion--both for how well the show does in handling them and in the areas where I think it falls short. I have zero tolerance for hate speech, racism, homophobia, or bigotry of any kind, and just like I always do, I will delete report and ban any of it that appears in my YouTube comments or in any of my other spaces.

I am one of you, and I am here for you ❤️ I have spent decades studying the vampire chronicles and Anne Rice in general in order to become an expert on her work, and all I ever want is to share my knowledge and passion for it with those who are interested in hearing about it.

😱😱😱 What could it mean??? Everyone's assuming it has to do with the Premiere next week in NYC, because they also announced the winner of the contest today (that person got emailed, not DMed through Twitter like this). But I didn't even enter that contest! I didn't think I'd be able to swing a trip on such short notice. But if that's what it is omg I'm buying a plane ticket immediately!

My guess is they reached out to fans who follow their twitter account. Maybe just ones with larger followings of their own? I know of two other people who got the same DM. But were there more?? Did anyone else get this message??

I'm definitely not holding my breath that it's an invite to the NY premiere, but you better believe I'll be refreshing my inbox constantly until I get their email and find out what this is actually all about 🤩

They emailed me last year, asking about using clips from my videos on Season 1 in their binge watching campaign. I signed a contract, but never heard anything about that after. The other two people I know of who got the message are also content creators, so maybe it's something similar??

[28whitepeonies]

Hi Bea, hope it's okay for me to ask this, being part of the spectrum it's quite hard for me to understand things and evaluate them. Been IA for a past few months and I finally got to hear the new Louis' Zach Sang interview!! and I'm quite confused on why some people here said that Louis confirmed that he indeed have a choking kink but I've replayed it several times and I never heard him said yes about that? Am I just stupid or ? All I've understand that he's an andrenaline junkie. Help me out?

Hi friend

You are welcome in my inbox any time.

You are not stupid. If I think anyone is stupid, it is the people listening to that interview and coming away saying that Louis confirmed anything of the sort. I went back and listened again to remind myself exactly how that part of the convo went and because I want to be really clear about what Louis said, and for ease of reference, I've transcribed that section and put it under the cut.

I think it is reasonably clear what Louis is telling us here, and I think anything fans are saying about how this proves he has a choking kink is them justifying their behaviour. He talks a lot in general about how much he loves the energy of live shows, and the way that he almost feeds off that. What he described in Zach Sang was why he loves going down to barricade so much - that feeling he gets stepping out on stage is amplified, it's ten times stronger and better when he's down there with fans. He describes that as being the best part of the performance by far. I think it is clear this is a part of the show that Louis really loves.

None of what he loves does he describe as being related to the way fans behave and he does talk about it getting too much when a fan put their hands on his genitals. To suggest that anything Louis said in that interview, or elsewhere until now, means he consents to it, never mind that it signifies his enjoyment of it, shows a blatant disregard for what consent actually means and is genuinely quite terrifying. And every time a fan says something like "oh but look at hime he loves it" or "omg he's got a choking kink" they contribute to the environment where someone feels they can put their hands on his genitals without his permission.

I want to also take a second to focus on what he said about that Burberry shirt which was ripped and he said that wearing a button up was his 'first mistake'. I think it's quite likely Louis won't wear a shirt like that again, and that's an example of him being faced with a choice over changing what he wears to avoid fan's being able to pull his clothes off or wearing what he likes and being faced by that behaviour and I think that's representative of the bigger issue here.

Louis clearly loves the experience of being in the pit but being in the pit means fans touching him without his consent in a manner that could be quite harmful (whether that's a hand round his throat or a hand on his genitals). But I want to be really, really clear about this - Louis going back to barricade does not equal consent. I’d also like to be clear that whatever kinks Louis might have aren’t relevant - that wouldn’t make this a consensual interaction.

[The transcript is below.]

Zach: I see photos of you on the barricade... you allow people to touch you

Louis: Yeah, oh yeah man sometimes it gets pretty crazy

Zach: Oh you've been choked

Louis: Yeah do you know what that happened at like one show and then I swear like every other show now someone's got their hand on my neck. It got a little bit weird when someone grabbed my dick one show and that was a little bit extra, that was a bit too much.

Zach: A little bit?

Louis: Yeah, yeah, but I'm not going to lie, and without going into specifics about whatever they do when I'm down there, the feeling that I get when I walk out for the first song and I see the crowd for the first time, that's like one-tenth of the feeling when I go down into the pit. It's like that feeling kind of bottled up and thrown over you, and there's so much energy and so much intensity in those moments that it is by far my favourite part of the show.

Zach: It is gross, seeing people stick their fingers in your mouth

Louis: That was weird!! Did you see that yeah?! I watched the video and I think I thought that was the mic or something, I looked a little bit confused in that video. I don't even remember it, that's the other thing, once you're down there it all happens so quick and it's so chaotic. Like I remember watching that video back and I don't even remember it happening.

Zach: That energy does make you think, it changes perspective, as it relates to music and impact and really understanding who you are performing to

Louis: Definitely, definitely, not quite got round to fully immersing myself in the crowd. Maybe next tour.

Zach: To be honest, they're getting very personal and handsy. [To the camera] Like watch your hands.

Louis: It gets intense I will say that. Across South America, different gravy that. It was amazing/scary at the same time. Incredible. I had a shirt ripped off me, a nice Burberry shirt, a button up that was my first mistake, I went with a button up shirt. I went down and they literally just pulled it from me and just completely ripped it to shreds.

Dan: That must be a weird experience though? Because with One Direction you guys never got to get that close to the crowd did you?

Louis: No, I feel like there might have been in the earlier days, I personally did do a bit of that. I don't know on what song, you're hardly going to go down to WMYB and immerse yourself in the pit, but yeah it is. I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I had an experience even remotely similar to that. It is by far the best part of the show and I've seen some of my fans speculate like 'Why does he like that? It looks scary and intense or whatever' but that's kind of why it's exciting. There is an element of danger to it that makes it feel really amazing. Like I said before, if you understand what a feeling of adrenaline is, it is like times ten in that moment. It's unavoidable, it is on top of you almost.

[astaroth1357]

How about the brothers + diavolo reacting to an mc that smokes cigarettes, but only when stressed out? I hope this ask doesn't make you feel uncomfortable. 🙂

So this is interesting for me because I'm actually an asthmatic and cigarette smoke is one of my triggers. Naturally, that means I'm not the biggest fan of smoking (because I like breathing air) but I'm going to try not to turn this into a straight PSA. I assume if you smoke, you already know what's up and if you don’t, you're probably not considering it and leave things at that. I imagine what you want is the characters' perspectives and not mine, so I'll do my best to give that to you here. I hope you like it!

An MC Who's a Stress Smoker

Lucifer

Not the biggest fan of their habit, but mostly due to smell. Actually needing that bit of stress relief - he totally gets.

After he found out that they smoke he set a lot of ground rules: "No smoking in the House; No smoking at RAD; No smoking in uniform" yadi-yadi-yada… but he never straight up banned them from doing it.

If he catches the MC out smoking, he'll usually keep his distance until they've finished (and ideally changed clothes) before calling them in to ask what's wrong.

If they can't keep to the rules, that's when he's going to start having a problem. Cigarette/cigar smoke gives him a headache and he really can’t tolerate it for long…

If they start smoking in places they're not supposed to, then he will try to ban them cold turkey so better stay mindful about it. It wouldn’t take many slip ups unfortunately…

 

Mammon

Yeah… I know some people HC that Mammon smokes too. I wouldn't go that far, but I'll say he's most likely done it before.

Mammon picked up smoking for a century or so from his trips to the human world (humans freaking loved tobacco for some reason) but eventually stopped because the smell annoyed Lucifer and it has some weird effects on Diavolo…

When he caught the MC smoking on their balcony the first time, he was a little surprised because he didn't peg them for the type, but throwing stones in glass houses and all that… Who is he to judge?

Mammon actually likes to stick around during their outdoor smoke sessions. It's a pretty relaxing, dare say intimate, affair. He'll grab a cigarette himself and just let them vent about whatever's bothering them. Zero judgment about it all.

He will warn the MC about Lucifer’s dislike of the smell though… They have to be careful or he'll start getting on their case, you know?

Leviathan 

Smoking is fairly common among badass characters in anime so it's not like he has a super negative image of it to start with, anyway. 🤷‍♀️

Surprisingly understanding of their coping mechanism, I mean, this man has made a life out of his own.

If he sees that they’re out smoking he may pop out to go ask what's up. He won't be much bothered by the smoke unless they blow it right in his face or something (which is a little rude anyway).

Will be a little disappointed that the MC only does it to calm down and they're not actually some kind of secret badass (or maybe they are, I dunno) but he gets the need to have some kind of grounding more than most.

Isn't nearly as bothered by the smell as Lucifer, but not about to jump in and join them like Mammon… He's pretty down the middle about it.

 

Satan

Though he can't fault them for looking for relief, he's done enough research into human health that he really can’t condone this method…

Satan, bless his black soul, is going to be the nag of the family. He will bring up how unhealthy smoking is and he will urge them to try and find a different habit.

To be fair, he did the same to Mammon too - but to a lesser extent because demon bodies can cope with the toxins a lot better. Since the MC is human, he feels a lot of urgency… it comes from a good place.

The MC should expect to have to hide from Satan if they’re out smoking because he will crash their de-stressing with a mini-lecture. He won't go as far as to take the cigarette from their hands, but he will ask them to put it out.

He's not blind to their feelings, though. If they’re smoking, he'll ask what's wrong and how he can help so they can just stop for the night. If they do want to quit, then he's more than willing to support them through the transition. He won't leave them high and dry, but he will make his thoughts known. Be aware of that.

 

Asmodeus 

Uh, don't they know what smoking does to your skin? Your teeth?? Oh no, honey, you gotta try something else!

Yeah like Satan, Asmo isn't a huge fan but unlike Satan he's mostly worried about the physical damages alone. Poor guy can't understand why someone would actively do something with those negative effects when there are much healthier options!

He will pretty much be on a mission to give them other stress relief outlets like massages, bathes, music, meditation, or whatever else he can think of. He'll keep throwing stuff at a wall until it sticks. 🤷‍♀️

Again, it comes from a good place (albeit a somewhat more shallow one) but he cares deeply about them and always wants them to always look their best.

Unfortunately, Asmo's not even coming near them if he sees them smoking. He knows secondhand is a thing and he wouldn’t risk it, but he may call them or text them while they're out there to see what's wrong.

 

Beelzebub 

Beel's pretty easygoing one way or another so I see him accepting the MC's choice with little judgment. Their life and all.

Being an athlete, I also can imagine he may have a bit of knowledge about why it's not good for you but he won’t hammer it in like Satan. He might remind them once or twice if they start coughing because he worries… but that’s about it.

If there's anything he's going to be sad about, though, it's if their smoking habit starts to diminish their sense of taste… There’s so many foods he wants to share with them, he hopes they can enjoy it all… 😥

If Beel sees them out smoking, he'll pull a Levi and just come out to see what's wrong. He may not stay long because he doesn’t want to breathe in too much secondhand (still an athlete and all) but he'll still check in on them… Such a sweet guy.

 

Belphegor 

The smell did take some getting used to, but he used to nap around Mammon all the time so it's not like it's unfamiliar. He can adapt.

Really can't give two shits on whether or not their habit is healthy for them. In the long term, that may bite him in the ass, but that’s also kind of Sloth's whole deal so…

More or less would treat them the exact same way, smoking or not, because that doesn't much affect him or his chances to cuddle them.

If there's anything that is going to bother him, it might be coughing when he's trying to sleep... But that won't be a serious concern unless it gets BAD.

If Belphie sees them out smoking, he'll ask what's wrong… but also if they want to just come inside and sleep the problem off. He's trying to help… in his own way. 🤷‍♀️

 

Diavolo 

Daddy Devil smoked and you can't convince me otherwise.

The smell of cigarettes and cigars kind of give Diavolo a knee-jerk familiar reaction - like when you smell a food or soap that you associate with your childhood. It may not be a good smell or one you even like, but you're drawn to it anyway for the memories.

Doesn't matter how many times the MC has changed clothes or how long they scrub their body for, he can still smell it on them and it's like hitting a lightswitch in his brain - he knows that smell and it's oddly comforting…

Diavolo is going to hover around them a lot. Expect a lot of hugs or just standing a bit too close so he can get a good whiff. Lucifer is going to be utterly confused by his actions but Barbs knows what's up.

The MC is strictly forbidden by Lucifer to smoke anywhere near Diavolo, but that’s hardly going to matter. He can pick up when they've done it recently and he'll ask what's wrong… probably while hugging them because he's looking for that comfort too.

[tillidontneedfantasy]

A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Taylor Swift’s 9th Studio Album: ‘evermore’

“My collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore’s sister record is here. It’s called evermore,” is how Taylor Swift introduces us to this album in its foreword. One might assume a “sister record” would entail b-sides, or tracks that didn’t quite make the cut for folklore, despite Taylor’s explanation that “we just couldn’t stop writing songs.” evermore’s release came at a strange time, upon the heels of the Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions film on Disney+, as well as 5 Grammy nominations for folklore. The world still captivated by folklore, it’s understandable why one might not consume evermore as critically. Even as a die-hard fan, I felt some whiplash by this announcement; I am still processing folklore! Hell, I’m still processing reputation!

If this was the Taylor from two years ago, this may have been a big enough fear of hers to hold off on releasing evermore. But as she explained upon folklore’s surprise release, life is too unpredictable now, and there are zero givens or guarantees. So she followed the same path this time (although making sure it fell in line with her birthday weekend). But it’s not just the strategic timing of the release that she’s thrown out the window for now, but also her mindset whilst making records. As she explains in the evermore album foreword,

“I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as one-off eras and moved onto planning the next one as soon as an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found. So I just kept writing them.”

This is a revelation for Swift, to let the music lead her into artistic freedom, which is what makes evermore such a triumphant return. Truly folklore’s sister record, Taylor wrote evermore with the same creative team: Aaron Dessner of The National (Swift’s favorite band), long-time pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and William Bowery aka Swift’s boyfriend, Joe Alwyn (as officially revealed in the Long Pond Studio Sessions). Additionally, former 1989 tour openers and close friends of Taylor, the HAIM sisters, join the crew, along with Marcus Mumford for some dreamy backup vocals.

The production is just as wistful and mesmerizing as it was on folklore, yet the storytelling on evermore is kicked up a notch, expanding on the topics and worldbuilding established in its sister record, with even sharper lyrics and an effective and elaborate use of alliteration. The best thing about Taylor is that no matter what she does, her masterful lyricism is always at the heart of her art, and somehow, she keeps getting better. Once again, I wanted to explore the rich stories she’s crafted in this woodsy universe. This is how I’ve interpreted the album, but I hope you find your own meaning in the songs as well.

1. willow It is fitting that the opening track to folklore’s sister album, where we wade further into the forest that is Taylor Swift’s imagination and storytelling, would center on the type of tree that is a symbol of hope, belonging, safety, stability, and healing. “willow,” one of the few more obviously autobiographical tracks on the album, is a hymn of gratitude for her man (as she wants you to know, yes, thirteen times), Joe Alwyn, and how the invisible string tethering them together pulled her to him in a time when everyone else was counting her out. Though not as present on many of the other songs later to come on this record, you can feel the lightness in her heart on this song as she embraces the way in which the willow has bent, wrecking her plans, throwing her into the water and leaving her happily lost and afloat in his current. The downward key modulation throughout the last two repetitions of the chorus is beautiful and very fitting for Swift vocally, but also sounds like the feeling of finding your comfort and settling into it, basking it in while you wait for the next place the wind pulls you. Best lyric: “Now this is an open/shut case / I guess I should’ve known from the look on your face / Every bait and switch was a work of art.”

2. champagne problems On the second track of the album, Taylor dives back into the fictional worldbuilding she began to explore on folklore. While on folklore high school relationships and dramatics took center-stage, evermore graduates from adolescence to young adulthood, not that it is any easier emotionally on the listener’s heart. “champagne problems” chronicles a rejected marriage proposal between two college sweethearts at their old dorm building. Taylor sings as the narrator, a reflective, self-deprecating young woman who jokes about belonging in a madhouse and dismisses all her turmoil as champagne problems. The term ‘champagne problems’ itself could have various meanings here: their trivial concerns, the fact that their “sister splashed out on the bottle” of champagne that they will not be using to celebrate as they had hoped, or perhaps it could even hint that excessive drinking is a piece of all the ways the narrator is “fucked in the head,” as they said. Although the person she is singing to is the one who got hurt in the story, the hurt in the narrator’s heart is just as palpable and relatable, because you only have yourself to blame when you self-destruct. Best lyric: “’She would’ve made such a lovely bride, / what a shame she’s fucked in the head,’ they said / but you’ll find the real thing instead / she’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred.”

3. gold rush On her YouTube live chat prior to the album’s release, Taylor explained that this song “takes place inside a single daydream where you get lost in thought for a minute and then snap out of it.” The daydream consists of a love story so pure that the town had never seen such a thing; it could only happen in a fantasy for the narrator. How could she possibly have the gall to call them out on their contrarian shit, or end up with her Eagles t-shirt hanging from their door, when they are so coveted by all, and when she cannot withstand the thought of even competing? She sings, “My mind turns your life into folklore / I can’t dare to dream about you anymore,” a sweet little connecting piece to this album’s older sister, effectively convincing herself out of the idea of jumping into the chaos of the gold rush because even inside her own imagination it’s too dangerous. Best lyric: “I don’t like that falling feels like flying ‘till the bone crush.”

4. ‘tis the damn season According to Aaron Dessner, Taylor had written the lyrics for “’tis the damn season” in the middle of the night amidst their Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions recording after a long night of chatting and drinking with their co-conspirator, Jack Antonoff. The lyrics perfectly encapsulate the guttural ache the track evokes. It is a tale of two people who always find their way back to one another in their hometown, which acts as the ever-returning fork in the road. The path taken, back to L.A. in pursuit of her dreams, is the one she chose and continues to choose, but whenever she returns home, she takes a ride down the road not taken, just to get a taste of what could have been, even if just for the weekend. What starts off as an icy homecoming always transforms into the warmest intimacy. The success of this track is aligned with the success of Taylor’s entire career; even with such specific details, it feels so deeply personal to the listener. You know the street you’d drive along late at night laughing, the spot you’d park the car, the person who stars in every what-if. You will never really know if the road not taken is as good as it seems, but that might be ok; sometimes, the fantasy is better than the reality, anyway. Best lyric: “It’s the kind of cold / fogs up windshield glass, but I felt it when I passed you / There’s an ache in you / put there by the ache in me.”

5. tolerate it Inspired by the novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, “tolerate it” is an agonizing track from the perspective of a devoted wife who polishes plates and paints portraits and waits by the door for her husband with a battle hero’s welcome, who at best tolerates all her adoration. There are few things as painful as idolization being met with indifference, when you have all this love to give to someone who just leaves it there untouched. “tolerate it” captures that desperation for the approval you know will never arrive, but you sit and watch, waiting for it just in case you’re wrong, but you know you’re not. Best lyric: “I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life / drawing hearts in the byline”

6. no body, no crime feat. HAIM “no body, no crime,” the one evermore song solo-written by Taylor, has the clearest plot from beginning to end. In the same vein as the female powerhouse country classic “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks, Taylor is out for blood to avenge her friend, Este (named for one of the HAIM sisters). The story goes as such: Este’s husband kills her for calling him out on his infidelity, and then Taylor kills the husband and frames his mistress. The HAIM girls, who are long-time friends of Taylor’s and former touring mates, lend their vocals to reinforce the accusation on the husband and to provide Taylor’s alibi. “no body, no crime” is so far the closest we’ve gotten to a return to “country Taylor,” proving that she is still the master of a killer country tune (yes, pun intended, it had to be done I’m sorry). Best lyric: “Good thing Este’s sister’s gonna swear she was with me / (she was with me, dude) / Good thing his mistress took out a big life insurance policy”

7. happiness Written a week before the album’s release, “happiness” is one of Swift’s strongest and most reflective breakup songs. Although she writes it as though it is recent, there’s a lot of power in knowing that she’s been happily in love for four years, and that she is even better now at doing the thing that has always been best at. She is finally “above the trees,” as she sings, and is able to see it all for what it is, but her character is still in the heat of it all, trying to navigate the stages of grief when a relationship ends. We see the narrator grapple with many of those stages throughout the song. Most striking is the anger displayed in the second verse when she sings: “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool who takes my spot next to you / No, I didn’t mean that, / sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury.” That section is jarring and feels like one of the most honest moments in a Taylor song, the insanely difficult emotional balancing act when we are grieving a relationship. The devastation of loss can distort our perception, and a part of that is the difficulty of understanding how multiple seemingly opposing things can co-exist in our hearts, such as happiness because of someone and happiness after them. But when you leave it all behind and finally find your place above the trees, you can find happiness after someone and also look back and appreciate the happiness they once provided. Both of these things can be true. Best lyric: “Showed you all of my hiding spots / I was dancing when the music stopped.”

8. dorothea Taylor Swift has the uncanny ability to create such developed and well-rounded characters with such little information, which is what makes her storytelling so compelling. In “dorothea,” we learn much about the title character through the narrator’s eyes, and the relationship they once had. The lyric “skipping the prom just to piss off your mom and her pageant schemes” alone tells an entire story in itself. “dorothea” is also the companion song to “’tis the damn season,” just from the other person’s perspective, which helps shine even more light on the story. The narrator of “dorothea” reveres her but wonders if she’s still the same soul in L.A. as she was back in their never-changing town. Whatever the answer, they’re still willing to support her no matter where she is, but she’s always welcome back in Tupelo by her hometown love’s side if she ever just wants to be herself rather than someone known for who they know. Besides, they’re the only soul who can tell which smiles she’s faking. And you can always return to the road not taken. Best lyric: “They all wanna be ya / but are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? / Well, I guess I’ll never know / and you’ll go on with the show.”

9. coney island feat. The National What really started the folklore / evermore journey was Taylor’s love for The National. Taylor has cited them as one of her favorite bands for many years, and as we know, this led to her beautiful new collaborative relationship with Aaron Dessner. So it would make sense for the track written with the intention of this duet to be so well executed; you can feel the love and care Taylor put into writing this song. In her press for these sister albums, she has spoken about trying to channel frontman Matt Berninger’s writing style. But what actually happened was she just produced her own signature lyricism at its sharpest. “We were like the mall before the internet, it was the one place to be / the mischief, the gift-wrapped suburban dreams / sorry for not winning you an arcade ring over and over,” is a hall of famer Swift-ian lyric. “coney island” explores the confusion, hurt, and self-reflection when a passionate affair burns out fast because you did not prioritize that person. And to top it off, Swift and Berninger’s harmonies are achingly beautiful, transporting you right there in the story, on the bench, wondering, over and over. Best lyric: “Do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there? / Will you forgive my soul when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care?”

10. ivy Leave it to Taylor Swift to make a song about an affair sound so romantic, and so sympathetic to the narrator, that you’re rooting for adultery. “ivy” tells the tale of a woman in a lifeless marriage, likening her home with him to the tombstone that the widow in town visits each day. I like to think this is the same wife whose husband was out there building other worlds without her in “tolerate it,” because then that means she found someone who celebrates her love, who holds her pain for her, who blooms all over her; they started it, but she’s fighting for it all the way to the end, nonetheless. “ivy” showcases Swift’s gorgeous vocals and her sharp lyrics, with a melody so infectious it is bound to permanently plant its roots in your dreamland. Best lyric: “Oh, I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland / my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I’m covered in you.”

11. cowboy like me With the beautifully blended backing vocals of Marcus Mumford, “cowboy like me” is an entrancing love story of two con artists who lost at their own game and got conned into forever with each other. She’d gone from swindling old men for their money and fancy cars to falling victim to the danger of dancing with someone who only has eyes full of stars, and she knows she’ll pay for it. “cowboy like me” is one of the most romantic tracks on the record, proving that life never plays out quite as we plan. Best lyric: “Now you hang from my lips like the gardens of Babylon / with your boots beneath my bed / Forever is the sweetest con.”

12. long story short One of the more pop-sounding tracks on evermore, “long story short” is pretty much a summary of the long story behind reputation (2017). The song is filled with various metaphors for her reputation crumbling around her, and then finally putting her defenses down to be with her lover, someone as “rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky.” It is a sweet ode to her boyfriend, and a gentle comfort to her past self that it will all work out. But it is also an oddly relatable example of how we shrug off our struggles and minimize them to just a “bad time,” when the time she is singing about was obviously something that deeply affected her (as will be further explored in the title track); but sometimes it actually feels good to just shrug it off as just a blip in your life, because at the end of the day, you survived, and that’s what counts- even if you’re not keeping score anymore. Best lyric: “Pushed from the precipice / clung to the nearest lips / long story short, it was the wrong guy. / Now I’m all about you.”

13. marjorie Whereas track 13 on folklore was a tribute to Swift’s paternal grandfather, evermore’s track 13 is a tribute to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, who was an opera singer in the 50s, and passed away in 2003 when Taylor was 13 years old. “marjorie” is quite possibly the most touching track Taylor has ever written thus far in her career. Grief is one of the most difficult topics to tackle in a song; the genius of “marjorie” is that it is simple, yet not understated. Swift reflects on the profound lessons she learned from her grandmother, about the difficult balances of kindness and cleverness, and politeness and power. She curses herself for not cherishing the moments she had with her, for complaining rather than understanding in the moment how admirable her spirit was, for all the amber skies she’d love but will never see. The chorus, blunt and hard-hitting, reminds us that someone does not have to be living to be alive, to be all around, to be with us. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were singing to me now,” Taylor sings towards the end of the song, right before you hear a sample of Finlay’s opera singing in the background, a truly eye-swelling moment. It is clear that Finlay played a pivotal role in Swift’s own ambitions, as she sings, “all your closets of backlogged dreams, and how you left them all to me.” Marjorie knew she was leaving them in good hands. If you haven’t yet, check out the moving lyric video for the song, where you can see photos and video clips of Marjorie, both throughout her career and in her time with Taylor. Best lyric: “Never be so polite you forget your power, / never wield such power you forget to be polite.”

14. closure On the most experimental track musically on the record, Taylor writes off her need for closure from a relationship of some sort, whether it be romantic or platonic or business, all of which can cause hurt of equal intensity. The subject of the song is trying to make nice with Taylor, and she is just not having it, as it is not coming from a genuine place, but rather to ensure that their life remains picture perfect, or to clear their guilty conscience, or to preserve their own ego. This is a deeply relatable sentiment; as valuable as forgiveness can be, sometimes the person who hurt you just doesn’t deserve it, and all you can do is forgive yourself for blocking their number or shredding their letters. Best lyric: “I know I’m just a wrinkle in your new life / staying friends would iron it out so nice.”

15. evermore feat. Bon Iver To close out the standard edition of the album, Taylor joins forces once again with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, with whom she collaborated on the Grammy-nominated duet, “exile” for folklore. However, Swift leads most of the track this time, lamenting the difficult time she went through in 2016. The piano and Swift’s vocals are haunting, particularly when she describes this time in her life as “catching my death,” consumed by a pain that she feels will never end. If you’ve ever been depressed, you know what that feels like, and the dark places it leads you. Although she is singing about a time four years prior, it sounds so present, and it is heartbreaking to hear her in such a state. When Bon Iver comes in, the tempo of the song picks up, the piano riff becomes more erratic, like a winter storm hitting you in the face, and he voices all the anxieties of the cost of such a downfall. But through those anxieties, Taylor finds not a cure, but an anchor in love, and then the tempo slows back down. By the end of the song, Taylor has the foresight to understand that although it may not feel like it now, the pain she is experiencing is not permanent (a sentiment my therapist has been trying to instill in me for years). In her Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, Taylor explained how the lyrics parallel the times we are in currently, and so it feels really special to have the album end with someone who knows how it feels to be imprisoned by your pain gently comfort us with the wisdom that “this pain wouldn’t be for evermore.” I hope one day soon, as we leave 2020 far behind, we can all truly believe her. Best lyric: “I was catching my breath / barefoot in the wildest winter catching my death.”

16. right where you left me (bonus track) The first bonus track on evermore, “right where you left me,” captures a moment so earth-crushing, a piece of you is trapped in it forever. In this song specifically, the narrator finds herself stuck in the same corner of a restaurant where she was told by someone she loved that they had met someone else. “Glass shattered on the white cloth, everybody moved on,” she sings in mourning. We have all experienced those moments that we could teleport back to if we just closed our eyes; the scenery, what you wore, the smell and taste of the season, the very point in your body where it felt like your insides were collapsing. Or that one particular person, who is long-gone from your life but seeing them is like time-travelling back to that person you once were, ready to pick up where you left off. But as much as you want to stay in that moment forever, just in case it changes in your favor, the cold reality is that the world stops for no one. Best lyric: “If our love died young, I can’t bear witness / And it’s been so long, but if you ever think you got it wrong / I’m right where you left me.”

17. it’s time to go (bonus track) “right where you left me” was Taylor’s cry for help to get out of restaurant, and “it’s time to go” is the answer to the call, as she sings in the first line, “when the dinner gets cold, and the chatter gets old / you ask for the tab.” This song is about gathering the strength to leave situations and relationships behind that no longer serve you. She grieves the betrayal of someone she thought to be a twin from her dreams (almost definitely referring to former friend, Karlie Kloss), acknowledges that keeping a marriage together for the sake of the kids often actually has the opposite intended effect (possibly- but not certainly- something she and her brother experienced), and recounts attempting to bargain with someone consumed by greed, only able to leave with herself (absolutely referring to the end of her fifteen-year long business relationship with Scott Borchetta, her former record-label owner). But as painful as leaving all of those situations was, Taylor has gained the wisdom to understand that walking away sometimes takes as much strength as persevering. You can’t stay at the restaurant, or at the mercy of someone else forever; you have to forge your own path, even if it’s in the opposite direction of what you envisioned for so long. And even with all her past success behind her, as folklore and evermore have proved, there is so much more ahead of her. Best lyric: “That old familiar body ache, the snaps from the same little breaks in your soul / You know when it’s time to go.”

In a time where we are all trapped in our homes and in our heads, the folklore/evermore experience has been the sweetest escape. If anything, the creation of these wonderful sister records has taught me that our most powerful tool in times of distress is our own imagination. Even just the ability to close my eyes while listening to one of these tracks and feel the character’s story is a gift. The way I’ve always been able to pick up Harry Potter and escape to Hogwarts when I’ve felt alone and friendless, I can listen to folklore and evermore when I feel scared or hopeless and escape into this enchanted forest Taylor has built, where I can climb above the trees and see it all for what it is. I feel so lucky to watch Taylor’s imaginative world unravel around me. I can’t wait to see what she creates next.

DISCLAIMER – REVIEWER’S BIAS: I would literally die for this bitch.  

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Alabasta (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

crocodile is one of my favorite villains in one piece for a number of reasons, and one of them is because he’s such a threat, the first real one faced in the grand line and one of the toughest in all of paradise. the villains from the arcs before this, like wapol or the agents from little garden, could barely even land a hit on luffy in actual combat. so crocodile is introduced here as an absolute force of nature, a complete contrast to recent villains and a very tangible threat. 

it’s an impression he very much lives up to later in the arc by crushing luffy not once but twice, which only makes luffy’s ultimate hard-won triumph feel all the better. luffy closes a huge gap over the course of alabasta in order to be able to beat crocodile, and giving us a sense of just how strong he is from the very start gives luffy clawing his way up to that level a lot more weight. 

the successive reveals of luffy’s family never fail to absolutely delight me, because in any other series they would almost certainly feel contrived, but knowing luffy, it is absolutely unsurprising he just never happened to mention his relatives. nobody asked! luffy’s unique brand of honesty is one of my favorite character quirks, because he’s very straightforward and in fact can’t lie for shit, but his priorities are so completely off the wall that he winds up omitting highly relevant information completely by accident. 

ace’s scene in alabasta really does impress me. oda’s said in an sbs that he knew ace’s fate from his introduction, which i find absolutely unsurprising given the intricacy of his story planning. that means he needed ace’s introduction to make him both likable and memorable enough in the space of just a couple chapters that the audience would be engaged when he became the focus of the story a couple hundred chapters on despite barely appearing at all in the intervening time, and he really succeeded. 

kohza is one of my favorite minor characters in the whole series, and i think he’s a big part of why alabasta’s civil war plotline works so well and feels so real. nobody on either side of the war actually wants to fight, but everyone has been driven to such desperation that they feel they have no other choice in order to save their country; and kohza exemplifies that. he's a good person who loves his country a lot, and who genuinely likes and cares about the royal family and vivi especially, and the only option he can see to save alabasta is terrible, but there’s nothing else he can do. 

it’s just fun for me to think about the fact that if crocodile was literally anything other than a very skilled logia, vivi would have ended the whole entire arc right here. 

i really like civil war storylines when they’re well-done, and i think alabasta is one of the best ones i’ve seen in media. most of it is down to what i mentioned earlier, about how nobody on either side actually wants to fight but feels like they have no choice but to. nobody here is actually in the wrong except for crocodile, and so until crocodile is defeated, nothing can be fixed- which is what luffy, of all people, is the one to realize. 

sanji’s mr. prince gambit is probably my single favorite part of alabasta, and i think one of the reasons i like it so much is because he basically beats crocodile at his own game. crocodile is terrifying in battle, but before anything else he’s a manipulator. he’s always working from the shadows, always deceiving people doing what he wants, and sanji manages to turn the tables on him and do the exact same back to him, twice. 

also sanji looks great in glasses

smoker and tashigi both get kind of unfortunately sidelined after this saga, but they’re both really great characters in alabasta. (tashigi especially; i’ll get to her later.) much like the rebel army, they’re good people trying to do the right thing in the tangled mess of tension and politics and resentment that is alabasta- and when that means working with pirates, they’ll buckle down and do it, despite how much it might contradict their worldviews. 

i love when events align in one piece so that people who don’t particularly like the strawhats wind up working with them for some common goal (as seen most prominently in impel down), and smoker and tashigi in alabasta are the first and still one of the best examples of that. 

the entirety of luffy versus crocodile round one is so well done. we’re a hundred and fifty chapters in, and although luffy has struggled in fights before now and then, we get the sense he hasn’t ever really been pushed to the brink, and he’s certainly never lost.

and then he does, completely and absolutely, without ever even landing a hit on his opponent, and it hits like a punch. 

oda seems to be a fan of characters just barely missing each other- the similar panel of robin and olvia running past each other from robin’s flashback comes to mind.

i’ve always liked that of all the strawhats, it’s usopp who gets the first “luffy is going to be king of the pirates” moment. they’ve all said it by the current chapters in wano (with the sole exception of robin, i believe), but usopp said it first, and that feels significant to me. he’s always been the one who feels the least secure in his place on the crew, but even so, he has so much faith in luffy. 

nami’s fight with miss doublefinger is pretty silly in places and i think it gets frequently (understandably, it must be said) overshadowed by zoro’s fight with mr. 1 directly afterwards, but i really like it nonetheless. it’s nami’s first real solo fight in the whole series, and once she finds her feet she kicks ass, and i really like that. it feels like a very satisfying development for her, to stand up and risk her life in direct combat for vivi’s sake. 

we’re now almost a thousand chapters in and its my firm belief that zoro versus mr. 1 is still one of the best fights in the entire series. i definitely think it’s probably zoro’s best fight- only his match with kaku compares. the narrative build over the course of the fight, from zoro struggling just to match mr. 1 (and getting shredded to pieces in the process) to cutting him down in one final stroke, is incredibly cool and satisfying to watch. it feels like a very tangible step forward for zoro in terms of ability, like a massive obstacle has been surmounted and, as he himself says, he’s now stronger for it. 

its also very cool that this is, i believe, the first appearance of what is probably observation haki, though it isn’t named or recognized as such. i’m always endlessly impressed by all the little moments of internal consistency that oda manages to sprinkle into his story. 

there’s barely any dialogue on these entire two pages, from crocodile dropping vivi to luffy and pell swooping in- the story is briefly told entirely through visuals- and i love that. it gives the impression of a single tense, frozen moment as vivi falls, which is then broken in spectacular fashion when luffy catches her. 

i really, really like the progression that runs through all three of luffy’s fights with crocodile. the gap between them goes from being impossible, with luffy unable to even land a hit and crocodile basically toying with him; to surmountable but still huge, with luffy able to land some hits but still outclassed; to finally putting them on basically even ground. and every inch of that growth on luffy’s part is hard-fought and hard-won and well-deserved. 

crocodile’s confidence in his abilities isn’t misplaced- he genuinely is that powerful. but if there’s anything we know about luffy by now, it’s that he doesn’t ever give up. it’s very fun to watch crocodile’s dismissiveness turn into disbelief turn into rage and frustration when luffy just won’t die. 

luffy is, additionally, pretty clearly a better brawler than crocodile (which makes sense, crocodile is clearly used to devastating long-range attacks with his powers while luffy grew up fighting giant wildlife with his bare hands), which means that by the time of their last fight, where they’re just whaling on each other in the catacombs and crocodile is starting to get sloppy and desperate and lose control, if anything it’s luffy who has the upper hand. 

zoro and sanji’s dynamic is always a favorite of mine, and one of the things i like best about them is how perfectly in sync they always manage to be when it comes to things that actually matter, despite fighting like cats and dogs pretty much every other time. i’ll never understand people who think they genuinely aren’t friends. 

tashigi is really good in alabasta, okay. she essentially has her own entire character growth arc. she goes from her stance in loguetown, where she isn’t even tolerant of (fully legal!) bounty hunters, to here, where she’s forced to confront that the world isn’t nearly as black and white as she’s always believed it to be, that sometimes pirates are good and allies of the government are bad, and ultimately makes the right choice to help the strawhats even though it clearly pains and frustrates her that she can’t do anything more herself. 

i’ll be forever mad that her only really significant appearance after this in punk hazard didn’t really live up to what her character deserved. 

i really like how the countdown sequence is done. the tension is ratcheting up and up and up as the clock ticks down in the final seconds, panels cutting all over the city to show all the different characters, everyone who’s caught up in this conflict and everyone who’ll die if the cannon fires-

and then the clock hits zero, and we get this panel that’s just... quiet, after all the madness, as we see how vivi stopped the detonation. i think oda is very good at setting up his pages so they have a flow to them, so no matter how quickly you actually read sometimes things feel like they’re going very fast and all happening at once and then it slows down and gives the reader a chance to breathe, if only to speed up again later. i think oda is really good at pacing in general, really, both on a micro level like this and on a larger scale. 

luffy’s greatest strength isn’t really his strength. he’s strong, absolutely, but that’s not really why he wins the fights he shouldn’t win. he wins because he just doesn’t fucking stay down. his fight with katakuri is probably the best example of this, because katakuri has him beat in pretty much every category except sheer endurance, and there as here, it’s that endurance that winds up getting luffy the win in the end. 

i do love that it’s the rain that ends the war. not the explosion and pell’s sacrifice, not vivi’s pleading, not even luffy kicking crocodile into the stratosphere, but the rain, the thing alabasta’s been missing for too long, the thing crocodile stole, the only thing all these people are fighting over. 

it’s crocodile’s symbolic defeat- at the same moment his power is broken by luffy, the stranglehold of dehydration he’s been using to foment war and rebellion is all at once gone, and he’s left with nothing at all, and alabasta can finally find peace and start to heal again. 

i always love the little moments that show, usually without words, just how much the strawhats love each other, and all of them unanimously waiting until vivi is out of sight to collapse so that she won’t worry, won’t see how ragged they ran themselves for their sake, is definitely one of them. 

i adore vivi’s sendoff, because while its sad she has to go, the certainty that someday they’ll meet again and that even if not they’ll always be crew manages to make this scene endlessly hopeful instead (which, i think, is also a good summary of one piece’s tone as a whole, at least in its more serious moments). luffy never says goodbye, after all, and nobody ever really leaves the strawhat pirates. 

i’m really looking forward to vivi’s re-entry to the story. i really, really want to see her reunion with the strawhats. 

hey look, it’s the panel my profile picture is from! 

the mystery surrounding robin and her past is built up in little ways long before enies lobby, from her harsh reaction when confronted with by tashigi to her aversion to being called by her given name to this flashback, of her talking to cobra about her dream. of them, the latter is my favorite, because i think it’s probably the most sincere she is until enies lobby- which makes sense, given she thinks she’s about to die. 

like many things about robin in alabasta, this gets cast in a new light by her backstory. if she dies here, so too does the entire legacy of ohara- but she’s so beaten down and hopeless that she really doesn’t see any light ahead to strive for. there’s no hope left, for her, and the whole world against her. 

and then there’s luffy, who creates hope everywhere he goes, who makes her live anyways. 

this is a hell of a spread to hook us very effectively right into the sky island saga. it’s a perfect reminder of just how much we still don’t know about all the endless mysteries of the grand line, and just how many adventures are still yet to be had.

[thetirisfaltheatretroupe]

Big Troupe Announcements! Big Troupe Summer!

Hello, everyone! Lord Atos Sunhart here! For those of you who aren’t aware, Fehl had stepped down last year from Troupe related duties due to her own life becoming much more demanding, and so I returned to the director’s seat once again. I’ve been back for about a year, but we’ve kind of laid a little low since my return due to a lot of restructuring and our desire to try a few new ideas out that are coming along slowly but surely!

We have some awesome projects in the works, some of which won’t be ready for some time, and some that we’re excited to bring you much sooner! But we can’t QUITE open the curtains for a peek just yet. Before anything, I’d like to make a series of announcements about some of our projects this Summer, starting with the most important one of all:

The Troupe Is Casting! 

Looking at some of the last posts made on this ye olde tumblr I guess it’s not a surprise that the troupe is indeed casting once more. In the past, it was due to not really having enough active people to pull off a large show with, but now, times have changed a bit, and we’re looking for people to make our shows even better and more frequent than ever!

What we’re looking for;

* Any race/gender/faction! Yes, we hire Alliance as well! In the era of Discord and cross faction RP, there’s no reason we have not to. Though, we are overloaded on elves at the moment and would kinda love a tauren or any Alliance character

* Obviously the character should be a good fit for the group! We’re not really looking for a serial murderer warlock who tries to sacrifice our members to the great Murloc Gods at the first chance they get. We’re not too picky here, but there are some characters that just don’t work terribly well with our concept.

* Available to take part in events during most of our performing days, which tend to be weekends, starting around 6:00 PM server. We base all our event times on server time.

* Someone who, behind the character, is friendly, patient, and above all else, mature. The clear rule of “don’t be an asshole” applies in this guild (and I’ll explain what that means below), and we have a zero drama tolerance policy. We are all adults who pay a monthly subscription to a greedy corporation to play with their toys, I think the last thing we want is to relive middle school in our 20s and 30s.

* Someone with a desire to help make memorable, exciting events for others to enjoy. While we play the part of celebrities, and being in the spotlight is a lot of fun, ultimately we want someone who, behind the character at least, does it for the enjoyment of others and not for personal gain or clout. We’re not clout chasers. We are proud of how long we’ve been performing and how hard we work, but ultimately we do this for our audience’s enjoyment.

* Communication is important! We aren’t a hardcore raiding guild, and thus we won’t be upset if you tell us you have to miss a rehearsal night or have a family emergency.. But if you know ahead of time, we really want someone who will let us know they can’t make it to an event so we can plan around it.

Furthermore, it should be said that while we normally do not require a person leave their guild to join us, this time around we’re looking for more to wear the guild tag above their heads, at least for this recruitment effort. Above all of these, the most important key point is the ‘don’t be an asshole’ policy. In the past I didn’t think it needed to be explained, but things we’ve been through in recent months compels me to explain what I mean by this; no homophobic behavior, racist behavior, transphobic behavior, harassment, pedophilia and other such illegal and morally vile behavior will be tolerated in our guild, period. But I’m sure you’re asking, what’s in it for me? Well, the benefits of working with the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe are, but not limited to;

* Being part of a near decade-old (8 years this October) guild that through thick and thin has stood the test of time!

* Working alongside some extremely talented, fun, humorous, and creative minds!

* Getting to make people smile and be a positive part of the community! 

* Taco Tuesdays. This is a lie, don’t believe me.

* Helping an already fun concept become even better as we grow and adapt to the ever changing nature of this game and its community!

* Adding “Actor/Actress” to your long series of titles in your TRP Profile. Maybe somewhere between “Lord of the Dance” and “Wrecker of your Shit”! Don’t be bashful, we know you have it in there somewhere.

So if you’re interested in being a part of the stage and bringing the uniqueness that is YOU into our ranks, please send an in-game mail to Atos on Wyrmrest Accord server (Hordeside), or show up for the open auditions at the dates, times, and location listed below;

Thursday, June 3rd 6:00 - 8:30 PM Portrait Room - Legion Dalaran

Friday, June 4th 6:00 - 8:30 PM Portrait Room - Legion Dalaran

Saturday, June 5th 6:00 - 8:30 PM Portrait Room - Legion Dalaran

We hope to see you there! And remember, because we’ve had this happen a few times; if you think you aren’t good enough, you’re probably actually amazing and far more talented than you think! 

Anniversary Bash 2021 Officially Planned! With a Twist

Those of you who have followed us for some time are likely aware of our annual celebration we hold on the anniversary of our first major public performance! This has traditionally been held on the third Friday of every October, so that it lines up perfectly with Hallow’s End starting. While we have had on-off years, and even said in the past we would never do it again (Insert I was crazy that time meme here), it’s pretty clear that at least every other year we seem to take to it again with new ideas. Honestly, we LOVE these yearly parties, despite how much stress they put us under, and we’re going to announce it earlier this year just so people know; yes, yes there WILL be a bash this year!

Things are going to be a little different this year, though. This October will actually have 5 Fridays in it due to...well...the calendar! It conspires against us, dammit! Because the third Friday falls in place before the Hallow’s End events are set to start, we will instead be bumping it up one week to the 22nd. So, there you have it! Our Big Bash will be on the 22nd of October! We’ll be making a full announcement about it later this Summer, and honestly, I think folks are going to really like the fun we have planned for it. So if this is something you’re looking forward to early, or you just like making sure your calendar events are always filled out, please make a mark for

October 22nd, 2021! 

Hellsqueal Squeals Again, Plus Winter’s Veil In July?

This Summer we’ll be getting back to our roots and bringing Hellsqueal back for another round. The Trilogy will rise again, and you won’t want to miss it! This time we’ll be performing it for our audiences on both sides of the factional fence and making some revisions to the script, but long time fans needn’t worry! Hellscream is still the same boisterous buffoon he’s always been.

Also, we’re bringing you an interesting new concept no one has EVER thought of before! ...well, okay, that’s a lie, but Greatfather Winter needn’t send me a lump of coal in my in-game mailbox for that one! The TTT will be hosting a Winter’s Veil themed party IN JULY! Don your gaudy sweaters, get ready to meet Greatfather Winter, take part in a sled race, and get ready to watch a completely out of season showing of It’s A Wonderful Unlife! Some lucky attendees may even receive a gift! The date for this and for Hellsqueal’s trilogy are yet to be announced, but they will be unveiled very soon!

Even though we never left, it feels good to be back at full strength again and pushing hard to give everyone the quality entertainment we pride ourselves on! Keep an eye out for our announcements this Summer - we’ll be hitting not only Tumblr when an event is ready to go, but the Blizzard forums and various Discord community servers! So please, have a fantastic day, week, month, even a year! 

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 91 Rundown

Stone Ocean: Jolyene gets started on prison life by meeting her new cellmate Gwess who… keeps taxidermy birds and stuffs tiny people inside which takes Jolyene and disturbing amount of time to start questioning. Anyway shenanigans occur and Jolyene ends up tiny inside a dead rat speaking like a 2006 internet catgirl, as one does. Since Gwess’s Stand Goo Go-I mean “Cry Cry” Dolls makes peeps small and shit so she can play Elmira from Tiny Toons on them but seeing its physical form allows Jolyene to tie her own Stand together like a 3D printer and beat the shit out of her before she gets caught. So Jolyene gets her locket and arrow fragment back and names her Stand “Ston Fr-Ocean”, Stone Ocean, like the name of the show, guess we’re taking the Golden Wind route on dubbing this huh. But yeah just kinda weird that Stone Ocean manifested without Jolyene’s knowledge and just started beating the shit out of stuff against her will, guess it’s the same deal with how Star Platinum was catching bullets for Jotaro when he was trying to shoot himself in jail, Stands are weird because sometimes they’re automatic when you first get them and then they’re never automatic again, idk man.

Inuyasha:  So another filler episode that’s kind of a dud but it is a little funny, it’s one of the one that basically has one gag for the whole episode and how much tolerance you have for that gag will directly affect your enjoyment of the episode. We have Hatchi impersonating Miroku for the whole episode and basically doing exactly what Miroku does except without any spiritual power to back it up and a slightly better charismatic salesman approach. They act like ‘hey it’s just what Miroku does anyway’ and that’s not entirely false but Miroku is a real priest at least and him doing shit to a village will probably somewhat help even if he’s scamming the shit out of most people. Anyway Hatchi gets caught and Miroku actually gets to use the Wind Tunnel for once since all the poisonous insects are hibernating in Mt. Hakurei atm. Not great as far as filler goes for this series but I’ll admit the ending of two Mirokus running away from Sango does put a smile on my face.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So Yusuke threatens the dude beating Kurama up to shoot him in the back and literally fight every demon in the arena if he doesn’t let Kurama bow out of the fight given that he’s in a coma and the shinobi head is just like “Dude wtf, just put him down, this guy’s crazy” and then Yusuke has to fight the Nappa of the group, and as we all know the bigger the muscles in a shonen the less effective they are. So this dude has one move and it’s Sweat Fog which is just as gross as it sounds and even blindsiding Yusuke a few times it does laughably little damage until Yusuke putting two and two together realizes that sweat fog’s weakness is obviously wind so he shoots a Spirit Gun into the wall so hard it causes a makeshift gust to blow away the for and absolutely decimates the guy with one punch and then beats the shit out of him when he tries to play possum. Next up we get fan favorite character Jin and not only do he and Yusuke have a good back and forth, the animation for the sweeping shots and big landscapes as he’s flying around are pretty amazing for the time. It’s a really cool fight and it’s only one punch so far, so that’ll be exciting for next time.  

Fate Zero: I’m just kinda confused honestly, this whole episode is confusing. Kiritsugu and Kirei have their fight in Batman’s surveillance basement from The Dark Knight which is kind of weird they both knew exactly where to show up like we just kinda cut to both of them already being there, even with the signal fireworks and all that for them to both know to go to Batman’s basement is just weird, like when Saber shows up she knows to go through the front door but they know to go under. Anyway the fight itself is pretty cool I guess, the weird chanting song that Kiritsugu gets when he’s doing shit just reminded me of Magia playing when Homura does stuff and I kinda wanna see someone dub over this fight with Magia now. Anyway the Grail goes Sploosh and drowns the fight in grail cummies before Kiritsugu wins and we get into one of those Evangelion sequences where nothing makes sense because everyone’s only half-finishing their sentences and the Grail’s just like “dude you can’t just say ‘do good’ that’s not a wish, if you’re the dude I’m gonna be wished from I’mma do things like you would but like ten times better’ and since Kiritsugu has solved every problem in his life ever with murder, the Grail’s just like “I know, MURDER!” and Kiritsugu’s just like ‘wait no’. And like judging by how the grail works in other serieses he can wish for other stuff but the way Kiritsugu murders his wife and child in a fantasy world makes it seem like no matter what he wishes for the grail’s gonna murder everyone anyway. I feel like this is a deeper lore thing because somehow every Holy Grail War seems like it’s actually the story of the previous Holy Grail War and I remember vaguely reading something about how someone jazzed in the grail or something so now it’s all fucked up and summoning people like Gilles and the cup doesn’t know what the fuck it’s doing but none of this is really properly established and Kiritsugu acts like he knows what’ll happen even though they never actually tell him. Anyway Saber murders Lancelot and got that plotline was underdeveloped huh, Kiritsugu shoots Kirei in the pool of grail cummies and he’s not dead because we know he comes back later so maybe he just did an Avatar thing and took away his bending because I don’t recall if he was able to do much shit in UBW anyway. And Saber meets up with Gilgamesh and he’s all ‘Before the war’s over if anyone wants to confess their feelings for me, now’s the time’ and she’s just like ‘Wtf you egomaniacal prick this isn’t about you’ and he’s just ‘That’s literally impossible, everything’s about me.’ And Kiritsugu shows up and is just like ‘okay I’m done, I’ve killed my real wife, my fake wife, my work wife, my fake daughter and shot a priest in a pool of mystical jizz, I’ve had enough, I COMMAND YOU TO FUCKING GETSUGA TENSHO THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF THAT CUP’

Bakemonogatari: So the episode has like eight minutes of Hitagi strutting around naked calling Araragi an idiot and a virgin, very Asuka-esque really (though she does it with all the emotion of Rei so idk). And then we get to the crab business and it just hits like a fucking truck. They go through and ask Hitagi a bunch of personal questions, some seemingly innocent ones she still refuses to answer but then she just comes right out with being sexually assaulted by her mother’s crazy death cult and her, you know, not wanting that, fucks the dude up and rips apart her family in the process. Since her mother only got into the crazy cult because she was worried about Hitagi’s stereotypical failing health, she feels responsible for it and when she meets up with the crab it literally lifts the weight of the issue from her should, relieving her pain but also taking away the resilience and emotional depth that enduring said pain creates, so now she’s an ice queen that weighs one titty’s worth of pounds. They fight the crab a bit, which judging from Araragi’s reaction is not uncommon and they even say he’s had to fight horny cats and weird spirits on at least two occasions but since the dialogue moves so fast in this show it’s hard to parse but since the only thing I know about this show is Hanekawa is a horny catgirl I’m guessing we’ll get back to that later. Anyway instead of just breaking the god crab which is apparently something Oshino can do for reasons, Hitagi apologizes to it and gets her memories and emotions back (and possibly her weight but that also got transferred to Araragi so idk if everyone present got extra weight or they accidentally gave Hitagi’s weight to him, guess we’ll have to see) but yeah, really pretty good shit, it’s a pretty common “don’t run from pain” message like you’d see in Paranoia Agent or The Children Who Chase Lost Voices but it feels like it doesn’t gloss over how much that fucking sucks as a moral because Oshino doesn’t exactly say Hitagi’s a bad person for abandoning her pain but if her choice is to return to it this is what she needs to accept, which is good, both are presented as options with their own forms of suffering involved and that’s kinda neat and Hitagi is hopefully more emotionally deep as a character at this point and won’t be a stunted tsundere the whole time since she thanks Araragi for the help.

Sailor Moon Crystal: So yeah a lot of weird asspulls happen in this episode, apparently Black Lady can just spam Black Crystals and like three of them are enough to break the planet and four will just blow everything up. She still has Brainwashed Mamoru and he just beats the fuck out of Sailor Moon with her own Moon Rod which is just a weirdly jarring scene to watch. Turns out Wiseman was actually the planet Nemesis the whole time so their Nemesis was literally Nemesis, feel like someone thought that was clever. And he tries to Majora’s Mask the planet on top of the castle and Sailor Moon uses her crystal to not have that even though everyone’s been saying she can’t do that but now she can because reasons. And also Sailor Pluto wants to go fight but she can’t because keeper of time and all that, great job btw, time sure is looking great, just standing there will definitely help. But she makes a deal with a one foot tall kitten to be the guardian of space and time for like five minutes while she goes to kick some ass which feels more like a loophole than anything, like having a kitten do it is a very small step up from just jumping out and helping on her own. Anyway  turns out Dimande wasn’t really brainwashed and was just kinda going along with it because they had his brother or something and then proceeds to fucking murder his brother anyway and has an existential crisis about how much stronger the silver crystal seems to be than the black crystals even though the black crystals are currently kicking everyone’s asses and Sailor Moon falls down and gives Tuxedo Mask the crystal which combined with the rod seems to awaken him just a bit until Black Lady yoinks them and THEN Diamande yoinks them, like this series is just predicated on people not at all keeping a firm grip on the world-ending objects they have in their possession. Anyway, much like myself, Diamande has had enough of this timey wimey bullshit and is like ‘fuck it, time paradox time’ and is about to touch the two crystals and explode the universe, which at this point, good for him, ya know, full support on your decision Prince.

Durararax2: So after Shizuo beat the shit out of the Tiger gang last episode, their White Knight Sexist Chivalrous leader comes to beat him up, but, you know, it’s Shizuo so he gets knocked the fuck out (though surprisingly slowly by Shizuo standards) and then he proceeds to go date six girls at once and stop a shoplifter the next day. Chikage here’s methods are so extreme that he even won’t beat up a scumbag too much if it’d make a woman upset, classic Durarara absurdity. Also for some reason Namie is the narrator for this one even though she’s barely in it and gives weird commentary the whole time. Also we start the episode with Izaya doing a tiktok about how the possibility of getting murdered by someone is usually low but never zero and his whole Dark Knight Joker speech about how humans are weird. Everyone in the Dollars chat is hanging out when Masaomi slips into Mikado’s DMs to tell him to be careful and shit because something’s brewing but this is Ikebukuro, something’s always brewing. Also a tiny girl tries to kill Shizuo but again, it’s Shizuo, so all it did was annoy him really, also Celty’s on a mission from the mob to find said tiny assassin girl and gets beheaded by a Russian Biker chick but she’s Celty so all that did was annoy her really.

[goatsandgangsters]

so what is grishaverse? i could just google it, but i kind of want to hear it from a fan

hello yes! happy to help! I also love to be categorized as a fan here because the reality is that these books have been loitering on my to-read list for several years until netflix forced my hand and I was like “o fuk, o shit, I gotta read those now” and then tore through binge-reading/absolutely devouring them over the past couple months (and I’m not normally a media-binger, but man, these books go FAST and they hook ya) and now Am Love It Very Much

Non-spoilery lore summary of where things start out: Set in a fantasy world based on tsarist/19th-century Russia. Some people—called Grisha—have powers. Everywhere else in the world, Grisha are oppressed, but In Fantasy Russia they’re now warily tolerated as a useful military branch. There are three broad categories of Grisha types, which are basically “medical school but make it magic” (people whose power is either to Fuck Shit Up in your body or to heal it), “long ago the four three nations lived together in harmony” (airbenders, waterbenders, firebenders), and “extreme DIY crafting” (they make/invent stuff real good). However, Our Protagonist discovers she has the rare Grisha power of being able to summon sunlight. Which is particularly useful when your war-torn country is cut off from its only coastline by A Giant Enormous Area Of Total and Absolute Darkness That Monsters Live In. /CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC

You’ve got POWERS! You’ve got HISTORICALLY-INSPIRED-YET-DISTINCTLY-FANTASY AESTHETICS! You’ve got POLITICAL INTRIGUE and WAR! You’ve got HEISTS and CRIMES! You’ve got FANTASY ANALOGIES FOR REAL-WORLD OPPRESSION! You’ve got some really great CHARACTERS! It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s absorbing.

Book series structure: There are a couple different sets of books set within the Grishaverse. The first is a trilogy (“the grisha trilogy”)—the first book of which is called Shadow and Bone, from which the Netflix adaptation draws its name. That’s a three-book series focused on the aforementioned sunlight protagonist. THEN there is another duology of books (which are six of crows and crooked kingdom), which is set in the same universe, but focuses on an entirely different set of characters, with an entirely different storyline, in a different/neighboring country from Fantasy Russia, and also it’s set slightly after the first trilogy. Book-wise, they’re very much separate entities. While the trilogy has sort of a “you’re the chosen one, save your country” vibe with big political players, the duology has more of a “be gay, do crime” vibe that’s more gritty with gang of found family do a heist. (Tho if you’re looking at content that’s on my blog, I’ve only reblogged trilogy-focused posts because I am Not Yet Done With The Duology Books.) I have to respect an author who creates a sandbox and then doesn’t want to stop playing in it, because that’s probably exactly what I would do too.

TV adaptation structure: the SHOW, which is called Shadow and Bone and which drops on Netflix in a couple weeks, is combining both of those sets of books into one plotline, even though they are very much separate in the books. It seems like they’re planning to follow the plot of the first (trilogy) book pretty closely, while weaving in the characters from the duology as more of a prequel to their own books. So it’ll be interesting to see how they do that, because they’re fusing together these different stories into one.

So that’s why the use of “grishaverse” is useful because you have these multiple sets of stories that take place within the same world but that focus on different things and different people in different places—but that will be woven together more fully in the upcoming adaptation—so it’s a useful catch-all term for The World This Is Set In 

If you’re intrigued by the show but reasonably can’t commit to binge-reading an entire book series in the span of the next two weeks, it DOES seem like it’s designed to be enjoyable to both book fans and to people who are totally brand new to the world. That said, even though I just dumped a lot of info on you about trilogies and duologies (and those five aren’t even the entirety of books published within this world but I wanted to stick to the Key Info), the books and the world are actually super accessible. The pacing is fast, so I found them to be quick reads. The world-building is presented in a way that’s really clear and digestible; I never felt thrown into something huge that I didn’t understand, which can happen with some fantasy series. While the world itself is broad and sweeping, the way these stories are told and the way they unfold felt like something that I could jump immediately into without any foreknowledge and immediately feel like I understood what was going on. I literally osmosis’d ZERO THINGS about the series(es?) when I started reading—and I didn’t even read the blurb on the back!—but it was a really accessible and easy world to enter into.

Also, I did NOT expect to get as totally hooked as I did. But the timing has been really fun for me actually, because I get to absolutely devour this fun, engaging book series and then immediately I’ll get to revisit it in a different way when the show drops!

[robiness]

Hmmm I'm not really integrated in the She-Ra fandom but I have... thoughts

"Lapses in judgment" will always happen, creators will never be the paragons of virtue fans want them to be. Instead of arguing philosophy or dismissing "the other fans" (whichever "side" one may be from), viewers could highlight exactly what could be done better and demand it.

Something concrete Noelle and her crew could do is fight for the More She-Ra a lot of people asked for (it trended on Twitter, iirc?) and... actually have POC, PWDs, and a lot more varied LGBTQIA+ and autistic creators on the main team.

Maybe even giving up the reins while still supporting, if they really believe in creating safe spaces. Plus, the current crew is so proud of managing to get hecking Dreamworks to show Catradora to the extent it did. Which was an amazing feat! They should use that success and their white privilege to do better.

Do I think asking for this would work for every fandom? No, most production companies don't care, and most fandoms have too much infighting to function. But the She-Ra fandom seems to have the same mind in general, because this tone was established by Noelle Stevenson herself. We all want a safe space in popular media. To some extent there's zero tolerance for bigotry here because that's the kind of show it is. Homophobes would just be ridiculous if they posed as a fan, for example, as opposed to actually getting a foot in and a loud voice to boot (yes I'm probably thinking of the same fandoms you are).

Obviously people are tired of the same shit happening over and over again. I can respect that. I just think it's a waste to see a lot of She-Ra fans go straight from "noelle and the crew will protect us and want the best for us" to "noelle and the crew dont care at all and no one should have anything to do with them" without any thought for the space between.

I used to say that She-Ra showed us what we deserved from shows. I think that's still true. We still deserve that welcoming community and MORE. The creators turning out very flawed doesn't change that.

No one in the affected minorities has to forgive them. They messed up. However, "cancelling" them isn't holding them accountable. Demand reparations, especially if they say they're sorry. See if they're just bluffing about all the good they say they want.