#I never would have started my original stuff without the confidence I got from the manga

[cerealforkart]

The day before new episodes is always the worst

Not because I’m itching to listen to the new episode, I regret to inform that when I say I care about this podcast a normal amount I’m being honest. But there’s a kind of eugh… I don’t really want to draw manga pages this week… that I always get before episodes come out

It goes away once I actually listen to the episode and start working but the day before always sucks

[physalian]

In Defense of Fanfiction (Or the perfect starting point for your original novel)

Fanfic gets a bad rap pretty much everywhere except Tumblr. It’s misunderstood and misrepresented by its average works, seen as juvenile and cringey, or a banal point of contention between a famous person or piece of media and its fans.

Outside of fanfic that writes about real people, especially smut fics of real people, I support the art wholeheartedly. Fictional characters are one thing, but personally, caricaturing a celebrity’s life for public consumption and writing or drawing them in compromising content without their consent is a little weird. You do you. Don’t like, don’t read, as they say.

Fanfic is the perfect starting point for a few reasons:

It places you in a creative box and forces you to work within those constraints

It does all the worldbuilding and character concepts for you

It lets you write way outside your comfort zone

When published and receiving feedback, it boosts your self-confidence

It's incredibly flexible

It’s practice. All practice is good practice

—

Behold your creative box

When I was little I had no idea the majority of fanfic was shipping fics. I always pictured and looked for canon-divergent alternate universes. Like, what if X happened in this episode instead of Y? What if this character never died?

Fanfic demands you work within someone else’s canon, whether it’s an OC in the canonical world, or the canonical characters in an AU. These are like little bowling bumpers saving you from the gutter, but also keeping you on a straight-ish path toward the pins.

The indecisiveness of too many choices can be too intimidating when you’re first starting out. You want to be a writer but you have no idea where to begin, what genre to pick, what characters you want to chronicle, what themes you want to explore.

Even if it sits on your computer never to see the light of day, you still got those creative juices flowing.

Pre-packaged worldbuilding

Sometimes all we want is to get to the good stuff. Maybe I want to write a story about elemental magicians but Last Airbender already exists and I just want to play in a pre-existing sandbox. So I write some OCs into that world and have a free-for-all.

I don’t have to come up with my own lore, world history, magic system rules and mechanics, politics, geography—any of it. I get to just focus on the characters.

Even if you’re writing an AU, like say a coffee shop AU, you don’t have to think about brand new characters, you can just think “What would M do?” and go from there. The trade-off is your readers will expect canonical characters to behave in-character, but I think it’s worth it.

Stretch beyond your comfort zone!

Do you hate writing action scenes? Go practice with a shonen anime fic. Need work on dialogue? Write some high-fantasy fic, or a courtroom drama. Practice a fistfight by watching fistfights and writing what you see, and do it over and over again until what you read makes you feel like you're watching what’s on screen.

But beyond that—practice genres that you aren’t super familiar with. If you’re new to fantasy, write fantasy fic. Or a mystery novel/show, thriller, comedy, satire, adventure, what have you. The nature of fanfic still gives you those “guardrails” and you can get some brutally honest feedback on how you’re doing.

And, of course, the realm of M-rated romance and smut fics. I haven’t because I think I would die of embarrassment if I tried and I never intend to include sex scenes in my works anyway, but if you do want to, use the internet as your test audience. Post it on a throwaway account if you’re nervous.

Build that self-confidence!

The fandoms I used to write for are super dead, so it’s insane how I still get email notifications that so-and-so liked my fic to this day. Comments are as elusive as ever, but random strangers on the internet telling me they liked my work is a magical reassurance that my writing isn’t actually awful.

Random strangers on the internet are, as we all know, beholden to no moral obligation to be kind to your little avatar face, or be kind to be polite. So a rando taking the time to like my work or even leave a positive comment can feel more honest than one of my friends telling me what they think I want to hear.

I tend to avoid the more present aspects of fandom like online communities, forums, social media, what have you, so I get a delayed and diluted aspect of any given fandom through completed works. Which means, in general, I get to avoid the worst and most toxic aspects of fandom and get to sift through positive feedback and critique.

Even if your fanfic isn’t written with stellar prose, it’s fanfic. We don’t expect Pulitzer-prize winning content. And if your work isn’t up to snuff, people are more likely to just ignore it than put you on blast (at least in my experience, I never got a bad comment or a “flame” in the old FFN days).

Fanfic doesn’t care about the rules of published literature

On the one hand, try not to practice bad habits, but with this point I mean that your layout, punctuation, formatting, paragraph styles, chapter length–all of it is beholden to no rules. I get as annoyed as the next reader with giant blocks of paragraphs, or the double-spacing between pages of single-sentence paragraphs, but if the story’s good enough I might ignore it.

There’s more than just straight narrative fics, though. People write “chat” fics, or long streams of text and group chat conversations. The scene breaks can come super rapidly–I’ve seen fics with a single sentence in between line breaks to show the passage of time. And without the polish of a traditionally published novel, I’ve never seen a purer distillation of author voice in any medium more than fanfic.

All practice is good practice

Even if it’s crack fiction, or a one-off one-shot, or something meant to be lighthearted and straightforward and free from complex worldbuilding and intricate plots. It really helps break writer’s block when you can shift gears and headspaces entirely and you can get relatively instant feedback to keep you motivated.

Beyond that, the “guardrails” help you stay consistent as far as character growth and personality if you struggle with designing rich characters.

The most recent fanfic I wrote was just a couple years ago, for a dead fandom I didn’t think would get any traffic whatsoever. It wasn’t my original works, but the feedback on that fic gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get back into writing more seriously.

—

In short, I support fanfic. I may not be proud of my earliest fics' prose now, but I am proud that they walked so I can now run.

[firegirl888101]

how would the harbingers react to a reader who's good at drawing? like, they like to draw the harbingers or other things

Good at drawing?

I'm shit at drawing so I'm not really sure what to say, that's why I didn't reply to this for awhile. But, I eventually got a couple things when my friend was sketching some stuff in front of me.

Sorry that the current Insatiable Madness chapter is taking so long, I've been studying a lot these past couple of days.

I also got another ask where it asked about Halloween. I don't really celebrate Halloween, because I never grew up with it. I've always been too shy to trick-or-treat and I didn't have many friends (and still don't) who'd want to go with me. Quite sad actually, but it's alright. I don't think I missed out on much.

Is anyone expecting me to make a Halloween special? I don't mind doing it, but I'll need inspiration as I wouldn't know where to start 💀

Actually, the more I think about it, I do have one fun idea. (Harbingers going trick-or-treating??? Halloween party if that even exists? Idk, I'll have to do some research.)

|You can take this with Yandere and without - some will probably lean towards yan though.|

So, to begin with:

Pierro wouldn't be too bothered. I feel if Y/N had a skill they were confident in, and wanted to show it, he'd let his curiousity get the better of him and check it out. But, if it's something like drawing he'll probably leave a comment then leave. Whether it's positive or negative, you be the judge. This man is like a slate slab. No personality I'm sorry 😭😭 (When I see more of his character, maybe I'll like him more?)

If you were to draw this man, he'd be humbled. A Grandpa who received his very first present from his grandchild. Would definitely frame the damn thing in his office (which originally was your parent's) he'd put it on the desk. It's his office now, don't argue for it back.

Capitano would show interest. Not too much since he's the main captain of the Fatui, but still interested. If he's bored, or deems the 'fort' (the house) safe, he'll sit down with you and watch what you're doing. Occasionally asking you if he could doodle with you - but I think that would be very rare. His main objective in his mind is guarding you when your own is low whilst you're having fun, doodling or drawing something.

Would 100% deny the picture of him at first. He'd think, that looks like me, but it can't be. Yes, it's him, you'd reassure. Eventually he does take it and folds it in his coat. After that, he'd probably leave the room in embarrassment. Since then on, he'd definitely keep all drawings you've made of him in his pocket. There's too many? Let's put it in the second pocket. That's full too? Looks like he's buying a new coat. Oh? There's room in his military coat he hasn't worn in two years? That'll do just nicely.

Dottore would be intrigued if he saw you practice anatomy - or if you drew more of a gorey scene. I think he'd be even more interested if you liked to draw the human body with extra things (such as arms, legs, eyes or even got rid of a few), and question you on your design choices and if it already exists somewhere. (He's not fooling you, he's obviously taking inspirations for a new experiment). If he didn't know, or wasn't good, he'd probably ask for tips on how to sketch ideas like yours. He reassures you it's not for any experimentation but once again, he's not fooling you at all.

If you were to draw him he'd treat it like glass. Nobody has ever given him a sketch before - bonus points if you draw him injured whilst you're angry with him. He'd treat it as if you drew him with love, and not as if you'd stab him in the heart if you ever got the chance. What do you mean he shouldn't like it this much? It's a work of art! He'd be very quick to correct the drawing if you got anything wrong. Who knows what this man has in his body at this point.

Columbina would join you in your drawing activities. Maybe add some glitter if you have any. The second you complain about cleaning up, however, she has somehow disappeared and has become very forgetful about the events upstairs. 'How curious!~' She would hum to herself with her usual smile. Is definitely the type to ask if you could draw her. Who are you to refuse? Especially when she gives you that look of daunt hope and kindness which makes you drop your pen in fear. Before you can give her an answer, you've already picked up your pencil and began to sketch her beautiful headpiece.

When Columbina receives her multiple sketches, she's overjoyed. Oh, look how you drew this part! How you drew her clothes! She's quick to kiss you on the cheek as a thank you and runs off somewhere. Huh, you feel like you've just been used.

Arlecchino will roll her eyes at first. She's seen many children in the hearth draw for her. Her initial thoughts were vague, she didn't really see much of your hobby. That was until she actually saw what you were drawing. She would stare as you worked, your pencil delicately brushing against the paper you most likely bought the other day. It soon will become a habit to watch you work, becoming a therapeutic source for her. She sometimes questions why you're drawing... certain things, but she wouldn't actually stop your creative mind from working.

Handing Arlecchino the drawing you drew of her would make her blood rise to her cheeks slightly. Sure, she's received a lot of gifts in this sense before. But from you? What an honour! She'll accept it with a soft smile she'd usually show the kids, and pat your head treating you like one. Little do you know she's trying so hard to control her cute agression response by not tearing the paper.

Pulcinella would react very similarly to Pierro. However, he'd have more experience with complimenting and encouraging 'a child' in a hobby they're having fun with. If he saw your skill, he'd probably compliment it whole-heartedly with a chuffed smile. Massaging his mustache like some aristocrat, in the 1940s... Anyway, he'd be very pleased when he watches you draw more and more. He's happy that you're spending your time doing something you like under the tense situation his coworkers (and him, but he doesn't like to admit it) have brought upon you.

I do not see you drawing this man at all. He's a short, dobby, old, looking as man. I don't see him as the type to ask either, at all. He's minding his own business in your house and plans to keep it that way until the situation is resolved.

Scaramouche really doesn't care. We've all got our own likes and dislikes, but he's not bothered about yours. Will most likely purposefully pass by you working on a piece and insult it just to get attention. He'd never actually mean it though - he just never tells you that important fact. As time progresses he'll sneak into your room just to look at more sketches or finished drawings you've done, and assess your progress from each year if you've been practicing for a long time-period.

Now, here's where things get interesting. If you were to draw him and never show it to him, said puppet finding it for himself in one of your drawers, he'd first feel angry. Why wouldn't you show him this? It's of him! ...But then he'd quickly realise it's because of the way he treated you when you were working (oops). If you actually handed it to him and let him keep it, he'd be delighted. You actually drew him? He didn't even have to manipu-- he means 'ask' you to draw him? This is a good step forward to where he wants to be in your heart.

Sandrone would be delighted to know that she's finally found a use for you in her head. She never thought that purposefully walking past you one evening would lead to her shuffling through all the sketches and designs you've done with awe. Where did you get this idea from? How can she recreate it? Would you be happier and more devoted to her if she were to make your dreams true? She digresses. Watching your creative little mind draw your ideas to life inspires her also, and makes her want to recruit you as a special exception to the 'no non-artificial beings' allowed in her workshop. Thinking of all the monstrosities you could design with her help sends pleasurable shivers up her spine.

Drawing her, however? This was rather unprecedented. Out of all the things-- no, people you could have drawn... and you decide on her? And ooh! You even drew her slave she likes to travel around on, how thoughtful, you're already expressing your adoration for her works! Trust me, don't draw her. You'll give her daydreams that will never happen.

Signora, like most of the harbingers, wouldn't care at first. She hates your house and hates your world, why in Teyvat's name would she be interested in what you're doing? That's what she used to think, until her arrogant slick eyes caught sight of what exactly you were drawing. In my opinion, there's only a couple things that would interest Signora. Drawing dresses, if you were interested in fashion designing, would definitely be the main one. Viewing your designs after you finished them would soon become a small hobby for her, and soon, she'd eventually ask you to draw her in one of your designs.

You'd say yes, of course. An excuse to draw a drop-dead gorgeous woman in one of your designs for free? No way you were going to pass this opportunity! For her hard work in modeling, you'd definitely pay back twice and give her a drawing of her in her harbinger uniform too - which I think would flatter her a bit too much.

Pantalone wouldn't care, and would never become interested. He's a very rich and successful banker, not any ordinary man. As soon as he sees you drawing somewhere in the house, he'll shrug and go the opposite way. He knows what it's like to be interrupted through a thoughtful process, and he doesn't feel like getting an earful from you if he interrupts it. What he does think about, however, is if you're making money from it. Maybe an online business. He asks, and receives a very disappointing answer. No? What do you mean no? These are good, he'd pay for a portrait! Well, if Mora was a usable currency here. Ugh, the thought of being a poor man in this world makes him disgusted.

Drawing him would result in lots of praise. He'd be very happy you used your own time to draw him. He didn't even have to pay for it, it was gift! You even said so yourself. Immediately taken from your hands and framed somewhere. You can't seem to find the drawing though... Pantalone insists it's still in the house, but no matter where you look you just can't find it! Oh well, it's probably better you didn't know where it went. (You would have never been able to find it, he hid the location so well after all.) Pantalone told you he'd give something back to you as a thank you, but you're not holding him to his word.

Tartaglia would be interested the second he sees you doing something he hasn't seen you do before. That looks interesting, let him give drawing a try! He'd boast how his siblings love his drawings he creates, but you knew he was lying to set a cheery mood. Your understanding was backed when you actually saw his 'Amazing Drawing'... It was embarrassing to say the least. He would heed all your little tips and eventually get good at drawing from your guidance! I can see him as the type to use these skills later for his siblings, and as the type to continue drawing even if you begin to get bored of it... He's skilled with his fingers after all-- okay I'm sorry I'm done.

Drawing him can go one in two ways. I see him as someone who will whine about being drawn. He'll say: 'Have you drawn me yet?' in one of the most annoying voices he cna muster. He knows and understands you find it annoying when he asks you to draw him, so he's found a loophole. Just keep asking questions related to it until you get the hint! ...You got the hint weeks ago, but you're refusing to do it. Well, you're refusing to show him your drawings you've already finished and hid out of sight. Showing him these drawings would make him really happy! Would fold his favourite and carry it around with him everywhere like some of the other harbingers. His next commission he's planned to ask you is of a drawing of Capitano. You eagerly declined, not wishing to impose on the Captain's privacy.

[rqbossman]

Hello Mr Bossman! (and possibly anyone else who reads this)

Its an honour to be here, I have a few questions. First i appologise for the long paragraph, you may dismiss it for the questions at the bottom. For context, i am here after finishing TMA and being up to date with TMAP, i then went over and listened to RQG, and have just finished listening to Epilogue 3 and might i just say, good sir I am grateful for your podcasts. I am currently just a few months away from my final exams of High School, and as someone who even just 1 year ago was very lost, struggling with school and being just overwhelmed. TMA isnt exactly comforting, but the characters and plot managed to serve as a good form of escapism while sorting myself out. I found my self engaging more in creative things that i had originally put aside in favour of maths and science (which i hated but thought i needed to do). I started drawing again, even if just fanart. and i found things going well. By finding podcasts, story telling and these communities have helped me in my own understanding of what i want in life. I got an ADHD diagnosis earlier this year, and almost directly after started RQG and as my first hyperfixation (that i was aware of as an hyperfixation) gosh dang it hit hard. (in a good way). Ive been able to do so much more creative writing and drawings, and got re-involved with a small dnd group with some friends who i played one game with almost 4 years ago now. So overall, inspirational sounds cringe, but it was. Im doing my best with the upcoming exams, but trying to get in to Medicine is not my only prority, and the fact ive been re-introduced to my first love (Literature and story telling), im planning to go do an Arts degree and i know i wouldnt have been able to confidently make this decision, or even have survived this long in the school system without the work you and your coworkers do. Now the sap is out of the way, Question time! (if you could answer even just one of these questions it would be so cool)(they go in order of RQ relevant to random stuff)(dont feel pressured to answer all/any. i know i wrote alot): 1. what would you say is the best way to draft out a long-form story. (with "Erasing the Line" as an example) Did you start at the end, with the links to the overarching plot.

2. When working with the players (in a form of TTRPG), what did you do to make sure you didnt miss relevant timing of plot points/ avoid creating spoilers while still giving enough detail?

3. What are good places to start with making a job out of storytelling/voice acting/audio etc. In the case of RQ, how is this a job and where do i sign up please! /j (what i mean is, how is best way/how did you find all the people involved and was there a common path that you were all on before getting to where you are now?) 4. Do you have recommendations for Terry Pratchett Books, i may be an literary-leaning student, but it seems i have never actually properly read any of his books. so where is best place to start?/What did you read first?

5. Similar authors or similar inspirations? Did you have a favourite podcast you listen to in your free time that you havnt had a hand in producing/directing/working on. 6. Favourite song/album/artist. And more specifically, what you like listening to in background when doing either writing or (for ttrpg) character research/game planing. 7. Since the olympics are on at the moment, what has been your favourite sport to watch, if you have been watching at all. Thank you for your time :)

Thankyou for all the kind words. Knowing our work is helping people really keeps our engines fired up. Let's see if I can't answer your questions: 1. I "sandbox" which is where I just shove everything I can think of into an unorganised bullet point list. Characters, setting, plot, all of it in one big mess. Then I decide what type of story you want to tell, copy and paste to a new document and then start to organise the thoughts (with the sandbox on standby if new stuff comes in I don't know what to do with). I think of it like scultping, you cut away bits and reshape until something comes out the other end that is story shaped. Only then do I attempt to build the sandcastle and put something coherant together like a synopsis or scratch draft etc.

2. Very tricky. I did a complete review and update of all notes after each recording session and don't forget the audio eas edited. I made lots of gaffs that you never heard as audience.

3. I contacted anyone I could convince to take part and just proved I was serious by overworking. I don't reccomend that route. Unfortunately it really is "who" you know. That doesn't mean chase established professionals as much as it means you need to get out there and associate with other up-and-comers who match your vibe. For me the route was long and windy and not a particularly good example. 4. I normally recommend people do not read his books in publication order. Don't get me wrong, its wonderful watching his craft grow from one title to the next but I would recommend new readers tip their toe into his later works to see if they like where he ended up before committing the time. I often recommend 'Monstrous Regiment' as people's first one. My favourite though is 'Thief of Time.'

5. I don't get much time to listen to podcasts in the last couple of years. I used to listen to a lot of non fiction. 'Stuff you Should Know' and that ilk. I also read a fair amount of classic YA fiction to unwind (Windinsger trilogy, Bartimeous, stuff like that.) 6. Paul Simon's Graceland but when working I assemble a playlist for each seperate project that is tonally appropriate. If I really need to focus I listen to Classical Minimalism. Or the Old School Runescape soundtrack. I'm allowed to be ecclectic. 7. I am actually in an incredibly busy work crunch at the moment so haven't seen any of it!

[daftpatience]

hi pen friend!! I got a pilot kakuno pen recently and I am playing around with it. However!!! I learned that I really like having thicker bold lines and I’m kinda sad that the non on my shiny new pen is so so very fine. Is there a way to broaden the nib a little or do you maybe have recs for a pen with a slightly broader nib? (I have been preferring pilot pens with a 1mil nib size, those have good thicc lines that I like. Even a little thicker without being a marker would also be IDEAL) This is gonna be a work pen for me so being durable would also be a nice bonus.

ooh so!! there are a couple things you can do in this case!!! IM PUTTING IT UNDER A READMORE CUS I RAMBLEEEE letsgooo

• swapping out the nib pilot kakuno nibs are compatible with many other pilot pens including the 78G, Prera, Plumix, Penmanship, and Metropolitan! it can be hard sometimes to find spare nibs for this brand, so if this is what you wanna do i'd suggest hunting around any local pen shops that might carry nib replacements + ebay/facebook marketplace/etc.

• grinding the nib down this option is usually not recommended for beginners, but i'm all for fucking around with things i own (sometimes to my detriment) so i'd definitely look into it! especially with something as affordable as a kakuno - most fountain pens are tipped with a somewhat fancier metal (iridium, osmium, gold, palladium, etc) which you Don't want to grind all the way away, but kakunos are not tipped with anything special. they're just plain stainless steel through and through, and i see no issue in giving grinding a go in that case! you'll definitely want to watch a lot of videos on the process - most involve a whetstone and/or extremely fine grain sandpaper & lots and lots of smooth, confident hand movements.

the two i learned are these: smooth, long strokes where you tilt the pen from a low angle to a high angle, and figure eights. the angle of the pen is extremely important, and you'll have to be careful to ensure everything is balanced.

i've ground down a cheap knockoff lamy to a WIDE chisel before, and it came out better (albeit still a bit scratchy) than it used to write (because it wrote like shit originally) imo, as long as the inkflow is even and consistent i don't mind a little feedback on the page.

• getting a pen with a broader nib ok this is where i recc some more pens!!! if you're looking for a workhorse that's a little broader or juicier than a kakuno, i cannot overstate my love for the platinum preppy in 05 (medium nib). this little thing is an absolute legend. they can sit inked and idle for an entire year thanks to the cool seal mechanism in the cap, and i've never had one dry start on me before. they're cheap, feel amazing, i can go on. since they last so long, usually the first failing point is their bodies rather than their nibs, so if you want something a little more durable you can upgrade to a platinum plaisir (which is just a preppy with a metal body!)

i can also highly reccomend Lamy safaris for their ease of nib swappability and range of options! you can go all the way from an EF to a 1.9mm chisel tip >:)

the pilot metropolitan is a universally beloved pen for its quality, though i don't have one so i have no personal stuff to say! this and the lamy are a little pricier than the preppy/plaisir/kakuno but with that comes the bump up in quality and longevity. things to consider!

in general i'd say that any fountain pen with a snap cap rather than a screw cap will work well for work - since unscrewing and rescrewing a cap all day as you do things is sort of a pain in the wrist. i find myself leaning to my lamys & preppies when im working since its so much faster and easier to pop that thing lol.

[cartoonbabbles]

Some Breakdown x Bumblebee headcanons since I’m watching Comodin Cam’s G1 marathon video and I’m seeing snippets of G1 breakdown

- I’m headcanoning BD and BB as both young adult (ish)? Like. Transformers maturity wise. Mid 20s is my guess, older than during the height of the war, still plenty of fight in them but they’ve lived enough to have a kind of routine between the two of them.

- BD puts on a cool and confident face for Bee’s sake. If he showed how scared he actually felt, Bee would have forced him to quit the race, and they’d both have gone into hiding. But he knows that both he and Bee like the thrill. It’s their thing

- Bee is slightly younger, BD is going through a crisis. (I mean why wouldn’t he be, he’s a fugitive and a war criminal, but no less than any of the other cybertronians, yet he’s somehow gotten the short end of the stick and doesn’t want to stay to find out what prison is like)

- Bee is super reassuring of how much he cares. Which is tough given how they ended up on opposite sides of the war.

- Bee can technically become a combiner limb. Does this make any sense? No. Fuck you, I want funny combiner shennanigans. Also Knockout can too (yes I’m throwing him in here). The poor other limb (likely Arcee) has to listen to her younger brother girlfail his way through coordinating movements while she’s the one doing the punching)

- Breakdown flusters easily, but likes to flirt and be seen as suave and as hot stuff. He’s a glass cannon and can dish it but can’t take a compliment without popping back into his alt-mode for a breather

- Bee (if they’re alone alone 100% for sure zero agents tailing them) is relentless in his flirting.

- Breakdown doesn’t actually have a driver’s seat. It’s all a hologram. He had a bad experience with a human who tried to drive him recklessly (scratched his new stripes too) so he figured out how to transform and not have any passenger seats on his own. It was painful, and Bee found him two days after a race he was scheduled to be at sulking in a cave, half transformed.

- this is more of a realization but I think the reason Bee started winning races was to take attention away from Breakdown. Notice how Schloeder never realized the same fucking muscle car barely tailing his black and yellow striped quarry

- I saw this funny post about spider man a few months back about how everyone knows who Spidey is or has some personal story with him, and rumors fly but you’ll never get anything if you pry. Same with Bee and Breakdown. Whispers of that time two drivers in sports cars flung their vehicles into a burning building and came out with seven people unharmed. A story about how a giant robot saved a kid from a rabid animal. Maybe a couple of voices deep in the woods comforting a crying teenager, telling them not to give up on asking the person they like out. Schloeder knows those stories are out there and it drives him nuts he can never get any first hand accounts

- Bee and Breakdown shared a garage in the Phillipines post war.

- Breakdown was sympathetic to the original Decepticon cause. He got involved more because the entertainment union took up arms with the original cries for revolution (he’s a Stunticon, and lord knows the Functionist senate didn’t give a damn about who got injured during a show)

- Breakdown painted the stripe himself. He wouldn’t stop bragging about it to Knockout and Bee. This lasted for a month. Knockout and Bee decided to get stripes to match (this is why Bee has stripes on his sports car mode)

- Bee has a human “sister” named Charlie in California he met during the war. She wasn’t a soldier or anything, they just hung out and vented to each other sometimes. One day, after Bee went into hiding, she was feeling bummed out and her car starts talking “yeah I miss him too.” The car was Breakdown. She gives him “the sibling talk” and is all like “if you dare hurt him or break his heart I swear-“ and all that and he’s genuinely scared of her bc he’s seen her disassemble and reassemble cars in her sleep (she did it to Knockout once on accident)

- Bee and BD have never kissed (AND THEY NEVER WILL UNLESS HES ALIVE HASBRO IM BEGGING YOU) but if they were to kiss it would have to rival Alex and Dot’s kiss to the mid season finale with that explosion of Purple Hearts behind them like. GIVE ME GAY MEN I DONT SEE ANY OF THEM BEING MAIN CHARACTERS IN CARTOONS ENOUGH.

- “Hi I’m Bumblebee and this is my boyfriend Breakdown and our husband Knockout and his boyfriend Starscream and his fiancé Soundwave and Soundwave’s friend with benefits who’s ace but still likes to get funky Shockwave and Shockwave’s ex Megatron who’s currently dating Elita and OP who are both married”

- Mo and Twitch ship Bee and Breakdown, though you never find out how they found out (it was Nightshade)

- Breakdown supports trans rights.

- most of the transformers do

- tangent but I feel it would be fucking hilarious if Shockwave were a queer ally but still fucking refuses to address the Terrans

- Breakdown once almost killed the governor of Florida (this one’s for me okay I need my catharsis)

- DW he didn’t but the dude resigned almost immediately after and kept seeing a muscle car coated in pride flag stickers at every stop sign for a month (Breakdown was bored)

- I’ll throw Tarn in here. Tarn has a good ass singing voice. That’s for funsies. Nobody invites him to karaoke though because people will literally do anything he says once he starts singing and that’s how Bee ended up with a tattoo on his (mic gets violently pulled away from me)

[shortystack75]

I just did my annual rewatch of Stars Align aka Hoshiai No Sora and now I once again have too many thoughts. Anyone seeing this is now the victim.

So basically this post is gonna be a long post explaining a tierlist I made for the kids and how they were effected by their parent/s. I made the tierlist at like 3am this morning and immediately passed out while working through my thought processes

OTHER PEOPLE ARE WELCOME TO READ MY RAMBLES TOO IT'S PRETTY ACCESSIBLE BC I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

So I'm actually going to go from the bottom and work my way up bc I have so many more uncoordinated thoughts about Touma, Tsubasa, and Nao than anyone else.

RINTARO His adoptive parents have done everything right, he and they are delights. his main issue is the FACT that he's adopted. he feels like there's something inherently wrong with him that caused his birth parents to not want him. at the end of the series his birth mother gets ahold of his adoptive parents and wants to meet him, its assumed she shows up at the tournament but leaves before he can catch up to her, making him believe that because he lost his match she doesn't think he's worth even meeting. And yea I'm with the theory that he's Touma's twin and that makes his mom Rintaro's mom and boy would that fuck him up even more and I so wish we could've gotten our original 24 episodes. Overall his ACTUAL parents that he grew up with and currently have did not cause his problems so 10/10 love them sm

Arashi + Class Pres They are rich kids and though we dont see them being effected by this very much i assume they are negatively effected but overall their parents are probably okay

TAIYO Very soft spoken and probably would roll over and die if a bully or mugger approached him. His parents, while very well-meaning, dote on him in a way that probably killed any kind of confidence he had. "It's okay if you dont win" WOULD be good parent words, but they were followed up with "tennis is a two person sport, so its not your fault if your partner messes up" Taiyo actually scolds them for this which made me really happy, as by saying this not only are they making a dig at his friend and partner(who does not need anyone hurting him anymore goddamn), but also could be interpreted as if they do win then it could be all his partner and not him Overall 8/10 this boy just needs more confidence and screentime

ITSUKI He was hard to place because his parent situation has already been handled actually. he got todorokied as a kid. When he was a baby, his mother clearly suffered from some pretty hard postnatal depression, and possibly other stuff, and poured boiling water onto his back. this left him with some pretty horrific back scars that he actually doesn't mind but he clearly doesn't like talking about it, as shown in the show by him not changing in the club room until about halfway through the show, after he'd already known the MC Maki for a while. He's shown to have a very easy trigger to violence however when people belittle his homelife. Without even knowing about his mother, some bullies come talk down to him about his mother being out of the picture and his response was to bash them over the head with his racket 8/10 Current situation, we never see his dad but we can assume he's doing a decent job as a father bc Itsuki and Namie are actually kinda well adjusted despite his lil aggro moment

Mitsue Mitsue is not part of the tennis club but hands around them as the only people she can stand coughcoughADMITTHEY'REYOURFRIENDSLOSERcoughcough and uses their matches as inspiration for drawing. Her parents belittle her passion for drawing and tell her seemingly often that she'll never go anywhere in life, its implied that she starts hanging around the tennis club and Maki's house to get away from her parents as long as possible until she actually starts liking them

Yuu Yuu is a canonicaly non-binary/X-gender character and i love them but their mom is transphobic and yelled at them and was really shitty i hope she dies. not directly related to their mother, but we also see other students bullying them for being gay (no one other than Maki, their mother, and their sisters find out about them not being cis, but most people seem to know theyre gay or at least suspect it) they are physically harassed early on, only to have a friend, Touma, step in and literally scare off the bullies(more on that when we get to him) and towards the middle of the show some other sports guys come into the tennis team's room to talk and start to make comments on Yuu being gay. This is immediately shut down by several of the tennis club members showing their clear support for them at least in the gay sense.

SHINGO His mother is either dead or otherwise out of the picture completely but there seems to be no ill will from him or his father, who remarried. Father is great and supportive of him. His step-mother however... She's constantly comparing him to his mother who she clearly doesnt like and wants as little to do with him as possible. Shingo has a little half-sister whom he adores and she adores him right back, but his step-mom HATES them interacting and does everything she can to discourage it, despite his little sister's clear adoration and love for him. He overall isn't super outwardly very effected by her, but is still clearly put-out by her random hate towards him and likely feels very uncomfortable in her presence. 6.5/10 overall, 9/10 dad but 4/10 step-mom who gets a"Not being as bad as you could've been" award

Now we're getting spicy

MAKI Our main character Maki! He's an overall quiet but pleasant person who has a very realistic outlook on life. His single mother is amazing towards him but works very long hours at her job and so most of the chores fall into him, not that he minds all that much, when he was younger he was often looked after by his mother's friend Shou, a canonical transman that lead Maki to be very informed about gender and was just what Yuu needed. His father however.... physically and financially abusive. despite being divorced he shows up at their apartment when he knows his exwife wont be at home to steal money from them and be mean to Maki. in the after credits scene of the first episode he hits maki so hard something in his mouth starts bleeding(he likely bit his tongue or a part of his cheek) and he curls up into a ball and waits for him to leave. He's terrified of this man. Later in the show he shows up to terrorize maki again and Touma, Maki's doubles partner, gets involved to put an end to it. Throughout the exchange Maki is practically cowering behind Touma which is so jarring because Maki's normal demeanor is so nonchalant and calm. It's implied he's been abused for as long as he could remember to some extent. We see a couple other time that he has an interesting reaction to threats and violence, such as another character threatening him with a racket(he doesn't react and simply says "Use your hands") or upon learning Itsuki bludgeoned a guy with his racket(tells him not to break the equipment because its expensive) Oh also his mother is in the process of getting a restraining order but its not in place yet Mom and Shou are 8/10, dad is 0/10, overall 4/10 experience for our sadboy Maki

TOUMA He's some kind of neurospicy i just know it. His father is ??? never see this man but we know he;s in the household, i think he travels for work or smth cause its mentioned he's rarely at home His mother HATES him. like for no reason. She gives us a lot of vague words she says to his older brother, who seems to be Touma's only positive family relation, at one point she says that he scares her but she also yells at him all the time and compares him to his brother and basically constantly belittles him for no reason. He seems to blame everything on himself but silently. When the tennis team isn't doing good he blows up be throwing his racket on the ground and storming away, but later reveals to his brother that he thinks its his fault and that he's a bad captain. Similarly, when the team is having a celebration he stays to the edges and explains to Yuu that he doesn't like being around people who are having fun because he feels like he's going to ruin it be engaging. We can actually tie this into a little moment he has with Maki during a game when Maki turns to him exactly and goes "I really love tennis!" and Touma stands there with awe on his face as if he couldn't imagine someone having fun by playing with him. Speaking of Yuu, back when he scared off the bullies, 2/3 of the bullies were IMMEDIATELY scared upon seeing him walk up, they told the third one that "Everyone knows he's a psycho" while Touma stands there with a blank face. This coupled with how his mother talks about him makes me think he's had a little bit of a violent streak that may be linked to autistic breakdowns Back to his mother, it is revealed at the end that there's a third brother we've never seen or heard of when we get a scene of his mother and older brother talking. his brother says "I love both of my little brothers" and later that episode his mom calls him to tell him she's divorcing his dad and taking his older brother with her. I just know he'd be even more messed up if Rintaro ends up being his twin brother. Anyway his dad is 4/10 for absence and his mom is 1/10 for doing the bare minimum (really sad that she has any points at all). Overall 2.5/10

TSUBASA he's my little crunchy guy i love him so much We very very briefly see his mother have worry for him at a bad moment but never goes after him when he runs away and she never seems to check on him at any other point. The bad moment is when he falls down the stairs. Specifically he is hit in the face by his father so hard (on a flight of stairs) that he slams into the wall and then loses his balance and falls backwards onto his dominant wrist hard enough to break it. Let me backtrack a bit. at about 2/3 through the anime, we get a scene of him at home watching tv with his 2 older brothers. His dad comes through the door and the music stops, all three boys look tense but Tsubasa specifically immediately gets a fearful look and when addressed by his dad tries to leave the room. Tsubasa is a very loud and confrontational person, likely caused by his dad's toxic masculinity, and says something that isn't important but causes his father to follow him and grab his wrist so hard he looks in pain. What follows is the stair incident. He then runs out of the house in the middle of the night and ends up in front of Shingo's house. Shingo is his tennis partner. Shingo sees him, Tsubasa tries to run away but is quickly caught by the hurt wrist. After Shingo realizes he's hurt he immediately gets his dad to take Tsubasa to the hospital. When the doctor asks if anyone else was involved, Tsubasa denies this and calls himself an idiot with the most heart wrenching expression on his face i swear. He later confesses to Shingo he's sure his dad hates him all because he's not as good at soccer as his older brothers, and blames himself for Shingo not being able to play in the upcoming tournament. When asked why he came to Shingo's house he responds with "I didn't know where else to go" Which makes me want to hit someone, personally. At the start of the series there a part where he raises his racket as if to strike Maki with it, but backs down when Maki doesn't even flinch. I'm taking this to mean he was never actually planning to hit Maki, but acting big and threatening violence is likely something he learned from his dad. When it doesn't work he immediately backs down and leaves the situation, similar to how he acts with his dad. He's also one of the few we see get physical with anyone else. Barring Itsuki and the racket incident, Tsubasa is the only member of the tennis team to threaten another middle schooler. In the club room incident where Yuu was starting to be harassed, Tsubasa was one of the three (Touma and Maki were not present) out of 6 members to intervene. While Shingo and Itsuki told the other boy off and insulted him in turn, Tsubasa actually got up in his space and grabbed a hold of the other boy's face, lightly shoving him. The other boys immediately backed down after this like Tsubasa was assuming they would, like how he learned to behave with his father. Mom is like 4/10 for being useless 🎉and Father is 0/10 for an overall score of 2/10!!!

and now... for NAO My head is in my hands over him So to start, he's an only child and his father is distant and doesn't seem to interact with him or care for him whatsoever(unlike with Tsubasa and hopefully Touma, he's somehow being an absent parent while sitting right! next! to! him!!!), leaving him with no help or reprieve at home from his monster of a mother. She never physically hurts or lays a hand on him from what we've seen but she clearly has deep-rooted mental and emotional manipulation that has negatively effected Nao very deeply. We see a lot of signs early on that we brush away as little quirks he has, such as telling a lot of lies or "fairy tales" as the tennis club likes to call them, staring off into space, or even just looking impassively at what transpires around him as if he wasn't apart if it. That's right this boy disassociates. hard. His mother, to put it lightly, is an extremely controlling and authoritarian parent who wants to hand steer every little thing he thinks, feels, and does. She's constantly complaining to the principal about the club and lying or exaggerating in order for club activities to be suspended or halted because she doesn't think he gets anything from playing and would rather he spend all his time studying. Speaking of studying, that's what she has him do constantly at home. His room doesn't look like that of a middle school boy. It has a desk, a bed, and a dresser. I would even go so far as to say some of his spacey-ness comes from exhaustion. who knows how long she has him studying every night, and its revealed he gets up early so he can go on runs and practice swinging because she doesn't let him after he gets home from school. All of this feeds into his lies. He's learned that whenever he tells her the truth he gets yelled at and belittled and punished. So he lies. he tells her what he thinks she'll want to here and this bleeds into all of his relationships. Upon meeting Maki he lies immediately, something broad to appeal to everyone, but its called out by the rest of the club and he just sits there smiling through it all while looking at the sky. He's left handed and she hates that. He uses his left hand to eat once and she yells at him, making him freeze up and pull his right arm into his center, almost mimicking the fetal position. SPEAKING of eating... boy unintentionally has an eating disorder. We are shown multiple times when he is at home he pushes his food around his plate and eats little to none of it. While there are other scenes of him with food away from his mother, I dont think he's actually specifically shown eating then either, and could've easily not eaten anything there. OKAY so onto the really scary/sad part. There's a part where Shingo brings his little sister to watch their practice game with the girls' team, and she gets lost in the school. She ends up found sleeping in the nurses office, but they skipped over it bc the door was locked and figured she couldn't have gotten in there. They only find her when Maki hears the keys jingle in Nao's pocket and realizes he locked her in there. Nao himself seemed shocked that he had the keys and was the one to lock her in there. His mom had been yelling about the practice game and wanting it cancelled the night before. He found her, and instead of telling everyone or waking her up, he disociated and locked the door, than lied that he hadn't seen her. He seemed so shocked that Maki even thinks that he'd thought his own lie was real. Think of how scary that is. I also think he's neurospicy which his mom would absolutely fuck up even more but thats just me things Dad gets a 3/10 for personally pissing me off and his mom gets a funny lil 0/10 along with the two other shittiest parents. Overall a 1.5/10!!!

In all seriousness In my own little world most of them move in together and share an apartment. Yes ive seen the extra scenes no I dont care im ignoring them.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

always always thinking about your post that was like “normal has a very high threshold for being loved that is nearly impossible to meet and he will do *anything* to feel validated” and then today in the discord during the part where willy reveals it could’ve been either normal or scary, will said “willy fucked up normal would burn the entire world down for the tiniest crumb of validation” and just. screaming screaming forever about this boy’s inability to ever feel loved enough, he is every webweaving post about always devouring and never feeling full from love, this boy is RAVENOUS and it’s hard to understand how the oak good-boy morality can even supersede that, he has every trait imaginable to become a villain and it feels like the only thing preventing that is the desire to be good, bc tbh I don’t think he wants to be good more than he wants to be loved

SORRY FOR TAKING ALMOST TWO FUCKING WEEKS TO ANSWER THIS ANON!

Eheh, firstly *thank you* because this message is very sweet and made me extremely happy. The post you’re talking about took a good while to write and came with a lot of anxiety so it’s very nice to hear that you’ve kept fragments of it with you, I really do appreciate that!!! 💜

I’d debated for a bit on answering this privately to be honest with you, as not every fire I’ve sparked is one whose flames I wish to fan, so to speak, but everything you wrote is just so on-point and well-articulated that I couldn’t resist. Otherwise. *Ahem*. I know it's very very silly to respond to a response about an essay with what is essentially another essay, but you see, in thinking of how to answer your message, I got a little caught amongst many other things that have been on my mind... And I've seen some takes that have annoyed me for one reason or another and couldn't decide how to address those and. Well. Ultimately I decided that the stuff I wanted to talk about was connected *enough* to the stuff brought up in your message (as well as in my original post) that I could put it all together, soooooooo if you'll entertain me rambling once more~

Let's start by saying that, I recently saw a take going around stating that “Scary’s internal issues caused her external issues while Normal’s external issues caused his internal issues” (among a number of other statements that I frankly found pretty questionable), and I must say, for reasons that I hope to explain, I disagree with this assertion on both accounts!

In Scary’s case, this statement completely erases and undermines the trauma of her dad walking out, and what that does not only to her confidence and sense of self-worth, but to her relationship with her mother as well. And the degree of the impact of this external trauma on her internal view towards and treatment of herself is clear as day just by looking at the stark contrast between Terri and Scary. Scary (Terri) is someone who once had confidence in herself and could find validation and motivation internally, most recently evidenced by Terri's words of encouragement to Scary whilst under beacon of hope:

But then her dad leaves, and things get harder at home, and Scary starts to fight with her mom (her mom who she once called her best friend!!!), and she starts to feel worthless and unlovable- something that only gets worse with time as Willy alienates her from the rest of the group, case in point with this revealing exchange:  

No one’s told her they’re proud of her in a long time (sound familiar??),

her teachers at school shut her down when she tries to speak her mind or otherwise dismiss her behavior as “acting out” seemingly without any sort of intervention or attempt to actually check in with her,

[the above teen fact is from episode 31]

Only then, in response to her diminished sense of self-worth does she begin to cut herself off from the rest of the world and from her former self, most importantly quitting soccer (which we know matters a lot to her!),

and those things leave her even more vulnerable and supportless and ashamed. Not to mention all the mixed emotions she must feel when Terry walks into the picture, between actually liking him but not being able to see his love as genuine due to her relationship with her bio dad and all the frustration and shame she must feel as a result.

This is not to claim that Scary’s internal struggles do not inform a lot of what happens to her and the people around her over the run of the season- of course they do! (In fact some of the later things mentioned above are examples of that- I guess I got a bit carried away). But Scary’s major internal struggles that affect her throughout the course of the adventure are preceded by a slew of important external events that negatively affect her psyche and are in many cases out of her control. Scary’s internal struggles did not originate in a vacuum, and I absolutely would not say that they “caused” the bulk of what she has been through.

Unlike Scary, Norm’s excessive dependency on external validation to feel like he’s worth anything begins when he is very young. [Emphasis on “excessive” here, since obviously everyone requires validation from others to some degree, the point being just that this trait is so very pronounced in Normal and, as I argued a bit in the post anon is referring to, usually the most important factor informing his courses of action, superseding (but not implying the absence of) any desire to be good and help those around him. Will’s statement (the one which anon quotes) seems to corroborate this.] We know that things go so far back from Sparrow’s account in episode 17:

It’s important that this is about Normal’s kindergarten experiences too, because it tells us that Normal’s predominant internal issues go back farther than this and hence were not caused in and of themselves by his peers- instead being perhaps more fundamental to who he is as a person.

This is not to say that external events do not exacerbate the state of Normal’s psyche. In his youth most notably, we can infer that he interpreted Hero’s treatment (which of course he did not understand at the time to be her training) as favoritism, and I think it’s pretty clear by this point that his resentment of her is tied to the degradation of self-esteem that he experienced as a result.

Then of course there is the dance. Sparrow’s words to Normal during the dance obviously consist of a very pivotal moment for Norm within the context of the season, but I think it’s important to remember and not erase the fact that Normal’s internal issues with validation do not begin at the dance, as established in the kindergarten case but also further exemplified by Norm’s primary motive in becoming the school’s mascot in the first place (to get everybody to like him). I think it’s important to remember this in part since it informs so much of Normal’s reaction to what his father has to say, immediately afterwards but also throughout the whole rest of the season. No kid wants to hear that their parent isn’t proud of them, but the severity of the response to this sort of statement is going to vary drastically depending on the person, and in Norm’s case, given his natural disposition, it’s devastating. [and I swear there’s a teen talk moment where Will says basically this but I can’t find it for the life of me rn damn it lol maybe I’ll edit in the clip later if I do]

Of course in this specific case, one can still mostly say that the problem stems from outside of Normal, and that his preexisting issues exacerbate his response but are definitely not the cause of it. Outside of this instance, however, this is not always true! In fact, Normal’s excessive dependency on external validation and related rejection sensitivity (negatively) inform a large amount of his interactions with those around him, particularly Lincoln and Taylor (imagine me underlining “Taylor” several times as I say this). Truthfully that’s a whole ramble on its own, but with respect to more recent events, I have to admit that I was genuinely quite irked to find a lot of people blaming Taylor and Lincoln for Norm’s response to their uh. mech shenanigans in episode 37, choosing to frame this as an act of moral failing or even malice on their part, rather than a reflection of Normal’s own issues and room for growth. Lincoln and Taylor were simply focused on the mission at hand, and there was no good reason realistically speaking to have expected them to be aware of Normal’s emotional state at that point in time (or in general, to be aware of the jealousy their bonding moments evoke within Norm- particularly when Normal consistently fails to communicate and address those emotions with them in a manner that is direct and not passive-aggressive). Lincoln in particular is very clearly stated as not even having fun in that moment, very understandably being focused instead on the fact that his friend Scary is around his father, who he just witnessed, you know, murder someone. This is not an instance of the world going against Norm for no good reason other than to put him through it, this is a very clear example of Normal’s internal issues affecting the way he perceives external events in a manner that is not actually very reflective of the reality of the situation, and which of course feeds in further to his cycle of self-loathing (and I won’t go into it here since I sort of did in the post anon is responding to- but Normal’s negative reaction to Lincoln breaking the pick to gain Scary’s trust is another important example of this [tbh all the more so now coupled with the hypocrisy of how he handles the anchor in Goofs but that’s a tangent]). As aforementioned, Norm also struggles a good chunk of the time to actually explain his feelings in a manner that is direct and does not rely on blaming others for not picking up on his dejection, as exemplified in how this discussion goes with Lincoln in the most recent episode:

The treatment from fandom of this whole instance being reflective of a reoccurring issue I tend to have with a large chunk of the fandom, wherein the collective memory of canon tends towards getting warped to account for Norm’s mental state. Sometimes that’s hailing him as some morally-perfect, emotional reincarnate of Henry (as though the pride layer didn’t happen, as though Goofs didn’t happen, as though all of Norm’s relationship with Taylor isn’t what it is- …I feel like I should stop implying stuff about the significance Taylor and Norm’s relationship and not elaborating but it really is an essay in and of itself LOL), other times it’s just downright turning everyone around Normal into a villain, a persistent phenomenon which I sort of illustrated in the above example but also touched upon in an earlier essay (arguing that despite the fandom’s quick jump to villainize him- Lincoln breaking the guitar pick would prove to be an act of love). Sparrow also takes a good brunt of the damage from this. Sparrow saying he’s not proud of Normal gets turned into Sparrow not loving Normal (despite an abundance of proof in canon to the contrary), his apology for what he said and the support he shows for Norm in light of his alternative plan on dealing with the Doodler are completely ignored by most of the fandom, as are any other demonstrations of emotional availability and shows of growth that he displays throughout the course of the season, and the true motives behind Sparrow’s insistence on Normal living a “normal” life- to protect him from the childhood that he but also that Hero had to undergo- is somehow framed as Sparrow actually holding some kind of favoritism for Hero. It’s as though there is a complete inability on a larger scale within the fandom to see Sparrow as separate character outside of the filter of Norm’s emotions, and the other teens (including Hermie) get a similar if less pronounced treatment.

[Actually, I would argue that to some degree all of the kiddads except Terry (and Lark since he’s not officially a dad) tend to be perceived and criticized predominantly through the noise of their respective child’s emotions/behavior. In Grant’s case, Lincoln 1. spends a good part of the earlier half of the season asserting that his dads are the best dads in the world despite everything going on and 2. has a very unfortunate tendency to compartmentalize and push down his negative emotions as much as possible- in typical Wilson fashion- so the complexity and severity of Lincoln’s issues with his dad generally go understated, and only now that Lincoln has begun to be more vocal and upfront about his issues has some of Grant’s parenting finally begun to come under fire, and even then mostly only his more recent transgressions. In Taylor’s case, Taylor’s emotional security/stability and general fondness for his dad mean that Nicky is being hailed by many people as “the best dad” where in fact Nicky- while certainly helping the teens out in many ways and perhaps even acting as a friend to them- has done just about jack shit for Taylor as a *father*, and really if Taylor has anyone to thank for being as well-adjusted as he is now, it’s definitely his mom! But I digress.]

Normal and Scary are very similar, but the way fandom treats them is very different. People (mostly) seem to be able to acknowledge that Scary, in spite of her mistakes and flaws, is a scared, tired kid with a good heart who is capable and deserving of love. In Normal’s case, I just can’t seem to shake the impression that the fandom (in general) would rather strip Norm of all the things that make his character complex, and nuanced, and flawed, reducing him to an utterly uninteresting husk of a character before depicting him as anything other than a perfect goody-two-shoes who has never hurt anybody in his entire life or daring to acknowledge the fact that “Normal has been through a lot, is hurt, and deserves a good support system and emotional validation” and “Normal can at many times be his own worst enemy, sometimes makes mistakes that affect those around him, and has room to grow emotionally” are notions that can and should coexist. Or at least, that's my two cents on the matter.

[auniverseforgotten]

I have read the snippets that you have of the pursuit of diarmuid and grainne au and i love It and was wondering of you had more to share?

Hey, sorry this took so long to reply to, I was waffling on and off about how to go about it! Read more bcus it got long dxfcgh

So for those wondering, the og post is here and it lays out the basics [alongside teatitty's posts that were the main insp I love u Tea], which are essentially that I really can't see The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne as a love story, tragic of otherwise, as Diarmuid says no from the very start, and in certain versions he resists as much as he can by making up several reasons why they can't go, such as Fionn having the keys or being unable to pass through a wicker gate, and at least in this one cries over being parted from his people, from the Fianna.

The Pursuit is both a comparatively younger myth and wildly out of character for Fionn, who is most often characterized as a benevolent protector to the people of Ireland, so I do want to note that while I fully understand some people preferring the original mythos Fionn, that's not really what is in this AU. He also isn't there to marry Gráinne.

NOW I DO WANT TO SAY. Thank you so much for your interest and for reaching out, I'm so happy you loved it aaaaaaa!!! ;;w;;

It means a lot to me that you enjoyed my snippets; I really posted it expecting it to just kinda die like most of the last line/sections I do, but several people seemed to really enjoy it and that means a lot to me! ;w; It is a different sort of fic for me, though, and it's one that I'm not overly confident in, so I don't know when, if ever, I would post it. Things also may change from the snippets as I work on it; for example, still trying to decide if Sadhbh is still present in this au, as that throws a lot of stuff off kilter that would have to be redone dfxchvg

That being said I do have a couple other sections! I'm not sure how good they are, but, well.

The attention is typical, at first. Diarmuid knows he cuts a handsome figure and dresses to match it, wearing fine velvet and leather with pearls and diamonds strung through his braid. But the longer it lasts the more uneasy he becomes. He's caught sight of her several times now: the high king’s daughter, Gráinne. His fingers itch to run over his love spot, to make sure it's still covered.  Fionn is standing at his side, tall and broad, a far more winsome figure than his own. It's the work of a moment for Diarmuid to step into his shadow and closer to his side; an arm immediately drops around his shoulders, his friend jovial and welcoming. It warms his heart and soothes him all at once.  If he stays like this, tucked away into Fionn's shadow, cautious and protective of his dearest friend, of his son and grandson by their sides, nothing will come of it.  Inevitably it is noticed. Fionn's arm grows tighter before dropping to allow him to step further back, his smile slightly more strained. They continue to walk together outwardly unchanged; Diarmuid follows in his shadow until Fionn leads them into a sheltered corner, the others continuing on without them. Hands run over Diarmuid's shoulders, his arms, his sides, checking for injuries before coming back to gently cup his face. “What troubles you so?” Diarmuid looks to the side before he can stop himself, chewing his lip as he considers his options. He has never lied to Fionn and he doesn't plan on making it a habit now, but if he tells him the political landscape could face a massive upheaval. Fionn strokes his cheek, expression closed off; it's unlike Diarmuid to be avoidant with him. It’s unlike him to act like this at all. He knows Fionn is worried. “Is it still covered?” He asks, sighing as Fionn immediately runs his thumb over his love spot, a gentle, grounding touch.  “Always. What happened?”

So a couple notes here, this is before anything happens but when Diarmuid has already noticed that he's being watched in an unsettling way; he's a Fae, he's beautiful, he's used to being stared at, but not quite like this. He also has a mole, a love spot, that makes women fall in love with him, which some versions of the pursuit imply is the sole reason Gráinne ever even approaches him. So aside from sounding a lot like victim blaming, the love spot in myth is actually on his forehead, and thus easily covered [and almost always covered, it caused him so much grief when it wasn't you think he would leave it in plain sight?] by his hair. Hence the concern here. "Solar how can Fionn's thumb reach-" man is quite literally half giant in mythos shhhhhhh let me have this uwu

Fionn and Diarmuid know each other very well so as soon as it becomes clear Diarmuid is not just stepping closer bcus he doesn't trust certain people around Fionn [unnecessary, Fionn would normally tease him about it] but is in fact uncomfortable it becomes an Immediate Pressing Issue to find out why. From there, not yet written out, it's a struggle of deciding how much Diarmuid wants to tell Fionn [he knows him, he knows if he tells him 'someone has been staring at me in a very unsettling way and I'm uncomfortable' it will become an Issue to be Addressed Immediately.

Next snippet is further along, after Gráinne already put the geis on him and forced him away. Very possibly subject to change, I don't...super love how it's reading now, but I do also like the concept even if I worry it doesn't fit Diarmuid's voice properly.

Diarmuid leaves signs where he can. Small things abandoned in the depths of night when Gráinne is asleep and unknowing, deniable in the light of day should ever she see them. Little pearls and diamonds from his braid, tucked where they will catch the light only if someone is looking for it. Scraps of cloth, a fleck of blood, three hairs caught tangled on a branch; imperceptible signs that will be clear as day to as skilled a hunter as Fionn. Desperate pleas, a trail of a weeping heart. Find me, it cries, fearful as he never before has been, please don’t stop looking. Even though he knows that the best way this could end is for Fionn to let him go. For Diarmuid to let Gráinne take him where she wishes and do what she demands because she is the daughter of the high king and Fionn doing anything in retaliation will only invoke his wrath. If she dies…she can’t die. She can’t. There is no way out.  To lay a path, to allow his heart to hope for rescue knowing everything he knows is shameful. More than that, it’s a political nightmare. Gráinne is surely to wed a lord someday, someone far above Diarmuid’s own station, someone chosen to bring further peace and stability. He leaves a fish, uncooked and untouched, when he can. A message, a plea, a promise that he has not done anything untoward, that he will not do anything untoward. It will likely not be enough for her father, nor for her future suitor still yet unnamed.  He wants Fionn to find them, to end this, to find a way to break the geis and let him come home. Yet he has to keep Fionn from finding them, because he has never seen his friend so angry. The one time they did speak, swift on the heels of their flight, Fionn was so far gone with rage that Gráinne would dare lay so much as a hand on him that Diarmuid hadn’t known how to calm him. He had barely even had time to draw his lance and intercept the killing blow before it felled Gráinne and threw everything into chaos. He cannot risk Fionn catching up again, not until he finds a way to calm his friend’s fury.

"Solar why would Diarmuid keep Fionn from killing Gráinne that makes no sense he doesn't want to be here at all." So you see. Gráinne is the daughter of the high king of Ireland. Fionn is the 'seventh king of Ireland' [ty Tea I love u Tea]. Aka, there are extreme political ramifications at play, which I lay out via Diarmuid but just for clarity here.

ANYWAY my main concern here is I don't want Diarmuid to come off as like...not quite woobified but like woobified. From a fate background I know that a lot of takes on Diarmuid write him a lot more submissive/subservient which I am not bashing, if that's what people enjoy, good for them!! But that's not the angle I go with Diarmuid at all, and that goes even more for mythos Diarmuid who is strong as fuck and typically able to weasel or fight his way out of situations. It's just that in this one there's a geis upon him that will kill him or otherwise fuck him up if he breaks it, so he is forced into a passive role. ON TOP OF THAT he can still think clearly over the ramifications of harm coming to Gráinne so he Needs to be careful, needs to be polite and repress the urge to fight back, to flinch away.

Included the fish mention because this person mentions reading the pursuit as assigned school reading, and that's where I saw the mention of leaving an uncooked fish to be like heyyyyyy promise there was no funny business okay? It does also mention a 'positive' of Fionn being portrayed in a bad light, that being that it humanizes him, but as said above, I'm stepping around that interpretation of Fionn dfxcvg

ANYWAY I HAVE LIKE. THIRTY versions of the pursuit up rn, two of which I need to actually check out from the internet archive bcus they are book form but hopefully also provide further analysis?

THANK YOU AGAIN SO MUCH FOR YOUR ASK AND INTEREST!!!! I'm sorry I can't give you like a timeline of when it would be done, or if it'll even be posted, but I hope these snippets are enjoyable, at least?

ALSO I KNOW SOMEONE REBLOGGED THE OTHER POST and commented I'M SO SORRY I NEVER GOT BACK TO YOU MY BRAIN IS BAD but thank you so much for reading also!!!!!

[meekswillinherittheearth]

What the Poets are like in my DR!

this is a response to this ask! hope you enjoy!! posting it a bit earlier than originally intended bc i couldn't take the anticipation anymore :)

Neil Perry

my found family brother!!

always looking out for me

he was the first person i met when i started at Welton

we do bicker like siblings but it's okay

i love going to his plays, watching him perform is so much fun and he is so happy

seeing him like that is enough to heal the soul

we share books a lot

i do his stage makeup!

he makes the strangest little sounds sometimes

it will be dead silent and he'll make a silly little squeaky sound

always joins me and my dad (mr keating) for family time

Todd Anderson

he's so sweet and caring

he can be very sarcastic though

insert the "the one with the buck teeth?" situation 😭

he's super funny without trying to

we're both super anxious and it's nice to have someone around who understands that

amazing hugs!! not often, but they are healing

that time i was having a really stressful day and he hugged me and i immediately cried

he can be insecure about his relationships with people because he thinks people don't wanna be around him and just hang out with him out of pity

he needs reassurance but refuses to act for it

really good at painting! i got him watercolors for his birthday <3

he deserves everything. if i could give you the moon i would todd bb

Charlie Dalton

outrageous drama queen

he loves dancing

never said he was good at it though!

it's mostly just twirling

flirts with you to antagonize you but only if you tell him it's okay, he would never wanna make someone uncomfortable <3

my number 1 supporter since forever

superrrr competitive

can and will turn anything into a competition

massive cheesy nerd but denies it adamantly

he cares about his friends more than anything

very very affectionate

wants to be touching someone at all times

his love language is 1000% touch

very talented at music, he can play guitar, sax and a little bit of drums

doesn't sing often but definitely can

hates studying, not because he doesn't care about his education, but because it's not stimulating enough for his brain and he gets distracted really easily

i've said it once and i'll say it again, he is EVERYONES BIGGEST CHEERLEADER!!!

we're polar opposites but will match energy when needed

knows when to be hyperactive and when to be chill and quiet

sarcastic, always being a little shit

"hey charlie, will you pass me that?" "um, no" as he's passing it to you type of thing

gets me out of my shell, which i appreciate so much <3

i really benefit from the confidence he gives me and he likes being around someone who doesn't expect him to be going at a million miles an hour all the time

Knox Overstreet

my gossip buddy!

when we're bored we sit and people watch and make up life stories for the people we see

he has the silliest, most giggle

can and will lift you up

on his shoulders, picking you up and spinning you around, no matter what, it will happen

i watched him pick Charlie up and shake him and nearly peed myself laughing

very platonically affectionate, like little cheek kisses and stuff

it's his way of showing gratitude

hes also pretty sensitive and emotional

he read pride and prejudice and cried his eyes out

type of guy to kick his feet and giggle while twirling his hair

Gerard Pitts

hits his head off things at least once a day

so long and gangly and strange

like those things at car dealerships (affectionate)

he's so sarcastic and goofy

we always gang up on Charlie when he does/says something stupid

he takes his grades very seriously

but he isn't a stick in the mud about it

loves music so much

its one of the main things i hear him talk about

finds and keeps cool rocks

gives them to people when they're having a rough day

penguin behavior tbh

he is just a silly guy!

Steven Meeks

this is gonna be a long one, buckle up lovelies

we met and instantly clicked

inconsolably sweet, all the time

also kind of a chronic people pleaser but we're working on it okay!

we both have an affinity for latin

we have secret conversations in latin sometimes <3

about a week after we first met he asked Charlie if I was dating anyone but made him promise not to tell me (which didn't last long)

when we met i complimented his glasses and he blushed and went "thank you, i need them to see. i like your freckles."

he did not realize how hilarious of a response that was until later

falling asleep on his shoulder when we're up late studying <3

GETTING PRINCESS CARRIED!!!!!

he always wants to carry me places. who needs legs honestly

flustering him is so easy and i love to do it because it's so funny

trying to teach him how to dance and he trips over his own feet

he has the softest most beautiful curls ever

tiny little ringlets by his ears!! my heart is melting!!!!

and his eyes.... cut the cameras

hes so pretty

him laying in my lap while i read to him

leaving lipstick all over his face and him not realizing.... the literal cutest

he is always the first one I run to when I get off stage after a recital (they all come to my ballet recitals in my dr)

us always getting caught staring at each other <3

writing poetry for each other!!!!

his love language is acts of service and quality time

his glasses are somehow constantly fogging up

he always offers me his sweater/coat/jacket when i'm chilly

my love im kicking my feet and giggling writing about him

he feels like the song 'let the light in' by lana del rey

[fightingthetides]

'small things' for Yamamoto <3

[Original] ||Accepting|| @ukigumos From a meme tag in my other blog

Readmore, because it got long (~18k) when I went through canon source, because there isn't too much content for me to go through in threads (yet).

When thinking about Hibari, you mostly think about his grouchy cat-like temperament, but there are sides to him that make him an interesting person to figure out. Sure, he’s got a temper and sure he seems uncaring at first, but that’s not necessarily true- if you know where to look. Each person has various facets to them, ‘duality’ if you will.

There were some memories that Yamamoto had of Hibari that could give others some insights into the otherwise ‘fightophile’ skylark that everyone feared (for good reason).

To begin with, the time when the Ring battle between Vongola 10 and the Varia were going on, Hibari had left some lasting impressions on Yamamoto. What sorts of impressions you ask? Haha! Alright, alright, he’ll tell you.

During his battle with the Gola Mosca, anyone could tell just how formidable it… no, he was? Man, the arena sure looked intimidating. There were gatling guns around the perimeter that would shoot any moving object it sees within 30m radius, pressure sensitive mines buried underground, and the walls were entirely covered in barbed wire.

Hibari, named the strongest of the guardians, is their ace. The way he walked into the arena so calmly and confidently—man… he’s just really cool! Gola Mosca could fly like some kinda jet pack fighter all Zuzuzuuuuuu, and Hibari went bakbak!

That was it.

So anticlimactic, but that’s what makes him so cool. He walks in, wins without breaking a sweat, and hands the ring off. That really was what gave off a dominant stalking black panther vibe to Yamamoto.

“Now, you, the one sitting over there. Come down here. Until I bite you to death, monkey boss of the mountain of monkeys, I can’t go home.”

This fight was way more interesting to watch. Xanxus stepped on a landmine and used the propulsion to launch himself to the side. He drew Hibari into the line of fire of the gatling guns, but both of them seemed unperturbed by the nuisance around them. The only thing on their minds was to fight- and win.

Hibari managed to force Xanxus to raise an arm in battle though he said he won’t raise an arm. Pretty sure he fought aiming to force him to raise an arm to gnaw at his pride a little bit. Just a theory of his.

Gola mosca started going crazy then after having shot Hibari in the leg.

Some stuff happened after that but… that’s not really relevant right now.

The next thing that happened during the Ring Battles was when everyone was poisoned by the uh… huh, they never were given a name, were they? Whatever it was! They were all poisoned with something that could subdue an elephant- but that’s not enough for Hibari!

Yamamoto distinctly remembers hearing the heavy sounds of metal slamming into metal as Xanxus and Tsuna were having their own battle. That stubborn guy really managed to get himself up onto his feet, beat a pole to death and free himself of the poison.

He then fought Prince Belphegor, the genius. He couldn’t see the battle happening himself, but he knew that Gokudera was helped by Hibari’s quick thinking and swift actions. With him released from the poison, he could help Lambo.

The guy is secretly a team player when he needs to be. He came all the way to help Yamamoto get the Rain ring to be freed from the poison.

“You would mess up the discipline if you die don school grounds. If you want to die, go do so outside.”

That is so like him to say. Yamamoto likes to believe that Hibari was really telling him to get out there and do what he does best: be there for his friends as support. Even though he was beat up pretty badly, he still tried to move- probably to seek the others who were in need of help. That’s when Yamamoto suggested a player change, which he agreed to, handing off his ring to Yamamoto.

In the meanwhile Gokudera saved Ryohei and ye, the rest is history!

The stoic guy may mask some of his concern or care behind Namimori, but he does have the ability to work with others… on his terms. There was something about seeing him beaten but still silently intending to do more made Yamamoto realize just how much responsibility and drive Hibari had.

It was so much that even Yamamoto had to feel impressed by it. That’s their ace for ya! Leading by example, showing the rest of the guardians the kind of level they have to get to.

No wonder he considers them all as weak herbivores, huh?

(ref ch. 118-120, 127-128, 130)

-

What else was there? Ah! That representative battle with the little guys? He can’t forget about the time Hibari really joined another team JUST so he could have his fun in fighting strong opponents and also be unhindered by ‘crowding’. That is so like him, haha!

Hibari came out with a baby atop his head instead of one of his little birds. The resemblance of the two is uncanny, and someone may have leaked the information to the rest of them at one point that the two were actually related. How exactly, he didn’t know, but it seems that the bloodline runs strong.

Anyways, it really didn’t take long for Ryohei to have lost his ‘match’ against Hibari. Yanno how it is, Ryohei runs in head first, forgets about protecting the watch and loses instantly. Really speaks to Hibari’s focus, Yamamoto thinks.

He may like to fight, but he’s goal-oriented. He won’t forget about his task: defeating his opponents. Any opening to destroy a watch will be taken advantage of, even if it means the ‘fun fight’ comes to an end quicker.

“There was actually one other reason that I didn’t join your team… your team is full of people I really want to bite to death.”

Yanno? Yamamoto was kind of excited to hear that from him at first. He’s usually only ever referred to the guardians as weak bugs or herbivores, so acknowledging that he wanted to bite some of them made it seem like he acknowledged their strength a little bit.

Yamamoto really admires Hibari’s strength and his drive, so being regarded as worthy enough to want to bite to death (and it not being something related to having broken a rule to warrant it in the first place) was a good thing.

Okay, it’s also kind of a bad thing, ahaha! Yamamoto doesn’t know how to feel about having Hibari boring holes into the back of his head because he wants to fight.

As much as Yamamoto find challenges to be fun, Gokudera and he had their roles to play as support for their boss.

“You aren’t the same species as me, you’re just bugs. Weak little bugs.”

Ah… maybe he should take that back. Maybe he didn’t quite see them as worthy then. Maybe that’s just him taunting them, trying to goad a reaction out of them to rile their fighting spirit?

You think he’d answer if asked?

(Ref ch. 361 + 363)

-

Hmm… some other memory that made a lasting impression on him? Ah, there was that one time he found Hibari injured and had coaxed him into allowing being escorted to the hospital. On one hand it was shocking to see him injured to begin with. It wasn’t anything fatal, but it was still significant enough to be worrying.

Initially, Hibari was being stubborn in wanting to be left alone, to deal with his injuries by himself- but you know Yamamoto! He’s a stubborn one! Like one of those Shibas who will stamp their butts to the ground and allow their leash to squish their face beyond recognition as their owners desperately beg to go home.

Hibari has a nice view of Shiba Inus, finding them loyal and intelligent- which isn’t wrong! Many know them for their willful nature. They’re quite loyal and loving if you’re close to them.

He still thinks about it every now and then, but maybe it’s the whole tranquility thing, that allowed Yamamoto to slowly coax Hibari into allowing him to take him to the hospital. If you were to ask him, he thinks the big turning point is the apple rabbits. His tune really changed once Yamamoto mentioned cutting some apple rabbits for him.

Not only that, when they approached the hospital, he not-so-subtly reminded Yamamoto about the promised apple rabbits. Guess it’s true that the guy has a soft spot for cute little animals. It as a bit of ‘gap moe’ as Haru termed it.

“Hahi? Sure, Hibari-san is still a bit scary, but when he’s surrounded by cute birds or a little hedgehog, the cuteness factor cuts some of his scariness! He gives into them if they speak upon Haru’s behalf you know? It’s scary and cute!”

When Hibari asked if Yamamoto would allow it to be lonely, he honestly… thought it was kind of cute? For a guy who was a lone wolf and hated crowding, he was quick to suggest allowing the lone apple rabbit to have a friend. He did hear that rabbits were social creatures and should ideally be kept in pairs, and if that was the thought process, it was kind of cute that Hibari would be so considerate towards apple rabbits.

It was like he could see what Haru meant by Hibari’s consideration to cute little animals by listening to them or by wanting for them to have a companion to not feel lonely.

Now if only he could be that considerate towards his human companions, right? Haha! That would be a dream- or maybe a nightmare in Tsuna’s case. Poor guy would probably have a heart attack.

Now, Yamamoto had absolute confidence in his vision. As not only an athlete but a swordsman, his vision and his hearing were sensitive. He didn’t miss the smallest hint of a smile upon nudging the two apple rabbits closer together.

What neither of them would know was that both parties were thinking something was cute in that very moment.

It came as a surprise! Hibari and cute in the same thought? Gokudera and Ryohei both would rush him to the hospital for a brain scan if they’d heard him say so. Mn? Maybe Haru would agree with him?

Not gonna lie, it was kinda nice sharing apple rabbits together. It is possible to have a conversation with Hibari and it not evolve into: Let me bite you to death for [insert some kind of Namimori rule here].

Huh? Cheating? Look, Yamamoto can’t remember all the rules, okay? There are some real arbitrary rules there- like, ‘no crowding’!

Eh? What was so impactful about this? Ahaha! Yeah!

No, huh? Hahaha! YEAH! That’s all you’re getting from him!

Truly, Yamamoto isn’t beating the Shiba Inu allegations.

(Ref thread ehe)

[banqanas]

Can I ask how you learned Japanese? I'm curious about learning it myself but have no clue where to start.

Disclaimer:

I'm self taught (only have one basic class in Japanese) and never took JLPT. I can talk, write and understand basic japanese, but definitely not proficient. Because I only apply my jp knowledge for hobby stuffs (a.k.a i can read a novel about oshi and have conversations with fellow otaku. but none of it is applicable in regular daily life)

I started since 2014 so I've been learning jp for almost 9 years (still am). I dont think I'm qualified to give advice so instead, here's a short essay on how I got to this point;

2014: learnt reading & listening from manga & anime. reading raws while comparing to fan scanlations. same with anime. doing this consistently to get used to the language 2018: peak of my learning -took a basic class in japanese in college. helped a lot in getting used to sentence structure and particles -started translating seriously (short written text only: interviews, tweets, articles) -practice writing and conversing via twitter. started tweeting in japanese and talked to japanese people in same fandom. found kaiwa friends. -also started translating spoken japanese (livestreams), but was not confident enough to translate word-by-word 2019- jan 2021: started translating mobage contents. literally just doing the same things as the year before but more frequently and more quantity. also started translating short spoken japanese without any text/script aid (radio). feb 2021: discovered high&low. met todoroki yosuke. trajectory of life changed. stopped translating for the time being 2022: slowly translating media with real people starting with some kamen rider stuffs. got more comfortable with translating spoken japanese (unscripted). 2023: here i am.

The long essay version:

The earliest I started learning japanese was around ~2014 where I was into a very niche series that has no translation so I had to buy the manga and try to read them myself. At the time there's no translate using image function, so a lot of it was me typing in the words in hiragana and hoping that I find the right kanji. During this period I (was forced to) learn a lot about kanji radicals and how to properly write them.

From that day on, Jisho was my best friend

I learnt mostly by comparing anime/manga fan translations with raws and going back and forth to check the words in dictionary. I prefer fan scanlation bc most of them are literal and are easier to understand as someone who isn't an english speaker.

I still consciously do this whenever I watch anything but I can differentiate what's a literal translation vs localisation now.

I started dabbling in translation around 2018

At the time I was into Hypnosis Mic (rap songs). I was better at understanding jp words now and could write simple words. I would tweet in japanese and reply to my fav artists drawings (this template is my origin). I also started posting my drawings with jp caption

I used to help around the fan translation group with seiyuu interviews or magazine articles (mainly written text). And the admin of the group would check my translation before posting them. I tried translating songs myself, but I realised that while I could translate, they don't make sense 😅😅

I made some friends in the fandom who were also learning japanese and we would consult each other with translations. I also made a friend with a japanese person wanting to learn english. So I would talk to them in japanese while they would reply to me in english.

So I stuck around with translating short interviews/tweets. I also started doing livetweets of niconico livestreams. I wasn't confident enough in spoken japanese so I only made general summaries instead of word-by-word translation.

At the same year I also took an introductory class to Japanese Language at my college. It was my first formal lesson in japanese. The book we used was Minna no Nihongo Elementary 1. The class got me used to sentence structures, particles, numbers, time etc etc. The class did not made me translate my anime stuffs better back then but the present me is very thankful for everything I learnt during this class bc it's what people in the real world use.

The next following years (2019- early 2021) were when i was most active bc I got into translating mobage contents. I translated pretty much everything I could from home screen lines to event stories to radio. I got better at making my translation sound better and not too literal. Also helped proof reading friends translations.

I personally think this was the best learning duration for me. Compared to actors, seiyuu (voice actors) have really clear enunciation which helped me got confident in my listening skills for spoken japanese, thus became confident enough to translate it. I could understand and catch up with what they were talking about with minimal text. But I still need to listen to the same radio show 2-3 times before I could fully understand them.

I dedicated every waking minute of my life to this game until it shut down. Then I got so broken hearted, I didn't want to consume anymore 2D media. Depressi spaghetti phase.

On that fated day in February 2021, I watched High&Low on netflix and I fell for Todoroki Yosuke. Started the process all over again by consuming everything i can about highlow to get used to the actors voices, way of speaking, dialect, common words/phrases etc. Also includes stuffs related to exile tribe. During this time I barely translated anything bc I wasn't confident enough with unscripted spoken japanese.

By 2022 I got the hang of it and started translating stuffs for kamen rider. And this year I can listen to fanta's radio while doing chores without thinking too much about it but can still understand their conversation! I read a novel for the first time!

I'm sorry that this got too long but I hope it helped to give you an idea of where to start! Here's to learning more! 👍

[zozthethird]

Happy 1 year anniversary to my ghost animation!

and massive thanks to everyone that's shared it!

More on the development and stuff under the cut. (it's long)

Character concepts!

I wanted to have some really simple and complimentary characters for this one, the ghost was pretty much set from day one. There were a lot of changes for the main character, they started as this hat wearing design, then moved to the hooded style (better and simpler for my rudimentary 3d skills at the time!) Everyone else was pretty much one drawing and done since they're so referential, we've got slimer, sadako and of course the interpid ghost hunter team.

Animatic!

You can see that the gensis of this was really 'One background, that never changes PLEASE' which I think is sucessful as it can be, it makes the ending more powerful. Absolutely one of those things that more confidence with the software would improve on a follow up anim.

Textures/Assets!

Originally this was all planned to be a kinda 2.5d animation, so here' a lot of the original textures and assets from Illustrator

Anim and Development!

So all of this was put together in Blender 2.79 as that was all my poor suffering laptop could take. First time using it, so absolute learning curve.

Any texture work was produced in Adobe Illustrator and any animated texture work was produced in After Effects, including all the facial animation (which was animated separately, then added to the face as a texture).

I wanted to animate it all in AFX, but oh my god that program, absolute love/hate relationship, so while it is the backbone, Blender is the real hero, everything originally made for AFX was remodelled in Blender.

I made this anim at a pretty low place and while it wasn't completely responsible for getting me outta my ditch, I absolutely wouldn't be where I am right now without it. Thanks so much for all the love and comments over the last year!

[dodger-chan]

20 Questions for fic writers:

Tagged by @cchapsticck

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

59, if you count the very old stuff I archived there. 39, if you only count the stuff I originally posted there.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

194,755

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Recently, it's been all Stranger Things. If I start writing other fandoms again, tumblr will be the first to know.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Their Wedding Night (cowritten with @sharpbutsoft )

Adventures in Housekeeping

The Opposite of Love

The House Dick

Her Double Life

All but The Opposite of Love are part of A Bliss Like This

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to. I used to not, but I've gotten into some nice conversations with other authors who responded to my comments, so I decided to try it. And I'm a very small author (don't let the word/ count fool you; I've been posting fic online since the late 90s) so there aren't that many comments to reply to.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably that sin, through which I run. Though it's told backwards, so it might depend on what you consider the ending.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Any fic in A Bliss Like This. It's a guaranteed happiness series.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Never on AO3.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I've written, but not published smut. I'm not good enough at it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don't, really. Nothing wrong with crossovers, I'm just not usually inspired in that way.

I did work with a couple of friends once on a wild, universe hopping crossover that involved Sonic characters, Gundam Wing, Dragonball Z, The Old Man from Scene 24 (Holy Grail) and others with a friend that I think she posted somewhere. Probably fanfiction.net, but it was like 25 years ago (I am very old) and I'm a little scared of how awful it must have been so I'm not looking.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that anyone's mentioned to me.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not in the sense that we've blended our writing into a single story, but @sharpbutsoft and I built a 1920s AU together. Individual stories in A Bliss Like This are often hers or mine but they build off each other and all the major details are a joint endeavor.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

This is an impossible question.

I have noticed a preference for jock/nerd or similar such pairings. Where one half of the couple is "normal" or socially acceptable and the other half is very, very weird. But only when the relationship develops without either of them giving up that aspect of their personality. No makeovers!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

A Nancy POV fic tentatively called 'Three Truths and No Lies' that I started between the two volumes of season four. Because there were all these "fruity four" fics and I thought Nancy would likely try to fix or at least find closure in her relationship with Jonathan as soon as he got to Hawkins, leading to her feeling a little left out of the Eddie and Stobin closeness.

Also a third part of Coming Out with a Purpose, where Robin and Steve come out to Joyce to test her reaction and give her the opportunity to learn from the mistakes she makes with them so that she doesn't fuck up when Will finally comes out.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Limited POVs. I think I'm decent at character voices, too, but I'm less confident there.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Actually writing words down (what do you mean just thinking about the fic doesn't make it exist?). The urge to edit while I write. Spelling. Plots.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'm not good enough at it to really do it, unless the character speaking is not supposed to be fluent.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

That I published online? Fushigi Yuugi, as I recall. Maybe Gundam Wing. But as a kid I used to write Real Ghostbusters fic for my parents (they wanted to encourage my creativity). Mostly fleshed out (no pun intended) back stories for the ghosts.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I'm still writing it. I'm gonna finish it, I swear.

Of what I've published, it's probably Her Double Life, because genderqueer drag queen Eddie of the 1920s is just so much fun. I have so many thoughts and feelings about her. So, so many.

No pressure tags for: @sharpbutsoft , @greenlikethesea, um, who else writes? If you do, and you want to answer these, please consider yourself tagged.

[reina-royale]

Don't you think you are missing the point? Because of how often Ron is overlooked whenever he gets any ounce of attention, it usually goes to his head. I think the chapter focused on this flaw not to make the conflict as one-sided on kim's end. Ron was being a bit patrionizing through the episode. So, Ron acknowladging it was the Kim factor, despite being Ron who defeated the villain showcase his character growth and is a sign of humilty and modesty.

Is one of my favorite moments of his character, I like how supportive and kind he is to Kim. Maybe what was missing was Kim acknowladging Ron more often? how would you've liked to see the episode/ending play out? What would you change?

I wouldn't say I'm missing the point. I'd say I'm saying it's stupid. Huge difference.

Furthermore, as I have rewatched the series recently, I can confidently say that, attention does not, actually, go to Ron's head when he receives it.

(And even if it did, that's not an excuse to constantly beat on the guy's self-esteem when even the anon asking this question admits he's constantly over looked.)

At this point in time, "Ron Millionaire" hasn't happened yet, so Kim's only examples would be "Bueno Nacho", "The New Ron", and "Two to Tutor", and in none of those did Ron get a big head.

(But if you're someone who's threatened by other people being successful and confident, it's the same thing.)

In "Bueno Nacho", Ron invented the Naco and got the job as the boss because of it. Being good at his job and actually enjoying it doesn't mean it went to his head, nor was asking Kim to do the job she originally signed them up for.

In "The New Ron", Ron started caring about fashion and hair-care, but this still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

In "Two to Tutor", Ron was successful, popular, and confident because of his baking skills, and that still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

Know why? Because he was enjoying the positive attention without putting down others or making fun of them.

Was Ron a little rude in this episode? Yes. But to say it's a recurring problem when it provably isn't shows more about Kim than Ron.

Namely that, to Kim, it doesn't matter if Ron actually has an ego problem or is just confident, it's unacceptable for Ron to be anything but her insecure, bumbling sidekick.

(Seriously, Kim is allowed to say she can do anything, but Ron isn't allowed to say he's good at one thing? How is that a fair and equal relationship?)

It's also worth mentioning that, yes, Ron is provably important to Kim's success, because she has failed any mission she tries to do alone.

Ron's already humble and modest, to the point of insecurity and self-deprecation. He really didn't need to be told, again, that he's nothing special.

How would I have liked this to go? Easy:

It starts out pretty much the same, but, at some point, Kim is watching feeds of her missions and sees, from an outside perspective, how important Ron actually is to her success.

*cue dawning look of realization*

At the end, after Gemini is defeated, we get an exchange like this:

Kim: "I was so upset about this whole Ron-factor thing at first, but, after watching some surveillance videos, I realized they're right."

Ron and Rufus: "Huh?!"

Kim: "I'm really good at the action stuff, but your quick-thinking and resourcefulness has been more helpful than I realized. I'm sorry I never acknowledged that before."

Ron: "Thanks, KP. That means a lot. Sorry I was kind of rude earlier. Friends?"

Kim: "The best."

*hug*

Ron: "But, for the record, it's not you or me, it's us. We're a team. It's not about a Kim Factor or a Ron Factor, it's us together that makes it work."

Dr. Director: "Hmm...perhaps we should spend time studying both of you."

[wirewitchviolet]

So I just watched every Child’s Play movie and now I’m going to talk about them.

A few recent conversations with people have lead to me picking up some weird trivia notes about the Child’s Play/X of Chucky movies (and the recent TV series based on them), and as luck would have it, almost all of them are on Tubi right now, the one streaming service that still seems usable, and since they’re honestly on the very short list of ‘80s horror classics I never got around to, why not marathon through all seven and blog about it? Also before I do the whole “continued below the fold” thing can I just note real quick both that the later entries are surprisingly queer, so, on topic for the month, and that every single sequel, spinoff, whatever is written by the author of the original screenplay, and this series is practically the only thing on his IMDB page. You don’t see that sort of writer-controlled franchise basically ever.

Child’s Play (1988) is, of course, an evil doll movie. That’s kind of its own whole subgenre, and honestly does a pretty good job of elevating itself from what that generally entails. The absolute first thing we see on screen is the backstory here, where a police detective is trying to gun down a serial killer, who as just sort of a random thing (at least until later when he goes back to the witch doctor he learned it from to complain) has a magic soul transfer spell he’s apparently really itching to use, what with the having been caught for all the murders and all. He can’t find anyone to body jack, but ends up pinned under a pile of these very My Buddy style jumbo dolls and gives it a shot. I feel like this opening was probably a studio mandate thing, or at least a late addition, because otherwise the movie plays things real close to the chest about the whole thing.

We have this YOUNG (6 year old actor) kid who gets the possessed doll as a late birthday present after his struggling single mom buys it from a shady guy on the street who swiped it from the deadly shootout scene, and he talks about things the doll says to him, but we never actually see the conversations and without the intro you could totally play this up as a misdirect that we’ve got some sort of evil child here. You’d figure we’d be doing the whole thing where the kid is trying to tell everyone the doll is evil and nobody’s listening, but mostly he just gets to be a cute latchkey kid kept somewhat in the dark on this, and before we even really have a decent body count or string of suspicious things, his mother actually just notices she never put the batteries in the thing, so even the standard squeeze me and hear catch phrases talking doll stuff he’s done shouldn’t actually be possible.

She does a whole lot of worrying about how if either she or her latchkey kid explain this, CPS is probably going to get involved, but eventually confides the whole “hey this doll I got my kid might be possessed and responsible for some recent deaths” thing with the detective looking into things, who is just super relieved because he was actually already going down that road and also didn’t want to say anything that absurd, and then things just kinda rush to a conclusion after the aforementioned witch doctor check-in gives us the rest of our lore for these early entries. Turns out if you pop your soul into a plastic doll (or presumably other inanimate object), first off your only option for bouncing out is the first person you told your real name to (which he carelessly did with the kid), and also that inanimate body is eventually going to start gradually becoming human and obeying sensible rules like being full of meat and having basic mortality going on, and also this eventually closes that window to jump out. So OK NOW the kid he’d mostly been ignoring is in danger, they burn the doll, shoot it a lot, the end. Impressive animatronics work.

Child’s Play 2 (1990) is... the more by the numbers experience I was expecting the original to be. We start with the reveal that the protagonists of the first movie and second cop who showed up at the end did in fact go public with their story and it got enough buzz that the doll’s manufacturer went to the trouble to gather up what was left of it, do a full rebuild and restore, and test things out to put any sort of possession rumors to bed, and we also find out that oh, actually that looming concern over the whole first movie actually WAS totally valid, and the kid was dumped into the foster care system (which does not come off in a good light here at all) “while his mother recovers.” That’s the last mention of her we ever get too, so presumably she’s just locked in some psych ward indefinitely or something, which is pretty damn dark.

Quick tangent here- So the doll itself is “a Good Guys doll,” and while at no point in the series do we really go in too deep on this, Good Guys is apparently some sort of Care Bears-like cartoon that aired for a bit before getting the merch out, and part of the gimmick is while the dolls all otherwise have the same appearance and stock dialog, they all have different names (or at least a wide pool of names), and like... this is somehow the one thing I can’t suspend my disbelief over. Like yeah it’s a neat gimmick that you don’t know what your specific doll’s name is until you first put batteries in, but you are leaving so much money on the table not encouraging kids to collect the whole cast. And like, there’s a pre-existing show right? Shouldn’t they all have unique character designs from that alone? Also other Good Guys dolls keep showing up in the sequels, 2 here has one already in the house that Chucky replaces, but aside from a quick gag of having to pause to remember what name to say here, the unique name thing never actually ends up mattering, so it’s weird to introduce it.

But yeah, kid’s in foster care, so NOW we have parents who don’t believe him about the whole killer doll thing and wonder if he’s doing messed up stuff like you’d figure. They’re also taking care of a girl named Kyle who’s super jaded about the whole getting bounced around from home to home thing and talking about being abused in a lot of them and such, and she kinda becomes our co-protagonist here. This one WOULD end up pretty boring except I want to say the last third of the movie is this big extended climax in the doll factory and they just really go all out with weird creativity. Lots of hazardous conveyor belts and molten plastic and machines shoving limbs and eyeballs in. They have a ton of fun with it and it really sticks with you. They also cash in on that “doll eventually becomes more human” thing for some really incongruous gore as Chucky gets just horrifically mutilated and rendered into an indistinct mass. Good stuff.

Child’s Play 3 (1991) is the one entry in the series that’s just kinda more of the same. We’re jumping forward a decade or so with the toy company deciding to finally clean up the again really impressively grotesque aftermath of that second movie’s climax and start making these dolls again. Feels a bit early to be doing the retro ‘80s toy line thing but I guess it’s just a forward thinking movie like that. Anyway some of Chucky’s blood leaks out into the main molten plastic vat as they’re using a crane to remove his remains from the floor so he’s kinda reborn as the first new doll off the line, kills the CEO, and tracks down the kid, who’s just been transferred to military school, because the foster care system still sucks. Bit weird how Kyle’s not addressed at all, after the ending of 2 pretty strongly implied she was just going to go raise the kid off he grid somewhere, but here we are. Generic military school/bullying stuff, 16 year old kid. There is a point where Chucky realizes wait this is technically a new doll he’s possessing and that first person he tells his name to bit presumably got a reset, so he’s trying to possess this other kid (who I don’t buy as young enough to be into this doll, especially when he’s at a military school). We switch settings to this super elaborate haunted house ride at a nearby amusement park for the climax which is kind of fun, but it’s no doll factory... and even the writer doesn’t care much for this one. We are out of steam, trilogy over.

Bride of Chucky (1998) eventually picks things back up and just kinda goes “screw it, we’re capital-C Camp horror-comedy now.” We’re also doing a lot of retconning. Soul transferring now requires this magic amulet, and we’re no longer doing the doll-slowly-becomes-human thing. We ARE doing the doll-is-full-of-meat-and-blood thing though. We’re also saying before the original movie Chucky had a girlfriend (played by Jennifer Tilly, this will be relevant later) who was also a big fan of murder and broadly in on it, and while it took her a bit (or not? I’m figuring 2 took place immediately after 1, but then we skipped forward 10 years for 3, and now this is actually a decade from the original and mentions the dolls having been a thing back in the ‘80s, so the math gets weird here), she found all the Chucky bits after he was tossed into an industrial fan in 3, stitched them together, and casts a spell to revive him.

Long story short they have a very hot and cold relationship going, where at first the plan is hey, let’s restore Chucky’s humanity and go get his crime spree money, but then they have a fight, she locks him in a care, he kills her and magic rituals her into a similar doll, they fight some more, then eventually decide to just find some random couple to body jack and go back to being human. Contrary to the title they don’t actually get married at any point, but do get engaged, and the audience is challenged with the fact that at some point (while, again, both are dolls, but remember they ARE full of meat, so this makes SOME sense) they have sex, she gets pregnant, and the big ending sting after they start squabbling again, ruin the body stealing plan, and get shot for their trouble, she gives birth to this weird doll baby who we see pouncing on someone who approaches the scene later. Also I don’t know if it’s coming across from this summary but there’s very little in the way of slasher stuff here. It’s like, 90% wacky unhealthy relationship banter by volume.

Seed of Chucky (2004) picks up from THAT ending somehow, and after a big ol’ CGI montage of where murder doll babies come from goes into this narration from the perspective of the hideous doll baby from the end of the last one, who has since grown up somewhat and is actually very nice and polite and was actually just giving a big hug to that person in that stinger. Anyway after years of working as a fake ventrilloquist’s dummy, and going off the assumption of being Japanese because apparently having Made in Japan stamped on your wrist is a genetically inheritable trait for living dolls (and extra weird because I’m pretty sure the doll Chucky was possessing at the time was made in the factory from 2 and that was explicitly in Chicago), the spooky doll child who is our protagonist learns they’re making a movie about the events of Bride of Chucky and sees the same wrist stamp on the prop version of Chucky in that. So, off to the set to do a magic ritual and bring the actual sophisticated animatronic movie props used for in-universe versions of these movies to life, harnessing the souls of those dead murder parents and yeah this all works out somehow. And now it’s time to get super meta.

From here we have two plot threads going. The one with the kid, and one where Chucky’s love interest is struck by how amazing the casting it is that they got Jennifer Tilly to play her for this movie, both because she sounds just like her and she looks just like she did before she got turned into a doll, and also because she and several other people in this movie as an odd running gag thought she was really good in the Wachowski’s first movie, Bound. So the bulk of this movie’s actual plot is this evil murder doll plotting to possess her own voice actress and that’s just great. The plan is also to get whoever’s she’s dating as a host for Chucky (initially real world rapper Redman and later her limo driver), and to artificially inseminate her with... the title of the movie to get a human (or, more human anyway?) baby for the kid to possess. Long story short this actually does work out except for Chucky stopping at the last minute and realizing that this is very ridiculous, and being some limo driver dating an actress isn’t as cool as being a famous killer doll, so screw the whole thing. Oh and then gets dismembered by his own child with an axe after a goofy martial arts battle, because it’s kind of a tradition for every movie to end with Chucky’s gruesome dismemberment.

Then the other half of the plot is these two being parents to this child who they each project their own gender onto and who personally never really gave the matter much thought, and they straight up go all Ed Wood fighting over whether to call them Glen or Glenda. The child in question eventually says something along the lines of “I do like being a boy, but I also like being a girl, can I just be both?” which scores some pretty serious points for progressiveness for 2004, but then kind of immediately loses them by kinda playing this up as a split personality thing and getting the tidy (for some value thereof) solution of Jennifer Tilly actually having twins, so hey, just possess both these babies and actually be a boy and a girl. But like, put a pin in that one.

Oh and fun trivia. I suspected this on my own and wikipedia confirms it with quotes. Going full camp for Bride and casting one of the women from Bound basically pushed the whole series over some sort of queer event horizon, which the writer was OK with because hey, he’s openly gay. This movie had to switch studios because the first thought it was “too gay,” and he just kinda doubled down from here on out. Like I don’t think any straight characters, major or minor, get introduced from here on out.

Curse of Chucky (2013) took another decade to come out and went straight to video. Which, you know, reread that last paragraph, and while we are just making everyone gay now, it seems our writer and now also director realized he flew too close to the sun with the high camp duology and we’re back to doing the standard evil doll thing, terrorizing a new family, with the actual real life daughter of Brad Dourif (who plays Chucky and was also Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings movies and the guy with the giant eyebrows in the ‘80s Dune) as the lead, she’s in a wheelchair due to Chucky attacking her mother while she was pregnant back before the whole doll thing happened, and we’ve kinda got a back to finish the job sort of setup, with this whole extended family in a big house getting bumped off and gradually piecing together there’s something up with this doll someone mailed to the main character’s niece.

This is the one entry in the series that didn’t do anything for me. It goes a bit nasty and gory on the kills which previous movies kind of just saved for big awful Chucky deaths oddly enough. It doesn’t have the high camp energy of the previous couple either and I miss it. Someone pointed out to me that it is interesting how it manages a really good fake out and absolutely comes across as a straight up reboot until a good ways in, at which point Chucky takes off some patch-overs hiding the scars from being sewn back together in Bride and giving a bit of a speech that basically amounts to “oh no absolutely everything is still canon actually. There’s just more to my life than stalking the one kid and dealing with my unstable girlfriend.” Also this one ends with a post-credits scene I literally found out existed just now when looking up release dates because Tubi kept jumping right into the next movie as credits started, and it’s kind of important to see for that one to make even a little sense, as Chucky mails himself to the kid from the original movies, and hey he also gets a phone call from his mother, so OK either she did get let out of wherever eventually or he got adopted by someone decent. Nice to learn. Also nice to learn this actor didn’t get messed up from staring in a horror movie when he was just freaking six. Anyway he counter-ambushes Chucky with the big ol’ rifle he has because I mean 3′s still canon.

Cult of Chucky (2017) is the last movie in the series... because it’s setting the stage for the TV series. And by “setting the stage for the TV series” I mean it just kinda does the screenwriting equivalent of dumping a whole bin of legos on the floor and leaving it for someone else to clean up. Makes this honestly just a complete mess of a movie (especially coming in without seeing that post-credits scene) but honestly it was probably the right call. Unlike most other things following the trend of adapting an ‘80s horror series to a serialized TV show, we didn’t actually have a big sloppy mess of lore and confusing continuity and unaccounted for characters, so yeah, make a big mess of things and spend a season or two cleaning it up, sure.

Basically the protagonist from Curse ends up institutionalized because... she was kind of the sole survivor of that one and insisting a doll killed everyone, but it’s not really plausible she did it because the house it takes place in isn’t all that wheelchair accessible. So we have this whole cast of other committed people here to be... not great portrayals of mental illness (but I mean, I’ve seen much worse) and give us some victims to run through, and a super awful corrupt hypnosis and sexual assault-y head of the place. And like, the tone of these last two is such that when she learns Chucky is actually there she tries to kill herself and Chucky then discovers this and sews her wrist back up. Not a fan.

Thing is though we’re cutting away now and then to the kid from the original trilogy interrogating the half-exploded and severed head of Chucky as was mailed to him in that post-credits scene, while Chucky is running around the mental hospital, and the eventual explanation for that is he found lessons online on how to possess multiple dolls at once. Also people. And by the end of the thing we’ve got 3 Chucky dolls running around (plus the interrogation head), plus our protagonist is possessed, and for good measure Chucky’s girlfriend still possessing actress Jennifer Tilly is in the mix, and original kid had a... poorly thought out big hero plan that just kinda lead to him being locked in a padded cell. And yeah, as a starting point for a TV series, sure, I’m good with this. Oh and this also had a post-credits scene I missed, where Kyle from 2 shows up to torture the head. Glad she’s still around.

So that’s the whole series, aside from, you know, The Series, which I am quite tempted to watch now if I can get my hands on it, and the ACTUAL reboot with Mark Hamill and Aubrey Plaza where it’s less possessed doll and more evil smart home setup. Although that’s STILL the original writer and I hear it’s actually quite good, just, yeah, access issues here.

Speaking of the series though, that pin I put in the whole Glen/Glenda thing? While I haven’t watched the show what first sent me down this rabbit hole was catching references to Chucky having a queer kid and while I’m pretty sure Seed of Chucky had its heart in the right place with... let’s be blunt, bad execution, having 20 years to learn how to do better apparently the show just freaking quadruples down with it, and both of the twins they possess at the end of that grow up to be nonbinary, are played by a nonbinary actor, do the whole they/them pronoun badge thing, and for good measure Glen has a more femme look than Glenda. And yeah both their parents are actively cool with this, so, you know, that’s just cool.

As is this series on the whole, really? I’m kind of surprised. I don’t like slashers, generally speaking, which these definitely are except the super campy entries in the middle. But they’re pretty clever and fun, and like, Chucky works way better as an actual character than other slasher villains tend to. Some people find Freddy Krueger fun but like... go watch the first movie again. That backstory is too irredeemable for me to watch you do improv while killing kids. Most others are just silent killing machines. Chucky though, despite the whole magically possessing a doll thing, is Just This Guy. Like yeah he kills people with little to know provocation, but he’s got this schlubby put upon working class guy from New Jersey who just kinda got caught up in a weird situation thing going on. Plus I’m easily charmed by good practical effects and damn is that doll rig impressive.

Oh yeah I keep writing these giant posts and then forgetting to plug my Patreon at the end. I know people don’t like plugs but apparently this blog is now how I survive and I’m not doing a super great job of it. The sooner I get back to the point where my rent and utilities are properly covered the sooner I can stop spending most of my time begging and do stuff interesting enough to write about.