#I would be interested in this version of the story

[pixelatedboombursts]

Okay hi hello. I'm very Not Normal about Pokémon ROM Hacks.

Of these, Unbound is great, as are Gaia and Prism, if you want a new story, with Unbound in particular also offering harder modes.

Since you've played the Drayano hacks, though, I'll hazard a guess that you like difficulty hacks, in which case Radical Red would be enjoyable.

Reborn is very, very long(/pos) and can be a little edgy at times, but it's still enjoyable and lighthearted enough to not suck, and it's actually pretty fun a lot of the time.

A newer hack that absolutely fucking SLAPS is Voyager, truly can't recommend that one enough.

If you're interested in being annoyed and/or confused, Snakewood is good for that. Although you can also watch Novameow’s yt video on it, as that covers pretty much everything about it aside from how much I want Gleis /silly

Reforged 97 Gold and Silver are really fun, they warm my heart. They're recreations of the 1997 Spaceworld Demo, based on the leaked ROM from 2018.

GS Chronicles is also really, really good, and has both harder challenges and a better story!

This one isn't talked about as much, but Pokémon Stunning Steel is actually really fun!!

Also, personal very, VERY biased opinion, play Shining Opal version. I adore Shining Opal.

Some great Pokemon Hacks and Fangames

Have you played these? Which ones do you like most and why?

[2hoothoots]

alright, here's my hot take on the Sasha-Raz dynamic: i think Raz represents a wish fulfilment self-insert figure for Sasha just as much as Sasha does for Raz.

Raz wanting to be like Sasha and seeing him as an aspirational future self is self-explanatory, right. Sasha is his hero from his favourite comic books, he even dresses up like the guy – it’s cute! there’s a fun hero worship angle there. but i think there’s also an aspect of it going the other way: Sasha sees Raz as an idealised past self. he's an excuse for Sasha to recast his own troubled childhood in a more flattering light, to imagine a version of himself who was more confident, more capable, more driven; and to explore the fantasy of that version of himself getting support and training and recognition, instead of the way things really played out.

here's something. when you use clairvoyance on Sasha, he sees Raz as a younger version of himself:

not as his younger self – specifically, a miniature version of his current self. there's a difference.

here's something else: from what we see in the memory vaults, I don't think younger Sasha was actually like Raz at all.

this part is heavier on extrapolation, because all we see of younger Sasha is a single memory vault; but i think the expressions and the body language tell a clear story here. the boy we see in these vaults is shy, uncertain, estranged, lonely. the distance between him and his father is palpable, physical and emotional. 

think about the things that Sasha says to Raz: your talents will always set you apart. sometimes, isolation is a good thing. those are very weird things to say to a kid as “advice”, and they’re very revealing about Sasha’s own mindset! i think it’s very easy to read Sasha as someone who had a very troubled, lonely childhood, and then sought to retroactively redefine and romanticise it. it wasn’t grief that stopped him and his father from ever forming a meaningful bond; it was just his talents, his father didn’t understand. if he was lonely and isolated growing up, well, maybe that was a good thing. just look at where he is now!

and i think Raz serves as a vessel for Sasha to project all of that onto. because their experiences aren’t that similar, not really. Sasha left home because he was unable to connect with his father; Raz ran away because his family didn’t understand or support his gifts. Sasha pushed things too far with his powers, and was shocked and unsettled by what he saw; Raz pushed things too far with his powers, and was rewarded for it. Sasha left home uncertain and afraid; Raz left home on a mission. the two stories aren’t the same, but they rhyme – you can draw parallels, if you squint, if you’re willing to change a few details here and there. and one of these stories is much more alluring, more satisfying, more compelling than the other. 

when Sasha says to Raz in the shooting gallery, “I would have done the exact same thing at your age” – sorry, but i absolutely do not buy it. younger Sasha was meek and conflict-averse, he faced one single unexpected consequence and immediately noped out. i think he absolutely would not have done the same thing. but i bet Sasha wants to think that he would have, y’know? i bet he wants to see himself in this boy, who’s driven and confident and focused and such an eager student – who has so much promise, and is in an environment where that can be recognised and rewarded and nurtured. Raz isn’t just a promising student, to Sasha – he’s also an opportunity to live out that what if, to explore the wish fulfilment of his own younger self getting that kind of recognition and support, instead of being left, lonely and alone, to fend for himself. 

one final thing: one of the big reasons i really like this reading is that i feel like it makes the scene where Sasha scolds Raz for messing with Hollis’ mind way more interesting: [screenshots from this upload of the game's cutscenes]

"You thought you could manipulate another person's mind, to bend their will to your own! There are few things worse, Razputin."

i’m not the first to point out that this feels a little hypocritical coming from Sasha, especially when you consider that this is basically the exact same thing he encouraged Raz to do in his own mind! and besides that, you could argue that it isn’t even Sasha’s place to hand out this lecture – Hollis was the one whose mind was actually messed with, and her and Raz have already hashed things out.  but if you think about Sasha as projecting himself onto Raz, then i think there’s more depth here. this isn’t just Sasha being upset because his protégé did something bad – he’s shaken because Raz did something unexpected. suddenly, Raz has broken away from the model that Sasha had built up in his mind, of the perfect, confident young agent that Sasha could easily see himself in. now he’s having to realise that Raz isn’t perfect – and maybe he isn’t just like Sasha, either.

[sunnysunsins]

Dess disappearance theory

If you go to find the Egg room in chapter 4, you will get something very interesting.

Scrambled story - "Lost where the forest would grow, the children followed the pointed tail. The poor children!"

If you find the egg room, it's in a hospital. The place where Kris knows exactly what to do and where everything is despite "nothing being there but a tree". The Man knows Kris personally, he points them to draw something, which they do effortlessly with practiced movements.

There was a page on the Spamton's sweepstakes arg: /therapy. Where you had to draw with white dots, eventually coloring in The Tree where The Man hides behind. Directly referencing this room

The name is very very interesting. "Therapy". Kris went to therapy?

Now look at the (un)scrambled story. We know Kris, Asriel, Dess and Noelle were hanging out in the forest near the graveyard all the time when they were kids. The forest near the Bunker.

"Lost where the forest would grow, the children followed the pointed tail. The poor children!"

Them 4 followed something. And i think that's when Dess disappeared. And Kris was the only one who saw what happened to her. Which lead to them needing therapy and absolutely refusing to come near the Bunker.

Well, what happened exactly? If she just went into it, Kris would've told adults and they would've went in to find her. But that's not what happened.

If in chapter 3 you spend specifically 1225 points on the gacha machine in the B room you will be transported to a weird world out of bounds of everything, with the guitar version of "Lost girl" playing.

If you walk around long enough, you will find another gacha machine. If you interact with it, this happens:

Then it kicks you out and the machine is gone permanently

You find Dess' guitar pick. And then your hand disappears. You disappear.

Is that what Kris saw happen to Dess? She literally just vanished into thin air right in front of them? That would explain why nobody can find her, why nobody knows what happened, why Kris needed therapy. Because how do you explain what you saw? She just vanished. Even if they told the adults, they probably thought Kris wasn't being literal. But they were. And they're the only one who saw it happen.

[gold-rhine]

the missed potential of kinich's mercenary personality is why his chronicle was so disappointing to me. i loved the five seconds he talked about his ancient name, mostly bc i thought he was gonna elaborate more later on. the recen event quest distracted me with ororon's bonkers dialogue to be too disappointed in the missed opportunity with kinich. it feels like hoyo committed to kinich being very pragmatic but they don't want him to come off as cruel so they just write him as little as possible

agree, 0,005 seconds kinich was in his quest were very interesting and this is also why i was hooked at the beginning. okay tinfoil hat conspiracy theory time - i think hoyo had stuff planned for kinich and that it was supposed to go down in natlan finale. like to start, natlan finale had no plot and was very obviously filler that felt very rushed and last minute.

but also, kinich is like the only one in the main cast who got NOTHING, even xilonen had like scraps of the ancient name forging, but you can replace kinich with a wooden sign with his ancient name on it and nothing would have changed.

and his ancient name, Turnfire, is like. craaazy specific with very specific backstory. like everyone else is like Unity, Power, Leader, Hope, etc, generic positive things. But Turnfire backstory is about how the half dragon tyrant ochkan had this cursed fire that would kill ppl only if they turned back, and how one of his friends stole it from ochkan and used against his armies to overthrow him, but he heard ochkan's voice and couldn't help but turn back himself and die to this very fire. and how it can't be put out, it burned through leylines and is still burning in the night kingdom. like this is very cool setup with themes of betrayal, sacrifice, paying a high price for victory. like its sooo elaborate and specific, it feels to me like a setup that was going to pay off in the finale, that his cursed fire that never goes out will be used somehow.

bc like rn they just walked into abyss straight to the main boss and mavuika just soloed it and thats it, the whole finale plot not counting the 5 minutes capitano ronova speedrun that doesn't have anything to do with the abyss itself. maybe the turnfire would have to be used to burn through the abyss to get to the main boss, but it burns leylines too. maybe to play on the mercenary angle, kinich pretends to betray natlan and idk, extinguish the primal fire with turnfire, so the abyss boss shows up to attack, but its a trap and they kill him. like SOMETHING about risky play with high price that uses turnfire. like the WHOLE gimmick of abyss invasion was abyss mimics, the dark versions of natlan people and saurians, so dark version of the primal fire that was set up with a tie to one of the main cast looks like a no brainer checkhov's gun, but it was somehow never used AT ALL.

bc WHY even spend so much effort on that turnfire shit, like if you just want kinich in the story with zero effort, most obvious arc for him is mini han solo, mercenary that starts helping heroes for a price, but then learns power of friendship and stays for his friends. like that would take 20 minutes of writing in all of the acts. WHY do the complicated turnfire shit instead. like it really feels to me that the finale was screwed for some reason and so kinich got screwed too

[philosophyofanamericanteenager]

━━ VAMPIRES’ AND THE CONFEDERACY. ━━

Inspirations + references (check them out.) ↴

• https://youtu.be/zT5unKXnSUk?si=qcM_Ten2LEq4DI_I — Princess Weekes.

• https://youtu.be/r1xxYQXQOq4?si=gB2Dih1nal5UCKVX — Mialikesmovies.

Tags 🗒️ : idk vampires, confederates & mentions of conservatism, slavery, me yapping my ass off, historical shit, probably poorly written bc I can’t sit still to write all day so I rush myself.

𝒜s a young black girl who was born in a deeply southern Valdosta, Georgia where the it’s so damn hot in the summer but so cold to the point where your hands feel like ice sickles in the winter, where the nights are a symphony of cicadas and the flickering of fireflies dance over the cotton fields where the history still lingers, where the white columned slave houses still stand along with their descendants, where the stories of the civil war and the confederacy still echo even after hundreds of years… I think from my description many could understand why the topic of the confederacy in media that I’ve grew up on intrigues me.

While me and my family relocated from Georgia to Florida when I could barely reach the counter, it’s a place that I still hold close to my heart. It’s my birth place, a place still visit occasionally to see my exasperating aunts, uncles, and cousins who still speak with that honeyed southern twang. It’s a place that rouses a deep nostalgia in me, just like the profane creatures we call vampires.

As a young kid growing up in the peak early 2000s, I witnessed my sister’s obsession with vampires at first hand. And honestly, she is the person I can thank for introducing me to the media I’m obsessed with even as I inch closer to graduating high school. I believe she discovered the first Twilight book while scouring through a book section somewhere and eventually became a fan, and eventually becoming an even bigger fan as the first Twilight movie came out in theatres. Soon enough, she’d label herself as a super fan, owning an entire uncut version of the twilight franchise in a DVD collection. (A gift from our father to her for Christmas one year.) but as all obsessions soon do, her’s eventually came to an end which lead to her finding interest in other vampire related media like The Vampires Diaries and The Originals. As I grew older, I began to watch these series’s again for myself since I was now more conscious and able to understand the storylines and plots presented. And soon my own obsession began and I was scouring the internet to try and find the most niche and obscure vampire movies & series that I could find. (Even eventually falling upon True Blood, which I definitely shouldn’t have been watching at my young age…) but as I consumed this media like the starved glutton I was, I began to notice a pattern. Especially since I was now older and becoming more radicalized in my blackness as a young adolescent. So obviously, these tropes were hard for me to ignore. And especially, since they were kinda everywhere… So again, it begs the question… What’s the obsession with the confederate south?

— WHAT IS THE CONFEDERACY?

The Confederacy, (Formally referred to as "The Confederate States of America” or "The South") was an unrecognized republic that consisted of the eleven U.S states that declared secession during the American Civil War. (which was a brutal four-year war fought between the southern and northern states of the U.S due to their opposing views on slavery.) Basically southern racists that fought for the right to own slaves during the civil war.

— VAMPIRES & METAPHORS.

Vampires are one of the most versatile metaphors in literature and film, constantly reshaped to reflect societal fears, desires, and taboos. (So it would make sense for someone to use vampirism as a metaphor for colonialism, Ryan Coogler did so in “Sinners”. More about it as you read.)

Just some examples ↴ :

Sexuality & forbidden desire.

• The OG metaphor: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) tied vampirism to repressed Victorian sexuality (neck-biting = eroticism, seduction = corruption of "pure" women). + some even theorize that post 19th century vampirism is inherently queer and that Bram Stoker possibly used “Dracula” to live out his fantasies as a closeted gay man. (@swankytermite on TikTok.)

• Interview with the Vampire (1976) is sooo queer. queer. (Lestat and Louis were canonically queer in the original book series. Anne rice didn’t label their relationship but she did acknowledge Louis and Lestat as a same-sex couple. And while their queerness wasn’t as expressed as it was in the books, the film does hint at it, and in the AMC adaptation Lestat and Louis are openly queer.) Lestat and Louis' toxic romance mirrors AIDS-era anxieties about "contamination" and forbidden love. (Same could be said for the AMC adaptation, Louis at the start of the show was a closeted religious man. Lestat turning him the way he did in the first episode feeds into this metaphor a lot. And since Louis’ race is changed in the show it also brings a lot more metaphors for vampirism to the table.)

• Nosferatu (2024) Count Orlock embodies trauma-fueled hypersexuality-the way society demonizes female desire while being obsessed with it. (And I will definitely be posting about my views on the movie bc I loved it so much, stay tuned.)

2. Disease & Contamination.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) used vampires to symbolize epidemics and societal panic.

• COVID-era parallels: Midnight Mass (2021) tied vampirism to religious fanaticism and viral hysteria. (Ugh, Monsignor Pruitt. 😩)

3. Capitalism & Consumerism.

• Vampires as oligarchs: Daybreakers (2009) imagines a world where vampires control everything-literally farming humans like a resource.

• The Vampire Diaries (2009): The Mikaelsons are old-money elites hoarding power for centuries.

4. Colonialism & Exploitation. (Duh.)

Vampires as colonizers: They take resources (blood) from the powerless, leaving them hollow. Dracula literally moves from Transylvania to London to feed.

• Blade (1998): Vampire elites hoarding wealth and power = critique of capitalism/white supremacy.

• Sinners (2025): Remmick is literally an Irish vampire looking to reconnect with his roots since his people were colonized by the British. And then they use the “abused becomes the abuser”/“oppressed becomes the oppressor” trope since he’s literally preying on black Americans. (This movie is so *chef’s kiss* so many things to talk about.)

— AN ONGOING THEME.

Finally reaching the main topic of this conversation, I’m guessing you’re wondering about the undead confederacy and why vampire media keeps resurrecting the southern gothic. So let’s dive into the unsettling trend of Confederate vampires, lost cause propaganda, and how narratives keep romanticizing white supremacy—whether they mean to or not.

Example 1: Interview with the Vampire (1994 film + AMC series)

• Louis de Pointe du Lac is a former slave owner whose guilt is aestheticized ("I hate what I am") but it’s never truly reckoned with. The AMC remake leans harder into this, making him Black (Jacob Anderson) but still centering white vampire Lestat's toxic charisma.

Example 2: True Blood.

• Bill Compton, Confederate soldier turned vampire. Bill's "old-fashioned morals" are played for charm (until later seasons expose his hypocrisy). The show never fully grapples with his past. (And Tara was right for clocking his shit. 😭 “Did you own slaves?” Still fries me to this day.)

Example 3: The Vampire Diaries.

• Katherine Pierce, A vampire who literally lived through the Civil War, yet her backstory is romanticized trauma (no mention of enslaving people. And it sucks because these stories reduce slavery to set dressing while letting vampire antiheroes off the hook for their roles in it.)

• Damon Salvatore, a confederate soldier in 1864 (Season 3 flashbacks show him in uniform). And the show never really reckons with it. Instead, His time in the war is framed as "tragic" because he was compelled to kill his own men (by a white vampire, no less). His racism/slavery involvement is never addressed, even though he lived in Virginia, a slave state, and came from a wealthy family.

The lost cause:

The "Lost Cause" myth (the idea that the Confederacy was noble, not racist) haunts vampire media.

• Aesthetic over accountability: Moonlight magnolias, crumbling plantations, and vampire aristocrats nostalgize an era built on genocide. (I dare you to pick up “The Delectable Negro” and get back to me. What they did to Nat Turner was sick.)

• "I was just a product of my time!" A common vampire excuse (cough Bill Compton cough), ignoring that real abolitionists existed then too.

• Vampire as "tragic Confederate": The undead are cursed to remember the past—yet their "remorse" is performative (looking at you, Louis and Jasper.)

Vampire media doesn’t treat slavery as something important. They gloss over it and romanticize it like crimes against humanity weren’t being committed against enslaved people. It sparks a rage within me because people already don’t even see slavery as a genocide. It’s always something we “have to get over” like 200 years is enslavement had no effect on America and racial dynamics today. The south’s history shouldn’t be something that’s romanticized because it normalizes white supremacy. And instead of using vampires to expose its legacy it lets audiences sympathize with monsters while ignoring real-world history. It sucks as an African American, it’s insensitive, and it’s gross. People just don’t know how atrocious slavery was and it’s sad to see people undermine history.

lol, but that’s it guys. Feel free to talk about it in the comments. <3

[otp-after-dark]

Let’s Talk About Who Really Ruined THT Season 6

It wasn’t the fans. It wasn’t the book. It was the people who made the choices.

It’s been a few weeks since The Handmaid’s Tale ended its sixth and final season. Enough time to move past the initial disbelief. Past the collective mourning. Past the desperate hope that maybe we missed something. I’ve had time to sit with the wreckage.

This final season didn’t fail because the show had nowhere to go. It failed because the people steering it chose the wrong direction and refused to course-correct. And no, I don’t just mean the writers. I mean Elisabeth Moss too—who, as star, executive producer, and director, had more power than anyone else in the room.

Let’s start with the big miscalculation: they built the season—and especially the finale—around June’s identity as a mother. But not in any meaningful or inclusive way. They elevated biological motherhood into a sanctified ideal, turning June into a figure of moral purity only because she gave birth. They leaned into a version of feminism that centers white, “natural” mothers above all else—while other women, especially childless or infertile ones, were demonized, erased, or sacrificed along the way.

This show began as a response to the rise of Trump and the far right. It aired its first season in the wake of his election, when women donned handmaid cloaks in the streets as a symbol of protest. But instead of deepening its political critique over time, the show distorted it—mutating Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopia into a regressive maternal melodrama. One where womanhood and virtue are equated with fertility. One where characters are only redeemed if they become mothers.

They hung the emotional arc of the final season on June’s longing for Hannah—a child we barely know, in a story they knew would never resolve. That was the gamble. And it didn’t pay off. Instead of turning toward the emotional threads that could have delivered meaning—love, loyalty, grief, resistance—they clung to a narrative about motherhood that was always out of reach.

And while June’s desperation is treated as righteous, other women are judged. Infertile women like Lydia and Serena are softened only when they become surrogate or actual mothers. Adoptive mothers are shown as awkward, cold, or cruel. Black women are pushed into the margins—Marthas, servants, sidekicks—elevated only when they serve June’s purpose, then quietly pushed aside when she ascends to savior status.

That’s not progress. That’s not feminism. That’s hierarchy in red robes.

Meanwhile, the parts of the show that did still have life—the emotional relationships, the character arcs with fire and risk—were sidelined.

Which brings us to Nick Blaine.

Nick wasn’t just a love interest. He was the quiet, morally torn, emotionally complex counterbalance to June’s fury. Their connection was intimate, tragic, defiant—and human. Nick represented something real in a world built on brutality. And Max Minghella? He delivered Nick with subtlety and depth even when the script gave him nothing. He carried whole arcs in a look, a pause, a single “hey.”

And how did the writers handle him?

They buried him. Shuffled him into a glass room with Lawrence. Reduced his role to a narrative footnote. No resolution. No catharsis. No emotional payoff. A character who should have stood at the heart of the finale was boxed out of it entirely.

And they seemed to think no one would notice.

But we did. And we still care. Because Nick wasn’t just popular—he was essential. He was a reminder of the cost of love, the pain of survival, the danger of feeling in a world that tells you to be numb.

But the greatest betrayal wasn’t just to Nick—it was to June.

Because the June we saw in Season 6 is a ghost of the woman we first met. Not changed. Not evolved. Diminished.

She spends most of the season avoiding truth. Dodging conversations. Speaking in riddles and voiceovers while refusing to say the things that matter—to the people who matter most.

She’s never honest with Luke. Period. Everyone knows she should end it. Even he knows. But she clings to the performance of their relationship instead of facing what’s actually broken. And when it comes to Nick? She doesn’t talk about him. Not really. They circle around his name like it might detonate something—but never say what he meant, what he still means, what she chose to bury.

And maybe most frustrating of all—she lies to herself. She rewrites the story in her own head so she doesn’t have to face the full weight of what Nick has always been to her. Because to admit the truth would mean making a choice. It would mean saying, out loud, that she didn’t just fall in love with Nick because he was there. She chose him. Because he saw her. Because he loved her as she was—angry, violent, volatile, hurting—and she loved him for the same reasons.

But instead of owning that, she buries it. Pretends it’s simpler than it is. Pushes him into the past and calls that maturity, when it’s really just avoidance with good lighting.

She pushes people away and pretends it’s strength. She performs resilience instead of actually confronting the wreckage of what she's been through—or the people who stood by her through it.

And here’s the thing: I don’t need June to be perfect. I never did. I wanted her to be messy. Raw. Brave. Human. But this June is none of those things. She’s judgmental. Emotionally distant. A symbol of “strength” that says nothing, risks nothing, changes nothing.

She’s not leading us anymore. She’s running.

And the show calls that liberation and feminism and empowerment.

So yeah—we canceled our Hulu subscriptions. We dropped the IMDb score to 5.7. We checked out.

Not because we didn’t understand the ending. But because we did.

And the real question is: why did they choose to end it this way?

Why did a show that began as a feminist warning turn into a celebration of white biological motherhood at the expense of everyone else? Why did the writers flatten June into a statue of silence, erase the love story that made her feel alive, and push every other type of woman into the shadows?

Maybe they thought this was prestige. That ambiguity is better than feeling. That if they kept everything quiet enough, we’d call it profound and empowering. Maybe they were afraid of real emotional payoff—of letting a woman actually choose love, or actually say what she wants, or actually burn something down for herself and not just for her kids in this political climate.

Or maybe they never understood the story they were telling.

This isn’t what bold storytelling or real feminism looks like. This is what fear looks like in expensive lighting.

And we’ll remember that.

[frankendykes-monster]

Goofing off at Barnes and Noble and decided to pick up Penguin Classics' X-Men volume, interesting section here:

Summation: for #9, it's established that a past battle with the villain Lucifer is what put Charles Xavier in a wheelchair. However, later in #12, we are confronted with Xavier's brother Cain Marko, Juggernaut, who was involved in a car accident with Charles. Visually speaking, it's clear that this car accident is what paralyzed Charles, but Lee's dialogue had already established this part of the character's history, so this later incident is described as being "not that bad" by Lee. X-Men in general, being one of the weakest titles Marvel offered in the 1960's, is not critically studied in the same way Fantastic Four is, so whether this was during a period of communications breakdown between Kirby and Lee (read: Kirby just dropped pages off with margin notes rather than explaining the story to Lee) is unknown to me, but Charles Hatfield's quote included here indicates that it was during this latter period. Interestingly enough, Ben Saunders' introduction gives exclusive credence to Lee's fabricated motivations for the team's creation: that Mutants were introduced as a concept so he could skip over actual origin stories, rather than the true motivation by Kirby of his own continued exploration of how mutations would impact people and concluding naturally that young Mutants would need to go to a specialized school to train how to use their powers for the benefit of society.

Of course, Lee's explanation is what is officially fronted by Marvel, and this is a licensed Marvel publication. But I bring up the discrepancy here because it's obvious by just Reading The Comics that it's clear you are dealing with two men who have two different ideas about what to do with the series and Lee's won out in the published version. Imperial evidence trumps all.

Wait what do you have against Stan Lee. genuinely curious, I don't think ever seen you post about it

Nepotism hire office worker who's stuck as Marvel's only editor as the company (and frankly the entire comic book industry) are experiencing an implosion that almost takes out everyone in the late-1950's. Jack Kirby has nowhere left to turn to so he starts working at Marvel and has to brainstorm an entire new line of books to ensure the company stays afloat. Lee begins crediting himself as the writer across the entire line of books so he can collect the writer's paycheck (the "artists" at Marvel at this time were also the writers, they were submitting complete stories on a freelance basis, Lee would eventually mandate a system where dialogue and captions couldn't be written ahead of time so he could fill them in himself). Marvel blows up in popularity and Lee positions himself at the center of it, much to the ire of Kirby, along with Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, Dick Ayers, the list can go on. When Marvel is sold to Perfect Film and Chemical in 1968 and becomes a publically traded company, Lee is part of the "package deal" wherein whatever current corporate owner of Marvel can use him as the "original creator" figurehead as a means to block royalties for dozens of people who had worked at the company throughout the 1960's, and functionally its a role he kept for the entire rest of his life, and now your average person (along with a specific subset of industry veterans that can range from Roy Thomas to Larry Hama to Bill Mantlo to Jenny Blake Isabella) thinks of him as the original-idea-guy who ~actually~ created the line of characters now regarded as the "Marvel Universe".

[thatmoththoth]

Contemplating making a secondary fic to my epic and cool unposted Jekyll and Hyde fic where instead of being based on the original book it’s based on The Glass Scientists.

The whole premise of the fic is that Jekyll convinces someone close to him to drink the elixir and starts a cult in the process

Unfortunately I would have to change the roles of certain characters, but I think the difference in theme and tone would be incredibly interesting.

My current fanfic is gritty and gruesome with Jekyll doing truly awfull things all for his own gain. A story about greed, manipulation, and how people can dig up parts you hate about yourself and use it against you.

Meanwhile the tgc version would be mostly light hearted shenanigans about self discovery, and freedom, and winding up with people admiring you in the process.

Anyway, if this post gets 50 notes I’ll upload the first chapter of my unlisted fic

100 notes and I’ll continue to update

200 notes and I’ll start writing a Glass Scientists Edition aswell.

[faguettism]

I wish GA would stop watching the show with their eyes closed so they could actually see the obvious fucking parallels that show Mike's queerness and his relationship with Will.

First of all, there are insane amount of details put into this show to meticulously design every aspect of each character so nothing is a coincidence nor a reach.

Second of all, there are hours of proof why Mike Wheeler is queer, starting all the way back from season 1, but if i tried to explain everything it would be a whole series of novels so i'll just settle for this very obnoxiously loud piece of evidence.

Now the reason they created Vickie as a love interest might be because one, Robin deserves it duh, and two, so they can show how a canonically queer character's romantic arc plays out and compare it to another character in the series.

Here's the prize winning question for GA, who might that person be?

If you answered Will, you're pretty close! He's actually paralleling to Robin though, so not the answer we're looking for. But Robin's love interest Vickie parallels to Will's love interest, which would be Mike.

And this is where things get a little complicated for GA.

Because if you asked any viewer with a sane mind if there was a chance Vickie was queer and was interested in Robin because her relationship with her boyfriend wasn't working out very well (they weren't exactly in love), they would answer yes; because they have eyes.

But for some reason when it comes to Mike, suddenly he's the straightest guy to walk on earth and he loves his girlfriend very much even though he can't say or write it and there is no chance of him being queer and all of us are delusional blah blah blah.

Like are you not seeing this or are you ignoring it on purpose?

Obviously, there are nuances to the shots taken because the situations aren't exactly the same but that's why they are called parallels dear GA.

In both shots, the character featured in between and in the background of the couples is not an obstacle in their relationship. On the contrary, it shows that they have an important relation to the other character, that there is something more than just a one-sided tragic love story.

And we can confirm that it's not one-sided because after the first shot with Robin and Vickie, Robin's feelings gets reciprocated at the end of the last episode.

In the second scene Vickie starts complaining about her relationship, her ex-boyfriend, and then feels guilty for being irritated at something so insignificant but Robin reassures her about her insecurities.

Let's reel back a bit and think about what happened at the van scene... Mike complained about his relationship but felt guilty about it because it felt stupid to fuss over it and Will reassured him about his insecurities. That seems so familiar i just can't put my finger on it hmmm...

Both Vickie and Mike feel insecure in their past/current relationships, but they find comfort in their other love interests because they bring out their best sides.

In a way, Robin and Vickie's relationship is like a simplified version that of Will and Mike's. It indicates how Mike will break up with El in season 5 and slowly accept his feelings for Will.

I just hope GA can pull their heads out of their asses to take a look when it happens.

[blacklegsanjienthusiast]

Have you read Taz Skylar’s Gamesradar interview about Sanji? He rarely talks about him as a character since interviewers would constantly ask him about his general experience on filming the live action and his stunt work on the show most of the time. But when he is given the opportunity to talk or have a deep dive discussion about Sanji, it’s just beautiful. It’s just so beautiful the way Taz articulates his thoughts about Sanji as a character and it’s very clear that he truly understands him.

When the OPLA Season 1 was weeks away from officially being released in 2023, I was still on the fence and unsure of it. I actually liked the casting of the Strawhat crew but I was not sure on the writing and acting aspect for each character, especially the acting for Luffy and Sanji since I was unfamiliar with Inaki and Taz at that time. Then I read an interview where Taz talked and had a deep dive discussion about Sanji and it was such a huge turning point for me. It quickly changed my mind and made me have faith in Taz’s portrayal of Sanji. It’s an interview that made me go “OMG HE GETS IT! HE GETS THIS CHARACTER!” And then I watched the Live Action, and was quickly amazed by Taz’s acting because he had little screen time compared to the other Strawhats but he made the most of it. He had a few scenes but he was able to portray this character with such great depth and layers. I can tell that he was considering Sanji’s origin when he was portraying him. I am actually quite excited for Season 2 and hope that there’s more seasons.

This is the interview that I was talking about btw: https://www.gamesradar.com/taz-skylar-one-piece-netflix-sanji-interview/

i had not read this interview before so thank you for sharing it!!

you’re so right though, every time taz is given the opportunity to talk about sanji as a character all i can think is that he just gets him in every way. one of my favourite things about opla, especially when it comes to sanji, is that it’s the first time we’re seeing the earlier arcs whilst also knowing the rest of the story and, in sanjis case, backstory that didn’t exist at the time the east blue saga was written and it’s so interesting to have a version of the character where we know all of that context is being taken into account when it comes to portraying him. hindsight really is a wonderful thing and it allows taz’s version of sanji to be so incredibly and purposefully layered, rather than the retcons and often accidental callbacks from earlier anime arcs we’re used to. this answer from the article you linked is a perfect example:

i genuinely gasped when i read this earlier because sanji’s relationship with and views of women stemming from how he was treated as child by sora and reiju compared to his male family members is such an extremely important part of his character to me, and basically all of his fans and the fact that taz picked up on that as well and the fact that that is what was in his head whilst filming is huge to me, because while it’s pretty agreed upon by the fandom it’s not something that’s ever explicitly stated in the manga and was certainly not a thing nor the intended reasoning behind sanji’s views on women when oda was first writing the east blue (he was just a simp). the fact that in opla that is very explicitly the reason and what taz intended is, as i said, huge to me because not only is it just such a perfect interpretation of sanji but it also shows just how much time taz put into his portrayal of him.

another small moment when i thought oh he gets him is in the interview below and his answer to the question of what devil fruit would you have if you could have one was none because sanji is the only person in his family who is normal and has no special abilities and that in itself is what makes him special and i just thought yes! exactly! you get it!

on top of the extensive physical training taz did for the role and the fact he learned to cook for it, the time put into simply thinking about sanji as a person and his past and origins, and how it shaped him into the man who we are introduced to in baratie means opla sanji is just so wonderful to watch. the stand out line to me in season 1 is “all i see is back”. the bitterness of it is so good and if you know sanji’s full backstory you can immediately tell that he is not just thinking about the rock when he says that.

this ended up being a longer ramble than i intended but to round it off there’s a lot of opportunity in season 2 for hints to sanji’s past (those being for example the fact that it’s mr 3 he’s mistaken for because isn’t that a crazy coincidence) and i’m so interested to see if taz takes them.

[wisteriasymphony]

i never really got why people were so surprised that felix gets all the darker themes/ complex relationships/ plot relevance? from a doylist perspective- that's the main difference between adrien and pre-canon felix; the latter of whom is what canon felix is based on. felix gets all of that.

adrien is, developmentally speaking, a sanded down version of felix who the writers have intentionally created to be the 'perfect' love interest and partner. of course he never follows through with anything! that's one of the traits the networks didn't like about felix! so they got rid of it with adrien.

felix is too abrasive, too manipulative, too headstrong, too selfish, too cryptid-esque, too dark and spooky, doesn't fit in, takes attention off of maribug and drives more of the narrative than she does- so adrien is inherently none of that. when they say that adrien is meant to be felix but perfect... they fully, literally mean it. felix is a relic of the original vision. adrien has been deliberately tailored to preteen girls.

which would be a cool concept to explore in-show if the writers actually viewed it as a problem.

I mean, I understand the thought process behind it but it doesn't take away my dissatisfaction. Like, it makes sense. Obviously it makes sense. It just feels weird to remove all of those aspects initially because they don't "fit the story", then add them in for another character. Surely they weren't that incongruous, then? I'd argue it's not even an argument of the "Felixisms" not working for a love interest if we're clearly supposed to care about Feligami.

Are darker themes something they want to explore in the show, or not? Are they willing to give romance subplots to "morally grey" characters, or not?

It just seems off to me. Maybe it's just that specifically, like you said, the writers/networks feel the Felixisms do not work in the context of a deuteragonist with a romantic subplot with the protagonist. Fine, then. Sure. There will always be some disagreements I have with the show due to nothing more than differences in personal taste, it's whatever.

You're entirely right on the whole "Adrien is deliberately tailored to preteen girls" thing, though, and I guess my issue with a lack of Felixisms is that it would give Adrien some depth beyond that and an opportunity to subvert the Prince Charming Dream Boy archetype he's clearly built around (at the cost of turning him into something closer to a character that slips into occasionally brooding Edward Cullen -esque moments, which might not serve to subvert much at all then) in a way that isn't meant to be as equally palatable as his supposed subversions of the trope as Chat Noir.

Of course, my personal failing was expecting them to subvert/deconstruct anything at all. It's not even a "well of course the kid's show isn't gritty" thing, I don't think. The Prince Charming Dream Boy just feels like a very shallow archetype to prop up such a central character on without exploring it, and a lot of people's contention with Adrien as a character stems from that.

...Adrien being a synthesized perfect teen idol prince charming dream boy wish fulfillment fantasy arm candy trophy is really awfully fun in the meta sense, at least. Talk about horrific, right? He's like Stepford-kun. Entirely designed to be forgiving and charming and rich and famous and hot, and want for nothing more than the affection of the girl he loves, and desire nothing more than to revolve his entire life around her. Is this really what they thought they needed to make sure the narrative stayed centered on Marinette at all times? Was there no other option?

Uh. Nobody who yurifies Adrinette really seems to examine the fact that playing all of above straight with a character that is suddenly a girl (either cis or mtf) makes the very obvious problem with that a million times more apparent. It's okay, people only ever do it to draw girls holding hands, I won't be the fun police.

[tanoshiboo]

@shadowchellen

ahh , sometimes I wish I could reply to reblogs (maybe it's the point?)

Thank you very much for these! It's so interesting, I never actually looked into the description of those.

Shadow Milk has a ton more connections to blueberries than just his femname , it's not too surprising!! Somehow a lot of people have just realized but he's always been surrounded by blueberries 💙

I am not sure if anything isn't a stretch anymore though. I see that from chapter 10 Devsisters has little plans for any heavy connections between the two. There were so, so, so many things that just happened to be coincidences though that it was a bit of a shock. In my opinion that is a flaw in storytelling, writing and design. It might be that a lot of Shadow Milk things, assets and concepts were getting repurposed for ES and that's why I thought there might've been a connection (although there was more to this too)

That or something happened between the directors, writers and others working on the game since some things didn't align or fit very well, a lot of things were also not explained from the first trailer of ES and a lot of things were not well executed, I also don't like who the characters are referencing for their ideas and I don't say this from the bias of Shadowsugar because I have been playing this game since some players were born. I was also never much of a "shipper". So I think I can safely say without bias that this episode has impressed me the least out of all CROB/CRK stories (except for Yogurca, we do not speak of Yogurca)

I hope you don't mind me writing so much, but here's more rambling, particularly regarding Shadowsugar and my thoughts on p10:

~~

I did think that Blueberries would be there because of Hollyberry so I never mentioned the blueberry bits, but I think that was wrong. Shadow Milk is particularly surrounded in blueberries on the title screen, his name was "Blueberry farmer" and Hollyberry is never shown with blueberries in her costume despite that berries being the primary focus. So maybe it's not that much of a stretch. I do love that the Shadowsugar theories continue to thrive and grow as much as they did prior to Chapter 10 when I thought they would die

I noticed that raspberries, hollyberries (duh lol) and blackberries are more associated with Hollyberry meanwhile blueberries are often associated with Shadow Milk, generally

If Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar are divorced, it's 10x more of a secret than I thought it would be because I always believed they would be divorced judging by all my findings in the past and present lolol

To me it did unironically look like Shadow Milk was incredibly envious and bitter judging by both his tone of voice and the things he says and implies. Especially in the KR version, and it's sooo funny, because Pavlova says this:

[cloudsthefluffykindsartblog]

Here's my version of Rua, Raiko and Yakko from ✨The Long Road Home: A Monkey Odyssey✨ by @fjtrickster-blog, I don’t know if I actually got them right but this is what they look like in my head. (Tbh, they would probably be wearing more modern clothing at this point in the story but this is what I imagine their outfits were like in Ozzimorre)

(I LOVE THESE GUYS SO MUCH!! Usually I’m put off by OCs but these guys THESE GUYS!! I just love their dynamic so much!!) Rua is an absolute saint to put up with the rest of the group’s BS, but he’s also a little shit when he wants to be. Raiko is a riot, I love her whole vibe, she’s almost always unbothered and going with the flow and she’s so good at hyping the others up, I think it’s so cool how that attitude also means she’s pretty mysterious, there have been a few comments here and there about her being otherworldly (if I remember correctly) and I’m really interested about her backstory. Yakko is a hilarious grump, I love the whole set up for his heritage and I think he rounds off the group pretty well, he’s 100% a kleptomaniac (if wonder if Sandy could help him with that?) but his mischief always gets a laugh out of me!

anyway, enough word vomit lol

[chocolateisbrainfood]

Okay so this is something I've been debating talking about but I do think it's important. Because it was something I noticed a lot in older TF fanfics and then fell off but I'm starting to see it come up again. Not trying to call anyone out, but I do think it's important to get into the context of this and how it relates to Jazz as a character, and the black community.

See this? This is how G1 Jazz talks. He obviously speaks using interesting metaphors and phrases and is kind of a dork with his language. And yes, obviously he has an accent.

No, he is not using a stereotyped BLACK-CCENT as a lot of people like to put on him. He's using a specific kind of accent from a specific black community (aka the early pre-and-post WWII era Jazz community) and mixing/meshing it to fit with the character's own culture/vibe. This character who was written this way because he was literally written with Scatman Crothers, a well known black voice actor and musician, in mind. You'll see the same style of accent/tone used in a a bunch of Crothers' roles during the 70s/80s.

But do you see the words used here? Jazz says "I." Jazz does not say "Ah." And I'm not saying that to be pedantic. I'm being serious. This isn't an argument about how you should write an accent the way it would be written, not the way it sounds kind of thing, because some words do end up becoming enmeshed that much in the language anyway (like "ya" being used here). This is just about how Jazz himself talks.

Jazz's "I" does not sound like "Ah." He's not Rogue from X-men. That's not how his accent works (that's more in line with many versions of Ironhide tbh). Jazz usually emphasizes vowel sounds when he talks. His pitch goes UP when he uses the Long I vowel sound to emphasize on that "I" sound. Same as he does with long "A"s and "E"s. Jazz's accent emphasizes those sounds, not softens them into being extended versions of short vowels.

Write his accent the way it actually sounds not the way you assume a black person talks. That's edging up real close to the -ism I'm not allowed to bring up without a fight starting, but if you're not thinking critically about why you write Jazz speaking that way, maybe you should think about that for a bit yourself right now. If you don't know how his accent sounds, listen to it more. Do a voice review! Scatman Crothers isn't the only voice of Jazz around now (even if the character was literally written with him and his style in mind so like...if you're doing a G1-esque Jazz that IS the voice you should be taking inspiration from), Jazz has had plenty of voice actors over the decades. He's been WRITTEN by many writers over the decades. Rarely ever do I hear/read him speak in the way so many people write him.

I am not judging people who write Jazz's accent out more obviously. I do it myself! I have to remind myself to tone it down since writing an accent exactly how you hear it isn't always what works best in a story, and can be jarring for the readers. You gotta know when and how to do it and not overuse it. I don't always succeed but I try. This isn't about people who add different flourishes into their own Jazz's speech/dialogue. I do that too! We all do that with our faves, it's just a fanfiction thing. We put a little (or a lot, depending on the story) of our interpretation into the characters when we write.

This is mostly about people who are doing it and just not getting his accent at all. That's not how Jazz speaks. Those are not what those words would sound like coming out of his mouth. That's not his accent. And if you do think that is or should be his accent in your story...why. Why is that extremely stereotyped black-ccent what you think Jazz should sound like? Think about that a bit for yourself.

Please LISTEN to the character's voice before you write all of that. Pick your preferred Jazz and give him a real good listen (except the white guys who voice him by trying to emulate Crothers. It's weird. That they have white guys voicing Jazz is just weird. Having them do it by copying the black guy who first voiced him is weirder and I'm gonna keep saying it's weird).

In the words of Jazz himself: "It's all about the tone."

And...I'm done sorry for the long ramble. You can totally go about your day ignoring this.

[fallloverfic]

I'm not sure what translation you're relying on or what version of the story you're looking at, but unless this is your own translation, it seems like you're relying on a fan translation, which are of often dubious quality (no offense meant to fan translators, but most of them these days rely heavily on machine translation, which is very faulty, and most folks doing fan translation don't have training as professional translators; that doesn't mean professional translators can't screw up either for a variety of reasons, I literally just read a new official manhwa episode English translation on Lezhin for a different series about 20 minutes ago with a major typo, but still).

While there have been issues with Seven Seas' official English translation of the novel, this is their version of this section:

“I have no desire to become my family’s heir,” Cale continued. “I’m hoping my younger brother, Bassen, will succeed the count.” (Volume 1, Chapter 7: Just Who Are You?)

I got the episode in Korean on Ridibooks and machine English translation created this section:

"I have no intention of becoming the heir to the family. [Bassen] Henituse, my blood-related brother. I want that child to become the heir."

I can't read Korean so I'm not sure how/why Seven Seas alternately interpreted this than the MTL, but Seven Seas used an actual translator, so I trust them more than MTL. It's also possible this was an error that was corrected in the Korean ebook release, which is possibly what Seven Seas is relying on for their translation, rather than the individual episodes created during serialization. I'm not sure since I can't access the Korean volume 2 ebook, where this episode seems to be located (the Korean volume 1's ebook ends at the end of Seven Seas' English Volume 1, Chapter 6). I have however been told that revisions were made to correct plot inconsistencies for the Korean ebook release.

That being said, here's how the Tappytoon manhwa English translation addresses this section:

"I have no intention of becoming the heir to the Henituse name. Bassen Henituse, my brother by blood. I wish that he becomes the heir." (Episode 37)

It's closer to the MTL translation than Seven Seas' translation, but there's been some wonkiness with what they get before, so that's not surprising.

And no, so far as I've seen, Bassen is Cale's step-brother, born before Violan married Deruth, with no indication of being conceived/born out of wedlock. Lilly is Cale's half-sibling. At least up through when I was last reading (Part 2, Episode 440; the story is up to Episode 453), no, there have been no new revelations about Bassen secretly being Cale's blood relation, and given the arc of the story, I doubt that has changed in the time since. If I recall correctly, sometime before the story started, Deruth officially adopted Bassen as his son, so maybe Cale (and Kim Roksu accepting his new identity as Cale) accepts this somehow as a blood-relation connection, especially since Lilly is Cale's biological half-sister.

Anything is possible. Maybe Cale was testing it. Maybe Bassen was Deruth's biological son and it's been revealed in part 2 since I stopped reading. Maybe the Seven Seas translation is faulty and the manhwa translation is more correct. Maybe the Korean ebook revised it. I'm just kind of dubious without being able to read Korean myself or knowing what the ebook said (unless you're relying on fan translation of the Korean ebook, which would be interesting!).

You know, something's always confused me in the early chapters of tcf. In chapter 33, when Cale was making a vow of death with Choi Han, he mentioned,

“I have no desire to become my family’s successor. Basen Henituse, my blood-related younger brother. I am hoping for him to become the successor.”

And we all know that's not true. The part about Basen being his blood-related younger brother. (At least, as far as ik? There wasn't a sudden reveal that they were actually blood related in p2, right? Right??)

And it's such an unnecessary detail to add, too, specifying blood-related? It really felt like he was testing something. Now, I could be looking too much into it... But. Cale Henituse vowed to speak the truth to Choi Han.

"I, Cale Henituse, vow to speak the truth to Choi Han in front of the God of Eternal Rest, and, if what I say is even slightly a lie, I will immediately die in this spot to pay the price."

It very likely refers to what he believes is the truth. And the thing is, yeah you could've brushed it off as him believing that Basen really is related to him, and therefore didn't register as false or incur a penalty. But this is Cale we're talking about?? You can't tell me he didn't at least suspect something???

Like sure, maybe he didn't realise the timeline in which Jour died and Deruth married Violan before he went to make the vow. But with the measly age gap of Basen and Cale, it would either have to mean that a) Jour died when Cale was really young (like baby age) and Deruth remarried quickly, or b) Deruth cheated on Jour. Both of which makes little sense if you consider a) the tense relationship between Cale and his stepfamily and b) Cale's attitude towards Deruth. (Also the novel's uncanny details on Cale)

And, okay, maybe I'm overthinking this, and the author just made a mistake in that part.

BUT ALSO. Later on we learn about Kim Rok Soo's curse. The curse that rubbed off on him from the White Star. It was also made through a vow of death, and he had to live with it taking away everything he ever cared about. But we can clearly see that he still managed to form connections, until they eventually left, too. So it can be circumvented somewhat, if only due to it being a weaker version.

And I (and likely the rest of the fandom) headcanon that KRS's fervent denial and unreliable narration in acknowledging his care for ppl likely stems from the curse. If you believe you don't care for them, then they won't leave. He's a smart kid, he would've realised the pattern.

So stay with me here, Cale/KRS obviously wouldn't know he had a curse or that it was connected to the VoD at that point in time. But he could've been subtly testing the efficacy of the vow?! Like, even this theory is iffy, considering, would he really do something so risky off the bat? I don't rlly see what he would've had to gain from it, but it's the best I've come up with. He makes himself believe, with reasonable justifications, that Basen is related to him, tests out the vow, and he doesn't drop dead straight away.

Well if anything, it felt like a good little tidbit of foreshadowing, unintentional as it may be. Also quoting those bits made me realise that he really did accept his identity as Cale Henituse really fast, and acknowledged Basen as his actual younger brother too. Nice!

And if it turns out Basen is actually revealed to be blood-related to him, well. Honestly nah I can't see it. But what if..? Atp I can't discount anything...

[platoapproved]

What was that you said about memory? "A monster," was it?