#I’ve been on Reddit and YouTube a lot so…

[wesleysniperking]

It amazes me how much Zoro fans are willing to defend Zoro’s “6-month long” fight with Lucci. Whereas when it comes to Usopp’s “10 years of uselessness” they’re just quick to not consider that not much time has actually passed in the OP world. So, I guess Zoro’s given more grace since he’s the second main character of One Piece. And the “not much time has passed in the OP world” reasoning is only justifiable when it comes to him.

Got it.

[techramonic]

The Pinnacle of Self-Hatred: A Close-Reading on Elliot Rodger's Manifesto

“I named it the Day of Retribution. It would be a day in which I exact my ultimate retribution and revenge on all of the hedonistic scum who enjoyed lives of pleasure that they don’t deserve. If I can’t have it, I will destroy it. I will destroy all women because I can never have them. I will make them all suffer for rejecting me… And I will slaughter them like the animals they are.” (Rodger, 2014, p. 101)

On the Friday evening of May. 23, 2014, Elliot Rodger had perpetrated the Isla Vista Killings. A series of stabbings and shootings that claimed the lives of six people, injured fourteen, and concluded with his own death from a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound on the head. Before this, Elliot was like any other normal teenager growing up.

As he mentioned in his own manifesto, he had a seemingly good childhood up until his parent’s divorce. Even until the separation, he still spent time with both sides of his family, maintaining the privilege to have access to many luxurious items such as a collection of designer clothes and even a BMW 328i. He traveled a lot, and at just the age of one, he had already traveled to France, Sussex, Malaysia (where his mother grew up), Spain, Greece, and California.

People on platforms such as Reddit often questioned why no one considered dating him at all. Elliot had also asked himself this question time and time again. In one of his youtube videos, entitled, “Why do girls hate me so much” he says:

“I’ve been attending college in Santa Barbara for two and a half years now, in those two and a half years I have experienced nothing but loneliness and misery, and my problem  is girls. There are so many beautiful girls here, but none of them give me a chance and I don’t know why. I don’t know why you girls are so repulsed by me.”

While it is easy to dismiss that Elliot solely acted upon his crime because he thought that girls were the problem, upon the surface where misogyny lies, there are layers upon layers of complexities that shaped his views. Elliot did not simply hate women and men who got with women he dreamed of, it was that ultimately, he hated himself—a hatred that manifested toward outward factors.

Elliot has exhibited a long string of stunted self-worth ever since he was a child, and while it is easy to throw around names like: monster and pure-evil; the fact remains: he is still considered a human amongst all those. One who is consumed by insecurity.

In understanding a crime, we must first examine the criminal and approach their case with empathy. Understanding the human aspect of these criminals does not however mean that one should excuse, dismiss, or condone their actions. Only understand the reasons behind their motivations. Here are some aspects I have noticed in his personality and life that may be able to better explain why.

MATERIALISM AND INSECURITY

In his manifesto entitled: “My Twisted World”, Elliot had confessed to having lived a good childhood. He was a nice kid who lived a nice life, up until his parent’s rocky divorce. While reading his manifesto, I have garnered his tendency to place his worth on materialistic things, moreso, his wealth. There were two instances of this on pages thirty to thirty-one of his manifesto. The first was when he was hesitant to invite his new friend from school over to his house because he was ashamed of his wealth:

“I was a bit hesitant to invite anyone from Pinecrest to my mother’s house, because it was located in Canoga Park, a bad area, and most of the kids at Pinecrest were upper-middle class who would look down on me for living there.”

On page thirty one of his manifesto, Elliot said that he was eager to receive an Xbox solely because many kids from his school wanted it:

“My mother bought me a brand new video game console, the Xbox. I heard a lot of kids talking about how great the Xbox was at school, so I was really eager to have one.”

This trait had continued on to his older years. In the same video where he questioned why girls disliked him so much, he stated:

“I do everything I can to appear attractive to you. I dress nice. I am sophisticated and magnificent. I have a nice car, a BMW.”

From this, it’s observable that Elliot tends to desire things just because other kids desire it too. This is rooted in his craving of validation and acceptance. This materialistic need for validation also transcended from mere objects to even his own appearance. Whenever he did not have what others had or wanted, he would be very ashamed of himself.

At the age of six, Elliot had moved to Topanga Elementary Charter School, a school based in California. The school has a thirty two per-cent minority rate, making seventy eight per-cent of the ethnicity population white. With the population being predominantly white, Elliot  had developed a view on the world that separates people by their differences: the “cool kids” and the “losers”. Mostly, Elliot described these cool kids as the higher-class, privileged, centered on attention, and white. 

“I realized, with some horror, that I wasn’t “cool” at all. I had a dorky hairstyle, I wore plain and uncool clothing, and I was shy and unpopular. I was always described as the shy boy in the past, but I never really thought my shyness would affect me in a negative way, until this point. This revelation about the world, and about myself, really decreased my self-esteem. On top of this was the feeling that I was different because I am of mixed race. I am half White, half Asian, and this made me different from the normal fully-white kids that I was trying to fit in with.”

He even dyed his hair blonde and tried to pick up on skateboarding because he thought it would make him appear more cool. On his manifesto he wrote:

“My first act was to ask my parents to allow me to bleach my hair blonde. I always envied and admired blonde-haired people, they always seemed so much more beautiful.” (Rodger, 2014, p. 17)

“I then started to notice that all of the cool kids were interested in skateboarding. I had never even ridden on a skateboard before, but if I wanted to be cool, I had to become a skateboarder.” (Rodger, 2014, p. 18)

This materialism had soon influenced his fixation on racial hierarchy. Elliot in his older years constantly demeaned and berated others of asian descent even if he was half-malaysian himself. To him, he considered whiteness as a prestige. On platforms such as reddit and facebook, he had made several negative comments regarding the appearance of some Asian men. 

A comment he had left on a reddit thread stated:

“Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you. You’re just butthurt that you were born an asian piece of shit, so you lash out by linking these fake pictures. You even admit that you wish you were half white. You’ll never be half-white and you’ll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman. I suggest you jump off a bridge.” 

The paragraph entails Elliot calling out a man for linking fake pictures of himself. Elliot speculates that the man had done this because he wished he was white, then he tells him how he was not considered as attractive because he was simply born Asian. Elliot was also very fixated on his looks, specifically his height. He had repeatedly mentioned his envy of other boys and even girls who were taller than him.

On page fifteen of his manifesto, he wrote:

“As Fourth Grade started, it fully dawned on me that I was the shortest kid in my class – even the girls were taller than me. In the past, I rarely gave a thought to it, but at this stage I became extremely annoyed at how everyone was taller than me, and how the tallest boys were automatically respected more. It instilled the first feelings of inferiority in me, and such feelings would only grow more volatile with time.”

In other instances, he also noted that he was bullied for being physically weak and short, and often he would blame this solely on his descent. He saw being mixed as a form of inferiority because this made him “undesirable”.  His image of attractiveness is measured by euro-centric features: fair-skinned, blonde, blue eyes, and tall. In many instances, he changed parts of himself to better fit the narrative of being “cool”.

To him, it’s all a part of growing up and fitting in, but what he failed to see is that the more he takes and changes parts of himself for people to like him, the more it just makes him hollow. Elliot’s childhood and teen years, best summed up, is a fixation on trying to keep up with those who are higher on the social status ladder and this continued to his later years. 

EARLY EXPOSURE TO PORNOGRAPHY AND SEXIST MEDIA 

Elliot was lonelier during his teen years, at 13 years old, he stopped having contact with his only friends because they started having their own separate lives together, making him spend more time alone by himself (Rodger, 2014, p. 38). This was when Elliot recounted his first-time exposure to pornography by catching a teenager watch it in an arcade called Planet Cyber.  He re-called it as a traumatizing experience, confused on why such an explicit thing would be considered as “love”. Despite this, his innocence was damaged by this accidental exposure. Though he did feel aroused, he was more guilty and confused.

“One time while I was alone at Planet Cyber, I saw an older teenager watching pornography. I saw in detail a video of a man having sex with a hot girl …  I didn’t know anything about sex at the time. I barely even knew what sex was. I was slowly starting to develop sexual feelings for hot girls, but I didn’t know what to do with them. To see this video really traumatized me. I had no idea what I was seeing… I couldn’t imagine human beings doing such things with each other. The sight was shocking, traumatizing, and arousing. All of these feelings mixed together took a great toll on me. I walked home and cried by myself  for a bit.” (Rodger, 2014, p. 38-39)

This was the pinnacle of Elliot’s misery. A kid who searched for validation with his looks, now searched for it in sexual gratification as well. He only found himself loved if people flocked over to him. Furthermore, he had this distorted mindset that his worth is only measured by how many girls he could get and how fast he'd lose his virginity. This can be akin to the stereotypical portrayals of boys in media that often influenced teens and their concept of self-worth: the "cool" guys having lots of girls, while nerds and "losers" have none.

With this type of thinking, he tried his best to gain things that he thought women would like, yet he did little to no effort to actually get to know them and socialize. He believed that just because he had what others wanted or did not, people would love him. According to his friends, they thought he was almost always one-sided, expecting women to just swoon over him because he has things that are desirable.

ENTITLEMENT

Furthermore, despite his initial pleasant middle school years at Pinecrest High, such as dancing with a girl during a school dance (Rodger, 2014, p. 29), socializing eventually became difficult for Elliot. Often, this is because of  his appearance, where he experienced bullying because of his height. According to his friends, he barely talked to women but still complained no woman wanted to talk to him. 

Elliot was easily persuaded and subjected to peer-pressure because he had no clear identity. He always followed what was the trend because it made him feel less insecure about himself, since it was what he thought the people accepted and desired.

Despite his insecurities, Elliot had a fine record for being privileged, which he used to his advantage to "fix" certain qualities in himself that he deemed undesirable. Ever since he was younger, he often used his wealth to modify certain aspects of himself, even the smallest things: dyeing his hair blonde, purchasing designer clothes to appear more attractive and rich, purchasing mass amounts of body-building pills, and only picking up hobbies such as skateboarding and basketball solely because he found them useful in climbing up the social ladder.

Elliot also had a strong dislike for people who did not support his motivations. He expressed a strong resentment toward is step-mother, Soumaya, because of her assertive nature. He considered his dad to be “weak” for following her orders around, when in truth, she was only trying to teach Elliot a lesson about independence. 

“Not only did she kick me out of father’s house, but she forbade me to go there even for a short visit. And still, father didn’t do anything about it. Father kept saying that the house is her house as much as his, and that she has the right to kick me out. No! I am the eldest son! The house should be MY house before hers! This caused any respect I still had for my father to fade away completely. It was such a betrayal, to put his second wife before his eldest son. What kind of father would do that? The bitch must be really good to him in bed, I figured. What a weak man.” (Rodger, 2014, p. 62)

At his step-mother’s insistence, Elliot began looking for a job and eventually found work from a family friend who offered him a job for a house construction project. He felt more comfortable with it, seeing the job as helping rather than typical employment. After getting his driver’s license, Elliot enrolled in summer classes at Moorpark College but struggled with attendance, again, due to his jealousy of campus couples.

He dropped out midway through, briefly worked as a janitor at an airport office, and quit after one day. Knowing his mother would be upset, he re-enrolled at Moorpark but eventually dropped out again (Rodger, 2014, p. 70). Upon learning of Elliot’s decision to drop out again, his parents decided he would move to Santa Barbara, where he would live alone in an apartment paid for by his mother, receive a $500 monthly allowance from his father, and enroll in classes at Santa Barbara Community College (Rodger, 2014, p. 77). 

CONCLUSION

Elliot is very persistent on the idea that to be accepted, he needed to be loved, when in truth, he couldn't bear to accept himself. No one has absolutely any obligation to love someone because the other sees it as a form of validation. Self-worth comes from yourself, not from others. Due to Elliot’s constant fixation on trying to be accepted, he lost the identity that made him authentic and genuine. He lost what other people could not give him: self-worth.

Concluding, Elliot Rodger is a complex individual that cannot be summed up to one set character. He is not solely “pure evil”, he is a person with a background that influenced his decisions. He is not less deserving of humanity or empathy because just like others, he had also felt humane emotions. With criminals, it is always important to remember that to understand a certain event or phenomena of crime, we also have to understand not just the perpetrator that the media portrays, which is often easily pushed into a oversimplified narrative of “pure evil”; we must also consider the genuine person behind the crime. 

While it is important to recognize that these are profoundly disturbed individuals who must be held accountable for their actions, it is also crucial to understand that despite their crimes, they still remain human. Although, this does not mean that his background excuses or condones his actions. It only provides a framework to comprehensively understand both the case and the criminal behind it. 

[jolynesmom]

hey can u share ur void success story? Would love to see it

hii this is the storytime I promised about getting into the void first try <3

disclaimer: this post is long asf, I like being very detailed when talking about such stuff because you may never know which insignificant detail might help someone + I always liked when people would go into detail about shifting or the void state

this happened a few months ago. I’m a reality shifter and have been trying for around 4 years and never succeeded for more than a few seconds, so I got extremely burned out with the traditional methods

I decided to research about shifting on tumblr to see if the community is popular here as well (previously I’ve only researched about it on tiktok, reddit and a bit on youtube) and found a bit of general info about shifting, but what has gotten my attention was a person who got into the void state and instantly manifested their desires. I thought it looked a lot like shifting so I read some more

I knew a tiny bit about the void state from shifttok, but I’ve never been interested to learn more until that point. the og post said that they specifically reached the void state by doing yoga nidra so I thought it was a requirement for the void at that point. I didn’t know what yoga nidra was, so I sent the person a message asking about it and went about my day deciding I’m giving up on traditional methods and will start to work with the void state

for some reason I didn’t research any further that day (probably because I was burnt out by my shifting attempt the night before and didn’t feel like ingesting more information)

at night I decided to try to shift again. I drank blue lotus tea and put on a guided meditation. after 10 minutes I get bored and switched the meditation for white, brown and pink noises and fell asleep saying affirmations

I got woken up by my alarm at around 10 a.m. (I didn’t shift) and I tried to get out of bed to really woke up, but I ended up falling asleep until 11:30 a.m. when I got woken up again by my loud parents getting ready for work, so I tried to play on my phone to get more lucid and not fall asleep again because I didn't feel like getting out of bed, but I also didn't want to continue sleeping. my eyes were practically closing by themselves atp, but I went on tumblr and saw the person I messaged the night before answered my message and said they'll post a guide one of these days. after thanking them I closed my eyes again thinking of the void state. I remember saying to myself something like “I really want to get into the void, I can’t wait for the guide so I can do yoga nidra”

for the next hour I fell asleep for 10 minutes then woke up for 1-3 minutes at least 3 times (I was very tired, probably because of the previous shifting attempt) and my thoughts were completely blank;

at some point I find myself in my kitchen trying to make coffee and I couldn't tell if I was dreaming or not because the dream was very clear and I usually make coffee after getting out of bed so I thought I had finally woken up

I noticed the jar of instant coffee was almost empty and I asked myself "why is it almost empty, I bought a new jar yesterday" (I finished my jar yesterday and wanted to buy a new one today btw), then when I went pick up the jar I was instantly hit with the realization that I was lucid dreaming, so not even a second later I threw myself to the ground in a crisscross position to allow myself to fall through the floor and shift to my dr

when I hit the ground I closed my eyes and stated my intention of wanting to shift to my jujutsu kaisen dr, but I didn’t even get to finish my intention when I felt myself being pulled through the floor in an infinite dark void; I realized I entered the void state

I was calm, but really wanted to get to my dr, so I started affirming and visualizing. I felt myself being pulled again through the void, a bit lower, before stopping again

I got annoyed and started thinking of my dr again then started hearing a voice; I listened for a bit then realized I was hearing an argument between yuuji and megumi. I didn't understand because they were talking in japanese, but at the same time I understood the message?? they were arguing about how to exorcise a curse or something like that

the weird thing about their voices is that when I dream, lucid dream, visualize or make up scenarios, all the voices are quiet and muffled in the distance and the tone never changes, but the voices I was hearing were loud and clear as if I was next to them, which has NEVER happened to me before. I think I literally stood there frozen for 15 seconds because of how loud and real (?) their voices sounded

anyways

I was getting annoyed because I kept getting distracted and started saying affirmations and trying to imagine where I wanted to wake up. I couldn't feel my body the whole time, I was pure conciseness.

I told myself that as long as I shift, I don't care where I end up, then suddenly I started to hear more voices including a girl's voice (they were most probably people from other drs of mine).

I got confused and a bit alarmed, so I asked out loud what do I have to do to shift. suddenly all the voices got muffled and a man with a lower voice started talking to me in english. I didn't know who that was and I got confused, but tried my best to follow his instructions. I started to hear noises from my cr (the cars passing my apartment as I live in a noisy area) but tried not to wake up. because of the noises I woke up and suddenly I was in my room again. I panicked but didn’t open my eyes or move my body (I could semi-feel my body, but it was mostly asleep) and literally yelled in my mind ‘I want to get back into the void!!’ suddenly I’m in the void again, this time I didn’t feel the falling sensation, it was instant

back into the void I saw nothing was working I decided to shift to my waiting room because I remembered someone once saying that a waiting room is some kind of parallel located between your cr and other realities and this is why it can be easier to shift there. I intended to shift to my waiting room then felt how my body got pulled lower into the void again, then it suddenly stopped when I heard my phone buzzing in my cr because of a notification

I got extremely frustrated and decided to fully wake up

I woke up at around 1:20 p.m. and was very happy with what I just went through.

thinking about the last voice for a bit, I initially thought it was gojo, but it sounded too different to be him, plus the man was talking in english, so I figured it could've been zhongli from my genshin dr since I scripted english is an universal language in teyvat, but then I thought it was weird that he responded since I'm not very close to him in my dr, but after some more thinking I realized that we're actually connected in my dr so it kinda makes sense to be him, but I'm still not 100% sure, I'm only sure about hearing yuuji and megumi arguing

it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that when I was in the void and said I want to shift to my dr and started falling then stopped and I heard yuuji and megumi, I was actually in my dr and I just needed to wake up. I thought I would get woken up instantly just like with shifting methods, but I actually had to wake myself up from the void. my information was very limited because, like I said in the beginning, I only read one or two posts about the void state beforehand

it would also make sense to hear yuuji and megumi first thing before waking up in my dr, because I scripted that when they go in the school to get sukuna’s finger, I would be asleep in one of the offices (don’t ask) and will witness the whole thing

I think the way I got into the void is an actual method; I forgot the name of it but it might’ve been the phrase method, I’m not too sure

it also shows you don’t have to have a perfect mindset as I thought I can’t possibly get into the void until I do yoga nidra for a few days, so all you need is intention and an alternate state of consciousness

additional things (you can totally skip this if you want to)

after I got into the void state that day, I continued practicing the void state and I almost got into it at least 15 times, but instead of doing it via a lucid dream, I used the lullaby and distraction methods because I have a hard time lucid dreaming. every time I would be pulled into the void with these methods I would instantly think of my cr or get impatient and be immediately be pulled out, so I’m working on that and on how to lucid dream more often

I think I’m getting close into reaching the void again, because I’ve been working on meditation and started teaching my subconscious mind not to think of my cr while going into the void state.

the months of march and april were literally stagnant for me with no little to no success because I strongly believe I got the evil eye or something like that. at the end of february I went back to my home country (which is in eastern europe) to attend my cousin’s 18th birthday and I think I might have been cursed by one of the old ladies attending. I would always get the evil eye by them as a kid, but my grandma would usually remove it for me

my manifestations stopped and I couldn’t reach the void again but I thought it was because of work and uni related stress, but then it hit me it might be something else because I literally never had issues with my manifestations but suddenly I couldn’t manifest anything anymore, so I performed a cleanse and now I’m back again manifesting like it’s my job

a few nights ago I tried to get into the void, after like 8 minutes of meditation my body fell asleep while my mind was awake and I could’ve entered the void, but I sabotaged myself because I told myself I needed to go to sleep asap because I need to wake up in 3 hours for work so I moved around a bit and went to sleep

anyways, I’ll try to get into the void again and keep y’all updated. next month I go back to my home country where is peace and quiet so I think I’ll have a better time without stressing about uni, work or the noisy area I live in

[everpresence]

I’m scared I’ve been in this community for years and haven’t manifested a thing, what if I’ll never understand how to manifest or how to apply the law or if the law is real.

i normally don't answer questions where people vent to me about their circumstances, but i can't bring myself to delete this because i was in your shoes before.

i was putting so much effort into applying the law, i was reading so many books on the law, so many reddit posts, youtube videos. it was rough. i felt completely alone because i didn't know a lot of people that i could talk to about the law, and reading other people's success stories only made me feel worse. i know where you are coming from, anon.

the law is always working. i know it does not sound true right now, but i'm so serious. if i wasn't, then i wouldn't be running this blog in the first place. the law is always working, but people tend to forget this one key: you only get who you are, not what you want.

when you focus on lack, when you focus on trying too hard, when you focus on your doubts and your fears and your "what-ifs" and "buts," which method works, which method doesn't, validation that the law is working, how will it come, etc., then you will only ever see those things be translated to your thoughts, emotions, reactions, events, etc.

so yes, you did manifest. you did use the law, and yes it may be unintentional and you didn't mean to, but this is exactly what happened. you used the law, and you focused on struggle, you focused on not having manifested, you focused on the 3D being your source of validation. your 3D is feedback -- it's literally telling you that your focus should NOT be on this.

and i'm not saying this to blame you, anon, i'm saying this because the truth of the matter is that you are NOT an exception to the law. you ARE the law. i know it is a double-edged sword, but you have the choice to lean towards the side where you realize that this is actually a good thing. you have the free will to believe that you can take advantage of this ability that you have always had in you your whole life and use it for good.

you are meant to learn this truth. i promise you that this is not an accident, none of what i am saying to you is an accident. the 3D is feedback of your 4D, and here i am, giving you the feedback that you need to hear right now.

so here's what i want you to do:

stop seeking external validation. stop looking at success stories, stop looking for advice, stop seeking external guidance, stop all of it. i feel like you already know everything that you need to know. and more importantly, stop looking out at the outer world and believing that it is the final outcome. it's not. if you find yourself seeking it, stop it and tell yourself "i trust me. i trust the god-in-me. i know everything that i need to know already, so i can trust now." and this is where my second point comes in.

it's time to start trusting yourself, and not just your human self -- trust your divine self too. trust your higher self, inner self, god-in-you, universe, infinite intelligence whatever the hell you want to name it. you are not just your conscious mind, you are so much more than that. seth talks about this in his books. you are so incredible. your human mind is only one aspect of who you really are, and that is so amazing. you are infinity and beyond.

you are on your own journey. comparison is the thief of joy. stop focusing on other people and what they're doing. again, stop reading those success stories. delete social media if you have to.

if you need a break from the law, PLEASE take a break from it. you were never meant to struggle. you were never meant to try so hard. take that break and take care of yourself. do what you have to do to feel better, to feel good. it will be so worth it.

be kind to yourself. give yourself compassion because i have a hunch that you might not have been so kind to yourself about your journey. don't be so hard on yourself, again, you are on your own journey. if you mess up, it's not the end of the world. it's not permanent. you can always pick yourself back up.

[eldenringslut]

I feel like people are getting a bit too angry at the whole Radahn final boss thing. I’m not saying you have to like it, but I’ve been seeing a lot of rage that feels a bit misplaced in my opinion. Also as usual this is just my opinion so feel free to disagree with me.

In terms of gameplay, Consort Radahn has a new moveset and fight tempo that, despite calling back to his original fight with some moves, feels pretty distinct to fight in my opinion.

In terms of lore, I’ve also seen people saying that Miquella’s description of Radahn basically makes him reddit ‘Chadahn’. I disagree with this.

It’s important to remember that this is Miquella giving his personal view of Radahn, and that he is an unreliable narrator. Radahn still has all the same flaws and complexities as before, the evidence for that from the base game isn’t gone. The only difference is that we now know Miquella’s (in my opinion childlike) perspective of him.

Additionally, although we know that Radahn fought against becoming Miquella’s consort in the end, we have no idea if the vow was initially one sided or not. Maybe Radahn rejected it from the start. Maybe he initially agreed because he thought Miquella (as an Empyrean) wanted to become the Erdtree’s god rather than supplant it’s order. Maybe he jokingly agreed to Miquella’s childish request not realising that Miquella would never be anything but a child. We simply don’t know, and I personally think all of these interpretations are interesting in their own right.

Adding onto this, a lot of people seem to be hating on Miquella’s character for becoming the ‘villain’ of the DLC. But think of it like this. If Miquella is an eternal child who had always had the ability to compel love and affection, why would he see love as anything other than a tool. It probably doesn’t even occur to him that maniputating others with magic is wrong or sinister in any way.

This also explains why he so coldly abandons Malenia, despite his obvious affection for her. He does genuinely care for her, he just has an extremely skewed perception of what love and affection is. He probably thinks something like; “Oh, but I’ll be able to make her feel happy and loved when I come back so it’s fine that I’m abandoning her for hundreds of years 😊”. I personally really like what the DLC did with Miquella’s character, even if it’s different from what we expected.

Now that’s not to say I like everything about what the DLC did with the lore. In particular, I don’t like how Malenia’s motives in Battle of Aeonia is simplified. Instead of it being a clash of ideologies, a fight between two mighty demigods that deeply respect each other’s strength or a desperate attempt to free the stars from stasis, Malenia is reduced to a brainwashed attack dog. This also cheapens Finlay’s sacrifice in my opinion (although you could also see it as enhancing the tragedy of it all by making her sacrifice less meaningful).

I’m also still unsure as to why Miquella would embed himself in the Haligtree before making Mohg kidnap him. If that was his goal from the start why embed himself in the first place? He could have just gone with Mohg in his normal form?

One possible explanation for this is that he didn’t initially plan to get kidnapped by Mohg, and wanted to enter the Land of Shadow by using his Haligtree to form a counterpart in the LoS like the Scadutree? Maybe he switched his plan and brainwashed Mohg after being kidnapped? We know from the War Surgeon set description that Mohg already has a propensity for kidnapping so idk.

Anyway that’s enough rambling for now I think. As usual my reccomended lore youtuber is Smoughtown.

[greatcheshire]

Hihi! New transfem here! ^w^ okay this is gonna sound super weird but genuine question, do I start voice training after or before I start hrt? & if so what starter vids or programs or whatever do u reccomed? It's just I'd rather put my trust in a long time trans girlie (a super Gorgeous one too) than a google search ya know

You can start voice training whenever!! It’s not really dependent on HRT so it’s just a matter of when you want to take the plunge. Personally, I’ve never been able to get the hang of voice training, but the best resource is Trans Voice Lessons on YouTube. A lot of helpful tips and places to start. Additionally, check out /r/transvoice on Reddit for tips and guidance! Best of luck on your journey!!!

[snowyh2o]

So here’s something that’s been on my mind lately.

When Rosie gives Charlie advice on her relationship with Vaggie, and whether or not Vaggie really meant all the things she had said or if it was just lies, she tells Charlie that “—words, are cheap. But actions, they speak the truth.”

And the reason I’ve been thinking about this line lately is that, everyone on YouTube and Reddit and occasionally on Tumblr are all clamoring over each other about how “Alastor is clearly the main antagonist/villain of the series”, “Alastor doesn’t actually care about the hotel or Charlie, he’s only manipulating everyone”, “clearly, Alastor’s line about controlling all the strings means he’s planning on taking over hell!”. But I can’t help but feel like that’s…. A very shallow interpretation of him as a character and his role in the story.

The way he’s designed and implemented into the story has him filling the “morally dubious very suspicious and probably out for his own goals sponsor of the hotel” trope, and part of what draws people to his character is that we really don’t know what he’s going to do. Is he going to betray Charlie and the hotel? Is he going to give up on his goals for Charlie and the hotel? How is he planning on using that deal he made with Charlie? What will he try to do to get out of his leash? Because as it stands he could very easily swing one way or the other, or both at the same time.

But I also understand that a lot of people are saying those things because of what Alastor himself says about his goals in the series. Particularly in the finale, but also during the pilot and again in the first episode. Alastor says he’s here to watch people fail for entertainment. He says he wants to take control of the strings. He mocks the idea that he’d die for “his friends”.

But Alastor says a lot of shit, and not all of them are entirely true.

Words are cheap.

So, what do his actions say?

In the pilot he offers Charlie a deal centered around him sponsoring the hotel, Charlie refuses and instead orders him as the princess of hell to help out with the hotel for as long as he desired. Alastor agrees to this, and doesn’t push for making another deal. Immediately after summons Niffty and Husk to help staff the hotel and work on cleaning up the place. He then defends the hotel against Sir Pentious’s death beam and beats him up (because he destroyed a wall and interrupted his song—). He renamed the hotel, and then presumably attached his radio tower to the side of the building and moves in to live with everyone else.

In episode 1, he makes a really well put together video advertisement despite his infamous distaste for anything and everything related to modern technology and TVs. The ad is edited, voiced over, and contains custom animations. He would’ve had to have used a computer to do all this. The video itself was satire, likely because he was very annoyed at being told he couldn’t just make a radio ad for the hotel, and not what Charlie or Vaggie had wanted. Later on, when Vaggie decides to remake the ad, she asks Alastor for a camera, he summons a vintage photo camera (again because of his distaste for all things video) and Vaggie has to specify for a video camera. He summons a video camera that looks like it’s being held together by duct tape for Vaggie, and he’s clearly not happy about it, but the camera he gave her still works, and he still did what she asked of him. When Vaggie fails to make a proper ad, he mocks her in a “not so easy now is it?” Way, before offering to help her make one. He makes a deal with her, being that if he helps her with this ad, that she never asks him to deal with “this frivolous television technology ever again.” When she agrees, he summons up an entire movie productions set along with a change of clothing for all the members of the hotel (going above and beyond with this “help”), and by the end of the day had even pulled some strings and limbs to get it to air that very same day after they were done making it. Also, despite Alastor being in frame for the video, he’s the only thing that’s distorted, even though other instances of him being in frame distorts the whole image.

Episode 2 has Alastor defending the hotel from Sir Pentious’s attack again, though he’s also the reason Sir Pentious was attacking in the first place. And has him summoning minions to fix the wall before he leaves for the tailor. He doesn’t do anything tk Sir Pentious, except act a little threatening despite Sir Pentious having ripped off a piece of his suit, and what his reaction before Sir Pentious became a hotel guest was. Alastor is also seen participating as an audience to the “Drug dealer” skit, probably to laugh at Angel’s misery. He doesn’t do anything about Sir Pentious being a spy for Vox, but does appear to have scared Vox into not trying anything else.

Episode 3 has him interrupting his breakfast to help Vaggie deal with the Egg Bois, humanely. Despite how very obviously irritated he was by their constant pestering, he doesn’t do anything to them, even though he was very eager to do so earlier before Vaggie specified he couldn’t kill/eat them. He even makes sure they don’t get themselves killed by saying something stupid in front of Zestial, and tried to keep them outside the building full of powerful and potentially temperamental overlords. He uses Frank to spy on Carmilla, and threatens him into silence (it didn’t work), but doesn’t try to dispose of them and ends up bringing the whole group back to the hotel.

Episode 5 has him in a pissing contest against Lucifer, and we learn that he makes old timey puns, is a reliable hotel manager, and apparently unclogs toilets for them. Charlie notably, agrees with what he says, or doesn’t say anything to contradict his words, and she’s generally much more comfortable during Alastor’s portion of the song than Lucifer’s. When Mimzy appears, he’s very happy to see her and initiates a hug. Despite this, he insists on joining Charlie with giving her dad a tour around the hotel. Alastor appeared upset at the mention of his 7 year absence, but tries to play it off. When Husk pokes at his sore spot, Alastor pulls out the chains and starts threatening him with a tortuous death should he say anything about that again, but doesn’t do anything else to Husk and leaves him alone the moment he has Husk’s agreement. Alastor actively defends the hotel against the loan sharks after Mimzy, and then seriously asks Mimzy, the only friend we’ve seen from his past, to leave if she’s only here to bring trouble to the hotel. He doesn’t interrupt when Charlie and Lucifer finally reconnect and reconcile.

Episode 7, Alastor speaks with Charlie in private and forces her to confront the situation the hotel is in by mocking her about landing the hotel in hot water. He doesn’t stop when she tells him to leave, and is able to successfully get her out of the bed covers and onto her feet. He offers advice, and a little insight to his own smile. When Charlie is at her lowest and most upset, he offers the solution to her problem for a favor at a time of his choosing where she harms no one. He doesn’t ask for her soul, even though it looked like Charlie was both expecting him to and appeared just about ready to offer it herself. After the deal, he voluntarily takes Charlie to Cannibal Town, no strings attached, to meet with Rosie. He was very bored listening to her vent about her love life, but didn’t try to interrupt her or get her to stop. When Charlie has trouble explaining the situation, he steps in and tells Rosie what kind of favor they want. Rosie agrees to help, because Alastor has never wronged her before. Alastor gives Charlie his microphone with no prompting when she comes back to try and rally the cannibals again. When she looks over to him and Rosie for support, he gives her a thumbs up, despite being somewhat awkward about it. He helps bring the cannibals on board with the offer of angel meat! During a more private moment with Rosie in the song, Alastor stated that he believed Charlie could do it all along. Then talks about how she’s powerful, and wanting to guide her potential, before saying they should stick with her if they want to win.

Episode 8: Alastor is an active member of the war council. He shared the details of his ability, or at the very least his shield, and either volunteered for or agreed to be the one to keep Adam occupied should he enter the battle. He lends his microphone to Charlie again during her final night before the battle’s speech. Alastor shared a quiet moment with Niffty. He doesn’t deride her for her attachment to the members of the hotel when she shares how much she likes them, and even almost agrees with her. When Niffty starts laughing uncontrollably, he looks at her for a moment before joining her in laughing, it’s very forced lol. During the actual battle, his shield was paramount in minimizing the number of angels everyone had to deal with, and he kept Adam busy for several minutes, only retreating after taking an almost fatal blow to the chest by Adam’s holy weapon. He disappears from the battle, but likely stayed nearby, and only went to his radio tower after the hotel had been destroyed or the battle had already ended. In his radio tower, he’s in disbelief over his near death experience. His expression when speaking of how he’d almost died for “his friends”, it isn’t anger or derision, it’s shaken, unsteady, and struggling to keep it together with a smile. He uses his anger and desperation to take focus himself again. In the end, he shows up at the hotel again, appearing perfectly fine and totally uninjured, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him at all, no siree! (His microphone is missing)

I think, maybe he doesn’t believe in the hotel, but he does believe in Charlie. Whether he’s aware of exactly how much he believes in her, and for what reasons, is unknown, but he’s placed his lot in with her, and he’s put a shocking amount of trust in her as well.

He’s also put in a shocking amount of effort into keeping the hotel running and doing what Vaggie and Charlie have asked of him for something he claims to think is a joke. If he weren’t serious about it all, he wouldn’t have been nearly this cooperative with it. Just take a look at what he did for the ad when he was doing it begrudgingly!

So I don’t believe him when he says he’s only in this for the entertainment. I don’t believe him when Alastor’s reassuring himself that he’s only in this for himself, that he doesn’t give a rats ass about the rest of the hotel.

He’s spent a little too much time and effort for it all to have been meaningless to him.

Alastor’s words are cheap. But his actions do tell some semblance of truth.

[yinyuedijun]

i dont know if this is an unusual thing to ask (or if it has been asked before), but i’ve always immensely admired the effort you put in your fics with how well-researched they all are, especially when it comes to cultural details of the story/concept (it’s very immersive because it feels like i’m learning as i read further, not only about the character/s but about the culture the story is set in as well)

and so im curious, how do you start or how do you go about the research when starting a fic?

aw thank you anon!!! I'm so glad you find the fics interesting from a learning perspective, I'm always so happy to hear when people appreciate the research I've done for my fics 🥹

I don't really have a set method for research, but here are some basic tips:

for topics that I don't know a lot about, I usually start by skimming the wikipedia article on the topic, picking out key points of interest that are relevant to the story, and then googling to find academic pages or books on that topic. then I usually try to stick to those sources for my writing, both because they go into more depth and because I know they'll be more reliable than other sources on the web

ALSO when I was writing the yakuza au, which is a topic I knew close to nothing about - for the first time, I tried to begin my research by watching documentaries and video essays on youtube, and it also worked CRAZY well. super digestible and way less labour intensive than googling and trying to find academic sources.

if you're trying to get a sense of everyday life for something, or how a regular person might view/act on the subject rather than an academic or journalist perspective, I find video blogs and reddit threads to be a really informative source. for instance, I've never been to any hostess bars in japan so I tried to look for AMAs from hostesses and was quite successful in that regard (especially for things like terminology/slang that people use)

this final tip is not really a research method per se, but helps with it. in my real life I'm always on the lookout for subjects that I find extremely interesting, and I try to retain as much info about it as I can in case the opportunity ever comes up to write about it. so for example, in my feudal japan au, I came up with those inari shrine plot points because I visited fushimi inari shrine once and got super obsessed with all the fox statues LOL. naturally when I was writing about a fox spirit character, that came back to mind, and I already had a reference point for my research, which helped.

I hope this helps!

[hanasnx]

can you share some of thosr anakin-related-content-you-consumed on ur anakin fixation era cz im fixating on anakin aswell rn and i want to study him!! please, idk where to start 🙇🏻‍♀️

supercut of star wars I - III reddit link with instructions to receive them via google docs

i've seen both tpm and aotc supercuts but i have yet to finish the rots supercut because of it being so long. there are also deleted scenes on youtube that were not included in the supercuts linked here:

star wars episodes I and II extended edition - unused deleted scenes youtube video

revenge of the sith 4 hour supercut - unused deleted scenes youtube video

if you cannot get a hold of the supercuts for some reason, no sweat. the same channel listed in the above links has a bunch of videos on their channel of all "restored deleted scenes" that you can watch individually. of course, that is without the "siege of mandalore" that's included in the rots supercut. but that's just the bits you would see from season 7 of the clone wars spliced in, so you wouldn't be missing anything.

star wars: episode I - the phantom menace

if you cannot get a hold of the supercuts for whatever reason, start here. one of my favorite star wars movies. features young anakin, about nine years old, and how comes to live with the jedi, how he meets padme, and where he comes from.

star wars: episode II - attack of the clones

we follow older anakin, about nineteen years old, where he reunites with padme and they fall in love. the cracks of the dark side's influences are beginning to show.

star wars: clone wars

this is the mini-series released in 2003-2005 to depict anakin's journey throughout the beginning of the clone wars to prepare audiences for star wars: revenge of the sith coming out in 2005. it has since been de-canonized and replaced with the clone series that comes out in 2008. it is still worth the watch. anakin's voice actor is supremely talented and sounds a lot like hayden christensen. albeit he is dramatic, as it is a kid's show, i still very much enjoy his characterization. it's actually pretty funny too, it did get me to laugh a couple times. chapter 24-25 i believe is where anakin undergoes a sort of spiritual awakening, and the ending always makes me cry.

star wars: the clone wars movie

it was honestly boring to me, but i still watched it for much needed context on the show.

star wars: the clone wars

as i’ve said before, i don’t really care for tcw!anakin, but this was still a fun and enjoyable watch. it wasn’t completely worthless to me, i did learn some more things about anakin that applied to hayden’s rendition.

unreleased star wars: the clone wars arc - crystal crisis on utapau (full) youtube video

i didn’t finish it but from what i’ve seen so far it’s pretty funny.

anakin & obi-wan | let my people go youtube video edit

one of my favorite edits to one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite movies. i think about it a lot, especially during the “this was my home.” lyric. hammering in the betrayal of brothers that grew up alongside one another, and if you resonate with that song and movie it provides another layer of context. it’s deliciously painful. when anakin’s side of “you who i called brother,” cuts through and interrupts the melody, impatient to speak about his perspective using ramses’ narrative to do it, it’s acutely accurate to anakin’s character in my eyes.

clone wars: battle of the heroes - a star wars fan animation youtube video

i haven’t seen this yet but i’ve been waiting to enjoy it to its fullest. the creator worked very hard on it for a long time, so it’s worth the link.

star wars episode III: revenge of the sith novel by matthew stover

i have not read this, but i’ve seen hundreds of excerpts over the course of this hyperfixation on tumblr. it’s widely accepted even though it’s decanonized, and offers insight into anakin’s head that you can’t access with just watching the movie. i thoroughly enjoy and reblog the excerpts i come across, but since i’m not a reader i haven’t picked it up to complete it myself.

star wars: episode III - revenge of the sith

the third installment in the prequel series, and where shit goes down. twenty-three year old anakin grapples with his desires overcoming his sense of obligations, warping his own ideals to fit into selfish purposes. you see how he betrays the republic, his wife, his brother, and himself, all for power.

star wars episode III revenge of the sith (xbox) no commentary walkthrough full game [1080p60fps] youtube video

i haven’t gotten to watch this yet but i’d like to soon, i’ve seen bits and pieces and i believe there are alternate endings that prove interesting. if you like gameplay movies i think you should give it a shot, but if not, go ahead and skip this one.

star wars: episode III - revenge of the sith - making the game youtube video

it’s short and sweet. about hayden’s view of the character anakin and how he acts in combat.

star wars: tales of the jedi

s1e5 where we receive insight as to how anakin trains his padawan.

vader: complete canon comic series 1-25 in chronological order youtube video

i loved this so much. so many good moments that i ate the fuck up. we follow vader in his first year of becoming the sith lord, grappling with identity, past, and recognition. we also get insight into the very sensitive time of jedi eradication, i learned a lot. my favorite parts are when vader has to fight without a saber against clones, make his own red saber by retrieving one from a surviving jedi, and the arc that includes jocasta nu.

star wars the force unleashed- full game walkthrough gameplay no commentary youtube video

star wars the force unleashed 2 - full game walkthrough gameplay no commentary youtube video

both of these i've been meaning to watch, but i haven't been in the mood. i figured i'd link them in case you were interested in more gameplay movies.

star wars rebels

i didn't finish this, but i did watch a lot of the vader content and the scarce anakin content. i'll watch anything that mentions him tbh.

star wars jedi: fallen order - full game - no commentary youtube video

i played this game and loved it. the ending is the money shot tbh.

star wars: obi-wan kenobi

this was probably the first sw show i watched after i got back into darth vader in august 2022. reawakened a lot for me, i really enjoyed vader's part in this story. reva is also one of my favorites, and i thought her being a mirror image to anakin in this situation was clever, i thought her backstory was unique and refreshing. but what really shines for me is vader's contribution as both an extension of the emperor and a vessel for his own selfish desires. there are parts where i can see he's more machine than man. there are also some anakin parts as well! which i didn't enjoy as much, funnily enough.

rogue one: a star wars story

i haven't seen this one in years, but i do remember darth vader's appearances being both funny and badass.

star wars: episode IV - a new hope

star wars: episode V - the empire strikes back

it took me a long time to come around on this one. now it's one of my favorites. especially because we start to get the first glimpses within the original trilogy of vader's humanity, and his ability to demonstrate faint loyalty to his blood.

star wars: episode VI - return of the jedi

fave sw movie tbh since childhood. you can't get better than the ending. vader's sacrifice is everything to me.

lego star wars: the skywalker saga

i had played this game back in may 2022 when i visited my sister. she and i used to play lego games together when we were kids, and one of my first video games ever was lego star wars: the video game from 2005 which she introduced me to. it holds a special place in my heart, and i really liked playing skywalker saga even though at this point i hadn't cared about star wars in years. when i got back home i couldn't stop thinking about the saga game so i bought it myself, and then played it so obsessively i didn't do anything else. it got me back in the mood for darth vader so i watched obi-wan kenobi, and one thing leads to another now here i am with a smut blog about anakin skywalker's entire life and his every iteration. i loved the game, i think you should play it even though it's just lego versions of everything, it's still really fun.

star wars: ahsoka

you see him in this and the cinematography is breathtaking at times, but i didn't care for it. i only cared about the glimpses of anakin/vader's appearances even if they didn't contribute anything to the story for me.

anakin skywalker vs palpatine full fight scene (hd) - star wars episode IX [alternative ending] youtube video

this is a fan edit! i think about it a lot even though i haven't seen the sequels.

the life of anakin skywalker: darth vader (star wars) youtube video

i haven't finished this, but from what i've seen it's taught me things even i didn't know. i really appreciated the facts that aren't even on wookiepedia.

any books on it i've only seen the excerpts here on tumblr, i haven't read any because i'm not a big reader but i've seen some great posts that i reblog. so don't sleep on the books/comics

great ask

[twopoppies]

have you seen or i guess heard ‘she’ in reverse yet? i was on reddit reading peoples favourite larry proofs and someone commented that in the song harry sings “around 1:32” and when you listen to it in reverse around 4:30 ish (because 6-1.30) you hear him say lots! going through the youtube comments, people pointed out that around 4:10/4:15 ish you can hear him say “i want lou” twice and then “he’s losing his voice” and then at the 4:30 mark is when you hear “promise me this is just a little heartbreak” and “i’m so lonely, lonely lou” ALLEGEDLY. idk if you’ve already discussed it but it’s the first i’ve seen about this and obviously im a little excited about it ahahah, curious for your thoughts?

Yeah. There was a lot of talk about listening to various songs on Fine Line backwards. I don’t know how to do it, so I haven’t been able to prove it for myself. Most of the conversation I saw was on TikTok and Twitter, and I don’t trust any of those sources.

But I’d love to have this proven or debunked by someone!

[amethyst-draws09]

Chapter 3 of poppy playtime and the smiling critters saved poppy playtime (SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 3!!!)

I know that’s a big statement but hear me out.

Poppy playtime before chapter 3 had a bit of a bad rep. It was basically the punching bag of mascot horror. And can you really blame them? Hell even I thought it was bad in chapter 1.

Chapter 2 came round and it was definitely good! But the horror aspect weren’t on full play and if I recall there was a lot of controversy about it when chapter 2 came out.

But chapter 3? Oh my goodness it’s incredible. And is what really hooked me and a lot of other people in to poppy playtime. And the smiling critter’s basically branched off into there own fandom. (I’m apart of by the way)

I mean for starters gameplay. They balanced horror,gameplay,puzzles and story so bloody well in this chapter it’s unbelievable,and the pacing is brilliant!

And the horror 😨. It would be an understatement to say this was horrifying. First of all nightmare huggy wuggy just in general also we get a glimpse into the orphan experimenting in chapter 2 but chapter 3 really just goes all out on it. I mean home sweet home has some DARK connotations if you look into it and it’s terrifying how people as young as 5! We’re experimented on. I mean the main villain of this chapter catnap. Is literally an 7 or 8 year old child. And you are told constantly To AVOID playcare at all cost’s now imagine how I and basically everyone felt when at the end of the cave segment you see a Sign welcoming you into playcare 😨. And then dogday. Holy fu##ing sh#t was that so dark and brutal. HE’S BEEN CHOPPED IN HALF AND TO MAKE THINGS WORSE HE DIES BY BASICALLY BEING EATEN FROM THE INSIDE OUT BY THE SMALLER CRITTERS?!?! NOT TO MENTION YOU CAN HEAR HIM CHOKING ON THEM IN THE CHASE?!?! That is GENIUELY  such a brutal and dark thing I’ve ever seen come out of a horror game. And wow did mob have some balls to do that when they KNOW they’ve got a massive child audience. Props to them.

The final boss is such a refreshing breath of fresh air with it not being a chase segment. The boss is GENIUELY thought out well. And catnaps and dogdays death actually made me a bit sad especially with dogday.

The characters designs are So Bloody good. Examples being literally any of the smiling critters. Miss joy and so on. They fit the theme and game so well

Now I could mention other things like the cardboard cutouts of the critters or the dark implications of what happened to the bigger body critters during the hour of joy but that would make this post go on for to long.

To end it off. The artist who made the animation for the start of chapter 3 of the smiling critters and just designing them in genreal and there art should be really proud of themselves. They started such a big fandom it’s unbelievable and I couldn’t be more grateful for what they did.

Chapter 3 was such a joy ride and such a surprise to me and loads of people. When I weren’t scared or sad I was grinning ear to ear with how good this chapter was. And I’m not the only one who thinks this. Search up on YouTube Twitter Reddit etc and you’ll see so many people praising this chapter with how good It was. Not saying it’s perfect it def has it flaws like me personally thinking the other critters were criminally underused. But it was such a big step up and made poppy playtime from a mid game to an exceptional game. I and so many others are happy this exists. This chapter was such a joy ride and I personally LOVED IT. Let’s hope that they make the future chapters as good if not better than this one (and hopefully bring back the smiling critters there such good characters)

And that’s why i think chapter 3 (and the smiling critters) SAVED poppy playtime

[feyburner]

hello mr feyburner sir i really want to get into baking but i am scared to mess up and recipes terrify me. i only know one simple sponge cake recipe that my mom taught me anyway point is what were the things you wished you knew before you started baking? i know it’s a lot of trial and error but would you let us know what to start with and how to not get completely overwhelmed by the fact that i am not immediately good at it…

(Also if u have a sponge cake recipe of yours i would love it!!!)

1.

The first step to being less scared is accepting that you are going to mess up. In fact, the more you bake, the more you will mess up; you can’t fuck what you’re not doing. There is no avoiding it. Sometimes your fuckup will be fixable. Sometimes it won’t be fixable but you can still eat the end result. Sometimes it won’t be fixable and also the end result is garbage, and now you’ve wasted 3 hours and a bunch of ingredients, and it is the most frustrating thing in the world. That is just how it goes. I’ve been baking since I was a kid, baking very regularly (like, averaging 1-2x per week) for 5-6 years now, and I fuck up all the time. I fully expect to keep fucking up on a regular basis until the day I die.

What years of practice have given me is not the ability to never fuck up—it’s the ability to understand why I fucked up, what I did wrong, and how to hopefully not do it again.

One of the most common things out of my mouth is: “This is good, but I know what I’ll do differently next time.”

Next time I’ll shape the dough tighter. Next time I’ll let it rise longer. Next time I’ll check for doneness earlier. And so on.

2.

Taste is subjective. Everyone’s kitchen is different and everyone likes different things. Some people want thick, chewy chocolate chip cookies and some people want thin, crispy ones. Some people like a very tight crumb on their sourdough bread and others want air holes so big you can’t butter it. There’s no such thing as a perfect recipe because the point of food is the person eating it.

This is why it’s so rewarding to learn basic techniques and basic baking chemistry as you go. Once you get more comfortable in the kitchen, you can start going off-book. “This looks great but I think I’m gonna want a chewier texture. I’ll use half bread flour and mix the dough a bit longer to really activate the gluten.”

3.

Don’t just pick a random recipe. Especially in the age of 1 million recipe blogs. I always, always read at least 4-5 recipes for the thing I’m trying to make. I read the reviews. I compare and contrast them. If you’re looking at 5 recipes for chocolate chip cookies and only 1 says to add kale, there’s a good chance that’s not the one you want to start with. You can experiment with it later—maybe kale is the secret to the best cookies ever!—but typically you’ll want to start with the standard and deviate from there.

I often take notes on the 4-5 recipes, noting not just differences in ingredient ratios but in technique as well. A good recipe blog will explain to you WHY you’re doing something a certain way. If it doesn’t explain, look it up! Reddit r/baking and r/AskBaking are super helpful. Often someone’s random comment is the reason I learn something incredibly useful that can be applied to tons of recipes.

(I love King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen for learning technique—the ATK cookbooks are some of my most-referenced. Sally’s Baking Recipes never lets me down for good old American basics. Serious Eats is also very informative, though their recipes are often overly complicated or finicky.)

Often, I won’t simply pick one recipe—I’ll use a little of Recipe A, a little of Recipe B. I did this for a brownie recipe that ended up going viral on Reddit/Youtube which was pretty funny. I don’t necessarily recommend combining recipes when you’re first starting out, but keep it in mind as you go.

No recipe is set in stone. You can always adjust it to your tastes, to what works for you in your kitchen. Make it a little less sweet, a little sweeter, a little denser, a little lighter. Whatever you want. That’s what technique, and understanding how ingredients interact with each other, is about—like artists who learn realistic anatomy but paint in abstract.

4.

It can be hard to compare multiple very similar recipes. This recipe says to use 3 cups of flour and 1/2 cup butter and this recipe says 2 cups flour and 1 cup butter—but Recipe A makes 12 cookies and Recipe B makes 24 cookies. (Or, Recipe A uses volume measurements and Recipe B uses weight.) What does that mean? How do you draw a meaningful comparison?

Math!

Baker’s percentages are your best friend. They’re super easy. Just pick one ingredient to be your baseline—typically flour. That’s 100%. Then calculate the ratio of each ingredient to your flour ratio to easily compare different ingredient amounts.

For example, from my croissant recipe:

500g bread flour

10g kosher salt

150g milk + 100g water, room temp (70°; microwaved 10-15 seconds)

50g white sugar

10g honey

10g active dry yeast

30g (2 Tbsp) butter, softened

+

309g (remainder of 3 sticks after -30g; 62%) butter for lamination, softened, sliced 1” thick

BAKER’S PERCENTAGES:

100% bread flour

2% kosher salt

50% hydration (milk + water)

10% white sugar

2% honey

2% yeast

6% butter

45-62% butter for lamination

How to calculate:

500g flour is my baseline 100%.

What percentage of 500 is 50 (50g sugar)?

50/500 = 0.1 = 10%.

It doesn’t work as well for volume measurements. But many recipes include weight and volume—and you can always convert volume to weight using tools like King Arthur’s Ingredient Weight Chart.

5.

Finally, start with the basics and build. Don’t attempt making a Napoleon or macarons right out of the gate. Start with simple, beginner’s recipes, look up techniques as you go, watch lots of videos, always try to understand the why. Baking is chemistry but it’s also art. It’s whatever you want it to be. Mostly it’s about the house smelling like cinnamon rolls.

*

In summary, you’re going to fuck up and that’s okay. Baking is beautiful, and there’s nothing like the satisfaction of pulling something incredible out of the oven. You will learn and improve as you go, like anything else. You will eat lots of ugly cakes and pastries. But taste is what matters anyway.

Good luck in your baking adventures. Feel free to ask questions anytime. I love sharing what little knowledge I have.

I don’t have a sponge cake recipe but I do have these cake recipes. Let me know how your sponge cake turns out. You got this! 🍰

[taylortruther]

I’ve been seeing a lot of people on reddit and even youtube (the swiftologist) mentioning how much she loved matty and how he was more important to her than joe ever was, after listening to ttpd. So ally saying he was the love of her life or implying she could see that in the text is not that crazy… ttpd is a love/sad breakup letter to her time with matty and analyzing that 10 year situationship.

once again, why would i trust the swiftologist or redditors over my own brain (which, again, is pretty good)

[lemonthepotato]

Tw: weight

I keep getting videos like “ILLYMATION DESTROYED HER CAREER” and “WOKE YOUTUBER TRIED TO CANCEL ME” in my recommended. I finally look into the situation and I’m just… so confused. So I skimmed the guys original video, right? Come to the 10:00 mark, and I stop skipping, and it’s just him insulting her appearance 💀.

So, I look into the situation, and her crime is having a bad opinion and trying to get a video taken down. If having a a bad opinion is a crime, 80% of YouTubers are criminals. As for trying to get the video taken down? Sure, you could call it petty. But cancel-worthy? I just consider it human error.

Apparently doing 1 questionable thing means you deserve to be treated like the devil and treated like a criminal mastermind. It’s the IRL equivalent of kicking Sharon out of book club because she made fun of you.

Also, I was looking at that LBYS guys channel, right? It’s just a bunch of content about “wOoooOOke people.” I uh, yeah. Wow.

I’m not saying she did nothing wrong. Just like… I think it’s being overdramatised.

Full disclosure, I haven’t watched Illymations video in full, or TBYS, but the “there are no bad foods” comment or smth like that is kinda true, just poorly worded. Essentially, it’s about eating in moderation. Nothing wrong with a square of chocolate on a Saturday, but pizza every day is different. Honestly, criticise the video if you want, I haven’t seen it all, so I won’t comment on that. Just. Yeah?

I’m not an illymation stan. I’ve only talked about her once before in relation to a different situation (the reitanna situation and her god awful statement about illymations grooming.) and I don’t watch all her content. I like her music though (Ursa Major), it’s good. I just like. Think the situation is a bit blown out of proportion?

Idk, tell me I’m wrong in my replies or something. I probably won’t respond but I won’t delete your comment unless you’re just being an ass and I’ll hear you out if I’m wrong. I’m just sick of this. Every few weeks I get a video in my recommended like “THIS YOUTUBERS CAREER IS OVER” and it’s always overdramatising the silliest shit.

“She sent 2 million people to harass him.” No? She made a tumblr post telling people to report the video. You know, I can’t even FIND the tumblr post, so that 2 million people claim is a bit over dramatic. She doesn’t even have her tumblr linked to her YouTube. Wait, was it on Twitter? People are claiming it’s on tumblr. I’m so confused.

Also I haven’t watched all of TBYS’s video but people are saying the dress part wasn’t even the worst part of what he said. Idk if that’s true. I condone doing your own research and free thinking so I’d be a hypocrite to say he 100% said anything terrible. It’s weird, cuz Reddit is mostly on Illy’s side, while everywhere else is against her, and that’s really funny to me, because REDDIT of all places?

Idk I’ll probably delete this later. I don’t keep my rants up for long but I’ve been keeping them up a lot recently even tho like, I’m meant to be deleting them? Ugh, I guess I just got lazy. Anyway, bye, love you, or whatever.

[yenforfairytales]

Might be a hot take, but I’ve always thought that Johnny is Kreese’s weakness, and Daniel is Terry’s. Like, I know some people think Terry’s weakness is Kreese (and to some extent, yes), but Daniel seems to be his absolute obsession, his total undoing. Kreese at least had the best friends/comrades in arms thing, but the Daniel thing is just plain weird from any side. This once 17 year old brat has such a hold on Silver that the man threw away 30+ years of peace at the mere mention of his name. It was never about Cobra Kai. It was always about Daniel.

YES. I completely agree. And as more time has gone by since Season 4 came out, I've noticed even the more casual fans have noticed. Someone took this screenshot from YouTube, but I've seen similar comments on reddit too.

And Kreese, being another master manipulator, knew exactly what he was doing when he brought up Daniel to Terry again in 4x01...

There was literally no reason for Kreese to bring up Daniel LaRusso unless he knew that Terry would care. Why would Terry care. 👀

Kreese knows how to get people to come to him. How to dangle something that they want in front of them that only he can seemingly give.

When no other tactic worked on bringing Terry back into the fold, Kreese brought out the big guns and dropped Daniel's name.

Not to take away at all from the love and friendship that Terry felt towards John. But it became nostalgia and obligation, ultimately ruining their bond.

Little side note-- the fact that we watched Kreese make others do what he says in order to get what they want for three seasons made the prison scene in 5x07 even more satisfying:

AND the first person to play the uno reverse card and use this tactic against Kreese was Daniel. Terry's student. You gotta love it.

There's always been a little Cobra Kai in you...

I mean, we could speak at length about the parallels between Kreese and Terry and their star students Johnny and Daniel. The narrative mirrors and foils. But it's precisely their respective relationships with their students that is more compelling.

Anyway. I'm going to quickly list examples of Daniel's hold on Terry and then focus on the meat of the issue.

Terry falls apart and goes ALL IN on everything Cobra Kai only AFTER Daniel rejects his apology.

Terry gives Daniel multiple warnings to not interfere but never tries to gets rid of him like Johnny or Kreese after no warnings at all.

Terry dated a woman who looked a lot like Daniel with similar values.

Terry treats Kenny near identically to Daniel as a student but in the sincere way he wishes he had with Daniel.

Terry loses his cool when Daniel wants to surrender and walk out of his life.

Terry tells Chozen he considers Daniel his only rival. As in Equal.

I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting but you can find posts in the silverusso tag about all these topics and more. x.x

Now, let's get to one of the most important and defining scenes for Terry's arc. And again, it's a direct result of Kreese's manipulation:

Kreese, knowing what makes Terry tick and how to get him further on his side, comments that Daniel really knows how to hold onto a grudge. As if he doesn't. Anyway, it's twisting the knife into Terry again when he's clearly already low.

You don't think Kreese noticed how hurt Terry was at the rejection?

He notices everything. He learned in Vietnam from his Captain how to use love against someone as a perceived weakness. Many thoughts on that.

Anyway

The way in which Kreese says, "So... what now?" Tells me that he told Terry this was going to happen. You also have to remember their conversation leading up to the garden scene:

Terry was damn near close to defending Mr. Miyagi and Daniel over Kreese's own personal grudge. To the point where Terry was rolling his eyes and sighing over his friend being overdramatic about what happened in the past.

He was tired of hearing about it.

I'm sure Daniel told Terry the truth about that Halloween night. And look who Terry seems to side with...

Kreese wanted violent retribution and Terry was the one that talked him down. It was Terry's idea to apologize to Daniel and we'll just allll get along. Easy peasy. Surely, Daniel would forgive him.

But, Daniel proved Kreese right in Terry's eyes. As I'm sure Kreese hoped would happen. Couldn't have worked out better. I bet on the car ride over to Miyagi-Do, Kreese was complaining how this was a waste of time and LaRusso isn't the sweet kid you remember etc.

From that day forward, Terry is determined to prove Daniel wrong. About him, about Cobra Kai, about everything. Terry is going to make Cobra Kai work and help kids and he'll be the best sensei ever and Daniel will be sorry!

You'll be sorry you weren't a part of it!

I firmly believe that Daniel is Terry's true weakness and he didn't even realize it. But Kreese did.

And if Daniel had seen it, then he could've had Terry eating out of the palm of his hand.

The one movie quote they haven't used in the show yet is, "For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death."

I'm hoping they'll use this with Daniel realizing he can help heal himself, and Terry, by forgiving him. Of course, Terry will have to do something more to redeem himself. I'm just saying.

And then maybe Terry can see that Daniel was his weakness all along, but there's still time to make him a strength.

One could argue that he already felt that way while he was being arrested. The way he was looking at Daniel... That awe. Daniel LaRusso got the best of him, again, all because he couldn't let him go.

Here's to hoping that Season 6 ends our suffering lmao.

I mean, who else has ever given Terry Silver goosebumps?

[danandphilplay]

im including people who post dnp as well as their other interests as ‘dnp accounts’ although i get that if you post about a lot of different things then you might not want that label but for simplicity that’s what i intended But feel free to choose the other option if u prefer :)

just me yapping below about the phandom and social media

i had a dnp instagram almost ten years ago. that’s scary to say. i’ve never used other places for it like twitter (which i know there’s like. beef between areas of the phandom and i feel like i’ve been away from actual fandom related account stuff for so long that i had no clue this was a thing). but in general i feel like i’ve never liked twitter i don’t think it’s for me!

i would count youtube as well bc there’s a lot of editors and other compilation/archive stuff and also maybe even include ao3/wattpad bc that’s still fandom even if people disagree with rpf personally it’s a huge part of fandom and thee phandom itself

AND THERE’S A REDDIT PHANDOM. i had no idea but again reddit’s not rly my thing.

i think it’s interesting how different the phandom is depending on the social media but i also know there can be a bit of Tension let’s say between the different platforms which is also interesting