#I've always had insane respect for people who create them but this really makes it so much more real (?)

[niinnyu]

If you're someone who appreciates or wants to appreciate the effort and art of creating indie games and wanna know what the actual behind the scenes can look like, I cannot recommend this video by Noodle enough.

Not only is the story of the game (both in terms of who the game is about and the building of it) incredible but it's packaged in such a well made and funny and moving video gah. I don't wanna spoil anything so I'm being vague lmao but !!! Y'KNOW!!??

[elrielsgarden]

Why are there no Elriel ACOTAR podcasts?

I've had reason to ponder this in the last couple days, and I figured I may as well share some thoughts.

These podcasts are likely doing widespread research from all sorts of different viewpoints regarding ships, theories, etc. It's easy to get lost in utter nonsense when you're surrounded by enough of it.

Podcasters are also looking at popular creators within the fandom, and when these people post crazy theories and "evidence from the books" so many people believe them that the podcasters are more likely to jump on the bandwagon, so to speak.

Elriel creators are typically not large, popular creators in online spaces. I don't know the reason behind this, but it's often true, and so it can be harder to find the reasoned content that provides canon evidence.

Podcasts may also want to catch the attention of listeners and so choose the wild ships and theories, sometimes unconsciously.

These seem like the most likely more overarching reasons for the lack of Elriel podcasts in the ACOTAR community.

People so frequently make characters into something they are not. While I understand and support loving a character and identifying with them, willfully choosing to ignore canon and create a new, false version of a character who was already wonderful in their own right as they were actually written by the author. Why do we do this? Just to get views? Because they've completely deluded themselves? They're such shallow reasons to disrespect the character, the readers who identify with the canonical character, and the author themself.

And as a listener of podcasts (occasionally) and consumer of content (hopefully it's all Elriel), it feels like a lack of respect toward the real book's text and intention and meaning, as well as a willful ignorance toward what's actually happening on page. Those who note the hints and really beautiful romance that's been building for four books with Elain and Azriel could cite direct quotations and be utterly ignored or put down by those who have chosen to believe insane theories.

I have also discussed with several lovely Elriels disappointment regarding a recent podcast episode that came out on the ACOSF bonus chapter from Azriel's pov. It felt as if there was no consideration of Elriel when we know that to be the entire focus when the canon bonus chapter is properly considered. This is just one example of seemingly small moments of ignoring or shunning the idea of Elriel, but it still demonstrates that willful ignorance. The bonus chapter could not be clearer, friends.

Let's find kindness within the ACOTAR fandom again--in online spaces and in podcasts. That kindness can look like fair and even consideration of all points of view regarding theories and ships. It can be acknowledgement of real, canon text. It can be highlighting opinions even when they're not identical to your own. It's open-mindedness.

And thank you to my fellow Elain and Elriel stans for always choosing the kindness that Elain herself exemplifies so beautifully.

[casinoroyale]

Hi everyone!! Theseus cquackity viceduo zombur revivebur here.

This blog has seen several hiatuses (my bad seriously my bad), and bouts of irregular posting. So I'm sure people who regularly check it have noticed that we (Fiona @quackbur and I) haven't been posting daily anymore and haven't for a bit now. So below the cut I'm gonna talk more about that, and our plans for this blog going forward

For starters, I love roleplaying on this blog so much, as does my cohost Fiona @quackbur. Fiona has done so, so much writing for this and I feel kind of bad for taking her credit over the past two or so years, so props to her for being such a good sport and for everything she's done. This blog wouldn't exist without the shared passion she had for it.

To get sappy, I love the friends I've made in bedrockverse, they remain some of my best and closest companions. I would not trade the times I've spent with them for the world. Beau, Holly & co, Met & Co, and Thunderbottles are some of the loveliest, most supportive, and insanely talented people I have ever had the pleasure of writing with and meeting.

This includes people who aren't part of the bedrockverse that I've written with!! Shoutout to Javi anonymous-jey casino-duckling, TGM the-g-m duckofthelaw, and AD anonymous-dentist therealnoodleman. It was so much fun bringing all the quackverses together, and I respect all of you so much as writers.

AND that also includes EVERYONE who has interacted with her!!!!!!!!!! Everyone who has sent asks (thank you so much, sorry we're terrible at replying), reblogged threads, commented, posted/liveblogged, DREW FAN ART (BLOWS OUR MINDS. THERE'S BEEN SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART CREATED, WE CANNOT THANK ALL OF YOU ENOUGH), even just liked a thread, thank you. Seriously, it has meant a lot to us to be part of this community, and have so many people enjoy this blog. Insert Pitbull image happy you enjoyed.

So, going forward it would make us really happy if you all pictured casinoroyale as happy. He has songbird-sunrise, goofygoop, and a nation full of citizens that she loves. She babysits for tubbolul and latenightmining, and terrorizes rp!emduo not infrequently. All we really wanted was to bring c!quackity to a happy place and I feel we've done that. Of course he still has shit days, as a ptsd baddie, but the good days are more common. And if we never get to it (though I hope someday we do, maybe in the form of a collaborative one-shot or fic) know that casinoroyale and songbird-sunrise DO eventually get [REDACTED]. And one of them DOES get [REDACTED]. That was always the plan! Yay! [REDACTED]!

Not to say that we don't have more arcs planned for this blog, because we do! I just don't know when/if/how they'll ever get written, especially because a lot of my friends have moved on from their rp blogs as well. But I really do still feel happy with where he's at and happy with everything I've done. This is a project I'm really, really proud of and I will always look back on fondly.

None of this means that I'm not interested in c!Quackity or DSMP as a whole anymore, either. Actually that couldn't be further from the truth. But now I'd like to be able to focus on fics, and other forms of writing, which I've been doing more recently :D actually, you can read a short one shot I posted for exile's anniversary HERE

If you've made it this far into this long, sappy post, THANKS!!!!!! The TLDR; this blog is on an indefinite hiatus, and won't be returning to its formal glory, and that's okay. We had a really good run. Now, off we go to other things

[emiko-matsui]

i don't think any of you care, but i have blocked that person now and im gonna delete some posts from last night to clean up my own account from that shit. they doubled down on the fact that i'm a creep who's being weird about fat people, and when asked to produce the posts they're talking about that supposedly back them up they either stop replying or just repeat what they said in the previous message. im really grateful so many people have been nice to me about this and sent me messages, but i also wish we don't engage with this person anymore and stop sending them anons. for everyone's sake, but i also grabbed this from underneath one of their posts about the situation

when being asked to remember people online also are real people they completely disregard it, so i believe everyone is best to just move on from this. block them, because this lack of respect is insane and harmful to others in an online space.

lastly i also just wanted to say that i've had issues with my own body for a very long time (i won't say if it's regarding me being fat, skinny, disabled, etc. especially since that was one of the things that person got mad at me for not sharing) and that i, personally, am so grateful that all different body types exist because i think it makes humanity so much more beautiful. the fetishisation of fat people was something this person really hammered about, and i just wanna say that when it comes to your body it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of it, when you have sex or are just naked you are beautiful and sexy, not because someone desires you or says so but because you feel it. i believe this to be true in every situation, but highlighted the naked part because that is what a lot of people struggle with and what i got jumped about by that blog. if any teenagers or younger people follow me and read a lot of my posts i want to remind you that the best feature on the internet is the block button. you don't have to justify yourself in your space, so if you don't like something just move past it. it's always okay to make things up about fictional character to make you feel better, as long as you're not mean to someone else what they think about the same character if they think differently. create your own space online, but also remember that the internet and what exists on it is available for anyone to see, so you can't go on making things up about real people. that goes just as much for someone trying to make up that i have a fat fetish as someone making up things about a mega celebrity like harry styles. it's far more unlikely to reach, but still affects a real person, and that is not okay.

I didn't mean for this to turn into a goddamn short story, so if anyones still reading i just wanna say thank you and remind you that kristen applebees is a chubby girl

[windsweptinred]

Shipper tag game

Thank you for the tag @marvagon, you glorious human 💖💖💖.

What ship were you completely obsessed with as a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore?

None. I may not be as passionate about them as I once was. But I still hold all my past ships near and dear to my heart. I'll even occasionally nip into their tags on A03 and have a dip into newer fics.

What ship would you consider your first one?

Daiken/Kensuke from Digimon 02. I remember watching it on Saturday morning and wondering if anyone else was seeing what I was seeing. That led me to discover Fanfiction.net. And the rest is history...

Your first fanfic was about which couple?

My very first full length fic was Corinthiel, posted here on Tumblr. My first fic posted on AO3 was Dreamling, and I wrote both last year. I am a very, very, very late comer to fanfic 😅. I'm honestly much more at home drawing fanart then writing. But will occasionally give into temptation, when an idea obbsessively hounds me to the point of insanity.

Do you remember the first couple you saw fan art of?

I genuinely can't. 😅 I remember it was probably on deviantart.

Have you ever gotten into ship discourse?

I try desperately to stay out of ship discourse. To me people's ships are their joy... And I've got no interest in being a theif of joy. If there's something I want to see more of in the fandom, like a rare pair I'm fond of, I just try and create content and hope someone else joins in (@bobbole loves you 💚🤍😅) . If it's not for me, I just keep scrolling on by.

Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently?

Again, no. I've always been happy to pick and mix my ships. I have my favorites ofcourse. But I've never outright refused to dip my toe into any ship. Maybe if it ventured into an area I personally deemed problematic. But mostly, I'm happy to try anything once.

Who were the last couple in the last fanfic you read?

I'm currently reading Remy Lebeau x Logan fanfic from Xmen. 😅 What sent me in that direction, I do not know. But I've found some amazing new fics in and amongst revisiting some old favourites.

Currently, do you have any OTPs?

I can proudly say until recently I've never had an OTP. Being a multishipper makes that kind of hard. But I don't know, I may be in too deep with Corinthiel. I'm not sure I could picture Danny and the Second Corinthian with anyone else but each other now. (Curse you @ibrithir-was-here. See what you have wraught! 😆). Them and Charmes (Charon x Hermes) from Hades. Because why would you split up the professional associates like that?! (Again very much your fault @mashumaru 😆) , Damn, I guess I've got OTPs now. If there's an established, happy couple in canon, most of the time I'll respect that and leave them be. So I guess that kind of counts too.

Is there any couple that, to this day, that you are extremely mad about not getting into?

Again no. If the juggernaut ship of a fandom doesn't really tickle my fancy, I'll sometimes stare forlornly at it. And sigh like a sad bohemian poet. But that's all content envy and I know it. 😆

Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they're kind of interesting?

🤔 I didn't dislike it, but I never really ventured near Corintheus until I started shipping Corinthiel. That made me backtrack and consider Morpheus and the original Corinthian's relationship from an entirely different perspective.

Do you have any ship that, in the past, would have been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

No I don't think so. As far as know they're all still alive, well and for the most part, living in peace and harmony in their respective fandoms.

What is your favorite crack ship?

Bookend, Destiny and his Book. The old book and chain. Living their best, grumpy old married couple, life together. @jazzy-a 🤜🤛🤣.

What is the couple you read the most fanfics about?

Most recently was Dreamling. I'm a bit of fandom butterfly at the moment, fluttering between multiple fandoms, waiting for the next all consuming passion to strike me down. I read, and reread ANYTHING Corinthiel 😅. But of all time?..... I couldn't say. I revisit so many of my ships so often.

What do most of your ships have in common?

Two bastards in love will always be my favourite. I'd love to boldly claim it's all about two morally dubious rogues, being despicable in the kinkiest ways together. 😅 But I know it's more about two people, often misunderstood and maligned... Finding a deep sense of belonging with each other. But I'm an eclectic sort and I've got a lot ships that don't fit that category I still love dearly.

What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Absolutely nothing outright. I'll sometimes go off a ship a little once it reaches that point where fanon locks in too tight around it. But I think that's a very me problem, as I crave variation/new experiences/ideas. I'll still love the ship, I'll just know that's just my time to move onto something new and come back and visit every so often.

I'm tagging @martybaker @thelostkelpie @missingrache @thirrith @zigzag-wanderer @lucienne-thee-librarian and @tickldpnk8 and anyone mentioned above. If you want to have a go. 😁

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

to complain about sims more i'm still pissed the sims 4 is a gutted corpse of a mmo no one wanted. and that’s not the developers fault! genuinely, the sims development team seems really sweet and friendly and skilled, they were never the issue. something i've always appreciated about the sims is that the developers have always had a very positive relationship with the fans and their creations, they’ve always been super encouraging towards modding and cc and i genuinely think it’s awesome of them. mad respect to the devs for even making the sims 4 functional when it had to shift genre completely halfway through development they have to be insanely skilled to even get it functional and i don’t think they deserve any animosity. as far as i can tell, they’re a bunch of smart, kind, and clever people doing their best with a game doomed to fail to begin with.

but like. the fact the sims 4 was even meant to be such a genre shift is disgusting. genuinely fucking appalling behaviour from ea. like it completely strips the series of it’s identity and is a blatant slap in the face to its core audience. like, the sims audience is just straight up different to a lot of other games. it’s incredibly diverse, of course- more so than any other I’ve seen- but it tends to skew older, skew female, and skew towards those with an interest in programming and/or storytelling. and while obviously not all of them will dislike mmos, older adults have jobs and kids to care for, and those with an interest in creating their own mods or stories either cant or have to do it collaboratively. a lot of these are people who got into the sims specifically because of the features it’d lose as an mmo! and it’s such an insult they’d throw so many people under the bus for a quick cash grab and then leave their devs with a barely functioning mess when they got backlash from simcity.

and they’re!!! still trying to find ways to exploit the sims and make it online to get even more money from its audience! these are devoted people, they’d have to be to spend enough money to play the sims, and ea keeps looking to exploit that loyalty to get people to pay for products they KNOW they don’t want bc they’d rather scam people out of money than make good games for slightly less money. and it’s so fucking sad. all respects to the devs for trying to make the sims 4 fun and functional you all did a really great job with the parts you were given but like the sims 4 is an example of corporate greed (and performative activism- ea Says all this shit about diversity but I don’t forget that they whitewashed sims in the beginning including the franchises mascot like they were so scared of having a woman of colour as their icon) and it makes me sad

[macchiatosdumptruck]

1.) What is your favorite problematic theme/trope that appears in a lot of your ships?

2.) Are there any problematic tropes that squick you out?

5.)  Ship you don't think it all that problematic, but the rest of your fandom hates?

6.) Cutest, most vanilla ship you are into.

7.) Ship the antis in your fandom like, but you think is hella problematic?

9.) Problematic crackship?

14.) Song that reminds you of one of your pairings!

for the ask plz

1. What is your favorite problematic theme/trope that appears in a lot of your ships:

Unstable power dynamics. Not just uneven, but unstable, shifting. I find it creates the most interesting stories.

I 'm especially fond of that trope when the person you would imagine to be in the position of power (and they still are, in a traditional way) is in their own way also under the control of the other person. A mutual obsession that destroys them. Devotion that ruins you. Corruption. Two people who are the only ones to truly understand how to destroy each other. Possessiveness. Etc.

Basically that one aita answer: "you're both fucked up and perfect for each other, but don't involve anyone else in your bullshit." (Paraphrasing)

2. Are there any problematic tropes that squick you out:

Definitely. I'm pretty open to tropes in fiction, and a lot of the time it depends on the context in the story/how it's portrayed /etc.

That being said I don't fuck with anything like scat, vomit, guro, extreme underage, extreme master/slave, extreme objectification,non consensual body modification, torture porn,major character death.

Hmm. Actually, that's kind of a lot. Lol.

5. Ship you don't think is all that problematic but the rest of your fandom hates:

Interesting. For dc, I'd say probably most of the batfam ships tbh. Antis in the batfam fandom have I creased a lot over the past ten years. All these cries of "it's literally incest." It's literally not. The only ship that would be is BruceDami and that's very very rare, dead dove. Etc. hmm. Probably also hero/villain ships.

I ship Tim with just about anyone, tbh. Maybe ra'stim? But I'm also aware that's problematic. But also, in the same way, I feel like they sort of are the only two characters who can match each other's freak. I think there's a respect there. Not a healthy one. But it's there.

For CK, I think it's kind of obvious what the least favorite ship is, lol. But I won't argue that it isn't problematic. I'd say that's the appeal. Which is something a lot of people seem to not understand?

The Voltron antis (klantis) were legitimately fucking insane. They could invent any reason for any ship other than klance to be problematic.

I was always into Keith/kolivan though which was not super popular. Lol.

In the bl fandom I'm noticing that people really fucking hate anything by mame for some reason. I don't think her stories are particularly more problematic than most others.

Gosh, I've had so many fandoms and I've always had a wide range of ships in each one. It's hard to say.

6. Cutesy, most vanilla ship you're into:

Maybe damiko? I mean. They're literally just first love personified. I'll never get over them.

7. Ship the antis in your fandom like but you think is hella problematic:

mmm. I don't think there is one?

I do have to say, that it is funny to me, how Lawrusso is considered the cute ship when it's a bully/target ship. Obviously I'm not judging, but the lack of self awareness gets me. The fact that in any other fandom it would be considered the toxic ship is funny to me. That's why my favorite flavor of that ship will always be angsty teen Lawrusso.

9. Problematic crack ship:

Probably lakreese, lol. I have no idea where it came from, but it just seems to make sense. Their vibes compell me.

14. Oooh. I have an entire silverusso playlist I'm just gonna put here. Lol.

This was pretty fun, thank you. 💜

[stormyoceans]

i feel like in bl world it's somehow a no go to talk about why you dislike a show, because people always think it means you hate everyone involved, so it's nice to see that i'm not alone with my feelings about 4m. i was thoroughly disappointed by it and it's even worse considering it's sammon who wrote it. they (ceo and sammon) always went on about how they are working hard on the script and that's why it took 2 years and like... this is what they came up with? i like triage and love mod, but this one doesn't compare at all. the characters were flat and i did not care about them or the relationships at all (i will say, i liked the second couple much more than great and tyme), the mystery was okay i guess, but still lacking anything meaningful and even the chemistry between the actors, not just the pairings, but everyone interacting was so wooden and missing any depth to me. they tried and we know the actors can act, but none of that came across to me. and i 100% agree with you, the ending is so lame, they should have made this a tragedy and not whatever they tried to achieve with the ending they gave us, because that was just laughably bad imo. maybe my expectations were too high because of sammon, but i was just disappointed with this show :(

i honestly understand getting defensive over something you love or even just enjoy, i think that's pretty normal, but i also fully believe it's extremely important to be critical of the media we consume, and unfortunately i feel like over time 'being critical' has started to be equated with 'being hateful' by fandom in general, which couldn't be furthest from the truth: you can love a piece of media AND still be aware of its shortcomings, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. analyzing media and talking about different aspects of it is actually what makes fandom fun to me, so as long as everyone is being respectful im always going to encourage this kind of discussion

ANYWAY. all that aside, i fully understand your disappointment over 4 minutes, anon. it was one of the series i was looking forward to the most this year because both triage and manner of death are two of my favorite BLs, so it's just really weird to me to feel so..underwhelmed by it. i've mentioned this before, but my main issue with the show is that, like you said, i simply do not care about these characters. i wouldn't say they were flat, personally, because there was A LOT of potential that was not used, but it feels like the writing always remained on a very surface level and did not utilize the depth these characters had, and as such it failed to create a connection between them and the viewers (which is also why i think some of the acting may have felt a bit bland)

for example, i think they could have done SO MUCH MORE with the brotherly relationship between tonkladome and korngreat, maybe even by creating some parallels between them. like it's crazy to me that we didn't get a single flashback showing what tonkla and dome's relationship was like (and no, im not counting the one where tonkla killed their dad), or just that we didn't get more of dome's character by himself. 'he was tonkla's brother' is not enough for me to care about him dying or about tonkla's revenge. and now that im typing this out im realizing we never got a confrontation between korn and great about great helping thyme THAT'S INSANE (AND NOT THE GOOD KIND OF INSANE). also not a single scene with tonkla and great other than tonkla shooting him!!!!!! all these characters could have been SO INTERESTING if only the narrative would have given them a bit more insight

and this is already so long so im gonna try to wrap it up, but i have to say this because me actually WISHING we would have gotten a sad ending is one for the history books. tbh i think there is a deeper narrative issue when it comes to great and thyme that im not gonna get into because this post will never end otherwise (to sum it up: they weren't treated as main characters), but MY personal issue is that i didn't want an happy ending for them, because at no point in the show i've been rooting for it. like take triage, for example: you start the story almost hating tol, and then time loop after time loop after time loop you see him go through one of the best character development i've ever seen and by the end of the show the viewers are BEGGING for him and tin to be happy and together. i don't wanna say great and thyme didn't deserve that happy ending, but they also didn't really earn it, which is why that perfectly wrapped up sense of peace we got falls completely flat and feels very out of place

idk sammon's concepts are always incredibly fascinating to me and 4 minutes is no exception, but while all the elements of the show had a lot potential, they just did not come together in a satisfying or coherent way, which is really a pity

at this point im looking forward to spare me your mercy even just to see if maybe these issues are more due to boc or to sammon just not being as good as a screenwriter 🤔

[bandzboy]

no but like people are insane sometimes. like you said it's all about setting boundaries, and i feel like people need to understand that everyone has problems and most of us have our own trauma too. i've had situations where people wanted to vent about something heavy but they asked me if i could handle it first bc they didn't wanna trigger me. and sometimes i was okay enough to hear about their trauma, other times i had to ask them if we could leave that conversation for another moment bc i was too overwhelmed by my own problems/trauma/depression. they ALWAYS respected it, and we came back to that topic at a better time. not everyone is gonna be ready to have that kind of conversation at ANY time, and it's not bc they don't care. if it's someone who's literally NEVER there for you at all then yeah maybe they're not really your friend. but if it's someone who just needs their own space to heal sometimes, or they can't handle a certain topic bc it's too triggering for them, then they shouldn't be treated like garbage. everyone should prioritize their own mental health, but you can't ask other people to put your mental health above their own 💀

no literally i agree! everyone has their shit to deal with and honestly i like to feel that my friends support me and if i need them to talk about stuff they will be there for me! there are times where i even have to process my own feelings before even talking about them since there are things that i don't even understand that is connected to something that happened in my past and there was a time when i was going through things when i was in my preteens and i did not have friends to talk with and genuinely kept it all in and obviously it wasn't good! talking with somebody about certain things also helps you understand the situation better and what to do next and i will say that having someone to talk to about anything and everything is such a luxury i always thought this! but yeah i feel like it all comes down to respecting and understanding the other person and creating boundaries i feel like this is the genuine basis of what a friendship/relationship honestly is because if you don't have this foundation you aren't exactly friends at all i would say like apparently people don't know that and it's quite concerning... it honestly makes me not even wanna trust more people because they might pull some shit like these people online are probably doing to their friends 😭

[stillthewc]

YEAR OF THE FANGAN - FEBRUARY EDITION

ꕥ DANGANRONPA THEAFTER ꕥ

Here's something you should know about me: I'm a frequent enjoyer of the "Fan Works" section of Danganronpa's TV Tropes page. It's always a blast to see what creators / fans of certain works create pages for and, while I've yet to check out most of the stuff on there, it's made me invested in several fangans. And one of those pages was for TheAfter, a video series I've put off actually checking out until now. (and who I apparently have this Absolute Chad to thank for it? Amazing work, king). Needless to say, this story exceeded all expectations I had for it!

Most of my enjoyment comes from how damn good the central mystery is, something that slowly unravels across each chapter. Obvious spoilers ahead (albeit ones I'll try to keep minimal), but said mystery revolves around a second class that was massacred, the connection between their circumstance and the current classes', and a character that was present for both events. Not only is seeing more information about this second class a blast to see, but so is how they tie into certain characters and their motivations.

Outside of that, another highlight for me is Konoe's effects on the narrative. While she's not my favorite character in this story or anything, I adore her for allowing the story to feel light and breezy, with even the more serious moments involving her feeling like they have an optimistic edge to them. This is exemplified in Chapter 1 super well, where her good nature actually seems to help one of her classmates for the better.

Dovetailing into another point of discussion, this perspective also makes her a super fun foil to Tachihaki. Both are very much the narrative yin and yang to one another, with her optimistic and personable nature clashing hard with his pessimistic and aloof personality. Any scene the two share is super fun, and helps carry the story for me.

That's not to say I don't like the other characters as well, because I think the class is super solid. Even with characters painted in an negative light, I can't bring myself to dislike anyone either due to their fun personalities, or seeing what their perspectives on the events killing game are. Seriously, any of these guys could be honorable mentions for my "Other Standout Characters".

With that said, please check this thing out! While it's a little hard to understand at times (the fangan's in another language, and is heavily reliant on subtitles to make sense of), it's nonetheless worth your attention!

FORMAT: Video

WHERE TO FIND IT: Youtube (and personal tip for watching: use the user-created English subtitles until they're no longer available, then switch open to Auto-Translate Chinese to English. It's not perfect, but the timing of the subtitles is accurate / the plot's still coherent.)

FAVORITE CHAPTER: Chapter 2. This chapter's absolutely stacked with content. POV splitting to help flesh out a side character? A motive that puts a fracture in the cast / shows off the true colours of people? The batshit insanity that is episode 14? It's all here! And, add in a trial led by an incredible antagonistic force, and you've got yourself some top-tier fangan content!

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Ryohei Seki. True to his title of the Ultimate Police Officer, Ryohei conducts himself as a calm, gentle person whose greatest desire in life is to be an embodiment of justice. Dependable, helpful and a respected figure to the class, he- oh. OH.

OTHER STANDOUT CHARACTERS: Tachihaki Hatami, for the reasons I've already listed in the overview above (and for me just enjoying his edgy "I'm not here to make friends" personality), and Koin Hatoyama, who quickly went from "guy in the prologue who's fine, I guess" to "holy shit this guy's emotional maturity about being an entertainer is really great, how was I sleeping on this guy before" (and is also my main suspect for either the traitor or mastermind, but that's neither here nor there). 

[scipiosmith]

Hello mate, I have a question that makes me curious: what made you want to expand on Cardin Winchester?

I will be honest: when I saw the tags on ao3 long ago I thought it would be Cardin like any other fanfic story: bully - forever fall - forgotten and the cycle repeats in the next stories.

Heck I thought you were going to have him killed down the road.

The fact you gave Cardin character and growth surprised me greatly!

What made you want to do something different for Cardin?

Well, there are a few reasons.

First, I really wanted to tell a story with a big ensemble cast, something like Naruto (or, indeed, the already-mentioned Infighting, Insanity and Social Ineptitude) where it had 12 main characters all coming in and out of the narrative, with their own moments of focus etc. I don't think I quite got there, but I gave it the college try and Cardin was always going to be a part of that.

Secondly, I have some sympathy for entitled bastards who think the world owes them something, that's why there are so many of them in the story (Sunset obviously starts as just this sort of person, Cinder is an edge case because she doesn't come from a place of the most rarefied privilege compared with the other characters on this list, but then in addition to Cardin you have Turnus Rutulus, Phoebe Kommenos, Bon Bon in some respects although she isn't an aristocrat). I... I went to a super-posh boarding school, one of the grand old ones that has existed since Tudor times, and as well as just the general tenor of my fellow pupils there I always remember that there was this one boy who could trace his lineage all the way back to a Norman knight who had come over with William the Conqueror in 1066, which is... it's very cool. And so, as much as I don't remember my time at that school with immense fondness, mixed with that there has always been a sort of very Sunset-like desire to bootlick to the aristocracy, to toady to the Lady Nikoses of the world, and the indulgence shown to some of these characters by the narrative reflects that.

Thirdly, I actually find it very difficult to keep a character as a complete arsehole. Looking back through my work it's interesting to see how characters that I remember creating to be antagonistic ended up growing on me. The rude, abrasive major who everyone hates? He rides his men hard because it keeps them alive, he would never ask anything of his men that he isn't willing to give of himself, and they know that he doesn't mean half of it anyway. The villain who has kept himself alive for 500 years by human sacrifice? He has been working those 500 years at the downfall of the Empire that destroyed his home and slaughtered his people (not to mention his found family when they joined him in resisting said Empire) and if he stops then all of the loss and sacrifice will have been for nothing. Cinder. You know, when I first started writing this story, Cinder was going to die on top of the tower after one last fight with Team SAPR, and now, well...

You know, if I can write myself into sympathy with people like then Cardin is nothing. It's very hard for a character not to grow on me, is what I'm saying.

A lot of my readers judge some of the characters (naming no Cinders) a lot more harshly than I do.

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention Spark to Spark, Dust to Dust, a RWBY/Hasbro crossover written by my beta readers (I've also contributed some writing to it myself; pairings are BlackSun and Arkos by way of some temporary Lancaster). Cardin isn't a major character, in fact he doesn't even warrant the character tags, but some important details like Cardin originally dating Skystar Aris originated there before I borrowed them for my own use.

[faith--in-the-future]

Hey. I know you 100% mean well and you treat all your anons with respect and the assumption that they mean well too, That makes you a good person. But the whole Louis is an addict thing comes entirely from Harries, not least the appalling zot3 who makes up a major part of the destroy-Louis nutters project all on her own. The idea that he’s permanently drunk is demonstrably stupid and untrue along with every other insane accusation against Louis they’ve hurled against the wall in the hope it’d stick, but it’s become about the only thing they have left to attack Louis on, after the success of his last tourThat’s not to say some genuine Louies haven’t taken it up too now but maybe that shows how young or naive they are. Louis comes from a UK working class culture and a generation that views alcohol as generally fun, not as a fast track to addiction. A lot of people can drink a lot on nights out and thats it. No hurtling toward the gutter. A bottle of vodka on the table in rehearsals. So what? What time of day or night was that taken? Why the assumption it’s there just for Louis? The OTT puritanism and extreme safety-ism of subsequent generations hasn’t bitten Louis or the people he works with. And btw drinking to party or just to relax and smoking a bit of weed is quite a bit safer than the kind of substances Harry promotes and those same faux pearl clutchers defend. Louis smokes far too much, yes, but that’s a stress thing I suspect. He’ll make an effort to stop if he wants to. And a lot of singers smoke. It’s not new sadly. Bowing to bad actors making huge deliberately destructive claims about addiction, worrying well meaning younger fans, is a huge gift to the inadequates who need to hate him and genuinely suffer when they see how brilliant his tours are and how happy he makes his fans.

bestie I know all this, that's why I said these conversations would go differently if everyone had good intentions!

I've just decided to not answer an anon I just got bc I could tell from their tone they're one of those assholes who'd rejoice in louis actually suffering from serious conditions and those are just not people I'm willing to speak with

but at other times I think there's fans (and people) who are genuinely just not informed on the matter and who are genuinely worried for him bc they Care and I think it could be useful to have these conversations for them !

also in general i think people forget that fans are people too and we all live in the world so what people learn within the context of fandom is still something that they will take with them in the world and that shapes how they will act and that's why I think the narratives people create here are extremely important and not just silly things about some celebrities! that's why I always expand the conversations from just talking about louis or harry or liam etc to also point out the deeper issues that are driving these choices and these conversations whether that is capitalism, hyper individualism, selfishness, rainbow washing, victim blaming, addiction stigma, mental illness, misogyny etc those are all really huge issues and real ways of living and thinking that inform people's behavior and actions in this fandom just as much as they do in the real world and I try to make an effort to speak about them hoping that if I even manage a little to make someone question their beliefs then I am making a small difference

anyways all this to say that I get where you're coming from and I do try to pick the right anons to answer and to make it harder to derail the conversations into just hater territory even if I don't always succeed rip but I also think it's important to call things what they are and to not minimize the risks of ALL substance abuse just as its important to defend those people's rights as human beings!

also remembering that like I mentioned, we can't diagnose anyone without actually knowing them and a few pictures or videos of someone are definitely not enough to declare anyone anything!

[werewolfcave]

It should be noted by point in bringing up Cheleanor wasn't to say "oh it's hated on" (because as someone who only watched TGP after it ended I never really encountered hate about it so I can't really speak on that? I'm sure there is some, especially considering it's a biracial relationship and people always get so pissy about white queer women being in love with black guys but that's a topic for a whole other post) or "oh we shouldn't call them this or that" (but I do prefer for them to be called m/f BECAUSE of the rampant bi erasure in fandoms, so calling them het leaves a bad taste in my mouth but that is literally personal opinion)

It's to say that I have seen Cheleanor referred to as if it is an exception. (And that often times Eleanor's bisexuality is erased within referring to it as an exception)

I bring it up because of the attitudes that go around of "oh all m/f ships are boring EXCEPT this one" or "the only m/f ship I respect" and Cheleanor was the first prominent example I could think of, where it's that good m/f ships are thought of as some "exception"

In general the whole point of this post is that:

A.) people will pass off other biases that may be present simply to say that "oh it's boring because it's 'straight'" rather than, say, "oh it's boring because the female lead is being written in such a way where the author is sanding her down to make her more 'appealing'" (this is my point about media literacy)

B.) this idea that there are only a "few good ones" or "m/f is inherently boring" or even "ew they're straight" bounces back onto people who are in those relationships in real life!! This is not just a commentary on fandom!! This is a commentary on the amount of legitimate biphobia that exists within the LGBTQ+ community because there are sections that legitmately believe "the straights" to be our enemy! And we pass that vitriol onto the next generation!

It doesn't matter if it is a joke! It gets normalized for younger members of the community and it creates this genuine idea that a bi person dating someone of the opposite gender, or a straight aro and/or ace person is inherently betraying their community!! This even harms nonbinary people who are in what are perceived as "straight" relationships or even transhet people! There are parts of your community that are legitimately hetero in some way! Saying "ew the hets" JUST HARMS THEM!! THERE ARE MEMBERS OF YOUR COMMUNITY WHO ARE CISHET!! BUT SOME PART OF THEIR IDENTITY LANDS THEM IN THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY!!!!

Even then! There are fucking allies! And we need to understand that these allies can be VITAL at times! We cannot act like these people are inherently our enemy!!! Its systems of systemic oppression that are our enemy!!

C.) The amount of blatant misogyny that creates this phenomenon!! There is a very specific reason I brought up specifically yaoi ships! Because there is an unwillingness to engage with female characters!!

That isn't to say that this biphobia isn't present within yuri shippers, I've been in the warrior cats fandom! I've fucking seen people be fucking weird about Fernsong because everyone hced Ivypool as a lesbian! There was a lot of biphobia there! Biphobia is present in so many different spaces!

But my point with bringing up yaoi is because I will see certain male characters (I made the original of this post about Goro fucking Akechi) who will have absolutely fascinating relationships with female characters BUT THERE ARE LEGITIMATE SECTS OF THE FANDOM THAT ACT LIKE THE MALE CHARACTER IS "SO GAY" THAT HE WOULD DIE IF HE HAD TO TALK TO A WOMAN?????? There are people who just create the most misogynistic bitchy gay boys for their, half the time, bland ass yaoi ships and its infuriating!

Or there is the fucking age old behavior of hating a woman character (OFTEN TIMES IT IS A FUCKING BROWN WOMAN IN THE MIDDLE OF TWO WHITE MEN) because they "got in the way" of their gay ship. Which then leads to some insanely vitriolic shit about that woman and half the time towards the fucking actor who plays them if it's a live action media!!

This post is first and foremost about the idea that a queer person dating someone of the opposite gender is betraying their community and how that plays into fandom spaces but the misogyny is also very much a KEY FACTOR HERE.

Sometimes. The "het" ship is more compelling than the yaoi. I know. It's crazy. But it's true.

[pommepom]

the hate boner that some people have for quackity is honestly ridiculous. i don't have twitter so i'm only referring to tumblr but one user in particular is almost obsessed with him at this point. like we get it you think he's evil incarnate move on with your life already.

it's shocking to me the way both cquackity and qquackity have basically been blacklisted from the qsmp tag. where are the quackity fanarts, headcanons, silly posts, or deep meta? and it's no excuse to blame it on q rarely logging onto the server when people have no problem making posts about other ccs who don't log on either.

during the last few days of tubbo's tubbathon quackity gifted 20 subs and tubbo and his chat were losing their minds they were so happy. during the qsmp beach event a couple weeks ago phil, chayanne, and lullah found the duck statue on the beach and phil joked that 'quackity didn't miss the event he's here' and phil took photos. yet i did not see any mention of any of this. with the way qsmpblr is treating pepito leaving, it would seem as though qquackity had no reaction to his child leaving. but i watched quackity's stream and it was heartbreaking.

it just makes me so mad to see quackity treated like he's the worst person alive.

awww nonnie :[ <333

people do definitely have a very unhealthy obsession with q, and not even in like the ''i love him sm if he gets a gf i will kys'' type of way. as someone who has been (kinda) following q for some time, it is really sad to see how people have been treating him these last few months.

i guess they do have their reasons, i might not fully get it but if someone just doesn't feel comfortable supporting him anymore then hey i support that, do what makes you happy but when it reaches the point that you're full on trying to count how much hypothetical he could earn from streaming bbh hours daily and you're basically victimblaming him for the doxxing by saying ''he's just overreacting and trying to send hate to ex-admins!'' yeah it's reached a point where it just Is Not Healthy, that's full on parasocial in my eyes.

it really sucks bc he never really gets into controversy, you know? he's always been the type of guy to try to handle things privately. it's sad that this had to be made public :[ this whole situation is just really sad, q and the admins deserved so so much better.

something really really important to remember anon: some people are NEVER going to change their minds; they've chosen a side of hate and no matter what q chose to do they still would've attacked him for his every action. they don't see him as human and bc of that it doesn't matter if he makes 1 mistake or a million, he's always going to be this evil villain in their eyes. there is no point in arguing with them or checking their blog for their opinions anymore, you should block them and focus on the people who'll actually treat him with respect, they aren't deserving of your time <3

i haven't been checking qsmpblr but if what you said is true then yeah, it's really gross to treat q like he's forver or wil. intentionally trying to erase him from his own server is very 😬😬

although i've always been a firm believer in ''make the content you want to see'' scream about cubito q!! write, draw, clip, just create :D! there will always someone out there who'll be willing to listen nonnie <3 and hey, even if there isn't. you should still do for yourself, let qsmpblr know just how insane you are about him!!

take care of yourself nonnie <3

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

I see u sometimes reblog stranger things stuff, was wondering if you can share some opinions on it? Any strong opinions on the mileven vs byler war

Lol I knew somehow when I put on my Stranger Things sweatshirt today that I would get this ask lol. Super fun question, thanks for asking! I love talking about any of my other fandoms. I've been pretty involved in the Stranger Things fandom from the jump, I liveblog every new season which you guys do not have to worry about for a while but you can totally backread my ST tags (melissa liveblogs st and melissa on stranger things) for my content or feel free to blacklist if you don't want to see it. I was also active in a few discords for Stranger Things and It, so if you were in any of those you might've seen me around. Met some great people, a few of which are still active on here @sorenserotonin and @milfnightshade loyal mutuals 🫡 who I always appreciate. I'll tag them in case they feel like returning to discussing Stranger Things with me like old times lol.

As for byler and mileven, I don't have super strong opinions. The two mutuals I tagged are both byler shippers (actually I forget if Deidre is, I'm pretty sure). EDIT: DEIDRE IS NOT! I personally have always been into mileven, they were the heart of the first season to me in a way that's really unmatched. The following seasons they have had their really moving moments, particularly for me the third season, but never the same spark as that first season. I do think they are endgame though, because that's just the path the show is on. I don't think the narrative makes sense without them, and wether that is effective writing is a whole separate post. That being said, I will always always never have beef with an lgbtq ship in any fandom, unless it's with a very unhealthy character and I think the ship is straight up abusive. Fandom is a largely queer space because we create the content we lack. That's important and should be respected regardless of ship wars (and I'm a person that gets into those lol). I have a dear friend who will ship anything as long as it's two women, even if they never interacted. I've never understood this. I want the writing to be strong and the relationship to be healthy. But I understand why she feels the way she feels and I'd never judge her, that's what fandom is for.

Some other Stranger Things opinions; I think the writing really has suffered since the first season. It is still a great show, but they struggle with consistency in their characters which is a huge issue for me. They also cave to fandom, which is another huge pet peeve of mine.

I also think Billy Hargrove is one of the most damaging popular characters in a long time, in terms of fandom and the impact on culture. I might just be biased however, I'm on some Billy fans blocklists.

This season was the best one by far since the first. I know that's a hot take, but I think it's true.

Max and Lucas were the only characters who were effectively developed and utilized this past season, which was a breath of fresh air for them to not waste Caleb McLaughlin again.

I do not like Jonathan Byers, but that being said the time for stancy has long come and gone and returning to it is insane.

Oh, final take, we've been giving the Duffers far too much credit for Robin as a character when a lot of it should go to fav nepotism baby Maya Hawke.

[halfbaked00q]

thinking on it a little more, I wonder if perhaps Bond's doubts were meant to be taken more as allegorical than literal, especially given the way Bond & Mathis were respectively positioned in dialogue with one another.

even so, though, it still WAS written in Bond's voice, and so we CAN still take it as readable as characterization, I think.

other random note/observation I think is neat is that I feel like there's an echo of what the money laundering guy said in the Insider video: sth sth it occurred to him that "it was so surreal that I had done the same things that the bankers had done, and I was getting awards, and they were about to go to jail for a long time."

Although tbh the money laundering guy still seems more... sure in his position/convictions to me, lmao, whereas Bond feels like he could be convinced that HE needs to become one of the bad guys ("The Devil has a rotten time and I always like to be on the side of the underdog"), to become one of the people "creating a norm of badness by which, and by which alone, an opposite norm of goodness could exist." cuz it almost seems like in his head, in that moment. the concepts of "good" and "evil" became abstracted and one was not necessarily "better" than the other, especially since evil was necessary for good to exist. (*squints at this* ....wait. Lelouch Code Geass?? is that you??)

actually. hang on lmao. I think I need to just show you the whole passage of how he was reflecting on Le Chiffre. Cuz I think this may argue my point better than me trying to describe around it can. Okay here:

'Now in order to tell the difference between good and evil, we have manufactured two images representing the extremes--representing the deepest black and the purest white--and we call them God and the Devil. But in doing so we have cheated a bit. God is a clear image, you can see every hair on His beard. But the Devil. What does he look like?' Bond looked triumphantly at Mathis. Mathis laughed ironically. 'A woman.' 'It's all very fine,' said Bond, 'but I've been thinking about these things and I'm wondering whose side I ought to be on. I'm getting very sorry for the Devil and his disciples such as the good Le Chiffre. The Devil has a rotten time and I always like to be on the side of the underdog. We don't give the poor chap a chance. There's a Good Book about goodness and how to be good and so forth, but there's no Evil Book about evil and how to be bad. The Devil has no prophets to write his Ten Commandments and no team of authors to write his biography. His case has gone completely by default. We know nothing about him but a lot of fairy stories from our parents and schoolmasters. He has no book from which we can learn the nature of evil in all its forms, with parables about evil people, proverbs about evil people, folk-lore about evil people. All we have is the living example of the people who are least good, or our own intuition. 'So,' continued Bond, warming to his argument, 'Le Chiffre was serving a wonderful purpose, a really vital purpose, perhaps the best and highest purpose of all. By his evil existence, which foolishly I have helped to destroy, he was creating a norm of badness by which, and by which alone, an opposite norm of goodness could exist. We were privileged, in our short knowledge of him, to see and estimate his wickedness and we emerge from the acquaintanceship better and more virtuous men.'

Like, somehow this manages to come off as actually very philosophically interesting, but also insane thoughts for insane people, lmao.

Anyway. To me this comes off as very "thoughts that would make any cult leader come on the spot with how primed and fuckable (indoctrinatable) this man is, in this moment." But maybe that's just me lmao

something I'm turning around in my head is this impression I seem to have gotten that Casino Royale (book) Bond... like,. would in fact be quite cult-indoctrinable? It's something about the way he talks abt his supposed new-found perspective after getting beaten up by Le Chiffre, when he's recovering in that hospital & talking w Mathis. It's quite interesting cuz Bond is acting as, like, The Voice of Doubt in the narration, whereas Mathis is acting as, like, The Reassuring Voice of Duty.

I do think by the end, Bond has some sort of... evolution of his revelation? And then ofc Mathis has his veeery interesting (to me anyway) directive of: ‘Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles . . . But don’t let me down and become human yourself. We would lose such a wonderful machine.’

and so ig for book Bond, it'll bear seeing if he takes Mathis' advice/directive to heart and like hardens/reinforces his resolve (probably yes?)

But in between all of that. And yes Bond went thru some torture & etc and there was that lampshading/Chekovs gun sort of bit about how during torture "...where hatred and fear of the torturers turned to a masochistic infatuation." But. enough to start making him sympathize with Le Chiffre slash "The Devil"? Is that really how human brains work? He seemed so unmoved in situ, only for him to fall prey to this after the fact? (actually. hm. maybe. need more data or anecdata tho)

But I mean... even if he (re)commits himself to his cause. The fact that it's such apparently a central facet of his being that he has this potentially contradictory vein of doubt in the conviction to his cause... and that a lot of his supposed conviction/reconviction to his mission is more akin to scar tissue than underlying structure.... does still make me feel like this COULD still be an exploitable weakness. Cuz like, even IF the scar tissue is ropey and tough and seemingly hardier than the original flesh would be... it's still a wound, and the body remembers, and there are ways of unhealing wounds beyond just additional brute force (this is how "give him scurvy" can still win, lmao!! except uhh since I'm belaboring a metaphor here, the twist here is give him... emotional..? scurvy, lmao... which actually, in a way, cults DO do that, it's how they operate and indoctrinate people... cut them off (emotional malnutrition) and make themselves the source of succor....)

But yeah. huh.