#If this becomes a trend when they're big again it's going to be much more of a squeeze

[somegrumpynerd]

Everyone sleeps in dadmare's bed for the night

Well, almost everyone sleeps

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/746553097204203521/the-fandom-hates-women-response-to-lack-of-ff

The "fandom hates women" part of it comes from the fact that fandom as an entity just doesn't watch the kind of media that draws femslash, even if it ticks all of the boxes of things those very same people say they like. There are so many times I've watched a show that I've seen mega-popular Tumblr posts wishing existed, and then the fandom is so, so small comparatively and often in general. There have been superheroes, vampire/supernatural shows, fantasy shows, movies, books, the list goes on, that feel like they were generated out of Tumblr's desires for ideal fandom media, and everyone knows they're never going to attract anywhere near the same attention for fandom and fanworks because the common denominator just tends to be that if there isn't a full ensemble of attractive men to ship either with each other or with the women, fandom's not interested.

So it's not about prioritizing women in that sense, it's about people witnessing hypocrisy over and over again the second a show doesn't have a mostly-male ensemble. The people who are in these fandoms are frustrated that good faith attempts to get people interested are met with every excuse in the book that all eventually boils down to "I don't like watching stuff with women in it as much as I like watching stuff with men in it." And if that's how people feel about it... sometimes the conclusions are going to turn into the more uncharitable take of "fandom hates women."

--

Maybe, but whenever I see a "fandom hates women" reblog of my stuff, one or two reblogs further down the chain I get an overt TERF. I just had to go block several people today, in fact.

The first person to reblog with a comment like that is usually subtle, but their friends and friends of friends are not. The rhetoric that very quickly starts is the fandom equivalent of that "All the butches are becoming trans men! We're losing lesbians!" stuff.

Here's the thing: I've been in ten billion fandoms that were so awesome and fit fandom's supposed tastes to a T and yet no amount of promoting them could get anyone to try the canon. This goes for canons that are all men or all white men or all majority ethnicity men or whatever else.

The default state of media is to not engender a big fic fandom.

I agree that the rare outliers mostly follow certain patterns, but we extrapolate too far when we say that a lack of those patterns is why a fandom is small.

A fandom is small because that's the near-universal default.

--

Yes, a small slice of fandom consists of guilt-ridden queer fujoshi who say they want more f/f but don't make much of a move to make that happen. I tend to run into that a lot because of my own tastes and having friends who share those tastes.

Far more of fandom is people talking generally about how representation matters without saying they would personally join these fandoms if they existed.

Neither group is large enough to be the real reason some woman-heavy canon fails to take off to HP levels.

The real reason is not hypocrisy but the fact that most things don't take off like that. Most things without massive, massive audiences especially don't take off like that. And the very few things that do are flukes and don't actually predict that another similar thing will take off in the future.

--

Go to AO3's tag search. Search for all canonical fandom tags. Sort by uses and descending order.

Right now, I get 64,390 tags.

The first page, 50 tags, goes from HP with 497,845 works to the Thor movies with 59,266 works. By page 6, we're below 10 thousand works.

By the end of page 10, we're down to Labyrinth with 3,906.

Somewhere in the top 500 AO3 fandom tags (many of which are just franchise metatags for each other), we go all the way from megafandoms to medium size and down to relatively modest ones.

That's not a lot of room for a big f/f-heavy fandom given the trends in mainstream media and that mainstream media is where most really big fandoms come from.

--

I also notice that you're conflating a lack of desire to watch something that's primarily about women with a lack of desire to watch something that includes women.

There are tons of fans who want something more like The Mummy with a leading man and leading woman they love.

Granted, that's not me and that's not a lot of my fujoshi/slasher audience, but it's extraordinarily common. I know plenty of people who don't like canons that are only dudes, but since they also don't like canons that are only ladies and they don't ship f/f, this gets spun into "fandom hates women".

--

Let me be clear:

Conflating "lesbians" and "women" is a radfem position.

[yumeka-sxf]

A chronological analysis on Twilight and Yor - Part 21

*This is part of an ongoing post series. If you missed the Introduction/Part 1, click here*

----------

The next morning, Twilight muses to himself that there are still things in the world he doesn't understand, but nevertheless, a spy must overcome fear of the unknown. While his face and tone are dead serious, it's comical that the thing that caused him to burst into this heavy-handed inner monologue in the first place is none other than his misinterpretation of Anya's reactions the previous day. AniTrendz described the humor of this scene perfectly by stating that "Loid really spent all morning acting dramatic when he's just sad that his daughter called him lame."

And yes, he really was bothered by the fact that he's still having trouble understanding Anya's emotions. While her mental well-being is important for Operation Strix, he also cares very much how she views him as a father. Unfortunately for Twilight, this trend will continue – after a whole day of fun activities, he's devastated to see the scowl on Anya's face when they're having dinner that evening. And, once again, he blames himself and even thinks that Anya could possibly hate him.

As I've mentioned before, Twilight is always cool and confident when it comes to his spy missions, but whenever Yor or Anya are upset, he becomes a second-guessing nervous wreck! It's telling how frazzled he gets when trying to figure out what's going on in their minds versus anyone else. If Anya and Yor's happiness is tied to a mission, and he's always calm and collected about his other missions, why would he get so bent out of shape about them in particular? I think we all know the answer to that.

It's also important to note that the couple of days on the cruise are likely the longest amount of time Twilight has been alone with Anya, without having Yor for parenting support. If she were with him during all this, there's no doubt that her patience with Anya's antics and the encouraging words she always offers, would put his mind at ease. But without her around, there's no one to buffer his constant freak outs when trying to analyze the mind of a child. His anxiety gets so bad that Anya even starts to feel bad about it.

Meanwhile, the big showdown on the deck between Yor and the assassins has so far been the most gritty and violent scene in the series. Endo has stated in the fanbook that making Yor likable while also giving her a profession that involves killing people, was difficult (though I think he's done a stellar job!) A reoccurring theme in Spy x Family is how the tragedy of war has led to otherwise good people partaking in immoral acts, whether for survival or because they're brainwashed into thinking that the side they're on is the right and just one. It's not only Twilight and Yor, but other characters as well, such as Yuri, Sylvia, even the young terrorists from the doggy crisis arc, as well as the assassins on the cruise – the factions that they work for, the politics behind their decisions, and the jobs they're assigned to do, are not framed as heroic nor completely evil, only the aftermath of political turmoil that the next generation has to suffer for.

In Part 13, I mentioned an interview in the fanbook where Endo states that the Forgers should not be seen as virtuous role models…he doesn't think it's correct to only see their "nice family" side. Despite all the comedic antics in the series that sometimes stretch the veil of realism, one very realistic aspect is that none of the characters are depicted as "black and white," "heroes and villains," and their professions are portrayed as more tragic and ugly than "cool." This is in contrast to other shonen series, where the main protagonists are often portrayed as role models who fight for noble causes we can't help but support, while banishing only the most wicked of villains. And often these protagonists started out "normal" only to suddenly gain superpowers, opportunities to go on grand adventures, and have big battles against villains. But Twilight and Yor are the opposite. The series starts with them already having extraordinary abilities and exciting, dangerous jobs, so the end goal is instead for them to be able to attain a peaceful, normal life…because their professions aren't framed as wish-fulfilling but as heartbreaking, grim, and sometimes terrifying.

Twilight and Yor's professions, as well as those of pretty much every other character in Spy x Family, have a lot of gray areas on the moral compass. This is why having a balance of both fun, slice-of-life scenarios, and spy/political action and drama conflicts, brings out the true complexity of the characters. Twilight may lie and act cold as ice towards people during his missions, but because we get to know him while he's living as Loid Forger, we can see that he's doing it for a noble cause, and underneath all that callous calculating, he's a compassionate guy who cares about the feelings of others. Likewise, we see that when she's not killing people, Yor is a total sweetheart who doesn't have a mean bone in her body, is a loving mother to Anya, selfless sister to Yuri, and, like Twilight, she does what she does because she truly believes she's doing good in the world.

If we only see Twilight and Yor as a spy and assassin, our view of them could be skewed negatively. On the other hand, if we only see them as a "nice family," we would be doing exactly what Endo warned against in his interview. But because we get to see both sides of them, we're able to relate to them even more, which makes us want to root for them. Is the immorality of their jobs too much to be forgiven, or are they righteous people who are simply victims of a cold war? Obviously if you're a fan of the series like me, you're opt to lean towards the positive view that Twilight, Yor, as well as many of the other characters, have been sorely damaged by the post-war era that they live in, but the commendable things they do far outweigh the ugliness of their professions, so they deserve a happy ending. And that's really the main appeal of the series – with all the gray areas of morality, seeing whether they can truly live happily without lies is something to look forward to.

Continue to Part 22 ->

<- Return to Part 20

[wildpeachfarm]

i have this really insane and maybe delusional theory that 2024 is ACTUALLY going to be Dream's year (and lots of other ccs who blew up in the pandemic too) and we shouldn't loose hope. it started really shitty, sure. fake allegations and backstabbing ccs everywhere but. BUT. have you seen charlie d'amelio started dancing again & people love her again? & addison rae released a new song and people loved it? they calling them the next big popstars because they're not exactly influencers anymore; they've surpassed that. they're not tiktokers anymore they're basically celebrities.

i think this is a new level for dream where he rises from the content creator space (because let's be honest, there's basically nothing left for him there. these bitches want to leech off of his fame and shit on him when its beneficial to them, and he has more views on one of his manhunts than all of their youtube channels combined. there's not really much competition for him there anymore.) and start to enter the actual celebrities space with renowned hollywood actors and singers, like his peers before him. plus! he'd probably fit right in to that space as well, because actual celebrities have struggled with the same things he did! aka obsessive haters, stalking (emphasis on TMZ), getting swatted, cancel culture, etc. he could actually form meaningful connections without worrying that they're only using him for his fame and drop him whenever it becomes a trend to shit on him.

this is some good hope and some good energy I like it!

[missycolorful]

I'm on the fence about a lot of the "glass child" discussion because where I agree with some points that are made and enjoy the in depth analysis, I've come to severely disagree with others. Mostly because the internet is the internet, and the nuanced discussion has lost that nuance.

The reason this whole thing blew up (though it's been a concern for a while, certainly) was when Phil explained why he felt he needed to save Tallulah first before Chayanne. And you could tell Philza was trending cautious waters with his wording - he never wanted to say "oh, Chayanne's a chad, he'll get over it." With his wording, he recognized that neither were necessarily fine, but he still felt it necessary to prioritize one over the other because of one of his kid's big issues: Tallulah has abandonment issues. Maybe they're not as bad now since the "official adoption," but it certainly shouldn't be disregarded. But Phil remembers how much Tallulah hates being left alone, and wanted to make sure she wasn't in that situation long. Phil knew at the of the day, that Chayanne had no severe abandonment issues (that we are aware of), hence him saying he'd be okay "a bit longer." The prioritization is still there, and the Death family still has much to talk about, but the fandom's reactions felt a bit too... harsh, a bit too severe. They'd make it sound like Phil didn't consider Chayanne's feelings at all or that he thought Chayanne was totally going to be 100% okay with being alone forever and ever. When there's more to it than that, and ultimately, Phil was stuck making a decision in a lose-lose situation, and he knew that.

But a lot of people seem to focus solely on this moment, and let it epitomize the entirety of the Death Family's relationship and struggles. When, if anything, there's additional moments from yesterday's stream alone that I think show some slow growth in Philza's parenting when it comes to him being overprotective of Tallulah and him expecting a protector/warrior out of Chayanne.

Because if Phil really thought Chayanne was a ruthless warrior who can handle anything and be fine and get over it, he'd have let Chayanne immediately join them in their journey of saving Richarlyson. Like "If we've got Chayanne with us, nothing can hold us back" or something. But he didn't. He wanted both of his children to stay back, to stay safe. But his kids insisted on joining, even if just for emotional support. And if Phil really was completely stuck in his old ways, he'd say the old "Chayanne protect your sister" when the mobs starting showing up, or hell, even before that. But that never once happens. Both of his kids fight, and he trusted that they could both handle themselves since they insisted on coming along, though you can see him check on both of his kids once or twice during the fight. If this becomes a persistent thing, it shows great growth in Phil's character when it comes to being overprotective of his daughter and having his son prioritize her safety above all else. It's become more of "keep an eye on each other," which is definitely the preferrable kind of thinking!

And again, I emphasize that singular moments should not be the sole focus of these discussion. Rather, the overall actions throughout should be talked about. And honestly, Phil made sure that a lot of his focus was divided between both of his children throughout yesterday. When Chayanne decided to stay behind while the others went to the beach event to keep an eye on an AFK Tubbo, Phil decided to "hang about with you, kid, it's alright," even when Tallulah was long gone. Like, he wasn't going to let his kid sit alone like that waiting! Or when he got the llama plushie during the treasure hunt, I'd honestly have expected him to immediately give it to Tallulah because animals=Tallulah, I guess. But he asked them both which of them would have liked it more, a genuine attempt to make sure neither felt left out in receiving the gift. Yes, these, too, are small moments, but if we wanna have a discussion about these relationships, all these moments should at least be considered, not just the negatives.

And to me, the kind of consensus to make in these scenarios is that the situation at hand is... complicated. Like, Phil's parenting is flawed, I'd be a fool to say otherwise. All parenting is inherently flawed, that's basic psychology or... just how humans work. However, through his faults, he tries everything he is able to to do best by these kids. So, with all these moments and more, it never sat right with me to say Phil neglects Chayanne. I can almost see the case for "emotional neglect" a bit more, but even then, I find some fault in that thinking. Yes, qPhil is neurodivergent af, so he doesn't get emotional context clues and needs these discussion to be upfront in his face (which I already went into depth here regarding the relationship these two have). Put simply, any "emotional neglect" Chayanne feels isn't necessarily from Phil prioritizing Tallulah, but more so where Tallulah is more open with her feelings which makes it easier for Phil to talk to her about them, Chayanne has rarely ever been someone who opens up about feelings, and when you couple that with Phil's lack of emotional intelligence, these issues clash. However, it's important to note that a while ago, Chayanne had an open dialogue with Philza about Tubbo's death and how it affected him, and Phil was responsive to it. It'd be one thing if he told Chay to get over it, but no, he was very honest and kind to Chayanne during their talk. And afterward, Phil suggested for Chayanne that, if he ever needs to talk, to have them sit at the pier outside of their house. He extended an offering to Chayanne for emotional discussions. It was a great way for both of these people who are terrible at talking about their emotions to come together and talk. It highlights how Phil is very much okay with talking to Chayanne on an emotional level, and he has, and he will continue to be. They're just... both bad at it, sadly.

Finally, I think it's important to clarify what a glass child actually is, and if it fits the current narrative. A glass child is a child who is overlooked when their sibling is facing some sort of disability that makes the parent give the sibling their full attention, and often has the glass child help out a lot. Initially, Tallulah very much needed extra care due to her "asthma" and the fact she wasn't a great fighter who could protect herself. Hence why Phil and Chayanne were so overprotective of her and put a lot of focus on her. And for the longest time, Chayanne was okay with it, because she needed that help to survive on this hellish island. It's just that over time, things changed. These characters changed.

So it's not really like that for Tallulah now, is it? Her asthma is no longer as bad (it still happens, though!), and she's gained a lot of fighting experience over time. She can hold her own in a fight. And Phil no longer keeps that much of a paranoid eye on her; i.e. again, yesterday's stream where, even when they were fighting end monsters, he never shouted for her to get away or for Chayanne to protect her. In the early days, if Tallulah was even allowed to join, he'd have her stand back and ask Chayanne to keep an eye on her. But that doesn't happen here.

So nowadays? No, I don't think Chayanne could be considered a glass child. Because those disabilities aren't as much of a hindrance for Tallulah as they used to, and Phil isn't as paranoid about them as before. I think the effects are still there, in a way, but it doesn't fit where the characters currently stand. Ultimately, I think there are several reasons as to why things are as they are even if Chayanne may not be a glass child in the present. The big one being that Phil's not entirely adapted to the changes his children have gone through.

Especially after Purgatory, his children have gone through a lot and changed in the process; Tallulah became more independent, and Chayanne kind of being tired of being a warrior and needing more emotional support. And since he wasn't there to witness that change and only saw the aftermath, I think it's a struggle for him to come to terms with them. However, that doesn't mean he's entirely set in old ways. He's trained Tallulah on PVP, and again, he's allowed her to participate in fights without being super worried. And as I mentioned, he has extended a branch for Chayanne to be more open with his feelings. These are just starts, certainly, but it means that Phil is open to adapting and helping both of his kids in any way they need. He just has to figure out what they need.

And let me be clear: I'm not disregarding the flaws in q!Phil's parenting. They exist, and Chayanne really needs to have an open discussion about how his emotional needs haven't quite been met as of recent, and Phil needs to be more open to have emotional discussions with Chayanne, even if to them, that's like pulling teeth. There's changes and improvements that need to be made. However, in talking about the negatives, it just seems like people think that's all there is. No, these flaws in Phil's parenting doesn't make him a bad parent. Because there are plenty of positives, plenty of decent growth here. There's love and respect and everything in this family. q!Phil is genuinely doing his best in a very difficult scenario: living on an island that is set on killing the eggs, and being a parent of two while basically being a single parent all while struggling with your own traumas. that's going to come with obstacles, it's inevitable, but what's also inevitable is how this family will work through them, and come out of this better than before.

[hamliet]

I was talking to a friend about how in recent years it has become so common to have anti-heroes and villains as protagonists. I think this trend started with Tony Soprano back in 2000 and it was definitely something that changed series and movies in a good way, gave us alot of great and interesting characters to explore (Tony Soprano himself was an incredible and complex character that captivated the audience, even though he sometimes did things that we found horrible and hated him for it. But seeing the success and popularity, it's no wonder that after the Sopranos show people started to explore the idea of ​​anti-hero/villain protagonists way more). I can't say when this trend started in anime, if it was before or after The Sopranos, but it also became something quite common (Light Yagami, Eren Yeager, Lelouch Lamperouge and the list goes on). I confess that sometimes I miss seeing a character with a good alignment as the protagonist, I wanted to know your opinion on these things.

So... I think there are a few layers here.

I don't actually agree that morally gray protagonists are very common at all, sorry Anon!, but--

I do think there is a general lack of well-written protagonists of all moralities, and--

All writing is a product of its time to an extent, and in a world where people at least pay lipservice to the idea that we are all culpable for the horrid state of the world, stories are at least going to pay lipservice to that.

On the line of lipservice.... Antihero protagonists do exist, but I think if anything protagonists have become very, very sanitized. Even the ones who are considered antiheroes aren't really doing anything bad. They're just vessels for the authors to preach... which, to be fair to authors, is also partially because I do think there's a lack of critical thinking among the populace and no one wants to be accused of supporting something truly terrible especially in an age where cyberbullying is an expected part of the job. But writing about it isn't inherently an endorsement.

Even in stories like House of the Dragon, which literally is based on a book that is all about gray morality, has sanitized the characters (especially the Blacks and even more so the women) so much that they are barely characters anymore. They're not the ambitious, human people who love and lust and hurt and do the unforgivable yet are still so human. Again, I think the reasoning is pretty clearly to appeal to the audience by not doing the misogyny GoT Season 8 was... except they ironically actually are but bending over so far backwards they're making the characters caricatures instead of people.

I mean, I don't know which movies nowadays besides nugu artsy ones don't have a "good" protagonist. It's far more common. Look at Pixar, at Marvel, at Disney's stranglehold on the industry. Look at BNHA. Part of this is genre-dependent too, but. Good guy wins. Bad guy loses.

In fact, it's so common for people to assume that protagonist status is an endorsement of everything the protagonist does that a sizable portion of AoT fans refuse to accept that Eren Jaeger wasn't intended to be a hero and created ANR, and other fans wrote for big-name publications directly calling Isayama a fascist for portraying a hero who sank into fascism. Overall, I do think the majority got the message, but I also think that while there are certainly some things that could have been done better, the main issue isn't the messaging of the story. I don't think AoT is muddy thematically. I do think the majority of people can't think critically if their life depended on it these days.

That said, I do think what you're onto is that a lot of characters and protagonists just are not well-written. Heroic or not, they're not well done. They're vessels to be used to prop up the author's moral views, rather than explore the difficult questions about what it means to navigate that morality in a bleak world. And I can't even blame them, because the way audiences respond gives them no choice.

Yet, antihero characters are often the more popular characters over MCs. Why? Because they're usually the ones who have a touch of humanity left, and also because tragic stories have appeal when the world is, well, tragic. Until the Mouse beats that humanity out of them anyways. However--

A good "good" protagonist is Luffy from One Piece, honestly. He's complex and interesting while maintaining his fundamental desire for kindness and compassion in the world. Or Tenma from Monster. Jim and Aja from Tales of Arcadia and Adora from She-Ra, too! And Xie Lian from TGCF (okay he considered genocide but--). And, of course, Ruby from RWBY!

[nakanotamu]

Okay this is my I'm back update post I guess

I'm definitely going to change how I was using tumblr a little bit. Cohost was a great vibe and kind of opened my eyes to what was stressing me out on here outside of the like. Corporate stuff. I'm following too many people and have to cut back on accounts. I'm more interested in making longer posts and I don't really care any more that that's not tumblr's ~vibe~. What's new with me:

idr if I was on prog yet when I left but I was on prog and also stopped taking prog. I absolutely hated it it made me gain weight and grow hair in ways that were bad for my dysphoria and my anxiety got super bad. Did not remotely get the experience from it everybody else who posts about it seems to, 0/10 will never recommend

Stardom is maybe better than ever. Rossy leaving was a breath of fresh air and then after The Conversion a steady upward trend became a company that actually feels incredibly fresh and exciting and has been putting out banger after banger. I'm still only in March in my backlog but I follow what's current and haven't been this excited about wrestling in years.

I started following OZ Academy and in the next week or two I'm gonna start watching SenJo. SenJo has Mika Iwata and has been working closely with Stardom lately so with them becoming more accessible on Wrestle Universe I'm happy to give them a try. OZ seemed for a long time like the closest to my tastes after Stardom so I arbitrarily decided to actually start watching this year once I saw Unagi had shown up there. I've got a post in me about how OZ is actually the closest thing to "joshi DDT" out there.

I never actually started following Marigold. I think they have a fantastic roster but I hate Rossy so much and the stories - or lack thereof - they're doing there just make it wildly disinteresting to me. If Utami & Kouki ever start making out in the ring or even if they ever start doing an ounce of god damn drama I might still begrudgingly check them out one day but I'm not holding my breath right now.

I started playing Fallen London again & finally got back into Final Fantasy XIV in a big way. I found out about plugins! I think people should openly talk about plugins more. I was totally sick of tab targetting rotation based combat, to the point I couldn't play the game any more, but I found combat plugins to help with that and it turns out that was literally the only problem I had with it so I'm having a fantastic time again, more into the game than I've been since Heavensward.

So, yeah, hi. I might make a Bluesky at some point or something idk but for now I'm here again. Tumblr is draconian so ig I'll use my nsfw for that content again when it's relevant. I will probably be even weirder about wrestling on main bc I truly don't care any more but other than that これからもよろしくお願いします

[joleneghoul]

Everyone wants the jacket lore do not be silent

Okay obviously this is going to be me rambling on about my own headcanons but also the tiny canon reasons I have these headcanons.

Okay first I'll start off by saying the jacket I personally Always draw Rip in and the one from my design used to belong to Booster during Boosters (short lived) College days.

That being said, It's a jacket that's very...dated and old for the future, so I believe it was from a thrift shop before Booster owned it (so while being in a similar style to futuristic bomber jackets, it lacks that neon bright color scheme that seems to of been popular for Boosters generation.)

Here is just an example of Rip side-by-side to Michelle (who's outfit is based on her introduction in Issue 15 of BG vol 1- post Booster leaving, and post her mothers death). again, that 80s-escque big shouldered, large collar/lapel was in, but the colors are muted and off. I like to think about future fashion trends a lot, how staying on trend in the present is something Booster clearly cares about, how that probably wasn't as much of a possibility in his own past (the future).

Rip's design is based on a theoretical future fashion while having more earthy muted elements- augh its a whole meta thing I got going on in my head. Earth tones instead of neon primary colors, Silver/chrome accents instead of Gold, etc etc.

But anyway when it comes to canon I find it fun that in this arc of Vol 1 we get to see multiple reactions to Jack and Rip's clothing. They get the obvious "those are dated clothes" comments but nothing to say they are insanely out of place. They even use the excuse that they are just college students working on a play-their outfits are similar to something a student department would scrounge up at a minimal cost but still seeming off and inaccurate to the time frame they're trying to portray.

(now that's also because all historical documents of the past during this time were destroyed but- ykno. I like to imagine there's multiple reasons why people weren't like "NEVER SEEN CLOTHES LIKE THAT BEFORE!".)

It's clear to me that even in this arc, Rip's jacket is important enough to him that he makes Jack sell HIS jacket instead of his own. Now, Rip's a selfish guy and all especially at this time in his characters history, but with the meta context that Booster is Rip's father, and this arc being about Booster wanted for treason- the idea of Rip running around in his fathers old star quarterbacks jacket (while modded with red accents) just is fun to me. Not to mention even within this arc Rip is weirdly avoidant of anyone seeing him and looks EXTREMELY like a slightly younger Booster despite men in this series explicitly looking very different from each other.

aka: I think it would just add to the weird cycles that surround Rip's non-linear life.

Now I am someone who is Really into design elements that tell story, aka why I like drawing Rip's hands covered in scars because he wears improper gloves as someone who works with his hands, and why i like adding patches and scuffs to the leather jacket when I make it more detailed. It's old, It's older than Rip, It is something he cares a lot about because it's a piece of home and something that was his dads that he gets to have with him most of the time. I don't think Rip would ever call himself sentimental- i think these are things he holds onto nonetheless (similar to him literally clinging to the old family heirloom clock despite it being broken throughout time masters.) He is a character who cares so intensely but wont say it out loud, you have to show these things in the tiny details or what he surrounds himself with.

This becomes important when A lot of the paranoia he faces in time masters revolves around the triggers he experienced WHILE seeing the place his dad grew up in, what created it, how these family cycles started.

I think in a way to mirror his growth through the end of this, realizing there's things he can't change but he can change himself and how he treats others- look towards bettering his own future than fearing the lack of control he has in the (non-linear) past- I like to add the sunflower to the back of the jacket post this arc. this Arc has a lot of differences in my head with the addition of so much new lore/canon since the 90s and my own headcanons (time gardens- hence flower/bug/plant imagery so often in my shit), but still the theme remains the same really.

While Rip is a character i many times in my art associate with Daffodils ( a flower representing rebirth and such) and sunflowers are flower i associate with the likes of Wave & Booster I do think the meaning behind them of new opportunities through others and happiness is something that would both honor the history of the jacket while making it his own.

LASTLY 4th person who "owns" the jacket, and this is shown in my art a few times, is Jeff (occasionally) because I think that's the only person Rip would trust with it when he outgrows the jacket (bc I do think as Rip gets older he fills out more and its moreso a piece for someone a bit lankier). It smells old and reminds them of when they were younger. ugh. I just find the idea of sharing clothing with significant others/partners really fun ok? sap for it.

anyways sorry if this makes no sense its just one of those things i think about a lot and only i do bc its something i made up lol!!

AKA 1 stupid jacket means a lot to a few weird time travelers.

[thelifeofchuckmovie]

Mike Flanagan reveals one major change coming to his adaptation of Stephen King's story The Life of Chuck, explaining why he chose to alter one particular part of the story. The novella, part of King's 2020 collection If It Bleeds, follows the story of its titular character told backwards, from the moment of his death to when he was a child in a seemingly haunted house. The upcoming The Life of Chuck movie aims to maintain faithfulness to the original story, indicative of what to expect from the horror filmmaker's adaptation.

(Spoilers below)

However, speaking with Talking Scared, Flanagan revealed that one key change in The Life of Chuck has to do with the people in Chuck's head who are facing the end of the world. When asked about Chuck's imagination and its impact on the story, the horror filmmaker explains how, instead of being random, fictional people in his mind, the movie will see these figures as representing real people the main character meets throughout his life. Check out what Flanagan had to say about this significant change below:

I don't think it does. And I felt that way on both sides of it, because when you're first watching the movie, you don't necessarily know that. That's a revelation, if you've not read the story, the movie will reveal that to you in time. But if you do know that, I don't think it changes it at all, because the emotions the characters are going through are so honest and relateable. And we've made a couple little clever changes to kind of make it so that these characters don't only exist in this imagined realm. That they're all echoes of very real people who existed in the real world who Chuck encountered throughout his life. That's one of the big changes we made to this story was that the people you meet at the beginning, you see them again as Chuck encounters them throughout his life, and you can see how and why he pulled them into his imagination, and how they continue to exist in his mind even after the real people have moved on, in one way or another. And so that's one of the very few changes we made for the film. It seemed like a real cool opportunity to do something like that.

Why Flanagan’s Life Of Chuck Change Is Perfect For The Big Screen

Flanagan Is The Perfect Director For The King Adaptation

In King’s original version of The Life of Chuck, part of the story involves an imaginary character named Marty, whose perspective becomes the one the audience follows as his world comes to an end. At first, it’s unclear that this is part of Chuck’s fantasy world, later revealed to be so as the story progresses. While this level of mystery is still going to be present in Flanagan’s adaptation, it’s clear from his plans that his take will blend reality and fiction much more closely than the original novella did.

Despite this change for the adaptation, the director’s alteration of what Chuck’s imaginary world means will work perfectly for its big screen rendition. Flanagan’s movies and TV shows have always toyed with the idea of reality and fantasy blending together, with characters who consistently embody both notions of their respective stories. Having the imaginary world reflect reality maintains consistency with his other work, while also giving King’s story an added layer of meaning onscreen.

Mike Flanagan's next project, The Life of Chuck, is the perfect chance to revive an old Stephen King tradition and break another trend.

This reflection of reality also adds a new layer of mystery depending on how The Life of Chuck's story gets presented. Perhaps it will maintain vagueness about why certain characters appear to be acting in different ways, unraveling the imaginary world in the protagonist's head by making it unclear what's real and what isn't until the very end. This could make the film highly rewatchable too, as layered clues reveal the truth behind the story unfolding.

The Life of Chuck premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024.

[i-heart-hxh]

I see people posting things like, "Why are some people obsessed with proving your ship is canon? Who even wants their ships to be canon, it's more fun when it's not?"

I get where people are coming from with this sentiment--it is fun to have your own headcanons, your own control of how you're interpreting the characters, not being reliant on what canon gives you, etc. I'm very much in favor of people doing whatever they want in fanworks, canon be damned! Ship what you want, go wild, ignore canon altogether if you want!

But with HxH and especially Gon and Killua, it IS important to me how essentially canon it is for a number of reasons. One of these is that the bond between them is one of the main emotional cores of the series, and to reduce it down to "Haha no homo! They're just bros! If you see it in ways other than that you're delusional!" is a disservice to what Togashi is writing--and it's essentially willfully misreading the source material.

Obviously, no one is obligated to ship it themselves, no one is obligated to like seeing it in a romantic light, but it irks me when people pick apart all the incredible nuance and beautiful details in HxH, all the rich subtext and meaning, and then pretend that the very present subtext and romantic framing between Gon and Killua isn't there at all. Especially as throughout the years I continue to learn more about Togashi and look even more deeply into HxH and it becomes increasingly more and more crystal clear how intentional it seems, how much of this is thoughtfully put in there for people to pick up on.

There's so much shounen out there that puts on a veneer of gayness--essentially giving the audience just enough vaguely gay things for the female audience (as well as gay audience, etc.) to latch on to for marketing/merchandise reasons, while mostly pushing het ships in the canon material officially. (And I'm not saying in all cases it's like that, but I do think that's the trend specifically with shounen series.) With Togashi, it very much seems like he creates it out of his own genuine personal interest and because that's the story he wants to tell--the kind of story he's wanted to tell for a long time and can get away with now because of changing social norms and the fact that he's already incredibly popular and he owns HxH outright.

And as someone who loves Togashi's storytelling--all of it, not just the gay parts, of course--I care about what he's trying to create and intending to convey and it bothers me to see people outright denying it out of their own biases. I feel like people who deny it's there or refuse to see it in that way at all are missing a big chunk of the series, an important and intentional part of the series. (And this extends to other parts of the series that are queer, too, like Alluka for instance. There's so much in HxH that is queer in some way! Denying it all is there is ridiculous!)

And again, it doesn't mean people have to ship it, everyone is allowed to see what's there and ultimately choose to see it in a platonic way if they want, it's more when I see outright denial that this is the author's intent when all signs point to it being so that bothers me.

I think part of this is people just being casual viewers/readers of the series (though some of it is pretty blatant IMHO) and not being aware of all the Deep Lore that points to it being way more than in your average shounen, but a LOT of it is simply homophobia. It's frustrating being in a fandom for years where there are a bunch of people who go about picking apart all the nen powers and the beauty of Chimera Ant Arc in exhaustive detail and then utterly and completely deny that there are sound, well-documented reasons why a large part of the fandom sees it as a gay/queer work.

So hopefully this explains some of why I bother to argue the canon aspect at all, and why I think it matters to a lot of people specifically in HxH fandom.

[eclipsecrowned]

🔥🔥🔥 for whatever u want!!! if u dont have any more off the top of ur head + want a topic then do berserk. also why is this text so big why am i yelling. kadi help // @likemosaic

i am printing and framing this ask jsyk.

I don't know if the community at large understands what an OC is anymore. Like. There's fandom OCs, where you create a new dude to live in an extant setting. There's fandomless OCs, where you create a new dude in either a new world or applicable to all worlds. There's OCs who were formerly canon related, such as when you were really into a franchise but ended up developing your original dude so contrary to later established lore that you just pull them entirely, or you so fell out of love with the source material you pack up a decade plus canon dude and start sanding them down away from the shit views of the creator. There's player character OCs, where you get to write your dude you played in an rpg. Many roads, same result.

Then there's some stuff I've seen recently that is baffling to me.

People filing serial numbers off of a popular FC's role and claiming that Blarbo, the 6'3" chainsaw wielding vampire clown whose FC is internationally recognized white man du jour Large McHugebig written for the Murderous Mimes of the Multiverse fandom, is totally different to Blorbo, the 6'3" chainsaw wielding vampire clown whose FC is internationally recognized white man du jour Large McHugebig, from the Murderous Mimes of the Multiverse film series. People can't actually think that's original content, surely. That's very clearly the same character with token adjustments. Why would you not just play Blorbo with some divergences or personal lore?

Or people who have purported to write OC concepts off of barely fleshed out canon elements, which is usually one of my fav OC bases... Except wait, that's literally a canon take on that concept from an extant adaption. Yes, Count Blorbinski's wife is an unnamed figure in the original novel, but the 1999 anime 'Blorbinski's Bouncy House of Doom' said her name was Blorbentina. How... Coincidental that your OC for Countess Blorbinski is also named Blorbentina. And has the exact same backstory and dynamic with the Count as from the anime. And you use the 1999 design for the Countess as her FC -- This isn't an OC, as much as you keep saying it. Bouncy House of Doom is one of the most popular anime out there too so how did you think this was going to work? Again, why would you not just play the 1999 version of this character instead of presenting her as your own creation?

More and more often I see 'ten years ago this would have been an AU/fandomless blog for a canon but today we pretend this is original content' blogs pop up. I feel like if I rolled up with a Calishite Warlock named Cal'aydin who was bonded to a wind spirit and was fighting depression after his brother's death as well as the forces of the BBEG, you guys would righteously call me on 'this is K*ladin St0rmblessed reskinned for D&D. You didn't come up with any of this.' But more and more I see 'original content do not steal' except? It's already extant IP with one or two concepts changed to suit the mun's tastes. Everything else remains very clearly the work of [insert household name creative of the 20th-21st centuries here.]

It amazes me how often I see these blogs pop up, and just how popular some of them are. I cannot wrap my head around it. Like, it's their blog, they can do whatever, as long as they're not profiting off someone else's creative labor it's not a big deal. But it is one of those 'has become more common in the community lately' things that makes me want to stand up and ask 'is anyone else seeing this or am I just going crazy?' I feel like I'm in the minority by not caring for this trend/new definition of 'original character' just based on how often these blogs cross my dash.

[theinvisiblemuseum]

how about......people demanding wlw rep then never actually engaging with it because the only thing they care about is woke points☕

this really was the wrong day for me to rb this game because i'm seriously genuinely going to be a major cunt about it and i dgaf. that's your warning.

so. here's what i think. in very general terms.

if you don't want to read below the cut (valid) here's all i'll say: stop, actually. i don't want need or care about the megaviral wlw fanfictions of your dreams, because that's not how i choose to engage with fandoms. i already make and engage with the kind of content i want to see which (surprise!) includes a lot of wlw content, but i don't see the need to force moral superiority down people's throats over it. i don't give two shits if anyone other than me is making wlw content. this is fanfiction. fanart. etc. people are allowed to write or engage with whatever they want, HOWEVER if you're throwing a fit over not having enough wlw content and can't name a woman off the top of ur head, that seems like a you problem, idk. basically i choose to actively NOT engage with the type of people screaming crying and pissing themselves over content that already exists that they can't be bothered to look for because appearances and #feminism are all that matters.

if you're here, i'm going to get more cunty, not sorry, you were warned.

the demand for wlw rep is absolutely just dog whistling to seem holier than thou, and like, whatever, most of this shit originates on twitter and tiktok and i've never listened to a word a twitter or tiktok user has said and i won't start now so on the whole i can just put my metaphorical headphones on and tune it out and keep doing my thing, yk? but when it permeates my little den of horror and my brain starts scratching itself, well, i find that sometimes i need to be an asshole and sometimes is right now.

it's not actually a fandom sexism/misogyny issue it's an issue of wanting validation to enjoy certain things, because those things are only cool if the hivemind says so, right? i'm no political expert but i know enough to know that cultlike thought patterns don't lead anywhere good. i've seen zombie movies. i live in america. LOL.

i always joke about how i'd rather die than have my favorite ships become popular (i.e. pandalily, bartydora, lilycissa, etc) but the reason i say that is because a. it breeds discourse that i don't care about, and b. i don't want a bunch of people engaging with content they're not actually interested in just to seem woke or stay on top of trends. it just makes things worse for the people who actually enjoy it.

and while i have your attention, and while i'm being a bitch, wanna know one of the big reasons i think people are crying and whining about the 'lack of wlw rep'? they want other people to care so they don't have to. of course, they don't realize other people already dooooo care, because they're too terrified to sort by anything other than hits on ao3, but that's neither here nor there. no, what they want is for some big strong heavenly god to bite the bullet and characterize these women that, let's be frank, are names on a page and nothing more, so they don't have to. so they can keep on keeping on with the characters they DO care about and toss something around every once and a while about (insert megaviral wlw fic that doesn't exist) to avoid claims of sexism & lesbophobia. AND AS A DISCLAIMER! i don't think people should feel the need to care about a bunch of random characters if they don't want to. once again, this is fanfiction. do whatever the fuck you want. i promise it makes things so much more fun and chill. just because i wanna characterize the shit out of pandora fucking lovegood, i'd never demand anyone else does, and that's the crux of it, isn't it?

this is why it also bugs me when i see posts like 'omg i don't even care who the ship is, i just love sapphics!' or smth along those lines because like, yeah, i love women and i love when women fuck each other and love each other, but i'm not just gonna care about a ship because it's two women. if i did, i'd be more than happy with the pg spoonfed #girlcore sapphic representation in mass media, because half the time it's just two white girls named rachel and brookleighanna whose only defining character traits are that they're gay. nothing more. and sorry, but i'd rather have no wlw content than that. i can't enjoy a ship if i haven't rotated them to hell and back like a rotisserie chicken in my silly little head, often before i've even consumed any content about them. that's the fun of it! i sent like 12 voice messages about a ship i don't even care about that much one time just because i took a shower and had a lot of thoughts. does that mean i'm going to attempt to make them a cornerstone of the Fandom As A Whole and be treated like a celebrity over it? fuck no. i'm just here because i like to have fun and talk to people about characters we all enjoy and create so much lore in my head that only 2 people will ever know about simply because i'm passionate about it and that passion is really enjoyable to me. fandom is a community to me, not a hierarchy, like tiktok or twitter would have you believe, and i think that's what this whole conversation about wlw rep is missing right from the jump. (ta da! i circled back to the point at hand in the end. my tangent had a point!)

yeah so that's my two cents. lol.

[animeandcatholicism]

Radical Ideas

I always laugh when people say that someone is their "brother" or "sister" due to their ethnicity and for lack of a better term "race". It's so dumb because one, just because you share a language and a history does not make you somehow kindred and have inviolable bonds. I have more in common with people from the Midwest and the South than I do from my ancestral lands, the majority being Germany, Ireland and the British Isles in general.

The people who are of Slavic descent in These United States might share a common tongue with their distant relatives but not much else, maybe some religious and cultural practices but besides that. Even Hispanics and Latinos in the US who have family in their mother country, maybe one or two generations removed are different than how they would have been twenty, thirty years ago.

It's just weird that people become so insecure and fall into tribalism when it does not really benefit them or others to be like this. It really does not to try to be in one way in the home and one way in public, accept that you're going to both loose and gain traits from cultural exchange, it's a part of human culture that has been happening since ever. As long as humans have existed, cultural exchange and really change has existed. Trying to conserve something that simply doesn't exist or to propagate it, is extremely dumb.

For example, it's weird to have all African Americans embrace each other as one big "family" not only because they often and conveniently exclude groups like the North Africans like Egyptians and the Copts since they're "just Arabs" but, the collective history of all of these various cultures is so vast and complex that someone from Chad, another from Nigeria and finally someone from Ethiopia don't really have a baseline except, they're all from the African Continent. Their: culture, religion, languages and so much more are so distinct, that they're cousins in a general sense not siblings. Sure, geographic regions like how Europe has geographic regions (the Nords, Francs, Anglos, Slavs of all sorts) but, not this weird cope of a unified identity (I mean if the Island of England has England, Scotland, Wales and the Cornish, plus the fact that no one in England can really decide where the North starts and the South ends there's no way you have larger populations of larger land masses agreeing on a singular unified identity).

I believe this to be both a consequence of diaspora of various minorities and also a certain insecurity when attempting to affirm their own unique cultural identity. For example, I have a friend who's a Filipino and when he was living in Westminster, California (which is where a bunch of Asians of all stripes have settled initially as refugees) now have amalgamated into this weird monoidentity buuut, it's unique only to Westminster, it does not exist in the larger US or even the international community. When I lived in the Twin Cities, I worked at the postal service and again the Twin Cities are a big place for the relocation of refugees and asylum seekers. But, the Hmong stuck with the Hmong, the Ethiopians with the Ethiopians, Tibetans with Tibetans, ect. This was with the first and second generation and probably with the third generation things start to break down and they will integrate with the general population of the area, it's simple ethnographic trends. The only way you prevent this is with groups like the Amish where they simply refuse to integrate or they're just stuck in a relatively isolated area. In a rapidly connecting world people are going to adapt and you can't just set up these arbitrary barriers to make yourself feel special, then you'd be no better than those weird people wanting an ethnostate.

[diabolikpersonals]

someone in the watch party today (sorry, I don't remember who asked this!!) asked if we could make the next installment in dialovers, what would the game be like? and I didn't have a good answer at the time but I thought about it a lot and I think I've come up with it lol

(sorry this is a super long post, I went into way too much detail. cw for canon-typical dialovers stuff including suicide and incest)

so I started by thinking of which parts of dialovers haven't been adequately explored yet, in my opinion, and that got me thinking about yui specifically. I've seen posts lately saying that the more recent dialovers content has been about the relationships between the boys more than it's been about yui and her partner, which is a trend I've noticed too. I don't hate this trend, because closely inspecting the familial and friendly relationships in dialovers is honestly my favorite part of it, but the big drawback of it is...what about yui?! is she not also a part of our big fucked up family! shouldnt we also be analyzing her character! shouldnt she have full character arcs of her own in the games!! a close reading of the non-romantic relationships and an important, central part for our main character...we CAN have both things!!

so I decided I wanted my hypothetical dl game to have a plot that revolves around yui's character. it's my interpretation that some of her themes are family, belonging, feeling loved and wanted. the very first thing that happens in dialovers, where our story begins, is yui being abandoned by her father and left to fend for herself in a house full of people who want to hurt her. when her father shows up later and insists he loves her and wants to protect her, how can she believe him? she was left to die. even if she becomes close with the vampires as the story progresses, the fact that she was abandoned doesn't change, and it still hurts. and I used to poke fun at the scene where she finds out she's adopted, right? I was like "you're in a house of vampires, why are you so stressed out about the fact that you're adopted? isn't that the least of your problems?" but that is the ROOT of the problem!! yui is learning that this isnt even her first time being abandoned. her birth parents didnt want her, her adopted father apparently didnt want her.......and that's why yui gets so heartbroken in scenes where she's abandoned or left behind by the diaboys. if not them, she has NOBODY to go home to.

yui wants to be loved! she wants a family that wants her too! she wants a home where she can stay with people who love her and will protect her! so what's a good way for us to pick that apart in a dl game?

I imagine the church contacting her again; it wouldnt be the first time it's happened, but I don't want yui to just be able to say "no thank u" and start a gunfight and then walk away this time. I want the vampire hunters in the church to capture the diaboys, injure them, lock them up, all under the guise of protecting yui. with her loved ones taken, yui cant just refuse to go with them—so she has to, and this game mostly takes place in a church as a result.

now that yui isn't clueless about what the church does, the church intends to make her into a vampire hunter too. she can train there, and the members of the church will protect her until she can protect herself. (I imagine a named minor character will be her mentor and stuff.) they use sweet words that conflict yui a lot, insisting that they're her family (and these are probably people yui knows and grew up with, so they're not just saying it for nothing!!), using her religion to sway her opinion (this is the right thing to do, as one of God's children), yui would be able to help innocent people as a hunter, etc. Make her really think about what she wants and which "family" can provide her with it! It's not as simple as wanting to stay with her boyfriend. The idea that this family, the one she had been with before the events of HDB, who raised her....didn't actually abandon her and they really want her after all........it's tempting!! yui's heart is torn! she WANTS to believe that those people loved her!

but still, hurting the diaboys is too much. yui doesn't want to do that. throughout the game, yui visits [certain diaboy(s) depending on the route ur playing] to create a plan to rescue them. the members of the church figure out she's visiting them, and shake their heads and lament the fact that these demons have brainwashed her.....but they let her continue meeting them, because they want to show yui the how cruel and animalistic these monsters can truly be. they keep the diaboys starved, and even tempt them with yui's blood while keeping her just out of reach...and of course the diaboys get hungrier, angrier, more desperate...until they really do look like the monsters the church has been describing...!

"but nat, how am I gonna get sexy scenes if the diaboys are being held captive" dont you see, masochistic target audience?! it's about the DENIAL!! it's about the thrill of knowing just a few feet away, this vampire is shaking in desperation to go fucking crazy on you and the cell bars are the only thing stopping him from tearing into you right now, but who knows how long those cell bars will even last?! doesn't he seem to get even stronger and more violent the hungrier he gets— and when you finally get a moment together, with nothing between you, and he needs to make up for lost time...!!

[cough] anyway, we can graduate from masochism to sadomasochism, right? it's my game after all. caged vampires are sexy. and yui can sneak out to offer them her blood anyway, even if it means it will hurt a lot >///< so you'll get your sexy bloodsucking scenes, ok!! pic relevant. use ur imagination.

there's too many diaboys for me to go into detail about what their routes would be like, but to be flexible with it…I'd hate to just keep them in a cage the whole time, right? so let's think about what the church can do. kino's taught us that the church has weapons that can take away a vampire's powers temporarily. using those, it'd be easy to let the diaboys out so the church can use them for their own purposes. they can be threatened into doing the church's dirty work, for instance. they can be tied up somewhere while yui's mentor makes her take practice shots at them, that'd be an awesome scene!! we can put certain diaboys together and watch them turn against each other, we can keep them alone and watch how they spiral out of control………tons of fun to be had.

and the main villain? seiji komori of course!! that bastard!!! he's gonna have all sorts of chances to say the creepiest stuff to her in this game, ugh. all that stuff about yui being tainted by the vampires' evil, all that stuff about marrying her (eugh!!), or killing her if she can't be redeemed..........so much religious trauma here. he'll make a great, very hateable villain.

so yui has to strike a balance between obediently training as a vampire hunter and helping out the diaboys. the choices the player makes can probably be labelled as sadistic or masochistic, with the sadistic choices resulting in her treating the diaboys more cruelly (yknow, to pretend in front of the church members!! or is she not pretending...? heheheh) and the masochistic choices resulting in her treating the diaboys very kindly.

choosing too many sadistic options will give you an ending where yui sides with the church for real. depending on the route, she could become a hunter and kill the one she loves herself. or, after the church successfully gaslights her into thinking the diaboys were brainwashing her, she could think of herself as tainted by their demonic energy and take her own life in shame.

choosing too many masochistic options means the church won't trust her. it'll result in an ending where the church is out to kill yui and the vampires (again, the specifics will depend on the route). they'll treat it like a mercy killing, like yui had been tricked by the vampires all this time, and only the player will be left knowing this isnt the case :(

and when u pick the correct balance of sadistic and masochistic options, u get the vampire ending!! it's tough to describe the specifics because, of course, I'd like it to be different and uniquely interesting in each route. but in general, yui should come to some conclusions about her identity and where she belongs: her true family should be with the diaboys, I think that's obvious. they love her, they want her, they won't abandon her. she also has to reconcile stuff about her religion: what does it mean to her now, after all that? what is her relationship with God? does yui still think of herself as a sinful person for who she loves and how she loves them? is that what yui's religion has been about all this time, and can she recontexualize it based on her experiences? did yui learn something from her time in vampire hunter training after all?

and THAT'S the diabolik lovers game I'd make, if I could B)

[youhavenoideahowbadiwantthis]

I've been waiting to watch The Outwaters since I heard about it a few months ago. I love found footage and I love cosmic horror. Mash them up and you've got yourself a stew.

I found a few days ago that it was available on VOD so I got it for $13. That's a pretty sick part of the COVID film release trend. Love when brand new horror comes out to own for the price of a movie ticket.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I'm going to just say the very common disclaimer: "this film is not for everyone."

A bunch of friends go out to the desert to film a music video, apparently. There are constant mysterious booms and shrieks. Desert animals exist around them. A bloody axe man chases them around and kills them. The cameraman/main character (Robbie) wakes up in a pool of blood and looks for his friends and there appears to be a time loop and maybe he's the axe man. There's an, apparently, big, practical effect creature that makes noise at him. Then he finds his dead friends' heads and cuts off his penis and disembowels himself with an animal tooth.

End.

So, if you're reading this, you're probably frustrated at how lazy and lackluster that synopsis was. Right? Now you know how I felt watching almost 2 hours of it.

I promise I will discuss WHY I feel this movie is one of, if not the biggest piece of shit I have ever watched in my life, but first, I want to dissect this movie through other people's words.

"Banfitch has a clear talent for character development, which is thrown out the window as soon as the true horror begins. Yet, getting to know his cast of characters only makes watching their annihilation more gut-wrenching in the end." - Grace Detwiler, Rue Morgue

If you think this character development is outstanding, I'm excited for you to watch literally any other movie, ever. He attempts to create the candid, real characters or Benson and Moorhead films, but they end up one dimensional, typical found footage characters. Think Paranormal Activity characters, but not even douchey enough to be interesting.

"...will likely be most effective for viewers who are strongly affected by the power of suggestion." - Grace Detwiler, Rue Morgue

Lol. I mean...yes. Correct.

"...[transforming] the found footage format into something far more transgressive..." - Meagan Navarro, Bloody-Disgusting

If the boundaries that are being crossed are "good overall filmmaking" into "bad", you're still wrong. Many found footage movies have done that. This is uniquely bad, however, so maybe there's a point there.

"...the film is more interested in immersing us than it is in answering any questions. In this regard, it completely succeeds as it spends longer and longer getting lost in the landscape that has become distorted." -Chase Hutchinson, Collider

Ok, let's talk about this, specifically.

At no point, was I immersed in this movie. The first 20 mins are the, supposedly incredible, character-building, that can really just be boiled down to the phrase, "hurr durr, you reminds me of your parents." I promise, you may relate to the dialogue between these characters, but you're better than them. Seriously. This entire build up is filmed with the tightest camera work I've ever seen. This man forgot to zoom out and he moves the camera quickly and often. You will get sick.

Then they're in the desert. The camera is slightly better because you have a vast landscape behind people most of the time, so it isn't as disorienting. But God help you, he will manage to examine every nook and cranny of a bush and the inside of their tent and the one girl's face, over and over again.

The night time shots are so much worse. Half the time, he's filming with a normal light source that illuminates a large enough area to provide tension so that you only recognize so much of what is on screen. The other half is lit by a gas station pocket flashlight using batteries from the early 2000s. I, like many other people in this day and age, have a large television. So when I have a 65" TV (1809 Sq. In.) and about 1/6 of the movie is filmed through a 3" diameter pinhole, I'm gonna be upset. The power of suggestion does not trump the power of wanting to watch a fucking movie.

Apparently, there was a large, maybe practical effect monster. Couldn't tell you, because it was filmed through this dipshit pinhole. If I spent the money to build a monster for a movie, YOU WILL FUCKING SEE AT LEAST 20% OF THAT MONSTER FOR A FEW SECONDS.

The story was run of the mill. The themes and characters were as deep as a teacup. The cinematography was fucking trash, even for found footage.

This was like a visual representation of a Chainsmokers song, but they were trying to make a black metal song, but the only black metal they've heard was Deafheaven, but the only Deafheaven they've heard was Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, but they recorded it in mono.

Also, a lot of people are comparing this to Skinamarink. Stop. Both films are frustrating and work on the power of suggestion. However, Skinamarink actually leans into the suggestion. It gives you vague pieces to tell yourself a story. Outwaters gives you a story and then lazily slops out blurry garbage that has been done better many times before over the course of almost 2 hours and then just kind of ends. I was not a huge fan of Skinamarink, but in my opinion, it is far more worthwhile than Outwaters and it's insulting to Skinamarink to conflate the two.

I will not say that I could make a feature length film. I don't have the talent or creativity. It's easier to sit and judge than to actually do something. Maybe Banfitch should take a break to reassess his influences to see what makes them worth watching, because this movie is evidence that he has missed the mark.

I hope he gets better.

If you want to watch the movie, sure, go ahead. If you want to watch something that will actually entertain and/or challenge you, might I recommend the following:

Resolution, Spring and The Endless are all wonderful pieces of eclectic cosmic horror by Benson and Moorhead. Good characters and intriguing concepts without giving away every detail.

Banshee Chapter by Blair Erickson is an incredibly underseen cosmic/conspiracy horror film that predates Stranger Things by several years, and in my opinion, does it better (horror-wise).

Bellflower by Evan Glodell is not exactly horror, but is a film that I feel Banfitch to inspiration from. The character development is on point and organic and it has sort of the mumblecore feel that I felt Banfitch was trying (and failing) to develop in the first 20 mins of his movie.

These are just suggestions that I think all do a significantly better job in every respect than Outwaters.

Just my opinions.

Thank you for listening, though I'm not sure why you would.

[beevean]

unpopular opinion: the sonic franchise has gotten too big and/or mainstream, to the point were it seems like it focuses more on appealing to general audiences and fan pandering rather than experimenting and doing their own thing.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I half agree but not really for the reasons you say

Sonic has always been big. Even at its lowest points, it has always been one of the most recognizable videogame brands. Now it's enjoying a boost of popularity thanks to the movies and Frontiers, but let's not forget the powerhouse it was in the '90s. Plus, many games from the past were clearly trying to chase trends - ShTH was a response to the edgier current of the time, '06 wanted to be more realistic and mature taking advantage of the new console era, Unleashed's Werehog took great inspiration from God of War, Sonic 4 came out after the success of Megaman 9 and its "going back to the series' roots"...

Basically, I don't think Sonic has become suddenly popular and so only now it's trying to be appealing.

But I believe they're heavily reacting to the backlash of the so-called "Meta era", which was itself a response to the backlash of the "Adventure era": I still remember when fans were displeased by how dark and complicated the games of the time were, and games like Colors were praised to high heavens for small things such as not having an intro, or having Eggman as the final boss. Yeah, shocking, right? :V but now people got tired of the more lighthearted games and the more insistent nostalgic callbacks, and SEGA is trying to re-rail the series again.

Frontiers is a very, very clear attempt to please the people who declare Forces to be the nadir of the series: the game is extremely long, the plot is more character focused, it references games like no tomorrow, it finally brought back heavy rock songs (metalcore, even) after Ohtani was criticized for sounding too much like Mario or churning mediocre tracks, the beloved Flynn wrote the script...

The pendulum is simply swinging back. We may be in a new era that attempts to recreate the Adventure era magic. We'll see.