#So this is the tl;dr of what we had planned for them

[sawboans]

the fact that i have seen so many disingenuous takes on harding's banter with a romanced emmrich is wild, and maybe it's because the banter is actually part of a set and people aren't triggering the full conversation? but (more so on other social media) the jump to villainize her is genuinely surprising to me because i thought she made it pretty clear that she was coming from a place of concern - specifically, she was worried about emmrich.

whether it's reflected in the game or not (imo it isn't but that's another can of worms), he and rook are apparently moving fast, and a relationship between an older person and a younger person does in fact come along with some real considerations. not just how other people will see them, and how much this will change about their lives, though those are both also factors. i think in the case of emmrich and rook they're on even footing in a lot of other regards, but the prospect of emmrich dying first is absolutely on the table and, yeah, are we sure the guy with A Well-Known, Debilitating Fear Of Dying has thought that through fully?

their argument near the end of the game tells me that no, he hasn't. like... rook clearly has. they're confused why the issue is getting brought up at all after so long of already being together. but emmrich spends the whole game talking about how real, lasting romance was a dream he never quite reached, and goes on about summer companionships and failed courting attempts, and says he and rook are just exploring things and the game uses words like paramour and companion, significantly not anything more permanent. he hasn't even reached the point of saying the big scary L word (and doesn't until basically right before the final battle). he has been avoiding thinking about the specifics of a long-term, committed relationship with rook and rook can call him out on it during their argument - it's because he's scared. and harding is pointing that out; that he jumped into this relationship because rook was just so exciting and now they're running at, as she says, full gallop without looking out for branches, aka the genuine considerations of what this will entail for them moving forward. even if the banters with harding had never happened emmrich was always going to have a crisis about this - she says he's been mopey and distracted, it's clearly been weighing on his mind, and the night before tearstone island is when it comes to a head because if they pull this off, if the threat of the gods is over, then what will he and rook do? plan for the future? god forbid. no wonder he's such a bitch during the argument, he's trying to get rook to cut things off so he doesn't have to (because deep down he doesn't want to, he's just trying to pull the emergency brake)

anyway tl;dr imo harding was showing real concern about how emmrich is approaching the relationship and was fair to point it out. if you bring the two of them around often enough to hear their banter, they actually seem like very good friends (they dig into each other's pasts and interests more than a lot of the other companions and harding asks him for quite a bit of advice, emmrich asks her in turn for a lot of reflection on her connection to the titans... he even starts to take care of her plants if she dies) and i would fully expect my friends to bring up this sort of thing if i was in his situation because it's coming from a place of care. you can interpret that as misguided if you want, but even if she's romancing taash it doesn't necessarily come across as hypocritical to me - maybe taash and harding have already discussed their circumstances and worked through it, but it's clear that emmrich has not.

[wa-royal-tea]

Yay!!! Look at all the babies! They’re so kewt! I would love to know about Charles and Tessa DeVilliers and their adorable kiddos ❤️

Bellemery kids made cute babies!!! No surprises there! 🙈

Long story under the cut!

Well, the plan Miss Daria and I had for them was both Charlie and Tessa got to know each other from an online forum of a favorite singer of theirs; Kim Ari. They became online friends and got along well because they are big fans of Ari. But none of them ever told each other about their real identities so they don't know they were talking to the Prince/Princess of Gardania/Windasia. Their identities were kept anonymous and they only know each other from their social media names.

And then Charlie went on an exchange student programme to Gardania, Eddie didn't go with him because Bellemery thought it would be a good idea to let the twins not be stuck to each other too much. So he went to Gardania, there's rumours going around the school about a Prince (Charlie) going there for an exchange programme. Tessa heard about it but wasn't interested bcs duh, she's a Princess 💁🏻‍♀️ When she got in class, there was this redhead sitting next to her place. She didn't know Charlie was her internet friend and vice versa. And Charlie, never publicly admits that he's a fan of Kim Ari because he was too embarassed to admit that he likes S-Pop. They got into a lot of argument about S-Pop because Charlie likes to go "What's so good about it? It's yuck!!! And Kim Ari isn't pretty anyways 🥱" and Tessa ofc has to defend her idol!!!

But then Charlie's identity as Kim Ari's secret fanboy got busted when Tessa went to a fan event and ran into Charlie there who was attempting to """disguise""" himself. He made her promise not to tell anyone about it and he swears that he'll do anything so she can keep her mouth shut.

And from there starts their journey from being annoyed to each other and slowly growing to like the other person. The story wasn't planned to the end but the plan was for them to get to know each other online, anonymously, before finding out who they really were irl 🏃🏻‍♀️ It's a slow journey but the story isn't heavy. It's basically just teenagers being silly 😂

[mariana-oconnor]

Types of AO3 Summary

Option 1 - The Excerpt:

The quickest, the easiest! Find a section of your fic that contains the main premise of said fic and also showcases your writing. Copy paste that into the summary box. BOOM! Done.

Best used for any fic, unless it's so short the excerpt would be the whole fic.

Option 2 - The No Frills:

Just a description of the fic. No need for drama. No need to complicate matters. Keep it simple, keep it safe.

Example: "A short character exploration of Blorbo's thoughts after Daisy leaves."

Best used for short fics, poems and fics where the style/format is more important than the plot. Or fics that tie directly into a scene/episode from canon or another fanfic.

Option 3 - The Hook:

Draw the reader's interest by giving them a set up with no conclusion. Introduce the main character(s), introduce the status quo, describe an inciting incident, leave a question in the reader's mind.

Example: "Blorbo is a barista at a coffee shop, struggling to pay their bills, but after handsome rockstar Obrolb walks into their coffee shop they find that they have to decide whether a chance at love is worth the cost of fame."

Best used for mid to long fic where there's a strong premise and follow through. Especially good for AUs. Can be expanded for more complex plots or used multiple times in one summary for multiple characters or subplots.

Option 4 - The Sitcom One-Liner:

"The one in which [over simplified description of one of the main plotlines]" This is essentially 'boil your plot down to the very simplest statement you can, oversimplify if possible. The more bizarre or unhelpful the better.

Example: "The one in which Blorbo learns to like cake".

Best used for fics with at least a little humour in them.

Option 5 - The Rule of Three:

Three is a magic number. Find three key moments in your fic and just list them. That's it. Often ends with 'not necessarily in that order' if used for comic effect. If it's an AU, establish that quickly (i.e. 'Star NHL player Blorbo…').

Example: "Blorbo makes a friend, falls in love, and almost burns to death, not necessarily in that order."

Best used for anything, really. Three is a magic number. The human brain loves things that come in threes.

Option 6 - The Trope Lure:

Why bother describing the plot? We all know AO3 readers are here for the tropes. Similar to The Sitcom One-Liner just using tropes instead of plot. Often followed by the phrase 'that nobody asked for'.

Example: "The Space western / A/B/O / Mail Order Bride fic that nobody asked for."

Often tacked on to the end of The Hook or The Excerpt as a tl;dr.

Best used for fic that plays its tropes straight with no shame or second guessing.

Option 7 - The Pre-emptive Strike:

(Not recommended) You just wrote this fic, the self doubt is consuming you. You feel the need to apologise profusely for your existence for no apparently reason. You feel cringe, you think the fic is cringe, you want everyone to know that you think the fic is cringe in case they don't like it and judge you for it.

Example: "So I fell in love with this pairing and had to write this. It's weird and terrible. Lol! I suck at summaries! Sorry!"

Best used for no fics ever. I cannot stress this enough.

(Seriously, I am begging you, don't do this. If you're planning to use this option, rethink it and do one of the others. I guarantee you more people will want to read your fic.)

Sometimes added on to any other summary as a strange disclaimer. (srsly. don't.)

Option 8 - The Unapology:

Embrace the mayhem, embrace the deep dark depths of your soul. The opposite of The Pre-emptive Strike. A combination of The No Frills and The Trope Lure that truly gives no fucks.

You have committed crimes and you are proud of them. You know what your USP is and you're going to make sure your target market finds you. Look upon my works, ye readers, and despair!

Example: "There aren't enough tentacle fics in this pairing, so I had to write one myself!"

Best used for fics with controversial/polarising tropes with all relevant details already clearly stated in the tags.

Option 9 - The Interrogation:

What if you wrote a summary entirely in questions? What if your readers had to read the fic to discover the answers? Who knows what will happen if you do this?

Example: "What happens when Blorbo McBlorbo gets his wish and Daisy doesn't make it to the plane on time? What happens when Obrolb finds out? How will this change Daisy and Blorbo's friendship?"

Best used for... I honestly don't know. This style of summary does not vibe with me. Mystery fic maybe? Sorry guys.

Option 10 - The Multipack:

Got a bunch of shorter fics in one work? No way of summarising them all without a wall of text larger than the Great Wall of China? This one is similar to The No Frills in that you're not describing the plots themselves and similar to The Trope Lure in that often broader genres and tropes are mentioned. What links those fics? Are they all in the same fandom? The same pairing? The same challenge? Just slap that right in the summary. A chapter list with 1-2 word trope/pairing summaries can be included or not.

Example: "A collection of Blorbo/Daisy/Obrolb fics based on Tumblr prompts. Chapter 1: Regency AU Chapter 2: Werewolves vs vampires Chapter 3: Ghost!Daisy Chapter 4: Space pirates!"

Best used for (obviously) works that are compilations of fic.

Option ? - The Void:

I said The Excerpt was the quickest and easiest summary to do. I lied, well... I didn't exactly lie. What is quicker and easier than not having a summary at all? After all, that's what the tags are for.

Example:

Best used for... nothing? Write a summary, guys. Please?

[inthelittlewood]

So, just out of curiosity, are you thinking of making episodes for rats 2 like you did for all the other pow creations smps? If not, that's okay (:

I'm really not sure currently. For full transparency, the previous episodes of both series made on average about £40 individually. The occasional one flicked up to NEARLY £100, but they're real anomalies. Thumbnail costs take up a good portion of that 40, then what's left, divided by the hours it takes to condense masses of content down to episode form would be a wage grossly below minimum wage. It's not smart financially or motivationally to proceed that way.

I've always been proud of the end products of each episode / series but I had revenue coming from other sources that have since dried up. I can't make purely artistic decisions when I have mouths to feed and a home to maintain.

I've been quiet on video content this year because I've not had an SMP play in, so streaming became a primary earner. Even that was propped up significantly by our Logitech/Streamlabs sponsorship - which concluded unexpectedly early at the end of September due to budget adjustments on their end (zero bad feelings regarding that btw, it was all done fairly and by the contract, it was quarterly renewals and I was communicated respectfully with)

I'm lucky that Wild Life has come along when it has, as it gives me a little breathing room to try and secure a new sponsor or at least compile a content plan for late 2024 / early 2025.

Even my Life series barely pass the threshold to where an editor wouldn't gobble up the majority of the revenue. That one is a real 50/50 between coming out net neutral, or coming out with a minimal profit. It's rough. Speaking honestly, I'm a tad nervous about the immediate future, but I promise this isn't a post trying to rouse pity or spur on donations/subs etc, it's just transparency as I've always operated. It feels better laying it out so analytically because it gives people context and answers the FAQ of "why don't you just hire someone", the overhead isn't there.

I'm going to start putting the feelers out to try and secure a new partnership, I have one conversation pending and if we can I'll nab some sponsored streams more often to raise the tides.

That said, we are headed in to the best time of year for ad revenue on YouTube especially, but it's not quite the 5x multiplier I would need to sensibly navigate my situation ha

The only viable solution currently would be to crowd source funds to cover the costs of the work for making the episodes, whether that be paid to me and I edit them myself or more ideally, an editor, so I can focus my efforts in to producing another piece of content. I've no idea what the Patreon/Kofi/Crowdfunding landscape is like currently both mechanically and socially. Are they a thing people subscribe to anymore? They inherently come with more pressures too which I'm nervous to take on.

I'm likely to get inbox messages offering to edit for free or at a reduced fee, but PLEASE DON'T DO THAT. Even if you're framing it as good practice, or a portfolio/client list piece, I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. It's a very sweet gesture and I totally understand showing that initiative / sincerity, I've been there, but those scenarios can too often be miscommunicated or misconstrued and it gets messy. People's time and talents deserve compensation.

So tl;dr answer is I'm not sure, I might try an episode 1 to see how it performs, but it's not looking great. Sorry.

[linderosse]

Guys.

Super long post; read at your own peril (tl;dr at the end).

But I just had a brilliant possible idea about where Echo (the new Zelda from Echoes of Wisdom) fits in the Wisdomverse, so I’m documenting it in case I decide to use it.

See, merging Echo into Fable would be cool. They seem very similar already (relevant post), and it’s a good option.

Yet there are a few small problems with this. I can get around them, but they’re still something to consider.

Fable’s already in four separate games (Most Zeldas get one game or less). Adding EoW makes a fifth.

Fable is already quite powerful amongst the Zeldas. Adding EoW makes her a bit OP. I’ll have to balance that carefully.

Fable has a planned story arc in the Wisdomverse. This might conflict with EoW (for example, this is why LU decided against adding TotK to Wild)

So while I still think it could be cool to merge Fable and Echo, I’m also looking for other possibilities. I don’t want to introduce a new Zelda between Fable and Dawn unless I have to.

And then I realized:

There is already a canon Zelda between Fable and Dawn.

I’ve literally already introduced her.

I have plans for her that could totally work with what we see in Echoes of Wisdom.

She’s vastly underpowered and could use the abilities from EoW very well

I could totally see myself writing her personality into EoW Zelda— it’s a different take than how I’ve depicted Echo before, but it would work equally well imo

And she’s also the Zelda with the least canon information; the one we know the least about overall— especially since we never meet her in her own time.

Guys, if Fable doesn’t work out, I think it might be awesome to merge Echo with Aurora— Hyrule’s second Zelda.

Imagine this:

Aurora woke up centuries in the future, after the Great Decline. She’s trapped in a vastly different world with Dawn and Hyrule as her only solace. She loves them, but she’s not from here; and she can’t shake the dread that she’s left everything behind: her friends, her realm, her brother, who she still cares about despite everything he did to her— and also, of course, her Link, who she loves, and went on an entire adventure to save.

When she was Echo, she was a hero. But as Aurora, she’s an echo of the past; a mournful ghost of a bygone age

Tl;dr: What if Echoes of Wisdom is the era Aurora came from— and where she desperately longs to return?

Masterpost

(More thoughts on the timeline under the cut.)

So— Echoes of Wisdom seems (so far) to take place around the time of Legend’s era, with enough ambiguity that it could be either before or after Legend’s era of ALttP/Oracles/ALBW/TH.

Currently leaning towards “EoW before Legend” considering the similarities to OoT, but I could very well go with “EoW after Legend,” which would be necessary for the Aurora merge. The Oracle games, after all, have a lot of similarities with OoT in terms of races and characters present (Zoras, the Deku Tree, Zelda’s design, etc), and they come after ALttP, which doesn’t have quite as many. Same thing with FSA, which is canonically after Twilight Princess but obviously resembles Four Swords more, and both Wisdomverse and LU have shifted the timeline to match. So there is precedent for similarities to skip a generation or two, even in canon.

I also doubt EoW is going to include a Prince of Hyrule (the one character we know of from Aurora’s backstory). This is fine, because I’m confident I can come up with a reason the Prince was away during the events of EoW. Perhaps during the events of EoW, the Prince left on a journey of his own and first encountered the Wizard that leads to Aurora’s downfall.

Anyways, these are just tentative plans. We’ll see what happens when the game comes out!

[mutopians]

here's a list of fun things that the supreme court has decided in just the past week:

affirmative action is illegal. this is what lets colleges account for race when admitting students in, and getting rid of it in california a few years ago has shown that diversity in schools takes a MAJOR hit. (also, like roe v. wade, this law had DECADES of legal precedent under its belt)

that the dept. of education (and biden) can't go thru with that loan forgiveness plan he put out months ago. you know, the one that would forgive half or even all of some students' debt.

the first amendment lets a web designer refuse to do gay weddings. this means anyone can legally discriminate against queer people. it's a fun time to live in america right now, isn't it?

an important note is that all of these decisions were 6-3, with the more conservative justices overruling the more liberal ones. and if you need ANOTHER reason to care about the supreme court having checks & balances, two of the conservative justices (alito & thomas) have come under scrutiny these past few years for ethics violations, but the chief justice (aka the guy in charge, roberts) has failed to follow through on his promises to make an ethics code.

and i can assure you that they think they can get away with all of this because they know they can never be held accountable for their decisions—it's a lifetime appointment, and it's tricky to get impeached.

so tl;dr: voting is important. we might not vote for these guys, but we DO vote for who appoints them & who confirms their nomination. and the only way we can ever get our rights back is by appointing people to legislative offices so they can enshrine our rights in something a little stronger.

[emelinstriker]

{Special Stranger} Nezha ♡ Pumpkin Carving

Art drawn by me + the AU itself is mine.

Very much rushed drabble and art just because I wanted to get this out in time for Halloween. So it's meh towards the end.

[TL;DR] The inside joke headcanon of Nezha being way too skilled at things shows.

♡ ~ Fluff ~ ♡

It was October and Halloween was fast approaching. And while it wasn't the first Halloween you were celebrating with your boyfriend, it was the first time you had a special activity planned.

And after several hours of work, Nezha finally returned home, clearly exhausted. He probably had to deal with a lot of unruly people again. You smiled softly as you greeted him from the kitchen door. "Welcome home!"

At the sound of your voice, his mood seemed to change. Nezha's exhaustion seemed to fade for even just a moment as he approached you. He pulled you closer, leaned in, and gave you a gentle kiss before pulling away. "It's good to be home." That's when he looked down and noticed you wearing an apron with a cute pumpkin on it. He raised an eyebrow as he comments, "New apron?"

You nodded happily, humming in confirmation. "I also got you one so we can match for the pumpkin carving!"

His eyes widened a little in realization as he pursed his lips. "Oh shit- That was today? I'm so sorry, blossom- I should've come home earlier", he groans a little, annoyed at himself for having forgotten.

You leaned in and kissed his cheek. "It's absolutely fine, honey. I figured you wouldn't be home until late in the afternoon. So I already got everything ready for us." You reassured before you lead him towards the kitchen, where you had already set up the table. There were also the pumpkins the two of you picked the week prior.

Nezha glanced at the table as he let out a chuckle. "Man, all these things you do for me... Sometimes I really feel like I don't deserve yo-"

You quickly shut him up with another kiss on the lips. "Shush, love. You absolutely deserve me. And I'm lucky to have you in return."

He quickly melted into the kiss before eventually pulling away with a smile, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. He wanted to keep up the banter with you, but he knew you had a date involving carving pumpkins. The affectionate banter would have to wait until later.

You handed him his matching apron so he could put it on, before sitting down at the table next to him. He had carved a few pumpkins before to entertain some children from time to time, but he never got to actually play around with the design much. After all, detailed carvings weren't easy for children, so he used big openings for simple smiley faces whenever he taught them how to do it.

During your date, he decided to be a lot more ambitious though, just to test his own skills and impress you. All the while you kept trying to take glances at what design he chose. However, everytime he noticed you trying to take a peek in a not so subtle way, he gently shoo'd you back to your own side of the table. A lot of laughter was involved in your attempts to take a look and him trying to push you away to keep it a surprise.

You could tell he had fun as he seemed quite focused on whatever he was working on. Meanwhile you were struggling just a little with the more detailed parts of your own work. It took a while, but eventually the two of you were done. And as a little test and surprise, you placed one candle into each pumpkin. Once Nezha lit them up, you turned off the lights.

You couldn't help but stare in awe at his pumpkin's design illuminated by the candle. It seemed very detailed for the short amount of time you've spent on carving. It looked like a faceless image of yourself holding a lotus flower in your hands. The sight of him having created something so much better than yours made you feel a bit insecure as he eagerly looked at your pumpkin. While your own carving wasn't all that bad, it was rather simple and the detailed parts clearly didn't have the cleanest lines. But that didn't matter to him as he proceeded to compliment your work.

The rest of the evening was overall relaxing as you and your boyfriend decided to just watch movies and cuddle on the couch.

[ Masterlist ]

[zucchinitart]

LJ and his mommy!!

created some new lore for him!!:

As I’m sticking to the idea that he was created by the heavens, I decided to create this giant lady!!

So the lore goes-

A few angels were chosen to create and send off mystical beings meant for “troubled” children, and two of those chosen angels created LJ!! They’re angel twins that go by the names Ila and Mila. Ila is the lady shown above, and she is very much a sweetheart. She absolutely adores LJ and strongly believes that he’ll succeed in his job and help Isaac Grossman, the “troubled” child assigned to him.

The two angels teach him everything they can and think is necessary within one human year, and then they send him off to Earth!! However, once LJ leaves heaven, he will forget them and heaven entirely until he succeeds his mission. If he succeeds, he’ll depart from Isaac, go back to heaven, and get all his memories back.

Typically, the mystical beings are meant to finish their job within 15 human years. But as time passed by and more mystical beings returned, LJ did not. Although it’s forbidden to check on their creations in the mortal realm, Ila decided to see what was happening with LJ. Much to her dismay and as we all know about LJ, he was abandoned, and he subsequently failed his mission.

Ila did not see it this way, and rather blamed the heavens for allowing such cruelty to happen. She tried to comfort him in his box with a spirit of her hand, but Ila is forced back to the heavens by her brother, Mila. (Btw jack has no idea what that hand was and thought it was a hallucination…but it gave him a lil hope!!!)

Mila reprimanded Ila for her actions, saying she’d die if she gets caught. They have an argument, but Mila ended up siding with the heavens on their decision to give up on LJ. He hoped that Ila would side with him so they wouldn’t get killed, but she falls into despair and tries to go back.

Ila gets caught the second time and gets punished with extermination.

Mila loved LJ just as much as Ila, but he knew he had to fake his feelings to stay alive. However, the idea about LJ suffering and Ila’s death finally broke him, and Mila tried to save him as well. It seems someone already knew about his plan though, as he gets caught before he can do anything.

They both die in vain as LJ continues to suffer. The heavens then determined that LJ will be like a message sent from above meant to punish the humans for their sins, and they allow him to wreak havoc however he pleases.

TL;DR- LJ has parents but also not rlly!! Unfortunately, they both die trying to save him 😞

I rlly just created this lore to make his story more sad. He’s never gonna see them or remember them again 💀 I also thought it would be cool if he had a giant, mystical mommy for some reason!!

Might scrap this cuz it kinda makes no sense but anyways!!

[odinsblog]

Everything about the Starship was the result of a series of decisions designed to make spaceflight cheaper. The methane fuel. The steel structure. The method of construction. Even the rocket’s enormous size. All of it was a gamble to create a system that is fully reusable, bringing the cost of getting to orbit down to a small fraction of what it is today and making space almost infinitely more accessible.

However, one decision in the process didn’t just result in the destruction of the rocket, it generated a cascade of failures, one that’s likely to set the program back by a least a year, erasing the chance of NASA’s scheduled return to the Moon in the process. That decision is 100% on Elon Musk.

HERE’S THE TL;DR VERSION

The no-clamps slow throttle-up meant Starship stayed on the pad for a long time, throwing up concrete, rock, and sand in all directions, damaging the pad, nearby facilities, and Starship itself.

By the time it left the pad, that debris had already destroyed three of Starship’s engines and likely damaged valves and systems that would lead to additional engine failures as well as an incorrect fuel mixture.

Starship was slow to reach every point in the flight plan, suggesting that other engines were not able to throttle up to compensate for the lost engines.

At what should have been stage separation, either software errors or more smashed hardware kept the main booster firing long after it should have shut down.

The result was an uncontrolled spin that required Starship to be destroyed.

WHY THIS IS 100% ELON MUSK’S FAULT

Starship is the work of hundreds of talented engineers and thousands of employees who put their best into making this thing go. The design is extremely daring, and something of a wonder. The engines are amazing, even if they have demonstrated that reliability is currently lacking. The whole system of construction promises to revolutionize the space industry.

But there are two parts that were left out of Starship that absolutely doomed this flight and the decision not to include them falls right with the guy at the end of the first row at “Star Command.”

Those parts were not parts for the rocket. They were parts for the launch pad.

For some reason, Musk became convinced early on that he did not want the launch tower to have:

A flame-diverter or flame trench to redirect the blast from the booster’s engines

A water deluge system to dump a massive amount of water around the launch tower during liftoff

The launch facilities at Kennedy have both of these. Even the launch pads used for the much smaller Falcon 9 have both a flame trench and a water deluge. They help to protect not just the launch pad, and the surrounding area, they also help to reduce the noise. Which sounds trivial, but that noise is energy. That’s what broke up the concrete under the Starship Stage Zero, not the fire. That’s what sent car-sized chunks flying in all directions.

A flame diverter and a water deluge would have greatly reduced, or even eliminated, the damage to the area around the pad. They would have prevented the blow back of debris that damaged Starship before it even left the ground. It might have headed off the whole cascade of events that resulted in that button being pressed 4 minutes into the flight.

We don’t have to guess about whose decision it was not to implement these systems, because Musk already said he decided to skip these systems over the recommendations of his engineers. Musk even had a preview of what was going to happen, as past test flights of the upper stage also resulted in significant spalling of concrete structures and damage to at least one of the ships. He just made them try different kinds of concrete.

The parts for a water deluge were actually on site, ready to install, but Musk decided to forego that installation—likely so he could enjoy the pun of launching his super-joint on 4/20. Which was something Musk had joked about doing months ago.

Hopefully he enjoyed the joke, because the EPA and FAA are going to be thinking long and hard before they authorize another flight from Boca Chica. All those engineers, and all those workers, and all their good work, is held hostage to Musk’s whims.

Also a victim of Musk’s decision to leave these vital pieces off the table? The Artemis Program at NASA. Musk has already been awarded the contract to create the first lunar lander for the new program, but that lander is absolutely dependent on Starship. It’s a sure bet that Musk won’t have his part of the program ready on schedule. It’s going to be some time before we even so another test flight.

In the meantime, SpaceX can repair the damage, build a flame diverter, install that deluge system, clean up the software, and ditch the whole “pitch over” means of stage separation for something simpler—like using the second stage engines to push the stages apart with an unignited shot of methane.

See you in 2024, Starship.

Maybe.

👉🏿 https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/22/2165317/-A-Starship-Post-mortem-Why-the-giant-rocket-failed-and-why-it-s-Elon-Musk-s-fault

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for killing my character and quitting a D&D game I was part of?

Apologies in advance but this is going to be rather long, I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom.

So this all started about eleven months ago when I (14, she/they/he) started getting into D&D, and joined a D&D group thanks to a friend of mine we'll call T (14, he/they). The group was made up of about five people total, but the main people in this situation are me, T, and the DM who we'll call N (15, he/him).

Now when I was making my character, T was helping me out by letting me describe what sort of character I wanted and suggesting different races, classes etc to make it work how I wanted, and what we ended up with was a Pact of the Undead warlock. The backstory of my character was that their older brother died defending them from an invasion of the village they lived in.

My character managed to make contact with their spirit in the afterlife and formed a "pact" with them, gaining power in exchange for letting him "look after them" (i.e. keep watch over them from the afterlife, protect them from harm, all that sorta thing). T told me to run the final concept past N but that they were sure it'd be allowed and that the pact idea was really sweet.

So I told N about my character and the backstory idea like T suggested and N seemed really on board with the whole thing, though he wanted to make a few slight changes to things in secret that would come up during the campaign, to make things more exciting I guess.

I told him I was alright with that, as long as nothing about who the pact was with and what it was for changed too much. He assured me that it wouldn't and that he'd get back to me on what changes he was planning, but he never did, and at the time I just put that down to him being busy.

The campaign starts, and for the first few months things are going pretty good. I do notice that a lot of NPCs, in fact nearly every non-child NPC, seems to be flirting(?) with my character, but I don't think too much of it at first, she is a young elven woman with blonde hair and silver eyes and everyone in the group has said that she's very pretty.

It isn't until one of the others who is also playing an elven character points out that they've been on the receiving end of essentially racism towards elves from NPCs who have simultaneously been showering my character with compliments that I start realizing how frequent and honestly rather obsessive it is, and as mentioned, just how many of the NPCs are doing it.

Then we get to T's character arc, exploring his character's backstory and helping them with things that come up. However, there are certain characters that are introduced that, out of character, T reacts rather negatively to, and when I ask him outside of session what's going on he confides in me that N is changing elements of his backstory that he'd told him he didn't want changing. As an example, T wrote that their character's mother was never part of their character's life growing up.

One of the characters we met was the character's mother, who was instead apparently a very prominent part of their life and cared greatly about them "not that they ever noticed". He also changed the character of T's father from "kind and caring man who did his best to raise his child alone and teach them how to defend themselves" to "stubborn, angry and neglectful father that is constantly disappointed in his son", which completely blindsided and upset T.

T also said that he'd tried talking to N about this but that the response had ended up being, to put it bluntly, "I'm the DM so I have the final say in things". This started to worry me, especially when I realized that N had never gotten back to me with his "proposed changes" to my backstory.

So I sent him a message, but because I didn't want to drag T into my own business with N I decided to say something along the lines of "hey, did you ever figure out what you wanted to change about my backstory?". He messaged back and said that he'd figured it out, but that things with school were so busy that he hadn't had time to sit down and properly write it all out to send to me yet, but assured me that he would by the time T's arc was over.

Several more months passed with no further word from N about my character's backstory, and as T's arc wraps up there's this idea that starts getting brought up, of how demons often exploit the grief of mortals to latch onto them and claim their souls by impersonating the dead person.

The others in the group all latch onto this and start speculating about how exactly the demons use impersonation to claim souls, except for T who gives me this rather worried look from across the table, and it suddenly hits me that this is probably meant to be the opening of my character arc.

I pull N aside after the game is over for the night and ask him directly if this is the opening to my character arc, and he says that it is, but not to worry because the demon thing is, to quote, "just being brought up to get the others interested". I remind him about what I told him about not wanting anything to change about who the pact was with and what it was for, and ask him again what changes he's made to my backstory.

He promises he'll have a full list to me by the start of next session, that we'll have time to sit down together and discuss it all even, and that he won't do anything I don't want him to do. Despite my concerns and the fact that he has already said several times he'll send me this list without doing it, I decide, like a fool, to trust him, even though in hindsight I had absolutely no reason to by this point.

The next session rolls around, and of course there's no list, instead a lot of NPCs who start voicing concern whenever my character brings up the fact she's a warlock, or her dead brother, especially if the pair come up in quick succession. One of the other characters figures out what's going on and asks if they can basically cast some sort of spell to determine if a demon's got control of my soul, which N agrees to, and the spell determines that yes, that's exactly what's going on.

I immediately confront N, mid-session, and tell him outright that this isn't fair, that I told him I didn't want him to change this part of my backstory, and I wanted him to change it back immediately or I wasn't going to play anymore. He started on this long-winded response basically summarizing as "I'm the DM, I can do what I want".

This is the part where I may be the asshole, because well, I saw red in that moment, and decided I not only wanted to follow through on my threat of quitting, but also do something to ensure that my point was driven home.

I fired off a quick message to T on my phone warning him what I was about to do, and while the others were talking about what to do to help me I loudly announced that my character was stabbing herself through the heart, which N had previously ruled would be an instant method of death if carried out.

Silence falls over the group. N tells me that I need to roll to see if I even hit, which I argue (with T backing me up) that if my character is willing to get hurt then it's automatically a hit. N tells me that I need to roll to see if I even pierce my heart. Okay, fine, I roll, and as luck would have it I roll a Nat 20. N attempts to send me just to death saves, but I remind him (again, with T backing me up) that he'd ruled that this was an instant death.

So then he tries to have an NPC cleric show up and revive my character, but T brings up that the soul has to be willing to return to life for that to work, and I immediately say that my character wouldn't even be able to consent to that if her soul was held by a demon, nor would she even be willing if she could. Then I tell N directly that he can consider this my official resignation from the group and walk out, and T follows along behind me after a few minutes.

Ever since then N's been blowing up my phone, fluctuating between begging for me to rejoin the group and promising that he'll do things differently this time, and calling me a selfish bastard for "ruining the fun". T still goes to sessions occasionally, though I think now it's just to spectate, and he's said that maybe things went a little far with the character death in hindsight. And honestly, I'm not exactly proud of how I acted now either.

TL;DR -- I joined a D&D campaign where the DM has made unwanted changes to my character's backstory, despite my attempts to communicate with him, so I retaliated by killing my character mid-session and refusing to let him revive her before quitting. AITA?

[llamaisllama777]

I... I think I know what's going on.

Theory: Nexus ain't dead. We're all still playing Dark Sun's game!

(Nexus fans, you're gonna love this. I know I am)

Okay, so, in today's episode, we see Moon travels to another dimension cause of a dimensional anomaly and sees a Sun bashing his Moon's skull in. Moon is obviously startled and horrified by this, and after a little investigation, Moon finds out something is wrong in the multiverse, apparently in 36% of the multiverse a bunch of Suns have started to kill their Moons.

Why? How? What caused this? What triggered it? Suns just don't start randomly murdering Moons...

I think we may have an answer...

Nexus isn't really gone. Dark Sun is still pulling the strings.

Okay, so, remember this episode?

In this episode, Dark Sun asks Nexus' permission and full trust to do something. Now we never found out what this something was until now, I think.

Dark Sun also mentioned in this episode or a different one he says that Nexus wouldn't have the same body forever. I thought he meant like he'd make Nexus a new body to contain his negative star power, but no. He just meant Nexus wouldn't have the same body... he never said he'd make him a new one.

In this episode...

Dark Sun briefly mentions to Sun that whoever he chooses to kill, he will exsponge the data of them so they couldn't come back... this means Dark Sun has access to Moon and Nexus' code... he has their code. Hmmmm....

Plus, Dark Sun did have access to Ruin a.k.a, a guy who had been exposed and probably knows how to make the Ruin virus...

Nexus isn't gone. He's just not in our world anymore. He's in EVERY WORLD NOW!

When Sun killed Nexus, that's what Dark Sun wanted. He didn't want Moon to die. That wouldn't benefit him. He needed Nexus to die to complete his plan. Dark Sun has access to Nexus' code and Ruin, a guy who knows an awful lot about the Ruin virus he probably knows how to make it, too.

Dark Sun wanted Sun to kill Nexus, so Nexus would die and become pure code, Dark Sun could then spread Nexus around the multiverse like a virus and cause other Moon's to go rouge and become Nexuses which would cause other Suns to kill their Moons and become like Dark Sun in a sense.

Dark Sun did say he did all this for Sun and probably every other Sun.

Dark Sun is trying to prove to all Suns that all Moons are bad and that they're better off without them. But of course, in the grand scheme of the multiverse, not EVERY Moon can be bad, so Dark Sun and Nexus MADE them bad.

Dark Sun is trying to create more hims cause he does view himself as the Superior Sun, the Sun that grew up, the Sun that grew a spine, the Sun that fought back!

Dark Sun views himself as a sort of savior of Suns, and in his twisted mind, he's trying to save the other Suns from being used and abused by their Moons. He's trying to prove his point that all Moons are bad, but since not every Moon is bad, he had to make them bad to prove his point. (Which kind of defeats his point, but I digress)

Dark Sun is trying to do this to save the other Suns! By ruining the other Moons!

Tl;Dr Nexus isn't dead and is now pure code, and Dark Sun is having him go around the multiverse, turning all Moon's into Nexuses to prove his point that all Moons are bad and make more Suns like himself.

But hey, that's just a theory...

A TSAMS THEORY!

[briar-ffxiv]

Hate to do this, but if anyone can help

TL: DR - Due to a lot of financial strain this year and moving before we planned to with little notice, my cats and my family don't have money for groceries for the next few months. We just need to make it to January and we've been trying hard, eating as cheap as possible, not going out, no extra services, etc. Heck, I only have FFXIV because a friend was nice enough to help.

But now, we're out of money and next paycheck once we cover rent and bills, we'll have less than $30. And unfortunately, we need to eat.

So if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Anything. Thank you. <3

Below the read-more are the longer details. If anyone doesn't mind boosting or something, I'd be grateful.

More Details:

Basically, due to having to move at least a year sooner than expected with less than 60 days' notice, we've used up every bit of savings and resources we have. Plus, due to some other financial nonsense, including the past roommates being terrible and my spouse's work using loopholes to avoid paying him overtime, we're finally having a really rough time.

We can just cover rent and the minimal bills. Several months ago, we turned off anything we didn't completely need. That includes streaming services, games, and what have you. Heck, we wouldn't have kept on the internet if my spouse didn't need it for work.

We were just trying to hold on until New Year. The New Year means a mandatory raise for my spouse and his boss has promised it's a good one (due to several years of him getting the minimum under his previous boss who was fired for several reasons). So we've been just trying to make it and just have a few months left.

Unfortunately, with just a few months to go, we've basically maxed out all we can. The next step is trying to rehome my cats to remove the cost of maintaining them, although I hate to do it. I really don't want to. Pretty much every cat I have, I either rescued and/or raised from birth. But I'm certainly not going to let them starve or suffer.

I have been trying for months to get a job, but due to personal things and limited options (only one car with limited gas, etc.), I haven't been able to find anything. I keep sending out forms and not hearing much. Due to gas prices and such, I can't even do UberEats or Doordash or something. I'm at a loss and I feel completely useless in trying to help my spouse at the moment.

I really hate asking. My little Tumblr is just cute stuff with my character, aesthetics, and trying to be positive. I'm just really desperate because I don't know what else to do.

We've looked into state help, but I live in Texas and their "poverty line" is absolutely ridiculous. My spouse makes "too much" for us to get the benefits of any kind of help, even temporarily. Due to the crappy roommates, our credit isn't great and we're already struggling to pay off things so getting a loan is pretty much impossible.

I don't really have any skills that people would pay for commissions for. I'd be happy to do writing commissions or something, but I've never had much luck with that.

So, yeah, I just...I really need some help getting through the next 60 days or so. So if you've read all this, thank you. If you reblog, thank you. If you feel like giving anything, thank you. Even if it's just kind thoughts, I appreciate it so much.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Bard

[tamamatango]

HAPPENING……MAYBE!! (Addressing the anime rumors + Keroro’s birthday plan revealed)

*holding my hand out toward you with sparkles framing me* Let’s take copium together!

Not the post I was planning to make next, but here’s a sudden update for a couple of reasons. Some very exciting rumors which you may very well have seen have been floating around for the last day or so, and while I was initially hype as fuck to corroborate it as fact, there’s a little asterisk to the whole thing that I wanna tack on before we shit our pants too much. In addition, the official accounts have revealed what they’re planning for Keroro’s birthday this year, and while it’s not that closely related, I might as well cover that too.

So, a summary of what alleged info just came out:

A typically reputable anime news/leak account, SugoiLITE, shared yesterday that the Keroro anime series is planned to be broadcasted in Spring 2025, and a new movie is planned for 2026. However, the only publicly verifiable info hinting toward this is a recently released interview in an anime magazine with animation director Fumitoshi Oizaki (from the original series, and was also credited on April’s PV), where he describes the series and movie projects but does not specify the series name. This info is per another credible reporter, blogger ryokutya.

Now, here is my translation of Oizaki’s quote as presented in the post: “Details haven’t been made public yet, but I’m working on a series to be broadcasted next spring. Concurrently, a movie scheduled to be released in 2026 has also started production.”

Sadly, the blog post does not specify which anime magazine this was in, so I don’t have the full context for the interview or the question asked. I checked a few table of contents from recently released anime magazines and didn’t see Oizaki’s name in any of them. My hunch is telling me that it’s Newtype, which doesn’t have a digital version, so there’s no feasible way for me to have it that quickly. So yeah, we’re kinda stuck with that quote floating in the void for now.

I can’t go too deep into it so you’ll have to trust me on this one, but I’ve got a little knowledge myself about roughly how and from where anime leaks usually get sourced. It is very possible SugoiLITE does indeed know this information in advance, but it’s also equally possible he only saw this same quote and extrapolated the most likely scenario from it. If it is the latter, I’d say he made a pretty safe bet anyway.

In the quote, what I chose to translate as “concurrently” can also mean “in parallel”, so the interpretation I’m getting is that the spring 2025 series and 2026 movie are connected and being developed in tandem. Ryokutya also guesses that the work in question is Keroro since it does have a project announced. I’ve speculated that the new series will air in either spring or summer next year for a while now (BNP has a mysterious gap in their schedule, with two series airing in January and the Gintama spinoff announced in late 2023 being pushed to October). A movie in 2026 also make a lot of sense, since it’s the 20th anniversary of the first movie. Oizaki does work on other franchises with recent relevancy, such as Kaleido Star which had its 20th anniversary in 2023, and some works in the Shigeru Mizuki-verse like Akuma-kun and last year’s Gegege no Kitaro prequel. But given the specific language in the quote and just Occam’s razoring it down to the fact that we know Keroro is getting things already, I think this double feature is pretty likely what’s going on. Maybe it’s the hopium talking, but it’s certainly not a reach (trust me I’ve made reaches before I was here for the nothingburger that was the anime’s 15th anniversary).

Okay, tl;dr: Given the one available source we have and the credibility of both reporters involved, I think there’s a pretty good chance the anime will really be next spring and there will be a movie in 2026 as people have been corroborating. But the probability that this is an educated guess and the probability that it’s confirmed are pretty much equal at the moment. So get excited! But not too excited. Just like a bit above average excited. You may draw the party popper pull string back about three quarters.

When I first started drafting this post, I was looking forward to saying that we’ll likely find out next month what the truth is, knowing that today the official accounts were going to reveal what this year’s Keroro birthday celebration is. But…they explicitly stated there will not be any new anime info at the event they have planned. Booooooo. Well, here’s what we are getting:

It’s actually not a physical event like they held last year. This time, they’re commemorating Keroro’s birthday with the first episode of a new live radio show called “Kero! to Radio”, featuring Keroro’s voice actress Kumiko Watanabe and Tamama’s voice actress Etsuko Kozakura. It will be broadcasted irregularly on the official Keroro YouTube channel, and next month’s premiere will be here. There will be various different segments of the show which feature messages and questions sent in by listeners. Submissions are sent in via the program’s Onsen page, which also has details about each segment. You do need an account to send messages, but I don’t think a Japanese address is required unless you want to enter the optional raffle. I’ll play around with it later and potentially do a separate post going more into the show’s structure if that’s something people are interested in (obviously you need to know Japanese to really get anything out of this, so I’d like to gauge if it’s worth it first).

While it’s disappointing that there seemingly won’t be any news about the new anime revealed on the legendary birthday, it’s pretty neat to have another VA radio show. It seems like this is sort of following in the footsteps of Keroro and Giroro’s Earth Invasion Radio from back when the original show was still airing, although Keroro Channel also had been doing its own livestreams featuring the BNP/Kadokawa staff running the channel giving updates about the series’s various collabs and stuff (the majority of these episodes were done before the new anime announcement). It’s unclear if this is going to replace those or not; this is quite different structurally. It would be really cool if they rotate the voice actors out each episode and change the segments up a little since the broadcasts are irregular anyway. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

*Exhale* All right, that’s enough yapping for today. I know the wait for more concrete details on the anime has been excruciating, especially now that we have a very tantalizing possibility dangling right before our noses. But if spring really is the airdate, it can’t be too much longer now. We already waited over a decade—what’s a few more months, right? Heh heh... (I’m dying Squirtle.)

[kalkori]

starts punching the wall. starts punching the wall. starts punching the wall. starts punching the wall. starts punching the wall.

people seem to like it when i yell at the void analysing video games [see: me still getting notifications on my fleshcousin post going "YOU. YOU GET IT"] so um.

HEAVY SPOILER WARNING FOR GREAT GOD GROVE & INSCRYPTION

i have always hated how people tend to flatten p03 into the evilest guy on earth but unable to articulate for the normal person just WHY i hate it. But great god grove gives me the full ability to explain it to the normal person:

p03 is inspekta, at their core. except, they never had any support.

lets think about some p03 traits that are... overlooked.

for example, can we talk about the fact that p03's minions are the only ones actually DEVOTED to them?

like, grimora and leshy's minions are mostly neutral about them. magnificus's... um... tower companions don't really have a choice.

But P03's?

they could just... leave. any time. whenever. but they dont. in fact, they are willing to sacrifice themself for p03 when they really don't need to.

reminds me Of A Certain Person's Little Busy Boys. and you can TRY to make an argument that inspekta doesn't actually care for them but occam's razor. they like their boys

this next bit is more well known, but there are more hints that p03 is sort of putting up a facade.

in the uberbots, they all each reflect the parts of a scrybe p03 has distaste for.

G0lly represents themself, and instead of it being the grand "wow this uberbot is awesome," it is the one played up THE MOST and the one p03 hates THE MOST

and it is... cute. nice. trusting.

the part p03 hates about themself... is the part that isn't cynical, has not been broken down by the miserable existence in the floppy disk, that is always desperately reaching out.

i would actually argue that p03 is more innocent than inspekta.

because p03 does not know what the old_data is until they're in too deep, or, they never get to know at all.

see, theres a secret with the bone lord in act 3 where are the end luke AND P03 learn the true nature of the old_data

and p03...

only has that to say.

p03's plan was to NEVER spread this evil, and hell, they didn't even destroy anyone. they explicitly keep them around, and those turned into cards don't even get their whole memory erased (cough cough) LESHY (cough cough)

in the end inspekta and p03 had the same goal: to be remembered, to be the only one, and most importantly, to be loved.

so why did inspekta get a happy ending, while p03... well... "wins", but in the worse case scenario?

it's simple. the gods cared about eachother, the scrybes didn't.

"grimora-" grimora committed murder suicide and went "its for the best" without asking anyone.

Magnificus.

leshy could not care less about the scrybes, if erasing their memory and casually throwing away the bodies says anything.

inspekta, on the other hand, had all of their god buddies essentially screaming at them "WE LOVE YOU." because they could see past inspekta's facade, and see the real inspekta, see hector.

none of the scrybes could see past the acts the other put up.

in conclusion/tl;dr: the power of love and friendship could have changed the ending to inscryption and i am not joking

[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to Chaos Creator's Chapter 266

New title - 33. Do You Think It's Possible With Your Own Power?

TL;DR - Cale reveals that he was an otherworlder sent by a god to stop the god-wannabe dragon. Freedom spies on the emperor. Jungwon says that Dragon Lord came to visit him. Cale is troubled because of gamer Alberu.

The Discussion First half of the chapter was a continuation of Cale's "discussion" with Emperor Alt. Cale revealed about his otherworlder status and his mission, giving Alt false hopes of power when Cale added that he would leave this world after his mission was done.

Of course, Cale knew that Alt's ambition would be hard to achieve, especially when King Dennis was present. Dennis had slyly offered to assign "aides" who would do chores for the mages and swordsmen in Cale's group.

With the great upheaval happening 200 years ago, magic and swordsmanship naturally regressed, so Cale understood why Dennis wanted his kingdom's theoretical mages and reserve swordsmen to "become aides" of the mages and knights in Cale's group. So Cale agreed to Dennis's offer, referring him to Ron and Rosalyn.

The Messages It seemed like the area near the ruined temple of the Chaos God was a no-signal place because Sui's group stopped contacting them after teleporting there. And while Cale was thinking of eventually going there too, he received two messages.

One was from Jungwon who said that the Dragon Lord personally visited him. What? How? Did the Central Plains have a World Tree where the Dragon Lord could use to trace the source of the world and talk to Jungwon, like how he did in Aipotu?

But Cale was more alarmed to read the 2nd message which was from Alberu. Yeah, Cale's bad premonition was correct. Alberu had indeed become an obsessed gamer! 🤣🤣🤣

Alberu's message: I heard that the game is getting a large update patch. It's said that from now on, game users can also build a nation. I plan to try it too. Cale: Ha! Alberu's message: FYI, I was selected as a Rising Newbie, a rising powerhouse among newbies. I think I will participate in the best rookie competition as Roan's representative. Cale: Ha! (Alberu Crossman. That person plans to establish a kingdom in a virtual reality game and be the king. And what? Rising Newbie? How immersed were you in the game to get a title like that!) Cale: *video calls Alberu* Alberu: What? I'm busy now, okay? *moving his pen nonstop* Cale: *shocked* Alberu: What's wrong? What happened? Raon: H-Human! The crown prince has puffy eyes! His cheeks are sunken! We have to give the crown prince 10- no, 100 apple pies! Cale: *covers face with both hands* Aren't you tired? Alberu: *stops writing and smiles* You mean doing both work and games? Cale: Yes. Isn't it better to do it in moderation? Alberu: *shrugs* Isn't it worth a try? Raon: T-The crown prince looks like my human now! Cale: This is driving me crazy.

Oh how the tables have turned. Cale and Alberu have switched their iconic lines of "It's worth a try" and "This is driving me crazy" 🤣🤣🤣 And that Rising Newbie title. Yeah, that's pretty much confirmation of Alberu's game addiction. What have you done to him, Cale?

Ending Remarks The last part about gamer Alberu was hilarious. Next chapter would be Cale's meeting with the pope. I guess we're going to find out soon the chaos the three troublemakers had done there. 😂

[thetownwecallhome]

TNBC showerthought #10: Sally is her own Doll

((OOC: So I saw because of @tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons that there's a new comic coming out that's a 'what if' if Sally had been the one to find the holiday doors and not Jack. I'll admit the idea intrigues me...but I'm a little cautious.

Now's not the time to go into it but I get a little peeved with how Disney is utilizing fan-fic ideas and concepts like AUs and mecha crossovers in their spinoff material. But, besides that fear, I'm cautious for another reason. I'm noticing a lot more stuff trying to feature Sally more and more. While I like that, I'm also kind of annoyed with it.

Among the many problems I have with "Long Live the Pumpkin Queen", one of them is I feel like they're trying to make Sally more of a female alt to Jack, rather than her own unique character. LLTPQ had to retcon Sally into being a princess from another kingdom the way Jack is already a 'King'. Which, to ME is deeply insulting.

Part of what makes Sally impressive is that she is 'just' a ragdoll. She was created, not born or 'died', and she also happens to be smarter than her creator and even the king of her town. There doesn't need to be some explanation for her being the way she is and that's what's cool about her. It's very, Ozian, for lack of a better word. It's such a cute idea of an inanimate-object-brought-to-life becoming a ruler and being thought of as their own person. It's cute and even a little empowering in a way.

While I'm not scared that this new comic will retcon anything like LLTPQ did (really, it's supposed to, given that it's an AU), I'm still worried that this new comic will give Sally the exact same reaction Jack has to Christmas and have the plot of the movie try and go on but with Sally in Jack's place...and I really hope that's not what happens.

Sally is not Jack. That's what's adorable about her. That's what we the audience love about her and that's what Jack falls in love with her at the end for. Sally wouldn't do the things Jack does with Christmas because Sally is her own person and her situation and social status is different than Jack.

AUs of this kind really kind of put into perspective the kind of characters you're working/messing with. The whole reason the story of TNBC happens at all is because Jack is the kind of person he is while he finds Christmas; extroverted, peppy, self-absorbed, ostentatious and manic depressive. Jack is the king and everybody wants his approval and attention even if he thinks no one actually listens to him. The only reason Halloween ends up doing Christmas at all is because Jack is the king and is used to doing what he wants and getting his citizens in on his plans.

If Sally finds Christmas Town or any other holiday world and comes to her own self-discovery, she better not go back and try and tell the people of Halloween about it. Sally's whole deal in the first half of the movie is she doesn't want to live with Dr. Fink; she's trying to escape. She'd probably stay in the Holiday worlds because she has no one back home desperately looking for her besides Dr. Fink. She wants to be away. If anything she has a way better reason than Jack or anyone else in town to run away. And, if Dr. Fink did make a big deal and ask people to help him look and then THAT's how Halloween first finds Christmas-- that would be something. I'd really like to see an alt. Jally-romance take that direction; Jack starts a search party for Dr. Fink's missing secretary he's seen once or twice, he follows a party personally to the outskirts of Halloween land, finds the doors and Sally and SHE'S the one to introduce HIM to the other holiday worlds. That'd be so cool!

tl;dr: I hope the 'what if' comic has Sally functionally going on her own journey and being a different character and not her functionally going through the beats of the story Jack did but just Sally in place of Jack. Sally is not Jack.

))