#The mod speaks

[randomitemdrop]

your opinion on ai is so refreshing. god i am so tired of 'ai good' and 'ai bad'

I appreciate that! I've seen a lot of arguments for and against and I've seen both sides make good points and bad points. Like a lot of copyright stuff, I think it's just really hard to come up with a set of rules (ethical or legal) that can apply both to the smallest indie creator and to the biggest international legacy-IP corporation.

One BIG point I forgot to mention is that with some of the generators you can actually use a specific image set instead of letting it figure sources out for itself, which bypasses a lot of the worrisome aspects of it. Check out @therobotmonster's This Toy Should Not Exist series using nothing but photos of real action figures to generate randomized yet familiar-feeling retro toys, like this guy:

[shadowvanillaweek]

We have been blessed. I never got any costumes this fast before. May you all also get them soon 🙏

If you squint this could count as a Day 5 inspiration

[psycho-net2000]

Some warm up/thumbnail sketches that ended up not being warm up/thumbnail sketches (that's why some little details are missing)

[incorrect-toriko-quotes]

Have you ever wondered why Toriko characters have such weird names?

Well too bad! I did. And you're gonna read about it!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TORIKO UP TO THE END OF THE MANGA

Some background info you need...

The Toriko world uses a mix of Japanese and English. Like... a really striking mix. It's a Japanglish world, and that's especially true of names. Lots of characters with English names turned Japanese (like Tom or Tina), characters with word/either-or names (Sani/Sunny and Coco), characters with pure Japanese names (Ichiryuu, Jirou), and the occasional complete wildcard (Zebra).

I've mentioned it offhandedly, but I'm mixed Japanese/Canadian. Toriko uses a LOT of Japanglish, especially in the names of characters, so I like to think I've got a pretty good grasp of what's going on.

HOWEVER! You all need to get a crash-course in Japanese lettering really quickly. I promise I'll keep it short.

Japanese uses 3 writing systems: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Kanji are for Japanese-origin words (with Hiragana being an alphabet and Kanji being entire words and therefore a bit more meaningful), and Katakana being for loanwords (not just English-origin)

GOT IT? GOOD!

TORIKO & KOMATSU

Toriko (トリコ)

Toriko's name is written in Katakana, so we know it's a name originating outside of Japanese. In Japanese, the word 'toriko' means 'tri-coloured' (tri-co). NGL, this took me a while to realise because my whole life, I'd only ever used the word 'tri-co' to refer to calico cats.

Toriko (the character) has three appetite demons: Blue Demon, Ogre, and the other one. Blue Demon is, obviously, blue. Ogre is red. And the other one is white. Toriko is named 'tri-coloured' for his three appetite demons. This is also probably why Gourmet 134 misspells his name as 'Torico' on the cover.

Komatsu (小松)

This is almost hilarious. Komatsu is an incredibly common surname (yes, that's probably his surname and not his first name, but referring to people by surname is quite common in Japan). The Kanji for his name basically means 'small pine-tree'.

BUT! There's a weird niche of Japanese culinary knowledge that's probably lost on the Western viewers, that I'm here to share.

To make a LONG history short, there's an icon of New Years called the Three Friends of Winter (松竹梅). You may notice that first character is the same as the '-matsu' half of Komatsu's name. That's because the Three Friends are Pine-Tree (matsu), Bamboo (take), and Plum (ume).

Matsu. Take. Ume.

Komatsu. Ootake. Nakaume.

The Three Friends of Winter are more than just New Year decorations, though. They have culinary significance too.

The Three Friends are often used as a tier-ranking system, with Matsu being the best quality and Ume being the lowest quality. This can be (albeit somewhat archaically) used to describe ingredient/dish quality. That is to say, if you ordered a Matsu-quality dish, you'd be getting a dish made of higher-quality ingredients (and usually at a premium price) compared to Take or Ume.

Let's take a closer look at each of the three:

KOMATSU

Pine trees are evergreen and can survive some pretty tough conditions, and though exact translations vary, the Matsu generally symbolises strength and longevity in Japan. They're set up around doorways for New Years to welcome the New Year Kami into Shinto homes. Perhaps there's also some symbolism in Komatsu's persistence and strength, despite his apparent cowardice, or how he's "welcoming" new beginnings and good fortune into Toriko's life through his Food Luck.

OOTAKE

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world (and therefore a symbol of growth in Japan). And Take's character revolves around always aiming for the sky, always striving to be the best... even if he has to result to dishonest actions to achieve that. Perhaps a bit of symbolism there, too.

NAKAUME

Plum blossoms in the spring, often overshadowed by cherry. Ume often represents perseverance, spring (and rejuvenation, new life, etc). And let's be real, Nakaume goes through a lot.

So next time you remember those three little chefs and their World Chef Rankings... well... keep that in mind.

[asksgtnormallen]

Ah yes the banner... I forgot about this

Why in Fuckin hell is that the banner?

Erm don't worry about that Norm -Bryce (mod also uses just b)

[iheartpeppino]

According to ANTONBLAST, Anton's home of Boiler City is apparently in Florida. Which would make Anton a Florida man, very fitting.

I wonder where Pizza Tower takes place...? I know Peppino was originally planned to be from New York City at one point... It's definitely somewhere in the USA, right?

What's really funny to me about all of this is that I'm originally from NYC and I'm currently living in Florida...

[blood-and-pizza]

Hey, everyone. I haven't been feeling great lately, not just due to personal issues, but due to the results of the recent U.S. election. I am a genderfluid trans person living in a southern state. While I'm not currently seeking gender-affirming care, I know my life is in just as much danger as any other queer person living in this country. I'm terrified. But I'm not going to stop being myself.

I know there's others in the fandom who are like me, living in the U.S. and unsure of what to do now. The answer is simple: SURVIVE. STAY ALIVE AT ALL COSTS. Do it to spite people like Trump and his supporters. Do it to spite all people who use fear and hatred to control the masses. If you give up now, you are letting the bad guys, those literal fascists, win.

I have been alive for almost 40 years, and I've had many experiences that made me want to give up life entirely. Do you all wanna know why I'm still here? Because if I give up now, after all the fighting I did to stay alive, it would be a huge waste. And the same applies to ALL of you, you hear me!? DON'T GIVE UP! NEVER GIVE UP!

Also: PLEASE do not be afraid to help others who are affected by Trump and Project 2025. That means queer people (INCLUDING trans people), people of color, and people with uteruses (cis women, trans men, and anyone else who can get pregnant). Do not be afraid to reach out and help others... IF YOU CAN. Do not be hard on yourself if you can't; it's understandable if things are too tough. Just remember we're all in this together and unity against hatred is more important than anything else right now.

DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE. NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. And remember: you are always welcome here on this blog. Yes, it's a FNAF blog, but it's also a safe space for queer folks like me. And if anyone's got a problem with that, YOU CAN SUCK MY NUTS!

[dearlybelovedhonoredguests]

So…you and Abel? Are you two dating now? ((Or is that just for the RP))?

''Oh, Abel and I are... in a unique situation. While he is stuck in Hell, I'll be making every effort possible to pursue my relationship with him, even if I have to keep it a secret.''

Mod here. St. Peter and Abel are in a relationship, but only in this specific rp, which I consider an alternate universe to my main rp's.

[i-love-susie]

oh yeah

[god-is-queerer]

you are enough. just because they tried to bake a cake in a thimble doesn't make the ingredients wrong.

[probablyqueerrpgideas]

Friendly reminder that it's always morally correct to pirate D&D core books

[randomitemdrop]

you've posted a few ai generated images as items lately, and i'm wondering if that's intentional or not?

Short answer: no, it wasn't. Aside from a few I made when the generators first became publicly available and all the images were gooey messes, they've all been reader-submitted, although I'll admit I didn't catch the snail-boots. Personally I think AI image generators are a more nuanced situation than a lot of opinions I've seen on Tumblr, but given that they can be used so evilly, I'm steering away from them, if only to avoid the Wrath of the Disk Horse.

Long answer, and this is just my take, if you want to really get into it you'll have a much more interesting conversation with the people with devoted AI art blogs instead of me occasionally sharing things people submit:

There have been some major cases of unethical uses for it, but I think it's important to remember why AI image generators are such an issue; data scraping and regurgitating uncredited indie art is bad, but in the case of the snail-boots, it was just a fusion of one dataset of "product photos of boots" and another of "nature photos of snails", which I would say is not depriving anyone of credit or recognition for their work (MAYBE photographers, if you're a professional nature photographer or really attached to a picture you took of a snail one time?) I get the potential misuses of it, but when Photoshop made it easy to manipulate photos, the response was "hmm let's try and use this ethically" instead of "let's ban photo editing software". Like, I'd feel pretty unethical prompting it with "[character name] as illustrated by [Tumblr illustrator desperate for commissions]" or even "[character name] in DeviantArt style", but I'd have a hard time feeling bad for prompting with "product photo of a Transformer toy that turns into the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile". I know there's the question of "normalizing" the services but I think that overestimates how much the techbros running these things care about how everyday consumers use their free products, preferring to put their effort towards convincing companies to hire them to generate images for them, and in that case they respond way better to "here are some ways to change your product so that I would be willing to use it" than to "I will never use your product". For example here's one I just made of "the holy relic department at Big Lots", fusing corporate retail photos and museum storage rooms.

TL/DR: on the one hand I understand the hate that AI gets and it's not something I'm planning on using for any of my creative projects, but on the other hand I think it's overly simplistic to say it's inherently bad and should never be used ever. On the third hand, I really hate participating in arguments over complex ethical philosophy, so I'm just gonna steer clear entirely.

[shadowvanillaweek]

Thank you to everyone who has participated during the event, I'm thrilled that it became such a huge success! It's been an absolute pleasure viewing all of these posts that everyone's been submitting, despite the week being over I will still be reblogging posts regarding the event. Don't stop posting! Remember our submissions are open, so you may send your entries through that as well. Make sure to read the pinned post for more clarification. I'll look forward to the submissions!

[oprarepairweek]

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you all so SO much for participating in the first official One Piece Rarepair Week! We’ve seen a lot of wonderful content and I’m so grateful to everyone who contributed, through art, fics, or just interaction in general! 💕

Didn’t get your piece done in time? No worries! We’ll be checking the tag for the next few weeks to reblog any last minute entries! Make sure to tag the blog (@oprarepairweek) or just tag the event (#oprarepairweek) so we can see it.

If you’ve got any questions, or just want to chat about your favorite rarepairs, feel free to send an ask! We’ll be answering questions as well, so don’t be shy.

Again, thank you so much for joining, and we hope to see you next year! 💖

[incorrect-toriko-quotes]

hey so like. i normally don't do shipping on this blog but this has bothered me all my life.

is it just me or have the toriko fandom ships... never really had names that took off? so here's my question:

i think 90% of the ones i've seen are just their names. occasionally the overlapping/joint name thing, if their names start/end with similar letters? Like I think I saw people call them 'Torikomatsu' but that was YEARS ago. Like, 2014-2016, maybe?

I doubt anything's changed but I'm curious.

[jfashion-confessions]

not posting any more confessions that boil down to "I hate jirai kei", it's getting a bit repetitive at this point.