#This is separate from one of my previous rants about how I specifically only ship fanon interpretations sometimes

[ceiye]

I have found the point where I stop shipping something, and it is when the primary interpretation is "uwu soft fluff"

This is in fandom and canon. I just don't like it in fanon more because they butcher their personalities in order to get to "uwu soft" and then everyone agreed with it. I can't say anything about canon beyond that it's bad writing

[countdown-to-destruction]

Inuyasha Sequel: a rant

Put this up this earlier on a post I re-blogged, tried to edit a part or two where I didn’t like the way I had phrased it, and ended up messing up the whole format I wrote this in. Luckily I wrote this as a draft earlier anyways! So I did a some fixing and now I’m just copy-pasting it again and making it a text post instead. This will be very long and a little nit-picky but I wanted to make a post ever since I heard about the upcoming sequel to Inuyasha, Hanyō no Yashahime. I did put a TLDR at the end for those who don’t want to read everything. Not sure how many people in the fandom still follow me and will see this, as it's been a long time since I was actually active in the fandom, but it's hands-down both my favorite manga and anime of all time and I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately so I had to post something. Before reading this be sure to read all of the translated character bios for Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha so that this makes sense.

When I first heard that Inuyasha would be getting a sequel I was excited! But after reading up on it, to be completely honest I'm not feeling this sequel anymore. I know it’s an unpopular opinion but hear me out. Firstly, it seems like Rumiko is mostly involved in the character design aspect and the writing is up to Katsuyuki Sumisawa. The music will be produced by Kaoru Wada which is great! And from what I’ve seen and read online a number of others who worked on the original series will reunite so hopefully the story will go well. However, knowing Rumiko isn't personally writing and not knowing how much input she has or will give makes me unsure about watching. The original Inuyasha anime followed and was based off of the events in the manga, and there was no manga prior to this for it to be based on. Depending on what happens this could be an alright sequel or a total miss. Unfortunately sequels in general are known to be disappointing in some way. 

Secondly, if I hear anything about Rin being the mother of Sesshomaru's twin daughters I'm out. This part will be a SUPER long and in depth explanation on why I think this way, feel free to skip if you're not interested. Please don't come for me on this, I'm here to explain my thoughts and feelings on the sequel and the theories around it so far, not start an argument. I'm more than aware that there's plenty of controversy out there on this pairing and personally I do not support it. I never saw their relationship as more than a friendship, or something akin to child and guardian as Sesshomaru and Jaken are basically Rin's caretakers up until she goes to live in the village with Kaede. He definitely cares for her deeply but I can't see it in a romantic way, being that Sesshomaru isn't even a character focused on romance to begin with. He learns compassion through Rin's second death but that doesn't mean he loves her romantically. As a reminder his main goal is to seek power and be powerful, and it's stated that he needed to learn compassion and grief in order to mature. It's what helped him learn to wield the Tenseiga at its full potential. In addition, she was really young when they first met and still was when she went to live with Kaede. The idea of Sesshomaru (an adult) having romantic feelings for a kid under ten years old (around eleven at the end of the series, and still a literal child in all ways) and waiting for her to age with the intention of marrying her sits totally wrong with me. Age wise I realize that Inuyasha is decades older than Kagome and that his father was much older than his mother, Izayoi, as well. The difference here is that Kagome was a teen when she met Inuyasha (who not just physically, but more importantly mentally was also a teen) and clearly Izayoi was old enough to conceive Inuyasha and give birth. As far as the audio dramas (more specifically "Asatte") go they're generally considered as an outtake reel and are essentially parodies, or a form of satire. Some will debate on this but realistically there’s plenty of reasons this is true, and those who take the time to properly check them out understand that. For me I've always had a headcanon that at some point in her teen years Rin would inevitably develop a one-sided crush on Sesshomaru and that he would ultimately set boundaries and reject her, seeing her as more of a close companion than a love interest and wanting her to live with someone she can grow old with. He gave her the choice to follow him and it's most likely that she would, but I think that once she began aging he would want her to have somewhere to settle, given that he enjoys roaming and seeking out other powerful beings to battle. It's strange to me that they decided to give Sesshomaru hanyō/half-demon children in general but based on the artwork we've seen it's fair to guess that they might have made Sesshomaru and Rin a pairing in this sequel.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I want to clarify that if you ship them together I'm not writing this here because I want to hate on your ship for no reason, or in order to create an argument on if the pairing makes sense, these are my thoughts and opinions on the matter and I’m voicing them because it’s what I believe. I already know that somebody won’t like this and will take it personally. People usually say that once Rin is an adult the pairing is acceptable but I disagree. I find it quite creepy that someone would think it would be alright for an adult to wait around for a kid to grow up with the intention to marry and/or sleep with them. Watching from a distance is the same exact thing, after making an impression on the child... let’s not normalize this. In this situation it would be grooming. We all have our own opinions when it comes to our ships and fandoms and I try to respect that but I can’t get behind this one.

Next we have the apparent lack of parental figures for the heroines. Where are the original Inuyasha characters at? Moroha's character bio says she barely knows her parents (Inuyasha and Kagome, our former main protagonists) and has been alone since she was young! It makes me think either something has happened to them or some kind of bizarre event separated them. And sorry, not related, but why does she transform by PUTTING LIPSTICK ON?? That part threw me for a loop.

When it comes to Setsuna and Towa their parents are absent too. I find it difficult to believe that Sesshomaru wouldn't keep track of his children given how he treats Rin and reacts to her going missing in any capacity. Especially if he happened to be fond of whoever their mother is. One daughter works as a taijiya/demon slayer for Kohaku and the other mysteriously transports to Kagome's era and is raised by Sota (I thought we had finished with the time jumps when the well closed but apparently not. When the Bone Eater's Well closed after Kagome's return it gave a sense of finality and closure to the story, and showed that Kagome had chosen where she was most happy and felt she belonged. I think that bringing the theme of time travel back into the sequel makes it feel repetitive, like something right out of a predictable fanfic. Props to Sota for taking in and raising a child who showed up out of nowhere though).

Another thing that came to mind when I read these character bios was why Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter and Sesshomaru's daughters are the exact same age. Of course there's nothing wrong with that. It only struck me as odd because suddenly everyone is having kids at the same time. And so far there's no mention of other characters like Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Jaken, Kaede, or Miroku or Sango's three children or where they are. One might expect that a story focused on the children of some of the original Inuyasha's main characters would feature appearances from those who had important roles in the previous series and their children. Which brings me around to wondering what made twin daughters a trend? Two sets of twin girls is a unique choice (Sango and Miroku's twin daughters. For such a small group of parental characters, what are the odds of two sets of twin girls? Where is the creativity and again why the repetition?).

Lastly, Sesshomaru's daughters lack some of the common yōkai/demon characteristics we see on Inuyasha and other characters. Their ears are human, and they have no markings or otherwise (that I noticed) with the exception of Setsuna's mokomoko/fur which is similar to Sesshomaru's. So perhaps they take more after their human mother? Given that Inuyasha seemed to inherit strong genes from his father it's interesting that they did not. Their ages also interest me as they appear to age the same way as humans do. Yōkai/demons are known to have a longer lifespan than humans and appear to slow down or almost stop aging at some point. Perhaps this confirms that the slowdown in aging occurs once they reach the equivalent of a human teen? 

Overall Inuyasha was a fantastic manga and great anime on its own, and I never got the feeling that it needed a sequel. As a stand-alone it was everything it needed to be. I thoroughly enjoyed both formats of the original, though I do have a tendency to disregard certain parts of the anime. I always preferred the manga more when the anime dragged out certain scenes (Shichinintai/Band of Seven arc for example) or straight-up excluded, changed, and added others. Taking that into consideration the sequel might end up being the same for me in that way, but rather than one scene that plays out for too long or an excluded, altered, or unnecessary added scene, if it’s not any good I’ll simply disregard it altogether. When the anime comes out I certainly plan to try watching it out of loyalty to the fandom, and due to the fact that it's "technically" canon (without Rumiko being the writer I don't necessarily consider it canon, much like how some folks do or do not consider the movies canon) but I get the feeling that I'll wind up giving up on it in disappointment.

TLDR; Overall I'm left questioning if the sequel is worth watching (for me) given what I've read and heard so far, but nonetheless I will give it an optimistic try! I'm currently wondering how much we'll see of the original Inuyasha characters, if we get to find out what happened to them, if the number one pairing I'm not fond of will make an appearance (and cause me to drop the whole thing), and questioning parts of the character backstories and designs (why is there a repetitive and recurring theme of time travel and does it end up hindering or ruining the story, why do the protagonists all lack parents, and why do the hanyō/half-demon characters lack common yōkai/demon traits and does it make them more human than demon?).

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ bonus 2020-02-01

bladekindeyewear:

Boy that sure is a new HS^2 bonus I should blogread.  And there was a commentary on the Patreon for the last proper upd8 too.

I’ll… do it sometime this weekend, not right away.  (Had a stomach virus through Monday and Tuesday that’s left me pretty fucked over and still waiting for the aftereffects to flee.)

Alright, taking a crack at both of these now.  (Both light on images and quoting, since it’s all Patreon material.)  So what’s going on here?  Are the bonus chapters splitting into separate stories perhaps, following the lecture in one and the PS^2 crew in another?  Also, from the replies on the previous:

gaaraofsburbia said: It was very good and I was very happy

Good to know.  Time to read, bonus first! *clicks link*

...the title of a book someone’s holding.  Bookmarked (with a red flag?).  Uh huh.  Good start.

> ==>

“A picture book for young parliamentarians.) ...oh wow, it’s Carapacian even.  Did the Mayor have anything to do with this book?

--Wait.  Waitwaitwait.  This isn’t-- the authors wouldn’t go back in time and show us like-- PM and the Mayor trying to start the-- nooo.

> ==>

Oh shit, never mind.  This is a book ABOUT the Mayor.  Starting from him farming on Skaia and continuing from there with a focus on societal structures presumably.  So, sort of like what I just said but not quite as goddamn heartwrenching, most likely.

You know, this WOULD have been a good opportunity for the authors to finally bring some canon awareness to all the rampant Breath and Blood visual-and-textual symbolism around WV and PM’s arcs, giving people some HINT of their potential importance outside some crazy unproven blog post on some crazy wrong person’s blog.  But I’m not really convinced Andrew or his new replacements, er... y’know.  Care.  About letting us know about all that cool shit.  Or even dissuading us if we were somehow wrong.  Just gonna... let us haaaang in the breeeze there forever, more likely.  :T

...this is still what I’m most bitter about regarding the end of Homestuck, as you can obviously tell.  Thinking -- still believing -- that we found something beautiful and deliberate he’d done, but refusing to have canon openly acknowledge any of it so that 99% of readers will never have a clue about it and the few of us who caught on -- if right -- are just regarded as nutters, and if wrong, NEVER have what we need to finally disprove and accept that wrongness thanks to his silence, thus continuing to believe wrongly and be regarded as nutters.

So I just keep reading and... vacillating.  Vacillating on whether to believe any of this will get brought up in HS^2 canon, or whether to cynically fear they’ll take the worst route:  Doing things EXACTLY like Andrew did and dropping only vague hints that keep it an implied-only, unconfirmed mystery forever.  Because that’s what made the comic popular!  And it’s “safe”.  :(

...man, gut issues really bring the pessimist out of you, don’t they.  Let’s keep reading.  Once upon a time there was a simple farmer...

> ==>

Horrible kings kept fighting and didn’t care about the land, destroying it underneath their war.  Right.  (Mostly paraphrasing here and from now, mind you.)

> ==>

WV wanted to stop the kings, but the kings had power.

> ==>

That power had to be destroyed too.  (Shows the rings.)

> ==>

Hm, the journey that ends up in the rings’ destruction to the desert?  Are we going to fill in some context here?

> ==>

--And made friends with curious creatures and powerful people!  (Showing the fake Can Town built with Dave and Karkat along the meteor trip.)

Assumedly internalizing all those practice-town lessons, of course.

> ==>

--Oh, cool!  So one of the first things WV and PM did upon coming to Earth C to start their founding process was destroy the rings, the temptation of that power, throwing it into the Forge.

EDIT: krixwell said: "I don't know exactly how it reads in the bonus update because I'm not a patron, but WV and PM throwing the rings in the Forge happened before they entered Universe C, and was shown in HS proper (8107-8111, 8123-8126 and at the beginning of [S] Act 7). It was required to light the Forge and send the Genesis Tadpole to Skaia." Ah, file that under more things I forgot about, then.

> ==>

Where once nothing,

> ==>

Earth C was founded/born, etc.

> ==>

Ah okay!  So with a backdrop of the Town Hall under construction, we’re getting some context specifically as to how and why the Mayor set up society the way he did on Earth C.  Especially the challenging question of who would govern the world and how.

> ==>

Oh shit, text dump!  :D

The problem was unfortunately compounded by the fact that when the topic of fair and effective governance is broached, most sparing intellects immediately assume a certain posture. Not one of surrender or admiration, but of abject and interminable boredom.

This fact makes it hard to treat such a fascinating subject with the proper amount of attention and enthusiasm, BUT WE SHALL DO OUR BEST TO UNDERSTAND REGARDLESS.

Alright, loving this.

Also, this’ll undoubtedly put into context just how MUCH the Mayor had to think about how society would work best to have set up -- and how little comparative thought Jane put into the process when just drafting up something United-States-like and familiar.  Remember how awful it was the childlike way the Condesce essentially kept trying to recreate her familiar surroundings and rule structure on Earth?  It was only natural that her Life-aspected protege would make similar errors, I suppose.

Back to reading this long page... I won’t just quote all the details of this representative system, because that’s up to y’all to pony up for.  But I’ll note if there’s anything interesting in it that makes me think.  Let’s see...

...Hm!  The number of seats each kingdom got in parliament was based on voter turnout... THAT’S a heavy incentive to get out the vote, if your kingdom can literally lose influence if you don’t.

On the happy occasions where the maximum number of seats were allocated in all four quarters, this was known as a "full House".

Oh, fuck you.  :)

...oh dear, that was only the beginning of the card slang.

I’m not going to list all of them here.  They make sense in context, which is even worse.

Without going into too much detail, consorts all tend to have significantly shorter lifespans than the other citizens of Earth C. Because of this, a large number of House Rules were dedicated to describing exactly what to do if a seat was vacated mid-term due to the death of its occupant.

Not the carapacian kingdom, the consort kingdom.  Don’t panic, y’all.

The DELIVERY OF JUSTICE (DoJ) was founded to keep the peace and arbitrate in all legal matters, and its members were the brave soldiers of God in this righteous crusade.

They also took care of the MAIL.

Oooooof course.  :)

Unions get their rep, if only for a pun...

Oh, hm.  The Mayor’s office is much like a ceremonial-only monarch’s office without serious power.  Etc etc...... reading...

So governing Earth C was a complicated affair, and only became more convoluted over time. But the really important thing was that, despite all this complexity, it worked. It really worked. At one point, a whole field of mathematics was developed just to explain why the interim government worked so well, and they ended up proving it categorically. It was theoretically perfect.

Ppfffff

--ah.  And then the Mayor has a chill as he looks at the clouds and somehow anticipates something terrible happening to it all.

That’s it for the bonus.  I’m guessing the next chapter of this separate bonus story will go over some sort of threat the system endured, while the Mayor was still alive, possibly?  Or cut forward to the creators’ arrival and how that fucked a bunch of stuff up?  A sort of demonstration on why the gods who create a universe shouldn’t take charge of those living in it or such?  Hm.

Alright, if that’s it for the bonus, let’s see what’s available for Patreon commentary... here we go, just the one for the latest mainline upd8 that I knew had come out.

Sketches and Commentary: Chapter 3, How Are Your Feelings

Before starting into this, I want to note that I do have SOME ray of hope for more Awake Jade involvement to shine against my previous rant -- because that OTHER callie-controlled younger Jade body is coming, which I’d forgotten about.  As soon as the pursuit crew arrives in-system and THAT Jade finally gets there through whatever black-hole-powered teleportation magic she’s using (with Aradia and Robodave), it’ll be completely safe for OUR Jade to be awake and active at will.  Theoretically.

So... y’know, that’s nice.  Whenever that will happen.

So onto the commentary, we’re starting with that stupid ship.

(I think I actually said something along the lines of, "this is stupid, so we're using it." I know my Homestuck history. For those interested, the ship is modelled after a schooner, and continues the Homestuck tradition of spaceships that look like regular sea-faring vessels, only with additional stuff bolted on. - Pip)

...Yeah, can’t blame you there.

This is Jake’s “second best” ship. It makes me really nervous to think about what the third-best looks like.

Flying booty shorts, most likely.

...yeah, I did notice that latest upd8 playing with colors in a way the comic rarely even did, it was pretty nice.  Glad to see they appreciate it too.

...Yep, Karkat getting owned just for the sake of it, there.

First off, Jade’s outfit. It rules. Alt!Callie may have violently forced her consciousness inside of this innocent girl’s brain, but damn these threads are sweet. She’s managed to keep Jade pretty on brand, while throwing in a couple embellishments of her own. That’s what we call “making it work”. 

Yes, you’d better WELL fucking acknowledge what you’re doing by keeping Jade in a miserable isolated state for three years.  A G A I N.

Nice bit about the casual showing of Dave’s eyes as evidence that Dave’s recovering through some of his old mental blocks.

Dave and Karkat are wearing each other’s shirts, which is traditionally a very gay thing to do. Even more notably perhaps is the fact that Karkat is wearing crimson without a hint of complaint. Again, I doubt this was an intentional move on his part. Just, sometimes you’re coming out of the shower, it’s chilly, and your boyfriend’s shirt fits. Busting through mental blocks should typically come across as whispers to me, rather than shouts. 

--Hm, never considered the latter angle.

Karkat is being pretty mean to Possessed Jade. Which sucks, but this situation is incredibly stressful, and Karkat tends to react to stress by being mean. Treating Jade like an irritant allows him to put some distance between himself and the reality that he may have lost another friend. 

Guh.  That one stung  :(

Initially the panel directions here were “everybody pauses to contemplate Dirk fucking Strider” 

Mhmm, and you figured it’d be more unsettling to reverse it and remind us that the Prince is aware of all of this too.

Roxy’s heart-shaped sunglasses have become such a thing in the fandom that I kind of can’t imagine him without them at this point, so we decided to make it settled law. 

Mhmm, I figured that was how they played it.  One of the ways they’re incorporating fandom involvement.

Sometimes I feel like it should be Xam who does these commentaries, since there’s so much incredible shit going on with the art here that I’m really only equipped to comment on with shit like “oh wow, look at these colors. Green and purple huh. Wild. There’s also some light.” 

It’s pretty understandable to have the writers take the lead on most commentary as opposed to the artists... normally.

But then you’d have the weird places where they’d have to work together without necessarily giving away their game.  Like, all that WV/PM Breath/Blood visual representation I mentioned.

I still don’t know if they’re gonna give away the game on that eventually -- or if Andrew even gave them enough to go on to properly REPLICATE that sort of thing in this official continuation, even though my mind keeps telling me it’d make all sense to -- but if they are thinking about it, I doubt they’ll first show their hand in the commentary.

I love Kanaya’s new outfit.

I understand that sure, but will she be sticking with this outfit through the action though?  Looking like a mourning nun?

Kanaya’s nursery story is, of course, The Little Prince, a French fairytale from the 1940’s. It tells the story, rather appropriately, of a young Prince traveling through space looking for something he believes he has lost.

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

I’m not sure why I keep thinking about this quote. Probably some shit that has to do with “themes” or something.

Hinting that once he’s beaten down and likely dying from this stupid exodus plan, at least some part of Dirk may finally realize that any fulfillment and purpose he was looking for with this megalomaniacal nonsense was left behind in the peaceful life he fucking ruined for everyone to do all this.  The Heart-blind bastard.

God, Dave is just losing family members left and right, isn’t he? Really makes you think. 

Gdi.  :(

“Maybe it was naive to think a bunch of twenty something trauma victims could run a society.”

There it is. That’s the whole Epilogue.

And Andrew just had to let us ruin our naivety.

Wow. There really are just a whole lot of feelings in this chapter, aren’t there? It’s very aptly named. And it’s also actually the first part of HS^2 that got drafted; at least the first part that actually made it into the final draft. I wrote it earlier in 2019 when we were still kicking around ideas of what an Epilogue follow-up would actually look like. 

Huh.  Yeah, I can imagine when writing all this it would make sense to write/use this chapter first, as a knee-jerk reaction.

I do really think Karkat would have been a great president. He would have hated it, but he would have been good at it. 

I’m glad the authors are in agreement with everyone else with a brain on this one.

Did you guys know that Karkat still feels immense survivor’s guilt for murderstuck?

Yes.  Yes we did.

(Some continued remarks about how Karkat’s self-loathing is like a singularity that draws all blame onto himself in his mind etc.)

Apparently there was a metal gear reference in this second-to-last conversation?  Don’t tell me, I don’t care.

Eat the fucking pancakes, dude. 

A good place to end the commentary.  See y’all when there’s more content!

[gffa]

I don’t mind people disliking obikin but how come the hate for this specific ship is so strong? Yet some other SW ships with similar problems are popular(actually most of the popular ones have issues too) without anyone knowing the problems(or choosing not to know or acknowledge them)? I wonder if there are any similarities in the character or ship preferences of antis or haters and if there is any hypocrisy involved in them (this applies not only to obikin haters but also all antis). (Cont.)

(Cont.) I feel like I see so much hate for the ship on twitter and tumblr and I’m not even trying to look for it. It puts me down as it reminds me of religious extremists like my mom. Sorry if my messages are annoying but I just don’t know what to do ;A;

Has something happened recently?  I feel like I haven’t seen Obikin hate in a good awhile, actually!  But that might just be because a lot of the worst antis have either blocked me or I blocked them, so I don’t see it.(I’ll stop and take a moment to say--though, absolutely not aimed at you or the previous anons, you’re both absolutely fine!--I don’t actually want to know.  I avoid anti-whatever stuff for things I love, I don’t read it, I do my best to focus instead on what I want to talk about, rather than acting out about what someone else is saying.  No anons have been like HERE READ THIS THING AND BE ANGRY/UPSET WITH ME but it doesn’t hurt to say it--my point isn’t to rant about other anti-Obikin fans on this blog, but instead to talk about how my own feelings, usually on how I’ve evolved over the course of my time in fandom.  I started out as fairly against a lot of the things I grew to love--including Obikin! I was pretty NO THANK YOU about it when I got back into fandom a couple of years ago!--and my journey from there to here, the things I thought and assumed are ones that are really interesting to me!  So if I seem dismissive of a message, if I go off on a tangent like I did with the Obi-Wan message yesterday or if I don’t really address “why do others hate this thing I love?” it’s because there’s really no answer I can give, rather than because I don’t care that you’re upset about something.  That and I think it’s better for us all to focus on our own stuff, rather than what someone else is saying!  We’re not going to be perfect about it, it’s a constant struggle and journey to get there, but I think it really helps to work on not thinking about what other people are saying or reacting to that, but instead what do you want to talk about?  What makes you happy to talk about?)Here’s my best advice:  You have to figure out what you can tolerate and what you want out of fandom.  Some people are Ready To Go if anyone comes at them with anti-ship stuff and that’s great!  Pushback on these things can really help us create space for ourselves.  But some people just cannot deal with that stress, they’re here for a good time, and they have enough shit IRL to deal with that they don’t want more.  In that case, you still have to accept that antis are gonna anti and you have to separate yourself from that part of fandom.If it bothers you enough to genuinely affect your mood, you have to get pretty ruthless about maintaining your boundaries.  Block the people that you don’t want to see things from.  Don’t check the global/tracked tags if you’re not in the right headspace to deal with it.  Collect together a group of people you trust and only follow those blogs, don’t look beyond them when you’re not ready for it.  Find a way to celebrate the things you love–when you’re feeling down, write a post about how much you love Obikin, go read some fic, do something that feels like you’re contributing!You have to do some self-reflecting about how much you can handle, because you’re never going to change an anti.  And the reasons why some ship or character or group is hated doesn’t ultimately matter, it’s going to happen and we have to deal with it, either by calling it out or by letting it go, whichever way you feel most comfortable and can handle.One of the best things I can ever advise someone on is:  Remember that not all of fandom is for you.  Not even your area of fandom is all for you.  Not all prequels fandom is for me, not all Obikin fandom is for me, just as not all of prequels fandom is for someone who hates Obikin or hates Anakin or hates the Jedi or hates whatever.  Sometimes there are places that are just stamped with a big NOT MEANT FOR YOU over them and that applies to everyone.This sounds obvious, I know!  But get stricter about where you browse in fandom, remember that there are people out there who love the ship, who are always happy to talk about it.  Remember that those people are each worth far more to you than the antis.  And consider that, if even just backing away to only read fic or pro-Obikin blogs isn’t enough, that sometimes it is okay to leave a fandom.  I’m not encouraging you to go, but instead to really examine what you can tolerate and what you can/can’t change and work with that.In short:  Find the place that makes you happy, shore it up, and reinforce those boundaries hard until you’re feeling ready to face the rest of fandom again.  Push back against it in whatever way you’re comfortable with, whether that’s Getting Into It or just by doubling down on how much you absolutely LOVE the ship and create more fic/meta/art/flailing for it in a “Oh, you hate this ship?  Well let me SHIP IT LOUDER THEN.” way.

[janiedean]

Hi Janie! So, I admit to a bit of ignorance pertaining the whole “anti”-debacle. I’ve seen anti and anti-anti posts that say the same thing, sometimes it’s about morally offensive things, sometimes about completely unrelated stuff and I can’t make heads nor tails of it, especially since there isn’t really a wealth of actual information? Just rants... *sigh* If it’s possible, do you think you could explain what the problem is? (Does that need to be in plural?) and the „sides“? Thank you! ❤️

anon you asked the question of the century I’m afraid X°D THAT SAID let’s... see if I can make this understandable.

so: the anti debate is... pretty much tied to the whole ‘politics in fandom discourse’ and you can’t separate the two of them sadly. of course I come from the not anti side of fandom so what do I know. anyway, premise:

what happened is that in the last two/three years, whether we liked it or not, the debate in fandom has moved from ‘my ship is better than yours’ to ‘my ship is better than yours because it’s more progressive/woke’, which has gone hand in hand with the political fandom views of any media product, ie ‘you can’t watch that because it lacks representation’ or ‘that show is crap because it’s not woke enough or doesn’t treat that topic well’ and so on, and with a tendency to think that if you ship anything you want it to be canon because it only is worth anything if it becomes such (which imo is bullshit but never mind);

this has moved on to also judging people based on their ships, as in: ‘ship X is wrong because it’s problematic for X reason therefore if you ship it you support X irl and you’re problematic and you need to be stopped’. such as ‘thor/loki is wrong because it’s incest so if you ship thor/loki you’re okay with incest irl and you want to bang your siblings if you have any’, which is a ridiculous notion but this goes also hand in hand with the fact that people have suddenly decided to trash all the psychology that confirmed how violent videogames don’t influence reality and now think that liking something problematic influences you irl because they don’t grasp the difference between fandom and mass-media consumption of a mass-media product;

they also don’t grasp the concept of catharsis through media nor of the really basic concept that most normal people who see themselves in fiction don’t take the entire package but relate to specific things;

keeping THAT in mind:

the whole ‘anti’ thing, as ‘people being opposed to a ship or a trend’ is basically people saying that you cannot ship a thing or be into a problematic character or kink because it says something about you and not about your fictional preferences and actively go around being assholes to people who ship the thing while at the same time gatekeeping/policing their own ships which are of course Purer Than The Others and bringing politics into it, too;

this also goes with a frankly problematic (AND I’M USING THE WORD NON-IRONICALLY) attitude that those people have of equating age gaps with pedophilia always and considering children people older than thirteen/fourteen, which automatically makes them think of people who ship age gaps even in between adults pedophiles (I kid you not a friend who’s over thirty in a rship with a person fifteen years older got told that their rship was pedophilia because their partner was an adult when they were a child at some point in their lives. I mean, IMAGINE THAT.);

to give the to-go example these days because it’s sadly the worst: sw sequel trilogy fandom. rey/kylo has been targeted by antis as the to-go Most Problematic Ship because in order:a) enemies to lovers as a trope which is of course abusive if the good side is a woman (more on that later) b) both are white (so it’s racist to not ship her with the non-white people in the light side *roll eyes*)c) they have a ten years age gap (so it’s pedophilia even if rey’s of age and she kicked his ass more than once)d) he’s not technically good looking so it sets people’s worst instincts offe) these people don’t buy into the fact that people can be redeemed so they decided he’s absolutely Not Redeemable and so onf) it’s an m/f couplenow, rey/lo is admittedly a fairly tame ship as far as problematic goes - it’s honestly your typical enemies to friends to lovers trope that’s been in media since the beginning of time, but according to these ppl it’s The Worst and if you dare being into it you must be a pedophile, racist, misogynist (or internalized misogynist), straight person (because of course only straight ppl ship m/f) - and yes, being straight is a problem but more on that later. but since you can ship her with finn (black) or you could ship finn and poe (black and latino actors) if you’re not into either you’re problematic. too bad that if you ship finn and poe (WHICH I DO) these days it’s... let’s just say I’ve seen a list of ‘problematic f/p writers’ where the reasons for the PROBLEMATIC was that they took a fluff ship and wrote it dubcon. oKAY. also pre tlj fandom was full of block lists for r/eylo shippers where you’d get the name plus ALL REASONS WHY THEY HAD TO BE HARASSED OUT OF FANDOM which you will imagine does not sit well with me since that’s... like... the most fascist thing you could do (NO REALLY BAN LISTS OF PERSONE NON GRATAE WITH REASONS WHY THEY WERE IS A THING THAT HAPPENS IN DICTATORSHIPS AND SOCIETY WHERE EVERYTHING IS CENSORED LIKE BANNED BOOKS) in this circumstance, but hey, if you’re anti-reylo and you’re doing the above you’re just doing the work of the lord because you’re saving people from the Horrible Problematic Ship, and meanwhile I don’t want anything to do with a fandom where people do block lists for how you write your fanfic IN GENERAL. like, concrit is more than welcome but lists? please don’t fucking kid me;

I used r/eylo as an example because it’s the epitome of what anti-shipping ends at, but there’s also sh/eith from voltron which is two guys, with a seven years age gap but both are adults now and were older than 15 when they met, who have the sweetest less problematic relationship ever and people who ship.. the other rival ship decided that it’s pedophilia, SUPPORTS INCEST on the grounds of one of the two tell the other ‘you’re like a brother to me’ SERIOUSLY and that it’s abusive and by shipping it you’re a pedophile. k;

also, this entire thing ties with the fact that these people seem to think that having sex when older than fourteen is somehow bad, which means that if you write someone under the age of 18 (and sometimes NOT EVEN THAT see voltron above) you’re automatically a *pedophile* even if teenagers aren’t children and fictional characters are fictional and never hurt anyone, and that goes hand in hand with the fact that these people seem to largely be against kink;

specifically: ‘bdsm is abusive’ (???), ‘you can’t be a feminist if you like kink’ (OKAY???), ‘if you read/write noncon fanfic you have a problem and you’re terrible’ etc, with a specific subset being against specific kinks that play on a certain angle ie daddy kink and so on which are PEDOPHILIA now, which is again an extremely puritanical way to see the world, not progressive;

at this point we have a situation where a bunch of *antis* specifically target people who are into *problematic* things whether it’s ships, characters, kinks and so on and are going like THINK OF THE CHILDREN half of the time. the children being them, of course.

at this point we have the other discourse we need to have ie about the age and sexuality of the people involved in fandom and why it matters:

now: a lot of fandom is made up of women. it’s statistics. a significant statistical part of the old guard (25+-30+ people ie my generation plus the previous 40+ older generation) is cis women (who can be straight or bi but are attracted to men) who went into fandom writing m/m slash. a significant part of this group is into either problematic ships or kink and such on. but in our understanding of fandom, the key terms were ship and let ship + your kink is not my kink + don’t like don’t read. as in: outside your usual MY SHIP IS BETTER THAN YOURS wank was generally understood that people liked things different than yours and that you had no business being an ass over it, and back in the day warnings were at the beginning - when I went into fandom warnings were not a thing. now there’s warnings everywhere which is GOOD and guess why ao3 was made by... the old guard/old fans, which of course are not very pleased with being told they’re pedophiles or perverts for shipping a thing or, *drum rolls*, that they fetishize gay men by shipping m/m or writing m/m porn, and are fairly vocal about it;

on the other side, this new wave of younger fans who thinks is progressive along with older fans who are assholes/most likely grooming the youngers (because this anti shipping thing is seriously cult-like at this point) calling the old generation all the stuff above and pushing the idea that they want ‘old straight ciswomen out of fandom’ because ‘they have gross ideas and THEY DON’T WANT TO READ OUR GROSS FIC’ and such things. we can also talk for ten years about how the new wave has decided that straight = insult but again, tumblr politics. all goes hand in hand;

so basically the sides are ‘younger fans who thinks they are progressive but are actually being puritan af’ vs ‘older fans who want to do their damned thing’ with some people obviously crossing into the others’s territory;

(and mind that not counting SW, most of the anti drama happens in fandoms for... animated cartoons and the likes - vo/ltron, ste/ven universe and so on, which says a lot about the age discourse, but nvm that);

now, the problem is that by telling some woman older than you that she can’t safely explore her sexual fantasies/kinks in fiction about fake characters you’re basically doing the same thing as policing women’s sexual fantasies that has been going on since the dawn of time, so it’s actually hella misogynist, and the fact that it goes with people saying that you can’t be a feminist who likes kink and that kink is abuse/misogynist... is still policing women’s sexualities, irl and fictionally, and that’s what they’re doing at the end of it;

on top of that, they’re also policing what non-straight, non-female fans who ship problematic stuff do and most of all, there’s the shipping to cope bush of thorns.

about shipping to cope:

now, this entire system had to, at some point, deal with the very true fact that a lot of people who are into problematic stuff/kinks/noncon (not all of them of course) engage with that material to work out their issues - a lot of the time it’s abuse victims writing it to elaborate on their abuse and take control of it and so on and usually... a lot of them aren’t even straight (honestly, almost everyone I know who ships th/ramsay ie noncon torture ship that I personally don’t like myself is... not straight, and a lot of them do ship to cope) and telling them you cannot handle your recovery with whichever system they see fit is... RUDE at best. which is why there’s antis who are like ‘shipping to cope is fine but JUST IF IT’S TO COPE’ which means that in order to be given the green light you have to out yourself and tell people you were abused and other antis who are like ‘SHIPPING TO COPE IS WRONG BECAUSE YOU JUST MAKE IT WORSE’ which is... not a thing that happens to everyone and actually every psychologist worth their salt in the world disagrees (or better: for some people it’s bad to do but for others it’s cathartic, and the latter shouldn’t be not able to do it because the former can’t blacklist or because kids on the internet decided that shipping to cope is bad);

so a lot of antis are actually crossing into the territory of wanting to police how people handle their own experience of abuse (honestly once someone told a friend who explained them from a professional pov the valid of problematic/violent art as a cathartic, healthy way to deal with you shit, and who told them that they were an abuse victim who dealt with it in different ways, to GO ON GOOGLE AND LOOK UP HOW IT WORKS and that person knew shit about it period just to say one) and telling people they can’t process their abuse in THAT way but just in THIS way, feeding into the idea that there’s a right way to process abuse and a wrong way to react to it which in turns becomes good victim vs bad victim;

(and then you wonder why they hate kylo ren... who’s a Bad Victim under the definition of the word but hey whatever)

and this is all thrown under the rug of ‘we need to police problematic attitudes in fandoms’ which is 100% bullshit because if you run into someone specifically problematic you should explain them on a one-on-one basis, not do the witch hunt, and you should never presume to police how people handle their own shit, never mind that 90% of the time the so-called problematic material is consumed by a small percentage of people and you can choose to like, not read it;

and by the way, 90% of the actually problematic fandom trends don’t get called out because it wouldn’t be progressive (I can talk for ages about how it’s really worrying that ppl headcanon characters as X following stereotypes that are actually hurtful for the category in question but since the hc = a minority then it’s always okay) but that’s an entire other problem;

tldr: the anti side, as much as they want to think they’re not doing it, are actively policing the content that other people put online based on supposed ‘moral’ standards which 90% of the time aren’t even true (a 16yo in a relationship with a 20yo is NOT pedophilia period) and even going as far as ‘I’ll press charges to the FBI because X wrote underage fic’ when according to the US law if it’s fictional characters it doesn’t count as such and it only does if real recognizable minors are involved (and in that case it shouldn’t be happening in the first place) and those people might be whoever, and for all they support feminism they also end up being incredibly misogynist.

or, just because I like to use my own experiences as an example: this year I had the horrid idea of replying to a post made obviously by anti people where I told them that straight women writing m/m ie what they’re attracted to of course have more in common with a guy into guys in that sense and not with a lesbian since they’re not attracted to women and that writing m/m wasn’t inherently fetishizing shit. since then I’ve had people:

informing me I MUST have internalized homophobia

assuming shit about my sex life that wasn’t even true including which positions I like in bed (because of course straight women only identify with the gay bottom so they’re capitalizing off that experience when some of us don’t)

assuming I was disgusted at the idea of writing lesbian sex (false, I wrote it when I was in the mood)

informing me that writing fanfic about canonical m/m characters wasn’t activism and I shouldn’t presume I was one for that (I never said I considered it such) but at the same time these people think reporting incest fic to ao3 is... activism, but nvm that

telling me that I was a sad old bitch who needed to find a husband and grow up (I MEAN NOT EVEN IN THE FIFTIES) (I’m 29 btw hardly old) because it was the only way my life could have had sense

informing me that of course I was that horrible since I’m italian and all italians beat their wives (NOT XENOPHOBIC AT ALL)

accusing me of writing torture porn with gay characters to get off (never wrote torture porn once in my life, not with gay characters nor any character)

(most ppl I know into torture porn aren’t straight btw)

telling me that I didn’t understand my own attraction to men

assuming that my parents must have thrown me out of the house at some point, that I had no friends and that I never got laid

and in another occasion I got sent fanart of a ship that I said upset me because I had the gall to tell people to leave the shippers alone but hey what do I know

and a bunch of other stuff I won’t bother you with but that to me sounds hella misogynist (I mean, GO BACK TO THE KITCHEN AND FIND A HUSBAND, srsly?). spoilers: I never write noncon, I’m into a few kinks but most are literally harmless, the wildest thing I’m into writing is... 100% consensual d/s sex, the most problematic thing I’m into is thor/loki and I hadn’t shipped it until I realized that... it was cathartic (ps: no, I don’t think irl incest is okay as a general thing) and for the rest I’m famous for... being the person who almost never kills people in fandom X°D I mean, I got that shit and I laughed about it, but what if they sent it to an abuse victim or someone who actually got kicked out of the house? who knows, but sure af they only seem to care about victims when it’s convenient to them and when the victims agree. *shrug* but the above is absolutely okay if you tell that to a straight cis woman who doesn’t particularly feel like writing f/f sex (which is ANOTHER plot point but never mind that I can’t possibly go into how tumblr has decided that f/f relationships without sex are the Thing Everyone Should Aspire To and everything else is a problem including lesbians having kinky sex). anyway, that was all antis. heck, a round of the shit above was started because an anti-ship blog found an oldass ask related to that wank, so.

tldr: the point is that we’re always talking about the same old dumb fandom war ie my ship is better than yours and my fave is better than yours, but now the arguments aren’t just about ships, are about which one is most moral or pure or non-problematic and if you dare being into anything else for your own reasons in your own life (I forgot friends who’ve been told they abuse their partners because they’re into kink, WHAT A DAY) when the *else* is fictional (ie doesn’t exist) and you don’t even do the thing irl or would want to but just want to explore it fictionally, then you are that problematic thing and so *you* are problematic and guess what, there’s a nice witch hunt starting and -

ops.

HOW SURPRISED I AM.

I mean, it’s 90% wanting to censor people and all of that time it’s useless that they dress it as ‘FIGHTING PEDOPHILES’ because thing is, now that everyone rolls their eyes at it because you think ‘right, real pedophiles or people who ship the wrong voltron ship,’ actual pedophiles have free reign and actually whenever I see a post to report a real one it has very little notes in comparison to OMG REY/LO IS PROBLEMATIC and stuff, and the one time I got linked one I checked because I didn’t trust tumblr and let me tell you I wish I didn’t. anti shipping or being anti kink is just... 90% wanting to be puritans without knowing that you’re a puritan and you’re still policing women’s sexualities and abuse victims’s reactions and you’re not helping anyone.

and you sound like those soccer moms from the 90s who thought playing tekken made their kids violent or that marilyn manson’s music caused the columbine shootings which is a thing that has been disproved since two weeks after it happened. and these people have no idea that media influences you to the point you let it and that fiction is not reality. *shrug* and that was my offer to this contribution, I know I’ll get roasted at this point but I’m beyond giving two fucks at this point. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[awildtrashcan]

So here’s what I have so far for chapter 1 of the AU. I actually wrote this back in February so there’s probably some stuff in here that I might need to change later on(and possibly some errors regarding the locations of some buildings in Meridian City), but here’s what you get for now.

Space. The endless void that holds everything in the universe. So vast that if you and your best friend were separated you would probably never find each other. Staring at the emptiness interrupted by the occasional star or planet usually made the more emotionally sensitive reflect on their feelings in the isolation.

Such as now.

The (Half-built)Nefarious Space Station lay dormant within a sector out of the range of any radar from neighboring planets. The only activity within the station was the bustle of a lone robot, following a schedule of cleaning and construction. He looked through the windows surrounding the walls of the room as he finished folding another pair of socks, picking up the basket of laundry. After walking down one of the many empty hallways for a few minutes, he began humming to himself, attempting to fill the unnerving silence with white noise.

In all honesty, Lawrence had found this to be a welcome change over having his audio receptors constantly assaulted by his employer’s voice, but after a week, he actually started to miss the orders barked loudly enough to be heard from the other end of the station.

Two weeks later, and he felt like something was wrong.

Three weeks later, and he knew that something was wrong.

Four weeks, and he found himself staring straight into the crack separating the two doors leading to Nefarious’s office and living quarters. Lawrence chuckled to himself, amused by the fact that he was actually considering asking what was troubling the doctor. Previous attempts had rarely gone any farther than Nefarious denying everything that was going on, that “No, Lawrence, I don’t need counseling.” Looking back, the doctor was actually right in that regard, as the anger management sessions, yoga, and spirit walks only resulted in the Great Clock debacle, and that certainly turned out splendid.

He was kicked out of that train of thought after hearing a dull klunk followed by a noise that could only be described as utter despair. Yes, something was definitely wrong. Lawrence scolded himself for letting this go on for so long. Nefarious tested the boundaries of his patience half the time he spoke, but he wasn’t going to let the doctor waste away on his watch.

Letting out a sigh of resignation, he steeled himself for whatever lay beyond the door as he rapped the metal surface three times.

In space, no one could hear you scream. Especially if you were screaming into a pillow.

He wasn’t even sure why he was screaming. It definitely wasn’t because he was thinking about the space rat, his toaster-for-a-best-friend, and that annoying, infuriating, green-clad buffoon. Because he hated them.

Yes, hated them enough that he would think about how he stole their ship and abandoned them right after somehow traveling hundreds of miles with them without shoving anyone off a nearby cliff and even—the thought made him cringe at the irony—saving the universe.

Of course he would never admit to simply lying there being sentimental. He was a megalomaniac overlord! Feelings were nonexistent for him! Squishies trembled at the mention of his name! He was Dr. Nefarious, the most wanted criminal in the galaxy!

Emphasis on was.

Nefarious let out a frustrated sigh for the hundredth time in what had to be a span of ten minutes, burying his face into the pillow. The past week had become a routine: get up, try to get some evil schemes planned out, fail at doing just that, regret his entire life for a few hours, and fall back asleep. The process was mentally exhausting, and he knew that it definitely wasn’t helping in getting rid of the one (actually several) thought that lodged itself into his mind after ditching his nemeses on that infested planet, but he was at a total loss at what else to do.

Well, diabolical plans won’t think themselves, Nefarious thought as he dragged a hand down his face, getting up from the bed to once again continue the cycle of self-loathing.

Only to promptly bang his jaw against the floor after his legs got tangled in the sheets and gravity decided to add on to the heaping pile of misery that was his life.  The rest of his body slid off the bed as he let out a pained groan, wondering where exactly his life went wrong. An honest question, as there were too many incidents to narrow it down to just one.

Nefarious contemplated remaining there as he couldn’t muster enough energy to bother moving. It wasn’t like he needed to sit in his chair to conjure up a plan, although it definitely helped get the creative juices flowing. And hey, maybe he wouldn’t end up finding It- oh, come on, now you haven’t even seen It and you’re thinking of It again, you freaking mor—

He jumped when he heard several knocks at the door, grateful that he was already on the ground instead of falling again. Peeling himself off the floor, he stumbled as he walked towards the noise, wondering what Lawrence wanted to bother him with this time.

Opening the door, he held up a hand to shield his optics from the way-too-bright lights that filtered behind the other robot. Squinting, he leveled his gaze onto Lawrence before settling into a glare. Nefarious noticed Lawrence stiffen slightly as his optics widened past his usual half-lidded look.

“Sir, are you feeling alright?” Lawrence asked as he regained his usual stance, “you haven’t called for me in… quite a while.”

Nefarious’s eyes widened, surprised at the sudden concern his butler was showing, and noted the slight pause in his words. He glared again, responding, “What do you mean, Lawrence? It’s barely been a week since I asked you for coffee that one time, you know I don’t like being interrupted while I’m working on bigger projects.” Because that was exactly what he had been doing. Nothing involving emotional turmoil. Nope. “Besides, didn’t you ask for a lighter workload before? There, now you have it. Now beat it, I’ve got a blaster to work on.”

Nefarious reached for the panel to shut the doors before Lawrence quickly stepped into the room, the motion sensors preventing the doors from closing. The butler’s more hurried pace and shocked expression caused alarms to ring in the back of his head. Had something happened in the short amount of time he was inside?

Lawrence raised a hand in cautious concern, opening his mouth before closing it again, looking like he was searching for the right words to explain what was going on.

Instead, he decided to reply with, “Sir, it’s been a month.”

Nefarious would have laughed if he didn’t know that Lawrence never told jokes. “A… month—Lawrence, it’s only been a week, a week and a half at most!” He may have lost track of time for that brief stretch of time, but he wasn’t that far gone that he would subconsciously lock himself in his room for days on end. He decided to bring up his internal clock to prove a point as he continued, “What are you even talking abo—“

17:32

November 18, 5362

Well, crap.

“…Oh…” Nefarious didn’t bother to finish his retort as he looked to the other side of the room in acknowledgement, his posture deflating along with his irritation as it was replaced with disturbed realization.

A month. An entire month spent thinking about the events on Magnus. He still couldn’t figure out why leaving those three idiots behind had been so difficult. He should have been overjoyed as soon as Lawrence showed up with a one way ticket to get away from them, but the more he thought about it, the more the more he—well, he had no idea what he was feeling! And that photo—

“Sir?” Nefarious was interrupted from his internal rant when he noticed Lawrence shuffling through the cluttered desk. His hands sifted through the scattered papers until resting upon a particular object. “Would this have to do with what’s troubling you?” He held It up to face Nefarious, whose optics widened when he processed what he was holding.

“LAWRENCE! Give that back!” Nefarious ran towards his butler in an attempt to grab It, but every time he circled the table, Lawrence was somehow able to sidestep just out of reach.

Lawrence wasn’t even breaking a sweat in avoiding the numerous swipes directed at him as he asked, “Sir, I noticed that you seemed to be particularly attached to this photo. When you were staring at it on the ship you had the same look on your face as when you watched the season 7 finale of Lance and Janice.” He dodged another swing. “I’m not certified in this area, but perhaps I could assist you in sorting out what’s on your mind?”

Nefarious glared hard enough in an attempt to bring It to him through sheer thought alone, “I told you Lawrence, I don’t need your help! I’m fine! Or at least I was, until you came in here!” He reached out to grab It but his claw only caught empty air. “Oh, come on! My arms are longer! How are you—“ The doctor cut himself off after crashing to the floor yet again when trying to vault over the table, his hands catching nothing once more.

Nefarious dejectedly rolled to face the ceiling, turning his head to glare at Lawrence. His butler walked towards him with a sigh. A moment of silence passed before he spoke once more, “Is it about Magnus?”

The doctor only replied with a groan, closing his eyes and letting his head drop to the floor. Maybe if he stopped talking Lawrence would leave him alone.

Unfortunately, Lawrence continued, “Or, to be more specific, is it about leaving the others behind?” Nefarious froze.

“No! Of course not! Why would I be thinking about them in any way other than how to enact their very demise?!” The doctor spat denial after denial as he got to his feet, baffled that Lawrence would think otherwise. “I feel nothing but loathing every time I see their stupid faces!” Because loathing meant thinking about them in a non-murderous way for a month, apparently.

Lawrence stared back for a short moment before replying, “Hm, if that is what you believe, sir, are there any other issues you would like to discuss?” He brought out a holopad and began scrolling through pages that Nefarious couldn’t distinguish from his position. “If it would make you feel better, why don’t you take a break from your… ‘work’ and take your mind off of what’s bothering you?”

Well, anything that prevented him from feeling whatever it was he was feeling had to be better than this. He grunted in reply, getting up to prepare for whatever Lawrence had in mind.

Lawrence hummed as he scrolled through various news listings before answering, “A trip to Meridian City, perhaps? There’s a showing of the latest Secret Agent Clank film tonight if you would like to see it, or we could see the Lance and Janice stage play instead. And there appears to be a ceremony today…” He paused and stopped scrolling on a particular page, reading out the article before resuming as he continued his suggestions. “Oh my, there seems to be a sale in the central market. Thirty percent off all kitchen appliances. We can finally replace the microwave after that experiment with the radioactive leftovers.”

“Lawrence, I don’t need you reminding me of my past failures right now, you’re not helping,” Nefarious chided, taking the time to search through his desk. “Now, where did I put the…”

“Keys, sir?” The doctor turned to see Lawrence standing near the doorway and dangling the aforementioned item in front of him.

“Got it!” Nefarious shouted as he snatched them from the butler’s grip, “Come on, Lawrence, get a move on. We don’t have all night!”

Lawrence shook his head as he followed behind him. “Sir, might I suggest wearing some sort of disguise before going out? I imagine it would be difficult remaining inconspicuous when most remember you by the size of your head.”

“I guess you’re right. Those nitwits in the city would be able to recognize my genius if I just happened to pass by,” Nefarious considered as he put a hand to his chin in thought. “Well, Lawrence, any ideas on what to wear?”

Lawrence smiled, turning down another corridor. “I believe I do, sir. It will only take me a moment…”

[componentplanet]

Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Update: Variable Frame Rate DVDs Can Burn in Hell

The following unhinged rant article is the sole opinion of its author. ExtremeTech does not discriminate against variable frame rate media.

In my previous two Star Trek: Deep Space Nine articles, I’ve discussed my efforts to upscale the content, provided some video and image samples, and discussed the process of slowly attempting to remaster the show using commercially available software. I have continued to make real progress on the show in terms of overall image quality, to the point that I’m turning my attention to fixing some other problems I haven’t been sure how to deal with.

Specifically: The frame rate.

In Which My Barely Video-Literate and Underslept Self Attempts to Explain the Mechanics of Hell

Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager weren’t recorded in anything as sensible as a steady 23.976fps. When these shows aired in the 1980s and 1990s, they were constructed from at least two different types of content: 23.976fps progressive content and 29.97fps interlaced content. Episodes of these shows do not run at one frame rate; they run at different frame rates depending on what’s happening on-screen. A show that runs at one frame rate, start to finish, uses Constant Frame Rate encoding (CFR). Deep Space Nine, TNG, and VOY all use VFR. Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5 do the same thing. Most of the best nerd content of the late 1990s and early 2000s is locked behind media that go for this kind of manipulation.

One of the things I haven’t talked about, but have been privately confused by, is why so many of the filters I deployed in an attempt to fix DS9’s frame rate weren’t producing the results I wanted. When I reported in my last article that DS9 used 3:2 pulldown, in which three progressive frames of data are followed by two interlaced frames, I was right — and I was wrong.

The Deep Space Nine episode “Sacrifice of Angels” absolutely contains video footage that was mastered with 3:2 pulldown applied. It is not made of this footage. It contains interlaced frames that were there when the videos were transferred to DVD in the first place. It isn’t made of this footage, either. No, Deep Space Nine, or at least “Sacrifice of Angels,” is mostly 23.976fps (which looks fine), but with enough 29.97fps footage spliced into it to make it jarring.

Part of the problem is that interlacing and 3:2 pulldown are a lot more visible on modern LCDs than they were on older CRTs. Issues like this have cropped up in gaming as well. If you look back at reviews of these DVDs, they were lauded for their quality when the show came out in the early 2000s — and probably reviewed on CRT monitors. This, at least, is what a long-suffering video editor friend told me when I pestered him to answer my questions for three months straight a few hours.

Part of the problem is that TVEAI does a really good job enhancing half-field interlaced frames when they appear on-screen. They’re far more visible when upscaled than at native resolution.

This is what a telecined or interlaced frame looks like. You can clearly see that it’s just half a field of visual information, not the full frame.

Here’s another issue: A lot of video editing applications, including AviSynth and TVEAI itself, are none too fond of VFR content.

When I feed a MakeMKV-derived source file directly into Topaz Video Enhance AI, it detects more than 80,000 frames in an episode that ought to contain around 65,000 frames. TVEAI exposes no encoding options to the end-user, and the default output from content scaled in this mode runs at 29.97fps. If you were the kind of kid who enjoyed playing 33 1/2 RPM records at 45 RPM, you’ll be very excited by this result. If you weren’t, Captain Benjamin “Alvin” Sisko is not an improvement on the original version. (Assuming, at least, that I was nuts enough to pitch-shift the audio to match it).

If you don’t want to run content at 29.97fps, there’s another option — re-encode it at 23.976fps. Convert the interlaced frames, lower the frame rate, and you’ll end up with imperfect, highly noticeable jerks and jumps during fast-paced space combat scenes — which are exactly the ones we are trying to preserve. This is known as judder. Judder sucks.

Topaz Video Enhance AI is not the only application that gets confused by VFR content. I’ve been using StaxRip as a front-end for AviSynth+ and have been mystified as to why the program constantly detects a frame rate of 24.66fps when loaded with MakeMKV source. It turns out that 24.66fps is the average frame rate over the entire episode if you average together the relatively small number of 29.97fps scenes with the much larger number of 23.976fps scenes.

So. The goal is to duplicate the smoothness of the 29.97fps content in the stream without judder. I’ve actually made some real progress towards that goal — enough to say I feel like I’m nearing the end of the first stage of this process. (Color grading is going to be the second stage, oh joy of my heart.)

Where I’m running into trouble, however, is figuring out to remux the audio. I haven’t yet figured out how to synchronize audio to video playback at new frame rates, and the judder management isn’t perfect yet. This (near) final video is from several days ago. I’ve actually improved further on this since I ran the encode. And since if you’re reading this, you’re probably wanting to see the content, so I’ve got an interim version of the credits I’m happy to share. You’ll have to ignore the misaligned audio and you need to set YouTube to 4K for best image quality, even if you don’t have a 4K monitor.

Let’s compare this new video with the video I created back in February. There are a few things I want to specifically call out. Both videos were upscaled using Topaz Video Enhance AI, but Topaz has updated the application in the intervening period. This does not seem to have had a large impact on image quality, but may have tweaked it in some ways. The top video is April, the bottom video is from February. Run both of them in 4K mode or as close to it as you can get.

Speed: The old video runs at 49.32fps, while the new one is encoded at 24.66fps. I’m still grappling with StaxRip / AviSynth+ to get this problem out of the video, but 24.66fps is close enough to see what it’s going to look like, where 49.32fps looks artificially smooth to eyeballs used to slower video refresh.

Blur: The February video is over-sharp when it passes through the comet, while this April video is too blurry. I’ve already cleaned this up substantially since I uploaded the video a couple of days ago, so no worries on that score.

Aliasing: The February edition of DS9 is heavily aliased in certain places, like when the runabouts approach the logo in the first part of the credits. The new version shows far less aliasing. With that said, there are certain shots, like the Defiant’s final approach into the wormhole, where the ship is badly aliased no matter what I do. Haven’t figured a solution for that yet.

Shimmer: The February video makes it look as if DS9 (the station, not the show) is crawling with ants in certain places. The reason the April video looks a bit blurred is that my efforts to lock that problem down were a little too enthusiastically applied. Watch the station pans to see the difference here.

Judder: My new, enthusiastic, and least-wanted best friend has been substantially improved, but you can see some clear instances of judder in the April video, including when the runabouts pass in front of the camera and the Defiant passes the outer docking pylon. I’ve already got an encode that improves sharpness and the Defiant’s passage while yanking the frame rate down to 23.976fps rather than this dorky 24.66 faux-hybrid thing.

Overall, you can see the rate of progression from February to April in these two videos. February represents the beginning of my work, when I was just running an application through TVEAI to upscale. The April video represents the application of additional filters.

What Comes Next?

I figure it’s time I lay out a formal roadmap for where I’m going with this thing.

Video Quality: After three months of working on DS9 and literally hundreds of video encodes, I am hopeful that I’m nearing the end of the road, as far as video work. Judder is the last major problem to solve, to the extent that judder can be “solved” in the first place. I have attempted some rather … whacky experimentation to solve this problem. I launched 17 different encodes of the MakeMKV source file last night. The first 12 had serious names that reflected the settings I picked for them. #13 – #17 were named “F***It.mkv.” I’ll go downstairs later on and check the results before repairing to AviSynth documentation to attempt more testing.

I’d like to know more about antialiasing scripts than I do (most of them reference anime, not video content) and I need to run some tests to confirm that DAA is actually still getting me a visual improvement. I’d love to find a better AA solution to clean up a few niggling issues.

Color Reprocessing: I have decided to separate out any work I do on DS9’s color from the work I’m doing on the video. I haven’t dropped this aspect of the project, but I’m not picking it back up until I have the visual processing nailed down. Not everyone is going to want color tweaking in the first place, after all. Users should note that Topaz Video Enhance AI introduces some color shifting when it upscales. In the initial version of the application, this applied a subtle lightening effect in HQ-CG mode, as shown below:

It’s subtle, but you can see that the image on the right is slightly lighter than the one on the left.

Topaz recently updated the application to a new version that now appears to have a different impact on color, but I wanted to show the original. I’m keeping both the original and newer version of the application handy to cross-compare video output.

Audio: HELP WANTED: INQUIRE WITHIN.

More seriously, I expect to nail down the audio issues, too. I just can’t remember how I solved the problem last time.

Tools Used: Right now, MakeMKV, StaxRip 2.0.8 with AviSynth+, and Topaz Video Enhance AI itself. The front-end is a useful way to code AviSynth scripts. The goal is to create this project with as much free software as possible. Still evaluating a run through Handbrake, if only to try syncing the audio/video that way.

Once I’ve hammered the workflow into shape, I’m going to publish a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this on ExtremeTech. Honestly, it doesn’t take that much in terms of filters — well, not yet. I haven’t shared my specific settings yet because I’m still trying to figure out which variables and filters are the right ones to use. I don’t want to publish pieces of a guide that then become separated from the final product.

Finally: A great many people have reached out to me following the publication of my second article with encouragement, well wishes, and technical assistance. A longer list of thank-yous will accompany the final version of my article, once I’ve checked in with people and figured out how they want to be acknowledged. The help I have received from some of you has been vital to pulling off this project. Anyone with ideas on how to improve image quality or solve the judder problem is welcome to get in touch.

Once Deep Space Nine is complete, I’m moving on to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, another beloved show with an execrable 16:9 “conversion” that very few people seem to like. I’ll be using the 4:3 version of the show to see what kind of improvements I can bring to the Scooby Gang. We’ll also check in with the Blu-ray version of Firefly to see how Topaz Video Enhance AI handles upscaling already-HD content.

Now Read:

 Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Update: ‘Sacrifice of Angels’

Upscaling Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Using Topaz Video Enhance AI

Star Trek: Voyager Gets 4K Upscale Remaster via AI

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/309653-deep-space-nine-upscale-project-update-variable-frame-rate-dvds-can-burn-in-hell from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/04/deep-space-nine-upscale-project-update.html