#This is still so special like my blog is old enough to be a magical girl

[mizulyn]

13th Tumblr Anniversary Holy Crap. So if I had a child at 22 years old, they'd be a teenager??

[pasta-in-the-pudding]

Warmly greet!🫰 I just came across your blog today and I'm already in love with it!🖤🖤🖤 Could I leave a request here where Puppeteer, Jason, Candy Pop and LJ have a S/O who has insecurities about not being good enough for them? Because, come on...they're supernatural, not quite human, and their S/O is a regular, weak human, at least from the S/O's point of view...

Oooh thank you, friend! Also, i never get to write for Candypop or LJ so i am excited to do it!

Thank you so much for requesting!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Puppeteer

He will just kind of stare at you when you tell him those feelings

Like??? Are you kidding???

He is so obsessively in love with you that the thought of you feeling like you aren't enough for him is wild to him

Instantly he will assure you that you are more than he could ever dream of, and how much he loves you

He doesnt love you for supernatural abilities or powers, he loves you for you

Again, the thought of you not being enough for him doesn't even really comprehend in his mind

it's so insane to him that you, his most favorite person in the world who he couldn't live without, thinks that they aren't enough for him

If anything, he isn't enough for you, in his opinon

you are a literal deity walking on earth, and he is lucky enough to even witness your beauty and you think you arent enough???

Yeah, those thoughts are snuffed out rather quickly by him

He will spend the entire day going over every little thing he adores about you if he has to

Jason The Toymaker

He is just kind of confused when you express your feelings to him

"Now, what's this all about?" he asks with a pitiful look towards you

He honestly thinks that it's kind of weird that those feelings are even something humans are capable of feeling

What does he care that you don't have any weird abilities?

"Even when you are old and grey I will still love you. I will love you when you are in pain, and I will love you when you are happy. You being human makes no difference to me, because I love you. Even when you breathe your last breath, your soul will live on with me in the form of my favorite doll I will keep on a special shelf, pristine and upkept"

He's kind of a helpless romantic lol

Bro gave you a whole essay

anyways, he literally could not care less if you are magical or not, he's just thinks you're neat <33

CandyPop

He kind of thinks its funny that you think that

He will snort and look at you like you're joking "why??"

"You shouldn't feel that way. It's pointless to. Because you and I both know that no matter what, I still love you. I wouldn't be with you if I didn't like you at least a little bit"

He will joke around with you and make you try to feel good about being human

You are allowed to go pretty much wherever you please without being called a demon, he can't

Your squishy flesh human body is quite sustainable on its own, being able to morph and adapt to extreme situations, which he thinks is neat

And his personal favorite about humans, specifically you, you have such a wide array of expressing yourself! You have emotions, art, studies, etc

He loves you being human and you not liking being human is strange to him

Laughing Jack

He understands the insecurity

He can't say he's ever felt it, because he gives literally no fucks, but he understands

He will do whatever you want him to do about it, really

Lord knows he doesn't know what to do

If you wanna rant, he'll listen

If you wanna just be doted on, that's what he'll do

Whatever makes you feel better

Honestly, he does find it a little peculiar that you don't like being human

Like, if he could be 5'10", wear whatever he wants, do whatever he wants, go whatever he wants, etc, he'd be soooo happy

His 7'6" ass could never

[whoishotteranimepolls]

I post over 50 random polls a week, all in the name of some good fun. Requests Closed Please stick to the rules. All polls are queued, so if you did make a request, it may take a few days for them to be posted, but the queue is also frequently shuffled, so I can't give an exact timeline

Propaganda is welcomed. However, please be respectful.

Request Rules

It must include both the character name and show name (please make sure names are spelled correctly or at least close enough that Google can figure it out)

It must be a matchup, for example, between character A and character B from the X and Y shows. Don't just send me a random list of characters

Characters must either be assumed to be adults or high schoolers in the story or canonically confirmed to be over the age of 15. Absolutely no one under that age. Now that means minors can and probably will be matched up against each other and against 18+ characters. Please don't come at me about that choice. These characters are fictional. You can't hurt them, and a blog like this isn't going to normalize preying on minors. YES, it's wrong in real life, but anime teenagers are not normal teenagers. I literally just finished an anime about an assassin trying to get back to his wife. He was 16 and had a wife. I swore he was at least 20, but sometimes anime ages don't make sense. Please don't start anything, or I will start blocking. But for those of you who don't want to participate in those polls, I will tag them with #minor poll so you can block all polls that have confirmed 15-17-year-old characters. So if you have a problem with this decision, block the tag and don't participate. Don't start crap. Now, that does mean please, in your request, say there is a 15-17-year-old so I can add the special tag for the sake of everyone that doesn't want to participate in these polls. To clarify, if they started the series at 14 and ended the series at 16, they will still qualify for my polls. Now if you see a character that is a minor and the poll is not tagged, please let me know. You can politely leave a comment or shoot me an ask and I will add the tag. Some people are not the best at letting me know their poll has a minor in it and needs the tag when they request

Characters, where age verification is complicated due to magic, time travel, other universe shenanigans, or the immortal child trope are accepted on a case-by-case basis and will be tagged with the #schrodingers minor just to be safe

Characters must be from a manga, anime, or anime-like show. Right now, no characters from webtoons, webcomics, mechs, or sentient weapons. No strictly video game characters. Not sure if the show counts here. Is it a list of cartoons and anime-like shows and if can they be requested before you ask

Up to 5 regular matchups or 1 Six Way Poll per request. A lot of people have been ignoring this. So quit doing it. Your request will be deleted moving forward if you go over the max.

You can request up to Six-Way polls.

Please limit your request to two asks a day during the duration of requests being open that's up to 10 matchups. Let's let everyone request polls

Please format your request in a way that's easily legible, I am very dyslexic, and I have shared multiple examples of good request formats. You can find them easily. If your post is illegible to me, I will give you a chance to resubmit it in a better format, and then it will be deleted. Look under the tag #requests example if you want to know how to format your request so it's easily legible to me

Rules for ships

Both characters must meet the age requirements stated above

If the ship is incest, whether it be adopted or blood I will have to tag it with #incest ship so So people can filter it out if they don't want to see it. So I would like a heads up and the request if it needs the tag and if you see a poll that needs it. Let me know in the comments. However, this does not include found family. Please do not try to argue that ships like Naruto/Sasuke or Zoro/Sanji or somehow incest. I have seen things on the internet so I have to clarify.

If you do not submit a photo, I cannot guarantee your request will be honored because it is sometimes very hard to find photos of ships that are not fan art and I do not accept fan art

And ship requests are different than Duo and trio requests or polls?

Rules for Duo, Trios and Groups

All characters must meet the age requirements listed above

These are not entered as ships, so their rules are different. For example, you could submit the Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece or the Dungeon Meshi adventuring party as a group or Jessie and James from Pokémon as a Duo. Again, these are not necessarily ships, but they are a group of characters

If you don't submit a photo again, the request might not be honored because of the difficulty with finding photos

General request guidelines and recommendations

If you don't follow the rules, and submit an underage character It will be deleted

Rematches are allowed if you feel like your character was wronged or victim of recency bias but the original poll must be over. That's one of the advantages of not doing a tournament and just doing random polls for fun

Not required but recommended if you want your poll to end up in the queue faster putting their age in the submission saves me time and will probably make your poll end up in the queue faster. Especially if there's a 15-17-year-old so I know to put the minor tag

Also recommended but not required. You could submit photos along with your request. This is especially for people who have super specific photo requests. You just did half the work for me and as long as it's not fan art because I would need that artist permission to use it, I'll use it. And again because you just did half the work for me. So, your poll will more likely end up in the queue faster. Now if you do submit photos, please make sure both photos share The same orientation they either both got to be landscape or portrait for formatting reasons.

And if you send photos please no photo links. They are unreliable. They frequently do not work. And because I try to only use official photos, I do not accept links to Facebook or Pinterest for photos

If you have any questions or even want an example of a wonderful request that makes my life easier, please look under the tags, #not a poll #ask #request rules #poll requests #request questions & #requests example. See if your question was answered there. If not, shoot me an ask and I will add it to the ever-growing list of posts under those tags

Polls that contain spoilers relating to any fandom will be marked with the tag #spoiler poll so you can go ahead and block it now Now if you see a poll that contains a spoiler you can leave a comment and I will mark it. People are also terrible at letting me know if things are spoilers.

If you request polls anonymously you probably won't get a response unless I make an announcement that says I emptied out the request box and everything's in the queue. And honestly, there's a chance your poll might be posted before I do that. The only other way you will get a response is if there is an issue like I can't find a photos because the show came out 2 weeks ago so you should try again in a month when there's actual photos on the wiki or something

However, if you don't request anonymously, I can always just respond privately to your requests telling you that it's in the queue

Non-Poll Series

These can all be found under their respective title tags

Poll Analysis, where I write down my thoughts about observations I have made about fandom behaviors and trends because some of you guys have interesting behavioral patterns, and I read every tag and comment left on my polls

Nicknames and Funny Tags, where I collect All those creative tags and comments that have been left on my polls for your viewing pleasure. I have posts dedicated to specific fandoms and their creativity, which I update whenever I have time

Fandoms vs Illiteracy, where I publish one of the many essays I receive asking me to ban certain characters or fandoms and due to their problematic nature or other stupid reasons. This can sometimes turn into a fierce debate

Defend Your Blurbo, my bi-weekly series discussing how some people can find (insert Blorbo of the week) attractive. This can be funny. This can be stupid. Sometimes, this involves PHD level dissertations in defense of our favorite 2D characters. You never know what you're going to get. Also, look under the Defend your Blurbo response tag. That's where all my followers send their responses to the original Defend Your Blurbo post. Those can get wild! DyB Masterlist and Series rules and guidelines

The Horny Scale is a series where people ask where particular fandoms fall on the horny scale. I made details here, and the Masterlist

Fandom Jail, aka the Wall of Shame

All fandoms listed below are serving their jail sentence due to bad behavior. Here are the dates of when you can expect to see polls from these fandoms again

The jail is empty. Everyone has been on their best behavior. Let's keep it that way

[yournextflame]

Elden Ring Theories: A Retrospective

So, enough time has passed for me to form my opinion on Shadow of the Erdtree and revive this blog. But before posting new theories based on the DLC lore, I decided to take a look at my old speculations and see how well they aged.

Does the Greater Will even exist? ✅ In this post, I compared the Greater Will to the Big Bang and suggested that it might not be an actual deity, but rather an attempt by the people of The Lands Between to explain the world around them: the creation of the universe, the fall of meteors, evolution, and the natural order. The Shadow of the Erdtree continues to present the Greater Will as a scientific concept described by the inhabitants of a fantasy world, allowing players to decide whether it’s a god beyond the microcosm or just an empty circle in Count Ymir’s hat, a mere projection of human imagination

The outer gods are natural forces. ✅ 🟡❔While the Greater Will's cosmic origin was emphasized even further in the DLC, the motives of the outer gods were tied even more strongly to earthly concepts. I have many thoughts about the outer gods and godhood in particular, but one of my ongoing ideas is that they manifest human emotions, given how perception and sacrifices shape reality in a material way in the Lands Between.

Elden Ring and Color theory: ✅🟡❔ While I disagree with some points I made in this post, many of my observations were quite accurate. One clarification I’d like to make is that the scroll sigils indicate the heritage of magic rather than its source of power. I also appreciate the DLC narrative that suggests all the differences are actually man-made.

Translation of Marika's echoes from JP, ✅ The DLC gives Marika such human and deeply personal motivations that reducing her to a mere puppet of an evil outer god feels like an insult to the collaborative work of GRRM and Miyazaki. I must admit that my initial reading of her character was too harsh; I even questioned why FromSoft would write such a one-dimensional character. However, I’m very glad that The Shadow of the Erdtree gave Marika awesome depth without depriving her of agency.

My musings upon Helphen's Steeple design and DLC predictions ✅ 🟡 Well, the Shadowlands are described as a place where all kinds of death come only to be suppressed, and the Shadowkeep, as pointed out by the community, very much resembles the design of the Helphen. You can even find Tibia Mariners' boats here. It’s not the exact version of the spirit realm I predicted, but it’s very close.

Small bonus: Even though I insisted that the DLC should be centered around the spirit realm, I pointed out that exploring Godwyn's story beyond what was shown in the base game is pretty unnecessary.

What's wrong with Ranni's Two Fingers? ✅🟡❌ Right direction of thinking, wrong conclusions. One of the biggest reveals of the DLC is that everything is wrong with the Fingers and their mother, Metyr.

Children of the Erdtree 🟡❔I'm not sure what to make of it. The DLC continues to toy with the Empyrean connection to plants, from the special properties of Marika's people's flesh to St. Trina being a literal flower, but it never makes any direct conclusions.

Bells and Bell bearings ❔ The connection does exist, but it should be explored in greater detail.

Candletrees, Miquella, Death and Sleep 💡❔✨ Now that the DLC has revealed Miquella's plan to replace Marika all along, it’s astonishing to realize that my earlier discovery about Necromancer Garris — who likely collaborated with the Black Knives — had Miquella's butterfly and candletree in his basement is actually quite wild

What is Crucible? 🟡❌❔Although the nature of the Crucible is still a mystery, I think my old theory that it was a different tree is not exactly right. I’ve even started to wonder if the Crucible and the Primeval Current are just different names for the same thing.

Some of my old takes haven't aged well, but if anything, I'm glad that Mohg isn't the "walking uooohh 😭💢 joke" I used to call him. However, my opinion on Miquella was surprisingly accurate. For two years, the fandom preached that Miquella wanted to abandon his godhood, making me seem like a major contrarian for insisting that godhood was still his ultimate goal (at least because it would be pointless from a writing perspective to create another Ranni).

I still believe that characters like Marika and Miquella are primarily vehicles to deliver Miyazaki's and GRRM's ideas regarding civilization development, human nature, religion, and philosophy. So, whatever faults they have are the faults of the concepts they represent. Nevertheless, *Shadow of the Erdtree* did an awesome job of elevating these characters from mere ideas to something more human and relatable.

My old description of Malenia is so relevant, it hurts.

Mohg, Radahn, Rykard and Snakes 🐍 Honestly, I'm not sure if Messmer was initially planned by FromSoft or created specifically for the DLC, but looking back, it's pretty funny that I noticed something weird going on between the demigod brothers and the serpents.

Elden Ring lore is a disaster 🤡 Elden Ring story is such lackluster that it was rewritten with the first day patch on top of the giant mountain of cut content. I’m not sure that DLC, if there will be any, can fix this mess or give any proper answers as it seems that writers got too much carried with the idea of making story as vague as possible.

Someone was overdosing on doomium.

To my surprise, the DLC managed to address most of my old frustrations. While I do wish certain things had better foreshadowing or were explored more, it still did a good job of filling many gaps in the base game lore that were making me frustrated. Looking back, I think some of my grudges over the lore were no less important than my theories because they served as a good indication that something was intentionally left unexplained. It seems that the gaps and ambiguities were not oversights but deliberate choices.

As I explore the new content in Shadow of the Erdtree and revisit my old theories, I will also share my thoughts on the new lore and its impact on the narrative. This fresh perspective has already sparked some intriguing insights, and I am eager to see how these revelations will reshape our understanding of the game’s world.

[ask-the-meteor-crew]

FAQ Behind The Curtain

How do you draw so fast?

I'm currently double majoring in Animation and Creative Writing. I'm built different and also just, not trying very hard on most of these drawings. Drawing fast is kind of the backbone of animation and I've noticed coloring everything makes most people assume whatever line quality or level of finish on the outlines is a stylistic choice rather than laziness. What program do you use? I used Clip Studio Paint until about #021 when I picked up after haitus and used Procreate out of comfort and convenience. Do you use stock backgrounds or make them as you go? Every time I decide a scene needs a new background I draw it out in it's entirety and save it to my collection of backgrounds to use. So yeah, I'm not redrawing the background every single time it appears, I'm basically building out the meteor one room at a time in hopes of one day not having to draw backgrounds anymore. Where do you get the space photos? NASA's Hubble Space Telescope team has politely made all of the telescopes published photographs public domain, I imagine as a service to the planet as the intersection between photographers and people able to go that far into space is understandably zero. Font/Handwriting questions I stopped handwriting for most panels as I realized my best handwriting is all caps and it would be a shame if Karkat was the only character anyone could understand. I still use handwritten text for "special speech" which is whispers, and shouting, anything that's supposed to feel or sound radically different from the rest of the yapping. It did take me a while to settle on a font, I found a really good one for Dave that didn't have apostrophes and gave everyone else a typewriter font for a while, until I found the alternate version of the font I used for Dave that had all the special grammar symbols and numbers I could ever need. It's called the Atari font in the actual file but I have no idea if Atari ever actually used this version of it. Does the ask box ever close? When will my question be answered? It doesn't close and I have more questions than I'll probably ever answer. Some are confused about canon, others have had the core idea of their question asked multiple times already and I just didn't feel like collecting them all as screen shots. And some I just don't have answers for. Some get deleted because I don't like the tone, don't get the joke or found a typo particularly difficult to parse. No biggie. Questions will be answered if and when I feel like drawing a comic for it. Some questions are a better starting point for a comic than others, don't take it personally. Can the characters still talk to John and Jade? Can they run into them in the dream bubbles? According to canon, no. According to this blog, also no. Do you take magic anons? No. While I've gotten flimsy on the vlog framing device in order to make a more entertaining comic overall, the truth still remains that anything beyond messages in a digital inbox from some far off unspecified rift in paradox space would have some pretty immersion breaking implications on the setting overall. I know I answered a question offering Dave some clothes but the clothes were not given to him, I used it more as a prompt for him to take the clothes he already had out of the dryer. Is this blog safe for minors? This blog contains canon typical violence and themes, however when it comes to sexual content (the one thing minors absolutely CANNOT legally interact with) this blog is rated T for teen. Think like The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. Sex can be implied and a frequent topic of conversation but never occurs on screen. Ultimately it's up to you and maybe your parents to decide if you can handle the blogs contents as you are responsible for curating your own online experience. TLDR if you're old enough to be on tumblr you should be fine.

How do I address the author?

My name is Sky, she/her pronouns exclusively. Please don’t try to hold conversations via the ask box. Just DM me.

Where do I send questions and comments for the author?

@meteor-crew-after-dark

[samgirl98]

Mending a Family 10/?

Prev | Next

Jason finds out shocking news about his family, and Bruce is an idiot who can't admit he just misses his son.

Jason smiled as he pushed Danny on the swing. Lian was laughing beside them. Jason turned toward Roy and grinned at the man as both children’s peals of laughter echoed around them. (Jason had built a swing set, so Danny had something to play with. Next would be a slide.) Raven was talking to Jazz and rocking Ellie. Raven had seemed to become attached to the kids quickly. It helped that they weren’t fully human like her.

Plus, it must be nice for Jazz to have another girl to speak to.

Jason was so glad that Raven had suggested she cloak Jason and his small family so that she and Roy could come to visit. The Bats were still looking for Jason. According to Roy, Batman and Nightwing were going crazy trying to find leads on Jason.

He didn’t know how to feel about that.

A part of Jason hoped that his old family missed him, but a bigger part of him knew that they were only looking for Jason to keep an eye on him in case Jason went insane again. Jason knew their worries were justified.

It wouldn’t happen, though, not with the family that Jason had built. He couldn’t risk losing Danny and, to the same extent, Jazz and Ellie. He had already gotten attached to the sweet baby girl, and Jazz was nice to talk to.

She almost reminded him of Barbara. Barbara, the only person from his past who talked to him occasionally, was the only one who checked on him and ensured he was fine. She sometimes talked to him during patrols, making those nights less lonely.

Jason was brought back to the present at Danny’s and Lian’s giggling.

“Uncle Jay, Uncle Jay, tell Danny I’m your favorite niece.”

“Nuh-uh, Ellie is his favorite niece.”

“Guys, guys, no fighting. Besides, I love my two nieces equally.”

Roy started fidgeting beside him while Lian looked at him, confused. Raven had a strange look on her face. Before he could ask what happened for them to start acting weird, Lian said, “What about Mar’i? Don’t you love her, too?”

Jason looked at Raven and then Roy.

“Who the hell is Mar’i?”

“Jay,” Roy asked cautiously, “Didn’t you know?”

“Know what?”

Roy sucked in his breath, “Mar’i is Kory’s and Dick’s daughter.”

____

Bruce couldn’t believe what Alfred was saying.

“So, you find out my son is alive, have proof, it takes you a few days to tell me, and then you say I shouldn’t look for him?”

“That’s exactly what I did and am saying, Master Bruce. The boy wants to be left alone; I think we should give him his space and let him come back to us when he feels like it.”

“What if the Pits take over, and he goes on a killing spree? What if he gets in trouble? Injured or, God forbid, what if he gets killed?” Again.

“What if—what if he never comes home?”

“Master Jason has suffered enough. If he felt the need to leave home, we should honor that. Besides, he came home once. He’ll do it again. We have to give him his space, Bruce.”

Bruce stared out the window from his office. A part of him wishes he could’ve reconnected with Jason sooner.

Would he have left if Bruce had extended an olive branch?

No, it was too late to think about ‘what ifs’ now. He had to find his son and bring him home. It’s the only way he can keep the world and Jason safe. Bruce had a better handle in Gotham than anywhere else in the world. He would bring Jason back and ensure his boy was again protected by his cape.

He had to. There was no other choice.

Special thanks to rpglady76 for suggesting that Raven cloak Jason and his family. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how Roy and Raven would be able to visit Jason and had completely forgotten Raven knows magic. I also want to thank Breesperez139 for suggesting I put in Mar'i so I can have even more angst.

@idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @skulld3mort-1fan @theauthorandtheartist @emergentpanda-blog @jaggedheart11 @fisticuffsatapplebees @booberrylizard @fantasticbluebirdfan @thegatorsgooseoose @cyrwrites @kjoboo91 @crystallicedart @amaramizuki666 @spekulatiusmuffin @meira-3919 @kilasmess @bubblemixer @lexdamo @wonderland-daisy @mj-arts-n-stuff @amyheart19 @dolfay @the-church-grimm @undead-essence @aph-mable @lizisipancardo @purrloin77 @writer-extraodinaire @charlietheepic7 @sinfulloccultist @nootherusernameworked @coruscateselene @chaoticchange @itsberrydreemurstuff @gmkelz11 @feral-bunny31 @paroovian @thatonegaybitch68 @d4ydr34min9 @overtherose @fandomwandererer @vipower001 @thordottir45 @blackrabbitt3t @rosecinnamonbun @bianca-hooks123 @epilepticnerd @dat1angel @consouling @flamingenchiladadragon

[absolutebl]

hello!!

i honestly think this is a really weird question to ask; but, in your opinion—what age group people should watch bl dramas?

i'm a teen atm who just reads bl fanfics, but lately i've been getting a bunch of bl drama fmvs on my recommendations on yt😭 and it kinda makes me feel tempted to watch the dramas, but i think i'm a bit too young for it, so i'd appreciate if you could tell me what age i should prolly start watching at :D

thank you in advance, i hope you have a good day/night!!

Hum, good question. I'm not sure. I started reading pretty racy stuff very young, so I don't think I'm the best judge.

But there are certainly BLs that if you read fanfic already, just have lite romances and a bit of smooching. So 13 maybe?

I wouldn't necessarily "recommend it," because I can't make that choice for you. You know yourself much better than I do. But there is certainly BL I would classify as YA in a section of a "bookstore," if that helps?

I think you'll want to try to develop a critical eye to the media you are watching/consuming in order to understand some of the messaging it's doing and the cultural leanings it has. Than you'll be fine. If you've waded into this blog, that's a start. It's all I do.

In other words:

BL is not produced in a bubble it's saying lots of other stuff beyond the romance and smooches.

So is all music, books, art.

Please just remember this stuff is for entertainment, not life guidance, and you'll be fine.

That said, since you're a teen, there are certainly many BLs that are very racy and high heat. And some that represent highly toxic relationships. These might be best avoided for now.

If you read BL fanfic or soft yaoi manga then I do have some rec lists that might work for you (stuck at the bottom) but they weren't written with teens in mind. So if you don't feel like your ready, don't watch it, and if you find yourself at all uncomfortable with the show (and I cannot emphasize this enough) STOP watching it.

Please always feel comfortable stopping a piece of media if you feel at all unsafe or uncomfortable or just don't like it.

There is always something else out there you'll like more.

Some quick "YA style" BLs off the top of my head:

My Love Mix Up (either Japan - VIki or Thailand - YT)

My School President (Thailand - YT)

Light On Me (Korea - Viki)

Seven Days (Japan - grey)

I Cannot Reach You (Japan - Netflix)

Wish You (Korea - Netflix)

Semantic Error (Korea - Viki)

Our Dating Sim (Korea - Viki)

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun (Japan - Viki)

Restart After Come Back Home (?)

Cherry Magic (Japan - Crunchroll)

Ingredients (Thailand - YT)

He’s Coming to Me (Thailand YT)

Gameboys (The Philippines - Netflix)

Old Fashion Cupcake (Japan - Viki)

About Youth (Taiwan - Viki)

I think it's no accident most of these are from Korea or Japan (mostly on Viki.)

Korea, in general, is going to be largely better for your age bracket, they specialize in soft BL with lower heat levels (with very few exceptions).

Japan can veer heavily in the opposite direction, so come ask me again if you find one not on this list and you're not sure, I can warn you.

Thai stuff is easier to find but it's all over the place and can get super super sexy.

Taiwan tends to go more adult content.

If you're confined mostly to YT because of your age, than you're mostly asking about Thai stuff. Drop me another Ask and I'll draw you up a specific list of YA Thai BL on YT but that might take me a bit of research.

[threeking]

... ⠀⠀יִיִ⠀𝃣 ⠀⠀ writeblr intro ⠀⠀ 💌 ⠀⠀ ── ⠀⠀ ;

hello ! my name is third king january but feel free to call me third or january ( or any other nickname you'd like ) ! i'm a twenty two year old black lesbian pursuing a graphic design major with a minor in art history and creative writing—considering media studies—who uses they/them pronouns !

ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧ :⠀ 🍓. i think this may be my third or fourth time trying out a writeblr, but the other attempts didn't go well since i was busy and didn't put a lot of effort into interacting with my mutuals </3. this time around, i really want to be a part of the community and be more supportive of everyone's writing! my goal for this account is to share my wips, any writing, and keep motivated to do more than just stare at a blank document for hours </3.

i'm a big reader and i plan to share some of my recently reads on this blog. please feel free to send me book recs if you think it's something i might like or if you just wanna ramble about something you read that you really liked! my favorite genres are horror, magical realism, fairy tales and fantasy. i love beautiful prose that's almost poetic and ambiguous writing that has you questioning everything until the grand reveal.

my favorite books are: bunny by mona awad, deathless by catherine m. valente, and how to win the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone. the last two books helped me understand the kind of writing style i want to strive for as did poetry !! i don't have a whole lot of fav poems, but worm king's lullaby by richard siken is one that's always spinning in my head.

alongside reading i like manga, webtoons, videogames, and anime. my all time favorite anime is hyouka followed by angel beats and clannad. my favorite webtoon is omniscient reader's viewpoint and i can't recommend it enough. it's soosososo good! ( i started with the webtoon before switching to the novel bc i was too impatient to wait for the updates ) my favorite games are the halo series and oxenfree.

other interests of mine include music, drawing, art, watching youtube videos, journaling, horror movies, and sleeping 😴. i have a few graphic novels / webcomics in my wips so i'm learning how to draw to make them a reality! i also have a video game that's tied to another wip so i'm getting into coding as well !

please never be shy / afraid to tag me in ask games, send me an ask, or even a message! i also have a discord ( username: thirdking ) if you'd like to add me and message me there. also never think or feel like you're bothering me or anything if you wanna say hi or ramble about your interests. i'm always looking to make new friends !! 😁

i ask that minors don't interact or follow !! thank you !!

i have a handful of wips that's been running laps in my head for some time now but these are the ones ( excluding shorter stories ) that aren't multimedia projects or animation ideas, but i may talk about those anyways 😋 since most of these are still in the outlining stage they're subject to change but i'll make sure to update anything to reflect those changes !

📝 𖹭 ⠀ֵ⠀ wip one ; spring ( technically untitled but springs gna be in the final title )

the story follows two ex band mates reconnecting in their adult years after they parted ways when their front man signed a major record deal.

📝 𖹭 ⠀ֵ⠀ wip two ; sisyphus

sisyphus stars three siblings at the center of a conspiracy 1!1!1 the oldest sibling, an astronaut, goes missing during a privately funded space mission embarking to a new planet found in the solar system. i wouldn't call this a greek retelling, but it does a feature a lot of nods to classic greek myths!

📝 𖹭 ⠀ֵ⠀ wip three ; atwe

atwe follows the mother of a teen superhero getting revenge after her kid is killed by an unknown villain. though it's my own special take on superheroes featuring my personal criticisms on teen heroes, it's also a study on family—in particular—distant family relations and saying i love you a little too late.

📝 𖹭 ⠀ֵ⠀ wip four ; march marchen ( title will definitely change )

march marchen is my sort of alice in wonderland / fairy tale retelling that follows an unnamed girl in what might be wonderland trying to figure out who she is and who she isn't. ft parallel worlds, escapism, the fear of childhood, and the fear of adulthood.

📝 𖹭 ⠀ֵ⠀ wip five ; neapolitan ( title will definitely change )

neapolitan is a magical girl webcomic / graphic novel. the story follows a trio of girls becoming the successors of a long line of ice cream inspired magical girls. ft a bright fun palette, gore, and cannibalism! though it's a webcomic, i intend to give it a novelization from the perspective of a different set of magical girls.

if you'd like to be added to a taglist please send me an ask! it'll be easier for me to keep track ! thank you for reading <3

[alfhildr-the-word-weaver]

I must say, it's pretty poetic that I've gotten to season 6 of Vampire Diaries right before another solar eclipse happens in America. I certainly didn't plan it, but it does feel like my timing is very appropriate with this one. I do have questions about the accuracy of the eclipse portrayal in the show, though. I mean, a solar eclipse did in fact happen on May 10, 1994, and it was visible across much of the country, so that much is accurate. But I don't think Mystic Falls would've had quite as good of a view as they show it having. For reference, here's a map of the May 1994 eclipse path (credit: timeanddate.com):

And, if you'll remember, Mystic Falls is like two hours from my old hometown just a stone's throw north of Lynchburg, Virginia, as seen on the locator spell map (this one's all over tumblr, forgive me for not remembering what blog I grabbed it from):

So if you zoom in on the timeanddate map and pick somewhere closeish to there:

It looks like Mystic Falls would be getting a little over 77% coverage or so. It's also worth noting that the '94 eclipse was an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse like tomorrow's eclipse. That still means that the moon went directly in front of the sun, but it does mean that it was small enough/far enough from earth that you didn't quite get full coverage of the sun (thanks to weather.gov for the nifty graphic):

So, I'm not positive whether it would've looked quite as dark as was shown in the show:

Although, I must admit, in this video I found on youtube of the '94 eclipse, (part of me is shocked to find footage from then but I know I shouldn't be like yes they had cameras in the 90s) it actually looks more similar than I expected it to look, but I imagine it was most likely filmed within the path of totality:

But also, when Kai takes Bonnie to Portland, don't they see the eclipse again there? I couldn't find that clip on youtube just now, but Portland barely had any eclipse--only 42-43% coverage, so it would've been way milder of a visual effect, barely any dimming in the sky noticeable without eclipse glasses.

The funny thing is, the area where I live is going to be sitting right around 80% coverage tomorrow. I was lucky enough to get to travel to Missouri for the 2017 eclipse to get into the path of totality, but I'm afraid that it hasn't worked out for me to do so this year, which is immensely disappointing to me as an astronomy enjoyer, but I do still plan to go to an eclipse party and I'm going to start saving to try and get to Spain for the next total eclipse in 2026, which is going to be right around my 30th birthday (screaming). Anyways, it isn't great, but here's my best picture from the '17 eclipse:

I didn't even have a smartphone yet then, because despite it being 2017, I was somewhat of a luddite, so I had the purple flip phone I so stubbornly clung to and a point-and-click Nikon, but I still think this picture is pretty cool for what it is. Here's the zoom in so you can really see that ring of fire (and my shaking hands doubling the image):

Obviously you can find thousands of better eclipse pictures online, but that one's still special to me because it's mine. Anyways, I'll report back with smart phone pictures from whatever I see of the 80% total eclipse tomorrow to compare and contrast with Mystic Falls's 70% annular eclipse of the 90s, because from what I've heard it's going to be much less impressive than full totality was, but I've yet to watch a partial solar eclipse, so I'll just have to find out. Also, if you happen to have any vampiric loved ones trapped in a magical prison dimension who you need help freeing during the eclipse tomorrow, let me know and I'll see what I can do! ;) Hahaha. Anyways, happy eclipse everyone, and may we all possess sufficient self restraint to avoid eye damage (says the woman who has looked at the sun unprotected so many times and is probably going to go blind because of it some day. I know what I've done lol. Don't be me.)

[mitchelldailygames]

Heroes of Song Devlog Part 13: Bosses & Playtest 3

Blows the dust off of this blog.

Where were we?

In the last post I said something like, “I feel like I got some momentum.” That was February 4th. Life’s been busy, both inside and outside my game design world, so there hasn’t been a lot of active work on Heroes of Song, but there’s also a lot I was planning on talking about but haven’t gotten around to yet.

I actually wrote this the first part of this and meant to post it before the last devlog. It relates pretty directly to the third playtest, though, so wrapping them up together works out.

Bosses

I’ve added some bosses to the test document! Remember the design principles:

The heroes are cute.

Kindness matters.

The world is weird.

Sometimes you don’t fight. Sometimes you do.

Health is hearts.

I think this is bringing in mostly principles 3, 4, and 5.

I’ve been working on one of the most Zelda-like aspects of the game, bosses! I’ve been having fun coming up with super specific vulnerabilities that could be acquired in the same dungeon where they’re found. I think these weaknesses are pretty clearly described in the stat blocks for these bosses in the test document, though I do have some unique items I plan to add at some point that would provide more options for unique vulnerabilities to exploit.

The bosses I added are:

Mysterimoth: An illusion-based moth adversary that makes duplicates of itself and shoots beams out of the eye-patterns on its wings. It’s vulnerable to strong winds, such as the Gale song. It also has a larval form that could be faced as a mini-boss.

Mirror Crab: A scuttling, shelled creature with a noticeable vulnerable spot on its belly and some obvious weakness to the Shatter song.

Vault: A hulking tank of a boss that litters the battlefield with bombs and keeps its weak point locked away in a chamber on its chest that just begs to be hit with a Lockpick song.

I think these all feel appropriately Zelda-y. I could picture myself encountering them in any Zelda-like. I also made an attempt to leave them open-ended enough that Songkeepers and Heroes could come up with their own ways of defeating these enemies.

Playtest Session 3

The last playtest I did featured an encounter with Vault.

This was with my usual game night group, so our goal was more about having fun than gathering a lot of information, but I think it was still a useful session. Players were a wide range of different character options, including some that are not in any document out there. It was my first time playing with four heroes so it was the most capable and powerful group I’ve had so far.

The session revolved around a desert town that fell under attack by bandits who stole the magical item that allowed them to grow crops. The bandit leader was a vulture guy and many of the avikin and furrikin were animals you might find in the desert (hares, coyotes, hyenas, hawks). The players had to first run off the lingering bandits in the town and then go after the main group and the stolen artifact.

After handily defeating the bandits in town, the players found the bandit’s hideout in an old fort/bank called the Keyless Keep. There were some creative uses of abilities, such as the bard blowing enemies off the walls of the fort with their Gale song. There was an easy bell puzzle that taught the Lockpick song and unlocked the underground portion of the keep.

Inside was a series of doors that needed to be unlocked while exploring and relocked in a particular configuration so that a the final vault door could be opened. The puzzle… kind of didn’t work based on how I had it written out, but I think has some potential. There were some extra encounters mixed in with navigating the dungeon and some special items to be found.

Finally, the heroes encountered Vault who was holding the special magic item in their chest. Vault maybe went down a little fast, but they did have to make a point to use the song they learned to open up Vault’s weak point. The fact they wracked up as much damage as quickly as they did also had a lot to do with effectively using runes on their weapons and other items and abilities well.

It was a fun session with a few takeaways. One was that giving dungeon design tools to Songkeepers is going to be quite a bit of work. I’m not sure I’m super confident in my personal dungeon design, so helping other people design dungeons is kind of intimidating. My other takeaway was that these bosses could probably be tougher. They don’t need to hit harder, but should be able to take a few more hits, especially tankier examples like Vault.

Wrap-Up

I’m not sure when I’ll have more to share. It’s been a busy (and, frankly, really stressful) time outside of game design. In my game design life, this has kind of meant that I’ve had more capacity for lower-stakes projects that I can put up on Itch without worrying too much about them making back the money I put into them. So, things are kind of stalled on Heroes of Song until I feel like I have the capacity for it again, but it will get picked up again.

If you want to check out what I’ve been working on most recently, pick up HELLDROPPERS, a game using the system from HELLGUTS inspired by Helldivers. I think it does a pretty good job getting the Helldivers feel without being overly granular.

That’s all I have for you for now!

The world is weird; kindness matters.

--Daily

[burninlovebutler]

GAH i didn't wanna do this bc im a gemini & i talk a lot if im unsupervised lol BUT YALL WERE POSTIN SOME SAPPY SHIT SO I WANTED TO JOIN (so sorry this is gonna be so long i apologize in advance)

this wasn't initially the road i was gonna take while talking about this but ofc if u read any of my writing or know me in any capacity, it shouldn't surprise you that we're getting sad lol

as i stood next to my partner watching the midnight fireworks last night, i had a fleeting thought -

16 year old me didn't think i'd still be here at 26 -

i didn't expect to still be on this earth in 2023

when i was around that age my home life was really shitty and abusive and lonely and my only saving grace at the time was the family i found within the one direction/5sos fandom. there were so many times then that my fandom friends saved me, literally.

i wouldn't be here today without them.

i stopped being in fandoms around 2016 and while i still have MANY long term close friends from that time, we all have gone our separate ways interest wise.

I didn't realize just how much i missed being a part of a community until i joined tumblr again. the austin/elvis fandom welcomed me with open arms & filled me with that same youthful joy and connection as i had when i was 16. and even BETTER bc this fandom has blown me away with how kind and gentle and loving it is

point is - i’m grateful that i AM still here, that i’ve been here long enough to meet you and experience this amazing fandom.

it's insane to me to think i would've never met some of the brightest stars of my days without walking into that theater that day. my year would've been so empty, lonely and sad without you all, so thank you all from the bottom of my cold lil heart - you all showed up in my life when i needed u the most

(something weird about this 1D -> Elvis/Aus pipeline is that when i went back to see the day i saw the movie the first time it was on July 23, aka the 1D anniversary 👀 lil weird)

i initially made this blog solely for my fanfic but i'm glad i branched out - though i still wanted to take the time to anyone who's interacted w my writings, even if it was just help with plot or moodboards. my heart skips a beat when my writing is a point of conversation.

thank you to the beauties who grace my dash everyday, even if we don't talk often 💖

@feverkitten @p-oolshark @pearlparty @avengen @presleys @mrsniallhoran505 @missmaywemeetagain @marooosa @eliseinmemphis @elvisabutler @lovininapinkcadillac @aconflagrationofmyown @austinsmutler @heartbrake-hotel @dre6ming @flwrs4aust @rosaminny @presleysdarling @woundmetender @rainydayz101 @ggwritesstuff @golden-kiwis @lattedreamer @weak-aesthetic @bcofl0ve

and of course to my almost daily babes, my days would be so empty without you all and my heart would be so deflated - i never thought i'd end up with a group like this

@succsessions @lllsaslll @cryingabtab @elvisfatass @loving-elvis @nora-nexus-34 @lavenderelvis @luluthesandgoose @powerofelvis @bisexualwvtson @samfangirls @lindszeppelin @infatuatedharleys @ab4eva @sagesolsticewrites @slowsweetlove @areacodefan @jelliedonut @steph-speaks @star-shard @foreverdolly @purejasmine @oh-my-front-door

and how could i ever forget the two that really roped me in @karamelcoveredolicity @troubleinapinksuit - even though it was through war, violence & lawsuits (lol) that our love was carved from, it is the most magical. i am so honored and so grateful to call you friends

one of my biggest goals for 2022 was to make new friends - ones who are reliable, kind, like-minded, supportive, generous, loving - because i was feeling so lonely & unloved, and to my surprise this goal was met ABUNDANTLY by you all, i really can not stress how much you all mean to me

extra special shout out to @bisexualwvtson for setting up the christmas card exchange, it was probably my favorite part of this holiday season - those cards made my whole christmas and i will cherish them forever

i love you all so much its DISGUSTING how much i love you - i don’t know how i would’ve made it through this year without you all - and it makes me so fucking sad when i think about all the memories that wouldn’t have happened without austin/elvis/you guys - it is because of you all that i have some of the best and happiest memories of this year, thank you ❤️

i hope that we are together for a long long time - i know that i am, i’m here for the long haul 💗 pls be in the nursing home with me breaking hips to Elvis songs

love, mel xx

(I APOLOGIZE IF IVE MISSED ANYONE I TRIED MY BEST TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING MY BRAIN IS TRASH SO IM SO SORRY PLS DONT BE OFFENDED IF I MISSED U I LOVE U)

[marimbles]

What are your favorite artworks you’ve ever created ? (Both on this account and in the days of old on carpisuns/chatnoirinette)

the days of old alsdjfasf i've had this blog for like a month but yeah. it does kind of feel like that lol

so far this is my favorite thing i've ever drawn! i was trying extra hard to make it feel magical and like "cinematic" haha. and my heart was just sooo full with the ending of the owl house and my fondness for huntlow so i think it will always be special to me<3 i put a lot of love into it! (x)

another favorite is the illustrated comic thing i did for anna-scribbles's fic golden (like daylight). it's old enough now that it sort of makes me cringe haha but i am still fond of it. it took me months to finish and I really pushed myself and put a lot of thought into it because it was a gift for a dear friend, for one of the best fics i've ever read in my life! and it was an interesting challenge to try to portray visually how it felt to read that beautiful passage. also it's too long so i'll just put my favorite panel lol (full comic here)

i don't have much on this blog but this was kind of my first big zelda piece (which i originally posted on carpisuns and then deleted it and moved it here which was probably dumb lol). i really tried to make it feel like magical and "cinematic" too, and i'm not sure how well i hit the mark, but i still like it and had fun making it! (x)

also i keep forgetting i even did this haha but my huntlow animatic is one of my proudest achievements as an artist<3 it took me forever and was so much work but i learned a ton! i still enjoy watching it now and then

ok im a little embarrassed to be rambling abt my own stuff and life patting myself on the back alkdjsfa but this was a very sweet ask! thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me! :) i feel like im in sort of a creative low atm but i hope i can fill this blog up with fun things and expressions of all the stuff i love that hopefully u can enjoy too<3

[meimi-haneoka]

Hiya~ Dimensional-bitch is my side blog, and I guess I cannot send mail from it!

Anyhow, I saw your reblog and wanted to send you a note personally because...damn. I get it. I've been seeing the same...stuff around. And my extraocular muscles have been getting an EXCELLENT work-out from all the eye rolling.

So many temper tantrums. Half of them whining that CLAMP worked on something other than their preferred manga for a few years, half of them mad about...whatever exacting expectation they had for Clear Card that wasn't met.

And honestly? THESE ARE THE SAME TANTRUMS MY 3 YEAR OLD HAS.

If I dare to do something other than take her to the park we went to yesterday? Instant fit! Worst Mommy EVER!

If she gets the milk she wants in a blue cup instead of pink? DAY RUINED. She can't enjoy milk again, EVER.

I am old enough now to realize that every time a CLAMP manga ends we are going to get this same round of preschooler "BUT IT ISN'T WHAT I WANTED!" foot-stomping. And it's...fine. Whatever. But even though I expect it now I am still. so. tired. And salty. I could salt the seven seas.

So THANK YOU for taking the time to look at and put together something that really gets into what Clear Card IS and DOES. (I am looking through your blog now and I am sad I didn't find it sooner - you've got lots of great stuff here! Especially about Kaito - I do NOT understand the fandom hate??? He's obviously a tortured but ultimately good soul????) There are so many good (and fun! - I've been reading this with my 8-year-old son and he is totally into the magic of it all, even if some of the symbolism flies over his head for now) things about it that get buried under the tantrums. And I am so happy to see them discussed like this!

Best wishes! <3

WAAAAAIT WAIT I HAVE TO REPLY TO THIS ONE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE BECAUSE I feel like I'm about to cry...

You know the feeling when.....you feel *seen*? You feel understood? This is what I felt when I received your ask, Dandelion! (Is it ok if I use this name?) Omg yes. a thousand times yes....you summarized pretty well what I've seen and what I think about this whole situation too. (BTW I'm a mom too and I know what you mean! 😂)

I am old enough now to realize that every time a CLAMP manga ends we are going to get this same round of preschooler "BUT IT ISN'T WHAT I WANTED!" foot-stomping.

Ever since I got on the internet, I was able only to witness the endings in "real time" of Tsubasa, Holic and Kobato, and while I don't remember much for Kobato (probably because it's so underrated and no one was reading it), I DO remember especially the uncomfortable "atmosphere" in the fandom that accompanied the last chapters of Tsubasa's serialization. I remember all the negativity, and all the exact same complaints of today with Clear Card, "it's too complex!" "this has dragged too long please END IT". It was so overwhelming that I got dragged into it too. I COMPLETELY understand what you mean. I didn't expect I'd see it again with Clear Card, but hey people can always surprise you for the worst, isn't it? So I had decided, towards the end of Clear Card, that I wouldn't let ANYONE make me go through what I went through when Tsubasa ended, and I've set limits and lines to not be crossed with everyone, even close friends. I wanted to enjoy this story in peace to be able to write about what I TRULY feel.

I am SO GLAD that you're checking the rest of my blog and that you find my posts interesting. Most of the time, especially when I talk about Kaito and Akiho in the desperate attempt to make people understand those characters a bit better, it's a bit like shouting in the wind.....but I won't stop doing it. I love those characters, and I thank CLAMP everyday for creating them, they brought so much depth and enriched CCS in a special way.

Thank you so much for this ask!! 🙏❤️

[stuiie]

HIIIIII stuiieee! Hope you don't mind me jumping into this game. I had so much fun reading your responses to the other asks and couldn't help but want to join in! I have a few questions I find really interesting but you can always choose to skip them if you feel uncomfy 🥰

15. If you could choose only one food to eat the rest of your life, what would it be?

21. Do you keep a journal?

53. What kind of books do you read?

95. Share your favorite quote.

97. Do you like horror movies?

Personally, I am an absolute chicken about horror movies but there's also that addicting pull that keeps me seated once I start watching 😣 It's the aftermath that's really troublesome cuz funny enough, by then, everything would somehow feel really creepy, even the small noises at night that I'd usually pay no mind to HAHAHA

Also, another question that intrigued me would be "When was the last time someone told you you're beautiful?" at number 19 but rather than getting you to answer that, I'd like to take this chance to express my adoration for you and your blog once again. You radiate such beautiful energy and your way of words never fails to make me feel warm and fuzzy. It's safe to say that you have easily become one of my comfort and favorite persons! Small interactions with you make me really happy! 💖 Sending you a lifetime worth of love and positivity to wherever you are in this wide world 🌎🫶

- J

Hi J 🥰,

Of course, I don’t mind at all, and I’m so sorry for taking so long to get back to your message 😣. Thank you for your patience!

Okay, let’s dive into your questions! 😍

15. If you could choose only one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? Without a doubt, it would be giouvetsi. I’ve been absolutely obsessed with it ever since I lived in Greece. There’s just something about that dish that I can’t get enough of—it’s comforting, flavorful, and brings back so many wonderful memories.

21. Do you keep a journal? I used to keep a journal religiously, starting from when I was 11 years old. It was such an important outlet for me. But when I began moving between countries in my 20s, it became difficult to carry all those books with me, so I stopped. It’s something I’ve been thinking about taking up again, though. There’s something so grounding about putting your thoughts down on paper.

53. What kind of books do you read? I usually switch between fantasy and romance. Fantasy is my go-to when I need an escape from real life—it’s a wonderful and entertaining way to get lost in another world. And as for romance, well, I just love love. I adore the way romance novels can make me feel, the way they stir emotions and make my heart race. There’s something magical about being swept up in a love story, feeling every high and low right alongside the characters.

95. Share your favorite quote. "Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations."

97. Do you like horror movies? I used to watch a lot of horror movies when I was a teenager—so much so that I haven’t really watched one in years. It’s not something I’d choose to watch on my own now, but if someone really wanted to see one, I’d join them. I don’t scare easily, but the one horror movie that still sticks with me to this day is Dead Silence. Ugh, just thinking about it gives me chills!

I wish I could protect you from those creepy movies, but alas, here I am and you’re over there. Just promise me you’re not watching them alone when you’re scared!

19. When was the last time someone told you you’re beautiful? That was actually just yesterday from someone special, and it made me really happy ☺️.

Thank you so much for dropping by, not only to ask questions but also to share a bit of yourself with me. It means a lot! 🥰

[popculturebuffet]

Lion King II: Simba's Pride Review (Birthday Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and it's time once again for that annual tradition where I celebrate Kev, my client turned friend and client who comissions much of the reviews you see on this blog, exactly how he likes.. by talking about lions for a while. And after covering the rather abismal interquel 1/2 last year, we're finally onto the sequel this year, Simba's Pride.

Simba's Pride is my first time covering one of Disney's various DTV sequels. And while many a kid can recalled having to suffer through these things , I honestly don't have a ton of experince with them. I saw about 6 as a kid: the aladdin sequels, extremley goofy movie, this one, pocahantas and hunchback. I saw them advertised sure but I was more a toy story kid. I watched and was scarred by that one way more than most other disney films outside of say Aladdin, which I remember watching all the time .That and the aristocats. MOstly for that bitching opening

So i'ts not a suprise the only ones I really remembered were the aladdin sequels.. and extremley goofy movie, which is likely responsible for me loving goofy so much. Yes over the orignal , I just headbanged to the aristocats what makes you think I just magically turned into this one day?

That said.. I was curious to revisit this one when the time came as Lion King II has one of the better reputations among the disney sequels, feeling both SLIGHLTY more necessary. It's well liked to the point that when lion king sequel series LIon Guard happened, Lion King 2 was kept fully canon, to the point season 3 goes out of it's way to explain why the new crop of chracters from lion guard are absent during this film.

So the question is does this film hold up... or is it simply good by comparison to Mulan II: Everyone Woke up On the Wrong Side of the Bed This Morning? Find out with me under the cut.

We're Doin a Sequel: I almost didn't have much of a production section this time, but thankfully wikipedia provides.. in this case an old LA Times article from when the movie was in pre-release. It's not DEEP into production but it least it gives me some insight into how the sausage was made on this one.

The first was this pretty damming line from Buena Vista Home Entertainment's president, which sums up the DTV boom in a nutshell

“We look at the feature animation business as a way to set up the original story,” said Michael Johnson, president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment Worldwide. “Their energies are absorbed completely in new productions. So we have set up a division through the television animation group to do the sequels. . . . That’s not to say this isn’t good enough to go theatrical.”

This.. may be one of the grossest things i've seen disney do. It's not homophobia gross, it's not "making a feature film next to a concentration camp" gross, but it's still horrible to make a division just to make cheap sequels you don't consider anything but money , not only discrediting the work done by the animators on these films, but also admitting your making a shoddy product just to get money from parents who trust your brand. Am I saying this is the first or last time any company, disney included, pulled this kind of shit? No. Not even close. Even GOOD movies have done greasy shit to their animators, see the shoddy conditions on across the spider-verse. But this is still a special kind of wrong and set up a whole industry of wrong in these cheap half assed sequels. If antyhing could remind me WHY we need the writers and actors strikes, this is a big flashing symbol as to why as execs haven't really changed how they treat animation, just the tactics for being shitty to it.

That being said as always it didn't stop the team from trying hard, as Sharon Morill, then vp of DisneyTVA which also ran these things, was determined to break the stigma. It sadly didn't happen, but I can't fault her for trying. And Lion King II did try. It had a four year development cycle, which for animation seems pretty normal, but for one of these films is twice the length. They also changed up some things along the way but we'll get more into that with the film itself. The film released to mostly good reviews, with no one liking it more than the first but still finding it a fine sequel. So what'd I think of it? Let's explore that shall we? A Good Idea at The Time The core of Lion King II isn't terrible. it has some cracks just from the foundation but it's a solid idea for a sequel: We focus now on Kiara, Simba's daughter, played by the star of one of my faviorite franchises and a huge get for the time, Scream star Neve Campbell, who was just coming off scream 2 when this film came out no less. She does a great job once we get to the present with what she has, suprising no one. This honestly wasn't a bad move: unlike most disney sequels the setup for one is there in the finale with Kiara's cornoation, which is where this film picks up before going into her life as a cub, then spending most of the film on her as a young adult. Not only that the film does have the clever idea to play off Simba's trauma: he's overprotective of his daughter and Nala can see it.. and it wears on her more and more with time, with her finding pride rock confining and being annoyed he constantly sends her gay grandpas to go spy on her. You can see both sides: To kiara the pridelands have become a cage her dad's keeping her in but you get that simba still has lingering trauma from both Mufasa's death and his own buffet of near death experinces. Simba is wrong to smother her like this, but you can at least see why he's like this.

This time though there's ANOTHER lead, Kovu, played by disney legend and goof Jason Marsden, which sets a trend: While Cambell is a big flashy name most of the cast are either returning form the first one or are vetran voice actors or tv stars. Nothing wrong with this as the cast with one glaring exception we'll get to all does a fantastic job. The only one not to return is Rowan Atkinson, whose replaced by Fraiser Vetran Edward Hibbert and who does.. fine. He's not as good as rowan, but he's not bad and Zazu isn't in the film enough for it to be a real issue.

Kovu is one of the outcasts, a group of lions who were banished from the pridelands for supporting scar wholeheartdly. I'm a bit torn on the outsiders as the concept: I like the idea Scar had actual supporters, that Simba, given how much scar had done to him, overreacted and banished them all instead of trying to work with them, giving them legit reasons beyond WE EVIL to hate Simba and want him dead. That said.. their also a MASSIVE retcon that makes zero sense in the context of the original film. What lionesses we saw hated Scar and resented him, the pridelands were dying so it's hard to see why anyone would support him, even a small pack , EXCEPT simply being evil, and NONE OF THEM did anything about scar being eaten by the hyenas nor against the rest of the lions, nor tried to start a war when Simba exiled them. The Hyenas are also conspciously absent as , despite Cheech Marin being tapped to return, they were apparently written out.

There's also a massive elephant in the room: See if you look at Kovu you notice he kinda LOOKS like Scar and his mom, the leader of the outcasts and one of the best parts of the film Zira, played by Suzanna Planchette to vllanous resentful perfection, acts more like a vengeful widow. Surely i'm just reading too much into this and Disney didn't SERIOUSLLY consider making a film about incest right?

Yes. I wish to Mufasa up above I was kidding. Granted this info is midly suspect as neither tv tropes nor wikipedia have a link for it.. but givne Kovu looks like scar, how Zira acts about her former leader and lover, and how it seems very weird Scar wouldn't just sire an heir outright and just pick some random baby, i'm feeling it's true and it's laughable they got as far as they did before someone said "Wait isn't this incest' Which yes, yes it is. It makes the romance between the two feel weird as even with the film trying to act like Kovu isn't scar's son just his heir... it still very much comes off like Kovu IS scar's son and no one brings it up becuase lions apparently give a much of a shit about incest as the writers of this flim did.

Zira and Kovu are fascinating though: Zir ais as clever as scar, has a swagger to her and seems just at all times like a snarling engine of vengance. Her husband is dead.. and so his murderer shall burn. She's not deeply complex, but she is incredibly fun to watch and sometimes tha'ts all you need. Kovu meanwhile has a LOT of fascinating layers: he shows up hostile to kira as a cub and it's clear with how the outsiders function that he's been raised as a weapon his whole life: only to fight an dsurvivie with what scraps they have out there. And his transition to adulthood is shattering: Kiara is just herself but older, simply less willing to take her dad's shit after a lifetime of it. Kovu by contrast goes from a fairly sweet innocent kid.. to a revenge engine modled by his mom to infiltrate the lions and kill simba. Marsden gives a truly awesome performance, with just what Kovu has become being clear.. but also that beneath that what he could get from Simba's side of things.. could be better.

The problem is that while the setup is really good, the first third of the film having the two as kids and setting up the situation, and it's enough that I just ignore the massive leaps needed for the outsiders to exist or the fact their basically the hyenas but as lions, the rest of the film... does almost nothing with it. Instead of diving into these two characters and especially Kovu's very complciated crisis of concious.. they just do things in the most most cliche and tired way possible: Kovu finds his new life almost instantly better and plans to tell Kiara asap but can't, his clan gets tired and attacks, Simba blames Kovu and tries to clamp down harder and kiara leaves, theyg o back to stop a war. it's basically west side story or romeo and juliet but speedran so all the actual conflict and emotoin is gone. Kovu dosen't even kill anyone, the death is on Simba for Kovu's brother.

Oh and since we have to talk about him at some point let's talk about Kovu's brother. His brother is Nuka, a shabby lion who thinks he should be heir but proves every second why he shoudln't and why his mom didn't choose him, basically being comedy relief. They then try to give him a tragic death scene which would work.. if it were not for one clear error. one horrible mistake that ruins the character. They cast Andy Dick to play him

Yeah even putting aside his harassment , general creepiness and the fact John Lovitz had FRESHLY punched him in the face for making a crack about Phil Hartman post death (AFTER also enabling Hartman's wife's drug addiction), WHY would , even for the price of a nickle, you cast ANDY DICK for a dramatic death. Even before we knew he was somehow even worse, Andy Dick's whole existance was to be a punching bag. you hire him to annoy your audience and your characters. You CAN have a comedy characters death mean something and be truly gutting, take 24's death in venture bros or even among disney hooty getting turned into a puppet during owl house. But you have to make us care about that character on some level beyond being a joke no one takes seriously first. With Nuka.. he's just a dick who envied his brother and stupidly challenged Simba to a fight. And even as much of a dick as Simba is in this film, more on that in a moment, Simba STILL tried to just bat Nuka away. Simba, despite being ambushed, despite his hatred of the outsiders, despite everything you'd expect.. WENT EASY ON HIM. He didn't want to kill anyone. He only started getting serious when Nuka, somehow, proved to be an actual opponent and didn't even kill him on purpose. The idea of Simba being forced to that is good, but it just dosen't work when the character is nothing and had no personality other than "Pralines and Dick". Fuck em. And most good ideas end up like Kovu or Pralines and Andy Dick. Kiara is mostly wasted, mostly just wanting to bone her cousin and having a fairly sterotpicla disney princess arc, Rafiki is just there to push the main couple together, and Simba .. simba gets done kinda wrong. While the idea of him turning to his worst impulses over trauma is good, the film has so much going on instead he just comes off as a massive prick whose prejduiced, judges Kovu because he , in the context of the film HAPPENS to look like his arch enemy and isn't related to him, and treats his daughter like shit. Brodrick tries but there isn't enough depth given to Simba or anyone for this flim to work. The film just feels half assed...

It dosen't help despite not really giving the story time to breathe.. it also spends a LARGGGGEEE MEATY CHUNK of the storytelling on musical numbers. There's about as many as the original.. but I can barely recall them, with all just feeling like half hearted rehashes of the originals And unlike the original films songs which were all vital to the plot in some way (Circle of Life set the tone and theme of the film, I Just Cant' Wait To Be King fully sets up Simba's character for the first act and has him ditching Zazu, Be Prepared fleshes out Scar and sets up his big plan to kill Mufasa while also revealing at it's start that Scar was working with the Hyenas and by it's end reveals the Hyenas as a real threat, Hakuna Matata handles the time skip and sets up Simba for the third act, and Can You Feel the Love Tonight? has Simba and Nala begin their romance, which is key in getting him to go home. ). In contrast while these numbers COULD commuincate key stuff, they all go on so long they just pad out a film that REALLY didn't need padding, it needed a liver and some kidneys to help it function better.

The one thing the film does really well.. is the animation. Seriously while you can tell this isnj't a theatrical budget.. you can also tell the animators stretched every dime they had to make this LOOK theatrical grade. While some shots i've seen, or some sequels i've seen outright look like they were made cheaply, Lion King II looks damn good and worthy of the original. Despite all the challenges it'd bring the characters still look expressive, colorful with just that hint of real animal movements that made the original's animation so damn good. It may not look as good as the original but for what they had to work with it looks as close as they could possibly get and that's DAMN impressive.

So yeah overall this film isn't great. I wanted to like it I did: It sounded good.. but the final product , even acknowlding the struggles they likely had, is so padded and full of wasted potetial it just makes me sad. It's still probably one of the better Disney Sequels as it both had a reson to exist, good ideas and the animation is again fucking beautiful. But it sadly isn't as much as it could've been. Hopefully when I get to Lion Guard at some point, we'll see what a lion king followup truly could've been. For now.. we can only watch this and see someone almost but not quite make it. Maybe if disney wasn't treating these like disposable money factories this could've actually worked.

[bootleg-sara]

After a long time coming I finally did it. I have made a full list of all my AUs via drawing Isaac in all of them! +3 extra forms from a few said AUs. I’m so excited to have these out and be able to start sharing more about them!

I’ll give a short description of each AU under the cut

Basement: My most canon-adjacent AU. It’s how I view the basement and the stories of the kids/basement borns inside. A bleak story, but one that comes with a happy ending. Other than Purgatory, this is the one I’ve talked about the most. As many of my tboi HCs are placed here

Purgatory: The main AU. Purgatory follows Isaac as he travels through hell and heaven while figuring out life on earth. Trying his best to avoid being captured due to his status as a “Prophet”; a special human soul who has connections to both the spiritual and physical realms

Parasite: The world is put into an apocalypse after an earthquake opened up a giant crater and released a swarm of locusts that spread parasites onto the populous. Most end up dead after being infected, the few that live are given special abilities, putting humanity to the test

Sacrifice: I lovingly call this my Magical Girl AU. A bunch of random people are picked and sent into a death-match for the world’s entertainment. Helped by their friendly familiar that allows them to transform into more powerful forms. Sinister secrets hides underneath it all

9 Lives: Another AU I have written a bit about here. After the original human world was destroyed humanity moves to a new world to save themselves. In the far future, Isaac finds himself wrapped up on the wrong end of a devil deal and has 9 chances to live his life to the fullest

New God: The world needs to be started again. In hopes that fresh blood will bring better change, they take in a baby God and train them so they can make a better world before they destroy the old one. Eden and Azazel watch the new God with worry for their own futures

Cursed: Isaac is cursed and seems to bring a terrible fate to whatever comes in contact with him. For as long as he can remember, he has isolated himself to avoid bringing more pain to others. A group of young college adults find him in an abandoned house and give him hope again

Armageddon: A different timeline/future setting for Purgatory. The tainted timeline where Judas successfully merges the physical and spiritual realms. Now with the world’s fate on the line, the new archangel Isaac has to make sure the world goes in the right direction

Soul Bond: The au I made completely on a whim. A world that’s defined by everyone’s soul being bonded to someone else’s and the trip down The Basement some will take to break/make their current bonds. A lot more fantastical and “out there” than most of my other AUs

Adult: The future au for all of the Basement kids. Basically everyone’s older now and working through the trauma of what the basement did to them. Some of the basement’s old scars still stick strong to this day

Angel AU: An AU where everyone is dead Yippie 🎉All the characters are either angels or demons. Living their afterlife to the best they can while shifting through their deaths (they all died pretty young). This AU was originally made for my “Ask Angel Jacob and Esau” ask blog

Edmund Ultra Pride: A comedy AU about Ultra Pride and their mysterious ability to change the basement to their whim with their art tablet. They end up taking a liking to a child who accidentally falls in and tries to make their situation more palatable

The extra 3: Tainted Isaac and Infernal Isaac are both from the basement au. Tainted is self explanatory. Infernal is based on a new game mode idea I’ve been toying with. And I’ve talked about Brother Delirious a small bit. But he’s P!Isaac’s worst thoughts taken physical form

I would write more about all of these, but I’ve written more than enough for now lmao. I’m always here to answer any questions and I do love talking about my AUs. I hope to make more content for these more and I might do this same format with other characters. Very excited to finally have this out of my brain zone