#a better and improved version of the edit i made for twitter

[boysareouttonight]

the gang - last friday night

[eloise-t-g]

i think for me, the watcher situation comes down to this:

it's absolutely respectable that the watcher team wants to grow and produce better quality content. it's respectable that they don't want to stagnate and end up pushing the same content out over and over again. that's not satisfying for them creatively, i get that.

however, if higher quality, more heavily produced content is not what your fans are asking for, then you can't ask them to fund it.

this all-or-nothing method they've gone for is frankly bizarre. it feels like they leap-frogged all other alternatives to improving their finances and ended up here, alienating and frustrating the majority of their fanbase (the fanbase they thanked for getting them to where they are).

i think this could have gone a lot better if they:

Hadn't hyped up this video for a week.

Hadn't announced the worth it successor just beforehand.

Hadn't put out a wishy-washy, "boo hoo we're so sad about this", over-produced video.

Hadn't made it $6/month (more in a lot of countries given exchange rates).

Had considered that this means fans in specific countries literally cannot pay for the subscription due to geo/region-locking.

my ideas for improving their funds, aka things they could have tried before blowing their brand up: create their own website with two options - a free version with ads and a paid version without ads, OR make better use of their patreon/make their website extra content, not all their content, for example:

Put the ghost file debriefs on there.

Put shows like survival mode on there (or even shift that show from pre-recorded video to live-stream - live stream access to patrons and VOD access to everyone, maybe).

Put episode commentaries there.

Do reaction videos to their old buzzfeed content, talk about memories and BTS, and put that there.

Put one/two episodes of each show, per season on there (and ONLY there).

Put the episodes up there a few days early.

Make specific, website only content (that's not your main and most popular series aka ghost files and puppet history).

Record the live, in-person shows and put those VODs up there.

EDIT (thought of something else lmao): put extended or even uncut versions of ghost files on there. Paranormal Detour on Detune's twitch channel has shown that people will willingly sit through 6+ hours of a ghost investigation.

EDIT: idk, do livestreams once a week where you watch scary movies with fans on discord or twitch.

(side note: the fact that they're not taking down their patreon and instead shifting all of their podcast content on there, something the patreons who have been loyally giving them money for years didn't ask for, is ridiculous and greedy. add to this the fact that they don't even get a free sub to the new website, instead get 40% off - a measly 10% more than anyone else who subs before the official launch).

the thing for me is that they're claiming they want to make "television" and "television-grade content". that's completely fine. what's not completely fine is acting like your four episodes a month is equal to netflix's entire catalogue.

this really felt like it should have been something they told us they were progressing towards, not something they revealed to be on the imminent horizon. idk, it just feels out of nowhere. no, they don't owe us all of the info about their company. but something had to be better than this.

final thought - it's okay and valid to be upset at the team for this. for a lot of people, it's a complete betrayal (especially the comment that $6 a month is something "anyone and everyone can afford", i mean yikes). i do think some people's anger got the best of them, and some of the comments i've seen across youtube, twitter, and tumblr are plain bullying, racism, and harassment. until we have the whole story, we can't decide that one founder (aka steven in a lot of people's minds) is solely responsible. i know a lot of these awful things are only coming from a small minority of the fandom, but they still get seen.

at the end of the day, all three of them got up in front of a camera and made this video, together. that can only lead us to the conclusion that they made this decision together. acting like these men in their 30s couldn't stand up against it if they truly wanted to, is so strange and parasocial lmao.

tl;dr there were much better ways of going about this announcement, if it even needed to be made at all. however, that doesn't excuse the hateful shit being spewed at the team. for now, all we know is the three founders decided they were done with youtube, and done with their loyal youtube audience.

(i have so many more thoughts on this but i need to stop lmao. however i do wonder how different things could have been if 1. they had hired someone with actual business experience as their CEO from the jump, and 2. this video was more of a "hey we're broke! this is a last-ditch effort to save our company!". guess those questions will remain ... well ... you know ...).

[marshallpupfan]

My Weekly Wipeouts~

Back in April of 2020, I not only started posting daily pics of Marshall, I also began my routine of using clips from the cartoon to post "Weekly Wipeouts". Admittedly, I wanted to call them "Wednesday Wipeouts", but I noticed that was used quite a lot already on Twitter/X for various other posts, so I changed it to Weekly Wipeouts. Ever wonder why I always post these on Wednesday? Now you know!

I haven't missed a single Wipeout since I started (unless you count the ones that got blocked on Youtube... thanks, Viacom). In fact, since that day, I've posted well over 230 of them! Even more, if you count the ones I revisited to extend them with extra clips. Just for fun, here's a peek at the documents I use to keep track of them all.

When I first came up with this idea, I didn't want to just post a clip and call it a day. I figured I'd also create an intro and outro card to place on each one, just to add a little extra flair. I'll admit, this was directly inspired by the official PAW Patrol Youtube account, since they often did something similar.

This is what I initially came up with for my intro. The thing is, I wasn't happy with just using a still image for the background, so I replicated that animated background (common with the franchise) from scratch and made it red. Actually, at first I used the one from the video game, "PAW Patrol on a Roll", since it was easier for me at the time. I later replaced it with one that's more accurate to what you see behind the logo during the official cartoon's intro, only... red.

I kept this for about sixty Wipeouts until I finally decided I wanted to go back in and change those letters to something that looked nicer. Going back to Photoshop...

This is what I came up with. I think these letters just look way better! And this is when I updated the background animation, too. What you see here is what I'm still using now, although I've swapped out the render of Marshall for another a few times since then.

Admittedly, I was slightly tempted to use a render that uses his new season 11 animation, but I don't have any that can work that's also transparent. Besides, I still prefer his old look more, anyway. Maybe I'll try to edit one eventually, if I ever use a wipeout from the latest episodes with that new animation... but I'm pretty sure those will just immediately get blocked by Youtube anyway.

I've also updated my intro for some holidays, such as Halloween and Christmas. I usually work on these ahead of time, since I always make a bunch of edits and modifications to them until I get something I really like. In fact, the Christmas one received quite a few edits.

The first one, we'll call it version 1.0, used a lot of blue, such as the background and letters. I felt this didn't mesh with Marshall's red aesthetic, so I was like "I can't keep this".

For version 1.1, I reversed my edit and made the letters red again. It still didn't look quite right, so again, I went back in to modify it.

For version 1.2, I decided to ditch the blue background and go with the usual red. I also decided, for fun, to put some snow and ice on the badge, just to sell the winter theme even further. I felt it was all starting to look better… but there was still something about it that wasn't meshing for me, particularly with the trees and snow field I drew up. Back to Photoshop.

For version 1.3, I decided to see what it might look like if I made the mountains in the background a bit more blue, to give them a more cold temperature look. I felt this was what it needed for everything to mesh better, so I went with it. This is ultimately what I used!

I later modified this one to use the updated new letters, too. A version 1.3.1, if you will. I had to redraw the Christmas lights around said letters to make it work, but it was worth it to improve the overall look.

Honestly, this stuff can sometimes be a lot of work, especially when the Wipeout clip requires some extra editing (including audio editing to merge clips and/or remove portions for time), but it's something I like doing for you guys. I like my content to look and appear nice, and hopefully unique enough to stand out... even if some of this just involves a brief clip at the start. The effort is often worth it!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed a brief look at some of what goes into my Weekly Wipeouts. I just figured it might be a fun thing to talk about... and to continue procrastinating from working on rearranging my Marshall collection (I haven't worked on it much since my last post about it. lol)

[joelhappyhil]

It's been a month and a half, here's a update for DAWN before the new year.

(This was taken from an update on my Kickstarter)

Hello everyone, and happy holidays!

I'd first like to give an apology for the lack of substantial updates, especially regarding DAWN's progress after the Kickstarter's end. I've shown many small updates on my Twitter and Discord but felt it would be annoying to send out emails for each of those teasers. I've created this post as a bulk progress update before I release a major update to the playtesting material (more on that later).

Art

I would like to share the thing that's taken most of my time and funding since the Kickstarter ended: the ordering and use of new art for the book.

This is only some of the work that's been done so far, but since this art is meant to represent player options, I felt it was good to show you all these as examples of what's been completed, as I assume most of those reading will be looking to play the game as players.

Playtests

I've been spending a lot of time on balancing the game, with combat tests being hosted on my Discord every week. These have resulted in a lot of reworks and changes to the mechanics that will be apparent if you read the version that was publicly available during the Kickstarter's run. Here’s some examples of reworked Techniques (renamed from Power's since the KS) and new ones that have been well received by testers.

Design and Copy Editing

You may have noticed from these screenshots, but I've also taken a try at reformatting the game to better reinforce the comic book look, with new fonts and improvements to the page layouts, while better managing the negative space.

I feel I've made a lot of progress and I'm getting closer to the final pdf, but there’s  still quite a bit of quality checking that needs to be done. (The GM parts of the book especially).

I'll be aiming to release a Final playtest document on my Itch sometime before or around the new year. It'll be the most complete version so far, but will still be missing a lot of art  fluff text, and short stories I plan to add at the head of each chapter. As the name implies, this should be the last freely available version I release before 1.0, where I'll start working on the physical layout for printing and start on the supplements funded in the KS.

Conclusion

If you got this far I'd like to thank you. I've spent quite a few years on this project and never thought I'd be able to get this much funding for it, or for any of my books, really. To show my appreciation, here's the current book cover for that final playtest document. I'm not sure if it'll be the same when the update comes out, but I felt like some of you might enjoy seeing its current version.

Again, thank you all so much, I'll be updating you again when this stuff becomes available.

- Joel Happyhil

[egoat]

Wizards: Creeping and Ramping

This is an excerpt of an interview floating around in advance of the new D&D book coming out, which has gotten some enflamed reactions on Twitter for "admitting to introducing power creep into D&D" & "referring to Magic as filthy" and other things. I wanted to summarize some of the criticisms of Wizards of the Coast, most of which I've see on this site, and try to reflect on what their ethos has been the past couple of years in Magic and D&D, which have always reflected each other.

To give some barebones context: Wizards of the Coast (a proud subsidiary of Hasbro) develops both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, one being a tabletop co-operative role playing game and the other a collectible trading card game. Ostensibly, the two genres are pretty far apart aside from their fantasy trappings and target audiences, but in many ways they've acted as sort of sibling games to each other since Magic was brought into the fold in 1994 (or something), a trend which has increased more and more in recent years. Magic settings were "crossed over" into 5th edition settings books, Dungeons & Dragons was "crossed over" into Magic, but more than anything they have come to reflect each other in terms of design -- when assembling a character build in 5th edition D&D, you're likely looking to select feats and features and spells and abilities that synergize with each other and generate impact and value, when you're not strictly making your decisions from a role playing point of view, not dissimilar from assembling a Magic deck full of cards that synergize with each other and generate value.

To return to the quote, then; Wizards of the Coast undeniably has sought to make their new, not-confusing-at-all 2024 version of the 5th edition core rulebooks appealing by making them better than they were before. They offer a product that is ostensibly improved in terms of design considerations and things like "balance", but also one that is undeniably "improved" in terms of the value those design elements have in terms of gameplay. "Nerfs" are few and far between, while "buffs" have been applied to seemingly everything, something that is stressed again and again by lead designer Mark Rosewater in the promotional videos discussing the design behind the books. In other words, as much as they package their promotion in terms of the "fun" added to the game, the "power creep" element is undeniably there, and the players most attuned and affected by that "power creep" are in turn not happy about it, particularly in learning this trend shares so much in common with Magic's recent design trends.

I want to dive deeper into the question of why this matters; nerds, fandoms, devoted practitioners of a craft, whatever, are perennially upset about changes being made to anything. Should we first consider the question the design team was ostensibly considering -- do these changes make the game more fun? Is the product improved in a way that's more important than the prior power balance being affected (or upturned)? Let's first take a look at what "power creep" has meant for Magic.

Surrounding Magic's thirtieth anniversary in 2022, WOTC aggressively expanded the amount of products released in Magic's lineup. Sets of Magic were released well below 5 per year prior to 2010; from 2010 to 2020, that number hovered from below 10 to around 15; and from 2020 onward, that number skyrocketed to almost 40 per year. Despite the backlash from consumers and investors alike, with Bank of America famously saying Hasbro was "killing its golden goose" by extracting the maximum value out of their existing consumer base with these excessive releases, this strategy undeniably reaped dividends and continues to. Magic had its moment as these massive product releases, chiefly among them the Universes Beyond: Lord of the Rings, hit shelves. Perhaps more significant were the design trends reflected on the cardboard printed. Magic was known for being a bit capricious when it came to power level; one could argue there was a practical downward-sloping bell curve in the "playability" of cards from the first sets through the modern era of cards. The sets printed from 2020 on, however, were evidently as powerful as anything ever printed, if not moreso, and this "power creep" undeniably drove sales. Exactly as Lanzillo described in the quote above, when Wizards printed a card that shifted competitive formats around it and in rare quantities, product sales responded in turn, and the aftermarket values of those cards reflected this as well.

All of this fed into the ongoing animosity between Wizards of the Coast and its consumer base, who have always recognized its exploitative tendencies and have nonetheless endured them. This came to a head, however, in 2023, when Wizards attempted to breach the Open Gaming License in an attempt to basically leech royalties off of an already-existing independent industry of D&D-related products. Wizards was unsuccessful, of course, retracting their attempt to do so as it was further found that they'd be in violation of a legal precedent that they themselves set, but this brought to light exactly how distant Wizards had become from its consumer base. In the first place, purchasing a Wizards of the Coast product had never been necessary to play D&D. It was only really one person, the Dungeon Master, who was encouraged to spend hundreds on WOTC's hardcovers for a group to play the games; and even that was nullified by the availability of all of that information and text in a more conveniently organized form on numerous websites, or just the PDF rips of those books. In other words, the contract between Wizards and its player base had always been one of goodwill, and that goodwill was rapidly deteriorating. Boycotts were recommended as a course to protest the violation of the OGL. Around this time in Magic: The Gathering's history was also the time that "proxies", printed paper copies of cards, became much more popular and accepted in MTG player's circles. Whether it was the unavailability to find many cards at an affordable price, the unwillingness to pay scalpers or Wizards of the Coast for those cards, out of protest of Wizards of the Coast's design or business practices, or just the ease with which you could print cards and have a good time with them just like you could with D&D, it became apparent that a huge portion of Magic's player base no longer cared to collect the cards for their collectible card game. Still, to this day, a majority of casual Magic: the Gathering events across a majority of game stores tend to be proxy-friendly, with the only exception being official tournaments.

But what does all this mean for the game itself? One would think the developers of both D&D and Magic: the Gathering would make an effort to win the goodwill of their consumers back above all else; to make products that people care about, recognize the value of, and can accept or even want to pay the retail prices for. How Wizards of the Coast responded to that task, is, as always, complicated.

It would take me far too long to address the many, many criticisms levied at D&D and its 5th edition in the decade of its reign. To summarize; D&D is and likely always will be the most popular tabletop role playing game. It is, by and large, a fun and enjoyable experience; is this in large part due to it being a role playing game and the only example of its genre most people have given a chance? Does the design of 5th edition benefit this experience any more than any other example of its genre, or is it simply the most popular because it is the most popular? Is the success of 5th edition so dependent on its engaged player base frequently filling in the gaps or shouldering the burdens of its fill-in-the-blank systems and do-what-you-want rules text, and does the fun in D&D come from the social aspect of the game and the work players and DMs put into it rather than the game itself? To put it simply, your mileage may vary; but to all of the qualms and concerns people have had with 5th edition and the balance of its classes in particular, Wizards seeks to answer with the new 2024 version of (ostensibly) the same game system, which redefines and re-codifies many of the rules of the game while completely changing the definition of its classes.

I will reveal my own bias now; knowing next to nothing about how the contents of these new books will play out in practice, I am completely optimistic about these changes and I think they reveal a clear shift in consideration in terms of design. While I don't think Wizards has re-made the wheel, I do think they've become noticeably more hands-on with rules, which is in contrast to how lackadaisical they've been with providing systems or answers to basic questions in the past. For example, the haven system (or whatever it's called) seems like it can actually generate a lot of experiences and gives you the tools and clear-set rules to do so, in contrast to most of the more speculative ideas in the original Dungeon Master's guide for "downtime".

But it doesn't matter what I think. Let's return to the problem outlined by their own words at the center of their approach. In making D&D better to play, they have chosen to make all of the classes better, period. Generously, we can interpret this as "what they mean to say is, better designed, less frustrating, more fun, more flavorful, et cetera" but the rules and videos have already largely revealed that the former is also the case. It takes a philosophy that has been common in live-service video game patch cycles for some time -- it is better to give players buffs to everything rather than nerf one thing.

D&D is not a competitive game, but co-operative. The integrity of the systems and "power level" only matters in that it informs the investment players have in the stakes of the gameplay, though it will also surely inform the choices some players make regarding their characters as well. Strictly speaking, right now we can only guess at the state of the balance between players and the challenges they face. The only matter that actually complicates this is their blatantly false idea that the new rulebooks are "compatible" with 5th edition D&D from 2014, a statement they always caveat in interviews and promotions with "but you'll want to use this version". In essence, if the source of the anger and resentment at Wizards is that by this line, one of their products (2014) is clearly inferior to another product (2024) and this both introduces power creep and places an undue burden on the consumer, then yes, you have every right to be angry and start firebombing your local game store.

But being realistic, let's accept what all of us have already accepted; these changes herald a new edition of D&D, and thankfully for most of us, we aren't dependent on the hardcover books and so many of these changes will become freely available to us, likely in .pdf form. So let's return to the question; with these changes, is D&D better or worse, and does power level even matter? Did this "power level creep" do harm to the overall game, and rob it of meaning or integrity? I can see where some players will become offended that their existing or in-progress games are interrupted by these changes and their characters changed with them, but let's ignore those somewhat complicated cases first (you could just not use the changes). Instead, without a working simulation of what the new core rulebook's gameplay will actually look like, I want to broadly look at what Wizards has already done with their new, "power level crept" Magic.

Yes, Magic's new cards are better than its old cards. Does Wizards, when designing several dozen sets a year of new cards, look at old cards, tweak and improve them to print a more valuable card, and reap the monetary rewards? Undeniably. Is this bad, and am I bad for allowing it to dominate my psyche and my crippled financial state and much of my free time? Yes, as well. But in terms of the gameplay -- is it so bad that new cards are ones you actually want to play? There is a line I'm ignoring here, between "interesting and fun to play" and "strictly better". A lot of good design can do the former, and not the latter, and this is something many Magic players have been asking for a while now. But let's say, for our purposes, that line has been crossed. The power level of a Magic card printed in 2024 will undeniably be at, or above, the power level of a card printed in 2014 or 2004 (though maybe not 1994). Is that so bad -- what is the actual result on gameplay?

There are edge cases where new cards are so powerful they can be considered a clear failure of design -- something that comes to dominate the game to such a degree that it seems clear it should not exist within the same habitat, like Nadu, Winged Wisdom. More resentment, still, has come from entire archetypes emerging from out of nowhere in previously-established, stable "metagames", like the advent of energy decks also following Modern Horizons 3. All of this influx of cards, changes, and products is undeniably overwhelming, and Magic players that are attuned to this competitive scene speak more to the feeling of fatigue or an inability to adjust to the shifting metagame as much as anything else. Likewise, we're likely to see the same complaints of D&D players used to the familiar being introduced to, all at once, the buffet of new subclass options in the new books, as well as the added struggle of coming to terms with what changed in their existing features.

But I think these are, more than anything, growing pains. When we examine whether the power creep has actually positively benefitted Magic -- if it has brought new players to the game, made old players more interested, and made games of Magic more fun and more interesting -- I think the answer is undeniably yas. A metagame that is evolving, active, and fluid is by its very nature ever-shifting. Players have bemoaned that eternal formats are now seemingly rotating, but that rotation has brought with it a huge evolution in terms of deck variety as opposed to what existed before, and is seemingly settling into a more diverse and plentiful environment. More than anything, players are engaged in what is happening in Magic -- if you ascribe this to nothing more than them being "baited" by Wizards into caring by them simply printing better and better cards, I have no denial of that. But I think, undeniably, the gameplay made by these cards is actually fun and interesting rather than vapid -- I am even willing to see if a metagame can come to shift around Nadu and respond to it effectively (not actually that much it can be banned).

In other words, I'm extremely hopeful for the changes being made to both D&D and Magic, even when that hope seems very stupid to place in a company like Wizards of the Coast -- I believe their design teams have reflected a consideration towards these games that goes beyond mere "power creep" and moving stock, and they have rather created a more dynamic and interesting game than cheapened it. This is all tentative, of course, and you are free to call me a corporate simp and to kill myself below, and I will likely reflect on your words when I read the ability that gives Warlock infinite Eldritch Blasts per turn or something.

[hijadelmar]

cutting off social media

first of all, i wanna apologize for this hiatus. i opened the blog and a couple posts later i stopped publishing, i am really bad when it comes to the discipline for writing in a blog, diary or such. but i wanna slowly come back here and i have a couple of ideas already.

second, hope everyone who reads this had a good christmas and new year. let's focus on becoming our best versions for this 2023 and keep improving for the upcoming years! :) i have some new year's resolutions myself, and one of them (and today's topic) is cutting off progressively my relationship with social media.

i am not a social person at all, i barely post and i still find myself spending more time than i'd like in sites like instagram. and, honestly, do i need it? short answer: no.

yesterday i deleted my account and the app itself. i didn't tell anyone because i'm doing it for myself. and i already feel much better with this simple decision! i still spend a lot of time in other sites like twitter or tiktok, but atleast i find myself enjoying more using them. when it comes to instagram i just felt i wasn't enjoying it and it wasn't something "i liked to do", but more something like i was mechanically used to. when i am bored with my phone, just automatically open the app to check a couple of stories and posts and close it, then repeat. and honestly i was really burned out.

after all, i don't really enjoy or have the need to post myself. as i said i am not social at all so i don't hang out often with friends, and when i do i'm not the kind of person who shares it on insta's stories or posts.

i seriously recommend doing the same thing for everyone. a lot of people finds themselves low on self esteem because we spend a lot of time on our days checking instagram, seeing lots of people using filters or editing their face or body features for every post. i totally think this step is a good start to cut from those toxic habits.

in my own case it wasn't about feeling personally triggered or affected by that, but more about finding myself in a "space" i didn't felt like i wanted to be in. a lot of people following me when from those followers i maybe talk to the 2% of them. and following myself a lot of people i don't even care about. i wanted to stop seeing the life or stuff of people i don't relate or care about at all. and again, i'm really glad i made this decision. i gotta say i also find myself mechanically tapping on the area of my screen where i had instagram's icon.

i don't wanna stop here, i want to keep reducing my social media consumption until i am at a point where i only use them an essential amount of time. but this is a good start for myself, and i really encourage everyone to try something like this. i also don't think everyone has to be as radical as i was, but try small things like unfollowing people or "influencers" you don't care or relate to at all. i already know if i ever come back to instagram it'll be to strictly follow people im genuinely interested about and i feel theythey bring something positive to my feed, like artists, designers, content creators or only close friends i really talk to.

thanks for reading me and i'll try to see you all sooner than last time :)

[daymusik]

🐾 Listen, when you see it, you will see JUST HOW MUCH EFFORT I PUT INTO THIS VIDEO and you will understand why I REALLY want you to watch this one's visualizer: https://youtu.be/t7Wh1pJXhOQ 🐾 Purchase this song here: https://daymusik.bandcamp.com/track/spider-dance-daymusik-remix-2022-edit ▶ After years of self-improvement, I have remixed Spider Dance from Undertale for the final time. I am happy with this, and I better be with how LARGE this project became! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ óÓÒò 🐾 Where to begin? Well, the song itself is more or less the same as the last iteration, just MUCH more polished, and more cohesiveness, and this time I actually had an idea of what I was going for. I decided to go for a pseudo-glitch hop style as one would with a remix of a video game soundtrack. Of course, @jacksepticeye is still in this version, or rather his amateur voice-over of Muffet's in-game speech. I decided not to say "featuring Jacksepticeye" this time since this time, I decided to try and "animate" Muffet speaking. He does make an appearance as himself at the end, but that's more of like a cameo/guest appearance rather than a feature. But what do I know? I just didn't want to put him on the face of this song because I want this song to speak for itself, not because Seàn is in it. This song, I will say, has been in development for a few years. The main growl bass instrument that comes in during the drop is one I made myself. I spent SO LONG trying to make a good sound, learning new things, trying different things, until finally, this sound worked well enough. Fun fact about the ritardando into the second drop near the end: I had to shorten the length of that. It still slows down to the same temp (maybe slower, I think), but the ritardando was shortened from, like 12 counts to 8 counts because my computer cannot process ritardandos. Whenever I try playing back the song to listen to it, the whole project lags and stutters IMMENSELY that I had to shorten it, but, of course, that did nothing for me. So that's why it's a fun fact. Because it was pointless. 🐾 Now, onto the video. Hoo boy. In keeping with my previous...whatever of adding simple video editing animations corresponding to the video game sound effects that are happening, I decided to do that again. But, like...different. And, uh...I think I went a little too... hard? Listen, I am typing this at 7 am on 14 January after having started the final editing process of this song at about 5 pm yesterday. I am VERY tired and my words are eluding me. But, long story short, for some reason, I decided to MANUALLY animate Muffet speaking. I'm almost 100% certain there was a much easier way to do that. I'm about 85% certain there is a way that I actually know how to do, but instead, I went manual. These aren't gifs, by the way. I wasn't synchronizing a video to the positions or anything. The last time I made the video for this, I downloaded ALL of the Undertale sprites -- all 6800+ of them -- just to make the video. So I did that again. Each frame isn't in a sprite sheet; they are individual images. I'm not going to go on about how tedious this project has been nor will I, again, expound on how much time and effort I waste on these videos. Instead, I decided to write down some numbers, because, undoubtedly, this is the largest project I have ever made. # of plugins: 174 # of [ZGameEditor Visualizer] layer: 47 # of mixer tracks: 94 # of channels used: 252 (mix of audio, automation, and midi clips) Overall time spent on this project: 67h Video file size: 2.67GB Audio file (wav/mp3) size: 48.8MB/6.59MB óÓÒò ▶ Bandcamp 🐾 https://daymusik.bandcamp.com ▶ MySpace 🐾 https://myspace.com/daymusik197 ▶ Twitter 🐾 https://www.twitter.com/daymusik/ ▶ everywhere else 🐾 https://linktr.ee/Daymusik ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted using PostyBirb

[pandesalmonster]

It's 4am and i haven't slept.

Blame the iced coffee i made earlier. Blame the Excel spreadsheet that I should have worked on this evening. Blame Twitter and Reddit for the unlimited content that's kept me up.

Lots of things on my mind again.

FIRST: my growing kpop collection expenses. oec and loossemble had comebacks this year and OOOOH. SHINY POBs. I want all the POBs. But I have limited money. I have gone over the supposed 3% allocation for kpop. I have too many albums (3 versions instead of just 1), Chuu and Heejin are comebuting this year. And Red Velvet! I don't have the money and space for all that! in general, I just bought so many things that they are piling up.

like that ^ is literally my philosophy for collecting loona items now. even if they're pretty, even if the store says it's limited. even if i have to wait 10 years for the prices to go down. I'm still working on accepting the reality though *cries in poor*

SECOND: the ongoing war in palestine and israel, and am i retweeting the correct information? do i have the correct information to form the best opinion? 2 filipinos have already been killed by hamas. if i retweet a tweet condemning that does that mean I don't support palestinians right to their land? if i don't fully agree with one side then does that mean I wholly support the other? Is it truly possible to support and condemn both sides at the same time? Maybe this is the "black-and-white" thinking that the boomers are talking about. This is a good thread: https://twitter.com/Ike_Saul/status/1711780282725011520

THIRD: kpop fancalls and the people who say "[group members] recognize me!" because they've met and talked with the members multiple times, and they went to all of their concerts. Like I'm jealous you know? How do they have the money, and the time, and the energy? And I don't even want to meet the members, I just want the clout and admiration that it gets them. I want others to envy me, if you get my drift.

FOURTH: is it possible to escape social media and screens? because just yesterday I felt sick, and I don't know if it was because I spent 30 minutes waiting for a bus, then 1 hour standing on that bus due to traffic, or because I spent an hour carrying my very heavy bag on my shoulder, or is it because the aircon was very cold when i went to the office, or is it my looking at screens. But like I want to be the cool girl who doesn't need social media. Or at least get my screentime down to 2 hours a day. I watched social dilemma and it still didn't stop me from doing 4-6 hours a day. Maybe I need to be more mindful of how people/ the algorithm is manipulating me to stay there.

FIFTH: Am i gonna get the drive to be better? Because I keep writing out my problems, searching for advice in forums, and then I open a distraction and forget everything that I wanted to improve in myself.

- You know what, maybe I will. I am typing this on a lovely laptop but it is company owned. I want to buy this laptop for myself. I want to edit my videos, and I will definitely need a fast laptop for that. Because my sister will be using the ipad, I cannot use that.

So maybe my drive will be to save up for that laptop as fast as possible. I've been wanting to buy a new phone (specifically, one that supports a stylus. So I can draw on it).

SIXTH: Am I ready to buy a house? I submitted a bid for a foreclosed house and lot near my sister's. I don't think it was approved, because I'm not on the list of winners, and nobody has contacted me yet. Personally, I don't think I'm ready to buy a house. But my mom is pushing me to buy one, because prices are only gonna get expensive.

SEVENTH: Am I gonna get the work ethic and drive that I admire so much in my co-workers? I will admit that I am not very fond of my job right now, but they are very lenient, allowing me to work from home, but I repay them with sleeping on work hours and not doing any work. I want to be like the ones that stand on their word and are very dependable. But I am not there yet. I want to work on being that someday.

***

You see, I rarely go on here, but when I do, I always have so many things to say. That's what happens when you bottle up your thoughts. I should be writing here more often. maybe everyday. Here it's easy to catch up to my brain. Writing on notebooks, although recommended by some, is really tiresome, you know? Here it's easy to backspace and just type, as many words as you want. When I write with my pen, my hand tires easily. Maybe because I've been using my phone more and my pen less.

They say hand-journaling is better for distracted people, but for me, typing is so much better.

Maybe I should write with a pen less, draw with a pencil more, and type on a keyboard more.

Anyways. It's 4:30am. I need to sleep for 2 hours. and catch up on the work I missed.

[dervampireprince]

ASMR | Arcane - Viktor x M!Listener SFW  Good Little Boy [M4M] [Age regression] [AGERE/CGLRE]

ERROR in the image!! This is M4M!! I forgot to to change the image because I made this in a rush! Sorry!!

I told you guys to ask if you wanted an M4M version and oh boy did you ask. Many of you asked so here it is! Hope you enjoy.

If you enjoy listening to my audios please considering dropping me a small donation on Ko-Fi or supporting me on Patreon (where at the moment you get optional access to my Discord and HD downloadable MP3s of all my audios). I improv/write, record, and edit all of these myself, as well as doing artwork for any original character roleplays. It takes a while to put everything together so any support is appreciated. Audio commissions are currently open, information is in my pinned post. ��As always, I also post my audios to Youtube, and have Youtube, soundg-asm, Twitter, AO3, Ko-Fi and Patreon.

(Also up in better quality on my soundgasm. SFW audios are in full on Youtube.) [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit my audios]

[fayrinferno]

Translation Easter Eggs

As I said before, translation is a good distraction recently and I dug deeper into the obscurity of what is Escaflowne’s worldbuilding. It never ceases to amaze me! Just some quick observations cause I just gotta share.

I must say the novels are rather intriguing so far. First book especially, because compared to the others, it doesn’t follow the anime as closely and it sort of makes you wonder about the story behind.

I just finished the first two chapters of book 1, which is roughly its first half (up to the destruction of Fanelia) and there are some significant differences, but not so significant that you would doubt that this is the same version of the story as the TV anime.

So the impressions I get from this is that it could be the proto-screenplay for the first two episodes. Several scenes felt like this was the book that was being adapted. Let me elaborate on that. First of all, many of the scenes feel like “extended editions” of the corresponding anime scenes. The walk with Yukari, the infirmary scene with Amano, their discovery by Ruhm and company all feel like this was the “book” that the anime "adapted" keeping the characters in character but also using shortcuts that are possible and usual in the filmed adaptations.

On the other hand, you also have scenes that are done in a cleverer way by the anime, for example, remember Hitomi’s bag? Yukari is the one who brought it with her to the track field, right? Then Yukari slipped and fell as they were running from the dragon and Hitomi was made to put it on her, where it remained and got transported to Gaea with her. The Yukari stumble doesn’t really happen in the novel, she just hands the bag over to Hitomi – I just think that the anime did it better logistically, didn’t it? Also, Balgus pilots a guymelef in the novel and is altogether a bit warmer but at the same time less badass character than what we know him as. If you ask me, the anime version is an improvement and makes Balgus really stand out as even more heroic. Escaflowne is in the cathedral like in the anime but it is just standing here – its summoning in the anime is much more visually interesting if you ask me… etc., etc.

Also, some details are different like when introductions are made, where Hitomi and Merle are watching the coronation from, the color of Hitomi’s uniform,… and it does not make much sense to change these details if the novelization was written after the anime. It does make sense, too, as the first novel was published only two months after the first episode aired in Japan, so they must have been at least partially in a parallel production.

The extended scenes are very nice to flesh out the minor characters or relationships that got a bit more streamlined in the anime, but the characters (especially Yukari and Ruhm) really correspond to the anime. I really liked the Ruhm scene and his teasing of both Van and Hitomi, his tone is pretty much the same in the anime though the teasing itself is done much later there, haha. And as a sweet bonus, we get a small romantic scene between Van and Hitomi that wasn’t in the anime… and so early on, too!

What I loved as well was getting more into Hitomi’s head. For example, remember the scene when she’s looking out of the window in Fanelia, and she concentrates on her watch for a while? The novel gives you her whole thought process for that. Plus, the descriptions of the environments that… don’t always 100% translate into the animation form but they are nice for the imagination and worldbuilding of course.

Speaking of worldbuilding, out of curiosity I translated an article about guymelefs too, from magazine scans that were posted on twitter. The magazine seems pretty rare but some of the information is new and seems pretty reliable! I was especially pleased to know that the guymelef does indeed use electrical current which is somewhat my headcanon.

Aaaand after I was done translating I noticed an edge of another page that wasn’t scanned. By the time I was so into it I died a little inside, cause I was hoping to scrape all the info there, lol. So I started googling for the magazine but yeah, doesn’t seem to be on sale anywhere right now, it’s one of those rare goods that only appear once in a while.

Anyway, I wonder how many more magazine articles contain some sort of trivia like that? I remember from the Compendium that one of the articles mentioned the inn in Palas that belongs to the family of one of the Crusaders for example, it fascinates me that someone thought of such detail and it was published just in a random issue of an anime magazine for the fans to discover. IDK at what point but I started to love this game… and as you can see, I’m still playing.

I will post the fruits of my labor somewhere, someday, in some way... if you were willing to beta-read them, please do let me know.

[van-yangyin]

Compilation of characters that appear in the background of our worlds (@lea-heartscxiv and me), although some of them are still not finished as for example Ifrit who lacks the skin with scars and burns (apart from small fixes that I never know if they can be solved).

Ifrit (Beta 2)

This was the second time I converted Ifrit for the sims, because I learned to do it better and I didn't like the previous one.

Uploaded on my Twitter on January 4th, 2021.

And yes, I tried to make Shiva, as you can see in the picture above, but the usb where I had all the backup information in case something happened to the computer was screwed up and to recover all that I had to pay a lot of money, so I only had this picture that I made a few years ago, if at some point in the future I have the courage to do it again I will try again so Ifrit is not left alone in our world. 

(I hadn't yet learned how to use the proportional editing and sculpting tool properly in Blender. Besides in those days I was doing the retexturing manually in photoshop after repositioning the uv_0 in blender instead of using blender cycles baking 😆💦 I remember saving the repositioned uv_0 in the sim .png on the folder, the original mesh uv .png when it was a conversion of an existing model [since at that time I didn't even know how to make my own models very well] and then in photoshop open everything together and try to make the original uv with the texture match the repositioned uv_0. Part of learning how to use cycle baking was the one that made me start Ifrit all over again, so that the textures were accurate, but in his case I did it before the external usb broke down.)

Other characters that we have around in our world  Tho they still need to be improved to look more like the originals (not counting some serious clothing problems like Kairi's dress).

With Sora I have yet to make ダブルフォーム (Double Form) version, but it needs a different uv on the clothing to work, so it can't be used on this particular garment and for the moment I didn't touch it again, when I get inspired in the future I may do it.

Uploaded on my Twitter on January 21st, 2021.

And finally of this compilation all of them.

Kairi-chan obviously doesn’t appear in our our words (unless it is a game in which we play with the little ones or appears in some memory of her) is a version that in the future will be improved and try to do in HD, hair included since I learned to make them in Blender, but for the moment remains as I did at the time, since it is also clothes that our toddler OCs use to cosplay her as a young girl and there are other parts of the project that have priority. On the other hand from Naminé I have to convert her hair but I have to do her hair texture first. As for Strelitzia I have to change her clothes to the one shown in the HD illustration (which I created in MD and Blender and converted to sims before the special illustration of the 5 years anniversary of UX was released) and obviously now I also have to create the clothes she appears in KH4 (not counting the different hairpin and that she no longer wears the pigtails in the shape of strelitzias). [This is now becoming more of a writing to remember, rather than to show the characters that appear in our worlds. (๑˃∀˂๑)ｱﾊﾊﾊ] As for Master of the Masters, he's our special one and we will always have him at the top of lists of our worlds. (≧∇≦)

Uploaded on my Twitter on January 21st, 2021.

And here ends the complication of this post, I don't put many tags so as not to bother people with my random stuff.

Sora’s sim made by @lea-heartscxiv​ Hairs, clothes and accesories converted by me Strelitzia made by me from scratch on Blender and MD Lunafreya’s hair credit here Feet used on Naminé’s sandals and Ifrit’s feet by @magic-bot

Thank you so much for the CC used here 💓

~Extra~

Last year I converted Aqua's clothes and reconverted the hair for the second time, this time with a texture made by me with the bases of the textures of the original game. There is still a long way to go but I like the final result so far.

[razberryyum]

So you’re done with The Untamed and want more, what now?

Reposting this since I’ve updated it with new info/links. Again, I entered the fandom via The Untamed so I’m by no means a MDZS expert, just tried my best gathering all the resources I can which I hope will help some new Untamed/MDZS fan out there. If you spot any errors, don’t yell at me, just let me know and I’ll correct it as best I can, especially for any future reposts.

READ THE NOVEL

Read the original web novel the show was based on: The Untamed (aka “CQL” or “Chen Qing Ling”) was adapted from the BL web novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (aka ”MDZS” or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (”MXTX”). Yes the novel came first, CQL is only an adaptation. In the novel, you get the uncensored romance of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, where they are canonically married and living happily ever after. The novel goes full into R18 territory so please tread carefully.

All four volumes of the novel can be purchased from the original publishing site, JJWXC. The site’s in chinese but here’s a tutorial on how to navigate it and purchase the books:  JJWXC Tutorial Link.

There’s also the option of purchasing the physical copies from Yesasia which might be easier but it’s also more expensive since they’re the middle man: Yesasia MDZS Link

It would be wonderful if you can support MXTX-laoshi by actually buying the books, especially since the cover art is so beautiful and the extra chapter volumes come with a lot of awesome extra goodies, but of course there’s also the option of reading the fan translations graciously provided by the Exiled Rebels Scanlations team at their site:  

They translated all the novels including the bonus chapters in their own free time and are providing the fanslations for free so please give them some love for all their hard work.  

WATCH THE ANIME (aka “Donghua” in Chinese)

Watch the anime based on the novel: The donghua was released before The Untamed. Two seasons are already available (23 eps total) with a third season in production and a special chibi version of the donghua in production as well. The Eng-subbed donghua can be seen using the WeTV app or on Youtube:  YT MDZS Donghua Playlist

Grant it, the donghua is even more censored than The Untamed, but the donghua team still managed to sneak in some easter eggs (f.e. WangXian naked bathing scene in the cold springs from the novel...in The Untamed they were fully clothed) and more importantly, the animation is just gorgeous so it’s absolutely worth a watch despite the censorship. 

READ THE MANGA (aka “Manhua” in Chinese)

Read the manhua which is ongoing and is being officially translated by WeComics, available on their app for free. Search under the name “Mo Dao Zu Shi”.

Unfortunately, the official translations are more than 20 chaps behind the raws and there have been complaints about the quality of the translations in the past, but I believe they’re starting to improve so since they’re official, it’s always better to support the official source.

The raw untranslated manhua can be found on the Kuaikanmanhua app. Other than being in Chinese, some of the chapters (f.e. the most recent ones) are behind a paywall, but here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the chapters, provided by @chiharuzushi on Twitter:  Kuaikanmanhua Tutorial

The chapters are quite cheap...I purchase 1000 KK coins for 10 rmb ($0.14) and each chapter is only 68 KK coins so even if we end up with 500 chapters it’ll still be...er...quite cheap overall (don’t make me do the actual math). The most painful part is figuring out how to set up the Kuaikanmanhua account, but otherwise, if you can read Chinese or know enough of the story by now that you don’t really need to read the words, the manhua is definitely worth reading because it’s less censored than The Untamed and the donghua. 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO DRAMA

Listen to the audio drama, which is at this point the most faithful and LEAST censored adaptation of the novel we will probably ever get! Wei Ying’s voice actor in The Untamed is the voice actor for his audio drama counterpart. (Yes, almost everyone in The Untamed is dubbed by a voice actor, EXCEPT for Nie Huaisang. Ji Li, the actor for NHS, was the only one who used his own voice. Lan Zhan in The Untamed shares the same voice actor as his character in the donghua). 

Each episode art of the audio drama is AMAZING. Google Translate works well on the site, you’d want to see the listeners’ comments cuz they’re just adorable and hilarious.

Official links on Maoer FM:

Season 1: Maoer FM S1 Link

Season 2: Maoer FM S2 Link

Season 3: Maoer FM S3 Link

The audio drama was supervised by MXTX-laoshi, the author of the novel, so a lot of love and care went into the production, and it shows. The audio drama is behind a paywall but I remember it’s relatively inexpensive. Here’s the tutorial on how to purchase the audio drama from the Maoer FM site:  Maoer FM Tutorial Link

Ngl, it was tough at first navigating all that, Google translate helped, but once I figured it out, it was all so worth it because in addition to the MDZS, the site houses a lot of other wonderful audio dramas. There are also MDZS fan songs on the site that are near professional quality and oh so good.

Suibian Subs have kindly translated the episodes and their translations are available here:  Suibian Subs MDZS Audio Drama

Show them some love too for translating the episodes, but please if you can, purchase the episodes so you can support the audio drama team which have done an amazing job.

There’s even a Japanese audio drama which the Chinese AD team helped spearhead, available on the MIMI FM app. Here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the eps (half of the first season is out): MIMI FM Tutorial

It’s in Japanese but just follow the pictures. I’m hoping that the Japanese audio drama will end up being the MOST uncensored version of MDZS since Japanese BL dramas are not afraid (and allowed) to go all the way to R18. XD

MORE THE UNTAMED CONTENT

Lastly, if you’re just thirsting for more Untamed content, there are two spin-off movies you can watch. The first one, The Living Dead, is kind of centered on Wen Ning and Sizhui post-CQL. 

The second one, Fatal Journey, is focused on the Nie brothers, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, with a cameo by Jin Guangyao. It takes place prior to Wei Ying’s return from the dead.

Of the two movies, I definitely recommend Fatal Journey more. Both movies are available on the iQiyi app, which offers a one month free trial for first members. Each month afterwards for VIP is $6.99.

You can also go on the WeTV app for even more Untamed extras: WeTV put out a special edition cut of the show which tightened up the story AND features the original ending that was intended before censorship forced the production team to come up with the more ambiguous one we saw in its original run. It was a simple matter of rearranging certain scenes and getting rid of the separation part, but imho it really made all the difference to the ending.

There’s a ton of behind-the-scene cuteness that you can watch and also concerts with the cast in Thailand and Nanjing. VIP subscription to the WeTV app is $5.99/month and the Nanjing concert is for rent for 3 months at about the same price.  

The show also put out two official soundtracks, one for the vocals and one for the score. Both are available on Amazon and iTunes. For Amazon though, you can search under “The Untamed” but they did this weird thing where the vocals one is listed as “The Untamed (Chinoiserie Music Album)” (wtf) while the score is just listed as “The Untamed (Original Soundtrack)”.

Finally, most of the male members of the cast took part in a fan meet and greet at the start of the show, before it became hugely popular. The entire meet and greet is available on youtube subbed: The Untamed Fan Meeting

That’s it for The Untamed and MDZS. If you end up liking the novel enough to want to read more by the same author, MXTX-laoshi has also written two other BL novels, The Scum Villain Self-Saving System (aka “SVSSS” or “Scum Villain”) and Heaven’s Official Blessing (aka “TGCF” after its Chinese title). Both have been fully translated by fans (but always try to buy the original if you have the means, as a way to support the author!): 

SVSSS Translation: BC Novels Link

TGCF Translation chaps 1 - 24:  Sakhyulations Link

TGCF Translation chaps 25 - End: Suika & Rynn Link

As with reading any BL novel (aka “danmei novel” for Chinese BL books), please heed the warnings and if it’s not your cup of tea, just exit out of the page and move on with your life. No big deal, right? 

Anyway, hope all this info dump helps someone! If you’re brand spanking new to this fandom, welcome, and I’m so jealous of you! Would love to relive stepping into the world of MDZS/MXTX/danmei novels all over again since I feel like I’m already running out of stuff to read and I’m beginning to panic a little. 

Happy watching/reading/listening!  

[jordanr770-blog]

America Needs Some Talent

 I just needed someplace to write down my thoughts so here we are!

I have been watching America’s Got Talent since season 11 when the ukulele girl won. I personally didn’t vote for her but can understand why she won. Same goes for season 12. I was rooting super hard for Diavolo but can understand why puppet girl won. Season 13 had some of the best acts ever (Shin Lim-winner) and I know a lot of people disliked her, but Courtney Hadwin should have at least  gotten 5th place over sob story “I’m such a good person and I hit my wife” Michael Ketterer. Kodi Lee was the obvious winner of season 14 and I personally thought he deserved it over the other acts. Other people did not think it was well deserved, and that’s ok too.  

Last season we got a spoken word poet in the form of Brandon Leake. I did not enjoy the act AT ALL and was kind of mad that he won, but I will say that even though I did not enjoy him, spoken word poetry is indeed a talent.

Now, you may be thinking that season 16 would be a smidgeon of an improvement over season 15. Talent and reality shows should probably strive to become better every season. But if you thought this show isn’t capable of getting any worse, you haven’t been paying attention because this show will always find ways to disappoint. Last night we were told everyone voted for an INSPIRATIONAL speech giver as the winner. Or I’m sorry, apparently he does magic. His name is Dustin Tavella. But the thing is, he was HORRIBLE at both storytelling AND magic and nowhere near deserved the win. “It was well deserved.” How? How is a kindergarten level “magician” worth a million dollars and a Vegas show? I believe the show in Vegas is about an hour and a half and I am curious as to what is he going to do in that timeframe? Talk about how the folks living in Vegas are living in sin while simultaneously throwing paper in the air MAGICALLY? I’m sure the audience will go wild over that. Or maybe during all of his shows he will adopt a kid a day from different countries and then spend about an hour talking about Little ZimZam’s harsh life and while he’s babbling  he’ll be semi incorporating his poor magic skills into the act in the last minute so the poster stating he’s a magician didn’t TECHNICALLY lie so nobody is getting their money back. I really don’t know. I have a lot of thoughts. 

Plus, his sob story just did nothing for me whatsoever. Good for you for adapting 11 children, unless it has to do with whatever your act is, shut the hell up and do the trick! Not once did this guy impress  or give even the best of a performance of the night. It was always 8+ minutes of “inspiration” and tirades about how we as a society need to be good to one another whilst doing crappy magic. Let me tell you, I know next to nothing about magic but even I could tell he was a less than stellar magician. Even calling him a magician is somewhat laughable. In reality he's a motivational speaker who does terrible magic tricks and  who always somehow manages to suck at said terrible magic but America apparently doesn’t notice him screwing up his terrible magic because he’s too busy telling them to look at a crumpled up piece of paper or a ladder or the new photograph of his adopted son who has an extra eyeball or whatever. It’s stupid.

Last night for his final performance Dustin’s act was, and I kid you not, telling us all to be nice. FOR SEVEN UNNECESSARY MINUTES. And I do believe he started to fake cry. Dude, you’re acting is about as good as Heidi Klum’s. You can't act and you can barely do magic. Why are you here? What is your talent? Did he really join a talent show to become some type of inspirational God of obvious wisdom? If that’s the case, he should have gone and done a Ted Talk, many less victims of mediocrity that way. America somehow  put him in the top 5 with actually talented people? I think not. The act itself was not impressive and he did the same thing every time, just told a different sob story. If you have to rely on a sad story to win, you don’t deserve to win a show where talent is the main objective. 

In case my last few paragraphs were not made abundantly clear, I am not a fan of this dude. At all. I read a comment which stated that a message is not a talent and whoever said that is 100% correct and summed up my feelings pretty accurately. I'm not a fan or boring and basic tricks combined with even worse stories. He's the living embodiment of a motivational meme and anyone who voted for this guy is  gullible and can fight me. Maybe people “voted” for him because he attempted to pull on the heartstrings? But because I sold my heart long ago his act didn’t effect me as much. /s But I swear every year they make it more clear that the entire show is rigged. 

Well, maybe the voting ISN’T rigged entirely and all the boomers  (first time I’ve ever used that term) and antivaxxers and easily swayed by sob story people on Twitter and Facebook voted for him. Doubtful, but you never know. HE WAS SO FREAKING BAD!!!

We are all allowed to have opinions and just because you don’t agree with me that doesn’t mean I am an awful person who deserves DEATH. I keep getting responses and messages on Twitter from angry folk who are calling me heartless because I questioned WHY they voted for him. “Well, IIIII gave Dustin all 10 of my votes!” That’s nice Karen. That is also not an answer and I cannot stress enough how much I do not care that you voted for the phony used cars salesman. Go tell your Prince from Nigeria all about it. Another guy got mad and reported me for “yelling at strangers.” Which is kind of a typical thing people do on Twitter. And I wasn’t even yelling! Lol. 

And another point I’d like to make (about this and  in general) is people really need to stop using the terms “all of us” and the word “we.” I am my own person and you do not get to speak for me. 

“We were all crying when we saw him perform!” - No WE most certainly weren’t. I was seething with anger, yes. Crying? Not even close.

“His magic touched all of our hearts!” WHAT MAGIC? WHERE WAS THE MAGIC IN THIS MANS ENTIRE ACT? I MUST HAVE MISSED IT AFTER I PASSED OUT FROM HIS 7 MINUTE LONG STORY ABOUT HIS BORING LIFE. 

His win was a complete insult.

* I personally voted for Aidan Bryant, but I really wanted Unicircle Flow to win before they got kicked off due to the judges having a tendency to suck at picking during judges choice. *

Edit: I apologize if this wasn’t articulated very well or if it seems I basically said the same thing over and over. To be fair it was 3 am when I wrote this and I was still irritated and questioning everything. Still doesn’t excuse the fact that this guy was lame and doesn’t deserve a Vegas show. My mom told me earlier today that people on the Internet are mad about his win and that it’s not fair to take it out on the guy, which I suppose is kind of true. Not exactly his fault the general public has failed and shown their stupidity yet again. If anyone is to blame it is the people who actually voted for this doofus. And AGT. And yeah, I guess I will blame him as well. But I’m not saying go to his Twitter or Instagram or whatever and call him out for being a con artist and bully him. 

I think the MESSAGE =P I’m trying to display here  is that someone has no business being on a talent show unless they have talent; self explanatory. A message isn’t talent. Being a narcissist isn’t talent. Exploiting your kids and wife isn’t talent. Speaking can be a talent (comedy, that poetry guy, acting, improv, probably a lot of other stuff I’m forgetting about) but one shouldn’t call themselves a magician if one is really a way less cool garage sale version of Talky Tina. Magic IS talent but if you want a million dollars you better have skills that are on par or better than the professionals. 

[foryoumyheroes]

Stan Twitter

[Midoriya + Todoroki + Bakugou + Kaminari] and their secret stan accounts.

A/N:  Gender neutral reader and [H/N] stands for [Hero Name].  Aged-up AU and everyone is already a Pro-Hero. Kinda SMAU? 

Disclaimer: I recently became aware that the word “simp” has been appropriated from AAVE. As someone who is not from the black community, I genuinely apologize and I don’t have an excuse for my ignorance. I am removing it from these hcs! I consider myself an ally (but I clearly have a lot of work to do) and it is my own fault for not educating myself, which I hope to do more of in the future.

I also have to give credit where credit’s due I love @myherowritings​ ‘s SMAUs and was inspired to write this from their works so please check them out if you’re reading this!  

Izuku Midoriya: 

Goes the whole mile. Has a [Name] stan account with 10k followers. Interacts with other [H/N] stans regularly. Retweets edits and compilations. Makes his own fancams and edits. 

Vote [H/N] for the top ten  @[H/N]might345  I am so lucky to be able to get the entire @official[Hero Name] x @Super_Groupies collaboration collection!! It sold out within minutes! 💨💨 It was kinda stressful haha. 😅 Thanks again to everyone who supported our favorite Hero! http://bit.ly/G4peUrTd36A

Vote [H/N] for the top ten @[H/N]might345 Thank you to tik tok user @rainbowinureye for giving me permission to post their playdate edit of [H/N]! It’s so well done and the cuts and the scenes line up perfectly 😊 http://m.tiktok.com/WrqKOXWpYbU  

Vote [H/N] for the top ten  @[H/N]might345 I made another [H/N] edit to the song “This is Love” by Illene Woods slowed and pitched version 😊💕💕 Please tell me what you think and how I can improve! http://bit.ly/dK9-c7QOcWg 

Of course it’s edited perfectly with all of the clips synced up perfectly?? It’s a byproduct from his All Might days. He’s still sure to respond to every person who gives him constructive criticism on how to improve his edits. 

Unintentionally becomes a meme?? Becomes known as the fanboy to end all fanboys. Like this guy is EVERYWHERE. He’s in the comments of every [H/N] funny moments and [H/N] battles but every fight is poorly edited to the sound of vines and every official interview posted by official YT channels. 

Stream Fine Line  @randomaccount360 The wildest thing about Twitter is that one [H/N] stan account that comes running whenever you mention their name. 

Vote [H/N] for the top ten @[H/N]might345 replying to @randomaccount360  hahaha! I am here! 😁

High-key people think that he’s one of those stalkerish fans?? Like he’ll post pictures of you eating at super close angles that no other news site has and it isn’t like a pic a fan has asked for either... it’s like a candid photo of you shoveling back food 

But you guys are legitimately dating?? He lives with you?? It’s just so embarrassing to know that he runs this popular stan account of you that you rarely bring it up asdfg ;; You ;; politely look away.  

Vote [H/N] for the top ten @[H/N]might345 Isn’t @official[Hero Name] the cutest? Here’s them eating the souffle pancakes at Flipper's! It was super good! http://bit.ly/fQE__7riZko

Mashomallow @mashomallowfood  replying to @[H/N]might345 OP how do you know what the pancakes taste like 

Pinky step on me @Minastannn replying to @mashomallowfood  OP pls respond it’s a legit question 

thehighground @ayeyeye  replying to @[H/N]might345  @official[Hero Name] if you are in danger please wink twice  

OHH if you get hate?? He will respectfully put that person in their place in the most eloquent way possible. Five pages, doubled-spaced, MLA format, works cited page. 

[H/N] > Deku >:(  @[H/N]might345  It has recently come to my attention that people online have been saying that Deku is a better hero than [H/N] and I am here to say that is not the case. Not only is pitting two heroes against each other extremely toxic but [H/N] has shown time and time again that they are the more successful Hero. [1/24] 

Show this thread 

He exposes himself by being tagged in those “Get to know them better” trends and it wasn’t like he was ever hiding the fact that he ran the stan account so he has no problem doing it. He’s so casual with posting a selfie of himself and saying his name and likes and dislikes but the people who tagged him just thought that he was just a regular fan?? Not Pro-Hero Deku?? 

#WTFDeku is trending for a whole day in Japan. 

It answers a lot of questions but opens up more. 

Everyone legit thought that @[H/N]might345 was just a rich kid with a lot of free time this whole time. But no?? It was Number One Hero Deku?? Does he make the edits when he’s fighting villains or something asdfg 

It makes him so happy though!! You guys would be chilling and his phone dings from notifications and he’s turning to you so happily like, “Look, [Name]! Another popular fan account retweeted my compilation of you! I can’t believe they noticed me!” Asdf i love this boy. 

Shoto Todoroki: 

LOOK even before you two debuted as Pro-Heroes he was your number one stan buying all the merch, watching all of the interviews. 

Interacts with other fans occasionally. 5K followers. Verified by Twitter for some reason. Has a generic name like @[Name]snumberone and thinks that it’s polite to always end his posts with a simple :) 

He’s told you about his side account before, but you know that he has one dedicated to Endeavor hate, so you always think that he’s referring to that one. 

Horny on main for some reason?? People think that he’s socially inept and doesn’t really understand a lot of jargon or slang, but thanks to Kaminari and all of the other stans he’s studied up because he thinks that’s how you’re supposed to talk on the internet. 

Like someone will post a pic of you holding something between your thighs like a water bottle or your phone or wallet while you tie your hair up or sign something for a fan and he’ll be like “goD i wish that was me.” 

it’s photosynthesUS @queenking[H/N]  Can you believe that there are people out there that don’t think about [H/N]’s thighs at least once a day?? coughcough anyWAY on an unrelated topic here’s several pictures of those beautiful legs http://bit.ly/pH6KeOjpKeI

[H/N]’s biggest fan @[Name]snumberone replying to @queenking[H/N]  I can die happy if those legs suffocated me 

[H/n]’s biggest fan  @[Name]snumberone  Another fan messaged me saying that they liked my account :) thank you. I love [H/N] more than anything. 

[H/N]’s biggest fan  @[Name]snumberone Someone messaged me this from a site called Archive of Our Own? They said since I like [H/N] so much I would like this. It’s pretty enjoyable :) although kind of OOC? (is that right?) 

[H/N]’s biggest fan @[Name]snumberone I thought I would try my own hand at [H/N] fanfiction since it was so fun to read I binged the entire tag last night :) But please be warned that it’s not for underage readers. 

Would try to fight the haters in the most passive-aggressive and aggressive-aggressive way possible. He had no problem with trying to square up against the chief of police and he’s incredibly stubborn. He immediately responds to their post and tries to shut it down as quick as possible and sometimes it’s ;; kinda hurtful 

One time a hater account was spreading negative things about you and after Shoto came on the scene they quickly ended their thread with a “Of course [H/N]’s white knight came to save the day again 🙄🙄”

Within the next hour he changed his bio to “[H/N]’s white knight” 

Doesn’t get that trend where after someone posts something thirsty about someone else another user will reply by thanking them for something random? 

[H/N]’s biggest fan @[Name]snumberone Has anyone seen [H/N]’s arms after their most recent fight with a villain? They can break my back like a glowstick :) and stick their tongue down my throat ig 

Stradandelous @pikadeegeek  replying to @[Name]snumberone  Thank you for paying for my anger management classes :))))

[H/N]’s biggest fan @[Name]snumberone replying to @pikadeegeek  Oh, do you have me confused for someone else? I know that @realbakusatsuou needs anger management lessons 

He gets exposed after someone posts a picture of you and him smiling at each other cutely and someone responds with “🥺🥺 get someone who looks at you the way Shoto looks at [Name] and soba. It must be nice to kiss one of the cutest Heroes of the century” 

[H/N]’s biggest fan @[Name]snumberone  replying to @bossbiccc Thank you but soba will always be number two to [Name] :) and it was nice. 

Everyone then collectively LoSeS their minds and connects the dots like hUH?? You included!! You aren’t spared from this shit!! You spend your whole day with your jaw dropped to the goddamned grOUND as you scroll through his side account. Did he try all of that before or AFTER writing his fanfiction?? 

Endeavor gets news of it and learns just how horny his youngest son is and nearly goes into cardiac arrest. 

He just slurps his soba when everyone under the sun confronts him about it and he’s just like “what about it?” 

Katsuki Bakugou: 

About 600 followers. Doesn’t interact with anyone other than retweeting posts and liking them. Rarely comments. Never answers DM’s. Only follows one person and that’s @official[Hero Name].

You don’t know about it. No one knows about it. If he had it his way, no one will ever know about it.  

Occasionally he posts, but it’s mostly him flaunting the fact that he got limited edition or super expensive [H/N] merch that gets sold out in seconds and he’s super fucking smug. 

my hero [Name] @[H/N][Name] check out my limited edition [H/N] figurine. their costume is covered in real strakowski crystals. they did a good job with the face too.

Whatcanisayyyy his parents are designers. He has a taste for the finer things in life. 

He’s not much of a texter in general? So he doesn’t go off on lengthy arguments with people who post hate like the other two. Surprisingly mature when he does this. He reports or blocks them, but he’s always proud to know that these lowlife people can’t bring up a good argument because he always finds holes in their points. (They also don’t have the whole story. Which is? He loves you.) 

NEVER retweets or likes content that involves you and another Hero being shipped together. Purely Ground Zero x [Hero Name] only. Who gives a damn that Creati x [Hero Name] got the most votes from the Official [H/N] Fan Club?? Bakugou ,,, does not see it. 

Kinda boring really ;; he only has that many followers because he only retweets the BEST [Name] content and he’s fucking proud of it. 

He gets exposed when you and he get dragged to a club with Bakusquad one day. You’re on the dance floor with Mina and Sero and he’s just reclining in the booth retweeting paparazzi pictures of you that night and Kaminari manages to sneak up behind him and takes a picture of him without him noticing. People ofc zoom into his phone screen and find out that hE FUCKING HAS A WHOLE STAN ACCOUNT DEDICATED TO YOU?? When y’all are dating?! He’s retweeting photos of you in your outfit that night when he was right there?? He sometimes uncharacteristically comments 🥺 or 😍 or “my love”??? 

The goddamned UWUs that are passed around that night!!

The unsuppressed anger 😨😨

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway @realbakusatsuou YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!! IT WAS SAID THAT YOU WOULD DESTROY THEM NOT JOIN THEM!! 

Red Riot @theofficialredriot replying to @NOTjammingway The PLOT TWIST OF THE CENTURY! NOT EVEN THE SHARINGAN COULD’VE PREDICTED THIS

Cellophane @Serophanetape  replying to @theofficialredriot  No wonder he’s changed since our school days... 😔😔 as his bros we should’ve seen it... the good in him...the c o n f l i c t 

Pro Hero Ground Zero @realbakusatsuou  replying to @NOTjammingway  Shut. The fuck. UP!!! 

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway  ASDFGHJKLHELPMEEEEE http://bit.ly/DVtNve4qySA

Show this thread 

woah pass that  @hellofolksclapclap Transcription of @NOTjammingway’s post that was taken from his IG live for anyone that needs it 😊

[Chargebolt]: [to Red Riot] and anyway, I there I was barbecue sauce— [two knocks appear on his door]. Huh?  [Red Riot]: [walking to the door] were you expecting anyone?  [Chargebolt]: No—? [Door slams open loudly. It falls to the ground off its hinges.] [AHHHHASDGHSPE?] [T/N: how did he manage to keysmash in real life?] Bakugouuuu! [Screams impressively high pitched.]  [Ground Zero]: I’m going to fucking kill you!  [Red Riot]: Bakugou, no! Stop! What would [Name] think?! [Ground Zero]: [Name] can’t fucking look at me without laughing anymore!  [A whole bunch of voices interlap and more screaming ensues.] [A faint ‘wheee’ is heard.]  [END.] 

Eventually he just fucking owns it and is like yEAH!! I HAVE A [NAME] STAN ACCOUNT WHAT OF IT?? 

hero for all  @official[Hero Name] Love you too, @[H/N][Name] <3 <3

Pro Hero Ground Zero @realbakusatsuou  replying to @official[Hero Name] ...You’re lucky I didn’t deactivate the whole fucking account. 

He still retweets things to this day, but now he’s getting more bold. 

Denki Kaminari: 

Unlike the others his official twitter IS his [Name] stan page. 

He’s going back and forth from posting about his battles, his promotional content, and then splits them all with retweets that are like “I’ve NEVER wanted to hold a hand so bad before in my life. I SWEAR!” 

IMAGINE if he did have a stan account though. He would be going back and forth between his official and stan account and like fake beefing with each other. 

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway  [Name] just defeated 28 villains today!!! FUCK👏ING👏TWENTY EIGHT👏 The talent in this household... the sexiness... 😳😳

i sent you my love pls respond @[H/N]steponme replying to @NOTjammingway Dude I’m going to steal your lover 

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway  replying to @[H/N]steponme  You wouldn’t dare 😤 😤😡

i sent you my love pls respond @[H/N]steponme replying to @NOTjammingway   If that’s your lover why are they buying MY animal crossing turnips? 

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway replying to @[H/N]steponme @official[Hero Name]... say it isn’t so... 

hero for all @official[Hero Name]  replying to @NOTjammingway  What the FUCK is going on 

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway  Replying to @[H/N]steponme They’re in your acnh island but they’re replying to MY tweets we are not the same 

Since he’s a Pro-Hero and therefore a public figure, sometimes he gets flagged by karens on the internet for saying stuff like “pls sit on my face [Name]” on his official twitter and he always replies to comments that are like “Think about the children!” with “This AINT about them!!”  

If his S/O is getting hate he’ll reply to them such as

dog mom coffee lover @lilyjargon920 I’m sorry I can’t help it, [H/N] is so ugly ESPECIALLY after a fight 

Pikachu’s long lost son @NOTjammingway replying to @lilyjargon920 That’s a strange way to say that you’ve never gotten anyone hot and bothered 

Flip-flops between being super horny and “Can i hold your hand ;;; PLEASE” 

Whenever he takes mirror selfies in his bedroom his bed is like ;; half [H/N] plushies 

Because he’s not hiding anything he’s able to interact with your page freely and most of the time his retweets get more likes than your tweet because he’s just randomly thirsty without it having anything to do with your og tweet. 

He tries tik tok trends on you and reposts it on his twitter as well. He tried the “getting naked in front of partner” challenge while you were in the middle of working at your desk at home and you just looked at him like “Put some clothes on HOE” while laughing and getting back to work. 

He posts Boyfriend ASMR POVs but most of them are like self-indulgent fanfiction and he’s talking to “[Name]” instead of making it open to everyone. 

Everyone in Class 1-A clowns him so hard for this. 

Present Mic plays one of them during his radio one day as a request from a listener and he had to leave the room but since he’s so loud his laughter was basically the only thing people hear. 

[ask-jumblr]

Proposed blog changes: move to Reddit

While I enjoy personally blogging on tumblr, it has many disadvantages for this blog’s format... For some time, I’d been thinking about moving this blog to another platform and I keep coming back to Reddit.

What does this mean?

I’m going to wait 7-10 days for people to comment on the idea of a Reddit move before doing absolutely anything.

If you have used Reddit as a regular user and/or as a community moderator: Do you think it would be a good fit? Do you have any tips?

If you don’t have a Reddit account or would want to make a separate one: Would you be willing to make a new account to engage with this community?

If we proceed, think on: What are some ground rules we might want to set for users? for moderators? What might be a good name? Would you be interested in being a moderator?

The ask box is staying open, and I will still be queueing asks. However, it may take me a while to catch up, I will not be reblogging asks, and I won’t be trying to keep a super consistent queue. The ask box will remain open unless and until there is a clear transition plan.

I intend to keep my personal tumblr. I like it here--I just don’t think here is the right home for this blog.

Why Move to Reddit?

1. Better community tools around banning

It’s hard for me to stop someone from using this blog to spam and harass others. (1) On Tumblr, my only tool is blocking. In Reddit, there are some more nuanced tools. (2) On Tumblr, it can be tricky to message people to discuss their behavior, and any resulting warnings or consequences. On Reddit, there are some built-in tools for making sure admins and moderators can reach out in these cases.

2. Better community tools for informing new users

On Tumblr, there isn’t a great way for me to introduce new users to how this blog works. On Tumblr, I can’t pin a post, I am limited to a fairly tiny description on the homepage, and people on mobile can’t always find the pages for rules, guidelines, explanations, archives. etc. On Reddit, there are better ways to inform new users of how the community works, including community descriptions and pinned posts.

3. Better mobile interface

I am yet to hear any concerns about Reddit mobile limiting features. If I’m wrong about this, please let me know.

4. Easier collaboration for moderators

Reddit is built for multiple moderators and approving posts/comments in ways that Tumblr just isn’t. There are whole systems for approving outside posts, for moderators to chat as a group, and for reminding people of rules.

I am not expanding the moderating team on Tumblr, but with a move to Reddit I would try to bring in some new moderators. This would have some added bonuses:

Content can come out faster!

More perspectives and fewer insulting goofs when handling Jewish people who aren’t me! I so often don’t know about different Jewish groups, perspectives, and overlapping identities. With a bigger team, more perspectives and identities could be represented.

No weird conflict from me of Should I answer a question on a post I’m also moderating?

5. Less Repeating Ourselves

We get a lot of repeat and semi-repeat questions, but archiving and search are pretty awful on here. I never know whether people have seen those similar asks and still want answers to their own question, or whether those asks were enough.

Often, on mobile, people can’t view the archive I’ve been building. I’m under the impression that a subreddit’s pages are still viewable on Reddit mobile.

Tumblr’s search is also terrible--I regularly can’t find a post on here that I know exists. I’ve played around some with Reddit's search and have found that it actually works.

6. Better Conversations on questions

When reading this blog, people rely a lot on the notes. In Reddit, the platform is the notes. While up/downvoting have some downsides, I believe that we can find ways to work those out.

7. Retain anonymity from ‘outside’ identity

I know that many users appreciate their account being separate from their life ‘outside’ this corner of the internet. For some users, this is an important safety concern. For better or worse, Reddit is known for being separate from ‘real life’ and its connected internet activity like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linked-In. While brings me to my next point...

8. More functional balance of anonymity and privacy

I very, very often, wished I could just message an anon to clarify. For understandable reasons, that just isn’t possible. However, taking the anon feature away would make it much, much harder for people with sensitive questions to send them in:

On Tumblr, people can’t send in an ask from a ‘sideblog’ created just for that purpose. If I turned off the anon feature, people would have two choices for relative anonymity from their main blog (A) message me with a sideblog using the tiny chat and hope I post it or (B) make a whole separate account with another email address.

In Reddit, option A (message a mod) is a little easier. The chat function simply works better.

And Reddit provides a much improved parallel to option B (new, separate account). Reddit allows one person to make multiple, independent accounts under the same email. In other words, you don’t need another email address to make an independent account to send in a question.

9. Not any worse?

While Reddit is notorious for being unchecked, Tumblr is also a cesspool of Nazis...

Some Final Notes:

There are already some corners of Reddit with features similar to this blog, but they aren’t an entirely question-based environment like this blog. This blog was in part made (spoiler alert?) to be a non-terrible version of “God Save Us From Your Opinion” on Facebook. Reddit would be a much better platform than Facebook or Tumblr for that purpose.

This blog was also created* to provide an outlet for the many asks that I and other Jewish blogs get on tumblr. Moving platforms would...not be ideal for diverting those asks...thoughts?

* mild clarification edit

[todomitoukei]

(Here is what he wrote) PSA: in general, if there's a change made in either the weekly or volume release of manga I work on, I can't talk about that publicly. When mistakes slip through, rest assured that I'm upset too, and frantically (but silently) scrambling behind the scenes to fix it. Some fans accuse me of having a bias/agenda that shows up in the work because of personal dislike for a character. That's absurd. (1/?)

A (lowly, freelance) translator does not have the power to push an "agenda" in books that sell millions, nor would he try if he wants to keep working. When I work, my energy is devoted to analyzing the text and recreating it in English on a tight turnaround. I don't make my favs sound better than they are, or my least-favs sound worse. Scheming up ways to insert opinions (?) is something I don't have the time or energy for. 

Also, every chapter and volume is checked over by multiple in-house editors (Japanese speakers, native or otherwise). Any sneaky agenda would get caught immediately. They simply wouldn't let it through, and if it were a recurring problem, I would get in trouble. Why risk that? At the same time, those editors tend to edit the raw script I give them! Imagine that! They reword, rephrase, adjust nuance. That's their job. I don't see the final release until you do, and sometimes I'm pleased/shocked

When I notice, I can send an email requesting a fix for eventual reprints, but that's all I can do. So it's largely out of my hands once I submit the raw script, meaning: 1) there are multiple competent firewalls/safety nets (aka: other professionals) between me and the final release2) what I write is sometimes not what you read!3) I can't publicly comment on some choices

So please understand how frustrating it is when bad faith randos on twitter accuse me of bias/agenda/whatever, and I literally cannot explain a thing. Especially when it crosses the line to slander and abuse, as it often does. There is no grand conspiracy, and I'm not the enemy.

Thanks for sharing! It’s interesting to read that there seem to be multiple people checking his translations, though clearly, that doesn’t improve anything. I personally can only ever do comparisons with the weekly digital release of the official translation and wasn’t really aware that there is such a huge difference between the weekly and the volume release.

It obviously makes sense that they want to ensure that the volume release is as good as possible and it’s nice that we get the official translation in such a short time frame, but I also feel like it would be better if they took more time for the official translation to be released in general than to release two completely different versions.

Translations are an accessibility tool. They are supposed to enable people who don’t speak the source language to also enjoy the product. So if someone who doesn’t speak any Japanese reads the weekly release and then, later on, buys the volume only to find out how much the two differ, how are they supposed to know which one is accurate - especially when those two versions make characters seem like completely different people.

It’s disheartening because it does a disservice to the story and its characters. I don’t completely disagree with the people that have suggested this to be the reason why there is such a divide in opinions on certain characters between the Japanese and the western fandom. It’s not the only reason, but I have seen and mentioned multiple panels where the translation was a lot colder than the original text.

That being said, I find it weird that Caleb seems to be passing the blame on the people checking his translations and claiming that he doesn’t have a bias or the ability to include his bias.

Again, I only have access to the weekly release, which according to him is the less edited version. There is a very clear bias there, and I’m not the first or only person that has pointed out examples of this, so I would be very interested in seeing him explain how there isn’t a bias in the weekly releases or how that is not his fault at all.

It’s 100% wrong of people to just harras him and be aggressive (I just had a quick glance, but some of the things people said were just outright disgusting) instead of voicing constructive criticism because it doesn’t lead to anything other than him making his twitter private and getting defensive, but I also wished that he would take a little responsibility or, at the very least, pass the criticism to those he claims are responsible for the translation biases. Because regardless of who is responsible, there definitely is a bias in the translation.

The problem is that we, as fans, should always support the official release because that shows people that we want more and obviously the people working on these projects deserve to get paid. But there is also this shaming going on from people working in the western manga/anime industry towards fans who don’t pay for the products, despite it being obvious that people will be less likely to see reason in paying for/supporting something incorrectly when a free and more accurate version exists. So instead of professionals complaining about fans not paying for the official releases, they should ensure to make the money they charge worth it by selling a product that is faithful to its original version.