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scoatneyhall · 5 months ago

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WILD. Was anyone else aware that the Ted Lasso team has gone in and made post-production edits on season 3 episodes, sometime in the last year?

I've been rewatching the finale in advance of the one year anniversary of it airing, and straight off, I noticed that the points total on the graphic looked different to how I remembered it - a much closer race. It stuck out because I remembered being annoyed that they didn't celebrate the moment Richmond got confirmed for the Champions League, as the gap was big enough for it to have happened a while ago, offscreen. I still have a screencap from when the episode aired:

However, the current copy on Apple has an updated graphic, making the post-production graphic in line with the numbers on the actual physical whiteboard prop and the script mentioning the win streak. See here:

The corrected copy makes Richmond's points match the whiteboard, but it also puts the teams in 3rd to 5th place much closer to them points-total wise, meaning that now, in the current version of the episode, Richmond only qualified for the UCL in "Mom City," making it make more sense that the start of 3.12 is the first time it gets discussed. Would have been nice to mention that stake in the City match commentary during 3.11, but I genuinely am shocked that they went back in and edited the already-published episodes to clean up the post-production errors. For the record, here's the whiteboard as of 3.08: W10, D9, L6.

Just in case anyone cares, the order of those results was - 1 draw against Chelsea, 6 wins with Zava, 1 loss against West Ham, the rest of the draws and losses occurring between 3.05 and the loss against Arsenal in 3.07, and then the 4 wins mentioned at the start of 3.08. By the start of 3.12, it's mentioned they are on a 16 game win streak, so that's 22 wins overall, 9 draws, 6 losses, going into the final weekend, hence the updated graphic.

I like that they went in and fixed it - no idea when in the past 12 months that occured - but I also kind of can't believe they bothered? Then again, I can't believe the mistake was made in the first place, as they were so specific with details in the prior seasons, so maybe they couldn't live with it being wrong.

I know there were rumours about a ton of issues in terms of getting these episodes posted in time - right down to the wire, still fixing the edit on the airdate - and it's clear that these details were not checked and confirmed by the poor people in post who were not working off the show bible that lives in the writers heads. I don't blame them at all, I blame the people who got the edit to them late, but it did annoy me during the season a LOT. The maths wasn't mathing, and as we know this is a show that has been careful with dates and timelines and stuff like that.

Anyway! The point is, a) this post about my UCL qualification fantasies is now moot, and b) I went back and checked another post production error that had REALLY pissed me off, which was the dates of texts in Ted's phone in 3.04. Phone dates have always given us the timeline quite strictly before - it's how @belmottetower and I started the timeline in our primer, with Ted arriving in London on January 6, 2020 and then following the football seasons from there to place the season 3 finale in May 2022 - but in 3.04, all the cute texts we see to all the characters in his phone were badly misdated, placing the timeline further in the future. This caused arguments or misunderstandings, at the time about the actual timeline of the show, but it seems this was another detail the producers really wanted to fix and tighten up, as they've gone back and had it edited.

It's weird, because the texts Ted was actually going back to - the messages from Doctor Jacob - were dated correctly as late 2019, and there's even a little easter egg in the form of a US rideshare notification picking him up to go to the airport in America, on 5 January 2020. (Even the area code, 316, is apparently correct to Kansas.) That's all correct even in the original version of the episode, but somehow we then skip a year and place his most recent texts, as of 3.04, in late October 2022, when they should only be in late September or early October 2021. (I found this post on Reddit that screenshotted his phone at the time.) Examples:

I had to go back and check this, and sure enough, it's been edited to reflect the established timeline - they didn't just redate the year on each message, they also changed a bunch of the chats to be more recent - so rather than dates, his most recent chats with Henry, the Coaches, etc are from "Yesterday," then the first dated texts are in very late September 2021. This matches up pretty perfectly with where they are in a typical Premier League season - they REALLY cleaned it up. Further back, they do just switch the years on the dates, so he still got a picture from Sassy last Valentines Day, and his last one-on-one contact with Jamie is still set before the events of Wembley in 2.08 (FA Cup semi finals are in April, so a few weeks after the March 2021 date on Jamie's chat.)

My brain is itching because I swear there was a screen of Nate and Ted's text chat at some point too? With Ted reaching out about his new job, on a date that deeply did not work with the timeline? But maybe I imagined it. There's no record of Nate's number in his phone at all now, and the texts date back to before Nate left, so I guess in this version of events, Ted deleted Nate's number and message history.

Anyway, I'm aware that basically no one is going to care about this, but I suspect that the three people who will actually care will REALLY FUCKING CARE. Has anyone else noticed it? Does anyone know when it may have happened? Does anyone know what else might have been changed or fixed? I love details and I love the fact that there is no longer conflicting data about what football seasons the show is covering - it's mid 19/20 to the end of 21/22, end of story - but what a fucking mess the production of season 3 must have been, to end up at this point!

#ted lasso #ted lasso meta

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egophiliac · 1 year ago

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Hello! Sorry to bother but do you have any digital art tips? I’m quite new to it and any tips, tricks or advice would be helpful! Your coloring style is very beautiful and I love it a lot!

thank you! 💚💚💚 sorry this is a bit late, hopefully there's still something helpful in it!

(also, it got pretty long, sorry!)

I think the biggest thing is to just take things slow -- digital art feels different than drawing traditionally, and it's SUPER easy to get overwhelmed by the billions of cool features that the digital world offers. (I say, as someone who spends a lot of time downloading cool brushes and textures...and then never using them ever.) there is a ton of really cool stuff you can do digitally, but because there's so much, I think it's really important to take time to figure out what is and isn't working for you. spend some time doodling without any intent to do a finished piece, figure out how you like to hold (or not hold) your tablet, what keyboard shortcuts you end up using a lot (and therefore might want to map to your pen/tablet buttons for quicker use)...that kind of thing!

everyone's workflow and preferred program and style are different, so it's hard to give hard-and-fast general advice. but the things that I think of as the essentials for learning digital art programs, and what I think of as a good order to focus on learning them in (although YMMV, especially depending on what kind of art you're doing):

brush customization (e.g. flow, opacity, softness)

layers and layer masks

selections and transformations (e.g. scale, rotate, flip horizontal/vertical, skew) (skew is underrated and I will die on that hill)

blending modes (e.g. multiply, screen)

adjustments/adjustment layers (e.g. hue/saturation, curves)

and I think most stuff after that is gravy! often very good gravy though! but yeah, as overall advice I recommend just taking things one little bit at a time, spending some time just drawing and messing around with each feature and what you can do with it. whether or not you end up incorporating any of it into your workflow, it's always good to try things out and just see how they feel! :D

and just so there is at least a little more concrete helpfulness in here, here's a few more specific things that I think are super important to keep in mind!

use! your! tablet/pen buttons! I mentioned this earlier, but they are extremely useful for keyboard shortcuts that you use often! most programs will also let you create new shortcuts for other things -- personally, I use the magic wand tool to fill in big color blocks a lot, so I made shortcuts for 'expand selection' and 'fill' and then mapped them to my tablet buttons.

flop your work horizontally often! when you're working on something, you get used to the way it looks, so seeing it mirrored is a quick way to see it with fresh eyes! in my experience, it often feels like this:

(a common thing is to find that everything is sort of 'leaning' too much one way, which is where skew really comes in handy!) (seriously, I love skew, it is my savior)

if you're working with color, keep a hue/saturation adjustment layer (or a layer filled with black or white and set to Color) on top and toggle it on occasionally to check your values! a lot of people who know a lot more about color than me (and are better at putting it into words) have written about why values are so important, so all I'll say is that the rule of thumb is that your image should still be readable in greyscale:

there are some exceptions and grey areas (do ho ho), but it's a good general rule to keep in mind! (some programs also have a colorblind mode, so you can check to see how your work will look to someone with colorblindness!)

and finally, here's some digital art programs I recommend, if you're still looking for a good one!

free: krita, FireAlpaca

paid: ClipStudio, Procreate (iOS/iPad only)

#art #...sort of #horizontally flipped mal isn't my favorite drawing i've ever done of him #but it's up there #anyway i do personally use photoshop #but i absolutely do not recommend it when there are better and free-er art programs out there #it is the equivalent of texting with a giant 90s-block phone that has been jury-rigged to somehow install whatsapp #because i don't NEED a new phone i KNOW how to use this one it's FINE #(oh god i've become my dad)#someday i will have to actually switch to clipstudio and learn new keyboard shortcuts :(

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adobe-outdesign · 3 days ago

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Any thoughts on the new "Spooky" NC styles compared to the old nostalgic versions? I really like some of the new ones like the Gelert and Xweetok.

I will say off the bat that I'm not opposed at all to redrawing old colours to be more interesting; a lot of the ancient early 2000s art was literally just "the default pose with modifications". Take the original Halloween Aisha, for example; not only is the shading and overall art pretty poor, but it's also just sitting there generically smiling.

However, I will say that there's some weird classifications going on with these guys; to start, "spooky" is a pretty terrible adjective that describes absolutely nothing. It's also a bad choice because it has to be swapped out for each color (the redone Ghost styles are "eerie", for example). I've heard the term "dynamic" tossed around, which I think would've been a much better name choice that could've been universally applied to any colour.

Also confusing is that they classify any new styles for pets that were made post-conversion as "spooky", but when they made new styles for Grey pets they classified them as "nostalgic". I guess they were just going off of the poses, but still, it gets complicated fast.

And finally, I kind of wish they had released both nostalgic and spooky styles for some pets, because it feels like some of the old art changed drastically in ways that go far beyond just posing. I don't mind a few details being tweaked here and there, but some of feels like a drastic change to the pet's whole personality. For example:

Gelert: Entire personality changed (went from being more stoic and shifty to being cunty and more "bleh"). Tail has an extra segment. Hairstyle is completely different with no receding hairline. Detail around the clasp lost. Way more fluffy. Teeth and nails sharper. Cape lost the bat wing design.

Ixi: Entire face changed (eyes too big and too far up on the head, plus the eye shape is wrong), horns facing backwards instead of inwards, ear shaped changed, face and body more fluffy.

There's not inherently an answer to which design is better (I personally don't like the Gelert while Anon does, for example), but having more styles would satisfy both parties. Hopefully they'll add more in the future.

Favorite Styles:

(Good news: There were so many good ones I had trouble narrowing it down. Honorable mentions that were cut for space include the Xweetok and the Lutari.)

Poogle: The pose is not only really fitting for the pet, but it adds a ton of personality (compared to the original, which was just generically angry). A few subtle changes were made to the design, like the muzzle being light blue and the teeth being way bigger, but they're minor changes that shouldn't upset any fans of the original. The changes also feel very "pre-conversion" esq; like, you could've told me the spooky style was the pre-conversion art and I would've believed you.

Bori: Not necessarily the most exciting style, but I like this one a lot. The change to the crouching pose looks a lot more natural and invokes the Bori's more quadrupedal look pre-customization. The shading is spot-on for old Neopets' art, and I love how the design makes some subtle changes to the design that, like the Poogle, are minimal and shouldn't bother fans of the original—these include a longer, narrower skull and a different expression, more defined claws, less uniform back plates, and a less uniform tail shape.

Grarrl: Definitely my all-time fav from the Spooky styles. I just talked about this one for my Grarrl review so I won't repeat myself here, but the pose is more dynamic without being too over-the-top, the design reverts back several unnecessary changes that occurred during customization (the clasp was randomly made blue, for example), and the overall art quality is really solid, and there's not many changes outside of the addition of little claws. My only nitpick is that the eye shadow should've been bigger, but that's it.

Koi: Just the fact that it's actually holding the pitchfork is a major improvement, but I also really like the pose; it has a great flow to it and shows off the design well. Subtle touches like the transparent fins are really nice, and the design is really accurate to the original art save for a bigger pitchfork.

Least Favorite Style:

Kougra: Out of all the styles, I think this one is probably the one that's objectively different but in a way that's just kind of worse all around compared to the original. List of changes:

Pupil shape changed.

Eye color changed.

Ear shape changed.

Wings and ears drastically smaller than on the original.

Wing shaped changed at bottom.

And even if you don't care about any of that, the lineart's too thick, the shading doesn't have a clear light source and has too many layers, and the anatomy is really messed up. I like the idea of the pose in theory, but the execution is lacking. Plus, while the original pose wasn't that exiting, it did give off a nice stoic vibe, so it wasn't like it was overly "default-ish" in the first place.

#neopets #neotag #poogle #bori #grarrl #koi #halloween #neopet reviews

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mel-1n-hell · 2 years ago

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Safe Foods + Diet Foods Masterpost

(I live in the Midwest)

This is a list of a bunch of my personal favorite foods and ingredients to utilize when I’m heavily restricting. I usually love making the highest volume possible out of the lowest cals, but I also sometimes eat smaller amounts of higher calorie/denser foods if I’m, say, wearing something tight or whatever and don’t want to be water bloated. I believe in the importance of being at least mildly sated, and also in the importance of multivitamins+supplements! If you’re restricting, there is a 100% guarantee you are not getting enough vitamins to maintain external functions you really don’t want to start failing on you. I lost a lot of hair when I dropped a fuck ton of weight for the first time because I was 14 at my worst and didn’t understand anything/didn’t care at all about body chemistry, but after I was forced to recover, after my hair began growing back and thickening up, it became very important to me—as did many other aspects of my body that are influenced+enhanced by the ingestion of vitamin supplement (also hair oils like rosemary and castor and almond, leave-in conditioners, good conditioner in general // all of these things will support hair health and maintenance, specifically!) So take your vitamins! Especially capsules, because gummy vitamins are easier for your body to flush out. Plus, a lot of them are just placebos dyed a fun color and rolled in sugar. (The “Now” brand offers very high quality supplements and multivitamins in capsules/pill form)

Also, now that I’m an adult and can buy my own groceries, I have much more access to helpful tools that I wouldn’t have been able to access at 14 or wouldn’t have known enough about to even bother figuring out more. I’m much more educated now and feel almost as if restricting is too easy, too fun. Will it become a problem? Maybe. But until then, and as long as I know we’re all bent on our own destruction anyway, I’ll share what I know, because I wish I would have known about some of these things the first time I decided to dive headlong into the pits of despair (‘:

I can share my favorite combos/meals in another post if anyone would like to see it! First, though, a few general rules I follow, as a sort of context to the masterpost:

1. Caloric intake matters first and foremost. It’s just the simplest way for me to track what I’m eating. (Now don’t do this, but) You could be eating the shittiest, sugariest, most processed diet on the planet but if you’re in a caloric deficit, you’re still going to lose weight.

2. All vegetables are safe. A vegetable is not out here making anyone fat or unhealthy. Certain vegetables, like potatoes, are denser in calories, so it’s just a matter of learning how to use them, but if that scares or triggers you, stay away! For me, I always try to maintain that plants are nothing to be afraid of. I’m neurotic enough without being afraid of the food that literally comes from the earth.

3. All fruits are safe. Moderation is more important to keep in mind when it comes to fruits versus vegetables, because fruit contains more sugar, which means more calories overall. But fruits are my favorite additions to breakfasts, or as sides/snacks later on in the day. It’s a little extra something to crunch/chew on, and all fruit is just so yummy.

4. There’s nothing wrong with a chocolate fix!!! Dark chocolate (the higher the percentage, the better!) has numerous health benefits because it contains a plethora of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. It can be high calorie, so enjoy it in moderation, but there is absolutely nothing I love more than taking my time on a lux little square of dark chocolate while I’m reading a book.

5. No eating after 10pm. (I know most people choose an earlier time, but I’m a college student in a stem field who walks from her apartment to campus, so I get home later than traditional dinner time most nights.)

6. No eating before 7am. (8am is preferable.)

7. Eliminate as many sugary, processed carbs as possible. They aren’t really satisfying your body, and consuming these kinds of foods while restricting often leads to uncontrollable bingeing.

8. Eliminate fried foods (unless you figure out an air frier for a cheat night or something).

9. If you’re going to focus on any macros/micros, focus on protein and fiber! Protein is greater sustenance; fiber makes you shit.

10. If you binge, you binge. It happens. It comes with the territory of ED’s. Your body is literally pre-programmed to react this way to starvation because it’s a self-defense mechanism, and for many people, it’s an emotional defense mechanism. Just make your best mental and physical effort to minimize damage. Screwing yourself into the ceiling and just eating more will make you feel cosmically worse. Try to catch yourself before saying “fuck it” and continuing to binge harder, because even you know you don’t really mean that, and you know you’ll hate yourself to the moon for it later. Take a deep breath, name a few of the five senses to ground yourself or whatever, and then walk away. Listen to some music. Chew some gum or start sipping on lemon water. And remember: one pound is 3,500 calories. You would have had to eat that much on top of your basal metabolic rate (how many calories your body burns just existing) to gain just one pound. Water retention can be flushed. Fat cannot be.

11. Drink at least two quarts of water a day.

12. Take your fucking vitamins. xoxo

Okay! Now that I’ve rambled enough, here’s the masterpost (:

🥗 vegetables 🥗

1 cup broccoli, chopped (31 cals)

9-10 baby carrots (30 cals)

2 stalks celery (15 cals)

5 garlic cloves (20 cals) / (great roasted in the oven or as a flavor edition! stuff also makes you shit like crazy depending on how much you eat)

1 cup kale (16 cals)

1 cup spinach (7 cals)

1 cup baby spring mix (7 cals)

1 cup cauliflower, chopped (27 cals)

1 medium/small white or red onion (41 cals)

5 mini yellow/Dino egg potatoes (110 cals)

1 medium/small sweet potato (110 cals)

5 asparagus spears (15 cals)

5 medium white or baby bella mushrooms (20 cals)

1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts (45 cals)

🍑 fruits 🍑

6 mini sweet peppers (60 cals)

1 medium green bell pepper (24 cals)

1 medium red/orange/yellow bell pepper (37 cals)

1/4 avocado (75 cals)

1 medium tomato (22 cals)

1 medium banana (100 cals)

1 medium apple (100 cals)

1 medium grapefruit (104 cals)

1 large orange (87 cals)

1 clementine orange (35 cals)

5 medium strawberries (25 cals)

1 cup blueberries, frozen or fresh (80 cals)

10 raspberries (10 cals)

10 grapes (20-30 cals, depending on size + size variation; one small/medium grape is usually around 2 calories)

1 kiwi (40 cals)

1 cup red cherries, frozen or fresh (80 cals)

1 small champagne mango (80 cals)

1 cup honeydew melon, diced (61 cals)

1 cup watermelon, diced (46 cals)

1 cup pineapple, diced (82 cals)

1 medium cantaloupe (186 cals)

2 medium medjool dates, pitted (110 cals)

🍞 grains 🍞

1/3 cup flour, wheat or white (152 cals // for use in mug cakes, personal pancakes, personal cookies, etc.)

2 slices Healthy Life wheat, honey wheat, or white bread (70 cals)

1 Country Hearth light bun (80 cals)

1 mini bagel (100-125 cals, depending on flavor+brand)

1 bagel thin (110 cals)

1/3 cup rolled or quick oats, dry (100 cals)

1 cup plain Cheerios (100 cals // 140 cals for honey nut)

1/2 cup rice, brown or white (108 cals, brown; 102 cals, white)

1 “Ole” X-Treme Wellness wrap, tomato basil, spinach, or traditional (50 cals)

🍗 meats 🍗

3 oz (about the size of your palm) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked (120 cals)

5 medium chicken fajita strips, frozen (110 cals)

2.5 Simple Truth Organic homestyle chicken tenders (170 cals)

1/2 can Good & Gather chunk chicken, canned in water (50 cals)

1 can Chunk Lite Tuna (90 cals)

11 medium Member’s Mark cooked shrimp (60 cals)

1 tilapia fillet (112 cals)

4-6 pieces thin-sliced deli ham or roast beef (60-70 cals, depending on brand)

4-6 pieces thin-sliced deli chicken or turkey (50-60 cals, depending on brand)

🧀 dairy / imitation dairy and animal products 🧀

1 medium egg (66 cals // 78 cals for large)

1 tbsp I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, light buttery spread (35 cals)

1 tbsp Blue Bonnet, light buttery spread (40 cals)

1 tbsp Blue Bonnet, buttery stick (60 cals)

1 slice Kroger fat-free American cheese slices (30 cals)

1 stick Sargento Light mozzarella string cheese (45 cals)

1/4 cup shredded fat-free mozzarella cheese (45 cals)

1 slice Sargento Ultra Thin cheese, Swiss, provolone, pepper-Jack, sharp cheddar, or Colby-Jack (40-45 cals)

1 cup unsweetened almond milk, vanilla or original (30 cals)

1 cup Silk unsweetened cashew milk, vanilla or original (25 cals)

1 cup Silk unsweetened coconut milk (40 cals)

1 cup Almond Breeze unsweetened chocolate almond milk (40 cals)

2 tbsp sugar-free International Delight or Kroger coffee creamer (30-40 cals, depending on flavor and flavor’s brand)

1 Kroger Carbmaster Yogurt, any flavor (60-80 cals, depending)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Mint Cookies n’ Cream (180 cals)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Cookie Dough or Mocha Coldbrew Coffee (185 cals)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Chocolate Peanut Butter or Mini Donut (190 cals)

1/2 pint Favorite Day low calorie protein ice cream, Caramel Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie (205 cals)

additional: any protein ice cream brand is a great dessert choice and so unironically delicious! I just listed Target’s because it’s cheapest, cost-wise, but Halo Top, Frozen Farmer, Enlightened, etc. -- they all market low calorie ice creams for anywhere between 270-470 cals per pint, depending on which flavor and brand.

🍚💰 god-send diet foods 💰🍚

1 bag shirataki noodles (20 cals)

1 cup shirataki konjac rice (30 cals)

1 pint Frozen Farmer sorbet, peach, strawberry, honeydew, watermelon, or mango (70 cals)

1 pint Frozen Farmer sorbet, strawberry lemonade (80 cals)

1 pint Frozen Farmer sorbet, raspberry (90 cals)

Walden Farms syrups, chocolate, caramel, pancake, maple walnut, strawberry, blueberry, etc . (0 cals)

Walden Farms dressings and sauces, Ranch, Buffalo Ranch, Caesar, Thousand Island, Chipotle Ranch, Bacon Ranch, Creamy Bacon, Italian, French, Honey Dijon, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Spicy Buffalo Vinaigrette, Super Fruits Balsamic Vinaigrette, Raspberry Vinaigrette, etc. etc. etc. (0 cals; there are literally endless flavors and all of them are zero calories. No joke. Look it up, order some on Amazon, Kroger and Walmart carry the most popular flavors)

Walden Farms coffee creamers, vanilla, mocha, peppermint, caramel, hazelnut, etc. etc. (0 cals; these might need to be ordered on their website or on Amazon)

Diet Soda, any flavor or brand (0 cals, obv)

2 tbsp Great Value peanut butter powder (50 cals // PB Fit = 60 cals per 2 tbsp)

Stevia or erythritol sweeteners (0 cals)

PICKLES!!!!!!!! (0 cals)

🥨 munchies 🥨

1 cup SmartFood white cheddar popcorn (70 cals // moderation)

1 cup Skinny Pop popcorn (39 cals // moderation)

18 mini twists, Rold Gold fat-free pretzels (110 cals // moderation)

23 twists, Clancy’s Everything-Pretzel Slims (110 cals // moderation)

3 Twizzlers (100 cals // moderation)

2 Zachary’s Thin Mints, mini dark chocolate peppermint patties (65 cals // moderation)

1 Brach’s Candy Cane (50 cals)

2 Hot Cocoa Kisses (36 cals)

2 Cherry Cordial Kisses (40 cals)

1 square 85% Lindt dark chocolate (58 cals // moderation)

1 X-Treme Wellness wrap, cut into 8 slices and salted+baked into tortilla chips, with 1/4 cup salsa (75 cals) or 2 tbsp Good & Gather queso blanco dip / Tostitos salsa con queso dip (90 cals // moderation)

1 slice Healthy Life bread, toasted and with 2 tsp I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! buttery spread, garlic+onion powder, and some salt (60 cals) OR toasted and with 1 slice Kroger fat-free American cheese, melted (65 cals)

1/2 medium banana or apple with 1 tbsp PB Fit powder + 2 tbsp Walden Farm’s pancake syrup for PB drizzle (80 cals // other sugar-free syrups add 5-15 cals, ex. Maple Grove [5], Log Cabin [10], Kroger brand [15], etc.)

2 slices deli rotisserie chicken / turkey, thin-sliced, spread w 1 tbsp Kroger fat-free cream cheese, rolled around 1 baby dill pickle (40 cals // without cream cheese, 25 cals // don’t knock it till u try it😒😒unless u just don’t like pickles lol)

10 strawberries and Walden Farm’s chocolate syrup (50 cals)

1 sugar-free Jell-O cup (10 cals)

1 sugar-free pudding cup (60 cals)

🧂🥫 other sauces / dips / condiments / ingredients 🥫🧂

Mustard, yellow, Dijon, or spicy brown (5-10 cals per tsp, depending on brand)

Miracle Whip Lite (20 cals per tbsp)

Stubb’s Sugar-Free Smokehouse BBQ sauce (10 cals per 2 tbsp)

Prego Marinara No Sugar Added (60 cals per 1/2 cup)

Chi-Chi’s Salsa (40 cals per 1/2 cup)

Tostitos Salsa Con Queso dip (40 cals per 2 tbsp)

Good & Gather Queso Blanco dip (40 cals per 2 tbsp)

Any sugar-free or fat-free dressing!! Just check labels.

Maple Grove sugar-free maple syrup (5 cals per 2 tbsp)

Cocoa powder (10-20 cals per tbsp, depending on brand and purity of cocoa)

Dark spices are said to speed up the metabolism, and they also allow your brain and stomach to feel more sated after eating, so use lots of seasonings! Plus, flavor :P (chili powder, paprika, cayenne, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, etc.)

I hope you all found this post to be useful in some way, or maybe inspiring or motivating! If anyone has anything they’d like to add, don’t hesitate to reblog with your own list of favs. I plan on adding to this if I find anything new or remember something I might’ve glossed over when writing it.

That’s all for now. Stay hydrated and take your vitamins angels❣️

#th1nsp11 #th1nsp1r4t10n #th1n$po #th17 #th1gh gap #th11n$p0 #anorekcya #sk1nny aesthetic #anorex14 #anor3×14 #bul1m14 #ed relapse #ed tag #ed but not sheeran #sk1nny legs #sk11ny #d1et #diettips

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almea · 2 months ago

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I finished the 2.5 story and I enjoyed it overall, although it didn’t hit me quite as hard as Penacony did. I think maybe that’s something to be expected with a Trailblaze Continuance vs a Trailblaze Mission. I don’t know, I just cried so hard at the end of Penacony, both 2.2 and 2.3, lmao.

Truly my favourite thing is that they seem to be giving Stelle more voice lines during the story that aren't just internal dialogue. It is my dream for them to continue giving her more and more voices lines so she can really be an actual character.

It was a little surprising for me when I realized how little Stelle did in the story though. I think she just went to investigate Stargazer Navalia with Yanqing and Feixiao, found Moze in Exalting Sanctum with them, and then was fighting the borisin in Aurum Alley with Moze. I did like how she mentioned her not being at the Skysplitter to help fight Hoolay when she’s talking with March at the end. It doesn’t bother me a ton when Stelle doesn’t have a lot to do in a specific story, I love how often they used the perspective swapping in the story so we could see what was going on with everyone, because she’s always around so it doesn’t feel too bad if she’s a little out of focus once in a while, but it kind of sucks for Moze that I don't think he got any really big moments since he has less chances to be relevant. I wish they had made him and Stelle finding a nearly dead Jiaoqiu an actual scene instead of just text so we could get a little more out of Moze, but it is what it is.

Jiaoqiu’s little trick with poisoning Hoolay by poisoning himself being foreshadowed with his comment about the green peppers was pretty cool, but I’m curious about whether it was intentional that it could have also been a little foreshadowed in March’s training event last patch since in his route there was some talk of Lingsha’s blood having special properties because of her having consumed so many medicines over the years. idk it was the first think I thought of when I realized what he did.

I've grown pretty fond of Yanqing over the course of the story. He’s just so earnest and I think his childish, competitive side coming out with Yunli is very cute. And I really love the relationship that has developed between him, March, and Yunli. It’s so sweet that Yanqing and Yunli are both so proud of March and she’s also so fond of her two little masters. I really hope we get to continue seeing more of their interactions in the future.

This does not stop me from being like, stay the fuck away from my pulls. He's already at fucking E4 and I still don't have Gepard.

March, Yanqing, and Yunli fighting a berserk Feixiao was soooo good. I really loved Yunli attempting to just fucking grapple her when she's so much smaller than Feixiao. It really adds to her feral cat energy. It’s very sweet, in a weird way, that Feixiao put her faith in these kids and fully believed they would be able to hold her back and keep her from causing too much destruction while she was rampaging. Especially because we later find out that Fu Xuan left Jing Yuan a prediction that they should trust the younger generation.

I thought it was funny that during the story March was like "If I had known we could use other weapons, I would have brought my bow with me" and then she just fucking summons it in the cutscene when they’re fighting Feixiao. Sometimes I think about the logistics behind the way they summon their weapons in cutscenes and I should probably stop trying to make sense of it because it really does seem to be governed by Rule of Cool. Seeing her preservation ult in a cutscene was so fun though. A while ago I was thinking about how cool it would be if was ever a cutscene where Stelle switches between her paths in the middle of a fight by switching her weapon and March ended up getting to do it before her and it was just as cool as I thought it would be.

I loved March just clinging to Feixiao's leg in the cutscene when she regains control of herself. She's just trying her best to help. And I’m just very proud of the three of them for managing to not get fucking obliterated by a general. It was also very cute seeing them support Feixiao and helping her stand. I don’t know, they’re just all good kids and I love them.

I don’t have a really concrete reason for it, but I just really like Feixiao. It may just be my weakness for hot, strong women, but she’s just so cool. I love how strong her resolve is, strong enough that this is the first time in the story that we’ve seen someone other than Stelle draw an Aeon’s gaze, and that she seems as devoted to Jiaoqiu and Moze as they are to her. She also has SUCH cool cutscenes. The one of her using Yukong’s bow to fire a a giant arrow all the way to Aurum Alley because it would have taken to long to get there to help????? Hello???? Who let her be so cool???

I really am looking forward to seeing more of her in the future and this plotline she has of trying to restore Jiaoqiu’s eyesight. And also seeing the repercussions/benefits of her swallowing the crimson moon.

It’s like a little funny to me that Jiaoqiu is blind now just because it doesn’t matter anymore that his eyes are always closed, he wouldn’t be able to see with them open anyways.

When Lingsha was announced and I saw she was a Vidyadhara, I was like. My opinion on her is 100% going to be based on how she treats Bailu because I love Bailu very dearly and every Vidyadhara that’s introduced is going to be judged by whether or not they’re nice to her. So I'm really happy to see that she appears to be very kind to her and Bailu likes her enough to call her sister.

I think it's so sweet that Dan Heng is always asking for Bailu’s opinion. He’s so protective of the rest of the Astral Express crew and it seems like that protectiveness has extended to Bailu and it makes me so happy every time it comes up. I hope they get more into Bailu being sick of being used as a puppet and wanting to leave soon because I too am sick of the way she's disrespected in universe. Let Dan Heng bring her on the Express with him. I would also accept Lingsha protecting Bailu and helping her have more freedom since she’s the new Cauldron Master. I don’t know how much pull she actually has, but I can dream.

I'm so sad that they sent Fu Xuan away to a different ship for this story arc because I miss her!!! Let me see her!!! I still think she had the coolest intro cutscene in the game and I couldn't not love her after that. And because she's been carrying my ass through everything since she's the only limited sustain I have lmao.

God, I am so excited for Ruan Mei potentially being a menace on the Luofu. Like, girl, what have you been up to? Did you do anything fucked up to Tingyun? Aren’t Himeko and Welt supposed to be delivering fossils to you? Why are you on the Luofu? Oh but maybe they’re the ones who brought her to the Luofu. I need answers!

When Tingyun started talking, I was just like, oh no, this is going to be the end of the story for this patch, isn't it? And then it was!!! And next patch is just Rappa, and from her character intro thing I assume we’re going back to Penacony, so who knows when this Tingyun plotline is going to pick up again.

#Annie plays HSR #hsr 2.5 spoilers #I'm very excited to play the event now

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quailxcrossing · 3 months ago

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hi im coming in here to bother you with random questions :3

who is your favorite character to draw in tuesday? who is the easiest to draw? hardest?

HELLO BELOVED oh my goodness this is such a fun question, i've got about an hour before my meeting so let me see how much i can type >:3cc Tuesday art questions!! how exciting!!!

for FAVORITE, currently, it's based upon characters I'm focused upon in Tuesday! right now I'm pretty lost in the Tuesfries characters, so that's characters like Esperanza, Ruse, Maiceo, Giana, etc! I really love drawing Esperanza, her color palette is just heaven to me and I adore her immensely :3 She also has a lot of forms which keeps me running circles about her Lore and gives me lots of interesting shapes to draw!

I love drawing faun Ruse too for similar reasons, its all character love- Ruse's story is one of my favorite little nuggets I've made, i'd like to thank Midveil for enabling some of my favorite tropes so I could go really crazy with her. Her backstory is one I would REALLY love to make into a sketchbook comic. I feel like it would take very well to that! And I know it can be really confusing to explain :'D I'm under the assumption no one knows what's going with Ruse because I feel like it's a lot to infodump and there's a lot of forms to keep track of. a long-form comic might make it easier to explain! She's one of my favorite characters I have, overall, so of course she's one of my favorites to draw in Tuesday! Even if she doesn't live there anymore.....

for HARDEST......okay. a lot of them. Tuesday has some of my favorite design notes - but also some of the hardest for me to draw! Like horns, for example- i LOVE horns. Which is why so many characters have them!! but keeping track of horns can be hard for me! but i'm practicing!! i'm learning!!!!

but that means the hardest character popped into my mind super fast.....it's Paola 😔 the agony. i love her so fucking much.....honestly, her dads are really hard for me to draw too. Simon and Van are some of my favorite OCs, and some of my favorite designs, but SO MANY sketches of them have been started, and then set down.

but cmon. they're so beautiful!! i really love these guys!! I'M the one who needs to get better. I don't know what it is with these guys....

for EASIEST! most fauns tbh, besides some of their horns! Fauns were made in 2019 of my favorite design traits- tails, paw hands/feet, that certain nose marking, furry, fun markings on a humanoid character- I always enjoy drawing them!! I need MORE of them- Tuesday feels very undercasted to me right now, I am still in the process of fleshing out the world- i'm such a person who loves worlds with tons of side characters, i am very much a large world writer. as you know and understand :3c oooo if youre my friend ooo you wanna design trade a faun so bad- /nf

some fauns who are very easy for me to draw are Evie, Baaree, Mardi, and Georgiana!

oh Evie.......

Some non-fauns that are very easy for me to draw are Kelleher (dude im literally in love with Kelleher), Judías + Arandano, and Tiwai!

these are still characters with a lot of details (Tuesday characters tend to be really detail-heavy) but i generally don't spend a long time fussing over the quality of the character's image. you may notice their horns are more uniform or simpler shapes than Paola or even Esperanza/Ruse, which i DO have a lot of trouble with keeping those antlers consistent, but you see, favorite privilege..... /lh

this was very interesting to think about!! i hope you don't mind multiple characters per question, and I know i could go even deeper and grab more examples and talk about each individual character and how I feel about drawing them. King Josephine jumped out as someone a bit trickier to draw, and Chyenne is pretty easy-

but I'd be here all day! thank you already for spending some Tuesday time with me <3

#quail talks #quail art #tuesday #im not tagging all the characters lol

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wildstar25 · 8 months ago

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terribly sorry to bother, but I've been loving your screenshots since I stumbled on your blog, and like 100% genuinely: how do you get them to look like that? Is it all done in game or is it some combo of mods & shaders? Cause every time I see a cool pose I'm just left wondering how you did it. Obviously I wouldn't ask you to make a massive tutorial just for me, but if there are any resources or general things you'd be willing to share, I'd be eternally grateful!

Hi there! Thank you for enjoying my gposes, and you're not a bother; my ask box is open to get asks after all haha

To answer your question: My gposes are not a product of the vanilla game alone. I'm slapping my explanations under a read more since it's a bit long:

Firstly, I am running reshade, an open source post-processing injector. It's a program that can (in the simplest terms) run various visual filters over a video game in real time. Most everyone I know made the jump from Gshade to reshade last year, so if you look up "reshade for ffxiv" you should be able to find a handful of tutorials. When it comes to finding presets, there are a lot of independent shader devs for ffxiv and generally a quick google search should bring you to a few. Most of the presets I use are outdated holdovers from the GShade days, and I don't know if they are available anymore; so unfortunately I can't recommend any directly, sorry!

In general, I lean towards shaders that enhance the overall brightness and vibrancy of the (imo muddy looking) default graphics. Arsay can quickly get over exposed by the in game 3 point lighting, so putting a shader that boosts the brightness overall really helps preventing that. I set up my lights in gpose at 2, put the character lighting to 100, pick a shader with a LUT that gives me the colours and brightness I want and thats usually enough. sometimes I'll hit the manual brightness in game and mess with that too. I often go into the preset of the shader and muck about with the Depth of field settings depending on what I want. An important note regarding the use of reshade: While reshade does not directly effect in game files or gameplay and it's technically not against TOS (as far as I have read), it is still highly encouraged that screenshots taken with shaders on do not have the ffxiv screenshot watermark visible. Reshade has it's own screenshot button that you can map to any key of your liking that will capture the game and the applied shaders without any watermarks. If you have an nvidia graphics card, I believe you should also have access to the geforce post-process correction tools, and could use that as well to enhance the game visuals. However, I am under the impression it's solely corrective settings (brightness/contrast, vibrancy, saturation, etc.) and you do not have the ability to adjust the depth of field setting, apply LUTs, mess with ambient occlusion, etc. Aka the more in depth rendering stuff that would make your graphic card fan go brrr. I've personally never tried the nvidia filter system so maybe that's incorrect information. Best to do independent research on that!

As well, on the occasion I will bring some screenshots into photoshop and do further, fine tuned, tonal corrections there. Generally this is only when I'm trying to achieve a look that I can't get in game and I try to keep it to a minimum. When I'm working on big photosets or comics, I'll end up doing more corrections just to make sure colours/tones/shading are consistent through out.

On to the second part of the question: the posing. I do all my posing with this tool. It is a tos crime, however it's client-side only and completely undetectable to other players. It gives you full access to character rigs and allows you to not only build your own poses, but export and import poses, outfits, props used by npcs or seen in cut scenes, and character data as well. Tons of people will upload pose files on the various mod archives for others to use, so even people who don't want to mess around with rigs can have fun with their characters. I personally love posing, and it's something I'm very comfortable doing since I have a background in 3D modelling and animation. I do believe in working smarter and not harder though, so what I tend to do is apply an in game animation cycle to my character in question that has a frame or key pose close enough to what I need, pause the animation, turn on posing, and start rotating bones. I never really looked up any tutorials myself tbh, I kinda just messed around with things and figured the tool out as I went along. That said, there are tutorials on youtube if you search for them. "Anamnesis ffxiv guide" or something along those lines should bring up good results.

Anam also gives you further camera control than what is available in game, allowing you to fine tune its position to the .001 degree. You can increase the FOV and zoom range past the typical amount. Bring your character and camera pretty much anywhere on the map too. And you can export your camera setting to use between gpose settings! It's a really great tool, though it has some quirks and can in specific instances crash your game (never change a character while fishing lol)

That's pretty much it! I know this wasn't really much of a guide, so sorry about that. Most of my gposes are a product of seeing a fuzzy image/concept in my head and messing around with various compositions, locations, lighting conditions, ect. until I bring that idea into clarity. It's hard to explain that process in ways beyond "fucking around and finding out (positive)" I suppose to anyone else reading this has specific references in mind, please pass them along to sailor-artemis ! I know being told "just google it lol" isn't super helpful but I really just tend to figure things out on my own ^^;

#sorry if all this is incomprehensible too #im not always the best at explaining

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elle-thereafter · 2 months ago

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Fanfic Tag Game

So @blorbologist tagged me in a thing where one goes to their current/main AO3 account and looks up various tags. This is somewhat less exciting for me with the AO3 account I use now because, well... there's only 3 fics in there, they're all for the same fandom and same pairing. It would make for quite a boring round of this game.

Because I've been in fandom of some sort since 1996, I have fic sort of all over the place. I have an OG and much older AO3 account which I don't post to anymore, but since my online fic publishing predates the existence of AO3 by, like, 13 years, some of my published fic is in standalone, fandom-specific archives, some of which (shockingly) still exist, while others have shut down.

So I'm going to honour the spirit of this challenge rather than the letter of it. I've consolidated all my published fic data and crunched the overall numbers. Just for funsies! The fics that feed into these stats were all published publicly somewhere, at some point, spanning from 1996 thru 2024. Also I'm playing fast and loose with the game rules because who needs rules.

What ratings do you write most of your fics under?

General: 8

Teen: 13

Mature: 0

Explicit: 3

Different archives have different rating systems, but they all map reasonably onto AO3's system so I've translated them across. Apparently I can't be bothered to write anything between T and E. And yeah, those 3 E's are all in the Critical Role fandom: I've been writing smut for years, but only recently started publishing it anywhere.

What are your top three fandoms?

Harry Potter: 10

Gargoyles: 4

Critical Role: 3

The West Wing: 3

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 2

Angel: 1

Leverage: 1

Screw top three, it's more fun to see the whole list! As you can see, even in all these years I am not what one would call "prolific". As with everyone, the published works are only the tip of the iceberg of the many, many, many unfinished bits and bobs I have floating around in my writing archive. But I'm also a pretty slow writer all things considered, and there was a good 10 years or so where I didn't publish anything. I kept reading a lot of fic and still occasionally wrote some for myself, but from something like 2012 thru 2022 I wasn't posting anywhere.

It’s kind of tragic I can’t add The Magnificent Seven (TV series) to this list. I wrote so much when I was in that fandom but never quite finished anything so nothing ever got published. I have one that's almost 20k words and probably 3/4 finished but I never got it over the line so there it sits in my archive, forever incomplete. Other fandoms in my "never published" bucket include Alias, X-Men and Star Wars.

What is the top character you write about?

Original Characters: 10

Remus Lupin: 5

Sirius Black: 5

Ensemble: 4

James Potter: 4

Lily Evans Potter: 4

Percy de Rolo: 3

Vex'ahlia: 3

Joshua Lyman: 3

Owen Burnett: 3

Peter Pettigrew: 3

Severus Snape: 2

Tom Riddle: 2

I narrowed the list to just folks who appeared in more than one fic. And, yeah... look: it turns out I've been writing lots of original characters in my fic for a long, long time, so really the OCs in Gate Building probably shouldn't come as a surprise really. But this time I wasn't planning on them, they just kind of happened!

Also, look at all those snarky brooding men with tragic/complicated pasts and questionable morals! If we expanded this to include my “never published, just for me” list we’d get to add notorious gents such as Jack Bristow, Ezra Standish, Brooklyn, Charles Xavier, and Rupert Giles to the list. I have a very clear type; I’m fine with it. 😄

What are your top three pairings?

Gen/Ensemble: 8

Joshua Lyman & Original Character: 3

Percy de Rolo/Vex'ahlia: 3

James Potter/Lily Evans Potter: 2

Owen Burnett/Original Character: 2

Remus Lupin & Sirius Black: 2

The list above isn't comprehensive, I just included the ships and friendship fic that pinged more than once. Historically I didn’t write a ton of romantic/ship fic. And often where there was a ship it wasn’t necessarily the focus so even what’s listed there is probably a little misleading. Like, the James/Lily stuff just inevitably kind of happens when you write Marauder fic whether you're going for it or not. 😄

I was notably quite fascinated with Remus and Sirius' friendship in a fandom that was convinced they were fucking. I'm not saying they weren't fucking, but I was personally more interested in how on earth they managed to repair their friendship after PoA. There is a lot more unfinished stuff relating to that friendship in my various archives.

The OC paired with Owen is 100% a Mary Sue: a pure, trope-defining, text book Mary Sue plucked from the depths of my teenage brain. The West Wing OC was a childhood friend of Josh's with no romantic intentions toward him that I used to prod at various character study themes.

What are the top three additional tags?

This one is tricky because A) the non-AO3 places where my fic was posted didn't have the robust tagging features AO3 has; and B) I wasn't historically a big user of tags in my original AO3 account beyond characters and pairings of note. But since that's not a terribly interesting answer, I went through the list of 24 fics and tried to at least throw a few tags on them that could be relevant, just to see what might shake out. The top "tags" that jumped out after the exercise were:

Before Canon: 11

Character Study: 8

Kid Fic: 4

Missing Moment: 3

None of those are particularly surprising. A lot of my Harry Potter stuff was Marauder Era fic, and I do have a fascination with going back to when characters were kids/teenagers to explore formative experiences in their lives. And after I got the Mary Sues out of my system for a long time I pivoted pretty hard into gen, friendship stories, and character studies.

I don't know why I like writing about kids. I just like the way their little unfinished brains work, and their POVs are such an interesting place to be as a writer. They tend to have interesting, unusual opinions and make choices an adult brain would never make. Also people kind of forget they're there sometimes, which means they bear witness to all kinds of things even if they can't quite fully understand them. There's something about a character study baked into a formative childhood experience that just gets me.

Does any of this surprise you?

Maybe the preponderance of OCs in my fanfic. I knew there were a bunch but seeing that no-contest dominance at the top of the list is pretty hilarious, ngl.

I am so, so tempted to repost some of my old Mary Sue stuff to Wattpad just to see how it would do in 2024. 😁

#tag game #tag meme #el talks #i lived through the chain letter era of email i don't tag people it gives me flashbacks

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megafreak400 · 2 months ago

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Watching all of One Piece - The Baroque Works Saga

I've been making slow but steady progress and it's now time to take a look at the next saga in One Piece. As of writing this I'm about 150 episodes through the series so still a long ways to go but i've been enjoying my time with it so far. This saga was overall fun even if it took a bit longer to watch it then I would have liked. Part of that stems from having stalled on watching the Alabasta arc itself due to it being the first really long arc (like 40 episodes or so) but once I got through the early bit I binge the ending. This blog should be a lot shorter than the last one overall, but i'm saying this as I type it up so if this ends up being a novel again my bad.

Music

This section will be a lot shorter this time, not because the music got bad or anything but there wasn't a ton of new songs that really stood out. Stuff like Chopper's theme and Nico Robin's theme are good but most of the new songs didn't stick in my head like the songs introduced in the first saga. All of those songs are still here mind you, so what I liked before I still like now. Special shout out for them using We Are (OP1) as an in show song at points, kind of just becoming one piece's main theme. It's a pretty cool moment at the end of the Alabasta Arc and I'm always here for those kind of moments. As for Openings, OP2 sticks around for most of this saga and it's just fine. It did grow on me a bit but again visually it's unappealing and musically it's just ok.

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We do get a new OP midway through the Alabasta Arc and.....uh well It's very very good but, we get it midway through the Alabasta Arc. Spoilers just a bit don't you think? It also spoils Nami's new weapon which is also silly. It doesn't bother me too much because I knew about this character already but imagine watching this when it aired, you would be like "WTF this villain joins the crew?"

But ignoring that aspect this OP is super sick, probably my favorite so far. We Are is a classic but not only is this one a bop, it's easily the most interesting visually. Also chopper is great in this OP so 10/10.

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And for endings, nothing really stood out too much but special shout out to this one that features Chopper because best boy best boy best boy!

Arcs

Same as last time I'm not gonna be explaining what happens so if you haven't watched One Piece why are you reading this blog (hi Nina) sorry but I don't have the time to recap everything. I'm gonna try to not talk characters too much here except when applicable

Reverse Mountain Arc

Clocking in at around two episodes, this is barely an arc but at the same time it absolutely deserves mention here because a lot of important stuff is in the Straw Hats entry to the Grand Line. Laboon is great and his entire back story (I hope we get a follow up on this in the future but I wouldn't push my luck) was the saddest back story ever told. Luffy's promise to come back and spar with him holds weight because if there is one thing you can say about Luffy, hes and idiot. But if there is two things you can say about Luffy he'll never give up on his dreams or promises. Crocus building an entire living space inside Laboon is silly fun that i've come to expect of One Piece, but I really hope he stops hitting his head, the poor boy doesn't need more scars. The Log Pose is a super interesting element that gets added here, as it explains why no one has found the one piece due to how weird navigation is in the Grand Line. Island hoping also explains why they need to stick around on islands so I really like this concept being added. I think the stuff with the agents is kind of weird, like I legit don't get why they were even introduced here, but I guess it was more to foreshadow that was coming up.

Whisky Peak Arc

Zoro finally gets to cut loose and it's amazing. Most of East Blue he spent injured or lacking swords but here? He gets to just clown on a bunch of lame bounty hunters and it's a delight to watch. Sadly what could have been a fun introduction to Baroque Works ends on a sour note, and it's all the editors fault. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY did you think having Luffy fight Zoro for literally no reason was a good idea? This one moment literally knocked Luffy down multiple points in my book because the guy who said "NAMI IS MY FRIEND" decided to instead be like "ZORO IS MY FRIEND.....Unless food." Like I get it to some extent, having two strong guys fight, fun idea but not at the expense of their characters. The editors demanding these two fight is easily the worst part of this arc, and while Zoro and Luffy ignoring the tough agents and their fighting accidentally knocking them out is funny, it's not worth the damage it does to Luffy's character. I know a lot of people cry "out of Character" at times when it's not deserved, but in this case it really is because Luffy wouldn't fight his friends like this. Beyond that, this arc is mostly a way to introduce the main villains of the saga, Baroque Works, a shady bounty hunting organization with weird names and weird people involved. As i'll get into during the character section, Vivi's introduction through this is a little weird and makes the whole thing feel a bit whip lashing in how fast it goes from just fighting bounty hunters trying to rob them to becoming an escort mission for a princess. It's not a big problem, just a little weird. Also Whisky Peak's cactus 'needles' being gravestones is pretty metal. It also literally has no impact on anything in this arc, nor does it really matter at all...but I thought it was cool.

Little Garden Arc

YAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA This arc is weird. It starts as just exploring a prehistoric island with funny Zoro and Sanji moments (I don't think Dinosaur Meat is good for you, and meeting with silly giants who have been fighting for a long long long long long time. But sadly the ending just ends up a bit drawn out. While Zoro's reaction to becoming a wax figure is hilarious, Mr. 3 gets old fast and him and the other guys stopping Luffy from saving his friends through delay tactics (Like the weird color mind control trick or the annoying explosion guy) just goes on for too long. I love Ussop getting a moment to save the crew, and Sanji tricking Mr. Zero into giving him information and him getting a eternal pose is pretty great. Mostly just the villians in this arc just go on too long. If Exploding snot man and Ground Pound Down girl weren't here I would have enjoyed it more, they really had no reason to come back. I guess because silly wax man wasn't that strong but IDK I don't think we needed to extend this arc as much as we did. The giants are great and this arc leading into the next is also great as well. I also like the VIvi starts to enjoy the crew more in this arc, since by the next one she already trusted the crew where as here she's still getting used to these guys who have decided to help her out. Also GOLD FISH REAL

BEST ARC BEST ARC BEST ARC Drum Island Arc

My Favorite arc of the Saga easily. As said in the first blog of this series, this is actually the first arc I watched. Having watched the stuff leading up and after it, it's interesting how this arc really leaves almost all of the Baroque works stuff out and just focused on the Drum Kingdom and Chopper's Back story. And Chopper's backstory, Saddest backstory ever told.

This arc is really just Chopper the arc, since most of the main cast doesn't do much this arc? Nami despite being sick arguably has the most relevance here due to being the one to learn about Chopper, and obviously Luffy defeats the main villain. But beyond that this arc is really all about Chopper and the kingdom he live in an I love that. Not Wario is a horrible person but he makes for a good villain in this arc. Luffy punching horrible people will never not be satisfying and seeing Not Waluigi fly off to hopefully never return is super satisfying. This arc also has some of the best side characters in the show so far with Dalton and Doctorine. It's not like I didn't care about Nami's home town or Ussop's rich friend but I really care about the Drum Kingdom and I really hope it improves in the future cause it's probably my favorite location thus far. The ending scene with the cherry blossom snow is also a fantastic way to end an arc. Also D is real and I really want to know what that's about.

The only things I don't really like is Luffy and Sanji wanting to eat chopper but that's like my only real nitpick. Other than that just a solid story and a nice breather before diving into the next big arc.

Alabasta Arc

So I'm conflicted when it comes to this arc. The arc is basically divided in half, the first half being the introduction to the area and trying to prevent civil war and the second half is all of the big fights. The first half...is rough at points. Part of that is anime only additions extending the time it takes to get to the oasis town. I don't mind that to some extent because it makes Luffy's insistence to just got to Crocodile make even more sense. That said, it drags on a bit and everyone is fighting with each other because they hate sand. We do get more Ace which is nice but everything before Rain Dinners is ok but just a bit too long and drawn out. When we get to Crocodile's casino, stuff starts to get more interesting. Mr. 3 coming back is so stupid and I love it and everything about how they escape the casino. I like that Sanji being an unknown to Baroque actually pays off here, and Smoker continues to be the only good marine. The second half is much better. Luffy losing a fight is a good thing and makes his eventual victory much sweeter. Nami's fight is great but Ussop making it for parties kind of makes Ussop seem kind of like he doesn't get Nami's want to fight. Coupled that with how he acts during his an Chopper's fight with Moley Christmas and FOUR, Yea Ussop isn't going up in my favor yet. I do like the Chopper's fight overall, but mostly for how it ends and for chopper trying his best and wanting to do what he can. It's also probably the most interesting fight in terms of what actually happens. Zoro's fight with 1 is fine but not really for the fight itself and more for zoro's resolve in learning to cut steel (which he def already could do but I assumed that was in an anime only arc.) The actual fight is pretty straight forward. When your leader can zip around and do crazy rubber shenanigans, it makes a lot of other fights look more boring in comparison sadly. Sanji's fight....is whatever. Mr. 2 is great but the fight just consists of them kicking each other and then Sanji getting Brocked as 2 keeps using Nami's Face. Again like Ussop Sanji isn't really improving my opinion on him so far. Poor Vivi though. She tries her best here and it's heart breaking that no one is listening to her. Crocodile is up there with Arlong in how ruthless he is and when Luffy comes back it's a nice breather for the despair VIvi has been thrown into. The climb to the clock tower is fun, even if the ends result is a tragedy....or would be if ANYONE DIED IN THIS SHOW. Look IDK if I find this a major issue yet or not but if you think someone is dead, assume they will show back up. So many people should have died and then they just don't because.......yea. Also just a note, holy hell these mooks need a raise. Random guys with a Baroque works tattoo did way more to further the civil war than anything the number agents did. Make Generic grunt #105 a Number agent, he deserves it. But yea the ending to Alabasta is great, I love how the Marine's factor in and am curious how Sword Girl and Smoker will factor in to future story lines. Robin joining the crew is a little odd but I'm sure it won't be that odd the more we get to know her. Overall I enjoyed this arc but i do think it was a bit to long. Everyone getting their own fight a the end was awesome, but it just took a bit too long to get to the fighting.

Post Alabasta Arc

This is basically just a series of stand alone episodes revolving around one of the characters usually. I believe this is Anime only but I liked these a lot. A nice breather after the long arc that was Alabasta and a good way to further develop these characters. One issue I had with the Dragon Anime only arc in the last blog was that things happened but none of the characters were growing or effecting the plot really they were rather static. Here in these little vignettes you get each character to show what is good about each of them and also play off of each other is a delightful way. The Chopper episode is great cause we get to see more of him and his adoptive mother, as well as get more introduced to Robin. Robin at this point is kind of anomaly in the cast since she's the only crew member to invite herself. Getting to see her interact with Chopper was a good way to ease the viewer into accepting her as a crew member, so it was a good choice on the Anime's part. The next one I like but it's also weird. Rice Rice (he ate the Rice Rice Fruit) is weird, but really the odd salesman is only here as the preamble for a Nami map episode. I love when characters are in their element, and Nami getting to finally draw some maps is nice. Case and point, when Sanji gets to cook and not be weird around woman, he's very likable. His interaction with the young cook and subtly helping him make cury is again nice. Same deal with Ussop and the fire works people. It's also just a cute standalone story. Ussop is at his best when he's inventing or helping people not fighting, and this episode is the perfect one to highlight him at his best. And the Zoro episode is a flash back, to when he met the bounty hunting duo. Which is honestly pretty sick and you know me, I love me some more zoro. Luffy and Robin don't get episodes but they do get moments in the other characters episodes. Like I said, just a nice breather arc with good character moments. Unlike with the lead up to Alabasta that just drags because your anticipating a big fight, having these kind of slice of life episodes after a big fight is the best way to handle these anime only additions I feel.

Episodes not in Arcs

So I think the only thing to episode here is the two episodes about Koby and Helmeppo. They're fine, we get a look at Garp who I assume will be important later but who knows. These little vignette episodes of past characters are canon from my understanding, but after this one they dropped them because people didn't like them in the anime. But I think the issue is where they're used, and also because Buggy's episodes added nothing to the story. I would argue at least here I could see some of this stuff being important later but at the same time, watching them getting stronger and better at being marines is just whatever. But it's better than buggy at least.

Characters

So my plan here is to go over the new major recurring characters in their own section, give my thoughts on other character I really liked in small snippets and then also a general thought on the already existing cast and how my opinion on them has changed if it has.

BEST BOY BEST BOY BEST BOY Tony Tony Chopper

Chopper is my favorite bar none. Not only cause he's cute but he also has the saddest backstory ever. I also think he's the crew member at the moment who is the best at their job. Most of the crew didn't really join because of their skills, besides Nami and Sanji. Nami hasn't gotten a lot of time to shine as a navigator this arc due to the crazy nature of the Grand Line and getting used to it. Sanji goes out of his way to fuck with the male crew members food and that annoys me to no end. But Chopper will doctor anyone and is damn good at it. Some people apparently find chopper annoying, but he's a little kid who wants to be treated as an equal and not a monster and I sympathize with the little dude. He's one of the best parts of Alabasta cause he really wants to try his best to help his new crew. I love the little brother relationship he has with a lot of the crew and I look forward to seeing more of that as we go on.

Nefertari Vivi

Vivi's introduction is weird. She's introduced as a weird agent named Mrs. Wednesday trying to eat Laboon. It's because she's undercover as a Baroque Works agent but IDK everything with Baroque works at this point just feels silly and over the top, it's not until after Whisky Peak that they start to feel like a threat. And because of this her posing as a silly agent before being revealed as a princess, just feels a little off at the time? Again it's a minor nit pick but like compared to Robin, who seems like the same person both as miss all Sunday and as Nico Robin, Vivi having two personalities just doesn't work for me. I guess you could argue that her and her body guard were doing it on purpose either because he thought you had to be that way to be a secret agent or because they were trying to hide their identities better but from the viewers perspective it just comes across as an odd reset. Regardless once we meet Vivi proper, she's nice. I like how in a lot of ways she's very much like Luffy in that she never gives up, but she also doesn't want anyone to get hurt except herself. I think this part of her character gets lost a little sadly due to the fact that the characters that are important in one piece are allergic to death. Like Luffy says people die and you can't protect everyone but....I mean who has died so far? Background characters that could be either dead or knocked out. It never really hits home that death is a real threat so Luffy making that be something she needs to come to terms with and that she needs to rely on others who are also willing to risk anything just loses a bit of it's punch. But I like her a lot, she kind of helped ground the crew for a bit, and I can't imagine we'll never see her again. As for when, who knows.

BEST DUCK BEST DUCK BEST DUCK Karoo

For what could just be a silly animal friend, Karoo is like my favorite part of Alabasta. This Duck really cares about Vivi and despite never talking you get exactly his state of mind when it comes to respecting the straw hats. His entire episode of protecting VIvi from Mr 2 is peak and is arguably the best 'fight' in that section. Also he's apart of the Super Sonic Duck Squad and that's just awesome. He's also a chocobo, you can't hate chocobos.

Portgas D. Ace

We don't get a lot of Ace (arguably more than in the Manga at this point) but I really like him a lot so far. He's a bit more grounded than Luffy but also he's absolutely Twoffy. The entire scene in the bar in the first town in Alabasta is hilarious. With him leaving Luffy that paper I'm sure we'll see him again.

Nico Robin

So uh, I'm probably gonna just need to do a new character section for her next time as well cause there really isn't much to say yet. She doesn't do much as Miss All Sunday besides having a mysterious backstory. From what i've seen of robin I like her but I also can't read her. I need to see more of her before being able to really get a read. In a lot of ways she's kind of similar to early Nami in that respect. Other Saga Characters

Ok gonna rapid fire this a bit. These are also only gonna be my favorite side characters or very notable villains. It doesn't mean I didn't like other characters they just didn't stand out as much as these guys. Also if I really hate someone they can also show up here. Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine suck so hard. They're such nothing characters but the way their portrayed is so obnoxious. I wanted to punch their faces so hard during the little garden arc. Mr. 3 like ways is a doof but unlike the other two, he's at least funny to watch and how they bring him back in Albasta is funny. Both of the giants are good fun, I love their silly laughs and look forward to eventually getting to Elbaf.

Dalton is such a good guy and I really hope he helps lead the former Drum Kingdom back to glory. His reaction to Hiriluk's death remains a highlight to me.

Dr. Kureha is amazing and I love her so much. She's hilarious in every scene she's in and she's a very good mother to chopper. Like wise ditto for Dr. Hiriluk, even if you have to add an element of sadness to his appearance due to obvious reasons.

Pell should have died. I like him but also he SHOULD HAVE DIED. Also he's a bird. King Cobra I like a lot, he's silly at points but I like his conversation with Robin in the tomb, he seems like a wise ruler overall. Mr. 2 is silly and I love them and really look forward to them not dying and coming back later in the show. The entire part at the end with them helping the Straw hats escape was great. FOUR HA HA HA HA

Guns can't eat Crocodile is Arlong 2. He's way more of a threat and takes Luffy way longer to deal with but he's sadistic as fuck. He's a good Saga villain and a good introduction to the kind of assholes we'll meet on the grand line. His over the top plan with like a billion back up plans was a bit much at points, it was almost like I was watching a Danganronpa Villain with how much despair her put Vivi through. Luffy punching him through layers of earth out into the sky to classical music is one of the best moments of that arc, his defeat was very cathartic.

The Old Guys Luffy sadly just does a lot of dumb shit and out of character shit this saga. He's great in drum kingdom and at the end of Albasta but i'm sorry the Whisky Peak moment really fucking sucks.

Zoro is more Zoro. He keeps being Zoro and that's awesome. Nami continues to become more and more one of my favorites. Her greed can be annoying at times but her relationship with Vivi, her part during the Drum Kingdom Arc and her fight with the Clima tech (weird weapon, but still cool) were all highlights and I hope she continues to use her smarts to win fights. Ussop was barely in this saga. He slept through whisky peak, got his moment in little garden and got to gush about giants, was barely relevant in Drum Kingdom, and then wasn't really important in Alabasta til his fight with Four and Mole. And he spent most of that fight running away. Overall Ussop will get good I'm sure, but his faults just keep popping out too often. Sanji needs to stop obsessing over women. He gets his cool moment with rescuing the crew from Crocodile but other then that most of his screen time this arc is spent being unfunny and girl crazy. SMOKER!!! We don't have many recurring side characters yet but Smoker comes back and he's so good. I really love this dude and how despite hating pirates he's also willing to change. He also doesn't put up with the World Government's bullshit so I've very excited to see more of him.

Crew Ranking

Chopper > Zoro > Nami > Robin > Luffy > Ussop > Sanji Luffy went way down due to how annoying he was in the desert and of course Whisky Peak. I'm sure he'll recover but he really only went under Nami for me. Robin is just in the middle right now because I don't really have an opinion on her yet, nor should I since she hasn't really done anything yet.

Final Thoughts

This saga is mostly good. The less interesting arcs are at least shorter than some of the East Blue arcs, and while early Alabasta is a bit much, it ends on a high note. Drum Kingdom is peak, and seeing the crew grow is very nice. I'm excited to see where the show goes from here, cause it can see it going up.

#one piece #Youtube

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randomrings · 11 months ago

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My thoughts on Death Must Die so far

I beat a level today. Game is good. Excited to see where it goes development-wise.

Thoughts below:

Stuff I liked:

I was originally going to criticize how often dialogue pops up but given how short the runs are, I think it's the right amount, especially because god dialogue isn't guaranteed to pop up for each blessing.

The incentive for going back to beaten levels works well.

If only aesthetically, I like the art style and think (for the most part) it is easy to tell where everything important is during combat.

The runs seem to be designed to be shorter than I expected going in. Some runs only last 4 minutes but I feel like I gained something substantial, if only knowledge, every run.

There are some interesting blessings.

Mort is my favorite!

The variety in character playstyles in such an innately simplistic gameplay premise is impressive. Although I definitely prefer Merris and Skadi over the other three (current) characters, I think the other characters are still fun to play as.

I like the dialogue so far.

Adding little details to the lore the more you interact with the gods is exciting.

My only major criticisms:

I get stuck on landmarks sometimes. Skill issue, I know. But when waves of enemies cover the screen and everything has the same outline-less pixel artstyle, a lot of environmental things muddle together. For certain things (like trees) this is by design but you don't get stuck on trees. You get stuck on the gremlin's house or various shrines. This wouldn't bother me as much if the game was designed around more or faster dashes (like Hades) but it's not. Again, to a degree, I guess I can go fuck myself but this seems like maybe a little bit of an artistic oversight more than an intended obstacle.

Once you find a character you like and get a ton of cool armor for them, the only reasons to play as the other characters are to try them out or squeeze replayability out of the game. This isn't as big of an issue as the first problem I mentioned, just something I noticed. I think a passive upgrade system kind of like the mirror from Hades or (god help me, I just can't think of a better example right now) the rune system from League might help with this. Not as a replacement for how stats are currently set up. Just something that might make it easier for trying other characters. Additional note on this: you get loot for other characters on your run. I think this was their counteraction to the problem. I feel like it's enough but could be better is all.

I would change how the shop menu works so it's easier to swap characters. It's not awful now but I feel like swapping characters is a more common thing players are going to want to do versus going to the buyback menu.

Unless they're planning on adding *way* more to the hub world, the hub world is too spread out.

I hate to nitpick the story but I don't think "it's vague and we don't know what all is happening yet" is a great start to the story. Enough information unfolds to where the lore becomes more interesting and this is very effective. However, I think a more gripping motivation for the player to attach to the characters overall would have made the game more interesting. This isn't to say the story is bad or poorly executed. There is a lot to like about it and it's easier to feel underwhelmed by a story purposefully unfinished. Just, for me personally, the motivation lies more in the curiosity in the gameplay at this point than the vast majority of what has been presented storywise.

#death must die #why am I like this #randomrings

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semi-sketchy · 1 year ago

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Frontiers writing really does feel like "okay let's grab what people love talking about online" mixed with hazy memories of what happened in past games without anyone bothering to, you know. ACTUALLY look at what happened in them.

And then a lot of new stuff being added that then, isn't expanded.

Yup. It's dangling keys in front of my face when I know exactly what those keys go to, and it's not what you're telling me. Like I'm not an encyclopedia and I've got an awful memory, but even I know off the top of my head that Eggman didn't stop Neo Metal in Heroes. Considering how much Flynn loves that storyline I'm honestly surprised he got this wrong.

The cutscenes in general are quite shoddy and miss a valuable piece of writing advice: be careful about including normal conversations.

True, people DO talk this way, but the reason we don't write about it and instead condense it to a "they chatted about the weather for a few minutes" is because it's boring.

I feel like I should give the side stories more slack since they're optional, but they're really so meaningless. Well, they're SUPPOSED to mean something, they're meant to build up this mystery, but just asking mundane questions about random stuff isn't really what I'd call "building a mystery." It's just characters speculating about tiny little details surrounding the ancient culture that doesn't loop back into the overall mystery. They're not good foreshadowing and add nothing of value, not even entertainment. They're all so impersonal since they don't even use these little scenes to show how well the characters bounce off each other.

If you want an example of this done well, there's TONS of optional discussions in Xenoblade 3 where the gang just talk about regular stuff, but it's so funny because they don't know what the hell they're talking about. There's one where Sena accidentally invents zoos, it's great and I'm mad no one has compiled them on YouTube yet Of course, there's also stuff to expand on the lore and world building, but they're mostly reserved for everyday antics that highlight the excellent dynamics these characters have.

And that's what makes them good. It's not just "Everyday conversation #16" because it gives the characters a chance to make something a little more personal to them.

Frontiers misses that mark by because it needs these characters to be informational mouthpieces to move the plot and that destroys the concept of character voice.

Tails uses big words to signal that he's the smart one when his actions spoke well enough for him before. Eggman is literally just sitting on the sidelines for 80% of the plot and instead of pulling any strings, he's reading textbooks into audio logs. Like buddy. You have an AI that is totally obedient, why is your order "find me a way out of here" when you're studying this place? YOU are the one coming up with answers and connections everywhere, why aren't YOU looking for a way out yourself instead of sitting on your ass and relishing in a robot punching Sonic? Fucks sake, Sage can activate these ancient weapons, have her USE THEM to GET RID OF SONIC so he can't UNLEASH THE BEAST. This is such a simple and easy way to make the plot more interesting I will not stop harping on it

I wonder if this story will sour on people over time or if in 10 years it will still be praised it as one of the greats.

#ask #sonic frontiers

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prettycottonmouthlamia · 8 months ago

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So I was doing a quick google search for the Dramatic Paths or whatever Yugioh card that's behind those funny meme images because I wanted to shitpost about my IS3 experience and the first google image that I saw, that google decided to show me, was a version of that meme where "becoming a trans woman" was set opposite of "becoming a white supremacist". It was one of those "don't ask a trans woman what she was doing when she was 14" memes that I really despise so I figured I would sit down with my thoughts.

When I was 14, I was in a cult. I was not in a far-right organization, I was not a white supremacist, and I was not a Nazi. I take great pride in that, because that's somehow become an accomplishment on the internet these days. But I was a Jehovah's Witness. Jehovah's Witnesses are for all intents and purposes, a conservative high-control Christian cult, despite their attempts to rhetoric their way out of that label. I don't really blame myself for being in the cult, since it was exposed to me while I was very young, but I think about my experiences with it a lot.

I suffered emotional abuse from cult members I'm still recovering from, I suffered trauma at the hands of the religious teachings which existed to chip away at me until nothing original remained, and ultimately, lots of Jehovah's Witnesses end up becoming quite bad people. The problem with an isolationist religion is that any kindness you feel or receive is conditional; its conditional on your continued interest in the religion, and whether you will continue to make the steps so that the religion takes over your entire life. I was learning to become like that until I had some moments of realization and got out.

But I don't really joke about my experiences in the religion pretty much at all. I sometimes joke about various things surrounding the religion, like some of its literature, because sometimes it is genuinely really funny. I was taught masturbation was bad and evil by their youth literature but they were scared that describing what masturbation actually was would make people try it, so until I was about 14 I had no idea what masturbation was as like, a concept.

But I don't joke about being a Witness, and I'm pretty sure if you did the math, there are probably more Witnesses around the world than there were alt-right members in the United States back when I was 14. Being a Witness was not a fun, quirky thing that happened in my past. It was something that came with a ton of baggage. It came with hateful teachings. Being a Witness warps your view around science and the world in a way that is honestly frankly terrifying.

Being a Witness is also not as bad as being a Nazi. Jehovah's Witnesses actually faced persecution for their beliefs at the hands of the Nazi Party, and while there is a lot to be said about how that happened and how Jehovah's Witnesses have decided to frame that and incorporate that into their religious views, it's still a thing that, you know, happened. Witnesses are overall responsible for a lot of individual harm and a fair amount of systemic harm within their own organization, but as a group they are very politically apathetic. They don't really care about something like the Palestinian genocide outside of using it to push their belief on the end times; to a Witness, what is more important is the safety of Witnesses that might be in Gaza.

(This isn't a bit by the way. Jehovah's Witnesses are ultimately an apocalypse cult trying very desperately not to be. They see any desire to improve the world outside of missionary work to be ultimately futile and not worth bothering with, and with their general views that the outside world is out to get them, this has resulted in a very insular philosophy. Major world events still happen, but their perceptions have warped them into a mold where the major people who need help first are Witnesses.)

I treat my involvement with the cult very seriously, to the point where I probably annoy my friends with how much I piss about how bad they are. It's completely unfathomable to me how one can make light of being in a worse group. It communicates to me a fundamental unseriousness, a lack of desire to actually confront and come to terms with one's own agency and involvement. No one is saying you should flagellate under your death for being part of a white supremacist movement; they, like Witnesses, have evangelical recruitment strategies for a reason. But you shouldn't find it something to laugh about. It should be deathly fucking serious to you.

I've never allowed these kind of jokes and memes in the communities I've watched over and moderated. I want my communities to be safe spaces for queer Jewish people, and queer people of color. Those kind of memes communicate to me that you don't really care. And you should. You really should.

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