#absolutely none of it

[spectraltenkai]

“Why must you Coopers persist...?! YOUR LINE ENDS HERE!”

“The First”, featuring Clockwerk from Sly Cooper! The very first video game I ever played wayyyy back when I was but a smol bean, and the first boss to absolutely be too tough for me to beat. I remember asking my dad to beat him, and I still remember watching him take the dang mechanized owl down. Needless to say, when I finally got around to playing the last game in 2021 and seeing this bird in other time periods... oh man, the flashbacks!

[aparticularbandit]

Bedelia for the unhinged character bingo!

Unhinged Character Bingo!

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[secondbeatsongs]

for anyone too young to know this: watching The Truman Show is a vastly different experience now, compared to how it was before youtube and social media influencers became normal

before it was like, "what a horrifying thing to do to a human being! to take away their autonomy and privacy, all for the sake of profits! to create fake scenarios for them to react to, just to retain viewership! to ruin their happiness just so some corporate entity could harvest money from their very humanity! how could anyone do something so evil?"

and now it's like, "ah, yeah. this is still deeply fucked up, but it's pretty much what every influencer has been doing to their kids for a decade now. probably bad that we've normalized this experience"

[ratbaby15]

Got inspired, made something, hope you enjoy.

Pretty accurate if I do say so myself.

[fantastic-nonsense]

the funniest parallel between Tim and Damian that no one ever talks about is how they're both the epitome of "I know a guy" because they keep managing to pick up random friends wherever they go

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[ibtisams]

Hi this is ACTUALLY Ibtisam. I was really not planning on returning to tumblr, but I have now been made aware of two people trying to pretend to be me since I have left. The most recent person has my old url @/ibtisams and is pretending to be me and asking for money. I need to make it clear that I have never and will never ask for money for myself on here. All fundraising efforts I have ever done have been for Palestinian families or organisations. Taking my name and acting like me to get money for yourself is vile and goes against everything I actually stand for. I don’t believe it’s fair for others to have to speak up on my behalf and warn people about these fake accounts, so I am hoping this post/account will end all of that.

I am not ready to be back on here, and I really don’t know what to even say. For the last week I have been in an inpatient programme, and I will continue to be here for the next 8 weeks. I have limited access to my phone/internet/etc during this time, so I can assure you that any new accounts that say they are me are just trying to scam for money or followers or whatever they think they can gain from pretending to be me. 

Deleting my blog was a choice I made solely to benefit myself and there is a lot I apologise for, but there is also a lot I don’t apologise for. If I do ever return to tumblr, it will be on this account and I will never ever be asking for money for myself. I wish all of you the best, and Free Palestine.

[shushmal]

Steve taking Dustin to see his favorite metal band in concert. They manage to get spots right up on the barrier, and the lead singer of Corroded Coffin keeps getting distracted by Steve’s pretty face. Dustin has a vice grip on Steve’s arm, screaming and excited that Eddie fucking Munson keeps standing right in front of them. Steve barely notices what will be a bruise tomorrow from Dustin’s fingers, because the guy keeps singing right at Steve, looking right into his eyes.

When the set ends, but before one of the stage managers hunts them down to bring them back stage—Steve turns to Dustin, puts his hands on his shoulders, and says, “I’m going to marry your favorite rockstar.”

Dustin, mirroring Steve and clapping his hands onto Steve’s shoulders, replies with equal gravity, “I will literally make sure gay marriage becomes legal, just so you can marry Eddie Munson in every way possible.”

[hell0jon]

“First one to leave has to read the next statement”

It’s been 48 hours

[andsewingishalfthebattle]

Novice sewing pattern: Cut out shapes. Line up the little triangles on the edges. Stitch edges together. We've also included step-by-step assembly instructions with illustrations.

Novice knitting pattern: yOU MUSt uNDerstANd thE SECret cOdE CO67 (73, 87, 93) BO44 (63, 76, 90) 28 (32, 34) slip first pw repeat 7x K to end *kl (pl) 42 * until 13" (13, 13, 15) join new at 30 pl for 17 rows ssk 27 k2tog mattress lengthwise BO and sacrifice a goat to the knitting gods. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT "INSTRUCTIONS," I JUST GAVE THEM TO YOU

[apollos-boyfriend]

hearing that tubbo wants to become a spy to find out more about the federation is so funny. yeah because espionage has historically gone great for you king

[kaiju-krew]

save him

original

[cubbihue]

You know? You mention about anti-fairy diete, and i suddenly remember one sharacter. Milo Merthy from spin oth of P&F. I know it strange thing to ask, but... Can you draw how anti-Fairy just cherish this optimistick family dinast and even make some plans to be shure that this family countinue to help with theyr diete needs?

(this, or i just wanna see Milo with his Anti-Fairy guard.)

MILO MURPHY?? Yeah, He'd be a Buffet for anti-fairies! They'd absolutely swarm him at any given opportunity!! Although it'd be pretty damaging for the Murphy family in the long run.

When a Fairy eats the emotion, it's taken away forever! Fairies must be careful not to consume too much from their godchildren. After all, if all your hopes keeps getting taken away, then why bother hoping anymore?

If Milo had an anti-fairy companion, they'd mostly be spending their days hissing and clawing away other anti-fairies from his family. And then getting food-coma'd immediately after. Fairies tend to be verrry possessive of who they feed off of.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[otto-doctavius]

“hey are you ok?” NO im thinking about how soft Logan was by the end of the film

[potato-lord-but-not]

Who's the best cook out of all of them? I get the impression it might be Oscar

I’ve gotten so many food related asks it’s so silly