#again a niche specifically catered to me

[itsredpaint]

the mortifying ordeal of knowing u have kids with ur crush through ur time traveling kids

[shinelikethunder]

Hello there! I hope you don’t mind me just dropping into your asks like this, but by all means def feel free to just delete this if so, it is kind of a weird ask.

This is the anon from the computer blog asking about a private laptop for collage! After doing (a small amount of) research into Linux, one thing that’s super confusing to me, is… how does one know which distro to use? You mentioned in the replies of the post that you use Ubuntu Linux, which seems to be one of the more popular ones. Would you recommend — and if so, why? Is it good for privacy, do you think? The best? Does the user need to have a good deal of experience with computers to keep it running? (I’ve never used a laptop before but I don’t mind trying to learn stuff)

Also this is an EXTREMELY stupid question my apologies, but how….. exactly do you put Linux on a laptop? OP from my ask said to buy a laptop with no OS but is that something you can do? I’d think so, since 0P works with computer and stuff as their job, but Reddit says that it’s not really possible and that you should just “buy like a Windows laptop and scrap the software”??? Is that… correct? How did you install Linux on your laptop — did y ou have to remove software off it or did you, as OP says, manage to find a laptop with no OS?

Again, feel free to ignore if you don’t wanna put in the time/effort to reply to this, I absolutely don’t mind — it’s a lot of stuff I’m asking and you didn’t invite it all, so ofc feel free to delete the ask if you’d like!

ha, you've zeroed in on one of the big reasons Linux is kind of a contrarian choice for me to recommend: the wild proliferation of distros, many of them hideously complex to work with. luckily, the fact that most of them are niche offshoots created by and for overly-technical nerds makes the choice easier: you don't want those. you want one of the largest, best-supported, most popular ones, with a reputation for being beginner-friendly. the two biggies are Ubuntu and Linux Mint; i'd recommend focusing your research there.

this isn't JUST a popularity-contest thing: the more people use it, the more likely you are to find answers if you're having trouble or plugging a weird error message into google, and the greater the variety of software you'll find packaged for easy install in that distro. some combination of professional and broad-based community support means you'll find better documentation and tutorials, glitches will be rarer and get fixed faster, and the OS is less likely to be finicky about what hardware it'll play nice with. the newbie-friendly ones are designed to be a breeze to install and to not require technical fiddling to run them for everyday tasks like web browsing, document editing, media viewing, file management, and such.

info on installation, privacy, personal endorsement, etc under the cut. tl;dr: most computers can make you a magic Linux-installing USB stick, most Linuces are blessedly not part of the problem on privacy, Ubuntu i can firsthand recommend but Mint is probably also good.

almost all Linux distros can be assumed to be better for privacy than Windows or MacOS, because they are working from a baseline of Not Being One Of The Things Spying On You; some are managed by corporations (Ubuntu is one of them), but even those corporations have to cater to a notoriously cantankerous userbase, so most phoning-home with usage data tends to be easy to turn off and sponsored bullshit kept minimally intrusive. the one big exception i know of is Google's bastard stepchild ChromeOS, which you really don't want to be using, for a wide variety of reasons. do NOT let someone talk you into installing fucking Qubes or something on claims that it's the "most private" or "most secure" OS; that's total user-unfriendly overkill unless you have like a nation-state spy agency or something targeting you, specifically.

how to install Linux is also not a dumb question! back in the day, if you wanted to, say, upgrade a desktop computer from Windows 95 to Windows 98, you'd receive a physical CD-ROM disc whose contents were formatted to tell the computer "hey, i'm not a music CD or a random pile of backup data or a piece of software for the OS to run, i want you to run me as the OS next time you boot up," and then that startup version would walk you through the install.

nowadays almost anyone with a computer can create a USB stick that'll do the same thing: you download an Ubuntu installer and a program that can perform that kind of formatting, plug in the USB stick, tell the program to put the installer on it and make it bootable, and then once it's done, plug the USB stick into the computer you want to Linuxify and turn it on.

Ubuntu has an excellent tutorial for every step of the install process, and an option to do a temporary test install so you can poke around and see how you like it without pulling the trigger irreversibly: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop

having a way to create a bootable USB stick is one reason to just get a Windows computer and then let the Linux installer nuke everything (which i think is the most common workflow), but in a pinch you can also create the USB on a borrowed/shared computer and uninstall the formatter program when you're done. i don't have strong opinions on what kind of laptop to get, except "if you do go for Linux, be sure to research in advance whether the distro is known to play nice with your hardware." i'm partial to ThinkPads but that's just, like, my opinion, man. lots of distros' installers also make it dead simple to create a dual-boot setup where you can pick between Windows and Linux at every startup, which is useful if you know you might have to use Windows-only software for school or something. keep in mind, though, that this creates two little fiefdoms whose files and hard-disk space aren't shared at all, and it is not a beginner-friendly task to go in later and change how much storage each OS has access to.

i've been using the distro i'm most familiar with as my go-to example throughout, but i don't really have a strong opinion on Ubuntu vs Mint, simply because i haven't played around with Mint enough to form one. Ubuntu i'll happily recommend as a beginner-friendly version of Linux that's reasonably private by default. (i think there's like one install step where Canonical offers paid options, telemetry, connecting online accounts, etc, and then respects your "fuck off" and doesn't bug you about it again.) by reputation, Mint has a friendlier UI, especially for people who are used to Windows, and its built-in app library/"store" is slicker but offers a slightly more limited ecosystem of point-and-click installs.

(unlike Apple and Google, there are zero standard Linux distros that give a shit if you manually install software from outside the app store, it's just a notoriously finicky process that could take two clicks or could have you tearing your hair out at 3am. worth trying if the need arises, but not worth stressing over if you can't get it to work.)

basic software starter-pack recommendations for any laptop (all available on Windows and Mac too): Firefox with the uBlock Origin and container tab add-ons, VLC media player, LibreOffice for document editing. the closest thing to a dealbreaking pain in the ass about Linux these days (imo) is that all the image and video editing software i know of is kinda janky in some way, so if that's non-negotiable you may have to dual-boot... GIMP is the godawfully-clunky-but-powerful Photoshop knockoff, and i've heard decent things about Pinta as a mid-weight image editor roughly equivalent to Paint.net for Windows.

[year2000electronics]

what were your thoughts on isat, if you’d like to talk about it? it’s one of my favorite timeloop games so i love hearing others talk about it :)

AH YES lemme copy and paste some of my thoughts from discord

that was quite good i liked it! definitely up there with undertale and oneshot as a Real Good Meta Game. i think i *just* miss the target audience who really REALLY enjoyed it (i have a couple friends who loved it too) where the types of characters siffrin and the gang are just remind me of ocs that maybe some friends of mine would have but not me. but i say that very fondly.

likes:

- combat system! both simple and engaging

- art/character design! like i said, they feel more like ocs of a friend than true blorbos but i loved the aesthetics of the sadnesses. my favourite character design is odile!

- looping game mechanics! everything that was purposely designed to be tedious felt tedious in the exact “oh god i’m stuck in a time loop” way. i enjoyed how all the things you needed to get were scattered through different bits of time so eventually, every last bit of new stuff was squeezed away from me. it was neat. i remember doing odile’s companion quest too early and my heart sank as i realized i would have to do it *again* at some point. the act 5 stuff especially was neat because i saw my own mid-grinding thoughts being reflected in siffrin’s own dialogue and monologue towards our “friends” (who were exp-losing obstacles at that point!)

dislikes/neutral:

- this is my only real actual *game design* gripe, but i felt like some of the puzzles in act 3-early act 4 were a bit obtuse. a lot of them required talking to loop at a specific moment, or warping back and forth between the king. but the issue is that loop’s required text is often still greyed out! and also, they give you a “call loop for convenience” button but you can’t use it for the IMPORTANT conversations? idk. it was a little frustrating.

- some of the games dialogue/moments didn’t land for me quite as impactfully as i know it would for some others (namely just some stuff about the group dynamic, the way they interact, how they deal with the de-escalation at the end) but again like i said i think that’s just another side effect of the game catering to a niche of people that i’m very close with, sometimes even belonging to, but i’m also a “little to the left” of. i thought siffrin’s family was sweet, even if i’m not exactly like “i would die for them” so i think it does its job well despite siffrin the character clearly caring for these people way more than i do

- i was originally a bit confused and miffed that there were SO many unanswered questions about siffrin and the king’s country, about colours, about LOOP, and when act 6 ended i was like “wait hold on. WAIT COME BACK I HAVE QUESTIONS.” evidently, some of my friends let me know you do get answers WRT loop if you do secret stuff, so i know about Them now, and as i sit with the game more i do understand that it’s very much a “does it really matter what happened?” thing. but i want to know :( (also i thought the twist was gonna be that the king was another version of siffrin. uh oops that one was my bad.)

overall though it was very fun. i liked the story!

[herbgerblin]

Hi Herb!! I was wondering if you had any advice on opening commissions? I enjoy your art immensely and you were one of the first people I thought of to ask since I know you do commissions on occasion

Sorry if this is totally weird, I am just at a complete loss! Thanks for taking the time to read this!

These are things I wish I had figured out when I started selling art commissions. Also, feel free to use my current commission form to pattern your own. (also if anyone >.> wants to commission me, I am open <.<)

Step 1: Write a Terms of Service

Good terms of service will manage the expectations of your clients, establish a level of professionalism, and protect you if someone tries to argue something already made clear in writing. You can keep your ToS really simple, but it's good practice to include the following:

What kind of art you will/won't do (I don't do nfts)

Estimated duration of the project (2-4 weeks is my M.O.)

Number of revisions (more than 3, I add a fee)

When and how often you will update the client

Rights that you retain as an artist/permit to the client

Note: This mainly applies to personal/non-commercial work. If you are approached to make art for a game/magazine/website, do a ton more research. You will need to write out a contract that makes things Boringly Clear, and you will want to retain all of your rights as an artist.

Step 2: PRICES (scream)

Everyone starts out underselling. I'm underselling (I'm trying to get better.) Just go at your own pace. Look at what other artists are offering, but don't just look at the quality of their work. Think about your turnaround time, your style, and your target audience. If you are a fast worker or very detailed, that's worth a pay bump. Niche communities will pay solid money for artists to cater to them. So for example, if you draw fetish art, you have more room to charge higher.

ALWAYS GET PAYMENT UP FRONT. You can offer half upfront and half upon completion. If it's a big or long-term project, it's okay to go 30/70. BUT NEVER START WORK WITHOUT SOME SORT OF COMPENSATION. I just had a client that has not paid me the 2nd half and they are blacklisted. This rarely happens but it does happen.

Once you think you've got a price chart you feel comfortable with, add $20. Do it, even if it feels wrong. You may have to pay transaction fees, or the work (often) takes longer than expected. It'll be a small mercy to yourself to account for these things. Raise your prices a little bit each year because you are growing in experience and inflation (scream) is a thing that affects the arts too.

Step 3: INTEGRATE AND AUTOMATE

I wish I had done this step years ago, but I slacked off, and therefore staying organized was a nightmare. The less "business" stuff you have to do manually, the more time you can focus on "creative" stuff.

Make a google form. Make it as easy for the client to input information as possible. In the settings, set it so that responses will go to an excel file. The questions you ask will be the titles of the fields, so keep them short and easy to read. Reference image attachments will save to google drive.

You can set it up so that you will get an email whenever you get a new response (you might want to make a separate email account specifically for commissions.) Prewrite confirmation responses and save them as templates so that you're not writing the same email to clients over and over again.

Set reminders for responding to clients, requesting payment, and finishing work. This can be through google calender or some other app. You are responsible for facilitating communication. Even if the email is just, "Hey, just letting you know the work is still in progress, I will send you a wip in 1-2 days." Client assurance is high priority.

I use paypal invoice for payments. It means I have to pay a transaction fee, but I factor that into my prices. It also ensures that I have clear documentation for orders, I can send reminders easily if I haven't been paid, and it just looks more professional overall. You can use whatever service feels most comfortable, just make sure you practice good bookkeeping (*stares at my taxes in horror*)

Step 4: Mockups and Descriptions

Provide examples of the work that you are going to. Make a mockup of busts/half body/full body, etc. Don't include anything you don't intend to actually produce.

Make sure that your form includes room to answer EVERY question about the commission that you might have. This will reduce the amount of back and forth you need to have with your client. You want to be able to get that request, confirm it, send that invoice, and jump on it ASAP.

Step 5: Start small, be honest, be firm

If you haven't done commissions before, have a limited number of slots available. Take break time after you've finished a certain amount. Don't languish over an art piece. At some point, it will be as done as it can be. Send it to the client, and keep rolling.

If you feel like you are getting overwhelmed, tell your client. It's bad practice to go on hiatus and not notify them while they're waiting on an update. If you genuinely forget to touch base with them, do so as soon as possible. Apologize, then finish the work as soon as you can. Refund if you think that's the most polite route, but completing the task is usually more appreciated.

Be cordial, but firm. People will try to bully you over little things, but don't give in. Ignore folks who say your prices are too high. Make it clear that if they ask for more than what is agreed, you will charge a fee. If you feel like a request is sketchy, get a second opinion.

obligatory paypal link: help me pay kravitz jr's vet bills

[lindwurmkai]

[banging pots and pans together] hello I am here to talk to you about Pillowfort again

I started checking PF regularly a few weeks ago and since then I have already had multiple delightful interactions with strangers. Some short (one reply per person) and some longer, none of them unpleasant. Considering I am not very talkative, that's impressive!

Did you know you can now sign up without needing an invite link or paying money? Just enter the waitlist and soon you'll get an email with a sign-up link. Last I heard, the wait was hours rather than days.

There's still no app, but I have three hot tips for fellow mobile users:

1) If opening your browser and then navigating to the website feels like too many steps, you can add a shortcut to your homescreen. I'm not sure how because I never do this, and I imagine it depends on which browser you use anyway, so just google how to do it in your browser of choice

2) If your browser takes too long to load because you have 74591 tabs open, consider keeping two separate browsers on your phone - one for opening shortcuts and links from other apps, one for regular browsing. I'm actually at 3 to 5 browsers for different purposes by now depending on whether you count the apps I will mention in the next tip, this is getting out of control, help me

3) There are apps - at least on Android, I'm not sure about iOS - that can turn any website into a "lite app" that is basically the advanced version of simply putting a shortcut on your homescreen. This has pros and cons; I may make a separate post about it at some point. Personally I mostly use Hermit at this time and it has completely cured me of my previous reluctance to visit mobile websites instead of installing apps.

Maybe this will help some of you, too!

My PF dashboard is still very slow at around 3-8 new posts per day. For a while I was following the "active users" community to see more posts, but it was mostly stuff that didn't interest me. I unfollowed it as soon as I was getting some new posts from other sources on my dash every day, but I'm still looking for more people and communities to follow.

There are no communities for many of my interests. I'm thinking about making some of my own! It's probably easier than you think. To those unfamiliar with the concept, a community is like a shared blog but on a larger scale and easier to join; members might make posts catered specifically to the community, ask questions to start discussions, or just reblog content to the community instead of their own blog if it's a niche interest. Reblogging one's own posts to communities for more exposure is also common. Much better than tags!

If you're interested in signing up but don't want to wait, I still have some invite links:

https://pillowfort.social/users/sign_up?invite=aZoqgHb_paKodncwz4r1Cg

https://pillowfort.social/users/sign_up?invite=V-xKycX6CSIMez1K4m8SwA

https://pillowfort.social/users/sign_up?invite=8EM3Dnj55MzVAehgkXNIHQ

(And a few more, don't hesitate to ask)

[psychewritesbs]

What do you think that made Jujutsu Kaisen different from any other shounen? Also, why do you think that most people said it's overated? I don't mean anything negative, just want to know your opinions on this. Thanks to you I started JJK manga and anime, and I love it (sorry as a new fan, at first I hesitate because of the negative stigmas that I found on fandom about this series).....

Also, why do you think that Gojo is a popular character?

First of all... I'm SORRY! I've literally been writing an answer to you for like for ever and ever 😭

It's just that I've been thinking long and hard about your ask because how do I objectively gush about what makes jjk amazing, when all sense of objectivity and normalcy walked out the door in 2020?

So I'll start by saying FUCKYES I don't know what fandom you found me through, but I LOVE hearing that you decided to give jjk a shot despite what other people might say about it. Most especially if you found that you love it.

I think that, for all of its flaws, jjk is still a wonderful story exploring deep truths about the human condition.

So I'm going to glaze on jjk like there's no tomorrow under the cut'o!

Glaaaaaaaaze....

Regarding the idea that most people think it's overrated: It's really simple... jjk is a very multilayered niche story.

By multilayered I mean that everything from a meathead battle shonen fan, to a brainiac "intellectual" who doesn't care for the battles that much, and everyone in between, will find something that they can enjoy in jjk.

✅ Canon/headcanon romance ✅ Battles ✅ Existentialism ✅ Amazing characters ✅ Spirituality and esoteric concepts ✅ Power scaling

The problem is that jjk is so mainstream because of this mass appeal, that it could never live up to everyone's expectations, nor it should. That is not to mention that the more popular it becomes, the more people who are simply not going to like jjk it will reach.

In the end, jjk is at its core a niche story published in a shonen magazine, catering to a very specific audience.

To me, for every person saying jjk is overrated, there's 9 people who love it. And maybe I can't back up my totally made up statistic with facts, but jjk wouldn't have 90 million copies in circulation if most people thought it is overrated--they just happen to be the loudest and I can't wait for them to stfu lol.

🤪...

So that's really it. jjk is so popular that it has gotten the attention of people who aren't going to like it for whatever reason they might have. Sometimes it's simply personal taste, and sometimes it's them missing the point. These are the people calling jjk overrated.

How do I know? Because when I heard all of the hype surrounding csm and how it was the second coming of manga Christ, I decided to read it and found it to be incredibly overrated. That doesn't make csm objectively bad, btw, it just mean I personally don't care for Fujimoto's writing or art.

What makes jjk different from other shonen?

What I want to say is that I'm wondering if there is an objective measure for what makes jjk different. I think the obvious answer is that jjk has successfully subverted tropes time and time again. But I think it actually goes much deeper than that.

I am not sure that I speak for everyone. But... like would I be me if I didn't turn this answer into an exploration of depth? It's just that for those of us who feel jjk in our bones and don't see it as yet another basic shonen story... I feel like jjk speaks deeply to our humanity.

Whether we are conscious of it or not, stories are carriers of subjective truth and experience. And jjk is moving and shaking the collective psyche because of what it's saying about our shared humanity.

The basic shonen recipe

(source)

The thing is that I started watching Jujutsu Kaisen because I had an expectation that a shonen story had a good chance of catching my attention.

I've seen a lot of anime, and a lot shonen anime to be more specific. So I went in assuming jjk would follow a specific recipe.

Light haired, yang/Sun archetype, happy go lucky with a single-minded determination to achieve something shonen mc who goes on a hero's journey, learns about himself, and powers up as a result of his journey...

Bonus points if he has a demon inside of him and joins a tight knit 3-man squad made up by dynamic personalities that is mentored by the strongest teacher.

That said, it is the way Gege has explored every single one of these tropes that has made jjk unique in my eyes. I particularly love that there is a certain intentionality to how jjk's characters express typical shonen character traits outside of the way the recipe is usually followed...

The result is the same... but the means and the journey in jjk are explored through an existential and psychological lens that is very grounded in our humanity (aka relatable).

I think more than being a battle shonen, jjk is an exploration of the sense of self first and foremost.

In that sense, jjk is an exploration on how the sense of self is shaped. Like the panel above setting the stage for one of the main themes in jjk: how facing the existential fear of death shapes the sense of self.

So to me jjk is intentional about asking deep questions about life, and telling stories about characters who ask the same questions and how they go about finding answers.

As such, jjk asks that we question the very foundation of our identity as we come face to face with how our expectations haven't matched up to the reality of the world around us...

Similarly, jjk asks that we consider the difference between choosing a life worth living true to what truly matters to us...

...and realizing a little bit too late that what we thought mattered was not as important...

jjk is saying there are consequences to your actions and face them you must even if it all feels bleak...

And to me, that's because Gege understands people on a very deep level. To the point that if you're a jjk fan and you feel moved by any of its characters, they move you deeply.

A lot of this is in the subtext, of course, so not everyone can understand these themes on an intellectual level, nor do they care for. And it doesn't matter if they do or not because jjk still shakes and moves so many people to the point that you have people who make a sport out of hating on it and spend hours complaining about it... like who has that much energy to focus on something they don't like 😭?

Anyway... if I had to say one thing that makes jjk unique, it is how it story tells--which is ironically the main complaint people have about it. Again... it's a niche story that has mass appeal.

I love Gege's writing because to me it isn't about his technical skill, but his vision and the topics he explores. As someone who's been consuming animanga for 25+ years, an author with a unique writing style and an interesting premise doesn't come often. Gege is that author for me.

Anyways... Gege probably didn't even think of any of that...

jjk is just another battle shonen.

About why people love Gojo

Honestly? I'm the wrong person to ask 😂. I haven't a clue. Maybe because he's a cute bishoen? And also the strongest?

No clue lol. Anyone want to chime in with why they love Gojo?

But I fully agree with this and saved it just for you lol 👇🏼

(source)

Thanks for dropping by anon! :)

[marshmallowprotection]

I hope this doesn't come across as rude, offensive or upsetting since I saw a lot of people coming to your askbox. People need to know that Cheritz can't cater to all their needs and wants. I've seen too many people demanding, complaining and just... being ungrateful in general? And here I am feeling relieved that they still want to release these CGs despite no new in-game content since 2020. Even the comment about MC's body is quite upsetting if I'm being honest. I get why people would feel insecure over it but if they're being careless with their words, it could be potentially harmful for people with that type of body and going through a difficult time. We don't know what people are going through and struggles come with all body sizes and types. I don't even look like MC and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the new art in general. Maybe if people really want an art that's catered to their specific looks, they could consider commissioning someone or draw it themselves. I know plenty of artists that would be honored to do their requests. Ballet shoes come in one same design and it's really up to the dancers on how they want to mold, adjust and change their shoes according to their comfort and priorities! Cheritz just give us the material and it's up to us on what to do with it. It just rub me the wrong way on how people react so strongly and quick to complain when there's plenty of solutions right in front of us. Thankyou for reading this far Kait and I hope you have a nice weekend ahead 🩷

I don't think that Anon intended for their message to come across as harmful. It can be difficult to have no representation of yourself in the media. I just wanted to point out that it's important to be mindful of our words sometimes, especially when we're expressing our personal hurt we've experienced, because sometimes our words can hurt the people around us even if we don't intend them to. It's important to be thoughtful!

Because, hey, I am upset that there's not a lot of representation for plus size characters, too. It's gotten a little better recently compared to what it was like when I was a kid, but we've still got a long way to go to make a change so little kids don't learn to hate their bodies like many people already have. It takes forever to unlearn that kind of self hatred, and even longer to learn how to love yourself again.

I just wanted to point out to the anon that we should be mindful of how we express our distress at fatphobia by not tearing other people down in the process, either knowingly or unknowingly. Because, at the end of the day, fatphobia is rooted in racism and a bunch of total bullshit that hurts everyone.

I do support commissioning artists, though. If you want to see art of yourself or your character that fulfills the idea you have, support your favorite artist to get it! I do that all the time and it fills me with joy to see art that fits my niche if I couldn't draw it myself.

[pilotheather]

we're back

youre trying so fucking hard to set up this unit spin off. im going to be horribly honest with you: i dont really care, and i think this is such a corny way to do it. i think torchwood (the show) is something people see with rose-tinted glasses a lot of the time, but i do think its slower introduction to the characters, completely isolated to its own tv show, made more sense. i feel like this weird vibe of just setting up these big personalities who all neatly fit into the exact archetypes you'd Expect... i dont know. i dont care for any of them. i love big weird non human robot-adjacent entities and i dont even care. and that fucker has cable-like tentacles too. i should be sold.

i think its also cuz they are like so obviously these Scifi archetypes for shows like this which is fine but leading first with a quickfire round of rather than getting a softer introduction to them just sort ofmakes them feel like fake cartoons. i think thats sorta why ive never truly warmed to paternoster gang too.

like i think my issue - and im welcome to be proved wrong, whenever we do get this unit spinoff - is i feel like its leading with the idea of "i want a spinoff" first rather than an attempt to fill a specific niche or hole for stories. i feel like sja and torchwood were both very specifically shows that would be in the universe, but would cater to things that would not suit the proper show, and had their own cast driving it.

like i'll be honest i like kate but ummmm im not sure i like her enough to follow her into a spin off. LOL.

sorry thats my hater era over im 2 seconds in

oh no nevermind i also hate big budget takes itself too seriously bullshit wheres the losers

is rose still meant to be like 15. her in business casual for the day job at unit.

okay The Vlinx.

WHYS THERE A LITTLE BEEFCAKE SECURITY GUARD. IS HE LIKE YOUR LITTLE BOYTOY, UNIT? sorry hes not even my typ. harriets really cute though

sorery i still dgaf

rtd and his anagrams. christ.

ive been laughing all day about a reddit comment that said "rtd is a" and i cant stop laughing at it and i dont know anyone who will find that funny in my life so i cant even

WHY ARE THEY JUST FUCKING

SORRY THATS SO FUNNY THEY WERE LIKE LETS QUICKFIRE ADDRESS THE STUPID MYSTERY BOXES. SUSAN. TARDIS... S TRIAD.... SUSAN AGAIN.

i really fucking hope it isnt susan. people have said it before but i just feel like ive always liked the idea of jsut leaving her be. dont revisit it. its fine.

sorry help me why are they just pulling everything out help me

i feel like theyre trying to be too meta about it and not in like a clever way its just like a lets state the obvious to everyoneits that vclassic TELLING NO SHOWING that i feel like christ it keeps ... feeling like the writing is doing that so much

CAN ANYONE TALK ABOUT HOW NCUTI LOOKS IN THE LEATHER JACKET BTW?

soery its like not even 10 minutes in and im like already feeling like a hater i just i dont know i feel like so im fine with them cashing in on nostalgia and being a bit self aware in finales sometimes but i feel like this and then the trilogy last year... LOOK most dw finales and special eps of the nu era are kind of rooted in some sort of classic right its like dalek dalek cyberman master dalek lets go to gallifrey for this one but its like still at least one thing sorry im sick of it i dont wanna see mel any more i dont wanna be in unit CAN WE FOLLOW THE DOCTOR AND RUBY see them figuring it out PLEAAASEEE they can point out its obvious its fine but the fucking round table discussion

SORRY I KNOW ITS BEEN THE HOT TOPIC ITS LIKE THE WAY THIS SEASON HAS GONE TOO FAST CUZ ID SAY A LOT OF THE EPS WERE GOOD IN THE END BUT ITS LIKE SO MANY OF THEM WERE TOO HARD DEPARTURES FROM WHAT WE REALLY NEED WHICH IS JUST

TIME WITH RUBY AND THE DOCTOR . PLEASE.

nevermind i love mel on the moped

ugh ive been wanting a bike for so long but i keep hjearing about so many accidents i wanna kms in a controlled environment

my second thought btw: i think one of my favourite season finales will always be s4's. and yes that does also bank on this big, lets have ALL OF THESE PEOPLE COME TOGETHER!!! and have one huge crossover event even if the story isnt as good. but as ivealways said: that works because its earned through four seasons of building up all of those individual characters. it can stand on that legwork thats already been done. i just dgaf otherwise. its why, and maybe this is controversial, i can never give a shit about a good man goes to war. (although i also loathe that because that storyline does my fucking HEAD IN)

im also hating this so hard im not even far enough in sorry i just love to hateeeeeeeeeee

help e christ if it wasnt for reddit i would not fucking recognise anyones fucking face is hat the same woman i mean rby also isnt clocking her does she have some fucking perception filter on . missus flood what is up with you

missus flood what even is wrong with you

"why did you never go back to see her?"

because susan was lowkey annoying af

SORRY

SORRY WOMEN

i also do wanna know: if hes mentioned her face popping up a lot, are they not scanning their fucking databases for matches. like thats definitely technology they have. lets be so for real

AGAIN SORRY THE OTHE RTHING I HATE ABOUT IT IS THE TIME SINK IT IS GREAT LETS HAVE OUR INTRODUCTIONS AND HAPPY WOOPEEEES AND MEETING THE TEN BILLION FUCKING PEOPLE WE'RE BRINGING ALONG WHEN THEYRE REALLY NOT ENRICHING THE EPISODE AND ITS JUST WEARING EVERYTHING SO THIN DUDE COME ON OH WAIT HANG ON LETS INTERRUPT THE FLOW AGAIN TO BRING IN SOMEONE ELSE AND STOP IT!! EEEENOUGH!

(again with the way s4 finale was handled: i think it was really good the way they had everyone sort of... separated out? they had them all cleanly following their own plots. so it didnt make shit a fucking mess.)

caralas literally chill w can bring carla

Do you have a time window. Ten floors down. classic shit.

i think i also ironically did i say this bit already i fucking hate trying to do big... sci-fi organisations like this trying to fight the aliens or villains or whatever. sorry just a taste thing. like compare this to how torchwood was presented in s2. it just feels like we're thriving in it and im not a fan of them being our unapologeticbesties we swing around and giggle with. can we get some nasty fucking vibes in here please. i loved when capaldi was a cunt with them.

this is also why i refuse to ever engage with the avengers content

christmas eve 2004. god shesso young. (im 4 years older literally).

sorry i also hate mystery box companion bullshit fuck off can we not just get some cunt from the local

SORRY I JUST THINK RTD FINALES ARE SO BADLY CAMP SOMETIMES

i keep thinking about how she looks like jodie i think its the boots with the ankles sort of poking out

thats my bad aura sorry i was hating too hard

NOT THE BOYTOYS

THEYRE PICKING OFF THE BOYTOYS

theres that irony again of like they'll sit there and do a whle bit like haha duh ofc we know its an anagram DUHHH but then half the dialogue is just fucking . SAYING SHIT STRAIGHTFORWARD AND OUTRIGHT SHUT UP

hes in hell. god damn it. i hate it when i lose my boytoys and he ends up in hell

imagine if this was the beast from the satans pit

what a hilarious hater moment that would be

sorry now I- UMMMMM THE BOYTOY IS DUSTTT AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

colonel winston is making me giggle. lke the monkey. guys i dont know anything abou overwatch but that monkey makes me laugh

guys we're on susan watch

shes going to be the dumbest red herring ever isnt she amen shes just nothing please rtd you fuckerr- DOCTOR CALM DOWN

CAN WE GET HIM A FUCKING STIM TOY

CAN WE GET HIM A BLUEBERRY MATCHA

CAN WE GET HIM SOMETHING TO COPE WITH

so cool we brought an image of this thing up before and it wrecked our shit lets do it again hell yeah come on

harriet i need you

SHES NOT HER ITS SO FUNNY

EVERYU TIME SOME CRAZY BITCH NAMED SUSAN APPEARS DO YOU DO THIS.

BRO DOES THAT MEAN THESE GIRLIES WRE CONNECTED HELP ME IMAGINE IF THAT WAS SUSAN AND NOW SHES JUST STUCK WITH THE FUCKING MEMORIES OF RAISING LINDY. COME ON SUSAN. BREAK THE FUCKING TRAUMA CYCLE. YOU DIDNT NEED TO RAISE HER LIKE THAT MAN.

can we get the tardis a ginger ale

THAT FUCKING CAMERA ANGLE BEING A FAKEOUT FOR A FUCKING RUBY SUNDAY THIS WHOLE THING IS A TV SHOW SHTICK IS SO FUNNY ACTUALLY

SUSAN TRIAD DOING THIS IN AN EMPTY CROWD IS SO FUNNY

SUSAN TRIAD YOU HAVE TO GET IT TOGETHER GIRL THEY'LL BE CLIPPING BITS OF THIS ON TWITTER

the king innit

HARRIET ARBINGERRRRRR YESSSSSSS

SLAYYYYYYYY

NEVERMIND THAT BIT GOT ME A PRETTY WOMAN WILL GET ME SOOO EASY

TRICKSTER MENTION IS INSANE

her children doubt and dreaddddd so silly

WHOS THIS HATER

SUTEKH

THATS SO FUCKINGH FUNNY

HUNDREDS OF REDDITORSARE PUNCHING THE AIR. MAYBE EVEN TENS

I LOVE HOW IT LOOKS LIKE SHIT

SO WHAT IS WRONG WITH RUBY

HELP ME I SPENT SO LONG BEING A HATER I DONT KNOW SHIT ABOUT SUTEKH SORRY CLASSIC FANS

ANYWAYS

[swampstew]

Hey there!

Question from the writers asks

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

hiya, hope you'e having a nice evening :3

Hmmmmmmmm, I don't think anyone would truly know how hard all of 2023's kinktober was on me. It was the first time I tried monsterfucking, plus canon, plus mythical lore, plus dark content, plus making it interactive/my own game, and I did all the days except for sundays for a completely different October month-long project, that I even paid out of pocket for with the help of some amazing, selfless friends <s/o to @mamaalpha and @quinloki >.

I won't lie, that Took Me Out. People were mad(?) that I was writing amazing stuff but not for X,Y,Z character.

I don't think I'll be doing it again this year because while it is fun - and I don't want to sound ungrateful - it tracts relatively low engagement. Like if I just stuck to writing my own OC bullshit, and drabbles here and there on just the Kid Pirates, I doubt I'd have the amount of readers I have now. Yeah its fun to challenge myself with new tropes, genres, and characters, but I have such a niche hyperfixation that the only way I was visible was through my all-inclusive character fics.

I love writing, I LOVE the world of One Piece, but I hate when people only want me catering to their specific interests, with little to no response when I post about them anyways.

Send me fic questions to save me from dust bunnies :]

[flockrest]

mun(day) questions / @sentinaels, @vigilantdesert, & @stygicniron

thank you lots for these! ♡ very fun to think about and answer! all under the cut because it's a doozy. i am not a concise person, what can i say :'D

when did you first start writing?

in the roleplaying context, ten years ago ( half of which i took a hiatus for aslfkjsdl )! core memory, no joke, i can still very keenly remember weird details of the day it all started. as a hobby, this started way back before i even hit secondary school! i was not an objectively good writer, but no tween really is. i had lots of fun and all the cringefail phases i've gone through since have helped me get to where i am now in my writing development — i can at least say i'm happy with where i'm at with that! and i'm still having fun! ♡

in what language did you start writing?

online? english....my beloathed. very ironic, i know aslkfjdsl

if your mother tongue is not the language you write now, what caused you to switch languages?

quite honestly for the engagement! then simply because i feel i got better at writing in english than i could in vietnamese — my education for both differed, especially in my adolescent years, and i've practiced literacy in this context more for english than i have for viet.

i am still very insecure about my grasp of english in online spaces though ( my writing process involves a lot of me searching up even the simplest words to ensure their meaning and that they will convey what i want you to feel, i still forget words or mix phrases up — sorry to my dm buddies when this happens btw — and my editing is so time-consuming because i have to often cut things or rephrase them to avoid being redundant ), which is why i have that it's my second language disclaimer alfjslfk

what was the first muse that you’ve written?

my first ever muse was my lovely queen zelda from twilight princess! she saw me through a lot of my roleplaying firsts, honestly. she still holds such a special place in my heart because of all the experiences writing her allowed me to make, as well as all the wonderful people i befriended through her that i still haven't forgotten about to this day!

( i always find myself missing one in particular when the mood hits, because we were years-long mains during what felt like the peak of the zelda rpc prime and she was as close to an exclusive affiliate i'd ever get. i hope you've been doing super well out there, my liege!! if we ever somehow get to writing again, y'all will just not be ready for my unhinged status over her link, and my zelda, and the midzelink we've crafted entire worlds over, and that is a promise aflkjdsj )

do you still write your first muse?

unfortunately, no! i have dipped in and out with her before, but i don't know if i'll ever return to her now when i've got so many others wrangling for my time and energy...i think i would like to if i got the opportunity to regularly write with twilight princess muses again :) zelda was a more character-contained muse, in that i studied less of the world-lore around her and more of her, her dynamics, and her relationships, so activity would be very slow and pretty contingent on level of interest from others aslkfdjf

what caused you to start writing? what was your key point?

okay. don't laugh at me please. i'm pretty sure this is a connecting point for a few of us. but for fanfic purposes, of course asflkjds i started reading fics before i started writing any, and only began doing so because there was such a dearth of the stories that catered specifically to my niche whims and wants that past ray was like "FINE. i'll do it myself"

now, fr, you gotta promise to not laugh at me. the want for a more interactive experience didn't really hit until i discovered tumblr ask blogs, wherein i wanted to have a try at running one myself! then that evolved into more writing than art...then i just leaned into roleplaying wholeheartedly asflkjdf everybody say thank you to artists for inspiring artists!

have you ever written a canon muse that you first thought of ‘meh’ when they appeared in their canon show/movie/book?

not that i can think of, no! i don't tend to pick up muses i don't feel super invested in. if it's meh in the more oh this character SUCKS sense, then i guess. rauru? like i love that funky fellow, or at least huge parts of him that i'll steal from nintendo because man what the fuck were they doing with him, but he seems to be my most polarising muse in terms of audience reception aflksjdla this isn't a dig at anyone for that btw!!

how far do you go with divergencies when it comes to your canon muse?

as far as it'll take for me to be satisfied with them! this ofc differs with every muse, but i try to keep general characterisations unchanged — or at least the parts of them that stand out to me and feel crucial to who my muses are.

e.g. i ignored the entirety of the hidden world when it came to writing toothless from httyd, because its depiction of his behaviour ( and hence, implicated thoughts ) was so extremely Bad Tier, i was flabbergasted that it came from the same writer as httyd2. there was, imo, such a huge gap between the toothless of httyd2 and the toothless of the hidden world in terms of characterisation and character development ( ESPECIALLY with what it did to his bond with hiccup. i'm still infuriated about that ) that i had an entire rewrite where things might've ended the same way, but it would've taken a different road for berk to get there in the works.

that's when canon has disappointed me to the extreme, though aflkdslj i have misgivings about totk, yes, but i doubt you'll be seeing unprompted >2.5k words essays from me regarding my birdies or even rauru ( if only because nintendo didn't give us enough about him to make me feel like they fucked up beyond words ) anytime soon.

with rauru, anyway, it's more of a..."i am construing him differently; you couldn't make him palatable despite clearly wanting to do so, so i'm making him 'palatable' ( in the HE AND HIS FAULTS ARE SO INTERESTING I WANT TO EXPLORE THEM IN A WAY THAT DOESN'T HAVE ME GAGGING sense ); also i think you make him way too important without actually committing to the bit, so i'm gonna give him so many complexes about it" case.

[gurggggleburgle]

Hi allow me to give another unhinged headcannon about pidw meta if it existed.

Ahem* if there were any gay✌ 'ships'✌ in the PIDW fandom they would be ugly bastard doujins in a similar vain of those few breath of the wild or SAO doujin ect where Bingge my boy gets topped among many other things (if you know you know) or people would 'ship' (saying ship feels wrong but it's the closest available word i have. the nature of fandoms for things like what PIDW would be irl doesn't really ship in the manner that tumblr users tend to think. It's more like they have abstracted an extra step away from the source material and the characters are exceedingly there to exist as dolls. We do this in our everyday fandom interacts but I notice in these spaces it never really feels like a connection to the character beyond vague surface traits and tends to focus more on physical body types and character archetypes. But with this in mind when it comes to shipping it means nobody is using Luo Binghe as a character just as a surrogate for themselves with the waifu they've chosen that week.) Mobei-Jun because he's the only actual male in the series with any credible screen time and even then it's like one of them gets turned into a girl or drawn overly feminine and girly because the primary straight cis male audience of a book like this isn't ready to ask that question about themselves yet. That or its futa stuff with a preestablished wife but there is a fair chance he's still topping.

Basically what I'm saying is if there are any Shen Qingqui and Bingge things that would exist they'd be like... Dead dove do not eat. Either some shen jiu shouting some phrases that only exist in hentai related to dicky wicky and being objects of sex (again if you know ya know). Or you may get the rarest of all a dark introspection sfw one that likely was written by one of the 2 existing hardcore female fans.

This my long winded way of saying while i enjoy the jokes in fanfic that Shen Yuan has read PIDW fanfic and knows there is BL shippers it would be even funnier for him to complain about the fact that anyone writes Bingge getting topped content at all (there is a favorite he's not admitting it). Or that people ship Mobei-Jun and Bingge. As that's ridiculous and doesn't make sense. They're just BROS bro. God don't make it gay.

Or, and I do think this is the funniest one, nobody is writing deep introspective fanfic or making comics about Bingge's emotional needs and is focused on the sex. Man is mad the mostly cis heterosexual (and probably incel laden) audience is too busy focused on the porn to think of the protagonists emotional needs. Or even just art of this broken man.

All of them losers focused solely on them tiddies while Shen Yuan is over here asking the real questions. The fanbase is busy making content meant to cater to their specific wants and fetishes with one guy in particular who just shows up all the time asking for such a niche thing. Enough that it's almost a meme. And they are all clowning on the guy who's claiming to hate the novel and asks them to take the book seriously.

also there is no way he would not review all of the fan content he stumbled on in great anti fashion. And getting a positive-ish comment from cucumber is actually considered by fandom a mark of shame. I just don't think the internet could resist clowning on this man further by not treating a cucumber approved work as a meme joke of shame.

[iamnotoriginalphil]

Hi its me again to absolutely call you A MESSENGER FROM GOD FOR YOUR ALEX FICS

also I was trying to work out why I followed you literal years ago and it was either for loki fics or for 13 fics so you've always been catering DIRECTLY for my needs. If you ever watch x files you gotta tag me in what you write [and again. Will be the gay death of me]

I'm so glad to see you also inhabit the niche area of fics that cater to very specific characters because I recognise i jump from character to character with seemingly no rhyme or reason.

I dunno about x files but Alex is here to stay for the foreseeable future (and maybe also some Emily to come...)

[doberbutts]

I'm proship, and I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with proshippers. I'm mixed race, and I feel you. Some people take-up a certain ideology because they have a certain interest and only care about how it benefits them. But that doesn't make that person *not* part of the ideology, and those attitudes should be constantly combatted by those in the community rather than saying "Oh but they're ~not really~ proship" and washing their hands of it.

It's why a lot of POC who agree with proship ideology feel disconnected to the label as well, and why instead they're taking up different labels or just generally stepping away from it. I mostly use it because it's a recognizable label but I too feel that disconnect more and more.

I also agree that writing something doesn't mean someone is free from criticism, and there's a fine line between critiquing and harassment in fandom spaces, especially with people who are more reachable than say, a big name author or media company. Emotions fly, friend groups get angry, and people who are being talked about are going to confront the person talking about them, and it gets nasty fast when someone feels they've been insulted. Harassment is bad, but conflict is also not inherently harassment, and I wish more people in every aspect would understand that and would just block people, vent about it in private, and move on rather than making it into a moral crusade and tagging posts about it with the intent to garner more attention to it. And that part doesn't even necessarily apply to shipping discourse but can apply to any community.

Not to be all fandom old, but I really do think part of this is how mainstream fandom has become. Instead of people making and culminating their own communities with like minded people, everyone gets tossed together. I'm not saying it never happened back in the day, but when people with opposing views are now stuck together, it naturally causes tension and conflict to arise, and since again, everything in now in only a select few places that are all easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection, things get nastier faster while being more in public view

Not to BACK IN MY DAY or anything but I so miss the days of thousands of PHPBB forums and IRC rooms for every little niche of fandom and how you could really find your people very easily in that manner. I don't mind that I have a one-stop-shop for the bulk of my blorbo needs but having lost the separate fan spaces I think really changed the way fandom works nowadays.

That and how many fandoms are barely a flash in the pan before people move on to something else. It's natural that things slow down after a while but it feels like people are more willing to hop franchise to franchise rather than stay and curate a space, and so a lot of people demand that these spaces cater to them specifically without actually giving back or putting any effort into making spaces that suit them better.

Not that there wasn't plenty of fandom drama back then, don't get me wrong. But I feel the problem was different- the drama was insular, rather than someone in XYZ fandom saying someone in ABC fandom is inherently a bad person because the source material showed a titty. The Zutara vs Kataang wars of old were nothing compared to this proship antiship nonsense. And we at least recognized it was nonsense.

[ofmermaidstories]

really appreciate the effort that u put into making reader as gender neutral as you can- and how u don’t add descriptions to how reader looks. i cant tell you how many times i’ve had to stop reading an x reader fic that mentioned reader having blue or green eyes, blonde hair, etc. (or when they describe reader as being paper thin). like yeah some people do have those features but NOT everyone…and the ppl who don’t have green eyes and blonde hair (etc) features wanna be included in x reader fics too u know? anyway. yeah. thanks. <3 love your writing btw!!!! 😅

LOL, hi! i will continue to try my (very human) best with the neutrality. 🌷 it’s the charm of the x Reader niche! neutrality with personal descriptors—because you’re trying to cater for as much of the audience as you can, within whatever role you’re giving the Reader in your fic! whether that’s assigning them as a trope like a Pro Hero, or a Childhood Friend, or giving them a specific background that’s important (and informing) to their identity and thus their experience of the world at large—like a POC, or being plus-sized, or living with a disability. Going through a illness, or a life-changing event—idk, i think these are all types of specificities that add more nuance and fun to a piece without dictating a Reader’s shoe-size.

because!! this is the thing!!! specificities are fun—but they’re fun when they’re insertable. humans are at once emphatic and selfish, LOL; we can imagine losing our entire town in a war, or our mother in a tragic building collapse, or being marginalised in a way that we might not otherwise be—but mention we go through all that and that we have piercing amethyst (non-Quirked) eyes at the same time? eh… LOL.

i consider x Reader fics to be their own genre, with their own genre-rules. second-person pov, scant personal descriptions, etc etc. and because i find it fun, i give myself extra rules (it’s fun to me!!!!! reeee!!!!!!!)—like, for instance, there are certain words i either won’t use to describe our Reader or our Reader’s actions, or will use sparingly, depending on the context: like pretty. giggle. delicate. curvy. jeans!!! (i personally think they can be indicative of a size range, depending on how Reader is wearing them, but maybe that’s me projecting bc i hate jeans and i wish they had never been invented <3) just stuff like that! stuff that makes me pause and go, hmm, okay, what kind of person/image is this suggesting to me? using second-person POV to write in gives you so much like, room to play with, when it comes to describing how someone might view themselves/be viewed by others. especially with a romance, where all we want is to be seen! it’s a great opportunity to be like, okay, maybe i don’t want to be seen for how prettily i can giggle—maybe i want to be seen for how easily i laugh with other people.

however,,,, (and this is a big however) i (me, merms) do think that i (again, me, merms) can say this stuff simply because writing with those aforementioned rules makes writing these x Reader fics in general more fun for me (merms). and it’s fun for me because i’ve had my amethyst-eyed, white-haired character days. when i’m not working on fics, i’m busy chipping away at my original fiction, third person, where we have green-eyed skinny blonds and curvy girls with long wavy dark hair like—any and all need for description i have, i get it out in other ways LOL. which means i can afford to approach x Reader fics as a different type of challenge. i would never begrudge (the often younger) writers who are here because it’s fun, and want to write about a Y/N who has amethyst eyes and white hair. Y/N has always, always been their own character—the specificities we give them (or don’t) has always just been in service of making it easier to project onto them. an adventure is an adventure, and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter the cloak we’re wearing for it—as long as we get to the end of it safely. 🌷💕📖

[swordshapedleaves]

Once again I have opinions on new seasonal anime no one asked for!

Thoughts on the 14 new shows I tried under the cut.

Shows I'm Excited About

My Happy Marriage

It's an arranged marriage romance with magic, though there wasn't any magic overtly present in the first episode. It has these relatively subtle references to fairy tales that I really like and the animation is really gorgeous. Looking forward to this one!

Zom 100

An office worker is so burnt out that the actual zombie apocalypse is a fresh change of pace. The energy is great and the animation is gorgeous. I love zombie media that's aware of zombie media. I also really like the OP, which is the same group that did the OP for Yamada 999 last season.

Shows I'm Optimistic About

Ayaka

This show looks like the anime adaptation is a fantasy BL visual novel but is apparently an original IP. I dunno why the MC's dead dad's will banished him to a childhood of trauma off island only to return when he's just old enough to start dating but I hope it's so he can end up smooching some of these color coded magical boys.

Dark Gathering

It's spooky! I feel sorry for any ghost fighting show that's going up against the second season of Jujustu Kaisen but this one seems way more of a creepy comedy than an action show so hopefully it finds its own niche and excels there.

The Gene of AI

As someone with memory problems this first episode made me super uncomfortable! It's doing what good science fiction should do, which is using future tech to tackle uncomfortable philosophical questions, but it remains to be seen if it addresses them thoughtfully. I will say though that the idea of someone who loves me crying uncontrollably because the fact I forgot a new recipe for scrambled eggs means I'm not really the person she knew really hurt. I have genuine fears about my memory problems ruining relationships and seeing it done so ham-handedly feels bad. Definitely gonna keep watching though because at least it's interesting.

Helck

This is a fantasy anime about a big strong muscle guy who is trying to become the King of Demons. Even the first episode couldn't pull off any visual appeal so I have low expectations but I'd like to have a fun time cheering on our Conan rip off who's going off script by trying to join the side of the demons.

Noble Farmer

This is a series of shorts by and about mangaka Hiromu Arakawa of Fullmetal Alchemist fame. She is the scion of Hokkaido dairy farmers and is passionate about her roots. The first episode felt like it was paid for by a dairy farmers association but Arakawa is so charming I don't even mind.

Undead Murder Farce

This show has great vibes and a fun premise. All the yokai and oni and such are being eradicated as part of the Meiji restoration. A couple of them are trying to survive and also solve a murder of sorts. The vibes are great but the animation is kinda mid.

Shows that Cater to my Bullshit Specifically

The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior

That name is awful but the Otome game villainess reincarnation micro genre is my jam. This villainess cries a lot and I'm hoping for a good time as all the people who were her enemies in the game fall in love with her.

Sweet Reincarnation

I love cooking shows and also fantasy stories so when they get smushed together I'm almost sure to have a good time. This feels like a less clever Ascendence of a Bookworm in a lot of ways. Person is killed by their specific interest falling on them, only to reincarnate into a world where the thing they love is very expensive and out of reach at their current status. So they simply use their knowledge of our technology to reorder society in a way that allows them to feed their special interest. This time it's a pastry chef who loves sweets instead of a librarian who loves books. His new name is Pastry.

Stuff I Tried That Didn't Make the Cut

Am I Actually the Strongest?

His sister is obviously the reincarnated Demon Lord. Looks boring.

The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today

It's like Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid without the charm or the sex appeal, plus the camera work is weirdly unsettling.

Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon

This one was also boring. It was one of the first shows we tried this season and I've already forgotten it for the most part.

Reign of the Seven Spellblades

Magic school with a 20% death rate, and one of the freshmen this season is a Samurai. I might watch a second episode if I have time to kill but there just wasn't anything really exciting in this first episode to get me past the Harry Potter but Edgier vibes.

[eightfifteen]

I'm one of those people who won't believe Byler is going to be canon until I see it because this isn't my first rodeo and I know that just because it textually, subtextually, and narratively makes the most sense, doesn't mean it's going to happen.

My biggest concern was that even if the Duffers had planned a Byler canon all along, I doubted Netflix would allow their most popular show ever to be queer. And also because the GA loved midleven; they were iconic.

This is what makes it so strange that the Duffers were allowed to ruin them in season 4. And how Midleven is not being marketed AT ALL. If the reason for midleven being endgame is because it would be most profitable for Netflix,... then why aren't they cashing in??

And then I was watching this video essay by Verilybitchie on YT about Queer media which explains how oftentimes new companies (streaming platforms but also in the past just regular up-and-coming cable channels) would target minority groups because they're the ones most looking for new places to get content.

"In the 60s and 70s, when cable channels were first introduced, small new networks like Fox, and the CW, got their early success targeting niche audiences, specifically black audiences. (...) And streaming is following this exact same business strategy. They're churning out huge amounts of diverse content because they're building up a new business and they want to attract invested viewers who don't feel like they're getting enough content elsewhere. That includes people of colour, LGBT people, women, and young girls." - Verilybitchie

For example, one of Netflix' first shows Orange Is The New Black, is diverce as fuck. The main character is bi and in multiple queer relationships, and most side-characters are also queer one way or the other and ethnically and racially diverse. But it also targets women specifically; a huge demographic that isn't being catered to enough. This clearly helped build Netflix' userbase.

But now, with Netflix having become as popular as it is today, they want to target bigger, more lucrative audiences (aka predominantly cishet, white groups), which is why all of their shows are slowly becoming stale and mainstream or get canceled after one season.

But my point is that Stranger Things was given the green light in phase 1 - the phase where they were targeting minorities. This means that there's a higher chance for them to have been greenlit even if - or maybe even especially if - it was queer. And now with the panel saying "they were just amazed Netflix was letting them do this at all", I don't know it's just reminding me of all of this.

It's clear that Netflix is being very hands-off when it comes to ST, trusting them to deliver one way or another. Especially now re-watch value isn't as important in Hollywood anymore; they don't have to please the GA for it to remain popular, the GA will watch it either way until they figure out the queer endgame, and by then they've watched the whole show and ST will no longer be the reason for them to renew their subscription at the end of the month anyway.

If they hope to get a new audience for ST after the show is already over, so they can get a small boost of new subscribers, it would make more sense to once again target the queer audiences who wouldn't otherwise have watched it. Everyone who likes Sci-Fi Fantasy is already subscribed (or watching the show illegally) so they have to give it a new appeal if they want to get new fans; the queer userbase that will watch anything just because it's gay. In my opinion, it's their only way for getting new fans, especially once everyone knows how it ends and the suspense is taken away. And with shows like Sex Education, Young Royals, and Heartstopper doing as well as they're doing, they know there's a huge audience for this.

But more importantly; this brings more credibility to the Duffers having planned Byler all along, and with it being slowburn, and them only getting together in the final season, Netflix would have no reason to not allow the Duffers to continue doing whatever they want.