#aka they’re old folks now

[withacapitalp]

All this was inspired by listening to She’s So Overrated by Madilyn Bailey so fair warning LMAO. Also this got SO MUCH LONGER THAN I MEANT IT TO IM SORRY IT WAS JUST ME WRITING DOWN AN IDEA......

Okay so I’m having thoughts about modern AU lead singer Eddie Munson who’s been in the industry for years with the boys. Corroded Coffin is a staple of the metal industry, but for a few years he’s been feeling really stalled in his career and just stuck in place. He’s still making music, still performing, but he feels like he’s getting farther and farther from that kid who used to scream and sing in his closet bedroom in the shoebox apartment he used to share with Wayne. 

So when he and the boys are in an interview and the interviewee brings up how “King” Steve Harrington from The Four is trying to reinvent himself with the help of former bandmate Robin Buckley, Eddie goes off. He works himself up into a little tizzy, ranting Munson Doctrine style about how a former teen pop star trying to become some second rate folk singer isn’t anything special, and that he wouldn’t be caught dead cashing in like that. 

That Steve’s music is bad (even though he’s honestly never listened to it) and “King” Steve is overrated. How even Beiber is better than him. He’s just bullshit. 

Of course the interview goes viral, and finds its way to Steve and Robin. Robin listens to it first and she doesn’t want Steve to watch it. She knows how close things like this cut him (especially that word), and how he’s been dealing with a lot of hate from everyone even from former fans who are confused by the sharp contrast of his new music- aka the music he’s finally being allowed to write now that he’s broken away from his momager- but Steve makes her show him. 

She’s sure that she’s going to have to spend the next week rebuilding his confidence. 

And instead, Steve’s lip curls into a smile, and he grabs his songbook, telling her to find her guitar. 

Eddie wakes up five days after the interview to a huge flood of social media notifications, a dozen missed calls from the boys and his manager and his uncle. He ignores them all and goes to see what he fucked up this time. 

Eddie opens Youtube and it’s at the top of his recommendations. The thumbnail is Steve and Robin sitting together with a guitar in her lap. The title of the video is just one word. 

Bullshit. 

This can’t be good. 

Eddie listens to it even though he doesn’t want to. He’s a lot of things, but he’s not a coward. Not anymore. He listens to it because he has to know how much he’s fucked up. 

And then he listens to it again. And again. And again. 

It gets stuck in his head. All of it. Not just the song (which admittedly is pretty killer) but also hearing the flippantly mean words he had casually thrown at Steve being shoved back in his face. He had seen Steve as an abstract thing, just a symbol of everything wrong with the industry, not a real person. And now this actual human being that he’s hearing has turned all of that garbage into a song that feels more genuine then most of the music on the last two albums he wrote himself. A song that has heart, joy, and a strong current of pain underneath, especially in the bridge where Steve just sings the word bullshit over and over. 

There’s even more than that. He also sees the way Robin and Steve interact while they’re working the smiles, the jabs, the silly little way Steve bobs his head along as he listens to her play, the way they both collapse into giggles at the end as Steve directly quotes the part of the interview where Eddie said that Steve “is just another laundry basket devil trying to act like a big shot now that he’s too old for teen girls to moon over.” 

He can’t remember the last time he and the boys had that much fun making a song. 

Hell, Eddie even sees their apartment. It’s a pretty nondescript room, but he can see the wear and tear on the furniture, the cobwebs in the corners of the room, the slightly drooping houseplant with the name “Dart” lovingly painted on its pot. It feels like a home, and as Eddie looks around at the bedroom in his far too big mansion, he feels even more like a fraud. 

Eddie listens to the song on repeat for most of the morning. In the afternoon he finally answers everyone, and starts to put his plan into motion. 

By that evening he’s on the phone with Steve asking him and Robin to help Corroded Coffin write their next song. 

[elen-benfelen]

welsh remus guide pt.1

As a casual marauders fan (if such a thing exists lmao), I’ve noticed a growing love/interest towards Remus being Welsh and exploring what this means regarding accent, mannerisms and language. Seeing Welsh being butchered by the use of google translate, whilst understandable that people would turn to it, is actually physically painful at times. And so!! I’ve decided to start collecting some language tips and bits of info to help anyone who wants to Welshify their Remus. The source? My upbringing as a first language Welsh speaker in South-West Wales.

The most popular head canons I’ve seen, some based on scraps of info from canon, is that Remus is either South Walian (specifically South-East Wales - aka the Cardiff area) or North Walian. I’ve only lived in North Wales for just under a month so I have a rough idea of NW slang but I’m no expert. I have lived in Cardiff for about 3 years so I have a stronger grasp on broad South Walian slang.

This is to say - I will try and give words and bits of info I think would be useful to know but my ask box is always open to more specific questions. I’m also a nerd towards the Welsh language so this is going to be an unnecessarily deep dive into it.

First Lesson

Gogs - North Walians

Hwntws - South Walians

Gogs (short for Gogledd meaning North) and Hwntws have an age old rivalry. Our accents are very different and even our Welsh can have a huge variety of slang and accents.

Examples:

Milk - Llaeth (Hwntw) Llefrith (Gog)

Now - Nawr (H) Rwan (G)

Whilst plenty of Welsh folks have very English sounding accents, if someone has a distinctly Welsh accent you can usually tell pretty quickly where they’re from. Accents within the Welsh language itself tend to be rather strong and distinctive for most people. It is extremely common for someone to ask you where you’re from once they find out you speak Welsh. Probably cause Wales isn’t that big and only like 20% ish of us speak Welsh??? Idk. It just is a thing. So like:

“O, da chi’n siarad Cymraeg?” (Oh, you speak Welsh?)

“Ydw! Wyt ti o’r Gogledd?” (I do! Are you from the North?)

“Yndw, dwi o Gaernarfon. Ble yda chi’n byw?” (I do, I’m from Caernarfon. Where do you live?)

“Fi o Rhydaman.” (I’m from Ammanford.)

Hopefully that dialogue feels human and not like two robots talking but you get the gist of it lmao. So, for those of you who want to make another of the characters, such as Lily, Welsh as well, it wouldn’t be out of place for them to try and establish where the other is from when first meeting. But also be aware that their slang and language would be different if they’re not from the same area (as with any language or country).

Conclusion: You cannot slap the blanket label of Welsh on Remus and then have him speak any old welsh and use any slang and such. So either choose somewhere specific or throw a dart and stick with where it lands.

Note: I am not the collective consciousness of every Welsh person. My experience is not universal - especially when it comes to North Walian things. This is just meant to serve as a general guide. Hope this helps and good luck with your writing!

pt.2

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week's writer spotlight feature is: @kkpwnall! They have eight Stranger Things and Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson works on archive of our own!

An anonymous nominator recommends the following works by kkpwnall:

driving in your car

love is like ghosts

where's the spark?

if it wasn’t for bad luck i wouldn’t have luck at all

wanted: pool boy at the vampire mansion

KK's works have a consistent feel of genuine, heartfelt, human connection. Whether it’s a big, dramatic scene as the climax of a slow, delicious build-up of tension, or a mundane, slice-of-life tidbit, the characters always feel true to themselves, and their voices are perfectly nailed each and every time. And by that I mean, you can literally hear the dialogues in the characters’ voices—they’re THAT good. KK explores classic Steddie themes in their longfic Driving In Your Car, and they have a handful of wonderful one-shots and two-shots, each and every one of them delving into how much these boys love each other for who they are. In short, KK’s body of work feels like a love letter of the characters. If you love Steve and Eddie, chances are you’ll love their fics. - anonymous

Below the cut, @kkpwnall answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie? 

They’re such a compelling and complementary pairing. Like, it seems like an opposites attract / odd-couple pairing on the surface, but beneath each of their exteriors, they’re so similar. They’re dork4dork, loser4loser, idiot4idiot, they’re both huge nerds but in different ways. They want and need and express affection through physical touch and words of affirmation (I mean, just look at the walking through the forest scene!) Plus they just have this insane chemistry that any time I think “there’s no way they did that, it’s all in my head”, I’ll go back and watch those scenes again, it’s just like “no, this absolutely checks out, they are so into each other from the word go”. And they’re just made for each other! I mean, come on! Matching scars? Nail bat and nail shield? Jock and nerd? They’re two halves of the same coin! What I really love about them too is that they’re both Just Some Guy, they’re silly, goofy, dorky guys! But mostly, I write steddie because it makes me happy and really satisfies part of my brain like nothing else. 

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Other than “Eddie Munson Lives” hahah, I’ll try just about anything written or recommended by a beloved mutual. Mutual pining, fix-it’s, missing scenes, and first kiss fics are top tier for me, and right now I’m really partial to fluffy romcom fics. If it’s got good flirting and banter, it’s got me hooked.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

My absolute favorite to write is mutual pining (aka the love is requited, they’re both just being stupid). Miscommunication is a close second, the kind that can’t easily be resolved with just a sticky note on the fridge. Whether it’s mishearing something or misunderstanding something (even the character misunderstanding their own feelings!), I find it super compelling to write. But for a specific scenario, my favorite will always be Steve having a bad time at a party.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

It’s impossible for me to pick just one, so I have to recommend 3 of my friends: Anyway It’s About Old Friends by @fragilecapric0rnn, and wanna be the only one for miles and miles (except for maybe you) by @judasofsuburbia, and everybody else (everybody else looks like they’ve figured it out) by @heybluechild. Anything by these fine folks is just fantastic, they’re all incredible writers and dear friends!

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’d really like to write more AU’s! I’ve been tossing around ideas for college-aged+ aus (writing them a little older), 90s aus, a cowboy au… Mostly I’m just excited to keep writing them!

What is your writing process like?

Ahah it’s not much of a process. I write down every idea I have, no matter how small it is. Sometimes it’s a line of dialogue or a moment of a scene, but it all goes into the notes app and percolates in the back of my brain for a while. Eventually that dialogue or scene might coalesce into something bigger on its own, or combine with other snippets, and then ya got yourself a stew!

Do you have any writing quirks?

I really love writing dialogue, it’s my favorite way to get inside their heads, especially trying to balance what they say or don’t say, vs what they actually mean. I also love adding little details to fill out the world and the scene. It might not be necessary, but it feels like it brings everything together for me. And I like treating writing a fic like building a puzzle, trying to figure out just the right way to get all the pieces to fit together so the whole thing really sings.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I’m still playing around with what I prefer. With driving in your car, I started out by posting a chapter only when the following chapter was completely written, so I’d always have one in the tank. But that got to feel too much like I was just sitting on chapters for the sake of sitting on them, so I started posting each chapter as I finished it and felt good about it. I don’t do super well with a schedule for posting fics, I’ve got too many deadlines in my life as it is haha.

Which fic are you most proud of?

driving in your car, for sure. It’s my baby, my magnum opus, my kitchen sink fic (it’s got everything). It’s got so much of myself in it, it’s very personal, and very near and dear to my heart.

How did you get the idea for driving in your car?

I wrote a long post about this when the idea was just starting to percolate, but the long and short of it is I wanted to read more fics that reflected my own experiences as an older teen growing up in a suffocating small town, where really the only option you have is to just pile in the car with your friends and drive around aimlessly, because that’s the only way you can get any freedom or privacy. I wanted to see what life was like for the fruity four trying to get back to “normal” while also trying to deal with the fact the world almost ended AGAIN, and all their complicated messy feelings for one another.

What inspired love is like ghosts?

Like many people have guessed / suspected, it’s very much inspired by Buzzfeed Unsolved / Watcher Ghost Files, and a loving homage to ghost hunting shows. I’m a huge scaredy cat when it comes to anything horror, but I love a good ghost hunting show. The study room setting is also inspired by the miniscule closet-sized study rooms in the library at the college I went to.

What was your favorite part to write from love is like ghosts?

Parts of their make out scene was the first snippet I wrote and the one that really got the whole ball rolling with that fic, to try to figure out who this Steve and this Eddie are, and what would have to happen lead them to making out that hard in the study room. It was also the first steamy spicy almost-smutty scene I’d written, and it was so fun to learn how to write like that!! I also just love their banter in this fic, they’re both so sassy and ridiculous and completely gone on each other.

How do/did you feel writing where’s the spark??

Ooft this one was a doozy. This is actually the second draft, and the only time so far I’ve all but completely scraped the first draft and rewritten a fic. The first draft leaned really heavily into the loneliness of the holidays, my playlist for it was all of the most maudlin holiday songs, and it really started negatively affecting my mood and mindset. But I got some really great advice and help brainstorming from dear friends, and turned it around into a fic I’m really happy with. The holiday blues are still present, but there’s so much more love there now, and that’s really what the fic is all about.

What was the most difficult part of writing where’s the spark??

Finding that balance of holiday blues and love was really tricky, and I wrote for a lot of characters I hadn’t tried writing before either. From a technical perspective too, it was a big challenge to figure out how to keep the fic moving, and the party moving around Steve when all he wanted to do was wallow.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

It’s so so hard to pick just one, but I love how this line in love is like ghosts turned out: And Steve is dumbstruck, kiss-drunk, half-fucked.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I have a holiday exchange fic coming out soon (hopefully before the holidays, fingers crossed), and I’m excited to dive into my prompt for lex’s winter fic challenge soon! I’d love to get the last chapter of driving in your car ready to share by the end of January. And there’s a secret [redacted] au I’m co-authoring with a very special friend that I would absolutely love to write in the new year!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Just that I love this community so much. I’ve made so many incredible friendships because of this show, and I’m so grateful to be a part of this little corner of the internet. I never shared my writing publicly before finding the steddie community, and I’ve been really overwhelmed and delighted by the response to my writing and art (especially to be nominated to do something like this!! Truly an honor!). I was, at best, a casual Stranger Things fan before season 4. I wasn’t even going to watch it when it came out. But then I saw all the gorgeous fanart and gifs, and started reading headcanons, and had to check it out. I’m so so glad that I did, my life has changed so much for the better.

Thank you to our author, @kkpwnall, and our nominator! See more of @kkpwnall's work featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer's Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[aroaessidhe]

okay I was asked about fey books I’ve read that Do stick to folklore a bit more than certain popular books - and actually looking at what fey books I’ve read  it’s a bit like.... books that stick to folklore closely I sometimes Don’t Love, and there are others that don’t stick to it as much but I like the overall narrative more? or some mix of that. 

so here’s a list of a few - a range of how much they stick to folklore (which of course is an amorphous thing) and how much I like them, but it’s something!

YA

That Self-Same Metal - literally just read this, it’s about a Black girl who’s the stage blade expert for shakespeare’s company and can see fey, and they’re appearing more and more in the city. explores a bit of the midsummer night’s dream fey but also like “shakespeare was wrong” and general folklore. definitely the start of a series and has a lot going on but I thought it has some cool ideas!

all Holly Black’s books deal with them well! the Modern Faerie Tales companion/trilogy has maybe aged a bit by now, and I hate way the romance ended up together in The Folk of the Air (and the way the fandom is about it) but otherwise I do really like how it deals with fey and politics! also enjoyed The Darkest Part of the Forest. these are all intertwined/same world

The Buried And The Bound - a hedgewitch girl keeps fey away from her town, and gets caught up with two boys who are cursed. mostly deals with minor fey and a powerful hag

An Enchantment of Ravens - it’s been quite a few years since I read this, but I do remember enjoying it. It is a bit more of a romance focused story also, an artist stolen into the fey realm for painting a fey prince as if he was human(iirc?)

The Bone Houses - not directly dealing with fey, but like the aftermath of the ancient fey’s curses? welsh myth inspired. which I think is cool.

At The Edge of The Woods - about a girl in a religious/patriarchial village who starts to have strange dreams about a fey boy luring her into the woods. it’s not super focused on them, but they’re very much the classic ‘dangerous fey stealing people away for entertainment’ kind of thing

Adult

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries - I sort of have mixed feelings about this - I really enjoy how it dealt with fey and the creepier folklore creatures side of it! the handling of the changeling was a bit iffy and not sure about the romance

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt - dark fantasy novella about a wolf-shifter made to join the wild hunt to save his qpr. focused on the unseelie/wild hunt area

Silver in the Wood - gaslamp fantasy novella about the keeper of a magical forest, dryads and dangerous fey

The Wind City - a bit of a mashup of fey folklore and Māori atua in a modern NZ setting

Sinners/Veiled - very classic but also with the element of a modern setting where human pollution is like a drug to fey (and the MC is a drug lord.) (so kind of dark but also not dark in the sexy way bc the MC is aroace)

Under The Pendulum Sun - this is a gothic fantasy that has a bit of a new take on a fey world, but also definitely has some of those creepy folklore vibes.

Siren Queen - this only partly involves fey but I thought the way that it mashed up old hollywood and fey (aka shady deals for fame themes) was interesting!

Sorcerer to the Crown/The True Queen - my memory on this is hazy, but I believe it’s regency fantasy, with its own take on a fey world/magic (moreso the 2nd book)

Malice/Misrule - adult high fantasy lesbian sleeping beauty reimagining, this is kind of doing it’s own thing I guess (I don’t remember if they’re even called fey?) but definitely has a bit of the creepy creature/court vibes in book 2 especially

In The Jaded Grove - I was just looking up books to see if there was anything I missed and found this, which seems interesting to me!

I also haven’t read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (but I watched the show ages ago) and I believe that has the vibe too

[t-dubber]

💚REGINA “REGGIE” VEGA💚

Quick recap since I’m moving these over from X — this is my old ROTTMNT oc, Reggie Vega! She’s a human turned mutant raccoon who commits some minor criminal acts around the oc NYC with her new team (*cough cough* adopted dads *cough cough*), Hypno and Warren, as well as a few other villains from the show. She’s a part-time scavenger and full-time mischief-maker using her new powers to cause chaos.

(did I mention her tail is essentially a bag of holding from dnd?)

She does, as you may be able to tell, wind up making friends with the turtles! Well, all except for Leo since they just constantly butt heads (and he may or may not have a baaaaad feeling about her). Reggie and Raph, however, wind up getting along extremely well. Unfortunately for both of them, they’re kinda working on opposite sides.

Fast forward a few years and through some major personal growth (Aka THE MOVIE)— the two finally start dating. It’s a slow roll, but Reggie made the first move of the two.

Fast forward a bit more and you can see where I was inspired by @star-sparkler ‘s August because I just loved the idea of an AU kid, but obviously that would be tough with Raph and Reggie. So, with a bit of movie magic, hand waving, and a lot of science— we decided that we could mash some genetic codes together with science and magic to create…

✨KARAI “KARA” HAMATO✨

In this AU, Kara is August’s younger cousin. A result of Reggie and Raph asking Donatello if it was even possible, and him agreeing to try it. And thus, Kara was born (…er? Created???). She got her papá’s height, her mamí’s fluffiness, and a WHOLE lotta love to give.

That’s all for now folks!!!

[chevelleneech]

It’s weird you claim to know the mind of a 32 year old man doing his job. Based off social media? He can’t even keep the same photos on his feed for a month. He’s been liking buddie stuff for years now so he will continue to do it. Isn’t this the same ship that pushed him off Twitter?

Also he mentioned in several interviews he couldn’t wait to get know Lou on and off screen. So take that as will 🤷‍♂️

Anon, what are you here for, if not to prove yourself as the Lou/Tommy defense team captain? For no reason, at that, because I never said Oliver dislikes Lou or Tommy. I said I think my earlier assumption that he prefers/ships Buddie, was correct, and I stand by it.

Y’all can try as hard as you want to play the “You don’t know them!” or “He’s doing his jobs!” cards, but 1) the same applies to BuckTommy, and Lou making folks pay for headcanons, and 2) is intentionally dismissive.

Of course we don’t know Oliver. Anyone who thinks they do is crazy, but that doesn’t mean Oliver saying for years that he’s open to Buddie, saying this season he was prepared to play Buck as queer, and consistently liking or reposting Buddie fan art is all a lie. Oliver is allowed to have a preferred ship the same way Lou is, but I have yet to see a BT shipper say what’s he’s doing is weird.

Y’all need that validation because Oliver is not giving it, but is also not damning y’all in interviews. He doesn’t appear to be that kind of person, aka he is doing his job properly. He’s neutral or positive about the storylines he likes, and is seemingly neutral to silent on the ones he doesn’t. Pointing that out has nothing to do with Lou or Tommy, tbh. It’s about Oliver’s apparent preference.

Lastly, Buddie didn’t run him off Twitter, as he’s already said. It was people who shipped Buddie and wanted him to confirm them becoming canon, and would say he was queerbaiting if he posted Buddie despite Buck dating a woman in canon. Oliver literally said this year, he left Twitter because he wanted to discuss the ship and Buck’s queerness yet couldn’t. Now he can, because Buck is bi and the relationship is technically more possible. So what is your point in bringing this up, beyond trying to act like he dislikes the ship yet has to talk about it? He don’t talk about shit he don’t want to, as is established by his constant behavior.

I know y’all higher than thou types love to pretend celebrities aren’t actual people and can never be authentic without exposing their entire lives to social media, but it’s not true. Who knows how he really and truly feels about a single thing, but I mean… he’s been consistent for years. Oliver is famous and appeasing fans is part of his job, but that doesn’t make him a walking empty shell. If that’s how you prefer to see him, go ahead. If ignoring his posts and words unless they’re in praise to Lou and Tommy works best for you to continue shipping what you ship, go ahead. But slithering up your pedestal to talk down on Buddie shippers who do pay attention to his socials, is a waste of your time.

We all sipping from the same parasocial tea, you just don’t think your cup got cracks in it too.

[ultimate-submas-tournament]

And that’s a wrap!

The first round of The Ultimate Submas Bracket has now ended and we have our first set of winners!

That being said though…

While this event is framed in the lens of a good old fashioned competition, at the end of the day what it’s really about is finding new AUs and coming together as a community. Which means that while these AUs might not be moving on they’re still part of the tourney! These are the underdogs! The unknown! The rare! Which means you should check these ones out specifically!

Leave a comment! Reblog their post! Show them some love because they deserve it just as much as the competitors going forward!

And for those of you who have an itchy drawing finger? Drawings for these folks are extra sweet! Draw your blorbo with someone else's! Draw the boys hanging out in the breakrooms after being knocked out! Heck, if your AU isn’t even in the running but you draw something tourney related (AND TAG ME so I can find it) I’ll reblog that as well! This is for fun and for exposure- so get out there and enjoy yourselves!

(reminder- all reblogged art on this account is tagged with #ultimate submas tournament art so if you don’t want to see them you can block that tag)

(And I'd like to give a huge apology to those who were put up against a much bigger blog then their own. I tried my best to make brackets even and fair, but I messed up pretty badly for a few of you. My sincerest apologies, I hope y'all had fun anyway)

All that being said- let’s get one more round of applause for these lovely AUs!

🐶🔥Gargoyles crossover au by @regular-samdragon

System!Emmet AU by @fighter-spirits

🐶🔥📚Masking AU by @entity9silvergen

🐶🔥Magnus archives au by @jester-writing ( @jester-creates )

 📚Typed Humans AU by @toriistorii

Legends: Kyurem AU by @pixelga1axy

🐶📚TMI AU by @drag0n0fbutt3r

🐶🔥📚Emmet's PMD Adventure AU by @fandom-soda-writings

🔥WELCOME HOME SUBMAS AU by @crowfonder

🔥Clean Slate AU by @kurixta

🐶🔥📚Fractured Sky AU by @inkinary

🔥📚The Black Coat AU by RyleeSheep

🐶🔥📚Submas FaeU by @blueisquitetired

🐶📚Legendary Hosts AU by @toriistorii

📚Breakmas Au (Aka Team Break Submas AU) by @choochooboss

🐶Liminal Station AU (aka ENA AU) by @liminal-station

🔥MC Ingo AU by @peacheenie

🐶🔥📚Steven Universe Submas au by @squidthesquidd

🔥📚Reincarnation AU by @ghostypetrainer

🐶🔥📚Risk of Rain 2 crossover AU by @fourphoenixfeathers

🐶🔥📚Zoroark possession AU by @ghostypetrainer

TRAIN OF THOUGHT AU by @waywardstation

🐶📚Transfer Error AU by @rosebloodcat

🔥📚Submas Conjoined AU by @ingo-ingoing-ingone

[rarepears]

OPM!Shen Yuan

This Au freaking hit me like a dump truck, it’s so cursed but also so incredibly amazing.

I’m assuming then that the canon little palace mistress never gets born then, unless she’s like adopted.

Also I love the idea of SXY bouncing between playing dick goalie for her Shizun or just following him around with a notebook to investigate his mysterious ways.

Also how’s his relationship with Airplane is this AU? Since they’re bound to meet much earlier with less of the system doom, they’re bound to get along much better right?

The little palace mistress is actually Little Palace Mistresses - aka Shen Yuan's harem. Or at least the portion that lives with him full time instead (cough aka not the Cang Qiong folks).

But yes, canon little palace mistress does not exist here.

Since Shen Yuan has such a cursed body, Airplane needs to be equally cursed. Let's... make him into Wu Yanzi! In fact, let's give Wu Yanzi an interesting backstory of once being sect martial brothers with the Old Palace Master!

Old Palace Master framed Wu Yanzi for a series of serious crimes and tampered with Wu Yanzi's cultivation, causing Wu Yanzi to not only be thrown out of the race of being Huan Hua head disciple, but also damage his cultivation (hence his future use of demonic cultivation ala Wei Wuxian style of not having any other cultivation methods to turn to), AND be hunted down by the cultivation world as a "criminal".

Oh yeah, Wu Yanzi was also thrown out of the sect, but that's pretty obvious it was going to happen.

And now Wu Yanzi aka Shang Qinghua has to raise a very angry angsty former slave of a brat named Shen Jiu until he is accepted into Cang Qiong. It's an assigned mission from his system - he has no way of escaping it!

[More in #Shen Yuan transmigrated into the Old Palace Master]

[justagingerwithredhair]

Darkest Dungeon X Octopath Traveler 2 crossover fic. AKA Sarmenti witnesses the moments before Wellsgrove disaster.

TW for past suicidal thoughts, violence, some eldritch horror that’s going to happen at the end, Wingdings containing disturbing material such as death baiting (but nothing too explicit), and Sarmenti being incredibly unhinged and having some disturbing thoughts —————————————

Contrary to popular belief, Sarmenti does take things seriously. People thought that his personality was one that takes nothing seriously but really, it’s one who took everything seriously and then broke into a million tiny glass pieces afterwards. He’s already broken enough so why not have fun with it? Why not take those pieces and throw them at his enemies? Why not take those pieces and make a horrid song?

The point is, is that Sarmenti tries to make the most of life. He’s been dealt with the worst hand and maybe he should have given up there but what’s the point in that? He still has songs to play and stories to weave and annoying little eldritch horrors to stab. Perhaps not the best life but considering he wanted to kill himself before he travelled the world he’ll say this is an improvement.

Wellsgrove is a break to him right now, at least in his neck of the woods. From what he’s heard from Barristan and Baldwin, Throné was busy preparing and about to make herself an orphan, while Hikari is about to intercept a an arms trade. Meanwhile he’s here with Partitio, watching as the man essentially revived a town in under a month.

He wouldn’t be very helpful in the world of business, so he was outside singing incomplete songs stuck in his head while people quietly tipped him.

Maybe if he was with the others he would have traded sharp words and love ballads for knives but alas. He was not with their group. No blood shall be spilt today by him.

What was surprising though was the fact that all of them were here. Usually they would all go and debate with themselves on which Travelers needed their help before going off with them. Even then, not all of them truly stayed around to help the Travelers actively. Some people, like Audrey and Boudicca, only really tagged along to see the sights. He knows those types would eventually leave at some point, but he also knows that they’re aware that it’s not a good idea to leave when you have no idea where you are.

They still helped, don’t get them wrong. Some just aren’t exactly as invested as the rest of them. He knows who’s staying for a war if you put Audrey and Barristan side-by-side.

(But then again, Audrey stayed with all of them in the Hamlet and the rickety old Wagon all that time ago. Even gave some of her spoils to those poorer folk so who knows. Maybe they were all a bit kinder than they give themselves credit for.)

The fact that all of them were here was surprising. Something that Kazan even expressed surprised in when they all insisted on traveling together.

Then there’s the fact that Damien, Tardif, and Josephine were here. 

Damien was…well he was a bit of an odd ball, even by Sarmenti’s standards. He knew that flagellation was approved by the Church of the Light but he’s also pretty sure that it is not to the point of their skin peeling off and septic rot. Last he saw him, he said that he was going to travel the world to revel in this new kind of pain. Real fucking weird if you ask Sarmenti but who’s he to judge? He went and killed an entire royal court using a cursed song. At the very least though he’s polite to everyone in town, even if they found him disturbing, and thank fuck Damien has enough sense to avoid Junia lest they start stirring up old memories.

Tardif was a Bounty Hunter and well. Sarmenti supposes he wanted to get back to the business as soon as possible. The man said his farewell in Flamechurch, had a…private conversation with William, told them all that he won’t hunt bounties on them out of respect, and then left. At the very least he tried to keep contact with all of them, mostly in the form of obscure baking recipes he found. Him being here was a coincidence, one that was fueled by the simple fact that Throné’s Mother Dearest has a bounty on her but a lovely coincidence at that.

Josephine was…

She was here, lured by the promises of wealth from Partitio’s little business venture. She said she won’t cause any trouble and that was enough for him right now. Whatever quarrel she has with them doesn’t matter to him right now. The others may disagree but if she says she wants to keep the peace, she’ll keep the peace. Besides, starting a fight with the others is bad for her business.

…Sarmenti does have to admit though, having everyone here was nice. If he closed his eyes long enough, he can pretend it’s the Hamlet. He can pretend it’s the Hamlet and they were all free of the horrors that tormented them in the Darkest Dungeon. That the people tipping him were people he’s seen every day and that the people joining in were the other Bards that wandered into the Hamlet’s horrors.

This of course means that things are going to go to shit soon. He knows this. He knows that pattern.

He hears a melody.

Sarmenti blinks and sits up.

He hears it again.

(D-Low A-D-A-A flat-D-B flat)

“…Who played that.”

Sarmenti stood up and looked around. The bards all freeze and stare at him.

“Who. Played. That tune.”

It plays again.

Sarmenti jerked to the left to see a violinist, bow on strings and a blank look on their face.

(It sung to him and it sung until it was drilled into his head and nothing but that cursed song remained.)

He tackled the musician onto the ground, grabbed their throat and squeezed.

Distantly, he felt someone try to pull him off of the musician. He refuses to let go and kept squeezing.

“-menti!”

He squeezed-

“Sarmenti!”

And squeezed.

“Sarmenti let go!”

And s q u e e z e d.

Someone roughly grabbed him and pulled him off. “Sarmenti what’s gotten into you!?”

Don’t they know? Doesn’t they know that song means death? Snuffing it out is the only way to stop it from driving another mad. He has to snuff it out. He has to silence it. He has to he has to hehastohehastohe-

“How do you know that song?” Someone said. Or was that him? His voice sounds oh so far away now. An echo in the sea of madness. “That song is dead. I killed it. I made sure it was forgotten. How do you know that song?”

The musician only stared at him, keeping the blank look on their face and offering nothing but silence.

“Answer me Light damnit!”

The musician blinks and opens their mouth.

✌☠👎 🕈☟✌❄ ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆 💧✌☼💣☜☠❄✋

🕈☟✡ 👎⚐ ✡⚐🕆 💧❄✋☹☹ ☹✋✞☜ 🕈☟☜☠ ❄☟☜ ☼☜💧❄ ☟✌✞☜ 👎✋☜👎

✋❄’💧 ☼🕆👎☜ ❄⚐ ☜☝☝ ❄☟☜☠ ⚐☠📬 🕈☟✡ ☠⚐❄ ☹☜❄ ✌ 💧❄☼✌✡ 💧🕈⚐☼👎 💧❄✌👌 ✡⚐🕆 ✌☹☼☜✌👎✡ ⚐☼ 👌☜❄❄☜☼ ✡☜❄📬 👎⚐ ✋❄ ✡⚐🕆☼💧☜☹☞📬

Sarmenti steps back. Several people around him start exclaiming in fear.

🕈☜☹☹ ☺☜💧❄☜☼📬 🕈☟✌❄ 🕈✋☹☹ ✡⚐🕆 👎⚐✍ ✋ ☞✋☠👎 ✡⚐🕆☼ 😐☠✋☞☜ ☹⚐⚐😐✋☠☝ ✋☠👍☼☜👎✋👌☹✡ ✋☠✞✋❄✋☠☝📬

What are they saying?

✡⚐🕆 😐✋☹☹☜👎 👌☜☞⚐☼☜📬 ✡⚐🕆 ☺🕆💧❄ ☠☜☜👎 ❄⚐ 😐✋☹☹ ❄☟☜ ☞✋☠✌☹ 💣✌👎💣✌☠ ✋☠ ❄☟✋💧 👍✋☼👍🕆💧📬

Why can he understand it?

Why does he know what its saying?

The musician grinned and grinned and grinned. Several people are running now and oh? Is that burning? What’s burning? Was it his flesh? Is it theirs? What’s burning?

“The Iron Crown will be revived.”

The musician takes out a knife and cuts themselves open, snapping Sarmenti out of trance. He looks to the left and sees Partitio recoil back and put himself in front of everyone else.

The musician falls onto the ground unceremoniously. Everyone stared, because what the hell are you supposed to do after that.

“…Well shows over for that guy,” he said awkwardly.

Alrond and Misha looked at him in horror while Partitio’s scrivener friend gives an awkward cough. Partitio only gives him a disappointed look.

“Hm. Tough crowd. Now what are we going to do with the body?”

If anything that only makes the group more appalled. “I don’t think this is a time for jokes Sarmenti,” said Partitio.

He knows that, but what else is he going to do? Look dumbly at the body and try to explain what just happened? Yeah right. Everyone is way into shock to do that right now. If he can joke then that means things aren’t as bad as it seems to be and that seems about right for him. Worked well for Dismas and Audrey, and if anyone in their little merry band of adventurers were bothered by it then they would have told the three of them by now.

Oh wait, the rest of them. They probably are freaking out right now.

And on cue, Sarmenti sees the rest of the gang come up and oh. Oh isn’t that some of Ku’s warriors? Weren’t they supposed to be getting weapons and then being stopped from getting weapons? Hm. He supposed this little stunt went and changed some things then. No one wants to do business when the town is in disarray.

“Nothing to see here folks!” He announce, much to everyone’s horror. “Just a dead body in the middle of the street! We’ll clean it up soon!” 

Dismas groans and out his head in his hands.

“What the fuck Hikari? Where did you even find this guy?” Said a Ku soldier with a bandanna tied around his head.

“Oh that’s easy fellow war criminal!” He answered. “You see Prince Hikari found us poor souls after we went and-“

A snap is heard from the ground.

Sarmenti looks down.

The musician started to contort into itself. Its skin turning grey and bones snapping out of place.

Oh.

Oh no.

“Get behind me.”

Partitio blinks. “What?”

Sarmenti took out his knife. “Get. Behind. Me.”

Muscles spasmed and grew. Bones creaked and groaned. Arms growing. Legs growing. Head contorting. Laughter. Laughter. Laughter.

(First the brain, then the lungs, then the eyes, then the hands, and then finally the body.)

(Denial, Resentment, Obsession, Ambition, Cowardice. All fought and defeated but it never is over. It’s never over. It’s never never never never over.

The musician speaks. It somehow speaks despite the distortions and it’s familiar. It’s familiar and that’s what terrifies Sarmenti.

A trumpet is heard. Someone screams in pain. He feels blood from his ears.

(Flesh upon flesh being played together. The body becoming an instrument. The body is an instrument.)

It speaks.

🕈☜ ☞✌✋☹☜👎 👌☜👍✌🕆💧☜ ✡⚐🕆 💣⚐✞☜👎 ⚐☠📬 ❄☟☜💧☜ 🏱☜⚐���☹☜ ☟✌✞☜ ☠⚐❄📬 ❄☟☜✋☼ 🕈⚐☜💧 🕈✋☹☹ ☜💣🏱⚐🕈☜☼ ❄☟☜ 👍☼⚐🕈☠📬 ☞⚐☼ 🕈☜ ✌☼☜ ✌☹🕈✌✡💧 ✌☼☜ ✌🏱✌☼❄ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ 👍☼⚐🕈☠📬 🕈☜ 🕈✋☹☹ ☠☜✞☜☼ 👌☜ 💧☜🏱☜☼✌❄☜👎 ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼

He looks around. Several of Ku’s soldiers fall in terror. Hikari pales and starts to shake. Reynauld, Barristan, Boudica, and Missandei all look at the creature what Sarmenti can only describe as pure, utter, terror.

The Scrivener took a step back. “No. Nonononono. I left you.” She took a shuddering breath in. “I left you.”

If Sarmenti closes his eyes, he can hear the Ancestor the Heir the Academic the Scholar someone tell him what it was.

(“Gaze upon the Shackled Resignation. The thing that prolongs wars and drives men to hopelessness.”)

A being of bones and flesh, all contorted and twisted in ways one can only imagine. Restraining itself using their its innards and choking itself in its misery. It could probably fix itself if it really looked and tried to untangle the spilling chain-like innards.

It wails and lunges.

Sarmenti takes a deep breath.

(There is always an encore. And unfortunately for him, the people always crave for more.)

(Well. The cosmic beings that like to end the world crave for more.)

He looks behind him and meets Dismas’ eyes. He holds up three fingers. The man nods.

He nudges Partitio back.

He takes a deep breath.

One.

(The thing about encores is that it really does depend on whether the performer wants to perform a bit more or wants to wrap it up.)

Two.

(And the thing is this.)

Three.

(Sarmenti wants to fucking wrap all of this up.)

He swings his knife.

Dismas fires his gun.

The being screams and stumbles back. Sarmenti does the one thing he can think of.

He grabs Partitio, pulls him forward and gets them to run.

OH THE HORRORS!!!

I love your writing style! You'll have to translate the wingdings for me though.

[aegor-bamfsteel]

"Dany is nothing like her ancestors and she is going to break the pattern by going to be a good queen."- Dany stans. Only they don't acknowledge that she is repeating her ancestors mistakes. Basically her whole arc is why Targs sucked.

“Däny is nothing like her ancestors…” Better not tell her that:

I am blood of the dragon, she told herself. I am Dænerys Stormborn, Princess of Dragonstone, of the blood and seed of Aegon the Conqueror. —AGOT Dâny II

I am Dænerys Stormborn, Dænerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon's daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo." —AGOT Dâny IX

Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Dænerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him." —ASOS Dâny II

Mother of dragons, Dænerys thought. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could she hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros? I am the blood of the dragon, she thought. If they are monsters, so am I. —ADWD Dâny II

No. You are the blood of the dragon. The whispering was growing fainter, as if Ser Jorah were falling farther behind. Dragons plant no trees. Remember that. Remember who you are, what you were made to be. Remember your words. "Fire and Blood," Dænerys told the swaying grass. —ADWD Dâny X

Dæny constantly invokes her ancestors/bloodline as well as her dragons to keep herself brave, to impress others, to remind herself of who she is. Her last chapter has her embracing that Tárg legacy (specifically the one that plants no trees aka destruction), not turning away from it for a lasting peace. The Tárg legacy (or at least her idea of it) is a huge part of her character; you can’t say she’s nothing like her ancestors when she keeps invoking their memory and refuses to listen about any of the ill they (not even Aerys II) did.

“She’s going to break the pattern by being a good queen” there’s certain Tárg kings who are considered good rulers, such as Jæhaerys I and Viserys II. GRRM went out of his way in Fire&Blood to show how awful J1 was (to the dismay of a few fans), hanging small folk by their entrails and mistreating his wife/daughters; and he made sure in ASOS that Oberyn Martell accused V2 of poisoning his nephew. Then there’s Dâron 2 and Aègon V, who fandom considers good, but both caused massive rebellions and A5’s obsession with dragons led him to an early grave. Basically every time there’s a Tàrg that’s supposed to be a good ruler, GRRM ends up showing they’re either violent/murderous, abusive, paranoid, prophecy-obsessed, and kinslayers, not unlike the other Tárgs.

“Basically her whole arc is why the Tárgs suck” you’re right that the Tárg legacy is destructive and holds itself up as superior to the exclusion of others. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t like GRRM’s supplemental books on them (other than being a massive downgrade in characters/plot), because their point was already proven with Dâny, and trying to make sorta competent kings confuses the issue (J1 planted trees/built roads, so there’s still a way for D to honor her family but be a good ruler, when it ignores the context of how the Iron Throne was founded). Basically Dâny has a good arc using the Tárg legacy and dragons to give her the courage she lacked growing up, and struggling to balance her wishes for peace with her reality of trying to take the Throne she views as birthright by conquest, all on her own. But I guess GRRM needs more money and HBO needs more to milk out of the franchise.

[zahri-melitor]

Okay, general roundup of New 52 titles I have read so far, now I am well into 2013 in my read through:-

Batwoman, J.H. Williams run – genuinely great. This is a highlight of the New 52, honestly. If DC had stopped occasionally remembering that Kate Kane is now Bruce’s cousin and had let Kate and Maggie get married, it would be perfect.

Blue Beetle – it’s not the best Jaime run I’ve ever read, but in terms of restructuring Jaime’s origin to simplify it and remove the heavy connection with Infinite Crisis shenanigans, it worked far better than the Rebirth reboot. Let down by getting cancelled just as it started becoming more interesting (aka had finally finished the retread of Jaime’s origin story and started him having new adventures).

Threshold – this was certainly a comic I read entirely to see Jaime in it. If you are lucky enough to know nothing about it, it’s basically a planet of foxhunting tagged ‘criminals’, where Jaime ends up one of the tagged. It’s meandering, pointless and bad. I think if you’re a Lantern fan you’d also think it was bad. Deservedly knocked off after 8 issues.

Justice League Dark – I made it through 6 issues. My biggest takeaways were that everyone here was just so miserable and Boston Brand was dating Dawn Granger for reasons that surpassed understanding. I want to like it more than I do, for the cast it has.

Batgirl, Gail Simone run – appealing and infuriating in turn. There’s some genuinely beautiful writing here (the WWII paper balloons!) and Babs is recognisable as Babs, but it’s horribly let down by the fact that ‘healing’ Barbara means that she’s now both not allowed to operate as Oracle (by editorial dictat) AND she’s having trouble as a street vigilante as she’s still recovering from her injuries. It makes sense but it also makes Barbara doubly incompetent which is maddening as they’ve taken away everything that was hers specifically. Also James Gordon Jnr is always intensely irritating to have around and I am never going to get over giving Babs a villain called ‘Knightfall’ in the run immediately after healing her back. Yes. I got the reference. It’s not that funny.

Birds of Prey – it’s hmmm still finding its feet. Lacks the soul of the original run, but there are flashes of the old magic occasionally. It is hilarious to me that they decided to merge Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance back into a single character for this run, creating a bizarre new ex-husband for Dinah in Kurt Lance (seriously, Kurt Lance, why do you exist you’re so weird) and then within 6 issues or so abruptly realised WHY Dinah Drake and Dinah Lance have been separate characters since 1983 and reinvented a new Dinah Drake mother for the character. Spectacular. Sheer evidence that nobody involved in new 52 was actually spending much time thinking about how an all new origin reboot would affect characterisation.

Batman – I have my differences with Scott Snyder over his run, but he at least manages to make things interesting and spend time interrogating Bruce’s identity. It feels in conversation with the Loeb and Dini storylines around Thomas Elliot and that whole crowd of elite Gothamites. Lots of interesting set ups let down by execution or obsession with conspiracy theories. Love his work with Harper Row as a character.

Batman & Robin – okay folk, I do agree, this is a far far better Batman & Robin run than 2009. I feel like I’ve spent more time with Damian showing me his character rather than being informed by Morrison via Alfred mouthpiece about Damian’s character. There’s some lovely character work in here. It’s still suffering from getting New 52ed but it’s honestly the first run anywhere that’s actually really good for Damian characterisation (plus or minus the Damian and Colin Wilkes fight Zsasz plot in Streets of Gotham or Gates of Gotham).

Batman Incorporated – fuck you Grant Morrison. Nobody reading this title is having a good time. If you’re here for actual Batman Inc characters well I’m sorry, they’re mostly standing around the sidelines of a plot about Bruce, Talia and Damian. If you’re here for Talia I’m so sorry for you. If you’re here to read Bruce and/or Damian you get like 3-4 sweet scenes that I am sure you have already seen in screencapped panels floating around with no context. DC would be a better place if this book hadn’t been approved (also Cyril might still be alive)

Nightwing – this comic so far is obsessed with Haly’s Circus. Now I don’t like the whole Talon retcon (I think it cheapens a lot of things about Dick’s backstory as a character) but I will admit it’s nice to see Dick spending time with his Haly’s Circus friends and Dick’s optimistic side coming out in the ‘let’s just rebuild Amusement Mile as a place that isn’t Joker-haunted!’ Tragically of course because we’re never allowed to have nice plotlines involving Haly’s Circus it gets blown up again and lots of people die. But at least Dick’s back to owning the circus, amirite? (For bizarre ‘Pop Haly left it to him in his will’ reasons rather than Dick buying it out with his inheritance money that is totally not one of the many occasions Bruce has lied to Dick and told him that this trust fund is 100% based on investments of his parents assets, rather than Bruce attempting to give Dick Wayne money again so he stops living out of cardboard boxes in a tiny apartment)

Red Hood and the Outlaws – I have now suffered through three whole issues of this comic (actually 4 but I paged through that one to read like one scene at the end) and it is determined to make me hate everyone involved with it in terms of its disrespect for Roy and Kory. Also all the issues kept trying to convince me that Jason and Tim have always been each others’ favourite brothers, which lol. (If that’s actually ever true for Jason it’s the most hilarisad thing ever).

Teen Titans – I made it through two issues for crossover purposes. I am tempted to come back as I think I will get some stuff out of it once I’ve finished my Teen Titans 2003 read (and look there does actually appear to be some things in here I may enjoy). Can’t believe Kurt Lance shows up in this comic. I swear he’s my new nemesis.

Suicide Squad – I am 100% not reading this comic, I only opened it for crossover issues. What have they done to Amanda Waller. (Also why is Harley Quinn trying to date Floyd Lawton, did editorial suddenly realise how many people are into his deep uh comradery with Thomas Blake and overreact trying to remove the gay cooties or something?)

Catwoman and Detective Comics – honestly I haven’t got a good enough read on either yet from the few issues I’ve read, but ‘Tec is running a Penguin plot and I’m not in the mood for a Penguin plot at the moment.

So far, my recommendations: Batwoman I recommend without hesitation. Batman & Robin has been embroidered in fans’ memories but is worthwhile in any case. Batman is interesting stories sometimes let down in execution and may actually read better if you avoid touching any tie-in issues for a readthrough.

Nightwing, Batgirl, Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle are “these are some of my favourite characters, I want to know even if I don’t always like it” reads. They’re still the same characters, just trapped in a maddening world.

[chaos0pikachu]

tldr: censorship fucking sucks and word of honor and xena are mlm/wlw solidarity 

okay this was a random thought that came to me during a combo of rewatching of Word of Honor and reading a post that declared Word of Honor “didn’t count” on their BL list of whatever the fuck and here’s the thought, here’s the vibe, Word Of Honor has a lot in common with Xena: Warrior Princess

Hear me out

Everyone kinda knows that Xena - and by extension Lucy Lawless - as a bisexual/queer woman icon, and that Xena/Gabrielle is probably still one of the most prominent wlw ships in western canon. That’s a huge part of the shows iconography in pop culture. But like, if you rewatch the show, things between Xena and Gabrielle are kept pretty ambiguous but in that ambiguously totally gay way (like WenZhou!). 

The network was actively against Xena and Gabrielle being more than, what fans would probably call nowadays, bait. An executive told producer Rob Tapert that by making Xena and Gabrielle explicit there would be a surge of interested followed by a sharp decline. 

It should be noted that Xena was already a controversial show for it’s era - not just for the gay subtext but under fire from religious groups, anti-feminist groups, and others. 

The showrunners and producers also didn’t intend for Xena and Gabrielle’s relationship to, eh, blossom the way it did. Fans ran with it. Ironically, the intention of the show was to push Xena’s men of color love interests which also made the network gun shy (remember folks racism exists alongside homophobia!). 

Xena and Gabrielle operated in a highly censored space (that still exists in American media btw!! Take it from someone who knows first hand) that was beholden to network hand-wringing, capitalism, and societal homophobia at large.  So their relationship could only live within an ambiguous space. Ironically enough, just like WenZhou, Xena and Gabrielle are also referred to as “soulmates” in the text of the show. But ya know, sometimes soulmates are platonic, sometimes romantic. Which are WenZhou and Xena/Gabrielle? Well that’s up for the viewer to decide b/c the production teams hands are tied. 

Even so, even with the censorship, we all still view Xena as legitimate queer representation within the pop culture space. Why? Why Xena and not Word of Honor?

For me, they both count, especially WoH because it’s source material IS queer. But the filter of censorship snipped and cut the text away so everything would be forced to live within that ambiguous “up to the audience aka gotta make the advertisers comfortable” space. 

I don’t think it’s fair to throw WoH out because the production couldn’t, like they were not allowed, to showcase text on screen. Similar to Xena queer fans knew that her and Gabrielle were in love, soulmates (romantic) by the end (where Xena dies, like literal for reals death she’s ashes carried on by Gabby at the end btw spoiler alert for a 20 year old show at least WK got silver hair and immortality out of his death experience). 

Queer fans appreciated and cultivated what Xena gave us because, no offense but what the fuck else was there? Not a lot, and even less in the fantasy space. Hell, there’s still not a lot of queer representation in the fantasy space we’re only just now going “hey maybe Tolkien’s ultra white British view of things is not the only way to do things?" And now House of Dragon has Black actors in terrible wigs (they’re so fucking bad rip) in 2022. Woooo~ most queer chars in western fantasy media are mainly found in kids cartoons - which, fucking aces there but also - probably why there’s so many adults in those spaces in fandom (not my bag personally) and why I think the popularity of danmei, c-dramas, and k-dramas is on the rise. People are hungry for epic fantasy content, epic romance content, and queer content. 

but like, I think about queer folks who live in China, who watched WoH (ya know, the intended audience, not Americans) who are probably feeling the same thing people felt when they watched Xena. Yeah, Mr. Advertiser Xena and Gabrielle are soulmates (platonic) wink wink, Yeah Mr. Network ZZS and WKX are soulmates (platonic) wink wink

and I think that’s still valuable. idk I just don’t think it’s right for foreigners to be like “no you’re queer media doesn’t count actually because I deem it so” when the reason for the relationship being subtextual is literal censorship. And yet the text is hella gay anyway!! like at the end of the day we’re all battling the crushing weight of homophobia but not everyone’s fight is exactly the same especially country-to-country and I think that should still be respected. given how damn gay WoH is anyway I imagine the producers fought really fucking hard to give audiences what they did. Just like the producers of Xena fought against the network to do what they could. 

anyway, thoughts and shit

[systastic]

Hi!! Adding on, just a few npcs and stuff, anything that's easier for you, as we don't want to stress you out :3

a stunning, absolutely marvelous idea you have here, anon :] hope you like these goofy little guys! might come back n add some more to them later after i sleep, haha —🤍 (🌳)

Mandy Isobel Graves

What’re YOU looking at? Huh? If the answer was Mandy, then good luck babe! Mandy is an attitude-filled “almost adult” (her words, not mine) who deals with her problems by avoiding the fuck out of them. People who annoy her or try to hit on her get clapped back on and shut down right away. Nobody is gonna touch this until she’s sure they can handle it! She works at the diner part-time as a way of earning income to keep up her addiction. What kind of addiction, you ask? Stuffed animals. Very cute, very small, very fluffy stuffed animals. If you tell anyone else about this, then… Well, technically, she can’t do much of anything about it. But she’ll pout at you and will refuse to serve your food to your table at the diner. So there! She is a lesbian through and through — so don’t try hitting on her if you’re a guy. That won’t end well. Mandy lives with her parents in Suburbia, Katherine and Edward Graves, along with their dog Jett. And yes, he’s named after Jett from ATLA.

Good with: Diner patrons, teens around her age (particularly women)

Bad with: Authority figures, older men, children (2-10). She doesn’t like kids nor does she know how to deal with them. Sorry, Charlie.

source: here!

Craig Cummings

This is Craig Cummings, local police officer and resident boxer of the town living in apartment 205. He may not look like it, but he’s actually new to this place, having only shown up about two months ago. His ex-wife left him over a squabble about their income (Craig was still in training at the time) and took their unborn child with her. Craig is pretty beat up about the whole ordeal, but honestly, he’s getting better now that he’s moved to a new location. You might catch Craig in the bakery while on duty or in the diner later at night chowing down on a big meaty burger. He can be a bit hard to talk to at first, but he’s got his heart in the right place: the good of the people comes first in his mind. Now all that’s left is to find a few new buddies, some craft beer, and get over this hump in his life. Fingers crossed it all goes well.

Good with: Older men (20-50), teenagers, old people, and other folks like himself

Bad with: Women around his age (he is bad at flirting), “those kids nowadays” aka gen alpha, chronically online people

source: here (please consider supporting the artist!)

Ethel McClellan

Ethel is an older woman with a big heart who lives in apartment 116 with her husband Barney. Her apartment matches the woman herself: homey and comfortable with a whole lot of knitted things that are obviously handmade. She is the kind of woman who will invite new faces into her home for tea despite not knowing them in the slightest. Her husband doesn’t mind one bit either. Both of them are starved for company due to the fact their children never want to visit. A real shame, that. Ethel’s views lean more to being conservative in nature, but she has enough common sense to tell when things are simply not right the way that they are. For some reason, the local stray cats flock to her windowsill during the afternoons. It might be because of Ethel feeding them sardines all the time… but she claims it’s “a little gift from the Good Lord himself”. (Barney disagrees, but doesn’t say a word.) Her evenings are spent knitting and watching the game with her dear husband. A rack of spare teacups sit on her kitchen counter waiting to be filled… Maybe you’ll be her next visitor?

Good with: Children (5-11), “youngins” (20s-30s), older folk (40-60+)

Bad with: Pretty much no one unless they’re a “gosh darn rapscallion” or “troublemaker”

source: here!

[afterlife-2004]

Will Tom Die?/ What’re my thoughts on Amy and Rouge not appearing in the Sonic Movie 3

❗️❗️Disclaimer ❗️❗️To make it more easier for me, you, yes YOU, you who’s reading this right now, do NOT go after and harass anyone who’s mentioned in this thread of mine, I’m just voicing out my opinions, nothing more, nothing less, but also at the end of the day, I don’t hold any ill will against ANY of these people whatsoever, and I don’t want any of my followers nor anyone who just so happens to see this particular thread of mine pop up on their Tumblr feed going after and harassing these people, as I don’t wish to create unnecessary and petty quarrels, even if you, or I, or anyone else doesn’t like a specific person on the internet, whether it be on Twitter or Tumblr, etc, you should NEVER EVER promote harassing innocent people, who in retrospect? Have done absolutely nothing wrong, as I don’t wanna indulge in that kind of immature behaviour, unlike in the past…

Okay? let’s continue…

I’ve seen people speculate whether or not Tom Wachowski (aka Donut Lord) is gonna die in the Sonic Movie 3, heard folks say they’re very certain that Shadow is gonna kill Tom off

'what did you do?'

'what i had to.'

On other hand, you’ve got others saying “Unless we get PG 13 rating on this one I can't see anyone dying”

The way I see it? I’m sorta in the middle ground, i see where both sides are coming from

People have said that killing off Tom would not happen since at the end of the day, these are “kids” movies…

Reminder…

this the exact same film where we’re gonna see a 12 year old girl get killed…

also…

THESE ARE KIDS MOVIES TOO

Children can handle these kinds of dark subject matters

Kids are smarter than most people give them credit for.

1/16

PART 2 👇

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

So You Wanna Read MGS (Sequels) Fics

Directly inspired by the “So You Wanna Read MGS Fics” post by @bosstoaster and written with permission since most of my stuff is more in the sequels and such games (though I write in the MGS1-MGS4 timeline too, but go see Toaster’s post for that one, it’s brilliant).

Note that Boss summarizes things far more eloquently than I do, but anyway!

The Sequels or “BB and His War Criminal Cult/Harem” These are the games that center mainly around Big Boss. Big Boss is the ‘father’ (unwitting and non-consenting donor) of his genes to the Les Enfants Terribles (don’t ask Ocelot to pronounce it) project crafted by Major Zero and Para-Medic.

The spawns of this project are Solid Snake and Liquid Snake *twins* and Solidus Snake. Solid’s name is David, Liquid’s name is Eli and Solidus’ name is George. Liquid is the most relevant to my stuff-but you’ll recall from Boss’s post that Solid is our protagonist in the main series, and Solidus is the President. He gets a dok ock tentacle suit and has swords named Democrat and Republilcan.

Anyway, the games for BB are as follows:

MGS3, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops *Canon Debatable*, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, and MGSV: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain.

Big Boss has his own relevant characters and stories, so let’s go!

MGS3: Snake Eater

Big Boss is an American CIA agent, 29 years old and slightly nuked. (Bikini Atoli Nuclear Tests) He’s a vet who’s been in the war since he was 15, guided by his mentor/mother/honestly nobody is entirely sure tbh The Boss. She is the GOAT of the war. She fought in WWII leading her Cobra Unit, she’s the greatest soldier the world knows. She gave birth to Ocelot (remember him) on 6th of June, 1944, in Normandy France. Which the world knows as the D Day Invasion. (After cutting him out of herself via self-imposed C-Section, infant Ocelot is removed by an Organization called The Philosophers.

We’ll get back to this. Don’t worry.

So anyway. It’s late summer of 1964. The United States and the Soviet Union are knee deep and years strong into the Cold War. A Soviet Scientist, Nikolai Sokolov has reached out to the USA in hopes of defecting and being brought to the other side of the iron curtain.

Big Boss-currently on the codename Naked Snake (because he’s dumped from a plane via HALO jump into the Russian jungle with almost no gear) means he ‘went in naked’ and Snake because it’s MGS. Snake is one of the codenames of all time in this series.

Snake has a single mission: rescue Sokolov, and come back.

What’s simple enough on paper ends up not being so, however. As he’s getting into this mission, Snake’s radio and support team is established, Major Zero (who briefly goes by Major Tom here for a movie reference he ends up getting wrong) and Para-Medic. She gives..’useful’ medical information and loves movies. Movies Snake has never seen because Big Boss is kind of like Big Foot. You wonder why they’ve brought him into the human world. (Will expand on this shortly) Just stay with me folks. The Boss also ends up on radio, and they’ve been apart for sometime now. (Five years, and Snake and The Boss have this down to the minute and hour, but I am not them-I don’t). Midway into Snake’s mission, his mentor, The Boss, goes offline and dead signal (aka: She can’t be reached by her radio) After Snake contacts Sokolov and is ready to move him out, they’re ambushed by an Elite GRU Spetznas Unit lead by Ocelot. Who at this point is 20 years old, a Major and the most baby-faced and excitable you’ll ever see him. It’s also the only time he’s shown in a hat, and with blonde hair. Ocelot goes prematurely grey like his father, The Sorrow. (I’ll point out quickly that The Sorrow is Ocelot’s dad, and he was killed by The Boss in 1962 give or take. He’s was a Russian medium in the Cobra Unit and now controls a type of river purgatory).

The GRU are under the control of Colonel Volgin. Volgin is a giant bisexual Philosopher’s Spawn-Esque commander. Along with the GRU there is the KGB, they are not friends. See some kind of Wikipedia Article or History Book for details on the GRU and KGB. We gotta move on. Sokolov runs off and is taken, The Boss has defected to the Soviet Union, and Volgin fucks everything up for everyone by taking a Davvy Crocket missle gifted to him by The Boss and fires it on friendly Russian soil.

SO a week after this, Naked Snake is back in the field with another mission. Find Sokolov *again*, find The Boss. Sokolov is to be rescued, The Boss is to be assassinated.

Snake also has a new radio contact; SIGINT. Donald Anderson. Who later becomes the DARPA chief.

Then the USA is all ‘Anyway if you can deal with Volgin too in the deadly fashion we’d appreciate it”. If Naked Snake fails these missions, he and Major Zero will *possibly. but most probably* be executed.

Admist all this, Snake gets help from a spy named EVA. He was originally supposed to get help from another spy, named ADAM. “Adam couldn’t make it.” EVA looks suspiciously like a lover Volgin takes named Tatyana. Imagine. His first mission, rescue Sokolov ends in finding out that Volgin wants to unleash a metal gear (THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS, ONE OF THE FIRST) and start nuclear war. This is metal gear Shagohod. Originally designed by a scientist named Granin (who has an American scientist that is unnamed in this game but is actually Huey Emmerich) and adopted by Sokolov (unwillingly, Sokolov just wanted to make space rockets). Problems happen, we find out EVA and Tatyana are the same person. Snake ends up tortured at some point, he fights and picks off the magical not magical some parasitically enhanced (we’ll get back to this it’s relevant in MGSV) soldiers, Ocelot spends as much time as he humanely can trying to find Snake, be Snake, get into Snake’s pants-.

In addition to all this, Volgin is revealed to be an heir the Philosopher’s Legacy. This legacy has an insane amount of money; and lots of people want it. And are tasked with stealing it.

IN any case. Snake’s torture ends up being how Ocelot becomes a world-feared and renown interrogator (no seriously, it turned him on and inspired him so much he became one of the most elite interrogators in the world), we find out The Boss was a spy, Snake defeats Volgin and the Metal Gear, assassinates The Boss (it’s extremely sad and emotional and heartbreaking), and escapes with EVA. (He fights Ocelot here too, and a lifetime of devotion from Ocelot begins).

EVA and Big Boss take retreat in a cabin, bang and then Snake wakes up alone to a recording after EVA hit and ran. She’s ACTUALLY a Philosophers Agent for China, and she was supposed to steal the Philosopher’s Legacy, and kill Snake. She loves Snake though, so she ran instead of shooting him).

OH, and The Boss didn’t defect. She was a ‘problem’ for America, and they needed her out. Snake is given a medal for doing his job like the good little soldier pawn he was, tries not to murder the President in seething rage and officially starts distancing himself from the USA.

Ocelot calls the CIA Director and reveals he was ADAM. (His real name is Adamska, he’s not an ‘Ocelot’ ;) And he did his own job-the first of many spy jobs, perfectly.

He also loves Snake by now-and tells the director Snake’s name-John, before quickly covering it up.

THE YEARS AFTER

Snake, EVA, Ocelot, Major Zero, SIGINT and ParaMedic are not impressed with how the world is panning out. Snake is feeling a bit directionless, and our group forms a successor organization to the Philosopher’s This organization is called The Patriots.

In this time period, people start getting a bit antsy about Snake being Sir Nukes Made Me Sterile. Because they believe he has superior soldier genes or..something. Para Medic and Zero want a perfect soldier, and they want Snake’s legacy to continue. So the workings of the Les Enfants Terribles project begins. EVA serves as the surrogate for the twins, and Para-Medic (who’s real name is Clark) gets the eggs from her ‘Unnamed Japanese Assistant’ a lady so NPC nobody gives her a name. RIP.

Oh, and after he killed The Boss, Snake was given the title ‘Big Boss’ he hates it. He also hates this being Betrayal Number Two. He leaves The Patriots, and goes off on his own. MGS Portable Ops happens after this. I haven’t played it, so the most I can tell you is that in some canon’s, this is where he meets Gray Fox.

Ocelot remains a spy for everybody ever. And is still devoted to Snake.

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker

In 1972, Naked Snake is a mercenary doing odd work and has ended up in Columbia. Here he meets a Japanese-American guerilla fighter named Kazuhira Miller. Obliterates his squad, and is about to do the very same to Kaz, when Kaz pulls a grenade. Impressed, Snake keeps him, and they begin the process of creating a mercenary unit, MSF (Militaries Sans Frontiers). Snake is Big Boss for this, and Kaz serves as his XO. (Second in Command)

But Kaz has a secret. Stay tuned. I know this is getting long.

Cut to 1974.

As their mercenary unit grows, a man called Professor Galvez turns up with a high school girl named Paz Ortega Andrade. They need help in Costa Rica, a sob story or two later and Snake is willing to help. There are nukes being pulled into Costa Rica, Snake gets involved in nuclear war again, and along the way meets other fighters. One of those fighters is Amanda Valenciano Libre, and her younger brother Ricardo-called Chico in series.

BUT IT’S NOT JUST NUKES OH NO SIR IT AIN’T. You see, there’s a Metal Gear out there, created by Huey Emmerich, working for an American called Hot Coldman. Nuclear war is on the horizon with Metal Gears once again. Except instead of just one big Metal Gear, there’s four smaller Metal Gears and then the mother of Metal Gears. Created with the help of Doctor Strangelove. Metal Gear Peace Walker has an AI on board-programmed to sound like The Boss because Strangelove is deeply in love with The Boss and needed her. Even though she is deceased.

Snake stops Peace Walker, and goes back to the MSF. Here, with Huey and Strangelove now apart of the organization, Kaz suggests that it’s totally legit to take Peace Walker’s nuke and keep it. “Deterrence’ after all.

Paz meanwhile steals this nuke, and Metal Gear ZEKE. Nuclear war number two is on the horizon (two for this game I mean). It turns out Paz was a secret Cipher agent-the successor agency to The Patriots, lead by Major Zero. She was to get Snake back to Zero, essentially. And Kaz, in his most capitalist and power hungry moments, not only knew all along, but was in on the entire thing.

Paz is also a grown woman.  And Galvez was a Russian.

Paz is defeated. Kaz comes clean about his involvement as a Cipher spy and assumes things are okay. But things are not okay. Snake is smarting from betrayal 3, 4 and 5 ish. He also officially embraces the title of Big Boss, and starts becoming even more disillusioned with the world at large-and the people in it.

1975

MGSV; Ground Zeroes

PAZ IS ALIVE. But is a POW at Camp Omega. Chico has gone to rescue her and got caught. Because he’s 13 and can’t just go rescue someone by himself. They’ve been brutally tortured by an unknown party called Skull Face. The leader of XOF-a ‘clean up crew’ that was the reverse of the FOX Unit. (This is the Unit Snake and Zero were trying to form earlier on. Skull Face shadowed Big Boss while he was in Soviet Territory, and cleaned up all his messes).

Big Boss rescues Paz and Chico, and heads back to Mother Base. His headquarters for the MSF. Along the way, Paz is revealed to have been implanted with a bomb. Big Boss and an onboard soldier-The Medic, work to remove the bomb. They are successful. However, as they return, they find Mother Base under attack from what they assume is Major Zero. The entire base is in flames. Big Boss is only able to get Kaz off ground, and into the chopper, before the entire thing explodes and crashes into the ocean.

Big Boss in shock, Mother Base is destroyed and Kaz tries to strangle Paz to death, assuming she sold them out and lead Zero right to them. As this is going on, she reveals there’s a SECOND bomb inside her. I won’t say where, it’s..grotesque. Think of child birth.

Anyway, she jumps, and explodes just as they’re all about to crash into another chopper.

MGSV: Phantom Pain

1984

Big Boss has been in a coma for nine years. He has been betrayed and hurt over and over again. The world has changed a lot in the last nine years, and he has to set out on a mission to destroy the man who was responsible for his base going up in flames, Skull Face. Big Boss is looking a bit different these days. He has a giant piece of shrapnel sticking out of the right side of his head, he’s missing his left arm, and he’s much more feeble and weak than he’s ever been in his life.

Skull Face attacks the hospital keeping him, and Big Boss sounding guy in a bunch of face bandages calling himself Ishmael and bare-assed helps guide him out of the hospital. Big Boss is so far beyond giving a shit that he’s set out on a plan of warfare and revenge.

Ishmael disappears after they escape, and Big Boss is rescued by his old pal Ocelot. White horse and all.

Ocelot is approaching middle age now, and is as grey haired as his daddy once was. He remains this way for the rest of his life.

So Big Boss has another mission now, Kaz has also been captured, and he has to rescue him before he dies. Kaz has been through hell. He can barely see, he’s lost an arm and a leg and he’s single minded in hatred and revenge. He’s bitter, angry, and desperate. Ocelot is happy to help and sensible and calmly offering advice every chance he can and generally being calm and serene because he’s with his favourite person of all time ever and he is allowed to interrogate all the new ‘recruits’.

Big Boss has amnesia, dissociates a lot, and just seems ‘off’ in general. IN fact, everyone ever seems a bit ‘off’. Funny huh?

As they got to hunt down Skull Face (under the impression all this was Major Zero’s doing) they figure out that Huey probably betrayed them. They find Huey, and keep him around. When he’s not being interrogated or tortured by Kaz and Ocelot, he’s generally being insufferable and whiny. And is also responsible for having made another Metal Gear. Metal Gear Salhelanthropus.

At some point, Big Boss also meets one of his kids. A very angry, very dangerous Liquid Snake. Who is 12 at this point. Baby Liquid runs on spite and hatred of Big Boss and is exactly the same at 12 as he is in his mid 30′s.

Problems begin arising. Paz is on base! Nobody see’s her but Big Boss! Kaz is so angry all the time he can’t think straight-and see’s spies in every corner. Major Zero was not behind the attack, but their enemy definitely worked for him at some point. (In fact, he was Zero’s XO once upon a time, but they had a falling out. Zero is also ill now, and can’t do much of anything. SIGINT is secretly handling everything now, as is an AI he started making. This AI becomes more relevant in the main games that Toaster summarized).

Oh, and Volgin was alive! And is now a Man on Fire. He dies for real in this game. 12 year old Psycho Mantis is also here, and starts his friendship with Liquid Snake. Mantis was originally controlled (kinda) by the Man on Fire, but switches sides to Liquid Snake. Or something.

People are getting sick, and dying. Huey and Strangelove got together at the end of Peace Walker- yet she’s nowhere to be found? Big Boss has to keep his new Mother Base-now called Diamond Dogs, up and running, track down the source of the virus, figure out what the hell Huey is up to, and find Skull Face.

All of these end up  being connected.

Skull Face betrayed Major Zero and attacked Big Boss. Skull Face then went more power hungry and created a virus designed to wipe out ‘every language except English’. Paz isn’t real-shocking, and Huey murdered Strangelove.

Oh, by the by, she had a child. Hal. (Yes, that’s Otacon, and Strangelove was murdered because Huey wanted to use Hal as an Evangelion esque child pilot in Salhelanthropus. So she bundled Hal off to safety in the USA).

Huey is exiled for his crimes,(he lives, tragically) Big Boss’s hell spawn Eli (Child Liquid Snake) steals Sahelanthropus and things just..don’t seem very normal, do they?

At some point, Big Boss is told something.

He’s not Big Boss.

WELL HE IS, but you see.

Major Zero knew early on that Skull Face had gone rogue and attacked MSF. While Big Boss was comatose, The Medic was also brought in from the wreck. Zero decided to keep The Medic around, and with Ocelot, use hypnotherapy and plastic surgery to create a 1-1 copy of Big Boss. Not just physically, but mentally.

This man becomes Venom Snake. Big Boss 2.0. The only people in on this are Ocelot, Major Zero and some other Cipher agents. EVA knows as well, I believe. Ocelot spends 9 years making the perfect new Big Boss while watching over Big Boss and working with an oblivious Kazuhira Miller.

When Big Boss wakes up, Skull Face is hot on their tails. Ocelot forms a plan with his man and they get Venom Snake out of the hospital. Big Boss goes one way, and Ocelot and Venom go the other.

In this escape, Big Boss calls himself, Ishmael. SURPRISE.

Ocelot then hypnotizes himself to make sure he doesn’t slip up in his scheme here. Kaz is presented with Venom Snake, and has no idea Big Boss is off creating Outer Heaven elsewhere, until an unhypotized Ocelot clues him in at some undetermined point.

Kaz, bitter about being left behind and divorced without being told, vows to enact revenge on Big Boss sometime. Ocelot avows that this will eventually lead to them being enemies with one killing the other.

1995

Diamond Dogs is now Outer Heaven. Venom Snake faces the mirror, after having been Big Boss for 11 years, smashes it, and walks to his death at the hands of Solid Snake. Where he is defeated. And Big Boss, so far gone and so out of fucks to give outside of warfare, has no idea that his second nation, Zanzibarland, will one day end up in a molotov’d brimstone of spite guided by his bitter ex, Kaz, via a well-trained Solid Snake. On Christmas Eve in 1999.

And Ocelot, of course, is still furiously devoted to Big Boss.

CUE MAIN SERIES!

If anything needs clarification, LMK.

[shadowmaat]

It's only going to get worse, folks.

Mullenweg says that users might start with just a Tumblr blog but then, over time, want to expand into something larger — an e-commerce store, a more customizable site, a newsletter or a membership site — and Automattic could direct users to other products it offers that allow those possibilities, like WordPress.com or WooCommerce, and others. “I’m excited about that on-ramp as well as to bring a younger demographic and young people into WordPress,” Mullenweg noted.

It was never about "saving" tumblr, it was about driving more traffic to Automattic.

And yeah, that "younger demographic" thing comes up a couple of times. It's part of the base code of the internet: the "younger demographic" is the only one that matters. Which is stupid, since your "younger demographic" becomes your "older demographic" over time. AKA your long-time userbase. Why the hell would you want to alienate the people who've been with you forever in order to chase the youngers? "They have more disposable income" is a lie that needs to finally die.

Mullenweg is also severely disconnected from reality when it comes to "AI."

“For Tumblr…I think it can make our developers a lot more productive…the code could be checked by AI or tested by AI or something like that. So that’ll allow us to do a lot more with the same or fewer developers, which is really exciting. So maybe our pace of development can increase,” he said. Plus, AI can be a help in moderation, flagging things before they’re even reported by Tumblr users. In addition, AI and machine learning could make the Tumblr feed better and more personalized to end users. “You can tweak it and it can really learn the things you want to see and the friends you want to follow,” he said. The exec was also generally bullish on generative AI as a tool for artists, which may benefit the community that uses Tumblr, but didn’t note that Tumblr itself would build gen AI tools.

I feel like Staff is just as under threat as the rest of us with this. He's gonna try and save money by potentially cutting staff and relying on "AI" to handle coding checks and moderation. Yeah, because robomodding has worked so well in the past. /sarcasm

He also seems to have missed how much "AI" is loathed by artists. Like, yes, it can and has been used as a tool to help artists create their own unique works, but it's far, FAR more commonly used as a way to steal the work of others, tweak it, and regurgitate it as something "new" with no actual artistic changes made by the non-artist end user.

This is the future of tumblr. No wonder our feedback goes unanswered. It also seems I was right in guessing that being a long-time user is considered a bad thing: we're "old" and the only ones that matter are the "young."

Huh. I wonder if any of that plays into the under-20s believing the over-20s don't belong here.

ANYWAY! Now's a good time to mention that Pillowfort isn't owned by corporate sponsors and works well as a blogging platform. Dreamwidth is also out there, but reminds me more of Livejournal than tumblr in its mechanics.

Damn. I knew tumblr was taking a downward trend but I didn't realize we were already circling the drain.