#almost time for me to go back through this blog and delete a bunch of 'no longer canon' Stuff!

[weevmo]

WB has no gender or is he too dumb to actually stick/associate to our complex roles of identity?

Or is it a lore thing?...All In general I love how you draw these puppets, they give me great euphoria

AHA

wELL - The thing I adore about Puppets is they are what their creators 'assign' them to be - and depending on their clothes and hair they would be assumed either gender, or in some cases, neither!

TO ANSWER: The reason WB goes by 'He' is because that is how Bailey/Lulu refers to him! They/he/she/it has no concept of gender and probably wouldn't find it interesting even if he could grasp it. It is beyond him!

As for Lore: Corduroy Stew takes place primarily in a 60s -70s era, where these kinds of things weren't super acceptable. Bailey created WB as a male technically (for the sake of his audience) but allows them to walk the line. Bailey doesn't get along with other men/male presenting things super well anywho-

[klaus-littlestwolf]

Sorry it took so long. Almost finished, just one more chapter to go.

@a-beaverhausen @ranisingsnew @ronswhoree @susannahmikaelson @skulliecadaver-blog @yeaiamme2 @nataliewalker93 @luz09

Series Masterlist

Waking up alone was disappointing but Y/n didn’t expect anything else, knowing that if Klaus had stayed until morning he would have been shot God knows how many times.

2 Days. That’s all she needed to wait, just 2 more days and then she could get away from this house, the constant guards, a mom that ignores everything that goes wrong around her and her father. Her father who she had loved and adored more than anyone in the world, her father who had been her hero only to become the man who ignores her existence and shoots her pet.

Just 2 Days…

Klaus knew he needed to tell her the truth. Getting her to leave with him and depend on him needed to happen first, he knew once she loved him that she could accept anything about him.

He also knew that she would willingly turn for him, Y/n was exactly the kind of girl who would want to be with him for eternity, already overly sensitive about the idea of being abandoned. After her father had abandoned her without ever leaving the same house, what else could anyone expect?

He had been working in the time away from Y/n on his Hybrids, having to go back to Mystic Falls to find out Doppleganger blood was what he needed to turn the wolves. Sadly he didn’t get back to Y/n until the third day away and he was worried that she would be upset with him. However, the house was finished thanks to compelled construction workers and interior designers working around the clock, his Hybrids guarded the house as he instructed them to and he was finally able to pick her up.

Sadly though he was not quite as sneaky as he thought approaching the house this time and he ended up snapping one of the guards necks before climbing up to the window. Klaus saw her on her bed drifting off to a movie on the TV and he tapped the glass to see her head pop up and her eyes widen in excitement making her jump up and nearly fall from the bed as she fumbled to yank the window open.

‘You’re late!’ She snapped, though her smiling face pointed to her not being overly upset about it before she pulled him in and hugged him.

‘I’m so sorry Princess, there were complications finishing the house and I wanted it to be perfect. I’m sorry if I made you doubt me-‘

‘No! I didn’t, I promise! Thought…maybe my dad had…I-‘

‘Oh baby. I’m so sorry, come here!’ He hugged her to his chest tightly, kissing her head before the tears could fall. ‘Are you ready to go? I had a complication getting in here so we need to hurry.’ Her head popped up with a startled look before she jumped to grab the large duffel bag under her bed, pulling it out and setting it on the bed before moving to her dresser and grabbing sweat pants and a long sleeved shirt. She changed fast as Klaus opened her bag to inspect it.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’ll get you a new laptop, your father can use this to track you, can’t bring it with us.’

‘Oh shit!’ She moved to grab a flash drive from her drawer before plugging it into the laptop and saving several things before deleting a bunch of things. ‘He’ll look through everything like he always does and find my journal. Wish I could see the look on his face when he sees how I really feel about him…both of them.’ There was a smile on her face but Klaus wrapped his arms around her from behind, seeing how sad she really was about it.

‘You’ll never have to listen to anything he says again. You’ll be happy with me, I promise.’ He swore, picking up the bag and moving to the window, watching her pull the sim card from her phone before tossing it onto the bed and following him. Klaus took hold of her and lifted her into his arms before jumping out the window, smiling at her small gasp as he did, quickly moving through the trees to get to the car he had left and setting her into the passenger seat.

‘Where are we going?’ She asked, clearly excited and clutching his hand as he began to drive.

‘We’re going to the airport-‘

‘My father will be able to find us there, he’ll find out where we-‘

‘Impossible. I have a jet fueled up and waiting, only the pilot knows where we’re going. He will not be able to find us, I promise.’ Klaus assured, kissing her hand and holding it firmly, watching as she tried to relax though he knew she wouldn’t until they were on the jet, far away.

He left the rental car with someone at the front before leading her through security quickly, compelling a security guard to fast track them through to get to their flight. ‘It’s so weird not being surrounded by guards in a public place, I feel like I’ve been let out of a bubble for the first time since I can remember and it’s like I can breathe deeper…does that sound stupid?’

‘Of course not Love, you’ve been confined your entire life, it’s normal to feel free now that you’re away from it all.’ He enjoyed watching her look around with a smile on her sweet face.

‘What’s that smell? It’s…sweet. It smells so good!’ She exclaimed, looking around in excitement.

‘The cinnamon buns maybe?’ Klaus said, pointing to the shop. ‘Do you want one?’ She nodded quickly and he led her over to grab a few of them for the flight before taking her to the jet that was waiting on them.

‘Woah…this is bigger than my Dads…I didn’t think that existed.’ The hybrid couldn’t help his chuckle at the clear innuendo that went over her head as she looked around, Klaus buckling her in and making her blush at even the small gesture of care he showed her as the jet took off. He couldn’t help but smile as the tension in her body seemed to completely disappear as they ascended, finally free from her father and his control.

The fact that she was now completely under Klaus’ control was a detail he didn’t think needed mentioning…

Somewhere in the Woods in New York

‘Where Is She?!’ He raged, holding his best friend by the front of his jacket.

‘I don’t know Buck-she must have gone out the window-‘

‘I have guards everywhere! How did she get passed them, Huh?! What do you-‘

‘Hun, whatever Y/n has done isn’t Steve’s fault and you’re going to regret killing him. You love him.’ His wife reminded, gently removing his hands from Steve and pulling Bucky close, feeling all of his muscles tensing at the idea of his baby being missing.

‘Someone has taken her, who should I be killing?!’ He demanded only to be met with a stern look from the mother of his child.

‘I don’t know who you think you’re talking to like that but it isn’t me.’ He sighed, pulling her into him and burying his face into her neck. ‘I know you’re worried, I’m worried too but this was inevitable. She did tell you she was going to leave-‘

‘She was being dramatic! She knows I love her, she wouldn’t…someone has taken her, only explanation!’ He insisted, beginning to pace across the floor, waiting for his men to check the security cameras.

Bucky is willing to admit that he isn’t the best father but he loves his daughter more than anything in the world. After all that has happened, all that he’s lost, he couldn’t risk losing her too. And maybe he held on too tight sometimes but he loved his baby more than he had ever loved anything. Every time he looks at her he sees that precious little bundle he was handed by a nurse, he was the first person to ever hold her and he swore to her that he would never let go.

‘Boss…you’re not gonna like this…’ Bucky looked up from where he sat with his wife holding onto him, the only thing keeping him grounded on this planet right now.

‘What is this? Where is this?!’ He demanded as he watched the video on the laptop that Sam handed to him.

‘It’s a camera from one of the back roads to the property. No one but security even knows they exist, we don’t know how anyone got there.’ Sam explained, standing just out of Buckys reach in case he decides to lash out.

‘What is he doing? Is…she’s kissing him…how does she even know him?! She’s always had security, who-‘ Bucky cut himself off as he thought back to Tony’s party the week before. He had seen this man before, he had smiled at him at the party, smirked more like it, and Bucky had wanted to slap that look off of his face…he should have killed him when he had the chance!

‘I’m not surprised.’ Buckys head snapped up to look at his wife who was clearly upset but no where near as physically upset as he was. ‘With how you treat her, smother her? An attractive man came along and promised her the world, of course she ran away with Prince Charming. Especially after what you pulled last week, I told you that dog thing would come back and bite us in the ass.’

‘Seriously?! How are you not upset-‘

‘I’m furious! But I’m also able to see how this came to happen and it is our fault. God knows what he’s promised her, but I’m not shocked she jumped at the first chance to get away from you-‘

‘She knows I love her-‘

‘No James, I don’t think she does.’ Buckys face fell as he heard his wife say this. Every fight they had, every punishment or mean word, he had always comforted himself by remembering that his daughter knows that he loves her and that he would kill or die for her. Now to hear that she might not truly believe that, Bucky swears that he heard his heart crack. ‘When she was young she did but you changed when she got older and I have no idea how she feels about you anymore. She doesn’t talk to me because she knows I will tell you everything. We fucked up, and we have to get her back.’

Klaus Mikaelson Masterlist

[hanniology]

no one gets away with it | csc

synopsis: just seungcheol being sulk. genre: FLUFF, crack. warning: SULKY CHEOL, mention of alcohol, mention of poop. word count: 847. pairing: choi seungcheol x gn!reader. note: also I used mx which is a gender neutral term for miss/mr to keep this all gender neutral. Also this is a repost from that i deleted from my other blog

Stepping into the boys dorms, closing the door behind you. You just came back from grocery shopping with your wonderful boyfriend Seungcheol. That said boyfriend is now currently sulking on the couch on something that had happened early today at the store.

The two of you went out shopping for food because Minghao and Jun were coming back from their trip to China. So obviously because of that they were going to want to host some really big welcome back party, which meant a lot of food. And the thirteen boys weren’t going to survive with the amount of food they had in their fridge. 

You decided to come along and help after hearing Seungcheol go on a rant about how he (unfairly) lost in a game of rock paper scissors, which was deciding who’s going to go out and buy all the food and ingredients. Apparently just in the first round he was the only one to be holding a pair of scissors and everybody was holding rock. Feeling bad you decided to join him on the trip to the grocery store.

Everything was completely normal, just like your typical trips to the store. Cheol pushing the cart, you trying to put in a bunch of unnecessary things, trying your best to convince him that you guys would need it, and a bunch of questionable stares from customers due to the large amount of soju in your cart. 

So what exactly happens to have your boyfriend currently sitting on the living room couch all sulky.

Well, when the two of you finally agreed you have enough food, you head over to the cashier. Cheol was placing all the already scanned items into the cart again from the conveyor, while you had over Mingyu’s card (which Cheol totally didn’t steal when he wasn’t looking out of revenge from them cheating in the game).

The cashier man seemed nice and probably didn’t mean any harm when he told you, “You look good today, mx.”

Poor guy didn’t see the look on Seungcheol’s face when he said that, he was too busy printing out the receipt. About to give that said receipt to you, but instead got it grabbed from his hand by Seungcheol.

On the way back to the dorms he didn’t say anything, just grumply and sulkily walked next to you on the way there. You kept trying to tell him it wasn't that much of a big deal, but he didn’t listen.

So that should be enough explaining why your boyfriend is sitting on the couch with both elbows on his legs, with arched eyebrows, pouty lips and clicking a pen, right?

Chuckling softly at the scene, “Cheol,” picking up one of the bags on the floor and bringing them to the kitchen, “you look like you're trying very hard to push out a poop.”

He rolls his eyes at your comment and continues to click the pen in his hand.

Coming back from the kitchen to grab another bag, “You know if you are really having a hard time pushing it out, an easier way is to lift your legs.”

“Yn this is a serious matter- wait really?- that’s besides the point,” 

You go through a giggling fit, almost dropping the bag when he changed the subject for a little, “Yes, it really does work.”

“Urg, why won’t you take this seriously?” He goes to write something on the paper on the coffee table.

When you finished putting all the stuff away, the front door unlocks, entering Mingyu, who’s here to cook the food for the welcome back party (or some excuse to get drunk idk).

“What’s up with coups?” He asks as he watches the older boy continue to write on the paper.

“Oh, someone told me I looked good whilst we were at the store and now he’s plotting their death.” 

A confused look grows on Mingyu’s face. “Isn’t that a complement?”

“All they said was good,” Cheol says, “They forgot all the other words that perfectly describe them. Perfect… Gorgeous… and any other positive word in the dictionary.” He grabs the paper filled with more compliments and starts waving it in the air.

“No one gets away with that. No one.”

[ bonus]

A week later.

You were in the boys dorms once again, reading a book on the same couch, Cheol wrote that list of nice things to you.

“Does anyone know where my card is?” Mingyu walks in the living room asking you and the other members that are in as well. 

Sinking deeper into the couch, lifting the book higher so it can hide the smug smile on your face. You almost exposed yourself with the giggles about to come out of your mouth.

But luckily saved by a Cheol running to you from the bathroom, “Yn, you were right, if you lift your legs while sitting on the toilet, it’s much easier to get it out.” 

“I’m sorry-WHAT?!” Mingyu exclaims.

Which was a good thing so now you don’t have to hide your laughter that escaped your mouth.

[ifbench]

Pokemon Soulsilver Retrospective, from the perspective of someone who had it as their first Pokemon game but never finished it (until now)

To preface this, this is not my first time playing Pokemon Soulsilver. I played some of it back in 2012 or so, but didn't get very far. And my memories of that playthrough are almost nonexistant, so this is essentially still a first playthrough.

If you'd like to read my other mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, X here, Firered here, and Black here.

Pokemon Soulsilver has a strange sort of anti-nostalgia to it to me.

It was technically my very first Pokemon game, yet I have more memories of the 25 minutes I played of Explorers of Time back in 2012, than I do of the several hours I played of Soulsilver in that year.

I don't even remember how far I truly got. It might have only been up to the first gym, it might have been up to Pryce, I don't know.

What I do know, though, is that like with Black, people keep bringing up Soulsilver and Heartgold to be the "golden age" of Pokemon. That it was when the series was good. (Though I personally disagree. I love Violet, and I also love what I've played of Shield so far.)

Nonetheless, the idea of trying Soulsilver again kept popping up in my head after I got into PMD. I briefly entertained the idea of playing it again in 2021, then again in 2022, but I never went through with it until I started this marathon.

But in September of 2023, I decided to do it. I deleted my old save file, and started anew. While I had chosen a Cyndaquil during my first playthrough, this time, I chose a Chikorita as my starter. I named him Acacia, after my PMD Rescue Team DX partner.

However, soon after entering Cherrygrove City, I very quickly got sidetracked with Emerald and put Soulsilver on hold. I didn't get back to it until July of 2024, after I had finished Emerald, X, Firered, and Black.

And after I figured out how to implement the infinite rare candy cheat, since I remember a lot of people talking about how grindy the Johto games are.

But after all that, my second playthrough of Soulsilver had truly begun.

I went to go meet Professor Oak, and as I was on my way to return to New Bark Town, I had my first encounter with this game's rival, Silver.

I very nearly lost that first battle, but through sheer luck, Acacia managed to win.

After meeting with Professor Elm again and hearing about the theft, I caught a Sentret, and named him Niko, after the Sentret on my friend's blog @fated-furret.

I continued on the way to Violet City, collecting a few apricorns along the way. It was cool seeing them again after Legends Arceus, even if they did originate here. I also briefly peeked into Dark Cave.

Violet City was neat to see! I enjoyed how the Pokemon Center and Pokemart had different colors than normal.

I decided to head to the Sprout Tower first, with Niko at the front of my party.

Side note, I love how your Pokemon follow you around in this game, and you can interact with them! Reminds me of the "Let's go together" feature from Violet.

The Sprout Tower was...not very fun. It was a bunch of extremely samey trainer battles, all the way up to the top floor. Though seeing the central pillar shake and wobble was pretty neat.

I also caught a Ratatta here, who would be my HM buddy. I named her Jifa, after my HM buddy from my Firered playthrough.

But with Niko leveled up quite a bit, I decided to take on Falkner. He was pretty tough, but Acacia felled his Pidgey, and Niko felled his Pidgeotto (after 5 Roosts).

Then I decided to take a short detour to explore the Ruins of Alph. It was cool to look around for what possible secrets the ruins held, and the sliding puzzle was fun, though I didn't spend much time there.

As I was traveling down Route 32, I caught a Mareep that I named Marla, and subsequently found someone trying to sell me a Slowpoke tail for an obscene amount of money. I knew from fandom osmosis that there was something related to Slowpoke tails coming up soon.

But before that, I had to traverse Union Cave. It was a bit tricky due to all the firebreather trainers around, but I made it out the other side, into Azalea Town, where Team Rocket awaited me.

After talking to Kurt, I went into the Slowpoke well, and had my first encounter with one of the Team Rocket executives, Proton. Thanks to Marla, he wasn't very difficult to defeat.

Apparently, in the original Johto games, GSC, the Rocket executives are all nameless? I guess that makes sense with how different they were in the GSC arc of the Adventures manga, but I'm glad they were given names and personalities in the remakes.

But after defeating Proton, it was time to face my second Johto gym leader, Bugsy. He was quite tricky, especially with how powerful that Scyther of his was. But he had a Metapod with only Tackle, allowing me to have Niko spam Defense Curls to maximize his defense. After that, taking care of the Scyther was easy, and I won.

My next task was to look for Farfetch'd in the Ilex Forest. I enjoyed the little puzzle here on how to sneak up on them, it was pretty neat!

Then, with Cut taught to Jifa, I pressed onwards, and helped out one of the Kimono Girls along the way.

Soon, I made it to Goldenrod City, the hometown of my character Gen.

It was one thing to research Goldenrod City, but another thing entirely to experience it myself. It was massive and sprawling, and took me quite a while to explore it fully.

I feel like now's a good time to talk about nostalgia.

See, I remember nothing of Goldenrod City from my 2012 playthrough. I'm not sure I even ever got there. Yet you might be wondering, why choose it to be Gen's hometown? Why not Saffron City, or Castelia City, or another city from the mainline Pokemon games?

It has less to do with Goldenrod City itself, and more with Johto as a region. My memories of Soulsilver from 2012, foggy and faint as they may be, did influence me to have Gen be from a Johto town. From there, I just chose what looked like the biggest city, and made that his hometown.

Johto does hold some nostalgia for me, and so I cannot truly say that this retrospective is untainted by nostalgia. I do, however, believe that nostalgia to be faint enough to be negligible. I hope that is satisfactory.

Back to Goldenrod City, I completed the quiz to get a radio card, and went to the gym to challenge Whitney.

The rumors weren't lying, that Miltank was tough. I had to have Acacia use stall strats in order to pull off a win.

Next up, I headed towards Ecruteak City, and was starting to understand the jokes about Youngster Joey, after receiving my 11th call about his "top percentage Ratatta".

Speaking of the Pokegear, it's really neat! It has so many little functions, such as the radio and calling people you've met along your journey. Though I do wish the map was a key item instead of being inside the Pokegear. I always assigned the town map to the quickselect button.

But soon, I made it to Ecruteak City, after catching a Pidgey and naming him Bagoli. After fending off a Rocket grunt inside the Dance Theater, I went inside the Burned Tower, to find Morty, Eusine, and Silver.

Eusine is definitely an odd character. All I knew of him before this playthrough was from Pokespe, and that he was a prominent character in Crystal. I think he's neat, though.

After a battle with Silver, I went downstairs, causing Entei, Raikou, and Suicune to flee. Though I'm not sure why they only fled then, and not during the commotion upstairs.

For the gym battle against Morty, I actually only used my Furret, Niko. I had kept Foresight on him, and this allowed him to sweep through the ghosts with Headbutt, while being immune to all the ghost moves.

Afterwards, I headed east, and got the Strength HM. But not wanting to go through a cave at the moment, I headed west towards Olivine...and immediately encountered Entei.

I had no idea what to do here. Entei was far beyond the levels of any of my Pokemon, and I had no idea what triggered the encounter.

So, since Niko was still in the front of my party, I used his Run Away ability to flee the battle.

It wasn't until I told my friends about this that I learned about Roaming Pokemon.

Apparently, Entei and Raikou randomly teleport around the map, and if you end up on a route with one of them, you have a chance of encountering them. You only have a single turn to do anything against them, but damage stays between battles with them.

I don't understand the reason for all this in the slightest.

I was rather baffled by this, but I continued onwards, to Olivine City. I caught a Pidgey somewhere around

I like the Olivine lighthouse's music. It reminds me a bit of Pokemon Tower from Firered. Somber, but catchy.

Eventually, I made it to the top of the lighthouse, and was told to go to Cianwood to get medicine for Amphy.

Side note, I love how the lighthouse Ampharos has a nickname.

Surfing to Cianwood was simple, and so was getting the medicine. And there was also Suicune, in plain sight. I was expecting Suicune to be a Roaming Pokemon like Entei and Raikou, but here they were.

Of course, they fled shortly afterwards, but it was nice seeing Eusine again afterwards, and getting to battle him!

The gym battle with Chuck was actually easier than his gym trainers. After winning, and with the medicine and Fly HM in hand, I flew back to the Olivine lighthouse, to give the medicine to Amphy.

Jasmine was a rather difficult battle, as I had nothing super-effective against Steel. It took several tries, and me mixing up my strategy a bit, but I managed to win.

I flew back to Ecruteak City, surfed around Mount Mortar, encountered Suicune and Eusine again, and arrived in Mahogany Town.

The gym was blocked off, I couldn't go further west, and the strange souvenir shop didn't hold much interest for now. So my only path forward was north, towards the Lake of Rage.

And I got mugged by Team Rocket along the way.

But I managed to catch the red Gyarados, my first shiny I've encountered during my entire mainline Pokemon marathon. I named them Splind.

After arriving back on shore, I encountered Lance for the first time since my Firered playthrough. It was cool seeing him outside the Pokemon League.

And after making my way back to Mahogany Town, I got to see the oft-memed scene of Lance having his Dragonite Hyper Beam someone. Then, it was time for the Johto Rocket Hideout.

I'll be honest, it kinda felt like a disjointed mess.

They had something cool starting out, with the Persian security statues. But after the first one, you can immediately turn them off, and they don't appear on any other floors. I'd have liked to see some stuff about remaining out of their lines of sight. There was also the explosive floor, which I still have no idea what was up with.

Then there was the two passwords, for which I had to battle Rocket grunts willy-nilly until I found both of the ones with passwords. I feel like a hint as to which grunts had the passwords would make this better.

The battle with Petrel wasn't much to speak of, though it was funny seeing him speaking the password aloud backfiring on him, thanks to his Murkrow.

Then there was a battle with another Rocket executive, Ariana. I feel like she and Petrel deserved their own separate encounters, instead of being immediately one after another.

And even after defeating her, it still wasn't over. I still had to defeat the Electrodes powering the radio transmission.

The entire hideout was all over the place, and I felt like it's a bit indicative of one of my main problems with this game.

But before that, it was time to take on Pryce.

He wasn't too tricky, but he was no pushover either. It was also interesting to see how he differed from his Pokespe incarnation.

But I won, and immediately afterwards, Team Rocket sends their second radio transmission.

I feel like now is the best time for me to talk about the pacing with Team Rocket in this game.

In short, I really feel like it'd have benefited from another major encounter with them before Mahogany Town. Maybe around Olivine or Cianwood.

Because before Mahognay Town, there was only two noteworthy encounters with them. The Slowpoke Well, and the single grunt in the Ecruteak Dance Theater. That's it.

Petrel and Ariana should have had their own bases, instead of being shoved into one together. I also feel like it'd help make Team Rocket feel like more of a threat, rather than something that happens almost entirely just before and just after the gym battle with Pryce.

Sorry for the negativity there, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Anyways, I flew back to Goldenrod City, to take on Team Rocket one final time...at least until Ultra Moon and Let's Go Eevee.

It was neat seeing the Rocket disguise from the first visit to Goldenrod coming into play here...at least until Silver unmasked me immediately after I entered the Radio Tower.

Still, it was fun fighting all the Rocket executives again. Petrel, Proton, and Ariana. It was a Rocket marathon, and I was having far more fun here than in the Rocket Hideout. Helped that the door puzzle in the underground storage area was pretty fun!

But soon enough, I was at the observation deck of the Radio Tower, ready to face off against Archer.

Like with Petrel and Ariana, I wish we had gotten to see more of Archer. But his battle didn't disappoint. It was quite tricky! But I won, and defeated this iteration of Team Rocket for good.

Again, though, mainline Pokemon games don't end when the plot ends. I still had quite a ways to go before the credits.

Next up was the Ice Path. It felt like sorta an extension of the Mahogany Town gym, with more ice puzzles. This time with an added echo of the Seafoam Islands puzzle, of using Strength to push boulders down holes. It was a fun challenge!

Soon, though, I made it through, to Blackthorn City, ready to face the final Johto gym leader, Clair. She was a tough opponent, but I won the battle.

Not the badge, though, not yet. For the second time this game, a gym leader refused to hand me the badge after I won the battle. But unlike Whitney, Clair wasn't content to just give me it anyways after a few seconds.

No, I had to go into the Dragon's Den, and pass one more test in order to prove myself worthy of the Rising Badge.

I really like this part of Soulsilver! It's so interesting to see some of the gym badges have a bit more to them than usual.

I passed the test, and received my final Johto badge, only to receive a call from Professor Elm, telling me to meet him at his lab.

I decided to go the long way, instead of simply flying there. So I set foot onto Route 45, and immediately encountered the last of the Legendary Beasts, Raikou.

Sure enough, after a single Petal Dance from Acacia, it fled. But I had now seen Entei, Raikou, and Suicune all at least once, and so I was satisfied.

After receiving the master ball from Professor Elm, it was now time for me to face the toughest trainers yet, the Kimono Girls.

Silver wasn't kidding, they were very tricky opponents. They may only have had one Pokemon each, but as I couldn't heal between, it was essentially like fighting one trainer with five Eeveelutions.

But I pulled through, and won, receiving the Tidal Bell. And then, it was time for me to go to the Whirl Islands.

Which were completely dark.

Oh no.

I was not looking forward to stumbling blindly in the dark again like I did with Rock Tunnel in Firered, and Emerald's Victory Road. And due to my single rule for this marathon, I could not look at a guide for help.

Not helping was that the only members of my team who could learn Flash already had four moves that I wanted to keep on them.

Luckily, I was still able to ask friends for advice, and one of them gave me a very useful tip. To go in the top-right island entrance, and not take any stairs.

And so, I navigated through the Whirl Islands with that advice in mind, eventually coming to Lugia's hiding place beneath the waves.

The scenee to summon Lugia was really cool! I love how the bells stated getting added to the track as each one began to ring.

And then, it was time to face off against the box legendary, Lugia.

I wanted to catch Lugia. Not only that, I wanted to catch Lugia in anything but the master ball. I wanted to prove that I was worthy of being Lugia's trainer.

They weren't kidding, the catch rate for Johto's legendaries is very small. Even after having Marla paralyze Lugia and then knock it down to a tiny sliver of health, I went through all my ultra balls and great balls without a catch.

I tried again, having Marla knock Lugia down to an even tinier sliver of health, plus paralysis. Still, it took nearly my entire ultra ball stock again to catch Lugia.

But I did catch Lugia. It was time to say goodbye for Jifa, at least for now, as I had Lugia take the sixth spot on my team. I needed every advantage I could get for what was to come.

My first steps as part of that, would be my first steps in this game into Kanto.

You see, I had thought that the entirety of Kanto was post-game only. That you wouldn't even step foot there until after the credits roll. So imagine my surprise when the first person I meet after surfing east from New Bark Town tells me that I'm in Kanto now!

It was so cool seeing the map be updated to show this section of Kanto, and it made me determined to keep going.

The trainer battles on Route 27 and Route 26 were some of the toughest yet, but I kept going, unstoppable on my way to the Pokemon League.

But before I got there, I had one final challenge, Victory Road.

It wasn't nearly as tricky as the other Victory Roads I had faced so far. The puzzles were pretty simple, and here weren't any trainers there.

Well, except for one, who had driven off all the other trainers on Victory Road.

The final fight here with Silver reminded me of the battle with Wally from Emerald. A final battle with one of your rivals, inside Victory Road. Only this time, it was at the end of Victory Road, rather than the start.

It was fun to see Silver realizing what he had to do to become a truly strong trainer: be better friends with his Pokemon.

Silver is probably my favorite of the "jerk rivals" (though what I've heard of Bede makes him a very close contender). He's a very interesting character, and this final battle with him was great!

After saying goodbye to Silver for the final time, it was time to enter the Pokemon League.

Healing up my team, and purchasing some final supplies, I headed beyond the doorway at the top, to start my Elite Four challenge.

Will was quite tough! But Psychic's weakness to Bug would be my key here, with Marla's Signal Beam decimating many of his Pokemon. While I won this battle handily, it would only get more difficult from here.

Koga was no joke. I had no counter to Poison, and his hyper-evasive Pokemon badly poisoned several members of my team. But Niko's Foresight would once again prove useful, and be key in taking down Koga's Pokemon.

Next was another familiar face, Bruno. Bagoli and Lugia were key here, but a tricky switch-out from Bruno during a Fly from Bagoli had him get taken out by a Rock Slide from Bruno's Onix. Thankfully, Acacia was able to take care of the Onix, and Lugia took care of the rest.

Finally, there was Karen. True to her advice, I was going to try to win with my favorites. I tried to have Niko pull the Foresight trick against her Gengar, but it surprised me with a Focus Blast, taking Niko out. But with the help of Marla, Acacia, and Splind, Karen's team was defeated.

All that remained now was Champion Lance.

I healed up my team, but forgot to use an Ether on Marla, whose Discharge was running low on PP. This would soon come back to bite me.

Lance was my toughest opponent in this game by far. Sure, Marla easily took out his Gyarados with a Discharge, and Splind took out his most powerful Dragonite with an Ice Fang, but then the tides turned in Lance's favor. Splind got knocked out by a Thunder, and Marla ran out of PP for Discharge. I had to scramble to figure out a strategy, and it took all of my remaining Hyper Potions.

But eventually, I won. I became champion of Johto, and finally finished Soulsilver. I had done what my 2012 self couldn't, and beaten this game for the very first time.

I had completed Pokemon Soulsilver, and that fact means so much to me.

I will be doing the postgame for Soulsilver eventually. But that'll probably be its own retrospective.

I had a lot of fun with Soulsilver! Sure, its pacing could have been a lot better, but it was a really nice experience overall! Though I feel like it'd have been a lot trickier and more frustrating without the infinite rare candy cheat.

I am so happy to have finally completed this game, 12 years later.

[aisa-newaccount]

waiting for your readings aisa. But why do you keep on deletin ur accs?

Hi! Great question! This will be a long post, so please only read if you have the time to read it.

For context, I joined Tumblr as @/aisabts and did readings continuously for bts tarot. But it felt unfulfilling after a bit and the community was overwhelmingly full of negativity so I decided to leave. I made a lot of great friends on Tumblr both readers and nonreaders alike, so I contacted them separately on a non-tarot account, and they encouraged me to come back as a reader. I thought why not after some time and came back some time in 2022 or 2023 (can not remember).

I started doing readings again as @/aisanakismet then settled down to @/aisaariel. In case anyone was wondering, "Kismet" because it's an Arabic/Persian/Turkish term for fate and destiny. I was hoping my blog would be a place where a lot of people can interact and heal with one another. I also wanted to offer guidance to those who wanted to reach out and chat with me. "Ariel" from The Little Mermaid because I was thinking about changing my username once and for all and had "Under the Sea" play in my head a bunch. I also liked how Ariel got her voice back from Ursula in the end. Lots and lots of powerful symbolism that I loved.

I deleted @/aisaariel due to personal life circumstances. Some of you all may remember my posts about going on hiatus or taking breaks due to things that kept happening in my life. I was not lying at all. Truly, so many different things happened during 2023 and 2024 that I would have never expected, and I was almost never logged in to Tumblr except a couple times I visited to chat with friends, do a couple readings here and there, and catch up on what was going on in the Tumblr community. I felt there was really no point in keeping the blog going because I would not have been able to consistently fulfill my responsibilities as a reader.

I deleted my blog and I lingered. I saw some anons mentioning me and how they were upset about how I left and I never thought that anyone would necessarily care or notice! The goal was to quietly delete my blog. At that point, a lot of my long-time tarot friends were inactive or deleting their blogs too so I no longer felt called to stay either. I came back and even announced myself in bts tarot since a lot of you all found me through bts tarot because I thought it would be nice to still continue aisaariel but do general readings for you anons specifically rather than any kpop readings.

But, alas, I'm sad to say that I think it's really time for me to go. I deleted @/aisaariel for a reason and I do not think I should start this blog only to not be able to commit to it and possibly delete it again in the future after doing readings.

Thank you to all of you all that reached out to me with such warm welcomes and I am really sorry that I am letting some of you down by leaving again. Whether you liked me or not, were rude to me or not, thought/think I'm just seeking attention with this blog/post or not, I will really miss every single one of you. You all are really really really special people who deserve lots of love, happiness, and blessings in this world. I cannot imagine how my life would have been without interacting with you lovely life fighters and warriors! (This is a compliment. I was always so impressed by how you all were so resilient no matter what happened in your lives.) Please know that any and all "Aisa" readings were done solely through the guidance of my tarot cards, intuition (checked so many times to make sure it was not my personal bias or opinion affecting the reading), and spiritual guides. All readings were completely authentic and each post was a virtual manifestation of my love, time, energy, and efforts.

If I ever hurt anyone's feelings throughout my time here, please know that I did not intend on that at all. I have always genuinely wanted to have a good time here with everyone and to share and stand for love and positivity. I can confidently swear that I have never partaken in any form of online bullying, hating, or fighting. Whenever/If I had an issue with someone, I specifically reached out via Tumblr messages to talk about it, not harass or attack someone. I do not know if there was/is anyone (hopefully not), but if someone said/says I partook in any form of "hatred" or "drama" for whatever reason, please know that they are lying and spreading false rumors about me.

I trust that above all, I Aisa am known and remembered for my integrity and credibility as a tarot reader and my love for the readings I have done in this tarot community. From today and on, there will be no return of Aisa (me) as a tarot reader in the community ever again. I will only linger and see what is going on in the community from time to time whenever life allows me to do so.

Thank you so much for the support you all have shown me, and I love you all endlessly.

"The vision of your true destiny does not reside within the blinkered outlook of the naysayers and the doom prophets." Don't ever let anyone discourage you from embracing yourself, your dreams, and your future.

Live on, shine on, love on.

Love, 愛sa

[realityhelixcreates]

Some days ago you wrote a post saying that you were writing something using elder scrolls lore? I think? What's that about? Are you writing some au? I'm a bit lost on your most recent fanfics (I'm waiting until I have some free time so I can give nexus a try, I'm just a bit intimidated cause I know next to nothing about DC) but I love reading about your ideas and characters, they all sound so genuinely interesting and we'll writen.

Ohhhh yes, okay so!

Wayyyyyyyy back in the day, there were a bunch of Riddler ask/art/rp blogs, that all portrayed their respective Riddler in very different ways. Some were based on official material (YJ is from the 2011 Young Justice animated series, Arkham from the Arkham City video game, Detective was originally based off the 1992 Batman: the Animated Series, but became highly altered as their storyline continued) some, like Narci, Puzzles, and Nash, were original takes on the character. Swag stared out as a parody that became a solid character as time passed. All of these interacted with each other, and developed into a found family.

Helix (My OC) came along a little later, and began interacting with them. None of us really expected how inextricably involved she was going to become, since she's much more of a high fantasy character, than a DC character, but it all happened pretty organically, and was a lot of fun.

Back then, I started a bunch of creative projects I wanted to share with the writers of these blogs, but I had just ended my relationship with my ex-fiancee, moved back in with my parents, and was working in a pretty toxic environment, and it just slaughtered my creative output. If I were to point you to my old blog, which I shan't, you would see that I drew maybe five or six things in as many years, when previously, I had drawn almost every day.

All of those blogs eventually went silent, the last interaction being between Helix and Narci. Since then, some of them have even been deleted entirely. I forgot about the things I was going to do, and they lay ignored for years. Then I stumbled across my old harddrive, where all these ideas still existed, barely sketched out, partially begun, and it all flooded back. Yeah, those blogs are done, some of the writers have disappeared, it's all over. But those stories are still there, and so am I.

I am in a much better place than I was. I have some writing practice under my belt, and, most importantly, I have inspiration again. I can make the art I always wanted to. I can write the stories I always wanted to. I can finish what I wanted to start.

That all being said, One of the things I started a long time ago, was an elder scrolls crossover. I had also started playing Skyrim at around that time, and it was an idle idea that I thought would be fun. When I found that harddrive, the first chapter had been partially written out, and I ended up taking the ideas there, and going in a different direction with them. I now have an over thirty chapter, ongoing story involving Helix and Swag stumbling their way through Cyrodiil, told entirely through Swag's POV. I've been posting it on my main/RP blog rather than here, because I felt that Helix and Swag's relationship hadn't been well enough expressed in the Nexusverse yet. Almost all of the Nexus stories so far take place in 2011-2013, and this crossover story takes place in 2020, so there's a lot in between that I haven't gone into yet, you know?

But considering that I've been posting some of the later Nexus stories out of chronological order, I might just start posting it anyway. I think it's kinda obvious by now how some of Helix's relationships pan out, so it might be okay. What do you think?

Also, you are very sweet, and I'm glad I've been able to express some of my ideas in a way that others can enjoy them with me. I will warn you, the stories that are from Helix's POV can be a bit challenging to follow; she doesn't experience reality in the same way as most people, which I've expressed with synesthesia and the repetition of consonants, syllables, and vowel sounds in a freeform poem/prose manner. If you do start the Nexus stories at their beginning, you'll see why.

Don't be too intimidated though; most Nexus stories are only 1-2000 words, with the exception of Orbital Unresonanace, which is, admittedly, a chonker. But you've been reading Lasa, so I know you can handle unreasonably large stories.

[jess-moloney-malarkey]

My problem is not that people hate Jess. I don't care how you feel about Jess. I don't have a strong opinion on Jess, I just respect her as the partner of one of my heroes. I don't feel the need to dive into every aspect of her life and past like apparently some others do. But hey, that's your prerogative if you want to. Have fun. My problem is with how certain people behave and interact with others in their dislike of Jess. My problem is with how certain people treat others, citing only your highly speculative thoughts as reasoning. There's no respect for a difference of opinion. Their MO is to just be defensive, deflect, and attack. Even attacking people who have never interacted with them (we'll circle back to this) And for what? Why so nasty and hostile if it's only a matter of opinion? That's my problem with them.

The second anyone tries to even respectfully disagree and explain why, they always just resort to the same “oh you’re just a crazy Jess stan, you don’t have a real argument, you know what I say is the truth and are just trying to deny it because you’re a pathetic Jess ass kisser” spiel. Then they ask a million follow up questions that demand answers, saying “I won’t hold my breath, you probably can’t answer.” Instead of being receptive and offering to hold a real discussion on why they disagree. Nothing is ever "good enough" for them to engage with, and they are just brushed off with superiority. Or when they’re not feeling feisty, they just ignore it, delete it from their inbox, and claim they never got one. (this has happened with multiple people, more times than a "tumblr glitch" could explain)

Again, I understand what they talk about is mostly their opinion on what they've looked at, and that's valid. They can have that opinion and speak freely about it. I'm not bothered by that in itself. It's predominantly their behavior towards others who don’t share that opinion, and their almost immediate willingness to be so rude to others based on how they feel about Jess. I mean, in the beginning, they reblogged at least three random peoples' posts saying nice things about Jess, calling the bloggers names and belittling them over it. Recently, they posted screenshots of a bunch of comments from users on Instagram expressing adoration for Jess, just to talk down on them. It's shit like that that's not cool, at all. Like, if you're going to call me a bully, look in the mirror first.

I'm also bothered by the fact that they seem to place so much emphasis on social media, treating it like the end all be all of these people's lives. No matter how much someone used to or currently posts, that does not mean that they have to or will post every little, or even big, thing in their lives on Instagram. Like, people in a relationship, who live together, they might not post every single important thing on their story tagging them, or comment on their post. Sometimes they will, absolutely. But other times, they can literally walk into the other room to say it. Same with family. They can just call or drive over to them. Real life does not happen exclusively and continuously on social media, there will be gaps. Their intense scrutiny, analysis, and conclusions drawn for Jamie and Jess’s personal relationships through the lens of Instagram is mind blowing to me.

And most importantly, maybe their theories (the whole fake pregnancy discussion, or Jess having an eating disorder, for instance) go too far? Just maybe?

The constant stream of these outlandish theories in the Jamie tag spread nothing but negativity and needless fearmongering, while also promoting division in the fandom between the "correct" side who criticize Jess, and the "wrong" side who don't.

I don't know the person behind the blog personally. I just don't like how they treat others and how they conduct themselves online based on this woman who truly means nothing to them.

[imightgetbetter]

this will probably be quite long-winded so i'm going to put it under a read more. this has nothing to do with matty or the band, it's my other favorite artists, but i just can't talk about this on my main blog because i fear the people i am talking about will find it and harass me and talk shit about me for weeks again (this happened after an anon mistake and a bit of an impulse decision back a few years ago and i hated my life and almost deleted my blog because of it) so i trust that this will stay between us (as much as it can on the internet)

so my main blog is a primarily harry styles/niall horan blog with a whole bunch of my shitty diary posts and things i think are silly. it started with niall and harry writing and then when niall went on hiatus after his last album it became a primarily harry blog because i wrote my biggest story in the height of the pandemic and it gained a lot of traction during quarantine. in that height, someone started talking shit about niall and i went to his defence as any lonesome teenager does and it backfired on me gravely and this group of harry styles blogs that think they're very popular and cool harassed me about it. it was awful for weeks. i basically couldn't go online without having a panic attack. anyways, it's that same group.

all they do is talk about how much they think niall is a copy and paste of harry or that he isn't marketable or that he can't pick singles or that he pushes his streams and charts too much. all while claiming they don't care about him and hate him or whatever. they say all these things that simply aren't true. harry didn't "create" marketing campaigns on websites, neither did niall! however, niall's last album was marketed through a website and videos everyday and all this. harry isn't original in his techniques, the difference is that his following is so insane that they will do every single marketing thing for him. he doesn't need a team of people to do it. these fans are so insane that they are doing a job that people get paid to do. niall does his job! that's why he's telling people to stream and whatnot.

niall's songwriting is miles and miles better than harry's, but because of the way they think harry is the best at everything, they don't recognize that. niall started working with amy allen (a writer harry worked with on his last album) nearly six years ago, maybe even seven. she co-wrote my favorite niall horan song, to this day. like, they saw amy allen and tobias jesso jr and freaked out that niall was copying harry, as if niall isn't also a songwriter in the industry. like .. i genuinely am so sick of this conversation! (i also would compare niall's songwriting in depth and meaning to matty's, which is why i love it so much)

it's also very fucking annoying that harry stans have created this whole culture around going to concerts and liking artists that is so toxic and annoying that i can't stand it. like, half of the people at niall's pop up shop today weren't even singing his songs, they were singing the harry songs that were on the playlist. or the way all these harry stans are suddenly talking about niall on tiktok to get clout or merch or whatever it is. i've literally been a niall fan or whatever since the very beginning of one direction, i followed him on tour way back when, he's the reason i love live music and want to work in touring. i love harry, i do, i've gone to his shows plenty of times and talk about him and have a blog and a story, i'm not saying anything bad really about him, but it's so frustrating to see how people treat other artists just compared to harry styles and i literally am getting so annoyed every day.

okay i think i'm done. like i said .. this is between you and me and god.

[thinkingnot]

hey, please consider deleting your reblog of that cat donation post about Pirate the cat. it's fake and a scam.

the account (@ hinderswives) was created 1 day ago and you can find those cat images on a reverse google search. did you get an ask from the op asking you nicely to check out the pinned post (and not to publically answer the ask)? I did, and it's the second almost identical one ive gotten in the last few months, also by an account that only existed for one day before posting the help request (who had never interacted with my blog before, either).... basically, this is 100% a scam.

They ask you to reblog their post *but not answer their ask* so that anyone who follows you thinks that you know this person is legitimate (which is exactly the opposite of the real situation). They ask you to use 'friends and family' on PayPal so you can't get your money back if you figure out it's a scam (always be suspicious of people who do this!)

i found your reblog by going through the notes on the scam post. i'm going to send this ask to other people who reblogged it, too. (in anon mode so that the scam op can't block me, which happened last time before i could get the warning out, rip).

please don't let your followers be tricked into wasting their money! there are plenty of real people and real cats that could use their help out there, if they want to be generous.

consider posting this ask too, cause a bunch of people have reblogged the scam post from you so it might be good if they see this, too.

thanks.

okay i am making a rule for myself to only rb those kind of posts from people i know personally 🥲 (i saw a blog i knew rbing it and thought its legit)

to be safe imma find and remove my previous rbs (sorry for the ones bothered by this)

its a scam fr guys i looked them up just now and the blog doesn’t show up anymore they blocked me after the deed’s done

[nectar-cellar]

Questions :3

Thank you for tagging me @pudding-parade ! I too am nosy and like to know stuff about people 😆 Let’s all be nosy together.

Why did you choose your url?

When I came back to Simblr after a long break, I wanted a new, fun, sim-related URL but all the cute and creative ones were taken. I was like, what is an adult thing in the sims universe? And my poor brain answered with the nectar cellars from World Adventures. So I was like okay I’ll go with that I guess. Then I just never thought of anything better. I didn’t even know if I was going to like the game again after so long away from it. Now we’re stuck with this.

How long have you been on Tumblr?

I started my Simblr in probably 2012 but my really really old posts have been deleted. I made my non-sims Tumblr account even earlier than that and still have it although I haven’t logged in since like 2019. I’ve been on Tumblr for a long time.

Do you have a queue tag?

No, I can’t be bothered to tag things in my queue. I do schedule my posts so that they don’t publish at like 3am which is usually when I write them.

Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I stumbled on the Simblr community through my non-sims blog. After liking a bunch of CC posts, I decided I wanted to make a blog dedicated to posting my sims, following other simmers, and keeping track of all the CC I wanted to download. This was like 10 years ago, when The Sims 3 was hot, when the community was huge and thriving, and most simmers didn’t hate the game/EA with the passion they do now. 

Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I couldn’t decide on a sim to use as my icon so I was like fuck it let me just use a generic little picture. What is nectar made from? Done. I want to change it so bad I just don’t know what to change it to.  

Why did you choose your header?

Because it reminds me of this. 

What’s your post with the most notes?

I have no idea, probably one of my CC posts.

How many mutuals do you have?

I don’t know lol but quite a few I think 💛

How many followers do you have?

Almost 3k. Back in like 2013 or 2014 I gained a lot of followers because I posted some crappy CC that got spread around. Then I left for a few years. Most of my followers are probably not active anymore. Recently, because I learned how to make CC and have been posting those quite frequently, I’ve gained some followers through that too.

How many people do you follow?

2054. A lot are probably inactive. I like to see a variety of sims content :3

Have you ever made a shit post?

Yes ❤

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten into any conflicts with anyone.

How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

I’m used to seeing them.

Do you like tag games?

Yes 💖

Do you like ask games?

Yes!

Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

Quite a few of my mutuals who post TS4 and/or CC get a lot of notes on their posts! Some folks, I definitely didn’t expect would follow me back. 🥺🤩💞

Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Everyone whose posts I’ve ever spam-liked/reblogged/commented on. 💋

--

I invite the following people to share their answers, if they would like to! ✨

@treason-and-plot @thesimperiuscurse @pixelbots @wannabecatwriter @descendantdragfi @rebouks @zosa95 @obscurus-noctem @erasabledinosaur @happy-lemon @aprilrainsimblr @maladi777 @keibea @lazysunjade @amuhav @plant-sim @streetlites @ellemant @emperorofthedark @hurricanesims @bastardtrait @heavensims @voidite @getboolpropped

[animepopheart]

Your blog is the absolute coolest (as well as your Beneath the Tangles blog)! If you have the time, would you mind sharing how you choose which anime you watch every season (or from the older ones that have been out for awhile) or suggestions on how to minimize a watch list to "essentials"? I know everyone's interests are different, so the titles/genres might be different, but just a way of how to choose which series would be best to spend time on? I've been an anime watcher for well over a decade now, and I'm a little bit better about not getting overwhelmed by all the available titles, but I was just curious if you have any further suggestions. Right now, the only things I use to "filter" the anime I watch would be that (as of right now) I only watch shows in English dub, try to take a look at super popular titles (unless it's One Piece which I'm sure is great but a scary longtime commitment for me to make to watch), and avoiding shows that might go against my personal convictions as a Christian and make me too uncomfortable to watch (I know everyone's convictions may vary or be completely different on this). Anyway, thanks for your time!

Aww, thank you sooo much! ;_;

I'll tell you how I approach each season further down, but just in general, I've lived by this dumb motto for the last decade: life's too short to waste on bad anime. With this in mind, I rarely invest in long-running shonen anymore because the payoff is for me never worth the effort. They're not bad (most are pretty good!), but even with a series that's great like One Piece, I could have instead invested so many other show (I could literally watch 90 other anime series during that time and find many that equivalent or better).

I also drop anime pretty quick. I give them a couple episodes and move on. Sometimes, I like a show enough to get 5, 6, 7 episodes in, but if I decide then that they're not keeping my interest, I don't complete them. My time is precious. If I hear great things about a show I dropped, then I might return later.

I also trashed my watch list. It was expanding and expanding, and I felt it was a weight on my shoulders. So I deleted it, and feel freer since then.

All this has helped me from under the feeling of being overwhelmed.

I would definitely also watch older shows more often—ones that friends those whose taste I like or trust from Twitter recommend, or I suddenly remember I once wanted to watch, or I want to watch again (often a better experience than streaming a mediocre new series)—except that I need to focus on new series as I develop content. So feel free to jump back into those based on your tastes, what others say, and maybe through filtering and searching (I like Anime Planet's filters).

Regarding new series—this is how I approach those:

When a season begins, I'm open to almost everything. I type up a list before the season with the shows I don't want to miss, based on the types I generally prefer or produced by staff that I'm a fan of, and then I pick up all sorts of series, watching a couple dozen opening episodes at the very least. If I have to be a little selective, I look at our writers' first impression posts to help me pick which ones to try.

And then I whittle away. I usually end up completing maybe 7-8 series a season, but there are some season, like this one, where I finish far fewer. In the time I would normally use for those shows, I might rewatch something (like I currently am for Re:Zero), go to one of those older series (I'm trying out Kurau: Phantom Memory), check out movies for review (an older one recently with ReLIFE and a screener copy of Jujutsu Kaisen 0), or read manga and light novels (a BUNCH right now, and also a memoir related to anime).

So, lots of details, but in summation—feel free to try lots of things out—perhaps shows that are new or which you hear about from trusted influencers, writers, etc., but develop that habit of dropping series. The FOMO becomes less and less the more and more you see the positive in not completing anime that doesn't affect you.

[manthrochap-blog]

well well well. look who finally figured out what email he used for his old blog....

so, hi. the last post on this blog was from december 2016, so... i’d expect most of my followers are inactive and the few people i follow who are still active probably unfollowed ages ago, unless they never cleared out their accounts... but i thought i’d make a little post here as a sort of update and finally offer a means of contact

so. i’m freshly 23 years old now (jesus CHRIST). i’m not using this blog anymore, so i won’t be updating my bio/about/whatever to reflect that, but i’ll note i exclusively use he/him now. while homestuck is still constantly in my periphery (more literal than that sentence should be, there’s a dave strider vinyl figure in a bin almost within eyesight of my desk chair...) i haven’t really engaged with it in... years... other than a recent look at its unfinished japanese translation, seeing as i started learning the language a few years ago and got curious. i still stan aradia hardcore, btw, nothing in life will Ever change that

as you can probably (hopefully) predict from the fact that i was 17 when i last used this blog (and 13-16 when i used it actively) and i am now 23, this blog, uh... would not be a great reference point for determining what kind of person i am now. i won’t write it off as completely detached from my present identity, and i’m not saying this because there’s some sort of “dirt” you could dig up from looking through my posts (there... really isn’t, just a whole lot of cringe), i’d just like to make it clear that judging the present me by whatever the hell was wrong with me when i was a teenager would leave you with a lot of inaccuracies about me. being a teenager sucks and you’ve got way more things wrong with you mentally than any other stage of your life and i’m happy to report many of those things wrong with me have resolved themselves with time, but also, the cringe. the cringe. my god the cringe, please for the love of god know that while i am still cringe i am not as bad as i once was

anyways, what i am trying to communicate is that while the person who ran this blog and myself may technically inhabit the same body, we’re not quite the same person; and yet, this is still my body, my face, my words, my thoughts, all contained here, even if i no longer understand those thoughts and feelings and words, no longer feel like the face depicted is my face. going through and making every single one of my old posts unrebloggable would be not only tedious but a ridiculous, gargantuan task, considering my post count is just short of 50,000 and no matter how many of those are reblogs that i wouldn’t need to alter, it took long enough just deleting a bunch of old selfies that i truly don’t think it would be worth it

thus, my request is this: my art is all fair game, but any (old) personal posts or selfies i'd like left alone. no likes, no reblogs, just let them be, please. while i've left a good portion of the latter up for posterity, i'd prefer you not even look for them. likewise, i've gone through and deleted all instances of my deadname; do not try to seek it out. or i may smite you in real life

other than all of that, i'm willfully leaving this blog up as an archive. please don't abuse that, please respect my requests regarding what i am and am not okay with being interacted with, and please keep a healthy barrier in your mind between who i was as a teenager and my new, adult self, because even i don't know what i was going on about back then

with all of that finally out of the way, if you're looking to contact me for whatever reason, you'll find my new blog in my next (and probably final, ever, for this blog) reblog. that post is a plea for a friend of mine who i miss and have completely lost contact with to come and talk with me again, if they'd like, so i'm hoping that posting this here and giving them a way of contacting me might help if they ever come back and look at this blog, which was the impetus for me hunting down my own log-in info to begin with, though not the sole reason (i really did want to purge this fucking thing of its evils even if only a little i've been meaning to do that for ages)

i don't intend to ever deactivate that blog just as i won't be deactivating this one, but as a failsafe, you can also email nisutitja @ gmail, because i don't really wanna just... put my discord where everyone can see it. that is not my main email, but i do own that address. might be a little late on the response but it should be reliable enough

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

The story of how TNC started

Well, I think I should start this post by saying what the joke post is about, because a lot of people do not get it.

Here is a humorous post about the Tumor, which is spreading from TNC's "The Northern Caves."

And then, this post.

Now, I should probably start by saying what TNC is. I wrote the whole thing out of a sense that I needed to "say what it was." I have been getting this sense for some time now, though I guess I only began to fully get it a few weeks ago.

The first half of this TNC post is just what it is. But I am going to write some more (in fact, a lot more) after posting this first part, so there is no need to read it just yet.

OK, now I can begin posting.

The Northern Caves started out as a blog post. It had a bunch of short chapters, posted one at a time on this blog, back in 2010, beginning with the first chapter on this post. It was a long-form short story I had written and was posting online, in my own name. It was something I had done before, with other things, but I didn't care to write about them anymore. I had some of them archived on LiveJournal but I had also left them behind when I moved to here, on tumblr.

That was a long time ago. I don't know what I wrote at the time, but I knew there was a lot of it there that was worth preserving, because it showed me how it would be good to be writing fiction again. I was thinking of it, still, because it was in the "archive," or some similar place. If I ever felt like taking it out, I knew I wouldn't be doing any harm by deleting it.

It had a bunch of chapters, and even more posts, and I knew there were a lot of them. But I didn't feel like writing anymore.

I still knew I wanted to write again, though. So, I started a new thing -- I was going to try again. This new thing was different. I didn't know what it would be. And then, some time after it started, some more time than I can remember, it was a short story. Or maybe it wasn't; I can't remember. I do remember, though, that it was short.

Maybe there had been some chapters of TNC back then, which were never posted, but maybe not.

Now it is finished.

So far it has only been published on this blog, this one, in a series of posts, each of which consists of three linked chunks.

I will write something more after posting these three.

Let's call them "the first three."

I should probably begin by saying something about these first three. I say it is "the first three" because it might be possible to understand this whole thing without this information. I want to make it possible for you to read all of TNC without first reading this post, so I want to set this up as a background "thing." But then, if I want to link TNC to all this, it is possible to "lose the thread," as it were, in a way that would make reading the story harder -- because now you know TNC started out as one or two posts that I linked here, so you are now missing some essential context.

OK, here it is, a story about these first three chunks of my work.

It took a long time to write these first three chunks, and it took a lot of work, effort, time.

It was a work of fiction, all the way through. No matter what you think of the "work of fiction" part, this needs to be said, in order to make the "not fiction" bit make sense.

These first three chunks were written out of a need to say something.

They were linked together by a post that I made when the first three chunks were complete.

It was meant as a joke post, and I do not understand why people take it at its word.

To make it, I needed to link to these three posts.

You should know how long it took.

I did not post the story anywhere else, for a very long time.

It took me a long time. I started it, and I wrote it, in March 2010, when it was early spring. I worked hard on it.

When it was almost done, I deleted the whole thing. I deleted every one of the stories on the old LiveJournal, and I deleted the LJ posts, too. I deleted them for a good reason.

I felt like it was ready to post, but I could not stand the thought that people would see it there, for their reading, without any context, any story, some "place for the reader" to walk through.

I have been making it very clear that these posts are stories and that, because they are stories, they can be read in the normal way -- with their own starting place and their own ending.

Now, I do not want to write anything else for this reason, ever. I want everything that is written in this context to be read with the understanding that it is a story, and to be experienced as a story. So the story should be understood as a story, and it should be understood to be complete, even without an ending.

Maybe the joke post did not say this very well.

There was a time when I might have posted it there, but I did not, even though I was still hoping it could be published there.

What I did do is write something completely different, in the second half of 2011, which I put up there at around the same time the joke post was put up. This story was one of the most extreme cases I have ever made, in terms of taking something that I "wrote for" a purpose and then letting it take its place.

What it was was this: The joke post got linked around, it did not seem like it was going to go away, and then one day it did, here. That was when I put the "second three" together.

When I wrote the second three, it was to make up for, and to pay back, something I owed to The Sibley monolith.

That was the story. That was it.

I could not think of anything to write there. I could not think of any post.

Here are the first two

snarp, I have no idea what you're doing here.

[akaashisbabygirl]

i really enjoyed the scenarios about the hate comments on streams and was wondering if you could do the same for kuroo, iwaizumi, atsumu, kyoutani, and ushijima? i looked in your rules and didn't see if there was a limit on characters, so if there is just the first 3 are fine to choose from! thank you 🥺👉👈💖 i love your blog!!! you post some of the best content ive seen !

hate comments

pairings: kuroo x reader, iwaizumi x reader, atsumu x reader, kyōtani x reader, ushijima x reader

warnings: none

kuroo tetsurō

everyone who watches kuroo’s streams seems to have some sort of crush on him

it’s just the looks - everyone seemed to be attracted to him when they first saw him

so, one day when he’s streaming, you walked into the room to give him some food

and everyone’s like “who is this??”

and proudly, kuroo is like “that’s my girlfriend”

the girls on his stream wanted to see you - they wanted to know what you looked like

in general, this is the girl their crush is dating - they’d like to see what she looks like

so, kuroo called you back into the room, having you sit down on his lap while he streams

during his stream, he talked about you and how the two of you met - answering some of the questions that the girls were asking in chat

after the stream - he was looking through the comments

he saw some comments which he wasn’t happy with seeing - and stated to get even more annoyed, angry and upset with the comments and how they continued to come

the next stream, he pulled you back onto his lap, reading out some of the hate comments

he called everyone out, while his lips pressed kisses onto your neck and skin, calling out everyone for the comments they made - calling you perfect, and that no one should be saying otherwise

at the end of the day - kuroo is only in love with you, and he makes that very obvious now during his streams

iwaizumi hajime

when iwa started seeing hate comments about you on his streams, he started to get really fucking angry

he just wanted to punch something because he got so angry

iwa got angry because everyone on his stream seemed to have some sort of crush on him

he understood that - many girls in his high school seemed to be interested in him too, so it was nothing new to him

but, he was dating you - and he’s made that aware many times to the people around him, as well as mentioning that he’s got a girlfriend in his streams

he didn’t understand why someone would be so jealous that they’re not in a relationship with him, especially when he’s stated that he’s in a loving relationship already

he got sick and tired of having these comments appear on every video of his

“i don’t get how he’s dating her” “he needs someone better looking” “god he’s so fucking hot, but her... yuck”

he really didn’t want you to notice these comments as he didn’t want you to get upset over them

one day, he sat you down on his lap because he wanted your comfort during the stream - but he was a little anxious about you seeing these comments

after a while, you started playing with his fingers and his shirt, and from there, he realised that you had seen the comments

so, he decided to bring the situation up

“so, there have been some people who’ve thought it was a smart idea to make comments about my girlfriend...”

he addresses the situation, and will delete any comments about you that he sees - he will even threaten to take the situation further if it continues

atsumu miya

atsumu streams every now and then - it’s something he loves to do as he’s always playing some games

the girls on his stream became interested in him, wanting to know more about him

so one day, they asked if he had a girlfriend

and proudlg, he responddd with “yes”

everyone asked when they could meet you, because they were curious of the girl that their crush was dating

one day, he started streaming - his fans started asking about you, and much to their surprise, you walked into atsumu’s apartment

everyone was really shocked

you just walked into his apartment like it was nothing??!

the hate comments started pouring in

“bruh you really just let her walk in like that without even inviting her???” “yuck, i thought she would be pretty” “atsumu, what do you see in her?”

and from there, atsumu is just like “what the fuck are yer all saying?”

they try to explain saying you’re not the right girl for him, and that he deserves to be with someone else

“i don’t fucking deserve anyone else that’s not y/n. yer all don’t know what yer fucking talking about”

it made atsumu angry, and he stopped streaming for a while, because he wanted to spend some more time with you, especially after those comments he had been receiving about you

he just wanted to spend some loving time with his girlfriend before he got back to streaming

kyōtani kentarō

kyōtai gets really fucking angry when he sees that some people are already bad mouthing his girlfriend even though none of them have even met you yet

so, he comes up with an idea, thinking that if he showed you on camera, it may be a way to change everyone’s mind and opinion on you

so, he asks his viewers if they want to meet you

and since they all want to see you so they’re able to tell who kyōtani is dating, they agree

so, he makes a date for you to come and appear in one of his streams, which you agree to

because you’ve always been wanting to appear in one of your boyfriends streams

when the day arrives, he’s feeling energetic because he wants everyone to know how fucking beautiful you are

but gets pissed off when he looks at the chat for a second, and he can already see hate comments pouring in

he becomes really mad

he’s unable to concentrate properly on his games, which makes him almost break the controller he’s using

and you’re there trying your best to calm him down, because you hate seeing your boyfriend all angry like this

he turns to his stream, anger evident in his eyes

“and this is what happens when you all fucking speak your mind. she’s not anything you think she is. she’s way fucking better”

he’ll purposely leave his stream on while you comfort him, so everyone watching is able to tell that you are the only person for him

ushijima wakatoshi

ushijima was kinda hesitant about introducing you to his fan base

and that’s because he didn’t want you to be swarmed with hate comments

ushijima knows that people tend to get jealous when they see a guy with another girl, and he’s noticed some comments about other girls saying he’s cute and stuff

after being annoyed with all he comments about how other girls think he’s cute

that’s when he decided to introduce you to his fanbase

he thought everything was going well, until he saw a bunch of hate comments on his video, the same video he first introduced you in

there were comments saying “he doesn’t deserve someone like her” “she’s disgusting” “why does she look like that” “i don’t get what he sees in her”

and ushijima is sitting there like ???

because he thinks you’re the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen, so he doesn’t get how everyone else can’t see that

he’s not someone who’s going to wait around and let these horrible comments about you continue to happen

and that’s mainly because he’s already sick of it - and he doesn’t want you to see them as he doesn’t want your feelings to be hurt

ushijima won’t have you in the room when he’s streaming, but he will be pissed off when he’s going off at his viewers

“if i see another comment about y/n on here that can even be considered as offensive, you can forget about me even streaming again”

after his stream, he explains to you the things that were said, but also tells you that he’s solved it

© all content belongs to akaashisbabygirl 2020, do not repost or change

[moodr1ng]

hi can u reblog my campaign? It’s the pinned one! Need financial aid Thank u 📷hi can u reblog my campaign? It’s the pinned one! Need financial aid Thank u 📷

ive been getting a lot of these recently and i usually delete them but i think a lot of people well-meaningly fall for and spend money on fraudulent gofundmes that could serve actual mutual aid. so heres what makes me immediately go “this is a scam” and not “oh no, lets help this person”

1. account has a basic bio with very little info to look like a person, but no real effort has been expanded on this facade. you wont find any indication of a personality, or of any time being spent customising the blog or making it look good. it’s a basic tumblr blog with a three word description.

2. account appears real if you scroll down it once or twice… then you realise that all the posts on it were posted recently (maybe even today), and theres only a couple pages worth of them to fool a casual onlooker onto thinking this is a blog that has been posting for a while and not an empty new blog. upon further inspection, youll find the content of the blog is just reblogs, usually very generic popular posts or posts all on the same subject, all reblogged from the op. this helps us figure out the person doesnt follow anyone or have any actual interactions with anyone, but just goes through the recommended page or through tags to reblog a bunch of arbitrary posts to fill up the first page of the blog.

3. account of what exactly is happening, what the amount of money needed is, or updates on the situation are either vague or inexistant. this is probably because not giving a deadline, a goal amount, or situating the post too clearly makes it easier to keep it up looking relevant endlessly, never having to make new posts or explain how the situation is evolving.

4. you receive these copy pasted asks not from any long time followers or acquaintances, but from strangers, even though youre not a popular blog, so there’s no indication you have any reach and theres no specific reason to select you out of anyone. this is probably because your post or your reply to a post has been getting big recently, so it just kind of looks like maybe you have followers? this is mostly a red flag in the context of other red flags already established, since real gofundmes might also use this technique.

5. a great amount of “proof” is given for the supposed need, but most of it is just contextless pictures which could have come from anywhere. often, you can just reverse search the picture to find it belongs to a completely different person. this happened to me recently with an ask very similar to this one where, after back searching the image, it turned out the op had stolen the pictures of someone’s actually sick, hospitalised toddler, copy-pasted the real parents explanation of the childs illness, and just change her name. i had to contact the father on Facebook to let him know pictures of his seriously ill child were being stolen by scammers to make money off of. if it seems like something must be real because what kind of person would lie about this - just think about the kind of person who would use the pictures of a sick little girl in a hospital bed they dont know just to steal money.

6. despite the tons of supposed photographic proof, what exactly is happening is often not clearly described or given any context, probably because coming up with a coherent, specific story is too much effort.

7. there is no sentiment behind the post, no personal posts preceding or following it, not even an acknowledgement that the tumblr was clearly created for the purpose of posting this gofundme, which would actually be more trustworthy. there is very clearly not a real person here, just a very low-effort façade.

8. op will almost never address accusations of scamming - like someone being falsely accused probably would - because not addressing it just means the people coming to the blog to reblog the scam post wont see any of the criticism and wont question the post either.

many people running these scams probably actually need the money. so im not like, mad and pissed that theyre getting it. many probably have reasons for the scam that they can at least justify to themselves. but it doesnt make it ok to take peoples money under false pretenses or, often, to use illnesses, disabilities, violent homes, and other situations people actually face as a story to get quick cash off of. if you get sent these asks, it may make you feel useful, perhaps even flattered that it was sent to you specifically, and you want to be a good person, so you boost the post or even donate. and thats great instinct and intention on your part! but please take a minute to make sure the blog is even remotely credible and not an obvious fake, and use your money and reach for causes you can better verify are actually helping the people you want to help.

[itsclydebitches]

Hey there! Admittedly I'm a little bit nervous since this is my first ask, but I'll try to not be too rambly.

So, recently the main subreddit, r/RWBY, made a ban on active users of the r/RWBYcritics subreddit. As a result there's been discussion around bad-faith criticism in the latter subreddit. What are your takes on bad-faith criticism?

For me personally, I think a bunch of people are misusing the term "bad-faith" and using it as a way to shut down criticism, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Hey there, everyone! We woke up to some drama this morning, huh? And hello to you too, Tortoise! I'm so glad you decided to send in an ask, even if it's following some pretty tumultuous events...

Right, I'd like to start with a story. The story of how I personally don't spend time on Reddit, but I have plenty of friends who will occasionally cross-post something for me to see. Yesterday (or the day before? Idk time is meaningless) a friend told me about a post — which, significantly, I'm now having trouble finding — that covers RWBY's inconsistent writing and the fandom's tendency to try and explain away those missteps. They'd thought I'd be interested because I'd just had a conversation here on tumblr where I made that exact point to someone who, also significantly, vehemently disagreed with me, but in a very civil fashion. Given everything going on, I feel like this side point needs emphasis: we debated, we did so in a sometimes heated, but nevertheless respectful manner, it was clear neither of us was going to sway the other, and the conversation ended. The two "sides" of the community interacted without Armageddon coming about.

But back to the purpose of this tale. I went to take a look at this point and found that it no longer exists. There's just some vague message about it not obeying the subreddit's rules. "What happened?" I asked. "Why'd they take the post down?" "People were getting too heated in the comments," my friend replies. So, given that the comments were still visible, I proceeded to read through them, expecting personal attacks, slurs, harassment, etc. Any number of things that would justify deleting the post itself to put an end to such behavior. Instead, I found a thread of people having a conversation. Was the conversation heated at times? Sure. Did one or two individual posters edge into the realm of petulant, "No. You're wrong and stupid" responses? Yes. Was any of this remotely what I was expecting given the post's removal? NOPE.

"This isn't allowed?" I said. "Well then what is? People were being civil! Or at least as civil as hundreds of strangers ever get when discussing a series they're passionate about online."

Then, this morning, I hear that the entire critic subreddit has been banned.

So to answer your question, Tortoise, I don't actually think that "good faith" criticism exists. Meaning, it's not just that fans are misusing the term "bad faith criticism," but rather that there is no unified, agreed up method of writing criticism that will meet their standards. It's not possible and we know it's not possible because fans have been trying to meet those elusive standards for years:

A fan posts nothing but praise for RWBY until changes make them criticize the show as it is now. Their entire body of work is dismissed as the product of a "hater," despite the overwhelming gap between positive and negative reviews.

A fan posts a review that's a pretty balanced mix between praise and criticism. They're dismissed because it's still too much criticism.

A fan posts a review that's 99% praise with 1% criticism. That's still too much, with fans focusing on the single problem they had with the work and using it as an excuse to dismiss the entire review out of hand.

(As an aside, the argument that critics are "obsessed" with only saying negative things and that the only problem here is that they're "too" negative ignores the argument that... RWBY has a lot of flaws nowadays. Few are willing to acknowledge the possibility that it's not fans insisting on making things up to be mad about/ignoring the good parts of the show, it's the that show is, as of now, legitimately more of a mess than it is a praise-worthy product. If I'd been writing recaps in the Volumes 1-4 days, my work would have been skewed far more towards the positive. The critics' stance is that RWBY has gotten worse, which yes, results a higher volume of critical posts. To say nothing of how criticism takes far longer to explain, likewise resulting in posts focused primarily on that side of the divide. I really enjoyed the image of a crying Jaune reflected in his sword. I did not enjoy that moment's context. Saying that you liked an animation choice is a one sentence thing. Explaining the complexities of Jaune securing emotional moments, the problems with Penny's second death, the hurt many fans experienced watching an assisted suicide, etc. takes a whooole lot longer. Hence, you get massive, multiple posts about these nuanced topics and fewer, smaller posts about the details that are working well.)

A fan talks about a topic that has been metaphorically banned by the fandom as a whole. They have something good to say about Ironwood. They dislike something about Blake/Yang. They enjoyed Adam as a character. They have a problem with Ruby's leadership, etc. There's a whole list of topics nowadays that will result in an automatic dismissal, regardless of the point the fan is trying to make or how well they make it.

A fan talks about the minority representation of RWBY — its black characters, its queer characters, its disabled characters, etc. — and as a result has something to say about the biases and missteps of those writing these characters. This is considered an attack on the writers and, therefore, automatically bad.

A fan talks about how they enjoyed RWBY as it was years ago and is having trouble reconciling the dark, complicated story with the simple, hopeful one we started out with. This is seen as an attack on Monty's vision and an unwillingness to accept that "everything is planned."

A fan does as asked and ensures that their post is meeting all the requirements of "real" criticism. They have an argument to make. They have a point. They provide evidence. They recommend a solution. They keep their tone respectful. They don't attack the creators. They provide disclaimers in every single paragraph about how they do not hate RWBY. It doesn't matter. They're considered too negative.

I have, quite literally, seen every one of the above examples on multiple occasions. I have had many of the above accusations leveled at my own work. When fans say that they're fine with criticism provided it's not "bad faith" criticism, they don't actually have a specific post-type in mind; a checklist of behaviors another fan can emulate and, provided they do that, no hate will come their way. Or, if an individual fan does actually go, "Yeah. That criticism I'm fine with" that response is in no way universal. One person's "They make a good, civil point" is another person's, "Omg stop bashing the show!" Because "bashing" has come to mean everything from curse-laden insults towards everything RWBY has ever done, to posts that just happen to say something other fans don't agree with.

It's a rigged game. There is no way to post criticism about RWBY in an agreed-upon, appropriate manner. This recent ban is proof of that. I think it's incredibly telling that almost immediately after I was going, "Wow. A pretty calm debate about the flaws of RWBY in the main sub. That's great to see," all posters from the criticism subreddit were banned. The main sub literally just had the sort of criticism that they claim to accept — people respectfully posting analysis-based arguments resulting in calm debate — and yet they implemented the ban anyway. I'm not going to pretend that I've never gotten too heated on my own posts, never made snarky comments when I'm frustrated, never used exaggerated reaction GIFs that can come across as insulting... but I'd say on the whole my RWBY work is precisely the sort of "good faith" criticism that other fans are supposedly looking for. I never make an argument I don't think I can back up with evidence. I try to allow for the nuance and differing opinions of complicated topics. I try — even if I don't always succeed — to write in a clear, respectful manner. Yet none of that work has stopped people from telling me I'm a "bitter... raging asshole," a "deranged, delusional psychopath," telling me to set myself on fire, threatening to smash my head in, or just messages to straight up kill myself. If someone like me who legitimately works hard to create fair, defendable criticism and who only ever posts on a personal blog that people can easily block, who never engages in debate until someone else starts it first, never seeks out other fans I disagree with to harass them about what they like... if someone like me is still a "bad faith" critic who "deserves" that kind of hate mail... then what kind of criticism do people want?

Nothing. That's the answer. No criticism whatsoever, of any kind, no matter if it's delivered respectfully, is making a good point, whatever. That's why "RWDE" was created. That's why the critic subreddit was created. The community at large has demanded a complete separation between Praise and Anything That's Not 100% Praise, which has now resulted in this ban. Any other explanations we see are excuses, which becomes glaringly obvious when you look at the mods' supposed reasons for implementing the ban:

"Constant arguments with r/RWBY users" - As opposed to the arguments surrounding things like shipping that never, ever happen?

"Vote manipulation and comment brigades" - The subreddit with 3,000 participants, with around 200 on at a time, is manipulating the votes of a subreddit with 155,000 participants, with over 1,000 on at a time? Those numbers just do not check out. If a positive post is downvoted, or a critical post upvoted, maybe that's because large swaths of the community actually agree/disagree with that assessment, not because the incredibly smaller group is somehow manipulating things.

"Attacking and harassing those they disagree with" — Again, as opposed to those non-critics that never, ever harass people? This is an individual problem, not a community problem. Both critics and non-critics have their sub-groups acting in ways they shouldn't. If anything, the main sub will have more individuals harassing other fans, simply by virtue of being so much larger. As the above examples attest, it's not other critics who have told me to light myself on fire and, just to be clear, the asks I've responded to are a miniscule number compared to the amount I've received. I delete the lion's share for my own sanity and to save my followers from reading the really graphic threats.

"Months-long NSFL spam brigades" — I am, admittedly, not sure what this is referring to. Spamming of NSFW content? If so, that's also an individual problem.

"Homophobic, transphobic, and racist attacks towards our users" — See the above points. Again. If someone is being homophobic, transphobic, or racist, then yes please, ban them. Don't ban an entire community for the actions of a few. It's like walking into a store and banning a customer for causing a scene... but then also banning everyone else who happened to be shopping at the same time. It's guilt by association.

The silver lining to all this? The community as a whole isn't pleased. At least according to the main subreddit comments and a few individual voices like MurderofBirds. Despite the increase (from my perspective anyway) of critical voices post-Volume 8, criticism of RWBY is still very much seen as taboo. As this ban showcases. But it's really reassuring to see so many fans, critics and non-critics alike, going, "This was a mistake." A community is meant to include all aspects of engagement: praise, criticism, and the gray area between. If anything, fans like the mods of the main subreddit should be creating a separate subreddit that is specifically for praise. In the same way that there should have been a tag for RWBY praise, rather than trying to eliminate any and all criticism from the main "RWBY" tag. The majority of fans, even those who claim to hate critics and all they (presumably) stand for, recognize that a blanket ban of all criticism is not the way to go, especially when "criticism" has come to have such a staggeringly broad definition. If you want your RWBY experience to be nothing but sunshine and roses (ha), then cultivate your own internet experience to reflect that. Create your own pockets with rules about how this is the space for praise and if you're not up for praising RWBY right now, don't interact with us in this particular space. Don't try to make the entire community — the main tools used to discuss the show online — conform to your preferences. As established, there is no "good" criticism that everyone in the fandom will accept, which just leaves a fandom with no criticism at all. I'm glad to see I'm far from the only one who, when presented with that extreme, is going, "Nope. No thank you."