#also I just wanna say

[scesketch]

Rant incoming wee woo wee woo

Hi Minecraft lovers… anyone else feeling a bit mocked? A bit made fun of? Bc this Minecraft movie we’re getting… this is not it.

First of all, purely from a storytelling perspective, they’ve mucked up right at the beginning with the main characters. Steve is the player character. He’s the vessel through which we (before creating our own skins, of course) experience the game. So WHO ARE THE RANDOS?? Who are we experiencing this story through? They’re all wildly different, don’t fit the Minecraft universe at all—it’s like they’re trying to remake Jumanji poorly. How are we supposed to connect with these people if we don’t know who they are??? Like imagine if they’d done this with the Mario movie. Everyone would’ve hated it. (Also movie Steve’s sweater is awful. Why does it have two collars? Just no.)

Secondly, you have THOUSANDS of talented animators and artists who make Minecraft videos and movies and music videos and shorts in the original style of Minecraft! They could’ve gone the route of the Lego Movie and used the original style and medium. Instead they’re doing live action, with hyper realistic textures on all the blocks and a world that looks nothing like the Minecraft we know and love. Who are they trying to cater to? People who love Jason Momoa’s biceps specifically? You can still cast him, he can voice act, why did we need him as a full live action human being when that just… isn’t Minecraft? This movie isn’t artistic. It’s not creative. And I feel so bad for the people that had to make it, and the people who didn’t get to because the executives greenlit a live action dumpster fire instead of something animated and interesting. In the day and age of things like Arcane and Spiderverse, this is just sad.

And finally, the thing that unsettles me most: they’ve made the whole thing ridiculous. The freaking sheep. The llama. The piglins even. They look terrible and are almost definitely just comedic relief. Minecraft can be used for shits and giggles, yes, but Minecraft isn’t ridiculous—it’s HauntingTM. Where’s the C418? Where’s the render distance fog? Where’s the mournful groan of zombies you can’t see yet, somewhere deep inside a cave? They took one of the most melancholy games in existence and made it a weirdly 80’s-themed circus with no depth or intrigue. And it makes me, as a Minecraft player and fan, feel mocked. Bc I love Minecraft. The real Minecraft. But if this is how the world perceives my beloved block game, I dunno, man, I kinda don’t want them to know I like it, not because I’m ashamed, but because I feel deeply and intentionally misunderstood. Idk maybe I’m just autistic but this is getting to me in a way I didn’t expect, and I think it’s because something I love has been so ruthlessly cheapened. It’s so heartless. I can’t bear to look at it.

[lunabug2004]

I know that probably no one cares, but I feel like my take on byler is so strange, and I've been thinking about it a lot lately because I'm so deep in doubt. Like, don't get me wrong, I really really really want it to happen, more than anything (Mike Wheeler is definitely queer in some way, byler endgame or not)! But if mileven ends up being endgame, unless they completely destroy a character or their arc in the process, I think that's fine.

I understand the people who say byler's only been built up and mileven broken down since s3 (and I do mostly agree) but I genuinely think mileven is cute. I think they would be better as platonic besties, but if they are endgame I won't be too upset because we know they both care for eachother so much. I also would be happy if byler just stay besties, obv after Will's feelings are made clear and Mike accepts them.

idk if this even makes sense... but ig what I'm trying to say is I'm definitely a multishipper and all I want is for all my babies to be happy. I also just want to reiterate that I would much rather byler be endgame; I think that mileven is cute but byler is a million times cuter.

[2-sleepy-for-this]

I’m stuck y’all

I’ve got a bit of free time rn but im not sure what to write sooo… Poll time! ( ＾∀＾)

tag list:

@da3dm @i-am-beckyu @lunar-but-little

[phanfuckingtasmal]

im sorry but i cannot stop thinking about isha's pastel memories that play during her sacrifice scene.

look at how full of colour this beautiful fuckin shot is:

it's been well established in episodes 4-6 how grim and dark the undercity has become under cait and ambessa's new rule. but look at how isha sees/remembers it - because of jinx.

jinx, who went through a severe childhood trauma that has carried over into her present self - she covers extremely destructive weapons and grenades in bright pinks and blues, neons, childlike doodles, graffiti. (joy and destruction, powder and jinx, a contrast so striking it becomes like a signature for her).

and then we see the world through isha's eyes. when we meet her in episode 2, she's running through sewers, from goons dressed in black; it's grimy and grim. and then all of her recent memories are done in these childlike pastel, almost crayon-y sketches. because what isha saw was jinx covering a dark and grim world in colours.

and so isha covered her world in colour, too.

because jinx made her world bright.

isha looked at jinx and saw the child in her. she saw powder and she saw jinx. she saw joy and destruction. and that's why jinx gave isha so much hope. isha knew the world was grim and dark - but then she watched jinx, and she learned that you can paint over all that grim darkness with neon blue spray paint.

that's why isha believed in hope. that's why in her final moments - in a scene that is lit dimly and dramatically - she sees nothing but a bright world coloured in pastels.

never underestimate the hope of a child.

[spitblaze]

I don't see people gas up gnc and butch transfems nearly enough, can we get a fuckin round of applause for gnc and butch transfems

[hoshizoralone]

reflection

[thetimelordbatgirl]

The police in Scotland have the chance to do the most funniest thing right now.

[lunabug2004]

FOR REAL!! I loved it before but now that we can clearly see how curly it is… ☠️⚰️

Alright the hair is fucking cute

[choccy-milky]

herbology class 🌹🌿 (from chap 2 of my fic!)

[bookalicent]

yeah so this was insane

[charcoaldustonmyfingers]

Finding Draxum

A little comic of Mikey finding Draxum in the street after he got drained by the Shredder suit. The original idea for this storyline was that Draxum would align himself with the Hamatos for a time while The Shredder took over the city, until his ego and obsession with prophesy led him to betray them once more. This time he would get no third chance, and Mikey would be the one to draw the line and tell him so before making him leave the city for good.

I love TMNT for its found family! But having had to cut off irl blood relatives before despite how many chances they were given, I kind of like Draxum as a villain despite him being the creator of the turtles. But that’s just me!

This doesn’t lead to his nice canonical show self in my mind , though it can totally still be read that way :)

[puppppppppy]

act 4 :(

@chipper-smol and i came to a realization

[contagious-watermelon]

Why do I keep seeing transmascs and trans men insisting or implying that all trans men are "female socialized," or "understand the female experience," or "navigated the world as a woman." Because yeah, sure, that can be true for some people. especially if you weren't gnc at all as a kid and didn't crack your egg until well into adulthood, it makes sense.

But they don't stop at saying they had that experience. It always comes with an addendum that trans men, as a group, all can relate to this experience. I don't know about the entirety of my demographic, but I never got even a little bit of what some of them talk about. I didn't even believe that women were scared of going out at night until I kept consistently seeing them say it, online or wherever, for years. I never realized catcalling was a thing until I saw some women complaining about it on reddit.

But they posit it as some sort of, you're safer than cis men, right? You know what it's like? Which, on top of being patently, demonstrably false in the case of myself and many other trans men, holds some unpleasant and often outright hostile implications about trans women. And they always deny it, but if you can't even conceptualize someone like me who grew up gnc, and never got the bulk (or any?) of whatever we consider to be 'female socialization,' what does that say about what you think trans girls went through, growing up? I don't want to speak for them, as I've never experienced that firsthand, but I can guarantee that (if you're even a little bit obviously trans) people don't treat you like a cis kid of the opposite gender. By and large, they don't get treated like cis boys.

It just makes me mad that we're taking this inaccurate framework that (ever so conveniently) puts trans people into the box of our assumed birth gender, and trying to fancy it up and use it with a faux-progressive veneer; never mind the way that transphobes use it to bar trans women from being athletes, or using the bathroom, or having access to any gendered resources they need. It would be bad enough to try and dust it off and use it even if it were largely accurate, due to the aforementioned connections to outright transphobia, but it literally is patently false. Not in all cases, obviously, but why are we trying to revamp this untrue, inaccurate generalization and pretend that we can make it 'trans-inclusive?'

[stil-lindigo]

the machine.

a comic about being a 'creator' online.

creative notes:

[14dayswithyou]

💖 Day 3.5 is now available! 💖

For the last couple of months, only Server Boosters had access to the 3.5 update... Buuuuut now it's available for everyone to play in the 14DWY Discord — and soon itch.io once I'm happy with the QA and state of the game — so please don't feel pressured to join unless you want to!!

The full devlog + even more screenshots are under the cut ^^

What's been added to the 3.5 version?

📺 Streamer Mode!

I've been told that it's difficult to stream and monetise age-restricted videos on YouTube and Twitch, so I added an option to remove the sexual content and strong language used in the demo.

Now y'all can invite Ren into your bed for cuddles without putting your streamer career on the line /silly /lh

This won't affect the 18+ rating or dark themes/elements of the game, however! Although Streamer Mode will prevent you from seeing any "gruesome" CGs in the future, most of the core elements of the game will still be tied to the choices and decisions you make. So you won't miss out on the overall experience by using streamer mode!!

⚙️ Custom Pronouns!

It only took me one entire year to get around to it, but you can finally choose your own preferred pronouns (or use a set of pronouns instead)... At the cost of being able to change them mid-game ^^;

Since the original pronoun screen wouldn't update until a new scene was displayed, I temporarily disabled the feature. But once I find a workaround, I'll bring it back!

💗 Choose how others perceive you!

You can now choose how the cast and narration perceive you! Originally, the narration was kept strictly gender-neutral (outside of pronouns and genitalia picked by the player), but this will soon change in future updates.

For more clarity: you don't get to choose the words specifically, but you can choose between masculine, feminine, and androgynous terms!

📋 Separate top and bottom genitalia!

You can now choose your tatas and pps separately! >:3

Alongside that, you can also choose your preferred body type!

I removed the "both" genitalia option because a few players still assumed it was an obscure version of "intersex". That wasn't my intention and I don't want to mislead anyone, so I took it out for now ^^;

I also didn't want to include a screenshot of the new genitalia choices in action (because it's NSFW), so y'all get the same character menu screen for the nth time instead lmao

📱 Relationship Screen Overhaul!

You can now change your own status for more immersion, and long-term Server Boosters will eventually be able to submit and use their own icon within the game as well!

Stalking finding your friends has now become easier by using "Buddy Maps"; a new app that allows you to see the location of all the cast members!

I want to offer players more incentive to check the relationship screen since they tend to miss the status updates, so hopefully this might help ;v;

It also says it "updates every few hours" so folks don't go overboard and check every 5 seconds to see where Ren is gdsghf (also keep in mind that he's a hacker lol)

🖤 Additional Scenes Update!

Day 2 received a brand new CG!!!!! Originally, I planned on only adding a few CGs sporadically throughout the game, but it didn't feel right to leave Day 2 so... empty... so I added a brand new CG to (hopefully) make things feel more balanced and natural!

If you decline Teo's offer on Day 3, Leon will now call and try to convince you to reconsider. However, players are still allowed to decline, and if they do, they'll reach a dead end.

After listening to feedback on itch, I changed some of the dialogue during Days 1-3 to make it seem more consistent! They're only small changes though, so it's honestly not worth looking for sdgjssga

🎶 Updated BGM and SFX!

I wanted to try out a different style of music to see if it fits the vibe of 14DWY more! The BGM features more acoustics to suit the "beachy" theme of Corland Bay, though I made a conscious effort to include piano elements as well to stay true to the original!!

I figured it'd be better to give players a live example before I make a poll (to see if they prefer the change or not) and publish it to Itch.

Some new SFX have also been added, though it's very minimal and honestly not that noticeable.

How to download and play the update?

(warning: clicking on the following links will open Discord!!) To download the Day 3.5 update, simply join the 14DWY Discord server, verify your age, and visit the "14dwy-updates" channel!

Alternatively, you can also wait until the update is publicly released on Itch to play it as well!! (It normally gets released shortly after a round of QA testing/getting feedback from the server, though I may release it earlier if I feel like it hehe ^^)

Enjoy!!