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betweenlands · 6 months ago

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okay, folks! we're home, let's talk about sbk!fool. specifically, the fact that something weird is going on with him. fair warning: this is gonna get long. also there's spoilers.

Fool is kind of a... side character in SBK. he's not directly opposed to OSSHA, but he's not exactly allied with them either. his island partner is Milkman and he's the other Birch Box guy, but he's good friends with Vintage. a lot of what he's done has been attributed to other people.

also, he might just be a huge threat, especially to whatever Olm is doing.

let's back up a little to the part of Avid's ep11 with Fool in it. here's a timestamp.

there's silly music. Kittrix is doing her "i am but a fence" bit. we hard cut to Avid saying "we're gonna need to have the law removed from this situation" and there is no background music. we go further into the scene, Vintage turns to Kittrix as Fool & the Jungle folks are walking off and says "remember that service i told you to sign up for earlier?", and we start getting an ominous synth drone that remains throughout the entire scene. Fool's whole prank slash hitman service is apparently deadly serious business.

this is... really weird. i was there for the Fool stream where this was recorded, and tonally while Fool was definitely being a little bit of a ham, he's also genuinely just like that and was being pretty lighthearted at the time. this scene? this scene is edited in a way that makes Fool seem really ominous, on-par with Avid in the scene an episode earlier where he kidnaps Ruby, and...

speaking of Ruby. their OSSHA clone does not like Fool. here's another timestamp from Leon's ep5, but what's important to know about this scene is stream context again in the opposite direction.

OSSHA Ruby, aka Cloneby and hereby called Tuby because i think it's funny, spent the entirety of their time online during Fool's stream basically stream-sniping him. Fool is not lying when he says they threatened him (even though i kind of had to point that out because it was a little subtle). not only did they show up in-person at Birch to act ominous, they also /msg'd Fool some threatening stuff and kept streamsniping him whenever he tried to go over to Cherry Kingdom and warn Vintage about how weird Ruby was being. this is what led to Tuby showing up at End Kingdom after Fool talked to Leon; Ruby-as-in-the-actual-player was straight up watching stream to know when he left and where he was going.

Tuby has beef with Fool... which is pretty weird considering OSSHA kind of struck a bargain with Birch early on where they could put up "under construction" signs and OSSHA would leave them alone.

okay. so Tuby doesn't like Fool and Avid thinks he's threatening. pretty lowkey so far. for this next part, we've gotta jump around in time, and you've gotta trust me a little -- Fool doesn't upload his VODs anywhere so the only proof i have of these is "i was there at the time."

anyway: this is Fool in the Limbo animatic. notably, this is from the sequence where Olm tells Avid to stop people from falling into the Void.

Fool has different skins for different servers he's on. Skyblock Kingdoms Fool is gold. Fool's PNGtuber is purple, but purple Fool also has a server he's associated with. to be absolutely clear, i am going to make a leap in logic here, bear with me, but this is not SBK Fool. because purple Fool is from Avid Adventures.

deep breath in, deep breath out. here's where stuff gets very "source dude trust me" other than the screencaps i have, so i'm gonna start with the absolute confirmable basics. Olm is the antagonist of Avid Adventures, the command block based adventure map that Avid makes. they are also the antagonist of Avid Adventures, the series about Avid making that map -- they're possessing Avid in that series, in fact, generally being quite ominous about it. i have an entire essay about that but we don't have time for it right now.

Fool, while playing on Avid Adventures, initially only did Dark Path. these VODs are well and truly lost to time, but initially he was doing the Shrouded Isles fully evil, committed to helping Olm largely for funsies. Avid even logged in as Olm to be ominous at him a couple times! in general it seemed like Olm and Fool were kind of wary of each other, but mostly chill -- Fool has a main god he swears allegiance to that isn't Olm, but he's still helping the guy, so there shouldn't really be much of a big issue?

anyway, turns out Olm is really petty. they left him a mean breakup note and everything! (sidenote: Atium's name is entirely my fault. as far as Fool is aware and as far as Fool's lore is concerned, they are a deity of luck, coffee, precious gems, and some other things all totally unrelated to any novels by a certain brando sando.)

anyway then Fool's base gets exploded to bedrock and he respawns in a white void room.

this actually coincided with Avid removing a lot of the shop builds at the original spawn, by the way! lore going forward implies that Olm, either using Avid as a conduit or just in general, straight up thanos style snapped everyone who used to be on Avid Adventures out of existence. one would assume this means this was also Olm trying to delete any trace of Fool.

you may notice that i said that purple Fool is Avid Adventures Fool, not was. this is because Fool does not stay dead -- he respawns! on his boat build next to his exploded base! with every single inventory of every single chest wiped! Olm really did not want him to survive. he and Atium, however, chose life. Atium leaves him a book as well:

Atium's typing style is kind of just straight up delightful, i'm not going to lie. their "blessing" took the form of a Fortune 6 pickaxe titled Atium's Prosperity in rainbow lettering with flavor text reading "A chance at a new life", by the way.

but yeah, uh, Fool and Atium (who is also Fool, it's complicated) just kind of looked Olm in the eye and went "nuh uh," which is insane because this is Olm we're talking about, the dark god most commonly known for destroying an entire civilization in a single night and also constantly telling lies to Nightmares/SBK Avid for funsies. Olm legitimately has straight up destroyed and killed and maybe even eaten other gods before. we have confirmation from Avid that they consumed an entire pocket dimension somehow and that's what led to the creation of Limbo.

and again, purple Fool just kind of said "nuh uh" to all that with the help of his deity, who is also him.

considering it's like 95% certain Olm is in charge of OSSHA at this point, and it's heavily implied that the clones are part of their orders for Avid, there's... a pretty good chance Olm knows Fool isn't exactly someone to take lightly, and that could explain why Tuby is so hostile towards him and Avid is so nervous around him.

then again, maybe it's just because Fool is fun to mess with and good at playing the prankster hitman. who knows?

Atium, probably.

#I DID NOT. EXPECT TO GO INTO AVIDVENTURES LORE HERE. BUT UH HERE WE ARE #avid adventures #skyblock kingdoms #avidventures #sbk #thefoolsfam #avidmc #<- not really but it's not like olm has a character tag of their own #solar scraps #solar scrawls #gilded

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emeraldlupin · 3 months ago

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Breaking Down Naruto: Blood Prison Part 5

Part 4

Broken Rules

The way the Celestial Prison jutsu works, the prisoners will be lit on fire if they get too far away from Mui. Now, because Naruto fell into the sea during an escape, that doused the flames. But then Naruto and Ryuzetsu, also marked with the jutsu, talk in a rocky outcropping far below the prison. You can see the distance to the prison at the 30:11 mark.

How far away are they, exactly? At the end of the movie, Mui was still on that flower-shaped platform, but the escaping prisoners started to burn before they even got all the way down the steps from the front door. But Naruto got all the way out of the prison, to the cliff, and then was dragged to that spot far below the cliff.

Shouldn't Naruto and Ryuzetsu have hit the limit of their leash sitting there? It would depend on where Mui was in the prison. And I will admit, I am AWFUL at judging space without hard numbers. But it seems to me like the two of them should have lit up like candles just by being in the cave.

A Broken Clock

This is a small follow up to an earlier observation. Remember when I discussed the timing of the attack on the Raikage and the Hidden Stone?

Well, in the final scene of the movie, Kakashi says that after the mug shot came around, Tsunade "kept a 24 watch on Naruto." By 24 watch, do they mean someone watched Naruto around the clock, or that he was monitored for a full 24 hours?

The attack on the Raikage was "last night," so...okay, let's create some hypothetical numbers to make this easier. Let's say Naruto was carted out of the Hokage's office on the 15 of the month at 2 PM.

If the attack on the Hidden Cloud was "last night," that would be the night of the 14th. If Naruto had been monitored for a full 24 hours before that, it would have started at 2 PM on the 14th.

So...was the attack on the Hidden Stone on the 14th, or even the 13th? As I said before, the two villages are very far apart. Even fudging the time with ninja speed, it is ridiculous to think Kazan was able to go from one place to the other even in the span of 24 hours. Even if went via water, there would still be the overland journey.

The only way you'd be able to do that is if you had a system of Flying Thunder God seals set up across the continent, as in the fanfic How Long is Forever?. But that is not the case here. So, yes, the movie can't even keep its own timing straight.

That is, of course, assuming the 24 watch was for 24 full hours and not just "an around the clock watch for some indefinite amount of time."

Mood Whiplash

When the credits are over, there are two post credit scenes. The first is a somber moment at the graves of Ryuzetsu, Mui, and Muku. The second is the Hokage's office right after Naruto was carted off, a scene which has a very lighthearted tone.

People on TV Tropes have commented on the severe mood whiplash of putting these two scenes together, and they're right. It's incredibly weird and doesn't work at all.

Look, there are shows that can pull off that sort of thing. I used to watch Legends of Tomorrow, and one of my favorite episodes, "Moonshot," is a prime example. It ended on a dark and dramatic moment...and then had something very silly in the ending credits.

The difference is that Legends was very good at mixing genuine drama with a level of over the top insanity that made you wonder if the writers were on some illicit substance. Also, their humor didn't make the characters look like horrible, stupid people.

Incredibly OOC

Probably the most egregious mistake this movie makes is with regards to characterization. This movie makes the Konoha supporting cast look like a bunch of disgusting jerks, to put it politely. Jerks, and also idiots.

Naruto is sent to Blood Prison by Tsunade as a ploy. They know something's up, and they've been working with the Hidden Cloud to find the stupid box, though what caused the two to suddenly team up for this, I don't know. The ease with which they just let this happen, and not even bringing up the Transformation Jutsu, feels like betrayal, and it is meant to.

Not that Naruto ever has any feelings about that. Because who would want or expect that, right?

Once Naruto is gone the lights come on and everyone sighs in relief like they've just wrapped up filming on a movie. In fact, in order to capture exactly how bad this scene is, allow me to give you a transcript of the conversation.

Sakura: Say, I didn't overact, did I?

Kakashi: Lady Tsuande, you are cruel. After the mug shots came around, you said you kept a 24 hour watch on Naruto.

Tsunade: What are you saying?! Kakashi, you're the one who suggested we go along with the enemy's plan. You'd better apologize to Naruto later, Kakashi.

Kakashi: Huh? Me? **Puts his hands behind his head** But Lady Tsunade, you said you wanted to proceed carefully since this was a joint operation with the Cloud.

Tsunade: **Huffs** You do what you must to deceive the enemy!

Yamato: Naruto's probably feeling very hurt.

Everyone: **Looks at the door with the first real semblance of guilt**

Kakashi: When he comes back, we'll let him eat all the ramen he wants at Ichiraku.

And that's how the movie ends.

Honestly, I can't say I'm surprised that this idea was Kakashi's. Not one bit. This is the same man who threw his fresh genin into the Chunin Exams when he'd barely trained them. The guy who abandoned Sakura to train Sasuke. The worst instructor in the series.

Why was this guy named Sixth Hokage again? He couldn't even take care of three genin, and you put him in charge of the village?

How Dumb Is This Plan?

Let's go over how stupid this entire plan really was. Konoha can see that Naruto has been framed, and somebody wants him in prison. More than likely, they'd want him in Blood Prison. Something is clearly going on.

Thus, everyone decides to use Naruto as bait. They do not tell him a thing because he'd blow his cover. They throw him into an unknown situation where he could get killed. And, I know what you're saying, Blood Prison is rather peaceful. But you're overlooking the obvious.

Naruto was in intense pain from the curse seal. He nearly drowned, and was only saved from that by Ryuzetsu. And if not drowning, he could have been incinerated if he got too far away.

Did Konoha know that's how Blood Prison restrains inmates? If the prison is being run under their supervision, they should have. And any idiot could probably have figured out that Naruto, if he was left in the dark, would try to escape and risk incineration. Or if the prison master is in on it, he could incinerate Naruto deliberately.

And then there's whatever's going on in the prison. Somebody is trying to get Naruto somewhere where he will be isolated and unable to use his chakra. That puts Naruto in a great deal of danger. Plus, he's a jinchuriki. When a jinchuriki is targeted, doesn't that raise your alarm bells? What if someone tried to extract Kurama, Extraction is supposed to kill you.

On top of all that, Konoha sent along no support. No one inside the prison or outside. For all the talk about use Naruto to play into the enemy's plan, there's no one watching him. This turns your "Naruto is bait on a hook to catch the fish" scenario into "Naruto is just the bread we toss into the water to feed the fish."

Oh, you might point to Maroi. But that just raises the question of whether Konoha knew about Maroi. And if they did know about him, did they really need to send Naruto in, let alone blind?

Maroi only started looking out for Naruto because Killer Bee asked him to. His real mission was to find the box and destroy it. In fact, Maroi seemed perfectly okay with letting Naruto die, and Naruto acknowledges the guy is a jerk (but his "friends" are totally okay).

If Maroi were real support, he would have been ordered by the Raikage to guard Naruto as part of the joint mission. But he was not. If he were real support, he would have introduced himself while in prison. But he did not. He only revealed himself at the end.

I don't care how dumb you think Naruto is or how he might blow the trap, I think a little trust is in order here. And don't forget, while Maroi manipulated Naruto into getting into solitary as a way to protect him, ultimately, Naruto's life was saved by Ryuzetsu when she fished him out of the sea.

Does anyone know the show Young Justice? Season 1, episode 11, "Terrors," was a prison episode. The Justice League knew something weird was going on with a group of ice-themed supervillains. They all seemed to want to be in the same place, that being Belle Reve, a maximum security prison designed for super criminals.

To investigate, the League sent in some of their teen heroes, having them pose as other supervillains. This prison was heavily guarded, and all prisoners had shock collars that were also designed to negate their specific powers. Nobody in the prison knew the true identities of our heroes turned spies, because the League couldn't be sure who was in on it.

Do you know why that plan worked so much better than this movie?

Since the collars were designed to negate the powers of the specific super criminal and the heroes, Superboy and Miss Martian, were impersonating two different people, their powers were largely unaffected. This included Miss Martian's telepathy.

They were not sent in alone. Yes, they were kept in separate wings, but could still interact with each other physically on certain occasions, and always stayed in psychic communication.

There was someone hidden outside the prison monitoring the situation. That person was Aqualad, and he was in constant psychic communication with Miss Martian.

Yes, things still went wrong. Chaos happens. But the heroes sent into the prison were in a far safer position than Naruto was. This entire plan was incredibly dumb, and the only reason it didn't kill Naruto pure luck from someone outside anyone's control.

Everyone is Awful

Kakashi's raw stupidity, I can believe. I don't want him to be that stupid, but canon hasn't exactly helped. And as for everyone else? It's completely out of character.

Tsunade cares about Naruto greatly. She sees her little brother in him. She's one quarter Uzumaki herself. Naruto is the boy that dragged her out of her pit of misery and self-loathing. This is how you treat him? You throw him in there with no support? This isn't just some mission, he will be far less able to defend himself and you know it!

But no, she tries to deflect blame onto Kakashi, even though she agreed to it.

And then there's Sakura. She doesn't seem bothered by this at all. Look, Naruto gets on her nerves. He has for a long time. But they're teammates. Sakura cares about him. Sakura has a kind, warm heart. In Wave, she felt compassion for the people who were starving, and a need to help them. She should not be acting like this.

Worst of all, Kakashi says they'll just make it up to Naruto with ramen. I just...what? A bowl of ramen can't fix this. A hundred bowls of ramen can't fix this. How simple-minded do you think Naruto is?

And that's another thing. I'd almost wonder if Naruto is out of character, too, based on his lack of reaction. Naruto has been a bit too forgiving of people that hurt him. Just look at how easily he took being lauded by the village after Pain. But even the series had him acknowledge actual lingering resentment.

Naruto is hot-headed. He's gotten angry at stuff before, including poor treatment. Why is he not angry now? Why is he not upset? It's a perfectly normal human reaction and yet it's not there at all. It's not even discussed.

Who thought this was a good idea? If you have to make the characters blatantly OOC, stupid, and awful to make your story work, you have failed.

Oh, and to top it off, there's one other thing about that final scene. As Tsunade talks, her breasts bounce several times. This is not something that usually happens in the series, probably because the animators don't want to waste the effort animating that. But it's happening here.

Is this supposed to add to the light-hearted tone? It fails. All it does is show how completely out of touch this movie is with good writing, or any semblance of sense.

How to Fix Blood Prison

#naruto #naruto blood prison #Bad movie #Bad Film #Breaking Down Naruto Blood Prison #OOC #This Plan is Awful #Kakashi is an idiot

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jackals-ships · 9 months ago

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JACKAL I must apologize I was like I WILL GO CHECK F/O LIST because I am not 100% sure which bot you ship with (<- did not care about robots until suddenly I cared A LOT) though I thiiink it's Megatron bUT sorry if I'm wrong fkdjashkj BUT BEARING IN MIND I HAVEN'T FINISHED S1...I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SHIP(S) 👀 and perhaps read fic at some point if you are able to find it @goldenworldsabound

(<- did not care about robots until suddenly I cared A LOT) IS AN ENTIRE MOOD THO HFKF tfp is like some sleeper cell activation code i SWEAR,,, + ur all good !! i gotta fiddle w my f/o list a lil and then repost it bc i kept meaning to make minor changes an then forgor,

BUT ANYWAYS YES !!! he's also, hilariously, one of the f/os i have a physical lil guy of despite being not on my radar as long as like garrus hf

also a read more bc i woke up Rambly today <3

he gets to sit with the ponies :} bc he canonically likes mlp at least according to the lil ask Megatron bit + there was a whole comics crossover (2 I think actually?)

breakdown + knockout are also My Besties they started out as like kinda baby crushes <- local aro can't tell the difference between Feelings even in fiction more at 11 [lighthearted] before megs came for my braincell with the fuckin. steel chair HFJ so seeing you go 👀🥰 at knocks i was like FUCK YEAH LETS GOO !!! im dropping into his work station from the ships vents like oooo someone's got a cruuuuush ooooo you wanna be all (⁠ʃ⁠ƪ⁠＾⁠3⁠＾⁠）don't u knocks- (jackal is once again banned from the nemesis)

okay okay but; i rlly only have one fic Finished and luckily had the foresight to post it to AO3. it's a lil older so not totally in character + canon but still silly and cute hjfkd

NOW GETTING INTO MY RED STRING TERRITORY-

when i get into something with a lot of continuities i tend to kinda? squish em together? or take bits and pieces going >:3 my city now, so the jackal x megatron ship is Primarily TFP but ive also absconded with fun movie details (like megs being i think it was 30? 40 ft tall? Fuck Huge,,,,) and also bits of comics lore/designs (holomatter is an interesting concept and im chewing on Meg's as we speak. gnawing on his arm even-)

but regardless this ship is totally my Slice Of Life Comedy Hour Chill LoFi Beats type of ship HKF like im a sucker for darker stuff higher stakes but i think this one has 0 stakes

like. like jackal and megatron literally met because jackal enjoys long walks on the beach exploring places Away from the city and Generally Away From Ppl to just sorta vibe. and ofc the normal thing to do when coming across a Definitely Alien And If Not Alien Then Like Secret Government Ship is to walk away. NOT wander ur happy lil ass inside like :0 yooooo what do These buttons do

and then when you get kicked out instead of getting squished like the bug you shouldn't come back via the air vents. again. and again and again and AGAIN and AG- until the local alien warlord gives in and is like "yeah okay this is my life now ig???" (soundwave was totally helping them btw. he likes drama 😌 and also has his own human hi adri so he can't say shit-) (also I've never decided on the Actual number of times they break it, in my brain it keeps slowly going up jus bc I find the concept SO funny. pov you're an alien warlord worried you got alien rodents and oh no NVM it's the human again. FUCK-)

it's absolutely the slowest burn too bc Meg's Refuses to admit that he has a crush on the weird squishy thing that keeps breaking in (until he's decided they're dating. and doesn't bother mentioning this) while jackals just 🥰 hehehoho big robot friend who calls me scraplet and sweetspark and sometimes puppy 🥰🥰🥰 also threatened to kill any mech who was mean to me 🤔🤔 weird. aaanyways

THERE'S ALSO a running joke in my head of that "what do you have?" "A KNIFE" "NO-" but it's jackal running off with energon bc you can't SHOW ME a cool liquid and have me NOT want to drink it !! Just a sippy. jus a lil- we'll have the hospital on speed dial pleeeeaaaase-😭

anyways tldr jackal megatron is "I'm not trapped with him he's trapped with me yaaaay :D" and "robot google; weird fuzzy feeling in spark?? how to remove weird fuzzy feeling?? robot google human exterminator near me-"

#jackals barks #golden tag #ship: king with no crown #i also have an alt timeline thats similar but runs the gambit of 'the decepticons took over earth Now What'#except its Still jackal 'pov im going to annoy my way into love 😌'

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wutheringmights · 2 years ago

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"Red, White, and Royal Blue" by Casey McQuiston is extremely dated. I know it was published in 2019, but spiritually this is a relic from 2013. This is a 2/5 for me.

The rest of this post is overwhelmingly negative, so skip if you don't want to see.

I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't buy into its escapist fantasy. I like silly romcoms, but this novel felt like it had to excuse every aspect of itself. "Don't worry about the love interest being a British prince! He also hates the empire!" Okay, but now you got me thinking about British imperialism so much I can't ignore it.

Don't even get me started on how American politics is handled. Again, I am more than willing to turn my brain off and just enjoy a lighthearted romance, but the narrative didn't want you to turn your brain off. This would be fine if it went beyond buzzword acknowledgements of systemic injustice and the cesspool of American politics. Yes, rich white men in power is an issue. Do you have any else to say besides that?

And the thing that really grinded on my nerves was the narrative's insistence that Alex was some kind of underdog (you know, to contrast, Henry's privilege). But Alex isn't an underdog! He's rich! Both his parents were lawyers before they became politicians. His dad owns a lakehouse. His mom remarried a tech billionaire. Alex is rich and his lifestyle is rich. If the story wanted to be about a smart-aleck rich boy-- great! I'd actually prefer it that way! But instead it's all about how he feels like an outsider compared to how rich Henry is. I know it's not at the same level, but I would have preferred some acknowledgement over this insistence that Alex is Just Like Everyone Else (this in particular reminds me of how Sasha Alsberg accidentally revealed how blinded she is to her own privilege in "Breaking Time", but I digress).

Some other miscellaneous thoughts:

No story gets to call itself enemies-to-lovers if they fall in love in the first 100 pages

A book gets a free pass to make one Star Wars or Harry Potter reference; any more and it starts to read like it was focus-grouped for mainstream nerds

At the very least they should reissue this book to remove the (and I am loathe to use this word) cringey Harry Potter references

The prose is insanely readable, which is a rare feat of skill. McQuinston can write, I just wish she didn't write this story.

I've seen a lot of people say that this is written like a fanfiction, which I initially was going to fight on principle; upon reading this, I can concede that this story is at the very least structured like a fanfiction

Specifically, I think this story started as Hamilton fanfiction. No, I will not elaborate on this

#kinda a duller for me but at least it was readable #listen i know “readable” sounds passive aggressive but it's actually a compliment. sometimes there are books that are really good in theory #but are 100% unreadable. books that you can actually sit down and read without effort are to be treasured #me reading #me rambling #red white and royal blue #red white and royal blue by casey mcquinston #readblr

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tea-with-evan-and-me · 2 years ago

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I'm not at all trying to be a 'haley hater' either but what she posted was not a meme, it was clearly aimed at someone she's sleeping with, and either way doesn't look good for Evan, or why would she post it? Honestly I don't see it making sense otherwise? It's not funny. I just feel like sometimes everyone here is so one sided and obsessed with them being together, and anyone who disagrees is 'delusional' and/or a 'hater' which is cruel and unfair.

okay, you got me. because.. this is why i generally do not engage with this type of ask. i'm going to try my best to not snark at you but someone arguing whether or not that was a meme is just... either you don't know what constitutes a meme, or you're just very deadset on assigning a negative connotation to what haley posted. whether it was about evan, her ex-fiancee, or ryan murphy's ass.. the fact that i have to sit here and type this out feels ridiculous. it was MISS PIGGY talking about BEING HORNY for a man who knows his trauma responses lol since so many people seem to have looked deeply into this singular little photo posted to an IG story, here goes my hot take..

sometimes i feel like at 30, i am old and out of touch, but even i am accustomed to internet culture and how my generation, and particularly the younger generation, use memes as a tool for communicating sort of abstract/otherwise taboo content in a silly or lighthearted way. specifically how we have integrated conversations about mental health into memes.

if i were to seriously sit here and break down what i believe this meme was conveying (and here i am) i would say that this is coming from a woman who has gone to therapy herself, probably dealt with a lot of immature men, and was posting this meme because it resonated with her that the creator was posting a message that is saying that she is specifically horny for an emotionally intelligent and in-touch man who understands his trauma responses and can work through them in the context of a romantic relationship. posting this does not mean she was taking shots at evan, her ex, or any man in particular: just that this is what she wants and something she finds appealing. there is no negative connotation to it unless a person assigns it. for instance, if she posted it and said ''wish my ex knew what a trauma response was'' we could easily say she was taking a shot at someone. but we don't know what haley was thinking and whether it was good, bad or neutral.

also, i don't think anyone is truly obsessed with haley and evan being together. you can be happy and root for them without that being the case. i feel the difference is that some of us just want evan to be happy with a nice girl, whether it's haley or someone else - we don't care, i highly doubt any of us are haley lu fans who knew of her before she and evan started dating... and some others may want evan to be happy, but only if it means he's single, with them, or dating a scornful woman who they can openly hate on with thinly veiled jealousy. i am not saying you fall into that category, but i don't know what it is you ''disagree'' with when it comes to evan and haley dating.

#A DEEP DIVE INTO MEMES #weeee #typing is fun

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bobohu4eva · 4 years ago

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Sweet Tooth (Part 3)

Characters: Baekhyun x Reader

Genre: Royalty AU, fluff, angst, eventual smut, mutual pining

Summary: Life as the palace baker got a lot more interesting after catching the devastatingly cute prince sneaking around your kitchen.

WC: 5.1k

Tag List: @wooya1224 @dixnysustae @bbhile @geniusloey @blahblahblah-boo @leave-me-in-the-summertime @baekyeonoreo @cupreoussyzygy @nana-banana

Masterlist

Baekhyun stayed true to his word. He kept you company almost every other day, usually just watching, talking, and snacking on whatever leftovers there would be.

It had taken several more visits for you to truly start opening up to him. Luckily his looks and his silliness balanced each other quite well, making him less and less intimidating the more you saw of him and the more he got comfortable with you as well.

You were surprised when he told you that he was actually a couple years older than you. It wasn’t that you found him immature, but he just had that optimistic boyishness to him that made him appear much more youthful.

Sometimes he would say things that worried you. Usually remarks about his family or his status as a prince. He never wanted to talk about it past those fleeting remarks though, quickly putting back on a smile and asking you about whatever you were baking that day. He seemed like the kind of person who would rarely let any negative emotions show, pushing them down and making jokes to try to make it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Sometimes you thought about pushing it, and trying to get him to talk to you about it. He was your friend, and you worried about him. But on the other hand, he was the prince. You had no right to try and force your way into his family’s business like that. He would come to you if he really needed you, you hoped at least.

You didn’t get nervous about his visits anymore. You had actually started to look forward to them quite a bit. He was a true friend. An annoyingly beautiful one.

In a way, you got used to that too. Of course you still couldn’t help being attracted to him, but you were able to fight it better now and act much more normal. You had really tried, and didn’t have a single mess up in front of Baekhyun since your tart accident. You just had to try a little extra hard when he was around, but that was okay. You took it as a challenge. After years of always doing the same thing having him there was still a nice way to spice things up.

You knew you had a crush, you were just learning to deal with it better.

Today was particularly busy. All morning you’d been preparing for some kind of event and Baekhyun just sat on his little stool across the table from you as you worked, occasionally asking if he could try something or why you did a certain thing. He knew that on busy days, it was better to stay out of your way. He always offered to help, insisting that you could just tell him what to do at any time, but that felt too weird.

“Are you sure you don’t want any help? I feel bad just sitting here.”

This was probably the busiest he’d ever seen you. It must’ve been a pretty big event you were preparing for and you had no time to waste, trying to get things done as quickly and carefully as possible.

“Don’t feel bad.”

First it was the sugar, then the flour. You ran out. You needed to go haul two giant bags up the stairs from the basement. You groaned.

“What is it?” He asked.

“I just have to grab new bags of flour and sugar.” You yelled over your shoulder as you made your way towards the stairs to the basement.

He followed you and you rolled your eyes, pretty certain you knew what was coming next, and it would not be good for your already weak heart.

As expected, he immediately scolded you for not asking him to just help out and ended up carrying both bags up the stairs for you.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want the help, it was really nice, but especially things like this that involved heavy lifting made you feel too much like some sort of damsel in distress and the fact that he felt such a need to always help out only made your crush worse and worse. It would’ve been easier to handle if he wasn’t always so nice and considerate.

“Why do you always do that?” He asked once you were back at your work table.

“Do what?”

“You never ask me for help even if you know it’s something I could do more easily than you. You always try to do it yourself until I notice it and go to help. You know sometimes I really worry that you just never get jars open by yourself if I’m not here.”

You grinned at his usual antics, “You know Baekhyun, I did this for years all on my own before you decided to pop in on me, I can handle myself.”

He shot you an accusing look. “So you’re saying that before I showed up, the jars would magically open themselves? No assistance needed? Or when you had to get one of those giant bags out of the basement? They would just float up the stairs? Come on, Creampuff, don't lie to me.”

It was surprising to you how much he seemed to like that nickname, and he especially liked to use it when he was teasing you.

Of course he was right, there were times when you couldn’t open a jar or there was an especially large bag of sugar that you couldn’t get up the stairs on your own. But he wasn’t the only one there to help. “Well I can also just go next door to the cooks and ask one of the guys there to do it for me too.”

His jaw seemed to tense before he spoke up again. “But you ask them for help, you never ask me though.”

You swallowed. That was also true, but it wasn’t for whatever reason he probably thought, asking him for help seemed like a boundary you didn’t want to cross, for a number of reasons. For one, he was the prince, and therefore you worked for him, not the other way around. It also made you feel too strange with how bad your crush had gotten, you didn’t want to seem like you were prying for his attention so you always tried as hard as you could to do things by yourself first. But he probably shouldn’t know about the second reason.

“Well I work for you, you don’t work for me. It’s not your job to come here and help me carry things and open jars.”

“Don’t remind me.” He mumbled. “It’s not their job either.”

He seemed oddly down after that but you didn’t have any time to dwell on it with how busy you were so you let him be. You decided to just focus on the task at hand, and let him eat some leftover icing so he wouldn’t talk so much. As much as you appreciated it on boring days, Baekhyun could be pretty damn chatty and on days like this one where there was a lot to do it could be a bit taxing having to talk to him too, no matter how much you enjoyed his company. If he was just another guy it would’ve been a different story but having to focus on talking to him and not saying anything dumb on top of all your work was a lot. Despite being much more comfortable with him now, he was still your friend that you were growing more and more attracted to, to the point where even just saying it was a crush seemed like an understatement.

You felt that disgustingly sweet, heart fluttering sensation that had been plaguing you for weeks now when you focused your attention back to him, watching as he scooped up icing with his finger before sticking it into his mouth.

Crush wasn’t a good enough word. You felt stupidly, helplessly infatuated, to the point where just watching him messily eat his icing had you working way too hard to fight the smile that was forcing its way to your lips.

Unfortunately Baekhyun caught on to these things quickly. Unlike you, he had nothing better to do in that kitchen than watch you as you worked, so he noticed every smile, every eye roll, and every time he would make you blush.

You assumed he knew, he just had to by now, with how bad you were at hiding how he made you feel. You’d accepted that, and that he didn’t see you the same way. You were just friends and he probably thought it was cute that you had a little crush on him, the silly little baker girl who liked the prince too much. But you knew it was best to keep it at that.

“Why are you smiling like that?” He asked as he once again licked a scoop of icing off his finger.

You shook your head, still smiling and looking down at what you were working on.

“I wish my mom would smile like that when I eat too instead of telling me I’m an embarrassment.”

He sounded far too lighthearted as he said it, as usual. It had been bothering you for weeks now. You knew you probably shouldn’t, but you asked anyway.

“Baekhyun, you don’t have to tell me anything, because it’s not my business anyway, but why do you say things like that? Sometimes I really worry about you.”

You had stopped kneading your dough, eyes remaining fixed on the soft mass beneath your hands, not trusting yourself to look up at him.

“You worry about me?”

Still looking down at your hands, you gave him a small nod.

“You don’t have to worry about me, I’m a big boy, I’ve been dealing with this my whole life.”

When you finally looked up and met his gaze he was giving you a soft smile, although you could see the hint of sadness in his cute droopy eyes.

“I just want you to know that you can talk to me if you need someone.” The words came out too quietly, but you meant it. It made you sad to hear him say such things and you wanted to be there for your friend.

All the sadness left his face when his cheeks pulled up into a grin, his eyes turning into the cutest half-moon shapes. “Aww, you really do worry about me.”

These were the type of things that made you so sure that he knew your little secret. His teasing you when you got flustered around him, and now this too. It almost felt a bit cruel at this point, that he knew how you felt and he still teased you about it like it was nothing. “You’re so mean.” You pouted, returning your attention back to your dough.

“How am I mean? I remember when we first met you thought I was the nicest.”

“You say stuff like that and then when I get worried you make fun of me for it.” You wanted to add something along the lines of ‘You also get a kick out of my stupid unrequited crush on you’ but you held your tongue. “Am I supposed to listen to you say those things and just not care?”

His brows furrowed at your question, and he paused for a minute.

“I didn’t realize you would care, at least not so much.”

Was he really this blind? This clueless?

“Of course I care Baekhyun, you said it yourself, we’re friends. Friends care when someone says things like that.”

“Oh..” His face had shifted into something you hadn’t seen before. “Then I’m sorry I worried you.”

You weren’t quite sure what it was, but he seemed genuinely taken aback by what you were telling him. It didn’t make any sense to you considering how obvious it was that you liked him, but you couldn’t exactly just say that either.

“You don’t need to feel bad. Like I said, I want to be able to help if you need someone to talk to. I’m here for you.”

You smiled when you saw him smile, his emotions rubbing off on you so easily with how much you cared for him.

“Thank you, y/n. I appreciate that a lot, really.”

As sweet as the moment was, you still had a lot of work to do. You gave him another smile and got back to what you were doing, and he stayed quiet as well. Eventually Baekhyun had somewhere else he needed to be and he excused himself and left, after sweetly thanking you again for your friendship and your kindness. There was so much about his actions that you didn’t understand, but you wanted to learn, to get to know him better and to really figure the guy out.

A couple hours after Baekhyun left you were finally done for the day, and as you were leaving the kitchen you found a small note where you always hung up your apron at the end of the day.

“Meet me in the garden at half past midnight, at the bench where you like to sit and read. That’s a royal order. - B”

You checked the clock again before slipping out of your room as quietly as possible, heart pounding in your chest in anticipation. Why Baekhyun had asked you to meet him so late was beyond you, and hundreds of possibilities, good and bad, flooded your mind with you powerless to stop it. The nervous giddyness you felt before he would show up at the bakery was nothing compared to this. What if you got caught? What would you say? What if he got caught? Or worst of all, if both of you were caught?

Despite your nerves, you had to go. Standing him up would feel too awful anyway, since you really did want to see him. And either way, you couldn’t disobey a royal order. You had never interacted with him outside your little bakery space, where people were popping in and out all the time and there was no real privacy for the two of you to talk about more serious matters.

You tried to walk through the halls as quietly as possible, unsure of if and where there were guards. Luckily it wasn’t too far from where you stayed to the gardens and you were already outside of the castle, feeling the warm spring air on your skin as you made your way towards your favorite spot to read.

Despite the darkness you could already make out the silhouette of your friend as he sat on the bench waiting for you. You smiled looking around at your surroundings. You had never been in the garden at night before, but the soft glow from the castle over the lush spring flowers in the dim light was breathtaking.

As you got closer you saw him stand up, and start walking towards you, meeting you halfway. He kept getting closer, and you expected him to stop but before you could fully process what he was doing, both of his arms were wrapped around you in a tight hug and he held you close.

For a second you stopped breathing completely, but after a couple seconds when reality sunk in you were able to catch your breath. Baekhyun was hugging you. And it wasn’t just some wimpy half assed side hug either, both of his arms were wrapped firmly around your back as he held you against his chest. Your whole body suddenly felt very hot.

“Baekhyun?” You said softly, bringing your arms up and around him as well.

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long.” You heard him whisper.

If your heart rate had been a bit high earlier already, you were surely in danger now. And with your chest pressed against his own, of course he noticed, he always did.

You pulled back but his hands stayed on your shoulders and he looked down at you with concern. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just jumpy, I was really scared of getting caught on my way down here.” You lied, trying to avoid eye contact with the close proximity of your faces. He moved his thumb, gently running it over your collarbone and you felt his eyes on you when it made you gasp slightly.

“Aww poor Creampuff.” He cooed, making you pout back at him. “After midnight there’s only one guard left outside the castle, and he stays on the other side, near the main gates, not back here in the gardens. We’re totally safe, I promise.”

You tried to act like that helped reassure you but there were still a thousand other little things running through your mind about him. You decided you just had to start asking the man if you wanted answers.

“Baekhyun, why did you ask me to meet you here? Isn’t this a bit foolish?”

He grabbed your hand and led you to sit down on the bench next to him. “Maybe it is, but since we’re friends I think there are some things I want you to know.”

You had been so caught up in your own worries that you hadn’t even noticed how nervous he looked too. When you sat down with him you were surprised when his hand stayed firmly intertwined with yours. His hand was soft and warm and felt just right holding yours.

He looked down at the ground and the hand that held your own rested between you on the bench.

“Baekhyun?”

He was the one acting shy now. This beautiful person who was also so far above you in so many ways, seemed genuinely nervous.

“I’m sorry if this is strange for you, I’m not quite sure what to say, I’ve never had someone I can talk about these things with.”

He was still looking nervously down at his feet so you decided to scoot a bit closer and face your body towards his. When you were looking at him, and gently squeezed his hand which was still holding yours, he finally looked up at you.

“What things? You asked. “About your family?”

He nodded. “I don’t even know where to start. Do you know how much I envy you? You get to do something you like every day and you’re so good at it too. There’s nobody telling you you have to be something you’re not.”

His eyes had drifted to the garden around you as he spoke, and his grip on your hand only grew stronger.

“What do you mean?”

You had an idea, albeit a very vague one, of what was wrong, from the things he’d said to you in the bakery. Often it was about disappointing his mother, other times it was something implying how he’d never be able to live up to his older brother.

“I never asked to be born into royalty. I know that it seems horribly ungrateful for me to complain, because I have so much and so many people would love to be in my position, but I’m just not cut out to be a prince.”

You felt the weight of his words sinking in as he spoke to you, looking at you with a newfound seriousness you weren’t yet familiar with.

“I wish I could be what they want me to be, like my brother is, but whenever I try I usually end up making a fool of myself or do something that makes my mom mad. I don’t know how he does it, he’s so good at all this stuff it makes me feel even worse for being so shit at everything. I just wish I could do something with my life that actually makes me happy.”

His voice was growing more and more shaky and you had no clue what you could possibly say back to him when he was hurting so badly, over something you’d never be able to fully experience or understand. Eventually you mustered up a meager “I’m sorry.”

“I know it’s probably hard for you to understand, but that’s a good thing, really. I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone.”

He looked so defeated and your heart ached for him, wishing you could somehow help, but knowing there was nothing you could do.

“Baekhyun, you aren't ungrateful and it’s okay to mess up, I can’t even imagine how much pressure you must be under, of course that’s hard.”

A small smile tugged at his lips briefly but disappeared as quickly as it arose. His eyes looked glassy. You wanted nothing more than to be able to comfort him, to protect him from everything that made him sad. He was so lovely and he deserved so much more than this.

“You’re the first person I’ve ever talked about this with, aside from my brother, but talking to him isn’t much help. I wish I could just be like the rest of them, and fit in with my family and the nobility without having to try so hard.”

His hand left yours and moved to wipe away the wetness in his eyes. When he didn’t lace his fingers back between your own, you took his hand and did it yourself, resting your hands on your thigh. “I don’t wish you were like the rest of them. I like you like this.”

It came out as barely a whisper, but with all his attention on you in that moment he heard you clear as day. He stared back at you, almost making you think that he didn’t believe you.

“Do you really mean that?”

You kept your eyes on him and nodded. “As much as you like to tease me, you’re so much nicer than I ever expected you to be. You’re also funny, and helpful, even though I never ask you to be. You’re really really sweet, Baekhyun, I like you a lot just the way you are now.”

With your last sentence you found yourself looking down in embarrassment, hoping he wouldn’t make fun of you for saying something so vulnerable.

“I like you a lot too.” You saw how his cheeks pulled up into a shy smile and although it was hard to tell in the dim moonlight, you could’ve sworn he was blushing as well. “You’re my best friend, you know.”

“I am?”

As much as you were flattered, and happy that he was so fond of you too, you always assumed he had other friends with how outgoing he seemed.

He nodded. “I told you, I don’t really get along with most of the people my family surrounds themselves with. Most of them don’t like me and think I’m strange and the few I got along with aren’t close with the family anymore, and I don’t blame them.”

“What about people like me?”

He just laughed, “There’s a reason we have to meet like this, I’m definitely not supposed to befriend palace maids, servants, cooks, anyone like that, anyone who doesn’t have some higher status really. I was worried that someone would rat me out for coming to see you so much but surprisingly nobody seems to care.”

“The kitchen staff all generally mind their own business, we know that what you and your family are up to isn’t our business. I doubt they care that you’re in my bakery so often. We aren’t a particularly nosy bunch.”

Baekhyun was smiling, and you were having trouble looking away. You were his best friend. He thought that highly of you. This beautiful, kind, lovely prince really cared about you this much, enough to tell you about his family and the things that upset him. And you were the only person outside of his family that he’d even mentioned it to.

“Baekhyun, you’re my best friend too.”

Baekhyun’s smile became even more blinding and next thing you knew he scooted himself to sit directly next to you, thighs pressed together, and he rested his head on your shoulder. You felt his breath on your neck, and tried to conceal how it made you shiver for a second.

“I’m glad I was craving creampuffs so badly that night.” He hummed and his low voice so close to your ear made your skin tingle.

“Me too.” You responded, squeezing his hand. “If you weren’t the prince, and you could do whatever you wanted, what would you want to be?” You asked him.

“I want to sing, and I want to be in love.” He replied softly.

You felt your heart flutter, you wanted him to be able to be happy, to do what he loves, and to love someone, someone he could actually be with. You couldn’t help the slight lump in your throat when you thought about how that could never be you.

“You can sing?” You asked, trying to ignore the other wish of his for your own sanity. “You’ve never sung for me before.”

“I haven’t in a while now, when I was younger sometimes I would get to sing at events, but eventually my mother deemed it an unnecessary distraction, and I had to stop.”

You frowned. “I’d love to hear you sing.”

With that he started faintly singing a familiar melody, a traditional wedding hymn, and of course his voice was just as pretty as the man himself. You were already so fond of his speaking voice, it wasn’t surprising to you that you loved his singing voice even more.

“You’d be a fantastic singer.”

He groaned, and leaned further into you. “It’s so unfair.” He whispered, and you could feel his lips slightly brush against your neck as he spoke. “Why don’t I get to be happy? Why do I have to live a life I don’t want, why can’t I love who I want?”

It was becoming more and more difficult to keep your composure with how he was pressed up against you, his lips almost touching your neck, breathing you in with every breath, his hand tightly intertwined with yours. Your infatuation was too much to bear, and with a shaky breath you leaned into him as well, resting your head atop of his. “It is unfair. So fucking unfair. I wish there was any way I could help, something I could do to make things better but I’m just a baker. I shouldn’t even be here right now.”

“You’ve done more than you realize. I have someone who will listen to me now, someone who’s nice to me and I can be myself around without feeling bad about it. On days when I can’t come see you, I just look forward to seeing you again the whole day.”

I just look forward to seeing you again the whole day.

The words rung in your mind, and you thought about the days when he wouldn’t be there. You missed him on those days too, and usually spent hours daydreaming about him as you did your work. His laugh, his smile, his silly jokes, his enthusiasm any time you made him something. It was just better when he was there. The bakery felt too quiet and lonely without him ever since he’d made it a regular thing.

“It feels so lonely now, working when you aren’t there. I always miss having you around on days when you’re too busy.”

You were glad he couldn’t see your face from where he was, and how hard you were blushing. Your heart felt like it was about to burst. The affection you had for him was overflowing, and with all of his sweet words whispered into the crook of your neck it was hard to not just start weeping. If you didn’t know better you would’ve thought that maybe, he actually liked you the same way you liked him.

But that was a foolish thing to even think about. He was a prince, and you were a nobody, a commoner. Even if he did feel the same way about you, you would never be able to be together anyway. He deserved happiness with someone he could actually start a life with, someone that his family would approve of, who he could marry and start a family with, and live happily together as royalty, like he was born to.

Did he not think that was possible?

“Baekhyun, why do you say that you can’t be in love?”

You wanted to protest at first when he sat up, but then he looked at you, and you saw the sadness in his eyes.

“I don’t get to meet people, fall in love, all that. Some day my parents will arrange a marriage for some sort of political advantage and I’ll just have to deal with it. The well-being of the people goes before any one individual's happiness, I suppose.”

This time you leaned into him, resting your head on his shoulder. “That still isn’t fair.” You mumbled.

“Have you ever been in love?”

Have you ever been in love? You had to think about it for a second, but looking back on the past flings you’d had here and there, it was never really love.

“No, I haven’t. Have you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I’m not sure I know what love even is, in the romantic sense. I’ve been attracted to people, sure, but I was never able to act on it anyway. I bet it feels amazing, though. Loving someone and them loving you back. But of course people always want what they can’t have.”

He sighed, and you felt his thumb gently rubbing back and forth across the back of your hand.

“Even if it’s just for a little while, I hope you get to feel that someday.”

“Me too.” He whispered. “And I hope you get to live a long, happy life like that.”

You felt the lump in your throat again. Of course you wanted that, but your infatuation for him at that moment made it hard not to be sad at the notion that you’d never experience that with him. Of course you’d daydreamed about different worlds, where he loved you and the two of you could be together, but this wasn’t your reality.

You stayed quiet after that, focusing your eyes on the garden in front of you, the colorful flowers in the moonlight and the occasional flickering of a firefly. You and Baekhyun sat like that, simply enjoying each other’s presence, until you heard yawning coming from both of you, and decided it was time to call it a night before you could accidentally fall asleep.

Baekhyun thanked you oh so sweetly for coming and spending time with him, and gave you another hug before you parted ways.

As you drifted to sleep his words and actions rang in your mind, and you already felt yourself missing him and his touches.

Baekhyun, your best friend.

Next Chapter

#baekhyun #baekhyun fluff #baekhyun ff #baekhyun smut #exo fluff #exo smut #exo fic #baekhyun fic

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slugtranslation-hypmic · 4 years ago

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So... you say that as long as the writer has fun translating, doing it wrong is okay, then, should we worry about your translations not being accurate enough because you were having fun while translating? It's not the same doing something for fun, that doing something because you get paid for it, if you're a proffessional you should do it accurately. I don't even mind Sk8, but I've seen enough translations that give a misleading meaning to readers/watchers. This was not okay.

Hm, I didn’t express myself well. Let me try again and add a couple of things.

Put under a cut for length because I turned into this partway through:

1. It turns out that this wasn’t the writer’s decision, so blaming a translator for this line is a moot point anyway. The voice actor allegedly ad libbed the line, and it was allowed to stay in.

2. Here is a thread with a lovely, well-expressed opinion on the topic. The author’s explanation is more concise and better than anything I could do.

3. What I meant by fun was not wild irresponsibility with no repercussions - again, see thread - but creativity in expressing the appropriate ideas. Every chunk of text has two major components: the meaning of ideas being expressed (denotation) and the method in which the ideas are expressed. What I call “throwaway lines” are ones in which the meaning is something very generic and often only serves a small purpose like providing a scene transition or reinforcing characterization. As long as the meaning and purposes that I identify are correctly conveyed to the audience, then I consider the work to be translated correctly. If I am able to do so in a way that is creative and therefore more fun for me to write and more fun for the reader to read, then that’s all the better. I love reading clever writing. Who doesn’t?

Some examples off the top of my head:

Source text:

Meaning: Speaking character (Beat) is excited to fight two characters, one nicknamed “Lollipop”. That’s what the translation needs to get across. The translator will also likely want to write it in Beat’s tough boy speech style as a means of continuing to characterize Beat consistently.

If I wanted to be strict with fidelity in regards to the exact sentence structure (and even here I am “taking liberties” in order to make it be comprehensible), I could write it as “We will face Candy and Pink Hair together! Take us on!” That’s not remotely as entertaining (and one should assume most video games are intended to entertain) as “We’ll take both you and Lollipop at once! How many licks could it take?!” Both convey the same meaning. One is more enjoyable. I’d rather read something more enjoyable.

Or this:

Source text:

Meaning: Speaking character (Stella) is explaining to an off-screen listener that she needs help and asking why it hasn’t been provided yet in an exasperated and somewhat rude tone. The translator will also want to consider that the way Stella speaks is both slangy and irreverent.

If translated more literally (and again, I’m not going as literal as I could go in order so that this is actually understandable), it could be read as “The situation has become like this, so why haven’t you helped us?” Not only does this sound incredibly awkward, it’s not halfway near as fun as the very silly “We’re in a right old gherkin here, why don’t you give us a flapping hand?!” At risk of this latter phrase sounding inappropriately funny, it should be noted that this game as a whole, in addition to this character, is lighthearted and silly from start to finish in such a way that this doesn’t stand out. Additionally, having Stella cheekily suggesting a swearword with “flapping” furthers Stella’s characterization, is in line with her speech style, and continues to entertain the audience.

I don’t handle most dialogue with as much liberty as video game translators do, but I absolutely spice up throwaway lines to focus on character voice and entertainment value. Some recent examples:

None of these lines are terribly important in the grand scheme of Hypmic, and so I approached them more creatively in order to:

In some cases, avoid repetition

Strengthen character voice

Sound like more natural English

Entertain myself, because there are only so many times I can write “Let’s go!” in a rap scene before falling asleep of boredom

Hopefully entertain the readers too

4. To be frank, what you’re advocating for isn’t practiced by any professional translator that I know of. I can’t think of a single manga, anime, or video game I’ve interacted with that doesn’t use this process of approaching throwaways creatively like I’ve talked about. I don’t see any good reason why I should practice methods that are explicitly contrary to what is considered correct practice by the entire professional community.

5. In terms of you worrying about my accuracy, I make plenty of errors. You’ve all seen typos or that bizarre trouble I’ve been having recently with writing names completely fucking wrong (for the life of me, I don’t know what’s causing this or why I’m not catching it in editing, but I swear I’m trying to get to the bottom of it), and there are tons of times when I write something that doesn’t land with readers like I think it will. Like all people, I am learning, and I make mistakes. Yet I’m pretty sure that any major comprehension errors or other mistakes would be caught and brought to my attention, as people have been great about doing that already. And that’s awesome!

That’s the extent of what I care about. However, if are worried about fidelity to sentence structure of throwaway lines, you can always make the choice not to read. It’s absolutely no skin off my back. Seek out whatever sorts of translations you like, and have a good time with them. Cheers!

#not a translation #asks #misc asks

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yaoi-yaoieverywhere · 3 years ago

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I love that the last few years occasionally I get the rare person judging the URL I've had since 2011. It's really- it's just fascinating, what people will latch on to and judge for the sake of 'fitting in'.

(Below is a Vent, but tl;dr Can y'all stop clutching your pearls over an old fandom term I've had as my URL since 2011 when it hurts no one? I explain below why this is not a slur, the actual usage and some history, and why I don't feel like changing my URL. It's not in depth but if you want to know more there's plenty of research to be had.)

Real talk tho, it is funny. Yaoi is a bad word for you? It's so cringe to have been in early 2000s English Anime fandom? You want me to change a URL I've had for over a decade that references an old meme (Blank, Blank Everywhere) bc it makes you feel a little initial startle when you like content I've bought or made? So silly. Why? Do you think it's- a bad word? A word that's just a genre?? Not a slur??? We don't call couples Yaoi, Yuri, Het That's just. Wh- Where did this come from, is all I'm asking. I remember hearing RUMORS that SOME ladies were doing it at cons (tho I never saw proof) around the time this started. I can understand the initial "what the fuck" but c'mon now. A lot of you making comments have CLEARLY never seen that.

And to be clear, I don't ship Real People. Apologies to the RPF shippers if that sounds rude, but it's just not something I do. So, y'know, don't like ~accuse me~ of calling irl gay people a term that's used for a genre of manga??

I think one of the protests has been like. "Oh, Yaoi means its gay content made for ladies". ...I am reading and writing. Queer fanfic content. On the internet. Primarily made by and for. Queer people. Which does include some ladies like me. Yaoi Manga is bought by a variety of people. Including, notably, actual gay men in Japan. It is extremely hard to get actual Queer Created, Queer Reputed content in Japan- it is literally kept under lock and key in most of the places that decide to stock it "for the children". So when they're curious it's a lot easier to look at what? Yaoi. Titilating, soft, romanticized depictions of young men in lust. Or love, occasionally.

I'm Queer gang. I've been Queer a long time. I know the delicacy of balancing decorum and comfort zones and even the turmoil going on between the older and younger generation over using Queer as a term. But, on a much more lighthearted, minor scale, I'm not going to stop using this url with Yaoi in it just because you don't research or understand the term and go with your knee jerk "I think I heard someone say some lady at a con call a gay couple that". Or even worse. "It's old, so it's bad."

You're not going to get some dudebro on the side of the street spit "Fucking Yaoi" at you. You're not going to have some dismissive teacher say "You have got to stop being so Yaoi." People in the school halls don't laugh and point and say "Look, it's the Yaoi." People on TWITTER, THE IRL HELL THAT IT IS, Are NOT going to tweet "lmao yaoi loser" if you're gay. They might if you post your otp, I suppose, if they're resulting to 8th grade bullying tactics which is surprisingly common on the internet. If people are calling you Yaoi in discord or something and it hurts your feelings, I'm a bit confused, but that sounds like a friend group problem that needs sorted imminently. Good luck with that.

You're okay. I'm not here to hurt you. This word is not here to hurt you. My URL is a joke that has become a lot less easily recognized over time, and that's okay. But it's not here to cause you harm. It's also not going to get you cool points if you diss it, but that's like, a you problem.

#vent #just a lil #Most of y'all are lovely by the way #it's just weird to have people not bat an eyelash at pussyfucker420 (no offense to pussyfucker420) but give me the stink eye in tags #It's not a cuss #It's not a slur #it's. a japanese fandom term.#And no where NEAR as actually fucking controversial in Japan as BARA #AN ACTUAL SLUR #Ahem. Anyway #Remember to have courage and be kind #and do your FUCKING research

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darklingichor · 3 years ago

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The True Story of an American Outlaw: Butch Cassidy by Charlie Leerhsen (and a rant about the movie)

Ever read a book that is entertaining, but you also want to slap the author upside the head for being a pretentious ass?

That's what happened with this book

Now, I get that the subject of this book is a criminal, and yes, the criminals of the old west are romanticized and really shouldn't be, but the tone of this book is simply petulant distain.

Not only for Butch Cassidy, but for the old west culture, Wyoming (both past and present day) and most of all, the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.I'll take each of these things one at a time but I'm going to start with the movie, because he. Does. Not. Shut. Up. About. It. Seriously, as much as he bitches about the movie, you would think that William Goldman caused some personal offense to him. Did he cut in front of him in line at the ATM once? Steal his cab? Who the fuck knows, but the author is pouting. And I say pouting, because in the end he acknowledges, that even without research, Goldman managed to capture the spirit of Butch's personality in the movie.

But Etta's name was actually Ethel, so ha! He was still wrong.

Look, Butch and Sundance is one of my favorite movies, but I'm not blind to it's faults. The bike scene? It's silly. I could do the film 101 argument and say how it symbolizes the changing times, leaving the two main characters as relics of the past, and how both are fighting to be part of a future that neither man is willing to accept. But honestly? Like the part told in photos when they go to New York, It's a lighthearted moment in a story that would otherwise just be two guys running from a faceless posse and fleeing to south America. Yes, it's out of place, especially with the pop song playing over it, but I don't care. Why? *Because it's fiction*

Yeah the opening card says that most of what follows actually happened, (and the author certainly considers it a lie meant to misinform) but am I the only one that thinks it's supposed to be taken ironically? And with the idea of "Okay, which part?"

This flick was written by the same man who wrote The Princess Bride. A book in which he invents a childhood, and a fake family for himself, with his parents and the actual author of the book (that he is just editing) being born and raised in Florin (a country that doesn't exist). He also claims that the book the reader is holding is so heavily edited that Florin scholars hate him. All of this is 100% fiction, yet the tone of these parts of the book, come across with a straight face. William Goldman is the screenwriter equivalent of Willy Wonka. Assume everything is either tongue in cheek, or has a double meaning.

The author snootily writes that had Goldman done research and insisted on historical accuracy than he would have made a film instead of a movie, but then it wouldn't have made as much money.

Excuse me, I just rolled my eyes so hard I might have sprained my face.

People who throw stones like this tend not to live in glass houses because they don't want others to see that while they pay lip service at the alter of Citizen Kane, they are enjoying the hell out of Die Hard. The worth of a story doesn't nessesarily go down if the box offices go up.

Maybe this author is also trying to be ironic, but if so, he's bad at it, because not a chapter goes by that he doesn't point out that the movie is poorly researched, and this and this and this is wrong.

What really baffled me was his repeated stance about the end of the movie.

He calls the ending of Butch and Sundance ambiguous, unsatisfying, and wimpy.

As if an adventure flick from 1969 with taglines like " They're taking trains... They're taking banks and they're taking one piece of baggage!" Was going to end in a bloody shoot out, or a murder/suicide.

And is it *supposed* to be ambiguous? Because, beside the fact that Etta says she won't watch them die and she leaves before the end, think of the final scene: two wounded guys, who know they are way out numbered, running out of a shelter, with pistols, caught in a freeze frame while a voice yells out to fire, a burst of organized rifle fire ring out, not once, but *three* times. Not one pistol shot into the silence between the commands of "Fuego!"

To me, that says "very dead, but we're renting this location, so go easy on the fake blood."

But this author, apparently, unfamiliar with the concept of subtext, is angry that the fact that theses two characters are swiss cheese wasn't spoon fed to him with airplane sounds.

Then the author decided to go for low hanging fruit and piss on Wyoming. I live on the west coast, but my family is from Wyoming, I spent many a summer there. The weather is absolute insanity (for an similar rant see my post on Blogging Twilight where I talk about my short time living in Montana). It's a common joke to say there is no one in Wyoming because it is the most sparsely populated state, I've made it myself, I've also said that to my PNW eyes, there is a criminal lack of trees in the areas I have been (Casper area, Thermopolis, New Castle). But this author?

Of the area where there is a tourist attraction for the jail that Butch Cassidy spent some time in; he says that you couldn't get people to gather there if you were from Fox News handing out giant belt buckles.

*Yawn*

Can you tell this guy is from New York and thinks his geography is a replacement for a personality?

Look, I'm about as liberal as you can get without swinging around to the opposite side of the spectrum, but I can tell that was a cheap shot.

Yes, Wyoming is a red state, but being a republican doesn't nessesarily mean that you think Fox News is Moses and is updating the 10 Commandments on a 24 hour cycle. I know many republicans who have critical thinking skills, do we agree on everything? No, but it isn't a comment on their intelligence.

And then the author gets on to the culture of Wyoming during Butch's time for wanting to be like the east coast. As if the people of the east coast at the time weren't looking to England and Europe for what was sophisticated at the time. Because that's sort of how shit like that works.

He also goes on ad nauseam about how corrupt and/ or incompetent the system of law was in the area. I'm surprised that this wasn't followed up with a chapter about how snow is cold, but melts when the sun hits it.

And finally, he complains about Butch, as if this book were an essay a teacher made him write. It's weird, Butch was elevated to Robin Hood status, when it he didn't deserve it, which annoys him, but the author seems equally as mad that Butch *didn't* behave like the patron saint of outlaws.

The author seems to want to debunk the legend while also wanting Butch to live up to it, at the same time.

I don't think anyone except this guy really thinks that he was doing some sort of exposé of someone dead for 100 years.

Yes, he points out that Butch and Sundance died in Bolivia, and didn't come back to live the straight and narrow life in the US. But, c'mon, I learned that from a History Channel documentary in 1998.

He says that Butch was immature, didn't think ahead when it came to money... Duh? I never think of "bank robber" and "fiscally responsible" in the same sentence, do you? And immature? What? You mean a guy who was most comfortable taking things that didn't belong to him wasn't a wise and steady personality?

You just keep thinkin' Charlie, that's what you're good at.

The whole point of the book seems to be "This guy is a criminal and we shouldn't find him entertaining, because that's just what he would have wanted" and then proceeds to tell pretty interesting stories about him.

And in the end, that's why I enjoyed the book, Butch makes for an entertaining character. Honestly though there's nothing new here, which isn't surprising, except for the fact that this book is written as though the author thinks he is the first to think of stripping the gloss away from a historical figure turned folk hero, and he does a poor job of it to boot. He focuses a lot on the fact that Butch targeted banks and trains, but never took anything from patrons or passengers. "This guy was no Robin Hood! Now here's all the times he sort of acted like Robin Hood!"

This was less the "True Story of Butch Cassidy" and more "Did you Know Butch Cassidy Wasn't Paul Newman?"

This book just makes me want to find a better one on Butch.

#book #books #new book 34 #book blogging 2021 #The True Story of an American Outlaw #Charles Leerhsen

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pleasantame · 8 years ago

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Bitch grow the fuck up. You'll hear Jess and Stephans name sooner or later, I mean your profile picture is in her old fucking bathroom ffs. Don't put mental illnesses on not liking people. You are disgusting.

This is the last time I will blatantly talk about our situation… for now. I haven’t checked the opinion blogs in a month or two, because it sends me into a unable-to-breathe-and-think head space. I don’t want to hear what she’s saying about me, and I don’t want to know what you guys think about her. I don’t even like when other people say her name to me out loud. *cue heart rate increasing* I didn’t ask to be popular, because unlike her, I know my limits. I would not be able to have a fan base so big, people made opinion blogs about me. I don’t want to be associated with her, because we are NOTHING alike, and I will not be compared to her. So yes, I literally get triggered. Like, anxiety attack triggered. It is why we are not friends. Confronting her about the slightest thing was almost traumatic. I bit my tongue more than she’ll ever know, and it was unfair to her and myself. I will admit this (and I already did to her), I was not good at communicating.

I don’t know how to deal with someone with BPD. My mother had severe mental issues, so I have experience with her mental abuse. My mom would flip out and turn things around on me if I said something along the lines of, “Hey, please don’t talk about my illness that way.” So just imagine my mindset, someone who finally escaped their abusive mother not even a year ago, who also has a friend that is difficult with confrontation. I witnessed this ex friend when she was at her fucking worst, and I have ended the friendship once before because of that. My support seemed to be unnoticed/taken for granted. I could not stand to watch her go down the path that she was. I thought we’d be better off separate.She is a lot better than 2 years ago, but guys… We only became friends again because 1. She started dating my ex’s brother again (David), so it wasn’t like we could just not be friends while I dated David’s brother. I agreed to try the friendship thing out, and it was fine! But that does not mean the fundamental issues were not still there; problems with confrontation. 2. We had a lot of fun, lighthearted moments. It made it worth all the negativity I witnessed, because at least she didn’t treat me like shit. (not often, it was rare moments) But I was so afraid she would end up changing. I don’t know, it constantly felt like a bomb was just about to explode at any moment.(I am not going to pretend any longer… I don’t like how she treats her fan base. I won’t quote our personal conversations, but do you guys really think she fucking cares about each and every one of you????)I ended our friendship the safest way possible (didn’t tell her my biggest problems) because I was crying and shaking from anxiety, worried about how she would react. I was messaging two people at the time, venting about how fucking terrified I was. “What if she calls me? I don’t want to talk. I just want it over. Oh fuck, she wrote back.”She handled it way better than I thought she would, so don’t expect me to act like she freaked out. She didn’t, and I was relieved. She is getting better constantly, but I am unable to watch her be the person she is in the meantime. It is toxic. But I have faith in her, as long as if she doesn’t let the (and I emphasize) useless opinions of others affect her too much. this is what confrontation with her looks like (This is quoted word for word, censoring other peoples names):

me: “I don’t know what to say. We talked about how silly it was for her to …. but I don’t want to talk about her like this. Again. I only mentioned her before because I didn’t know if I should hang out with her or not. I don’t ever feel comfortable talking about people like this.”her: “Okay lol you don’t have to be so serious. I was saying…… That’s not a big deal. And oh please! We have both said much worse about people before. Like *censored* pretty much all the time. Don’t act like you’re better than me for pointing out that she is doing something silly.”Then she proceeds to call me “Holier-than-thou” and starts bringing up shit like “You never thank me when I X and X”In the end, I forgave her for her outburst because she told me it was a BPD thing. Word for word: ”I have mental illness rain and it’s not less valid than your physical illness.”I literally said, “Sometimes I forget you have it.” We cried and made up. I mentioned I’d really like her to see a therapist. She agreed, but that of course never happened.She apologized profusely, but none of that fucking sat right. I will not quote the whole conversation because it is very personal, but just understand that from that point on, the anxiety she gave me heightened. I knew that if she never got help, that we were ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE THIS SAME CONVERSATION.So if me asking you guys to not follow me for shit reasons is too much, then I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut. The last thing I want is to draw more attention to myself. There is one particular thing that she did during a drunken night, that I didn’t remember until she told me. She was conscious enough to know every detail, but I only knew a fraction of the situation. And the way she laughed it off made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t know how to react, other than laugh it off. It’s awkward and complicated. I think have to go to therapy for it. This is not something I can just tell her, because it can make my feelings about it even worse. I wish you guys understood. Isn’t that what all I of us want? For someone to understand and make validity of our pain? I have dealt with so much fucking bullshit, no one on this Earth will understand it. Not even her. She probably thinks I am overreacting, but how do you confront someone who CAN’T HANDLE CONFRONTATION??? UNLESS SHE ACTIVELY GETS COUNSELING FOR HER BPD, I SAW OUR FRIENDSHIP ENDING VERY BADLY. I ENDED IT ON VERY GOOD TERMS SO I DON’T FEEL MORE PAIN THAN I DO NOW.

BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN MY PAIN/FEAR IS NOT REAL.YOU GUYS NEVER SAW IT, BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK WOULD I OUT SOMEONE I LOVE? PLEASE PRETEND WE WERE NEVER FRIENDS.DON’T MENTION HER TO ME.DON’T FOLLOW ME IN HOPE OF SEEING ME MENTION HER. IF I DO TALK ABOUT HER, IT’S ME VENTING BECAUSE I AM BURSTING WITH ANXIETY. THIS IS A BLOG. THAT IS MY ONLY EXCUSE. SORRY IF IT’S NOT ENOUGH. I’ll forgive you for the ignorance, at least.

That picture does not make me think of her, but thanks for reminding me. :D Now that is all I will think about when I look at it. Damn. And holy shit, the shit storm this post will create. I am turning anon off until I can stomach the feedback.and thank you to the other anon who told me not to post their ask. You are brave, and I congratulate you. I wish I could post your ask, so people know I am not making shit up, but I respect your privacy. Please feel free to message me if you want. I will keep our conversations private.

#anonymous

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