#also i find it funny to play on mobile

[ka-19]

planning on making a higher quality version of this, but heres a drawing (plus the ref pic) of me and my best friend's old cod mobile joke characters (they're in love)

"final" product is crazy messy, but it sure does help when im working on the actual final product when i need to know what colors to put where!

[iamtrappedinsideasnowglobe]

Whenever someone blocks me (and I notice) I've always made a post about it so congrats to [PERSON I KNOW IRL] for blocking me so they could post SEX 18+ KINK CONTENT without me seeing

[adambomb82]

hahahahahahahha uhhhhhhhhh

[timbit-robin-art]

I am loving your x-men art atm!! It is all so good and so cute!! Especially your chibi versions!! And I am very intrigued by your recent band au too! Logan as the reluctant yet supportive teacher is perfect! I'd love to hear more about that!! Xxxxxxx

More about Mr. Logan? Let’s see.

I think it’s a very funny idea that his backstory is the exact same despite it being an X-Men-less universe. He’s still Weapon X and did military work, it’s just that once he decided he was done with it all, he decided to become a teacher at the private school. You find this out when he’s whisked away for S.H.I.E.L.D shenanigans while the band is doing some mundane activity. Cue everyone trying to get Kurt’s chemistry grade up periodically interrupted by Mr. Logan going through actual hell.

I mentioned before that I think he knows the bass. It’s just a hobby of his, mostly to take his mind off of things, so no one else really knows he can play. Except for one specific alumni;

Mr. Logan actually recommended Rogue to Xavier’s mutant education scholarship after having a chance encounter with her. While she refused to take residency up in the Institute, she eventually gave into Mr. Logan’s urges to at least attend the school. This is the start of their delinquent-child-who-gets-adopted-by-the-gruff-old-man dynamic. Mr. Logan eventually teaches her the bass, and she really takes off with it. I can see her being a part of her own southern fem punk band after she graduates.

(I think it goes without saying that Rogue is the group’s vodka wine aunt that makes her occasional appearance. When Mr. Logan is preoccupied, leave it to Rogue to recklessly drive them to their gigs.)

Also, while we’re talking about the band universe, I think I figured out the eventual 5th member;

Meet Kitty Pryde, the freshmen that joins as their second guitar. She also knows how to play piano, but she prefers the mobility guitar grants her (she cannot stand still when she plays music). She probably met Kurt first in the music room while she was practicing for a piano recital. Though Kurt can recognize the musical talent she has, she can tell her heart isn’t into it. So now there’s a montage of Kurt and Kitty messing around with other instruments. Neither of them really know how to play anything besides piano, they’re just trying to see what feels right for Kitty. And that’s how she finds her interest in guitars.

I think it would actually take a while before she gets used to guitar. Hank would try to teach her, but Kitty’s learning style just doesn’t match well with Hank’s teaching style. So everyone thinks that she’s just not meant to play the guitar until some sort of epiphany happens, and suddenly she can absolutely shred.

She rounds out the group quite well, don’t you think?

[marikbentusi]

I wasn't interested much in the Gwenpool Fortnite collab (fingerless gloves are a cute tweak), but someone asked on Twitter about "evil future Gwenpool" being labelled "Dark Gwenpool" ingame (which is what I've been calling my fan character variant since 2020):

"Dark" is a very common prefix for evil alter egos, so even if people occasionally mistake my comics for official material, I was certain this was a coincidence. But then the person also casually pointed out that she's called "Dark GwenPool" on Wikipedia. Huh?

No sources cited as far as I can tell. One of the original Gwenpool creators even agreed that "Dark Gwenpool" was never official:

I hunted down the Wikipedia changelog where apparently someone injected all the Dark Gwenpool stuff on 8th of April this year (2024). So maybe someone on the Fortnite team checked Google/Wikipedia instead of making up the name from scratch.

I tried to hunt down the wiki editor for questioning only to find out they are banned for being a sockpuppet account. In fact, that user was such a prolific sockpuppeteer that they've got their own Wikipedia page listing all 164 suspected alts. One of them is called "Batrocfrogg", what kind of canonization assist from beyond the grave is this?!

Since that lead went cold, I looked at the sources the wiki edit gave when talking about the character more generally. Aside from the official comics where she isn't called Dark Gwenpool, we've got:

"Peter Parker & Miles Morales: Spider-Men Double Trouble #2" – evil Gwen just has a cosplay background cameo there, no name drop.

Marvel Duel, a niche F2P mobile card game, where she's an antagonist.

The person who first pointed out to me that "Dark Gwenpool" was also on Wikipedia dug around and found a screenshot that evil Gwen is indeed called "Dark Gwenpool" in Marvel Duel:

Obviously I assume the Marvel Duel devs just made that one up without knowing about my comics. Case closed on that lead! But I'm not sure if the Wiki edit was based on this.

Marvel Duel, if we can still trust its wiki page, only released in eight countries. They are mostly in the UTC+8 time zone. The edit was finished on ~22:00 UTC+0, which would be Tuesday 05:00 AM local time if the editor is from one of those countries themselves. Of course, maybe the person played an emulated/jailbroken version (the game does come in English), watched a foreign Let's Play, or is just a super night owl. None of these are stranger than having 146 sockpuppet accounts. But it also doesn't exactly help the edit's credibility like I had hoped.

I also don't know if Marvel Duel included the name variations "Dark GwenPool" and "Dark Gwen" that the Wiki editor used specifically (in the screencap above she's stylized differently). The editor also called her the "evil alternator future version" tho, so maybe they aren't a stickler for details.

----

But yeah the TL;DR is that "Dark GwenPool" is currently the main name for evil Gwen on Wikipedia with no source cited. Marvel Duel calling her that as well was probably just coincidence. Maybe Fortnite also made it up, or they copied it from Wikipedia, or maybe they copied it from Marvel Duel itself.

I thought it was weird and funny enough to share. 164 sockpuppets. WTF.

[projectcaramel]

Obey Me! Random Headcanon #8

The Brothers' Screentime

Lucifer

Average: 2 hours per day

Mostly for emails and texts; other work is usually on paper.

Occasionally spikes into 5 or 6 hours for R.A.D. projects or business trips.

Mammon

Average: 6 hours per day

We know he's probably gambling and playing mobile games (*coughs in the emoji game*), but he also spends a fair amount of time gambling in person when he's frustrated.

Spends up to 14 hours straight if he's waiting for a reply from MC.

Leviathan

Average: 19 hours per day

Obviously a gamer, anime watcher, otaku. You can't get a better candidate for ridiculous screentime.

Cuts down on electronic use when going to cons or when his family demands that he does.

Satan

Average: 4 hours per day

For reading, why else? I kid; he's obviously binging funny cat videos in between reading novels and textbooks.

Can spend more than 36 hours straight reading if he finds a series he can't put down.

Asmodeus

Average: 8 hours per day

For pure socials. He spends 8 hours per day updating his pictures and chattering with fans. Of course, this also supports his modeling gig.

Caps his screentime at 9 hours, since he usually hits the 8 hour mark around his bedtime. The last hour is exclusively reserved for MC.

Beelzebub

Average: 45 minutes per day

Mostly to text his brothers, but there are the occasional sports matches and food prep videos mixed in there.

Sometimes leaves his phone on while looking at recipes. He already knows how to make the food, so the phone just stays on without him looking at it.

Belphegor

Average: 20 minutes per day

Like his twin, mainly uses it to text his brothers. Unlike his twin, however, Belphie has spikes of activity rather than a constant stream.

His average shoots up to 2 hours if MC texts him first.

-- Caramel: Friendly reminder not to do what Levi does and get some sleep. It's good for you. --

[anoant-haikyuu-dump]

More Nekoma HCs

Teshiro’s really good at those pen spinning tricks, the other first-years pop off when he does it. He also has the best handwriting of the first-years and they borrow his notes before big tests. Lev's handwriting is borderline illegible— he claims its cause he's Russian but everyone calls him out on his bullshit ("Dude, your first language is Japanese??")

Fukunaga carries around a slide whistle, when he's not on court he plays it every time someone dives for the ball

Shibayama's the kinda guy to send buzzfeed quizes in the team groupchat and make everyone take them ("Dont you guys wanna know what cat breed you are?"). Most of the team groan but secretly find it endearing. Kuroo unabashadly loves it and commends Shibayama's team spirit

None of the second-years are good students— Kenma spends class playing mobile games under his desk or napping, Tora doesn't listen but even if he did he wouldn't process anything, and Fukunaga's in his own little world 90% of the time. Kenma skates by with general smarts but Tora and Fukunaga are in the TRENCHES. Kuroo and Kai help tutor them when needed

The whole team LOVES Akane, that's their cheer captain!! She gets along best with Fukunaga and Kenma because they're closest to Tora but I think she'd also vibe a lot with Yaku cause they have a similar sassy energy (and height but shh). All of them treat her like an absolute queen, mess with her and you got 10 guys knocking at your door

Tora picks people up a lot, he just grabs them and throws them over his shoulders. The most common victims are the second years but also Shibayama since he's "bite-sized" as Tora so eloquently puts it. He tried it with Yaku a single time which did NOT go well, he hasn't again since

When Hinata's in town to hang out with Kenma Inkuoka and Lev WILL find a way to crash it no matter what. The just happened to show up at the same arcade, what a conincidence!! Kenma gives them the death glare but unfortunately for him Hinata is more than happy to let them tag along

Kai is generally really chill but when he yells he's louder than even Tora. The team finds this out at training camp when they're settling in for the night and the first years decide its a great time to have a pillow fight. One flies directly into a sleeping Kai's face. The other teams can hear the reprimanding through the walls (bro doesn't fuck around with his beauty rest)

Sometimes they do video game nights at Kuroo's but Kenma is either straight-up banned or given severe handicaps. The one time he loses is during MarioKart when Kuroo starts waving his hands in front of his face and Kenma stops playing to wresting him away (he still manages to beat Tora somehow)

Kuroo and Yaku argue all the time but if anyone else talks shit about them they hop to the other's defense immediately. You do not get away with making fun of Yaku's height unless you're Kuroo himself.

Kuroo's the biggest fan of Fukunaga's jokes, as a fellow pun enthusiast he appreciates him keeping the court light-hearted. He laughs way too hard even when they're not that funny and sometimes fires a quip or two back. Also Kuroo's definetly the type to literally slap his knee when laughing

(Ignore the awful picture quality) There's this scene from the Tokyo Battles stage play where Shibayama dances along with Akane and Alisa from the stands and it's the cutest thing ever i'm obsessed. Anyways I think he's the king of the bench cheerleaders, he teaches Teshiro and Inuoka all the little dances and chants

alright thats it for now, long live Nekoma

[gatitties]

Hiii how are you? I hope requests are open, I came to make my humble request! what t a fluff? where Whitebeard sees that his daughter is being excluded from a party, he is saddened and even a little angry, because they excluded his daughter for being his daughter and nobody wants to dance with Whitebeard's daughter! she has no partner to dance with and he offers to dance with her?

a slightly funny scenario, but in the end, he makes his daughter very happy

and the same scenario but with Teen!Shanks, where he sees Whitebeard's daughter being excluded from a party and offers to dance with her, but even though he doesn't know how to dance and ends up stepping on YN's toes,

but he makes her very happy

Do it if you want

—Whitebeard(platonic) & teen!Shanks x teen!reader

—summary: nobody seems to want to be your partner to dance, luckily you manage to find someone to enjoy the night

—Warnimgs: none

oh, all good over here <3 (just suffering from the summer heat 😩) hope all is well over there friend!

Your body moved slightly to the beat of the music, you scrolled through the site looking for a dance partner, there were several couples, groups or loners like you looking for someone to enjoy the songs with.

Despite the fact that there were people in your same position, no one seemed to dare to dance next to you or offer to be your partner for one of the songs. It wasn't your fault either, you understood that your father's presence was intimidating and that not everyone is brave enough to ask the daughter of a Yonko to dance, although it's not like it was the end of the world, you were enjoying the music while Whitebeard enjoyed some drinks with his comrades, a little further away from the mass of dancing people.

Although your father's smile shrank to a straight line, he saw that even though you smiled, you hoped you could enjoy a dance with someone, that and also because he listened to you for hours talking about how excited you were to be at your first ball, or at least a party that wasn't just your dad's crew.

He put his glass aside, warning that he would be back in a while, his imposing figure and presence made everyone make a hallway towards you immediately, not wanting to deal with someone like him.

"Dad?"

You watched with a goofy grin as he offered you his big hand, maybe not what you were thinking for the night, but at least it only got better.

"Will you agree to dance with your father's old man to a song?"

"Of course! I hope your backbones don't crack."

"HAHAHA! You shouldn't say that, I still have the mobility of when I was a young man"

You laughed, squeezing his hand when a more upbeat song began to play, you stumbled, dancing without any rhythm, hitting other people —whom you apologized to at the moment— although they were all wrapped in the same frenzy thanks to the tempo. The small sadness of not finding a partner to move around the festival vanished faster than alcohol at Moby Dick.

"Dad."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you..."

He patted your back almost knocking you to the ground, his laugh rising slightly from the volume of the music.

"Anything for my dear daughter."

You were sitting up, your feet slightly sore from having spent most of the night at a festival dancing, though unfortunately, no one ventured to grab your hand and drag you onto the dance floor, you assumed it was the aftermath of your father being Whitebeard. No other teenager would dare to try something with you even though they weren't thinking of anything malicious.

Even though you understood it, it couldn't help but bother you to see how everyone seemed happy with their partners or friends dancing in a romantic or stupid way, you didn't care, you just wanted to enjoy the night but here you are, apart and watching like an outcast.

You exchanged glances with your father and noticed that he seemed angry because everyone seemed not to approach you as if you had some kind of contagious disease, although before he could do anything Roger greeted him distractingly enough for someone to call your attention, covering all your view to the dance floor.

Of course, there isn't another person on earth who isn't afraid to mess with you, Shanks smiled at you offering his hand.

"Will you accept a dance with me?"

"I don't know... I have to think about it." you looked away hiding your playful smile, listening to how the redhead sighed, putting his hand to the back of his neck, scratching the area "Don't be an idiot, let's dance, I've been waiting for this all night!"

You dragged him away, forcibly pushing aside people who had rejected or ignored you, grabbing Shanks's waist as you heard the first few notes of the song, it seemed to be a slow one.

"Wait, am I not the one who puts the hands on the waist?"

"It doesn't matter, just let yourself go, come on!"

Shanks wasn't the best with the steps of course, he stepped on you several times, although you weren't an expert either, at least you didn't end up rolling on the floor, when they changed the song to a more lively one you released the teenager to start jumping and moving your head like crazy.

"Do you have a stick up your ass? You move too stiff."

Unaccustomed to this explosion of movements on your part and everyone, he let himself go little by little, doing the strangest dance steps, you laughed so hard when he tripped over his own foot that you also ended up on the ground.

"It seems that neither of us is good for this."

He got up, dusted off his pants, and helped you to stand up.

"Speak for yourself, I only fell because of you."

"Oh come on, I wasn't that bad, was I?"

[elderberries-and-honey]

There wasn't much left to cover for the 1890's and I have decided to go ahead and say goodbye to the decade by wrapping things up in one swoop instead of a bunch of individual posts. Also, I apologise for how crappy some of these photos look on mobile so viewing from a desktop is probably best.

And with that, we are officially heading into the 1900's!

next / previous / first

Transcript Below The Cut!

Dear Diary, It has been too long since I’ve written, I know, even if it’s only for my eyes. The last six years have passed me by and I have no record of my life to show for it. So, I will vow it on this New Years Day to be better at it starting right now! And I will begin by recounting the last few years with the hope that someday, I can look back on these times with fondness. So much has happened, some splendid, some grim, but that’s the way life always goes, isn’t it? A constant upheaval, tossing you around from one thing to the next so abruptly; even the good changes can feel violent sometimes. And yet, I endure it; maybe I have even taken to embracing it. Life is funny that way, hm? Now, the last six years, well, where do I begin?

In 1894, Lawrence opened the funeral home. It was a little ironic, considering Valerie passed away that same year. She had been hiding her failing liver before we moved out to Windenburg, and passed on with her brother at her side. Beth and Oisin traveled to Wales together to attend the funeral; Lawrence, however, could not come away from work.

1895 was a much better year for our family We began it with Beth & Oisin's wedding! But little did we know, the best was yet to come...the birth of our Alison Aurora! Our family has never felt more complete but they could not be more different from each other; each of them unique in their own way. Oscar is our wild child, always in search of some sort of adventure. It’s as though he lives for being outdoors and running around; playing in mud and splashing in puddles. I believe he is the most like his father out of the three, a social butterfly with an inability to sit still. Our sweetheart, Atticus, is curious like his brother but reclusive like his mother. He is often shy and timid, but seems to have taken a real interest in nature, and I find him off in the garden often, studying the flowers and admiring their colours. We are alike in many ways, and spend the most time together; he was also to hardest to wean from my breast. Alison, or Rory as I call her, or ‘goofy girl’ as Lawrence calls her, has her father wrapped around her little finger. She like to keep us on our toes with her silliness; she loves to do funny dances when we play music on the phonograph. And, she has no problems keeping up with her brothers!

As for myself, well, my dearest diary, I am happy to say that I am now a working woman! I am a secretary for a local newspaper started by an Irishman.

all in all, i think we are very happy

[eros-vigilante]

issues w/ the octopath fandom, racism, and ableism

whats from the source

octopath does some racist bs quite frequently.

cotc (the mobile gacha) has an entire storyline filled with anti-indigenous and racist tropes.

the mainline octopath games have yet to design a traveler with curly hair, and frequently whitewashes the tan and dark-skinned characters in official artwork (compare these with the real ones; here's partitios official cotc splash art). ochette's hair especially is straight-as-a-ruler and silver. also worth considering eye colors. partitio is sad because his concept art had only one design where he's white and a couple even had dreadlocks, and yet his splash art refuses to match his sprite colors.

the beastlings... i'm white and have done more research on the tropes in cotc since i play it more, so while i did have thoughts of my own while playing, here is a better post i found that lists off all the bad choices about them.

also worth mentioning kaldena. one of the few dark-skinned characters in the game is a villain (and also has straight silver hair). other people have also broken down what choices in temenos' story around this were bad better than i could. i can't find a post with a quick search so if you want to reblog this to talk about it i will reblog/link it.

ableism. while i am a big fan of the autism-coding in the franchise, it's still true that there are a lot of jokes made in the games at the expense of osvald and cyrus (moreso cyrus). it's setting accurate for people to be mean to autistic people, but you're still supposed to laugh at "i guess cyrus isn't actually that smart!" which pushes the idea that autism affects intelligence and maturity. i think overall the autism representation is great (pspsps my essay) but it's definitely the source of some awful shit i've had to read people say about cyrus and osvald.

edit 1: friend reminded me of something i forgot that i only learned after talking to it about it a while ago: therion's story is actually really really weird in how it tries to frame cornelia and especially heathcote as helping therion when what they did is enslave him.

whats from the fandom

fanart whitewashing. there is a lot of fanart of therion and partitio with pale skin tones. there is fanart of olberic and ochette with significantly lighter/barely tan skin tones. i'm not going to find any to link because harassment and arguing is not the point of this post, but if you've looked through fanart you've seen it.

here's their skin tones blended. even with the highlights included, they're not white. i get it, their splash art is very ambiguous from the colorism, so if you weren't using the sprites: here's your new references.

ableism directed at cyrus and osvald. i've seen people complain about osvald's personality writing and then cite ptsd and autism symptoms, so many people call cyrus stupid, an idiot, or imply he is not mature. people assume/default hc that he is bad at adult activies. he is a thirty year old professor. it is his job to be mature, good with children, smart, etc. this is infantalization of an autistic character. it's a default assumption that the autistic man is below-average at adult functions.

infantalization of ochette. there are hcs and portrayals of ochette to be far less responsible and mature than she is in canon. she is the protector of her island, it is a theme of her story that she was forced to grow up more mature than everyone else. yes, she is funny, cheerful, energetic, but some fandom portrayals of her reduce her to just that, like she's a puppy. always being irresponsible, impulsive, etc. this matches to her dynamic with castti going from the sweet found family of their crossed path into "castti is the mother who needs to rein in this wild child"- and also consider how it looks to portray the only (consistently portrayed as) dark-skinned character as wild when she is responsible and mature in her story. similarly to cyrus, people tend to default to hcs that she would be bad at normal adult activities just because she has 'childish' traits.

what do you want me to do about it

eyedrop skintones from sprites or go darker for the guys who aren't white. consider changing their hair up, like using the concept art design for partitio. drawing characters of color differently from canon doesn't solve the racism in the game industry, but it is good practice for drawing poc and representing them more accurately.

don't... insult the autistic characters. there are things cyrus is canonically bad at that have nothing to do with his autism, like singing, but don't act like he's bad at everything that's not part of his interests. real people act how osvald does due to trauma. neither of them are two-dimensional in personality, they're written with nuance and a range of emotions outside of Being Autistic.

respect ochette more. are you portraying her as only silly or the savior of her home, or both? would someone who hasn't played ot2 know that ochette has overcome challenges based on your portrayal of her, or would they think she's a comedy relief?

learn about racism. learning about what kind of racist tropes are common in media and games helps a lot with recognizing it in other places, like the beastlings or kaldena. and most of all, learning about racist stereotypes and tropes makes you less likely to perpetuate them unintentionally.

putting the cotc racism essay down here so i can say that it has spoilers for Bestower of Power if you're a cotc player. it's different from the post i linked at the start; way more focused on just the anti-indig stereotypes in the villain's design.

the last thing i want to say is oh my god i love talking about this stuff so much. if you are confused about ANYTHING i talked about or want to talk about it more, or add your own experiences, or ask for recommendations, i love that shit. i made this because i believe most people who are really active in this fandom don't do this kind of stuff maliciously, and would benefit from just having a chance to talk about it. for some reason i am very into explaining/taking apart bigoted language, where it comes from, what it means etc. Please

[kittynomore]

Can you tell me more about your snapper AU

It's an au of an au of an au. It's teb @debb987 au with nini (their version of ghost @amevello-blue ) but also an au coz i made lou an alligator snapper. It's basically a fix it fic with all the bells and whistles. Lou just eats whoever tries to hurt them. Kraang? Tum tum-ed. Draxum? Tum tum-ed. Big mama? Tum tum-ed. Foot clan? Tum tum-ed (dw about cassey she gets adopted by 03 casey and april)

The babies have mystic powers hence angelo floating. The silly idea is angelo stayed tiny coz all the food and energy goes to his mystic powers. And coz tiny angelo with his kaiju family will never not be funny to me.

All the babies have their ninpo. Raph has his shield. Dee can create weapons once he learns their construction. Lee can teleport (kinda on will) when he is gassy :D. That's actually how they yoinked nini's family. (Im not lying when i said it was a fix-it fic) but that's a story for another time

Lou is basically a mobile home. That's why they dont need to leave anything and raph can have all the plushies he deserves. Dee gets to pull apart and pick thru all the broken appliances they find. Lee gets all the books he can read thru his heart's desires (also how he can speak so many languages). Angelo gets to have all the cooking books and they even found a old easy bake oven for him to play with!

Oh and lou is ftm trans. I dont make the rules. And he is himbo af. The true himbo the trifecta of dumb of ass, body of steel, and heart of gold. He doesnt know what he is doing most of the time. But he will try his best. And nini is there to help explain anything. They also yoinked the teleporting sword so they're just living everywhere. But the idea is they found a mystic area where they'll be unbothered and are settled happily (coz that's really my goal with this au. Them all to be happy)

Lou is basically is that one vers from love like you

If I could begin to be Half of what you think of me I could do about anything I could even learn how to love

Lou is just a simple guy. He just wants his newly found family safe and happy and will do anything to make sure they are safe and very loved. He is a sad old man that hates himself, but he very much puts his family first and learns to love himself thru kids showing him how much they love him.

This actually how they found nini. Lou just thought he accidentally dropped one of the kids and shell pocketed nini (hence me jokingly calling this au nini in the shell pocket)

And the on going joke of lou just adopting all the turtle babies he finds

[sashabunnie]

Hi! I apologize for not posting recently despite having a resurgence in wanting to draw. I've recently gotten a new art program and am still trying to figure out how to use it. In the meantime I'd like to discuss a topic I find important to talk about.

I recently received a question in my inbox. I found it rude and decided to delete and block the person. But now I'm realizing I could use this comment to educate those not in the art field on this subject, specifically about how proportions and different body types are taught to be drawn. I'll paraphrase the comment received:

"It's funny how you're fat but you draw yourself skinny, it's hilarious."

Yup that's the basis of what the comment was. I could tell from this comment that a) they're trying to be rude and mean and b) they at least don't draw humans and at most have no idea how to draw period.

Now you may be asking, how does this comment lead to an educational moment? I'm glad you asked.

I've been drawing since I can remember, and I only took a few art classes in middle school and highschool. Other than that I'm almost completely self taught and often took my inspiration from cartoons.

I also grew up in a much larger body than a good portion of my peers. I had binge e@ting disorder. This was caused by growing up in a poor family. I was taught to eat whatever I was offered(unless it was by a total stranger). I was also taught at school to inhale my food starting from kindergarten as we only got 15 minutes to eat and 15 minutes to play, if we went over the 15 minutes to eat we weren't allowed to play. Anyways this conditioned me to have BED.

Being overweight as a child was torture. Just like any ED it's very hard to control and even harder to spot in a child. I went untreated until I was 19. I'm a lot better now but sadly my stomach is now partially paralyzed.

Now like I said, growing up fat was extremely difficult, seeing others in my life who were skinnier than I, seeing all the cartoon shows on TV with the pretty skinny ladies and bulked up men, or even lanky men. And sure there were fat people in cartoons, but they're often portrayed as these lazy, stupid, people or they're middle aged with greying or thinning hair, in a mobility scooter, who are also portrayed as stupid and lazy.

I never saw a true representation of myself in cartoons. I never saw a plump nine year old with dreams to become a ballerina or baseball player, I never saw a bigger girl who exceeded in every class who wanted to become a paleontologist. All I saw were people making jokes about the fat character, how dumb and lazy they were.

But to me, I was never lazy or stupid. And when I started drawing myself I did so as a beautiful young person who was smart, clever, and always taken seriously. It was my escape from this world of hate.

Then I started taking art classes in middle school and highschool. They taught very basic anatomy in drawing, such as "this is how long your arm should be" and "the hand should be able to cover the face", just teaching proportions. But here's the catch, they hardly taught anything more than an hourglass shaped body for females and a rectangle shape for men.

In fact if we tried to explore more or less body shaped, whether it was a flat chested female, a dad bod male or vice versa, it was met with severe criticism.

Now over the years I've learned how to draw different body shapes and sizes better than I have in the past. And I have worked greatly to improve my self image and that a bit of extra fat here or there won't be the end all be all.

However that's not to say that I still have a hard time drawing myself as big as I see myself irl. The ED that warped from BED to OSFED in my teen years still yells at me from my mirror, telling me how ugly I am for being in a bigger body. People have told me several times that I'm not as big as the mirror says I am, which is true.

I may be in a bigger body but it's not to a point where my weight is affecting my health. The only real thing affecting my health are a slew of genetic disorders that I cannot control.

Just to conclude, just because someone draws themselves as bigger or smaller does not mean that they're delusional. It's just how they draw themselves.

Just be kind and non judgemental. You don't know what that person has been through and honestly it's not really your business unless it's a threat to safety, theirs or others.

And if you don't like what you see, scroll, it's not your place to get upset over something as small as someone drawing themselves in a different light than your perspective.

Love y'all!

(Picture of my gravity falls x the owl house OC for y'all)

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

You know, as much as Simbar is spicy while also so cute, I just thought how funny their dynamic can be too.

Here we have Ámbar. Little miss perfect. Straight A student, rich af, always needing to put up an act, literal girlboss (like, literal, she becomes a BOSS at age 19), always have been raised to be as proper as possible. Probably grew up faster than most kids, because she was always expected to act more mature than what she was.

Then we have Simón. Silly guy. Wears beanies. Wears shorts that a surfer would wear. Says corny lines. He’s never been rich in his whole life. Shares an apartment with his bros. He always looks and dresses a bit messy. He likes to joke around and loves to make his friends laugh. He's not immature, but he's also not the kind of mature that Ámbar is - he just has... you know, normal dudebro maturity.

We see the clear difference with them kind of shortly after they kiss for the first time. Ámbar tries to keep it cool, yk, act like she usually does.

While Simón... well Simón is like this.

He's blabbering, he's awkward, he wants to kiss her again, HE CRACKS A CORNY JOKE ABOUT THE "SIMÓN MOBILE" AND THEN JUST LIFTS HER UP AND RUNS WHILE CARRYING HER.

But most of all, he's being himself with her. He doesn't care that she's the high class rich girl Ámbar, who's so proper and elegant. He's his messy, awkward, corny, yet charming self around her.

What gets funny is that in season 2, while Ámbar still puts an act around Simón even while they're dating, when alone she becomes a silly girl in love. She talks to her mirror, going "Simón is all yours now 🥰" with a bright smile, before immediately catching herself. She goes to choose clothes for the date and loudly speaks to herself "I'm gonna find the perfect outfit for mine and Simón's date 😍". She becomes what she considers "immature". She can't be in love? She can't be like that? She has to be in control! Behave herself!

Things then get complicated in season 3 - as Ámbar is going through stuff, she creates essentially this imaginary version of Simón. Simón keeps being the silly dude, but in Ámbar's head he's cool, tough, very masculine... she even, and I don't think I'm exaggerating, thinks he's rather sexy.

The best example is when she has the Solos daydream.

When looking at Simón play, she imagines him like this

When in reality... he looks like this

And idk, there's something so inherently funny to think that Simón's just looking like every guitar guy ever and Ámbar's over here imagining him in leather jackets grinding at her. It's extra funny if you can picture her doing that every time she sees him too.

To add to this, Simón during S3 also has a version of Ámbar in his head that isn't how she actually is at the moment. Only that his version of her is the version that she was in the past - the version of her that he fell in love with. From his side, he just wants to help her get back to "being herself" again, because he knows she isn't right now. Ámbar doesn't wanna go back, because while she did have genuine feelings for Simón in S2, it was also a version of herself she wants to forget about. Cause even if what she felt for him was true, she was still putting up an act at all times, since she still was under the influence and watch of her godmother. And she just wants to break free from everything, both the bad and the good.

But throughout the season she's also still a bit awkward and acts like a "silly girl with a crush" about Simón, especially when Emilia questions her about him. "Whaaatt??? Pfft, I don't like Simón, he likes me, come on I'm just teasing him it's not my fault it's him who's obsessed with me hahahaha-" She doesn't want to, she wants to keep in control and hide it, but she can't.

Simón always keeps being himself. He can be serious with Ámbar, he is incredibly patient with her and while he tries to help her, he also tells her off when she goes too far. But when he wants to, he's still the silly and corny guy with her.

My final example is the rose scene. The rose scene is beautiful. It's magical. It's very romantic and their tension is off the charts.

But also, only Simón would do a thing like throwing a bunch of petals on the floor to make a "romantic road" down the hallway. Also...

I counted and it's about 6-7 seconds from when he knocks and when Ámbar opens the door (side note that is a very short sleeping gown for a kids show lmao...)

The amount of planning for this romantic gesture must have taken so much. He had to...

Go and spread out all the flower petals. He needed to do this while knowing no one else was around, because someone else def would question what he was up to.

He'd need to make sure Ámbar didn't hear him walk around outside her bedroom door.

He had to knock

He needed to get back downstairs VERY quickly, and if he did not run then I guess he just slid down the railing? He was very good on doing it so smoothly, because he could have easily been tripping or being overheard with loud running steps.

He's gonna have to clean up all of this later

Nonetheless, this scene is still so heartwarming and beautiful. But, also, it's such a chaotic thing that only Simón would properly pull off.

Also, it's the way Ámbar just genuinely brightens up.

How she first goes "oh gosh, this is so cheesy, but adorable". But then she smells the rose and just goes in a little "yes!!" moment. Because that's her cheesy but adorable man! And he did this for her!

Side note, I need to comment on the difference between their outfits. Ámbar is here in a beautiful white nightgown, all barefoot.

And Simón is dressed like this.

It's a contrast.

But it's so pretty at the same time too.

They were from different worlds, and seeing them separate on their own, you wouldn't think it would work. But then they get together and it just... does.

-

Ok, so this was just gonna be a "lmao I love how Ámbar is just the perfect upper class girl and then Simón is just this silly beanie boy" but then I just decided to dive deeper.

There's much to analyse with Simbar, and it's really hard to keep it short.

[cellarspider]

25/30 Eschatology for Dummies

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⛬

Once again, we dive into that font of madness, Prometheus. I lied last time, we’re not talking about language today, I want to bash my head against the problem of “what in blazes is the intent of this movie”.

As the expedition enters the alien structure, suddenly Shaw remembers that germs can float.

“Wait. We still don’t know how Holloway got infected. If it’s in the air–”

This is one of those maddening little moments where the script tells me that no, the earlier removal of helmets was not just the oversight of someone who didn’t know better. The script chose violence.

“Smells fine to me.”

So does VX nerve gas. Truly, this is the mental acumen required to become rich.

The movie attempts to raise tension through a ZOOM AND ENHANCE, and cluing in those in the audience who may have been thinking “Ha! Foolish Engineers! How would they ever destroy life on Earth if they don’t have any spaceships?”

Well, turns out, there are these great big buildings called “hangars”, and you can put spaceships in them, sometimes even under the ground. I almost feel like if they hadn’t buried the ship, Holloway would’ve tried to see if he could do a burnout in it.

David, meanwhile, is having a great time. He’s giving a guided tour of the ship (that he explored more thoroughly than anyone else), pointing out their technology (that he learned how to use), explaining what they were doing (which he figured out before anyone else did), and assuring Weyland that yes, he can talk to the Engineer (which no one else can do), blithely skating by the reasons why he knows Holloway didn’t die from an airborne illness and how the Engineers were going to press the reset buttons on Earth. Simultaneously excelling at what he was supposed to do and also anticipating Weyland’s inevitable doom, possibly even that of humanity as a whole. It feels appropriately childish for a character that’s extremely young, extremely smart, and has had the worst socialization this side of Immortan Joe’s war boys.

Weyland doesn’t care about any of that, because he’s a horrible homunculus of an old Englishman formed out of a forty-five year old Aussie. This continues to vex me, even now. I keep trying to figure out why they did this. Did they originally intend for him to be depicted as young and change their mind? Was the mobility aid exoskeleton thing they put him in heavy and cumbersome? It’s hard to see in these screenshots, but he is wearing one.

Honestly, just have Lance Henriksen play another Weyland again. Lance can definitely play scumbags, and it would honestly be funny to have every single Weyland in every single time period played by him. Have him play Vickers too, for good measure. It would’ve taken me out of the film less than this.

At this point, I personally did not care about any characters besides David and the Engineer. Which is a very strange position to find oneself in, caring most about two characters who seem just fine with humanity going pft! 

And I’d like to examine that. Because fiction can put you in all sorts of strange headspaces that can be thoroughly contradictory to personal morals and self-interest. What was the movie trying to do here, and where has it ended up?

I want to start with some assumptions that mass media tends to make. Fiction, in general culture, is often presented as a moral lesson. Your protagonists are virtuous, and anything that stands in their way is villainous evil. The protagonists are also expected to be likable, and the audience is expected to root for them. A moral tale of who is worthy and who is not.

This is only a small piece of what fiction is. No one of these things is required. Villains are not required, sometimes problems aren’t caused maliciously. Protagonists do not have to be moral. Moral characters don’t have to be likable. You don’t have to root for the protagonists. And none of these divisions are binary.

I am uncertain whether we are supposed to root for the protagonists in this movie. Ridley Scott isn’t a stranger to this idea–look at Blade Runner (1982). Is it good that Deckard hunts down fugitive replicants? No. Absolutely not. Is it a compelling story? Yes! It’s beautifully told and tragic! If you make me watch Roy Batty’s monologue I will cry.

So. It is entirely possible that we are supposed to find the human characters unsympathetic. The Engineers created humanity, and then decided to destroy it. This could have been planned from the start–many religions describe cyclical, world-ending death and rebirth, after all. But this movie is heavily influenced by christianity. Those sects that believe in a destructive apocalypse call it the Last Judgment of humanity, something that occurs when the world has fallen into a state of corruption.

Which then brings us to the question: Does humanity deserve that most fatal judgment?

I mean, in real life, I’d say no, absolutely fucking not. The problem of a suffering world is not sanely responded to with “I’ve got a solution: murder everything”. 

This is fiction, though. We are being presented with a vision of humanity. This has the potential to be a counterpoint to the Engineers’ thinking, or their evidence, or a mix of both.

What is it, then? Most of the cast are morons, selfish, or featureless ciphers. They are a very pessimistic view of humanity. And remember, this is fiction. People don’t need to act like real people. When you think about redeeming qualities in yourself, in your friends, in your favorite so-and-so, this fictional realm does not necessarily contain them. In its barest form, it only contains the characters we see.

We’ve got Janek, who’s been charming and indicated he’s willing to stop the Engineers here, but that’s all we know about him. He’s also behaved in negligent ways that contributed to the deaths of Millburn, Fifield, and the nameless guys mutant Fifield wailed on. Christian morality is big on redemption as a path to unconditional absolution, so is he redeeming himself through a last-minute sobering up? Maybe. I’d note he’s missing the “confession” and “recanting past sins” parts that are usually bundled up with that.

We’ve also got Shaw. Shaw has all the makings of a Final Girl, somebody who is destined to survive the plot. They usually have some redeeming quality that makes you want to root for them. What does Shaw have?

Well, she’s got a never super-defined strain of christian faith. And she’s had a really shit time lately, so it would be cruel to watch her get kicked around more.

So, that’s two. Two could be enough in Abrahamic religions–Lot flees from Sodom to Zoar, and it’s spared from destruction because of his presence. Sure, he does some Weird Shit, but he qualified as righteous by whatever standards were at play there. But Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for want of ten righteous people. 

And all that gets more complicated in New Testament stuff, after God’s pinky promised not to destroy everyone again, except for the aforementioned Last Judgment thing. Is this movie, as christian allegory, advocating for a god of forgiveness, or depicting a just god who punishes the wicked?

No idea. It doesn’t have to be clear, obviously, fiction doesn’t have to be clear, any more than it has to be moral. I didn’t personally want the Engineer to sail off and destroy Earth, but frankly, I could see it from that perspective, given what this poor bugger’s met with upon waking up.

Next time: our Engineer wakes up from a two thousand year trauma nap to find some little monkeys yelling at them. Surely, this will go well.

⛬

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Alt-text rambles:

https://extra-images.akamaized.net/image/8a/5by6/2021/04/17/8a6f54c4f0ca4bd397cc22aceb4cb30e_md.jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torc 

[egoistars]

TALKING TO MY GHOST AT NIGHT reo

theres a ghost in the blue lock facility, reo and bachira are sure of it. they also aren't the most reliable sources out there but it was funny, nagi can humor them for a little longer if it means reo will finally get a partner and set him free ( wc : 2.1k+ )

warnings : crack, angst if u blink slowly, reader is a slut for money and so am i, reo is into some weird shit but it's ok they're into each other i promise

“Yo! Yo! Sei-shi-ro!” Bachira called out, once again with glittering stars in his eyes as Reo’s face pales every passing second. “You will never guess what Reo and I found!”

“Nagi, there’s a ghost,” Bachira’s accomplice muttered. “We saw them when we went to eat dinner.”

“You guys are delusional,” the white-haired boy sweatdropped, were they getting enough sleep? Probably not. Ego was absolutely insane and for the first few days Nagi was in the Blue Lock facility, he swore he was losing his five senses ( he was better when he got his phone back but that’s not important ^ _ – ). “Are you guys sure it wasn’t a janitor or cook?”

“We swear!” The dumbass duo retaliated, each one taking hold of one of Nagi’s arms. “They looked like they were our age and they even had the same really ugly dark circles and eyebags as you! There’s no other explanation.”

Nagi was too tired for this shit he just wanted to lie in bed and play mobile games like an elementary school kid. “Well, leave me out of this you guys can get haunted for all I care.”

“What the fuck, Nagi?! Even after all we’ve been through? I’m like the second coming of Jesus to you! I introduced you to the art of playing with balls!” Maybe he could have worded that better but Reo was too deep in the blistering sorrow of betrayal to care about his relationship with the Japanese language.

“Yeah! Listen to Reo! You’re one of us and plus, you and the ghost look equally exhausted so that means you should be the one to talk to them!” Bachira innocently giggled as if he didn’t just set Nagi up for a demonic ritual or whatever the fuck they were planning.

“Can we at least wait until tomorrow?” Nagi whined, his eyelids felt heavy and there was too much stupidity in the room for his brain to handle in a day. His brain was swelling and any more that came out of Bachira or Reo’s mouth would cause it to explode and somehow, his batshit insane rivals teammates will find a way to bring him back to life ( maybe even with the ghost ) and beat the shit out of him for abandoning them ( Reo ).

—

It was getting late and most of the Egoists had gone to their rooms to do whatever was on their schedule next. The reasonable ones went to rest, the weird ones went to train, and then there was the demon named Rin Itoshi who went to follow his yoga routine. Ew, that name sent shivers down Nagi’s spine. He wants to see that guy trip and fall on his ass sometime, that’d be pretty funny, he thinks. It would be even better if his brother did the same. But for Nagi, instead of playing his first-person shooters like how he would like to, the boy was being shushed by Meguru Bachira who was accompanied by an oddly serious looking Reo Mikage.

“Ghost… ghost…” Reo began making different “oOOOoO” noises to mimic ghost sounds from a badly produced Halloween movie. “We come in peace. We don’t plan to hurt you.”

“Yeah! We’re totally cool, you should hang out with us! Look! We even have some random dude who’s like the same breed of human as you! Er… as you were.”

“Bachira I didn’t agree on being a human sacrifice,” Nagi tried saying, but was quickly cut off.

“Shhh! You’re gonna scare it away! No one cares~!”

“Are you mentally well?”

Bachira and Reo let out loud ear-shattering screams, each going straight into Nagi’s head and giving him the most painful migraine he’s ever experienced, so painful that he almost did not realize it was an unfamiliar voice talking to Bachira instead of one of their own. Looking up at whoever it was, it happened to be another teenager who looked relatively normal with no seemingly ghostly features at all.

“Aren’t you guys soccer players? What the fuck are you doing out here ghost hunting?”

“Wait so you aren’t a ghost?” Bachira tilted his head and asked, his eyes blank in confusion while Reo looked like he was short-circuiting.

“No…?” You replied, pinching your skin. “I’m like ninety-nine percent sure I’m alive and well. You guys are hallucinating or something if you think I’m a ghost.”

“T-then why are you here?!” Reo pointed at you and demanded, suddenly thinking you were some intruder or hitman that was hired by one of his family’s rival companies, out to kill him while he happens to be away from home.

“‘Cause I’m that freak Jinpachi’s cousin. I need volunteer hours to graduate so I came here and honestly, I regret it. Nepotism sucks—well, at least this kind. I should’ve been born as some major actor’s kid.”

“Woah! So you aren’t here to kill me, that’s great!” Reo beamed, suddenly very giddy that a cute intern the same age as him would not be an absolute danger to his well-being. It had been years since he felt this electricity in his chest, the last time being when he met Nagi, who had been stuck with him ever since that day on. The purple-haired boy was unsure of whether the pleasure he felt from meeting you was due to a new challenge, or the fact he was genuinely interested in you. After all, he thought you were a ghost the first time he saw you.

“What—huh?! Why would I kill you? What kind of unresolved trauma do you have? Was this Jinpachi’s fault? That man is fucked in the head but he has money so don’t tell anyone about it until he dies and I get all his inheritance, ‘kay?”

Nagi did not know if you morbid words went one of Reo’s ears and out the other or if Reo was weirdly into whatever fantasies you had. Rich people. Bachira, though, was giggling like a devious troll, making squelching kissy noises in Reo’s ear as you went on and on about your plan to save yourself from the world of middle-class living and kick your cousin out of the economic elites so that you could replace him, knowing damn well that Ego could hear you.

And, he did.

A large television screen mounted to the front wall of the Blue Lock Facility cafeteria turned on almost immediately after you stopped talking, displaying a far from happy Jinpachi Ego in all of his bowl-cut glory. The man’s permanent frown was even more of a frown than what Nagi thought was humanly possible, another ew in his book. Man, his coach was depressingly ugly.

Jinpachi Ego was a tired man whose tiredness plummeted into exhaustion every time he had to interact with his hellspawn of a cousin, you. “[name], cut it out and get to cleaning. You aren’t going to get any credits or paychecks if you continue standing there wasting all our time telling people your empty plans of ‘plotting my downfall’,” Ego spoke with his monotone voice, making faux quotes with his hands.

“Oh, shut up old man. You’re literally decaying compared to me. Get to bed, grandpa,” You restored, visibly pissed off but immediately switching your facial expression to a cheery one like a lightswitch as you bid goodbye to the three teenage boys before you and running off to “beat that bowl-cut’s ass”, as you put it.

“Dude, you look like you just met an angel and fell in love!” Bachira laughed in Reo’s face, doubling over and rolling on the floor.

“I think… that’s because I just did,” Reo mumbled, awe still on his face as he blankly stared at the television screen Ego was just on.

—

Once again, Nagi just wanted to go to bed but had his plans interrupted by a very desperate Reo Mikage.

“Come on! Nagi, you just don’t get it. They’re my soulmate, I’m sure of it!”

“Why can't you go alone? Why do you have to drag me into you trying to ask them out? Aren't I just gonna be in the way?”

“Nagi,” Reo whined, pathetically dragging out his name. “I need you there for moral support. I'll piss myself otherwise, you know that.”

“Yeah, and I’ll be sure to laugh at you too when they reject you.”

“I'm gonna punch you.”

“Whatever, just this once, you hear me?”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Reo saluted his closest friend, skipping to the cafeteria to find you. To be honest, he was unsure of whether or not you’d be there but considering the fact you’ve been cleaning the cafeteria at the same times for two days in a row, Reo thought he had a pretty good chance. But of course, luck wouldn't always be on the side of the rich and famous.

Nagi and Reo walked into the large, open room only to find the lights completely out, without a single sound echoing throughout the cold. An eerie feeling took over the previous excitement that Reo felt that evening, accompanying it with a chill down both of their spines.

“They aren't here, let's go back,” Nagi urged. He would never admit it to anyone's face, but the cafeteria was starting to give him the creeps. “Bring Bachira with you next time, he’d be over the moon to help you.”

“No! Wait! This place is creepy as fuck but we haven't even looked yet! Let me just turn on the lights—”

“See? You should be more like your friend here. Why are you in such a hurry to leave? I don't bite!” A voice popped out from right behind Nagi, causing him to physically jump into the air and trip over and onto his knees before violently whipping around, coming face to face with you manically cackling at his reaction. “Man, you're easy to scare!”

“Hi! You're er— [name], right? That's what Ego called you last night,” Reo greeted, “I'm Reo Mikage.”

“Yeah,” Nagi chimed in from on the floor. “He's Reo Mikage.” Reo really wished he followed through with punching Nagi in the face. “He's the heir of the Mikage Corp.”

“Mikage… Mikage… Mikage…” You muttered, trying to remember why that name sounded so oddly familiar to you. Is it the name of a restaurant you went to? No, he said ‘Corp’, that wouldn't make any sense.

“That means he's super rich by the way,” Nagi added one last time before ditching his awestruck friend in the otherwise empty cafeteria that he doubted anyone would go to anytime soon; it was almost nine in the evening.

“Oh my God, you're rich?” You gushed, suddenly very interested in what Reo had to say for himself—well, even more interested. It was like a dream for you; some really pretty dude coming in looking for you specifically, ignoring the part where he thought you were a ghost, of course. But having this same pretty boy turn out to be a super mega rich heir and also be super mega athletic? Jackpot. You won in life. It's God’s apology for making you be related to that bastard Jinpachi Ego. This is your main character moment and you will make sure that boy will be yours before any other trashy gold digger other than you picks him up and takes him away. “That's like, the hottest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“That's not the only thing you're after, right?” Reo cautiously asked. It slightly hurt knowing that you might not actually be interested in him, but only after his wallet instead. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened, but it would be the first time it's happened with someone he was genuinely interested in.

“No, no! Of course not! You're pretty funny and well uh, really cute so even if you were broke I’d shoot my shot.”

If you spoke any more, Reo thought that his cheeks would fucking burst from how hot they felt and he was more than sure his face was a burning crimson red. It was suddenly as hot as a midsummer's day with the sun shining right above his brushed, violet hair, causing his entire body to sweat. “Holy shit I could marry you right now.”

“Hell yeah, let's get married, Reo!” You exclaimed with the same ecstatic eagerness as the boy whose hands you were grabbing onto while jumping up and down.

“[name], get to cleaning. You are not getting married anytime soon.” Before you could start making up your vows on the spot, a shart voice cut through the moment with the click of a button as the television in the cafeteria turned on once again, displaying a displeased, disturbed, and beyond annoyed Jinpachi Ego who was most definitely not pissed off because he can't get himself a partner like how his cousin can.

[mageknight14]

Something I always find funny when it comes to TWEWY discussion is how people tend to take Hanekoma’s words at face-value when it comes to the TWEWY mythos and his opinions on the Shinjuku games’ structure and take everything he says as fact when the games show, subtly or not, that he’s a heavily biased source who will outright LIE in the Secret Reports and that he’s not always the right moral viewpoint.

And that’s what I honestly love about his character because like any well-written character, he is often fraught with his own subjectivity.

I think an important thing to note is that in the Secret Reports, there is a small mistranslation that shapes a lot of what Hanekoma has to say regarding the events that takes place within the story; namely, Rindo DOESN’T have a high Imagination. It’s actually rather low or mediocre and his Replay power mainly comes from his pin, with Nagi and Fret being the real powerhouses.

(Shout-outs to my friend ζ for this great document!)

In the original ENG translation, the report went "For better or for worse, he is able to maintain abnormally high levels of Imagination, thereby increasing the accuracy of each Replay."

When in actuality, it’s "The higher [the] levels of Imagination he is able to maintain, [the] increas[ed] accuracy of each Replay." Which basically means that Replay relies on him maintaining the focus of his Imagination, rather than how much Imagination he has in general. It also fits in well what we know about Rindo and how he contrasts his team. Nagi is a huge otaku with a passion for her favorite gacha game, Fret is a fashionista that’s caught up on the latest trends, Shoka has her entire thing with Gatto Nero and Neku and Beat are winners of the last Reaper’s Game, with the former already having high amounts of Imagination even before he got sucked into the game due to a combination of his love for urban culture and the arts and Hanekoma’s graffiti subconsciously raising his Imagination levels even higher. Meanwhile, all Rindo has is the words of a social media guru that he mindlessly parrots and a mobile game that he casually plays. Not exactly grounds for cultivating a high level of Imagination, no? That said, Rindo is still able to function as a potent user of Replay due to his ability to hold a LOT of information in his head at one time, giving him a holistic view of the situation that makes him be able to piece together character relationships and bits of information in a way that he can use to his advantage to turn a bad situation around to his favor. W1D5, W2D2, W3D3, and the final day are especially great examples of this.

This is an important distinction to make because Hanekoma actually dismisses Rindo multiple times due to his low Imagination, in contrast to how supportive he was of Neku in the first game. Hanekoma's prioritization of Imagination is him believing that it is a necessary foundation for people to have in order to face adversity; to interpret their world; to grow, self-analyze, and to properly contribute to society. With that in mind, Rindo not having a good level of Imagination to him is indicative of a kid whose potential to do all these things is not as impressive and therefore would probably fail the Shinjuku Reaper’s Game. And to some extent, he’s right since Rindo does fuck up at times and stagnate when people he believes to be more capable show up to potentially solve his problems for him; taking away his responsibilities from him.

However, Rindo does grow from his mistakes, which ultimately culminates into him rejecting the offer for Haz to solve everything for him in favor of striving for a better future for both him and the people he cares about and the Shinjuku Game’s ruleset does make him come out of his shell as a leader, which was what ultimately saved all of them in the end, not his Imagination levels. It’s important to note that unlike the others, Rindo doesn’t actively participate in Operation Awakening: he’s the guy who gets the pieces to go where they need to go in order to have the operation go by smoothly and navigates them to do their job correctly. Operation Awakening ultimately succeeds due to Rindo’s skill as a leader, which Hanekoma did not view as something to make ado about. Hanekoma's vibe was that imagination, and by proxy, the things it provides a person to do, is something that is predisposed..but Rindo proved that you don't have to be predisposed to imagination to do really amazing things or affect change on a grand scale; you can learn how to do it through your experiences. There’s a reason why World is Yours, which is basically Rindo’s theme, has the phrase "Making mistakes is proof that you’re challenged. The World is Yours."

This is also a pretty big contrast when you consider how the Shibuya Game operated, which was heavily biased towards high Imagination people to excel further while pushing low Imagination people out of the running. I mean think about it: out of a normal week in the original game (Week 1), only Neku and Shiki survived legitimately (Beat only got by due to Hanekoma’s intervention in order to make him a wild card later on). But because they have high Imagination, Hanekoma is fine with such a low survival rate for the others. If someone only cares about supporting the already "gifted", then it makes sense that Hanekoma would only focus on a model that promotes Imagination gain and self-reflection for those he deems worthy, i.e. already have good Imagination.

That’s not even getting into how the nature of psychs and pins already predisposes low Imagination people to be weeded out in the original game. And of course, there’s also this Report from the original to consider.

"So, what happens to those who survive the week? Those whose Imagination is less than outstanding are broken down into Soul, while those with excellent Imagination become Reapers. The most talented of these may travel to the next plane, inhabited by Us Angels."

Remember Sota and Nao? By Hanekoma’s and the Shibuya Game’s logic, those two deserved to be absorbed into Soul by account of them not being able to survive but it’s because how the Game operates, that’s just how it has to be, even though the circumstances were out of their control and they are shown to be genuinely good people. From Hanekoma's view, he sees the act of facilitating Imagination as the means to progress evolution; a way to improve the health of world's laws. And why wouldn't he, right? By focusing on Imagination, you are promoting people to think better, to build self-awareness, to grow and change into better people; to reflect. Hanekoma finds this to be ideal, but maybe doesn't consider the vast ways with which people could achieve high Imagination. Hanekoma essentially viewed the lack of focus on Imagination specifically in the Shinjuku Games as precluding the capacity to grow and change, but failed to account for ways in which the team system could allow for growth and self-reflection in other ways even without an entry fee, and arguably more so because of it. The great thing about Hanekoma as a character is that while he has good intentions, he still falls under the Higher Plane mentality of "the ends justify the means" and this leads to a heavily biased perspective from his end. Just take a look these excerpts from the original game’s secret reports:

"My art is widely accepted in Shibuya."

"This proves that those with Imaginations sufficient to create the future are gathering in the area. Shibuya's future is looking very bright."

"I imbue my art with two command codes. The first is "Enjoy the moment more". This strengthens the Imagination. The proxy received this signal loud and clear, though past trauma precluded him from responding accordingly."

"The second code, "Gather", calls to those with strong Imaginations. Hence the inevitability: why wouldn't the Composer find his worthy proxy standing in front of my graffiti?"

When you break it down, he’s essentially saying "My art is so good that it is propelling Shibuya into a better future. Just ignore how I implant my own codes within it to specifically cultivate Imagination." Sounds just a bit egotistical, doesn’t it?

Shibuya is a hub of youth culture and is where new trends are born. Of course the UG of it would value individuality and creativity -> influencing others through art and passion. Shinjuku is both a business district but also has a very expansive night culture. It’s considered "adult" in comparison so of course the UG would value having to work with many, many different kinds of people -> being able to navigate and work with people to your advantage. This also helps to explain why the concept of entry fees aren’t a thing because the team set-up is the challenge in and of itself. Obviously Shiba’s version of the game is an anomaly so huge teams like that probably wouldn’t exist in a "normal" version of the game.

But being a leader in and of itself puts that individual in the best position to ascend and gain power within the UG, but then the leader is burdened with being in charge of the individuals under them. Meaning they have to learn to balance the two and work with their team. Likewise, just joining a team means you end up at the mercy of just following along with what your leader says, meaning without the ability to actually challenge or discuss things openly, you will also fail as an individual within that team.

Let’s compare Fuya and Kanon’s teams for this example: Fuya is explicitly noted to have a high Imagination but that didn’t stop him or his team from repeatedly coming into second-to-last place and the mental breakdown he’s currently having while Kanon doesn’t have a whole lot yet she has her head on her shoulders and the social skills needed to be an effective leader, hence why she and her team are able to survive relatively comfortably in the middle. Just having high Imagination or high qualities won’t be enough on its own if you’re unable to work together and balance out your respective strengths The Wicked Twisters end up being the best example of this ideal since they’re able to work together and clash thoughtfully as a team and support one another in times of needs, with the final day in particular running entirely on this concept. If just a single piece was out of place, the entire thing would’ve fallen apart.

Ultimately, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them.

Then we must compare how the respective Games are operated. The Shibuya Reaper missions (other than the one assigned by Kitaniji) tended to be pretty simple: go here, defeat Noise, etc. The other stuff such as the need to fix 777’s lighting seemed less about intentionally giving a mission and more incidental. They additionally have harrier Reapers, who more or less fit as the game’s RNG element with their job being to actively hunt down Players like animals. With this and giving the Players simple missions with little structure to go on but letting them have to figure out any resultant complications, the Shibuya Game is a lot more chaotic. By contrast, the Shinjuku Reapers are a lot more involved and administrative, which is fitting considering their business aesthetic. You have them being around to answer questions (unless you’re Shoka but she’s had to do this repeating structure for ages without a shake-up of things so it makes sense that she would be sick of it), preventing unfair interference, providing help, and generally ‘administering’ the missions. You have ordered events like the Scramble Slams, with the commentator actively, well, commentating, more involved missions like decals being set up ahead of time, spot-the-difference missions, a pig treasure hunt, etc…

Of course, there are certainly chaotic elements as well (bribing Reapers for more points, having to act on the whims of the Game Masters, teams forming alliances with one another, etc) but for the most part, it’s a much more controlled structure and it really fits in well when you consider the individuality vs sociality mindset of Shibuya and Shinjuku respectively and shows why Hanekoma, an Angel infatuated with Shibuya, would look down on the Shinjuku games in comparison. In his mind, Shibuya’s more emergent mechanics and interactions allow for more Imagination to be cultivated and to him, Imagination is the sole important thing to focus on. But Rindo’s growth disproves that mentality quite a bit and shows that, like many things, there’s room for compromise between both sides. It may also reflect the devs' changing opinions as culture has changed. In 2007 Nomura and company may have focused more on individual talent under the idea of the spirited sole artist, but by 2018, they realized that leadership and followership, and the ability to work in teams, also really fucking matters. Individuality is still important at the end of the day, hence why Rindo needed to get his shit together and not just become a follower like he was before in order to achieve better things for himself and others, but accepting and learning to balance different viewpoints in order to achieve a desired solution is also extremely important.

At the end of the day, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them and even Hanekoma himself seems to realize this when he praises Rindo’s ultimate decision and the courage he had to have to make that choice and sincerely hopes to meet him someday.

Ultimately, Rindo’s growth is a response to OG TWEWY in that you don’t need high Imagination or some other equivalent to be able to enact change and that there are other methods to do so, especially if you use your own unique strengths for them. And even Hanekoma himself seems to realize this when he praises Rindo for this courage he had to make his final decision and that he sincerely hopes to meet him someday.