#and I've seen it used on the likes of reddit and even youtube

[stainedglassthreads]

I feel like the four leads of Deltarune--Kris, Susie, Ralsei, and Noelle-are just. Somehow two different levels of queer-coded.

(Edit: Just to be clear: not saying any of this to disparage or insult shippers of Kralsei, Suselle, or Kriselle, I've just seen a lot of cool analysis about tropes, romance, and lack of choice in Deltarune and wanted to chime in with some of my own thoughts. If you ship any of those ships in Deltarune--fantastic! May you find a lot of content precisely to your taste.)

Like. On the one hand, if you're looking at tropes, they are very neatly set up into two romantic partnerships. Noelle is very blatantly interested in Susie, and Ralsei's feelings for Kris are often portrayed similarly. On a surface level, both pairings appear very clear. Noelle is a girl in love with another girl, while Ralsei is a very effeminate boy in love with a teen who doesn't appear to use pronouns. And a big deal isn't made of either pairing, there's nothing really in the way of Suselle or Kralsei on a societal level we've encountered so far. At least in terms of gender and sexuality. But if you look a little closer, it's kind of...'these are a very straight idea of queer ships', y'know?

Noelle and Susie are both girls, but one is very effeminately coded, anxious, uses magic, and is more traditionally cute, while they other is crass, crude, intimidating, and physically strong. Ralsei and Kris are gender-noncomforming, but Ralsei is a sweet pacifistic healer who bakes cakes while Kris uses a sword, and keeps being mistaken for a boy by much of Youtube and Reddit. The active one and the passive one, the fighter and the mage, the one with cute hobbies and the one who eats moss, the one in pants and the one in a dress.

And here, I start thinking of some posts I've seen analyzing how, in Deltarune, romance is used to explore how Kris doesn't really get choices. Kris has been cast as the leader and knight, and Ralsei has been cast as the healer and Princess, even if he is a boy. The leader often ends up with the healer. The knight often gets the princess as a happy ending. But Kris doesn't seem to like this! Their reactions to Ralsei are constantly lukewarm at best, and that's not getting into how Ralsei seems to be in love with his idea of Kris, while being very. Asriel-coded, who the game describes often as Kris' brother, in sharp contrast to how ambiguous Chara and Frisk's relationships with the Dreemurrs were.

If we and Kris reject Ralsei as a love interest, we can a different romantic partner in Noelle...but this choice has a bodycount, traumatizes Noelle, doesn't seem to leave Kris any happier, and it's still a kind of straight-coded ship. Now it's the knight being paired up with the apocalypse maiden, for the doomed codepedent toxic tragedy lovers out there. But it kinda makes sense too, right? If Kralsei is the expected RPG romance, then Kriselle would be the expected romance if there were no Dark World and Ralsei weren't an option. They're childhood friends and neighbors in a small town, their families used to be very close, Rudy is still very fond of Kris. They're even extremely angel/devil coded.

But the most interesting part is. It's implied that there IS someone that Kris is very interested in, either platonically or romantically. It's Susie. Kris never seems frightened by Susie when they're bullied by her, and rejects Noelle's offers to switch seats. They seek comfort from Susie rather than Ralsei after the Spamton fight, they call her their friend when Toriel calls, they share moss with her, they refuse to think about her during Snowgrave when Ralsei prompts them, they make it clear that out of all the people they COULD go to the Carnival with, Susie is the one they'd ACTUALLY want to choose.

And this is the part that drives me crazy. Because while Kris is so tightly controlled by genre and narrative, and those things would usually push them towards Ralsei or Noelle, and Ralsei keeps encouraging Kris to stick to the narrative. Susie is the one who refuses to be bound to the narrative. Susie is the character of Deltarune who is most unapologetically herself--and isn't that a very queer thing, refusing to be anyone but yourself despite everything? She says no thanks to the prophecy, until she comes around to it on her own terms! She makes herself and Ralsei learn to take their own actions, and drags Ralsei off to have fun with him instead of letting Kris choose who to with! She doesn't stay in her box of the damage-dealing fighter, she insists on learning Healing magic, even if she's not particularly skilled at it at first! Even Ralsei is forced to admit that it's wonderful that Susie is Susie, and not anyone else!

I think Kris likes Susie a lot. And part of it may be admiration. That while Kris is controlled by the player and the narrative and the prophecy and humanity and divorce and a dozen things outside their control, Susie refuses to ever be bound by anything. And Kris and Susie together happen to be the two more masculinely-coded party members, the two melee fighters, the two troublemakers. It honestly makes me wonder a little if Susie and Kris might be able to make their own ending beyond the bounds of gender expectations and romance expectations together? It would be cool. And I think it would make Kris very happy to break free like that.

[vilevexedvixen]

"Only a master could make that cut"

I've seen a few people on Reddit and Youtube talk about how Fowler was supposedly hyped up as a master swordsman and were thus either disappointed by Mizu and Fowler's fight in episode 8 OR they felt it didn't fit Fowler and that he was made OP. Starkly different assessments.

Personally, every scene of or discussing Fowler (namely how Madame Kaji speaks of him) points towards his main assets (combat wise) being strength and brutality.

I personally think Mizu's assumption that only a Master could make that cut makes sense for how Mizu learnt swordplay - namely by practicing what she observed masters of various schools perform for Master Eiji as part of their sword being forged appropriately for how they'd use it. Taigen somewhat challenges Mizu's idea that skill matters most in combat (since her skill and wit is proven effective more often than not) by overpowering Mizu despite using Shindo Ryu (trash technique). Showing that strength can be as important as skill in turning the tide.

The Giant reinforces the power of strength and Mizu's difficulty outperforming it in combat. This is then reinforced by Taigen's comment about The Giant not needing a weapon to kill her (which The Giant almost does in episode 6).

Plus, the Tea Party fight showcases ways Fowler can (and then does) overpower Mizu. Including a chokehold, and even breaking her bones in the same hold as Fowler.

Mizu is literally and figuratively bringing a knife to a gun fight. Fowler doesn't need to have mastered the sword, as Mizu has, to beat Mizu.

Basically, I don't think Mizu's comment about the flower is enough to assume Fowler is a master swordsman. Given that we see him before Mizu does, we see what he is actually like and capable of. That cut was made cleanly because Fowler is both strong and precise. A practiced sadist with two decades of experimentation to hone any method of injury he pleases, not a swordsman.

[trappedinafantasy37]

There is a trend that I've noticed amongst fandom spaces around games, and it isn't a trend that is unique to Baldur's Gate. I have seen it happen in my other fandom spaces like Fallout, Cyberpunk, Dragon Age, etc. But people have a habit of having very strong opinions about companions/characters that they do not know.

It is comical to watch the abject lies people create about companions and use them as justification to dislike said companion because they know they don't have a valid reason to do so. This isn't unique to Minthara, this happens to ALL companions (ironically, the funniest and most egregious lies I've ever heard actually aren't even about Minthara). It's just glaringly obvious when it comes to Minthara as she is the least recruited and most killed companion in the game and is thus the least known. So the lies and mischaracterizations pop up more often, and there is an abundance of them. And it gets exhausting having to constantly fight these lies all the time. Especially when so few people actually know her and thus there are few who are able to defend her.

I remember there was a poll a few months ago that overwhelming voted Minthara as the least loyal and most likely companion to cheat on you. To me, that just screams that the people who voted for her in that poll have never had a conversation with her outside the goblin camp. Minthara is the most loyal companion. That is not an opinion of mine. That is a fact. That is canon to the game. She is canonically your most loyal companion. And it's not that she's the least likely to cheat. She never will. Again, not an opinion. That is canon to the game. But this is information people don't know, because they've never spent a single moment getting to know her. This is a lie being spread about her that will be used as justification to dislike her and to justify not recruiting her or justify killing her.

I have also seen people admit that their opinions about her is formed solely on social media posts from YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, or Tumblr because they just can't stomach having her in their party. As ironic as this is going to sound, but your opinion about a character should never be based on social media alone. The people who do this are missing out on the context of that post and often fail to use it in comparison with the rest of the character (especially since there is a high risk of a social media post containing misinformation or just straight up lies). People will take this one snippet of a character, and use it as if that it is all that character is. Posts on social media, including mine, are meant to be supplementary to your experience of a companion, not the sole foundation.

When it comes to these social media posts, no two people are going to have the exact same interpretation, which may cause confusion for an outsider looking in. Even amongst us Minthara enjoyers, we do not always agree, and that is to be expected. We are all different people who have lived different lives and thus have different experiences informing our interpretations. Even amongst my mutuals we do not always agree, and that's normal. But at least we have taken the time to get to know her and come to our own conclusions and can understand how someone else came to a different one. My posts, or anyone else's, should not be your sole source of information about Minthara or any other characters. You still do need to form your own opinion and that can only be done by actually spending the time to get to know them.

Recently, one of my old posts in which I talked about the relationship with Minthara and Karlach has exploded again. And I see the tags that people are attaching to it. The game has been out for 10 months now. And it makes me sad that people still have the wrong opinion about Minthara. It makes me sad just how little people actually know about her. It makes me sad that people are only now going to go recruit her for the first time, even though the knock out exploit has been here for months. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that my post has changed the way people see Minthara and encouraged them to want to get to know her. But it breaks my heart that I have to use another companion to convince people to get to know Minthara, because to them, Minthara alone just isn't good enough. They have already made up their mind about her, even though they don't even know her.

People are allowed to have whatever opinions that they want. But don't get online and share those opinions about a character you don't even know to people who do. It's like highschool level petty nonsense where people would rather believe and spread rumors about a person, rather than getting to know the person themselves and forming their own opinion. And, no, I don't care if your opinion is a positive one because even positive opinions can be inaccurate and wrong if you don't know the character. Again, this isn't just about Minthara but all characters and companions. And I'm only scratching at the surface level here. This essay would be significantly longer if I actually took the time to talk about how implicit bias, racism, homophobia, and sexism have all had a negative impact on fandom perception of Minthara and the other companions.

I will never tell anyone to do anything with their game they don't want to do, I will only encourage people to try new things. If you truly do not want to recruit Minthara or interact with her, that's fine. It's your game, your world, your rules, your vision.

But, I will say this. If the only conversation that you have ever had with Minthara is the one in the goblin camp, shut the fuck up about her. This cruel, heartless, evil person that floats around is a twisted version of Minthara that only exists on social media and was created by people who do not know her. This bastardized version is nothing like the version that actually exists in the game. And you would know that if you ever spent a single second of your time getting to know her.

[major-comet]

The Best Red vs Blue Watch Order Guide Ever. Of All Time.

So. You want to watch Red vs Blue, huh? Maybe you read my long post about how it's so weirdly incredible yet impossible to recommend and now you want to give it a shot. Or maybe you have seen the show before, but it's been a long time and/or you didn't watch any of the mini-series or anything and want to give it another go. Either way, looking at a show with a 21 year history is kind of daunting, and you have no idea where to start.

Well luckily for you, I've done the work for you.

This watch guide will cover all 19 seasons of the main show, most of the mini-series, and some of the PSA's and other such bonus content. There will be links provided for where you can watch everything I talk about. This Google Drive (from reddit u/Exitity, unsure if they also have a tumblr) has all of the individual episode uploads, and most of the stuff I'm going to be talking about, although I'm trying to use YouTube links wherever I can. Any links will be colored in light blue for additional visibility.

Couple of quick things before we begin.

When possible, watch the individual episode uploads rather than the "complete" editions. The "Completes", while they may provide a more streamlined viewing experience by cutting out all of the bumpers and outros and such, accomplish this by cutting out a lot of jokes. RvB has a lot of jokes that happen during the fade to black at the end of an episode, and a lot of those get lost in the edits. There's also some things that just straight up get cut for seemingly no reason. Side note, the DvD/Blu-Ray versions seem perfectly fine, and honestly are even better to watch than the individual episodes if you have them. They're like a best of both worlds - adding some extra music and such (ESPECIALLY in the first 5 seasons) that really helps make a nice presentation of the show. If that's an option available to you, I recommend it. Otherwise, stick with the individual episodes.

At the end of each entry in the list, I may present a Side Quest section. This will include anything I feel you should watch that isn't necessarily canon, but helps add some extra life to the series. This may include some behind the scenes stuff or a selection of the PSA's and the non-canon mini-series. This stuff can be really great for building out the characters in a way that doesn't necessarily affect the greater story, and can especially be good for interactions between characters that maybe don't interact much in the main show. Anything I put in a Side Quest is strictly optional, but will add to your viewing experience. Obviously, there's a lot more bonus material than what I'm putting here. I'm just putting down some of the highlights. And if you end up liking the PSAs and such then just know: there's so much more for you to explore.

Early RvB is very much a product of it's time, and sometimes you'll get hit with a line that stops you dead in your tracks. Adult-oriented comedies can always be a minefield, and RVB's roots as a show made for Halo fans in 2003 definitely don't help. However, while this is the most common in the first five seasons, it never really stops being an issue. The purpose of this guide is simply for watch order, but if you have any specific trigger-related questions about any season of rvb please feel free to shoot me an ask or even a DM - i'm more than happy to help.

Okay, let's begin, breaking it down by arc.

The Blood Gulch Chronicles

You may hear people telling you to skip the first five seasons of the show and just pick up with Season 6. Those people are lying to you and do not have your best interests at heart. The first five seasons are pretty much strictly comedy, and from Season 6 onward the show starts to explore deeper themes and stories while still falling back on that comedic foundation. Skipping straight to the deeper stuff doesn't work very well IMO, because those five seasons are spent getting to know the characters we're going to be following for the rest of the show. The stuff that happens in Blood Gulch never stops being important - whether it's side characters showing back up again later on, or laying the foundation for a lot of the moments and story lines that make some of the later seasons so special.

Anyways, the watch order.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Out of Mind - Mini-series

Season 5

Blood Gulch Side Quests

Tattoo Point/Counterpoint - Season 1 PSA

A Message to the Science Community - Season 2 PSA

Real Life VS. The Internet - Season 2 PSA

All of the deleted scenes, honestly, but This One in particular because asphodel and I quote it all the time.

The Outtakes/Bloopers - I'm not gonna put the link for these and the deleted scenes for every arc, but just know that you should watch them after every season/arc. There's some great stuff in there.

The Season 5 Alternate Endings

Either watch it Now, or after you watch the finale, but I highly recommend the 2003 Season 1 DVD Commentary. It's just Burnie (Church/Lopez/Vic) and Geoff (Grif), and it's really nice.

If you've ever watched any behind the scenes stuff for RvB or even rooster teeth as a whole, you have almost certainly seen This Clip, which is a behind the scenes of the voice recording for Grif and Simmons' lines in episode 1.

The Recollection

Recovery One - Mini-series

Season 6 - Reconstruction

Relocated - Mini-series

Season 7 - Recreation

Season 8 - Revelation

Recollection Side Quests

First! - Season 6 PSA

Small Rewards - Season 6 PSA

Rock the Vote and Rock the Veto - PSAs made to encourage RvB viewers to register to vote. Which at the time you could do on your xbox 360. These are here mostly as a "wtf" historical piece.

Halo-Ween - Season 7 PSA

Valentine's Day - Season 7 PSA

Fire Safety: Where There's Smoke... - Season 7 PSA. genuinely one of the best.

Holiday Plans - Mini-series

The Reach PSA series - Three parts total, only part one is linked.

Project Freelancer Saga

Season 9

Technically there's two mini-series that take place during Season 9 - being M.I.A. and Where There's a Will, There's a Wall. I really love them, and would recommend watching them after S9, but if you really want to roll into S10 you won't miss much. Weirdly there's a place later on that would be a great spot to circle back to these, but I'll save that for later.

Season 10

Project Freelancer Side Quests

This is a great spot to circle back to older side quests you may have skipped, btw.

The Season 10 Table Read BTS - Season 10 was the first time they ever did a full cast table read for the show, and it's cool to see a few snippets from it and hear the crew talk about it.

Matt Hullum Talks to Himself - watch this after M.I.A. it's a live table read of part of the script, with a focus on a conversation between Sarge and Doc (who have the same voice actor)

This 10 Year Retrospective that was put out around Season 10. Watching it now, knowing that they were about halfway through the lifespan of the show / company gives it a whole new perspective.

RT Oz - PSA

Remember Not to Forget and Voting Fever - PSAs made to promote the launch of Halo 4. Voting Fever is one of the Best Ever (and listen to the full version of That's How Voting Works afterwards!)

This Interview between Burnie and Trocadero talking about the music the band has done for the show. This playlist also has a bunch of other behind the scenes and other such bonus stuff from the DVDs and Blu-Rays, it's great to keep around.

The Chorus Trilogy

Season 11

The Chorus Journal Entries - Only three have fully machinimated versions, the last one is just the log entry. Bridges the gap between 11 and 12

Season 12

Season 13

Chorus Trilogy Side Quests

#1 Movie in the Galaxy - PSA

Getting Away From it All - PSA

#1 Movie in the Galaxy: 2 - PSA

Uh. I think the RvB Holiday Special goes here

Matt Hullum (Sarge) reading an excerpt from 50 Shades of Gray at a book signing.

Season 14 - Anthology

I get it: not everyone loves the Anthology format. I truly do recommend watching all of it at least once - or if you haven't in a long time. My only Side Quests are to say that this is the perfect time to go back to M.I.A. and WTAWTAW if you skipped them after season 9, and that if you skipped the #1 Movie In the Galaxy PSAs during Chorus, watch them now before the third one, which is in this season.

The Shisno Trilogy (seasons 15, 16, and 17)

Season 15

Season 16 - The Shisno Paradox

Season 17 - Singularity

Shisno Side Quests (this is taken from our survey data because it's been so long since I've watched much of any shisno-related stuff)

Hard Truths - PSA

Diversity - PSA

Cultural Appreciation - PSA

Lopez's Technical Guide to Empathy - PSA

Unreal Estate - PSA

Caboose's Guide to Finding Your Home - sequel to the Guide to Making Friends from season 14

RvB: Zero + Family Shatters

okay so here's the deal. If by this point, you're really just interested in the characters you've been watching for the past 17 seasons and not so much the story or anything - you may not get much from watching Zero. I do think it's interesting to watch, if only because I think it's got a lot of missed potential. Zero is not served well by being a season of RvB, I think I would have liked it a lot more if it were stand-alone, though that doesn't fix all of my issues with it. If you wanna jump straight to the series finale, you absolutely can. It's a pretty short watch, though, and I've heard that Family Shatters was better. I'll watch that one at some point.

Zero

Family Shatters - spinoff

Restoration

This is it! The series finale.

I'm not doing this with an other season (though I do recommend going back and watching all the teasers and trailers at some point), but before you watch the finale you should watch The First Trailer For It. I think it sets up the season really well, and helps make some of the rushed set-up exposition in Restoration make a little bit more sense. honestly this should just be considered the first scene of the finale. Then watch the finale, and then you are done with all of the main show of Red VS Blue. Go forth, and be free.

Final Side Quest

I'm putting anything that came out in the nebulous time between Zero and the finale in here. I'll come back and edit this once we find out what on earth is going to be on the Blu-Ray.

Offensive Driving

First Person Tutor

Moving Out

The Video RT Made to Announce Master Chief and Blood Gulch Were Coming To Fortnite. This played at the game awards and my soul almost left my body

This is also where I'll put QvsA, which is the Grimmons mini-series, though I haven't actually watched it myself yet. They're all on youtube.

My all-time favorite RvB fan edit - doesn't actually have any clips post-anthology, but I think the end is a great time to watch it.

If none of this makes sense, or you just have any questions at all - I am More than happy to help answer your queries. I hope this helps :) Also if any of the links are broken please let me know.

[universallydestinytaco]

SF Fandom Rant

CW: Half-Way Jokingly Unhinged Nerd Rage

EDIT: Just to clarify I was there when Adult Swim announced the festival and unveiled what it was going to look like before opening, I didn't get to go but I wish I did.

What kinda frustrates me is when some fans who think they've been in this fandom for long enough say some silly nonsense like "Oooh Pim is underrated or not as loved as the other main characters he needs more love (ToT)"....Meanwhile as someone who has obsessively-compulsively scurried in and out of EVERY SINGLE MAIN TAG FOR SMILING FRIENDS on almost all social media sites (plus countless YouTube comment sections and that WRETCHED troglodyte-ridden shitgutter known as Reddit) I can confirm that this entire fandom has always been overflowing with an endless supply of Pim fanworks, cosplays, getting shipped with Charlie and various other characters canon AND fanmade (plus quite a bit of selfshipping) or comments gushing about how cute and sweet he is...not to mention Charpim is obviously THE most popular ship in the fandom from what I've seen on A03! All the Pim fanworks and whatnot get a shit ton of attention too, they get TONS of likes and comments! Also on a sidenote, polls I've seen voting for one's favorite character, Pim is either second and in one or two cases, even first in Favorite Character polls while either Alan or Glep are at the bottom, not to say that either character mentioned are unpopular in fact FAR from it considering I spent so much time browsing fanworks for this show, trust me. Glep is a little meme machine and Alan is a he/him sapphic icon because of all the fangirls he has!

And furthermore, a testament to Pim's popularity being much bigger than one would expect is when I was there when Adult Swim's annual festival was unveiled to the masses on their socials and every single one of us online that day collectively losing our heads (hehe) over this lovely sight:

This image was spreading around like wildfire + the comment sections where mostly talking about Pim's bulbous, perfectly-round head.

"Underrated" my ass, Pim gets A TON of well-deserved love in this fandom, honestly you know who's the most underrated Smiling Friend? My baby girl Smormu where's all the cute Smormu fanart and fanfics you cowards!? I mean look at this lil' cutie go!

*slams fists on table dramatically* WHERE'S MY SMORMU CONTENT DAMMIT!?

*Nasally Laugh* Okay in all seriousness I know Smormu was made as a joke but can y'all stop making Pim out to be a forgotten/underrated character like he's some scrapped character from the pilot? There are plenty of unpopular/underrated characters on this show I can name on the back of my hand because I scrutinize every bit of trivia surrounding this show (like Zoey, Marge, Mr. Boss to some extent but less-so since S2, Jennifer, Desmond...) and Pim is NOT one of them! Thanks for coming to my TED talk, byeeee.

(PS. Be sure to check back on this lil ol' blog of mine for the latest chapter of my mushy Charpim fanfic dropping later tonight 😉)

[hanasnx]

can you share some of thosr anakin-related-content-you-consumed on ur anakin fixation era cz im fixating on anakin aswell rn and i want to study him!! please, idk where to start 🙇🏻‍♀️

supercut of star wars I - III reddit link with instructions to receive them via google docs

i've seen both tpm and aotc supercuts but i have yet to finish the rots supercut because of it being so long. there are also deleted scenes on youtube that were not included in the supercuts linked here:

star wars episodes I and II extended edition - unused deleted scenes youtube video

revenge of the sith 4 hour supercut - unused deleted scenes youtube video

if you cannot get a hold of the supercuts for some reason, no sweat. the same channel listed in the above links has a bunch of videos on their channel of all "restored deleted scenes" that you can watch individually. of course, that is without the "siege of mandalore" that's included in the rots supercut. but that's just the bits you would see from season 7 of the clone wars spliced in, so you wouldn't be missing anything.

star wars: episode I - the phantom menace

if you cannot get a hold of the supercuts for whatever reason, start here. one of my favorite star wars movies. features young anakin, about nine years old, and how comes to live with the jedi, how he meets padme, and where he comes from.

star wars: episode II - attack of the clones

we follow older anakin, about nineteen years old, where he reunites with padme and they fall in love. the cracks of the dark side's influences are beginning to show.

star wars: clone wars

this is the mini-series released in 2003-2005 to depict anakin's journey throughout the beginning of the clone wars to prepare audiences for star wars: revenge of the sith coming out in 2005. it has since been de-canonized and replaced with the clone series that comes out in 2008. it is still worth the watch. anakin's voice actor is supremely talented and sounds a lot like hayden christensen. albeit he is dramatic, as it is a kid's show, i still very much enjoy his characterization. it's actually pretty funny too, it did get me to laugh a couple times. chapter 24-25 i believe is where anakin undergoes a sort of spiritual awakening, and the ending always makes me cry.

star wars: the clone wars movie

it was honestly boring to me, but i still watched it for much needed context on the show.

star wars: the clone wars

as i’ve said before, i don’t really care for tcw!anakin, but this was still a fun and enjoyable watch. it wasn’t completely worthless to me, i did learn some more things about anakin that applied to hayden’s rendition.

unreleased star wars: the clone wars arc - crystal crisis on utapau (full) youtube video

i didn’t finish it but from what i’ve seen so far it’s pretty funny.

anakin & obi-wan | let my people go youtube video edit

one of my favorite edits to one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite movies. i think about it a lot, especially during the “this was my home.” lyric. hammering in the betrayal of brothers that grew up alongside one another, and if you resonate with that song and movie it provides another layer of context. it’s deliciously painful. when anakin’s side of “you who i called brother,” cuts through and interrupts the melody, impatient to speak about his perspective using ramses’ narrative to do it, it’s acutely accurate to anakin’s character in my eyes.

clone wars: battle of the heroes - a star wars fan animation youtube video

i haven’t seen this yet but i’ve been waiting to enjoy it to its fullest. the creator worked very hard on it for a long time, so it’s worth the link.

star wars episode III: revenge of the sith novel by matthew stover

i have not read this, but i’ve seen hundreds of excerpts over the course of this hyperfixation on tumblr. it’s widely accepted even though it’s decanonized, and offers insight into anakin’s head that you can’t access with just watching the movie. i thoroughly enjoy and reblog the excerpts i come across, but since i’m not a reader i haven’t picked it up to complete it myself.

star wars: episode III - revenge of the sith

the third installment in the prequel series, and where shit goes down. twenty-three year old anakin grapples with his desires overcoming his sense of obligations, warping his own ideals to fit into selfish purposes. you see how he betrays the republic, his wife, his brother, and himself, all for power.

star wars episode III revenge of the sith (xbox) no commentary walkthrough full game [1080p60fps] youtube video

i haven’t gotten to watch this yet but i’d like to soon, i’ve seen bits and pieces and i believe there are alternate endings that prove interesting. if you like gameplay movies i think you should give it a shot, but if not, go ahead and skip this one.

star wars: episode III - revenge of the sith - making the game youtube video

it’s short and sweet. about hayden’s view of the character anakin and how he acts in combat.

star wars: tales of the jedi

s1e5 where we receive insight as to how anakin trains his padawan.

vader: complete canon comic series 1-25 in chronological order youtube video

i loved this so much. so many good moments that i ate the fuck up. we follow vader in his first year of becoming the sith lord, grappling with identity, past, and recognition. we also get insight into the very sensitive time of jedi eradication, i learned a lot. my favorite parts are when vader has to fight without a saber against clones, make his own red saber by retrieving one from a surviving jedi, and the arc that includes jocasta nu.

star wars the force unleashed- full game walkthrough gameplay no commentary youtube video

star wars the force unleashed 2 - full game walkthrough gameplay no commentary youtube video

both of these i've been meaning to watch, but i haven't been in the mood. i figured i'd link them in case you were interested in more gameplay movies.

star wars rebels

i didn't finish this, but i did watch a lot of the vader content and the scarce anakin content. i'll watch anything that mentions him tbh.

star wars jedi: fallen order - full game - no commentary youtube video

i played this game and loved it. the ending is the money shot tbh.

star wars: obi-wan kenobi

this was probably the first sw show i watched after i got back into darth vader in august 2022. reawakened a lot for me, i really enjoyed vader's part in this story. reva is also one of my favorites, and i thought her being a mirror image to anakin in this situation was clever, i thought her backstory was unique and refreshing. but what really shines for me is vader's contribution as both an extension of the emperor and a vessel for his own selfish desires. there are parts where i can see he's more machine than man. there are also some anakin parts as well! which i didn't enjoy as much, funnily enough.

rogue one: a star wars story

i haven't seen this one in years, but i do remember darth vader's appearances being both funny and badass.

star wars: episode IV - a new hope

star wars: episode V - the empire strikes back

it took me a long time to come around on this one. now it's one of my favorites. especially because we start to get the first glimpses within the original trilogy of vader's humanity, and his ability to demonstrate faint loyalty to his blood.

star wars: episode VI - return of the jedi

fave sw movie tbh since childhood. you can't get better than the ending. vader's sacrifice is everything to me.

lego star wars: the skywalker saga

i had played this game back in may 2022 when i visited my sister. she and i used to play lego games together when we were kids, and one of my first video games ever was lego star wars: the video game from 2005 which she introduced me to. it holds a special place in my heart, and i really liked playing skywalker saga even though at this point i hadn't cared about star wars in years. when i got back home i couldn't stop thinking about the saga game so i bought it myself, and then played it so obsessively i didn't do anything else. it got me back in the mood for darth vader so i watched obi-wan kenobi, and one thing leads to another now here i am with a smut blog about anakin skywalker's entire life and his every iteration. i loved the game, i think you should play it even though it's just lego versions of everything, it's still really fun.

star wars: ahsoka

you see him in this and the cinematography is breathtaking at times, but i didn't care for it. i only cared about the glimpses of anakin/vader's appearances even if they didn't contribute anything to the story for me.

anakin skywalker vs palpatine full fight scene (hd) - star wars episode IX [alternative ending] youtube video

this is a fan edit! i think about it a lot even though i haven't seen the sequels.

the life of anakin skywalker: darth vader (star wars) youtube video

i haven't finished this, but from what i've seen it's taught me things even i didn't know. i really appreciated the facts that aren't even on wookiepedia.

any books on it i've only seen the excerpts here on tumblr, i haven't read any because i'm not a big reader but i've seen some great posts that i reblog. so don't sleep on the books/comics

great ask

[skaruresonic]

I don't think i saw anyone call you or your friends deadly gang, I mostly see people talk badly about random only on reddit, tumblr, Twitter, ig, youtube and Deviantart, but I dont renember anyone writting deadly gang, who started that?

I do know who called us "Deadly Gang," but I'm not comfortable revealing that information unless the other party who showed me the screenshot is.

In any case, folks like to hound on Random because he's the most outspoken of us, and so it's easy to paint us all as "death threat enablers" through association, even though the situation was more complicated than that.

Before Random, it was Crusher who took the brunt of the mockery and ire, even though Crusher has never done anything to provoke people. Not that it would have been "deserved" if he had, of course; I don't like the idea of people "deserving" mistreatment in general.

We've all had people sling mud at our characters, at our work, at our mental health, etc., even going so far as to stalk us.

The incident a few days ago was not an isolated incident, but maybe the third or fourth time one of us has been stalked, maybe fifth. Not sure whether to include certain members of IDW staff; it's hard to keep track, and people really wouldn't like that insinuation anyway. The point is, anything they say we do, they've pretty much done to us twice over.

I know I must sound stuck-up and cliquey with the use of royal "we," which isn't my intention, but it must be stressed that our mutuals circle has seen some shit. You don't really get over people lowkey implying you deserved to be told your dead loved ones are suffering without having your faith in humanity shaken some. Sometimes I feel like I legit get flashbacks.

I know who I am, and I know who my friends are. It doesn't matter what the masses think of us, because large groups of people can still be wrong. The only difference between before and now is I've realized that the people who mind don't matter, and the people who matter don't mind.

[3liza]

part of the elsagate videos issue that is never ever addressed in any article or video I've seen about it is why do parents let their kids watch YouTube unsupervised. my parents divorced when I was six. my father is a 100% disabled veteran and my mom worked full time and basically single parented two children. NEITHER OF THEM allowed us to read, watch tv or use the computer with a lack of supervision sufficient to not notice what we were watching and immediately getting involved if something was weird, until we were probably 11 or 12 years old (which is a pretty typical time for kids to transition to spending a lot of time unsupervised and making their own decisions about their free time).

no one in any of the articles or videos I've seen on the disturbing YouTube kids content issue has ever straight up asked a parent: "why are you putting an internet-enabled tablet into the hands of a three year old and walking away?" none of the explanations for it (busy, tired, making dinner, poor, whatever) besides idk, severe disability to the point of child neglect, explain this level of lack of supervision. my parents were variously severely disabled and impoverished and working and making dinner and if tablets had been a thing, they just wouldn't have given them unsupervised to a very young child. you can entertain a 3 year old with conversation, drawing, picture books, or if they're on a tablet you can just turn off autoplay or make a playlist of videos you've already checked! you can make those playlists loop! my parents did not put us on the couch in front of unsupervised cable television either, which did exist at the time, even though a lot of my friends the same age did get ignored in front of a tv even if they had wealthier parents who had more free time. "people think YouTube Kids is safe" is another explanation I've heard. why? there's no reason for them to think that. no one has ever told anyone on earth that the internet is safe for kids, in fact we have all heard exactly the opposite. every pediatrician on the face of the earth has been begging parents to reduce screen time as much as possible for the past fifteen years. I don't respect that explanation, that "YouTube kids looks safe", any more than I would respect someone choosing to believe any other obviously-bullshit advertising from a major corporation.

I've also never seen any journalist try to interview the actual children who watch this stuff. are they okay? what are their daily lives like? how did this stuff first show up for them? we can make some assumptions about that, some of it is just autoplay etc but the specifics are important, including the specifics of their parents' behavior around giving them electronics access + no supervision.

the oldest elsagate kids are now old enough to post on their own and there is a thread on reddit asking them to talk about the effect the videos had on them. I'm sure a lot of them are completely fine, kids are resilient, but a lot of them self-report that they strongly feel they are not okay with it, feel they were permanently traumatized, desensitized, and that they have developed serious and intrusive paraphilias that do negatively affect their lives.

I sincerely do not get it. I just don't. it's the pathological lack of interest in your own child that really gets to me. it's weird, we let our children take any knife from the kitchen that they wanted to play with while we were making dinner and you will never guess what happened next!

[subjectsmile]

Well, I saw this question posted on Reddit, and I really thought it was an interesting question.(Letting it be clear, I'm not doing this to convert anyone, much less to attack, but because I'm tired of reading so many lies just to hide an obvious prejudice on the part of the fan base,and for the Sonadow fan, do you have arguments to refute these fans who take your peace, just search, this post has everything you need to deny these false fan statements)

And I decided to read the reasons why people attacked Sonadow/fans and to the surprise of 0 people, these were the justifications for attacking those who like the ship (I'll just summarize it in sentences)

"They hate each other, they don't even like each other, it doesn't make sense"

"they are both enemies"

"The people who ship this have enemies-to-lovers fetishes"

"there is no chemistry, people ship characters who only fight"

I think it goes without saying that nowadays these excuses have already been killed and buried by their current canons, right? And from what I've seen, this post is at most 7 to 8 months old, that is... is it serious that there are still people who really believe these lies? Or are they just empty excuses for not admitting that prejudice is the real reason for the attacks on this fandom and this ship? Anyway, I'm posting this to clarify what's true and what's not, making it clear I'm not trying to convince anyone, I'm just exposing the lies of uninformed fans

I responded to this person's post and made a point of gathering all the official evidence refuting these false excuses that the fandom gives to say such nonsense about the characters and attack the fandom:

They both don't have Chemical?: Sonic Prime is living proof that the two are incredible as a duo,the voice actors of Sonic and Shadow admitted that they think their ship is really cool (this on Twitter), Ian Flynn and whoever animates Sonic Prime They practically implied that they think it's a good ship too (in Ian's case he made a podcast on his YouTube Talking about how Sonadow would work as a couple during Pride Month, he practically confirmed that the two work well together in Cannon ) Of course, even after all this, depending on your personal taste, you might not like their chemistry, and that's okay, you don't have to, but saying that the two of them don't really resonate it's a lie

Do they both hate each other?: No! It has been denied several times, quite the opposite, if they care about each other it is canonical that they both care about each other

Enemies?: Also a lie! It exists in several products and interviews making it clear that they friends and allies! (Also a lie from an annoying or uninformed fan)

In other words, most of the excuses used to attack this ship have already been officially denied, for me all that remains is the prejudice of the fandom as a justification for attacking those who ship both.

And before someone annoying comes and says I'm lying, I have sources for what I'm talking about!

Proof that the two never hated each other, that is, they don't spread lies around, do some research first (Honorable mention for Sonic Prime, with this series I can dig into the argument that they two don't hate each other, go watch the series) but for those who aren't satisfied with Sonic Prime : https://sonic.sega.jp/SonicChannel/special/sidestory/coverstory/20210628_002603/

https://twitter .com/LadyLoveMoon/status/1737503549842485703

https://x.com/LadyLoveMoon/status/1657854808273965056?s=20

https://youtu.be/yJ8boVrPHEc?si=bCBrhNnsV5C9JJeq

https://www.tumblr.com/pastelspindash/ 735274368949698560/trazendo isso de volta porque não posso parar de pensar? ?source=share https://www.tumblr.com/ratjamtime/730643439809593344?source=share

Scenes from Sonic prime showing Shadow's care for Sonic:

Wow, what a bloodthirsty rivalry the two have, can you see the hatred in both of them? I can:

Are they rivals? They are, but they are friendly rivals, that is VERY CLEAR IN YOUR FACE, even in the Shadow game One scene is enough to prove that "hate" is definitely not what they have:

The voice actors of the two make it clear that they think the ship is cool (they make jokes and interact with the community (they even like things on the ship): Sonic voice actor previews the first release: https://x.com/DevenOClock/status/1631062456205299712?s=20

Even Sonic's former voice actor (Ryan Drummond) doesn't see a problem with the ship: https://www.tumblr.com/pastelspindash/734454772064714752/this-tiktok-driving-me-insane-ngl-they-are-so?source=share

Shadow voice actor:

https://x.com/IanStuartHanlin/status/1723764525843828828?s=20

https://x.com/paracosmicence/status/1736125901211902396?s=20

https://www.tumblr.com/krysissy/736943763953516544/it-was-probably-a-normal-tuesday-for-mr-hanlin?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian/733807770348011520/oh-my-gosh-ian-stop-playing-with-our-emotions-rn?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/nesonkin/727469580436619264/good-evening-everyone?source=share

There is a statement from the two voice actors stating that they had fun dubbing the two of them together:

https://x.com/Drey_Blanc/status/1593535566288547840?s=20

Ian Flynn on Pride Month:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH46JnEUvZw

https://x.com/LadyLoveMoon/status/1676027477682946050?s=20

(The ship is so terrible that it was honored twice because it was so bad) Bonus: https://x.com/nenemyun/status/1703775474089132132?s=20

Sonic prime animators (The ship they referenced is so horrible): https://x.com/MAM_Imaginary_F/status/1679646368485494786?s=20 https://x.com/Lunatyk__/status/1677445528378900480?s=20

The animators hated the two-two scene so much that they posted it on Instagram: https://www.tumblr.com/corffee/734658327775215616/shadow-originally-had-his-eyes-open-i-repeat?source=share

Even Netflix Latinoamérica got into the ship's hype and interacted with the ship's fans (just so you can see how horrible the ship is): https://www.tumblr.com/tailstism/725737231497773056/oh-btw-for-people-who-dont-use-tiktok-i-just?source=share

The ship is so toxic it's bad, that even Jason Griffith paid homage to the ship for a fan,wow what a terrible ship, my god!: https://www.tumblr.com/paracosmicessence/733796577422016512/this-absolute-legend?source=share https://x.com/LadyLoveMoon/status/1723715163436536043?s=20

Even the mascot got in on the fun once: https://www.tumblr.com/shadthemadlad/731770142653136896?source=share

Even Discord doesn't see a problem with that, who knew:

https://x.com/mouseygalore/status/1736922478323106214?s=20

Anyway, turning off sarcasm mode, just stop making up lies and false excuses to hate a ship and attack people who like it just because it's not what you like, don't be a bad fan and above all

(stop creating reasons that don't exist to hide your internal prejudice, let the fans enjoy their ships in peace,If even the big names I mentioned ships sonadow and have normal fun with the ship then why do fans have to be criticized for having this taste for ships too? let everyone be happy in their space )

[yenforfairytales]

Might be a hot take, but I’ve always thought that Johnny is Kreese’s weakness, and Daniel is Terry’s. Like, I know some people think Terry’s weakness is Kreese (and to some extent, yes), but Daniel seems to be his absolute obsession, his total undoing. Kreese at least had the best friends/comrades in arms thing, but the Daniel thing is just plain weird from any side. This once 17 year old brat has such a hold on Silver that the man threw away 30+ years of peace at the mere mention of his name. It was never about Cobra Kai. It was always about Daniel.

YES. I completely agree. And as more time has gone by since Season 4 came out, I've noticed even the more casual fans have noticed. Someone took this screenshot from YouTube, but I've seen similar comments on reddit too.

And Kreese, being another master manipulator, knew exactly what he was doing when he brought up Daniel to Terry again in 4x01...

There was literally no reason for Kreese to bring up Daniel LaRusso unless he knew that Terry would care. Why would Terry care. 👀

Kreese knows how to get people to come to him. How to dangle something that they want in front of them that only he can seemingly give.

When no other tactic worked on bringing Terry back into the fold, Kreese brought out the big guns and dropped Daniel's name.

Not to take away at all from the love and friendship that Terry felt towards John. But it became nostalgia and obligation, ultimately ruining their bond.

Little side note-- the fact that we watched Kreese make others do what he says in order to get what they want for three seasons made the prison scene in 5x07 even more satisfying:

AND the first person to play the uno reverse card and use this tactic against Kreese was Daniel. Terry's student. You gotta love it.

There's always been a little Cobra Kai in you...

I mean, we could speak at length about the parallels between Kreese and Terry and their star students Johnny and Daniel. The narrative mirrors and foils. But it's precisely their respective relationships with their students that is more compelling.

Anyway. I'm going to quickly list examples of Daniel's hold on Terry and then focus on the meat of the issue.

Terry falls apart and goes ALL IN on everything Cobra Kai only AFTER Daniel rejects his apology.

Terry gives Daniel multiple warnings to not interfere but never tries to gets rid of him like Johnny or Kreese after no warnings at all.

Terry dated a woman who looked a lot like Daniel with similar values.

Terry treats Kenny near identically to Daniel as a student but in the sincere way he wishes he had with Daniel.

Terry loses his cool when Daniel wants to surrender and walk out of his life.

Terry tells Chozen he considers Daniel his only rival. As in Equal.

I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting but you can find posts in the silverusso tag about all these topics and more. x.x

Now, let's get to one of the most important and defining scenes for Terry's arc. And again, it's a direct result of Kreese's manipulation:

Kreese, knowing what makes Terry tick and how to get him further on his side, comments that Daniel really knows how to hold onto a grudge. As if he doesn't. Anyway, it's twisting the knife into Terry again when he's clearly already low.

You don't think Kreese noticed how hurt Terry was at the rejection?

He notices everything. He learned in Vietnam from his Captain how to use love against someone as a perceived weakness. Many thoughts on that.

Anyway

The way in which Kreese says, "So... what now?" Tells me that he told Terry this was going to happen. You also have to remember their conversation leading up to the garden scene:

Terry was damn near close to defending Mr. Miyagi and Daniel over Kreese's own personal grudge. To the point where Terry was rolling his eyes and sighing over his friend being overdramatic about what happened in the past.

He was tired of hearing about it.

I'm sure Daniel told Terry the truth about that Halloween night. And look who Terry seems to side with...

Kreese wanted violent retribution and Terry was the one that talked him down. It was Terry's idea to apologize to Daniel and we'll just allll get along. Easy peasy. Surely, Daniel would forgive him.

But, Daniel proved Kreese right in Terry's eyes. As I'm sure Kreese hoped would happen. Couldn't have worked out better. I bet on the car ride over to Miyagi-Do, Kreese was complaining how this was a waste of time and LaRusso isn't the sweet kid you remember etc.

From that day forward, Terry is determined to prove Daniel wrong. About him, about Cobra Kai, about everything. Terry is going to make Cobra Kai work and help kids and he'll be the best sensei ever and Daniel will be sorry!

You'll be sorry you weren't a part of it!

I firmly believe that Daniel is Terry's true weakness and he didn't even realize it. But Kreese did.

And if Daniel had seen it, then he could've had Terry eating out of the palm of his hand.

The one movie quote they haven't used in the show yet is, "For person with no forgiveness in heart, living even worse punishment than death."

I'm hoping they'll use this with Daniel realizing he can help heal himself, and Terry, by forgiving him. Of course, Terry will have to do something more to redeem himself. I'm just saying.

And then maybe Terry can see that Daniel was his weakness all along, but there's still time to make him a strength.

One could argue that he already felt that way while he was being arrested. The way he was looking at Daniel... That awe. Daniel LaRusso got the best of him, again, all because he couldn't let him go.

Here's to hoping that Season 6 ends our suffering lmao.

I mean, who else has ever given Terry Silver goosebumps?

[arisenreborn]

I love how much we love our pawns... Like, I have admittedly very little interaction with the fandom outside of tumblr but I've seen youtube and reddit comments, and how people talk about how they'd do anything for their bestie, their child, their bro, the love of their life - whatever the varying perceptions, the one who was with them through it all. Even people who don't (seem to) get big into the story-telling aspects imprint on our pawn buddies with all the fond memories we build with them.

idk I just think it's very cute of us as gamers 😂

[sampirism]

Sorry but I'm cackling about some of the reception to Astarion's arc. I can't keep this to myself after reading youtube and reddit comments. I haven't delved into the Tumblr discourse on this yet and I'm working off of memory of clips I've seen, sorry if the quotes aren't fully accurate-- BG3 spoilers specific to Astarion's ending(s)

There is a particular subset of people who insist that Ascended Astarion is the correct path because ritual rejection Astarion is, and this is verbatim what I've read: "weak, feeble, a docile puppy" which I am losing it a little bit over. Among other things. I should have collected screenshots!

I'm not here to convince you that you can't like this ending, because you have every right to prefer Ascended Astarion, but to say that, objectively, he isn't evil or that this is a "better version of him" is morally bananas. You can have your evil boyfriend, it's okay! But a world domination goal is not often sought by those outside the evil alignment! (You could argue that 5e lore explicitly states vampires are lawful evil, but I personally don't vibe with locked-in alignments WRT classes and creatures and BG3 itself doesn't even have an alignment system)

Furthermore, there is the... insistence that this is a more or equally romantic route? "He still loves you! He calls you all these pet names! He says he loves you!" Baby, he does this because he literally sees you as a pet. You don't get to ascend beyond spawn (sorry, "consort") and **he is literally using the same manipulative voice he used on you when he admitted those were moments he was manipulating you** You can get a dialogue where he will willingly say I love you as a lie. When you ask him if he'd ever use compulsion the way Cazador did, he doesn't say no, he says he won't have to because you will be so obedient. There's a Wisdom check to reveal he sees you as degrading yourself when you ask to be turned.

Please, enjoy your vampire lord boyfriend, but don't act like the text implies that this is best for him or that he sees you as an equal. This is what he says when you say "I think we should break up" after killing the Netherbrain

Also, I know we're discoursing a fictional elf here, but when it comes to ritual-rejected Astarion, its certainly... eyebrow-raising to see people calling a character who broke the cycle of abuse as "weak" and "miserable" because he's a little nicer now, cried after killing his abuser, and he can't walk in the sun :sob:

sincerely, fellow Astarion enjoyer.... Enjoy what you enjoy (without harming anyone!) Have fun with the darker aspects fiction has to offer!!! Embrace evil if you want to!!!!! Just don't try to convince me that killing 7000 people for unlimited power is the morally superior option

[creature-wizard]

Even as a believer in loa(I've practiced it for a while now). I appreciate your post so much. I was shocked at first because it's such a niche topic that only followers really know about? So I was shocked to see your post expecting it to be sarcastic in the beginning. I personally think Law of Assumption Tumblr is a whole different breed? I mean I didn't know of the void at all until I came on here. Most traditional believers of neville don't even know what the void is? It's like entering different worlds when encountering loa believers anywhere else like youtube/reddit. Versus tumblr. I sort of feel like tumblr is a different beast though? Cause they seem to mostly focus on the void, which I'm not even sure if this is something Neville talked about? I've only heard traditional followers mention SATS. Like I said the void seems to be a tumblr thing? I was shocked that people on here were claiming they've manifested billions of dollars, looking like ariana grande, living in a totally different home(???), someone's brother has wings(???). I really don't know? If these are neville's teachings or not. But I think one of the main reasons your post blew up so much is because the attitude in this community specifically. I've never met such righteous people in my life. I'm guessing a lot of those people who like me really questioned these people because they never showed proof but for some reason you're dumb or lazy? I've probably seen more posts of people criticizing everyone who weren't able to wake up in their mansion as if they're dumb or annoying them? Instead of helping them. Like "OMG SIS IT'S SO EASY TO ENTER THE VOID!? STOP BEING DUMMMMMB IT'S LITERALLY THE EASIEST THING EVERRRRR." Why am I dumb because I find it hard to believe something that seems impossible? Why are you leaving the community or calling it toxic because people are questioning things that seem impossible? I got really caught up in trying to get into the void. And I'm not even sure if loa tumblr is following neville's teaching's cause if anything it seems to fall more into shifting? Anytime I look up loa tumblr it's 85% about shifting or the void? Also I'm pretty sure most of these people are children so you're better off not even trying to argue with them. Lmfao.

I think another reason it might have blown up is because somebody (it wasn't me) blazed it, lol.

I agree that most of these people are probably teenagers, which is kinda why I post so much - not to argue with the ones who won't budge on it, but to reach the ones who are still on the fence, or questioning, and save them from a bunch of trauma from the types of people you described.

I don't think Goddard used the term "void state," but he did describe a practice that sounds similar to it. But yeah, the posts you're talking about are absolutely ridiculous and that kind of rhetoric is going to be horrible for a lot of people, because if we're defining "void state" as a really deep state where you experience full detachment from your body and full ego death, that's just not a state that everyone can reach for some reason. (I know this because I'm one of them! And I know for absolute fact that my problem was not some kind of blockage, self-doubt, or trying too hard!)

As to what Goddard said you could or couldn't do, he never explicitly said that you could manifest fantastical results like wings, but he did say that you could manifest anything, and nothing was impossible. I'm pretty sure Goddard was at that point talking to the kind of people who just wouldn't think very far outside of the box. But you give that kind of rhetoric to a bunch of people exposed to a lot of fiction and to modern celebrity culture, and of course you're going to get a lot of people who want something a little more... exciting, shall we say.

And yeah, the whole self-righteous know-it-all attitude so prevalent in this community is a thing that really stood out to me. The way these people talk down and insult people is just yikes. Like, I know from experience that if I tried to take people who act like this seriously, it would be an absolute disaster for my mental health. (This kinda shit does not play well with scrupulosity OCD.) Angry anons will be like, "you're just angry because you failed!" but like, mmmmm no, I just recognize a potential scrupulosity OCD trigger when I see one, lol.

For anyone reading this: If you are leaving or questioning the Law of Assumption and need help, please see this post.

[herrscherofmagic]

A look at the past & future of Honkai design: Simplicity vs. Complexity (Part 1)

Link to the YouTube channel of the person whose thumbnail I yoinked off of Google Images for this; it was the best image of the new Hyperion that I could easily find which is why I used it for this.

TL;DR:

Original Honkai Impact 3rd designs tended towards large, simply shapes that gave battlesuits (and other stuff) a strong "mecha" vibe. Many newer designs are trending towards more complex designs that do away with these simple and recognizable shapes, instead using more overlapping textures and ornamentation to create detail. Some designs balance the two, using large and relatively simple shapes that still carry enough detail to stand out as newer while still keeping the original vibes.

Because of this, I think there's gonna be a very clear visual split between Part 1 designs and the APHO+Part 2 designs because of this split between simplicity & complexity, and some Part 1 designs feel off because they stray too far from the original design motifs, making them feel out of place even if they're still good designs on their own.

~

I've been thinking a lot about the design philosophy of Honkai Impact 3rd for quite a while now. As someone interested in concept art and illustration and who's played video games for more than 3/4ths of their whole lifespan.

And obviously I'm not alone in this, given how often I've seen discussion of Honkai's character design. Whether it was the march of the pastel battlesuits or the techwear of the part 2 cast or the upcoming Garuda Fu Hua battlesuit, many people have had many opinions both positive and negative.

But I've wanted to do a sort of "deep-dive" for a while now, because I think HI3rd is a really interesting case where we can see the co-existence of (sometimes drastically) different designs made years apart from one another. It's normal for the style of a franchise to grow and change with time- my personal example is Halo, with obvious differences between Halo CE, Halo 3, and Halo 4 in mind. But typically that has been done over the release of different games over many years, not so much in consecutive releases within the same game. HI3rd's not alone in this regard, of course :)

I don't want to label anything as "bad" or "good". I can like or dislike something, and that's my personal opinion. Of course I COULD try to label designs as bad or good, but I'd want to back that up with serious analysis and get the opinions of other players, and that's way too much effort for a reddit post. Instead, I want to present some different designs in Honkai and share my thoughts, so others can feel free to agree, disagree, elaborate, etc. More of a matter of casual discussion rather than trying to present some solid theory, I guess you could say?

What I will say is I intend to label designs based on whether (or how) they fit into HI3rd's aesthetic(s), so that's the main point- not so much whether an individual design is good or not.

To start with, I'd like to talk about the simplicity vs. complexity of Honkai designs because I personally feel like this is the biggest problem I have with HI3rd, outside of story issues that is. Not because of designs being "good" or "bad", but because I feel like Mihoyo has been moving towards a new design philosophy that's different from what I loved most about HI3rd when I first started.

I opened with the comparison of Hyperion because I think it's a perfect example of this concept, and if we can understand what the difference is with Hyperion then I think it'd be more apparent with battlesuits as well. I also have another image that highlights some of the biggest differences between the two models:

I had mixed feelings about the reveal of the "new and upgraded" Hyperion during the moon arc. It's a neat design I'll admit, but I felt like it deviated a lot from the original Hyperion, not as a difference in fidelity and detail but rather as a difference in the fundamental design of the ship.

What I like so much about the original Hyperion is, as you might have guessed by now: its simplicity. Hyperion was comprised of much larger, blockier shapes with more clear silhouettes. It's actually the same reason I love the design of Halo's UNSC frigates, funnily enough. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and I absolutely adore spacecraft and vehicle design, so I really appreciated the design of Hyperion cause to me it felt very original.

The new Hyperion retains most of the same characteristics, and it's still recognizable as a version of Hyperion. But it bothers me just how much the design was changed. Many of the simple shapes of the design were broken up into smaller parts or almost totally changed, like the cannon going from a sleek polygonal barrel to a spikey... thing.

To me, it feels like Hyperion was redesigned with the idea of trying to make it more "futuristic" or "tech-y", or perhaps it was even designed with some retro anime motifs in mind like the Space Battleship Yamato. But it seems as though this was done by adding many objects that broke up the original silhouette, as well as inventing lots of new detail instead of adding details to complement what was already there. The shape of the winglets was greatly changed; the vent-like structures were totally changed; the barrel was completely changed; most noticeably, the bridge was drastically changed.

The new Hyperion model is technically "better" in terms of fidelity and the amount of detail it has, no doubt about it. But I think changing the fundamental shapes of Hyperion so much really hurts the charm of the original design, to the point that I was actually quite disappointed to see that Mihoyo used the new Hyperion design in the CG of the Captainverse Hyperion farm event. It seems as though Mihoyo wants to consider this as the new default impression of Hyperion, and not a special one-off thing from the moon arc.

I think this can be seen across other aspects of the game, too. In general Mihoyo has moved away from simple designs and towards complex designs, and I think there's been a lot of hits and a lot of misses with this.

For instance, I'd like to compare the three Herrscher Kiana battlesuits: HoV, HoFS, and HoFi.

There's a clear trend of an increase in complexity across the three battlesuits. HoV's design uses fewer and larger shapes, HoFS adds more and smaller shapes, and then HoFi is almost totally devoid of any large clear shapes.

To me, this is what distinguishes a battlesuit that "feels like Honkai" from one that doesn't.

Everyone starts the game in Chapter 1, and most long-time players have spent more time with older battlesuits than newer ones simply because they were playing the game before these newer battlesuits were even released. I think it's safe to say that even though HoFi is the grand "Kiana in her greatest form" battlesuit, most players will still have seen HoV's design more often because of the years that it's been around, and its prevalence in story content.

Most of those older designs were rooted more heavily in the mecha vibes early Honkai had. For instance, even though HoV is obviously not wearing a mecha battlesuit, the large blocky shapes are still reminiscent of armor, two examples being the large frames on her wings and the large white pad-things(?) on her sides. There's other obvious cases like White Comet being a skin-tight battlesuit which used glowy energy bits for its attacks, but I use the example of HoV because it shows that HI3rd was fully capable of creating battlesuits within the mecha theme without being limited to literal "mecha" designs. HoV's battlesuit is far from mecha in its nature, yet still fits perfectly with that aesthetic.

HoFi has pretty much none of that, though. It's a pretty design for sure, but it's also nearly completely divorced from that original aesthetic. There's few easily-recognizable shapes on her design, with the (very little) clothing she wears being almost entirely detail and ornamentation. It definitely fits the "Princess Kiana" or "Goddess Kiana" theme in isolation, but I don't think it delivers on that theme in the context of Honkai Impact 3rd.

Yet look at HoFS. HoFS definitely has more detail than HoV. Yet there are still lots of large blank areas that define clear forms; for instance, the armor on HoFS' waist. It's reminiscent of that of HoV while still adding more detail. This gives that same effect of a slight mecha vibe. It's still an appealing design and it still feels more modern than HoV, but it also manages to retain much of the same design language.

That being said, I have to admit I ADORE the Honkai wings that HoFi has, though I wish they were a little higher in the air. That's one thing that I think Mihoyo absolutely nailed with HoFi, and I wish more of that aesthetic was kept in the rest of her design.

What's also interesting is that (in my opinion) neither of the other two main Herrscher Trio designs suffer from this. For instance, consider Mei's battlesuits:

I've included Lighting Empress as a reminder that old =/= good. I'd like to make it clear that just because it's an "original" battlesuit doesn't mean it's a good one. I said before that I didn't want to label stuff as good or bad but this is a clear exception and I hope y'all can understand why, lol

We can certainly argue about whether HoO Mei's design really fits the image of Raiden Mei. It's a vast departure from her other battlesuits when it comes to her palette, for better or for worse. I didn't like it at first but it has grown on me, and I think part of that is because of that concept of simplicity vs. complexity.

HoO has way, way more detail than the other two Herrscher Mei battlesuits, no doubt about it. But it also retains many large and recognizable shapes. Nothing on this battlesuit is bulky like HoT or other older battlesuits, but it still gives off the feeling of being armor despite being so thin. Much of the detail is created not by overlapping layers of ornamentation and texture, but rather by using intricate shapes with clear silhouettes and light detail inside that outline.

And HoTr is obviously a mecha design, so I don't think we need to elaborate on that one :)

The point is that it's absolutely possible to make detailed and beautiful battlesuits without getting rid of the original shape language that HI3rd was built on. HoFS is a bit dated now but still much newer than HoV, yet it keeps the vibes. HoO is also far newer, yet it still fits the theme of battlesuit. HoFi, though... not so much.

Finally, I want to talk about the elephant in the room: the Part 2 character designs.

Once again, here's the link to the YouTube video by Matt Is Playing, where I pulled this image from!

Much like HoFi, there's very little trace of the OG Honkai mecha aesthetic in these battlesuits. It's not to say that they are inherently bad because of that* , but it doesn't quite feel like "Honkai Impact 3rd".

*except Dream Seeker, I'm sorry but what the heck is going on there???

But the thing is that this design philosophy isn't even new. In fact, it's years old by now... because we see this in APHO.

For a long time now, APHO has had battlesuits that tip-toe on the very edge of the original Honkai aesthetic. So the designs of Part 2 aren't actually some new and drastic shift in Mihoyo's design philosophy- rather, it's reinforcing a design philosophy that was introduced with APHO.

These new characters all feel out of place if we compare them to the original battlesuits. They don't use the same simple forms, instead using dense and overlapping details. But if we compare them to the APHO cast, they fit right in. We can argue about the merits of the new character designs in other terms, but I think these discussions have to keep in mind this context.

I'd say the APHO designs work well in the setting of APHO because they're following the same aesthetic. As we enter Part 2 and once we see more of the story and setting of Part 2, it's very possible that these new character designs will feel more natural and more like "Honkai Impact 3rd".

But it's a different Honkai Impact 3rd.

This is why I think the idea of "simplicity vs. complexity" is so important to understanding Honkai Impact 3rd's designs. I think Mihoyo might be trying to emphasize two different phases of Honkai through this design philosophy. These are going to be two very different halves to the same game, with the designs of Part 2 possibly becoming as distant from Part 1's designs as Part 1 is from HSR.

You have the OG mecha action vibes from the good ole St. Freya days, and we have the sleek tech-wear of the era of exploring Mars, world-hopping in the Sea of Quanta, and fighting literal aliens.

For better or for worse? Only time will tell.

As a bonus, I'd like to include some extra comparisons, though I won't be adding any more analysis. It's more about having extra examples to keep in mind. Also, I think these ideas can apply to enemies and weapons as well, but that's a larger discussion I'm not yet ready for so that will come in a follow-up later on!

[saintmeghanmarkle]

YouTube and Stuff by u/SecondhandCoke

YouTube and Stuff First, I'm trying to get my YouTube channel up in the next couple of weeks... just for those who care. If you have naming suggestions, I'm all ears. If there are things you like to regularly hear from me, let me know. I know y'all want "tea" when I've got it, and I will provide that from time to time, when appropriate. I plan to do a lot of debunking using the logical fallacies and an insider's look at PR strategies. I plan to do a lot of Markle Snarkle, but if you've enjoyed things I've done in the past like the Handwriting Analysis, I can do that once a week, I can do tarot spreads (for fun only, ovbs), I can critique in a constructive and friendly way other content creator's assertions (if y'all ask and direct my attention to it). Also, thanks to TRG for ALREADY giving me a lot of great advice. I also need advice on the easiest way to manage graphics, editing, etc. I'd LOVE to be able to animate my little Secondhand Coke avatar to say what I'm voicing over, but don't know how. Music is set. I'm a musician, and I've gotten my little instrumental zinger almost read to go... I really just have to figure out how to edit it together. Like using a macbook pro or iphone. Any helpful hints would be appreciated. Inexpensive or free editing software recs, places where I can get images and video that are free, even other music blurbs... I can use all the help I can get. Anyway, re: Prince Harry, the impression I am getting is that the people around Harry want to be worthy of Harry's trust. They won't leak his location, but if I'm reading between the lines accurately, he reportedly gave Meghan a fake locale that only she had, and she leaked it. So I think the scales continue to fall from his eyes. It's been weeks since we've seen Harry, at least 21 days since we've gotten a verified location. (I think). I get the feeling the people around him are looking after his best interests while he focuses on getting himself together. That's just my read based on what little bit of info I could get. But for those of you who've encouraged me to do a channel in the past, I'm pretty much ready to get her going and would love your advice and input. post link: https://ift.tt/x3bpoes author: SecondhandCoke submitted: October 21, 2024 at 05:25PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[citadelofmythoughts]

I dunno how relevant this is to you, but I've been pondering about a thing I've been feeling about YouTube video culture, especially in regards to video essays.

Is it wrong for me to say that I sometimes feel like the "mature and intellectual" style of things sometimes feels less than genuine maturity, and more akin to YouTubers going through a teenager phase where they try to pretend they're better than before by using fancy words and putting other people down in a pretentious manner? All the while not actually becoming any better because they haven't really learned anything except how to better obfuscate things?

Like, early YouTube wasn't any more immune to this, but it feels like things have only gotten more cynical and calculated in how it's done. Like they actively are trying to discard their own past.

IMO it's a long-standing tactic. I've seen it so much on Reddit and Twitter when I bothered with either of them.

It's pseudo-intellectualism. If you use lots of big words and pretend you're not emotionally involved with the subject at hand, you look more intelligent to a general audience than the people who get passionate about your distortion of the facts.

It's why I don't put ANY stock in any YTuber even if I might like or agree with them because they're playing to an audience and pushing an agenda.