#and even realizing how insanely the industry is sometimes

[bandzboy]

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[matrixbearer2024]

Modernity AU Main Four Lore Snips(1/?)

Sorry for the lack of art and content on my main and my blog guys, been really busy so far given the holiday. I plan on updating things asap but for now I'll try my best to answer any asks or entertain suggestions and comments regarding the modernity AU! For now, I offer some little lore snippets that I think should be more helpful context clues. I'm not entirely sure how to slot these into my askblog in the meantime so have at thee!

Fiddleford's family comes from a successful pigery which had eventually expanded and branched out. The corporation his family actively owns distributes and sells meat products all over the world.

It's something I don't really talk about much aside from saying it's old money, but I do generally think given the current world and all that meat products could either be a hit or miss. In this case, I wondered what it would be like if his family had been successfully rooted in the business for decades. Generally speaking, it's not a guarantee and oftentimes the food production industry can have it's ups and downs. Still, I figured with the convenience and efficiency of the modern day- why not try?

So yeah, when I say Fidds comes from old money in this AU— it's old money. Like, decades old at this point. Thankfully, the Mcgucket family is generally very smart about their riches despite the fact they could quite literally throw money at everything. It's also why sometimes Fidds doesn't realize his privilege borders on rude when he's just that accustomed to a lifestyle with insane amounts of money.

Bill's necklace isn't inanimate, not that anyone knows or notices even.

That actually has a lot to do with his backstory, the demon triangle actually still does exist in this AU but this human Bill is a completely separate entity from the Euclidean. His necklace works more like a window for that chaotic piece of geometry and it's why I constantly draw it emoting or reacting to certain things around.

What I will reveal about Bill's backstory is that his entire family is part of a weird cult that worships the triangle and his role to play in most of it is generally as a homunculus. Something "human-like" or a "humanoid puppet" in terms of alchemy. He is human, just born and created for some pretty screwed up reasons. He isn't even the first, nor the last. It just so happens his siblings either died from complications growing up or during childbirth.

It's why his aunt and uncle were able to get custody of him pretty early, taken away from his biological family at the age of three and the guardianship was legally transferred when he was five. Bill's fascination with triangles in this AU isn't really unfounded, he just doesn't know the real reason why. But the scars that his blood family left behind did stick, and it's why he has such an aversion to the occult or most religious regalia.

Ford having a general lack of interest or indifference to romantic relationships actually has a lot to do with his upbringing.

Personally, I don't think Stanford would be entirely keen on the concept of "love" given how he sees the bond between his parents. That and he doesn't see how someone could turn so irrational or blind with the right cocktail of hormones. He doesn't see the objectivity in most of it so he's generally just confused or doesn't care enough to try. It's actually why he didn't even entertain Cathy's confession letter, immediately assuming it had something to do with bullying or a chain instead of anything amiable or even romantic.

He's not disgusted or has an aversion to it like many of his peers assume, he's just indifferent and doesn't have it as a priority. Ford isn't actually sure if he's ever really even fallen for somebody before, the closest he's got and is painfully aware of is just caring for somebody to a detriment without even feeling "lovey-dovey". Do with that as you will.

Stanley loves musicals, he loves watching them and listening to the soundtracks. It's just not very known because he feels like he has a reputation and he'd rather leave the "geeky" thing to his twin.

This isn't to say that he has an aversion or general distaste for being labeled as nerdy or geeky, just that he loves to knock heads with his brother for being the "cool" Stan. He first watched Wicked on broadway and then everything else soon followed, Hamilton, The Greatest Showman, Six, Dear Evan Hansen, etc., things just snowballed from there and he's been hooked ever since. His favorite probably really has to be "Six" or "The Greatest Showman".

It helps that he knows how to sing and still does, he just doesn't do it often to avoid people from making requests or asking him to perform. Stanley doesn't have stage fright like his twin, he just gets tired very easily by it when it's non-stop performing tunes he doesn't even like or know.

That doesn't stop him or Ford from drunkenly singing "The Other Side" or "Defying Gravity" at three in the morning after a weekend of partying though.

The Stan Twins for the life of them will not stop debating on whether tea or coffee is better.

Ford is jittery because of the copious amounts of caffeine he ingests and Stan sometimes wonders if you could drop from too much caffeine. He's tried to stop and only ended up sleeping like a dead man for four full days. Fidds still often refers to it as a post-exam hibernation.

On the other hand, Stan is often too aware of the crash his brother gets and would rather sleep more often than end up shaking and twitching non-stop from caffeine. He does need the boost though, so he drinks tea.

Bill usually often thinks that it's like trying to watch oil and water mix while eating breakfast with the Stan twins given that most of the conversation is just swallowed by this debate. His guess is it has a lot to do with the fact Ford is not a morning person and he makes it everybody's problem.

Fiddleford loves horseback riding and it's a hobby he's had ever since he was a kid. He has a stable and field for his horses. Fidds both buys the horses and pays for their care with his own allocated allowance.

It's not really even because he's into cowboys and everything, he just finds them very sweet animals and genuinely interesting. They're basically bigger and faster dogs in his mind. Most of the horses Fidds buys aren't even wild, they're retired horses that most owners would already decide to get rid of because their either aged or far past their use(carriage horses, racehorses, etc.).

Fidds' favorite horse which he's had for around 15 years now is a retired deep brown racehorse named "Marlboro". That horse is already around 20 years old and was forced to retire after it slipped and fell on the racetrack. That horse belonged to a relative and was just given to Fidds as a gift for his 8th birthday.

Marlboro loves his person so much that every time Fidds returns home during breaks, the horse straight up starts walking out of the stable and stops for absolutely nobody.

It's something his family is slightly surprised and alarmed by sometimes because Fidds' horses do have designated caretakers and vets that do their job well. It just so happens that the horses really just remember Fidds and are more than happy to see him again.

Fidds doesn't always ride his horses whenever he's home but he never fails to visit all of them and check in. As of now, he has six horses and four are stallions(all gelded); the other two are mares. Fiddleford isn't really interested in breeding horses anyway so this doesn't give him any issue.

Bill has a slight obsession with the show squid game but doesn't really talk about it.

The concept and idea behind the show and the games genuinely interests him for reasons he isn't sure why. Though, he would sometimes think about it for a long while trying to figure it out. It also doesn't help that the games also tend to fixate on human desperation and greed, something that terrifies the blonde as much as it intrigues him.

It resonates with how he typically sees his own life, a pick your poison of: "you die now or die later". Even so, Bill is a bit irked with himself for gravitating towards something like this when he also finds himself nauseated by the amount of death and gore. His fixation generally merits mixed feelings on his end but it's a fixation nonetheless.

Stan and Ford throw things at each other almost daily, it doesn't even have to be for any specific reason other than they're screwing around.

Ford has thrown at thesaurus at Stanley before for the sake of a joke and consequently couldn't stop laughing at the sheer utter confusion his brother had because of it. He does debate on doing it more often though when Stan annoys the heck out of him by just murdering the English language.

On the flip side, Stan's also gotten hilariously good at sniping his twin with a pillow when the guy does or is about to do some really dumb shit. Like messing with rocket fuel that may or may not explode? Yeah Stan's chucking that flask out the window and hitting a bullseye to the face on a grumpy Stanford with a couch cushion.

It's all fun and games no matter what happens and both of them know when to take it seriously or when not to do this. Though so far, it's generally free game and the twins are just that chaotic even as adults.

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

Animaniacs VS Crunch: WHY are they insane-y?

Despite being the creator (in-universe) of the main trio of Animaniacs, Lon Borax himself is a relatively obscure, and more often than not, absent character.

In "The Warners' 65th Anniversary Special", it's revealed that before he drew the Warner siblings, he created Buddy (again, only in-universe).

Buddy (both in-universe and out) was seen as a boring character, suggesting that Lon Borax himself perhaps wasn't the most creative person. In that case, isn't it strange that he went from creating a character as unremarkable and bland as Buddy to characters as boisterous and bizarre as the Warners? Especially, as it turns out, in such a short amount of time:

"Congratulations, Borax, you’ve discovered a cure for insomnia. That’s the most boring cartoon I’ve ever seen. Do you realize we have to show this cartoon to the front office tomorrow?"

This was Weed Memlo's response to the Buddy cartoon. When Lon tried to defend himself, claiming that is wasn't "that bad", Weed was having none of it:

"No! It’s worse! Fix it! Add more characters! Poof it up! Stay up all night if you have to! I want funny! If you need me, I’ll be at the smokehouse."

Weed Memlo (a director at WB) demanded that Lon work overnight, all the while he would be lounging around at a restaurant. Now, if you know even the slightest bit about how to make a cartoon, you'll know that it takes time...ALOT of time. As in, it takes over half a year to make just one episode of most cartoons, amount of time. So you'll also know that, even if he wasn't starting from scratch, expecting Lon to create new characters and heavily modify an existing cartoon in just one night is absurd.

link

What Animaniacs is depicting here is an overt example of an animator being forced to partake in crunch culture. And how did this affect Lon? Well, in his own words:

"I worked all night on that cartoon. I was exhausted, and then...and then I remember it was exactly 2:43 a.m. on the morning of February 30th, I-I started drawing these weird characters!"

What seems to be heavily implied here is that the stress and exhaustion he experienced due to crunch drove Lon mad, and that's why the Warners are as insane as they are.

As we know, the Warners go on to appear in more Buddy cartoons, then get their own shorts to star in (even if they didn't make any sense), but end up locked in the water tower once the studio didn't want to deal with them anymore. After a few brief escapes or instances of the studio temporarily letting them out (either to loan them out to other studios to make more money or to have them star in war propaganda short films), they escape in 1993 and end up starring in their own TV show.

But Lon Borax?

He went nuts.

Yeah he doesn't get better, they just put him in a home.

This is all portrayed comedically, but unfortunately crunch culture actually does have harmful affects on animators and people who work in the video game industry in the real world. 100-hour weeks, cases of sickness and depression, just really awful stuff. However, I don't think this was the writers necessarily making light of crunch, quite the opposite.

Weed Memlo got so fed up with the Warners he quit directing their cartoons. They constantly annoyed everyone who worked at the studio. Pulling pants down, scaring their crushes, playful teasing, stuff like that. They never did anything too harmful, in fact sometimes people just ran away screaming before they even did anything. This was their response to Wakko simply asking "Can we eat with you?":

Still, the studio certainly wasn't peaceful with them around. Most of the human actors were clearly bothered by them (although toons like Bugs and Daffy seemed to be more lenient to the Warners). It wouldn't have been like that if the Warners were sane. Sure they're kids (toon kids on top of that) so they probably still would've ran around and misbehaved here and there regardless, but not to the extent that they're known for.

The Warners made people afraid of going to work, and probably stalled if not halted production of a lot of what the studio was working on (Plotz even says "The Warners had single-handed brought this studio to a screeching halt.") The studio would've saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had given Lon more time, prioritised their worker over money.

But they didn't.

Watching this episode, it feels like writers were trying to get that message across. That the studio deserved to have to deal with Warners; that they were the consequences for partaking in crunch culture. The Warners had been serving large doses of karma for almost a full season at that point, only this time, their "special friend" wasn't just one person.

It was the corrupt industry that birthed them in the first place.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

BPP what is your honest view on Jimin biases?

***

A lot of y'all are down bad for that man. Down something horrendous my goodness.

Not that I blame you though.

*

Btw, I was watching fancams with friends again last night and we played this one:

How does he move the way he does? /gen. You can see the strength he infuses into every move, down to his fingertips when he dances.

Do you see that form?

(???)

There are many dancers in k-pop who impress me, some I'd place in the best dancers globally, but Jimin is easily the top ranked in nearly every category IMO, no matter the context. He's a real artist. It's not in him to half-ass a performance, no matter his condition. He gives his all and that's something that both inspires and troubles me about him.

I don't even bias him and Jimin induces some insanity in me from time to time. It's just what he is. Nobody who pays attention to him can react normally to him, everyone gets drawn disproportionately to him. Imagine how tiring that must be for him to know sometimes. And no offense to Jimin biases but I genuinely believe you have to be a little bit off kilter to be able to commit to being chosen by him.

Because Jimin is the sort of person you need... space to love.

Jimin is..

Jimin uses whatever misalignment is in you, eases his way into you to fix that offset, remove that imbalance. The way he is... when you fall under his effect it's like he takes up space inside you. As though he deserves and will take nothing less. In my honest opinion that's one way I perceive him. But then you open your eyes and realize the man is the softest marshmallow, a kind and truly measured person with exceptional emotional and practical intelligence. A Slytherin to the bone, a living shape-shifter, so attuned and sensitive to everything.

And he doesn't really demand anything. He's just so loved people want to commit to supporting him. His charismatic idol persona is just as attractive as his naturally shy but mischievous personality off the clock. It really doesn't get much more perfect than this for any celebrity ever.

Like, sometimes I wonder if Jimin goes to bed at night fearing he might one day destroy k-pop. In real practical terms. I wonder if Jimin agonizes over the fact that he's the most dangerous person in the industry. Knowing him, he probably doesn't but it's still something that as I've said before, needs to be said.

(Between you and me, I think he's yet to come to terms with it. Poor lad.)

Anyway, Jimin biases are actually in love with the man and I'd like to present some evidence both as a self-confession, and in support.

Exhibits

(...)

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(Do you remember where you were the first time you noticed he has a dimple?)

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(His look for this shoot is criminally underrated. He had easily the best chic styling for any idol in 2021.)

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(Orange, yellow, and bright mustard are all good colours on him.)

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(Yeah.... he's something else.)

*

Alright, now that I've answered this one, that's enough of the Jimin bias asks for now. I'll be ignoring all the rest for the next while.

Remember to keep streaming. :)

[mysteryanimator]

Myst rambles about animation longer then they should + their love for Nocturne whoops

I keep thinking about the animation industry as of late again, all the layoffs, all the animators looking for jobs. So I might just be speaking to a void right now. I have not experienced any of the drought so I just may look doe-eyed trying to break into a disaster zone but I’m just here to offer that newbie perspective, as naive as it may seem. I’m gonna try and keep this short (whoops a lie) but if you can see where this is going, this is just going to be me talking about the impact Nocturne has on me, aka rewriting the abhorrent Twitter thread/Instagram post where I free-formed without checking my grammar. 

As someone who is pursuing animation, I have watched A LOT of animated shows growing up, I swear it was the only medium I did watch growing up. I made scuffed animatics and animations of the current show I was watching, not realizing they counted as love letters to the media. Yet, the animation industry scared me. It was so elusive and mysterious. The bar seemed too high, even when I decided to choose to study it at university. It seemed so out of reach.

Until Nocturne. 

Castlevania Nocturne practically humanized the industry to me. These people were fans of their own creations. They breathe life into them. All the character sheets that popped into my timeline, the rough cuts, all the silly memes. Something that seemed impossible became possible within an instant. My skills at the time were not what they are now by any means, hell even now I could be better, but, I looked at that show and went “I can do that. If they can do it, maybe there’s a chance I could do something like that.” I think it helps I am at a stage of my life where I can consciously consume content and have the ability to break it down.

Also, let's be so honest, it's combined with the fact that I fell in love with Mizrak and Olrox's plot... you get a very insane person. Passionate but insane. Who spends their entire day going frame by frame reanalysing 10 minutes of an episode? ME. Despite this, I have learned so much more than all my years at university have given me. I have become a genuinely better animator and a better artist. My understanding of animation finally clicked. I knew I was built for animation but didn’t know how I fit into it. I’m constantly on YouTube, absorbing information from YouTube channels like Dong Chang, wandering around Discord Sakuga servers/twitter, and taking notes. I'm still worried about bothering other people in the industry/more technically skilled than me but I think I'm getting slowly better and going "Hey I love your work! How did you achieve x/y/z? OH!? Can you explain what this means?" because again, these are just people like you and me.

So every single Mizrak and Olrox animation I’ve made has not only been a love letter to the show, and crew of people who put their heart and soul into making this, but these animations have been a testament to my skills. Take it like a capsule of how I’m improving every month. I will admit I sometimes get weirded out of the fan content I make, albeit a combination of low confidence, and imposter syndrome, and now my animation style has just become very synonymous with the nocturne style. These ‘cons’ however do get outweighed by the pros of it all. Finally finding a style that I find goes hand in hand with my illustration style (and I can't wait to see how I can evolve it into my own) and the bouts of self-doubt are vast and temporary. I am super grateful that I can look at my work in times of doubt and go “Literally anything is possible, let me put on a show that explores this certain animation principle/story beat in a particular way, and let me study it!"

It's super embarrassing to admit but Nocturne has genuinely changed the trajectory of my life. I am genuinely a whole new person with such a different outlook on animation because of this show. Yes, I am creative through and through, you cannot separate that from my blood, but Nocturne solidified that “You are exactly where you need to be”. The industry is in shambles, with people now reaching a year+ jobless, and contracts are ending, yet, if Nocturne genuinely wasn’t released at the end of September, I do not think any of this would've clicked.

(Backed up by the very fact I am/was directing a short and running a genuine studio when Nocturne came out. I was very unconfident at the time and doubted myself a lot in private since it was my first time doing any of this. This show helped me solidify a new perspective on how to run things! How to be a stronger animator!)

Now again, this is such a crazy thing to say now. I'm watching people from the show I love have their contracts ending/being laid off since last year. I swear every second tweet on my tl is of an animator desperately looking for a job or on the verge of giving up. Me, Mystery, is an animator with no skin in the game, so I don't truly know what the Western animation industry looks like from the inside besides what I get from social media. Let’s be honest, for all you know, I just animate two characters kissing constantly. That is merely the surface of its impact. HEY, I MAY DELETE THIS B4 ANYONE SEES BECAUSE THIS IS KINDA EMBARASSING, the industry sucks right now. People are losing their jobs, so what I’m saying may not matter, but also I think it does maybe? I think this is just a unique perspective to where people are losing faith and hope in the animation, I re-sparked my thanks to Nocturne. Who knows, I may lose this spark as I go further into trying to break into the industry once I'm out of uni, but I’ll take what I have now and ride this new bout of inspiration and creativity. I want to tell stories. I want to bring life to still images. I know it's possible because Nocturne exists. These are real people who exist, who put their love and care into this show. Passion like that is inspiring.

I also somehow can't escape these people reading this, so if you have made it this far- thank you for making this show the way you have! Thank you to all the people both still in it and to others who have had to part with Nocturne. I will admit I have gone through the credits and made sure I could try and learn from everyone's work despite how unique/different each role is.

I hope my grammar is better than last time HAHAH, the technicality of English isn't a strong suit of mine but fingers crossed that the ideas/content are still passable.

[hms-no-fun]

i love the commentary against those wannabe murderers who shouldn’t drive but you do realize not everywhere has public transportation right? also like not everyone with a car hates poor people what is that mindset in your tags. i’m poor and disabled and can’t walk everywhere in a city that barely has sidewalks. and the only public transportation is like one very expensive repurposed school bus

that's exactly why i'm always talking about transit! i grew up in oklahoma, i'm a public transit evangelist because i never had access to it until VERY recently. the attitude espoused in my tags is an honest expression of my own frustration with car owners and car culture. personally, i find it very annoying that every time i make a post like this i get a note like "umm not everyone who has a car is evil, actually in the suburbs you HAVE to have a car to survive." as if i don't know this? i lived in the suburbs most of my life working shit jobs without a car, so i walked everywhere, sometimes riding my bicycle on the highway as the only way to get to work. part of the reason i left the film industry was the realization that i simply couldn't continue doing the job without a car, and besides not being able to afford it i just don't trust myself behind the wheel and never have. at the same time, i've seen how car ownership can become an albatross for low income people, a vortex of debt and obligation that could be solved instantly if accessible transit were an actual priority of the ruling class.

don't you want to be free of this? have you so resigned yourself to the impossibility of public transit where you live that the best you can think to do is "well actually" a complete stranger who's talking about something that would directly benefit you? i understand that car culture is imposed upon us and a lot of people would choose to take trains/buses if they were available. but i also understand that a gargantuan quantity of car owners i've met and encountered become bloodthirsty freaks when even the minorest of inconvenience shows up while they're driving. i hate car owners! my brother in law once openly boasted at a kitchen table full of kids that if he saw an occupy protest in real life he'd mow them down with his car, and then everyone laughed because SUBURBAN CAR OWNERS ARE FUCKING INSANE and they should be persecuted! by which i mean public transit needs to be invested in on a massive scale, alongside a program that disincentivizes car ownership! i want that to happen WHERE YOU LIVE! i want your life specifically to be better than it is! just because you're a car owner doesn't mean i hate you. good car owners also hate car owners, in fact most of the urbanists & transit advocates i know are people who are forced to rely on cars to get where they're going, who've spent most of their lives in the suburbs and only recently escaped to a city that still only *barely* has good transit, and are saying a lot of the same things i'm saying anyway. we're frustrated and fed up with a world that is totally owned by car dealerships, and in the absence of a broad socialist movement we're instead fruitlessly venting our frustrations online.

[waterparksdrama]

I have no one levelheaded to discuss this stupid band with so I'm directing this to you but. Oh my god the way he constantly complains about having no hits is making me crazy. I get some of the frustration w fbr I guess but I feel like he's focused so hard on that and is scrambling to blame someone for them not being in arenas as if funeral grey radio play would have propelled them into household name superstars. They're not the world's biggest band but he genuinely seems so bitter they're not 21p or fob when they're doing well considering how the music industry is. It honestly puts a weirder taste in my mouth than the favoritism idgaf about that

here's what anon is referring to for context but wow still bitter as he was in 2022 when he was realizing they were going nowhere even with a label that famously fucks people over unless they're marketable enough but hey at least instead of lashing out at his own fans that provide for him he identified at least on source of his failures can't say that about every man's problems. too bad he didn't realize one of the problems was himself so that's another loss for self realization.

(can i also point out how he's clearly trying to play victim in a situation he brought attention to like yes this label is bad but are you trying to get them on your ass by saying the quiet part out loud????)

this pursuit shouldn't be surprising honestly, awsten always talks about wanting to be a pop star and is the worst with labels and fbr is one of the most draining alternative labels out there for trying to make every one of their artists a pop star and dump them if they're not marketable enough.

if you wanted to go deeper, i guess you could also root some of awsten's own obsession over business and metrics affecting the quality and reception to his works back to the people he looks up to/has boosted parx's career and him naturally adopting those habits in his own way. big example right now is finn mckenty aka the punk rock mba. parx got their start posting their music videos on his old music site, stuffyouwillhate.com which was a blog that covered alternative music and awsten has hung out with him irl on a tour stop in the past couple of years. and despite all this music stuff, finn has retired from his youtube channel because he says he actually hates music and only cares about money and essentially does a wiki read on all the bands he covers because he only cares about marketing. yeah sure okay dickbag at least you're being honest now but spewing out slop and blaming the market instead of going against your own interests is stupid lol.

don't even get me started on the maddens and their fucking outputs and crypto bro isms bleeding into everything they do. they had good songs i'll admit but that was like over ten years ago and even since they reunited, they haven't put out a new album since then to focus on stuff like buying altpress and attempting to cater to their decidedly alternative fanbase by shoehorning joel madden's podcasts (usually with mddn artists, most of which have dropped them as management at this point including parx) every fucking week and trying to make web3 stuff a thing on there for a couple years when PEOPLE ONLY FUCKING CARE ABOUT MUSIC AND NOT STUPID ATTEMPTS TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF BLOCKCHAIN DOLL MAKERS

ugh anyways you can already see some of these patterns and habits in awsten the real big difference is he genuinely does love music and making things and producing and being insane with thousands of demos but sometimes the business side gets the best of him thinking it must be transactional that because of the amount of insane work he can put into making even just one mixed and mastered song warrants success and if they don't get it, he will beg and barter his way with fans into getting enough streams for him to get one taco in houston or lash out when someone points out a flaw in that thinking because obviously he can't possibly be part of the reason waterparks isn't getting any bigger but just gaining a small portion of more insane fans who want to tear him to pieces and fuck the wounds all while he goes more insane with them because if he doesn't have the success he wants, he at least wants the consistent attention and affection he can get from fans that don't turn on him.

but yeah, sure funeral grey could've been a pop radio hit but maybe other things that led him to now could've changed too. - iz

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

So I just saw the TMZ video…Roger is a lying liar and he was definitely not a good friend to Liam and it’s so sad that Liam was surrounded by people who didn’t have his good interest at heart

But also when the witness said that part about how he’s so fucked up because he was in a boyband…when I first saw it I thought it was just so bs but it seems to be true and it’s so incredibly sad what the guys from 1D went through and the worse thing is we’ll never know what truly went down behind closed doors and how it felt, there’s probably only Louis, Niall, Harry and Zayn who truly know what it feels like…I know it’s been almost two months since he passed out but I still can’t wrap my head around this, it all so incredibly tragic and I truly hope that all the other guys have a good support system. 1D was truly so traumatic to all of them and they all developed different issues because of it.

Looking through different videos, I came across Liam’s bts on his Hugo Boss collaboration. LP1 hadn’t yet been released. Liam looked much younger and more hopeful here. He was working out to an insane degree and his body had very little fat. Yet through it all, he projected a happy, positive, eager to please persona.

That’s the essence of Liam. His yearning to please and eagerness to be liked, an obsession almost, along with his enormous wealth, left him vulnerable to people with bad intentions.

Unfortunately, Liam was an easy target because he was sensitive. He hadn’t built up enough of a shell— or found people willing to be his barricade— to defend his mind and heart.

The others in 1D managed to find a way to stave off the outside world. Zayn retreated to an isolated farm in a foreign country. He cut ties to people wanting to use him to climb their way to success. Harry has the industry’s power list protecting him. Louis cut way back on his ambitions and lives how he wants to live. Niall made strategic alliances and good diversified investments.

To be fair, the 1D guys are still vulnerable and will always be. They’ve developed thicker skins than Liam, but they’re the products of the same predatory system. The trauma from some of the marketing will never leave them.

Louis has lived with “Larry” for 14 years. There are 14-year-old new Larries who weren’t born when 1D was formed. For the majority of Louis’ adult life, since he was a child, strangers have been explicitly imagining his sex life with a bandmate. Larries are still the bulk of his fanbase. Normal people leave his fanbase all the time because conspiracists create an uncomfortable atmosphere. Louis is stuck in a terrible, strange, surreal space.

Even with Liam’s passing, fans can’t leave Zayn alone. They speculate endlessly about “secret signs” on his tour. This invasive, disrespectful, conspiratorial way of thinking exists on social media globally; the life of the gossip overwhelms the life of the music. Fans make up so much garbage, amplified by edited videos and gifs, that it all feels suffocating. It’s “Mean Girls” but with terrible, lethal consequences.

I also think that fans live so much in our heads that sometimes it’s hard for reality to enter. We are so easily manipulated by corporations; we just don’t realize it. Fantasies exact their cost. Liam Payne paid the heaviest price.

[silantryoo]

BONUS [ RP STONT ] — iz*one’s ahn yujin?

y/n and yujin’s first hangout

WARNINGS ; mentions of overworking, death threats, misogyny

y/n sat quietly as yujin stared at her, wondering what to say to the girl. the hybe idol had just arrived when the news had dropped, leaving the awkward situation much more awkward than it already was.

even though yujin didn’t know the girl well, she felt bed.

“are you okay?” yujin asked, the wind blowing her hair as the two stood against the edge of the railing on starship’s rooftop hangout.

y/n’s eyes moved to scan the city of seoul. she wondered how people could hate her so much for something that they knew nothing about. did people just naturally hate her? was it in her blood?

y/n hated being a kim sometimes.

“i feel like shit.” y/n said honestly, she looked over to yujin with her eyes glazed over. “but yeah, i’m okay.”

yujin looked her up and down. chaewon had mentioned to her that y/n was going to get like this, but yujin had dealt with enough drama in IVE to be comfortable enough to push.

“are you sure?”

y/n stared at her, immediately knowing the worried gaze of a leader.

“if you ask me again, i’ll break down.” y/n winced, realizing that it might have been a bit too hostile.

yujin wasn’t fazed. she understood how hard the situation was. she was couldn’t imagine how tiring it must be to be the scapegoat of the group. the public was brutal, especially when it came to girls who naturally attracted people towards them.

she was just surprised that the public was more repulsed by y/n herself than by the thought of two girls dating. their country may have progressed, but they still hated women.

“i’m sorry. i’m just embarrassed.” y/n apologized. she shook her head as she looked at the business below. “i can’t believe i’m breaking down in front of my bias.”

yujin felt herself blushing, not expecting the girl to be so forward. she covered her mouth, her smile making her eyes squint into a moon shape. “i’m your bias?”

y/n nodded, not sure what the big deal was. “in iz*one, yeah.”

yujin’s face dropped. “not in IVE?”

y/n shook her head almost automatically, hiding a smile as she watched yujin’s face. it was always fun to tease leaders. they usually had the most extreme reactions.

maybe that’s why y/n loved teasing minji so much.

“you have no taste.” yujin rolled her eyes, a playful smile covering her face.

chaewon was right about how the two of you would get along. it was nice to finally have a friend around her age that wasn’t insanely busy all the time (read: shin yuna).

y/n scoffed, leaning back. “you’re just bitter.”

“you’re just blind.”

y/n chuckled, IVE’s leader joining soon after. it was one of the very rare times that the two felt like they weren’t hanging out to make connections, something extremely common in the industry.

yujin finally had someone who she felt like she could talk to about things aside from work, and she knew that y/n felt the same, even if the two of you had more friends than just each other.

the two girls fell silent, once again watching the busy streets of korea.

y/n couldn’t help but start to worry. the media had a horrible way of twisting her into the villian, even back when she was a trainee. she couldn’t imagine minji going through something similar.

it made her angry, and made her fearful for the younger girl. she would never say it out loud, but she would gladly take the hit for minji if it meant that she got to live in a world that wasn’t like hers.

y/n just wanted minji to be okay.

yujin looked over to y/n, noticing that the girl was starting to overthink. she knew that face, yujin saw it in the mirror every time she looked.

“we can talk about something to take your mind off of it.” yujin hummed, y/n’s eyes snapping to the taller girl’s.

yujin sent her a smile, waiting for her to speak.

y/n blushed, not realizing that she had been that noticeable. she nodded, thinking of something to talk about. “i found this 7/11 that sells really niche american snacks.”

“wait what?” yujin stood up straight. her members would’ve loved to go there. “where?”

“i don’t remember.” y/n shrugged, a small grin appearing on her face. “i was with minji and we just ran around until we found something good.”

yujin nodded, squinting slightly as she observed how the shorter girl had started blushing.

“she almost got ran over on our date actually.” y/n reminised, looking back down at the street below.

minji had been in such a big rush, realizing that it was way past midnight and she was definitely going to get scolded by her manager in the morning.

“wait…” yujin’s eyes went wide. “you guys are actually dating?”

“no, like friend date.” y/n laughed, a small pang going through her chest. weird. “minji wouldn’t date me.”

yujin nodded, not believing the girl. “but you would date her?”

“if i liked her, yeah.” y/n shrugged, not sure why yujin was asking such random questions. “she deserves someone who’s good to her.”

yujin hummed. she felt like y/n was hiding something, and yujin knew she was nosey. y/n was her new friend, so pushing a little wouldn’t hurt.

“who would you want her to date?” yujin asked.

y/n thought a little, not sure why the question bugged her so much. “someone who she can have fun around.”

“oh,” yujin smirked, looking at y/n’s oblivious face. “like going on 7/11 dates?”

“yeah!” y/n agreed almost immediately. she turned to look to yujin, wondering if she was hinting at something. “are you dating anyone?”

yujin stopped herself from laughing. “i’m too busy being the leader here.”

y/n scoffed, hearing that excuse before. “you sound like chaewon-unnie.”

yujin gasped, hating the fact that she had been compared to le sserafim’s leader. she was nothing like that.

“chaewon-unnie’s blind.” yujin complained, ignoring y/n’s loud laughing. “she can’t even tell that minju-unnie has been waiting for her to ask her out. i’m surprised she even pulled.”

y/n laughed harder, momentarily forgetting about the entire problem of the night. “sounds like you’re projecting.”

“i can’t pull because everyone thinks i’m dating wonyoung.” yujin whined. she loved wonyoung but not like that. “wonyoung’s not even my type—”

“wonyoung’s not your type?!” y/n shouted, immediately wincing after she realized how loud she had been. “she’s everyone’s type?”

“not mine.” yujin sighed, smiling as she thought of her type. “i like people who can make me laugh without meaning to.”

yujin bit her tongue. she liked funny people, someone who didn’t care about cameras, but who was just themselves. she liked that type of funny.

“minji’s like that.” y/n smiled before glaring at yujin. “you can’t date her though.”

yujin sighed, shaking her head. “i know.”

“i’m serious.”

“i. know.”

masterlist | next

taglist (CLOSED)!!

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[devsgames]

Hi there, sorry if this is an odd question. As someone with experience in the industry and as an indie dev (you), is it even worthwhile these days to be wanting to work in the games industry? either as an indie or otherwise? I ask due to the very state of things, Professionals are not safe from layoffs, indies have insane high bars to reach to even hope to be sustainable, it would seem better to maybe choose another career path in life (if you don't have an attachment that is). I say this as a long time hobbyist, occasional dreamer, but things have changed so much over the past decade that I often wonder if it should be anything but a hobby(speaking personally for myself). Like many indies I still love games and the craft itself, but it truly is like a roll of the dice just to stand out in such a naturally highly competitive field. that's not even mentioning the sometimes demanding volatile nature of the games community, or the work itself.

I guess it's all just kinda getting to me and bringing me down, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the matter, thanks.

I'll be frank: there are parts of this question I am simply not equipped to answer because there are so many factors that influence decision making like this. It's like someone asking you "should I have a child" - like I dunno, it depends on your whole life's situation and your personal values and priorities!

"Is it worthwhile" to get into game development entirely depends on what you want to get out of it in the first place, how far "in" you want to get, and in what capacity. As much as I wish I could tell people to go into games and have it just work for everyone, it depends far too much on what you value in life. It's impossible for me to reliably tell someone to do it or not to do it.

Generally, is it financially smart? No. Is it easy? No. Is it a safe bet? No. Does it take a lot of time and hard work? Yes. Does it offer stability like other careers? No. Is it fair? No.

Is it rewarding? Depends what about the craft you find rewarding. Is it better than something like factory work? Depends what type of work you like. Is it a good career choice? If you don't mind low pay and periods of instability. Is it stress free? Depends on where you work and with whom.

The industry is a shitshow right now with all the mass layoffs. This is true. It's The Thing on everyone's mind. It's undoubtedly going to make job seeking 100x more competitive and challenging for basically everyone hunting around the market right now in an industry that is already notoriously competitive, especially to juniors. Many people who got laid off likely are never going to work in games again, either for trauma or instability. It's taken the latent abuse and issues with technocapitalism and exposed it for everyone to see. If you get a job in games, you will possibly get laid off down the line. It happens to many of us.

However, it has always been this way. There were mass layoffs in '07 during the housing crash, and people got through that. Getting a job in video games has been an incredible challenge for the lst 20 years, and people have made it work. People have been making games in spite of shit working conditions, oversaturated market and lousy pay since modern games were invented. There are people whose lives have been dramatically changed by these layoffs, and some will never work in games again. It's increedibly heartbreaking.

Yet people will still keep working on games. I don't see that changing.

I've personally never had any illusions that games were somehow an easy path in life, nor have I minced those words with people seeking to enter the field. It's hard, time consuming and in many cases soul-sucking. I've always respected anyone who hung up their hat and went off to do something else with their life.

I know some people who left games to go work for banks where the pay was better and the industry way more stable. I know people who have dropped out of school because they realized job prospects were weak and they wanted to start a family down the road. I know people who left gamedev school because frankly they were broke and couldn't afford the massive debt that seeking a job in games would likely cost them. I know people who left games because frankly they just hated making games.

I don't blame any of these people for making these types of decisions because at some point it's a question of balancing your ability to survive with the ever-increasing demands of a needlessly aggressive industry (and it's a shame these factors - as any brought on by capitalism - weigh heaviest on folks on the margins). Sometimes I worry I'm too real when I talk to students about this stuff, but I think it's a survival skill to internalize these sort of things and factor them into your decision-making.

The point here is I can't in good faith tell any one person if going into games or not is implicitly a good or bad move because it's such a personal decision based on their personal contexts. All I can do is advocate the costs and risks associated with trying to tie it so intimately into your life - I think as long as people can see the cards they will have to find out how to play them themselves.

Same as above, I can't in good faith stand here and tell people whether they should or shouldn't do something like indie dev, because it has just as many risks as a regular dev career, if not more. Volitile game sales, highly competitive market, lots of work, little pay, self-management, etc.

I talk about this all the time, but unless you're the 1% of indies who suddenly get blown out of the water and everyone talks about, odds are good you won't be making enough money to survive on it. Way way way too many people who only hear of the most successful games treat them as the rule, not the exception, and then are shocked to find their game only making like, $30 a month. I generally don't think anyone should treat indie dev as a 'career' but rather more like a side hustle that might eventually turn into a career. Like, right now I have shipped 4+ games in various capacities, and my game sales are only enough for 1/2 a rent payment per month. It's why I took a part time job! Indie dev """fame""" I think is also a hidden factor that motivates people (why? Who knows), but it too is a lot like the money element, in that it's not really common and doesn't matter anyway because it doesn't put food on the table. Take these factors into account and weigh them as you weigh indie dev too. I

However I will say that I think like any craft, the current state of the industry surrounding the craft shouldn't (and in many cases won't) affect interest in the craft itself. I think if people want to make games and like doing it, they're going to do it no matter how easy or profitable it is, and no matter how fucked up the industry is.

I make games not because I want to be an indie dev or make money, but simply because I enjoy doing it and want to keep doing it. In fact, the times I've hated it most was when I was using it solely to make money from it to survive. It's why people still weave tapestries or practice weird obscure hobbies. It doesn't make enough to eat and usually they have regular lives and jobs on the side - they do it because they just like doing it.

People are gunna keep making games, because game development is not actually implicitly tied to the games industry in any way. You can make art no one plays. You can make art no one buys. You can make art for the sake of it. You can work as a line cook and make art in your free time. Game dev is easier and more accessible then it ever has been before. People will still keep doing it.

Sorry this all boils down to "it depends" but sometimes for big life and career decisions it does indeed just depend. I hope that no matter what choice you end up making that it involves making games regardless. Life's too short not to make art!

[the-huldra-king]

The norms we have around celebrities lends to us putting so much stock and ethos into celebrities, collectively imparting disproportionate power onto singular humans. They might actually enjoy this power sometimes, especially at first, but in the long run, it's miserable and unsustainable, because we also hold them to a disproportionate standard impossible for any single human to maintain. Chappell Roan clearly doesn't want to play this game and would rather dismantle it, she seems to just want more people to enjoy her art, and while she did come off as "both-sides are just as bad" and it's valid to critique the things celebrities say. The critique of expressed ideas isn't what my gripe is, this is: it's so easy for brigading to get so insanely disproportionate to how much power we think a popular public figure has, and so many people quickly get social power wayyy faster than they know what to do with it, and it just consumes them until they're cast aside. They are abused by the industry, and they end up doing bad things as they spiral, until they outlive their usefulness.

I obviously think things like media training have an important role, but I also think it's batshit that in order for your persona performance art to be enjoyed by a lot of people, you have to play this whole celebrity industry game that also includes provoking your opinion on controversial topics for monetized engagement when you're Just A Guy with imperfect opinions that are now (because you've been nonconsentually demigodified before you even realize) are supposed to be perfect takes, because BY GOD you have millions of people who are counting on you to influence their moral worldview for good, all because you sang a song and looked pretty and so many people enjoyed it. Media training and being articulate is important for the public sphere, and I have no idea what its role should look like when there's this cursed celebrity culture in the way, so instead: everyone wanting to do some kind of personality performance art is demanded to have perfectly presented takes on everything or else their character must be condemned by more swathes of people than humans evolved to ever psychologically handle.

The pedestal shouldn't even be there in the first place, and people seemingly wanting to be put there doesn't mean they should be. It's literally the forbidden power trope, guys.

[stormblessed95]

Hey! I just read your reply to that anon where you end up talking a bit about diet culture, and I initially was gonna leave a comment but then decided to send an ask instead.

I don’t have a question, I just wanna say that I became a fan of BTS less than a year ago (around 9 months now) and I don’t really follow any other group or solo artist but I like to go on the kpop reddit page sometimes to see what’s going on and in these months I’ve been realizing how insane and toxic the attitude around food, dieting, exercising and having to look a certain way and all that is in the world of idols.

Obviously I don’t mean this in a way to judge them, it just makes me so sad, specially because most of them start so young in the industry, I can’t even begin to imagine the stuff some of these idols have to hear from their companies and how much it affects their self-esteem.

This is very much an issue in our society in general, god knows I struggle with self-esteem issues and wanting to diet all the time, but it feels way too normalize in the world of k-pop and I hate when the BTS members call themselves pigs or say they NEED to lose weight or any kind of comment of this kind, I feel like it was worst before, again, I haven’t been a fan for that long but from what I’ve seen they have had some crazyyy diets in the past, but they definitely have some ways to go and I hope they do reach a point in their self-love journey where they feel comfortable with themselves in all aspects.

ANYWAY! This whole thing to say that this subject is very very interesting to me and I don’t see a lot of people talking about it, at least not in a respectful and insightful way that I just know you’re gonna, so you have at least one person (ME!) that is interested in hearing about what you have to say about this subject, so I hope you feel comfortable in sharing your thoughts with us!

I’m sorry for the long ass message! 💕

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Idk how much more I actually have to say on the topic I didn't cover in that last post you mentioned. Regardless, I appreciate the support and the respectful sharing of your own thoughts over the topic. 💜

It like geniunely makes me happy to see them eat because I always worry about them eating enough 🤣 and this is from me, a person who doesn't even like food all that much. Lol

[thattimdrakeguy]

Frankly if you asked me, all of that unnecessary misdirection and twists that left poor Tim at the ‘make him angsty and edgier’ block for later writers to force upon him was the result of the whole darker and edgier train that permeated not just the Batbooks but the whole industry throughout the decade he was in.

Basically short, in my honest opinion, Tim Drake was the perfect character at the absolutely wrong time.

The 90s edgier nonsense (as foreshadowed by the marvelous competition’s hefty promotion of Venom, Cable and other like minded antiheroes, Early Image having a foundation built on that) made possible with the Batmania (since he’s naturally the perfect candidate for darker and edgier due to both his gothic aesthetic and his insane popularity) unfortunately gave the writers of that era and the 2000s the impression that since it’s Gotham, things in universe are just miserable and sucky

And since Tim lives in Gotham, despite meant to be the counter to that misery that permeates the city he helps defend, it was only a matter of time before that wrong impression got to him too

It’s why to this day, my preferred Tim Drake is that original Fanboy we saw in A Lonely Place of Dying since in the end, that’s what he’s meant to be, beginner or not and why I am still reluctant to get anything Dixon related on both him and Nightwing since those runs are built on that train of thought that says ‘misery in setting and edgier characters means compelling and mature storytelling, especially in Gotham’

I know, long winded, I just needed to vent. You may ignore this if you wish to

Bro, I just asked #cats what a raw potato tasted like, I don't feel like ignoring much.

And, I wouldn't say Tim was in the wrong time. He has his great successes in the 90s. The main reason he's talked about past people's obsession with one story in Red Robin, that has slowly lost popularity 'cause of people realizing it wasn't the best Tim--is 'cause of the 90s.

There was plenty of people who were sick of the big overexaggerated 90s crap even if it did infest Tim a bit when they'd draw him way buffer than he was clearly meant to be.

It's all just a matter of writers with the ability to do better either not advancing to the right places in comics, or throwing their talents down the toilet to be there.

It's all about good writing. That's it, really, that's the big secret.

Why is Dick a massive joke of a character now? 'Cause the writing got bad.

Why did Batman look like a total maniac more like usual for a while? 'Cause the writing got bad.

Why is Damian totally unrecognizable a lot of the time on nearly every single level for over a decade now(Though I have heard some aspects like art have been getting better, or so I've seen thankfully, but I'm still not trusting that all the way because now this fucking fucking hell)? 'Cause the work got bad.

Why is Jason just a fan fic edgy woobie fuck a lot of the time now? 'Cause the writing got bad.

How did Steph go from edgy, determined, "vigilante vixen", who was morally kinda questionable at times go to acting like a 12-year-old sometimes? 'Cause the writing got bad.

No matter what in the end. It's all down to the writing, and also art.

There's always been good movies in every decade no matter the taste, because people with true talent and knowledge, and know-how where out there to make so happen.

Comics being a dwindling medium that's how a down-turn in quality going on for a long time? It's just not a business worth getting into anymore. Passion or not, people just aren't good writers. And that can happen in any era.

But back to the main point, Tim was at his most popular in the 90s in an era you wouldn't think he'd fit into with all the Rob Liefeld stuff. Like he got an 80-page-giant in the late 90s over some characters you think would actually get one because he was so naturally popular.

But what made him work then isn't dated. It's timeless. They just haven't had good enough writers to make him work, and it sucks, but it's how it is.

The reason Tim really got changed so much isn't down to tastes in an era. It's down to the taste of a few people in specific positions. Things that made Tim work were still working wonders in other places.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

This entire thread is absolutely insane and I don't think this person and the ones approving it in the comments, realize how dangerous it is. It's such an insane way of explaining how to understand media.

There is no distinction made between a basic tabloid (because that's what op actually exemplifies) and real journalism. But somehow, they all become the same because fake media, don't trust media, everyone is lying, they're out to get you, they only care about money. There still is such a thing as respectable journalism, serious outlets that use multiple sources, they check their sources. Because that's what it means to do a good job in that field. Putting everything together in order to demonize an entire field of work that is made out of people there to investigate, to report, to bring the news to the people. Of course not everyone is like that. But it's just the same in every industry. You got some good ones and you got some bad ones.

And just as dangerous is telling fans only to believe in the material PR puts out. Of course a PR person would say that. And yes, op did a pretty good job because with that thread, they basically did a PR number on their followers. Did we forget that PR is basically publicity? Telling the people out there only the perspective of a company, of a public figure, you name it, and it usually has to be painted in a good light? That's PR 101. By telling fans to only read and believe what a company puts out is basically telling them to not even try and research other sources in order to make an informed opinion by themselves. If for example, Hybe does something shitty and a media outlet seriously investigates that, of course the PR team of the company would do their best to minimize the damage. It doesn't mean automatically that it's the sole truth and fans have to believe it.

I work with press releases everyday. I do not write them, but I use them. And if there's a number one rule that I have to keep in mind is fact checking what is being written there because the tendency is to make it sound overly positive, sometimes vague, anything that will always put the subject in the best light. Someone whose job is reporting is to use from a press release actual information that is written there and then do the actual investigating by looking up other sources as well. That means to be as unbiased as possible. And not only that, only using a press release (which a lot of news sites do unfortunatley) means doing a very poor job.

So please, in this damn insane world in which we are bombarded with information coming from all sides, learn to weed through the bullshit on your own. Find respectable news sources, reliable, good journalists because they are not the enemy. And look at press release at what they really are. Use your own brain.

[ashmp3]

okay question: so you're in school to be an architect. do you have to take like woodshop?/craftmanship? classes? like where you make physical things out of wood or metal or whatever material? is that part of it? i am asking because i did a year of art school and the industrial design majors did that, and they made all the 1st years take one of those classes too. but idk if architects do that.... actually sending this ask has made me realize that i never quite figured out what those majors were actually learning....

sorry i literally keep writing this and then scrolling to look at his forearms like an insane person. Anyway!!!

I finished university i’m not in school! i got my bachelor degree (architecture and urban planning) and i am did my masters (focused on urban planning) this year. And not really to be honest i only had one which was just model making. My university is actually more focused on architectural engineering so i’m a STEM girlie, more than an art girlie for sure. Most of my classes were focused on civil engineering and architectural planning (design and construction). So for example- we would have 6 classes per semester (sometimes more). 3 of them are studio focused so we would have projects (revitalization or starting from 0 with just site and you build ur building based on a concept or interior design project or urban planning project etc etc), one was art history and 2 were civil engineering classes (that were also split in two so basically. at least four per semester). I hope i made it semi-understandable tbh.

I was big fan of classical mechanics and all of its branches! But urban planning was my no1 love. Never liked interior design even though i got 10s. So yeah that’s how it was at my university! But every place is different and they focused of different things. I am just interested in the “boring” part of architecture like NO ONE likes urban planning i will tell you that.

[waterparksdrama]

hi there!! i'm newer to the realm of waterparks stuff (only really got into them during greatest hits) and based on the response to ip2 i guess i didn't realize a lot of people did NOT like ip?

when i listened to ip it def felt a bit incomplete/not as strong as their other stuff thematically or lyrically, so with ip2 i was hoping for a completion to the current 'story'. i'm anticipating that ip2 is just a wrap-up, and afterwards they'll continue with their alphabetical titles.

as someone who is more removed from waterparks fan spaces, i'm wondering what do you/other fans generally dislike (or like) about ip & how it compares to other albums? what kind of things are you hoping for future productions? i'm just interested to know! :)

i think a lot of the qualms older fans have with ip is that it’s so consumed by its insane lore that it barely makes sense just even with the first half of the album. it’s all tell but no show with shoehorned references to religion and “hypersexual” lyrics you could probably find on pop radio. not to mention the whole lamenting over fame thing again when he’s not even that famous he just has insane fans who track him online as much as he tracks them.

it’s like. the album isn’t as groundbreaking as awsten thinks lyrically and musically. the way he writes is so blunt sometimes they sound more like tweets than lyrics and sometimes blunt lyrics can work but he is definitely not someone that pulls off the sort of sardonic flat delivery that straightforward lyricists usually have when awsten is over-enunciating each word at max volume. and besides each song instrumentally just sounds like a parx song produced by zakk cervini; like you hear all these big elements that they love putting behind awsten’s overprocessed voice and it’s not really that interesting a lot of the time because of how expected it is from years of listening. and even when they do have more interesting songs like ritual, real super dark, or a night out on earth, they just kinda come off as toned down songs from greatest hits.

okay so maybe to understand where i’m coming from, i should probably make my comparisons of ip to double dare and entertainment. both dd and ent, while maybe a little less instrumentally experimental than their later albums, feel a lot more precise with their lyricism. dd establishes a lot of the themes parx repeat over the years with lyrics about falling in and out of love and obsession and learning the faults of the music industry firsthand. entertainment describes the on and off again feeling of a doomed relationship. both albums use unique imagery supported by a delivery that lets the listener pick up on those ideas (like how i can’t say jacket pocket without sounding like awsten in it follows). everything sounds more intentional than awsten just wailing about how he can’t fuck someone on ip.

my hope for other albums? awsten gets something different to write about. or at least doesn’t repeat the same 5 topics like a broken record or at least find something new to say about these things other than another song about “ugh my fans hate me ugh i hate the music industry im in love with this person actually no im not i lied”. also i think he needs to work with new producers instead of with new writers. i don’t need waterparks to sound like a one direction knockoff i want them to sound like a xiu xiu knockoff (if you can even imagine that). i think vincente void would be a cool producer for parx and id hope he’d lead them in less of the pop tryhard route they’ve been going and more towards something more unique - iz