#and has like. several reviews that i've never seen before???

[thevioletcaptain]

...........just discovered that someone made a fanlore page for me and one of my fics

[ms-demeanor]

making my own post because nobody needs my bullshit on their post:

OP:

Reblog 1:

Reblog 2:

My response:

The IRA blogs were here and they were active and they were quite popular; their posting patterns did not match normal tumblr users (i was followed by lagonegirl and followed back only to be put off by the account reblogging the same five or ten posts every hour for a day before selecting another five or ten posts to reblog hourly the next day - it was clear engagement bait).

Tumblr has never been as transparent about these accounts as both Twitter and Facebook were, but several of the accounts had shared names across platforms and you can find a significant amount of data that was released by both facebook (ex: ads purchased by the IRA accounts) and twitter (over three million tweets from IRA accounts). Academic researchers have published papers on the data released from facebook and twitter. Several papers. So many papers. Soooooo many papers. We have a LOT of direct evidence that you can explore for yourself that there were hundreds (possibly thousands) of IRA accounts that were created on Facebook and Twitter. Of those accounts, some shared usernames across platforms, and of those accounts, a few had tumblr accounts that posted the same content on twitter and tumblr.

To quote a buzzfeed news article from the time:

The Russian-run Tumblr accounts used the same, or very similar, usernames as the account names contained on a list of confirmed IRA accounts Twitter submitted to congressional investigators. In some cases, the Tumblr and Twitter account has the same profile image or linked to each other in their bios. Some IRA Tumblrs and Twitter accounts also cross-promoted content between platforms, further linking them together.

Current tumblr user @ alwaysbewoke (who I don't want to tag because I'm sure he's got better things to do) is interviewed in that article and talks about following one of the blogs identified by tumblr as an IRA blog that had a matching account on twitter identified as an IRA account but unfollowing when the left-leaning blog supposedly run by a black creator started rooting for trump in the election.

Dr. Jonathan Albright is heavily quoted in the article; the data review he collaborated on is one of the only reviews of this subject that includes data from Tumblr and Reddit.

One of the claims that I've seen is that tumblr just deleted funny black people, but these were blogs with thousands of followers on tumblr who never recreated, never popped up on another social media site, never started a reddit account after getting banned; nobody ever showed up saying "hey this is 4mysquad, I got banned on tumblr and twitter, follow me to pillowfort". These very popular blogs got deleted and, as far as I know, nobody ever popped up claiming to be a person who was deleted - and it's not like tumblr users haven't figured out how to evade bans.

What you are doing when you make posts saying that the IRA accounts on tumblr never existed is *absolving tumblr of guilt for their utter lack of transparency.*

Tumblr is not the only tech company that has tried to fly under the radar as its larger counterparts face regular scrutiny in Congress and in the press. Earlier this month, Reddit revealed it too had deleted hundreds of accounts with ties to the Internet Research Agency. A WIRED investigation found more than a thousand links to Russian propaganda websites are still live on Reddit, and unearthed two suspicious accounts that Reddit immediately shut down.

So should you believe what Tumblr says? No, because Tumblr has been functionally fucking silent on this issue and the information about this subject aside from the list of blogs has come from the hard work of data scientists, journalists, and researchers.

(For the record; some of those bot accounts that were recorded by Dr. Albright also had Google+ accounts in 2017 - there is every possibility that they had myspace accounts).

Now, the reason that I'm popping onto this post as an annoyed anarchist is that I was tracking a similar group of blogs for a while and was discussing them and I stopped precisely because of the galaxy-brained liberals who are now trying to dunk on communists for criticizing electoralism. One of the people who was following my project was one of the ones who started calling out the "joe biden kills dogs" posts as disinfo and I realized they were using some of the guidelines I'd written up to "identify" misinformation and that is very a rock fucking stupid approach to what was clearly a leftist making jokes and was horrified and realized there was no way that I could continue documenting what I was documenting without someone attempting to call actual leftists russian bots.

I've seen the post that OP is referencing [it's one where someone makes a very obvious joke about the democrat presidential ticket and people jump on to call them a bot and then someone tries to do the "AI tell me a story" thing and OP is just like "I don't want to :(", proving that they are in fact a person and not an AI] and have deeply enjoyed the humor of watching liberals a) not understand a very, VERY obvious joke and b) become the unwitting butt of a joke they were trying to make, but also I am so exhausted by watching normie dems call leftists AI bots after years of watching normie dems call real live actual leftists who hold actual political views that real people actually have, like prison abolition, russian bots.

But I am also so fucking tired of left conspiracism and how stupid it sounds when leftists dismiss a preponderance of evidence that is easily accessible and publicly available for analysis as "lol so you just trust everything tumblr tells you?"

No, dipshit, learn to click a fucking link or twelve.

[paper-mario-wiki]

Shangri-La Frontier mid-season review

This is by far the best fake video game I've ever seen written in fiction.

Most MMO-centric isekai stories have trouble with providing accurate and realistic depictions of the complexities and minutia that give MMOs the allure they have. I've seen so much handwavey bullshit tacked onto fake-games that introduce unrealistically overlooked mechanics for reasons like giving the protag immense power just because they're the protag and the story is about them. A good example of this is another MMO Isekai airing this season, "A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life", wherein the main character becomes extremely rich, powerful, and famous by episode 2 because he stumbled into a stealth archer playstyle, a build which apparently no human in that universe had ever conceived of before, and then making a fortune by selling basic potions to everyone after NPCs stopped selling them (another thing he was uniquely able to do because not a single other player had the forethought to spec into alchemy). These lesser, dime-a-dozen isekai add up to be boring fantasy strories with gaming elements clumsily put in so that the author can demonstrate how powerful the world's inhabitants are by showing their stat allocation screen instead of, say, explaining anything about what they do that's so uniquely powerful and how they figured it out. Ya know, stuff you'd hope to hear about from any competent story.

Shangri-La Frontier is a breath of fresh air for anyone who, like me, is sick of authors ignoring the things that actually make video games compelling in service of creating a stock-standard narratives in fantasy worlds because it allows them to get away with bullshit. I've always found it very convenient that many isekai narratives indulge in things like chattel slavery, because it's societally normal enough for the protag to purchase a beautiful, vulnerable girl to add to his harem (dont worry, she is always inexplicably in love with him no matter what because he's SUCH a kind master). And it never really seems to go anywhere. Because the Video Game Isekai, while an interesting premise in theory, is more often than not used exclusively as a means to simplify the structure of a world's power scaling to abide by an arbitrary set of omnipresent universal rules (e.g. what people who have never cared to look into game development think of video games). This anime, by comparison, is VERY clearly authored by someone who plays a LOT of games.

Every piece of logic used to drive the plot forward, so far, is congruent to a real-world example of video game conventions, and I'm not just talking about levelling up and selling monster parts. Story elements that I've rarely (if ever) seen explored in other isekai are ever-present and genuinely clever and amusingly introduced. My favorite example of this so far has been the way the protagonist has been able to go head to head with so many overlevelled foes in the first 9 episodes. The story of course makes note of how good of a gamer Sanraku (our hero) is, but much like in real life games, being super duper good at dodging attacks doesn't really make up for a 70 level gap in items and learned skills. For that reason, he gets his ass whooped more often than he actually outsmarts others (so far he hasn't beaten a single player in pvp). So how is he getting out of these situations without dying so frequently? Simple: he got access to a later area too early relative to his level (sequence break) and got access to a high level follower NPC that's been carrying him. This is something he acknowledges directly several times, specifically using words like "Emul has been hard-carrying me for a while." This, to me, is extraordinarily meaningful. That's something you can exploit in Skyrim, man. That's REALISTIC CHEESE STRATS. The excitement and wonder I find in this show doesn't come from watching the protag do something unexpected, but by watching him do something that I would think to do.

This knowledge the author has demonstrated regarding modern gaming culture extends further into the actual realistic nature of game design and community. The story exists in a reality where full-dive VRMMOs are the be-all-end-all of gaming, and given the prohibitively expensive nature of developing and designing expansive, immersive worlds, most games are pretty shit. It's been hinted at so far that this is due to a monopolistic megacorp which is one of the only entities rich and powerful enough to make a good game (the game in question being the one that shares the title of the anime), but so far the strife of the characters have been pretty centralized to the happenings of the game world and its politics. By the way, lets talk about the game world's player base politics, which I'm also quite pleased with. It exists in the form of guilds and clans who struggle for power not by participating in seemingly random pvp with other powerful players to see who is the most epic and badass warrior (again, like many contemporary isekai typically opt for), but by gaining actual realistic support from a fictional playerbase with realistic desires and playstyles. Some guilds are interested in lore, some gather for alliance and boss raids, some for things like animal husbandry, and (naturally) at least one is dedicated to trolling and PKing. Each of these factions, through the very little that we've seen of them so far, communicate on forums and only know as much as is reasonable for them to know. The only reason they give a shit about the protagonist at all is because he gained access to a high-level unique scenario quest that they want information on how to access, and the only reason word of that got out in the first place was because someone posted a screenshot of him with a unique NPC onto a forum, asking about it as "where can i find this pet summon, its super cute!" That's real. That's video games, baby.

I like this show a lot so far. I like that it cares about video games, but I also like its writing. I like the main character and how hes less of an ultra badass super cool guy, and more of an earnest challenge-run lets player. Like, a lot of his dialogue straight up sounds strikingly similar to Japanese youtubers. And he's naturally always quick to point out inconsistencies in the game world's logic. I ALSO really like his community of pals from a janky old fighting game, and I ADORE the girl from his school who has a crush on him and also just so happens to be an exceptionally high level player from a top clan, and how she had to spend 9 episodes working up the courage to send him a friend request. I love that so, so much, dude.

I highly recommend this show if you're into a single thing I've mentioned. The animation is great. The world is beautiful. The character design is immaculate. And I'm looking forward to watching it continue.

[rottenpumpkin13]

You're a new Shinra employee who gets lost in the building while looking for a microwave to heat up your lunch. You encounter AGSZC/Turks/execs during your search. Describe their various levels of helpfulness. 😀

Cloud: Tries to be helpful but also accidentally makes it worse. "You're looking for a microwave? I can help! Follow me." He confidently leads you down three different hallways, up a flight of stairs, and past several doors he shouldn't have access to but somehow does. After about fifteen minutes, you realize he's lost. He won't admit it. Frowning at the directory map like it's a philosophical riddle. "Strange. I could've sworn it was near the gym..." Eventually, he just sighs, tells you "sometimes we have to accept our circumstances" and walks away. You never get to heat up your lunch and now you've suffered -20 confidence.

Sephiroth: Useless, but in an elegant way. He stares at you like you've just asked him to explain quantum physics, then his gaze drifts into the distance as if contemplating the meaning of existence itself. "A… microwave?" You repeat the question. He considers it deeply, like he's never once in his life had to think about the existence of a microwave. Which, to be fair, he probably hasn't. "That is beyond my expertise. Try the cafeteria." You check the cafeteria. There is no microwave. The lunch lady cackles at you. You return to the hallway, and Sephiroth is gone. Vanished. Never to be seen again.

Reeve: Extremely helpful, but there are consequences. "Oh! A microwave? Okay, follow me!" He personally walks you to the break room, making small talk, and waits while you heat your food. You are grateful. Finally, someone normal. Then you turn around. Cait Sith is standing there. Staring at you. Grinning. "Yer wee lunch smells like somethin' a chocobo dragged in!" You nearly drop your food. You wonder if you were drugged. "Hope ye enjoy it, pal! Wouldnae be me first choice, but hey, some folks got no taste!" You leave in terror.

Reno & Rude: Different approaches, same chaos. Reno goes "Oh yeah, there's one in the Turk lounge. Follow us." They do lead you to a microwave. However, it is very clearly stolen from another department, has a questionable stain inside, and occasionally sparks when it runs. Reno tells you "It's got personality." Rude tells you "Don't worry about the weird noise." Your lunch explodes one minute later.

Tseng: Too busy for this nonsense but actually helps. You approach Tseng while he's reviewing documents. He listens patiently as you ask where the microwave is. Then, without breaking stride, he calls someone on his PHS. "Elena, please escort an employee to the nearest kitchen facility." He hangs up. Elena appears out of nowhere. She walks you to the break room, smiling the entire time, and leaves before you can even thank her.

Rufus: Too rich to care. Rufus blinks at you like you've just asked him where to find peasant food. "A microwave? I've never used such appliance in my life." You confirm. He sighs, rubs his temples, and just gestures vaguely toward the hallway. "Ask the help." You do not find the microwave. You do not find the help. You do, however, find Darkstar, who follows you for the next hour and politely begs for some of your lunch.

Hojo: Dear god, why did you ask him? You were desperate. You made a mistake. "Hmph. You require heat? Intriguing. Perhaps you should consider alternative methods of molecular excitation. There is a reactor chamber on the lower levels that could perform the task at a much more efficient—" You run. You don't stop running. You eat your food cold.

Genesis: Turns this into a critique of your food choices. He gasps when he sees what you're holding. "You're going to eat that?" You explain that yes, you were planning to. He looks disgusted. "Absolutely not. Do you want to die before Act V is discovered?" Then he picks up your lunch and throws it directly into the trash. "Come. We're going to the cafeteria. I will not let you disgrace yourself with that excuse for a meal." You have no choice but to follow him. You do, however, end up with a very fancy lunch.

Zack: Has zero patience for this and decides to improvise. "A microwave? Pfft, who has time for that?" Before you can stop him, he grins, holds up a hand, and casts Fire. Directly at your lunch. Your lunch ignites. "—oh!" He frantically pats it down, nearly burning his hands in the process. The entire hallway now smells like charred failure. "Okay, okay, so that didn't work—but it was a cool idea, right?" He ends up buying you something from the vending machine as an apology.

Angeal: Has made it his life mission to find you a microwave. The moment you ask, Angeal gives you a serious nod. "A hot meal is important. No one should have to eat cold food." Then he dedicates himself entirely to the task. You have never seen a man take a quest this seriously. He interrogates security guards. He questions other SOLDIERs. He even asks Lazard about the corporate policies on employee kitchen access. "Shinra should be providing more break room amenities." Lazard disagrees and points out the several microwave incidents that have happened at SOLDIER alone. Angeal and Lazars start going at it, arguing. You stand there awkwardly. You require help.

[cocogum]

The Great Wave - Chapter 16 Review

‼️SPOILERS FOR THE CHAPTER‼️

Warning(s): excessive language, child a*use, mentions of mutil*t*on, old geezer slander, violence, hating on an old man

Call me dramatic or whatever but I think Ankama should've put a warning label for this chapter beforehand.

I'm aware that we've all seen worse, but still. When it comes to Ankama showing scenes like these, it always comes off as jarring because we never expect it from them.

The children here have numbers for names. This is already a massive red flag.

HELP WHY DID I THINK THIS GUY WAS A DRAGON!?!?! HE ENDED UP JUST BEING AN OUGINAK!! The second he turned around, he didn't look like he had scales anymore, he just looks like he's got fur.

Back when the chapter didn't release yet, I genuinely thought he was some kind of dragon because of his silhouette in chapter 15 (and because the chapter 16th's cover almost depicted him as some sort of strict wise old geezer 💀💀) Not only that, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we all thought he was gonna be some kind of important guy in the volume but nope. Turns out he was just a massive child abuser who'd manipulate kids and make them steal stuff for him so he could resell them or something. I know that the chapter doesn't show us what happened to him but I strongly hope that it implies Joris killed him (even though I know it sounds a bit too extreme for Joris since I don't think I've ever seen him kill someone before but in this case I really hope he did).

This fucking scum MUTILATED CHILDREN AND BRAINWASHED THEM WHILE MAKING THEM THINK THEY OWE HIM ANYTHING FOR FUCK SAKE.

Ankama being dark again with their joke references 💀💀💀 I swear there's always some tiny details like these that Ankama likes to sprinkle around. But come on man, putting something like that in this chapter?? I love it and hate it for how ironic it is 😭😭

Just look at this fucking guy making that "sad" face to Thirteen to make it look like she's forcing him to hurt her. It's like he wants her to think it's her fault that he's going to cut off her hand as punishment!

Speaking of Ankama putting in details, I noticed that Thirteen's name must have come from the time where she had been picked by "master Harigue". She was the thirteenth child to have been (unfortunately) found by him since there are other kids here like Twenty-seven who are far younger than her and yet have a higher number than her.

But a detail even worse than that would be the fact that if we look at the other kids around Thirteen, a lot of them are either missing limbs or have been physically scarred by him. Thirteen, on the other hand, has none of that. Which means that when Harigue claimed that Thirteen was his best thief, he wasn't kidding. She happened to have been the best at stealing stuff for so long. So much so, that she was able to avoid any types of physical abuse from him until now.

Therefore, every time we see a mutilated and scarred kid, it means they failed to please Harigue's expectations. So the more scars and limb severements on a child, the more "mistakes" they've made.

Thirteen's scared shirtless right now because she ended up "failing him" for not exceeding his expectations of her, but also because she's about to finally experience what the other kids have gone through. Physical pain and technically torture.

I'm not sure right now, but I'm starting to think that Thirteen might just coincidentally look like Lilotte after all.

In the last chapter, I initially thought that she and the fucking child abuser old geezer were going to be major enemies for Joris and the Brotherhood but now that we see how Thirteen was actually just a victim, this makes me fully believe that Thirteen wasn't trying to steal anything in particular and wasn't trying to lead Joris into any kind of traps.

This is why Twenty-seven is the one in the next chapter.

Specifically the very same one who tried to stand up for Thirteen.

And speaking of this little man....

I DON'T BLAME HIM FOR TRYING TO DEFEND THIRTEEN ‼️‼️‼️

If he hadn't done that, then Harigue would've already cut off Thirteen's arm, resulting in another disabled orphan in the sewers. If anything, he stalled some time before Joris could come in and (hopefully) kill the guy.

So thank you little man, you did the right thing and had the balls to go up to this turd who brainwashed you to call him "master".

By the way fun fact: before reading this chapter, I just thought that Twenty-seven might have been the enemy pretending to be Lilotte because of his face being plastered in chapter 17's cover but I'm so glad I ended up being wrong in the end lol

We then finally got this satisfying scene of Joris rescuing the children AND YES HARIGUE YOU SHOULD BE SCARED SHITLESS RIGHT NOW ‼️‼️‼️‼️

KICK HIS ASS JORIS AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR MOM MAKE SURE HE DOESN'T STAY ALIVE ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

Only one chapter made me despise this old geezer, like what kind of freak picks up abandoned kids and makes them work for him under the city's sewers while emotionally manipulating them and teaching them how to steal to survive or else they'll lose an arm or a leg???

But can we talk about that geezer picking up the kids by the way? Cuz how come all of them happen to be ouginaks??? Are you telling me that this race has a higher toll of child abandonment than all the other ones?? Or is it because the Ouginak race acts like actual primitives so they tend to have more problems with keeping their kids?? Dear god there are so many....This random guy was too lucky with picking so many of them, I bet this was nothing compared to how many there still are out there.

I truly hope he rots 🥰🥰

The idea of these little kids walking around the city during the day makes me feel something for them cuz some of them clearly look bothered by it and are self-conscious to even be noticed. They got this mentality drilled into their heads by that old fuck that they should always wear their cloaks outside, as if the mere idea of being seen by someone was a danger for them. I fucking hate that man for manipulating them like that....Who knows what else he had taught them.

And the little boy asking Joris what he should call them instead of 'Master' is just so heartbreaking omg wtf 😭😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺

His first instinct was to call him 'master' like a slave JORIS GIVE HIM SOME MILK.

They all look so lost and helpless omg the idea that most of them know the pain of losing a limb makes me wanna fucking stab 🥰the little old fart🥰 until his organs look like mush 😁🤭💗💗

I hope Joris keeps them for a longer period of time (aka i hope he keeps them FOREVER) and learns that they don't actually have names so that he could properly name them because the old shits-for-brains only saw them as numbers.

Because Joris hanging out with some orphans who lost their parents? Yeah, I have a strong feeling he'll get along with them.

he's so short omg 💕

Also no joke, I actually forgot about Yugo and Amalia for a second lol

Like I don't know if it's because it's been like two weeks since we haven't seen them or if it's because I became hyperifxated on the last chapter's ending (or both. both is good.) but seeing Yugo and Amalia at the end of chapter 16 literally shocked me for a single second. Like I expected them to visit Joris some day after what Dathura told Amalia, but I didn't think that they actually came SO SOON OMG

Wouldn't the queens of Bonta be aware that the literal Eliatrope king and Sadida queen are in their city tho? Cuz like Yugo can't just walk into whatever city or town he wants to like it's nothing anymore, he's a king now for damn sake. It doesn't look like Adamai came with them tho so it's not like he and Amalia came on a dragon or else people would have noticed them even more. So....this only leaves Yugo using his portals again.

Yugo and his damn portals i swear-

Look baby I know that I accidentally forgot about you for a second there but you shouldn't be here yet cuz there are actual little babies to take care of rn 💗💗💗

Also if we look at Joris' sons/uncle/dad, Atcham looks guarded but interested, waiting for Joris so he could know what this is all about, while Kerubim looks worried and scared while eyeing Yugo.

And honestly who wouldn't be?? Just LOOK AT HIM!!

Why does he look like a villain as soon as we see him back!? 😭😭😭

My guy looks like he's about to cause some shit wtf... As soon as Joris was done saving those kids, this guy showed up and looked ready to cause some shit.

He looks like he's fed up of Joris for some reason and I can't tell if it's because he's mad that he found out Joris was Grougalorasalar's vessel or if it's just because he's here instead of staying at the Sadida Kingdom. Like idk guys when I see him making that face, it just looks....way too personal to just be simple annoyance...

Amalia looks more nervous and worried than anything else so it's really just Yugo who looks like he's the problem.

[ingravinoveritas]

This past week, I traveled to London to see Macbeth. Everything I had heard and seen about David, Cush Jumbo, and the overall production convinced me that it was not to be missed, and so I took the crazy chance of purchasing a ticket months ago, and it was the first time I've ever gone to another country just for a play.

Ever since I was a kid, I have been going to Broadway shows, and the experience of live theatre has always been something incomparable and incredibly meaningful to me. Seeing something beyond Broadway, however, never felt possible until now. This opportunity arose at a moment when I was finally able to seize it, and now that I have attended the play not once, but twice (thanks to a lovely person who was able to help me obtain a £25 day ticket), I can say that Macbeth was, without question, the most amazing thing that I have ever seen on stage.

What follows is my review/thoughts on the production, and I will try my best to avoid spoilers (though fair warning that one or two may arise, so proceed with caution).

In high school, Shakespeare was something we were taught. It was an assumed part of the curriculum, labeled as a classic. Yet it seemed to exist in a time capsule--a product of its era, and of an English language barely proximate to the one we speak today. We learned Macbeth on the page, in annotations and themes and meter, rather than something pulsing, beating, living. Something that makes us feel. And for nearly two hours in a beautiful Victorian theatre in a little corner of the West End, all I did was exactly that.

I felt. And after seeing this play, I am not the same person on a molecular level that I was before.

Everything about this play--from David's mesmerizing portrayal of Macbeth to Cush Jumbo's wrenching turn as Lady Macbeth to the entire ensemble cast to the staging choices (light, sound, and so on)--is extraordinary. It is breathtakingly ruinous. It is so fully immersive that by the end you somehow feel bruised, viscerally disgusted and wrung out in equally beautiful measure.

It's almost misleading to say that we the audience are simply watching the play, because thanks to the binaural audio design (headphones), we are in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's minds, and become accomplices to the characters' wicked deeds. When the porter (Jatinder Singh Randhawa) comes on to provide comic relief at exactly the perfect moment, it soon becomes clear that it is a distraction from our own discomfort at what has just happened. But it is a short-lived respite, as we are soon plunged back into the action and the characters' spiraling descent into madness.

In terms of David specifically, seeing him on television or on any screen profoundly pales to seeing him on the stage. In much the same way that the stage is Michael's natural habitat, it is also David's. The way he moves, the way he holds himself when he's not even speaking--which I got to see up close when he knelt directly in front of me on several occasions--is meticulous. David becomes the character he is playing, down into the pit of his soul. He disappears so thoroughly that I very quickly forgot that I was even watching him.

So many people can recite Shakespeare, but there is a marked difference between recitation and what David does. Together, David and Cush make Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel like the Bonnie and Clyde of the Elizabethan age (only hornier). And the themes the play invokes--greed, fear, jealousy, power--are shown to be themes not of a particular era, but of humanity. David especially is so preternaturally good at making all of that unbearably real. He not only makes Shakespeare accessible to the modern world--an already difficult feat on its own--he makes it timeless.

For the last ten minutes of the play, I felt like I stopped breathing. The evil that Macbeth perpetrates, and the realization that he has not become like this, but rather that this is who he has always been, hits full force. As much as this play is very definitely an ensemble piece, David is the standout. He commands the stage, and at no point is he more powerful than when Macbeth is falling apart near the end.

(On a purely aesthetic level, this is also when David looks most beautiful--the wild hair, the form-fitting shirt heaving with the rise and fall of his greyhound lean chest, and the majestic sweep of the kilt with every frenzied movement. The complete erosion of the line between sanity and insanity, but also showing us how tenuous that line was to begin with. And he is utterly gorgeous while doing so.)

It's also at this moment in the play that we see how skillfully David has manipulated the audience. Where Michael uses a character's emotions much more overtly and aggressively--sniffing the audience out, stalking around the stage, feeling as if he's about to pull you up with him--David is far more controlled. He draws you in slowly, carefully, and it's only when we see the depths of Macbeth's depravity (notably killing Young Siward) that we realize the truth:

He got us. He made us the witnesses to Macbeth's malice, made sure we couldn't look away. And now we are complicit.

If I had to pinpoint any negatives about the play (which is extremely difficult to do), it's that there is only a brief moment where the pacing lags just slightly, and it's because David is off stage for a considerable period of time. The cast is absolutely incredible, bar none, but the energy doesn't quite maintain that high level when he is not there.

Also, from a sensory standpoint, this is very much not a sensory-friendly production. There are several instances of sudden loud noises in the headphones (which I found especially jarring), as well as the use of flashing lights, and considerable use of smoke at multiple points. All of these were more acute because I was sitting in the Stalls (second row), so I can only speak to it from that vantage, rather than from other locations in the theatre. But for anyone who is autistic (as I am) or has sensory-processing challenges, be advised that this play is definitely inaccessible in those respects.

When I left the Harold Pinter Theatre that night, I felt as though my entire central nervous system had been rearranged. There genuinely is no way to be normal about this play, because it is not a normal play. It takes apart everything you know about Macbeth and puts it back together in the most unexpected, electrifying way. It is the beauty of destruction, and no one embodies that more perfectly than David. Even days later, I can still feel the buzzing of my skin, the blood rushing through me, fingertips tingling from some heady combination of arousal and fear. (Or as Dr. Frank N. Furter once put it: "A mental mind fuck can be quite nice...")

The moment the lights went to black, every single person in that theatre was on their feet in a standing ovation. The applause was thunderous, and seemed even louder in the wake of the complete silence that preceded it.

I had sat in that silence--awestruck, captivated--and thought to myself that I could watch this production forever. And I would go back and do it all over again right now if I could. If you have the means, the opportunity, it is an experience I cannot recommend highly enough.

David is truly a master of his craft, and yet performs without a hint of ego. He gives everything he has and leaves it all on the stage. And what he and this team of people have come together to give us is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

(Pictures taken on 10/12/2024.)

[snaccpopstudios]

Hi everyone! We're here with the long awaited post on our newest bachelor, Simoun. We know you've all been abuzz with questions about him so we hope to answer some of that in this deep dive into his creation. This post is in lieu of our usual Wednesday devlogs as we've been writing this over the span of several weeks, and was co-authored, edited, and reviewed by Tobias, Jude, ToyboxToonz, Primarvelous, and Sauce. The above image was drawn by @toyboxtoonz.

You can read the full post for free on Patreon, or click the readmore to see it all!

Personally speaking, some of my concerns since Simoun's debut are thoughts like "Do people think I'm making SnaccPop Studios push an agenda?" and "Do people think I'm going through a checklist while making new characters?" It's made it difficult for us to write this quickly because this is quite personal to myself and the rest of the sensitivity consultation team on the DachaBo team.

Concept to Creation

The story of DachaBo begins way before SnaccPop Studios itself was even a concept (that's Sauce's story to tell though). Early Patreon art of Simoun exists from November 2022, back before I was signed on to manage the Patreon and any other projects besides Sunny Day Jack. Sauce had some ideas laying around for several other characters in the DachaBo universe that didn't make it into the proof-of-concept demo:

I dug up an old draft for the DachaBo cat character we teased and it featured a story concept where the cat character was originally a female DachaBo character, referencing the original female design. And overtime he got tired of how he was being treated and decided to change his own self to reflect who he wanted to be, not the sycophants who collected the toys and whatnot ... It was shelved because I didnt have the means to sensitivity check it The designs are half cooked is all but he was supposed to be Indian ethnicity coded for no other reason than I've never seen a character like that

One thing that's important to note is that there definitely are Indian folks who are gender diverse (see Hijra on Wikipedia for a quick primer on one of the traditionally recognized nonbinary genders in South Asia) so it's not a novel concept by any means, but it's also not very common in media whatsoever.

Why The Long Wait?

One of the other contributing reasons as to why Sauce wasn't able to do much with the concept at the time is because we didn't have a VA for him confirmed yet, as I explained in May:

One thing that's rather unique to SnaccPop Studios in all of my experience as a game developer is the fact that all of our series involve coordinating with Voice Actors from the start, which means we need to take the VAs themselves into account when making characters. Adding another layer of complexity in hiring is the fact that SnaccPop Studios is a strictly Erotic Adult brand focusing on masculine love interests, and even if we focus more on the softcore, there's still the unfortunate stigma that any 18+ work has when attached to your name. All of these contributing factors make the potential talent pool that much smaller. This isn't to make excuses: I know SnaccPop Studios can do better on this front. While we can't make changes to some of the existing series' main cast (we don't want to put people out of a role they've been promised), we will do better moving forward to incorporate more diverse characters into our future titles, and that's a pledge

In the field of voice acting, it's best practice to cast actors with similar backgrounds to the character they're voicing, particularly for characters from marginalized populations (ethnicity, culture, gender, etc.), because it's a recurring issue in all professions where marginalized folks are regularly turned down for employment or career opportunities. You don't have to look far for instances where other voice directors failed to cast the proper talent for a character, even in the AAA sphere where they ought to have the resources to be able to find the proper talent; at SnaccPop, we wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

Finding Simoun's Voice

So we had to confirm a VA first before we could do anything. Sauce, Reece, and I all tried to put private ads out for a trans masc POC (any ethnicity with dark skin) actor for a R18 game, which was largely met with silence at first, then responded to by folks who didn't fit the role in a full capacity (many only hit one or two of the criteria we laid out, some of them none at all). And it's not hard to imagine why: it's common knowledge that the majority of erotic works often fetishize marginalized people who are otherwise underrepresented in mainstream media. Things such as skin color, body type, hair color, age, etc. are treated as traits to be objectified, and on the off chance that queer folks or people of color might see themselves in porn… it's usually not for the most flattering or empowering of reasons. How could we, an exclusively Adults-only studio, convince someone who isn't familiar with us that we wanted to make something for people like them rather than something that turns them into mere masturbating material?

We were almost about to give up on the Catboy until I decided to take a chance on contacting a VA whom I hadn't had any formal and proper interactions with before. I'd been a fan of his work and knew him from an audition he sent in from a previous game I had worked on, but he knew me solely by name at best since we were following each other on Twitter. Still, it was a lead, and after chewing my nails for half a day, I shot off a message to Soren Viloria.

And what do you know? He said he'd give it a shot as his first NSFW role.

Naming the Lad

Soren is a Filipino VA, and despite the fact that I myself seem to be mistaken as Filipino by other Asians quite regularly, I'm actually not as well-versed in that culture as I ought to be.

There's actually a reason why we were so secretive with Simoun's name for a while: he didn't have one yet, so internally we just kept calling him "the Catboy." We wanted to pick a culture-appropriate name for him, something that was meaningful: Soren initially suggested "Siopao" as it was a common cat name (it's a type of Filipino Steamed Bun, so think of how many pets you've seen who have names like Cupcake or Nacho Supreme), but that didn't seem serious enough for a tsundere catboy like him. A few days later, Soren did a little research on a few well-known characters from Philippine media/culture that fit the bill a bit better:

Elías from the Philippine Revolution novel Noli Me Tángere (a required reading in the Philippines). Cat may like his radical tendencies for revolution and his deep, devoted connections.

Simoun from Noli's sequel, El filibusterismo. Holds revolutionary values similar to Elías, but far less noble and more of a loner. Violent at times, and will do what it takes to get his way.

Panday/Flavio, a very popular hero. Part of his charm is that he doesn't have special powers, but took matters into his own hands and forged a magical blade. Has been portrayed in both 'cool' and comedic ways.

Ricardo "Cardo" from the Philippines' longest-running TV drama Ang Probinsyano. Just a cool action hero dude who cares about family, but is also very ambitious and angy.

Seeing as how we already had an Elias Gallagher, Simoun seemed to be the perfect fit, and the name stuck pretty easily.

Simoun's Boundaries

Now that Simoun had a name, we were able to talk about him more seriously beyond the simple "tsundere cat" tropes. You've all already met Gil Finnegan, who we originally brought into SnaccPop Studios to handle the narrative design for DachaBo but was then onboarded to help with Sunny Day Jack, and those of you in the Patreon Discord server are familiar with our mods Tobias and Jude; along with me and Soren Viloria, that brought the grand total of openly trans masculine members on the team.

We all talked about our personal experiences as trans masc/AFAB people, what things we rarely saw reflected in both mainstream and indie media, things we wanted to see more of. Something we all agreed that was difficult to find was trans masculine folks in sexually dominant roles in erotic media, whether that was live video, audio, writing, art, or a combination thereof; there was only a handful of series we could count on our fingers as far as sexually explicit content that featured trans masculine people in roles that weren't exclusively submissive/bottoms, and the majority of us had already seen those or at least heard of them before (ie. Gummy and the Doctor and Sasha From The Gym were prominent ones). Either discovering this content was difficult due to Search Engine Optimization favoring depictions of trans feminine folks, or it simply didn't exist.

All of this, along with the backstory that Sauce had for Simoun, led us to determine that Simoun would be adverse to submissive roles in intimate situations. Simoun isn't the type to want to be penetrated either due to previous trauma surrounding his gender. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to imply or suggest that there is only one "acceptable" sexual preference for trans masculine folks, nor is Simoun meant to represent all of trans masculinity; he may be our first trans masculine character but certainly isn't the last, as we hope to feature more types of characters at SnaccPop Studios.

As an aside, it should be noted that the trend of erotic trans feminine content being more readily available doesn't necessarily mean that trans women have more positive representation per se; for every kinky piece of art created by trans feminine folks out there, there could be ten more works that fetishize and objectify their bodies. We probably don't need to tell you about the common derogatory slurs that have been used to refer to them; trans feminine and trans masculine people deal with varying levels and types of transphobia as well as situations that oversexualize (or even undersexualize) them, and it's important to focus on content that doesn't strip them of their autonomy.

There actually was a period of time between the release of his concept art after Soren was onboarded where the team observed comments both on Patreon and in the Discord regarding Simoun, and we discussed how we could avoid having people try to ship Bo and Simoun together; because Simoun hasn't had bottom surgery of any kind, we wanted to ensure that tokophobia (fear of pregnancy) or dysphoria wouldn't become a thing for any of us involved in the team or for our trans masculine Patrons. It was a bit of a chicken or the egg situation, trying to keep up with the evolving comments about Simoun to try and anticipate what people might accidentally say.

Debut Day Thoughts, & Moving Forward

We were quite happy with the general reception everyone had with Simoun, and we're excited to see so many people taking a liking to Simoun after his reveal. SnaccPop Studios has always strived to provide inclusive and diverse stories for those who don't often get represented in media, much less NSFW media, and the team was quite elated to see folks who were just as happy to see Simoun.

We hope that the love and care we put into building Simoun has shone through in this post and will continue to shine as we write more of him for DachaBo, because we're just getting started.

[cripplecharacters]

Feel free not to answer this question as it's more a research-type question, I'm just not sure how to go about finding what I need: do you happen to know any fiction books with portrayals of medium to high support autistic people that are considered realistic and positive? All I can find is rep of low support autistic ppl (unless it's in semi-educational children's books) and it's making it harder to figure out how to write medium to high support autistic ppl myself.

Hello!

When I was diagnosed, it was before the levels were used (Or at least before they were used where I lived). I suspect that I would be considered 'level one autistic' today but would likely have been 'level two', bridging into 'level three' as a child. This is all just to explain my perspective with this.

That being said, here are some of my recommendations:

A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern

I just finished this book earlier today and while it isn't specifically about autistic characters, it does feature several autistic characters with high support needs as well as other disabled characters. The book is written from the perspective of two characters, one of which is developmentally disabled (Belinda). Although her disability is never specified, I do see a lot of autistic traits in Belinda. The premise of this book is a bit heavy. It's about two characters (Who are not disabled) who end up volunteering at a centre for adults with developmental disabilities. One of the things I appreciated about this book was how well rounded the characters are. Each of them has their own stories, interests, and ideas. I also like how it discussed sex and relationships in the context of people with developmental disabilities. Something to note is that this does have some sensitive topics such as ableism, sexual assault, and bullying. It is also written by a parent of an autistic child but, as far as I'm aware, the author herself is abled. I did have some conflicted feelings about specific parts of it but I'll leave that for you to make your own decisions about. Target Audience: Young Adult

How to Speak Dolphin by Ginny Rorby

I also read this book recently and I personally really disliked it. There were several scenes that made me feel very gross and I found that the autistic character was dehumanized very often. One line that stuck with me was another character about a blind character, essentially saying, "I thought she was going to drown herself. If I was blind, that's what I would do." Although the character does get to know the blind character and changes her mind, it really felt awful to read and seemed so unnecessary -- especially given the target audience. The way it talks about blindness in general bugs me. That being said, I have seen several autistic people recommending the book (Which was why I read it in the first place) so I'll include it here anyways since my opinion seems to be in the minority around this book. Target Audience: Elementary/Middle Schoolers This is a brief review from another autistic person. [Link]

Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos

This book centers around Nova, a young autistic girl with high support needs. Nova is a foster child who is missing her older sister and the story is told through a mix of narrative, letters to Nova's sister, and flashbacks. It's been a while since I've read this book but I remember really enjoying it (And maybe crying a little bit too). The author is autistic herself and also consulted many other autistic people with a variety of experiences, which I appreciated. Target Audience: Middle Schoolers This is a more in-depth review on the book from a reader who (I believe) is also autistic. [Link]

These are also a couple books that I've seen recommended but can't personally recommend as I haven't read them myself yet:

Real by Carol Cujec

Remember Dippy by Shirley Reva Vernick

I know it's not very much but hopefully it's enough to get you started! If anyone has any recommendations for anon, feel free to mention them in the notes.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[xiaozhan-appreciation]

A small review of “Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”

— no spoilers —

Coming out of the cinema yesterday evening, I was thoroughly impressed by many things in this movie, but neither then nor now do I have much time to write down my thoughts. So this will be shorter than I'd like it to be.

A short context for my experience with the movie: I saw it in 2D, in its original language with subs in my native language. I have never read the books before nor seen any of the other adaptations featuring Guo Jing.

So, let's start!

Story & Structure

The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallant is based on the the chapters 34 to 40 of the novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong.

The movie therefore tells only a small part of Guo Jing's life and covers both martial arts fights as well as a love story. It's in a way quite archetypical and does not aim to re-ivent the wheel, but it is solid and entertaining, and keeps you wishing to know how the story ends. I have weak spot for dilemmas such as Guo Jing finds himself in, so I had a really good time with the movie.

In terms of structure, I will say that the movie's greatest difficulty is that it aims to tell only a part of a larger story while makeing everyone understand the context. And while I think the story certainly was understandable, I also think it was very fast paced and could have benefited from going a bit slower every now and then, or from streamlining a couple of story elements that are probably more important for the whole story but didn't have enough room to breathe in this movie. But that's the opinion of someone who hasn't read the novel, and book fans might have a different opinion on the matter.

Aside from that I think the story flows smoothly, never gets boring and reaches a satisfying conclusion.

Tone & Theme

Based on my limited experiences, the movie hits the well established tone of Hong Kong wuxia movies. It was unexpectedly funny at times, sometimes through subtle characterisations or mannerisms, sometimes through good editing, and I don't remember any point where the movie seemed to go for a joke that didn't land for me. In general the movie is more on the serious side though, with a couple of really great and epic moments that were awesome to watch on the big screen. Only in a few cases there a bit too moments involving the main antagonist that felt too cheesy but that's not the first time I've seen that kind of cheesyness in a wuxia movie.

The movie includes a couple of themes, but they are difficult to discuss without giving spoilers. Keeping it vague, I think my favourite aspect was exploring the idea of loyalty to one's own heart, to one's family – both your biological and adopted, and to the protection of the people. While the movie includes othere themes as well, this is the core of the movie in my opinion.

Cast & Characters

The movie benefits from a strong cast that make it really easy to like the characters.

Xiao Zhan as Guo Jing was obviously why I watched the movie in the first place, and he has fully met my expectations for this performance. The real dedication for this role is mostly noticeable in how well Xiao Zhan vanishes in the figure of Guo Jing. Guo Jing is a believable character through and through: a simple, innocent and kind young man who easily connect with people.

I was impressed particularly by the Guo Jing's fight scenes, which are prominent in several scenes and were simply flawless, and also by Xiao Zhan's dedication to learning the Mongolian speech. I didn't expect the dialogue to be what must have been at least 1/3 in Mongolian, so that must have been especially difficult as it's always the case when you film a movie in a language not your own. I have no idea how good his Mongolian actually is, but I can certainly hear that he speaks it with conviction. And I have learned the Mongolian word for "idiot", isn't it nice...? 😆 So, well done Xiao Zhan, and thank you for introducing me to Guo Jing!

Zhuang Dafei as Huang Rong and Zhang Wenxin as Hua Zheng were also really good. I was afraid that the rivalry between these two characters might get annoying somehow, but it was unexpectedly great to watch them together on screen. They had good chemistry with each other and also with Xiao Zhan's Guo Jing. Huang Rong is certainly the smartest of the the characters in the show but sucks at pretending or being dishonest, and Hua Zheng is quite emotional, strong willed, and also very dedicated. I love them both.

Baya'ertu as Genghis Khan is also worth mentioning. He portrayed both the loving father and the powerful leader of the Mongols very well, and his character was also well used within the story.

Similarly, I had no complaints for almost any of the cast or characters – they all did well and the characters worked within their story and setting. The only exception to this is the main antagonist, who for my taste was a bit too much of a mustache twirling evil power-hungry maniac. Villains don't have to be complex characters with expansive back stories, but if they need to offer something – and for me that wasn't realy there. Luckily the story doesn't need him for the emotional parts of the story, and the thematic conflict works perfectly without him as well.

Cinematography & Score

Last but not least: the cinematography is amazing and simply beautiful. I love all the wide shots, I love the fight choreography, the costumes and set designs, and I love the lightning and the sometimes unexpected tracking shots. I love how flawless the combination of actually filmed scenes and visual effects is, which is so smooth that I can't really tell where one stops and the other starts. I have maybe two or three short moments that don't work for me because they are senselessly dramatic or weird choreographed elements (looking at you, random horses and random bee nest 👀), and I don't think the side by side blending is a good idea, but outside of that I have no complaints and lots of praise instead.

As for the soundtrack – I'm lacking the time and the knowledge to do a proper review of it, so I'll just say that the music was also great, and especially the main theme was fittingly epic. I think the little bit of Mongolian rock or metal (?) was also a nice touch, and fits the atmosphere of the setting. It was a surprising choice, but a good one.

Conclusion

Tl;dr: I've enjoyed the movie a lot, and not just the moments involving Xiao Zhan. It's an entertaining movie, you can see the efforts that went into the production and it has a lot to offer, especially visually. It's not without flaws, but accomplishes most of what it (presumably) set out to do. For people who don't like wuxia films: this won't convince you to like them. For people who are open to this genre: I think you'll find a lot to like or even love about this story of Guo Jing.

[yaoireview]

oooo ⏱️🌀🌀 you want to review tomco so bad ooooo 🌀🌀🌀

....guys.. i think im gonna review tomco.. the ship from the show Star Vs. The Forces of Evil...

TOMCO YAOI REVIEW

appy alentines ay

I'm just gonna say this again before anything else.. when I say Yaoi in this review. I don't mean ANYTHING inappropriate. Its just my special way of saying gay people.. I'm kinda whimsical in that sense.

Anyhow.. Tom and Marco.. you may not be surprised by this but.. they're gay. When i say gay i dont even mean bisexual. They actually HATE star. BOTH of them do. You're asking me why? They told me so. Star is REALLY an asshole behind the scenes. I'm gonna go deeper into this fact... they asked me not to.. they're under NDA ya know..

Whoever doubted me, they clearly haven't seen the Meant to Be Yours animatic for Tomco.. watch that.. THEN get back to me.. but in case you don't want to do that, heres some evidence for my defense.

EVIDENCE 1: MUSICAL NUMBERS

If you're not one for theater.. there's one thing i gotta explain.. the gayest thing you can do with another man is a musical number.

Light and L in Confrontation.. those guys from Newsies.. Dog sees god.. All of these back my point..

Marco and Tom share SEVERAL musical numbers.. and most of the time its the song Too Little Too Late.. Look.. I'm a big fan of the song too.. but i don't get into it as much as these people do.

Marco is supposed to be pissed off at Tom in this scene but when he plays the song he still has to stick around to sing it with him.

He cares... even more than... even he knows...

He went on to also perform this in front of an audience with tom, he trusts him THAT much. Marco KNOWS that tom wouldn't botch this event. These two actually went on to gain the rights to perform the song and they invited me to one of their songs on tour.

I said some things to them backstage that i shouldn't have. Sometimes good people do bad things

EVIDENCE 2: BEST FRIENDS

This may just be the most compelling piece of dialogue that i've EVER used to prove my point.. You might not even believe me.. thats fine.. i know whats real and whats not..

In this very scene, tom states that "I feel like I should be dating someone who I could be BEST friends with.."

You are never going to believe what he calls Marco later..

Yeah.. Marco is his best friend.

Sometimes writers need to get some things past that mouse's grimey little fingers to be able to get it on the air, dana terrace had many issues with this, but they were able to run while tom and marco could only walk... its real fucked up..

If you want to know more please reach out to your local tomco shipper, or listen here

EVIDENCE 3: THEY'RE COOL

Ever doubt something and feel so foolish....?

Thats probably you right now. The evidence is right there. Out in the daylight for EVERYONE to see.

When you see these two performing in your town, reach out, and ask them about this video. They'll get really defensive, and they'll probably hit you.

CONCLUSION:

No matter what you say, atleast Tom isn't Heckapoo (Lock that bitch UP!!)

YAOI: 10/10

[megamuscle885-blog]

Severed - Worm Fanfiction Review

CW: Suicide and canon typical gore.

I don't think I've so eagerly anticipated an imaginary and, likely unwritten at the time of this post, scene in fanfiction than @heyitschartic's Severed. I've been following this series since it was posted three years ago. I'll avoid spoilers and the scene I'm imagining in question will be under the cut, but the basic premise is that Jack Slash chooses Skitter as his nominee during the Slaughterhouse 9 arc, rather than Oni Lee, who was disappointing, and Golem, who he later contrived the entire S9k arc for.

I will say that this work is a beautiful plunge into What Ifs which look all the more horrifying if you compare them against canon. You get flashback snippets of the S9 arc retold from a few perspectives before being thrust into post-GM, maybe pre-Ward? era with modern Skitter. I can certainly say that Severed blows all other S9!Taylors out of the water, Taylor is authentic in ways I haven't seen with anyone else. 10/10, each chapter is at it's absolute peak and it has 11 chapters as of this post. Each gut-punch has me anticipating the next chapter, only for the next chapter to explain why Taylor's friends and enemies hate her so much. I gasped when Tattletale said that to her. I strongly recommend Severed to anyone and everyone who hasn't already read it yet. Here's the link:

Oh wait does this count as the first of my Worm fanfic reviews--

So, I've read chapter 11 and I've been having Taylor and her clone rotating in my head endlessly, but the scene I'm anticipating is the one hinted at in Chapter where Defiant wants Taylor to go under the knife with Bonesaw again so Riley can fix all of Taylor's everything that is physically wrong with her, because her body is practically bio-tinkertech, even after they ripped almost everything else out.

I can only imagine Taylor reiterating that she refuses to be put under for the procedure, and using every moment to vent her anger and frustration on a Riley that is likely seeing marked improvement in her therapy (maybe). But Taylor keeps hitting her with blow after blow. "They'll never let you work on anyone else ever again, so you had better not kill me." and "Nobody will ever let you willingly touch them, I'm the only one who you can use your tinker abilities on, and that can change if I don't need you anymore." "If you ever find someone you can trick into letting you touch them, hold them, or even work on them, I'll kill them. It'd be better than the fate worse than death that letting you touch someone inflicts, and I should know, I'm living through it."

Maybe Chartic has something else planned, but I would like to see this Bonesaw cry. An unshakable, unmoved Taylor just heaps on the abuse through her own tears of pain, holding Riley hostage even as she roots through her guts to put her back together. It's very Taylor to fight through pain to force people to help her. The last time they saw each-other, Riley was doing well. I don't think she'll be doing very well after they meet again.

Maybe an overseeing team of surgeons and Capes become increasingly uncomfortable as Riley is tormented. They find themselves defending Bonesaw of all people, from one of her former victims too.

I'm sorry if this is unsolicited Chartic, but I can't wait to see their reunion, whatever form it takes. Severed's way of making Taylor suffer the consequences of her own actions, while invoking sympathy simultaneously with disgust at Taylor's betrayals; the depths she's sunken to, and then to finally wrap it up with shame and admonishment of her friends, turned victims, is masterful. How dare either they or I judge her for what she had to do to survive. Each chapter reveals that it got worse and worse. At some point, I suspect that (one of) the reasons that Taylor is being given such little leeway by the rest of the cast and remains constantly under the threat of harsh re-imprisonment or execution by vengeful kill-teams is because she somehow became the worst member of the Slaughterhouse Nine or even surpassed them in notoriety.

Tattletale telling Skitter to kill herself was such an insane scene that I stood up and covered my mouth. I was in disbelief. But knowing now that Skitter had betrayed the Undersiders to a slaughter by Mannequin (after having sacrificed her own father and, essentially, her own pre-cape life and innocence with him. The Taylor that she did not want to be, embracing the Skitter she chose to become) and then at some point caused the remainder of the Livsey family to kill themselves the same way Reggie did, with gunshot wounds, really clarifies that Taylor did something unforgivable. She exploited her friendship with Lisa to injure her in a way that can never be repaired. Lisa in canon never really had much to do with her parents ever again, but she probably didn't want them dead for neglecting Reggie.

I may edit this later, or reblog it, as new thoughts on the work come to me.

[torpedopickle]

I finally watched Transformers Earthspark Season 2 today. I have a lot of thoughts and I wrote some paragraphs for every episode. As you can see I wrote a LOT, enjoy my way too long cartoon analysis:

Episode 1: the cracks are showing but it hasn't crumbled yet

The animation feels less alive than in season 1 even if strong storyboarding still carries some scenes, as I know several of the season 1 storyboarders did work on this episode. It has a couple good sequences, a couple incredibly stilted ones. The overreliance on slowmo feels weird, and the animation struggles to properly convey things, like how we're supposed to take Hashtag's injury very seriously, but it just looked like she got bumped lightly.

the Decepticons are butchered and watered down into "evil because they're Decepticons". Chaos Terrans is an interesting concept and the way they're executing Aftermath would provide a foundation for exploring topics such as delinquent youth, but knowing how the series will go on to treat them in later episodes, I'm not hopeful.

the Maltos feel like they're sleepwalking. They have a lot of screentime but for some reason they don't feel present at all, it's like I'm watching their shadows move around on screen without the things that made them feel alive shining through.

If I didn't know beforehand what this season would eventually stagnate into, I could see myself being fooled into thinking the gripes I have with this episode are just growing pains, however i'm not so hopeful.

Episode 2: Improved in some ways but not in others. The episode premise is decent, and the narrower focus compared to episode 1 does help make the focus characters feel a bit more like themselves again. Unfortunately i just don't think the premise was utilized well at all. Introducing quintessons to the conflict is kind of a big development, but it doesn't flesh them out well IMO. They treat them like wild animals with no characterization for a majority of it, and then hint at some deeper conflicts at the very 3nd before promptly disposingof them. So ultimately it feels unsatisfying (although we do get some expositon in episode 9, but it doesn't add up to much).

And once again i must comment on the character acting on the humans especially being severely lacking.

Robbie and Mo having helmets for like half their screentime definitely feels like a cut corner not to animate their faces

Episode 3 review: some well animated sequences this time around, i'd seen the storyboards for them on twitter and they're really well done, but then there's some others that really werent as decent, so big ups and down in animation quality. Most of the episode did feel like a slight return to formula for Earthspark tho, with how it felt like it was actually making a point about something for once, which so far has been rare in season 2, although the conclusion wasn't the most satisfying with the whole "you can't have everything" message but then hashtag kinda gets most of what she wanted anyway.

Episode 4 is like.... baffling.

Like the fact that they swapped to a wholly different and much cheaper animation studio was so far just somewhat shining through, but now it's impossible to unsee. The animation here feels BEYOND stilted, in every way. Like not even the 2D FX animation looked convincing this time. That clip of Robbie dropping a cake is the weirdest animated thing i've ever seen. It's like it gets sucked out of his hands by a magnet.

The Faire Maestro is a type of character I feel like would have been handled really well in Transformers Animated but was just kinda nothing here, super ugly design too and very odd voice direction. Lots of just bizarre and mindboggling things in this episode, like them seeing faire maestro having an emberstone shard, and then deciding to steal it right in front of his face for absolutely no reason even though they think he's a normal guy and not a villain. And tiny inconsistencies like Mo knowing his name even though he never said it. Bizarre episode all around, Weird Al cameo is cute but then he's gone.

Episode 5 review: Finally Jawbreaker gets to be in it. Except now he feels like a baby. Just a big stomping juvenile baby.

And speaking of big stomping babies, Aftermath is one too. He feels like he's supposed to be a representation of troubled/delinquent youth who don't get along with their peers and who don't have positive role models or a support network, but he really comes off as being just... chaotic, no real sense of interiority to him other than "I'm mean and I enjoy being mean and I can't help it". He's entertaining on a surface level vibes basis, but it doesn't feel like any attempts are being made at making a point. He's barely been in the show so pretty much anything that could make his character interesting is completely missing. Like there's no development of how the decepticons are raising him other than the basic assumption of "bad role models", and the decepticons barely get to be characters this season either. Aftermath feels like an Afterthought, as Chaos Terrans have basically been less than a footnote, and the series has attempted to do no form of storytelling with them beyond surface level observations that honestly feel insulting to the other characters like how the decepticons are just evil now, and the autobots/terrans have lost all nuanced expressions of empathy and solidarity in favor of just "they're generally friendly"

oh and also the evil mushrooms are boring.

Episode 6 review: Man this episode just *feels* wrong, like viscerally.

The show's handling of the chaos terrans just keeps getting worse. There's absolutely NOTHING about spitfire that compels any form of empathy. Like there's not even a mote of her being a troubled and misguided youth, she's just straight up ontologically cruel, like nothing about the conflict in this episode regards a failure to understand, communicate, or empathise with each other, it's just a straight up rejection of those things on both sides. For this chaos terran delinquent analogy thing to work you NEED there to be a sense of humanity or waywardness to them. You NEED to be able to conceive of them as being capable of more than just anger. This just feels meanspirited, especially the way the Maltos have no desire for Spitfire to be better. They just wholeheartedly accept that she's ontologically evil, and honestly, the way she's presented in this episode you'd think they were right, but they're not SUPPOSED to be right.

It sucks too cuz chaos terrans are a great idea

season 1's terrans were all representations of good natured minority kids, particularly third culture kids, who despite their best intentions and kindness end up having to fight for acceptance.

The chaos terrans are a natural progression of that, with depicting kids who end up on the fringe of society because they're inherently different from others and have a harder time being understood, and who don't have a support network to set them straight.

So it starts out in a place where they'd easily be able to build on it, but it's squandered imo. And for several reasons:

1. the Decepticons are 1 dimensional bad guys this season so they fail to capitalize on any potential storytelling they could have done with how their generational resentment might be passed down to the younger generation. They also fail to build any sort of relationship between the Chaos Terrans and the decepticons, so any obligation to stay or debt of gratitude that they might feel is just not there. You get no sense of why they'd want to be decepticons other than wanting to be enabled and encouraged for cruel behavior. They could have given breakdown an actual father son dynamic with aftermath but instead undercut it and play it for laughs.

2. Because the malto's solidarity have been completely watered down into just being "good guys", and never really get to articulate any sort of deeper point in their attempt to appeal to the chaos terrans, so you don't get a sense of how they might help them if they were allowed.

and 3. because the chaos terrans themselves don't really feel like they have much of an inner struggle, interiority, or conflict, it doesn't really feel like there's much of a foothold for

Anyone to latch onto to get through to them. Which makes them feel unredeemable.

so to reiterate and summarize these 3 points; 1. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans are being given negative reinforcement, 2. there's no sense of how the Maltos might help undo this, and 3. there's no sense of how the chaos terrans might want to be helped or not helped.

I understand that like part of the point is that they don't understand the chaos terrans, which supposedly makes them feel more alienated and further pushed towards anger, but there's no nuance or attempt at solidarity to the way these misunderstandings occur. Like there's no hint of Twitch and the Maltos trying their best to reach out to spitfire in meaningful ways. There's no sense of there being some fundamental difference in perspective or circumstance that make them able to understand eachother's point of view, it's just straight up "i tried to be nice but you were mean so now i won't be nice anymore" and it never goes beyond that. It's insulting how easily the Maltos give up on them.

Episode 7: serving as a direct followup to the last, it continues a lot of the same flaws. It squanders any chance of giving Spitfire some depth, like they could have spun her obsessive competitiveness into a deep-seated need for approval or validation or something, but no, she's as one dimensional as her behavior would suggest. Her behavior just becomes more and more destructive to a cartoonish degree where it no longer becomes possible to feel empathy for her.

the whole freaky friday misunderstanding thing too also feels super forced, which isn't helped by the animation failing to convey a lot of ideas.

Comparing this season to season 1 so far, man it just really sucks at juggling the characters. We've had practically 0 focus or development for any of the autobots and decepticons, and the maltos for that matter, despite their overwhelming screentime.

This is likely a casting budget thing. Which is why bumblebee has been demoted from main cast member to a guy who maybe says 2 lines every 3 episodes.

The quality of season 1's writing would go up and down quite drastically between episodes, but so far season 2 has consistently been on par with some of season 1's worse entries. It's juvenile and it has next to nothing to say about anything. Barely even any basic surface level messages, just mostly meaningless antics with next to no focus on exploring characters.

Episode 8 review: it's fine. No notes. It's a competent comedy episode. Fun premise with the whole "thing getting continuously stolen by different people" trope. Basing an episode around optimus's trailer is funny. Animation isn't stellar. Overall it's just an ok episode. I have nothing to say about it other than it's well executed even if it's not very ambitious.

Episode 9/10: okay! End of the season. The finale's mixed for me. In a different universe, this would have been an OK finale for the most part, but the fact that the season has tarnished every single character and plotline from season 1 and made no successful attempt at building anything new of value makes it lack any impact it could have had.

Interesting angle to flip the quintesson creator race narrative that transformers fans are used to. Although they too were an afterthought for this season. Aftermath and Spitfire getting killed really was the rotten cherry on top of their miserable cake. First they're treated like dirt by the story and handled as poorly as they could possibly be, squandering the excellent potential they had, but then they just kill them. Just so starscream's heelturn is even more evil. It honestly feels sad to me that they even bothered to acknowledge the fact that starscream was redeemble in season 1. Just makes it feel even more annoying that they conciously gave up trying to make him nuanced. Some of the animation was good. The shots of terratronus rising were very well composited and communicated the scale extremely well. As for the actual climax, it felt pretty lacking.

Overall a dissapointing season. A shadow of what earthspark was. Most of the characters are completely sidelined (likely for lack of a casting budget), and the few who aren't don't get a single story that feels reminiscent of that immensely strong sense of confident identity that season 1 had.

Hasbro cannot help themselves can they

[beardedmrbean]

Queen's set at "Live Aid" is considered by many music historians to be the single greatest live rock performance ever. And when they went offstage, David freaking Bowie said to Freddy, "How am I supposed to follow that?"

I've had to explain that one to people before.

We're closing in on 40 years since the biggest rock concert the world has ever seen and likely will ever see, with all the biggest acts of the time doing their thing on several different continents.

As shows go, you're not going to ever see something of that caliber again.

And the first thing to pop into most folks that I've encountered's heads when you bring up Live Aid is Queen's set.

Nearly 40 years later people still get worked up over how good a <25 min set at the biggest rock concert ever was.

For nearly 40 years people have been consistently getting worked up over how good a <25 min set at the biggest rock concert ever was, so it's not a nostalgia thing.

I trust Wiki to be accurate about this one

On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative were held in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany. It was one of the largest satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, in 150 nations watched the live broadcast, nearly 40 percent of the world population.

<25 min and Freddie is drenched in sweat because the guy only ever had the one speed, that being full throttle.

Poor Bowie, the only way he stood a chance is if they'd done the hand off to him by playing Under Pressure, and even then he'd have just been there for the slowly fading adrenaline rush everyone got from Queen.

That's not a show we're going to see the likes of again I don't think.

Not till Wyld Stalion's finally pulls it together at least.

(never looked at any reviews for face the music, I enjoyed it and that's what's important to me)

[vulpinmusings]

My speculations on Indigo Park

I'm putting this post under a read-more in case it finds someone who hasn't played Indigo Park yet and wants to experience it blind.

(BTW, it's free and takes about an hour to finish so just go play it. The horror value's kinda tame overall, but trigger warning for blood splatter at the end.)

Why Rambley doesn't recognize Ed/the Player: The collectables notes make it obvious that our Character, Ed, used to be a regular guest at Indigo Park as a kid. Yet, when Rambley goes to register them at the beginning he says he doesn't recognize Ed's face. I've seen speculation that this might be due either to Ed's age or the facial data database being wiped or corrupted after the park's closure. However, I think there's another possibility.

The Rambley AI Guide was a relatively new addition to the Park. Indigo Park is essentially Disneyland; it's been around for a long time and I rather doubt that the technology for a sentient AI park guide was available on opening day. Rambley mostly appears on modern-looking flat-screens, but in the queue for the railroad he pops up on small CRTS, so technology has advanced over the park's life time. I suspect that Rambley as an AI was implemented a short time before whatever caused the park to be shut down, and the reason that Ed's face isn't already in the system is because Ed just never went to the Park during the time between Rambley's implementation and the closure.

Rambley needs Ed just to move around. Rambley claims he'd been stuck in the entrance area since the closure. That might imply that as an AI guide he's not permitted to move around inside the Park unless he's attached to a guest, and he has to stick close to them. He's probably linked to the Critter Cuff we wear, which would explain why he insists we get it and doesn't just override the turnstile or something. He still needs cameras to see us and TVs to communicate, but it's the Critter Cuff that determines which devices he's able to use at a given moment.

There are other AI Guides. Rambley's limitations in where in the park he can be seems inconvenient for an AI that's meant to assist all the park's guests. Perhaps during normal operations he was less limited because every guest had a Critter Cuff on, but that might have put too much strain on his processing if he was the only AI avatar. Ergo, some or all of the other Indigo characters could have been used as AI guides as well; either a guest would be assigned to one character through the whole park or the others would take over for Rambley in their themed areas while the raccoon managed the main street. Due to the sudden closure, the other AIs may be stuck in certain sections of the Park like Rambley was stuck at the entrance, and we'll interact with them and/or free them as part of the efforts to fix the place up.

The "mascots" are unrelated to the AI. But Rambley believes they are linked. The official music video for Rambely Review has garnered a lot of speculation for how different Rambley's perception of how the Mollie Macaw chase ended is to what we saw in the game. I'm not 100% sold on the idea that Rambley flat out doesn't know that the Mollie mascot got killed. His decision to drop his act and acknowledge the park's decayed state is because he sees how freaked out Ed is by the Mollie chase, and he seems to glance down toward Mollie's severed head when he trails off without describing the mascots. HOWEVER, I don't think he sees Mollie as being truly dead. He's possibly come to the conclusion (or rationalization) that the AI guides, based on the actual characters, are stuck inside the feral fleshy mascots and the mascot's death has led to Mollie's AI being liberated. This idea will stick with him until such time as we encounter an AI character before dealing with the associated mascot (likely Lloyd).

Salem is central to the park's closure. All we really know about Salem the Skunk is what we see in the Rambley's Rush arcade game, where Salem uses a potion to turn Mollie into a boss for us to fight. This reflects real world events, although whether Salem instigated the disaster due to over-committing to their characterization or was merely a catalyst that unwittingly turned the already dubious new mascots into outright dangers remains to be seen.

Rambley's disdain for Lloyd is unwarranted. Collectables commentary indicates that Lloyd's popularity may have been eclipsing Rambley's, and that ticks Rambley off. That's not the fault of the Lloyd(s) we're going to interact with, however. That's on Indigo's marketing for emphasizing Lloyd so much. And who knows, maybe there were plans for other retro-style plushies, but the Park got shut down before those could come out. Either way, while Lloydford L. Lion may be a bit of an arrogant overdramatic actor, the AI Guide version of him isn't going to come across as deserving Rambley's vitriol, and that's going to be the cause of one chapter's main conflict.

[serpercival]

🙈 can I request charhawk idk any number that inspires u if ‘against a wall’ isn’t it 💜

Waagh charhawk - I've never tried my hand at them before so hopefully this is to your tastes! <3

charhawk + a kiss against a wall

Charles is on his usual bullshit when Hawkeye walks into Radar’s office to check on the mail. Something about a record that Honoria was shipping to him that’s been delayed for five agonizing days, and he would simply like to ensure that it hasn’t been stolen by a sticky-fingered Midwestern bandit.

“What’s so important it can’t wait a few days?” Hawkeye asks, sifting through Radar’s outbox for something to do with his hands. “Chopin put out a new release?”

Charles grits his teeth and Radar snatches away his papers. “My dear sister Honoria is reviewing an opera, if you must know,” he says. “She has sent me a copy of several of the songs to request my opinions. And this little– thief! Has likely stolen a gift, one of few earthly pleasures from home, and I simply cannot–”

“Love songs?” Hawkeye asks, moving on to flipping through the papers in the inbox. “You ever been to The Love for Three Oranges?”

Charles manages to grit his teeth even harder. “The art should not be debased with comedy so low as that.”

Hawkeye shoots up, dropping the papers all over the floor. “Debased.”

“Yes,” Charles says. He crosses his arms, uncrosses them, and won’t make eye contact.

“With comedy.”

“Indeed.”

Hawkeye takes a step forward.

Charles takes a step back.

They do it again.

“Now, Pierce, given your vaudvillian ways–”

Hawkeye takes one final step forward, and Charles lands flush with the wall. He puts a hand on Charles’ chest to keep him there.

“Charles,” he says, warmly. “I’m going to debase you with comedy right here, right now, right in front of Radar.”

“You wouldn’t.”

Hawkeye comes up on his tiptoes, just for a laugh, and kisses Charles right on the mouth.

He doesn’t expect him to melt. Or to part his lips. Or to groan like he’s been waiting for it for months. Hawkeye presses more firmly against his chest and deepens the kiss, testing Charles’ soft lips with his tongue for the briefest moment before pulling away.

Charles is flushed, wide-eyed, and slightly damp with spit. He raises a hand to his lips with an expression that Hawkeye has never seen on his face before and can’t readily identify.

Then he smooths it over, wipes the spit from his lips, and shoves Hawkeye away. “Find my record, O’Reilly,” he snaps.

Charles shoots one final, confused and frightened glance over his shoulder as he storms out of the office.

Hawkeye turns to Radar. “I should try that again.”

Radar shrugs. “Good luck with that, sir.”

[butmakeitgayblog]

Hey! I’m on my like 5th rewatch of The 100 and I’ve only just now seen this review on IMDb. I’ve been following your blog for a while now and keeping up with ADC. I was wondering if you know anything about this? I tried looking it up but nothing popped up. Granted I didn’t search too hard lol. But I just thought these claims were so wild. Did they mix her up with another actor? I’m just so ??????

Lol no

Not even once 😂

I do remember after the accusations from Bob's ex came out you had a few accounts accusing E&B of diva behavior - including one in which it said that Bob got physical with a crew member and that was why he was ultimately written off - but emotions were high at the time so no one ever really knes if that was fact or just bs smearing. But Alycia? Nope, not once.

No tbh this whole thing reads very oddly to me because all I've ever heard is that she's quite pleasent to work with actually. First of all, Alycia didn't "start in Vancouver and switch to LA". She was LA based since she moved to the US. So idek what this person is trying for there, but it doesn't even make sense. Second, if this person has such a wealth of insider knowledge, then they'd know this wasn't her first project in North America. Two seconds of research would show that (they said they "found out" it was her first acting job, so according to their own words they looked into it??? And still got it wrong???) She'd done a several things before the1oo, including tv work in Australia, a whole ass studio produced movie, and an indie movie over here.

Third? I mean if you follow her, you see she is often in pics with crew members and even follows a few on IG, as well as fellow cast members talking pretty regularly about how sweet she is and about times when they hang out outside of filming. Also iirc when she was directing her her episode of FTWD didn't she even get a... was it shaved iced, or like a coconut water thing? Some kind of frozen treat stand thing, for the entire cast and crew.

That doesn't exactly sound like a tendency toward tyrant, diva behavior.

But truthfully, the thing that jumps out at me the most tho is the Zionist comment. This comment was supposedly left back in 2021, right? Except... Zionist was not a widely known or used term at that time. For clarity, I'm not saying Zionism or the term Zionist didn't exist in 2021, I'm saying it wasn't a term the general public at large really knew or used often, nor was it something that ever readily came up in any sort of criticisms of actors, much less IMDB reviews 🤨.

So like... how and why would that have even come up at that time of leaving this review? In 2021?

Unless, of course, this person went back and edited an old review they'd left. Now that would make a lot more sense. Almost as if maybe possibly perhaps, they became angry with her for something else, and came back and changed their review to a scathing bomb. It's just a theory, I have no way of knowing if that's true or not, but it makes a bit more sense considering I've never heard such a thing about her - not on the 1oo nor any other projects.