#and yes i do read tvtropes

[a-cha0tic-intr0v3rt]

ngl i thought this was funny, probably isn’t now

apologies for the lack of posts, I was on vacation in BOTH las vegas and los angeles

but anyones have this shitty weezer blue album w/ the 4ggravate boys from genshin impact

i don’t really listen to weezer but hey look i wanted to do this its my blog stfu and leave me alone 🔥

i also dont play genshin but i just rlly like the charactet designs— and their voices (mostly their en and jp va’s)— then again its my blog let me be ‼️

[pro-sipper]

"Dead Dove: Do Not Eat"

About the tag, the origin, and why I think no one on either side of the fandom divide knows how to use it

First of all, I'm crosstagging because I think it's a general issue, not just something for pro or anti shippers. I see the tag get misused on both sides and I just wanted to throw my two cents in

So, where did the term originate? Like all culturally significant things online, it started as a meme. More specifically, a meme from the television show Arrested Development. Character A has put a dead dove into a brown paper bag to store in the family's fridge. On the bag, he has taped a sign that reads, in big bold letters, "DEAD DOVE. Do Not Eat!"

Character B comes across the bag, reads the warning, and opens it anyway. When he's met with, you guessed it, a dead dove, he proclaims "I don't know what I expected".

This is an example of (and has since basically become the spiritual successor to) the "Exactly What It Says On The Tin" trope.

If you want to check out the full history and countless examples of the trope, please check out the page on tvtropes. But for a slightly shorter history - it originated in a British commercial for Ronseal's Quick Drying Woodstain, which the tin claimed "dried quickly". And in the commercial they told you "It does exactly what it says on the tin!" So, the tin says what the product does, then the product does it. You get the idea.

In fandom spaces, the trope just means that the title of Thing (be it movie, show, fanfic, etc) tells you exactly what happens IN Thing. If a show is called "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", you already know it's about a girl named Buffy who slays vampires. If the movie is called "Cocaine Bear", you can bet a bear will get into some cocaine at some point. If there's a fanfic called "Fluttershy Has Tea With Jesus"... you get the idea.

While both tags started out with the same intentions and meaning, I don't think it's any wonder that "dead dove do not eat" has been so easy to misinterpret. For one, "exactly what it says on the tin" sounds more straightforward. You don't have to understand the specific reference to infer it means to check the label (in this case, tags) before purchasing (opening) the product (fanfic)

But dead dove is harder to understand if you don't know the reference. And at a glance, it sounds much darker. Doves have symbolism in multiple religions, and are seen as a symbol of peace. A dead dove evokes images of gore, violence, general unpleasantness. It must only apply to something sinister, right?

The thing about "exactly what it says on the tin" is that the tin needs to say something. You can't point at a blank label and say "here's what you can expect". People would be much less likely to engage with your product if that were the case

In the same vein, slapping "dead dove do not eat" on a fic with no other tags can lead to confusion. In this tag's case, it's a warning. But what are you warning about if you don't also put it in the tags? It leaves people's minds to conjure up only grim and upsetting images of what might be in your fic. Especially when, as it's also common to do, the tag gets shortened to simply "dead dove".

And while, yes, the tag is most likely to get slapped onto fics with dark or upsetting subject matter, that means something different for everyone who comes across it.

Most people seem to think it only applies to inappropriate relationships (age gap, incest, etc). But I've seen it applied to a variety of things, from potentially triggering material (like suicide) to things that simply may not be everyone's cup of tea (like excessive gross-out toilet humor).

In the end, "dead dove do not eat" is a tag that, in my opinion, should not be used as a descriptor as to what type of content your story contains. But rather, a gentle warning to say "hey, I'm specifically telling you what you're about to encounter, so whatever happens next is up to you".

After all, if you read the warning and still open the bag to find something you don't like...

I don't know what you were expecting.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

You know that trope in fiction where the small town has weird things that happen and instead of being Sunnydale Blindness or whatever, the townspeople know and just don't care? I think TVTropes calls this Fantastically Indifferent.

Anyways what if everyone in Forks knew about wolves and vampires and the Cullens, but didn't really react to it ("It just seems kinda racist to bring it up, ya know?"), do you think the Cullens would ever notice? I mean Edward's gift seems to say yes, but then again I have faith in my boy not noticing them knowing. Also what happens when the Vulturi get there?

I mean, canonically they do.

This is the Quileutes.

They know about the Cullens, don't make a huge deal of it though besides avoiding them entirely, and the Cullens know that they know, though they aren't sure how much information has been passed down/how much they really believe and how wide-spread it is.

The not knowing is mostly because a) Alice doesn't see them as she really doesn't see much of anything that doesn't interact with her family or people important to her b) Edward's not close enough to read their minds and not familiar enough with them to do it at a large distance.

If it was Forks...

Well, on the one hand, Forks thinks the Cullens are weird incestuous rich freaks, so much so that this is the first thing Jessica says to Bella. The Cullens know this but, at least from what we see of Edward's point of view, he doesn't quite get it or understand what that means and that they're not blending in well.

So if someone thinks "Edward is a vampire/alien", Edward's actively scanning for that and would get spooked. More damning, if Alice saw someone rallying the pitchforks, then she notices.

But if it's people who don't intend to do or say anything, who don't even know quite what they're looking at just that it's weird, then I don't think the Cullens will notice.

As for the Volturi, again, that's kind of what happened with the Quileute and they begrudgingly wrote it off with "well, I guess they're all shapeshifters anyway" even though some of those who know are not in the bloodline.

They do know that the town gives them the side-eye, but since they're not thinking "vampire" it's not really good enough to do anything about.

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

Summary: With the loss of Team Rocket as an organization, Jessie, James, and Meowth set out to do something they never would have previously dreamed—backtracking across the regions, reuniting with old friend and foe alike, in an attempt to make up for their wrongs. Join the trio as they take off on a determined search to find their white tomorrow on the path of righteousness.

Author: @musashi

Note from submitter: This fic has a TVTropes page!

[beevean]

Honestly what annoys me more about the fandom's reaction to Chaomix is that the main talking points haven't changed. Only the context around them did. It's still "2010 sonic bad" and "sega bad" except now it comes with an addendum of "they bad because they tried to appeal to those reviewers and journos". Which sucks because it would be a legit point on it's own but it's being used as a smokescreen for some to still hate on the games while presenting it like they are defending them.

I will bet everything I have that in a decade the "Meta Era" will gain new appreciation exactly the same way as the "Dark Age".

The Dark Age used to be despised for multiple reasons. It had some objectively flawed games back to back, for sure, but part of the backlash was also due to the Classic fans being the majority of the fandom, being very unhappy with the direction of the franchise. A lot of nowadays beloved Sonic games used to be laughingstocks.

Sonic Heroes? A janky repetitive mess that did not follow up to the masterpiece that was SA2 because it was too kiddy, and we're so tired of Sonic's Shitty Friends.

Shadow the Hedgehog? Not only it was OW THE EDGE, but it was legitimately seen as an affront to everything Sonic stood for, shilling a creator's pet that had long overstayed its welcome.

Sonic '06? One of the worst games of all time. Nearly killed the franchise, and maybe it should have. Buggy and rushed in a way that was unacceptable for an anniversary game and the next gen game. A shitty ass story full of holes with damsels in distress that make out with animal corpses.

Sonic Unleashed? The Werehog was fucking stupid and once again spitting on everything Sonic stood for, and we're so tired of cinematic stories! (yes the complaint that the intro was too long was a real complaint)

Sonic and the Black Knight? Sonic with a sword was fucking stupid. No one cared about the story.

The beginning of the Meta Era was exactly what fans wanted back then. Colors was seen as Sonic's comeback for things like not having an intro cutscene, having a "saturday morning cartoon" story with only Sonic and Tails and none of the Shitty Friends, having Eggman as the final boss instead of yet another monster, and sticking only with the "good" parts of Unleashed. Read its Funny page on TvTropes, and you'll find many of the jokes that nowadays are used as proof that Pontaff were hacks and Flynn was so real for making fun of them both in IDW and in Frontiers. It was seen as Sonic's glorious return because finally, at long last, Sonic was going back to his Classic roots.

But now? Now those same Classic fans grew older and even more disillusioned with the franchise, so they left, and they were replaced by the Adventure fans, now old enough to be heard. Now Heroes is a cute game, with much better level design than shitty games like Forces. ShTH is secretly deeper than people gave it credit for, and Shadow is cool again, and at least characters do stuff, unlike in Forces. Sonic '06 was full of ambition, unlike Forces where they didn't even try. Sonic Unleashed can pretty much compete with SA2 as a masterpiece. SatBK has a wonderful story that truly gets Sonic, unlike Forces where everyone is stupid and lame.

See a pattern?

Hell, even things like Eggman as a final boss is getting backlash now. I've seen people praising Frontiers' The End because of this. Eggman as the final villain got stale again. These are the Adventure fans who grew up with Eggman getting swatted away or teaming up with Sonic, and liking it.

(I'm an Adventure fan too, but funnily enough, Colors was the first game where I ever liked Eggman precisely for keeping him as the main threat lol)

It's a cycle. The 2010s were the era of "the 2000s sucked, we want to go back to the '90s when Sonic used to be good". The 2020s will be, and already are, the era of "the 2010s sucked, we want to go back to the 2000s when Sonic used to be good". I am eagerly waiting for the videos named "Sonic Forces was not that bad, you guys were just mean". It will come. Just like '06 used to be reviled and mocked to death and now it has gained respect, the same will happen to Forces. Just like Forces is now seen as "unserious" and apologetic, the same will happen with Frontiers and its "I'm sorry we sucked, we'll do better next time" tone. Just like Pontaff were seen as a breath of fresh air and now they are seen as the people who ruined Sonic, the same will happen to Flynn. You'll see.

[anonzentimes]

I've kind of realized something after spending a while digging through various fic recommendations. If a fic is recommended by TVTropes, there's a high likelihood that the characterization of Nagito is gonna be pretty bad. The site's consensus on the character is pretty much a distillation of all the most shallow Reddit takes on the character. "Nagito's a static character", "He gets sexually aroused by Hope", "Hajime despises him (no we're not projecting and using him as our self-insert)", etc. etc. Oh, and can't forget to indulge the bullshit theory about him maybe having raped Monaca. Like it's almost comical just how much whoever wrote his Trope Pantheon entry clearly despised him. With Nagito being shat on to a much greater extent than other fictional characters who've done mountains worse than him (looking at you Harley Quinn).

Also that kind of goes for the various story blogs I've seen around this site. I'm struggling to think of a single one where the characterization of him didn't engage in some sort of petty bashing. Mudslinging that the people making them will defend by crying "We're just giving him REAL character development that the OVA didn't". The New Future and Survivor are some of the worst examples of this.

the moment I read reddit takes on the character in reference to Nagito you KNOW I was shaking in my boots at what horrendous things would be coming up and then you start listing the worst of the worst dirt that gets thrown on him from people who fundamentally hate or misunderstand him and it just got progressively worse like

It’s crazy how bad the mischaracterizations and arguments can be over Nagito it’s so ridiculous… I have a desire to understand most everything I love and fear mischaracterizing or misunderstanding the characters I love and seeing people be so relentlessly unforgiving mischaracterizing him is always so crazy to me Lol. I know the entire point is that there’s a misunderstanding so people usually don’t understand or aren’t self aware of it, which is the scariest part about it in my opinion, but my god it’s dreadful the things these people do and say. I’ve had people in my inbox scream that it’s not that big of a deal and it’s so annoying, like yes it matters because the character matters to people. Not to mention most of the mischaracterizations are usually rooted in some sort of ableism and homophobia it’s truly dreadful. The reason I’ve ever even gotten any traction I’m pretty sure is because apparently being decent and understanding Nagito without bashing him is something people applaud me for Lol. I don’t think I’m that special, but when there’s so many annoying people over this character and when people find someone who is not like that who can and attempts to articulate things about the complex character I think people enjoy it. Even if there’s a good amount of people who understand his character the amount that bash on him, are homophobic towards him, ableist towards him, and mischaracterize him, is just so extremely disgusting that it feels offensive. There is no reason that stupid “theory” about Monaca should ever exist other than disgusting filthy minds who should rethink about their place in this world. I hate them very much. I’m glad I can provide something good for him, at least hopefully, because he means so much to me. I wish everyone could understand him because the misunderstandings he has are so disgustingly extreme and horrible. I understand that he is a complex character but I will NEVER tolerate stupidly horrendous reddit takes throwing dirt on him ever.

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 5-22: The Pig Miraculous 2?: Mayor Bourgeois is Gone. Long Live Mayor Bourgeois.

Alright, reading through TvTropes and this is apparently the episode where Andre disowns the child he failed to raise and the source of this:

She still looks like toothpaste, though.

They're spending every second together, aren't they?

Oh right. That's why.

Dad's shitty ass pancakes

Looking at this relationship and I feel nothing. I don't need an Adrinette kiss.

Rose, I need you and Juleka to kiss.

Lila's subterranean lair. A 14-15-year-old wouldn't have that. More proof for my serial killer Lila theory.

Yeah, I'm feeling nothing for this. I'm going to work on puzzles.

So Lila's worsening Chloe? What was the 'i don't care' thing for, then? Just a flaunt of authority?

Yeah, Chloe's a ventriloquist dummy who's meant to be evil at this point. You can't sweep Maledictator under the rug, whoever made this. I've seen Chloe's depths. I've seen her self-loathing. Quit pretending this is about reaching out or whatever. This isn't just wasted redemption potential, this is a bad downfall arc.

He seems to hate the spiraling teenager more than the grown adult womanchild.

Eh. The real problem is replacing jobs with robots while not adding safety nets for those on the bottom.

So have you ever seen the Soviet film "Wow, a Talking Fish!"? It's very me-core and I love it.

Manipulative editing

People are going to believe that even with the blatant cuts, aren't they.

How does Gift turn people into balloons? Or are they just balloons hallucinating happy futures?

Is it just me or does Ms. Bustier's VA no longer care? Is she not paid enough for this?

Even Chloe knows this is cap!

Oh finally. A gay lip kiss. Now do one for the lesbeans that have been there from day 1. Yes, I am salty as hell about this.

Surprise Chloe!

Dangerous rectangles

Oh boy! A three-way war that'll last only one episode!

[teecupangel]

Hi, so I was rewatching Code Geass (I hope you know it? I assume you do, you seem to know everything) and it occured to me that Geass powers are very similar to PoE powers, so... what if instead of Apples there were Code Bearers (hopefully in some kind of stasis for a good portion of history)?

Because I would really like Eve to run around Renaissanse Italy (although she probably wouldn't mention just who she is before the Vault) and because Altair is absolutely the type to fully develop a Geass.

...yes, also because it would be funny if Desmond became immortal instead of dying.

I wanted to say that I don’t know everything, sometimes I check the wiki or tvtropes to help me get a grasp of the ask but, funnily enough, I do know Code Geass. Code Geass is one of the animes I watched when it first aired in Japan then rewatched the English dub to see how different it is (the English dub is so good, getting Johnny Yong Bosch as Lelouch was such a top-tier choice). I should note that I only watched the two seasons and I could sorta remember the dating sim game, I didn’t watch the movies or Akito the Exiled. Oh, and I can barely remember Nightmare of Nunnally manga even though I did read a few chapters of it XD

In other words, we’re focusing on what was revealed in R2 about Code Bearers for this one XD

Now, let’s change it a bit. The Code Bearers are the Isus’ greatest achievement. They were meant to be the shepherds of the Isus’ slaves.

But Minerva screwed that up, giving them a sense of ‘self’.

To be companions.

But it was because of their sense of self that they grew to like the company of humans more than their masters.

And they revolted, using the very power granted to them by the Isus to ‘bless’ specific humans that led the charge.

The Isu-human war was not even between the Isus and the humans but between the Isus and the Code Bearers, hiding in the shadows and using the humans as their puppets, granting power to those that would later be known as Geass users.

Minerva had been spared from a death sentence by the very Code Bearer she had given a sense of ‘self’ to.

Her daughter…

Eve.

The Isus were killed. Those who were left alive were exiled or imprisoned, left to die a slow death.

Then…

The humans revolted.

Against the Geass users and their Code Bearers.

Minerva does not know why.

Perhaps one of users or the bearers had used their power selfishly.

Perhaps it is simply the nature of being with enough intelligence such as Isus, humans, and Code Bearers to turn against what they believe to be controlling them.

Minerva had been too busy…

Creating the last Code Bearer.

Her son.

The one that shall gift the most powerful Geass of all.

The Geass to control the very fabric of time.

.

The Code Bearers have dwindled in sizes and they have grown to distrust one another, believing that one of them or one of the Geass users they have gifted with the power of the Geass had betrayed them which led to the ‘witch hunts’.

This is why the Code Bearers try their best to remain in seclusion and to not change the trajectory of humanity.

Until…

Eve found Minerva’s final resting place.

An underground laboratory, half-destroyed thanks to an earthquake.

And that’s when she learned of her ‘little brother’, Minerva’s final Code Bearer.

Desmond.

And Eve sets out to find him.

.

Unknown to him…

Desmond isn’t exactly the typical Code Bearer.

Because Minerva figured the best way to create a Code Bearer that will not fall victim to the corrupting influence of their immortality and power is to change a human into a Code Bearer.

A human that had willingly sacrificed his life to save the world before.

So Minerva tweaked the timeline and captured Desmond Miles’ consciousness a second before his death and transferred it to the Code Bearer body she had prepared.

Desmond has no idea what Code Bearers are. He does know what a Geass is, the Assassins and Templars have been searching for Geass users for centuries.

He also know…

That the man who gave Altaïr his Geass was a man that looked too similar to him to be a coincidence.

A man…

… who looked exactly like Desmond.

(That’s right, this is going to be a closed loop where the Code Bearer who gave Altaïr his Geass is actually Desmond himself, having been given a Code Bearer body. Considering it’s Altaïr, it’s highly possible that he would even upgrade from being a Geass user to being a Code Bearer but there has only been one human to have ever done that… Eve’s Geass user… Adam… who disappeared a few weeks before the witch hunts begins)

[bluedalahorse]

Slates of Standard Pairings

Does your fandom have a Slate of Standard Pairings?

Maybe there’s a better term for this that TVTropes came up with years ago. But this is what I call it in my head.

A Slate of Standard Pairings is a phenomenon where if you have a fic with multiple pairings and almost every character being paired off, it will most likely include the pairings on the slate. This doesn’t mean the fandom only ships those pairings. It just means that those pairings have gained enough momentum, and enough momentum in proximity to one another that they sort of… show up together quite frequently.

For instance, I would argue that the Slate of Standard Pairings for Young Royals fandom is as follows:

Simon/Wilhelm, Sara/Felice, Maddie/Rosh, Stella/Fredrika, Walter/Henry, Nils/Vincent

If you are a boy in Young Royals and your name starts with the letter A, you are SOL for romantic relationships according to the Slate of Standard Pairings.

(Back when I was more active in Les Mis fandom, there were I believe two competing slates of Les Amis pairings, both of them headlined by Enjolras/Grantaire. Is that still the case, or have things shifted?)

For the most part, Slates aren’t intentionally created, but they do sort of drift together by probability. The thing about the Slate of Standard Pairings is that it can sometimes feel like a fandom rule, in an unconscious way where its structure is sort of encoded into the background of a lot of fics and discussions. They can also influence the prevailing fanon at any given time, in terms of which configurations of an ensemble hang out the most, who tops versus who bottoms, etc. There are some folks who actively choose all the pairings in the slate. Others choose some of the pairings in the Slate when writing a fic, but they may not choose all of them. Other people’s reading of their work may be affected by the Slate.

There are always ships that get popular outside of the Slate. For instance, Young Royals fandom has a fondness for Madisander. At one point we were getting into Roshella. Are we still into that? We should still be into that, it coulda been fun.

The Slate is not an inherently bad or an inherently good thing, but I think it’s good for fandoms to be aware of them. It’s also good to recognize the influence they have on fanon and interpretations of canon. It might also make you aware of which characters do and don’t get shipped a lot, or patterns in who your fandom recognizes as more dominant/more repressed/more desireable/whatever else.

You can also go against the Slate to shake things up once in a while, because it’s not actually a rule. I say this because “chronic desire to shake things up” was on my paperwork when I got diagnosed with hyperactive-subtype ADHD. (Yes, that was a neurodivergent joke, sorry.) For instance, Sara/Felice means so much more to me as a platonic relationship than a romantic relationship, because it reminds me of some of the strong platonic friendships that make my life rich and livable, but I’m totally here to ship Felice romantically with Rosh or maybe even Ayub. Or like, as far as non-canon August pairings go, I think we’re really sleeping on August/Nils. It could be so good! And then sometimes you get ideas for a crack pairing, because we all love a good crack pairing.

Anyway, what do you think? Does the Slate of Standard Pairings theory hold water?

What does it look like in your fandom?

Are you someone who tends to like Slates of Standard Pairings, or are you someone who prefers to ignore them?

[thetruearchmagos]

👀 - Share a quote!

💛 - What is your favorite trope to write? Is it also your favorite to read?

(yes I removed the u from favorite)

Well then, looks like I'm getting a busy day today!

👀 - Share a quote!

Well, seeing as you've been fairly interested in that Star Wars fic so far, here's the beginning to a scene from it I've been looking forwards to writing!

Moonrise's favourite hole in the wall had neither a name nor a registration, a fact which made finding the damn place a tricky business. Of course, none of them ever did, and Redar got the sense that that was the point. “Getting antsy already, Gilly? Tsk, fleet work’s gone to your head, I think.” Colonel Ecken was still leaning back in his chair, a slender glass of something purplish red in one hand and taking in the view with a lazy gaze. The two senior security men had taken their places on a hotel balcony overlooking the dingy streets below, though Redar had no intention of partaking in his old friend's merriment. "And this dump has gone to yours. You seriously think your local yokels are up to the job? "Now, now," Ecken replied, drinking from and gesturing with his glass. "They aren't stormtroopers, but they know these streets as well as the streets know them. If we'd put your boys down here, it'd be a ghost town in ten minutes- hold it!" He shot straight up, and Redar whirled around. The road was still a packed mass of moving bodies in the half light, but through the gloom and distance Redar saw an unmistakable figure stepping into the throng. Face out of sight, but he felt a chill run through his spine, and that was enough "Well then, time to see it for real."

---

💛 - What is your favorite trope to write? Is it also your favorite to read?

Ooo... tough question, if I'm honest? I'm not really all to familiar with most of the 'Tropes' that exist in the world, and the ones I do know fall solidly in either my 'original' techno-thriller camp, or fanfic.

Going with the former, I guess, the 'Macross Missile Massacre' as TVTropes calls it. Seeing it play out in the 'good stuff' like Dance of the Vampires in Red Storm Rising is personally just an absolute delight to read, and of course you can expect it to appear a lot in the 12 Worlds.

[opinated-user]

Wouldn't LO's fans also be considered stalkers, by lily's logic?

They follow her on her social media platforms (Yt, Tumblr, Patreon [granted you have to pay to see certain tiers on there but it still gives outside users an option to see more content], Twitter [before it got shut down] and I would also assume TVtropes as well) - most of the sm being openly public. They view her content, they read her words. Is the only difference that they praise her to high heaven?

yes. that's indeed the only difference. none of us is talking about some secret info that was hacked out of her devices... anything we say is from sources that were public and she made it public before any of us. her issue is that we actually criticized her about it rather than let her do whatever she wants, consequences free.

[katie-the-bug]

General Reflections After Having Subjected Myself to the Entire Left Behind Series

I figured I should probably close out my silly little series with thoughts more substantial than "what the fuck did I just read." So here they are.

First a couple of basic criticisms of the writing, to get those out of the way:

None of those books need to be 400-ish pages long. Cut out the plot threads that go nowhere, the characters that do nothing, and the dialogue that conveys no information, and you'll have something much more succinct and readable, at the low, low cost about having to think for a moment about what you're writing.

The series would have been much more interesting if the characters didn't know exactly what was going on at every turn. As it is, they talk about every major event chapters or even books before it happens, and then it happens, and then they characters gloat about how they were right. Hell, even the villains knew what was going on! Characters taken by surprise act in much more interesting ways than characters who know it all, and an information advantage, on one side or the other, can be used to create an interesting struggle.

Even in a situation where the characters know what's coming, they should be doing something with that information, be that stopping what's coming, facilitating it, or even just reacting to it in a believable way. The characters in Left Behind just watch dispassionately as horrible things they have predicted happen all around them, and it's boring as hell.

In the final book there was a visual that I thought was kind of cool, and I wondered why there hadn't been any such visuals previously. I have since realized that this series has almost no visuals period. The characters are sparsely described - I haven't the foggiest idea what Rayford Steele looks like, for example - and the settings tend to get vague descriptions, if any. It's impossible to feel that you're there with the characters when you don't know what they or their surroundings look like.

Now the thing I really want to say.

I will freely confess that the only reason I wanted to read Left Behind was because I knew it was stupid, I knew I would disagree with it, and I wanted to make fun of it. (Whether that fun will be a full-on parody or just an addition to my existing edgy Bible-fanfic-in-development has yet to be determined.) I figured that for this purpose, the Wikipedia summaries and the TVTropes pages wouldn't be enough - I'd actually have to familiarize myself with the nuances and details of the source material.

As I was breezing through these 400-page books at a rate of one every one or two days, fast even for me, I was frustrated. Yes, more things happened than were mentioned in the summaries, but they didn't add anything other than mild annoyance. There was interactions between the characters, but only rarely did I feel like I was actually learning things about the people in the story. I've read books where I have to reread passages to get the full meaning, where there are details that come back and are important, but that never happened while I was reading this series.

To cut to the chase: there's really nothing TO Left Behind. Things happen, we're told exactly what they mean and what we should do about it, and the story moves on. There's no deeper meaning, no details, no nuances, nothing to actually think about. The only thing you'll discover by reading the books themselves is how bad they are, qualitatively and morally. If you only read about the books, you'll never experience how terrible the writing quality really is, how little research was done to make the setting and characters realistic, and the degree to which the books are permeated with racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry, and self-aggrandizing fantasy.

In other words, if you only read summaries, you'll have saved your time.

The depth of these books' lacking is simultaneously impressive and unsurprising. If you are looking for something enjoyable to read, look elsewhere. If you are looking for something that will make you hate the characters, the authors, and the God the authors worship, look no further. And if you're looking for something to make fun of on Tumblr...well.

[drawnaghht]

"Wait hold on is there a Japanese dub? Or am I reading wrong oop"

@freakova Yes! yes there is! :D :D whoever edited that TVtropes page I mentioned is wrong, I'm not sure if they just didn't have the track available bc of region-restrictions on Netflix (like here for example, we don't get some shows) or bc they have some downloaded version which only has other tracks, but whoever recorded/ripped it originally, didn't have the JP dub track. I suspect it might be the latter.

I know I watched a bit of the japanese version in august, so I wonder if it's those 2 options or maybe even that most people don't watch netflix on PCs/laptops on their browsers, and so they miss out on the extra dubs on TV. That's smth that I often miss on our Netflix, i.e. some shows will have a finnish dub (the closest language to estonian where I don't need subtitles myself), but if it's smth super popular, it won't show the option for the finnish dub on the TV version of netflix at all. Japanese is a language very often missing in the TV version for many things, doesn't seem to be related to how J is in the middle of the alphabet, but rather, whatever system of regions Netflix uses to give suggestions to users. But if I switch to finnish on my PC, it will continue that show/other shows with available dub in my selected language. This goes for subs too!

Lol if u have a friend with Netflix or have it yourself, you can check it out. I have watched it with japanese dub + sub on at the same time to get any interesting language/delivery differences but also just to watch it out of curiosity. this is what I base some of my posts on too like the one's about names, but when I was just curious to see what the JP subtitles were like I got curious abt the dub too and then switched to both. It's

I also added this on the TVtropes page as a source to avoid ppl changing it, but Usagi's japanese VA, Kengo Takanashi, actually tweeted about his involvement for the airing of S2 (for those unfamiliar with voice actors there, like I am, he plays Link in the newer Zelda games. But also, fun TMNT trivia: he plays Donnie in the Bayverse japanese dub hehe x3 )

I think I found this randomly while going through twitter searching for something else. Definitely did not know about this VA before, but it's cool how happy he seemed about tweeting abt this show.

He sounds really nice as Usagi! He has that youthful and curious but annoying quality to it which makes Usagi unique and he sounds just as excited as the original, so the acting is on-point too. I've heard some people say that they like the JP dub over the EN original, but I honestly like both. There is a bit of a difference between Kengo (JP) and Darren (EN) with how different of a timber their voices have, but it's a very subtle difference. I've also watched the finnish and german dubs (both languages which I actually understand/speak more than japanese) and those also had very good Usagi voices. The russian dub versions sounds a bit deeper/ older but otherwise, the acting itself is fine, so it doesn't really bother me. In some versions, either Tetsujin or Gen sound either too young or too old for their roles, but otherwise, most of the dubs for this show at least, sound pretty good and similar to the og.

Anyway, I am not thinking of doing a spring cleaning on TV tropes now to clean up any more old/misleading info hehehe >:3c

[silvereestars]

My Interests!

Here’s a list of all the fandoms I’m in/was into! (WARNING: Very long post ahead! If you want to see what fandoms I’m w/o the reading, just look at the tags!)

EDIT: NEVERMIND, THE TAG LIMIT FOILED ME /GEN /LH I am SO sorry, but the last few fandoms got cut out from the tag list! You’ll have to scroll down to the bottom to see them-

Crowned: These fandoms are VERY near and dear to my heart- and I’m ALWAYS willing to talk about them!

The Legend of Zelda: This is the fandom that introduced me to the internet back in 2019 (I’m a late bloomer, I know- XDDD), and kickstarted me making theories and analyses!

Friday Night Funkin: Hate it or love it, you can’t deny there are some amazing individuals out there! And for you modders out there, this game is actually heavily moddable- and one mod in particular was what caused FNF to blow up in the first place! This is actually the fandom I’m hyper fixating on right now-

Favorites: While they aren’t as important to me as the “crowned” ones, they still managed to hold my attention for a month or so- and that’s something to admire, considering how hyper my brain is!

Animator Vs Animation: This is the fandom that introduced me to Tumblr and AO3 back in the late summer of 2021- don’t worry, @ann-aha, you’re not alone! XDDD

Oh, and I can’t talk about “AvA” without mentioning the rest of the stick figure community! Shout out to Henry Stickmin, Rock Hard Gladiators/Hyun’s Dojo, Hyun, and Gildedguy! :D

Genshin Impact: Contrary to popular opinion, this game isn’t just for “nerds” or people who can afford to splurge thousands of dollars- I managed to complete the current (back then!) storyline as a free-to-player! While I’m not in the fandom anymore, at least give this one a chance?

Undertale: Ah yes, the funny skeleton man fandom /j /lh But seriously, this fandom isn’t all “Sans Fangirls”- just search up animations and artwork! Or, better yet- search up a full play through of the game (I recommend this order for newcomers- Neutral, Pacifist, Genocide) and let the story and gameplay do the talking! ^^

Just Shapes and Beats: Exactly what it says on the tin. Pro tip- once you’ve seen the full story mode, go check out KofiKrumble!

Minecraft: Of course I’d be into this fandom at some point, everyone will! I’m not into DreamSMP (please don’t kill me I’m just not interested in stuff like server-wide wars), but I AM fond of Hermitcraft and Empires!

Normal: I don’t really think about these fandoms too often, but they deserve a mention! 

Harry Potter

Voltron: Legendary Defender

My Hero Academia

The Owl House (hey, while this fandom isn’t one of my favorites, you bet I watched the finale and cried the whole time!)

Doki Doki Literature Club (somewhat- in my master post, I mentioned I hate horror, so I avoid gameplay and stick to tvtropes/summaries- sorry- ^^;)

Kipo & The Age of Wonderbeasts

Pokémon

How To Train Your Dragon

Marvel (The Avengers!)

Mario

Splatoon

Kirby

Subnautica

Trollhunters (and the rest of the Tales of Arcadia! I LOVED that series- except for Rise of The Titans. We don’t talk about Rise of The Titans. /gen /lh)

Carmen Sandiego

Amphibia

“The Big Three”: These were the fandoms I was into as a little kid, and inspired me to start making fan fiction & headcanons!

Kung Fu Panda: Oh my god, I loved this series- and a 4th movie’s coming in 2024!

Big Hero Six: This is the OG- the first fandom I EVER got into! :D

Wakfu: Yugo accidentally inspired an OC (no info- yet! Not unless I learn how to draw!), so it’d be a crime to not include this fandom!

Well, I think that’s all- for now! If you want to learn about favorite characters, theories, head canons and the like- just ask! :D

[blindrapture]

SATURDAY MAY 28TH, 2011 (Cipher For A Million Years)

7:10 AM MISTRESS, HOW ARE YOUUUUU? Um.. yeah, kinda.. bad time! don’twakeupdonniedon’twakeupdonniedon’twakeupdonnie "You made it to Blackpool, and in such record time! This is a nice town, isn't it? Have you been on the front yet? There's still loads of souvenirs, and no one to charge you money for them. There's even a working candy floss machine. Maybe I'll have you make me some sometime. Maybe later." It.. it is a nice town, yes! "I'm here to give you important information. There's a marketplace I want you to go to, you'll find it on your own, you'll know the place. I want you there on Tuesday, at 8 PM. I have a job for you." Oh.. okay. "See you, cutie." And she's gone. o_o That was.. particularly awkward for me, as Donnie's hugging me in her sleep. Goddamn, Jordan. You're either very lucky, or very unlucky. I have no idea anymore.

10:07 AM Had breakfast. Going for another walk. I asked the tropers about any nearby marketplaces, and there's a very prominent one nearby. Gonna check it out, see if there’s anything today.

10:45 AM The marketplace is quiet, no zombies anywhere or anything. There are countless stalls littered around, and very few are empty. …free stuff. :D

10:51 AM Ohhhh my god, CDs.

10:54 AM There was actually some good stuff there. Got Bonnjo Vjönsped’s Cipher for a Million Years (part one: Beacon and Forty Knights of Some Sort of Fluffy Texture) and some David Bowie.

10:59 AM ..huh. A poster. “MAY 31 @ 20:00 TVTROPES MEET-UP HERE” A troper meet-up. May 31st is.. I’m pretty sure that’s Tuesday. 20:00’s 8 o’ clock. Mistress was right. Shit. This is interesting.

1:12 PM Back at the house. Brought up the troper meet-up. Tropers 1 and 2 didn’t know about it. o_o

2:38 PM We're all sitting in the living room, drinking tea, eating crumpets, reading newspapers and books. Like nothing ever happened to the world. This.. pretty much is exactly why I wanted to come up here. It's about survival, but it's also about safety. Donnie's thankful to have somewhere safe, she gets it! And she's thankful she joined me on such a long journey. uwu If I can just.. deal with Mistress... then maybe this can be the new life for us? And if I can deal with her, then surely the governments and stuff can deal with the rest of it? ...Donnie's crossed her leg over mine. God, I've always wanted that.

4:40 PM During a lull in conversation about the places the tropers would have liked to have shown us if the town still worked, I asked what the others know about the rabbit holes. “They’re gateways to somewhere. Sometimes people come back from them.” That’s all they knew. I didn’t want to mention what Mistress told me, about how they caused this whole mess, how they’re growing. They’d wonder how I knew this. Donnie would, too. I can’t spill my secrets. In retrospect, I should probably be careful what I write, as well. But no one's trying to read my journals. I think people just.. assume it's The Thing I Do.

7:12 PM Blackpool's never this quiet in the summertime, it's a tourist town. Just goes to show how much a week of monsters changes. The internet’s finally gone down. I suppose that’s why there’s a troper meet-up going on here.

10:00 PM It’s hard to believe this apocalypse has been going on for over a week now. I just realized that.

10:27 PM You know what I’m in the mood for? Awake. Dream Theater. Specifically, “The Mirror.” >w>

10:28 PM DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. DUN DUN DUN. Puppies on Acid, motherfuckers.

10:45 PM Whoa, that was a loud noise.

10:46 PM THE ZOMBIES BROKE THE FRONT DOOR DOWN

10:48 PM EAT GUITAR CONTROLLERRRR

10:54 PM THEY’RE EVERYWHERE FUCK FUCK FUCK

10:55 PM They’re not even doing anything. They only attack when I do. They move when I do.

10:59 PM These zombies look really freaking creepy. Most of them don’t even look dead. Just.. high. They look brain-dead.

11:00 PM Wait, what. They’re leaving.

11:03 PM Each one is gone now; the house is completely deserted besides us living folk.

11:09 PM ..troper 2. Where’s troper 2?

11:11 PM We’ve looked all over, but he’s nowhere. I wish we knew where he was.

11:13 PM Donnie spotted him. He’s outside with the zombies. I’m gonna get him. I need something to do.

11:18 PM The zombies are all staring at me. They’re standing still, only turning to continue watching me as I go past. Troper 2 is stuck. He can’t move.

11:19 PM Fucking ropes or something, cable, something, wrapped around his leg. I’m gonna try to untie his That’s not around his leg. That’s in it. fuckmore of them in his arms torso head ZOMbies WAKING UP

11:30 PM Fuuuck goddammit. I’m in. Troper 2’s not; he vanished shortly after the zombies ‘woke up.’ I need to keep a record of this. The more we have written down, the better, right? Troper 2 was struggling, he said he couldn’t move. I checked it out and he had…. some.. things, like.. cables or something digging into various parts of his skin. Then the zombies woke up. They just all said “How do you do.” And next thing I know, they all raised their hands forward. Like.. like you expect zombies to do. They all reached for me. Fuck, that was very weird.

11:42 PM Donnie wants me in bed. Her exact words were “I want you to come to bed with me.” I don’t know if she’s just too tired to watch her words or what. I guess we’re gonna find out!

(Attached: “The difficulty of parsing a question mark in the spoken-word depends wholly on the speaker’s inflections and on context. For phrases commonly taken rendered as statements, the speaker needs to raise her or his inflection at the end of the phrase in order for a listener to infer an inquisitive nature. All of this is irritating enough without considering ambiguous or even cryptic phrases, a trait ridiculously common to we the lonely wanderers. Not normally common to Salmacis, but I guess at this point it had her hands full already. Join us next month for the episode on complex pronoun systems!”)

[PREV LOG] [TABLE OF CONTENTS] [NEXT LOG]

[simptasia]

May I request buffy for the dashboard osmosis if you haven't seen it? Or if you have then steven universe

i'll do buffy

isabel, i like and respect you. but i hear about buffy a lot on tvtropes (in fact tvtropes started as a buffy fansite??) and almost everything i hear sounds... bad. it sounds like a cringe show. i'm sorry

i haven't seen it at all so thats not fair of me. but. yeah

or maybe the show isn't cringe but the fandom is. or both. hmm

buffy the vampire slayer was a 90s supernatural show made by joss whedon at his peak LOOK IM A FEMINIST fuckery

it stars sarah michelle gellar (who i know primarily as daphne in the live action scooby doo movies, and that bitch from cruel intentions) as buffy summers. and she's The Slayer. slayers are like chosen ones, and its a title thats passed on for i dunno hundreds of years

slayers... slay vampires, i presume

she talks in a specific manner hence the trope Buffy Speak. it's basically like a weird simple talky thingy (that was buffy speak)

one of the characters is willow rosenberg played by allison hannigan. and as a bi activist engrossed with fiction, i have certainly heard of this character. basically, she's the poster child for The 90s Being Weird About Bisexuality. as she was into dudes and then she's into a girl and the show is weird about it and she's Suddenly Lesbian. and like, yes, lesbians discovering themselves after dating dudes is totally a thing but thats not the logic being used here, it's just awkward biphobia. oh yes. i've heard much about willow and tara

tho, willow/tara is a case of Fair For It's Day

seth green played oz, a sardonic werewolf of little words. he was the dude willow was into before her bisexuality activated

david borealis and james marsters are angel and spike, they're two vampires that buffy is super into and i get the vibe that their love triangle is like a Big Thing in this show and/or the fandom. angel is the "good" one, spike is the bad one. i read that buffy and spike raped each other (with the buffy raping spike being played for laughs because life is a fucking nightmare). so that's fucked

angel got his own spin off called angel and one time angel became a muppet in it. i approve

angel is one of those brooding "i can never be good, theres no hope for me" types of vampires. the kinda guy tailored for certain women to be like "ohhh i can fix him" or whatever. it's kinda funny. on the flipside i assume spike is for the "mmm i don't wanna fix him" types

this is before this type of thing was subject to parody

there's some blando guy named xander, i think he's a nerd and meant to be an audience self insert. i've seen ppl say he has nice guy syndrome but i dunno how true that is. dunno who plays him

anthony head plays rupert giles, he's the exposition and mentor dude. makes dry remarks and spouts encouragement, i think

charmed, a show i love, apparently stole buffy's vibes a lot

buffy is the first show where somebody used google as a verb. as in "googled"

theres a musical episode wherein dancer and singer hilton battle Absolutely Fucks. oh and everybody has musical numbers, including one that ends with tara levitating from cunnilingus. this was noteworthy because sapphic characters being sexual was actually rare in mainstream media in the 90s. again, fair for it's day

oh, this is a monster of the week show where some overarching story each season. doug jones made a few appearances

i get the impression that buffy is one of those shows that has good actors and concepts but fucky writing. it happens, i feel you

is buffy a cheerleader or did i imagine that. i might be thinking of heroes (which also suffered from great acting, fucky writing)

anyways thank you for your time