#anyway. would i fuck hbomberguy. well-

[ghostcrows]

almost 2 hours into new hbomberguy video and ive started to get distracted by his chest hair

[zapsoda]

hullo love. as i may quote les mis, Tell me quickly what's the story / Who saw what and why and where / Let him give a full description / Let him answer to Javert!, what is going on with the essayists/hbomberguy/plagiatists? im not familiar with that side of usamerican youtube game but im all for the tea

so hbomberguy is a youtube man (i am not an avid viewer but he is leftish and makes long video essays so hes PRETTY popular on here) the other day he dropped a long ass video about plagiarism on youtube, totally pwning an assortment of youtubers ranging in popularity.

among them, the most notable are illuminaughti, internet historian, and james somerton.

illuminaughti is/was a youtuber who would shift from popular topic to popular topic for clout. eventually she landed on video essays which she would churn out on the regs

she was/still is in a contraversy which started because she accused another youtuber of "stealing" her "editing style," because HIS editor asked HER editor how to do some fucking generic video effects. this, obviously, was stupid.

hbomberguy took the opportunity on twitter to point out her directly lifting words from a documentary she based one of her own videos on, without direct credit (it was just a fucking link to the documentary in a google doc in the description), thus making it appear as if those were her own words.

then, her former friends started calling her out for weird vindictive shit behind the scenes, but its 3 peoples word against hers and not interesting enough to be anyone elses business.

anyways, hbomberguy covered all her plagiarism stuff (she has done this several times lol) in further detail within the video.

the next one was internet historian.

you might have heard of him, he makes videos i think. (i am... less familiar with him lmao.) i think hes known for his distinct matpat-esque animation style and his collabs, making him pretty well respected among youtubers i think?

so he made a video called "man in cave" which was VERY popular. he went all out with the animation and told a vivid tale of a certain man who got trapped in a cave.

suddenly though, this VERY popular video disappeared without a trace. it had seemingly been taken down for youtube copyright reasons... as you can imagine this is very vague, and Usually when this happens its over some complete and utter bullshit, so people were inclined to side with him, yet, strangely, he made no efforts to rectify this "mistake" on youtubes part.... hm....

later, he silently reuploads it, unlisted. yet. somethings different.... this isnt quite the same video. the language has been changed in many places, the writing is significantly worse. some bits have been cut entirely. and in the description, he thanks a certain mentalfloss article written by lucas reilly for "inspiring" him....

upon a cursory look through the article, something becomes readily apparent. the structure of the youtube video, an hour by hour retelling- the vivid descriptions which made the original video what it was, they all originated in this article published years ago.

i cannot relay this without mentioning how much worse internet historians writing was despite it being stolen. see, he would embellish and change certain things to make it less blatantly obvious he was lifting the whole thing (including... facts about the story.... lmao) and he would do so BADLY. very badly.

hbomberguy went into FAR more depth about this, even doing side by side comparisons of the article to his video with animations pointing out the bits he altered.

but the video wasnt really about any of those people, they were just setting the stage. they were giving you a taste of plagiarism in action, how and why people do it, and how they try to cover it.

by far, the main event was a gay youtuber who talks about gay things by the name of james somerton.

im actually only like halfway through his section lol.

it seems to me that he plagiarizes every aspect of his videos, like he googles the topics he wants to talk about, finds an article, and then reads that but changes the words here and there.

the only original words in his videos that ive seen were REALLY odd transphobia and misogyny that he would pepper in or go off in tangents about. he misgendered two trans writers (Rebecca Sugar and ND Stevenson) and called becky abertelli straight, specifically calling them straight women writing about their cutesy idealized version of gay mens lives. actually fucking identical to the shit open transphobes say about transmasculine people.

whats worse is becky abertelli CAME OUT because she was forced to by people harrassing, doxing, and threatening her for the crime of being a closeted woman writing about gay characters!

after being called out multiple times (and sending his fans after the individuals calmly addressing his plagiarism) he started OCCASIONALLY using credit in the descriptions, or saying he "based" his work on theirs.

he doesnt do this when he thinks he can get away with it though

hbomberguy does these incredible visuals dividing up transcripts of james videos based on where each section was lifted from

thats as far as ive gotten anyways!!

[weaselbeaselpants]

How and why Lily is a bad fan and an even worse critic

I want to get this rant thing over and done with as it's not about Lily Orchard being an actual depolorable person, just more rants about her bad takes and bad criticisms;

In case you didn't know, Poppy and Zena of TransGirlTherapy have interviewed Lily's sibling Courtney and a few other victims; I saw someone in their chat for the stream of it try and post about Lily's infamous writing tips and I just really REALLY want to put a big divider up right now between mine and other people's comparatively lowstakes beef w her and these very serious allegations. I'd be horrified by them even if they were of a creator I loved; these are not funny and ranting ontop of Lily's rants should be a few steps down from the really important stuff that needs to be addressed w her. So with all that being said:

I think her outdated "SU is Garbage and here’s Why" video is a great encapsulation of everything wrong with Lily Orchard’s critical theory, attitude, and brand. 

The whole video lacks a real thesis statement for an essaybreakdown. It feels really just like a woman having a giant fan rant at a show she used to like but now doesn’t-- because, that is what it is. BUT, that isn’t easy to listen to. Lefttuber or not, other essayist/watchalongs/media analysis-channels who talk about a thing for five hours will at least try and make their feelings actually collected. Hbomberguy’s Sherlock vid, YMS’s Kimbaspiracy debacle, Lindsay Ellis’ Hobbit three parter; all these vids are glorified fan rants extended to hours long and flowered with essay reasoning and research. They work because they're self-aware that they're taking the thing they are looking at too seriously but are committing anyway and preferably having some kind of fun or skill doing so, which is why I love to watch these kinds of videos. Lily Orchard’s thoughts all feel way too sporadic and focused on being spicy rather than coming together, and that hurts her point because it makes even her most serious call out against SU feel petty. 

She gets stuff wrong. Concrete was designed by black artist Lamar Abrams, not Rebecca Sugar who is white. Ftr I’m not pointing that out as some kind of “got you/can’t complain/Sugar never did anything wrong”-clap back; It’s just a fact. AND a missed oppertunity on Lily's part bcuz she could have pointed out how, even if Concrete wasn’t designed by Sugar, it was her in control of the artbook+ Rebecca’s drawn questionable depictions of black people before w she herself is not black and doesn’t get a ‘my friend is-’ clearance just because, and finally just the fact that +the white SU fandom dismissing this problem because they don’t want to be critical about their show.

That Lily doesn’t go into this counter-counter argument whatsoever tells me Lily’s true intentions: and that’s not to point out potential racism in the show, but to dunk on Sugar even more. Lily’s entire point about Concrete, as well as her handling of the poorly handled subjects in the show like the Human Zoo, which other critics, fans and critical fans have done a much better job at breaking down, all of it feels less like a beatdown of how problematic something is but her trying to spin Sugar into the worst fucking person because she wants to hate her. Nowhere is that more clear than in her now infamous ending shade abt Sugar being a fascist.

No, Lily did not literally call Sugar an actual Nazi. Her exact words on screen were a joking “do I think she is one, nah; would I think she is one w/o context? Yeah”.

In an alt timeline I wouldn’t think anything of this take. I get that Lily was trying to hyperbolic and relishing in her self aware pettiness -kinda like how Hbomber is with his over-the-top hatred of Steven Moffat- The issue is we don’t live in an alt timeline. Lily didn’t see how people were taking her too seriously and/or acting like Sugar was a nezi on her behalf +care that her edgy joke at the end of her rant could do some real damage, or even care that it just didn’t look good on her. She didn’t reupload the vid with a disclaimer tacked on, she didn’t tack on a pinned comment; she didn't write down a longer video disc to explain herself.

Instead she threw everyone who might have gotten perturbed by this comment under the bus, said it was all our own faults, and made it very clear she was not going to apologize for it.

Do u dislike ppl treating Sugar like she’s a Nazi and want to discourage that behavior, even in small ways? Fuck you. You’re a stan cuz Lily said so.

Are you Jewish and maybe think implying those exact words are uncalled for? Eat shit! Lily knows better than you and can talk about your life and issues better than you can because other gentiles who aren’t her have failed to do so….which means she’s actually speaking truth????

Lily Orchard could never eat a slice of humble pie and admit that she made a mistake because the only people who’ve ever criticized her and gotten real attention for it are part of the problem (i.e. 4chan, ED). Vaush type commentary bros who keep fucking misgendering her and taking more issue w her leftism that her authoritarianism.

'If obviously she has nothing to apologize for and she is totally over the accusations or her making accusations…which is why she keeps alluding to SU being fascist as a “joke”. The 'joke is on Sugar and all the people who could possibly be offended by Lily’s coining of what’s fascist so…it’s not really a self aware joke at all. She’s still going “harr harr, it’s YOUR fault that you read my comment that way and also who cares it’s not serious. RSugar is tumblr famous which means she’s a millionaire and can’t face harassment.” Tl;dr : Lily got flaq for going too far with a point and rather than just apologizing like a grown up, doubled down.

The reason Natalie (who doesn’t even cover media why is Lily so invested in Contrapoints???wv) and Lindsay will always be better yts than Lily is because they at least try to take some ownership of what they say. Does that always excuse them? No. Are they maybe still a little too apologetic of those on their side? Maybe. But all that is leagues above what Lily doesn't even attempt to do.

Fandoms, people, creators, ships and characters are punching bags to Lily Orchard. She can’t just dislike Rebecca Sugar because for the valid reasons ppl have w Sugar, which there are a LOT of- Lily has to make Sugar, and anyone who doesn’t find her joke at Sugar’s expense, into the worst possible thing. 

Lily can not make a joke or a real criticism to save her life. She is only venom and she has to double down on her points until they have no meaning. Lily Orchard’s activism and analysis aren’t about the things she says she’s fighting against; they’re about her and how everyone who dislikes her is the same kind of awful person and deserving of scorn for disagreeing with her. Lily’s the kind of person who abuses selfcare that good people get from watching Monica Lewinski’s Tedtalk, and basically came out the other end with an “I’m right and shouldn’t apologize for anything EVER”.

[pseudonymousposting]

Just use the word from before. You don't really need to worry about having a different word for everything unless the difference serves a purpose.

If your story is first person or primarily follows a specific POV or is told by a specific narrator, wouldn't it make sense that the storyteller is not a walking dictionary?

When people speak, they tend to have patterns anyway, and you don't notice them unless you're looking for it. I can refer to Hbomberguy's bit in his plagiarism video where he mentions that an AI asked to write a segment in his style uses the words, "buckle up." This points to how he uses that phrase often.

He jokes that this is because he's bad at writing. I beg to differ. The consistent use is really fucking good, actually, and I hope he doesn't correct for it in the future.

The pattern, when used specifically by him, has certain implications that will prompt a fan of his videos to notice when he is making a salient point integral to the theme he is conveying throughout the entire video. You also know that the example he is about to use is probably pretty goddamn funny, or notable, or egregious. Maybe you noticed that before. Maybe. If you've watched all of his videos, like twice each, at least.

If you're a fan of Dimension 20, it's quite likely you know all the words Brennan Lee Mulligan uses ALL the time.

Rad

INcredible

Hell yeah

All are little communicators from him as a DM. They're used so often, even casual watchers meme about it. Also Matt Mercer saying "how do you want to do this." Also make note, if Brennan Lee Mulligan starts monologuing with a question, brace yourself.

The use of these common, consistent, repetitive phrases actually communicates more. It would be ridiculous if Brennan Lee Mulligan got shy about using the same term and clumsily said "inferno affirmative," or something. Unless he was purposely doing it as a clunky bit just for laughs, and even then, doing it unprompted would just get a blank stare at this point. The repetition has a benefit, not a deficit.

Your peerless vocabulary is not the most important component of your craft. Your story is. Care less about finding a million different words to say the same thing, and focus more on saying what you need to say. Story good, not word good.

When people read a story, they might say "the plot was well constructed." Or, "the suspense kept me on my seat." Or, "I laughed so hard."

You know what they won't say? "There's was a nice diversity of words there. The writer did a good job of making sure they didn't use a word twice on a given page." I'd argue that if that's what a reader notices, the writer failed to craft a good story.

Complimenting a person on their extensive vocabulary is more a thing an adult does for a 'gifted' child. It's better to write an excellent narrative at a 3rd grade reading level than to write a bad story at a collegiate level.

Hell, it's better to write a good story at a 3rd grade level than it is to even write an amazing story at a collegiate level. You're communicating. Make sure you are doing so effectively first and foremost. Everything else is just fluff.

This falls in line with the thing where people will try to cap off quotes with unnecessary modifiers where "said" does just fine and is almost invisible. Y'know, the ol' "'snape!' Slughorn ejaculated." Why say many words when few words do trick, eh?

Not to say finding the right synonym isn't useful. Sometimes, a synonym carries specific implications or a slightly different meaning more suited to that particular use case. In this case, that synonym might actually be a better fit to serve your purpose.

Alternatively, it's possible the character could be more likely to use that word over another for any particular reason. It can speak to who they are in a way that can help you avoid a little exposition here and there. Hell, using outdated terms might do the same.

For example, a now deceased man who was an instructor before I flunked out of college, who was nearly 90 years old. I think he sometimes used stories from his career to try and provide a point without giving answers.

He started one such story with "there was this guy I worked with a long time ago. He was uh ambidextrous, yknow what I mean? Uhh, he was a switch-hitter or a uhh..a bisexual..."

I'm not gonna lie, I was fucking awestruck at the term "switch-hitter," referencing bisexuality. That term instantly made me a patriot for about two weeks. I'd never heard anything more apple-pie, bald eagle with a single tear, and inside the tear, you can see the twin towers, Ole Glory waving proudly in the background with fireworks bursting over the top motherfuckin AMERICA than "switch-hitter" meaning "bisexual" holy shit.

Anyway, shortening things, I flunked out, met my abuser, and fled town because I just couldn't live in the same town as them anymore. He called to check on me.

He told me he keyed in that something was wrong and felt the need to check in. He believed my story. He said a lot that helped me with my recovery.

Part of my story involved the fact that I'm trans, as queer relationship dynamics were, like, central to the abuse. Interestingly, unlike many people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, this man pushing his 90s understood every single damn word of what I was saying.

I bring up this story because of the synonyms he uses and how we can think about their use in context. My mind trails back to the term "switch hitter," a 1960s slang term for bisexual used right after "Ambidextrous," an earlier term. Of course, the man immediately understood all this queer mumbo-jumbo I was saying and didn't flinch even a little about my being trans.

However, its use from a 90-year-old right after "ambidextrous" tells an entirely different story. It drops a hint that this guy may have been, at the very least, accepting of people who were involved in the gay rights movement during the time.

Desperately seeking a synonym for "bisexual" might yield you to terms which are today potentially offensive or harmful, but before the 1970s were descriptors that bisexuals would sometimes use to describe themselves. So, depending on who uses that term, it could be harmful, or it could be someone who fought against that harm long before that term ever had potential negative implications.

Also, note how many times I just said, "bisexual?" Did it feel repetitive? Probably not.

If the use of the synonym serves no purpose other than feeling like you need to use a different word, consider, "Why am I really looking for a synonym, here?" If it doesn't serve a specific purpose, then feel free to just use whatever word makes sense. If it matters for one reason or another, use that. Just use what works. This ain't a vocabulary test. You don't need to impress your middle school English teacher anymore. You're free.

[corpsegirl-sarah]

favourite content creators?

Video essays are more or less my bread and butter when it comes to online content so don't expect much else from this list, and tbh my tastes are pretty basic, mostly people whose numbers are above a million, so don't expect to find much of anything you haven't heard before (but I will include short pitches and specific video recommendations anyway, just in case)

Jacob Geller is by far my number one and I highly doubt there's anyone out there that can surpass him for me, I basically always come out of his videos with a new perspective on some topic or another (especially his video on modern art that made me do a complete 180)

Everyone was talking about him recently cause of the plagiarism video but hbomberguy is pretty cool outside of that too. He does media analysis too, I really enjoy his video on Pathologic, but I will admit I find his documentary style videos more interesting

I can also recommend Super Eyepatch Wolf, who has the skill to make me actually care about wrestling, if that's what he chooses to cover, if only for the duration of the video's runtime. Generally I would describe him as "guy rambles about his interests (most of the time video games or anime) at you for an hour in a way that makes the excitement infectious". There is some analysis, it's not just plot synopsis type stuff, but it's not the most in-depth thing out there.

My 4th shoutout is going to the only thing I regularly engage with that isn't video essays, music, and it's gonna be someone I've mentioned a good few times before. Check this out, try to solve the very difficult mystery of why someone whose whole identity revolves around the concept of undeath would vibe with it, and then listen to the rest of GHOST's music cause it all fucks

My 5th and final recommendation is back to video essay land and is gonna be Maraganger (who's the only one mentioned here I wouldn't consider all that well known), and I will suggest not one but two videos this time because of the relative obscurity of the channel: this video on Hylics and this video on my favorite set of visual novels, that I often call the bag of milk games. The channel often covers niche and/or obscure games, often in the horror genre.

There, that's like 4 hours just from the videos I specifically told you to watch, go have fun and check out everything else on their channels if you aren't familiar with them already

[kob131]

Hbomberguy and RWBY Part 1: “Anime Homework”

“Well, how about you actually attack Hbomberguy’s actual point?”

...Okay then.

Let’s do his ‘Anime Homework’ section then shall we, since that seems to be the one everyone points to as his best one.

His point here is that RWBY effectively rip offs other anime and shows and thus has no identity. He even brings up specific examples in the timeframe like Adam being similar to Amon from Legend Of Korra, Ozpin to the Avatar and Jaune to Sokka.

... Thing is-

A. The similarity between Amon and Adam is ‘Masked man with scar beneath who is a part of a political movement going against discrimination’. But anyone familiar with Korra would know that Amon’s scar is FAKE, that he is a part of the so-called ‘oppressors’, that Amon genuinely believed in his movement’s cause, his movement was original, the non-benders are never actually shown to be oppressed whereas Adam is NONE of these things. The only thing they have in common is they were a mask, are revolutionaries and have a dick. I didn’t know Amon was ripping off V from V for Vendetta too.

(Even their MASKS are different for fuck’s sake)

B. Ozpin and King Piccolo is that they ‘reincarnate into a different form upon dying’.

... Wait, I said ‘King Piccolo’, didn’t I? I meant to say Kid Buu. ... No wait, that’s actually Naruto and Sasuke ... No wait, that’s the Sailor Girls from Sailor Moon. ... Actually it’s the cast of Yugioh-

Are you starting to see my point? This is a BASIC trope that is used in a multitude of ways, to the point the trope itself is no longer a point of comparison. Just analysis HOW the trope works: The Avatar reincarnates from death into a new person at birth in a specific order as a natural part of their existence while Ozpin reincarnates into an existing person with no set rules on who as part of an outside force.

C. At first, the Sokka and Jaune comparison seems to actually hold water, given both are targets of abuse by the narrative, who want to get stronger for reasons related to family (vastly different in purpose, effect and meaning), have strong tactical leanings and-

BTW I am doing this all on my own here- Harris doesn’t connect them in anyway other than ‘SOKKA WAS A SEXIST!’ and concludes that’s the point of Jaunedice. ... Even though Jaune’s arc was that needing help wasn’t a negative trait (which the show all but SAID but Harris doesn’t even understand why someone would want to prove themselves so...)

And even then, Jaune and Sokka develop differently and would live different live given Jaune’s love interest is DEAD. Sokka keeps his comedic elements and mixes them with his growth whereas Jaune more becomes a voice of reason, an opposition to Ozpin and a grounded leader as his comedic elements are phased out.

This is Harris’ criticism in a nutshell- shallow and ill thought out that’s dressed up in a British accent to sound good. His whole point is ‘RWBY DOESN’T DO ANYTHING ORIGINAL!’ while blatant ignoring RWBY’s own use of these tropes in differing ways. He just points to general tropes most of the time (other examples include ‘girl with scythe’ using Maka from Soul Eater and ‘Travel the world’ with Avatar) and paints it in a coat of ‘Fuck Miles!’ to disguise how bullshit this is.

And you can’t excuse it by saying I just attacked him.

[tanadrin]

@iracher

Tumblr recommended me your post and I just got really interested in what game writing do you think is good? (im really interested bc I love rpgs) I think pillars of eternity did a good job to let you roleplay whatever. I hate inquisition tho, I dont understand why would MC help chantry =\

i’m gonna use this opportunity to vent about inquisition for a sec, because although it has features i like, it also has features that bug the shit out of me.

i like that the DA franchise doesn’t have a single protagonist--having multiple main characters you play as lets them tell discrete stories and keeps you from omnicompetent hero syndrome, where a characters feels like a mary sue just because they have the lifetime accomplishments of like six people (i’m look at you, Star Wars Expanded Universe). the worldbuilding isn’t great--it’s mostly ISO standard fantasy--but it’s OK, it has some original bits (the qunari are great for this), and it’s a fun enough place to run around in.

but they clearly want the chantry to be the local catholic church expy, with all that entails for a modern popular audience--dogmatic, often militant, strictly hierarchical. as a result, they’re sort of intrinsically organizationally unsympathetic. and then in DA:I they borrow the name “inquisition” to continue the medieval aesthetic, except the actual historical inquisition is monstrously unsympathetic, especially to a modern audience, and the name doesn’t even really make sense? and why should an independent organization trying to save the world from disaster be affiliated with the chantry anyway? and why are you the head of it? just because you have a magic hand? idk, it’s all quite weak justification to get the setup they want, and even then it takes way too long to establish all this in-game. it would make a lot more sense if you were already a minor-but-significant political or religious figure of some sort, but mostly you’re just Some Guy/Girl.

boring fantasy writing by committee is the worst kind of fantasy writing.

my absolutely favorite all-time RPG is the original Deus Ex. it’s so old now it’s probably hard to look at unless you’ve got some intense nostalgia goggles on, but it had extremely fun gameplay (the genre is sometimes called “immersive sim,” i think, and it’s one that’s kind of rare nowadays; hbomberguy talks a little about its history in his hilariously long video on Human Revolution), and i thought the writing was great.

not to say it doesn’t have weird bits and bits that fall flat. but it had ideas, and it was willing to try them, even if they didn’t always work. it’s a heady mix of 90s conspiracism, cyberpunk, and weird political tangents and digressions that you don’t get anywhere else, not even in its direct sequels. it also prefigured in a dreamlike way the next 20 years of political and social development with uncanny accuracy, as if Warren Spector had a vision of how the 21st century would go but could only half-remember it in the morning. and the soundtrack slaps so fucking hard it’s unreal.

otherwise, i generally prefer RPGs with tons of visual character customization and dialogue. which is to say i liked most of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (never played the third one). the character-level interactions often felt strong and satisfying, even if the plot as a whole wasn’t super well-written. i actually think that lower-level element of writing is more important--i can forgive a dumb plot around a macguffin or a threat to the universe, but not boring character interactions. this is something skyrim was bad at; for open-world RPGs, Fallout: New Vegas does it considerably better, although my only real complaint about that game is that i like having a fully-voiced protagonist.

[otteroflore]

extremely stupid things from the movie belle (2021) that made me go "well a lot of people also liked Clerks 2 so humans aren't really viable as a species" -hbomberguy

spoilers ahead

-starts in media rez, followed by immediate flashback to protags childhood and how she got here. literally "i bet youre wondering how i got here" and its long

-extremely confusing timeline of events. did the protag go viral just once? has she sung multiple "concerts"? why does her friend describe herself as a "producer" when it wasn't obvious she was involved?

-literally its like you see her have her first "concert" singing in public, 2nd concert on a whale, and then 3rd concert in a big dome

-the way her mother died is extremely silly to watch. it feels like a parody. literally everyone is standing and watching as she apparently gets swept away by a river. its just nonsense and embarassing

-THE POPULAR GIRL PLAYS THE SAX its very funny and kind of good actually but its also ridiculous

-exactly no interaction between her and Dragon before she goes to find him

-she's like "i want to know you" about the Dragon when she has literally like never spoken to him before??? all he did was break into her concert??? its not even clear why hes there and it doesnt seem like it has to do with her specifically??

- "when i studied abroad in ohio" line which was funny but then transitioned to "he was in eighth grade" which later felt like extremely weird foreshadowing

-the guy she eventually has a crush on (that all the other girls love) is like not a character and barely says anything for 75% of the film

-the scenes with the high school social media risk board was fun but it waws also like. a comical parody of what adults assume high school is like when teens have phones.

-THE PLOT TWIST ABOUT CHILD ABUSE???

-i mean id figured it would be about abuse i just didnt think it would be that some random fucking kid was being abused and theyd see it all on camera

-the whole time im watching im like CALL THE COPS

-"you have to wait 48 hours to do a wellness check" um i call bullshit, they have video footage of a guy threatening a child, they could have tried harder to like. tell cops to go there. i mean i know its not american cops but jesus christ they probably have child protective laws in japan right

-anyways and then they do a fucking CONCERT. a fucking CONCERT while there are children who are being abused to convince the kids to trust them. god its so uncomfortable knowing that. also more uncomfortable that they dont just??? explain that to the "internet cop" guys??? like "hey we really need to help this abused child can you assist since you know the Voices"

-anD THEN. AND THEN THE ADULTS LET THE TEENAGER GO ON A TRAIN. BY HERSELF. i was literally screaming the whole time WHY ARE YOU LETTING HER DO THIS. theyre like "we trust you :)" um why are you letting a teenager go alone to the house of a violent, unstable man in another city

-its insane there are 5 adults and 3 other teens with her and she goes ALONE

-after the dramatic standoff scene the kid says like her singing made him feel stronger or whatever but like.. nothing materially changes in his life

-in fact she just goes home and its unclear that literally anything happened with that man who did actually assault her.

-the film did not give any evidence that child protective services (or whatever the equivalent is in japan) is helping those kids

what the fuck did i just watch

tonight me and my partner watched Belle (2021)

it was so impressively, astonishingly bad, badly written, paced, literally the only good thing about it was the special effects

it apparently has a 95% on rotten tomatoes

literally how

[aceofshitposts]

oh lmao well worth a shot I guess. ty for the polite response though. any particular reason for hating it, just out of curiosity? 💞💞

honestly this video explains it better than i could in a fun engaging way: sherlock is garbage and here's why by hbomberguy

but spoilers for the series. a too long didn't watch of non spoilery stuff:

over produced (we do not need that many arc shots, we do not need a matrix journey into sherlock's 'mind palace')

bad faith interpretation of sherlock holmes in. several places

irene adler. just. all of that

moffet's favourite thing to do at cons is make fun of how much fans like and want to engage with the show

cumberbatch is acephobic (to be fair, this is potentially old information. it was [checks notes] over ten years ago lmao but as far as i know he hasn't said anything against his previous stance on asexuality so.)

i just do not like freeman. the vibes do not jive with me

treats the viewers as ultimately stupid, we never get a chance to solve the mysteries in the show ourselves, instead sherlock will eventually say he has the answer, then he'll refuse to tell anyone until the moment that would make him look best lmao

like. listen i just hate shows that are about mysteries or like... chess, just for example and no reason at all, and they refuse to treat the audience with any faith. they don't SHOW us why the characters are smart they just continuously TELL us the characters are smart and expect us to be impressed

queer baiting (this feels weird to say because of the actual watering down of this phrase by younger fans using it to mean 'any time my ship wasn't canon' and the like no it was real this time)

moffet loves to tease something interesting and then it'll never happen because he got another season and therefore doesn't actually have to answer the question he posed at the end of the last season that got you interested in watching the next season in the first place

anyway. i did enjoy the first.... two seasons when they first came out but even by the end of season two i was starting to see things that just. weren't engaging. the writing wasn't there. and i already knew about moffet and cumberbatch's disdain for their fans so. sour taste and all that.

the more i say things about sherlock the more i realize sherlock was just the warning for what would become the mcu. god. rest in fucking pieces.

[storm-of-feathers]

Alex hi coucou I just had - not an epiphany but some kind of realisation. I have not watched RWBY I do not plan on watching RWBY the only things I know about RWBY come from Hbomberguy's video and your posts. Now I watched his video before I saw you post about it, so my first instinct was "well Hbomberguy has good points on lots of other media so...?" but well you're talking about the whole thing and he's talking about the first few volumes so that probably changes things and also. There's the way you talk about RWBY. You talk about it like people with Correct Opinions™ in my little Star Wars bubble talk about the Jedi. So I know nothing about RWBY and I will never know anything about it. But your posts evoke a deep kinship in me because going "[name the fandom has given the group of people who don't get it] will say that [wild misinterpretation of canon a 10 year old would not make] and explain it with [one (1) singular cherry-picked moment that is also misinterpreted] and then act like they're good at analysis?? Did we watch the same thing???" just reminds me of home. For all I know you have terrible opinions but I actually will never know and your plight resonates with me. I think it's the fact you so clearly love the show despite anything it might not have executed well? I'll automatically side with anyone with an attitude of love towards something because that's what's fun. Why would you spend your time saying so and so sucks when you could find the things you like and have fun with them in your corner. Why shit on stuff you don't like all day long. People who try to understand what the story is about and wants to tell them and love it despite its flaws my beloved. We do not know each other's fandoms and yet we have the same attitude of love. I am waving at you from the other side of the Tumblr. Hope you have a great day.

I never did watch HBomberGuys video </3 Joe said he had some valid points but I love RWBY far too much to yk. Listen to it. Anyways.

Yeah. RWBY means the WORLD to me. And while there is a lot of valid criticism (especially for volumes 4 and 5) a lot of the criticism I do see is just. Not valid. Like at all. It's a lot of "I sure do hate women" in more words than that.

My most recent argument was about the protagonist herself, Ruby. One of the STRENGTHS of RWBY is the fact that Ruby is presented as a "smaller, more honest soul." Her kindness and genuinity and true belief in doing the right thing BECAUSE it's the right thing is among her best traits as a character. And the show absolutely shows that, over and over.

So when people say she's "screwing people over" it's genuinely just BAFFLING. Especially about characters like ironwood, who absolutely screwed himself over and is also a military dictator.

And yeah the RWDE people are just. Equally as baffling. I get it, they hate the show, but holy shit don't they have?? Idk lives??? Something to make them HAPPY????

I feel you bro. Idk much about star wars outside of the memes but I feel you. I feel what it's like when you love a media so fucking much and people hate on it for generally invalid reasons. I feel it.

I love you <3 coucou!!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Weird q..but i really dont understand why most fans hate season 4, especially the last episode. Why? I think it gave us a deeper look on both sherlock and mycroft! I felt it tells a lot about mycroft how he had to step in and take control of things ever since he was a kid himself. Also he is not a robot or a killer. Also redbeard thing. It was an appropriate deep psychological trauma (cause most shows usually disappoint in that area). I am not trying to impose my opinion. Just want to understand

Hey Nonny!

It’s all good, and I totally respect your opinion and how you enjoyed S4! It’s totally okay! I know that there are quite a few who got a lot of of S4, and who genuinely enjoyed it.

Sadly, I am not one of those people, and I’ll try to be as diplomatic a possible in my response, but PLEASE know that I don’t think you’re “terrible” or “stupid” for liking S4 because I DO get passionate sometimes in my responses, and I’m just merely speaking as someone who studied the series very closely for quite a long time before S4 aired, and as someone who knows Day-One-ers (ie., people who watched Sherlock on its day one airdate) who also are a large majority of the people who did not like S4. This is just me simply stating why I didn’t like it, but it’s different for everyone.

Stating what I DO like: The acting and cinematography of the first two episodes were brilliant for what they had to work with, and I’ve never faulted any of the actors for the flaws of S4. And for TFP, they did the best with what they had to work with.

That’s… pretty much all I really liked about S4.

Now, here’s my problems with S4:

Nothing made a LICK of sense to the narrative that they were telling in Seasons prior. 

This series was always based a bit in reality, and suddenly everything became comic-book rules: X-Men villains, shitty “redemption” arc, destroying favourite characters just for drama, ludicrous physics, explosions that only destroyed one small room in an apt where in previous episodes one explosion destroyed an entire block, etc.

Sherlock was OOC.

Mary was being built up to be a fantastic villain? Ah, nope, here’s the lacklustre twist where tee hee Mary’s just an assassin with a heart of gold that still emotionally abuses Sherlock and John and just won’t fucking stay dead.

And speaking of this, the DVD’s make NO LOGICAL SENSE unless she was planning to kill herself

AND she tries to make her death equatable to Sherlock’s??

Everyone was RIDICULOUSLY out of character in TFP, I’m so sorry: Mycroft is a bumbling coward for the most part, Sherlock disregards John when he gives the Vatican Cameos warning, the Holmes Parents are assholes because Mycroft COULDN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM WHEN HE WAS 12?? ARE YOU SERIOUS???? And that creepy Moriarty / Eurus thing, and LITERALLY they’re implying that EVERYTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE EURUS DIDN’T GET A HUG. Like, I’m so sorry, but that’s lazy writing.

And don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of the entire character of Eurus. She LITERALLY had X-Men powers, and like… just nothing made sense. Her involvement in the entirety of S4 MADE NO SENSE. Why go back to prison if you can get out?? WHAT IS THE POINT?? AND I repeat: She did all this because she didn’t get a hug. Yes. I’m oversimplifying, but at the base level, that’s what it was, because she wanted Sherlock’s attention. Welcome to the club, kid, stand in line, everyone on the SHOW wants his attention.

The ENTIRE plot of the first 2 seasons got wiped out all because it wasn’t Moriarty who was interested in Sherlock, but Eurus?? What… What about Carl Powers?? Like…. the ENTIRETY of season one and TGG makes no sense now, because of that one 5 minute scene where Eurus “enlists” Moriarty. I… ugh.

The SUDDEN tonal switch from kind-of Sherlock to James Bond, for some fucking reason.

And on that note, how terribly lazy and cheap TFP looks in comparison to the other two episodes. The whole episode looks like it was filmed in a small house with 4 identical rooms.

EVERYTHING that was etablished in 2 episodes prior were COMPLETELY forgotten when Mary was “shot”.

The complete character assassination of one loyal blogger John H Watson in favour of Mary for some fucked up reason, even though AT HIS OWN WEDDING HE COULDN’T STAND BEING AROUND MARY. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for one damned second that John would EVER forgive Mary for murdering his best friend after seeing what it did to him. That’s not love from her, and that’s NOT John’s character EVER in the ENTIRETY of the series.

And speaking of character assassinations, Molly’s character being devolved to S1E1 Molly, where instead of giving her agency like they were doing with her the ENTIRE series, so much so that Sherlock picked up on her dominance enough to give her a big role in his mind palace in HLV and TAB, only to make her a sad little self-insert Mary Sue pining for the main character, and in turn made Sherlock a TERRIBLE human being for MAKING HER say what she did. It’s gross.

AND speaking of Molly’s character, they’ve been setting up Mollstrade since as early as ASiB, but I guess that plot line got shafted. Look I LOVE Hopkins, and I am ANGRY they didn’t give her more than 3 fucking lines in the entirety of ONE episode after HEAVILY promoting her actress and character, but they essentially reduced her to a piece of ass for Lestrade to chase. AND THAT’S NOT HIS CHARACTER EITHER. EW GROSS.

The constant plot holes being gaped wide open, and the Chekov’s gun moments where they bring up shit but do nothing with it!! 

TD-12? Nope, just a lame reference to a story we like. 

John got shot at the end of TLD with a VERY REAL FUCKING GUN? Nope, it was a dart gun. 

John not suddenly knowing how to be a doctor.

The TGG one I mentioned up above. 

What was in the letter? And who was Anyone??

Moriarty essentially being erased as anything other than a hired thug and had no part whatsoever in Sherlock’s history. 

Eurus… Just all of her character is asinine. 

Everyone in T6T suddenly not knowing John’s the blogger, which is in direct contradiction to literally the entire series. 

The AGRA plotline was ridiculous, in the end.

Baby? What baby? It was only there when convenient.

They dropped whatever plotline they were going to do for Mycroft: He was being set up as either dying, or the villain.

Redbeard. I’m sorry, I disagree with you on that. Mofftiss is trying to tell me that a little boy fell down a well and went missing, and that WASN’T the first place searchers / the police wouldn’t have looked? Sorry, no. And then. AND THEN his parents just… go along with this thing where Sherlock shuts down and they DON’T get him therapy? Yes, I agree the mind is a funny thing, and we can be traumatised into forgetting or dissociating from traumatic events. I GET IT. But… like I don’t believe the Holmes are so heartless as to just never grieve or have memories around about their supposedly dead daughter. It’s another OCC thing for me.

John’s cheating.

Disappearing and reappearing characters, like this scene, and the entirety of the aquarium scene.

Mary and John being terrible parents

OH GOD THIS FUCKING SCENE. That bomb SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE ENTIRE BUILDING.

What… who was this girl on the plane? What? Like I know WHO, but if she’s supposed to be Eurus talking to Sherlock, why don’t we see Eurus… talking to Sherlock? I … Ugh.

NORBURY. 

The glass SUPER SECRET GOVERNMENT ROOM THAT NO ONE SHOULD SEE INTO in T6T.

Sloppy camera work that some believe was intentional, but if it wasn’t, jesus c’mon.

The RIDICULOUS amount of 4th Wall Breaking. Like… even the actors didn’t give a shit.

Essentially, everything on this list here and in this blog tag here.

And everything mentioned on these three posts:

T6T: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night 

TLD: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TFP: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

There’s SO much more I can go into, but please go through my “something’s fucky” tag in that last link.

Notice how probably 90% of that has NOTHING to do with “johnlock not becoming canon” because the Johnlockers get MONSTROUS accusations as to THAT being why we didn’t like S4, even though it was, like critically panned by the GENERAL AUDIENCE who have NO investment in the series other than “I liked it in the past”.

Two of my fave YouTubers have interesting (not perfect, but still good) takes coming at the series as casual viewers:

‘The Day Sherlock Died’ by The Closer Look

‘Sherlock is Garbage, and Here’s Why’ by hbomberguy

So it’s NOT just Johnlockers. I’ve talked to Sher1011ies at 221B con who didn’t like S4 either, because most of them realized how shitty Molly was treated in the last episode. So yeah, a big middle finger to those who think I dislike S4 because of  “no Johnlock”. No, I disliked it because I need my stories to make logical narrative sense. I disliked it because I love John and they ruined his character all for the sake of drama and because Moffat has a “hurting Ben” kink. I disliked it because Mary should NOT have been “redeemed” because she was an abuser. I disliked it because Moriarty was turned into a cartoon villain, even though he was already overused in the series. I disliked it because the core of the show – the FRIENDSHIP of Sherlock and John, and their solving mysteries together – did not exist at all. I disliked it because John got sidelined. I disliked it because TFP was a ridiculous episode that, if you replace ANY of the characters, it wouldn’t make a difference, because it didn’t feel like an episode of Sherlock. I disliked it because everyone was OOC.

Anyway. Sorry. One too many accusations my way over the past 1100+ days LOL.

As for your assessment of TFP, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you. There was no growth and actually it implies something far more sinister: That the Holmes are and were terrible parents that gave no shits about their daughter, their traumatized son, and expected their eldest to essentially be a parent. It implies that Mycroft, at 12 years old, orchestrated the ENTIRE Sherrinford thing… Look I can suspend my disbelief, but there’s limits, and this is one of them. A LITERAL CHILD. Perhaps Uncle Rudy had a hand in it somehow, but then why not shit on Uncle Rudy? Why is Mycroft blamed for it all?

Look, I don’t doubt Sherlock had a traumatic experience regarding “Redbeard”. But then why play into the fact that he was a dog? Why bring another character into the series just to have a gotcha moment? Because Mofftiss wanted a “Shyamalan twist”, that’s why. They threw EVERYTHING away for a twist ending either because they GENUINELY thought it was good, or they got tired of doing Sherlock. ALL of TFP is LITERALLY a really bad plot twist because reasons. TFP makes no sense to the ENTIRE narrative structure of the previous 12 episodes. It erased EVERYTHING from the previous episodes, and coated it with a gross closing by a character no one wanted in the series, and then tried to convince us that it’s a new beginning – “a journey they had to go through” – but it SOLVED NOTHING.

Anyway. I have big feels about S4, and the only way I can enjoy it is to watch it subtextually, but even then, I cannot sit through TFP without cringing. 

That said, Lovelies, please do not attack Nonny for enjoying S4! I know you guys won’t, but Nonny came out with an olive branch and they just want to understand why the fandom is passionate about S4′s… whatever it was. We can have a civil discussion about it, and point out – without attacking – why S4 is universally panned. It’s okay to like things no one else does, and Nonny was respectful to me in this ask! 

So with that, feel free, lovelies, to express why YOU didn’t enjoy the series, or why you did! I’m interested in both “sides” / pov’s whatever :)

[firelxdykatara]

Jenny Nicholson posted a 2 1/2-hour Vampire Diaries overview on YouTube today and you were the first person I thought of. I watched the entire thing despite only having seen about two episodes five years ago, so you'd probably get a lot more out of it than I would (although spoiler alert she was positive about the series finale, so... proceed with caution??)!

I just finished watching it, actually!

It’s funny, because I’ve been like... deep-diving into the depths of youtube and watching a lot of Jenny Nicholson videos (and also SarahZ and that ‘when posting goes wrong’ dude and hbomberguy, sidenote but i now know much more about the johnlock conspiracy and destielgate and various tumblr controversies and like msscribe shit than i ever needed to lmfao), but I took a break today to do some writing and then a friend of mine was like OH JENNY NICHOLSON’S TVD VIDEO IS UP, and I was like ‘her what???’

Anyway, needless to say I rushed right over to watch it. (I fucking screamed about like, the China Beach shit and also that weird af point-and-click game??? that was so fucking weird lmfao) I will say that while there’s a lot I disagreed with, I do have to give her some latitude because from the sound of things she watched the show almost entirely divorced from the fandom (insert ‘god i wish that were me’ meme here) and had a very surface-level reading that, I think, comes from watching it all at once and not getting embroiled in deeper meta analysis and just not caring that much about getting Deep into the show. Which I can understand, like if I hadn’t been watching tvd since fucking.... 2009 oh god I actually remember this because I started watching around when episode 5 of the first season was airing... I probably would be a lot more casual about how I read the show.

As it is, I’m an Elena stan first, last, and forever, so....yeah I don’t agree with her on everything. But I did agree in a lot of broad strokes, and I think even her ‘Elena’ section had some points to make, she just came to somewhat different conclusions than me, and part of that probably comes from my attachment to Elena and how much of that whole Situation that I saw through that lens. (And also I think she skates right around ‘Elena is a depressed and suicidal teenage girl’ but never quite arrives at that particular point and misses some of the finer points of her overall character arc.)

We did agree on some major things (like season 5 being objectively The Worst), but then she had to say things like ‘Stefan is the guy you would actually date’ (and also ‘it’s better than buffy’ which, like, careful jenny, them’s fightin words), and that was the point where I went ‘hmmmmm someone didn’t actually take time to think through his relationship to Elena and put a lot of the not-so-great points together’, which again I attributed to missing the fandom (and therefore the fandom infighting, so again I have to say I somewhat envy her experience) and not really caring to dive deeply into the source material. Which I can respect! But as someone who spent four years obsessed with the show, and another two angry at it but clinging for the sake of one (1) character, finally freed when she left (and so I do have to admit that Jenny’s actually seen more of the show than me, since I never watched seasons 7 or 8 [except the finale] and don’t intend to ever), I can’t help but be like ‘WELL ACTUALLY -insert list of things she’s wrong about-’.

And then there were things that I couldn’t technically disagree with, like her opinions on Jeremy, but I was also like ‘you don’t have all the facts, I love him’ so I was just that angry ‘I GUESS’ meme for a few sections.

Then again, pointing out that Caroline was metaphorically gay and being tortured by her gay dad who was metaphorically homophobic made me absolutely lose my shit laughing, so she also had some very good points, and watching the video was well worth the time.

I did have to laugh at the very end when she was like ‘I stan Julie Plec’ bc that, more than anything else, made it eminently obvious that she watched the show well after it was over and never engaged with the fandom in any meaningful sense. Which, again, I can respect, bc the fandom was batshit especially in those middle years, but Plec ran the show into the ground and I still haven’t forgiven her for it.

[bluesunsdusk]

--// Muses who aren’t exactly evil or Daedric Princes, but watch out: 

King Logan: During his reign after Aurora, he will be a dick. So, RIP to you. He lets other people do his dirty work, though, so you won’t see him be hands-on cruel. He has called for mass executions, he has sent people on suicide missions, he has done public executions, he has forced his sibling to choose between the life of a friend and the lives of citizen protestors. Some may wonder why he is listed as not exactly evil after all that... but I make the rules. He is trying to save Albion and is driven to extremes by the Crawler’s torment and Theresa’s vision of the future of Albion, so there’s at least that, I guess.

I can put Set here again, seeing as some aspects aren’t evil and Overwatch is doing a bad thing by putting an extremist activist group for a marginalized people as main antagonist we are not supposed to feel ambivalent or conflicted about killing, because it will be used by already messed up people as justification to look down on irl activist communities when they display outrage or have bad apples. It’s done far too often in media. It happened with the Faunus in RWBY. At least the Equalists in the Legend of Korra turned out to have been misled, but it is still a questionable decision, and I wonder whether Blizzard will decide to hold onto the idea that Null Sector is an extremist Omnic rights group or if they will make them have been betrayed by Talon and used as pawns. It would be a poor choice of them to keep going with their current narrative for Null Sector, considering certain events in which justified parties are demonized as being extremist despite that not being the case. I may not have worded it as well as hbomberguy in his video “RWBY Is Disappointing, And Here’s Why,” but I hope my point is clear.

Frankly, I can put Akksul here, too, if I am considering putting Set here. Akksul has the added issue of Mass Effect Andromeda’s story being essentially about colonization, in which the narrative bends over backwards to try and make out the Initiative to be the “good” colonizers, despite having just gone to Andromeda to take over planets with little regard for native species. They seem surprised when they run into the Angara, which is pretty silly. They seem to feel some kind of way about the Kett, who they previously thought the natives, attacking them upon arrival. Really? Really? It’s understandable that they can’t go back to the Milky Way and now are forced to settle on worlds that the Angara already live on in some cases, but a colonizer is still central to the story and made out to be special and able to control native technology better than the natives, which calls forth many harmful tropes. It also hinges fully on the “white savior” trope (though white is replaces with human here), because the Angara were effectively doomed until Ryder showed up with their special AI that can somehow control Remnant tech perfectly. It also has an oddly exoticezed look towards the Angara, wherein everyone is in awe of how “emotional” and “open” the Angara are. It’s just short of having people ask if they can touch the flaps on the sides of their heads within a split second of meeting them. Jaal, along with the males of the angaran species as a whole, was specifically made to be appealing to female players as well, which just makes things even more awkward.

Samson, in his canon verse: He is evil, but also... I don’t want to go back to that post just to change it. Man infects people with red lyrium and works with Cory to destroy the world because Templars were treated poorly... (and also he’s stuck in the sunk cost fallacy which makes him be a complete idiot and continue to help the guy despite knowing in his heart of hearts that he is wrong to do so.) 

Captain Nadine: She’s a smuggler and cares about some people, but also she will keelhaul someone and not feel bad about it. 

Xarthrahn: He is a Dremora and was on Mehrunes Dagon’s side during the Oblivion Crisis, but he really doesn’t care if you’re a mortal or not. He will treat people and even let people stay at his place if he knows them, but strangers may be left outside to die unless he’s feeling exceptionally generous. More likely that you’d be stashed in a cave or something. Last thing he needs is mortals being that close to him and risking his cover. 

Luceras: Luceras can and will stab someone with their bladed staff to cast a spell inside them. This can cause someone to combust from the inside-out or have ice spikes grow out of them. It is very painful. Luceras doesn’t care. 

Maoren: Maoren also fought on Mehrunes Dagon’s side in the Oblivion Crisis and also was aware and a part of the cruel things Mehrunes’ army did, with little care in how that would feel for mortals. It helps that daedra can’t exactly grasp what’s so bad about dying nor really grasp the concept of family and loss, since they are reborn without loss of memory or past self. Anyway, he can be nice and some may argue that he is nice, but he is more likely to run someone who sees him without disguise through. 

X3-28: He’s just a fucking tool. He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing. That being said, he can be pretty cruel to some people, and once out of the Institute, it takes some kind of self control to not make Institute members suffer. He doesn’t always have that self control. He will break people’s bones to keep them from fighting or running away. 

[lunar-system]

some sherlock memoriam

i don’t know if i have any sherlock fandom followers these days or even if the whole fandom exists anymore, so i don’t know if anyone is interested in reading this! here are some thoughts anyway, 

I originally joined tumblr 5 years ago to join in on Sherlock fandom. I was active on it for 3 years, I shipped Johnlock like nothing before, and when season 4 aired two years ago I “divorced” from the fandom and the show. I haven’t watched it since or even much thought about it. But it took be two years to want to click and watch that almost two hours long video essay on youtube, “Sherlock is garbage and here’s why”, cause I still held lots of fond memories about the show. I’m happy that I watched the essay though, it gave me some new perspective to why i liked or didn’t like the show back in the day.

I teared up when hbomberguy, the video essayist, started talking about how the most loyal fans refused to believe s4 was as bad as it had been. I remember how betrayed I felt when it aired. I was one of the people who had iron solid trust for the show runners, and it was really difficult to accept that they had simply done really bad job. I was so wound up with Johnlock that I wanted to believe in Mofftis, no matter what. Oh, young and foolish I was. 

It was super easy for me to keep on believing all the promises the show kept making, and I watched it so mercifully and filled up all the plotholes I could. I believed Johnlock would become canon, because I saw all the subtext there was and way beyond that, and how could anyone possibly only queerbait and not make them be together for real. If something, Sherlock and the trust I lost for the showrunners have taught me to way more critical and and less apologetic about lazy writing. I don’t want to be fooled again. 

Well, regardless of the show being trash (three years ago me would flip tables hearing me say this) I also owe sorta a lot to it. Not to the show itself, but everything that happened around it. I might have never joined tumblr otherwise. And tumblr was the place where I started learning about feminism and LGBT-topics, which eventually lead into me discovering previously unthinkable things about my own gender and sexuality. When I first started reading Johnlock fics, I was mainly curious and slightly scandalised about what “weird people on the internet” dare to write, i mean, I sure loved john’s and sherlock’s friendship, but to make them gay, wasn’t that a bit too much?? Ha ha, fast forward half a year and I would be drooling over 100k+ fics like no biggie, and five years later I would be bisexual nonbinary person capable of arguing why queerbaiting is harmful and what fetishising means and how slash fiction might contribute to it. And fuck yeah I like this new me! This goddamn stupid show that took so much of my time and energy did weirdly enough push me to become more me than I had ever been. 

I like to think about this topic now in the hindsight, even though no-one might read it. I think i wanna try to analyse at some point that why was I so easily and fully captured by the show. I would like to believe that it wouldn’t happen to me anymore. But i have no clue, maybe i just think i’m wise now cause I eatched a really good video essay. often happens.

[knightofbalance-13]

http://xenodweeb.tumblr.com/post/177174184562/misterblank42-hey-so-lets-talk-about-this-this

You people make me sick.

Hey so lets talk about this. This is a work in progress of the Adam VS Yang fight that Shane said was cut. So I’ve had this since May I found this on accident in a comment section on YouTube. I was going to some of you here but when I was still deciding weather or not I should RTX came and when the Adam short came out someone, since the link was out in the wild, had the audacity to not only post it on the RWBY reddit (y'know Roosterteeth territory) but also didn’t at least try to hide the name of the person who posted it on they’re dropbox since it was supposed to be a private thing. I had to go warn the individual to take it down since I didn’t want RT breathing down their neck. So if you were there and wondered why the link stopped working after an hour there’s your answer and now it’s back on the reddit and made it’s way here though it got overshadowed by the Adam short.

Anyways back to the vid I contacted the person who put the dropbox on the comment section I found and they showed me a chatlog they had with the person who gave them the link. That person got it from a discord from someone who claimed to be a friend of Monty. That friend also said some other things.

1. Monty came up with the maidens. He pitched it and Miles liked it.

2. Monty wasn’t an assertive person and because of this Miles and Kerry meddled in some of his scenes and changed the overall plot causing Monty to want leave RT.

3. Sheena was supposed to be Winter.

Speaking of Sheena here’s an old AMA I found that she did a couple of weeks after Monty died.

https://www.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/2x6ac1/i_am_sheena_duquette_oum_ask_me_anything/?utm_source=BD&utm_medium=Search&utm_name=Bing&utm_content=PSR1

Notice how she seemed so excited to cosplay as Winter and  she details how she helped Monty with RWBY. 

Also the person who gave the chatlog also showed me a conversation because he actually DM’d Shane about this and to his surprise Shane responded and he refused to look at it. Shane’s reasoning being that something felt off  and he isn’t “Eager to cause any kind of  trouble over anything RT related"  

So now with all of this there is a question in that “What does this say about the letter now?” like this exist even if Shane doesn’t want to confirm its validity. (Which if he did would make RT less than pleased) So if anyone has questions or anything of the sort let me know.

EDIT: So this is a detail about the fight that was pointed out by @kaedeichinose   The song used is a song called “Session” by linkin park. I went back to the letter and read the section where Shane talks about the fight.

Wanna know what’s missing in the original post here?

PROOF.

All of this is copy pasted from the original post. There is no alterations or modifications from me, this is what you get.  And yet, there is next to NO links, no screenshots, no names and the OP has even admitted to convincing someone to delete evidence complete with a built in excuse to weasel out of any issues. So there is NO way to validate what they are saying. For all we know, he made the video in the link and made up the rest of it just to start shit. Considering this si from the same guy who uses Glassdoor reviews, reviews that can be FABRICATED mind you while all of them being from ANONYOMOUS EMPLOYEES, this is very much likely.

ESPECIALLY the shit involving Monty and Shane.

“Monty wasn’t an assertive person”

I call bullshit on this using the Penny fight scene and the Raven fight scene. BOTH are things that Miles and Kerry noted on not wanting and yet BOTH are canon. If Monty was not assertive, HOW did these things get into canon against the wishes of his co-writers? Not to mention the numerous times we’ve seen people telling that man to take a break and the fact that Shane’s letter NEVER MENTIONED THIS.

“because of this Miles and Kerry meddled in some of his scenes and changed the overall plot causing Monty to want leave RT.“

A. If Miles and Kerry were THIS bad, WHY did Monty approached them for help? Obviously Miles nor Kerry are experienced writers so it couldn’t be for their expertise. So what else does that leave us aside from ‘they’re nice’?

And B. Once again, I looked through Shane’s letter. he NEVER mentions this nor Monty wanting to leave RT. Despite Shane being a bit out of his mind at the time of the letter: I believe HIM before I’d believe YOU. And if he never mentioned it then I’d just suspect you’re lying.

‘Shane responded and he refused to look at it. Shane’s reasoning being that something felt off  and he isn’t “Eager to cause any kind of  trouble over anything RT related"  So now with all of this there is a question in that “What does this say about the letter now?” like this exist even if Shane doesn’t want to confirm its validity.’

WHY would Shane respond to some rando who messaged him about something he hasn’t spoken about in THREE YEARS, especially to denounce his own letter? That doesn’t make ANY sense.

So this whole post is just a case of ‘it happened because I say so!’ without so much as the BARE MINNUM of evidence or proof. This is just stirring up an old issue to get people to fling shit again.

As evidence by the reblog here.

This is why it disgusts me that the only true gotcha non-fans can come up with to dismiss/belittle thinking about it deeply than “show bad” is just “It remixed assets and that’s still bad in a generation where a game made of unchanged assets can get popular enough to help bring a game genre to the mainstream.”

There’s far worse things RT has done than just “Despite being enough of a hit to appear in an anime fighting game made by one of the more well known fighting game devs, they somehow managed to steal assets from Bethany Esda for the very first trailer the show had,” Especially when those posts had shit that read like a 4chan post and took Monty’s words out of context to demonize him for remixing pre-made assets.

And yet you’ll push that shit in regards to RT, Xenodweeb.

And not like this post reads like anything better. Wanna know what OP reminds me of? That Kiwi Farms post that said Sheena killed Monty for insurance money. Should we just believe THEM because they said it, regardless of human empathy and emotion Xenodweeb?

Or are you no better than they are?

RT is pulling some Konami grade shit with Monty’s show and those people are supporting callout posts that also treated Monty like scum to dismiss looking into it and discovering RT’s ACTUAL bullshit and I’m still so fucking bitter about that.

No, you’re bitter that you can’t fling shit and accuse people of bullshit without reprocussions. I also happen to know that you don’t give a FUCK about people’s lives considering what I’ve heard. Why?

THAT is why HBomb’s RWBY video is so much more important than the milquetoast garbage RWBY critical youtubers so far have been and have given us. Unlike those people, who are cool with associating with reactionary scumbags like Chris Ray Gun or talk like reactionaries themselves, HBomb has actually made some strong hard left criticism towards both media and reactionary types.

Because you’re fucking PSYCHO. You see the death of a man before his time and the depression and sadness of another man as EXCUSES to push your own political agenda.

Well, not like the rest of you are any better considering Sokumo bitches about how RWBY doesn’t portray groups like BLM as innocent angels (despite the WF not BEING like BLM intentionally) and Dudeblade bitches about RWBY not being sexist.

Just goes to show how fucked up you are Xenodweeb since THEY never had the AUDACITY to use Monty for this.

I trust HBomb can, if not kickstart the discourse so it’s not dogshit anymore, at least give us something decent to use to show people how bad RT actually is.

Heh, wanna know what the funny thing is?

https://twitter.com/Hbomberguy/status/985266613707595778

Your precious Hbomb would actually DEFEND RT.

And let me guess Xenodweeb, he’s wrong now and he must burn for his sins?

Because that’s ALL you people think about.

Not the consequences of your actions, not whether or not you’re doing what is right, not who you are hurting with this shit, not even if this shit is correct:

Just whether or not you get what you want.

You’re all sick.

P.S. Stop calling everyone who disagrees with you an alt account of me.

[radramblog]

Retro Games WTB

So for reference, this and the last two posts were written on the same night. We went from serious discussion about sensitive and graphic material in media, to silliness about shooty mans, to this. The thing is, I’m going away on a weekend camping trip (Melbourne got delayed again but at least getting to go on this is a silver lining?), and when this post goes up (assuming I figure out how to schedule it right) is the one day where I’m just never at home. The Saturday of a weekend trip. I don’t know if the place is going to have cell signal, and I’m not letting that of all things get in the way of me posting more bullshit.

It’s been a long night.

I was originally going to do, like, a tierlist thing, but staring at the list of these was just depressing. Motherfuckers put Homestuck in the Video Games section multiple times, and I had to stare at the fact that someone went out of their way to make a FNAF shipping tier list. And lots of people played it. Fuck, man.

I don’t know if me talking about a bunch of games I want to buy is actually more interesting, but I’ll be damned if I can’t do that easily and for a lot of words. Plus, it’ll force me to actually come up with a complete list.

(editors note this is ridiculously absurdly long and it has no images it’s just 2.5K words of jack shit and me tiredly trying to make jokes about old games you probably haven’t heard of you’ve been waaaarned)

N64

The prospect of collecting all the N64 games I want is somewhat daunting, especially considering my region-based issues. But I’ve made some solid progress since that one time I talked about my collection (and I cannot be fucked dragging that post up at the moment). I’ve acquired Banjo-Kazooie and a Kirby 64 cart that I sure didn’t know was coming in fucking box.

Anyway. I’d like to pick up Smash 64 at some point, if only for the novelty of it. I’ve played it, like, once? And that was a very long time ago, the first time I ever played an N64 (possibly the only time I even touched a controller before I bought my own), and I wasn’t as mediocre to functional at Smash as I am now. 64 is kind of a whole different animal, though- no competitively viable maps by modern standards and the engine is fucky- every character combos so well that they run 5-stock matches instead of 3.

(From this point on, I’m literally looking at a Wikipedia list of games and picking ones to comment on, so it’s alphabetical)

Banjo-Tooie would be nice, I suppose, but I’ve barely played the first one- let’s maybe do that before I start thinking sequels. I didn’t realise until I actually picked up the game that Kazooie is like, a massive asshole? Extremely rude? Apparently that’s their character trait and I just didn’t know. Banjo seems like such a cool bloke, why does he hang out with them?

Even though I’d never be able to play it, the Australian version of Beetle Adventure Racing actually replaces the titular cars with Holdens, which is fucking hilarious and I need to see it.

I’ve heard a lot about Conker’s Bad Fur Day, that it’s basically Banjo/DK but M rated. I…don’t imagine it’s aged particularly well. Man, remember when he showed up for Project Spark, though? Yeah, me neither.

Donkey Kong 64 is another classic, and I’m sure it’s really good. I have managed to pick up an Expansion Pak, so there’s half the cost of it gone, too. I’ve never actually finished any of the Country games, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t play like one, so. I also never watched the HBomberguy charity marathon, so I am pure and unspoiled as to the grisly details of this jungle bash.

On the one hand, Goldeneye is arguably one of the most iconic FPS games of all time. On the other, it’s not aged particularly well, and I don’t have a cadre of people to hang around being nostalgic for it, because we’re all either younger than this game or barely out-age it. I hope someone reading this feels old now. (sorry)

Even as a Pokemon fanatic, I’m not buying Hey You, Pikachu. That game barely worked with people in the USA, imagine that shitty microphone trying to decipher my accent on fucking N64 hardware. Also it’s pretty lame even if you can get it to work, so.

Majora’s Mask is currently my White Whale, because I want nothing more than to play that game. I’ve heard so much, it sounds and looks so fucking incredible, and as I said I have the Expansion Pak now so I can actually run it. One day, man, one day. Once again I should probably finish Ocarina of Time first, but like, I know I’m going to play this one, so.

I guess Mario Kart 64 would be worth picking up, apparently it’s one of the better ones. I reckon if people showed up to play fucking Beetle Adventure Racing before knowing the game was actually really good, they’ll show up for Mario Kart. I’d rather buy 64 than 8, frankly.

I could barely get any interest in my bootleg-ass copy of Mario Party 3, I’m not going to spend stupid money on the other ones.

Oh, apparently Mega Man Legends came out on the 64 as well? I thought that was just on the Playstation. I mean, people really seem to like that sub-series, but then people also liked Star Force, so I don’t know if I can trust the Mega Man fandom on anything. (MMBN legacy collection when, Capcom)

Yo so there was a Neon Genesis Evangelion game for the N64, and apparently it’s a fighting game? Japan-only, of course, but my console can run those anyway. And like, that sounds funny and cool, I’ll punch Sachiel to death, why the fuck not? Who needs a progressive knife. Congratulations joke.

God Paper Mario is so fucking expensive god damnit

Perfect Dark rounds out the trio of “hey I have the expansion pak now”, but I know substantially less about it. So, maybe?

The Pokemon games I��m missing (and care about) are Snap, Puzzle League, and Stadium 2. I’ll consider Snap if I can find a cheap copy, as I know it’s pretty limited (and the new one just came out), Puzzle League is probably meh, and Stadium 2 sounds fun but I’d need to then buy a GSC cart to get the most out of it and they aren’t cheap. Unless I get a Japanese one, but apparently, they’re only compatible with Japanese Stadium 2 (er, Stadium GS), so I’d have to double down on illegibility.

Oh fuck, right, Star Fox. Man I thought I was going to get away with just talking about Star Wars here (I’ve already got the good ones), but I forgot about fuckin Star Fox 64, aka The Good One. Shit I gotta get that don’t I? Fuck me. At least searching for one will be slightly easier because the PAL version has a different name.

Oh, and Yoshi’s Story looks like a trip and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Like, this just looks worse than Yoshi’s Island if I’m being honest.

 GBA

I haven’t actually talked about by GBA collection on here have I? TL;DR- it’s a console I’m very nostalgic for, but my collection is lacking because all the carts in Malaysia were bootlegs.

Jesus there’s so many more GBA games than N64 ones. Like, in general, not just on this list.

Advance Wars is a solid maybe, because the carts are super fucking expensive, I’ve never played the series, and the remaster is coming soon. But apparently they’re good? Big shrug energy.

Wow, they made two whole Banjo games for the GBA. Both of these look like shit, though, so fuck it. No wonder I never hear anyone talk about them.

Boktai is an interesting series I’d like to maybe give a shot. It’s a JRPG made by fucking Hideo Kojima, where the cartridge had a light sensor in it to encourage you to play outside by buffing the main character. Which was an interesting choice on the notably not backlit GBA. It also has crossover stuff with something we’ll get into later.

I’ve played Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow to death, and as a result I’d love to pick up a copy of it’s GBA prequel, Aria of Sorrow- it’s apparently almost just as good. I’ve not heard much about the other two GBA Castlevanias, but they’re apparently similarly excellent- a stark comparison to the mediocre to bad N64 ones.

If someone buys me a cartridge of Crazy Frog Racer I will play it and that is a fucking promise.

There are like three whole Fire Emblem games on the GBA, though only two came out in English. I actually have a bootleg of one of them. It’s another one of those ones that are unreasonably expensive because it didn’t sell well and they didn’t make that many as a result, though. So probably not worth getting a real one unless I fall super head over heels for the series- I don’t see that happening soon.

Oh right, Golden Sun. Another JRPG franchise for the GBA. There were a lot of those, huh? Anyway there’s like no way this guy is getting into Smash, don’t get your hopes up.

Harvest Moon is basically Stardew Valley, but older. Two games of it came out on the GBA, and I’m probably not about to commit to buying one of those rather than Stardew. And that game has yet to successfully appeal to me, soooooooo

I have a bootleg of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and that’s one of the ones where it probably doesn’t matter at all that it’s a bootleg, so I’m satisfied with it. Don’t have Nightmare in Dream Land, which I’ve played before on emulator and wouldn’t mind retrying, so maybe. I’ve never been massive on remakes if the original is viable, but I don’t have an NES so I’m sure not buying Kirby’s Adventure.

There are two Zelda games on GBA- a port of A Link to the Past which I have, and Minish Cap which I don’t. Minish Cap is very expensive!!! Aah!!!

Yo they ported The Lost Vikings to GBA? Wack. I guess Blizzard gets a shoe in this console’s door, then.

Yeah okay so there are like a million Mario games here, huh. Superstar Saga was the first Mario and Luigi game, and the one of those I’ve played (Partners in Time) was good enough that I’d bite for the original. Or I’d just go buy Bowser’s Inside Story. Mario Kart and Golf on the GBA don’t appeal super hard, and I’ve played Mario Pinball Land (long before that Alpharad Deluxe series), to the point where I don’t feel the need to actually buy it.

Speaking of Alpharad, I played Mario Party Advance on one of my Malaysian Bootlegs long, long before he made that video reminding people it existed. That game actually kind of fucks, for what it’s worth, and since my copy can’t save, I’d consider buying a real one. Assuming that Alpha’s video didn’t lead to a mass buyout or price spike.

Okay, so Mega Man Battle Network is kind of the big one on this list- definitely the White Whale so far, since to my understanding the series had extremely limited release in Australia. I do have a Japanese copy of 4 (Blue Moon) that I picked up because it was like 5 bucks, but A. 4 is godawful relative to the others and B. it’s a JRPG and I can’t read Japanese. But I would Do Things to get copies of 2, 3, or 6. Not so much 1 (because it’s not great), or 5 because I’ve nearly 100%’d the DS version on my flashcart.

Seriously, I’ve considered writing multiple blog posts on this series, I think it’s a super underrated gem. It’s an eSport on GBA for fucks sake! It’s also the series that crossed over with Boktai from earlier- apparently Kojima’s kid was a huge fan, so he got in touch to get some cross-promo content going. Funny how that works.

It’s not like they’re ever going to release Mother 3 anyway. Y’all aren’t even going to let me pay for this game, so you can’t complain if I buy a Chinese bootleg with the fan translation on it. I paid five whole bucks, and if they released it in English for real, I’d easily drop more on it. It’s a 10/10 game.

Oh alright, there’s Pokemon. I’m actually 4/7 on the GBA Pokemon games, which is pretty good considering the price just keeps going up and up. I’ve actually considered making a Living Dex solely in Gen 3- however that would either require all the ones I don’t have (save Pinball) a Gamecube with Colosseum/XD (which I have thought about), or maybe both. A long-term project, for sure, but one I’d enjoy doing.

Apparently the Sonic GBA games are pretty good, save for the infamous remake of the first Sonic game- Sonic Genesis. That is, however, the only one of them I’ve actually played. And for a long time was the only Sonic game I’d ever played. Great first impression, huh? The Marble Zone OST unironically slaps, though.

Yeah okay so there’s like over a hundred games still on this list and I care about, like, none of them. Except maybe some of the Wario games and Yu-Gi-Oh games- and I know some of the latter are complete and utter garbage. Like, I’ve played The Sacred Cards, and that game is genuine shite. I’ve still only played one Yu-Gi-Oh game I’ve liked.

I guess I can close off this wall of text by saying I want to get a GBA flashcart so I can run romhacks on console, but there’s a bunch of different types and it doesn’t seem like anyone can agree on which one is the best, so I guess I’m in limbo a bit on that one. Still, it’s worth a look at some point- I’ve gotten so much mileage out of my DS one after all.

And that’s a full-ass list. Perhaps a little daunting, but something like this is a long-term project, and there’s plenty of time to adjust, or make trades rather than buy, et cetera. I don’t ever expect to like, complete a collection, but I’m happy getting things bit by bit.

Anyway it’s like 2AM now I need to be up in 5 hours oops if I’m late then sorry james lmao except you won’t possibly be able to read this until Saturday and it’ll be too late then ha HA