#because I'm otherwise so pissed about the state of the US that I can't really think about anything else

[theinstagrahame]

It's a bad day, and I've been dragging my heels on this. But, I got a bunch of neat new TTRPG stuff in October, so here's what landed in my mailbox.

Break!! - A few years ago, I stumbled on some art on Twitter. It was fun, it was vibrant, and it felt inviting. I wanted to know more, looked into the artist, and discovered it was spot art for an upcoming RPG called Break!! So, I kept an eye on it. The book is beautiful, well laid-out, and really cool, so maybe one good thing came from Twitter*.

The Electric State - Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood have been pretty high on my "To Play" lists for years. A follow-up, set in a similar (or the same?) world was kind of an instant pickup. Not as interested in the movie, but the game seems pretty rad.

The Geologist's Primer - I picked up the Herbalist's Primer when it came out, and was really impressed with the quality and care that went into it, so when I saw "That but for rocks" was in the works, I was definitely already in. Also excited for the follow up "Mushrooms next time".

Starkhollow Hall - I accidentally fell into a Gothic Fiction kick over Spooky Month, so the timing of this was perfect. I don't know a ton about the GUMSHOE system, but I do feel like what I know about it makes it a perfect fit for the genre. Gothic heroines (and I guess heroes) are at their best when they know there's a dangerous mystery at the heart of what's happening around them, and go looking for it anyway.

Forsaken - Kyle Tam is, honestly, a designer to watch. I picked this up because it was part of an Afterthought Committee project, which is a team I've also really enjoyed work from (my game Water Landing is built off of their game Cast Away). Does a better job of establishing a sort of grimdark/Soulsbourne vibe than some stuff that explicitly tries to.

Iron Edda Reforged - The pitch for this caught me immediately: Cyberpunk Norse Mythology. Tracy Barnett is another Designer to Watch, and I really like all of their stuff--haven't played the original Iron Edda, but have heard it on Party of One and really dug it. Was really hyped to see this come into being.

Electrum Archive v2 - I went through a Weird Sci-Fi phase this year, and the original Electrum Archive was an early pick for it. I really loved the world, the way each class worked differently, and the magic/currency/MacGuffin that it used. Obviously I wanted more, because the second book is here.

Alice is Missing - Silent Falls - My friends and I have been talking about the prospect of another Alice is Missing game since playing the first one about two years ago. It was a really memorable experience, partly due to the game's really compelling design, and to some of the in-moment decisions we made (I played the facilitator character, who starts the game having returned after a long absence, and another player immediately got pissed at them for sorta abandoning the group. it created an interesting play dynamic for the whole session)

Kill Him Faster - I picked up a previous Kovidae Games book as a lark: a collection of exercise-based RPGs. I nearly ignored their other stuff, but this had a pretty compelling pitch: What if time-travel was invented mostly so people could speedrun murdering Hitler. Since Eat the Reich came out, I've thought a bit about Hitler Revenge Fantasy as a genre, and honestly, I'm kinda into it. He was a loser, and deserves to be reduced to a video game villain and killed over and over again; so, yeah. Let's kill him faster next time.

Splat (issue 5) - I'm not usually one for essays and interviews, but this is a zine featuring and by some folks I really like and respect, and this one is packed with thoughts about the state of the indie TTRPG scene and industry from a diverse and immensely talented group. It's honestly a must-read.

(Already getting a few things for the next edition, but also feeling too garbage after the Clusterfuck Election to think about doing anything else today...)

---

footnote: * Technically, two good things came from Twitter. I also once expressed sorrow that I'd missed out on a limited T-shirt from a web comic artist that said "Sorry, Glenn, the only Beck I listen to has two turntables and a microphone", and the creator saw it and had an extra in my size.

[markster666]

I'm not sure if I've made a request with you but if I have please feel free to ignore! I just can't stop thinking about reader just going up to Vox and asking if they can play videogames and use his head as the monitor. idk I just wanna fuck with Vox he's hilarious

My Life is Like a Video Game (Literally) - Vox x Reader (SFW)

Pairing: Vox x Genderless!Reader

Tags: Vox, SFW, Comedy, Not a lot of plot, Vox is pissed off, Vox x You, Cursing

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Word Count: 575

A/N: I saw this request come into my inbox a bit ago and I died of laughter. I hope this lives up to your expectations. Unedited, so apologies for any spelling mistakes. Enjoy. LMFAO

You cursed in disgust as the lights went and fucked themselves. You knew Vox had a temperament and when it got BAD, the power shut off everywhere. You were in the middle of beating a really hard boss on Dark Souls, one you spent DAYS UPON DAYS trying to complete, only for his fuck-head lookin' ass to ruin your almost perfect run of it.

You threw down the controller and groaned. You decided to get up and mindlessly walk around the room, actually putting in the time to throw your dirty clothes in the pantry and make your bed.

You were hoping Velvette or Valentino would've calm him down by now, but the complete darkness and lack of gaming audio states otherwise.

You hastily put on your comfort jacket and shoved open your door and slammed it behind you, murmuring obscenities as your feet scuttled down the hallway. Your arms were crossed from how cold it was (the heater electricity was shut off too).

You knocked on Vox's door, stabbing back a foot or two in anticipation of the door opening.

After a few moments, you shouted "VOX!"

Still no answer.

You raised your voice even more, "VOX! OPEN UP THIS FUCKING DOOR OR SO SATAN HELP ME-"

The door opened, slamming against the wall and threatening to break.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT Y/N?!!"

His eyes were glowing red, a snarl coating his face. His hand was still on the doorknob, ready to slam the door in your face at a moments notice.

You rolled your eyes, "I was in the middle of a Dark Souls boss fight and you decided that THAT was the perfect time to completely cut all power."

He groaned in frustration.

"I'm SORRY, okay? I don't know what else to tell ya."

He started closing the door but you pushed past him and into his computer room.

"There's only ONE working TV in all of Pentagram City now..."

He frog blinked at you, closing the door with a look of confusion on his face.

"Um... What are you trying to say?"

You turned to face him, arms on your hips and looking him up and down.

"May I PLEASE use your head-screen thingy to... beat the Dark Souls boss?"

He looked DUMBFOUNDED. Like there's absolutely no fucking way you just asked him that.

"That is probably the dumbest fucking request I have ever gotten from you. No, absolutely not. Power will be back on soon."

He pushed past you, sitting in his chair and rubbing his eyes in exhaustion and stress.

You smirked and went up behind him, massaging his shoulders lightly, leaning in close to his ear.

"I'll go and spy on the Radio Demon for ya."

He perked up at this thought, swiveling his chair around to face you.

"Oh? Ya don't say?" He folded his hands on his lap. "Fine, then, but ONLY 10 minutes."

You squeaked in giddy, sitting down and crossing your legs on the floor, booting up your controller and he switched his monitor to Dark Souls, trying to stay as still for you as he could.

It ended up taking 8 hours because you had beaten the boss but wanted to keep playing so you just didn't tell him you beat the boss.

And you left him even more angry than he already was. :)

Oh and you also didn't spy on Alastor you truly couldn't give less of a shit.

[a-twistedheartslonging]

Okay so I'm using this text to speech thing but anyway. so Jade Leach he's living his fan fic life. Like that's just how he lives. he just lives fanfiction. But that's the thing. some of the stuff he talks about in the recent update is genuinely stuff he wants to do. So whenever he was in that event and he's like "oh yeah I have a plan" and he starts listing off all the activities and scenarios that would make him stop everything he's doing and go hang out. But that's the thing. All that stuff that he wants to do is straight up activities he genuinely wants. He wants to hang out, he wants to go hiking, he wants to go discover new things and plants and mushrooms, to go out and do that with you. I just know he is SEETHING about that during the whole scene and especially when he's hiding and watching but can't come out yet. He's so mad which is probably also why he's so brutal about it and happy when he can take out his frustration. But all I can think is that if before all that book 7 stuff - because let's be real there was like a lot of time to hang out and do whatsoever before the whole book 7- but anyways let's say a reader or yuu that likes hiking anyway -cuz let's be real that place is huge, that campus is huge, the ramshackle is right there in the middle of everything plus there's a forest like right next to it- so if you were to just like walking or hiking and you had been hiking that whole time to decompress and explore (though maybe not necessarily with jade and more like as a hobby since NRC life is chaotic so maybe you didn't sign up for stuff etc). It's so over though if you end up making hiking buddies and he finds out. Especially if you two were hanging out anyways before he found out. Jade finds out that you were hiking without him and not only that, you were hiking with somebody else (considering the state of his mountain lovers club). I just feel he's pissed, very jealous though i feel like he both wishes you said something and also that he asked earlier (i can only imagine it's a scenario where you simply never know all of someone's hobbies just cause you hadn't thought to bring it up). Anyways i feel like he'd be so mad, just so mad about all of that. He'd be so mad cuz like "what do you mean that you were hiking without him? what do you mean you had a hiking buddy? you just HAD OTHER HIKERS with you?? how dare you 😡😢??" Especially since Jade has been there for a year and you know he's just so mad, he's so pissed, and he's so jealous and he wants to hang out because i know that Yuu even in canon hangs out with him a little bit but that's the point! He's sitting there and he's like "you're out there living my life, living my dream ,and you didn't even invite me???" he's so mad he's just so jealous of this whole situation

Pardon ramble, i was also using text to speech which was good because i found it easier than trying to type it up but i had to edit it and also pardon if it's tough to read since it's basically my excited speech patterns which can get rambly lol.

i think that'd be a funny fic idea.

You know, it didn't really hit me at first why he seemed to be sadistic with the fake him, but it does make sense that he would be jealous. Even intimidating guys get lonely, and he's made a few different comments before about wanting others to join and how Azul and Floyd aren't fond of his rambles or mushrooms.

I think it would be kind of funny for Yuu, alone or with their hiking buddy, to randomly run into Jade during one of his treks into nature. Why didn't you tell him you liked hiking and nature? 😠 You could have joined his club a long while ago!

You both better join his club to make up for it, if he doesn't like the other guy, they might fall off something though. I guess it would just be the two of you bonding over nature together then...

Being in his club could be a sweet deal, it's a good way to get the guy to have a positive association with you, would probably be hard for others to do otherwise since he and his brother go after peeps they find interesting.

But with this, even if your not the most exciting person, you can gain some of his interest and he might even do certain things to make sure you'll stay in the club. Say something about considering quitting the club since these guys have been bullying you and you just want to head straight to your dorm after class? Welp, it seems they recently got stuck in a contract with Azul, no need for you to change your schedule now.

Ah, the food. You may possibly get slightly poisoned by things until he decides he likes you but the fact that you're willing to try his mushroom stuff gets you more brownie points with the guy. Plus, you get free food often. I hope your like me and love mushrooms.

I'm kind of imagining a situation where you get into his club before Azul tries taking Ramshackle and when it does happen Jade is pretty insistent on getting Azul to let you stay in their dorm and is kind of anxious about you hating him because of the situation and quitting his club.

[cottoncandy1322]

My thoughts on Dragons Rising S1-S2P1!

⚠️ POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD, TREAD LIGHTLY ⚠️

1. Arin is literally SO Autism coded I swear and you cannot tell me otherwise. It literally pissed me off so bad how that master dragon was treating him. He's a smart boy, he learns quick too!! But sometimes he gets stuck and held back by his own self. He needs a lot of patience when it comes to his training!! Stressing him out is not doing wonders for him grgrgrg. (I say this as a certified Autistic person)

2. The ninja are literally experiencing the Zane effect. His curse his spreading. My evidence?

Lloyd - Visions - Zane used to have many visions that all came true and they often caused him to wake in a startled state.

Jay - 100% no memory, plus it seems likely that he may turn to the dark side, if only temporary. - Do I really have to say it? Ice, fucking, Emperor.

Kai - Gets stuck in another dimension. - Oh ehm gee, Zane with the ice emperor arc.

3. My god, when Nya saw that fake vision of Jay not remembering her and she said she realize it was fake because there was no possible way he could forget her... it literally broke my heart. Like girl, I am sorry. I am so so sorry. You're love for him is so sweet but...it might seem a little crazy what I'm about to tell you...

4. Cole and Geo are so fucking gay, it's so sweet. They're so cute!!! I love them so much I can't 😭

5. Lloyd my poor poor boy. The visions just utterly terrorizing him was so devastating to watch. I felt so bad for him. I'm glad he managed to find peace with it, if somewhat.

6. What happens if Kai comes across the other four of the Forbidden Five?? What are the gonna do to him?? Please for the love of god-

7. Still waiting for a Cole v. Jay showdown. I need it and I need it now.

8. I miss Wu, Pixal, and Skylor!! And Dareth. Give Zane and Kai their girlfriends back istg. And like, maybe actually do Kailor justice for real this time?? Just sayin. And don't you DARE say Wu is dead, I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL BUILT ON DENIAL, JUST YOU WATCH.

9. Hear me out on this first Forbidden Five dude, PLEASE I BEG OF YOU-

10. I think it would be kinda silly if one of the Ninja actually got stuck with a wolf mask on while the gong thing was set off, and something bad actually happened with it?? More conflict and angst and drama please, make my heart bleed.

11. What are ya'lls theories on Jay so far after S2P1? I wanna hear em!!

And that concludes my thoughts...for now!! :)

[pass1onepr1ncess]

I need everyone to look me in the eye and explain to me with no bullshit why they think that Diavolo x Doppio is proship. Abusive and/or toxic? Potentially- still not proship. And I swear to God if your only reasoning for this is that they're alters in the same body and/or in the same system I need you to sit down right in front of me, better yet lay down and listen to me very carefully.

Being in the same body/system does not equate to being related in any way. I've seen people say that "Doppio and Diavolo are brothers!" No they're not. They're two alters in a system. Similarly, I've seen other people say that - and this is even stranger because where they got this from I have no clue- Diavolo is also Doppio's dad like he's Trish's. No, he's not. They're alters in a system. Even if we go based on canon and throw fanon and headcannons out the window, their relationship outside of being the Boss and his right-hand man is never specified. Literally all we have to go on is that Doppio is comforted by Diavolo's presence and that Diavolo refers to him almost exclusively with words of endearment. This could be platonic, sure. Familial? Possible, but highly unlikely.

I'm not saying that alters in a system can't be related. The alters that our brains cook up can be anything, and familial relationships between alters is a thing. But specifically in the case of Diavolo and Doppio, this is never stated. Therefore, while you are allowed to headcanon them as such, do not force that headcanon onto others when it's not true in the source media.

And if you think that DiaDop is proship because it's an in-system relationship, buddy do I have news for you. Alters have in-system relationships all the time. I, myself, am in an in-system relationship with the Sheila E in our system. Another friend of ours has an in-system relationship in their system. System friends that I knew before that we don't talk to anymore had in-system relationships, and I've seen other systems online talk about their own in-system relationships.

If your only problem with DiaDop is that they're in the same body/system, I can only assume you're a singlet and to that I say:

Fuck off. If you don't know enough about how systems work, you don't get to make that decision. Especially if the decision in question is accusing a harmless ship of being incestuous or pedophilic. Which- by the way- they're both adults! It would be a different story if one of them were underage even in the same system, but they are both grown ass adults! Even with the changes in their body between them fronting, Doppio is described to be a young adult!

And lastly, if your only other reason for accusing DiaDop of being proship is because you don't like it and have some need to justify that dislike? I think you need to do some introspection. I mean this in the best possible way, but if you feel like you have to justify your discomfort for something as small as a pairing of fictional characters, you might want to look in the mirror and ask yourself why that's the case. Especially if you're going to the lengths of accusing that fictional pairing of being proship.

This whole next bit is gonna be my personal thoughts- but might I just add that the whole thing of Doppio's comfort in Diavolo's presence or on "calls" with him and Diavolo calling him "My Sweet Doppio" and other such things really feels to me like implied romance. Especially in the only Jojo part (other than SBR) with canonical queer representation (SquaTizi and Sorlato), it's a bit hard to ignore, in my opinion!

Anyway, I've seen people be weird about DiaDop for a while now and I was just gonna hold my tongue, but the more I thought about why they would think that the more I realized that it's all singlets who just don't understands systems and assume they can talk for all of us. It pissed me off, so here I am.

If there's any reason to call DiaDop proship that I haven't debunked, please enlighten me. But otherwise? Shut up.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for talking about my cousin behind her back?

My (20nb) cousin (20F) is pregnant at the moment, on purpose. I was the first one to know, because we're kind of each other's person. The baby daddy (22M) is my worst enemy tbh. We really don't get along (reasons: he wants to be a cop, he cheated on her, he made her delete all of her male friends from social media, they broke up for a while because he "was so stressed and couldn't deal with her bullshit", she never wanted to get married before him, her personality did a 180 after him), I seriously don't like the guy (he also has a very punchable face) so I can't say I'm happy about this yk. I tried really hard to stop her from getting back with him (this was before they were expecting) using the usual methods: "you deserve better", "he's a bitch", "I'm scared he's manipulating you" etc. Didn't work, obviously.

Anyways, when she told me, I did my best to not show any negative reactions (and think I succeeded, we've been talking about babies non stop) and to be super supportive, so she knows if anything feels slightly off with the baby daddy, I'm here (have I mentioned that I really don't trust him?). So ok, when she posted about the pregnancy on social media, I was finally able to talk about it with other people (most of our friends correlate) so I went to discuss the situation with one of our closest friends, S (23M), who's also part of my haters group towards the baby daddy.

S and I were saying stuff like "holy shit she's fucked" (she lives with her mom, doesn't work, baby daddy hasn't finished whatever he needs to do to be a fucking cop, those are not great conditions) and "that piece of shit of a man is going to destroy her future". SHE WAS IN NURSE SCHOOL AND THERAPY BEFORE MEETING HIM AND THEM HE CONVINCED HER TO DROP BOOOOTH (I have not made my peace with this). But then shit hit the fan cause apparently, S's girlfriend (22F) read those messages and told my cousin.

She's now very pissed at us and not talking to me or S, and I don't know how to fix it. Like, ok, yes, asshole move I guess to be talking about her behind her back, but she knows we don't like baby daddy, and we never said otherwise. So probably ITA but how do I fix it????

Ps.: My problem with him being a cop, is because most of the cops in our state/country are part of large criminal groups or just act like small army's for politicians (early this year there was a massacre in a neighbor city where the cops killed a lot of innocent people in the basis of "they're all hiding a fugitive" that everyone knew it was a lie to clean up the towns ghetto so the city's Mayor could take back the land and build shit)

Pps.: English is not my first language, sorry.

What are these acronyms?

[infoglitch]

Glitch talks about Rwby characters! (Because apparently I like pissing people off)

post 1

So this is an interesting one. This is less my normal rants about Rwby characters and more of a hybridization of my feelings of love... And hatred for this show. (There is a reason why apathy is the opposite of love. Hate and love are just passion going in two different directions. Apathy is a lack of passion)

Before I begin I'll simply be stating right here why I'm doing this. This is for fun and to bridge to casam between Rwde and the Fndm. Because while we fight eachother, the fact is that Rwde is still full of Rwby fans (I hope. Because otherwise I'm walking away.. or changing that shit by force-).. and also because I really wanna talk about the effects this show has had on me. (In my original works and my Rwby rewrite)

I should warn you all I will put a warning of either

100% hate fueled takes ahead.

Or

100% love fueled takes ahead.

Just so that way you can skip them if their about a character you hate or like.. I don't feel like bringing down the vibe.. unless some chickenshit anon decides to act in which case your all DYI-

OK THAT'S ENOUGH. LETS GET TO THE ACTUALLY TALK.

Ruby Rose.

So Ruby rose is an interesting character. I don't have any strong feelings on her so I'll just give certain takes I have about.

Positives.

- she has a alright starting basis as a protagonist, going into shonen tropes of having a dead parent (Rwby was inspired by anime specifically shonen.)

- at the start she can be very fun to watch just be a bit of a dork dumbass.

- ... Look my favorite color is red and she's wearing it, I kinda like her on default.

Negatives.

- overall she doesn't have a lot of screentime later on and when she does I just wish there was more of her.

- her characterization can get frustrating later on. She's not a total piece of shit I just get annoyed sometimes.

- her character feels like it's stayed the same. And it does not gel well with the attempt at a more mature tone.

Overall Ruby is not a terrible character but definitely feels a tad bit lackluster so overall I give her a 6/10... Thousand

JOKE! JOKE! JOOOOKE!

But some of you might be thinking I'm just complaining and that I wouldn't know how to write her.. well my friends this is the benefit of writing a Rwby rewrite. I am going to be writing her. So this section is about how I would like to write the rose reaper in my rewrite.

1. Focus on her relationship with her mother, what did she mean to her and has her mother impacted Ruby.

2. Focus on her relationship with yang a lot more (this will also appear on my yang post.. if I don't get a hit put out on me by Rwby stans.) allow them time outside of their team to have them just be sisters. Hanging out and relaxing. Building up that connection between them a little more.

3. Overall I wanna try and make her more mature as the story takes a turn after Beacons' fall. Get into her head and show how she felt about it all, about what beacon means to her, about the deaths she saw.. and specifically, Pyrrha's death. Pyrrha's is the thing that awakens Ruby's silver eyes but we don't get to see them interact almost at all. So that leads to number four.

4. This is a real weird one as this is going to be elaborated on further when I discuss Pyrrha.. and how much I fucking hate her. But my idea is to build Ruby's relationship with both her teammates but also members of team JNPR outside of jaune (I have an idea for the leaders of the two teams I am going to discuss about when I get to Jaune.). Especially Pyrrha.. and I'm gonna do that, via Jaune at first. Have them truly get to know each other when jaune asks Ruby for help after she finds out about the fact jaune didn't get any training. (This is also to give Ruby more time in the spotlight). However Ruby can't completely teach Jaune, she can teach him how to properly use his aura. And how to lead but she can't teach him how to fight. So Ruby suggests asking Pyrrha to help, which Pyrrha would as both her and Ruby would both begin teaching jaune before they start hanging out outside of training Jaune. Having them train together and also have a scene where pyrrha finally gets to be a regular girl.. my idea is that Ruby and her go shopping for a video game Ruby really wants to get but the rest of her team is way too busy. So she asks pyrrha to accompany her, the two would get to just casually talk and allow Ruby to understand who pyrrha really is. As the vermilion spartan begins to talk about how she wished she wasn't famous. How she wished she was like Ruby or Yang, or even Jaune and just had a normal life with normal standards set for her. All of these moments between them so that when Ruby and jaune see Pyrrha die.. it hurts, it strikes Ruby to her core as she begins to break down while jaune trys (and fails miserably) to fight cinder. Before Ruby finally unlocks her silver eyes.

But that's all I got. I ain't discussing Penny because quite frankly I think how her and Penny's relationship was handled was really good. (I'm not acknowledging Penny's reappearance in volume 7 yet, I'm saving that for when I talk about her.. as well as her second death.)

I hope this long ass post comes off less as me complaining and more of just me giving my opinions. I love this show but I get frustrated with it. But it's from that love that I even decided to talk about this show instead of just walking away with apathy.

If you have your own opinions for Ruby I will gladly listen.. y'know as long as you don't insult anyone because if you do? Yeah get out.

But that's me and my garbage opinion on Ruby rose. Have a good day everyone and-

[GLITCH HAS BEEN BANNED]

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

I used to be kind of a fan of Lily's videos. Like, I never really subscribed to her but I did watch her videos kind of often, even though I've been a huge anime fan for way longer. I'm also currently learning Japanese (so obvs can't claim to know as much as a native speaker) and I've pretty much gotten over my... like, I guess, of Lily's videos through sheer force of will and how utterly goddamn hilarious both her Spy x Family and list of anime she likes videos were. As someone who has been watching anime for 10 years now, and someone who actually is a big fan of Spy x Family, every single thing she says about it is laughable. First of all, she's absolutely fucking clueless about shows that anime fans actually like. Anime fans LOVE Spy x Family because it's wholesome and fun. But also, the most popular manga and anime in recent memory – Chainsaw Man – is a deep and purposeful exploration of trauma and abuse and the author of Spy x Family used to work as an assistant to the author of Chainsaw Man. She's also utterly clueless about the author's feelings on his own manga. Endou Tatsuya does not hate or "feel nothing" towards Spy x Family. He was surprised that it became as popular as it did, but he doesn't dislike the series at all. The most baffling thing to me is that she claims she knows what Japanese people enjoy but has literally zero sources on that. Not to even mention how utterly racist and offensive she is about the Japanese language. She states in one of her videos that every Japanese word has a direct equivalent in English – something that is horrendously untrue to the point that, when attempting to translate, I often have to write entire paragraphs in English trying to explain what one word means and its connotations – and that honorifics and titles are the same or have the same meanings. Again, utter fucking nonsense. God, it pisses me off so much. Sorry I ended up going on a rant here. Just wanted to talk about how fucking deranged she sounds. Lily get your fucking shit together. Either stop talking about anime and how much you hate Japanese people/the Japanese language or do your fucking research before you open your mouth and let whatever fucking nonsense is holding your brain together slip out.

Since we're on the language train, she also doesn't seem to grasp that puns translate horribly. Because they're a play on words, and what might work in one language might not have an equivalency in another.

And that happens in Japanese a lot. You can tell sometimes where translators had to take liberties to just convey a joke because it just couldn't translate otherwise.

Oh, and that's not even getting into popular idioms!

It's really annoying listening to her act like languages aren't a reflection of the cultures that speak them, and just shows how little she knows about the world outside of North America.

[woodchipp]

@siezult

Alright, so.

Why did Basil show up? Because this is a dramatic scene and the drama genre relies on inconveniences to make the situation worse for the characters and progress the plot. Yeah it is convenient, but thats kinda the point?

It's one thing when the situation is made worse via a believable circumstance that is, even if it's slightly improbable, is explained by the story itself. I can suspend my disbelief then. It is, however, very different when the situation is made worse via a random occurence that's not only highly improbable, but is left entirely unexplained. In the latter case, it's usually bad writing.

Contrived coincidences are not inherently a bad trope. Tropes are tools, after all. There's a reason said trope is mostly used in comedies, though - make a coincidence too contrived in any other genre, and the story intended to be serious will become farce instead.

If you want an in-universe reason, Basil’s parents arent there to drive him to the ceremony, so he decides to stay at sunny’s house the night before so they can take him there.

There is no proof of this in the game.

I wouldn’t say she “didn’t tolerate mistakes”

I never said that either.

I wouldn’t say its out of character for her to react that way because its perfectly human to react negatively when annoyed, especially when its about something she really cares about like her music. I think it shows more of her character that she isn’t perfect all the time and will sometimes have a bad side.

My point was that her 'bad side" is only relevant to the story when it's needed to give Sunny a reason to lash out at her. It has no bearing on her character otherwise. I've said as such in the post.

Finally, why are you insinuating that Sunny is this awful person?

Because I have proof he is.

Like, yes, his accident was awful, and he shouldn’t have lied to everyone, but at the same time, he was fucking 12. A mortified 12-year old scared shitless of what will happen to him after people find out about his manslaughter will obviously make dumb decisions; he clearly wasn’t thinking straight at the time and was just doing what he got told would “fix” the situation.

Honestly, I'm sick of this argument. I've seen it so many times it's not even funny at this point.

1) You're talking about Sunny as if you are defending a real kid. He is a fictional character whose decisions have been predetermined by an adult writer, and thus I will judge said decisions accordingly.

2) "He's 12" removes Sunny's agency as a character - by your logic and the logic of essentially everyone using this argument, he can't be held responsible for anything bad he ever does for the sole reason of being a stupid kid. A 12 yo may be immature, impulsive and inexperienced, but not necessarily stupid.

3) A "mortified" 12-year-old who "wasn't thinking straight at the time" would not feel "at peace" upon seeing his sister's hanged body.

If anything you should be mad at Basil for making the decision to lie and dragging Sunny in on it.

1) Basil wouldn't have needed to lie if it wasn't for Sunny fucking up in the first place lmao

2) It's true Basil created the lie, but it was Sunny who chose to uphold it.

I think being a depressed, suicidal, possibly anorexic shut-in for 4 years is quite a punishment.

An entirely internal and self-inflicted one, yes. My point was that he suffers no external consequences (e.g. his friends leaving him since they're pissed at him), and the canonical state of the group after the confession is left ambiguous.

I'm not going to feel bad for an asshole whose only remarkable trait is feeling bad for himself all the time without ever doing much.

it’s implied Sunny’s parents knew, and was the reasoning for his dad leaving.

Source that isn't a single contextless quote in Black Space 2?

If his parents actually knew the truth all along, they woukd've been a lot more relevant to the game's plot. As it is, it's more likely the father left because the suicide of his daughter destroyed the marriage.

him “conveniently skipping town” wasn’t his choice. He didn’t intend to avoid repercussions by moving

That's why the word "conveniently" is there - it's true it wasn't his choice to move, but it still reads as a convenient way for the story to let him off the hook.

him moving was the catalyst for the games events as its when sunny decides to tell his friends the truth and give them closure, meaning Sunny is well aware that his friends would likely hate him, but thinks it would be for the better for them to know.

1) Source?

2) This implies Sunny would've been perfectly content to continue upholding Basil's lie were it not for external circumstances forcing him to come clean.

3) Given that Sunny wants to come clean purely for his own peace of mind, this also implies Sunny doesn't decide to reveal the truth out of a genuine desire to make things right - he wants to do it just because he has a deadline and he needs to get his weight off his shoulders while he still has the time.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

“I don’t even ship zutara but moral authority …..”

1) Sounds like you do ship zutara if you’re getting this mad.

2) No one is questioning Zutara’s morality. We’re complaining about how y’all can’t mind your own fucking business and constantly shove Zutara down everyone’s throats, even when others have stated that it’s not their cup of tea. Every time an anon DOES complain about Zutara’s morality, however, op always calls that anon out (as you should).

3) There’s Zutara shippers who enjoy all kinds of questionable things in your camp. Your smut week had rape despite the rules stating that rape isn’t allowed and despite those very same people loudly declaring that anyone who ships Kataang supports SA. Worry about that first.

4) If I were you, anon, I’d be embarrassed. People who tend to enjoy incest are pretty open to all shipping dynamics in general. This means that your fandom is so deranged that you’ve managed to piss off people that otherwise would be completely fine with Zutara. That’s the part you’re really upset about - the part you’re disguising as “you ship incest but you’re dictating what I can or cannot ship!!!”

Yeah, I got the feeling that the "I don't even ship Zutara" argument was hollow since everytime I criticized the ship - or rather, the bad apples among the shippers - I'd get some angry zutarians "calling me out" for shipping Zucest (because apparently they assume the thing I do very openly is some kind of dirty secret I don't want anyone to find out about)

"Every time an anon DOES complain about Zutara’s morality, however, op always calls that anon out (as you should)" Awn, I'm glad me going "it's not that deep, bro" has become a praise-worthy aspect of this blog.

Ah, Zutarians criticizing any ship for having any problematic elements (and making them up when they can't find any) only to then take said elements up to eleven in their own fics will never not be amusing to me. Like, buddy, if you want the right to explore any kind of topic/dynamic on your fics without having people assume you authomatically endorse everything you make the characters do, the very least you gotta do is respect that other fans have as much right to do it as you do, and admit that they're not "abuse apologists" just because their pairings had low points.

"People who tend to enjoy incest are pretty open to all shipping dynamics in general. This means that your fandom is so deranged that you’ve managed to piss off people that otherwise would be completely fine with Zutara" You are 100% correct about that, my friend.

I used to be completely neutral on Zutara. I could only see them as friends, and quite liked that dynamic, but I had no problem with the ship. Until the shippers started harassing me, the only "criticism" it'd get from me was this:

To me, the ship was bland and only existed because people like the Good Girl X Bad Guy thing - but that was not my fucking problem, and I wouldn't have liked to get unsolicited opinions on why the ships I did like were bad in other people's eyes, so I minded my business.

But after three years of getting asks saying everything from "You should stop writting Zucest and write Zutara instead because I said so" all the way to "Kill yourself since you don't like what I like", seeing my friends be treated the same way, seeing Zutara fans be treated like shit their fellow shippers because they liked Aang and Mai as characters or thought the ship war was pointless and immature, and seeing nearly every fic and meta written by zutarians be wildly out of character and clearly focusing on just praising their own ship while demonizing everything else, I realized that while the ship itself was not a problem, the toxic, spoiled fans sure as hell were.

These people really dig their own graves and then get mad when no one is feeling sorry for them (and in fact side with a "creep" like me instead).

[keaalu]

Pendennis Castle (and friends)

I feel like I've been adopted by the spirit of Pendennis Castle. (Perhaps I lived there, in a former life, firing cannons for King Henry?)

Point being, the very first time I caught the Riviera Sleeper to Cornwall in 2017, the diesel loco that pulled the train was Pendennis Castle - and ever since then, the name keeps. Coming. Up. So I think I have slightly adopted it.

This holiday, I went to Falmouth and explored Pendennis Castle itself (“Castle On The Hill Castle”, haha). But more excitingly, look what I encountered in Didcot!

Pendennis Castle! (And holy moly she is a big beastie. And constantly LOUD, her chimney roaring away like a massive kettle you forgot to take off the boil.)

Granted, standing on the station next to her, she's obviously huge - I was STILL not as tall as her. But it’s only when you’re at ground level right alongside, staring up at at this towering piece of noisy engineering and realising that the top of your head doesn’t even come to the top of its wheel, that you realise what absolutely monumental vehicles these actually were. I had to stand on tiptoe to look into her cab.

She's at the coal stage here (above), about to have her tender refilled. The camera was on my eyeline. Even in these photos you can't really grasp how thunderingly enormous this old lady is. 120 tonnes! And even when she was not doing anything at all (her crew weren't even aboard), she was noisy.

Here's an even bigger one! This is King Edward II, who escaped the scrapyard by about 30 minutes and (I think) was in such a state it took longer to restore than it was in service. (I asked the tour guide and it's slightly shorter than the Flying Scotsman but heavier, at 135 tonnes, and more powerful. Apparently there was a bit of a pissing competition between GWR and LNER over who had the better engine, which resulted in these behemoths being designed. They had to do lots of weird things with it because otherwise it wouldn't have fitted through tunnels/alongside platforms/etc.)

Yeah. These are big beasts. (Even the dinky little tank engine they had outside weighed in at almost 23 tonnes.) If I get anywhere with this thing I'm noodling away at, I really want to try and carry that off.

It's quite sad, in a way, seeing them preserved and just sitting there - getting lots of love and polish, granted, but I wanted to see them escape onto the mainline and really run. Watching Pendennis Castle shuffle up and down her 750m of line was a bit like watching a racehorse pace around in a paddock.

Of course I was busy taking notes. (I didn't quite get brave enough to ask the volunteers "so if you were in the middle of nowhere, just an engine and crew, and you'd stopped for some reason, and the driver then had a heart attack, how would you get help?")

(Something something someone runs down the tracks to a lineside phone to call the signalmen to put a stop on the line, and the engine sits whistling the hell out of an SOS because he's not quite got the steam pressure back up to run, until a policeman comes along to help.)

In a final turn for the weird, this holiday, I was just getting ready to leave my hotel on the final day, and heard the toot of a steam train. That can't be a steam train, I said, it's a mainline railway station next door. But I hurried away anyway, and look what was sat in Bristol Temple Meads station! (I left the people in for scale. Even here, the loco is lighter than Pendennis - 72 tons vs 81 tons.)

She left literally not even a minute after I got to the platform, so that was a huge touch of luck. It's a special one-off service running on the mainline up to Shrewsbury. So this is on my list for next year!

(If there isn't already a character in TTTE called Dennis, WELL THERE SHOULD BE. Who used to work the tin mines and speaks Cornish so no-one fucking understands him.)

(The sleeper is my favourite way to travel on holiday. Go to sleep in London, wake up 250 miles away in Penzance!)

[ninjahiccups]

Hi there! I saw in one of Songbird of Asgard's chapters that you headcanon Heimdall as demi - do you have any other Heimdall headcanons you would like to share with us? Sincerely, a definitely-not-Heimdall-content-starved anon.

I have a few, though I don't want to share some of them just yet since they would give away things that happen in SoA later on.

-Like I said, I hc Heimdall as demi. Gender identity really doesn't matter to him so long as he can tolerate someone and trust them enough to accept them (which is the real hard part lol)

-Heimdall is a little shit, that much we know. I like to think that applies to people he's close to as well, but in a different way. He'll give them sass and do annoying things to them just for the fun of it. Short? He puts things on the top shelf just to watch them go crazy looking for it, then casually reveal that he moved it after they've lost their mind just to watch them blow up. Have a pet peeve? You better believe he's doing the exact thing that pisses them off every chance he gets. Neat freak? He will 100% walk into their space and fuck it up. If they're someone who will push his buttons right back at him for revenge it turns into a never-ending war of pranks and sass and just messing with each other, and he's too prideful not to have the last laugh.

-Speaking of caring, Heimdall is an all or nothing kinda person, so if he cares, he goes all out. He'll be a selfish, snobby prick to everyone else, expecting them to meet his needs and expectations because they aren't worthy of his time and effort. But if someone's earns his trust and becomes important to him, he will do anything for them. There are limits to how far he'll go depending on the circumstances, but he is devoted to the people he values.

-The same can't really be said for animals, unfortunately. Yes, he respects them, but in the end he sees them as tools that can outlive their usefulness, hence his reaction when Gulltoppr dies. T_T Though he could grow to care for an animal as well, but it would take a lot. It boils down to how he perceives external bonds, seeing them as valuable only if they benefit him (we can thank ol' Odin for that) and he has to get very, VERY close to people to let go of that idea be as devoted as I described above.

-I see him as being 6'0, 6'2ish max. I know Kratos is 6'4, and it looks like Heimdall isn't *too* much shorter than him? (This would make Eivor about 5'5 in SoA)

-Based on the God of War: Lore and Legends book, I'm guessing Heimdall is not too much older than Baldur? The book states Odin and Freya were married about 125 years before GoW 2018 and Baldur came along 5 years later. Freya clearly knows Heimdall, and considering she doesn't care for him at all makes me think she never saw him grow up (if she did I honestly think she would cut him some slack since she has a soft spot for children). That would mean Heimdall would have to be an adult by the time Freya came around, making him at least 135ish? BUT he still seems a lot younger than the other gods like Tyr and Thor based on appearance alone, so he can't be too much older. I hc he's 150ish, which is still very young compared to most other gods.

-My mans is touch-starved and you can't convince me otherwise. So force this man into a hug for god's sake, he just can't admit he needs it so someone has to take it into their own hands.

-He appreciates the arts. Literature, architecture, visual art, music, anything like that. He's just very picky about what he likes.

-I subscribe to the idea that his fate would have been different if just one person cared about him. He would have had one reason to trust someone other than Odin, and that could have changed his perspective completely. Odin likely never allowed that to happen specifically to keep Heimdall under his thumb.

-He does drink, but it's more of an Asgardian culture thing than a letting loose thing. He never gets drunk and has no desire to be.

-His favorite color is gold (shocking, I know).

-He had to learn how to control his foresight in his youngest years. It's always warned him about anything that's coming at him, but actually *reacting* to it in an efficient way was something he had to work on. He wouldn't have been able to catch arrows when he was a teenager, just duck out of the way of them. Of course, his mastery over this skill is part of what makes his ego so enormous.

-My dude is an indoors enjoyer. He very much likes neat environments, clean floors, organization. Outdoors is only nice in the short term, but ask this man to go camping? No way, bruh. You'd have to work to get him to sit on the ground, let alone SLEEP on it.

-Between Heimdall's snarkiness and Atreus's smart mouth, I see so much annoying sibling energy between them. If things had been different, Heimdall would have definitely been like a smartass, I'm-better-than-you older brother, and Atrues would have been the flat-out irritating, Nuh-uh-your-face-is-stupid younger brother. I will ride or die with the idea that the god of order and the god of mischief would piss each other off like brothers who beat each other up for fun. I may or may not plan to hint at this is SoA at some point ;)

(Side note, this blog DOES ***NOT*** support Heimtreus shipping. That last headcannon is strictly in a platonic and familial kind of way)

That's all I can think of right now, other than the ones that would give some things away is SoA. I hope you enjoyed that anon!!!

[fimproda]

Author talks: (Negative) Opinions and reviews

(Grab some snacks and a drink. This is a chunky boi.)

This post was a long time coming.

I wrote a version of what you're about to read back in, like, 2019, on my Italian Wattpad profile, after years spent dealing with ungrateful authors and being called rude, wrong, and whatever negative adjective you can and cannot think of.

It's time to address this topic yet again, in English, here on Tumblr, hoping to reach as many people as possible and, the writing gods willing, change a mind or two.

The straw that broke the camel's back (or rather, my back) was a series of TikTok videos, made by a bunch of Italian booktokers, either in support or in opposition to another booktoker who had dared to review a pretty popular book that had made its rounds on Wattpad before being self-published on Amazon.

It so happened that I, for one, knew the author from our shared time on Wattpad, and I also knew the book, which wasn't good back then and is not any better now; moreover, I saw the video review and I agreed with the booktoker's every word, especially with the way this girl kept an even, calm, almost professional tone and justified every critique.

So you can imagine my surprise when a veritable swarm of detractors began stitching this booktoker's video, saying that her opinions were wrong, that she was bullying the author, and yadda yadda yadda; thankfully, some other booktokers were on her side, but this also meant that this back-and-forth shitstorm went on for days, and maybe it hasn't even ended yet.

I need to add that the author blocked this poor girl on every social media, and the book's most passionate readers (the ones that the author brought over from Wattpad and the author's friends/family, I assume) flocked to the booktoker's other accounts to keep blaming and disgracing her.

All this over a negative, yes, but overall objective and respectful review.

And it doesn't end here.

Many other straws continued to destroy the camel's back.

For instance, some accounts I follow for fandom content on Instagram or even here on Tumblr, who for the most part are not authors themselves, make a point to regularly remind people not to tag authors in their negative reviews of those authors' books.

On the other side of the coin, I've seen some authors, especially on TikTok, flip their shit over a "negative" review (and I should add even more quotes around the word negative, to be honest). Some even stated that a 3 out of 5 stars rating is a negative one, saying, "What would you think if a person called you 3/5 cute?!"

I don't know about them, or about you, but I would preen like a peacock if someone called me 3/5 cute.

(It'd be different if they said I was 3/10 cute, of course, but we can't really expect basic maths from some people, can we?)

Back in my Wattpad days, I've even stumbled upon someone who said that, seeing as all content on Wattpad is free (which is not even true nowadays, but whatever), no one has any right to leave a negative review. @zoyalannister can vouch for this; in fact, I believe it was her who sent me a screenshot of that comment, and we're still shocked about it years later.

I'm sure that some authors among you will understand how utterly pissed I get when I read, hear about, or get otherwise involved with such things.

So, with all this in mind, let's clear up a few things, shall we?

None of us is writing because we've got a gun to our head. We're writing, posting, interacting with readers, and everything related to this, because we want to.

In wanting this, we make our works public.

Some websites like AO3 allow us to choose if we'd like to "protect" our stories by keeping them out of reach of the unregistered users, but for the most part, everyone can search for our works, read them, and comment on them.

These are the terms and conditions. And yes, nobody really reads the terms and conditions before accepting them, but this doesn't give us a right to bitch about the consequences when they come a' knockin' at our door, does it?

Fuck around and find out, am I right?

Granted, there's comment and comment. If I, reader, come to you, author, and start insulting you, your family, your cow, and the interior designer who remodeled your kitchen, you have every right to call me all kinds of names (I wouldn't do that if I were the author, as it would mean debasing myself to the reader's level, but anyway) and slam-dunk my opinion into the trash.

(Yes, this happened to me. I've been insulted. One girl went as far as offering to, and I quote, "shit on your head, so that you close that sewer of a mouth". Context: I had commented on a story—not this girl's story: she was another reader, the author actually agreed with me—saying that I thought something was cacophonic; in Italian, this word sounds very similar to the verb cagare, which, indeed, means "to shit".)

Same thing if I, reader, come to you, author, and correct your grammar when there's absolutely no reason for me to do so, because your grammar is already correct.

(This happened to me, too. Many, many times. I know I've got an impeccable grammar in Italian; I even scored third in my age category at the nationwide Italian language Olympics when I wasn't even sixteen years old. I've been reading since I was, like, three or four, and "seriously" writing since I was thirteen. But people didn't like when I corrected their grammar, so they felt the need to come and correct mine. One memorable occasion was when a girl declared, in all seriousness, that the second singular person of the imperative of the verb fare must be always written as fa', with the apostrophe, and that my writing it as fai was wrong, because that was the second singular person of the indicative of fare. She ignored both that 1. the indicative and the imperative are the same exact thing in most cases, and 2. fa' and fai are the exact same thing as well, with the apostrophe representing the elision of the final i.)

Or, same as above, but exchanging grammar for, I don't know, a historical event, or a certain piece of information, or that kind of stuff in general, when you author were in the right and it's my sources that were wrong.

(An author, who was in university at the time, told me that she didn't know what inflation and spending power were, and so she hadn't accounted for them in her story. This happened after I mentioned those things when I pointed to her that you wouldn't hire an assassin in the 1960s with the same amount of money you would use nowadays. If I recall correctly, that author was majoring in a STEM field.)

(As a counterpoint, I was positive, for a long-ass time, that the hip bones were in fact a hip bone—meaning, that I should use the singular word, cresta iliaca, instead of the plural version, creste iliache. A reader corrected me on this, and I'm still thanking her today.)

You understand what I mean, right? Don't let me insult your intelligence by spoon-feeding you the meaning of my words.

But.

But.

If I, reader, come to you, author, and either correct your grammar when it's wrong, or a certain piece of information you chose to include in your story that is wrong, or whatever I decide to comment that could be perceived as negative—

—but I justify my point, cite my sources, maybe even linking them if possible, and keep my opinion contextualized and objective, you must at the very least lend me an ear and listen to what I have to say.

Never, in my nine years of roaming the fandom part of the Internet, have I ever written a comment on a fic saying something that I just pulled out of my ass, without checking first if there was any merit to my words. Never.

@zoyalannister can also vouch for this, as she's known me for eight of those nine years and witnessed many, if not all, of my altercations with my fellow Wattpad authors over my opinion of their story (which, allow me to clarify, they had literally asked me for—but again, even if they hadn't, their works were public and open for anyone to comment on, and I still would've been in the right).

Alas, it appears that many authors lack the self-awareness and self-criticism I believe are needed if you want to try your hand at writing, especially if you want to do it professionally.

And, good God, so do many readers.

Why, oh, why do some readers (some non-authors) go around proselitizing that people shouldn't tag authors in their negative reviews?!

Are they close personal friends with an author who doesn't like to be tagged in negative reviews of their books? Are they being paid to push this agenda? Do they have such a terrible relationship with criticism in every way, shape, or form that they feel like it's okay to get mad on someone else's behalf and dictate other people's actions?

These people like to say—parrot, is more like it—that negative reviews either don't benefit anyone, which is such an enormous pile of bullshit that I don't even know where to start dismembering it, or could only benefit the reader, essentially working as a way to help someone decide whether or not to read and/or buy that particular book.

I think negative reviews benefit both the author and the reader.

As an author, particularly as a Wattpad/AO3 author (but, if I understand correctly, self-published authors on Amazon can edit the digital version of their book with more or less the same ease), I cherish each and every correction comes my way, precisely because I can edit my text right away and, by doing that, make it better.

Aside from "small" corrections with regard to grammar or some other objective aspect of my fics, good, chunky, lenghty, justified, contextualized negative reviews in general help me rework my stories and make them better, both retroactively and for the future.

What I just said also applies to the flip side of the coin, when it's me, as a reader, writing the negative review.

Instead, with regards to reading negative reviews, even though I myself never look at reviews when deciding whether or not to add something to my already gargantuan TBR list, I can see why some people would rather read the reviews and survey the ratings before making that choice.

I should warn you, though, if you're one of these people, that very few reviews, be they positive or negative, can be taken at face value.

(In what follows, I will be talking almost exclusively about negative reviews, but everything I say can be applied to positive ones, as well.)

In my twenty-two years of age, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that not everyone can truly read, and even fewer people can truly write, so the first problem you could run into is this: the person behind the review either understood fuck-all about the book they just read, or they did understand something but cannot put their opinion into words, or they didn't understand the book and cannot put their opinion into words.

The second problem is that some negative reviews are written with a specific purpose in mind, which is entertainment in some cases, clout in some others. Yet again, @zoyalannister knows how many times I barged into our Whatsapp chat to tell her that a SJM detractor on TikTok straight-up invented some stuff to rant about, subsequently getting views and likes and comments and general activity on their account.

Moral of the story: don't believe everything you see or hear about on the Internet, and always, always form your own opinion based on facts, not hearsay.

(Funnily enough, this is how I got hooked on SJM: I wanted to form my own opinion about her books. The rest is history.)

And, moral of the whole story:

Readers: as long as your opinion is not a personal insult to the author or even threatens to spill into that territory, and as long as the author didn't explicitly say that they don't want to be tagged in a negative review, don't ever restrain yourself from writing one and/or tagging the author, whatever other people might tell you.

Readers: stop speaking on authors' behalf. Not every single one of us will lose their mind if confronted with a negative review. Some of us are searching for just that. Let it be, as it should, an individual decision.

Readers: contrary to popular belief, you do not need to suggest an alternative route for all the things you comment negatively on. You do not need to sweeten the pill for the author with the proverbial spoonful of sugar. You do, however, need to explain the reasoning behind everything you say (or at least that's my opinion).

Readers: I will never block, slander, or insult you if you write me a negative review, even if you don't use the same courtesy towards me and your opinion is not justified in any way. In that case, I will only get mad and refute your every point, as I believe is my right to do.

Authors: don't be a bitch and listen to your readers, if they're making sense. Don't try to convince yourself that they're not making sense when they are.

Authors: look at your works with a judging eye. Be your first critic, be your own critic.

Authors: when facing a negative review, don't hide behind half-assed explanations or apologies or, God forbid, suspension of disbelief. If you fucked up, you fucked up. Cherish the reader who told you that, who maybe even told you how to fix it.

Authors: some reviews have to be destructive before they can be constructive. If there's mold on your bathroom ceiling, you don't just paint over it: you remove the mold first, and then paint over it.

Readers and authors: conduct yourself with dignity. Keep your cool, be level-headed, turn on your brain. And always, always, tell the truth.

Aaand I'm done.

A huge thank you (and congratulations) to everyone who got this far. Unfortunately, I'm everything but laconic.

I'd like to hear your thoughs about all this!

[goldenavenger02]

What Taylor swift album do you think each of the ninja are? I feel like Jay could be Lover. Maybe 1989 for Skylor. What do you think?

As someone who has been casually listening to Taylor since before Ninjago came out thanks to my oldest sister and became an actual Swiftie in 2017 with the release of Reputation (not being able to use that verified ticketmaster fan slip that came with my cd because Christmas was a month after it expired and my mom had no idea it was in there is my ACTUAL roman empire), I have thought about this a lot.

A couple of these ARE interchangeable (Lloyd, you are an enigma to me) but this is USUALLY what I end up falling on.

The Tortured Poet's Department: I know it's not out yet, but based on the vibes, the few lyrics we've seen, the fact that it's probably going to be in the vein of folklore and evermore and the whole message of the album (finally being free after years and years trapped and unhappy), I really think it's going to fit Misako. POSSIBLY Garmadon, but that's my prediction and I'm fully prepared to eat my words.

Midnights: This is one of my top 3 albums (it and Speak Now are constantly fighting for that number 3 spot) and because of how it encapsulates all of the eras/it being about things that she wanted to elaborate on from her past, I feel like it fits all of the characters to an extent. That being said, it feels very Wu coded to me (even if YOYOK is THE Cole song at the end of the day)

evermore/folklore: because evermore are the songs that kept coming from Taylor after folklore, I consider them very similar in tone/vibe and therefore are grouping them as one. folklore is my favorite Taylor album to date and it means so much to me as both a person and as a writer (I can only hope to write something as meaningful as My Tears Ricochet) and these albums are the Nya albums. I know that's unpopular, people tend to see her as Reputation or Speak Now and I fully understand those comparisons but these albums not only have the infamous love triangle saga between Betty and August fighting over James, as well as Mad Woman, The Last Great American Dynasty and No Body, No Crime which are some of my favorite songs about female rage but those albums are so vulnerable in a way that the others aren't.

Lover; oh Lover, the album that people see as the silly, happy, fun album but if they scratch under the surface find the deeper meaning about being scared of losing the one person that is your true love in The Archer, Afterglow and Cornelia Street. This is the first album that I managed to decide what character from Ninjago it fit and that is Jay Walker, my beloved.

Reputation: This album has the baddest bitch anthem in I Did Something Bad but this album also has some of the sweetest love songs I've ever heard in my life. It's so Skylor, everybody. You cannot tell me "I want to wear his initial on a chain around my neck/not because he owns me but because he really knows me" is not Kailor coded.

1989: this album is the Cole album, I take no notes on that one.

Red: NO, I'M NOT MAKING THAT COMPARISON. Red is NOT the Kai album, this is arguably the SADDEST album in Taylor's discography and despite his color being Red, that doesn't mean Kai fits Red! Now that I have THAT out of the way (sorry, TikTok pisses me off with that comparison), Red is the Lloyd album. Yes, it has those few happy moments (Starlight, State of Grace, Treacherous) but most of the album is CLOUDED by this heartbreak from All Too Well, Forever Winter, The Moment I Knew. And The Lucky One is so, so, so Lloyd & Arin coded.

Speak Now: *throws Harumi at you and runs away to grab Garmadon as well before sprinting out of the room to avoid getting asked questions while yelling* I can't pick, sorry!

Fearless; this album is so Kai coded, you cannot tell me otherwise. I can't tell you WHY it is that way, but it is (despite my anger about the "Kai is Red coded" meme, I am willing to switch Lloyd and Kai if someone can prove it to me.)

And finally, Taylor Swift/Debut: I will admit, I HARDLY listen to this album. I'll probably grow a deeper love/understanding for it when the rerecording comes out but as of now, it's my LEAST listened to album of hers but from the songs I do listen to (Our Song, Tied Together With a Smile and A Place In This World) It really does give me Zane vibes (although I also think it gives PIXAL vibes because those two are really parallels of each other) but, I don't listen to the full album so I'm willing to change my mind.

Anyway, this got very long but I have a lot of opinions on both Ninjago and Taylor's music so you DID kinda ask for it, anon.

[snake-shifter]

K I'm bored and have thoughts specifically about Welcome Home and the recent gtlive video on it and y'all... I'm tired.

BUT before I begin I will state my bias, yes I am a (adult, this will come up) fan of Mat and game theory, this isn't gonna be me white knighting this is more of a vent about other fans.

So ever since the gtlive I've seen plenty of posts about it in a 50/50 split. One side being worried or upset about the coverage because Mat is a big youtuber and the welcome home community (and especially the creator Clown) are in need of a break right now; and the other side is trying to descalate the reactions and explain how Mat covering the project is not the absolute end of Welcome Home (abit of an exaggeration I'll admit).

As you can tell, this falls into the latter; however the first thing I want to say is that some of the concerns are valid, again Clown and the fandom are in need of a major break (and frankly some of you also need an etiquette lesson) and the timing of the video is very poor, another concern is how Mat and his fans may accidentally cross the boundaries that Clown has set, again these are all completely valid concerns.

However some of y'all are blowing this way out of proportion and being really mean about it too. First of all Mat went into the video completely blind otherwise there wouldn't even be a gtlive about it; he had no idea about the issues in the community or Clowns boundaries at the time of the video, the only ones who would know are the fans who mentioned it in his comments and his team members who take those recommendations.

I'm not saying that the fans or even his team are completely at fault here, but to put the onus completely on Mat is unfairly shifting the blame.

Another thing that, honestly kind of pissed me off a little, were alot of posts with people saying that Mats "children fanbase" were going to overrun the community now.

First of all, Mats channel has been up for what? 10 years now? He has plenty of adult fans (told you it would come up) who know how to act appropriately, second of all just a glance over the comments and you'll see alot of people, who are likely also fans of Mat, talking about Clowns boundaries and how to be respectful.

But beside all of that y'all are saying "child fanbase" as if "children" (bc children is a VERY broad term) don't know about Clowns boundaries or can't respect them, which is honestly kind of insulting, yes kids and teens can be dumb, and I say that as someone who was incredibly stupid as a teen, but not all kids are as disrespectful or unknowledgable as you're making it out to be, plus Mat has 17.4 million subscribers do you really think that all of those people are A. Children and B. Gonna be horrible shits to the Welcome Home community?

K one more thing I've seen people upset that Mat kept using the term cult to describe what he thought was happening within the story, again a valid concern, cults are a very real very scary thing that people have to deal with.

Again, this isn't an excuse this is just an explanation. 1. Mat went in blind, he had no idea what the story was like, it could very well be that the letters that the people behind the (in story) Welcome Home project are getting are from some kind of organization we don't know.

2. Unfortunately cults are a very common "trope" (cliché?) In horror media, this isn't always bad but alot of the time it's less midsommar and more Halloween the curse of Michael Myers if that makes sense, it wouldn't be wrong for one of Mats first thoughts to be a cult, especially since he does videos on media with cults in them.

K I'm done, I'm typing this on my phone my fingers hurt goodbye.

[virtue-and-beneviolence]

Virtue!! Your event!!!! Why are you so sweet let me smooch you😭

If it's okay I would love to tell you about my Selfship with none other but Benkei bear 🫶

Sadly I don't have any selfship art bc your bitch is broke but I have a picrew

We're just that wholesome lil couple where you think "oh my how adorable I want that too!"

We got our difficulties choosing movies because I live for horror and gore which he's scared of bc he's a baby. All big and tough but he's the softest. He would keep a light on when I listen to true crime to fall asleep and states it's so he can read and play with my hair but in reality he's scared (but won't say anything bc he knows I can't fall asleep otherwise)

He would protect me from everything and speak for me when anxiety kicks in but as we know I'll gladly destroy kneecaps if someone pisses my loved ones off so I think this dynamic fits us best

He's this cool headed, calm, rational guy that likes to be loud and cheer all his friends on while I'm that impulsive little crackrat that can't open her mouth for shit - and if I do it's either veeery quiet (or I will make you question your existence if you chose to fuck around and find out)

Him and Ace are best buddies and it makes me question from time to time if he's with me so he can hang out with my dog 💔 can't blame him tho, that stinky is a legend.

Our song is Work song by Hozier. It just gives me this big ol Benkei vibes.

You probably have the whole knowledge of A-Z about him thanks to yours truly 🫶

And about me uh yeah. I'm a lil Shrimpy that would kill for her dog and loved ones, big anger issues but a shy baby. As you know I love to crochet and lately to paint / draw.

I don't know what else to tell you but I could go on for hours about how much I would like to lay in bed and cuddle him right now because yeah. I love him and he's that big walking heater that likes to cuddle.

I just love this man why is he not real 🥹

Greet the Breadstick from me please and give her some good booty scratches if she's into that🖤

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◇─◇──◇── @benkeibear  x Benkei! ──◇──◇─◇

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birthday edition!!! Wishing you a very tolerable year with more ups than downs hehe <3 <3

□ I feel like Benkei has definitely tried to train you a bit in the past. So he can be particularly comfortable and secure in your ability to stand you ground against the GIANTS you experience on the daily.

□ And thank god it happened after hours bc i think it has also once maybe ended in steamy locker room times.

□ Benkei has tried to squat Ace (with ace kind laying on/being held on his shoulders). I don't think ace loved that. His lil face was VERY CONFUSED, but the gym insta followers loved the video.

□ this one is kinda out there but i think maybe Benkei might have discovered yarn bombing and coordinated with some local grandmas to yarn bomb a park. I think he probably tried to get you to teach him (I'm not sure if his hands were quite dexterous enough) but tldr, the grandma population loves him and he thinks it's a very silly idea.

□ big spoon/little spoon? Puh-lease. Benkei lays on you. He hugs your hips and nestles his cheek into your tum and he could die happily like that, your warmth on his cheek. It's super cute right!!! WRONG! Come winter you are going to be plagued by his COLD NOSE. It is the ONLY PART OF THE MAN THAT GETS COLD. But ugh anything for him T.T

□ Benkei sends you a video every. single. walk. with Ace because he's a silly boy or his ears flopped really cutely.

□ He absolutely lifts you in the grocery store.

□ Benkei, in all his buff, yet soft glory spends a lot of time at Shinichiro's place lately. He always smells really sweet when he comes back too.

□ it's weird but like it's Benkei. Benkei would never do anything so sketchy as cheat.

□ Of course, he was really getting baking lessons from housewife in the making Emma. Even better than the cheesecake me makes for your birthday, is the stack of photos of Benkei with each and every one of his failed creations along the way.

□ Also, he's the most reasonable of the older gen trio, but he still forgot candles so you just blew out his lighter lmaooo

□ I just know he'd be coordinating for months to get people to get to see you irl esp after the last few years of wild shit. It's made even more sweet bc I don't think he's really the stay-tightly-in-touch type so it's really a little labor of love and UGH I LOVE YOU TWO.

□ Most importantly Benkei lets me play flirt with you and is in on the running joke that if heaven forbid anything happens to him, I get you

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If anyone but rhy made it here - sorry yall, this is me celebrating our girl's birthday so it's a super special extended length version.

BACK TO IT THO!!!!

Have you ever lovingly teased him about his very of-the-time tribal-y tattoos?be honest. eheheh

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Come make my day, tell me about your self ship, and get some hcs of your own.