#big finish liked this one on twitter too btw

[englandhatepage]

these redraw challenges are getting out of hand

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

back when i was on twitter for a month for the renewal campaign stuff i saw a take that was like “why are we still acting like ed was getting better in 1.10 before izzy intervened when 2.02 showed us what it means when ed is suddenly cleaning things up and acting cheerful.” and i guess the interpretation here is that izzy recognized ed’s actions as signs of an impending suicidal attempt and the “namby pamby/edward better watch his fucking step” stuff was izzy’s poorly executed but well-meaning attempt to stop ed from going down that path. the last sentence is too much for me to even engage with tho so i’m just gonna leave that there for y’all to boggle at with me

but anyway back to the take that obviously ed’s about to kill himself in 1.10 bc cheering up and tidying his space are things ed does when he’s planning to die

cannot believe this needs to be said but there's a pretty big difference between crying in a blanket fort and eating marmalade straight from the jar for like, a fucking day, and then hanging out with friends and making plans to all do something fun together which puts you in better spirits and motivates you to start cleaning up ur room and getting ur life back together after a brief detour into heartbreak

versus fucking. months of isolating from everyone but your one long-time employee who is mean to you and who reminds you of your dad (who you killed when u were a kid btw) and constant substance abuse and throwing yourself entirely into overworking at your job that you hate and not giving yourself any breaks or days off, all of this eventually culminating in you shooting the employee who reminds you of your dad in front of all your other employees and then leaving the rest of your employees to finish him off. and then waking up the next morning suddenly in an inexplicable and unexpected good mood and deciding to clean up your room like youre getting your affairs in order.

[emerxshiu]

Grand fest idols (cw: a bit suggestive clothes i think)

decided to make a grand fest version of my splatoon idols

if you follow me on twitter, you probably saw me bitching and yeah shits bad hand hurts, back hurts, head hurts, its hot in here, i cant stop coughing and its that type of cough that hurts

i dont wanna bring the mood down so im just gonna talk abt other things!

Their name is Hada, fun fact: i never finished the drawing i made so i kinda had to pick some colors in the spot, well, i picked some from the old reference since that was a redesign (you might have seen the one i did of the other) they are based on a big fin squid....

this....

thing...

cool! so yeah thats why they are so tall

here is the sketch i made for their normal design

they actually wear goggles usually since they are very sensitive to light, but i didnt draw it there

and here is Lucida! based on a glass octopus (though she used to be an inkling i changed it when i saw that i barely had any octoling ocs (never changed actually, like, always a glass cephalod, so nice that i found out that octopus also have a similar like, species so i didnt have to change her much))

and here is her's! wich i did finish

if you notice i kinda changed her body just because i wanted her to be chubby but i thought my job was bad so i decided to improve it a bit, her freckles also change colors :3

and here is an old design

its not even the oldest, they look REALLY different from those

though, i havent really written down their personalities or anything so its kinda woobly, you can ask about them but just mentioning that so you know they probably will change

i will try to do a team future drawing tomorrow, but now im gonna rest my hand a bit and try to get back onto splatoon as soon as possible, hopefully (the next line is a bit of a leak, skip to the next parentesis if you dont want to read that) when the amiibo concerts are back, you can choose for them to perform at the grand festival stages, or if anything, (you safe now) i want to be able to keep going there after the festival ends, even if the idols arent performing. because i really want to take more photos of deep cut, btw deep cut are my favourites now, callie is still too but not as much as them. uh- yeah- sorry i tend to go off topic a lot, welp, my timing is terrible so i end up taking the pictures some seconds later and it gets fucked up, i might upload all the ones i took after the fest ends

well, i should get going, Jambuhbye!

(forgot to say this but they are over 20 dont worry)

[rouiyan]

𝘞𝘌’𝘙𝘌 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘙𝘌𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘠 𝘚𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘕𝘎𝘌𝘙𝘚 ; 𝘛𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘌𝘙 [ 𝘭.𝘮𝘬 ]

⧏ RELEASED — READ FULL FIC HERE ⧐

marks manages to land himself in a forty-two hour drive across the country with his archaeology major ex-girlfriend in the passenger seat. but for the duration of the whole ride, the only thing he can think about is that one twitter meme that states that “a majority of archeologists are women due to their natural ability to dig up the past.”

✧ photographer!mark lee x (fem.) archaeology major!reader ✧ exes to lovers, road trip au, referenced college au ✧ fluff/angst, hurt/comfort

✧ full fic w/c : 25.2k ✧ teaser w/c : 828 ✧ teaser disclaimers : food tw, knife tw, profanity

author's note — uhh.. well this is kinda awkward. i know i haven't posted content in a long ass time... sadly, this is by no means an official return to writing, but instead a piece that i've written on and off for over two years! now that i've been given a window of unoccupied time to finish it to my liking, i hope you look forward to it! i've missed you all btw

「 DAY 00, 01:42 PM 」— CUPID DABBLES IN BURNT TOAST

"oh, come on. i thought you were nicer than that!"

it's at times like these where mark is led to think that haechan only considers him as his very best friend for three things. his toaster, his car, and then of course, how easy it is to torment him.

he’s experienced enough to know that the guilt he feels is really only a direct result of haechan's guilt-tripping antics. and so he responds sarcastically, "yeah, nice enough to save a girl from a week of being in close proximity to the person she hates most in the world."

the toaster dings and haechan catches the two pieces of toast in their flight. he sticks one in his mouth, breaking off a bite, whilst turning to toss the other onto his friend's plate. chewing roughly, he leans back onto the counter opposite of mark, watching in contempt as the latter spreads jam across the burnt slice of bread.

haechan points a finger and juts it in his direction, offhandedly commenting, "i'm starting to think that it's you who hates her," a fact that both friends know isn't true. and because of that, mark doesn't make a big deal of denying it. "i don't hate her. i'm just..." he trails off and haechan takes the opportunity to craftily stage his intervention.

"not trying to make her uncomfortable?"

"yeah, i guess."

"not wanting her to hate you more?"

"there's that too."

"not over her?"

"hey, not cool."

a passage of silence elapses as mark sets the butter knife aside in exchange for his orange juice. gulping it down, he gets through two thirds of the glass before haechan perks up again. "actually, i think she still has a thing for you."

mark sputters, barely swallowing his drink before it could hurl out his disbelieving mouth. trying to smooth over his show of defiance, mark recovers a nonchalant expression as he deadpans, "there's no way. you know better than i do that she fucking hates me."

haechan takes another bite, aware but indifferent at how the crumbs have been gathering at his feet. his eyes trail absentmindedly to the clock on the wall behind mark, but only briefly for the hands are far past where he'd expected them to be. shoving the last of the toast into his mouth, he rushes to gather his belongings whilst uttering to his bewildered company, "shit, i'm gonna be late. pack it up."

obediently downing the rest of his orange juice, mark grabs his half-eaten, jam-slathered, burnt-to-a-crisp toast in one hand as the other reaches for his car keys on the way out. the unbearably hot sun of an early summer afternoon only hurries mark further along to his car, his wishes that he had worn shorts instead of jeans already too late to come true. but once both car doors have been shut and seat belts have been strapped, haechan carries on with his agenda without missing a beat.

"just give her the ride, mark. she'll keep you company and, i don't know, make sure you're not falling asleep at the wheel. and plus, she said she'll split the toll and gas fees."

mark shoves the last bite of toast into his mouth, the charred-ness of it procuring a nice crunch. even after he swallows, it takes him a second to respond. and though his answer is still far from budging, it sounds more like a justification, as if he needs convincing of his own opinion. "tell her it's cheaper to just catch a flight. and faster too."

exasperated, haechan retorts under his breath, "that's the same thing i told you," to which mark gives a raised brow, not catching what he said. instead of repeating, haechan only says, "just take her. you guys need to make up anyways."

that renders mark quiet for the rest of the ride as he tosses the thought over in his head. it's a thought that he knows he's been pushing away for far too long, hoping one day it'll become redundant enough to simply forget about. unknowingly, mark begins to speed a little, his turns become a little tighter, and when the traffic light signals red, the nose of his car is pulled daringly close to the car in front.

mark parallel parks shoddily in front of the archeology department building four minutes earlier than google maps had estimated. his best friend looks over at him expectantly and that in itself is enough to squeeze the reluctant words right out of him. "fine, i'll think about it."

haechan's face lights with a satisfied glow as he swings his backpack over his shoulder, making his way out of the car as quickly as he can. and just before mark can think to wish him good luck on his last exam of the spring semester, haechan blurts out the one crucial detail he had neglected to bring up until now.

"thank god, because i already told her you said yes."

copyright © 2023 rouiyan all rights reserved.

[thefrontofmymind]

I Could Never Hate You (ex!reader x matty healy)

a/n: this is a bit of an add-on to this blurb so it'll kinda make more sense if you read that too but its not totally needed

As the clock ticked closer to midnight, you got more and more antsy. Finally, after over two years, you were finally letting the world into your passion project. An album that you started with love, then loneliness and heartbreak. It took you through the hardest few months of your life, the breakup with the man who you thought you would spend the rest of your life with. It wasn’t even some big event, you just realised that you couldn’t grow together. You and Matty had spent most of your relationship alone together, in isolation away from the rest of the world. And that worked well for a while–living in stasis–but when it came time to join the real world again, you found that everyone else had changed, drastically, and you both needed to change as well, and not together.

Well, that was the start of it. Once you’d both had to start living single, for the first time in years, and it quickly became apparent that things would not settle easily. First was the awkwardness from your mutual friends, not knowing whether to take sides or not, then the jealousy in seeing just how happy you both seemed on social media without one another–of course, this was all a facade, you were both very unhappy but just too stubborn to admit it.

Hearing the things he would say about you on stage, in his songs, in interviews, you were so hurt. Not to mention shocked, you didn’t know he’d be so upset, when you split there wasn’t much animosity, just heartache. You didn’t know he felt so threatened over the mere idea of you dating someone else–all rumours made up by tabloids, you were nowhere near ready to date somebody else.

It was ten minutes until midnight. You had almost finished your final listen through it, while it was still just your’s, only two songs left. And then the whole world could listen, and learn about the past couple years that you held so sacred. 

You didn’t even realise you were crying until the tears finally spilled over your cheeks as the ending chords of the final track played in your empty flat. Living through that whole journey each time you listened was like another blow to your chest over and over, but some part of you yearned for it each time–it was your only gateway to the last time you felt actually happy with yourself. Since you broke up with him, it had all been a complete mess of bathroom breakdowns and many nights with too much wine.

As you composed yourself with a tissue there was only about a minute left, this was it. 

You watched your phone’s time turn to Friday, it was like a weight was lifted off your back. All your worries, the emotional labour you endured while making the record, just melted away. You opened the Twitter app and read through the first few tweets of excited fans who were live-tweeting their first listen to the album. You smiled at all their anticipation, typing their initial thoughts in all caps.

And soon the texts came rolling in. Your manager, peers, friends from school, the head of your label, and…him.

Just listened to it all. I can’t believe I know someone as talented as you. Seriously. Just wow.

The text touched your heart. You’d sent a very similar message when Being Funny was released, all of it true. It was a truly heartfelt and all-over fantastic record, you were just glad you could live up to that standard. You quickly typed a response.

Oh you flatter me! 

Ping! An immediate reply back.

I try…

This was the first time you’d properly spoken in months. It felt so good. It was almost like you’d gotten your Matty back–something you wished for so deeply.

I meant what I said in the ig post btw. I wanna be friends.

The second you pressed send, you were worried you’d overstepped, and when the typing bubble appeared on the screen.

Me too.

-And then another message.

Are you busy right now? I still have a 92 Bordeaux I haven’t opened…

Your favourite wine. You typed another text.

I’ll be over in 10.

It was a short walk. A route you’d thought about taking time and time again in your lowest times. Though now you were riding a hit of euphoria like no other.

You still knew the code to his apartment block–after all, it was once yours too–so you could get in easily, placing four firm knocks on his door.

When he opened the door, you were met with a sight for sore eyes. Without thinking you launched on him, wrapping your arms around his shoulders. You could feel him freeze for a second, before relaxing into your grasp, arms going around your waist.

You forgot his scent, the musk mixed with tobacco smoke–something that on anyone else could very well be repulsive, but not on Matty, never on Matty.

“We should get inside,” he said, muffled from his face being pressed into your shoulder.

“Okay,” you chuckled. 

You finally let go of him and you felt so suddenly cold without contact. You walked through the door and you were hit with the memories of when it was home for you–the good and bad.

Matty had set up the dark bottle on the coffee table with two glasses. He knew you always liked to open the bottle yourself so it was left still wrapped, a bottle opener laying next to it. You couldn’t help but smile a little to yourself at the sight of it, knowing that Matty still remembered.

You placed your bag on the armrest of the sofa and got to your job, unpeeling the foil and prying open the bottle. You pocketed the cork, you wanted something to remember this night by.

Matty was simply watching you from his normal spot on the sofa as you poured the two glasses and handed one to him.

“I should tell you again…” he started after you made yourself comfortable on the sofa you both spent months picking out. “It’s a fucking good album.”

“Thanks, darling,” you smiled.

“I’m serious! I could never have written something so…tender and so..so personal. Ever.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” you joked, he laughed.

“And I want you to know that I’m sorry. For everything.”

“You’re not completely blameless in all this! We’ve both said and done…things,” you argued.

“I know, I just…I could never deal with you hating me.”

“Matthew. I could never hate you.”

[biolizardboils]

so heads up! im popping a LOT of Prime Season 3 posts into the queue--they'll start coming out one week from now, on January 22nd! if you can see this post and haven't watched it yet, here's some tags to block: #prime spoilers, #sonic prime spoilers, #sonic prime s3 spoilers, #sonic prime season 3 spoilers.

got all that? great! here's my final unorganized little rambles about the show:

shoutout to Rusty Rose's Birdie, who only appears in the very first and very last eps for some reason 😭 her speech about it not being her power source came outta nowhere too, but i loved the message behind it

when everyone arrives at the Grim, just before the ep ends, Nine starts breathing heavily and it. instantly reminded me of Movie!Tails when the bar was calling them freaks. fuck. its a nice reminder of where Nine's coming from

speaking of Nine his poses getting more unhinged over time!! hell yeah

i love that the final fight(s) felt like a kid smashing 3 different Lego sets together, real Robot Pirate Island shit

i laughed a little too hard when the Grim's dome started closing in cus Nine's citadel-thing already reminded me of a thing that happened in Fortnite once, but hell naw they had to add The Storm too sdfghj

METAL BIG DESTROYED ME LJKHGFDV im SO glad i wasnt spoiled about it!!! a while in i started finding it creepy instead of funny, which is an added bonus

i was spoiled about the Advance flashback and its clashing sprites though. the utter whiplash of seeing that without warning mightve made me choke on my hot cheeto puffs. someone's already remade it btw, check it out

i fistpumped at the small reprise of "me beauty" gfhjk ill miss you so much Dread

we're four years into the 2020's and Sonic has nearly died an agonizingly slow death 3 times in 3 different continuities! and dare i say it was delicious every time >:)

unless Word of God says otherwise I'm gonna assume that the giant shadow at the end was The Return Of Metal Big lpoihgfds

So... Twitter, huh? My spoiler filters there had some leaks, and I saw some discussion out of context that... actually made me kinda scared to finish the show. But then I did, and had fun with it just like the other two seasons, and I remembered that Twitter gets high-strung about things that don't matter so much, and that giving it sway over how much I enjoy things is silly lol.

Yes, I think the last season could've been paced differently so it wasn't 5 episodes of the same Final Boss Fight. Yes, I think the writing switches jarringly between gearing for a young new audience and for a seasoned old one. Yes, I think the 2D flashbacks look and move worse than what fans constantly make for free. Yes, I think the final episode doesn't do nearly as much housekeeping as it should (does the Shatterverse still exist or not??). Yes, I think declaring the show is canon to the games or whatever they said probably wasn't the best idea. And yes, I think Black Rose should've had a shoulder-parrot!Birdie to match the other Amys. All valid critiques! All sensible things to think when you've been around the Sonic bush!

But I swear to god, people on Twitter act like these things spoil the whole package. Where's the nuance? Why does every opinion there become an absolute worth tearing others down for? Is it the character limit? I bet it's the character limit.

There's so much I love about this show that were infeasible for the Sonic brand just 3-4 years ago. Externalizing the characters' facets to explore them in-depth. Said exploration spanning multiple episodes instead of being one-and-done. The sheer amount of genuine Sonadow food (and I don't actively do shipping, so me adding it here should hold a lot of weight). The snappy, playful, yet blistering fight scenes that, dare I say, feel like a successful TV-budget Spider-Verse. It was all so much fun!

But I guess stuff like Green Hill being the gang's "home" is a big deal-breaker?? Like?? I thought that was silly too, but not worth ratio'ing people with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse over? Get well soon, I guess??

Rambling over, shout-out to the entire country of Canada for giving me the most fun I've had with a Sonic show since X! I'm gonna go figure out how to address all this as The End lol

[2-sleepy-for-this]

"just trap 'em in a box and make them think about their actions" — ranboo

Howdy lovelies! This isn’t a story from any of my other au’s, this was just a one shot that was inspired by a prompt from @brick-a-doodle-do ! Thanks sm for the prompt btw, I loved writing this! Also, I do have another prompt from @lycaclientt (much thanks to you too :D) so expect another one shot soon!

without further ado here’s the story (I love allium duo sm :))

tw ~ very minor fear, misunderstandings, being trapped, twitter

word count ~ 1.2k

“No no nonono, wait we can talk about this, please,”

The blonde teenager backed away from the giant, keeping his eyes locked on the huge ones just a few feet away. 

The giant teenager made no indication of hearing him though, only staring at him, a predatory gaze. Tommy couldn’t see his mouth from the white and black mask Ranboo always wore, but he could tell the giant was smirking at him.

Both of them had just finished a stream. It wasn’t too long, but during that time Tommy had made it his goal to annoy ranboo as much as possible. The problem was that now the stream has ended and left them with no witnesses as Ranboo thought up his revenge plan. 

Suddenly, the masked streamer lunged at Tommy, catching him off guard long enough to stop him from dodging out of the way of giant hands.

The blonde shrieked as hands as tall as him wrapped around his body, constricting his arms and legs. He struggled in the grasp, but it did nothing to stop Ranboo from lifting him off the ground with ease.

“PUT ME DOWN NOW, OR I SWEAR I’LL-“

Ranboo tuned out Tommy’s screams as he looked around the room for something he could use to get back at Tommy.

The squirming and yelling in his hand stayed strong as he searched. Tommy had a remarkable amount of energy constantly. Hopefully, this would keep him tired for a while after this.

There.

In the corner of the room there was a box, nothing fancy, just a medium-sized Amazon box from whatever he’d ordered last. He walked over to it, picking it up with his free hand and walking it back to the center of the room.

Ranboo dropped to the ground, sitting cross-legged in front of the innocent-looking box. Tommy gave an indignant squeak as the floor became closer at a terrifying speed.

The box was perfect for Ranboo’s plan. Carelessly, he opened up the flaps and dropped Tommy in. Not enough to cause any damage, just from high enough to make him stumble on the cardboard floor of his new room.

Tommy yelled obscenities at him as the box was closed, making sure there was enough airflow and light from a small space at the top. He also did a mental check to make sure Tommy wouldn’t be able to reach that skylight.

The layer of cardboard muffled the insults enough to still hear his voice but not make out what he was saying. Perfect.

Ranboo chuckled behind his mask as Tommy hit against the sides of the box, demanding to be let out. His commands were denied, as Ranboo just watched in sly amusement. His revenge was complete.

“Scream all you want. This is definitely deserved. "

“I AM THE BIGGEST MAN AND I WILL DESTROY ALL YOUR STREAMING EQUIPMENT! I KNOW WERE YOU SLEEP!”

“If you don’t stop yelling, then I know where you’ll be sleeping too.”

Tommy squawked, outraged at this utter disrespect on his big man status. Although, after a few seconds, he did quiet down. Whether it was from realizing the yelling wouldn’t get him out or the legendary Tommyinnit was finally out of energy, Ranboo didn’t know. But, if he had to guess, it was most likely the latter.

After staring at the box for a few more seconds, expecting the tiny in the box to ignite with rage once more, Ranboo looked up and froze.

They were still live on twitch.

It wasn’t that bad. Ranboo still had his mask on and he didn’t think he’d done anything too embarrassing these last few minutes… except boxing Tommy.

Chat was going wild on the screen. If he looked closely, he could see some of the things they were saying:

TOMMY NOO!

haha get boxed

F in the chat for the raccoon

F

RANBOO WTH

F

is Tommy ok???

FERALBOO

RANBOO WENT CRAZY!

RIP child 

F

It seemed chat had seen the whole thing, from Ranboo’s lunge to Tommy’s struggles and it looked like they got the wrong idea about it.

This wasn’t the first time the two size differing streamers had done this. It was common for Ranboo to grab and mess with Tommy. It was even enjoyed from Tommy’s perspective. It was just how they showed affection.

But the problem was, they only fought like this off stream. It wasn’t like it was bad or anything; it was just that they already get weird looks and side eyes from people when Ranboo messes with Tommy in public.

Because of Tommy’s nature of screaming bloody murder and the sheer difference in size, people often assumed that Tommy was uncomfortable or in danger. Ranboo didn’t want to deal with angry twitter users trying to cancel him for that.

Ranboo quickly composed himself, box still in hand, and decided to try and fix this.

“Hey chat, didn’t see you there,”

He felt Tommy go still for a moment, now aware they were being watched.

“Your probably wondering why I put Tommy in a box…”

A chorus of questions and exclamations flooded the chat still, fast enough that he couldn’t read any.

“Well, he was being a chaotic gremlin during stream, so sometimes you just trap 'em in a box and make them think about their actions. He deserved it.”

“HEY!”

Tommy quickly got over the shock of stream being left on and went back to yelling at Ranboo, now fueled by the rage of being called a gremlin. Chat seemed to split in 3 parts, between the chatters either laughing at Tommy, agreeing with Ranboo or telling Ranboo to release him.

Later that night, once the stream really did end, Ranboo picked up his phone and sat on the couch next to Tommy. He went to scroll mindlessly on twitter until he noticed that he got very popular all of a sudden. 

That was never a good sign.

He started reading through what people were saying about him before suddenly groaning, slumping onto the cushion next to him right behind Tommy.

Tommy looked at his giant friend, confused, until he glanced at the giant phone screen that was placed in front of him.

Loud wheezing laughter filled the room, louder than Ranboo’s groaning.

Apparently people had started debating about Ranboo being a bad person for how he’d treated Tommy, a tiny.

“This isn’t fair,”

“HAHA GET WRECKED!”

“They’re acting like I tortured you earlier.”

“Look how many people love me more than you!”

“They’re treating you like a kicked puppy.”

Back and forth conversation echoed throughout the home as the two streamers messed with each other like always, not caring about the battlefield of twitter.

Ranboo would need to clear some things up online soon. Obviously, he didn’t want to seem like someone who doesn’t care about tinies. Many of his fans and friends were tinies who were defending him! 

But for right now, he just enjoyed the night, and if chat noticed the increase of physical contact and jokes between the two, Ranboo and Tommy didn’t care.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hope you enjoyed! I hope to write more of these soon, and I’m always open to prompts or ideas you want me to write! :)

[leo-kinnie]

I saw the toyhouse the moment you said you finished it on twitter, i love it!! (Really makes me find a way to join toyhouse with how nicely you make profiles btw) about the questions: does raph go savage in this au? Are Sandy's feral moments like these? Do they befriend more humans eventually (or mutants)? Was Splinter a rat before mutation? How did get Sandy his glasses? Does April eventually become their big sister, and is Mayhem part of the story?.. (/nf to answer ofc!!)

oops too many questions 😅 love your work and can't wait to see cf's toyhouse when it's done too :]

-☆

YESSSSS QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SPIDER AUUU

Raph does go savage but its not the same way Beta mutants are savage. It's just silly raph like in the show

Sandy's feral moments vary... sorta. If he's extremely scared or cornered by a threat, he'll lash out and bite, scratch, literally anything to draw blood and kill what's scaring him. If he's having a panic attack and reverts to being feral, he'll seek out his family for comfort with broken chirps and churrs

Eventually, yes! For now, their only friends are April and Casey.

Splinter WAS a rat!! :D He took the last name Hamato from a magazine he found.

Sandy gets his glasses when Splinter comes back from scavenging one day. Donnie already had glasses from a previous run, so he gave them to Sandy to see if they helped. Since they're not his prescription he cant see PERFECTLY, but it does help!!

April does eventually develop familial ties to the turtle boys :^)

Mayhem is not apart of this story sadly

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - 2023 Begins!

Jan 20232 Wk 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) 4 of 12 - I keep saying this, but I can’t get over how delighted I am to have Perth back on my screen, and under the GMMTV umbrella. He is a stellar actor. I like that the first kiss of this show wasn’t btw the leads. Felt more realistic to high school. Big drama next week!

My School President (Fri YT) 5 of 10 - I missed these two so much last week. But also there was A MUSICAL INCIDENT and it caused a bit of a rant from yours truly. 

Between Us (Sun iQIYI) 9 of 12 - no ep this week, resumes tomorrow WATCH ALONG HERE.

609 Bedtime Story (Fri WeTV) 7 of 11 - Game remains my spirit animal (pushy fucker), and the plot of the main couple is interesting even if I don’t like the cheating component. 

Cutie Pie 2 You (special) 1 of 4 - Oh it’s a full on special. Very very pretty and, is possible, more sappy and full of manufactured angst. Nuea protecting Hia’s interests was sweet. Lots of making out. So... more of the same, basically. What year are we in now, anyway?

I Will Knock You (Fri Gaga) 8 of 12 - (note from my Thai language spy rgr ep 5: the writing on the stone tablets was their names + 2 family members) And now we are suddenly firmly in BL territory and baby Dom is just a baby Seme. No bisexual identity crisis needed... just diving into cheese fest. 

Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 13 of 14 - I would have kept JaFirst apart for longer, quite frankly. I mean otherwise why bother split them up in the first place? Please just end this show already. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

The New Employee (Korea Weds Viki) 3 of 8 - I love them so much, and they are so cute, and this is not open to discussion. Viva la age gap! 

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner (Korea Weds iQIYI) 7-8 of 10 - There is a lot implied about the leads history together, but it was still nice to get backstory plus GAT KISSES. I love it when they flip the dynamic and give the uke agency. I’m really enjoying this show now, I’m even invested in the love triangle.

HIStory 5: Love in the Future (Taiwan Weds Viki) 2 of 10 - Side couple ascension: Daddy Long Legs trope, it’s been a while since I have seen this in ANY romance drama. I’m not really into the main couple, at least not yet (and I totally missed that they hadn’t met each other in person yet), but I really love the side dishes. It’s like H4 all over again only with less dub con.

Candy Color Paradox AKA Ameiro Paradox (Japan Fri Gaga) 4 of 8 - nothing this week. 

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It

Love Bill (Vietnam Sat YT) - Bah Vinh is back but I’m too distracted. Also there’s a lot of fund raising stuff going on with them. I can wait.

The Star Always Follow You (Vietnam YT) - same Team RL peeps we have seen before (Sunshine, Stupid)

Moonlight Chicken GMMTV’s Midnight series (Weds YT) 1 of 8 eventually - first segment has begun bit it’s not the EarthMix messy gays. Sorry all, I’m so not interested in messy hets, so I’m waiting until they grace my screen.

Questions!!! 

Should I watch The Warp Effect? Tublr seems excited about it and BL bits look good? Will they end happy? Thoughts anyone? 

Till the World Ends (Thai YT) finished at 10 eps, the heat looked good but I don’t know about the ending with that kind of title, so did anyone risk it and want to tell me what they thought? I haven’t seen much chatter on my feed so I am not optimistic. 

In Case You Missed It

2022′s The Usual Night (Twitter account) from Japan is a 10-ep fake documentary series starring the members of Jpop group the Fantastics. It flew under everyone’s radars but apparently has a BL subplot featuring Yagi Yusei (My Beautiful Man) and Seguchi Leiya. This officially means they beat OnlyOneOf to the punch as the first inter-group BL pairing. Keito Kimura (Onoe from Candy Color Paradox) is also a member of Fantastics and in the show. Source reddit. No word on official international release. Japan is like that. 

OnlyOneOf’s Nine dropped the last (?) in their BL Kpop series, 'beyOnd' (be #6) 

I posted all my 2022 wraps, top picks, industry stats, etc.. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Jan 19: Individual Circumstances 8 eps - A reunion romance between a movie director who was once promising and a writer who disappeared due to past wounds. Stars JunQ (main rapper of 2nd gen group MYNAME) and Han Jung Wan (Mr International Korea winner).

2023 forthcoming BL master post is in the works... wait for it... I had to finish all the 2022 wrap ups first. Also waiting for the last of the studio announcements.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Never Let Me Go

Ah the love triangle. 

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner caught himself a live one. 

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? You gotta check out VIXX (sub unit) new single. Gonna Be Alright = 2 BL stars in one croon. (Hyuk Color Rush 2 & Leo Happy ending Romance). *props chin on hand and bats eyes winsomely at Ken* So?

[bentosandbox]

better late than never amirite

i think i haven't posted july (cause I thought global would have released TBC by now...) or october (commission) on here/twitter hopefully i remember to sometime this year

bonus chen edition because well i guess she is my cringefail girlboss blorbo

bonus chenswire edition

bonus bonus extremely boring stuff

films i watched in 2022 (tragedy of macbeth out of picture because it was on the next row)

top 10 (in watched order not a 1-10 ranking)

Marketa Lazarova (1967) Friend was streaming it, liked the script so much I asked my friend for the srt file after Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Rocks Petite Maman (2021) Personal Attack Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) :) My Life as a Zucchini (2016) Celine Sciamma truly don't miss Saturday Fiction (2019) It's not a 5/5 movie but...the soul... the period noir... Nope (2022) The Spectacle dot jpg Hands Over The City (1963) yes i watched this just before il siracusano Decision To Leave (2022) yuriyaoi straight romance can't elaborate Puss In Boots (2022) i'm so glad i didn't watch this as a kid i would have nightmares, but as an adult i got to see my traumas on the big screen yippee!!!

missed a local screening of My Broken Mariko because it only happened for ONE DAY fucking insane (I recommend reading the original manga it's so good)

Speaking of books hmm

Swordspoint yuriyaoi... Invisible Ink reread. and I think I need to reread again Fire & Blood read it after watching hotd ep 1 pretty good series btw dare i say even ...the best on-screen yaoiyuri of the year... Eagle Shooting/Condor Heroes Book 1 Not bad Water Margin Didn't I write a angry rant on this. rite of passage i guess...... How to Keep House While Drowning its funny because i WILL do chores......still good though What My Bones Know - insane how trauma can be so isolating yet universal lol A Wizard of Earthsea if only i read this instead of harry potter back then lmao wow

you can now basically psychoanalyse my issues from the last three books I think

Uhhhhhhh what else am I missing - oh yeah I did 3 gamejams this year (Art/Design and a liiiiiitle bit of trying to do the UI in Unity myself instead of giving the pngs to my friends)

my abysmal steam stats told me i only played 5 games this year so I need to get back my gamer license, backlog is like 75% VNs though what's up with that (there's only 4 games but. well)

had a really long blogpost (basically a 'look at all the things you did this year you didnt waste it' thing thus the above lists) but i think i'll just keep it to my notion notes lest this post becomes a traumadumping ground ecks dee tl;dr failed a Very Important (to me) Thing early 2022 that kind of shattered any crumb of self-esteem i had and made me question everything i did onwards (especially in regards to doujin stuff) and then basically physical health issues affecting mental health and vice versa which is fun but fuck it we ball.....(try)

don't really have any solid 'resolutions' (that i would remember to do) other than to 'live' more than just 'survive' as edgy as that sounds 🥴oh wait oc zine yea yea and go into illustration full time h-haha........... should really get around to making a patreon/fanbox but i really hate the idea of paywalling

also signed up for a AK doujin event in Nagoya in March so I now have a very heavy motivation to finish the second half of my LGD doujin and hopefully I get to table at AX too dot dot dot

[mango-ti]

I have a Belle brainrot so have me rambling about differences between trailers and final version of the move, from scenes shot differently, to literal slight lighting changes (part 2 baby)

Release -> Trailer :]

continuing in no particular order:

tears moved and maybe changed from 3d to drawn on. added some shadows and light

hands were more outlined

the scene of belle opening the door to U for the first time, in the trailer is spliced with the scene of opening the door when Beast's castle is attacked. When she first opens the door, we never actually see her hands as it cuts to her face

see? trailer just had the castle whited out. thumb is positioned slightly differently. a lot brighter too

they fucking forgot her body blush in the trailer??? this is the same frame as the snowflakes match up btw. hair has a few more details in the trailer, as well as her eyelashes being flatter. different hair shine. her right hair bow was fixed to be pointier

same scene but a few seconds later, you can see how her hair is positioned differently and the above things

idk why the trailer is so yellow tinted btw it's just like that

hair has a looot more details. this shot was used in marketing so maybe they wanted to glam it up to be prettier. hairshine was moved down

I'm not sure if the hair details are draw on, or done on the model itself. both are possible

forgot to turn off the captions sorry. bangs are now thinner in places, sleeve covers more of the hand, hairshine moved, the hairclip on the right was moved closer to her face

font on the English comment(?) was changed. messages got a more spread out and bigger

i fucking knew that U was modeled differently. i fucking knew it

U has a lot less modules which makes the sky more visible :]

shadows were fixed to look better. I think they mentioned they used a special texture they applied to her model to make the desired effect which is cool

shot of the phone from the beginning of the movie. font used is different and slimmer. UI is bigger. Comments are moved around to different places, no big "Who is she?" comment. Whatever that is in the top left corner was finished for the final

this shot of users commenting on Dragon, lot more comments added, they're also smaller. English comments were changed to Japanese. The art is a lot more zoomed in to focus on his eyes

now this shot is only in the youtube version of the trailers and it doesn't match any shot of the final movie, the closest being on the right

U looks modeled differently but just use your eyes for this one

The sky was given different clouds and the moon was slightly turned and put in front of the red equator line

ok last one! also only on the youtube trailer. Sea of sparkles instead of bokeh lights! super pretty! moon was moved down, and if you look closely, you can see that Belle's flowers were visible on the whale's side

there's actually a textless version of the image in high quality, it seem it was originally posted by Ludvig Forssell on Twitter, but the earliest I can find is here but in low quality.

[regalia-of-wisdom]

The ecchi food show writes better than Naruto

Currently on twitter there’s been a discussion going around regarding fandom spaces and the original media and how often fans are either willing to defend female characters or to ignore them, specially when compared to male characters, etc. So I was going to write a thread but I ended up writing, like, a big ass essay on Food Wars and Naruto, of all mangas. Needless to say it got too big to be uploaded to twitter, so to tumblr it goes! Let’s get to it!

So when I was watching Shokugeki no Soma (I know I know, epitome of feminism, ultimate media for activism, Nobel peace prize worthy etc.) I remember being comfortable enough in the writing to actively dislike a female character. This isn’t true anymore btw, upon rewatches + future plot I think she’s wonderful now. But something I focused on, often, back then was the particular way in which I tended to phrase that to myself: “feeling comfortable to dislike a girl”. This wasn’t something I tended to do. Even when I found certain tropes or characteristics annoying, I always felt like I needed to like and defend the girl characters, bc if I didn’t then no one else in the fandom spaces I went to would have.

So what did it mean to “be comfortable”? I think it meant feeling like the author wasn’t making their female character fight uphill battles in terms of likeability and relatability. Everyone knows that Kishimoto doesn’t know how to write women, and the one or two chances where he does it feels like luck. That means that it’s E A S Y to ignore anything he writes when it comes to his female characters and their flaws, because these wouldn’t be applied to the guys. They were fighting uphill battles, it was unfair. If all the girls are shallow and boy crazy and incapable of fighting for themselves, then that wasn’t a flaw that I had to personally assess, that was a set of comfortable tropes that Kishimoto didn’t care to fix or explore and therefore the character as it was written was not complete. To judge them as I would with Kishi’s male characters would have been unfair.

In Food Wars, I never had this vibe (do wanna point out that I never finished the manga or the anime, so if the writing in terms of the girls’ arcs specifically goes downhill, I’m not talking about that LMAO). It was incredibly refreshing to see girls with a variety of personalities AND flaws, in a way that made it clear that I could just honestly Judge them based on their own merits. What about their personalities worked for me, personally? How do they handle obstacles? How do they react to the plot??? The answer wasn’t the same for every single girl. They all had different priorities! It was mind blowing, and this came from a fucking. Ecchi manga where everyone keeps getting naked everytime they eat food. The artist literally drew hentai sjdkdkdlld.

They even made me change my mind on the character I disliked, by the way, after she went through her character arc. Her role in the story changed, and I had a new view of her. All was right with the world. I loved them all again! And this time it was because the authors knew what they were doing, and not out of spite! What the fuck!? THE ECCHI FOOD MANGA??

How can THESE people make me feel like I knew how to read characters, while others didn’t? Rather, why did I feel like I NEEDED to force my brain to see the way characters are treated differently in other media? There’s something so gross about the way that other fans close their eyes away from the faults of their favorite authors. I can’t stand Naruto fans that don’t want to admit Kishimoto’s fatal flaw. I don’t assign misogyny to authors because I don’t fucking know them, but Kishi’s writing was misogynist. Food Wars might be objectifying (and I do think that people downplay how often girls, specifically, tend to get naked more often. I know guys get naked too and it’s a whole “equality” thing but I know what I’m talking about when I say that. The ratio isn’t actually equal and ALSO It’s Shonen jump, many of the girls are teenagers and yet their boobs are huge. This is something else tho, I’m actually praising the character writing lmao.) but it’s purpose wasn’t to demean the impact of girls as both an audience and a subject matter, at least in terms of story telling. Naruto was way too toxic for its girls, despite having minimal fanservice when compared to the foodgasm manga.

But, like, more importantly, the fandom footprint of Food Wars just doesn’t compare to Naruto. Food Wars was big for like 3 seasons and then I never heard from it again, but Naruto is known by every fucker on the market. Everyone knows who Sakura is, and everyone feels comfortable insulting her and shitting on her character choices, as if she was a real human being and not the product of some dude’s head. It is IMPERATIVE that I understand what Sakura COULD be and focus on that, because otherwise endorsing the kind of environment that feels comfortable insulting girls that don’t act correctly just ends up causing trouble all around, when the shitty ass male characters get so much nuanced writing thrown at them by comparison.

I refuse to accept understanding men as being more “natural” than understanding women, that just isn’t fucking true, and allowing it to continue could lead to genuine misogyny towards REAL people. I actually do know people in real life that refuse to understand why women would stay in abusive relationships, or why they apologize so often, etc. And these opinions are equally reflected in how they view certain characters in media. More often than not, understanding why men would damage themselves became more second nature than understanding why women would act “foolishly”.

I don’t think media consumption and literacy are actually, like, the be all end all in terms of the betterment of society or whatever, but at the very least I think endorsing an environment where we can stop accidentally insulting one another by no longer putting in some fucking filter over whether or not we care about certain characters is worthwhile. Sakura isn’t real but other girls are, and treating her like ass because she couldn’t finish her power up arc isn’t a hot take that does anything for anyone.

[raspberrykraken]

So last night I finished the Diablo 4 campaign. And then immediately started finding all the Alters of Lilith. Because the next big push of content is on July 18th when the pre patch drops and you need 3 things done so you can go into Season 1 with maximum effiency.

Finish the Campaign

Clear the entire map

Collect all Lilith Statues

Logging in on the 18th or after with the character who has all these 3 done the most lets your seasonal characters have these things too!

Theres other details dealing with these things but these are the core aspects of what’s coming. Because if I think about the story of the campaign I am going to scream.

Note: at the time of working on this, July 12th, 2023 on twitter Joe Shely announced you don’t even have to complete the campaign to count it as completed. You play it partially and then turn around in the menu to skip the rest. I am livid. I am beside myself. I voiced my thoughts on Twitter about it and go no response. Because its so bad they know it and are offering people a way out. Wonderful.

I have played all the other games. And honestly trying to provide any kind of rank to them doesn’t do anything. The problem is how much time people have spent with each game forming strong opinions about them and Diablo 4 is new. The drip of content has only just begun for it. And it seems like every patch notes they nerf Barbarians again or fix some bug that makes them unplayable.

The Lore has always been cooking in a crockpot since Diablo 2. With books and speculation. Which is why Diablo 3 felt like a betrayal with its more “cartoonish” approach and throwing key characters aside for the sake of brevity. Letting the narrative get highjacked by a npc and then having the deal with those consequences. It both “advanced” the story, brought Heaven to its knees, and the rewrote its ending in its expansion. Honestly you can argue they have been trying to course correct since 3 and still are with 4.

The following will be me screaming into a pillow over the story because no wonder my coworker played it with his friends and was confused as heck with it.

In Diablo 2 you are dogging the Dark Wonderer who inserted the stone into his head to protect the world from Diablo and becomes corrupted. You are always one step behind them roaming the world, seeing the destruction and chaos of Hell. Overtime you do meet Inarius who is bitter about his fall and the creation of Sanctuary. You make other friends along the way, all the while trying to help as much as you can. Eventually leading to a climatic battle where the World Stone that the Barbarians had been guarding for generations to be shattered and left in a what if moment with Sanctuary no longer being shielded from both sides.

In Diablo 4 you are dogging Lilith and Elias. Roaming across this intrepid world making friends, trying to make people better. All the while in high quality cutscenes Lilith and Elias are doing “bad” things. I mean having other people sacrifice their friends, family, children, animals to her is totally bad. Because she is a cocreator of Sanctuary. In a way Inarius uses the Church to do the same thing in the name of holiness and righteousness, rejecting sin and putting to death the sinners. It’s an interesting dichotomy that doesn’t give the player time to think about.

In previous games we have never met her, heard her side. We have met Inarius before and he’s as bitter as he’s always been casted to the mortal realm for his involvement in cocreating Sanctuary. The Heavens have disengaged with him, don’t want him back because he had sex. And the children they had were too powerful for their own good. Only to be narrowed/mentioned to one. Rathma who we don’t get to meet either.

All we get in the end of this “journey” the narrative gets highjacked by npcs sailing off to the end of the world, which the world is super flat btw. Sanctuary is like small Pangea. To find and defeat Diablo and Baal because Mephisto is already in the stone/influencing the entire game from the start. Giving no room in this narrative for Lilith or the player character. How fatherly.

Also in the ending moments the Church has turned on the player character and Lorath. Never thought about or mentioned again. Just go the Tree of Souls, start doing bounties! Explore the map! Collect statues! Do pvp! Get back to the Diablo 3 mindset! Get to level 50 and move up a world tier! Also Season 1 is coming, get ready for that!

The gameplay loop is good, I just see where Blizzards heart is now. It’s not focusing on the narrative anymore. And thats where I am with this. Frustrated and a shame. Because Blizzard promised more lore and story with each seasons and adding on to the campaign. Definitely doubting it.

[stephanieburgis]

...And now for a quick rant about the perils of wordcount! (Aren't you glad I have more space here than on Twitter or Mastodon? ;) )

Wordcount is such a lovely, easy metric for writers to track when we're trying to mark progress/finish a book in a reasonable amount of time. But it is a terrible, terrible manager if you let it control your actual writing...and I am way too prone to doing that.

A little while ago, I figured out that if I wanted to finish my current w-i-p (Claws and Contrivances, Book 2 in my Regency Dragons trilogy) as quickly as I'd hoped, I'd have to average 3,000 words a week until the first draft is finished. OK! I can usually manage a pretty steady 500 words a day, so that's not too bad at all...

...Until something comes up, like illness or a plot hurdle or a trip. In the last week, I hit both of those last two issues. First, my nice, steady writing pace slammed to a halt when I came to the point in the book where a big, underlying plot issue finally has to be brought to light, its back story satisfyingly explained...and I realized I still had no idea what the real backstory was. Oops. (The perils of being an exploratory writer in my first drafts!) Sometimes I can figure that kind of moment out on the fly; sometimes I have to really think hard for a while to work it out, and for some reason, this was one of those times when my thoughts got completely snarled up in each other, like a tangled ball of wool.

Second, I was due to head out on a weekend mini break with my older son, which was going to be amazing and also massively energy-intensive (especially with my M.E./CFS). I know there are writers like the late and wonderful Terry Pratchett who religiously hit their planned word counts every day of their lives and put off everything else until later...but (a) M.E./CFS forces me to limit my own activities severely, giving me far less leeway to do other important stuff later, and (b) personally, when I have to choose between my writing and my kids, my kids will always come first, especially while they're both so young.

...which doesn't mean that I don't worry. The truth was, even as I soaked in amazing new experiences and had wonderful parenting moments every day, I also felt low-level guilty All The Time because I wasn't making myself write while we were away. Therefore, I was totally screwing up my wordcount goal...

But guess what? Today I sat down to write for the first time since our trip away...and with my very first cup of coffee, I wrote out the words at the top of my notebook page, "So, what has been going on with Rose's uncle?"

...And the answer was right there! It was waiting for me in my subconscious, helpfully untangled by my back-brain while I was away soaking in new experiences and creative stimulation. I wrote out two swift pages of very thorough notes, and then I wrote 1185 words of the next scene (a nigh-on miraculous amount for me that flowed out as if they'd been only waiting for their chance).

If I'd hammered away at my manuscript, trying stubbornly to hit my planned wordcount without a break over the weekend, not only would I have missed out on a lot of amazing experiences with my kid (which have, btw, already started other new stories simmering in my mental background!), but I also truly don't believe I would have managed to figure out the whole backstory and get as far into the manuscript by today as I have now. Sometimes, our writing-brains just need breaks - time off to putter around unobserved, slowly unsnarling plot tangles. Sometimes, we just need to find a way to get new kinds of creative stimulation to get our stories flowing.

Word count tracking is a nice, satisfying metric, but it's a TERRIBLE and unhelpful line-manager - and I'm passing on this reminder to you in case I'm not the only one who ever forgets this!

Also: have a 21-second video of ocean waves from the beach in Penarth, Wales. I'm so glad I didn't miss them!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stephanie Burgis (@stephanieburgisinwales)

[asoulofatlantis]

Games I currently "own" digitally Part 3

So this is GoG... mostly "old" games that either I or my Dad have been playing when I was a child. My Dad actually had that one "Leisure sweet Larry Game that I actually finished" and I wanted it again so badly that I bought the bundle set even tho I do not like to play any of his other games ^^' (As you can see on Steam I did buy his newer game but it is just... not my game. Playing it - as most of the games here - is really just for nostalgia...)

Do not ask about "Hunnie Pop" I do not know what I was thinking ^^'

My Dad played "Biing" when I was a child and sometimes I played it too because I didn't understand why the woman were having big brests and always naked at all anyway... and I rebought it because I sucked at the game so much back then and I was sure THIS TIME I will get it - spoiler: I did not! XD

BTW in my eyes, Sim City 3000 was the best Sim City.

Anyway: This is my EA-Account:

It looks like I only own Sims 4 the original game but I own A LOT of Addons and Kits and Game-Play-Packs or however all this stuff is called these days. 59 to be exact XD I also owned ALL of them back in the day for Sims 1, 2 and 3.

What you also need to know: This is not the real "Need for Speed most wanted" the original was unmatched and so I never actually played whatever this game is, even tho I bought it ^^'

I also like to mention that I managed to finish "Dead in Bermuda" in one go without anyone dying by pure utter accident XD

Now you get a look at my Steam Wishlist:

I WILL get "Metaphor" soon one way or another because a lot of people like that game and its getting harder to avoid Spoiler at this point and I kind of want to play it blind. I am waiting for the next big sale at the end of November tho and hope it might maybe a little bit on sale by then ^^'

I also would like to get all 3 Kingdom Hearts Games in that Sale but my Budget is small and Square Enix does not like to give huge sales to their big titles no matter how old they are ^^'

"Coral Island" is supposed to get a "Wohoo" - Update so I probably should get it eventually at some point ^^' But I am not in a rush. There can only be so much Farming Games on my list of games still to play or to finish.

I REALLY should play "NEO TWEWY" at some point but I want to play the original here first and its so hard to do. Because the Final Remix Version is only out on Switch and I do have it there and I should play it there because the controls on the Emulator (that is not there anymore anyway...) just suck but how to make and post screenshots now that it can not even access Twitter anymore? It would be such a shore to get the screenshots to my computer or at least phone... but I feel like do to its mechanics hoping for the game ever to come out on PC is pointless.

I was looking forward to "Reynatis" but I've heard it turned out to be really bad... so I guess it can wait.

Fun Fact: I loved "Black and White" and I was hoping they would bring it out on EA-Store or Steam or even GoG but they never did so I was looking forward to Fata Deum but they are very silent there and just postponed the release to next year so I am not sure if it will ever really come out...

Not high on my list. I am not in a rush to play the Ys Games but I think I will one day.

"Romance SaGa 2"? I never played 1 to begin with, but I thought that SOME DAY I might try this one out at least. But once again, I am not in a rush here.

So... that was the list of the games I am currently owning and/or wishing for. If Steam still exists by then, we do that again in 10 years. ALSO let's see how many more Sims4-Addons I have added by then XD

And then we will also check out how many of the games I still needed to play or finish I REALLY did end up playing and finishing ^^'

[absolutesilly]

I love tgcf! But my biggest problem with it was that she introduced too many side characters (great potential btw but less developed overall because of how big the crew is) and not all of her arcs are interesting :/ ive seen a little snippets of peoples thoughts on the revised, but frankly it doesnt seem that interesting either.

this is a critique i’ve heard from a few different people, and i think it’s a valid one. i looooooooove tgcf and really enjoyed reading it, but i do think it suffers a bit from having too many ideas and too many characters. which is funny, because i clearly love the side characters! i think they’re all great and very interesting—mxtx’s character writing is probably my favorite thing she does! but there’s just so many of them, and some of their stories/relevance gets a bit muddled along the way. i think that perhaps some characters should have been cut or even gotten novels of their own!

as for arcs—there weren’t any arcs in tgcf that bored me, but there were definitely times when it felt more like a series of vignettes all set in the same universe, rather than a cohesive narrative.

funny enough, it was only when i started reading scum villain that i started to feel a bit more critical of tgcf’s writing! mostly just bc scum villain is SOOOOO tight and snappy, it’s amazing. no wasted space! everything felt necessary, and in particular, side characters felt exactly as fleshed out as they needed to be. i can’t speak on mdzs as i have not finished it yet—i watched and adored the untamed but i have heard their plots/characterization diverge quite a bit. i’m interested to see how i feel about the pacing and characters in that one, once i finish it!

in short: i love tgcf and think it is excellent—but i also think it needed some more editing! and that’s okay. many things do!

as for the revision: i can’t really speak on it fully, as i have not (and cannot) read it yet! there’s a lot of fuss that’s been stirred up on the hellscape that is twitter over secondhand accounts of what’s been changed, so i’ve been trying not to contribute to that craziness! from the small translated snippets i’ve seen, there have been some edits that i really liked! and also some that i didn’t! and quite a few that i’m totally ambivalent on. i’d really like to read the revised version in its entirety—if and when it gets translated—so i can give a fully informed opinion on it.