#btw google translate is not as bad as one might think...

[interiorlulus]

As usual the answer is research.

[ectocreature]

hi hello i bring a redraw/redesign of an au design from back in 2022 that i posted on my main blog back then since i didn’t have this one. you’ll notice you cannot find this on my main blog and that is because i ended up deleting all my danny phantom posts. the reason for this is that i ended up writing a fic for this au and somebody with a horrifying amount of p*mp p*p explicit fanfiction commented on the fic and i was too afraid to do anything but fucking purge my presence from the phandom because it scared me so bad. i recently reread the google doc i still have and that fic sucked ass anyways (i was not good at characterization) but i might end up reuploading it for archival reasons later who knows

anyways this is dash. he is a werewolf. and he is just a silly little guyyy going through a silly little redemption arc

anyways the og version from 2022 is under the cut + two other arts from the time period. i may post my second 2024 redo of another design i dont think i ever posted but for now enjoy

when i did my redo i wanted to try and capture a more brute-ish vibe that fits dash better and i think i definitely achieved that!! the old one is kinda meh

also ignore the “prsm” watermark i do not go by prism anymore lol

here’s the other two arts btw

that first one is supposed to be like the “never talk to me or my son ever again” meme but in esperanto and i think i used google translate for it so i have no clue how good it is. also about the “whatcha got there” one i promise i am way better at drawing people now they’re not that ugly anymore

[theunknownpoetssociety]

thoughts while listening to hmhas

this is mostly assigning marauder things/ships/people to the songs btw

warning: this contains spoilers for all of the songs so if you want that it's below the cut ;)

SKINNY: "fell in love for the first time, with a friend it's a good sign" okay wolfstar also "twenty-one took a lifetime time, people say I look happy, just because I got skinny" plus size Lily Evans??

favorite line, "twenty-one took a lifetime time, people say I look happy, just because i got skinny"

LUNCH: love this one so much!! it's giving Marlene and flirty her self ;) and as a general song i love this one, it's more upbeat than billie's past songs and i love that.

favorite line, the whole beginning because i can't even pick just one lmao

CHIHRO: (translation: month) this song is just so much fun to vibe and listen to, and that's just amazing lol

favorite line, "I was waitin', in the garden, contemplatin', beg your pardon, but there's a part of me that recognizes you, do you feel it too?"

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: this one is so rosekiller-coded to me. like the you die i die vibe? that's so them! "it might be long but baby I, don't wanna say goodbye" like brooo.

favorite line, "I love you, don't act so surprised"

WILDFLOWER: i've never read ATYD but based on posts i've seen this is a very Grant singing about Remus and Sirius, " 'cause she (Sirius) couldn't be, more different than me, happy and free in leather" like like do you see the vision? and when the prank and Grant and Remus become closer? idk but i think it's cute/sad.

favorite line "but every time you touch me, I just wonder how she felt, Valentines Day, crying in the hotel, I know you didn't mean to hurt me so I kept it to myself""

THE GREATEST: if this song isn't James Fleamont Potter, I don't know what is!! "I'm trying my best to keep you satisfied, let you get your rest, while I stayed up all night, and you don't wanna know how alone I've been" like wtaf?!? "all my love and patience, unappreciated," dudee

favorite line, "you said your heart was jaded, you couldn't even break it, I shouldn't have to say it, you could've been the greatest"

L'AMOUR DE MA VIE: (translation: Love Of My Life) this one is so good! like not much more to say lmao, but i absolutely love the change-up like with the autotune(i think that's what that was, not positive though) i was not expecting that lol. though i do think it might be like a sad/bitter mary or regulus watching jily from the sides. made myself sad with that idea :( lol

favorite line, "but I need to confess I told you a lie, when I said you, you were the love of my life"

THE DINER: this song is so goddamn good (yes i know i've said that for almost every other song, they're all just so good!!) this song is honestly giving the Slytherin Skittles, like the rhythm, vibe, the whole thing except for the end which i kinda see as possessive rosekiller "I saw you in the car with someone else and couldn't sleep, if somethin' happens to him, you can bet that it was me" and i honestly love that for them lol. also if you dial the number at the end of the song you can get a text? (based on a google search/reddit) i haven't gotten it yet but i'll probably update if/when i do

favorite line, "the cops around the corner stopped me when I tried to leave, they told me I was crazy and they knocked me off my feet, they came in through the kitchen lookin' for something discrete"

BITTERSUITE: honestly regulus when he first crushes on james? " 'cause I can't fall in love with you, no matter how bad I want to" and "it's so romanticized, if this is how I die, that's alright" also love the ending, it's really trippy and cool :)

favorite line, "we can be discrete, but I've been overseas, and I've been havin' dreams, l'amour de ma vie"

Blue: all these songs are so amazing i can't get over ittt!!! "you were born reaching for your mother's hands, victim of your father's plans to rule the world, too afraid to step outside, paranoid and petrified of what you've heard, but they could say the same 'bout me" that and "and I could say the same 'bout you, born blameless, grew up famous" is just so Black-family. like Narcissa, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Sirius, and Regulus, this song is about them honestly.

favorite line, "I try to live in black and white, but I'm so blue, I'd like to mean it when I say I'm over you"

[itscuntingseason]

OK, WOTAKOI ANNIVERSARY MANGA NOTES (live read):

btw, i'm reading this through google translate image translator, so the text will be uh. not so great. BUT, the panels are still really cute so LET'S GO.

even after several years, narumi is still struggling to meet her doujinshi deadline. on the one hand, i think that's normal for creatives bc your story needs to be different every time. on the other hand, i'm begging her to get that ADHD diagnosis.

hirotaka asking her "should we call someone who understands your struggle" and calling up koyanagi aww. wotakoi might be a romance, but the friendships are what make the story so relatable and sweet.

also, narumi's face when she's yelling about her doujinshi (on the second page) is great. her facial expressions are always great.

ok the google translations on the third page with koyanagi are awful, but seeing her still working on cosplay while having a kid makes me happy. just, adults working on their hobbies is so important. we don't see the actual kid, but i'm guessing the kid is like, 1 or 2 years old here?

also i think she said "i underestimated child care"........ koyanagi......... not to be mean but. how could you underestimate one of the most complained-about tasks in the world.

HELP KABAKURA LOOKS LIKE A ZOMBIE COMING OUT OF HIS DAUGHTER'S ROOM FHJKSHFJKDS

koyanagi's "shall i kiss you" to cheer him up....... oomf was right, she really does love kissing him whenever she can.

i love kids and i'm all for people who wanna have kids, but honestly. losing sleep over raising your baby is something i would not look forward to. and kabakura just wants to watch an episode of his fav anime...... i mean, he could if he just turns the volume down or records an episode and watches it on his phone with headphones in.... this is why people have crunchyroll subscriptions (fuck crunchyroll tho).

awww koyanagi saying "i'm looking forward to your new doujin". honestly, their fandom bond feels so real, as a fandom-obsessed nerd myself. finding mutuals or friends who are just as obsessed/hyperfixated on something as you are and seeing their happy reaction when you post something about it makes all the hard work worth it.

oh the translations on the sixth page with nao are...... even worse. i can't make out what hirotaka is saying about nao so i don't get why narumi looks so ticked off, but he probably just said something in his usual blunt-manner (with no ill harm) and she's probably being her usual protective self.

AWWWWW NAO IS SO CUTE. totally get why narumi feels 'purified' just after seeing him smile (even if i disagree with how she's describing herself).

AND NAO'S LITTLE BLUSH WHEN NARUMI ASKS IF HE'S GOING ON A DATE (i think she's asking that)

hirotaka getting jealous...... the translations are still awful so i don't rly get what he's thinking, but him getting jealous over naokou going on a date. and kinda indirectly suggesting going on a date in such a bashful way...... hirotaka never change please.

god i really need the official translation bc i wish i knew what narumi was saying on the ninth page, something like "we don't go on dates often", i think?

NARUMI NOTICING THAT HE'S JEALOUS AND TEASING HIM OVER IT...... OH THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANTED IT TO BE.

ok. wait. now hold on. i need a minute. fair warning: extreme fanboying incoming. allow me to just scream about narumi's face for a minute. because OHMYGOD NARUMI'S FACE WHEN SHE REALISES HE'S JEALOUS?????? she was already blushing on the previous page but the way she's looking at him now (tenth page) IS SO????!!!??%*$&W%&$*JFSDFUUSIOSD I CAN'T. IT'S SO FOND. AND HER SMILE?????? LOOKS LIKE A CROSS BETWEEN A FOND AND SMUG SMILE, I JUST- I CAN'T. and ONCE AGAIN, the translation makes no sense, but i think she's saying "so cute" in her thoughts and YEAH I GET IT. I REALLY GET IT.

aaaaaaaaand of course inspiration would strike for narumi JUST as things were getting romantic between her and hirotaka. not that that's a bad thing tho, it's cute how she always seems to have extra motivation for her doujinshi when hirotaka is involved.

i think hirotaka calls her new idea 'generic', and i'm sorry narumi but i have to agree...... the jealous top/submissive bottom trope is so overdone, it's even overdone on booktok. BUT, if it's popular then why not use it. and i love to see her finish her story so quickly lol, inspiration really does hit you in the weirdest times.

ONLY ONE PAGE OF NAOKOU NOOOOO. even if they're not my fav couple of the three, i hope we'll see more sometime soon!

the translations on the final page might be the worst ones yet, but it's alright. kou looks amazing in her style, as always, and did she get flustered over nao opening the door for her? they are so cute i love them.

but seriously, how long has it been since the canon ending in this time skip? i'm guessing the kabahana baby is no older than one year, maybe even less. because naokou still seem to be very 'new' in their relationship (or at least, i don't think they've been dating for several years at this point). and hironaru don't seem that different from where canon left off, but then again, they have that kind of bond where they've changed a lot together but also haven't changed at all (in a good way).

overall, very good. i'm hoping that this will get an official translation some day. also, is this all of it? is this the entire manga? i'm not mad if that's the case, drawing manga is hard and this is more than enough to make me happy (and let's respect the author's choices), but part of me is still hoping that we'll get a full future manga some day. one volume is fine. doesn't even have to be one of those bigger, combined english volumes, the smaller size of the japanese volumes would make me happy too. but again, anything is fine!

[flazio8fimoz]

soo uh i think i MIGHT've gone crazy during 2 AM and made a dw oc...uhh....yea....(heavily inspired by @fizzyboy's DW au, so i made her up in au's settings, hope thats alright--)

i drew on paper btw, and i ain't posting it during night, only when the day comes(for me) But im about to give some info about this one cuz uhh im bored Her name is Belle, she's 13 and well...she's a bell. Quite literally. A freaking JESTER bell. She's kinda chaotic for a child, MAY have gone a tad bit crazy due to being alone in Wasteland[so she has a few cracks in her head, yk yk)...she tries to not let it mess with her mind that much, though!! Tries her hardest even. About that jester part...she's dressed like a jester AND is a jester, or you may call her a performancer in some way ig-- she loves making up various jokes and game & tricks!! PLEASE LISTEN TO HER AND WATCH ALL HER ATTEMPTS AT PERFORMANCES. SHE NEEDS IT. [uhh yea she kinda has a very high need for praise and attention?? she has issues with being alone as well, with all...insanity shit that starts to kick in her head. God i feel guity pleasure bcs i enjoy making ocs with various issues, ESPECCIALLY CHILDREN WITH SUCH ISSUES.] She also loves spirals, so guess what that means...her outfit DOES has spirals elements because of it. And i want to explain why she loves spirals - because its usually a traditional symbol of being hypnotized/hypnosis. AND she kinda enjoys hypnosis[in guilty-pleasure way tho] Guess what she can do? HYPNOTIZE 'twisted toons'...its not really that strong due to her being a child cuz what can u expect from a literal 13 y.o. CHILD, but she can make them immobile for a little while[ in range on 20 seconds to 50]...so she can 'save' anyone who's in danger by hypnotizing?? kind of??? well, its kinda a situation where she just helps run away...also, about whole hypnotizing thing. NO it wouldn't be able to make the hypnotized one to do anything at her will, it CANNOT grow that strong even if she's boosted or aged up. No, absolutely not. And usually its not even strong enough for her to use it without any tools[excluding boosted state], so usually her tool is a pendulum[i hope my google translator translated it right lol]. In boosted state, though, she can hypnotize with her left eye[also DEF not connected to this fact:she has different pupils, and in left eye its a spiral. Yep.] About personality part...well, i said already she's chaotic and is a kid, who also happens to be a 'jester'[im still not sure if its okay to call her that since its not very accurate i think...] so she's kinda a MENACE OF A CHILD. I think that tells everything... Still, she's friendly to everyone she meets, so she's just a bit...hard to deal with, nothing more. She's hyperactive as well...so its not only hard to deal with her, but also tiring. She'll TIRE you out unknowingly, even if you're a hyperactive person as well, who loves kids and etc. SHE JUST WILL. not in a bad way though, atleast not in all cases- also. I NEED TO ADD IT: she's kinda noisy, since she's a literal bell. So she'll drag attention of ANYTHING OR ANYONE nearby with how noisy she is even while walking...thats why its kinda dangerous to stick around with her 24/7, especcially in such place as wasteland. Thats why she mostly just runs somewhere alone[which affects her badly...the alone part, i mean]. I think that might be a reason why she kinda likes cuburt when he happens to be nearby, its practically her mostly ONLY company and audience...even if pernament. CUBURT IS THE SOLO REASON WHY SHE'S STILL HAVEN'T GONE COMPLETELY INSANE TRUST[he's not a father figure, i doubt he's able to be one for...such child...haha] lol i yapped about her sm i think i might have a new hyperfixation i made up for myself haha!! I also hope she won't seem a bit...overpowered...with the hypnosis part. I just COULDN'T RESIST the urge to give her an ability connected to something she likes, and well, spirals kinda do....so yep. any raiting of her will be welcomed btw...wowowowo

*mysterially disappears for god-knows-how-long*

[sphinxlosestheirmind]

PET HEADCANONS!!

Paradox has a cat named Mal- short for Malefic. She’s a mainecoon cat because I want one. She’s yellow-orange and has a bad attitude towards pretty much anyone except Paradox, his siblings (Jun & Ryoken- HC!!) and sporadic others. She’s also very spoiled and adored, and often gets lost despite the fact she hates going outside even for a single moment.

Vector in a modern au specifically would have a chow chow named Don Thousand. I perhaps am writing a fic with this concept but we’ll see if I ever finish it. Anyway, it’s the sweetest dog but literally GIANT with very fluffy dark brown fur and a red collar with a dangling bell and bow attached. I’m sorry I just love the idea of him having this huge dog that should by all accounts be a small breed. Love when dogs match the person too, so the brown is a little reddish even though it’s dark.

Can’t see many of the others having pets so I’m just going to list stupid ones below: (cw cursing)

Thomas - Some sort of stupid parrot who just repeats shit. I hate him. He teaches that bird to be awful to people and then it mimics his laugh for no reason so you just hear the two of them laughing at you at the exact same time. Horrible man and his horrible bird.

Reiji - A cat that just knows things. It’s a gray cat and also matches him really well. It just sits at his desk and STARES. Maybe Thomas gets it a mini pair of glasses just for fun and Ryoken ties a mini red scarf around its neck (me when I always manage to shoehorn my favorite ship in..)

Ryoken & Jun - Mal. They fucking love Mal so much even with her bad behavior. Maybe they had a pair of twin cats too that looked like them but with swapped personalities? Like a white cat who gets really pissy and a black cat who just vibes and walks around like he knows shit.

(Btw I HC them as twins- this isn’t me shipping Jun & Ryoken.. I’m too attached to them as siblings to ever do that..)

Antinomy & Placido - HEAR ME OUTTTT! These two would get a huge dog. Idc if you ship them or not but they’d accidentally find some dog abandoned together, get attached, and then be forced to co-parent because neither are fully willing to give the dog up to the other. Maybe a pitbull. Like one of the big gray ones who are just sweethearts even if they look intimidating.

Sherry - Doberman. Next question. No she does not do anything to its ears. She would never. I love her dearly. She probably names the dog something in French and won’t tell anyone what it means so they’re forced to spell it wrong into google translate later to find out. It has the exact same attitude as her. Also Roseknight for the win so it adores Aki and unintentionally wingman’s for Sherry.

Z-One - I can kind of see him being that sort of person who says “no. we’re not getting a pet. no.” then becomes hyper attached to it. Specifically Mal. She entrances him with her horrible l beady eyes and soft little paws. He goes really still sometimes and just won’t move while he’s thinking so she just naps on him. He won’t even feel her because she’s pretty light and does it on the more mechanical side. Paradox & co have so many pictures. He’s so embarrassed but they think it’s really cute and Mal is just too adorable.

Can’t think of any more right now but I might continue later. We’ll see.

[loualcott]

can u pls give me writing tips? I have a short story due soon for ELA and idk why this year my writing and grammar has gotten so bad. A few tips would help ! Love ur blog sm btw 🎀

ohmygosh i would love to !! tysm for asking :)

the biggest thing (for me) is finding your writer's voice. this helps especially with short stories or fictional works so that even if your topic doesn't interest you, it can still be fun to write. try out different styles, like omniscient narrator, funny narrator, lots of elegant words, simple snappy sentences, etc.

sometimes i'll be looking for a synonym and i can find it on google, but when i can't, i loveeee to use wordhippo. it can help with synoyms, antonyms, definitions, rhyming words, finding words, translations, and so on, so it's a really helpful tool!

i hate story starters because they never interest me!!!! my biggest story inspirations come from music & other creative works like books or movies, so next time you're watching something or reading or listening to music, consider what parts could inspire a short story :)

it does NOT have to be fancy! a lot of bad writers throw in a lot of sophisticated words to disguise their poorly thought out story, which isn't always inherently negative, but ALWAYS prioritize the plot and the characters

in a short story, you're not going to want to have a lot of characters to deal with. if you have one main character and a few supporting characters, it should translate well to a smaller story, whereas with a novel you could have countless main characters. this isn't a rule of course, but it is something to keep in mind

short stories generally end at the climax, instead of having falling action like in novels. still conclude it nicely, though!

i can't help much with grammar, as i think it's something you generally have to just practice to get better at, but i know reading and picking up grammar rules in actual use can be very helpful

first drafts are important, despite what some people might say! yes, sometimes you can write a first draft and then just edit a few errors right away and there's your final product, but it's more beneficial to have a very messy first draft that you write without worrying too much about spelling or grammar or how it sounds. then i like to print or export my first draft into a drawing app so i can write on it some mistakes and rephrasing suggestions, then go back and edit it :)

i hope this was helpful!!!!!

[ifaeree]

I don't know how to start (and sorry if I have any grammar or spelling mistakes, my english is not the best and I might use google translate to help if necessary). So... I honestly didn't have many expectations on this new game but I was like "let's see and decide" and at first I was really dissapointed because of the prices of the bank outfits and the VIP pass (which I am considering in purchaising only if I really love the outfit). But... I am enjoying the game at this point for these reasons:

1.- Taki

Taki was the reason I decide giving this game a chance because I love Eldarya and I always wanted the chance to dress the companions ( but it's understandable that it isn't possible since there are a lot of them). I know some players don't like Taki, but I really love him/her and I love it's sound and animations.

2. The messages

When I discover that the love interests where going to send messages to us after the episodes if we are up to date with them I was like "weeeeell, I supose I'm not receiving any messages since I am not planing on in-game purchasing so I might not be up to date with the episodes" (I was SO wrong btw).

I really love this because it give me a little of Mystic Messenger vibes, but I hate that there is a timer which ironically also reminds me of MM.

3. The games

- Style contest: I like it because I it as an opoortunity to get hearts, gems and APs -playing AND voting. I LOVE that we can share items to other players and vice versa. The only thing I don't like are the themes (they are the same always) and I am still trying to win "Green with envy" dressing my newcrette as Melody from the original MCL 😭

- The other game whose name I don't remember even in spanish: just to say i don't like that the times to wait are too long and that it makes me remember Eldarya and I am still sad because the game died T-T

4. Jason and Thomas

So... I was really interested in him before the game was released but I was dissapointed with some of his actions in the first four episodes. But I really love the 🌶️ tension in the last episode.

Anyway, I allready fell for Thomas and he is soooooo cute. i can't and will not betray him.

But... I am still interested in see what will happen with the ones who will choose to make a "deal" with Jason. And I really hope it ends in a really really REALLY bad ending. Because I really need that possibily of having a bad ending in the game. It makes the game for interesting (at least for me).

Anyway. That's all (I think). I am not used to use tumblr and I even forgot my password and had to change it.

Thank you so much @tetrakys for the opportunity to get the e-girl code. I think I am still in time...

And if not, I already wrote all this and it's not like I am going to just erase it, specially since I used every last neuron to remember all the english classes I took at school to write this.

Thank you again Tetra

Love you all

Good luck

And good luck everyone.

5. Room customization

Last but not less important (and I just remember xd)

I love that we can custom the room. This wasn't an option in the original MCL and in Eldarya we only have a background already made.

Now that's all.

Whoot whoot!

[bedlamsbard]

btw, what are your thoughts on WandaVision? I really liked the concept and the execution of the first half but was a bit disappointed by the decision to have a Big Enemy To Fight instead of being entirely about Wanda's duality and internal conflict.

I don't mind the show having an enemy to fight, though I think WV might have complicated it a bit too much by having too many antagonists that turned up in the last couple of eps, particularly because none of them have since shown up in the MCU and explained what they were doing there in the first place. That last is really a Phase 4/5 problem, though, not a WV-specific one. (When I did my rewatch a few months ago, I also said that WV really should have had a cameo from either Ross or another Avenger -- it needed a tie to something else that was relevant to Wanda.)

I like WV a lot -- it's very rewatchable for me, and I like how playful and experimental it is. I think it's also pretty good at actually dealing with the post-Blip chaos when it acknowledges it, and a lot of the character dynamics are excellent. On rewatch I can pick out some nitpicks with it -- for example, they never acknowledge that Pietro also got Infinity Stone-kickstarted powers, despite Fake Pietro and Tommy both having superspeed in the show. And "Agatha All Along" is a bop, but like...what did Agatha actually do aside from insinuating herself into Wanda's life and enchanting Ralph Bohner.

From a two and a half years later perspective, WV's biggest problem is what I think of the as the "CATWS Problem" -- although it's individually excellent and does pretty well at building off preceding installments of the MCU, it's essentially ignored by the later installments, even the ones that depend on it (a.k.a. DSMOM; we'll see how The Marvels does with Monica, I guess). Through no fault of its own, it becomes retroactively worse just because of how it's incorporated, or not incorporated, into the rest of the MCU.

Fun fact: my department at the university was consulted for the Latin that's in Agatha's flashback scene, since the movie was filmed in Atlanta, and Jac Schaeffer's assistant e-mailed the nearest classics department to make the Latin be Not Google Translate. I've seen the request letter with the original Google Translate version, it's pretty bad. The Latin in the show is accurate now! A friend of mine did the Latin translation and Marvel Studios sent her some WV merch when the episode aired, though I don't think she's credited in the ep.

Other fun fact: the first time I watched WV I hadn't seen anything Wanda or Vision had been in, because the only three Marvel movies I'd seen since CATWS in 2014 had been Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor Ragnarok, and Captain Marvel. So WV was actually my introduction to Wanda and Vision.

[haru-dipthong]

鴨川 poll results are in!

Vote counts, minus see results option:

Kamogawa: 6 votes (24%) Kamogawa River: 12 votes (48%) Kamo River: 6 votes (24%) Duck River: 1 vote (who voted for this lol)

Interesting distribution, particularly the one vote for "Duck River" which I'm not sure I should take seriously. I just had that option there for the sake of exhaustiveness.

For the record, I voted for "Kamogawa River". I believe it's the best translation for the following reasons:

It is a proper noun, and proper nouns should be transliterated as is. No one is calling Ohtani (the baseball player) "Bigvalley" because the name as it refers to the person is the important part - the literal etymological meaning is almost completely irrelevant. This eliminates "Duck River" as a viable choice and makes "Kamo River" questionable.

However, it could be argued that "Kamo" is the name of the river and "Gawa" is just saying that it's a river. I don't agree, but I can see how someone could argue for this case. I still don't think this makes "Kamo River" a good translation — if you hear native speakers say the word for that river, or if you ask for directions, you'll hear "kamogawa". If you only knew it as the "Kamo River" you might not be able to understand directions or signs, since the average street sign/Kyoto person on the street will probably not translate it as "Kamo River" themselves when giving directions. "Kamogawa" and "Kamogawa River" are kinda backwards compatible with both languages, with basically no drawbacks, making them the safer translations.

That leaves "Kamogawa" and "Kamogawa River" as viable choices. The advantage "Kamogawa" has is that it is less redundant. The advantage "Kamogawa River" has is that it is much clearer what it is referring to. I believe that being less redundant isn't actually much of an advantage, and I think clarity is huge, therefore Kamogawa River is the best choice imo. It seems like in general, people agree too!

So why do I think less redundancy is not much of an advantage? Well, how does it help the person reading the translation? It doesn't! It's the opposite - more redundancy (to a point) makes meaning clearer. And the purpose of translation is to get meaning across, so eliminating helpful redundancy is pointless at best and gatekeeping/linguistic purism at worst.

I've seen posts (and people irl) lamenting the fact that "chai tea" means "tea tea", and "Sahara Desert" means "desert desert". I don't believe this is a bad thing - it's simply that when a word is borrowed from another language, it's natural to describe it using existing words so people actually know what you're talking about. Also, while it's true that "chai" just means tea in many languages and "tea" also means tea (in english), "chai tea" in english certainly does not mean "tea tea". It means chai tea! It means a specific type of tea, with spices in! The phrase "chai tea" is now an English phrase which means something different to its original Hindi roots.

(btw, Google maps uses Kamo River - which inspired the poll in the first place)

[ifidogaysomyself]

worlds most pathetic ao3 writer interview

thanks for the tag @aconfusedkitten ! unfortunately i do not publish jack shit but i can answer Some of these questions and also i like tag games. and also for the lols. anyone is free to ask me about any of this btw

how many works do you have on ao3?/your top five stories by kudos/likes? *hall of the mountain king starts playing* okayy soo ;3. i have One (1) fic published on ao3. it has 21 kudos total. all of my fics stay IN the pages. yeah im nnnnot good at clicking post BUT WEBALLL

do you respond to comments? why or why not? if i had any comments on ao3, i definitely would! i used to post on…. other sites and i always tried my best to respond to comments there!

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? ooooh thats a tough one. mostly because ive never um. managed to end a fic. HOWEVER from my outlined wips, it would have to be [svsss] yet untitled bingjiu painshare soulmates au. it’s like in my head man if i ever get to writing it it’s gonna fucking hurt. (actually pretty much most of my inthewips bingjiu fics could go here tbh they’re all bad and end worse)

what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? besides the fact that (again) i am really bad at… actually finishing any of my wips (HENCE WHY THEY’RE NOT PUBLISHED!!) this one’s tough because i plan happy (or at least open-positive) endings for pretty much everything, bingjiu notwithstanding, so… i can’t really pick what’s the happiest? i think the least angst involved fic premise i have is a [svsss] no abyss slowburn romance au, since that has like... mostly just silly vibes tbh. unless you're yqy in which case sorry king

do you write crossovers? yes!!!!!! i used to plot them all the time! i don’t really write that many anymore, but there’s definitely a couple in my pages i can think of that i might come back to if i ever go back to those fandoms

have you ever received hate on a fic? ahaha. haha. ha. why do you think i don’t Publish On Sites anymore

do you write smut? if so, what kind? i do write smut! in fact one of the fics i might (???) actually publish if i finish it (and looking like i will) is like . some percent smut. as for what kind, well, i live by the tenet that smut is ideally also a character study. the 2k of blowjob IS in fact a necessary part to the media analysis. any smut i write is probably gonna have something to say about the characters. also i excel at writing Bad Sex That Sucks So Much And Feels Painful To Read. these two things are connected more profoundly than you think. (also my wip that i might publish is svsss cumplane i think that tells enough)

have you ever had a fic stolen? nope! i've disowned fics that i don't care about anymore though so someone might've taken a concept since i basically put a free for all in the last chapters of all of them idk

have you ever had a fic translated? i do everything myself around here. (i translate my own sometimes for fun)

have you ever co-written a fic before? i got into writing long form fic properly because of my beloved bestie crunch who was like do you want to take some yaoi crack cocaine together which proceeded into us egging each other on in a google doc. so yes absolutely some of the fondest memories of my life tbh

what’s your all-time favorite ship? oh dear god difficult question. like really difficult. im gonna give my top 3 instead. SOOO well for nostalgia’s sake i unfortunately have to say [taw] felis is probably my alltime #1 I Will Never Shut The Fuck Up About Them ship. but on like a purely “they have Everything” scale im gonna go biased and say my #2 is [svsss] bingqiu and i likely will stay in bingqiu hell for a looooong time because they literally DO have everything i could want in a ship and more they're insane!! #3 is [genshin] kaeluc because homies got me to rotate what it means to analyse media and the true meaning of varying interpretations at least 3 separate times, and i enjoy seeing those weirdos to this day. HONORARY MENTION [dgs] asobaroryuu because theyre INSANEEE but me and my objectively correct friends are the only people who Get Them. so yeah <3

what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? in my wips there is a svsss-inspired bnha au. it’s a banger concept and i have a lot of ideas for it but honestly i am just not invested enough in Making It Happen, so it’ll probably stay in the wips forever. there’s also a good bunch of throwaway fic concepts i’ve had that are cool in theory but i’ll never probably write, but game of self-preservation is the only one i actually started plotting out and writing that i fully do not think i will ever do anything with further. open to talking about it but i just really won't write that thang

what are your writing strengths? i like to think i’m good at balancing crangst a lot. i’m physically incapable of not making things at least a little funny, and i love making blorbos suffer, so this gives me like… mad tragicomedy skills? also i'm pedantic about having plot threads followed up on and the ending being satisfying, so i Try! also i am, for reasons i cannot possibly explain, really good at writing weed fic. the person who knows what im talking about Knows Why and it stays in the grave.

what are your writing weaknesses? Actually Finishing Things, and Actually Hitting Post. those two are related. i have can't focus on one project for too long disease, and i’d feel guilty posting fics i might not come back to just out there, especially since i write non-linearly, so. yeah.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? i think it’s cool as fuck more writers should use languages nyehehehehehehe. i kinda do it when writing danmei fics because untranslatable terms are fully undodgeable in that one, so.. can't say i've ever complained

what’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? strangely, for all my actual years long love-hate relationship with it and also my love for felis, i haven’t… written any actual substantial asterisk war fic. i do want to one day i just have uhm. [looks at my evergrowing pile of svsss fic] other interests rn

what’s your favourite fic you’ve written? and, there’s the question i knew immediately how to answer. where the dog lies is a [tgaa] time travel/massive canon divergence fic, and as much as i’m not tgaabrained right now, i know i will come back to writing it, because it’s genuinely my magnum opus, my best fucking work ever. talking about it as a time travel is true but feels a bit reductive, because in the time travel concept is a hidden character analysis/recovery fic that i’ve legit cried about leaning over the keyboard. something that can be so deeply personal. like i WILL finish it one day once i fall back into the tgaa hole it’s my favourite thing ever that i’ve made as a creative.

again thanks for tagging, and again anyone can ask me about Any Of These (this is a cry for help). for the tags uhm. @choctalksalot because i need to drag you into my boat bitch, @memeticallyengineered , @applestorms and . because i’m curious even though we’re not mutuals but we’ve talked like twice so i think it’s fine @ofstormsandfire ! also any of my mutuals who i wanted to tag but the 5 tags per post limit is so so sad to me

[jewlwpet]

Was searching for a quote from The Future Eve and this came up. “Connecting with the spirit of Thomas Edison”... DON’T DO THIS. BAD IDEA.

[porcupine-girl]

Hidden Blade thoughts!

IT WAS SO GOOD

YIBO WAS SO GOOD

I would've followed a bit better if I understood more about the political landscape of WWII China, but it wasn't too bad. Definitely one of those movies where I want to go back and rewatch it immediately now that I know what I know from the end.

I will put the rest under a cut because very definitely spoilers.

The entire first half, I was kind of confused and disappointed because Yibo's role was barely a background character? I was like... how did he get second billing? How did he catch the critics' attention?

Then he has the scene in the bathroom with his ex-fiance, and from there suddenly he's the main character of the second half of the movie. It's like Tony Leung got half and he got half LOL And he's so damn good in his half.

I don't particularly like or care about fight scenes, but his were so good?? That first one with the bitchslap, he's just explosive. In the bathroom scene he becomes a ticking time bomb that's just waiting for an excuse to go off, and when he does it's breathtaking. But then he manages to just bottle that energy back up as soon as he's done with one fight, and spends the rest of the movie like that. Like every single scene he was in from there on I was convinced he was about to go off and kill someone or at least maim them - he only winds up doing it a few more times, but anytime he's not being violent you can just feel the violence he's bottling up inside radiating out of him. I can 100% see why the NYT chose the words "simmering" and "mesmerizing."

I will admit I might not have been as transfixed during Yibo & Tony's big fight scene (which, the bts is just a tiny clip of a very long scene) if it weren't for the fact that I'd seen the clip of the truck scene so I knew they both survived, so I spent the entire time holding my breath like how the fuck do they both survive this. Like, it just doesn't seem like the kind of fight where one is gonna let the other walk away. But speaking of that...

Two bits my husband and I did not understand by the end:

If Ye was actually on He’s side the whole time, why did they have the huge fight?? Like that seemed way more than necessary just to continue pretending to be on opposite sides. Sure, Ye couldn't have just let He go or vice-versa, but like they both nearly killed the other multiple times, and tbh the only reason Ye survived that fall is movie magic (it might not be wuxia but it did inherit just a smidge from that genre in terms of this fight scene I think). Why such a knock-down drag-out fight if they're actually on the same side? Surely they could've made less look like more.

Then the much smaller thing: Early on, He buys pastries to pass a note to… his wife? It happens so early when you don’t know who anyone is, by the time they come back to it I couldn’t quite remember what had happened. I think it turned out to be his wife. Anyhow, then later the Japanese guy asks what took him so long and he says he was buying dim sum but then produces the pastries??? Why did he say it was dim sum? Such a weird lie to tell when you've got the pastries to show him (I assume He bought two boxes). And the Japanese guy doesn't comment on it or anything. Were the subtitles just mistranslated or something? IDK my husband thought he heard them say dim sum but obviously he wasn't paying close attention to that detail as they were saying it, that was just in retrospect after he realized it wasn't dim sum, so maybe they said something else and it got mistranslated.

Edit: Mystery solved! @trickybonmot says she heard them say 点心 (dianxin), and according to purpleculture.net (whose dictionary is top-notch and I trust way more than Google), that can mean dessert/pastry OR dim sum! So it’s not exactly mistranslated, they just chose the translation that makes less sense to English-speaking audiences.

Overall, btw, the translation was great. SO much smoother and less awkward than literally any TV show I've watched. They had both Mandarin and English subs up the whole time, even when the characters were speaking Japanese or Shanghainese.

It was very violent and there were a lot of things that were highly disturbing in a "horrors of war" kind of way. Like yes some bits were gory but I think the disturbing outweighed the explicitly gory by far.

The nonlinear narrative has gotten mixed reviews; I think it's the kind of thing where if you like that type of storytelling (which I do!) you'll like it and if you don't you won't. If you're neutral idk what you'll think. There were definitely a few times when I wasn't totally sure when we were, but usually it didn't make things outright not make sense. There are also a few scenes that I'm still not sure why we went back to them, but I bet if I rewatched it those choices would make more sense.

It was definitely communist propaganda, but I don't think that was heavy-handed. They just showed the communists as definitely The Good Guys of the war. Obviously Japan was The Bad Guy, but they kind of just pushed the non-communist Chinese nationalists to one side and ignored them? IDK, again I might not understand the politics or get the references well enough to know how they actually handled it, but it mostly seemed like that side was more ignored than, like, actively portrayed as bad the way the Japanese were. It doesn't actually, like, make any claims about why communism is good or anything, it's more like “communists” just happens to be the name of the good guys in this war. The ideology itself makes like one brief appearance when Ye's ex-fiance talks about laborers, and even then she says maybe I'll marry a laborer or an intellectual and I was like 😬 and how did communism work out for the intellectuals in 20-30 years? Not sure if that was actually a subtle dig on Cheng Er's part or not.

Anyhow I am very excited to talk about the movie with anyone who's seen it, or I can answer questions for anyone who hasn't!

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

watched s11ep1

i will provide you with a quick review before i disappear back into the ether of twd avoidance

lots of spoilers under the cut. also i wrote way too much and i worked all night and haven’t slept so i didn’t bother to reread literally any of it, so it might be completely nonsensical, tho if you don’t expect that from me by this point idk whose blog you’ve been reading

enjoy:

hokay, first off, i’ll start by saying that i enjoyed it more than i expected to. i’ve been avoiding any sort of discussion about stuff, but my google algorithm is so fucked at this point that i still get recommended articles and stuff every now and then, so i was already pretty aware of what i was walking into, and was expecting it to be eh, but actually i prob enjoyed it more than i enjoyed the finale

(don’t get too excited tho, the finale was rly boring lmfao)

anyway

episode starts off with a tense scouting mission

it takes .005 seconds into the episode for caryl to exchange a look of longing, establishing that they are still having weird conflict and are both too fucking stubborn to do anything about it even tho they hate it desperately

i imagine that will continue for a while

rosita, kelly, carol, maggie, what’s her face with the bad hair, and lydia (i think that’s everyone?) lower down to some army bunker or something, where a bunch of walkers are taking a snooze, and the girls are very respectful of walker naptime, and do their best not to wake them up

obviously they eventually wake up, but i’ll get to that in a sec

as they’re tiptoeing through the walker tulips, there’s this split second where carol spots a machine gun, and looks at maggie with a face like, “can i plzzzz, i am mad horny for that machine gun,” but maggie tells her no. (i 110% expected her to defy orders and accidentally wake up all the walkers, but she actually behaved herself for once. well. mostly)

never fear, tho, after the girl gang collects a bunch of MREs they go back to wait for the dudes waiting up top to pull them up, and bc men ruin everything, one of the ropes break, and daryl catches it before it falls, but then a slow motion drop of blood falls on a walker’s face, and just like that, walker naptime is over, and carol uses her bow and arrow for two seconds before she is like “fuck this” and whips out the machine gun

yes, she is super hot using it

yes, daryl watches her do it

anyway, all the other girls get rescued, and carol is about to be pulled up, but bc she is a #girlboss, she first makes a beeline for one more crate full of MREs. daryl covers her while she gets the loot, and when she gets back up top they have another charged moment as carol hands him back his knife

just fuck already, jfc

titles!

cut to alexandria where everything is still not smilestimes

BUT, we do get to see uncle daryl run and hug rj and judith (and dog), and FUCKING HERSHEL JR, LIGHT OF MY LIFE is also there

istg, they could not have casted a better child, i a d o r e him

oh, and some friends of maggie’s show up too, idk

cut to a staff meeting where everyone is like, whomp whomp, we’re all gonna starve to death unless we figure out something quick

cue maggie going, “oh, i know where food is, but it requires me to tell you my tragic backstory, in case anyone didn’t watch my bottle episode”

she tells her dramatic backstory about all her friends getting slaughtered by the reapers for no apparent reason, and then she’s like “anyway, let’s go back there!”

no one thinks it’s a great idea, but a group of people decide to go anyway, including daryl and gabriel. rosita is super pissed that gabriel is going, and carol doesn’t go, probably partly bc it’s a shitty fucking idea, and also bc they have to keep caryl apart bc otherwise they’ll fix their problems ahead of schedule and they won’t be able to drag out the needless angst

daryl looks kind of annoyed that carol doesn’t volunteer to go 

bitch, i thought you wanted her to stop putting herself in the line of fire! make up your damn mind!

moving on

cut to a thunderstorm, where, if you look closely, you’ll notice daryl is wearing the STUPIDEST hat i’ve ever seen. just get an umbrella, jfc

for some reason negan is with them, bc ig he knows his way around washington dc, and no one in six years has bothered to figure out how to get around the city and/or get a map, and he is like “hey guys, maybe we shouldn’t try to walk in this fucking hurricane,” and everyone is like “FUCK YOU NEGAN, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF US!!!” 

this will be a common occurrence 

but eventually daryl is even like “actually, it’s rly unpleasant out here, and my hat is mad stupid, can we go inside plz?”

so they go inside an old metro station, which is actually a rly cool cinematic choice. i rly like the idea, and they executed it rly well

speaking of executions

there are some fucking RULL CREEPY walkers. idk why they bothered me so badly, but they were what they at first assumed were corpses wrapped up in tarps, but turns out none of them had been properly put down, so they go through killing these rotted bodies that had supposedly been there since The Fall, and it’s very gross and cool

this entire time, btw, negan is like “hey, i know i’m a shitty person, but i have some rational arguments about why we shouldn’t be doing this right now,” and everyone is like, “FUCK YOU NEGAN, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF US!!!” and he’s just like “god fucking damnit”

(i forgot to mention that at one point, when they’re headed into the metro station, negan is trying to warn ppl of the potential danger, and everyone is ignoring him, and he tries to talk to daryl, and daryl is like “fuck you, you think we’re BUDDIES?” and negan is like “oh, ok, so you’re gonna be like that too? fanfreakingtastic” and it’s very funny)

anyway. a fat monster zombie escapes its tarp at one point, and tries to eat some npc, and negan saves him, again is like “hey, anyone else realize that this is a FUCKING BAD PLAN?”, and everyone is like “we don’t care, you’re still shitty and we’re not listening to you, and you don’t actually care about random npc i would literally not be able to pick out in a lineup bc his face is so generic, you’re not the boss of us!!!”

it’s at this point that negan finally is like, “why am i even here? bc i know how to get around washington dc? do none of you have a map?” and i was like, “right?! that’s what i said!” 

it’s then revealed that maggie only brought negan along to murder him under the guise of “oops, he got hurt in the line of duty, it wasn’t my fault,” and daryl has this look on his face that says, “i seriously need to stop hanging out with lethal women bent on revenge bc it’s gonna give me high blood pressure,” and maggie has a badass moment where she points a gun she has for some reason at negan and is like “i have like, one shred of human compassion left inside of me, and if you keep pushing me i will fucking kill you without a second thought, so shut the hell up”

(in her defense, negan had just dropped glenn’s name to purposely antagonize her, which was rude as hell)

(for the record, i’m completely on maggie’s side here, but negan still is right that trapping themselves in a metro station is a bad call)

anyway, moving away from that briefly

i think this jump cut happens sooner, i don’t actually remember, but whatever who cares, point is, we get to the part of the show that actually matters, and that’s anything involving my love, juanita “princess” sanchez

and also eugene, yumiko, and ezekiel

they are being asked increasingly invasive questions by commonwealth ppl, some of which i wish they actually would of answered (what do they use to wipe their asses with?? surely toilet paper has long since become extinct)

zeke, who is so much more tolerable as a character now that he’s not larping as a king, has this incredibly weird and sort of sexually charged moment with a dude in an orange stormtrooper costume, where he’s like, “i bet you were an asshole cop back before The Fall, you stupid fascist, #fuckthepolice, mb literally? idk, this moment has a lot of pent up aggression that could easily translate to hate sex, it might just be the intense eye contact, but w/e, let’s just move along,” and then he has a coughing fit to remind the audience that he’s currently dying of cancer, and orange stormtrooper is like “lolz, loser, drink some water you dumb piece of shit”

cut to the wholesome foursome sitting at a picnic table in a guarded courtyard eating gruel, and yumkio, who finally has a personality, and princess are like “hey, this place fucking sucks, can we leave?” and zeke is like, “yeah, i met this orange stormtrooper who i think might be dtf and/or murder, so we should probably bounce”

but eugene is like, “but i want some hot stephanie ass, and also some bullshit excuse about how mb commonewealth will save alexandria” which, they left before things went super downhill, right? idr. it was after hilltop fell, but they don’t know alexandria got fucked either, if i recall? w/e, not important

two seconds after he says this, they talk to some people who are like “we’ve been here for four months, or maybe it’s been nine, i don’t actually remember, i’ve stopped processing the passage of time,” and the wholesome foursome takes this as a bad sign, tho that’s just the life i’ve lived as a night worker during a pandemic, so i was like #mood

but then they watch some guy get dragged away screaming to get “reprocessed” and eugene is like “ok, nvm, let’s bounce”

(my theory on what “reprocessing” is, is that they’re stuck in a room and have to watch hours and hours of customer service training videos on vhs from the 90s)

i definitely got my jump cut scenes mixed up bc i think the negan accusing maggie of a murder plot thing happened in between this scene and then the next commonwealth scene, but w/e, i’ll just finish what happens in the commonwealth arch

the wholesome foursome are trying to hatch a plan to escape, except princess, my love, is distracted watching some stormtroopers flirt, and the other three are like “wtf, dude, how can you even tell any of them apart?” and princess then tells them every stormtroopers backstory bc she is brilliant and pays rly close attention to shit, and the other three are like, “this is useful information, thank you for being an insane person”

their plan involves yumiko and eugene dressing up as stormtroopers and leading princess and zeke out of the place, which works fine actually, except on their way out they come across the Depressing Wall of Probably Mostly Dead Missing Loved Ones

they’re about to leave, when princess is like, “wait, yumiko, you’re on here, that’s weird huh?”

sure enough, yumiko  is on the wall, with a note from ig her sister 

the scene ends with yumiko going, “guys...i can’t leave...i have tragic backstory to unveil”

tragic backstory to be continued ig

back in murder metro town, npc and some other npc have stolen all the supplies, there’s a train blocking the track, and a horde of walkers are coming towards them, so things are not going fantastic

they horde is too big to take down, so they start to climb on top of the train car to get away

but dog runs away!

and daryl, being every pet owner ever, is like “gotta go get my dog, guys, try not to get killed while i’m gone, c u soon!” and he ducks under the train and disappears

#priorities

the episode ends with maggie climbing up the train car but getting grabbed by a walker and dangling off the edge, and negan is there and they have a lion king moment where maggie is like, “scar! help me!” and negan is like “long live the king, bitch” and walks away into the shadows, leaving maggie to a potential death

which, while i know isn’t actually going to happen, would be a really fucking funny move on the writers’ part

like, “look, lauren’s back! and now she’s dead, bet you didn’t expect that!”

anyway

my assumption is negan will actually end up helping her up or something, continuing his ambiguous morality bullshit that actually isn’t ambiguous bc he BEAT GLENN TO DEATH WITH A FUCKING BAT WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE IN FRONT OF HIS PREGNANT WIFE

the maggie/negan arch is kind of dumb, but whatevs, i’ll tolerate it, as long as my boy glenn gets justice in the end

anyway, cue credits!

final assessment: good episode. i’m much more interested in commonwealth than the reapers, tho i am hoping that daryl’s personality-less ex turns out to be a monster killing machine with no conscience, that’ll be fun. princess is a gift from god. hershel jr needs his own tv show. needs more carol (and caryl)

the end! going back into my walking dead free chamber! see you next episode!

-diz

[snowboiwinwin]

A rant about Kpop

I get that kpop is not everyone’s cup of tea and I absolutely respect that. Just like heavy metal isn’t my type of music, I understand that some might not like listening to kpop - I have no problem with that. I am not the one to force anyone to like it or whatever.

What annoys me though is, that anti-kpop people think they are ENTITLED to judge kpop-obsessed people like me, because of their taste in music. BITCH NO.

I am blessed enough that both my parents and siblings are super supportive of my kpop obsession, they even listen to new comebacks and give me feedback to it - because they know it means so much to me and makes me incredibely happy.

Same goes to my friends. Only a handful of them are actively into kpop - the others really try though. They send me pics, ask who’s in it, they randomly put kpop songs in their playlists and suprise me whenever we drive around town -  They do not need to do these things, but they know it means a lot to me and that’s why they do it. That’s what good people do! Not making anyone feel bad about their passions, right?

But then there’s the other part of my family. People I used to see as friends and a second pair of parents.

Besides making racist comments (which is horrible and absolutely disgusting, I fucking hate it) they constantly trash talk about kpop RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

Not only is this extremely disrespectful but it hurts? Like do you have nothing better to do than bad mouthing something I truly enjoy? That helps me deal with my stressful university/work life? Do I mean so little to you that you do not care about my feelings at all?

I do NOT fucking get it!!! Also, kpop stans are sometimes too fucking afraid to even talk about their passion, because as soon as people know about it, they try to make us kpop enthusiasts feel bad about it!

Our society is so fucking toxic and RACIST, sadly some of my family is a part of it as well.

If people weren’t as narrow minded and racist, they would actually enjoy the music. My brothers have a complete different music taste than I do but even they always compliment certain kpop songs and tell me that they are absolute “bangers” (btw, they love Shoot Out by Monsta X, they even attempted the vibrating tiddies).

Just because a few years ago, kpop wasn’t as big and is now taking over the world (which so many people are salty about hahahaha pathetic), doesn’t mean the music isn’t good. And don’t come with the excuse “I cannot understand what they are saying.”, well then google the fucking translation, learn Korean or piss off. I can’t understand most English-speaking artists cause they do not articulate themselves well - so fuck off. This is not an excuse to make insensitive comments.

And Kpop is not just BTS or Psy (no shade, I love both BTS and Psy to bits), there is so much more! You don’t like these two artistst? Okay! That’s fine, then maybe try some Stray Kids, Ateez or Exo! More into girlgroups? Itzy and Mamamoo are my absolute favorites at the moment. You would prefer solo artists? Hyuna, Jessi and Jay Park are the number one’s in my playlist right now!

Don’t judge and bad mouth something you haven’t even tried. You don’t hear me saying “Ugh I hate regular pop music” or whatever just because I don’t like one or two artists that make such music. There are so many other artists just waiting to be discovered!

Well, it feels good getting this off my shoulders. I just feel so misunderstood and mad that people do not appreciate all these hard working artists and instead make fun of them. They deserve better.

Has anyone ever felt the same?

[masterhandss]

HameFura LN5 - A Lady for Nicol (theory)

While we all love all the harem members for Katarina, but in the end she’s just one person and only one person can reign as the victor of her heart. 

One of my most favorite theories/observations that came from the bakarina reddit discord is the importance of the “Lady” from Light Novel Volume 5, who was the main character alongside Nicol is their chapter in that book. The lady isn’t given a name or a physical description in her chapter which could indicate that her role is merely that of a plot device in order to prevent Nicol from giving up on Katarina’s hand. Her constant support and encouragement of Nicol’s feelings is what encourages him to continue pursuing her despite already graduating in the academy by Volume 5, cementing Nicol’s place in the harem, and yet for some people this chapter implied something else; feeling like this lady will be a contender for Nicol’s end-game love interest once Katarina chooses. 

A few users on the discord pointed out how wonderful it would be for Nicol to end up with this Lady, given how strong and admirable her personality was build up to despite only appearing for a single chapter. She’s smart, honest, independent and can carry a conversation; which is a lot of traits that Nicol seems to like in a partner. 

It is possible that this Lady will never be named and become her own character (unless the Second Season of the anime adapts his chapter and introduces her to everyone as a filler scene), but it is still possible for her to return as a future candidate for Nicol’s partner as the series eliminates the competition for Katarina’s heart. 

Despite all this though, who could really say that we don’t know this character yet? 

I propose that as of Volume 9 (the most recent JP release of the novels), we already know who the Lady from Volume 5 is! 

It’s all just a matter of observation/elimination!

Spoilers for the light novels and a lil bit from the webnovel!

Edit (2/13/21): I added a lil more!

I believe that the identity of the Lady that Nicol met during his matchmaking meetings is none other than Fray Randall, the student council president of the Magic Academy in Volume 6. 

Quick note, J-Novels translated Fray’s name to “Fray Landoor”, but its supposed to be Fray Randall. I mean without even pulling out the kanji for Fray’s surname, you read it out loud ‘Landoor’ as “Ran-do-ru” in japanese, in the same way you’d read ‘Randall”. Regardless if you pull out a raw version of the novels or google translate both surnames, you get the same characters of “ランドール“, proving that Fray is from the Marquis of Randall. The connection is even more undeniable considering the fact that Fray is described as a girl with black hair and blue eyes in LN6, just like Suzanna. 

Part 1 - Fray and the Lady

First, lets establish what we know about the Lady:

She is from a high ranking family

She is a member of the Student Council in Katarina’s final year in the Academy (an underclassman that is close with Katarina)

She gives an allusive, strong and resilient impression

She is very intelligent, talented and has a high magical aptitude (evident in the fact that she is in the Student Council)

She is very curious and perceptive about other people

She admires Lana Smith (Suzanna Randall)

She is very supportive of Nicol’s feelings for Katarina

She has no intention of marrying and wants to work independently in the Magic Ministry

She is the 5th and last candidate for Nicol’s fiancee

Before going to Fray, I just want to establish something for those who do not know: Light Novel Volume 6 isn’t the first time we’ve seen Fray. She, as well as her best friend Ginger, are already well established characters even before the Volume 5 was published, because those two characters comes from an extra web novel chapter that was not adapted into the first arc (the first two books) of the novels. The extra chapter is called “About the Duke’s Daughter” which tells the tale of Ginger Tucker’s experience of meeting Katarina. The chapter itself doesn’t introduce anything new about Fray, other than the fact that the Randalls are a Marquis Family, but the chapter will come up again later. 

Now, lets establish what we know about Fray Randall:

She is from the Marquis of Randall, a high ranking family

She is the next president of the Student Council in Katarina’s final year in the Academy (an underclassman that is close with Katarina)

She is well-mannered, polite and charming

She is very intelligent, talented and has a high magical aptitude (evident in the fact that she is in the Student Council)

She is quite perceptive when it comes to the feelings of her tsundere friend Ginger

She is most likely related to Suzanna Randall (as they share the same last name; either sisters or cousins)

She is very supportive of Ginger’s feelings for Katarina

I probably don’t need to make a chart to emphasize the similarities of these two characters (but i’ll still compare anyways). I know not everything lines up, especially when it comes to their personality. We haven’t seen too much of Fray to write a perfectly accurate description of her, all we know is that she behaves like a perfect noblewoman in front of others but is also quite cheeky when it comes to teasing her friend Ginger about her admiration for their Katarina-senpai. 

That isn’t to say that there are no other similarities between them! Nicol has noted a few times how smart sounding and well-mannered the lady is, which while does apply to most ladies, it should still be considered. Both Fray and the Lady have perfect etiquette, but has a more energetic and outspoken personality. The Lady reminds me a lot of Suzanna Randall, and that comparison makes me feel like the Lady could be Fray, because of how likely it is that Suzanna’s little sister/cousin could be as brazen and independent as she is. 

Both Fray and the Lady are open minded people. the Lady does not care about the existing culture of high society and wants to act independently. Fray does not care about the culture of high society and accepts Ginger despite her normal appearance and low status. 

Both Fray and the Lady as very supportive of another’s characters feelings for Katarina, aka Ginger and Nicol respectively. Both characters insisted that their friends accept their feelings of love/admiration, and to act on them. Anyone who has seen either the web novel chapter knows that Fray and Ginger are very close to Katarina and the harem, which is important because the Lady specifically got all the tea about Nicol liking Katarina from Sophia. 

Both Fray and the Lady are from high ranking families. Specifically, Fray is a Marchioness, which is a rank higher than Nicol. 

Speaking of the Marquis of Randalls, the Lady has voiced her admiration about her idol:  a woman who works for the Magic Ministry but isn’t of a high ranking family. She is most likely talking about Lana Smith (aka Suzanna’s alter ego). The Lady mentions that her family highly opposes her desires to work in the Ministry and insists that she marries instead. 

Suzanna in Volume 3 and 4 implies the same things: despite her desires to study magic, she is forced by her parents to attend matchmaking events in order to find a fiancée (which ended up becoming Geoffrey) and it is not hard to surmise that her family is one of the reasons she hides her identity in the Ministry. If Fray is from the same family, then she will most likely be receiving the same treatment. 

We cannot say whether of not the Lady admiring Lana Smith is an indication that she knows who Lana is. There is the possibility that the Lady admires Lana but isn’t aware of her identity at all, but there’s also the possibility that the Lady does know who Lana is and gave Lana’s fake story as to not blow her cover. If the Lady really is Fray, then both sides of the theory can do wonders for her character. 

Both Fray and the Lady are smart and magically-talented, as you can tell by the fact that they are both in the Student Council. In fact, Fray is so smart and talented that she will eventually succeed Gerald as President in the Magic Academy! Doesn’t that remind anybody of a certain Randall who is also a prodigy?

Part 2 - Katarina’s Underclassmen in the Student Council

Speaking of the Student Council, one of my key arguments as to why I think Fray Randall is Nicol’s Lady from Volume 5 is because of the web novel chapter “About the Duke’s Daughter” featuring Ginger. In the light novels, Fray was introduced in Volume 6 while the Lady is introduced in Volume 5. Since the web novel chapter was never published, LN6 is the new introductions of Fray and Ginger.

In the anime and light novels, it is identified that in Sirius and Nicol’s batch, there were 7 members of the student council (Sirius, Nicol, Girl 1, Girl 2, Boy 1, Boy 2 and Boy 3), and in Katarina’s batch there is 6 student council members (Gerald, Keith, Alan, Mary, Sophia and Maria). With that we can assume that their is typically 6-7 new freshmens to join the student council every year (push it to 6-8 if you want but I’m going with 7)

First draft of my fan designs for Ginger Tucker and Fray Randall btw :DD

I made Fray look too sweet in this doodle, she’s a sass-pants I swear!

Like I already said before, both Fray and the Lady are members of the student council, who are close to Katarina. Knowing only the light novels, one might assume that it is impossible to determine how many members Fray and Ginger’s batch of council freshmens are, but in reality its pretty easy. 

I’m not going to say that out of the freshmens, Katarina is only close to Fray and Ginger, since they are the only ones to show up in Volume 6, but I will agree that it is likely. If we go by the estimates of 6-8 council members per batch, we’ll go in the middle and say that Ginger’s batch has 7 student council members as Katarina is in her final year. 

In the web novel chapter “About the Duke’s Daughter”, there is a scene where Ginger is being bad mouthed by 3 of her female peers in the student council room. Here’s the scene from the web novel chapter (in Ginger’s POV):

There was something I didn't understand in class that day so after visiting the teacher, I went to the student council room and arrived later than usual. Then some of the same classmates, who were members of the student council seemed to be ahead, and I heard voices talking from inside. 

'What's with her attitude! I'm so angry at her, that Ginger Tucker." "Indeed! What can we even do about her?" "Being so prideful just because she's a little smart" 

 I unintentionally pulled my hand from the door handle. This is a scene I can't enter.

So it can't be helped. It was then that I thought I should wait a little before entering. 

"I don't think Ginger is like that at all" 

Perhaps she was there the entire time, as now a voice of a third-party spoke in between their angry voices. 

 "K-Katarina-sama? Were you here this entire time?" In a surprised voice, it turns out the those girls were not aware of Katarina's presence.

With this we can identify 5 out of 7 of the student council members, with the final two we can assume that they are either two guys or one guy and one girl (but its most likely the prior.

We would have <Ginger, Fray, Girl 1, Girl 2, Girl 3, Boy 1 and Boy 2>.

But that begs the question, who is the Lady? Is there only 1 male student in the freshmen batch of the student council, with the Lady filling that last spot, or is the Lady among the 5 girls we’ve established? Or are there 8 student council members instead? I don’t need to answer my own questions, you do the math :))

Of course there’s the possibility that the author is disregarding this webnovel chapter and creates a new freshmen batch from scratch, but while The Lady nor Fray has yet to be adapted into the manga and anime, i’ll take this as a win for me. 

Edit (2/13/21): A thought just occurred to me while reading the japanese wiki!

Ginger, in the webnovel chapter, has made it perfectly clear that she wants to join the Ministry to become independent. The “Lady”, in Volume 5, has made it perfectly clear that she wants to join the Ministry to be like her idol, Lana Smith (Suzanna Randall).

With that in mind, doesn’t that increase the chances of the “Lady” being Fray Randall?? because the two best friends want to eventually join the Ministry and join their senpais and idols??? it wouldn’t make sense if it was Ginger and another character from the student council third batch that we don’t know of!

Anyways, that's it for this hamefura theory. I might edit this if there's new information to come around. With the announcement of the Second Season, there’s a very high possibility that this chapter will be adapted as filler. It is possible that we will meet this lady, or maybe even Fray, whichever comes first. 

The Lady most likely is just the plot device though, but we do what we can with what we have lol. 

Regardless if this theory is correct or not, I think I made a pretty strong case! Thank you for reading!