#but I also Hate ‘cares more about money than quality or other people’ characters

[natestars-corner-of-curiosities]

Why is my brain making me giggle and happy stim over two pastel horse scam artists

[xaharadesert]

ASMR Artists (Modern AU)- Headcanon

Arcana Characters (Main 6)

A/N: I am so tired

❤️Julian❤️

Plague Doctor Takes Care of You (You Have The Black Plague) ASMR Roleplay

He starts his channel as a joke, but has fun with it and decides to keep going

Besides, a little extra income is more than welcome for a med student

None of his videos are serious; they’re all ultra specific and completely ridiculous

Minimal tingles, but people most watch him because he’s funny anyway

🧡Portia🧡

Hair care & gossip ASMR

No one knows whether the gossip is real or not

(It is, but it’s so elaborate that people assume that it can’t be real)

Teaches people how to take care of their curls

Pepi can always be heard in the background

Does lots of hair brushing and various styles; her videos are super calming and great to fall asleep to

She makes lots of compilations by request because most of her videos are on the shorter side

💛Lucio💛

Mukbang ASMR with super expensive foods

Only does livestreams because he likes to suddenly make really loud noises to jumpscare his audience

He’s mostly famous for controversies and being a troll, so the quality of his content does not really matter

A lot of people start watching him because he’s an attractive white guy and they’re willing to defend him to their last breath

Also gets a lot of hate watchers, but he still makes money from the interactions, so he doesn’t care

💚Muriel💚

Story time ASMR, usually beside his fireplace

Asra talked him into it, but Muriel ends up liking the sort of limited social interaction where he doesn’t actually have to see anyone face to face

He never shows his face, but he gets more than enough fans from his voice alone

He usually reads children’s books by request, but sometimes he reads longer ones for parts of a series

Ends up way more popular than he intended: people sponsor him to read their books in his videos, and he’s a bit worried he’s gonna mess up somehow

Sometimes collabs with Nadia on books with lots of female characters (she’s great at voices)

💙Asra💙

Soooo many magic roleplay ASMR series

Fairies, merpeople, vampires, sorcerers, etc, he’s done them all

Big fan of wood soup

Doesn’t do a lot of actual magic or witchcraft in his videos because it feels disingenuous to make up readings for a large audience

Usually adds a disclaimer just in case

Always has themed makeup, nails, and hair, and always looks gorgeous

Barely uploads because he’s got a dozen other hobbies, but when he does it’s usually a couple hours long

💜Nadia💜

Personal attention ASMR

Skincare, makeup, and hair brushing are her favourites, but she also does affirmations whenever she’s having a hard day

The videos are for her as much as they’re for her followers, since she’s super busy single-handedly running her own business

Likes to use her platform to bring attention to current world issues, and usually has segments at the end of her videos to shout out specialists and dedicated activists for her followers to check out

Preaches about mental health, but reminds her followers not to close themselves off from the world around them

[rottenbrainstuff]

A whole lotta thoughts here! We've been spoiled with so many big updates! And I'm going to be blunt about some stuff that is going to make everyone mad, so. Cue the angry anon hate maybe I guess.

I started playing this game in the fall and you know... I've been having a lot of fun, actually. I like the stories, I like the events, I like the characters, I like the marketing. It feels exciting to be involved. I have my one friend who recommended the game to me and we talk about it together and it's been fun. Compared to other otome games I've played, this is amazing, like, my gosh. They took the standard, overdone, cookiecutter character tropes and really expanded on it in a way that surprises me, even for the characters that are not my personal favs.

So......... because I'm enjoying the game so much, and I'm able to recognize where it stands compared to other otome games and other gacha games, it's irritating to me to see the fans start this entitled and absolute nonsense complaining about Sylus needing more content. Friendos, he was added six months after everyone else. Since I have started playing, it has been a balanced and equal release of content between everyone. Infold never told you (I mean, if they did, I missed it) that they were going to retroactively release extra content for him so that he would catch up volume-wise with the other characters. That doesn't even make any SENSE to me. Yes, it means he has less cards in the pool and statistically you have a lower chance of pulling his stuff. Yes, I wish they would hurry up and add more anecdotes and deepspace trial levels and whatnot. But I actually saw with my own two eyes people want to file a CONSUMER FRAUD COMPLAINT? Fraud??? What exactly was the promise Infold made that they are failing to keep? Having a rarer character that is harder to level up does not constitute fraud. You know what? Even if he was a special character that was never included in the group banners ever and only got special content released like once every two months and you always had to pay cash money for it, that would not be fraud. It would suck but it would still not be fraud. Sorry to be blunt, but you are entitled and insane. This is absolutely deplorable fan behaviour. I really do hope this is just a small pocket of vocal fans, because if Infold starts getting harassed en masse they will just pull the fucking game. Why would they not?

I totally understand not liking the way gacha games work, I totally understand not having the money to spend on gacha games, I totally understand wishing you could enjoy an experience that other fans get but you don't, I totally understand being frustrated because your favourite character is the one with the least content, I totally understand disliking it enough to refuse giving the game any money or to stop playing it entirely, but this entitled "I need to speak to the manager" Karen bullshit is absolutely embarassing. This is no different to me than toxic gamerbros complaining about things in their FPSs. Knock it off.

This makes me so annoyed that I'm also going to bluntly tell you something I've only said vaguely before: the english audio is AI. It's AI. This is apparently a very controversial thing to say, because when I went googling to try and find definitive answers, I saw everyone who brings this up get shouted down. I don't care if you don't like it, it's the truth.

You guys seem to think that AI all sounds like Siri or something, and you would be able to easily recognize that it's AI. You hear video clips that other fans have made using free-to-use AI apps that sound very obvious, and it doesn't occur to you that the big devs have access to much better professional-quality resources. You haven't heard, I guess, that even big North American devs are starting to replace humans with AI, and the AI is getting very sophisticated, truly next-level. (I recently watched a video talking about Activision and Call of Duty, for example.)

The AI in this game is very good. I did not actually notice it myself until I had played for a couple hours. And I think the only reason I started to suspect it at all in the first place is that the company that I work for has all these training modules that I take, that include sample characters speaking with AI voices, and after a couple years of this, I am really used to how it sounds. (and even then, it took me two hours of playtime to catch on!) It's hard to tell with just a casual listen, it honestly is, but there are some tells.

First of all, after you listen for a while, you notice an odd consistency. Surprised lines are always said with the same rise in pitch. Whispered lines are always said with the same drop in pitch. It's the same every time. There's an odd clarity to the words as well. English naturally has a lot of slurring inbetween words, but AI always sounds like it's being pronounced by a VA enunciating carefully like they're reading the evening news. That is a red flag.

But, you say, maybe the VAs were just given this direction, or maybe they're just such good VAs that their delivery is so consistent and the words are so clear.

Well, second of all: AI will make mistakes sometimes and emphasize the wrong word in a sentence. I have noticed this happening in the game, it sticks out like a waving red flag. It's been so long since I played the english audio that I can't think of an example actually straight from the game, but this is made up just so I can explain what I mean: let's take the sentence, "I hate wasting my time on busy work." Busy work is a phrase that specifically means tasks that keep you busy but are pointless, tasks that were assigned to you just to give you something to do. It is pronounced with an emphasis on BUSY and the "work" is dropped in pitch. (or, sometimes "busy" and "work" have equal emphasis) A human being saying that sentence would most probably put the emphasis on these syllables: "I HATE wasting my TIME on BUSY work." An AI might not understand that "busy work" is not just the words "busy" and "work", but a specific figure of speech, and might pronounce it like this: I HATE wasting my TIME on busy WORK." (and I think I did hear the phrase busy work in the game actually, which was why I chose it for this example) Any time you hear a weird sylable emphasis that doesn't make logical sense, that is a red flag.

But, you say, maybe these are just an honest mistake by the VAs that wasn't caught by chinese devs, or maybe once again maybe it was weird direction.

OK look. Then let's talk about the most important thing of all: an uncredited actor means it's AI. Period. Period. You guys are driving me insane talking about maybe the VAs want to remain anonymous, maybe they're embarassed doing a romance game, maybe Infold doesn't want to release their info because of political issues they had in the past with english VAs:

No! That's not how acting works. That's not how actor unions work. That's not how credits work. That's not how any of this works.

Actors do not get embarassed doing roles like this. I know you guys titter with every single update, but you do realize there's steamier stuff aired on regular tv, right? This game is not embarassing. Actors want to be credited for their roles so that they can have a resume of projects. Union rules REQUIRE them to get a credit. Do you know how many rules there are about even a simple thing like movie credits, and where and when and how large a font an actor's name can appear in the credits? A company like Infold can not just choose to not credit their actors. An actor does not want to not receive a credit for work they did. One uncredited main actor would be weird enough, but when they will not release the info for a single main character: that is a huge, enormous, and unignorable red flag. This rule is very important: No human credit, no human actor. Period. And you need to learn this rule, because like I said, even large NA companies like Activision are adding AI to their games now and are not apologetic about it.

I'm sorry if that upsets you to hear, but it is driving me absolutely batty to see you guys talk about these mysterious english VAs and you hope they're getting paid well and you don't understand why Infold won't release their info and you say things like "haha it's probably because they're all 50 year old men" as if that somehow makes it this embarassing secret that cannot ever be revealed (the japanese VA for Sylus is 51 and no one gives a shit) sigh. Look. Enjoy the english audio if that's what you like. I get some people prefer english, I get some people prefer no subtitles, I get that it makes it so you can listen to the audios with your eyes closed, like, I don't actually care if you want to stick to the english. But be honest about it, and don't repeat this nonsense about mysterious anonymous VAs that are all too embarassed to be credited. (my god, the japanese Zayne VA has hentai credits, you guys.)

I dunno. Maybe it's because back in the day I used to be a part of actor circles, I guess I find it a bit insulting to see everyone making up these weird excuses that don't make any sense with how the industry actually works. I've seen people asking about AI get shouted down that they're being offensive to the mysterious anon VAs: Well, you guys are being offensive to actual, real, professional actors by suggesting that a professional would be too embarassed for a credit, or suggesting that Infold has somehow gone around union rules and you're ok with that. I'm sorry, but this has to stop.

Well. There we go. If there's anyone left still reading who hasn't gone away clutching their pearls to send me a nasty message, I will say some nice things now: all these end of year updates have been really fun, and now we have Caleb's big trailer. There's been some fans who seem to be surprised he is positioned as an antagonist, or even just surprised in general that it was Caleb and not someone else... ??? Whatevs. Some people are comparing Caleb to Zayne, but to me the only thing they have in common is the fact they were both childhood friends of the MC. To me he's more comparable to Sylus. Sylus was introduced like he was going to be the bad guy love interest who acts way too familiar with the MC and is always pushing her boundaries, a standard otome game trope that I don't like very much, but surprisingly that's not what he ended up being at all - it seems like Caleb might get that role in the end. I'm kind of interested to see what they do with him (cyborg parts is a fun start) but the truth is I kind of only have enough money to invest in things for one character and I don't know if he can win me away, lol. I do love me a good evil dude in a sexy uniform though. We'll see.

Hey wait.... important PSA... I know you are all excited (???) about a period tracker........... look... if you think that's cute and want to see the content that comes with that... can you at the very very least not enter in your actual period dates? I dunno, it's hardwired into my brain to NOT use ANY app-based period tracking. You do not want anyone having that data. No playing around, guys. If you want the content, enter in fake dates. DO NOT enter in your actual accurate info. Stay safe.

Perhaps an unpopular opinion: 3.0 update is cute but I prefered the 2D mini games to the 3D stuff and I find the chibi characters a bit weird and unappealing. However, what I DO like is that two nights ago the game said hey we notice you have some duplicate files, can we run a clean up? And it did, and somehow freed up 6 goddamned gigs on my phone. Very happy about that.

I recently got a brand new phone, and now my old phone is a dedicated Love and Deepspace device, so I'm not so stressed anymore about it getting literally too large for me to play anymore. Super enjoying my fake digital boyfriend. This is just a silly otome game, but I continue to be legit impressed by the quality of it, the amount of content they put into it, and the way the characters are much more interesting and in-depth than other otome games I've played. I'm sorry to be cranky about some things today, but some of you really are behaving quite badly and this online echochamber amplifies the nonsense, and I don't like to see that.

Who cares what I think anyways, I am ridiculously outside of the target age range here.

[littledeadpotato]

Blue period 11

I didn't think I'd be reviewing manga, and I probably won't, but this one I have to do.

(If the art doesn't have credits underneath, its by the author; Tsubasa Yamaguchi)

In case you don't know, Blue period (1) is a manga by Tsubasa Yamaguchi about Yatora Yaguchi, a highschool student, who gets inspired and finds passion for art. He wants to get into one of the best art schools in Japan, since it's one of the few school (if not the only one) that's not private.

In volume 11 tho, We're at a part where Yaguchi is in uni but needs money, so he gets a job at a community art class with kids.

(I rate comics/graphic novels/manga a bit differently. Enjoyability > actual quality. Shitty way to rate ik but who cares🤷‍♀️)

Rating: 5/5⭐

(For the God of me i cannot find who made this art, but there's a chance it's Official since I can't find any post that's not reposted and its also used for fake merch. If you know who the artist is, please let me know so I can Credit them)

Spoilers ahead!!!

What makes this volume so special? Well it's not in a school setting. The whole art uni thing is very stressful to both the reader and the characters. Since it's spring(?) break, Yaguchi doesn't have to do any art. But this is still a manga about art. But this one focuses more on one's relationship with their art and others' art. And any artist has experience with that. Alot of people hate their art, and honestly I do too.

Since I like parting things, the book has 2 parts, each is focused on one kid in the art class.

Shoya

Shoya is bored in the class. He has trouble finishing his assignments, he's mean towards his classmates (and Yaguchi) and violent. Yaguchi tries his best to make Shoya interested but it just doesn't work. One day Shoya's mother comes to pick Shoya up from the class, when she sees Shoya's painting, she says:

,,What's so great about this painting? It doesn't look like he did that good of a job to me..."

Which is, you know, Something to say to a 5 year old. Shoya is understandibly not happy about that. But one day, Yaguchi finds him playing some games while walking home. And Yaguchi finds out Shoya is really good at drawing mechs. He talks to the teacher, and Shoya can draw whatever he wants to in class! Yayyy. He also makes this football game for their exhibition. Shoya's thing is that he doesn't enjoy art because he knows what he likes. No one enjoys drawing everything.

Sae

Sae has alot of passion for art. But she has alot of other classes. Even though Sae has barely any time to play with her friends, she still paints at home. And I mean this girl loooves painting. Well until her dad points at another painting (which as far as i know, wasn't even made by a child) and says:

,,Oh, that kid's painting is really good! How about trying to do something like that?"

We're back to this point, where the kids' confidence and how they think about themselves and their art is very much connected to how other people see it.

She starts comparing herself to the other kids. Hashida (who also works there now lol) also notices her painting has changed. When he says he likes her painting, she says:

,,Thank you, Hashida-sensei! But it's not good at all. Im worse than Shikahara-san. Ahhh. Why am I so bad...? I want to get better. I've been practicing so much, too..."

AND I HAVE NEVER RELATED TO A 5 YEAR OLD MORE. Like this young girl is already at this part of making art. Me and my art teacher actually talked about this, and she said this change from having fun with art to being critical of it happens around/after the age of 10.

The kids will have an exhibition! And one day in class, they present their art to the class. When they're presenting, Shoya compliments her painting. And I'll just write down the whole presentation.

,,My painting... is bad because the subjects are small. The colours are dull, too. And the bear looks messed up. It's creepy, crappy and just awful. Why is it... that I can only make something like this? Shoya-kun went out of his way to say something nice about my work... but... he can do that because he's better than me. How nice! How nice that everyone's great at art. [...] I dont wanna do this anymore! [...] My colours are messier than Miku-chan's! I can't draw mechs like Shoya-kun! I can't make cute paintings like Yuichi-kun! I cant paint like Shikahara-san! How nice that everyone's great at art!"

And after that I took a 20sec break ;P!

As far as i know, there are 2 ways people can react to making art around others. You either envy their work and take it as a learning experience to appreciate their art. But I, someone who's about to do entrance exams into art school, cant afford to do that. Or you can just fall apart under the pressure of "everyone is better than me". And it's easy to do that when you have a goal and everyone could be your enemy. You cant appreciate their art and love art together. Because they're better than you and you have to get better. Art isn't about how much you study. Art is about how passionate you are. How much you want to make art. If you hate everything you make, is there a reason to keep doing art? For some yes. For some no.

Sae quit the art class.

Before she does, Hashida asks her to do a collab. They just paint random things. React to the other's painting. Hashida says this (I'm sorry for so many quotes but they really stuck with me srryyy):

,,I'm actually bad at making art. I love art. I love people who make art and i make art myself, but the more I get to know other people who make art... the more is makes me think I can't go as far as them. I respect people who can keep their brush moving with tears in their eyes. I think you're truly amazing for jumping into painting like you did. Even when you feel miserable or think you have no reason to praise your own work."

Which again. SAME. Back to parents, when Sae shows the painting to her dad, he tears it in the half to give half to Hashida. They stick it back together. But you know...

SOMEWHERE IN THE BOOK HASHIDA ASKS YAGUCHI TO GO TO SWITZERLAND, ITALY AND GERMANY WITH HIM AND I HOPE HE ACCEPTS CUZ I LOVE HASHIDA AND HES SO INTERESTING. PLEASEEEEEEE.

If I read this volume without the other 10, I'd probably think it was just kids and being whinny about art. But when you read through so much of the stuff these people go through just to make art. And how they struggle. When out of nowhere, its like 'I fucking hate this'. This book just keeps you think 'Why? Why? Why? Why do they do that? Why dont they just quit?'. And your relationship with your art and art overall is important. It's not like you can look past the fact that you fucking hate what you just did and hate that you're only capable of such a bad thing. Art you create is often hard to love, especially when its competitive.

But art is still art. And it's such a pity that people who would love art and creating it crumble under the pressure of others.

Be gentle and loving to yourself and your art.

Art by: https://x.com/pplaksana

[okaystoptellingmetomakeanaccount]

Pwease elaborate on the following points, I beg this of you:

UltraHeroes Paperinika is best Paperinika?!?

Martina's Duckburg is closer to Barks' than Rosa's is?

DT17 leaked documents about Cimino? :O (Is there a way to read them?)

Sincerely thanks from a lurking lurker who lurks.

Omg no thank you i love elaborating about ducks lol

• Paperinika in Martina’s first few stories was great satire, but the character has since been stuck like that. (We’ll ignore Martina’s subsequent attempt to move away from this by making her fight the evil queen from Snow White and beheading robot clones of herself) Most writers kept her ridiculously ‘feminist’ attitude and personality, or changed her hating men into hating PK specifically. And they generally kept a lot of her negative character traits. So the character became a bit hateful. (Now that i think of it i haven’t read enough Brazilian stories so this is like from what i’ve gathered from Italian and Danish stuff) I’m personally not that much a fan of a hero who’s most defining quality is that she’s a narcissistic prick.

Paperinik moved away from a lot of his own negative character traits (he was a bit of a villain at first after all). But Paperinika did not. Probably a lot of writers still deemed all of those things as ‘funny’ because haha woman mad. On the other hand, Paperinika also fell out of use in Italy, so maybe they didn’t think it was that funny. But they never thought to like, y know change her character.

UNTIL ULTRAHEROES HELL YEAH. So like yeah Ultraheroes wasn’t good or something (though i gotta say i’m personally quite fond of it) but they did reinvent Paperinika’s character. Decided that she’s actually likable now! Moved away from all the sexism and gave her a fun personality that fit modern day Daisy and created one of the most fun love triangles between Daisy, Donald, PK and PKA. Too bad that it didn’t really stick outside of Ultraheroes. So it remains one of, if not the best version of the character for me. The end of the chapter where they go against Spectrus and Zafira is just a fav of mine.

• Rosa’s Duckburg is really un-Barksian. It might all add up in continuity and references, but tonally it’s a whole different universe.

The entire thing is too serious. I might even say it all makes too much sense. Barks never cared much about making sense. Scrooge had a different bin every other story.

Guido Martina was always the king of not making sense. He probably contradicted his own stories more than anyone else. Both hik and Barks never cared about continuity. It’s about the story. Duckburg could change into whatever they wanted, as long as it served the story they wished to tell.

Martina’s Duckburg is pretty different from Barks’. It’s a more cynical, one could say almost parodic version of it, where everything and everyone is terrible. But with that it goes way further in those satirical elements of Barks. Something Rosa rarely did, who told more straightforward consumer friendly epic Hollywood stories.

Like uhh we could take a look at Scrooge. Rosa Scrooge is ultimately a good man. He doesn’t even actually care about money, but about the way he got it! It’s about earning the money and the adventures! And secretly he’s a good person who does give money away.

Martina Scrooge is a bad man. Oh oh oh so bad. Scrooge is used to critique and make fun of the rich that Martina saw around him. He has a comically long list of debts that other people owe him. He got rich by lots of illegal manners, and can get others to do whatever he wants, simply because he has money.

Barks Scrooge is in the middle, but I’d say it leans more to Martina. Scrooge is just a person. Does bad things and good things. He’s full of human contradictions and complexities. But more often than not, even when he’s more neutral, Scrooge is used to make fun off. The stories he tells about how he got rich are ridiculous. They are meant to be laughed at. It’s this difference in tone which is prevalent in most of their writing.

Rosa simply doesn’t use the characters that way. That’s it kinda. Hope this explains my imo a bit lol

• okay shhhh but dont tell anyone

(Sorey, removed the link. Just to stay safe. If anyone still wants it don’t be scared to dm :))

(Kind of scared of getting banned so excuse me if i remove the link in a few days. I recommend you download it to read later. I wrote the longest wall of text to hide it under but the drive i downloaded it from is gone because of disney so like yeah tad bit scared)

And just want to say wow. Thank you for the ask. Like the idea that there are people lurking around reading my posts, like i used to do (and still do) by so many others is insane honestly. Hope you’ve had fun reading my ramblings here, anon :)

[celaenaeiln]

(Cracks fingers)

Okay now it’s time for a relatively big question. Between these two, who would say defined Dick’s true persona the best?

Marv Wolfman (New Teen Titans) or Chuck Dixon (Robin Year One, Nightwing solo book)?

noooooooo how can you be so cruel as to ask me 😭😭😭😭 I love them both so muchhh

Okay you might hate me for this but I'm the type of person who accepts everything written about a character unless that comic has glaring inconsistencies that completely contradict what other writers have written.

So for me these two are some of the absolute best writers and you're making me choose! 😭

Robin Year One is one of my all time favorite comics but at the same time Marv Wolfman wrote Silver Age: Teen Titans and I loved that comic.

However I'm more interested in Chuck Dixon's work because he retained Dick's psychotic quality that he was known for from his robin days. He writes Dick as a happy, intelligent child with extraordinary abilities and accomplishing daring feats. He writes Dick with all the daring and brilliance that the world's greatest acrobat and genius prodigy of Batman should have.

Dixon's portrayal of Bruce and robin Dick is heartwarming is the most accurate representation of their relationship.

Furthermore he gives Alfred's perspective on how Dick made Bruce's life so much better. Some which I talked about in my previous post.

The little things he does like juggling with batarangs

Being popular in school

Being an ace basketball player

Being so overly competent that he can kock out people and guns three at a time with pool balls-

All of this is the essence of Dick Grayson. While Marv Wolfman does a good job, he doesn't quite emulate who Dick Grayson is a person, more specifically robin.

I like Chuck Dixon's Nightwing better.

Chuck Dixon's Nightwing run IS the BEST Nightwing run ever written. For one, he makes Dick come alive as a person.

"I've only been here two minutes. And already I want to shower with clorox and sandpaper."

He's the one responsible for bringing back Dick's jokes and laughter in Nightwing that Dick's robin is iconic for.

He's made Dick the caring, lovable person that Dick was as robin but with the maturity of an adult.

He saves a woman, protects her from being raped, gives her his money and ticket, and sends her on her way to a safer place with no questions asked, just kindness in his soul.

He writes Dick to be the brilliant detective and extraordinary fighter he is.

Best of all, his craziness!!

DICK!! CRAZY ALERT?!

Chuck Dixon's Dick Grayson is funny, brilliant, wild, and loving. That's why I like him so much and this is who I believe Dick Grayson is.

But Marv Wolfman did a fantastic job writing Dick's maturity and his relationships with other people. He focuses on Dick's detective side and how Dick interacts and engages with other titans.

While not as funny, his Dick is also extremely intelligent and loving. He created Dick to love with his full heart and upright morals.

He invests in people, he's loyal, loving, and faithful. It's just another part of him.

So I can't say one person wrote him better than the other. Wolfman and Dixon combined create the whole picture of Dick Grayson. But I can say I prefer Dixon as a personal choice because I just happen to like those particular traits of Dick's he emphasized more even though all of them are equally important and make Dick who he is.

[tasty-littl-snack]

Trying to understand the logic of people saying they’re done with Watcher and Ryan and Shane but will turn around and watch Buzzfeed Unsolved which has *checks notes* Ryan and Shane.

Yeah tbh. I think I can kinda understand it, it's like you're listening to earlier albums of your fave music artist, because they changed the genre with their latest album and you don't vibe with their new songs or watch a tv show's earlier seasons because the later one's totally destroyed the characters you liked. (Happened to me, like some things seriously had only two seasons and I'm ignoring the five next ones and two movies or whatever.)

So in that aspect I can kinda get it. Bfu started 8 years ago, that's a whole almost decade, and sometimes you don't really think of the quality of the content (because I will once again die on the hill that waverly gf ep is much better than waverly bfu I'm still confused how a show this badly made took off in the yt algo back in the day), but what it made you feel like, or where you were in life when you first watched/got into it. There's a kind of nostalgia attached to it and I imagine all of those fans who are like "I hate ghost files but I loooove bfu it's my comfort show", don't really care that it's Ryan and Shane it's the familiarity of watching it over and over for years and it being more memeable and quotable because those lines got repeated and memed to death over the years.

For example I don't really find myself coming back to the earliest eps of bfu if I had to rewatch them. I much prefer Ryan's normal voice to his theory one, and that's because seasons 6 and 7 are when Watcher was a thing, and their interpersonal relationship changed to a more "I like it here, we are friends". In the earlier seasons they aren't that close, Shane is more closed off and assholeish towards Ryan, and well Ryan is younger and thus more kind of playing a cool dude. I feel like he got to be more himself as the years went on and I like that.

That's also the odd thing about being a fan of real people as there is an interesting dichotomy to it. Like on one hand I respect them for what they do their comedy/craft/ability to express their creativity. On the other there's the respect for them as individuals, acknowledging that at the end of the day they are like. Just some guys making stuff. And people grow and change. You're not the same person you were at 25 when you are 34, you are not the same person you were at 30 and 38, but since you got immortalized at 25 and 30 and continue to make content for years people expect you to be always like that. A character that doesn't change, or changes according to a logic of a story. But real life is so much stranger and more interesting than that! There's no logic to your actions, you make mistakes and grow from them. At the time of making a decision you have no idea if it's a good or bad one or how it will go, and if you think you do I don't think you had serious choices to make in your life yet. But I think people expect of them to be those characters who don't change or grow. I assume those people have no respect for Ryan and Shane as real human beings, because they have some imagined version of them how they are presented in those episodes they watched over and over. So to them it doesn't matter that bfu has Ryan and Shane, because those are seen as different characters, not the "evil greedy capitalists who made their own company", but your friends that you know the best because you can quote their lines as you watch them in the background. And additionally there's the nostalgia of watching your beloved show that makes you feel younger because life was simpler back then. You didn't have your worries of adult life because you were in college/high school, and bfu reminds them of that. The fact that it's not giving watcher any money is only better for the haters bc it's like pirating. You still enjoy your favorite part of your blorbos, and don't feed "the big evil watcher" so kinda best of both worlds.

Some people also can't admit that the content didn't change that much, they just lost interest/grew out of it (and it's fine, interests change that's normal), but that's not on them, that's surely on Ryan and Shane for changing and evolving in their craft.

Baffling to me tbh because if I was a fan of them I'd wish them well not for their downfall and contribute to lower views by giving it to a big corporation (which isn't watcher). But that's just me.

Sorry this got deep I just am so tired of people saying bfu is better. It's really not you just miss the person you were when you watched it for the first time. That's the case with every 'comfort' show. It's why it brings you comfort. Real people behind it don't really matter.

[thenixkat]

[id: A three-panel sequence from the Pokemon manga featuring a conversation between Wicke, Faba, Moon, Professor Kukui, and Professor Burnet. Faba and Wicke are in the first two upper panels. Moon and the professors are in the last panel.

Wicke: It was most likely hurt by Team Skull, because, well...

Wicke: This year there have been 45 cases of them abusing pokemon...

Faba: Assistant branch chief Wicke, you mustn't jump to conclusions. There have been more cases than usual, though.

Moon: Is that true?

Faba: Yes. Twenty-nine cases of assault... eleven destructions of habitat... and 5 cases of being sold as food. But there may be more considering how some cases are ignored or left unreported. /end id]

Ok so say we take the listed crimes of manga Team Skull with a grain of salt since, the pokemon manga really likes to make things more violent to a degree that feels cartoonish to me. And we cross out the shit that we know they do b/c the Aether Foundation/Lusamine pays them to do in searching for 'what does anime Team Skull do to pay the bills'.

So we have to cross out habitat destruction and pokemon abuse b/c we know that the Aether Foundation pays Team Skull to fuck shit up and harm pokemon in a way that means that the Aether Foundation can confiscate and rehabilitate those pokemon.

Only crossing out the assault b/c the assault isn't tied to robbery. It's fairly reasonable to assume that Team Skull does some assaults. That they're ready and willing to start shit with people that piss them off for one reason or another. And I think it is especially reasonable to belive that Guzma beats the fuck out of people that piss him off outside of pokemon battles. He's a violent dude with a violent temper and we know he's willing to lay his actual hands on someone and especially hates when people give his crew a hard time.

(I don't think it'd be shit to the extent of what he does in the manga, like the manga version of Guzma doesn't seem to care about his grunts and is willing to be violent towards them when the other versions of the character don't come across that way. And also I'm not willing to belive a ref in any other iteration of the franchise outside of the manga would let him whole ass break his opponent's arm/having his pokemon attack the other trainer and let that slide over ending the fight and declaring him the loser)

Now the selling pokemon as food, and I have to assume its poaching and selling protected pokemon as food or illegally harvesting things from places that's its illegal to or selling a person's stolen pokemon as food, rather than just selling pokemon as food in general. B/c people do eat pokemon, there would be people raising, harvesting, or selling pokemon as food.

And poaching would be something they could profit off of and we do see the grunts illegally harvest pokemon in the anime. Not to any success but we do see it.

Another money-making thing we see Team Skull do in the manga that isn't related to the Aether Foundation is run food carts/sell food. (Which is neat b/c manga!Guzma seems to be able to cook and care about making good/quality food)

So of the things just on hand for potential possible ways anime Team Skull are financially supporting themselves we have: battling (off-screen from Plumeria and Guzma), running food carts/selling food, poaching, and illegally selling pokemon as food.

[headfullof-ideas]

Okay, the last of the character sheets I drew over the last few days, presenting Trader Johann and Gruffnut!

Gruffnut Alvarsson is the older cousin of Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, about six or so years older than them. He’s related to the twins on their dad’s side of the family, their uncle being his father. Despite the Alvarsson and Thorston clans being considerably sized on Berk, especially once they joined through the twins parents, Gruffnut spends most of his time away from Berk. He left on the first ship he could snag for himself after he graduated Dragon Training, off to seek out ‘new opportunities’ as he liked to call it. Every once in a while he returns to Berk, bringing stories to his younger cousins of all the amazing things he’s seen and all the incredible adventures he’s been on, before leaving again. Tuffnut adores his older cousin, thinking he’s one of the coolest people ever. Ruffnut isn’t nearly as thrilled about Gruffnut, but that’s because she’s overheard the conversations the adults have in the background about their older cousin.

Gruffnut barely passed Dragon Training, failing his first year, and far outshone by Ingrid during his second, but brawn’s had never been something he was particularly good at. Especially when his opponent was a large, angry dragon. Gruffnut relied more on brains, though he was no Einstein in that department either. Gruffnut inherited his own father’s and the twins father’s gambling habits, and also inherited the poor awareness that doesn’t come with knowing a gamble or bet is too big a risk to take. Gruffnut has spent the last handful of years sailing off outside the Archipelago, looking for big money and a high-quality lifestyle, only to gamble away all his savings or lose them paying off a debt he didn’t anticipate going poorly. He then slinks back off to his family, begging for a bed and more money, before sailing away and repeating the process all over again. Gruffnut has learned how to handle himself in a fight with smaller opponents, but learning to handle himself in a fight doesn’t help when the money is all he can see and he gambles away more than he can afford with the wrong people. Gruffnut’s family don’t know how quickly he loses money, returning to Berk something he does sparingly. When he can’t afford to make the trip back to the Archipelago, or doesn’t feel like dealing with his family, Gruffnut turns to bounties or shady work with various dragon trappers or other unsavory company to pay off his debts. This sometimes puts him in more trouble, but Gruffnut only cares about his own personal comfort, and is willing to do almost anything to get it.

Trader Johann is a Trader from the Northern Markets. Most of his business is done there, though he can be found almost anywhere, a sort of nomad even amongst the traveling traders. He is also one of the few traders who dared risk sailing into the Archipelago, amongst its rumors of dragon raids and barbaric tribes. Trader Johann has a reputation amongst every tribe he visits as being reliable and friendly, if only a little air-headed and whimsical. It’s a reputation Johann has spent years crafting amongst the Archipelago and every other tribe anywhere else that he visits, though it’s not all for the generous reasons that Johann lets people think. Johann is from further east, where he works for a big name Dragon Trapper looking to expand territory. Johann oversees his bosses outer operations, disguised as a merchant which allows him to go just about anywhere unquestioned. There is genuine joy in his cover, though Johann hates the facade he puts up and the supplies he carries with him. Johann’s passion project over the last year or so indulges the cargo he would rather carry. Dragons.

Johann has been assigned with helping set up an underground dragon trading route, meant to be separate from the larger and more public auctions that take place on many isolated islands. The end goal is for the routes and their multiple, eventual erected, floating markets to serve as private auctions, leaving the islands as a sort of public and more common auctioning ground for the customers with less grandeur. The hidden markets that will be placed along the underground routes paths will be reserved for only the elite and personally invited, but first they need to be set up. Johann has been helping arrange things, bringing reserved supplies and knowledge on the best sailing routes to hide away their operation, and acting as a messenger for all the various Dragon Trapper organizations that would like to attend or provide cargo for selling. Even the Grimborn brothers have sent cargo to help set up the beginning of the stock to be sold, which is a big deal. Of course, Johann has been tasked with helping as nothing more than a means to an end. The underground dragon trading route will serve a bigger purpose than it was initially meant for, though no one but Johann and his employer needs to know what that is. Unfortunately, and irritatingly, Johann has run into a few unforeseen snags along the way. Shipments have been caught in storms and lost before they made it to their end destination, and some of the dragons that the Grimborns have sent are from the older brothers fighting rings, and are consequentially more aggressive than most dragons. And a handful of pests from the Isle of Berk have taken to riding dragons, and managed to reveal to the tribes of the Archipelago that Johann is a Dragon Trapper.

They’re annoying problems, but none that Johann hasn’t been able to swiftly handle. He’s lost rights to trade with Berk and the Berserkers, who want nothing to do with him, and the Outcasts refuse him as well, though he never traded with them before. It’s frustrating, but the other tribes still accept him, under his swiftly though guise of simply providing supplies to any who were willing to buy, regardless of his personal opinions of them. And the infamous Dragon Riders disappeared from the Archipelago within the year of their appearance, so Johann is certain that he doesn’t have to deal with them any longer and can get back to carrying out his employers plan.

Okay I know what you’re thinking. Actually I don’t, but I’m gonna say it anyway cause I’m weird like that. Why is Gruffnut getting on a character sheet when he shows up like, three times in the show? Surely that means he shows up even more times in my crossover, right?…yeah about that, I literally only have him in one episode right now. Maybe he’ll show up a few other times but right now he’s operating as a one and done character. HOWEVER. I have tweaked his character a lot and he adds some insight into the twins family and its structure. For starters, Gruffnut is not a Thorston. He’s an Alvarsson, which is the twins dad’s former surname. I’m making it so that Thorston is actually their mother’s maiden name, which she kept when she married the twins dad. Gruffnut is their paternal cousin, and not only is he a lot older, he’s also not a copy paste of Tuffnut. I’m pretty sure they did that as a sort of comical bit and also to save money on making another model, but because of how the events of this story work, Gruffnut being identical to Tuffnut doesn’t work, and I also wanted to make him seperate. I decided to play into him being a much older cousin as well because that plays into Tuffnut’s idolization of him; Gruffnut is old enough to go out and explore elsewhere beyond Berk, which means Tuffnut doesn’t see him as often, and being much older plays into the effect of Tuffnut looking up to Gruffnut, since they’re not the same age. Ruffnut still sees through a lot of his crap though, but doesn’t know how to break it to Tuffnut who refuses to listen. Gruffnut being a paternal relative also adds on to what I have planned for their dad, in that the twins don’t have the best relationship with him. They talk about their mom a lot but their dad has never come up so I’m assuming that they don’t have the best relationship with him, and Gruffnut is going to help illustrate those issues.

As for Johann, I’m playing into the twist reveal of him being a dragon trapper, but he gets revealed much earlier. Of course it doesn’t have too much of an effect, for better or for worse later on in the story, but the riders are aware of him from pretty early on. I don’t remember if it’s ever mentioned if Johann was working for someone else or not, but in this story he has an employer, and they’re both playing the waiting game for their plans. I’m doing my best to hint to or set up stuff that happens later in the fic early on, so it doesn’t feel like it came out of left field, and I’m trying to connect a bunch of stuff together, which Johann is going to be really helpful in doing on both accounts. He’s not super a problem in the beginning, because he’s busy with his own stuff, but I’m aiming to have him involved at certain points so he doesn’t just fade into obscurity, and also to hint toward the stuff that he’s working on that I cannot reveal yet as it is meant to be a surprise.

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

i hope that youre not getting too much hate for expressing your opinions and im looking forward to getting to know more about your future projects! ive been a fan of wayhaven books for a couple of years out and whilst its one of my faves, but that doesnt mean that i dont have any criticisms about it. i honestly think you made a lot of valid points. whilst i understand that wayhaven can be a comfort series for some people, i dont think that media should be exempt from criticism for doing the bare minimum. i thought she had gotten sensitivity readers, yet as someone whos demi myself, the portrayal of A's demisexuality throughout the series has been horrendous and it feels like it was just tacked on for no reason. the whole plot point with sin, a deity that used to be worshipped by assyrians being enslaved by the trappers was honestly not necessary in my opinion, i felt like maybe sensitivity readers would have pointed that out or something? but at least they freed my boy in the end so idk.

Honestly I don't care if people like it or not, because as I've said before, I used to be a big enough stan of the first two games that I recommended it to two whole people who also bought both games. I've actively made the author more money. Which is why I think I'm perfectly within my right to dunk on this thing now, because I used to be a fan, I used to love it, and I still very much enjoy a lot of the fan content created for it. Hell, there were some moments and ideas in book 3 that I actually liked, despite everything. I still think a lot about the potential of these stories and characters. It's not all rotten to the core, there is plenty of good stuff to be enjoyed that can very much be salvaged.

So I honestly don't think that people who enjoy it are like, beneath me or stupid or anything. I don't think they're the problem, I think they're there for the exact same thing I was: a silly vampire romance simulator. And if some of them are happy with what they're getting, then more power to them! But I think they deserve better than they're getting. And judging by the amount of people who have come to me privately and said "Thank you for speaking about this, I would too but I'm too scared to hurt people's feelings/speak out against a popular IF", it's pretty obvious that the quality just isn't there anymore, and that's okay to point out, too.

And I'm not out here trying to cancel it or anything. It's pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, being "big" in the IF world means you're an older kid in a half-empty sandbox. I don't think people who buy or create content for it are doing something bad, in fact it's probably better to support smaller indie creators than ... other stuff. So like ... I don't have issues with people enjoying it.

I just wanted it to be better. I wanted to like it, because I liked it before. And I feel that it could have easily been better if more care was put into it, and maybe there was, but I just don't see it on the page anymore. It used to feel like an actual book, actual interactive fiction that you played and that was worth reading and interacting with. Like there was a world to inhabit and characters to connect with. Now, it's a collection of tired drabbles and fanfic fodder loosely connected by time skips, where you have to headcanon it into mattering and being interesting. I dunno, man. What's there just isn't worth the hype anymore.

[shxtodxroki]

hi! could a get a mha matchup? i would prefer a UA student!! im 176cm, i have mid length wavy brown hair and eyes. i love piano, music, volleyball, and reading. my big three are leo Sun sag moon and cap rising, my mbti is infj, my hogwarts house is raven claw, and my enneagram is type 5. physical touch and quality time are my love languages , and very important to me!! im pretty shy and quiet, until im comfortable, and then i can get a bitttt more hyper. i am a smiley person, and i laugh pretty easily. i love learning about other people, how they work, what they like, things like that. im not great with making friends, becuase I have very low self esstem and immediately assume everyone i meet hates me for some reason, and does not want to be my friend. :/ i also cry very easily, and when i first realized i had made a couple of friends becuase they had directly called us friends, i cried for almost two hours. im also a sucker for sad books, and i cry loads over them too. My ideal partner would be someone who would love me unconditionally, and who i could have calm discussions with instead of fights. people yelling at me triggers my anxiety + anxiety attacks. my partner would also have to have more of a backbone then me, and be able to stand up for themselves. this sounds a little selfish, but i would want someone to love me enough to spoil me a bit too, with gifts and things! thanks for reading, don’t feel pressured at all to answer this!!! have an amazing day, and don’t forget to take care of yourself <3

Aww this ask was so sweet, I hope you enjoy your match-up! Yours was really easy for me to write, as soon as I read it I knew exactly which character to pair you up with so I hope you enjoy! :)

I’d Match You With: 

Momo Yaoyorozu!

Reasoning:

To me, Momo seems to fit a lot of the things you say you’d want/need in a life partner, and I think the two of you would complement each other nicely. You’d be able to grow together, and it’s very easy for her to be the kind of partner you need and vice versa. 

Headcanons About Your Relationship:

Momo is absolutely the perfect gf for you if you like to be spoiled, she has the money to spend on you and is more than happy to do so if it makes you happy. Sometimes that means joint shopping trips where you get to try on clothes together and help each other pick out outfits that she's more than happy to pay for, and sometimes that just means picking up small gifts for you while she’s out at the mall to give to you when she gets back to your dorm at the end of the day :>

Momo’s the one in your relationship who hardly ever cries, so she’s always there to pull you into her arms and comfort you whenever you find yourself getting especially emotional :’) And she never makes fun of you for how easy it is to make you cry, she understands that you’re just more sensitive and emotional and she just does everything she can to not make you sad, and to help comfort you when you do end up crying

Momo’s also really good about never really arguing with you as she doesn’t really see a point in “arguing”, even when you get frustrated with one another the discussion typically stays calm and she never raises her voice or does anything to make you anxious or uncomfortable. Of course, disagreements are going to happen, as she’s not the kind of person to hide how she’s feeling just to keep the peace or anything of that sort. But she expresses her thoughts to you clearly and diplomatically without getting mean or hurtful, and you two are almost always able to resolve your disagreements quickly and quite peacefully. 

Momo can be quite timid in her daily life, but she’s gotten a lot better with her self-confidence and image since starting at UA, and she can easily stand up for herself or you if the time comes. She knows that’s something you struggle with, and she’s happy to be the brave one in your relationship as her confidence continues to grow if it helps you feel safe and comfortable with her. 

Knowing that you enjoy reading makes Momo so so happy and it’s one of her faborite hobbies/ways to spend time with you. She’s happy to let you pick out a book and then she’ll read to you, the hand she's not using to hold the book running her fingers gently through your hair as her voice soothes you into a calm, relaxed state. 

She also loves that you play the piano! Momo’s a big classical music lover, and she adores listening to you practice as she does her homework or even just watching you practice in general, amazed by your talent and the beautiful melodies you’re able to make. She’d love to learn to play herself some day, and if you’re willing to teach her then she’s more than happy to learn from you :>

Song For Your Relationship:

Momo’s honestly not the biggest fan of sports in general, but for you, she’s happy to get somewhat involved if it makes you happy. If you play on some kind of volleyball team then she totally goes to all of your games and cheers you on from the sidelines (and takes you out to dinner as her treat afterwards, whether your team wins or loses). Or if you only play casually or just need someone to practice with, then she’ll try her best to practice with you, even if she’s not the best and doesn’t totally understand how the game works lol

Heaven’s Cloud by Seventeen!

[signalwatch]

90's Watch: Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead (1991)

Watched:  02/09/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Stephen Herek

Sometimes a movie goes off the rails so fast and so hard, feels cynically produced on top of that, that it's hard not to just get mad, fold your arms and complain til the credits roll.  For the past 32 years, I'd successfully not seen Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), which came out when I was 16 and was working through my Gen-X feelings of rejecting things I felt were marketed at me - but specifically at a very dumb version of me the people selling me stuff mostly took to be an idiot.

In 1991, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead was *heavily* sold at teen audiences with ads on MTV and elsewhere running seemingly non-stop.  Certainly I saw  trailers before other movies.  And you always knew:  if the movie looks like this, and they're advertising it this hard, it's because it sucks and they need to get people in before word spreads.  

There was a long tail of 1980's-style comedy into the 1990's, enough so that it probably deserves its own niche, but this movie feels like a 1987 release more than something that would hit at the same time as Home Alone. 

The pitch is this:  

Kids are left at home for two months under the care of a mean old lady.  She dies in the first ten minutes, and the kids dispose of her and accidentally the money they were to survive on.  For reasons, they do not want Mom to know (and Dad has some mysterious shadiness about him that is never teased out).  

Instead of BOTH teens getting jobs so they can survive, only one does (Applegate).  She works for a day at Clowndog (which looks like a very bad job, but a very fun place to eat), and then lies her way into a job at a fashion/ uniform company as an executive assistant.  And never worries about getting caught.  Even as she steals from the petty cash.

Kids learn life lessons.  Romance is found.  The ending makes zero sense.

You can blame the director for this, but Stephen Herek directed a number of watchable films, from Critters to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure to some big-budget, successful, live-action Disney films. In short - I think he knows what he's doing, or especially did in the 1990's.  But if he also shot what was on the page for this movie, then... you know, these writers more or less don't have a track record after this movie that I'd write home about.

Curiously, this entire family lacks scruples while also having a complete lack of charm or any redeeming qualities.  Movie:  this stuff is important if you want people to care about the ending.  Counting on the audience being dumb kids only sells so many tickets.  At least try to make us care whether the children live or die.  I mean, we've already shown a curious callousness to life and death once in the movie.  What's one or two kids less?  But the kids all get one character goal and spend the duration whining about whatever their thing is.  There's no love or even hate between them.  They merely co-exist in space.

Despite a really solid title that promises a dark comedy full of hijinks, we get a pretty basic "fakin' it til you're makin' it" comedy made popular in the 80's with Working Girl and The Secret of My Success welded onto a teen summer romp about being a dipshit.  And, despite the fact it looks like a comedy, there's almost nothing present to illicit actual laughter.  I laughed audibly exactly once, at a supporting character's choice to clutch a jar of M&M's as a coping mechanism.  

The set ups of the film intended to provide our hero with challenges all seem to point to:  this girl is going to jail.  And she is going to jail because she's an idiot and everyone else in her family is an asshole, from youngest kid to absentee, lying mom who has skipped the continent to go bang a shepherd. 

What's odd about the "makin' it" business aspect is that she... doesn't?  She hands all of her work to Kimmy Robertson, and her solution for saving the company is to turn their industrial uniforms into highly 1980's-specific and impractical designs that seem like they'd just bring more shame on the workers than a smock or a golf shirt.*  

Either one of these movies might have been fun on their own, but together...  

It feels like no one sat down with the script and said "does this make sense?"  Like - ok, I'll buy the shitty mom also didn't tell the kids who she was hiring to babysit them for two months.  I'm not sure how this old bag was qualified or why she thought making the kids miserable was not going to get back to the mom.  Ignore all that.  Babysitter is dead within 10 minutes.

But I also don't get what the kids thought was going to happen when they had to explain to their mom they threw away a corpse.  Like - that woman presumably had friends and maybe people who loved her...  The movie could have set it up so that wasn't true, but it didn't.  They just throw her away.  (Apparently Bad Mom also left 2 months worth of cash?  Jesus, lady.).

But it also does weird little things like - they give the kids two cars, but then one is stolen partway through the movie (by drag queens.  And that plot point never, ever returns...  when it so easily could have).  Like... why?  Why one car?  It makes whole chunks of the movie not make sense.  Like - did they call an ambulance to the farm?  Did they get a ride?  

Look, I could spend an hour naming Things In Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead That Could Have Easily Not Happened And/ Or Been Fixed.  I will spare you.  When other people think that's criticism, I find it both dubious and annoying.  I mean, I am 100% right about all my thoughts on this, but I doubt I will sway anyone who loves the movie for any reason.  Shine on, you crazy diamonds.

But, jesus.  This is the laziest @#$%ing movie.

It also costars Joanna Cassidy, who I know mostly from Blade Runner, and who is clearly in a wig here but allowed to be over 40 and hot, which is shocking for the period.  And it has John Getz, who was the main guy in Blood Simple, here being horny at Christina Applegate.  Josh Charles plays Applegate's paramour and he's... fine.  David Duchovny is there to show you what happens when no one knows what to do with you as an actor.  I think the secretary/ Josh Charles' sister played Admiral Cornwell on Star Trek: Discovery.  

The movie is wisely anchored by Applegate, who was most famous at this point as Kelly from Married... With Children and seemed ready for bigger things.  If the movie is watchable, it's that Applegate is watchable and likable, and not playing a broad, dumb character.  Her scenes with Joanna Cassidy and John Getz suggest a better movie that doesn't exist when they aren't on the screen.  But it's hard to sell to boys wanting to see Applegate a movie when she's on TV every week, and I don't think the movie did a great job of marketing the Makin' It portions of the film.  Applegate's career is worthy of discussion because she's proven multiple times she's hilarious, but she has to be the straight man here to literally everyone.

Who knows what happened from script to production to the editor's block?.  Anything could have.  And probably did.

I will possibly try this movie again in another 32 years to reconsider.  

  *I say this as someone who worked back-to-back at Chuck E. Cheese and The Disney Store

https://ift.tt/aBxntMz

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/yuMK0Xo

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Ok first things first your Kaiser comment is really hilarious what the hell was ness thinking with that cut?????

LMAOO you’ve got this!! But honestly reading work that’s written with motivation and care is soooo much better than reading something forced so don’t sweat it too much! I sure everyone understands that writing actually takes quite a bit of effort and time and thinking and that reading your quality work will be so worth it (insert the head nod emoji here because I can’t find it fast enough) nagi vibes are so real though but trust your five shot revolver volley (or something like that name) moment coming soon

Yeahhhh idk the only conflict that really comes to mind is “aw shit I’m gonna be fired”/“im not paid enough for this shit” LMAOOO I guess that’s also the reason why a lot of fics I’ve seen are also set outside of the main events of bllk! Like usually when they’re already pro etc or for some characters who have enough backstory details about their stories before bllk then it’s set pre-bllk!

Hair down zantetsu>>>> I was actually shocked when I saw that scene of him in the movie like zantetsu pls let down your hair and take off your goggles we know you don’t need them….

The way you just so accurately described the entire Ubers dynamic LMAOO I also could not care less about sendou soooooo but it’s giving me the same vibes as the colored scene of them all helping Barou dye his hair I love the Ubers dynamic…I bet it working out gives aiku such an ego boost and he’s probably all like “see I’m right you all just don’t get bitches” completely forgetting that Niko is 15 and these are also soccer losers

Nooo because the few times I have to trek into Reddit territory to find a chapter link or something I see the dudebros collectively hating on him or using the fact that his parents trained him since he was young to try and minimize/discredit his “feats” (as they say in dudebro land)

White butterfly is just tear inducing LMAO that scene has me in my feels like bro…..the first thing he does after he goes pro and makes money is builds his childhood friend/love’s dream house SHSGSHS goodbye.

PLS you’re always on the grind omg that’s actually crazy LOL but no I think the whole fandom needs to be wiped and then shown seabird so they can ingrain this version of saw into their brains…maybe that’s the strat…right as s2 comes out we blast fwtkac bfb and lowk just your masterlist so people go “OHHHH that’s how they are” and the fanon version establishes itself as a much more accurate (imo) version that it otherwise would’ve…

AIKU WINGMEN SERIES GUYS WE WON based on what we’ve talked about this already sounds like sm fun to read I will most definitely be at the launch party…also SAE that’s crazy I lowk forgot they were on the same team for u20 for a sec but now that I realize it that makes sense LMAO

LMAOOO you’d have your own fwtkac moment where you get shown on the jumbotron and then have edits made of you and I’ll be scrolling through tiktok like guys that’s Mira…I know her lore..!!!

NOO YOU DESERVE IT honestly your writing output is some of the best I’ve seen in a while so idk what you’re talking about LOL Curious to see what even you decide on though!! I’ve seen some cute ones with like themed codes and whatnot from other writers before too so I bet your take will be fire!

- Karasu anon

no because ACTUALLY like bro was clearly not destined to be a barber 😭 honestly kaiser’s hair pre-cut when it was all shaggy and gold was rlly gorgeous i would like him more if he kept it like that or if he just tied it back or smth ☝🏻 but instead we got…wtvr the fuck he has going on 😰

HEHE no because i even have in my rules that i’ll probably take a while to respond and might ignore requests so people know what they’re getting into to but that doesn’t stop me from feeling bad yk?? sadly i am a chronic people pleaser 😓 but anyways YESS super goal coming up soon 🤭 jkjk i think the next ones are going to be short and simple because of the nature of the request so don’t expect any long ones for a bit!! but then again yk me so we’ll see (although tbf most of my requests have stayed generally within projected wc ranges the only ones to escape containment were seabird and the third part of fwtkac)

literally like it would def be a lot more comedic than anything but i save my comedy for the one shots longfics are angst ONLY /j also wait idk if you saw the most recent jjk leaks but i think i canonically killed off more characters in pomegranate ink than gege did in jjk which is CRAZYYY like i thought i was being fairly lenient 😭

hair down zantetsu is literally every shoujo male lead i need a fic where reo gives him a makeover or smth so he can truly shine LMAOAO i just know reo would have sm fun w that too

aiku’s like “all in a day’s work 🙂‍↕️😌” once barou gets a gf and then he thinks being a wingman is so fun that he tries to set up his other teammates w girls but lorenzo scares all of them away, aryu is uhh aryu and sendou is doing fine on his own so his only option is niko but niko is so introverted that he HATES “big bro aiku” helping out LMAOAOA like aiku becomes one of these rlly pushy uncles who goes up to every girl and is like “look at my nephew isn’t he so handsome” meanwhile niko is DYING of embarrassment…eventually mommy barou has to step in and tell aiku to leave niko alone 😭

on the one hand i get it because hiori is sometimes very overhyped in the sense that compared to charles and sae (and honestly even reo) he’s not the BEST midfielder oat in bllk but charles is considered a prodigy by even loki, sae is a ng11, and reo is canonically perfect so that’s not even saying much + he’s only really been active/awakened since the ubers game so with time he’ll probably improve!! he’s another one of those characters where there’s very few people who see the medium and don’t glaze him but don’t hate him either ykwim

THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYINGGG IT’S DISGUSTING like wdym you finally became rich and famous and instead of reaping the benefits you move back to a random town in the middle of nowhere and build a house for a girl who doesn’t even live there anymore just because you loved her so much?? in a way i think that even if reader had moved on or never came back just having that house was how hiori affirmed to the world that he loved her if that makes sense…like it was as much a confession to her as it was him making it clear to everyone that he wouldn’t ever be taken from her again if she still wanted him 😭 bitches when reader wanted to be a bird so she could fly everywhere but instead of being a bird with her and staying by her side like he wanted to hiori realized she needed a field (a home) to come back to so he just settled down and waited for her until she did because he loved her enough not to find her when he didn’t know if she wanted to be found 😭😓😫 i’m bitches fr

LMAAOAOO the grind is too real but omg i will be so happy if bfb freaky friday fwtkac loserboys karasu and otoya become fanon even though they’re already being written mostly as fboys in other works 😩 like okay ykw i even get otoya but wdym karasu is a player 😕 my man would NEVER have a one night stand he’s way too sensitive and gentle for that

AIKU WINGMAN SERIES INDEED OMG i’m so hype the for the barou and otoya versions especially because i already have ideas for them…i think the sae one is just going to be aiku being like “bro you’re in love with her” and sae’s like “no 😒” and it just goes on and on until sae is like “oh shit i AM in love with her” LMAOAO still pondering what i’ll do for karasu yukimiya and nagi but trust it will happen and it’ll be funny

LMAOOO MIRA EDITS i’ll be in my fwtkac era but without the crow 🙁 no soccer player irl could compare to karasu 💔 it’ll just be five ways to kill a soccer player which is nowhere near as fun and exciting…oh well we sacrifice what we must

AHAHA THANK YOU SMMM i meant more that i only post fics 5% of the time the rest is me dropping random thoughts answering asks chatting w people and reblogging fanart so people who follow me off of my fics are probably like WTF KSJSKKS okay wait hear me out a bird theme could lowkey go crazy…considering i am a #birdstan…anyways we’ll see there’s still a bit until I reach that point!! although ngl it might be faster if i actually post requests 😭

[dogwittaablog]

I actually really like kale’s wife’s aesthetic its less basic than other wags but still very Hailey Bieber basic in general. Like she’s not wearing anything that makes me think she’s a fashion girlie it’s more you look put together but this is very clearly just basic clean girl. One thing that makes me hehe a little is howden’s wife’s store that she constantly says she’s gonna be consistently posting about but does like one post a year. And I get that motherhood makes stuff difficult but like my mom worked in corporate and raised kids so it’s like you just don’t wanna work hard?? It’s so wild to me how even now so many women are happy just being a support system for their bf or husband. And ik girls don’t hate and being a homemaker is a huge job too but like it’s just so different from me it’s hard to wrap my head around it. Super long rant but I still hold out some hope he wont get with someone that basic just cause of his sisters. The older sister also had a hockey bf that she didn’t move countries for and continued doing her own thing while they were long distance which probably contributed to their break up, and the younger one is clearly very into her own hobbies and interests - they just don’t seem like girls who would follow a guy around or make their whole IG about their bf.

Respectfully so I feel like a bunch of these wags do "side hustles" or whatever just to try to make themselves look like they actually don't just have their husbands money and that they "work". When it's evident their business launched in whatever is just to make themselves look busy and independent when they vast majority of the time they really aren't... lmao.

I'm all in for people who want to start up something but sometimes ill be seeing these wags on some bullshit and it pisses me off for instance I saw this one rangers wife who makes fan merch but tell me why is that goof charging $150+ for jackets and $50+ for hats and they're the most tackiest poorly made things I've ever seen in my life... mind you if the quality, work is there and she's trying to run up people like that I can 100% support it, but she's fucking tripping. Also there is a bunch of them similar to Howden's wife who does some start up and is passionate about it for a solid 6 months and then forgets/gives up on it. Which just shows to me at least that they just launch this kind of shit just so when someone asks what they can provide some bullshit answer "I run a business" more then "I am just a stay at home mom" LOL.

There is always hope in some way he can bag someone moderately interesting even when we think it might not happen, who knows haha character development is probably still kicking in for him. But then again if he ends up with someone super basic and typical it wouldn't be much of a shocker. Sometimes guys do get influenced by their sisters characteristics when it comes to who they date, we shall see. I'm on the fence if he is the type to care if his sisters like his gf or not, initially I assumed he would but I kind of think it's a 50/50 more I think about it.

*As noted there are a bunch of wags across the boards to look into and I am sure there are some that work hard and are passionate about things and pour there heart and soul into there own careers and projects and don't eat. sleep. breath. there man*

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Upcoming Asks List

The next asks on the queue list are (in no particular order):

Anonymous asked: Hc for Halsin, Astarion, Will, Gortash, (& maybe Damon and Raphael) caring for a loved one with chronic illness or like an illness that keeps them bedbound for an extended time?

Anonymous asked: Yooo askbox open :] Could I get a Castlevania matchup, one female and one male character? I am fine with poly, and also the more background characters :] I’m a bisexual guy. Once I’m past my initial `terrified of everything’ and ‘extremely withdrawn’ phase of anxiety, I’m very energetic (though not very loud) and flirty. l love all fields of science, especially mathematics and physics. Very nerdy/ geeky, and I also paint and practice l have a very impulsive and ADHD -type of humor, though it always takes me a moment to recognize any word-play. I’m very much a thrill-seeker, and things that tend to make other’s squeamish don’t bother me in the slightest. I suppose for the sake of the series, gore and acts of sadism don’t really phase me, at least, to the extent that I am a spectator. /// 

Anonymous asked: hi!! i was wondering if you could do a matchup for bg3 :-D my name is edward and im about 5’0 with a black curly hair that is short and i dont mind the persons gender! im also a trans man. my mbti is entp and im a scorpio. i like to anything to do with art, i love to do it all together. Im also a really big fan of music specifically mcr, tv girl, alex g, toby fox and dodie but i am open to listening to other artists if given a recommendation. Uhhhh i love to eat meat and im not really a big fan of eating veggies i hate eating them but idm potatoes or tomatoes, but i think tomatoes r fruits so nvm. I also looveee learning about history especially ancient times like greek history, i think its really interesting to learn about the past and how things were. i will waste my money on things i love, especially if it’s a show or novel or movie i will soend so much money on it. I’m also rather fond of animals and nature. And my love language has got to be physical affection and quality time. I also love trying new things even if I might have a fear of it, it’ll just take a me a bit to do it. I like to break the rules especially if it’s going against a group of people and or someone. I can be pretty reserved on the occasion but if im with someone im close too or if i feel comfortable enough i can be pretty hyper. A lot of the time though I listen to what people say and often a listener for people. Depending on the person im with and our dynamic i can be quite sarcastic. I can be very compassionate about people and even if someone did something horrible to me I can be rather forgiving unless it was toward someone i love. I am also rather forgetful and often will forget things with people I’ve spent time with even if it’s recent I can forget a majority of it. I have a short temper. Often I will be regretful of things I’ve done in the past even if it was a while ago. I have a rather low self esteem, if I feel like someone is going to abandon me no matter how close I’ll probably be silent about it and wait for a sign that the person still likes me and on rare occasions I will ask for reassurance. AND UH i think that pretty much it thank you for reading this if you are!!

Anonymous asked: Could we maybe get like snippets or blurb about Hector having a wife w/ him when he goes to join dracula’s generals? And maybe she’s really kind to dracula and then it turns out she’s pregnant and reminds him of his late wife? Does it change his plans or maybe he decides to protect her/hector more so than the other humans?

[bigtiddydevilbf]

Oh man, well, since it's overwhelmingly Yes and Vanilla, I'm gonna go on a tangent about my current favorite OC, Ichabod. I will be touching a bit up on their partner in life and crime, Silas, but Silas is a shared custody character. He's a tag team project.

There are many universes I like to go between when creating for these 2, parts of their main universe I am unable to share at this time due to an ongoing project that is slowly, but surely being worked on between @bidumpsterfire and myself.

I will also say that they are not a Good Character™️. They are mean, violent, and sometimes cruel. Their love can be intense, and so can their hurt and anger. They are a character I know people will feel conflicted about. They are a main antagonist. (But not THE main antagonist)

With that in mind, Ichabod Wilder;

Name: Ichabod/ Icha (eye-cuh) Wilder

Age: early 30s, aprox 32

Birthday: October 31st

Gender: Queer Transmasc

Pronouns: They/He

Sexuality: Gay

Hair color: natural red, dyed blond

Eye color: green

Personality: erratic and jealous lol

Partner/Boyfriend/Husband: Silas

Paternal relationship: nonexistent, father was gone before they were born

Maternal relationship: poor, was placed in foster care first 3 years of their life, then neglected as a child after being reunited with her.

Likes: the colors green and pink, Silas, their jacket, boots, knives, dogs, specifically borzois and dobermans, liquor and wine, sushi, reading, running, boxing, warm weather, freedom, arguing, inflicting pain, bubble baths, motorcycles

Dislikes: being told what to do, being alone, being ignored, Liam, Christophe, Margaret, River, Cache, Koi, Kai, (they hate a lot of ppl okay?) weak alcohol, the cold, (specifically) Silas not paying attention to them, their mother, spanakopita

Ichas relationships are strained at best, except when it comes to Silas. The two of them are cut from a similar cloth, and due to that, understand one another's erratic behaviors better than most. They are balanced in a way that compliments the others' best and worst qualities.

Both are prone to conflict, and when they actually focus on a goal, they are damn near invincible. Ichabod is quick and light on his feet, ran in track in his youth and kept all of his skills from it. They thrive with close combat, using knives as their weapon of choice.

Silas, on the other hand, is larger and a bit slower (not by much) and is an expert in sharpshooting. When in hand to hand combat, he doesn't hold back, throwing devistating punches and using every year of training he received to his disposal.

Ichabod is extremely stubborn and prefers to be the one in control of their own situation. Unfortunately, they have rarely had the chance to do so. Between growing up with their mother and the betrayals they faced after leaving home at 16, they had many opportunities stripped from them.

They spent 13 rather miserable years with their mother, who was more focused on her own vices and addictions than caring for her child. They would be kicked out or would run away from home, but never had anywhere else to go, and would return home after a few days. By then, she would forget, and things would continue.

One day they were coerced into running away for good by Liam, a smooth talker only a couple years older than himself. He convinced them to take what money they could from their mother's stash, and they would run away together, with promises of something better than what they were living with... only to be abandoned with nothing but the clothes on their back the first chance Liam had.

From there, things continued to take a downword turn. Being picked up off the streets, they ended up an unwilling participant of "The Facilities" (official name pending lol) where a doctor named Christophe and his wife Margaret, ran human experimentation on unfortunate individuals who were usually down on their luck. Picking "undesireables" off the streets, giving false promises to others who may volunteer themselves, and would at times pay off police to gather inmates on death row as "no one would notice", putting them in inhumane conditions all for their own fucked up personal gain and sadistic enjoyment.

Surviving the onslaught of experiments and fights over the next 16 years of life only strengthened their resolve and fueled his ego. He used his hurt and anger from his past to fuel his increasingly violent and malicious behavior, which he then directed towards the other captive experiments.

There's so much more I would love to say about Icha. They are complex, and I just really really love them. They're cruel and extremely broken, and they have a TON of baggage.

They just want a life that's actually worth living, something that's more than what they've had to endure. They want to eat sushi and rob a bank. They want to watch the world burn from a clawfoot bathtub. They want to go on murder spree and then have fuck nasty sex. They want to grow old with the person who loves them. They want to hold Silas' hand and tell him they're prettier than he is, though he already knows it's true.

I just love them, okay?? 😭 if you made it this far, thank you for listening to me ramble about this bastard. I really appreciate it,,, it was hard fighting with my adhd brain to get all this out.