#but I prefer the 75 production what can I say

[crevicedwelling]

hello! i am a relatively new user here on tumblr, less than a year, and i have heard a comment or two about a 'wasp discourse' that happened here, that wasps are much more nice than bees or something among those lines

this caught my curiosity as im writting a wasp based character whos just an ahole as i did it on what i knew abt them from general internet and im stuck on wether i should maaayybe change them up a bit

if its not too much to ask do you happen to know a bit abt this discourse? or have a link to it? or if not to the discourse itself some other link that elaborates abt the same topic? perhaps even someone else i can ask this?

thank you very much!

to start off, there are a lot of bees and wasps in this world and it is not easy to generalize about them. there are ~20,000 bee species, and the vast majority of these are solitary bees that nest in the ground, plant stems, or in holes in wood, and because they produce no honey or have a colony to guard, have no need to be defensive or aggressive towards humans (because “towards humans” seems to be what most people base this idea off of). colonial bees, like honeybees, are actually much more defensive than solitary ones; they have huge food stores and many defenseless larvae, hence their nasty stings (or bites, for the stingless bees) and swarm defense of their hives.

bees, however, are just a family of wasps. their closest relatives are believed to be the crabronid wasps (example: cicada killers) and sphecid thread-waisted wasps (ex. mud daubers). these wasps, and most others, are also largely solitary, and hunting prey aside, don’t typically use their stings for anything other than personal defense. of the hundreds of thousands of wasps, most of them (75%) are not just solitary but also parasitoids that develop inside other insects. it’s hard to say “all wasps are assholes [to people]” when some 100,000 of them are tiny specks smaller than sesame seeds that nobody other than scientists notice.

two parasitoids: a braconid ~3mm long & something else ~0.3mm long

the wasps most people take issue with are vespids, since they like the same foods we do (sweets, meat) and have powerful stings to defend their nests. these include the social hornets, yellowjackets, and paper wasps, but many mason wasps and the like are solitary (and, you guessed it, want nothing to do with people). vespids are great predators of caterpillars, flies, and other pests that humans don’t like in addition to being pollinators.

a yellowjacket: Vespula squamosa

the usual anti-wasp, pro-bee sentiments go: wasps attack for no reason, don’t pollinate, don’t make honey, and are “assholes.” wasps do pollinate (most wasps, bees and ants don’t eat solid food, and therefore largely drink flower nectar; some plants are only pollinated by wasps).

some tropical wasps do actually make honey, though it’s not harvested by humans. it’s sort of silly to say that making honey is what makes bees “good” though—a very selfish mindset, and for example butterflies are well-liked by people despite not making any edible products for us.

wasps also attack only when provoked, either because you’re near a wasp nest or when you lean on one accidentally. they are defending their baby sisters and themselves, same as bees would. at least in the US, I think the reason that wasps are so hated is that we have many species of paper wasp and yellowjacket that are willing to nest on or under houses, while the (invasive) honeybees prefer trees or are kept by beekeepers in artificial hives, so it’s just more likely you’ll run into problems with wasps than bees.

tl;dr:

wasps and bees are neither “nice” nor “mean.”

bees are mostly loners that don’t bother people. colonial bees will sting to defend their nests or themselves from predators. most bees are pollinators, who gather pollen to feed their larvae. a few species make honey that humans harvest.

wasps are mostly loners that don’t bother people. colonial wasps will sting to defend their nests or themselves from predators. most wasps are pollinators, and most hunt or parasitize other insects to feed their larvae.

[harmonictechnicality]

Grocery shopping with Steve Harrington should not be such an arousing task, but it is.

It so is.

Eddie swears on all of his calloused fingers that watching Steve strut down the cereal aisle with his little shopping cart is better than hand stuff.

Seriously. He always walks a few feet behind Steve, just to get the perfect view of that award winning ass (Eddie made him a trophy for it last Valentine’s Day - it’s on their mantle).

They’ve been together for what? Eight years? And it never gets any less sexy. Watching him reach for the granola bars on the top shelf, stretching his annoyingly tucked in shirt.

Eddie pretends to peer through imaginary opera binoculars as Steve reads over the nutrition label. Steve flips it over a couple of times because he always forgets which brand he likes better - the blue box or the red box. Eddie never reminds him that his favorite is the blue box because the whole charade is too adorable.

But once Steve figures it out, he tosses the blue box into the cart, and Eddie always lets out this rumbly throat sound at the sight.

Steve turns his neck to look at Eddie. “This again?”

“This always.” Eddie catches up to Steve’s side at the canned food section, slides his hand in Steve’s back pocket. “Never not this.”

Steve rolls his eyes and bends down to grab a few cans of chicken noodle soup. Which holy fuck, seeing his boyfriend at a 75° angle holding his favorite soup preference? Eddie might as well be packaged and placed on the shelf. Cause his mind is turning to liquid. He’s becoming a bowl of horny broth at the sight of Steve all domestic and bent over.

Eddie quickly flicks off his jacket because the entire store just warmed up exponentially. Global warming doesn’t have shit on Steve Harrington holding discounted canned goods.

Steve lightly smacks Eddie's arm. “Pull yourself together.”

“I’ll pull your self onto my self.”

“Really?” Steve snorts. “That was the best you could come up with?”

“Yeah well, the lower quadrant of my brain shut off the second I visualized your ass dimple in the middle of the bread aisle.” Eddie explains, untucking one edge of Steve’s shirt.

“Sorry for the inconvenience to your grocery-kink brain.”

“You should be.” Grocery kink. Steve with a shopping cart kink. Eddie has both, no doubt.

And it’s totally true. The bread aisle is usually where all hope is lost for him. Fluffy breads, kneading dough, squishy carbs all around them. Steve’s sides are just begging to be squeezed in that aisle (amongst other places). The deli employee outwardly gawks as Eddie pokes at Steve's waist, pinching any area of skin that he can get his hands on.

"Just making sure the products are nice and fresh!" Eddie shouts to the employee, hugging Steve firmly from behind. The poor meat-slicing guy laughs nervously before scurrying into the stock room. Honestly, Eddie should probably feel more sympathetic but it's so hard to focus on anything else when Steve kisses his cheek. Accepts his weird affections fully.

"These people don't get paid enough to put up with your shit." Steve is laughing as he says it though. Clearly not that bothered by all of the attention he's getting. That's part of the reason they work so well together. They're absolute attention whores, equally.

"Okay, cut it out." Steve wiggles out from Eddie's grasp. "You're gonna smush the sourdough."

Eddie freezes. Mulls over the consequences over the next thing he's about to say. "Is that an invitation?"

"Ew."

"You said it."

"You twisted it."

"How could I not?"

"You need help." Steve turns down the next aisle, still speaking as he stays on task. "Preferably the kind that involves a person with a legal pad and a couch that you can lie down on."

Eddie snickers, thoroughly loves it when Steve bites back. Makes the chase feel like it just started, even after all these years.

He keeps it together for roughly twelve more minutes, which is probably a record. Eddie also deserves a trophy on their mantle for that - he's gonna hint to Steve about investing in one whenever they get back home.

But the aisle where Eddie’s composure levels malfunction entirely, is the frozen food section. See, whenever Steve opens the door to get milk or eggs or whatever essential dairy item they need, a rush of frigid air blows out. Makes Steve’s already bitable skin all bumpy. His neck is covered in little chill bumps, all of his baby hairs stick up with his raised skin.

This is the only instance where Eddie mildly wishes he were a cannibal, just to give Steve a little chomp. A little nibble at his change in skin texture. Eddie's not even sure why the chill bumps send him over the edge but they do - every damn time.

“Baby, we’ve talked about this.” Steve says once Eddie gets him pinned up behind the corner freezer in the very back.

"There were no snoopy old ladies around this time." Eddie licks all the way up to Steve's ear, tugging gently around the edges. "I checked."

Steve huffs once before taking Eddie's face with both hands, kissing him deep. The rest of his body is cold from the surrounding freezers, but Steve's lips are warm. Hotter every time Eddie's mouth connects to his again. Steve still tastes like the nectarine samples they had back at the produce aisle. The taste drives Eddie to suck on Steve's bottom lip, drinking up any leftover flavor he can. Make Steve's natural pout even more plush than it normally is.

He untucks the rest of Steve's annoying polo - lets his hands slide all the way around, landing at the small of Steve's back. Eddie presses his fingers into Steve's skin, making him shiver. Causing more chill bumps to rise. Ones that he created this time.

They've kissed like this over a thousand times by now, but it always feels different. It’s a new kiss on a new day.

And Eddie couldn't give a single fuck if the deli employee or the snoopy old lady saw them making out next to the lactose-free cheese selection. He'd show off his stupidly gorgeous boyfriend everywhere, make a complete spectacle out of it every damn time.

Steve would let him do it too. Eddie bets that Steve would let him get away with a full anarchist uprising if he wanted. Which he does. Kinda. After they're done kissing, obviously.

They stop only because Steve lets his lips part and his fingers drag down Eddie's chest. And whenever Steve does that move, he's approximately thirty seconds away from moaning explicit words. Loudly too. Eddie knows all of Steve's physical indicators by heart now. It’s practically Eddie’s native language, he would speak only that one if he could.

Eddie takes the cue to stash all of his hormones away - goes back to dotting small pecks all over Steve's face. He needs to get Steve laughing instead of panting. It's safer that way. Eddie isn't trying to get arrested in a supermarket for christ's sake (although that would make one hell of a story for family reunions).

They're sort of blotchy, all pinks and reds, as they get to the checkout line. The cashier must think their complexion is permanently like this. Every time she’s seen them, they’re blushed-up like Vegas showgirls. Eddie is immune to the embarrassment of the situation. He's pretty sure Steve is too - he can tell by the way Steve is still leaning all over him while he fumbles to get his wallet open. All love-drunk and kittenish.

They head back to their car, and Eddie gets one last look at Steve's signature shopping cart strut. He sighs dramatically - crushed inside that he'll have to wait till their next grocery run to see it again.

"That's it." Steve says after Eddie sighs for the fifth time. "You're returning the cart."

"Why?"

"It's punishment for your ridiculous behavior."

"Rude."

"Necessary."

"Fine." Eddie snatches the handle and stomps all the way to the cart corral at the front of the store.

This is an outrage. Steve should know that his sexy cart-walking encore is the best part of Shopping Day. Seeing him walk further away before returning - always doing a little hair ruffle thing as he comes back. It's Eddie's own version of Baywatch and Steve is ruining it.

He slides into the passenger seat, slamming the car door to emphasize his anger.

"Steve Harrington, I'm so fucking mad at y-"

Eddie can't even finish his sentence before Steve's mouth is on his. It's a messier kiss this time, Steve is doing all the moving while Eddie tries to figure out what's going on. He pulls back, raising both eyebrows.

"I get it now." Steve answers Eddie's nonverbal 'what the fuck' question.

"Get what?"

"The shopping cart thing." Steve looks Eddie up and down. "I get it."

Holy shit. "Were you checking me out?"

Steve nods. Shrugs. Nods again.

"How much time do you think we have before the ice cream melts?" Steve motions to the backseat, tucking in his lips, hiding a smirk.

Oh. That. They're doing that.

"I'd say we have..." Eddie checks the nonexistent watch on his wrist. "More than enough time."

They haven't had desperate car sex like this since their first year of dating. It's so good that Eddie wonders why they stopped having desperate car sex.

For the rest of the car ride home, they're obnoxiously touchy-feely. Eddie's hand stays glued to Steve's overpriced jeans. The denim is much softer than any pair of jeans that Eddie owns. Maybe that's why they cost a fortune.

Steve takes one hand off the steering wheel whenever there's a straight shot - rubs his fingers over Eddie's knuckles. Bounces off his rings like stepping stones.

They're nauseating. If Eddie saw any other couple act like this, he'd throw tomatoes ate them. Taunt them mercilessly.

But Steve Harrington is the prototype that future scientists will use one day to build their genetically flawless human race. So Eddie is allowed to be as nauseating and revolting as he wants.

Their plan failed. The ice cream is completely melted by the time they get home. But who fucking cares? Eddie is dating someone with his same weird shopping cart kink and that's all he could ever ask for.

And besides, that just means that they’ll have to go grocery shopping again.

[ndconceptarchive]

Her Interactive - Megan Gaiser and Robert Riedl interview for Adventure Gamers

It is somewhat rare to find a full-blown interview from Her Interactive done with a focus on a particular game, but on May 11, 2005, Adventure Gamers published an interview with Robert Ridel and Megan Gaiser done in promotion for Secret of the Old Clock.

You can read it at the link above, or here below. Some interesting notes from this interview:

During Stay Tuned for Danger, the development team visited a local TV station to get references.

Secret of the Old Clock featured Kevin Manthei bringing in live performers instead of the music being mixed in studio.

An explanation as to why the games were made with 2D backgrounds and 3D characters

Some of the background on Her Interactive as a company

Written by Laura MacDonald — May 11, 2005

We have another mystery. The place: Titusville. Nancy Drew, famous girl sleuth, is on her way to see Emily Crandall, an old friend. Emily has inherited the charming Lilac Inn, but all is not picture perfect. Instead, things are terribly wrong, and after receiving a desperate call for help, Nancy is soon speeding along in her blue roadster, blonde hair shining, on her way to her very first mystery.

Wait a minute…blonde hair?…roadster? Yes, you heard right. Unlike the previous games in this successful adventure series, this isn't the Nancy of today -- this is the original girl detective in the 1930s. Nancy made her book debut in a story called The Secret of the Old Clock, and this year, she is celebrating 75 years of sleuthing through danger and mystery. We think that deserves a little extra attention, and who better to talk about all things Nancy Drew than Her Interactive's CEO, Megan Gaiser, and Executive Producer, Robert Riedl.

LM: Hi, Megan. It is a pleasure to talk with you today.

MG: Nice to be here, Laura. Robert [Riedl] is also here with me for the interview. He heads up product development and designed many of our products as well.

LM: Hi, Robert! Megan, I wanted to start by asking you to touch briefly on your background. You started out in documentary film making; how did that lead you into the game industry?

MG: Yes, I was an editor and producer of educational documentaries for 11 years in Washington D.C., which is an interesting background to take into gaming. One of the reasons I wanted to get into multi-media was to get out of the editing room. I was intrigued by the non-linear nature of multi-media. There are also a lot of similarities between creating games and film, which we apply to creating the Nancy Drew games. The content needs to be compelling, with rich character development. The music and the environment all have to contribute. It is this synergy of components that have made the games work and make it easy to become immersed in the world.

As an editor and producer, I became really intrigued with the fact that there are so many different kinds of women. The same should hold true in the games offered to the female market. [At Her Interactive]... we are always saying there needs to be as many types of entertainment for girls and women as there are preferences. They tend to stereotype and pigeonhole women, which is why there's always been such a struggle to prove this market. Which is kind of ridiculous, because we're, you know, half the population. They target females for books and music, so why would they stop at computers?

LM: I know Her Interactive started independently, then you signed with DreamCatcher. Later you pulled back out and signed what looks like a one-game deal with Atari. Then you went the self-publishing route. I noticed a few retailers have Atari listed as your publisher. Are you still self-publishing?

MG: Just to back up on the story, we published our first Nancy Drew game in 1998. We had taken it to all the publishers and they said, "No, we aren't going to take it because all females are computer-phobic and they will never play video games."

They all thought there was no market for females in the interactive arts and entertainment media market. We were at a critical point as a company and we believed in our game. So, we decided if we can't get in the front door, we'll go around the back. We went to Amazon, learned how to self-publish, and the games took off. A high point was when the NY Times called that first game the "Un-Barbie of computer games." After that, our games were awarded consecutive gold Parents' Choice awards. Suddenly, those same publishers came back to us wanting to sign a retail deal. In 2000, we signed a publishing arrangement with DreamCatcher. Two years later, we made the giant step of becoming the retail publisher of our own games. That was the key right there, and was a huge step for the company. We selected Atari as our distributor.

LM: So you used them as a distributor only.

MG: That is what they are this year as well. We haven't changed that. We are still the publisher and this is a continuation of that same arrangement.

LM: Nancy Drew has appeared in books, but under a different character name, in countries other than the U.S. She has a similar fan base there as well. Have you considered selling the games in those countries?

MG: We actually have. She is the most popular in Sweden, where her name is Kitty Drew. In France, she appears as Alice Roy. We are speaking with people about localizing the series to France right now. We are doing one territory at a time, because the cost of localization is so high. Before you put resources and money behind localization, you want to make sure the move makes sense. France will probably be the first, and then Sweden.

LM: I know it is the 75th anniversary for the series, which began when The Secret of the Old Clock was first published in 1930. I assume that is why you are doing a classic Nancy Drew mystery and using the very first one ever written as the inspiration for this game. For that game, how did you handle the time period? Where did you go for your research, and what did you look to for inspiration in recreating the 1930s world of Nancy Drew?

RR: Like we would do with any character, we do a lot of research into the geography, into historical aspects. We would go to the library and get visual references there, as well as information on the era. We try to go to locations, as well, that we can use as inspiration for puzzles or content. For example, with Stay Tuned For Danger, we went to a local television station and got reference material from there. We always try to give a really good sense of the era or the locale. Not only with visual aspects, but the language, scenes, puzzle content, etc.

LM: Are you using the same source for your music?

RR: We are using Kevin Manthei, who has been our composer ever since the first installment. For this title, he brought in live performers.

LM: The music for this game will be recorded live instead of being mixed in the studio? That's great. Any chance of a music CD available from the game?

MG: We are looking into that!

LM: On the other upcoming game, there has been some mild confusion about what it is called. What exactly is the title of the upcoming Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew game?

MG: Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon.

LM: Will the Hardy Boys be physically present in the game?

MG: Yes, they will.

LM: Will we play multiple characters or as Nancy Drew, in first-person only?

RR: Stay tuned! [laughter]

LM: Okay, I can see that information isn't for public consumption yet. When can we expect to see these two new titles released?

MG: The Secret of the Old Clock is scheduled to ship in late July this year, and Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon is scheduled in late September.

LM: You have always tweaked your games a little bit; experimented here and there. You also started having some "actiony" feeling moments or more dynamic timed challenges in them. Are we going to see challenges like this, and possibly a bit more of them in the Hardy Boys game?

RR: We always try to challenge our players a little bit with each new game. So we will venture out and mix it up a little bit, so it doesn't feel stale or formulaic. We are trying to do something a little bit different and see how it goes, and also improve upon the product as well. Because you may have a good idea, but you just have to get it right.

LM: Blackmoor Manor had a more non-linear flow to the gameplay than previous games. Are we going to see this model of gameplay repeated in either or both of the new titles?

RR: It is purely a style preference. We have different designers coming into play and marketing has different requirements. In Curse, for example, we wanted it to be really challenging. What is the mood; what are the five main elements we want to convey with this game, and then that dictate our choices in all aspects of the gameplay. Complexity of puzzles, narrative, the locations... how we treat the location. Is the emotive component light or more intense? Is it a gothic horror or is more of a caper? And it is nice to do this, so we have a mix. We want people to be surprised by the title. So they think "wow, this has a feel of novelty."

LM: How do you decide what the next title is going to do?

RR: It is really the lead designer's responsibility and choice on how they do that. Everyone does give input. The designer will say, "I am going to choose the next game. Give me input as to what you would like to see in environments, type of artwork, and the particular era." We get these parameters and people will give out titles. There are certain perennial titles that come up every time we look at the books. The lead designer will read through a lot of stories. Everyone in the office will have their favorite(s). The designer will also have his or her favorite. Then we have a meeting with our advisory panel. We will say, "Okay, pitch an idea, come to the meeting with a book that you think would be really neat." From all that, we whittle it down to one selection. We take the top five choices and submit them to Megan, marketing, and the lead designer. Also, what we have done in the past affects the choice as well.

LM: That makes sense, to guarantee a mix of the plots from game to game. I know you have a teen advisory board that you use in-house. Who is on it? How was it formed?

RR: They are local, but we do have some who are out of state. We sort of advertise it on our site. It is comprised of about 40 people. They correspond roughly with what our current market is. So 30% are adult women. We also have some men and boys on it, as well. I see them as almost another department of our company. It has become a source for inspiration and ideas.

LM: About your publishing schedule, it seems like you keep to a very steady routine of two games each year -- the summer being Nancy Drew lite and the fall title providing the more challenging experience. Any intentions of expanding the production past these two games a year?

MG: We are looking to expand the product offering with another series of games. We are in talks with a couple of different licensors and we're on the verge of making that step.

LM: Any hints in what direction this is?

MG: We can't discuss it in more detail until it's a done deal.

LM: While some developers have made the move into 3D, you have made a design choice to stick with 2D backgrounds and 3D characters; the so-called 2.5D look. Why is this?

RR: The original impetus for going into 2D backgrounds is you get a lot more detail out of the artwork. Even now, when you are in a 3D world, you can't get that same detail to the environment. Also the type of play lends itself better to the 2D environments, because in a 3D world it is all about movement. Action or movement is a very important component to the gameplay. You are running away or you're chasing something. In our games, our players say they like to kind of graze. They like to take their time without feeling pressured. They want to amble about in the environments and explore. They want to become totally engrossed in the environment. So for that reason, we went with 2D and continue to use it. The other problem is that 3D doesn't actually work with this sort of gameplay and our market. Those that have gone with 3D, there is a lot of backlash against it. Broken Sword 3, URU… I just don't see the benefit to going to a 3D engine at this time.

LM: E3 is on the horizon next week, so I wanted to ask you about that. I noticed that the German equivalent in Liepseig has a much different approach than E3. They have a much more family-focused presentation vs. E3, which is pretty wild and woolly and at times seems more of a industry party or club mentality. I wanted to toss out a quote from a recent article on the show in LA and get your reaction.

"E3 should be about innovation; it should be about the games. Let's make sure the voice E3 is supposed to promote is not lost in the fury of silicon and peep shows."

Any reaction or thoughts on that sentiment?

MG: Actually, it is interesting you brought that up because we have been kicking it around here. The issue of responsibility for the content of games we develop is getting a lot of attention.

RR: I think E3 has gotten a lot better. GOD (Gathering of Developers) no longer has the lesbian nuns across from Staples anymore. I kind of have mixed feelings. On one hand, our hardcore gamers are young men and a lot of the content caters towards them. I think that's okay. There are other things being pushed at E3 like the Nintendo display and the various attendees located in Kentia Hall. Those guys can't afford the booth babes and there's a lot of interesting things going on down there. Sometimes you can find a gem in the rough.

MG: All I can say to that is tradeshows -- any tradeshow -- are all about glitz and over-the-top showboating. And we're in the entertainment industry! Pair that with the fact that this industry has historically been male-dominated, and I don't think sexism is any surprise. I will add this. We're seeing a steady increase in the amount of women playing games, creating them, marketing them, and producing them. As the ranks fill out with women, sexism will ebb off as this industry continues to become more gender-balanced. However, creativity is the great equalizer. Girls and women provide a fresh perspective and generate entirely new parameters for creative development... Listen to them.

LM: I couldn't agree more! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with all of us at AG.

MG & RR: Thank you, Laura, and all the adventure gamers for your continued support!

[overlymetaromantic]

do you have any tips for starting a webcomic?

Ooh, I can try! I'm actually genuinely really passionate about webcomics as a genre so sorry if this gets a bit rambly lol:

There's no wrong way to make a comic! Webcomics in particular I feel are basically always passion projects, and you should make it in a way that makes you happy. The only way to do art "wrong" is to create in a way that actively hurts you (i.e. stretch properly, don't pin your emotional stability on strangers online, etc. lolol).

You yourself should be your #1 priority in who you are making your comic for. Your friend of choice should be #2 priority. Write what makes you laugh, put in all your favorite tropes (or your favorite subversions of those tropes), create the kind of ships you enjoy shipping in other media! Have fun! Your joy will shine through, and it's always better to let readers who resonate with your passion find you rather than attempting vice versa, aka trying to write what you think an imaginary audience might be passionate about.

When it comes to the actual process, I'd personally recommend trying to choose a story that you love but that you also feel okay giving like 75% effort to, especially if it's a first time experience. Your love will carry you through a LOT, but it has to be a project you can say, "This is good enough" to if you ever want to get anything done lmao.

Understand your personal workflow, like how long it takes you to finish a panel or a page, what parts of the process you enjoy, what parts you dislike, and what personally satisfies you as a final product. The more you understand how you work, the better you can tailor your comic in a way that supports your preferred workflow.

Webcomics by their nature take a LONG time to complete. Be prepared for that! This is one of the biggest reasons why people recommend starting small, and I'll echo that here.

I honestly don't feel qualified to speak towards how to get your comic seen because I got STUPID lucky in having others share it for me in a way that resulted in it taking off, but similar to above: Being seen takes a LONG time. Patience pays off, and your audience will find you, however big they are!

If nothing else, you being your own biggest fan means that the mere act of creation can satisfy that desire to be seen. Make the comic YOU want to read, and find joy in being able to read it because YOU made it! Like, you did it!! The fact that you made a thing that wouldn't have existed if you didn't make it is incredible!!!

With all that said, there do seem to be some ways to at least increase your chances of gaming the system of being seen. Regular updates, satisfying end points for your pages, readable panels, and an easily pitch-able concept all make you easier for people to engage with. The first comic I made got updated whenever I finished a chapter, which meant there were months in between updates; by some miracle, it still found readers, but odds are I could have snagged a few more if I'd chosen to do more frequent updates at the cost of less complete-feeling chapters. I chose to prioritize the former because I care more about having chapters that have a good plot flow, but part of why my current comic is structured the way it is, is to have more frequent, regularly scheduled updates. It can also be worth studying the platform you want to post on to see what ways they promote comics, or how readers can find new comics on their site or app!

Good luck!! Have fun!!! Webcomics are frequently solo projects, so I'll reiterate again: make what you want, for you, in whatever way that works best for you. It's all you anyway!

[eijirousbestie]

where they would work

MHA HCs

Kirishima

Starbucks . ° •

He’s just so happy to be able to make people their favorite drinks.

It’s kind of endearing how he loves the shop as much as he does and he doesn’t even like coffee. Sometimes he’ll be curious about the taste of the various coffees he’s made.

He knows what it’s like to have a messed up order (and misspelled name) so he’s very meticulous with how he serves every order.

When writing a customers name on a cup, he’ll draw little doodles beside it.

Because of his bubbly personality tons of regulars flood the shop whenever he works. If he’s off shift, the shop is ridiculously empty.

His manager makes sure to keep him up front at all times because he brings in good money.

“Where’s Kirishima? The shop’s practically dead.”

“It’s his off day sir.”

Sero

Hot Topic/Spencer’s . ° •

You can’t tell me he wouldn’t work at one of these stores.

I can just imagine him wearing his usual clothes with a little employee name tag on his shirt as he talks your head off about his favorite bands at checkout.

“Look all I’m saying is Sleeping with Sirens were way ahead of their time. Gotta pay respect ya know?”

Will 100% be nosey about what you’re buying if it interests him in any way. Getting a graphic tee of your favorite artist? He’s all over it asking when you first stanned.

He finally found out what was at the back of Spencer’s and won’t stop cracking jokes about it.

Makes use of his employee discounts and shows up the next day wearing a shirt he got off the display for 75% off.

Kaminari

GameStop . ° •

Self explanatory really. Denks is such a dude’s dude he loves all types of games so why not work where he can be surrounded by them all the time?

He works cash and restocks merchandise, games, rentals and such.

When he first realized how broke he was he thought “getting a job” meant he was gonna have to slave away in an office somewhere crunching numbers. Who knew he’d have so much fun at work.

He’s practically best friends with his co-workers… except his discord mod manager. He doesn’t talk to him very much.

He chucks it up with customers who come up to him asking for the latest drops or game recommendations. He knows the ins and outs of their products and always points them in the right direction based on their preferences.

“Oh you’re wanting something similar to Overwatch? Whatever you do, don’t go Valorant. It’s kinda sucky really. Here, Apex is so much better, especially if you main Seer.”

Bakugou

McAllister’s . ° •

Okay now stay with me, it sounds random as hell to say he’d work at a deli but it makes PERFECT sense.

He’s got skill in the kitchen and I feel like he can make a mean sandwich. Bakugou as a butcher also makes sense.

When he first starts working at the deli, his manager puts him on cashier and he hates it. Having to listen to overly complicated orders drives him batty.

Needless to say, his manager put him in the kitchen after that. And thank god for that because he prefers it in the back anyways.

He secretly loves cooking for people so although he might gripe about an insane amount of pastrami going on one sub, he knows someone will eat well because of his efforts.

“What kind of a shit sandwich is this? Shit’s pissing me off I’m not making this.”

[virusinfected-memes]

COFFEE TALK SENTENCE STARTERS, PT. 2 OF ? ;

75 starters. CW: cussing, sexual themes. Coffee Talk is a visual novel game developed by Toge Productions. Feel free to change words and pronouns as needed!  [PART 1]

"Different isn't always good."

"It's a neat concept, but you need to handle it carefully and gracefully."

"He needs to learn how to communicate his thoughts nicely though."

"Let's not make the mountain even higher."

"What we have here now is more than enough for me."

"I'm taking a break from work. I need to work on a few personal matters."

"I'm curious... How did you guys meet? If you don't mind me asking..."

"Now, will you let me continue without interruptions?"

"And without even thinking about it, I punched _____ in the face."

"Yeah, I landed that one punch... And he beat me to a pulp. Easily."

"How was she doing? She hasn't returned any of my calls or texts..."

"I'm sick and tired of my family."

"Why would you say that?"

"Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist. I love drawing and creating art."

"_____ is the only person that can make me feel alive."

"I have no problem leaving my family, you know. I would happily leave them for the both of us."

"I never thought of it that way before."

"There's nothing to feel bad about!"

"It's easy for you to say that now, but you don't know what the future holds."

"You know... Love is like a flame. It might burn fiercely at first, but over time it will die down, if you don't maintain it."

"Life is full of storms."

"Marriage, it will not survive on love alone."

"There are consequences... It shouldn't be taken lightly."

"Perhaps a hot drink will give you some inspiration."

"Aren't vampires supposed to be... you know... tough?"

"Just because I'm a vampire, it doesn't mean I know kung-fu."

"Thanks for not leaving me on the street, _____."

"He might be an annoying asshole, but he's not a thief."

"What a stroke of luck, the universe sending me a guardian angel in my time of need."

"Hey, I took you to breakfast! Don't tell me that counted for nothing."

"I have to say, it wasn't my proudest moment."

"_____... I'd prefer if we skipped that part. I'm sorry, but I don't want to go into any details about it."

"Thank you for sharing your story with me. I didn't expect such a tale from you."

"I've no interest in flirting with you. I've got high standards, you know."

"Please don't forget to take a break. It's easy to get carried away by work when you're on a roll."

"That's not even a word, _____."

"Are you trying to squeeze the story from me?"

"I saw you from afar when you left the coffee shop a few days ago. So, hello! My name is _____. You could say I'm a regular here."

"Wow... It turns out pervs exist everywhere in the universe."

"You're quite dense, aren't you?"

"People often mistake me for someone who gets around a lot."

"All this information is too much to process in one evening..."

"Oh, showing some concern now, are you?"

"My, my... You really have a knack for starting trouble..."

"That sounds dangerous, liking someone without knowing the reason..."

"You really need to be more careful, _____..."

"So... Umm... How are things going in the office?"

"I want to say please don't forget to rest, but I'm sure it won't be easy for you and the team."

"I wish I could help you. Or at least say something to boost your morale. Sadly, I'm not the right person to give you advice about that."

"Getting used to unhealthy working conditions shouldn't be a norm."

"Every game has its own market, you know."

"You shouldn't waste your time on me! Relax, or something!"

"I'm coming with you! Whether you like it or not!"

"I think I should celebrate with a special drink. Something sweet."

"You are sorry... I don't have anything to be sorry for."

"Please just go home after you finish your drink."

"I know _____! He's not a good person!"

"He hasn't changed much... And even if he has, it wasn't for the better."

"You're just being paranoid!"

"What's next?! You'll lock me in the house because you're afraid of the air I'm breathing?!"

"You're just too young to understand!"

"Then make me understand! Because this is definitely not helping. There are better ways."

"TRY HARDER! Because right now, you're not helping anyone! Not me, not you, no one!"

"It will take time for me to learn. But I am learning."

"_____, are you out of your mind? You've been out of touch for so long."

"If I take things slow, I'll lose all my momentum."

"Of course I heard them. I just chose to ignore most of it. It's none of my business, is it?"

"Sometimes we don't even realize what we're capable of doing."

"And I thought I was the only one who brought bad news..."

"You've never looked like someone who needs help."

"I'm sorry, _____. I'm not really in the mood for this sort of conversation."

"You're still trying to get laid?"

"That sounds like the best plan you've had since you got here."

"It's nothing. We're just friends, you know?"

"It was a slip of the tongue, okay! I'm sorry!"

[lolo3hwriting]

The Squid Orange in Kelp Dome - What is it? How would it be grown?

The Squid Orange in Kelp Dome - What is it? How would it be grown?

Within The Art of Splatoon artbook, we see a lot of concept art for ideas and worldbuilding of the splatoon world. One of these concepts that I found the most interesting was the fruits and vegetables that would have been grown in Kelp Dome. They are all based on real life fruits/veggies with a few differences and usually squid themed. One of my favorites was the squid orange because of my personal interest in citrus production and because my family has tried their hand at growing citrus trees before. It got me wondering, what is it based on? And how would it theoretically grow in a greenhouse in kelp dome?

I should say that most of my knowledge of citrus production is based in America (since that’s where I study) so my writing may not reflect Japanese production styles. From what I read the general concepts are mostly the same, but intricacies like harvesting techniques may be different.

Design Origins

(A picture of a kumquat, image taken from here)

Although it is called an orange, the squid orange may be based on many different fruits in the citrus family (Rutaceae). The edible peel made me think of kumquats because they are commonly eaten fresh with the peel. However, while the peels are sweet like what was shown in the picture, the rind is often soft and rarely bitter. However, other citrus peels do fit the description of being bitter and hard, so the squid orange could be something of a hybrid between kumquats and other citrus species. 

The albedo portion reminds me of navel oranges because of the similar belly button, or navel structure. Just for clarification, the albedo is the white and somewhat papery/spongy portion of citrus fruits, considered part of the peel. Navel oranges have a primary and secondary ovary when they grow. The primary ovary gives rise to most of the fruit while the secondary ovary is reduced and becomes a bump that looks like a navel. This part is technically edible, but not preferred and is often thrown away with the rest of the peel. 

For the sake of simplicity, I’m just going to consider the squid orange under the sweet orange group (Citrus x sinensis) as opposed to other citrus crops.

The Orangery

(An orangery, from Kew Gardens in London. Image take from here)

Oranges and other citrus crops have a long history of cultivation indoors. Orangeries have existed since the 17th century were structures built specifically to grow citrus crops, usually in places where they wouldn’t naturally grow. Although orangeries can be considered distinct from other structures like greenhouses and conservatories, the terms are used interchangeably and as such I will be using the term greenhouse to describe orange production within indoor structures. Also, I will be talking about citrus production in general as opposed to specifically oranges because most of the cultivation practices are the same for many citrus species. 

Greenhouse Production

(A Valencia orange tree in a greenhouse. Image taken from here)

Citrus plants are subtropical to tropical fruits, and as such they do not tolerate the cold at all. Many fruits will be killed below freezing, and the entire tree will be killed at temperatures below 28F. However, there are some citrus varieties and rootstocks that are more cold hardy, but even then it's quite marginal. The minimum temperature to avoid damage is 50 F, but some greenhouses won’t go below 65 F. The average temperature for ideal citrus production is around 75 F, but most varieties can tolerate up to 90 F or even up to 100 F. 

Citrus trees can grow in most soils, but prefer sandy soils because they have better drainage. Most of them will not tolerate flooding and overly saturated water, so most greenhouses will do infrequent watering and soil/potting media with good drainage. Citrus require moderate humidity (around 50%), which shouldn’t be a problem in most greenhouses but they may need to supplement it with a humidifier if it is particularly dry.  Pests and diseases may become a problem in greenhouse production, especially if trees are packed close together. Proper monitoring and sanitation, like using insecticidal soap and removing infected plant material, will help ensure these problems stay to a minimum. 

The art book says that it would be eaten around June-November. While this aligns with harvesting for some cultivars of oranges, since the oranges are being grown inside a greenhouse their harvest time may be different. Oranges can be stored for about a month under the right conditions, so they could be realistically eaten any time of the year.

Just as a final note, most citrus trees in orchards grow up to 15 feet tall. Although I’m sure a big greenhouse like Kelp Dome can house a tree that tall, they may use dwarf varieties or prune the trees to make them more manageable. 

Other Concerns with the World of Splatoon 

Both inklings and octolings dissolve when submerged in water, so irrigation might be a concern. Although I mentioned beforehand that citrus trees are usually only watered sparingly, they do need to be watered eventually. I’d imagine greenhouse workers would need to wear some protective equipment when watering plants, or non-inkfish species would handle the watering. Also, I don’t know what pests would be around since a lot of the insects would be wiped out from the drastic climate change that takes place in the splatoon world, after the humans are wiped out.

Sources

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 13/07/2024 (Eminem/Big Sean/BabyTron, Quavo/Lana Del Rey)

Sabrina may have outperformed Sabrina recently but thankfully, Sabrina has taken the throne off of Sabrina for a sixth week at #1 for Sabrina above Sabrina’s last hit, dropping to #2 thanks to a boost above Sabrina for Sabrina, leaving Sabrina below Sabrina. “Espresso” is at #1 and welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: language, Eminem discourse

Rundown

And as always, we start our episode with the notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK top 75 - which is what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adieu to… okay, sorry, “Gata Only” by FloyyMenor and Cris Mj went from #76 to #75 to #76 in a three-week span as if they know the arbitrary restrictions I place on this series and want to pressure me into changing them. If that’s the case, what’s “read the FAQ” in Spanish? Besides that, we say farewell to a mix of older tracks and stuffed EDM collabs, as our full lists consists of: “places to be” by Fred again.., Anderson .Paak and CHIKA (which of course deserved more than five weeks), “Addicted” by Zerb, the Chainsmokers and Ink, “Yellow” by Coldplay, “Without Me” by Eminem and finally, “Prada” by casso, RAYE and D-Block Europe, which feels like it’s been here forever.

As for our returns, we see the Euros boost another football anthem back on the charts, namely the #8-peaking “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond. On the two non-consecutive weeks this song peaked, Mungo Jerry and T. Rex were #1 and that should give you enough context that I really don’t need to tell you it was 1971. Alongside it, “3 Lions” is up to #20 and “Mr. Brightside” is at #58 thanks to the band playing football matches at their shows in the lead-up to this track, but once again, I’ve talked about these football songs a while back. I can’t remember the episode but you can probably take an educated guess based on whatever football tournament was happening.

When it comes to notable gains, it’s a bit of an easier job, as there’s some straightforward pick-ups for “You & Me” by Disclosure featuring Eliza Doolittle at #66, “Miles on It” by Marshmello and Kane Brown at #60, “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners at #48, “Move” by Adam Port, Stryv and Malachiii at #46, Zach Bryan’s “Pink Skies” returning to the top 40 at #40 thanks to his new album but more on that later, “Kisses” by BL3SS, CamrinWatsin and bbyclose at #26, “Too Sweet” by Hozier at #13 and Kendrick Lamar returning to the top 10 at #9 with “Not Like Us”.

As for our top five, well, for our first full tracking week under a Labour government since 2010, we already know where Starmer’s cabinet stands on pop stars, with Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” at #5 swapping places with “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” by Billie Eilish at #4. One thing hasn’t changed, though, and that’s drinking habits, as Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is steady at #3, and then of course, Sabrina: “Please Please Please” at #2 and “Espresso” at #1. Now for what should be an interesting and definitely varied set of new tracks.

New Entries

#73 - “28” - Zach Bryan

Produced by Zach Bryan

As I expected, I loved Zach Bryan’s newest album, The Great American Bar Scene, which released on July 4th - fittingly - and I delivered some longer thoughts in my listening log on RateYourMusic. The account name’s exclusivelytopostown if you wish to read any more, but to sum it up, it’s definitely more of a folk and heartland rock-influenced album, going from sounding like Springsteen to well, containing the Boss himself, and it fittingly has a more observational, on-the-road feel to it as we travel across America with Zach Bryan delivering relevant anecdotes surrounding his life that seem more distant than the self-titled. It’s still personal, it’s still got a warm, organic production, but there’s an undeniable swell to it all that makes the humble road trip feel a lot grander. I prefer the self-titled in terms of having more memorable, distinct songs but this is an excellent record in itself. Thankfully, one of my favourites was “28”, his only debut as the album bows in at #16 on the UK albums chart.

There are many topics that Bryan will delve into across the record but this one, in comparison, feels like a pretty straightforward love ballad, and a very sweet one at that. Bryan tells us stories about how he went to see her family on his 28th birthday and that was the first time his left felt full and that he was truly loved on his own birthday, having a family and home that he’s been searching for his entire life, caught in a place between home and somewhere distant and unfamiliar, but now he’s fell into what might be a new home for him, and the song celebrates how real that relationship feels. This is developed on in the second verse where Bryan finds himself in a very familiar lyrical space: the dive bar’s crowded with rich people, not at all like it was when he was younger, but the smoke seeping out is still the same, he’s still playing the guitar he was gifted at 14, and being with his new partner takes him back to that space he’s so familiar with. It’s a beautiful sentiment that the homes he created from a passage of specific, frequently recurring memories have been brought back to him by the way he feels with his partner. The organic recording with some distant guitar and an overwhelming bed of strings turns an intimate set of recollections to an honest-to-God ceremony and that little lyric change from “where your old man stayed” to “where your whole heart stayed” places a really neat little bow on everything. It may not be the deepest or most powerful cuts on the latest record, but it’s one that feels so universal without sacrificing the important details that make him such a loveable songwriter. It’s one of my favourite songs of the year, and the whole album’s worth checking out too.

#71 - “I Love You, I’m Sorry” - Gracie Abrams

Produced by Gracie Abrams and Aaron Dessner

Now we’re back in some territory that I’m less familiar with and also less appreciative to see on the charts, TayLorde Rodrigo… I mean, Gracie Abrams, daughter of J.J. This is another album cut from her breakout record that hit #1 a few weeks ago, with this being a sequel to another breakup track she released in 2020. I know I’ve often made comical comparisons to other artists when discussing Abrams’ particularly derivative style but I really liked “Risk” which is similarly plainly obvious on who it takes influence with so it really isn’t just that, and there’s some promise to that: it’s similarly structured to her “I miss you, I’m sorry” whilst taking a more wistful approach, a couple years later, on the breakup and acknowledging the weirdness of still being familiar to someone you slammed the door on despite loving, and being thankful that the ex-partner still keeps in touch, albeit the connection is dwindling. I was actually somewhat liking it, even if it borderlines on easy listening, until the bridge which seems to deflect some blame onto this partner for no reason in a really immature moment that feels out of place, and also has some really obvious takes from the Taylor department (no pun intended), even down to inflections and vocal delivery. The songwriting becomes basic and childish for what seems like a lashing out moment but doesn’t really need to serve that purpose in any way. The song is about frustration but a frustration that quietly bubbles down through life, why have that moment so far into the song? It just doesn’t work for me narratively even if the idea isn’t bad, and Dessner’s utterly unremarkable instrumental backing isn’t helping matters. It’s still okay, but with some very obvious flaws I can’t really get over.

#69 - “Bring Me Joy” - Rudimental and Karen Harding

Produced by Rudimental, Billen Ted and Slim Typical

I question who in Rudimental even contributes to these songs anymore. There are two other credited acts as producers here, and they are both DJ-producer duos who can do a perfectly good job by themselves or even together, but then add Rudimental, who are a trio and get top billing, and you’re telling me nine people produced this. You could argue that maybe one of them did and Rudimental is just the more recognisable name, but all three of the members are credited as writers, alongside salute who, if you don’t know, is also a DJ and producer, meaning 10 were involved in creating this song with Durham singer Karen Harding, who last appeared on the chart in 2015. Her debut single and biggest hit, “Say Something”, actually peaked at #7. The #1 was “Uptown Funk!”, of course. Maybe this new track will revive her hit-making career and you know what’s bizarre? How I can more obviously tell salute did work on this than any of the credited producers. Sure, it’s a drum and bass track, but it’s got a choir vocal, a gentler swell of pianos and the lead vocal filtered as an intro, it sounds more like it’s introducing a salute song than Rudimental’s until we get into the weirdly-mixed lead vocal and very unsubtle stutter that spirals into a frankly wank drum and bass loop. The song basically starts on 11 with all the details thanks to the nine people on the DAW, so any attempt at genuine bombast or relief in the drop feels like bashing in some horns to an already full orchestra. In fact, for what should be a rote, inoffensive track from an easily ignorable vocalist and completely competent producer teams, it’s surprisingly annoying with just how overly produced it is. The egregious implementation of that distorted male vocal clip is out of place, the effects added to Harding’s voice are grating and at times seemingly arbitrary, it’s just all a bit gross. I really like this genre and a lot of the time, will defend more mediocre drum and bass tunes because the drum patterns make me happy or the drop is exciting, but not even I can find much joy in this, which should be saying something.

#64 - “Apple” - Charli xcx

Produced by Charli xcx, A.G. Cook, George Daniel and Lotus IV

Once again, we go back to Charli’s BRAT, an album with more mainstream influence and longevity than I expected, as we get what is now our sixth debut from the record across multiple weeks. I believe this is what the gays call "being the moment." Charli has described this song as focusing on her very complicated relationship with her parents, using the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” saying as its main conceit and going for a perhaps more familiar synthpop backing whilst filtering her vocals out to muffle her voice slightly, as if she’s becoming separate from her family as she finds escapism by travelling away from a family she’s constantly comparing herself to. The apple could “turn yellow or green”, accentuating both how unpredictable growing up could be and how that connection could either still work into old age or rot over time, with the third verse having her dissect the apple, splitting what traits of her that she doesn’t appreciate between her parents. It’s a clever and really open concept for the song, and whilst I’m a sucker for honest detail, the analogy is more telling depending on how you interpret it than perhaps a more down to reality vent about what is probably a feeling that couldn’t be understood by an audience that’s not specifically her. With this, I still feel the escapism of the airport but also the disappointment when that turns into a stuttering, dark clog instead of a beautiful swell in that bridge where she promises, of course, that she’s going to “drive all night”, aimlessly, realising that even if she makes her branch of the tree, she can’t escape from her family as it’s part of her. It’s not my favourite mix on the album, it can feel a bit flat and rushed sometimes, but the instrumental outro with the mantra of “do you” really places into perspective her question of asking where you even go to feel like you’re not alone, because forming a yes-or-no question out of that forces you, and her, to reckon with the idea that you don’t actually go anywhere. You’re still you, and your experiences don’t take you elsewhere, they add patches of detail to your own person. And if I’m getting philosophical, that means the song’s good or I’m insane. Probably both, and I don’t need to tell you this, but it’s definitely worth checking out even if it’s not the most sonically distinct piece on the album - for a more revealing track, it doesn’t need to be.

#62 - “Lies Lies Lies” - Morgan Wallen

Produced by Joey Moi

Well, well, look who else released country music on the 4th of July, with a special live YouTube performance video to boot which I didn’t mention in the review but is also how “28” was premiered. Even for Morgan Wallen here, the songwriting is a bit dire, which is a shame because there’s a darker hinge to the guitars here that should lead to the forestry atmosphere the smokier sound and the cool whistling should succeed at conveying. Yet the chorus is so basic and pissy, as is the rest of this breakup song, delivered in a way that doesn’t justify any of the bitterness in the lyrics or the darker sound. He kind of just delivers it like “Last Night”, which also had its toxic relationship - where the woman is mostly blamed, but at least in this one he ended things (despite his persistence that he must be the one to do so). The difference is that “Last Night” is almost sing-songy, it’s a pop song more than anything and embraces it by going for trap drums and plastic silliness instead of going deeper into country cred for what is little more than an aesthetic for something that doesn’t pull on many of its songwriting tropes. It just ends up sounding ugly and flat for no purpose when a perfectly serviceable Maroon 5 song is hidden under there, and ends up looking pretty bad for Morgan Wallen. If your country song released on a patriotic day as what should surely be a gift for your fans given its lack of connection to an existing album and no reason to start another cycle is this ashamed of being a pop song, ridden in so much interpersonal hatred that’s still vague enough to consider itself universal, largely because you didn’t write one word of it, I would be reconsidering why I made country music in the first place. Or maybe that’s just how you celebrate the founding of your great country: singing about your ex-girlfriend’s lies and deceit, alcohol addiction and hating yourself. Hell, is that saying more about Morgan or the States?

#59 - “you look like you love me” - Ella Langley featuring Riley Green

Produced by Will Bundy

Thankfully, for a week weirdly full of country songs for the UK charts, we actually have more good than bad, with - interestingly - two relative newcomers in Ella Langley, who released her first record in 2023, and Riley Green who has had much success as a writer (hence his credit on this song) but not as much in his solo career until 2019 onwards. This duet tells the story of a lonely Ella Langley meeting passionately with a lover at a bar: “you look like you love me” seems like a very forward line for a one-night stand so whilst the life after this hook-up isn’t referenced and their drunkenness is emphasised throughout, there’s definitely still some reminiscing about this rendezvous. Langley uses a conversational delivery in the verses that feels very much like a traditional story-telling country songs, the kind that my dad used to like, but returns to an undeniable sing-a-long hook every time and it just feels like magic. Despite what could be a pretty chintzy instrumental considering the piano and acoustic pick-up but it just immerses you further in the story, with the awkward dead spaces in Riley Green’s verse that make it clear this isn’t as smooth of a hook-up as she remembers, the emphasis on little clothing details like boots and Green’s cowboy hat, the fact that she goes “alright now!” before the hoedown instrumental break, it’s all quite comical in its own cutesy way that I find really endearing. Vintage, sure, and perhaps a story that’s less believable to have happened in this day and age, but it doesn’t need to be to still be a fun little story delivered really excellently. I will say that Langley is clearly much more of a presence but thematically that makes a lot of sense, and it is refreshing to see a woman be the most prominent element of the highest debuting country song this week (outside of, well, we’ll get to it), that has a separate woman credited as a co-writer. It’s a cute, heartwarming little song that I think even those who write off country music on the charts will enjoy a fair bit.

#56 - “Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)” - LeoStayTrill and Mr. Reload It

Produced by Xeretto and VG$ Midnight

Whilst this is “Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)” by LeoStayTrill and Mr. Reload It. LeoStayTrill is a rapper from South London whilst Mr. Reload It is… not the producer or vocalist so who is Mr. Reload It? It took me little time to gather through social media that Mr. Reload It, real name Alex, is a content creator on TikTok who runs a show called Str8 Reload wherein rappers come in and freestyle, and the song had already finished without me realising I was really playing it by the time I had written all that out. LeoStayTrill appears to be a content creator on his own, and I skimmed through his TikToks that have nothing to do with the song but are featured with the sound in the background and hashtags proclaiming it’s the song of the summer. He appears to be a young guy still in education - sixth form maybe? - so I can’t really heavily criticise what is a pretty generic Tion Wayne-esque drill song with bad mixing, nothing flexes and a type beat as the instrumental. I was scanning through so many of his TikToks finding some extra context for his viral hit, but it seems like just shilling for it consistently will give you enough plays with a big following, and there are definitely some very catchy parts of his verses - ironically, all outside of the chorus - that I can understand the virality. One interesting thing I picked up on was that he was defiantly explaining to his followers a word that they had gotten wrong when reciting the lyrics, and jokingly claimed that he wished to delete the song because of this mondegreen until he brought out the original project file for the song to prove this. Nearly every single one of his TikToks had this song or its shitty Jersey club remix in the background, it was maddening. Wish you the best, man.

#32 - “Tough” - Quavo and Lana Del Rey

Produced by Cirkut and watt

If anyone was going to team these two disparate artists up, it was probably Andrew Watt, though the two appear to be friendly which makes sense given Lana’s affinity for hip hop, which is seldom implemented in her music but I enjoy when it is as it ends up surprisingly smooth, especially in cloud rap and trap territory. “Summer Bummer” with A$AP Rocky and Playboi Carti is one of my favourites from her. The conceit of this collab is somewhat comical: a country-influenced song where they both try and prove themselves as “tough” in different ways, with Lana using western cowboy imagery and Quavo harkening back to his days living impoverished in Atlanta, but together, they’re beautiful. It’s very cliché and silly but I can actually connect with that as just a matter of setting the stage for this upcoming Lana country album: suspension of disbelief is important in both country and rap, and especially pop, so I like when artists play around with unfitting narratives. Lana’s vocals are in their typical wispy rasp over the twiddling folksy guitars but Quavo comes in referencing the trap beat that drives into the song he just hopped on, and whilst I did laugh the first time, he adds a bit more emotive rasp to his voice that really works, especially in balance with the more melodic flows he’s able to temper the aggressive delivery with. I also like his informing of the posturing with what he’s genuinely been through, and those two different ideas of what “tough” is between them makes their surprisingly well-done harmonising very compelling. In fact, Lana adds more to Quavo’s posturing in her verse with Huncho himself prompting her lyrics in a cute back-and-forth that makes me believe these guys are actually dating, even though if that was the case, there may not be a mutual depth to how they feel about each other here. That bridge still has a lot of great swell and deviates from what could easily be a tedious novelty if not split apart by a gorgeous interlude that sounds perfect for walking down the aisle. I’m very surprised by the chemistry here, but the dialogue in the outro, whilst obviously corny, sounds like movie dialogue from a dated film, and the way you hear him pasing her the lighter and doing a typical Migos ad-lib injects a lot of Quavo’s personality into a Lana-led song. One of my favourite details is the crack in Lana’s voice where she admits for as much as Lana appreciates the grit and roughness of Mr. Quavious thanks to his upbringing, it’s that same upbringing that makes him tell her some truths a woman like Lana may not want to hear, and I find that a really subtle but effective way of painting the lovestruck soulmates with troubling, nuanced dots. I figured something like this, especially with Quavo releasing more singles than months of the year currently, would be a rushed, comical slap-dash collab but there is a lot more thought into this duet than I expected from even Lana who never really shined outside of her introspection that much. Brilliant song.

#29 - “Tobey” - Eminem featuring Big Sean and BabyTron

Produced by marvy ayy, John Nocito, Carlton McDowell, Daniyel, Eminem and Cole Bennett

As I said with the Zach Bryan review, full thoughts on the latest Eminem comeback, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace) are on my RateYourMusic page, and thankfully, this song kind of has no relevance to the existing plotline of that album. It’s always an unnecessary stress when a song hits the top 75 and I have to either explain away the conceits of a narrative- or theme-based record that I already wrote some thoughts down on, or end up diving in headfirst to a song from an album I haven’t gotten around to hearing so I can review the one song, but ending up a bit headless thanks to my lack of context. This is a weird case because it’s a pre-album single that was released in the midweek and despite the album having a clear plot and theme you can see even in its lead single, this song has nothing to do with it and this time, it’s on purpose? “Tobey” is one of a few songs on the back-end that show Eminem is still hungry without the Slim Shady persona, and this particular track is him stepping bar-for-bar with a newer cat in Big Sean and so new a cat he may as well be a kitty, BabyTron, of the Detroit ShittyBoyz scam-rap collective, known for his semi-witty punchlines and tight flows. That works a lot better for me when he has an actual groove, especially the constant punchiness of a Detroit trap track but here, we have a beat that I thought was interesting at first and becomes increasingly odd. It makes sense to me for a beat to have no steady percussion line and instead be full of cinematic strings and thwooping, bass-heavy movie trailer sounds - it’s Eminem, after all, I guess he’s catching up to his Christian stan NF - but it just never drops after all the build-up, and that piano line that is also very explicitly Detroit is a tedious loop that never changes but feeds tension into the beat without ever finding build-up, despite obvious lay-ups for that to happen. The verses transition not through smooth sequencing of instruments but through a cloudy void of blurry sound effects, as if the song was made for the music video and nothing else. There’s electric guitars added into the mix because, it’s either Em himself or his main man Luis Resto who are obsessed with adding those to the back of the beat for no reason, there are hi-hats during BabyTron’s verse that just skitter out of existence, and a mix of guitars with cavernous drums and warping synths during the latter two verses from Sean and Em that just drown out the two rappers without ever landing them on a true groove, which only really Eminem can play with in an interesting way. I know it’s Eminem so the beat should not be the focus but this is a bizarre, borderline just experimental beat that sounds kind of terrible most of the time but has so many fascinating bad decisions and moving parts that it’s hard to ignore.

Now for the rappers themselves, as you’d probably expect me to discuss more given again, it’s Eminem, he’s the only person with an interesting concept or flow here. He’s bitter and desperate to prove he’s in top fives - not that he should care but I’m not angry that he does, he’s a lyrical rapper from the 90s, caring about being the best is kind of his job - but unlike Kamikaze, he’s not lashing out at his own fans, he’s lashing out at so-called critics, including Melle Mel, who he very reasonably stamps out for the reason that whilst people prompted him not to respond to the man because he’s a pioneer - a grandmaster, if you will - of the genre, Eminem’s cemented his place just as much as he has and it would be a fair competition between legends. A weird beat always brings out awkward deliveries in Em, and he’s surprisingly not going for the easier, fast-paced deadpan talking both BabyTron and to a lesser extent, Sean, go for here, instead being all over the beat like he has eight legs spread out saying a different bar. It’s a cool approach that means he’s not always perfectly on beat but the beat’s weird, so let him be too, I actually find it much more compelling than BabyTron, who sounds like a bored child lost in the supermarket, even if there are some quotable lines and Detroit references that add a little more spice. Big Sean is selling his anger and hunger much more convincingly, even when faced against this Lovecraftian monster of a beat, and whilst I’m not necessarily invested in Sean because… of course not, his bars hit, his rhyme schemes are solid and he sounds on point the whole time, it’s a focused verse that really balances out Em’s verse. BabyTron is completely lost to that dynamic so the fact that he originated the main conceit of the song, the utterly stupid idea that since Tobey Maguire became Spider-Man after being bitten by a spider, BabyTron and Big Sean must have been bitten by a goats because they’re GOATs, and Eminem must have been the goat / GOAT that bit them. Yeah, there’s a reason why the song’s namesake didn’t deserve being brought up until the last minute. I know this was a hefty review for a pretty middling debut that won’t last, but this really feels like a can of worms hidden on the back-half of an album completely irrelevant to it, even though it was already released as a single and music video. Fascinating little track, honestly. I’m kind of glad we end the week with that nonsense.

Conclusion

Well, it was a big debut week for country or country-adjacent tracks, and this rings well in our conclusion, as Best of the Week obviously goes to Zach Bryan for “28” whilst we have surprisingly close Honourable Mentions for the two duets: “you look like you love me” by Ella Langley and Riley Green and “Tough” with Quavo and Lana Del Rey. As for the worst, that also represents country as Morgan Wallen takes it handedly for the regretful “Lies Lies Lies”, whilst I suppose “Bring Me Joy” by Rudimental and Karen Harding ends up as the Dishonourable Mention. Whatever happens next week, apart from Eminem, I hope there’s not too much to write about because it’ll be a busy Friday for me. Knowing the charts, I won’t get that peace and Peppa fucking Pig will debut a couple songs. Regardless, thank you for reading, long live Cola Boyy, and I’ll see you next week.

[blubushie]

leafanon here! for the ask game: literally do all of them. coward.

Oi! Be a little nicer to me leafanon, I’m sensitive!

1: Who is/are your comfort characters?

Look at my blog, mate. Have a guess.

It’s Jesse and Mundy. Both of them. At the same time. 25% Jesse, 75% Mundy.

2: Lighter or matches?

Lighter! I’ve got two. Both are Zippos. My first ever lighter I bought was this one because I liked the colour and design. The one I currently use is this one but I have “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the evilest son of a bitch in the valley” engraved on the back. It’s the same thing my dad had engraved on his lighter in Vietnam. On the lid it says “If you wanna root smile when you give this lighter back” because I thought it was funny. It hasn’t worked yet but that’s only because no one’s asked me for a light.

3: Do you leave the window open at night?

I can’t sleep unless it’s open.

4: Which cryptid do you believe in?

Unironically most of them. I am convinced of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, I’m convinced of sasquatch from personal experience, I have personally seen a yahoo, I’ve met ghosts, and I’ve seen UFOs. I believe that there’s creatures in Kakadu that are still Dreaming. I think the chupacabra is a coyote/fox with mange but I am convinced that it does exist. THERE ARE PANTHERS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.

5: What colour are your eyes?                                  

Blue-grey. Blue in sunlight, grey indoors. Colour depends on how much light they’re getting.

6: Why did you do that?

Because I wanted to.

7: Hair-ties or scrunchies?

Only ever grew my hair out once where it was long enough to need tying up and even then I rarely tied it up, but ties. They’re versatile.

8: How many water bottles are in your room right now?

One. Both of my canteens are in Matilda.

9: Which do you prefer, hot coffee or cold coffee?

Hot. I don’t trust people what drink cold coffee. You psychos scare me.

10: Would you slaughter the rich?

I don’t really do politics.

11: Favourite extracurricular activity?

Bushwalking. Hunting. Fishing. Writing.

12: What kind of day is it?

A really nice one. It’s night now but the frogs are croaking away outside with the crickets. Sky’s clear.

13: When was the last time you ate?

About an hour ago. Make one of those instant pasta meals.

14: Do you love the smell of the earth after it rains?

YES.

15: Are you a parent?

I have Misty. She definitely makes me feel like I'm parenting a toddler.

16: Can you drive?

I’m an excellent driver.

17: Are you farsighted or nearsighted?

Only slightly nearsighted. It’s not enough where it really has any effect, and I don’t have to wear glasses or anything. My vision is practically 20/20.

18: What hair products do you use?

Dog shampoo and the Sheila hates me for it. On the plus side it leaves me smelling nice and I don’t have fleas. It’s also a bonus because I can bathe Misty at the same time I bathe myself, which is how it all started anyway (she just HAD to pull me into the tub). Usually I’m doing spongebaths or bathing in rivers without any soap (I’m not going to fuck up an ecosystem just because I want to smell nice) but when I do find a hotel that takes animals or when I’m here in California, out comes the dog shampoo. I use TropiClean now. Smells like citrus.

19: Imagine we’re at a sleepover, would you paint my nails?

I haven’t painted anything in years and I’ve never painted anyone’s nails, but I’ve got a very steady hand so I reckon I could try.

20: Do you say soda or pop?

Neither. Fizz. It’s fizzy drink.

21: What’s something you’ve kept since childhood?

My stuffed bear. His name is Mr Bear because I wasn’t a very creative 2-year-old when I named him. I’ve had him since I was a baby.

22: What kind of person are you?

The… people kind? Scratch that. The cryptid kind. There’s at least two towns in Australia what have folklore about a ghost accompanied with a dog and a rifle slung across his shoulders. The amount of times I’d taken the piss out of people making that story come true is hilarious to me (and one of them is a story that originated within the past two years so I might actually be responsible for that one. Oops.)

23: How do you feel about chilly weather?

I don’t mind it at all. My area of California routinely gets frosts and hail (but never snow). Rural California taught me to tolerate cold, Australia taught me to tolerate heat.

24: If we were together on a rooftop, what would we be doing?

Drinking beer and stargazing. There’s literally no other reason for being on a rooftop, unless some assassin shit is going down, in which case I wouldn’t bring you with me because no witnesses.

25: Perfume/body spray or lotion?

Neither. My only fragrance is Hoppe’s #9, tobacco, and campfire smoke clinging to my clothes.

26: A scenario that you’ve replayed multiple times?

First time the Sheila read my fic and she gave me her thoughts on it. I go back and re-read that at least once a week. I live for it and sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps me writing.

Also just talking to people in general. I sit in Matilda and rehearse what I’m going to say for minutes before I actually go into the servo to get something. I always have a plan.

27: About how many hours of sleep do you get?

Usually anywhere from six to nine but I can run off 20-minute catnaps every few hours if needed for about 3 days before I need at least an hour of uninterrupted sleep (yes I’ve tested this).

28: Do you wear a mask?

I’m not around people. Ever. I wore a mask to my allergist the other day though. Unless it's required I'm not wearing one.

29: How do you like your shower water?

Cold. Hot is a luxury I can’t get used to.

30: Is there dishes in your room?

No. I always do my washing up immediately after eating. Handwash, hand dry, put them away.

31: What kind of music keeps you grounded?

Country.

32: Do you have a favourite towel?

No. Do people normally have favourite towels?

33: The last adventure you’ve been on?

Hunting in WA.

34: Is there a song you know every word to by heart?

Waltzing Matilda. Also And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Also Give Me a Home Among the Gumtrees.

35: What’s your timezone?

Right now? PDT.

36: How many times have you changed your URL?

I’ve only ever had one account before this (back when I was around 12) and lost the password. I’ve never changed this one’s URL since I made it.

37: Who is someone in your life (besides a relative) that you’ve known for 10+ years?

My rifle.

38: What’s a soap bar that smells good?

All of them? Reckon that’s the point of soap.

39: Do you use lip balm?

Like chapstick? No because I’m not a sook. Let your dehydrated lips crack and bleed like a real man.

40: Did you have any snacks today?

No.

41: How do you like your coffee?

Black as my soul. Really though, I like it black. No milk, no sugar.

42: What’s an app you frequently use besides this godforsaken website?

None. I have a Twitter but I only follow artists on there and I never use it.

43: What’s your take on spicy foods?

I don’t like spice. Burns my tongue. I’ll leave that to the ethanol.

44: You get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it?

Fuck off, FBI.

45: Can you remember what happened yesterday?

I went to the allergist, came home, took Misty for a long walk, made dinner, finished up a scene for chapter 11 and then got some paragraphs in for the next scene where Jesse is lusting after Mundy because he’s hot and then the Sheila and I spent twenty minutes sharing in communal brainrot over it.

46: Favourite holiday film?

Somewhere between Polar Express and A Christmas Story.

47: What was the last message you sent?

“Defo been hitting that gym,” referring to Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom.

48: When did you first try an alcoholic beverage?

Helped dad and a neighbour muster cattle all day, I was fucking exhausted, covered in sweat, and we lounged around in the shade of an oak tree like a couple of cowhands as we watched the cattle graze. The neighbour’s boy showed up with a few beers in his saddlebags. All four of us shared them. Neighbour’s boy was 17. I was 15. I earned that beer. On that note, I learnt to make screwdrivers when I was 10. I make a damn good screwdriver.

49: Can you skip rocks?

Excellently.

50: Can I tag you in random stuff?

Of course! I love being tagged in things. Bonus points for anything related to Sniper, Australia, or animals.

[xcal1bur25]

Largely agree, with a few comments. 1. Bakugou as "Shirou But Asshole" is probably the most brilliant bit of wasted potential i've ever heard cited in BNHA, and that's coming from someone who's favorite piece of fiction period is a BNHA fic that goes absolutely nuts on some of the sociopolitical aspects of that wasted potential. 1a. This is that fic. It fucks hard. The author deadass was inspired to write it after reading "the police swiftly restored order after the appearance of quirks" and then wrote this 75 chapter, 650k+ word fic out of pure spite. It's version of AFO? My actual favorite villain of all time. Makes the petulant entitled baby Canon AFO is exponentially more disappointing. It also, notably, does not shy away from the fact that what Bakugou does in the test is an actual for real murder attempt, and Izuku is left permanently, badly scarred from it. 2. Bakugou does technically have more to him than pure talent as a redeeming quality. Shoto has talent. What Bakugou has is the extremely potent combination of talent and work ethic. This does not do a single thing to fix his terrible, terrible personality, but he's not a lazy asshole coasting on a strong quirk. Explosion is a good quirk, it's not an easy quirk, and while Bakugou is certainly irresponsible in his usage of it - he does actually have an extremely high degree of actual skill in using it from the start, and can be very precise and controlled when he wants to be. Which is not as much as he should. But, the dude does actually know how to work hard, even outside quirk stuff, as shown by his legitimately good academic scores. 3. I don't actually count Bakugou getting off the horse as a real mark against him, or cheating. That's just standard shounen battle "think creatively within the context of the rules of the battle" stuff - and creatively working to use your powers within the constraints of the problem at hand is the main thing they're trying to foster and test there. I do not think Bakugou using a strategy that takes advantage of the specific wording of the rules of a contest is comparable to police abusing the specifics of the law. There's enough legit marks against him that I don't feel a reach like this is necessary to make a case here.

4. Okay. Going off the last point. Is BNHA copaganda? Well, it's complicated. First thing that's gotta be acknowledged outright - BNHA is Japanese. There's absolutely issues within the Japanese law enforcement and justice systems, make no mistake, but they are different issues. For example, stuff like the insane gun nut culture and obsession with violence and looking for excuses to kill criminals? The extreme paranoia and willingness to escalate a situation with a gun? Basically all the products of killology? Those are all american problems. So any sort of accusation of copaganda does need to take that into account. 5. This also brings me to the point that Pro Heroes aren't really cops. Cops are cops, and heroes are heroes. They are closely related professions that often work in concert, but they are different jobs. A Pro Hero is someone who is certified as having the training and qualifications needed to use their unique superpower in a first responder capacity to deal with the sort of crises that either require use of superpowers to fix, or where superpowers are critical in minimizing casualties and collateral damage. Sometimes that crisis is a natural disaster, sometimes it's someone else with superpowers using them to hurt people. There's aspects of their jobs in which they are similar to cops, but they are also just as much celebrities, and rescue workers, and relief workers. So, yes, you can kinda use examples of the way the story reacts to the actions of some heroes as copaganda, but also hero = cop is not a 1:1 comparison that the story supports. 6. The Ochako fight. This feels like another example of where personally I prefer to meet a story where it's at and criticize it there. If the story says "If Ochako touches Bakugou, that's a win condition for her" and "Both characters believe this to be true and they are correct to do so" then okay, I'm willing to take it at it's word. I don't think the fight is necessarily amazing, but a) This is not a situation in which Collateral Damage is a concern so I'm not willing to treat Ochako's usage of the environment as a mark against her, because there's literally no reason for her not to in this scenario, and b) I'm willing to meet the story where it's at and say that Bakugou was not deliberately dragging things out, he was fighting defensively against an opponent who had a touch-based win-conditon, where making things a battle of attrition seemed to be an effective and practical strategy for the situation. As for flying back - there's no proof that he would know how to do that safely when weightless, since flying with explosions probably requires a very good sense of how much a given blast is going to push him. 7. The school did gag him and tie him up for not wanting to accept a win he felt he hadn't earned. I feel that's a pretty legit grievance on his part towards the school. The story also doesn't touch on this, so this is still a fuck bnha moment, but Bakugou was not the person with the least mature reaction to his win over Shoto here.

8. It is at least worth stressing that he does say no. Like yeah, his justification for doing so is pretty dickish, but the people who had total faith in the fact that he wouldn't willingly cooperate with the LoV were, ultimately, completely justified in that belief. 9. I don't have a huge issue with AP shot. Shaped charge explosives exist, and Bakugou mastering a precision technique that minimizes collateral damage is actually...well, if he were a well written character this would be a good sign of growth for him. You have done a good job establishing that he doesn't grow as much as the story pretends he does, but this technique is one of the story's...better(?) attempts to pretend he's growing, imho. 10. Yeah why the fuck did he use that shitty name. His name in the original concept was Ground Zero. There's a reason all the fanfics use that name - because it's a) cool and b) actually symbolically pretty good in terms of representing growth. What with the "starting from zero in terms of rebuilding what a shit person I was" stuff mixed with a MUCH cooler explosion pun. I think the name having the word murder in it is like, part of a pun that is less stupid (but still stupid) in Japanese? So I'm willing to chalk part of it up to translation. But still. Otherwise yeah, if i didn't mention it, i more or less agree.

Let's talk about the Bakugou Problem

Yes, everyone, it's finally time, what is probably my most requested rant: The Bakugou Problem. Or rather, the Bakugou problems, because there's two:

The first is the fact that he's an unrepentant asshole who is only now, at the end of the manga, truly starting to realize basic shit like 'apologizing'. The second is that, for all intents and purposes, the Bakugou the characters seem to interact with is a different person than what we're being shown.

There's been plenty of deep dives on his issues, so I doubt I'll propose anything new, but this should fun anyways, right? Let's start here:

I think, at the core, Bakugou's problem is he just never grew up.

Way, way back early on, we see some flashbacks to Earlygou, and in summary? Earlygou is an ass. Fun fact: for all that it's commonly held that Bakugou grew worse over time after getting his Quirk? He called Izuku Deku before that. He was just a bit ahead of the class, looked at Izuku's name, and saw 'Deku'. Boom, he starts saying it, and it's only further entrenched in his mind as he outperforms his peers physically, while Izuku lags behind.

Then he gets his Quirk. Let's quote what he's told: 'Ooh, another impressive Quirk! You could be a hero with a Quirk like that, Katsuki!'

I know we all think he got coddled for his Quirk, and later on he was, but that? That was just a teacher giving him the verbal equivalent of a gold star. Meanwhile, Bakugou?

'Makes sense. I'm awesome. I'm better than everyone else!', he thinks, while having this look on this face like he's being enlightened to a Fundamental Truth. He took some generic praise and ran off with it.

So yeah, Earlygou was an ass. Here's the thing: a lot of kids are assholes. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but kids, really young kids who don't get how the world works at all, do and think a lot of impulsive, assholish shit, not because they think the world revolves around them, but because they can't comprehend a world that isn't all about them.

Here's another thing: kids grow out of that. They realize, eventually, that other people matter, that their actions have consequences, and all that other stuff that makes people into functioning adults.

I don't blame Earlygou for being an assholish child. I blame Bakugou for never growing beyond that. And it's interesting to think about that, because his parents seem legit. His dad is quiet, sure, but he's solid and down to earth, and while Bakugou clearly takes after his mother, she also seems to have gotten the 'morals' message he didn't, and has concerns that he didn't do the same. They're not poor, and are working in fashion, and implied to be doing well enough that, if they're not rich, they're at the very least well off.

So... school, I guess? Here's one of the times where the setting suffers for its lack of lower level development, because I would love to see what non-Aldera schools were like. Everyone else in 1A seems like they wouldn't have a major problem with Izuku being Quirkless, or at least be mild enough in their prejudices to not spend their free time torturing him. Is Aldera different? Is it an age thing? Are they just the good eggs and would have had assholish classmates who would act like Aldera did? Would other teachers be OK with how Izuku was treated (my limited understanding of the depressing Japanese view on bullying says, 'yes', but fuck if I know, and honestly, two hundred years in the future, shouldn't they be better than modern Japan)? More than that, the public view on Quirklessness is, for understandable reasons (cough cough Bakugou), highly underdeveloped, so we don't know how much Izuku was treated was the normal, but I think part of the reason Bakugou got so bad is that he had Izuku near him, as this convenient target. By pushing down on the 'acceptable' target, all his peers approved him, cheered him on, which both fed his ego and his popularity, and combined with his high-status Quirk, this cycle continued swelling his head until we reached canon Bakugou, king of all he surveys. The kids follow him, the teachers suck up to him, his potential, his future, all are limitless!!!!

...Sigh. Before I keep going, let me touch on one other thing: Izuku trying to save Bakugou after he fell when they were children.

On the first take, it seems utterly unreasonable, how badly he responded to that, right? And the second, and third, it still seems the same.

Someone, somewhere, said this take in a comment in a fic I read and I've never been able to forget it: think about it from the view of a heroic saturated society.

Think about it from the lenses of MHA, where All Might is a few steps short of a god in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him, especially the kids, and especially Bakugou and Izuku.

Look at that scene again, how Izuku reaches down for him. Overlay him with All Might.

That is what Bakugou saw: Izuku making himself unto All Might. While Izuku just wanted to save him, of course, somewhere deep in his unconcious Bakugou took that symbolism and ran with it, and reached a completely (ir)rational conclusion: Izuku was looking down on him. It went, I imagine, a little something like this:

All Might is the strongest. All Might looks like that when saves other people, who are weaker than him. Izuku is channeling All Might, therefore he is saying that he is stronger than me.

Bakugou, in his child mind, saw Izuku, not as helping him, but T-posing at him. To him, that was Izuku trying to assert dominance.

And he never got over that. Never grew beyond that impression. Do you want to know the worst part about it, though, when you look at it that way?

Think about Bakugou again, and his motivations, with your Bakugou Logic goggles on: All Might is strong. Bakugou wants to be strong like All Might. All Might asserts his power over others by saving them. Therefore?

Bakugou wants to save people like All Might.

Can you imagine if Bakugou was built of that dynamic? Like, with Shirou in Fate, if that scene was etched in his mind forever, and he was obsessed with remaking it over and over, but on his terms, with him as the savior? Him as the one looking down on the weak?

Still canon-style Bakugou, still an asshole, still lusting for power... but when asked what he wanted to do with it, or why, he would answer: so I can save everyone.

And even if it was for the crudest, most self serving of reasons, even if it was only so he could feel good about himself and lord it over everyone else that he was the one who saved them; it would have been so much better than canon. There's so much fascinating complexity to explore in a character like that, as well as a clear path to redeem him: under that logic, Bakugou would, over time, learn to save people, not for his own satisfaction, but just because it's the right thing to do. Hell, even the way people treat him would make more sense, because even if he was an asshole, if his motivation, which he cheerfully shouts about at any given moment, was to save people, then suddenly his acceptance feels more realistic, doesn't it? Him being compared to Izuku as a rival makes more sense when both of them are in it to save everyone, that core of heroism, but each represent a different part of how modern heroism is expressed, with Bakugou as the corrupt, media saturated part of it, while Izuku channels the original, pure spirit of heroics.

Can you imagine that with me? What could have been in another life? It could have been beautiful.

But, sadly, that's nothing more than a dream, and we should return back to reality (though I might want to expand on that at some point, it really does sound interesting to me).

Change and Improvement. These are words that some hold in the air whenever Bakugou is judged harshly, and they wave them like talismans to try and banish others objections.

Let me tell you a truth: change and improvement are hollow words without context. They are a statement that something has happened, not a measure of how much it has happening. In many ways, this is similar to a unit of measurement, like inches, and a number of inches. If you're talking about something, and you say, 'it can be measured in inches'.... that is generally unhelpful. Saying that it is, say, eight inches long is far more useful information.

Still, these aren't exactly moral statements, and change in particular is distinctly amoral. If something has 'improved a little bit' it, you know that it's better, and generally how much. But is it good now? Was it good then?

Let me put it another way: say that, once a day, every day, I appear to you out of the shadows and force you to eat a cup of shit. Exactly a cup, every day, at 2:30 PM, without fail; nothing you do to protect yourself from me makes any difference, nowhere you go is safe. You can't run. You can't hide. I am inevitable. The shit is inevitable. You will eat that shit, no matter what you think about it.

Then, one day, I come with only a half cup, and from then on you are only forced to eat a half cup of shit a day instead of a full one.

Isn't that both a change and an improvement? It's literally half as bad; doesn't that sound like a lot better? Yet, while that may be true, is the situation actually better in a meaningful way, or it as firmly negative as it was before? Should you be mewling gratefully to me that I'm being less horrible to you, or can you still hold a grudge against me for everything I've done to you and continue to do?

What if I apologized, one day, after forcing yet another half cup down your throat? What if I told you that I shouldn't have done it, but the way you looked, the way you acted, that vapid, cow-like look of joy on your face... it was just so shitty that I had to, that you made me do it? Then I say this changes nothing, and that we're still on for tomorrow for your daily dose at the normal time.

Tell me something: do you feel better? Has my generous apology moved your heart? Are we friends now?

This is Izuku's situation in a nutshell. Bakugou's treatment has changed, has improved even. It's reached a point where there are actual differences in Izuku's daily life. That doesn't mean it's still not shit treatment, and it doesn't matter if it's served in a cup or a tablespoon, shit is still shit. And the thing is Bakugou treated him like shit, and he still treats him like shit.

Context matters. So let's talk about the context. Let's talk about what Bakugou did.

Well, first off, there's the Deku thing, but I feel a lot people don't get how bad that is, so let's spell it out in detail. Once upon a time, as I've said, Bakugou was a little better at reading than everyone else. He looked at Izuku's name and saw 'Deku' in this, and thought it was hilarious, and so he started talking about it.

Bakugou looked at his name, and saw Useless in it. He didn't just call Izuku that, he said, this is in your name, it always has been there, to the point that, all these years later, he physically struggles to use Izuku's actual name.

For Izuku's entire childhood, the one person truly on his side, who truly loved him, was his mother.... who gave him that name.

In other words, every time Bakugou called him that name, with that history behind it? Bakugou was telling him that, when Izuku was born, Inko looked at the child she held in her arms, turned to the nurse, and said, "I'll call him... Useless."

He called him this, every day, every time they talked, for over a decade. Saying that the real meaning of the name his mother gave him was useless.

But it's not just that, even. He led the school, his neighbors, effectively everyone Izuku knew in anywhere near his age group, to call him that. There were probably people in Aldera who didn't know Izuku by any other name. There were probably times Izuku thought of himself by that name, that his name was Useless. It's not that big a reach from responding to it as his name, after all, and by the time the story start's he was well trained in responding to it.

Then, there's the more 'basic' bullying; insults, taking his stuff, breaking his stuff, using his Quirk on him. Again, for years and years, until Izuku is beaten down into terrified compliance, where Bakugou blowing up his stuff, his desk, and him* in front of a teacher isn't something anyone even really notices anymore. And why does he do it? Because it's fun. Because he feels strong breaking things, hurting people, being the big man on campus. Because he wants attention, respect, glory.

Because he can. Because it's fun.

(*And isn't that weird, when you think about it? Bakugou has been hands free with his Quirk on Izuku since they were, what, four? Why doesn't Izuku have burns?

Bakugou uses explosions. His hands can burn hot enough (probably as part of the lighting process) to burn clothes, and that's when he's clearly holding back with it. There's no way he's been careful enough, kind enough to not hit skin with that his entire life. So why doesn't Izuku have burns from all that?

Answer? There is no good reason. You can mention how MHA humans are, well, inhumanly strong, but we see heat resistant Shoto being burned with boiling water; it's not like they're immune to it. More than that, though, Izuku is explicitly Quirkless. He is a mortal in a world of magic. He wouldn't have that same kind of resiliency.

So Izuku isn't burned because, A, Hori didn't want his main character to be scarred over, both for aesthetic reasons, and probably for ease of drawing, and B, because that would make Bakugou look worse. Because even then, back when Bakugou had consequences, that would be too much consequences for him, that he permanently scarred Izuku, since the Heroes Rising was the original ending, and Bakugou was always supposed to be redeemed. Hori probably figured, if he thought about it, that that was too far for the readers to forgive him for, and finally, C, he just didn't think about the consequences of Bakugou's actions.

But let's be honest: Izuku would be burned. The fact he isn't is just the prettying up of the situation.)

This is where Bakugou starts from: abusing Izuku to the point where he doesn't dare protest out of years of deeply ingrained terror, doing his best to systematically destroy Izuku's life, while being careful to avoid going too far and damage his chances for UA, which judging by his comment on smoking, may be the only real internal check he has on his behavior.

Because that's the thing; he's cruel, but calculatingly so. He's not a wild animal. It motivates him, but he can think about his actions, think about the possible consequences of them, how they'll react... and as long as they won't harm him, he's all for it.

Then we go to UA, and when he realizes that 'Deku' has a Quirk? Much less such a strong one? He attacks. Viciously, instinctively he goes into attack. He's stopped, but no consequences are given (more on that later), so he doesn't stop. Why would he? All he's learned is this teacher won't let him attack Izuku without a motive.

And then he gets one. Bakugou walks into the Battle Trial planning what he'll do to Izuku. His first words in there are don't dodge... which is especially bad considering what he'll say in a little bit.

His plan? To beat the living shit out of Izuku, to vent all his frustration on him, but stopping just short of it being bad enough for the Trial to be stopped. And as Izuku defies him (by dint of not letting himself be beaten up), he gets angrier and angrier at him for the gall of it, for the audacity to not lay down and let Bakugou beat him up until he feels better, until it reaches the point where Bakugou brings out those gauntlets of him.

'Dammit, Deku, don't dodge me!' 'He won't die if he dodges!'

Yeah. He says both of these things in the space of the same fight. When Bakugou fires that damn gauntlet of his, he's finally reached the point where, for the first time we've seen, he's no longer thinking of the consequences even a little. He wants to kill Izuku, if only to prove that his Quirk, that he, is better (note this too; we'll talk more later about this) than Izuku and his Quirk.

Well, for obvious reasons, that doesn't work out for him, since Izuku's Quirk is the strongest in existence, and small fraction of it, badly used, is still enough to clap Bakugou's attack, enhanced by support equipment (who the hell approved that, by the way? It literally destroys buildings. It seemingly exists for no other reason than to cause massive collateral damage). Then he's forced into an existential crisis when Deku 'wins'. His arm is broken, he's beat up, but by the rules of the game he won anyways and because of that, Bakugou's world collapses.

This, more than anything, I think is Bakugou's true catalyst for change: not being saved by 'Deku', but losing to him. Granted, being saved is enough to force him to avoid him, but it probably helped that Izuku only bought him moments of air. He may have saved him, but All Might did the work, All Might the strongest, the greatest, his idol.

This though? This was Izuku surpassing him, and all on his own.

And I want to pause to consider something here: something that was stressed since the beginning of the story, and still is, besides the terrible mixed messaging at times, is that being heroic is more important to being a hero than sheer ability. Izuku was heroic with his complete lack of ability at the start, after all, while All For One is one of the strongest beings in the setting, and is the farthest thing from heroic. And when you look at Bakugou, as we're introduced to him? There's not a speck of that in him. There's no kindness, no mercy, no sympathy; Bakugou has no positive aspects to him. He has talent, talent for days, but talent isn't a person, a personality. He is a creature of pure ability, and nothing more, and that makes him a singularly unheroic creature.

But the story continues, and Bakugou is forced to confront his own weakness compared to his classmates... except, you know, he doesn't. Even as he does everything wrong, as picks fight with classmates, teachers, villains he should be avoiding... he faces no real consequences for it.

Because, as I've said? Bakugou used lethal force on Izuku. Knowingly. As a teacher tells him not to. That... that sounds like something that even a normal school would be concerned about, much less this elite school that is focused around being a hero, and whose student body is largely comprised of very lethal people, who they intent to unleash upon the world with minimal restrictions on their behavior.

I mean, forget the school; why is All Might fine with this? Aizawa? Nezu? Any of these teachers? How about all of their fellow students, all of who are heroic, and watched this happen live, and All Might's response, no less?

This is the second problem of Bakugou: what they see, talk to, and interact with, doesn't seem to match with the reality that we see, and these two problems are so intertwined that is hard to talk about them separately.

Because on Day One of school, Bakugou attempts to murder his fellow student, and no one cares. The worst he gets is a waggled finger. The fact that he isn't expelled is mind boggling beyond belief, when you pause for a second and consider that fact.

Aizawa talks like he just rough housed too hard or something, and the worse thing All Might mentions is failing the exercise.

This is something that many people have talked about, and at times have named many different ways. For this, I've decided to call it, 'Bakugou's Tsundere Field', because it makes other people act like Bakugou is tsundere, acting tough but with a kind heart, instead of just... acting like a shit person. You know, like he does.

Like I said, it's hard to realistically seperate that from Bakugou's general behavior, so I'm just going to keep going and point it out as I go along.

Next, let's talk about... the Sports Festival. The Sports Festival is where, if you need the reminder, Bakugou starts things off by insulting everyone else and making them hate his class. Twice.

First, by insulting the, admittedly vulture like crowd gawking over 1A's near death experience (I still don't like that), and the second as the valedictorian, where his 'speech' is his two sentence statement that he's going to be first... and yet, for some reason, Izuku watches this and marvels over how he's changed. Because normally, he'd do this but he'd be gloating. Izuku. Izuku. This isn't some mind boggling big thing to be in awe of.

Actually, let's chat about that a bit, because that's honestly such a big problem it's almost a third concern on it's own right: Izuku is our major narrator, right? So we get a lot of our views on Bakugou from his perspective, and... well, he's very much an unreliable narrator, whenever it comes to Bakugou. Every time he talks, there's this sense of awe in it that's been there ever since he was a child; it taints his narrative every time he talks about Bakugou, makes it always more positive than it should be.

Because, wow, Bakugou, that's different from before, an improvement, right? Well guess what? That shit is still shit, even if there's less of it. Izuku is just so biased, so traumatized, such... an abuse victim, that he he takes what Bakugou gives him and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, because he, Deku, has no self respect, and Bakugou is the biggest and the baddest, the most beloved of their childhood, and it's something he never seems to get past. Even when he stands up to Bakugou, fights him, he still can't get past staring at him in awe, and barely ever complains about how he's being treated.

And because Izuku is our main viewpoint? This view on Bakugou taints our view on him, and it's easy to look at him with Izuku's admiring eyes.

But I digress. In the cavalry battle, Bakugou basiclly breaks the rules by flying off the horse, but gets away with it because of a technicality, which, you know, is great impulse to nurture: it's fine as long as it's technically legal! Sounds really heroic, right? Like something you want your law enforcement to live by?

Meanwhile, during this same fight, both Aizawa and All Might praises him for his ambition, and I just. Do you know what Bakugou says right before they think about that?

'I'm going to be Number One and leave piles of bodies in my wake!', he screams, while literally throwing a tantrum on national television and hitting the top of Kirishima's head like it's a desk.

...Wow. You know what? Maybe you two are mixing tenacity with bloodlust. That's one of the least heroic things I've ever heard in my life, and yet everyone just falls over themselves to praise him for it just because he's not content to settle for second place.

It's times like that I have to wonder: are they... are they seeing something different than what we do? Are all of Bakugou's most violent phrases and actions edited out for them? Did Hori add them for his fans? Or is it just The Tsundere Field(TM)?

Not even mentioning third stage where: he's praised for taking a woman 'seriously' for no apparent reason, and dragging it out when he would normally, just like he always does, just leap in mindlessly to attack, and this one time he really thinks it through it backfires when Ochaco turns it back around on him, only for him to just... over power it, with no ill effects. This comes with the double plus stupid on his part of him doing that because he's... what, afraid of her touching him?

Seriously? This entire post exists for me to call Bakugou out, but even I can't call him a coward. Every time he fights a villain, all of which want to kill him, and one who has Ochaco's power but lethal, he still charges in. Moreover, all it does it make you weightless; Bakugou's power explicitly gives him a way around that; if she tosses him, he can just fly back to the stage.

So... why is this a thing? This is a thing so, when the heroes, who at this point are symbolizing the audience's discontent with Bakugou, start complaining, Aizawa can step in, verbally slap them, us, and then explain how great Bakugou is, which get magnified by how casually he shoots down her plan at the end.

And here's the super special bonus problem with all of this: a hero's job isn't to protect themselves. A hero's job is to protect everyone else. Even if they, personally, are hurt, a hero is expected to risk their health, and lives, so that the general public is safe. You want to know what the problem is when protecting yourself and allowing the villain time to do things in the process? It means they get to do things. Like, say, set up a giant meteor shower that could cause mass casualties? You know, like what Ochaco actually did as Bakugou held back?

This is that plan that, need I remind you, Eraserhead was defending.

Then there's the fight with Shoto where, under the actual logic of the setting, according to Hori's very notes on how their Quirks work, Shoto should have froze him and thusly stopped him in his tracks, no fire needed, since it would stop Bakugou from sweating. But, instead, Bakugou powers through, somehow, and clinches a win anyways. And then, and this is after he eavesdrops on Shoto's conversation, BTW, which means he knows exactly why Shoto doesn't use his fire, he throws a fit that Shoto didn't use his fire on him anyways (which, considering he sweats nitroglycerin, means he would have exploded).

Now let's look at the Intern Arc, and I'll be honest: no matter how much a non-character Best Jeanist, I'll always be a fan of him for one simple reason:

When everyone else looked at Bakugou, and says, 'This kid is awesome', this is the one person in the entire setting who saw a problem. And as a bonus, he acts to do something about it.

In the same vein, I'll never forgive Hori for making him seem like such a pretentious twit, much less how hard he ends up cheering for Bakugou's every word later in the series. I'm relooking at these manga chapters, and his big attempt seems to be... jelling up Bakugou's hair, and... something like focusing the body and mind via the power of... tight jeans.

Wow. I mean, wow. The one time we get someone honestly, actually trying to change Bakugou for the better, to call him for what he is, and his big plan to do this is apparently giving him a new look.

Really? Like, beyond how much of a failure of an opportunity this is, beyond how it makes Best Jeanist look useless, it can give the reader that the impression that the reason why Bakugou is so wild and untamed is that those who want to reign him in are elitists who are wildly disconnected to reality, that he is right to be this way, because people following the rules are just holding him back.

And we come to... sigh. The Final Exam test. The fact that anyone who has spent five minutes with Izuku and Bakugou thinks that this clustefuck needs to happen is more proof of the terrifying powers of the TF. I mean, I just... when one person is constantly yelling, constantly aggressive, constantly swearing, constantly throwing fits, and this same person is constantly picking fights with another student, who, at worst, defends himself, and and more often just seems to take it..... what do you think they need?

Is it to be thrown together into a teamwork based, sink or swim test with seemingly enormous penalties for failure? Or is it to make one of them get therapy? And also detention?

Well, according to All Might, Aizawa, Nezu, and who knows who else....

*shrugs helplessly*

If only we could use Bakugou's powers for good, rather than making Izuku suffer.

But we can't. So the school locks an abuser and his victim together in a pseudo-deathmatch where teamwork is required to survive, as a form of therapy to treat the lack of cooperation that comes entirely from one party. Wonderful.

And, as anyone could predict, this promptly goes terribly. Bakugou attacks his teammate for the crime of... *checks notes* trying to work together with him against All Might, the strongest being in the setting. This is such a terrible crime because *checks notes again* ...Bakugou can totally take him.

Bakugou Katsuki, everybody. A 'genius' with the brain of a yipping chihuahua trying to fight a mastiff.

Recovery Girl watches this happen live and just goes, 'They're just absolutely the worst team, those two."

And oh, and I'm going to be honest, when you look at Recovery Girl she's kind of a piece of shit. She barely gets any scenes and any time they involve Izuku (a lot of that small amount) they are pure ass. But this? This just takes the cake.

Wow. They're such bad teammates, sure. Such heroic insight. Why, that's like saying putting Muscular on the same team with Kouta would be a bad team! That would have some truly terrible teamwork as well, right? It's something that is technically correct, but is just.... so heinously missing the core of the problem that you honestly have to wonder what in the actual fuck she's thinking. All Might and Aizawa, at least, have the excuse that they don't see that, at least as far as we know, but she deadass watches it happen, what the fuck.

And, as it has often been pointed out, Bakugou passes, after attacking his teammate and being carried out afterwards while Sero, who heroically sacrifices himself for the win and never once attacks his teammate, loses for exactly the same thing.

Simply marvelous.

Now let's move Training Camp Arc... where, when Bakugou is informed in the middle of an attack by villains that he is the target (and oh, we'll get to that in a moment). What is his first response to this? What does he do?

Le-fucking-roy right at them. Here's something that bothers me about how the story talks about Bakugou: he's so intelligent, he's analytical, all this stuff... but every time he gets into a fight? Or near a fight? His response is always, always to jump in. Needless to say, a heedless charge at the problem backfires, and he's captured. Surprise!

And back to Bakugou as target: the League of Villains watch him on TV and the first thing they thought about him is, I like the cut of his jib.

The worst people look at Bakugou and say he's clearly one of them.

This... this is something that's never really discussed. There's a press conference, Aizawa basiclly says he's too heroic to ever join them (ironically, since Bakugou's argument isn't about heroism or villainy, but that they're losers), and this just... never comes up again. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about anything after Eraserhead gives him that support

No one is concerned that, hey, maybe he did actully join them. Or the man with ten-thousand Quirks did something to him, brainwashed him, and honestly? That's not even a reach. That is actually what AFO was planning to do to him. This is a setting, need I remind you, where actual brainwashing Quirks exist, much less whatever the fuck happens to the Nomu and no one is concerned, after they all agree that there is already a mole, that Bakugou could become another mole, or maybe even was that original mole in the first place. No one goes, 'Hmm, well, the scum of Japan think he's one of them, maybe this is something we should be concerned about?'

I mean, fuck, no one just sits Bakugou down and tells him to pull his shit together, your image is ass and the media is probably going to be watching you until you die, ready to stain you with the accusation of villainy, and they can make your life hell if you slip up, and so far you don't seem even seem to care. Also, your heroic career, that you're oh so concerned about, is never going to get off the ground if everyone thinks your a villain, and a villain will never be Number One.

There's just... nothing. Bakugou is made out of warning signs, one the entire fucking setting ignores at times, but this is just... fuck.

Alright. Bakugou vs Izuku Two; Wank Bakugou Harder!

Actually, no. Before that... let's talk about one of the major lead ups to that: Bakugou finding out about OFA. Why? In part to force him into the plot, sure, but a large part of it is Izuku feeling... guilty. He feels guilty for lying to him, guilty for seeming to have a Quirk of his own; I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just want to talk about how fucked up that mentality is, that he felt he owed Bakugou that. He owes Bakugou nothing. Bakugou isn't his friend, isn't even his acquaintance, he's his abuser. Bakugou doesn't treat him in a way that deserves such sympathy, much less information on one of the greatest secrets in the setting. If Bakugou wants to assume that Izuku somehow hid that he had a Quirk for his entire life? Allowed himself to be constantly beat down, insulted, and mistreated, and for what? For this one gotcha moment of surprising Bakugou? Let him. If he's too stuck in his own idiocies to think of anything else, let him wallow in his own ignorance.

Anyways, BvI2: also known as that time Bakugou pulled his frequent victim aside to attack him and both of them got in trouble for it.

And this is billed as this big thing for Izuku, but he fights against Bakugou, metaphorically, all the time, and he's already had this big moment of physical defiance in BvI1. This fight isn't about Izuku, on any level. This fight exists solely for Bakugou. It starts because he starts it, he starts it because he feels upset and violence is apparently how he sorts through his emotions, and he wins it because he needs to.

But not just because he needs to win, oh no, there's more to that. Thematically, you see, this is important for Bakugou's growth. Or rather, the idea of his growth that never seems to persist between his growth moments. You see, thematically, Bakugou stands for victory via force, but him winning this fight doesn't make him right, doesn't give him All Might's approval, and to him, that's almost a paradox; that paradox is needed to move beyond who he is.

But that's the thing though. Bakugou needs it. Bakugou needs to win for Bakugou's growth. This growth is, both literally and thematically, at the expense of Izuku, because Izuku? If he won this, just... out matched Bakugou in a fight, no tricks, no technicalities, no crippling injuries, none of the things from their first fight? That would have been huge for him, for his confidence. It would have been Izuku, heroic Izuku, finally and truly eclipsing his old bully in every possible way, and that would have been great for him, for his confidence, for his self respect. Moreover, though, that still would have been good for Bakugou, because even when he loses, he never loses, and he could use an actual, humbling defeat to help screw his head on straight.

But Bakugou loses all the time, I hear people say? He lost in their first fight, true, but that's a technicality; anyone looking at them would know who won combat wise. He won the Sports Festival, even though he bitches about how it wasn't 'right'. He loses against All Might, sure, but All Might is the strongest man on the planet; that loss means nothing. Moreover, he wins against him through the goal of the exam at the end anyways. He loses to the villains, sure, but it was a bunch of them against him; it wasn't a fair fight, which is the whole reason him picking it was stupid in the first place. And now, here, he could have finally had a real loss to give him some perspective... but he doesn't.

Moreover, Hori just... hypes up Explosion as a Quirk more than it really deserves. Is it a good Quirk? Strong? Sure. But let's be honest here: he sweats nitroglycerin. Literally, his Quirk is his two parents mashed together into the best possible option, and it's basiclly lazy ass chemistry via genetics. There is, by the very definition of the substance that he explicitly makes, a cap to how much it can do with a certain volume; that's why new, more explosive explosives were made to replace it

One For All, all the heroic thematics aside, is literally just pure power. All Might changes the weather with a punch on accident; I'm convinced if he punched the ground and meant it, he could actually fuck up Japan as a island. The cap with OFA is yes. There is no way, under the logic of the setting, that Bakugou can ever contest that.

Like, look at Endeavour: when he wants more fire, he makes more fire. It's bigger. What the fuck is Bakugou going to do, rain his sweat on people? What happens when he dehydrates, because again, this is his sweat, which comes from his body? Cluster doesn't even make sense, really, that he somehow super concentrates it to make it more powerful, and AP Shot is literally him making a circle with his fingers before blowing up a bomb in it, yet somehow it makes, like, a laser?

The thing is that more loose Quirks, like Endeavour's, again, aren't as limited to science as the more 'realistic' Quirks like Bakugou's, so there's nothing really saying he can't just... make more flames. He could damage himself, sure, but since he already pulls that shit out of nothing, Endeavour increasing the volume of his magic ass firebending isn't hard to accept. Hori wrote himself into a hole here because if Bakugou just made explosions by magic? If he just... conceptually made explosions? A lot of this stuff would make sense (except AP Shot; fuck AP Shot), and it feels like that's how he treats it sometimes. But that's not what he did: it was his Dad's Acid Sweat with his Mom's Glycerin which means he sweats explosive sweat. And then, when it's convenient, he has shit like the Gauntlets, and basiclly all the rest of his support gear, that are explicitly filled with his sweat.

Bakugou's powers are basiclly whatever the fuck Hori wants at any given moment, and it's honestly frustrating when he tried to play so much of this setting's powers so seriously at first, and Bakugou's Quirk in particular is explained more than almost anyone else, and yet he tosses it the moment he thinks of something that sounds cool.

...But I've gotten off topic. The point is, OFA is OP and Izuku should have just won that on pure ability alone.

Anyways, after all this, the teachers finally come, once it's settled in Bakugou's favor, and they're both in trouble. For a fight that was 100% Bakugou's fault.

So, throughout all of this, Bakugou has changed, yes, but beyond the first couple of days, the changes have been grudging and glacial, and the reasons why are best exemplified in the License Exam where we find out that, for all intents and purposes, Bakugou is incapable of showing basic empathy. I mean, fuck, he fails to show that when, with any amount of logic, much less that of the genius Bakugou, would say that now is the time to fake it. An actual, factual sociopath would do better than him, purely because they would know to act for their own betterment.

(And the fact that his teachers look at this, explicit proof that he is seemingly incapable of actually trying to save a person, but do nothing with this information speaks volumes.... mostly about how bad Hori is at writing Bakugou and the implications of what he does constantly. Surely there's no way that, without the Author hyping him up, they'd just let that slide, right? ...Right?)

But, then, hope on the horizon! He has a make up exam, and it's apparently centered around pounding basic morals/how to deal with civilians into his thick skull! Surely, this is the time Bakugou will finally, finally, get the point, right?

And that's the thing: he does. There's this, probably to other people, touching moment where he sees himself in this asshole kid and talks about how you can't just look down on people. And it's like... finally. Finally! The switch has finally been flicked! He gets it! Change, improvement, development, fina-

Then the second he gets out of it he promptly goes back to calling everyone extras.

That dynamic in many ways is the perfect embodiment of Bakugou's development, and it's... It's like watching someone fighting off a disease. There's an infection, right and symptoms increase. Sometimes the symptoms appear out of nowhere, sometimes they increase over the span of several days. They peak, finally, then they fall back down, again either dramatically, or over the span of several days, and then you are back to normal.

Bakugou makes changes. He makes realizations. He gets 'humbled'. He has a single moment of heroism that the narrative hypes up, sometimes with a bit of build up before hand for a few chapters, and with people sometimes reacting to it for a few chapters afterwords.

And then it passes, like he's just finished fighting off a case of Morals.

You see, Bakugou is well liked. And, honestly, I get it. The asshole can be therapeutic to root for, at times. The problem is that he's too popular, and that this story is too about people being good. So Bakugou, to keep the fan base, to keep the sales, has to stay Bakugou, stay the unrepentant asshole constantly telling people to die.

But, at the same time, Bakugou is an anti-hero, basiclly, and this is a setting that just... can't handle the complexity of an anti-hero, in how people react to them, what they do and the morality of it, how it would affect society and so on, and so Bakugou can't stay as Bakugou, has to grow and be better and become a hero proper.

So... Hori goes, 'Why not both?' Thus, Bakugou gets his moments of 'development', and a slow, slow, slow trend to the better, and the fans get to see him do his thing, even though he's 'changed'. And it's easy, when you just sit back and accept the narrative, to believe that. But if you don't....

All of that? It makes his character empty because after a certain point, it's clear that Bakugou won't change, in so many fundamental levels, even if everyone around him acts like he does. Like attacking his teammates, like blindly charging the enemy , like constantly insulting everyone around him is just different because he's The New Bakugou now, like it's just fun and games, even when this was a dead serious problem early on. He didn't stop, he didn't change, or dial it back; everyone else just started acting differently when he does it. The same way in day one he attacks Izuku for having a Quirk, far later on he throws his metal... hair thing at him for daring to talk about his Quirk. And it, like, impales him, but haha! It's just funny now, it's so funny, that we can apparently see Izuku's brain! It's funny that, when Izuku is seriously thinking about his predecessors, Bakugou just instantly insults them for not being famous! Look at how patient Izuku is dealing with him as he acts like a bratty five year old child throwing a fit, look how fond All Might is as he insults his beloved teacher that he probably has deep seated trauma about regarding her untimely death!

In the War Arc, where Bakugou 'Rises'? Maybe ten minutes before his 'Rise', he was threatening to attack Izuku for daring to ask why he's following him. In a war zone.

The entire story, Bakugou has been described as a creature of instinct, a natural born warrior with a talent for battle. All of that is to contrast him with Izuku: where Izuku, instinctively, has the urge to save, Bakugou has the instinctive urge to fight. This is fundamental to him, a core characteristic, one of the (many) ways it's explained about how good he is at fighting.

And yet, suddenly, when Izuku is in danger, he moves without thinking (aka instinctively), but it's not attack Shigaraki, which, you know, he was shouting about doing not too long ago, it's to save Izuku.

And. And am I supposed to believe that?

I mean, fuck. In the FInal Arc, he has a Big Speech in response to SFO: about being 'way over fear and rejection since long ago', which SFO was talking in the context of how they create inequality in society, and how he wants to fix it... which, doesn't that mean Bakugou just doesn't care about them? Because being over them doesn't actually solve them, genius, it just means you, personally, are beyond them, and even now, he still treats everyone like they're unequal to him. Bakugou has always been the one to profit from inequality in society, between his Quirk, his talent, his well off family, so honestly all of that rings hollow.

He talks about how he has friends now, who are willing to move beyond them, and OK, that works a bit better, except when he still doesn't treat them like friends, in fact not too long ago he yelled at Momo for getting his stupid ass chuunibyou name wrong.

Or, maybe a minute later, when Bakugou gets a power up and/or realization about how SFO moves or something, and you know what he does? He instantly charges in blindly, alone, and is killed over it. Right after this speech about teamwork, while everyone was just... cheering his determination, and prissy Best Jeanist says, with a straight face and actual awe, 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'.

And then when he sees Bakugou get smacked around, Eraserhead's first thought is to scream, desperately, 'Save him! Save him so he can try and become the Number One Hero!' in the middle of all this shit that is happening.

All of this is presented to us as this... thrilling thing, with music that is going to be swelling in the background when its animated, and everyone cheering him on, right before he's tragically struck down for being too stupid to live (no, seriously, SFO actually lampshades this. Before this big 'dramatic' moment, he says that getting up close to him is pure idiocy, and all that it will do is allow you to get get smashed by an All Might like power. Then, you know, Bakugou closes in, again, because he had bitchslapped Bakugou before, and then a second time during that boast, and it goes exactly as SFO said) and we're supposed to mourn him. Again, actually, even though this is a blatant set up for him powering up, since this is literally the same set up as the War Arc.

All of this work, all of this emotion, and all of it rings hollow because, well, it's Bakugou, and no amount of trying to hype up teamwork battle is going to make it work for me when the second the Big Moment is over he reverts to his normal asshole routine.

That Tsundere Field, guys. Too strong, too broken.

While I'm at it, let's talk about Bakugou being Quirkist, because, well, he is. It's a big part of his early character: the reason he rags on Izuku so hard, so successfully, the reason he's so big and important as a child, is about Quirks. When they get introduced the past users? His first comment is that they have weak Quirks.

Izuku saves him and he still doesn't think much about him; it's only later when he starts actually acknowledging Izuku.

When he has a Quirk.

And it's not just a Quirk, it's more than that: it's a strong Quirk, powerful. Enough for him to defeat Bakugou. All the respect Bakugou builds for Izuku? And while it stagnates for awhile, I do have to admit he does respect Izuku more than he did originally... and it's not because Izuku is kind, or heroic; he still hates that. No, he starts respecting Izuku because he is strong. His respect isn't about Izuku as a person, it's about Izuku's Quirk. All his respect, slowly built up throughout the series, comes from the corrupt foundation that Izuku is worth respecting only because he has a Quirk. Later, this gets worse because he learns about OFA and starts valuing Izuku as important, but it's only because his Quirk is important. It's All Might's Quirk. His second fight with Izuku is because of it's All Might's Quirk. He starts training him (that one time, and apparently never gain) because it's All Might's Quirk. When Izuku goes 'rogue'? And when he heroically goes to hunt him down? One of the first thing he does is talk about how he's so great because he has One For All, and then calls him an All Might wannabie*.

And you know what? I just talked about Class A hunting down Izuku recently, but let's talk about that more, because I hate it so much.

I really, honestly wonder if Hori is blind to the parallel he set up here, or if he invoked it on purpose, to try and show how Bakugou has 'improved'.

Look back at the first chapter, where we first see Bakugou. Think about that dynamic: Izuku, beaten down, on one side, while on the other, Bakugou. Strong, proud, with minions at his back, all of them ready to throw down at his command.

The thing is? The first time is shown as clearly villainous in nature, a cruel bully against someone who is weak but heroic. The second time, everything is the same, but it's shown differently. Bakugou is being shown as heroic for doing this, heroic for leading Izuku's friends to hunt him down, heroic for attacking him.

*And ah, Bakugou the Hypocrite. Let's finish this up by talking about Bakugou's name. When we first talk about hero names, Bakugou's naming sense is much like it is for his final name, and Midnight promptly shoots down every one of them because, well, they aren't heroic, and the story pokes fun at him a little because he clearly doesn't get it.

Then it's the War Arc. Bakugou has 'grown', there's all this hype for his big heroics moments, and he announces his new name... Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. And I'm just wondering... am I getting punked? This is the the same shit as before! No, actually it's worse than that, it's bigger, longer, and more ridiculous.

The universal response is that it's tacky. Nejire thinks it's disgusting. Mirio literally thinks it's a joke.

But the story itself treats it seriously, and over time? People start accepting it, taking it seriously as well, treating that stupid name with respect. What the fuck kind of hero name has the word murder in it? What kind of hero calls himself a god?

And finally, it's Dynamight. Which resembles All Might, the Greatest, Most Beloved Hero, the one Bakugou has always considered the best and viewed as his goal to surpass.

And yet he says that Izuku, who is calling himself Deku, is the one viewing himself as an All Might wannabie.

[pure-ablution]

Do you know any similar bracelets and jewelry to Cartier Love Bracelets, that are just really basic and simple? I want to buy some jewelry that can be worn anywhere.

The Love Bracelet is the ultimate basic rich girl bracelet. I don’t really wear mine anymore but I used to wear it all the time, it’s ubiquitous and can be worn with any casual daytime outfit without causing any undue fuss or attention. The Love Bracelet is weird because it’s so well-known, everyone and their mother has a rep these days and it’s seen on the wrists of prostitutes and princesses, and yet it can still somehow go unnoticed as long as you don’t actually jangle it in people’s faces. From afar it looks like a simple gold or silver bangle, it’s unobtrusive and honestly, I do think that every girl could do with having a 15-dollar rep tucked in the back of her jewellery box, just in case.

Basic simple bangles:

Olivia Le, £45; Lily & Roo, £75; Karin Andréasson, £116; Dower & Hall, £165

The basic, simple bangle is what I prefer over the Love Bracelet these days. You can show a bit more character, go vintage or niche, designer or high street, and have a little fun with it. I love my vintage Tiffany bamboo bangle and I wear it all the time, and I collect enamel bangles from Michaela Frey, too. I’ve chosen a selection of gold-plated bangles (all—apart from Olivia Le—also available in silver!) that I think are fun but simple enough to go with everything, but you could really put anything in this category, it all depends on your personal style. Wear them stacked or on their own, they work both ways and give a little lift to an otherwise boring outfit.

Love bracelet dupes:

QVC Diamonique, £30; Kate Spade, £75; Coach, £95; Tory Burch, £165

These are just a few dupes (i.e. Cartier ‘inspired’ pieces) I found whilst looking through the ‘product’ section on Google. The Love Bracelet is iconic and has been copied and reinterpreted by almost every brand, and I’m fairly sure you could get a dupe at Claire’s at this point if you looked hard enough. I’ve linked pieces at a range of price points from brands I trust not to steal your money or break upon first wear; there are a lot of shady jewellery sites these days, and not only the cheap ones, either, so if you’re looking for an ‘inspired’ bracelet rather than a straight-up fake, then I recommend you stick to known brands and mid-tier jewellery houses.

Straight-up reps:

If you live in, or are going to soon visit, South or West Asia, then get yourself down to the jewellery district, into the bazaar or souk, and find yourself a decent jeweller or gold merchant. It’s almost too easy to find perfect, solid gold replicas of one of the world’s most famous bracelets. The same goes for Southeast Asia, I know several excellent jewellery merchants in Indonesia and Malaysia who do amazing replicas and fantasy pieces from all the big houses. What I will say is that gold is soft, and scratches easily—genuine Love Bracelets notoriously scratch like hell, and all the solid gold replicas I’ve seen have scratched equally as badly.

I personally think that, unless you’re in pursuit of 1:1 perfection, then you’re better off buying stainless steel from China. It won’t scratch as much, and it’s cheap. There are two factories producing the largest proportion of replica Love Bracelets in China, and they both make at what I’d consider to be a low-mid tier, the interior details of the bracelets are incorrect and the screws are set too deep, but unless you take it off and show it to people who have an eye for jewellery and the authentic bracelet on hand for reference, nobody is going to call you out. There’s no point, in my view, in paying hundreds for 18k Chinese reps when you could contact an Indonesian or Indian or Emirati merchant and have the same thing for much less, and there’s no point in buying mid-tier through WhatsApp sellers when they source from exactly the same factories as DHGate and AliExpress. I’d drop links but they’d expire quickly anyway, so just go on AliExpress, find yourself a jewellery seller with over a 97% approval rating and reviews with photographs, message the shop and ask for real photos before you buy, pay like £25 max for your bracelet and go off on your merry way.

[newengen]

#ReelTalk: If You're Not Advertising on Reels, You're Missing Out

Ad Creative is the Key to Strong Targeting

Gone are the days of 3rd-party event-based ad targeting. The loss of third-party cookies and shifting consumer behaviors have required Meta to deploy a content-first algorithm, which means that ad creative is more important than ever when it comes to campaign optimization. Here’s a quick recap of how the creative growth narrative has changed over the last several years:

Meta’s new algorithm leverages AI to understand what content resonates with a given consumer and uses these learnings to deliver hyper-relevant ads. The benefit to advertisers on the platform is that they are empowered to cater to their target audience and reach new, high-potential consumers - and ad creative is the key.

This is where Reels come into the picture. In our latest webinar, Supercharge Your Ads with Reels, New Engen leaders, joined by Meta, laid out the mechanisms that make Reels the most valuable ad format on the platform right now. Plus, New Engen VP of Creative, Nora Bafus, shared her tips for cracking the creative code on Reels.

Why Reels Are So Valuable to Advertisers Right Now

Meta has reported impressive findings from advertisers leveraging Native Reels as a cornerstone of their ad creative, to the tune of +29% CVR, + 13% ROAS, and +3% in Reach. “At New Engen, we want to be a little bit critical of the numbers we get from Meta and cross-reference it with our owned data,” says DJ Sutton, Director of Media Services at New Engen. To validate Meta’s claims, we surveyed the New Engen client portfolio and found that Reels are driving a +40% Watch-Through Rate than Feed and Story Video Ads, and they’re doing it at -75% Cost per Reach. Simply put, consumers are engaging with Reels more than any other ad placement, and there is a surplus of ad inventory available to advertisers if they choose to use it.

The way Kevin Goodwin, New Engen VP of Media & Strategy, sees it, “[Reels] are a little bit of a layup right now which is a rarity in the digital space.” Marketers have had to navigate ever-growing rates of competition, but Reels can offer a breath of fresh air in an otherwise saturated digital landscape. To put this into context, we compared the investment return of two New Engen clients, based on the share of ad spend each was allocating to Native Reels Ads. Client 1 was investing 25% of ad spend into Reels, while Client 2 was investing a majority 98% - in terms of return, Client 2 was indisputably seeing better results, to the tune of a 25% lift in ROAS.

How to Create Winning Reels Ads

If there’s one thing you take away from this article, it’s that there’s no creative hurdle too great to prevent you from testing into Reels. Nora Bafus, VP of Creative at New Engen, puts it simply, “Don’t wait and overthink it - get after it, the results will show it’s worth it.” The rules that used to govern ad creative no longer apply, as consumer preferences shift away from the perfection of high-polish and high end-production, and toward authenticity and or low-fi creator content.

When building out Reels creative or auditing existing ads, check that they align with the following:

What’s Hot

Creative that engages and provokes immediately.

Simple, straightforward messaging. For example, explainer videos are most effective when they are short, focused and get to a core message quickly.

Strong visual cues including text or captions + audio.

What’s Not

Vertical video. “Reels is not the same as vertical video. I know they look the same, and to someone who doesn’t nerd out as much as we do about these things you might group them into the same category, but Reels are really specific,” explains Nora.

Heavy-handed Direct Response (DR).

Pushy messaging to drive sales. You need to entertain not just advertise.

"Finally, remember that the medium for Reels is a part of your message, so what you do and how you build these ads should be very intentional for your placement," adds DJ Sutton. This sentiment should guide your creative strategy on Reels.

Scaling UGC Volume

User Generated Content (UGC) and Creator Content are an advertiser’s “bread and butter,” and the winning content type on Reels, but procuring UGC at scale is a common pain point for many brands. However, Nora Bafus believes that there are many ways to solve this UGC problem. For starters, larger-production assets can be remixed, or “scuffed up,” with elements like text overlay stickers, which are easily recognizable visual cues that Meta estimates are used in 65% of Reels.

Next, don’t worry about finding creators with huge followings or established audiences. Be willing to get scrappy and leverage Meta’s Partner Directory or even look internally for employees who are interested in getting involved. Brands have found success this way because many employees are already fans and frequent users of the product or service.

Finally, avoid quality missteps by embracing the power of the creative brief. “Don’t be afraid to be heavy-handed in laying out creative direction, requirements, and deliverables. Outline these expectations in contracts to mitigate miscommunication downstream. Many creators will appreciate the extra guidance and use it as a sandbox to play in,” Nora explains.

We don’t want to belabor the point, but it bears repeating: the impressions on Reels are so much more valuable, and the reach so much cheaper than anywhere else on the platform, that it’s worth it to test into the format. Period.

Creative Hot Takes

Whether you’re already on Team Reels or just starting to explore the format (or hesitant to test into it at all), Nora’s creative hot takes are ones to live by:

Don’t overthink it - get after it, the results will show it’s worth it. The cost of waiting is too great.

Nano is the new micro. Don’t fret over landing creators with large following count to start. “Beyonce is a pie-in-the-sky goal,” says Nora, but it’s okay to start with creators who have fewer than 5,000 followers or even leverage employees who are willing to create UGC to start your engine.

Remember the basics. Vertical video does not a Reel make - Reels are highly specific, should always have sound on, text overlay, and framed within the safe zones.

Think outside the box. There’s no shortage of ways to get creative - rizz up your Reels with anything from quizzes to Zodiac signs or red flags. Pull the audience in to participate and engage.

Play to slay. Keep it engaging, keep it surprising, and keep it fun - that’s the whole point of Reels.

So, What’s Next?

If it isn’t already clear, we at New Engen really believe in Reels as a transformational tool for brands advertising on Meta right now. This is why we launched Confetti, an always-on, cost-effective UGC-sourcing product from New Engen. Confetti enables us to secure micro-influencer engagements for our clients, with a focus on in-kind partnerships as these have proven to be a strong unlock for brands looking to get started on the format. To learn more about Confetti or our agency guidance on Reels and Reels ad creative more broadly, please reach out to us at info@newengen.com. And of course, stay up to date on all things digital marketing by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on LinkedIn.

[integrateddigitalmarketing]

Numbers Don’t Lie: The Value of an Integrated Digital Marketing Presence

Let’s pretend for the sake of this article that your performance at work has been off the charts, and you’ve been offered the promotion of a lifetime.

The only catch is that you have to relocate from, let’s say, Denver, Colorado, to Boston, Massachusetts.

You love where you are now, but this promotion is another step closer to your dream job.

So, after some careful consideration, you decide that you will accept the offer and make a move. Congratulations, fictional character!

Just a few days after your move, you receive a text from your mom bright and early in the morning, “Your father and I are coming to visit you today; make some dinner reservations for the three of us! XOXO – Mom.”

Immediately, the panic sets in…

What’s your first move? I bet you go online to look up “the best restaurants in Boston.” I also bet you picked one that showed up early and often during your research.

Do you want to know why?

Because you trust the restaurant that has the best online presence.

That restaurant is likely bringing in more customers and revenue than those with a less salient online presence and significantly more than those not online.

While this scenario is quite specific, the premise can be used for almost any business. When people are looking to buy something, odds are they check the Internet before deciding.

What they find online ultimately leads them to their purchase. Therefore, businesses that invest in integrated digital marketing tend to bring in more customers than those that don’t.

Trust me, the numbers don’t lie.

Website

When I bet that you would go online to find a restaurant, I didn’t bet blindly. About 64% of mobile restaurant searchers convert (become customers) within one hour of their search. That’s pretty amazing.

If you don’t have a website, the chances your restaurant will appear in those searches are slim.

A website optimized for search is critical for eCommerce businesses as well. A recent study showed that 81% of consumers researched online before making a purchase.

Imagine missing out on that potential income because you didn’t take the time and effort to set up a website.

Your website is often the first point of contact between your business and its prospective customers. If set up correctly, it will leave a positive impression that could convert into a sale.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Directly related to your website’s success is search engine optimization (SEO). When people search online for the types of products and services your business provides, you want them to find you first, right?

Right.

It’s been reported that 64% of all online experiences kick-off via search engines. You’re missing out on a huge opportunity if your content isn’t optimized for search results. You’ll need to rank high in organic search results to be credible and visible.

Incidentally, Hubspot found that 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.

If your business isn’t on that first page, chances are it will not be found. There are even memes about how the second page of a google search is a desolate place where few dare to go. Make sure to rank well and reap the benefits.

Email Marketing

In addition to having a great website and SEO strategy, other digital marketing outlets bring attention to your business and, in turn, bring paying customers your way. One of those outlets is email. It’s more cost-effective than traditional marketing tactics like direct mail or print media and produces higher conversion rates.

For example, a large majority of U.S. adults, roughly 72%, prefer communication with companies to happen through email.

The next highest is postal mail, which is only about 48%.

Think about it, how often do you check your email every day between work and leisure? It makes sense that placing your brand in a heavily visited area is an effective way to engage your target audience.

If it’s relatively cheap and is the preferred method to receive marketing communications, it’s not surprising that it produces a great return on investment (ROI).

Reports show a $36 return for every $1 spent with email marketing. That’s a pretty solid return if you ask me.

Social Media

Last but certainly not least, we arrive at social media. The battleground for businesses to produce the most engaging content.

And the stakes are high, considering there are about 4.6 billion social media users worldwide. With this many people on social media, having at least one platform is advisable for your business.

Start with the channels most aligned with your target audience and add others as you feel comfortable.

The number of channels you pursue depends upon where your audience is active and what channels they prefer. The time and personnel you have for managing the platforms also play a role.

Don’t forget having a social media account for your business comes with responsibility. It isn’t going to do you any good without regularly posting and responding to users. It’s called “social” media for a reason.

In fact, 73% of consumers are likely to buy from a brand that responds to them on social media. Even if someone leaves a nasty comment, likely not leading to a purchase, it’s best to reply. Thank them for their feedback, and let them know you have a remedial plan.

Again, with that responsibility comes results. It’s been noted that 78% of people say a business’s social media posts influence their purchasing decisions, and about 50% of businesses that have been using social media for at least three years source increased sales and revenue to social media. Yet another digital marketing outlet bringing in customers.

What Did You Decide?

Although these digital marketing assets are significant for businesses looking to grow, they mean nothing, if not in unison.

Your business website, SEO strategy, email marketing, and social media should have a consistent brand identity. Let the world know what your business is made of, and stick to it.

Oh, I almost forgot to ask. Where did you end up going for dinner?

[monday3econlive]

Opportunity Cost and Thinking at the Margin

Kai Dinges, ID: 94468419

Definition of Opportunity Cost: Opportunity cost is the act of deciding which good/service one what's and what they will have to sacrifice in order to obtain it. One good/service may have immediate benefits, while the other may have benefits that are more appealing in the long run. Therefore, in order to obtain long term benefits, a decision must be made to give up the short term benefits by choosing one good/service over the other.

For Example: if I were to go to a party instead of studying the night before an exam, I would get a low grade on the exam, but I would have had fun and met new people. It is impossible to have both the aspects of a party and studying at the same time. The long term benefits would be that I would know more people who I can hang out with in the future, but my grades could hold me back from accomplishing my professional goals. However, had I stayed home and studied, I would probably have a chance of graduating with a degree and strong grades, but I would not have as many friends I can network with. Another would be that I would have had more fun immediately by attending the party rather than boredom or stress studying for the exam, but I would have less stress at the exam for studying the night before than if I were to attend the party.

Definition of Thinking at the Margin: Thinking at the margin is the act of making minor adjustments to one's life by either adding or removing something, which in turn will result in a marginal benedict greater than the marginal cost. Another way of defining it would be that people will make a decision that would result in a marginal improvement from their current position by either adding or removing something from their life.

For example: let's say the payout for social security at 65 was $2,500 a month, while the payout for social security at 75 was $4,500. For those who have been working for several years, they will potentially have already saved up a significant amount of money so that $2,500 a month for retiring 10 years earlier will sound more appealing to them than working an extra 10 years to earn $2,000 more a month. On the other hand, someone who is a spendthrift will probably work the extra 10 years to obtain the $2,000 more than if they had retired early because they did not save as much money as they potentially should have. They are essentially adding more years of actively working to their life to earn more from the government, than spending that time doing whatever else they would like to do because it has a greater benefit to their life than if they retired earlier.

How is this in My Everyday Life? Everyday I am faced with the decision of either eating breakfast or sleeping an extra half an hour. Eating breakfast would result in me not being hungry during my 10 am Calculus class, while sleeping in an extra 30 mins would result in me being less tired in the same class. I've noticed that when I get an extra 30 mins of sleep, I tend to perform better in class and will have an easier time paying attention to the lectures. However, I have also noticed that if I do not eat breakfast, I will run out of energy quicker as the day progresses. When I have to attend back to back classes I will not be able to focus for the entirety of the second class and will be more distracted on what I should eat for lunch. Due to my personal preference being the extra 30 mins of sleep to help me be more productive when I am awake, I choose not to eat breakfast in the morning and wait until lunch to eat my first meal of the day. In turn, I am giving up the ability to stay focused on my back to back classes, however, I am also more capable of understanding what the professor is trying to teach when I am not distracted by food and able to remember it later in the week. In this case I have an opportunity cost of being either easily distracted or more capable of understanding what is being taught to me. I am also making the decision that by adding more sleep, I am able to have a marginal benefit that is greater than the marginal cost.

Another example would be if I were to skip a lecture or attend it. For my chemistry class, there is no way of obtaining the notes unless I physically attend and take them myself. The consequences of not attending the lecture would be less notes to read over and study, whereas attending lecture would result in me not having an extra hour in the day to spend time with friends. Therefore, the opportunity cost of attending class is time that could have been used to have fun with friends, whereas the opportunity cost for skipping class would be lower grades in chemistry and could result in me retaking class in a worst case scenario. From personal preference, simply attending the class had a higher benefit in the long run as it would result in a higher chance of success in the class. It was also a place where I could meet new people and talk with them. Not attending class would just result in more stress and anxiety when exams and quizzes came around, but I would miss out on having fun with friends and potentially lose opportunities to make life long memories with them. In this case, the marginal benefit of going to chemistry was higher than the marginal cost of potentially making memories with friends.

[goboymusic]

Had a dream where I was the toilet cleaner at the busiest #McDonalds in the country. Not sure what that says about how I view myself.

“#Food Song” was meant to be a sequel of sorts to “#Coffee Song,” both having kitchen related sound effects and lyrics about junk food.

The majority of the song was produced in my Metro Detroit apartment, but the final mixing touches were done in my car on a hot summer day in 2020 (as the pandemic was winding down). I enjoy mixing / mastering in my car, driving around while listening, pulling over to make edits, and uploading the latest version to the cloud via mobile hotspot. It’s fun.

Only taking one week to produce, “Food Song” is somewhat of a blur in my memory. Everything went smoothly, from writing to recording, to mixing, to mastering, to releasing, which is rare. It’s not often that 100% of the original songwriting makes it into the final song. That said, just because production went smoothly doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good song. Listening to it today, I have issues with the structure and mastering.

Songs that go as smoothly as “Food Song” and take a week or less to complete leave me with little to reflect upon for storytelling, whereas songs that take an entire month to complete give me much to say. Hell, you can binge multiple tv series, get shitfaced multiple times, solve multiple complex problems at work, travel around the country and experience loads of human drama over the course of one month. For “Food Song,” there’s not much to say (excerpts from post 64).

The focus on junk food lyrics on GoBoy 5 actually increased my craving for it, leading to me eating far more of it than usual for a solid year. Taco Bell, McDonalds, Ben & Jerry’s, Doritos, etc. I only stopped after developing health issues related to diet. Those health issues cleared up after a few months of strict dieting (excerpts from post 83).

Regarding the sound effects, I worked as a sound designer for the film industry for a few years during the seven-year hiatus (more about the hiatus in posts 23 and 36) where I learned the utterly worthless skill of creating / manipulating sound effects. That skill was utilized in this song, along with songs like “Mermaids,” “Coffee Song,” “Seattle” and “Rebecca” (excerpts from post 75).

Beat + bass + melody. That’s the style of GoBoy 5. While I’ve appreciated this minimalistic style for years, “Tell My Mama (Song 42)” was the first time trying it. I went whole-hog with GoBoy 5, in which most songs primarily consist of a beat, bass and melody (excerpt from post 80).

For GoBoy 5, instead of creating for the sake of creating, like I did for GoBoy 4, I wanted to make poppier songs that would appeal to a larger audience. Was that goal accomplished? Well, maybe, I guess. It resulted in the song “In Love (Song 82),” which everyone and their mother seems to like (excerpt from post 79).

GoBoy 5 ragdolled me. I remember wondering if I’d live to see the completion of the album. While the style is minimalistic, the writing and production processes were chaotic, akin to throwing darts with a blindfold on. Most songs turned into a puzzle once they reached the mixing phase, with a portion of the pieces being destined not to fit. It required constant compromising - discarding segments, restructuring, rewriting, etc. The combination of the difficult production process and temporary chaos at work left a blood-soaked trail behind me (excerpt from post 80).

In April, 2021, almost all of GoBoy 3, 4 and 5‘s songs were restructured to be under 3 minutes (preferably under 2m 30s), including this song. I became okay with releasing songs around the 2 min mark after realizing The Beatles and The Beach Boys had some songs around that length. In an attempt to increase replay value in this streaming era, most of GoBoy’s songs are now purposely around 2m 20s (excerpts from post 37).

A bass boost was added to songs 37-99 in Nov, 2021, while I was stuck at home with covid. As a result, this song feels more powerful. The bass boost isn’t a simple plugin nonchalantly added to each song. It’s a process that took about 3.5 hours per song, or one whole month to complete all songs. Admittedly, I pushed the bass boost a little too far for some of them. The bass in some songs sounds like a freaking earthquake (unnecessarily pronounced low frequencies 20 - 50 Hz). Might dial that back someday. The bass boost was also applied to every song on GoBoy 6 and beyond (excerpt from post 37).

[staceymcgillicuddy]

42 46 75 on fanfic asks 💗

Thank you, Nonny Mouse. Appreciated!

42. describe the aesthetic of a story in 5 words.

I'll go with to get my soul known again and say...

Americana Odd Comforting Nostalgic Wistful

46. what time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?

100% first thing in the morning. If I don't write before I let the rest of my day get in my head, I have a hard time getting anything decent out. Which isn't to say I can't write other times, I just prefer not to.

75. do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

Yes. Mostly. I usually have a vague sense of what I want the last scene(s) to evoke, and where I want the characters to end up, but not necessarily how I'm going to get them there. As I write, more of the ending puzzle pieces start slotting into place, and I can fill in the gaps.