#but i dont know!! it FEELS like a general trend over time at least.

[mamawasatesttube]

one thing that is kinda wild to notice is the way fic seems to have gotten a shorter and shorter lifespan over the years. granted, i only have my own anecdotal experience to go by, and there's plenty of factors that can contribute to that, but it's wild because like i remember posting fic in like 2015 would get so much more engagement over time than posting fic today. in 2015 if i posted something i generally would get comments and interaction with it for a week or so before it tapered off into obscurity. today, its like. you post a fic and after 24 hours its dead in the water. odd.

[julsvu]

hello! i saw you take request about pjo and honestly, i loved your fics about leo! i was gonna ask if you could do general dating or crush headcanons about percy, similar to your one leo fic (i dont remember which one but i think you get it???)

thank u thank u thank u if you do it!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

gn! reader

💬: hii!! im so glad you loved my leo fics :D thank u sm for requesting! this is my first time writing for percy :')

📒: fluff, friends to lovers, reader is implied to be a demigod, not proofread (⁠´⁠；⁠ω⁠；⁠｀⁠)

percy crushing on you hcs

everyone in the camp knew this boy was whipped for you

especially his friends

HE IS DOWN BAD

grover literally knows EVERY detail of you even if you guys aren't close because of percy

he knows that you have a small mole on the left side of your face, how your nose slightly scrunches up whenever you focus on something, your favorite food/the food you always eat for breakfast, the little bracelet you wear everyday because of percy

percy sometimes talks to blackjack for advice?? or just rambles to the pegasus about you (he'd look crazy without context)

the Aphrodite cabin ships you two SO MUCH

sometimes they'd set you and percy up

but to percy's disappointment, you just brush it off because you always interpreted their ways as a way to make fun of you both

spaces out whenever he looks at you

his friends have to physically shake him out of it for at least 9 seconds before he gets back to his senses

whenever that happens though, they have to sike him up to actually talk to you

if a person pulls a dirty trick on you especially during training, percy's eyes would be burning holes through them

he doesn't hide his glare at all too 😭

his friends try and give you hints that percy has a crush on u, but they're REALLY subtle and careful about it

except for leo 💀

"y'know, percy has the hots for you," he randomly says in the middle of your guys' conversation??? like u guys could be talking about how the sky's so blue and then boom he says that

anyway

they'd definitely form a game plan to get you guys together for real (annabeth would be the mastermind)

they'd probably set you guys up to a blind date in this pizza place nearby

during the date, percy made up his mind instantly after you laughed at his ridiculous joke

he wanted to date you, not just have a crush on you. he wanted to love you, in a real way, not just from afar

and so he confessed

he was resisting the urge to kick his feet and giggle when you accepted his confession /j

his friends were probably disguised as "normal" customers, sitting in the booth across from you guys, or beside you guys, silently cheering for you both once they overheard that you accepted percy's confession

percy dating hcs

loads of aquarium dates!!

he'd gossip with you, a lot

hear me out!! minecraft dates!!

he'd put your beds together and stuff, and you guys have a pet axolotl whose name is a mix of yours and percy's (basically your shipname)

is BIG on pda, he likes to show you off, even the nymphs know you're dating atp

but he'd tone it down if you want him to, of course

whenever there's a new trend that comes up on any socmed app, he's so quick to invite you to do it

he definitely made a kisses hoodie for you soskpsf

you'd have triple dates with leo and calypso, and frank and hazel 💯💯💯

he's so observant it's scary

he's the first one to notice whenever you aren't feeling good

always checks up on you

sally also hears about you all the time !! whenever percy comes home from camp he likes to tell stories about what you and him have done

she already sees you as an in-law (even if you guys haven't met properly yet)

some of percy's pfps on his main social medias would be him posing with kiss marks all over his face from you

if you ever post yourself on social media, he hypes you up so much in the comments

expect at least a millisecond after posting, you'd have 28 comments from him immediately 😭

"THATS SMY PARTNER RIGHT THERE"

"I LOVE YOUU77I"

"everyone back off they're taken BY ME"

whenever someone compliments you infront of him he's like "i know, right? my partner's so amazing"

he emphasizes the word "partner" whenever he notices that the person might be interested in you, too

he can't help being a little protective

percy jackson, if you can hear us, please percy jackson, please save us percy jackson, please save us percy jackson

© 2024 JULSVU. all rights reserved. please don't plagiarize, translate, put in other websites or copy my work without permission. ty!

[dr-spectre]

Sonic x Shadow Gens Review.

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

So, gamers, i have played and finished Sonic x Shadow Generations, both campaigns, and i just wanna say.... GOD. DAMN.

I cannot believe that Sega released a Sonic "remaster" and it actually TURNED OUT GOOD!?!? WITHOUT ANY BUGS!!? NO GRAPHICAL GLITCHES FROM MY KNOWLEDGE!!?!? WHAT HAPPENED!??!

I will quickly go over Sonic Generations before we talk about... the big boy.

So, how is Sonic Generations? Welp. It's.... it's the same game!! And as someone who played it on PC for years, it looks identical to the original release! Maybe the colours are tweaked? The UI looks way nicer with the resolution boost and the chao rescue stuff is really cute.

Uh, i will say though. i do like MOST of the rewriting that they did. But here's the thing, Sonic Generations' story is like eating a McDonalds cheeseburger, but it's only the patty and buns. The rewrite just adds some cheese and a dab of tomato sauce. It's better, but you're still eating a damn McDonalds cheeseburger. And to add on to this, the VAs didn't sound... good, this time around... Idk, something seems very off about their performances? Mike Pollock especially, bro lost ALL OF HIS ENERGY in his Eggman performance. Tails' VA sounds kinda... bleh too, i dont know what happened here. Roger Craig Smith sounds bored playing Sonic, and i feel bad for him because Ian Flynn's writing can be pretty damn wordy. He's a skilled voice actor FOR SURE, but i never clicked with his Sonic, ever. (Jason Griffith, i miss you every day, my sweet prince... They took you away too soon... At least i still have the definitive Sonic voice in the Japanese version...)

The story also continues the trend of turning Amy into a boring side character with zero personality or spice because GOD FORBID A CARTOON CHARACTER ACTS CARTOONY AND A LITTLE CRAZY! SHE IS NOT AN ABUSIVE STALKER WHO WANTS TO FORCE SONIC INTO THINGS HE ISN'T COMFORTABLE WITH! SHE IS A FUCKING FANGIRL OF SONIC WHO WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH HIM AND SHE LOVES HIM AS A PERSON!!!! IF YOU PLAY THE OLD 3D GAMES WITH RETRANSLATED MODS YOU WILL SEE!!!!!!!! GOD!!!

But i could make a whole post about Amy man... I really could...

Okay enough about Sonic Generations, it's time to talk about Shadow Generations and what do I think of it?

First, I'll brush over the story, NO SPOILERS DON'T WORRY!! I will say this, there were plenty of moments that easily got tears out of me and the stuff involving Maria and Shadow? Oh.... oh baby... PEAK!!!! Black Doom is really dope too, Shadow was pretty well written in this, too, and his VA knocked it out of the park!!! Kirk Thornton, I'm sorry that i doubted you... And Maria's VA too? Love the performance!!

However... This story feels... underdeveloped? Undercooked? it feels like there needed to be MORE! I think that the pacing felt a litttleeeee too fast and i kinda wished there was just more to chew on! It's like eating some damn good chocolate ice cream, but the ice cream is just one scoop. LIKE I WANT MORE!!! I WANT TWO SCOOPS!! I WANT SOME CHOCOLATE CHIPS IN THE ICE CREAM!!! UGH!! It's good, BUT I WANT MORE!!!! There needed to be more on it's bones, more screentime with Maria and Gerald, more time fleshing out stuff and properly explaining Black Doom's return instead of it being optional dialogue in the white world or prologue animaton on YouTube that you could skip. There's all this cool optional shit that is well... OPTIONAL!!!! And it actually enhances the characters, BUT I DIDN'T SEE IT UNTIL I LITERALLY BEAT THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DIDN'T READ GERALD'S DIARY UNTIL AFTER I BEAT THE STORY!!! THE LAST TWO PAGES ARE LITERALLY AT THE FINAL SECTION OF THE GAME!!!!

There is this one moment with Maria and Shadow and like.... it gave me the biggest damn smile on my face. And the ending too man, my god.

ALSO THE CUTSCENES ARE FILMED REALLY WELL?!? HOLY SHIT THEY ARE ACTUALLY GOOD?!?!? It makes Frontiers look like a PS1 game in terms of quality like holy mother of god, the cutscenes and animations have improved so MUCH in the span of one game... It makes me so so excited for what's to come....

NOW! GAMEPLAY TIME! How does Shadow control? How does this black and red alien hedgehog play?

I'll put it like this... Imagine Sonic Forces, BUT!!! The air control is better, platforming feels smoother, the homing attack is better and more satisfying and 2D control feels actually good. it's just like Forces but everything feels a lot better, it's WAYYY BETTER THAN VANILLA CYBERSPACE FROM FRONTIERS!

Good controls don't mean much if the levels aren't good, BUT THANKFULLY Shadow Generations level design is actually pretty damn solid, and each level made me feel satisfied and wanting to go again!! There's plenty of optional pathways but the pathways don't really go to brand new exclusive areas. It's not on the same tier as Sonic Generations, BUT! It's close.

My favourite level is either Sunset Heights or Radical Highway. YES! THE SONIC FORCES LEVEL IS MY FAVOURITE! HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!!? THEY TURNED MID TO GOOD!!!

I also love how the collectables are placed on the harder pathways and reward you for skillful play, unlike in Sonic Generations where most of the red rings ARE ON THE BOTTOM PATHWAYS!!!!! WHY?!!? THAT'S THE PLACE MOST PLAYERS WON'T GO TO!!!! Ugh. I hate collecting red rings in Sonic Generations but thank god the collectables are actually fun to grab in Shadow Generations.

Now i wanna brush on the white space because i have some words to say on that too.

White space was really fun to explore and unlike Frontiers, you could see things in the distance and platforms don't just pop in!!!!!!!!!! I loved doom surfing around, finding chests, bolts and just running around. It's really fun. It's not as in-depth as Frontiers, but i want the next Open Zone game to take a lot of inspiration from this white space. Also, seeing Omega and other characters in the hub and talking to them is really cute stuff.

Finding ALL the chests and bolts tho makes me wanna wish a thousand year torment onto someone.

And speaking of Doom Surf... The Doom powers and Chaos Control, i.... LOVE THEM! They are the perfect way to make Shadow more unique from Sonic and give the levels that extra level of flavour. Doom Spears add some spice to the standard homing attack chains you do in 3D Sonic levels, Doom Blast is really fun to use and opens up new pathways, Chaos Control is AWESOME!!! I LOVE HOW IF YOU USE IT AT THE RIGHT TIME IT OPENS UP COOL PATHS!! MY JAW DROPPED MULTIPLE TIMES SEEING THE PATHWAYS THAT I FOUND FOR MYSELF WITH CHAOS CONTROL!!! Doom Surf is fun to use and it spices up Kingdom Valley a lot, but... Doom Morph? The squid? THAT ONE SUCKKKSSSS!!! Awful turning, awful speed control, awful jump arc that makes Super Mario Bros. from the NES look like a top tier platformer, they don't properly explain the grappling mechanic which left me feeling so frustrated at certain points.

And... of course... The Doom Wings...

THE DOOM WINGS.... THE STUFF YOU COULD BREAK WITH THEM AND THE LEVEL DESIGN ACCOMINDATES FOR THEM TOO?!?!? SO IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE YOUR GLITCHING THE GAME?!?!? SONIC TEAM DID SUCH A GOOD JOB OH MY GOD!!!!

Now, let's talk about the bosses...

Bosses are pretty fun!! They feel very satisfying to beat down and have some awesome dialogue. Although they are kind of one note, like the strategy to beat them doesn't REALLYYY change but hey, It's Sonic bosses, they've never been that amazing since the beginning of the franchise. But i would rather take this kind of boss design OVER SONIC SUPERSTARS!! BLEHHH!!!

Also I'm not gonna go too much into it but what they did with Mephiles, story wise for his boss fight? Oh man, I LOVE IT!! THEY DID SUCH A GOOD JOB! (the new VA for him, Robbie Daymond was kinda.... okayyy. Needed to sound deeper and it would been damn great. I know he played Akechi from Persona 5, he just needed better direction.)

Alright.. Let's discuss arguably the most important part of any Sonic game, the music, and um, I'm gonna be for real, it's kind of a mixed bag? DON'T GET ME WRONG!! There are some bangers, some top tier tracks that will get that blood pumping! But for every banger, there's a Space Colony Ark Act 2 and a Chaos Island Act 1....

The music can be summed up with this handy chart!

I wanna quickly brush upon the challenge acts too, i liked most of them but having to complete 4 OF THEM FOR EACH ZONE TO ADVANCE THE STORY IS SOME MASSIVE PADDING!!!

And.. I think that is it!! Overall, Shadow Generations is great!! The story has some cool moments but it felt VERY underbaked, the level design has improved a lot from previous games, i like the white space and the simple enjoyment of going around and collecting things.

It is a good to great game but it definitely has some flaws and i wouldn't give it a 9/10 and say it's PEAK overall like what some are saying online. Yeah it's good, but, it has flaws. It isn't perfect, however it is VERYYY fun!

Shadow Generations really does give me hope, this isn't yet another "step in the right direction" no. This is a LEAP!

[mimikooandbts]

Let's be serious here.

You'll can't call out taekookers one time after everything happened and think your job is done.

Tkkrs and solos have been harrasing his father since 2022, after armys showed up at his cafe during Busan concert. They wrote pann articles, trended nasty hashtags and all that.

The fandom ignored. 3 years of that. No army account spoke about it, only Jimin report account was asking to report them. And now kmedia picked it up.

Suddenly a handful of armys are making posts calling out tkkrs and solos without even naming them.

Where were you'll for 3 years?

The number of army accounts who call out jikookers, and the frequency and over the most silliest of things is not the same as calling out tkkrs once after so much damage is done.

If you dont see the difference, then sorry you're part of the problem.

Anon, I normally don't respond to solos cause they're genuinely brain-dead, but I'll answer you cause you sound like an Army who decided to turn solo. Or at least someone who has been fed solos narrative.

Anon, I never understood how solos can pretend to know anything happening in the fandom. Y'all literally only follow your solo fanbases. You are surrounded by solos narratives all the time, and you think that you know the truth? Of course, you'll feel that only your solos peers support and defend your fav. Everyone's perception of reality is influenced by what they see, and what you see is what is in your tl. A solo won't know better than an Army what's happening in the fandom.

Let me tell you this. Yes, Army have been defending JM's dad as long as I remember. Army defend Bangtan family members. Did you know that Hobi's sister, jk's brother, and jin's brother were all being harassed by boycotters? Why would you care, right ? But let me tell you this, not every Army talked about it. Yet, Army defended them, the same way they called out boycotters when they were planning to harass papa JM and protest at his restaurant. This was an example to let you know some Army, I being one of them are aware and have been defending JM and his family. Not everything is talked about within the fandom in the big scheme, and this is regardless of the member.

Yes Army use generalization to call out bad behaviors cause y'all litterally spend your time pointing fingers at each other with your whataboutism. Y'all are just different sides of the same coin. None of you is innocent.

I'm tired, and have enough of this hate measurement comparison bullshit. You guys sound insane. Every member gets hate from you. Everyone is being victim of your hatred and tantrum. Just dealing with this for a couple of hours was exhausting, I can't imagine dealing with this for years.

Alright, Army is and has always been the bad guy, but what about you guys having a group discussion where you talk about solving your issues and conflicts. I don't know, maybe make some rules or protocols that solos and shippers should follow? Us Army are gonna admit that we are the bad guys in the story, and we are tired of being the referee in your fights. So just talk among yourselves and solve your issue. What about that?

[ebisul]

TCW Rewatch: Season 1 Episodes 19-22

These are probably my favorite episodes of Season 1. I dont think we get that many Windu-centric episodes so thats like a special little treat for me

Episode 19: Storm Over Ryloth

* Separatists are blockading ryloth and the people are starving

* This seems to be a common trend of the separatists using starvation specifically to their advantage

* “We cannot allow the republic to invade this planet” baby YOURE invading the planet

* Anakin pulling out that false surrender

* Thats a war crime? I think? I need to start a scoreboard for most warcrimes committed

Episode 20: Innocents of Ryloth

* Using the citizens as living shields because they know the jedi wont risk the twilek lives is so shitty but not surprising coming from the separatists

* Okay boil lets not do any slurs please your daughter is down there

* Codywan interactions are always nice…well…

* Wooley is here thats cool, fuck that recon droid tho

* Boil is not good with kids, waxers a sweetheart. We love numa

* This episode is like 80% boil complaining

* Obi wans jedi tricks coming in handy, Cody knows whats up

* ofc he does thats his boyfriend

* Cody with obi wans lightsaber as usual

* Not killing the droid in the cage is so telling of the jedi and obi wan honestly

* The Twileks are freed

* Obi Wan in a tank goes hard actually

* Twileks being freed and like almost immediately beat the shit out of the droid that held them hostage the first chance they get is so real

Episode 21: Liberty on Ryloth

* Ok i understand now, Anakin is fighting ships, that was episode 19, Obi Wan is specifically freeing the Twileks held captive, last episode, and this episode is the front lines with Mace WIndu to take back the capital, i see

* Most of the generals with their clone commanders we’ve seen so far have great synergy, like blyla, codywan, wolffe and Plo are all like known for their great relationships but like Ponds and Windu also have a like respectable relationship it seems although its different from the others

* Its bc they aren’t shipped and windu isnt exactly fatherly but the mutual respect seems to be there and Windu cares about his men

* Anakin and Obi wan have both progressed with their objectives Windu needs to take back the city and capture wat tambor

* The GAR plans to ally with Cham Syndulla and his freedom fighters against the warnings of the senator of ryloth and palps

* Maybe its just me but i thought star wars was pro resistance or at least neutral so why does it seem like they always wanna villainize their resistance leaders like cham syndulla and saw garrera this is more prevalent later in rebels and tbb if im remembering correctly so maybe i need to wait until i rewatch the og trilogy but thats for later it just feels icky i blame filoni

* Twileks were massacred without the help of the Republic in the face of the Droid Army and forced to surrender.

* The separatists tried to exterminate the surviving twileks

* Fuck thats a warcrime right there, bombing a village presumably with civilians inside

* Cham just wants a free Ryloth and willing to make a compromise with the senator for the safety and wellbeing of the twileks

* This bitch only cares about his position of power he sucks at least Cham is out here doing shit

* Fuck the Senate

* Ponds, Windu, and Cham Syndulla is such an interesting trio to me idk why

* Is the silence supposed to be shellshock or to indicate focus in the force bc im getting shellshock vibes?

* I like the effect tho for whatever reason

* We dont see jedi fight like windu a lot

* Or maybe hes just being intentionally depicted as more competent… or maybe we do and i just dont notice

* The tactical droid is overthrowing Wat Tambor??? They can do that???

* Anakin coming in clutch

* Wat Tambor captured i assume? He Surrendered

Episode 22: Hostage Crisis

* CAD BANE LETS GOOOO ig aurra sing is there too or whatever

* Anakin wants to spend time with his wife but also his wife is a very busy very important senator who is busy bc theyre in an active war

* Ani is getting real toxic here already weaponizing their love like that it actually only got worse the longer the scene went on

* Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill??? What does that entail???

* Wow… another hostage situation… im so shocked…

* Ok i see what their goal is, freeing ziro the hutt, but why? Information?

* Background riyo chuchi??? Fuck yeah

* Palps agrees to release Ziro, Senator Free Taa has to be the one to go to the prison

* Ofc there are bombs

* Ziro the hutt is cartman core

* Senator taa has an anxiety disorder for real

* Is that fox or thorn??? Im usually good at identifying clones by armor, i think it was thorn?

* She calls him master jedi, is that a term used for all jedi generally? I thought that was just jedi masters

* Also lackluster season finale

War Crime Counter

Separatists: 7

Republic: 1 🎉babys first war crime🎉

[necirusalka]

here are my Real, Actual final thoughts on JS and if i keep talking about it i want to be whacked with a newspaper. at this point i know people are always going to willfully misinterpret critique of JS as being in bad faith and this is mostly me indulging myself before i blacklist everything related to the quest because i'm tired of thinking about it and i know everyone else is tired of seeing my stream of consciousness about it

i'm not opposed to jade wanting to have a child and i'm not even opposed to her story being one about her sacrificing herself for her baby. i still think the Dead Wife trope is insanely old and tired, but warframes sacrificing themselves has been a trend for a long time, so whatever. but JS completely failed in every way to meaningfully center jade's thoughts and feelings on the matter at all, so the sacrifice falls completely flat

we dont know anything about jade pre-warframing. we dont even hear from the quest itself that she used to be an executioner (i guess this is a voiceline in the ascension mission which is like... ok fair i guess, at least the information is communicated in SOME form). we dont know why she wanted a child, just that she Did. but even then we mostly just know that she wanted one (even after being warframed, i mean) because... male characters who would never have even spoken to her say so. and because at the very end of the quest, when she is actively DYING, she chooses not to "fight" her baby draining her life force... and even then, it's framed as though jade is a passive bystander here; that her vitality being drained is just a Thing that is Happening TO her that she may or may not even have the power to do anything about, and not something she's making a conscious, empowered decision to do. so i do not think this is proof that DE's writers cared about her agency or expected the audience to.

it's a huge shame, because there were so many opportunities here for DE to make her an active, enthusiastic participant in her story, and the writers missed every one. the stalker's view is prioritized at every turn and he's the one we're supposed to sympathize with, not the person who is DYING because he's too proud to find her help. even jade's few speaking lines are just... her asserting sorren's role in the story as Father and Protector. "you'll take care of us, always, won't you?"

jade killed people for the orokin as a 9 to 5 and would be keenly aware of what petty transgressions would get you tried and killed or WORSE under the orokin, and i find it hard to believe she genuinely thought sorren could protect them, but i guess digging the hole for stalker's guilt to take root was the priority over jade's insight and characterization. no reflection of her personality beyond being hopelessly loyal to and faithful in sorren, no way to extrapolate her motives. just "well sorren you're a Dad now so you have to protect your Wife and Child." like... ok.

post-warframing, being permanently pregnant was seemingly the orokins' punishment for her transgression of daring to get pregnant against their rules. i don't think jade was ever intended to actually give birth, given basic frame physiology + the baby bump being a permanent ornamental fixture on her body. maybe that was the big catch for her -- if she was ever mortally wounded, instead of reviving herself like other frames can, she would have to choose between saving herself or saving her child. that's the only reasonable explanation i can think of for why DE decided she HAD to die (other than for stalker's character development, obviously, but i'm trying to be generous). why not run with that? why not lean into the idea of jade truly just deciding it's her time and making the choice to grant her child the opportunity to live? why does it have to be a matter of stalker's gross, prideful negligence FORCING her into this situation? and why does this negligence go completely unpunished? why is stalker the one we're supposed to be siding with here?

this takes me to my OTHER major issue with the quest which is the Rock Band Birth scene and the implications of stalker roping a teenager into, uh, literally having contractions on jade's behalf as she's dying. i don't honestly think stalker KNEW that jade could give birth at all, and i don't think he even cared if she could. i think he really just wanted the tenno to save jade (i'm hoping that's what he wanted, because the alternative reading was that he really did just knowingly and willingly coerce them into giving birth for her, which is disgusting for obvious reasons). which is like... if jade's will truly was to give up her life for their child's, then stalker choosing not to respect that also goes completely unmentioned and unpunished because, again, jade's opinion was a complete afterthought here.

if you want to give jade some actual say in her fate AND avoid the absolutely horrific and bizarre implications of a teenager being strongarmed into Contractions Rhythm Heaven, but keep the same ultimate outcome of jade sacrificing herself for her child... just remove the last chunk of that scene altogether. KEEP the tenno transferring into jade's body at stalker's behest. have them make some comment about how they feel a second life force within jade, and that that's where she's choosing to reroute all of her remaining power. there's nothing the tenno can really do for her at this point except help her sustain that second life force with their inexplicable Magic Tenno Healing Powers. then instead of a tonally dissonant minigame, just have the operator transfer out of jade's body and say that they've done all they can do, that the second life force is stable now but jade herself has decided it's her time. she still dies but instead of disintegrating into naught but a fine mist, the glass dome cracks and her Magical Energy pours out and... forms a baby, i guess. or, i don't know, literally anything other than what we got lmfao

everyone in this quest could have been treated SO much better, we could have gotten SO much more out of it and DE just took the laziest possible "woman says nothing and dies for single dad man pain" route when i KNOW they can do better... jade never really got to amount to anything beyond an immobile body for stalker to have Character Development over. for fuck's sake, sevagoth had more agency in finding his own dead body than this. digital extremes made the decision to make a quest centered on something as personally, socially, and unfortunately politically laden as pregnancy and childbirth, and they couldn't even grant the pregnant character the dignity of having a personality outside of the male protagonist who mistreats her, because it just wasn't important to them. i don't think criticism here is remotely undeserved. we should be holding writers to a higher standard than this

[maschotch]

idk if this is controversial but speaking of Reid girls n all that, i hate how forgotten Morgan gets since everyone seems to favour Reid. writing a mlm fic? it’s centred around Reid and Morgan is just sorta there, or maybe comforts Reid. need just one queer character? it’s Reid. a trans masc hc? it’s Reid again. and most of all,,, people making any kind of hurt/comfort or angst or whatever to do with csa… and they choose Reid. they make a head canon that he experienced csa, when Morgan literally canonically did, and everyone ignores that he did. and it’s fine to have a favourite character and all that, but it’s… disproportionately skewed in favour of the skinny white boy, yk? it feels so off to me. and also how people seem to totally forget about Morgan’s experiences. idk

aldhskdh it’s definitely controversial but youre so so right for it?? i feel like a lotta people just… ignore morgan. it wouldnt feel as purposeful or malignant if they didnt give the exact things morgan deals with to reid?? the same thing kinda happens w hotch, where people obsess over reid so much that it overshadows the places where they’re similar (like hotch being a nerd or autistic hotch or transmasc hotch) but even then, at least he’s got the hotchgirls to balance it out. where are the morgangirls?? where are they??

it seems like such a waste that morgan gets sidelined as the himbo jock football guy when the writers went out of their way to let us know that’s not who he is?? it’s the one time i think the writers actually did good in comparison to the fandom: they made him one of the smartest, most emotionally open characters. he’s so so caring. and reid is smart, sure, but even morgan has his strengths. he’s a better chess player than reid (something i wish we couldve seen more of), which i think no one ever fucking mentions. morgan seems like an afterthought at most in cm fics, with moreid, hotchgan, and morcia. he’s just.. underappreciated in general in comparison to his white counterparts.

as far as the trans masc hc… ok.. this one might get me into trouble lol but it feels so… uninteresting? he’s “gnc” bc he has long hair ig. i dont wanna say too much more on that bc morgan/hotch seem very comfortable in their gender identity, and it’s probably easier for questioning people to identify with the generally-insecure reid. which is like.. fine ig but it feels? belittling almost? infantilizing/woobifying trans men? idk

this shit is always kinda hard to talk about bc yeah there’s nothing inherently wrong for csa reid hcs or trans reid hcs or autistic reid hcs or whatever, but it feels particularly disingenuous when you have morgan right there who can easily have as many if not more of those popular hcs applied to him. but sure yeah lets just ignore him as the dumb jock lol. lets make him a prop for other characters. lets cast aside his characterization to make reid more interesting. it’s definitely a trend in fandom to hype up the skinny white boy, so i cant reeally blame reidgirls for living up to the stereotype, but it feels like they actively ignore morgan. it just sucks bc morgan js such a fun character

[the-storming-sea]

also also read ur intro post just now may i politely ask about your opinions of asian media and rep. is it specifically for fantasy? or just lots of genres with general trends or themes youve noticed? 👀

omg i wrote that so long ago and my brain is kinda fried so i'll be a little brief. may expand on it later but eh its all good. these are just rambling thoughts

a lot of asian rep in media mostly revolves around the east asian experience, which is valid bc god knows they need it, except often times it leaves out literally everyone else in its wake, or it keeps grouping up certain asians together. currently south east asian cultures are particular victims of this. But sometimes what ends up happening is that there is a "fantasy asia" world where the world is not technically Asia, but it might as well be given the inspiration behind it. in my personal opinion its kinda orientalist and a bit fetishistic of the 'exoticness' of asian cultures. Like it wants asia but without all of the real people in it

like for example the world in raya and the last dragon. it was great seeing someone who looked at me on screen but goddamn they couldn't at least set it in south east asia, let alone have distinct cultures instead of just taking little aspects of culture and making fantasy. it was a great movie for diaspora sure, but anyone actually from south east asia was disappointed. Xiran Jay Zhao compiled a two part video on it that elaborates more on it better than i could right now–i say compiled bc she doesnt do much talking in them aside from the beginning of the video; everyone else talking in it is south-east asian.

another fantasy world heavily inspired by Asia is ofc atla's world. my problem is that While its a good representation of east asian cultures, south east, south asian, northern asians, and western asians are left behind.

and what bothers me is that there are many places where they can fit in. Like the swampy tribe areas and the ancient firebenders from the dragons era feel like they should be south east asian inspired somewhat, and if you wanted to make a commentary on how these lands have been taken over and colonized (or at least there was an attempt on colonization) would be interesting. or how it feels like it makes more sense for katara and sokka to be more north asian inspired than american inspired. and of course there was the one (1) south asian inspired character who was. more of a caricature than anything else. im not saying the indigenous american rep is bad. obviously any representation is great, especially for indigenous americans. But if you are going to create a clearly "asian inspired" world (like nearly every aspect of this world is asian in culture and the main character is clearly a buddhist monk, it would be hard to argue otherwise), then at least take inspiration from asian cultures?

(side note people making fun of the swampy fog people is not great. does not feel great. regardless of whether they believe they're south east asian rainforests or the american bayou)

other small things are more of fan issues than creator issues. specifically the way people treat some anime characters like they're white instead of japanese/asian and then hold them to white cultural standards. all might is a great example, where despite being named Toshinori Yagi and being from a world where the mc has green eyes and green hair, people still think hes white bc hes blonde haired blue eyes and loves america? which–side note, you dont have to be an american to love america, lots of older people who got really into the american dream still like america. another thing was when i read a bnha fanfic that described someone as looking "asian" which. yeah i sure hope so. the story takes place in japan. and then theres some people not recognizing that asians all look very different from one another even if they're from the same area of the world.

more recently ive noticed the fandom racism in dungeon meshi specifically towards shuro, who despite being from a fantasy world is clearly japanese, and from a japanese-inspired culture. and its his culture which leads him to respond to laios in the way that he does. im not saying its racist to be upset that shuro responded to laios that way, but like. different cultures come with different cultural views and different ways of responding. shuro and laios come from two very different cultures. it happens.

this is kinda a lot and may not make sense bc im super tired rn jhfdbgdhjfbgd but i didnt want to forget this ask and just never respond to it

[flockofdoves]

i feel so bitchy saying this (dont know if thats softened at all by me clarifying this isnt based on specific derision of any individuals just like a general trend that various people do or dont exhibit at various points in time) but.

i feel so weird in some of my theater classes as someone minoring in it because i like a lot of technical non-performance aspects of it (dialect coaching, set construction, technical direction, costume construction, etc)

because i feel like theres just such a trend among people who are there to be actors to be just like. deeply incurious and purposefully obtuse and try to cutesily be like ‘ahhhhh how can you even expect me to try’ and try to shirk any work they need to do in any of my favorite classes. and its just so so annoying. like i get that different people have different skill areas and struggles but i try with my required performance classes i think that maybe if you got over yourself for a second you could cut a piece of wood or find out the basic math that goes into finding out how long a wooden cube would be if the pieces of wood are x long and y wide and put together with a butt joint in z way or you could click on the icon of the tool the professor is clicking on in vectorworks on your computer with the same vectorworks layout and even if you dont like doing it that much you could at least be polite to the professor about it

[f1-birb]

it's not necessarily reading twitter or insta comments (i don't use twitter much at all anymore and i've had mclaren blocked on all socials since the ricciardo days when they were allowing their team to get harrassed too lol), but it's just like you can curate your spaces so well and you're still going to get posts recommended to you from these damn algorithms that are like “lando is washed,” “lando is going to get exposed,” and idk it gets old.

even reddit, which used to be a voice of reason when it came to actually discussing races/drivers, you cannot have a single lando thread without half the comments being about lando never winning a race or oscar beating him to the first race win and it's like oh my god. who the fuck cares. ocon got the win over alonso in 2021, do people actually think ocon is a significantly better driver than alonso. carlos got ferrari's only win and the only non-rbr win in 2023, do people really think he's significantly better than most of the grid, including his teammate charles? george is mercedes’ last race winner. do people, especially after last year, truly think he's at a higher level than lewis right now? like wins are great. i'd sacrifice my firstborn for lando to get a race win. if oscar gets one first, that's fine. it doesn't mean lando has failed or is washed up or isn't as talented. (i also feel like half of these people don't even like or care about oscar, they just want to see lando get beat. like theres this sick trend on tumblr, reddit, media in general of wanting to see oscar win first and lando fall in this unbeatable depression that has me like what the everliving fuck is wrong with you, but i also have enough decency to think actual mental health problems should be off-limits as criticisms. theres a difference between saying one driver handles pressure better than another, an actual analysis/criticism, versus wishing to see a driver struggle mentally for entertainment).

and this is nothing against oscar at all. it's pretty apparent lando likes him, the team likes him, and he's a major talent. there's just loud parts of his “fanbase” (again i use this term loosely because half these people dont seem to care as much about oscar as they do seeing lando get “exposed” or whatever the fuck) that lack the ability to praise him without shitting all over lando.

and idk. i have full belief in lando as a driver. but some of these criticisms hit pretty close to home when you follow and support him because he's the driver you find most relatable and suddenly the majority of the criticism isn't about his driving, but his character or personality and how people perceive that.

i also just think this overanalysis of his mistakes while others get this free pass because fans/media always insist on blaming the team or others (won't name names, but i have a feeling based on other of your posts/answers, you know who I'm mostly thinking about) will continue into 2024 and i just don't feel like dealing with it anymore. i'm stuck in a shitty job i'm not really enjoying until at least august, f1 used to be an escape from that, but shitty people have ruined that too. and unfortunately I've been around the media enough that even if i did watch the races on mute so i wouldn't have the shitty sky commentary to annoy me even more, i would still know subconsciously what narratives were being spread and i just don't have the emotional stability to care about this motorsport atm.

fe and indycar? sure. like i cannot tell you how many times my favorite indycar driver did not capitalize on opportunities to win last year, yet this year all of the socials are uplifting and asking for predictions on how many races he will win, not betting that he retires with every most (insert accomplishment here) without a win like f1 does. i used to call those 2 my comfort series but i don't think they provide comfort so much as they're so much less toxic than f1 that i don't have to worry about my favorite drivers being straight up harassed instead of just their driving critiqued.

i'd love to follow lando, and oscar, and the entire team through both the highs and the lows as i have for many years now, but i just don't have the energy in me anymore. it's been feeling like a chore instead of a fun little hobby to watch for a while now, and i thought i would find some enjoyment out of it again at some point, but i just can't anymore. i will definitely be sticking around to read your writing though, just maybe not commentary on race weekends.

anyway this got so very long, i'm so sorry. this isn't an airport and i don't need to announce my departure, i guess i just had a lot of things building up that i needed to get out.

no need to apologise at all, I've always said my asks are open for rants or venting or just needing to let it out

I'm sorry there's not a lot I can say to what you've said because I agree with a hell of a lot of it and fully get where you're coming from

there's no point making yourself sad, upset, angry over it and while I know it'll suck to miss out on the racing since that's what you actually care about, maybe a break sounds like a good idea actually especially if you've got life things too

I'm preeeeettty good at tagging stuff so hopefully that'll help you navigate my blog at least, but since I do post a Lot on race weekends if I post writing it's always tagged "birb writes" and that's a featured tag for easy access - but it's so sweet that you'd stick around for my writing, it means a lot <3

[ourfag]

*cracks knuckles* well,

ed’s obviously something of a legend as a crewrunner, capable enough at sleight of hand and cultivates a very deliberate image of his capacity as a hitter even though it’s not his favorite role—ive got a post from maybe last month somewhere noodling around with his relationship to the grift (i imagine him having an issue with acting similar to sophie’s, but in the opposite direction: he can’t do it unless he feels like there’s an element of fundamental truth-telling involved about himself, so his ability to play roles designed for the mark to feel negatively towards becomes diminished as he unlearns his self-hatred)

he’s a pro with the technical side of b&e but struggles with justifying his right to be there if he gets caught out. this also develops with time as he becomes increasingly confident in his right to be, more generally.

stede doesn’t know how to do a character that isn’t over-the-top. he’s a very good grifter if over-the-top is what the con needs, but his utility more commonly lies in his insights on how a rich mark will operate, the bureaucracy, the social conventions, white collar culture etc etc. harry wilson stuff.

he doesn’t have the physical tactical prowess to be a career hitter, but he also doesn’t go down very easy. surprisingly good at sleight of hand, especially after instruction from ed, but not particularly stealthy. would get stuck in a vent shaft. NOT A GOOD HACKER.

lucius has a lot of thief-adjacent skills but altogether dislikes solo field work. he’d especially like to be as far away as possible from jobs where a hitter is even necessary. his strategy for escaping difficult situations is to simply not find himself in them in the first place but, on the occasion he does, he actually thinks pretty well on his feet. he just hates having to do it.

pete is a plant. pete is the guy who wins the streetside shell game lucius is running to show onlookers it’s totally possible and they all totally have a shot at the money. i think both he and lucius could excel at the kind of online credibility generation and trend manipulation that breanna and hardison do, or at least the creative aspect. i don’t think pete is good with computers. i think lucius is good with computers but doesn’t draw attention to it, because being underestimated has put him at certain advantages before, but also because staring at a screen all the time gives him migraines.

ive previously considered using computer programming as a modern-day analogue to the literacy gap among crew members, and im still keeping that in my back pocket, but im starting to reconsider its use here, bc i think frenchie would be so so great with digital scams. quite frankly i dont know enough about computers to elaborate on the rest of it but he strikes me as the kind of person who knows exactly how many brackets he has open at any given time. phishing he’s definitely outstanding at, and more generally he’s very good at knowing how to communicate with a variety of different marks in ways that reliably come across as credible, relatable, authoritative, whatever the situation demands.

one of the rarer skills he has is the ease with which he adapts to whatever team is on hand—he’s very good at working out what a given crew member’s greatest strengths are and coordinating things so they can take as much advantage of those strengths as possible.

he can shimmy through a vent like it’s nothing, but he’s not as stealthy as jim. good at forging signatures, better at forging documents. don’t ask him to pickpocket unless you’ve got a second person whose job is specifically to distract the mark while he does it.

i remember seeing a clip of samba schutte discussing the backstory he’s created for roach, and one of the elements that stuck with me and i think could apply well here is roach going out of his way to learn skills that make him extremely valuable to a crew as a means of self-preservation. this might not mean honing in on particularly indispensable roles as it does in canon, since in leverage you tend to get every given crew member being specialized in something important, but i think when roach catches himself being significantly outmatched in a skill by anyone else, he makes developing his proficiency in that area a priority. so he’s got all kinds of stuff under his belt, safecracking, lifting, cybersecurity, etc, he knows how to lead a mark around, and he throws a pretty decent punch. unarmed combat is a weak point of his, but he’s a lot like parker in that he’s very good at navigating his way from point A to point B regardless of structural or human obstacles as quickly as possible, especially with a taser. tbh i’d really like to see an early-seasons parker interact with him.

jim is similarly difficult to divert, and they do make a good hitter, but they’re a little awkward on the grift. they and olu are a very very effective team because they complement each other’s weak points. olu’s fantastic on the grift, especially when he’s got a good handle on as many contingencies as possible. he’s also great with picking locks and cracking safes, being more inclined to the careful patience they require than jim, for whom patience is a professional skill they must grudgingly maintain. if jim is confronted with a safe and olu’s not with them, they’re gonna grab it and run.

sorry i just realized how fucking long this is getting these are maybe 10% of my thoughts about this none of it really answers your question and i didnt even cover everybody. FUCK

doodle while i watch leverage

[roughentumble]

i think for a long time ive really hated knockoffs, and yeah there's a decent amount of them that are simply in it for the money, but i think it'd be good for me to change my perspective a bit and instead see them as more of a thing that i like, you know? if you like [thing a], then generally [thing b] would just be more of [a], youre just fleshing out the genre more.

like, i suppose its the difference between being a "knockoff" and being "inspired by", but even copies and clones of other things can be really fun in their own right, so why do i get angry and defensive when i see them? lots and lots of fantasy books and romance are playing copycat, but people enjoy those all the time, and that just means theres a lot out there to love. more art is better than less art

and i think the definition of what is a knockoff(as opposed to being "inspired by") has been growing recently, or at least that's been a trend in my life. why do i get irritated when i think of black swan as "copying" perfect blue, why cant rhese be two pieces of art in conversation with each other? i adored perfect blue, and black swan is also good, so why didnt my brain catagorize it as excitement over have more of a good thing?

even with 50 shades vs twilight, clearly it's filling an entirely different ecological niche than its inspiration, does it really matter that it's derivative? especially when i dont even like the thing it's derivating from? i dont like 50 shades either, but i think my point stands. i dislike it for other reasons, so why is it being twilight fanfiction a black mark against it in my head, instead of simply a funny anecdote? why did i even get mad at el james for making bag back in the day. i dont like her books but honestly good for her, i pray i reach the same success someday, that i never ever have to worry about money again.

like i guess im just suddenly realizing that while laighing at funny videos that dissected Why Things Suck, i internalized a lot of really negative feelings towards. a thing that doesnt matter. a thing that mostly is defined by "infringing on intellectual IP", and i dont need to do the mouse's job for him there. i can just..... let go of that negative perception of something that hurts no one

wtf. i think im like growing or whatever??? or something???

[kikimochiiiii]

My personal take on MDZS kins based on what I've seen (which is almost nothing)! Understand that this'll be very biased n uninformed, but it's just for fun and I cherish all kins! Please and thank you!💕

WWX: Fiercely protective over their homies/mother bear type; Live for the drama though, so they WILL pitch homies against each other; They will state that their opinion is ALWAYS right to assert dominance; They never feel silly enough; "What do you mean people don't have a bi panic every 20 seconds?"; The life of a party, for better or worse

LWJ: They are very accomplished and orderly; But ask them about that and they'll say that they hate how boring they are; They can recite all of their unrequited loves in detailed, dramatic stories; They have at least 1, if not multiple crushes where they hate the fact that they love them; once they hyperfixate on one thing, they'll never be able to tell you anything about anything else; Shy n sweet, we protecc

JC: "I HATE THAT I KIN THIS MAN, YOU DONT UNDERSTAND-"; Their family sucks so much and they absolutely deserve better; They always want affection but can't help but act grossed out by it; will fight WWX kinnies in a gas station parking lot; prayed to all the gods to be asexual because they hate hormones, but they couldn't be more thirsty; have killer fashion that makes everyone double-take; A fierce, chaotic beauty ppl don't forget

JYL: The mom friend; Is always the therapist/advisor/caretaker/friend/mom for everyone else; Girl, are you okay? You are overworked for real; Wishes they could be intimidating once in a while; LOVES ALL THE GIRLY FEMME AESTHETICS; "I'm so average TT TT" (is actually talented in so many areas wth); everyone is protective over them and they don't know why, but they like it💕💗

LXC: Oh my gosh, ARE YOU OKAY-; Have an emotional wall higher than Mt. Everest; The person with the most propriety; Perfectionism is their worst enemy; Have definitely dealt with toxic friends in their life, so please handle with care; the best listeners; Extremely artistic in some form or another; Are kind to all other kinnies, but will bloody take a bullet for JC kinnies on sight; No one shall ever know their music playlists...

NMJ: "I am who I am, and don't mess with me"; If people aren't genuine with them, they can't stand it; An open book at all times; Their face WILL show what they are feeling; They are just aiming to find a himbo or cute twink for their love partner (or both!); generally nice, but can whip out insanely painful insults, so don't test them; They are confident, and therefore, they are H O T

JGY: GOSH, WHY ARE THEY SO PRETTY??; Definitely were the reason for someone's bi or gay awakening; soft aesthetic e v e r y w h e r e; "A-Yao never did anything wrong!🥺"; Will 100% not snitch on you if you give them a favor or are just hot; Are all about optimizing their situation, if you catch my drift; They are the most loyal of loyal friends if they cherish you💗💕

NHS: "I was born to be petty."; They can recall everything they have a grudge against in worryingly great detail; They will exact revenge on you, so be nice; They have the absolute maddest make-up skills; Work in tandem with WWX kinnies to make chaos, but take a backseat more often; Either habe the highest standards or none at all with no in-between; Bring them to ALL of your sleepovers

WQ: Queen energy 24/7; "I fUCKING TOLD YOU SO-"; They are forever suffering from the incompetent, irresponsible people around them; They have dealt with creeps thirsting after them, and they all wound up missing, oops-; Will be a full-on bodyguard for JYL kinnies and MM kinnies on sight; They just hate men in general; Extremely smart and/or street smart

MM: Also constantly suffering from idiots around them; They are so pretty, but very modern n with the trend when it comes to fashion; They are so stable and sure in themselves, we love to see it; Definitely witnessed friends go through VERY cringe romantic relationships; Doesn't talk much in a group context, but if you start talking with them, they are an awesome friend💕💗; When protected by WQ kinnies, they'll insist that they didn't need up, but they'll secretly like it👀

WN: Classic shy and sweet TM; People were absolutely attracted to them before because they thought they fit a trope, and it was deeply upsetting to them; They are SO INDECISIVE; Their fear over making core decisions is immeasurable; They have an intense fear of emails; "Please don't perceive me..."; Can pop off when defending a friend, and it's very hot of them

XY: "Okay, but like, I'm just saying...a pocket knife would be good for self-defense because-"; They joke about concerning things in discord vcs at 3 am that everyone mutually chooses to ignore; Are adorably extroverted; "Omg you like candy too?! LETS BE BESTIES!!💕🎵"; Are oddly sweet considering they relate to Xue Yang; Definitely tried the goth look once, but they still looked like a cupcake; The hugging type of friend; Occasionally bratty for attention

SL: "Why do all these people lack common sense?"; Had 1 (one)(uno) crush and then never liked anyone ever again; Everyone calls their lifestyle dull, but they just say that they value consistency; You have to plan a meet-up with them 2 weeks in advance or else they will PANIK; Their form of love is helping you manage your finances; Are actually quite mature and wise once you get them talking

XXC: YOU ARE SO PURE, WHY ARE YOU ON THE INTERNET; Weirdly aged and ageless in personality; Also the mom friend, but they aren't burnt out, unlike JYL kinnies; Wear super cute, oversized sweaters, I don't make the rules; sweater paws HNNG; Sometimes a bit out of the loop, but they're doing their best; Jump around in a conversation; Found family is their absolute jam; An extreme empath, so they have to protect themselves from too much depressing stuff, like the news

Okay, that's it for now! I just picked out some of the MDZS people that stood out the most to me for now bc man, this is long, but lemme know if you want my take on any other MDZS character!

[jjheejz]

About Internet Water Army in the case

This is an ongoing update about the case from start to development. List of all related posts can be found on this blog's pinned post (link provided at bottom of each post as well).

19 August 2021 update: Added the scale of his success for reference, before bonus below

18 August 2021 update: Added timeline of events, orange title in post, found out the official English term for Immoral Media = Internet Water Army)

Major updates since first draft: Added bonus, added disclaimer, certain info details

Originally posted on 16 August 2021

[The purpose of this post is to provide a perspective as to why the Media is raised/blamed regarding the issue. Especially for international fans, as all the encounters happened on Weibo. Also, those who were on weibo, do read through if you will. So although it's lengthy, do try to read all, at least if not the last two parts].

The Media referred by most, is not the common perception of the Entertainment Industry (celebrities, directors, shows, channels, staff etc), but the dark side of the Entertainment industry: Antis, toxic fans, toxic marketing accounts. They are called Internet Water Army💧.

Toxic Marketing Accounts is one of the things they do, these accounts on Weibo has millions of followers, each of their post likes are in the hundred thousands (buyable) to give credibility to passer-bys. Some use similar names to Official accounts, some use similar logos. Their posts are usually subjective or aims to steer view points of a certain celebrity/movie/show. Before the latest update of this post (18.08.21), I just group them all together and term them as Immoral Media*.

*Below is my original post using my original term because at point of first draft, I did not know the official term (so have changed/added the term from Immoral Media to Internet Water Army in content below but retain the content based off first draft).

If you have chased before celebrities, or just simply passed by an article about certain celebrities, recall how some title that caught your attentions were like. Clickbaits is one of the many things they do. If GZ is your first and you do not have Weibo, then this read(link) is good enough.

Just as the term Immoral Media (Internet Water Army), it’s immoral and unethical, but they exists because they are paid to do so. Who pays them? Entertainment Companies, and maybe other Organisations

Normal Media/Marketing vs Immoral Media/Toxic Marketing/Internet Water Army

When a show or movie comes out, the normal Marketing department will generate outreach and buzz so that people know a show is airing soon/know the show exists etc. Official announcements are not enough, because there isn’t much context (limited content to put up as well) so having some other Marketing accounts do the buzz in a planned period to gain awareness through posts, some articles about the casts, the plot summary, the production details etc is normal. This is Marketing, bigger companies will probably have stronger Marketing departments (aka influence) and can hire more Marketing accounts to generate buzz. Celebrities (aka casts) themselves, are also Marketing point.

Then we have the Internet Water Army/Immoral Media, these are what they mainly do:

Create Fanfiction-rumors: Creating rumors about celebrities to shift audience perception of them. [eg. XX was seen with XX leaving a hotel, XX was drunk on Event Y and did ZZZ to AA, XX is dating BB and has been in a relationship for N years etc]

Honing their brain degrading skills: Come up with titled clickbait headings/ trending topics with negative written contents. For articles, exceptionally out of heading content related to the celebrity. [Refer to Baidu, it’s a winner of these, feel free to Google Translate]

Regressing their common sense and understanding skills: Take everything a celebrity does completely out of context in a negative way and create a topic out of it [eg. XX said AA is a ---, “XX raised his finger, a sign of ---?”, XX pushed BB aggressively on Variety Show Y - A competition variety show, XX is in beef with CC because XX was caught giving CC the eye]

Using their fingers to stir shit and bathe each other in it: Escalate all smallest form of possible tension created by fans/themselves into a huge thing by acting as the fandom's fans/lurk in fandom chat groups, and voicing their disguised opinion to spread tension/exaggerate severity of the issue [eg. XX fans mocked AA - in groupchats: tbh I've never liked AA before, AA just gives off a vibe that I dont like and now this? It just disgusts me even more > Yea, i feel this way too. AA has problems / XX Lurkers expressing views on XX about NN, slowly to NNMHFXW - XX did NNMHGT - I cannot accept NNmHfHw, I'm leaving = multiply by 1000++]

Epitome of a self-deteriorate: Creating something out of nothing and react to that something negatively to gain massive attention/reaction [eg. “XX raised his hand on show Y” - dk what XX fans are thinking, are they literally blind? XX fans are tasteless just like XX hahaha / “XX did community service” - they are acting / “XX breathed” - From the start, i thought XX was NN, but I am so ZZZ that XX breathed. Goodbye fandom, i’m leaving. Those who still want to stay I urge you to rethink your life choices] - if I may add, Xiao Zhan’s fanfiction case as well. 

Metaphor - Ability to use bare hands to collect paychecks from the urinal/toilet bowl where their boss/client peed in: Doing all of the above.

Apologies for any term offense, but not apologetic of the term context. This is what they do for a living. Any normal human being who do not like anything, will generally not be interested at anything about it in the first place, so to have some antis/toxic fans knowing certain things and inside jokes/references in their posts questions their goal.

On involved in Internet Water Army/Immoral Media 💧

Fans on weibo during these few months witnessed many of the above on GZ. From rumored girlfriend (spammed with articles) to mean and nasty comments on trending topics, to bouts of insults and fake emotional cryouts by certain fan accounts that GZ's office has to release a number of Lawyer’s letter to them. 

Aside from WOH there were also a few other BL adaptation films that were actually released this year but they did not reach exponential success like WOH. BL adaptations are so highly followed by because this is the key to wealth. Literally. Successful BLs like The Untamed and  Dao Mu Bi Ji saw the amount of wealth fans are willing to spend on the celebrity as compared to say BG or idols (younger fan groups). This is why when WOH shot up exponentially, Immoral Media start to sweat.

Major anticipated adaptations were supposed to air this year eg. Hao Yi Xing(HYX), Sha Po Lang(SPL) etc but was severely held back due to the stricter change in BL adaptations submitting their scripts for approval regulations (WOH manage to submit earlier before the change). Because of this, most final films were rejected and they have to keep re-editing, by then WOH was already months into reaping tonnes of major brand endorsements, shows/movie casting, variety show appearances etc, something that is seen as too successful in the Immoral Media’s eyes, because they have to create buzz for other celebrities, some are specific celebrity oriented and thus circulate rumors about having endorsement opportunities shifted from celebrity X to GZ (think fanfiction-rumors and shit stirrer) causes tension in celebrity fandoms. - A real event just in July:

The Untamed’s cp fandom is called BJYX which had always been in the Top 1 of Cps for 2 years dropped for awhile to Top 2, over taken by LLD. Both of them had a war and hated each fandom, one fandom is somehow not allowed to like the other fandom even casually after everything broke out because it started out with some BJYX toxics photoshopped GZ on of portraits .

Also another case of which he wore the same costume as WYB did in a previous photoshoot and it became a useless comparison of who wore better, who looks better, degrading the other. (Finger stirring shit).

Now apply all of the above things the Internet Water Army do and we have them earning money, while both fandom reacts and hate each other.

In LLD, our own fans started suspecting each other on who is a spy from BJYX and what not.

The first few months of Internet Water Army saw LLDs mostly mocking them because the average age is 30-40s, they know and see through all of their intentions so nothing was big. They were trumpeting and LLDs didn’t even care, what with all the doing tedious stats was not even important to them.

Over time, as the issues they create became more and more serious LLDs did start to care, reporting Toxic Marketing accounts/toxic fans became a daily task, go vote for GZ at certain polls etc, solo fans, and LLD fans also split apart. Solo fans think cp fans use GZ to furnish their fantasies, and cp fans thinks they are the ones furnishing their dreaming-girls fantasy with (aka my boyfriend).

There was also a period where LLD had a habit of continuously mentioning “we are in the 30-40s so we can see through everything about the media, we are all fans for the first time, we are good at spending money (because of purchase power compared to other fandoms)” it was prevalent for so long it felt odd, ‘chasing celebrities the first time’ in particular sounds more vulnerable as a weakness than a strength / sth to be proud of.

Gradually, more secretive/insider confirmed ‘sweets’ were flying around. Fans advised each other to not circulate, and the mindset of “if you know, you know, dont tell.” (This is a problematic mentality, of which fans will still be curious to know and search for it themselves, but this secretive hook is unhealthy. Over the long term, it becomes hard for existing fans to know a lot of things properly to judge for themselves, especially those who knew and publicly reacted, but blasting those who ask and telling those who know to keep quiet, this did not help some to understand why on certain things, even so for international fans, dont know and dont understand, causing misunderstandings. Yes, certain information should not be shared, so why should you react about it publicly in the first place? - Internet Water Army effect)

The last few months (for example the July fan war) created a tonne of seriousness and anger. A period even broke out with a tonne of ‘insider confirmed sweets’ (which is LLD’s daily dose of happiness), it was hard to tell what was real and what was fake. Trending topics became negative and everyone warned each other not to enter because it will give the trends ‘views’ and trend statistics, in reality entering there is to enter an exhibition by the self-deteriorates, collecting the fandom's traffic data (it's a sure lose for fans each time they enter the topic). Everyone even starts thinking that the trend’s popularity was caused by each other (it's true but it can be bought daily and not caused by fans). There was a raise in the number of fans who were getting emotional because they want to protect but Internet Water Army kept coming and got worse, because fans, tbh, not just GZ fans, every other celebrity’s fans are always fighting with an Army, getting played and plotted in that Army's calendar.

Even so, despite all of these, LLD is actually a fandom Internet Water Army may find the hardest to break because they understand GZ so much, they could tell what are fake news regarding GZ, because among everything above, there are still plenty of logical fans to stop many fans from drifting too far and debunking them. Why? 30-40s are grown up adults.

Why 13.8.21 and the Japan issue is plotted?

First of all, in the political climate of China, there are many political dates in a month that is NO-Entertainment news. Because it’s the honoring of certain important political events. It’s like Remembrance Day, thus the sensitivity is higher. On these days, there are usually no news and even the Internet Water Army zip their pants. This year also marks the 100th year of the Chinese Communist Party(link)

Secondly, he had no work schedule on 13 August 2021. A great full day to focus on any other news (because if he had schedules, everyone will turn their attention to his events, what trumpeting outside is just bird chirps). 

Thirdly, when the news broke out, especially about the shrine, the reception was actually quite serious within the fandom so the scale of this might be big but to what extent in reality?

Lastly, 15.8.21 marks the 76th anniversary of the announcement of surrender of Japanese in World War 2(link). Also a day of NO-Entertainment news. 

Timeline of events:

13.8.21 - [His rest day, Eve of Chinese Valentine's Day, Japan News broke out] His rest day, no schedules = increased attention about him online. Lowered guard among fans because they are getting ready for tomorrow's Chinese Valentine's sweets = Caught off guard = Huge break out of fans' reactions

14.8.21 - [Chinese Valentine's Day, Eve of the 75th Anniversary of the announcement of Japanese surrender] Keep a wishful and happy demenaor to not destroy the mood, suppressed thoughts about ZZH's Japan news

15.8.21 - [75th Anniversary of the announcement of Japanese surrender, Official announcement of ZZH's boycott and all China social media account ban] NO-Entertainment news day, Solemn day, not allowed to voice anything so the fandom can only wait for tomorrow to start voicing out/debunking but before they can wait out, the boycott and social media ban happened, every official accounts about him was gone overnight, fans had no time to react

17.8.21 - [All official fandom accounts related to ZZH and JunZhe were locked/removed]

Forced to be silent since the day his matter broke out, over the course of official news release with everything taken down in a day because of the Japan correspondence, his accounts banned overnight across the Chinese media and the overnight cancellation, fans could not speak anything about it. Overnight cancellation like this scale happened for the first time in China, leaving no time to react by the fandom, by the time they can, they are silenced.

When the period of events occured within a set of special dates, it’s not coincidence.

Conclusion

Because he was too successful and had many actually honorable past things, and a hard to influence fandom, Internet Water Army view him as a huge threat enough to want to destroy him, because it’s hard to defeat. With a chance they have, they will hold it till the end, bringing up this issue to the Government during this period also shows a sign of how scared they were of him and perhaps his fandom to plot something like this.

Updated on 19 August: Here's a screenshot of assumed calculation on the scale of GZ success for reference while chatting with a fellow fan, assuming GJ also has 27 brands, and there are 1000 brands. Rationale of numbers used: Only big brands can hire big celebrities.

Bonus

Mentioned in the first post, will mention again in case. After the news broke out within 2 days, there was a drop on his weibo followers from 18.9mil to 18.7mil. 200k+ drops, if the politics was such a big national issue, there should at least be a huge drop, even at least a million right? Because weibo is a China-Chinese majority right? Nope, we get a puny 200k drop.

What's funny? The self-deteroriates:

Translation: "Are his fans bought? Why didnt he drop fans? Those people got brainwashed to this point?" / "I've never entered his weibo and today i feel like having a look yet it showed I've followed him. All his fans were bought right? It disgusts me, i immediately unfollowed. This kind of process is worse than WYF..." / "i dropped fans because of him...no...I just reposted 2 posts and I've dropped 4 fans?"

Isn't the tone and regressing brain cells, all too familiar and same?

//

Added above, will remind again to read this link. It has an even more in-depth knowledge on who are paying them.

So what should we do? Link here

Related posts 🛏️:

[neonfretra]

HEYYYYY ^_^ rambling below the cut

@sevennone

"New Spanish-Language Website Highlights Latest LosVGK Initiatives" from vgk

The new site is accessible by clicking “EN” or “ES” or the globe icon on the top right corner of the English site. Vegas is the first NHL team to produce a version of its website in Spanish and the second to offer two languages (joining Montreal, which has English and French).

NO WAY???

i doubt yall want to see me recite the los vgks (vgks hispanic and latino inclusion initiative) accomplishments but if i ever cared about what yall wanna see i dont think we would be two reblogs deep here now would we

(you could see it for yourself on the article itself!)

because THEIR PODCAST HATES ME i can only find the episode i believe youre referencing (Knight Time at Noon, episode #97) on amazon music. it is also a 47 minute episode and im not transcribing that within a reasonable span of time.

...unless?

the answer is i actually dont usually do well with podcasts cause i accidentally start tunin them out and then i gotta rewind it over . i do this a couple times LMAO

(also my bones disagree with transcribin right now. this post does NOT need to be longer trust me.)

for the interested, the section concernin los vgk goes from bout 15:10-23:20!

brings a tear to the eye :') genuinely worth the read + listen!

@stereax

right off the bat i had no idea what hockey night in canada was until right now LMAO i am unfortunately a sharks blogger through and through i dont know anything about hockey outside of the san jose sharks

(for anyone in a similar boat, hockey night in canada is the cbcs nhl cast ^_^)

IN PUNJABI? YOU PROMISE?

i will make an active effort to be normal. but thats CRAZY <3

(hello, neonfretra in the future! i failed.)

its fairly unfortunate that its ALSO a post season exclusive service, punjabi speakers canNOT listen to nothing games ... !

(i do wonder WHY its such a common trend but my guess is just finals are when viewership spikes and thats when broadcasting companies benefit the most from multiple language streams. unfortunate!)

theres this segment from "Hockey Night in Canada, with Mr. Chapared Shot" by Harnarayan Singh that piques my interest actually! (warning: the article contains sikhophobia and islamophobia against a sikh person)

The most famous term on the show, hands down, is chapared shot. We don’t have a word for slap shot in our language, so we took the word that means a slap to the face and added on shot at the end. It’s been a HUGE hit. I’ll be out shopping or something, and I’ll hear, “Mr. Chapared Shot!” Or kids will come up to me and demand that I say it. There are others that I really enjoy, too, though. When we mention the penalty box, we use Punjabi words that equate to “the box of punishment.” And we’re always referencing chai tea. Like, if your team had a bad period … maybe they need a cup of chai tea during the intermission.

THIS IS CRAZY FOR ME ACTUALLY...

PUNJABI CAST IN JOKES AND MEMES... thats awesome... hello... sounds good sounds natural... <3

actually i cant stress enough how crazy it is to read when casters put cultural terms into casting to ME! its really fascinating to read, ESPECIALLY because the two broadcasts we have read in this post so far are about selling the sport to a new demographic of nonhockey fans

to me it does feel like a sort of bridging of the gap in that sense with their new fans by not just tossin them into the deep end with technical terms or literal translations

which is what makes something a good translation and adaptation while existing as a completely separate cast!

yeagh...

A lot of times, it’s spur of the moment, but I’m proud to say that the general style I use has its roots in Punjabi culture. If it’s a big enough goal, and if the name fits, I always try to let the last syllable go on as long as I can — at the very least, I try to beat out the goal horn. And that comes from Punjabi singers, who are known for trying to compete with each other to see who can hold a note the longest.

(note: emphasis my own)

AWESOME. NO NOTES. i have nothing of worth to add. i love the way cultural raisings imbue you with certain associations .

(again the full article is worth the read! it follows the personal journey of singh as a caster and the work put into getting hockey night in punjabi off the ground and on air)

i feel the need to stress that there ARE other leagues and that nhl isnt the only way to watch a game in preferred languages. but it would be incredibly nice to be able to watch an nhl game in punjabi or asl any time of the season the same way french and spanish are options (AND WITH LIMITATIONS AT THAT...!) (the french are region locked.)

however i will spare the side search of what other leagues out there are and what languages they broadcast in.

REALLY cool is that hockey night in canada actually has provided broadcasts in other languages as well: italian, inuktitut, cree, hindi, tagalog, mandarin, and cantonese

im lookin at wikipedia sorry yall LOL

they chose these based off the most popular languages in the city each canadian team is based in, which does raise the question of WHY THE HELL IS THERE SO MUCH PUSH BACK... its not even love thy neighbor its more just. can we start with thy neighbor EXISTS??? racism is stupid and more breaking news with neonfretra at 6.

also it was baffling to see fully serious, uncritically posted pro forcing assimilation views. hold your opinions, ill hold mine, my opinion is you people are a tar pit .

but to be a little bit embarassing, it is actually incredibly exciting to realize how much there has been on a larger scale level for quite a few languages <3 its not a secondary language, non white non english speaking communities DO exist and ARE worthy of acknowledgement and involvement <3 i WANT other people to watch my terrible no good team. EYE know that anyone, me or my friends or my enemies or the stranger i will see twice in my lifetime, have a place in somethin as indulgent to watch as sports without havin to assimilate to the english speaking demands of the times!

... but only for the playoffs

do you see the problem with me talkin about my personal feelings towards these sorta casts. nothin new to be said and anythin of interest ALREADY covered in these articles <3

@planesandtrainingwheels

oh howdy! :) unfortunately this years schedule hasnt seemed to be posted yet u.u but aptn has a designated hockey in cree page if you want to look out for it! i wouldnt hold my breath, last seasons schedule was posted in january

they also have a dictionary of key vocabulary which is always interestin! ^_^

not all phrases included have an english translation and im not goin to try to figure how to do it myself in live time, so ! make do ^_^

(but if you ever wanted to learn a new language you can always hit up the plains cree language resource website though! just dont make me do it over the span of one post)

Roughing – ē-wī-pāspinē-nōtinikēt (he is almost going to fight someone) (...) Slashing – ē-kakwē-wīsakatahiwāt (he is trying to hurt him) this one can be translated several ways but the intent of this is trying to impede another player with their stick by hitting them and hurting them Too many men – ē-osāmiyaticik (there are too many of them)

you know what this actually explained the difference between a roughing and fighting penalty to me LMAO

(also laughed at there are too many of them. THERE SURE ARE! its a really good penalty name in both languages)

i do like the more literal meaning these compared to the more abstracted concepts because let me be honest with you. its INCREDIBLY hard to summarize some of these rules (and even then . how the heck we goin to even simplify slashing here!) (he is trying to hurt him why not) (you could argue they are in fact tryin to hurt each other the way an axe tries to hurt a log)

all this talk does make realize WOW hockey rules have some pretty weird names huh (WHAT IS INTERFERENCE!!!)

another article that caught my eye personally was "Veteran broadcaster hopes Cree 'Hockey Night in Canada' can help save language" by Gemma Karstens-Smith

i really did mean gatherin interest and supportin language learners in my first post (im part of the problem of dying languages! HELP!!!) and to know that hockey night in cree shoots for the stars does make me. you know. want to just carry that same hope! ^_^

The 60-year-old broadcaster from Canoe Lake Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan is set bring the sport he loves to his community in a whole new way next month with the debut of "Hockey Night in Canada in Cree." "It means a lot. We're losing our languages across Canada," said Iron, who'll do play-by-play in Plains Cree for the six national NHL broadcasts. "We're trying to save the Cree language. And it'll help. Even to call a hockey game in Cree, it's a big thing."

one of the major things about castin in all these different languages is the connection ^_^ watchin sports is honest to god one of the biggest social experiences ive had and its an easy conversation facilitator.

ive observed a LOT of readings of peoples personal gaining from these casts being that they created connections with their peers that they felt a cultural gap with, having a similar grounds for a love of sports, and their family members they felt a generational gap with, learning the language of their family or having a way to include their non english speaking relatives in the conversation.

and from a completely unrelated angle, how many friends do you got tryin to learn japanese or korean because of the things they watch or read or listen to! my friend found music and television to be a massive help in her own journey to learn a language!

bringing your own culture and language to a massively popular platform like the nhl is HUGE to sharing and keeping it alive

crack open a broadcast in a different language! toss yourself into that show whose tropes you think are weird! its fun, trust me :)

also unrelated, their tag line? of sorts is "kitāskwēw, pihtikwahēw" means "he shoots, he scores" like baby i wish my team knew how to do that

GOD I NEED TO CUT MYSELF OFF. we are NO LONGER going back to elaborate. we are NOT adding any more.

thank you yall for real though! would not have known bout ANY of this otherwise <3

and POST!!!

maybe nhl in asl has given me a taste of the epic highs and now i am too spoiled . whats stopping us from doing this all the time ... whats stopping us from casting games in whatever popular languages in the area of a teams are ... maybe spanish speakers want to watch nothing games as well as the stanley cup final what then ... have you never wondered what kind of translations of your favorite players names there are out there ... heres how we can force people to actually learn those two or three or four languages theyve always wanted to pick up ... gather interest in learning less well known languages ... ill go first and then get dragged for exclusively sayin nothing related to the game LMAO

[hella1975]

I know plenty of people have already talked about that particular line in the last scene of chapter 40 but can I just say thank you for letting kanut be the one to have that moment with Zuko. That genuine moment between these two queer people means so much to me.

As an asexual sapphic I struggle a ton letting these identities coexist. It often feels like I gotta pick and choose between them. So many people have this mentality that people like me are the queer asexuals unlike cis aroace/arohet/acehet folks. Like I'm queer despite my asexuality rather than it being an equal part of my queerness. Reading that conversation I instinctly expected Zuko to realise kanut isn't like him and dismiss that experience and advice as relevant to his situation. But instead you let them relate to each other and I haven't stopped thinking about that.

I went to pride a little over a week ago and found this acearo stand. The guy there told me they had a few WhatsApp groups for aspec people so I gave him my number. I live in a very small country in the Mediterranean basin so there really isn't really an asexual culture here at all. So I thought I'd at least try but I couldn't master up the courage to use the WhatsApp link he sent me. Anyways all that is to say I finally did it today because of this chapter and kanut. Congrats on getting a win over my anxiety.

Completely unrelated the whole thing with Zuko and the flower in his hair hit me so hard as a plus sized person. I've felt so many times in my life I needed to be more masculine and aggressive and to not put any emphasis on my body or my appearance. I know that definitely was not your intention and I'm not even sure if it makes any sense but my ed has been really bad recently and that part made me want to put flowers in my hair and cry in the summer sun.

Sorry if I'm being way too personal with this but that chapter has got me in emotional shambles. So I just wanted to let you know how impactful your writing is. I am never not floored by your insane talent.

asks like this mean the absolute world to me i genuinely treasure them and hold each one so close. im so glad you found something comforting in my writing. it was a personal chapter for me too and it was really important to me that zuko and kanut have that connection where they relate, not see each other as different. idk if it's tiktok or just the internet generation as a whole but there's a really disheartening trend atm of queer identities pitting against each other, competing over who has it worse and sometimes we all just need to step back and remember what unites us. each person has different experiences with their own queerness even if they share a label with someone else. it doesn't need to be a battle and that's what i was trying to show with kanut and zuko and thankfully i think i got that across pretty well based on the overwhelming response ive had from that chapter. it's truly touched my heart so please dont fret about this seeming too personal. you deserve to be recognised and the fact you messaged that group despite your anxiety? knowing i had even a minor part to play in that is going to make me smile for DAYS. i hope they offer you more of a community than what you've received so far. you deserve flowers in your hair xx