#but nowadays i say the latter. just because everyone says that

[rwby-confess]

I think there’s serval reasons why n there’s so few RWBY newcomers nowadays and the fandom is so badly regarded

I won’t deny a lot of people will just hear the criticism and not watch the show, If someone asks why a show is good and someone else says it isn’t that person might base their first opinions on it… HOWEVER, we can’t deny RWBY is indeed flawed, a good group of people says the first three seasons are the worse but gets better latter on which… I don’t think watching three bad seasons for a show is worth it, there’s things in the show itself that can make people dislike the show like the racism plot line or animation in many moments

But I also think the fandom has scared a good chunk of people away, between the ship wars, the harrasment of people for their takes (the fact so many defenders use “that character won’t suck your dick, stop argumenting” as one of their first arguments is deplorable) the FNDM is too toxic for a show that can’t back it up

MLP, Minecraft, Pokemon and Steven universe didn’t just have BIG companies able to back up their works, but their works are also monumental in pop culture

MLP redefined fandom culture, Minecraft is one of the most sold games in history, Pokemon is THE franchise in all of the world, and Steven universe is undeniably the most progressive show of its time that walked so every show following that wanted to add Queer themes could run

RWBY is a very niche show that was part of the early YouTube wave of indie animation, but compared to it’s contemporary’s of the time (Animation vs Animator, Eddsworld, Madness combat. which have been going strong for a long time) has been falling more and more in the public eye and its current seasons don’t match the quality of other web shows

The show can’t afford to have a fandom that is so toxic and conflictive since at the end of the day the show depends solely on the fans at this point, yet has done nothing but make a “us vs them” narrative in both sides that makes it like any other toxic fandom but without a source material that is worth so much trouble

Not saying RWBY is bad but this fandom ain’t worth it and while you could say “just watch the show without interacting with the fandom”

RWBY depends on the fandom, I and everyone I know that discovered RWBY knows of it because of the fandom… and most dropped it or hate the fandom

I think RWBY needs a less toxic community to stay alive, but the FNDM instead of trying to mature, tried to erase the criticism because they can’t differentiate Criticism and toxicity, the thing that’s damaging RWBY isn’t criticism but the fandom itself preventing it from growing

Confession #700

[l-in-the-light]

How do the Heart Pirates celebrate Christmas and the time around (if there's sth in the OP universe 😁)? 🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻

I'm slightly late, but Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁🌟 Are you perhaps the same anon who asked about Law's birthday celebration? Even if not, I just wanted to mention it because both asks warmed my heart ❤

I will tackle your question in two, or actually, three ways. First, I will use my knowledge in the field of anthropology to try to break down Christmas-like traditions in the world of One Piece. Secondly, I will try to relate real-world customs to Flevance, basing it on (rather obscure) hints in the manga. You would be surprised what can be guessed about their culture just from a few facts we got. And lastly, I will try to sprinkle some ideas about how Hearts would choose to spend their Christmas ;) I hope you will enjoy the read!

Christmas in One Piece (seems it's actually Winter Solstice)

We don't get much information on that, not directly at least. Would they celebrate Christmas as the rebirth of the sun? That's the origin of old traditions (like Yule/Winter Solstice and Saturnalia); celebration of light and changing of seasons. It marks the end of the darkest days of winter, because days start to be longer so you see more sun around. Some folk traditions survived till today (like straw goats in the North or festivals of fire) or chosen elements got incorporated into Christian customs: wreaths, carolling, misletoe and gift-giving, among others. You could say in our world Christianity tried to get rid of "pagan cultures", but when it realized it can't unroot them, they started to incorporate religious imagery into their traditions. This way they didn't erase Winter Solstice, they instead stole it as their own custom, heh. Which is part of the reason why Christianity spread around the world so effectively. But this process wasn't peaceful everywhere.

But how does it relate to One Piece? I remember they mentioned a Winter Solstice in Elbaf: they eat semla, then are fasting till "sun gets reborn" (our advent used to be about fasting as well, btw. Nowadays that tradition died out). Winter Solstice is often tied to the Norse beliefs. There was also this legend about the two kings: Oak King (also sometimes called the Sun King) and Holly King, always fighting each other so one of them can rule the next season. Perhaps Giants, besides Semla, also cultivated the old Yule log tradition? I admit that would really fit right in. But I don't think every island in OP world has same traditions, because they're all so isolated from each other. So just because Giants have Winter Solstice doesn't mean it's celebrated everywhere and even if it's a widespread custom, it's likely it's not done in exactly same way.

Why are beliefs about sun god present among various people of the world (Shandorians, Giants from Elbaf, Bucaneers)? Is it the same like in our world, that in many cultures there's a concept of some kind of sun deity and sometimes it's even the most important one? We have traditions of various sun dances in native beliefs of North America (and a sun dance in one tribe can be drastically different from others, but a ritual called this way exists among most of Great Plains tribes). Ancient Mayan and Aztec beliefs also had their own sun deities, and even the most isolated tribes in Amazon Rainforest also had some. Egyptians and Japanese have their own sun deities etc.

We have no idea why everyone worshipped the sun, even though we can guess as to why they found sun important in general. And I think that mystery will probably stay unsolved in OP universe as well. We might find out that the origin of Nika comes from one, specific culture (be it Elbaf or something more ancient - my guess is on the latter), or we might find out there were always multiple sun deities beliefs in the world and the source of it's origin can only be speculated. But we still should keep one fact in mind: we saw Government use Mother Carmel before to spread religion around, which could be the analogy to Christianity swallowing up native customs, like it happened in our world as well. That could suggest the sun god church is a religion spread by the Government and would explain why they really wanted that Nika devil fruit so badly (but that would mean they want their own, acceptable version of a sun god, not Nika - that name is apparently forbidden). But at this point, it's just a speculation.

But back to the main topic: Law and Hearts are mostly from North Blue, so they might share similar traditions, not counting some of the crewmates they likely recruited on the Grand Line. I suspect traditions are somewhat similar in their respective Blues, but might wary drastically between, let's say, South Blue and West Blue, thanks to the impenetrable wall seperating them for centuries. North Blue seems to be based on wintery regions of our world, so their customs might be reminiscent of those as well (for example, focus on illuminations, lights and candles/lanterns).

Situation gets more tricky with the rest of the Blues actually, we know very little about South and West Blue. South has some regions looking rather exotic (Torino Kingdom or Baterilla) and some appear to be very dangerous places, suffering from high criminal and poverty rates, like the home country of Kid Pirates. We have also region clearly inspired by Russia and Brazil there. There's a lot of disproportions, but the mash-up of different cultures suggest that each of them probably has their own, unique traditions. In comparison, West Blue is home to many rich-looking kingdoms, as well as having some world-wide recognized heritage like Scholars of Ohara, Kano (with it's long standing traditions like China), mysterious european-looking Thriller Bark before it became an actual Thriller Bark, there's also a country based on Hollywood. It's not much to go by, but Christmas in rich countries tends to be more consumption-focused and multicultural (doesn't mean it erases the differences between cultures, but it makes them become less distinct). Even Bege, who comes from West Blue, is based on Italian mafioso who has taste in expensive things (I'm basing it solely on his clothes and hat choices, but also him being big on keeping appearances and high hygiene standards, lol).

We saw plenty of East Blue, and I would say they're the poorest, but also homogenous and peaceful region of the world (people living in small villages like Foosha or Coco Village, depending on harvest from groves or getting most income from "travellers" - mostly pirates and bandits - since Foosha is a really small place but has an actual bar and it's probably because it's also a port town. And port towns are usually richer than inland cities thanks to trade etc.), close local communities in small towns (Orange Town), and the only truly flourishing place is Shell's Town, because it has a Marine base, and Goa Kingdom (wouldn't really call it flourishing, more like parasiting). Most of their traditions would be probably centered around village life and agriculture. Seems it's also never snowing there, so Christmas celebrations are probably absent, but there are most likely feasts shared together as a community instead.

Heart Pirates would try a lot of different, traditional food and customs from all around the world while travelling the Grand Line, and that sea is for sure even more unique when it comes to cultures (it has Egypt and Spain and old Japan!). Maybe some countries don't really celebrate Christmas and instead focus on New Year (like in Japan, all they do for Christmas is eating christmas shortcakes, look at illuminations and go on dates. yes, dates. Often they also eat chicken from KFC, because it became trendy there in Christmas season. Of course, Christmas is an imported holiday there, they didn't have anything like that before). Maybe on some islands they have unique traditions akin to the Diwali, the Festival of Lights? Or perhaps they do Christmas picnics or barbeque outside (Franky would love the latter!) in summer-like weather, like in South Africa, accompanied by some mango and palm trees decorated with ornaments; after all each island has it's own distinct climate! It's also possible there are many different dates for Christmas on Grand Line, spanning the length of two months - which means a Christmas-focused tour would be possible, to experience all sorts of different traditions and food one after another :D

Does Santa Claus exist in One Piece world? (canonically - not yet!)

Santa is probably not widespread belief in One Piece world, judging from the Drum Island arc.

There's no guy with long beard dressed in red and white, riding sleigh, going down the chimneys and giving people presents; just some rumours of a doctor travelling with a pet reindeer curing people of illnesses and taking their money for it. If Santa Claus was a thing, it would be mentioned in this scene or in the arc, but it wasn't, not even once. Instead of being called a fake Santa abomination, Kureha earned herself a witch nickname. For me that's a proof Santa Claus never existed, not even as just a random story from some winter country.

But not all hope is lost yet! Now, that I think about it, Wapol made a fortune by making specifically toys for kids. Doesn't that ring any bells? And he comes from Drum Kingdom originally! If he ever gets back to his country and starts giving those toys for free, that would be the One Piece's own Santa's origin story, haha. All the pieces are fitting lol. And we would still get Kureha with the sleigh distributing the gifts! Like I know, Wapol is a terrible person and a coward, but he's also going through second biggest crisis in his life currently. If he ever gets brave enough to reveal the truth to the world about Imu, his hair might go white as the result of all the accumulated stress and anxiety, lol. Wapol becoming the future Santa Claus is not something I expected to foresee for the end of One Piece, but it sure is a delight to imagine, haha.

Short answer: YES, he would be grumpy, but he wouldn't try to destroy the fun for others!

Hearts Pirates celebrating Christmas-like traditions on their voyage around the Grand Line

I mentioned before that Law doesn't seem the type who celebrates his birthday, and considering his reasons for it I think it would be likely that he would avoid Christmas-like celebrations as well. They might remind him of his home and the family he lost, because those are family-centered holidays. But let's face it: even if he's the captain he wouldn't be able to ban his own crew from celebrating Christmas. But whenever Hearts do a celebration on the Polar Tang, Law will probably try to vanish quickly, to his cabin or to the deck (I assume they wouldn't celebrate while submerged, because then part of the crew would have to work on maintaining the submarine instead of celebrating, you know).

One of the possible compromises Law might agree to would be celebrating unique traditions on different islands, which means they stay somewhere on land to celebrate. This way his crew gets to enjoy stuff, Law is less grumpy, and they also experience some adventures. So, instead of doing the same thing every single year, they would make it a point to try out a different tradition each year! (a dream come true tbh) After they decide which island they visit, they start preparations, asking for local traditions, creating ornaments or baking cakes together to contribute. I mean, it's Law's crew, they're a bunch of planners, right? I bet he taught them well.

On the day of celebration they all go to the land and have fun together, dressing up Christmas trees (if the place has that tradition), taking part in the feast, participating in eating contests, getting souvenirs like a true tourists from Christmas markets etc. I bet you at least once they ran into Strawhats and maybe also Kid Pirates (or heck, half of the worst gen, because why not, lol). That ends in some idiotic competitions. For example, our traditional Christmas soup is borscht with dumplings, so they could be taking part in "who eats the most bowls of borscht wins". You would think it would become a close battle between Kid and Luffy, but surprisingly enough Law would stay in the run, probably thanks to cheating on the side (shambling his portions of borscht away as he pretends to gulp down bowls in one go, lol). Because he can be a brat as well and would use his skills to his advantage :D they would have to really blackmail him hard into agreeing to even take part in this contest in the first place though.

They would for sure convince him into secret santa gift exchange and he would dread it, because he has to get something for someone like Usopp or Urouge, and he doesn't know much about them. Thankfully he can get advice from Penguin and Shachi who became best buddies with Usopp in Wano and they end up choosing something together. Law himself receives a figurine made out of straw that oddly reminds him of someone and he is convinced Kid gave him that, to mock him about his hidden adoration of a certain pirate-king-to-be (the gift was actually from Killer, lol).

At the end of the day the Strawhats would make a family-style feast on the Sunny and invite everyone, and then in the middle of the night Luffy and Usopp would try to catch Santa putting gifts under the Christmas tree, but they end up falling asleep while waiting. After witnessing that, Law, who rarely gets a good night of sleep, would have mercy on them and ask Jean Bart to dress up as Santa Claus and leave some presents under the tree. Zoro caught him and teased him about it, thankfully Law had some alcohol he could bribe him with to keep it a secret. He decided to ask Jean Bart to do the same for the Heart Pirates, who are in tears the next morning as they shout excited to each other that there are mysterious presents under the tree. Some guess Law was behind it though, but some never find out (Bepo, for example, lol, who ends up believing in Santa ever since).

Mining customs of Flevance and celebration of the sun; advent was likely a big thing

Ever wondered how Flevance would celebrate Christmas? I sure did. Considering that Flevance had a church and the only religion we know of in OP is centered on the sun god, I would assume Christmas was slightly more Christian, with kids carolling, visiting the church at midnight to give thanks to the sun god, having a feast with families at home, traditionally without meat. They would have Christmas markets though, because German vibes. But since Flevance is also a mining country, I would assume mining traditions were important there. For example, miners parades (it used to happen as the grand finale at the Christmas markets, miners played some musical instruments as they walked around the town square, maybe even marching all the way from or to the mines). We saw that parades are part of celebrations in Flevance (and Law mentioned as a child that celebrations are common in his town in general), so this seems canon-accurate (and also close to our real world mining customs which often include parades of miners playing musical instruments!).

That figure of a winged lady on a fountain is probably a Patron of Miners, that's why she appears to be holding a torch of some kind. In our world that could be the Saint Barbara or some Lady of Flevance (as a possible analogy to Our Lady of Lebanon, because church is also important in Flevance). Or you know, a Sun Goddess, if sun god has a different image depending on the country you visit. Why would a Sun God be a patron of miners? Because miners worked deep beneath the ground and as the result really yearned for sun, especially in winter months, when both days and nights were dark. That's how the famous light illuminations traditions got born, so they can lead husbands to their homes after their work shift is done in the mines. Those illuminations back in the days were candles or lanterns. That's why Lady of Flevance holding a torch makes a lot of sense (and yes, I'm gonna call her that for now, I kinda like the ring of it, haha).

In the backstory on Flevance it's revealed that people there were really good in craftswork, and mining towns often have ties to that field as well, so It's possible Flevance also had things like this:

In some mining towns they often put a figurine of a miner and an angel as candle-holders. They put them on windowpanes, so the light of the candles illuminates the darkness on long winter days. Some traditions mention that the angel figurine was for the wife, while they could be multiple miner figurines, each symbolizing one kid in the family (which means Trafalgars would get two). Some other sources mentioned an angel was for the girl child and miner for the boy child in the family. Other possible popular figurines and motives could be old guys smoking a pipe and nutcrackers. And of course the Angel Lady Patron.

Or instead of that, they could place some decorative wooden arches in the windows, depicting wintery landscapes, everyday life or mining scenes, with candles displayed, like this: Schwibbögen.

The wooden decorations would be, of course, white, because forests in Flevance were also white, even the fir trees! Ignore that they're not white in the colored version of the manga, haha. Or perhaps the candle-holders would take the form of Christmas pyramids, considering how Law's nationality would be German? (those pyramids also originated from mining traditions btw) :D

I bet you anything though, that whatever they would display in their windows in Flevance, it would be made out of amber lead, so ouchie. Beautiful, pristine white and deadly :/ Flevance was known for skilled craftsmen so I'm sure their decorations were very beautiful and full of exquisite details.

In my country mining traditions were centered around the 4th of December, it was called Saint Barbara Day or Miner's Day, and focused mainly on appreciating the patron. Saint Barbara was the most popular/universal mining patron, but there were some special, field-specialized patrons as well (Saint Kinga for salt mines in particular). There were some minor customs accompanying it, like fortune-telling: picking up special branches (of cherry tree or forsythia) that indicated different wishes for the future (good fortune in coming year, easy marriage etc.). There was also a special gingerbread bread baked for this occassion (yes, bread made out of gingerbread :D this is most likely an even older tradition originally). In Flevance they could bake some traditional white pastry instead, maybe meringue which is often powdery and white, so it would fit really nicely with the fairytale wonderland image of Flevance. On the day of the patron they also held a ceremony for new miners joining who had to go through a special rite of passage, which included jumping over a piece of leather or a special miner apron. They also drank a lot, mostly beer, but I'm sure mulled wine was a popular drink in mining towns too.

Flevance probably also celebrated Candlemas - 40 days after Christmas they officially took down Christmas decorations, also in the town squares. Before Christmas they also celebrated last shift - basically finishing up work earlier and celebrating, singing and eating together. Mining celebrations used to be cheerful, included lots of singing/playing music and drinking, and also light illuminations and parades in towns. Since Flevance became a rich country, I would expect some Christmas markets emerging as well as the result. Let's not forget that Flevance was also religious, and that also checks out for mining towns. Miners would usually start their day by giving prayer to a Mining Patron figure (in this case the winged Lady of Flevance) or attending the mass before work, on special occassions performed even inside the mines.

Special torches/poled lanterns used for special occassions.

Mining was a hard job, exposing people to dangers like cave-ins and extreme temperatures, risks like standing close to explosions (and their possible miscalculated consequences), toxic air from excavation, and some long-term health effects. People working constantly underground, aware that if something happens they might never get out unless a miracle happens, often turned to religion. They prayed for safety and protection, that's why church also becomes important as the consequence. I bet Law as a child saw miners often in the hospital; serious injuries and accidents are one of the most common risks coming with this job. Of course miners dedication and commitment delivers irreplacable resources, not only for one town or whole country, but global economy in general. And yet even nowadays miners face many problems, also related to no good health care and no proper support from the government. We saw what Government did to help Flevance... oh right, they didn't help. They instead waited like vultures for the situation to get worse, so they can be excused for executing drastic measures.

Coincidentally, Jail Island in the game One Piece World Seeker, is also a mining town, and it holds many secrets and attracts extreme interest of the Government.

Geez, I wrote a lot. Anyone actually finished reading this post? 😅

[virmillion]

live-blogging my thoughts of bitching out my mom re: recent events, so i don’t have to try to remember it all later (:

“he does love you, he just doesn’t agree with what you’re doing” okay and what i’m doing is a survival mechanism. if “what im doing” (top surgery and T) is so difficult for him to take, then i can just kill myself and resolve it for both of us

everything he does is justified, everything i do is vilified

when i slam my door Once because im getting sensory overload from his fucking water bottle, then IM making things harder for her because she has to deal with his fallout

when he yells FUCK and slams doors and stabs bagels, it’s just bad timing. i say those are part of why i hesitate to say i feel safe in this house, and she says sorry, “it happens”, “it does but it shouldn’t” that is not good enough!! do something about it, stop just agreeing that it sucks and standing by without DOING anything

when he gives me the silent treatment for ten days after i come out to him, it’s just hard for him, give him time to come around, he’s just old fashioned and it’s difficult. when i give him the silent treatment for two days, mom gets sent up immediately on night one to apologize on his behalf, and ask if i ever plan to talk to him again. “statistically i probably will.” day two, she points out again that he does love me, and he is making an effort - he said “sorry” and made his noise when he got home. it took him two days of silence to mumble an apology. no text, no explanation, all communication through mom until he was unavoidable.

i’m acting on his example, aren’t i? slam things and shut people out until people bend to my tantrums? when he does it, he’s having a hard time. when i do it, im making things harder for others.

he hates his job. his toes hurt. he’s lonely. he’s old fashioned. he has a hard time with What I’m Doing. he just needs time.

i wanted to kill myself all of middle and high school. nowadays, if you ask me whether i’d prefer to be alive or dead right now, 70% of the time i will at least hesitate, if not outright choose the latter.

i wore hoodies and jeans to all of middle and high school, in 90 degrees, because i hated my body. i wore leggings to 9-9s in august because i hated my body. i never raised my hand in class because i hated my voice, because i didn’t want people to look at me, because i didn’t want my wrongness (of body, of voice, of answer) to be noticed. i hated dresses because i hated my body. i wore baggy clothes to disguise my body. i prayed i would be one of the “lucky” ones and never get my period. i prayed for breast cancer, as an excuse to cut them off before i knew what top surgery was.

every time i’ve ever thought about killing myself - seriously, genuinely considered it, not just fleeting - it was never self preservation that prevented it. once, maybe in high school, one of my sister’s old friends killed themself. she texted me that night and made me promise i’d never do the same. i hesitated, even then, to agree, because i knew i would hold to it even at the hardest, when there was no other way out. but i did, because i couldn’t TELL her all that. i agreed, and i doubt she even remembers it anymore.

i remember it, though. when i want to take the easy way out, THAT’S what i remember, and that’s what pulls me back from the edge. not the desire to live, not knowing the impact it will have on others, not a will to keep going for this that or the other. the promise i made to someone who probably already forgot about it. i’m here because i swore i would stay. that’s all.

it’s not JUST about the bagel stabbing, but that’s part of it. it’s the fact that i’m never allowed to react for myself. everything is for his benefit. we have to be miserable and bend over backwards to cater to his whims, and the second i try to live with something resembling joy, it’s a problem, and making things harder for everyone else. i just don’t see the point in TRYING anymore. i don’t care if he’s sorry - why did it take him so long to apologize? i don’t care if he disagrees with What I’m Doing - why should it matter if What I’m Doing is a survival mechanism? i don’t care if it’s hard for him - living like this is hell for me. it’s only fair that he get two days’ taste of how the last ten years have been for me.

[epickiya722]

I just talked with my friend who is a Gojo fan but anti Geto and anti stsg. When I asked her about Satosugu, do you know what she said : "Just because someone loves Gojo it does not mean that they must ship satosugu or they also loves Geto. Unfortunately, I would call gojo/geto as close to canon as a queer ship can get in shounen. But it does not have to always be canon right?" (She loves Gojo/Sukuna and Gojo/Yuji ships, even wrote fanfics about them). I don't know how to answer her, between want to laugh and cry at the same time 🤣😭😆

Well, yeah, no one is forced to ship SatoSugu but how can anyone not?

Their backstory? The banter? How they're designed? How they act around each other? Like, come on! Season 2's first opening and ending are literally SatoSugu songs!

"Unfortunately..." why she had to say it like it's the worst representation ever? 😭

Honestly, pulling the "it doesn't always have to be canon, right" card is like "It's not canon so you shouldn't ship". Both ways, it's just saying "This is a rule that you must follow because it makes me comfortable". It's a tactic, a way of setting a rule because that person feels that it's "their way". Shipping should be something fun. Not something people should dictate, come on.

No offense to your friend, I mean that. But it's just odd to me to be anti-Geto when Sukuna is just as bad... wait, no. Sukuna is a lot worse. Is she a fan of Sukuna?

Now I will say at least your friend being anti-Geto is (probably, I don't know) why she doesn't ship SatoSugu. Which is fair. Some people will like a ship but hate one of the characters and I don't see the point of that. If you don't like the character, then don't feel the need to have a ship for them??? If I hate a character or don't particularly care for them, I wouldn't pay attention to the ships for them. That's just me.

I have seen some shippers of another fandom like this ship of two characters where one is really grumpy and hot blooded and gets a lot of hate and the other is like the typical Shonen protagonist, but he's a side character and those people will only ship that ship because "he can change him" as it's only right that one character has the ability to change and train the other like he's a dog. Honestly, disrespectful to both characters.

Back to SatoSugu!

Okay, back to a previous point. The "it doesn't have to always be canon bit" also applies to shipping Gojo/Sukuna and Gojo/Yuji. Both ships have way less content, especially, in a romantic sense than SatoSugu. Neither is canon and some people would have problems with them.

The first one, I can see why people ship it because you know the whole "enemies to lovers" and the whole fight thing and "I enjoyed fighting you". But those would be problems for people who don't ship them. Some folks don't like enemies being shipped because they usually try to kill each other and that ship is no different. Their whole fight may have been enjoyable for them, but they both still had those intentions to kill each other.

There's also the whole case of Sukuna possessing Yuji and Megumi's bodies, both being minors, so yeah, uncomfortable. (It's why nowadays people who like the ship prefer to ship them when it's OG!Sukuna.)

Speaking of, that's the problem people would have with the latter ship. Not everyone is fond of teacher/student relationships especially when a minor is involved.

That reminds me of how once I said something along the lines of "if SatoSugu had a kid, Yuji is the result". Something like that, something like that. [I'll post the link to that here.]

I don't know whether to cry or laugh either, Anon, I'll be real. Like... there's just so much to unpack here...

[unionizedwizard]

so i like the meta post a lot but could you give me a lil rundown on what the difference is between metanarrative and metapoetics? the latter is a new word to me and i can infer the gist but i wanna know what specifically you're getting at

oooooooooo hehehehe woooohoooo <- normal about literary theory

so, Poetics is the matter of theorizing about poetry (its rules, aims, effects...) (which implies all the allagan tomestones we've been grinding this whole time are copies of allagan aristotle & cie which i find both very funny and very. foreshadowing-inclined. but anyway). It's literally the english word for "ars poetica"; it is a set of methods and rules meant to direct the writing of poetry. Sort of like a practical textbook with a philosophical setting. Metapoetics would be the question of writing and thinking and theorizing about poetics, and the impulse generally started around the early 20th century (with the russian formalism movement in particular). This is the impulse that eventually led to the creation of structuralism and post-structuralism (Barthes & cie) - as a whole it's a matter of examining the methods and bias and beliefs we hold wrt literature (what Barthes called "the text"), eventually leading to the concept of reception theory for instance.

Nowadays i'm pretty sure that the concept of "metapoetics" encompasses a lot more than poetry, strictly speaking, though each field has its own specific meta- (metadramatics for theater and so on); as long as it's about language itself ("the text"), i think "metapoetics" is a valid concept to invoke (invoking concepts. heh. just like in- okay okay i'll shut up now). Which is a very long-winded way to say that there are subtle differences between metapoetics and metanarrativity because a narrative is not necessarily a text in itself (movies have narratives, tv shows and video games too, and they don't have "a text" in the way that a novel does for example). So, metanarrativity would be the act of a narrative commenting on itself, using dramatic irony, and/or having characters who somehow realize they're in a story. It's a very broad approach.

Metapoetics, on the other hand, would deal more specifically with textual clues. it would be the act of reflecting on the text itself, having the text question its meaning, symbolism, repeat and be modified. In this case, the difference is tenuous at best because the narrative is construed (and understood) as an epic poem, pretty much since the beginning, and particularly in the case of Heavensward; i'd say it's somewhere between a play (Amon's understanding) and an epic or saga (pretty much everyone else's understanding). Which makes the aristotle references in endwalker more meaningful, since aristotle wrote the Poetics about poetry AND theater (the ancients called everything poetry, dramatics were just a subsection of poetry as a whole)

I think the case of ffxiv is ambiguous at best when it comes to assigning a frontier between the motifs and callbacks and dramatic irony that could fall under the "metanarrativity" or "metapoetics" categories specifically because the text itself as well as the overarching narrative are very rich and precise, and feed into each other. Because one of the key aspects of the entire narrative is to put the right words and spin the right narrative (cathartic and awe-inspiring like epic poetry should be) out of real actions. Finding out the truth about the dragonsong war, writing new contracts with the local tribes.... It's always a matter of putting the right words onto everything. if that makes sense? So there's always this aspect of being mindful of speech and remembering it too, that blurs the frontiers of metanarrativity and metapoetics. in my opinion at least

GOD i've been typing for a hundred years and this all reads like mostly bullshit i'm so sorry. I hope it makes sense. like every other literary theory concept tho it's a very flexible and fluid one so mostly it gets used as an analytical lens to examine specific aspects of a text very closely which makes it a bit difficult to "grasp" (in the sense of "grasping at something to keep your balance")

[msdrprofessorjessica]

The Dead Children's Incident of Crumbling Dreams

Ah yes, remember back in Fnaf 2 when everyone saw Save Them and believed the Toys were possessed? Nowadays people brush that off and believe the lies Fazbear Entertainment tells them... idiots.

The DCI is one of Fnaf's biggest questions that never really got an answer. My personal belief was that the story back then was simple and since then, Scott has never found a way to reintroduce them with backstories and names. I am of the firm belief that the Toys are possessed, if they were tampered with, how do they remove their eyes and beak? Mangle in AR can never climb on walls even though the AR emails say they tried replicating it and couldn't. The Toys general haunted behavior with the shrunken pupils, the blackened eyes with white dots, and general poses. It's a shame people just don't really care about it. Fnaf doesn't either and that makes me a little sad too, though the movie is seemingly having hints that the DCI might be brought back, which makes me really excited.

Very rarely have I seen anyone use the DCI, they're basically almost blank slates of characters, you can make them possess any of the toys and you can basically create OC's. And when official stuff gets revealed about them, you can keep them as OC's and use them for original projects? Ain't that just swell? That's the plan right now for my DCI, when and/or if they get revealed, I plan on turning these guys into my OC's, except one of them because he comes from the Fnaf canon, but 5/6 of them are OC's in a sense. I'll take what I can get.

Let's start with going down the list, Toy Freddy child. His name is Luis Valcourt. Not much information is known about him because he was from out of state. He came from the good ol state of North Dakota. He's actually part of a video game contest and won a trip to Texas with his family. He's only eight years old and he beat some random guy at Donkey Kong. He's a video game wizard, and not like the movie. He can beat any game you throw at him, even newly released ones when he has enough practice. On his third day there, his family decided to take him to the newly reopened Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Luis had heard the stories before but never believed any of them. He actually managed to get high scores on four of the arcade games just for being there a few hours. This made him a prime target for being lured away. Being promised a game so challenging that no one has even gotten a score for it. Luis didn't believe it at first, but the yellow rabbit kept pestering him, getting pretty angry about it. Eventually, he called the kid a chicken and that's when Luis decided to follow the Yellow Rabbit to play the game. He thought the other children that were lured were going to be there as an audience. He was in fact, wrong.

Next up, Toy Bonnie. Richard Grace is a big Fazbear Fan. Has been ever since he went to one of the chain Freddy Fazbear's Pizza's near him. He has an entire collection of merch, shirts, hats, socks, plushies, action figures, even a VHS release of Freddy and Friends On Tour Season 1 (the only season). He was heartbroken when the pizzeria was closed down after an incident that happened in one of the other chain locations. He tried to get people to sign a petition to reopen Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, but it never worked. One day, after coming home from school, he was doing his homework with the TV on when a commercial for the New and Improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza had shown up. He was so excited for it, he literally screamed. He screamed louder when he learned that the flagship location was at his home state of Texas. He basically bent over backwards to try and go there. Being on his best behavior, doing odd jobs around his neighborhood for money to go there himself, eventually, the latter option won out in the end and he went there with enough money to get himself a burger, some fries, and whatever drink he wanted. Plus, some extra money left over for a hefty some of tokens to play the arcade games. He spent the day having so much fun, and then he noticed that a yellow rabbit was talking to a group of children. He had never seen a yellow rabbit before, not at Freddy's at least. He was lured away with two other children to a backroom of the building. He got scared at first seeing all the old and ugly looking animatronics but still wanted to see the yellow rabbit. That was the last thing he saw before waking up as Toy Bonnie.

How about we do a two for one? Heather and Maddie William's. The souls of Toy Chica and The Mangle. For some keen viewers who have been around the Fnaf fandom as long as I have, you may know that the name Maddie William's actually comes from a Fnaf VHS series by the YouTuber Twelveman_OP. I used to be close friends with that guy but I doubt he recognizes me now lol. The reference is really in name only and in design probably. Yeah that's right, Maddie is WHITE! WHITE PEOPLE IN CRUMBLING DREAMS!!! Horrifying I know, don't worry know, Luis is black so it balances it out. Though on the topic of references, Richard Grace is a reference to a fan developer in the Fnaf scene. Ricky G to be specific. Though once again, in name only. Richard is Asian here. Anyway, back to Maddie and Heather. Heather and Maddie are sisters, Heather is the older one. Heather is probably William's oldest victim, being sixteen at the time of her death. Heather gets a lot from her mother's side of the family, mainly in beauty. She's obsessed with her looks, especially when she started going to high school. She often wishes she could have more in life, mainly in her looks. Her mom is a fashion designer and she wants to look just like her when she grows up. Maddie is the younger sibling and is weirdly fascinated with animatronics. Even going as far as to pull them apart and trying to put them back together like she does with her toys at home. She did this once with a blue cat animatronic and then did it another time with the Toy Foxy animatronic at the New and Improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Though, when she tried putting it back together, she got worried that she broke it for good.

The best way to describe Maddie is that she just like me fr, no not trans, she has ADHD. Plenty of trans characters will be coming though. Heather hates this fact because she's mostly left with her sister and because of the ADHD, she will be busy talking with someone and then turn around and Maddie is off doing god knows what. Low attention, high priority. Heather also doesn't like her sister because she thinks she's ugly. Maddie takes this to heart and really wants to be beautiful, a reference to the story To Be Beautiful in a way as well as Mangle's UCN lines being about beauty. Heather and Maddie have a rivalry and no matter how much their parents tell them to be nice to each other, it doesn't work. Heather actually tried to stop Maddie from being lured away, but William grabbed both of their arms and took them away into the Parts and Service Room. They both died hugging each other, apologizing for being so rude to each other. They're really nice to each other now.

And for the final two, Balloon Boy and JJ's souls: Michael Brooks and Darcy Mitchell. Michael Brooks to those who you know, is the soul of Golden Freddy in the books. Since it's basically confirmed with Return To The Pit that Cassidy is Golden Freddy, I guess one could say I downgraded Michael Brooks to Balloon Boy. But I see this as an upgrade because Balloon Boy is awesome. Michael Brooks used to live in Hurricane, but after his sister Lily Brooks mysteriously disappeared at Fredbear's, they moved away to Texas... only to find that Freddy's had followed them. They were planning on moving away again and told Michael to stay away from the building. But Michael Brooks happened to have a crush on Darcy Mitchell, who loved Freddy's with all her heart. She wanted to win a Platinum Freddy figurine for her room, and Michael Brooks wanted to help her. He would disobey his parents every day and go to Freddy's. Eventually, he would be caught and would be grounded. However, this would leave him sneaking out at night to go to Freddy's and get the tickets needed to get the platinum Freddy figurine. This would leave him to leave his door open at night and his windows to be permanently locked. However, one night, he knew Darcy was going to be there and they were almost ready to get the platinum Freddy figurine. Desperate to win over his crush, he broke the window and ran off to Freddy's. Grave mistake.

Michael and Darcy are the nicest people ever, always willing to help out others and the expense of their own health. This is why BB and JJ don't really attack you. The souls are too nice... though that doesn't mean they don't think your the killer, therefore, you have to suffer someway. Taking your lights and your cameras is their way of doing that. Leaving you defenseless in the face of the others. Nice souls but that doesn't mean they won't screw you over.

This is the DCI for Crumbling Dreams. They aren't set free after Fnaf 2 and do get to hang around a bit more before they are officially freed, having ties to one fangame series while Balloon Boy gets to show up in TRTF and another fangame series I hope to talk about soon. That is all from me, hope you all have a nice day or night!

[shiroganeryo]

I don't know if you've answered this before but what do you predict will be the ending for DGrayman? I think we all think that Kanda (my boy's got literal death flags everywhere) and Allen will die, but what about everyone else? How will the world be saved?

I really apologize for taking so long to get to this ask, but I've been actually thinking the matter over and over. My answer is probably a little off the chart regarding to the actual question, but this is all I can muster with the current information we have (up to chapter 250). This will be a tad long but I'll try to keep it brief.

But the thing is: it's impossible for me to make a prediction. The beauty in Hoshino's writing is that, while she scatters little details for us to catch and plants seeds very early on, helping us find out certain reveals ahead of time (Allen being the 14th's host, Mana being the Earl; there were very early signs for things like these, things of the sort), knowing such information still isn't enough to give us a definite outline of how the story itself will play out.

That's masterfully done writing right there, and I admire her so because of it; not many shounen/seinen mangaka nowadays can pull this off with the same grace as she does.

Back to your question, much like the majority of the fandom, I believe Kanda will die at the end and there are two reasons for that: one is that it's been hinted at (we could even call it foreshadowing) since Kanda claims he wouldn't be able to die in peace without returning the favor to Allen - not to say he means anything other than "one day I'll die and then I'd take this regret with me to the grave", but we can only get the feeling he has dwelled on the thought (and also possibility) of dying, sooner than expected, especially with the weakened state of his seal.

The other reason is that this would be the most gratifying ending for Kanda, as he would be able to reunite with Alma. He lived his entire life searching for that person and longing to reunite, so that would be the most logical route to take - as well as the best, happiest ending possible for Kanda. After all the horrors the Seconds went through, they both deserve eternal peace.

As for Allen... call me crazy, but I believe there is a chance, albeit slim, that he makes it out alive. I'll need to bring up some things from Chapter 250 to be able to elaborate on this, so here's your warning not to click the Read More if you're avoiding spoilers.

One thing I've observed is that Hoshino plays a lot on word meanings (which unfortunately translation can't convey efficiently) as well as red herrings. Ever since we found out Allen's the 14th's host, he's been considered doomed to get erased so we're playing a clock-ticking game, waiting until that happens.

So it seems that there are only two possibilities: that Allen either gets erased by Nea, or that he dies, sacrificing himself for everyone's sake in the ensuing battle against the Earl that is possibly bound to happen. I can easily picture Allen doing the latter, but the latest chapters gave us something else to consider: Apocryphos' meddling.

We still don't know the full details as to why, but Allen is both deemed as an angel as well as a lamb of sacrifice to the Heart. Something makes me think Apocryphos might be trying to 'craft' the perfect host for the Heart by making use of Allen.

It just aligns with everything we know about Apocryphos as an entity: for someone that is a sentient Innocence whose existence gravitates around the sole purpose of protecting the Heart, why is it so obsessed with a specific accommodator, to the point it even quite literally turned Allen into a blank slate (Nea has confirmed so)?

I'm led to believe Allen is not the Heart, that would be far too easy and predictable. But that's not to say he can't become the Heart. We don't know if the Heart is sentient (all Innocence seem to have sentience to an extent regardless) or if it has an accommodator, and if there is one, if this person isn't out there waiting for the perfect candidate to pass the Heart on to.

This is all just speculation, of course. But it's something that's been on my mind for a while, as I've tried to understand Apocryphos' end goal.

And in the end, if Allen and Nea have become allies due to their shared goal (ending the war and saving Mana), that could also mean that they both die together, as that would be the reunion of Mana and Nea as one, as well as the reunion of Allen with the Mana he so loved.

But then comes in another valuable variable that is Link. It's highly likely that he might sacrifice himself and bring Allen back if he falls, but because of how Atuuda works, that would mean exchanging his own life for Allen's.

There are just a lot of things that could go either way, and that's how Hoshino is so good at keeping us guessing. I often say that I find theorizing anything that goes too far into the future of DGM to be pointless because of how sharply a new, unseen reveal might shift the current scenario.

The latest chapter is building up the expectation that Allen will meet his end soon, especially since the Zoogle Bookstore entered the picture. And that is exactly what's keeping me from being able to predict anything worthy of note; because what they unravel there will very likely be a major game changer not only to Allen but to all involved - which means, by extension, everyone involved in the Holy War.

Another thing keeping me from theorizing anything more solid is Lavi. As a Bookman, he's a witness to history itself, and his whereabouts/status are extremely relevant to map out an end game. The most popular theory is that he's the one telling Allen's story, as it seems the D. in the title refers to "Dear Gray Man".

I can, however, also see Allen as the potential narrator of this story. As for whomst this Gray Man is, only time will tell.

I could go on and on with this, and not get anywhere near what'll truly happen. It's difficult to reach a conclusion in what will happen at the very end for the aforementioned reasons, but if there's one thing I can say, is that this current universe's loop will be the one to end the Holy War, so the Black Order and the Clan of Noah should cease existing as organizations.

Innocence would very likely cease existing as well, having fulfilled its purpose, so all accommodators would be freed. With the end of the war, also comes peace for the Memory of Noah, freeing its hosts from the millenia-old anguish that bound them to a perpetually-destroying world. That would leave the remaining survivors free to do as they please with their lives, away from the war, at last.

First and foremost, DGM is a story about love and hope, even in the darkest of times, and most fans can resonate with such - it's not rare to hear from a fan how this series has helped them hang on when things were looking rather dim in their personal lives. DGM's story is a tragedy, but a beautiful, bittersweet one, just like real life. Thus while I don't see it having a perfect, neatly sanitized ending, I don't see it having a kind of overly dramatic 'everyone dies and the planet explodes' kind of ending either. It would go against everything Hoshino has built all along, after all.

I apologize if, in the end, this wasn't the kind of answer you were hoping for, especially with how long it got - and I did keep it brief, really! But thanks to you and whoever may be reading until here. ❤️

[ladystardustinblackjeans]

As I'm getting more into the rock and pop of the 70s and 80s, i am learning with seething frustration that the same thing that affects many people's perception of classic literature as well: that it all seems stuffy, serious, high brow, and normative as a "product of their time". The latter gets made much worse by many many fans of these things, who rewrite history around any non-normativity present in them, and uphold things that make them nostalgic as supportive of conservative values.

Shakespeare wasn't "proper", society isn't collapsing because of "todays youth", and many many of the very famous mainstream beloved rock and pop stars were queer or supportive of it. Yes much of it was kept hidden as it was literally illegal at the time still, but also. They were mainstream for a reason. Large parts of the mainstream loved androgynous rockstars, people singing about queerness, about anticapitalism. They sold millions of records.

And I'm mad. I'm mad that i only found out about most of these after researching them. That adults presented rockstars with long hair and make-up as "just how the 80s fashion was". And denied them breaking gender norms, being counter culture, when i asked.

People who were literally rebelling against the conservative norms at the time are being upheld as supportive of those norms and have their rebellion erased, just because they partially complied with oppression under the threat of oppression. All so they can be held up as belonging to conservatives and conservative values and "simpler times".

People will say "oh i don't like all this modern noisy stuff, back then music was simpler and beautiful". Worstie, at the time, this music was the modern noisy stuff. Elvis Presley, rather stuffy and old fashioned nowadays, was called obscene in his time. But i suppose time stopped after their youth for most people, and everything cultural afterwards is the downfall of society. See also the conservative Star Trek TOS fan paradox. Buddy they were getting censored at the time.

Fuck off big shoulder pads are a product of their time. Marc Bolan wearing glitter and womens clothes on tv and not being seen as breaking gender norms was not. He was very much breaking norms, and just because his music sounds old fashioned now, doesn't mean he embodied old fashioned conservative norms at the time. Not he nor everyone else who did similar things.

But it was just the wild 70s, right? No one was gay then. The free love movement of the 60s only applied to cishet people, obviously.

Parting words: I know this is to one part my own ignorance of being busy with other things, but how did i only find out that David Bowie was bisexual in the year 2025? It's because the other part is that no one ever fucking thought to mention it to me when talking about the music of their youth.

[gnometa233]

"Why is everyone all up in arms about incest and pedophilia being glorified in media and not violence and blood and gore???" THEY FUCKING ARE!!!! It's just not here on tumblr and is in the mainstream. Do yall not remember in the early 2000's when there was a legitimate thought that violence in video games causes kids to become violent?? Because I sure do! Do yall not remember the outcry of mom's when it came to violent movies with guns, especially right after columbine/sandy hook? I damn well remember the latter!

And even then, it's not that more violence = more likely to commit violent crimes. It's that more violence = a desensitization to violent crime. And hell, the news and the media played way more of a part in desensitizing kids to violence and dare I say, encouraging it! You could also make an argument that killing, while bad, can be justifiable in certain instances of stopping fascism or self defense*. When is the romanticization incest and pedophilia justifiable?

Especially nowadays, violence is rarely glorified and a saught out solution in media. It's always a last resort, or something that scars the characters, or what have you. There's an uptick in mainstream pacifist characters and explorations of PTSD and characters who don't wish to cause harm.

There is plenty of shows and movies and comics that explore these "taboo" topics with care, but the average fanfiction writer, in my experience, just cares about getting their sick kicks. Stop pretending you aren't

*there is a discussion to be had about how mainstream video games portray violence against certain marginalized groups, most predominantly people of color. I am not a person of color, and there are incredibly well thought out takes on this topic.

[eldenrat]

8, 9, 10 any fandom

YEEEEE!!! Cool moot has sent me an ask! Going with Elden Ring on this one. Also took forever on this because I would not stop second-guessing myself and depression is a bitch.

8. Common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about

Too many to count, but I will narrow it down to two in particular. First is the idea that Miquella is either a manipulative mastermind (which seems to be dying out among people who care abt the story), or that he is a naive idiot. The latter honestly drives me up a wall slightly more because it kinda just woobifies him in a completely wrong direction and reduces him to an ineffectual little child who was never anything more than his curse and was always going to fail because of that. It's entirely possible that his plan would have made things better, and that element of doubt and uncertainty makes me love Elden Ring's story so much gets taken away when he's dismissed out of hand like that.

Second has to do with Leda. She is not simply a crazed woman driven by obsession. She is a knight motivated by a sincere belief that her God will bring about a better world and is willing to pile corpses as tall as the mountains to bring that goal to fruition. She genuinely respects all of the other followers of Miquella we meet in the DLC and actually stops to think before acting. Her flaws are those of callousness and allowing her fear of betrayal to control her, which are entirely human failings. I am happy that she is getting a bit more recognition as a fleshed out character nowadays.

9. Worst part of the canon

Honestly, only the Battle of Aeonia really stands out and my gripes with it is because it is at the center of so many awful takes that were pumped out en masse after the DLC released. The story itself is fine, it just takes a good deal more effort than the usual Fromsoft plot point to piece together something I consider to be a good reason. Well played, Fromsoft, well played.

10. Worst part of the fanon

I don't know if I currently have one tbh. I do know in hindsight that in pre-DLC fanon the way that the 'Mohglester' jokes bled into actual interpretations and understanding of Mohg and Miquella's relationship was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen and I'm miffed I didn't realize that sooner.

Also the assumption that Messmer preserved the Hornsent sacred remains and allowed the spirits of hornsent dead to roam the storehouse out of empathy. If I'm being charitable I'd say it was curiosity. It clearly did not stop him from pursuing the a policy of "kill all, burn all", but it did give him pause long enough to pick up some artifacts and a few collaborators.

[goddamnwebcomics]

So what's your take on asshole characters? Between Daisy Falls Apart, Carry On, and some of the characters in Las Lindas and Peter & Company respectively, it just bugs me on how some people write them but forget the part where they're supposed to be funny instead of insufferable. The best reference I can think of for when it works is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and that's mainly because the characters in that practically always get their comeuppance in each episode.

Yeah, I say over and over again. A good asshole character is someone who always gets punished for their behavior in some form or fashion, or their assholiness is so over-the-top exaggerated, it stops existing in a plausible world entirely.

Your example of IASiP is pretty good. There's also Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Seinfeld is an example of the latter, although the cast also faces their comeuppance at the last episode of the series.

Another example I can think of of an entertaining asshole character is Archibald from an obscure adventure game Runaway 2: Dream of the Turtle. He is a gigantic asshole, but he is entertaining because he isn't the protagonist of the game but rather an NPC you meet in one section of the game, his insults are brutal and I like that we virtually know nothing about him. He's just this estranged guy in the middle of Alaska who hates everyone and everything.

Archibald is an example of an asshole character who never grows out of being an asshole or faces comeuppance for being an asshole, the reason he works is because he is a relatively minor character to the game's story, he is pretty much treated as an asshole in the game's narrative as well. And the whole point of adventure games is to talk with random characters and try to muster as much information out of them as possible. With Archibald it almost becomes a challenge because no matter what you say he's going to roast you. He's also surprisingly realistic for an asshole, like I've seen a lot of Archibald-types on Twitter.

If you want to make a sympathetic asshole protagonist, then look no further than Woody from the first Toy Story. Nowadays zoomers think Woody in that movie is TOO MEAN, when in the original draft he was Kathy-levels of unlikable. In the actual movie, he still isn't perfect, but he is shown to have a sympathetic side and he does have an understandable motivation of being afraid of being overshadowed by Buzz. But Woody does learn to be a better person at the end of the movie, but the few times he does act like a prick he is genuinely hilarious thanks to Tom Hanks's performance. And he doesn't throw Buzz out of the window on purpose like in the original draft, people just think he does, which could be considered a comeuppance moment for how he acted earlier in the film. I don't think Woody is TOO MEAN, he is not a bully, just someone who is insecure about the possibility of being overshadowed.

Webcomic protagonists never face comeuppance. And when they do, it's written in the most forced way possible to "appeal to haters", but is trivial in the grand scheme of things. I think a webcomic with a likable asshole protagonist is only possible if everyone else is far worse than they are.

[kittyandco]

Screamy, TFP specifically if you'll allow it~

📝🤪🌦️💘

@goldenworldsabound

@goldenworldsabound YES I WILL!!!! THANK YOU!!!

📝: How would your story in canon go? How would you influence the events of the original story?

My s/i takes the most active role when she first appears, helping Breakdown and the others escape MECH. That's really it as far as moving the entire story along outside of Starscream and a handful of sweet interactions with the kids and the Autobots Outside of that I can't think of a way she would be super integral to the story as a whole narrative, and that's okay! She would still be important, but I go into that more in the other answers!

🤪: What is your trait that fanon would exaggerate?

My s/i is very #traumatized so I think that would be exaggerated. I do not shy away from her painful upbringing thanks to Silas and the pain she's had to endure working with MECH -- it's all a huge part of her arc. Kinda like how (well at least I assume from a handful of memes I've seen) people will do with Arcee and her grappling with the loss of not just one friend and partner, but TWO. (Loss in general is a big theme throughout the series, but Arcee represents it the most.) It goes without saying that a civil war that's lasted millions of years is bound to impact those involved, so all the Cybertronian characters have something.

However, my s/i is really the only human character who has her own comparable issues and I am entirely speculating especially because I do try to steer clear of fandoms nowadays and just use Tumblr for self ship, but I do think that would cause her to be portrayed as The Sad One among the humans in TFP ... even though she isn't mopey at all.

🌦️: Would you be accompanied by mostly fluff or angst fanfics? Both? Explain why.

I feel like a lot of people are of the same mind as me in that we get cuteness aggression every time we see him and want him to just calm down a little JKDDFD so for that reason I think we'd get a lot of fluff fics! But there's soooooooo much angst potential for us it's not even funny

💘: Why would people love your ship? Why would people dislike your ship? How might it start debates?

Why people would love it: regarding my last answer, some people just know that Star would do well if he had a sweet companion who loved him and grounded him. And that would be ME, always. He's very lonely, and I know a lot of it is due to his ego kinda pushing everyone away, and he isn't very impressed by or interested in anyone, but Star is a very lonely character across the board. I mean, even Megatron gets along with other Cons and has a comradery with them that Star just doesn't. I think people would understand that he just needs someone steady And! Everyone loves to see a big bad villain absolutely crumble for someone, especially someone as unexpected as me, a human who was once (outwardly) loyal to an organization that tortured one of his own and intended to do the same with the rest.

Why people would hate it: On the other hand, people get BIIIIIIIIIIG huge ginormous mad or at least standoffish if you so much as feel even a sliver of sympathy for Starscream, like I know he's terrible and not everyone gets it, but have a heart man... or at least chill. We don't all gain the same things from media. Sometimes I just think he deserves to not be beaten nearly to death everyday. Sue me

Also "getting in the way of [ship I personally like/headcanon I personally hold about robot sexuality] HOW DARE YOU!1!!!111!!1" The latter of which, and the sympathy thing, I have experienced to my face

I know about Star in Armada and how he did make friends with humans (haven't seen it but plan to!) but this would be the first time a Decepticon truly has a deep, profound connection with a human. It goes beyond friendship; though, we are also best friends, we are family and we eventually form a sparkbond (or as close as we can get. I still call it that).

I also think it would speak a lot to redemption and change, which are hinted at in TFP and especially Earthspark later on. A few times throughout TFP, Optimus talks about letting enemies be free to change and giving them the compassion and opportunity to do so. Our relationship being canon would be an actual example of that... and it wouldn't just be about Star, but it would be about me, too. We both end up becoming at least a tiny bit better through each other (though my s/i was never truly evil like him, he still helped her become closer to the person she wants to be). I think about it a lot 🥺🩶🩷

‘Imagine Your S/I Was Canon…’ Self-Ship Asks

[secretaryofdarkness]

Every so often you see a ridiculous post, usually something with sexual content presented humorously, and a reblog comment will say something to the effect of "this is why this website is unprofitable"

And while those are funny, it's just patently untrue.

Firstly, it behooves us to establish a baseline of terminology, because in current discourse there's a major disconnect between what 'unprofitable' means when used by tumblr users and when used by tumblr executives.

Unprofitable in lay use typically means 'there is a net negative cash flow for this company' while in executive terms it means something more like 'the revenue generated here is unfit for long term growth'. The key distinction is that root word profit; In reality Tumblr is profitable by the first definition but unprofitable by the second. If tumblr wasn't bringing in enough money to at least balance out operating costs it would have been gone long ago. MySpace still exists, Tumblr will likely occupy that same space until it literally can't afford to anymore. The real issue is that tumblr's business model doesn't generate its own growth, and therefore doesn't continually expand its proft above operation like every corporation expects to.

Basically when users on here talk about profits they're measuring velocity, while executives are measuring acceleration. How much will the money increase its own collection, how can we make that happen faster, and how can we maintain that acceleration curve?

Now that that's out of the way, let's look at Tumblr's actual business model. Compared to Twitter and Facebook, tumblr lacks two key things: Public acclaim, and user incentives for engagement loops.

The first part is easy. Tumblr isn't a famous platform like Facebook is or like Twitter is. Outside of Tumblr, nobody talks about Tumblr. This means it's not viewed as a strong market for advertisers, it's not generating waves of new users, and it's not gonna get attention for doing critical maintenance or breakthrough innovation because the crowds simply aren't here. There are millions of Tumblr users, but it really doesn't mean the same thing as the collective hundreds of millions of users across Facebook and Instragram that all generate tons of ad and data revenue for one corporation.

The second part is more complicated because it gets into the psychology of social media engagement, and I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert on how that works. But the crux of it is that the mechanics of engagement with Tumblr are just different from that of Twitter in a few basic ways that mean huge differences in how the space is utilized.

Firstly, Tumblr is fairly obtuse about post longevity; the halflife of a tumblr post is effectively eternal because posts from the first year the website was open for public use still circulate. Posts didn't even have dates put onto them for users to see until like two years ago, unless you modded your website layout with third party tools like Xkit. This is great if you want a website where your art can last forever, but terrible for creating large surges of engagement super quickly on hot button topics and posts. This latter model is how basically all social media operates nowadays, with posts basically dying after 48 hours. There's always a frenzy on every meme, headline, picture, thinkpiece, and political fuckup that inevitably creates micro-surges of engagement for whoever saw it. This creates vicious cycles of attention seeking in just about everyone involved, but it just doesn't work that way here. I get periodic validation from writing I've posted years ago and that gives me the feedback I'd normally have to post hourly to attain on twitter, so there's really no drive for me to constantly be posting. This lack of need to constantly generate content feeds into the first issue of public acclaim; if everyone isn't constantly posting then the content which does leak out from here isn't enough to cross most of the thresholds to motivate people to migrate to the platform and give it public acclaim.

Secondly, the people who *do* post constantly aren't rewarded for doing so in any meaningful way. People who generate tons of content for YouTube and Instagram and TikTok make actual literal money from doing so. People can use Twitter and Facebook to advertise themselves, their products, their podcasts, their personal websites, whatever. With enough of a presence on most social media, there's monetary drives involved. And this motivates some unsuccessful users to keep trying to gain personal acclaim because it's no longer a social media platform, it's a shovel salesman in a gold rush. Tumblr does not have this. Tipping was added a while back but from what I can tell it's not widely used, and even if it was that's still money coming from other users and not the platform itself. Nobody is posting on tumblr to try and make it big and get real money doing so. The people posting a lot on tumblr are people like writers posting updates for their fics, artists posting their art, sex workers promoting their OnlyFans, porn blogs, stolen meme accounts, and the odd wizard here and there. Most people here are engaging for social fulfillment, which is ironically the least profitable motive a social media platform can offer its userbase.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

"We do want Buddie to be canon, nonny, and in my opinion we are going to get it. All this recent PR supports that, (again: in my opinion)"

Can you go into this if you don't mind, honestly I think Ryan at the premiere all but confirmed it and even now he says so much without saying anything at all. His expressions give away so much lol. He has a terrible poker face. But i would love to hear your thoughts on this if possible.

I'm gonna be honest nonny you really answered your own question there: Ryan's behavior and the fact that they're continuing to let him do press.

As I discussed previously, it's very difficult to promote a couple of characters that fandom ships without falling into queerbaiting. Because of this it would be the smart thing for ABC to keep Ryan and Oliver separate, disallow Buddie or Buddie-related questions, and so on.

Instead they are allowing Ryan to do press, Ryan to do press with Oliver, and are allowing these questions while trusting Oliver and Ryan (on a leash) to handle them. Now, part of it is probably the Barbra Streisand effect i.e. the more attempts you make to hide something the more people notice the very thing you don't want them to notice, but given the sheer AMOUNT that Buck and Eddie's relationship has been put front and center and the fact that Oliver and Ryan have been doing all these interviews together, I am hopeful and see that as a positive sign for Buddie because I trust ABC not to want to shit the bed by being accused of queerbaiting.

I think also as I've mentioned in another ask I answered a week or so ago, Ryan being in PR jail was a joke for a reason. Now, please note, EVERYONE except Oliver was pushed to the side in PR by FOX. FOX seriously pushed Oliver to do all the promo and be the "face" of the show, something nobody in the cast appreciated (including Oliver). So Ryan not doing interviews nearly as much was, in part, this issue by FOX.

However, Ryan also historically is... bad at keeping his mouth shut. He never quite spills the beans but he tends to throw his personal opinion out and hint/tease at stuff he shouldn't be hinting/teasing at. He likes to be goofy, to tease fans, to have fun. Which not only gives public relations managers migraines and anxiety, but in the case of a queer ship can land the show in trouble if Ryan's saying stuff that fans think is hinting at Buddie and then Buddie doesn't happen.

As we have all seen, the second they let Ryan open his mouth on live camera, his cute tipsy little puppy face word vomited all over the carpet. I suspect the fear of god was put into Oliver that it was his job to Make Ryan Behave.

Now, there are actors who have ignored this and enjoyed teasing about a ship anyway and the network has let them because they only cared about getting people to watch the show, they didn't care about being respectful or not. But nowadays that's not something you can get away with and most networks understand they'll get a lot of backlash that's just not worth it. AND most actors understand that even if they personally want a ship to happen, it's only going to hurt the feelings of fans if they (the actor) try to hint at it and then it doesn't happen.

It's more often that an actor will later say after the fact "yeah I would've liked it if X happened, but the writers chose to go in a different direction." Past-tense. They have a lot more freedom to speak on past things than on present storylines or possible future ones.

ABC is taking a risk in letting Ryan do all these video interviews, and to do video interviews with Oliver because the second those two are doing anything together everyone assumes it hints at Buddie. The latter, that's not really on ABC so much as on the fans, but either way, the solution is to keep 'em separate and keep Ryan locked up. Instead, they're allowing the actors to do things they know will get fans excited over Buddie, without crossing any lines into disrespect.

[dojae-huh]

Hello! Just want to say again that I'm glad I found your blog, your down-to-earth commentary, especially about the business side of it all, is very much appreciated :)

Hi. Thank you for letting me know, I'm glad you find some more down to earth posts useful. In part, I run this blog to offer an alternative in fandom experience.

Thing is, we, as k-pop fans and as people who don't work in showbusiness or South Korea, don't have enough knowledge, experience or inside information to have a strong educated opinion on most of things when it comes to idol companies and their executives. We can have opinions as customers - I like this music, this promotional strategy works on me, these outfits are ugly, this concept rocks -, but not as business analytics. Especially considering how much media play, false information and difference in cultures we face.

However, nowadays everyone has the illusion that they know better, that their opinion and feelings are valid when it comes to any topic. And spread and defend their opinion like it is the ultimate truth.

I've recently come across a twit starting with "it appears that" and ending with "for sure". In a span of a few sentences the fan offered an imaginary scenario and finished with a "this is truth". Of course to "prove" that SM is evil, heh. Such baseless statements easily play on fans' love for their biases, evoke an emotional response, call to arms, they give an answer to "Who is to blame?!", provide a target for unleashing frustration and anger.

When one solo-stan blames our bias, we can call bullshit because we know how things really are. When a fan blames Chris Lee or SM, other fans are ready to accept the words as believeable. Either because they share the sentiment, or have no own opinion on the matter, so any will do. If everyone around says the same thing, it should be true, afterall? That's how our brains are wired: follow the majority, agree with the tribe, mirror everyone's current emotion.

We can't see the inner works and we don't know the inner rules, but we can see the results of labour and sometimes a reflection of things.

When I came to k-pop, I knew SM as the company that overworks its artists, has lawsuits with them, is super strict. Broken in two halves TVXQ and EXO with half of its members gone weren't a good representation. So when I started to get to know NCT better, I started to wonder if I was lied to or that something had changed in SM (the latter). Neos were taught how to songwrite, SM persisted with good quality music for NCT despite the group not taking off right away, artists not looking slavelike, there was SMstation and interesting projects.

Sure, I can observe bad work: poorly prepared concerts (Link), constant failures with album production (omitting Doyoung's name, boring designs for 127), tasteless stylists, etc. However, I also see good work: artists flying first/business class and living in 5 star hotels, being given opportunity to go to the beach, museums, to enjoy sightseeing in new countries; opportunity to explore one's creativity (soundcloud, NCTLabs, solo performances for Link); SM giving artists second professions (MC, variety host, model) that will aid professional longevity (Doyoung hasn't finished school and doesn't have a degree, but I'm not worried for him, even if SM collapses, he'll always find a job. Same for Taeyong, he came as a blank page, now he is a songwriter and a producer, he can even become a choreographer); neos progressively being given more choice and say, their opinion being consulted and their ideas being implemented once they gain enough experience (Golden Dust story, Taeyong making his own setlist for his concert, Doyoung saying Unity should not have solo-stages, Ten choosing the mood and genre for his solo, etc).

Most importantly, I can see many friendships between neos and producers/managers, and that Haechan and Doyoung, who experienced all of SM's downsides personally and not once, continue to like the company. Meaning, the good should outweight the bad. At least for now.

Fans learnt the name of Chris Lee and continue to blame him for everything to this day, although he doesn't own any shares in SM and has stopped being a CEO a year ago. He is a token scapegoat.

Should I blindly trust fans or should I go read Wikipedia, interviews and listen to the guy himself? In situations like these I always choose the latter.

Sure, I can't tell if he evades taxes or participates in shady business, and what neos think of him (aside from Doyoung calling him "hyung" in public and not being afraid of getting punished for it), but I can see he was the person who overlooked all the early NCT songs (we have "Limitless", "Cherry bomb" thanks to him); created SMStation and SMClassics (say thank you for "Try again", "Star blossom"); found Dem Jointz ("Kick it", "Punch", "Sticker") and multiple other songwriters who now work for SM; brought to Korea the idea of songwriting camps, in which Kun participates nowadays and where he befriends foreign creators; invested SM money into a publishing company (and not a winery or a hotel business), which means SM artists will be secured to have a lot of songs to choose from in the future, and Korean young producers will have access to the global market. He has been with SM close to 20 years, and he is evidently a music nerd, ergo he understands artists and their love for music. So why should I hate him? I have no proof of him taking money away from neos, but I have evidence he was very essential to formation of NCT and the quality of SM sound being maintained. On the contrary, I'm inclined to suspect the quality of albums (song setlist, production) is raising again because he is back to supervising A&R in SM.

[mrcarmenile]

prepare for me yapping to no one about one of my proudest life lessons 👍

when i was younger, and i was particularly nice and empathetic and emotionally intelligent and patient with loved ones who weren’t always the same with me (and weren’t always like “omg 😍 you’re the best person ever for all these reasons i’m going to individually list out and appreciate!”), i would be bitter. i would be bitter because i thought if i went all in in certain areas, that means they should too. i was wrong

of course, if you treat someone so well and they don’t reciprocate enough or say thank you enough or are even straight up unappreciative, they’re being the asshole. you deserve the reciprocation and respect and gratitude, obviously. however, while a lot of me was (and still am, although a bit different) treating people with my best because i wanted them to simply Feel Good or Loved or Better, i also partially did it because i was craving the same exact reciprocation. meaning, if i responded to a person being sad with paragraphs of support and love, i would expect them to do that same thing for me

i know now that it’s naive to think like that, and that just because i CHOSE to give more than i probably should to others, they are not obligated to do the same, especially if they are not clear in the head in that moment in time/of their lives. i was the reason i was disappointed, and i was the reason i was bitter

sometimes i still feel incredibly bitter. (nowadays, it only lasts for VERY short periods of time, but alas.) i will do something for someone and expect the exact same from them in return (and pissed when i don’t receive it), but that’s sometimes a very unreasonable expectation. if i put ALL my passion or mental energy into one thing for someone else (which i probably shouldn’t do since that’s pretty extreme), why should they have to put all their energy in, too? they could have less energy than me and they could be (and should be) using a lot of it for other things. and then there’s the case of when i’m better at something than someone else. such as patience, or being generally more emotionally intelligent than them, etc. sure, that someone else can learn to be better at that specific thing, and if it’s an important thing then they probably should, but not often should i expect them to be as good as me (especially if i already know they aren’t). i could sit around and be bitter about it, OR i could just not put so much of me into helping/talking to other people (which i have been doing because the extent in which i did it when i was younger was genuinely unhealthy), OR i could continue to do exactly what i was doing before and just learn to not be as bitter about.

when it comes to the latter option, i also do that a lot sometimes. probably not healthy, but i don’t do it nearly as often or to the extent of how i did before, so it’s still improvement. over these past few years, i’ve learned that i COULD sit here and punch my pillows and whine about how i wish everyone was as good as me at a lot of things, and how much i wish everyone suddenly would write paragraphs about how great i am for all the work i do. or i could not do that, and not refer to me acting caring to my loved ones as “work” (because what the fuck??), and just calm down a little and appreciate the other ways people show me their appreciation that I’VE probably been overlooking. they might be feeling the same as me. i might be a massive hypocrite. so i learned to not be

and i will forever be proud of that. i will forever be proud of where i am today and the lessons i’ve learned, and the lessons i still have to learn. i will (probably) stand my ground if i ever think i am being taken for granted or underappreciated, and i WAS in a lot of cases, but i also wasn’t in a lot of cases. sometimes i was just being whiny and mopey. however valid my mopiness may be, it honestly makes things worse for me and like everyone else i know, and while i can’t always control it, i can definitely limit it. and i should be more realistic with the amounts i expect in return, if i choose to go above and beyond, it should not be because i expect something in return. no one has to go above and beyond

anyways that concludes my yapping. point is i love the person i have become today, and i wanna brag about it 😊