#but saw the illustrator being credited so alls good

[a-sleepy-ginger]

29/3/24

✿❈✿❈✿

Artms release!!

Grapes

Got a good start on my history assessment

Laughed with family

[thetreetopinn]

Sources for Somerton's Plagiarism from Hbomberguy's Video (as much as I could get)

I went back through Harry's video, focused entirely on the sources James Somerton pulled from in the hopes of creating as much of a comprehensive list as I could--though my Google-Fu is not very strong. I did however find something I thought was forever lost and that made me very happy--specifically the magazine Midlands Zone containing the column by Steven Spinks that Harry poignantly used as an illustration of gay erasure... while Somerton uses it to sound like HE is waxing remorseful about the very subject.

This is not a complete list, I'm sure. For one thing, I was only able to attempt to pull sources that Harry himself mentioned in the video. Surely there's so very much more out there. I expect there to be a great deal more internet archeology to unearth just how much writing and culture Somerton has stolen like he's the British Museum of Natural History but for gay people.

- - - - -

Harry's list of mentioned youtubers:

Alexander Avila - https://www.youtube.com/@alexander_avila Matt Baume - https://www.youtube.com/@MattBaume Khadija Mbowe - https://www.youtube.com/@KhadijaMbowe Lady Emily - https://www.youtube.com/@LadyEmilyPresents Shanspeare - https://www.youtube.com/@Shanspeare RickiHirsch - https://www.youtube.com/@RickiHirsch VerilyBitchie - https://www.youtube.com/@verilybitchie

Harry created a convenient playlist of videos by these and other people he wants to bring to everyone's attention.

Please give them your support.

- - - - -

Midlands Zone Magazine - Column by Steven Spinks

After a great deal of searching, I found an archive of the "Midlands Zone" magazine, where you can read through past issues dating all the way back to February 2014. I have also found the issue from which Somerton took Spinks' poignant discussion of gay erasure: Overall archive Specific Issue - Pages 16-17

It will not allow you to download it, but you can read it exactly as it appeared in print form.

- - - - -

My best effort to find the exact book or article Somerton lifted from to be able to get attention to the original writers

Tinker Bells and Evil Queens By Sean Griffin

The Celluloid Closet By Vito Russo Wikipedia article about the book Wikipedia article about the documentary My weak google-fu could not find where you can access the book or documentary. Check your local municipal or university library for book or documentary, or if you know a good source for one or both, please reblog with it added

Camp and the Gay Sensibility By Jack Babuscio

The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's Mulan By Jes Tom Personal site with links to social media accounts

Why Rebel Without a Cause was a milestone for gay rights By Peter Howell

Why "The Craft" is still the best Halloween coming out movie By Andrew Park

Opinion: From facehuggers to phallic tails, is 'Alien' one of the queerest films ever? By Dani Leever

Women and Queerness in Horror: Jennifer's Body By Zoe Fortier

[Pride 2019] We Have Such Sights to Show You: Hellraiser and the Spectrum of Queerness By Alejandra Gonzalez

Revealing the Hellbound Heart of Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' By Colin Arason

Queering James Cameron's Aliens (1986) By Bart Bishop

Demeter and Persephone in space: transformation, femininity, and myth in the 'Alien' films By David Greven

Fears of a millennial masculinity: Scream's queer killers By David Greven (Scholarly site, unable to access original work, offers a way to request a full copy of the text in PDF)

Queer Subtext in Stephen King's It - Part 1: 'Reddie' Character Analysis By Rachel Brands Rachel is the very unfortunate lady who found out she was being stolen from because she supported Somerton through Patreon and saw one of his videos early with her writing--lacking any form of citation or credit

How 'It: Chapter Two' Leaves Richie Tozier Behind By Joelle Monique

When Horror Becomes Strength: Queer Armor in Stephen King's 'IT' By Alex London

Why Queer People Love Witchcraft By Amanda Kohr

'The Favourite' Queers The Past And The Present By Giorgi Plys-Garzotto

(Wuko) Crush (Mako x Wu) By MoonFlower on YouTube

5 Terrible Movies With Awesome Hidden Meanings By J.F. Sargent

The Radicalization of Sexuality: The Queer Casae of Jeffrey Dahmer By Ian Barnard

Netflix's 'Dahmer' backlash highlights ethical issues in the platform's obsession with true crime By Shivani Dubey

The Possible Disturbing Dissonance Between Hajime Isayama's Beliefs and Attack on Titan's Themes Original Article by "Seldom Musings" (Author has made all posts not related to Attack On Titan private and has retired from the blog)

Everyone Loves Attack on Titan. So Why Does Everyone Hate Attack on Titan? By Gita Jackson

- - - - -

The following people are otherwise named in the video. There are no direct citations of articles or books by them in said video. I am unable to guarantee that I have identified the correct individual.

Darren Elliott-Smith Michaela Barton David Church Claire Sisco King Amanda Howell Jessica Roy

- - - - -

Telos announced and cancelled a film likely based on this book: The Final Girl Support Group - By Grady Hendrix

- - - - -

I refrained from including certain sources.

First off only focusing on Somerton's work.

Secondly not including anything that might be visible enough to not require amplifying their voice (I cannot speak for all of those I have found links to, but journalism is frequently a thankless job).

Thirdly any source that is of a nature that is antithetical to the very existence of the queer community, such as the right-leaning source that didn't make it into Somerton's video, but Harry was able to identify as a source he had considered using.

If you feel I have missed a mentioned source--or you know of a source from material that was not covered in Harry's video--please do not hesitate to reblog with added details.

- - - - -

Please share this information far and wide, and please add to it if you find more material that can be positively identified and linked to the creator/writer.

[lurkingshan]

I've been thinking a lot about the depictions of generational trauma and parental accountability being presented in dramas lately. Since you've watched way more than me, especially outside of BLs, what are some shows that present or include parental accountability?

This is such a good question and one I have been thinking about a lot since Last Twilight episode 10 aired. Westerners often assume that because of Asian cultural norms around filial piety, parental authority, and respect for elders, we can never expect satisfying parental accountability in our Asian drama narratives. But that's not true! It's been done and done well. It’s because these values are so deeply embedded in most Asian cultures that Asian creators are the best positioned to speak on the harms they can cause, and will often embed these themes in their work.

Now, there is an important distinction to make here: the difference between what characters do, and what the story communicates. A character may choose to abide by honoring their parents at all costs, but the story can still communicate how harmful that is. A character may never apologize for something they have done wrong, but the story can still make it clear they have fucked up and hold them accountable for that via tangible consequences. Here are a few examples from bl to illustrate what I mean, and the different ways this can show up in dramas.

Bad Buddy

One of the most obvious examples of parental accountability in genre, and also a pretty full metal version of it. This entire story is about the damage Ming and Dissaya did their sons with their decades-long feud and insistence on pushing that trauma down on their children, and we got some extremely cathartic scenes of Pat and Pran telling their parents exactly what they thought about that. Of course, even though they raged at their parents, they never got the apologies they deserved (and likely never will) and still had to hide their relationship to appease their parents going forward. But that doesn't mean there was no accountability here. The entire narrative held these parents accountable by showing us how they were harming their sons, forcing them to reckon with it, and ultimately showing them settling into a form of resigned acceptance.

Until We Meet Again

This entire show is about Korn and In's reincarnated souls healing from the trauma of their tragic ending, which was brought upon by the familial pressure and rejection they experienced from their fathers. We not only saw Dean and Pharm work through this trauma and forge new bonds with family members, we saw the direct aftermath of their first deaths, the despair and regret their families felt, and the ceremony that tied their souls together as a result. It's big karmic accountability on a grand scale, and the show never flinched from letting us see exactly how much harm was caused by these parents, or how the tenets of filial piety resulted in Korn's despair that he couldn't be what his father wanted. Even more crucially, we were shown, not just told, the counterpoint impact of good parenting, when Dean and Pharm were accepted by their families in their second life.

Blueming

A rare example of an Asian parent being called to the carpet, feeling the wrongness of their actions, and actually apologizing for it. This does in fact happen in drama! Si Won's mom raised him to hate himself, to be ashamed of his body, to fake his way through life so people would like him, and boy did it do a lot of damage. The story showed us how this affected Si Won and his relationships deeply, and brought him to the point where it finally burst out of him. And his mom, to her credit, was dismayed to understand what she had done to her son. This show also gets bonus points for Da Un standing up to his own mother after she interferes in the film contest.

Bed Friend

Uea's mother's sins against him are numerous, and I will not go into them all in detail to spare my own sanity. She is an abusive parent so horrific that she can never be forgiven, and doesn't need to be. An apology from her would be utterly meaningless. Instead, the drama holds her to account via showing us what she's done to Uea and the work he has to do to heal from the trauma she caused, and ultimately having her son cut her out of his life. It's the biggest consequence she can ever face for her choices and that Uea finds the courage to do it is the story's biggest triumph.

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

On the subtler end of the scale, we have our beloved KNT, which weaves parental accountability through its story in the long, slow journey for Shiro's mother to accept who he is and the partner he has chosen in life. What I love most about this particular depiction is that it's not at all linear in nature. We see her make strides by finally acknowledging Kenji and inviting him to her home, and then backtrack by rescinding the offer due to her own discomfort, and then include him in her family planning to ensure he will be cared for after her death. She’s homophobic and traditional, but she loves her son and sees how much happier he is with Kenji in his life. She is constantly reckoning with that tension. And Shiro and Kenji, being of an older generation themselves, don't hold it against her, even as the show makes sure we understand how much it hurts them. They are not okay with it, but they do understand why she's like this, so they take what she can give and forgive the rest. It's a really touching portrayal of this kind of impasse in a family.

Moonlight Chicken

There are several different vectors of parental accountability in MLC. There is Heart confronting his parents over their neglect and abuse and finally demanding to be treated with dignity. There is Li Ming directly calling out his mother for how her life choices have affected him. And there is Li Ming and his surrogate dad, Jim, working out their issues so that they can communicate better, and so that Jim can learn to stop pushing his own fears and anxiety down onto the next generation. All of it handled with deftness, with care, and with clear purpose to examine the ways intergenerational trauma can perpetuate in the absence of accountability.

[j4gm]

SPOILERS!!! REFERENCES AND EASTER EGGS IN F&C ep. 4: Prismo the Wishmaster

This is the Drift from Distant Lands BMO! I wonder if Y5 is mayor yet. It's been about 23 years since the events of that episode. Overgrown Hugo-Mats can been seen in the background of some shots.

It's hard to figure out if any of these captured cosmic criminals are returning characters. The one in the middle looks strikingly like a catalyst comet.

Void Caster was one of the prisoners in the Citadel with Martin. He was also seen chronologically before that in Distant Lands BMO.

Martin's entry raises some questions. Was desertion the cosmic crime he committed which caused him to be imprisoned? Or is this a crime he committed after being freed? He's not marked as neutralized, despite the fact last time we saw him he discorporated and became one with the universe. Also, he's flipping the bird for real, which is the first time we've seen that in Adventure Time unless you count Shelby in Five More Short Graybles.

Wyatt keeps sneaking his way into things because writer Steve Wolfhard likes him a lot. Last time we saw him was in Together Again, when he was the only soul left in the First Dead World after Mr. Fox became Death, suggesting he did some pretty terrible things in life. It appears those dark deeds were in aid of his quest to reach the Time Room, presumably to wish for something creepy involving Tree Trunks. Luckily he doesn't get to make that wish.

The silent movie universe is fun. There is a very creepy Lich in this cave behind Princess Bubblegum. This could be the result of the Lich Hand that got pushed into every dimension during Crossover. The Snail is also there. I believe this is the Snail's first living appearance in Fionna and Cake.

Peps and Blaine are still in Wizard School, and they seem to have become good friends. They must be graduating pretty soon.

Susan and Frieda!

Simon mentions that Prismo was unable to bring Betty back, which is why he took things into his own hands. This is a reference to the scene in the finale montage where he attempts to wish her back but it fails.

Apparently the Misadventures of Flapjack is a universe within Adventure Time's Multiverse! This is a show that Pen Ward, Adam Muto, and Pat McHale all worked on as storyboard artists before they went to work on Adventure Time.

This is the alternate universe from Beyond the Grotto.

The shot on Prismo's laptop when he first creates the Fionna and Cake universe is from the original Fionna and Cake title sequence.

Fionna has her sword from the comics in this brief scene.

This obviously explains the red beam from Fionna and Cake and Fionna.

New cosmic entities! The one on the left is cracked. I wonder if that's an indicator of how long the Multiverse has left.

This depiction of the Multiverse is based on the depiction in Crossover, which itself is based on an illustration in an article from Scientific American.

This is the bed chamber from Is That You. This old man is actually an alternate Jake. Prismo has reworked the room into a GOLB chamber so Simon can perform the same spell that brought Fionna and Cake to Ooo.

The credits scene is a bunch of yellow children's building blocks. Sort of like the Time Room.

[cupofteasant]

LOOK WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL!~ ٩( ᐛ )و

WELCOME HOME or my home MISTER ONCELER!!!

Thank you to Catidot for releasing such a beautiful book 🥹💕💕 thank you to the 50 artists for your hard work, the illustrations came out so wonderfully, I’m so happy I get to keep this fandom with me even when I’m gone. I was especially excited for @miru667’s work, the print quality did not dissappoint! It looks just as good as your digtal release. Congratulations @justmarrik!! We’ve never talked actually, but I was a silent fan of yours’ back then ^_^ Your style is very recogniseable and I remember you being a small artist before, so I was shocked when I saw you in it.

I know everyone already has their credits in the book, but for those who couldn’t buy the book but still wants to see who participated, here it is! All the lovely artists 🥰💕💕💕 I can’t take pictures of the WHOLE book, but there is a section near the end where Catidot writes a blurb with regards to the Onceler stageshow, it’s really well-written and super heart-warming. I really like the editing in the book. The pic collage is so cool and proffessional… I forget this is a fanbook, hahaha.

I ordered some merchandise, those turned out very well aswell!! I love the two-sided keychain, I was really impressed by how good the quality is. You cannot see it in yhe pocture but even though his hair is black, you can still see the black lineart?!? As for the stickers, I’m really happy someone made fanart for the stageshow musical ver. 🥰 I think his design there is very unique, and I’m happy someone with such a perfect art style was the one who drew him. He is equal parts Seussian with his subdued and vibrant palette ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪ and very modern with the triangular and clean shapes.

I THINK I TALKED ENOUGH NOW! Soooo… Chop chop! I’ll go now!

Thank you everyone again for your work ♥︎

[skyes-sunset]

Percy Jackson Review/My Thoughts

SPOILERS FOR THE PERCY JACKSON SHOW AND BOOK SERIES!!!!! READ WITH YOUR OWN CAUTION!!!

I Accidentally Vaporized My Pre-Algebra Teacher

The opening scene is absolutely perfect. 10/10 Uncle Rick.

Please, please, please, pleeaaassseee tell me the Pegasus on the rooftop was Blackjack. I am begging.

Sally told Percy, "Not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero. And not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster," foreshadowing to Medusa.

Gabe is more of comic relief and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Sally Jackson listening to Logical by Olivia Rodrigo is the best because 1. I love that song and 2. she's listening to it in the rain.

d'Angelos sandwich shoppe?? Like Nico di Angelo? Please, please, please, please, please.

"You fell in love with God? Like Jesus??!" crying laughing. "A God..." followed by Sally sloppily trying to tell Percy he's a half-blood

No, mom, I'm not a God's kid there's something wrong with my brain. OMG I didn't know whether to laugh or cry in this scene.

"Grover, why is there half a goat in your PANTS?!?!" "So the important thing is not to panic."

"Is that the (voice crack) Minotaur??" Oh my, Walker you are perfect.

"I'm actually 24.." This had me rooollling.

Sally is already badass and I can't wait for The Last Olympian when Mama Jackson is shooting monsters with a GUN.

Grover swearing to Sally that Percy would be safe made me sad but it would have been 100000x worse if he swore on Styx.

"You are not broken, you are a miracle, and you are my son. Hold fast Percy."

Sally evaporating into dust hurt watching a lot more than reading, and

OMG OMG OMG baby Percy holding riptide and it glowing and my heart is crying I can't tell if it's tears of pain of joy but my heart and my eyes are crying.

"He's the one." "Hush, Annabeth." I was hoping to see her but we don't see her yet lmao

The end credits scene looks a lot like the same illustration for the covers of the paperback books.

When I saw this ep was only a half hour I was genuinely disappointed.

Dior's acting in this and her emotion when Clarisse's spear broke is perfection.

Never picked up on Annabeth calling Percy Sunshine

2. I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

My first thought: scary lightning and delirious Percy.

My second thought: "You drool in your sleep," Annabeth said, arms crossed and glaring at Percy while Percy is confused.

My third thought: this is the scene in the books where Percy notices Annabeth looks like an actual Princess lmao.

Camp Half-Blood t-shirt!!! I want one and it looks soooo cooollll

PETER JOHNSON !!!

Dionysus and Percy already getting into it lmao

Dionysus is funny.

"Actually, I think I can, son." "Dad?!?!"

Chiron is sooo tall I never realized how tall a centaur is.

Chiron telling Percy he isn't his son is the funniest thing.

But imagine Mr. D doing that to all the kids lmfao

I love the waterfall that is shown

I want to see the strawberry fields...

Never surrender riptide, Percy. Never

12 cabins for 12 Olympians (for now; the Gods banished Zues and he doesn't have a cabin which is completely unfair. And only a few would be occupied. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Artemis are empty).

OMG Luke I hate that you're going to betray Percy like thatttt

Who tf is the wood nymph Grover talks to? And will she be the one to introduce us to Juniper?

Introduced to the Cloven Council early and we find out about Sally Jackson really early.

"I don't want to lie to him anymore," and we love you for it Grover. You are a schmol bean too pure for this world.

Luke comforting Percy

Percy already wanting to Gods to pay their child support is the best thing in the world.

Clarisse is so pretty and I love her.

Percy not being able to be good at archery is a great detail from the books.

I can't tell if I'm more in love with Luke, with his morally greyb self, or Chris Rordiguez because Damn he's fine.

Percy praying to his mom :'(

"He can ignore me but he doesn't get to ignore you."

The Ares kids are so mean and then they got their butts kicked by Karma lol

Clarisse def knew that he was a Poseidon kid or that she was gonna kill him.

I love Annabeth and how Luke is always on her side.

The Yankees cap !!!!

Literal war between red and blue lmao

Luke saying "When it's time, he's gonna be ready. I know it," immediately followed by Percy flossing, peeing, petting a lizard, and laying doing nothing is the absolute best.

Percy being naturally good at sword-fighting is the best.

Dior's acting when Percy breaks Clarisse's spear is great and Walker said in an interview that when the camera pans back to him he was actually scared.

Annabeth: Offers Percy her hand. "Listen, Percy... I'm sorry." And then him immediately being claimed

This is a change from the books because she didn't know who his father was and wanted him to be a Zeus kids.

Everyone else: OMG you're Poseidon's kids.

Percy: I'm Sally Jackson's kid, actually mf

"I am Sally Jackson's son!"

Percy immediately going from "good luck finding three idiots to complete this quest" to "When do we leave."

3. We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium

Walker's voice cracks are so adorable.

Am I the only one who was confused when Gabe showed up as the Oracle???

I love that Percy immediately chose Annabeth bcuz "I don't see us ever being friends"

Grover talking to a Pegasus is the best thing ever.

Why does Poseidon's cabin have a pool in the middle of the floor? Seems like a hazard in the middle of the night.

Yayy, Golden Drachmas.

And the shoes, curse those converses.

We actually get to see Luke's scar in this ep and i feel like in the books it seems a lot more... seen rather than just a thin line.

Thalia's treee

I hate that Grover often talks about himself in third person when he's not proud of something.

"Does she think she's in charge?" "Who else would be in charge?" Smart answer, Grover. Smart answer.

And we all already hate zeus

CONSENSUS SONG!!!!!!

"I really hate to be the tie breaker" lmao

Annabeth getting all the snacks.

And then immediately noticing a fury is how we all knew she was Athena's kid before we were even told.

Yayy, Alecto is back. And she went after Annabeth? Not Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia?

Annabeth's knife hits another Fury in the chest and dies.

I love Jessica Parker Kennedy's Medusa. she's both flawed and the victim and I couldn't decide whether to hate her or root for her. Like I love her outfit.

I would eat the hell out of the cupcakes lmao.

"Do you think it's safe to eat?" "Percy, I'm not gonna lie to you I'm really hungry and I'm willing to take that chance." Grover, I stan you.

I absolutely worship Medusa's story. It's so sad. And while she is telling the story, if you focus on her hair, you can see the snakes moving on her head.

Oh, Percy, my sweet, sweet boy. Of course you would help. Future wifie is like "Uhm, no. We need to leave."

I love the color of Medusa's eyes

Ohhh, these pre-pubescent kids fighting and making up is adorable <3

"They will see this as impertinent." "I am impertinent," another quote from the book.

Percy singing consensus is everything.

Min Manuel-Miranda is Hermes!!!! I love that man. "You guys are not gonna believe this."

4. I Plunge to My Death

This episode caused the most of my tears

Baby Percy is sooo cute I swear he is my life. I love the flashbacks. Except when they turn bad like this

Annabeth's story is identical to the books from what I remember

We find out Grover's interest in Pan a lot earlier than in the books. We don't see that until at least book 3.

We get to see the echidna. I really wanted it to be the Chimera to look like a poodle.

I hate Athena because she sent the echinda into her temple because annabeth "embarassed" her. Like really? Worst mother of the year.

Percy looking deathly ill breaks my heart.

Grover is literally me when I don't get enough sleep LMAO

The start of Percabeth's bickering and joking!!!

"It's like you need me to make fun of you."

The Policeman looks familiar.

Annabeth looking legit offended when she was called a little girl

The male police officer is played by Alessandro Juliani who plays Sinclair in the 100 on the Cw, another great show 9/10, highly reccommend

Percy and Annabeth bonding over Grover and their parents is adorable.

"careful I think you were about to call me a friend." more bickering and joking

Percy pulling a reverse uno card lmao

The fight with the chimera was terrifying but so worth it. Also why do you out my bby boi through this torture Uncle Rick???

Also the naiad?? what was with that? Why can't Posei-don't-wanna-pay-my-child-support just face Percy himself. That's gonna be a fucking emotional scene.

5. A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers

Percy climbed over the rail and was like : Hi :D

Thought Annabeth was gonna punch him not hug him but my percabeth heart was a puddle of fluff.

OOH. What's in Santa Monica?

Our baby is a fugitive.

Our three babies hiding behind the cement block from Ares: No we're good, thanks :D

Percy freaking out bc he thought Annabeth was freaking out she hugged him.

In the books Grover was always on Percy's side, but I love seeing him not choosing.

Ares is not as terrifying as I thought he was in the books lmao

"That's my cousin?" Percy said it with such disgust in his voice lmao.

Ares and his Twitter fights lol

Annabeth is fearless. I love it

Ares and Percy immediately having beef is the funniest thing because (in bellatrix voice) I KNOW WHATS GONNA HAPPEN! I KNOW WHATS GONNA HAPPEN! I KNO-

First use of Celestial Bronze!!

Annie geeking out over the mechanisms after trying to make a joke lol

WHAT IS LOVE? BABY DON'T HURT ME, DON'T HURT ME. nO MORE!!

Hephaestus was not at all ugly like Rick made him in the books. Or like Greek mythology made him.

The whole Tunnel scene was beautiful and sad and I love it

Grover and his psychological gaslighting is my world

"Percy stand up, I mean it!" and then him repeatedly saying he was ok broke my fragile heart.

Annabeth "I'm not leaving for my friend" is my favorite Annabeth.

Annabeth just likes to tell off Gods. Go off Queen!!

Percy likes to fight Gods lmao

"So thank you for the emotional abuse and the cheeseburgers."

6. We Take a Zebra to Vegas

Have seen TikToks where Nico and Bianca's names are called out and I will keep an eye and an ear out for it.

Why did they have to make Hermes an obstacle? He wasn't at the Lotus in the books!

Kronos is kinda creepy ngl

Iris message to Luke! In Chiron's office??

"Toss it, Seaweed Brain!" EEEKK

"How do you know" Luke had a Panic attack.

"When did you turn into an old married couple?"' Luke is the best and the worst.

Grover is the empathetic one, poor animals.

I wish we got the scene where Percy talked to the Zebra like in the book.

WISE GIRL !!!!!!!!

The satyr Agustus was not in the books. I actually think he was in the Cloven of Elders in the 4th book.

12:37 we hear Nico calling Bianca's name, faintly in the background so the tv has to be on full or almost full blast.

Lotus nectar in the air??

Hermes playing Blackjack?

"Hey, demigods! Welcome!"

Hermes eyebrows arch makes Lin Manuel look so evil.

"We're friends of Luke's!" and it looked like Hermes was gonna help but nooooooo!

Percy is so proud of his wifey for pick-pocketing Hermes

"Man, Grover got really old. How long have we been here?" hahahaha

"To the Dumb Kids" Damn, Hermes that hurts.

I love that since Grover is 24 they think he's qualified to dribve.

Percy driving is the best thing. I don't know anything about driving or New York or driving in New York but I do know about road rage and Percy hitting the horn after almost getting t-boned.

Percy finding out that they were actually late for the summer solstice was sad. Like he was freaking out.

"save the world. And then save your mother."

7. We Find Out the Truth, Sort of.

Underworld time!!!

Okay, but what the hell happened between the ending of the last ep and the beginning of this one??

Crusty is dead.

"You've got dad's eyes," reminds me of "You look exactly like James. Except your eyes. You've got your mother's eyes."

"It's either the realm of the dead or someone left a carton of milk in there in the 1990s.' LMAO

I wish the demigods' ADHD and dyslexia was more openly discussed.

I love Cerberus

Poor Grover. Loosing his pearl

I want to see Annabeth flashbacks

Seeing the flashbacks are so, so sad.

I will forever be in awe of Hades's Palace.

What were the regrets that Annabeth had to get her bound to Asphodel? I think it has something to do with her dad and step mom. Or Thalia.

"I trust your dad" says a lot coming from Annabeth because in the books, she hated Poseidon at first.

Why is there sand by Tartarus?

(Sarcastic gasp) Percy had the bolt? No way.

"Is this--?" "NO!" "This looks" "It absolutely is NoT!!" Grover my precious angel.

Another flashback. Poor Percy doesn't understand the situation and poor Sally can't tell him.

I love Hades. He's perfect and fruity and I can't wait to see him interact with Nico.

Poor Hades just wants his helm!

And Percy had decided to think without the wifey and decided to get Hades helm after figuring out Kronos was behind everything. And Grover is so insulted at being called a goat lmao

POSEIDON!!!

I want to know the science/mythology behind how Sally conjured Poseidon and why she put a match in an empty milkshake to do it.

We actually see how much Poseidon loved and cared about Sally.

What happened between when he was 7/8 to 12 that made Sally not want to drop him off at camp like she had discussed with Poseidon?? She wanted to, to keep him safe but then it seems like Poseidon talked her out of it?

Sally believes in Percy so much even from such a young age.

Ares with the sword and the final scene.

8. The Prophecy Comes True.

Dramatic instrumental music and Luke talking in the intro?? Yes pleaSe!

And then flashback to Luke training Percy.

Ares laughing at Percy when he offers to spar with him is the funniest thing because he's about to get his ass kicked!!

Did Ares work with Kronos in the book? I can't remember.

"when you die, say goodbye to your mommy for me" Low blow Ares!!!

Go Percy!! Fight with water! And Ares is pissed. Even more!

Riptide and Percy in one corner, Ares and another celestial bronze sword in another. And Percy wins!! By a mudslide! LMAO

I thought Alecto died? When she was turned to stone??

Alecto saying "Good luck on Olympus," is scary. Like hella scary.

Percy calling Zeus a monster is so, so, so fucking fitting like I swear.

We get to see Annabeth's dad's college ring!!! On her camp necklace! That she gave to Percy.

"I'm here to see Zeus. I don't have an appointment."

My roommate is watching this ep with me and when Luke said "You don't want to be small and scary" she said "like spiders! :D" he said "cus things that are small and scary get squished" we both laughed out loud.

RIP Lance Reddick but Zeus is an absolute DICK

and scary (said in meek voice)

Poseidon fighting Zeus is amazing!!!!!

Zeus: "He's a forbidden child"

Poseidon: "So was Thalia"

Me: "What about your Roman form Jupiter with JASON GRACE!!!!"

I squealed and clapped my hands

I wanted to see who they cast as Athena

Like will she be white or black?

Percy and daddy bonding over Sally has my hearts in pieces.

"Do you ever dream about mom?"

Percy run away from Luke! He will hurt you!

Why is Luke crying???

We get to see Backbiter!!!!

ANNABETH WAS THERE?????!!!!

"I heard everything!"

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Percy got his first bead!!!

The third seaweed brain!

Percy calling Kronos grandpa is freaky

And Sally saying no absolutely fucking not

And Sally seeing right through Percy's bullshit lies

Sally is divorcing Gabe!! He is turned to stone LMAO

How long until season 2????

[journalsouppe]

Ghost trick!!!! Loved this game it was exactly what I expected from a Shu Takumi game. I do hope they plan to make a sequel or crossover, I really loved the mechanics of this game.

Writing typed below! (plus some extra commentary)

Rating: 9.3 Played: Su 2023 Port: Nintendo Switch Favorite? Y Replayable? Y Recommend? Y

Comments:

LOVE missile

really fun premise - you died and don't know who you are

DON'T GET A CONCUSSION MISSILE

not the PM erotica T-T

LMAO Payne and Wright

the kazuma pose (skull)

I'm in love with Cabanela

Lynne not again T-T

Sissel in the painting...

NOT THE FEET OUT AT WORK T-T T-T

omg the security camera murder and the meory are different. I know your tricks Mr. Takumi (I didn't realize Yomiel shot the gun twice here LMFAOO)

mmm... chicken kitchen

is everyone in love with Lynne?

I'm actually so obsessed with the Ghost Trick art style

ALL of your medicine????

he's already dead... and they used an electric chair.....

THIS IS SO FUCKED UP

chicken kitchen and execution fates were really fun

man I really want an AAxGT crossover

love how oversized all the objects are

MISSILE IS BACK AHHH and he has different ghost tricks omg... then how did the lamp know about mine

so many mysteries omg I love it

how was I supposed to get sissel to the top (skull) (I was genuinely stuck and when I restarted the level it spawned me at a different place LMAO)

SISSEL? IN THE PARK?

HE SAW ME AND TURNED TOWARD THE SCREEN (Skull)

but his name wasn't sissel... who is the lamp....

love this crazy arm contraption

red suit man had radiation in his body... so I/Sissel died near it... but who am I... (I forgot about the cat LMFAOO)

Temsik... kismet... mmmm kismet (kismet is the name of my favorite restaurant)

STOP looking at the screen

yomiel...

I WAS YOMIEL'S CAT T^TT^T

ZAM RAY WAS OLD MISSILE

little Lynne T-T

Sissel has temsik...

Game Dev Notes

really fun animations and character design

unique gamplay - I love moving thru objects

love the character dialogue - great humor and timing

extra puzzles and challenges similar to professor layton

characters have tons of personality in design and posture

LOVE the cool toned shadows on the sprites

great music

fun and sweet ending credits

Summary

Shu Takumi has done it again (even though this is a remaster lol). What and incredible mystery game with really fun mechanics. There were definitely a couple times I was stumped on what to do or was stuck bc I missed my window of opportunity, but I think it worked well since the puzzles were difficulty and you couldn't just immediately breeze past them all. I also really enjoyed gaining missile's abilities later and having to think of the puzzles in different ways. The characters and animations/sprites were really fun. There's so much personality in them without even saying a word. The game also reveals character information in a really good way as you slowly learn more about the mystery of the game yet also feels like you're getting farther from learning who you are. I also just love how this game is just made with so much love for Takumi's real pets and how Sissel ended up being Yomiel's beloved cat... what a sweet ending oh my god. Each level had such a fun and unique design while also adding a twist to the puzzle, like the stealth level or submarine sinking level. The game also has many unlockable achievements to encourage replayability as well as concept art and other illustrations to unlock. There's so much added to this game and you can really feel the love and care the team put into this game, I hope there are more Ghost Trick games in the future or hopefully even a Ghost trick x Ace Attorney crossover -- I wonder how that would play out esp with Maya's spirit abilities. All in all, such a sweet and fun game. Not too long either. Can't wait to replay it to get all the achievements and make fanart!

[sokkastyles]

ATLA LA Ep2 Let's go:

I love that they kept a lot of the original music, but one thing I could have done without is the generic three-note chord to signal a cut to a scene with a villainous character. Those specific notes have been parodied too often for me to take it seriously. It's one thing that always jarred me in the original and it is especially jarring in live action to hear music that signifies a cartoon villain is about to walk on screen.

Zuko throwing things and chewing the scenery my beloved

"He ran! He's a coward!" I do love the angle of Zuko being confronted with the reality of what he thought would be a glorious destiny. There are two reasons Zuko associates not fighting with cowardice. One is because of what he believes about the fire nation as a whole, but also because of what his father made him believe about himself.

I do like that Aang is identifying that controlling the Avatar State is a problem he needs to solve. It gives me hope that the writers are trying to actually flesh out that plot point where the original failed. I don't like that there's been no mention yet of him needing to learn waterbending. Which brings me to...

Yes, Katara, it IS unbelievable that you've learned waterbending in a day all because Aang said some mumbo to you about energy. That's why I don't believe it. Katara does grow fast in the original, too, but it still feels organic. Here it doesn't and once again, it feels like they are giving that credit all to Aang and I hate that. I also hate that this is Katara's motivation rather than the Katara who took it upon herself to make sure the Avatar learned waterbending whether he wanted to or not.

There is something missed by Kanna giving Katara the waterbending scroll. Idk, trying not to compare to the original because I did want Kanna to be more active in Katara's life. But I get the same feeling of loss here as Aang already having Appa's whistle. Those two things in the original were part of a point about the tragedy of cultural attrition, that Aang has to buy back a cultural artifact that the seller does not even know the true meaning of, that Katara has to steal hers from pirates who already stole from her culture. It also begs the question that if Kanna had that scroll the whole time, why didn't she show it to Katara before, who was so desperate to learn waterbending?

Zuko talking about being gone three years, clearly ecstatic at the thought that his banishment will come to an end, while Iroh looks like he's about to send his son to his death for the second time. Kudos to the actors' faces expressing so much in that one scene.

The actor for Sokka is very good-looking.

Aang and Katara playing in the water was cute, but they seem even farther apart in maturity here than in the original. Even that scene comes across as a much older sister honoring a young child. I don't get a sense of Katara as someone yearning to be a child.

She's not wrong about the Avatar bringing connections, but Aang showing off isn't really the best illustration of that concept.

Okay, so, I saw some people complaining about Suki wanting to leave home "because of a boy" and like, that also happened in the original. What feels kinda pat here is that we've also added overprotective mom to the mix, which I don't love. When I said I wanted Suki's mom I meant I wanted to know how Suki became a warrior, I wanted to see more women bonding with other women and women's autonomy being treated as normal. Not whatever this is.

So they don't already know Zhao here? That's less interesting. Also "actual royalty." Another log to keep the "Zhao is a royal bastard" theory burning. Heh, burning.

Sokka is still a prick about girls fighting, everyone can rest easy now. Also his reaction when Suki tries to flirt with him the same way he does with her is exactly how that would play out in real life.

Aang avoiding fighting out of fear of his own power adds an interesting dimension to his character which is only briefly touched on in the original.

Zuko and Katara 1v1 yes!!!

Katara flashbacking to her mom's death during her first real fight is a nice touch.

KYOSHI!!!

Zhao wasn't very impressive until Zuko accidentally gave him a foothold, then that shit-eating grin was great.

I'll hold off on really commenting on this because I haven't gotten that far yet, but I heard that Ozai is more willing to praise Zuko here and it just does not make a lot of sense to me, not only because that is not how that kind of parent works, but also because hearing the news from Zhao, who would 100% play up Zuko having discovered and then LOST the Avatar, would just make Ozai see Zuko as more of a failure for having come close. Unless Zuko does something spectacular in the next few episodes I don't see Ozai being impressed.

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

This Verse Secretly Undermines All of Christianity...

I just saw this and thought I would process it on my own.

This YouTuber doesn't sound like he's explored much beyond mainstream Western Christianity. He makes the bold statement that EVERY Christian sect finds indispensable the idea that Christ died on the Cross "for our sins". Period.

For the longest time I found that challenging too. He goes on to talk about many of the same things I've asked, "Why couldn't God just forgive us outright? Why must he go through a generational pageant to do something the God of the Universe could have done of his own accord in the first place?"

You can say this is a dumb question. I've been told this many times.

Yet I have never been the only one asking this.

Many, if not all Atheists ask this question. Frankly, many "Christian" answers sound a little unhinged.

Now, I don't think that his examples necessarily contradict the prevailing point of view though. All anyone has to do is look at the banking industry to see that credit on future earnings is a valid payment method. Now it's true that modern banking, and especially credit, wasn't developed until the European Jews, unable to make a living any other way, started lending during the medieval period. Jesuits came up with the idea of insurance, which didn't technically fall under the prohibition against usury. And with ongoing innovation, modern financial markets developed.

None of these, of course, would have been understood by the local people of Jesus' time and place.

What was understood was life and death.

And this is where I found my peace.

Sins can easily be forgiven, but sickness and eventual death? That's a whole other nut to crack. Now, to be clear, unfortunately even the most traditional Christian communities have started to obsess about how SIN must be atoned!

But there is a strain in the oldest Christian traditions that it wasn't primarily sin that was destroyed on the cross, but rather death, disease, corruption (of which sin is a derivation to be sure, but not the point).

Now it's easy to look around and say - "Look! it didn't work." I myself have had to say good bye to both my parents over the last several months.

However, there is a resurrection that is promised. And if Christ has done what he said he did, then there WILL be a general resurrection.

The key is to be prepared for that resurrection. Now we could go on about which denomination is best prepared, but I have little faith in denominationalism. I think it's a means to conquer and divide the faithful, pitting follower against follower. Soon the God who's being worshiped isn't the most High God, but the Deceiver who encourages us all to call each other heretics. I do not think most "Christians" are Christian, but rather following their own wisdom (1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, Matthew 7:13-14, Matthew 24:11).

Now I may be a false teacher myself for thinking such a thing and putting it out there, but I have faith that God will know his own. And while he loves the rest, and has given them life, that life will be so much less for the fact that they reject what he's given them.

I find the idea of a river of fire helpful - Moses and the Glory of God (Exodus 33:20-23), speaks to the idea that to human senses, God is Fire. The Story of the Three Holy Youths (Daniel 3) has also been seen as an illustration of man abiding in the presence of fire, as a proxy for God, unharmed. Pentecost is God's fire experienced by the faithful after his resurrection. How will Gods fire be experienced by the unfaithful?

I have no idea, but I doubt that it will be pleasant (Luke 16:19-31).

In short, I feel this video failed to land it's point. There's enough diversity in Christianity to survive this argument, though I do not think that most modern Christians are open to my resolution.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy upon me, a sinner.

[threshasketch]

Bye Bye Photoshop

So, yeah, Adobe is pushing the generative AI stuff more and more (and their "ethically sourced" AI engine Firefly uses around 1.25 million Midjourney images in its dataset, e.g. made with scraped stolen art, and opted all of the stock it offers in for training without asking the creators.)

Seeing Kyle T. Webster, the guy who made the 1000 free amazing brushes that PS Creative Cloud users get, quitting PS and being outspoken about his stance against gen AI around social media was an eye opener. (He offers some brushes on Gumroad apart from Adobe as well, thank goodness!)

When I first got Photoshop and switched from Krita to it, I found the brushes incredibly bad and unusable until I got the Kyle's brushes sets. You might say PS only worked for me so long because of Kyle's brushes, and that's not an exaggeration!

Anyway, my annual Photoshop Creative Cloud subscription was about to renew next month on July 6th, my birthday, as it has since 2017. I was already considering switching to something else when I saw it: Clip Studio, on sale for 60% off! I had literally downloaded the demo the week before to try it out and consider whether to invest $54 in a copy to switch from PS.

The perpetual license was under $25 USD now, but the subscription for an entire year was $10.79—cheaper than one month of my Photoshop subscription—and I'm already used to a subscription with constant updates. So I ended up getting the CS subscription and quit PS cold turkey.

So now I'm saving $109/year on art software, not giving money to people contributing to the biggest art theft in human history (literal billions of images scraped), and as a bonus, CS has a great community with tons of free brushes and textures and such up for grabs all the time!

I'm happy to say that all of the PS brushes I've purchased from Gumroad loaded right into CS and work perfectly. All of my Creative Fabrica fonts load in and work perfectly.

To be sure I could use CS before I committed to the switch-over, I whipped up a book cover (cannot tell it's made with anything different than my previous ones), and I illustrated and colored a piece of character art (looks super clean!) I opened PS and copied down my favorite fonts short list (minus the Adobe fonts, of course, which came with my subscription.)

And then I uninstalled Photoshop and Creative Cloud entirely, including their fonts. And it felt good! I sincerely thought switching to CS would be going to slightly worse software to be ethically okay using it, but after getting used to CS and customizing it with some very shiny brush sets (oil paints, watercolors, ink pens, gorgeous pencil, all free), I think it's just as good.

And CS won't shove "generative fill" AI tool garbage at me, or load my account with "generative credits" without ever asking.

It felt so gross logging into Adobe after ages to cancel my subscription and seeing those credits on my account, knowing they offered the option to buy more of them, taking money for things generated by using (among many other things) every art piece I've ever posted in the past 21 years for their scraped dataset training. Good riddance, Adobe!

Anyway, yeah. I'm using Clip Studio Paint now, and I'm excited to get to play with my new brush sets! ♥♥♥

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ep.20 thoughts

[Almost as Long as One Piece]

(Contents: art direction/pacing - angry praise)

This is probably the best episode of the UU anime so far...

The brief vision of the future Anno Un saw for Fuuko, the addition of Andy and Fuuko approaching the park and seeing the stark transition into Autumn's territory, the slowed and subtle pacing of Anno Un's introduction, the horror of watching a man's face literally explode into the shape of a book, watching Andy's transformation into his own book stretch up into the heavens and bursting through the clouds...this episode had so much weight to it! They did such a good job on it!!!

BUT THEY CUT OUT FUUKO FLOPPING ONTO ANDY'S LAP ON THE PLANE!!!

AND FOR WHAT? TO SEE THE NOTORIOUSLY DRAWN-OUT SUNFLOWER SCENE FROM EPISODE SEVEN AGAIN???

ARE WE A JOKE TO YOU, YUKI???

EVEN IF YOU WANTED TO CUT TO COMMERCIAL RIGHT WHEN THE DUDE TRANSFORMED, YOU DIDN'T NEED TO DO THAT!!! YOU HAD SCENES YOU COULD HAVE DRAWN OUT! MORE YOU COULD HAVE ADDED! MORE YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN TO! YOU DIDN'T NEED TO DO THAT!!!

I'm getting pretty tired of needing to say "this episode was great, BUT" every week, and this episode is easily the most jarring example of that. I guess I'm glad we only had to deal with two recaps this week, and one was fairly short, but the second was so egregious! To be fair, it was a recap that was technically in the manga, but the manga only had the teacher hugging Fuuko, not the entire god damn scene with the kids and her sacrifice and everything! You could have at least done the part where Andy asked "can [the zombies] turn back?" to illustrate the threat of people being transformed, then shown the hug and left out all of the completely irrelevant sections with the kids and such

If you put the plane scene back properly, cut down the flashback and then puff it back up with helpful information, then you could easily end up in the same spot. If you repair the plane scene and cut the flashback to just the hug, then you could probably get to the Junior being created or a little further by the break, and then the second half of the episode could end with Fuuko entering the book and catching us up with chapter 40

With all of that said, we did get through the remainder of chapter 38, all of 39, and almost all of 40 with minimal interruptions and multiple newly added scenes. It's clear that we're capable of clearing the rest of the arc in a timely manner and that it can be done in a way that's satisfying. Despite the annoyances, this episode perfectly illustrates everything that the UU anime could be, and I have to give it credit for that. I have to believe that there's something going on behind the scenes that I'm not privy to, that the weird choices are an attempt to compensate for something beyond anyone's control or a way to guarantee that the most important bits live up to their potential even if only in a vacuum. I greatly look forward to the day that I start seeing video essayists who know how to do the proper research elucidate me on the subject, because I'd love to be able to look back on the quirks of this series as a product of their circumstances rather than a baffling artistic choice

I do mean it when I say this is possibly the best episode so far. It's everything I wanted this adaptation to be while also being everything that I've had to accept that it is, warts and all. Expectation and reality all rolled together in one lovely and pitiable mess. I hope that the ensuing episodes will be able to sort out the kinks and provide the experience we dreamed of, but as long as we get episodes of this quality for the remainder, I think I can live with that

Assuming that it doesn't dip right back down next week

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[boozles]

Battle of the Favourites

Challenge: Make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters, and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite.

Thank you to @lilithfatale for the tag! I'm also gonna do my list a little different...

I'm tagging @poonmitpakdee @firstkanaphans @pharawee and anyone else who wants to take part!

Here's my reasonings for these five being my favourite good boys!

Karan, Cherry Magic (Thai) Karan is the ultimate green flag. He's so madly in love with his co-worker but for several years barely interacts with him because he doesn't want to make him uncomfortable. He does lots of little things every day to try and make Atchi's day go a little better, and never expects anything in return. He helps out his coworkers and never expects credit (much like Atchi does, too). And even when he does begin a friendship with Atchi, he still tries to ensure he isn't overstepping. When he admits his feelings, he removes himself from the situations so as to not make Atchi uncomfortable. Then, when he finally enters into a relationship with his love, he is the most doting, protective, and supportive partner ever. He is the goodest boy that ever lived (on my screen) and I miss him terribly.

Shin Ki Tae, Our Dating Sim This boy is the sweetest. His heart was broken for years because his high school friend never gave him the chance to respond to his feelings, and though he couldn't find him, he secretly supported him anonymously by reading his comics and encouraging him to become an illustrator. He did everything to try and make sure Lee Wan succeeded, but didn't expect anything in return. When he finally 'got' Lee Wan, he was so scared of losing him again, but not in a red flag way, and he showed his vulnerable side.

Gavreel, Gameboys Oh, this cheeky little rascal is my son and I love him so much. Okay, he's a wee bit of a pain in the butt when it comes to him pursuing Cai, but he isn't 'creepy' about it. Like, he literally saw Cai streaming games during covid and fell in love at first sight! He was a friend when Cai needed one, he was supportive and attentive. He helped Cai through his father's death, and gave him the strength to come out to his family. He was a good friend to Pearl, Achilles, and Terrence (even though Ter didn't deserve it), and he even took in Wes when he had no where to go (despite Wes literally trying to steal his boyfriend). He literally went broke because he felt guilty forcing poor tenants to pay their rent to him, and he did food runs during Covid for those who couldn't leave the house/hospital. He is just such a good boy and just LOOK at those curls.

Longtae, A Tale of 1000 Stars Everyone's favourite boy! He works hard in university so he can better his home village, he's friendly and accepting, and he has no problem helping out around the village whenever he's needed. He takes Tian under his wing and becomes such a good friend to him. When he learns Tian's secret about Torfun's death he doesn't out him, despite being hurt and mourning. When the whole village and Phupha turn against Tian, Longtae is the only one who actually gives Tian a chance to explain the situation. He gives it his all with the tea bag creations, and he just wants to make the world a better place.

Cher, A Boss and A Babe Cher is a gosh darn treasure and I will forever be confused at anyone who didn't like this series. Cher tries his hardest to live life to the full, and despite his whole village believing rumours and turning their backs on him, he still tried to be happy and would still try to help. He basically started to raise his deceased friend's little brother and did everything he possibly could to help him, even though he wasn't obligated to. He had his heart broken but stayed positive. When he found people being homophobic about his boss, he stood up to them. He pushed himself to work as hard as possible so he could be seen as worthy enough to date Gun (he was always worthy, but he wanted to prove himself to Gun's stupid mum). He supports his friends, treats them like family and would do anything for them.

[chattegeorgiana]

Just finished read chapter 3, I can see why you loved writing this chapter and I can’t imagine how delighted you were seeing it illustrated. The amount of easter eggs that came appeared was great the intention to detail was top notch.

I’m sure you’re thrilled getting this chapter out, I wanted to pick your brain about a few ideas/themes I noticed. In chapter 3 itself the flashbacks were all great really showing casing Tsunda character and her rise and fall until the beginning of the Naruto series. Her and Naruto relationship is pretty underrated and if you remove Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata. She would definitely be in a top 5 of important relationships to Naruto. The flashback to Madura was nice as well, he still can’t to stop about Hash can he lol? I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next.

last thing, outside of pumih and Rav. Do you have a top 5 favorite NaruSaku artist/content creators? And out of the 3 narusaku kids who are you personally excited to write and or see illustrated?

Hope all is well and thanks again!

Hey dear!

Welcome back to my inbox. <3

Aah, it's so good that finally someone understands my excitement with this chapter. Not only from a writing pov, but also from a visual one.

@xravenniax just went god level with it! I kid you not that I started squeaking like a child when I saw the library page and the scrolls one. And yes, this chapter has a loooot of easter eggs, I was curious to see if someone would pick up on those, but apparently some of you do, hehe.

That makes me happy to be honest, not going to lie.

Now, to go back to what you wanted us to chat about...

As I said multiple times, this is going to be a story centered around Sakura, of course, however, she's not the only one I'll be exploring in the story.

I consider Tsunade to be an extremely important character to the Naruto universe, from all the reasons you listed above, plus her interconnectedness with the other characters as well, besides her being Sakura's master. Which is why in Kaika (in the written form) we see her involvement in various other core plots of the Naruto world. I wanted to show that importance of hers and have her in the story past being just Sakura's master.

She is integral to the whole Hashirama cells subplot, Konoha politics, the medical system, the ninja world, the Sannins, so on and so forth. It's quite easy actually to work with her character, honestly.

So yeah, agreed she'd be easily top 5 Naruto's most important bonds.

As for Madara, well, yeah, you can't have Madara without Hashirama the same way you can't have Naruto without Sasuke, so I had to stay true to that core element of the story haha. Plus, it serves as a great point of origin for the development I have in plan with Sakura's medical prowess, that nicely ties in to all those aspects I used to write in my old theories regarding the Hashirama/Sakura parallels. It's actually one of the reasons I had the idea to make a parallel between Sakura's struggle with Kaguya/Madara to Tsunade's own struggles, since both of them did fight Madara, so, as I said, he is the common element between the two and the connection to their medical prowess that always calls back to Hashirama's one.

As for NaruSaku content creators well, we have such a low number of them nowadays that for me, they're all precious in their own way and I do my best to support them.

I like NaruSakuArt from Insta/Twitter (x), there was also Bloom (but kinda disappeared) on Twitter, we also had my sweet @dattebae who came back for a while but disappeared again, we have a few from the Chinese community which I appreciate (but idk how to read/write their name, please forgive my uneducated self), we also have Nathaniel who is doing his own projects, but kinda keeps them in closed groups due to a lot of reposting that people do without crediting the original source, we also had Rannya but she also kind of went missing, oh and last but not least Shrimp Chips haha.

So yeah, this is kinda it. Back in the day we had lots, but a lot of them left honestly.

As for the NaruSaku kids, I really can't pick and choose. They are all so integral to the NaruSaku healing journey and symbolic to the struggles we overcame and love for this pairing that it's hard for me to really pick just one.

I'm excited to showcase all of them, but the most I'm excited about is to explore their individuality while also their interconnectedness, because as I said, I kinda have something in mind related to their powerups that shows that interconnectedness. I just hope to be able to do it proper justice.

[jewishvitya]

Content warning: a picture of Nazi propaganda

Okay, so, I had a couple of replies from someone who seems genuine. These are all points either I or other people made before, but I'll try to collect them in a way that makes sense.

I'm not going to reiterate the list of antisemitic issues in the goblins narratively, I did that twice, here and here. I'm going to talk about why it's antisemitic despite this being a fantasy race with traits that commonly go together. I hope you'll forgive me if I'll repeat or quote things I said in other posts. I'll also use examples I've seen given by other Jews, like I did with theineffableshe (from tiktok) before. So, credit to her.

Fantasy and SciFi are speculative fiction. They take us out of our own world and our own familiar reality to allow us to explore ourselves. All stories we tell are stories about people. We only understand our own minds. You can't imagine a color that you never saw, you can't create a reality that isn't grounded in human experience.

That's why very often the struggles and the traits of a fantasy race are pulled from the real world. Either the real struggles of real people (with some exaggeration or magical/futuristic elements), or the caricaturized traits that were applied to a real group of people.

This is not inherently bad. This is just how stories work. All stories are derivative - they all pull from the stories we told before.

Here is what you said:

If you seriously connect jews with generic greedy goblin characters with huge noses that work in banks, then it honestly sounds to me like YOU are the one being filled up with these prejudices.

But here's what I need you to understand: we don't think we look like the goblins. We don't relate the goblins to ourselves. We relate the goblins to how we were portrayed in the past, to demonize us.

Goblins in other pieces of media can look very different. Because those are fictional, they can be made to look like anything. And they look like antisemitic caricatures.

To illustrate, here's a comparison between the game and Nazi propaganda.

The first picture is from theineffableshe. She traced some of these from stills of the game, and some of these from antisemitic Nazi propaganda.

I know which is which - because I've seen all of the originals. But if you never saw them before, do you think everyone would be able to tell which ones are from HL and which ones are 1930's propaganda?

And the two on top? One of them is the trophy you get for killing Ranrok, the main antagonist of the game. The other, is again, antisemitic propaganda.

Just a reminder that I'm not blaming Rowling of writing intentional antisemitic caricatures into her books. This is more complicated than that, and that complexity is what this post is about.

I showed in two posts the narrative similarities between the goblins and antisemitic propaganda. Here, I showed a bit of the visual similarities.

It's the collection of all the traits that creates the problem.

And you understand this. I felt encouraged when I saw you say:

This discovery honestly makes me feel uncomfy. Sure, it's just a generic animal horn, which isn't solely special to jews, but it kind of does start piling up.

Which is exactly the point. You get it. I just want you to see that it's still true if you disregard the horn.

You also said this:

Most greedy characters are portrayed ugly, which oftentimes includes large noses. And greedy people working in banks isn't a huge jump.

Greedy characters being ugly, ugly characters having large noses and greedy people working in banks are all stereotypes that are portrayed in media fairly often- How exactly is this case in particular offensive?

So. I'll start by saying again that the original books had no problem with the goblin's noses. They weren't even described. The antisemitism was in the other traits. But in these messages from you, there are a couple of issues: what we consider ugly, and equating beauty with goodness. For that, I'll get into the issue of the noses.

Beauty is cultural. I have a Chinese friend and we had long conversations about it, because it's something that fascinates me. The beauty standards around them are very different from those around me. We spoke about how it influences art and fashion and make up. You can see similar things throughout history. What we consider beautiful or ugly is not neutral.

I'm not talking about personal taste right now. I'm not saying "if you have certain preferences, you're a bad person and there's something wrong with you." I'm saying that culturally, some beauty standards come from racism. Others come from classism and prejudice towards poor people. Others, from ableism and prejudice towards sick and disabled people.

That's why the idea of ugliness being tied to evil is not neutral. People in reality treat beautiful people better. They're more likely to be assumed kind, to be assumed innocent if accused of crimes. It comes from a concept of purity, an assumption that moral corruption will be visible on you.

And it wasn't invented by white supremacists, but it aligns with their ideology. White supremacists put on a pedestal traits they consider better and purer. And traits that don't fall into that idea of racial purity, were the ones seen as ugly. If marginalized people's traits are considered ugly, and ugliness is equated with immorality - marginalized people are seen as immoral.

Exaggerating the phenotypical traits of a marginalized group to dehumanize it, is common. It's how racist (and transphobic, etc) caricatures are created. In terms of phenotype, Jewish people can belong to any race. There is no one way a Jewish person looks. But Jewish people tend to marry other Jewish people, so sometimes we don't completely look like the non-Jewish populations where we live. This was the case for Ashkenazi Jews in Europe. We were more likely to be shorter, to have darker and curlier hair, darker eyes, and there's much more. The "Jewish nose" is part of that.

European Jews were not considered white, they were racialized, and being racialized meant being subhuman. So the traits that the Nazis associated with us were demonized.

"They're shown as ugly, and that includes a big nose" is not a neutral thing. It has a very heavy history of white supremacy and antisemitism.

When you ask "it's a well established trope, so how is this case in particular offensive?" you assume every other case is harmless. I'm not accusing every single creator who made hooked-nosed villains of antisemitism. I'm saying that the pattern has pretty bad origins.

These traits that you listed commonly go together - but why? Most real rich people who hoard money don't fit that collection of descriptions. So where did this come from?

We pull narrative tools from the stories told to us, and we do that without always thinking about how those tropes interact with the real world. The idea of greedy bankers has been tied to the demonization of Jewish people for a very long time.

Rowling wanted to write a bank, and she wanted to make it magical, and she reverse-engineered her fantasy bankers from there. But when she did that, she did write an antisemitic fantasy race.

Goblins are portrayed in many different ways in folklore and in media. Goblin is originally a term used for a collection of creatures that have different traits, not all of them associated with love of treasure. They can be tricksters, but not necessarily bloodthirsty. And since it's such a varied mythology, there's no reason for them to look like this. There's no reason for them to be only loyal to each other. To either not care about human lives or enjoy the idea of humans getting hurt - which we see in the books.

She pulled more from antisemitic stories than she pulled from real folklore. And it was enough of a problem that antisemitic producers were able to pick up where she left off and make it as bad as they did.

So you're exactly right. It's how it piles up. I just hope you can see that the issue goes very deep.

[pangolinheart]

FFXIVWrite 2023 DAY 3 - COMING HOME (EXTRA CREDIT)

This was a little scene I've had in my head for a long time but never bothered to write down. I thought this was a good excuse to put it to digital paper!

Rating: General Genre: Fluff Characters: Z'rhiki Irhi, Rielle de Caulignont, Sidurgu Orl Word Count: 1,193 Content Warnings: None

The door to the Forgotten Knight swung open with a familiar creak, and Rielle looked up expectantly.

“Rhiki!” she called from their spot in front of the fire, waving to the miqo’te at the top of the stairs.

“Hey Rielle!” Rhiki called back, standing on her tip-toes and leaning over the railing to wave back with so much enthusiasm that Rielle was a little concerned she might fall. She bounded down the stairs to join them at their usual table at the back of the room.

Before she could offer another greeting, Rielle found herself wrapped in a tight hug. She smiled into the woman’s shoulder – Rhiki always gave the best hugs. She wrapped her arms around her and returned the embrace before Rhiki finally pulled away, placing both of her hands on Rielle’s shoulders.

“Wait, have you gotten taller?! You can’t get any taller! That’s not allowed! What am I supposed to do if you start growing?! I’m going to be lonely down here on the ground!”

Rielle could only laugh a little into her hand at Rhiki’s theatrics, and the other woman turned her attention to Sid, who had so far been standing stoically in front of the fire. He couldn’t fool Rielle, though. She hadn’t missed the way he perked up when he heard the sound of the door.

“And you! How could you let this happen?! You were supposed to be watching her! Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Sid rolled his eyes, trying and failing to keep the fondness from reaching his face. “Hello Rhiki.”

She grinned up at him. “Hey.”

“How was Gyr Abania?” Rielle asked, pre-emptively interrupting whatever awkward interaction the two of them were about to have.

Rhiki thought about this, and Rielle thought she saw the slightest crack in her grinning exterior, but it was gone as soon as she had noticed it. “It was good! The reconstruction effort is going really well, all things considered. It really is quite scenic, with all of the cliffs and waterfalls, but a little dull if you’re not working. I did some fishing in my free time, and the other day some of the soldiers let me watch while they trained the griffins! Oh, that reminds me! I brought you something.”

“You didn’t have to,” Rielle reminded her, as she always did. And, as was customary, Rhiki ignored her. She was always bringing Rielle little souvenirs from her most recent adventures. Rielle appreciated them, and the woman clearly put care into choosing things she would like, but she would have been plenty happy to see her even without them. Whenever Rhiki visited she brought a whirl of excitement and activity with her. It was a pleasant change of pace from her day-to-day life in Ishgard. Sid had gotten better about, well, not being such a chocobo’s arse, but he just wasn’t the talkative sort. Rhiki, on the other hand, was chatty to a fault, and always on the move. She had a wild sort of energy about her that usually ensured, if nothing else, that no one would be bored. Even Sid seemed a little less brooding when she came back to visit.

It was more than enough to hear the woman’s tales of far-flung lands and the adventures she had there – too numerous to count. Rielle had only ventured out of Ishgard a handful of times, most of them with Sid and Rhiki, but she had read about such places in books, and seen them in illustrations. Hearing about them from Rhiki was different though – she spoke with such zeal (or melodrama, depending on which was called for) and always had new stories or knowledge to share that added life and color to her own imaginings.

Rhiki had already swung her pack from her shoulders, and was dislodging something from within. When she had succeeded, she held her prize out in front of her for dramatic effect.

“Ta-da!”

It was a stuffed griffin. Or, at least, that’s what Rielle assumed it was supposed to be. Perhaps “inspired by a griffin” would have been more fitting. It looked somewhat warped, and its eyes seemed a bit uneven. Somehow the front feet had ended up larger than the back ones. The body looked lumpy, and its wings hung crookedly at its sides.

“It’s a griffin,” Rhiki helpfully provided. “I had a lot of time on my hands going back and forth from Othard to Gyr Abania, so I thought I would take up sewing! I was originally going to make something simpler, but I kept thinking about the Griffins in Ala Mhigo and I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind.” As she chattered she set the creature on the table in front of her.

Sid tilted his head to the side, examining Rhiki’s creation. “Why does it look so… lopsided?”

Rielle winced. Oh dear. Rhiki wasn’t going to like that. Sometimes she wondered if Sid really was daft.

When she looked over to Rhiki she expected to see her bristling with annoyance – those two really knew how to get under each other’s skin – but instead she looked… almost sheepish. She’d never known Rhiki to be embarrassed about anything.

“W-well, it was my first try,” she stammered, “And the boats we were in rocked a lot, so it was hard to sew straight… But you’re right. I suppose it’s not a very good griffin. You don’t have to take it; I did bring you something else just in case….” One of her hands was already sneaking towards the toy to drag it back into her knapsack, but Rielle snatched it out of her reach.

“No! I love it. You said you were giving it to me, so I’m keeping it.”

“Rielle, you don’t have to-“ she started, but Rielle cut her off.

“I think he’s cute! His lopsided-ness is part of his charm. Sid’s just being a jerk.”

“Hey!”

She hugged the creature to her chest. It might not have been the most majestic rendition of a griffin ever created, but Rhiki had made it for her, which made it better than even the most skillfully crafted stuffed toy.

“Really?” She saw the woman’s ears perk up as she retracted her hand, instead using it to rub the back of her neck. She still wouldn’t look Rielle in the eye, instead gazing over at the nearest wall. “W-well, I did make it for you, so if you insist-“

“I do,” Rielle interjected.

Rhiki beamed, eyes once again alight with mirth. “Well alright then, he’s all yours!”

Rielle smiled back, still holding the griffin in her arms. “What about Sid? Did you bring anything for him?”

“Uh… a hug?” Rhiki offered.

Sid snorted. “Pass.”

This time Rhiki was mad. “Rude! Fine! Be that way! I actually did bring you something but just for that I’m not going to give it to you!”

“Wait, what? Oh, come on! If you’ve already brought the damned thing all the way here-“

Rielle watched them bicker with a warmth in her chest to rival the warmth of the hearth before them. It was always nice when Rhiki came home.

[prettysymbiosis]

risk e. rat’s pizza and amusement center

the awkwardly long name (read: it’s always sunny in philadelphia) - both character and show meta incoming and I feel like that’s the first hint of the latter

am I the only one who keeps thinking risk e. rat’s pizza is the pizza for you and me…

“they make kids feel like they’re the ones in charge” - so interesting coming from mac mcdonald. soon followed up by “they were the first set of boobs I ever saw since my mom’s” which ties right into the burgeoning mommy issue thread

at the end of the day it’s all part of the fun!

just the gang singin’ in the car :)

dennis “that’s not my name” reynolds

how have I just NEVER noticed that dee is left-handed???

the broken water fountain - does it mean anything? I’m too tired to figure it out I need my tumblr brain trust

maybe mac being clean-shaven this season is to make him seem more boyish? I have a new theory for this every episode

I think I saw someone else say this but I do think it’s fitting that charlie and dennis are together on the titties storyline because of their shared baggage around childhood sexuality, like no one else in the gang would really be able to relate to dennis here and if charlie is figuring his shit out with that then he'll definitely serve as a parallel for dennis having to figure it out too

I like how they represent three different eras of risk e.’s (frank, gang, present day) to really explore changing values and how things getting softer can be bad in some ways but good in others. this episode definitely feels in keeping with lethal weapon 7 as a very sunny way of critiquing sunny that feels satisfyingly self-aware but also fairly true to form which is a pretty fine line to walk, to give credit to rcg and the rest of the creators

also if you haven’t seen the john oliver piece on chuck e. cheese go watch it because it provides so much context and crazy true history of these types of places that was definitely in my mind while watching this episode

dee and frank paired up again, and in a childhood place, probably ties into the dee parent-issues thing I hope they’re building up to

each character really tells on themself about what fucked up stuff they’ve come to believe is acceptable or even enjoyable but should be questioned:

frank - violence and verbal abuse toward children and everyone; sexually harassing women with impunity; calling people the r-slur

dee - ethnic humor, not racist humor; making her explain how it’s funny and realizing it’s not; ecologically irresponsible plastic cheese that gets immediately thrown away; dimwit duck or whatever his name was; not understanding what satire really is!!! ← they really took one of their biggest critiques head on

here’s a question I have about dee’s character - she tries to justify her problematic sense of humor and every time frank points out the truth behind it, illustrating what’s really awful about it without really meaning to, and dee seems to genuinely recoil like she doesn’t like that. does she feel bad and react that way because she doesn’t want to do harmful things, or just because she doesn’t want to be perceived as being un-pc because that’s what’s uncool now? like remember when charlie said “I think I might’ve called an old lady a cunt this morning” and looked kind of aghast at himself? could dee be developing more of a conscience too and if so, what does that say about her? or is she just a vehicle for rcg to navel-gaze about the show? also remember in lw7 how mac was like “if you don’t praise me for being a good person then why am I doing it?” I lie awake at night wondering how much rcg want to be better people vs. how much they don’t want to be kicked even further down the hollywood totem pole for being yucky. please share thoughts if you have any

mac - simulating real-world violence to get it out of his system; shame - “if you got no shame, you’re never gonna hate yourself enough to stop being bad”

dennis and charlie - being unprotected growing up; that’s what the bone’s for! (there’s nothing like a glenn and charlie riff btw); is it wrong because she’s underage?

sunny is really amping up the inner child work for the gang, I mean arguably the gang have always been childish but this season I feel like they’re exploring it in a more comprehensive way like via the setting of this episode. and it ALSO works as a perfect commentary on the show and we love the layers

there’s no adults around…

“cause we need monster representation” we need some representation for those who are freaky and fucked up okay??

I wish I could remember who said it but someone suggested that the de-breastifying of justine has to do with dennis’ heteroness disappearing and that is a very fun take - I do think it says something that they’re fixated on a very abstracted version of sexuality via these almost disembodied tits that aren’t even human… like are we overcompensating for something gentlemen? can the characters and the show itself have any relationship to women that doesn’t objectify or otherwise dehumanize them?

I for one think sam is supposed to look like a young mac, I saw some people questioning why they cast that kid and this is my theory. this is important for both the inner child and possible child-rearing stuff they’re bringing in

“hey man, I’m a licensed psychotherapist–” “you’re a talking dog”

“guys I hate to admit it but this place sucks now”; “that’s crazy, this was like one of the best bars in town, man”; “they could redeem themselves in the show” all very meta

“you cannot call a place a website” hahaha

“so that these kids can have the same experience that we had when we were younger” fucked up childhoods, the cycle of trauma, but also the show being how it used to be

and of course, an attempted revival of all that leading to immediate disaster. let’s move forward, not backward :)