#but this is part of a larger story i think

[steddiebrainrotramble]

Saw this idea floating around and wanted to write a little bit about it

Corroded coffin has gotten big enough for larger venues now. Steve was so proud of them. He and Eddie had agreed on day one he’d stay with them. He helped manage the band behind the scenes. Steve loved it. He loved the guys and getting to spend their days off exploring different parts of the cities they toured.

It was hard sometimes though, at places like this especially. Sometimes he got migraines and had to come later. Or wanted to step out for a smoke. Large venues like this had large back of the house and green rooms but some times he just needed to get out.

That wasn’t the problem. Getting back in was. Even with his back stage access pass, a lot of the time the venue security refused to believe that the man before them was the lead singers husband.

How could he be? The man in the yellow polo and jeans with perfectly coifed hair at a metal concert didn’t look like he belonged in the venue let alone with the band. And that was his problem right at this moment.

Steve looked up at the large looking men. Two of them, looking unimpressed with him. “Look, I don’t know where you stole that pass from but everyone knows Munsons husband’s name. Get out of here before we throw you out.”

Steve ran a hand through his hair. He was trying not to get frustrated. He appreciated them, honestly. He wanted to keep Eddie safe. But fuck he did not want to do this right now. “I appreciate you doing your job. But I’ve got my badge. Call back to Ed’s security. Describe me to them. Hell tell them the shirt I’m wearing, Cj helped pick it out, says it’s a good yellow. Mat says it’s too horrendous but it somehow suits me. Couldn’t tell if that’s a compliment honestly.” Steve shrugged. The guards look unamused.

Finally the one on the left sighs. “Fine I’ll walkie back. If they say they have no clue who you are we’re kicking you completely out and trespassing you. Sure you want to gamble that?” The guy smirked and Steve shrugged. “Go for it.”

Guy walkied for the bands security. “Got a preppy looking guy here. Think he stole a backstage pass.” Steve can hear Cj’s voice crackle over the walkie. “He wearing an amazingly blinding yellow polo?” “Yes…” “That’s Munson’s hubby, let him through.”

Steve just stared at them as he pushed pass, careful to remind himself he had another story to tell Robin next time he called.

[icedbeverageenjoyer]

Dominator Mr. Puzzles!

I love the idea of each Puzzles having their own poster so much grrr!!

@alelathedragon

Story

While the name is kinda cringe, in this AU Puzzles is a much larger and more threatening villain. A big tech CEO who conqueres universes to make their inhabitants his loyal audience members. He comes from a dimension of shadow people, which he took over and brainwashed. Now they are his permanent audience, giving him approval in the form of 'stars'. ↓↓↓

Design

Puzzles' real body is severely damaged from all the body modifications he gave himself, so he built an undisclosed number of clones- vessels from which he can control every part of his empire.

His body stays in a special pocket dimension to keep himself safe, since he can barely move and needs around the clock care. If someone were to walk into his office, they'd think he was a long-dead corpse staring blankly at the monitors. But rest assured, he is very aware.

Fun facts

• Everything he touches turns grayscale. Probably has something to do with his home dimension.

• Many of his brand's home appliances managed to sneak into the showgrounds, but he failed to design these products with spyware. Damnit.

• He is very sensitive to temperature changes and keeps his dimension just above freezing.

• He can change his voice in pitch, timbre and everything else, so he can make very convincing impressions. Even his usual voice isn't his real one.

• The clones are like appendages to him. That being said, there are certain conditions under which a clone can go rouge and 'gain sentience', but they're usually very unstable and 'die' in a matter of hours.

• The Puzzles in the psych ward is a special case.

[crowsofdarkness]

Moment Of Weakness: Chapter Twenty Four

-gif not mine. credit to owner-

Pairings: Mob!Bucky Barnes x Reader

Content Warnings: language, 18 + smut, angst, fluff, affair, cheating, violence, kidnapping, faking a pregnancy.

Summary: Reader is the assistant to New York's most feared mob boss, James Buchanan Barnes. He had the picture-perfect life: status in the mob, friends, and beautiful wife. So why can't he keep his mind and eyes off of reader?

Authors Note: I just wanted to remind everyone who reads this, there are heavy moments of cheating/having an affair in this story. You might not agree with the actions of "reader" or Bucky but it does pertain to the storyline. If anyone is interested, tags are open for this! Just send me a message or comment!

Tags: @cjand10 @generalmoonpolice @sapphirebarnes @baw1066 @nameless-ken @minami97 @bookofriverr

I opened the door to my apartment, letting the larger man walk in before me, and shut it quickly, locking it behind me. Bucky looked around the small space that was littered with boxes, some unpacked, some not even touched. He gave me a confused look. 

“I moved last month,” I informed while hanging up my purse and jacket. 

Bucky stood out of place so I offered the couch to him, which he accepted with a nod. 

“Why?” He asked while sitting down. 

I decided to sit on the single chair on the other side of the room. 

“It’s kind of a long story,” I said. 

Bucky leaned back into the couch. “You can start off by where the hell you’ve been the last eight months?” 

I quietly scoffed and did my best to keep my anger at bay. If I pissed him off, he wouldn't agree to help me. 

“I needed space from you, Bucky. It wasn’t healthy for either of us if we continued the way we were,” I defended. 

He shrugged. “So why did you come back?” 

My fingers began to fidget with the loose strand of fabric on the chair I was seated on and I let out a deep breath. 

“I think I’m being followed again.” 

Bucky shoulders tensed as he sat up straighter. “Why do you think that?” 

I gave a half shrug. “It started a month ago. What started off as feeling someone watching me as I walked or through my windows became my car being broken into and stolen. Then my house was burglarized. Whoever did it destroyed almost everything and tore it apart, as if they were looking for something.”

“Were you hurt?” 

I smiled fondly at the concern in Bucky’s voice. 

“No, thankfully I wasn’t home. But after that night, I packed up my things and moved here,” I motioned towards my apartment. “Things were quiet for a few weeks until last night.” 

I handed Bucky a folded up letter that I received in my mailbox yesterday. Bucky’s eyes scanned over the words a few times, the anger radiating off of him in waves. 

You’re going to get what you deserve. No one can keep you safe. Make sure to keep an eye open wherever you go. 

“Do you have any idea who sent this?” Bucky asked through gritted teeth. 

“There wasn’t a return address,” I shook my head. “But I have a feeling about who it could be.”

He sighed while pinching his eyes closed. “Yeah, me too.” 

I tilted my head in confusion. “You do?” 

“There’s been some talk on the streets about Clint’s original hit on you being reinstated,” Bucky said. 

To say I was shocked was a lie; that’s exactly who I thought was behind all of this. But my lips parted when something clicked into place about tonight.

“Is that what you were asking that guy about tonight?” I asked. 

He hesitated, body tense, before eventually nodding. “He was the last one to know about Clint’s whereabouts but Budapest is broad. It could have been yesterday or six months ago.” 

My heart skipped a beat when I realized that Bucky was trying to fight this on his own for me. For my safety. 

“I would ask if you would help me but it seems like you’ve already been doing that,” I chewed on my lip.

“It’s you, Y/N. I would do anything to protect you,” he vowed without missing a beat. 

Silence fell between us for a few moments as I racked my brain for what to do next. I could either have him leave, only calling me when he found out some more information about the hit. Or, I could have him stay a bit longer to have us catch up. 

That was such a bad idea, I mentally smacked myself for even thinking that. 

“Aren’t you going to say I told you so?” 

Bucky’s sorrowful voice caused my eyes to land on him. “What?” 

“You were right.” 

I shook my head, confused. “About what?”  

“Natasha. She lied about the pregnancy,” Bucky rested his elbows on his knees, letting out a deep breath in order to keep his tears at bay. 

My heart ached for him, only slightly. I tried to tell him about it way before, so the pain he was feeling was his own fault. 

“Oh,” I muttered. 

“I asked her about it.” 

“Oh,” I said much louder. 

Bucky looked at his hands with heavy shoulders. “She denied it at first, said that she was pregnant and she had all the proof. But when I asked her to take another pregnancy test in front of me, she came clean.” 

I hummed while nodding, not entirely sure what to say. 

“I had her move out the next day and the divorce was finalized last month,” Bucky informed. 

“Oh,” I repeated yet again. 

He chuckled slightly. “Is that all you’re going to say?” 

I shrugged. “What else do you want me to say, Bucky? Good for you? It still doesn't change the fact that I tried to tell you and you blew me off.” 

“I went home that night and confronted her about it.” 

His face was set hard while breath was even and steady, meaning he was telling the truth, and leaned towards me to grab my hands. The warmness of his flesh and the coolness of the vibranium one made my heart flip a few times over. 

“This still doesn't change anything,” I said with stern eyes. “I’m not going to fall back into you because now you’re single.” 

Bucky nodded. “I know. So I’ll make you a promise.” 

My brows raised with interest. 

“When we’re finished figuring out how to end Clint and the hit on you, if you want me to, I'll stay away. Until you’re ready, if you’re ready, give me another chance.” 

He brought my hand to his lips, ghosting a few kisses over my knuckles. No matter how hard I swooned over him, I continued to keep my stern posture, not wanting to let him know how bad he was affecting me. 

“I’ll wait as long as you need me too; years if I have too because heaven knows I’m not getting over you,” Bucky mused. 

I swallowed the large lump in my throat, my heart swelling double its size because of Bucky’s proclamation. All I could do was nod, unsure what words, if any, would come and make sense. 

Our eyes watched each other for a few beats and it wasn’t until I felt us slowly closing the space between us that I let out a small cough, sitting further back into my chair. 

“What time should I meet you tomorrow?” 

“For what?” Bucky asked. 

“Did you really think I would let you handle my problem by yourself?” I questioned. 

He was fast to disagree. “Not happening.  I’m not allowing you to get involved. This is some heavy shit, Y/N. You could get hurt.” 

I stood to my feet and placed my hands in the back pocket of my jeans. “You can say no all you want, Bucky. But we both know that I’ve never listened to you anyway.” 

Bucky’s jaw clenched before he let out a sigh. “We do things my way, understand?” 

With a hard squeeze on his shoulder, I nodded. “Sure.” 

Then, all of a sudden, something clicked in my brain and I sat back down in my chair. 

“What is it?” Bucky wondered. 

“You said that your divorce was finalized a month ago, right?” 

When he nodded, I continued. “Everything that’s been happening to me started about a month ago. So do you think it’s possible-.” 

“Natasha’s in on it,” Bucky finished my thought. “I had a feeling, that’s why I’ve been looking for both of them.” 

“Fantastic,” I grumbled. 

He reached for the letter, playing around with it between his fingers. “You said this letter got mailed to you, here at your new place, right?” 

I began to nod but stopped when I realized what he was getting at. 

“They have my new address.” 

Bucky motioned down the hall. “Go pack a couple of bags of things you might need. You’re staying with me until this is all finished.” 

“Uh, I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Bucky.” I wavered. 

“There’s plenty of guest rooms you can stay in, some even on the far end of the house so you don’t have to be near me,” he said. 

I chewed roughly on my tongue and cheek, hoping the pain from it would be more intense than the way my heart was pounding, thoughts of Bucky and I spending however many nights together. 

“This should be fun,” I muttered to myself while rising to my feet, ready to pack up my life yet again. 

[longlive2023]

over kendrick and beyonce????

[good-to-drive]

Abuse, Silence, And Why Kevin Can Fuck Himself

I recently finished watching Kevin Can Fuck Himself on Netflix, and, aside from being the most brutally honest portrayal of domestic abuse I have ever seen, I discovered a beautifully written examination of narrative as power and silence as abuse and how this manifests in our larger culture. 

Without going into too much detail, the show is filmed in two distinct styles that are interleaved throughout each episode to tell a cohesive story. Allison and Kevin’s relationship as seen by the rest of the world is told through a multi-cam, laugh-track sitcom that depicts a very typical “goofy husband, shrewish wife” mainstream comedy. Allison’s life through her own eyes is told through a single-cam drama/thriller about Allison planning to murder Kevin to escape his abuse. 

It’s an absolute masterclass in screenwriting, but more than that, every episode explores the difference between truth, fact, and reality, and how none of these things are quite as much or as little as story. But while the process of transforming the chaotic and plotless reality of life into a story is as involuntary and essential as breathing, misogyny and the degradation of women is just as ubiquitous in our society, and a story that exists at the expense of another person’s lived reality is a refutation of their humanity. 

It's also just a great show for anyone who likes to engage with history (or reality TV or true crime or “real life stories” in general), because while we have to tell ourselves stories about her own lives, we have to tell ourselves stories about other people as well. Eternal silence is narrative death, and the perpetual silence of an unspoken narrative is often the last death we can visit on someone whose story we’d rather ignore. 

I also pulled up some books – Lolita and Disgrace – that dealt with similar themes, but from the perspective of the abuser. And what strikes me the most is that, across three beautifully written stories about narrative and silence within a culture that normalizes abuse, Allison, who began her story within a state of narrative death, was the only point-of-view character who had any chance of surviving. 

One of the main themes of Kevin is that a compelling story is often a story that reinforces what we already believe or like to believe, and while the story may be factual and true it often also exists at the expense of someone's lived reality. The exact same series of events can be a silly joke or a harrowing tale of abuse depending on the lens through which we view it, but historically we've only been willing to see the multicam, laugh track, sitcom perspective on unbalanced relationships.

The alchemical process of turning a series of disjoint facts and experiences into a narrative creates something new and compelling, and erases much of what previously existed. In this way, it’s entirely irreversible. We spin our experiences into a very thin thread, a story we can tell ourselves that elicits something within us, something we need in order to live with the complex, uncertain, and unsatisfying reality of life. In think in many ways the thing we elicit in ourselves is truth. But truth is both more and less than fact, often more a reflection of our own beliefs and desires than the events of our lives. And in telling that truth we may never stray from the facts, but we almost by definition cannot give voice to another person’s reality.

There's a scene in season 2 of Kevin when Allison is hit by a door – a la the classic excuse – because of Kevin’s carelessness. And while he absolutely did not hit her, the way it's written is such an incredible allegory for how Kevin has curated their story and curated their friends' and family’s perceptions of their story such that even if she tells everyone the exact, unvarnished truth of what's happening to her and begs for help, they will only be capable of seeing the laugh-track, sitcom, “Kevin is a harmless goofball and his wife is a total shrew” perspective on the events of their lives. 

As so often happens with abuse, their friends and family saw Allison being hurt because of Kevin. But the alchemy of creating a narrative around Kevin and Allison is irreversible, and the series of events they witness can only be spun together to a joke, an accident, a silly, childish mistake. Allison’s reality, Allison’s pain and fear, is completely elided. Like a lost sound in the middle of a sentence, her experience goes silent, and their larger understanding of her relationship never has to change. And you feel so acutely how Allison lives her entire life in that silence. 

Storytelling is human, it’s essential, there’s no other way to engage with our own lives. And it’s not lying. It’s never lying to tell the truth. But it doesn’t reflect every reality, either, because another person’s reality can’t be reflected within our own narrative, because that’s what it means to be another person. To spin two different threads.

And because narrative is the essential process by which we understand our reality, denying someone their own narrative, or denying that this narrative be heard, is inherently abusive. To allow someone a voice is to give them humanity, and to suppress it is to strip that humanity away. 

Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee, follows the story of a professor, David, who rapes a student and then fails to protect his daughter, Lucy, from being raped by intruders in their home. He destroys his daughter’s life  – not through failing to protect her, but through twisting her rape into a story about why the rape of his student wasn’t wrong. The main theme of the book is generally considered to be exploitation, but Coetzee doesn’t deal with the exploitation of the rape. That’s too direct, too immediate, too easy for the reader to understand as misogynistic and wrong. Rather, Coetzee delves into “the innocuous-seeming use of another person to fill one's gentler emotional needs” (Ruden).

The rape is how we understand David as a fundamentally exploitative person, a person who denies others their humanity by converting them into a vessel for his own desires, who erases their voice in order to speak through them and give himself the things he needs. And that’s how we recognize that the way he absorbs and claims the stories of his daughter and his student is another kind of violation of their humanity. Another way of turning women into vessels for men’s pain and fear and need. 

What’s fascinating is that David's student finds her voice – files a complaint against him – and is eventually able to continue with her life. The woman he raped is less damaged by him than his own daughter, because she was the woman he couldn’t permanently silence. 

In Lolita, another brilliant novel about abuse, dehumanization, and storytelling, Humbert turns to the reader at the end and says, “Imagine us, reader, for we don’t really exist if you don’t.” 

It’s not that Humbert knew he was fictional, but that he knew everyone was fictional. Believed the entire world only truly existed in his own mind, because anything beyond that was irrelevant to his needs. He coped with the collapse of his ability to dehumanize Dolores (who he called Lolita) by demanding that his voice be resurrected. Demanding immortality. Demanding his narrative exist in another person’s world, and thereby be given the existence and humanity that Allison and Dolores and Lucy and David’s student were denied. 

Pushing his needs, finally, onto the reader, because we are the only person he has left, and a person like him can only exist through the use of another. In that way, Humbert was powerless. In that way, Kevin and David were powerless, too.

In Disgrace, David’s dream is to write an opera, and at the end of the book he realizes he’ll never finish his magnum opus. He’ll never be able to terminate the process of converting himself, his world, into a story. But he does learn to decenter himself in that narrative. And it’s when he loses all fear of death, and any conception of the self, that he gains the ability to give dogs – who he generally equates to women – a voice within his opera, his life’s work. 

It’s in death that we discover our true unimportance as human beings, that we learn to let go of vanity and our conception of the self entirely. And David had degraded women so thoroughly in order to justify how he used them to meet his own emotional needs that it was only in losing all value for his own life that he could gain the ability to see them as equal voices. To actually put those voices into his own life story. It's at the cost of himself that he allows other people to truly exist, in the death of the self that he finally allows the world to exist outside of himself. It’s almost a positive character arc. Almost.

When Kevin finally loses the ability to abuse Allison, he, like many abusers, loses all desire to live. His world was built on a structure of superiority and inferiority, on beings and vessels, on the inherent value of men and the inherent meaninglessness of women’s lives. The system on which he based his entire reality has been destroyed by Allison’s declaration of the self. And, if he was a being because she was a vessel, then in losing the ability to treat her as a vessel, to fully and completely dehumanize her, he has lost his own humanity. 

It may be perfectly summed up here: “Become major. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise, what is life for?” (Coetzee).

If you’re not to be a main character, if there indeed is no split between major and minor characters, between people and the paper dolls that populate their story, between living beings and the vessels into which they pour their need – what is life for?

Nothing. At least, not for people whose narrative must exist at the expense of another. 

And that’s why I say that only a narrator like Allison could survive this kind of story. Despite beginning her story trapped in eternal silence, her reality fully elided no matter how immediate and obvious it became, Allison was the only point-of-view character of any of these three stories who didn’t establish her power through the degradation of another. Who didn’t conceptualize the world via being and vessels. Whose narrative didn’t exist, by necessity, at the expense of another person’s humanity. Whose thread could exist in a larger tapestry without destroying her sense of self.

Don’t get me wrong, she’s not generally a likable character. She’s misogynistic, cruel, selfish, jealous, desperate, afraid, and in pain. Like anyone in an abusive relationship, she’s not at her best, and she’s often pushed to do things that are ugly and disturbing because she’s simply been pushed too far. 

But, for me, the power in her character is in how her last scene never felt like a final scene. Her story didn’t have to be killed, her conception of the self didn’t have to be killed, in order to reveal the brutal reality of stories twisting and intertwining without any inherently superior truth or narrative among them. Allison’s story was one of declaring herself. And that’s why it didn’t feel like it ended at the end. Instead, this felt like a beginning.

[tooquirkytolose]

Mother and son

[alpacacare-archive]

Not to post knight papyrus on main or anything but

[fromtheseventhhell]

One major factor missing from most debates on Arya and Lyanna's beauty is that they're being judged by their society's extremely patriarchal values. In both looks and personality, that context is essential to understanding how others perceive them. George explores the misogyny experienced by non-conforming women, especially with Arya, and it's interesting how he plays with that regarding their physical beauty.

Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress, the way her sister did. (The Blind Girl, ADWD) "You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert," Ned told him. "You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have told you that you have no business in the melee." (Eddard VII, AGOT)

These two quotes offer a nice summation of this idea. With Arya, her supposed lack of beauty is defined by her being a non-conforming wild child. Her hair is messy, her face is dirty, and she's often in "lower class" clothing while engaging in unladylike activities. None of this says anything about her physical beauty but it tells us everything about how she's perceived. Arya could be pretty...If she conforms to society's standards for a highborn Lady. With Lyanna, however, we get the opposite. Where Arya is judged based on her personality, Robert's romanticization of Lyanna is rooted solely in her looks. He doesn't know anything about the person she really was. There is an assumption that, because she looked a certain way, her personality must fit and Robert imagines her much softer and more passive than she actually was.

That Arya isn't pretty or Lyanna wasn't wild are two perceptions that George specifically pushes back against. This is where people miss the brilliance of them being linked as literary mirrors; it is largely about us learning more about Lyanna, but it touches on more than that. The significance of them being written as wild, willful, and with their own beauty is that George isn't writing his female characters around patriarchal expectations. When people debate their beauty, that's often the trapping they fall into. Beauty and non-conformity are treated as mutually exclusive factors when the story itself never makes that point; this is also the logic that leads people to the (incorrect) conclusion that Lyanna and Arya aren't meant to be similar. Arya's self-esteem issues around her looks and being a Lady make this a topic certain to be addressed in the future; George has made it a part of the story. The conclusion shouldn't be that "looks don't matter", but that looks aren't indicative of a character's value, personality, or morality.

[theflopwonder]

Me, naively: Omg haha what if I wrote a fic abt the party at the fortress of solitude in superman/batman 26 as an excuse to do some Tim & Kon character study?

Me, after reading 4 separate comic runs from 4 different editorial teams who were OBVIOUSLY not talking to each other AT ALL to try and figure out the timeline & other logistics of this party: WHO THE FUCK FUCKED UP THIS HOUSE LIKE THIS GOOD GOD??????????

[cheeto-flavoured-pasta]

framed

@nosebleedclub january prompt 3

Let me out. 

I’m not gonna fucking say it again after this, so listen and obey. Let. Me. Out.

I don’t know who you think you are, or what you think I am, but I can take a pretty good guess. You are a collector, closing everything in boxes, and I am part of your latest compilation. Nothing more than that, just your latest subject, oh goody! Fuck off. I see you, marveling over me and ooh-ing and screaming and recoiling, adoration and disgust all at once. You're not noticing the tiny details, not even now, when you're staring right at them. Right at me. Look at the cracks. The little breaks of the glass. In the wood. You're just that obsessed, aren't you?

God, I should be the one that's sickened.

But no. Instead I'm… angry, sure, but there's this deep pit in your eyes, like you're all-consumed by this obsession, and I can't help but wonder. Are you okay? What's going on?

I hate sympathy. Always have. Is that why you're so… haunted by me? Is that why you can't stop staring and muttering and pondering?

Is that why you can't let me out? You just left me in the dark again. At least leave the light on when you leave me be, goddamnit. You're stumbling out the door, in tears, thinking I can't hear a single word you're saying. "Why was it that way?" "Why did it have to happen like that?" "Why wasn't it different?" All the same variations on regret. 

… Good lord, I wish I could be mad.

The glass just cracked in several places and I'm — fuck, I'm slipping out. I mean, fuck yeah, I'm slipping out, little dark tendrils spilling down the jagged lines. But you won't see me coming. You won't like when I'm outside this door.

Like I said. I hate sympathy. Can't even enjoy freedom with it around.

The post you nailed me to is long gone, so there's nothing nailing my core in place. Every piece of me is all over the place, either inside the frame or outside.

And eventually, I'm out. All out, a vortex, a void, an abyss full of everything painful and nothing at once. 

Apparently you have excellent timing, because you decide that's the time to walk right back in — gaps between visits have been getting shorter — tears barely dry before they start running again.

You don't even stop me when I slither past. You just scream, endlessly, haunted and paralyzed.

....

I hate sympathy.

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Is CloverWorks entirely at fault for TPN S2's mangled production?

I see so many people default to blaming CloverWorks for being the sole arbiter of S2's horribly disappointing production (sometimes Shirai is added into the mix too, especially by anime-onlys), but every time I do I'm genuinely asking the question of whether that's true and where they're pulling their information from.

I'm not involved in the animation industry at all so I'm interested in receiving input from people who are more familiar with it, but my understanding is the people in charge of the decision to truncate S2 would be The Promised Neverland Committee listed at the end of the opening credits.

(I could not find a single video of the English dub that aired on [adult swim] for the English credits of S1, so a screencap from the Japanese credits)

TPN Committee is comprised of the following entities: Aniplex (Distributor), Fuji TV (TV Station), Shueisha (Manga Publisher), Cygames Anime Fund, Dentsu (ads)

(Sources 1 | 2 | 3)

kViN from Sakugabooru details what a production company is in this post:

"I personally find it enjoyable to see who is involved in a show, and as you’ve seen there is plenty of information to draw from that. Animation production studios are listed in the credits for each show, so it’s understandable why audiences would imagine they have a ton of influence over a production. It’s even natural to think that the company that is actually manufacturing something would have great input! If you start paying attention to these committees though, you get a clearer picture of the finances of production and how each show is actually made rather than assume that studios that often don’t have much of a say are in charge of everything."

And CloverWorks is the more prominent name, especially for English speakers watching the subbed version of the series.

This is also something that Geoff Thew brings up in the last seven minutes of this video around the 18:50 mark:

"I'd bet good money that the last credits were supposed to roll right after that big stone door slammed shut, and I'd further wager that a combination of fan reactions to and dipping ratings for early episodes is what caused the production committee—who are the ones who actually have final say in this, not Cloverworks or even Shirai—to cut their losses and turn that cliffhanger into a skeleton of a conclusion."

I disagree with him on them making the call to retool the series during the clipshow episode between S2e05 and S2e06 though. It doesn’t seem like they had enough time to do that when a single episode of animation takes on average nine months to complete, even with the ridiculous crunch they seemed to be in. My guess is it was made back in early 2020 after Shirai made everyone involved in production aware the manga was ending that year, with the pandemic potentially factoring in to a degree.

He also mentions this a bit earlier:

"It's just such a slap in face to anyone who ever gave a shit about any version of this story. Including the people telling it, apparently, since neither of the anime's screenwriters nor mangaka/series composer Shirai wanted to take credit for the last two episodes. They probably didn't have much say in how it all went down. That's important to keep in mind before you start yelling at animators or even studios on twitter. I guarantee that every adaption that hurts you personally was ten times harder on the people who actually had to make it. As hackishily slapdash as this finale is, a lot of people probably slept under their desks to get it out the door, if they slept at all."

I always come back to this tiny addition toward the end of S2 episode 2 as an indication that on the creative side of things, in storyboarding and animation at CloverWorks, the care was still there at some level.

It was just squashed down in order to cut and condense 146 chapters into 11 episodes for a production that, as ZersEditor puts here, was "bleeding money."

But CloverWorks is less to type out, so they get the majority of the ire over a tragically butchered production in casual conversation.

[snckt]

without a sub-sub-librarian, or even a catalogue, what is to be done?

@asouefanworkevent day four of woevember : the hotel denouement, alternatively titled,   misfiled, a collection of things not where they ought to be.

[astranauticus]

finally put together a sheet for (some of) my ocs..... skjfahksjhfk

anyway please send me asks about them (and penny's work partner i don't have a design for yet) and i will try my best to answer 👍

[edge-oftheworld]

when I was in high school there was a tendency whenever there was an attractive boy to simply fan over him. in a way that talked over everything he might say for himself and created a narrative that completely ignored, the fact in some cases, that he was really struggling—or if he was struggling, to pin all the blame on the girl he’s dating and completely ignore the thousands of other factors (no it can’t be mental illness or unaccommodated disability or systemic abuse or exploitation and if he is in an abusive relationship we won’t ever consider the factors that put him at risk for that)

and I’m not saying this fandom is like that. I get the need for privacy around some things and how in public conversations sometimes it’s a lot more respectful to stick to the positives (everyone who does that, I admire you) or even the struggles that are talked about publicly, show respect by not reading too far into them. there’s a time and place for that. but sometimes I feel like our only options are shitty and ableist gossip or totally ignoring the systemic and structural issues we know exist in something like the music industry until someone dies and then we’re looking for someone to blame. friends, there is a point where the respectful thing is to listen to what someone says and come together to make things better. and you can learn how to have that conversation respectfully. please do

[pismaco]

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[mapicccc]

hiii so about the fairytale au do you envision the worlds residents to have their own fairytales going on as well (like the once upon a time tv show) or does the fairytale center around zam and the travellers are comparatively ordinary (like regular fairytales) or does the world that they live in itself make it so that happenings such as zams situation are plausible but not a gurantee (like traditional epics)?

hmmm I'm not familiar with most of the examples given so I'm just gonna explain how I see it. the world is definitely fantasy based, one of zams favorite stories from mapicc is him taming a dragon to escape the people he stole from, but magic isn't common. idr if this was in the main post or not but there are others with unique abilities, main idea ive had is planet having intangibility. a major theme is how limited zams, and thus the viewers, perspective of the world is, so I don't think the ordinary would be seen much despite that being the majority of the population. I think generally it fits best in your first category, just the usual villagers of the town have the much normaller, traditional fairytales while adventurers or those with magic have the grander ones