#but we're just doing virtual stuff mostly

[notbroadwaybound]

I hate when I'm flatlining. like i am just so middle / unemoted / empty right now. I mean actually this is way better than being depressed although I'm worried that's where I'm heading

[toastsnaffler]

weekend melancholy is starting to kick in >~<

[kuromi-hoemie]

I've been hanging out with my manager so much lately !! i usually only talk to her virtually once a week, i am so energized.. i love her 😩

[samijey]

broke my promise to myself and actually watched the jey/gunther match and let me tell you... whoever booked that finish wanted jey to look like an idiot. mega rant under the cut which you should honestly read im not your mama but you should read it

he splashes gunther after getting dominated for 80% of the match and an (honestly underwhelming) spear and we're meant to believe the +2yr champion who's beaten virtually everyone on the roster (including drew who recently beat jey TWICE) was about to be defeated right there?......okay............ but it gets worse

when the referee (for no real good reason) stops the count at 2 after jimmy rings the bell, jey "forgets" about gunther and turns his back to him, allowing gunther to get back up almost IMMEDIATELY (remember we were meant to think he was about to be beaten 5 seconds earlier) yet jey quickly superkicks him BUT THEN decides to dive at jimmy on the outside instead of going directly for another splash (girl help) so ofc when he does go for the splash, gunther gets the knees up, and to add a cherry on top of this shit sunday, pins jey right there after performing no extra offense - doesn't even roll him up, jey just lies there flat on his back and gets pinned (while michael cole screams "GUNTHER ROLLS UP JEY USO" to make me even more mad, apparently, as zero actual rolling takes place in the ring - just a leg hook & weight on the shoulders combo... and not a particularly vicious one either) I just ??????

and of-fucking-course as the TV feed gets cut, cue cody and punk who come out all smiles ready to do the usual fanservice routine for the live crowd and suddenly jey is mostly done selling what just happened and is smiling along with whatever you wanna call it - sending the crowd home happy?? since when did that become mandatory for broadcast shows??? why can't emotionally devastating moments count just as much when it comes to delivering a satisfying ending to the live crowd??? are you telling me they couldnt have had jey walk to the back WHILE SELLING the heartbreak/frustration of what happened and THEN send cody out to do the fanservice thing??? fuck maintaining suspension of disbelief I guess - you can't even argue that "it's fine it was just a treat for the live crowd" because WWE has posted the footage everywhere and promoted it heavily.

imagine if after the camera stopped rolling at last year's rumble, sami had got up, undone kevin's handcuffs and they both hugged and cut a cheerful promo at the crowd - everyone would've blasted wwe for undermining the impact of that finish and not letting the moment breathe.

here's another, even more similar example - remember what happened after summerslam when jimmy attacked jey? he sold the devastation of the moment all the way until he exited the arena, so why is this any different? because it's "just" TV and not a PPV? nah, i'll tell you why: because wwe does not give a shit about this current version of jey's character - he's there to spew the same catchphrase 100x an hour (because it sells merch and pops the crowd let's be honest), display a grand total of two personality traits, and rub his popularity off onto the people wwe actually consider stars

for comparison - you cannot tell me that if it was cody in this position (just lost an important match thanks to the most important person in his life + got attacked by them on top of it) wwe wouldn't have had him look devastated or cut an emotional, tearful promo that would've then been posted and promoted everywhere

"chill, it's not that serious" my apologies for wanting something i love (and KNOW can be so much better with minimal effort) to have a basic level of logic and thought put into it, it's not like wrestling booking is rocket science and we know wwe is NOT incapable of actually delivering good stuff 🤷??? the standards for this show are so damn low and seeing no one else be bothered by it does my fucking head in ouch ouch wheres the aspirin bye

[conanssummerchild]

im bored as shit so im going to asign a community person/ship to every conan gray song bcs i really just use this site as a stream of my conciousness, if anyone has a better one for any of them feel free to tell me, also fair warning abed is my fav character, i'll try not to make everything abt him and troy but no promises

grow: the whole final episode really but im thinking mostly jeff tbh or also abed leaving for LA, or even maybe troy leaving on his voyage ☹️

idle town: the 'town' being greendale i feel like this applies to jeff also 😭 like its abt all of them but its jeffs pov

generation why: im thinking my girl britta hehe idk how to explain it but the vibes are so there

crush culture: im thinking annie, but also maybe jeff, aro king 👑

greek god: im thinking maybe abed in high school? i would say annie but she seemed to care more about fitting in while abed had accepted he couldnt, also hes like insightful and observant yk

lookalike: oh my god, brittas pov and its about jeff and slater oof

the other side: troy and abed, specifically in geothermal escapism 😭</3 im killing myself why would i do this

the king: okay fuck this is so trobed coded, abeds pov

comfort crowd: the whole study group tbh <33 in more specifics i was thinking jeff + the study group and honestly abed and annie

wish you were sober: i mean this one has to be either jeff and britta or britta and troy, though troy and britta could be taken either as britta wanting to go party and smoke weed or wtv and troy not rlly doing that stuff or britta feeling rejected bcs of troy giving all his attention to abed 😭 (like as in wish u were sober being wish u werent a raging homosexual)

maniac: probably i'd have to say jeffbritta from either pov

(online love): i... dont know tbh. the vibes are giving annie and troy for some reason, maybe once troys already left?

checkmate: the fond eyeroll i had to give, jeff and britta again. maybe annie being pissed at jeff over their kiss but i dont ship them romantically

the cut that always bleeds: idk, maybe jeff and annies weird ass relationship that keeps fucking happening is the closest, from annies pov

fight or flight: idk tbh, maybe trobed and britta if i had to go with smth, this one is mostly EXTREMELY byler coded (from stranger things) and im never fucking letting that go

affluenza: ok i mean ive gotta give this one to jeff dont i

(can we be friends?): troy abed and annie <3 im so soft for them

heather: ok fuck i HAVE to say trobed and britta and its abeds pov and if we're being specific them in virtual systems analysis becuase i'll never get over this episode ("ive run the simulations, i dont get married :/") bcs i fucking love abed being jealous of britta while she was with troy in the cool way but also in the sad if troy cant love me no one will way

little league: this is troy and abed when troy leaves :(((( and this is canon bcs my beloved wife and i are so troy and abed coded and she loves little league sooo

the story: ok so the boy and the girl are hmm annie and abed, the boy and the boy are troy and abed duh doy, him and his friend are maybe idk britta and troy, i dont wanna say jeff or abed bcs their dad/mum abandoned them and that bit's abt wanting to get away from ur parents yk

fake: (😭) maybe jeff (alan's pov 😔😔💔💔) nah but fr i see people joking abt his song but its lowkey fire

overdrive: WHY DO THEY ALL MAKE ME THINK OF JEFF AND BRITTA

telepath: jeff 😔 and 😔 britta ���

movies: ok i literally cant say anyone other than abed, the king of movies. im not really feeling troy tho, maybe rachel, like maybe when abed kept trying to super speed run their relationship and he was anxious abt not passing the relationship tests

people watching: the MOST annie coded song ever holy fuck she is so people watching coded i love her so much

disaster: abed. or britta. my abandonment/commitment issues babies <33

best friend: TROBED. THE ONLY BEST FRIENDS EVER

astronomy: would it be absolutely too painful if i said troy and abed. honestly i actually think im feeling more jeff and abed but not like at eachother just both of them together in their sadness, from their pov to someone else (britta and troy probably seeing as these r their main romantic interests)

yours: AHH THIS SONG DEAR GOD </3 can i say abed jesus fuck im killing myself this one for abed hurts so much, not really directed at anyone in specific, or more like just directed at everyone, just his abandonment issues :( ("i dont always see it coming" PUT ME DOWN)

jigsaw: oo britta, my queen she just wants to be loved so bad </3 but also a bit abed ("if being less insane would make you stay" oof)

family line: okay. jeff.he actually invented having daddy issues

summer child: ok its abed bcs i kin him idc, im conans summer child™ and i said so /lh

footnote: not quite sure, very annie coded imo. maybe trobed? either pov ig but im feeling troy

memories: hm, trobed after troy leaves? abed trying to get over him but he keeps imagining troys still there with him like as in one of the hallucinations he has bcs i read a fic like this yesterday and it was sooooo good, idk maybe this is a little far fetched

the exit: im not rlly sure actually, either jeffbritta after the whole i love you in front of anyone fiasco or trobed when troys dating britta 🤷‍♂️

never ending song: ok, jeffbritta.

winner: THE MOST SONG EVER. ok this one is abed. it will always be abed. family line i feel like is more about a hostile home enviroment and jeff implies that his was, while winner is more pain of neglect or disconnect so i feel like its more appliable to abed because of how hes shown to not be understood by his parents and feels responsible for his mother leaving and this makes me think of the line "you dont really wanna hear the truth, do you?" because like his mum loving him on paper but not actually loving who he is or be willing to accept hes different and has different needs FUCK abeds mother all my homies hate abeds mother (what im not projecting at all my parents definitely love me and accept that im autistic /s)

killing me: im not quite sure actually. conan did write this song about someone who gave him tonsilitis and abed cannonically had tonsilitis though so 🤯

lonely dancers: hmm i feel like this song is upbeat enough to be trobed being silly tgth but maybe its more jeffbritta coded, or jeff and abed abt britta and troy, or vice versa, not sure

sorry i never mentioned shirley i do love her

feel free to take any of these as platonic or romantic idrk, a lot of them i couldve meant either way anyway

if u even made it this far u can have a gold star ⭐️ there u go

[bugslaststraw]

Stupid thing I did because I'm incredibly petty about sexuality headcanons, complicated rambling thoughts on fanon vs canon under cut.

Noodle being mostly fanon'd as a lesbian before pulling the whole "no label" thing is fascinating because nobody refers to her as such. People just kept calling her a lesbian. Also 2-D having the highest chance to be het is the funniest thing ever to me I mean look at him. Didn't Murdoc default to "fag" as an insult for him in phase one? Not to mention he is as far as I know the only man on the plant ever to escape twink death. Looking at the four of them and being asked to point out "which one is gay" I think a lot of people would default to him. Which is funny as hell. Absolutely don't do that.

Anyway, I think somewhere we all kinda want to think 2-D is something other than just that. Either for vibes or like shipping potential or whatever. Murdoc keeps cornering him and saying strange things to him while drunk but I genuinely think it goes over his head (and over Murdoc's if we're being honest he would fuck a tree if it winked at him and he forgets who people are when he's drunk so it probably doesn't actually mean anything but) even if he isn't just regular ol' straight, 2-D is oblivious enough that he's probably gonna die in the closet a la "yeah but everyone feels like that."

Then again it wouldn't be unlike Damon Albarn to drop one on us. He's described himself as (I think) a "mental bisexual" where he would love to be bisexual, really, he just can't make himself find dudes hot. But he respects the grind? Since Murdoc is like his fucked up little self insert it kind of tracks why the band is fulla bisexuals. He's living out the fantasy through fiction. And I will admit it's very comforting to not have to headcanon every single thing, that it's just there and canon at least half the time. It feels safe.

Ps: No telling if Russel's situation is on account of actual intent or if he just gets so little screen time that he doesn't have time to talk about unimportant stuff like that. Which is sad. Because talking about "unimportant stuff" is half the fun with the virtual band act.

[findingmypeace]

I'm on PTO!!!! On Sunday I turned off the notifications for my work apps and fully shut down my work laptop. It feels really weird. I'm getting a lot of "around the house" stuff done. Things I've been putting off for months because I just haven't had time. I'm enjoying it. It's nice to feel like it's organized and put away and just the way I like it. I am going back to work on Thursday but I'm enjoying the time off while I can.

Except this morning my depression has been pretty bad. I'm not liking virtual iop very much. I mostly just sit on my bed and listen to others talk while all the horrible thoughts and things going on in my life swirl around in my head. Then I have to eat. And then we have a 10 minute break directly after eating where we can put our self on mute and turn off our cameras. And then it's another hour of listening to others while all the awful things continue to swirl around in my head. And then we're done.

I am participating but It feels like I'm holding back and not being fully authentic. Part of that feeling is related to it being a virtual program. There is a barrier to connecting. But I also feel like I shouldn't be sharing. I always say the wrong thing. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be focusing on. Ed behaviors only? Or the underlying reasons for the ed? Both? I'm so tired of talking about ed behaviors. I'm not getting anywhere. No one can force me to stop. It's on me.

What happened to my motivation from a few months ago? It feel like the minute I started feeling better it all disappeared. It's like my ed brain flipped a switch and now says "I'm out of danger so recovery doesn't matter anymore." But that's not how it works! I think part of what's leading to my depression today is that hopelessness I feel when it comes to the eating disorder. Nothing will change until I change and that is 100% in my control and I'm not doing it.

[drdemonprince]

How do we undo the adverse effects of social media on our brains/culture/capacity to organize? As someone who's been online since the age of ten and in the trenches of online "social justice activism" for a decade and change, I feel like there's been little net benefit to any of it, and that the mechanisms of these terrible sites has mostly just made us more hostile and reactive without bringing us closer to the ostensible goals we're duking it out over. Like, I'm not saying that nobody online deserves to be called out ever, but after ten years of this shit I'm just not sure how funneling a majority of our energy toward reaming bigoted strangers in the name of "accountability" translates into meaningful collective action, and that's without touching the circular firing squad phenomenon I see in a lot of leftist spaces.

I dunno. I just don't feel like getting in fights online all the time is activism, and I also feel like I'm in a minority among leftists for holding that opinion.

Well, most of the leftists online don't hold that opinion. But if you go to a DSA meeting or a Food Not Bombs or a local mutual aid group or any kind of on the ground queer lefty events you'll very much find many people who are doing the work and are mostly not online and don't think that online nonsense is all that important.

As for your first question, the way we fix this kind of mentality is by getting offline (and off platforms that incentivize that kind of thinking) and start relating to people in a slower, more personalized way.

The brain is not ruined forever by exposure to this shit, humans are just very very pliable. Who we are and how we think is dramatically shaped by our daily habits and the incentive structures around us. If we wish to change how we think and behave, we leave the structures that are rewarding us for behaving in counter productive ways. We can adapt to other modes of being quite quickly when our environment changes.

This does not have to happen exclusively in person, I understand people are disabled and COVID conscious and some can't leave the house. There are a lot of groups devoted to this stuff that meet partially or exclusively online -- look up a local chapter of some of these orgs and see what their virtual meetings are like. Even like Meetup and Eventbrite have a startling ton of online meetings and events listed for marginalized groups and organizers.

so much of this annoying focus-pulling shit that can distract you and enrage you online fully does not matter. the people engaging in it are categorically not the people doing the work in person. so go find the kind of in person work that is genuinely meaningful to you -- or find ways to connect in a slow, personalized fashion online, away from the social media apps. once you start digging you'll be shocked at how much there is!!!

[prettyflyshyguy]

little bit of a vent rant? a vant. A rent. Anyway.

Winter has been tough and I keep flip flopping between wanting to work on X Y or Z project and then when I have the time, I'm too tired, or manifesting the energy/motivation is hard. Sometimes you have to very literally make yourself do the thing, but its hard. Anyway grumbling about the creative process, time management, and related under the cut.

It's been a tough year and a very rough winter period. Like we had a couple good days of sunny weather and it was so nice and now its wet and miserable therefore I'm wet and miserable and this fucking sucks.

As soon as I'm done with this Horus Heresy army in a week I'm gonna try and work on Virtual Ground again. Dropped off a bit over the worst of winter but I'm hoping the shift into spring soon will help me feel better. Its like, I'm drawing or doing something else: I should be painting my space marines.

I'm painting my space marines: I should be working on Virtual Ground.

Don't get me wrong I'm so excited for the event I'm painting space marines for, it's gonna be awesome, I think its just the depressing oppressive winter this year specifically thats hit me really hard.

I'm juggling a few things to do with business and career stuff and I have a very strong feeling I'm about to receive an absolutely gutting rejection email tomorow. Mostly just because I didn't fit the criteria as good as the average candidate that applied for The Thing, and that I was told pretty candidly that there's very limited slots and there's a lot of competition. Just very tired of always being told "you did really well but..." I want to have hope but I know it's gonna absolutely fillet me if it falls through.

I'm a fighter. I just wish it wasn't so hard to get things up and running. I want to make my comic, I want to run my art business, I want to make a living. A decent living. I don't need to be rich off it I just want it to be profitable in a justifiable capacity thats self containing and also gives me enough dollary doos to buy some nice things here and there yknow. Like to live.

Anyway I've told myself I'm trying to ballance my negative feelings cause the last year (like as in from today, going back a year) I've been Real Up and Real Down so we're gonna end on something of a 'manifest healthier attitude' note - don't give up your dreams, be real with yourself, get a healthier sleeping pattern, eat well, exercise, you'll feel better, and learn to recognise when its the dog shit Melbourne winter weather that's making you feel like utter crap - and that it too, like all things, shall pass.

Pic unrelated but here's a cute chibi of Walking for anyone who dared to read the horrors of my twisted mind. Have a treat.

[givehimthemedicine]

why the mothergate opening and the demogorgon's entry could not have been virtually-simultaneous events

(putting this point out solo as background logic for some other gate stuff I'm working on)

so mostly this post is about when this very first scene actually occurs:

I think they want us to think it immediately follows the gate opening scene, but we have some clues that it does not.

Elevator Scientist

Elevator Scientist appears in both water tank flashback scenes.

here he is in the first tank flashback (seen throughout 1x05), the one where El is spying on the Russian and hears demogorgon noises. she screams and bangs on the tank wanting to be let out. we are not shown what goes on outside.

and here he is in the second tank flashback, the 1x06 one, the one where El actually finds the demogorgon, screams, and the mothergate opens.

based on those two guys having the same shirts and ties, these flashbacks would appear to be from the same day.

since we're shown the room full of scientists panicking and scurrying for the exits in this scene, it's easy to figure this is where the Elevator Scientist scene picks up. but let's look closer at:

Elevator Scientist's costume design

do you see my problem with the idea that these scenes happen in fairly rapid succession?

gate:

fleeing:

in his panic, he took the time to unclip his ID - not his keycard, but his ID, which plays no role in his ability to navigate the building - from his outer coat pocket and clip it instead to his shirt pocket? that doesn't make sense. I also am not sure I see the same pens in his pocket.

frustratingly, they don't let us see any more of him in flashback #1, so I can't know whether it matches then. (it doesn't make sense for it to have happened then, but still, I'd like to have seen it.)

the only reason I can think of for moving your ID is if you took your coat off and had to move your ID to your shirt.

time must've elapsed between these scenes, during which ES felt calm enough to still care where his ID was clipped when he removed his coat. he was not in a continuous state of panic from the cracking of the wall to his fleeing.

the different vibe in the tank room

when ES first bursts through the doorway, they let you see just a glimpse of the tank room behind him. it lacks the erratically flashing cold-blue lighting and crowded pandemonium of the gate opening scene, as well as...

the alarm

clips in video form below so you can hear what I mean.

the alarm sounds immediately when El screams and the wall starts cracking. (it's not super prominent in this scene's mixing but you can hear it.)

however, Elevator Scientist scene begins with a long shot of the HNL hallway in silence. only when he bursts out of the tank room door does the alarm begin.

unless that door was 100% soundproof and the alarm was sounding solely inside the tank room. which. I don't know what the point of that would be. the alarm persists all down the hallway to the elevator so I don't feel like that's the case. and according to the massacre, that alarm sounds all over the building.

my point here is that the alarm has not been going off continuously ever since the wall cracked. these are two separate soundings of the alarm, another indication that we are missing some time in between these events.

Brenner and Scientist #1's wardrobe

this guy, named Scientist #1 in the script (ha), is the other guy at Brenner's side during El's tank experiments.

the script says of Brenner: "loose tie, stubble, clearly hasn't slept in some time."

I can't say Brenner actually looks disheveled in the final product. and I also notice Scientist #1, who you'd think would be having a similarly hectic morning, is wearing a different shirt and tie than when the gate opened. Brenner is Steve Jobsing with his black ties in s1 so I can't tell if he changed.

what's that have to do with my proposed missing scene? I guess nothing. perhaps this script detail was truly discarded. perhaps the man simply took a shower the next morning. I'm just looking at this squinty in case this has timeline implications I'll revisit later.

Scientist #1's omitted lines

as they walked into the tank room, Scientist #1 originally had more lines that confirm we're missing a scene:

surely, in all his specificity about where each person was standing, Scientist #1 wouldn't fail to mention that Elevator Scientist was also right next to them. he doesn't, because he's not describing the gate opening scene.

their next dialogue is in regards to whether "it" came from the gate (which we assume to mean the demogorgon, because that's all we had going on in season 1 but hey, who knows). Scientist #1 is clearly referring to an unseen event that happened after the gate opened but before the Elevator Scientist fled.

the moment "it" entered.

this also indicates Brenner was there to see it.

what happened to the other scientists?

we know they didn't all die.

Brenner and #1 obviously survived in their observation chamber (I'm rolling in that sentence like a dog in poop)

@aemiron-main here's some name bullshit for you: I was gonna say that we know Elevator Scientist must be one of the doctors other than Shepherd, because that's the guy who goes into the gate later on:

but actually that guy's name is spelled "Shepard". to be exact he's "Test Pilot Shepard", according to the transcript (I can't find a legit 1x04 script, can anyone hook me up?)

why must we have a Shepherd and a Shepard in the mix. PLEASE can we have normal things. just for a minute. pleeease.

anyway Brenner tells Joyce at the end of 1 that "six people have been taken this week" and Will, Barb, Elevator Scientist, those two hunters, and Shepard make six. so I don't have any solid reason to think any other scientists died in addition to ES. I'm gonna say they fled through other exits and call it a day.

what happened to El?

obviously this didn't make it into the show but:

a shot of the water tank "filled with water but no one's in there" PLEASE BE FOR REAL. Duffers why would you exclude this.

so together with them wanting us to think Elevator Scientist is running from something immediately after the gate opens, the aim of that empty water tank shot would've been for us to wrongly assume El mysteriously vanished from her tank when the gate opened.

whereas really I think El was simply let out during the time they didn't want us to realize was missing.

my reconstruction:

experiment 1. El panics and is let out of the tank, and taken probably either to her room or the infirmary depending how shaken she is.

knowing they're onto something, Brenner summons a bunch more observers and convinces El to go back in the tank later the same day.

experiment 2. the wall cracks, the alarm sounds, everybody freaks, spectators flee. El is let out of the tank again. Brenner either personally escorts El to safety or orders her escorted by orderlies, depending whether El or monitoring the gate is his top priority. (probably the latter)

initial panic dies down, the alarm is cancelled. a core team of scientists remain in the tank room to keep an eye on that crack in the wall - Shepherd, Braun, Wilkins, and Manning in the outer tank room, and Brenner and Scientist #1 in the observation chamber.

they observe the crack - which may or may not already be spreading - for some time on the order of many minutes to some hours. at least enough time for Elevator Scientist to feel warm from the excitement, remove his coat and reclip his ID, then wait around long enough and calmly enough to get cold again, and put his coat back on.

eventually, Brenner and the others witness the demogorgon(?) enter through the gate. somebody sounds the alarm again. they scatter. Elevator Scientist flees and gets yoinked.

this chaos may equal a lack of supervision on El elsewhere in the building, and this could be when she makes her escape.

anyone see any glaring issues, before I build more theory on top of this?

and this is the SIMPLE (single El / single timeline) version mind you

[luigiblood]

Game Ownership

In sort of a response to the Ubisoft director of subscriptions where he said that we need to get more confortable not owning games...

Well, reading that interview from GamesIndustry.biz, turns out he never really said that. It's more of an observation of the gaming subscription services, and comparing different views. It's actually a pretty interesting read.

But the negative response to the more clickbait part where the gamers went very much against this from the get go was something that particularly striked me as how I really just didn't feel like I was part of those who responded like this.

I do not care about owning games that much. I may be a owner of retro consoles, games, and about 50 Switch physical games, but the reasons ranges from passion to just practical and economical.

Taking the example of the Switch, what currently makes me attached to physical games are more of how it's usually cheaper in my country (like, first party games day one tend to be 25% off brand new), and the practicality when you live in a household with 2 Switch systems, it's just easier to share the games that way with your family. If I could just buy digitally with the same advantages, I'd just do that.

This view on game ownership has mostly to do with my past of a guy who pirated games and movies like crazy before we got a little more comfortable paying for stuff. But this past also comes with a deeper importance on the presence of data locally. Cloud gaming is something I hate on passionately if the industry keeps going on that as a means to play games exclusively. It would be the kind of thing that would make my heart broken about modern gaming as a whole, but thankfully we're not even close to there, and I suspect we'll never be.

But I could also not need to pay for the games, I don't really see a lack of ownership as a problem on its own. The only thing that matters is if it's practical or not, and that's the part that feels like it tends to be skipped when explained. That's how it went about movies and music.

That practicality is critical, and that is the part that's the most in danger. The big reason why is how companies can decide on a whim what is accessible to suit their needs. That WILL be completely in the process of enshittification due to how companies have to keep growing until it makes no more sense. You don't even need to look very far to understand this, video streaming services are already very good at doing absolutely this, but I also dare say the Game Pass and PlayStation Plus are on a similar boat to a different extent, though.

One of the recent examples of how bad shit is HBO Max's removal of a huge amount of content just for a massive tax write down. There is financial incentive to fuck us all, and I consider the future to do absolutely that in the long term for gaming.

That kind of thing SUCKS. That is what we're actually scared of as a consumer. I hate seeing art being considered as a throwaway product.

I even saw a french article that was so complacent with this and kept saying complete bullshit things like "oh if they remove that game from the service, just take it as an opportunity to play another one" just, fuck off. That's not how I see this kind of service.

I love Nintendo Switch Online, despite a lot of its flaws, and hate on Virtual Console's overall legacy personally. I'm all for ways to allow discoverability and pick the curiosity of people. That's the kind of shit that I love in having some ease of access to catalogs, despite not owning them.

Wasn't it the dream to just access to everything with less money though? Don't tell me otherwise because I wouldn't believe you. I do think there's something nice in this kind of service, but we also need to figure how to keep companies from the inevitable enshittification that will ensue on the constant need for growth beyond any reasonable sense.

[cnovelartreblogs]

with tumblr dying, do you know of any open discord communities for danmei and cnovels?

Hey hey!

The only public fandom server I'm part of for Chinese media (...virtually the only public fandom server I'm in at all, and my personal main hang-out spot on Discord...) is @merinnan et al's Daomu Biji server.

It's the nicest, chillest, most welcoming public fandom server I've ever been in - not that we haven't had our moments of drama, but they've been rare, and I've always felt comfortable there - and I've made a lot of friends too. That said, if you're not into DMBJ and/or as obsessed with Zhu Yilong as I am, I can't imagine it'd be a great fit.

Also, so - I'm @unforth, and my day job is that I own and operate an indie micropress, Duck Prints Press, that publishes original work by fanartists and fanauthors. As part of that, I and the staff involved with that run a "Book Lover's" Discord server. While it's sort of a combo "about the Press" and "about all queer books" and "about whatever we feel like talking about" server, we do end up talking about danmei a fair amount because multiple of the people involved in the Press, including obviously me, are into that kind of thing. Like we do a weekly chat on Wednesday about what we're reading and yesterday's was like, "here's one mlm YA book! here's a thriller in Dutch! here's the Yuri manga I just read! And here are the eighteen bajillion things we're all currently reading on Bilibili oh and I started Poyun." You're certainly welcome to join us. What we talk about there really boils down to what the people who are there want to talk about, ya know?

About a million years ago, I started building a cnovelartreblogs Discord server myself, but I've been so frackin busy the last couple years that I've never managed to finish setting it up the way I'd like. That said, it's got penciled in rules and channels for some of the more popular cnovel fandoms (mostly danmei, tho there is a Please Don't Laugh section). If I could get help moderating it, I could open it.

I just really don't have the ability to do it myself anymore, my days right now are like:

wake up

scroll tumblr and do upkeep on the art side blogs (while sitting with my kids and helping them get ready for the day) (1.5 hrs or so)

study Chinese (while sitting with my kids and helping them get ready for the day (.5 hrs, tho I wish it was more, if I can manage more than 30 minutes then I can actually try reading a real damn book but I only have the time maybe once or twice a month)

work (7 to 8 hours on weekdays, often more on the weekends, bonus if my kids are around and my wife is at work, such as tomorrow)

try to be a good mom (all the hours)

errands, chores, kid after school activities, etc. (1 to 3 hours a day)

read while snuggling kids on the couch and trying to ignore the tv (an hour if I'm lucky)

sleep (8ish hours, I hope)

there's just no wiggle room left for me to do any extra fandom stuff right now, sigh.

(sorry to whine about that part. it's not relevant. I just got my covid booster yesterday and I feel terrible today so I'm feeling sorry for myself. it's truly not a bad life overall I'm just perpetually exhausted)

[strawberrycola]

hello. i made a very long, very indulgent addition to the sam and max subreddit post earlier, and decided to make it its own post because i had way too many thoughts for a reblog. and the idea of clogging notes was eating away at my brain like mice eat a cheese. this is mostly just train of thought, so i apologise if it's complete nonsense. i've just thought a lot about sam and max's relationship, and the connection lgbt (and neurodivergent, for that matter) fans have had to the series, from my perspective since i was like 8. obviously that's gonna be tinted thru a tumblr lens, because ftmp that's where i see The Good Stuff. and i'm gay as hell, so there's bias. ok read more time kiss kiss.

anyhoozles, coincidentally i've been back on my sam and max bullshit recently, as i finally got a chance to play "this time it's virtual". and discovered vr is not my thing.

so to start, listen...i don't think sam and max's relationship is quite as cut and dry as i believe myself and perhaps many others would imagine/hope. i'm eyeing the "susan" gag from the aformentioned ttiv, in particular. but as your resident specialist in "complex and obscure knowledge of three series total or so", the question of sam and max's relationship has been here since the very beginning of the official comics. like. this has been a thing. pretending it's new is foolhardy. and wrong. obviously there's "like butch and sundance", the wedding toppers, hell, the devs of the telltale game trilogy lampshade their relationship a very decent amount, both in the game itself and in the commentary. at the end of 209, "chariot of the dogs", they directly bring it up during the final cutscene tie straightening maneuver max does. one of the devs literally gets excited about it, iirc. and one of my personal favourite examples is "do you find my warmth...alarming, sam?" from 305, "the city that dares not sleep."

that, in particular, is one of several lines directly from MR. PURCELL HIMSELF, that he gave to the devs each game as lines that must be in the game.

and speaking of season 3, i'd like to mention 305, "they stole max's brain".

(i am now holding "noir sam" so close to my chest, jsyk. that trope means the world to me. it has influenced SO much of my work, and i still use napalm's playthrough on youtube as a sleep aid. REMASTER WHEN.)

of course i and many others latched onto that shit, are you kidding me???? that whole episode was RIPE for hurt/comfort. minor spoiler warning for those that would mind, it's a roaring rampage of revenge plot. at least for the first 30 minutes or so. it's part of a long history between the two of freaking the hell out the second they're separated from each other in a way that doesn't end in like, five minutes. (305. if you know, you know. fkin brutal, man.) sam, in the second act of the game, has been affected by an alternate reality plot, and fully believes he has carried max's brain in a jar his whole LIFE and seemingly has no plans to stop doing so!! it's part of a season where the WHOLE PLOT revolves around the nature of their relationship and how it could change. you don't have to be a shipper yourself to understand how that could be incredibly compelling to the people that fancy them as a couple.

and it's a fandom that i give a lot of credit to lgbt people for revitalising in the mid 2010s~ (i was already a fan by then, and i'm still really curious as to why it blew up so much, but hey, who's complaining?), as well as in 2021~ in response to skunkape's remaster of telltale's season one "save the world" installment, and the release of ttiv. (obviously the actual demographic spread across platform to platform is a varied thing, etc. etc. i'd like to stay firmly in my lane, and i don't wanna overstate any particular demos in my discussion here, or hyperbolise too much.)

Obviously, you don't have. to be a shipper. completely fine. pretty common. Who Give A Care. and we're not even gonna get into the "not suitable" content. i can't fault anyone for not being cool with the actual sexualisation of childhood stuff they like. that's something i'm pretty "ambivalent with a leaning towards discomfort" about for quite a few things myself. and it turns out there wasn't even any "unmentionable graphic imagery" to begin with. shocking. HOWEVER. i'm fascinated but not completely surprised by the blatant homophobia and disgust towards the fanart of the ship.

like, to be nuanced about things, and it's not like the admin is extending the same courtesy here, this is clearly an older fan. like i think from around the same timeframe i was first introduced to it, give or take. maybe they missed a lot of the tumblr mid-2010s activity, or maybe that's going in to their Burning Disgust towards Yaoi Sam and Max Kissing Not Clickbait. i know the fanart had some level of cross-posting, at least on youtube as dubs iirc. OR maybe i'm a fool who is actively tricking you with my words and none of the above is true at all. however...pal. again, in my opinion, we owe those lgbt and neurodivergent kids and adults our whole rights as a fan community. you don't have to like it, but you do have to be respectful, jerkbag.

i can't be the only one who was devastated by the drought of content post "the devil's playhouse". we had a [1] singular whole webcomic to tide us over, with the occasional sketch on purcell's social medias. of course, there was a small community of fans, and some incredible stuff they made, looking at you Sam Dies At The End. i weeped. but it was slow and steady. and then, out of seemingly nowhere, people en masse suddenly REALLY CARED ABOUT THE THING THAT BROUGHT ME SO MUCH JOY AS A LITTLE GUY. like, fuck man...i first found out what autism was when i was real young because max's character description on wikipedia contained speculation as to whether or not he has it. (jury's still out, ...but we all have our little comforts. okay? also speaking of, "is max gay?" is like. one of the longest ongoing bits. like cmon dude.) now granted, by 2021 i was a little old for the new wave of shipping that sprouted up. tiktok edits are Not Always My Thing. but that's okay!!!! it doesn't need to be my thing. i'm really glad they're having fun. :] and i don't want to come across as like. infantilising in my discussion of the younger fanbase, so i apologise if my tone has come across that way. it really is simply the comforting thought that kids like me can experience what i had.

i remember how much fun my friends and i used to have when we were 16! (hi xavier, if ur reading this. miss you, buddy. :]) we got silly with it! we got angsty about season 3!! we wrote fanfiction, hell, an amazing fic my friend wrote that i beta'd is still the most kudos'd shipping fic on ao3!! the fanartists i liked had such an INCREDIBLE grasp on how to write sam and max's banter. it was a good time! and knowing these characters are giving joy to a new generation makes me giddy, dude. hell yeah! get "feral" or whatever the hell it is these days. find comfort in characters that don't really care about anyone's opinion except each other's, who get to be as weird and annoying and gross as they want all the time. that tend to punch up. that show love differently than what's seen as conventional. that end up saving the day, not even because they have to, so much as they genuinely enjoy each adventure together. max was my personal opportunity to feel comfort in all my weird freaky mannerisms i kept safe behind the polished exterior i had to wear as a kid. i found solace in the thought that those two were practically made for each other, as i stumbled through my own gender and sexuality crises. i loved how dry and dark sam was allowed to be. the banjo bits, the phone jokes, the repartee. so much of this series has influenced me, and helped me become who i am, as a creator and as a functional guy who Does Things.

so that's a small bit of why i think sam and max had, and still has, a lot of appeal to people that grew up like me. there's a lot of rough stuff i went through that made the idea of a couple of anarchist detectives completely devoted to one another that go around the seedy underbelly of america saving the day ("almost on purpose!") really, really interesting. steve purcell is unapologetic about how gross america can be, especially in the comics. at the heart of it, sam and max do what they do both because they enjoy it, and they enjoy each other. and i think, to overlook that, is to miss some of the whole point of the franchise. oh, i'm sorry, giant cockroaches literally everywhere is fine, streets crusted in various goos, totally chill, but gay kissing is the thing that Absolutely Nauseates you? plugging your ears and screaming gross seems like...kind of a weak move here, ngl. a work that doesn't shy away from how confusing and wild life can be has a decent chance to be compelling to marginalised groups, who often have to put up with the more disgusting aspects of reality anyways. at least these two odd guys are having fun with it. sam and max understand each other, each of their strengths and flaws, and choose to be with each other every day because of and in spite of them. they choose to love where they are, because of and in spite of its many, many, many flaws. they choose to be who they are because they love what they do. there's something touching there, if you like to think about such things. there are some occasions i find myself wishing sam and max's relationship was more...concrete. i wish we had an answer to Does Sam And Max Is Gay? but at the same time, being vague and obtuse is like. their whole shtick. so maybe it's just right how it is. and uh. obviously this is a fictional series. in the end, it's all how we enjoy it that matters, and it's not the end of the world. and as a final cherry on top, nothing beats turning to my husband and asking, "is sam and max queerbait", before delighting in the 3 hr conversation that follows.

and to get to the point. as the old adage unfortunately goes, it's...okay. to not like...ships. and i can even somewhat understand being frustrated by a subreddit you created being "flooded" by a thing you're not into. only somewhat, because a: we've always been here, and b: because you can. just not look at it? idk if reddit has a filtering system, but. the scroll wheel is free. to throw a tantrum and ban topics because you're personally offended people think they're gay? you might be missing out on some of the most fun you can have outside the series, and you're spitting in the face of the people who held this fandom up on their shoulders like atlas.

and you're being a dick about it.

TO CONCLUDE:

wah wah they're gay gay homosexual gay and they don't pay taxes. deal or die, fake fan.

[novelmonger]

2-4, 13, 16, and 24 for any fandoms, please?

2. a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

I used to get kind of annoyed when FMA fans would talk about Roy Mustang being Xingese. Like, what, just because Arakawa-san drew his eyes a little pointier than other characters', that means he's from Xing? Some people just have smaller eyes, you know! Yoki looks more Xingese than Mustang, if you ask me, yet nobody talks about him being from Xing!

But I've read some really interesting fics that explore what it would mean if he was Xingese, or half-Xingese. The implications of one or both of his parents being Xingese immigrants, legal or otherwise, can be really fun to poke at.

3. a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

You know, if I'm being really honest, I never particularly cared about Merry from LotR that much. He just didn't interest me, compared to all the other characters. But I have to say that hanging around the Fig Tree Discord server has given me new appreciation for him, because of how much they talk about him in such glowing terms XD He's still probably my least-favorite of the four main Hobbits, but I have to acknowledge that he is one practical dude who can Get Stuff Done, and there's so much courage and angst and hurt/comfort in his scenes in the Battle of Pelennor Fields and the aftermath.

4. say something nice about a ship you don't ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual's OTP, etc)

Mmkay, so I don't ship Bucky and Natasha (mostly because I don't ship Bucky with anyone post-Winter Soldier), but I will say I can understand the appeal. Two ex-assassins who were turned into living weapons, basically, had their bodies modified against their will, carry a huge weight of guilt for the things they've done.... I feel like, if Bucky were to have a successful romantic relationship with anyone, it would pretty much have to be Natasha. She's the only one who could relate to him on that deep of a level, and she would understand his need to go slowly, know how to help him with PTSD, etc.

13. your favorite type of fandom event (gift exchange, ship week, secret santa, prompt meme, etc)

I think I'd have to say prompt challenges, considering I've done three 100 Themes fics, have an ongoing one-sentence prompt challenge fic, and am currently doing my Let Me Count the Ways dialogue prompt challenge. A really good challenge will have words or phrases that immediately suggest a story, but aren't so specific that you have no wiggle room to fit it to various characters.

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

This keyboard thing from Andor episode 7 is made from a steno machine! The little typewriter-ish device court reporters use when transcribing court proceedings! I would recognize it anywhere, and I just want everyone to appreciate the origin of this cool-looking prop.

24. how has fandom positively impacted your life?

The most important thing fandom has given me is virtually all the friends I have today. I've met some of the most wonderful people in the world through fandom, people I probably would never have met because of where they live (@dairogo I'm looking at you), because we wouldn't have much in common without fandom (hi @rainintheevening), or simply because we're enough apart in age and space that our paths would probably not have crossed otherwise (<3 @sergeanttomycaptain). I love being able to connect with so many different people through fandom, like most (if not all) of my mutuals here. Even though we have different perspectives on some things, we can all come together when it comes to love of a great story.

Love Your Fandom asks

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here my friend after a very, very long week. This is actually my 3rd attempt at sending you an ask. First, I finally had time and was excited to type up something for the latest episode and then the Buck LI stuff came out and the mood for that was killed. Next I had mostly typed up my salty thoughts only to have my internet go down (yes, I whined at home "what i was going to read??!!" and pointedly ignored my very much filled bookcase because my ships aren't in them). So here let's see if this one works out.

So how is it KR and the promo dept always manage to kill any joy we have when we get fed any kind of Buddie content (the follow-up to the Eddie getting shot, and the 5b and premier come to mind here)?? Seriously Buck and Eddie more or less went on a date and had family night together and almost immediately they came back with "look Buck and Eddie are going to go on dates!!". Its exhausting cause it seems like any time they put out a story that might even be slightly suggestive of them being more than platonic bros they insist on following it up with stories to "prove" they are, no matter how recycled those plots are.

And okay let's take a second here to ask WTF is KR doing with these characters? In 6b alone we've had Buck dying, a coma dream, PTSD, super powers, and now he's getting a crush, and we STILL haven't finished the accursed sperm donor storyline??!! Bobby and Athena investigated had the death of a beloved friend 🙄 plot, HenRen had the nonsensical Denny secretly seeing his Dad which was never an issue before plot, and Madney and Eddie are just kinda there?? The other characters have had at best one storyline where the audience has to either invent or rewrite the backstory for. But for Buck he's had like 50 plotlines, none of which have really gone anywhere? I love Buck but I'd rather have him have 1 good arc and resolution than whatever this bullshit is. I'd easily take that screentime and give it to any of the other characters if it meant we got 1 well thought out and executed storyline. Instead we're just recycling and redressing old plots for everyone else while KR uses a magnetic poetry set to plan what Buck's doing from episode to episode. We have 5 episodes left in the season, 4-5 guest characters that are going to be incorporated (including 2 much beloathed ones 🙄🙄🙄), and nothing really setup for our mains to do (even Eddie dating isn't setup, it literally hasn't come up after Ana and you'd think they could have in 6a while he was watching his son mature).

Anyway, I'll stop the rant here though there's definitely more I could say. I'll close off saying I hope you're feeling better today since this week looks like its been rough on you. Sending you virtual tea, soup, and hugs!!

Long week is RIGHT my friend! I'm so sorry you were foiled in your previous attempts! I am right there with you on the Buck LI stuff just...sucking a lot of the joy out of things for me. Because of course we're doing this again 🙄🙄🙄 I was even writing up notes on a possible fic and you KNOW I haven't written anything since Malex and even that was before s4 started. But alas. That sucks about the power going out! I hate when that happens especially if I was in the middle of something! (Also I am SO with you. I keep buying books and then just...not reading them because my brain says "it's not our blorbos so no.)

I am just...so tired at this point. Like yes these people *may* not stick around, but even so, I don't want to loose out on Buddie scenes and Buckley-Diaz family scenes! I don't want Buck to have 90% of his time and discussions with some new character I do not know or care about instead of Eddie and the firefam! They already tried to do that with BT and it was the woooooorst! I want Eddie to have screentime and arcs but again, I don't want the little time we DO get to be wasted on some random side character! And lets be honest, there is no person they can introduce at this point that can compare with the relationship Buck and Eddie have already built and the ways in which they are the perfect partners for what each other needs. So the options are to a) cut down on seeing that relationship so their new het ones don't look so shitty and lame in comparison, b) have these women be mostly just Blurry Girlfriends in the background with no personality or depth just to have the boys paired off so they don't have to do Buddie while still centering their relationship so people can't call them out for not committing to Buddie because their "friendship" looks basically the same, or c) give them LIs that are basically the other's personalities transplanted into a female body in order to have the relationship be anything close to what Buck and Eddie need in a life partner. These are all terrible options, and I hate them, more than I hate the idea of them ending up single even though it undercuts their own narrative set up for the characters but that's a cop-out too.

ANYWAY

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 to everything about Buck's 700 shitty arcs this season while everyone else is mostly twiddling their thumbs. KR is literally the worst at pacing and planning, and constructing a season with any kind of flow. On the bright side, Ravi is coming back and Chim is going to get to do something! I'm so excited! I was really hoping for more of him and Bobby teaming up last week because the little crumbs we got were GOLD.

I did have a very emotionally rollercoaster-y week and the show being Like This absolutely Did Not Help, but I am making it work. Mostly with loooots of fic. Cheers friend, lets see if we can make it through the finale intact, if Buddie dreams can make it through the finale intact, and if the SHOW can make it through the finale intact with how these renewal negotiations are going.

[scary-senpai]

speaking of giant meteors...

(not fandom-related by fandom adjacent, involves some writing stuff):

I'm in the writing program at Second City, and we're putting together our grad show (which is virtual! so in theory anybody can make it). The teacher selected the final sketches from all the work we've done over several terms. He selected two of my scenes:

one of my scenes was about a failed grocery shopping trip (which had unintentional but obvious OPM vibes), and that actually got used in our audition packet which was really cool

the second scene he selected was about a questionable medium and their "mystic fishbowl" that allegedly provided visions of the past and future. It has some Mob Psycho elements going, but it was mostly inspired by a Past Life Regressions workshop I attended with my mom. It was supposed to be about (white) people doing spiritualism badly, but the teacher really liked the idea of someone coming to a psychic for comfort and learning that all he's ever done was die in infancy, which was part of the original joke--assuming we did have accurate past life readings, most of them would be boring, and probably short. Anyway, I wrote the scene and I have mixed feelings about it, and also I needed a new ending (in the original version, the medium learns she can't actually communicate with ghosts, she just has co2 poisoning and the only message from beyond is 'check your fucking carbon monoxide detector!', but I think it would also be neat to do a reverse Scooby Doo, like 'you're right! I'm not a white, upper-class capitalist! I'm actually a ghost--and I would have gotten away with it, too, if not for you meddling kids!') anyway it doesn't matter because I have a new running joke, and the joke is "this character keeps dying" and if that's the joke, well, there's really only one way to end the scene. Oh, and also, this 'fishbowl of misery' psychic reading is all being done over Zoom--