#doesn’t know the trend/context of song

[athena-xox]

Okay maybe no one is going to understand what I’m talking about but Taylor Swifts song “thanK you aIMee” is trending on tt and the trend is seriously confusing me

Because I’m a swiftie so i know the meaning of the song (for those who don’t know during the song Taylor is hating on ‘Aimee’ who is obviously Kim K because of the capital letters) so people started making videos with captions similar to thanK you aIMee where they spell out a name of someone who they dislike/want dead/associate with the song.

But then in the comments it’s a whole bunch of ppl looking at “Definitely, thAnKs sO much TAte” and saying “Ako??” when the capitalized letters spell Dakota, or “mOstLy I like VivIAn” and ppl saying “Ola??” when it’s easy to tell its supposed to be Olivia.

Like is that a part of the trend too? Guessing something blatantly wrong? Because maybe one or two ppl have dyslexia or something but the amount of ppl I see “guessing” incorrectly is incredibly high. Do ppl genuinely lack reading comprehension? Also it’s swifties, and most swifties act high and mighty for listening to ivy or my tears ricochet so why can’t they literally read it correctly?

Also I’ve seen people go: I love this trend!! “BLAKE” “SARAH” “PETER” like that’s not the trend ?? That has nothing to do with the ts song you’re just saying the name of someone you hate??

[brucewaynehater101]

Sorry love space world building so wanted to add onto the fashion world building

So fun ideas for Tim Ruler of Worlds AU

To start, I think that the discowing inspired fashion becomes synonymous with formal ware. Because it was for a bet, they probably only plan on wearing the outfit one time for one major public event, so the planetary citizens think that “oh this must be a special outfit” AND this leads to them adopting discowing inspired trends into their own local customs for formal wear (bright colors, feathers, fringe, sequins, rhinestones, glitter, etc) (like how people copy royal fashion trends)

After seeing the popularity of the first discowing fashion trend (and subsequent subject happiness boost) Tim makes this the standard bet for YJ. Like whenever you wanna have a bet it’s not like “do this for $20” it’s “do this for public appearance in discowing” (“discowing” first becomes a name for an entire subset of fashion) They use it so frequently that there are so many different varieties and styles for Tim’s subjects to adopt (I also think that Tim’s subjects adopt everyday style fashion from YJ casual and costume outfits but that’s not the focus right now even if it’s also really fun)

Dick’s just feeling like such a good big brother/mentor figure cause his little brother and all his friends keep coming to him to play “design the costume” He knows they’re never going to wear whatever he designs (he never sees it on Earth so how would he know) But he’s glad they’re having fun hanging out with him nonetheless

(His heart explodes when he eventually finds out about the planets with “discowing” fashion. Explodes!)

Additionally, I think that because they end up making a lot of their public appearances in “discowing” fashion, the YJ and Tim start calling his empire “the discowing worlds,” aka, world where they’ve worn “discowing”

But after they end up referring to the discowing worlds while on a planet ruled by Tim,

“The Discowing Worlds” becomes the unofficial official name of Tim’s empire

All the different planets have their own local language variations of the name cause the cultural context of disco and wing are kinda hard to translate into something similar to “discowing” but they try (So like “the worlds of color and flight” or “flying music” or “song wing empire” or “space of radiant feathers” etc)

(This becomes the second use of the phrase “discowing” fashion aka how other galactic peoples refer to fashion trends from the discowing worlds)

I also think that the term “discowing” is only really used by Batfam and friends so it’s really unlikely that any of the human GLs have heard of the nickname for the costume. When they hear the name of the empire they can obviously tell that it’s human in origin and what each component means, but that doesn’t mean they could figure out that it’s referring to nightwing or use it to actually figure out Tim’s identity as mystery overlord (Maybe if they told JL, someone could figure it out but I just don’t think anyone who could figure out the connection would bother to tell the GLs what’s going on or even seriously consider that it’s an actual connection and not a funny coincidence)

So yeah Tim and YJ mess around and make Dick’s brand of fashion a flamboyant well-respected sub-genre of galactic style and accidentally name an empire after the poor design skills of the first Robin in the process

My gods. This would be hilarious to witness (Tim's entire empire being named variations of discowing. Some of the variations seemed rad, but the OG name is silly).

I wanted to add on, though, that YJ encounters a disco hell at some point. I wonder if that plot line could fit anywhere into this as well?

I'd also love to see drawings of their various "royal" outfits.

[dootznbootz]

As someone who is also really uncomfortable with the Zeus/Odysseus art trend, I completely understand where your coming from!

People’s treatment of Odysseus’s assaults in general makes me really upset. Just the other day I saw a comment on a post saying that “Odysseus wasn’t loyal to his wife yet expects her to be loyal to him” and not once in the replies did I see someone mention that he was literally assaulted. It’s absolutely gross and makes me hesitant to go deeper into the fandom.

I remember being so frustrated when the snippets of “There are Other Ways” came out because so many people were making Hamilton jokes and talking about how he always talks about his wife yet cheated. When in the song it was so clear he was being coerced which is yknow, not a form of consent. I couldn’t even listen to it because it made me so uncomfortable, and even now with the full version out the fandoms reaction to it overall have soured me to it. Which sucks, because I do think it’s a great song.

Also I don’t even think Epic completely erases Calypso’s assault? At least, I think it’s left ambiguous enough during the time jump that people can come to their own conclusions. Specifically when Calypso says “Soon into bed we’ll climb and spend our time” just really gives me the impression that something else happened.

I suppose in the snippets we’ve seen of “I’m Not Sorry For Loving You” it seems like Odysseus and Calypso are on slightly friendlier terms, but I don’t think that negates the fact she could’ve assaulted him. And I’ve always took that song as pretty manipulative on Calypso’s side, with Odysseus more so trying to placate her. But that’s going into theory territory.

And even if he isn’t SA’d in Epic it’s pretty clear he doesn’t want to be there!! Same with Homer’s Odyssey. It’s so infuriating to see the cheating narrative be so widely spread when that is just not what happened.

Anyway’s sorry for the long rant, but I wanted to say that it’s nice to see you take Odysseus’s SA seriously. It’s not something the fandom does enough.

It's okay for the long rant. Sorry I took a bit to get to it but I wanted some "soft chatters" for a bit before I tackled this one :)

"Just the other day I saw a comment on a post saying that “Odysseus wasn’t loyal to his wife yet expects her to be loyal to him” and not once in the replies did I see someone mention that he was literally assaulted. It’s absolutely gross and makes me hesitant to go deeper into the fandom."

I completely understand you with this stuff. ;~; I used to go through Odyssey tags often as I LOVE possibly finding new people to follow and fun things but too many times I would see shit that pissed me off. ;~; I've honestly kind of just stuck to my mutuals that I trust tbh. And honestly, there's soooo much shit of people just straight up not understanding the context/culture/meaning/etc. of the Epics and just taking it at face value and not understanding the meanings. :/ I'm no expert, but I also have analyzed and researched quite a bit on my own to try and get the full picture. I think in order to truly enjoy the Odyssey, you need to just... really soak shit in, you know?

When Calypso, that lovely goddess,  tried                           to keep me with her in her hollow cave, longing for me to become her husband,                                  or when, in the same way, the cunning witch Aeaean Circe held me in her home filled with a keen desire I’d marry her, they never won the heart here in my chest.

(Book 9, Johnston)

Odysseus tells this to the Phaecians. They are strangers that he will likely never see again and who are isolationists. Therefore his story that he told probably won't be "spread" to others so he can probably say whatever. So he doesn't have to worry about "Penelope hearing a different story than the one he told to her" if people wanna argue about how "Oh well, he didn't tell Penelope about the 'affairs'"(He tells her everything as well btw.)

He could literally say "Oh yeah, I had the time of my life!" but he doesn't because that's not true. Odysseus has no listed concubines, I just literally don't see him as the type of guy who's really into that.

And while yes, he would be devastated if she didn't "stay loyal", he does sound like he'd be understanding. He asks his mother in the Underworld if Penelope had gotten remarried to "the finest of Achaeans". And we all know of Odysseus' words of "when Telemachus has a beard, feel free to remarry". Even when first "rejected" by Penelope in that she didn't hug him when he sat across from her, he was incredibly hurt but asked for a separate bed. He literally could have had it where Penelope takes a different bed and he takes their luxurious/fancy one because he has the rest of the household on his side.

But he DOESN'T!

Because he adores her for fuck's sake!

Funny enough? I have the weird reaction of like, weirdly searching out "Good" animatics as it was a weird reassurance of "yes, people see that it's wrong." as while holy fuck. so many stupid, awful jokes about "Say No to This" in the comments (I have learned to just stay the fuck away from youtube comments on Odysseus shit. :') ) but like, seeing and HEARING how yes, this was fucked, was weirdly really nice for me. yeah, it took a lot of digging but there's a few "There Are Other Ways" that I love. Literally, both are unfinished wips and they're still my favorites. If you can, please give these two a watch and some love for the creator.

This was back before we heard the full song and it's still very good. How he's on guard until she "magics" him and the colors change. After that he kind of moves like a "puppet" but he's still resisting as best he can.

This one is literally still sketches but it's my absolute favorite. Oh my word. The body language, PENELOPE FLASHBACKS!!! Showing cute bits of Penelope's character and how awful this is for him. (Penelope is so cute. She puffs up her cheeks to make him laugh!) How he really is scared that he'll have to go through with this in order to save his friends until all his past trauma floods back and he just can't. It's lovely.

And yeah Idk how to feel about "I'm Not Sorry For Loving You" :/ I don't know how it'll be yet, maybe there's something in another song that shows Odysseus' real feelings or whatever.

And with just the whole cheating thing, yeah, it's really upsetting to call what is blatant assault "cheating". As wild as it sounds, Odysseus' story has been more relatable for me than any other stories like this, even modern ones. I've spoken a bit about it before but yeh, victim blaming at its finest. I find him and his story and his love for Penelope slkdfj very relatable. It's honestly really nice to write about in a sense..

(I'm pasting this from an old post of mine but yeh)

I have never had a story that felt like how it actually FEELS. The "aftermath" and "regaining life". It's hopeful and feels really good. It's been years since "everything" but it just felt nice to see "Everybody has the chance to get better." Even Nestor, Helen, and Menelaus, while still dealing with their traumas, are doing a lot better now. And after literal hell, Odysseus got to be with his family and loved ones again. He can start living again. It's why I'm just...idk passionate about this? I'm not a murderer or a war veteran but I see myself in him. Hopefully, y'all see me as nicer though!😂(plus, let's be honest, the Odyssey is romantic af and OdyPen is right up my alley as well >:D )

I really hate the whole "he's a guy so therefore ____" whether it's used as a "Boys will be boys. they can't help themselves" usually aimed at female victims or a "Men always want sex. they cannot be victims.". It's fucked up and used against ALL of us. :( Doesn't matter if it was history. People, no matter the era, should never be put through "Are you Victim™ enough?". He is one.

Idk the Odyssey means a lot to me. I hope it's okay I take some liberties with my fanfics as it's nice healing through him :D I AM kind of using my own experiences and ideas and it feels nice. I don't think Homer necessarily meant for this but eh, anything that helps is good :D He's a war criminal that I relate to.

[cryptidsurveys]

Wednesday, September 11th, 2024.

Which fictional character can you not stand? There aren't any that I can't stand. I can't even think of a character that just really annoys me. I mean, some can be annoying (or snooty, manipulative, backstabbing, or whatever), but in the context of the story, it's fine.

What was the one subject in school that frustrated you because you just couldn’t process it? Math. I was okay at Algebra and Geometry, but once I reached Algebra II/Trig, my understanding of core concepts wasn't strong enough to carry me any further.

What’s the weirdest compliment you’ve ever gotten? I don't think I've ever received an especially weird compliment.

What is an occupation that you would like to do just for one day if you had the chance? I wouldn't want to actually do the job, but I think it would be interesting to shadow someone in nursing. I've just heard so many horror stories that it's become like a morbid fascination.

What do you think people have an unnecessary stick up their ass about? Anything and everything. Pretty much whatever subject you look into, there will be someone there with a stick up their ass about something.

What common advice do you think never works? Idk but lately I've felt stuck between "just ignore it" and "speak up." Neither option has produced satisfactory results so far, so maybe it's time to break out of the binary and try something completely chaotic and unexpected. ;D

What’s the best movie without a happy ending? I'm not sure.

What is something you think is actually better about today’s generation? This obviously isn't true everywhere, but overall living conditions, medical and technological advancements, transportation, access to information and communication, etc. Some of those things can be a double-edged sword or have certain pitfalls, but you know. Probably better than being a peasant in the Dark Ages. But if we're talking about people specifically, then…hmm. People are people wherever you go.

What movie has a worse love story than Twilight? I'm not much of a movie watcher, but I'm sure there are far worse love stories than Twilight.

What seems obvious to you that doesn’t seem to be for other people? That "the government" isn't hiding any aliens.

If your partner in the zombie apocalypse was the main character of the last movie you watched, would you survive? The last movie I watched was Inside Out 2, so unless the little emotion avatars in that teen girl's head can pull some seriously lucky levers, we're fvcked.

What’s the worst episode of your favorite TV show? I don't have a favorite TV show.

You can pick two artists to do a song together, dead or alive, but they have to be from different genres. Who do you pick and why? I can't think of any particular artists, but as far as genres go, maybe some heavenly and numinous choir music merged with some dark and gritty rap/hip-hop. It has potential okay!!!

What is something you would never buy again, even if you were rich? A house (or cabin or apartment or whatever) with carpet. If I could live somewhere with exclusively wood or tiled flooring, I would be so happy. Carpets are just gross.

What do you do regularly despite it being considered very unhealthy or unsafe? Smoke cigarettes.

What is something that most people find attractive in a person that you find unattractive? I can't think of anything that I find unattractive, but there are common beauty standards that are just like…eh. They don't do it for me.

Do you ever use facial masks or scrubs? I've used facial masks a few times. I don't think I've ever used a scrub, though.

What do you think of the recent trend of adult coloring books? I don't have an opinion regarding the trend as a whole. They're nice as a concept and I do own a couple of them, but I just don't have the patience.

Which fictional character do you think you’d be great friends with? I have no idea.

What would you do if you found out your toys came to life similar to Toy Story? Probably go through something like the 5 Stages of Grief, but with way more emotions. Fear, horror, sadness, guilt, embarrassment, confusion…

Do you own any cook books? We have quite a few. But do I ever use them? No.

Is there anything that you’d like to eat right now? I'm not all that hungry, but cashew chicken, fried rice, and cream cheese wontons sounds good.

What book are you currently reading? A Short History Of The World by H. G. Wells.

What is something that you believe in, but aren’t very outspoken about? I'm not very outspoken about any of my beliefs. I'm just not an openly opinionated person. I like to feel people out before getting into any kind of discussion because I'm not someone who enjoys confrontation or debate.

do you think weird it’s for someone to have never tried soda? I guess it would depend on where they lived. If they were in the US, then I would think it was…if not weird, then highly uncommon.

is there any foreign film you recommend? Naw.

do you have the same religious beliefs as your parents? There are definitely some overlaps. My dad is Jewish and my mom is what I would call casually spiritual. If you made a Venn Diagram of their truest beliefs, then I would probably fall somewhere in the middle. Then there are my own interpretations and understandings which expand into territory beyond either one of them. Overall, though, I think I have more in common with my dad because he's a deep diver within his own religion, and religion and spirituality are topics that interest me. We can have some really great discussions on the matter.

which floor of your house/building are you on now? I'm on the second floor.

are there any maps hanging in your room? No.

are you often a third wheel? or is someone a third wheel to you? I felt like that for the longest time at the animal shelter. I knew people generally liked and appreciated me, but I wasn't really fitting in. However, I don't feel that way as much now, not with the new batch of workers back in cattery. I'm still kind of third-wheely (because I'm shy/socially awkward and also a good deal older than they are), but not to the same drastic extent. I feel much more included, relevant, and free to be my silly and sarcastic self. I had it in my head that the problem might be me (and admittedly, some of it probably was and I do still have some work to do), but now it's like…oh. I was likeable the whole time?!?!

what’s the last dvd you bought? I'm not sure.

tell me about your favorite pair of jeans. I don't have a favorite pair of jeans. I basically don't even wear them anymore.

would you ride a motorcycle if given the chance? (or have you?) I've been on the back of one a few times, but I don't think I would like to ride one myself. Driving a car is enough responsibility for me.

is your hair healthy? Ehhh.

if a hotel offered free breakfast in bed, what would you order? I'd go all out. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, biscuits, maybe some fruit, coffee…

how often do you take a train? Aside from the kiddie train at the city park, I don't think I've ever been on a train. I might have gone on the one at the Royal Gorge, but I can't be certain that's a real memory and not some false recollection I settled on after the fact.

what’s your favorite led zeppelin song? Kashmir.

does your home have a balcony/deck/porch? We have a back deck and a front porch.

what does your closet/wardrobe say about you? That I spend a lot of time at an animal shelter. Probably half of my shit is animal shelter shit.

do you enjoy theatre? I don't not enjoy it. It's just not really my thing. I wouldn't want to be in a play, but I would probably go see one with someone if they wanted me to.

how would you feel about traveling abroad alone? Scared, unprepared, inexperienced, lonely, bored…like I had so much to share and no one to share it with. I'd much rather travel with someone.

who would you call a lyrical genius? Idk.

how do you treat yourself? It's time to make dinner, so I'm going to pause this here (9.10.24) and resume it sometime tomorrow… Okay. I just arrived home from a trip to the Mountain Park - which is one of the ways I plan on treating myself this autumn. I feel like I've spread myself too thin with volunteering, so I'm going to take a step back, take an extra day off here and there, and spend more time in the mountains with my dad. Other ways I treat myself include eating fun/favorite foods (so excited for holiday treats!), making time for art, and curling up in bed with my kitties and some YouTube.

do you have an interesting passport? I don't have a passport.

are you going to pursue a career according to what you enjoy? Yeah.

what’s your favorite frozen treat? Ice cream. You know what else I've been enjoying lately? Otter Pops. They're not typically something I would think to eat, but they're great for hot afternoons at the shelter when I need a quick chill out/sugar rush combo.

who supports you financially? Social security and my dad. We share our incomes.

if you wanted to go to the movie cinema, how would you get there? I would drive (or be driven).

how many pillows are on your bed? Two regular pillows, three body pillows, and two decorative pillows.

would you pay more for organic food? I might if I preferred the taste of a certain brand, but otherwise it's not something I pay much attention to.

do you prefer being awake after everyone goes to bed or before they get up? I don't really have a preference.

do you know much about feng shui? (do you use it?) I know very little, and no, I don't use it.

how would you make friends in a quiet class? Make meaningful eye contact? Lmao heck if I know. I'm quiet myself, so if other people are quiet, then it's just gonna be quiet.

are you generally a quick learner? Yeah.

what’s your favorite spot to read? At my computer desk.

did you know that buddha is not considered a god to buddhists? I was aware of that.

do you save tickets from movies, etc.? Not really.

without looking him up, who was jim morrison? The vocalist for The Doors.

when’s the last time your bedroom was painted/wallpapered? Gosh, idk. As far as painting goes, that would have been years and years ago. It wasn't even finished. As for the wallpaper, that was put up before we moved in.

teach me something in another language. Naw.

what type of music do you like and why? I've developed a fondness for classical over the past couple of years.

if you randomly want to eat something in the house, do you eat it or wait? It depends on what it is, what I've already eaten, how close it is to meal/snack time, etc.

who knows the most about you (besides yourself)? My dad.

do you have a nervous habit? (e.g. biting nails, tapping feet, smoking) Picking at my nails.

how’s your favorite pro sports team doing lately? I don't follow any sports teams.

would you be/are you a good role model to a younger sibling? No.

[annisrealandsoami]

When I had originally been apart of the deh fandom, I hadn’t thought about the implications of what he did.

Spoilers, obviously. He didn’t mean to lie. Evan had made a dumb mistake, that at the time could’ve easily been fixed.(with an extremely awkward conversation. Or just not continuing the lie.). He instead, doubled down.(rookie move) Okay, he’s now lying to a grieving family. Let’s make fake proof that he’s not. Then let’s make even more fake evidence of a friendship that never existed. Let’s then get so invested in the lie that it over shadows the actual victim. Let’s get ‘Conner’ trending online, and then have to make even more fake evidence. Let’s implode every relationship you have, because of all this bullshit. Then after everything, come clean to the grieving family you have been fucking lying to for all this time.

Not to mention that he dated Conners sister immediately after he died, under guise of his friend. Zoey didn’t even like Conner, but Evan used his supposed connection to him to get close. Zoey just wanted to move on. And Evan couldn’t.

Was it the attention he was finally getting? It’s not even a good enough excuse or reason for his actions.

Conners memory is completely covered with Evan’s bullshit. The orchard is based on Evan’s lies. Like what the fuck?

And I know funerals and memorials are more about the living than they are actually about the dead, but the amount of continuous lies this man said, bonkers.

But when you’re 13, you just listen to the catchy songs and not really absorb the context.

Until randomly you listen to ‘Good for You’ and no longer can understand why Evan did all of it. No longer can sing along to Evan as he laments about how he feeling the consequences of his actions(which was your favorite part to sing for so long.)

There is no redeeming him, and maybe that’s the point. He did make good lasting change, but that doesn’t erase how he got there. How the good does not outweigh the horrendous mistake he made, then continued to make.

And yeah, he painted Conner in a good light, but he still painted over his memory. According to book, Conner was misunderstood, and maybe eventually his family would come to realize that. But to rewrite him? The dude didn’t even write a note. Dead men tell no tales. He was done. And Evan basically wrote self insert fanfiction of them being friends.

Why did I breeze past this? Why was I okay with it? I used to like Evan’s character. Used to relate to him and his social anxiety.

Sorry for ranting, but this occurred to me a while ago and I can’t stop thinking about it.

[booneysboyfie]

Selfship questions from @salsflore! This is a spectacular idea, and I really think it would be awesome if this format of questions became a trend as opposed to ask games (those are fun and all, but I never get questions 😭). So yeah thanks for making this it’s a great idea!!

I’ll answer for my GOTG selfships because I haven’t stopped thinking about them since the new movie came out 😵‍💫

Also tagging @4i-i0v3-y0u because we talk about GOTG often :)

For context, Rocket and Drax are romantic F/Os, Peter, Groot sr, Mantis, Nebula and Gamora are Platonic F/Os, and Groot jr is a familial F/O. Also I have a silly little crush on Yondu 🤫 so when asked about “them” I’ll usually talk about Rocket or Drax, but sometimes the others too

what’s something you do to feel closer to them? fanfics, listen to songs, etc.

I love watching the Guardians of the Galaxy movies! I also enjoy watching MVs on YouTube. This is my favorite!

how did you get introduced to your f/o and/or their media? do you like their source?

My brother is a huge fan of Marvel. A couple of years ago, over the summer, he made me watch all the movies with him. I wasn’t too big of a fan of the other ones, but I really really loved the guardians :) there’s actually kind of a funny story about how I got introduced to my F/Os— when I first watched the movie, Rocket was my favorite character, but I knew if I told my family that they would make fun of me, so I instead told everyone Drax was my favorite (he’s actually my SECOND favorite lol) and I’m just now starting to let myself love Rocket :,)

what’s one or two things you especially like about your f/o? can be a headcanon!

I love how creative and smart Rocket is :) he loves to build things and invent new weapons and machines, and I think it’s really cool!

I really really love that Drax is so honest— it may annoy our friends sometimes, but he really likes me and isn’t shy about saying it.

Peter is very affectionate and loves to give hugs!! He and I are really good friends (we’ve known each other since even before the Kyln) so it’s nice to have someone who really knows me.

what’s one or two things your f/os love about you? ( self positivity time babey )

I know Rocket really loves my smile :) my S/I is less angst ridden than the rest of the team, so he’s often the one to keep everyone’s spirits up, and Rocket really appreciates the positivity.

how do you express your love to them? how do they express their love to you?

I express my love to my F/Os by being there for them. There are some things I won’t ever understand, or be able to help with, and that’s okay. But I can be a listening ear if they ever feel like opening up.

My F/Os show their love by caring for me. My S/I is the type to prioritize everyone else first, so they help me out by taking care of me when I need it. We usually make our own food (it’s hard to cook for so many different species with different nutritional needs) but when I feel burned out or particularly morose, Drax cooks for me.

a gift you’d like to give them if you could, and something they’d give to you!

Rocket’s flight suit is obviously good for flying a spaceship and fighting people, but it doesn’t look very comfy (especially for the cybernetics on his back) so I think I would give him some more comfortable clothes to wear. Early on in our relationship I think I would be wayyy to embarrassed for such a grand gesture (spending money is a big deal) so I would just give him one of my shirts. Rocket absolutely loves it.

Omg me and Clyde were literally kinda talking about this earlier but basically Rocket would totally collect a whole bunch of pretty things (shiny rocks, stolen jewelry, etc) and give them as gifts to me.

what do you celebrate together? like halloween, christmas time, easter, etc.

We all celebrate Christmas together! Of course the first time was on Knowhere, much after Vol2 and Endgame and stuff, but it’s become a tradition ever since.

do you sleep together? is it peaceful or filled with snoring? do you both stay up? tell us more! ( how you sleep, when you sleep, do you wake up at the same time? )

Drax has his own bed because he can’t stand sleeping with other people (it’s the sensory processing disorder) but me and Rocket sleep together sometimes :)

Rocket’s sleep schedule is really weird because he’s meant to be nocturnal— he doesn’t sleep much at night, and takes a lot of naps in the daytime. He either snuggles with me anyway, just enjoying the closeness, or stays up building something.

When we lived on the Milano, and Groot was still a baby, he would sometimes come sleep with us (or just me) too if he had a nightmare.

Drax always wakes up earlier than me. Once we start living together in Knowhere, he gets into a habit of cooking breakfast for us all.

what’s one thing you can’t do well that the other can, vice versa ( e.g cooking, playing video games, so on and so forth )

One thing I’m not good at is cooking 😭 I’m bad at managing time, so things tend to end up burned or undercooked. Drax is really good at cooking, though!

And with something I can do well— Rocket isn’t good at writing. Numbers are easy because they’re a lot of sharp lines, but letters that curve and are kind of round (like “s” or “o”) are really difficult. It’s because his hands aren’t very good at holding the pencil, so he’s embarrassed about this, and avoids writing whenever possible. I really enjoy things like fancy lettering, painting, and drawing. It’s one of my hobbies :)

do you have similar tastes in fashion? aesthetic? food? tell us about their taste!

We Guardians kind of wear the same clothing (there’s not much range in the space junker business) but I like pretty things a lot. When not on a job, I like to wear a lot of accessories. As for food— I love all kinds of food. Literally anything.

Rocket doesn’t have a lot of options when it comes to clothes, so he just wears what he can find. He loves eating fresh foods, like fruits and seafood.

Drax’s fashion sense is complicated. Comfort takes priority, but he also is picky with colors. His species sees more colors than the human eye can pick up (hc). His taste in food is simple: he loves things with a lot of flavor, especially meat. You ever watched Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives? That kinda stuff.

how do they tend to comfort you? how do you tend to comfort them?

Everyone knows I love hugs. Drax is so strong and he gives the best hugs 😭 Rocket and I like to cuddle, and he also makes me feel better by making me laugh :) Groot is also really sweet, he and I could talk for hours.

I mostly comfort my loves with reassurance. “It’s not your fault” is a big one, both for Rocket and Drax, and Groot often needs reassurance because he feels like he’s not as good as Groot sr.

if you have a rival or nemesis f/o, why? are there any lore reasons or is it just because?

Obviously all the bad guys we’ve fought (Ronan, Ego, Thanos, the High Evolutionary), but in a more lighthearted sense, I don’t really get along well with the avengers. No real reason, I just don’t like them.

what are some uncommon headcanons you have for them?

I’m not quite sure if these are uncommon or not haha— I headcanon that Rocket likes to play video games. He got into it because Groot wanted someone to play with, and of course it was a lot of fun. I also headcanon that Rocket is hard of hearing from being too close to explosions and gunfire all his life. I headcanon Peter suffered some type of disordered eating growing up because he was always afraid that if he got too big to fit into small spaces to steal things, the Ravagers would kill him. I also headcanon that Peter has synthesia, which is why he loves music so much, but also doesn’t often listen to it when he works— it’s distracting.

what is your favorite fan theory/headcanon about them?

My favorite about Rocket is just about him being a dad to little Groot. Of course it’s practically canon, but it’s really sweet

if you live together, how’s domestic life like for you both?

We live together on Knowhere once it becomes the Guardians of the Galaxy HQ. I think this is my favorite part of our story, it’s so sweet :) that kind of life takes some adjusting to, but it’s really what we’ve all always wanted. (Post vol3) Drax gets to be a loving father figure to the children rescued from the HE, and after finding a home with the Guardians and leading a decade or so of an action-packed life, Rocket really just wants to rest. So he does. And for me, ever since I was young, all I’ve ever wanted is to love and be loved. We keep in contact with our friends and they visit often, of course.

do you have any scent hcs for them? ( sweet, something like coffee, etc )

Unpopular opinion, I think Rocket smells a lot like soap. He washes his hands often, and is kind of a clean freak tbh.

is there anything commonly misunderstood about your f/o?

I kind of like the fandom’s current interpretation of Rocket. My only complaint is that sometimes people portray him as a womanizer, when that’s not him at all.

one thing you don’t have in common, and one thing you do

One thing we don’t have in common is probably, for lack of a better word, toughness? Rocket has no hesitation when he needs to kill someone, but my S/I had a breakdown every freaking time. One thing we do have in common is the deep and profound loneliness and desire to be understood.

how do you resolve conflicts? how do you both typically react when faced with conflict or whilst dealing with an argument?

We don’t heavily disagree on anything important (like morals and ethics and stuff) so conflict is usually pretty surface level annoyance. Sometimes Drax is too loud, or says something mean on accident, or Rocket is having a bad day and snaps at us, or i feel too low energy to get stuff done, etc… usually the solution is to just spend some time away from each other to cool down and feel better. Sometimes an apology is needed, sometimes it’s just mutually understood.

have you met their friends/family? how did that go? do they even keep in contact with their friends/family?

I never met batch 89, or Drax’s late wife and daughter— but I have met Ego! And Thanos! 👍 neither of those went very well. Oh I also met Yondu and the rest of the Ravagers a few times, and Peter considers them family— there was some conflict before, but Yondu was a good friend to us. Also i thought he was kinda hot but don’t tell Peter.

tell us as much (or as little) as you'd like about any of your self ship lore/bg! the timeline!

I’m actually planning on making a timeline post soon!

if they have variations (timelines, skills, voiced languages, etc) which one is your favorite?

The biggest variations are probably their comic book vs movie characters, and while I’ve read a few of the old comics that feature the Guardians, I prefer my F/Os movie versions.

your favorite outfit/costume of theirs! if they don’t have any official skins or anything, show us something you think they’d look good in!

Rocket’s suit in the first Guardians of the Galaxy (the orange one) has a special place in my heart :3 but I also like how he looks in the Kyln’s prison outfit lol— yellow is my favorite color. As for Drax, I really really like his sleeveless shirt outfit in GOTG 3 :D

who confessed first and how did it go?

I confessed first to Drax, I’d say it went well because we ended up dating lmao. Then a little bit later Rocket realized that his feelings for me were more than platonic, but it still took him a long time to find the courage to tell me haha

did anyone know about your f/o’s feelings before they confessed? how did they find out?

Just little Groot. He and Rocket are besties, they tell each other everything.

if you have multiple f/os, do they fit into any “type?” ( e.g coincidentally they’re all smartasses, blonde, villains, etc. lol )

Kind of! Drax and Rocket aren’t very similar, but the common ground is Yondu (a crush of mine) who has a similar personality to Rocket and looks kind of like Drax (bald).

do you have any favorite scenarios you like to imagine your f/os in? ( domestic fluff, angsty, etc. )

I love hurt/comfort!!!!! I’ll get injured in battle and my F/Os will nurse me back to health!! Rocket will experience the emotional turmoil of having to fight a past abuser immediately after having a near death experience and seeing batch 89 in the sky and i’ll be there to help him through it!!!

have you ever thought about ( platonic or not ) marriage? would you consider it a good idea? why or why not?

Yeah :) I would 100% want to get married to both my romantic F/Os, especially Drax. He would be so excited about it! Me and Rocket are kind of just having fun, but it means a lot to him. All our friends would be there, too!

^ if you're planning to get married, then tell us all about your wedding! the honeymoon! the planning!

The wedding wouldn’t be too fancy, just one of the nicer buildings on Knowhere. Nebula, surprisingly, would offer to help plan. She’s very good at things like that. Everyone would be there (maybe Gamora would even swing by) and there’d be lots of good food and drinks. For a honeymoon, we’d probably go to one of the planets less involved in interplanetary crime— ooh, I bet Xandar has some nice vacation places :) we might even get a discount for saving the Galaxy haha.

if you live together, how does your home look like? who decided on the decor?

Knowhere is known for being more functional than pretty, but I just love making things look nice— Drax and Rocket don’t mind if I handle the decor, as long as it’s not too crazy, so I get to put in carpets and nice lighting and stuff! I enjoy paintings of landscapes, since Knowhere doesn’t really have any natural beauty. It’s very colorful.

do you, or plan to, have f/o kids? ( pets and plants count! ) bonus: if you have pets, do they show any favoritism?

Groot is our kid, but he’s pretty much grown up after vol3– we all want kids, but adoption is a big decision. I suppose we could have pets, but Rocket feels kind of weird about having a “lower life form” around.

what was it like when they first said ‘i love you’? how did you reply? where was it?

Drax first said I love you maybe a month after we started living on the Milano as a team. I was super flustered— obviously he meant it, he’s a terrible liar. I said it back, but I was a little embarrassed haha.

When Rocket first said I love you, it was late at night, and he and I were hanging out eating a midnight snack because he couldn’t sleep. We were both dead tired but Rocket was having nightmares and I didn’t want to leave him alone. This was a couple months after Vol2, and we hadn’t even started dating yet.

if you could make one thing 100% canon about them, what would it be?

It’s already implied in very few scenes, but I think it would be more realistic if Rocket’s cybernetics were more of a problem to him. In my canon, he has chronic pain and nerve damage from the surgeries, and needs to take special care to upkeep his metal parts.

how do you kill time with them when bored?

Drax loves to tell stories. I love listening to him. He also tries to tell jokes, which are pretty funny.

Rocket also talks a lot, but he likes to be doing something while we talk. When he and I have down time, he works on his inventions while I just lie down and we talk.

your favorite thing about your f/o, appearance wise

I love Rocket’s eyes 👁️👁️ they r so pretty I love brown eyes— also I like that Drax is taller than me lol. And I like Yondu’s mouth. His teeth are all messed up, but I like how he whistles and grins all pointy >:3 yk?

your favorite thing about your f/o, non-appearance wise

I love how deeply Rocket loves. He cares for his friends so much, it’s beautiful.

This was kind of touched on by Mantis in vol3, but I love Drax’s positivity despite everything he’s gone through.

what’s your dynamic like? any tropes you fit?

“Silly fella that absolutely no one is intimidated by” (me) x “built like a brick shithouse, his name is literally ‘the destroyer’” (Drax)

“Loves the other so deeply, profoundly, and unconditionally” (me) x “thinks he is undeserving of love”

In terms of tropes that actually exist? Probably “sunshine x grumpy” and “best friends to lovers”

the most iconic/memed on/quoted line or event associated with your f/o

For Drax, the one I appreciate most is “nothing goes over my head… my reflexes are too fast, I would catch it.” And for Rocket, probably when he was telling little Groot how to set up the batteries to explode lol.

who’s more likely to be the sappy, cheesy romantic in the relationship?

Me ❤️

who gets flustered the easiest?

Omg Rocket does haha— he doesn’t get compliments often, so whenever I voice how much I love him and what exactly I like about him he kind of doesn’t know what to say. He also things I’m handsome :3

if you were in an emergency or stressful situation, which one of you’s the best at staying level headed keeping the other calm? who is the one absolutely freaking out?

We have emergency situations a lot, so it kind of depends. When threatened, Drax automatically goes into fight or flight (always fight, for him), and I usually try to find a peaceful way out of the situation. Rocket is almost always very good at keeping his cool in high-stakes battles, but some things throw him off.

what nicknames do you call each other?

My nicknames for Rocket: Rocky, love

Rockets nicknames for me: (embarrassing as fuck so only teasingly and in private, but—) Boo

My nicknames for Drax: Honey

Drax’s nicknames for me: none, he doesn’t really get them lol

with phones or modern au : what would your contact names be?

In my phone: Rocket 🚀 and Drax🗡️

But they just have boring old names in their contact list lol

with phones or modern au : how do they use their phone? do they have a billion screenshots in their gallery? whats their wallpaper?

Rocket: has a few apps that Groot used to play games (now he plays them too lol), his wallpaper is a photo of all of the guardians

Drax: his phone is default settings for the wallpaper, ringtone, etc— hasn’t downloaded any apps either. He uses his phone mainly for taking thousands of pictures. Mostly of the stars, and other things he finds pretty, but we’re also in there :)

favorite memory involving them ( whether in your lore as a scenario, a scene from their media, or another physical experience like when you received merch etc )

Irl, my favorite memory is seeing GOTG vol3 in the movie theater :D but in universe, my favorite memory is just any time when we’re all together and happy ❤️

are they physically affectionate? if so, how do they express it? vice versa!

Drax gives big hugs :) he’s strong enough to pick me up and carry me around! And Rocket is more shy, but he likes to cuddle with me.

any funny or awkward moments you've experienced with them?

Actually yeah, with Peter— we worked and lived together for a few months several years before the events of the first movie. Peter asks a lot of questions, like “if you’re a shapeshifter, why is your dick small”.

who’s more likely to get into, or start fights? whether with each other or with others.

Rocket starts fights. He’s insecure, and steals batteries he doesn’t need, and there was a learning curve to living with him. We all love him very much though.

what were your first impressions of each other?

My first Impression of Rocket was that he was someone strong that I’d want to stay with— we were arrested and brought to the Kyln together, and he and Groot were protecting Peter, so I decided to stick around.

His first impression of me was that I was untrustworthy (because I tried to help Peter when he and Groot tried to kidnap him)

My first impression of Drax was that he was scary, so I treated him with respect. His first impression of me was that I was kind :)

do you have an anniversary date? how was it decided & how do you (plan to) celebrate it?

No I don’t lol— maybe I should

.... would you still love them if they turned into a worm

Yeah, lol

how did their personality or lifestyle change after befriending/getting with you?

Rocket used to live his life more… unhealthily. He drank a lot and got in fights and had only Groot to support him. Once he made friends with the rest of us (and me of course) he subconsciously began thinking his life actually had some worth, and for the most part, he wanted to stay alive.

Drax was filled with so much rage after losing his family. He thought killing their killer would make him feel better, but after Ronan was dealt with he didn’t feel any more satisfied. He learned slowly that he could only heal and feel better if he opened up and allowed himself to experience love again. He jokes around more, but also cries more— he’s not “fixed”, or without the bad memories, but rather he allows himself to feel things. Before, he coped with the grief by just destroying.

something you know about them, that many others don’t?

Peter often likes to make fun of Rocket for being afraid of spiders, because once they were exploring a planet with these giant bug creatures, and Rocket froze up and couldn’t kill them. The truth is, something Rocket’s only told me and Groot, is that they reminded him of Floor, with all the hydraulic legs skittering around.

how do they reassure or affirm their love for you?

Words of affirmation mostly, and quality time spent together. I need a lot of affirmation ;-;

what’s your funniest or most embarrassing memory together?

I always love when we’re on a mission and need disguises >:3 very fun. one time we were going to a fancy gala, and we had to dress up in nice fancy clothes, but we didn’t even get halfway through the event before Drax took his shirt off and got in trouble.

what’s their sense of humor like? how easy is it to make them laugh?

Rocket and Drax are both kind of immature with their humor— Drax in a more childish way, and Rocket is just kind of a dick. Like he thinks those videos of people falling down or getting hurt are funny lmao— or, as per canon, stealing people’s prosthetics.

what inside jokes do you share?

Mostly about Gamora and Peter’s will they/won’t they relationship. We placed bets on whether they’d get together or not. I lost.

if necessary, how do you wake them up? how do they wake you up?

I’m the one who gets woken up lol, I sleep wayyy too much. Rocket usually tries to be nice about it but Drax is straight to the point and just shakes me awake lmao

any daily routines or habits you two follow?

Life is busy on Knowhere, so we don’t spend every day together. However, we at least try to have breakfast and dinner together every day :) it’s really great!

what do others in source say about your relationship? do you keep it a secret?

Everyone, for the most part, is supportive. Though there are planets like Earth where polyamory might be considered odd, in space (like businesses where you travel a lot and practically live on your ship) it’s pretty typical. We’re all men, too, but that’s pretty normal— for example, Kraglin’s been married 14 times, and has only one ex-wife.

We’ve never kept it secret.

if you have more than one f/o from the same media, which one were you drawn to first? any lore connection like did they introduce you to the others? did one make you fall for the other?

Irl, I was drawn to Rocket first. Something about his voice and personality 🫣 I thought he was so cute.

In lore, technically Peter introduced me to everyone. It did not take long for me to fall for Drax, but because Rocket was more standoffish at first, we were just friends for a long time.

dream piece of merchandise or f/o-related experience you’d like to have

I don’t even know if they make these, but I’d really like a life size weighted plushie of Rocket :,)

how are they like when vulnerable?

Rocket gets angry. He cries and then hates himself for crying, so he picks fights with Peter and then hates himself more.

Drax is very quiet. He doesn’t like to show his emotions in front of everybody, so he isolated himself.

describe your f/o in 6 words or less

Rocket: dangerous, smart, sarcastic

Drax: honest, powerful, loving

describe your f/o using only emojis

Drax: 🔪💪🪨💥

Rocket: 🩻🚀🔫🔧

would you rather go to their world, or have them come to yours?

I like both ideas, but I’d have to say go to their world because there’s also things there I want to experience that has nothing to do with our relationship— I want to visit Knowhere! I want to meet abilisks! I want to fly in a spaceship!!!!

do you care about ship lore? feel free to tell us about it if you’d like!

It’s important to me :) I love thinking of scenarios for our first kiss, first date, etc :D this post actually made me realize that I’d want a wedding with them, so I’ll have a lot of fun thinking about that!

if you have a s/i, how’d you go about creating their design? what went into their lore? how do the others in the source feel about your s/i?

Well, I just started imagining it— I wanted to be kind of humanoid, but I didn’t want to be Terran like Peter. I settled on a shapeshifter alien because I love the freedom of being able to change things and explain it as “oh lol he just decided to have pointy teeth that day” because he’s a shapeshifter :) I also thought it would be cool if his true form was kind of reptilian, because snakes are my favorite animal!

does your s/i hold similarities to you, is completely like you or completely different from you? do you even have a s/i?

Personality wise, we are very similar. He looks different from me because what human features he has are just kind of how I would want to look (for example, he is bigger than I am and has facial hair, and I want to look like that but I don’t because I’m trans 🥲)

thoughts on AUs/canon divergent things? do you prefer to stick as closely to canon as possible or no?

I love AUs! I’m focusing on canon things right now though; the most canon-divergent things get are the fact that I decided to have Rocket settle down and live with me on Knowhere post vol3 instead of being the new captain.

However, when I was depressed and in 10th grade (as if I’m not still depressed lmao) I kind of coped with the stress and shame of being not “good” enough to go to a normal school by imagining that I went to my weird little school and became friends with the highschool AU Guardians. It was really comforting because they were all also too fucked up for public school, and I felt less lonely. I think I still have some drawings from back then!

quick! your f/o’s just spawned in front of you, now what do you do?!

Well, I would probably be really embarrassed because I’m in my pajamas, but I guess I’d take them outside so we could talk without waking up my parents haha. After telling them where we are, what year it is, etc, then I’d probably tell my parents. My dad would probably kick them out of the house🥲

do they have any superstitions they believe in?

It seems unfair to call this a superstition, but the only thing Rocket really believes in is the afterlife. He didn’t used to, but after seeing the rest of batch 89 in the sky, he’s not so afraid of death anymore.

would you or your f/o ever get matching things? ( keychains, tattoos, shirts, etc ) do they find it cringy or cute?

Rocket and I would have matching necklaces :) Drax really loves our wedding rings— they were a gift from Peter.

who’s more the scaredy cat out of you two?

Me by a long shot. I don’t get squeamish with blood and gore (kind of a requirement in our line of work) but whenever we fight gross looking monsters it really freaks me out. The hellspawn the HE created were by far the worst.

what kind of things is your f/o into? games, music, decor, whatever!

Rocket kind of adopted Peter’s taste in music :) he also likes to watch movies— horror movies especially. That’s something he and I have in common :) I enjoy them for spooks, but he thinks they’re hilarious.

the most random thing you associate with your f/o (foods, shapes, even textures! anything that’s not an obvious)

For Rocket: having really good muscle memory for driving a vehicle, or doing something with your hands. It’s kind of silly but, like, seeing someone solve a Rubik’s cube super fast reminds me of how he puts together scraps of metal.

For Drax: genuine laughter. It’s so lovely <3

anything your f/o absolutely hates, but you absolutely love?

Rocket can’t stand spicy food, but I absolutely love it 😋 and Drax really doesn’t like heat, but I enjoy it :) summer is my favorite season

any aesthetic or -core you associate with your f/o, whether it be due to their design or personality?

Ummmm space pirate :0 I don’t know if that makes sense, but like— have you seen Treasure Planet? That kinda deal. Danger and adventure and really stylish outfits, but also futuristic technology.

who's more likely to die first in a zombie apocalypse lol

Me 💀

do your f/os have any long term wishes or goals? what about your s/i?

For all of us, probably being in a good place to adopt kids. Right now Rocket is still dealing with his past, and Drax is busy helping Nebula with repairing Knowhere, but maybe a couple years in the future we could think about it :)

your favorite f/o fun fact or bit of lore

Rocket loves dancing. He loves singing. He loves music. Especially with Groot, haha— they have a lot of fun. And with Drax, I absolutely adore that he’s so good with kids. I love Nebula’s quote about how he wasn’t made to be a destroyer, he was made to be a dad. It was tragic that he lost his daughter, but the fact that he still has love in his heart to care for the kids we rescued from the High Evolutionary…

Drax is such a sad character, and that isn’t recognized enough. When he and Mantis are on Ego’s planet, and she uses her empathic abilities to feel his emotions and is immediately overwhelmed with sadness, all the while Drax is completely calm. He rarely shows on his face how truly sad he is.

which animal represents your f/o the best?

Um. 🦝

does your f/o run hot or cold?

Rocket hot, Drax cold

free space to gush about whatever you want ♡

I was hoping there’s be a question I’d be able to fit this into (something like “what is a way you help your F/O and vice versa”) but I am a huge sucker for non-sexual intimacy. Rocket has cybernetics on his back, and they need special care to upkeep them, and he used to have Groot take care of that, but after he passed away in the first movie… anyway, at that point, I’m Rocket’s closest friend, so even though I’m nervous as hell because I suck at robotics, Rocket asks me to help with occasional tune ups and cleaning. Hmm I guess I could have added this to our domestic routines… lol whatever. Anyway that trust means a lot to me ❤️

[prydon]

22, 23, 24? :0

did 24 here so i'll just do 22 and 23!

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

this depends a lot on the fic. most of the time i do it while writing. in rare cases (looking at you, "the idea of growing old" and "man hands on misery to man") i actually chose the title first, because the song or poem that i got it from is what inspired the fic to begin with.

i like my titles to be relatively short, easy to remember, and directly related to the fic in a not overly obtuse way (which is nothing against long obtuse titles, it's just not my preference). i.e: father of mine, which is not intentionally pulled from anything, i just wanted a snappy title with the word "father" in it because the fic is primarily about nureyev's relationship to his surrogate father and therefore it's easy to remember.

i do lyrics and lines of poetry a lot of the time, but recently i've trended towards titles which just represent the story and don't have a particular source, or are pulled from lines in the fic.

23. Is writing the beginning, middle or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

i would say the beginning is the easiest and end is the hardest. middle goes either way depending on the scene. but god, endings are a bitch. not even the finale in general--i can do those. but making the very last few lines stick and feel like a worthy conclusion, especially to a very long fic, is a nightmare.

now i'm actually curious though, so i'm gonna look up the final lines of a few of my fics and stick em under the cut just to see what they look like and if they still hit out of context.... spoilers for friendly fire, constellations, homesick, and father of mine ahead.

friendly fire:

Somewhere a thousand miles away, a group of identical men in black suits are sitting in a gloomy conference room. They’re talking in rapid, monotone voices as they concoct a plan to deal with a certain employee who has been deemed no longer useful—but that plan has one fatal flaw. They still believe Peter Nureyev is alone.

constellations:

Abba sits down beside him and sends him a smile. “Welcome home, boychik.”

homesick:

The light from the yellow sun shines down on them, less familiar than the sunlight Vespa had grown up with, but still warm. Waves crash against the shore below, and for one breathless moment, she’s filled with intense gratitude for the life she’s currently living and the people she’s living it with.

father of mine:

Grief is a long, lonely road, and no amount of recognition of Mag’s abuse will make walking it any easier. But he has a family who knows him by name, and a lady who loves him and will hold him through it all.  He’s always going to miss his father, but he doesn’t need him anymore.

[aliteratewolf]

The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles

Author: Madeline Miller

Rating: 4.5

Okay, I know this book has been out for a *while* (12 years now) and everyone and their mother has reviewed it. So do I think I’m going to say anything groundbreaking in this review? Probably not. But these reviews, especially the earlier ones, are more for my benefit than anything. 

The Song of Achilles is an adaptation of the Achilles and Patroclus myth, and one of the early Greek Mythology retellings. Greek retellings have ballooned in popularity, partially due to the fact that the Percy Jackson generation is growing up. The sheer amount of Hades and Persephone retellings ALONE is overwhelming, and a lot of people want to put their own spin on it. Weather we want a more feminist telling, modernized, or one where the ending isn’t as sad as the original myth, there’s something about these stories that we as a collective can’t seem to get enough of.

Madeline Miller stepped into this scene early, was one of the trend setters. As such, she didn’t have to do anything too crazy in order to capture her audience. (I once read a book that was the story of the Labyrinth as a reality show… It was interesting) Because of this, she doesn’t deviate too far from the myth. There are a couple changes or maybe just things the main character isn’t aware of, but overall she is fairly close to the original story. The main difference is we’re getting is the point of view.

If you’re not sure what the Achilles and Patroclus myth is, I’ll give you a quick rundown:

Achilles is a hero of Greece and one of the heroes of the Trojan War albeit somewhat unwillingly. He’s a demigod child of Thetis and Peleus, a nymph and King of Phthia respectively. When he was born a prophecy was received by Thetis that he would be greater than his father, and would either live a long but boring life, or the short life of a Hero. To give him a better chance of surviving war/battle, she dips him in the river Styx like a dipped ice cream cone to try and make him immortal. The only part that wasn’t submerged was the heel she was holding him by. (where we get Achilles’ Heel)

Patroclus was his “roommate” and later in life one of his greatest confidants. Patroclus travels with him to the Trojan War despite the fact that he isn’t a warrior, and is killed by Hector while pretending to be Achilles. Later after Achilles dies by Paris’s hand, the two are buried together.

It’s pretty gay.

Now we could go into the historical context and how there weren’t culturally words like homosexual and heterosexual and how it was considered normal for men to have relationships with men up until they got married…but I don’t have the credentials for that.

The Song of Achilles, despite the name is told through the point of view of Patroclus, the friend/confidant/possible lover (definitely lover in this book) that gets largely ignored in most tellings of the Trojan War up until the part where he is killed by Hector, which puts Achilles into a blind rage until his own death. Patroclus tells the story of watching someone choose to become a hero, knowing that means he will die young.

Now, it’s been a while since I read the Illiad (glossed over it in high school) but in Miller’s telling, Achilles is aware of the fact that he lives as long as Hector does. This coupled with the fact that he also knows no one else can take Hector on, he avoids facing the Trojan for over a decade, trying to have a blissful moment with Patroclus. And Patroclus is *also* aware of this, and doesn’t say anything about it for close to ten years. He also wants to have as long as possible with Achilles and they’re willing to prolong an entire war just to have those moments. It’s only when the war starts to turn south and Greece starts loosing that Patroclus tries to appeal to Achilles to end the war.

This book is about heartbreak, sacrifice, fate and hubris; the usual players in Greek myths. Achilles thinks he’s better than everyone, even the king’s he’s fighting for, because his whole life he’s been told he was better than everyone. Even Patroclus holds Achilles up on a pedestal, and he sees the most of Achilles’ humanity.

Greek myths don’t usually have a happy ending, at least not in the conventional way. Technically the ‘happy ending’ is that we are still telling their stories centuries later, and that they get to live on through our words. But on paper things don’t always come up roses, and I think that’s what keeps drawing us into these stories. Maybe it gives us that sense of heartbreak without having to be directly involved. It’s an itch in us to feel sorrow, like when you watch a YouTube video specifically just to cry. (Big Bird sings at Jim Henson’s Memorial, you’ll ball I promise) Or maybe we’re hoping that this time it will work, that everything will end okay. 

Or maybe, like I said earlier, we’re all Percy Jackson kids grown up thirsting for more of those stories. 

Madeline Miller has also done her take on Circe, and is teasing us with her own take on the Persephone tale. The second doesn’t have a pub date yet as far as I can tell, but when it comes out I’ll bet people will flock to it.

[kaile-hultner]

THE SPECTACULAR LEVIATHAN

an essay about criticism and culture

ed sheeran doesn't need music critics

Rolling Stone published an article of cut content from a recent Ed Sheeran feature, in which the pop musician said, "Why do you need to read a review? Listen to it. It’s freely available! Make up your own mind. I would never read an album review and go, ‘I’m not gonna listen to that now.'"

And to some degree, Sheeran is right. Streaming services make music readily available and conjure the illusion that it's also freely given to us. We don't "need" cultural gatekeepers - such as, ironically, Rolling Stone - to tell us whether or not the newest song by Ed Sheeran is bad (that's just a deeply felt sense we hold in our bones, which Spotify or Apple Music can help us confirm at our leisure).

But like most criticism-of-criticism in this vein, Sheeran's point misses the forest for the trees. We absolutely don't need critics to tell us whether "thing good" or "thing bad," but that's not necessarily why critics even exist in the first place. In addition to that sort of mere qualitative statement, critics exist to help us understand context, like how financially deleterious the very existence of streaming services is to the artists themselves, for example, or how subscribing to a streaming service means that your music collection is never actually yours and can be revoked by the record companies at any time. Critics can help to place Sheeran in his historical context as a contemporary singer and songwriter, or offer more palatable, lesser-known alternatives to his vapid art. Critics could, if they wanted, try to situate Sheeran's songs in a political context, though I could not tell you how that would shake out to save my life.

Sheeran is not the only person to make that mistake, by any means. The idea that critics are unnecessary today except as objects of derision or agreement is popular, and the idea that criticism is only there to tell you whether "thing good" or "thing bad" is even upheld by people responsible for making sure criticism gets published to a broad audience, like IGN's executive editor of reviews.

Critics ourselves are often pushed into this narrow view of our field whether we like it or not, not necessarily out of malice but out of the harsh realities of business in the media industry. We watch as our friends and colleagues get fired from their "sure thing" jobs regularly, as outlets shutter and downsize to focus only on that which can get the greatest algorithmic return-on-investment.

Even with service journalism, the underpaid and undervalued field where writers put out dozens of how-to guides on everything from "How do I beat this level in Final Fantasy VII Remake" to "Where can I find the latest blockbuster on streaming," writers' jobs are being threatened by the looming mistake of Large Language Model (LLM)-generated content. Why pay someone to write an accurate, carefully considered guide that actually feels like a person wrote them - you know, the appeal of old chestnuts like GameFAQs guides - when you can just get a chatbot (and by extension, forced labor in Kenya) to do the work instead? At a certain level of bullshit jobs-style upper management, what's considered "efficient" is directly antithetical to human life.

But this isn't Ed Sheeran's fault, per se, nor is it really his problem. He's a point on a graph of a much broader trend.

anti-criticism in the age of disney adults

Poet laureate Karl Shapiro identified the concept of "anti-criticism" in a series of lectures delivered from October to December, 1949.1 He saw "[arguments] against criticism [as] related to a wider and more dangerous anti-intellectualism that in poetics leads to the primacy of the second-rate, and in literary politics may lead to official and controlled art." In his ensuing Poetry article, "What is Anti-Criticism?" Shapiro briefly examines the history of 18th and 19th century poetry and how it was analyzed, carefully demonstrating the values such structural and interpretive analysis upheld and how they were incompatible with contemporary 20th century poetry - and indeed, its critical apparatus.

The anti-critic takes for his quarry not only the modern symbolist poets but also the old symbolist poets like Blake; not only the modern metaphysical poets but also the old metaphysical poets; and in addition to these the polylingual poets; those who practice typographical or grammatical experiments, past or present; those who use one rhetorical figure at the expense of the other- those who are too abstract and those who are too concrete. The contemporary poet may not be tolerant of all these kinds of poetry himself, but the anti-critic would like to get rid of the lot. His measure, as I said before, is the prose semantic, and any violation of this central canon he regards as a threat to intelligibility and sanity. To the anti-critic any departure from the immediate area of the paraphrasable meaning is, moreover, a sign of wilful obscurantism. [...] A highly paraphrasable poetry is equivalent to a highly representational art, and both, in a period like ours, are liable to degenerate into escapist art.

Shapiro describes phenomena that would likely be familiar to anyone who has lived through the last decade of critical discourse around any kind of art you can imagine, from the indiscriminate uplifting of mediocre yet broadly popular "cultural products" to the bashing of art that resists easy interpretation and a sneering attitude toward the critics who attempt to analyze said art anyway. Through Shapiro we see anti-critics in those who endlessly repeat "Let People Enjoy Things" at anyone who doesn't like a superhero movie, in the throngs of gamers (and the reviewers who enabled them) who refused to let a little systemic transphobia get in the way of their Hogwarts Legacy run, and in Ed Sheeran's throwaway jab at the critics forced to listen to his pablum for less money than they should be getting for their troubles.

The anti-critic has surely evolved in other important ways away from what Shapiro observed in the first few years after World War II, just as the corporate media/art space has evolved. We see the "enthusiast" subsume more formal critics and critical outlets all the time, coincidentally as a monoculture forms around a few massive entertainment and technology corporations. In one particularly blunt example, critic B.D. McClay notes that a writer for IGN was replaced as the reviewer for the Disney+/Marvel series Loki after a single less-than-glowing review of the show. In a more recent example, replies to longtime film critic Robert Daniels's tweet panning The Super Mario Bros. Movie ranged from indifferent to derisive, with one reply telling him, "I’ll trust the reviews from people who actual [sic] play the game," together with a screenshot of IGN's 8/10 review synopsis.

We might revisit that IGN article that contends the purpose of criticism is to determine whether "thing good" or "thing bad," as it actually contends something worse: that the wide majority of things even worth talking about in IGN's eyes are broadly "good" along a sliding scale of quality from "mediocre" to "superlative." In this case, the criticism isn't even merely qualitative; it's meant to be singularly supportive or at worst ambivalent about a given cultural product. It is itself anti-criticism.

McClay (more charitably than I suspect Shapiro would have been) identifies the tendency for largely positive anti-critical writing about mass media as "a world of appreciation," not necessarily unadulterated fandom, but "essentially, a fan culture." In this dynamic, there is only people who like the thing, and the thing itself. If negativity in this world of appreciation exists, McClay explains, it does so as part of a binary: "the rave and the takedown."

an endless content™ jubilee

I remember when I first got into games criticism I heard everyone joke about the "discourse wheel" and how if you spent enough time in the industry you'd eventually find yourself back at the beginning, older, not necessarily wiser, yet experiencing many of the same arguments about a particular game or design concept yet again. The obvious punchline was someone yelling "LUDONARRATIVE DISSONANCE" and watching everyone in the discord server duck under their desks like an air raid alarm had gone off.

Since then, The Last of Us has gotten a sequel, a PC remaster, a full remake of the first game, and a whole-ass television show with a second season on the way. The discourse around that media franchise has happened in front of me not once, not twice, but like four times at this point. As Autumn Wright wrote, "there’s a new AAA catastrophe that’s weird about trans people and also The Last of Us is relevant again."

This is perhaps not the worst or wildest example of monoculture forming around us in a suffocating cloud, though. That dubious distinction goes to Disney and Microsoft, probably, as the companies attempting to gather up as much culture as they can to homogenize it, with the former going as far as digitizing actors' voices for use long after they retire in new portrayals of characters those actors first performed more than 40 years ago. Hell, it's not even the worst example in the games industry. What iteration number is Call of Duty on? Or Assassin's Creed? Or fucking Mario? Hell, we're already two deep into the reboot of God of War.

It's hardly worth saying at this point that nostalgia fuels so much of the media that we're given to consume. It's increasingly difficult to find new art or ideas in a media landscape that puts so much value on callbacks to old forms. If something isn't another superhero origin story, it's referencing a meme from 12 years ago. And it's nearly impossible to resist the ever-present pull of this strictly iterative culture: I can't lie and say I didn't thoroughly enjoy both of the above examples.

But we still need to try and cut through the overwhelm for a moment. Disney isn't a poison to the culture simply because it owns Marvel Studios or Lucasfilm. The reason for its negative impact is because of the absolute crushing presence it has in the film and television industries at large, having bought out major competitors like 20th Century Fox and nearly completely snowed out smaller film studios at the theaters. It doesn't help that the industry is consolidating in other ways with its move to streaming platforms. As Adam Conover said in a recent video about two different mergers (Live Nation and Ticket Master in the 90s and Warner Media with Discovery late last year), "one man's whims and preferences dictate which stories artists get to tell and what hundreds of millions of people get to watch."

The idea that a few rich dudes are in full control of every piece of media we consume and that the number of rich dudes who do so is actively getting smaller all the timesucks, not just for criticism's purposes but simply as someone who Consumes Content™. To my knowledge, no one has ever been explicitly asked if we want the same shit, year in and year out, only More. Nobody from Game Freak or Ubisoft ever sends out a survey like "hey are y'all tired of Pokémon or Rainbow Six: Siege seasons?" Instead, they just push them out, and let the resulting economic data do the talking: "People want more of this thing because a lot of them bought the thing when it came out." There's such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when we're less likely (or able) to say no in the first place.

In this light, doesn't it make just too much sense that Ed Sheeran has a whole mini documentary series coming out on Disney Plus?

towards a guerrilla criticism

So what's to be done here? Aside from maybe the 🏴 most 🔥🍾 obvious 💣 (and unlikely) answers with regards to the most egregious monopolies, how can critics - who are, as a reminder, less institutionally supported than ever - or criticism even contend with Content™ backed by the most well-funded mega corps on earth and supported by hegemonically anti-critical fanbases?

Here is where I disagree most heavily with thinkers like Shapiro, who believed in retaining an elevated critical class and poetic movement with remove from the masses, and critics like McClay, who said "Opinions will become both more binary and more homogenous, and about fewer and fewer things. [...] things will get worse, whether or not they ever get better." I don't think our options necessarily have to be "remove ourselves to an academic ivory tower" or "accept that things are the way they are." We don't need to dutifully fall into line along the "rave" or "takedown" axis as McClay described.

The kind of criticism I am imagining is a criticism that is inherently and radically skeptical of (especially corporate-backed) nostalgia; a criticism that is not necessarily hostile to fans but antagonistic toward fandom as a system which undergirds larger structures of power; a criticism that is as transgressive and playful in the forms it takes as it is with the words that fill those forms. I believe we are capable of performing criticism that disappoints everyone in delightful ways.

Criticism as a weapon is not a new idea, of course. Marx is famously quoted as saying "The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses." More modern philosophers and theorists, like the Situationists and Bruno Latour, have written about the decline and possible weaponization of criticism as well. To a degree, that worries me. Talk doesn't just become action because the talker wishes for it real hard. There's a real possibility, no, a near-certainty, that anything that comes out of this will result in next to nothing changing. If everything is part of the cycle of discourse, including conversations on how to break the discourse, what hope do we have?

The alternative to facing the leviathan and losing at the moment seems to be more or less doing nothing, which to me is more unbearable than all the pranks of all the cringe-ass culture jammers of the 90s and 2000s combined. At what point does quiet dissent simply morph into complicity?

***

Shapiro, Karl. “What Is Anti-Criticism?” Poetry, vol. 75, no. 6, 1950, pp. 339–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20591169. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

[deltaruminations]

i was checking uses of the don’t forget leitmotif in the first two chapters, and i’d never really thought about it much, but DF doesn’t actually appear in that many tracks, especially after chapter 1. it mostly appears in tracks that bookend the chapters/game; it doesn’t come up much in the dark world adventures themselves (aside from a little usage in “field of hopes and dreams”/“scarlet forest”/“the world revolving,” a trend which doesn’t continue in chapter 2’s overworld or superboss themes). it mostly plays out-of-bounds, in the light world, and when we seal fountains. ok also the track “friendship” but whatever you get what i mean

with that in mind — you know where it does come up during our adventures? The Dark Truth. the Roaring Prophecy track. one of only three new tracks introduced in chapter 2 that uses the DF leitmotif, and the only one of those three that appears during the actual game (rather than menus/credits). the one that also contains a Lost Girl quote, which it uses interchangeably with the Don’t Forget quote, musically connecting Lost Girl (possibly representative of dess?) to both the Roaring as a concept and Don’t Forget as a song.

the way it appears in the track is interesting to me, too. similarly to the “once upon a time” leitmotif in undertale, the “don’t forget” leitmotif seems to normally be used to evoke comfort and familiarity. when contextualized by the actual song itself, the leitmotif has an added layer of intimacy, trust, and understanding. The Dark Truth plays that melody on a reverberating piano(1) that sounds small, sad, wistful, and unsure against the menacing, mournful drone of the chorus and strings — the first time we’ve really heard this leitmotif in an overtly dark context (even TWR is still an upbeat, energetic song that blasts the DF quote at us on hype-ass trumpets). where DF normally represents a promise of hope, this feels like a loss of that hope; or, maybe, a promise broken; a dream becoming a nightmare, a haunting regret, one that apparently has to do with Roarings and Lost Girls somehow. compare this to the sheer triumph of the same leitmotif in “Your Power,” when a fountain is closed and the Roaring kept at bay.

who is it that might be feeding ralsei these Prophecies? who seeks a new ending and grieves when darkness falls? do these Prophecies exist because their writer has seen it all before? does The Dark Truth represent a premonition, or a memory?

(1) gastor instromendt

[talenlee]

Story Pile: There She Is!!

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: Story Pile: There She Is!!

In internet culture times, there’s a timelessness and an immateriality that comes from being classic.

If you were on the internet in your teenage years in around 2004, you probably know something about a particular genre of animation that tends to get called ‘Flash’ animation. And there’s a lot to be said about how Flash animation worked, and the gates it left wildly open. Sometimes people get caught up on the techniques and what they permitted, and lose track of the compression, and how turning a long animation into vectors and math meant it could be more easily translated into an internet transmissable format. That format led to hosting sites, and those hosting sites led to communities and those communities led to trends and distribution, and that is how you get things that people knew, that seemingly everyone had seen, but couldn’t attribute to any kind of source.

Even if the thing everyone’s seen has source inside it, ‘cos it’s written in a different language.

Content Warning: Racism and a pet death

떳다 그녀!! There She Is!! complete HD :: SamBakZa official

Watch this video on YouTube

That’s kind of how There She Is!!, a 2004 set of animations about a rabbit named Doki who crushes on a cat named Nabi from the South Korean team posting on SamBakZa got to be omnipresent and obvious in the minds of a very specific niche of Too On The Internet kids who are now all, uh, well, you should go to bed earlier and maybe get a chair that’s better for your back. There’s very little I can properly offer about the animation itself — I think it looks amazing, I think that there’s a lot of vibrance and detail to all the scenes, and I also think that I’m a dude who doesn’t know enough about animation to really provide meaningful commentary there.

I knew for a long time that this was ‘a thing from Korea’ but that was the limit of my awareness, and most people I knew went that far too. You watched the first bit, maybe the second bit and went ‘oh hey, wow, there were two parts to this’ and that was cool and impressive and then it bubbled along in the sea of content.

I also didn’t think there was more to it than ‘pretty animation about anime style couple with a pushy girl and a shy boy.’ I have one of the songs from this collection, the Bulldog Mansion song Happy Birthday To Me, which I still listen to on a yearly basis. I didn’t really think there was more to it, despite there being very clearly two parts I saw, and the second part ended on a cliffhanger. It wasn’t for years that I’d go back, and, realising that this thing was almost twenty years old, investigate it and see what I thought of it with the benefit of hindsight.

Turns out there’s a lot more to There She Is!! than I had appreciated when I watched those first two parts. Heck, there’s a kickstarter game project that seems to be dead, but then that’s not a surprise in the context of the internet culture of the 00s.

Anyway, uh, There She Is!! is about racism.

Most specifically it’s about the particular variety of racism not uncommon in South Korea about relationships between Japanese and Korean people, which you can nitpick that ‘hey, this isn’t quite about racism’ but look, it’s an oppression structure based entirely out of racism, don’t give me that look.

There’s a bunch of stuff that serves as hallmarks of being a 2004-era thing, like the way the phones look and the fact Nabi has a job delivering newspapers that appears to be, like, a job. There’s also a 2004ness to its depiction of relationships, especially in that particular model of anime-style pushy-girl cartoon-violence archetype. Doki is very cute, but cute in a Sanrio way, she’s not designed in a way that I think the audience is meant to relate to her as being hot. There’s a definitely deliberate cutesiness to the whole thing. Doki starts out being interested in Nabi and then the visual language of the story positions us as seeing things from Nabi’s perspective — she’s everywhere he goes, she expresses her interest in him, relentlessly, and she’s not interested in his rationale as to why she shouldn’t be.

“I like you.” “You shouldn’t.” “Why not.” “Racism.” “I don’t get it.”

But at the same time, she expresses her displeasure with over-the-top violence that’s clearly meant to be more ‘relentless’ than ‘actually terrifying,’ since one of the things she does is fill an elevator with seemingly otherwise-immaterial love hearts. This can get framed as ‘hey, this is about a stalker’ but it’s really obviously not — Nabi’s framed as being surprised and shocked by her presence when she appears, but also from his literal first interaction with her, his reaction is ‘but bunnies and cats don’t date,’ and he’s clearly running from that.

Don’t remember it?

Go back and rewatch it. Look at Nabi’s first reaction to her expressing interest; he looks to his surroundings, to see what do other people do. It’s what he’s running from. Nabi doesn’t want to do the thing you’re Not Supposed To Do. Doki’s whole ‘unreasonable’ nature is that she’s not willing to accept racism as a good reason to avoid her, and when he starts hanging out with her… he’s immediately smitten with how she tries things.

Oh my god, this whole thing rips. I like it so much, and I found the whole thing, collected at once, as a set of music videos telling the story they did, as being really sweet and sad and painful all in the same way. Like, this is a story about racism where characters get subjected to hate crimes, that’s something I wasn’t used to seeing in ‘serious’ media. They try to share time and show care for one another around the constraints of their society and even that’s not good enough, because when you’re dealing with a system like racism, it’s about keeping you in your place which is anywhere but here. It’s not being mean, it’s about the understanding you should know how the world works. A rock thrown through a window is meant to scare someone because they don’t know who threw it but they do know why it was thrown.

The oppression is everywhere, too. The restaurant in Cake Dance was happy to serve the party of cats and bunnies but the second Nabi and Doki showed affection for one another, they threw the whole party out. The jagged-outline bunnies are the kids of an interracial relationship (it’s why they have the fuzzy outlines), and they’re street toughs who do nothing but crime because it’s not like they have an alternative. When they see a cop, their only solution is how do we hurt them because they know full well that the system is designed to hurt them first. Nabi can’t get a moment of peace from it in a hospital room with Doki.

Nabi doesn’t give up because he’s weak, he gives up because the system is designed to crush him and his refusal to be crushed, in the end, is a remarkable show of strength when the reality is the system shouldn’t be there, it shouldn’t be allowed to treat them like this.

This oppression is so absolute, so overwhelming, that I found it drily miserable to see its mollifying, polite cousin in the Youtube comments. Why, this person is so happy that the animation portrays the racist protesters as just as bad as the anti-racist protesters. And another one. And another one again. And there it was, the comparison to recent anti-Asian hate, and how everyone needed to cool down, because it’s very important that you know that these systems are, you know, very bad, but also, it’s bad to try and change them.

Yeah, the story isn’t as as unequivocally on the side of anti-racism protesters as it could be, but it still pictures them as a very real force doing really good work, clashing with people who are trying to hurt people, and trying to stop them, and in the end, while they present challenges for this specific story, they’re still there to fight for a better world which is part of what Nabi and Doki commit to doing at the end.

You wanna know the moment that makes me tear up, though? Not the relationship, not the culmination of it, it’s this single moment. It’s so fucking dumb, but it makes so much sense to me. It’s this bit where Il-ho just eats shit off a motorcycle into an intersection.

He knows his gangmates (siblings?) can get Nabi there. He knows it’s going to hurt. He knows he can do this, and he knows it’s what he can do here. It’s the culmination of so many complicated feelings about being one of life’s secondary characters, from this wordless angry rabbit gangster, who gets treated like a monster by the people around him, who doesn’t know much but he does know how to hurt and how to handle being hurt. No hesitation, no doubt, this is what it’s gunna be and he just goes for it.

Il-ho’s great.

I like the airport scene too, but not because of the centrist bullshit stance people in the Youtube Comments are taking, about how it’s about both sides being bad. It’s because when confronted with that moment, with these big political forces, the yes and the no, Nabi isn’t making a choice based on those things. He’s not doing things because he’s been argued into it, he’s doing the right thing for right here, and that’s admitting what he wants. He wants Doki and he wants to stay and if that means tomorrow he’s making the world better for both of them, then that’s what he’s gunna do. Because all these systems get changed by people doing things to make the world better, by finding the people they can help and connecting them.

Fun tidbit: This whole thing started out as a comic in a braille newspaper!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[starseedfxofficial]

The Role of AI in Analyzing EURUSD Market Trends: Deep Dive into Rare Insights Ever wondered how some traders seem to have a crystal ball, effortlessly predicting EURUSD market trends? Spoiler alert: they might just be using AI. Today, we're not just dipping our toes into the role of AI in Forex, but diving deep to uncover rare, under-the-radar insights that you won't find in your average trading manual. Brace yourself—this journey is filled with a mix of game-changing techniques, hidden opportunities, and a sprinkle of humor, just to make things interesting. The Matrix Has You, Trader: How AI Spots What You Can’t Alright, let's get one thing clear: AI doesn't see the market like you do. While you're busy looking at price charts and wondering why EURUSD won't just do what you want, AI is analyzing mountains of data, from economic indicators to Twitter sentiment. Imagine trying to count every leaf in a forest while someone else already knows which tree is going to shed first. That’s AI in the Forex market. Artificial Intelligence algorithms, particularly machine learning models, can process an absurd amount of data at lightning speed. They don't get tired, they don't blink, and they don't get emotionally attached to a trade (looking at you, John). These models analyze historical data to identify complex patterns that human traders often overlook. One trader I know once called AI "the Sherlock Holmes of market analysis"—except AI doesn’t have to deal with a Watson who constantly needs explaining. Deep Neural Networks: Not Just for Self-Driving Cars Deep learning techniques like neural networks play a significant role in analyzing the EURUSD pair. These models are capable of making sense of complex, non-linear relationships within the data—something akin to untangling the headphones you left in your pocket. The hidden layers of a neural network can pinpoint correlations between seemingly unrelated market events, which translates to better trend prediction and better trade timing. For instance, a neural network might detect that a rise in European economic confidence, combined with positive sentiment from Federal Reserve reports, might trigger a significant move in the EURUSD. Sure, you could manually crunch the numbers for a month to figure this out, but wouldn’t it be better to let a glorified, super-intelligent calculator do it in 30 seconds? Unseen Opportunities with AI Sentiment Analysis Here's where we take the unconventional route: AI sentiment analysis. While most traders are laser-focused on technical indicators, AI has the audacity to ask, "What’s the mood like today?" Sentiment analysis tools leverage natural language processing (NLP) to interpret emotions in financial news, social media, and even central bank speeches. If AI detects a shift towards optimism across multiple channels, it could signal an upward move in EURUSD. The secret sauce here is that sentiment analysis provides context that technical charts simply can't. It's like listening to your favorite song—you’re not just analyzing the notes, you’re feeling the vibe. AI taps into that vibe, then quantifies it, turning emotions into numbers. Imagine knowing whether the market is feeling cheerful or anxious—it’s almost like insider knowledge, but legal. AI-Driven Trading Bots: Ninja Tactics for the EURUSD Market Let’s address the elephant in the room: trading bots. Not just any bots, but AI-driven bots that adapt to evolving market conditions like a chameleon on steroids. Most traders think of bots as "set it and forget it," but AI bots are much more sophisticated. These bots learn from each trade, adapt their strategy, and evolve with changing market dynamics—something even your favorite Forex guru can’t do on-the-fly. Take EURUSD, for example: If a bot notices that its usual strategies are less effective during specific Fed announcements, it can adjust its parameters to mitigate risk—think of it as the ultimate survival ninja, dodging every market punch in real-time. While most traders struggle to avoid whipsaw movements during such announcements, AI bots execute precise orders at optimal times, ensuring they make fewer mistakes (and fewer sad trader faces). Contrarian Insights: How AI Challenges the Herd Mentality Here's a myth worth busting: more data equals better predictions. False. AI knows that what matters is the right data. One of the most valuable insights AI provides is challenging the herd mentality. When everyone is bullish on EURUSD, AI might identify subtle contrarian signals, like an uptick in bond yields or a shift in liquidity preference, that could indicate a pending reversal. Picture this: A crowd of traders piling into a long EURUSD position because it’s “the obvious choice,” while AI quietly takes the opposite side of the trade because it’s detected an overbought condition. AI isn’t just your trading buddy—it’s that one friend who won’t follow the crowd to a terrible party. Instead, it takes you to a hidden speakeasy where the real action’s at. Unpacking the Hype: Is AI All It’s Cracked Up to Be? Alright, it's easy to put AI on a pedestal, but let’s be real: AI isn’t foolproof. Like every other system, it can make errors, especially if it's fed incomplete or poor-quality data. Garbage in, garbage out. But the difference here is that AI can also learn from its mistakes—something most of us struggle with (admit it, how many times have you ignored that risk management rule?). In terms of EURUSD, AI models are only as good as the data they’re trained on. An edge comes not just from the AI system itself, but also from the quality and depth of historical data, the integration of alternative data sources (like satellite images or weather reports), and the creativity behind building the model. The trick is combining robust data sets with out-of-the-box thinking—think, "How would Sherlock Holmes trade Forex?" The Real Magic Trick: Combining AI Insights with Human Intuition Here’s where it all comes together: AI is not a replacement for the human trader, but rather an enhancement. Traders who combine their market intuition—that gut feeling you get after watching the EURUSD charts for years—with AI-driven insights are the ones who truly achieve next-level performance. Think of AI as a loyal sidekick, like Robin to your Batman. Robin does a lot of the work, but let’s face it—Batman’s intuition saves the day. One unconventional approach is to use AI to screen out the noise, then rely on your experience to make the final decision. AI might indicate a high probability of a breakout based on historical volatility, but you, as the trader, can assess whether current market conditions really make sense for that breakout to happen. By blending emotionless data-crunching with a nuanced understanding of market psychology, traders can make decisions that are both precise and insightful. Leveraging AI for EURUSD Market Trends - AI processes vast amounts of data at lightning speed to identify market trends before they’re visible to humans. - Deep learning models, like neural networks, reveal complex patterns, helping traders predict EURUSD movements. - Sentiment analysis using AI can provide insights into the market mood—offering a contrarian edge. - AI trading bots are the ultimate survival ninjas, learning from each trade and adapting to market changes. - AI challenges herd mentality, often revealing profitable contrarian opportunities. - Combining AI insights with human intuition leads to strategic, data-driven trading—Robin and Batman working in harmony. Ready to Level Up Your Forex Game? Want more insider secrets on navigating the volatile waters of Forex trading? We've got your back: - Stay Ahead with Market Insights: Get the latest Forex news and market movers at StarseedFX Forex News Today. - Expand Your Knowledge: Learn advanced trading strategies that take your trading from average to exceptional at StarseedFX Forex Education. - Join the Community: Access exclusive analysis, alerts, and live trading insights by joining our community here. AI is powerful, but it’s even better when you’re using the right tools and strategies. Time to make the market work for you—without needing a crystal ball. —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article

[hoochy-coo]

People are starting to hate on Taylor Swift again probably because of over exposure and because of her blocking Billie and Charli. I’ve also seen people calling her music mediocre again. What would you say makes Taylor Swift an objectively good artist and do you think that those reasons are fair ( I very much understand that people don’t like what she did to Charli and Billie).

Unfortunately, I think it was just a matter of time before we revisit this phase where it’s cool to “hate” on Taylor again after a lengthy period of people championing her for doing as little as breathing. What she’s doing with the charts (especially in the context of going out of her way to block people from reaching #1) is obviously not nice and pretty shameless imo, like which variants of TTPD are we in now? However, if you’ve been a fan of Taylor pre-folkmore then I don’t think this would be surprising??? She obviously cares about numbers, she enjoys being the top dog and she is the ultimate capitalist. Maybe that doesn’t make her a fair person but she’s always been willing to do whatever it takes to be number one and I think that’s largely how she’s maintained her superstar status. There is admittedly a decline in the quality of music she’s putting out. It surprises me that TTPD is receiving so much criticism that I think Midnights should have? Like TTPD is bloated for sure, but Midnights was boring, mediocre and very one note compared to this album?? There are career highlights on TTPD whereas it’s crickets on Midnights lol

What makes Taylor an objectively good artist to me is her ability to put very universal feelings into words and she’s a really good story teller when she gets it right. She’s not really a vocalist or much of a performer to me, but she knows how to package her product so it would appeal to the masses and that’s not something every artist knows how to do. If you’re like me and you believe that artistry and branding are intertwined then she’s a master at that. There’s an entire lore behind her persona that plays so much into the music. Like can you imagine anyone else doing BDILH? Don’t think so.

Also I was thinking about this when I was listening to ‘us’ (as in the Gracie Abram’s song with the Taylor feature) and it occurred to me that Taylor has a really strong identity as an artist. She’s hopped on a lot of trends throughout the years but somehow she still makes it sound like a Taylor song. You all know I hate So Highschool and it’s so clearly trying to be a Y2k throwback alt rock bop, but when you hear it you still know right away that it’s her song lol

[dankusner]

Infinite Scroll

The New Generation of Online Culture Curators

In a digital landscape overrun by algorithms and A.I., we need human guides to help us decide what’s worth paying attention to.

Illustration of a hand holding a phone. Curated items floating in the composition.

The current Internet landscape sometimes feels like the Zone in Andrei Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”: directionless, inexplicable, bound to change in confusing ways.

Our social-media feeds don’t offer much except the forward acceleration of algorithmic recommendations.

Google and other forms of search are becoming clogged with content generated by artificial intelligence.

Knowing what you’re looking for doesn’t always help you chart a path, because niche communities can be difficult to locate and to keep up with.

We are in a transitional phase of digital culture, and thus more in need than ever of friendly faces, personable human guides (not unlike a “stalker” in the Zone), to help us navigate this treacherous ground.

Such guides go by many names—call them influencers, or content creators, or just “this one guy I follow.”

Guided by their own cultivated sense of taste, they bring their audiences news and insights in a particular cultural area, whether it’s fashion, books, music, food, or film.

Perhaps the best way to think of these guides is as curators;

like a museum curator pulling works together for an exhibition,

they organize the avalanche of online content into something coherent and comprehensible, restoring missing context and building narratives.

They highlight valuable things that we less-expert Internet surfers are likely to miss.

Andrea Hernández, the proprietor of Snaxshot, a newsletter and social-media account dedicated to “curating the food and beverage space,” told me recently, “Curation is about being able to filter the noise.”

(I follow Hernández for her skill at discovering the wildest examples of direct-to-consumer drinks startups, such as Feisty, a purveyor of “protein soda.”)

She continued, “I go out and I scour through the Internet and I come to you with my offerings.”

Unlike a museum curator, however, the digital personalities I have taken to following also become the faces of their work, broadcasting recordings of themselves, on TikTok and Instagram, as a way of building a trusting relationship with their followers.

One such curator is Derrick Gee, a former online radio d.j. who lives in Australia.

I first encountered Gee on TikTok and was pulled in by his architect-ish look: thin wireframe glasses and stylishly baggy, often monochrome outfits.

He records videos of himself talking into a microphone in a low, soothing voice, breaking down trends in contemporary pop music and reviewing high-end audio equipment.

Gee has become a fixture of my feed; I am one of his more than three hundred thousand followers.

He has introduced me to the world of Korean alt-rap, provided a playlist of ear-tickling minimalist piano instrumentals, and explained why Mitski’s latest album feels so vintage (because of an effect called “slap-back echo”).

I trust him not only to show me something cool but to teach me something new.

“I’m connecting the dots between cultures and sounds and eras,” he told me.

When Gee was a teen-ager, his electric-bass teacher played a similar role for him when he exposed Gee to James Jamerson, the Motown bass player who put jazz runs into pop songs.

“That opened my whole world up,” Gee said.

Gee’s practiced demeanor on the mike comes from his career off of social media.

He began working in graphic design and then in television development, but he also pursued an interest in music with a self-recorded radio show, which he began uploading to the Web site Mixcloud in 2012.

That show evolved into jobs with the music label 88rising, SiriusXM, and Mixcloud itself.

Gee began posting on TikTok in early 2022, after being introduced to the platform by a successful influencer who was trying to break into music.

Gee began with videos documenting his speaker collection but quickly moved on to leveraging his music expertise.

He told me that he is still a d.j., of a sort:

“What I do is radio but with a camera on. It’s just a break between songs,” he said.

By working outside of music-world institutions, he hopes to play a small part in moving the industry forward, pushing for more informed consumption.

He described himself as a kind of elder-brother figure to his audience:

“If I can turn you, a seventeen-year-old Korean American, on to U.K. garage, I’ve done my job.”

(For anyone who doesn’t follow Gee, “U.K. garage” is not garage rock but an influential British genre of electronic dance music that originated in the nineties and has made an impact on contemporary K-pop.)

Digital platforms are largely devoted to making users consume more, faster—think of TikTok’s frenetic “For You” feed or Spotify’s automated playlists.

Curators slow down the unending scroll and provide their followers with a way of savoring culture, rather than just inhaling it, developing a sense of appreciation.

Laura Reilly, who lives in Brooklyn, runs a newsletter and an Instagram account called Magasin (the French word for “store”), which she launched in 2021.

Now with more than twenty-eight thousand subscribers, Magasin touts itself with the tagline

“It’s a store. It’s a magazine. (It’s a fashion shopping newsletter.)”

But it goes beyond simple recommendations, championing lesser-known brands—the provider of earthy, upscale basics Studio Nicholson;

the knitwear maker Lauren Manoogian—and often interrogating the act of shopping itself.

“The more you learn about a brand,” Reilly told me, “the longer you’re going to hold on to those pieces.”

In other words, her informative posts are an antidote to fast fashion.

Reilly now employs a news editor and a menswear columnist, but she serves as a writer, editor, photographer, and model.

Magasin’s Instagram account features photo carrousels of her wearing outfits from the brands that the newsletter covers, but they are often dressing-room-mirror selfies, rather than polished portraits.

This goes beyond convenience into an intentional business strategy: like influencing, curating online can be a parasocial act.

“In order to be competitive, I needed to inject more of myself and my image into the newsletter,” she said.

Curation takes work, and like any other kind of labor it is only sustainable if it’s reasonably compensated.

Gee monetizes his account by creating sponsored content on TikTok, primarily for audio-equipment brands.

Magasin earns the majority of its revenue from affiliate marketing—for every reader who clicks a link to, say, a new Proenza Schouler cashmere sweater, and buys one,

Reilly earns a commission based on a small percentage of the sale price.

Before Magasin, Reilly worked in e-commerce fashion writing at the magazine InStyle, highlighting new product releases and deals.

That approach provided inspiration for her newsletter, and set her apart from other solo fashion commentators:

“I didn’t want it to be something that was a diary; I wanted it to be a service,” she said.

In a previous era of the Internet, we might have thought of figures like these simply as influencers, whose ability to attract large followings online gives them a power that sometimes surpasses that of traditional publications.

But the idea of an influencer has, as Reilly put it, become “a little flattened over time,” connoting shallow, uninformed, even misleading content dictated by sponsors.

“There’s a distinction between influencing and what I do,” Reilly insisted.

The archetypal influencer produces life-style porn of one form or another, playing up the aspirational glamour of their own home or meals or vacations.

The new wave of curators is more outward-looking, borrowing from the influencer’s playbook and piggybacking on social media’s intimate interaction with followers in order to address a body of culture beyond themselves.

Nathan Shuherk, an online curator of literature living in Indianapolis, didn’t mind the comparison between what he does and influencerdom.

Given “how much of culture is filtered through the eyes of influencers,” he told me, we ought to take the job seriously.

On TikTok, under the username @schizophrenicreads, Shuherk posts videos in which he delivers enthusiastic monologues about nonfiction books that reflect his personal preference for leftist, revisionist, socially engaged works of history—

“How to Hide an Empire,” by Daniel Immerwahr;

“Midwest Futures,” by Phil Christman.

He began posting on TikTok, in 2021, as a way to pass on recommendations for articles and books to his friends; he has now amassed nearly a hundred and eighty thousand followers.

Prior to running @schizophrenicreads, Shuherk had accumulated experience in a very different kind of public speaking.

He has schizophrenia, and in 2017 dropped out of a master’s program in library science and went on disability leave from work to adapt to living with the illness.

He occupied himself by giving lectures about his experiences for advocacy organizations.

His account name was partly a reference to his illness and partly a joke about his wide-ranging taste in reading. “I never really conceived of doing this for a mass audience; I was trying to be my friends’ unemployed librarian,” he said.

Owing to the cutoffs for receiving disability benefits, Shuherk tries to limit his income, but he maintains a small Patreon account, where fans can donate money and get access to extra material, including a podcast. (Full disclosure: I appeared on one episode.)

Shuherk cast the rise of curatorial accounts like his as a failure of the legacy-media ecosystem.

The job of providing well-informed recommendations once belonged to professional critics employed by newspapers and magazines.

As media companies have struggled to adjust to the digital age, the number of full-time criticism jobs has dwindled, leaving a void that Shuherk and others are filling.

We sometimes blame the figure of the influencer for these changes.

“One hundred per cent, that’s wrong,” Shuherk told me.

Internet users still desire guidance from voices with expertise; it’s just that those experts, lacking other options, are increasingly finding their audiences online.

“My option for becoming a book reviewer was sitting down on TikTok,” Shuherk said. “There isn’t really a path for me outside of this.”

The onslaught of online content requires filtering, whether technological or human, and those of us who dislike the idea of A.I. or algorithms doing the filtering for us might think more about how we support the online personalities who do the job well.

Structurally, the Internet is not getting better anytime soon;

I have not hidden my pessimism about its future.

But human creativity persists, even in hostile conditions.

Figures like Gee, Reilly, and Shuherk make me hopeful that fun, interesting niches of activity can still survive online.

There’s another word that we might apply to such people: “connoisseurs,” in the art-historical sense of passionate observers who shape a discipline through their judgments.

We’ve always had connoisseurs, from the radio d.j. to the bookstore clerk, subtly but vitally informing the culture that the rest of us choose to consume.

As Shuherk put it, “The person in the nineties working at Blockbuster—we’re the same person.” ♦

ly, “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture.”

[translationwala]

English to Hindi Translation: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Pros

It can be like walking through a busy Indian market when you’re new to the world of English to Hindi translation. It’s colorful, exciting, and maybe even too much for you to handle. This guide will help you find your way around the rich world of Hindi, whether you want to become a translator or just learn more about languages. We’ll talk about the ins and outs of translation, give you the tools you need, and give you tips for both new and experienced translators to help you learn the art of translating between English and Hindi.

Getting Started: The Foundation of English to Hindi Translation

Understanding the Nuances: Hindi is hard to translate because it has complicated language, a large vocabulary, and many different accents. It is very important to understand the changes in sentence construction, word order, and societal connections. For example, Hindi uses a lot of inferred subject names and word conjugations that depend on the situation, which English doesn’t have.

Building Your Toolkit: Get the right tools for the job! Hindi-English books, both online and off, are the first thing you should use. You might want to look into expert definitions for things like law or technical words. Machine translation tools can help you quickly understand things, but keep in mind that they are not perfect.

Mastering the Art of Research: Don’t ever forget how powerful study can be. Spend a lot of time reading Hindi newspapers, books, movies, and songs. This will help you learn more about slang, culture differences, and how language is changing over time.

Beginner’s Guide: Taking Your First Steps

Start Small and Simple: Don’t start working on hard papers right away. Start with simple, everyday words and work on your language and vocabulary. Before you start translating expert or creative works, you should learn how to translate everyday words and expressions.

Embrace the Power of Context: Don’t translate by yourself! You should think about the text’s goal, audience, and societal background. This will help you pick out Hindi words and phrases that will connect with the person.

Do Not Fear Asking: Do not be scared to ask for help. For help with tricky words or cultural references, talk to native speakers, use online groups, or hire an experienced translation. For improvement, working together and getting comments are very helpful.

Pro Tips: Mastering the Art of Translation

Go Beyond Words: It’s not enough to just change words for words in translation. Find the main ideas, feelings, and cultural details in the text. Change the style and tone to make it more appealing to people who speak Hindi while keeping the main point the same.

Embrace the Power of Creativity: Be a good writer! Hindi has a lot of different words and phrases. You shouldn’t be afraid to look at different words, phrases, and sentences to find the best one to use with the original English text.

Stay Up-to-Date: Hindi is a living language that is always changing. Keep yourself up to date on new words, trends, and differences between regions. This keeps your texts correct and up-to-date.

Proofread and Edit: Don’t forget how important a final polish is! Carefully check your versions for grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, and strange language. It shows that you are a professional when your copy is well-edited.

Beyond the Basics: Exploring Specialized Translation

English to Hindi Translation is used for more than just everyday talks. Expertise and understanding are needed in different areas. When translating court documents, for example, it’s important to be very accurate and know the legal terms used in both languages. In the same way, interpreting technical guides or literary works needs specific skills and a lot of knowledge about the field.

If you’re interested in a certain field, you might want to get expert training or work with interpreters who have experience in that area. Remember that the best way to do well in this field is to keep learning new things and getting better at the ones you already have.

CONCLUSION: BRIDGING THE GAP, ONE TRANSLATION AT A TIME

Translating from English to Hindi is more than just a technical skill; it’s a way to connect people from different countries, help them understand each other, and give them power. Keep in mind the power you have, whether you’re a new translator just starting out or an experienced one getting better at what you do. If you work hard, love what you do, and are always eager to learn, you can become a great speaker who uses the magic of words to connect two interesting worlds.

So, go into your journey as a translator with confidence. Enjoy the difficulties and the benefits. Remember that every line you translate is a step toward making the world more open and linked.

Source: https://translationwala.wordpress.com/2024/01/18/english-to-hindi-translation-the-ultimate-guide-for-beginners-and-pros/

[billiewena]

TWO YEARS SINCE NOV 5TH, 2020 as summed up by Supernatural (sequel to this)

⤷ bonus

image ID & context below:

[image ID: screenshots of Supernatural paired with screenshots of various tweets, news headlines and Tumblr posts.

1. Castiel coming out of a closet in SPN 12x08 with screenshots of articles and videos called “Supernatural’s Misha Collins Appears to Come Out as Bisexual,” “Supernatural star Misha Collins appears to come out as Bisexual in the Best Way”, “Misha Collins Comes Out as Bisexual Footage”

2. Kevin Tran in SPN 8x01 saying “You know I’m not gay, right?” With screenshots of articles that read “Supernatural’s Misha Collins Apologizes for ‘Misspeaking’ After Appearing to Come Out As Bisexual,” “Misha Collins Is Getting Clowned About Being Bisexual Then Coming Out As Straight,” and a tweet by Misha Collins that reads, “This was not my intention so I need to correct the record: I am not bisexual. I happen to be straight, but I am also a fierce ally and the last thing I want to do is falsely co-opt the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community 3/5”

3. Castiel telling a waitress in SPN 14x15, “And between various, steamy, erotic musings” with a screenshot of musician Perfume Genius tweet linking to the article “I have had sex with every actor from the TV show Supernatural” with the caption “I have had sex with every actor from the TV Supernatural. What follows is an account of each erotic event followed by a letter grade.”

4. Dean in SPN 10x10 saying, “And it ain’t gonna cost me a dime” with a screenshot of a tweet from @DiscussingFilm that says, “Nextstar will acquire 75% of The CW for $0. Instead, Nester will assume a significant portion of The CW’s current losses, which could exceed $100M.”

5. Dean in SPN 3x11 saying, “Come on. You love this song and you know it” with a screenshot of spnamvarchive and the 77 total videos in the #honeypie tag. There is also a screenshot of a text post by user iloveyoucas that says “OOH GIRL DONT YOU STOP DONT YOU STOP TIL YOU GET ENOUGH HONEY OH HONEY HONEYPIE HONEY HONEY HONEYPIE OOH GIRL DONT YOU STOP DON’T YOU STOP TIL YOU GET ENOUGH HONEY OH HONEY HONEYPIE HONEY HONEY HONEYPIE” with a gif of people dancing and a screenshot of a Honeypie AMV of Dean Winchester by afeelingsoweet.

6. Lilith in SPN 15x05 saying, “and his very weird, very perv-y obsession with you” with a headline that reads, “Jensen Ackles on his naked Soldier Boy intro on The Boys: ’Nothing on but a sock.”

7. Castiel in SPN 12x18 as he listens to a man say, “You know…like the Queen of England” with a screenshot of a post by whyissupernaturaltrending that says “Sept 8, 2022 - Supernatural trends because the Queen died” with a screenshot of Supernatural trending #1 on Tumblr.

8. Marie in SPN 10x05 saying, “But this is transformative fiction” with headlines that read: “Supernatural Prequel ‘The Winchesters’ Starts on The CW,” “The CW’s The Winchesters is a prequel to ‘Supernatural’”, “Jensen Ackles and The Winchesters Team Promise to carry on the Supernatural Legacy: ‘Trust us.”

9. Dean in SPN 10x05 responding to Marie saying, “You mean fan fiction” with headlines that read: “The Winchesters is a Soulless, Bland Attempt at Recapturing the Supernatural Magic”, “The Winchesters: 8 Biggest Retcons From Supernatural,” “Supernatural’s Spinoff Prequel ‘The Winchesters’ Offers Familiar Pleasures but Struggles building Its Own World: TV Review”

10. Dean in SPN 14x13 saying, “They always talk too much" with a tweet by nuttyforackles recapping a conventional panel that reads, “I should have said I love you too and hugged Cas… people will sexualize that but it’d doesn’t have to be, we were brothers in arms” - Jensen Ackles #spncon #vancon

Bonus: Lucifer talking to Dean in SPN 5x03, saying “Whatever you do, you will always end up here” with the Tumblr logo edited over Lucifer’s head.

/end ID]