#edit actually there is a limit of 5 per day so i will be doing this for weeks apparently

[cozylittleartblog]

sheezyart is back for a Third time! if you had an account before the 2022 shutdown you can log back in starting today, and people will be able to join again in small batches in march apparently.

if you would like to follow me there, my username is cozy!

perks include: a full ban on AI generated images, a simple nostalgic layout, an actual sense of community, great profile customization, and the little "what are you doing" statuses that Used to be on deviantart journals

[ethereal-angel111]

Things I’m doing in 2025 for the biggest glow up in history

Step 1: Screen time limits and no more doomscrolling. I’m going to be putting limits on certain apps the only social media apps that won’t have limits is Pinterest and YouTube

Step 2: Mindful eating! My goal is to lose weight but why go on a stressful diet when you can just manifest it lolz. But I do feel the need to be slightly healthier than what I am at the moment. Also gonna work on manifesting that everything I eat is healthy even if others see it as “unhealthy” cuz I’ve seen that manifestation work for a lot of other people :)

Step 3: Get some sort of exercise daily. Doesn’t matter what it is or when I do it it just needs to happen at least once per day

Step 4: Live in the end and be delusional. My goal is to live like I already have everything I desire and to stop caring about the 3D and other peoples input.

Step 5: manifest, affirm and persist as much as possible. Pretty self explanatory lol

Step 6: achieve desired style and aesthetic. I’ve been pretty unhappy with my current aesthetic so I wanna work on that

Step 7: have so many hobbies and be good at all of them. Right now I don’t have many hobbies and I never work on them ever but I wanna change that in 2025! The main hobbies I wanna work on is art, dancing, singing/rapping, fashion, makeup, editing, journaling, and content creation

Step 8: Grow on social media! I want to be popular online and have my desired fans/fanbase!

Step 9: Make and listen to lots of subliminals. My goal is to have a subliminal go up on my channel at least twice a week! I also want to listen to my sub playlist at least once a day

Step 10: Develop an unbreakable mindset. I want my mindset to be perfect and 100% unstoppable! I’m actually working on this one right now so I can be prepared for the new year

Step 11: Become my OC irl!!! This is one of my main manifestations but in the new year I wanna work on this one on a new level. I made my OC to be my dream self before I even found out about manifestation. I thought there was no way I could be like her so I would just daydream about her constantly but now that I know about manifestation I know becoming her irl is possible

Step 12: Treating myself like a god/deity. I already do this one a lot and I talk about it a lot because I swear by it!! I wanna take it to the next level in the new year tho because I deserve it <3

Step 13: Always feel motivated/inspired. Pretty self explanatory tbh but I feel like I need to bring my motivation and inspiration back from the dead

Step 14: stop doing the things I want to stop doing. Bad habits and anything I want to stop is gonna be out after new years. Skin picking is the biggest thing I want to stop but I have multiple things on the list of things I wanna stop doing

Step 15: connect with Mother Earth more. I love her and I want to spend more time with her 💚💚 I feel that spending time in nature and with Mother Earth is important and I don’t do it enough

Step 16: stop being afraid or embarrassed to do things. I’m gonna do whatever I want when I want fuck embarrassment it’s literally a societal construct. I’m not gonna limit myself or my life to make it more palatable to others

Step 17: post lots. I wanna learn to post a lot online while also not spending all my time doomscrolling on social media. Also I wanna make up for all the negativity and over sharing I posted on social media in the past by posting fun, creative and nice posts

Step 18: MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY!! I’m the main character and I’m gonna act like it. The whole world is gonna see me as the main character of life! >:3

Step 19: live like your dream self. Before I do literally anything I’m going to think “would my dream self do this?” Or “what would my dream self do right now.” This mindset will help me become my dream self so quickly I can feel it!

Step 20: become a global well loved it girl. Not much to say about this one lol

Step 21: take lots of pics and vids for memories. I used to take so many pictures and videos all the time to look back on and now I never do which is kind of sad

Step 22: prove everyone wrong. I wanna show everyone that they should have never doubted me or given up on me. I want everyone who ever treated me wrong to realize how much they fumbled

Step 23: spoiling myself and letting others spoil me. I deserve princess treatment from everyone including myself :)

Step 24: no more procrastination, if it needs to be done then do it ASAP. I’m sick of never getting anything done and stressing about shit I don’t need to be stressing about

Step 25: move out. I need my own place desperately y’all don’t even know LOL

Step 26: get the income of my dreams. I’m sick of having no money y’all

Step 27: get dream job/jobs. I wanna be a full time artist, idol, and content creator. I wanna start my own business and stuff! ૮꒰ྀི >⸝⸝⸝<꒱ྀིა

Step 28: achieve my dream sleep schedule. I wanna wake up at 9:30am and be asleep by 12:00am every night. I’ve already been working on this one a ton and I’m doing really well!

Step 29: manifest/work on achieving my dream appearance and personality. This is one of the biggest things I wanna manifest and work on in 2025!

Step 30: meditate and journal daily. I used to do this all the time and it had so many benefits so I definitely wanna start getting back into it

Step 31: look into dreams and their meanings. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about gaining a lot of insight on their life through learning about their dreams and what they mean so I want to give it a try

Step 32: be grateful for everything and show gratitude for the present instead of constantly complaining about it. I’ve heard people talk about how this mindset helped them manifest faster and I personally feel that this is a beneficial mindset to have even if you aren’t manifesting

Step 33: show my kindness, love and empathy to at least one thing a day (preferably more). It can be a living thing or a non living thing it doesn’t really matter

Step 34: become more knowledgeable on my species! I am part human but I’m also part a couple other things (I don’t feel comfortable saying them here tho). I wanna learn and connect with my species more :3

Omg this post is so long I’m sorry (*꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ) thank you for reading and I hope some of these steps help to inspire some of you as well! Let’s all become the best version of ourselves and live our dream lives in 2025!

[roserysttrpggarden]

Homebrew Class design For Dummies: Part 4: Class Resources

Hi there~! Hope you're having a lovely day. Welcome to the fourth-edition of Homebrew Class Design for Dummies, if you haven't read part 1, 2 and 3 click the links there. But in case you're new here, this is a series of write up i've decided to write to help anyone who wants to make a custom class for Fifth-Edition.

What is a Class Resource.

A class recourse, as the name implies is a resource pool that the player has to keep track off as they play that class. The most obvious example of this is Monks Ki points and Sorcerers Sorcery points,. Though these can also show up in other, much smaller ways. such as Channel Divinity on clerics and Lay on Hands for paladins.

If you don't wanna come up with an entirely new resource pool, then you can also look to other resources, such as spell slots, hit points or even hit dice as your classes resource if you really want too.

The Monk Problem

An issue that can come up with class-specific resource pools is that your class needs to expend it to do just about anything, this is most obviously showcased by 5e's Monk. Monk has several problems I might make a write-up on in the future, but for now i'll go over its Ki feature.

Monk has a resource known as KI, you gain an amount of ki points equal to your monk levels, which you regain on a short or long rest. You use your Ki points to fuel the following: Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, Step of The Wind, Deflect Missiles (To make an attack roll) Stunning Strike, Diamond Soul (To reroll a saving throw) and Empty Body. If you include the optional class features then you also can include Ki-Fueled Attack, Quicken healing and Focused-Aim. That's 7-10 features. Now add also add on top of that how you have very limited ki in actual play (1st-12th-level) and that you don't have a way to reliable recover Ki mid-fight, it leads to an overall bad play experience, no one likes to operate at half capacity for most of the adventuring day.

Solutions

An obvious solution to the monk problem is to give them a way to regenerate their resource in the midst of combat, maybe your class can regain their specific resource by dropping a creature to 0-hit points, or after a critical hit. Or maybe they can spend an action to recover spent uses of their resource. Though if you plan to use the former, make sure you put a CR cap so the player can't punch a couple rats to regain their resource. That's called the "Bag of Rats' If you're curious. Keep how your resource is used because a way to easily recover it might not always work depending on the class.

Using a Class Resource

Okay, so your class has a resource pool they need to manage, sweet. But now you have to figure out how your class uses said resource, is it used to amplify your classes existing feature similar to sorcery points or superiority dice? Or is it used to create new effects. Generally what your classes resource does should be used to enforce the playstyle you envision. Say for example you want your class to be a healer, allow them to heal and cleanse effects using said feature.

while this might seem obvious to some, your classes special resource should also be incorporated in some way into their subclasses, otherwise stick to PB times per day or X modifier times per day. Which nicely segways me onto:

Tracking

Something to look out for when making a class with a resource pool is making sure there isn't too much tracking involved. An immediate example that comes to mind is the UA Mystic, which could gain up to 71 psi point at the highest levels. Which is an issue cause no where else in D&D do you have to track that, but unlike Lay on Hands, it's not like you're tracking an even number either (5 per level) the result is that it becomes cumbersome to constantly look back at the document or your sheet to track how many you have. Another example of which is the Psionic Soul Sorcerer, which added a second resource in the form if PSI Dice to the Sorcerers kit, which leads to confusion since you're juggling two big pools at once.

In general it's a good idea to limit tracking where you can, you can even make your classes main resource unlimited use, which yes would require more to keep balanced, but it'll go a long way in making your class easy to pick up and play.

Summary

To summarize the points of this write up, when making a class resource you should:

Figure out how the resource pool manifests. (Points, die, etc)

Make sure it fits within your classes overall themes and playstyle.

Keep tracking as limited as you can (Or want)

Experiment with it

The Avatar

Last but not least, I will give a little update on the Avatar. Since I last posted I decided to scrap the radiance die because simply put, I couldn't think of how to make them interesting to use without treading too much on other features, much less how to incorporate them into subclass progression. And personally, epithets feel much more like an avatar thing than the radiance dice ever did.

In exchange. Avatars that reach 6th-level can now cause an epithet to ascend, which reads as follows:

The idea behind it is that if you have an epithet you really enjoy using, you can have it ascend and cause it to become stronger. It's also meant to help keep the epithets viable as you gain levels in this class, an example of this is the Mighty epithet, where if you cause it to ascend, as shown here:

Holy hell, I am so sorry for taking this long on the series. I got caught up with other projects + reworking the avatar itself, so this ended up being put on the backburner until now. Hopefully I can get the next entry: Subclasses out in a timely manner, but we shall see.

But that's all I have for today, make sure to like + share my content if you enjoy, have a nice day, go out and make some homebrew.

Homebrew Class design For Dummies: Part 1: The Foundation

Homebrew Class design For Dummies: Part 2: Getting Started

Homebrew Class design For Dummies: Part 3: Finishing the base class

Guide to Balancing Classes

[six-of-ravens]

okay *cracks knuckles* im gonna go ahead with my writing challenge idea, which I don't have a snappy name for yet. Finish That Book Fall. no.

parameters:

overall goal: to finish North completely, so I can either focus on other projects guilt-free or start on the sequel lol

starts in September, runs till December 31st

going to take the rest of this week to reread my recent notes, compile the best plot outline, and then print a copy if I can bully my printer into doing so

also going to rearrange the kitchen table that I never use and turn it into a writing area. it's too hard to write on the couch with a laptop + bluetooth keyboard and also it's be good to have a Writing Station for Writing, and the couch for Relaxing.

after that, the goal is min. 5 pages of rewriting or 10 pages of editing per day. might adjust this as I go, cause I'm not sure if a page goal, wordcount, or time limit is the best approach. most of the beginning of the story is hammered out and just needs edits, but as I get deeper into it there will be more and more rewrites lol

ill allow myself 2 "hail marys" a week, aka days I can take off or work on other writing. the one caveat is that i can't take 2 days in a row off. this is because i know I'm going to be taking a lot of Wednesdays off, since it's my busiest day, and if I don't force myself to get back at it Thursday I'll just fucking quit.

the goals so far are: 5 solid days of writing a week = a fancy drink (or $5-10 equivalent treat) / a solid month of progress = a new book/nice meal (or $20-40 equivalent) / finish an act (there are 3) = guilt-free run through the bookstore or thrift store or Michaels fall decorations or whatever / actually win the challenge = don't even know yet. we'll see how good my work bonus is lmao.

[cynosfunnyjokes]

Navigation Post ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

Hello! I am Sunny, and welcome to my Tumblr! I'm 20 and use they/he pronouns. While I've been writing since middle school (gross, I know), I've only really just started posting my works about a year ago on both here and AO3!

Basic Links!

Masterlist!

AO3!

Basic Rules!

Will Write...

NSFW, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Character x Character, x Reader Anything that isn't below.

Will Not Write...

Hard Kinks (Piss, Scat, Etc.), ProShip/ComShip, Incest, Rape.

I will update my rules as I go if I find anything I have missed!

Characters I will write for...

HSR...

Blade, DanHeng, Caelus, Kafka, Imbibitor Lunae, Jing Yuan, Nanook (The Destruction), Boothill, Dr Ratio, Aventurine.

Genshin Impact...

Albedo, Xiao, Tighnari, Cyno, Alhaitham, Kaveh, Scaramouche/Wanderer, Childe, Zhongli, Kaeya, Thoma, Diluc, Gorou, Neuvillette, Lyney, Baizhu, Kaedehara Kazuha, Shikanoin Heizou, Venti, Aether/Lumine, Wriothesley, Neuvillette, Lyney, Navia.

Hunter x Hunter...

Kurapika, Leorio, Hisoka, Illumi, Feitan.

Heaven Official's Blessing...

Xie Lian, Hua Cheng.

Black Butler...

Sebastian Michaelis, Grelle Sutcliff, Undertaker, Joker, Snake, Ronald Knox.

Final Fantasy (Any)...

Reno, Cloud Strife, Zack Fair, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Vincent Valentine.

Call of Duty…

Simon “Ghost” Riley, John “Soap” Mactavish, Captain John Price, König.

Other shows/books I will write for...

Alice in Borderland, Attack on Titan, Diabolik Lovers, Demon Slayer, Gorillaz, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kingdom Hearts, The Legend of Zelda, Maximum Ride, Mystic Messenger, Persona 5, Resident Evil, Studio Ghibli, The Arcana.

Just because it isn't listed, doesn't mean I won't write it! Feel free to request anyway! :) This is just a general list of everything that comes to mind as I type this!

Additional Notes!

Please be kind and patient with me as I am a working adult who tends to take a lot of time on requests. When it comes to actual requests, I tend to take longer just to make sure that I am satisfied with what I wrote and I send it to my lovely friend who proofreads and edits for me!

Please remember that I have every right to reject/ignore a certain request if it violates my rules, discomforts me, or simply doesn't interest me. I will absolutely do my best to answer everything! <3

Please do not send requests for sequels to my older works, as I've received plenty and most of which are under work.

And lastly, please don’t hesitate to send an ask now or whenever you feel! I have no limits per person so request as many times as you want! I adore meeting my readers and fellow writing blogs so don't be afraid of sending me messages! I don’t bite (...hard.)(jk), and am always happy to meet fellow simps for the series I’m into!

That's all for now! I hope you all have a lovely day~

-Sunny <3

[curio-queries]

RUN BTS: THE SERIES

I wasn't part of the Fandom when most of these episodes were newly released. I have watched entire series many times though and would like to share some thoughts about each one (especially as we have current event context). so while we wait for the return of a regular BTS episodic show, I'd like to do another RUNthrough of Run BTS (see what I did there?)

Here are the items I plan to discuss with each episode. I'd like to invite anyone who's up for it to rewatch and share your thoughts as well, especially if you have any fun facts relevant to what was happening at the same time as the original airing.

Production: How successful the episode is as a variety show, including but not limited to: exposition, editing, set design, utilization of locations.

Endearment: How successful it is in showcasing the charms of BTS and making the audience want to engage in more of their content.

Winner/Loser: many episodes have an ultimate winner/loser. I will absolutely spoil this so please watch first if you haven't.

Best Cheater: BTS has the best cheaters! Who do I personally think was the best one in each episode? (This is all in good fun and not actually malicious).

Member Moments: a moment or quote from each member that stands out to me each episode.

Overall Rank: my personal rank of the episode on a scale of 1-5 of how much I enjoyed it, including the Production and Endearment notes above.

Bonus Content: Many episodes have bonus content on weverse and I'll give some general thoughts on the content. This will NOT be a transcript on the content itself. If I happen to know any fun facts related to the episode, I'll share here but I don't anticipate much since I wasn't in the Fandom during original airings. if you know any, please share!

I love a good spreadsheet so we'll have some interesting metadata to analyze after this series. Let's get it!

Source for original air dates as well as some extra info that I couldn't glean from just watching the content. I will be using the episode numbering per YouTube rather than Wikipedia though.

Post Links:

001: Open

002: The Greatest Man

003: Theme Park

004: 30 Second Mission

005: 100 Seconds Sports Day

006-1: Confession part 1

006-2: Confession part 2

007: Silmido part 1 Survival

008: Silmido part 2 Find the Flag

009: Silmido part 3 Bungee

010: Silmido part 4 Spy?!?

011: Back to School

012: Cops

013: The Spy Who Returned part 1

014: The Spy Who Returned part 2

015: The Spy Who Returned part 3

016: Snow Park Winter Olympics

017: Arcade Olympics part 1

018 Arcade Olympics part 2

019: Strike

020: Korean Food War

The analytics: Episodes 1-20

021: Board Game Competition

022: Hangawi Festival

023: Pet Friends

024: BTS vs Zombies

025: Game King

026: Secret Agent

027: Welcome to your First MT part 1

028: Welcome to your First MT part 2

029: A Billboard Hot 100 Promise; Be Each Other's Stylist

030: The Variety Show of Memories part 1

031: The Variety Show of Memories part 2

032: Take Care of Santa

033: BTS and Manito part 1

034: BTS and Manito part 2

035: Kimchi Battle

036: Kimchi Wars

037: BTS Marble Returns

038: Spin BTS

039: BTS Golden Bell part 1

040: Lunar New Year Special: Only Good Things

The analytics: Episodes 21-40

041: BTS Golden Bell part 2

042: Sports Challenge

043: Satisfaction of the Five Senses pt.1

044: Satisfaction of the Five Senses pt.2

045: BTS Cafe

046: BTS Workshop

047: Protect the BTS Village pt.1

048: Protect the BTS Village pt.2

049: Eve of Episode 50 Festival pt.1

050: Eve of Episode 50 Festival pt.2 | 50th Episode Special pt.1

051: 50th Episode Special pt.2

052: BTS Escape

053: BTS Outing pt.1

054: BTS Outing pt.2

055: BTS Outing pt.3

056: BTS Outing pt.4

057: BTS Chef pt.1

058: BTS Chef pt.2

059: Run BTS in Hotel pt.1

060: Run BTS in Hotel pt.2

The analytics: Episodes 41-60

061: BTS Sauna pt.1

062: BTS Sauna pt.2

063: BTS School Returns pt.1

064: BTS School Returns pt.2

065: BTS School Returns pt.3

066: BTS in a Manga Cafe pt.1

067: BTS in a Manga Cafe pt.2

068: Heart Pang

069: BTS in Toronto pt.1

070: BTS in Toronto pt.2

071: BTS in Toronto pt.3

072: BTS and Mafia

073: Run BTS Drama part 1

074: Run BTS Drama part 2

075: Run BTS Drama part 3

076: Run BTS Drama part 4

077: Food Guest part 1

078: Food Guest part 2

079: Operation 007 part 1

080: Operation 007 part 2

The analytics: Episodes 61-80

081: BTS VR part 1

082: BTS VR part 2

083: Summer Outing part 1

084: Summer Outing part 2

085: Summer Outing part 3

[variousqueerthings]

I am an idiot with a box and a screwdriver, passing through, helping out, learning. I don’t need an army

Dark Water/Death In Heaven -- we're doing it as a double episode single-review, because it's one continuous story. It also wraps up a lot of the thematic threads of season eight and finally reveals that *gasp* it was the Master all along! (I genuinely do not remember if people were taken by surprise back in the day, I never watched this far at that time, and obviously I knew when I finally did)

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we��re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 6/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 6/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 3/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 5/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 5/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 5/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 4/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 4/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 2/10

FULL RATING: 46/100 (if I can count….)

the real issue with the plot of the finale, as I see it is actually solidly in the field of "pacing." there's some other stuff (I'll get into what I think about fulfilling character arcs and concepts about soldiers below), but pacing is the throughline as we take a look at various themes and arcs and whether they were sufficiently wrapped up

EDIT: this one is quite long because it also partially covers the whole season + I rant about the military

OBJECTIFICATION: oooof the four women in this finale, Clara, Kate, Osgood, and Gomez!Master, we technically don't get this much, however I do think it's interesting that M*ffat's Master is... called... Missy....

which I will not be doing, because I hate it. you see she's "Mistress" because she's a woman now, but no nonono, she needs a cutesy version of it, so it's "Missy," she's like the sexy dom you always dreamed of (just like Irene and River and several single-episode characters...)

at least he didn't dress her in leather

it's also hard to designate whether the way he writes her is so off from the way Simm!Master was written, because he for sure had a bunch of "I'm just Cu-raaazyy" moments. also he used bigotry as a casual hammer, which I'd be curious to talk with RTD about. I don't think he'd do that the same way if he were writing those episodes today, anyway, wrong era

Gomez!Master, in these episodes, has some really really stellar moments. she also has moments that make me go, "ah yes, this is a woman written by M*ffat," most noticeably in some of her one-sided "flirting" with the Doctor. again, it's hard to pinpoint, because a lot of it is just "yeah they're unhinged about each other and have been forever," but some of the "ooh Doctor I'm doing all of this for you," stuff is... it just feels like they can do that because of het Nonsense now (which I will get into in the "sexiness" point)

like she can be softer now (in a Master way) because she's portrayed by a woman opposite Capaldi's Doctor, which I think the "short for Mistress" moment is the most prime example of

I do also think though, this is (you guessed it) partially a pacing issue, because they didn't insert Gomez!Master into the main narrative until the second-to-last episode. if we could have seen her in some material way doing something prior to that -- but wait, Simm!Master also only appeared properly in the second-to-last episode, yes, correct, but Simm!Master was materially affecting the narrative from very early on, and not in a somewhat random "I gave you a number to call for a helpline that turned out to be the Tardis and also I'm sort of sitting around waiting for the plot to catch up with me" setup, but in a "I'm monitoring your family, I'm fucking with the government" kind of way -- there was even a musical cue that included the four beats that recurred so that we could connect that to the overarching story of mind-control

I'm going to get back to this in complexity, because we're getting off-point. Point is the jump from where we left off to where we find Gomez!Master being a bit lovey-dovey (again, in a Master way) just wasn't there and I feel like M*ffat thought he could do it this way because of course now they're played by a man and a woman... hypothesis. theory, if you will. Charlie Day Corkboard meme perhaps. but M*ffat would never have done this if the Master were played by a guy, looking at his track record. he might have done it if the Doctor were played by a woman, but I think the real issue there would have been how incredibly porn-opening-adjacent his Doctor/Master interactions would have become, so that's a different sort of lesbophobic bullet dodged

like, I'll take more explicit Master/Doctor stuff. but I'm fucking watching you M*ffat, youknow.

PLOT-POINT: Clara is not a plot-point in this episode, however I do think the pacing of Stuff hits her quite hard. we had a slowish build-up of her and Danny over the episodes, although fascinatingly he never really got to have proper feelings about the acres of lies she'd told him -- she was working up to telling him about it properly, but he got hit by a car before she could

this brings up a Thing about Clara, which is that she makes a loooot of bad decisions that prioritise her own current wants over what's good for her and/or people around her, and I doooo think that's intentional -- she has a line in this episode where she says to Danny, "I wasn’t very good at it, but I did love you"

now season 9 might deal with the guilt of the above, so there may be things to come, but there was certainly a lot of confusion on my side about what her journey was going to be about, and so far it seems to be a very unhealthy "I am owed things" rather than about running away from something tangible or feeling overwhelmed from life

there is the original idea that it was her mother's death that prompted her to want to travel, but something always got in the way, and that this (for example taking care of two kids whose mother died recently) indicates that she's a "good" person who cares for others -- and she doesn't not care, but it's certainly not her driving character trait in the way that it seemed to look like when Eleven met her properly and gauged her as a person who could be a companion

this is all very waffly, because I'm still not sure where Clara lands in all of this, or if I think it works in the grand scheme of things, especially in tandem with the other characterisations and themes of this season. it's got a very depressing, hopeless sort of framing to it that in other contexts I might be really into, but I may not enjoy for Doctor Who

that being said... it's consistent throughout the season. Clara sees the Doctor's red flags (and we'll get to those) and provided the ending is okay and she can control the Doctor and her own role in the situation, she's okay with the idea that people get used along the way -- as long as the Doctor doesn't try that on her

in this episode of course Clara threatens to (and makes good on that promise, even if it doesn't work) destroy the Tardis keys, stranding them both on a volcano, rails against the ordinariness of grief and feels that she is owed something more, shuts down Danny's attempts to say that he loves her, because it's not on her terms (granted, these terms are "please just accept that I'm dead," but that is kind of the point with Clara and her sense of controlling things, even death), then decides to be the one to kill Danny properly as a Cyberman, despite the Doctor explaining that Cyber-Danny will kill others, and then is fully intending to just straight up kill the Master!!!!

this is wild to me -- back in s3, when Francine and the entire Jones family are prepared to see the Master dead, it's because he destroyed the earth and made them watch and kept them as slaves for a year

in this episode, Clara wants to kill the Master because she did bad things that, yes, prolonged the sadness of Danny's death, but crucially did not actually cause Danny's death. Danny just... died. yeah, there's probably theories out there that the Master might have caused it (we'll get to this too), but this is never textual in the episode, and Clara never gives an indication that that's her belief

she's just angry that the Master is a bad person who did bad things, as concept. and mostly she's angry because her boyfriend is dead, and as far as I can see, the Doctor is now off the hook (whereas at the beginning the Doctor was very much on the hook) and the Master is the closest person around to take that anger out on

bonkers for a companion to be this way. again, Martha, my beloved Martha, Osterhagen key back in the day, she's not doing this out of anger, she's having a straight-up bad time and the whole tragedy is about the Doctor accidentally turning companions into soldiers. they've got guns and everything. Clara just bypasses this and is simply down for murder because she's upset

at the end of course she elects to not tell the Doctor about Danny's sacrifice/still being dead, because she thinks the Doctor would stay rather than return to Gallifrey (which may not be found after all, because the Doctor lies to her about that too), which is quite self-sacrificial of her. we'll see where this sentiment goes, especially as it's another lie, which is kind of their whole... thing with one another. terrible terrible for one another, which I know is the appeal for their fans, so I'm not necessarily writing this as critique

I am reminded of the Doctor and Martha again, who also had a whole unhealthy thing going on, but it was very based in the narrative and had a specific trajectory and then an ending that acknowledged this as a reason for Martha no longer wishing to travel with them (and then some things I have questions about, RTD bring Martha back I'm not satisfied!)

in this story, it feels like this is simply who Clara is. and while it does contradict some of her earlier narrative in s7, I can accept that it's consistent now. but yeah... as said, there's some plotting and pacing inconsistencies. where are the kids from before (I know she stopped taking care of them, but one feels like they had no tangible impact on the story), why was Danny's death written in the way it was (we'll get to that), where did some of her s7 characterisation go (I really missed a Clara who wasn't just smart and quippy, but was also scared and out of her depth), is this because she "knows" a lot of the Doctor lore now, so she feels like she belongs more in this world than other people? why was she in love with Danny, to the point of wanting to go to a possible afterlife to get him back (actually this is a big one, because while they did have scenes together, I don't know what drew her to him, and I have some feelings about Danny down in the politics section of this, which somewhat can be boiled down to "he gives me the vibes of a man who is kind and sensitive and easily used and Clara likes to use people so...")

like I said- it's not that Clara doesn't make sense for who she is now, but that the pacing and structure don't support her arc very well. I don't think this is the worst thing to happen to a female character during M*ffat's run, but it does make this finale less emotionally fulfilling than it clearly wants to be

am I sad that Danny is dead? yeah, but not because of Clara. I'm sad because of his unrealised potential as a character. am I shocked that Clara wanted to shoot the Master? yes, but because it was a Bonkers Yonkers bit of characterisation on top of some already wild things she did which any past Doctor I think would have said "ok, you are not suitable for this kind of life, because you are way too down with murder and have no emotional stability." When Clara left the Doctor, I was kinda like. yeah, ok, she could end this here I guess (I say that, and acknowledge that actually the Christmas Special right after gives her a bit more depth on the whole "Danny Dying Sitch" of things, although again, it does not make me think she should be continuing to travel with the Doctor, never mind be working with UNIT in s9????)

ok. but. pacing. let's get to it

COMPLEXITY: ok the problem with this episode is not technically complexity, although it does fall for a couple of M*ffat standards in that it didn't need to be doing some of the things it is doing (the cremation stuff I think is particularly unsettling in a needless way that I think crosses a line, but that is possibly subjective)

the problem is the questions I was asking in the previous sections and a whole bunch more, that shows that all of the themes and questions that were set up throughout the season weren't paced well or satisfactorily concluded

take one that I like: The Master. big fan of Gomez' portrayal of The Master barring a few things that are very M*ffat female character, with a dash of his Moriarty (so youknow the drill if you've ever spent too long engaging with a M*ffat narrative), but that's not her, that's just her having to make a "hey Missy you're so fine" dialogue work

I mentioned it was odd that she was so sidelined and just... hanging around... until the second-to-last episode. I am unclear why she "chose" Clara to travel with the Doctor, first of all. I cannot remember if this is answered in the episode, beyond like "the Universe and fate and shit" which I'm not a fan of if so. second of all... why didn't she kill Danny? (EDIT: did read there's a short story that confirmed she did kill Danny, but we're going purely by episodes here)

if we want to go big, say, why wasn't there a big, slow reveal that she'd been poking around in Clara's life, maybe also Danny's life who knows, and that she was giving all of these things to the Doctor as a gift by using humans as puppets culminating in Danny's death and this is what sets Clara off? the idea that she once again is just playing to the tune of a larger narrative that she has no control over and worse, isn't even about her, but about this fucked up dynamic between these two incredibly old aliens

I'm sure some people like the randomness of Danny's death. I personally do not. I think it's contrived angst that comes out of nowhere in the same way so much of M*ffat's narrative tends to do. why is this happening now? because we need the story to go there and we forgot to place 90% of the establishing building blocks that make it feel organic -- the worst offender for this in my opinion is still the "Amy grew up with River as her best friend the whole time, you just didn't know," but this is a pretty bad example in my opinion too, because on the surface it is very very sad, and the randomness of death is a great idea... but hey, remember when they did that story in 2005 with Rose's dad and it was really good and established and played into the overarching themes of her story? this is not that. this is using sadness as a cheap device

there's like. a story in here that is really really good, and it gets buried underneath a bunch of contrived over-the-top stuff (although, while I initially thought the "president of the earth" stuff was bad, and still kind of do, I did think it was funny that the Doctor mocked the Master about all those times they tried to rule the world and the Doctor managed it by accident)

I also -- and I'm sure many people have noticed this too -- cannot help but go, "oh isn't this just the Library plot but evil? and with a worse/less believable set of scifi nonsense explanations?" and that's such a M*ffat classic too. use three or four good (and sometimes not good) ideas over and over again, but bigger and more unwieldy

Ohhhh boy the idea of the Brigadier becoming a Cyberman, because all of earth - no wait, more than earth, some of the people who end up there aren't on earth - for the last x amount of years has just been sucked into the evil Library database. (seriously, tell me how this works, because it works across Time and Space apparently??) -- anyway billions? trillions? of people becoming Cybermen. I don't think this is explained either. I am not a fan of the Brigadier becoming a Cyberman, let's say that

none of the core scifi stuff is explained beyond a handwave, and none of the emotional arcs are given a satisfying conclusion but!

listen Michelle Gomez is so cool, I relish the future when I know she's getting better dialogue

also in theory I like the callback to the "I win" in s3. we know the Doctor doesn't kill her, but yeah, him going "you win." they're such weirdos about each other, truly. again, with all of the rest of the "stuff" this season, the poor pacing, the scrape-the-surface-and-it's-cheap-sentimentality I don't think it entirely works, but hey, Gomez will return so!

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Danny is dead. the Master is Michelle Gomez (and not dead). the Doctor is slightly? more chill in themself (maybe, idk, going by the following episode, maybe not). Gallifrey is still lost. I think that covers it?

also the Doctor just straight-up wasn't looking for Gallifrey this whole time it seems

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara does some things in this one. notably, not a single thing she does works, but for the ways they work because the Doctor and/or Danny care about her so so much, which I think is at the heart of all of this -- if you (the audience) believe that the Doctor and Danny have so much affection and/or love for Clara that despite her behaviour they would go to the afterlife for her, they would break cyber-coding for her, then this works

if you don't believe this, then we're in trouble.

things Clara does: aforementioned attempted destruction of Tardis key, attempting to save Danny from death, passing herself off as the Doctor, killing Danny, killing the Master

I thiiiink... that covers it. within this she does convince the Doctor to take her to the afterlife, and Danny saves her life a few times

I want to note the "Clara pretends to be the Doctor" moment, because I think it's a good example of some of the flattening of her character. in her earlier entries in s7 she was afraid at times. now, obviously, like the other companions she's seen more, she's more confident, but she is still in very real danger -- contrasting with Rose in Doomsday and how she taunts the Daleks, she's still very very afraid, she's sure they're all going to die

and I think Rose in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday is the closest to Clara out of previous companions I've seen (not counting Classic Who which I haven't finished). by that point she's seen so much that her mother comments that she doesn't seem like herself anymore (I wish Clara's grandmother had made a similar observation -- or at least some kind of observation). she knows a bunch of DW lore, she loves the travel for the sake of it, she feels, yeah, special (although with the caveat that she's met previous companions, the Doom hangs over them all season, we know this is about to end one way or another)

I just sat there the whole time thinking, "why is the director not asking JLC to put more emotion into her voice, more doubt, more desperation, just... more. why is this scene so flat?"

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor is a headless chicken in this one, except for the fact that he's like "yeah we'll go to the afterlife" and then promptly goes "there is no afterlife, this is stupid."

it's a small thing on the whole, but hey, Doctor, you're the one who decided to go there

as for the Doctor as a seasons-arc roundup. I... don't hate it... but I still don't like how this Doctor is characterised. he's still incredibly unlikeable just on a personal level, and yeah yeah good doesn't mean nice, but he's also just not kind. and I think I struggle to enjoy an iteration of the Doctor who isn't kind, at least sometimes

I think a lot of that -- the unkindness -- falls to the wayside as a concept in this episode, because idk, it's not important I guess? whereas I think it's central to the Doctor's question of "am I good"? are you good because you try to make people not-die, sure, but you're also good because you don't mock kids. you don't casually state that you've forgotten peoples faces because they're so forgettable/unimportant to you. you don't treat people poorly that know they're about to die

if that stuff -- that domestic stuff, as Nine might have called it -- isn't important to the question, then I don't think the question is being satisfactorily answered by this episode

yes, Twelve turns down the chance to have a literal army that could just kill all bad guys, but I never doubted that. does Twelve treat others with kindness? Mmmm still not really, going by the episode right after. it's a fun little exploration of something absolutely wild the Master might try, but I don't think it tells me anything new about the Twelfth Doctor

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: ok, I'm sure some people loved some of these callbacks. The Brigadier. the Cybermen outside St Pauls.

did like Osgood saying that Simm!Master prime-minister wasn't even the worst one we've had. that ages ever more hilariously

I just don't think the plot is good enough for a lot of them. and as an ending to the Brigadier well... ok, I liked it better than way back (s6) the Doctor receives a random phonecall that the Brigadier is dead and it's apropos nothing and Kate Stewart hadn't been introduced yet, so it was just some random guy that the old fans knew, but the nu fans would have been ??? about, because why does this guy dying drive the plot like that? I liked that the Brigadier has context

of course that context is, your brain was uploaded to a computer database for years and now you're fully a cyberman -- and it's not framed as super tragic? it's another one of the ways the emotional Stuff falls flat in this episode, and I just choose to pretend it's not something that happens

“SEXINESS”: M I S S Y... short for Mistress... because we need to gender this now. Anyway, the first time this character meets the Doctor in this form, she forcibly grabs him and kisses him without his consent (afterwards Clara smirks and asks if she used tongue)

so that is... that is a thing that happens. that is a thing that has happened a lot on this show, both to Ten and Eleven, but not to Twelve until now, because I guess women only humorously throw themselves at twinks

when will our suffering end?? why is this considered funny???? Stop!!!

she also at one point says "you know I should shoot you in a jealous rage, now wouldn’t that be sexy," which was one thing I was alluding to with the "where does writing the Master as kind of fucked up end and writing the Master as a Crazy Evil Sexy Lady begin" because this is definitely in the latter category

INTERNAL WORLD: is this just the Silence of the Library but evil and less believable? yes. does it make sense that they could magically put all those minds back into reconstructed Cyberbodies on top of corpses, including people who must have been dead for centuries, or died in the future not even on earth? don't think about it

POLITICS: So, you know how this season is all about the Doctor and soldiers and "am I a good man" and Danny was a soldier and calls the Doctor an officer, and on the plus-side we have the Doctor's speech about not being a good man or an officer or anything like that, but just "some fuckn guy" (paraphrased, he actually calls himself an idiot)

on the flipside of that we have... Danny. oh Danny. I. so I really want to like Danny, and I actually do like Danny, I think he's the most underserved character of the season, in the sense that everyone else being written to be an asshole just makes it shine through that he is... not. and his whole thing is that he feels guilty about having shot a kid in Afghanistan and that's what made him leave the military, because... it felt bad, I guess

I write that, because Danny didn't leave the army because he didn't agree with their politics anymore. despite having a bunch of lines derogatorily calling the Doctor "sir," and flipping shit like "watch the blood-soaked general in action" there's never actually a story of Danny realising a superior officer was using his power to hurt anyone, and he never questions that having been there in the first place, in a position to shoot a child, might have been the bad thing

he's not railing against superiors, he's just railing, which is frustrating when it's so close to getting it right. it seemed like they might be going there for awhile, there was a hot second where I thought they might, but at the end he firmly re-identifies himself as a soldier and shoots himself and the other Cybermen into the sky to save the planet. it's so... oooh it's so [flames on the side of my head]

he does send the kid back, rather than himself, which circles back to my thinking about Danny the character (kind, compassionate, sensitive) and Danny as keeper of certain themes (that it's not the system of soldiering that's bad, in fact we need to defend ourselves, see Doctor, your black and white narrative about soldiers as related to any guilt you might feel about having once killed people, or making situations happen where people die or or, is false, because it's more complicated than that, and soldiers are a good thing actually -- no, we haven't actually made a narrative about systems of soldiering, we've conflated freedom-fighting against a fictional fascist-coded alien with the British army, it's the same thing in the end)

it makes me want to -- in that oh-so-silly fandom way -- take Danny away from the writers and look back at his core traits: he's an orphan who by the sounds of things was never adopted, so in a place of being easily groomed by a structure like the army, he believes in the inherent goodness of people (I think), like I said, kind, compassionate, sensitive, lovely to kids, clearly suffers from PTSD (of course), and... in my opinion eaaasily misused by others, because he judges things to be solely on his shoulders

because Clara is a very forceful personality, I can sooo easily see how he'd be taken with her and want to forgive her over and over again and sacrifice himself for her

I wish that Danny's storyline had been about realising his worth. not his worth as a fucking soldier, but just "oh, I've been scared my whole life, I've had to do what others told me my whole life, and now this is my choice." I mean, the sacrificing is still... sigh (I do remember seeing people pointing out that great, we introduce a Black recurring character and then yeet him into the sky once his use is up, vs, say Rory who is there from beginning to end)

(I actually like Danny better than Rory on the whole, but I also think Danny and Rory have a lot of similar traits, and they both fall in love with women who have treated them abysmally, but at least Clara understands this as a part of her arc, both in the final episode of this and the subsequent Christmas episode)

but at least it wouldn't have been a sacrifice in which he reinserts himself as a cog in a machine. fucking soldier. please Danny, you deserve more from this thematic journey. if we'd had a narrative about an abusive or simply bad or incompetent or idealistically incompatible officer, this would have made more sense, but instead we just get vague references that go nowhere

ok I'm writing in circles now, so let's drop this and talk about the kid he shoots, whom he meets in the "afterlife" (argh this whole concept is so stupid) and I guess just... sits with? until he scares him away. and then sends him back to life again

there's something poignant in that to an extent, it's just of course that this random unnamed kid from Afghanistan who says not a line is a prop to absolve Danny of his personal guilt at shooting a child, and, again, not really about the nature of British colonialism and military violence

now oof, those are some heavy themes to bring up, can we expect all this from a silly show like Doctor Who? well, M*ffat did, he just wasn't able to follow through. heavy themes aren't shock value, you'd better be a good enough writer to do something with them, or idk, not want to suck the British army's dick

ooh, that was a bit aggressive on my part. I think because season eight actually has so much interesting stuff it's playing with, so this time I could finally see Stuff, but then the payoff was just a disappointing slap. RIP Danny, in my heart you had character development this season that went into all of the interesting narrative threads that were introduced, and you became a passionate speaker for not grooming kids into joining the army

the TL;DR of this point is "soldiers good sometimes. check mate Pacifist" -- but similar to Kill The Moon, it's so messy I'm not sure it actually knows what it wants to say

FULL RATING: 46/100 (if I can count….)

I feel like not everyone would agree with me, but I like the Master's overall plan. it fits with the wildly swinging way they try to win the Doctor over, just to lash out when the Doctor (understandably) turns them down, while also pinpointing the little hypocrisies of the Doctor's morals, because the Master keeps offering the ability to Change Things and the Doctor prefers little shifts of the status quo that often mean people get left behind or get hurt or it's much messier than a clean sweep of "if you just ruled the Universe with me, we'd do good things"

(the Doctor is of course right to go "yeahno, this is not a good idea, for starters we both have so many issues, for seconds anyone who sets out to be a good ruler of anything has already failed because of the premise"). it's the strongest part of the episodes for me, I just wish it had had a more satisfying build-up and been able to tie in better to the themes of the season (or rather that the themes of the season had been written better in previous episodes so as to tie in better with this wrapping-up)

and obviously the whole "soldier" stuff is just badly written

and Clara...? I'll wait and see in her final season. it's very much a "depends on how they round it off" for me

also, oh boy am I done with quips. the Wh*donesque quipping is doing my head in, please make it stooop

"One last chance. I don’t care about the rules, I don’t give a damn about paradoxes, I swear you will never step inside your Tardis again" <- this is Villain Behaviour Clara!!!!

[oddishblossom]

Hey I have a question? How do you produce such high-quality gifs. It's so cool and I've been trying but it usually just doesn't come out well

Thanks! I’ve been making gifs for about 2 years, so I’m by no means a pro. Sometimes it feels like I’m just throwing things at the video until it looks the way I want it to look.

I didn’t use any guides, so it took a lot of trial and error to learn. Just to compare, here’s the first gif I ever made!

My advice for starting to get into gif-making is, you gotta really choose a media or character you love because the process is time consuming and it can be frustrating if it doesn't end up the way you wanted right away. Plus, you’re gonna stare at the same picture for like a loooong time. Over time, I’ve gotten a lot faster at making sets. Like that killua x start over gifset only took me an hour to make, but I barely edited that one. I normally spend a few days on each set.

I still don’t completely get photoshop, so I don’t feel like I can give a tutorial for it. But I do make a lot of gifs on my phone so here’s a more in depth look at that.

For starters, I always get video footage in 1080P. Either download or record the footage you want to turn into gifs. I’m gonna use Killua as an example. Here’s a picture of what the clip looks like before I’ve done anything.

I find that the shorter the clip, the easier it is to make it smooth and crisp. This clip is only 5 seconds long. I try to keep my clips 5 seconds or shorter. I can do longer clips, but then I’d have to shorten the frames used and the speed of the gif (frames per second), which I don’t like doing. Next, I crop it. You want to crop before you start editing.

After that, I can start recoloring. There’s a couple good apps I like using for this. VideoDay and InShot are pretty good, but they’re pay to use. The free one Apple provides in the photos app is good, too. I’ve got a different coloring style for most of my sets. But I mainly focus on making dark colors darker, making colors more saturated so they pop, and brightening the video. On VideoDay & Inshot you can find this setting under Filter. Then go to Adjust. This is what it looks like after boosting up the contrast, saturation, brightness, shadows, and definition. Mess around with different settings until you come up with something you like.

Now, I recolor it a second time with filters. Sometimes I use Inshot or VideoDay, but I mostly use the app ImgPlay. ImgPlay is what I’ll be using to actually turn this video into a gif. I use different filters depending on what colors I want to stand out. CL2 and HW3 are a couple favorites. For this set I use HW3. Then I added more contrast, saturation, and sharpened it as high as it could go.

Now that it looks pretty, time to make it move smoothly. Through a lot of trial and error, I’ve found that these settings work okay. I have it set to 90 frames for this clip. For frames, I usually try to keep it within 80-90 frames (or 30-80 if it’s a shorter clip). If I push it past that, like say 100 frames, it’ll start to look blurry once I condense it.

For speed, I either use .04 seconds or .05 seconds. For frames per second, I always go with 20 FPS at least. This will push up the frame count, so you’ll need to make the clip shorter. You can do that by using the slide bar or that little area with 9 squares in the top right corner.

Now it’s time to export! Just click on save and GIF size. Set the loop to infinity and size to 10 MB. Tumblr has a limit on GIF size, so it needs to be 10MB or under. You can also click on GIF dithering to make the colors blend a bit more.

And we’re done! Hope it wasn’t too confusing and that I explained myself clearly! There’s a lot more cool effects you can do once you get the hang of video editing. This is by no means a strict guide or anything! Heck, even I don’t follow this exactly and I try changing things around, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Gif-making can be super fun, so I hope you keep at it! 😊💖

[dittobtch]

The Wilds AO3 Stats (March 2024)

It's that time of the year again where I go feral for The Wilds. I lied it's actually all the time

Data in table form found here. This shows numbers for specific months, including stuff that is only represented as percentages in this post.

All data collected from ao3 on March 1, 2024 with the exception of the monthly data before Feb 2024, which was collected between Feb 20 to 23 (Notes 1 and 2).

Commentary and Notes below the cut.

Total Number of Fics

Leatin: 814 // Shoni: 1556 // The Wilds: 2338

Monthly Data of Fics Posted

Leatin and Shoni Relationship Tags in The Wilds (Note 3)

Additional Tags - Leatin, Shoni, The Wilds (Note 4)

Commentary

Number of fics posted every month

The big spikes are obviously from when the seasons are posted and when it was cancelled. There are also usually smaller spikes in months with holidays such as February for Valentine's day and December for the holiday season.

Honourable mention: Leatin getting a 5100% increase from March 2022 to May 2022, going from the lowest amount of fics posted in March 2022 (2) to the highest in May 2022 (104).

Leatin and Shoni Relationship Tags in The Wilds

As someone who prefers Leatin, these graphs make me so sad. That's it. That's the note.

(I still like shoni too, but my co-dependent girls deserved better.)

Additional tags

I think it's so funny that Leatin has the higher percentage for angst and hurt comfort. Like, of course they do lmao.

It's also interesting that Shoni has the higher percentage for smut tagged and that Leatin is under the fandom percentage since Fatin is seen as the most "sexually evolved" in the show. Shoni does have more explicit fics [x, the graph for ratings under Specific Relationship Comparisons], so I guess it lines up with that.

Canon and AU

Having Leatin have more fics in post-canon is so bittersweet because it's nice to know that there are so many people fixing what Amazon cancelled but we really could have had it all :(

Length and One Shots/ Multi-Chapters

Weirdly, despite having the higher percentage of one shots, Leatin has the lower percentage of fics below 10,000 words (Leatin at 64.9%, Shoni at 65.7%, and The Wilds at 71.0%).

(Edit 03/19/24: I had the wrong data linked for the One Shot vs. Multi Chapter - The Wilds graph. It's now corrected. Leatin still has a higher one shot percentage than Shoni, but The Wilds as a whole is higher than either of them).

Notes and Disclaimers

Note 1: Tag wrangling was used to collect data.

Note 2: Data does include locked fics.

Note 3: [relationship tags] The totals are off because there are two Leatin fics that are posted but not tagged in The Wilds fandom tag. Also, one fic got deleted in the middle of me collecting data.

Note 4: [additional tags section] Percentage is of either the relationship tag (for leatin and shoni) or fandom tag (for The Wilds).

Note 5: [canon compliant and au] note that the tag 'Alternate Universe' is separated into a different graph on a different scale, for visibility.

Note 6: Per note 1, tag wrangling is used. This affects 'Alternate Universe' the most. Tags wrangled into ''Alternate Universe' includes (but is not limited to): AU - No Island, AU - Canon Divergence, AU - Pre-Canon, etc.

Note 7: I am an amateur (I failed my first year stats exam lol), so take that as you will.

Other AO3 Stats for The Wilds

TABLE EDITION OF DATA FROM THIS POST

December 2023 The Wilds stats

The Wilds Over Time

[stellahikaru]

State of The Starry Path Hotel #3 (February 23rd, 2024)

Welcome back to the third post of the state of The Starry Path Hotel! I’m the starry eyed vtuber hotelier, Stella Hikaru! I am proud of myself that I have managed to stay consistent with these blog posts. Anyway enough chitter chatter! On with the updates!

Mini Life Update

I am still chugging along with school. The big assignment for my capstone class was due this week so I was basically stressed over that and I did not think of much else until it got turned in. At least I got the Valentine’s Day emote in FFXIV! But yeah content creation activities were put on the backburner this week orz. 

Content Creation Progress Update

I didn’t really do much of anything this week regarding content creation this week. But the one thing I did was make a Carrd for all of my links to use for other platforms! I mean it was this morning before I went to write this post but hey, I did something! 

I also did some thinking about what I really want to do content creation wise. Most vtubers do livestreams as their primary method of content creation. The English speaking vtuber community is primarily centered on Twitch so it makes sense to stream on Twitch like what everyone else is doing. Right? Well if I’m going to be honest, I realized that I don’t want to make Twitch my main platform. First of all, discoverability on Twitch is terrible. You can only really be found when you are live (and even then that’s not a guarantee that you won’t be buried under other people) and that leads me to my next problem. I can only really go live once a week with my current schedule right now and live streaming is pretty time consuming. I would honestly rather put most of my limited time and energy into making videos. So while I will be continuing to stream once a week, I no longer plan to do any guerilla streams and will be focusing most of my efforts on edited Youtube content. 

This Week’s Goals

Make a video ideas list and write down a minimum of 5 ideas: Since I want to start making videos in March, I will need ideas. I already have a few ideas of videos I want to make but I still need to write them down. This week I will take some time to make a formal ideas list and write down at least 5 ideas.

Research editing software: In order to make videos, I will need some kind of editing software that is ideally free so I can save some money. This week I will research the different options I have for editing software that are free or low cost. 

This Month’s Goals

Prepare to start making videos next month: I mean it’s clear that I won’t be able to make a video before the end of February. However, I can use the remaining amount of time left in the month to prepare to go into video production next month.

Look into ways to take donations: I am still considering Ko-Fi as my main way to take donations. However, based on my research, I will still need to set up a Paypal Business account unless I want to dox myself. I want to spend the remaining time in the month looking into Paypal Business, Ko-Fi, and alternative services to take donations like Buy Me a Coffee. 

Continue streaming once per week: Even though I am not making streaming as big of a priority, I will still be keeping my regular streaming schedule for tomorrow. 

This Year’s Goals

Get monetized on YouTube: I want to eventually make money off of my content so I’m hoping to get monetized on YouTube this year. This is going to be a tall order, but I hope I can keep working towards this with my weekly and monthly goals!

Become an Affiliate on Twitch: Despite making Twitch less of a priority, I still want to be able to become an affiliate on Twitch. While I do need to find a way to meet the seven days streaming requirement, I want to be able to draw in viewers first. 

Gain 100 followers on any social media besides YouTube or Twitch: I actually am over halfway to 100 followers on Twitter as of writing this, but I still don’t get a ton of engagement on my post. In addition, most of the followers I have gotten are those annoying GFX bots and it’s a little bit disheartening. I also want to build up a following on Tumblr and Bluesky as well! 

Make a community Discord server: Once I build up a community, I want to create a Discord server for people to hang out in. However, I want to wait until there is a demand for a Discord server. This goal is lower priority compared to the other goals but I hope that this does end up happening this year!

Final Thoughts

The weekly goals are a little light this week but I’m a lot more confident that I can get both of the tasks done. School is still a priority for me but I think focusing on making videos rather than streaming will help me with my goals in the long run and help me balance my time better. I will be live tomorrow at 2 PM EST as usual. Now I’m gonna finish an assignment I have due tonight then rest up since I didn’t get a lot of sleep this week. This time I hope your stay was bright and your journey is filled with light! 

[photoniccyclone]

SFR Update - Progress on Chapter 7: No Name (Not the actual name of the chapter, I literally just don't have a name for it yet.)

Hey all! It's been a while again, but I just wanted to write this now to give a bit of an update on the progress on chapter 7. I have now finished the first scene and at the time of writing this am reasonably close to finishing the second. I'm currently coming up on almost 2K words written in one day which I think is the most progress I've made in a single day in a while. Currently there are 5838 words written for this chapter. I'm actually getting worried because there are so many words in it, yet I'm only coming to the end of the second scene. I don't know, I feel like that's a lot more than usual. I'm gonna have to see what happens if this ends up exceeding my 16k word per chapter limit.

I'll try to trim it down first if that happens, because I have noticed I've been getting increasingly more and more... verbose? as the chapters have gone on so the first thing I'll try to do during editing is cut down on the things don't really do anything and just kinda... fill. These could be descriptions or dialogue or whatever doesn't feel that important on a readthrough. However if I determine I need to have absolutely everything in there, then I'll split the chapters just like I did with 4 and 5. But I'll definitely won't be exceeding my 16k word limit by more than like... a couple thousand... I learned my lesson with that in chapter 3 lol!

Either way we are moving forward.

And I know what you all are asking after last chapter.

Yes! Chapter 6. It was a beautiful chapter, probably the best piece of written literature in mankind! (No, I'm not inflating my ego what are you talking about?) But... one thing was missing. WHERE WAS ZYM?!

Well you're right, Zym was completely absent from the last chapter, and that's because... mainly... nothing interesting with him happened during that time. He walked... and maybe slept? Idk... but either way, he didn't do anything special that y'all haven't seen him do already. Worry not though! Zym is coming back in chapter 7! In fact it's either the next scene after this one I'm currently working on, or the one after that but either way he will be in the chapter (provided the length doesn't get SO long it splits before his scene but I'll hope that doesn't happen).

So yea we will be able to see more of the adventures of Zym and... that masked person who's creepin' around him soon so I hope you all are excited for that!

Until Next Time!

[davidmariottecomics]

Pacing Your Work, Pacing Yourself

Hi again! 

It should come as no surprise that my updates are based on the things I'm thinking about at the moment and, often, what I'm going through. Something I still struggle with a lot--despite helping other people manage it for themselves 5 days a week--is pacing.

I tend to be a burst writer. When I get into the right headspace, I write constantly. Last week, I knocked out four scripts of different lengths--one's probably going to see the light of day in 2023 and the others... who know? Since then, I've got I think 2 half-written WIPs (that I plan on getting back to this week) and the early brewings of something else. 

It feels really good to be so productive, even if the majority of it never does end up going anywhere. I had been having a real dry spell and now I feel out of my funk. I know it won't last, though. Burst writing for me is having alternating off-and-on periods where, times like now, I knock a ton of stuff out, and then probably in about a month, towards the end of this year/beginning of 2023, writing much of anything at all will feel like a major struggle. It'll be half-chore, half-insurmountable barrier that I have to overcome. Time will pass and I'll get back into writing and have another burst and another bust and so on and so forth. 

But knowing this about myself and paying a lot of attention to what has been working for me, I've actually maybe found a solution to my personal pacing issues in how I pace themselves. 

Your Story is as Long as it Needs to be 

One of the absolute hardest things to know before you start is how long your story is supposed to be. Granted, you're rarely starting totally blind. If, for example, you've been asked to pitch a comic to a company, they're usually giving you an idea of your limitations up front, be it page count, issue count, or a combination of the two. There're exceptions--particularly when you're coming in with an original project rather than being asked to pitch on an existing title--but if you aren't told a length up-front, that's a discussion that'll happen quickly. 

When you are asked to put a story together, you're outlining to that length. I find a lot of the best pitches I read pace to about a 1-2 paragraphs per issue for the overall synopsis and then between like 25 sentences and/or 5 paragraphs per issue breakdown. With the high level overall synopsis, keeping your explanations short focuses you on the major incidents that forward the plot beats. Using my own work as an example--the big beats for Wreckers: Tread & Circuits issue #1 were the Wreckers are broadcasting a stunt that gets interrupted by Mayhem and the Wreckers go to Velocitron to investigate. The next step, the issue breakdown, comes out to be about 1-2 sentences describing the overall action of each page and is something I often use when going to full script to create a basic pacing. 

And while those are hugely important skills to have when you're working for someone else, when you're doing work for yourself, what I've discovered is it can be a lot easier to not go in and impose a limitation on yourself for the story. To let it flow as it will and breathe and you'll know when it's done. I said earlier I wrote four scripts last week. The longest was 18 pages, I think, and the shortest was 1 page. Both are a full script, but with very different demands. What I haven't really done yet is go back and edit any of them. I think there might be a 20 page version of the 18 page one where I let a couple things breathe more. Or maybe it goes the other way and has a couple extraneous pages that I can cut. But by writing it out to what felt like the proper length in the first place, I have room to expand or contract to make it best version of the story possible, while not losing the story in trying to make it fit a certain page count. 

Why was the story 18 pages? It's part of an exercise I was trying to purely write an incident as a story. That is to say--it's a weird little one-shot with characters who've never been seen before and who'll never be seen again and it's only covering the information needed for this moment in their lives. One of the reasons that's helpful to me is by getting rid of the need for lore or a balance between a current incident and the set-up for the next (A/B/C plots), it focuses my writing and helps me get words on paper (or, rather, screen). And I do think there's something to covering the main incident first and then building up around it when you are writing with those other things in mind, because they are inherently meant to be secondary. It also lets me play with the pacing of the specific incident. How much action has to happen on a page? Letting a gag play out for as long as it needs to. Figuring out what the defining sub-incidents are and making sure those are hitting the page turns. Even looking at things like spaces where as a writer, I don't want to define the exact breakdown that much because I think a page will benefit from the artist taking the lead. 

It's Going to be Different for Everyone   Building off of that last point, I have a lot of experience with comics where for whatever reason, the artist is working at a different pace than the writer. Not just the ability to hit deadlines and how much work is being done at a time, though that's certainly true too, but the way in which an artist in drawing out a page might take their own liberties to adjust the pacing and flow of the action. Maybe they add an extra panel or two of fighting because it looks cool and they had a good idea. Maybe something slow and wordy is taking too long and it works better to info dump in a single panel, rather than breaking it up into two or three panels. These tend to be totally reasonable choices and part of working collaboratively. 

By the same token, audiences have different opinions of pacing. Some people are going to be a fan of your pacing. Some aren't. But that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong unless you aren't telling the story you're aiming to tell. I'll leave it at that for now, but I know as well as anyone else that certain people have very certain tastes for the length and format of their comics. 

Pacing Yourself

Would you believe that when you're enjoying your work, you're more productive and it's easier? Yeah. Crazy, right? But it's true. 

I said earlier I'm a burst writer. I knock out a bunch of stuff quickly and then kinda burn out for a bit before I can get back to it. Obviously, there are motivations that can help you get across the finishline--payment, external deadlines, people like me emailing you every day asking for updates--but when you're working without those, you have to pace yourself. I hope I'm not going to hit my bust soon. I hope I can take rethinking my personal pacing into consideration when I'm working on original projects because that seems to be more engaging for me than forcing my way through to a goal. And I hope some of this might be helpful to you too when you're figuring out what pace you can work at. 

[perfectcyclefox]

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[mod-python]

kalons be dying

i had too many words to put in a regular ask, i apologize for this python. 

kalons be crashing bro. i give it another year before it dies unless wicc is willing to sell the species for a reasonable price to someone other than red. edit prices are 5$ under the price of a myo of the same rarity now - not half off or lower which makes it harder to simply edit kalons you already own, traits are being changed and policed differently without any announcements at all, and red refuses to delegate tasks like revamps and regrowths to other active staff for some unholy reason despite going on unexpected hiatuses for over a month. sure, holidays are a valid reason to be busy, but at least give warning that you might be away if you're unsure.

not to mention kalon staff are marginally underpaid for the work they do, aside from moderators. there's a reason the nursery doesn't get entries often at all - nobody wants to spend 10-20+ hours on batches that could consist of 4 kits (more if there's form change) for the same compensation a mod gets for answering two questions or doing two approvals. it's a flawed system, making the staff they do have not want to work, and i fucking get why, man. on top of it all, the inactive staff aren't removed, ever, so the staff list seems hefty, but only a handful are actually doing anything. not really their fault when they put hours of work in, only to get meager amounts of payment. 

in addition to the above, i also pulled this quote directly from the kalon main page: 

"Defined activity for Artists is 2 Adopts or Nursery Batches per month. Activity for Moderators is defined by species owners on a case-by-case basis." there's no set limit for moderators, so they could - in theory - do next to nothing and get favouritism pity points from red. it's ultimately not the moderator's fault, since this is a flawed part of the system, but it's really telling how the artists of the group are undervalued. not only that, but if an artist or moderator goes above and beyond in a month, they're not compensated overtime, so there's no reason for them to do anything but meet the bare minimum requirements. they do what they can to get personal batches, because they benefit more from a PB than literally any other compensation given in this group, leaving nursery artists to do PB's and PB's only, and the community getting the meager scraps of the NB artists left over energy, if that.

with the change in prices of edits, staff can't get nearly the same amount of edits for their kalons any more, and mods were a huge part of items even being in rotation. not only did red fuck over the community with increasing edit prices, they also fucked over their staff. red increasing edit prices feels like such a fucking cash grab, it's insane. if you want people to buy things more, do sales or lower the prices! people are more likely to spend when they think they're getting more for their buck! 5$ below the price of a myo? I'd rather buy the myo and let the kalon i no longer connect to rot. if you look at how much is getting bought, the highest number of sales happened around black friday, when things were on sale, instead of the measly one-comment-every-few-days ordeal they have going on.

(i've included an image below for proof of the current pricing for those not interested in hunting for the kalon shop link, though i don't have a before, sorry.)

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/400744041366683669/1061729649576644678/image.png

i dont want wicc to come back - they certainly weren't much better than red, especially not with milking the group like a cash cow - but handing the group over to someone like madziu, who's shown they are capable of handling interactions with the community in a way that isn't entirely off-putting would benefit the species greatly. red is not the right person to be owner. 

in other words, this is my ode to kalons dying, good-bye.

[canondanganronpaheadcanons]

Ok so the idea? Danganronpa V4: Poll Edition. How it works.

Everything plot related happens via polls, including who gets murdered, who are the murderers, and which DR characters will be in the cast. 5 students from DR 1, 5 students from DR 2, and 5 students from DR V3. The 16th student will be the protagonist. :)

The first few polls to determine which students will be in V4 would probably be scheduled to last for about a week, but then the polls that progress the actual story, once all the characters are determined, would last a day.

Polls are limited to only 10 options per poll so I'll need to get creative... maybe 2 polls of 8 students per game, if that makes sense

Anyways, I don't know if this makes sense. All I need is ONE person to tell me "do it" and I will do it.

I just had the most ambitious idea for a series of Danganronpa related polls. Stay tuned… maybe.

[karolinarodrigueswrites]

Tips for PowerPoint Wip Intros

Important: there is no definitive way to introduce your wip, and each manner has a process that will hit or miss with the author trying to use them.

I saw a post about (kinda) traditional wip intros going around, and am writing this in the odd chance that someone might be interested in things I wish I knew in the beginning:

1 - The point of how I do it is that it doesn't need perfectly selected and edited graphics or meticulously arranged summaries etc; traditional wip intro formats make me feel pressured into obsessing about getting every single word right, to a point I often just gave up in doing them at all.

2 - The comic sans presentations were a trend with an usually light-hearted and humorous intent take on how to introduce your wip, and the "variation" of it I settled with carries on with that light-heartedness in whatever aesthetic I want to use for a wip.

3 - Though the aesthetic of the slides' template can help catch the eye of others, a simplistic well organized presentation is more important than a fancy one.

4 - In the matter of aesthetic, any service that allows you to make slides tends to come with ready templates, and if you look around online, there are websites where you can get more variations of them, or you can even create one from scratch if you feel like so.

5 - In the matter of organization, it does not dictate what you include in the presentation, only how you present it. Have you ever sat to watch a presentation in school or college, only for the student to start their slides and each one of them is so full of text in small font and messy arrangement that you sooner want to look away than to pay attention?

This is something you get better at the more you work with it, but the basic is, after you save your presentation as images, that you check how it feels to read them on your phone. How much do you have to zoom in? How long it takes to read each slide, and how easy is it to do so?

And I mean it, the organization is about how you present things, not what you include - if you wanna fill your slides with memes, references etc, you can.

6 - Tumblr has a limit of 10 images per post - so that's 10 slides to introduce your wip. This is the current format I use:

By default - 1 title & subtitle slide and 1 summary slide.

The other 8 - distribute information on worldbuilding, lore and characters in your priority and how you feel best works for your intent.

Optional, if there's space: a "considerations" slide with information you didn't know where to fit around the other slides, such as tropes or elements you believe help show what excites you about this story.

7 - It is not an obligation, but usually characters are introduced with some kind of image that illustrates them - be it a picrew, an artbreeder, a face claim, etc.

8 - When you post it on tumblr, I recommend positioning the title and the summary slides alone, and grouping the others in 2s or 3s per row as tumblr allows; this makes the post itself shorter in an image equivalent of "read more" where to read that slide the person needs to click on it.

9 - Hindsight, I might not have managed to actually make any of this sound as simple as it can be in practice, but at the end of the day, again, there's no definitive way to introduce your wip, this is just stuff I wanted to know when I started.

Some examples from intros I've made: