#even if there's very limited engagement on stuff i'll usually still post it because it's what *i* wanna write

[fuckin-sick-bih]

i don't usually write the style of sick fics of like... stomach aches/emeto area, but like... my brain cannot stop thinking about the fact that Mobius M. Mobius probably only knows how to make horrifying 60's 70's foods that he wants to cook for Loki. and Loki at first is says "absolutely not" only to find Mobius later picking at a piece of it by himself. so Loki sits down and has a slice of... whatever monstrosity it is with him and it's not terrible. but it definitely doesn't like Loki. cue guilt from Mobius about "poisoning" a god and a little panic about not knowing how to take care of him in this sense because he's studied Loki! he knows Loki! but this? this is new! so Loki just requests to be held for a while, touch starved trickster he is.

[voxofthevoid]

Hello! We haven't really interacted before but I reviewed a Bleach fanfiction of yours a while ago, and I've loved your stories for the fandom! I'm sad that you no longer write for Bleach, but you've shared some amazing work, so thank you for that.

Just wanted to ask if you have any tips on how to connect more with other readers and writers, as it seems your conversations with other people in your fandoms bring a lot of joy and inspiration! While I wrote fanfiction in my teenage years, I felt very much like a fandom hermit back then but I'm coming back to it now many years later and want to actively engage with more people. I've joined some discord servers and am posting much more to twitter and tumblr, but I'm still pretty shy about messaging people privately as I feel like I don't really know what to say. I know it will take time, but any advice on how to get the ball rolling would be much appreciated.

Good luck with the writing!

Hi! I'm very glad you like my Bleach fics, and hey, being missed isn't a bad thing either ❤

(I do have one 80%–finished grimmichi fic that I'll put up on Ao3 soon-ish. The last chapter won't ever be written, but there's still some 28k of fluff and porn that ends on a fairly conclusive note on the emotional end.)

You're right that interacting with my fellow fans is a large part of what makes fandom fun for me. The community aspect of fandom is something that comes up a lot in conversations about why people flock to fandom, why they stay, and why they leave, and although I'm an introvert bordering on a hermit, the social aspects of fandom are its greatest draw. I write because I need to or I'll burst, but I share for the people here with me. That's not an uncommon attitude or experience. YMMV, but many of us want to connect with people who share our interests, and the level of creativity and commitment fandom inspires often thrives in collaboration and community.

How to get that sense of community is a trickier matter though. You're already in Discord servers, which seems to be the main fandom social space(s) these days. You're also on social media platforms where people can reach out to you or vice versa. So that's the basics covered. After that, it's largely a matter of organically developing relationships. But I do understand the hesitance to just roll up into someone's DMs; even though I have no issues with people popping up in my DMs, I also find it harder to initiate.

Plus, I've found that some sort of existing rapport gives you a better foundation when you do take the step into private exchanges. This can be Ao3 comment sections, Tumblr notes, or Discord group chat spaces. I tend to avoid Discord servers these days, but back when I had more tolerance for group chats, the people I met there often became closer friends. Mostly though, my pocket friends are people I met via Ao3 and, less frequently, Tumblr—fellow authors and readers in a specific fandom.

I know my regulars, here and on Ao3, and I've been a regular many times. Discussions in comments usually start out limited to the specific fic, but they can also include general fandom/canon stuff or even personal talk. Many times, you build a degree of familiarity with a person that way, and if the conversation moves to more private channels, you already have a shared base to build further conversation on.

So my best advice to find friends and like-minded fandom folks is to be active in Ao3 comments and Tumblr notes (...and whatever the corresponding thing is over on Xitter):

Reply to the comments on your stories and try to really engage with what your readers are saying. This is very much a personal preference, but the reason I try to reply with more than a generic "thanks" for longer, more in-depth comments is that, like I said above, nerding out with fellow fans is a huge part of why I love fandom. If people are already expressing interest in your story and you have a shared interest in canon, there's a lot of room there for fun conversations, even if they never go beyond one-off exchanges.

Comment on stories you like, and if you find specific authors you really love, let them know without reservations what you like about their takes and why you like them. One of my favorite commenting methods when I'm well and truly in love with something is to read everything once, then reread and leave longass comments on every chapter/fic. It's time-intensive, but I've never seen the effort go unappreciated. I've also been on the receiving end of this many times, and that's how several of my fandom friendships were born; one of my closest friends is someone I virtually kidnapped because I loved their tags on my JJK fic posts so much.

The above habits can be applied to Tumblr/Twitter too. Plus, there are plenty of people on such sites who engage deeply with fandom outside of fic writing. Be loud and proud about what you love. Sending a DM is an intimidating step, and not everyone will be receptive anyway, but most people welcome encouragement and appreciation. There are a lot of people I'm friendly with and fond of whom I've never interacted with directly, only via Tumble notes or asks.

I think all of this narrows down to being pretty generous when it comes to expressing your love for fandom and fellow fans. Won't always work out for various reasons, but as long as you're having fun, it's not wasted effort or time.

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: Everything okay?

Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. Catching up on Tumblr is really difficult though. Every time I take a break to do anything there are like 30000 posts to look at. I might just have to contend with the fact that there's no catching up. Internet FOMO. My brain keeps going "Well what if someone made a really funny post while I was away?!" And like... If it was really that funny it would come back around.

I still have no idea where that ask I answered went and I'm too burnt out still to try to retype it.

I am still cranking out fanfic and I am enjoying the 1.6 update of Stardew Valley though. And I made a yummy pasta dinner yesterday.

So overall I'm just... Tumblr exhausted. Everyone makes too many good posts all the time and the need/desire to tag all of them appropriately is massively kneecapping my ability to interact. Couple that with my IRL responsibilities of taking care of my Mom and handling my own adult life just means I spend my limited free time on meatspace tasks like knitting/crocheting and embroidery or on actually gaming or writing instead of my old routine which was... scrolling tumblr until I caught up for the day, usually dumping more than half of the posts in my drafts for future me, and then using whatever free time I have left to write or game. So I'm okay. But I think I'm honestly just... not going to be able to be available on Tumblr indefinitely. This legitimately might have to just be a hobby place now where I pop in to check up on friends, post notable things like finished projects, and then just dip out and ignore most posts. there's simply not enough time in my life to engage with all the fun things I want to.

But even though I'm a bit burnt out, I'm happy. I get to eat better food now that I cook more, I get to make more cool things now that I knit and crochet and embroider more. I get to handle more of my life which is honestly needlessly complicated (I will rage against taxes being obtuse on purpose forever), but it means I have more control over what happens which isn't much, but it helps me feel like a functional adult instead of a leaf in a stream. And I still have time for fun stuff. That fun stuff just... isn't on Tumblr so much.

All my fruitless efforts to "catch up" on here have done is just give me more drafts to dig through than I can manage and kept me away from doing more of the things I love.

So I'm going to try to do more targeted things on here. Post more original content, reblog a bit less, give up on catching up, and just try to give whatever energy I have on here to specific friends.

Feel free to keep sending me DotNW stuff. I almost always have energy for that. But I don't think I have the time and energy in me to go over a bunch of new things.

Physically I'm drained, mentally I'm fried. But it's okay. I think that I just have to let go and deal with the fact that having to step up and be an adult means I have to choose what's really important to me. And scrolling through memes on Tumblr is fun. But it's not fulfilling. I don't really want to spend 6 hours every day just catching up on what everyone else is sharing and then another 10 hours some other day scrolling through stuff I saved for later because I was too tired to read it the first time.

I want to spend more time creating my own things.

So I think from now on I'm just going to be extra picky about what I engage with on Tumblr, especially because engaging with stuff on here with only half my brain because I'm exhausted means I can only give half the attention to things that they deserve. I will try to post more of my own things so you know I'm still around and I will try to answer more often. But I think including Tumblr in my routine is no longer a sustainable thing.

It's like trying to live at a themepark. There's a lot of good stuff here, but very little of it helps me be the person I want to be. I don't want to just consume other people's content. I want to make stuff.

So I'll be around. But I think I'm going to start making really hard decisions about what I can and can't give attention to.

That said, seeing you build your own little community by hosting polls and engaging with other fandom blogs is really nice. I'm glad you're able to reach out and connect with so many new people. Tumblr is really great for that. I'm happy to be your DotNW contact, but I think I may have to trim down my engagement on Tumblr to just that. DotNW, maybe some legend of Zelda, maybe some cat memes and positivity. I'm going to trim away a lot of political stuff first and foremost because I'm pretty bad with that and I'm going to try to limit my meme engagement and long posts and see how that does. And if I need to trim down even more, then I will. But from now on, I think I just have to be decisive.

And I've decided the best use of my time is much less Tumblr.

I'll still be around, but it's definitely going to be sporadic. Doesn't mean we're not friends. Just means I'll get to all the fun things you want to share in a much longer timeframe.

I hope you are well, too. I think this is just one of those things where I have to completely transform my life. It's not bad. It's just different. I'm still doing all the things I love. I'm just putting more effort into the things that I love more.

Sorry for the long post. I think this is as "back" on Tumblr as I can be.

Thank you for loving me and sharing your joy of gaming with me! Even if I can't be on Tumblr as much, I will try to make space for you in my life!

[uravityplus]

hello all!! this is a rp blog for uraraka ochako of my hero academia, written by milk. on my pinned post, you'll find all relevant links/info here for my blog. i am completely caught up with both the mha anime and manga, so beware of spoilers ahead. if i'm not here, you can probably find me on one of my other blogs: @blastintriumph @impishsensei @muryonokansei @hateshinaii @fatuispolaris @balemccn

please be sure to read my rules before interacting/following.

carrd || interest check || icon border credit || plotting call (wip)

for ease of access, my rules are also placed under the cut!

guidelines

I will interact with mutuals only. If I follow you I want to interact, so don’t hesitate to send me asks or IM me with plot ideas! DO NOT interact if we are not mutuals. this includes liking my posts and sending me messages. it makes me uncomfortable. DO NOT follow and unfollow then follow again to get my attention. if i haven't followed you back yet, it's likely i haven't noticed. if it's been over a week and i'm constantly active and still haven't followed back, sorry, but i probably don't see us interacting and won't be following back. i usually follow back muses of the same fandom. with muses from different fandoms, this heavily depends on my familiarity with the series, and even then, i'm hesitant unless i can imagine how our muses might interact as i prefer canon-verse threads and interactions above all. For OCs, I'll probably only follow if you have an mha verse.

I’m okay with one-liners, crack, multi-para, novella… everything! Feel free to send in any ask memes if we haven’t roleplayed before. Ask memes are a great way to break the ice so I really don’t mind. If I follow you that means I want to rp with you so if you’re ever unsure and worried you might be bothering me, don’t. I’m duplicate friendly.

i am very unlikely to follow if you don't engage in typical tumblr rp etiquette. i don't care if you use icons or not, because i likely won't use them often myself. i mean stuff like tagging and cutting your posts. heavy amounts of ooc posts (like 10+ a day in an hour) is also something i don't like to see. if you do this, please don't follow me. i don't mean to sound like a bitch but tumblr is super broken and a clogged dash makes it harder to navigate, especially when it's so easy to miss notifications. i don't practice reblog karma so idc if you get your memes from me, but i do ask that you please reblog from the source and not from me!

If I haven’t replied in over a month I probably lost our thread or it’s sitting in my drafts and I haven’t noticed it, so please message me to remind me about it. I won’t be annoyed or upset. I drop RPs sometimes out of a loss of interest but please don’t blame yourself. It is always a personal thing that has nothing to do with anyone else as a roleplayer. I’m always happy to write more regardless of dropping previous threads.

I generally like to plot through tumblr IMs or discord. I will say though, i do struggle a bit with plotting and tend to prefer random interaction on the dash or through memes, at least just to feel out a dynamic. HOWEVER, if you've got an idea or really wanna plot, ofc just message me!! even if it's not my preference i'm still down to rub those brain cells together and brainstorm.

i have a few mains, but for the foreseeable future i do not see myself exclusively writing with only one of a character. i like to write and really don't wanna be limited with that. mains are prioritized when it comes to answers and drafts, and in random ic posts on the dash (non-threads), they'll be who i refer to in her "main" verse.

where RP is concerned i heavily prioritize chemistry. for now, my blog is multi-ship, so any relationships my muse develops will take place in separate verses unless stated otherwise. i'm not opposed to making pre-established dynamics, especially for au plots. i find that can be really fun. honestly, if we talk and something sounds exciting i'll be up for it lol. i just don't want something forced out of nowhere. flirting between muses is fine. for deku muses: i do write ochako with a crush on him in mind, but obviously i won't force the ship. it's just her canon crush!

DON'T involve me with drama OR send messages telling me to reblog callout posts or anything like that. i don't care for getting involved with petty roleplay drama. if it's something actually serious, i've already seen it on the dash and taken note. seriously, i will hardblock, anyone that pesters me with this nonsense. for personal blogs: please do not follow/like/reblog my posts. doing so will result in an immediate block.

i personally have no triggers and don't need anything tagged. if you have any that might not be as common, please let me know and i will tag them. I won't be writing explicit smut on this blog. Suggestive jokes might appear, but nothing explicit. Non-sexual nsfw (heavy or triggering topics, violence, etc.) will be present and tagged. I have no issues with others writing it and I don't have any triggers I need tagged. Please feel free to ask and I will tag anything you need. Despite not writing explicit sexual content, I ask that minors DON’T follow my blog. If you’re a minor & I accidentally followed you, let me know & I’ll unfollow you immediately.

[shubaka]

dang that's a lot of languages to have studied! kudos to you just for tackling mandarin and japanese 'alphabets' 😳 may I ask how you would rate/rank your proficiency in all those languages? were you able to retain the previous languages when learning new ones? (if yes, how? lol) also unrelated question and sorry I'm asking so many questions, but is university/college referred to as "school" where you live?

no worries if you're busy, no need to respond

"school" is usually used for anywhere from up to and including post-secondary (university/college). some people are very adamant about only using university or college when talking about it, but overall a lot of people still just say school when referring to post-secondary.

ahahaha it looks more impressive than it actually is. :') i unfortunately don't use the other languages much, so in my opinion, my retention isn't that great. it's important to keep using languages that you're learning! (i say, and then proceed to not do that haha) but i think if i actually sat down and focused on reviewing them for a few weeks, it wouldn't be too difficult for me to pick things up again.

french i learned from grades 4-7 because it was mandatory in my school in grades 4-6. unfortunately i had a very ... let's just say prejudiced teacher in grade 7 so i didn't continue after that. i still remember some phrases and vocabulary words. for more basic/casual conversation level stuff, i'd say i could understand maybe a quarter of it? sometimes i can kind of guess based on context haha.

i learned mandarin in grades 10-12. i'm definitely better at listening than speaking. although sometimes i trip up because i'll think of a word in cantonese first. i think basic beginner/casual is fine. on a side note, when i had cantonese lessons as a kid, we learned it using traditional characters, so the simplified characters end up confusing me half the time hahaha. (when i was 6-8 years old my parents made me take classes on saturdays. it was mostly for reading and writing because we speak it at home so it wasn't exactly "learning a new language")

i took one semester of korean in university... unfortunately my teacher wasn't the greatest at explaining some concepts (to my understanding, at any rate) and i'd often find myself asking the TAs (who were all korean exchange students haha) to clarify... it didn't go very well haha. i can only remember a handful of phrases and vocabulary.

japanese.... ahhh, i actually majored in it in university, so i got to an advanced level, but since graduating i haven't really used it at all -- so it seems like a waste *sobs*. hmm if we're basing my proficiency right now with no extra review to brush up on things, my speaking and listening might be at an intermediate level?

and not mentioned in that poll because i learned them outside of school for fun is ASL and thai (which i am currently trying to learn via self-study).

ASL is great but also one that you need to keep practicing -- if you can get the muscle memory, even better. i took it for a year (evening classes as an adult) and i'd say i'm at a beginner level. this, like everything else, i need to practice more to retain.

with regards to retention of other languages while learning new ones, i think it's mostly a matter of how much you continue to engage with and use the other language. and it can be helpful if you compare grammar structure, vocab, etc with the language you're currently studying and the old one. it can be fun/interesting when you notice similar patterns or words across different languages and that might help you remember things more easily as well.

i love learning new languages but oh god am i terrible at continuing to practice it afterwards :') there are just so many things i want to do and learn and there are only so many hours in a day -- and there's definitely a limit to how much i can think in a day before my brain turns into mush

[ironsagaarchive]

Should you play Iron Saga?

No.

This is a bit of a personal post and less formal than what you can expect here, but if you see the images from this blog and think Iron Saga is a game you want to try I'd advise against it.

The Gameplay

The gameplay consists of building a team and deploying them to a partially-scrolling battlefield where they fight off enemies until one side is destroyed or time expires. You have minimal input, only able to direct one unit's movements every ten-seconds (with the ability to store up to three movements) and to activate their special ability once it is recharged assuming the necessary conditions are met. Not only does this make gameplay uninvolved, it also is unnecessarily hard as your units will not act optimally and may bunch up or move in ways that get them destroyed. There is a gamemode with direct controls but it has no narrative relevance, still requires for you to engage with the rest of the gameplay to build a suitable unit, and the controls themselves are sluggish.

It should also be noted the game is quite poorly translated. Not unreadable, but definitely a very rough experience. I'm not usually one to harp on that kind of thing, learning a second language is hard and as an English speaker I certainly don't need to be catered to, but between what this game is and how much that poor translation impede accessibility it's noteworthy, at least.

The Gacha

Iron Saga is a gacha game, so even if it was amazing in every other respect I'd still be cautious to recommend it. To buy enough premium currency for a single pull you need to spend at least 3 USD even when buying the largest bundle possible. There are all sorts of bundles and monthly passes and daily discounts but this is not meant to be a cheap game or have an understandable monetary system.

It should also be noted that in usual gacha fashion you require lots of duplicates to max out your units' potentials, something that is necessary as explained in the gameplay section. This is made even more frustrating than most gacha games as you inventory is very limited and can only be expanded with premium currency. This, combined with the usual stamina limitations and limited banners, means if you're not prepared to spend a lot of money you're going to feel and be very limited.

The Story and Characters

I think one of the biggest reasons not to play this game is the narrative. I struggle to think of a game that is quite as gross as this, and I played Nikke for a moment. The protagonist, Becas, is an uninteresting nonce, remarking on every woman, girl, or effeminate character regardless of age and is fully supported by the narration that clumsily tries to describe their appearances. When he's not leering over the various women who cross his path he's stumbling between major world events with complete apathy, only stopping to care when it's meant to subvert our expectations or show how great he is. Basically, if you've seen any anime that has an aloof protagonist who doesn't flaunt his power level (but is still nearly undefeatable) and has a harem you know exactly what Becas is like and can guess what he'll do at any given time. The other characters are also painfully played-out archetypes and from the moment they're introduced you know exactly what their deal is and how they'll be treated by the narrative.

There's a lot I could say about the attitudes this game has about women and people from the southern hemisphere but smarter people than me have said the exact same stuff about other similar media, so I'll leave it unsaid here.

So why make this blog?

As you can tell I don't like this game. At all. But a lot of artists worked hard on the art featured in it and it'd be a shame if when the servers eventually go down it'd be lost. Archival, even of bad stuff, is a good thing because it lets us learn from the past and improve on what comes next. I can't understate how much I wanted to love this game. The amount of mecha-related games I've played and tried to find the good in is too high to count, and this is one in particular that started me down the path of making one myself. So I'd like to see other people get inspired and be driven, but also given them the opportunity to do so without wasting their time on that game.

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

Update time:

As per usual I'll put the tldr before the cut and longer rant surrounding my feelings under.

I'm going to have very limited internet from October 13th to 27th, like to the point of probably only having internet for 2 of those days maximum (likely the 16th and 25th but we'll see). With that in mind, please feel free to continue to send messages but just note that I may not answer until the 27th.

There's a good chance that I am going to start blogging again around November 4th.

If I do come back, it won't be as actively as before (but more than now) and there's a good chance that I will veer towards being more of a multifandom blog than mostly a Taylor one.

Okay so longer thoughts around this all... So when I took my break, I wasn't sure how long I planned it to be or even if I could do it at all. Like I had been wanting to for so long that I expected to fall back into old habits within a week. So the fact that I have made it this far, and like with ease, has been incredible. But the truth is that this break had three major goals and I feel like only one of them has been even somewhat fulfilled.

Firstly, and the one that has been somewhat fulfilled, was proving to myself that I could use my time doing something else. And I say somewhat fulfilled because like realistically I'm still online more than I would've liked, just on like Duolingo or whatever relearning Japanese. And don't get me wrong, I still feel like that's better than being on social media for 15 hours a day and it has somewhat helped me manage my time better. Likewise, I do have a ton of offline activities coming up, but they're all temporary holidays. And it may sound weird to remedy that with coming back online but that leads into goal two.

The second goal was to feel more connected to people. Realistically, I still feel the same (very positively) about my offline friends and just feel more disconnected to the community I had here. And now that I think I can balance my time better with social media, I'm willing to try find a better balance for that.

And then there's the elephant in the room, which is tied with the third goal. The third goal was to get away from the noise because honestly? I've had very mixed, but more rapidly negative growing emotions about being in the Taylor Swift fandom since Midnights' release but especially this year, like more so than ever (which, those of you who have been around since 2015 know, is saying something). I had hoped that time away would somewhat subdue the negativity, especially because my expectations for Taylor have been far lower since 2019 than they were previously and I found my way back to her then. But honestly? It only reinforced it. I'm not saying that I hate Taylor or her fandom now. Like I will still go to eras in February and I love you guys, but I can't pretend like May didn't happen or that it didn't have real world/offline effects to people who I love including violence from others and self harm. And more so, I can't pretend like it doesn't make me resentful that despite god knows how many posts and tiktoks and whatever from Taylor Swift fans saying that they've also faced offline harm, people are still acting like this was just a chronically online issue that was 'overreacted' on. And like honestly? This year, and the acceptance that this stuff likely isn't going to change, was the straw that broke the camel's back with that stuff, not the whole issue.

Like my whole view of being a fan has changed; everything from engaging in her music purchasing her music (Speak Now TV was the first time I hadn't preordered it and only own it now because I was gifted it, the same will go for 1989 TV and tbh have barely listened to her music lately), to other media where I'm not as motivated or scared of FOMO as to feel the need to see everything straight away or get more eras tickets (I'm likely going to cancel the accommodation I had for the city I was going to get resale tickets for) and I no longer feel comfortable reblogging any photos that Taylor hasn't taken/approved herself. And that's led to a place where ultimately I feel like I am here more for the community than even being a fan if that makes sense. Like again, I love you all and I don't hate Taylor, it's just more than she's now at the level of just say The Weeknd for me where I appreciate the musicality more than stanning her as a person as opposed to it being both like before. And I've had a lot of fear around that, particularly earlier in the year because I may not be able to have the community without being as involved with the factor tying us all together, but I'm in a far better headspace now where I can trust that that won't be the case but also be fine if it is.

Anyway that was a rant and a half, but the point is that if and when I come back, which may or may not be sooner than I thought, I'll be looking at following more non-Taylor blogs. I still haven't made a choice on level of personal posts though, but I do think it's going to be more of a balance of positive moments in my life and leaving most of my negative ones for myself because while I'd like to think that I've been an honest influence by showing my struggles, a large part of my conflicting feelings about being online is just how identifiable I've been through posting those struggles, especially in a country where any onus of defamation is on the person making the statements. It's honestly a big reason why 99% of my biggest struggles from last year weren't posted, because unfortunately, with how uncommon some of my issues have been, posting them plus the selfies I have over the years (and tbh even without the selfies) has led to feeling like I have a target on my back and I just can't do that anymore. So yeah, this is another rant but while it's not set in stone, if I post anything about my life, it will be more manufactured and 'best of' rather than the whole picture... ironically given I feel like tumblr has often been my diary/venting space for the worst moments lmao.

But anyway, I've ranted enough and it's after midnight here now, so that's where things stand atm.

[penultimate-step]

Thank you for responding! Responses to responses:

I'll go in reverse order this time.

Haruta is...punchable. He's a competent heel, I guess.

He certainly is that, yeah.... I don't really know why he bothers me so much, it's not like I usually have anything against villains. Mahito is just as cruel but he's one of my series favorites. It's not uncommon for the villains to be some of the characters I like best, but something about him makes it so I just don't enjoy any scene he's in. Possibly because he's just pathetic enough that I can't even get hyped for the heroes to defeat him. Even seeing Nanami wreck him just made me feel bad that the closest thing jjk has to a father figure was engaging in such brutal violence. To use another series, BNHA, for comparison: he feels less like a Shigaraki and more like a Mineta. I don't want him punched I just want him to...stop that.

It would be easy for someone like Satoru Gojo to have boring non-fight scenes. But in Shibuya, Gege Akutami does a good job of finding ways to escalate the stakes even when Mr. I Win Button is around.

Yeah I was impressed by how well they've been handling Gojo. It is pretty funny to me that part of that was just, okay, we need stakes now, let's literally box him up and put him on the shelf for later. But even before that, the way his existence as a pillar for the other characters is fully relevant to way the story is going makes him much more effective than a deus ex machina. And none of his scenes in season 2 would have anywhere near the same impact if we didn't have a whole season previously of him showing the viewers that he could be the invincible support for the jujutsu society. I like how he's been written a lot.

Anyways, I think I've talked about this before on one of my own posts, but I like Real Geto a lot better than his replacement. There's a lot of stuff that pseudo-Geto can do that would be implausible for someone as young as Real Geto.

I haven't had too long with fake Geto, so I'll give him some time before I make judgments, but it does strike me as a bit of a shame to lose Real Geto. I didn't think too much of him in the movie but he was absolutely a highlight of the flashback arc, and I would hate for the climax of that character thread just to be "his body used to immobilize Gojo for a second."

(worldbuilding stuff)

Wait, there's no cursed energy outside Japan? That's...an interesting worldbuilding choice, I suppose.....but why??

Geto's movie team was intentionally international, if I'm remembering right. There was the guy from Africa that you mentioned, and another guy unspecified but with a foreign appearance and name. (His name, Larue, is I think either Italian or French?) Plus, I could have sworn there was some mention of sorcerers going overseas on missions...

That's fine, though it does somewhat reinforce my sense that jjk feels like a very artificial world. As you say, there's nothing wrong with having so many of the important figures be in Japan, that's just where the story takes place. I've read plenty of manga where every important person in the world lives in Tokyo, and there's no shortage of US series where everybody internationally relevant lives in New York, or San Francisco, or wherever. My issue is more that even if we're limiting it to just Japan, it feels like this world couldn't sustain itself if I start thinking about it for two seconds.

Like, the obvious question is, what happens when Gojo decides to retire? Heck, what happens when he takes a nap? He can't be everywhere. Specifically, the jujutsu society isn't new, its existed for over a thousand years, but the way the story has him be an end all be all makes me wonder how humanity didn't go extinct long before he was born. There's a moment in the curse user battle that kind of answers this - that everything got more dangerous when he was born, inexplicably. But then, okay, but he's still just one guy. Curses form naturally so long as there are people, we are told. If I'm taking the worldbuilding at it's word, there are threats constantly going on all over the world (or, apparently, only all over japan. strange choice from Gege but I'll roll with it.)

In some hidden-world type settings, the actions of those hidden are performing vital functions to protect the ordinary world, which would collapse without their heroism. JJK initially made me think this was the setup we had here, with curses preying on humans and sorcerers organizing to protect them. But with later revelations, it's hard for me to picture any organization here at all. It's less a hidden world, and more a hidden house or classroom. The two pillars being in Japan aren't the issue to me, it's just hard for me to believe that a world only surviving by the constant close scrapes of two pillars can even survive. Can these dozen or so guys really protect so many people? And if they can't protect everyone, and they're only stopping a small percentage of the curses, how did humanity even survive this long?

I guess this is kind of the risk you run whenever you try to portray this kind of setting. Fundamentally, the world from the perspective of an ordinary person is supposed to look identical to our own, but our own world is dependent on so many very specific moments in history that when you make too many alterations it starts to strain suspension of disbelief that a world like ours is even plausible.

I am aware that I'm being super nitpicky about this - every fictional world could be equally said to be unrealistic if you really think about it. On some level, the idea that the world depends on Gojo isn't any more unrealistic than the world of DC depending on Superman - such is any world with high stakes. JJK is only different in that it presents a world that despite having a radically different past, resulted almost identically to our own - but that is also just a common bit of worldbuilding, making a fictional world similar to reality is both convenient for writers and easy to understand for readers.

The more I write this out the more I think there isn't actually a problem, and this is all just my own personal taste being expressed. Nonetheless this is a live reaction series, not an analysis, so the lack of rigor here is possibly excusable on my part. All I can really say is that as I was watching S2 so far, my kneejerk reaction was "this world setting feels like it exists for the sake of the plot, more like a stage prop than an actual world I can imagine people living in." And yeah, every work which focuses on plot or characters and isn't just a worldbuilding bible is this to some extent or another, but in JJK I started to feel it much more strongly when compared to some of it's fellow shonen peers. Which might be a completely biased and wrong interpretation of what is going on, I fully admit I could be doing some terrible reading comprehension.

JJK S2 Livewatch: Eps 8-12

Hello, everybody! Sorry for taking so long to continue this live reaction. Since this is the part where the fights start in earnest, I had a lot less to say about the show's specifics and more general rambling thoughts I had as watching. It made me unsure about how to write this part up, and I ended up taking way longer than I should have (I watched these eps weeks ago!) Not sure if this will make the livewatch more or less entertaining to read along. But at this point I am going to post and hope for the best. Hope nobody is disappointed.

So, following up the end of the last ep, Gojo is called out to the danger zone. It's emphasized how much he's the one guy who matters and can do anything here. Which does kind of make me have thoughts about the worldbuilding.

Ok, so, what is the size of the jujutsu world, exactly?

Between Gojo and Tengen, we have multiple individuals who apparently single handedly hold the jujutsu world on their shoulders. That is so many points of failure, so many points where things could just go catastrophically wrong at any moment, presumably dooming the world. I know that this is primarily in order to place the plot focus on the important people. but it feels less like the jujutsu world is an institution or a world on its own, and more like a small club. Which could be fine, but its established that curses appear constantly, all over the world. It's hard to believe that a group small enough to need a handful of people to hold critical roles could cover the whole nation We know there are only 2 jujutsu schools in japan, and its unknown how many elsewhere but presumably an equivalent amount. We've seen most of the students at the school competition arc, and there were less than a dozen altogether. So....what's going on here? It just seems kind of arbitrary, and makes the world feel more constructed - which, of course, it is, being a fictional world, but generally we prefer when the guiding hand of the author is less obtrusive.

Some comparisons that can be made are to Naruto, the manga which I am almost certain is JJK's biggest inspiration, and to Chainsaw Man, a contemporary peer. Naruto's worldbuilding is large and sprawling, with plenty of named organizations, locations, and events offscreen. out of universe info books and spinoffs help add detail to this, but aren't necessary. There, it is believable that any given character exists in the context of the world because the world exists as background. in contrast, chainsaw man shares a much tighter focus with jjk. much less exacting detail, minor characters, etc; a greater focus on a small cast. There is no greater detail, readers know nothing about the structure of hell, the goings-on in the US or USSR, or even other divisions and areas in japan. but there is enough there to maintain an illusion that the world exists - mentions of foreign countries, occasional shots of hunters or political leaders. Sure, it's not the same as actually detailing in the world, but there's no need to go that far - enough has been sketched in that the readers can imagine the characters getting on a plane and flying to another country, even if they don't have any details about the destination, it feels like they exist in a real world with real places that the camera just doesn't turn to.

This might seem like I'm being overly harsh to the setting. it is clearly an intentional choice to have Gojo be the lynchpin of the world, there's nothing inherently wrong with it. But as someone who loves urban fantasy as a setting, it does sometimes bother me when I feel like the world exists only for the convenience of the main cast. It's a world close enough to our own that I feel like it should make sense.

Anyway, that's enough of that. Moving on to actually talking about the events of the episodes. I did warn you at the start that I had less to say about this set, though.

The fight between Yuuji and the locust curse isn't a bad fight to reintroduce us to the main protagonist. It's smoothly animated, outside some hiccups when jumping through walls, and the fact that both fighters use fully physical techniques made the whole thing seem very even and straightforward.

It's outshone completely by the Gojo vs villain gang battle at the end of 8 and through 9, though. I love when hidden world fantasy type settings use the clash between the normal world and the fantastical, setting these fights in a crowded city subway was a cool enough idea already, but the villain plan to use ordinary citizens to box gojo in, the use of trains in the battle, all hammered it in. the way the battle goes on around them while they can't even see most of it is interesting.

The almost wild, ruthless way Gojo speaks and fights in this battle make it clear he's been pushed very far. Between this and the flashback eps, S2 hasn't been shy about showing Gojo struggling and on the edge, a stark contrast to the way he was essentially the plot device "I win" button in his season 1 appearances. Where many of his memorable moments then had him floating at a distance to his opponents, untouchable as his technique, this fight is brutally physical. The moment he grabs at Hanami's branches was visceral. I was actually really surprised to see Hanami die. When he had Hanami against the wall, I started saying out loud "You know, the ruthlessly strategic thing to do here would be go for the killing blow on the weakened enemy. I just know Hanami is going to come back and cause trouble in future arcs. But it makes sense the author wouldn't want to waste a villain with so much buildup like that." And then he actually did kill him. Okay! Message received, Gege! I'll stay on my toes a bit more!

Also, as an aside (much as the show does,) I really liked the villain interludes. Seeing them messing around playing games in their free time did a lot to add to their characterization, even if it was just a way to exposit their plans to the audience.

While I'm giving praise, the sound design and music team did a great job. There's so much that wordlessly conveys the emotions going on mid-scene without having to stop and actually demonstrate them. the ominous overlay on the villains, the frenetic piano as gojo rushes to use his domain, and the most evocative of all, the soft and emotional tunes of shock when Gojo sees Geto again.

Also, this is the part where I have to embarrassedly admit that I was already spoiled on present day geto being fake. Rather, I was so spoiled that I assumed it wasn't a spoiler and was revealed in S1, until seeing the big reveal scene made me realize someone must have told me about this years ago. Whoops. Apologies if any of my followers were waiting for my reaction to that bit :(

Ep 10 is mostly a bridge and setup for the next portion, but I do have some brief thoughts on the new characters to touch on before moving on. The drinking old man is not endearing himself to me with his flippancy, the curse user with the hand sword from season 1 is back, and still kind of annoying whenever he's on screen. The unnamed white-haired girl with him seems cool though. also, this may be kind of a late moment to say this, but I really do like mahito as a character. Some of his transfiguration stunts were genuinely unsettling, and the way he alternates between that kind of cruelty and his general playful attitude makes him pretty fun to have on screen. He's far and away my favorite of the present day villains.

Skipping ahead to the fights in eps 11 and 12. The montage of murders by the curse users actually disgusted me. Which is kind of funny to contrast with the appearance and fighting style of the man who fights Yuuji and Megumi in this episode. His face and movements are different than most of the cast, reminding me more of some kind of demonic looney tunes character, jumping around and letting hits bounce off him. The fight is a cool showcase of 10 shadows, as well as giving some fun interactions between Yuuji and Megumi.

Actually, as I look back on it, I'm somewhat more impressed by this bit than I was as I was actually watching. None of the individual moments are super impressive or thought provoking, but as I come in to write down thoughts I realize that this two episode span seamlessly transitions between 4 different fights, done well enough that I didn't see it as an interruption, and only realized while writing this about it afterwards.

I don't want to dwell too much on the Nobara and Nanami vs hand guy fight, because that guys icks me out. Mei Mei's fight is mostly offscreen, but I do have a meme about it, because I cannot stop my brain from making unfortunate connections. The fight between the masked sorcerer (I don't remember if we got his name?) and the pair on the rooftop, though. It starts pretty slow - I don't think either of their powers or the way they use them are very interesting - but things tick up immediately when Toji shows up. Just like in the flashback arc, he just grabs the attention in every scene he's in, an

While I'm on the topic, one thing I noticed is how efficient the flashback arc was. Pretty much every element from there makes a direct return now, not even 10 episodes after the fact. Geto and Toji are shown off in the past right in time for them to be introduced in the main plot, not wasted elements. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing but it did feel noticeable. Possibly this ties back to the stuff I was talking about at the start of this, where JJK keeps making the tradeoff of telling a tighter and more focused story while cutting lose any elements that could be seen as extraneous, for better or for worse.

Anyway, that wraps up that watch session. It was pretty good, I didn't enjoy it as much as I liked eps 1-5, but much more than I liked 6-7. as a whole I think I can start to calibrate my expectations for how good this seasons is going to be now, very well executed but much more straightforward than that first arc would suggest. Less exploration of world and characters, more cool fights and action scenes.

I feel like I said a lot without actually saying very much, I worry that this was almost entirely recap of things any watcher knows already. I'll try and write the next section much faster, and hopefully I'll have more interesting things to say about that one.

[meadow-roses]

This is Part 1, ✨History✨.

Okay, so I was working on typing up plot stuff for Joden's story that I'm still thinking of a name for, but it's getting really long so I'll post it in parts. :3

Also since this is really early in the story's creation pretty much everything is subject to change, but you get the idea of the general plot. XD

@ascendant-queen 💖

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask 👀

The story is set in a forested landscape,  tree dotted grasslands eventually giving way to deep forests climbing up the mountain slopes. The different kinds of animals live in self governing groups, with varying levels of interaction between them. 

The smaller critters like mice, rabbits, and squirrels mostly just live in large family groups throughout the entire region south of the Great Pine Woods.  They by far make up the majority of the population, and have no uniting ruler.

The cheetahs live in the southern plains, little baronies scattered all around.  Their diet consists of fish and smaller birds (? Might change that later haven't decided if the birds are sentient) and the cereal crops they grow.  They also trade these grains with the other animals in exchange for goods such as cloth and beads.  They love being fancy. They have this system of electing their rulers, but only members of the "nobility" (land owners) ever get voted in because of money stuffs.

The raccoons also form their own society working off the classic monarchy.  Their kingdom is built in the Eastern woods, with  their homes built up off the ground and literally in the trees.  In the most populated villages, rope and stick bridges connect these homes making swinging pathways in the branches. A lot of the smaller creatures choose to make their homes in the roots of the raccoon trees, as their territorial border patrol keeps out aerial predators and the occasional rogue fox.  Unlike the cheetahs,  the raccoons are small enough they have enemies to worry about, and are known to have an exceptional and disciplined military. 

The bear clans live high up in the craggy woods working their gardens, rather indifferent to what happens below and the rumors that they eat their visitors.

The foxes do not have any form of government or organization. Some live in groups and some alone, some pledge a mammal free diet and some hunt their neighbors.  As such they are not trusted by anyone. :/

Here is a map I drew up:

A few things are unnamed and the scale is a bit off but you get the general idea of layout. 👍

About twenty years before the story begins:

Down from the Northern pine woods a clan of foxes comes.  They are organized, armed, and angry, ready to claim some territory after being chased out of the north by the wolf clans.  Most of the southern foxes come to join their cause, pleased at the idea of them having utter lordship over the woods. Skirting around the great cats, they infiltrate the woods to the west and south after establishing themselves in the North. This was done easily with no opposition due to the small critters having no leader. They just swept in and conquered.

With this done they turn their attentions to the East.  The raccoons have watched this all  happen with great alarm.  King Cynric gathered his men in preparation of the attack, but still wasn't ready for the craftiness of the foxes'.  They came in great numbers from the south, engaging the king's soldiers in the clash of battle, while stealthy individuals crept past the border guards and set fire to the trees.  The wind and dry weather did its work, and the kingdom of raccoons fell to fire and bloodshed.  Most died in the fires that destroyed their homes, the remainder of them fled under the guidance of their prince, only to fall at the mercy of their waiting enemies.  Unprotected sows and their kits were slaughtered by the sword or captured and enslaved in the ruins of their home and all across the newly conquered forest.  

This song really fits the burning of East Wood and Rowan's side of the story.

Prince Rowan, however, rebelled at the enslavement of his people.  With his father the king now gone, he was left the protector of his people and despite his wife's urging, could not lay down in submission.  He gathered a small team of close friends and willing boars, bid his wife farewell, and left, hoping to gain more information on the foxes' plans and find a way to free his people.   Him and those with him were never heard from again. 

The cheetahs watched all this happen around them, and decided not to interfere, but rather formed an uneasy alliance with the foxes.  They didn't consider themselves in any danger of being conquered, but weren't bothered by their actions and wanted to avoid the bother of war.  The foxes were more than eager to sign peace with the cheetahs, knowing in that their conquest would be secure.  It is unknown whether the bears up in their western mountain range are even aware of the dramatic changes to the lower-lands.

The woods are now in an awkward state of affairs, the foxes holding a tyrannical rule over all their subjects. Soldiers are stationed in every town and village to "keep the peace", the inhabitants going about their lives in the fear they or one of their family members will be chosen as the next meal.  Most of the Southern foxes still prefer a mammal free diet, but one of the Northern invaders' main objectives is to secure easy prey for consumption.  

The "free" creatures are allowed to live their lives "as they would please", but have limited allowance to travel and must give payment at the end of every week to their resident "guardians".  This payment can be anywhere from a basket of wheat berries or a bolt of cloth to an older child.

The raccoons have a far stricter control placed over them, as they are viewed more capable of revolt.  Scattered across the foxes' open woodless territory small slave towns hold the remnants of Cynric's kingdom. They spend their days working for their masters, boar and sow alike, tending fields, cooking and cleaning, mining, etc.  They are kept under strict control with heavy penalties for disobedience. Their meal times are regulated, their sleep times, work times, housing, children, everything. It is in one of these dusty, dead towns Joden grows up in.

His mother is old enough she remembers what life was like in the old kingdom, remembers a life of freedom under the trees.  Joden's father died shortly after the foxes' attack, he is told later he was one of the faithful boars that accompanied Prince Rowan for his last stand.  She raises Joden on these tales, urging him to never give up the hope that they can one day be free.

It is for his mother's sake Joden's intense optimism grows.  Can he truly be considered a slave if he goes about his work with a smile and a song? If he willingly puts on the yoke and carries the load they have required, who is the one truly in control here?  They can enslave his body but they cannot enslave his spirit.  

As he gets older he also grows bolder.  Just being cheerful to lift his mother's spirits is not enough.  He wants the entire slave town to be free in the way he is.  They all go about their days in unnecessary gloom, only because they lack someone to lead them out of it.  By the time he reaches maturity the entire town looks to him as their leader, hoping that someday a hero will come to set them free and lead them home. He stands in for them against the cruelty of their masters, fighting for the justice of his small community of raccoons.  This often gets him into a good bit of trouble, which he somehow always manages to get out of and back home to his worried mother. 

He meets Twylla when she is relocated from another slave town by stepping in when a few of the slave masters decide to teach the new coon a lesson.  The girl had made no grave offense, just a slip in her understanding of the schedule this different camp functioned under.  It was a great surprise to her when a random coon detached himself from the troop marching past, and demanded they punish him in her stead.  He would take responsibility for the sow and her actions throughout her initiation and teach her obedience to their rules, all her mistakes laid to his shoulders instead.  This was agreed to, as they had nothing in particular against the new coon but did enjoy taking out their boredom on Joden who usually escaped from any attempts against him.  Twylla really had no idea what to think of any of this.  She helped him up off the ground with repeated apologies he gently brushed off. She very willingly trotted along after him as he taught her not only how to function in this new town, but also how to hope. Then later they get married. :3

Jaceryn is the son of a Cheetah land baron.  He has been raised in the lap of luxury, his father being the wealthiest of the barons and the cheetah's current elected leader.  He is a rather naive boy who has never left his Father's estate, but naturally has big plans on how he will make the world a better place.  He has grown up in a world where the foxes have dominion of all the forest outside his Father's control, and this is normal, but he doesn't understand what that means until he sees it for himself.  They have little raccoon slaves all over his Father's land that they purchased from the foxes, so the concept of raccoons being a race of slaves is kinda engrained in him.  There's no such thing as a "free raccoon".  

His mother instructed him to stay on his father's estate when he plays outside, but one day he gets curious like young boys do, and decides to venture into the trees.  He really likes the way the forest feels and goes deeper and deeper, thoroughly enjoying himself when he hears voices and decides to investigate.  He comes across a raid in a woodland village, the fox overlords collecting their taxes.  He sees the children ripped from their mother's arms, the weeping villagers, the carts of goods and the miserable raccoon slaves pulling them, and the jeering,  laughing faces of the fox soldiers and the injustice burns within him.  It is true the foxes defeated them in battle, so the captives are their spoils of war, but this is unnecessarily cruel oppression and he hates it.  He hates that his own people- free people- are doing nothing to change this and he resolves to be the one that frees the slaves.  His parents are told this scheme by their proud little thirteen year old and are very quick to try and dissuade him.  Not only is this a dangerous task for him to undertake, but this also holds the possibility of starting a war that neither of them wish to fight.  Jacer agrees to "abandon" the dream to put his parents fears to rest, but secretly continues plotting and preparing his coup.  It would be risky, and he would need to be sneaky.  Break into a camp and take out the guards, let the little coons run free…

He went on frequent trips out to the forest to swing around in the branches and practice creeping silently through the underbrush.  The other cubs his age wrote him off as a weirdo, so he went alone.  His father eventually began to worry about him on these trips, remembering how impulsive his son can be at times.  It had been years since Jacer had talked about his quest to end slavery and had shown no signs that he still held that belief so his father thought nothing of purchasing Jacer his own personal slave.  This slave's job would be companion and voice of reason and just general personal servant.  

This is probably where the actual story would start lol, so all that is setup. XD

I'll share more as I finish writing it, cause I'm really excited about this story. :3

[transienturl]

I think the title is honestly completely irrelevant to the actual content but man that's such a good video. It reminds me of Anand Shimpi's coverage before he retired from tech journalism, which is I think pretty much the highest praise you can give in this industry. These days I think a lot of technology journalism is very focused on the here and now (probably largely in the interest of chasing engagement, as you have to for financial reasons), and it's rare to see someone really step back and look at this continual progression of products in a big-picture way.

edit from later when I was writing this post: I am going to leave the stuff in the middle, but I actually came up with a really good framing device for the thing I want to say about this about five paragraphs after this point, rendering the upcoming text fairly pointless

I don't know. Maybe this is off-topic (not that that matters; I control the post topic), but I've really lost some of the passion I had for following along with advancements in tech products in the past, oh, like five years. I think part of that is that these days, most products don't suck anymore, so there's less differentiation and it's hard for something to be truly special. But for the most part I think there's really been a drop in the quality of analysis you can get in coverage, and I'm not sure why.

Because, like... I guess in my opinion the path to a great tech review isn't "here is a new product; should you buy it if you want this kind of product," because that was never really the point. It would be like if sports coverage was only of the scores, or if the financial news was just "this is the Dow today." The best coverage creates a framework for you to understand the market as a whole, and what use cases it serves well or poorly and what features or limitations you can expect or what you should be surprised by. Effectively, it should help show you which 95% of the breathless marketing terminology you'll see whenever you even vaguely consider spending money on anything to ignore, and which 5% are really interesting.

And, I dunno, that 5% is really quite interesting! But these days I feel like when I need to look something up for a quite practical thing like "someone I know wants to know what computer to buy; what are the classes of product in this price range," I feel like it's all just variations of regurgitating that 95%.

So it's really sort of a breath of fresh air, I guess, to watch something about tech these days and go, "oh, I remember that now, and I wouldn't have thought to make that comparison, and look at that detail I hadn't noticed, and I really feel like I'll look at the next product I see with this in mind," I guess is what I'm saying.

Oh: I'm not going to rewrite this post around this conclusion, but a better framing device for this post that I just realized is that I think the best technology coverage makes you think not just about the options immediately in front of you, but breaks them apart into concepts that you can think about in terms of products that don't yet exist. These days I feel like a review of a product is usually essentially unconstructive criticism; "this should be cheaper" isn't a line I would take as a product designer and go, "oh, that actually helps me understand what I could do to create a better product."

Basically, I think it's really important that journalism helps teach you about how the sausage is made, and why it's made that way, because:

a) it's just interesting

b) helps inspire new generations of sausage makers

c) makes you think about sausages in an informed conceptual way, so that next time you see a new sausage, rather than just googling a review and seeing if they say it's good, you can go, "oh my god, they finally created that product we are all hoping for," or "okay I know that looks exciting, but they still really haven't fixed XYZ," or "I don't need to spend any time thinking about that besides checking off a mental checkbox" or "what the hell is that, that is the most interesting thing we have seen in a while, I must learn about it," and so you become a better and more informed consumer both now and in the future

tell a man a phone is 20% faster, help him decide if he should buy it today; show a man that phones are usually 20% faster on average than last year's model but this one is only 8% faster but the price structure is normal so maybe this year purchasing a used model is unusually prudent, help him read a benchmark chart for life

god what the fuck am I talking about