#fandom related question

[artsycooky13]

i peeked into the sonic fandom and this dynamic grew on me. also satbk was really cool

[infinite-beginnings]

My George video!!!

In case you were curious about the latest book he has read and his go to hype song.

Also DBDA Fandom, we have a job to do now 😅

I also shared with him that I lost my grandfather to Parkinson's Disease recently and he had some really really sweet words to share (I didn't include that part of the video but I just wanted everyone to know how kind and thoughtful he is)

[ocmakerofcanada]

Has anyone else in the tmnt fandom ever talked about these warriors who first banished away the Krang many years ago in the ROTTMNT movie?

They had to have been part of the Hamato clan. I mean, they share the same colors of those masks that our turtle bros wear in the show. And why else would Splinter would already have the warriors weapons?

Maybe we can learn more if the creators of ROTTMNT do anything more along with that upcoming comic that everyone in the fandom is getting so hyped up about.

[drukkaris-blog]

This scene is so adorable and all, their little conversation, Mike reassuring El she doesn't need hair to look pretty. Even expressing how happy he is to have her back home, which says a lot about how Mike feels about El at this point. Everything is normal again for them even if a second later it falls apart.

But

I think it's rather important to remember how this could have been their first kiss if they weren't interrupted. The fact that El tried to initiate the kiss, she knew how she felt for Mike in that moment. Even if she couldn't properly express it through her words, she expressed it through her actions and what she felt. Love is a feeling, it's not something you have to learn about. I can't say this enough because a lot of people try and claim Mike was the one who kissed her first, which he did, but to say he took advantage of her because she didn't know much about anything??? It's so gross and shows the lack of attention you guys have when it comes to this show. Or how you view El as a character, even now nothing has changed. Y'all still treat her like the little girl she was in S1, saying she needs to be independent, or single to be independent, like no, stop degrading a female character instead??? El's independent arc was written from the moment S2 was confirmed, she has been independent since than. She even stood up to her abuser in S4 and confronted him about EVERYTHING.

She has sm character development y'all just refuse to acknowledge it for a m|m ship. Which is extremely sad.

[always-a-joyful-note]

Welp. Tag tagged by @justplaggin for the game

rules: spell out your name or url with songs

I couldn't resist, and thank you very much for it, Jay/Plagg!

To challenge myself, I'm gonna see if I can stick to songs from anime East Asian shows/stories

A - All-in (Alien Stage)

L - Last Dimension (TRIGGER)

W - wi(l)d-screen baroque (Revue Starlight)

A - Artistic Partisan (ALKALOID x Valkyrie)

Y - Yumemiru Architecture (Kagehira Mika; Enstars)

S - STRONGER & STRONGER (Zool)

A - Ame (MEZZO)

J - Joker Flag (IDOLiSH7)

O - OMEGA (STEREO DRIVE FOUNDATION; Yuukoku no Moriarty)

Y - Yume Shizuku (Re:vale)

F - Forever Note (MEZZO)

U - Until it Dies (覃云; Link Click)

L - Lily (Luck Life; Bungo Stray Dogs)

N - Now and Then (Re:vale)

O - Or the Beautiful Golden Drop (Knights; complete version out on May 22, so have the game version)

T - THE POLiCY (IDOLiSH7)

E - Eccentric Party Night!! (Five Eccentrics)

19 songs...and I tried to find ones that I genuinely enjoy right now (RIP to me making this challenge harder), so hence, the above mostly-Japanese-dominated list.

No pressure tags: @bobisnolongerhere @lizzieonka @rosencrantzsguildenstern @msperfectsheep-posts @mahounonbinary @praise-the-lord-im-dead @nitunio @akitchenknife @teslathelame @koi0boi @mihai-florescu @forebodinglight @imissthembutitwasntadisaster and anyone else seeing this because i am now incredibly curious about what songs you will choose (im so sorry if I forgot someone)

[saysflora]

David Moscow as David Jacobs (Newsies 1992)

[24blogs]

So Kairi was sleep for a year. She has her heart and is in the realm of light so.....

[blazethecataskblog]

hey blaze!! if youre comfortable with it, what's your sexuality?

Oh dear. I'm afraid I haven't put much thought into it. I've never seen myself getting into a relationship, really. My kingdom's rule will go to whoever is most fit, not whoever shares my blood. I suppose I can appreciate beauty in either gender. I'm not quite sure if it would be considered attraction, though, but I've seen both women and men whom I'd consider beautiful. I don't quite know the labels for what I'd fall under then, I'm sorry. I'm trying my best to give a thorough explanation, but-- I don't know, I'm just unsure what it's like to be interested in someone.

Thank you for asking.

[aliusfrater]

almost all s8 opinions regarding sam make me want to tear my hair out but what do you make of the takes that we can't really blame sam for s8, mainly not looking for dean/quitting hunting because it was "out of character"?

not just the you know who shippers who say this either btw I've seen so-called sam stans say the same

the evidence to this claim always seems to be that jared supposedly didn't like it either (which may very well be true idk the source) but I have to wonder if jared only said that or something similar because fan reactions to s8 sam began affecting him too

quite simply, i just don't agree with or enjoy interpretations that genuinely and earnestly refer to it as sam 'not looking for dean' in any context that's intended to be from sam's point of view because that's very much what dean considers it to be because he knows that he wasn't dead in the soul-had-left-his-body sense and he considers sam's adherence to his own perceived death as abandonment which is the major culprit of his own, sam's as well as the narrative's perpetuation of the idea that sam 'didn't look for him'. like this exact idea from sam's own pov is touched on in the first episode of season eight when sam is at his most confident in his independence away from his and dean's relationship:

then based on bobby's reaction to sam's own recount of dean's death to bobby in 8.19, it does seem evident to me that sam neglects to retell his own pov and he tells bobby that dean was in the same purgatory they were currently in, which is why bobby reacts with disbelief (because if you knew where he was, why didn't you attempt to save him?) and why sam's response is to bring up the previous 'agreement' he and dean had about death.

i have my own qualms about bobby's disillusionment re: the agreement as a 'non-agreement' and that he 'taught [sam] that' based on the actual events of 6.01 and the fact that bobby does indeed leave dean out of hunting at sam's will and the only plausible point at which it could have become a non-agreement is during the 6.11 and 6.12 conflict that is regaining sam's soul (without sam's consent, twice fold, but i consider soulless!sam to be more of a direct victim of being resouled than i do sam because of his active agency against it. sam's agency was preceded in his dying wishes and are therefore passive). bobby's reaction does, however, add to the already narratively skewed perspective of sam's decision where there is already that prioritisation of dean's 'didn't look for me' on account of the fact that bobby's own role as patriarch does narratively match dean's, along with bobby's position as a character who is narratively third to sam and dean's relationship (which then then bleeds into both sam's and the fandom's own interpretation of it, i think; sam also begins to doubt his decisions more which is also related to how the trials turn into his own suicidal ideation).

the conflict regarding which brother takes on the trials is very much foundational within sam's own view of a light at the end of the tunnel and his desire to leave the life and dean, at multiple points, within conversation about why he should be the one to do the trials, reiterates sam's own desire for normalcy away from hunting, within what dean himself desires for sam's life, which bring us back to the root of the issue that is dean's fear of abandonment (8.03, 8.14).

sam's own desire or attempt to leave the life seems to be fundamentally Wrong or is at least disproved of until dean approves of it/whenever it's part of dean's ideal for sam. 8.01, "so… free will, that's only for you?" the greatest sin is to disobey your patriarch; i think the culprit here re: sam's own person, just like it was with season four and the beginnings of soulless!sam, seems to be sam's rejection of the dynamics of his and dean's codependency in favour of his own attempt at independence. there's also the idea that dean would rather complete the trials that have a possibility of death than have sam go through the trials, die, then 'leave' dean to face the idea of living a life without sam—and he attempts to make this decision by on his own, without sam's input.

generally, i don't believe sam needs any excuse(s) to live a life outside of dean but the narrative's own facilitation of sam back into the non-role (the struggle to fit into the role) of his and dean's relationship, the dichotomy of monstrosity, the cycle of abuse, the patriarchal structure etc. etc. after his attempts at independence are endlessly interesting to me and although this isn't yelled at you through explicit exploration, i do consider aspects of sam's history with mental health to be relevant within several aspects of season eight, but mostly being related to sam's decision to leave hunting specifically within the context of the year between seasons seven and eight (especially after all that is seasons three to seven) as it's explored in 8.08. ultimately though, i think the major aspects of sam's decision to leave revolve around 1) grief and sam's avoidance of his grief, which is pretty well represented by his initial reluctance to name riot and explored through sam and amelia as mirroring characters (how blatant it is pisses me off a little),

and 2) the very basic building block regarding sam as a character that is his desire to leave the life. quite generally, i think the fact that through dean's own conflation of family and hunting (on account of john's own pov that through choosing college over hunting, sam had also chosen college over family) as well as dean's own pov prioritised through his and sam's relationship along with the previously mentioned structures, the idea that sam, too, is therefore unable to leave the life or subvert any of these structures without it being perceived as leaving dean or forsaking family is pretty neglected within a lot of interpretations of sam as a character. i think dean very much keeps sam tethered to the life either through sam's own ability to choose dean and their conflated lifestyle over something/someone else (later season one, season two, three, later nine to fifteen) (there's also the guilt tripping) or as a result of being preoccupied in a way that inhibits his idea of normalcy (his monstrosity in seasons four and five), but on account of the dynamics and his and dean's relationship, sam is unable to reject their codependency which perpetuates hunting and SamAndDean as existing synonymously. i mean, even when sam was hunting without dean as soulless!sam, on account of the agency and autonomy sam was able to achieve due to the differences between s!sam and sam's priorities due to the difference between then (the soul lol), s!sam's rejection of his and dean's relationship did become evidence for his monstrosity. which is, of course, punishable by (possible) death should dean decide that the dichotomy will not stretch to accommodate said monstrosity.

season eight, to me, is when these characters first start feeling a bit like cardboard, especially due to how wittled down to its core sam and dean's dynamic is represented. this is the most boring and basic version of How They Work at this point in the show and even then people explain their simple and cardboard-ish behaviours away with explanations like saying they're 'ooc'. sam's state of mind is pretty straight forward if you know where to look; sam taking his entire family's death as his sign that he's able to leave the life is not out of character to me at all. kill the supernatural appointed patriarch in your head.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Errors, “Errors,” and Animorphs

So in a different post I ranted about how a tiny non-distracting unfixable difference between two shirts is not an error in Jurassic Park.  IMHO, a continuity gap is only an error if:

It draws attention to itself and distracts the audience

It could’ve been fixed pretty easily in-story

It makes character, plot, or setting nonsensical

Animorphs has continuity gaps of its own.  And I have opinions about what we readers do and do not count as “error.”  First, an example that’s clearly an error:

I wondered if Tobias had heard my thought. I concentrated. Tobias, can     you hear me?

«Yeah,» he said, «I hear you.»

“Did you hear my thoughts before that?” I asked.

«No, I don’t think it works that way.  You have to think at me for me to     hear.»

—#1: The Invasion

Tobias briefly hearing Jake thought-speak in #1 breaks the rules of the setting; several other books (#2, #23, #31, #33, #46) clearly state that it’s impossible to thought-speak if one is human and not in morph.  It’s an easy fix; the re-releases and audiobooks delete this moment, and the graphic novel makes Tobias unable to hear Jake.  It distracts the audience; I’ve gotten 5 or 6 separate asks over the years of people going “I was rereading #1, and the weirdest thing...” It’s an error.  I can’t say what happened behind the scenes — K.A. Applegate toyed with a thread that was later dropped, or decided to introduce a limitation for plot fuel at a later time.  But it’s an error.

Second, an example that I don’t think counts as an error:

I returned to my life, feeling strange and out of place. That night Jake came over. We went outside.

"I tried morphing the Tyrannosaurus," he said. "Nothing. Didn't work."

"You could ask Ax. He may know why."

Jake laughed. "Yeah, but even if he explains it, I still won't understand it."

—MM2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs [Cassie’s narration]

The kids not being able to morph dinosaurs outside of the Cretaceous Era makes a lot of sense in context.  The whole book series would fundamentally change if they could use T. rex — that would become heavily a favored morph for many of them.  It kicks off all kinds of plot questions that demand answers: Where do the controllers think the “andalite bandits” got dino DNA? What anti-dinosaur measures would they be forced to adopt? Would the Animorphs’ whole strategy change around having those morphs? How would Rachel feel about everyone but Tobias suddenly having a much stronger morph than her? Would they even bother with contemporary animal morphs afterward?

If the kids are morphing dinosaurs all the time after ~#18, then the series loses a lot of its uniqueness.  Applegate has said that most of the inspiration for the series was about trying to help kids understand what it would really be like to be inside an animal mind, with as many animals as possible.  That’s part of why so many of the plots hinge on giving the Animorphs an excuse to learn a new morph (e.g. #4, #17, #27, #47, #52) so that we can experience the coolness right along with them.  That’s why the war is explicitly about fighting for Earth, nonhumans and all (#7, #23, #53).  If it’s not a menagerie of six different critters — including one immigrant from space — rolling up to battle, then it’s not Animorphs. No, it makes no dang sense that sario rip morphs stop working once the rip gets unripped.  But the series acknowledges it, and it allows us both to have a unique animal-based story (dinosaurs! Heckin dinosaurs!) without ruining its own premise.

Third, one that I find fascinating because it’s kind of right on the margin:

"What I don't get is why I have to be a girl wolf," Marco grumbled.

"We had one male and one female," Cassie explained for the tenth time. "If two of us morphed into the male, we'd have two males. Two male wolves might decide they had to fight for dominance."

"I could control it," Marco said.

"Marco, you and Jake already fight for dominance, and you're just ordinary guys," Rachel pointed out.

—#3: The Encounter

Later, Tobias’s narration uses the word “alpha” to describe Jake’s morphed behavior — howling and peeing to mark territory, challenging another wolf pack to protect his own.

There is scientific consensus right now, as of the 2020s, that the term “alpha” is an inaccurate descriptor of pack-lead behavior, and that dominance fights between adult males are almost nonexistent.  That although wolves usually run in a phalanx-like shape with one middle-aged male and female at the point, this isn’t the result of dominance fights but rather an effort to have the physically strongest wolves absorb blows from rogue prey animals or rival predators.  That the dominance fights observed in captive wolves in the 1970s were the result of an ecology error, putting wolves from rival packs into single enclosures.  Fox (1972, 1973) gave a reasonably accurate description of how wolves behave if you put a bunch of adult strangers in a zoo together: the young adult males fight, the winner of that fight wins first access to food, and the mate of the winner gets the most resources for her puppies.

However, time rolls forward, and advances like hidden cameras (and the resurgence of wild wolf populations) allow us to watch wolves without needing to capture them first.  Mech (1999) follows some such wolves around, and quickly realizes that dominance and submission aren’t nearly as important among wolves who chose to make a pack.  Stahler et al. (2002) figure out a better way to introduce stranger wolves in captivity, and get full cooperation among young adult males.  Nowadays drones and radio collars get 1000s of times the wolf data Fox had to work with, and reveal intense cooperation with little more than play-fighting among puppies.

The Encounter comes out 1997.  Mech publishes the first big takedown of the alpha concept 1999.

Did an error occur anywhere in this process?

No, in that Applegate presumably doesn’t own a Time Matrix and published a book based on the scientific consensus at the time about how wolf social dynamics worked.

Yes, in that the error is pretty distracting — I get drawn up short by it every time I reread #3, and I know others have too.

No, in that the error was corrected in the graphic novel adaptation.

Yes, in that the error is still present in the audiobook, and Michael Crouch delivers the moment about Jake being backed into a dominance fight with all of Tobias’s exasperated humor.

No, in that the error allows for some character moments, both silly (Jake peeing on trees) and sweet (Jake being ready to take on an entire rival pack alone, over a rabbit he doesn’t want).

Yes, in that the error takes away from one of the series’ most fundamental purposes, to educate kids about animals.

Anyway, books are great, science is imperfect, and I think the more we all engage with amateur criticism the more we’re all going to learn about what counts as an error in fiction writing with inspiration in scientific reality.

[morangoowada]

If the only remarks you have to say about Mondo are things related to his trauma, specially if it's treating him like he's guilty of it, you should probably shut the fuck up. /srs

[atariakana]

Unsure if this has been cross-posted here by anyone yet! But George Rexstrew will be on Cameo* until Sunday, August 18th to raise money for charity in honor of his dad. For anyone interested, here is a link to his instagram post, and here is the link to his Cameo. Go forth and ask your DBD questions!

*for those unfamiliar, Cameo is a website where you can pay to have actors/celebrities/whoever send you a video message or answer a question.

Image description and caption transcription under the cut:

[Image description: a screenshot of an instagram post from George Rexstrew showing him, his father, and what are presumably two of his siblings as young children. They are sitting on a white bench in front of a low wall painted pale yellow, with bushes covered in pink flowers spilling over the top of the wall and taking up the rest of the background. One of the children is sitting in their father's lap, the other two are sitting next to him. The ground is covered in pink flower petals. End description.]

[Caption from George's post:

A year ago today I lost my wonderful Dad.

He bravely fought both Parkinson's Disease and Dementia with a smile on his face and a great sense of humour. But with these two illnesses still waiting for a cure, he passed away on 10th August 2023.

I miss him everyday.

In his memory, I've decided to try and raise some money for him. This might fail spectacularly, but for one week (until next Sunday), I'm going to be on Cameo. So for any DBD fans out there, if you have any burning questions about the show, or a scene, or an episode, or an upcoming birthday or whatever these things are used for, now is the time. I'll answer as much as I can. And 100% of proceeds will go to charity (link in bio).

For my lovely dad.

🌸🌸🌸

End caption.]

[starry-miki]

Saw someone on twitter did a fan wallet set for twisted wonder land character themed and I was like yeah, I’m do that for 5 of the obey me casts so cast your votes and the top lucky 5 are going to have a wallet character themed design, it will be the next posts once the top 5 are decided 😚

Thirteen, mephisto, and Raphael are also included just ran out of space for them in the poll 😗

I just need something to restart my creative juices 🫠

Edit 1: the poll votes will be decided this Monday afternoon, I know the poll is supposed to be up for a full week but uhh I kinda wanna work on it soon, so after this Monday at 12:00 (pm), I’ll will pick the top 5 characters with most votes to start on their wallet themes. But you may continue voting, if the votes change in favor of another character then what it showed on Monday when the voting official close I might make a part 2 for that character(s) 😗

[ningadudexx]

commissions opening soon!!

ill try to open comms this weekend!!

things have been a bit overwhelming for me this summer since i havent been feeling the best, so i haven't been able to open comms that much, but i wanted to try and open comms again before the next school semester starts! (*_*;)

I'll have 5 slots open, and may open a 6th if people are interested :)

thank you for reading, i hope everyone has a good week!!

[fayzart136]

Maybe. If I draw my OCs enough.... their stories will be written by themselves?

[tens-girl]

Good Omens fandom… does anyone know if we’ve ever been told the date on which the 1941 scenes take place?

I can’t find any info about it. Obviously it was during the Blitz and the amount of stuff that happens in that one night suggests the depths of winter (for a long period of darkness!) so I’m thinking Jan/Feb? However I’ve also seen it mentioned that the church Neil had in mind was St Dunstan-in-the-East which was bombed in May 1941, right at the end of the Blitz.

This is (as all my random researches are) for my fic! Since Who Omens crosses over GO and Doctor Who, I’m marrying up the ineffable timeline with Jack Harkness. January 1941 would be interesting…