#from now on all i have to do is post character art and announcements about the print release lol
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.âď˝Ąďž Art vs Artist 2024! â・ďžâď¸ď˝Ąâ・ ďžâž ďžď˝Ąâ
Click for better quality!
It's my first time doing art vs artist, but I thought it'd be a nice opportunity to see how it looks! My style has been so inconsistent this year (thanks multiple style crises), but I am proud of a few pieces. Mostly. I seem to use similar techniques and colors a lot, but I guess that's the point of an art style anyway. Everything up here is cropped a bit since I don't draw at a 1:1 ratio usually. If this is your first time seeing my work, I love The Legend of Zelda and Zelink!
Thanks for another fun year of art! ^^ Some stats below:
#1 | 1,943 notes | June 18, 2024
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ŕźş Top 10 posts by notes!
I remember drawing this on the announcement day, within a few hours! It's my first post to surpass 1k!
My second post to surpass 1k!
#2 | 1,197 notes | June 22, 2024
#3 | 694 notes | July 27, 2024
...trends work
i need to repost this with type instead of handwriting
#4 | 572 notes | August 3, 2024
I want to redraw this one, even if it's not very canon
#5 | 546 notes | July 28, 2024
#6 | 528 notes | August 5, 2024
I will continue to change how I draw her
#7 | 456 notes | Setember 19, 2024
I tried a slightly different look here, I think it's kinda cute!
A tie!
#8 | 456 notes | June 19, 2024
Two pieces are in this post! I love Classic Zelink, so I was trying to figure out how I wanted to draw them. :) I have a lot of drawings of them to come...
#9 | 355 notes | June 9, 2024
I've really been trying to figure out how I want to do backgrounds on my doodle pages. And how to draw TP Zelda properly. Still haven't figured either out, if you're wondering.
#10 | 353 notes | May 18, 2024
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So much from EoW... I jumped on that hype so fast, it's the Zelda game I've only ever dreamed about!! ⥠Still kind of surprised nothing from Linktober is up here, though, considering it was all the better stuff. ^^" There are a few pieces I never finished this year, also... maybe 2025 will be their year!
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Small announcement - I got a private commission I'm working on at the moment, but soon they will be entirely open again! I do character art and designs if you're interested! ^^
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⌠Ko-Fi | ⧠Ao3 | ⥠Bluesky
REBLOGGING IS ENCOURAGED, BUT DO NOT REPOST.
#art vs artist#art versus artist#art v artist#zelink#zelda fanart#tloz fanart#loz fanart#legend of zelda#the legend of zelda#loz#tloz#princess zelda#zelda#fanart#eow spoilers#echoes of wisdom spoilers#major echoes of wisdom spoilers#echoes of wisdom#artists on tumblr#tears of the kingdom#totk#my art#zelink fanart#artist wrapped#art wrapped#digital art#digital artist#ibis paint x#ibispaint#nintendo
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something about these audric and grim pieces make me feel so ?? at ease ?? I CANâT FUCKING EXPLAIN IT BUT AUUFJDHFJGJFJ,,, I LITERALLY MADENTHE FIRST ONE MY WALLPAPER AS SOON AS I SAW IT AND ITâS SO . đ˘đ˘đ˘ do NAWWTTT PERCEIVE ME!!!!!!!
#i realize that iâm literally posting this as if audric from the first image isnât literally my pfp#ALSO GAHHH I NEED TO KNOW WHAT DAISY WAS COOKING IN THE SECOND ONE HELLOOO ???#having old lml art from before the reboot was announced is both a blessing and a curse /j#oh yeah btw . just wanted to say .#PLEAAASEEE DO NAWWWTTT SHIP AUDRIC AND GRIM HERE#I WILL LITERALLY THROW UP IN YOUR FACE DONâT PLAY WITH ME#anyways i need to like . study audric and grim under a microscope#because theyâre genuinely so fascinating#i could go on and on about them but then weâd be here all day#also donât mind me suddenly living ?? i canât work tumblr to save my life but didnât feel like opening twitter to post this#yes i am unfortunately a chronic twitter user#i am ashamed and i apologize#anyways i am only just now realizing i shouldâve tagged the characters too..#so#audric charon#gremory erebus#grim erebus#grim lml#lonelymanslazarus#lonely-manâs lazarus#lonely manâs lazarus#lml#autism me this batman#sorry sorry#iâm very hyperfixated on batman rn#and this has literally nothing to do with the post#i will be taking my leave nowâŚ#i feel like that ant with the bag and stick rn#goodbye gamers ⌠đđ
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New Chapter
Chapters 15 a & b: In which it is up to you to decide their fate...
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Read the final chapters here
Find content warnings here
What is Blood in the Water?
Plus some additional news: In the author notes at the bottom of Chapter 15b there is a strawpoll link. When you are done reading, please vote on which ending you'd like to be the official ending in the paperback edition. Poll ends Nov. 20th 2023
#chapter announcement#final chapters#blood in the water#vampire novella#novella#royal road#carmen cortez weaver#james harcourt#its done yo!!!#new chapter#from now on all i have to do is post character art and announcements about the print release lol#thank you for reading!
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The Lara-Su Chronicles: Beginnings review
The day has finally come. Many, understandably, thought we'd never get here. Maybe we shouldn't have gotten here. We've been through so much. Lawsuits, reboots, redesigns, unreleased NFTs, empty legal threats over the fact that movie Knuckles has a dad, an attempt to license out Scourge the Hedgehog to fans that immediately got canceled (in both meanings of the term), and many, MANY idiotic Twitter controversies. But now, here we are.
Thirteen years after first announcing it in the middle of his legal battles with Archie and Sega that changed the American Sonic comics forever, former writer Ken Penders has released the first part of his new series: The Lara-Su Chronicles.
Yes. I had to buy the book. I had to take one for the team. Look at the fucking URL of this blog, a blog I've been using to talk about the American Sonic comics for nearly a decade while the specter of this book loomed in the distance. The one time I've actually been paid to write an article about anything in any professional capacity, it was an article about the Penders lawsuits. I'm cited on his Wikipedia page. There was no way I was going to skip reviewing this, and there was no guarantee that scans would ever turn up online given the incredibly small audience for this trash. (Only 166 people preordered this, and even that number feels way higher than it should be.) No, I had to preorder it to ensure I could get a copy and cover it for the blog... even if that meant my name would be forever immortalized in the list of "supporters" in the back of the book. These are the sacrifices I must make as a woman who stumbled ass backwards into being an amateur Archie Sonic historian.
So, what exactly is in this book? How much of it is new? How bad is it? How did we even get here in the first place? How can this exist without Sega pursuing legal action? What happens next? And, most importantly... why are there multiple depictions of an Archie Sonic character breastfeeding in this book?
I'm here to answer those questions as best I can, and in agonizing detail.
First, for those just tuning in to this decades-long saga or those who maybe don't know the full story, here's a refresher on the background info.
"What the hell is this?"
The Lara-Su Chronicles is Ken Penders' long-dreaded long-awaited continuation of his 1994-2006 run on Archie Sonic, ignoring everything written after he left by other writers like Ian Flynn. In particular, it picks up from the cliffhanger ending of the 2003-2004 arc "Mobius: 25 Years Later," which was set in what Ken considers the definitive canonical future of the series. It stars Knuckles' daughter from that future era, Lara-Su, among other new and returning characters. The project was first announced near the start of Ken's legal battle with Archie in 2011, and he's been posting WIP previews online for about a decade. Now, after all this time, a Lara-Su Chronicles book finally exists.
We'll get to the actual contents of that book in a bit.
"He can do that without getting in trouble with Sega?"
Believe it or not, yes, he can.
Thanks to the outcome of Archie Comics' woefully mismanaged lawsuits against Ken (yes, they sued him after he started filing for copyrights, not the other way around), he now has full legal ownership of every story he wrote for Archie Sonic and every character he created for the series. This was explicitly granted to him in the terms of the settlement between him and Archie (acting on behalf of Sega). He can even reprint his old Sonic material as-is to his heart's content. The main catch is just that he can't write new stories featuring Sega characters or trademarks, and his new stories also have to be distinct from Sonic at a glance to avoid confusing readers. As such, reprints can't use Sonic iconography on the cover, a few Sega characters (mainly Knuckles) have been renamed and slightly redesigned in the new stories, and the art style has been changed to less closely resemble Sonic. But otherwise, he can do whatever he wants with his own characters.
All of this is because Archie lost the original copy of Ken's work-for-hire contract that signed over the rights to his work. Without that (or any alternative that was considered permissible in court), his comics and characters are the property of their creator by default. Yes, those old comics are full of Sega stuff, but Sega doesn't automatically own the copyright for every drawing of Sonic in existence. And Sega put their stamp of approval all over those comics and let them get sold at retail for decades, even though (in the eyes of the court) there was no legal paperwork granting them ownership of any of it. It's almost like they were unwittingly distributing a fan comic for years and declaring it a fair use of their property, and now there's no takesies backsies. It's a strange and unique copyright situation. Again, they worked all this out in the settlement. And, yes, fans have long speculated that Ken stole and destroyed his own contract to regain the rights to his work, but frankly Archie was so incompetent throughout the lawsuit (it went so bad that they had to fire and replace their lawyers midway through) that I completely buy the idea of them just losing important legal documents.
Also, in case it needs to be spelled out: while Ken's a weirdo, it's ultimately a good thing for creatives everywhere that Archie lost their lawsuit against Ken. We do not want to live in a world where corporations can claim ownership of peoples' work without the contracts to back it up. That would be an incredibly dangerous legal precedent to set. And more comic creators, and artists in general, should own their own work! Corporations are not your friend! They'll delete your work for a tax write-off in a heartbeat! It's just bewildering that this guy, of all people, was the creator who ended up successfully getting his shit back, and that this is what he's doing with it.
"What about his old collaborators? Are they involved? Is he paying them?"
Ken is mostly doing The Lara-Su Chronicles solo, though he has, in fact, talked about compensating the artists involved in any material he's reprinting. The ones who give enough of a shit to get paid for a small scale reprint of something they did 20 years ago, anyway.
On the subject of his collaborators, it's also worth pointing out that Ken's wasn't the only contract that was lost. Most of the early Archie Sonic writers from before Ian Flynn's time seem to be in the same boat as Ken, with the ownership of their stories and characters defaulting back to them. Again, Archie fucked up big time. But like I said, most of them don't really seem to give a shit. For most of them, Sonic was just a random temporary gig they took to pay the bills while Marvel was busy going bankrupt in the '90s, not the thing that defined their entire careers.
The only other Archie Sonic contributor who's tried to do anything on the level of what Ken is doing was writer and editor Scott Fulop. In 2016 he attempted to sue Archie for the unauthorized use of what are now retroactively considered his copyrighted characters and stories, and he even announced a standalone comic about his most famous Sonic character, the recurring villain Mammoth Mogul (sort of a pastiche of DC's Vandal Savage and Marvel's Kingpin, with wizard powers added for spice). However, Fulop lost his lawsuit because he didn't put together a particularly compelling case. Since then he seems to have wiped all traces of his ill-advised Mammoth Mogul comic and his company, Narrative Ark Entertainment, from the internet. For now, this leaves The Lara-Su Chronicles the only project of its kind.
"What about those other Archie Sonic reprints he just announced?"
At the time of writing, Ken is once again claiming that he's trying to get the band back together to reprint all of Archie Sonic, now under the bad new banner "Floating Island Productions: MOBIAN LINE" that I can't imagine he consulted literally anyone else on.
So, like, look. As we've established, Ken can reprint his own stories. And if he can work something out with the other contributors whose contracts were lost, he can print their work, too. But there is no fucking way he's getting his hands on Ian Flynn's run, which Sega undoubtedly holds the copyright for. Even if they don't, Ian needs to maintain a good working relationship with both Sega and IDW if he's to keep his job, so he'd never go for this. Not to mention that Ian and Ken just... don't get along! Ken's whole plan here seems to be predicated on IDW going out of business (a thing he REALLY wants to happen) and freeing up the Sonic comic license, after which he knocks on Sega's door and goes "hey I've still got dirt on you guys," blackmailing them into giving him the Sonic license back so that he can reprint the later comics. Every step of this plan is ludicrous. It's never gonna happen.
He's been saying he wants to reprint the whole series for a few years now, though. This isn't really anything new. And despite his lofty plans that set Sonic Twitter ablaze, he quickly backpedaled. The only specific things in the works right now are a "two-volume omnibus" of all of his Knuckles stories and a collection of artist Scott Shaw's work on the very early Archie Sonic issues, since they're on good terms with each other. I have no idea how Ken plans on packaging these when he can't put any Sega characters or the Freedom Fighters on the covers, but these projects are small enough in scale that there's a decent chance they'll see the light of day. Scott Shaw only did like five issues. But anything beyond that? I'll believe it when I see it.
Or, y'know, this could've all just been a publicity stunt for his new book. I wouldn't put it past him. Let's just focus on the book that actually exists.
"So he finally did it? He made a whole Lara-Su book? It's out? He finished it??"
Yes and no.
The book that's out now is The Lara-Su Chronicles: Beginnings, a prologue for the series of seven graphic novels Ken somehow plans on making, even though it's taken him 13 years to put out literally anything new. I don't know whether or not this counts as book one of seven, because it only features 30 pages of new comics. 30.5 if I'm being generous.
Most of the book is actually just a reprint of his infamous Archie Sonic storyline "Mobius: 25 Years Later", which ran from issue #131 to #144 in 2003-2004. (Again, yes, he can reprint this, he just can't put Sonic on the cover.) Why's it infamous? Well, Ken had been building anticipation for this future era of the series for basically his entire run. We kept seeing King Sonic and Queen Sally from the future. Knuckles' entire backstory hinges on his dad having a vision of this future. Several years before Silver the Hedgehog was created, it was Lara-Su who was Sonic's equivalent to Future Trunks, the cool-looking child of one of the main characters who traveled back in time to try and prevent a dark future. Believe it or not, yes, there was hype for Lara-Su. And then we finally got M25YL, and none of that cool stuff happened. Instead it really ended up being about how unbearably boring the middle aged Sonic, Knuckles, Sally, and co. are in this peaceful future where Robotnik is dead and they're all married with kids, forced into traditional nuclear family gender roles. Lara-Su is present, but she mostly just does generic teen girl stuff and complains about how Knuckles won't let her do anything even though she REALLY wants to be the new Guardian of Angel Island, like, super bad! Come on, dad!!!
In its original printing, this meandering arc ended on an abrupt time travel cliffhanger that Ken was never able to follow up on before he left Archie in 2006. This new printing slightly changes that ending, using the unresolved timey-wimey shenanigans as a convenient excuse to alter the entire timeline. This creates the slightly different world of The Lara-Su Chronicles, where the few relevant Sega-owned characters have been replaced and everyone is ten times uglier.
After this, we finally get two short new stories picking up where M25YL left off: "The Storm," starring Acorn Kingdom super-spy and known creep Geoffrey St. John, and an early release of the first chapter of The Lara-Su Chronicles: Shattered Tomorrows, the first full TLSC graphic novel.
And now that we're all on the same page about what we're looking at, let's actually talk about the book!
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The cover
Let's start by beating a dead horse. The cover art: it's still bad! But why is it bad?
The cover is, of course, based on Patrick Spaziante's cover from Archie Sonic #131, the start of the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" arc. (Ken did the layout for that cover, though, so in the eyes of the law he's the original creator who owns that cover.) That cover was, itself, a tribute to the iconic cover of Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Gil Kane and Dave Cockrum, the issue that introduced the version of the team with Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, etc.
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Ken seems to have forgotten that the point of both these covers was to hype up the arrival of a new cast of characters. The new guys are supposed to make a dramatic entrance front and center. That's the focal point. Meanwhile, the cover for Beginnings has the old timeline versions of the cast from Archie Sonic dramatically bursting out of a shattered crystal ball, while their new counterparts look on in mild bemusement - if they're even bothering to look at all, since most of the characters here are just copied and pasted from their profile pages. That's just not how you do this particular homage! The point is supposed to be "out with the old, in with the new." And why are they using a crystal ball to view the past? Hell, why are they even using a crystal ball at all? The original arc was presented as a magical vision of the future courtesy of Tails' uncle Merlin (don't ask), but the new story leans all the way into being futuristic sci-fi.
Of course, there is no real artistic intent at play here. The old versions of the characters are placed front and center in the crystal ball simply because Ken traced over Spaziante's original art of Lara-Su and Julie-Su (the only two characters on the Sonic cover he owns) and threw out the rest, ruining the composition in the process. Look at the awkward empty space where Sonic, Sally, and Rotor once were, and the new drawing of The Character Formerly Known As Knuckles who's no longer properly centered between his wife and daughter. Even if Ken can claim ownership of the cover because he did the original layout, this all just feels scummy and lame.
And, yeah, if it needs to be said, the new characters and Ken's new rendering style look like absolute fucking dogshit. Putting new Lara-Su directly next to old Lara-Su does her no favors. The shattered glass effect looks absolutely atrocious. I could go on, but we'll have plenty of time to talk about the art style when we see how bad the stories inside look.
Changes to "Mobius: 25 Years Later"
Overall, 99% of M25YL is presented identically to its original printing. Sonic, Sally, Knuckles, et al. are still present with no changes to their names and no tweaks to the art. Even the original cover for issue #131 is included only a few pages into this book with its Archie, Sonic, and Sega logos still intact and everything. Again, because of the weird copyright situation described above, these preexisting comics can be released without any changes.
There is exactly one bizarre change to the art, though, where a hand drawn shot of Angel Island is replaced with an unfitting photo background and the ugly Floating Island photobash that Ken has been using as his personal logo for decades. I think he only did this as part of a test for his motion comic app that nobody asked for. I don't know why this had to make it into the print version. It's like the book is firing a warning shot for what's to come if you keep reading.
The new content begins on the final page of M25YL. In the original wet fart of a cliffhanger ending, Sonic and co. accidentally alter the timeline with an old time machine of Robotnik's and Lara-Su begins to fade away. Then, after everything goes white, we just cut to the present day heroes going "gee, you ever think about the future?" In this new printing, that last bit has been cut, and the rest of the page has been awkwardly shrunk down so that Ken can fit in a new panel. We now see the hands of an off-screen villain, seemingly named "Override," proclaiming that "the Praetorian" (Knuckles) has messed up the timeline again and that they'll finally get their revenge.
Who is this Override? I have no fucking clue. The new stories in this book make no mention of them. You have to buy the next book to find out.
My confusion over the identity of this villain overlaps with another big problem: name changes. So many names and nouns have been arbitrarily changed in The Lara-Su Chronicles, even ones Ken didn't have to change for copyright reasons, and I only know what half of them are replacing because Ken's been tweeting about this shit for years.
The echidnas are now a totally original alien race called "the Echyd'nya." Even in flashbacks to events from M25YL attempting to mimic the old art style, if it's on a new comic page, they're gonna call themselves "Echyd'nya." Evil echidna faction the Dark Legion is now the "Cyberdark Dominion," hailing from the "Cyberdark Colony." The Brotherhood of Guardians is still the Brotherhood of Guardians, but now the main guardian is called "The Praetorian." Angel Island is still called "The Floating Island," like it was in the older Archie comics, but it's ALSO sometimes called "Avion"? When I read this I wasn't sure if he had randomly renamed Albion, the other echidna city from the Archie comics. But no. Now we have an Albion AND an Avion. Sally is mentioned simply as "Princess Acorn," while Sonic is referenced once as an unnamed "blue-spined Erinaceinae," using the scientific name for hedgehog to make it sound more sci-fi. In an incredibly ballsy move, Ken even mentions Robotnik as "the Insurrectionist Kintobor," retaining his original surname from the Archie comics that's just "Robotnik" backwards. Guess Sega never trademarked that one.
Aside from every name change being a downgrade, this leads to confusion when you're not sure if something is supposed to be new, or if it's just an Archie thing you're supposed to recognize despite having a new name and design. Is "Override" someone I'm supposed to know already? Am I just supposed to have read a fucking tweet from Ken where he said he changed the name of some existing villain to "Override"? The answer is no, but I had to term search his Twitter just to verify this.
Moving on!
New story #1: "The Storm"
If you've been following the WIPs, this is that story about Geoffrey St. John that Ken's been posting previews of for almost a decade. The title page copyright dates it to 2015, and that absurdly long gestation is probably why the art is so inconsistent here. Even the style of speech bubbles and the font change between pages two and three.
This is a problem when there's supposed to be a deliberate and noticeable change in art style here signaling the moment where the time travel stuff alters the timeline, replacing the Archie Sonic world with the Lara-Su Chronicles world. If you don't already know that's what's going on, the idea isn't conveyed clearly at all. It just goes from one hideous art style to a slightly different one with no explanation.
The main problem here is that Ken has hitched his wagon to a franchise about anthropomorphic animals when he can't draw furries to save his life. (Though a bit later in the book we'll also begin to wonder if he can even still draw humans.) He's shifted away from the cartooniness of the original designs and given them more human proportions and facial features, but this just ends up making them look incredibly uncanny and lumpy and gross. With some designs he's trying to lean into more of a Star Trek alien vibe, but then he still insists upon retaining the giant Sonic eyes on most characters even though he has no idea how to make them emote.
The rendering of these godawful designs doesn't do them any favors, either. Ken's going for more of a painterly look now, but it almost seems as though he's shading everything with Photoshop's burn and dodge tools that are designed to darken and lighten select areas of a photo. The result is a muddy, smudgy look that makes it feel like the color layer has been smeared in vaseline. And it only looks worse after coming off of 14 chapters of M25YL that have way more palatable art.
The backgrounds, too, are a complete mess, a jumble of low res jpeg photo elements (sometimes with extremely noticeable pixelation), stock textures, and smooth digital gradients. There's no real sense of place here, and it gives everything a surreal, dreamlike quality when you can't really tell where anything is supposed to take place. This first story is seemingly set in a high-tech stronghold below Castle Acorn called "the Bunker," but it could just as easily be confused for the bridge of a spaceship. This whole story features characters speaking to each other over floating video displays and hologram projectors from three different locations, but without a hologram effect and without a clear sense of where the characters are it often feels like they're just in the same room as each other. Characters will be in one location on one photo background, and then the camera angle changes and they're in a completely different place, because Ken just uses mismatched photos off of the internet. It's been like 25 years since he first tried using photo backgrounds in the Archie comics and he hasn't gotten any better at it.
When I had my boyfriend read the book to see if it made literally any sense to him (it didn't), Anthony said this: "This is the kind of shit I'd see linked on a Second Life world that hasn't been touched since 2004." I think he really hit the nail on the head. Now, there's actually a contrarian part of me that thinks that might theoretically almost be kind of cool, in sort of a messy counterculture way. I love weird indie shit. I was a Homestuck reader! But this isn't a scrappy mixed media zine, or experimental outsider art from someone just messing around with Photoshop, or a loving throwback to weird old internet art, or even something intentionally bizarre and offputting like Xavier: Renegade Angel or a PilotRedSun video or whatever where the fact that it's weird and ugly is part of the humor. This is supposed to be a sincere sci-fi epic drawing on Star Trek and Jack Kirby comics, made by a guy who's been drawing comics professionally since the '80s. This is supposed to look good. This is supposed to compete with mainstream comics that are on sale right now. He thinks any day now IDW's gonna go out of business and Sega will come crawling back to him so that he can stamp the Sonic logo on shit like this. It just doesn't work.
But, okay. It's ugly. We knew it would be ugly. But that ugliness would be much easier to accept if it was in service of an otherwise genuinely good story. So what about the writing? After all this time, how does Ken choose to kick off this new saga? Well, credit where credit's due. "The Storm" feels like a proper continuation of Ken's writing style from M25YL.
Because it's eleven pages of characters standing around and talking while nothing fucking happens.
Here's the synopsis: A dog woman named Brownie, an ensign in the Royal Secret Service fresh out of training and the only character who's almost cute, walks up to Geoffrey to deliver a report. He's immediately suspicious of her, asking who let her in and if she's a spy for Elias (Sally's brother, if you're new here) or Alicia (Sally's mom). The art style suddenly shifts when the timeline is altered, but the scene continues uninterrupted. Geoffrey points a gun at Brownie when she won't say whose spy she is. Geoffrey is distracted by a call and proceeds to have a conversation via a mix of holograms and video screens with Remington (head of Echidnaopolis security), Spectre (Knuckles' great great great great great grandpa, the one with the helmet who always looks evil), and a new scientist character named Dr. Zephyr/Zephur. (The spelling of this character's name changes multiple times throughout the 11-page story, because I guess nine years wasn't enough time to spellcheck this shit.) They say a bunch of made up technobabble nonsense about how it looks like the timeline was just altered and Knuckles and co. seem to be involved. It's complete drivel that I'm not even going to try to make sense of. Everyone decides to investigate further, and the conversation ends. Brownie tells Geoffrey she's his spy, then walks out and implies she's actually Alicia's spy in her inner monologue.
To be continued!!!
Yes, that's it. It's really just a bunch of technobabble where some characters talk about how it seems like the timeline has been fucked with. That's it. The whole time Geoffrey doesn't even get up out of his damn chair, which he's of course sitting in backwards to show how cool he is. It's just 11 pages of Geoffrey sitting in a chair and talking to people and looking uglier than he's ever looked. Nothing happens. Nine years for this.
I'm also struck by how meaningless all of this is to anyone who hasn't read Archie Sonic. The added context from M25YL may help a little, but "The Storm" focuses on characters who weren't in that arc, and the story does very little to introduce who any of them are. Brownie could've been super useful as an inexperienced point of view character who's only meeting the others for the first time here, but instead she's really just a passive observer who's here as part of some kind of 4D chess game between Geoffrey and Alicia, an off-screen character whose motivations in this era of the story are completely unknown to even returning readers. Who are the good guys and bad guys here? What are the conflicts and the stakes of the story moving forward? What do these characters want? Basic questions like this aren't really answered. I can't imagine a new reader being able to make heads or tails of this. Hell, I can't really imagine a returning reader who hasn't been following the last decade's worth of Ken's tweets about this story making heads or tails of it, either.
...Maybe more will happen in the next story?
New story #2: Shattered Tomorrows preview chapter
After another message from Ken, the story of The Lara-Su Chronicles proper begins with the redesigned Lara-Su walking along a jpeg photograph beach at sunset and crying while thinking about how Knuckles - sorry, his name is K'Nox now - is dead.
Yep! Straight into the dad stuff!
Look, I'm the last person to complain about writers getting super personal and drawing from their own baggage in their writing, but Ken's just no fucking good at it. There's no nuance, nothing interesting to say. He just keeps writing mediocre-to-horrible dads whose misdeeds are always justified by their "good intentions," and then sometimes they die and their kids are like "we may have fought but actually you were the bestest dad ever and I'll miss you forever, I'll never be able to fill your shoes!"
This is the only part of the new material here that feels like it has any heart behind it, because I know how much his complex relationship with his late deadbeat father means to Ken (there's an author's note in this outright saying as much). But the guy died 42 years ago, and it doesn't feel like Ken has had any new thoughts about this part of his life in those four decades. He's just not an introspective or self-aware enough artist to actually mine his personal baggage for anything beyond "father knows best."
Anyway, so then it jumps forward in time(?) and now we're following this human guy who looks like this.
Previously, Ken got a lot of shit for literally just using the likeness of Anthony Mackie for this guy, based on his IMDB profile photo. Ken has thus redesigned the character... and by that I mean I think he looks more like Ernie Hudson now? Ken's clearly just working off of photo references (if not straight up tracing), given his face is the most detailed and realistic-looking thing on any page where he's present.
But you may be wondering: who is this, and why is he here? Well, for one, he's here to run around in front of some low res space photos while making trite references to things like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek. Haha, he makes a joke about red shirts! Original!! But beyond that, Commander Mykhal Taelor (yes, that's really how he chose to spell it) is a human... from Earth! Archie Sonic readers are probably confused, because in those comics Mobius is Earth in the distant post-apocalyptic future. Well, despite being a Planet of the Apes fan, Ken always hated that particular worldbuilding decision from Karl Bollers, always preferring to think of Mobius as a separate alien planet. And now he gets to make that canon in his own stories and throw out Karl's ideas. So Mobius is basically just, like, a Star Trek planet now, with its own alien creatures that sometimes just so happen to look like anthropomorphic Earth animals.
Also, at one point Taelor wonders if the inhabitants of the dead Mobius might have been human, and the alien ally he's talking to over the radio says it's unlikely. "I don't understand why your kind has a problem understanding you're a minority within a minority." Perhaps poor wording for a line said to the only Black character in the story.
Anyway, Commander Taelor here seems to have discovered the uninhabited husk of Mobius after the vague time-space cataclysm everyone was worried about in M25YL has come to pass, and he finds an audio log from Lara-Su that I presume will explain what happened. I guess those are the titular Lara-Su Chronicles. In theory this flash forward establishes some sense of pressing danger, but when the threat to the planet is so unclear and technobabble-y it just kind of lands with a thud.
It doesn't take long before we get back to Lara-Su being sad about her dad. A good little chunk of the chapter is spent with this new timeline's Lara-Su recalling moments in her life, including echoes of the original Lara-Su's memories from M25YL, which feels redundant coming hot off the heels of a straight reprint of that entire arc. And boy, for anyone who read the later Archie Sonic comics, the protagonist having vague memories of the old version of the series from before a lawsuit-related timeline reboot sure does sound familiar, huh?
The art inconsistency somehow becomes even worse in this story, with Ken flip-flopping on whether or not he wants to use outlines, with the no-outline art managing to look even worse by relying entirely on Ken's awful rendering. By this point in the book, readers are also likely to start noticing how often Ken reuses art from previous panels. This is a shortcut that tons of comic artists use, of course. Invincible famously did a joke about this. It's often understandable. But, again... it sure does stand out in a book that took 13 years to make with only 30 pages of new art. Amusingly, Ken even manages to combine his inconsistency and recycling problems by reusing the same art with and without outlines. And, of course, any time Ken tries to draw the Archie era designs it's just... the worst.
And, yes, it's in this dreamlike montage sequence of Lara-Su's life that we get...
The uncomfortable family nudity scene, followed by the dual timeline Julie-Su breastfeeding scene.
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Yeah, you might have heard about this one already. If this incredibly eerie presentation of Lara-Su's hazy memories of the two different timelines make it hard to tell what's going on, don't worry. There's another, clearer version later in the book as part of Julie-Su's character profile, because I guess Ken was just so proud of it.
(I censored these myself because I'm not playing Russian roulette with Tumblr's inconsistent nudity rules and risking getting banned lmao)
Like, okay. Is a mother breastfeeding her child really that shocking of a thing to see in a story? No, not at all. But, like... when it's two characters who you previously created for an officially licensed Sonic the Hedgehog comic for 7-year-olds... and some of those officially licensed Sonic the Hedgehog comics for 7-year-olds are reprinted in the same book... and when it's drawn like this... yeah, it's kind of a shocker.
It just looks so unnatural. Julie-Su is posed very deliberately so that you'll see both of her breasts, and in the new timeline version she's barely even holding Lara-Su so you can really get a good look at her supermodel body, showing zero physical signs that she just gave birth. Most people will immediately jump to this being Ken putting his fetishes in his work (a type of criticism that I'm incredibly tired of - it's 2024, all the cool artists are blatantly putting their fetishes in their work now). And my immediate response is that, no, this is probably just Ken trying to come off as really mature on a surface level, a thing he's been obsessed with since the Archie days. Free from the shackles of writing a licensed children's comic, of course he's going to jump immediately into depicting some nonsexual, artistic nudity to try and prove he's A Real Mature Artist For Grown-Ups who just thinks the human body is beautiful and breastfeeding shouldn't be a taboo etc. etc.
But then, like. You look at some of the other character designs. Like Espio's daughter Salma, who's now this horrifying alien lizard person who's always nude, and her scale pattern puts scales exactly where her nipples should be. Or you look at his comments about the Echyd'nya age of consent. Or you look at how he keeps drawing Lara-Su in this. Like, does the shuttle really need this, like... reverse chaise lounge thing in the cockpit? So that we can keep getting these shots of the 16-year-old Lara-Su lying on her stomach and posing with one of her legs kicked up, her naked ass in plain view?
The vibe isn't great, is what I'm saying!
I'm not going to try to ascribe authorial intent here. I don't know. I'm not a psychic. Given his very blatant reliance on photo references elsewhere in the book, it's entirely possible he just referenced some figure drawing photos that were maybe just a little too sexy. And also, he's an American comic book artist, and a boomer one at that. Those guys tend to draw women a certain way, even when it's not supposed to be sexual. I don't fucking know. It just sucks. I'm not gonna make some hyperbolic statement about how this makes him a literal pedophile who should be in jail, but it is deeply offputting and objectifying.
But if you already knew about the nursing scenes and were hoping there was some other really shocking stuff in there for me to talk about in this review, sorry to disappoint, but nope. That's the only shockingly weird new thing in here. Once again, not a lot happens in this story, and what does happen is pretty boring.
Once we get past the recap stuff and the human guy, the plot developments boil down to this: The timeline was altered at the end of M25YL... but not as much as you might think. In the new timeline, Knuckles ("K'Nox"), Cobar (now looking significantly younger), and Rotor (now a rhino just called "The Emissary") still traveled via shuttle to go find a time machine in the Badlands and fix the time-space continuum, like in the climax of the original arc. This time, though, Sonic wasn't there, and Lara-Su came along without having to stow away. Lara-Su watches the ship while the grown ups go deal with the time machine, and then after a couple panels Not Rotor comes back with Cobar and is like "Hey, Cobar got hurt, we gotta leave. Dunno what happened to your dad." And then they just, like. Presume that Knuckles must have died. Even though we have no idea what happened to him. And then they just fly away. And then Lara-Su is sad that her dad died.
And that's pretty much it!
This is supposed to be a really emotional sequence - it's literally the scene where Lara-Su learns that Knuckles is dead - but instead it comes off as unintentionally funny because of how poorly it's portrayed. Not showing Knuckles' actual disappearance is a huge misstep, for one, making his uncertain fate more confusing and anticlimactic than dramatic. But also, Ken keeps just using the same two drawings of Rotor for two pages, so he doesn't really seem to be emoting at all, and he's in this spacey hazmat suit that honestly just makes him look like fucking Moltar from Space Ghost. So the whole time I'm just reading his dialogue in Moltar's deadpan voice as he's like "I dunno. We did what we could. Anyway, let's leave."
After this, we get a two-page spread previewing the rest of the story from Shattered Tomorrows. It's basically like a trailer in comic form. It has one of the most mystifying layouts I've ever seen in a comic book. I have no idea what order I'm supposed to read this in.
Yeah, I kinda have a feeling this is the full extent of what Ken has drawn for the rest of that book. I'd love to be wrong, but I fear that I'm right.
Bonus material: Data files
These are mostly very dull, recapping a lot of events shared between Ken's Archie run and the new Lara-Su Chronicles timeline. It seems like almost his entire run is still considered canon to the backstory of the new timeline, just with some names changed, and things only really diverge at the climax of M25YL. But I'll share the interesting stuff here.
Lara-Su
The main thing you'll notice in Lara-Su's profile is the massive, unreadable wall of text where Ken felt the need to list the entire Knuckles family tree, split across both pages.
This is literally so long that Lara-Su's personal history has to awkwardly cut off mid-sentence and be continued on the final page of the book, after the rest of the data files.
Also, please note that this list gives Julie-Su's mom's full name as Mari-Su of the House of Atrades. Incredible on all levels.
There's also a reference to the dark timeline Lara-Su was originally supposed to come from. You know, the one where Julie-Su is the leader of a rebel movement fighting against a Knuckles who had gone mad with power? The timeline that would have been way more interesting than the one in M25YL? Here it seems to have been written off as the result of another "timeline disruption." Lara-Su allegedly has vague memories of this timeline, in the same way that she has vague memories of the M25YL timeline.
Geoffrey
Geoffrey's bio mostly recaps events from the Archie comics, which means the Sonic/Sally/Geoffrey love triangle has to be alluded to. His rivalry with Sonic is described like this:
"He would later resurface when Kintobor was transporting his latest hi-tech weapon, the Dynamac-3000. It was during that mission he discovered a rival for the Princess' affections. Whereas the Princess would be one of a line of conquests where St. John was concerned, the blue-spined Erinaceinae who protested doth a bit too much regarding his affections for the Princess for St. John's taste would prove to be a source of great sport and amusement."
Yes. It's gross. Saying that Geoffrey saw Sally as "one of a line of conquests" is gross. Ken writing this and then still treating Geoffrey as the coolest badass ever is gross. The "Princess Acorn" is also first on the list of Geoffrey's "female relationships" elsewhere in his bio, though I suppose how much of a "relationship" they had is left vague. Honestly, at this point the fact that Ken didn't explicitly confirm that Geoffrey took the underage Sally's virginity in the book comes off as a display of restraint. The bar couldn't be any lower, I know.
Remington
His bio is, frankly, shockingly long for such a minor character, though I guess he does get a large portion of the word salad dialogue in "The Storm." There's a lot of stuff here about how the identities of his biological parents are shrouded in mystery, a plot point that fans have long speculated Ken just straight up forgot about in his time at Archie. (Ian confirmed that Kragok from the Dark Legion was Remington's dad, though, so this isn't really much of a mystery.)
Lien-Da
She gets a bio even though she's not present in the two new stories, just so we get to look at her awful new design and compare it to how Steven Butler drew her earlier in the book:
Commander Taelor
We get to see two drawings of him with the same exact Ernie Hudson face side by side! That's fun.
Julie-Su
She gets a list of "known friends," but the only character listed is Knuckles' mom. Poor Julie-Su.
Also, Ken feels the need to reiterate that Knuckles and Julie-Su are still distant cousins. He made a whole new timeline where he can change whatever details he wants, but THAT had to remain canon. Thanks, Ken.
And then after the data files we get the special thanks page, listing everyone who preordered the book and/or bought TLSC merch from Ken.
With my name on the list. Because I had to buy a copy to cover it for the blog.
My name is on the very next page right after the breastfeeding panel in Julie-Su's data file.
Yep. He got me.
Is it at least a well put together book? Like, in terms of manufacturing quality?
Its physical quality is... fine. It's a nice, sturdy hardcover. The print quality seems fine, though mine does have a bit of smudging from some sort of printing error on one page. The pages don't seem like they'll fall out on me. The image quality is crisp. The colors are vibrant. This is a low bar, but this is one of the few places where I'm able to give this book anything resembling praise.
The formatting and graphic design work, on the other hand...
(I didn't crumple those page corners, it came like that.)
For one, the placement and sizes of the M25YL pages is inconsistent, largely due to the fact that the book doesn't actually match the proportions of a comic. A lot of pages aren't properly centered vertically. Some pages go all the way up to the top edge of the paper, while others leave a visible gap of about half a centimeter. Every page has a 1cm gap to its left and right, which is sometimes filled in with a solid color or gradient that doesn't quite match the page it's surrounding. I have to assume Ken didn't have any sort of source files or original artwork to work off of, as those ideally would've had more generous bleed to account for slight shifts in printing. It kind of seems like he just got the highest resolution versions he could find of the digital releases online and printed those. The colors are a dead ringer for the digital versions, which have always looked slightly more saturated and pastel than they did in print.
I can't say this bodes well for his further plans for Archie Sonic reprints - sorry, Mobian Line reprints. If they ever come out, please, for the love of god, do not buy those. I don't care how much you love Archie Sonic, they aren't going to be good reprints. For comparison, IDW's similarly priced hardcover Sonic collections have none of these formatting problems, because they're made by people who know what they're doing with access to the actual source files.
The book also has its fair share of text-focused pages, split between the data files and messages directly from Ken about the history of his career and this project, and these are formatted in the most amateurish way possible. Just massive walls of Arial text over either plain white backgrounds, simple gradients, or faded photos. I've seen school yearbooks with better graphic design. Even ignoring my subjective feelings about the art and stories within, this book does not feel like it's worth $36 USD.
It's frankly shocking how shabby he let this thing look considering it's supposed to be his baby. And doesn't that really sum it all up?
Closing thoughts
Obviously, I did not expect this to be any good. But I'm still left kind of dumbfounded by it.
I think what really strikes me about it is that Ken had a blank check to do whatever he wanted here. He got an opportunity many writers would kill for when he gained complete ownership of his most famous work. He's free from the limitations of a monthly licensed comic book for children, free to make whatever creative decisions he wants without editors or other writers or Sega to worry about, free to completely reinvent the series to his heart's content and finally tell the story of his dreams. And with that opportunity and 13 years of his time, he made... this. A direct continuation of "Mobius: 25 Years Later" that barely changes anything about the characters or world beyond their awful new designs, even though much of the word count is spent rambling about how the timeline has changed. A story that makes zero concessions for new readers, or even returning readers who don't already have the last decade's worth of Ken's tweets explaining his creative decisions burned into their memory. 30 pages where nothing really happens and the story barely moves forward an inch despite the decades-long wait - but maybe something will happen if you buy the next book!
Who is this for? Maybe this really is a project for no one but Ken. Maybe he just really, really wants to finish the story he started, a story that's personal to him due to the family history it evokes, and the number of people who enjoy it or buy it beyond that is irrelevant. I think that many of the best artists are incredibly self-indulgent ones working with that exact mindset, artists whose enthusiasm for their own work jumps off the page or screen. So, if that's the case, then why the fuck isn't he telling the damn story? What's stopping him? Why is he still spinning his wheels? Where is that passion for his own work? Because it sure as hell isn't there on the page. There's a huge part of me that really wishes I could say "Man, what a weirdo, but you do you, Ken. You tell your weird little story." But there's barely any story here. It's like he loves styling himself as a storyteller, but he's terrified of finally having to actually tell a story after all this time. He's still stuck in the exact same mode of writing he was in almost 30 years ago when he was doing 6-page backup stories about Knuckles, just killing time and stringing readers along until he's eventually able to truly realize his vision. If not now, then when, Ken?
Even the back cover blurb is mostly just a dry recap of the history of this thing. It was a Sonic comic, the original arc was published in these issues, it went unfinished, Ken left Archie, the lawsuits happened, now he's continuing the story. There's nothing about why anyone should give a shit about this as its own story, even though Ken has spent years trying in vain to convince people TLSC is its own beast that shouldn't be judged as a Sonic story. I think deep down he knows that there's no pitch for this beyond the novelty of it originating from Sonic. And that's why, despite declaring that he'd leave the site, he's still on Twitter riling up Sonic fans. It's the only attention he gets at this point.
Maybe this is too harsh when those 30 pages of new comics are just intended as a preview for the "real" book. But the elephant in the room is that we have no idea if that "real" book will ever actually come out, let alone the entire series of seven graphic novels that will supposedly complete this saga.
Ken is undeniably a complete jackass and all around unpleasant, vindictive person who's rightly become an industry pariah. He's a self-proclaimed paragon of progressive values who'll send Comicsgaters after his successors for the crime of not worshiping the ground he walks on, and then turn around and announce he's going to reprint their work without even consulting them. He's a sore winner who already won his copyright battle on a level most comic writers would never dare to dream of, and yet still won't truly be satisfied until he sees an entire major comic publisher go out of business, putting god knows how many people out of work, because he thinks this would get him back the license to a video game franchise he doesn't even like.
But I still have to pity him.
As an artist, the trajectory of his life is my nightmare. I think all of us fear dying before we can tell all the stories we want to tell. There's simply never enough time to do everything. And here's Ken in his 60s, talking about how he's still planning on making his magnum opus all by himself out of stubbornness and pride, despite demonstrably proving he can't handle the workload, and also talking about how if he dies before the project can be finished he'll have to pass the torch on to his kids and get them to finish it for him. It's so grim. Even just typing that sends a shiver down my spine. It took nine years of his limited time on Earth to finish and release an 11-page comic about Geoffrey St. John sitting backwards in a chair.
This is a purgatory of his own creation. And yet... I'm not sure he's ever been prouder. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
I guess if I want people to take anything away from this review, it's this:
Lesson one: If you're an artist or writer of some kind, or an aspiring creator, don't wait around. No one else is going to tell your story for you. Start writing that novel. Start drawing that webcomic. Start making that game. If Penders can put out this damn book that no one asked for after 13 years of work, then proudly proclaim that he's still going to make six or seven more books and also reprint hundreds of comics he doesn't have all of the rights to, then show up to cons with that foul Lara-Su Chronicles: Shattered Tomorrows banner and sit in front of it beaming with pride, fully aware of his critics but saying "fuck 'em, I know I'm hot shit," then you can do fucking anything. Tell the weird, sincere, cringe story of your dreams. If Ken Penders doesn't have imposter syndrome, then nobody should.
And lesson two: Don't buy Ken's books.
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This September is Assigned Male Comics' 10th anniversary! What a ride it has been. What started off as doodles during class when I was still at school changed my life in so many ways. It brought me new friends, adventures, and love. It made me learn about art, about the world, about myself. (I also learned English - at the beginning, it was my friends who were translating the strips!) I am eternally grateful for the community that was created around these characters.
It hasn't always been easy. You probably saw firsthand at one point or another how threats and verbal abuse have been a daily routine of the past decade for me. I'm thinking about that time I got doxxed and forced into hiding, or when ne*-naz*s stormed a library I was speaking at, or when a certain hate group (the British government) published a letter in the media because my comics are threats to civilisation and whatnot. I look back at all these things, and sure, a part of me feels tired and exhausted, but also proud. Because despite everything, I chose to keep doing this, and I'm still here. It has to be worth something.
This year has been a struggle of every instant. I'm focusing on keeping my head above the water. Your help during the hardships of last winter has been so vital, and I thank you for being here and for your patience with order delays! The situation brought my husband and I to our knees, and we're still counting pennies to be able to afford groceries. Making art in this context has certainly not been the easiest.
Still, I find joy in making these comics. Creating something empowering and entertaining for trans communities and their allies feels essential now more than ever. Meeting so many of you during my speaking tours has been life-changing, and I cherish the memory of each of these encounters. I miss you all, by the way! I can't wait to be back on the road.
In the meantime, I'm announcing today a virtual speaking tour for the next few months! I will accept invitations from associations, groups, schools and libraries. I will make a separate post about it in the next few days, but feel free to message me now for more details.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
To many more!
xx
Sophie
To subscribe and help me towards financial stability : www.patreon.com/assignedmale
To get me a 10th anniversary coffee so I can stay up late partying (as if) : www.ko-fi.com/sophielabelle
(pictured : the page's first profile picture!)
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Welcome to Elain Archeron Appreciation Week, 2024!
đ¸ Elain Archeron Week 2025 announcement đ¸
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We are so excited to be back for another year and cannot wait to celebrate our favourite flower fairy!
First off, a little housekeeping. We will announce the week on our old (now main) blog to be safe, but for ease of managing the event we have created a new space. We're sorry for the run around, and suggest following this new blog going forward.
Please tag this account - @elainarcheronweek - when posting your art, fics and theories etc so that we don't miss anything.
We are also on Instagram and Twitter.
This week is for every fan of Elain Archeron to foster positivity about her character; we ask that everyone remain kind while participating.
The Prompts
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Art: @ barbygoodface commissioned by @ stephdaydreams
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đ¸ Day 1: Visions
We know Elain was gifted tremendous powers by the Cauldron. Today, let's dive into her Seer powers and how she has utilised her gifts this far, or how they might manifest even more in the future.
Art: @ isis_villalobos_art commissioned by @ purpleunicornc_ & @ oceanfairym
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đ¸ Day 2: Hope
Today is all about hopes- both Elain's and our own. We know that Elain looked at their old cottage with hope. What other ways has Elain shown her hopefulness? Or what do you maybe hope for in Elain's future story?
Art: @ shim0rin commissioned by @ oceanfairym
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đ¸ Day 3: Strength
Elain may be soft, but she isn't a pushover. From killing the King of Hybern to "I hope they all burn in hell," Elain has proven she can more than hold her own. Today is the day to showcase her too-often- overlooked strength.
Art: @ andie_owo commissioned by @ separatist.apologist
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đ¸ Day 4: Home
What is 'home?' Is it a place? A person? A feeling? Today's the day to think about Elain's home. Use this prompt to explore her domestic side, or perhaps showcase what person, place, or things you think would make her feel most at home.
Art: @ btzart_ commissioned by @ steelprincesss @ helareads_ @ lunepapillons_ & @ wacky_abdalla
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đ¸ Day 5: Connections
Elain is known for her kindness and care toward her family and friends. Today, we explore the various connections she has built, whether it be with friends, family, or potential romantic partners.
Art: @ sollillium commissioned by @ lunepapillons_
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đ¸ Day 6: Passions
For this prompt, let's celebrate what Elain is passionate about. This prompt may include her hobbies like gardening and baking, or maybe other pastimes you might imagine she'd enjoy.
Art: @ goldenmushroom_ commissioned by @ emilysbookishtales
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đ¸ Day 7: Growth
Today is all about Elain's growth. Maybe you want to focus on what she's grown in her garden or how she's grown as a character so far. Or, you might use today as a free day, to imagine all the ways she could grow in the future.
Art: @ artbysanse commissioned by @ lazydaisyreads
#elainarcheronweek#elain archeron week#elainarcheronweek2024#elain archeron week 2024#elainweek#elain week#elainweek2024#elain week 2024#elain archeron#pro elain archeron#pro elain#acotar#sjm books#a court of thorns and roses#maasverse#elain archeron week info
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Folkmore
F1 grid x singer!driver!reader
Face claim Taylor Swift
Warning not proofread, spelling mistakes
Summary after the success of RED y/n still isnât done with music.
Part 1
A/N I wrote this in the middle of the night in a few hours so it isnât the best. Also I made a few of the things myself so it isnât the best. And yâall are getting spoiled with 2 fics on the same day:)
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Instagram
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Liked by LewisHamilton and 5.836.836 others
Yourusername Another great race in Hungary! P2 for the team! A quick break before Spa. Iâll take that time to work on some fun things got yâallđ Also congrats to Oscar for the win!
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Scuderiaferrari Great job Y/nđ
Charles_Leclerc another great race indeedđŞ
OliviaRodrigo multi talented queen
SabrinaCarpenter One of the first f1 races I have ever seen. I was STRESSING watching it. Great job love!
User1 You canât just announce that either those covers and then go on like nothing is happeningđđ
User2 P2 LETS GOOO
User3 itâs so funny ti see that after she released the album she suddenly has millions more followers and millions more likes on her post. Proud of you queen
User4 Fun things????
User5 gorgeous
User6 The car is looking great
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Instagram
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Yourusername Another suprise! While I was writing RED about my own experiences I also needed an escape from the real world, so I wrote this album. This is an album full of tales about characters that I made up in my head. Thank you to all the people that helped me write this and helped me make my dream come true. This is also an album that unlike the other one Is filled with poetry (I have always loved that). So I would recommend that if you want the full experience that you hold a dictionary close to you. I hope you will all love this as much as I do. Folklore is out nowđŠś
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BonIver I had a great time making this with youđŠś
Charles_Leclerc another great piece of art
LewisHamilton Your creativity never fails to amaze me
Landonorris just in time, I was beginning ti search for new music
OscarPiastri Itâs insane that you know words that I have never heard of and that you arenât even a native English speaker
User1 WHAT?!? HAHSNUSGENAIHAHH
User2 This is just⌠I have no words
User3 these song are justâŚâŚ I am so amazed at how amazing this is
User4 tho sis just the most amazing mix of hard destroying songs and a teenager in love
User5 going from red to this is insane but also so understandable (mostly with some of the songs on red)
User6 just imagine these songs liveâŚâŚ
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Instagram
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Yourusername Not the results we hoped for but in the points nonetheless. See you next Singapore.
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User7 youâll get back up soon
User8 this caption is so sad and then you have the happy Y/n pictures from the folklore photo shoot
User9 perfect human
User10 Ferrari is really disappointing these last few races
User11 I am loving the aesthetic
User12 Why havenât we heard of a contract extension yet??? What is this Ferrari?? She is on Eid the best drivers on the grid!
User13 Y/N WOTLD DOMINATION!!
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Yourusername Folklore the long pond studio sessions out now on Disney plus. This is a documentary that shows the story behind every wingmanâs a live version of all the songs. The songs will also be on Spotify soon! I hope everyone will enjoy it and will enjoy knowing the storyâs behind every songđŠś
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OliviaRodrigo A masterpiece might I say
SabrinaCarpenter One of the best movie I have ever seen
LewisHamilton Every time I see something you have created it amazes me more and more
Charles_Leclerc You always hit with the things you make Y/n
Landonorris My new favourite movie
User1 A MOVIE?!?!
User2 I have never been happier that I have Disney plus!!
User3 On Spotify too?! And the vocals are just INSANE
User4 the love triangle is my favourite thing ever
User5 Y/n drinking red whine just makes so much sense. I canât explain it
User6 besides the point but I just love that the drivers are supporting her
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Yourusername Triple surprise! After writing folklore (and red) I just couldnât stop. So I didnât. And this is what came from that. The sister album of Folklore; Evermore! This is again an album of tales that I have made up in my head, but there are also a few songs that are very close to my hard. One for example being Marjorie, this song is about my grandmother that has sadly passed away, and the song explains the rest. This album is very close ego my hard. I thank the poeple that have helped me make this and I hope you all like it as much as I dođ¤
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LewisHamilton I am once again proven wrong with your amazing writin and story telling
SelenaGomez What a lovely albumđ¤
Haim it was an honour working with you
Honeymoon I am proud to say that I was a fan before redđ¤ amazing job Y/n
Landonorris you killed it (literally)
OscarPiastri Crying in the floor atm
Charles_Leclerc another emotional rollercoaster
MaxVerstappen1 What a piece of art Y/n
User7 Iâm claiming right where you left me
User8 ANOTHER ALBUM?!?! Iâve just come by from red and folklore (not that Iâm complaining)
User9 my fav sisters; folklore and evermore đŠśđ¤
User10 no body, no crime is so unhinged and I love it
User11 all Gina dj stuff but where is the contract extension announcement?!?!
User12 SO PROUD!!
User13 my little indie artistđ¤đŠś
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Yourusername I am very bittersweet to announce that this will be my last season in Formula 1. While I am very happy that I have gotten this opportunity, and while I still really enjoy it. I think it is time for me to step off. I know I am still considering young(with being 24) but with my other hobbyâs and career I have devoted that it would smartest if I focus on my music career. I will finish this season(hopefully with a championship) and then I will retire. I which the best of luck to the team and to Charles and for my replacement for the next year. Thank you all for the support and I love you allâ¤ď¸
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Lewishamilton it was an amazing time racing against youâ¤ď¸
Charles_Leclerc it was an honour to be your teammate. I which you the best with your career
Landonorris I had a lot of fun racing alongside you. I which you the best in the future
User1 NOOOOO
User2 OMG?!?! IS THIS EHY FERRARI HADNT ANNOUNCED ANYTHING??
User3 I am sad that she will leave f1 but I am also happy because MORE MUSIC!
User4 wait could this maybe mean⌠a tour??
User5 I cried while watching this video
User6 We such you the best!
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Yourusername Thank you all so much for all the support these last few years. This was my last race in Formula 1, and it was a win. I am so grateful for all the people that made this dream possible! This will not be the last time you see me, just the last time you see me on the track. Again, thank you all so much for supporting me in this dream. And good luck Ollie, I know your going to do it great in Ferrariâ¤ď¸
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LewisHamilton Have a great retirement y/n/n
Charles_Leclerc it was an honour racing alongside you
Landonorris we will miss you
OscarPiastri I may not have driver with you for long but I which you all the best with music
Maxverstappen1 Have an amazing time and I which you the best of lunch with the music
User7 We Will miss you Y/n!
User8 I was crying when I watched her the last few laps of the raceđ˘
User9 all the driver congratulating her at the end had me tearing up
User10 Forza Ferrari!!
User11 this is so bittersweet
User12 MY FAVOURITE EX-DRIVER
User13 this whatâs such an emotional race
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Yourusername I am delighted to announce my brand new (and first) tour! Y/n Y/l/n | The Eras Tour, a journey through my last 3 eras. International dates will be announced as soon as I can and thank you to all the amazing singers that will go with me on this tourđŤś
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Yourusername What an amazing first show! I am shocked at how good you all know the songs! This is the first show of many to come!
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No part3. This is the end.
#sterredm ficsđ#formula 1#f1 imagine#f1 x reader#f1 x you#x reader#formula 1 fic#f1 fanfic#formula 1 fanfic#formula 1 x singer!reader#formula 1 smau#formula 1 x driver!reader#formula 1 x y/n#formula 1 fluff#formula 1 x reader#taylor swift x f1#f1 fic#f1 grid x reader#taylor swift#folklore#evermore#the eras tour
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Replica Holiday Special Winners!
Happy Holidays everyone! It's that time of year and you know what that means! Time to announce the winners for the DTIYS Replica Holiday Special Cover!
I received so many wonderful submissions. Far more than I had anticipated! They were all so unique and creative and it was an absolute joy to look at each and every one of them! I really underestimated however how difficult it would be to choose with them all being so unique from each other. In the end, I decided to gauge the top picks on how well their cover captured the "essence" of what this Special is going to be like! Without further ado, here are the winners.
HONORABLE MENTION - @matchstique
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Buddy! I love this piece so dang much! It has so much character and perfectly displays the wacky hijinks we can expect as well as the huge amount of stress our poor boys are under during these trying, pregnancy times. The movement and colors work so well and make me excited for what comes next! Seldom do I see pregnant females shown as the badasses they are, but you have gone and turned Cassandra into an absolute icon with this piece! Bless you!
3RD PLACE - @thegunnsara
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Sara, the shear amount of craft you put into your art is STAGGERING. Every scuff on Raph's shell and wisp of smoke screams of a quality I can only hope to attain someday. I literally want to be you when I grow up! That said, the concept of this piece is also fantastic. One of the things I'm must excited about for this Special is getting to see Raph and Casey as they were and witnessing the strong bond they share. I love them dearly and this cover captures their strength and tenacity so perfectly. Gods among men.
2ND PLACE - @cupcakeslushie
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Slushie, this cover is so damn fun and dynamic that I can't stop looking at it! Your attention to detail and composition are masterful and the fact that you could fit such a bombastic battle into such a limited space speaks to how crazy talented you are! You also do a wonderful job of retaining both the intensity of the apocalypse but also that playful edge that Rise always manages to retain! It's definitely the cover that would catch my eye on a shelf and make me want to turn the page to see what happens next!
1ST PLACE - @abbeyofcyn
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Cyn, the moment I saw this cover, I gasped! It's funny because this is both a piece I could have totally seen myself doing had I done the cover, yet crafted in a unique way I could have never come up with on my own! On top of that, this slick composition scratches my little designer brain juuust right. The use of the hands motif is such a great element because to me, it encapsulates the conflicting themes of family/parenthood with the drama of what it means to be human. On top of that, having each character as one of the digits both connected to and encircling Casey is such a wonderful touch that really drives the symbolism home. Somehow, you managed to peer into the future and perfectly capture how the finale of this special is going to feel. Thank you so much Cyn for such a wonderful piece!
~~~~~~~~~
Now that I think about it, looking back on these winners as a set, all four them actually do an amazing job as individual covers for each of the four "acts" that will make up this special. That was not at all my intention, but it kind of worked out perfectly for that. Gets me all emotional!
I also definitely want to put a spotlight on the other amazing submissions, many of which made it SO close to the top slots! I was going to post these pieces individually but I was worried people wouldn't then go to their blogs to view the covers, so instead have a compilation and links to the full versions! Please check out everyones amazing covers and give them some love. They all worked really hard and it means so much to me. Thank you everyone!
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@dreamundraws - LINK @honeylief - LINK @gemini-forest - LINK @memorydarkness - LINK @skullythefriendlyskullface - LINK @v-albion - LINK @its-wabby-stuff - LINK @yris-latteyi - LINK @reagi-df - LINK @chaoscontrol50 - LINK / LINK @murasakibonnet - LINK @hitwiththetmnt - LINK @xandriagreat - LINK @karonkar - LINK @sunydays - LINK (sorry my dear, yours did not appear on my hashtag reference at first! D: But still love it!) @quailaz - LINK @delicatechildwitch - LINK
Thank you again all of you! You all did such an amazing job!
#replica dtiys#replica#rottmnt replica#holiday speical#rottmnt#save rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#tmnt#not my art
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Hello all,
This is a general announcement post to cover a few changes, as well as a public build patch.
This patch addresses some lingering issues and bugs in Episodes 1 & 2. This is not a content update.
⌠Playthrough Restarts
Because of changes and fixes, if your save file is from June 24, 2023 or earlier, you should load a save file from the beginning of the Lethalis meeting in Episode 2 or restart from the beginning of the game. If you do not, you may encounter continuity, UI issues, or other errors. None of these are game-breaking.Â
If you keep Wayfarer running in a tab, please either refresh your browser or close the tab and open the game in a new one. This is the only way to ensure the patch takes effect.
Full patch notes can be read here.
⌠A Statement on AI
NO AI TRAINING. Using Wayfarer, its images, or any of its written work to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. Creating chatbots based on the gameâs text is not allowed.Â
⌠A Statement on the Alpha Build
Wayfarerâs public build is free to play. It will not be updated until the alpha buildâs Episode 4 is complete. Half of Episode 3 is available to play on my Patreon (available for the Recruit tier and above). Currently, the alpha build is a couple months behind the planned trajectory announced in the 2024 roadmap. Progress will be reassessed in July and updates made.Â
The last alpha build update was on May 28, 2024.Â
⌠Updates to the Gameâs Structure
Since 2021 Wayfarer has been conceptualized as 3 acts and 15 episodes. While that story structure is still at its roots, itâs very apparent now that this is far too much story to be contained to a single game. So, I am breaking it into a trilogy.  Â
I have had this idea for a while, but I have held off on doing anything about it because of technical issues. Because of the way the story builds on itself, I need to ensure that continuity (including details like the player characterâs inventory and locations they have visited) is preserved across all three game. However, even with some technical things to still test and figure out, I am at a point where I would like to move forward with the new structuring. Â
WAYFARER 1
Prologue
Act 1: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3
Act 2: Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6,
Act 3: Episode 7
Epilogue
WAYFARER 2
Prologue
Act 1: Episode 8, Episode 9
Act 2: Episode 10
Act 3: Episode 11
Epilogue
WAYFARER 3
Prologue
Act 1: Episode 12
Act 2: Episode 13, Episode 14
Act 3: Episode 15
Epilogue
The structure is still very much the same as it was prior (what is now a single âgameâ in the new structure was an âactâ in the old one). The change has been updated and reflected in the Story Log, which now only goes up to Episode 7.Â
With this change, I will be looking into getting new cover art that is more specific to the first gameâs events. All titles are TBA.Â
If youâve enjoyed Wayfarer and would like to support my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patrons receive access to the alpha build, a private Discord server, exclusive previews, bonus content, side stories, and other benefits.
Wayfarer is a passion project and creating it is a full-time commitment. Any little bit goes a long way to help me bring it to fruition.
If you arenât in a position to support financially, reblogs, shares, ratings and comments, and spreading the word about the game are much appreciated and do a lot to help me out! đ
#wayfarer#wayfarer if#dev log#announcements#twine#twine game#interactive fiction#interactive novel#cyoa#indie game
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Poses. Hello! đŤ
I'm doing something both extremely regular and very on point for me, but also new in the grand scheme of things. Normally this single-word drive would be done as a flash prompt and be for fics only. However, with Dawntrail coming up and me taking a break from my longer asks until well after the expansion's launch, I wanted to extend the life of my single word drive and allow people to engage in creative mediums beyond writing; aka, gpose, art, meta analysis â whatever makes you happy and engaged creatively with Final Fantasy XIV!
To that end, please consider this a single-word (anything) drive!
...Okay, but what is a single-word (anything) drive?
By liking/reblogging this post, you consent for me to go into your askbox to send a one-word prompt generated from this website, picked from a selection of five, as a prompt for you do something creative with your oc. I will then queue any and all completed works to my character question tag, which can be found here.
There is no word limit or time limit, no barrier for skill, and you are welcome to ask for another prompt if the original one doesn't vibe. This is all about giving you the opportunity to explore a concept or part of your character you might not have considered, or expand upon your artistic/technical ability.
As this is a longer drive than my flash ones, I will be advertising it accordingly, and will send multiple prompts for those who'd like them. If you have finished an ask and would like another, please reply to this post with an emoji of a sea creature. đ You can do this as many times as you want until the end of the drive; it counts as an extra like/reblog!
Sea, when does the drive end? I'm glad you asked! It'll end when (Count)Down To Dawntrail starts or when I manually call it â whichever comes first. It'll be announced on this post, but feel free to join my community project discord over at SEAFLOOR where you'll see (ha) me announce it in real time.
That's all for now! I'll either update or reblog this post with more information as needed, so please check the notes of this post for any updates.
#・シďžďžď˝Ľ â sea's character questions#・シďžďžď˝Ľ â sea speaks#but also none of these are being sent until tomorrow#i'm gonna go cuddle my partner and snzz#i meant to pose this ages ago BUT#you can see this inspired the alaice edit DFJKGHSDFJ#okay GOODNIGHT!!!!!!!!!
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Hi hello my computer exploded earlier this week so apologies for the cursed and late announcement post, but prepare yourselves! The first Saturday of a new month is tomorrow, which means it's time for another...
[VS] Art Party
July 6th, 2024 Captain's Cut, Stormbluff Isle Bloodtide Coast
Round 1 (EU): 9pm-12am CEST (3pm EDT) Round 2 (NA): 7pm-10pm EDT (1am CEST)
For those who arenât familiar with art parties, theyâre a concept carried over from Final Fantasy XIV - in-game get-togethers for artists/writers/creatives of all types to hang out, chat, and create together! Get your favorite character/look together, head to the location, find someone that catches your eye, and create! Afterwards, everyone posts their creations in a shared tag (ours is #VSArtParty) so others can see, interact, and share! Tl;dr: the âgoalâ of an art party isnât to be drawn, but to draw others, and share with the community!
Time and /squadjoin information is under the cut, but will also be posted again via reblogs as the squads go up on the day of the party!
Location Information:
It's another, proper beach episode! While I don't have the technical capacity at the moment to get a map screenshot of the location, it's essentially the southwest edge of Stormbluff Isle, the nearest waypoint being Stormbluff Waypoint! Here's a picture from the wiki of the entire island for reference:
Time & Squad Details:
As we always do, weâll be having two parties - one on EU servers and one on NA ones - with an hour break in between. People tend to arrive early and/or jump between accounts as soon as the break comes up, so donât be surprised to see tags and announcements going up ahead of schedule!
The first party will be on EU servers and begin at 9pm Central European Summer Time (aka 3pm Eastern Daylight Time or 5 hours before in-game reset). This time due to work conflicts I will NOT be the one starting the squad, but will instead be joining about an hour or so in! So, please welcome our first 'guest' [VS] tag, @vampiricsheep! Please /squadjoin or whisper Vegetarian Maneater for an invite in my absence, it'll treat you well and with my blessing. âĽ
The second party will be on NA servers and begin at 7pm Eastern Daylight Time (aka 1am Central European Summer Time or an hour before in-game reset). Iâll be back to hosting this one and be on my main account, so to join either /squadjoin or whisper Kirslyn for an invite.
Closing Words
I said it at the top of the post but here I am saying it again - I am so sorry for the delay. The intention was to get this out on Mon/Tues at the latest due to me being busy with Dawntrail, but both my SSDs thought it was time to fry themselves and I've been scrambling to rebuild everything from scratch ever since. I've more or less got things back to a usable state now though, so I look forward to seeing everyone (and their shiny new anet-sanctioned beach outfits?) tomorrow! Thank you for always coming out to these and making them fun, they're one of the highlights of my time in game! âĽâĽâĽ
#i thought only my C: drive had died but then when i replaced it i realized the D: one was dead too#so like i have my personal files safe because they were on external drives#but all my programs and games and stuff that were on the 2 internal drives are kaput :c#anyway sorry for the delay! but we're back on track now#gw2#guild wars 2#vsartparty#obnoxious tourist simulator#đ˘đ¨
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Coming this September to an internet near you: Rinch Fest 2024, a ship week for Harold Finch/John Reese from Person of Interest! This is a low-pressure event meant to encourage the creation of more fanworks for Finch/Reese or Finch & Reeseâs friendship. Fic, art, gifs, vids, podfic, you name itâall are welcome, as long as theyâre Rinch-centric.
Posting for Rinch Fest will run from September 24 through September 30, 2024
PROMPTS:
Day One â September 24 Fluff⢠Pining⢠"Always" ⢠Dark⢠Domesticity
Day Two â September 25 Be Nice To John⢠Established Relationship⢠Road Trip ⢠Food/Drinking/Cooking ⢠Art
Day Three â September 26 Be Nice To Harold⢠Belly⢠"Beach Cabin in the Woods⢠"Five+1" ⢠Pets/Animals ⢠Music
Day Four â September 27 Kids/Babies/Pregnancy⢠Hugs⢠Clothes ⢠Setting/Genre Change AU⢠The Machine
Day Five â September 28 Bed Sharing⢠Wedding/Marriage⢠Crossover ⢠Canon Divergence ⢠Tropes
Day Six â September 29 Finch Whump ⢠Reese Whump ⢠NSFW/Kink ⢠Retirement ⢠Home
Day Seven â September 30 Free-For-All/Catch-Up Day
Keep reading for more info!
Whoâs running this? ArgylePirateWD. Hi! Now with mods @alexsrousseau and @stingalingaling
Any changes since last year? None! As in previous years, Reese&Finch friendship is also allowed
Why not call it Rinch Week? It started out as Rinch Fest on The Rinch Loft on Discord, and thatâs what stuck.
Plus, Rinch Fest and Reese & Finch share the same initials.
Whatâs allowed? Complete fanworks focusing on Harold Finch and John Reese in a romantic or close platonic relationship with each other. Fic, art, vids, remixes, sequels, you name it! No length requirements, no style requirements, all ratings allowedâdo what you want!
Anything not allowed? Works where Finch/Reese or Finch & Reese is not the primary relationship (additional ships are fine), works that are incomplete at the time of posting, and remixes or other transformative works for other peopleâs fanworks that are done without the original creatorâs permission. Anything else is fair game, as long as itâs labeled.
Also, donât be a jerk.
What about [insert controversial topic here]? Can I make something with x?/OMG someone made something with x! Anything else is fair game, as long as itâs labeled. This includes works featuring tropes and kinks that you may not like or approve of. As long as itâs warned for, itâs fine and allowed.
Please warn for the usual AO3 warnings (Major Character Death, Graphic Violence, Rape/Non-Con, and Underage) and any subjects others may find deeply unpleasant, and clearly label any NSFW works.
What about poly? Gen? Poly is wonderful, but this is a Finch/Reese or Finch&Reese event. Sorry.
Finch & Reese gen is allowed!
What do I do with x prompt?/Can I do [insert concept here]? Anything goes! Seriously, however you want to interpret a prompt is fine.
Do I have to make something for every prompt? No! You can if you want, but itâs not required. Feel free to skip days, combine prompts, create multiple fills for each day, anything! This is as flexible as it gets.
If it fits multiple prompts, when do I post it? Whatever day works best for you!
What if I want to do something NSFW? There's no nsfw prompt this year. Is it still allowed? YES! Bring on the spicy if you want!
What about a multi-chapter/piece thing where each chapter fulfills one dayâs prompt? When do I post that? Post an update each relevant day until youâre done! (Just make sure you can finish it by the end of the event.)
What if it doesnât fit a prompt? Thatâs what Day 7 is for! :D
What if I need to post my fill(s) on a different day? Life happens. The AO3 collection is set to Unrevealed, so I can reveal early submissions on the right day, but if that doesnât work for you, Iâm sure we can work something out.
Can I work on a previously-posted WIP? As long as itâs finished when you make your post for the event, sure! If youâre just updating a WIP without finishing it, no.
Can I start working now? Absolutely! Thatâs why Iâm announcing it nowâso thereâs plenty of time for people to make things.
Can I talk about/share previews of what Iâm working on? Sure!
Wait, thereâs a Rinch Discord server? Do I have to join to do this? Of course not. Weâd love to have you at The Rinch Loft, and itâs a fun place to hang out, but Rinch Fest is for anyone into Rinch.
If I want the Discord link⌠Send in an Ask to the @rinchfest Tumblr, contact ArgylePirateWD somewhere, or ask around. Itâs open to anyone who likes Rinch or Person of Interest. Iâm happy to give it out to anyone who wants it.
Where do I post? On Tumblr, post to your blog and use the #rinchfest23 or #rinchweek23 tags. You are They are being watched. đ And maybe add @rinchfest in your post to be sure. Tumblr is as hungry as Bear and Shaw.
Submissions are also open.
On AO3, you can post it here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/rinchfest23/
Do I have to have a Tumblr? AO3? As long as youâre on some kind of platform and can get a link to the work to me somehow so I can share it with the world, youâre welcome to play.
On October 1st, Iâll make a round-up post full of links to all the shiny things people made. If I know you made it, itâll go in!
What time zone? The daily prompt posts will be going up at 12 am Central Time, but as long as itâs the relevant day for your fill somewhere in the world, go ahead and throw it in!
(And if you want to sneak in some Day 7 things a little after, as long as they get posted before the Master Post goes up⌠đ)
Sounds fun! How do I sign up? No signups! Just post your stuff somewhere on the right day(s), and youâre in!
#rinch#harold finch#john reese#person of interest#poi#person of interest fanworks#person of interest fan art#person of interest fanfiction
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( ęŞĐęŞ)ă Our last book..
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⏠(Cover)
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⏠(Opening Page)
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⏠(Content Page)
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⏠(Pages 6-7)
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⏠(Pages 10-11)
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⏠(Pages 18-19)
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⏠(Pages 20-21)
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⏠(Pages 24-25)
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⏠(Pages 26-27)
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⏠(Pages 44-45)
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⏠(Pages 46-47)
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⏠(Pages 74-75)
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⏠(Pages 146-147)
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⏠(Pages 148-149)
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⏠(Pages 152-153)
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⏠(Pages 178-179)
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⏠(Pages 180-181)
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⏠(Pages 226-227)
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⏠(Pages 246-247)
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⏠(Pages 254-255)
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⏠(Pages 280-281)
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⏠(Pages 300-301)
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⏠(Pages 302-303)
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⏠(Pages 306-307)
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⏠(Pages 316-317)
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⏠(Pages 320-321)
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⏠(Pages 322-323)
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⏠(Pages 330-331)
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⏠(Pages 338-339)
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⏠(Pages 346-347)
This.
This took forever to go through. There were soo many good illustrations that it took me longer to decide. I hate the photo limit. I really, really want to show more.. (âŻď¸ľâ°,)
To start off on this lovely book, we see the 3rd Anniversary Countdown illustrations. It's 4 pages long and the colors are amazing! I just wish these illustrations have their own page so you can see them properly to appreciate them..
After that, we see the Devilgram illustrations which is 7 pages long and I'm not happy with the colors. They're pretty dull and filtered. It's a bummer to see the pictures like this because all these little scenes are fun to look at as you see.
Then we're off to the card illustrations! This is where Mephistopheles, Thirteen, and Raphael start to show up more which are gorgeous! Especially when Raphael pops in! (´âď˝)⥠I was really excited to see them so I did my best to add them on this post.
Towards the end, we see the event logo's which is 10 pages long. This is where you get to see the title illustrations of the events that happened in the past. It's neat to look at because many games don't share this so this is quite a treat. However, upon close inspection, I noticed a few logo's are a bit blurry? Yeah, I know. I shouldn't nitpick but these books are expensive so I have high expectations. As an art book collector, I find it important that everything is top notch. If there are too many problems, I return the book without second thought because I refuse to have an art book that isn't well taken care of. If the colors and setup is bad, it has to go. It's difficult to enjoy the art when the book is a complete mess.
The book quality is superb (minus the Devilgram illustrations) and the cost for this one is $59.13 from nin-nin-game.
Unfortunately, our steamy showers illustrations were not in this book which is a huge disappointment but I'm hopeful they will create another book or two where we will also get Mephistopheles, Thirteen, and Raphael character profiles since they didn't appear on this book which I find odd because you figure they will show them but it seems the company has other plans.
After their announcement on discontinuing nightbringer, I can't help but really, really hope they will release more books in the future. These books are worth it. They're beautiful to look at and it's something to treasure forever because from experience; I know there will be a time the company will decide to shut down the game due to cost so if your like me who cares a lot about the art.
Get the art books while you can. Especially right now when the price is right. They will eventually stop making these and it will be difficult to get them.
And as always, if you have any questions about the books. Don't hesitate to ask. I'll do my best to answer!
I hope you enjoy these posts. It was hard picking which illustration to share and that I hope I help others figure out which book to get if your unsure. I know how tricky it is to get art book when the store page don't show any samples so I figure I'll give you guys some to help you decide.
Hope you all have a good day! Stay warm!
#mobile games#obey me#obey me nightbringer#obey me lucifer#obey me mammon#obey me leviathan#obey me satan#obey me asmodeus#obey me beelzebub#obey me belphegor#obey me diavolo#obey me barbatos#obey me mephistopheles#obey me simeon#obey me luke#obey me raphael#obey me thirteen#art books
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What Is Like Crazy About?
Since the day "Like Crazy" was released, I wanted to post about it, but couldn't get the time to focus and do a comprehensive analysis. Finally, right before the first anniversary of this masterpiece, I got the time, and the post is ready now. Before starting off, I have to remind you of the fact that a work of art can be interpreted in many different ways, and none of those interpretations are necessarily right or wrong. Every work of art contains a message that is the artistâs main intention from that creation, but the artist doesnât have to explain it to the audience because a true work of art speaks for itself, even though not all audiences can receive it thoroughly.
I know that in the past year, so many different types of analyses and theories were made by fans to explain this song, and most definitely, I couldnât keep up with all of them. Therefore, Iâm not claiming my analysis to be a breakthrough, and you might have read most parts of it somewhere else. In this post, we are going to discuss âLike Crazyâ from a lyrical and conceptual point of view, trying to find out what message or messages Jimin wanted to convey by creating it.
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About âLike Crazyâ
âLike Crazyâ as the title track for Jimin's first solo album, "FACE", stole the hearts of millions of fans and locals around the world, and inarguably became one of the most successful pop songs of the year 2023. I can talk for hours about how beautiful and successful âLike Crazyâ is, and how it broke KPop boundaries and countless records. But, in this post, we are going to break to the surface and talk about the meanings and motivations behind this song and answer the questions like âHow this song was made?â âWhat was Jimin's intention in writing these romantic lyrics?â
As I mentioned earlier, artists usually donât directly address their main message and their intention in creating a form of art, but many of them speak about the motivations and inspirations that led them to the creation. Jimin hasnât talked much about the sources of inspiration behind individual tracks of âFACEâ, but I guess âLike Crazyâ was an exception for him because he revealed on several occasions that he was inspired by âLike Crazyâ, the movie. And this piece of information is the key to our analysis:
"I tried to express the feelings of that movie. You know, the somewhat complex, somewhat lonely, somewhat happy emotions. I tried to express all these ambiguous and subtle emotions in a slightly sexy way, but Iâm not sure how itâll end up being received by people.â
Like Crazy, The Movie
First of all, we need to keep in mind that âLike Crazyâ is a completely original song, and Jimin has not used or sampled any songs, lines, or dialogues from the movie in his lyrical or visual concepts (even the intro and outro dialogues in the song were original and not from the movie). If Jimin had not stated his source of inspiration directly, the only hint that could have led us to it would be the title of the song, which duplicates the title of the movie since the title never appears in the lyrics.
So, Jimin chose this specific name for his song and announced his source of inspiration to make it clear that there is a straight and strong connection between the song and the movie. He made it clear that this connection is 100% conceptual and emotional, and if we want to know what âLike Crazyâ is about, and what ambiguous and subtle feelings Jimin is talking about, we have to redirect the analysis to the concept of the movie, âLike Crazyâ.
As we all know, âLike Crazyâ is a romantic movie, and Drake Doremus directed it casting "Felicity Jones" and the late "Anton Yelchin" as the main characters, Anna and Jacob. Doremus based the storyline of this low-budget movie on his experience being in a long-distance relationship with his partner and developed it into a 90-minute-long movie, which was released in 2011 and became relatively successful.
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Anna and Jacob
A few days before the release of âFACEâ, I was informed that the title track, âLike Crazyâ is based on a movie of the same name. After learning this fact, I had to re-watch it because I couldnât remember anything after a decade, and I had some questions like: âWhat was in this movie that made it so special for Jimin?â âHow would Jimin feel watching this?â. Having this mindset helped me to see the movie differently, but before explaining those new insights we need a short storyline of the movie:
Anna is a British exchange student in LA, where she falls in love with Jacob, an American student, and they start dating. Anna, blinded by her love for Jacob, overstays her student visa and consequently gets banned from re-entering the United States. After experiencing a forced LDR, Jacob flies to London to visit Anna, and her father suggests that getting married might resolve the issue, but they are not ready for this big step. Jacob goes back to LA and basically chooses his job over Anna, but after some time, they realize that they canât be apart, and they decide to get married. Six months after the marriage, when the time for the appeal of Annaâs ban comes, it gets rejected, and they lose their last hope of being together. Again, they go back to their sad lives, but after some time, Anna is finally offered a visa, and she leaves everything behind to reunite with Jacob. The ending scene shows how this separation has damaged their relationship, and things will never be the same.
The movie portrays the hardships of a long-distance relationship and the damage the separation can do to two souls and their connection. I think the recent movie by "Celine Song" named "Past Lives" was partially similar to like crazy, but also there was a big difference; unlike Nora and Haesung in âPast Livesâ, Anna and Jacob donât leave it to fate, they donât forget about each other and donât settle down with others just because their love seemed difficult or impossible.
They found true happiness only next to each other and did everything against all odds (especially Anna) to take that back. Maybe if Anna and Jacob werenât in love like crazy and were more mature and realistic, they would end up like Nora and Haesung (Sorry if this spoiled that movie for you), but they didnât and made their own bittersweet ending.
Many people claim that âLike Crazyâ is a breakup movie with a sad ending, therefore, Jiminâs song also must be a breakup song. But, first of all, the ending can somehow be considered an open ending. We donât know what happens after the shower scene, but we see them together, in each otherâs arms, and this is not a totally sad ending by any movie standards. Other than that, Anna and Jacob became separated a few times, but they don't officially break up by choice, their separation is the result of contractual rules and laws, made by society.
This movie, as its director explained, might be originally about a long-distance relationship, but also the main relationship in this movie can be seen as a relationship that gets strained by laws and regulations, itâs about the rules and imaginary borders that decide if two people can be together or ban them from it. Itâs a story of the âlove against lawâ.
A Heterosexual Love Story?
When âLike Crazyâ was released in theatres back in 2011, it got positive reviews for good acting that made the movie feel sweet and intimate with mostly improvised dialogues. Meanwhile, the negative reviews were focused on the plotline of this drama, calling it far from reality. Other than the fact that Jacob could have easily resolved this issue by taking his job from LA to London, in reality, the couple wouldnât have faced this much difficulty over the legal complications, especially after getting married.
The fact is, straight couples usually never face this kind of hardship, and governments take that easy on them otherwise, there wouldnât be so many sham marriages around the world just to get citizenship. So, the idea of a couple getting separated by law is not common, and thatâs why many people called this movie implausible. But, a queer person can familiarly receive this implausibility, like when they want to be with someone forever, but the laws donât let them.
Could it be this feeling that made âLike Crazyâ special and a source of inspiration for Jimin? Or was it something smaller like the Santa Monica beach scene? I have no answer, I only make theories, and I think itâs better to leave the movie here and start the lyrical interpretation to see how these words and feelings can get connected.
The Lyrics
[Intro]
(I think we could last forever (I'm afraid that everything will disappear Just trust me)
As I said earlier, this intro is not a dialogue from the movie, but the narrators were told to do it based on the audio from the movie that was sent to them. So, hypothetically, itâs Anna and Jacob having this conversation. He is afraid of losing everything, but Anna assures him that if he trusts her, they can last forever. In the MV, we see Jimin standing in the crowd, but the time goes in reverse, and through a transition into his eyes, we see him sitting alone. Weirdly, the outro of the song is playing in the background here, but we will figure out the reason later.
[Verse 1]
Korean Version, Translated
She's saying Baby, don't think about it There's not a bad thing here tonight Baby, it's fine if you leave Stay with me, just for today
English Version
She's saying, Baby, come and follow me There's not a bad thing here tonight Save your reasons all for later Stay with me a little while
Anna asks him to follow her and assures him that everything is fine, itâs fine if this is not going to last long. Itâs not the time for reason and overthinking. The gendered pronoun here refers to Anna, but we will know more about her in the next verses. It is worth mentioning that in the primary handwritten lyrics by Jimin, there was no âSheâ and it was modified later considering the dialogues added to the intro. Anyway, we know Jimin didnât release these drafts in his album for no reason.
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In this part of the MV, we see Jimin sitting alone in a room, and with a flicker of lights, the room is filled with mud. Suddenly, a muddy hand of a girl grabs Jiminâs hand and leads him to a party. There are several symbols in this part, the lonely room is Jiminâs reality, and the party is his dream. The mud symbolizes dreams and desires that leave their trace on your life and soul.
[Verse 2]
Korean Version, Translated
Watch me go Drenching myself all night (Away) So that even the morning Gets drunk and doesn't arrive
English Version
Watch me go Now, I sink down, all alone away Where am I? A dark haze clouding up my eyes
From here, we donât see the girl because Jimin and the girl became one. She was her reflection from the beginning, the side that leads him out of his loneliness, and allures him to his dreams and desires, tempts him to be careless and stop thinking too much. Some say she is Jiminâs Anima, but these lyrics never go to the deep levels of the subconscious to reach the Anima. She is his feminine side that is a tangible side of him, and Jiminâs asymmetric makeup gives it away. Also, the mirrored moves between Jimin and the female dancer in âLike Crazyâsâ choreography made it clear that the feminine presence in this song is Jiminâs reflection.
[Pre-Chorus]
Korean Version, Translated
As the loud music I get faded out A clichĂŠ story like a drama I get used to it Have I come too far to find the me that you used to know Yeah, I know You know I know (Ooh)
English Version
I can hear the voices listening Don't know who they are Trying to take the pressure off Been reaching for the stars Tell me, will I find myself again? When I go too far? Yeah, I know You know, I know (Ooh)
Jimin enters the party and starts drinking, dancing, and having fun with the others. He laughs and enjoys himself in the crowd and trusts the supposed strangers, but the confusion doesnât leave him alone. He feels lost, and as the lyrics say, he is worried about going too far and not finding himself again. The two opposite sides of him are conflicting. Itâs the contradiction between "fear and desire", between "pain and numbness", between "loneliness and losing yourself", and between "reason and dream" that leaves him confused.
[Chorus and Post Chorus]
Korean Version, Translated
I'd rather be Lost in the lights, Lost in the lights I'm outta my mind Hold onto the end of the night Every night You spin me up high The moon with you in its arms Let me have a taste Give me a good ride (Oh, I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin') Oh, it's gon' be a good night (Oh, I'm fallin') Forever, you and I
English Version
I'd rather be Lost in the lights, lost in the lights I'm outta my mind Can you help me numb the pain? Each night, you spin me up high Emotions on ice Let me have a taste Give me a good ride (Oh, I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin') Oh, it's gon' be a good night (Oh, I'm fallin') Forever, you and I
In this part, he confesses which side he really wants to follow. He wants to go out of his mind, lose himself to the desire, and leave the reason behind. Itâs the escapism that saves him from loneliness and the pain of real life. The chorus is the sexy and at the same time, the most poetic part of this song, especially where he is spinning up high in the arms of the moon.
The last line of the post-chorus, âForever you and Iâ which also repeats in the last part of the interlude, is crucial because it declares that Jimin is not talking about vagrancy or promiscuity. He wants it all with his significant other, the only one who can help him numb the pain of real life and escape it. But this escapism has its consequences, and we see all that mud flush out of every corner symbolizing it. This scene artistically ends with Jimin facing his reflection in the crowd. The question is, is this reflection the same significant other, or is it Jimin himself? We will get the answer in the next part.
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/03345dc5c351db771dff4b270ab2a7b6/4944b93ac57d338c-f0/s540x810/4789fc5cfe40888934fc1f4947230b76cc237569.jpg)
[Verse 3]
Korean Version, Translated
The me, reflected in the mirror Is going crazy endlessly I'm feelin' so alive, wasting time
English Version
All my reflections, I Can't even recognize I'm feelin' so alive, wasting time
His fear of losing himself was true, and it's happening now. This duality confuses him and makes him question his reality. Which side is the true Jimin? He doesn't care anymore because this escapism makes him feel alive.
Here in the MV, we see Jimin facing the reflection, and it immediately cuts to the restroom scene where he faces his literal reflection in the mirror and talks to him about not recognizing him anymore. Then, the restroom being dismantled symbolizes his state of mind. "The reflection of myself in an unfamiliar appearance" was the concept of "his "FACE" which was a whole album about Jimin himself.
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/d1c7b35bea4631738abd53c060b8250d/4944b93ac57d338c-01/s540x810/a841bf8d1eb18d5becddd3bfee2227032d0728d1.jpg)
[Outro]
This will break me This is gonna break me (Break me) No, don't you wake me (Wake me) I wanna stay in this dream, don't save me Don't you try to save me (Save me) I need a way we (Way we) I need a way we can dream on (On, on, on) (Alone again What's the point?)
Jimin knows the consequences of losing himself but embraces it. He knows it's gonna break him but doesn't want to wake up from his dream. He knows everything will collapse but doesn't need a savior. He wants to stay in that dream, but he knows it's impossible, and sooner or later, he will be dragged out of it.
Is there a way to cut all the connections to the real world of loneliness and stay in this dream forever? We get the answer in the MV, and it's not positive because suddenly, everything goes backward in speed, to where we started (remember the outro being played in the beginning? That was the clue).
He goes back to his lonely room with a muddy hand. Did his hand get dirty from a touch of his reflection, or was the muddy hand in the beginning his own hand? Is he trapped in a loop? Maybe. Maybe this wasn't his first or the last time coming back from that dreamland, and it was the reason for so much mud accumulated in his room. He is a regular in that dreamland and he can't quit.
Conclusion
It's understandable if this analysis of the movie, lyrics, and the MV didn't guide you in any direction, and maybe you are even more confused after reading it all. But don't blame yourself because Jimin already told us that, his emotions for this movie are complex. So, don't look for just one answer, maybe we are not supposed to end up with one conclusion, and this song also can have multiple interpretations and meanings. But what are these meanings?
If you pay attention to the lyrics and the MV you will realize that despite them being aligned and in sync, the lyrics have more connection to the movie. While filming the MV, Jimin mentioned that things (scenes of the MV) didn't happen like this in real life, which was an obvious fact, because this song is clearly not about being the life of the party and stuff like that, and has more internal meanings.
In "Like Crazy", Jimin talks about the loneliness of his real life, the isolation and limitations he experienced during the pandemic, and maybe other times. But Jimin finds an alternate reality, where he can be himself, be free and careless, and forget about the future. This alternate reality is rooted in two possibilities: The feminine side, and the significant other. The feminine side is what we face in the MV, and there are not many signs of it in the lyrics.
The feminine side appears as a muddy hand and a presence at the part that faces Jimin and becomes one with him as his reflection. The idea of "bigender" is nothing new in the concepts that Jimin has offered on different occasions, from his fake tattoos in ARMY-Zip 2019 to the performance of "Filter" in 2020 and his photopholio in 2022, he has expressed this fluidity in his work, and I think the visual concept of "Like Crazy" with his different makeup in the MV and the choreography was the epitome of it.
What about the significant other? As I mentioned in the analysis of chorus parts, "Forever You and I" Can only be interpreted as his exclusiveness to someone who is his significant other. This person is the one who saves Jimin from his loneliness and assures him about their happy ending. This person has no doubt in them lasting forever and only wants Jimin to trust him to take the lead and let that happen.
He keeps saying to his significant other that there is no future. They can't be together forever, this is just a temporary situation, and despite finding comfort in each other, they should not get attached because they will forced to be separated. It's not like Jimin doesn't believe in this love, he does and has the same wishes and dreams, but he keeps getting dragged to the real world where the rules govern.
This part is just a personal opinion as a Jikooker, but I did this analysis in my head last year when "Like Crazy" was newly released and had no intention of making a connection between this and Jikook, until "Seven" came out. We all know JK had no hand in making the sexy lyrics of "Seven", but after watching the MV (which had nothing to do with the lyrics), I couldn't unsee the fact that the concept of Seven's MV looked so much like a response to "Like Crazy's" lyrics. Still, we don't know if JK gave any ideas for the concept of the MV, but considering his record of working as an MV director, it's not impossible.
The End.
This is all I could say about "Like Crazy", a masterpiece that is still thriving in the charts and still touches people's hearts because it comes from real and deep emotions that Jimin had in his heart. That emotion got us the moment we listened to it for the first time, even though verbalizing it, is never easy, no matter how many analyses and reviews we write.
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AITA for making a YouTuber feel uncomfortable?Â
Here me out please, before you all make assumptions.Â
A couple months ago, I(19F) began following a YouTuber that I quickly began to love. I wonât be saying the YouTuberâs name for the sake of protecting their privacy, obviously. I started to watch their videos(which were mainly about a story that she came up with, featuring her ocs) and enjoyed them all, enjoyed the ocs, too. This YouTuber is a relatively unpopular one, but not so unpopular that theyâre obscure or completely unheard of, theyâre just not one of the big names in the YouTuber community. I made a few amazing friends due to us being in the same fandom and both enjoying this YouTuberâs content. One day, I decided to write a fanfic for this personâs story featuring her ocs. I uploaded the fic to AO3 and made sure to credit the YouTuber with creating these amazing ocs. I then showed it to my few friends, who all loved the fanfic. However, one day I made the mistake of showing the fic to a mutual friend(now an ex-friend but thatâs a topic for another discussion) that me and the YT both share, and she sent the fanfic to the YT without my permission. Now before yâall get up in arms, I didnât mind at all that she had sent it to the YT, in fact, I actually wanted the YT to see. However I really wish that she had asked me first, because I would have been more than happy to show it to them! Unfortunately, a few days after I sent it to her, my other friend(letâs call her M) showed me an announcement the YT made on her Discord, in which she complained about people writing fanfictions of her ocs and âusingâ them in her stories without her permission. She also stated that she felt like she was losing control of her story when other people wrote fanfics of it, and that whoever wrote the fanfiction âdidnât understand boundariesâ(even though she didnât have this boundary before and also wrote in the announcement that she used to be okay with fanfics of her work, but now no longer is). I deleted the fanfic the moment I saw the post from my friend, but I was a bit disappointed since I never meant to make her feel uncomfortable and only wanted to show my love and appreciation for her story, and possibly get more people to check out her story as well. Still, I deleted the fanfic from AO3.Â
Now, hereâs where things get interesting. A while later, I joined the YouTuberâs Discord server, where I met many people that I got along quite well with and quickly befriended. I often engaged in conversations with them about the story, and often drew fanart of my favorite character and posted it to the art channel in the server(sheâs okay with fanart of her ocs, just not fanfics). Now is probably a good time to mention that while I was in the Discord server(and even before that) I often talked about the story with my friend on Tumblr(not M, these are two separate friends) who did not have Discord but loved the story just as much as I did. We often talked about the story and how much we enjoyed it, and often came up with jokes and headcanons, basic stuff like that, that any fan would do. Anyway, back to the Discord, one of the rules of the server was not to be disrespectful or rude or malicious towards other people, and another was that if you received two warnings about your behavior in the server then you would be quickly banned from the server and no longer allowed to come back. I understood this and tried to conduct myself to the best of my ability. However, one day, I found myself mysteriously unable to access the server, and when I tried to rejoin, I was again unable to. I found out that the reason I couldnât access the server was because I had been banned due to âdisrespectful behaviorâ, âengaging in argumentsâ, and making the YouTuber(who ran the server) uncomfortable. I was confused, because I genuinely donât remember ever engaging in rude behavior with anyone. The few instances(according to them) in which I had been allegedly rude or disrespectful to people were both genuine misunderstandings, and both times I had apologized for them and did not repeat the behavior. I also did not receive any form of warning before being banned, despite one of the rules being that you will receive two warnings before being banned from the server. Still, I apologized for my alleged hostility and asked if I could come back, however the YouTuber said no, and went on to add that not only was I rude to people in the server(which, again, were both genuine misunderstandings), but that she had seen my Tumblr conversations with my friends in which I talked about her story, and said that she was âwildly uncomfortableâ with how âobsessiveâ I was with it as well as my favorite character in the story. This bewildered me to no end because the YouTuber did not have Tumblr and had never once ever mentioned being on or having access to Tumblr, so I did not expect her to see my posts(and even if she did, I did not expect to get banned for them as they do not violate the rules of the server). It made me wonder why she didnât just talk to me and explain to me that she was uncomfortable with me posting about her work instead of just banning me altogether and not giving me a chance to defend myself. I ended up sadly and reluctantly deleting all of my posts relating to her story, and requesting my friend to do the same. I told M about this scenario, and she was enraged on my behalf, saying that the YouTuber probably was actually upset about my having written a fanfic for her ocs, and said that she didnât understand me being called obsessive because I acted like a normal fan would(which I agree with). Some of my other friends have sided with me as well and told me that the YouTuber was acting petty, however some of my friends have taken a middle ground. None of them entirely condemned me, but that may just be because they are biased and donât want to hurt my feelings. The mutual friend/now ex-friend(of course) merely told me to âself-reflectâ and move on from the story. Regardless, the YouTuber now has me blocked, not just on Discord, but on Instagram as well, where I also reside.Â
Reasons why I think I might be the asshole: I will admit that I have a tendency to really hyperfixate on things and get especially attached to fictional characters that I adore and resonate with, so I can see why that would make them uncomfortable. That being saidâŚÂ
Reasons why I think I might not be the asshole: I genuinely wasnât trying to make this wonderful YouTuber feel uncomfortable or be âobsessiveâ with the story. I merely wanted to show my appreciation for it in a way that I thought was normal for online fans, which included writing a fanfic, drawing fanart, and geeking out about the story with my friends(admittedly publicly). I had no idea that these actions would turn the YouTuber off, and merely wanted to show how much I enjoyed the story. I also was never rude to anyone in the server and apologized whenever a misunderstanding rose up. I never tried to be aggressive with anyone or cursed anybody out or tried to have arguments with people, so I have no idea where that came from.Â
So, what say ye, oh wise people of Tumblr? Am I the asshole or not?
What are these acronyms?
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Ragnvindr(s)
Pairing: Diluc x fem!Reader (she/her pronouns)
Summary: The Ragnvindr clan is expecting a new addition.
Warnings: pregnancy and mention of kids, characters expecting and becoming parents
A/N: Hi im back, hopefully i'll manage to post more regularly bc I have truly missed this (writing and posting). This is the first fic of my dad!character series bc I have a huge case of baby fever and seeing my favorites as dads satisfies my daddy and abandonment issues.
âCan you please take a seat? Boss is going to kill me if he finds out youâve been exerting yourself.â Charles could have sworn to any archon willing to listen to his pleas that he had lost ten years from his life during this six hour shift. He was on bar duty this evening, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing he couldnât handle and nothing he hadnât done before. What he hadnât done before was have his bossâs pregnant wife on duty with him. âI swear miss, youâre giving me gray hairs.â Funny, now that he thinks of it, he had heard his boss utter the same exact words three hours prior when he dropped her off, a thin layer of sweat covering his forehead as he had looked at his wife worryingly. She rolled her eyes at his comments going back to cleaning the dried glasses littering the underside of the bar.Â
âBarbara said that moving around would do me good. Besides,â she frowned at him, the fire burning in her eyes making it clear to Charles why master Diluc had found his match in her. âIâm feeling peachy.â She wasnât even that far along, stomach barely showing from under her slightly loose blouse. Diluc, ever since it had been revealed that her sudden unwellness was due to her expecting their child, had become thrice as protective than he already was, barely leaving her out of his sight. Truthfully, as much as she loved and cherished her husband, being under constant surveillance was starting to irritate her. She couldnât fault him; this was his first time going through such an experience and he was rightfully anxious. A soft hum escaped her lips at the thought of his frazzled gaze every time she shifted in her seat while they went through documents of the winery. Diluc was going to be an amazing father, she knew that from the moment she announced her pregnancy to him. What she was even more certain about was, the gray hairs he was bound to start sprouting by the end of these agonizingly long nine months.
The door to the tavern flew open and in stepped a slightly agitated Diluc, hair sticking out from his usual high ponytail he dawns whenever he works behind the bar and eyes darting all over her figure as she continued to shine the glass in her hand. His shoulders sagged slightly in relief upon seeing her in one piece. With a sigh he shed the heavy layers on his shoulders before walking behind the bar, peking her cheek once with a hand resting on the slight bump of her stomach.Â
âWhy are you up? Again.â He said, a serious expression engraved on his features, brows furrowing when she simply hummed in response. He sighed again, rubbing at his temples before kissing her cheek again and reaching for one of her glasses. âYou two are going to be the death of me.âÂ
âAnd they havenât even been born yet.â She giggled again, leaning into his side, head tilting so it rests securely on his shoulder. Instinctively, he leaned closer, cheek smooshed on her hairline. âImagine the terror once they start walking or even worse, running.â She swears she could already see the dark circles forming under his eyes which only made her laugh harder. The shift went by calmly with the tavern not being at its highest customer rate. They even got the chance to close up earlier than usual and make it back to the manner before midnight. Once inside, Diluc helped her hang her coat-even though she whined about being capable of doing it herself- and then led her to the kitchen where their dinner awaited them on the counter. Adelinde had taken it upon herself to teach both her masters the art of healthy nutrition; she had tried twice before in the past but they both were too stubborn and drowning in work to keep up a healthy diet, now with a child on the way they were more than willing to listen to her advice.Â
Taking a seat side by side they dug in, emptying their plates in a matter of minutes with not even a peep leaving their lips until they were both done. Diluc brought her chair closer to his own, one arm draped over her shoulders while the other traced patterns on the fabric of her shirt absentmindedly, an action he seemed to be doing more and more each day. He had developed a habit of touching her in some way no matter the time or place or who was with them; whether it be his hand on the small of her back or his warm palm engulfing her own, an arm around her waist or merely their pinkies linked, Diluc couldnât seem to let go of her no matter what. The citizens of Mondstadt would swoon at his blatant displays of affection, eyes full of unfathomable softness whenever they saw the soon to be parents on a stroll through the busy streets. There were still those select few who side eyed the couple -mostly her-, those whose jealousy shown through the happy facade, who sometimes didnât even hide their displeasure at the fact that the informant who had managed to take Master DIluc off the market a few years prior was now securing her spot further with the birth of an heir. The Ragnvindrs merely scoffed at their sly comments and back handed compliments, Diluc usually making a mental note to have a word with the Knights about their insolent behavior.Â
âOur baby is the size of a sweet potato.â She softly broke the silence, hand gently resting on the small sweet potato sized bump. âAnd in about four weeks theyâll be as big as a pomegranate.â Diluc couldnât help but place his hand over hers, running his thumb over her knuckles before kissing the crown of her head.Â
âBarbara sure has a weird way of measuring the weeks of pregnancy.â He unlatched himself from her, hand still resting over her own, as he examined the curve of her stomach trying and failing to imagine a sweet potato sized baby. Eyebrows scrunched in concentration, he failed to notice the pure disbelief written on his wifeâs face.Â
âAreâŚare you trying to actually imagine a sweet potato?â He looked at her sheepishly for a moment, big red eyes filled with nothing but serenity. Laughter echoed through the empty halls as she burst out into a fit of snorts making Diluc join her after a moment. Once calm, he brought her unbelievably close, kissing the tip of her nose before tucking her head in the crook of his neck and letting his eyelids fall shut.Â
âI love you.âÂ
BONUS:Â
The sun was at its highest when Katheryn spotted the family enter the city. The edges of her eyes crinkled as she nodded in acknowledgement at Master Diluc, red hair a mess from the strong winds of the city of freedom. Even worse was the mop of red hair in his arms as his daughter played with the ruby pendant around his neck, completely ignoring her hair obscuring her fathersâ vision. Turning around, they waited for their counterparts to catch up as the lady of house Ragnvindr strode up the steps, another mop of red hair in her arms in the form of a little boy this time, fast asleep while clutching his mothersâ blouse.
#master diluc#diluc fluff#genshin diluc#diluc x reader#diluc ragnvindr#genshin impact#dad!diluc x reader#dad diluc#diluc x pregnant!reader#genshin impact x reader
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