#had no logical reason for posting this just thought I’d share

[meowzerz-art]

Arthur Lester was in my dream last night we were like friends and investigating a ghost sighting and he kept falling asleep for some reason

[spacerockfloater]

hi! i noticed you learnt about what ryan condal said regarding blood and cheese. it was…something. i would like to know your thoughts on the matter. though it would be completely understandable if you need sometime to gather them together or if you would rather not at all! thank you and bye!

Hello beloved, thank you so much for asking me! I’d love to share my opinion!

If anyone’s wondering, @rhaenelle is referring to this interview where Ryan Condal essentially says he believes that Blood & Cheese’s brutality and heinousness was exaggerated by the Greens in a propagandistic attempt to convince their subjects that Rhaenyra and Daemon are the worst villains ever born, hence why he toned the event down; to show us what he thinks is the accurate version of Jaehaerys’ murder.

Now, I am aware that Condal had already warned us that HOTD was going to be a feminist retelling of the events of F&B, which practically means that his plan has always been to whitewash the everlasting fuck out of Rhaenyra. So what do I think about this?

Well, for starters, I think that Ryan Condal is an excellent businessman. He knows what kind of tropes are going to make the audience engage with his show. He understands that people need a hero to cheer for and a villain to hate, therefore he removed the moral ambiguity from all of the characters and divided them into two categories: the Blacks, enlightened revolutionaries full of passion, deserving of admiration and correct in everything they do, and the Greens, pious fools with a moral superiority complex who are stack in the ways of the past and commit despicable crimes. The average viewer does not possess the intelligence to comprehend that both parties have their good and bad moments, and that they’re both correct in fighting for what each believes is rightfully theirs. Simultaneously, he benefits from the modern trends that want women in media to take revenge when they are wronged and emerge as triumphant girlbosses, because of course a white upper class woman’s suffering in a western world (or Westeros) society has everything to do with her gender and nothing to do with her personality or decisions (even if this works solely for Rhaenyra, because Alicent seems to be held accountable for every single one of her actions). Finally, it is obvious that Condal is trying to appease disgruntled Daenerys fans, so he has rebuilt Rhaenyra into this tortured martyr that wishes to change the world for the better in an attempt to make her resemble her great granddaughter six times removed.

For all of these reasons, I find it very logical that he is going out of his way to minimise the tragedy the Greens experience. It just doesn’t make Rhaenyra look good and honestly, who wants that? The producers saw how unhappy Danny’s stans were when they made her lose her shit; they’re not going to make the same mistake twice. They don’t want their show to tank like the last season of GOT did, so they’ll do everything in their power to keep the audience happy. And it’s working! What’s the last thing Condal says in this clip? “You kinda start rooting for [Blood and Cheese]!” and boy oh boy, the TB stans sure do! Literally hundreds of memes that rejoiced at Jaehaerys’ death were posted on X this week, with tens of thousands of likes. But when Lucerys died, it was presented as the most foul thing to ever happen in the ASOIAF universe. It is the TB supporters that dictate which child murder is good and which is bad, and that decision usually depends on which child came out Rhaenyra’s womb, not let’s say, the fact that one kid was a toddler that could barely walk, while the other was a teenager that laughed at the disabled person he mutilated himself.

It’s all just marketing

That being said, I want to clarify that I understand why Condal and the HOTD producers do what they do, but being a good entrepreneur does not necessarily make you a literary genius. Now, I’m not gonna explain why stripping Rhaenyra off of every character trait that made her interesting is a bad decision and that in their attempt to remove the blame from her so that they can elevate her as this righteous patron of feminism, they’re accidentally removing all of her agency and turning her simply into a victim, because I have a whole blog dedicated to that. But let’s just say that presenting Rhaenyra as this sexually liberated idol that’s incapable of evil, when in fact she’s an entitled aristocrat who’s completely at the mercy of men around her, from her father to her husbuncle, is the most performative activism move ever pulled in recent TV history, as well as pushing the narrative that Alicent suffers from internalised misogyny because duh, a woman can only be good and a feminist if she supports Rhaenyra, not when she pursues her own interests.

Ultimately, I think we just have to accept that this show is not meant for TG fans. We are not going to find any satisfaction in it. Everything that was unique and admirable about the Greens in the book has vanished. Their family dynamic is fucked up, Alicent’s children hate her, Aegon and Halaena cannot stand one another, Alicent is constantly a victim and never someone that chases her own ambitions, Halaena is very vague, Aemond appears to be more angsty than angry, Aegon is a stupid rapist, Jaehaerys’ death was turned into a mockery, Alicole was weaponised in order to make us shit on Alicent and Criston even more and so on. This show barely caters to us because we’re not making them any money.

The reason that there are more TB than TG stans is because (I’m gonna get so much fucking hate for this) most people who watch TV are fucking morons. I swear, when F&B came out 6 years ago, no one gave a flying fuck about Rhaenyra, because we all understood that everyone involved in the Dance of the Dragons was fucked up in their own way and that the message of this story, just like the general message of ASOIAF, is that nobody deserves to sit on that fucking throne. We were all in agreement about that. But then this fucking show came along and all the oblivious simpletons that swallowed whatever the producers shoved down their throats, grabbed the book and decided that “Woah, this book is obviously a critique on patriarchy and Rhaenyra is obviously the victim of the story”! As if GRRM, the man who said that he doesn’t sit down and think “Oh, I’m going to write a woman now” but instead he believes women to be people just like men, with complex personalities, would ever do that. And they just can’t believe that it is possible for book!Rhaenyra to be an evil racist classist full of entitlement! Surely it must be because the Greens are rewriting history! There’s no way GRRM, the man that created Cersei fucking Lannister, would ever make a female character that’s vicious and crazy just because she feels like it! Y’all need to sit down for a moment. I say this as a radical feminist that supports the 4B movement: you’re projecting your own ideas onto George’s work. Not all the media we consume has to reflect our ideologies, but if you think that it has to, then this book isn’t the anti misogynistic masterpiece you wish it was.

Like, when it comes to F&B, I am firmly anti Targaryen and did not wish for any side to win. I wanted them all wiped out to be honest. But when it comes to HOTD, I’m TG basically out of spite at this point.

All in all, I just think that things are going to go downhill for us from this point on. They’ll just keep glorifying the Blacks until the very end.

[sundrop-writes]

i’d love to see the preview of the stiles fic! please & thank u 🤍

I am so excited to post this fic later!!! for now - here is a preview <3

BRAINWASHED (preview) - Stiles Stilinski x Fem!Reader - NOW POSTED

everything's clean - except for my thoughts

Word Count: 900

A/N: The longer fic is about Stiles stealing a pair of the reader's panties and masturbating with them. Currently, I am running a poll where one of the options is a sequel to this fic where the reader 'punishes' Stiles for stealing her panties, so if you want to see more of this, go vote in that poll!!! Also, my requests for Teen Wolf are currently open, but please read my Rules before requesting.

Warnings: reader uses she/her pronouns and has a vagina, the reader is implied to be plus-sized, this is mostly just one-sided pining and fantasizing from Stiles's perspective (which is what the whole fic will be), mentions of Stiles fantasizing about having sex with the reader and giving her oral sex, Stiles has sexual fantasies about the reader and has a romantic crush on her, mentions of Stiles's romantic feeling distracting him from school work. I think that's it for this part of the fic?

...

Tonight, the two of you were studying for an upcoming English mid-term that would be worth a decent portion of your grade. 

Logically, Stiles should have locked himself in his room and forced himself to study, or he should have taken up Scott on his offer to study with him and Allison. But no, he just had to ask you for your ‘help’. And you pitied him and said yes, because he was doing poorly in the class. The only reason being because it was one of the classes that he shared with you, and he spent all of his damn time staring at you across the room during it. He had tried to tell himself that he really would study tonight, that he would really take advantage of your intelligence here and now to get his shit together in order to up his grade. 

But no - since the moment he had set foot in your bedroom that afternoon (and it was dark out now, well into the evening) - he hadn’t been able to focus on anything but you. 

Sure, sometimes that worked to his benefit. Hearing you recite Shakespeare, the words coming off your sweet lips - it did force him to focus on the material at hand for at least a short period of time. But it wasn’t like he was actually retaining any of it. He was just thinking about how gorgeous your voice sounded and how amazing you would be in an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. One where he played Romeo, of course - and he would get to use someone else’s well-crafted words to romance you, finally getting to kiss you for the first time. 

Again - he was hopeless. 

Currently, he was laying diagonally on your bed, sitting among a mess of books - the english textbooks, the assigned novels, the published copies of the play, along with binders of your notes and other notebooks, stray papers - and he couldn’t pay attention to the notes he was supposed to be writing, not for a moment - not when you looked this stunningly beautiful while busy writing your own notes. 

With the soft lighting from your bedside lamp brushing across your skin, making that skin look even softer, you were a goddess-like vision sitting on the bed across from him. You were wearing the simple dress that you had worn to school earlier that day, your tights since shed off in the name of ‘comfort’ (and so that your cat wouldn’t rip holes in them while crawling across your lap, you had remarked to Stiles). When you had stood at your hamper and peeled them off your legs, Stiles had a hard time not letting the drool spill out across his chin. 

Your thighs were gorgeous. Thick, wide, spread out like a buffet for his eyes to feast on every single time you sat down. From his angle, laying down the way he was, he was up close and personal with the dimpling cellulite and stretchmarks you had there. The hem of your dress had ridden up when you had adjusted your position to get comfortable, and he felt absolutely spoiled by how much more of your thighs were revealed. 

A few times throughout the evening, he had to physically clench his fingers to remind himself not to reach out and touch. How many times had he imagined what those thighs would look like bouncing and jiggling while you rode his cock? How many times had he imagined those thighs clamped around his head while he licked your pussy? (Far too many for his own sanity.) 

Not to mention the concentration spread across your face - the way you would nibble your own lip when thinking, the way your brows furrowed slightly in thought. Everything about you - from the bra strap sticking out of the neckline of your dress to the chipped edge of your nail polish where you had chewed on it - was a fucking vision. And Stiles couldn’t take his eyes off you, no matter how hard he tried. 

It was a wonder that you didn’t notice Stiles staring at you - not as often as he did it. 

Stiles felt strangely caught when you put down your pen and looked up from your notebook, then - and he scrambled to grab his own pencil and start writing something, to look busy. But of course, he just looked like more of an idiot when the eraser began scraping across the page in nonsense patterns. 

“Stiles,” You scolded him with a sigh, a way he was used to hearing his name come off your lips. “Have you gotten anything done? I told you to copy down at least half my notes-” 

Of course. You pegged his blank page as simple laziness, rather than his brain slowly melting out through his ears due to his inability to think about anything but you (especially when he was in the same room as you). At least he hadn’t been caught staring at you in that creepy way yet. 

You snatched up his notebook to check his work, and his heart dropped - if you looked too carefully, then he would be caught. In the back of that notebook, there were about three pages of his name and yours in hearts, and a few times he had practiced writing his signature as ‘Mr Stiles L/N’. (He was a feminist, and he liked the idea of starting a new tradition.) There was even a drawing he had made designing your theoretical wedding cake, including a topper where he was Superman and you were riding on his back while he was flying. 

“Y/N, uh-” 

He quickly snatched the notebook back, causing a glare from you while he sighed in defeat. 

“Fine.” He shrugged. “I didn’t get anything done. You caught me.” 

“Stiles!” You scolded him again, reaching out to gently smack his shoulder. “If you keep this shit up, you’re never gonna graduate!” 

Sadly, you were probably right.

[forest-hashira]

Noble Blood - Chapter Two

hello everyone! i really didn't think i'd have chapter two of this finished & posted so quickly, but i was feeling motivated, apparently, so here you go! some dragon rider au to start off your new year. if you haven't read chapter one, you can find it right here.

cw: gender neutral reader, more little kid shenanigans (sneaking out of the house), here there be dragons!!! | wc: 2.4k | read on ao3 here

Things were normal at first after Satoru’s birthday celebration. You still spent your mornings in the one-room schoolhouse with Shoko, Utahime, and Kento, learning reading, writing, math, and history from Utahime’s mother, while Satoru attended his own lessons at home with private tutors. You spent your afternoons running around the settlement with your friends, getting into mischief if Satoru was with you, playing games or running errands if he wasn’t. 

After the night of the fireworks show, you often found yourself sneaking off to the peach orchard to stargaze on the observation deck. Most nights Satoru would be there already, staring up at the stars, acknowledging you only with a smile as you sat with him, pressed up together to share body heat as your breaths puffed out in white clouds before you. 

The two of you spent many nights together like that, at first just silently observing the stars, though eventually he began to point out constellations to you and tell you their names; his favorite was Draco, yours was Hydra. You loved that he decided to share that knowledge with you, but it made you wonder what else his tutors were teaching him that you weren’t learning in your own lessons. 

You quickly grew accustomed to this new routine – even found that you looked forward to the nights where you would be able to slip out of the house unnoticed – but the comfort you’d found in those stolen moments was shattered within a few short weeks. 

Word had begun to spread through the settlement that there was a clutch of dragon eggs on the Gojo estate, and it was expected it was only a matter of days before they hatched. You had heard the rumor from a shopkeeper in town – who no doubt had heard it from someone who worked for the Gojo clan – and decided to ask your friend if it was true. 

“It is,” he told you that night, his eyes sparkling with more than starlight. “It’s only two eggs this time, which is small even for our family’s dragons.” 

“Are your parents going to take you to see them once they hatch?” Children didn’t typically start meeting hatchling dragons until they turned ten, but you thought maybe things were different for prestigious families like Satoru’s. 

“No,” he sighed. “In fact, they’ve told me multiple times that I’m not to go anywhere near the roost.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not old enough.”

That seemed like a perfectly logical reason to you, but it was clear that Satoru wasn’t satisfied with it, and you knew him well enough to know he was most likely going to ignore his parents’ direct instructions.

“I’m going to sneak in to see them after they hatch.”

You let out a heavy sigh. “Of course you are.”

“You should come with me.”

That caught you off guard, and you stared at him dumbly. “...What?”

“You should come with me to see the hatchlings.” He tilted his head slightly as he looked at you, awaiting an actual response. “Don’t you want to see a baby dragon up close?”

“I-I mean, yeah, but wouldn’t we get in trouble?”

He just shrugged. “I’m not worried about it. They’ve never really punished me before.”

“But they might punish me if we get caught.”

His brows furrowed in confusion, and he frowned slightly. “Why would they do that?”

“Because I’d be breaking into their estate uninvited!”

“But I’m inviting you right now.” 

You stared at each other for a few long moments then, his blue eyes searching your face for something, but you weren’t sure what.

“I don’t think your parents would count this as an actual invitation to the estate,” you said eventually, uncertain how else to get the point across to him. “All they would care about is me being there when I’m not supposed to be.”

“...So you’re not going to come with me?” He looked so disappointed you felt like you might cry, but still you shook your head.

“No,” you agreed. “I’m sorry, Satoru.”

He said nothing in response, just looked away, his focus on the stars again, like it was every night before this one. You shuffled closer, resting your head on his shoulder and closing your eyes; for a moment, you could pretend that this was any other night you’d spent stargazing with him, and that you didn’t feel a little sick knowing you’d upset one of your best friends.

You didn’t see Satoru at all the next day, and he wasn’t on the observation deck that night when you arrived; the idea of staying up there alone after how you’d left things with your friend the night before just made you sad, so you’d gone straight home.

The next day, however, the snowy haired boy was waiting outside the schoolhouse. He called your name as you stepped out of the building, reaching out and grabbing your arm, pulling you aside and looking down at you with wide eyes.

“They hatched,” he said, and you knew exactly what he was talking about. “It was early this morning. I’m going to see them tonight.”

His tone was hushed and secretive, the words tripping over each other as they tumbled past his lips. It was then that you noticed how flushed his face was, his cheeks and nose and even the tips of his ears a bright red, despite the coat and scarf he wore. 

After a moment, you realized he was trying one last time to get you to join him in sneaking off to see the hatchlings, without saying the words out loud. Your throat felt tight, suddenly, and you couldn’t bear the thought of letting him down again, so after a moment of hesitation, you nodded.

“I’ll meet you by the sakura tree in your courtyard,” you told him quietly. “If I’m not there by ten, my parents caught me, so just go without me.”

Satoru’s face lit up at your words, and he nodded, giving your arm a light squeeze. The gesture seemed to lift a weight from your heart, and you smiled at him. Even if this “plan” wasn’t well thought out and would likely spell nothing but trouble for the two of you, you couldn’t ignore the excitement already rushing through your veins; you were going to see hatchlings up close for the first time, and you were thrilled.

Unfortunately, that excitement was rather short-lived. Your parents, who usually turned in early at night, decided to stay up much later than you expected, sitting in the main room by the fireplace, sharing a warm drink and talking quietly to each other. You sat at your door the entire time, gaze flitting between your parents and the clock above the fireplace through the gap between the door and the doorframe, your hopes of sneaking out unnoticed dwindling with every passing minute.

Eventually, the clock struck ten, and you climbed into your bed. The deadline you’d set to meet Satoru had come, and you knew even if your parents went to bed now, there was no chance you’d be able to make it to the sakura tree to meet your friend before he left to see the hatchlings on his own.

Finding sleep was difficult after that, an uneasy feeling having settled in your gut, though you didn’t know why.

There was no sign of Satoru for days after the night he’d snuck in to see the hatchlings, and the uneasy feeling you’d developed grew into something sickening, your stomach churning every time you thought about what might’ve happened to him. Had he gotten caught sneaking out and gotten punished for once in his life? Had the mother dragon deemed him a threat and attacked him when he’d gotten too close to her brood? Had some even worse fate than punishment or injury befallen him?

The worry kept you up at night, tossing and turning, hoping you would see your friend again soon, and that he would complain about being grounded and confined to his chambers before telling you about the hatchlings. But none of that ever happened.

Instead, four days after your failed rendezvous, you received a summons to the Gojo estate.

A messenger from the family arrived at your house one morning, knocking on the door and telling your mother your presence was requested.

“They can go after school,” she said, and made to close the door before she was stopped. 

“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid the young master is insisting on seeing them right away.”

Your mother glanced down at you where you’d begun to hover beside her, and after holding your gaze for a moment, she sighed. “We’ll be ready in a moment, just let us get our coats.”

The messenger looked a bit uncomfortable, a grimace on his face as he spoke. “Only your child has been invited. No one else is to accompany them, I’m afraid. Gojo-sama’s orders,” he rushed to add, when your mother seemed to grow indignant.

“I’ll be okay,” you told her, reaching up to take her hand for a moment. “I’ve been to see him before without anyone else.”

Your mother’s gaze was uncertain as she looked down at you once again, her features pinched together with worry, but eventually she nodded, dropping her shoulders and forcing herself to relax. “You’re right,” she sighed, giving a slight shake of her head as she turned away from the door, taking your coat from the hook it hung on and handing it to you. “Come straight home when you’re finished, alright?” 

You nodded, pulling on your coat and promising to return after your visit with Satoru. You stepped outside then, walking with the messenger as he led the way back to the Gojo estate. The whole time, your mind raced with possibilities about why you’d been summoned to the estate, rather than Satoru just coming to see you himself, which he’d always seemed to prefer in the past. You were so lost in your thoughts, in fact, that you failed to notice you had reached the estate until you were being ushered through the front gates.

“Do you know your way through the house?” the messenger asked.

You looked up at him dumbly for a moment, then nodded, once you’d processed his question.

He nodded back slightly. “Then I will let you continue on your own. The young master is refusing to see anyone but you.”

You nodded again, turning away and walking towards the main house, though all you could think was Why won’t he see anyone else? Removing your shoes in the genkan almost as an afterthought, you stepped fully into the house, heading down the hallway you knew led to Satoru’s chambers.

It didn’t take long to reach his door, and you knocked lightly on the wooden frame. “Satoru?” you called. “It’s me.”

“Come in!” he called back, and after a beat of hesitation, you turned the knob and pushed the door open.

“Close it behind you,” Satoru siad, his voice coming from the other side of the room, behind the privacy screen that separated his bed from the rest of the room. You did as you were asked, pushing the door shut until it clicked before crossing the room to reach your friend. 

“Satoru, I’ve been so worried about you! What happened with the hatch—”

The words died in your throat as you stepped around the privacy screen, only to be greeted by the sight of Satoru perched cross-legged in the middle of his bed, the smallest dragon you’d ever seen curled up in his lap, sound asleep.

A pure white dragon.

All you could do was stare for several long moments, trying to process what you were seeing: Satoru, with a dragon – a single color dragon, at that – but it just didn’t make sense. It was still at least two years before you or any of your friends would be old enough to start visiting hatchlings and eventually meet your destined dragons.

“Is it… is that your dragon?” you eventually managed to ask, tearing your eyes away from the creature to meet your friend’s gaze. 

Satoru nodded, unable to suppress his grin. “Yeah, he is. His name is Kenji.”

“How did this even happen?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did you bond with him? I didn’t even think we were old enough for that to happen.”

Your friend shrugged. “Guess I’m just special.” Though his words were smug, you caught the teasing lilt in his voice, and you laughed softly despite yourself.

“You’re certainly something,” you agreed, teasing him right back. “Is this why you haven’t left the estate in days?”

“Yeah. My parents keep telling me the first week is really important for bonding with him. But he just sleeps all the time.” His bottom lip stuck out slightly in a pout, and you shook your head slightly, stepping closer and settled on the edge of his bed.

“But you have your dragon now, and you might be the youngest person ever to bond with their dragon,” you pointed out. “That’s pretty cool.” 

That seemed to cheer him up some, his pout melting back into a smile.

“Does this mean you’ll start your training soon?”

“I think so,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure my parents are sending for a special trainer, so I don’t know when he’ll get here.”

The two of you sat and talked for a bit longer, and you felt as if a weight had been lifted from your shoulders; the sickening, uneasy feeling disappeared, as well, eased by the knowledge that your friend was alright, just dealing with a big change.

After a while there was a lull in the conversation, and you knew it was probably time for you to return home. You weren’t sure how long you’d sat with Satoru, but you had a feeling it had been longer than you thought. 

“I’ll see you later, Satoru. Don’t stay locked up in here too much longer, okay?”

“As soon as my parents let me out I’ll see you every day,” Satoru promised, and you knew he meant it with his whole heart.

You smiled, feeling light with relief. “I can’t wait,” you said, then dropped your gaze back to the dragon in your friend’s lap; he was still sound asleep. “Bye, Kenji,” you added quietly, standing from the bed and waving to the pair before you left the room. 

Satoru had his dragon now. You weren’t entirely sure what that meant for you or the rest of your friends, but you were sure of one thing: your lives were all about to change.

i hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as i'm enjoying writing it! as always, reblogs & likes are always appreciated!!! they keep my writer heart full and motivated to keep writing things for people to read 💜 ALSO HAPPY YEAR OF THE DRAGON EVERYBODY!!!

tagging: @ghost-1-y @kentohours @whatthefucksatan @why-the-fuck-am-i-so-tired @mitsuristoleme @lu-dao-writes @peachdues @lik0 @deepestartisanhumanoidshark @here-for-the-tea-baby

if your URL is crossed out, it's because tumblr wouldn't let me tag you, i apologize!

[hahligirl56]

A Glitch in Time Spoiler Discussion pt. 2

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

I had to remember where I left my thought process at after the first post, but these panels at the end after the confrontation just break my heart. I’m not sure about you guys…but I have thoughts (that I hope are coherent and make sense as I share them).

I love (well-written) redemption arcs. Not for the sake of of having a redemption story, but for it to serve a purpose and have a point. This isn’t Dark Danny’s redemption story, but Vlad’s. Maybe. If it sticks and they decide to explore this story further.

But a big focus in this story is the point of having a purpose, and the idea that ghosts have obsessions. Danny and (hopefully) Vlad found their purpose and with it more power. And Dark Danny’s obsession is explored.

In the original TUE special, Dark Danny is a creature of mass destruction, with no rhyme or reason for doing what he does. Even when his creation is shown it doesn’t really logically lead into his current actions. I think this graphic novel does a hand at trying to fix that.

I find it interesting that Danny’s original face is revealed for brief glimpses during these panels. And he’s frightened. You never see Dark Danny being frightened, but if this is what I’m thinking and showing everyone his true self. Well…I’d say I agree with our Danny at trying to find another solution. Dark Danny tells him that he’s lost everything, even things unspoken (his family? As Danny notes). And why did Dark Danny lose everything in his timeline and our Danny didn’t? It’s a valid question. If our Danny didn’t receive the support and guidance from Clockwork and the truth of his future wasn’t revealed to him, he would have walked into it blindly.

It’s not explicitly stated why Dark Danny was obsessed with gaining more power, to become more destructive. But just like vlad notes from his own demons that also make up a part of him, seeking power was a way to prevent further losses from ever hurting them again. I wasn’t sure if Dark Danny would have tried to use Clockwork’s powers to rewrite his own history (although his obsession with his power and his dialogue with Jazz makes me doubt that), but maybe a part of him wanted to, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

I’m really curious as to where Danny Phantom is going to be going in the future. I think this graphic novel was received well enough that Nickelodeon can perhaps realize “Oh, okay then. People actually are still really invested in this show. Let’s see what else we can do.” At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.

But I’m really interested in your thoughts as well, if you have any that you’d like to share (even if it’s just disagreement). Thanks for listening! :)

[nonsensical-pixels]

THE LINDASIMS2 RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION: PART SIX

Today, it's finally here, and with proper grammar and punctuation (hopefully!), as my 200th post. The proof that only @lindasims2 could've destroyed her own content.

As a bloody April Fool's joke.

And we've all been blind to it for years and years and years.

With the help of @fireflowersims, @bstu, my buddies Yolkema and Zeta_Reticuli on the Simscord, @honeymoonseason, and many other lovely folks who are also tired of Linda and her followers' BS, we finally got proof that only LINDA, ONLY LINDA, could've destroyed those files we got.

Keep reading, it's a long one, but I promise it's worth it.

THE REASON FOR THE POLYCOUNT

Firstly, I returned to my roots: the March 2021 set. I wanted to see what else I’d missed. Now, when I loaded up a specific pair of leggings Linda made, I finally understood why the polycount is so high.

If you zoom in closely, you can clearly see that each subset is duplicated multiple times. At first I thought that was normal, until I realised that it's all identical. And uh, that's not normal!

Now, what did Linda herself say? That she has experience in… clothing?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure you'd be able to do this, Linda. With your eyes closed.

THE JPG IMAGES

For awhile I wondered why this particular image was thrown in so randomly into not just this file, but almost every file in the March 2021 dump. But thanks to Linda’s providing that lovely VK link on her callout post against NoMoreSims2Patreon, I finally know the only person in this that had any ‘sentimentality’ regarding Mr Junior over here. (Yes, it’s not actually McQueen, which makes it all the more specific! I love it!)

This was posted just 1 day after that lovely March 2021 dump finally released, on 1st April. No coincidence, I bet, that this Junior is being sent by the lovely lindasims2 herself! Photo provided by @honeymoonseason and also shared to me by multiple others :]

Yeah, Linda, what do you have to say to this…? Your favourite fake Lightning McQueen has finally exposed who actually placed him in this file, and only because you were kind enough to link us to your VK group <3

THE DATES

So, after this pretty incriminating discovery, I decided to backtrack and take a look at what Linda claimed in her callout post to NoMoreSims2Patreon:

These files were apparently last edited on March 28, many days after Linda made a post announcing them. Which points to the leaker being the one to edit them, right?

Well…Linda, did you forget how you operate or something?

Linda uploaded these files on April 1st 2021, having ‘forgotten’ to upload them on March 31st. Credits go to @caramelsmiles12 and @honeymoonseason for the pics <3 Yeah, Linda, thanks for admitting your own guilt?

It’s impossible for any leaker to be able to edit files before they’re even released. To my understanding, Linda purposefully added those corrupt characters and NSFW defaults to her CC, as a sick April Fool’s prank on the people who download her leaked CC.

All of the files you see above, have had the hidden sim, PT 19 (also renamed some very bad slurs by Linda) slipped in. (Though #332 has been accidentally saved by me, lol). The top-only teen-elder male folder also contains the weird gigantoborkodoggo default. And they were all last edited a day before Linda even released the files to her subscribers.

THE EXPERIMENTS

@fireflowersims was kind enough to do some experiments with the corrupted files, to see what else we could find, as well as to dig deeper in them. I won’t state all of them here, but here are a few that stood out to me:

THE LOGIC

I can already hear Linda’s hardcore defendersand subscribers in my askbox (like @alicestrife and @sims2x10 <3) claiming that the pics have been edited, that somehow I have changed the story, etc. I have done nothing except look at the facts I have dug up or been shown. If you want proof, look at this post, it contains some stuff that may interest you and was found over a year ago. As well as the original files :]

I can already see that not being enough for some of you, so here’s the logic even if you don’t take the incriminating Junior (yeah, the fake Lightning McQueen) JPG, or the fact that the files were edited pre-release, into account.

Let’s look at the pros and cons to corrupting these files, for both Linda and her leakers.

PROS FOR LINDA: Gets to ‘expose’ the leaker that has been a thorn in her side all this time. Gets to prank the clueless people who download from her for April Fool’s. Gets more subscribers since people are desperate for ‘good’ content from her.

CONS FOR LINDA: Some people may accuse her, but of course, she always points them to her leakers. Because who else gets direct content from her? Only her hardcore patrons, who won’t turn against her.

PROS FOR LEAKERS: Uhh… maybe gets a kick out of seeing people get mad at Linda?

CONS FOR LEAKERS: People no longer trust them. They won’t download their content, which is how pirates survive in this community. Attitudes towards pirates have always been terrible in this community, especially from the paywallers themselves. Also, people will probably accuse them since they are the people who reupload CC.

Who do you think would have corrupted these files, even without the evidence shown above?

SUMMARY

Stolen meshes, illegally paywalled content, etc. was never enough for Lindasims2, clearly. No, she had one thorn in her side that she wanted to get rid of: NoMoreSims2Patreon, who continually shared her files FOR FREE to the public and meant she made much, much less money.

So, for one final April Fool’s joke of leaked content, she slipped in a very large, very corrupted surprise for anyone who downloaded from her leaker–and sat back and waited. A year later, @dystopianam stumbled across that hidden surprise and on spiraled this saga of discoveries by myself and many others.

However, Linda made a couple of mistakes. She assumed people would look at her response post and think, oh, surely it’s the leaker! Linda’s dates match up!

But thanks to Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself, a bunch of Simscorders and many others decided to research further. And found her lie. Thanks for having such love for a minor Cars 1 character, Linda!

I urge everyone to do their best to report Linda’s Tumblr account, Boosty, Patreon, etc. What she has done ON PURPOSE to destroy people’s games and frame others is NO JOKE. I am not sure if we can take legal action against this sort of ‘malware’ that she produced many years ago, but I know one thing.

A minimum of 2278 simmers have downloaded the reuploaded archive containing Linda’s special April Fool’s 2021 joke. 2278, not counting anyone who might’ve been shared these files through other links, downloaded them from friends, etc. 

CHECK YOUR GAMES, guys! And for the love of all things holy, STOP SUPPORTING SIMS PAYWALLERS! ESPECIALLY THIEVES LIKE LINDA!

[writingwife-83]

Ok listen, this is gonna be a bit of a rant/thinking out loud. I’m gonna put it below a cut, but basically this is gonna be about having my fics restricted on AO3. I’m feeling pretty frustrated and conflicted and I’m going back and forth quite a lot.

For the background, I’ve had all my fics on AO3 restricted for about the past 9 months now. And when I say that, I mean that you can’t access them unless you have an AO3 account. The reason I chose to do this is because I started to get nervous about A.I. scraping online. I absolutely don’t agree with AI writing and art, and I didn’t want those programs to have access to my writing. Restricting your fics on AO3 isn’t a guarantee, but it seemed that was at least a reduced risk of bots accessing writing. So anyway, having restricted my fics in that way, it’s been… a bit of a trial lol. Any AO3 writer who has done this with their fics will say the same I’m sure, but it’s pretty lousy seeing your views, comments, and kudos plummet. Yes of course we partly write for ourselves, but we wouldn’t be posting online at all unless we wanted people to see and enjoy it! If I didn’t care about the feedback and stuff, I’d just keep my writing to myself. So obviously restricting people’s access to my writing has really sucked.

So here’s the thing, I really can’t decide what to do going forward. My feelings about A.I. have not changed at all. I still don’t support it. But I’m not sure whether restricting access to our fics is truly making the difference between AI accessing them or not. What I mean is, I’ve heard from some sources that the AI writing programs have long ago been developed by scraping for writing content on the internet, and that it’s not really something that they’re still actively doing. So basically, long before A.I. was a hot topic, any available writing on the internet was already accessed. If that’s the case, then there’s really not much being accomplished by having our fics locked up now. A.I. writing already exists and is being used, and it’s already been programmed based on available written works.

As far as the risk for people copying and publishing our works on other shady sites, that risk has always been there, and restricting the access to our fics doesn’t change that. Anyone with an AO3 account can hit copy/paste and that’s all it takes. I hate that risk, but tbh the only way to eliminate that is to stop posting online and remove all the existing fics. That’s not something I’m willing to do.

It does annoy me that so many people don’t have an AO3 account, because if everyone did, this wouldn’t even be a decision to make. I still feel like there’s no logical reason to use AO3 without an account. It’s better as a reader for so many reasons, which I don’t feel like taking the time to get into right now. So part of me feels like, I shouldn’t have to unrestricted my fics, everyone else should just make accounts! But I also know that’s never gonna happen. A handful of lovely and supportive people made accounts when myself and others locked their fics, but on a larger scale, not much changed. Again, the stats speak for themselves.

Like I said, this is kind of a rant and I’m just sharing the different thoughts in my head about this. I can easily make an argument for both sides, either to continue to restrict my fics or open them up to the public again. *sigh* idk, maybe I’m not the only one feeling this way. feel free to share your thoughts if you have any on this topic!

[letters-adressed-to-the-fire]

actually, taylor is just as delusional as all of us (or "over-analyzing chloe et all: the sequel")

First part analyzing the first verse and the chorus is already posted if you want to check it out ;) I'll be waiting and ready to dive deeper into the lyrics and uncover the hidden meanings and emotions behind the song (or how i like to call it: making everything about me and my own personal traumatizing experiences, hope you can relate!!!)

“You said some things that I can't unabsorb You turned me into an idea of sorts You needed me, but you needed drugs more And I couldn't watch it happen”

In the second verse, she’ll be reflecting on why they broke up. The line “couldn’t watch it happen” emphasizes that she didn’t leave because she wanted to, but because she couldn’t endure it anymore. This shows the painful reasons for their separation and her struggle to move on.

“I changed into goddesses, villains, and fools Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules All to outrun my desertion of you”

First of all, no, she isn’t a normal person who can just say “yeah, I’ll try everything to get over you”. No, Taylor needed to emotionally destroy us.

Second of all, yes, despite logical reasons for the breakup, the fact she had to leave makes her wonder what would’ve happened if she stayed, even if she knew she couldn’t. It’s a contradiction that, between delusions, makes sense (I know most of us can relate).

“Down that passage in time back to the moment I crashed into you, like so many wrecks do”

She wonders if things could have been different if she knew then what she knows now. Alternatively, the “crashed into you” part could symbolize their first meeting and the idea of avoiding the entire relationship.

That last thought is reinforced by the bridge, where she’s basically saying that maybe, if she just over-analyzed every single moment she shared with him, she may find the exact moment where things went wrong, and she wonders, again, if it could’ve been different if she knew then what she knows now.

I want to add that the first few times I listened to this song, I interpreted the “crashed into you” part as a metaphor for their first meeting. I thought these lyrics suggested a “what if she had turned around and avoided the entire relationship?” scenario. I mention this because, like with all of Taylor’s songs, there isn’t an absolute truth when it comes to interpreting her writing. In this case, it’s devastating how both perspectives of the bridge can be so sorrowful yet opposite at the same time.

As I mentioned before, the third verse is mostly about accepting that they will never be able to pretend it never happened. So, now that we’ve covered the general meaning of these lyrics, I’d like to dive into more specific metaphors.

“Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon”

Aside from the fact that this is an obvious maroon reference, we need to remember Taylor’s tendency to use color symbolism to express her emotions. I’m not sure exactly what color she’s picturing when she talks about “fading,” but it’s likely gray. She has often used gray as the opposite of love or as a synonym for cold in many songs, so it makes sense that she expects the scarlet maroon (their love) to turn into a shade of gray—something unimportant or that could eventually disappear.

“Could it be enough to just float in your orbit?”

This line immediately evokes the feeling of centering your life around someone else. More precisely, it could have two meanings, or perhaps a blend of both. First, Taylor might be asking if it would be enough for her to be part of his life and know about it despite the baggage from their failed relationship. Alternatively, she could be asking him if she really needs to leave or if she can stay close enough to still know about him. I interpret both meanings as if they are already exes because that’s the vibe I get from the entire song. I think it would be too unhealthy to keep yourself at arm’s length from your romantic partner just to avoid losing them, and I personally don’t think that is what Taylor was trying to depict here.

“Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses? Cooler in theory, but not if you force it to be”

With this last metaphor (or more accurately, simile), we can finally complete the picture. Taylor is asking if remembering their time together could eventually feel like watching wild horses—if, in time, they’ll be able to look back and simply remember the lessons they learned from that period without the heaviness of the “what ifs” mentioned earlier. Here, I’d like to reference MoonSkylarr on Genius because their interpretation of these lyrics was spot-on:

“Can we watch the ghosts of us with the same reverence, admiration, and respect we watch wild horses? Wild horses are beautiful in their wildness, but man always wants to tame them. Can we look at them without wanting them to be anything other than exactly what they are?”

“So if you wanna break my cold, cold heart Say you loved me”

Taylor ends the song with a variation of the chorus. She is no longer asking for him to tell her that he loved with the way that she was, now she’s only asking to know if he ever really loved her, it doesn’t matter how anymore.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

What are your thoughts on hyuna seemingly announcing a relationship with someone connected with the burning sun scandal? My understanding is that, though he wasn't convicted of the worst crimes involved in burning sun, he admitted to watching some of the videos sent to him and would comment on them, but I also heard that he still performs around Korea sometimes. This is just bizarre to see from hyuna imo. (Apparently he also used to date goo hara, who was one of hyuna's friends. This isn't as yucky to me as it seems to be to some people, because I think mutual grief can be a uniting thing, and it's not unheard of for relationships to come from it even if it seems disrespectful from an outsider's perspective.)

***

When I first saw her post I had no real thoughts about it - while dating someone even tangentially involved in that nonsense is distasteful, her dating life is her business and I know neither Junhyung nor Hyuna personally - but I knew this news would inevitably lead to the next juicy bit for kpop stans to sensationalize and blow up into a scandal. There’s nothing k-pop stans love more than cancelling an idol or group. It’s a like a group project where everyone can get easy bonus participation marks on.

And sure enough, the minute someone posted her Instagram update on Twitter, it led to hundreds of thousands of tweets, blog posts, discussion topics on all platforms about how Hyuna manipulated her ‘fanbase of feminists’ and lovebombed Dawn into sabotaging his career; cynical declarations about how k-pop idols are most likely bad people (all that fame and fortune corrupts their morality) and it’s only a matter of time before they show their true colours; and Junghyun, for all his faults, has gone from someone who watched a molka video sent to him, to a rape apologist, a rapist, a convicted sex offender, a predator and so on.

It’s fine if people are disappointed she’s dating a creep, the problem is k-pop stans never really leave it at that. In HyunA’s case I’d noticed many of her stans have been upset with her for the last couple of years now, wondering the direction she’s taking post-P Nation and being mostly disappointed in her artistic output recently. And you can see it in the lacklustre response her music has gotten increasingly since then. Any sympathy she had from most of her fans evaporated when she and Dawn broke up. This business with Junhyung seems to me to be the final nail in the coffin, and a pretty good reason for people who were already falling out of love with her to finally write her off.

In reality, people do grow and it’s possible Junhyung learned something from that scandal and now is a better man. It’s possible their shared grief and history with GH bonded them over the years. It’s possible HyunA’s in a terrible place mentally right now and he’s providing healthy or unhealthy support. And it’s possible HyunA is simply a bad person who isn’t a ‘girl’s girl’, and has no qualms dating someone who still has predatory views about women. The beauty of k-pop stan logic is that it’s only the last possibility that’s assumed to be true. Coincidentally that’s also the only possibility that justifies the kind of reactions k-pop stans are prone to dishing out anyway.

A thought experiment I played with a few friends, was what the fallout would be if she announced she was dating Zico instead. Zico apparently didn’t watch any molka videos because there was no evidence he was sent any, but he knew Joonyoung and admitted to knowing about the ‘golden phone’ at the heart of the Burning Sun scandal. I wonder what the takes would be then if she made a dating announcement with Zico… but a part of me kinda already knows.

Anyway, a few of HyunA’s fansites have closed and some people on the k-side are just as upset as those on the I-side. Most other people on the k-side don’t care though. In fact, the understanding is that after Dawn and now Junhyung, it’s likely she dumps him within the year and moves on to someone else before long. Because rather than HyunA’s brand being ‘feminism’ as is wrongly assumed on the I-side, all she’s ever been consistent about is doing what she wants.

And I don’t think that’s going to change. All this backlash and outrage notwithstanding.

[jennamoran]

Color Rotation and Quests

Hi!

I thought I’d share the current color rotation I’m using when adapting quests from Chuubo’s/Glitch to Nobilis, since it’s not quite what I’d originally planned.

.

So when doing Glitch I wound up adapting a lot of the example quests from Chuubo’s.

They didn’t wind up following a very strict color rotation, for a variety of reasons. The big reason is that early in the process I wasn’t sure if I was going to use all eight icons at all. I tried to stick to just red/silver/blue/green, since those were the ones floating around in Glitch anyway; so, I did some kind of mapping from Chuubo’s to Glitch, I don’t even remember what I used, but presumably starting with “purple in Chuubo’s becomes red in Glitch, silver stays silver, maybe gold becomes black?” and then moving onwards from there ...

And then taking the quest flavor bullet I created from that and trying to match it to the closest of red/silver/blue/green that I could.

Later, when I decided to use all eight icons, I went back and changed any of the early icons that I thought didn’t fit the icons I was using for them ...

But like ...

There was no longer a definite, clear icon-to-icon match-up that I could use to reconstruct what I’d done.

.

I had a thought when I was doing the Nobilis quests that ideally, there’d be like, ... consistency. Like, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” or whatever, whatever, I wasn’t going to cling to it, but the dream was that a quest could go from Chuubo’s to Glitch to Nobilis to Chuubo’s to hypothetical future game to Glitch to Nobilis and ... like ... mostly wind up the same? There’d be some game-of-telephone but the basic idea would be possible.

This wasn’t something I was keeping in mind when doing Glitch or something I was thinking about when doing my earlier post on the subject, so it seemed likely it might force some changes to my original scheme.

.

My first couple of tries crashed. Ultimately, I concluded that the following was the sensible way to go:

CHUUBO’S COLOR => GLITCH COLOR => NOBILIS COLOR => ? (green primary) COLOR

(1) PURPLE => RED => BLUE => GREEN

(2) SILVER => SILVER => GREEN => GOLD

(3) GOLD => BLACK => ORANGE => ORANGE

(4) RED => PURPLE => (silver) => (blue)

(5) BLUE => GREEN => PURPLE => RED

(6) GREEN => BLUE => RED => PURPLE

(7) BLACK => GOLD => (black) => (black)

(8) ORANGE => ORANGE => GOLD => GOLD

I don’t remember how I figured this out. Sorry! Hopefully the complete lack of explanation will make you appreciate my usual overly verbose explanations rather than just make you regret the strange alternation of too much and too little. ^_^

That said, I couldn’t figure out a logical reason why (silver) (black) and (blue) (black) had to be in those places, so I just took a guess. That’s why they’re in parantheses and lowercase rather than being confident and uppercase. ^_^

As an example, my current theory is that if a quest flavor item is PURPLE/GOLD in Chuubo’s, then its equivalent, its recolored version, should be RED/BLACK in Glitch. Maybe my example quests don’t do that perfectly, but I think that’ll be the easiest and most reliable adaptation. That’s uh [RECEPTIVE/FALLING STAR] for people who’ve only actually read Glitch and so only know the icons in black and white. In Nobilis it’ll be BLUE/ORANGE ([DECISIVE/STRUGGLE]). In some game based on the lurid/poisoned icon, it’ll be GREEN/...(blue?) ([POISONED/decisive?])

Anyway, just a thing.

Still trying to figure out how to get you the writeup for the last quest set creation without hurting my arms.

[neorice]

Hero oh Hero Blog #1

Three Protagonists:  As many of my followers probably know, I run a pixelart webcomic by the name “Hero oh Hero” (read here). Just to throw my thoughts into the ether, I’d like to share a few of the writing choices I’ve made throughout the production of my comic & why I decided to make those. Not sure if they’re useful and/or interesting to anyone, but it’s fun for me to reflect. As of the writing of this post I’m at 2757 published pages & 3453 pages total if we include buffer, quite some content!  The first thing I’d like to talk about is the general structure of the comic, I run three separate stories that feel relatively disconnected, despite taking place in the same world.

Burk, a heroic character who goes around trying to defeat villains who do evil deeds. As he travels from city to city he meets various friends who join him.

Noah, a bookish introvert who’s favorite hobby is being left alone & avoiding social situations at all costs. He’s also a magic child-soldier being forced to perform missions for a totalitarian government.

Tobi, an adventurous inventor-girl who comes from a world that operates by video-game logic, she gets flung into another world at some point & is trying to find her way back home.  Comic Structure So the big question here is: why tell three stories rather than just putting all focus on a single one? I think the biggest underlying reason for me is that a lot of games I played & series I watched had what I’d describe as a “protagonist-centric world”.  It’s obvious that the story itself will focus on the protagonist, they have that role for a reason, but it goes much further than a character being important/central to the narrative. In a lot of series I felt that the worldbuilding itself, the magic system, the legends and myths, all of it was often designed to accentuate the protagonists’ importance, or somehow add something to “why” the protagonist in particular was worth following. Very often this’d result in stuff like worlds where, if there were 4-types of magic power a person could have, the protagonist would be the one special person with access to 2, 3 or even 4 of those abilities.  I don’t necessarily think this is bad writing in itself, but I did sometimes find, especially in series with interesting side characters/extended casts, that the way the universe seemed to revolve around the hero and their abilities often made the world itself seem less interesting or less real to me.  What got me interested in multiple perspectives & multiple protagonists back in the day were games like Seiken Densetsu 3/Secret of Mana 2 where you had 6 main characters of equal importance & you could basically decide for yourself which of the 6 was your playthrough’s “protagonist” & which 2 out of the remaining chars would join you on the team. Similarly games like Treasure of the Rudras played around with multiple different heroes rather than a “true” chosen one hero of more significance than everyone else.  I noticed that a lot of these games that either split up the roles, or provided multiple canonical characters who technically could’ve done the job, aleviated a lot of the annoyances I had with singular-protagonist series, but also added the fascinating element of how different narratives/perspectives could intersect and affect each other. Designing the Heroes. So from the early onset I’ve decided that I really wanted to tell a story where rather than just a single central protagonist, I wanted several protagonists of “equal importance”. The next question that follows is: If I’m going to have multiple heroes, what characters am I going to choose? Burk came relatively easy as he’s a character I made up for an old English class story back in highschool, though I did tweak him quite a bit from his original design. What I did want to try and do is contrast the other two characters from him, but not *just* in terms of “This one’s strong, this one’s smart, this one’s ... hot” or something, but also more on their role within the story. This is where I got the idea to try and really try to put a notable difference between the main characters & why they’re even in “their story”.  Burk’s a highly active protagonist who goes out of his way to look for adventure, Noah in contrast is absolutely reactive and is thrown into a plot entirely against his will. Tobi is hard to discuss without major spoilers, but I’m thinking that observant readers who are up to date probably know where she falls in this regard. Once I figured out the biggest area of contrast between the three, it was pretty straightforward what setting would best accentuate that aspect of them. Burk & his narrative very closely follow a D&D-type of “let’s find an adventure for the sake of it!” plot, whereas I intentionally threw Noah in a dystopian Empire that has little interest in things such as “personal agency” and “Freedom”. 

[stargazeraldroth]

Hot Take: If Black Pearl Cookie Shouldn’t Be A Legendary Because She’s Not An Elemental, Then Neither Should Timekeeper Cookie

So idk if this opinion is very popular still or anything like that, but I genuinely don’t understand why people have such an issue with Frost Queen Cookie and Black Pearl Cookie being Legendaries? Like I get the whole thing about the Elementals and all, but if being an Elemental Guardian or whatever they’re called is the criteria for being a Legendary, then how do you explain characters like the Dragons, Dark Enchantress Cookie, and Timekeeper Cookie?

Btw this is just a ranting post, it’s not meant to be taken too seriously!!! I’m not trying to offend anyone with this, I’m just tired of people harshly criticizing the new Legendaries in Kingdom and calling them “fillers” when that same logic applies to Ovenbreak’s Legendaries. I feel like Tumblr’s a relatively chill and safe place when it comes to sharing opinions, at least safer and more open-minded than TikTok seems to be, so I thought I’d voice my input here. There’s a TLDR at the end.

At the very least, Frost Queen Cookie has known relevancy to the Elemental Guardians as she’s one herself, she’s just Kingdom-exclusive (and with how many Ovenbreak-exclusive characters there are right now, I feel there’s zero reason to complain about this or use it as an argument). You can argue that the Dragons are something of Elementals themselves, but they’re really just like Beasts of Old or something. I don’t know how applicable this is to Ovenbreak Legendaries, but according to the CRK wiki (and yes I’m aware it’s fandom-run and therefore not 100% reliable in interpretations), Legendaries are defined by their god-like statuses and immense influence over Earthbread. Now, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the Legendaries who aren’t Elementals.

1. The Dragons. The Dragons are listed as Legendaries in Ovenbreak, but they’re given the unique rarity of ‘Dragon’ in Kingdom (which I think is complete bs but that’s not the point). The Dragons themselves aren’t Elementals, at least to my knowledge, they DO however have god-like statuses (just look at Longan. Literally just look at Longan Dragon), immense amounts of power, and have a lot of influence over Earthbread’s history. Therefore, they’re deserving of a Legendary status.

2. Dark Enchantress Cookie. The main antagonist of Kingdom (and possibly Ovenbreak? I haven’t seen much Cookies of Darkness content for that game yet, so I’ll mostly be focusing on CRK). You could potentially argue that her status comes from being the reborn version of White Lily Cookie, but the Ancient Heroes are directly connected to the Elements or anything just because they have Soul Jam. Let’s look at some of Dark Enchantress Cookie’s accomplishments throughout CRK’s storyline so far;

- Unleashed havoc on the Night of the Witches and presumably killed at least some Witches, beings who were known to be incredibly powerful and were worshipped as gods by Cookiekind. This is essentially the Cookie Run equivalent of slaughtering gods.

- Waged a war against just about all of Earthbread, or at least the kingdom run by the Ancients, single-handedly causing one of the biggest tragedies in Earthbread’s history. The Dark Flour War not only brought an entire era to an end, but it completely changed the course of Earthbread. Like, the only reason the Crème Republic exists in the way it does is because of Dark Enchantress Cookie declaring war against everyone. And from the looks of it, we’re going to be getting a Dark Flour War 2 (Electric Boogaloo: The Sequel No One In Earthbread Wanted) in future updates of Kingdom.

- Defeated all five of the Ancient Heroes in a battle. You can argue that she had the Cake Witch with her, but these are the five Ancients who were presumably at their peak state during this battle. Still, you could probably argue that there’s a weird situation with White Lily Cookie in this scene, but even then, that’s four Ancient Heroes who are presumably at their peak state.

I was also gonna bring up how the Soul Jam got shattered/scattered at the climax of the Dark Flour War, but I honestly don’t know if Dark Enchantress Cookie did that or if Pure Vanilla Cookie did that when he sealed her away, so I’m not gonna use that as a point. But regardless, literally the whole Night of the Witches situation and the Dark Flour War makes her one of the most important figures in Earthbread’s history. Dark Enchantress Cookie is a TOP example of a Cookie who deserves the Legendary rarity without being connected to the Elements.

3. Timekeeper Cookie. I don’t know Timekeeper’s canon pronouns off the top of my head, so I’ll be using they/them. Feel free to inform me on those. But anyway, Timekeeper Cookie literally has no connection to the Elements. There isn’t even anything you can argue about this. Their control and mastery over time comes from their Sonic Embroider, which is an invention. It’s not an inherent power or anything. Because in order for Timekeeper Cookie to have a connection to the Elements, Croissant Cookie needs a connection to the Elements. I feel like their status as a Legendary also comes from their role as the Director of the Time Balance Department, and the way Timekeeper SEEMS like a God of Time or something. But they’re not. However, we can’t turn a blind eye to the god-like status and power they do have.

4. Black Pearl Cookie. My god, the amount of times I’ve seen people call Black Pearl a “filler” or “false” Legendary is insane. And the arguments I’ve always seen, or the ones I remember anyway, all boil down to her not being an Elemental. Again, that’s a flimsy argument considering Timekeeper Cookie’s a Legendary without being an Elemental. Black Pearl Cookie at least has some association with an actual element, which is water, being a mermaid and all. Besides, Black Pearl Cookie is literally the subject of a legend in the CRK world, which is what her and Captain Caviar Cookie’s whole update was about. The Black Pearl Islands and Duskgloom Sea, which are like her “kingdom”, can be considered the Bermuda Triangle of the CRK world. We see in the event itself that she’s capable of growing to a gargantuan size and is responsible for sinking countless ships that entered her territory. Something I’ve noticed about the Elementals is that they all have some kind of myth or legend surrounding them, like the City of Wizards being one of the Seven Mysteries of Earthbread (or whatever Wizard Cookie said), the Millennial Tree itself being viewed as a sacred tree of Earthbread, and Frost Queen Cookie being known as the Frost Witch in the myth at Cotton Cookie’s village. Black Pearl Cookie is incredibly powerful and is the legit subject of an existing legend in the CRK world, so why wouldn’t she have the Legendary status?

Idk, it just feels hypocritical when people bash Kingdom’s Legendaries when their arguments can apply to Ovenbreak’s Legendaries as well. But for some reason, Ovenbreak’s Legendaries get passes because they’re the OGs or whatever? You can’t bash Black Pearl Cookie for not being an Elemental Cookie when Timekeeper is right there. And I absolutely love Timekeeper, they’re on of my favorites, but if being an Elemental is the criteria for being a Legendary, then they shouldn’t be a Legendary.

TLDR: Legendary Cookies aren’t solely Elemental Guardians. There are Legendaries who aren’t Elementals. And if Black Pearl Cookie’s a “filler” Legendary for not being an Elemental, then some of Ovenbreak’s are “filler” Legendaries by those standards as well and don’t deserve the rarity.

[johannstutt413]

Everything below this line is sad. If you are not in a place to experience secondhand grief, feel free to skip this post.

You’ve been warned.

About two years ago (not really sure anymore), I lost a friend of mine to COVID. I didn’t know how to grieve, so I didn’t, but I had a reminder of a different kind of loss today and wondered why it hit me so hard. So, in an attempt to take a couple steps towards figuring out how to deal with the emotion without burying it in logic, I’m doing two things today.

The first is the bowls pictured above: Mexican lasagna, because we made lasagna together, and she was a Latino-American ball of sunshine. The one on the right is hers, my roommates and I are gonna leave that one be for a while (hopefully the cats respect that), the one on the left and the rest of the pan are for the household. Yay lunch.

The second is talking about her, and I’m doing this here because I can trust Tumblr to leave this public but not broadcast to a mob of people who will assault me verbally for needing an outlet. As I’ve done so often (albeit not much recently), I’m gonna tell a story. A true story this time. Here’s another chance to leave before things get really emotional.

I met Alicia in my freshman year of high school; she was running for class president, and I’d just arrived a few days late to the school year because I’d transferred out of Big-Ass Public School to Small Charter School. We had a couple classes together, and we talked to some of the same people, but ultimately the only reason it went any further was because she asked me for my phone number. I was on a pay-per-minute plan which I rapidly started chewing through (and eventually upgrading to a normal unlimited talk/text plan) almost exclusively because of her. We got to know each other pretty well as friends; I asked her out on a date in a rather muddled way, and for the next couple years I lived in a limbo thinking I was in some will-they-won’t-they teen drama.

That was not the case.

She was a leading member of the school’s robotics club; around junior year, I joined that club because she was in it and my parents wanted me to build on my college application checklist. It was not a good fit, and I took that out on a few people, her included. I tried ghosting her. She didn’t make that easy. I appreciate that now a lot more than I did then.

During senior year, as everyone made plans, we chose disparate paths: she chose to attend the local college for a degree in social work, because if anyone could save the world it was certainly her, and I decided I wanted to be anywhere but where she was. That ended up being enlisting; i joined my country’s military for a few reasons, but the honest truth was trying to escape responsibility for taking the closest relationship I’ve had with someone and throwing it away through pettiness and poor reading of social cues. It may be the one thing I hate that my autism has contributed to.

Training took a while; when I was about to leave for my first duty station, I went back home to say my goodbyes to family and friends, her included. We cleared the air between us - on my end, for the first time ever, for her it was more of an “oh that explains a lot.” We wished each other the best. Our lives continued without really intersecting too much.

COVID wasn’t a bad time for me - it hit before I actually started working, so I had time to kill, and it a way it saved my prospects as a service member because I was flunking the physical requirements hardcore and the lockdown bought me some time. I started writing fanfic seriously, leading to this blog here. I’d made new friends based on shared interests and occupation, we played DND together, and I was sure that despite her severe medical conditions which put her at risk that she was behaving wisely. She wouldn’t have any issues with COVID, I told myself, and she told me once I believe. She was always smarter than she thought she was… but she needed to see people too, she needed that social interaction, and she was working as a cleaner alongside her classes.

I don’t know which of those actually killed her. I don’t particularly think it would make it any easier.

I didn’t know what to do with the news she died. So many emotions flooded my field of vision I didn’t process any of them; when my folks told me there would be a funeral, I skipped out, didn’t think it do me any good to stand in front of a grave with some amount of people and say words to a person who couldn’t hear them… I’m sorry, past me, but you really fucked us there.

A few years passed. I’ve gotten into a couple other fandoms since then - namely, Hololive and by extension the game Weiss/Schwarz which has Hololive cards in it. A streamer from that group, Tsukumo Sana, had to quit streaming as that character after I joined the fandom, and it hit me much harder than I expected. I thought I was feeling other people’s pain, and until today lumped it to the side with that assumption. It didn’t occur to me that I was feeling echoes of my own pain refracted in another form, one loss reminding me of another. I simply carried on with my business, crying on very rare occasion. Crying takes up to time, and I only had so much of that to do what I wanted to with it since by that point I’d started doing what the military trained me for, what I volunteered to do.

This is where Weiss/Schwarz comes in. I’m a creator, I create things, and that includes custom cards when I get into a new card game. A while back I made some Ina and Sana cards because neither of them had enough to play a full deck with just the two of them represented as characters. I mentioned this yesterday in a Discord server for custom cards, and someone suggested a set that gave additional cards to all of the retired characters - the ones the casual majority are aware of, at least - would be nice to have. I started working on that this morning, and seeing lovingly created art of these characters before and after they retired, before and after thousands of people’s’ best wishes for those people were crushed by circumstances beyond their control, before and after those characters essentially “died”… I finally made the connection. I wasn’t feeling the level of grief i have been for anime characters whose seiyuus (voice actresses) had stopped acting for. I was feeling grief I’d kept repressed for years by this point because it felt easier to do that than reflect on myself…

Alicia, I’m sorry it took this long for me to figure that out. I’m sorry I wasn’t there with you when you were dying, that I didn’t go to your funeral, that I ran in the opposite direction from anything to do with you because I didn’t want to be wrong about my chances at more than a friendship with you. I’m sorry to myself I buried all this shit in the deepest corners of my mind to avoid having to experience temporary pain, because now I’m experiencing the pain and the guilt of knowing I could have dealt with this better. Hindsight’s only 20/20 when you’re not half-blind, but I’ll try not to have such thick sunglasses on going forward.

I loved you, Alicia. I still do. I hope that the God you served with such fervor tells you that, and that one day I’ll be able to say it you personally.

I hope you enjoy the lasagna. I’m gonna eat mine now. Until we see each other again, friend.

-Johann

[p5x-theories]

Thoughts on Future Collaborations

Collaborations are a fact of life for mobile gacha games, so I began wondering how P5X would handle them.  My first thought was potential events for the releases of P5T and P3Re, but then I realized that P5X may not be out of development by then.  So here’s my guesses at what may logically come in the future:

Other P5 spin-offs, past and future: If they’re planning any more it would make the most financial sense to use P5X for cross-promotion.  This is also the place they’d most likely go for future party members, given that they’re already part of the brand.  But on the other hand, maybe being part of the brand would mean that any spin-off thieves wouldn’t be reserved for events, they’d just be part of later versions the game?

Non-5 Persona games: The new SEES costumes in Reload would make great stand-ins for metaverse outfits.  And if P5X is still around by the time Persona 6 comes out there will absolutely be a collaboration.

Going outside the Persona brand is where things start to get iffy.

Other ATLUS games: SMT would be the most likely option.  Catherine and Metaphor might happen too, given their shared development teams with Persona.

Other Perfect World games: It’s easy to organize collaborations when you don’t have to negotiate with some other company’s lawyers…

Other gacha games: Persona 5 has had collaborations in the past, so it will probably continue to do so when the P5 gacha game launches.

But what form these collaborations would take is another question.

First off, I don’t expect them to add any party members that can’t remain in the pool.  Party members in this game require enough resources in this game that creating a new unit that you stop making money off of after the event is over.  And they might not want characters from outside the P5 brand in the game at all, depending on what the licensing agreement says.

But you know what could work for limited events?  Stuff like weapons and skins, things that don’t require too many resources to create but still look cool enough that players will want them.

Sorry for sending you my rambling thoughts, but I have speculation on this game and no one to share it with except for your blog.  Also, the reason I always send in submissions instead of asks is because they no longer allow people without accounts to send asks.

No worries, you’re good! That’s what this blog is for- I actually made it both because I wished there was a blog collecting official P5X news (and fanart), and also because I wanted to post theories somewhere and see what other people thought, hehe.

I think you’re right that P5X probably won’t release before P3R, let alone P5T; honestly, I’d be kind of shocked if it did. I can see P5′s various spinoff thieves getting added eventually though, especially given the little traces of Strikers in the P5X data already! Not sure whether events or just added story makes more sense for them- you bring up a good point with that, and I could see them going either way, I think. Honestly, I could even imagine them doing both an event and (possibly later) added story for any future P5 spinoffs that may happen?

I could see at least outfits/alternate skins and weapons based on the other Persona games showing up in P5X, I agree. I’m also kind of expecting there will be some form of those Velvet Room challenge battles involving the P3 and P4 protagonists from Royal here in P5X as well, given that Izanagi’s in the data as both a battle icon and a 3D model... along with Asterius, so Shadow Labrys may be joining that...? Though I suppose they could just be added as extra Personas in the gacha, similar to how they’re DLC in P5R. Adding in the actual teams from other Persona games as playable characters does seem a little more iffy to me, though, just because I don’t know how protective Atlus is over them/how determined Atlus is to keep them separate outside of games specifically indicated as crossovers, like the PQ games and Arena. Obviously I’d love to have them, but I could imagine why Atlus might not let them, so I suppose we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Similarly, I wouldn’t be surprised by at the very least alternate skins/weapons referencing other SMT games, other Perfect World games, and maybe even other gacha games? That’s not that different from many of the DLC outfits in P5/P5R, so it feels like there’s enough of a precedent. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if P5 keeps having crossovers with other gacha games, too, hah? Not sure whether P5X will, to the extent of something like P5X characters appearing in other gacha games or vice versa, though... I feel like I don’t really know enough about that to speculate on it much.

Either way, though, I look forward to seeing how that all ends up going!

[another-dra-anew]

scuttles. if ur still doing the ask meme. kurokawa (annie)

kurokawa!!! i totally didn’t fill out everything except the last bullet point and then forget i was working on this for like a week. ☺️

-My identity hc for them

i hc’ed her as lesbian specifically for a v long time, but bi kurokawa has been speaking to me recently ? bisexual homoromantic may b,, split attraction model my beloved. but who really knows!! my thoughts will prolly change again. 

and i don’t really think much abt her gender identity! she prolly ids as like.. a girlie pop. that’s what she’d say if u asked her. some characters are canonically cis some canonically trans some of them i have opinions on but it’s not smthn like. “canon” per se. and some i just have zero thoughts whatsoever kurokawa is in that last category

- Thoughts on their home life/family

neeeed to rewrite the motive scene in ch1 so bad. uhmmm. ya know. i think kurokawas love of streaming/social media/etc stemmed from like….. wanting to have fwends and that not really being an option for her ? she was v well loved and v well taken care of but like… having a bunch of besties who she could go have sleepovers with and stuff was never a feasible thing… so i think like. having a fanbase is vv much so a comfort thing. can’t have friends over to do their makeup but can do her own makeup while chatting with people. can’t bake for friends but can share recipes/demonstrate them and see people post their recreations. not really about her family, but it’s a bit of a home life detail! 

  - How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

i like how she’s written and handled! i actually reaaaally like what happens with her narratively for reasons i cant explain yet. buuut yea i like her she’s fun! even if her writing kinda shows how old beta is (ie was written before we had proper dra translations). “but wait couldn’t u just rewrite her personality now we know mikakos true behavior” consider: i don’t want to !!!! i wuv her she’s staying. i’ve gently changed things but just… shhh. it’s fine. <3

- The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

despite being in the… sunny and sociable archetype (i will NOT spoil… (<- trying to keep myself in check) but hopefully smthn that’s come across is how like. a big message rn is how important being besties is to preventing murders), kurokawa is like. zero help to keeping people hopeful and not wanting to murder one another in a kg setting. personality =/= how good u are at connecting with people. shes not going to actively make things worse like Some People, but simply having a cheerful nature will noooot help people stay happy and if anything can result in further isolation. it’s a matter of how u interact with others- there’s people who are more negative/pessimistic but they do better to increase the odds of the group being calm than kurokawa does.

and this is nothing against her as a character or a person!! it’s just a matter of how beta is written, and also how she’s written and handled, that i wish was more apparent. i think it’s a fun insight on her personality and who she is. she’s not consciously trying to be, like…… she’d love it if she could be uplifting and a source of hope! but she just Doesn’t form those bonds with people immediately. tsuzuna have very specific approaches and are very Conscious of how they interact with others, and kurokawa just doesn’t have theee… knowledge/skill/experience. because she’s not used to long term emotional crisis management!!!

- My number one favorite ship for them

…y’all remember kobashikawas ask meme fill? i should say kuronori logically they’re The moment. but my brain rn is saying tomori/kurokawa…..

- …Now everyone else i ship with them

she’s v shippable!! again my hcs change often but rn she’s actually one of the characters i can see w/classmates of the opposite gender. woah. that in mind tho, i only really actively ship her with the other members of the kuronorimakitomo polycule, but i also think she’d be cute dating tomori and iranami (downsizing the polycule…. if kurokawa and tomori are with iranami, does that mean inori and maki are with hatano? hm..)!! i think she’d also kinda be 👀? at taira when they first met, but after getting to know her a bit better kurokawas like “oh !” and side steps away. she doesn’t like tais energy.

- The thing i will NEVER ship

. do i need to say it. 

- a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

the fact kurokawa was like. kobashikawa should come with us to the exorcism cuz he investigated the store!!!! despite. literally investigating the store with him is really funny to me. underrated moment girlie what was ur reasoning there!!! also she didn’t even invite ōtori. it’s so silly to me, so i have to say kurokawa and kobashikawa- OH though!! i do also like her and uehara. canon answer for dra in general, to put them together. but i think they’re silly!! overall just the maedas exorcism gang!

- thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

!!! i like her design a lot actually! constantly changing little details, but the general concept of purple jacket, black t-shirt, black shorts, then socks and sneakers, is always the same, and i always like it!! it’s a bit more plain, but it allows for little details to be added (shoes w/hand drawn details, custom made jacket), which are cute and add to her character! liiike, kurokawa and uehara both have custom shoes and jackets, but they came about them, and stylized them in v different ways, and so it says smthn different while still being the same sort of concept. buuuut anyways!! she’s cute and i wuv her fit <3!! 

- A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

maybe a weird thing to point out as a niche?  but i think she listens to a lot of kpop girl groups…. fun time to mention that i cannot imagine her on twitter i think she has one for like. her brand ? which is very inactive. i don’t think she’s one where the music like……. ✨speaks✨ to her i think she’s a casual enjoyer of the things she likes!

[somacruising]

Tales of the Rays Terms

Hello, everyone! Since a lot of people may not remember all of the terms introduced in Arc 1, I thought that I’d go through them and try to help illuminate what these are referring to. 

If I miss any term or don’t define something correctly, please send me an ask or just reply to this post.

Aegis: A barrier protecting the land from the Sandstorm of Death/Voidstorm.

Anima: Life energy, essentially. MP. It exists in everything and can be understood as having the same kind of logic as mana in other Tales games. You need it to survive and it’s a kind of energy.

Chiral Particles: Another mana/fonon/aer equivalent. Tir na Nog has an abundant amount of these particles, which they use to generate unlimited amounts of energy. It’s separate from Anima and there is a large plot twist revolving around how Chiral Particles are produced.

Encoding: The process of exoflected things conforming to the laws of reality of Tir na Nog. For example, when Lorelei gets exoflected later on their existence is changed into that of a spirit rather than a bundle of fonons because fonons do not exist in Tir na Nog. Artes that take fonons or aer or mana now use Anima, ect ect. A crossover fanfic writer’s dream come true.

Exoflection: The process of creating a copy of something with mirristry using anima. Anything can be created: landmasses, buildings, people... However, when a large enough landmass is created, a nexus will be created along with it. Doing something that big will require the use of a device called a Kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope: A weapon created to remove anima from objects and convert it into light. It was used to destroy the kingdom of Bifrost. Recently, it was used as an aid to exoflecting landmasses due to its ability to target things.

Living Doll: An individual who has had their soul removed from their body for any reason. There are multiple types of Living Dolls, but all of them are derived from this. It is an extremely traumatic procedure for the person involved. The Asgard Empire are using nexuses to create these.

Nexus: A character from one of the mainline games. You can think of them like replicas, except with all of their memories. Essentially: they are a reflection (a mirror image, if you will) of a character from another world. They are usually created alongside landmasses. A nexus, unfortunately, tends to attract Shimmeras.       Omega Nexus: A nexus that got a little fucked up somehow. I don’t actually remember a lot of details, sadly. Their anima flow is reversed, so that’s not good. I think they need to wear some kind of protective gear to not destroy everything around them.       Stray Nexus: A nexus that was created on accident due to the Kaleidoscope’s aim being off. There are two things necessary for them to be created. One: “exist at the same time as the first nexus” and two: “be someone of importance to their world.” Basically, why characters who aren’t main characters are here.

Mirrage: Literally. Just any kind of object that is related to mirristry. Usually reflective in some way.

Mirrorshift: An event in which Ix had to use his power to keep the Sandstorm of Death from flooding into Tir na Nog. He encased himself and another character named Gefion in crystals, which then spread out from him across the world. It caused a lot of earthquakes.

Mirrist: Any native of Tir na Nog who uses mirristry.

Mirristry: All the powers that a mirrist can use through with their inborn powers. Exoflection, the ability to incarnate using anima, is one of the artes available. This power also comes in different types, such Ix’s "creation" and Mileena’s “imagination.”

Mirrite: What Karia, Kocis, and Mark are. They’re being created from mirristry that AREN’T nexuses, completely original beings. They’re tied to the lives of the mirrists that created them and are able to share their feelings. This tie is able to be severed, and when it is, the mirrist will lose all memories of their mirrites.

Sandstorm of Death/Voidstorm: Oh boy. Okay, so Tir na Nog is actually a exoflection, itself. Once upon a time, there was another country called Bifrost that had a war with Sellund (where the main characters are from). Bifrost got completely wiped out and everyone there was reduced to particles of life. Unfortunately, they are all still alive in that state, and essentially feeling constant agony. Also unfortunately, their current existence in this state causes them to destroy whatever they come into contact with.

Shimmera: A monster created from the Sandstorm of Death that is able to slip past the Aegis. They hunger for anima and seek out nexuses to fill themselves.