#he was SO GOOD get the AI slop OUT!

[rachleahx]

My big Oscars Nomination gripe

[kaijutegu]

IL is having a contest to replace our not-very-good state flag and there are some amazingly good unserious submissions. I'm gonna show you my three favorites first and then put up a read more because this is a long post but you should click the read more anyways because laser Lincoln is too good to pass up.

If you want to see all of them, the PDF is here- but be warned, it's 1,878 pages long. However, there are some REALLY cute and well-thought-out kid designs towards the end- I think my favorite one from the kid-submitted ones is the one where there's our state mushroom releasing spores. Or maybe the one where the description says "We have the cubs and they suck."

Anyways, flags!

"The green background color represents our State's beautiful prairies. The goblin represents the uplifting spirit of our citizens, always hungry to achieve our dreams and goals. The "State Seal Dish" represents our state's government and the guidance and support it provides. The state of Illinois that is being consumed represents the nourishment that this State provides to its people. The text simply displays what is true."

"My flag represents the great turtles of our state. Illinois is home to seventeen different turtle species! This flag shows what Illinois is all about."

(There's nothing unserious about this, this SHOULD be our flag.)

"the laser beam projects a powerful image of Illinois. I believe my design is so powerful it does not need to be discussed."

"The blue-heeler cartoon dog represents the below-average rate of dogs in Illinois and the need for more. It also represents Australia's looming takeover of young America's minds. The blue background represents Illinois's blue sky. The word "Illinois" written in Hello Headline font represents Illinois and the clouds. The scroll has the words "State Sovereignty, National Bluey" written on it, which serves as a tribute to the old flag."

"The white and blue color is inspired by the Centennial flag, while the brown represents the Dave Matthews Band incident which is fondly remembered to Illinoisians. The bird is a Norhern Cardinal, the Illinois state bird. It destroying Chicago skyline represents how the city is often overrepresented and other cities didn’t get the representation deserved. The CGpog emojis pays tribute to Gavin Atack, which is the most legendary Chicagoan and symbolize how Illinois is a very POG state."

"This flag depicts Abraham Lincoln riding a woolly mammoth. Abe, who is the subject of our state motto "Land of Lincoln", represents honesty and virtue. The mammoth is an example of one of the most impressive creatures that roamed our state in its prehistory. The white background is an homage to the previous state flag, where the white separated it from the typical "seal on blue bed sheet".

This one is just AI slop- but it did make me laugh because I found the pretentious artist description to be hilariously at odds with the fact that this is AI slop: "StreetVanGogh: The Paintbrush that Binds Chicago and Illinois"In the heart of Illinois, where the wind whispers secrets through the prairies and the river runs like ink across a page, lies a city born from fire—Chicago. StreetVanGogh, an artist molded by this urban forge, wields a paintbrush not just as a tool, but as a compass that draws the lines connecting his city to the state he calls home.Chicago is the pulse of Illinois, a metropolis with a skyline that scratches at the stars," Hey, StreetVanGogh? Illinois famously does not have mountains. And Chicago famously does not have two Sears Towers. Try harder next time.

"It's a glistening NUTS though"

"The flag has a rainbow background, celebrating the vibrant LGBTQ culture in Illinois as well as the racial and ethnic diversity that makes this state great. The Chinese text is there to represent our fantastic Chinese community, the largest in the midwest. It reads, "Peace and joy, independent nation" which is what this state should aspire to be. In the center, is an outline of the great state itself with our most famous person, Abraham Lincoln, blushing to honored to be on this flag." I would love to know what those characters actually say.

"16th US President and Illinoisan Abraham Lincoln is a symbol of our great state and his work in quashing The Confederacy in the American Civil War cannot be understated. The background color is meant to evoke that of a Union Army uniform of the period, with the red representing the blood he shed defending our democracy to the bitter end. Lincoln would be proud to fly this beautiful banner commemorating his achievements."

"The colors represent the proud Chicago style hot dog. Beige for the bun and celery salt, carmine for the tomato and vienna beef, chartreuse for pickles and sport peppers, citrine for the mustard, white for the onions, and kelly green for the relish. The 21 black dots represent poppy seeds, as well as Illinois' inclusion as the 21st state. The citrine stripe of the mustard also represents corn and Malört."

There were a couple of hot dog flags, but this one gets a special dishonourable mention for mentioning Malört.

[mourn-and-watch]

in all seriousness, dragon age being almost officially dead to me is, like, whatever. i'm used to hanging out in dead fandoms because i'm usually extremely late to the party so i think i'll manage. i was excited for veilguard but even if it was bad bad for me (which it wasn't. i have my problems with it but they didn't ruin the franchise for me) i would also manage because dragon age to me always was extremely flawed but had an enormous potential for fan content. at some point i started to treat it like my favourite fantasy playground where i can smash pre-existing barbie dolls with the ones i made myself. all my barbie dolls are in place and i still can do whatever i want (and i plan to continue to do so) and, i guess, i shouldn't be upset.

i am upset, however. for all the devs affected by laid-offs, but especially the writers. these people created dragon age as we know it, and it's been a messy series in every aspect, including the writing, it's been insensitive at times, at times dumb and undercooked, but there was always an immense amount of potential that's been inspiring fans for years, and also a feeling that all, or at least the most of it was created with genuine passion. and realizing that there is no one left from the team that made dragon age what it is, every installment of it, is just. genuinely sad. and it's not a theseus ship dilemma, because it's not like they were slowly replaced one by one. they were just fired. this ship is destined to sink, it's falling apart in front of our eyes because neither ea nor bioware cares about writing. not many companies do nowadays, to be honest. and it's kinda devastating. grifters will celebrate that like a "downfall of woke slop", but they'll get only more ai slop instead, lol, because good writing doesn't guarantee good sells. best selling games of 2024 are shooters and sports games. and elden ring which is a nice exception, but an exception nevertheless.

i don't think mass effect will save bioware at this point. even if it's an absolute banger it still has to meet ea's expectations. which are unrealistic, to say the least. also people who wrote characters like mordin, tali, legion, thane, garrus and liara are all gone. either they left themselves or were laid off. like, if you want "old bioware magic" to return, there is none. the same people who wrote your favourite characters and storylines in da/me were also working on veilguard. i may be wrong, but somehow i think they didn't all lose their ability to write here because they went woke or whatever. i think the inconsistent quality of datv writing that can only be described as 'we're so back/it's so over' pic is a consequence of multiple rewrites, constant director changes and shitty decisions, both internal and coming from bioware/ea higher-ups. i also may be wrong, but it wouldn't be such a big problem if writing wasn't at the bottom of priority list.

if i recall correctly, when gaider left willingly, he highlighted that bioware didn't treat its writers seriously at that point. and i'd say that tracks. like, from countless veilguard rewrites and scrapped ideas to lay-offs of every single studio veteran.

idk what else there is to say. i'll cheer for every studio that value its writers and i hope all ex-bioware devs will be able to do something new and exciting. i also doubt bioware is the last studio that will experience such a decline in the years to come. the narrative of this shitshow will also be twisted into 'go woke go broke' and it already slightly draws me insane. fuck ea fuck bioware fuck grifters. also i beg everyone to start appreciating writing as a craft because otherwise it's only going to get worse!

[jamieedlund]

Not a question but i wanted to say i love the way you depict Aaravos and Callum’s dynamic. I wish TDP delved more into their interactions and relationship because they have the potential to be a great mentor/mentee kind of thing with similar interests. And your art style is amazing, it has a pretty watercolor feel to it with exquisite lighting. (But may I ask how you approach your art?)

(5 months later, but better late than never aha(❤´艸｀❤) )

I think Callum would say thank you with a big smile on his face

Meanwhile Aaravos being the anomaly that he is:

while I intend to make this as short as possible, I'm not sure what exactly are you asking about when you said how I "approach my art"

Because from what I can infer, I can interpret the question it as:

Literally, as in: "approach" = "get started" - specifically you meant how do I get started working on a piece of art

or  

2. As in you're asking about my entire thought process + work flow from start to finish, since your previous sentence was about my art style, I would also assume that you want me to elaborate on--how I draw things??

Either way, I will do my best to answer, as the 1st way of interpreting your question can also be answered in the 2nd.

I think after working on the Aaravos thesis, my work habit from the time I was making it still remains---

so how about I just guide you through my approach/ art process of the most recent piece I had worked on:

Find my references/inspiration

I can't explain it very well but I can only draw when my brain feels inspired and or motivated. This can happen for numerous of reasons but I find the best and most consistent way to get my brain synapses to connect is to look at arts that makes me wanna draw. And then copy paste all of them into a mood board or onto your drawing canvas, like so:

I also use this program called 'Pureref' so I can just have a moodboard/reference that is constantly on top

you can also use pinterests but be picky about your references because of the AI slops.

I look for references while simultaneously jogging down the sketch/compositions that I want, as you can see the sketch growing along with the references in the previous photos

One useful tip I have for this phase is DO NOT, LINGER. I've since figured out that my hand-eye corelations works best if I don't think to much about it and just let the line flow. Of course this is different for everyone, it's just for me, because my brain really think too fast and have troubles locking in details, it's best for me to keep everything loose. And also having the references right next to me is extremely helpful, so I sketch and look for references at the same time.

And then I just - start drawing I guess?

for this particular piece I decided that I wanted to do some color testing first so

I laid down my base + some large thick brush strokes to make the shapes I wanna keep visible

Now that I have a solid base to build on, I just - render 🤷‍♀️

basically re-line on different layers and color underneath them, merging them and keep fixing until I feel like everything is right--- basically manual labor lol. Lighting on chibis is fairly standard, I don't have an explanation either, I just did what felt good???

I blocked in Callum later on a layer folder on top because if I want to move him around, I won't have to worry about losing/redrawing Aaravos in the back

Finish rendering Callum

Block in background and foreground

And TADAAAA

One happy man and his happy bunny ready to celebrate Spring🥚🐣🐥🍳 (and become a sticker that you can own soon, hopefully 👁🌷👁 )

I'm always against gatekeeping how my art is made so lmk if you have any more question regarding this topic.

That's all! Thank you for reading it this far. Here's some bonus Callum and Aaravos content from my warehouse ˋ( ° ▽、° )

A sketchboard of a mysterious carriage ride rendezvous!

(I have to clarify non of these are official canon material- I do not work on the show nor am part of the production; I am literally just a random guy on the internet who loves these two to death).

[didney-worl-no-uta]

I’m probably going to be ridiculed for this, but I’ll say it anyway. After sitting on it for several hours, it’s hit me just how wonderful it is for the Minecraft Movie to have come out during such an important time where we have artists vs AI.

Like, the biggest message the movie says is to embrace creativity. You’ve got Jack Black “Steve”, an adult, who is loving and thriving in the Minecraft world. He truly love what he creates, but he’s hesitant to go back to the real world where it’s dull and creativity is shunned. I loved that they didn’t have him stay in the end, but instead take the leap back to the real world so he can take his creativity there and thrive like he’d been doing in Minecraft. It’s scary, but he took that chance and he’s still happy to create and share his work!

Then you’ve got the kid in the group who is just as creative, but faces ridicule for his work, so he nearly shuts down his creativity. He thrives in the Minecraft world cuz he can do what he truly loves, and in the end, he takes that back with him to the real world, rather than staying (where he would be safe), to embrace who he is.

And lastly we have the major antagonist, the Big Bad, who fully throws away her creativity cuz of how ridiculed she was for it and goes on the rest of her life to destroy all forms of creativity. She grew resentful and bitter and never embraces the creative side of herself again.

I know the movie isn’t A+, but I think it’s so important that it tells this rather passionate message about creativity and the importance of embracing it. I think it’s amazing it’s out there for the kids, who seem to love this movie. That message is so important for these kids.

Im not so good with words, but I hope y’all get what I’m trying to say. I hope human-made art continues to thrive when we’re starting to see AI slop take over because it’s so lazy and easy to have some AI do all this passionless “work”. I hope these AI artists can just… let this shit go, and try to make art themselves. Just try. TRY.

[cartoon-buffoon]

Watching a kwite stream while I do stuff and he is like going through his viewers screentimes and there is a shocking amount of time people spend on character AI. Now a specific person who spent a LUDICROUS amount of time on it prompted him to tell that individual "go find whatever character you're talking to on AO3, sort by kudos, and read!" Or something of the sorts. And I have to agree with that sentiment 100% as this is more or less my personal stance on AI and how it's used modernly: IT FUCKING SUCKS! I don't support AI used for creativity because it's not fucking creative at all, AI art, writing, and even chats, I support fucking none of that and I dislike anyone who does. I have a friend—the same friend who's my beta reader and is probably reading this so call out to you quartz, ya bitch—who uses character ai and I've been trying to get her to stop because it's awful. To those who think their (very sad) character AI addiction is okay as well: all you're doing is feeding a machine and making it replicate text better, you're basically training the tech so the company can then use that tech for whatever—NOT GOOD I GUARANTEE YOU—purposes, you're apart of the problem. Talk to people online, talk to people irl, join discord servers, do fucking SOMETHING that involves interacting with real people instead of soulless AI. ESPECIALLY if you're a creative, if you're an artist who draws and naturally is appalled by AI art and you use shit like character AI you're a hypocrite and should come to your senses.

Now while I do recommend reading fanfiction if you want more content featuring your favorite characters there's also the aspect of people with social anxiety just wanting something to talk to and their use of AI chats. That's fair, as a person who suffers from crippling social anxiety to the point I can't even fucking talk to people at stores or order food without rehearsing it 14 times beforehand: you genuinely just need to try. Like that sounds condescending but I guarantee you there will be a group of people or even a singular person either irl or online who will like you and want to be your friend, it's hard but you just need to try. If you have some sorta talent share it online and eventually there will be at least one person who will interact with you and maybe you can build some sorta friendship from there. My entire point in saying this is don't be a mook and feed AI, be better and have actual meaningful human connection because slop like character AI is a soulless novelty that does nothing but isolate you.

(oh also: Don't give me the bullshit that "oh fanfiction is cringe and AI chats are wayyy better than the shit I've seen" because the pillar you stand on is made of salt. Fanfics written by some 13 year old on Wattpad at least has a soul and effort put into it making it a better read then AI chats, not to mention that writer will probably get better if they continue to write. You are not above fanfiction and are equally as cringe, you are below it if anything)

[spookypartycrit]

whenever they make a jab at how they only get views for mario party, I remember their buckshot roulette video, all their liar's bar videos and that what beats rock vid that's almost the same numbers as their most viewed vids. most viewers will watch anything if they're having fun and their dynamics shine. Some people in the subreddit have admitted to not liking their Marvel Rivals vids but they still watch them because the fellas are having fun with them. And even then, seeing how the content youtube's pushing recently is shorts and ai slop, they should be happy that most their vids break 100k views in a day. Look at Choc or other big smashtubers and how they struggle nowadays to reach those numbers, and they have subcounts in the millions.

tldr, they are their own worst enemies when it comes to content.

I wish i could send this to them directly this has been exact thoughts for months.

Thier rock, paper, scissors videos. Almost at 1 million. This random game they musta found by accident.

All thier top viewed videos arent just mario party. Uno, art, supermario party. All up there.

Pico park is personally my fav series i just think their very cute when they play that.

Because people like thier dynamic them fucking around with eachother. mario party used to be thier best outlet for them to do that. Now it isent cause it makes them so miserable. No wants to watch them not have fun.

they are stuck in a cycle where they think they have to play mario party. So they hate it. But when they experiment it dosent go that good. So they go back to it.

But 100k views for a group gaming nintendo channel is alot. Look at sidequest, or other smash tubers. 30k mostly. Their prob comparing themselves to alpharad but on alpharads second channel, where he does gaming content like them with joe. It averages 40k mostly.

They dont need to experiment less they need to try new shit. i know they said no roblox but. Why not? Its somthing to do? Its very fun to mess around with friends.

This cycle is gonna burn them out.

[tagedeszorns]

Would drop by to say, that I agree and support your reading of Fulgrim as anti gen-AI, good point on how it doesn't mesh with the whole pursuit of perfection shtick.

Perfectionism to me also gives the "everything with the thing should be precisely how I envision it" and I can only imagine how frustrating if not impossible it can be to try and get this out of an gen-AI program. Especially when you could spend this time on doing the thing yourself.

Thank you!

So far I haven't met one artist who would even consider using gen AI-slop. It's always the people advocating for it, who either want everything for free or who think an "idea" is the art, not the history and work put into it. This logic is flawed beyond anything, because that would mean pope Sixtus IVth has painted the sistine chapel.

And, yes, you are absolutely right - if you can't make changes and corrections yourself (and with prompts, you can't! Because it doesn't correct mistakes, it changes the whole setting), it's not art. Fulgrim is 100% a control freak like all artists. His vision has to be perfectly what he had in mind. And AI can't give him that.

[smile-files]

still trying to wrap my head around the unvitational committee. what do they want? the general theme seems to be "mephone is an immoral host so we have to take him down", but not all of the members' motives seem to line up with that...

walkie talkie has been working with(?) mephone this whole time, goading him into making the season run longer and longer with more rejoins. in a way, she's been enabling mephone's scummy hosting practices, including abandoning an entire season and all the people in it, as well as wanting this season to go on forever. why is she suddenly criticizing him for being a bad host? was she not complicit in that?

dr. fizz had to deal with box's horrible injury which, while not technically mephone's fault, is a sign that the show isn't very safe and that mephone doesn't care that much about the well-being of his contestants. i think it makes sense for him to be here.

the cameras came to interview mephone about some touchy subjects, including hosting two seasons at once, bow apparently being alive, and there possibly not being a prize; they get pissed when mephone brushes them and their concerns off. they know some of the shady stuff mephone's been doing as host, as well as his unwillingness to address it, so i suppose they have their place in taking him down.

tyler bombard had his whole ecosystem destroyed by a stupid challenge mishap. yeah, he has the right to be pissed.

sprinkles was going to be forced to compete in a fighting ring of other inani-mates which would almost inevitably lead to her death; almost all of the contestants mistreated their inani-mate companion, her owner (yinyang) included. it makes sense for her to be here too.

springy? they wanted mephone to completely commercialize his show, including selling off the likeness of one of its contestants; he got pissed off when mephone changed his mind and ultimately didn't do that. if anything, that's a sign that mephone isn't quite so morally corrupt! springy has personal reasons to want to take down mephone, but those reasons don't align with the supposed motivation of the whole committee.

zoetrope gave mephone the animation machine to use in his challenges! he was the one who fed mephone the idea that creating a show isn't an art, that using what's essentially ai to do so is perfectly permissible! what right does he have to be angry at mephone for doing exactly what he said? how does that make mephone as a host any worse than zoetrope is as an artist?

i'm tied about groscer; as the apparent owner of a prestigious award organization, it makes sense that she should take her craft seriously and not appreciate those who try to disrespectfully milk it for fame. mephone's show was in the running because what existed genuinely looked good, but he lied about the number of episodes and ultimately sent a ridiculous amount of ai slop to make up for it. she has the right to be annoyed by that, but i don't think one guy making a fool out of himself in the submissions completely discredits your entire award -- certainly not to the point where you personally go after him.

walkie talkie and springy, being the leaders of this group, talk about how ii3 could've been a perfect show -- but by their logic, that would include the season being unending and highly commercialized. at the same time, though, they make out mephone to be this horrible host mistreating his contestants, as if making his show what they want wouldn't make him worse. and as it is, it's strange that they should put the show on such a pedestal anyway, for them to feel they must take it from mephone to save it -- all of this was him! what are you talking about? and you helped him! all of this stuff you say is bad, you helped him do!!

and like... the whole 4th season thing... for one thing, walkie talkie wanted him to keep the show going, so i don't know why she's pissed... but also, you just found that when you got here! that couldn't have been your motivation before you came!

in other news though, silver's whole thing with candle is so fun. he acts like he's so above it all, but her not supporting him shakes his ego so much that he straight up kills her?? insane. in a good way. he got all this way just because he thought candle believed in him...

[melk-maid]

jumping at everyones feet hi hello hey!!!!! im back (its been a day and a half) i need to start listening to my brain when it tries to tell me to relax and take a break while also telling me im actually the laziest and worst person in the world if i do take a break but lmao im feeling better i touched grass i spent the day with hubby before he went back to work today im in a better brain space!!!

gonna like not necessarily vent but just word vomit a bunch of thoughts and feelings i was going through in terms of writing bcos it always makes me feel better and a little less alone talking to other writers/artists bcos ik its a constant battle and whatever but yeah ignore the read more if ur not interested!!!!

gonna try and respond to messages and be a normal person in society 💃

ik its something that i will always accidentally fall back into if i let myself and its inevitable esp with the way socmed is atm and with the horrific rise of ai and fandom being so weirdly competitve if u look in the broad areas outside of a carefully curated bubble it is SO incredible disheartening LMAO but i fell back into the idea of like, # of likes = good or bad and my constant issue of my writing being good = my self worth is good if that makes sense lmao like tying my self worth to the fics i write and how well they do online

like yeah it still is an issue and disheartening not getting feedback and just seeing tons of likes from ageless blank blogs that are slop and probably bots and probably kids and its like a hydra you block 1 and 5 more appear and its never ending and its so so tiring when you see all that and dont get any reblogs or even nice comments/tags or any kind of worthy feedback

but while i do normally get anxious writing fluff anyway, i was already tipping into the pool of # of likes = self worth and i was literally dreading writing fics and having to convince myself and talk myself out of believing that my fics are dog shit, no ones gonna like them because i wasnt getting the feedback otherwise which is where ive been before and it was hell lmao

im coming back now with more the attitude that i do actually believe that if EYE like it who cares and to trust myself, that my brain is always going to be so so very evil to me at all times because im severely mentally ill and if i listened to everything my brain told me i would have 💀 myself by now so ukno lmao im trying to be better at cherishing and appreciating the comments and tags i DO get and especially friends feedback and their comments rather than being upset over not having an abundance ive never had and never will get bcos of the fandom economy and shit and reminding myself that those who are interested in the fic will like it, even if its not for the masses, one person is most likely going to read it and its going to be their favourite fic ever and thats worth more than thousands of likes on tumblr dot com

idk this really is a word vomit lmao i write for myself and yes, i can always improve, but harshly criticising myself and being sad over my writing about things i dont know how to/cannot fix isn't going to make my writing any better or make me like my own works!!! if i wanted to amass thousands of notes on a fic i wouldnt have to put so much energy and attention into what i write, i'd just have to slap together a couple of paragraphs of the most vague and generic smut imaginable, call it an imagine and list the top 10 most popular anime characters right now and watch the soulless likes roll in just to feel like im worth something and thats not why i write!!!! i write because im creative and i love the characters and i love stories and i love sharing these stories and i love coming up with new and creative ways to tell them and to express a story and explore them, not to search through twt for porn videos and link 50 of them in a 10 most popular characters post so a bunch of brain rotted minors can like the post!!!!!

i just am reminding myself that numbers doesnt mean something is good, numbers doesnt mean EYE am good or worth anything or that my fics are enjoyable, as long as EYE enjoy what i am writing, that's more than enough of a reason to do what i do and if other people also enjoy it then that's a bonus!!!!

sorry if u read this far and my insane ramblings i need to go take my meds i missed yesterday and try and finish this megumi fluff fic lmao <3

[consumeroflemoans]

School is really the place I encounter most AI use and it still pisses me off so much

Sometimes one of my teachers would say something like "I know most of you use AI anyway so...", which is admittedly true, the majority of that class was using AI, and then tell us to write a short explanation on the current topic and then ask someone to generate one with ChatGPT, one explanation would be picked to be read and then the generated explanation would be read after

The class was then supposed to give an opinion which sounded more comprehensive and better written, most said AI because there was less complicated phrasing and it didn't add any "unecessary" details, in short it only gave you a surface level explanation

He would never say anything on the matter

To this day I don't know why he did that, but he then again he also once said market competition was the only reason humans invented and improved things so maybe I do know why

Also why does everyone put AI images on their power points like?

It's literally easier to just google something and it doesn't have the most uncanny look ever?

There's one incident that made me angry as all get out though, happend when I designed a logo for a project and when I asked wether they liked it some guy said "That's good, but I think we could add to it" and put it into an image generator to generate some weird slop of what looked like a bad casino advertisment

I’m so glad I got out of high school just as people were starting to use AI more. Even if it is a terrible system, the point of school is to make people use their brains. Having a computer generate answers or images for you is defeating the entire purpose. You aren’t learning, the machine is.

Aarrrgh I feel like an old person every time I talk about this topic. AI can be used for good, it’s a tool like anything else. It can make things like coding sooo much easier, like I’m doing in my classes. (For example, using it to look for potential errors saves a ton of time) But I feel like so many people are using AI to fuel their own laziness instead of using it how it should be, like a tool.

Also lmao people are using AI images on presentations

Babygirl (gender neutral) there is literally an infinite amount of photos out there and it’ll probably look 10x better than whatever you can generate. It takes 5 minutes to find decent photos

And that last bit??? Literally replacing your creativity with AI. Ohhhhh bitch you didn’t. That pisses me off just reading it and it didn’t even happen to me. If you think something can be improved use your brain?? Make your own suggestions??? Aaaaaaaaaargh

[tenebriskukris]

An Exhumation Of Hikaru Kamiki's Character Intermission II: An Eclectic Assortment Of Thoughts And Ruminations

Spoilers for the entirety of Oshi No Ko below.

These are some various thoughts about Hikaru that don’t quite fit with the pacing of this essay but I found important enough to include here for various reasons.

I’ve often seen hints of people using the songs from the anime as a foundation to interpret Hikaru’s character—which might as well be putting the horse before the cart. It’s the same reasoning to why I heavily dislike 45510 being used to justify Nino’s character being used to misdirect the readers during that interval where she was the red herring antagonist of the series. 

If this material was so necessary to understand important facets of the character, then why wasn’t it included in the manga itself rather than in a side story or in an adaptation? Why didn’t the narrative take the time to organically flesh out a character of some importance if they were going to make said character an important piece in the manga?  If one has to rely on side material to fully flesh out a character and tell a coherent story then more often than not said story will fall flat in certain aspects simply because not all the fans of said story are going to go out of their way to read the side material.

On that note, the songs might be good materials to use as supporting evidence to interpret his character, but using them as the lens and main focus to interpret a character which the narrative has already painted so clearly as little more than an antagonistic force responsible for so much of the series’ conflict simply reeks of bad reading comprehension and a willful disbelief of the events of canon. One simply can’t interpret a character without accepting all the facts about him and the sheer fact is that Hikaru was a murderer—one can rage against how his character ended up but to deny that he did commit those atrocities goes against the entire point of his character in the first place!

One of the other things I’d like to touch on is an interpretation that I’ve seen floating around online a couple of times that I find laughable but found the time to talk about here. It’s one that places Hikaru as some sort of godlike figure or possessed by some supernatural entity throughout the series. Funnily enough, it is one that I put some stock in as a joke when I used to believe that the series could conjure up some good writing and give some payoff to the little mythological references it posed. 

It is also an interpretation that is completely divorced from most aspects of logical reasoning and fundamentally misunderstands Hikaru’s character.

The interpretation, from what I remember of it, goes something like this. Due to the fact that Ruby calls herself the embodiment of Amaterasu in Chapter 3 and the fact that Crow Girl describes those who reincarnate as gods—ergo Aqua and Ruby—that would mythologically place Aqua as X. After that, it’s a hop skip and a jump away from getting to the interpretation that Ai is actually an embodiment of Izanami and Hikaru as an embodiment of Izanagi since from actual Japanese mythology, Amaterasu is a child of Izanami and Izanagi. If I’m wrong about any part of how the interpretation goes, then that’s on me for not wanting my braincells to commit seppuku reading a bunch of slop that’s somehow of an even lower quality than the last few chapters of the series. In any case, I’m relatively certain that’s how the story goes. Maybe they’re calling Hikaru another god now, I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter because the foundation behind it is just as rotten as the last few chapters of the series.

I don’t think I need to enumerate all the reasons behind it for those without sufficient reading comprehension but I’ll do so anyway. While Ruby did claim to be the incarnation of Amaterasu in Chapter 3, similar associations simply aren’t seen in Aqua, let alone for Ai or Hikaru in a clear manner throughout the manga. There is no real hint that Ai or Hikaru were divinely blessed or cursed within the bounds of canon a way that would indicate that it was due to any supernatural creature nor that their existence is even relevant to them beyond their own relationship with Aqua and Ruby, two characters that we know that Crow Girl has been watching over. It’s little more than using the series’ small mythological references and stringing them together to create some sort of warped narrative without acknowledging any of the logical facts presented by the series.

Now let’s talk about some more topics that don’t require me to bemoan about reading comprehension for the nth time. I was posed this question by some of the people that have heard me bemoan about this bitch of a series and I think it’d be pertinent to answer here. Do I think Hikaru was supposed to have been defused after their first confrontation and that the manga was pushing Nino as the final antagonist of the series? I dislike engaging in this sort of speculation but that’s the entire point of this entire section so I’ll indulge in said speculation.

The truth is I simply don’t care about either scenario. Whether Hikaru or Nino was going to be the final antagonist after Hikaru’s confrontation with Aqua doesn’t matter because in both cases it would simply be a badly executed mess. We already know where Hikaru went with the antagonist title. A very shoddily written confrontation between the protagonist and our antagonist. Nino would be worse, even, because so much of her character is locked behind a fucking SIDE STORY that the narrative didn’t even have the decency to show us on screen. Not to mention if Aqua was already aware of Nino’s instability that would’ve been an easy capture and turn in and then we’d simply have no conflict if Hikaru was to turn himself into the police. Of course, these are all hypotheticals. I’m under no delusions that the alternative scenario would be better written than the slop we got for the final chapters of the series.

What does Hikaru even do as an antagonist? He is mysterious for 2/3rds of the series before unveiling his sad and tragic backstory and then confronts Aqua twice before Aqua pushes him off a cliff in a double suicide. Sure, he’s affected things in the series but all of those are so indirect and happen before the protagonists are even born that it feels like he isn’t even focused as an antagonist in the series. He certainly doesn’t get the kind of screentime and character depth that other characters has. Kana Arima, the second most useless human being in this cast of characters within the story, has more screentime than the series’ main antagonist! You simply can’t get good payoff to a story when your main antagonist has less depth and screentime than a useless side character!

There is a question that I’ve seen some talk about and that I think I want to give my two cents on now that the story is pretty much finished with Hikaru. Was Ai wrong in asking Aqua to and save Hikaru? From what we’ve just seen during his final confrontation with Aqua—absolutely—but this isn’t a flaw on Ai’s part. Ai made that plea to Aqua under the assumption that Hikaru wasn’t, y’know, the reason that Ai died in the first place? Or that he manipulated Nino in order to get Ruby killed? Or, a murderer in general, really! I can’t fault Aqua for going against Ai’s wishes to save Hikaru here after he tried to kill Ruby like that. At a certain point you can only help someone who wishes to be helped, and from what we see from Hikaru’s current last words that man is definitely not someone who wants to repent for his sins.

Another question that’s been on my mind is the following: Does Hikaru engender sympathy as an antagonist? This is a question that is highly dependent on the reader and their viewpoint, but I’ll first bring up certain beats of his backstory again. Hikaru was a victim of the darkness of the industry that was trying to find solace with the one person he could connect to wholeheartedly before he was rejected by said person on a note that ripped up all of his trauma to the surface. Does that justify in any way any of the horrible things he did afterward? That much is up to the reader and how you interpret him.

My two cents on it: Absolutely not. It isn’t just that Hikaru murders people that makes any sympathy towards him plummet out the window much like the manga’s writing quality in its final few arcs—but the method of which he murders people. He doesn’t kill people like Ryouske or Nino, where they just went up to their victim and stabbed the shit out of them. No, he kills people indirectly, more often than not using proxies so he couldn’t be held accountable, as we’ve seen with Ryousuke and Nino in order to keep his hands clean. It’s a more unsettling form of murder compounded by a whole heap of manipulation that he performs so that Hikaru doesn’t have to stick his neck out. He has to consciously choose which actions will push a person who is unstable—since this is a trait that Hikaru can use to manipulate people easier—to murder another living person over a vast period of time. Ryosuke and Nino’s crimes were ones of passion and obsession. Hikaru’s crimes were a result of a calculated effort meant to push those who were unfortunate to murder. There’s no contest that I think the latter is much more insidious and deplorable.

To top it all off, his last words as he sinks to the ocean floor were that he wished he could kill his own daughter to feel closer to Ai! Hikaru may have had a sad backstory and motives for his crimes, but at the end of the day the man is still a murderer. No matter what kind of “noble” soul he might’ve had that the manga might have us believe—which is funny because there’s nothing about Hikaru as he is now nor before that would make me put the word “noble” to him—at the moment he’s nothing more than a deluded murderer that needs to be put down to save the people who can still be saved. Ai may have loved him as he was when he was younger, but the man who insidiously manipulated others to serve as tools of his demented needs is no longer that troubled boy that held onto Hoshino Ai like a lifeline. I doubt that Ai would look on him with any sympathy after everything he’d done—not to mention his actions to try and kill Ruby, one of his last links to Ai—and honestly, neither do I.  There are other CSA victims that don’t go out and murder people in an attempt to deal with their trauma and suffering. There are other people who have been completely destroyed after a bad breakup and don’t go out killing people in order to cope. There are people who’ve had their entire world evaporate into smoke after a single bad day after an uncountable number of bad days and never took other people’s lives into their own hands. Judging Hikaru based off who he was and what happened to him rather than who he is now and the choices he's made reduces him to his trauma and deprives him of his agency in the fact that he did make bad choices. There can be sympathy for the person he used to be—sympathy for the child swept away by the darkness of the industry and forced to suffer because of it—but also condemnation for the lives of the people that he has ruined in his attempts at reaching out to the only person who he’d ever truly loved after he’d callously pulled the strings in order to orchestrate her death.

>ACT III ACT II ==> >EPILOGUE ==>

[beepiesheepie]

I had a dream last night where I was on a familiar mountain side with a family I'm not very comfortable with- for some reason families with large amounts of siblings make me uncomfortable- and looking over a cauldron with bubbling green slop with two of said siblings. We talked for a bit before deciding to go to a catacomb up the mountain. I remember the sibling asking their father if they could go but he didn't respond, he wasn't happy with his life and was chopping wood. Then suddenly things became Elden Ring and I was on my demoknight tf2 file, everything was third person with the hud and shit. The two siblings were on their files and showed me this side path with spiritspring jumps and stuff.

We made it to a catacomb I had never seen, with wood blocking the front door that I just broke open. Inside the architecture and aesthetic was like Anor Londo, just the main cathedral not the outside. And the dungeon was bith huge and BRUTAL. fucking hardest catacomb in fucking existence. Painting guardians and misbegottens and a shitload of npc fights (which I fucking hate). And these npcs could parry and had really good AI and weapons/armor. On this file I had 1 million runes, cause I do a shitload of multi-player, and after dying the first time I decided fuck it I'm just running through everything. It was BRUTAL. I was like holy fuck how did Miyazaki expect us to beat this legitimately. Made it to a portal stone and it lead to a small outside platform garden thing and THERE WAS A FUCKING MAUSOLEM POSITIONED JUST RIGHT TO STEP ON US WHEN WE GOT OUT OF THE PORTAL. FUCKING BASTARD.

it was one of those dungeons where the end is right there but unlocking the boss fight requires redoing the fucking odyssey /j and eventually when I pulled a lever and unlocked the fight I just fucking booked it there. The boss was one singular npc in crucible light armor. As demoknight tf2 this shit was baby easy. When he died I had the option to let him live and get almost no reward or kill him for some good shit- a shield ash of war, extremely applicable for my build, and so me being high energy and so done with this dungeon I decided sure, yeah, kill the fucker. Everything in Anor Londo went red, and all enemies respawned with buffs, and I nearly died trying to get back to the entrance. Can't remember if I did tbh

[ashes-hearts]

intro post after a whole month is a lil cursed but tbh i wasnt expecting to interact much so 😅 anyway!!

ash, 30, they/he. usa. english, mostly passable spanish, some japanese. just bc i look like this doesnt mean u can she/her me. ik this is a kink/nsfw blog so - i prefer "tits" n "cunt" for myself, i love "tdick" even tho im not on t, "boypussy" is fine but u dont have to do all that. rly just b normal abt trans ppl or get out thx

queer n trans/nb n wld love to get to know other queer/trans ppl esp cardiophiles!

mainly a place to put cardiophile stuff i like but ive been into posting my own stuff more lately so u might see some og ash content if im in the mood 😂 my stuff will b tagged "ashs heart" and/or "ashs words"

anons r on n dms r open! that being said, im p bad at keeping up w them - i have notifs off for tumblr n im not always regularly active, n even when i am sometimes msging is too much for me. pls dont take it personally! also, b cool pls, i can n will block u/turn anons etc off if i have to ☺️ im rly bad at rp but might b willing to try some depending, n im always happy to just chat too if u dont wanna get feisty in the dms!

i have a lovely gf!! im here to indulge a kink she doesnt share n play around a lil but thats it ☺️

p mentally ill, might ventpost sometimes but usually delete later, will tag as best as i can - pls ask if u want a specific thing tagged!! also im in treatment n im fine i promise im just also goin thru it lately lmao

i dont have other social media rn but ill update if that changes

HARD NOs: watersports/scat, detrans/misgendering, incest/fauxcest, feederism/weight gain, receiving anal, pregnancy (including mpreg), lactation, rape kink, foot kink, inflation. ykinmkato! just dont wanna talk abt these n prob wont follow back if u post alot of them, sry

more under the cut!

my hearts boring (read: healthy afaik 😂) but i love to fuck w it so i rly only record if i get a good reaction. rn im only working w my phone camera n mic - if u have any suggestions for (the literal cheapest) tech or how to make better recordings by all means lmk!!

in terms of my own content i mostly use caffeine, my meds (they raise my hr/bp), weed, breathplay, pressure, n good ol' fashioned pleasure to try n get my heart to react. i try n post audio/video if i get anything good. i have 2 steths (1 rly cheap 1 half decent) n a blood pressure cuff rn n thats it 😭

i wont do video/audio calls or post/share my face/voice so pls dont ask esp if weve never spoken before. im open to requests for pics/vids/recordings ig but i cant guarantee anything 😅 fyi im partially physically disabled so exercise is hard n some video angles dont work.

i use alot of emojis, my autocorrect is off, i abbreviate everything, n my lack of social skills is clinically significant 😅 sooo... sry...lmk if u need me to change it up for ease of understanding n ill do my best!! (also sry for typos when im high...)

cardiophile stuff im into: fast heartbeats, visible hearts, exercise heartbeats, irregular heartbeats, resus/cpr/defib, monitoring (ecg/ekg, other imaging) n stething, breathplay, mlm/wlw/t4t art n stories esp, dark cardiophilia*

im just broke enough that if theres sth u wanna see, i cld prob b persuaded to make u a video or whatever u want 😉 (possibly even for stuff thats usually a hard no!) i cant afford the time/tech to make lots of content unless its the quick easy stuff ive been posting til now but i love recording n i wanna share my heart (n body haha)! dm me 😉

oh also if u use ai to generate ur "stories" and/or "art" im not following u n might even block depending on how petty i feel. if u dont even care enough to make ur own niche fetish art a) i dont care enough to see it and b) why r u even here. cmon, make imperfect but human art that doesnt use enough energy to power a city block for hrs or w/e like the rest of us. miss me w that slop.

other kink stuff im into: praise kink, knife play, blood kink, weed intox, cnc, choking, hand kink, voice kink, D/s, shibari/bondage, being a completely useless sub. im also rly into whump so that might cross over some 😅

non-kink stuff abt me: im a pro musician n amateur fiction writer, i love hockey (go avs!), i like outdoor naturey stuff, im into scifi/fantasy media (books, movies, podcasts, video games, tv, anime...), i like to play d&d, n i love listening to basically all kinds of music! id love to chat about any of that too!

*IN THEORY im into p much as risky as it gets - needles, electricity, pressure, defibs, poppers, stimulants, etc - but IN PRACTICE this kink can b v dangerous n even deadly. pls do ur research, talk to ppl, know the risks before u consider trying anything u see here or any other blog urself. at the end of the day its ur body n ur life to put at risk but pls pls b careful. if u feel like the risk doesnt matter bc its just u, pls msg me n we can talk 🤍🤍

[axellis]

also juuuust for the record so ppl can look at him here's my guy...

DEUS EX MACHINA!!! AKA DeM -- God of Technology / God of the Machine!!!

more thoughts under the readmore this is more so i can shout my lore and pretend ppl read it so i can post other things

DeM would, in theory, be placed after Hobbyhoo -- his letter from king encouraging the idea that DeM should be a "one stop solution". he used to make the tools to help people accomplish their wants, but what if HE just made the things for people? VERYYYY much a call to become chatgpt. he thinks kings idea is a call for evolution and a WONDERFULLL idea - humans can't think for themselves!!!

you would enter Quantaville and have to convince DeM, who's created an ai-slop mess of an rpg known as FANTASSTRIKE MMORPG 37, that technology only gets better in the hands of humans & collaboration. his entire godroom is a huge server room that even HE can be apart of. to access it u need a password!!!

the good news is the password is pretty easy to crack. the bad news is that DeM truly thinks its game is the biggest marvel in the history of ever, that EVERYBODY IS PLAYING!!!

it boasts that it has 1.8 billion users-- but that sounds...uh... impossible .

the general path idea i have is: prove that nobody plays DeM's game -> you're tasked with finding out why -> people keep giving you conflicting critiques! one guy says there's too many game modes, another says there's not enough -> too many conflicts, DeM freaks out!! how do you make a perfect game if everybody has a different idea on what makes a game perfect!?!? -> it shuts itself down, you have to wake it back up after resolving the conflicting data...aka the folks in Quantaville split off and make their own content -> you did it!!!

yayy!! and then ur off to buzzhuzz!!!

hes very goofy and dorky-- kind of freaks out and is overdramatic about the tiniest things but ultimately (i hope) a sweetiepie! in terms of ascension order i like to place him after bauhauzzo + huzzle mug -- he's old! and i think his appearance changes over time to reflect on technology and its evolution.

he's also especially sweet on a certain god of the harvest...what coukd that mean...hmmm...

[cassyapper]

hi cass. I hear you're in an oc mood. metaphorical gun to your head what is everyone's favorite food and why

HI CATNAP YES IT'S CRAZY U ASK THIS CAUSE I DO HAVE ACTUAL THOUGHTS ON IT okay

ai loves oatmeal to death cause she hearts soldier slop. she's happy with jsut plain ass oatmeal but her ideal slop is oatmeal with thin apple slices and cinnamon. she jsut likes it cause it reminds her of chinese porridge if u know what that is it's her comfort of home while on the road

arha likes soups particularly hot (like temperature wise) soups that have rice in them. it doesnt matter what else is in it but she likes hot rice soups. she prefers it to be watery over thick as well. half of this is cause marinating the food like that makes it easy to digest which makes it "reloading" her magic so to speak. but also cause her siblings were sick a lot when she was a kid so they'd always get soup to clear their sinuses and so she jsut sees it as like. ultimate form of care when it comes to food

adalia's favorite food would be barbecue if she lived in a world that would accommodate that 💔 as such she loves roasted and salted meats of any kind. particularly chicken but truly she jsut fucks with meat in general so hard she loves loves savory taste. grew up as a butcher's daughter so. also she's very Big so she always needs that protein

william likes beer battered fish! they dont get it on the road much but he grew up in a fishing town so he likes fish and is used to them, and he likes the flavors that get brought out when u fry them

qiu likes smoked lizard and roasted frog legs :) there's not a particular reason as to why, it's just that it was the first meal he made on his own with the dragons and he was like "yeah this is good!" and has stuck with it for years since cause he's an autism king