#how is this fandom so active wtf

[mary-mythos]

Y'all I drew this "instead of drawing """"real fanart""""" and got way carried away because rendering eyes is my absolute favorite

All this effort just to show my personal headcannons on what they look like with and without using their powers. (Zane gets robotic eyes regardless of form and they go icy when he's using his powers)

(Alt. Version + speedpaint under the cut)

[jacklesraised]

my gift is being annoying, see, i can hate myself and be so horrendously anxious that i think trying to make being alive easier for myself is somehow offensive to others bc thats how so many people online act like literally any accomodations not made by the doctors that dont care abt you at all are somehow unnecessary and ‘fishing for attention’ to the point i ruin myself and destroy my body avoiding accomodations bc i dont want to ‘seem like a bad person’ for quite literally needing help. but give me a tv show and 30 seconds with new information and i will either give you the most thought provoking theory or the most wildcard theory ever and always be correct.

[themirokai]

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

[ombiblombi]

P.AI.nter is SUCH an interesting character to me... he's probably become one of my all time favorites, as I haven't fixated on a character this hard since since...TMC. It physically hurts to think about it in the best way possible-

That being said, I have SO MANY THOUGHTS to say about 'em... so I'm going to dump them here.

First and formost, it's so interesting that P.AI.nter has such a wide array of emotions when it comes to attacking and interacting with the Expendables. At first it's strange, like "WTF?? You're trying to kill me and you just yelled how I was boring, wdym you're sorry??" But... knowing his lore and backstory, it makes so much sense.

P.AI.nters creator was gunned down on accident by Urbanshade, which upon the discovery of P.AI.nter, then decided to trap him in a harddrive and make it mine whats essenically crypto at the Hadal Site- For years, it's stuck mining for the company unwillingly, unable to draw the lanscapes it loved. For fucks sake, P.AI.nter tried to FRY HIS CIRCUTS just to get out. He's desprate, miserable and lonely, and just wants to escape- Any way possible.

And so when Sebastian comes reeks his havoc on the site and finds it, P.AI.nter is incredibly trusting of him to get them both out. Maybe alittle too trusting, but whats he got left to loose? They've both been used by the company and want nothing more to leave, leave and never return. So when Sebastian connects it to the servers- to the Navi-Path & Turrets and tells him to stop the Expendables, P.AI.nter does.

However.

This is self preservation down here. P.AI.nter of course, is rightfully angry at times. I mean- The same company that killed it's creator before his very (nonexistant) eyes, trapped it down here, and even sucked the joy he has from creating art away is now actively getting in the way of the freedom he yearns for. But at the same time... this isn't something done that it entirely wants to be doing. Like I said. This is self preservation. And his actions, and even your deaths weigh heavy. Theres a voiceline, and its delievered so well- Of P.AI.nter pleading for the player to wake up and apologizing profusely if it kills you.

That line sparked this whole theory in the first place.

Your death, reminds it of his creator.

Isn't it ironic how it's now manning the very same weapon that killed the one who brought him sentience in the first place? That he's now the one at fault? Thats gotta be on the back of his mind each and every time it leads an expendable to their demise.

This isn't personal.

He doesn't know who you are.

But it still hurts.

It really annoys me when people in the community call P.AI.nter two faced, or god forbid, do the shitty thing of saying in a derogatory manner that he's bipolar or such as a "joke". Thats just disrespectful to both the character and folks who do have it. It's just plain rude. People do something similar for Sebastian, saying that oh, they're ruining his character by making him mean and snarky and whatnot. I know this happens in every fandom out there, and that this rant is fruitless, but... people need to understand that characters like P.AI.nter and Sebastian have reasons behind their actions and have existing trauma that if you take a moment to look at, you can go "Wowie! Thats a complex character! Everything makes so much sense now, like a puzzle peice I can see traces of in their character in almost every aspect!" Rather than doing awful things like I brought up at the start. But... I digress. I know this rant wont change much so. I hope y'all enjoyed my mini character analysis

Anyway this video has all of P.AI.nters voicelines if 'ya wanna go have a listen after this :] also I got plenty more thoughts about P.AI.nter and Sebastian if anyone wants to know!

[kawaiifuturebass88]

my wife is a super active tumblr user and has been telling me about this media literacy thing thats been happening/talked about here and i have really struggled to understand it, to the point that i didnt really believe it was real or i was just misunderstanding her or it was a very small isolated thing. she was telling me about it and it felt like she was just exaggerating for shock value and to be funny and i couldnt even laugh cuz i was too busy trying to figure out what the fuck she was talking about. people dont engage with media where someone is a bad person? ok but like so what do u watch and read? what is a story without a villain? that doesnt make sense i literally cant believe it.

then i watched the arcane finale and after exhausting my usual sources i turned to tumblr for more fan art and good vibes and ohhhhhh BOY arcane tumblr is like the source pool of this behavior, it is overFLOWING with media illiteracy and i got to actually see it with my own eyes and i was floored. i cant stop reading. the takes get wilder and wilder and the fabricated scenarions, lies, gross misunderstandings and blatant inability to infer anything get worse and worse and WORSE. its like watching a car accident over and over and over and its fascinating.

like, i understand why and how someone would become a conspiracy theorist or join a cult or whatever extreme thing, it makes total sense to me and is inherently human to create reasoning that feels safe to explain things that shock or scare you i.e. why religion exists lol but this doesnt follow that logic at all. i assume folks think they are being extremely smart but i struggle to accept that when people are just blatantly lying on the internet and most of the stuff i read is about visual media and you can literally just watch it or cite clips and instantly debunk it all. its not click bait and its not rage bait because all the interactions are supportive and agreeing. like wtf happened here?

i've been obsessed since i started reading this stuff because im so intrigued as to how you get to such a ridiculous spot, and not just a couple people but a whole swath of people across all the fandoms all writing long essays of bad takes with the same therapy language and total demonization of any disagreement. i wanna understand what you get from soapboxing on the internet and backing it up with exaggerations and lies and blatant ignorance to basic human interaction? i wonder if these people have ever spoken to a person before or had any kind of relationships because this is like robot level ignorance. i wonder why you want this. i wonder why you think these opinions make you better. i wonder if you actually apply these opinions in your real life, do you treat all your relationships with the same clinical level of over explaining and always assuming the absolute worst.

anyways, thats it for now. i have so many thoughts and theyre all running all over each other and i already have a hard time writing a large amount at once so i gotta step back and maybe ill try to collect some thoughts and continue thinking out loud here or maybe anxiety will get the better of me. we'll see.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Can u not tag malleus or other characters when u hate on them pls it makes me sad

Hello, and thank you for reaching out about this! I do apologize for your discomfort 💦

I believe that this ask comes as a result of this post, as that’s the most recent post I can think of which might match the description of “hating on Malleus”. You’ll note that there is now a Malleus Draconica critical tag, which you can block if you choose to. This way, you won’t come across it while browsing my blog.

I’ve also gone ahead and retroactively tagged other related posts (although they’re mostly posts from the past year or two). There are similar tags for other characters, such as #Vil Schoenheit critical and the like. These tags are put on posts in which I discuss why I don’t like a particular character. I hope you can use these tags and the blocking feature to best curate your own experience on this blog.

The reason why I elected to make a new tag rather than exclude my posts altogether from the main tags is because I don’t think that it’s conducive to shut away “negativity” about a character when Twst is a game that actively promotes characters of a dubious nature. It encourages us to embrace both the good and the bad aspects of its large cast of colorful characters—so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pointing out their flaws or why someone might not like X or Y for them. This can make some people uncomfortable, certainly. However, I don’t think that’s a reason to prevent sharing of this critique with others who might gain new insight from it. I say this as someone who has gained insight myself by reading about characters I dislike, and someone who has been told that their works have entirely changed people’s minds about certain characters. It goes both ways.

Even if someone dislikes a character I happen to like, I find it helpful to read conflicting opinions to gain a fuller perspective. I want to give others that opportunity as well. I realize that not everyone may share this sentiment though, which is why there’s always the option to block what you don’t wish to see. (Prioritize your own comfort!!) I think people should be able to choose not to look at content that upsets them, but I don’t think it makes sense for this content to be hidden from others who may be interested in seeing “the other side”, if that makes sense!

I also believe that fandom—especially as of late—seems to conflate critique with hate, to the point where the slightest criticism of a character or content is labelled as “hate”. This can lead to a dangerous area where anything that isn’t immediate and glowing praise is deemed “bad”. That’s not an area I want this fandom to hit, as it would inevitably limit our ideas (although this also applies to all other fandoms).

In reality, “hate” and “critique” are NOT synonyms of each other. Hate is hostile and exists purely to shame or to tear down the content in question. It doesn’t consider the other side or care to ask questions. Critique is judgment or opinion of that content, and it is usually meant to help improve the content. It has us ask “why?” and “how?” To put it simply, hate is “you’ll never be better” and critique is “you can do better”.

In this instance, perhaps the previous anon’s statements (“[…] now I'm a hater. Like wtf. He’s so incompetent.”) are hate. (Even so, they’re entitled to feel the way that they do, even if the way the opinion was expressed was over-the-top.) I do think I was emotional in my response, but I don’t think I expressed myself in a hateful manner overall. I opened with what is arguably a defense of his behavior and then went on to point out a legitimate character flaw Malleus has and how not everyone reading those vignettes would perceive that flaw in a gracious manner. It’s not blind hatred; it’s valid critique and it comes from a place of wanting to see him improve as a person. I try to not character bash because no one (myself included) feels good seeing others hating on their favorites. Malleus has flaws, and so do all the other characters. Those flaws should be acknowledged, and it’s up to the individual to determine whether those flaws result in liking or disliking that particular character.

I’m not saying that everyone should agree with my stance on the Malleus Dorm Uniform vignettes or how I feel about Malleus in general. What I am saying is that not all negative statements made about a character should automatically be categorized as “hate”. I worry that if we stretch the definition of the word too loose, it could become a situation where any and all critique is silenced 💦 What happens when no critique is allowed? Everyone begins to think the same way or has to be fearful of expressing an opinion, and fandom becomes so much less fun for everyone involved… And, worse still, the canon content itself can feel confident resting on its laurels and not actually put forth the effort to “be better” (since there’s no negative feedback coming from the fandom).

Again, I encourage you to curate your online experience!! Do whatever makes you the most comfortable. If you don’t like seeing something, there is zero shame in blocking it or taking whatever steps necessary to disengage. Lastly, please take care to not to overgeneralize what counts as “hate”!

Thank you for your time 🙇‍♀️ I know I probably rambled for way longer than necessary cnsbjwvuwgejbe

[physics-of-one-piece]

Okay, I wanna get sth off my chest.

It's about Discord, and why I can't join any OP fandom Discord (yet). I will one day. For now, I think I'd be a bit overwhelmed if I do join.

First thing I want all my mutuals, followers and everyone to know is that everyone here is amazing. Genuinely. You all are awesome.

I can't join Discord for OP fandom yet because of the bad experiences in another Discord in another fandom. They weren't FULL BLOWN bad experiences, but damn, did they make me annoyed.

In short, my friends from that fandom watch One Piece. And they were great and supportive, and we have a thread for One Piece in that Discord server for ourselves. Those friends did not spoil anything for me.

And then I got to Dressrosa, and I typed a lot about Doflamingo cus I loved him more and more.

But my friends... They hate him. Okay, that's fine, I can ignore that. Surely if I respect that they hate him, they can respect that I like him?

(the answer to them for that was no)

They were like "just wait till you see Law's backstory with him, you'll hate him then" etc etc. And that was fine, okay.

Saw Dressrosa Takeover, saw Law's backstory. I mean, yeah, that shit is dark, but what do you expect? It's Doflamingo.

They wanted me to hate him. And after that, after I didn't hate him, but liked him even more, with every damn time I wrote something I consider awesome from Doflamingo, they switched to insulting the character I like.

I never go insulting characters they like, but god they kept doing it for Doflamingo. I got tired of it and just stopped talking about One Piece overall with them. Even with fics I wrote in the "writing thread" they nitpicked them, said "that wouldn't work like that, etc etc" and just... Killing the fun of it? Like... What the fuck.

I want to make clear, these were individuals. Other people were cool with it and ENCOURAGED it.

And of course every time I go "I love Doffy" these individuals come up with an insult for him. So yeah, I dipped. They couldn't respect my like for a character and not be at least considerate enough not to talk shit about him. At first, fine, but it started getting overbearing and fckn annoying. Like, a lot.

I hate plenty OP characters but I would never, EVER think of if I see someone enjoy that character of bashing that character, little less on their thread/Discord/tumblr blog. It would NEVER even cross my mind. Why the hell would I want to do that to someone? Hell, I'd ENCOURAGE them to continue enjoying what they enjoy. Bcs if a character makes you happy, and makes it fun, then why tf would I ever try to ruin that for someone?

It just makes me sick how these individuals (who I still consider friends, I don't think they genuinely meant it to come off as them trying to police me or anything, they said it was getting annoying but like he's one of my fav characters of course I'll talk about him a lot that's what you do with favourite characters they don't go on a rant if I rave about Luffy or Law or Cora) were actively commenting how I shouldn't like this character like it would make me like him less?

Sorry I like interesting, evil, demonic character with an iconic laugh and who is one of the top five antagonists in the most popular manga and was in Top 20 characters in the popularity poll? Like... Wtf.

Anyway, yeah... That's the reason I made this blog (there were 100% other reasons like being a nerd and calculating One Piece things 🤣). I needed a safe space to simp over Doflamingo, the Donquixote Family, Dressrosa and everything. And I'm genuinely so happy to have met fellow Doffy fans on here.

You all are great. Thank you for making this a safe space for me and for enjoying and encouraging my Doffy insanity, and for writing and drawing such amazing fics and art of Doffy and everyone else from Dressrosa.

I feel weightless on this blog, free to enjoy the Heavenly Demon and simp for him and discuss him as much as I want with everyone giving their thoughts and encouraging it.

I'm FREE.

I'll join those Discords one day. Thank you all for keeping the invites open.

[puppiekit]

One thing about the warriors Mapleshade hate train era of the fandom that still pisses me off actually is how people swore up and down that Mapleshade MUST be an unreliable narrator and so therefore nothing she expirienced or thought could be in any way accurate.

When in reality it was just the fandom making up bullshit headcanons out of thin air and portraying it as canon just so they can excuse Thunderclans blatant hatred/xenophobia, assault of a mother, and banishment of literal babies. Nobody wants to admit the fact that Mapleshade was severely screwed over and had every right to be pissed the hell off! (and don't get me wrong murder is inexcusable but like.... you guys baby so many other murderers in this series please stop playing)

Because outright saying "Mapleshade lying is worthy of assault and/or death" will reasonably earn you a WTF response, so people exaggerate her aggressors victimhood by making up bullshit about Mapleshade being a "baby trapper" or an "overtly possessive toxic girlfriend", and/or crafting some make-believe soppy sad backstory for Frecklewish. All to make Maples decision to lie seem worse than it in actuality was, or actively malicious in nature, and deserving of the recieved "punishment" (assault and death of her children).

Like... I cannot state enough how much it pisses me off when people discredit *the literal POV expiriences of the book protagonist* just to make up random crap about her clanmates and craft some elaborate tale where Maple is the worst and has sucked all along. When we know literally nothing about them, and especially Frecklewish, except that she made a stupid assumption, is willing to beat a mother in front of their kids, and quiet frankly didn't actually give a shit about those kids the moment she realized they weren't blood related. LOL

Like completley out of nowhere people decided Mapleshade lying was the worst crime ever commited in the history of the series... UNLESS you're literally any other character in the series to do it like Bluestar Leafpool Squirrelflight Yellowfang etc etc etc.... When they get flack for lying it's unfair and they were doing what they thought was right! But also it's completely unacceptable for Mapleshade to lie about her children's half-clan heritage in an environment where her peers are violently hateful and xenophobic. Because it hurt their feelings ... LOL

And don't even get me started on the fact that, quiet frankly, Frecklewish and Oakstar were being unreasonable from the very beginning by being hateful and blaming Riverclan for their loved ones death. They literally sent their son/brother INTO BATTLE and are now mad that he DIED? What the hell do they think happens when you send people out to beat eachother up (often to the death)??

Battle and death is such a normal and accepted part of clan culture it genuinely baffles me people dont realize that, as understandable as their grief, their anger/hatred is pretty crazy, even if Appledusk *had* killed Birchface. They were wrong to assume Birchface was the father and they were wrong to project their hatred on Mapleshade and her kits. Not a single action made by them was reasonable or excusable. You don't put that kind of pressure on a single mother who *explicitly avoided stating her kits father* and get all mad when it isn't who you assumed it to be. Like it's next level stupidity

[pageofheartdj]

Well. I finally properly ended Jentry Chau vs The Underworld and I have THOUGHTS xD

First of all the usual FUCK Netflix way of releasing, I guarantee the fandom would have been more alive if the episodes were stretched at least a LITTLE to create a buzz =(

Also. Man the intro baited me xD I wish the whole show looked like that, but I understand it's unrealistic, oh well xD The show quality is not bad, it's just the intro is on another level! (wtf was that thing with Kit wings, show? Show?!)

The writing... well I guess I didn't appreciate enough shows with not-teens or mature teens xD Not gonna lie, Jentry's 'powers are not me'/'they are me how dare you'/'lets become normal together'/'nevermind go away'/'i dont like you'/'actually no i am jealous now', ugh so tiring xD It says a lot that I still like Jentry after all of this bullshit xD And like, her life became hella crazy, can't even blame her for being all over the place xD

Michael. Ah, Michael, I so wish the show didn't drop his whole power thing. Where was his talk with parents? Anything? No? Oh well. At least he has a 'good dog good boy' personality xD Untill he drops it randomly sometimes? =/

Stella, I loved her so much why was she not included more😭(do not give me the sapphic hint in the end, she should have stayed with Michael and be with Jentry, why shows keep messing with me like that xD)

Ed. Wow I have... complicated feelings about him xD He is adorable and I love him and originally I thought he'll be my fave after the intro but this spot was stollen xD The complicated feelings are connected to it...

Kit. Oh I LOVE Kit, fuck he is so tragic and complex and FUCK show for screwing him! Treating him like some special evil when Ed is Right There(what I mean is everyone being complitely fine with Ed and being on guard HARD with Kit even though Ed tried to kill Jentry too. Which is extra annoying when Ed joined Jentry after they defeated him and pushed against Cheng who he was afraid of in the first place. While Kit actively chose to not harm Jentry even though he had all the opportunities with his most treasured desire on the stakes). He had so much potential! I don't even mind his angry outbirsts in the end, the guy was going through a lot, but did they HAVE to just kill him off??? Now screw THAT >:(

Oh and uh. Overall plot is quit interesting, althought the boss rush in the end was a bit uh... okay I guess xD

Idk what future seasons there can be, despite some minor plot moments everything is wrapped.

[lampgate]

wtf is j2 fallout. i’m new to the fandom so ive heard it referenced but have no idea what it is

Okay okay so let me paint you a picture here.

It's June 2021 in the heat of post-SPN fandom. The parasocialism is at an all-time high, as well as some of the funniest bloggers Tumblr has ever had. Like, I don't think people who weren't here in 2021 understand how ACTIVE spnblr was. There were mass block lists, there were fights every day, your mutuals are getting 10k notes on spn text posts within a day. Like it was BUSY up in here and that definitely added to the chaos of this day.

Anyway. So this random day in late June, Jensen announces that he, his wife, and Robbie Thompson are producing an spn prequel together. Most of us are kind of confused and not super hopeful for it, just because most people don't really care enough about John and Mary to warrant a whole show about them...but of course we knew absolutely nothing about the plot so we couldn't say much about how it would actually go.

Tweets from past spn cast and crew start pouring in, mostly all positive, congratulating them on the show--and many of them seemingly suggesting that they already knew about the show in advance.

And then Jared tweeted THIS:

Immediately the vibe shifted. Nobody is sure if he is joking or not. the whole dash is full of "????????" and "he's just joking guys" and "he got hacked" for about 6 minutes. Before he then tweeted this:

And along with that reply, he tweeted the (now deleted) absolute funniest twitter breakdown tweet of all time:

I can't even begin to explain what the energy was like on here after these tweets were published. It was like giving unlimited amounts of tennis balls for a field of dogs to play with. EVERYBODY is online and locked in now. Nobody wants to log off just in case more happens. j2 stans were abandoning ship and choosing sides and fighting each other. destiel bloggers were having the best day of their lives. nearly every post about this is getting 10k notes. Like it was electric and I don't think even explaining it can do justice to what that day was like.

...and then in the end they did some damage control and pushed it all under the rug like nothing was ever said. the end.

[inlovewithatvstar]

talking about the morgue files

because i love this series so much and have no one to talk to about it. i stg this fandom is so small i could fit everyone in my closet and half of it is thirsting over jeff i’m sick and tired

Starting with toby’s case 😼

I loved david’s take on the character. I know it’s not exactly “true” to the original because of the whole kastoway thing (ie him not having tourette’s and things like that, but it makes sense because that was one of the most recognizable traits of the original toby’s character)

But again it’s a rewrite and he took all the best parts of toby’s character and made them 10x better+more believable. He really feels like a full fledged, multifaceted human being.

Starting with his relationship with Dr Wilson. Wilson is such a good character and it breaks my heart that the two of them couldn’t have more time together, but this is forest lawn obviously nobody can have shit. Toby absolutely had a shot at living a normal life after pinehearst and knowing he doesn’t get that :( jeff wtf.

The way he rewrote the car wreck is absolutely GUT WRENCHING and made me feel absolutely no sympathy for his parents. David is phenomenal at writing characters to make people love them or in this case absolutely despise them.

Frank and Evelyn are truly despicable human beings in their own ways. Frank is just a violent scumbag. From the day he met the kids to the day he died he was nothing but abusive .

But Evelyn, while she herself wasn’t actively violent. Her doing NOTHING while not only herself. but her CHILDREN were violently abused is equally as disgusting. The fact that she buried her own daughter to keep her husband out of trouble just shows how truly horrible she is.

Tobys relationship with the Crothers family was definitely a breath of fresh air in the story. They were both loveable, funny and genuinely kind people. Their deaths hit hard and even though toby wasn’t responsible for either, knowing it was caused by their proximity to him is just heartbreaking.

I enjoyed the incorporation of J.C in the story. Bullying from an old friend who KNOWS how difficult everything is for toby is just :( man.

The nightmare/ hallucination sequences were so well produced the sound effects had me SQUIRMING in my seat. Especially that scene with Mr wells stabbing himself. Those squelching noises EUGHHHHHH.

Overall this case set up an amazing character and so many potential arcs for toby when his character is re introduced and i’m so excited

Now case #2

Case 2 was a lot more character oriented then toby’s, since toby’s was told about him from his own perspective. Jeff’s is told by him for the most part and has many moving parts to it so i’m going to break it up by character

Starting with jeff- This series actually made jeff scary and 👏👏 bravo to that. As revealed not only in the Pinehearst sessions but throughout this case. Jeff has just been, to put it nicely, a little shit his whole life. At first I thought his dad was being unreasonable with how fed up he was with jeff. But as the story goes on it makes you realize that damn…..this guy is a piece of shit. From the way he talks about Christy, the way he treats his family, multilating animals, the list goes on. Jeff has been dealt a bad hand in life. He’s been picked on for his albinism, gotten into a lot of fights. But that’s not what’s wrong with him. Jeff is the problem.

I will admit Jeff getting jumped by Paul and the rollins gang felt a bit random. And i don’t even mean that as a criticism because it doesn’t mess with the tone of this story at all. The story is very campy and the rollins gang and the random british psycho doesn’t change the vibe. I just find it funny that this english rando showed up and absolutely K.O’d him 😭

jeff’s design after getting attacked is SICK. He’s not this hot emo guy. nah that man is HORRIFYING. and it honestly suits his character. The whole night of murder isn’t because he “snapped” or had a feeling or any of that dumb shit. he is literally just a sick person who has ALWAYS wanted to kill people. AND HE DOESNT FEEL BAD IF BRO DIDNT GET CAUGHT HE WOULD HAVE KEPT GOING.

overall I adore the way jeff is written and he’s such a fun villain because absolutely NO ONE is rooting for him.

Now onto Liu!!- Liu was (at least in my opinion) such a loveable character. I’m honestly very excited to see him written well for once😭. David obviously did his research when incorporating his D.I.D into the story. The two things that weren’t as realistic as they could have been were for one, the voices for his alters are very dramatic. But storytelling wise I understand why they were so dramatic. Because you can’t see Liu’s face or his body language to see who’s who. So for the listeners it makes sense. The other thing is normally the “switches” wouldn’t be as quick as they were portrayed but again, it’s a short audio story and Liu was not the main focus so i understand wanting to get the point of the scene across as fast as possible.

But as far as his character goes I loved him the whole way through. He was funny, you can tell he really cares for his family and he was so sweet :(. This man could not catch a break. In the pinehearst sessions jeff basically admits he has been torturing this mf since he was BORN. beat him up?? killed his bunny?? you name it he did it. But with all that being said it does confuse me that their parents said that the two used to be close. When throughout the case + Pinehearst sessions jeff never seemed to care for liu? I’m just assuming liu blocked it out given sully’s obvious disdain for jeff😭

I thought incorporating mr widemouth in the overall narrative through lius storyline worked very well. I’m ngl sully crashing out at least every 25 minutes was 100% justified if i lived with jeff and had a monster in my closest and no one believed me i’d be PISSED OFF. Except for when he was with dr wilson man was just doing his job. But i would love to see another session with him because the short one we had was very interesting! Very excited to see him in future cases.

Now onto their parents- The writing on his parents was PHENOMENAL 👏👏

As I already talked about jeff has been a little shit his whole life, and Liu’s got his own stuff going on. So him being fed up with them for the first half of the story is totally reasonable. But when his family needed him. He stepped up. Phenomenal man to the end👏👏

Their mom was such a sweetheart :(. She obviously cared so much that by the end she just couldn’t bring herself to keep caring. But she never stopped loving her family and I think that’s so sweet. She’s very joyce byers throughout this whole case and her death hurt me the most. Even JEFF knew she didn’t deserve that.

All the side character like Sherman, Christy. and Spencer i loved. I know Spencer was an asshole but he was SO funny 😭

Cutting it off here for now i’ll talk about 3 and 4 in another post 😈

[madara-fate]

Sometimes I don't understand these people

How is a woman supporting a man, sexist? What is wrong with being supportive? That's not called sexism that's traditionalism, these people force their own views on others and it's infuriating sometimes.

Didn't Naruto say he likes Hinata?

Didn't Sasuke thank Sakura ?

Wasn't Shikamaru greatful when Temari came to his aid, didn't you see the fondness in his face

Most of the complaints there are untrue.

Wtf do they want Mikoto to do? Play ninja while her sons are infants. They want her to be a bad mother. What just to chase a career of death.

And no Sakura isn't a bad mom, she prioritizes Sarada over her work. We see her spend more time with Sadara and being a good mom.

I don't understand it,do they want a man in a woman's body? Sakura Hinata Kushina and Mikoto chose family over work because they are good women. They are selfless and love their families. And that Hinata is basically a pacifist.

Heck Tsunade who I reckon as the best of them all is still devoted to her love and family (Dan and Nawaki). After all she became Hokage for them if I remember correctly.

Btw is Mikoto even a Jonin?! I remember Sasuke saying fucking toddler Itachi is better than her in shuriken jutsu.

Kaguya is the origins behind chakra but it's Zetsu that causes all the problems. It was he who planned her resurrection and it was he who brainwashed the Uchiha.

Most of the story men were villains so when a woman is finally the villain it's suddenly sexist?

I don't get the sexism in here tbh

"Sexism" is another one of those annoying buzzwords that people just love to carelessly throw around and grossly misuse in this fandom, right up there with "misogyny", "homophobic" and "fangirl". Everything that person said is complete and utter unadulterated nonsense, everything. I was actually left dumbfounded by the sheer level of absurdity emanating from what I just read. I thought I had read it all in the Naruto fandom but fucking hell, there are literally no bounds to the amount of drivel people can spew in this fandom.

So apparently, every single female character was defined by her relationships to men, and most of them were also boy-crazy. I'm not gonna bother listing a plethora of female characters proving this statement to be idiotic, but it also shows how much of the female cast's characters this person is ignoring by claiming how all of them are defined by their relationships to men.

People love to say how someone like Sakura was "obsessed with Sasuke", despite the fact that by their logic, Naruto was even more obsessed with Sasuke. But then they'll try and counter by highlighting his other relationships with Jiraiya, Iruka etc. As if Sakura didn't have her own other relationships with Tsunade, Ino, Hinata etc. They think someone like Ino is "boy-crazy", as if she didn't have very prominent and platonic relationships with Shikamaru, Choji, Asuma and her father. The relationships she had with them were far more prominent and important than her romantic relationships, but this person will of course ignore all of that and insinuate that Ino was boy-crazy, as if the romantic relationships were all her character amounted to.

Apparently, Shikamaru not being shown to marry Temari during his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream is evidence that he actively dislikes her. God only knows how they reached that conclusion.

Sai ultimately didn't find Ino ugly, as evidenced by Shikamaru Hiden's conclusion.

The amount of times Naruto has praised and held Hinata in high regard... The blood promise during the Chuunin Exams, the "Proud Failure" speech, him reassuring her during the skirmish with the White Zetsus, the hand holding scene, the entirety of The Last...

Sasuke called Sakura annoying at the very beginning, but she became one of his most precious comrades, as he himself stated.

This person literally picks and chooses where the story just ends for certain characters because they just ignore all of the later developments for these characters and their relationships.

Another stupid generalisation, acting as if all men who showed some measure of interest in women were just like Jiraiya or Ebisu.

Not every scene depicting Naruto's crush on Sakura showed goofy immaturity and innocence, and his growing feelings for Hinata certainly didn't demonstrate that.

Lee's crush on Sakura wasn't dropped entirely, they were brought up again during his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream.

So because Obito retained his feelings for Rin into adulthood, it means he was still the same childish boy? So by this person's logic, you can only truly grow up once you've moved on from the romantic feelings you had as a child? That's the same ridiculous argument I hear about Sakura - she developed in so many different ways as a person, but because she held on to her feelings for Sasuke, all of her development doesn't matter and her character regressed according to these people. It's pathetic.

"Women were almost always healers and support", despite the fact that 57% of all the Medic-Nins shown in the series were male, yeah I did my research on that one.

"Women make up less than 1/3 of ninjas even at Genin level", no. The ratio is definitely in favour of the male characters, but it's not that large. But that's to be expected, it's a battle shounen catered to young boys, so of course there will be more male characters. The vast majority of battle shounens have noticeably more male characters - Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen just to name a few.

"Girls are almost all desperate to become wives and earn the attention of boys who don't even like them!", more blanket statements, more gross generalisations based on the early chapters of one or two characters, and more misinformation regarding boys who apparently didn't like them.

Who the hell ever said or even remotely implied that Fugaku "married into the main family"?

To answer your question about Mikoto though, she was indeed a Jonin, but Itachi being better than her at something ninja related as a toddler isn't surprising, he was a literal prodigy.

Minato was the Hokage because he earned that title due to his unprecedented skills and accomplishments during the Third Shinobi War. Just because Kushina was "borderline royalty" and from a prestigious clan doesn't mean that she had more of a right to be the Hokage. Was she more competent as a leader than Minato was? Did she have the same level of respect in the village that Minato did? Was she more capable of defending the village than Minato was? No. If she had done what Minato had done during the War, and she wasn't Kurama's Jinchuuriki, then perhaps Hiruzen would have chosen her as his successor instead. There was no sexism in the choice of Hokage for fuck's sake.

How the hell can this person exaggerate Kushina's status by claiming that she was "borderline royalty", while simultaneously severely downplaying Minato's prestige by ignoring everything he had done to earn the Hokage title, and not see the glaring double standard? They're complaining about how Kushina's credentials were apparently ignored, while they themselves were ignoring Minato's.

Wow, the reach here is insane. This person really just wants to feel victimised from non existent sexism. The vast majority of the "sins" committed in the series were done by men, but we'll just ignore that I guess, like they chose to ignore so many other things proving their claims to be preposterous.

Kishi has no idea the sexism is there because it's not fucking there. However, nowhere did he claim that the women have "epic girl power", and at least with regards to Sakura, he openly acknowledged the errors that he made when writing her as the heroine. I won't dignify this person's further bullshit about the men apparently hating their wives, their loveless marriages, men being forced to marry women they don't like and Kishi apparently blaming women for this. It's just a bunch of baseless bullshit, like everything else they said.

[eobe]

My dearest folks and wanderers, who come around…

Currently I’m overwhelmed of how much love and reactions I get in here 🥰 Thank you all so much! I‘m sending big Wrecker hugs to all of you 🤩✨🙏 Before I return full force to drawing Star Wars fanart, have a rare original artwork of mine – my current awake internal processing dragon ✨🐉

Somewhere it is told that those clumsy, precious-hoarding and -staring lizards, feigning intelligence for big effect, should bring luck allegedly 😂🤷🏽‍♀️ I‘m not sure about that, but the scale hatching pattern looks nice and was dopamining for me to draw, so yeah 🤩✨

Announcements and statements

have a caf for those ☺️☕️🫶

Things happened and things may happen and I‘m always open for messages, no matter if request, feedback or deep talk – be sure it’ll be with an open ear, respect and caf vibe 😀☕️ I‘m serious with important things, but I‘m not willing to discuss important things emotionally loaded. Agitated hearts aren‘t wise, only agitated – so I won‘t accept quarrel invitations 😂 This is the way 🤷🏽‍♀️

Holidays were weird 🤯 I got sick, I got unsettled, I did my first fanfiction-y writing (wtf? I write?) and my developing artstyle decided to unsettle me additionally, confusing my WIP and a genuinely asking feeling what for Maker’s sake is actually happening ❤️‍🩹

So with all my current whatevers I got inspired to do some more clarifications 🙏✨

What is that Chaos Squad thing?

For those who don’t know – don’t get confused, the „Chaos Squad“ is working on a definition and is in it’s finding phase 😂 As I see this, we‘re fun chaotic artists / writers / else collab group and want people to enjoy fun and inspiring-each-other-into-creating escalations with us in the Star Wars fandom 🤩🫶✨

I can only speak for myself, but like some others of us, I play with my Star Wars OCs and the art-, reblog- or comment-chaos gets OC „flavoured“. But I’m not a roleplayer 😀 I stay artist Eobe and use for Chaos Squad activities my OCs mainly to give myself an art- and scene-fitting face insert in our together creations! ☺️ Feel yourself always invited to reach out if you want to ask something! ☕️

This is an artblog and it stays an artblog ✍️ my focus is doing art, collabs and interactions mainly in the Star Wars universe, but I love to do art and crossovers with other fandoms if I like 🤩✨… or some more original art, if I manage to get over my actual shyness 😗

Eobe entering AO3

sounds like a threat 😂 I‘m almost sure I would even do threats not without offering a caf ☕️ what am I hihihi

I’m on AO3 now and dragon is my pfp in AO3!

Gorgeous @eclec-tech 🫶 lured me back to AO3 as co-creator for continuing „The Spicy Fox“ story ☕️🦊! Check it out, the new chapter is so much fun to read and I love to have the honor to accompany it with my artworks – a new one freshly added at the end of the chapter, already showing some progress in my artstyle (if my eyes aren’t jinxed like everything else seems to be currently 😱)! The artwork will get its own posting of course, but I wanted to opt in back to you all with dragon 🐉✨

As I also absolutely unforeseen managed to write a „thing“ despite blockades – my unintroduced clone OC took over when I was massively unsettled and started his Matrix / Undercover coded loner mission against the inhibitor chips, knowing way too much… I think I call it „The Source Code“ 👀✨ and I‘m very tempted to deliver you the continuation that already roughs my brain (some were also asking for it 🙈 thank you so much)!

So long story short (what a joke actually!? 😂)

There will be more art again soon hopefully (and maybe even those writings? Whatever maintenance is currently happening in my head 😂)

I‘m absolutely looking forward ☝️🤩✨

Taglist – for information: @lonewolflupe @bixlasagna @returnofthepineapple @sunshinesdaydream @covert1ntrovert @general-ida-raven @vrycurious @dystopicjumpsuit @chaicilatte @groguandthebadbatch @ladylucksrogue @spaceyjessa @morerandombullshit @freesia-writes

[cramathonn]

Thoughts on Jane and Seth as a couple? And fun headcanons about them if you have any?

Ohoho, heck YEAAAH

I love Jane x Seth, they're so cute

Teasing dom woman and dense af submissive and pure man who she can ABSOLUTELY suplex (he'd let her but not without a fight, would so consider it training)

But like, I had a thought before this one and it was just

"Tom and Jerry but make them humans and Jerry is trans and a dominatrix" – My brain about Jane x Seth

And headcanons about them? Hmm, I think Jane would have a hard time spending time with Seth due to her missions and all, but she would try to make time, absolutely.

Seth would SOOO try to get her to come to his family time weekends. I mean, that's his gf, she's family now so like, family weekends with parents AND hot gf? Sign him up!!!

Seth is also the shyest boyo in the planet. Don't het me wrong, he IS dense as fuck, but once he gets the hint? Oh, he's blushing, oh he's hiding behind his tail and turning around to Jane cannot see his face (she loves seeing him all flushed and shy, that's her recharger, your honor)

I also can see them having sparring dates and training dates. Seth is a very hardworking individual and constantly tries to improve his physical capabilities. Considering that Jane EASILY bested him in their first encounter, he'd obviously want to constantly spar with her like, PLEAAAASE TEACH HIM HOW TO BE NIMBLE ON HIS FEET HE IS BEGGING

NSFW headcanons ahead! So if you're a Minor, please stop here!

Jane if VERY naughty. Like, have you SEEN her trailers??? That woman is the incarnation of Aphrodite AND Dionysus combines (aka she's the incarnation of SEX). So like, she will absolutely go down on Seth. Also, T4T Jane x Seth anyone?

But like, since so many ppl see Jane and Seth as Tom and Jerry, may I offer you transfem Jane, the queen of tucking? Like, Seth had NOOO idea she was trans and when he found out he just found her like, 10x hotter.

Like, imagine your girlfriend, who you know is strong af and sooo fucking cunning, finally tells you she is trans and you just "Omfg my girlfrend is so fucking strong and determined and beautiful and she has such a huge di-"

Seth is a virgin, I'm sorry but that SHOULD be common knowledge between all in the fandom. Like, bro has NO game due to how dense and blunt he is. While Jane has THE game, like, even Belle said she had rizz for fuck's sake! That woman is bisexual hazard in a way that she CAUSES the hazard and is, most possibly, a lot of people's bi awakenings (I just know some poor straight woman is looking at her going like "Wtf, why is she so pretty holy shit I wanna date her" and having to stop and rethink their entire history with sexual and/or romantic attraction)

Either way, Seth is prideful but not in an arrogant way, so I'm having a hard time deciding if he would vehemently deny that he's a virgin or if he would just... Say it. NO WAIT, BETTER OUTCOME. Jane is making out with him and he's so nervous and he has a boner (or his pussy is wet, live your headcanons to the fullest!) and Jane teases him about it and he's so so anxious and nervous and shy and gosh she catches on that it's his first time so quickly and she asks him about it and I can just SEE his ears pressing against his head in shame and him slowly nodding without making eye contact....

Soft first time. Jane is SO caring with him for his first time. Ngl, they probably continue to go soft for the first couple of times before Seth is comfortable with experiencing... But I feel like he would be very vanilla even after experimenting (is also very traditional with the "sex is supposed to be romantic" thought and that almost fucks up his first time until Jane calmed him down through it and just... Told him it doesn't need to be romantic and it can just be a fun and enjoyable activity)

Either way, Jane is kinky af, she was a dominatrix once and you CANNOT take that away from me. She revels when Seth lets her go rough on him and she's like, the queen of aftercare, change my mind

Very healthy couple who respects each other's boundaries. She knows she has to be blunt and very literal with Seth so that he can get things and he kinda appreciates it, since it's not always that people understand his problem with getting social clues or context hints. He hated it at the beginning, thinking Jane was babying him, but he quickly understood that he wouldn't be able to understand her boundaries as well of she didn't do that, so he talked to her that day and thanked her PROFUSELY (they ended up cuddling in bed after that)

[tryndei]

now it's turn for the tf2 fandom.

firstly, YES the way people portray scout(and pyro) as kids is so stupid

you see the only silly and mocking side of him when he laughs at his enemies during the battle and does stupid things just like every other man of his age(yes adults may act silly and make dumb mistakes too) so you assume that he is an immature and childish teenage boy that can't handle anything without being guided by older men around him?

scout also has father issues but that does not make him a damn child in the company of adults as an adult can also have father issues / mother issues if you didn't know + the fact that he loves his mother does not make him a baby boy as well, after all sniper loves his mother too and he is(almost?) of the same age as scout, he is just less active during fights and more silent, but no one sees him as a child :))))

i am not even talking about how you people call scout twink when his body is literally athletic, but not muscular and his age is close to 30, like seriously, there are no twinks in this team calm down already + the ranks are shit.

and don't get me started on the fandom's view of spy, how they call him the main villain of the story because he left scout and his mother, although he LOVES scout's mother and CARES for his son, he REGRETS not being able to raise jeremy in past

you can see how he calms this child, probably missing this time when his own son was in this age, realising that he will never go back to this time and make it up, trying to nurture someone else's boy instead

and this literally shows that spy regrets not telling his son how proud he is

spy also carried photos of him and his beloved woman

he is ready to do literally everything for scout's mother

and you say that he is an asshole.

PAIRINGS AND DYNAMICS IN THIS FANDOM ARE SOMETHING ELSE no because i can't stand how some portray sniper as a dominant alpha or anything and spy / scout are almost feminised like bro ALL OF THEM ARE MEN they are almost similar in size(scout may be a bit smaller than sniper and scout) they are able to take responsibility of themselves they are able to work and receive payment wtf- this just looks cringe srry

but i guess that there i should stop talking, anyway many of you clearly do not understand the characters and i am really tired of it :^

[rallamajoop]

The Baker Incident Report and the Resident Evil 7 Guidebook

While I’m talking obscure sources of RE7 lore, there's a couple more I’ve been poking through lately: the Baker Incident Report file (only available with the RE8 Trauma Pack DLC), and the BIOHAZARD 7 resident evil kaitaishinsho or RE7 guidebook (only available in Japanese, though some translations have made their way online).

I’m not the biggest fan of these kinds of ‘canon’ – fans shouldn’t have to go pouring through pages of DLC-exclusive-text-dumps or untranslated supplements to find out WTF was supposed to be going on – and both of these have other problems I’ll get into below. All that said, here's some of the more interesting new info they give us.

From the BIR, the Winters were moved to ‘Eastern Europe’, as witness protection from the Connections. That's still frustratingly unspecific, but more than we’re ever explicitly told in the game.

The lab that created Eveline is in Munich, Germany, per the BIR. This one does add up: close enough to Eastern Europe for Miranda to be involved, but not so close that it would necessarily ring alarm bells for Mia when the BSAA wanted to move them right to Miranda’s doorstep. Mia’s obviously been to the Munich lab, but presumably didn’t know exactly where the mould comes from (something redacted out even in their own reports). The guidebook also places the lab in Europe, but doesn't give a city. The BIR adds that the Connections are active in Eastern Europe, and we know they have facilities in Central America. Presumably there are offices in Texas too ‒ Mia can't be commuting cross continents to get to work every day.

Eveline was shipped to Central America due to an attempted raid by the BSAA, which is far more we learn from the "Orders" file from the game. The BIR goes so far as to imply that this botched operation was indirectly responsible for the whole Baker Incident, with Chris and his team leaving due to their frustration with the BSAA's attempts to cover the incident up. The guidebook, however, tells us Chris Redfield was actually the guy leading the team behind the failed raid. I assume we’re meant to take it that the mission failed because of an info leak, but I’m still amused by just how ineffectual this franchise keeps making Chris out to be.

Post RE7, Zoe is working as a reporter for a small paper in New Orleans. We don't know if she too went through witness protection but her name was listed among the dead at the Baker mansion.

Ethan is called a systems engineer in both the guide book and the BIR (this one does seem to have been spread around fandom more widely).

Eveline was created in the early 2000s, according to the guidebook. This one really doesn't add up for me: if the project started in 2000 and had already advanced through the A-E series by the early 2000s, why did it stagnate there for the next 10 years without further progress? Did Miranda leaving the project set it back so far? They can't have been waiting for Eveline to grow up, she can age 25x faster than usual, and is being deliberately maintained at the age of a 10yo girl. IDEK, I'd be inclined to ignore this one.

The guidebook states that Mia told people she worked for a "trading company," and was often away from home for work, something which had already strained the Winters’ marriage. I'd guess she told people she spent a lot of time accompanying shipments of goods when she was really smuggling materials or taking part in covert operations for the Connections.

The guidebook gives 2010 as the year she started working for the Connections (a year before her marriage to Ethan in 2011, though it doesn’t mention when they met, which may well have been 2010 or earlier). Mind you, this is also the one bit that randomly calls her "a researcher", so take it as you will (more on this below).

Of Mia's involvement with the project that created Eveline, it says only that the Connections' Special Agents Alan and Mia were assigned to transport Eveline to America. No real indication Mia was ever involved before then.

Of Mia's relationship to Eveline, it says that Mia "found Eveline creepy, but felt sympathy for her lonely situation." You and the rest of us, Mia.

Eveline forced Mia to lure Ethan to the Bakers' property in hope that adding Ethan to their family would make Mia more compliant, according to the guidebook. Eveline was especially fixated on Mia, having known her longer than the Bakers, and was frustrated with Mia's continued resistance to her control. Mia seems to have tried to keep Ethan's existence secret from Eveline to protect him, but somehow let it slip. All this is already implied in-game, of course, but it's nice to have it spelt out.

The Bakers feed people infected food because “oral and mucosal infections” are supposedly better for mould-powered mind-control. Ethan is obviously already infected AF well before their attempts to feed him 'dinner' (there's no way his severed hand would be usable otherwise), but IDK, maybe ingesting some extra mould would have made it easier for Eveline to control him? I'm sure a 10yo girl and a family of hillbillies do not have this down to an exact science, and I wouldn't even be surprised if feeding people mould was counter-productive somehow, given their success rate.

So why did none of those infected prisoners join Eveline's "family" alongside the Bakers? The guide book tells us simply that all were "deemed unfit" as family members, and were thus killed, and converted into molded instead.

We get official names for all the molded types we meet in the game (Moulded, Blade Moulded, Quick Moulded and Fat Moulded – pretty self-explanatory).

As a side-note, Ethan himself gets referred to as a ‘molded’ around this fandom a lot, which really isn’t correct. Ethan’s infected by the mold in the same manner as the Baker family, whereas ‘molded’ is a term coined to describe what amounts to mutamycete zombies (see above): the unintelligent, inhuman monsters that made up the generic enemy types of RE7, whose whole bodies are simply “superorganisms formed of countless mycelia.”

The guide book also implies that Jack’s final, mutated form reflects that he’s starting to become a moulded himself, which is a very interesting little detail.

Notes attached to concept art suggest that most moulded are created from dead bodies, covered by mould in bathtubs to convert them. Eveline is also seen spontaneously converting people to shapeless mould though, and clearly converted much of the ship’s crew into moulded-creatures in a very short time after her escape. It’s not super-consistent, but it is all horror-logic at its best (read: the rules are whatever will make this scene scarier).

There’s a bunch of additional stuff in the BIR naming the Connections’ founder as Brandon Bailey, someone who naturally has ties to Umbrella, blah, blah, blah ‒ I’m sure it all means more to fans of some of the older games. I can't pretend to have much interest in this part myself.

So with all that interesting info, what's my big problem with these sources? Well, for one thing, you don’t have to look far into the guidebook to find info that contradicts what we already know – and sometimes even itself. One page clearly describes Mia as a special agent working for the Connections ‒ a description that matches the wording used in the Orders document, and everything we see Mia doing in the game. But then another page randomly tells us Mia was hired as "a researcher" ‒ a description that matches nothing else we know about her (though it's an irritatingly common misconception, and this book may be the reason why). No-one's checking any of this stuff for consistency.

The guidebook also features such other gems as telling us Ethan currently lives and works in Los Angeles, when both Mia’s driver’s license and all geographical logic tell us they’re from Texas. Then there's that weird bit about Eveline being created in the early 2000s... and realistically, I can only assume a lot of what made it into the book may have come from earlier concept notes that were never updated as the story developed ‒ and if you read anything else on the production of this game, you'd know that concepts changed massively as development went on.

But more frustrating is everything the book doesn’t tell us. There isn’t a word said about the oh-so-mysterious "imprinting protocol" that Mia references in the game. How does it work? Is it, as the ending text spiel seems to imply, merely something that can be implemented in a hurry when Eveline needs to be transported across the globe? Can she be imprinted on more than one person at once? Has she ever been imprinted on anyone else? That seems likely, given that the lab’s in Munich while Mia lives in Texas (and if she's really been around since the early 2000s and Mia joined the company only in 2010, she logically must have been), but we don’t find out. Does Eveline get similarly obsessed with everyone she’s imprinted on, or is Mia special? Not a clue.

Since the guidebook was released in March 2017, long before the Not a Hero and End of Zoe DLCs, neither expansion is mentioned in the text. And since we don’t even learn the name ‘The Connections’ until the Not A Hero DLC, the group that created Eveline is referred to simply as the “mysterious organisation” (with quotes) whenever it comes up.

Nothing is said in the guidebook about the new incarnation of Umbrella which was so prominently involved at the end of RE7 either. Possibly, this too was to avoid spoilers for Not A Hero, which does at least give us some info on them – but then, the Baker Incident Report doesn’t mention the new Umbrella at all either, and it doesn’t have that excuse. That omission is all the stranger, considering that Zoe’s whole purpose in writing it is supposedly to expose the cover-up after the Baker Incident – doesn’t Umbrella factor into that at all? It’s like their whole role in RE7 has just wiped clean.

It's also obvious there was so much more lore written for this game that the guide book doesn’t share. Early versions of collectable documents that can still be found in the game files give the D-series head and arm some fascinating backstory, but there’s nothing about them in the guide book, which is a real shame.

Mia especially stands out as a character who must have so much backstory we never hear anything about. How did she get involved with a company as evil as the Connections? How did she justify it to herself for so long – what excuses did she make to herself? Did she genuinely believe they were finding ways to win wars without losing soldiers? Was she gathering evidence against them, was she scared they’d kill her if she left? Not one single word in either the guidebook or the BIR to explain.

Even more annoying to me, though, is just what a wasted opportunity the Baker Incident Report is to add more to Zoe’s story, when she’s one of my favourite RE characters. Included in the text is a letter she received from Mia, giving what should have been the perfect opportunity to flesh out the relationship Zoe and Mia must have built in the three years they spent trapped in the Baker property, the only two (semi-)sane people present – and what does the letter do? Imply they hardly knew each other at all. It’s the most boring possible answer, it contradicts hints from the actual game (Marguerite outright tells us they've been working together, even!), and GDI, you do not get to tell me that my girls didn’t know each other! ;_;

Ethan and Mia similarly get the short shrift. Throughout RE7 their every interaction is building to a big scene that never actually happens where Ethan finds out the truth – Ethan knows Mia’s been keeping secrets, he never stops asking questions about it, and Mia says outright that she wants to come clean. So what does the BIR tell us? Well, post RE7, Mia mentions in an interview that she doesn’t want anyone telling Ethan. Not a word about what changed her mind. Not a word about why Ethan would just stop asking. Total cop-out.

And there’s so much more it could have covered too. There's nothing about Ethan’s ‘military training’. Nothing about the Winters' relationship with Chris. Mia’s conversation with him in RE8 suggests he was personally involved in relocating them to Eastern Europe, but the BIR doesn’t mention that either. The BIR at large is basically just an extended lore dump, and it doesn’t even sound like Zoe’s voice.

So this is about where I finish up with both of these sources: frustrating, inaccessible, inconsistent, and more missed opportunities than real material. There’s a lot in both I’ll happily go on ignoring. But I’ll still pour through them for every last interesting detail, because I am that obsessed with this canon right now, and they’re what we’ve got.