#i am so passionate about loving this stuff.

[noa-nightingale]

Finally had the time and energy to write a list about ep 55 of Pod Watcher (055: We Talk About The Past Year), so here are some things mentioned in that video about the WatcherTV announcement.

Steven said deciding to paywall most of their new content was one of the worst decisions they ever made.

Ryan said they hoped it would make the company more sustainable and they would be able to support their staff members, and that was the primary reason for the decision. He said after realizing what a mistake they had made, they tried to find a better solution that was "more inclusive of all the folks that have helped get us to this point" (i.e. their audience/fans).

Shane acknowledged that people don't react this passionately to things they don't care about.

Shane said some comments went over the line.

Steven said their viewers have to be at the heart of their content.

The shows they make on Watcher are a lot cheaper than the shows they made on Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed Unsolved had more people on staff than their entire company currently has.

Ryan said there was a lot of shame around having made a mistake and having hurt people. He talked about questioning his self-image. He said it took time to grapple with it and that's one of the reasons it has taken so long for them to talk about everything.

They are still figuring out how to make their company and the things they do sustainable.

They took a look at their shows to figure out what is the heart and core of them and what is not necessary (and where costs could be reduced).

Making Travel Season was cheaper than Puppet History and Ghost Files. (And Shane mentioned he saw people weaponizing Steven's ~gold eating~ - I want to mention this specifically because I am still angry about those comments.)

They dropped the "TV caliber content". Steven said this thing that was meant as a positive thing in the beginning became how to reach an imaginary bar that did not actually matter. He says the new bar is how to connect to and inspire their viewers, to be curious and do things they love and care about.

Ryan talked about the ego involved in wanting to push things further and making "TV caliber content" and said that the aftermath of the streamer announcement was an opportunity to refocus on what is actually important.

Steven said he asked around the company what their employees think about Watcher and the word that came up a lot was curiosity - they all care about curiosity and exploration.

Ryan said that sometimes you get misguided and need a smack on the head to get back on track - he said that the reaction to the streamer announcement was the biggest smack on the head he'd ever gotten and that he is grateful for it.

Steven apologized (again) for saying that anyone can afford $6 and that is was insensitive of him. Shane clarified that it was a thing they all released and that there was a lot of scapegoating on Steven.

They did not want to take the Goodbye Youtube down until they had the conversation and without unpacking everything. They want to take it down because it has info in it that is not true anymore. It's not about running away from it.

Steven thanked people for giving constructive criticism.

They talked about the future (very exciting!) and that they looked at what people want to see (which fortunately is also what they themselves want to make).

There will be more Ghost Files and more Mystery Files in 2025.

The channel will lean more into the paranormal, the mystery, the spooky.

Puppet History is coming back!

The food content will be moved to a new home (a new youtube channel). It will still be under Watcher's umbrella.

There will be bonus content on the streamer, including experimental things, new things, exlusive stuff (and Evidence Room lol). The videos will be there one month early and ad-free.

Watcher's discord got migrated over from patreon - if you have access to the streamer, you also have access to the discord.

Kudos to Matty for occasionally interjecting and asking important questions and guiding the conversation.

I tried to keep this short but there was a lot. I still highly recommend watching the entire video. It is not only very introspective but also a fascinating look into the Behind the Scenes at Watcher.

I watched the entire podcast episode again and while I love listening to Steven, Ryan and Shane, it was a bit emotionally draining. Would appreciate a few reblogs. :)

Thanks for reading! <3

[anbaisai]

Finally had time to sit down and write, but honestly there’s not much to be said other than thank you to everyone who wrote a message on my tree! I really enjoyed reading every single message and screenshotting to save them into a folder for when I need a lil boost ww (including one from Mr. Viper himself above that got a laugh out of me, thanks Jamil really appreciate you thinking I’m cool)

Some sappiness under the cut:

I never expected to receive this much support for my silly yume/oc ship content when I began posting, and I really don’t have the words to express how grateful I am. I’ve met many wonderful people through this fandom, and also just had lots of fun in general making art. I mean it when I say I genuinely never had this much motivation and inspiration to create for any fandom (or original content) in the past. There was a long, long period in my life during which trying to find even a crumb of motivation to draw felt impossible. There was always some reason that I couldn’t - be it school/life being too busy, feeling too tired, having other stuff to do first, etc. I thought I’d never rediscover my love and passion for art, until I finally pushed myself to design my Yuu for real (instead of just thinking about it) and then everything just snowballed from there. (For context, I began playing TWST in 2020 and, despite being very much in love with it, only began drawing anything for it this year.)

I have such a massive list of ideas that I still want to draw (plus several asks that I want to answer that I just haven’t had the time to yet), so I’m certainly going to be kept busy for a while. After previously making every excuse possible for not drawing, I’ve learned that yeah, once you really love something you will squeeze time out for it no matter how hard things get, because it kills you not to. All those times when I wondered when I’d ever be able to draw as much as my favourite artists now feel like a distant relic of the past, and I have Twisted Wonderland (especially Jamil) and this community to thank for it. If anyone reading this is going through something similar, I promise it gets better - you will need to put in the effort to make it start, but you will get there.

There’s also my past experiences of being in fandoms that, well, did not welcome yume/self-shipping type content. If I so much as thought of creating any, the fear of being ridiculed would make me back away from the idea immediately. I’m glad to see that sentiment seems to be no longer the norm, but also the TWST fandom has been one of the most supportive of yume content I’ve ever seen. To everyone wanting to participate but has been hesitating, you absolutely should! My only regret is not starting sooner, seriously. In a sense I feel like I'm fulfilling a childhood dream of mine, and all of my past hesitation and anxiety just dissipated once... as cringe as it sounds - once love took over. So go pour your love and passion into that character you adore, they deserve it.

Anyways, wishing everyone a happy holidays and happy new year! Here’s to another year of enjoying TWST and creating for the things we love ❤

[theganymedes]

if you ever see me having a three page long internal monologue socratic seminar ted talk video essay breakdown discussion post in someone’s reblogs, just know that you should read that story expeditiously.

[prismsoup]

Do people also have that horrible random moment when your brain bullies you for not knowing enough about a topic you consider yourself passionate about ?

[superscourge]

i love when im minding my own business and then im hit with the extreme intense love for drawing sonic with the force of a train

[ducktracy]

i've been in a very "nostalgic for SpongeBob" mood lately and that's warranted a lot of reflecting on Baby Me being a Sponge fanatic and thinking of what she'd think of now. and i have to say that one of my favorite parts of doing what i do--and also the most stupidly niche--is that one of my first online hyperfixations i recall having was SpongeBob production music. i remember animating magical girl transformations in Flipnote to SPONGEBOB MUSIC. i remember feeling so smart researching all the songs and getting to hear them without any dialogue on top. very gratifying to 11 year old me. i was and am still very fixated on production music, and so i always get very excited when seeing uploads of these songs and spotting a screenshot of a scene i worked on among them. one of my favorite aspects of watching episodes premiere is seeing what music they added on top of scenes i touched. it's just neat how many facets my thankfulness for Doing What I'm Doing gets to reach. i'm never not thinking of how grateful i am to be doing what i'm doing

[crescentfool]

i've been doing a bunch of tartarus runs in reload lately, and it got me thinking about how i miss certain ways FES's clunky gameplay can characterize minato… (ramble about the great clock mechanic + leveling up party members in reload vs fes under the cut)

when i got to yabbashah block in tartarus (block 3), i remember commending the developers for adding the great clock mechanic. it's a much more convenient way to keep party members at the protagonist's level- so when you think about p3 from the perspective of trying to make it easier for people to play, the mechanic succeeds in this respect.

but now that i'm in adamah block, and that i've done lots of my once-a-month tartarus runs… i think that i got a little too dependent on it, and the way that i played through reload feels like a vastly different experience from how i played FES.

in reload, my party's levels are very lopsided. minato, yukari, akihiko, mitsuru, and fuuka are all level 90+, meanwhile junpei and aigis are at level 79, and then… poor ken and koromaru are at 71 and 64 respectively. (i never got to have a great clock for them…)

meanwhile, in FES, my party's levels were much more evenly distributed and were at least level 90. i did all of this manually for every monthly tartarus run because i enjoyed having options available for the taratarus guardians and monthly operations.

with how i perceive minato, i feel that the way i played FES feels more in-line with his character than me dawdling around waiting for the great clocks in reload.

FES's gameplay loop left me with the very strong impression that minato has to work twice as hard as everyone else in SEES does. it makes sense because, yeah, he's the leader, but something about having minato run through tartarus multiple times with different groups of people just to make sure that they are adequately prepared speaks volumes about his character, to me.

and while the tired mechanic is present in reload to some degree, most notably with allowing you to freely raise your courage stat when you visit edogawa after school… the tiredness system doesn't hit the same way that FES does, i think.

the way your party members in FES will call it quits when they return to the entrance floor at tartarus when they're tired, versus minato, in spite of all his tiredness and sickness, still pushes through tartarus because it's his responsibility…. idk!!! i miss that! i feel like this really hammers home the difference between minato and the rest of SEES, how minato doesn't really see himself as a human with needs worth respecting as long as he's useful to someone.

i don't think that tartarus being tedious (in FES especially) is not what most people would describe as fun, and i can respect people thinking it's a slog. but, regardless of how it feels to play, it doesn't change that FES's gameplay loop is a fundamental building block in how i perceive minato…

of course, i do recognize that you can just opt to NOT use the great clock in reload (and it's great when players are offered the choice to not partake in mechanics)! i definitely think that if someone really wanted to, they could manually level up party members, but i do feel that kind of playstyle isn't necessarily "incentivized" to the type of people who are into playing games for Having a Good Time. it's kind of like… "why would you do that when there's a much more convenient option available to you."

in any case! despite my woes, i do want to emphasize that i'm glad that reload has a much more smoother gameplay loop than the original P3 did, because it does make the game more accessible to people. having played both FES and reload, it feels very strongly apparent to me how the core gameplay formula of persona has really been refined in the past 18 years (to think og p3 was 2006 and reload is 2024.. time flies!). and reload has made revisiting a story that i love so dearly much, much easier because the gameplay just bops!

at the same time, due to my "i miss characterization informed by weird and dated FES gameplay quirks" woes, i still think that playing FES is worthwhile. (really, i feel this way about all iterations of p3! i think it's worthwhile to see what each version and side media has to say even if it doesn't Land™ for you.) but i also understand why people wouldn't want to play it, so i will keep writing posts about things i liked from FES's gameplay because i'm still very fond of FES (especially in respects to minato. these mechanics are so telling about him!!!) 💪

[deanpinterester]

if yall haven't seen it already, i super recommend this ongoing youtube series by the movie rabbit hole that unravels a lot of those instances where a movie claims to "have zero CGI". it really uplifts the knowledge that practical effects and CGI really go hand in hand, except that the CGI side is often left in the dust when it comes to acknowledging the work that goes into making these bombastic movies.

this is the first video, where he discusses multiple movies but mainly top gun maverick, one of said movies that claims it has no CGI.

the second video just came out, and focuses on christopher nolan movies, another set of movies that people claim have very little CGI.

in the future, i believe he also plans to cover the injustice that stunt performers often face, which is related to this topic. in pursuit of being able to say a movie "has no CGI whatsoever!" or that an actor "did all their own stunts!", you end up leaving out the CG artists and stunt performers, very important parts of the industry that are often hardly acknowledged while everyone goes nuts over how real and authentic the movie is. movies are a team effort! let's not leave anyone behind! especially not the people whom the movies literally could not be made without!

[off-the-rails-raccoon]

What’s your favorite design for ctommy? Or any dsmp character in general.

Cupid, this is SUCH a good ask so I'm going to give you multiple answers (I'm also going to pretend you said design aspects lol).

Generally I LOOVEE when people over-exaggerate the design of non-human dsmp members. Like giving c!Phil bird feet and a tail and winged ears, or making c!Ranboo asymmetrical features and changing their design enough that you can't even tell it started as half enderman half something else, or making c!Purpled actually look like an alien rather than just sticking purple entennas on him, ect ect ect.

I also will forever adore when people make scars really prominent and realistic, but as someone who's tried drawing scars before I can see why people don't do it often.

Even though MY c!Tommy will generally be a deer hybrid, raccoon hybrid, demon/imp hybrid, or a plain human trying to fit in (though currently I'm more focused on those last two), I LOOVEVVE it SO MUCH when people make c!Tommy a unique hybrid (a hybrid people don't usually use for him) and actually stick with it, y'know? Honorable mentions to you and your adorable dogger c!Tommy, and @/possuminnit with their possum c!Tommy!!

And finally, a few small details that I always love to see: Curly hair, hair noticeably dyed blonde, raccoon tail key chain, flowers hanging out of his front pockets, hair in half-up pigtails (or just pigtails), big noses, big angry eyebrows (its semi-true to his minecraft skin and also unbearably funny), angel fang piercings (this has been my guilty pleasure for years and i never considered adding it to c!Tommy's design until I saw art of someone else who it), braces (specifically star-shaped), a broken horn, wonky teeth, a brown leather jacket/trench coat, and that's all I can remember.

[lilowoof]

ngl gamers, I think I'm gonna inevitably lose to the hormones and depression in the near future XD

Can't bring myself to be active cause I'm using a lot of energy to not vent post all the time. But fuck it, into the tags I go!

[dearfizz]

Not So Shoujo Love Story Hanna Characterisation in Ep 91

it's the explosion episode

spoilers until ep 103. I also gush and compliment @curryukuu 's writing in this. She isn't active on tumblr as much anymore but if she sees this, hi.

Re-reading this episode makes me focus a lot more on Hanna's pov instead of the explosion. Hanna was distancing herself from Rei. There is a canon explanation now in ep 103 where Hanna said that she was jealous and felt inferior and that she wasn't good enough. BUT I HAVE MY OWN INTERPRETATION.

Hanna's dialogue in ep 103

TO ME, she wanted to abandon feelings of Rei. I know it's very unlike Hanna because she loves Rei so so so much, BUT HEAR ME OUT (if there's anyone out there reading this)

She's been chasing Rei for like a season and a half by now. In season 2, Rei's a lot more responsive to Hanna's flirting (it was so much insufferable good lord I felt like a third wheeler read their interaction sometimes).

(weird basketball(?) analogy here) The ball has kinda just stayed in her court since FOREVER. Like I know that Rei said that she cannot return Hanna's romantic feelings. The ball her is Hanna's feelings btw and it's just... been there. Rei doesn't mind that Hanna has been romantically interested in her since ep 1. Heck, she doesn't even mind advances and flirting from Hanna. HOWEVER, as of S2 Rei has only been toying with it. Rei is literally flirting back with Hanna. Both unintentionally and intentionally. I'm sure Hanna's aware of whatever, not platonic tension, both of them have. But Rei not passing the ball back after all of that toying IS a move in of itself.

At this point, Rei is STILL holding on to her comphet version of love. (idk if their sexuality have been canonized, but Rei is so lesbian to me. It really makes sense to me thematically, but if Rei is canon as bi I would respect that. I would keep the idea of Lesbian Rei to myself). Shoujo mangas really was a trauma coping mechanism. That in turned, really made her have internalised comphet. The whole point of her trying to find the perfect guy was because she didn't want to end up like her parents. It's so hard to throw away something that was literally your will to live (I assume) for, like, what a decade of your life?

So after Hanna's visit to her house, she finally gets why Rei's not passing the ball back. At that bridge, I'm pretty sure she's convinced a romantic relationship is never going to come out of it. Ever. For Hanna, it's better to just pack your back, distance yourself, and move on. If I was Hanna, I would have literally done the same. Like, just imagine. Your girl is really REALLY adamant in finding the perfect guy. And you're not a guy. There is no point in any of this flirting and advances anymore. It's better to leave those feelings behind. It's just. Not meant to be. That's how life is in reality.

IF this story is a lot more realistic, Rei would have confronted Hanna about why Hanna's distancing herself from her. Let's just say that MY interpretation of why Hanna is actually canon. Rei would respect Hanna's wishes of wanting to be distant with her. Rei and Hanna would be physically and emotionally apart. This is the period where Rei reflects and realizes that hey, I want Hanna in my life. And in a romantic way. Throw in some angst in there. Then Rei would confess to Hanna. Boom they get together. Idk how this would turn out with the Canon reason, but I think it would be roughly the same?

BUT THIS STORY IS A FEVER DREAM, AND I LOVE NSSLS STORY BECAUSE OF THAT

Did you check nssls tag on webtoon? It's COMEDY. Not romance (even though it's very romcom to me). There shall not be long-lasting angst. Nuh uh. Not in this household. So curryuku does what curryuku does best. Cook up an unhinged plotline.

Alien world domination plot is now REAL and CANON from ep 92 - 102. Rei got Isekai-ed and is thrown into a world that she has been wanting and dreaming for so long. A world where she can chase and pine for the perfect, handsomest guy. A world where she has a perfect family. But she realizes that this isn't what she wanted. She wanted her friend's back. She wanted Taro back. But most importantly

she realizes she wants Hanna.

More than that perfect, handsomest guy that she's been dreaming of. That plotline did exactly just that. It achieves the same thing as my small reality au paragraph does. But in its own unique.

The Rei Isekai-ed episodes really felt like curryuku was holding me by the scruff. THE ABSOLUTE CHOKEHOLD IT HAS ON ME. No plot line in that comic, heck even media, has ever had that effect on me. Life LITERALLY stopped for like 5 min every Tuesday for me. Idc if I have class going on rn I'm going to read it in class (I'm in architecture, and the class is just consultation. The lecturer really isn't teaching anything it's a 1-1 thing). It had me on the edge of my seat. It had me crying and screaming. LIKE LOOK AT THIS PANEL.

That's honestly so much better than a love confession imo. It was so sweet it made me sick. My friends are SO sick of me talking about nssls for like 2 months ish. The only complaint I had was that I just wish the arc had lasted more than 10 episodes. But I really don't mind that much.

Idk how to end this. Curryuku, your brain is so fascinating. Thank you for producing nssls. Seriously. I might get a nssls tattoo.

[itspileofgoodthings]

Well, I actually have the most mundane of questions, but it’s been so long since I’ve been in an English class that I feel like I’ve completely forgotten (and I’m curious how you do it): how do you go about reading a book as a class? Do you assign them the chapters to read at home and most of them actually do it? Or do you give them class time to read? Do you have the kids who try to spoil the rest of the book for the class? Basically, how does one teach a book in the year 2024?  😀

And do you have your students annotate inside their books? (I know the English teachers in my school require the students to do that, and I get why, but I inwardly shudder every time I see a student marking up a page.) 

Haha I love this question because I too am always asking myself how DOES one each a book in 2024?

It’s sort of a combination. I absolutely assign reading every night (almost) unless it’s Shakespeare or any play in which case we read it all in class. But for a novel there’s a couple chapters a night. I read aloud to them a lot too. Sometjmes I make them read aloud to the whole class, rotating kids who read. Sometimes I assign a chapter to be read in class silently with questions or quotes due at the end of the reading. Sometimes I put them in groups and make them read aloud to each other. There’s no one way that works for sure and of course ultimately I have no control over how much they read and I’m not naive enough to think that most of the reading assigned for homework doesn’t get skipped most of the time buuuuuut.

My bottom line is that I believe it’s my job to get excited about the actual text itself (easier for me in some cases than others but overall pretty easy because it does fill me with excitement) and then commit to taking them on the journey of the story with me. And my goal—that I’m sure I often don’t reach—is to make that experience so much more fun if you have actually read. And the way that I teach is pretty text heavy which is why I always make sure I’ve read the chapters for the day and am not just relying on my memory because the way I do it is just sort of absorbing it all up like a vacuum-cleaner, schwooooop, and then either pulling stuff out of the reading to look at directly or directing them to do the same thing. So the big thing that I have going for me, if any, is buy-in. Is getting kids excited about actually reading the actual text. I also speak often and passionately about the evils of sparknotes etc. not because they help kids get better grades or whatever but because they present you with the husk and shell of a story, stripped of all that makes it interesting, and that by reading that alone they’re reading something so dry and dull and are not achieving what I always want them to achieve —which is, have an Experience with the Literature.

Again, it never works perfectly by any stretch and there are so many ways I want to explore in my quest to get better at it but overall I think, at my very best, I can create this wave of energy and excitement in the story itself which is the most organic and ultimately most helpful way to get them to want to read.

Also no haha. I don’t let them annotate! Though occasionally kids DO of course. But sometimes they bring in their own copies in order to do that. The spoilers absolutely happen and are annoying but I sort of get by it by moving on very quickly and/or talking about how it’s often not the ending but how you get there that makes it interesting. Because that’s just true!

[deepseawave]

obsessed w the tags on ur last reblog

Omgg, thank you haha, it was a quality post so I just had to appreciate it in full force 😂❤️

Can‘t believe someone would actually enjoy my yapping :,D

[tunapesto]

cosplaying is healing me personally (killing my wallet, also)

[just-some-guy-joust]

listen, guys. claiming a character doesn't count as just some guy is the same as claiming they dont belong in the tourney and gets you blocked. you can make your argument that someone isnt as much as just some guy as the other, but everyone is here for a reason. you can ask me about those reasons even. i spent 10 hours making these brackets and nearly gave myself a headache abot it i have a lot of thoughts on it. you can ask. you can do that

[hoziersong]

anyone know some fun activities to do with a 4 year old without leaving the house