#i know some scenes exist translated online but not the whole thing

[pitohuimaki]

ACTUALLY. good question (i think lmao) - since the web novel was never officially published and then subsequently deleted (and seemingly erased from the internet entirely lmfao) is it actually a copyright issue to reshare fan translations of it? not claiming it as your own original work obviously but like. people who know law help me here

[sophia-sol]

Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi), by Ryoko Kui, translated by Taylor Engel

I decided to read Dungeon Meshi because I kept seeing people on tumblr posting about the new anime adaptation, and it looked fun and cute. And although I don't watch much tv, there was an entire manga I could read instead! So I did.

The basic premise: in a world where adventuring parties going on dungeon crawls is a thing that happens, one guy has a dream: to be able to cook and eat all the different kinds of monsters in the dungeon, to be able to find out how they taste!

And because his party needs to be able to head deep into the dungeon to rescue a party member who was left behind, and they don't have the funds or the time to collect supplies, all of a sudden they have REASON to need to eat monsters. They're going to forage and hunt for all their meals as they make their way down.

So using that as the basis, the manga goes on to explore the worldbuilding, the interrelationships of the characters in the party, everyone's backstories and reasons for being there, a developing plot, and of course, the ingredients and nutritional composition and flavour of every meal they eat.

I absolutely adored every bit of this!!! The main characters are all a delight, and it's the kind of story where the author sees and shows you the inherent personness of all characters, including antagonists. And the world created to make sense of the dungeon's existence is fascinating, as are all the ways the ecosystems within the dungeon are expanded upon to make sense of the creatures living within it.

And it's a story that knows what its themes are, too, and is able to tie them all together in extremely satisfying ways in the climax of the narrative!

I had this moment leading up towards the ending where I was like:

[thematic spoilers below the cut]

ohhhh it's about….everyone being part of a balanced ecosystem of life and death where everything sustains everything else! the various human species included! and I was filled through my very soul with this feeling of connectedness myself.

Anyway it was amazing and I had a lot of feels.

And as well as enjoying all of that, I also just really loved our main characters! We start out seeing them all fairly shallowly but over the course of the story as more aspects of them are revealed they're all just…..I love every one of them.

I did struggle with a few aspects of the manga, but none of it significantly affected my ability to enjoy the read:

It kept adding more and more characters, and I got rather lost occasionally trying to keep track of them all. But ultimately it's not vital to remember every tertiary character to get a good read out of this, so it's not as bad as it could be.

In the mid to later parts, it became a lot more plot focused and actiony than I'd really been expecting, in a way that made it harder for me to follow, since fight scenes in sequential art are challenging for me. And occasionally it drew back more than I wanted from its focus on food. But it refocused eventually!

It turned out to be pro monarchy in the end, which isn't my fave, but it's not like a major theme of the manga or anything so I could overlook it.

I kept expecting it to have at least a little bit of textual queerness, and there wasn't any as far as I could see! Even various background relationships or depictions of people's attraction was m/f. But uh. Falin/Marcille, anyone? There are some powerful vibes there. (I'll also accept Laios/Kabru)

In conclusion, I highly recommend it, and if you want to read it, you can read the whole thing online for free in English translation here: https://dungeonmeshi.com/manga/dungeon-meshi-chapter-1/

[aquamarine-oceanfront]

Details about the Amazing Digital Circus pop-up shop in Japan (and the exclusive premiere of episode 2 associated with it)

This post's title kind of sums up the basics, but here's some background: in early March of this year, a Japanese company called InfoLens entered a licensing agreement with Glitch Productions to sell products based on The Amazing Digital Circus. The same press release also announced that they would open a pop-up store in Tokyo, which would operate from April 26th to May 12th. (If I'm not mistaken, InfoLens seems to specialize in these sorts of agreements - they've made similar deals and pop-up shops for everything from Apex Legends to Garten of Banban.) Around this time, they also started up an official Japanese Twitter account devoted to the series.

Close to a month later, they would announce more details about the shop, including what goods they would sell (a mixture of existing merchandise from Glitch's online store and newly-made ones) and plans for a second location in Osaka (running June 7-23). This also coincided with the first time Glitch Productions' main Twitter account publicly acknowledged any of this (as far as I know).

Not long after this came another announcement: they would be holding a raffle where the winners would attend the world premiere of the series' second episode on April 25th, the day before the Tokyo store opened to the public.

So how'd all this pan out? I'll elaborate below the jump, but here's a picture to set the scene:

(Source: Reika Ō, Japanese VA for Gangle and Zooble)

To start with, the Pop-Up Store itself has a number of things aside from merchandise - like the life-size Pomni statue seen above. (The design was the work of Zachary Preciado - it bears a resemblance to her AniMatez figure.)

There's also a corner decorated to look like Kaufmo's room, with a Ragatha (and, at least sometimes, Jax) cutout & oversized die (for sitting on). I believe it's meant to be used for photographs.

(Sources, from left to right: IshiiNaki and the official Japanese Amazing Digital Circus Twitter account)

Other decorations include curtains, TVs displaying promotional clips (seemingly just existing ones on Glitch's YouTube channel), a floating inflatable replica of Bubble, an equally inflatable kiddie pool holding a whole bunch of plushies for sale, and some giant pseudo-toy blocks. The following pictures collectively show all of these:

(Sources, from left to right: Soichiro Sugawara - Japanese VA of Caine & Jax - Shiori Honma - Japanese VA of Ragatha - and Columbo-san Games)

Also, while I'm not currently aware of any recordings of this, according to Arran (Pomni's Japanese VA), the store plays specially-recorded audio of Pomni and Caine. She also mentions "treasured materials" (秘蔵資料) as another point of interest, which segues into my next topic:

(Sources, from top to bottom: Reika Ō, Columbo-san Games again, Glitch Productions, and Shiori Honma)

Several photographs have a glass display in the background. Thus far, I haven't seen any closer pictures of it - given that there appears to be a "no photography/video recording" placard nearby, that'd explain why. The actual contents aren't especially clear - there's a picture of the main cast doing their bind poses at the back of the case, but the sheets of paper(?) underneath look like they could be concept art or something similar. I'm not sure. Hopefully this gets released later down the line.

With all that said, what about the advance screening? Well, as seen in Glitch's photos of the event, Kevin and Luke made a surprise appearance in person to talk about the series. While the attendees have been told not to reveal anything about the new episode until its wider release on May 3rd, one of them took notes on the experience as a personal reminder and revealed some interesting tidbits in the process. I'm not the best at Japanese, but here's my rough, sometimes rather loose translation of what they wrote:

★ The episode, as well as the announcements before and after it, were dubbed in Japanese. Furthermore, the announcement before the screening was recorded specifically for the occasion. Pretty wild.¹ ∙ Before the show: Caine + Pomni ∙ After the show: Jax ("Good to know it was just a dream"² - this elicited shrieks in the venue) ★ Before the main event began, they played the existing promo videos on a loop in both English & Japanese. ★ I expected the audience to be overwhelmingly female, but in reality there were quite a lot of men in attendance, too. ★ Kevin (the CEO) and Luke frequently said things in Japanese, like "arigatō (thank you)" and "surimasen (excuse me)." The one that made me laugh the most was Kevin saying "…Sō desu ne (Yes, indeed)… (thoughtful)" ★ The reason they held the screening in Japan was twofold: they wanted to help spread Western animation to the country & they simply love Japan. ★ Episode 2 really is good, but my brain hasn't fully processed it right now, so it's better not to get your hopes too high.³ 🥲✨✊

¹ Originally "や���" (yaba), which appears to be a variant of "やばい" (yabai). This word can mean many different things - literally "terrible" or "very bad," but also used as slang for "great" or "far-out" - and I felt that "wild" was a reasonably apt choice for this context. ² Another attendee's comments on Twitter reference this quote as well. ³ To be absolutely clear: this appears to be a warning against unreasonably high expectations (since the OP hadn't quite digested the episode at the time of writing), not discouraging getting hyped to any degree.

Another attendee had a shorter account of the experience, summed up in two tweets. (Again, please forgive me if there are any errors in these translations!)

I was chosen and went to the advance screening…! I definitely didn't expect there to be specially-recorded voice work and art (to remind people of their manners) before the show… Especially Jax's closing remarks: "'You all can leave through the exit. Ah, [but] that's none of my business." It was way too crazy, hearing the voices of the agonized nerds in the venue. It was great lol Two producers made a surprise trip to Japan and took part in a Q&A session. They said that Popee the Performer was one of the show's influences!

(It's worth noting that Gooseworx herself has mentioned Popee as an influence in the past before, specifically saying Jax and Gangle were respectively inspired by Popee and Kedamono - though, in both cases, she also mentioned that there was more to her characters than just resembling the latter two.)

To finish this post off, here's a couple more images (both posted on Twitter by Shiori Honma) I wanted to share:

Honma posts with her character's standee.

All five of the Japanese dub's primary voice actors, together with Pomni. (If I'm not mistaken, the tweet's text says none of them knew in advance that the screening of episode 2 would be in Japanese.)

[newtsoftheworldunite]

Reading tag game! Tagged by @hoeratius. Tagging @the-lincyclopedia @the-knights-who-say-book @oughtaagh @eponymiad @cartograffiti

Last book I read: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho. It’s a comedic wuxia adventure in a fantasy setting where religious orders have been caught in the crossfire between an authoritarian government and rebel bandits. A nun who loses her job as a waitress joins a group of black market vagabonds attempting to navigate this new reality and everybody gets more than they bargained for.

It’s a whole lot of fun and also gave me so much to think about. I wish I had a hundred more books like this one.

Book I recommend: Maria Dahvana Headley’s translation of Beowulf. @hoeratius recommended the Heaney, as is her right, and that’s the first Beowulf I read but I encountered MDH’s translation in 2021 and was absolutely blown away. I want to do things like this as a translator.

Book I couldn't put down: I first encountered Nate Stevenson’s graphic novel Nimona while it was being serialized online and probably about 80% complete, zoomed through everything that existed so far in a few hours, and then waited eagerly for each additional page. It was absolutely captivating. I’ve had other similar experiences but that one stands out right now in my memory.

Book I've read twice: I’ve been an inveterate rereader over the past four years. Through 2019 probably less than 10% of my reading was rereads and now it’s around 50%. The Queen’s Thief series, The Goblin Emperor and Cemeteries of Amalo books, the Murderbot Diaries, the Wayfarers novels, the Vorkosigan Saga and the Five Gods books, Discworld, and the Young Wizards series have all been ones I’ve revisited regularly. And in 2022 I did a LeGuin readthrough that included revisiting many of her works and experiencing others for the first time. There are so many others as well. Rereading is great!

A book on my TBR: Navdeep Singh Dhillon’s YA romcom Sunny G’s Series of Rash Decisions. I don’t see books with Punjabi protagonists very often so I’m very interested in this one.

A book I have put down: I started An Immense World last year, which is an examination of nonhuman sensory experiences, and I’d really like to get back to it but my brain has been having a harder time with nonfiction over the past couple of years so I haven’t found my way back around yet. I’ve also bounced off Translation State a couple of times now which is frustrating because I’ve enjoyed every other Ann Leckie book I’ve read.

A book on my wish list: I don’t actually have much of a wish list for books because I’m very library-centric. There are definitely books I end up buying and I have a fairly eclectic home collection. But mostly I get books through the public library and the Libby and Hoopla apps with the library’s digital holdings. I do like to buy interesting haggadot and siddurim and have my eye on a new translation of Tehillim, so that’s something.

A favourite book from childhood: There is a picture book with text by Lloyd Alexander and illustrations by Ezra Jack Keats called The King’s Fountain, which I haven’t encountered in decades but remember adoring as a child. It’s a fable about a monarch who plans to divert the city’s water to build a beautiful fountain for himself and a beggar who tries to find some way to convince him to change his mind.

A book I would give a friend: The Thief by @meganwhalenturner. I want everybody to read it.

A book of poetry or lyrics I own: I’m very invested in my local poetry scene which means that unfortunately most of the poetry I own would reveal more about my geographic location than I’m comfortable posting on tumblr. TFW most of the books of poetry you own are written by people you personally know. Highly recommend. I grew up on a lot of Billy Collins and e e cummings and Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou and Edna St Vincent Millay and so many others. But that was my mother’s collection and I unfortunately haven’t filled my shelves at home with poetic classics. As a teenager I also had an absolutely wonderful global anthology of poetry from all over the world and from ancient times until the nineteenth century that I’ve never been able to find again and I don’t remember the title. It was very thick and paperback and had a reddish purple cover and was organized by the language each poem had been translated from.

A non-fiction book I own: One of my favorites is The House Book by Phaidon which is a little reference book with a selection of 500 houses from ancient times to the present as an exploration of how people live and what architectural possibilities we’ve explored.

Currently reading: Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold, Omnitopia Dawn by @dianeduane for the @crossingscon book club, Little Thieves by @what-eats-owls, and Witch King by Martha Wells, not counting rereads.

Planning on reading next: Painted Devils and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. There are a few other titles that might intervene, because my choice of reading material is heavily dependent on mood now. Which is part of what makes rereading so appealing. It’s easier to know what mood something is right for if I’ve already read it!

[haro-hawayu]

Spirited Away: Live Stage

I watched the Spirited Away Live Stage in theaters on Sunday AND Thursday because there’s two sets of casts for some of the major characters~ just wanted to write my thoughts down. This is me trying to be organized but gets a bit rambly later.

Prior to watching: I already learned about some of the cast. TBH, the only names I knew right away were Hashimoto Kanna and Kamishiraishi Mone--both of them playing Chihiro on separate shows. I’ll just refer to them as Show A/Cast A (Hashimoto) and Show B/Cast B (Kamishiraishi) when talking about them~ Another name was Paku Romi who was part of Cast B. I was familiar with both actresses from different movies: Hashimoto as Kagura in Gintama and also Kamishiraishi as Kana in Chihayafuru (and voice of Mitsuha in Your Name) so I really wanted to watch both shows because I was really excited to see how both actresses would interpret the role of Chihiro.

Thoughts: I love the use of the projections and stage mechanisms that they used to depict movement, and changing of scenes. I think a lot of it was very very very cleverly used.

+Stage projections: I especially loved the part where they projected the Japanese title 「 千と千尋の神隠し 」(literal translation is something like “Sen and Chihiro’s Spiriting Away”) on screen, and they took the kanji 千 from both Sen and Chihiro to form the little torii ⛩ (gate commonly seen in shinto shrines that separate the mundane and sacred worlds) that they drive right through (in the movie they pass by one that’s just leaning there), kind of to represent the moment when the Ogino family entered a different realm. 

+Stage mechanisms: The very obvious ones was how they just rotate some big parts to show different scenes, like Kamaji’s boiler room, Chihiro’s room, the inside/outside of the bathhouse, Yubaba’s office, etc. I liked how they made use of ladders, walkways, and doors/entrances. The whole train scene was amazing too~

+Stage hands: So many things were definitely made possible thanks to all the stage hands!!! It’s interesting that instead of black, they went for a brownish color, but I think it fits very well. I know some people might feel a little distracted by them, but I learned to really ignore them lol. It’s thanks to them that we have Kamaji’s arms/hands, the really cool scene of Haku grabbing Chihiro and running through/past many doors (that one part where they purposely did a “slow-mo” moment during their run when running past the pigs was really cool), the elevator scene, as well as the movement for the soot sprites, mouse-Bo, fly-bird, dragon Haku, and many other things. Oh yeah, and major props to them for the part where they lifted Chihiro and Haku up in the final scene where they reveal Haku’s name.

+Funny oopsies caught: Because it’s a stage play, not everything is full-proof and completely “perfect.” Although I tried to ignore the stage hands, there were some moments that made me giggle a bit. One of the earlier ones (Show A) was the scene where Chihiro is eating the onigiri from Haku and the camera just happened to show Chihiro handing off the onigiri to one of the tree stage-hands to hold onto. Another funny moment was (Show B) where a hurt Haku turns back into his human form, and again, the camera just so happened to show an angle where Haku’s actor sneaks onto the set and tries to quickly hide into the little doorway in Kamaji’s boiler where he waits to “roll out” when his dragon form disperses.

+Unique moments: There were def things that I noticed were unique and great specifically for the live stage play. I loved all the extra singing that was added. I absolutely love the sung version of 神々さま with the whole bathhouse cast. I know this song actually exists but every now and then I wonder if I dreamed that a sung version of this song exists because there’s no full version online. My Googling skills only helped me find the lyrics and clip of it. I also liked that they expanded the scene of everyone cheering/dancing when they freed the River Spirit, and for the play, they had everyone dance and Chihiro was dancing along with them. I loved that they added a (new?? pretty sure it is) theme song for No Face/Kaonashi, and there’s always that same musical motif that plays when he appears. NGL I felt like Kaonashi was extra creepy/scary in the live stage play >< There’s also a song that Kamaji sings and a sung version for The Sixth Station with the ladies which I found were quite nice additions too. Definitely appreciate all the music that was added.

I actually teared up both times during that scene when Chihiro goes back to her parents in the beginning and sees that they got turned into pigs and she was screaming in a panick as they were getting hit and those strange things started to appear around her. I think they were amazing at depicting how scary of a situation it is when a kid finds themselves in such a situation and seeing all these strange apparitions too. I personally felt that the parting scene for Haku and Chihiro more sad and bittersweet in the live stage version, especially when Haku is telling Chihiro to not look back, and in the live stage play, you can see that initial hesitation she had. My favorite added tidbit was the part at the very end where you see Haku standing at the entry of the tunnel. THERE IS HOPE IN THEIR PROMISE!!

+Additional thoughts: I really loved Hashimoto Kanna’s depiction of Chihiro. I really think she was the perfect Chihiro. There was that one scene where she was just about to cry when eating the onigiri and I think the camera angle was perfect because you see her eyes getting shiny just as she starts crying and I was just kinda wow’ed by that (angle wasn’t quite the same for Show B at that scene). I was kinda on the fence on how I would feel about seeing Show B with Kamishiraishi Mone, but she exceeded my expectations~! I still love Hashimoto’s Kanna more though. As for Haku, I’m a bit partial towards Cast B’s Haku, but I appreciated that Cast A’s Haku appeared to be the better dancer??? I liked that he had a little dance thing in the play. I was also really excited to see Paku Romi in Show B, but tbh I got a BIIIIIT distracted by her voice because I can’t help but go “kyaaa it’s Paku Romi!!” Oh yeah, small thing but I loved that they had Chihiro trying to read her new name and went “Chi” and Yubaba was like “CHIGAU (wrong!) it’s Sen!”--it made me giggle.

Overall, I think the stage play did such an amazing job at being true to the original movie, and even expanding a little more on some scenes. I was skimming through the original movie and soundtrack while writing this, so there were some things that made me go “wow, they actually were able to include this and this and this into the stage play”??!” They even copied some of the same guests/patrons of the bathhouse, but I was a bit disappointed that Ootori-sama was only mentioned but didn’t actually appear in the play (unless I was blind both times)?? Not sure what else I missed out on but will edit this post if I remember something important later~

tl;dr Spirited Away Live Stage is an excellent adaptation for the original movie. 100 out of 10 recommended! Also Blu-ray has been announced for July as well as return/rerun of the play in August with both Hashimoto and Kamishiraishi reprising their roles!! So exciting!!

[ideahat-universe]

How I fell down the Emulator Pipeline (or Rabbit hole, whichever you prefer)

It all started with moving away and leaving 90% of my stuff behind. Two of these things included my 3ds and my copy of Personal Trainer Cooking.

I needed some recipes for a meal I was doing, and I didn't have that hardware handy and I had no idea where it could be, so I just installed an emulator on my computer and ran the program on my PC. I needed the recipe to be mobile, so I can read it in the kitchen, so I installed Drastic on my phone and went from there.

Once I did that, I figured, "Let's emulate some of the games I've wanted to play again on my phone."

I did that for a bit, worked out fine. I then remembered the Jontron video about Pokémon. Ya know, the one. Jontron downplayed the Moemon hack, basically calling the creator of it a pedo which is unfortunate because Moemon is just Gijinka. It is not a hentai mod or a loli mod. It's just the reverse of turning a human into an animal. I'm very pro anthropomorphism, it's basically my whole deal. I like that term more than furry, even though one is way easier to spell than the other, the former is way more inclusive and is not an implication of sexuality.

In any case, I installed that mod. Actually, I had to patch a specific version of fire red to do that, but I figured that out and ran the Moemon mod which included Mega evolutions even though it's a mod of a game that came out many years before that was a thing.

Then I saw that there were more Pokémon ROM hacks, like a ton more. So I installed them. Not all of them are good though, we got edge lord mods, unfinished or glitchy mods, mods requiring patches from original game files that don't exist online anymore, and mods in different languages. There's a demake community that use fire red as the base for making a version of the current Pokémon games in a much older engine.

Complete overhaul mods, adding in content in the newer games, creating unique and often interesting fakemon (some of which are technically canon but not official).

So I went crazy and started downloading ROM hacks for Pokémon. Then I thought, "Surely there are romhacks for other games?"

The answer to that was, "not really." There are translation mods and glitch mods, but there are not a lot of "Let's add a lot of genuine gameplay to this old game" that's done in the scene.

After I obtained several dozen romhacks for Pokémon games from Crystal to Black, I thought to myself "I can't play all of these back to back, half of these are just Emerald mods. I'll burn myself out at this rate." So I decided to pace myself by playing every other turn based RPG in between any given Pokémon Rom hack.

So I grabbed every game boy ROM in the RPG category and went to town.

I had another thought, though, "if my phone can emulate Game Boy games and DS games, maybe it can emulate psone games or even PSP games.

So I installed every RPG that came out for the PSP and PSone that I could think of and added those to the list of games I'd emulate.

I got tired of using the virtual game pad, so I bought an entire controller and paired it.

After a couple of years, I returned home and dug up my old hardware. Found out that the server of basically every game I played was dead, so in order to make use of my old game consoles and handhelds, I had to jailbreak all of them.

So I did, from Mcfreeboot to Godmod9 I jailbroke my devices and any services like community servers or a romhack gift shop opened itself up to me. I reformatted a handful of 64 Gigabyte SD cards and gave my devices the storage I would have only dreamed of back in the day.

But I was worried, what if my PS3 games are lost forever due to my console dying? What if I want to continue playing Little Big Planet 2 even after my PS3 dies?

So I bought a PC specifically optimized for emulation and I started emulating PS3 and PS2 and Psone games. I figured out how to convert, export, and import save files for all those devices and the PSP and now the save file my friend made for his play through of Digimon World in 2003 can now be played on my PCSX2 system in the current day.

My phone is tiring out on me. It can't handle streaming videos, handling various misc apps that I use on top of streaming videos, and me playing games on it all at the same time. Half the time my progress in a game is dropped because my phone can't process all of that.

So I bought an AYN Odin Pro, and now I emulate almost everything on this one device, and the rest I run on my Beelink.

None of my devices can emulate PS4 or Xbox Series S games, but I genuinely have no idea what's worth playing beyond that point because I don't buy first party games, so those new games come out on steam. Don't need emulation or a new console there now, do I?

Steam Deck is doing gang busters, and I feel like the future of gaming is handheld emulation devices playing games long abandoned by its original creators.

But what do I know? I'm totally indoctrinated by the seven seas of piracy. Now, if you don't mind me. I'm going to figure out whether I can turn a bricked PS4 into a Linux machine...

[runwhileyoucan]

So I would like to make my own contributions by talking about the Japanese dub.

I don't normally listen to dubs but this was amazing. Please listen if your interested.

I'm mostly translating of what I think it means as a person who's lived in Japan for over 15years so might not be the same as something online. I would love to here lots of different dubs.

I put all the Japanese into hiragana.

The "nothing lasts forever" is translated as なにごとにもおわりはある　which is more the lines on "every thing eventually ends" which is super sad

And in the subtitles Crowley replys with えいえんなどないよな which translates Ruthly as" yeah I guess there is no such thing as iternity" crying sobbing on the floor

When Crowley orders the coffee and aziraphale says"does it calm you down?" He says ���しろぎゃくだ which Ruthly translates to "actually it's quite the opposite"

Crowley uses very formal language towards Beelzebub. Uses です,ます at the end of the sentences. This is normally used for people who are at a higher rank in society and or some one you respect.

In the I'm back scene he says わるいこといったみたいなしゃざいがほしいのか？それともきもちをくんでくれるか？ Which translates to "do you won't me to give you a "I said something wrong" caind of apologie or can you understand my point and let it go". The interesting thing about the phrase きもちをくんで　is that there is not direct translation. If I was to chose a similar word it would be along the line's of "please can you understand my point of view from subtext" as often people don't say what they won't to be understood. Its caind of like "can you realise that I'm sad even dough I won't tell you directly" this of course needs a strong bond to do. So I thought it was a nice touch.

It quiet long so I will fold it, but there is more.

When he says "I was wrong" in the dance in Japanise it's おれがまちがい　which means more on the lines of "I am a mistake./my whole existence is wrong" but this is probably because they cant keep with the rhythm If they sayおれがまちがってた　which the meaning is closer but way too many words.

In Japanise instead of thered person pronouns being affected by your gender your first person pronouns are affected by it. Crowley uses おれ which is typically associated with more masculine and in media characters with ruth personality's. Mostly men use it but other genders use it to.

Aziraphale uses the first person pronoun わたし this was historically think it was feminin but for the recent 100 years I think it's pretty gender neutral. normally in the media associated with characters that are very intelligent. But it's quiet formal

Aziraphale uses quiet polite or formal language to humans but crowly just talks normally like to a friend. It's pretty unusual.

Crowley uses おまえ as a second person pronoun for aziraphale. As said before in the media this is associated with ruth or edgy, cool characters.

Aziraphale uses きみ as a second person pronoun for Crowley. This is normally used by a some one higher talking to someone lower. Like a boss talking to a worker. It can be used as someone who's on a same level talking but it mait be taken as being pompous.

Angel is translated straight to てんし. Its not used that much in normal conversations but if you were use it for a person it will mean they are a pure and innocent person.

You and Crowley were an item was translated toあなたとくろうりーはつきあってた which straight up translates to "you and Crowley were dating"

When he says the "no more dying!" Bit, In Japanise it's しはもうたくさんだ　しはもういらない which translates to "i'v seen enough death, I don't won't anymore." More angsty and I don't know why. Help clever people.

I think the biggest change was when Crowley said "we could have been ... Us" it's translated to これまでのままでよかった which translates to　"I was fine just how it always was(between us)" I think this is the only one I'm not really on board with.

"we can make a difference" is translated to いっしょならうまくやれる　this translates to"if we do it together we can make it better " and the emphasis is heavily on, we

This was some things that I noticed. It was quite a lot of fan. Would love to see all of the different country's dubs.

I need you all to know that in the Hungarian translation of Good Omens, Crowley calls Aziraphale 'angyalkám' which translates to 'my little angel' and this term of endearment is solely used between lovers

which had me curious about other languages and in fact Crowley calls Aziraphale a variation of 'my angel' in other languages, in french I believe it's 'l’angelot/angelot' which means little angel/soft angel

[carriesthewind]

I recently saw a comment on the Locked Tomb series about how the commenter didn't want to read HtN and beyond without knowing how Gideon and Harrow's relationship was handled, specifically if the books 'address the abuse in their relationship' and complaining about how fandom 'romanticizes' their relationship, esp. the pool scene.

And. I don't want to misinterpret that commenter's words or ascribe bad faith to them (which is part of why I'm making this separate post). There is a lot of potentially triggering and fucked up stuff in The Locked Tomb books, including in Gideon and Harrow's relationship, and maybe the person was just looking for more specifics to help them decide whether to read on and worded their comment poorly.

But. Okay.

If you're not familiar with the series, abuse and trauma are a major theme in the books. Gideon and Harrow are the main characters (of at least the first two books), and their whole deal is that they are a pair of teenagers who grew up with only each other for company under horrifically abusive conditions. They, in turn, spent most of their young lives reflecting that violence and trauma back on each other. The pool scene that the commenter complained about is the characters recognizing that, addressing it with each other head on, and taking the first steps to realizing "hey maybe it was the system that did this to us that's the fucked up thing here."

Like, the books do address "the abuse in their relationship." That's what the pool scene (among many others) is doing, and it continues to be a major part of the series, because it is a major part of who those characters are. But what they don't do is: 1) have the characters sit down and Therapy Talk it all out or 2) separate out any characters (or even the specific actions of the characters) into "Good" and "Abusive."

And this comment got to me because it felt like a symptom of the much larger problem, where readers want their books to clearly explain in simple prose what is Right and what is Wrong, who is Bad and who is Good, with clear answers and resolutions and no room for interpretation or metaphor or the very many shades of nuance that exist.

Relationships in books don't have to be healthy and it's not only ok if they are not - it is often good that they are not! Books give us a chance to explore complicated feelings, complicated relationships, complicated ideas of trauma and love and harm and redemption, in safe and controlled ways.

Because this kind of black-and-white thinking translates to real life in really harmful ways. People who approach fiction like this learn to approach real life relationships like this too, looking for who is Good and who is Bad, who is Victim and who is Abuser. But even in real life, it can often be hard to tell if something is abusive, and if so, who the abuser is. This is true from the outside of a relationship (see how many people were and still are convinced that Amber Heard abused Johnny Depp and not the other way around, because she - as abusive victims often do - did bad and weird and uncomfortable and sometimes even cruel things in their relationship), but also from the inside (this is why DARVO works on people!). If you stick around in any large enough social group long enough, online or off, you will probably eventually run into a situation where two (or more) members of the group cross-accuse each other of some sort of miscount, including abuse, and it's not always easy to tell who (if any) is right - especially at first blush, when you might be getting biased information from one side that makes the other side look really bad.

And beyond that - there are lots of toxic relationships where things can go very very wrong, people can hurt each other really badly - but everyone involved can still be trying their best. (Speaking from personal experience: this is especially true when you start getting mental illnesses involved - there are a lot of people with different expressions of mental illnesses that will not play well together, and trying to force them to without addressing the potential for unintentional hurt - because if everyone is a good person no one can get hurt! - can go very very wrong.) And young people, people inexperienced with relationships, people with different communication styles, people who grow apart over time - all of these can lead to relationships where people end up hurting each other. And it's essential to society that people learn how to navigate these complicated relationships, including recognizing that they themselves can make mistakes and hurt people, even if they don't mean to.

People don't have to read things that make them uncomfortable. But when a fictional book includes complicated relationships and complicated people, and doesn't offer any easy answers, it's not failing to address the issues it raises; it's helping train you to see the nuance that exists in the real world.

[whoisthatmovinginthedark]

It's interesting how it's the nature of webnovels like the ones I've been reading lately, that it's quite possible that there isn't such a thing as the one official version of it. The author can sometimes go back and edit it on the platform. It might get printed at some point, and the printed version isn't necessarily the same as the one(s) online. And then there's possibly also the translation stage, which could've been done according to any version of it that has existed, online or in print. Translations from different people aren't exactly the same either. And sometimes there's more than one version from a same translator as well.

For example, these two snippets are the same scene in a same novel (spl) from same translator (northwestflower). First one from when it was on Wattpad, and the second one when it moved on to it's own website.

Gu Yun was silent for a while, mustering up an even bigger courage than when he opposed the Emperor: "Do you have any matter you couldn't speak of?" After a few gasps for air, Chang Geng whispered: "Which matter does yifu mean?" Gu Yun: "...men and women."

Gu Yun was silent for a while, mustering up an even bigger courage than when he opposed the Emperor: "Is there something weighing down on your mind?" After a few gasps for air, Chang Geng whispered: "What did yifu say?" Gu Yun: "...About me."

Even though it's not that big of a change the whole plot of the novel considered, it's still a significant change in tone on a pivotal conversation. And I don't know if it's that the author edited the scene, and so the translation was changed as well. Or if the translator wanted to edit their own work. (And I don't think it matters much.)

It's just interesting to think how different the reading experience could be (from tonal changes to missing scenes and more) depending on both when you've read it, and where you've read it from. And in many cases, especially when it's not a translation thing, all could be just as correct.

[tundrainafrica]

[Part 1] Hi Sav! What are ur thoughts on Kamiya's (Levi's VA) words regarding Levi? Here are two translations I found on twitter. Since you know Japanese I think you're the perfect person to ask this from ^^ " Today at Anime Japan Kamiya Hiroshi said, “Levi hasn’t changed. The loss of Erwin is so huge that afterwards his life in a sense is like ‘yosei’.” Yosei (余生) means like, the rest of one’s life (after raising kids or retiring) where you have nothing left to do"++

Disclaimer: Please I have no intention of starting a ship war with this, I just wanna drop my own interpretation for my own Levihan stanning heart. 

Note: I had no plans of watching the Japanese Seiyu panel for the last episode of Attack on Titan for many reasons and 90% of it is because Romi Paku didn’t show up and I’m still salty overall about how AOT and the narrative is treating Hange altogether and literally the only comfort I get about Hange this whole AOT season is that she looks great in all her scenes but anyway, enough about the rant. I’m still low key salty about not getting our Levihan reunion yet… But whatever. 

I got all of these asks in succession and soon after I did some research on twitter to see what all the fuss was about and apparently, a lot of Eruri fans are likening Levi to a widow--- A WIDOW of all things. 

And I dunno, I feel like this conclusion for one kinda cheapens Levi’s character altogether and just cheapens the bond of Levihan so I kinda realized I just cannot stand and watch some obviously Eruri-biased Japanese translations of that statement run rampant on twitter without my own take. 

So anyway, I’m gonna drop my own take on this, my own interpretation as a Levihan stan.

Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to push any Levihan agenda on anyone. If you like Eruri and you wanna stick to your widow interpretation feel free too. I just feel like a pro Levihan take, and a more ‘non Eruri’ take on that statement should exist as well so I’ll just drop this here for Levihan fans to seek comfort and possibly for any casual reader or Eruri fan to get some other perspectives on this statement I guess?

This is the original Text

声の方「団長、エルヴィンを失ったことはとても大きかったと思うんですよ」

「だからそこから先ってある意味余生みたいな感じになってる気がする」

Isym先生「エルヴィンの最期を看取って役割を全うし、現在宙ぶらりんな状態」

リヴァイ本人「…俺達の役目は」「あそこで終わりだったのかもしれない…」

And if I were going to translate it word for word. 

“For Levi, losing Erwin was a big thing. And everything after that became some sort of ‘retirement’ (Yosei) for him. Since he took it upon himself then to follow Erwin, right now it feels just dangling in space.”

Okay these are obviously Eruri crumbs at first glance and I recognize why exactly Eruris would celebrate over something like this because if we had a Levihan thing like this too, I’ll probably be celebrating too

But Let me offer my own interpretation of this as a Levihan stan

Yes, I recognize that for Levi losing Erwin was a big thing, but I’d like to paint some of the terms in a positive light for Levi. And the main key terms above were ‘Yosei’ and “Levi dangling in space’

So I’ll be focusing on those two: 

余生 (Yosei)

余生 (Yosei) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yosei literally translates to ‘the remaining years of someone’s life” So it doesn't necessarily mean Levi’s a widow or Levi is lonely because Erwin’s not there anymore In fact, Yosei is used a lot from what I see, to mean, retirement years. So after you’re done with your job and you retire, your last few years playing golf, playing with grandchildren, those are your ‘yoseis’ 

And there are lots of takes I saw online to this Yosei thing 

There was a meta in Japanese I found  where they discussed the fact that Levi was approaching his twilight years. and the main reason he was facing ‘retirement’ wasn’t necessarily because Erwin was gone but because soon after Erwin died, the basement happened and it turned out there were enemies much stronger than titans out there. 

The ‘Yosei’ meant, Levi retired from his role as ‘humanity’s strongest soldier’ because Levi was the ‘strongest soldier’ against titans, not against humans, the rapidly changing world and technology. I mean if we actually are objective about this, we could see the most capable survey corps member for handling the new enemy which is Marley and the Hizuru and just all the other countries and the impending war, was Hange since she is the best at navigating politics and she would be the quickest to adapt to technology.  

So yes, if it’s obvious, I do not like the ‘Levi is a widow take’ AT ALL.

「エルヴィンの最期を看取って役割を全うし、現在宙ぶらりんな状態」

 Since he took it upon himself then to follow Erwin, right now it feels just dangling in space.

But I’m not gonna discount the role of Erwin in Levi’s life. I think it is actually very important to understand why Levi feels like ‘he’s dangling in space.’ 

We all remember that last scene from ACWNR after Isabel and Farlan died and I’m sure we can all connect those last words from Erwin all the way until Levid decides to follow him to the role implied above. 

Erwin was Levi’s compass. Erwin gave direction to Levi’s life and suddenly Erwin dies and at the same time the world opens up and Levi starts to realize he’s not as needed anymore and his role as humanity’s strongest is gone.

So obviously all those events at once would leave Levi in some sort of limbo right. And that’s why he gets this feeling that he has reached his ‘yosei’ years and he’s also dangling in some limbo

I can think of two more specific reasons he ends up ‘dangling.’ 

First reason is: Killing the beast titan, the last order Erwin gave Levi wasn’t so easy to do anymore given the political nuances, the environment and of course the fact that the world was already more complicated than killing titans. And to think that Levi makes a promise to do that right before Erwin died? 

So I’m thinking the ‘dangling’ refers to Levi grappling with such complexities and nuances while trying to fulfill a goal which would have been so much easier if the basement thing didn’t happen and the world didn’t open up. 

And my second reason is: 

Warning: Before I go to this, I wanna warn you that this is my Levihan stan self reaching for pro-Levihan interpretations so feel free to ignore this if you don’t want crazy Levihan delusional interpretations. 

Anyway, my second explanation which I like to play with and I like to keep close to me, being a Levihan fan is that Hange of all people, was the last veteran stuck to Levi and as we all know, according to Yams old interviews about Hange’s gender...

Hange’s a free soul. She’s like the balloon, the kite that just floats in space and just continues hanging, dangling and flying. And she’s the person who Levi ended up sticking to after Erwin’s death. And since he ended up with such a free sould, he didn’t necessarily find much direction again, the same way he found direction with Erwin. 

Hange didn’t give a straightforward direction for Levi. But Hange provided comfort. 

And I’d just like to introduce a pro-Levihan interpretation this. 

So maybe ‘dangling in space’ and leaving the remaining years of his life like that isn’t such a bad thing? I mean I like to interpret this ‘retirement’ and ‘dangling’ as Levi finally being free of whatever ‘Ackerbond’ or whatever compass or order Erwin has set for him. 

Because Hange went about her position as commander more as a parent to the cadets and more as a comrade to Levi than anything else. And with title of ‘humanity’s strongest soldier’ not so relevant anymore post season 3 with titans becoming a not so big threat compared to the impending war, I think the ‘yosei’ and the ‘dangling’ could be interpreted as freedom for Levi from his role as Erwin’s right hand man and freedom from the burden of being ‘humanity’s strongest.’

And the transition from having to report to Erwin to having to report to Hange, I think this can be interpreted as a breath of fresh air for Levi.

Yosei after all can be interpreted as freedom. When people retire, people are free right? They’re free to try out different things, they’re free to focus on other things. Even if people have to experience the pain of ‘loss’ when losing one position, the remnants of it, the ‘yosei’ isn’t inherently bad although it can be interpreted as that. 

And the crumbs for this? I always believed that Levi generally acted freer under Hange than under Erwin. And I feel like I have created metas about this before about Hange’s leadership style: here and here

Anyway if you got this far, thanks for reading! 

[bokettochild]

Oof, Nancy making me spill secrets here! Alright, I'm game!

How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently? 146, but I really need to move some stuff over there still (like 30 more fics) so that will be changing soon

What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,166,802! My goal is to one day have Tolkien levels of words here one day!

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

Published ones? 3: Avengers, HTTYD and LoZ, but its been years since I did anything for the first two. I've dabbled elsewhere, but let's stick with this. I didn't publish most of the other stuff on Ao3 anyways.

Top five fics by kudos:

Flight To My Heart, honestly, I think it deserves it. I can do better now in terms of writing skill, but this will always be a favorite of mine for story and soul

The Blood Between Us, I have no clue why, but it was my introductory work to the fandom, and has been here longest. Also, I guess I tagged a lot of stuff when I first published this one LOL

Pepper Me This, I genuinely don't know why this is here considering I barely remember it exists. It is crack though, and my crack does seem to be popular (not me searching my docs to remember what even happens in this)

Apples the Bunny, I'm happy to see this drabble set here! Bunny stuff always makes me happy, and I had no clue this would make the list!

Violet, and I'm not shocked at all. This has got to be one of my more well known pieces, and definitely worth it. It was a pleasure to write and I still make myself laugh with it from time to time!

Do you respond to comments?

I used to try to answer every single comment, but my Hylia it got hard after a while! I still try, but I am terribly behind!

What’s the fic with the angstiest ending you’ve ever written?

He's My Son, or maybe Whiskey Lullaby? Just A Dream? They all have implied character death, but He's My Son always hurts so good!

Do you write crossovers?

LU as a whole is a giant crossover, but I've done SMASH x LoZ crossovers as well, and I won't lie, the temptation to try cross fandom content is very much there!

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

Yeah. Long story short, it's what got A Bride For Hyrule's Prince discontinued. I still get grief on that one from time to time IRL. Most of my online commenters are pretty great though!

Do you write smut?

No.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I used to have a co-writer who'd try to convince me to let us combine works, mostly so she could take 'em over, but nothing got published, so no harm done. I learned a lot about boundaries from her though LOL

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not as far as I know!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Not much of a shipper, although I was a big Hiccstrid fan back in the day!

What’s a wip that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

The sequel to Shimmering Scales. My gosh, it has been three years and I still haven't gotten this thing off the ground, no matter how hard I try!

What are your writing strengths?

Characterization, dynamics, and most interactions.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Setting a scene and establishing characters. It's sort of why I'm writing fic rather than working on my novels T-T

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

It can be fun! As a reader, it makes it tricky if there's nothing in the scene to at least hint what they are saying, or a translation provided (translators aren't always accurate online) but I grew up reading books peppered with Pennsylvania Dutch, so it holds a charm for me.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Good grief, I think I was like 12? Redwall! It started my writing journey!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

Either Flight to My Heart or A Mother's Touch. FtMH, again, lacks a bit as far as execution goes, but the premise overshadows that in my mind. A Mother's Touch is more up to date with my skill now, and also charming, but simple in comparison to the rambling of FtMH. I suppose one is my favorite multi-chap and the other is my favorite one shot!

@silvercaptain24 @telemna-hyelle @anadorablekiwi @breannasfluff @secretlysheikah @squidos-goodies have a go if you're up for it!

Ao3 tag game!

THANKS @ragecndybars FOR THE TAG I APPRECIATE IT

*cracks knuckles* lets do this

How many works do you have on AO3?

24 works! I would have never expected to have that many 5 years ago, hahaha

What's your total AO3 word count?

186,291! oh wow, almost 200k!! (unsurprisingly PT minato takes up over a third of that LMAO)

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

10 fandoms! I'm counting Persona 3, 4, and 5 and separate, but I'm grouping all the Zelda fandoms together since it's all Linked Universe fic.

Here's the breakdown!

The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms (6)

Persona 5 (5)

Persona 3 (5)

SPY x FAMILY (Anime) (3)

Wizard101 (Video Game) (3)

SPY x FAMILY (Manga) (3)

Runescape (Video Games) (3)

Pirate101 (Video Game) (3)

Persona 4 (2)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom (2)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga (1)

Star Wars - All Media Types (1)

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors (1)

Top five fics by kudos:

The Ghost of Mementos/Stygian Ringlet (Persona3/5) - to the surprise of absolutely no one, since this is currently my longest fic. I'm very happy with Stygian Ringlet being the top because I love my boys :)

True Crime Special on the Midnight Channel (Persona 4/5) - my Ren has a TV Dungeon fic! also very proud of the dungeon concept for this one, I really need to finish the last two chapters

Dark Clouds on the Horizon (Linked Universe/TOTK) - I feel like this one got a lot of momentum partially because it was directly in the wake of TOTK's release, but I'm happy with how it turned out :)

Strangers Are Just Friends You Haven't Met (Persona 3/SPY x FAMILY) - this was a collab series with mewrose and a few others in the marigolds discord! we were throwing ideas at the wall to see what stuck and I really had a lot of fun with Shinjiro-related prompts, because I LOVE him and hitting him with the isekai baseball bat into a universe with Anya brings me great joy

Salt Tears and Raindrops (Linked Universe/TOTK) - directly related to Dark Clouds, and I'm glad people enjoyed good ol' fashioned angst >:) (I do need to post more of my wips, I do have a couple more roleswap AU wips that I want to post)

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I almost always do because I really appreciate them and its my way of saying thanks for the comment! If I don't comment it's because I lost track of it or because I can't think of a response.

What's the fic with the angstiest ending you've ever written?

Probably Salt Tears and Raindrops. I was in a Mood and decided to go for the tried-and-true method of putting fictional characters I like through the emotional wringer. That's how I got the rough draft for this fic :)

Do you write crossovers?

*looks at my persona fics and recent LU fics*

...I think it's safe to say most of my fics these days fall under crossovers lmao

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

I wouldn't say I have? One or two comments that came off as rude, but no actual hate, thankfully. If I did, I forgot about it. I've been blessed by wonderfully nice readers <3

Do you write smut?

Nope. I don't read it, so I wouldn't know how to write it anyway.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? I sure hope not.

I have seen a couple short fics slightly imitate Ghost of Mementos though, which I thought was really sweet that they liked it enough to inspire their own writing.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I'd definitely be open to it!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

RYOMINA. Hands down. I love them so much, I am so mentally unwell about these two

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

My two Runescape fics, Whispers in the Temple and Welcome to the Jungle. I absolutely loved going hogwild with rewriting old quests in Runescape, but I psyched myself out of Welcome to the Jungle because I got overly anxious about accidentally doing bad representation.

(in hindsight, it probably wouldn't have been as big a deal as I thought; it's hard to make it worse considering how bad Legend's Quest was with the british-african stereotypes. that quest DID NOT age well.)

I also want to finish Snake in the Grass; that was my first attempt at a genuine mystery plot and I really liked playing with Warriors in that fic in the context of the gang trying to figure out who the heck is trying to murder him.

What are your writing strengths?

I feel like I'm pretty good at dialogue! I try to make sure it matches the character's speech patterns and personality. Really well-written dialogue can tell you who's speaking without actually telling who it is. (For example, the way I write them: Minato speaks as few words as possible and has very little filter with his observations when he does share them, and Shinjiro is pretty rough around the edges, with shortened words and the occasional swear. Warriors is good with words and wit, but he has a certain military-esque directness and doesn't dance around the topic.)

I do try hard to keep the plot clear and understandable over everything else, so probably that as well.

Also, now that I think about it, maybe fight sequences? I don't do them much, but I do enjoy the challenge of making a clear sequence of what happens in a fight and trying to make it understandable. Fight sequences are easy to skip or gloss over, but I think of them like their own miniature plot. What happens? What surprises are there? What are their movesets? How do they get the upper hand? (and of course, what looks cool as fuck)

What are your writing weaknesses?

Time management. I tend to over-proofread since I beta my own work, and often I'll go back to tweak stuff if I had additional thoughts to add to it, or extra insight. Lately, it takes longer to write chapters than I'd like.

Also, dialogue-heavy scenes often get very chaotic in my WIPs because of the way I rough out fics. I'll throw together a bunch of dialogue bits I think would be cool to include, and sometimes they'll clash or get really messy, especially if there's lots of characters (looking at the latest two chapters of Stygian Ringlet)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I think it's cool! It adds flavor to fics. If it's more than one short phrase though, or if it's story important, then I do prefer that there is a translation in the author's notes. I haven't done any non-English dialogue in fics, save for one memorable adventure into trying to figure out how Latin grammar structure works for a character that didn't speak English.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Wizard101 and Pirate101. I was obsessed with those two for YEARS. I really, really liked pirate stories in high school, and having a cast of crewmates that accompany you throughout the game really inspired me to write my first fic featuring my OC. (I was also into One Piece at the time, but I never wrote for it.)

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

Stygian Ringlet. It's really dear to my heart. I have poured so much love and effort into that fic, and the reception on it has completely blown me away.

THANKS FOR THE TAG!! Uhhhmmm for tags I'm going to go with @skyward-floored, @catreginae and @breannasfluff (but only if you want to!! no obligation of course)

and of course any other writers that want to do it as well!! go forth

[palimpsessed]

Medieval History AU

for @carryonthroughtheages

For my piece for the medieval era, I took inspiration from illuminated manuscripts.

(Please click the image for better quality.)

Read more about the piece below the break.

I want to first say a huge thank you to @bazzybelle​ for organizing this event and also for just being a really great human. ILY! Despite the fact that I of course left everything to the last minute, I have had a blast working on my two posts and can’t wait until I have time to actually look at what everyone else has done.

About the artwork:

This is a haphazardly researched piece at best.

I initially planned to simply do a group drawing, showing the gang dressed appropriately for their places in my medieval AU. I had that sketch sitting around for months and never felt inspired. Then I started to think about how I could adapt my arsenal of art supplies to give the effect of something more suited to the time periods. And then I thought about a lovely comment that someone made on one of my drawings, that it reminded them of an illuminated manuscript. And then the book art nerd in me was activated. Thus, I spent the next week pulling references from various illuminated manuscripts that have made it online in some form or another over the years. Next came the design. I wanted to find a way to still include the whole group, but a simple line-up no longer made sense. I wanted to make SnowBaz the focal point, for obvious reasons, but I found a way to include the others in insets, as some full page illuminated manuscripts depicted smaller scenes around a central idea.

I knew that I had to include at least one dragon for Simon and somehow reference Baz's vampirism. Monsters appear all over illuminated manuscripts, after all, and I saw no reason why they shouldn't be in mine. Vampires in medieval folklore were different to the way we think of them now; they weren't living people who turned into blood drinking creatures, but rather reanimated corpses. These revenants are usually depicted as some variation on a rotting corpse or skeleton. I decided to stick with our modern understanding of vampirism, because I'm not wholly sold on the zombie thing. A skull and some rats chilling around it probably gets the point across, and ties in Baz's years in the Catacombs, which definitely still exist in this AU. Also, I see medieval Baz as a minor feudal lord of some kind, which plays into the classic vampire metaphor. Simon is a former knight errant who gave up his questing days once he faced the reality that perhaps he wasn't all that different from the monsters he hunted.

The vessel at their feet, which sits over flames, is a crucible. Because of course I was going to include a crucible in my medieval AU. The crucible is an ongoing metaphor in Simon and Baz's story, and I wanted to carry that motif into my piece, too. I based the shape off a couple different depictions I found that related specifically to alchemy. Alchemy is all about transmutation, rather fitting for two half monsters who continuously challenge the roles they've been assigned. (One of the crucible drawings I found even had a tiny dragon looking down the spout and blowing fire into the vessel!)

The alchemy theme continues to the top right corner, with a green lion eating the sun. This is a very common image in alchemical texts, a metaphor for vitriol purifying matter, which would then leave behind gold. Next to the green lion is Agatha, who finds far more to interest her in making friends with unicorns than in the attentions of any courtly suitors. The larger panel in the center shows the castle, the hub of medieval life, inspired by the look of Watford as depicted in the map at the end of Carry On. This version of Watford is also protected by a moat filled with merwolves, because they are exactly the sort of unholy beast that would appear in the marginalia of an illuminated manuscript. (Maybe the Mage got the idea of the merwolves from one of the "four-hundred-year-old texts" he dripped gravy on.) Stars fill the sky, because we all know how important those are. On the castle's other side is Penelope, bent over a parchment in a room filled with thick books, living her best scholarly life, now that she's retired from life as Simon's shield bearer. She and Shepard are both modeling the latest trend in eyeglasses, which is to say, the only trend, because that was cutting edge technology back in the day. (Would either one of them have had access to that kind of fancy tech in their respective positions? Idk, but they have unicorns, and flying sheep, and merwolves, and dragons, so let them see is all I'm saying.) Shepard is, if you couldn't guess, a shepherd, because I had to. But he's still a nomad at heart, and this new flock was acquired in a rather secretive deal during his last adventure. Lastly, the slogans on either side of Simon and Baz are the Google Translate Latin equivalents of: "Magic separates us from the world. Let nothing separate us from each other" and "Light a match inside your heart, then blow on the tinder." (If you can actually read my writing, and you actually know Latin, and these aren't correct, just pretend that they are.)

Illuminated manuscripts were usually embellished with gold leaf, and my budget version is metallic gold marker, which I used sparingly throughout the piece for fire and other objects of note (though it's probably hard to see in the scan).

That's all, I think. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

Bonus! Process shots;

[sophia-sol]

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Volume 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

The third volume! It is here! And my main reaction is: aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I actually had to take a break partway through reading because it was so much and I needed to calm down. But now I am finished and I am a mass of emotions.

Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe spend this whole volume trying genuinely to reach out to each other, to understand each other, and doing a lot of failing but eventually they get there and I AM OVERCOME. God. I can't believe that the first time I read svsss (in the online fan translation) I genuinely believed that there was no evidence that sqq was genuinely happy with how things ended up between him and lbh and that he was basically just like "this might as well happen." Sure he's not very outwardly expressive but it is So Obvious how much sqq loves lbh and ahhhhhh. And lbh! Trying so so so hard to be a good boy for his shizun!! Until xin mo warps his obsession and trauma and leads him to follow his worst impulses, and it's SO UPSETTING but sqq is THERE for him no matter what, now that he finally understands what's driving lbh!

Anyway, this volume also contained a whole bunch of absolutely wild plot stuff that I had 100% forgotten had happened from last time I read it and it was a time and a half to re-experience it. Also I now understand Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang far better too. (and airplane's explanation for why he cut tlj is SO FUNNY. Tlj is like binghe but MORE SO and the readers wouldn't stand for someone stealing lbh's spotlight!!)

I also love this bit about sj!sqq:

"When written within the bounds of the original genre, this kind of character was extremely difficult to handle. You could say he was scum, but he was also pitiful. But if you tried to acknowledge his pathos, his ruthlessness was real too. Characters that were both scummy and tragic always drew aggro, and they were a hotbed for wank, leading comment sections to devolve into massive flame wars."

Hot damn. This is so accurate, to how parts of fandom treat characters who are both scummy and tragic at the same time; it seems like many people struggle to acknowledge that both aspects exist simultaneously, or are only interested in exploring one side. And there are characters like this in so many fandoms! I mean, I spent my youth in the depths of HGSS fandom, and like. Severus Snape. Oh boy.

And the statement at the end that the way svsss goes is what airplane's original outline had INTENDED for pidw, like, ALL of it?? Including the lbh/sqq ship?!?? INCREDIBLE. Real curious how that would have gone with sj!sqq instead of sy!sqq! How would a happy ending have still been reached? AIRPLANE TELL ME MORE about the lost non-harem version of pidw!!!!

Also every single illustration in this volume is an artistic masterpiece, I don't even know which one is my favourite because there are SO MANY perfect illustrations of important scenes.

This volume takes us to the end of the main story of svsss, which means that volume 4 will be entirely the extras, and I am PUMPED. I don't think I successfully managed to find translations of all the extras when I read svsss the first time, given how I've definitely heard references to things that happen that I haven't read, so I cannot wait for NEW BINGQIU CONTENT for me, and also to get to wallow in the airplane extras some more because MOSHANG.

As far as I've seen the publishing date for volume 4 hasn't been announced yet, and I want them to take the time they need to finish making it, and also I am on tenterhooks for more. I am made of nothing but svsss feels!!

[wishingstarinajar]

I am going to ramble a bit but I will hide it under a cut because it's a bit long. It will be about the previous fandom I was active in around two years ago and how it affects me to this day. It's also about popularity and putting others on a pedestal.

If this sort of ramble isn't up your alley then feel very free to skip over this post! I don't mind. If you want to read more about it, just check under the cut.

The Franchise And Its Creators

====

THE FRANCHISE AND ITS CREATORS Around mid-2014, I joined the Wakfu and Dofus fandoms, a small-ish fandom as a whole but popular in certain circles.

For those who don't know, Wakfu and Dofus are (online, console, mobile, figurine, card and board) games, comics, animated series, specials and movies created by a French studio named Ankama. These two franchises are intertwined with each other as they play out in the same universe but in different timelines. I myself dabbled around in the animated part of the fandom; I was a huge fan of the two series and the Dofus movie.

There was very little catering to the international part of the fandom when it came to the studio's attention and interactions. There were no English dubs or subtitles; international fans had to rely on English fan subtitles on ripped/pirated episodes of the show and movie, same for the franga/comics. Merch was hard to get. A lot of articles related to the shows and whatnot were in French only, which is understandable because it is a French-made product. But there's no denying that the international fanbase felt a little neglected back then.

====

MY FANDOM JOURNEY

Because I was very interested in the lore of both franchises, I had to do a lot of digging and translating to be able to fully indulge in it all. I went full in! I dug deep, created OCs, art and also tried to write fanfiction. I also shared news and info about the series and movie; I ran a fan blog dedicated to sharing things with the international part of the fandom. I was also often approached about lore, particularly for a few of the canon characters and one of the races that play a role in the Wakfu franchise; the Eliatropes. It was fun, it felt good to help other fans out, it was nice to make friends and be creative with others about similar things.

Eventually, the character and art theft began. We all know this is a 'normal' part of fandoms, so I won't hammer too long on it. My issue with it was the fact that my main OC, a female Eliatrope, gathered a lot of attention because female Eliatropes were a rarity in the Wakfu franchise. They existed but didn't get a moment in the limelight, except for one that even received her own game (Islands of Wakfu) but it was so obscure that a lot of fans didn't know about its existence. My OC was somehow mistaken as canon by plenty of folks and many others started to use her as a template to create their own (female) Eliatrope OC. I didn't mind, as long as they weren't straight-up copies and I tried to be supportive by answering lore questions and give feedback whenever it was asked for it (which happened a lot). Of course, copying and theft happened more often than not; over the five years I was part of the fandom, I sent out almost a hundred DMCA reports for art and character theft (like true theft; I could handle some similarities or one-time occurrences). One particular case went to the extreme but I won't beat that dead horse any further; it brought me enough misery to last me half a lifetime, that's all I'll say on it. I kept a lot of the negative experiences behind closed doors and dealt with a lot of it quietly to not bother, worry or burden anyone else with any of it. I wanted a positive and supporting environment for my followers, even if the truth wasn't as pretty.

====

ANKAMA'S STRUGGLE

Over the years, studio Ankama increased attempts to cater more to the international fanbase of its animated properties (articles in English, English dubs and subtitles, etc). However, the studio's struggle to garner the attention of international supporters (aka companies and sponsors) didn't go too smoothly, and to make matters worse, they were also struggling with finding a platform in France to broadcast the Wakfu series on after wishing to take a different and more mature direction. Ankama wanted more freedom with the Wakfu show, like less censorship, a serial rather than episodic, and it not being aimed at a young audience like its previous contractor demanded Wakfu to be. Ankama even turned to crowdfunding to get certain projects (like new Wakfu seasons) off the ground and let's just say that those crowdfunding projects are best described as tiny dumpster fires; they weren't pretty to watch. The first one was a disaster with plenty of displeased backers and the following crowdfunding attempts often didn't meet the end goal due to bad past experiences or the lack of interest.

Luckily, Netflix breathed some life into the international Wakfu fandom, which was great! But it was still received badly (mostly due to the awful English dub and sound mixing of the first two seasons and special) that the third season Netflix made possible was not getting the attention it deserved. It was also a rushed product due to financial and time constraints on Ankama's part. Netflix eventually declined a fourth season and it all fell a bit apart from there. Ankama turned to crowdfunding once more to try and make season 4 a reality. Last time I checked (which was quite a while ago), it did decently enough to make season 4 a reality. (Please don't ask me about it, I don't know anything about it.)

====

THE PEDESTAL

While all this was happening behind the scenes, I was starting to struggle with the reputation I built up in the Wakfu and Dofus fandom over the few years I was a part of it. The best way to describe it is that I had grown exhausted.

Aside from dealing with the theft and answering people's questions daily, I wanted to be treated as an average fan but I kept getting put on a pedestal. People went as far as to call me by titles (like lady Wish and miss Wish) more often than not. To be called and treated as such made me feel alienated, like as if I wasn't considered real. I often asked to just be called Wish, no titles/formalities required, and that I wasn't as 'popular' as they believed, but the majority of the people didn't seem to listen. People were either afraid or refused to interact with me because they considered me 'too popular', or simply wanted nothing but my validation, feedback and/or free art. I also had my fair share of haters and people that didn't approve of my 'status' in the fandom. Join the club xD I wasn't very happy with it either.

I really started to dislike being called 'popular' because it had such a bad impact on the people around me (and my own mental wellbeing). Friends started to become jealous of the attention I garnered and it dragged me down every time. At times, it would turn toxic. It was never my intention to make my friends feel like they meant less because they surely didn't. To learn that they believed others were only friends with them or only looked at their art/writing because they were good friends with me hurt so much. It still does. I refuse to believe that was fully true because I was (and still am!) surrounded by very creative people and they all deserved as much attention as I was getting, at times more. I wish others saw it that way too.

I was also heavily chained down thanks to the role (model) I played in the fandom. Too many people (especially young ones) looked up to me and there were a lot of expectations that I felt forced to meet. I started to lose the energy for it, but if I dared to stray a little from the path, the pitchforks and torches would come out. It was very restricting.

In the end, I felt stuck. Things started to grow toxic. There was a point where I began to dislike the franchise because of the bad feelings it brought me. I couldn't even get myself to watch the series or movie anymore. I focused less and less on the canon side of things and more on my own ideas, which was one of the only comforts I really had left in the fandom. I started to shut myself off, which upset a lot of people. I am sorry for that, I wish it didn't happen that way but I was at my wits' end.

When I realized and also accepted that I was no longer enjoying myself with canon or fanon, I knew I had to move on or stuff would end badly. It was a very tough realization and decision to accept and make; I literally dedicated five years of my life to the fandom. I spent hours a day digging for info and news to translate and share, doing 'research' for my fanfics, answering questions, and whatnot. I truly lived the fandom day in and out. It was the first fandom I ever actively participated in to this degree. What the heck was I going to do without that?

====

THE NOW

Abandoning the fandom was a scary step to take but not one I regret. I left the Wakfu and Dofus fandom behind me in late 2019. I feel freer now and so much happier. I no longer have the burden of expectations, being a lore guide or be forced to portray a certain role model weighing me down. I am no longer on that f*cking pedestal. I can finally explore interests that aren't exactly child-friendly without a big part of my following pummeling me down for it. (Don't worry, I always try my best to keep it in the appropriate places.)

Do I still like Wakfu/Dofus and all the stuff I've created with it? Yes, I do but I also want nothing more to do with it. Aside from the friends I've made there and also stuck around on my new adventures, I left the fandom behind me.

I still get approached at times about how my Wakfu OC, art and writing inspired someone and ask me if I could give them feedback for their own ideas or give them advice/information on Wakfu/lore. I am extremely humbled by it every time. It's great to see someone feeling inspired and be creative. However, I've moved on. I've left interacting with the Wakfu/Dofus fandom and fan-made stuff far behind me. I haven't touched it for almost two years and it shows on all the social media I share my art and writing on. I at times wish people could be considerate about the fact that I moved on but I also know and understand that not everyone knows my reasoning or my side of the story. I try not to be too harsh on it.

====

MY ADVICE

I don't hate anyone for how things turned out; a lot of it was my own doing by not saying no or taking a stronger stand.

It did teach me a lot of things, especially about caring for my own well-being and putting others on pedestals. Please be mindful when you treat someone like others treated me before; it's not healthy, for yourself and the person you put on that high pedestal. Take everything in moderation and consideration, that's all. Everyone's human, everyone has feelings, and everyone deserves a sense of being. Even your favorite artists and content creators. Don't treat them like an otherwordly being that you have to worship.

In turn, if a fandom or something you enjoyed is making you unhappy nowadays, you owe it to yourself to make or find a change. Be good to yourself, always!

~~

Thanks to anyone who read through this ramble. I needed to get this off my chest. I am not asking for advice, neither pity or whatever else. I just wanted to share my thoughts on past experiences because I have a feeling others might be going through something similar.

Thank you again, please take care.

[beepityboopity]

Sword Art Online (1,2,5,8)

This anime is definitely more my speed, and it is 1000% something that I would have taken the time to binge if I didn’t always hear about how the story kind of goes bad after the first arc. So obviously, I’d rather invest in an anime that I think I’d enjoy until the end. That aside, it is incredibly fascinating just observing this stark contrast between older styles and newer styles of anime. It’s crazy to jump from Gundam to this and just see how far the art style has evolved, and although there are still many different styles today, I feel like this style used in Sword Art Online is definitely representative of the most popular one. And also just a quick note, I believe that this is the first anime that we have watched in this class so far that really portrayed an obvious scene of “fanservice”, which is something everyone who is into anime knows about. I felt the need to point it out because I am unsure as to when this kind of thing was introduced to anime and I am hoping for some discussion on it as I understand that MANY people are deterred from watching anime due to the very popular use of fanservice in more modern animes, and understandably so. Anyways, back to the main content of the anime, obviously the watching of this anime is supposed to bring about some kind of discussion concerning the rise of virtual reality. And honestly, there were some really crucial moments in the episodes that were assigned that I think should be highlighted. One of them being the moment everyone’s avatar is transformed to look like their real selves. And obviously, it was meant for comedy when the pair find out that one dude is not a girl and the other is much older than a teenager. However, I think that makes an important point as to who a person really is. What is their real identity? The person they were born as, or the person that they wish to be. Now I can’t say anything about age exactly, and I’m not taking any particular political stance, but gender is something that someone can decide (more or less, I understand that people don’t really decide but are just born with a certain gender identification) as a part of their identity, despite the organs/ genetic makeup that they were born with. And as a society, we accept (or should accept) people for this identity that they declare for themselves. So then when we look at the virtual reality of Sword Art Online, how do we decide as a society what is a person’s true identity? Is it the one that they were born with, or the one that they wish they could have had all along? Another major point is the idea of NPC’s. The guild that Asuna is a part of wants to sacrifice the villager’s in one scene because they aren’t real and will always respawn. But what happens when the NPC’s start becoming semi-conscious on their own or are able to replicate consciousness? How can the NPC’s be treated differently without that somehow impacting your mental state and your treatment of other “real people” if everyone is in a virtual reality anyways? And how would that translate to the real world? Finally, there is this moment of comfort and intimacy that is shown between Kirito and Asuna, when she cooks for him in comfortable clothes and they share a meal together. This is a specific scene, but is representative of the state of the virtual world as a whole. It is noted that people have begun to try less and less to escape, as they realize they can kind of just exist peacefully in this one. What is the major difference if they can work, get money, eat, and even find love here? And I think that Asuna brings up a really important point when she tells Kirito that cooking is not as fun in the virtual world, and I think that brings up a point that, unless virtual reality perfectly replicates the freedoms and processes found in the “real world”, people will always feel like something is missing, even if their are simply content with how the virtual world is.

[crossdressingdeath]

You know, as someone who is gay and has... more experience in abusive relationships than I ever wanted... hearing people talk about how unhealthy WangXian is upsetting. I know I can’t speak for everyone, but in my opinion WangXian is something more queer people need to see. And people calling it abusive when it isn’t is actually counterproductive when you think about it.

Like, I’ve had to play the guessing game of “Do my friends and family have a legit reason to be concerned, or are they secretly homophobic?”. Not a very fun game. You already have people online saying that gay relationships are sinful/toxic just by existing. Just seeing people misinterpret canonically gay couples as toxic/unhealthy just because the relationships isn’t perfect is going to make people not take actual claims on legitimate toxic/unhealthy fictional couples seriously.

I’ve seen so many people try to say that WangXian is either toxic or a stereotypical yaoi couple, and I just think “are we reading the same novel? what translation are you reading?”.

“Forced Gender Roles/Het Coding” – you mean how LWJ typically does more feminine chores, while WWX is more skilled/knowledgeable with traditionally masculine chore? Like in his dream, where LWJ is literally a housewife while his a busy husband?

“Stereotypical Seme/Uke dynamic” – not even mentioning the fact this isn’t yaoi (it’s danmei) and therefore, theydon’t really fit that genre, I really doubt it? Like, WWX is the one who decides nearly everything in the relationship. Regardless of what LWJ wants, he won’t push WWX into anything. In fact, WWX has to encourage LWJ to talk about what he wants/likes. Really, thinking about, WWX is kind of the one in charge.

LWJ might have WWX beat in terms of pure physical strength, but if you think LWJ could win in a fight without WWX letting him, then you clearly haven’t been paying attention. May I remind you, without golden core, WWX took on multiple armies? And the one that killed him only won because he let them. They technically didn’t even kill him! MXY’s body means WWX has a golden core now - he’s not as strong physically but he can work on that - he’s still stronger in every other aspect. It’s basically impossible for LWJ to overpower him.

“Rape/Noncon” - Where? There are two moments where LWJ crosses boundaries... but only one of those moments is an actual boundary crossed. Every other intimate moment that happens, LWJ makes certain that WWX is actually enjoying himself and consenting.

The infamous kiss. A lot of people misinterpret this as something the author threw in because it was “hot”. In actuality, this kiss is important for multiple reasons. While WWX isn’t upset by this kiss, LWJ clearly is. This moment is what causes LWJ to stop trying to force WWX to go back to CR with him – it’s this moment that makes him realize if he continues down this path, he will end up like his parents. This moment is the start of major character growth for LWJ, allowing him to become a better man, one that WWX can actually love wholeheartedly without any regrets. It’s this moment where he decides that he can’t just take little things from WWX anymore - he has to try a different approach to help him, and accept that WWX might never feel the same way (obviously he’s wrong). Like, the impact this has is huge, and it’s another reason why LWJ refuses to mention his feelings to WWX - he doesn’t want to force him ever again. So he won’t. Not even by having WWX agree to be with him out of graditude.

The other boundary crossed is when LWJ spanks WWX during sex. The narration makes it very clear at that moment that it’s not okay, that WWX is uncomfortable and doesn’t like it. And it stops, LWJ moves from it after some nudging from WWX. After the event, they have a serious talk where WWX makes it very clear that while he enjoys a lot of things, LWJ can’t do that ever again of he wants to continue being with WWX. LWJ could have argued, could have said that since they were under the influence of the incense burner, he shouldn’t be blamed for his actions. Instead, he swears never to do anything like that ever again.

This is so important! The message this sends is so important! This whole scene is saying that, no matter what kinks you might have or how kinky you are, your boundaries deserve to be respected. You don’t have to do something you’re uncomfortable with just because you’re kinky and your partner likes it. How can anyone read that and think it’s supporting rape?

Also... if I’m being honest... I actually thought CQL had a more stereotypical Seme/Uke dynamic than the novel. WWX is so much weaker and less observant/cunning... couple that with the fact the he’s not only not even a little guilty of his crimes but he’s actually made into a poor victim with lot of fainting into LWJ’s arms... yeah, he comes across much more like a uke than in the novel. LWJ is also so much more of a stereotypical overprotective seme too. Then there’s the whole thing lack of consent someone else mentioned, with how WWX forces LWJ to drink/how LWJ tricks WWX into marrying him (so he literally did the thing his father did that the fandom finds so unforgivable?). I like CQL, but a huge chunk of those fans are kind of obnoxious and toxic... and hypocritical I guess.

So, I just wanted to rant after seeing so many posts on this topic. I’m just really annoyed. I don’t even know if this makes any sense.

That is an excellent point re CQL. I’ve thought about how they weakened WWX and dumbed him down (presumably to make him more of a victim), but not how that affects his dynamic with LWJ. Also I do want to acknowledge that there is dubcon in the novel; the first time they have sex LWJ is drunk to start and we don’t know when exactly he sobered up. But like... that’s not exactly uncommon in romance novels. And the show has WWX forcing LWJ to get drunk against his will and LWJ marries WWX without his knowledge or consent, which... really isn’t better, especially as the novel does have discussion about how what they did was kind of a mess with consequences and them having to discuss it, which the show... doesn’t. In fact the novel takes consent as a far more important thing than the show does to the point of it being a central theme that the show lacks.

Yeah, I have to say that people insisting that Wangxian (specifically novel Wangxian) is super unhealthy feels like the double whammy of “Ewwwwww gay people who aren’t unrealistically perfect” and “Ewwwwwwwww a woman writing gay romance”. I mean, I seriously doubt that if one of them was a girl and/or the story was written by a dude and nothing else changed people would react anywhere near as vehemently towards it. Like... it seems interesting that the version people are insisting is healthier is the censored idol drama where they aren’t actually in a relationship and the people in charge mostly seem to be men, that’s all I’m saying.