#i should stop getting sucked into youtube shorts

[inkoutsidethelines]

"The worst part about being a private chef is when my client wants me to cook something that I don't feel like cooking"

Ma'am, you are terrible at your job.

[commodorez]

Why Firefox?

Firefox isn't trying to take away my ad blocking software, forcing me to wade through advertisements to traverse the web. I rarely have to stop and put up with ads in my day to day browsing experience. Google has made it very clear that they don't want you to have that power.

I'm very used to a specific UI in my browser, and I'm able to tweak Firefox to my needs. I don't use tabs when I'm at home, and being able to eliminate the tab bar can totally be done with Firefox (I won't elaborate on that here). However, there are many other things I can add to Firefox to improve my experience!

You know how sometimes you want to download an image on a webpage, but you can't right click on it, or it's hidden behind another element? I've got a Firefox tool for that called Right-click boroscope.

Don't want scripts to load in on a page, and cause havoc? Firefox has me covered again with NoScript.

I want to immediately reverse image search something I find regurgitated here on tumblr, in search of the original? There's a TinEye extension for Firefox to do that and save time.

For using tumblr more efficiently, there's XKit Rewritten. In Firefox.

Sick of Youtube's shitty search suggestions, and shorts being pushed? There's a Youtube Search Fixer add-on for Firefox for that.

I've also got the Wayback Machine integrated into Firefox.

The thing is, whatever reasons I enumerate to use Firefox, there are another hundred good reasons that other folks can add to this list no problem.

In some ways, it sucks that I should have to make so many modifications to my web browser to make it suitable for taking control within the modern webscape, but it also says alot that I have the freedom to make those modifications to my browser should I so choose. At work I'm forced to use chrome, and even though I'm only browsing ad-free internal corporate pages to get my job done, I still can't stand that experience.

We should be free to control our web browsing experiences. If a company finds a mantra like "don't be evil" too restrictive, maybe I don't want to help perpetuate their advertising machine (and don't think for a second that chrome isn't part of said machine). The web is supposed to be this free and open place, and it sure as hell isn't helped by browser monoculture. I really don't like the idea of supporting a monopolistic browsing experience that is the sea of chrome clones. Everything else seems to have turned into another chrome.

Fuck that noise.

So I will continue to use Firefox.

[hazbin-but-good]

another hazbin hotel rewrite/redesign?

yup! and i'm so serious about it that i made a whole blog for it. i'm a white queer ex-cath tran doing this as an art and writing exercise, so feedback from other creatives + jewish and/or racialized folks is especially welcome.

i'm putting this post and only this post in the main tags for visibility. also, not gonna link my main, but i do make my own original stuff, and i encourage fans and haters alike to do the same.

anyway, here's a mostly good-faith 1.7k-word essay on the original. i think it's pretty funny and brings up some less talked-about points. correct me on the facts, disagree with my opinions, and ask clarifying questions, but don't come at me with any piss-poor reading comprehension.

the hellaverse is garbage, and here's why

cw: strong language, stronger opinions, intersectional feminist critical discourse analysis

1. vivienne medrano, the person

medrano was born as a well-off white-passing latina (salvadoran-american) in bougieass frederick, maryland. while attending new york's top art school, she got popular on deviantart-tumblr-twitter by being a prolific multifandom fujoshi furry who's more into ornamental character design than storytelling. upon graduation, she leveraged her fanbase and industry connections to make the hazbin and helluva boss pilots, get helluva made for youtube, and get hazbin made for amazon prime.

like every woman online, she gets harassed for no good reason, and as a certified autist, i will defend her right to be dumb, weird, annoying, and bad with words. however, there are legit reasons to criticize her:

racism, misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia, some antisemitism, past transphobia, past ableism

shitty boss, bad friend

cowardly, vindictive, manipulative, thoughtless behavior

skeevy friends

sucks at taking criticism

in short, i think she desperately needs a PR person and someone to clean up her digital footprint.

2. medrano's art

incurious

inauthentic

noncommittal

creatively stagnant

overindulgent, and the indulgence isn't even fun

shallow and childish framed as complex and mature

bland and boring framed as shocking and subversive

to be clear, i'm at peace with the existence of suckass art like this; i just think the money, attention, and praise it gets are unearned and should go to more interesting works, of which there are infinite.

medrano's had the time, money, and social cache to grow as an artist, learn from the best, and take creative risks, but she hasn't. if she truly has nothing more to offer, she should let her collaborators take the wheel, but she doesn't do that either. instead, she keeps getting more and more resources to make the same baby bullshit, and that pisses me off. she could be the nicest person ever, and this fundamental arrogance would still make her art blow.

stop with the pointless guilt: liking medrano's work does not make you stupid or evil. however, if you stay in the kiddie pool of culture, if you refuse to engage with a diversity of art, if the hellaverse is your point of reference for anything media-related, you can't expect to have your opinions on art, media, or culture taken seriously. you have not earned a seat at the table. you gotta hit the books first.

i cannot emphasize enough how much incredible stuff is out there if you're willing to look further than what social media and streaming services put right in front of you. if you come away from this blog having learned about just one new artist or piece of art, i'll be a happy camper.

3. the hellaverse

a. empty and confused

hazbin and helluva's content and marketing has no clear target audience. the subjects are inappropiate for teens, but the execution is too childish for adults, and lemme tell you what i don't mean by that, first.

not inherently inappropriate for teens:

sex and sexuality

violence, including when it intersects with the above

politics and religion

not inherently childish:

animation (any style)

comedy

episodic writing and/or loose continuity

young characters

fun, happiness, optimism, the power of friendship, cuteness, tenderness, sincerity, etc.

what i mean is that these shows are literally about adult characters who fuck, smoke, drink, do drugs, go clubbing, work full-time, manage their own finances, and deal with stuff like bureaucracy, sexual violence, domestic abuse, marriage, divorce, late adoption, and family estrangement.

however, none of these "adult" things are given enough specificity to create drama or comedy. it's all too stock, vague, flat, weirdly sanitized, and thus utterly banal—pure aesthetics on top of bad saturday morning cartoons. it's exactly what i'd expect from a sheltered disney kid who needs to log off and get into their local gay scene ASAP so their only contact with things like poverty, policing, addiction, and sex work stops being facile movies and TV.

if the shows were aware of this and played with it, that could be amazing, but they're not. they give you the mickey mouse version of the world with a straight face and then play looney tunes sound effects to try to make you laugh and sad_violin.mp3 to try to make you cry. now that's funny.

b. old and tired

let's make like americans and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist. even within the confines of the USA, home of the hays code, the red scare, and reaganite propaganda, this neopuritan fascist state ruled by 1000 megachurches in a trenchcoat, the indie/underground animation scene has been doing crazier shit for decades. anti-war films in the 60's, bakshi movies in the 70's, the simpsons shorts and r-rated movies in the 80's, adult swim and MTV in the 90's, flash/newgrounds/youtube in the 00's, streaming in the 2010's—so what are we doing in the 2020's with this wet white rice drowned in expired ketchup? i feel crazy making this point because it's obvious if you've watched these things, but if you haven't, you're gonna be like "well, there's gotta be something new here". no! there isn't! in the words of jimmy "the scot" jordan, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!

c. ideological purgatory

actually, there is one thing in these shows i've never seen before: the presbysterianism. shout out some interesting or at least intentional presbysterian art in the comments, because the way these ideas are presented here is not compelling. it just makes the rainbow neoliberalism even more confusing and contradictory.

i guess the big presbysterian things are protestanism, calvinism, and, uh, big church government? presbysterians, get your shit together. get your brand down. catholics have BDSM and vampires, evangelicals have TV and corporatism; what do you have? celtic crosses? no wonder medrano has such uninspired ideas on divinity.

d. queer deficiency

when i look at a piece of art, i ask myself: "what does this give me that i can't get from the hunchback of notre dame (1996)?" if the answer is as limp as "uhh, gay people, i guess", i can probably look for my gay shit elsewhere and rewatch the hunchback of notre dame (1996) in the meantime.

but let's say that you have no standards. you've been waiting for ages for a show about gays by the gays for the gays, and by god you're gonna get it. this is it! here we go! time for some

generic twink obliteration

male sexuality as aggression and dominance displays

WLW (sex and chemistry not included)

a couple straight femdoms

and the stalest sex jokes known to man

...yeah, it's not very queer. and by "queer", i mean "questioning or subverting gender norms (including sexual roles) within a given cultural context regardless of creator identity and intent". i'm not a queer studies scholar so LMK if there's a more specific term for this, but whatever you call it, it's not in the hellaverse much.

there's not even any transness, literal or metaphorical, just ancient drag jokes. i guess the writers thought we would've been too controversial. so much for an indie animation studio that prides itself in the diversity of its staff both above and below the line, bakshi-style. i wonder how medrano, a bisexual woman, would've felt if told that a lesbian main couple in hazbin would be "too controversial".

4. spindlehorse and the vivziepop brand

spindlehorse toons underpays its overworked staff and keeps outsourcing more and more labor to even more overworked freelancers overseas to cut costs. a rainbow sweatshop is still a sweatshop, and just because these practices may be "industry standard" doesn't make them any more ethical.

the studio has also been repeatedly accused by current and former employees and contractors of creating a hostile and abusive workplace. AFAIK, it still has no dedicated HR person, and victims are too afraid of retaliation like blacklisting and online harassment to speak out.

this is exactly the stuff that unions exist to prevent. as i'm writing this, the IATSE (the parent union of TAG, which is the parent union of all US animation unions) is negotiating with entertainment industry executives for better working conditions, and if the execs fuck around like last year, it's strike time again. so watch this space, voice your support, and don't cross any picket lines.

i hope spindlehorse unionizes, but until then and for these reasons, i don't think you should give money to the company.

first of all, all content on amazon-owned platforms is ok to pirate, and all youtube ads are ok to block. everyone involved in making the episodes has (or should have) been paid upfront, so you're not taking the bread out of anyone's mouth.

next, let's look at the succulent offerings of the official vivziepop merch shop:

$10 pins and keychains

$15 sticker packs

$20 mugs and acrylic cutouts

$25 shirts

$30 metal cards (not even tarot)

$40 lounge pants

$50 mini backpacks

random $80 skateboard deck

forgive my latin americanness, but this is all stuff you can get made by a local metalsmith, print/sublimation shop, or just crafty people in your life. it's cheaper, customizable, and better for the environment to skip all the shipping and packaging. also, not painting your own skateboard is poser shit.

the hazbin website also has $15 pins, one $20 keychain, and $6 trading card packs. people are weird about trading cards, so if for some reason you wanna gamble for a mass-produced bit of cardboard, plastic, and tinfoil, at least bulk-order for all the vivziepoppers in your area so it's less of a huge waste. better yet, trace the designs and make infinite bootlegs.

at the end of the day, buying merch is not activism. your bulk order of trading cards will not save any wage slaves from getting evicted from their overpriced studio apartments. however, the shop links you to all the credited artists/designers, and more of your bucks will actually reach them if you buy their designs directly, then turn them into body pillows or life-sized bronze statues or whatever the fuck.

go through the credits of any episode of helluva or hazbin, and you'll find even more creatives you might wanna support. get jinkx monsoon's albums on CD. subscribe to actually good artist, animator, and composer gooseworx. lots of voice actors now have patreon, cameo, or self-hosted pages where you can write better lines for their characters and have them read it. these things may not look as shiny as Official Merch™, but we all need less plastic shit and more culture anyway.

[anzulvr]

karma x reader — fluff, angst? (Kinda) if they had a relationship like Hanako and yashiro,, SPOILERS FOR TBHK guys I’m supposed to be doing one of the thirty requests but I thought of this and I couldn’t help it I’m sorry

Karma and you are the epitome of the scene in TBHK where Hanako goes “And guess who gets to be my little helper!” and Yashiro replies “it’s me… I’m the helper…” in the most disappointing voice as she gets her cheeks squished by him.

(If you haven’t seen it look it up on YouTube or tiktok!)

You’d be like Yashiro and Karma would be more like Hanako because of how often he gets you wrapped up in his crazy plans, most days he does something stupid and needs you to be apart of it.

Karmas personality is very bold and he definitely takes jokes too far sometimes which is why I think a confession from him could be kind of messy and in parallel to the scene where Hanako accidentally makes Yashiro cry by fake-confessing to her as apart of his plan. (Look the scene up, he stages a confession, Yashiro is disappointed and he teases her about it not realizing it upset her) — Karmas version of this would be an assassination plan on Korosensei where he lores Korosensei to whatever place planned by faking a confession to you (cause Korosensei is super nosy and would definitely snoop around given the chance no matter how sketchy things seem), Karma forgets to fill you in and now you’re hurt when you realize the confession was all apart of a stupid assassination attempt.

“Haha can you believe he fell for that, still couldn’t kill him that sucks, hey- [Name]? Dont tell me you’re disappointed the confession was staged.” He laughs but that comes to a quick stop when he realizes that was exactly the reason why you looked so sad.

He reacts differently depending on your reaction, if you’re mad at him he’ll let you tell him off, for the first time he doesn’t argue back because he realizes he seriously messed up. He asks Nagisa and to help him figure out how to win back your trust, when Nagisa’s answer is “you should just be honest about your feelings.” Karma decides to get advice from Ms.Jelavitch instead, because he’s not up to being mushy just yet. (He ends up being mushy regardless he will swallow his pride after seeing you all frowny)

If you’re more sensitive and you start crying (real) he’ll be even more lost on how to react. He’ll apologize frantically and doesn’t realize when he’s starting to say things that he’d consider cheesy in any other moment. He tells you it’s not that the confession was fake, and how he meant every word, “I didn’t think you reciprocated, I thought I could make my feelings useful for some assassination attempt without realizing you felt that way…”

pretty short sorry :) but have this 🩷!

[markscherz]

Hi Dr Scherz, not a frog question but did you also interact with leeches in Madagascar? I heard they suck blood and live with frogs? 🧛

It's spoopy season, friends. Strap in.

Here's a teaser:

Look how cute it is. How much panic could it really cause?

Read the tags before continuing. You have been warned.

So terrestrial leeches are very common at moderate elevations in Malagasy rainforests. The worst I have ever encountered was around 1200 m above sea level on Montagne d'Ambre in the north of Madagascar. I had been warned, but I was not prepared.

On our first night at this elevation, we went out in search of reptiles and frogs and were absolutely besieged by leeches. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. Panic broke out, because you couldn't stop to flick them off onto the ground without having more make it onto you, and the people at the back of the line were picking up those that the leaders had flicked off. We ran back to camp.

In camp, the situation was not much better. Every now and then you would feel an itch and find a leech attached here or there. Small, but annoying, and itchy!

Porters bringing supplies to camp arrived in their sport shorts with their legs completely coated in blood. Even the reptiles were beset by the leeches.

Over the next few days, we managed to adjust, and to find solutions that helped reduce the leech burden. But our clothes were stained in blood, especially around the waist, where the leeches attach when they reach the top of your trousers. I preferred this to the alternative…

You can stop reading here if you are squeamish. Really. You might not want to know.

…

…

…

…

One night, working in a tiny forest fragment in northeastern Madagascar, my colleague Marius ran over to me and said 'I have something in my eye, can you check what it is?'. I turned my headtorch on his eye, and there was the black, glistening shape of a leech that had decided that today's meal of choice was sclera.

I had heard and read about this before. Colleagues working in southeastern Madagascar had told me horror stories. I had watched youtube videos about people getting leeches in their eyes. I was prepared with the bad news.

'You're going to have to leave it in,' I explained to Marius, trying to keep the panic from my voice. 'It will drop off by itself. You could really hurt your eye if you try to get it off.'

This did not have the desired effect. Marius and one of our guides exchanged a quick stream of Malagasy that I did not follow. Marius started pouring water into his eye, with no effect. Slowly, the guide began rolling up his zipper in the cloth of his coat, as I watched on, equal parts fascinated and horrified, emitting feeble protests of 'but I read on the internet…' and 'I really think you should leave it in…' (knowing in my heart that I would be doing exactly the same thing as Marius, were I in his situation).

I understood what was planned, and elected to help as best I could. While Marius knelt, I shone my headtorch into his eye. The guide crouched over him, and in one swift but firm movement, wiped the cloth-wrapped zipper over the leech. It came free, and out, and Marius blinked, dousing the eye in still more water.

Over the next days, I had several close encounters, catching leeches at my cheek or on my chin, almost as though they were targeting the eyes. Sometimes when I would go to check a random itch on my face, I would find a leech on my hand on the way up.

Since then, when I walk through a rainforest where I know there are leeches, my body is on a constant subconscious rhythm: check the sleeves, check the hands, use the hands to check the face, check the sleeves, check the hands, use the hands to check the face…

So far, I haven't had the misfortune to experience this myself, but having gotten to experience it second hand, that is quite enough for me, thank you very much.

I also realised that by having a tight seal between rain jacket and rain trousers, the face is the first target a leech might come to. This is why I no longer make this a tight connection, and welcome leech bites at the waistline. They are better than the alternative.

[buskingalbatross]

presenting my personal favorite five minutes of dan and phil live on stereo.

featuring heartthrob boys cannibalism the short story by daniel howell, and a truly fascinating discussion of the merits of a restaurant first date. [bubblewrap boys - full stereo live on youtube]

🎷🐟transcript below 🐟🎷

P: Dan, you are the winner of Heartthrob!

D: Yes!

P: Because I got one wrong.

D: With my winnings, and my knowledge of who's gonna date who and everything, I am gonna choose to free the boys from the pipe! Be freeee –

P: [laughing] Yeah! Yeeee, yeee –

D: Run, Jim, run! Neil! Frankie, you're the fastest you've gone to the gym. Phil doesn't run –

P: [laughing]

D: – he won't catch you! Oh my god, wait, Jim's cycling away, he's gonna make it – oh no! He fell off! Jim fell off the bike!!!! He broke his leg. Phil's coming –

P: Oh my god.

D: – oh my god, Phil is crawling up the stairs on all fours backwards with his head tilted back –

P: [laughing]

D: No, Jim!! No, he's [noises of cannibalism occurring] oh my god: he ate him whole. They're dead. They're all dead.

P: [laughing]

D: Apart from, um, Russ.

P: Wow.

D: With his saxophone.

P: He just uses the saxophone to suck in all the body parts that are left all over the floor.

...That was crazy, uhm, thanks for that Dan. Do you know what, I think like you said –

D: That was canon, by the way. What?

P: That was canon, that just happened. Going on a date with someone to a restaurant as a first date is a very good way of judging what kind of person they are. Cause there's lots of things –

D: [moan of realization that Phil is right] Yes!

P: First of all,

D: [continuing to have a realization that Phil is right] Augh!

P: –what food do they eat, how do they talk to the waiter, do they offer to split the bill or are they awkward about that or is it weird? And –

D: [continues to make noises of realization that Phil is so right] Oh my god you're so right.

P: Yeah, there's loads of things you can look for.

D: Oh my god, I never thought about that. It's like a final test!

P: It is!

D: God, there's so many social dynamics in a restaurant date, jesus.

P: Yeah, there are.

D: Wow, you really get to know someone, I mean, judging the food that they order, is huge. I mean that is a pretty instant, like, is this person a two-time thing or a twenty-year thing? Instantly.

P: Yeah.

D: Like, firstly, are they gonna be like: 'Are we getting a starter?' Like, if you're not getting a starter, get out. That, that's it for me, firstly.

P: You need the starter.

D: If you're just here to order like a lean mean main and then get out, then you don't enjoy life. I'm not interested in that. What do you order, how nice are you, how confident are you, what are your choices? Are you good at making small talk? I say all of this knowing that I'm terrible at all of those things, because I'm incredibly awkward and indecisive. But it would be nice to watch someone not do everything that I am bad at.

P: For sure. I went to dinner with someone – it wasn't a date it was more just like a dinner? They weren't a friend either, it was just a person I went to dinner with. Anyway.

D: [laughing] What the fuck?! W-Why did you go to dinner with this person?

P: I'm not gonna give too many information, details..

D: Okay, okay.

P: Because I'm about to shade them slightly.

D: Spill it, Lester.

P: Right.

D: I bet they're listening.

P: They're not.

D: I will out them. No okay here we go.

P: No, you can't.

D: Do I know this? Okay, we'll see.

P: They are 100% not listening.

D: We'll see. I'll tag them. [laughing]

P: No... [trying to start telling the story] I ordered my...

D: [laughing]

P: Dan! Stop making me laugh.

D: [laughing] God.

P: Listen.

[small pause]

D: [laughing] Listen?!

P: [laughing]

[both sighing]

D: [laughing] Go on.

P: I ordered my food at the restaurant, with this guy, and –

D: No shit, yeah, what else do you do at a restaurant.

P: And he was like 'No, you should totally order the sea bass, because it's amazing and you should really get the sea bass.'

D: 'mmkay..

P: And I was like 'No, I don't really fancy the sea bass, I think I'm gonna get this other thing.' So I ordered it.

D: Yeah. Fair play.

P: Fair play. I don't remember what it was. Anyway, I went to the toilet, I came back and they were delivering the food. And the guy had gone to the waiter and changed my order to the sea bass.

D: What the fuck.

P: Yeah. And it's just like –

D: Are you joking?

P: No. [sounds of pen clicking?] And it was really weird. It was like, why would you do that? He said, 'Oh it's just so nice, and I got it for two so you could try it.'

D: [horrified] Noooo.

P: But in my head I was just like, that is like twenty-seven weird flags of a person. I'm not even trying to date this person.

D: That is – That is the patriarchy right there. That is everything –wow. Yes.

P: It was really weird. Anyway, yeah that's why I was thinking it's a good thing for a first date, because you can pick up on lots of potentially weird stuff.

D: Oh my god, Phil, who was this person?

P: I'm not saying who it was.

D: Text it to me. Text me the name and I'll react.

P: I might have even –

D: I won't expose you. Text me the name. Text me the name right now.

P: No, oh my god. I might have even changed the word 'sea bass' to a different food because I didn't want you to say who it was. Um...

D: I promise I won't expose you, probably.

P: Oh my god.

D: [evil hehehe-ing]

[text message whoosh]

D: oOOOOOHH. Yeah. Okay. Yeah that guy was good.

P: You remember it! I told you about that.

D: [laughing] Anyway. Wow.

P: Anyway. [laughing]

D: PSYCHOPATH. WHAT. OH MY GOD. NEVER DO THAT. Anyway.

P: Stop, Dan.

D: Okay, fine.

[kats-kradle]

ahhh hello! i'm the one who commented on your er fanfic (absolutely loved it, by the way.) and it's so relieving to see more people join the fandom,.,

who's your favorite so far?

boy oh boy you’ve won a rant about ER! Buckle in it’s gonna be a ride. I’ve seen 8 full episodes but my thoughts are Many.

First off thank you so much for your kind words about my fic! I really wasn’t expecting anyone to read it and definitely not the same day I posted it lol since the show is like 30 years old. So it was a nice surprise thank you!

To make a short answer very long, I had heard about the show when my mom told me about the episode where Carter and Lucy get stabbed. It was related to the conversation in some way but I remembered that because. Well. Whump. Fast forward many years I’m now watching the Librarians tv show. It’s funny. It’s good. I love Noah Wyle. He’s a great actor. I wonder if he’s been in anything else so I search him on tumblr and lo and behold the stabbing episode!! I am elated and it is a strange full circle moment. I then search on YouTube for all the Carter whump clips I can find. Then I’m watching all the Carter clips I can find. Then I’m watching other clips and I want to write for this show but I figure I should have some basic information so I find the first season and I get sucked in and—

Carter. It’s Carter. He’s such a puppy of a man. I love how the hospital staff have collectively adopted him. Noah Wyle is an amazing actor my favorite thing about him is how fast he can go from a comedic beat to a serious one. He’s got RANGE man.

Anyways now you get to hear my thoughts on the other characters too!

I like Greene a lot. He set the tone well in the first episode (see what I did there ahaha) and he gives fatherly vibes. He’s just a nice guy. I love his friendship with Ross too it’s really believable that they are friends. I don’t like Greene’s wife she acts like she’s trying to seduce him is every scene instead of actually dealing with their problems?? Ma’am that’s your husband stop batting your eyelashes and biting your lip your making me uncomfortable. Honestly I skip through most of their scenes because I am Uncomfortable.

I liked Ross at first. I found his immaturity endearing up until when he went to Carol’s house to try and win her back. I was cheering when she chased him down to chew him out. Now I just think he’s a bit of a jerk because he won’t leave Carol alone.

Carol is my girl. She needs to decide what she wants but she’s my girl. It was really a bold move for the show to start off with such a heavy topic such as a suicide attempt of a close friend, but they handled it really well. I love her and wish the best for her, but girl make up your mind about which guy you want to be smooching.

Benton isn’t as bad as I thought he was from the clips I saw. He’s a bit brusk but he really does seem to care about Carter and his experience as a student. He seems like a good teacher and he does give out praise and comfort when required. He’s also a good student too. He seems to take his own critiques gracefully, even if it’s clear they get to him. I loved the part where Sarah was like “you’re just mad because you want to sleep with me” and he was like “not only do I NOT want to sleep with you, the thought has NEVER crossed my mind” what a mic drop moment.

I feel bad for Lewis and the situation with her sister but more importantly girl get away from that psychologist can you not see how pompous he is??? I don’t like that man. Bad man. Go away man.

I like how the show feels so real. Ofc I know there’s a ton of medical inaccuracies, but the interactions between the cast members feel real and it really elevates the show to another level. I think so far they’re doing a good job of handling sensitive issues too like suicide attempts, rape, racism, etc. I’m probably not gonna watch the whole thing but for now I’m hooked and scheming other fics to write.

ANYWAY who’s your favorite character? What are your thoughts on the show? I already know all the major spoilers so don’t worry about trying to keep it unspoiled for me

[whydon-twego]

Morgana probably hates him. Or she hates his own plants, he doesn't know which statement is more correct.

"Morgana, do you remember what happened to the cactus you gave me for my birthday?"

Morgana simply shrugs her shoulders.

"I trust that being my plants and with a promise to kill you if they are not all nice and alive when I get back, they will be in good hands."

"You really have no one else to ask?"

Morgana snorts at that point.

"The only person I can trust is Gwen and as you well know Gwen will be leaving with me. It's only two weeks, I trust you'll be able to keep my orchids from dying in such a short time."

Arthur is not at all convinced and, barely five days into Gwen and his sister's honeymoon, he hates himself for always being so damn right.

His sister is going to kill him. *** Gwen, sweet little Gwen who, despite being on her honeymoon, answers him immediately, passes him a YouTube channel about plants and nature in general.

Arthur, looking at the half-wilted orchid in the window, doesn't know if it will be enough, but he has to at least try. *** Merlin (that's the name the guy uses on his channel MerlinLikeTheWizard) has quite a following on YouTube and has a lot of videos, even a few minutes long, explaining how to solve tricky situations.

The orchid with some difficulty recovers, Morgana's roses no longer seem to be on the brink of extinction and Arthur owes his life to a stranger on the internet.

A stranger with sparkling blue eyes, a disarming smile and huge ears.

Arthur may have a small and insignificant crush on him. ***

The plants have returned to Morgana and Gwen's house safe and sound (Arthur hugged Gwen a little harder than necessary, thanking her for saving his life) and Arthur is thinking if perhaps, now that he has a little more practice with plants, he can fulfil his dream of having a little corner of paradise on his over-empty balcony. He has always liked flowers, his mother had always liked flowers, but Arthur has always had the ability to kill every poor plant that has crossed his doorstep.

Maybe now is the right time. ***

"Merlin!"

Arthur didn't want to shout it in the middle of the street, he didn't want to shout it in the face of the stranger who is now looking at him with an alarmed face because -God!- they don't know each other and Arthur looks like a bloody stalker. But when was he ever going to meet his celebrity crush by pure chance in the middle of the streets of London?

Merlin looks at him a little confused but raises a hand in greeting and Arthur takes courage and gets a little closer to him. What do you say to someone you obsessively follow for advice and because their laughter brightens your day?

"You have the biggest ears in the world"

Morgana is terribly right, he must have some kind of mental affliction, there is no other explanation.

Merlin wrinkles his eyebrows and opens his mouth to reply but Arthur stops him by talking over him.

"That wasn't what I meant at all. I- sorry, no, I just wanted to- Thank you for saving my life."

At that, Merlin raises his eyebrows and Arthur finds himself thinking about how expressive the human face can be without having to say anything.

"Yeah, I mean, that's..." Arthur covers his face with his hands for a moment and thinks about what a mess he's making "I swear I don't usually suck this bad at first impressions" Arthur sighs "I kept my sister's plants and you should know that I have the ability to make a cactus die within 48 hours, so I was desperate because my sister threatened me with death about her precious orchid and his wife sent me the link to your channel and, I mean, I'm still alive so thanks"

Merlin spends a few seconds staring at him and Arthur feels incredibly stupid, then Merlin bursts out laughing and Arthur thinks he has an even better laugh heard live.

And what else could Arthur say now? He's at a loss for words and his throat is suddenly dry and would it be too weird to ask for an autograph or a photo together? Is this something people do with YouTubers? He honestly doesn't even have the courage to ask.

Merlin is smiling now, looking at him, and Arthur is stumbling over what to say. God, this is humiliating. We'd better end this quickly.

"Well, yeah, that's it… so thank you."

He turns to put as much distance as possible between himself and that embarrassing figure he will never tell anyone about, but a voice stops him.

"I think you owe me a coffee."

Arthur turns towards that voice he has come to know behind a microphone but which has a much stronger accent in person. He turns and watches Merlin look at him.

"What?"

"I saved your life you said. The least you could do to repay me would be to buy me a coffee."

Arthur looks at him for a few seconds and can't believe his ears.

"Sure!" he says quickly, extending a hand "I'm Arthur by the way"

"Nice to meet you Arthur, I suppose you already know my name"

Arthur looks at him sceptically.

"You mean to tell me that your name is really Merlin? Really?"

Merlin smiles and turns to point at the first Costa they find on the road.

"Like the Wizard" *** Merlin watches Arthur talk about how he has succeeded in creating a small corner of the garden on his balcony, how his eyes light up genuinely happy that he has succeeded in something he thought impossible, observes how he gesticulates animatedly and how he responds in a decidedly snobbish manner when something doesn't suit him.

Merlin watches Arthur and there is something about him that makes him say without a second thought "I'll come and have a look at your garden and we could work on it together"

Merlin observes how Arthur looks at him gratefully and how the coffee they were to have together becomes lunch and how Arthur manages to respond to his sarcasm with more sarcasm.

Merlin will have to buy Gaius dinner for convincing him to open that YouTube channel, months and months ago.

[cgarttrailsandtails]

I have something to address.

This fandom has too much drama. All fandoms have drama, all fandoms have haters, it’s a part of life itself to have terrible people like that. But the Sun and Moon show fandom? This one is RIDICULOUS in the amount of negativity, fighting, random attacks, and more that some asshole decides one day that they want to go be a bitch online with. I have never seen a fandom this out of line ever before. It’s insane.

To everyone that has been hurt, had to block someone, been yelled at for your opinions, or anything else that these terrible people try and pull, I apologize profusely for the actions of these people who can’t seem to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them. I can’t change it, but if I could you best know I would.

And to those of you people in this fandom that think your opinion matters more than everyone else’s, and that people who disagree should be frowned upon? Fuck. Off. You do not get to just go around hurting other people’s feelings online, and not even caring about the consequences it has on them. That’s called CYBERBULLYING. Respectfully, Stop in-sighting conflict and bringing other people down just because you can’t deal with your own life. The world does not revolve around you. Stop acting like it does.

Finally, I would like to say that I do realize some of these haters are kids that don’t think before they post. Likely not on tumblr, but definitely on YouTube and maybe a few other platforms. So, even if someone tries to start a fight with you, here’s something you can do, considering you don’t know who they are. Leave it. I know, it’s hard to do, especially if they keep trying to bother you. But even if you have to say something, try to keep it out of a fight. Take a deep breath, be respectful in your answer, and keep it short. That way, you don’t give them anything they can use to escalate the situation. Here’s an example:

Meanie1.5: You like (character name)? Wow, you suck! That character is trash!

SorryImSleeping: Yes I do like that character. So what?

Meanie1.5: That character sucks, which means YOU must suck worse for liking them!

SorryImSleeping: Okay. Thank you!

See, now that person doesn’t know how to respond. They want to fight with someone, want to make them mad. If you throw them off like that and don’t let yourself get mad, then ta-da! Crisis averted! (Also, I’m sorry for the terrible insults in that scenario, I suck at being mean unless it’s to a character or person I really don’t like.)

And hey, if you know another language, throw them off by saying something random in that language! There’s a chance they’ll understand it, so just make it really random. Like calling someone a “pescado videojuego” or “video game fish”. There’s a chance they’ll understand it, but even if they do, wtf are you gonna say to someone calling you a video game fish? Argument already won! No conflict! See?

If everybody does what they can, we can make this fandom a lot less negative. People like that who get ignored or shut down will (most likely) eventually stop. So, then we have a better fandom!

Anyway, just a rant about being a good person and not joining in on conflict, I’ve seen that rising wayy too much recently. Bye bye now!

[a-tale-of-legends]

God, people just won't shut up about the Typhlosion thing. I feel it's gonna be the new Vaporeon copypasta meme. -_-

Memes are meant to be funny, but every fandom just has some of those memes that completely mischaracterize a character and become really annoying? Like the Kakyoin memes from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure where the actual character gets overshadowed by an erroneous fanon that gets widely accepted.

Typhlosion is a cool Pokemon and one well-liked, but now all the meme pages are flooded with "Typhlosion beating the allegations" or "P. Diddy Typhlosion" or " Youtuber Typhlosion getting cancelled" and I'm just hoping this is a short-lived trend people tire of quickly.

.

Okay first of all I feel called out for the Kakyion meme thing, I was NOT expecting that to be referenced. Ow. Damn.

Second of all....yeah. Like for me, the whole thing makes me feel uncomfortable. Yes, I know that it's folklore! Yes I know that it's not even canon, so i'm not even gonna go like " hur-dur, I guess we know what they're called game FREAKS", cause I think that's fucking stupid. Still makes me uncomfy, which I don't think. Is bad????? I'm not a folklore person, but just from my barely passing knowledge of Greek Mythos, messed up shit ( by today's standards, I guess?), and it can be hard to really stomach ( I've seen people complain like " didn't we all learn about Greek mythology when we were younger, we should all know better" and. Lmao. No. Not everyone. That sounds pretty cool, but not everyone, stop assuming -). So like yes. It's folklore/ mythos that reflects how people saw pokemon back then. It's interesting! Also uncomfortable for me. And I think that's okay.

The thing is that this isn't really the first time human/pokemon relations have been alluded to in folklore or in written text before. And I think that's the key here. Before, these things were optional dialogue that you didn't even have to read. They were in a library,presented as folklore first, and that alone gives the player knowledge that what is being presented isn't exactly. Real. I mean it is in the sense that it's a story within the universe, but for the player it's just folklore. Even in PLA, which had the creepiest rendition of this with the froslass,still had proper set up for you to get to that point. The way we're even getting this information? From a fucking malicious hack, where misinformation is rampant and context is kinda out the window. We are pretty much thrown into this without warning, and it really shows! Because now people are annoying.

And like. I hate that Typhlosion is getting compared to real awful people. I hate that people are assuming the worst of the employees and devs. I hate that this is overshadowing the real issue of a lot of pokemon employees being doxxed, and their safety isn't secure. It really fucking sucks. Again, the whole thing just makes me uncomfortable, but like. I dunno, chill out guys. Please. Here's hoping it passes over quickly.

I made a post before, saying how I wish some things within the leak were kept hidden forever. It was mostly a reaction to my initial thoughts if the typhlosion and others leaks. But now, that changed to " I wish these were never revealed so pokemon fans can stop being annoying and weird". Sigh.....I feel really bad for typhlosion though. Wasn't my favorite starter but it was always pretty cool.

[batsplat]

thoughts on the latest casey interview? it’s so funny because I keep seeing people posting different excerpts of it on here depending on which guy they like lol

well, first off, this is how I found out there IS a new casey interview. I did have a quick dig around whether I could un-paywall the original but. no luck. so I'm basing this on the write up in mowmag - which passes the test in that, unlike certain websites, it actually addresses multiple things casey said on different topics. so hopefully isn't just the most clickbait-y material and is a relatively exhaustive summary of the stuff he said. no cherry picking on THIS blog

anyway, my main takeaway is that it's probably for the best that the casey/valentino relationship doesn't get TOO warm, because if you ever put these two on a podcast together the resulting material could level continents. I still stand by my belief that these two could have co-hosted an all time great conspiracy theorist youtube show in another life. what a pair of guys

my other takeaway is that, despite working for them as a test rider AND a rider coach, casey still very obviously has NOT forgiven ducati. the grudges he's airing by proxy in this interview!! spectacular. with all athletes but ESPECIALLY casey, it's always healthy practise to just keep in mind the actual context of their careers when reading their mouthing off about the current sport. because sometimes they will be fighting yesterday's battles... this is a man who still has enough bones to pick with motogp to disassemble the whole skeleton

I'll follow the order of the interview provided by the mowmag piece:

“I know the company,” says Stoner, referring to Ducati and answering a direct question about the possibility that in Borgo Panigale they might decide to ‘sabotage’ Martin’s eventual victory, “and I know what they are willing to do to win. I’m surprised I haven’t seen it before, or maybe it happened and Jorge was good at overcoming it ” In short, Stoner goes so far as to say that Ducati might have already put a spoke in Martin’s wheels, but that the young Spaniard was still able to be stronger than any obstacles created. With Ianieri pointing out to the Australian, however, how much Dall’Igna insisted that it will be real sport and there will be no games. “That’s what Gigi thinks. But then there’s Ducati and they don’t want to see the number one go. But everyone is watching them very carefully, if they make a mistake like that we’ll see it. If they create a problem it will backfire on them. I hope that everything goes smoothly and that we can see the real world champion.”

do you know what an absolute nightmare it would be if martin has a mechanical dnf in the catalunya ii sunday race. something which can of course HAPPEN, pecco's had more mechanical gremlins than jorge this year. but obviously that wouldn't stop anyone from losing their minds

this is just so extremely casey. I laughed when I read it. of course he's been thinking about how ducati will probably sabotage martin since jorge's exit to aprilia was announced. of course he thinks ducati would pull off something shady to keep the number one plate in house. I love the idea that ducati HAS been sabotaging jorge but they've just been like, extremely shit at it. look at him saying that he KNOWS ducati and thinks they SUCK... an opinion he is completely justified in holding - ducati did not do right by him in 2009, and those wounds also still show in some of his other responses in this interview. but, y'know. if ducati was going to sabotage jorge, quite frankly they would already have done so. it's just a little late for this, isn't it. what are they even going to DO, stick a pin in jorge's tyres?

readers familiar with casey's oeuvre should be drawing a fairly obvious parallel at this stage - given that this is not the first time casey has dabbled in a light dash of conspiracism where title deciders are concerned. here are the two versions of his book concerning what happened at valencia 2006:

will never get over how casey was fighting the good fight for valentino's tenth in 2013 icl. early adopter

back then, casey was blaming the 'commercial interests' of Big America for sabotaging the most popular rider in the history of the sport - until Big Dorna sniped him and forced him to remove the 'commercial interests' line in the paperback version. (to be clear: this is a joke, there's no indication anyone from dorna had a chat with him, it's just funny that his stance ever so slightly softened between versions but then he did also add the wonderful 'welcome to my world' line.) it's perfectly reasonable to believe that valentino had a dud tyre in 2006 valencia and broadly tracks with what he himself says about the race, somewhat less reasonable to believe They were actually out to get him. valentino was very unlucky throughout 2006, yes, but... people are unlucky sometimes

anyway, I don't actually want to relitigate 2006 here, but I DO love his paranoid streak and how like... y'know, there's always the danger he's mellowed in his time away from the sport, he's certainly less tightly strung these days... but yup, he's still got that in him. still that guy

from a longer post about the similarities between valentino/casey, reckon this is one of the things I've written about the pair of them that holds up the best:

it is completely unsurprising that jorge martin's plight has struck a chord with casey, who himself always had a chip on his shoulder and was more than happy to use said chip to motivate himself. both jorge and pecco have a fair bit of casey in their competitive dna, which does show in how casey talks about both of them - martin perhaps with a bit more of lorenzo's brashness mixed in versus pecco having more of valentino's cunning... plus his contrarianism (which casey is no stranger to either). if we're already drawing alien parallels. just always that slight sense that they feel SOMEONE is out to get them, that they're never being given a fair hearing... again. chip on the shoulder

then there's this bit -

Calling it a very powerful attack is almost an understatement, with Stoner not being light on Ducati even when he comments on the decision to entrust the official bike to Marc Marquez for next season. “They could have made sure that he would settle for an official bike in a private team” – he thundered.

- which we're going to circle back to. I do love how casey's switched from going to an italian newspaper to launch an extended attack on valentino rossi to going to an italian newspaper to launch an extended attack on ducati. critical levels of support

So how will it end in Barcelona? Casey Stoner doesn't give his prediction, but limits himself to an icy comment: "I think Jorge deserves the title, and that he is in the position to win it. Pecco will do everything to be champion and Ducati would like to keep the number one. Everything could go smoothly, or there could be great chaos "

given how dud tyres have been a big theme in both 2023 and 2024's title battle, 'slightly odd jorge crash helped along by slightly odd michelin tyre' just feels like. such a plausible scenario. that could easily make everyone lose their minds. honestly, even if jorge crashes on his own and just says his bike felt weird afterwards, whether it's true or not. it'd be chaos, yeah. and casey will be THERE no matter what

If from the point of view of the show everything is more exciting, from the point of view of the rider who has raced, won and suffered in the difficult world of MotoGP, in this 2024 we are also witnessing a great injustice. "For me the World Championship should be as always: on Sunday - adds Stoner, stating himself openly against the Sprint and against the new MotoGP format - If you make a mistake you have lost an opportunity, now you have two. And then it doesn't allow you to really work on the set-up, because the only concern is getting into Q2. The system doesn't work for me, you can see it from the abysmal gaps. It might be there every now and then, like in Formula 1, but every weekend is not necessary. We have seen what Pecco has done in the last three seasons, the growth is constant. Ducati's results are always better, but in comparison with the others he is the one who wins the most. You can't belittle him, they are real victories, not Sprints. What he has done this year is impressive".

this bit I do agree with casey on, not because of what it's doing to this specific title fight and more just my general distaste for sprints. at some point this last year it's become received wisdom that pecco's sunday success is partly reliant on being able to do some trial and error in saturday sprints, so I found it interesting that oxley took a different stance in his sepang column:

I'm not sure I ENTIRELY agree on this (obviously I'm just basing this on vibes not actual expertise). even though obviously all riders do get this sprint data boost, I feel like it's fairly plausible pecco + his team make better use of it - just because there's better data, doesn't mean everyone is taking equal good advantage of it. then again, is there really any evidence that pecco is getting more out of it, beyond doing better in a format he's better at? as casey points out, it does mean you have way less time to faff about with set-ups, which pecco does like to do. there's also intangibles that might make the sprint experience advantageous to pecco on a sunday - for instance, I feel like his banger starts this year (remember when those were a thing) have tended to come on a sunday when he's already kinda figured out where to place himself in the pack. so maybe he does get something substantial out of having an extra race

that being said, I'm increasingly of the opinion that thinking pecco is ACTUALLY helped by the sprints - that the championship picture would be no different without them - is... kind of overthinking things. he's not good at the format. any marginal gains on a sunday he's getting from the sprint data just instinctively feel like they're probably not equal or more to what he's losing out in raw number of points through the sprints. it does feel like pecco's gotten better at sprints specifically in the second half of this year, so it's interesting to see if that carries through to next season... and look, none of this is to say jorge won't be a deserving champion - at the end of the day, you have to win the format you're playing. but yeah, I do reckon pecco would likely be champion without them

I've been curious for a while about casey's thoughts on the sprint format - I thought he'd be against it because of his luddite vibes as much as anything else, though I do also reckon the format wouldn't have been bad for him specifically as a rider. (if nothing else, it would've helped him in 2008, given he was fighting for the title against a rider you feel like would be TERRIBLE terrible terrible at this format. less time for set-up experimentation, softer grippier tyres and shorter races weighted towards qualifying/starting well? yeah say goodbye to that eighth.) anyhow, his reasoning checks out - part tradition, part the feeling that it's too forgiving of mistakes, part fucking up the structure of the weekend, part giving too little weight to 'real' wins... all very casey. casey was the type of rider who was always more about focusing on wins than championships - that you shouldn't settle for results just because your 'rivals' were behind you, for instance, that fighting for race wins comes first and the title will follow. here's a paragraph from a sachsenring 2012 write-up (where casey crashed on the penultimate lap while fighting dani):

obviously in the context of that particular title fight, it didn't end up mattering anyway because of the injuries casey would go onto sustain. but... well, casey's errors in the first half of 2012 would have put him in a tough position anyway - as dani proved, even once honda got on top of his chattering issues, reeling off victory after victory would not be enough to take the championship when jorge could just keep riding home to safe p2's. (and when dani in a disadvantageous points position pushed too hard in the penultimate round and crashed, it was game over, stop if this reminds you of anything.) the point is that pecco this year has played the race-win-or-bust role in a way that is probably instinctively quite appealing to casey - doesn't sit easily to watch the guy on ten wins lose the title. there'll probably always be elements of the slander pecco receives that resonate with casey... pecco's words getting misinterpreted by press and fans, pecco being called boring, pecco being called too crash-prone, unstable, bad at handling pressure... the two of them are plenty similar as characters, which is reflected in the type of criticism that tends to head their way. and pecco's stubborn resilience, a determination to motivate himself as a spite response to the doubt from others - well, that again is probably going to remind casey of himself

moving on.

Impressive, but not enough to win, with Jorge Martin now 24 points ahead, just one weekend away from the big dream, before the painful farewell. Casey Stoner is not easy on the market and Ducati's choices either. "If Ducati loses the world champion it will be a hard blow," he explained. " But I think it will be even harder for Martin, who has spent these years being loyal to Ducati I don't think it's right how it went. Unfortunately, it's the way Ducati works and that's why they've lost so many riders now. Marquez? In many ways I understand the decision, but it doesn't mean it's correct. When you have riders who give their all and stand out among the 22 on the track and someone arrives to take their place, I don't think it's right. I think Marc could have had a factory bike in another team. It wasn't fair for Bastianini and even more so for Martin."

yup, casey all over. of all the aliens, casey had the least hype surrounding him in the lower classes. he's... well technically I suppose valentino started in a satellite team and won his first title with one, but it was very much a ''''''satellite team'''''' - casey was the only alien to start his motogp career in a satellite satellite. a proper one. he KNOWS what it's like to not be the first choice for ducati!! if melandri had gotten out of his gresini contract to ride for factory ducati in 2007 (lol), casey could've been in real trouble even finding a seat. and he's a big believer in loyalty! casey was beyond disillusioned by the shit ducati pulled in 2009 - when they planted stories in the press that casey's diet and exercise routine was responsible for his mystery illness, big names openly criticising him during his absence... as well as of course how they aggressively courted jorge and offered him a way bigger salary than they paid casey, after telling casey they didn't have more money to pay him

it's that last bit that feels uncomfortable, right - like casey, martin threw in his lot with ducati, off the back of quite a contentious split with ktm to even get the pramac seat. like casey, martin has now repeatedly been looked over - and like casey, his ultimate split with ducati is the result of ducati favouring the golden boy. (while lorenzo obviously didn't join ducati at that time, this was ultimately still one of the big reasons why casey walked away after 2010.) unrewarded loyalty... hey, I suppose him and valentino actually agree on this, yeah. ducati has spent so much time cultivating its young talent before showing themselves ready to ditch them all for the big name. and it IS how ducati works, they really AREN'T particularly loyal. all these years later and they're still just the same, as far as casey's concerned

Ducati, therefore, as the central theme of the entire interview, but also as the favorite target of a Stoner who on the one hand seems to make very clear analyses, but on the other also appears to be someone with a decidedly poisoned tooth, given that even when asked about his future in the Team Lenovo garage he lets many doubts shine through on the management that Borgo Panigale will be able to have of two champions like Bagnaia and Marquez. “It depends on how Ducati behaves - he concluded - I think that Pecco, mentally, is strong enough to face the situation, it will be a question of seeing who Ducati wants to protect the most. For sure, the two will try to create chaos in the team to make things go in one direction or the other. We will see how Ducati manages the situation and who they choose. They will have to be as balanced as possible or it will be a problem”.

(incidentally, I love the italian 'poisoned tooth' term for having a grudge, it's so evocative. lots of poisoned teeth in motogp)

casey's confidence that there's going to be pecco/marc drama... he's so real for this. I've been wavering in my own confidence a little bit, wondering whether pecco/marc might not end up massively disappointing me, but casey's coming through for me here. unsurprisingly casey's going to implicitly relate more to pecco in that particular dynamic... in general, it's nice how complimentary casey is of pecco, even while summoning locusts upon ducati. just on a personal note, I never particularly enjoy when retired athletes play into narratives about how much worse the current competitors are... it's mean-spirited, generates dumb discourse and also feels rather undignified. so, y'know. always pro-glazing the current lot

in terms of what casey says specifically... obviously there's the ten wins thing, which casey unlike much of the fanbase does understand isn't something a mid rider can pull off, and then there's the line about pecco being mentally strong enough to go up against marc. I've talked before about the similarities between pecco and casey before, which obviously is also relevant here... casey faced accusations of being unstable and unreliable and too sensitive throughout his career, starting well before his path crossed with valentino's. too crash prone, a choker, too easy to rattle. and then they come up against a rival with a reputation for mind games, who many seem to expect will be able to 'break' them. whatever pecco's on-track success will be next year, there's no real indication that casey's wrong here - for all that the pair of them are high strung and ever so slightly neurotic, both casey and pecco have repeatedly exhibited real resilience and self-belief. idk, again, it's fun how both the current title contenders do have quite a few casey-coded characteristics. love casey-coded characteristics

The reference is clearly to Honda, with the Australian explaining the Japanese's major crisis in this way. "It's hard to get an idea from the outside," he said, "but I think it was convenient to have the three European manufacturers at the top, with the Japanese slipping to the bottom. I don't think that in Japan they suddenly don't know how to build a winning bike anymore. The Europeans are very creative and make everything happen faster, but they're not as refined as the Japanese. And with such fluid rules, everything is easier for the former. With Albesiano, Honda will try to add creativity and speed up operations. It will be interesting."

pretty sure I've said this before, but one of casey's funniest traits is gesturing vaguely in the direction of a substantive accusation without quite spelling it out. does he think dorna is sabotaging japanese manufacturers? is the system rigged against them?? for WHOMST is it convenient, wHO are you accusing of what? I'm not even saying he's WRONG about all of these things, sometimes conspiracies are real, I wouldn't know either! I just think it's great how this is his go-to reaction. always looking for that shadowy influence secretly protecting the anointed and sabotaging the unfavoured. the bit about more fluid rules favouring the europeans is interesting and I'd like to hear more about that theory, but obviously that wouldn't necessarily mean this was the intended consequence of said rules. does feel like casey's implying that though! come on casey, tell me more

anyway. this has been my take on casey's newest contribution to the discourse. I can be accused of many things, but not of lacking casey stoner opinions. that's my little guy

[zoologicalcartoonvampire]

I basically went on the longest rant on why i hate short form content on discord this morning.. so eh

Ill just share it here

I GENUINELY, SO SO VERY DEEPLY

D E S P I S E

Youtube Shorts (as well as tiktoks, reels and the rest of them)

They are addictive. They are annoying. They are loud. They are obnoxious. They spread misinformation. Low quality content That i cannot run away from. They are worse than ads because at least there everyone agrees they suck and dont CHOOSE to watch that braindead shit.

I was very addicted to Instagram when Reels first started getting introduced. Ive always been anti tiktok, as i always saw right through its addctive and cheap cringe nature, but for Instagram that i was already addicted to, it wasnt so easy to simply not watch them. They are designed to GRAB at you. Pull you in. And KEEP you submerged for prolonged periods of time. Like some fucked up sea monster in a children's nightmare.

I hated it. I hated the content. I hated how overstimulating the videos were and how loud and colourful and random they are, how much information they give, it leaves one COMPLETELY DRAINED afterwards.

I HATED that. Life is for living not for getting addicted to trash on your phone and supporting abusive companies. So i deleted Instagram to save myself from wasting more if my life.

Ofc youtube then decided to implement them. Isnt that so so sweet! <3 /s

Ofc the problem then carried on, but having gone through already quitting insta, i kept trying to find ways of avoiding Youtube shorts.

I had tiktok for a month, simply to try promote my work, i was aware how risky it would be to do that, as i could sense myself letting go of my resistance to scroll mindlessly numerous times. I realized tiktok got me no traction so as quickly as i downloaded it, i deleted it. Out of my life. What a relief.

But Youtube shorts are still a pester. Since deleting youtube (the app) ive only been accessing yt for specific purposes: music or long form videos, which means that bumping into youtube shorts no longer catch me. Yay!

But now i have to dabble with the other ways these fucking god forsaked short form brainsucking 'content' bother me on a DAILYYY BASIS.

NOBODY FUCKING WATCHES THESE SHITS WITH HEADPHONES OR EAR PLUUGS! NO.

OFC NOT.

OUT LOUDDD FOR EVERYONE TO HEAR COMPLETELY RANDOM SOUNDS SWITCH EVERY TWO SECONDS AS IF THAT ISNT THE MOST ANNOYING COLLECTIONS OF SOUNDS ON THE PLANET.

its at home, on public transport, on a meet up with friends, on the street. NO FUCKING PEACE AND QUIET. people just playing the most annoying shit in existence out loud 24/7. TURN IT DOWN ALL OF YOU. YOU GUCKING MORONS. **OH MY GOD.** SHUT THE FUCK UP.

GO FOR A WALK AND LISTEN TO BIRDS OR SMTH. LISTEN TO A FULL SONG. TALK TO PEOPLE. STOP SWIPING ITS ANNOYING AS SHIT. PUT YOUR BRAINROT **AWAY.**

its especially bad with family or friends. Youre there, chilling, they decide to grab out their phone, open up youtube shorts and scroll like a zombie, loudly playing the bullshit on their screen. Thanks. What was a beautiful evening with friends, listening to the trees rustle and the fire crackle has now been overrun by the sounds of music clips, pathetic sound effects and annoying voices of people saying nonsensical statistics. You tell them its brainrot, and that they should put it away if with friends, they disagree arguing that "its not as bad as tiktok"

I. DONT. CARE. (and no its just as bad, you dimwit)

PUT YOUR DRUGS AWAY. I DON'T WANNA SEE IT.

Wake up early for once? Wanna enjoy a hot cup of coffee in silence and just relax?? HAHA. NO?? you cant have that! HERE! your sibling has to come and watch their YT shorts out loud next to you. No thanks!

These fucking shorts Get everyone negative once they get off of them. They promote racist, alt right propaganda. They are always so so negative.

I HATE IT.

I DESPISE IT.

I HATE THAT IT CANT JUST BE RESPECTED THAT I DONT WANT TO HEAR IT ALL THE FUCKING TIME??

I HATE HOW OVERWHELMING ALL THE SOUNDS ARE. I HATE RANDOMLY BEING PUT A PHONE TO MY FACE WITH SOMEONE SAYING "look at this vid"

I DONT CARE!!!!! IM GOING INSANE.

ITS A DRUG!!??!!???!

JUST CAUSE ITS ON A PHONE DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER.

I DONT WANT TO SEE THIS EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME!!!

I HATE IT!

I hate that i cant even go for a walk to the woods to catch a break from the sounds of LIFE and on the way there, if any 'Younger than 30 year old' is about, ILL PROBABLY HEAR THAT SHIT.

I dont think i can express how much i destain it.

How much i hate it.

As someone who put in the effort to not be wayching them myself. I just wish my want of it NOT being forced on me and everyone around all the time could just be RESPECTED.

i dont care if all you people ruin your attention spans and brain capacities. Thats on you.

Just leave ME in peace.

For goodness sake.

[chaos0pikachu]

Did you see the ending of Last Twilight? What did you think of it?

Personally I tuned into LT for 1 episode and it just didn't catch me at all but I'm nosy, so I've been reading the posts that cross my dash. I won't say I know everything but from the reactions of the people who have watched it - it's clear it's not good.

Then I came across a post that was smt like: We don't trust Jojo. We can't trust Aof smt smt. And that got me thinking.

You've said you don't like GMMTV shows, iirc. That they are more a product being sold than a story being told. And that's what I remembered reading the above post.

I also realized the last GMMTV BL to hold my interest was The Eclipse and even that went messy towards the end. Somehow GMMTV continues to make bad shows and continues to keep getting praise for it(until people realize this is a shit show from the get go). Though I am glad that people are recognizing how well made the BLs from other companies are. I think part of it has to do with being palatable. Even at it's worst Only Friends was nowhere near horny enough, like many other BLs, and that was GMMTV's horniest show. Also they put their stuff out on YouTube which makes it accessible to everyone. That ease / lack of barrier to entry means a majority of the fandom, especially new fans would end up at GMMTV. Then there is the fact that these shows just keep getting recommended. If someone made a shows to watch list - some GMMTV show is on there with a warning 'badly done ending'.

That makes me think GMMTV has gotten cocky. They want to pump out as much as they can and suck as much money as they can from the fans. I get running a business but it's detrimental to the company in the long run when none of it's BLs in a whole year managed to stick the landing. Perhaps they just don't care. It reminds me of corruption. Think of it in a metaphorical way. It's a short term solution that creates some money but will create long term problems. (Well I don't think GMMTV will be affected that much. It's just an interesting thought.)

So what are your thoughts?

~ Fork Around

omg is hating gmmtv shows becoming ✨my brand✨ cause that would be so fucking funny

for home players I don't actually "hate" gmmtv or the studios shows I just think fandom, at large, overhypes them to fuck when in reality all the ones I've watched I've found them to be thoroughly mediocre in regards to both narrative and film making.

To answer your first question, no I didn't watch Last Twilight, not out of any moral~~~ reason or whatever the hell, just cause I didn't want to. It didn't look interesting or appealing to me so I didn't bother. I'm picky about what things I watch b/c I'm hella fucking lazy lol am I gonna spend 12+ hours watching a mid show from gmmtv or am I gonna spend that same amount of time watching like, Marry My Husband? The latter, I'm choosing the latter. Hell, I'd rather watch Wing Chun which has less budget than Last Twilight does b/c Michelle Yeoh even at her earliest can act circles - also bonus Donnie Yen as her love interest!! - around any actor at gmmtv.

God people are gonna now think I think all the gmmtv actors can't act, I don't think that, the ones I've seen range from bad, to fine, to good. Calm down I'm not after your faves, and I can only name like four dudes that are signed at gmmtv anyway.

Then I came across a post that was smt like: We don't trust Jojo. We can't trust Aof smt smt. And that got me thinking.

man the folks in fandom who keep deifying directors should like, stop. Y'all are just setting yourselves up for disappointment. It's giving Joss Whedon's fanbase for real. Like Spielberg directed Schindler's List and Ready Player One okay? No one director bats a thousand every round.

Somehow GMMTV continues to make bad shows and continues to keep getting praise for it(until people realize this is a shit show from the get go). [...] I think part of it has to do with being palatable. Even at it's worst Only Friends was nowhere near horny enough, like many other BLs, and that was GMMTV's horniest show. Also they put their stuff out on YouTube which makes it accessible to everyone. That ease / lack of barrier to entry means a majority of the fandom, especially new fans would end up at GMMTV. Then there is the fact that these shows just keep getting recommended. If someone made a shows to watch list - some GMMTV show is on there with a warning 'badly done ending'.

Okay so like, I've had a lot of thoughts about this in general since gmmtv shows do make up a mass majority of The BL Fandom in general.

The way I would break this down is into factors:

Parasocial relationships (between the audience and actors)

Palatable Brand (queerness packaged in a non-threatening and non-challenging way with simple, low stakes stories typically about acceptance, and romance aka squeecore romances)

Accessibility (being available on youtube for free)

Easily consumable (b/c the shows are low stakes and non-challenging they're really easy binge watches, and since gmmtv puts out like 50 of these things a year fans just move on to the next one really quickly. Have y'all noticed that there's like, a general lack of fan works in BL fandom? It's usually just weekly episode meta posts and weekly gifsets but not a ton of fan art and fanfic is made for these shows)

Consuming vs Engaging (a trend I see in general in regards to BL fandom is this seemingly need to watch like as many BL shows as possible even moving on as quickly as possible to the next show instead of sitting with the show and building a community around said show, the only exceptions I've really seen to this is kinnporsche and slightly love in the air & bad buddy)

I'm gonna break these things down further underneath the cut:

Parasocial Relationships

"Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence. Parasocial relationships are most common with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams) or television stars." (source)

Gmmtv is really, really good at creating para-social relationships between the audience and their actors. How many people were willing to give Ray the benefit of the doubt and write sad woobie meta after one singular episode of Only Friends simply b/c Khao was playing the char? How many people were rooting for SandRay and TopMew simply b/c they liked FirstKhao and ForceBook?

Not everyone, obviously, but from my observations on tumblr, twitter, reddit, and youtube, a fuckton did this. Even unintentionally, I saw fans do this. Like ignoring Ray calling Sand a whore, or just...everything about the clusterfuck that was Top and Mew's relationship. Double standards were abound in Only Friends fandom when it came to how fandom treated chars like Mew, Ray and even Sand (especially Ray) in comparison to Boston. Not gonna get into that here - wait for the podcast episode to drop y'all - but it's an example.

Branded couples are gmmtv's bread and butter when it comes to their BL. They sell sticker sheets and postcard packets like these actors are kpop idols. The gmmtv house party thing or whatever trends on twitter. The studio directly encourages fans to grow attached to their actors specifically so they foster a para-social attachment so they can sell you the next six ForceBook, or OffGun or whoever show with the same or slightly different concept - this time they're in an office au! this time they're in a coffee shop au! - its just RPF at this point with extra steps. Not everyone~ obviously but a good chunk of people watched Dangerous Romance b/c they liked Perth and whoever his partner is. A lot of people checked out Cooking Crush b/c of OffGun.

I'm not saying this is a "bad" thing, one of the reasons I'm interested in watching Abigail is b/c of Melissa Barrera. So like I do get it, but as much as I enjoy Melissa her character in Abigail might be like, badly written. Who knows. I really enjoy Angie Jolie but lord knows she's had some awful roles and films.

Because of this emphasis on branded couples and para-social relationships, this effects the quality of the story b/c not every actor they pick for whichever show is the right actor. Earth was the wrong actor to play Jim in Moonlight Chicken, he just was. When Wen says he "likes old people" or someone makes a boomer joke about Jim I'm like that's a 29 yr old man. It takes me directly out of the story. It's no different than Jennifer Lawance playing a 40+ yr old woman in American Hustle at like 26. It's ridiculous.

Why NOT pair Mix up with an older actor who could also better play a world weary older man? Because it's not about The Story, it's about how much merch gmmtv can sell you or how many tickets they can sell to an EarthMix fan meet.

Palatable Brand/Easily Consumable

Gonna get myself in trouble, look gmmtv is a mix of Disney for gays and CW for gays. All the shows from gmmtv I've watched have 1) followed a very basic romance arc throughline, 2) been overall non-challenging in terms of narrative ideas or risks and 3) are straightforward in both film making style and narrative direction.

I have not watched every single gmmtv show nor will I cause again I am fucking lazy, but out of the ones I have watched this is how I feel about them.

Their shows tend to be about self-acceptance and romance. Which is FINE. I'm not saying this is a bad thing!! It's just boring after the 65th show about the subject. Especially when gmmtv doesn't care enough to cast actors that are right for the roles and give their crew a second light or five more nickels to the budget.

Sorry but 2gether is a poorly filmed show. 1000 Stars, imo, is thoroughly overhyped for how poorly paced it is, and how thin the actual story is (wait for the podcast ep on THAT lmao)

But these shows are comfortable and comforting. This is a neutral statement. You can like squeecore shows all you want I'm just saying that's part of the mass appeal of them. They're like the MCU films, they suggest the ideas of leftish politics just enough but don't really say anything further then that. And at times even enforce some harmful rhetoric - like the slut shaming in only friends and this ending to last twilight. They're just comfortable, easy shows that people can watch First and Khao in, enjoy their scenes, and then immediately move on to the next First and Khao show - hope they play street racers next! - without much of a thought.

Because these shows are pretty "safe" in terms of the depiction of queerness and sex it also makes them more palatable to mass recommend. When people make lists for what to show non-BL watches I usually see a lot of these "palatable" shows, stuff with straightforward romances, a couple kisses, fade-to-black sex. It's less based on genre preferences and more based on "what's the least scary thing we can recommend to folks". You see ppl do this with anime too. Everything gets lumped together under the sub-genre which is a shame (and also feels a bit xenophobic but I ain't getting into that).

But like, if I knew my friend was into fantasy gay shit I'd recommend them like, The Sign for live action, Drug and Drop for manga, Revolutionary Girl Utena for anime, Word of Honor and/or Legend of Yunze for (censored but still super gay) live action. I haven't read any fantasy bl/gl manwha yet so drop recs if y'all have some.

Accessibility

This one is pretty self-explanatory. We've seen how accessibility can increase a shows reach from Avatar getting a resurgence when it appeared on Netflix, where as, a show like Playboyy is gonna have a smaller reach since it's mainly available on streaming platforms like Gaga.

Consuming vs Engaging

gmmtv puts out the most Thai BLs period. This is just a fact of the industry. When you put out that much the quality of your media is going to go down - again we saw this with Disney regarding Star Wars and the MCU - because the goal is to sell merch not the stories. (Disney gets most of their sales via their parks and merch not their box office returns).

I see a lot of Big BL Blogs recommending gmmtv shows all the time, and I see a lot of these blogs and the fandom at large consuming these shows rather than engaging with said show. It becomes more of a challenge to watch 49 BLs, writing a quick meta post/review on them, and then moving on to the next one. There's a lack of higher end engagement, people aren't sitting with these shows and exploring the nooks of them. The empty spaces, the potential.

Probably b/c there's not a lot TO explore in regards to gmmtv shows, they all end pretty definitively. The couple goes through their couple journey, end up together, usually with marriage or an engagement, either way the promise of being together forever. Which is, again, fine, there's just not a lot of meat there to explore further.

This isn't specific to gmmtv shows - Domundi's shows come to mind regarding this too like Naughty Babe ends very definitively - but people just move on to the next one. They write episode-to-episode meta, end of show meta/recaps, make some gifs, move on to the next thing. It doesn't help that a lot of characters in gmmtv shows are thin and their worlds are empty.

But I think what attracts people is the constant churn of content. gmmtv shows are like tiktok videos, you scroll, watch, scroll to the next. Keep things quick and moving.

Where is the BL fanfic???

Moonlight Chicken only has 389 once you remove 1000 Stars, My School President, and Thai RPF works. Only Friends has 809 but only after also removing Only Friends RPF, Thai Actor RPF, 1000 Stars, The Eclipse, The Eclipse RPF, and Moonlight Chicken. 1000 Stars only has 292 once you remove similar crossovers (and a lot of RPF). My School President is down to 609 fics once you get rid of all the RPF and crossovers.

For comparison, kinnporsche has 11,444 fics even with all the RPF and crossovers removed.

I'm losing steam here at the end. These are a lot of thoughts, and I know they're not 100% articulate. These are just some general feelings and observations regarding gmmtv shows and fandom.

I'm NOT saying all~~~~ gmmtv show "bad" - though most I do think on a technical level are filmed very averagely with only MLC and Not Me breaking any molds - nor is anyone "wrong" or "bad" for liking idk Cooking Crush or Cherry Magic. I don't care like what you like bro.

I do think fandom overall overhypes gmmtv shows for a lot of factors - whether it's b/c they like the actors and feel that para-social pull towards them, or b/c they just like the squeecore comfort of these shows, or some mix of both - I think fandom would have an easier time if they just treated gmmtv shows are they are - average.

It's fine to be average and made for mass consumption. I like cheetos too dude. These shows don't have to be the peak of queer cinema to be valid, or for you to be "valid" for liking them. Why do any of us need to be "valid" in terms of the media we engage with? Who fucking cares? Like what you like, it doesn't have to be The Best Thing To Ever Gay for you to be valid for liking it. It doesn't have to "be important" either it can be gushers or twizzlers eat your snacks and enjoy life.

Just stop telling me it's a 4 star steak dinner or getting mad when you're charged 60 dollars for gushers.

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Top 10 18 Most Hated NonDD Roles

Aka the ‘Fuck You, _____!’ list lol these aren't in order other than alphabetical by movie/show this time since that's a lotta hate, but oh boy almost changed my mind a couple times. Now, everyone knows I love DD characters, especially now that I've finished my love list, but what about everyone else around him? Sometimes I like them, sometimes I'm indifferent, sometimes they gotta kill him and I understand that cause he's a hot villain, but sometimes they just straight up treat him bad in ways I don't like or are so awful that I genuinely hate them, so let's take a look at some pure negativity today lmao

Just to state first that even though I'm very salty in this it's still all for fun, even if I have Some Opinions on all the people below 😖

James and José - 12 Monkeys

This is a tiny fuck you cause I get it, but the man was very unwell, like very very very unwell, this is mostly just me excusing murder because hot man but he was doing it to save time itself or something, doesn't that count for anything? Get him some help and then stop the bad guys and fix time, they should be your actual priority, guys.

Everyone who was ever mean to Simon - Almost Human

I'm just a broken record at this point, everyone knows how I feel about Simon, I'm scooping him up and punching all of them in the face and then we're gunna get fries and watch TV together.

Everyone in AVGN: The Movie

I've seen YouTuber movies before, there's usually something that makes me laugh even if it's still that special type of cringe. This movie just sucks. It's bad. It's sososososo bad. The only part that made me laugh was DD's quick bit because he sells every role he's in and I love him. I'm so glad I never have to see this one again, this one's a fuck you to them for just… not making an entertaining movie :/

Cass' family and Dwayne - Cass

Yeah yeah I know they're kids and that they're lonely and dealing with it in bad ways, but my God. She has zero self-preservation (he had such good points about her following him like????) and it's frustrating, and when she went to take that selfie I became so anxious over what her giving it to him would bring that it made me actually sick. Her brother is straight awful, I felt bad at first cause clearly he only has the two friends, but he wasn't just allowing things to happen he was right there being a genuine shit to that homeless couple that it made me mad. The dad I can't fault because he's just looking out for his daughter, so he gets a pass, but fuck Dwayne in particular for stealing his paintings, pissing on everything else, and then nearly getting Joshua to basically kill himself. Old man yells at clouds but it's me yelling at these kids, fuck them I'm taking care of Joshua now. 

Literally everyone else in Cora

The Vampire is the only redeeming quality of this short and even then he still falls prey ;w; Cora herself is okay, her dad is good, but her mom sucks and those teens at the camp really suck, the cringe dialogue really gets me yeesh. I feel like their entire scene could've been shortened or at least written in a way that didn't make my entire body shrivel up when the guys spoke. Fuck all of them for making me cringe when I'm trying to enjoy those double fangs, I’m so petty I’m glad all of them got got.

Jerome - Gotham

His energy is great. I'm still not sure if he actually is the Joker or if I'm insane and it was a red herring cause I saw comments? But he nailed the Dark Knight energy of the Joker even if he's not, don't spoil, I will watch someday I swear. Anyway fuck him though for killing Dwight in the most Joker way possible, yeah he took his face but he also brought him back to life so c’mon man just forgive him already and banish him, I've got room for him in my bed it all works out.

Olga and Svea - Last Seen Wearing

I don't really hate them, but I really like David Porter and the fact that he brought flowers and they still ate him after all he went through to find them. I'm gunna find him at the club and take him to a different party, in fact I'll become a model and help him write a better story and they can eat some other people instead, this tired party boy is mine now.

The Grove - Light Night With the Devil

Yes, fuck the entire Grove. If he didn't get tangled up with them then everything would be fine. He might never be #1 on the charts but he'll always be #1 in our hearts, and Minnie would still be there for him too, so yeah fuck the whole Grove, I want my Night Owl to be happy.

Amber - MacGyver 2016

This one is quick and obvious but like fuck her for using him to start, but using his son as well? What a bitch, I'm not gunna be Cassian’s stepmom I'm gunna be his mom who stepped up.

The Woman - Making Love

This is totally me projecting here, but fuck her. Anyone who's okay with cheating and jerking around the both of them is genuinely hated in my book, both as someone who's been jerked around and someone who's watched someone very dear to me be jerked around while she was in so much pain. This is a real hate, there's nothing jokey about it this time, he deserves better no matter how beautiful she is. No one deserves to go through what he's going through, even though he's not blameless for pursuing her. I wasn’t, and neither was my friend. This one gets me personally, so fuck her.

Detective Loki - Prisoners

I think this guy might be The Most Hated NonDD Role ever. The amount of people I know who hate this guy for what he did to Bob is astounding and I was really hoping he'd find the real guy and save the girls until he did what he did. This guy sucks, he hurt my most precious boy, I'm glad he saved the one girl but he needs a swift kick to the nuts as my dad would say, fuck you Loki, I’ll be taking your badge now, no retirement, no pension.

The entirety of Ray Donovan

I've been putting away DVDs of this show at work for years but I've never seen anything from it until I watched DD's ep. It was so bad I quit the rest of the video after his scene. This one was actual torture to sit through up until that point, I had to see old man sex that I did not want, the camera was on Donovan most of the time while DD spoke, this one is another personal fuck you for giving me a bad time, that show and everyone else in it sucks. (No offense to anyone who may be following me who likes it but it wasn't for me)

The Bullies - Teacher

I hate bullies. I can't stand them. The only exception is Cam and that's only because he's hot and I want him to bully me. In highschool I was always too invisible to be bullied, but those few times where I was seen? Where my seat on the bus was being kicked because it was hot and I opened the window? Where someone came after me cause I was protecting my friend from her bitchiness? Where I was given a fake love confession by a friend of my crush, only to hear him whisper to my crush that I wasn't reading it so I knew it was his idea? I fucking hate bullies. Fuck Tim and his friends for everything they did to Preston and Daniela. Fuck his dad for what he said and did to James as well as his own son even though I’m mad at him. Fuck everyone who wasn't on his side while everything actively got worse and made him spiral. But especially, fuck Arabella for looking at him that way. Like I said in my other list, she would cringe directly to his face whenever he said something she didn't like, which is so fucking rude??? Even when she accepted his dates and she was supposed to be on his side she was still cringing at him; if I was on a date with someone and said something dumb and I looked up and saw that I'd cry and never talk to them again. If she wasn't interested she could’ve just turned him down, he's a nice guy, he would've understood even if it made him sadder, it would've been better than her treating him that way and then storming out on him after he was humiliated in front of her. I hate the bullies, but she was the worst because she wasn't even supposed to be a bully, she just treated him cruelly while trying to be kind.

Dany Wilkins - The Belko Experiment

Okay for this one I'm just petty. He was freaking out and she made it worse, I may just be spouting nonsense here cause I'm clouded by the Power of Love, but if that were me I would've tried to actually calm him, cause her running did not help. It'd be scary as hell, but if I worked there he'd already know me so I wouldn't leave his side. I maybe kinda cheered when she finally died after surviving for so long, this one makes me petty.

The Boogeyman

Great monster design, hated every second he was around, but also fuck this guy for making such a sweet dad so miserable before getting him. I am once again swearing I will save him and make him happy.

Everyone else in The Employer

I just genuinely hate those guys. Their characters sucked and watching them was insufferable. James was the only redeeming quality and I mean that, way to write everyone as the most unlikable people on the planet, which I guess was the point, but they can be unlikeable and still be enjoyable, y’know, that is a possible combination that makes for a better movie.

Fuerza - The Flash

I just straight up hate this thing for killing him in one swipe. It was cheap, it was bad writing, it left me so annoyed after all the great buildup with his family and him working those eyes and stealing my heart. What the actual hell, why couldn't that have been saved for the next episode, why couldn't he have least been injured but ultimately okay, this one just frustrates me. I’m going to the future to warn him and we’re gunna start a family together, that’s another Ray Guarantee and this one’s all for me.

Dracula - The Last Voyage of the Demeter

Yes, I'm giving a fuck you to Dracula himself. This guy made everyone excited for some good bonus pay fun times, then ate half of them, made him shoot his crewmate, made him cry which is instantly illegal, made him fall like 40 feet where he bumped his head and broke his leg, made him try and sink the ship he called him, and then killed him. By the time he fell I was ready to get up and jump into the movie right there in the theater. The only way Dracula can redeem himself is if Hollywood lets DD play him, otherwise fuck Dracula,  friendship ended with him, now Dr Fearless is my best friend.

Honorable mentions

A super special fuck you to James Gunn and Hulu specifically for giving me the greatest loves of my life and then taking them away from me. I'm going to buy their licensing rights from you and bring them back, I miss Abner and Johnson every single day, life is unfair, this sucks, what the hell.

[bunnyychi]

A Heartstruck Collision - CH2

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Masterlist

Pairing: Zach Hadel x f!Reader

Warnings: Alcohol consumption and a weird hypothetical

A/N: Zach is mentioned for the first time let's goooo

Tags: If you wanna get tagged for the next chapters, just let me know!

‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

“Ughh, that is disgusting dude..” Ross closed his eyes, trying to shield his mind's eye from what Chris had just said. 

“Hey don’t shoot the messenger, I’m only re-telling what Zach asked me!” Chris said with a fit of giggles accompanying it. 

“Yeah but that’s like- No dude, I wouldn’t!” Another giggle from Chris who now looked over at you:

“Alright, (y/n) what do you think?” You really tried to ponder over the hypothetical but the alcohol in your bloodstream was telling you that ‘yes, and’ couldn’t be the answer to everything. “No, I wouldn’t!” 

The hypothetical stated that if you were alone in the world and the only other person was a relative, whether or not you’d sleep with them to save the human race. Nope, there was truly no comeback to counter this one.

“I’m still not convinced that Zach isn’t a social experiment.” Ross said, rubbing his eyes. You didn’t know who the guy was but apparently he had more of these theoretical situations which he regularly posed as questions to his friends. 

At this point, the bar was practically empty. Hayley and Raphael had left about an hour ago and if you were honest, you were growing quite tired as well. 

“By the way, what was that about Game Gyaru? Like where is it gonna be streaming?” 

Chris asked, clearly suppressing a yawn himself. 

Ross, Jackson and you looked at each other, Jackson just shrugged and returned the focus to his drink. “Well I guess for now the plan was to have the Pilot air on youtube and then i dunno, I think Arin said something about having talked with Netflix?” Ross frowned, not entirely sure if he was right about the thing. 

You nodded along, that was about what was written in the mails that went around.  

“Ugh but Netflix sucks with this kinda stuff. You won't even get any profit off of those media vampires.” Chris stated, the alcohol definitely turned him more confrontational. 

“Well what do you propose we should do then?” You asked.

“I mean, adult swim is like pretty fucking good with their creators. My friends also have a series on there and they never complained about anything.” 

Ross suddenly appeared to be in thought, Jackson had also perked up again. 

“Welp, anyway I think I'm gonna head home, tired as hell.” Chris stood up, you copied. Going home was definitely in order now. 

“We should talk to Arin about reaching out to Adult Swim, might be a good idea.” 

You agreed absentmindedly but that was a thought for tomorrow. 

Chris and you walked outside, the air hitting your lungs in a weird way. 

“Aw fuck..” you whispered. 

“Huh?” 

You truly were smart sometimes. Drinking alcohol when you still had to drive home. It was a short drive, yes, but still a bad idea. 

“I just realized I still gotta drive home, guess walking for 30 minutes is gonna sober me up nicely.” you let out a laugh realizing that getting angry about the situation wouldn't solve it regardless.  

“Oh shit, yeah you're right.” 

Chris probably wanted to go home but with your confession, he probably felt bad or that it would be awkward if he left now. Instead he put a hand on your shoulder, lightly tapping it with an apologetic smile. 

“I know we don't know each other but I could walk you home? Just for safety and all that. Or maybe Ross and Jack-” 

"Chriiis!" 

A car pulled up and stopped right in front of the bar. There was no traffic going on so there was no urgency to find a parking spot. 

“Lyle you son of a bitch- you're like what-” Chris looked at his phone. 

“1 ½ hours late! You stood me up man..” 

“Oh shit really?” The guy inside the car seemingly looked at the time and then started laughing. 

“Holy fuck I’m sorry!” He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. Talk about time management. 

“You could drive us home though, that's (y/n) by the way. We've both got alcohol in our system so we need a ride.” 

Part of you wanted to protest, you didn't want to be a bother on your first day of meeting all of these people. The rational part of your brain decided against it though, Chris surely wouldn't have made the offer if he thought it would be a burden. And Lyle also seemed like a sweet guy. 

Without wasting much time, the both of you got into his black car. 

Quickly you gave Lyle your address to which he thankfully replied with a: “No problemo.”

The smile was apparent in his tone of voice. 

The car ride went by in a comfortable silence, Chris here and there talked about who you were and about the Game Gyaru Series, saying he'll talk to Zach about it, the guy who was still faceless in your head. You wondered if you'd ever get to fill in that gap.

***

You waved them goodbye as you got out of the car, having thanked Lyle about a hundred times already to which he simply replied with a genuine smile. 

Waddling over to the apartment complex, you realized that they drove off only when you had actually entered the place, ‘how nice’ you thought as you walked up the stairs. 

When you entered your apartment, the first thing you did was throw your shoes to the side and drop down on the couch. Although you had been tired and ready to sleep for the entire duration of the drive, now you felt more awake than ever. You groaned, thinking about how you had to walk to work tomorrow and quickly grabbed the remote, trying not to dwell on it for too long. 

“What did he say the show was called?” You mumbled to yourself, clicking through the shows presented on your smart tv. Did Chris even say what it was called? That guy, Zach, made the show, that was all you knew. No last name and no face. Exhausted, you turned the tv off again and slumped over to your desk. 

It was one of those weird states of mind where your body was tired and ready to collapse and yet your mind had that last little ounce of ‘can't sleep’ which could keep you up for who knows how long. 

Perhaps doodling a little might help tiring your mind? Pinterest was opened multiple times and closed just as many times. Nothing you were in the mood for was showing up on your front page and you didn't have any ideas on what to search up for inspiration. 

Maybe draw the evening? 

And that is what you did. You tried your best to draw a little sketch of Ross, Jackson, Chris and you in the booth. Jackson's head was resting on the table, at that point he had been very out of it. Meanwhile Ross and you were arguing with Chris about the strange hypothetical. A little speech bubble coming from Chris, a man whose face was replaced by a question mark was in it. 

Maybe it hadn't been your best drawing but it definitely was a fun addition to your sketchbook. 

Finally feeling tired enough, you slumped over to your bed, practically falling into it after setting your alarm for an hour earlier.

[blazehedgehog]

Another Million Dollar Idea

So lately I've been doing lots of listed and unlisted streams from the Playstation 5. Mostly unlisted. Previously, when I wanted to stream something to my friends, I'd have to open the Elgato on my desktop and pipe that in through Discord, which works but isn't ideal.

For one, my PC is rapidly showing its age, so I have to dump the Elgato down to 720p30 because Discord chugs when capturing this window. Mostly it's good at auto-cropping to only the gameplay, but sometimes it gets confused and will capture the entire window, where you see the settings and buttons. So it kinda sucks.

The easier way to do that is to start up an unlisted YouTube live stream to my dump channel and link it to my friends on Discord. Whatever resolution I want, 60fps, no muss, no fuss. Quick and painless. Here's a stream from the other day where I showed a friend the new version of Asphalt 9 for PS5. It's just raw gameplay footage, no mic:

And, when I want to do a bigger stream, with all my alerts, pop-ups, sounds and rewards, I can always warm up OBS and stream to Twitch properly.

Recently, I house sat for a cousin for eight days. I treat this like a vacation. I can't really work on videos or games or podcasts very much, so I just kick back and chill out. And since these consoles can stream, I can do very long (like 6+ hour) streams easy-peasy.

But let's be real: streaming to Twitch through the PS5 (and the PS4) sucks. I'd have to go in and turn off all my alerts and buttons and overlays, because none of that works on the console stream. The whole thing feels extremely limited, and it's even worse on PS5, where it will automatically end your broadcast if you try to switch games.

But this time around I tried to get something going where I could still get all of my fancy notifications and graphics and still stream from the PS5. The hope was to use remote play on my laptop with the PS5 in the same room, but remote play is too thirsty on the bandwidth for that. Or my 13 year old laptop just can't hang running both OBS and Remote Play at the same time.

But it made me wonder: why should it have to be like this? Game consoles now are more like computers than ever before. There's nothing stopping these systems from supporting real streaming features, like overlays and pop-ups.

And it feels like a deeply untapped market, when you think about it. Imagine if, say, Microsoft came out swinging that the Xbox Series X was the one stop box for professional streamers. Full support for customizable Twitch alerts and overlays, a way to set up soundboards, browser sources, trigger ad breaks, run polls, etc. etc. etc.

Like, think about Elgato. Elgato sells streaming hardware for the PC. Capture cards, lights, cameras, shortcut decks, teleprompters, the works. Streaming and video production is a huge business for them.

If Microsoft or Sony cut in on that market a little bit and rebranded their console as The Only Streaming Hardware You'll Ever Need? Imagine branded streams and the loyalty that could generate.

And these systems have USB ports, obviously. They support common headset protocols through the headphone jack. You can plug professional equipment into them already. Why not have built-in hardware support for that?

The answer is that Microsoft and Sony probably only support Twitch begrudgingly, because some bean counter is annoyed they're "giving money away." After all, Microsoft owned and shut down Mixer. For a time they'd much rather you stay off of Twitch. When you see ads and buy subs they want some of that cut going their way, not to Amazon.

Which is ultimately very short sighted. Microsoft in particular has been rolling over and giving up a lot of ground the last three to five years. If they rebranded as the Xbox being the console for streamers to start and maintain a career over the long term, they could lock in a market that only exists on the PC right now.

If anyone at Microsoft or Playstation is reading this and uses this as inspiration I will take a one time payment of $250,000 for being the world's best ideas guy.