#i think mostly this is just. my favorite website in the whole world and i always want to shoo people toward it ;sldkjg;ldkjg

[schumi-nadal]

Wow, I didn't think that post would get me even more hate to be honest 😅

First of all, I wasn't talking about ALL Carlos fans but about some "fans" (you can't call them like that, not after the really harsh words I received) who came into my asks when i asked nothing: I never was mean about Carlos, i didn't even defend Charles. I only posted 2-3 things related to this Charlos gate or whatever the fandom is calling it.

Here are some of the posts in questions:

After the first one, I received insults (anons and non anons, I don't know what is worst, that's what I was talking about them being younger and not knowing how the Schumi era and baby Shumi era were, (the non-anos were 17-18) because people misunderstood it (or understood what they wanted to understand).

After one or two more posts after the end of the race, it escalated very quickly, I received death threats! That's very serious! How can it come to this for a FUCKING sport? There are more serious things in life!

So, yeah, I was quite pissed after that.

Also, I didn't even defend Charles in my post, rereading now and I undertand I may have sound like I did but I'm French and I may have translated word by word what i wanted to say (it's a bit complicated but we sometimes use "you" to talk about people + ourserlves in some sketchy expressions). Anyway, what he said was definitely inappropriate and very "childish" in a way. Those words should had been spoken in private with his team and Carlos, not in front of million of people; and I think if FIA penalised swear words, they should start looking at those kind of statements.

Also, for those saying that I would be the kind of person to insult their favorite driver(s), you don't know me, you can even check my blog if you have nothing more interesting to do (lol), I never insulted anyone like some people do in f1blr. We can dislike or even hate a driver with our whole being, that's ok, for each their own I guess. We can't love everyone, you have the right to defend your favs, that's our choice too, but don't go and roast people when they didn't even say something wrong in the first place. (again, i hope those anons are reading it)

I never got haters before today (just one a few months ago with tennisblr but it was more a troll more than anything else) I usually don't interract a lot because I don't like conflicts but receiving multiple insults for something I can't control: I'm not Charles, I can't control what he says, I'm not a Carlos hater neither, i'm just here, blogging and reblogging stuff I love, mostly sports, sometimes with my particular sense of humor.

Nobody is perfect for sure, and I'm sorry if some of you thought I was just calling out Carlos or defending Charles. He may be one of my favourite drivers, just like other drivers can be yours: all of them are not flawless and we may continue to like them or not after different sorts of situations, that's up to us.

To finally finish my thesis (sorry if you're still reading), I didn't know that I would be so stressed on tumblr one day (call me a sensitive person) but this website is my sanctuary, I hope it will stay like that for a very long time but you can't be appreciated by the whole world, I lost some of my mutuals and i accept that. This morning's messages went too far and that's not normal to say thing like that, no matter how peacecul I am, I had to call them out. Also, on my other fandoms, you can share thought without (or almost) getting attacked verbally, that's sad that it's not the same anymore here, but yeah, football is the same.

You can choose to answer or not, I won't block anyone because I don't feel the need to, opinions can be shared but respectfully, I would be happy to talk more if some of you are up to.

So, I don't know what to add, have a great end of the season, everyone!

i don't know if everyone who reblogged or commented can see it when I reblog it so i'm tagging y'all: @midesastremanifiesto , @janesurlife , @gaypoetsblog , @katarf1a , @chaitalinath , @danieldrivesfast , @landhoe-norris , @eightsixtiism

One thing is funny about being insulted by all those Carlos "fans" (won't call them real fans tbh he deserves way better than toxic people): I was already watching F1 that they were not born, if you think that Charles was shitty today, just remember we had Michael Schumacher as the most dramatic queen ever and Sebastian Vettel was a little Gremlin at some points. REAL FANS WERE NOT FIGHTING FOR THAT!

[ru5t]

I did something like this once on a different blog but I think I'm gonna do it here too hehe. Dustverse coded sound generators, go:

Desert Sounds

Desert Wind

Wind on a Tent

Summer Night

Summer Night Thunder

Desert Night

Dust & Scratches (<- this one in combination with either of the radio ones + your own music (or perhaps. a dustverse themed playlist) is kind of peak)

HAM Radio

Shortwaves

Audio Jammer

City Sounds

Vintage Office

Calm Office

Data Center Noise (<- i really like this one and also. i think tech would even though i also think it's what detainment sounds like)

Airport Terminal

Rain in the City

Industrial Revolution

Demolition Site is at least plausible if incredibly specific

General / Cinematic Atmosphere

You've Come a Long Way

Electric Sheep

Guitar Mashup

Deserted

Shiny Crazy Cluster

Route 50

[hopetorun]

i'd love to hear your beliefs about the tension in their relationship because i'm a very nosy bitch but obviously only if you feel like it!

lol well i did offer! beliefs is a strong word, tbh. more of a like ... is this stuff true? i don't know. but if i were writing a story where i wanted to have tension in that relationship, these are the places i would be inclined to introduce that tension. maybe there is tension in some of these places in real life! that's none of my beeswax.*

anyway: some places i think it is plausible that there's tension in the relationship, or at least plausible enough to play with in fiction. receipts on these where i can find them, sorry if they're paywalled but them's the breaks.

*unless they make it part of their public narrative

back in 2022 matthew was on the athletic hockey podcast and he talked about feeling "like a babysitter" when keith visits and how much keith enjoys being one of the guys. now mostly i think they probably have a pretty good time, but babysitter is a word choice there. i don't think it's a stretch to imagine that having your retired dad show up at your workplace and becoming the life of the party to relive his glory days could be ... trying.

not to beat around the bush but they're both opinionated guys! opinionated and chatty! and as a result you get: keith slamming the panthers on the radio. matthew sticking his nose into brady's contract negotiations (brady being grimace emoji about it). like, we know for a fact that the radio thing bothered matthew! and there's plenty of opportunities for one or both of them to offer unsolicited opinions that don't go over well.

to the previous point: i considered not including that because it's not as speculative as the others on the list. but it's definitely something i'd draw on if i was writing a story where their relationship is tense.

look, i'm not a man and not only am i not a man but i don't have any brothers and my dad died four and a half years ago and he never talked about his dad. so i can't claim to be an expert on the fathers-and-sons relationship dynamic. but why would i let that stop me from speculating wildly!

anyway: legacies. oldest sons. expectations. @ohtemporas touched on this briefly earlier, the way there's often an extra pressure on the oldest kid to be the same-gender-parent's legacy. do what i did. represent me well in the world. and i don't think it's even particularly weird for that to potentially lead to some conflicting feelings if all that legacy building leads to you being surpassed in some way. that's just human! especially for competitive people, and as i have said on this website before: no one becomes a professional athlete without being competitive.

here's keith being presented with matthew's 99th point puck from the 21-22 season, which his then-teammate did up with the writing for this specific purpose. chantal thinks this is SO funny. do think maybe being conflicted about being surpassed makes him not proud of matthew? no. but people can be complicated.

speaking of people being complicated: that one post-game after matthew scored 5 points on the blues. i think the tension between keith wanting his own team's success and wanting his sons' success isn't something people were making up out of whole cloth. but maybe it was especially noticeable when matthew was still in the western conference? i feel like it got dialed back after the trade. lol.

i'm mentioning it only because otherwise someone else might: i don't care about the hat thing. i think it's silly. if i was asked to throw my favorite hat onto the ice at an nhl game just because some schlub scored three goals i probably wouldn't.

a few concluding thoughts

i don't think any of this means they have a bad relationship! mostly i think that no two people have a perfect relationship where they agree on everything and never butt into each other's business uninvited and never hurt each other's feelings, because that's impossible.

i'm not making some counterpoint list of all the reasons i think they love each other. someone else can. i don't think having high expectations of someone means you hate them and i don't think anyone spends their time and money following their son's hockey team around the country on a road trip hoping to see him score his 100th point out of hatred or spite.

maybe i'm wrong about all of this and they've hated each other since 2002 and someday we'll get a tell-all story and people can come into my ask box or whatever and tell me how wrong i was. i don't care. all rpf characterization is fake. i watched keith froth at the mouth in the stands at the 2016 wjc every time someone so much as breathed on matthew, though, so i don't think i'm wrong.

[goodluckclove]

Hi! Have you ever felt ashamed of yourself because something made you feel like your taste in books/film/music wasn't diverse enough? I'm here to tell you that having that be the case does not necessarily mean that you're a bigot that hates minorities!

I mean, if you only read books by cishet white men specifically because you think they're the only good kinds of books - yes, that is sort of indicative of a problem in your perspective.

But most people don't pick books because of the author's background. Most people don't even know the author's background. Sometimes you just read books you think are good, and it isn't until you look back and notice the lack of a certain voice and think "huh, that's weird that I haven't looked into that".

That's okay! There are many brilliant minority authors that you might not have a way to know about unless you search the right term or have someone tell you. This is not a moral failure on your behalf, but an opportunity to see just how vast your favorite genre is.

Consider science fiction, or speculative fiction as a whole. Philip K. Dick has a deeply specific type of science fiction influenced by his gender, the era he was born in, and his rampant and intense schizophrenia (look up The Exegesis, it's wild). Kurt Vonengut has an entirely different take on the same genre that was heavily, heavily shaped by being a literal prisoner of war and being in the Dresden Bombings of World War Two. He was, I believe, also rumored to be on the schizophrenic specturm.

But let's widen the scope! I have only read a few books of Octavia Butler and wasn't as impacted by them as other books I've read, but I definitely noticed a major shift in atmosphere in a narrative world formed by a black woman. The air tasted different. It was a truly remarkable way to expand my vision of what the genre can do.

There's also Yoko Ogawa's The Memory Police. I have a complicated relationship with this book. I read the first chapter, loved the environment of an Influenced sci-fi dystopia, but then immediately realized this premise would destroy me and stopped reading. I still have it. I'm going to read it, it's just a tough subject for me.

If you want to widen your scope of art consumption you can do it as easily as taking a book or movie you like and seeing what art influenced it or what art was influenced by it. Websites like Tastedive are great for that. You can also look for lists of minority authors that have written in your genre of choice and see what sounds appealing.

You also shouldn't do it all at once. I don't think a minority artist would appreciate that you rushed through their work solely because someone on the Internet told you you're a bad person unless you experienced every oppressed perspective immediately. You have time.

A while back I did research and made an effort to read more female fiction. I looked at my bookshelf and saw that a majority of the women I read were either nonfiction writers or retro lesbians. So I bought a few short story collections by women writers that I found online, because I was also inexperienced with that. It was great. I really enjoyed it. My next goal is to gather more perspectives on experimental fiction, my favorite genre. I've read mostly Western, czech, Italian, Spanish and French. Some women, mostly men. I would like to see what else is out there.

Also if anyone has a suggestion for a book on black existentialism other than Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, I sure am hungry for it. Invisible Man is one of the most painful and beautiful books I've ever read.

I'm rambling. Art is exciting, is what I mean to say. If you feel the way you take in art is missing something, instead of scolding yourself for that it's actually a lot more effective to do a lil' bit of internet searching, get a new book or movie, and see what it makes you feel and think. I'm pretty confident that's the ideal viewing experience in the eyes of the minority creators who made these pivotal works.

Consider race, sexuality, era, disability, gender identity - all of that and more changes the way a person makes art and it's truly enlightening to explore!

[casper-kew]

My theories for Lies of P.

Okay so I did some digging, nothing too extreme, but I looked up the original true story of Pinocchio and found some art that came with the story written in the late 1800s.

Pinocchio started as a talking piece of wood, and then was given to Mr. Geppeto. Geppeto dressed him up and told him if he wants to be apart of this world he has to go to school. Pinocchio was very disobedient and because of this, some absolutely terrible things happened to him. So basically the “naughtiness” was practically beaten out of him and he became reserved. This is canon, I want to confirm. The blue fairy kisses him and he becomes a real boy.

Do you see the resemblance???

Lemme ask again-

Do you see the resemblance????

That is the official art from the original 1889 Pinocchio

This is very important information because this mean that Pinocchio “P” is already human. Mostly.

This is not a “spin off” of Pinocchio, this is a continuation of Pinocchio. And I think this is just amazing.

I thought was a little weird that P had so much skin, and when this skin stretched or folded, it was like real skin, nothing silicone or artificial (silicone doesn’t exist yet in the late 1800s I don’t think) (don’t quote me on that). I heard some people say his face is porcelain, but that also wouldn’t make sense because he wouldn’t be able to turn his head.

If he was made of porcelain, then there would at least be a joint or a separation or porcelain plates on his neck and his fingers, but there isn’t.

So he’s human , to sum it up. It’s 2023, game development and 3D modeling is so advanced, that everything in his design is done on purpose.

There’s still some unanswered questions, though. Why does he have a mechanical arm, why does he wake up in an abandoned train station and doesn’t know who Mr. Geppeto, his father, is? Why does he look much older??

Classic case of amnesia.

Here’s where the plot thickens. And I’m about to jump to a whole lot of conclusions, so bare with me.

So maybe some time has passed and now P is somewhere in his teens, and Geppeto snapped, knocked out P, cut off his arm to make him into a weapon, to sell him maybe. Geppeto is canonically dirt poor, so maybe greed got to him.

That’s my favorite theory. It’s actually my only theory.

The blue fairy, or Sophia, is there to help him gain his memories, hopefully.

Then the talking thing in the lantern that P carries is the cricket. His conscience.

So the reason P finds himself in an abandoned train station is so Geppeto can test out P’s newly weaponized arm, by throwing him into life and death situations.

Now the obvious question.

Why does the official Lies of P website say that he’s on a journey to become human?

They’re lying. Duh.

Thank you everyone for coming to my TED talk.

[lurafita]

Make Them Sparkle

(fanfic, oneshot)

Summary:

If Raphael had any say in this, Magnus would not be allowed to give mundanes writing advice. Ever.

Magnus prided himself on being a person who went with, and adapted to the ever changing times.

He had witnessed many immortals who got stuck in particular time periods. Be it refusing to adopt new fashion trends, or remaining stagnant in certain behaviors or mindsets that had been common at one point in history. Bemoaning how things ‘used to be so much better back in the day’. People who needed to anchor themselves in the past, in order to face the present and future. 

Not Magnus, though. While he treasured many of the memories made during his long existence, he had always been the type to look forward, instead of back. 

He had seen and embraced the progress humanity made, philosophically, technologically, and socially. 

And, while the road of progression hadn’t always been a smooth one and weathered its fair share of hiccups along the way, Magnus certainly appreciated the fruits of this particular labor. 

(And not only mundanes, but the shadow world, too, had come a long way from what it had once been. Magnus would never not be proud of the part his dearest Alexander and his friends and family had played in that development.)

Anyway, being a "modern" warlock, and having personally supported some of the various technological marvels of the world they now lived in, Magnus had a deep appreciation for the internet. 

A way for so many people from so many different places and stages of life to come together, to connect and share with each other, was truly remarkable.

There was almost nothing that the internet didn’t have, unless it connected to matters of the shadow world, but even that was slowly changing.

From funny videos and beautiful music, to shops and art and so much more. 

Websites tailored to specific hobbies or tastes. Sites to find employment, or living accomodations. Those that gave the user an opportunity to make friends, or find love. 

And, of course, so called help-forums. Professionally or community run sites, spanning various topics all around offering advice when someone needed it. 

Like one particular writing forum for aspiring authors, which Magnus had found himself in one sunny afternoon, as he had been browsing aimlessly to waste some time.

One of the requests had caught his eye especially. 

‘Please help me bring fresh wind into old supernatural lore!’

Clicking on the request and reading further, Magnus had learned that the hopeful author was trying to write a teen love story with vampires and werewolves, revolving around a highschool mundane girl and her vampiric love interest, as well as a werewolf contender.

Magnus had snorted, thinking the idea hardly original, and had almost clicked away again, but one sentence had stood out.

‘Vampire love stories are a dime a dozen, I’m well aware of that. But while plot and circumstances often change around the different narratives, the lore and rules behind the vampires rarely do. It’s always a thirst and need for blood, a weakness to religious artifacts, and an inability to bear sunlight. That last one especially, I wish to change for my story, as I feel that describing a whole world that most humans are unaware of, and plays mostly in the dark, is terribly restrictive. But I also think that just waving any effect the sun might have on a vampire away, is a missed opportunity for exploring alternative plot points. Which is why I’m asking for any kind of inspiration or thoughts any of you might be willing to share.’

So Magnus had read on as the author had described their world and characters in a little more detail.

And upon learning of the broody, dark haired, stubborn, kind and compassionate main vampire character, Magnus couldn’t help it when his brain had made the comparison between a fictional character, and his very own favorite broody, dark haired, stubborn, kind and compassionate vampire. 

And as he was thinking of his dear little Raphael, the vampire he had taken under his wing decades ago and practically raised (even though Raphael had been 24 and fully adult by mundane standards when he had been turned), Magnus hadn’t been able to curb his more mischievous impulses. 

Clicking on the answering function to the thread, he had snickered heavily as he typed out just three words.

‘Make them sparkle!’

Who would have thought that, just a few years later, this little bit of innocent fun he had had, would come back to interrupt his sexy make out session with his precious shadowhunter boyfriend?

“Magnus!” The door slammed open and shut in barely more than a second, as an incensed Raphael stormed into the loft.

A lifetime of training and battle ready instincts had Alec lift Magnus off his lap and behind him in just one move (which was so fucking hot, if not for their unplanned intruder, Magnus would have climbed his boyfriend like a tree), as his other hand seemlessly went down to quickly retrieve the throwing knife strapped to his lower leg.

The defensive maneuver was aborted as soon as Alec registered who had just barged into the apartment, and instead the tall man slumped back into the couch (careful not to crush his boyfriend) with a deep, slightly annoyed, sigh. 

Raphael though reacted to neither the knife that had almost been thrown at him, nor the glare the shadowhunter was giving him right then.

Instead, he held up the book he had in hand and snarled in Magnus' direction. “What the fuck is this?!”

Magnus blinked, still trying to sort through the haze of his newly ignited arousal after Alexander’s display of strength and speed, and the clearly agitated mood Raphael seemed to be in.

“It’s called a book, my dear. It holds in its pages the wonder of the written word and thus the power to create wonderful and fascinating tales for all to share.”

If anything, that answer made Raphael look even more mutinous. Which was just rude, if anyone were to ask Magnus. 

“I know what a book is!”

Magnus huffed, finally straightening himself out of the mess of limbs he had been from Alexander’s manhandling him to safety (And they would have a talk about that later. As hot as that had been, Magnus couldn’t have his Alexander trying to shield him while facing a threat on his own.)

“Then why did you ask?”

Raphael could apparently not be bothered to explain, and instead just chucked the book at him. Once again shadowhunter reflexes trumped Magnus' own, and Alec snatched the book out of the air before it could hit the warlock. 

He scrunched up his nose a little (which was adorably cute in Magnus’ humble opinion and he quickly leant forward a bit to peck Alec on the cheek) as he read the title. “Twilight?”

It made Magnus smirk. “Oh, I think I have heard of this. A supernatural teen romance novel, if I remember Biscuit’s words correctly. I must be honest, my dear boy, I didn’t think this would be your type of thing.”

But the vampire just crossed his arms over his chest. “Open it up to the introduction.”

A little puzzled, but also curious, Alec and Magnus did just that. It appeared to be just your ordinary preface to any book. 

‘I thank everyone who has supported me through this, bla bla bla, I’m incredibly honored and grateful for this opportunity to share bla bla bla, I hope this tale will find a way into your heart bla bla bla.’

Really; pretty standard as far as the warlock was concerned. Until they reached the last section on the introductory page, and it slowly dawned on Magnus just why Raphael looked as if he had been forced to listen to Simon ramble about a deep introspection on why Spider-Man was the best Marvel superhero ever.

Oh.

‘I would like to give special thanks to someone I unfortunately have never met personally, but whose input has definitely helped to inspire me to spice things up a bit. So this is to you, The_Magnificent_Bane. I “made them sparkle”!’

“Oh.” 

“Oh?” Raphael thundered. “That’s all you have to say to this? You told this woman to make her vampires sparkle in the sunlight like some demented disco ball! We don’t sparkle! The only sparkly crazy person around here is you! Do you have any idea what the stupid flea balls are going to say when they learn of this? Are you laughing? Stop laughing! There is going to be so many glitter jokes in my future now thanks to you! I’m never gonna hear the end of this! Magnus! Stop laughing!”

Magnus stopped laughing. Eventually. 

[winxrewritingsandfictions]

My AU & Headcanon

In this post, I'm going to explain many details about how I see the Winx universe. This post will be updated regularly.

A few words of introduction. 🍄

Hello there, I'm Sam. I'm 25 and I live in Paris, France. I have a degree in English literature, and most precisely as a researcher in American literature. So, yes, I love reading and writing. 🧡

Kimii used to be my user name when I was twelve. I used to have a french news account on Winx club. (does it still exist? Nope... the website shut down in 2023). So when I created my account here, I just kept it. It's a sort of identity I embraced my whole teenage years, so it made sense to keep it. It's my Winx Identity.

For the language, I write in English. I may be fluent, but I can leave some mistakes here and there. If you notice any big ones, please feel free to send me a DM. Thank you very much. It can be hard sometimes to notice them.

The Winx Club I grew up with. 🌚

The first thing I think is essential to know about my writing, is that I grew up with the only french dub existing, which is based on the original one (Rai Italy). I stick a lot to the original plot while I try to make it more conherent and consistent.

Headcanon or Canon? ☀️

I'm mostly canon at first sight. Indeed, I stick to the original plot, but I also tend to modify details, timelines, or events so it makes more sense. I like to change those details enough that the story holds more realism and maturity.

One of the major things I do when I keep the original plot is that I add the details given in the comic books. For those who didn't read them, the main storyline is similar (Bloom looking for her parents, etc...) The comics feel more like filler episodes. That's why I like to add those details to my stories. For example, Bloom has a job in Magix. It is shown in the comics but not the cartoon. This detail makes sense as we see in season 4 that the specialists exchange valuables for paper money. The same goes for Bloom, she works in order to have Magix's currency.

So consider my Winx canon as a mix of both comic books and of the cartoon.

I write a lot about Bloom & Sky, (oops ?🤗) since they are my favorite. I have many, many, MANY ideas for them. So it won't be very balanced between the pairings 😶 However, I do accept prompts and requests for pretty much every character.

Most, if not all my stories are linked. I like to build a consistent timeline. So if you happen to read all the oneshots or longer ff, you will notice some ref to older ff or oneshots I posted. On my main post, always make sure to include a set timeline so it gives you an idea of where the scenes take place. After season 4, I don't acknowledge anything. Not even the second movie (I liked it a lot but it is a huge problem in my timeline since the dubs are all over the place...)

For the stories that happen in the future, those would be more headcanon. The pairings might be canon most of the time, the plots would be so advanced that I don't think they can be considered canon. Plus, I love world-building.

Information on some characters. 🌈

Musa & Tecna: not royals in my AU. They are not introduced as such in the Rai version. Plus, I much prefer them as "normal people" as it brings even more diversity to the cartoon. I would hate to have most Winx girls being princesses... For Tecna, I want to work on her as half fairy, half android. Just like she was supposed to be.

Riven: Oh Riven.... I have a sort of affection for him. Like a soft spot for who he could be if the writing of the show had given him more time to grow. I will work on that. You have my word. Not only do I want him to have a past, but also a future. I see him doing great things.

Aisha/Layla: In the french dub, she is called Layla, but I really like Aisha because we love diversity here. Plus, Aisha has a beautiful meaning!

Sky: In my AU, he stays Brandon at the beginning and then Prince Sky later on like in the original. I plan on writing a few oneshots about what if he had been "prince Sky" from the beginning, or if he had never attended Red Foutain (I really like that one hehe).

Helia: I like the idea of Helia being a bit cold and blunt, like at the beginning of season 2. (or at least he was in French). That man did not care about anybody but Flora and I loved that. So I will work with him in that way.

Diaspro: I get that most fans tend to redeem her a lot, but I think her arc in seasons 1, 2, and 3 is brilliant. Although the path of the narrative did not allow her to grow a little bit or even explain why she behaved the way she did. So, my Diaspro is still... Well Diaspro, but I want to build her more realistically. She is an interesting character. Her being a fairy and yet being manipulative and self-centered is much more realistic. It brings a lot of dimention to the magical world. Wwhat if she was forced by conventions and traditions to be a fairy, because of her nobility ? hmmm... You will have to wait and see.

Nabu: Don't talk to me, he will live on forever on this Tumblr. While I love him, and I adore his sacrifice, I can't let go of him. He is just sleeping, Okay. Now move along. 💨

Samara and Erendor: I have read @gins-potter fanfic (go read it! ) and she made me remember one of my childhood frustration. Why in the world does Sky look nothing like his parents??! Erendor looks like... Brandon? She actually changed their appearance, which I loved. I want to keep Samara as she is, but maybe Erendor will have to suffer a rendez-vous at the hairstylist. And @gins-potter agreed to let me use her depiction of Erendor since it feats perfeclty the way I imagined him.

Domino/Sparx: I will only use Domino as it is the name I always knew. Same for Melody.

When it comes to the Winx and their life after Alfea, I have a very detailed idea of their jobs and position etc... I will either do a post abour it, or just let you guys discover more about it in the stories.

Last Update: 17/06/24.

[moonshoon]

SFW Alphabet

MASTERLIST i have the template from this website!

member: nishimura riki word count: 2.5k

A: affection how affectionate are they? how do they show affection?

i would say he is a pretty affectionate person, but only if he is deeper into the relationship/friendship. he is someone that needs to know a person first before really being able to be comfortable on a more intimate physical and romantic way. 

B: best friend what would they be like as a best friend? how would the friendship start?

i feel like a frienship with riki would start in a place like school or work. as i already said, he isn’t the person to click with others in the first moment, so meeting someone (ex. at a park or just in public) would be more like just a ‘oh i have met this person’ thing, and he wouldn’t immediately become friends. he needs time to approach a person, so it’s most likely to befriend him in school or at a work place, where he is in the same enviroment/room with a person and can really observe and get to know them.

he would be the very playful type of friend, that likes to make fun of things with people he is close with. he also likes to throw insults jokingly, but if he notices that it upsets other people he will stop immediately and apologise for being inconsiderate and hurting them. he is also a pretty protective and jealous friend, so if they spend more time with someone else, he will either get pretty upset or he will get jealous.

C: cuddles do they like to cuddle? how would they cuddle?

he loves cuddles. he just doesn’t like to admit it. like in the whole physical aspect, he would only want closer body contact when he is in a relationship for some time - maybe a month. 

his favorite way to cuddle would be spooning, and surprisingly (in my opinion) he would mostly prefer to be the little spoon. he won’t complain about being the big spoon either though, he just loves cuddles in general.

D: domestic do they want to settle down? how are they at cooking and cleaning?

he would love to settle down with a partner one day, but he really wants to wait until his carreer is finished, because he feels like he would not give enough attention to his partner since he has to work long amounts of time. so if he will settle down he will do it when he can give all of his attention (or more than as an idol) to his partner. 

i feel like he wouldn’t be too happy about having to clean or cook, but he will do it and over time he would grow accustomed to it and maybe also enjoy it someday. it is a part of growing up and having your own responsibilities, and that’s what he realises too.

E: ending if they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?

i feel like at the moment he would be the type of person to break up over text, since he doesn’t really know how to or feel comfortable with confrontig people in person. but if he’s more grown up he will probably also tell the person personally.

F: fiance(e) how do they feel about commitment? how quick would they want to get married?

i think while he is an idol he isn’t too fond of the idea of marriage, but he will definitely think about it more as time passes. and especially if he has a partner whom he really loves and appreciates he will think about marrying that person for sure. but as i already mentioned, he would like to wait until his carreer is coming to an end before marriage.

G: gentle how gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?

he’s a very gentle person physically for sure. he will treat his lover with lots of care and thoughtfullness so he will not under any circumstances hurt them. since he has been working out and growing a lot (this boy is nearing 190cm and i am very much afraid how long this is going to continue), he has been realising that he has also gotten a lot stronger, and the light hits on the shoulder turned into world-rocking slaps on the shoulder. and when his s/o tells him to hold back a little, he will do that immediately. 

emotionally he would be a little harsher, still very gentle, but i feel like he is a person that says a lot of things straight up. if he has a thought running through his head he will say it out loud, mostly without thinking. and sometimes these comments can hurt a lot, based on the tone and what was said (speaking of experience). but still, if he notices someone has taken damage or was hurt by his words he will immediately apologise to that person and try to make it up to them.

H: hugs do they like hugs? how often do they do it? what are their hugs like?

he is in love. hugs are one of his favorite things. he hugs on a daily basis, more like hourly or even minute-ly basis. he is very much into physical contact, but again, he will only be comfortable if he has known the person for some time. but once he gets to know them, he will not hold back and hug them literally every second possible. 

his hugs are like a warm summer day, where you’re just lying down in the grass, closing your eyes and listening to the beautiful sounds of nature. they’re comforting and always a good thing when you’re upset or sad. this feeling also comes from the fact that he really means his hugs, because if someone doesn’t want to hug, or doesn’t put emotion into their actions, it won’t ever feel the same.

I: i love you  how fast do they say the l-word?

i think he takes some time. he would say ‘i like you’ instead of ‘i love you’ a lot. and even though he doesn’t say it soon or a lot, he will call his partner wholesome nicknames, including the name ‘love’. he feels like this is a more discrete way of telling someone you really care for them and really like them, without telling them directly. for him, the meaning behind the word matters, not the fact that he said it.

J: jealousy how jealous do they get? what do they do when they’re jealous?

he is a pretty jealous person, and gets jealous very quickly too. if his partner devotes their attention to someone else, he will often get clingy really quick if the attention is not on him sooner or later. in this case he will probably whine or pull at his partner’s sleeve to get their attention back, if it’s in front of his friends though, he will try to find a more discrete way to try and get the attention back, because he thinks it’s quite embarrasing to whine in front of them. if he is jealous of another guy though (or a girl), he will go into protective mode, and he will most likely kiss his s/o quickly to show the other person that they’re his partner and not single.

K: kisses what are their kisses like? where do they like to kiss you? where do they like to be kissed?

if he gets to that level of comfort where it feels okay to kiss someone, he will do it pretty quickly, more like a peck at first. over time the kisses will get longer, and maybe he will get to a stage where tongue is a thing, but he honestly prefers the cute little pecks. 

he really likes to kiss his partners lips. there’s no denying that he would really love to hang on their lips the whole day, just enjoying the feeling.  his favorite place to be kissed is also the lips. lips on lips are the best feeling ever to him.

L: little ones how are they around children?

he thinks kids are pretty cute, but he also thinks they can be annoying sometimes. as for now he is sure he doesn’t want to have any kids, but when his carreer has ended, he would like to have children with a partner one day. 

M: morning how are mornings spent with them?

cuddles. he would be all cozy, cuddled up against his parnter and not wantig to let go. sometimes his partner would have to pull themselves away from him so he would finally get up and not miss his schedule with the other members. on other days both of them wouldn’t be too opposed to the idea of getting up, so they would just lay in bed with eachother and wait until the boys either call them or come into the room to pull them away from each other.

N: night how are nights spent with them?

again, cuddles. the best way to get this giant baby to sleep would be to cuddle him. if he feels secure and safe in the hold of his partner, or just with his partner next to him, he is immediately calmed down and will fall asleep in no time. even if it’s not time for sleep, he will want to cuddle and have some comfort time with his s/o.

O: open when would they start revealing things about themselves? do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?

he needs some time to open up about his past experiences or things about himself. at first, he will surely tell his partner things about himself, about his family and maybe friends too. but for deeper things, like trauma or things he’s struggling with he will take more time, maybe he won’t even tell anyone about it.

P: patience how easily angered are they?

i think he is one of those persons that can be very annoying and loud, so they can anger other people pretty quickly, but when he’s the one that gets annoyed, he will be angry pretty fast. like those people that can call others out for things, throw insults at them etc. but when they’re the ones being called out or insulted they feel like it’s unfair. 

Q: quizzes how much would they remember about you? do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?

he is very attentive if his partner tells him something, and will mostly remember it. but when it’s something complex, or when he’s loaded with work and practice etc. he won’t remember as much, in this case he’s pretty forgetful, not just about things his s/o tells him, but also about other tasks.

R: remember what is their favorite moment in your relationship?

first kiss. for sure. i have mentioned under the kisses title that he loves to recieve and also give kisses, so i feel like the first one would be the greatest moment of his life. he will forever remember the date and maybe celebrate the anniversary of your first kiss, not with presents, but just tell his parnter every now and then ‘a month ago today was the day we kissed for the first time!’

S: security how protective are they? how would they protect you? how would they like to be protected?

he’s a very protective person over the people he loves. he protects his partner in any way he thinks is good, for example in public, he would hold their hands, or their waist to keep them close and to show strangers that they’re together. i think he’s also a person to say something about clothing, so when his s/o goes out with revealing clothes he makes sure to give them his jacket or something to feel warm and safe. on winter days he will also make sure his partner is warm enough, so they don’t get sick. for himself, he wants to be that big, mature guy that doesn’t need to be protected. but if his s/o cares for him he loves it, he gets butterflies.

T: try how much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?

he would try to do his best, but when he’s stressed he forgets a lot of things, and doesn’t have the energy to do too much. but still, he does everything in his power to make good memories with his partner. a date a week would be the standard. it doesn’t have to be a fancy restaurant date, maybe just a late night walk to the convenience store to buy some ramen or bungeoppang, or a movie night together.

U: ugly what would be some bad habits of theirs?

he says everything he thinks if he’s comfortable enough. sometimes these thoughts can be hurtful, but he will definitely apologize immediately when he notices it upsets his partner/friends. 

V: vanity how concerned are they with their looks?

he’s pretty sure about his looks, but he does have some times, especially before comebacks, where he worries about his looks a lot, because he is sure that the fans have a certain expectation for him. 

(but as a fan i can tell you i wouldn’t mind if riki showed up in a pijama, messy morning hair and his clothes full of stains. he’s beautiful)

W: whole would they feel incomplete without you?

he would feel extremely incomplete without his partner. he doesn’t like to be alone, especially not at night, because he’s so accustomed to cuddling with someone. in this case, not even sunoo will help much anymore, but he’s still a good person to cuddle with. during the day he would text his partner multiple times to ensure they’re safe and to have some sense of proximity. 

X: xtra a random headcanon for them.

he loves to play videogames with his s/o, even if they’re not the best at it. his partner would also be the only one that his allowed to play on his account because he fears the other boys will sabotage his account. 

Y: yuck what are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?

he wouldn’t like his partner jugding his eating habits (like microwaving strawberries or eat watermelon with salt), because it’s something he grew up with and has a lot of memories with. maybe he used to eat watermelon with salt with his friends back in japan, and when his partner talks badly about it, in a sense, they talk badly about his experience. so that’s a no-go for riki.

Z: zzz what is a sleep habits of theirs?

when he sleeps on a bed with someone (aka cuddle) he will most likely take up more than 3/4 of the bed. the only way to escape this is to sleep on top of him, or build a wall of pillows and blankets in the middle of the bed. but since he’s started cuddling with his partner (or sunoo/other members) this habit has lessened.

[thegothgainer]

A couple of my favorite things from each Pokemon generation

I have a lot of negative things to say about recent Pokemon, but I kinda want to offset that with a list of some of my actual favorite things. There are a lot, so I'm going to try and list just one from each gen.

Gen 1

Probably the hardest to come up with, since later games mostly improved upon the formula. I could just say "it's the first Pokemon game" but that feels like a cop-out. So, instead, I'll say it's the sort of mystery it had. You'd find new things out from being told by friends. There were rumors about how to catch the mythical Mew. There was the superstition that holding down certain buttons would help catch Pokemon. It may have just been a thing of its time, given the state of the internet back then. But there's something about getting information from guides and friends instead of an ad-ridden barf of a website that made Pokemon feel really personal.

Actually, I just remembered one more positive in me. Gary being an absolute asshole. I love being able to take my rival down a notch. I don't want to feel bad I destroyed my rival because they're a great person. I want to rub it in Gary's dumb face.

Gen 2

The phone system. Being able to get calls from trainers, asking for a rematch was the coolest thing. It made the world feel so alive. Like there were things going on while you were training to become a champion.

I'm surprised we don't have anything like this in modern Pokemon games. A fake social media network would be sooooo cool to see within Pokemon. Gen 7 kinda had this with the photos, but the responses weren't from NPCs you've met. It felt kind of flat to me. But if Youngster Joey followed me and commented on every picture of a Ratata I posted, I'd be stoked. If my rival sent pics of their travels while I did mine, it would make me want to go out and find those places and show them up. I think there is a lot of potential to make the Pokemon world feel more lived-in in the games.

Gen 3

So, Gen 3 is two things, but both because of the same reason: Puzzles and Exploration.

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald had a lot of depth to the maps. You could climb your bike up the side of a mountain and drive over a bridge from where you were just standing. The sense of exploration was strong too. You could dive underwater and see the depths. Too much water, my ass.

Exploration felt worth it too. Especially the Regi trio. Three legendary Pokemon you get just by wandering around and hearing myths and solving puzzles. None of it is part of the main story. You feel rewarded for exploration. We got a whole open world in Gen 9, but none of the exploration really feels as worth it as it did in Gen 3.

And the puzzles were really fun too. They had a slight challenge to them as a kid. In the newer games, the gym challenges feel a little more like filler than a challenge. The themed puzzles were almost a staple of Pokemon gameplay at this point, from spinning tiles, to cracking ice blocks to pushing boulders around. It was a part of Pokemon's DNA, and honestly, I miss it.

I put these in the same category because of the Regi trio. They are the result of exploration and puzzles, and I really feel like they highlight everything that was great about Gen 3 gameplay.

Gen 4

The best thing I remember about Gen 4 was the lore. And it had to be in Gen 4! This was the game where the creation trio was introduced. But seeing all this lore really helped to flesh out the world a lot. I really want to see more story outside of the main storyline and Pokedex entries. I want to know about the wars that happened long ago. I want to know the myths that the mythicals were involved in. I want to know more about this world that GameFreak has created. We do see a little bit of that in Legends: Arceus. And I love it for it.

Gen 5

Sprites.

I never had the opportunity to play the Gen 5 games until after I completed Gen 7. But I do remember that I was blown away by the personality that the sprites brought. Every single one was animated in such a way that really highlighted that Pokemon's personality. The idle animations in modern games can feel a little bland and stiff. But just look at this! Wings flapping, mouth chomping, this guy feels alive. This kind of personality really helped the Black and White games feel so organic.

Gen 6

Pokemon Amie.

It's one thing to select an item, click use, and then just heal your Pokemon up. But, I'm playing Pokemon because I love my partners in crime. I want to give them the praise they deserve, not just run to a salon and select the option to groom them. And feed them. It was like a dumbed-down Nintendogs, and I would love for there to be more Pokemon games that expand on this idea. Or even just bring it back in full in a new game.

Honestly, the whole online capability of the game was great, that whole section on the lower part of the 3DS. It was really easy to find trades, battles, etc, something that I think the new games lack for some reason.

Oh, and Megas were also really cool. Probably the best "Gimmick".

Gen 7

Gen 7 was in a kind of transition period, but honestly, it had one of my favorite stories. A lot was going on, and it was great. Runaway hooligans, interdimensional travel, mind control... this game had it all. The characters are fun, especially Guzma (what a name, by the way). And from what I remember, post game for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were really cool for having all of the big bosses from previous games show up and say what happened in the worlds in which they won.

Runner up is wild double-battles (SOS battles). I miss in-game double battles...

Gen 8

This one is a tough one. Not that I particularly hated Gen 8, no. It's just that it was in a sort of experimental period that Gen 9 greatly improved upon. It was the first attempt at a semi-open world, and it was pretty cool, but underwhelming. But, it definitely opened up my mind to what Pokemon could be. They were finally trying new things that strayed from the original formula. Raid Dens were a neat concept, but just didn't feel like it had the epicness it was going for. The Wild Area was cool, but not as explorable as I hoped. But, at the very least, it let me know that Pokemon didn't have to be just the same linear path every generation. Maybe in the future we can finally get back to the exploration and collection that made Pokemon so enjoyable. Which led to...

Gen 9

Everything that Gen 8 was trying to do, Gen 9 improved. Not perfected. Far from it. But it started getting closer to what I imagine to be my perfect Pokemon game. I'm not going to explain my perfect Pokemon game here, but I will highlight a few things about Gen 9.

First, of course, is open-world exploration. I remember taking on the challenge of doing the gyms in reverse order. And while I would have loved some better scaling, it was just really cool to be able to do the gyms and story in my own way. I really hope they fix it up a bit and continue it.

Then, there's the story itself. The game went real. A little darker than some of the previous games, but not edgy dark. No spoilers, of course, but it was good to see characters get plenty of character growth and screentime. It was cute. It was sad. It was fun.

Raids were also improved. It still has its connection problems. But the biweekly 7-stars feel more of a challenge. I don't like that it's built around FOMO and I feel it should rotate. And when they drop support for the game, there will no longer be 7-stars. Maybe they'll patch something in, but I'm doubtful. Still. I do enjoy it better at least than previous raids.

If I could, I would also add in some of the side games to this list as well, but this is already a long post, so maybe in another.

Anyways, I'd love to hear what all other people enjoyed about these games. I know there's a lot of hate for these games every gen, and I know I've rambled about things that I would have liked to see done better. But there's also plenty to love about this franchise.

[glitchphotography]

Writing a short addendum of action steps to my “You Don’t Hate AI Art, You Hate Capitalism” essay that I posted yesterday and including some AI photographs made with DALLE2 of Capybaras helping a union drive. These outputs were all based off of original photos I took of Capybaras in Ipaussu, Sao Paulo, in 2019. Let’s start with some advice for illustrators and commercial artists who are worried about AI ruining their lives.

UNIONIZE YOUR WORKPLACE! Seriously, your bosses are the ones out to get you, not the AIs or AI artists. Unions are the best way to prevent outsourcing to AIs.

UNIONIZE WITH OTHER FREELANCERS! This is harder to accomplish, but freelancer unions do exist and there should be more of them. (Side note: many artists who will be affected have the privilege to work in highly gatekept cultural industries that, in the US, discriminate against POC, immigrants, Queer people, Disabled people, etc. They are also mostly based in the Global North and they don’t hire many experimental new media artists, so keep in mind, this aint my battle lol)

Opt-out of Stable Diffusion V3! If your work is showing up on the “Have  I been Trained“ website, you can opt out of future AI model releases through this link: https://haveibeentrained.com/

Learn about new media histories and experimental processes! The art world is changing fast and visual arts don’t all revolve around representational illustration and commercial imaging. Expanding your craft is a matter of adaptation and survival. We new media artists have been messing with AIs for almost a decade now and this whole hysteria makes a lot of you sound brand new.

Train AI models using your own works and let everyone make derivatives. This is the classic “dont beat em, join em” approach and I think it’s awesome. It makes you seem generous and not like some boomer screaming “muh copyrights” into the void. Here’s a tutorial on how to train Stable Diffusion on your own set of images .

Now for some broad structural solutions, because these calls for AI Art Bans are giving strong “Disco Sucks” vibes:

AI’s should be treated as public infrastructure and thereby socialized or nationalized.  No private company should own AI systems or vectors of information. AIs should be open source and free for all to learn and use. 

Commercial applications of AIs should be strictly regulated. Not just because biases and misuse of sexualized images are rampant, but because private ownership of AI will lead to more socio-economic inequalities.

Generative Image AI Services should be paying royalties to artists. If you want your favorite illustrator to get those royalties, go pressure OpenAI and MidJourney directly. They have records of all their prompts and are making bank. What people don’t know is that when these services came out, they had atrocious licensing restrictions where they owned the prompts and images AI Artists were creating, but community pressure made them cave in. Now AI Artists own the outputs while granting a nonexclusive license to the AI corps (much how social media platforms operate).

Finally here’s some advice for digital artists working with AI:

Artists should fully disclose if their works include AI-generated imagery, especially if it’s the main visual. Many exhibiting artists use terms like “Collaboration with AI” to describe their art and that’s a good practice, because it really is a collaboration with a computer. (Side note: China is making it a law that all AI-generated media have a watermark or disclaimer and I think that’s a fair approach).

Artists should attribute the other artists they reference in their prompts, especially if they are relying on a living, working artist’s aesthetic for their output. Many AI Artists will mash-up several references, like cyberpunk + lisa frank + ansel adams + raphael painting, and tho i personally wouldnt fault an artist for not disclosing these references, since they are all canonical, I think its commendable for AI Artists to share their prompts along with their visual work.

It is unethical to take raw outputs based off of a single living, working artist and in order to commercialize a whole unattributed series of derivative works based off their aesthetic. But I think there are caveats if you are working within a legitimate conceptual framework and you attribute the artist you referenced. Also if you are remixing your artistic reference in your own workflow, you are protected by Fair Use and that’s ok. The best way to tell the difference if someone is using AI in unethical ways is to consider that person’s entire body of work. Are they appropriating in an interesting way? Is there a concept or politics behind their appropriation? Is AI Art all they seem to do? Art history has been driven by appropriation and that’s not going to change. 

Consider whether your AI Art punches up or punches down! Sure, go ahead and rip off the damien hirsts and jeff koons of the world. But if you are a white dude making japonaiserie or chinoiserie, or outputs based off of Black hip-hop culture, you should reconsider your approach. That FKN Meka thing is a perfect example of white guy owners creating a fake AI rapper using lyrics ghostwritten by Black rappers. That shit is gross and evil. Keep in mind that evaluating cultural appropriation requires an understanding of colonialism and racial capitalism.

[shoceted]

Hello, this is like... months late but you were one of the only English KeiwaxAce writers I actually liked and seeing that you've dropped the series is devastating (but understandable, they've been ruining Keiwa since Bullfighting Game and I'm devastated, on the edge of my seat and have a lot words/feelings about it too). Could I ask what was your turning point for the series? Or, I guess, what was the straw that broke your back.

If you don't feel like it, that's fine too. Thank you for sharing your Geats fics at the start of the series.

(Anonymous cuz i'm shy af but mostly because haven't used tumblr in years how does this website even work anymore help-)

firstly, this is an incredibly kind thing to say about my writing, and i appreciate it a lot! i kind of miss being that inspired �� like including the ex-aid crossover i wrote, seven things??? that's impressive, actually, go me. the first 16 episodes of geats provided a lot for me to be inspired by, i guess. (i think my heart's always going to do something when i think about the phrase "the tycoon i know", tbh.)

the last straw... well, for one thing, the lack of keiwa focus after episode 19 did bug me, because he was my favorite character and i liked seeing him. people say "oh he got focus during the first dgp" but i don't think that's really the case; i went more into this on my personal twitter account, but him being the audience surrogate for the first arc doesn't mean he's the focus of those episodes. like 1-2 are establishing ace, 3-4 are establishing neon, 5-6 are establishing buffa, and then it's only 7-8 that keiwa gets focus... and he's eliminated. at the beginning of the next dgp, he's not even a contestant, he's just a device used to show the fact that being eliminated without dying gets rid of why you wished for what you wished for. it's not until episode 12 that he's even back.

now, i thought the direction they were going with him — he still wants world peace, but in a more realistic way, wanting to bring all the dead contestants back — was really good, too. and i liked him and neon both developing into characters who could trick ace by the time episode 16 comes around! (i actually still have a kace wip that i might finish someday for the sake of finishing it that takes place between episodes 16 and 17, sorta; like, i have 5k of it written and all it needs is the smut that sure is a part of it, so i might go back to it eventually? who knows.)

and thennnnn the dezastar arc starts, as does the decline in keiwa's writing.

i don't mind characters being comic relief now and then, but having a previously-serious character relegated to just comic relief doesn't sit well with me. 19 was a great episode for keiwa, and that conversation with ace he had over dinner made me lose my shit, and i foolishly thought that maybe they'd take him seriously from there on out.

but, no, they sidelined him. for 12 weeks. waiting for my favorite character to have proper focus episode for 3 straight months really bugged me, tbh, though i didn't say anything for fear of stirring the pot. and we finally get to episode 31 and he gets kicked into a pit. this made me really upset.

the fan reaction to this also didn't do me any favors; i was pissed at buffa (the character, not the actor — i do not care about mokudai kazuto in any direction, though i was accused of hating on him, which was fun) for the whole pit-kicking thing and made this clear, which i realize in retrospect was a mistake, because all of a sudden being a fan of keiwa was not the move. (and fwiw, i don't want to hate buffa; i just get a way with characters who hurt characters i love. i'm the same way about him that i am about kylo ren and sangwoo from squid game, and i do not like this trait about myself.) it reminded me of a bunch of shitty experiences i had in a toxic fandom in 2020 and 2021 that sunk me into a deep depression that it took a long time (and the existence of kamen rider revice, which a lot of geats fans abhor and make clear that they abhor, which also didn't help) for me to get out of. that's when i stopped watching geats live, at least. (i also want to state that this had nothing to do with any ship i like, not even kace. apparently people have this idea that kace enjoyers are really angry folks and it's just like... no? this isn't a popular pairing. nobody is going to get mad at you if you don't like it.)

neon's writing during this time also made me angry; i do not like any of the sponsors at all, and neon's character development coming from a man — and a man who is a toxic fan of hers, at that — didn't sit well with me. on the topic of sponsors, jean felt like forced ace shipping bait, and i didn't like his character much, either. (which also makes me feel bad, since i know the actor's such a huge fan.) it was actually him coming back, as well as punkjack's return (by all means i should adore punkjack, because am i ever a sucker for a flop musician, but nothing about his character has ever worked for me — especially since he unnecessarily flirts with tsumuri and clearly makes her uncomfortable in a setting where she can't complain about this, which, ew), that made me drop geats entirely.

the direction the writing is going right now is also not good. the misogyny of fridging sara and damsel-ing tsumuri, the way they've completely fucked up keiwa's character, it's so frustrating — i honestly want to move zero one up on my toku list for this year so that i can see if ex-aid, which famously gave me a disease, was some kind of fluke. hell, in ex-aid, we have a character who acts illogically because of his grief, and those episodes are perfect to me. doing this with keiwa 40something episodes in doesn't hit the same.

buffa's storyline was supposed to be something similar, i know, but that never worked for me either. much like punkjack, it should have. but his non-reaction to the toru jamato's death when toru's death and his anger over it is supposed to be his entire character motivation... didn't make me feel like hiiro did. his rivalry with ace is also no kaito/kouta. it feels like geats is trying to do a lot of things that worked in gaim without understanding why those things worked in gaim. (and i do hate to be an annoying gaim stan, but... come on, geats.)

maybe i'm missing something because i'm not watching every week, or maybe i just have bad taste, but all of these things piling up makes me want to have nothing to do with geats at all anymore. i've actually considered orphaning all my geats fic in frustration, but i've decided against it because that would mean interacting with my geats fics again. it wouldn't provide catharsis. i'm just done.

so tl;dr: around the dezastar arc i became frustrated with keiwa getting sidelined, the fan reaction to episode 31 as well as its contents brought up bad memories and made me stop watching live, and the return of two characters i just don't see the appeal of made me drop the series entirely.

[detrasystem]

hey! this is chance & here’s this week’s prompt. what websites or resources do you use while you write or develop a character/story? what do you think of them and would you recommend them?

hi chance!! tysm for the ask, this is such a kind and fun thing for you to be doing 💕

i have a LOT of resources to talk about with regard to this prompt. i'm actually planning in-depth posts for almost all of these, but for now i'll list out the things i absolutely cannot live without when developing a story.

websites

Random Generators. i have literally been to hundreds of random generator sites over the years, and they have become an absolutely invaluable resource for generating ideas, whether it's for a character name or a complete adventure. one of my all-time favorites, Chaotic Shiny, introduced me to the concept of NaNoWriMo and thus the writing community at large! i'd also recommend Seventh Sanctum and, as i'm sure everyone's already familiar, FantasyNameGenerators.com. each website is completely independent, some are still being updated to this day, and they each have a different Vibe to them so all three can be used depending on what kind of ideas you want to spark at the moment. HIGHLY recommend this unrestrained summer fun.

Springhole.net. this is kind of an expansion on the above, because there are some fantastic random generators on this site, but there's so much more here, too. in-depth advice for character development, worldbuilding, writing in general...it's great. and criminally underrated!

Susan Dennard's newsletter. Susan Dennard is the author of the Witchland series, among other things, and she's been keeping a long-running advice newsletter for writers for a LONG time. she's traditionally published and often has some great insight into the publishing world as well as just generally really good tips for writers of any stage. i'm not personally a fan of her books, but i am a fan of her advice. <3

YouTube. ok. hear me out. this could be for a few different things. i find it kind of fun to see how other writers tackle the writing process, so i'll watch writing vlogs every now and then--Kate Cavanaugh Writes is by far THEE best channel out there for this. her videos are excellently edited, her joy of writing is contagious, and she does a lot of fun and inspiring writing challenges! i often get bored watching people just stare at a camera and talk for 30 minutes straight, but her videos are Absolutely not like that so they're really easy to watch.

but even if you're not into vlogs, did you know that there's a whole subset of (mostly Japanese) YouTubers who make royalty free music and just like...post it? and it's GOOD? like genuinely?? go check out PeriTune right now and thank me later. i'm one of those writers that NEEDS music to write and develop characters so PeriTune (and the others that will eventually get recommended to you the more you watch their videos GHNGDFHG) makes the perfect background music for scenes, locations, characters, etc. and did i mention it's insanely good for being 100% free?

this isn't a resource for development, per se, but i can't recommend 4thewords enough. it's an online word processor that turns writing into an RPG: battle monsters by writing words during a certain time limit, and then complete quests with the loot you earn from your battles! there's a free 30 day trial for new users, and if you're participating in NaNoWriMo, the devs usually put coupons for free writing time during those months, so if you're not constantly in need of drafting several words at once, you really don't have to spend a cent. though 4thewords IS independently owned and developed by a wonderful team of writers who are very inclusive, so i do recommend supporting them if you can. :-) one month starts at $4, and if you use my referral code IRZVE23798 you and i both get free "crystals" that count toward subscription time <3

books/publications

there are two writing craft books i need EVERYONE to read, regardless of medium. Damn Fine Story by Chuck Wendig, and 27 Essential Principles of Story by Daniel Joshua Rubin. this is not the writing advice you've heard before. this is not elitist, prescribed advice. these are two books that will change the way you THINK about story, no matter how experienced you are. i am ALWAYS consulting these books. they live on my desk permanently.

Writer's Digest. i will admit to being subscribed to this magazine (and Poets & Writers), and for good reason! each bi-monthly issue is full of insider information about the publishing industry, creative writing prompts, and great food for thought about the craft. even if you can't/don't want to subscribe to the magazine, their website is full of great articles to get the inspiration flowing.

Publishers Weekly. i just check their website out periodically, to get a pulse on what's getting published these days, and by whom. if you want to be traditionally published, it's ALWAYS a good idea to understand the trends of the industry; plus, reading reviews on PW is a great way to find books to read that you might not have found otherwise.

and finally, of course, if you want to write, you have to read. like. i cannot stress this enough. find books that speak to you. reading others' work is essential to finding out what kind of techniques, tropes, characterizations, etc you LIKE as well as DON'T like. some people don't like reading in their genre for fear of accidentally plagiarizing, but i'm in the camp that NEEDS to read in my genre to get the right words into my brain so i can spit them all back later. no matter how or why you read, though, you gotta do it. even if it's just one novel that you read over and over again to keep getting inspired. GO TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. thank you.

[daenerys-targaryen]

How do you keep going in this fandom? Dany literally kept me alive and I will always be grateful to her for that but her antis drain the joy out of every single fun part of fandom. You can curate your space as meticulously as you like but the freaks will still screenshot your posts to dunk on you or send your stuff to other people's asks just to stir some drama up. How do you do it?

short answer: 1. because I will always have nothing but pure love and adoration for her in my heart and no one will ever take that away and 2. spite :)

long answer: under the cut

I'm sooo sorry you were going through such a hard time but I'm so so glad that she was able to do that for you. I love hearing how much dany means to us fans especially when it's being told to me so thank you for sharing that and I relate. As for the answer to your question, in my opinion I left the fandom for a long long time after the show ended just because it it was truly horrible here after about a year. I left my got blog, I unfollowed and left source blogs, I blacklisted the tags like I did not want to see anything about it anywhere and we couldn't even talk about it in my house for like a year LMAO and not just from me and it did take me a wwwhhiiilleee to really even follow some of my mutuals back you know and honestly it was just this past summer I truly got back into the fandom and started re reading the books again actively posting content about it albeit mostly on twitter though (i know 😭🤡) and that's because there are so. many. dany stans over there! it's so cool! i mean literally like countless endless amounts I hadn't been on asoiaf twitter ever really so I just didn't KNOW it was so large but I don't even know how I found them but I managed to find some old mutuals from when they were on here and then found more and more and over here? on this website? it's my opinion that this websites opinion in terms of book dany are what we used to think of reddit was years ago. actually TODAY I saw a pro dany post on reddit and I was like ?!?! pleasantly shocked ! I was like omg nature is healing. but anyways. over here? I go through my archive and I see so many of my old dany mutuals either just inactive or deactivated our people on here are GONE :( for me I guess I'll never not be in the fandom because I won't ever stop loving her and posting about her you know? there are some things in this world that really do just leave such an imprint on you as a person and on your soul and she's one of those things for me. I can say that overall just having mutuals and people to interact with and friends do make it so better. I'm really good about not seeing anti dany stuff on here because this is my home and I'm not bringing dirt in so I am veeeeeeery careful about who I follow in terms of asoiaf but over on twitter it's a bit harder not to see anti stuff because there aren't tags to blacklist to avoid you know? so I do see bs nonstop over there but thankfully I also know that I don't have to open that stupid app every day or be on it for a long time so when it seems like it's a lot I just don't open the app so it's not too big of a deal. and of course there are days where it really is a beat down like it's so incredibly dumb you'd think she were as really dark and controversial as they make her out to be I really just have to point and laugh. it's the internet there will always be someone screenshotting something and starting drama and there will always be people tagging my dany content with anti tags but I'm not going to stop posting about my favorite character or interacting with posts about her. really at the end of the day my love for her outshines any hate I didn't stop loving her then and I'm not going to stop loving her now. I will love her until I am cold and dead and six feet under and I'm very stubborn and love with my whole being so as long as I'm in online spaces I'll be in there posting about her

[maliro-t]

Happy Witcher eve! Since this is a blogging website, I’m gonna put up a long Blog Post™ I wrote a really long time ago about adaptation just to get my thoughts out there before new material comes out-- book spoilers abound but I don’t actually explain them.

I will always credit The Magicians for changing the way I think about what ‘good’ adaptation is, which is ironic, I know, but the fact that it stumbles so spectacularly in places is part of what did it for me, so ultimately thanks for the mess, I guess! I owe a lot of that to the fact I watched that show before reading the books, which obviously changes your perspective.

But that isn’t the case with The Witcher, and with all this endless talk of show deviations I’m like...there’s some Witcher stuff I honestly do not want to see adapted accurately lmao. I am tentatively curious to see what they do with the Rats & Mistle etc, mostly because I fully just....don’t want to see that story as written on screen but also have absolutely no idea what they could do to change it. I would say Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire are my favorite books in the series with Tower of the Swallow close behind, so I don’t dislike the Rats storyline overall--in fact, I think it’s thematically very good in the grand scheme of things--but when I first read it, Time of Contempt ending Like That after being my favorite book yet by far definitely put a damper on my excitement to start the next one, and while I don’t hate the story as it is (and do really like the nuance with which the group & Ciri’s place within it is fleshed out in Tower of the Swallow), there is truly no part of me that wants to see people adapt that page by page in uhhh 2023 onwards. Which is complex, too, because let’s say they fix the Mistle/Ciri relationship, give it a consensual start, make it less dysfunctional and low-key abusive: then can they be accused romanticizing the original source material? I mean, they’ll certainly be accused of shamefully deviating, but again, I really don’t mind that. But I don’t think I would prefer a version of them that’s healthy per-se, because the dysfunctionality is part of the point. Like, the Rats are interesting because they’re a bunch of kids who have been absolutely mistreated by society, totally uncared for, and they let their anger at the world overtake them so completely that their only vocation is violence-- they’ve been so deprived of a kind world that, despite their closeness, they barely even know how to properly care for each other, let alone other people. And they're still children! Angry, murderous, un-guided children! For Ciri they represent a kind of ‘cycle of violence’ style trap, which she eventually is forcefully shunted out of. The ‘love’ that she does find with them is fueled by hatred and conflict. But also, it’s like. How do you navigate that without being a) a little too close homophobic tropes for comfort and b) just like. fully unfun to watch at some parts???

That’s honestly how I feel about 85 percent of the Ciri stuff in Tower of the Swallow, which again, is a book I LOVE, and that stuff makes up probably at least half of it. But it’s also absolutely fucking miserable lmfao!!! I simply do not want or need to see it all on TV as written!!! I would appreciate a new take!!! It's miserable and I love it and I don't need it replicated. All three are true. Ultimately, it will be what it is, and I may enjoy it, or I may not.

But anyways-- all of that aside, demands for accuracy always fall flat for me because the books are so specifically literary anyways, with their frame stories, and in universe documents, and storytelling via witness testimony and gossip, letters with old census-style misspelled names, intermittent slices of Dandelion’s memoirs, etc etc etc--lest we forget the random chapter near the end of Baptism of Fire where the whole thing suddenly becomes a story being told to children squabbling over which characters they want to hear about next! This is one of my absolute favorite things about the series, and it’s something which with no uncertainty cannot be even slightly replicated in the show lol!!! So why shouldn’t they figure out what works for them in a different medium? Especially when it means there are many significant characters that we only see in slivers here and there in the books because of the amount of much third-party information being used to convey events. In a TV environment, I think the time they’re giving to flesh characters like the sorceresses is, for the most part, phenomenally well used, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing their takes on them. Cahir is another one I love, and he has definitely been taken in some different directions (although again his presence is so scarce for the first several books that they have that freedom) but he also has Things About Him in the books that I’m glad they are not adhering to thus far!

I certainly have my own disappointments with how changes turn out sometimes, which I’ve talked about a little--I speculated after watching season 2 that part of the reason for the changes that they made (which weren’t my favorite by the end of the season, but which were still enjoyable enough television) were because they felt locked into the action focused monster-of-the-week formula of the first season. That formula was a demand of adapting the short stories, but one which also created certain audience expectations for viewers coming in blind, so a hard turn into adapting a novel with very little actual plot was a risk they weren’t willing to take. (This is something that I later had uhhhh 100 percent confirmed watching an interview with the showrunner where she said this almost exactly lmao!!). I do still think it’s odd that they fully omitted some of the plottiest stuff with Philippa near the end in favor of their invented conflicts (conflicts which ALSO changed almost beyond recognition my favorite Yen & Ciri stuff from Blood of Elves but I digress), but that is the story they told so there really isn’t any point in could-have-beens. It’s way more useful for me to look at the show they are making and decide if it’s still fun or entertaining or interesting or ‘good’ or whatever on its own.

My point is really that a 1:1 adaptation really isn’t possible across media for this series, but even if it were, there really just isn’t a need for that, right? To capture the spirit of a story even with differences is still to honor it, and when the source material relies so much on being a book is there really anything wrong with an adaptation taking a different path through the same woods? Like, their differences don’t actually affect one another. The show being its own thing doesn’t ‘ruin’ the books. Change is not disrespect; it’s just change.

(except for when CDPR just like...forgot that Regis doesn't drink alcohol in the games; that WAS disrespect bc he is literally a character about addiction. but he WOULD be a connoisseur regardless so it is FORGIVEN)

[hpmort]

In Defense of The Glass Princess

I didn’t properly appreciate the extent of “a million is a statistic” before today

When I was a little kid I watched a lot of nature documentaries

Because it was the new noughts and on-demand sucked

(I didn’t think so at the time

TiVo was a separate service that had just been invented

The ability to watch something that wasn’t live

That the cable box didn’t have to have watched live

That you didn’t have to go out and buy

On a disc or in a box

Was new and exciting)

A series of rectangles within rectangles

Boxes folding in

Silvery blue and blueish grey

In the upper right hand corner

A video on-loop played

A category

A subcategory

A channel

A show

An episode

I was a child with a clear sense of

RIGHT

and

WRONG

Which, of course

Was not necessarily the most reasonably

The boxes I limited myself to were

Kids

(Where I mostly play favorites

Not for moral reasons

Just brand loyalty)

Premium Channels

(Subcategory

Kids/Family)

and

Documentaries

(Or something like that

It was over a decade ago and I was probably younger than six)

Category

Subcategory

Channel

I took everything on the channels under

Documentary

(Or whatever it was)

As fact so

Yes I did find Ancient Aliens plausible

The thing about the not-for-kids channels I allowed myself

Is that they were genuinely

Not-for-kids

As in;

I watched graphic animal deaths

And other stuff with content warnings

Remember

It’s the noughnties

People didn’t give trigger warnings

It was “most extreme animal reproduction”

Or something

There were crappy cgi renderings of mites engaging in natal incest rape

Sharks eating eachother in the womb

And live footage of a hyena giving birth

(The last one is what had the content warning)

There was other graphic animal stuff

As I said earlier

Mostly violent death

There wasn’t really much interest in violent mating habits

Yeah the mantis eats her mate

Parasitoidism exists

But that was mainly it

Because it was more about death than sex

(Fair enough)

Anyways

When I was in second grade or whatever

I was getting disillusioned with My Little Pony

Because my only exposure had been G3

And G3 was fairly low conflict

(A complaint that led me to

later

after watching like three episodes

Give Friendship is Magic a one star review

On the website “Common Sense Media”

Under a cringy name I had derived

From an absurd escapist world I had created

That I later tried to theme my birthday party around

(?)

(My pre-teen years were not kind to me)

(One year later I became a fake brony

Because I liked their general energy and level of engagement

And was desperate for a sense of community))

My father

Perhaps concerned about internalized misogyny

Or just wanting to know what to buy me that wasn’t a video game

Or an anime

(The T rating of Super Smash Bros Melee

And the fact that anime was not necessarily kid friendly

And the anime that was was not necessarily in english

Surely made the certainty appealing)

Bought me

My Little Pony: The Complete First Season

(He did not buy the movie

Which made the whole thing even more confusing

Then it already was

But I was a small child

(An autistic one at that)

And so was used to being confused about most things

So it didn’t matter)

G1 My Little Pony was insane and enthralling

It was baffling

It was amazing

I experienced good autistic representation in the form of Best Pony Windwhistler

(I was still in denial at the time and convinced that my diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome was the mark of a conspiracy

That was against me

But only in the abstract sense

I thought that it was a conspiracy to artificially inflate standardized test scores

Where I was center

So while the conspiracy wasn’t specifically against me

My role in it meant that it was in opposition to me and my flourishment)

We got

The Quest of the Princess Ponies and Other Stories

Before the movie so I also managed to have a completely inaccurate understanding of what an orc looked like

For literal years

Because the titular

Quest of the Princess Ponies

Featured “orcs”

Who one would never in a hundred years think was an orc

If they had not already been told they were

It is commonly held

Among the fans of the first generation My Little Pony series

That Quest of the Princess Ponies

Is one of the best serials

And that

The Glass Princess

Is one of the worst

I disagree

The reasons given that

The Quest of the Princess Ponies

Is a particularly good serial

Are impressively shallow

And consist largely

Of the presence of orcs and demons

And the fact that the princesses fucking hate eachother

And are

“conspiring against eachother”

(This consists of being bitchy to eachother with some petty levels of normal sibling sabotage

And kidnapping Spike and making him choose who shall rule)

For the crown

(The powers that it entails being vague and perhaps nonexistent

Considering the ultimate resolution

Once they’re done running around in a cave with the orcs and demons

Is that they should take turns being queen)

Although the part I admit is charming is rarely mentioned;

The eternal blood war between orcs and demons is because they can never shake hands as friends

Literally

Because demons are fire elementals and orcs are ice elementals

So Spike brings peace by holding the hand

Of a fire demon

And an ice orc

At the same time

And shaking it for them

The main complaints about

The Glass Princess

(Aside from unusually bad animation

Which means little given how terrible it is on a good day;

The twinkle-eyed ponies have evidently forgotten to put their eyes in

Given how common it is to see them with just circles)

Are as follows

Shady is whiny

And

Princess Porcina is inconsistently written

I have always liked Shady

She is depressed

She is anxious

She is full of self-loathing

I honestly saw a lot of myself in her

And found her a complex and well-written character

Doing something right

Doesn’t make you feel good

You feel guilty and think that you could have

Should have

Done it right before

Because if you can do this

Why can’t you do that other thing?

The one everyone says is easier?

I also always thought that Princess Porcina was written well

I’ve noticed it a lot

People completely ignoring something terrible happening far away

But immediately helping someone in front of them

You can order a hundred deaths

But if you see someone dying

You feel the need to help them

And that’s what she does

When everyone is so far away

She feels nothing

Why not turn them to glass?

They’re not there

They don’t matter

But when she sees someone turn to glass in front of her

Sees their horror

The panic they feel

When they know that it’s coming

She can’t stand it

She’s forced to face what she’s done

And

She

Stops

That’s normal

I think

Today

Friday

The second of June

In the year two thousand and twenty three

Driving home with

(Being driven home by)

A friend

This evening

I saw six goslings with their mom

One was clearly

Cleanly dead

One was normal roadkill

One was injured but moving along

One was injured and struggling to move

(But I was sure

That if we stopped

We could have gotten it

To a veterinary hospital)

One was fine

And one was cleanly eviscerated

Its entrails torn across the road

Miraculously whole

The uninjured one

And the slightly hurt one

Were following their mother

Who seemed clearly distressed

(Obviously

She was

But I don’t know goose body language

And so what I took as one form of grief or trauma could have been shock or something else)

My friend was clearly shaken

I asked her why we didn’t stop to get the one that was down

But still moving

She was panicking

And didn’t really answer

She

At least

I could recognize distress in

(And yes

Some of it was shock)

She spoke with disgust and horror of the driver in front of us

I pointed out that the eviscerated one was in another lane

She hasn’t seen it

The very idea seemed to horrify her further

I tried to look on the “bright side”

(As she often does)

If we had stopped to bring the injured one to a veterinary hospital

She would have seen the eviscerated one

She looked sick enough as it was

And admitted that

Despite the prescription-strength anti acids she was on

That if she had see that gosling

With its organs torn out

She could have thrown up

(Which

While she didn’t mention it

Would probably have made things harder to help the badly injured one

I can’t imagine driving with a goose in a car with a windshield full of vomit)

I comforted her

Said I was fine

She was gentler

Softer

The Canada Goose has a conservation status of “Least Concern”

It’s not important

These things happen all the time

I know this

(My friend offers a prayer for the goslings

And tries to think of another

I offer to show her the Word Wildlife Foundation

So she can see what species she can symbolically adopt to honor the gosling

There are no waterfowl on that list

Boobies are seabirds)

I cannot fall asleep

I cannot shake my uncomfortable feelings

I am sad yet struggle to try

I feel guilty

I don’t think that anything I could have seen or read

Could have desensitized me

I wish it did

[doubleddenden]

Okay so I'm thinking about how the Pokémon Day Presents is 20 minutes. I'm usually pessimistic about these because last time it was mobile game garbage with like a minute of okay stuff.

But here's what's guaranteed:

Scarlet and Violet DLC teaser or equivalent. Everyone that's played knows why so there's no point going further

What's most likely coming:

RBY, MAYBE Green for US I doubt it; GSC, and at the least RSE for NSO. I'd say FRLG too but they may opt to ignore it since LGPE exists on Switch. Either way, it's most likely the case due to the Nintendo Direct that announced Gameboy and GBA games but only showed the Pokémon TCG game for then. The trailer for the Presentation also previewed the old school sprites, the RBY intro, the RBG balloons- we know they like nostalgia, it's coming. Couple the GBA games with the events and the fact that 3ds will be closing shop next month, they pretty much are guaranteed to make it available.

PMD- something is being announced. My bet is on an Explorers remake since they recently dropped the OG remake. We know something is up due to the copyright being on the website code showing Spike Chunsoft 1993 to 2023, and unless they're suddenly going to drop Donphan Rompa and have Pikachu have to figure out which of his classmates killed Butterfree, that pretty much just points to PMD.

That alone should comprise at least 15 minutes. We could probably toss in a minute or 2 to casually remind everyone to download all the Pokestuff they can on the 3ds before the end time comes (so basically Bank- which will be free- and the SM demo for Ash Greninja).

Other than this that leaves a little wiggle room. A minute or 5 is guaranteed to be nostalgia bait and probably a montage of photos from the hashtag campaign they did for Twitter recently.

The only thing left I could guess would maybe be the usual rock cast at Pokémon Sleep, but only because it had a recent stir a couple of months back for... I think trademark, I might be wrong, but it was definitely a small behind the scenes ripple.

As always, I'll be praying for some reminder that Colosseum and XD existed. Won't happen because there's just not enough time. But I'll still hope for a third party studio to bring it back some day- and it'd fit since the GBA games will come back.

But anyway, why don't I have fun with a prediction of what the SV dlc will probably look like:

1. Hexagon legendary revealed, basically a piece of it exists in all Terra Orbs and its basically been soft fusion this whole time. Full form probably has something to do with a world turtle, 2 forms: ancient and future, dragon /Psychic type

2. New uniforms. Not full customization, but probably some special uniform for exploring deeper into Area Zero or some extra variants on the uniforms- maybe even straight up copies of Arven, Nemona, Team Star, and Clavell's uniform variants.

3. Probably mostly going to be artwork, couple of new characters locked to versions, and probably the professor OPPOSITE to the one we worked with- aka Arven's parent that bailed shortly after his birth- showing up suddenly.

4. 2 parts most likely, maybe a third if they really want to milk this. Hexagon is one part. The "Imagined" Pokémon the other (the Johto Beasts and Unovan Swords hybrids). Potential third is up in the air. One location is probably deeeeeeper into AZ and sort of a Hollow World (kinda like Halo 4). The other most likely that chunk on the north east of Paldea. My next guess would be islands way off the coast since apparently Paldea's oceans just go on forever, according to a recent Boundary Break video on SV- Essentially plenty of space for it.

5. More Paradox Pokémon. If I were a betting man- and I do enjoy gacha- I'd wager either paradoxes for Kanto starters OR Sinnoh starters since they basically got left in the rain for new forms. Probably Kanto because they love jacking Charizard off and Ohmori can't go one game without giving his favorite special privileges. But if they ever wanted to drop Gorochu, it's now or never. Probably an ancient pokemon with either a future counterpart or Eevee or Meowth gets a future counterpart.

6. a forgotten Pokémon gets a new form and evolution akin to Slowbro. Betting on Oddish or Poliwag, or generally a Pokémon with a split evolution so they can milk it like Slowbro in Isle of Armor and Slowking in Crown Tundra.

7. Called something like "Azure Ocean" or "Topaz Tunnel" or "Quartz Quarry"- keeping up with fancy color names.

Of course I could be entirely wrong, none of any of the above happens, and it's just something very, very minor.