#i think this is the most i've worked on one singular piece in a while

[wigglesdtuff]

You are the moon unaware of the dawn!

[titleknown]

Gotta say, while I love @mostlysignssomeportents' work, I think I gotta hard disagree with their sentiment that AI art comes "pre-corporatized/gentrified".

Like, that might be true if one treats the one-off images one sees as all you can do with AI art, but from what I've noticed in the people doing what I consider good work with AI art, from @teuthisdreams' work with collage on his most notable comic and general openness about his process, to the layering Shenanigans that @reachartwork does to avoid the Standard AI Art Artstyle, to @therobotmonster's use of good ol fashioned hand-done retouching and photomanipulation and advice on such, the singular image is not the primary artistic use-case for people serious about the tool.

Rather it is that AI art becomes art in its relational capacity, combining with other tools in the nature of Eisensteinian montage and collage, the latter being a bit ironic given the fact that AI on its own isn't really a collage machine like people think it is.

The same way that, say, some stock art for Apple stuff could become the basis for Jerkcity or a piece of stock art of a generic 50s-type guy became the notorious mock-religious-messiah JR "Bob" Dobbs, or how standardized sliders in a video game made the basis for The Final Pam or the Boy-Mayor of Second Life.

Even if the outputs are to be considered generic, the way they are used to relate to other things by the artist, and the way they relate to other things the artist has done, is the way art is found. The humanity is added in the editing and juxtaposition, especially if you're combining it with other mediums.

And I think the way we're trained to treat art as isolated; decontextualized snippets in an algorythmized feed is the actual problem that I think the fears around AI art as an artistic practice are around.

Now, there's a lot to be said about that, from the issue of how the way social media discourages archival/archive-binging is a far greater contributor to the depersonalization of art, to the ways in which algorithms hide artists who can't keep up with them and that needs to be a labor issue we push against.

I have a longer piece on the nature of this that I've got bouncing around in my head that I need to finish after Artfight and Kaijune-in-August at any rate.

But, I think I'll end with the fact that if you're looking for the grungy endearing grassroots jank that Doctorow feels is lacking in the uses of these tools, I think that the best place to look first would be at stuff like this:

[u5an5]

So. About the Anchor Beings.

(prepare for a long post)

The hows and whys on how they work are really confusing but after reading others ramble about it I've got my own theories that I'd like to put into one whole picture.

First: How can Logan being dead affect the movie universe when it takes place in 2024 while Logan is set in 2029 and if the Logan that died isn't from Wades timeline then how can it affect it?

To answer the first one: The timeline we are seeing isn't the same one in which Logan takes place. Apparently it branches off somewhere between X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine movies (at least according to Marvel Wiki) into a separate timeline than the Days of Future Past. This is the Bad Ending timeline, Wolverine doesn't go back in time, everyone dies.

Logan going back in time in Days of Future Past led to creation of a completely new timeline: The one where the mutant genocide never happens. The universe in which Wade lives is most likely a branch of it or the main line itself.

And yes, timeline, because acording to the Marvels list of Earths, this one is a completely separate being. I imagine it look something like this:

Technically speaking it's a branch of the DoFP, but events that caused it to happen had to be overwriten for it to happen in the first place so they actually never took place in this timeline.

Still with me? Great.

Now I'm going to talk about how I think the Anchor Beings work. It will be super important for the next point.

In my opinion, a being becomes the Anchor Being when their actions cause enough changes to create a new timeline and/or big branch. The death of the Anchor Being doesn't cause the death of the universe, the lack of Anchor Beings afterwards does.

The branch dies off only if in the thousands of years needed for it to corode there is no new Anchor Being - the tree doesn't grow because it's dead, the timeline is dead because it doesn't grow.

Logan literally created this whole timeline, of course he would be the Anchor Being. His death at one point on another, albeit sad, wouldn't be (literal) end of the world because somone in the future would probably pick up the mantle and the timeline would go on.

(Why are we seeing scenes from Logan then? one, because it probably happened in a similiar way, two, because his death in this specific universe is the one all fans care about)

It wasn't anything dire up until Paradox decided to meddle. He, unsatisfied with watching how it maybe-maybe-not slowly dies off, decided to speed it up, taking the chance for another Anchor Being to appear away by going from thousand years of waiting to up to three days.

In a twist of irony, by doing so he set off the events of Deadpool & Wolverine, which caused probably one of if not the fastest events that lead the titular characters to become the Anchor Being - yes, singular, because they are equaly responsible for what happened.

And what happened? New branch was created of course! (if not entirely separate timeline) Which looks something like this:

(It would also explain why Logan wasn't flickering after spending so much time in "not his" universe - due to being one of it's creators, regardless if he originated from it, it is his timeline.)

Separate timeline would make more sense because it is their first appearance in MCU (which would also factor into it being literally separate timeline) and it is Deadpool story (and writers really like to bully him and make him experience Events)

The speed at which they became Anchor Being may also explain why everyone from TVA was so surprised - usually it takes up to milenias and these guys speedruned it from not knowing the concept existed to being a potential option to being the option in less than 72 hours (or the shocking part was that somone from competely different universe was able to become one, idk)

Anyway, this is my atempt at piecing the info we've got into one thing. I'm curious what you guys think

[artist-issues]

Hello hello I have very big and complicated questions that started out broad and complex but got more and more specific and more and more personal like my questions to my family and friends always do. Whoops lol. Buckle up.

I wanted to ask about fanfiction. I've really been thinking about that post you made about how a lot of fanfiction can be just used as a form of escapism, and not in a good way like Tolkien described it, but as a 'I hate life so I'm gonna read and write extensively about fictional characters rather than working hard/trying to improve my own life' Which I really want to avoid and not do. In the past I've certainly fallen into that trap- I would get so caught up in writing Marvel or Percy Jackson or Harry Potter fanfiction (not to toot my own horn, but was objectively good and I do think grew my skills a lot as a writer and character analyzer) that I would spend every free moment and many of ones when I really should've been working on school or chores or spending time with my actual family reading and writing it. I was probably doing that 5-8 hours a day when I was 11/12. (Yikes) Thankfully, my parents smacked some sense into me lol. It really just goes to show you how, for lack of a better term, soul-consuming, that these kind of fantasy pursuits can really be. Thankfully, I don't do that any more. I actively limit myself to a max of 3 hours of reading and writing fanfiction over the course of a week, which is a big improvement.

So yay! Now I have a definte separation from writing fanfiction to improve my writing and writing it to waste time because all of my energy is focused on it to the point where it is in my every thought. Good! Growth!

But now my new thing is this- I want to make sure that any and all fanfiction I write has a definite point. I want it to point to good things and have clear messages and blue flowers and point to Jesus, even if it isn't specifically a 'Christian' fanfiction.

For example, let's just point at that Voice in the Dark one shot I wrote, which is one of, if not the, best singular fiction piece that I've written. I think the reasons why it was so good was that A) I expanded on the story in a way that was intriguing, and got inside my characters heads and accurately depicted their thought processes through it B) Made it pleasant to read with details and action and emotion and everything, C) set everything up for a part 2 conclusion of Sam and Five really connecting and talking about what they both said/thought, and becoming friends (which after procrastinating for months, I'm finally working on), but most importantly, D) Had clear themes of hope, perseverance, connection, trust, and encouragement. Which is really what I think made it so much more excellent than other fanfiction pieces I've written. I had a clear point and intention going into it that was more than just 'Have it be something I love and just for my entertainment' although that was one of the reasons I did decide to write it I will say- you do have to love what you want to write in order to write it well after all. But this is absolutely what I want the point of all my fanfiction writing to be like from here on out, being morally great, as well as well-written.

So now, because I really enjoy ZR and its really is kinda perfect for a fanfiction format, I want to turn it into more of an ongoing piece with my favorite missions and Five's relationships with the characters. But how do I go about this trying to intentionally bring in blue flowers and good messages and beautiful themes, and not just only write it for my entertainment because its a piece of media I love? How to I make sure to firstly know what themes I can bring in, and then do it in such a way that's well-written, while also being able to have those fun moments and situations that are both in the game and I've thought up?

And finally, last thing, is I'm wrestling through if I should continue writing fanfiction to 'fix' a story (which is why I started a Percy Jackson and Marvel fanfictions, I wanted to take the parts of each story I didn't like and were poorly done and make them better) rather than make my own point with it. For most of the fanfiction writing I've ever done, my goal was to improve it, to act like a ghostwriting editor the author hired to fix their fundamentally flawed story. But now I'm realizing that I was spending so much time and effort (which don't get me wrong, I do not fully regret, I really do think that I've gotten far better at fiction writing through this) and I didn't even add any more goodness or morals to the story in a way that made it more soul-sustaining and truly good. I wanted to add a lot of bits that made be as a reader squeal and get happy over which... I don't think is bad per say, but its not what I want my fanfiction to be like any more. With my writing, I absolutely do want to improve on the source material, yes, but I also want to figure out what sort of themes and goodness I'm going for with it. So should I continue writing these large projects (cause each piece covers several books/movies) for improvement and also try to expand on the good ideas and themes the authors had, even bringing in my own, or should I just set it aside as that was great, but now I need to focus on making writing morally good and not just for entertainment?

I know a big part of this is wisdom and descretion- things that God has blessed me with but I know I always can pursue more of. So I know a absolute perfect answer to this question will require time and experience. But after sorting through my word-vomiting (sorry lol), what would you say to all of this? Thank you!! <3

Hey! First of all, I love getting questions from you, and I especially love it because you take enough time to read the previous things I say that we can have a very level conversation, and a deep back-and-forth, which is not always the case with everybody who sends me questions (I like those questions too, I’m just saying.) So thanks for typing all that up!

Second of all, I’m no expert on fanfiction writing. You’ve read what I have to say about making sure the “Tone & Style” and “Themes” of any “Continued Work” stay true to their source material when it comes to like, sequels and expansions? Well, I guess I would apply that philosophy, generally, to fanfiction, too.

But the point of my “second of all” is actually, there are better people to ask about this than me. I can answer you in a broad “here’s how I apply my storytelling philosophy to this hypothetical scenario” sense, but other people have more experience actually doing what you’re talking about with fanfiction. Specifically, @doverstar, who, if you don’t follow her or read her stuff, I seriously think you’re missing out.

So in summary, talk to Doverstar. She’ll answer this better. But if I had to try and succinctly respond, I’d say: “Intentionality is always better than doing something by accident. But if you genuinely value goodness, beauty, and truth, in your own personal worldview, in a way that is genuine, and you cultivate that…it’ll come out in your writing on accident.” So in a way, even when you’re being intentional, as long as you remember that, you don’t have to be too militant whether you’re writing fanfiction or fiction.

(That’s a thought I’m still learning to put into practice, myself. I err on the side of “control everything to a T, outline everything, everything has to have a tie-in to the theme—if it doesn’t you’re failing—“ and I don’t recommend that mindset 😅) That’s the “short” answer to your ask. I’ve got a deep-dive below the cut if you’re interested, though.

How do I make sure to firstly know what themes I can bring in?

This has to do with knowing the source-story.

ZR unfortunately gets very political and social in further seasons, but to do it credit, the main, recurring, broad theme of Zombies, Run continues to be “Something greater than yourself is all that’s worth living and dying for.”

They keep coming back to it with literally every villain, and every hero, from multiple angles. You’ll see. They say, “the pursuit of pure happiness alone is bad because it’s selfish—the pursuit of immortality is bad because it’s selfish—the pursuit of everyone’s affections is bad because it’s selfish; but sacrificing for others is the real happiness, the real immortality, the real love, etc.”

So any fanfiction—even if, surface-read, it appears to be about Five falling in love with Sam or Janine learning to communicate, etc—that comes back to “Something greater than yourself is all that’s worth living and dying for.” is a success. Because it carried on the Main Point of ZR. Or it carried on a point that could be tied to the main point, whatevs.

But your question (for other fandoms) is “How do I know what themes I can bring in?”

Okay, well, that’s actually not so hard. Lots of “sub-themes” fit under the umbrella of the main theme. “Something greater than yourself,” well, that entails “self-sacrifice, gaining a broader perspective, finding empathy,” etc. (something you can see they do with sheltered characters or brittle, mission-focused miopic characters like Janine.)

But how did I find the main theme to begin with? This post. In summary:

Take in the Story, With the Single Expectation that They’re Trying to Tell You Something.

Take Note of Where You Felt Something. Then Figure Out Why You Felt It.

Figure Out What Each Character Wants, and If They Have a Moment of Change.

Look at What Decisions the Storytellers Reward, and What Decisions They Punish.

You can apply this to Marvel, to Percy Jackson, to anything. Once you figure out the main theme, it’s not so hard to break that down into little supporting ideas. And inject those into your own story. And you can even figure out where the storytellers dropped the ball, or lost their theme and did something totally out-of-character, and then fix that with your fanfiction.

Or, galaxy-brain, is when you figure out what the story was trying to say—and it was saying something bad or wrong, but you liked some of the setting or characterizations, you can fix that. Like I’ve always wanted to do with A Streetcar Named Desire.

What you don’t want to do is try to make the story about a theme that has nothing to do with any good or true thing—it’s just gratuitous. For example, I see about sixty fanfics for Twisters (one of my new favorite movies, you may recall) and they’re all about Tyler (the main guy) needing to be defended from his abusive alcoholic dad.

There is no mention of his dad, or alcohol, or Tyler having any emotional trauma, at all, in Twisters. Because the point of the movie Twisters is the girl character’s trauma (and her best friend’s,) and Tyler’s role in all of that is to be the guy who pushes her past that. Because he’s lived a lifestyle of “you ride your fears, you don’t run from them, you don’t even just face them.”

So why would a character who’s whole conception, who was created to say that, be curled up in a sad little miserable ball because his out-of-nowhere made-up father is back in town? He wouldn’t do that. His lifestyle is “ride your fears.” He’d be the guy reaching out and inviting his dad to lunch to see if something he does can make the outcome different, even though his dad never shows up, or always makes a scene, or whatever, because that would be “riding his fears.” That’s Tyler’s character. So why would you have him curl into a little ball and need his 126-lb girlfriend to defend him?

I’ll tell you why, it’s because the point of your story was not the point of Twisters, or anything good. The point of your story was, “I have a thing for emotional scenes where a man gets all weak and vulnerable and needs his love interest to take care of him,” and it shows. So you just hung skin-puppets and names of established characters on “your thing” and that’s trash storytelling. The characters are supposed to serve the story, and the story is supposed to serve the audience, not serve you.

That would be an extreme example of what not to do.

And then do it in such a way that's well-written, while also being able to have those fun moments and situations that are both in the game and I've thought up?

If my fanfic is all about Sam and Five coming clean about their feelings together, that’s fine—but they should be driven to do that because not doing that is selfish. And selfishness is the opposite of “something greater than yourself is all that’s worth living and dying for.” So I’d have Sam avoid admitting to himself that Five means so much to him because if he does, he opens himself up to crippling worry after what happened to Alice. So out of fear, which is ultimately self-protection, he doesn’t admit that he has feelings for her. But then eventually he comes to realize that caring about someone else actually drives him to work harder for the Greater Good, etc.

See what I mean? Your fanfic can be a string of scenes of will-they-won’t-they, romcom popcorn, as long as the thread holding them together is that character arc that points back to the game’s main theme.

To make it well-written, you just have to be genuine. I know everyone has lots of good tips like “show don’t tell” but books like Jane Eyre tell much more than they show. Some people say, “break up the pace with dialogue,” or “cut the tension with comedy, then ramp it back up,” etc., but there’s no cut to the tension in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. There’s breaks to every rule. There’s an audience for every style. Just do what C. S. Lewis says and “tell the truth, without caring two pence if it’s original.”

If you know your source material and love the loveable parts for what it is, and then you marry that with what you really believe and value in the real world, you’ll get it.

Know what you’re trying to say, love what you’re trying to say, and sacrifice to say it.

I think now that you’re thinking about this stuff, you’re going to have a hard time not writing something morally good, with entertainment as a supporting pillar.

[astradyke]

Hi!!! No worries if not but do you have any other 2009/2010 era fics recs? Your other recommendations were so wonderful :)

hiya! certainly :P though i warn you that 2009/2010 era pieces are not my strong suit :c these may not have that much variation in them, but i tried to snag some of my faves for you <3

what stranger miracles by iihappydaysii (E, 4k, 1/1)

this work is a re-telling of the 2009 weekend in Manchester; it includes sex in one scene, but overall is structured as tied-together linear scenes of the different parts of their first date together. it includes both POVs which allows you to understand the contrasting yet compatible headspaces they both had at the time, and is overall very sweet and endearing in the way most 2009-2010 pieces are. it also has one dialogue line about Dan’s height that i’m relentlessly endeared to, it’s the end of that scene you’ll see it.

that one knows me by iihappydaysii (E, 2.8k, 1/1)

if you liked the previous recommendation this one is very similar in nature— not entirely explicit, but contains a singular explicit scene, and is dedicated to describing snippets of Dan and Phil’s Skype calls. it’s a really sweet fic, the first scene is the closest to my heart out of it all, and it’s kind of just nice if you want to read young dumbasses in love. i use this word all the time, but it really holds meaning especially with early content-- and it is a skill: this fic feels incredibly earnest.

where this takes me by dandrogynous (T, 4k, 1/1)

i really adore the way that this particular author writes love altogether; this is a really enjoyable Phil-centric piece about navigating the experience of being in love for the first time. i think it can be really comforting to read pieces in which two people are on pace with each other, but are walking with different strides— or, where two people love each other, but both of them have slightly different relationships with that experience of love. really excellent piece if you’re emotional thinking about not only how young Dan was in 2010, but how young Phil was, too. (honorary note: this author also has a piece written about 2009 in which Dan is a trans man; it’s called Let The Salt Dry if you’re interested in reading that as well!)

boys they wanna paint me by chickenfree (T, 6k, 1/1)

including this because while it’s not constrained by any era and does extend out past the 2009-2010 period presumably, it does begin in that time period and i believe it only carries to a few years after that. it still feels worth considering in that era since i think it has a really interesting interpretation of it. basically, this is a piece exploring Dan’s mental health from Phil’s perspective, and it tackles quite a nuanced part of the psychological experience i feel is under-discussed. highly recommend if you want something to sit with for a while. as i've said before, i really do love this author's writing style.

brand new colony by lestered (clonetrobed) (E, 2.4k, 1/1)

this is first-time porn with minimal/no plot, but it is very sweetly written and does take some dedicated time to glance into Dan’s headspace and emotions as the scene carries on. honestly less of a hot read for me as much as it’s like a very sweet, attractive read? does that make sense? explicit PWP might not be what you're aiming for, but i do recommend this piece if that is something you'd like <3

chez nous by cityofphanchester (G, 5k, 1/1)

excellent piece if you’re yearning for 2010 era hurt/comfort. this author chooses to use some very large paragraph blocks at times, though not throughout the whole piece; i say that because it might be hard to read at points for some individuals (myself being one of them), but i do also think there is a lot of value embedded in those chunks that makes me think it was a stylistic decision. the dialogue is very sweet here, made me fall a little in love with 2010 Phil; just a nice little comforting read. also i think depicts a slice-of-life about how they navigated the Manchester solo flat/the dorm residence split at that period of time.

would it be enough if i could never give you peace? by orphan_account (T, 5.3k, 4/4)

this is a quick read piece that has four chapters split across four different time periods; i think this is like, quintessential hurt/comfort. the first chapter is set in the 2009 period which is why i recommend it, and it’s just some sweet early-days typical hurt/comfort that i think does a really good job at characterizing both Phil’s perspective and Dan’s through dialogue. again, it’s not exclusively a 2009 fic, but i do think if you’re looking in that era that this is a solid read nevertheless.

i know this isn't the biggest display of pure 2009/2010 content but i still hope at least one of them is to your liking! i don't know if there's a concrete tag on AO3 for content in that era, but many fic authors who have large bodies of work will inevitably have a few things from the early days to examine (iihappydaysii is a good example of this). if anyone else has recs, please feel free to add onto this post <3

[phoebehalliwell]

not me spamming but uhhhhhhhh writer asks 12, 25, 35, 57, 76

(i can hope this will somehow further inspire continuation of the warren witches after august but i also get it lmao)

12. Do you outline your fics? If yes, how detailed are your outlines? How far do you stray from them?

it depends! usually my ficlets (like the ones for AUgust) are not outlined just bc they're so short i kind of just fuck around until the narrative comes together, but for the longer pieces (like the warren witches or w&s) there are definitely some stronger outlines. for things like the warren witches which is done in an episodic fashion, i actually have a separate doc full of just monster of the week type plots that i'll pick and choose from as needed (one's i've already used include the sihuanaba one and the selkie one, ones to be included are:

the sigbin one actually had been crossed out if anyone remembers the old version of the warren witches that actually made it to print (posting, i guess lol) in vace and virtue (the working title was "the sigbin is sigbout) but the updated version of it has not come out yet. so those would be my little outlines for small plots, for bigger plots those outlines usually live in my brain (for example, we're doing a reintroduction of the demon academy in warren witches bc i think it's slay, but that's gonna be just longer in general) and then of course most longer plotlines come in the form of relationships (viola + kat is an example, as is kat + laurel which kind of snuck up on me lol, pj + her boyfriend obvi will have some obstacles given that he is not in on the secret, and then the mystery max from the sihuanaba episode will def be making an appearance in ale's/melinda's/also effie's too ig uess bc she's there lives again. but these are technically less outlining per se and more dotting. a lot of this centers around singular dots, little points/moments i want to include, and plots are built around them. the only thing that i kind of give more concrete outlining, usually in the form of a small, unproofread text doc, is people backstories, esp those not involved in the family. so viola, for example, has her entire life written in a doc so i can keep going back to it and keeping kind of her actions/character/motivations consistant.

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

i would say probably brainstorming sits at number one for me these guys live in my brain and run around just constantly i already have a decent amount of "endgame" relationships picked. (chris and bianca, obvi, that shouldn't be a spoiler bc it's obvious i love them so so much), melinda's endgame is also pencilled in in my mind, as is tamora's and probably kat's, henry's "endgame" has also been picked even if they don't End Up together his main relationship is def sketched out in my mind. beyond ships i just love putting those motherfuckers in Situations. i want a bianca training chris type situation. i want a melinda attempting to date in college while being an empath situation. jumping over to warren and sheridan, i have their christmas planned out, as well as a narrative that spans from valentine's day to st. patricks day that is mainly poking at the bruises that define major relationship issues. i love situations!!

i would say my next fav after brainstorming would be not just writing but creating -- esp in regards to aesthetics. it helps me kind of hone in on a vibe for each character and allows me not only to understand them more but also to communicate said vibes to others. third favorite is getting comments/asks about them haha i loveeeee talking about them (which kind of circles back to the brainstorming part) but like the fact that these are guys who live in my brain but then they also get to exist in your brain!?!?!?? that's crazy!!! it makes me so happy <3

35. What’s your favorite fic you’ve posted?

probably a toss up between The Warren Witches and Warren & Sheridan, just because those are kind of two really big labors of love that I'm really proud of, but I am also really super fond of 2/14/2001 lol

57. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

i try to stay conscious of it lol bc there's nothing more fun that seeing all the pieces come together and i really want to work to create that. usually this ties into the "outlining" concept, where, if i have a big moment i want to create, i'm going to try to sprinkle in little pieces here and there leading up to it. (so, like, spoilers for warren witches, but with viola as the twice blessed, when kat is able to locate the twice blessed with chris and wyatt via scrying, it actually is pointing at the cafe were viola works). i don't do too much symbolism lol (skill issue) but i feel like that is something i'd like to try to hone.

76. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external?

i mean like i definitely try to work within my "tides of creativity" (concept that writing/creating/all that is akin to breathing, you can't just keep exhaling. there are going to be periods where you can't create, and that's cause you need to "inhale": go out and experience new stuff, engage in new media, chat w new people). that and then i am like an adult in my 20s with like a job and responsibilities (i am moving again 😃🔫) so trying to work with the allotted amount of spoons i have a day can be a doozy as well. when i'm stuck i usually try to work with aesthetics/visuals because that can be a different muscle if the writing one is burnt out, and then i also try to write little blurbs that don't exist within anything really. a lot of these tend to just be conversations as i tend to be a very dialogue heavy writer, sometimes if i'm up to it i'll even go back through and add in descriptions to make it more of a proper story. past midnight (an ode to smoking outside the club) was actually written as one of these, i wrote it in early may during a creative block.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.185 thoughts

[The New York Soup Stock Exchange]

(Contents: thematic analysis)

I've been thinking a lot about Tozuka's editor saying that Undead Unluck's slogan would be "let's enjoy life," and maybe it's a matter of translation, but to me, it seems like every word of that slogan has meaning

"Enjoy life" is easy enough to see the significance of, but I'm willing to bet most people who read that discount the "let's"

To me, though, that phrase isn't a command, it's an invitation: it's not telling you to go out and enjoy your life, it's asking you to enjoy life with others. We all should enjoy our lives, together, and this chapter illustrates that concept beautifully

In shonen battle manga, togetherness is most readily conveyed through standing united against a common enemy, but that's not really applicable to most people's lives. However, there is one way to show togetherness that I think pretty much anyone anywhere can relate to: sharing meals

Family gatherings, holiday parties, celebrating special occasions, or even smaller occasions like dates or regular lunch breaks, the number one way that people spend time together is just grabbing a bite to eat. Any given cooking manga, like Food Wars or Toriko, capitalize on this throughout their entire runs, but even manga without a focus on food like One Piece, Dr. Stone or even Cipher Academy often feature their cast savoring delicious food in each other's company

Undead Unluck is no stranger to this, like with the cherry blossom viewing as Spring died in the previous loop, but this is the first time that we've focused on the creation and consumption of a singular dish in this series. The cooking process is just as important as the dish itself, and while Enjin has experience, Fuuko has love: a group of friends who will face any challenge with her, and who she has a strong enough understanding of to be able to create something greater than the sum of its parts. In a way, that's what the Union is: a hotpot of disparate ingredients brought together and harmonizing to create something incredible

I've noted before that very few fights in Undead Unluck are one-on-one, but one-vs.-many is a pretty common setup: Union vs. Victor, AnFuu+RipLa vs. Autumn, and, most notably, AnFuu+ShenMui vs. Feng. Unlike Feng, Enjin definitely understands the concept of cooking/fighting with love, but just like Feng, Enjin operates alone, taking on every aspect of the cooking process by himself while Fuuko has split up the responsibilities based on everyone's strengths. This is exemplified best through his taste test, where the panel zooms out to show his single silhouette struggling to cool down his broth while Fuuko and friends continue cooking. The wide empty space and his one shadow vs. the Union's three felt so incredibly lonesome

I won't dig too deep into Enjin's mentality or reasoning just yet, as I'm sure the next chapter will give me more than enough to work with on that front, but it's plain to see that Enjin isn't just solitary, he's isolated. Just like Feng, just like Billy, just like Rip, just like Andy. Did he choose to be this way like the former three, or did he find himself here like Andy? Again, we'll find out next week, but I'm willing to bet it's a little bit of both - something happened that pushed him away from others, and he chose to continue on alone

I'm really liking this arc so far, but I think the clincher is going to have to be Enjin's backstory. I like his design and personality, but for him to solidify himself in my heart like everyone else has before him, his story needs to move me. With everything we've seen in these last two chapters, though, I have no doubt that Tozuka will do just that with ease

Until next week, let's enjoy life

[sburbian-sage]

Uh one of my coplayers just alchemized this fucking? Thing? I dont even know what its supposed to be

Its like if someone fed an 8 ball through a image corruptor

It also gave him something called artifact grist? Which I've just never even seen or heard of before?

Got this thing so shitty it's amazing and mildly horrifying

Being around it makes the metaphorical hair on the back of my neck raise so i can only assume its fucking with space (I'm a knight of space)

When you turn it it only shows like quarter sections? It's really hard to describe

Like it doesn't have a full shape it only changes when you reach a certain point while rotating it

Kind of like an old video game or something

Tried shaking it and it just said help me on the little triangle thing inside

This shits kinda scary

First, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It's always fun seeing someone's first reaction to Artifact Grist. Get used to them, because they are really funny and there's literally no downside to making them (outside of "you have a 3D JPG now", which is it's own form of punishment).

Second, since you seem a bit confused, these types of items are made when you alchemize an item with a JPG-type item. Either a piece of paper with a printed photo that's been bitcrushed to hell, or a particularly low-res captchalogue ghost image. Either way, it makes not only the most low-quality janktastic version of that item, it even renders it as a item, creating something that is somehow simultaneously 2D and 3D. I can only imagine the reason why the 8ball is freaking you out so much is not only because it's a 3D object turned 2D somehow-still-an-object, but it contains other objects (despite being 2D and thus should have no volume) which are themselves 3D to 2D converts. That must be like nails on a chalkboard to Space players. It rules, doesn't it?

But yeah, they're basically worthless pieces of shit. They don't even cost anything, the game gives you Artifact Grist for making them, that's how bad it is (and I don't think it's even usable for anything, it's just there to take up space). The singular upside to these types of items is that it's like kryptonite to Zilly-type equipment. Of course, it's one thing to make an Artifact Sword or something, it's another thing entirely to wield it, considering it has the properties and dimensions of paper without actually resembling paper in any way. And ranged weapons either outright don't work, or the projectiles defy physics in horrifying ways and are guaranteed to hit anything but the thing it's pointing at.

[thekendallkathryn]

Yooo - found you through a reblog of your Lee Know art - it’s so so so SO good! The style!!! The monochrome!!! Ahhh YOU’RE SO TALENTED and I can see the passion and years of hard work :)

And then YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY?! Damn!

It’s nice to see another artist AND photographer on here who doesn’t just stick to one thing tbh :) takes the pressure off that I’ve been feeling to only post a singular type of content.

Anyways, love!!! Can’t wait to see more :)

- SnS/Caylen

Yoooooo hi Caylen!! I'm so happy and relieved to see so many people appreciating my style 😭😭 there's many days where I finish a piece that I'd gotten so absorbed in happily shredding up with random scratches and splotches and then I step back and wonder like.... is this going to give people a headache? ....will they even be able to tell what it is? 😓 But peoples' lovely words have been really lifting me up today and I think I'm going to feel more empowered to absolutely ravage my paintings and never hold back!!

Aaannnnndd photography haha! 😅 I'm so grateful you took a little peak at it, it seems like no one ever sees my other work (beyond digital fanart) on this site. And I actually do fan photography too, little does anyone probably know 😢 But yes I am a jack of all trades as they would call it. You name the art medium, it's probably somewhere deep in this blog. Acrylic, digital, watercolor, photography, gouache, sculpture, heck paper mache! I couldn't pick a forte if you threatened me, so I'm glad there's someone out there who appreciates the varying spatter!

Please, I hope you never feel the pressure to stay confined to a single corner of your big beautiful art realm! As much as I adore your drawings 🥰🥰 I'm sure everyone would love to see your other passions! And while it's true that most of my photography and acrylic paintings get maybe 1, 2 notes at most, I still post them and write a whole gushing backstory and lovingly make process vids that absolutely no one will watch because I love this blog like a diary more than a newsletter. I started it when I was 12 and one of my favorite things is looking back through it and seeing the ways my art, personality, and of course fandoms have grown and changed as I've become myself and played with my art style. Do it! I promise it will make someone happy, even if that's just me and you 🤗🤗

💜Ryn

[wordsandrobots]

I have of late been thinking about my dislike for the idea that Optimus Prime and Megatron were friends prior to the whole 'thousands of years of unending war' thing.

You see, there is this new Transformers animated film that's just been released, Transformers One, predicated on this very concept. Semi-relatedly, the most recent cartoon to be released under the Transformers umbrella proposes a world where the Autobots and Decepticons settled their differences and Megatron now acts broadly on the side of Good, to the extent of having human friends. I don't like that either.

And to a very large degree, my opinion is completely irrelevant. These are stories aimed at children, to sell toys, and I am closer to 40 than I am to 30. I'm not the intended audience. To a large degree, I've never managed to actually be the intended audience for Transformers media, having fallen awkwardly into the gap between the original 'Generation 1' merchandising push and the 90s iteration in Beast Wars. I have always been a fan of Transformers in an eclectic, slightly disconnected sense, gathering bits and pieces together as and when I've come across them.

My idea of what Optimus Prime and Megatron are like comes from Ladybird Books, half the very first Marvel Comics miniseries, and The Transformers: The Movie. I hold Side Burn from Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001) up as a favourite piece of design. My first proper official Transformers toy was Air Hammer (who is awesome). Yes, I've been terribly invested in different parts of the fiction and I have my preferences, but my nostalgia buttons for this are permanently, delightfully borked.

Why would modern Transformers fiction cater to me? Why should it? Hell, no, let me say outright it shouldn't. That would be ridiculous. Thus, while I can certainly sit down and explain my feelings on this particular subject -- that Optimus and Megatron originate as characters defined entirely by enmity and oppositional philosophies, that I am deeply uncomfortable with ejecting the political content from fictional conflicts in order to make them more conventionally 'tragic' or 'complex', that I think James Roberts inadvertently did permanent damage to the franchise's central concepts when he made Megatron a conflation of Marx and Stalin in the course of trying to rescue the character from a hilariously botched 'Origin' mini-series, that telling the 'they were once friends' story with a white man voicing Optimus and a black man voicing Megatron looks *fucking awful* -- is there any point doing so?

Never forget that you are arguing about a children's toy was the maxim on the Transformers forums I frequented in the 2000s and early 2010s. I took that advice to heart. I try only to have long involved discussions about the nuances of the franchise with level-headed friends who can separate their preferences from the material realities and thus moderate their reactions with perspective. I also try not take up my keyboard to bash out angry tirades that I am not being catered to by cartoons.

But there's the rub. There's the thing that sticks in my head and leads me to type this post out. In spite of the idiosyncratic reality, I *am* being catered to by this stuff in theory. For the past decade, Transformers as a franchise has been locked into a constant reiteration of previous versions of itself. Transformers One is predicated on fixing the origin of The Transformers around Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee (and Elita, because you gotta have a singular girl tagging along). The recognisable faces of the brand since 1984 (and Elita). The same characters that have been re-released, reduxed, redone and rewritten since the first update with 1992's Generation 2 (and Elita).

It's branding. It's market-tested iconography. It's commodification working as it always does. It's also absolutely nuts when you step back and realise the underlying strategy of Transformers has gone from "we will sell you all the toys by inventing All The Characters and giving every single one backstories and plot-lines that ensure Sprocket is somehow somebody's favourite" to "we will sell you fifteen versions of the same four characters over and over again."

I assume that calculation makes sense somewhere in the structure of Hasbro's corporate edifice. That it's cost-effective and feeds their goals of endless growth. As James Stephanie Sterling (arch excoriater of the games industry and thank God for them) has been pointing out quite a lot this recently, the concept of perpetually greater profits year on year is a dangerous, stupid delusion that destroys industries from all sides. But I am sure the people who buy into it think they know what they're doing and that their logic does indeed result in squeezing more money from same old cash-cow.

Part of that is the calculated targetting of nostalgia. Transformers One is positioned as a prequel, not to any other story in particular, but to an 'evergreen' version of the Transformers franchise. It's at once its own, unique thing and the prequel to that cartoon 'you' remember and loved from the 80s. Why not bring the whole family to relive 'your' childhood? Or hoover up the collectables that have been shipped to ranks of Transformers YouTubers so they can excitedly get fellow enthusiasts to spend more money on plastic models nobody has room for?

[They are selling non-transforming model kits for this movie, because the designs are so streamlined as to prevent easy realisation as transforming toys. The part of me that hates Action Masters with every fibre of my being doesn't know whether to laugh or weep that big name collectors are embracing these damn things. The whole flipping point of this toy-line is meant to be 'thing turns into other thing'! Primus wept, what is wrong with you people?!]

[Ahem.]

The assumption, fundamental to this and the other big toy franchises that have persisted from the 80s and 90s, is that because 'you' like X, you will continue to buy N different variations of X ad-infinitum. That's why it's still Generation 1 Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee (and Elita) forty years later and following dozens of attempts to diversify the roster. Nostalgia sells, regardless of how well it actually accords with the thing that 'you' liked while in the original demographic for children's toys.

As a slight aside, I have also been unreasonably vexed this week by discovering Hasbro has produced a box-set of collectable action figures based on Star Wars novel The Last Command which features dark Jedi clone Joruus C'baoth wielding a red lightsaber. Not only does he not at any time pick up a lightsaber in the book, it would be completely contra to his personality for it to be one associated with the evil Sith. Joruus suffers under the delusion he is rebuilding the good and noble Jedi Order right to the very end, despite falling headlong into the Dark Side of the Force. That's the entire *point*. And that point is entirely irrelevant to the people making the box-set, even as they supposedly target people who like The Last Command, because commodified nostalgia rarely concerns itself with the specifics of the object being evoked. A hazy outline is enough.

Elizabeth Sandifer wrote in a recent essay regarding particular forms of bad Doctor Who and bad Doctor Who spin-offs that they "use my unequivocal love of this stupid fucking show against me." She identifies a distinction between instalments in the series that are crap through the normal reasons things are crap -- bad concept, bad script, bad production -- and those that are produced purely on the grounds that they are 'more Doctor Who'. I think that zeroes in on the problem here. 'More Transformers', 'More Star Wars', 'More Marvel', 'More sci-fi or fantasy intellectual property from which can be squeezed a seemingly endless deluge of products' has become the dominant mode of these long-running franchises. And written into this mode at a fundamental level is this idea that 'you', the hypothetical fan who cares deeply about something that struck a chord with them as children, will simply keep buying the same thing over and over again.

Lego have jut released an 'Ultimate Collector' set depicting Jabba the Hutt's sail barge from Return of the Jedi. It retails for £429.99. I have no earthly idea how anyone can make that kind of outlay on a toy, and I say this as someone who probably could afford to, if I prioritised buying a toy over financing house repairs and, you know, food. I *own* thousands of pounds worth of Lego, because I have been hoarding it piece by piece since I was *six*, one set and one charity shop at a time. If I wanted to build Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, I would consider it an interesting challenge. But to simply buy it, to put down half a grand on this huge set just because it comes from my second favourite Star Wars film?

It offends me an already massively-profitable corporation thinks I would do that. Because in theory, I am in the target demographic here. I am the 'you' in my examples above, I am the right age, more or less, with the right interests and the right level of disposable income. I am the mark all this is aimed at.

I am the person who is supposed to be thrilled by the idea of the 'untold story' of where the Decepticons and Autobots came from, of the secret history of Megatron and Optimus Prime.

Never mind that story was told in the first couple of pages of the original Marvel comics, as a fascistic uprising from within Cybertron society resisted by a peace-desiring majority. Never mind the 1984 cartoon created its own history of sectarian strife between sentient robots built for different purposes by sinister corporate overlords. Never mind that it's just forcing another set of familiar signifiers through the same origin story mill that has given us a long litany of unloved prequels off the back of George Lucas getting too big and too rich for any editor to constrain.

I don't imagine what I have said so far to be a novel observation. It's just capitalism doing what it does, squandering potential in the pursuit of ever-greater profit. Nor do I deny the reciprocal part fandom plays in creative impoverishment. The hysterical backlash from certain quarters to The Last Jedi -- a film that goes out of its way to say Star Wars is still alive with new possibilities and that the returning heroes are strong in all the ways they were at the end of the original trilogy -- stands testament to what ossified taste does to a person's sense of proportion, just as Rise of Skywalker stands testament to what happens when you indulge such people.

Above all, I am not claiming to be immune to the forces behind the nostalgia glut. I'm writing this looking at my display cabinets which have shelves devoted to Transformers, Bionicle (specifically these models), Batman, Doctor Who, Star Wars and Fullmetal Alchemist, and Transformers again. I bought Missing Link Convoy entirely to have a version of Optimus Prime I could hold in my hand that evoked the books aimed at primary school children from which I first learned who this character was (resulting emotions: mixed). My fandom has *always* involved collecting physical objects and as much as I'd stand by the claim hunting down decades-old toys to curate a collection informed by your personal experiences and taste is superior to gorging on an endless stream of new products, it's still chasing commodities. As someone who has also always prioritised creative fandom (fan-art, fan-fiction, building, modelling, speculating, imagining), I'm not seriously going to place one version of Having The Thing over the other on an ethical level. Equally, I see no particular mark of dishonour in taking joy from holding an object that has some meaning to you, however trivial or mass-marketed it may be.

No, what I resent is seeing marketing for a 'brand new' iteration of Transformers that is on some level still aimed at people like me, people my age, people who still find joy in the things they did as children. The calculated insult in multiple-hundred-pound Lego sets designed exclusively for 'adult collectors'. The mendacious indifference inherent to 'exclusive' toys that purport to be physical realisations of dearly-held fictions while being demonstrably ignorant of the source. The endless 'Easter eggs' and 'love letters' that we are expected to clap along to like performing seals.

The idea I should uncritically enjoy the same things I did when I was ten, in the same way, and that this should be a skeleton key to my bank account.

One of the very first things I learned about Generation 1 Optimus and Megatron, beyond the fact that they had always been mortal enemies, was that they died. Their story came to an end and new characters took their places. Ultra Magnus and Galvatron. Rodimus Prime. Fortress Maximus and Scorponok. Optimus Primal and an ersatz new 'Megatron'. Successors. Legacies. The full-throated boast that there are futures past the original tale.

And sure, the original characters have been refracted through different relaunches, alternate universes and reincarnations. It is unreasonable to claim there has ever been a version of Transformers that truly lacked Optimus and Megatron. But there is a difference between reinvented iconography and collapsing every version into 'evergreen' amalgamations, all development sheered off so they will continue to appeal to an old market alongside new generations of kids. Actually, putting it that way is giving Hasbro too much credit when the truth is they have expended massively more effort in courting middle-aged fans with toys aiming to recreate the exact look a character had in the 1984 cartoon (impossible) and bastardised versions of post-G1 toys (look what they did to my boy). They are very much doing the thing I said they shouldn't be.

So yes. I really don't like the idea Optimus and Megatron started out as friends before the war. But the more I think about it, the more I realise that is less to do with them being crammed into a thoughtless 'Professor X and Magneto' template than it is with the fact it is still Optimus and Megatron, forty years on from their debut -- and I'm expected to be happy about that.

[scummy-writes]

How do you deal with writer's block? How do you execute ideas even with writer's block?

ohhh this is a good question. I may not have good answers.

It may depend on the type of writer's block you have, as I feel like there isn't just one singular over-encompassing type.

Sometimes, the writer's block is having all the inspiration, but nothing is coming out. This one plagues me the most because 90% of my fanfics and similar nowadays are just me daydreaming 24/7, and writing some of those daydreams down. Like a lil movie in the background. In theory I could write so much, but I struggle with actually putting pen to paper and considering the actual word choices used.

What I end up doing here is read or....write.... So the reading I try to find a published book that is different from my usual writing style and removed from fandomism, this is to personally help me distance myself from fanfic a little, to see how the pacing in a longer piece may be- which can help with learning to describe 'smaller' scenes and movements, or see how the writer handles scene transitions and similar. And, well, I read! And when I'm reading, I will usually pick the writing apart.

"I really like the way the writer described this movement, how could I describe that in my own words?" , "Wow, you can see how these last few paragraphs built up the foreshadowing for this turn of events, lets break down how they did that." , and... well... sometimes it does turn into "Yikes!! I really dislike that!!! If I were to rewrite that in my own way, how would that go...?"

And I've found that I often struggle to finish books, because I'll get that train of thought going so much that I'll have to put down the book to actually write.

Another thing I will do is that I will open up a wip, have it in a window taking up half my screen, then open a blank document to put on the other half, and rewrite everything word for word. This often helps me catch mistakes, odd sentences, and similar, and it's an easy way to simulate actually being able to write without having the 'blank document woes' where I'm too scared to defile a blank document. I find that once I get in the process of this with some good music, once I catch up to where my wip left off, I've rewritten a few sentences or added in more details I thought of with a fresh mind, and I'm able to go past where I initially left off.

(thats how I set up the screen)

If it's the type of writer's block where you have NO ideas, no will to write and only the vague *want* to write............ you may need some rest. A lot of people talk about social batteries, on how people need to recharge after a social function with some alone time or similar, and then their battery feels recharged! well... You need to do that for creative outlets as well!! You need to make sure you're taking care of your body, and also your mind. Recharge your creative mind by reading, watching, and listening to new or old and beloved things! Play a fun video game with a story that's interesting to you, read a cheesy romance novel, maybe even just clean some dishes and daydream as you do so. Once you remove 'gotta write gotta write gotta write gotta write' from the equation, and chilling out a bit, you end up getting inspired again after a while.

Typically with this one, I will end up writing notes that are very. bland.

So... if it's neither of those, or you have tried a lot of these things, then my next advice would be to try some basic writing exercises. Look up prompt lists, try to write the first thing that comes to mind when one catches your eye- i dont care if it's shakespeare or dahl, you just smack it down on paper. Much like drawing, you gotta do warm ups with writing! it helps a lot when you're stuck! If prompts don't work, move on to rewriting a classic story scene or story in general with your favorite characters, think about how they would act in the situation instead and rewrite it. If its fanfiction, look at some of the events in the game or routes, rewrite it with you or your mc, or how you wished the route/event went instead. write with friends! have friends send you prompts or detail a vague outline for you and try your hand at it!

If it stems from being too embarassed to read what you're writing.... turn the text itty bitty and just Type, to where you ignore what you're seeing and are managing to get words down. You can always make the text bigger when you feel less embarassed!

That's what I can offer off the top of my head!! I think there are plenty of more tips than this that exist out there, absolutely, so maybe some folks reading this might be able to offer to explain what helps them!

[sunbeamstress]

i jumped on the Walking Dead train really late, but i got to finish the show with the fans and i thought it was excellent. it also marks the second or third time i've binged a piece of acclaimed media that became noteworthy for fucking over its fans - the last time was when i beat the mass effect trilogy, a decade late. i thought that was excellent too.

of course it's a lot easier when the game you're playing already has the patched-in ending option and all its DLC, and walking dead was definitely easier to get through since when season 5 ended, i could go right into season 6 without The Cliffhanger

it's clear that the show i watched wasn't the show that AMC presented. scrubbed of its social media gaffes and godawful pacing, it was honestly a thrill ride. it takes a little time to stumble its way through the first two seasons, and the third is definitely more of a slow burn of dread, but if you can punch your way through those you're rewarded with a tense thriller that rarely wastes its time - every scene demands your attention and reveals something new. the moment my life settles down again i want to binge-watch it all over again with a friend.

in my early/mid twenties, i'd fallen in love with an artsy little tech-fetishist webcomic about a few kids struggling to avert the end of the world. you might have heard of it, it was called Homestuck. it would go on to balloon into a very different sort of work from the one it began (i miss the Amiga graphics and quotes from poets/novelists), but also it was the first time i looked around to realize i was in the middle of a fandom. and in those days it wasn't a lovely sight.

my problem was i hadn't been inoculated against this sort of thing yet. from the moment i discovered the MSPA forums, it was impossible for me to experience homestuck without also crossing over to get a life feed of how the fans were enjoying it, and that was uhh, complicated. i have a lot i could say about Andrew Hussie as a creator and maybe one day he'll get his very own rambling not-quite-essay from me, but i maintain that i didn't get to enjoy Homestuck the way it deserved because i am the sort of person whose opinions can be influenced by others. you are too, don't judge.

i hold fast to my conviction that the best way to enjoy something is to enjoy it pure and alone, or with at most perhaps two friends whose tastes you can trust. all too often i've seen people try to make it through the walking dead, or better call saul, or mass effect, or homestuck, or anything, while tapped into the overwhelming torrent of fandom opinion.

it actually makes things worse.

as the internet is fond of saying: the walking dead was a hell of a lot better without a bitch in my ear telling me it sucked.

there's a lot to say about how they reused the same ol' same ol' plot: zombos force the crew to move, they get settled in, then they solve some zombo-related problems until the newest batch of Desperate And/Or Corrupt And/Or Treacherous Humans comes to prove that actually we were the monsters all along

except it's fucking dope? they bare-knuckle brawl a shitload of walkers in a prison and take it over? and then they fight a war with the neighboring town??

Terminus, to me, is a singular point in the show that stands out in my mind. it was the moment i was like "oh shit. i think actually like this show." nevermind the way they began cranking up the horror factor (watching them slit that guy's throat in the horse trough was wild), but then Carol shows up and fucking Judge Dredds the place?

and then we see Rick turn from do-gooder cop to feral den mother who is willing to rip a guy's throat out and fjksdhgfjkhgjkhg oh my GOD how did you people not like this show

and then:

it was genuinely incredible watching Rick's role in the universe transform. we see him as an agent who is only ever acted upon: first by the emergence of walkers, then by a revolving door of people he can't trust, people he shouldn't trust but does, and people who have a funny way of doing the right thing just when you expect them to fail you the most.

but it's no way to live a life after the world has ended, and he has to get tough. his role changes, quite quickly, from agent to actor, and now he is the one with the control. he's the one sniffing out your bullshit, doing that unhinged lupine head-cock of his, and sending you to hell at the end of a colt python.

maybe if i was a man, i'd feel a little of what the fans seemed to have felt when Negan showed up. maybe i would have put myself in Rick's place, and found a little vicarious pleasure in the feeling of being a respected leader, building a new home with my bare hands; maybe i would have experienced disappointment or defeat or whatever the moment a bigger guy with a bigger gun shows up.

but what i saw was a hornet's nest being stirred; the natural reaction of a world much bigger than you just when you've begun to think you might control some of it. negan wasn't some Bigger Guy, he was a symbol, a walking metaphor for how things are always going to go when men like rick try to purchase peace with violence. if it wasn't Negan it was going to be someone else. i adamantly believe the fans hated negan because negan was holding up a mirror to them.

when i go on about this show, i genuinely do love all of it (even the nightmarishly slow seasons 9 and 10), but the images in my head all come from season 5, especially when they raid the hospital back in the city. the walking dead does not disappoint with aesthetics. the sets were phenomenal.

long, dramatic shots of broken chain link fences, sun-baked highways, half-abandoned urban streets with boarded windows and nothing left but graffiti. honestly feels a little like my childhood. i'm an urbex bitch at heart and i never wanted ANYTHING so desperately as the chance to get in there with Carol and Aaron and Maggie et al, and go plumbing the tombs of Atlanta for rocket launchers and medicine.

and while i never want to see backroads or quaint country towns ever again in my life, i won't deny that the backdrops of rural georgia and virginia gave the walking dead a unique visual language, a kind of run-down western vibe that really helped cement the feeling that these were just regular salt-of-the-earth people, forced to do extraordinary things. most of my dreams now usually have the same hickory and pine trees that dotted the countrysides.

i don't really know what i was trying to accomplish when i began this post (it's the only way i know how to write baby!) but to summarize, i fucking loved this show. i genuinely hold it to be one of the seminal works of modern zombie horror and also just an incredibly good survival soap opera about what it means to be alive in a world that has violently rejected you. i'm genuinely glad i gave it a chance and i'm so grateful my brother recommended it to me. i love you, bro.

[cherubchoirs]

A question about your V2. How do you think they would react to suddenly finding out they are not the only V2 unit in existence? Like if they found out a single factory on earth survived and somehow was slowly creating V2 units. Do you think if they met this small army of themselves that they would get along and possibly become a guide of some sort or would they just end up fighting them just like V1? Assuming V2 is even alive in your world still.

ooooo that's really interesting tbh...the thing is, i think machines would have very different ideas about identical models to themselves than how humans might conceptualize it - for many, their ai is likely too simple to really get existential about it, but for ones as intelligent as v1/v2, they would probably see themselves just as unique individuals as humans see each other (after all, we're all essentially the same "model" too). the way i think of v2, it's also in the peculiar position to be much more empathetic than any other machine given its training in human contact and it's a being that's meant to presume nonhostility in others. this would likely be a little marred by its time spent in hell, particularly after those encounters with v1, but i think, if it managed to return to the surface and find any other v2s, it wouldn't be quick to engage them - nothing in this world values peace anymore, so to have even one other being that thinks as v2 does, would be a great reprieve to it.

one thing that separates v2 from everything around it in my mind is that singular purpose, that this is a world drenched in unending cruelty while v2's meant to be an arbiter of peace. and like i've mentioned, it so doggedly pursued v1 to its fatal end because it could not let it go on, it knew that v1's programming meant it would see to destroying what little is left. so finding more like itself would mean not only would its isolation be at an end, but that its purpose, now their purpose, might still be fulfilled. first and foremost would be their training, a vital part of what separated v2 from v1 - its peace-keeper identity is largely based on what it was taught rather than base coding, so it's crucial that v2 be their guide to follow the exact methods that it was once educated with. and honestly, i think they would be receptive to it since they are inherently programmed to not attack without cause and well. they know they need a teacher, their minds so limitless that any other option is incredibly overwhelming and would prove to muddy up their still plastic codes. so this is genuinely just. v2 adopting a few other v2s, all of them still in their naive state and ready to absorb any information it provides (v2's battle damage likely earns it a lot of respect too) one thing they all have to learn is true cooperation, since the original v2 was only trained on theoreticals and simulations about possibly working in pairs, but it's probably the most critical piece of the puzzle if they want to succeed.

because ultimately, v2 believes they still have to take out v1 - if it can know nothing but war and survives all through the bowels of hell, it will go searching for more blood to shed. all the experience it gains will only see it grow in strategy and adaptation as well, so v2 refuses to presume an easy fight despite their numbers. what would happen afterward....it doesn't know. blood is a precious resource, so it's likely it would wish to stop v1 before it consumes all of it for itself, leaving whatever is left to implode or collapse. still, there would be much doubt since it's unlikely these additional v2s could see any real combat before that engagement - there's so little left in hell by that point there's nothing to practice on. but there's really no other options, so all it could do is prepare them to face a war machine in its purest form. it probably regrets this is what they have to wake up to, and wishes there was little more than a hollow shell they might bring peace to...but it will always be their duty, so they will carry on regardless

[chainofclovers]

23 please for ao3 wrapped (because I know the answer and I would like to hear you talk about it 👀) but I am also curious about 30!

Thanks for the ask, friend!

23. Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Yes. :)

The collaboration I worked on this year was "Just Missed You," an ensemble cast Beard/Ted podfic that @boglady (gnen) and I wrote for @pod-together with lots and lots of feedback and wonderful collab/inputs from @podklb and @rockinhamburger and that klb and rockinhamburger then recorded with a whole cast of voice actors (including gnen in a very memorable DeuxMoi gossiper spoof role and me in a tiny cameo as TroisToi herself).

Since you said you were curious to hear more about it, I'll happily ramble on a bit. It was SUCH a great experience. We started not long after s3 ended and the Pod Together event was starting up, and I think it was a great opportunity for all of us to kinda process what certainly felt/feels to me like a very singular fan experience while creating something new and imaginative together. We brainstormed lots of ideas and then gnen and I went off into our little google docs to write solo for a bit (I started Ted-centric and gnen started Beard-centric, and we knew we wanted the story to be comprised of found audio and epistolary forms), then we started sharing snippets with the group and piecing together a theme, a plot, and a timeline from the things we wrote. From there, we kept assigning out scenes that we needed. And watching klb and rockighamburger work on developing the script into a full podfic production was INCREDIBLE. They created a lot of the sound effects and not only did they perfectly embody their roles as Ted and Beard, but they also brought so many great voice actors into the fold. I'd never been a part of any podfic before, much less one this involved, and it was not only one of the most fun fandom things I've ever done but one of the most fun writing/collaboration things I've done in general in life!

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

I answered here about my surprise at becoming completely obsessed with writing about Beard as a dad. But I think maybe I'm also kind of surprised by how much I wrote this year? I do not mean this to be a brag! I have just had a VERY FULL year with a lot of really difficult things happen, and I guess you hope that a passion like writing can become a healthy thing that brings you a lot of joy and distraction and focus (yes, both distraction and focus) during hard times, but it was nice to find out yet again that writing is here when I need it and that I don't really stop needing it even when life is a lot. (And I am OK, by the way...it's just been a year with an unusual amount of family/friend/community challenges and related emotions.)

From the ao3 wrapped ask meme.

[eternal-savvy-blog]

What's your favourite artist?

Oh many!!! Buckle Up cos I'm going all in on this one I'm gonna include SFW and NSFW artists haha. I'll mark what each of them do so you aren't blind sided. And of course there wont be NSFW images linked here. Their names will have links to either their main Twitter, or other primary site you can find their art. And I'll @ their tumblr if I know it below that For sure Junji Ito for horror stuff. That almost goes without saying and I don't think I really need to link his stuff xD he's an absolute titan of horror art

MackleNG (SFW & Horror)

Absolutely amazing linework and generally incredible vibes. They are drawing a webcomic called CHOKEPOINT i have been meaning to check out but I adore their art just in general. I've been using a lot of their art as inspo lately and can't get enough of their cyberpunk designs, horror vibes, and use of pops of colour to emphasise and showcase their incredibly in depth line work and details!

QSY (SFW & NSFW) @qsycomplainsalot

I continue to come back to their art and they are also a huge inspo for me. I'm generally trying to find a way to adapt their colouring into my own style because it's absolutely gorgeous! The way its simultaneously crisp and crunchy, while also soft and expertly blended! It's like candy for my eyes! Add into it their fantastic expressions, excellent pallette choices, incredible weaponry, and of course some excellent NSFW with really great curves, colour, and characters, and they're easily one of my top 3 artists

Tyto_Alba (SFW & NSFW)

Do you like Mecha? Do you like guns? Do you like cute girls and/or boys!? Well, hot shit, me too!!! You NEED to check out Tyto_Alba! Straight up, another one of my top 3. He has legitimately changed the way I do my lineart, the way i draw soft shapes (like butts and stuff :3c) and my god the mechs as well! I legitimately had a hard time finding a good singular piece of their art to use here cos they are so fantastic at both sexy art AND mechs that i really had to find something that showed off a little of both! Something that I personally have noticed with their art as well is just how fuckin incredible they are at drawing HANDS! I am obssessed with their skill with hands and I hope to match up to them some day in that regard! I feel like I'm getting there but I LOVE the way theyre always so Shaped and well posed. As well as how detailed they manage to be without being too attention grabbing unless intentionally in the focus! What's more, they use simple colours so effectively! Much to be loved here! And of course, their NSFW content is top tier! Really excellent soft shapes and squish and really fantastic context and intensity!

RizDraws (NSFW)

Listen... LISTEN OKAY!!! We're hitting the NSFW exclusive part of the list and you have to understand that NSFW artists are just as incredibly skilled as any other artist and that porn is FINE AND NORMAL! Having sexual interest is not unusual. Having a desire to draw these things is a human and regular thing. I could talk for paragraphs about how puritanism is harmful and ultimately denying something natural and inherently human and anyone telling you otherwise has ulterior motives. But that's not what this post is about. I say this because an artist showcase tends beat around the bush with this stuff but I am unwilling to be vague about this. NSFW art is valid and, what's more, Important! That being said, Riz is incredible! The squish! The faces! The fluids! The Dicks! All so good! They somehow straddle the line between pinups and porn in such a brilliant way that I would be happy to have their art on my wall and I'm not kidding haha! The particular way they colour with the chalky texture is often sought after and I see why! Personally I don't look to emulate it myself but I most certainly enjoy looking at it! The way Riz uses their lines and their particular style of chalky colour to make the squish of clothes against flesh really look real! It's somethin else!

Andava (NSFW)

Now where Riz does the mid point between pinups and porn, Andava is definitively porn haha! xD That being said. Hot damn dude! In particular the way they do bodies and have a variety in body types, shapes of boobs and faces. Especially faces. Their characters are really good too and it's very easy to develop a favourite (for me it's Erika and Alexis) There's a reason people have cosplayed their characters and it shows! Absolutely love the variety, the situations/positions they draw! Theyre incredible as making stuff feel messy as well! Highly recommend browsing through their stuff and finding a favourite OC of theirs haha! I was lucky enough to get a commission off them years ago when they were still fairly small in terms of following. So long ago that Tumblr still allowed porn at the time haha! I dont think Discord even existed yet! Still wanna grab a commission off Andava of the same character one day! ALRIGHT I think I will leave it there for now! I could absolutely go longer and talk about even more of my fave artists and why I like them, and how they've inspired me but I get the feeling I should hold off haha (unless of course people would like to see more) I hope this has thoroughly answered your question. Though I know for a fact i will kick myself over not mentioning an artist i should of included later but forgot to lol

[onlyancunin]

So I've been tagged

By this lovely little soul that goes by the handle of @treshmind. And apparently I am the mutual they want to learn more about, which is a compliment I will hold dear and near.

Do you make your bed? People say your body is your temple. My temple is my bed, a direct reflection of how I'm doing. And right now literally everything is there, not to mention I technically sleep on a couch. But I get by, Imake my little space everyday to catch a few zzs.

Favourite number? Not sure if I have one. Probably not. Seven rings nice though. I always considered it to be the "proud" number, as it looks like a person with their chest forward. Much like the idle stance of everyone's favourite vampire.

What’s your job? Graphic / UX / UI Designer & Front-end developer. 10 years a designer, now venturing into IT. I love creating pretty things that touch people, so to speak, figuratively and literally. Something that hits them and/or they can interact with. Creating experiences, waving stories. I learned HTML & CSS when I was like 15, had a blog and couldn't find a nice skin for it - so I just coded my own. Javascript, typescript and vue.js came along last year and honestly, I'm having a blast. And no, pls don't look at my tumblr, I did code its appearance bit, but it's just tweaks, it doesn't say anything about my skills.

If you could go back to school would you? I would actually and it's something I'm considering. One for front-end development to give myself stronger foundation and boost of confidence, and another for foreign language. Spanish & German have my special attention there.

Can you parallel park? I'm willing to try!

Do you think aliens are real? I always have a hard time defining "aliens". I think most people's perception of what counts as "living" is limited at best and hypocritical at worst. I've heard of bacterias having a better time than some of the fully-formed, fully-conscious humans on Earth. Add humanity's general complex of seeing themselves as the most complex existence in the history and you can probably cook up my general stance on the topic. I don't think Earth is the only place there's a "life" on, but aliens understood as extraterrestrial livings, are probably not modeled after the evolutionary fart currently dominating the 3rd planet from the Sun.

Can you drive a manual car? I can, actually. My father is a car mechanic, I take these things pretty seriously, you know. Should I ever have a car, I don't think I'd go for automatic.

What’s your guilty pleasure? To be fair, all my pleasures are guilty. But as it stands now, my most guilty would be to indulge in my feelings and let myself play a game or doodle or write something while knowing there's piles of work I'm behind on.

Tattoos? One on my back between my shoulder blades, just a standard egdy barcode with my birthdate underneath. And one over my heart (or just over my left tit, let's be honest) saying "Ideas are bulletproof", but mirrored - so that I can read it when I look in the mirror.

Favourite colour? Black, red. I usually wear all black with golden accessories and absolutely seizure-inducing, colorful singular statement pieces.

Favourite types of music? Not sure what counts as "favourite" as I prefer music that makes me feel things, whatever the genre. I like the experimental, funky sound, but I also enjoy the deeply consuming sound of progressive electronic music, which help me deep-focus at work, so there's that ~. And oh, I love voices. Talented voices, singing voices, raw, honest voices. I sing a little and enjoy admiring this craft in others.

Do you like puzzles? Oh absolutely. I'm already hooked.

Any phobias? I thought I was afraid of spiders until I lived with a girl who was REALLY afraid of them and I stepped in as this chivalrous knight in shining armor charging at the beast and – So no, not really.

Favourite childhood sport? I actually participated in a lot of disciplines. I wish I gave acrobatics more time & attention. It felt so freeing and beautiful. So poetic, almost.

Do you talk to yourself? Like out loud? Not anymore, but I do have an old pal on me in my head which is eyyyyy, isn't that me?

What movies do you adore? "V for Vendetta" - about how trauma can reduce a person into a concept. In this case - a concept of vengeance. Dangerous, loveable, tragic concept I resonate with very much. This is also the movie where my tattoo quote comes from.

Where I validated my stance that you don't really need to see the other person to know and love them.

Your experiences and feelings are just as valid, even if someone misled you or you never truly met. And the masks and theatrics cannot really conceal what's truly important, so don't be afraid to just... feel.

Coffee or tea? Coffee, freshly ground & brewed, unless I have the instant kind of day, with milk. Tea - preferably Dilmah, either green or earl grey.

First thing you wanted to be growing up? Oh, an artist probably. Little did I know how difficult and anxiety-inducing it would prove.

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No pressure tags: @herdarkestnightelegance, @thedomesticanthropologist, @nocna-orchidea