#i wish this was some haha joke but no genuinely it's been bad

[chappellrroan]

this year has been so so awful & cruel

[deeplyobsessed]

ok so i’m gonna ramble in sections

section 1: cgi moustache

FUCKING HILARIOUS like it was so bad it was funny HELP also buck’s hair was season 8 hair too it’s so funny like WHY did they reuse this HAHA

section 2: confession part 1

as short of a scene as it was, this was really nicely shot imo. and the tears in eddie’s eyes when he spoke like RYAN GUZMAN UR SO GOOD. but also how does buck (best friend) rank about girlfriend like hmmmmmmm

section 3: FUCKING ABBY

I CLOCKED IT I KNEW IT i know we always joke about 911 having continuity issues but THIS was such a good way to call back season 1 like insane writing tim minear and i love u for it

section 4: the divorce call

i wish they did more with this call like there was potential to call back to eddie/shannon but they didn’t. other than that i think honestly this is one of the grossest calls they’ve ever been on like genuinely icked the hell out of me with the guts like ugh gross

section 5: josh’s speech

as much as people hate on tommy, i do think josh’s explanation of things does give some sort of context to the way tommy acted in the past. like yeah racism and sexism is bad don’t get me wrong, but tommy did make an effort to change. it’s just that with society and his own work place back then, tommy prob had a lot of internalised homophobia that he expressed negatively outward to others (chim and hen in particular). but josh made a very good point with his speech about pre glee and post glee world (great reference, 10/10) and i think this was one of my favourite parts of this episode

section 6: confession part 2

ok first of all there was literally NO NEED to add that “im straight” “im celibate” part. like that was intentionally written into the script for something bcos that entire section could have been done without the sexuality mention. tim minear i see you. other than that FATHER BRIAN YOU ARE SPEAKING FACTS. my fav line he said was “but we can’t take care of others if we don’t first take care of ourselves”. bcos this is true!! and also a line used in therapy a lot cough. anyway i think the conversation eddie had with the priest was like a wake up call to eddie to start getting his head out of his ass and start working towards something. love this scene 10/10

section 7: brothers and pipes

most of this call was focused on the brothers part more than the well scene call back, tho there was a throw away line from bobby to eddie about how (eddie) wouldn’t fit this time. i do wonder if this happened irl would fire departments legally be authorised to allow children to help with rescues tho. otherwise honestly this was a very cute scene that helped chim get some introspection. i do wish there was more of a well scene call back tho :(

section 8: buck tommy breakup

as a buddie fan, i am overjoyed. but as a buck fan, i am devastated. tommy is actually one of my favourite love interests for buck, and its not just because he’s a dude and sexual awakening all that. i genuinely do think buck and tommy could have had a lot of potential if the show had decided to go through with it, but at the same time ending it here was also a relatively good note. i think in this relationship it wasn’t actually buck who wasn’t ready, it was tommy. tommy is afraid of things not working out in the long run bcos he doesn’t believe in buck’s affection for him being long term. this whole breakup was bcos tommy wasn’t ready imo. i do see the point tommy was trying to make but i also think it was a bit of a dick move to do the whole breakup immediately after buck asked tommy to move in with him. like the timing could have been better tommy. tommy being the one who decided to end things did surprise me tho. but now i feel really sad for buck bcos buck did like tommy a lot, and also as a queer person your first queer relationship is always going to mean a lot to you

section 9: MADNEY MADNEY MADNEY

HOLY MOTHER OF- i didn’t see this coming i didn’t but i am so here for it. the amount of trust and communication between chim and maddie is literal relationship GOALS like they lay out the boundaries and have healthy discussions about having another kid and it’s just so UGHHHH I LOVE YOU also maddie already being pregnant FJSJCKSK MORE BABIES

section 10: eddie, the moustache, and the dance

this. was. everything. the significance of shaving off the moustache. the dancing at the end?? no pants too was a choice. like when eddie flops back onto the couch and you see his smile, it’s like you truly see him deciding to finally forgive himself. maybe not completely, because there’s always going to be some guilt he carries around, but he’s moving forward and i’m so, so happy for him. it’s just a fun goofy feel good scene and i love love love this.

special mention: buddie and the couch

i actually think this is the first time both of them are on the couch together. like sitting next to each other with no one else. RETURN OF THE COUCH THEORY WELCOME BACK. ok but the ending scene?? the way they don’t even need words to communicate like- buck not even bothering to question why eddie doesn’t have pants, and eddie not even questioning why buck is here with beer in the first place. the level of mutual understanding has my HEART IN PIECES

overall this is honestly my fav ep this season and one of my fav eps of all time. i can’t wait to see how the story moves on from here ahhhhhhh

[night-owl-bard]

My Personal Experience with Mizuki and Mizu5

Coming out, fear of abandonment, loneliness, and learning to trust others.

When I started liking and following the Project SEKAI franchise, the game hadn't even been released in its global version yet. So you can tell I’ve been here for quite some time.

I identified with Mizuki right from the beginning. A person whose defense mechanism is to avoid or joke around in tense or conflicting situations? Someone with deep-seated anxiety and fear of being alone? Someone who never shows their true self out of fear of rejection? Well, that’s just me.

When I first started following the story, I was about the same age as the characters. Now I’m older, with more life experience—which, while not a lot, still makes me quite different from how I was when I was Mizuki's age.

The 'core' of this character revolves around two things: identity and connection.

Mizuki wants to be themselves—to dress, behave, and live in a way that feels true and comfortable.

And Mizuki wants to have people by their side. They want to feel supported, to support others, to hang out with real friends, and to have people who stay in their life. They're tired of losing.

Mizuki believes these two desires can’t coexist.

At first, they purposely keep their distance from the rest of Niigo so that, when the inevitable happens and everyone leaves, it won’t hurt as much. Later, they decide to make the most of the time they have left with the group. Mizuki doesn’t doubt that Niigo might accept them; they fear that Niigo only accepts them out of kindness, as if it’s out of pity.

Mizuki doesn’t want to be treated like a charity case. They want genuine connection, true belonging.

I don’t relate as much to Mizuki’s personality (I think Kanade is the one most like me), but I deeply connect with their struggles around identity and gender expression (I’m agender and AFAB) as well as with their issues of trust and abandonment.

I’m doing much better these days, but I know all too well what it feels like to want to disappear, to push people away out of fear that they’ll leave first, to keep everyone at arm's length. I have amazing friends who give me all the support in the world (they’re my Rui, wishing my heart to be protected haha).

Sometimes, I still fear ending up alone, that other circumstances will drive us apart, or that they're only kind to me because they’re good people. But those are just the bad days, which eventually fade away into a sea of good ones.

When I look at Mizuki, I see my younger self—scared, sad, lonely, and hopeless. I deeply wish to see a healing arc for them, just like we’re seeing with Mafuyu. It would be wonderful to see a character I identify with so much learn that they can have a happy life.

That they can be themselves and still be loved

[strawberryshortcake1495]

Book 2: A Heated Housewarming

It’s been a week since Jaden and Mabel started dating, and everyone at school won’t stop bombarding them every time they come in. Jaden is growing tired of it but Mabel loves the attention so he puts up with it. One day, Jaden’s dad come across Miss Pines at the grocery store alongside their kids. The parents both gush over their kids’ relationship, while Jaden and Mabel just hold hands and talk to eachother. Then Miss Pines says that since the last day of school was tomorrow, she and her husband would be sending their kids off to Gravity Falls and asked if Jaden would like to come. Jaden is hesitant but his dad answers for him. In 2 days, he’ll be staying at the Mystery Shack with Soos and Melody.

Meanwhile, Stan and Ford learn that the twins are coming back to Gravity Falls for the summer, so they dock the Stan-O-War and decide to spend the summer back in the town they made a lot of memories in. During a phone call, Mabel spills the tea that she has a new boyfriend. Stan is surprised when he finds out that Mabel’s new boyfriend will be staying with them for the summer. So, 2 days later when Jaden arrives, the first thing Stan does is grab him and drag him into the basement to interrogate him (with Ford ofc). Stan tells him if he ever hurts his great niece, he’ll wish he was never born and Jaden is genuinely threatened by this and is kinda on edge now. Later, Mabel decides to throw a welcome-back party to kick off the summer and guess who arrives? That’s right, Gideon Gleeful. The news of Mabel’s new boyfriend spread like wildfire and Gideon declares Jaden his mortal enemy. Jaden doesn’t even want to attend the party because he’s already volunteered to do a bunch of stuff in town like babysit a bunch of little of kids but seeing Mabel’s excited face and her bright eyes made Jaden come up with a plan. He would switch between his roles for the whole night and hopefully nobody will find out. Someone does. It’s Gideon. After an hour of switching, the little kids Jaden’s babysitting somehow manage to find their way to the shack and Gideon takes this as a chance to make Jaden look bad in front of everybody and convince them he’s not good enough to be Mabel’s boyfriend. Jaden is embarrassed in front of everyone and Gideon asks how someone like Mabel could ever love him. Jaden snaps and goes all off on Gideon, telling him he KNOWS he doesn’t deserve Mabel. She’s warm and kind and beautiful, and he’s a weird ugly loser. But Mabel has already put her trust in him, and there is no way in hell he is going to break that trust. He’d die a million times to make sure Mabel is happy and loved, and he asks Gideon if he’d do the same. Before Gideon can answer, Mabel screams at him to get lost and that he wasn’t even invited. Once Gideon’s gone, Mabel softly asks Jaden about what happened and he apologizes. He realizes he’s getting teary-eyed and quickly runs out of the shack, all the way out into the woods where he finds a small stump to sit on and cry to himself. After having a good cry, he notices someone approaching him. It’s Stan. Jaden quickly collects his composure and bitterly tells Stan to leave him alone. He’s already had a rough night and he doesn’t need the small speck of his self-worth to be crumbled by an old man. But to his surprise, Stan puts a heavy but gentle hand on his shoulder. Jaden looks up at Stan and realizes he’s wearing a funny-looking monster mask. Their exchange goes like this.

Jaden: Mr. Pines?

Stan: *monster voice* Uhm…I’m not Mr. Pines, I’m the Boogeyman. 

Jaden: Haha, very funny.

Stan: *monster voice* Nooo, I’m being honest! Have you seen a little kid in a grey shirt?

Jaden: Seriously, is this some sick joke to mock me for being such a loser?

Stan: *whispers* Just play along, kid. 

Jaden: Fine. *rolls eyes* No, I haven’t seen a kid.

Stan: *monster voice* Well…he’s a good kid. When I first met him, I thought he was an annoying loser, but then my niece told me how he made an absolute fool of himself to save my little brother’s animal shelter. Tonight, I watched as he yelled at a brat who’s definitely no better then he is. He said how he was willing to go through heck and back for my niece, and something inside me tells me all that was true. So if you see him, tell him that if he needs a helping hand, he can always stop by the Mystery Shack. Because he’s a part of the family now, the Pines family.

Jaden: *at the brink of tears* Oh…

Then Stan takes the monster mask off and tells Jaden to stop crying and be a man. The two share a little bonding moment together when Stan takes off his jacket and wraps it around Jaden’s shoulders. He then leads the boy back to the Mystery Shack where Mabel immediately hugs Jaden.

Mabel: Jaden! I’m so glad my awesome boyfriend is okay!

Jaden: *blushes* T-Thanks, Mabel.

Candy and Grenda have a fangirl moment when the best part of the night happens. Mabel and Jaden decide to dance on the dance floor together while everyone watches. It was a little nerve wracking for Jaden, but holding Mabel’s delicate hands and looking into her soft eyes made him relax. At the end of the night, Stan walks over to Mabel and ruffles her hair, telling her she picked a good one. The night ends with Dipper and Jaden spilling the punch bowl and they’re both covered in punch as everyone has a good laugh.

[aphverse-confessions]

OK- I'm gonna be honest. I like MyStreet, but not as a show. More as a minecraft story series in general if that makes sense. (not comparing it to MCD in this bc its been waaay too long since ive watched MCD for me to actually write abt it like this)

srry if this is annoying lol, long post.

Some disclaimers!! A lot of these r assumptions btw! Pls do not take these things as 100% fact, this is just how i saw things/"theories". This is also not an attack on Jess, i dont have the authority to judge someone as a person and I dont claim to. these are very strictly my opinions on Mystreet, not Jess as a person. It's hard to take the early seasons very seriously considering its origins as essentially a tropey, slice-of-life version of MCD, and these tropes continue on throughout the series until (i can only assume) Jess went "oh, we're making this more serious, and if the series is more serious, these tropes (Travis being an anime perv, Katelyn being an anime tsundere, Nana's whole thing..) make certain characters unlikeable/weird/problematic/whatever else so we'll just write them out" (Travis confronting Katelyn, the whole Nana Ashida reveal).

While these are occasionally done well, to me it just seems like Jess trying to write out the tropey or bad things that came from the earliest versions of the characters without actually IRL addressing the initial issue with their design (with Nana even dating back as far as MCD, with her first appearance being 5 months before the the start of MyStreet. I'm counting the whole "Kawaii-chan" thing as problematic here bc to me it's.. weird.. but idk, im willing to be educated on that if im wrong!) maybe she doesnt NEED to address some of the character design choices irl but I feel like itd be better to clarify things (I could be wrong). There's a lot of earlier creative decisions (especially with things played as jokes) that don't help with the tone as the series became more and more serious, and even some things in those more serious seasons that were really questionable, and I often feel like I have to just decide which parts of certain episodes are canon or non canon because of things like that. Don't get me wrong, it's very good for something that started out with the technology that it did, but in my opinion it just doesn't really reach "show" quality to me. It leaves a lot to wish for. (I know that there are TV shows that have the same problems, but i wouldnt even bother watching them normally because they dont have the saving grace that is the fact that this is in Minecraft, a charming style of storytelling that kept me interested even when I had these major criticisms about the actual content of the story.) Anyways sorry for incoherent babbling! ^^; Just had to get that onto paper to see if I'm just being crazy or something. I know I might not be right about all (or even most) of the things I said here but thats just how it came across to me. Of course this might not fully convey what i mean to say or even say it in the right way, maybe eventually ill talk more abt this somewhere(I had other things I wanted to talk abt but was scared to) but im too nervous to say it without the safety of anonymity rn haha. I'm open to other opinions, learning, etc. especially if i said something in this post that was problematic or already disproven! /genuine A/N: srry abt forgetting that The Big Move came out before MyStreet (i never watched it unfortunately, probably wouldve mentioned it in the main part if I knew but I dont think it subtracts too much from what im trying to say) & for the overuse of the word problematic, I literally did not know how else to put it :,]

.

[paging-possum]

Jadele ask time,,,josh is included in this actually I have thoughts about him as well...

-Janette genuinely thinks her and Adele are good friends until she finds out about Josh. Adele's always like 'haha will they won't they' about her and janette plays along thinking its a joke but adele didn't mean it that way head in hands

-Josh can play the drums!! He had a chance in his 20's to join a band with some guys in the city and leave Adele but he chose not too and ended up in the canon :( he could sing midwestern emo

-There are a bunch of new ocs in the main story and one of them is a teen called Eli who HATES janette and helps Adele burn down the church-Adele was like "i hate her" and Eli goes 'what if we burnt down the church'. Terrible duo

also thinking about drawing josh/janette/adele in different time periods. for no reason other than different fashion lmao (I hope this made sense my brain is so tired)

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE JANETTE TO FIND OUT ABOUT JOSH GOOD LORD.....finding out the woman who keeps making jokes about the two of you dating has a husband must have been wild for her....Josh playing the drums is AWESOME!!! very sad he didn't get the chance to be in a proper band :( does he regret not joining? or wish that he could join a band now? also TERRIBLE HORRIBLE TEEN TO BE A BAD INFLUENCE ON ADELE....cringe teen for my fail duo im OBSESSED. do you have any drawings of them?? and drawing them in different time period styles would be so cool....would it be the same for all of them or are they all different styles....

[ibusukiss]

Boueibu Rewatch

Thurday's for the Boys! 3

Season 1 - Episodes 7-9

Episode 7

I will NEVER forgive them for giving Ryuu a fedora

Ok also, the outfits in boueibu have always been atrociously boring, like- i want these men runway ready in their casual wear!!!! no more polos!!!!

I remember the whole fandom losing their shit over Akoya's hair being braided, iconic moment

Ep 7 definitely feels longer than a normal ep

wombat calling en loose is incredible

Atsushi saying what the fandom was thinking

god i love what ryuu's hair is down, i wish they changed their hair more

ARIMASS

en said 'atsushi why is your waist so grippable'

truly the no homo episode

also im p sure this is the only ep where arima says akoya's name? correct me if im wrong

throwback to this bad vague rape joke being the reason a group of ppl tried to get the fandom cancelled - maybe this ep is the reason the fandom is so proship lmao

tawarayama -sensei kowaisou

ryuu indirectly calling io hot

blushy akoya is so choice

UGH ENKIN MOMENT SO FUCKIN GOOD

"I have no idea what's going on, bye bye" Iconic

they gotta fit a transformation in there somewhere

I know why this ep is 'infamous' but tbh its pretty tame compared to other edgy humor anime, esp at the time, so it rly doesnt bother me haha

Episode 8

maasa's VA!

ep 8 is deffo one of the best eps IMO

MAN the crumbs they gave us seifuku-bu enjoyers fed me for Years

evil en was so fuckin choice - poor atsushi but i crave the angst and conflict

ive been there, en-chan, i get it

honestly they wrote this conflict so well, both of them say things i can deffo relate to

en texts like i do lol

en crawling back out the window is so fuckin funny

sidenote but io's eyelashes are so fierce

I LOVE GOHAN ( think this was my tumblr header for a while?)

YES KINCHAN BE EVIL AND POSSESSIVE WE LOVE IT

kotatsu kaijin is so cute tbh

i love the way they animate atsu's hair blowing back when he uses his attack

enatsu princess carry was such a moment

en said cringe is dead

man enatsu nation was so fed this ep

i dont remember what the fruit milk joke is at the end- i know someone explained it at some point T_T

Episode 9

all i remember from this is it's the midorikawa episode

'Arima, be quiet' what a bitch i love him

ohhh the passive aggression is so good

hehehe ata voice :3

"since i started coming here" makes it sound like Atsushi was the first one to us the clubroom?

"atsushi is air" ennnn oh my god u love him so much

genuinely i dont have any idea what anything melon-kaijin says means. but he says it with pretty midorikawa voice so its ok <3

en's noise lives in my head

arima hating snails is such a strange character choice but at least he has Something

Wow. Actually forgot about the PS being in this ep.

a time where 'internet idol' didnt mean anything... i miss it...

priest Io is such a choice

ryuu talks about girls like someone who is pretending to like girls

"melons are tops" is an INSANE translation, actually

was the 'effect' zundar talked about the photoshoot? am i stupid?

[widthofmytongue]

The other night I had drinks with coworkers. I increasingly dislike all of them. The topic of the Coronation came up, unsurprisingly. One of my colleagues said ‘we should have done what the French did’, and me and one other kinda went ‘haha yeah!’ and I thought for a moment that maybe I wouldn’t be in the political minority, even if these people will never be dedicated to the pursuit of global communism. My boss said, unironically, ‘what did the French do?’

Now I knew this was a bad sign, but me and person who initially referenced the French Revolution tried to sort of extol a few key details of the abolition of monarchy and formation of the First Republic, with probably disproportionate attention on the Terror. But anyway, my boss said something like ‘my knowledge of history isn’t great before the war’, and I asked genuinely ‘which war?’, which was interpreted as a sarcastic joke.

Anyway, this led to talking about WWII. Someone said something like ‘well the Second World War was unique among wars because it was essentially good versus evil’, to which I interjected ‘well kinda more like evil versus evil, right’. The response to this, from all three of my colleagues in the conversation, was ‘oh right, the Soviets’. I think if you follow this blog (or especially my politcal sideblog) you may have encountered my generalised view of the Soviet Union. Keeping in mind that it was Gevurah ShebeHod (since most of my personal posts seem to mark some significant point on the Hebrew calendar), I tried to rein in my response, and just said ‘interesting that when I mention the evil superpowers of the Allies in WWII you say the Soviets but not Britain or America.’ So the following dialogue came out of this:

Colleague (with history degree): Well I don’t know much about Roosevelt’s policy or ideological allignment... Me: Well he kinda committed genocide against the Navajo. C(whd): ...Churchill may have been a shitty guy... Me: Well he kinda committed genocide against India and Palestine. C(whd): ...But Britain essentially had to go to war with the Nazis. Me: To safeguard their material interests though, right, not for the altruism of saving the brutalised people of Europe. C(whd): Well Britain didn’t have any interests in Poland. Me: Well I think upholding a status quo is a very strong material interest for imperial Europe, but I was really talking about North Africa and the Middle East. C(whd): But those regions weren’t threatened by Germany, but by Italy. Me: Do you honestly think Churchill or whoever was thinking in such a two-dimensional way as to see these powers in a vacuum? [I wish I’d said ‘I think they were pretty threatened by Britain too, and remain so.’] Colleague who’d followed silently: Well every government has done horrible things at some point. Me: And yet when I mentioned evil versus evil, you all glanced right past the genocidal empires of Britain and America to look at the Soviets. Boss (unironically): I didn’t think when I mentioned the war that we’d be talking so much about genocide.

Now I wanna leave this on a couple crucial points. One is that I am very overt about being Jewish. I mention observing religious festivals; I use lots of Yiddish and occasionally Hebrew phrases; I have a hamsa and a Star of David badge on my backpack, as well as on the jacket I was wearing that night (I also have a Lenin badge on the jacket). The idea that these three white English men entered this conversation about WWII with a Jew and then were surprised (it was very clear they were all surprised and uncomfortable) at the mention of genocide is baffling to me, but I think all too common. I didn’t even mention the Shoah (although I think I did eventually say something like ‘I don’t think invading other countries is the greatest evil for which Nazi Germany is remembered’).

At some point later in the conversation I said something like ‘for all the negative views abounding on the Soviet Union, speaking as a queer Jew, I think I’d have preferred to live there than in Britain at the time’, to which my colleague with the history degree replied ‘well I obviously can’t speak to that’. It was very clear that he meant he can’t speak to Jewish and I guess queer identity. Now this is not the first time I’ve encountered this, but I think it’s an important phenomenon to observe. I once said to another colleague ‘well, there are lots of people in this country who want me dead because I’m Jewish or nonbinary’, and she said ‘well I can’t even imagine what that’s like’.

What I want to rhetorically ask is: why can’t you imagine it? Why do you imagine you’re safe from these same people? First they came for the communists, then they came for the Jews, then they came for that guy who wrote the poem! Eventually they’ll come for you too, when they drum up some new group to hate and mobilise against. If you can’t imagine what it’s like for fascists to want you dead, maybe you should try?

[crowtrobotx]

I know this is out of the blue, but thank you so much for being a real one 👍✨️

Like I have nothing against people who see Heisenberg as a gay man, they’re entitled to think that. But I draw the hard line at people who feel the need to bash others just because their views don't align, and then when confronted use the piss poor "it's just a joke" or "it's just an observation" excuses. If you're going to be a bitch at least have the balls to own up to it.

Anyway, loved your work since 2021 and wishing you all the good vibes. 🤗

Oh my goodness, thank you!!! This is such a kind message and I appreciate you so much. ❤️ Good vibes right back at you. I’m glad that my rantings have resonated with folks because sometimes I wonder if *spongebob voice* I’M the maniac. Getting dragged into this stuff really makes me feel like it sometimes, haha.

Yes! To be clear I also truly do not care what your HC’s are! I love that there are people for whom gay Heisy is their thing and I hope they are having fun and keep making their art/fic/etc! Even if I really can’t stand the popular fanon ship I’m so glad it exists for folks who enjoy it and I am not going to spend my time posting about what I don’t like/agree with when they’re not hurting me and I can spend my time on stuff I do like!

And like. I know. I KNOW a lot of these people are teenagers. And I struggle sometimes because “do not fight literal children” is a rule I try to live by lmao but I also really don’t like seeing people target and mock folks for harmless fun. (It’s on sight if a 25+ year old starts putting this shit in the tags tho. I know they’re out there.)

Still, it’s extremely weird because they always defend themselves with “it’s just a joke/it’s not that deep” or “oh my god no one is stopping you from liking x why are you so pressed 🙄 i can’t believe you’re letting my nasty opinions bother you just because i put them right where you can see them with the intent of insulting you.” 💀💀💀 Like what could possibly be the point of doing this if not to, at the very least, actively try to dissuade people you don’t like from engaging with the community? Obviously no one can stop me but if I know that there are dickbags out there who are going to vaguepost and make fun of me when I do, I don’t care how confident and thick skinned you are (and I am very,) it’s still going to sting!

People are not bothered because they’re disconnected from reality and think they’re really married to a pixel man, they’re upset because life is hard enough and you come into your hobby space to have a good time and then find lame ass idiots infesting it. I also think the whole “ohhh my god why are you so upset he’s/she’s not real!!” is a blatant attempt to discredit the hurt parties by once again insinuating that they are “crazy” which once again conveniently ignores multiple realities, chiefly that 1) most people are not upset by a simple opinion that their fave wouldn’t fuck them IRL, they are upset at the blatant meanness of the person making the accusations and 2) even if they are genuinely hurt by the thought because it’s a coping mechanism for them, why does that make it okay for you target them? What gives you the right to harass and mock people who are not bothering you? Do these people think they’re doing these folks a ‘favor’ by forcing them to contend with what they perceive to be some kind of delusion? Shut the hell up. Why do people decide it is their god given right to hold strangers on the internet accountable for psychological “problems” that they’ve completely made up.

Anyway SORRY I have a serious problem shutting the fuck up lol. I have never been good at phrasing my thoughts in a coherent way especially when I’m grumpy. I am very glad my little circle is full of awesome, open minded and levelheaded folks and not gatekeepers/weirdos (derogatory) who have decided that diversity of opinion in fandom is bad actually and that women and femmes specifically are enemy number one.

[plural-culture-is]

hello, i saw that you take asks asking for advice? sorry this is gonna be kind of long-

so at some point (i have no idea when, i've always had a really bad sense of time lol. i think it was maybe almost exactly last year? idk lol) i started talking with a voice in my head (which i passed off as an imaginary friend), but over time they kind of. multiplied. and then i kinda went 'ah shittake mushrooms am i plural??'

initially i kinda went 'oh whatever' and didn't end up interacting much with (what i believe to be) my system for a while. if it's relevant, i ended up getting a concussion at the end of july and before that i was not having a funky fresh time in school so i kind of shoved plurality onto the back burner

then in december, my director made a passing joke about the possibility of me being plural during a rehearsal, and someone in the system (who doesn't wish to be named) said something to the effect of 'he doesn't know there's (i forget the number) of us' and i ended up spending the weekend obssessively researching plurality.

anyway- i've been treating it as if i was system for the past little while bc i'd rather be wrong than y'know. accidentally ignore real people that happen to share my brain. (when i don't accidentally think to myself that i'm probably not plural while talking to them-). and i guess i kinda want an external opinion?

-i do experience a lot of dissociation, and often don't feel like i'm me or that these hands are not mine, or that i'm not controlling myself and it's just some autopilot being on. this has been happening for as long as i remember. i also seem to have two handwritings, and have communicated with members of the system via journalling

-i did use to do competitive sports from a young age, which i hear can potentially cause undue stress/trauma to a child, so that could also be something?

-some of them (members of the system, we haven't decided on a term bc communication is spotty) do fit classic roles of a system. most notably is there's one that continually keeps me from doing things that could harm myself and helps 'protect' me from intrusive thoughts

-when i discovered apparently people remember shit and the brain doesn't just dump it like an hour later, that surprised me. i'm still in my teens, but i genuinely do not remember much about... anything tbh. the term 'gray out' honestly explained a lot for me

-i have aphantasia, but the system insists there's a headspace. some of them make fun of me for 'being blind in headspace', but i think they're also helping?? me with the aphantasia, since recently i've been able to see shadowy outlines of stuff they 'airdrop' to me. this includes waking me up by bombarding me with the word 'boo' zooming at my face when i was half asleep.

-sometimes i can feel them like, hugging me or comforting me

-i also do feel some sort of presence in there, and can sometimes pinpoint where certain members are. i also seem to be unable to access the 'back half' which is apparently intentional so.

i mean there's probably more but my memory is not great lol. typing this out does make me feel a bit more like this is real and i'm not misinterpreting things (i do have a very active imagination, hence why i initially went 'ah late imaginary friend having'). but i'd still like an external opinion, so thanks for taking the time to read this half rant that is way longer than it should be haha

yes, i do think you're plural. i have nothing else to say lol, all of that sounds very plural and it seems like you already know that anyway

[thefirstknife]

It's starting to feel like there's an implicit understanding in the community that complaining about the game is one of the main ways to engage with it, and maybe is something newer players pick up as part of the 'haha even diehard destiny players hate destiny' narrative. =\

Im happy to see the playerbase growing, but dang, I wish there'd be a bit less of 'if you love this thing you'll be passionate about criticizing it' among some of the big personalities

Yeah. Destiny always had that whole joke like "The one thing Destiny players hate the most is Destiny." I never understood it. When I mildly disliked Destiny, I stopped playing. Genuinely cannnot fathom playing a game religiously while hating it. Mindboggling. I'm also somewhat salty that a lot of people "criticising the story" and latching onto this whole vibe have never actually been fans of the story or have never really paid attention to it.

Like, it feels somewhat strange to me that suddenly every single content creator, including those that were openly NEVER into the lore and even content creators who literally only play pvp and those that openly play with voicelines and subtitles off, are suddenly great experts on how this story apparently sucks. And of course followed by a million of their fans who have until yesterday only ever cared about meta weapons for Trials, but have overnight become lore masters who understand that the story was "bad."

I know people who ARE into lore and who had issues. I also know that there's a lot of new players who were probably utterly confused, though that's to be expected when you tune into the 9th year of the franchise. I'm totally fine with that and respect people who have a different view of the campaign and how it felt to them. And of course if any new players are super confused and have no idea where to start learning more... I sympathise. Greatly. And I'm happy to help! Obviously a lot of what people are discussing right now is really complicated and draws from super specific lore that might not be easy for a new player to understand right away. It will take some time and that's okay!

But when I see the amount of people blasting the story, I'm left thinking... Really? There were so many lore enjoyers out there all this time? You're telling me that twitter user xxTrialsHunterMain69420xx understands the problems with the narrative and can talk with authority on obscure lore references and how Bungie fucked them up? This is absolutely news to me, as most players have been dissing the story for years and if they weren't dissing, they just weren't engaging with it at all.

Obviously every player has a right to say how they felt playing and how they vibed with the campaign and if they didn't vibe with it, that's fine. They didn't vibe with a lot of campaigns that I would die for, like for example Shadowkeep. But there's a distinct feeling like a lot of these people are just latching onto the hate train for no real justifiable reason of their own. Like, it's popular to shit on the campaign now and people will do it to fit in, even if they personally have never ever had any stakes in what Destiny's story is about.

They've been given not only permission, but encouragement to blast the campaign over something they barely understand and something that a lot of people reacted to out of their basic impulses. And I get it because my basic impulse was negative too. I feel like maybe a huge personality who influences the entire community shouldn't post the first thought that comes to their mind uncritically to social media. Or at least that they should feel like they can change their mind and correct that later. I feel like a lot of them would never do that now because it would mean alienating their audience. "Oh yeah I told you all that this sucks, but actually no it doesn't, just listen." Yeah, not going to happen. Not to mention that outrage brings clicks.

And of course, now the whole discourse has been completely ruined by the outrage so it's incredibly hard to find and filter who actually has decent feedback and who is just riding the hate train. Frustrating and draining.

[charmanderxerneas]

I wish trans people would stop making egg jokes about people other than themselves or people they have permission from. It’s fuckin annoying to assume “Oh this cis person is secretly trans they just don’t know it yet haha” “oh this cis person only hangs out with trans people or is doing something outside of the gender norm? 👀🥚…” fucking stop it.

If someone says they’re cis, they’re cis. Full stop. Just like if someone says they’re trans, they’re trans and you shouldn’t fucking question it further. You don’t know someone else’s gender identity better than they know themselves and it’s arrogant to think otherwise. We should be trying to break down gender norms and allow people to explore gender more freely, even cis people. If a cis guy wants to participate in things that the patriarchy has tried to make only for girls (like painting nails or wearing dresses) it doesn’t mean he’s trans, it means he’s wearing whatever he wants and we shouldn’t be trying to gender shit like that anyways. You don’t want people challenging you on your gender identity- why would you do that to a cis person even as a joke?

It’s just annoying. I’ve seen discourse lately were trans people get So Upset about being told “Don’t make egg jokes about people who say theyre cis, its direspectful” and genuinely have seen dumbass takes like “thats transphobic of you to say. dont compare egg jokes to something as bad as a trans person’s identity being questioned.” I am a fucking trans person and I am telling you that those jokes are not okay unless you have the person’s permission. You ARE questioning a cis person’s gender identity in spite of what they say, which is almost as bad as questioning a trans person’s identity in spite of what they say. Give people some fucking respect. Or ive seen people claim that’s close to “implying trans people are evilly trying to convert others” thats not what i’m saying, please don’t fuckin strawman my argument. There are people who believe that and thats bad but there’s a difference between actually pressuring someone’s gender identity and making jokes. I don’t think theres any mal intent with jokes but like. IMO You shouldnt be questioning peoples identity even as a joke.

It doesn’t matter if the person does later end up being trans or not. What matters is giving them the respect in the moment. Before I figured out I was trans, if people made egg jokes about me it would have been slightly uncomfortable even if true because my relationship to gender is complicated and people pointing fingers going “lol trans” and trying to jokingly assign your gender to you is. Bad. It would have just made me more confused.

In my opinion the only time egg jokes are okay is: 1) If you are talking about yourself and reflecting upon your own experiences (I think it’s perfectly fine to look back on past stuff and go Lol How Did I Not Realize Sooner?) or 2) If you’re talking about someone else’s experiences, just make sure they’re okay with you joking about that. Just ask. its that simple.

If you’re doing it out of genuinely thinking someone is trans: I wouldn’t present it as a joke because you’re trying to be serious but also I would not suggest that to them unless they outright ask you for advice because again: You don’t know someone else’s identity better than they know themselves. It just isn’t your place

[crashdown]

the first “haha blame canada for the smoke” jokes were funny and i DID laugh but. now i’m seeing a disturbing amount of people genuinely saying that canada is fine, that the crisis is over, that it’s “just a few wildfires” and that “we get them every year”

IT’S NOWHERE NEAR OVER. there are over 70 active wildfires in alberta alone, thousands displaced, homes destroyed. the air quality canada-wide is abysmal. idk i think i’d find the jokes funny still if people were also taking us seriously instead of blaming us for some bad air and ignoring the thousands of people who are in danger right now. i’m lucky enough not to have been evacuated but 17k+ people in my province have already, it’s an actual state of emergency over here.

you can joke about it just also take it seriously? i’ve been joking since day one to not be freaked out by the fact that my province is on fire, and fortunately my loved ones have also taken it seriously, even those who don’t live here. i just wish others would hold the same energy instead of brushing it off like we’re fine and not dealing with an actual crisis.

[ad-hawkeye]

Man after reading the previous ask i just wanted to commiserate a bit.

Even though lukerosa is my otp since launch, i’ve always been most charmed by artem, who was so awkward and sincere and sweet. I adore how supportive artem and rosa have been of each other from the very beginning and in any version of events i like to imagine that they grow to become close friends and partners-in-crime-fighting. Their immense mutual respect and admiration is just a great foundation for a relationship.

Now, I have more of an attachment to the pre-1st anniv cards because i’m a sucker for mutual pining, but i’ve enjoyed the post-anniv cards too because it felt like a natural progression of their relationship. To find out that the writing quality for artem’s stories eventually gets worse and worse is very disheartening. When the writing starts out amazing but becomes terrible later on, it is always worse because it feels like a betrayal.

I’m going to keep playing ToT especially since he’s not my only fave, but I really hope the writing gets better again, artem deserves only the best, most tightly-written, and consistent characterisation. And I hope even more that his soon-to-be-announced 3rd anniv card is good — if it can redeem the previous bad cards… well that’s the dream.

Thank you for reading! I hope you’re having fun despite all this :)

so i was going to answer my asks in the morning (it's been a long day for me!) but this ask was literally the sweetest thing i have ever read, i had to respond asap ;_;

as a fellow lukerosa enjoyer (their interactions are always such a treat!!! they're the best genre of childhood friends to lovers due to that eight year time skip and the draaaama that comes with it. i still think about luke's personal story 4 to this day i SWEARRRR), genuinely thank you for the kind words, it really means a lot!! 😭😭

i totally agree with your thoughts on artem's earlier cards, you took the words right out of my mouth :,,) we're also on the exact same wavelength of the pre-1st anniversary cards - they're my absolute most cherished favorites. entwined fate, lost gold, sickness and in health, skadi, railroad, first birthday, aaaa..... some of my absolute favorites.. the original personal stories 1-4 are my favorites across the board too (my favorites definitely being artem's and luke's !!)

gosh yeah i think that's why i'm so upset! i genuinely and truly adore artem as a character, and i adore his older cards. this is to the point where i used all of my saved s-chips on the previous select-an-ssr banner to get his railroad card instead of his second anniversary card!!

to make it even more baffling, i haven't noticed a quality drop like this in the other boys?! if anyone reading is a fan of the other three, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, but luke, marius, and vyn's cards all stay very consistent personality and plot wise imo. i can't help but wonder if something happened to artem's writing team?? the writing literally feels so different, i can't explain it. it's like. a lack of understanding of his charm. they dont understand why people liked him, or any of the more nuanced aspects to his character and his dynamic with rosa.

i miss them being Best Partners with artem's dry sense of humor and rosa cheering him on over the most mundane of a shit (like posing against a wall HAHA) and them taking their time and artem opening up and becomimg genuine friends who make jokes and tease each other and the strong mutual respect and consent and ;-;;; sniff

and aw thank you for the kind words!!!! i hope you're having fun too!! wishing for an absolutely touching card for lukerosa as well :) <3 year three has fantastic potential for some prime hurt/comfort angst and fluff for those two!!

[kendrixtermina]

Another Thing Chibnall can't do right: Audience Surrogates

I'm going to start this last rant with one illustrative question: Why isn't Ryan Sinclair popular?

He is consistently considered the blandest out of a cast of terribly bland, flavorless characters, but why?

Cause let's look at a purely 'theoretical' description of his character: He's a warehouse worker who experienced dicrimination & frustrating shit because of his disability & racism, he has a messy complicated family situation that he's salty about, he likes videogames, experimental music and making youtube videos.

On paper, he sounds like Mr. Relatable Millenial. Why didn't ppl eat his character up? Cause it's not like there isn't an appetite for it, ppl had been clamoring for black main characters, disabled peeps, more working class protags, what have you. There's demand.

Now I generally consider 'Relatable' a a false god & I'm the first to get angry when someone argues all characters need to be 'relatable everymen'. RTD loved that trope a lot & then ppl got mad when Moffat wasn't RTD and loudly proclaimed that no real person would relate to Moffat's characters (I guess I don't exist then...), it always pisses me off when ppl claim their experiences are universal or that they will only care about characters who are similar to them as if experiencing the PoVs of other wasn't the point of storytelling.

So the issue is NOT that I think all characters need to be Relatable Everymen. The issue is that Chibnall tried to write one & failed spectacularly.

I wanna argue that the reason for this is that he doesn't know who the audience is, and that he treats the supposed audience with mockery & condescension.... though really, most of all, he's simply out of touch with it. To make an audience surrogate type character & have it land, you need to correctly understand the audience.

Notice what tone is present when something from pop culture is referenced - for example, when Tzim Sha's victim is listening to affirmations on his headphones, its looking to be mocking ppl who do that.

Ryan shows more emotion about things being deleted from his phone than his life being threatened, landing on an alien planet or finding a desolate future earth. "Haha millenials obsessed with phones!" ...who is that joke FOR? What feelings is it likely to evoke towards Ryan?

'Climate Change Bad' is treated like it would be a totally new idea to Yaz & Ryan, who are supposed to be part of a generation that grew up with climate anxiety all their lives as a reason to be cynical

The Doctor needs to lecture them about who Nicola Tesla is, they're treated as having no clue... even though there's, like, a car brand named for him & loads of tumblr posts.

Likewise, Ryan needs to be lectured by everyone about who Rosa Parks was

etc. etc.

The same refrain all over again: Young people are dumb, young people are silly, we wrote these characters as dumb & silly because that's what we think YOU GUYS are like.

Does anybody LIKE being called dumb & silly? Are people likely to like the character used to represent their dumbness & sillyness?

I get the need to maybe exposition things for young viewers, but that can probably be contrived in some way without making the characters you're supposed to like seem dumb. With the Nikola Tesla thing, for example, how about having Graham have no idea who he is? I don't mean make him ignorant, but genuinely interested to learn.

By contrast, let's look at some other 'relatable youngster' characters & how they're treated:

Rose Tyler very much evokes a typical mid 2000s mainstream pop culture, with her bleach blonde hair & bleached flared jeans etc. You can easily imagine that she probably dyed her hair to copy Britney spears, Kylie Minogue or Christina Aguilera, like a lot of girls back then. She effectively winds up in one of the fantasy romance stories that were popular back then. She gets what's kind of a wish fulfillment story of finding out she has the potential to be badass & make a difference after being treated as a fuckup.

Courtney Woods is a rebellious teen considered difficult by her parents/teachers & labelled a 'disruptive influence'. When she introduces herself as such, the Doctor instantly likes her & respects her rebel cred. She is treated as having great intuition & being unintimidated by effective authority figures such as Clara... and that's cool & an opportunity for Clara to learn. Likewise, when he off-handedly says something that hurts her feelings, it is not played as an an 'oversensitive teen' joke but rather Clara makes the Doctor apologize & make it up to her. We are also told that despite struggling with a rigid environment at school, she becomes succesful later in life because of that same strong personality.

Rose Noble is sort of the typical image of gen Y, complete with colorful hair & pronouns. She is really into arts & crafts, makes those 'creepy cute' plushies that she sells online, but in her IRL surroundings she experiences bullying. You can easily imagine her having an AO3 or a crafts-themed tiktok. She is in one of those 'found family wholesome hurt/comfort' stories that are popular nowadays & has the protective mom many teens wish they had.

To summarize:

Their experiences are validated & affirmed, not mocked

pop culture references are used to characterize them & connect them to the audience

From the framing it's clear that we're supposed to like these characters and that they're awesome. That doesn't mean that they don't have flaws or insecurities (indeed those are a big part of what make them relatable) but they're the kind of insecurities someone in their life situation would have. (Rose T. is a tad jealous cause she worries about her love interest finding someone more impressive, Courtney doesn't show insecurity but responds by acting out, but has a thing about being unimportant/not special, Rose N. feels alienated from her peers & out of place)

the stories they get cater to wish fullfillment, which is possible due to knowledge of what these groups of people like

It would have taken a half hour google search for Chibnall to find out what the wishes & dreams of someone like Ryan would look like. IDK, find some blog posts by warehouse workers, ppl with dyspraxia, millenials etc.

One thing that's been pointed out for example is that we never really see WHY Ryan wants to learn to ride a bike. If it's just to please his parental figures, wouldn't a better arc be that they realize he doesn't need to be able to do that just to prove he can and appear "normal", rather than 'look he concentrated & climbed a ladder after all!' Like many actual disabled ppl say they're annoyed about 'shaking off the disability' type stories.

Or, he could relate to getting the chance to adventure as an escape from his lowkey dystopian frustrating life where he deals with many unfair things, or latch onto the Doctor as a mentor after losing his parental figures, or maybe worry that someone who struggles with some physical activities isn't a fit for adventuring but then realize that he can contribute in other ways like asking good questions & thinking. (especially when Yaz is a better fit for the action scenes as someone who presumably had police training)

You could have an interesting unique team dynamic this way:

Yaz could be the competent, badass one, but believing in order & authority tends to just follow/ hero worship the doctor eventually leading into the bit where she develops a crush on her, Graham is the caution/common sense similar to Rory or Donna, maybe looking to protect the younger protags but also gradually having his horizons broadened, and Ryan could get to be the heart & emotional core of the group & the one who questions the Doctor more due to being more jaded from his shitty life while also wanting to escape from it...

Like. If you gave the same list of character traits to a more competent writer, you could've ended up with such complex, dynamic & interesting characters that ppl would have been all over.

[edwardssnail]

I don't think I've told you about my twilight phase but I'm always so tickled you're a twilight account. when I was like 12 or 13 I did have the phase. this was a time that was not good for me though my family was at a really shitty church sometimes I would unironically wear a khaki skirt and blue shirt and be like "omg just like Bella." I shudder to look back on it. and I remember that was when the midnight sun partial draft was floating around and on smeyers website And I read that, but I also read midnight sun fanfiction. And I'm not sure whether it was a fanfiction or my own demented imagination (probably the former) but I confused canon with that for the longest time I had a very clear memory of midnight sun's ending. Which yk didn't actually exist. I'm a little fuzzy on the details but now but I do remember it having different plot points than the actual ending and I was a little sad when I read midnight sun and that didn't happen. Do you think Smeyer could have written twilight if she wasn't Mormon and it just would've been different or do you think the Mormonism was a vital component in creating the disasterpiece that it is.

Haha I'm glad you appreciate it because sometimes it's SO cringy having to respond to things on my fuckvictorvale account from my twilight blog. So it makes me feel better that someone has seen my main and related

The khaki skirt outfit is so iconic, I wish it was in the movies. AND EDWARD'S SLEEVELESS BUTTON UP because wtf is that. I definitely remember when twilight and new moon came out and wanting to wear all of her layered hollister tank tops and long sleeves. Even now, I love looking at all of Bella's outfits. Some of them are really cute

I didn't find out about the midnight sun draft until I was like 21, hadn't thought about twilight in years, but I so vividly remember being in my college apartment, staying up until like 3 am reading it on my phone lmao. Honestly I liked the draft better than the book. Maybe just because it was shorter. Once the book came out, I read about half and gave up because it was just TOO MUCH. Way too much Edward. I'm not an Eddie hater but good god, nobody needs to hear from him that much

Midnight Sun is actually the main reason I made this blog. I had recently read the draft, COVID quarantine had just started and I was in my last semester of undergrad and not doing well lol. I ended up watching Twilight with my roommates and latched onto it again because of nostalgia and then stuck around for the Midnight Sun craziness

At this point, I confuse canon with fan theories and the spin off books/movies all the time. The last time I read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn was the first time I read them... IN 2008. I really don't have a good grasp on what's canon from the books but I'm just here to fuck around

I think the Mormanism is vital but in the worst way. Like it did not benefit the series at all but without it, it would be unrecognizable. And part of the charm of liking Twilight is how cringy some of it is. Half of it doesn't make sense, half of it is extremely questionable , the characters often aren't developed that well. All of Breaking Dawn is just bad. But it's fun! Idk, the weirdness gives it charm. As much as I joke about how bad it is, I do genuinely enjoy it