#i'd rather have like a specific project to work on and just happen to be with a bunch of people my age

[teenagefeeling]

so i had a falling out with a friend last night (i mean. it wasn't good but like we just need some space. i hope, anyway.) and obviously the world is also on fire but for some reason i am feeling a renewed sense of hope today

i've been trying to look for volunteer opportunities centered around either the arts or historic preservation/education/etc and while im struggling to find much that fits me currently in this moment, i am just kind of seeing a lot of things and realizing how many options and opportunities for the future there are if i just do a little planning. there's this program i found where you can go to a historical site for 6 days and help with a preservation effort and while that sounds mildly terrifying.... all the people in the pictures looked so nice and happy and they reminded me of the people i met in ND while my friend was working there, who were mostly just fun young people who like the outdoors and care about conservation and they were all so nice to me then and like i wanna be a part of something like that. i wish it was easier to do locally but my local park district just has drop-in invasive species removal volunteering and while that could be fun, it's not like a thing with a specific scheduled time and group you just make an individual appointment with a ranger

[cologona]

The thing about Bruce making Dick Robin is that it can be read as empathy. Bruce and Dick both lost their family in the same way, and so Bruce tries to help Dick by giving him what he wanted as a young orphan. Justice, closure, power, meaning. Something to make the world right again, some way to move forward, someone who understands.

But that same reading is not as easy to apply to Jason

If I were to read Bruce in a particularly unflattering light, I'd say Bruce fundamentally saw Jason as more expendable than Dick. He was so afraid of losing Dick that he totally sabotaged that relationship, but he's fine with this much younger kid playing the same dangerous role? Jason is a tough street kid sure sure, but is he tougher than 18 year old Dick motherfucking Grayson??? No.

If I were to read Bruce in a more sympathetic light, I'd say that in Bruce's mind orphan = craving-for-justice-that-can-only-be-satiated-with-vigilantism, and since he found out Jason's father was dead he was trying to give Jason the same guidance and empowerment Dick got. He genuinely thought it would work. He did this at the same time that he was actively hiding the death of Jason's father, because this intense self-projection is happening at the subconscious level. He simultaneously wants to comfort the orphan and prevent the orphan from becoming "real" by hiding the truth. It is not logical but it is well-meaning.

(This self-projection is also the source of Bruce's bizarre assertion that Jason has anger issues- he isn't a classist asshole he's just sensitive! 👉👈)

Either way, there is clearly an instability to the concept of Jason's Robin. Batman and Robin requires suspending one's disbelief about child soldiers to degree higher than other superheroes, but there's not quite enough to support that suspension here.

Because how exactly is being Robin supposed to help Jason? What about Jason's supposed anger issues lend themselves to being helped by vigilantism? Jason could've just been Bruce Wayne's son, so why is he also Robin?

...Would Jason have just been Bruce Wayne's son?

I.. don't think so. I don't think Bruce adopted him just to offer a good home- not really. Bruce certainly wanted Jason to have a good home, but that's what sending him to Ma Gunn's school was supposed to be. Ma Gunn didn't work out sure, but it's not like she was the only option. Bruce could've just done more research the second time around. If Jason had rejected becoming Robin, would Bruce have still adopted him? If Batman had not intended for Jason to become involved with hero work, could you see him still sending Jason off to Wayne Manor to be adopted?

Bruce didn't just want a son, or even just a Robin. He wanted something specific- he wanted the feeling of having Dick back. Bruce praises Jason for how similar he is to Dick in his head, and based on Alfred's warning and Jason's own behavior, he apparently compared Jason to Dick quite a bit during training. When Dick himself eventually comes to confront Bruce about why there's another Robin, he pretty much lays it bare: Jason is Robin because he missed Dick. That's the core of it.

Now on one hand this is flattering for Jason! It means he was chosen for the Robin mantle because he demonstrated the good qualities similar to the original. In another universe maybe Jason Todd's Robin isn't the angry one or the dead one, maybe he got to develop and he could've become the Robin that came from sharing laughter and life rather than grief. A Cinderella? A little lotus boy.

On the other hand that's not the universe we live in and this reason has absolutely fuck-all to do with Jason.

As for Tim, parentification is straight up the basis of his Robin. It’s impossible to read his “Batman needs Robin” spiel without reading it as a meta statement because in-universe it’s just an extremely frgiggi depressing scenario.

I think Dick might be the only person for whom Bruce's intense self-projection kinda worked out. Not that their relationship was good, but the core of it was okay? Cassandra comes close but Bruce sorta… lives out his dreams of being all-Batman all-the-time through her. He pushed his bad impulses onto her and she didn’t understand the value of not being Batman so it came off really creepy. He was encouraging her to rely him. Like a tool.

[ylangelegy]

BUZZ (SEVENTEEN'S VERSION). 🎵

[SERIES TEASER/MASTERLIST] An anthology of thirteen drabbles inspired by NIKI's Buzz album— one track for each boy of SEVENTEEN.

↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺ TRACK LIST . . . HIT PLAY?

🔊 01. BUZZ ─ JIHOON. The song's about to start. (Can you hear it?)

🔖 co-producer!reader, feelings denial/realization, confessions.

🔊 02. TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING ─ CHAN. Oh, baby, look me in the eye and say you don't got it bad.

🔊 03. COLOSSAL LOSS ─ JEONGHAN. What happened to making light of every problem?

🔊 04. FOCUS ─ VERNON. Are you The Exception or do I just like your music taste?

🔊 05. DID YOU LIKE HER IN THE MORNING? ─ MINGHAO. And does it feel heavy now to look at me instead?

🔊 06. TAKE CARE ─ JUNHUI. So you take it easy, and I'll take my time.

🔊 07. MAGNETS ─ SOONYOUNG. I'd rather die than be friends.

🔊 08. TSUNAMI ─ JOSHUA. It's like you've known me through all my past lives, what an evil thought.

🔊 09. BLUE MOON ─ WONWOO. Was it hidden in the cards that I'd lose you?

🔖 long-term relationship, angst, tarot card references.

🔊 10. STRONG GIRL ─ SEUNGKWAN. Goddamn it, I'm at least somebody's strong girl.

🔊 11. PATHS ─ MINGYU. My youth is in your past; you'll always have that.

🔊 12. HEIRLOOM PAIN ─ SEUNGCHEOL. You will fall in love and fuck up, too.

🔊 13. NOTHING CAN ─ SEOKMIN. No one'll ever save you; no one and nothing can.

🎹 Works under the series will be tagged with #ylangelegy buzz x svt. If you want to be tagged for any specific member (or the entire series), drop a reply! Stories may not be published in age/track order. Please anticipate slow updates since this is just a little passion project. Looking forward to it! ꒰ •ᴗ•｡꒱۶

[alexandraisyes]

What would happen if you were a writer for TSAMS?

I mean we'll never know unless we try, however-

God the temptation to make jokes about shipping ajfsdkg;ljfasd;l

In all seriousness I'm good at finding and fixing plot holes and writing consistent storylines. I've been writing solo for years, and recently I've been co-writing fics for this fandom. And stars I'll say it now, obviously I wouldn't drag fan ships into the canon lore, that would be stupid considering most of them just wouldn't work with canon.

If I had the chance to write for TSAMS I would definitely try to influence the way certain things (specifically things like mental disorders) are portrayed, because I understand being part of the audience and the frustration of only seeing part of the story and missing an entire important perspective. I personally find so much enjoyment in that because I get to tear everything apart, dissect it, and put it back together so the fandom can understand what the story is portraying, but the fact that someone is required to tear it apart to get what should have been an obvious message most of the time is an issue, in my opinion.

A consistent problem I've noticed with TSAMS is that it's overly omnipotent on some things while being too closed about others. This is a narrative problem that stems from not having enough time to figure out the best approach for new situations they want to incorporate. This is because the writers/VAs are so bogged down by personal projects, stream schedules, their servers, life, etc that they just don't have time to figure these things out. Especially when the company is pushing for more content/lore episodes and they're just a team of four. Four very very busy individuals that have to write AND voice act the entire cast of characters. I feel like having someone who is just a writer would help with a lot of the inconsistency and unresolved plot holes.

There's a lot of strong potential for things that would stem back as far as two years that would be so interesting to see incorporated, but they just don't have the time to work through those and it's easier to keep jumping on new boats and abandoning the ones they have to sink because of unresolved tears in the plot letting more inconsistencies trickle in like so much water. So I would absolutely work to correct those and clean up the holes and resolve unanswered questions.

I'd also push for more consistent characterization, or rather better worded, deeper characterization. Not that they don't have good characterization now, overall I think they do a decent job, but there are just some things that I wish they'd touch on more. Likes, dislikes, disorders, complications, relationships, etc. What really makes up these characters; I'd probably end up with a complicated character web for the main cast at the very least to help with consistent storytelling. I do this with my own AUs to keep characters consistent, including quirks (For example Solar Flare always refers to people by their full name in my writing). It would also be interesting to dig deeper into what makes the characters them. Their personalities, beliefs, interests, morality/standards (for those without morals), and what they did and didn't find traumatic (as well as what level of trauma).

God even just the thought of how I could potentially fix the dumpster fire (/affectionate /positive) of TSAMS and co is a little exciting because there's just so much potential lying around untampered with that I would happily dig my grubby little claws into.

[freshstitches]

I've been peer pressured into including stitch markers in my patterns. It's never been my preference to use them. I don't find them particularly helpful, but I value other people's feedback and understand that they're important for many people. I'm currently making a sample of a new pattern which includes stitch markers, so I'm forced to deal with them. I have the right to loudly complain the whole time. 

Here are the top three reasons that I don't like using Stitch markers in my knitting: 

1. Markers lie. Stitch markers are supposed to be a guide, highlighting an area of your knitting and creating a landmark that you can track. But what happens if that landmark isn't in the right place? Whenever I find a mistake involving a stitch marker, there's a 50% chance that the marker is just in the wrong place and my knitting is completely fine. If the marker is next to a Yarn Over, it's even more likely to slide into the wrong position. In the particular pattern I'm working on, the stitch markers need to move, introducing another place where I can make mistakes. Mistakes happen in my project all the time and one of my most common issues is forgetting to move or place a stitch marker.

2. If (when) I make a big mistake and have to rip out, the markers come out too. It's difficult to find the correct placement after frogging. I do my best to make sure that marker placement is shown in each row. That way, the knitter knows where they should be. you can place the markers when they fall out or if you rip out, but it's still an ordeal to get them back in place. When a pattern lacks these clues, it's nearly impossible to figure out where the markers should be.

3. Very often, markers highlight an existing landmark in the knitting. I'd rather spot a column of increases or a specific stitch in a repeat than a marker sitting next to it. The skill of spotting the se landmarks is often called "reading your knitting." It's a skill that's learned over time, and not everyone has this ability. But it is a skill that's well worth learning  if you want to make projects with intricate stitch work or shaping. Because I'm able to read my knitting, I often take the markers out and use landmark stitches as a guide. As soon as I'm done making sure all of the markers in a pattern makes sense, I remove them. When I don't have to worry about markers, things move a lot faster. 

[hotwe]

Tax Season Commissions!

Hi everyone! It's that special time of year again! Time to pay the IRS so they don't come gank me, along with yet another surgery for my cat son (another mass removal but it's just a lil one on his gums so don't worry about him he'll be fine once it's gone however this still will cost over 1k lmaoooo) and with the other expenses- mainly finally getting prints and additional stickers made- this year's goal is around $3k!

Interested? ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ ↓ clicky! ↓

Here is the plan to try and reduce strain to keep hotwe projects from being neglected for 4-5 months!

I will offer traditional hand drawn commissions! The price for these is generally lower because there is no color to contend with!

Some original hotwe art (that I had been saving for the artbook kickstarter lol) will also be for sale. Tumblr crowd you wouldn't be familiar with these pieces since they're on patreon only$1forallrewardsalsosometimesforfreejustsaying but I'll make a post showing what's available.

Livestreaming is likely! Either streaming commission work which is always fun or ??? Whatever needed for your viewing pleasure I suppose! I'd collect tips/donos here from anyone who wanted to toss a penny my way rather than get a commission.

Prints pre-orders are possible, I'm still figuring that out!

How to get a commission:

(and this time I am going to explain everything fully lol)

Start by sending me an email [ contact.hotwe@gmail ] with a description of what you'd like to have done! You can tell me as much or as little as you like because I will be asking follow up questions regardless!

Commission prices are based 100% on what is being asked for and vary greatly! Once I know enough about what you're looking to get, I will give you an estimate for the price! It can go up or down a bit from there as additional information is given, specifically if you forgot to mention something or if I get more detail about something and realize it wont be as labor intensive as expected.

Do not worry if you have a budget, I will work with it! Changing things like how much is in frame and whether there is color, what kind of background if any, etc, can reduce the price a lot! Even if your piece can't be done within your budget, a sketch is only $45!

The sketch option is your request, in color (unless you don't want color!), with just the flat fee of $45. The caveat is I spend an hour and a half on it only!

I know what you're thinking, but no! With sketches, I won't double the time by doubling the price because that wouldn't be worth it for you at all. I make the most progress on a piece in that first 1.5 hours, then after that it takes a long time- like 10 hours- before any significant improvement happens to the piece. Working on your sketch for 3 hours would hardly look better than 1.5 hours, so let's save your money. iusuallygooverthe1.5hoursanywaysbecauseiamafoolandicannotbesaved

Do not worry about asking for something and finding my price is higher than your budget- you are not insulting me!!! Don't feel shy about a budget either; art is a luxury I can't even afford for myself lmao and I do want my stuff to be accessible to people in my position. Also I like to work with budgets but I am not going to undersell my work, so don't feel like you are doing me a disservice! I've been doing this stuff for a long time so I know how to wiggle around for everyone's benefit. So just shoot your shot!

For hand drawn commissions, it's much the same process as digital ones! Let me know what you are looking for, and if you have a preference on size as well. Generally, a hand drawn piece will be a bit cheaper because I don't have to agonize over color, but depending on factors like size and detail it could also ramp up quickly. However, I don't intend to take on anything particularly intensive, since hand drawn pieces are meant to reduce my commissions work time this year, not add to it!

I mean, technically I could do color, I have the pencils... but at what cost... like spiritually I mean...

Payment! I send invoices through paypal (unfortunately) and I do accept payment plans! My rule is that to protect myself, I work up to what I have been paid. So if I have been paid half the price, I stop when I have done half of the work until I am paid further.

Because of this, the payment time frame is going to be smaller this time since I'm trying to not be working for half a year. Usually I prefer the months to not exceed the first digit of the price (i.e. $100 per month at least) but this time it's going to have a 4 month cut off.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in your email! I'm always down to chat, negotiate, and goof!

Thank you guys!

[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

[harrisonarchive]

Hello! Am I correct in understanding that there was no fight between John and George on the day George left the Beatles? They sort of confirmed this in the film, and everyone says that everything was calm, except George Martin, who wasn’t even in the studio at that moment..

Hi! From George to Ringo, to anyone speaking about the alleged fight, everyone says that nothing aggressive happened; the only mention of an actual physical altercation is, as far as I know, in a book by Philip Norman, and well, I'll refer to George's opinion on that particular author. Here's Mal's insight, as published in The Beatles Monthly at the time:

“If you read certain national newspapers at the time you may well have believed a load of rubbish about George having a punch-up with the others. It wasn’t like that at all. There WASN’T a fight, physical or verbal. There WEREN’T any tempers or shouting. I just couldn’t believe it when I read the press afterwards. So, to set the record straight, here’s the truth behind George’s ‘walk out’ and the canceling of the TV Special. Of the four Paul was the most enthusiastic all along about doing the ‘live’ show. John would have gladly taken the whole production unit to Africa or America to find the right location. John and Ringo had mixed feelings about the plan, agreeing with Paul on a lot of the ideas but feeling this might not be the best way of making a 1969 Beatles TV film. George wasn’t keen at all. Ever since the last Beatles tour of America in the summer of 1966 he has considered ‘one night stands’ a thing of the past, a backward step for the group he believes should concentrate on perfecting recordings rather than churning out the same program of too-familiar songs on stages here and abroad. So on Friday at Twickenham George stated his case. Singing and playing together would always be fine with him and the last thing he was suggesting was any break-up of The Beatles. So that day, January 10, George didn’t want to stay at Twickenham rehearsing for a show he couldn’t believe in. We were all having lunch when George came over and said very quietly that he was going home. With that he went off, climbed into his car and headed for Esher. Later he told a bunch of press people: ‘Look, we’re old enough and wise enough to be past all this punching-up rubbish. We’ve been through everything together for so long we don’t need that sort of row. We discuss things and finish up agreeing or disagreeing and that’s the finish of it.’ So George’s departure made it impossible to continue with the original project. If there HAD been a real row the others might have gone ahead. But Beatles don’t work like that. If all four are not united on anything it’s dropped in favor of an alternative that everyone likes and wants to be enthusiastic about.” - Mal Evans, The Beatles Monthly, March 1969

For a meticulously detailed look at the Get Back sessions in general, and all that transpired on January 10, 1969 (as far as the public knows) specifically, I'd highly recommend the excellent They May Be Parted.

Thank you for asking; and I hope this sheds some light on the subject.

[thankskenpenders]

I feel like a recent years have shown that fan reaction has influenced the way Sega handles Sonic in some ways. Frontiers for example in a lot of ways feels like a reaction to complain. So a lot of fans have had about mainline Sonic games.

With that said what do you think about Sega making a multi-character 3D action game Sonic and then slapping it on a platform that has some of the least amount of player reach despite being a mainline platform?

I would be very curious to know more about the development behind Dream Team for sure, but as far as I'm aware the game was more than likely made specifically for Apple Arcade from the very start with heavy involvement from Apple, rather than being a project Sega was shopping around that just so happened to end up as an Apple exclusive.

I have to assume that this game would not exist at all if it wasn't an Apple Arcade project. Hardlight is very much Sega's mobile game division first and foremost, so it's unlikely (if not impossible) that Sega would've had them working on a 3D Sonic platformer for consoles and PC when that's Sonic Team's job. And Apple Arcade's subscription revenue is basically the only home for mobile games that aren't chock full of ads, microtransactions, and wait timers these days. So while it could theoretically get ported elsewhere in the future, it's unlikely that Dream Team ever would've gotten made for any other platform.

Like, there are already two Sonic games on Apple Arcade. Sonic Racing (based off of TSR) was one of the earliest releases for the service and has always been heavily promoted as one of Apple Arcade's flagship games. Later they also did Sonic Dash+, a version of the existing endless runner game with the ads and microtransactions stripped out. I have to assume that these games have done well on Apple Arcade, and Apple simply looked at that and went "Hey, what if we got them to make us an ORIGINAL Sonic game?" Apple Arcade also appeals pretty heavily to parents who want their kids to have something to play on their iPads that isn't cram full of microtransactions, and Sonic remains extremely popular with kids.

But beyond that, why they landed on a full 3D platformer with SIX playable characters, some amount of story, and a new style of level design that takes some influence from skate parks? Who knows. Maybe some folks at Sega Hardlight were just dying to make something like that, and the Apple gig was their opportunity to make it happen after so many years being stuck working on glorified Skinner boxes. Or maybe Apple thought a 3D platformer would be good to diversify their portfolio. Again, I'd be very curious to learn more

(Also, honestly, as annoyed as I am that I have to play Dream Team on my iPad instead of my PC or a console, I do find the talking point that "no one will be able to play it" extremely silly. There are billions of iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, and to a lesser extent Apple TVs out there. Billions. With a B. Apple Arcade reportedly had over 100 million users last year. That's quadruple the number of subscribers Game Pass had, even though if you asked the average gamer they'd probably assume Game Pass was the more popular one! Exclusivity is always frustrating, and I sympathize with folks annoyed that they don't have any devices that can play it, but the fandom deciding that "only six people will be able to play this" is completely divorced from reality.)

[halfmoonism]

Fics for Gaza 🍉

heya! I'll be participating in the @ficsforgaza fundraising initiative through sponsoring wips and taking requests. further rules and all my personal request guidelines will be listed below read more! my writing samples can be found in my writing masterlist (linked below) or snippets of my sponsoring wips below :)

also, do not give money directly to me. I have no links for money up regardless and I will never ask. instead, directly donate to a vetted fundraiser (can be found here and here if you need a place to start looking) and send me proof of donation (please block out personal info). fill this form out too when you make a donation, ty :)

lastly, please consider donating anyway even if you don't want to sponsor anything of mine. there's a creator masterlist if you'd rather look at what other creators are offering! and check out gotcha for gaza for any fandom-specific initiatives! free palestine till it's backwards.

general (more info below): writing masterlist post vetted fundraisers: here and here, though those are far from the only places you can find vetted fundraisers!! rate: $1 = 100 words, $8 for a drabble set fandoms I can write for: anything in my ao3, anything from the sponsored wip list, further details in carrd

General

for both

i will not be posting asks, so I'm running on an honor system. don't send multiple authors the same screenshot please, I don't want to have to stop the honor system :')

i'll have your request done within two weeks for every 1k (so 1k = 2 weeks, 2k = 4 weeks, etc) and will sent updates weekly and whenever you request

if life happens, i'll let you know immediate if i'll need more time + how much longer i'm anticipating

for requests

please send me an ask or dm (preferable, only for requests) w/ your request via dm first. so long as it falls within my request rules, it should be all good :) once I accept, then send proof of donation please!

drabble sets are a series of 25 3-sentence drabbles I can write for any prompt, as loose (fandom, pairing, centered around rain) or specific (fandom, pairing + another chara in the bg, during a specific scene in canon) as you'd like. you can req these too!

for sponsored wips

donate first to a vetted fundraiser and screenshot proof + block out any personal info

send me an ask off anon with your proof of donation and which wip/s you would like to sponsor. I will update wcs weekly

please let me know ahead of time if you would rather remain anonymous when I post the wip! I will automatically mention you in the notes unless you specify

Requests

carrd version + ship details for each fandom available here.

all fandoms I will write for (italicized = have written in published work): great ace attorney chronicles, mob psycho 100, xenoblade chronicles 1, persona 5, persona 4, death note (+ another note), pokemon gens 1-4, fe: awakening, project sekai (vbs), find love or die trying, your turn to die, undertale, long live the queen, a date with death, little nightmares, disco elysium, ib, the uncle who works for nintendo, the case study of jeweler richard, the stanley parable, portal, end roll, omori

will write: a lot. many types of AUs, canon divergence, canon missing scenes, angst, fluff, mild humor, mild crack, etc etc. requests can be as vague or as specific as you'd like. that also includes drabble sets

will not write: nsfw, dead dove, underage, omegaverse, cheating/infidelity, rape/non-con, pregnancy plotlines. generally if I don't have a ship listed in the carrd I'd rather not write it, but if I have any notps that I just can't write for in a given fandom, I'll let you know immediately

Sponsored WIPs

notes:

updates weekly

this includes potentially adding parts to completed works that I am open to writing :)

will be sorted from continuations of completed works -> short to longer fics

many wips already have prewritten segments; all sponsored words are not par of the prewritten segments, they are just the anticipated amt until the end of the fic

all of this is also listed in the carrd for easy access, but updated wcs will only be listed here

hand on my stupid heart, the henry epilogue — fe: awakening, inigo & henry & olivia, henry/olivia

synopsis: third ch of the dysfunctionally healthy family dynamic that takes place during their supports while inigo's trying (and failing) to snoop on henry+olivia. wherein henry is on an entirely different wavelength from both olivia and inigo (aka he figured early on that inigo might be his son but rejected the idea on principle) but he still just Gets It

tags: this is just silly. silly and a little sad. and rather yearning. henry is a little insane

sponsored: 0/1500

fun little excerpt: Olivia is strange, even for him. Hmm. Wait, that’s not true. She’s the shy, pretty dancer that joined at the tail end of the Plegian war—he’d consider that pretty normal. But for such a shy person, she sure does get weirdly defensive whenever he says something she doesn’t like, which is a lot! And he still doesn’t get the whole learning emotions thing, but he’s pretty sure Olivia doesn’t go around teaching the whole camp how to frown? Then, alright, Olivia’s strange when it comes to him, that’s for sure, but not anyone else. That's nothing compared to Inigo, though, ahaha.

East of the Sun pt 3, ryuunosuke's (un)grand return — tgaa, heavily implied kazuma/ryuunosuke, bg sholmes/van zieks + post-kazuma getting absorbed into a found family

synopsis: when ryuunosuke first sets foot on london again, he'd expected quite a bit to change from kazuma's letters. but not this much. aka kazuma purposefully didn't tell ryuunosuke abt sholmes/van zieks beyond sholmes visiting the office more and ryuunosuke kind of loses it

tags: post-canon, mild humor, ryuunosuke just goes through it (affectionately) while yearning himself (derogatory)

sponsored: 0/1700

Pushing Up Daisies, that's what you call thaumaturgy sequel — persona 5 royal, akechi & sumire, bg one-sided joker/akechi (that ends)

synopsis: wrapped in the suffocating vines of a perfect reality, akechi goro, without fail, calls yoshizawa kasumi every monday at 9am, never any earlier or later. he won't stop asking her what her name is.

tags: post-royal bad ending, two ppl who lost themselves clawing their way to a bittersweet ending

sponsored: 0/5000 (I don't think it'll be this short but I'll start if 2000 is met)

a long and bountiful life — mob psycho 100, dimple & mob

synopsis: “This is the first and only time I’ll use my hypnosis on you,” he says to a swaying Shigeo, and he knows this is it. (Well, he always did have grand ambitions.)

tags: canon compliant, ending of divine tree arc, angst (ig), regret

(already written: 163) sponsored: 0/1500

fun little excerpt: So, he failed. He loves that kid. He loves that kid and he’s screwed up everything for him, digging from the roots and all: the brainwashing, the mocking, the insincerity, everything he stands for was everything he threw against Shigeo, and the inkling sensation of guilt was easy enough to ignore when Shigeo had gotten full of it and denied his very existence. Easy enough when Hanazawa had stormed in and carelessly flung energy around, easy enough when he just kept proving everyone right about him, perfectly fulfilling their lack of trust and unsavory impressions, their scowls and hatred. He’s used to it! He drank it up! Of course he could take Shigeo like this! Yeah, right.

things older and murker than love [holder title] — mob psycho 100, reigen & mob & hanazawa

synopsis: sometime post-canon, hanazawa walks into s&s with an unusual request: his apartment is haunted. that isn't quite right, but shigeo doesn't know how to tell him that the walls themselves are reaching out to haunt him. (he thinks hanazawa knows, anyway.)

tags: post-canon, in which the haunting is not a person but a place, found family, hopeful ending

(already written: 912) sponsored: 0/1500

fun little excerpt: "You would?" Hanazawa mumbles. The weakened awestruck tone sounds wrong in the office, rejected from every surface and bouncing around with nebulous intent. "I mean—thanks, Kageyama." To Reigen: "No, not like something's in them. It's like—ah, you wouldn't believe me." Reigen raises an eyebrow, the way he would to a particular difficult customer. Except Hanazawa isn't a customer and Reigen's gaze is softer, fond concern shaving away the rigidity of his confidence like a whetstone.

by the cliffside, left wanting — disco elysium, cuno & harry & kim

synopsis: EMPATHY [Godly: Success] — He doesn't have anyone in the world. (The boat not having room for three doesn't stop two detectives and a fledgling hope for change.) aka: cuno goes along with harry and kim for the ending sequence

tags: canon divergence, canon-typical violence, implied/referenced child abuse, slurs (cuno), found family

note: as this is cuno pov, this means there are swears/slurs in like every sentence. oh my beloved awful 13 year old son

(already written: 2642) sponsored: 0/1500

fun little excerpt (literally a swear word in every sentence): "What if I do join the pigs, huh?!" he screams, balling his hands into fists like a goddamn street fighter, and C's face turns three shades of purple like the people in those fucking snuff films she forces him to watch. "Cuno can do whatever the fuck he wants! If you're gonna hold the Cuno back, C, then Cuno's gonna ditch your sorry ass!" He can see the moment she processes each syllable and shoves that catacomb dream out of his old-ass creaky apartment window. Yeah. Cuno's not a stupid fuck. He knows he's in deep shit. He knows C will fucking shank him in his sleep, that type of shit. Then his fucking pig sets a dinky fucker alight and the old world's gone up in smoke.

an old world's haunts — your turn to die, joe &/ sara (one-sided most likely)

synopsis: in every world but this world, sara doesn't lose joe. she can't lose joe. she can't lose joe. (in which sara's utter ruthlessness in the simulations is explored)

tags: major character death (undone, but happens in every 'world' iteration), canon-typical violence (often enacted by sara), emotional manipulation, just. absolute cruelty to survive, the ai simulations.

(already written: 2828) sponsored: 0/1700

untitled canon-divergent au — mob psycho 100, reigen & mogami

synopsis: the world's greatest psychic of the 20th century meets the world's greatest psychic of the 21st century earlier than expected. Somehow, this makes all the difference. aka, in which 12 yo reigen forces mogami to take him in as an 'apprentice'

tags: for want of a nail, nobody is dead, being kind to ppl for fun and profit (it is not fun and there is minimal profit), redemption sort of, found family, non-linear narrative

(already written: 658) sponsored: 0/2000

fun little snippet: But the kid's face reminds him of his own teenage self on the reruns he's unfortunate enough to catch, far-removed from the skin of the drained, lying has-been he's currently wearing. The desire to be someone, to go out of his way to be better is altogether too familiar. Denying this kid now, no matter how pragmatic, feels like betraying the sense of self Keiji perhaps liked best. So he asks, "What's your name?" And makes a mistake.

some sort of remaking — persona 4, kanji/naoto/rise

synopsis: as valentine's day approaches, rise gets hit with the bright idea to teach naoto how to flirt so that they and kanji could finally get it together. that is... not exactly what happens

tags: developing relationship, getting together

(already written: 479) sponsored: 0/2000

fun little excerpt: "No, Naoto-kun, your line delivery's a bit—here, say it a bit slower and try smiling at the end, 'kay?" Naoto-kun, ever the fast learner, follows her instructions to the letter. Which is great, of course! Makes her job easier! Her heart's having a hard time in the face of their sincere smile, though. She didn't think a smile could shine outside of sets.

[rileys-battlecats]

omg?? i adore everything ab all of ur work, but especially ur warriors oc stuff. all the characters are so well-characterized and designed. and also the names?? did i mention designs?? honestly mudpaw is one of the most relatable characters ive ever seen. also i love that the other apprentices are actually understanding and more like actual children cats instead of existing to be mean. (ok that sounds like im saying children aren’t mean i promise some of them are)

but like, to the actual question/s. how did you come up with the concept and get it to this point? in that one commentary video you made, i remember you mentioning that he used to be mudstripe, and he was a serial killer (sidenote that’s actually so baddie) although you decided that you wanted to tell the story of a victim rather than a villian. but did it take a lot of thinking to get micaclan as a whole to this point, or did it just kinda come naturally? also im so sorry i typed an entire essay

WAAAAHHSVDJHSDJAB THANK YOU :') also you don't ever have to apologize for sending me essays in my inbox I love asks like this <3 <3

The story and world as they are now have developed incrementally over time. In the beginning, I never really intended to make anything more for this story beyond "Johnny". I had a very specific animatic visualized for that song (because I'd been listening to it on loop for days lol), and I made characters and a story that fit with the idea.

After making and uploading it, though, the characters and their story kept knocking around in my brain!! I wanted to expand on them, and to develop them more. If my memory is right, "Johnny" was the first time I'd ever made a video telling a story of my own making (previous projects had all been stuff from existing media), and I was excited by the idea of making more :) the storytelling aspect was really interesting to me!

I started coming up with more details in my head, things like character traits and names and the next story beats I wanted to portray. By the time I made "The Garden", I'd worked up at least a loose idea of the story in my head (though I wasn't sure where exactly I was going to take it in the end at that point), and I had designed most of the clan members (mostly to fill backgrounds tbh).

Then, some folks in the youtube comments started asking about references for the different characters, and I started this blog to share them! This is definitely the point where I got REALLY into worldbuilding and fleshing out characters haha. Each reference I posted included a little bit of text about the character, and I got to put to words some of the ideas I'd had previously. Or, it gave me the opportunity to come up with some character traits for background characters I hadn't given much thought to previously! Then people started engaging with the blog more, and having people ask questions gave me the opportunity to think about lots of different aspects of the story, characters, and world. From there, it feels like the entire story expanded, bit by bit, detail by detail. So it definitely took a lot of thinking, but that thinking happened pretty naturally over time, if that makes sense!

[salad-006]

Most Esteemed and Talented Artist Salad, I hope you're doing well. Allow me a moment to express my profound admiration for your work, which stands as a beacon of inspiration in my own humble artistic journey. Your inventiveness and boundless creativity are a constant delight, and I confess that this letter is penned with no small degree of dread, given the immense esteem in which I hold you.

It is with great reverence (and perhaps a touch of trembling courage) that I entreat your permission to embark upon a most joyous undertaking: a fandub of your splendid comic, Tally Hall vs. Evil Hall. My intent is to translate this delightful piece into the Spanish language, enlist the aid of my comrades in lending a voice to its characters, and share it with the world on the grand stage of Youtube.

Naturally, I would take utmost care to ensure that proper credit is given where it is most due. Your Tumblr, Twitter, and Youtube domains shall be heavily acknowledged within the description, and both at the commencement and conclusion of the video, thus directing all respect to your rightful domain.

I fervently hope that this request does not appear untoward or peculiar, for it stems solely from a deep appreciation for your craft and a wish to celebrate it in a manner that entertains and delights. Should you grant your blessing, I shall consider it the highest of honours.

Pray forgive the length of this letter; nervousness and enthusiasm have conspired to make me rather verbose. I eagerly await your response, and regardless of your decision, I remain ever a devoted admirer of your extraordinary work.

(Respectfully I am nervous to send you this ask, I tried to make it funny but I am as anxious as a chihuahua on the street/pos)

While i think itd be funny to just reply "no" , ill give you a legitimate answer

While I appreciate the respect and I'm glad you enjoy my work, I'll ask that you don't produce this dub. To put it simply, I don't want the comic to develop any larger of an audience. I'd like to let it fade into obscurity. If you were just looking for a yes or no, there. But if you want more of an explanation, continue reading.

When evil hall blew up, it put me in the spotlight pretty quick. I kinda became a bit of a celebrity within the Tally Hall fandom. And while it was cool initially, it pretty quickly became a bit of a burden. Multiple times I had people harassing me, borderline stalking me, I kept getting pulled into dramas, I had multiple friends turn out to be awful people, and generally I didn't enjoy just being "the evil hall guy." I didn't like being reduced to just my tally hall content. I also didn't like being set to this higher standard and treated like a celebrity. Not only did it create this weird barrier between me and my fans, but it also opened up a wave of people insulting me specifically just because I was the author of a popular thing.

I dont say this to try and garner sympathy, but rather just to help set the stage. In June I released a shitpost dub of the entire comic, and announced it would be the last thing Evil Hall I would do. Plain and simple, I no longer enjoyed working on the comic. What started as a passion project quickly became more of a burden, hense the indefinite hiatus (ironic) that happened after the last chapters finished by me. Infact I'd say those last few months were probably the most paranoid I've been.

With this in mind, I decided the only viable option was to just. Cut the rope. End Evil Hall, and quietly ask that the fandom respected my wishes in letting it fade into obscurity. Allowing it to continue existing would sort of leave me in this endless limbo, where I'd never truly be free from the comic. While I still get an occasional outlier, for the most part the fandom actually listened, which I am incredibly greatful for. I've been able to completely exit that bubble and return to an environment I'm much more comfortable in.

TLDR: Ive moved on from the comic and i really just want everyone else to as well, cause the tally hall fandom is hell

[andiv3r]

hm *looks into your brain* so what is it exactly that makes darkships appealling to you? /gen /lh

Depends on the type.

(Once again leaving shit under the cut <3 just an explanation of why I like various types of darkships).

Child x adult ships? Dooon't appeal to me At All (usually I block tags cause they can make me really upset). Used to like one of them (billdip) but that was mostly me projecting my attraction toward Bill Cipher onto the character in the show who was the most like me... because I happened to be 10 at the time (younger than Dipper is in the show lmao). I also used that ship and the fucked up dynamics to process. Things 👍

Incest ships? Honestly I've only ever liked one of those (y'all know the one, I don't even have to say) and I've explained in detail why already. I'd say they don't bother me as much because there's not a(n inherent) consent issue but rather a "hey, this is probably not the safest foundation for a relationship," which is also true of like... massive age gaps between adults. There's also the "if you have a kid there's a higher chance they'll end up disabled (+ it's unfair to do something you Know could cause a person that much more difficult of a life) so Don't Do That" but that's. Not an issue. With the things I ship. Considering I find myself drawn more to queer ships + I often headcanon characters as intersex & unable to have kids anyway.

Selfcest ships? Okay come on I'm autosexual the answer should be clear with this one.

Human x non-human? This one's tricky because as with the first one I hate most of these (ships with consent issues Bother Me) BUT if it's like. A nonhuman that thinks/processes like a human and can consent in some way (ex: human turned animal, shapeshifter, werewolf, basically any nonhuman thing that thinks like a person but isn't shaped like one) then I can work with that. These ships appeal to me for. Therian reasons. Not a fan of them in a sexual context but like. A shapeshifter in the form of an animal that can talk and think and, y'know, everything else, being in a sort of qpr situation with a human who does things for them that they can't, and they do things that the human can't, is cool as a concept to me I cannot lie.

Aaand that's kind of. All the main ones. What's funny is that most of these I don't even like except under very specific conditions, so it was hard to go "I like this for x reason" without like. Explaining that Most Of The Time (or All Of The Time with child x adult) I Don't Even Like It...

[ultraericthered]

Whitewash Fit For A King

Somewhat related to the post I just made.

It's quite ironic given King Magnifico's cult leader-like status in the film that there exists a small but still sizeable (for this site at least) amount of Wish viewers who make up a cult following of Magnifico stans. And when I say this, I mean they're all that kind of villain stan.

Oh no no no no no...

Yeah, it partially gives me more cause to resent the filmmakers of Wish including both scenes with the burnt tapestry of Magnifico's sad childhood trauma-related past that spurred him towards creating his kingdom in the final cut ("If only I'd known magic back then...", "so THAT doesn't happen again!"), but at the same time, I feel like even without those moments, these people would've found some way of woobifying and saintifying the character and act as apologists for his villainy. After all, this has happened with virtually every fictional villain in existence in the history of ever. These kinds of stupid, immature simps who don't want to look in the eye the reality that their faves are problematic to the point of being literal evil villains have always existed, and a character like Magnifico is hardly the most perplexing case of this. I recall long ago reading the opinion pieces of someone who was an apologist for Scar from The Lion King, trying to paint him as a lifelong victim and Mufasa as the real villain (can't wait for the upcoming Mufasa movie to re-ignite THOSE takes!). On Xitter I once came upon someone who actually simped for and woobified fucking Ghetsis from Pokemon, projecting all sorts of mental illness and disabilities onto him while insisting that the character had some redeemability that has never once been shown to exist in canon. Even on here, there are people who stan Phillip Wittebane/Emperor Belos from The Owl House, to the point where they maliciously trivialize the religious trauma that Dana Terrace had to grow up with so that they can act like she's petty for "vilifying" the literal villain of her own goddamn story. And I don't even need to get started on the "Magneto Is Never Wrong" subgenre of villain apologism that you can find all over social media. These stans are all absolutely koo-koo!

I've seen this whitewashing/apologism garbage for villains spewed out ad nauseum and the Magnifico simps all sound the same as what I've seen out of those other villain simps - "He deserved better, he wasn't at fault for his mental downward spiral that Asha, the citizens of Rosas, and even his wife drove him to, how dare Disney vilify the mentally ill and victims of trauma like this, blah blah blah blah." And yet there was still one in particular with takes that made me go:

To be specific, it was the very same "Rainbow the Clown" take that this post gave a mention to. The person in question felt the need to mention that they're a Christian (and I hate that in the Trump era, that has become almost a red flag for me), and that as such, they believe that all black magic/dark magic has demonic roots and that they can recognize a demonic possession when they see one. Their interpretation of the film's events, which had absolutely zero basis in anything that was made the least bit explicit in the film itself, was that Magnifico reading from the tome of forbidden magic gave some anonymous demonic entity that progenerated that magic access into Magnifico's soul, mind, and body, and it overtook him. Therefore, everything Magnifico went on to do cannot be blamed on Magnifico himself, as he was "possessed" at the time, not in his right state of mind and not truly aware of the reality around him anymore. And this is why it was so cruel that he ended up punished rather than saved.

Yeah, about that. In the actual movie, there's zero mention of demons or otherworldly entities tied to that spellbook. The black magic itself that is conjured out from the book once the pages are read from and is able to make the spells and curses described within the book work is its own natural force. Its capabilities are destructive and once it bonds with its caster, it poisons their mind with an unbreakable addiction to using it, so that's why it was considered "forbidden" to start with. Magnifico unseals the tome and reads from its pages during his grievance-laden villain song, and we see this:

The magic comes out like green arms or ropes that coil around both of Magnifico's hands, and once they do, we see that green magic juice flow right inside of Magnifico, which briefly makes his eyes glow green as well. This is not "possession" - this is amalgamation. This magic binds itself to Magnifico like a symbiote, and in turn Magnifico is one with the magic now, committed to wielding it and making it manifest as awesome power to service his whims and desires. The literal next thing that happens after is the green fading from the king's eyes as he goes "Where was I? Oh yeah." After the process has be done, he shakes it off and resumes his singing, only now with the green dark magic at his disposal to freely use however he pleases. The magic and the destabilizing effect it has on Magnifico's mental state as he uses it to break and ingest magically contained wishes was not the cause of his turn to evil: it was the consequence of it.

And let's say that the book did contain a demonic entity that made the magic happen and it went into Magnifico to influence him from within a la Myotismon with Yukio Oikawa. It was still Magnifico's own damn fault because he chose to go back on his word to his wife and open up the forbidden book. He's no more absolved of calling out the demon than Mok Swagger is for deliberately summoning a demon to devour his own concertgoers. And no, "but he's just so traumatized!", "he's mentally ill with anxiety issues and was having a breakdown!", or "Asha and those selfish, ungrateful citizens drove him to it!" don't erase Magnifico's agency and capacity for making choices that he did, even in a limited time, think through and decided to go for it anyway. I'm not into the discourse over whether or not Magnifico could be redeemed or if he "deserved redemption" or not, but if you'd like to see a character's redemption, they need to have done some unjustifiable wrongs or else there's nothing to "redeem" them for!

(There was another Magnifico cultist who was a little more on point and likened the book and its magic to a substance abuse metaphor, drawing parallels between Magnifico and the character of Jack Torrance from Stephen King's The Shining. But they specifically paralleled his situation with King's Jack Torrance, when in the actual canonical narrative of the actual movie, Magnifico is Kubrick's Jack Torrance - the alcohol addiction isn't there to draw his inner demons back out so that a demonic entity can better use him and ultimately possess him, it's there to reveal who he always truly was deep down, which is what he becomes when he discards anything and everything in him that beforehand was reigning him in and holding him back.)

Another argument for the demonic possession theory? This part here in the climax, cited as the moment the entity was exorcised from Magnifico, leaving him confused and afraid of what he awoke to find himself currently facing before getting oh so wrongfully imprisoned.

....Folks, that's literally Sakina's wish, the first wish he broke and absorbed into himself through use of his newly acquired dark magic, coming back out from him. The green glow is there because, as just stated, it was that green dark magic that was used to eat the wishes in the first place. The green eyes and green glow fade from Magnifico to signify his power weakening. All the wishes that he absorbed after Sakina's come out from him following this. And if he'd really snapped out of a possession and was back to being his true "good" self at that point, why would the first thing out of his mouth be "NO! THOSE ARE MY WISHES!"? And if the demonic dark magic entity was gone, then where do the green magic hands that drag Magnifico into the tip of his scepter come from? The magic did not leave him because it cannot leave him; it's a part of him, he's a part of it. Reading from the pages of that book even once made him committed to the magic. It's a symbiotic bond and there's no breaking it. That was the point!

Last argument for this crackpot idea I saw from this person was that "high on green-colored dark magic" Magnifico cannot possibly be a valid representation of the king's true character because....his face when we first met him looked so handsome and kind! Look at him!

It's the same ol' "Hans' Twist Villain reveal was bullshit because he was not set up like a villain at any point beforehand, meaning he was not a villain until that very moment, and we can tell this because he never LOOKED evil!" argument, the one that usually relied on a single moment of Hans giving a sweet looking yet condescendingly fond and amused grin to himself after having met Anna that ignores all context, and is based on the idea that only cartoon caricatures of delightfully foul and obvious evilness have to exist to play the villain in place of realistic people in a Disney animated movie, as in real life, evil people aren't easy to identify just by looking at them. The thing is that some Disney villains, arguably all the way back to the likes of Stromboli and the Coachman in Pinocchio, serve as reflections of the dangers of people that have existed and still do exist in the world. King Magnifico is that for the covert narcissist in a position of authority that they're prone to abuse. Yeah, he won't always have EVIL BASTARD written all over his face, but there's context for why that is. In that first image, he's just talking to another person when that person is applying for a job working for him, and as such he plays the part of the kind, charming, generous and benevolent king. In the second image, he's looking at the wishes. The beauty within those magic wish orbs and the splendor their magic gives off make him very happy; that's part of why he hoards as many as possible.

That is King Magnifico.

^ And THAT is ALSO King Magnifico.

He's a villain. He visibly enjoys being a villain. He is valid as a villain. Let villains be villains and love them for that, dammit!

[onebizarrekai]

oh! that's a good one. general curiosity, do you make playlists for projects? on the topic of songs and ibvs, are there any specific artists and/or genres you associate with ibvs? do you have any song associations for specific characters?

this ask is from 2021… looks like we're doing this now… whoops…

so what usually ends up happening is that I make a playlist afterwards rather than before. I don't think I've made a project or fandom playlist since 2021-22ish, but back when I did, I would just kinda throw em together, not necessarily for inspiration, but just for fun. I don't have a full playlist I'd consider updated and complete anymore, here are a handful of songs I associate with ibvs a while ago: high dive by shaed is the honorary intro music young and menace by fall out boy sugar honey ice & tea by bring me the horizon don't go outside by poppy the judge by twenty one pilots everything is fine by all time low just pretend by bad omens suffer by get scared giants by imagine dragons

most of the time I end up associating whatever I listen to the most with whatever I'm currently creating. so, only some of these songs are ones I listen to all the time, so whatever works works.

meanwhile, more accurately, I tend to associate ibvs with video game music. it kinda takes the edginess factor out of it, which I prefer honestly. offline I make a lot of jokes about ibvs being a kingdom hearts style game, so all the boss music in those games make me think of ibvs now. nintendo music, sonic music, orchestra mixes, any music that sounds like it'd play in the bg of whatever felix is scheming (read: team skull theme from pokemon mystery dungeon), metal gear rising music, silvagunner mixes, that's where my brain goes a lot. for me, ibvs is a fake game at heart.

[littleststarfighter]

You don't have to answer this at all, just wanted to give some perspective/info from someone who's been doing illustration commissions for about 15 years: in my opinion, it's always better to work backwards from an hourly rate rather than doing value-based pricing.

When working with private individuals as clients, US$30-50/hr is pretty standard for custom freelance stuff depending on experience, but since you're new to commissions I'd recommend offering a discount for the first few slots (both to get things moving, and also to give yourself lower-stakes "training" until you get used to the process—sometimes your workflow will change in ways you didn't expect under the conditions).

Personally, I prefer to offer a fixed quote based on my hourly rate, because that gets any kind of sticker shock out of the way. I estimate the amount of time it'll take me, add ~10% as a buffer, and apply my hourly rate. The fixed quote also gives me a little freedom not to stress out if it's taking more or less time than anticipated; I just make a note for my next quote and adjust accordingly.

The hourly rate might seem high to you, as it often does to people who are used to more traditional salary structures. But keep in mind that as a freelancer, you're also your own admin support: you don't bill for time spent emailing, researching, invoicing, etc. Tax can also get a bit complicated if you start doing a lot of freelance work.

My own base (non-commercial) rate is US$60/hr, because I've been doing this for a very long time. Frankly, the reason I have a lot of long-term repeat clients who pay my rate is because I communicate well and deliver on time. I set out a timeline up front with scheduled check-ins at various stages, and then I stick to that timeline no matter what. As someone who's also hired many freelance artists in the past, I know that reliability will win over genius every single time.

Speaking of timelines, ALWAYS be specific about the number and scope of revisions you offer. Depending on the project, I might phrase it as "2 rounds of revisions, with up to 1 hour of work per round" or similar. I bill anything beyond that scope at a higher hourly rate, usually about US$90/hr, billed by the half-hour. This also gives you leverage to say "Sure, I can add a whole new character and completely change the background; that will take about X hours which will put us into hourly billing territory at X rate." Either they'll back down or you'll be well compensated for the trouble, and most importantly (from a client services perspective) you've not told them no, you've given them options and reminded them what they've already agreed to.

In terms of payment plans, I normally require 50% up front (non-refundable) and 50% on final delivery. Since you haven't yet built up a rep as a commission artist, I recommend a lower up-front rate (maybe 20-30%). I do strongly advise getting SOMETHING up front to lock clients in and make sure they can't completely ditch if something happens. Plus, refusing to pay a small deposit is a major red flag.

I offer a 5% discount for complete payment up front, because it's honestly worth that 5% just to not have to deal with chasing people down and sending invoice reminders and whatnot.

I'm sorry to hear you've been going through such a tough time, and I hope this was helpful and not too overwhelming; it's just stuff I wish someone had told me when I was first starting out, and I think it's important for working artists to share info about business practices. I wasn't strict about a lot of things back then (like number of revisions), and it always ended up coming back to bite me. It might seem counter-intuitive, but I promise that thinking through and setting a lot of rules/boundaries up front will save you a lot of stress and trouble in the end.

I seriously want to thank you for this. It's incredibly informative not just for me but I'm sure other start out artists too. You've gone over things that I'd have no idea to do, thank you.

I'm certainly looking into how to pay tax as being in the UK I've never had to work that out before as we have it done for us in most jobs. So that would have been something I'd have forgotten about and it's not something you want to miss. I definitely have to time myself working as I don't know how long I take as I've never thought about that either. I just know I'm slow. It's interesting to see what you'd charge hourly as I see a lot of fan commissions having a low fixed rate depending on what you offer.  So definitely have to look whether to offer that or like you suggest a more freelance rate of pay. I'll admit US$30-50/hr made me gasp but that's because I'm used to working for UK minimum wage (roughly $13 a hr) so that seems a lot to me. Gives me something to think about. Though I worry about pricing people out to begin with what with being quite slow and a nobody. And yes! Never forget about getting a deposit. I learnt that the bad way decades ago when I did try to do a commission and was never paid. That's what made me nervous to even begin as I can be a pushover. So need to be more strict in what I can offer and of course revise too.

Seriously thank you this is so helpful. Like you say there's so much people don't share about getting into freelance and commission work. Getting that step up, even if it's me doing it, is something I've no idea how to even start on. I get people saying why aren't you working in art? But my answer is always 'how?' It's something no one's told me about. How to sell yourself and your work. Even commission work confused me. So please don't worry this is beyond helpful and I'm very grateful for you taking your time to help me. It's been a very rough few months but I'm trying to stay positive. This may help me while I find work. Much love, Lucy 💖