#im pretty sure the creator of the terms (and if not the creator at least some of the people who use them)

[firefl1ezz]

i just. hit s+ rank in splatoon and i never honestly thought this would happen?? am i cool now.. do i get to be a part of the s4? do i get to be watered down to my running joke all the time?

[crystalistrappedintheinternet]

adding tme to my bio bc while on one hand announcing my birth sex makes me dysphoric on the other hand. some of you are misogynists

[1moreff-creator]

how often was ace guessed as the ch2 culprit during the hiatus? i wasn't around for it so im a bit curious

Not very often, but he wasn't, like, the most unheard of. This Accirax poll from august had him in fourth, as well as this reduced cast Star poll, so he wasn't as "clear" as people like Charles, David, etc. Below the is the impression I got as someone who was only here for part of the hiatus, I didn't visit Tumblr very often after 2024 began up to the release of CH2 EP12.

Levi was by far the most common guess, as everyone and their mother called that Arei had his secret and that made him look suspicious from a meta sense. And Hu has this funny thing where her secret quote in the source code of her character page, "I want to pay for what I’ve done. But even then, I still want to live," is the most "blackened" thing in existence, so she'll probably never escape top guesses for culprit no matter what. Add in the ideas that Levi could have broken Arei's neck without rope (strength argument) and Hu's wire was in the Ace-Nico crime scene (many believed the culprit of both would have to be the same for one reason or another), and they were the two big picks across the general fandom. Especially for those not insane enough to do full murder theories and stuff.

J was also up there because of MonoTV's comment that the Movie Screening Room's wall connected to the playground, which many believed could mean there was a secret passage she could access with her Universal Remote, and that made her shady. Clearly the comment was just to give a general idea of the spatial disposition of the building and room, but I understand why many thought it would be more important than that.

Probably the funniest situation was Eden, though. Because the tape thing and lockdown reasoning (that only Teruko, Ace and Eden were in the room were the tape, used in the murder, disappeared) was something the theorizing fandom was very aware of. You know, that think that actually ended up pointing at the culprit? Yeah, we knew that. A lot of people argued against its importance, but we were aware of it at least.

In fact, the linked accirax post mentions "the 1moreff-creator/thebadjoe scripture" because (at least here on Tumblr) we were some of the biggest exponents of Eden!Culprit with our respective theories, and we both used the tape's disappearance as reasoning for it. Now, make no mistake, there were always plenty of people that thought Ace could have been the one to take the tape, and in fact I'm sure that could have certainly earned him some votes in the linked polls, but a lot of people that pointed to the tape believed that, based on the way the scene played out, only Eden could have taken it.

We were wrong.

Sorry about that, Eden :v I swear I would have picked Ace as the culprit if the scene made it a bit easier to believe he picked up the tape T_T

That said, if you looked hard enough, there were always people who guessed pretty much everyone as the blackened. From guessing that David could have manipulated someone into murder and he'd be the blackened (even then, the main guess for murderer in this case was Hu I believe), Whit because of the "hanging out" comment (and general Whit bullshittery), Arturo because he was one of the only people who we knew would have heard the Arei-Eden conversation referenced in the note, Rose as a bit of a wild card guess because of her lack of alibi at night, to Charles (somehow) because the handwriting in the note is strikingly similar to the handwriting in the custom weapons list. Hell, after LGI some thought David would replace Teruko as the protag, maybe there was some kind of Teruko!Culprit theory out there. We had a lot of fun :D

So, as a final answer, I'd say there were four big "tiers" of characters in terms of character suspicion. "Main Suspects," being Levi and Hu, "Popular Alternative Guesses" including J and Eden, "Some Guesses Here and There" including Rose, David, Whit, etc., and "No Shot" including things like Xander, Min, Arei, Teruko and possibly Charles. I would say Ace fell in the lower end of "Popular Alternative Guesses" tier, take that as you will.

Thanks for the ask! It was fun to reminisce!

[the-skeleton-in-ur-closet]

Heyo!! Would you be willing to talk more abt hitman code:blue? I uh. I'm definitely very normal about it eheheh.. Also! Is the code:blue part referencing the term by the same name? Thank you in advance! :D

im not sure what you’re asking in the second question, but i can tell you a little more about Blue! :)

Firstly, Blue is a bit of a control freak. Well, a lot of a control freak. It’s mainly why he works alone. He scares off… uh… everybody. (Don’t get involved with him. Your life can and will end up completely under his control)

Papy is the only one safe from Blue’s controlling nature, only because he’s been with Blue since the beginning, through thick and thin. (Of course, they’ve only ever had each other)

Blue is a gentleman, and always tries to be polite to keep up appearances! (Guess the dating manual did come in handy)

Despite everything, it’s in Blue’s nature to get at least a little attached to those who are good to him (Papy balances this out by being extremely untrusting of everyone around him and Blue). But if you really get his attention, well, Blue tends to get just a little, obsessive.

Blue tends to just not sleep for periods of time. Nightmares and all that.

The lack of sleep doesn’t really help him much. Blue is paranoid, twitchy, often restless. Though polite, he’s still unstable. His guard is never truly down, and it takes its toll on him.

He’s… he’s been betrayed quite a bit.

Blue loves cooking, especially tacos! If he’s interested in you, he’ll be pretty adamant about bonding through cooking!

.

well, while you’re here, you wanna hear a little more about Blue’s background?

“uhhh….. creator protection?…”

:3

[cherubchoirs]

hii just letting you know that all your work related to v1s creators especially with me having an oc (Amit) who originally created blood fuel... though they're pretty different as they DO regret what they did and refuse to admit they're proud of how far the machines have come.

i see that you do something with its creators and i EXPLODE

anyways. i wonder if some of its creators regret any of their actions. Maybe before or after seeing the violence it causes. Maybe even trying to shut the project down completely? Every person is different and im sure people had conflicting ideas about something like this idk. Some may have been proud to create something as complex, while others maybe just be doing it because its seen as necessary for the war. Idk i just want to know your thoughts on its creators! :]

WAUUUUGHHHHH AMIT IS SUCH A GOOD OC,,,,,if i can just. tell you how much i enjoy their concept for a second because i think you REALLY nailed the feel of ultrakill with them, like they suit the universe incredibly well and perfectly slot into the lore in their design + punishment. ESPECIALLY especially because we now know the machines are partially flesh, and so it's this ultimate, horrible end to that idea, to have the soul now locked into the machine in the same way. that soul still "living" still conscious of itself and what it must do, what it has done, UGH i love love their whole thing. im sorry if im bad at expressing my thoughts, im just so impressed by them, the execution is stunning!!!!

BUT OK YES YEA I LOVE V1'S CREATORS.....OR THE IDEA OF THEM....i think of them as a core team of 3 people, "named" for the three wisemen of the bible - melchior is the lead designer, while balthazar creates the software and caspar creates the hardware and they're. eccentric as a group to say the least.

melchior is by far the most detached from what they're making, instead viewing v1 as a piece of art, a magum opus before their inevitable death. it's not really in a mad scientist way, melchior just genuinely believes they can achieve a machine that is far beyond what has been produced before and will live on far into the future to challenge newer generations (they don't really conceive of war ever ending, and instead think of life in terms of conforming to and building around war). i talked about them a bit earlier, but they have dealt with severe lung damage from the air that has left them in progressively declining health which contributes a lot to their focus on v1.

balthazar is the most level-headed in viewing v1 for what it is and is the most conflicted about what they're all making. he must constantly push its ai, improving it over and over again into an uncomfortable territory of adaptive intelligence for what it must do, and knowing how smart previous generations have been, balthazar is aware v1 could achieve advanced sentience. they have to do this, they have to find a way to stop the earthmovers, but what can the ultimate war machine be with a thinking mind? it's existential dread that largely grips balthazar, but the concerns are unheard by melchior who only enthuses about the idea of it.

caspar is desperate for v1 to end this, she is so exhausted with living in suits, in heavy gas masks, never seeing the sky or breathing the air like people once did. she makes whatever melchior wants work and she can often be found removing her gloves and lifting her visor to feel and see v1 directly (both caspar and melchior snap at her for this, but she always ignores them). caspar doesn't consider the implications, because in her mind v1 is the end of this - the war stops with it and she wants to be sure it has the body to do it (she really is the reason v1 can run on 1 hp at full capacity lol)

the three work incredibly well in sync and i think they have a lot of trust in one another for what they can do, but only balthazar and caspar live to see v1 "fully" completed - i really do like the idea that melchior donates their heart after their death (I GOT. whole ideas about video diaries they leave that are found by v2, very weird for it since it never got to meet them!!!!) those two finish the prototype at least, but i'm not sure on the timeline after this since v1's development is entirely halted due to the new peace. which is. a weird fucking thing for the two of them, an achievement of really what they both wanted but with their hard work benched pending v2's development and melchior's dream effectively dying not soon after them. they are both instrumental in advocating for its preservation, with both modifying it to hopefully make it through what may be a forever stasis by reinforcing its body and mind. v1 remembers them all only vaguely, usually if its memory is jogged by something it sees, though gabriel does try to assist in this since he believes it's important for v1 to recall its "family". hopefully i can get around to posting all of their designs soon as well as their updated husk looks!!

[transbeeduo]

i definitely agree that a lot of boobers are so fucking weird about them, there’s no argument there.

but specifically about the “replying to posts like theyre friends” thing, i feel like that’s just tumblr culture (for lack of a better term) honestly. responding to ppl’s posts like it’s a conversation has always been normal here in my experience.

i will say, i havent particularly seen those replies, so i dont know how far/bad they are when you refer to them, but just generally i think thats the least weird thing they do.

(i dont mean to sound like a “ive been in tumblr 50 years and this is just The Way 🤬” by the way, i mean this completely normally, im just bad at tone)

Hey!! I totally forgot to reply to this beforehand, major apologies. (I assume this is a response to this post? )

But yeah, I can definitely see that! I do know it’s part of Tumblr culture to respond to other people. But I feel an issue with how a lot of replies under Ranboo’s posts do it is that they either

A.) just be really weird (a lot of which are making jokes about Ranboo’s queerness or “joking” about them being transfem or fem-leaning, which they’ve never stated was a thing I’m pretty sure)

B.) Behave as though they’re friends with Ranboo, or refer to them with terms people would normally use to refer to close friends (I see people calling Ranboo a fag under HIS OWN POSTS. I know people call each other faggot in a positive/endearing way here, which is awesome! But like it’s still weird to do it to someone you don’t know, and don’t know is comfortable with the term I think.) People also tend to reply to serious posts in this way, which is fine for the most part, but I feel drifts into being more of a “we’re friends I’m comforting a friend.” Sort of thing occasionally.

All of this, combined with how Boobers also will hound Ranboo about shit on other social medias, (BooTWT is like. Weirdly possessive over Ranboo being their “ideal content creator” and whenever he does something that they don’t like they FREAK OUT. Either demanding an apologies or harassing other people. ConnorEatsPants being harassed about Genloss comes to mind, along with Boobers harassing Tommyinnit a lot of the time as well. And they’re just dicks to a lot of people in general.) people will somewhat mimic that behavior here, although seemingly to a lesser degree than Twitter. And while replying to posts is usually harmless, I feel like people just get too friendly or behave oddly to Ranboo, who’s someone they don’t know, and who doesn’t know THEM. It’s just a lot weirder than the average Tumblr account interaction I think. And while replying to them is fine!!! I have no issues with that (And I’m obviously not going to stop anyone or try to police how ppl interact with others) I just feel like people need to step back a bit and be like “I’m interacting with someone I am a stranger to.” rather than “I know a lot about this person. Therefore we are friends.”

[txgrteo]

a long post about a long absence

i don't want this to be too long, so i'll probably omit some unnecessary details, but i wanted to open up about wtf happened to me. i feel bad for leaving so many people who care about me with literally no information. the last time i engaged with art as a community was pretty much exactly a year ago, early november 2023. posted a zeraora pic on twitter and stuff and just kinda jetted. it wasn't supposed to be what it is now, it just became that.

i got really demotivated, for starters. I've always struggled with reach and public perception, and my obsession with being a better version of myself. And i like to use empirical data for that- i prefer metrics, such as likes, retweets, comments- anything that can be graphed, quantified, etc. It's just how I work, i really like structure. But I never got that growth I was looking for. Posts didn't perform and I hated it- namely the feeling of being either not good enough or not acknowledged enough. so yah i left-

but oh boy did the shit hit the fucking fan. late november after i left, my long-term freelance position went up in smoke mainly due to mismanagement on their part, and that left me without literally any income. so no job, and literally couldn't hold a pencil without wanting to stab it through my neck (so, commissions were a no-go) means i was pretty fucked.

skip to like march and i hadn't literally drawn a single image since november. had no drive to. and right there i kinda just called it quits. social media was eating me alive- i couldn't deal with it. shortly after i got rehired, quit for the last time because of MORE mismanagement, then lost my apartment. i'm in a safe place rn with some absolutely outstanding friends but yeah...

---

i don't know if i can come back. i don't know if i'm capable of dealing with my perception of my work in the oddly socially competitive market that is digital art. i don't know or care if i'm a good artist. i literally do not. even if i were/am, could i handle the pressure that social media brings me? it might just be something i'm unable to handle. so even if i wanted to come back, and im not sure if i could- should i?

so, for now, i'm gonna keep all my art to myself. i've drawn some banger shit lately (I FINALLY AM GETTING PAINTING DOWN YESSSSSSSSSSSS) but... i shouldn't post it. if i do, and it doesn't soar to relatively meteoric heights, the cycle will begin anew, and i ain't feelin that.

idk. who knows. it's whatever regardless. i just want to put myself first for once and worry about healing as a creator and learning to love what i make again. i didn't draw a single picture for 8 months. actually nothing. im drawing again now but i'm not willing to open myself up to relapsing into hating my art or myself anymore.

...as an aside, fuck twitter/all for-profit social media and what it's done to the internet as a whole. literally fuck it. i hope twitter goes up in the biggest ball of flames it can. (unfortunately this means you too, tumblr).

(last thing i wanna say is that i WILL most likely be making at least one post in the not too distant future, for commissions. i'm in an extremely dire part of my life right now and regardless of my emotional state i still need to eat. so i'll be making a commission post at some point.)

anyways, thanks for reading

[honey-minded-hivemind]

Beast Anon here! 8D Oh-ho! Wings of Fire is ICONIC! So glad to hear its merch has taken off at last! ;D

In answer to your questions, hmm...golly-gee, when it comes to your AUs there's a lot to choose from xP Although, if I had to pick on the spot...I can't help but notice your Dark AU has been getting a lot of attention lately, and I have been warming to it for the interesting twists and turns it has been taking :) I think X-Men 97 has really been going great, I'm loving it! Something I really like that I noticed recently was just how efficiently each episode manages its 20-30-minute runtime, it's another sign the show-creators put a ton of effort into the whole thing ^^ Now, my favorite platonic yandere of the week...is gonna be Beast. Always. I don't have that nifty little nickname you gave me for nothing :> Right, I'm going to be completely honest with you...I have no idea who/what Marvelade is, but, sure, if you're interested in how they'd handle the very introspective and fascinating 'What If' series, I'm all for it ^^ I've been doing very well, thank you for asking! :D And how about yourself? How've you been in the span it took me to respond? Anything new going on? ^^ In terms of topics I'd like to talk about, hmm...what do YOU think of the X-Men 97 show? =p

I am alright 😊 I planted a rose bush (I hope I did it right), and I've made a new AU...😅 That's a specialty of mine, isn't it? I have been catching up on some much-needed sleep, though, so it's good. As a kid, sleep wasn't as exciting; when you get a bit older, it is very much a necessity. I sometimes wondered as a kid, if adults at work and jobs had a mandatory nap time, if that would help with their stress? I was a weird kid, to be fair, but i think younger-me made a point to older-me.

I think X-Men 97 is doing pretty swell! It's using their time very well, as you said! Thirty minute episodes, yes! And there are a few curse/cuss words/adult words... So that's fun, in a way. The characters... I think they're sticking to their core personalities, which is good. They're acting the way they did in the Animated Series, and the show fits that theme, just a few years from then. I like Morph. I like Roberto. Older Magneto is looking well for an older guy, and now im sure he and Xavier at least had a QPR (queer platonic relationship) in that universe. Wolverine is grouchy and working on being a dad, so that's great. Jubilee is awesome, that never changes. The Jean Grey/Madeline Pryor thing was handled better than the comics did! (Yes, I actually know about that, yay!; I know a bit from the comics, just not, well, a lot😅). And I like that they can part on nice terms; let these people be friendly and have friends, darn it! Beast is still the same sweet, Shakespeare-loving furry scientist we all love (he was humming/singing classical music, that's a plus, and I didn't know I wanted that until it happened!) Storm lost her powers... I think she might get them back? But I'm not 100% certain. Maybe... 75% certain? Scott needs a vacation, a therapist, and possibly a few cups of relaxing/night-time tea, if not the whole package (he needs sleep and therapy, and I hope he gets it, poor guy needs a break-) So... Yeah, I think they're doing right by the series, they're using their time wisely, they kept the characters on point/in-character, and I can't wait to see more!!!😊💛💙

(I hope you are okay, Beast Anon! Thank you for checking up on me, and I wish you the best this week! Have a treat:🫐🥧🍓🥞🧃)

[yaqamole]

asking on here because im too shy to ask on the operationdrawacircle blog because im pretty sure it doesn’t allow anons (makes sense because i know there’d be some racist shit if anons were allowed) but if i’m white (or i guess white passing but i personally don’t like calling myself that term) and indigenous american would i still be allowed on the POC hetalia creators list? i was going to be added to the old BIPOC hetalia creators list but the blog owner never got around to adding me. it’s totally okay if not. i understand the list is for POC, and while i count under the BIPOC umbrella im not a POC or at least i don’t consider myself to be

If you're an Indigenous American then you are 100% allowed on the list. Just go ahead and send me a message/ask with your @ and what you create/what characters you focus on :)

Also I thought I had anons open on the other blog but if I'm wrong I'll fix that right now!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

HAHA NOOO MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR REST!!! Honestly im so prone to just passing out if im somewhere comfortable and I’ll wake up and be like “…..shit” but hey naps happen for a reason too sooo ok but as inspiration keeps striking im just mentally visualizing your “to write” list LMAOOO honestly its such a feat how you’re able to keep track of all the different storylines and ideas if it were me id probably end up accidentally making the crossover of the century HAHAH actually im kinda curious (besides the inspiration striking) what’s your process of choosing what to work on/how to get things started?

Ok yeah there’s definitely worse parents than the itoshis but wow it’s very interesting seeing the difference between parents who really act like devoted parents to their kids and others who are…stumbling…let’s just say LOL I really hope we see more of everyone’s family at some point or another…I see fanart of this all the time but imagine all of their sisters just bumping into each other on the street it’d be so cute and funny!!

Omg no because I think everyone got baited by that Bible ranking poll but people forget that’s it what the BLLK characters ranked them and their opinions/impressions NOT what is actually fact according to the creator (tbh I was confused at first too especially when naruhaya ranked for most generous and least generous)

If we keep following Isagi so closely we’re gonna need more episode (insert character here)s LMAO hoping that doesn’t happen though because I think it’d cry if I found out we were just watching only Isagi Noel ness and Kaiser for a whole 50 chapters

-Karasu anon

i love sleeping LMAOO plus so much of my writing i do at night right before bed so if i feel sleepy earlier i have less time to write 😓

hmm in terms of what i choose to work on it’s pretty much what i’m having ideas for!! so usually it’s whatever i’ve consistently been working on for the past while as i’m more “in” that storyline!! so like it’s easier for me to keep writing for hollyhock vs going back and writing for peregrine as it’s been some time so that storyline isn’t as fresh for me. but then once i get some momentum for it it’ll be easy to write for again!! as for what i choose to write…definitely some characters are easier for me to write for than others (ex karasu vs yuki) so i tend to gravitate towards those characters, and then within that i’ve noticed that some tropes flow better w my writing style than others so if i have an idea that shits that i will typically go for that first!! and then too i’m not immune to validation so if a work is getting a lot of comments (or even just a couple detailed ones) and feedback i’ll be more inclined to work on that!! it’s made writing bllk fics on ao3 hard as the fandom isn’t super big yet so i don’t get many comments (if any) esp compared to my jjk works

i can’t even lie getting stories started is difficult for me i usually have to rewrite my beginning few paragraphs a few times before it morphs into something i don’t mind/like!! so i don’t really have a set process besides trying to start in the action…if you start too far in advance (which i always do at first) the beginning gets to be very wordy and info-dumpy!! in my experience it’s good to start like that and kinda orient yourself in the story and then cut to the action for the ACTUAL beginning

the itoshis are def leaning towards bad but they’re not AWFUL like some parents (hiori’s and kaiser’s parents come to mind) definitely not as good as isagi’s though!! and yeah i do wish we could see more interactions between the families but considering how we hardly get to see players that aren’t in bm that might be a tall ask 😭

yeahhh i do think that the bible poll def made things confusing especially because there’s no official english translation afaik so if that’s not made super clear in the version you’re reading online it’s easy to miss!! haha i think it’s funny how reo got voted for like all of the positive ones…he truly is mr perfect and we love that for him

NO FR if it’s just the german people + isagi w occasionally hiori/yuki/kurona/kunigami cameos for the entire next arc i might cry 😩💔 though i don’t think they would do that because it would mean taking away the focus from soooo many popular characters (rin, bachira, nagi, chigiri, barou) for even more time 🤔 i suppose we will just have to trust the process and see what happens!! for now it seems like bm vs pxg is going to go on for a bit longer so at least there’s karasu cameos to look forward to (as long as we don’t keep getting backstories…imagine a shidou/wildcard flashback is next lowkey that would be hype af)

[banchieplaysminecraft]

How Aaron could’ve been a good character and why he wasn’t

I’ve been annoyed at this for a good long while and i’ve finally gotten around to talk about it so here we gooo

please note that, though i watched all of mcd s2 while it was coming out, i haven’t rewatched it all the way through (i’m a little less than halfway through s2) so bear with me

now, we can all agree that we didn’t really have a lot of beef with aaron in s1. was it annoying that aph was keeping secrets?  yes. did we actively enjoy the fact that this random edgelord showed up with all of this convenient information? sure. but did we actively dislike him? i don’t think so

im sure that some people did, but it was a far cry from the universal grudge that we as a fandom hold. the only question is, what changed?

the answer is pretty simple: he got annoying

there is no greater sin that a content creator can commit than to make a character tedious--especially a character that the fans are meant to root for. i once heard someone say that there is no such thing as a good character and a bad character, there are only interesting characters or boring characters

now, before the s1 finale, aaron wasn’t annoying because he made sense. we didn’t know a lot about his backstory, but we knew just enough to not have a lot of questions while also understanding why he as a character worked. he spied on zane, he got information, and he got away with it because, according to every government in existence, he was dead. he was doing it to avenge his village, which seemed to be his reason for doing most things.

 that was basically it, because that was all that we needed. he didn’t answer personal questions because that could reveal his identity, and he didn’t hang around phoenix drop proper because he knew that there was a spy in the village who might figure him out. all in all, he was a very logical character

what changed? his motivation

after the gang sealed zane in the irene dimension, may i ask WHAt the fuck was his reason for staying??? nothing! what was his reason for keeping his identity a secret? pretty much nothing! it made no sense!!

according to all of his characterization as a *~lone wolf~*, it would make the most sense for him to strike out on his own and do whatever the fuck, maybe occasionally popping back in to warn the main characters of some impending doom, maybe hold a giant fuckass sword to someone’s throat again, maybe find some other tyrant to destroy.

but he didn’t, and it made no sense

this was made exponentially worse because he was an ~edgy dark angsty boy with a sad past and a dead wife~ and because he seemed to be able to do no wrong. he rarely, if ever, communicated with the rest of the group, and he often just went out on his own--and yet, most people seemed to trust him unconditionally?? he always seems to show up at the right place and the right time with little to no explanation as to how, and no one ever questions it. sure, laurance and dante had some doubts and even spoke up once or twice, but laurance’s grievances are mostly due to being in love with aph, and literally no one else ever asked anything, despite not even knowing his fucking name

and, of course, everyone thinks that he’s super hot and aphmau falls in love with him and then he dies a tragic death in a moment of self-sacrifice that really wasn’t all that heroic because he left his wife and child behind

i mean, come on

THAT BEING SAID he had soooo muuch potentiaalllllll

LET ME EXPLAIN

during s1, his role in the story was the spy--and he was very good at it, because everyone thought that he was dead!! how are you gonna blame a dead man for anything without sounding crazy! no one knew his name or his face or anything--and they should’ve kept it that way because, surprise!! theyre still at war in s2. sure, it’s a different war, but it’s still! a fucking! war! and like 70% of war is ESPIONAGE and INFORMATION and STRATEGY, havent you ever heard the phrase KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE??? they literally had possibly the best spy that they knew of and instead of actually putting his skills to work he just dramatically leans on trees and sits in the shadows??? WHAT

he clearly had ways to get into high places, since he had somehow gotten his hands on the amulet in s1, and he used to be a lord so he would’ve known things about POLITICS and KINGDOM STUFF--i mean, we all know that aphmau knows jack shit about this world and how it works.

what SHOULDVE HAPPENED IS:

after they all get back to the overworld, he leaves the party. idc if it’s immediately after or if he waits a few days, but he leaves regardless. every once in awhile, we hear of him popping up in various places, and we run into him a few times. he informs the gang of what he’s heard, maybe tags along on some missions. he still shows up in random places the way that he does in canon, but since he’s not based it phoenix drop i think that it makes a bit more sense, and he occasionally pops back into phoenix drop whenever he’s in the area or needs time to rest and recharge, and stays an informant for aphmau & her crew. as things pick up, he slowly becomes a more commonly-seen member of aphmau’s inner circle. 

throughout this whole period, he finally starts to come to terms with the death of his wife & their village, and he slowly starts to share more with the group--nothing big, just details here and there--and he actually starts to develop *gasp* a personality. i’d like to imagine that he gets closer with laurance, dante, and katelyn instead of only ever talking to aphmau. i don’t think that he’s ever super talkative, but he starts to be a little less quiet & closed off. 

at this point, he’s either told them his name or (preferred) they all have a list of nicknames that they cycle through to address him. sooner or later he starts to help with the building of phoenix drop and the alliance, taking on duties that are more akin to his old role as lord. he either phases the espionage out of his schedule or ghostwrites all of the legislation, and falls more easily into his new roles

i don’t really care if he ever ends up with aphmau or not, but if he does then that also happens at some point or another, but i, at least, would no longer be angry at that outcome

However, this whole plot would require everyone in the story to take literally all of their roles in this literal government that they’re building seriously, and we all know that that’s never going to happen, but i can dream /s

Tl;dr, if aaron actually used his strengths and skills to be a useful member of this alliance instead of randomly showin up and dramatically hitting things with his giant fuckoff sword, he’d be so much more tolerable

[weebsinstash]

Hey sorry to pester you and feel free to ignore this if it's annoying or 12 billion people have already asked but how far percentage-wise are you in writing the new chapter for BOAL? Sorry if this is annoying 😭

Gosh dude I keep trying to answer this ask without making it hella long by adding all these unnecessary details about "oh I feel bad I haven't written in ages blah blah blah, been prescribed new meds that might be helping, something something I just had my surgery for my other leg so hopefully I'll get something written while I'm being a sloth and recovering" so on so forth

Basically I've been real ass unproductive, I keep having these not-sure-if-it's-mania-but-could-be-mania emotional upswings and downswings where I'm either making so many WIPs I don't know what to work on to just. not doing shit, and obviously that's just in terms of writing. I've been having other personal issues that I've touched on before in probably a little too much detail 😅

Anyways, imma be honest and say The Storm is like, maybe slightly over halfway done, with the next chapter being, gosh, mostly unwritten. There have been some tweaks and shit done just off the cuff along the way which is another reason I haven't been super proactive in writing just because I kinda worry im going to dig myself a hole of inconsistent writing and odd choices and having to change things to be consistent because I didn't fully think an earlier decision through or--- basically im massively overthinking it and kneecapping my potential with anxiety

But I've actually been thinking about the series and just writing in general a lot lately so. No promises but I hope to get SOMETHING worked on soon because I do really like writing 🥺 also like im unemployed right now which isn't great obviously but for my mental health it's been pretty good so... yeah! Hopefully I get something out eventually. I'm in a leg cast for at least 4 weeks so that's at least 4 weeks of me being able to take it easy and hopefully get some shit done

So yeah! These upcoming chapters are going to have a lot of emotion and action in them and I have to kind of find the balance to strike with that, which has been, uh, intimidating for me. But yeah! I just need to tell myself I'm writing as a hobby and it's not like I'm writing a college paper or an academic essay lr something and that I gotta stop always trying to like. I dunno. Try and make my stuff as "perfect" as possible

Also like sometimes the performances of being a content creator gets exhausting so I kind of needed a break from that for a few months. Obviously I know I don't have to and I'm not required or obligated or being forced but I feel guilty when I "can't provide for my following" and then that can develop into like, weird habits and mindsets of putting the pleasure of internet strangers above myself when I'm literally writing for my own enjoyment and really the point of publishing it is just so I can be told "oh this was fun to read, good job!" to get extra enjoyment out of what I've written

But yeah dude you're not being annoying! I think I needed a break from writing and publishing for a while and im trying to ease back into it at a comfortable pace so I don't get overwhelmed so... I guess stay tuned and hopefully something will happen soon 😌

[biomic]

I've seen Kamen Rider Drive and Lupinranger VS Patranger so I wanted to know your opinions but their is something I don't really understand, can you explain the difference in why Shinnosuke (is that correct?) and Keiichiro (is that correct?) are ethically different even when the are both morally similar?

(apologies to my mutuals who are probably sick of hearing me complain about drive but they asked)

im biased on this one bc keiichiro ended up being my favorite red despite being a cop (the power of kousei yuki’s smile.), so i can’t really say my opinion on this is totally objective or anything. i would completely understand why someone wouldn’t want to engage with either of them given their roles as cop superheroes (although i have no idea how that one person on twitter came to the conclusion that keiichiro was Definitely a fascist but shinnosuke was a great rider)

but for me, it’s mainly a difference in how they and their enemies are framed, especially in regards to the franchises they’re in

(the rest under the cut to spare my followers)

from the start, i think lupat has a leg up on not being too copaganda-y because the lupinrangers are there as the dual protagonists, and really their story is the emotional core of the show. even if the series isn’t gonna address the problem with superhero cops because it isn’t built for that, we’re at least getting another side of things, you know? and their enemies, the ganglers, are pretty standard sentai bad guys. they’re interdimensional invaders whose goal is to take over the universe. dogranio and his subordinates have all the trappings of a classic mobster gang, but at the end of the day they’re still clearly Sentai Monsters. it doesn’t feel as uncomfortable when the patrangers blow them up, because that’s what every other sentai in history does

keiichiro himself starts the series as an angry hothead who’s dead set on capturing the lupinrangers and defeating the ganglers. but as the series progresses, we see that underneath the bluster, he’s a kindhearted guy who cares a lot about other people. this is most evident with his relationship to kairi, where he can see how closed off kairi is and actively wants to make a connection, but you also see it in his interactions with tsukasa, satoru, and even that girl who had a crush on him (my self insert). he’s just Good in a way that’s very genuine, not just following the classic toku hero archetype. he’ll take a laser blast or a deadly amount of poison to protect the public, sure, but he’ll also reach out to you when you’re feeling lost and alone. that does so much to elevate him as a character

and then, you have this scene

the show makes it very clear with this scene that for all the stock keiichiro puts into being a police officer, the thing he cares about most is helping people, and he’ll give up that position the moment it stops being about that. is that enough to justify another cast of toku cops? not for everyone, understandably, but i at least appreciate that lupat makes sure to firmly establish this as keiichiro’s motivation

shinnosuke, on the other hand, doesn’t have this kind of depth to me, and it makes his role as a cop all the more problematic (for lack of a better word). shinnosuke’s version of Good is much more in line with the basic toku hero archetype, and aside from some peter parker-esque lines early on in the series, drive doesn’t do much to develop him beyond that, so he doesn’t have a lot to work off of besides Cop. he doesn’t have those quieter human moments that make keiichiro shine as a person beyond his badge. shinnosuke doesn’t feel driven by an innate desire to help people, but by wanting to live up to his dead cop dad. it’s harder to latch onto in comparison

the biggest issue, however, is how the roidmudes are portrayed. the ganglers are your stock sentai baddies, but kamen rider is known for having more nuanced takes on its villains, and that’s technically true of the roidmudes. they’re not soulless conquerors, they’re robots who’ve been abused and abandoned by their creators, and want to take back humanity for themselves. the problem is nobody in the main cast seems to be put off by wasting these sentient beings anyway. giving them this sympathetic portrayal while still having them get kicked to death every week by our cop protagonists ends up feeling a LOT more iffy than what was clearly intended. no, that’s not to directly compare fictional robots to real marginalized groups (nobody in our world is crafting evil scifi schemes to get back at humanity bc of police brutality), but it just puts the usual “blow up the monster” formula of the typical tokusatsu series under a really uncomfortable lens. we see glimpses of non-evil roidmudes in the show, but this doesn’t cause any of the protagonists to question what they’re doing in the grand scheme of things. instead it just comes off like these are one-off fluke cases compared to the rest of roidmudes who need to be destroyed no matter what. the show ends with every roidmude dead, and we’re supposed to feel sad at this great tragedy, but it’s undercut by the fact that it could’ve been completely avoided had any of our heroes stopped for one second and thought, “hey, maybe we could like. capture these guys instead of killing literally all of them? you know, like cops are theoretically supposed to do?”

and then you have all these little things in drive that build up over time into something that just became impossible to ignore for me. nobody ever questioning krim despite being shady as hell and abandoning heart in a lab with fucking banno of all people, shinnosuke letting that one ex-cop who put people in danger to solve an old case off the hook despite never giving a roidmude the same opportunity, the police department putting together a roidmude HIT LIST. and on top of everything else, the series constantly shouts at the audience about how this is what Kamen Rider “really is”, because ishinomori’s anti-fascist roots totally gel with a basic ass cop show right? it all just piles onto one another into this nasty, uncomfortable mess, unintentional as it may be. nothing in lupat comes close to how bad drive got with its cop shit

tl;dr in the simplest terms, keiichiro feels like a Red Ranger who also happens to be a cop, while shinnosuke feels like a Cop who also happens to be a kamen rider, and the latter is a much harder concept to reconcile with

[traincat]

kinda random but do you have any panels of peter using yiddish/jewish slang? im tryna prove a point lol

Sure, anon, can do. I try to save Peter using Yiddish whenever I stumble across it, but I don’t have those panels organized in a separate folder, so I think this is probably far from a complete list. I have some good ones though.

ASM #76 -- a “kibitzer” is a Yiddish term for a spectator who offers unwanted commentary, but you could define it more usefully as a complainer, a backseat driver, someone whose nitpicks are neither useful nor wanted. I find this one in particular interesting because some of Peter’s Yiddish use is very commonplace, words you could conceivably pick up through cultural osmosis, but kibitzer is not typically something I would expect a goy -- even a New York goy -- to be using in the privacy of his own mind. (Apologies for the underline, I was probably making a point somewhere with this panel.)

(Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #18) “You’re not just any schmuck.” A schmuck is an idiot, a dumbass, but a contemptible one -- a lovable idiot is not a schmuck. A stupid dick -- schmuck means penis -- is a schmuck. 

“He cobbles tchotchkes.” (Marvel (2020) #1) Tchotchkes are knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, trinkets. A tchotchke can be monetarily expensive but on every other level it’s cheap.

This is from somewhere in Bendis’ Invincible Iron Man but I saved it without the issue number unfortunately -- Shavuos/Shavuot is the name of a Jewish holiday, which, okay, even assuming that Peter would for some reason be referencing lesser known Jewish holidays as a joke (this assumes that the mere mention of Jewish holidays is funny because the word sounds foreign or because it’s so improbable for a popular pop culture figure to be Jewish -- both would be very poor jokes, and especially unlikely ones coming from a Jewish writer like Bendis), the pronunciation here is worth noting. He goes for “Shavuos” instead of “Shavuot.” There’s pronunciation politics which I won’t go into here, so just suffice to say this is the more old school New York-styled pronunciation. As a side note I’m focusing on 616 examples here because they’re what I have on hand, but Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man also includes plenty examples of Peter using Yiddish, and Bendis has said on his own blog on that every version of Spider-Man is Jewish, so his personal penchant to have the character spout Yiddish isn’t too surprising.

This example is a bit controversial but I find arguments against it very shakily conducted -- in Spider-Man: Who Am I?, a digital comic, Peter has amnesia and, upon realizing he has a pretty good command of Yiddish, assumes he’s Jewish. I’ve had multiple people tell me that this actually proves that Peter is not Jewish, because he says he is with amnesia which -- it’s a bad argument, because Peter assumes he’s Jewish based on his pretty good command of Yiddish. The argument that should be made is why would Peter, with or without his memories, have such a good command of a Jewish language if he is in fact not Jewish or does not identify as such? It is in fact a pretty intelligent guess to make that if you wake up with no memories but a good command of Yiddish you might in fact be Jewish. Sometimes the simplest answer is in fact the right one.

(ASM: Who Am I?) “Speak short Yiddish sentences” is particularly interesting because it implies Peter has command of the language beyond simply throwing out “tuchas” (which means ass) occasionally -- to be able to speak a sentence, even a short one, implies a command of that language’s grammar and structure. In any case, regardless of the amnesia, I think this is a good example of the fact that when Peter is using Yiddish he is both fully aware of the fact that he is using Yiddish and that this is a distinctly Jewish trait.

I think at the end of the day it does have to be respected that, no matter how one personally views Peter Parker The Fictional Character’s in-universe religion, he has been written by a lot of very influential Jewish creators who put their own experiences and culture into the character in order to breathe life into him, to make him more realistic and lifelike, and that the Jewish influence plays a large part in making the character so distinctive and unique, and that the least anyone can do is respect those creators’ religion and culture and that influence when discussing the character.

In a word: oy.

(ASM #686)

(Spider-Man/Human Torch #1)

(Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #8 -- this is Ben Reilly, not Peter, but we’re gonna go ahead and count genetic duplicates who share the first twenty years worth of Peter’s memories, you know?)

[dessarious]

Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt92

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When Chloe pulled back Marinette kept a hold of her shoulders to force eye contact. She knew Chloe still got embarrassed showing any type of affection so if she let go Chloe would likely retreat back into herself. As it was she just looked confused.

“I’m sorry.” She watched as Chloe blinked at her, obviously not sure how to react to that.

“Sorry about what?” Where did she even start?

“I’m sorry I scared you last night.” Chloe opened her mouth to respond but Marinette just kept going. If she didn’t get this out now she wasn’t sure she’d be able to. “Sorry that I’m so used to pushing myself past my limits that I don’t even stop to think if I need to anymore. I’m sorry you feel like you need to keep up a front around me because you’re afraid I won’t be able to handle hearing your problems. And I’m so sorry you didn’t feel like this was something you could talk to me about.” She motioned to the papers still spread out on the table. “It’s obviously something that you’re passionate about and have put a lot of work into. I can’t believe I got so wrapped up in myself that I didn’t even notice you were working on something. You deserve better.” It hurt that Chloe was so afraid of adding stress to her that she didn’t even want to share the good things.

“I didn’t want to bother you with it, at least not until I had a better idea of if it will work or not.” The mumbled response just made Marinette feel more guilty.

“Chloe.” She waited for her girlfriend to make eye contact. “You are not a bother. Your ideas and thoughts are not a bother. We’re partners. Even if you don’t want my input on something, you can still talk to me about it so I can at least offer you support. If it’s important to you, it’s important to me.” Chloe just stared at her for a minute before Marinette saw tears in her eyes. The next thing she knew she was in another crushing hug.

“Thank you.” She sounded so grateful and Marinette was mental cursing at herself. She forgot to take into account how different their home lives were far too often. Marinette had parents who loved her. More than that they were present in her life. If she was excited about something she knew she could go to them and they would at least be interested in how she felt about it. Chloe had never had anything close to that. Her father gave her money and shooed her away. Her mother couldn’t be bothered to remember she had a child most of the time. Chloe had been alone for most of her life other than Sabrina.

“You don’t have to thank me. Given all the times I’ve bored you to tears with my nonsense, not to mention everything you do for me, I’m the one who should be grateful.” And she was. She honestly didn’t know what she would have done without her.

“You’re never boring and after everything I’ve done I still can’t believe you’re even willing to talk to me.” That was the problem. She felt like she deserved to be alone and ignored by everyone around her. Marinette was fairly certain Chloe expected her to just up and leave one day, or maybe even start being abusive towards her because that was really all she knew to expect.

“You made mistakes, yes. But you learned and grew from them. Judging someone on their past actions but completely ignoring their current ones is insane. We’ve both done things we regret, but letting those things define you just keeps you trapped in the past. I’d much rather concentrate on our future.” Marinette caught Selina give Chloe an ‘I told you so look’ that she was going to have to ask about later. “But to do that we’ve both got to get better at talking to each other. I need you to remind me every once in a while that I don’t have to do everything by myself anymore, and I’m going to get it through your head that just because your parents don’t think anything is more important than themselves doesn’t mean no one will ever put you first.”

“You two are so cute. I imagine this is how talks with Bruce would go if the man understood the concept of communication. Or admitting he’s wrong about something.” Chloe let out an amused snort before pulling back to look at the woman.

“So you’re saying Damian comes by it honestly then?” Marinette shot her a glare but the girl just stuck her tongue out at her.

“Between having a mother with no emotions, and a father with no idea how to show them you could certainly say so. He seems to have gotten much better at it since moving here though. We actually talked for once instead of just poking at each other.”

“Mari has that effect on people.” Marinette just rolled her eyes at the praise.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not the one calming him down.” Selina’s eyes lit up and Marinette regretted being so flippant.

“Ah yes, the mystery boyfriend that the boys think doesn’t exist. I’m looking forward to meeting him as well.” Marinette shared a look with Chloe.

“That will be on their terms if it happens at all. Given some of the things they’ve said and done, Damian’s not thrilled about having told them that much. And he doesn’t want to subject his significant other to their interrogations until they’ve had a chance to calm down either.” Selina rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated breath.

“I don’t blame him. Bruce was an only child and really has no concept of how siblings should interact versus how his kids actually do. Some of the things that come out of their mouths are ridiculous, especially Jason and Steph. Bruce always seems surprised when their teasing results in Damian pulling out weapons. It’s sad really.”

“So you’ll leave him alone to tell everyone in his own time?” Selina looked surprised by the question but Marinette had to make sure.

“Of course. When I figure out who it is I’ll keep it to myself. I promise I won’t even tell Bruce.” Chloe was eyeing the woman with a calculating expression.

“What makes you think you’ll figure it out before he tells you?” Selina chuckled.

“Because unlike the Bats I pay attention to the things that are right under my nose. Not to mention they all seem to be expecting some drastic transformation whenever he’s around this person and won’t be looking for subtle hints. I do know that Alfred and Cass have figured out who it is already and aren’t sharing, so I’m confident I’ll be able to figure it out, and keep the boys from looking too closely at the wrong things, just in case.”

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[nobody-knose--archive]

i’ve been aching to commentate spirit phone’s commentary for ages. glad i finally got around to it, this was an ejoyable experience. liveblog below the cut

-i'm like half certain i've heard this commentary before. maybe not the whole way through & it was probably actual years ago

-nice hearing stuff like this. in-depth personal view of the album-making process. makes it seem like more of a real thing i could do myself someday

-neil cicierega real person momence

-i could probably go real in depth about neil cicierega/tally hall parallels specifically concerning like. the arc of their musical careers. but i won't, here

-wild how i legitimately don't care much about micheal jackson

-didnt we get a bunch of spirit phone stems from the needlejuice release/his patreon? we could probably hear the funny track he speaks of here in that

-i love hearing musical artists, especially neil cicierega, talking about the meanings of their songs. like, not only has this song been claimed to hell & back by the tumblr gays, but with later ones i just can't see where he gets these ideas from. also, claiming there's any one meaning or plot to a song just seems silly to me

-shoutout to neil reusing a midi from like, 1998, that he made at 12 years old, whose entire melody was reused for the main verses of everybody loves raymond. loved finding that out on my own 2 years ago. now it's common trivia in this fandom. not bad times

-it'd be neat if neil did individual trans tracks here like he did with view monstel, those things are half of why i consider it my favorite album

-it's a lot easier to ignore the creator's intended meaning behind a song when he can't even remember it. thanks neil

-seesaw effect

-and there's my joke all but 1 of my followers wont get. moving on

-what kinds of movie theater lobbies has neil been to where there are arcade machines. i mean im not one to talk but that does sound rather strange

-why do songs' titles even need to be taken from the lyrics. ive never seen that as any sort of requisite. it's like titling any form of prose you can just give it whatever name ya like

-"this part sounds pretty cool right"

-is neil's vocal range only mildly better than mine? with training i could change that

-oh i haven't processed any of the last 25 seconds hold on

-god. a shit ton of vocal modification in this song. it's like neil returned to his roots but with quality this time

-i, as an ace/aro, have never related more to an allohet guy in my life. what is the point of eyes!

-professional humming/whistling takes skill. it's different from the recreational or casual stuff. i'd know

-there's a name for the way sound (especially music) gets distorted when moving past you and i can't remember it but it's probably what neil's referring to here in the way he recorded the intro

(- update: it's the doppler effect no need to tell me cas already did)

-as someone who hasnt seen the rugrats or take me there by blackstreet i'll just say it sounded like a bouncy music box melody. nice to hear a song that messes with the typical scales though. lydian & diatonic.

-that's a rather specific thing to be glad about, but given what he talked about in his last full audio commentary about the jew harp i suppose i'm not surprised

-i know that tmbg song now. listened to it & saw the music video too. yep they're different alright

-where the hell does neil get all these instrumence from anyway

-huh. hadnt heard this part of the commentary before making my oc concerning this song but i like to hear neil's approval concerning part of my interpretation

-i love how ive heard a billion different tellings of this mellified man story from lem dem fans talking about this song and neil's is by far the wildest

-good god that does only make it worse neil

-i love making liveblogs of lemon demon albums. with the fullerenes or tally hall i cant name a specific dude to take out my woes on generally but with lemon demon i can just say neil all the time. i like being on a casual first name basis with this dude ive never interacted with once ever

-is sweet bod the one other than cabinet man with a demo in the bonus tracks? i forget

-holy shit the boston molasses disaster someone call up soapy if it doesnt already know, it'd love this

-two thousand nine. god i miss the fiddle solo. the ver with it is truly the best one

-he pronounces it jeff? i've always read it as gef with a hard g. that's what i get for knowing words that are never spoken aloud

-that's a fun meta interpretation of this ghost story that's over a century old. i like that

-i've noticed neil generally does the same synths across a whole album. it's especially more clear in the earlier ones, and does mean i occasionally mix up songs between clown circus & live from the haunted candle shop

-ah! ancient aliens! my least favorite track on this album. i cant even claim to have the least interest in a popular one i've just generally not liked this one much from the beginning. so im curious to see what neil's got to say, i think ive been in ~new commentary zone for a while now

-anyway. newest update on the loolin not realizing a song's funky time signature front: i think this one's in 6/4. or at least switches a lot between time signatures. granted i dont listen to it very often for the reasons stated above

-see the way neil describes it. eldritch horror upon being visited by the unknown at a time when humanity'd hadn't even yet had a chance to imagine such a thing occurring. should be right up my alley. but the sound itself & many of the lyrics simply turn me away.

-must i specify i don't dislike it? spirit phone is neil's best album it not being my favorite doesn't mean i think it's bad yadda yadda nobody should be surprised by this it's not like anyone in these fandoms reads my liveblogs <3

-granted i think this is. the first bit of spirit phone content i've made on my blog ever. so who knows things can change <3

-the transitions in spirit phone are much less view-monster transition tracks & more extended outros. view-monster's were a bit more intro than outro sure but they also seemed directed upon making a 2-way rather than 1-way bridge between tracks. or something like that

-.............soft fuzzy man is an incredible nickname for a cat. i'd steal that if i werent afraid of introducing my relatives to lemon demon

-jirls

-an underlying metaphor is good enough. the literal side of the lyrics are fun. nothing but agreement here neil my good man

-the transition into as your father i expressly forbid it from soft fuzzy man is the best one in this album

-buddy you ask if a musical idea has been used before odds are the answer is yes in this day & age the question is has it been used in the way you're using it. like sure this soul jazz record from the 60s that was sold out in kansas stores for a week used this bassline that youve found yourself copying. but seeing as youre using it in some angsty garage rock ballad type tune does anybody actually care

-doesn't everybody like to say things in an unhinged manner from time to time

-imagine having a guitar dad, i say, with my dad being a folk accordion/fiddle dad, which is infinitely worse in every way

-i think he was in an actual folk band at some point. idk the 90s were weird

-iron my life?

-m-more intimate? there are a lot of ways i'd describe this song but intimate isn't one of them. granted as your father is negatively intimate so from there i guess you've got nowhere to go but up

-...still glad to see his interpretation kinda supports my oc at least

-the way he says characters in songs shouldn't worry about death really strongly makes me think this is some sort of. thematic continuation of stuck from dinosaurchestra, even if there's no real death in there. interesting. would also mean that the dad from these past 2 songs is named carlos betty (no last name)

-i literally never assumed this was a flute solo. piccolo at best. it's pretty clearly a recorder

-my mom plays the recorder. i wonder if she can play recorder better than neil cicierega

-we can throw a party in honor of the crushing weight of responsibility! i simply won't be the one throwing it because i have enough on my plate already <3

-what the hell does "a sense of intent" mean

-i've never heard rush before however i disagree with neil's understanding of 6/4. 6/4 is meant to have emphasis (onbeat or another term i can't remember) on the 1st & 4th beat of every measure, which is greatly different from a measure of 4/4 then a measure of 2/4. it's why his 5/4 always sounds weird, because while it's recognizable in sequences of 10/4, it's more 2 measures of 4/4 with one of 2/4 tacked on the end. that's also how it's different from 3/4. i don't know much music theory but what i do understand i will fight to the death about

-"canonized" that's. a very interesting term to use when referring to a former president

-from now on i will interpret every love song directed at some unseen "you" to be inviting me to marry them for tax purposes. thanks neil for being an aromantic icon

-ah hell yes hell yes man-made object is my favorite goddam song on this album

-short & sweet & good damn vibes. neil's thoughts on it all are only making it better

-wild how he uses very few vocal effects for a song that he clearly is straining his vocal range for. go off neil

-the qualifier of man-made is a wonderful thing. oldest or biggest thing? oldest or biggest man-made thing? what a incredibly important specification. a world of possibilities lie between the two. oh i love it

-just gets me thinking yknow! what we consider weird/impressive in another species, in our own species- what kind of equivalent to that would there be from an outsider looking in? are there alien versions of the significances we place upon things, that we could never imagine? the limits of the human imagination mean we could never conceive of something else in the world that isn't, in some way great or small, just like us- and are we wrong for thinking that? such a juicy topic i wish there were a name for it because it's kinda hard to explain concisely

-spiral of ants. my second favorite song from this album, in fact. a good one to experience

-the vocals are just another instrument. they really truly are. i wasn't going into this commentary expecting to feel solidarity for neil cicierega in this chili's tonight on more than one occasion but here i am.

-like, his whole stance on interpreting songs is something i agree with almost entirely. you can take it at face value, you can dig to their very depths, you can listen to songs without caring what the lyrics mean whatsoever, and those are all fun. & yeah while any of these people can be annoying as one of the types who enjoys gliding on the surface more than anything i find those who dedicate themselves to figuring out the whole meaning of a song over anything else to be both slightly scary & slightly annoying <3 keep up the good work

-i want to make songs for my siblings the way neil makes songs for his sibling(s)

-spinch

-neil really shouldn't be allowed to be this funny like this whole album youre thinking golly! he's just a normal man this neil cicierega! and then he starts listing the cat hacks jokes & you remember he's had ridiculously consistent viral success with all his humorous endeavors and holy shit it's neil cicierega in action talking about his music. god bless you neil

-you're welcome, no problem, my pleasure. good eveternoon, radio audience!