#is this the legendary tumblr ranting?

[weaponizedducks]

poor shiro cannot catch a fucking break can he. first he gets a crippling disease he's got two years to live. then an angsty wattpad breakup with his boyfriend then he gets kidnapped by aliens and pumped full of alien weed then he crashes on earth with so much walking midlife crisis energy that he gains the skinning puppies to make a fur coat hair, and then he immediately gets shot right back into space by his shittass little brother and weirdo friends with the literal matt clone. then this poor man is made the leader of an alien war, becomes a father to four fuckass teenagers through accidental child acquisition, is forced into the kim kardashian lifestyle by a ginger on drugs, gets kidnapped again, gets cloned, fucking dies, somehow comes back (yeah I'm not really clear about this) then this pathetic wet cat of a man, this stressed jean valjean father of four, experiencing his fourth midlife crisis and millionth mental breakdown, gains that senior citizen swag at twenty five. you could colour match his hair with a polar bear. then he witnesses a walking loreal ad (derogatory) get melted alive, watches a castle get blown up, loses three years in a space time jump and then finds out his ex- fiance who broke up with him right before he left has fucking died in a purple thumb invasion before he got to marry him. but oh no no no that's not the end for this poor sad man. poor guy doesn't get a second to grieve before he is visually assaulted by a less cunty sue sylvester ripoff and her gang of bitchy cheerios (this is admiral s*nda), and yet again made a leader against his will, and shot right back off into space again. then he watches the only other responsible adult in this entire franchise (hot badass space princess who like shiro did not catch a break) sacrifice herself and is left a struggling father. ends up marrying some random fucko. all while suffering through his shitass hot topic brother and blueberry disaster's doomed yaoi romance. oh yeah and he's only got one arm. give the guy a BREAK. FREE my man he doesn't deserve this 🔥🔥

[skz-miroh]

my favourite trope in vld fanfic is where keith is wearing the blade of marmora uniform and lance just straight up doesn’t recognise him and starts flirting with who he thinks is this mysterious stranger and poor keith is just so confused

[ohromeoraine]

Y’all, Shinsou Hitoshi’s character development is actually pretty subtle, but definitely noticeable if you rewatch the first season he appears in mha after watching later seasons. This is most likely due to him having a mentor now, and yes he was an ass in the sports festival arc, but he’s definitely grown as a person(character) since then. Although I have not gotten to watch season seven yet, you can really see a clear example of the way he applies himself in the class a vs class b training battles.

First off, he now has support gear, which is super important(in my opinion) for heroes in training to have and even pro heroes. Because quirks are just tools if you think about it. I’ll go into a rant about that in another post, but the point is our insomniac has more versatility with his quirk than in the sports festival arc.

Also, he’s a very clever guy. Dude taunted people in the sports festival just to gain control of them. Not only is that super smart, but it’s also chaotic af and I love that he’s an actually menace to society. In the class training battles, his support gear helped alter his voice so his opponents would be more susceptible to responding to his voice. It’s absolutely insane and I love the thought that was put into his costume design.

I’m not entirely sure if Shinsou is planning on being an underground hero like Eraserhead(I’m almost positive he is, but I don’t want to spread false information), but his quirk would excel in hostage situations, robberies, and assisting with arrests.

I feel like he’s an amazing character for mha! I just love analyzing characters, so if you have any requests feel free to use up my ask inbox!!

Stay groovy, friends!

[fruitycake625]

RANTING ABOUT BLOOD FRIENDS (THE SPOOKY MONTH AU)

Blood Friends (the Spooky Month au) is so bad and lazy that its actually just hilarious.

Skid was the most out of character. Why was he so f*cking blood hungry and out for bodies??? And it's incredibly weird how jealous he was of pump. They made my baby look like a brat and it still irritates me BADDD

Pump, ehh idrk. He wasn't himself obviously, and he felt really "softcore", but idrc about that cause it's not a "bad" mischaracterization. But I do think he was just kinda there and boring.

Lila appearing out of nowhere with such buttass hair was a shock to me. And she was also wearing a furry mask so yea. She didn't impact the story, all I remember is that she wanted to defeat skid and like recrute Robert to join her??? Listen, idk why she looks like a mess, I'll guess it's cause her son turned into psycho but yea, she's not that important.

Kevin? He's there. He was blinded by Skid and got a lowkey cool scar from it. He also survived his store burning down because skid committed damn arson.

I refuse to rewatch the series so I don't remember everything that happened, but that's the basic stuff.

Confession: I want blood friends to be revamped or even continued? Like, I'd make Skid possessed by his father and then everything kinda just ensues? Just wanna get rid of skids like Junko Enoshimas nasty purple tounge thingy??

Also, skid wears like wrapped bandages on the outside of his costume which irritates me also.

SPECIFIC CRINGE SCENES I GOTTA TALK ABOUT:

SKID LICKS BLOOD OFF HIS FINGERS TO

PUMP KNOCKS SKID OUT, BUT INSTEAD OF CALLING THE POLICE, HE F*CKING DECIDES TO PUT A TRACKER IN SKIDS OPEN WOUND ON HIS CHEEK

I CAN'T MAKE THIS SHI UP MY GOD

[embersofhopevoltron]

Man, I may have gotten back to using this blog again within the last week or so, but it sure has been awhile. I distanced myself from tumblr for a couple yrs off n on for personal reasons, whilst I also had a voltron side blog dedicated to my fic and ocs and vld fandom in general (voltrons-sunflower-garden) but…for some reason it’s no longer there? I don’t remember ever deactivating/deleting it?? though on the other hand I have seen names of a few other blogs I used to follow/engage with that are apparently no longer there either. I know tumblr did its ‘purge’ of nsfw content, but idk about others beyond users choosing to leave/deactivate/move/etc. Even though it’s been a few yrs since voltron ended, I found myself starting to revisit the show again, whatever is left of the fandom, my ocs and fic ideas again for fun. While this is still a Keith appreciation blog, it is still a place to reblog anything voltron related and revisit fun memories and appreciate these characters again, and I guess since my old voltron side blog is no more, I still had this one, so I have no problems making slight adjustments to post my fanart, ocs, fanfic concepts, and my Keith x oc ship again hehe and now that I have an iPad, I can digitally remaster old fanarts I can actually post here (though I may still post the original drawings for comparison). Anyone in the same boat of revisiting the show/fandom or even just still appreciating the mullet boi is welcome to follow because I’m still here. 👉👈

[therobotmonster]

I got a tumblr style rant for this xtter style rant.

This again? When has telling people "make better entertainment choices?" ever worked?

But also "X is mindless garbage that's destroying culture?"

It's so fucking cliché.

Before the MCU, it was reality TV, before that it was video games, before that MTV, Rap music, sitcoms, hippies, Rock & Roll, comic books, TV, movies, can't forget JAZZ, it goes back to the penny dreadful, to novels in general, and beyond.

Just say you're pissed off the pulp trash is getting all the money and be up front about it.

Maybe a legendary director could move the culture on Hollywood accounting and the obvious fraud of the marketing budgets, and solve that a bit?

Better yet, maybe go tell congress that giant entertainment monopolies are crushing small projects and limiting consumer options. A horde of little mice would eat a more diverse array of cheese than one giant one.

"See the rats in their million hordes, From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads"

But who am I fooling? This is kayfabe.

Harlan Ellison pulled this act off for years for self promotion (far better, I might add).

He'd strut out, tell the Star Wars nerds their movies sucked, soak up the boos and get eyes on everything he was doing.

The entertainment media, they love it. It's the easiest, laziest, click-bait imaginable. If the news day is slow, you just ask Martin Scorsese or Alan Moore about comic book movies and transcribe the one that answers first.

I mean, I've drawn you in with a multiple page ramble about this, after all.

Shakespeare had a line about this... what was it?

Oh yeah!

"WHAT? You egg!" [he stabs him]

That's the stuff.

[fereldanwench]

apropos of nothing and certainly not my tag rant from a few posts back

did you know that out of 150 popular video games released between 1985 and 2022, only 6% of them feature sole female protagonists?

did you know that prior to mass effect 3, female shepard was never used in any promotional material for the series?

(and there's no hard data available on this, but i very distinctly recall a lot of gamerbro outrage when me3 had an optional reversible cover so you could pick between male and fem shep on your personal game)

did you know that only 18% of players chose femshep in any shape or form (default or customized) during the original release?

(anecdotally, i know a few people who didn't even realize you could play a female at all in me1 bc of how the cc is setup)

did you know with the release of the legendary edition in 2021 the percentage of femshep players didn't even double (despite jennifer hale's seemingly enormous popularity amongst the broader playerbase over the past decade) and is reported at 32%?

did you know that dragon age inquisition has the same breakdown between male and female inquisitors (68% to 32% respectively)?

did you know during the playtests for assassin's creed odyssey, it was a 50/50 split between kassandra and alexios, and ubisoft suits actually thought when the game was released, kassandra would be more popular? and yet once again, about 70% of players chose the male protag

did you know evie and aya were both supposed to have a much larger roles in assassin's creed syndicate and origins but were forced into a smaller role bc the ubisoft marketing team didn't think the games would sell well with a female lead?

cdpr hasn't released data on male vs female v, probably because the game handles gender a little differently than just two strict options like many other rpgs, but it was revealed that panam was the most popular romance, sitting at about 68%, which means at least 68% of players chose the male v body. I'm sure some players did not make that choice as a cis male v, but i would also guess that those who didn't are a small minority of this demographic, and if you factor in kerry romancers, this split is probably very similar to other games in the genre

now i realize that a lot of the male v players who are in more transformative fandom spaces (like tumblr) are not the str8 gamer dudebros of reddit angry about pores on a female character's face and whatnot. i realize that a lot of you are also on the outskirts of the perceived norm and also feel under-represented by mainstream male protags and that's incredibly frustrating and alienating and i genuinely feel for you

but female protagonists and female gamers who want to play as female protagonists and who have a few niche spaces to celebrate female protags are not the reason for your lack of representation

and frankly you don't sound a whole lot different from the angry incel gamer boys when you say shit like "fem v gets too much attention"

so maybe try advocating for male protags who don't fit the generic boring gruff white guy mold without throwing women under the bus. we're should be allies in this fight, not rivals

[myassbrokethefall]

xf rewatch: pilot

("Man")

This is a photo of my laptop screen. It feels oddly appropriate that Conventional Methods won't allow me to take a fucking screencap of this 30-year-old show to make a stupid tumblr post about it, but those are the times we live in, corporate overreach, erosion of data privacy, technological advances being cynically co-opted by those with selfish interests, etc.

Anyway. It seems insane to me that I have never done a deliberate rewatch of the entirety of XF from start to finish. Ironically one reason I was dragging my feet on this was I'm so sick of the pilot. And yet, I enjoyed the effort to watch it with fresh eyes, imagining I was some regular jabroni just coming across this while flipping channels in 1993. It is interesting to me that it's the procedural-ness that sucks you in, the ordinariness of the world, the deliberate banality of the setting into which extraordinary things are methodically introduced, and you (and Scully) are asked: well? How do you reconcile this? How do you explain it?

Scully starts on this ground level, and Mulder meets her there. She's braced for this legendary basement kook and ready to parry a barrage of propaganda and dig in about how aliens aren't real, but he's got a chemical formula up on a screen and he's like: so what is this? Well, it was found on all the bodies. He lures her in not by telling her a bunch of crazy stories (ok, he does a bit of that too) but by presenting her with facts and asking her to explain them. He shoves her along a few times (if it's not human, what is it?), but it really struck me on this viewing how she's the one trying to get him to tell her what he thinks, whereas he is determined to let her foot her way along the path to get there on her own, without being influenced (or vexed into kneejerk opposition) by his "theories." Scully doesn't get drawn in because she wants to prove Mulder wrong, OR right. It's sort of beautiful that once she's got the scent, it's not about Mulder at all, though he is certainly right there with her, as both a guide and an antagonist. Scully's drawn in by her own investigative instincts and her own determination that, you know, the answers are there. You just have to know where to look.

And then when they're making headway and their motel gets burned down with all the evidence inside it, Mulder doesn't have to rant paranoiacally that someone's working against them; Scully's right there fighting it with him and seeing what he's seeing. And by the time Blevins is scornfully hairsplitting her findings to make Mulder look bad, their alliance is cemented, because they've done it together, she's been in his shoes and in his head with him, on the trail, and the trail led somewhere pretty weird, and she doesn't know all the way what to make of that yet but, one thing is certain: they've got him all wrong, this Spooky Mulder.

I would like to watch a TV show of that. And so, I shall. (Again)

[lesbianatomy]

havent been on tumblr for a while but i have been rewatching yuri on ice recently (yes, its that time of the year) & ive been listening to stammi vicino almost non-stop (thank god spotify wrapped alr came out bcs im inclined to believe it wouldve been my top song for this year otherwise) so needless to say i have heard this exact song looped many times & tell me why i just realized that we hear two different versions of it in the anime !!!!!!

im sure many avid fans of the show have long known this already, which is truly embarrassing for myself, having grown up in a music school, but i digress. the first is the original stammi vicino, used in viktor's fs program (the one that yuri famously copies). the other is the duet version we hear during yuri and viktor's pair skate in the former's exhibition.

there are quite a lot of noticeable differences. firstly, the duet is cut in length; perhaps because they didnt require the full duration of the song for the part that it was included in or other reasons, but i think its notable to acknowledge the lyrics that were excluded:

With a sword I wish I could cut those throats singing about love I wish I could enclose in ice the hands that write those verses of burning passion

This story that has no meaning Will vanish tonight together with the stars If I could see you, eternity will be born from hope

this is taken straight from the yoi wiki page. essentially, in the original this can be interpreted as viktor mourning his loneliness and yearning for a great love. its highly sentimental but also bitter in a way, even. viktor's status as someone of incredible fame and talent has distanced him from life and love, which is ironic given that he is now skating to a love song. the music naturally reflects this: cmiiw but i think the ensemble fits the standard of an orchestra from the romantic period; you can tell from the dramatic use of percussion, wind instruments, and the grandiose crescendos and range of emotion in general. the way i see it, this very much encapsulates what viktor is actually skating about: it displays itself as a very bold declaration of love, in line with viktor's reputation as a legendary, almost mythic figure, but the reality is that no one is there to stay close to him. he is begging for a love that does not exist; an absence of it.

compared to the original, the duet is much more subdued, but no less sentimental. there is a sweeter, more assured quality to it that i feel is missing from the other version, which is clearly yuri's effect on viktor's life. i remember reading a fic recently about how the main instruments used in yuri on ice (the song) aka the piano and the violin actually represent yuri and viktor's respective roles in yuri's journey, though i believe they also took inspiration from someone else's idea. regardless, thank you to whoever it was that initially came up with that analysis!!!!! because of that i understand why the duet begins with piano instead of a wind instrument like in the original; another nod to yuri's presence. there's also a much clearer emphasis on the violin in the duet!

(also, idk about you but when i listen to the duet as it nears the end, even though they never show the full exhibition program, its so easy to imagine how they continue skating the rest of the routine. down to the ending pose & everything. just soooo visceral and excellent)

whew. long-winded rant about stammi vicino over. i love this song & i genuinely think that even if you have no interest in yoi you should still listen to the soundtrack (passacaille in barcelona & kamome are in my top 3). worth ittttt

[automaticllamacycle]

sometimes i think y’all are stanning a fictional character with matty’s face attached bc why are we clutching pearls over matty being at ye’s listening party when he was proclaiming him his hero not 4 months ago at msg? you dont have to like it all but the fake outrage is exhausting like you all know who he is, being controversial is not something thats ever gonna fade from him

There are so many things to address with this ask. “Fake outrage”. Okay. So. To put this plainly to you Matty did say that Kanye was his musical hero. Thats fine. Im not saying that’s wrong. He can listen to Kanye’s music all he wants for I care. Kanye west in the past has been a legendary musician. Truly a genius at times. My issue is matty going to a listening party which is supporting him, physically in person. Now I can say I don’t like this just in general but that’s not even my big issue. ( I could go on a longer rant here about separating the art from the artist. To me that’s always entailed appreciating the old work for what it was but not supporting the new content from the person. I would rather him not go to things associated with Kanye but he is grown and makes his own choices. I am allowed to think they are stupid and wrong though.) It’s the way that he was so deeply upset about the Sun writing an article about him being a n*zi, which was from a clip taken out of context, and then going and doing something once again that can paint him in the exact same way. “Being controversial is not something that’s ever going to fade from him” anon. Walk with me here for a sec. Why is Kanye west the hill you are dying on. He is a vile, disguising piece of scum. The type of “controversial” acts that I support Matty doing are stuff like Malaysia, not going to an event for Kanye fucking west. This whole situation has led me to realize how little people truly care about how HORRIBLE Kanye west is. ( I’m more so talking about Twitter and not tumblr). All that I said was that I was disappointed in Matty. Last time I was actually genuinely disappointed in him was last year with the podcast. I do not Stan him like he’s a fictional character? Like what do you even mean by that.

Just to sum everything up. I do not think Matty is a bad person, and I don’t think he’s antisemitic. My main issue is that he has complained about the media painting him a certain way in these past few years and yet he continues to do things that allow him to be painted in a poor light. I love Matty. I’m allowed to be disappointed with the actions by someone I love dearly. There is no fake outrage here. There isn’t even any outrage. I made one post saying I was disappointed, and that’s it. If that bothers you anon then ignore it?? I’m so sorry that my hatred of Kanye rubbed you the wrong way.

[narcissa-black-supermacy]

mutuals you’re thankful for in 2022?

(I even did it on anon for you!!!)

thank you DEAR ANONYMOUS FRIEND whose identity i totally do not know lmao because its not like i asked you to send this to me whattt that would be embarrassing

here we go (in no particular order, this is the way it shows up in my following list)

@fonkeloog : thanks for going along with my nonsense and being open minded and supportive about everything i do even if it's not your thing. love seeing you in my notifications, always <3 your poems and photography are everything, i sincerely wish you all the success with that in 2023. here's to another wonderful year of football and memri memes and kilt smut and complete discord chaos.

@heartofspells : holliiiiiii where do i even begin. meeting you this year has been a fandom changing experience, truly. i love everything you create even if sometimes it makes me cry and kick things. i hope things get less hectic for you this year so you can rain on us with more angst and poetic porn. thank you for letting me rant and brainstorm ideas and you're always welcome to dump your thoughts on me whenever <3 i never don't enjoy hearing those. hope we get to spit even more this year together.

@tracingpatternswrites : mallllll my LOVE. i think you're my fandom soulmate. everything you write makes me lose my mind and i care about all your pieces as if they're my own. thank you for being the push and support i needed to explore new things and pairings this year (here's to more threesomes and incest in the upcoming year ahaha). ALSO. we should. totally co-write something this year. something horrific and ground shattering. (once i'm done with all my oneshots). the internet would never recover.

@soloorganaas : bestieeee. what do i even say? you're literally like the only one of two and a half people in total on this website (one of them being me lol) whom i trust blindly and completely with our boys and with wolfstar in particular. it either takes us 13 business days to get back to each other or we can talk for 3 hours straight non-stop. we should do more things like hanukka wolfstar this year. push our (correct) agendas in this fandom. co-writing something with you one day would be the dream. maybe sometime this year?

@sweetpeasandlilies : bruh with the amount of stuff you've been through this past year i'm surprised you're still on tumblr akjdgh so HUGE respect for that seriously. i'm still blocked by like 27 people because of you lmao but good riddance i guess. ain't nobody gonna stop us. i live for your writing and for your shitposts. honestly. its everything.

@padfootastic : dude what can i say?? a breathe of fresh fucking air is what you are on this hellsite. and i know you're busy as hell these days but seeing you on here and your ideas and your writing (and your tagsss bruh your tags i read all of those just so yknow) is one of the things keeping me from losing my mind in here. if we had fandom elections i would vote you in as the authority on everything james potter and sirius black. i trust no one but you.

@mxlfoydraco : serra <3333 i live for your tags. you put drarry and amazing (actually diverse) fanart and Correct Opinions on our dashes and i love you for that. this place would not have been the same without you. fandom is alive and flourishing thanks to people like you who comment and give reccs and keep older fics and fanarts alive (and ship jegulus without disrespecting Sirius the MVP Black) and i couldn't be more grateful. please keep blessing us with your presence and the legendary Queue.

@leogichidaa : your writing is honestly ground breaking, and the limitless creativity of your genius ideas never fails to amaze me. if i had to hire a team of writers for a canon marauders story, you would be the first on that list - we need more people who do reg and the others justice with their writing. i can't wait to see what else you will bless us with this upcoming 2023 <33

@artemisia-black : it's hard being a person with Correct Opinions(tm) on a site like tumblr in a fandom like the marauders but you are doing AMAZING. please never stop writing what you write and talking about the Blacks, people like you and your metas are the backbone of this fandom. wish i could make everyone sit down and read those before they touch our precious characters.

@sequinhaze : yazz! very excited and honoured to be calling you a mutual tbh, after i've been stalking your blog and writing forever now lol. you are Wrong about prongsfoot but i forgive you for that because you're Right about literally everything else and that's so much more important to me. i selfishly hope that you never stop writing for this fandom because you offer such a refreshing take on most characters and your characterisation is always on point. ily. wishing you peace and happiness this upcoming year (and wishing myself loads of unbreakable heaven porn w feelings).

@broomsticks : jackieeee you're one of the rare people in this fandom who is completely open minded to new ideas and dynamics, and is the definition of a multi-shipper. i don't think i know one single other person on this hellsite who likes both remadora and wolfstar and blackcest and peter and snape and isn't afraid to talk about it. alsoo! your tagging system. duude. i wish my blog looked like that wtf.

@elvendorx : (i forgot what your main blog is sorryyy) - we didn't really get a chance to interact much yet but i just wanted to let you know that your metas on the mwpp in general and james and sirius in particular are absolutely golden and i appreciate them so much. wish i could make it a legal requirement to fully read and sign those before anybody so much as thinks of writing about j&s. looking forward to more of you in 2023.

@roalinda : thank you for putting prongsfoot on my dash <33 we desperately lack content for them and even the blogs that do post about them are usually still centric around a different ship. we need more people like you honestly. and i looove your additions in the tags, always read those.

@squintclover : rorryyyyy <33 your microfics and your writing are everything. i love it. always appreciate seeing you on my dash. i hope we get more chances to interact this upcoming year and i can't wait to find out what you've got in store for us.

@benjamin-ovich : i just want to thank you for writing what is one of the most amazing and heart breaking prongsfoot masterpieces i've ever read. i still need to leave a proper comment on that which is not just me screaming incoherently but just know that i've gone back several times to reread some parts. especially the first chapter and the memories. ((the scene where sirius tries to roughly "fuck lily out of him" lives in my head rent free. literally. one of the hottest prongsfoot scenes in existence wtf)).

[derekscorner]

Fated Rantings: Saiba

I finished the original Fate Stay Night anime

Now I’m sure the first thing an older Fate fan will ask is “why would you watch that one?” because nearly every recommendation I did see was ‘Unlimited Blade Works’ or Fate Zero.

And, to be honest, I was curious. I’m old by weeb standards and I prefer that older early 00s anime style. Most importantly, I fell down the Fate rabbit hole to begin with due to Saber herself.

My earliest loves as a child was older medieval fantasies you see. Robin Hood, King Arthur, stuff like that. (I love Gargoyles to this day due to it’s Celtic roots)

I had always heard of Fate but never dabbled. Some avoid it for the convolution but I grew up on Kingdom Hearts so that’s not exactly a hurdle I fear. lol

Rather I tried the mobile game out of boredom and true to my nature I sought lore because I love mythology. Even if you hate Grand Order everyone can enjoy how Fate retools mythology of any kind into a modern story.

So one playlist later and I found myself knee deep and now here we are. That said, while I chose to watch the original Fate Stay Night it was not the first Fate I’ve seen.

While waiting to track down the dvds I watched Apocrypha online first. Which also proved to be better than anticipated~

Arthurian Legends own me

Now as stated, I found myself drawn to Saber the most. Not just the one you see in the original anime or UBW but as a whole. I had spoiled myself on Saber’s backstory and lore long before I watched that 26 episode anime.

I found myself rather engrossed in this retelling of King Arthur because it was done better than simply gender swapping the legendary figure. Saber was raised as a man and a knight and sees people treating her as a woman as an insult.

And this makes sense given the era King Arthur was believed to have lived in. Women simply could not hold a title like king. Yes, that is very silly, especially since she was chosen by a holy sword, but that’s the point you see.

But the events that made her this way aren’t just tied to that. It’s not as simple as gender identities despite what some will claim. In fact, Artoria is very similar to her “son” Mordred who was also warped by circumstance.

To my delight Fate does not shy away from Arthur’s more noteworthy legends but bends them to Sabers life.

There are subtle changes but key events still happened.

Although they’re full blood sisters in Fate, Morgan Le Fay is still Artoria’s sister.

Although Merlin was wise his detachment to humanity caused him to guide Artoria poorly.

The whole mess with Guenevere and Lancelot.

Although Artoria was the ideal king men wanted she wasn’t one they could understand. (and vice versa)

Caliburn, Excalibur, and the holy lance left her ageless. (literally)

Hell, even Mordred is still her “son”. Artoria allowed Merlin to work his magic to temporarily make her (I presume) a hermaphrodite to produce an heir only for Morgan to use this chance to sneak into the castle and essential slip a magic roofie and take advantage of her sister.

The dark aspects of King Arthur’s legend are still there and it has made Saber who she is. She’s desperate for the grail to redo the sword selection because she genuinely wants someone better fit to do it.

Little does she know the sword and her life was plotted by Merlin and her father decades prior. Artoria, much like Mordred, was set up for failure but not by her own design.

This stubbornness, alongside Shirous own stubborn nature, frustrates some watchers. I however found it fitting for them both. While Shirou lacks the power for her to fight efficiently his personality is the perfect match for her as she is in that moment.

And, like my Mordred post, I’m gonna tackle something some probably think I have no right too but bear with me.

While I understand Artoria’s wishes to not be viewed as a woman I do not think she hates being one or has any ideals you’d usually see tumblr (well now twitter) throw on that bonfire. Rather, to consider her as such is to diminish her pride as a king. Even if she believes herself unfit and a failure she still was a king.

On the flip-side, Shirou is naive due to his age. He’s never been in love before and like Gilgamesh (albeit far less depraved) he can’t really accept that Saber is something he longs for but can’t have. Despite her shared feelings in this route she can’t stay in that era.

But I did not get mad at Shirou for stubbornly getting in the way. He done it the wrong way but behind his teenage infatuation is a desire for Saber to be treated like a genuine person.

She violently rejects this because she believes she’s unworthy of that kindness. It’s a very nuanced thing where no one has bad intentions but still causing negative disputes.

This core issue is what hooked me so badly that I bought and watched the original anime. This is the only anime adaption that follows the “fate route” otherwise known as “sabers route”.

That’s also why this ramble is so Saber focused. This is her story and it was a story I loved to see. A small part of you wants to see them work out but more importantly a big part of you wants Saber to love herself.

To be given the chance to want and be human. Something her upbringing as “Arthur Pendragon” denied her. This lack of freedom in her life is noticed and pointed out exceedingly quickly by Iskander in the Fate Zero scenes I’ve watched.

In Fairness

Now I will grant you that I could enjoy this story far more because I had the context. I was fully aware of what drove Saber and I was aware of why she was summoned by Shirou and how.

I knew about Avalon, her torn feelings, and how Shirous hero complex mirrored her. I would imagine the average anime fan, especially back in the early 2000s, would be fully fucking lost.

For them Fate Stay Night was a generic anime with borrowed names in mythology. I’m also aware some prefer the modern ‘Unlimited Blade Works’, Fate Zero, and ‘Heaven’s Feel’ because they enjoy the other girls more.

Each route focuses on a girl in the barest sense. There’ll always be “animisms” like damsel in distress as well that some just do not like. That is fine. I wouldn’t recommend you view this without context either.

That said, I still enjoyed it far more than I expected. I wish this route explained Heroic Spirit Emiya or had the added epilogue where Shirou finds Saber in Avalon but it’s fine like this.

There was things to enjoy I felt. Rin seems not as “tsundere” as she is in other media I’m shown and I like that she nor Shirou really have a drive for the grail. Their dynamic seems to work in any route whether they’re lovers or allies.

I also like Shirous powers. Due to the Scabbard Avalon he’s become a highly spec’d magic sword. His father didn’t train him properly and he sucks at everything else but by hell do I wish I could just conjure swords. Seeing him use it to greater levels in other stories is always a good time.

I even laughed because the comments I had read before were right. Kotomine literally slings mud as Shirou in this route. The man can use magic karate to topple trees and here he just slings angst sludge at the boy. lmao

Another small thing to note was Gilgamesh’s use of the Babylon Gate. In other media he seems to just sling his entire treasury at people but in this show he actually used the tools a bit. A few swords, a dagger, chains, it wasn’t much but I liked that. (though I suspect animation budget was the cause)

Resolution

At the end of the day I found Fate Stay Night an enjoyable time. I even put off watching the last six because I did not want the ride to end. It leaves some mysteries open but that’s the fault of the original source which was a visual novel.

You simply can’t cram an entire, multi-route, novel into an anime. Thus why I say I enjoyed it more than most due to me having prior context.

To be honest I hope they redo this route one day. Give it the full ‘Unlimited Blade Works’ or even ‘Heaven’s Feel’ treatment. If they do I hope they added the epilogue of Shirou finding Saber in Avalon. (Let them be happy damn you!)

Now to plot what my next venture into Fate will be. Bye~

=======================

For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

[stargazeraldroth]

Hot Take: If Black Pearl Cookie Shouldn’t Be A Legendary Because She’s Not An Elemental, Then Neither Should Timekeeper Cookie

So idk if this opinion is very popular still or anything like that, but I genuinely don’t understand why people have such an issue with Frost Queen Cookie and Black Pearl Cookie being Legendaries? Like I get the whole thing about the Elementals and all, but if being an Elemental Guardian or whatever they’re called is the criteria for being a Legendary, then how do you explain characters like the Dragons, Dark Enchantress Cookie, and Timekeeper Cookie?

Btw this is just a ranting post, it’s not meant to be taken too seriously!!! I’m not trying to offend anyone with this, I’m just tired of people harshly criticizing the new Legendaries in Kingdom and calling them “fillers” when that same logic applies to Ovenbreak’s Legendaries. I feel like Tumblr’s a relatively chill and safe place when it comes to sharing opinions, at least safer and more open-minded than TikTok seems to be, so I thought I’d voice my input here. There’s a TLDR at the end.

At the very least, Frost Queen Cookie has known relevancy to the Elemental Guardians as she’s one herself, she’s just Kingdom-exclusive (and with how many Ovenbreak-exclusive characters there are right now, I feel there’s zero reason to complain about this or use it as an argument). You can argue that the Dragons are something of Elementals themselves, but they’re really just like Beasts of Old or something. I don’t know how applicable this is to Ovenbreak Legendaries, but according to the CRK wiki (and yes I’m aware it’s fandom-run and therefore not 100% reliable in interpretations), Legendaries are defined by their god-like statuses and immense influence over Earthbread. Now, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the Legendaries who aren’t Elementals.

1. The Dragons. The Dragons are listed as Legendaries in Ovenbreak, but they’re given the unique rarity of ‘Dragon’ in Kingdom (which I think is complete bs but that’s not the point). The Dragons themselves aren’t Elementals, at least to my knowledge, they DO however have god-like statuses (just look at Longan. Literally just look at Longan Dragon), immense amounts of power, and have a lot of influence over Earthbread’s history. Therefore, they’re deserving of a Legendary status.

2. Dark Enchantress Cookie. The main antagonist of Kingdom (and possibly Ovenbreak? I haven’t seen much Cookies of Darkness content for that game yet, so I’ll mostly be focusing on CRK). You could potentially argue that her status comes from being the reborn version of White Lily Cookie, but the Ancient Heroes are directly connected to the Elements or anything just because they have Soul Jam. Let’s look at some of Dark Enchantress Cookie’s accomplishments throughout CRK’s storyline so far;

- Unleashed havoc on the Night of the Witches and presumably killed at least some Witches, beings who were known to be incredibly powerful and were worshipped as gods by Cookiekind. This is essentially the Cookie Run equivalent of slaughtering gods.

- Waged a war against just about all of Earthbread, or at least the kingdom run by the Ancients, single-handedly causing one of the biggest tragedies in Earthbread’s history. The Dark Flour War not only brought an entire era to an end, but it completely changed the course of Earthbread. Like, the only reason the Crème Republic exists in the way it does is because of Dark Enchantress Cookie declaring war against everyone. And from the looks of it, we’re going to be getting a Dark Flour War 2 (Electric Boogaloo: The Sequel No One In Earthbread Wanted) in future updates of Kingdom.

- Defeated all five of the Ancient Heroes in a battle. You can argue that she had the Cake Witch with her, but these are the five Ancients who were presumably at their peak state during this battle. Still, you could probably argue that there’s a weird situation with White Lily Cookie in this scene, but even then, that’s four Ancient Heroes who are presumably at their peak state.

I was also gonna bring up how the Soul Jam got shattered/scattered at the climax of the Dark Flour War, but I honestly don’t know if Dark Enchantress Cookie did that or if Pure Vanilla Cookie did that when he sealed her away, so I’m not gonna use that as a point. But regardless, literally the whole Night of the Witches situation and the Dark Flour War makes her one of the most important figures in Earthbread’s history. Dark Enchantress Cookie is a TOP example of a Cookie who deserves the Legendary rarity without being connected to the Elements.

3. Timekeeper Cookie. I don’t know Timekeeper’s canon pronouns off the top of my head, so I’ll be using they/them. Feel free to inform me on those. But anyway, Timekeeper Cookie literally has no connection to the Elements. There isn’t even anything you can argue about this. Their control and mastery over time comes from their Sonic Embroider, which is an invention. It’s not an inherent power or anything. Because in order for Timekeeper Cookie to have a connection to the Elements, Croissant Cookie needs a connection to the Elements. I feel like their status as a Legendary also comes from their role as the Director of the Time Balance Department, and the way Timekeeper SEEMS like a God of Time or something. But they’re not. However, we can’t turn a blind eye to the god-like status and power they do have.

4. Black Pearl Cookie. My god, the amount of times I’ve seen people call Black Pearl a “filler” or “false” Legendary is insane. And the arguments I’ve always seen, or the ones I remember anyway, all boil down to her not being an Elemental. Again, that’s a flimsy argument considering Timekeeper Cookie’s a Legendary without being an Elemental. Black Pearl Cookie at least has some association with an actual element, which is water, being a mermaid and all. Besides, Black Pearl Cookie is literally the subject of a legend in the CRK world, which is what her and Captain Caviar Cookie’s whole update was about. The Black Pearl Islands and Duskgloom Sea, which are like her “kingdom”, can be considered the Bermuda Triangle of the CRK world. We see in the event itself that she’s capable of growing to a gargantuan size and is responsible for sinking countless ships that entered her territory. Something I’ve noticed about the Elementals is that they all have some kind of myth or legend surrounding them, like the City of Wizards being one of the Seven Mysteries of Earthbread (or whatever Wizard Cookie said), the Millennial Tree itself being viewed as a sacred tree of Earthbread, and Frost Queen Cookie being known as the Frost Witch in the myth at Cotton Cookie’s village. Black Pearl Cookie is incredibly powerful and is the legit subject of an existing legend in the CRK world, so why wouldn’t she have the Legendary status?

Idk, it just feels hypocritical when people bash Kingdom’s Legendaries when their arguments can apply to Ovenbreak’s Legendaries as well. But for some reason, Ovenbreak’s Legendaries get passes because they’re the OGs or whatever? You can’t bash Black Pearl Cookie for not being an Elemental Cookie when Timekeeper is right there. And I absolutely love Timekeeper, they’re on of my favorites, but if being an Elemental is the criteria for being a Legendary, then they shouldn’t be a Legendary.

TLDR: Legendary Cookies aren’t solely Elemental Guardians. There are Legendaries who aren’t Elementals. And if Black Pearl Cookie’s a “filler” Legendary for not being an Elemental, then some of Ovenbreak’s are “filler” Legendaries by those standards as well and don’t deserve the rarity.

[xanican-exile]

Some rambling about writing and tolkien

Its 20 years now since Return of the King came out in theaters.

This weekend I took my good friend @shichishi-chii through that wonderful trilogy, Its got me thinking not just about Tolkien's legendary work and Jackson's own incredible adaptation, but also about the kind of stories I want to tell.

I've realized over these last few weeks that I want to be a writer. Not just as some hobby or a far off goal, but that I genuinely want to create stories. Venix's own story is just one small part of a whole world with thousands of years of history that close friends of mine know I've been working on for years. Thinking about Tolkien's work on the 20th anniversary of the film trilogy wrapping up has me thinking some about what it means to be a writer, and what it really means to make a story that touches people all over the world.

I've always maintained that despite loving his works (and be thankful this is just an rp blog because my friends get my unfiltered rants and knowledge of Tolkien's world) that he's never been a direct inspiration for me, that the themes and characters I choose to write about have almost nothing in common with what he made. But I think in one way, he really has inspired me, there is something about his works that I want to be able to recreate.

I'm sure everyone takes something different from Lord of the Rings that truly sticks out to them. For some its the characters, others might point to the themes or the epic battles. But me? The one thing that separates his work from any other I've read or watched or played has always been the sense of history and magic that permeates his work. Even after having having seen and read his work many times over, that feeling of stepping into this world rich with its own tales, that what we're looking at is just one story in a long series of victories and defeats, of wonders lost, stretching back thousands of years has never left me. And that is the one thing that I hope I can one day match Tolkien in.

To me that's the best thing a fantasy can do, make you on some level really believe that this whole exists in the pages you turn. And I think more than anything that's the kind of story I want to write.

I'm not there yet, not by a long shot, I need a lot more practice, a lot more planning and work (and I should say now that all my work wouldn't be possible without my own Sam Gamgee @sylseal) and probably less time scrolling on tumblr and reddit or staring at drafts and a lot more time spent on getting notes and story scenes down. But this last year I've felt more inspired to do that than I have in a very long time. Who knows, with the new year right around the corner, maybe I'll be able to take that inspiration and really do something with it.

[yoshiebear]

My friend asked me why I have three versions of the same Pokemon game (Pearl, Platinum, and Brilliant Diamond), so i went on an unhinged ADHD rant. Realized I could post it here, so I edited it into a coherent paragraph. Let me know if I got anything wrong! I'm not an expert at all just a pokemon fan. TL;DR availible at the end. Explanation below the cut:

Ok so pokemon games! They usually come out in pairs, excluding gen 1 and probably some others. Like how Diamond and Pearl are both basically the same game and released at the same time. Two or three years later (usually before the next gen releases), they release a "sequel," for lack of a better term. Often it's one game. For example, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl became Pokemon Platinum. Sometimes they're direct sequels though, like Sun and Moon turning into Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon or Black and White turning into Black 2 and White 2.

Gamefreak also remakes their old Pokemon games. They remade Red and Green into FireRed and LeafGreen. Ruby and Sapphire got the same treatment, becoming Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. They usually come with graphics improvements among other tweaks, and are released on newer console than the originals; Red and Green were for the Gameboy, FireRed and LeafGreen were for the Gameboy Advance. The remakes for those two came out about eight years later. Diamond and Pearl were made for the DS, but Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (their remakes) were for the Switch. Those remakes came out about 15 years later than the original games, releasing in 2022.

The biggest difference between pokemon game pairs is usually the main legendary pokemon. Ex. in Pearl, the Team Galactic captured Palkia. In Diamond, they capture Dialga. That means Palkia is only able to be caught in Pokemon Pearl and Dialga is only in Diamond. There's lesser differences in catchable pokemon between the game pairs too. In the Grand Underground while playing the Pearl version, you can find Armor Fossils while digging. They can be restored in the Oreburgh Museum to get the pokemon Shieldon. In Diamond, you instead find Skull Fossils that can be restored into Cranidos. There are also other pokemon that can be caught in Pearl and not Diamond, and vice versa. Besides Dialga/Palkia/Giritina though, you can see every single Sinnoh pokemon in all versions of the gen4 games and unlock the national pokedex. I think there's also Kanto pokemon that can only be found in one version or the other of the game when you unlock the international pokedex? Not totally sure on that one.

Platinum, Pearl and Diamond's "sequel," changes the end of the story altogether, with the distortion world and all (haven't made it to that point in the game yet 😅). Giritina is the main legendary pokemon in it that the villain captures. You can also obtain Palkia and Dialga after defeating the Elite Four. Despite calling it a sequel, Pokemon Platinum isn't all that different from the other two Sinnoh region games besides the distortion world. A few of the gyms are different, the post-game Battle Park becomes the Battle Frontier, some of the graphics are better (?), there's two new islands (Full Moon and New Moon Island) where Cressilia and Darkrai can be found, and the progression of the gyms is a bit different. It may seem like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things it's the same game as the other two.

Thanks for reading, all two of you! I appreciate it a lot. Spent way too much time on this, and even more time editing it for Tumblr than writing it in the first place.

TL;DR: Pokemon games come out in pairs that are almost identical, but not quite. Certain pokemon are only availible in one version or the other. They also usually have one sequel game or a pair of sequel games. Generations 1-4 have all had remakes throughout the years, like Gold and Silver for the Gameboy Color becoming Heartgold and Soulsilver for the DS. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the most recent remakes, coming out for the Switch even though the originals released for the DS.

[nightshadedawn]

Shade's Masterpost

About Me

Hello, hello, hello! Please call me Shade! I accept use of all pronouns, but I do have the most fun with fae/faer, they/them, and ve/vir. I identify as queer simply because I could apply too many labels to myself. The one that takes up the largest part of my identity is my asexuality, so that's the only one I'll name. (I prefer sir to ma'am if you're going to use one, or captain if we're trying to be gender neutral, which I also accept, as it makes me feel like a pirate, which I am)

I've been strongly in fandom since 2014, a little late to the game compared to some! Especially since I always seem to be getting into fandoms as they're dying out. 🤣 My main contributing factors to fandom are fanfiction and videos, and occasionally rants and shitposts, but I'm not terribly good at either of those. But I tend to hang onto all my fandoms, revisiting them occasionally just to check on how they're doing, so I can't fully say I've ever left one. Speaking of, let's list some of those out for you.

My Fandoms

Free!

Haikyuu!!

Yuri on Ice!!!

Ouran High School Host Club

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Banana Fish

Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia

Sk8: The Infinity

Buddy Daddies

Persona 5

Persona 4

Fire Emblem: 3 Houses

Spy x Family

Obey Me!

Percy Jackson

Studio Ghibli

Good Omens

Mythology (Greek/Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Native American, anything else I can get my hands on)

Fairy Tales (og Grimms, Hans Christian Anderson, etc... not Disney things)

Musicals (Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, a plethora of more, please ask if you'd like to know!)

Our Flag Means Death

House of the Dragon/Fire & Blood (wasn't a fan of Game of Thrones)

Is that it? I think that's it for now. I have only written... for about half of them. Read for many. Most of my fanfiction is composed of anime fandoms, not going to lie about that. But I am always up for being prompted! Speaking of, let's look into the prompts.

Writing Prompts

How it works: You can send in a prompt of your own making, or you can choose one from these lists.

300 Words

Fire Emblem 3 Houses Bingo

More lists will be made regularly, and I'm always looking for prompts, especially around the holidays.

Choose one of the fandoms I know, send me a prompt, and we'll get jiggy with it. You can get more detailed, too, adding in what ship you'd like it to be for (I ship many, many things, and have often been convinced to write for ships I don't particularly care for, so don't hold back), or an AU if that's your thing. (It's certainly mine, I like AUs) If you specifically want it in cannon, might specify that too.

As a side note here, I use my Non-Binary Glossary for when I write nonbinary characters. Feel free to use it, and read through it if you see any words you might not immediately realize what they mean when I'm writing them.

My Tumblr Projects

You can find my fanfiction here at NightshadeDawn, but as I've mentioned, fanfiction isn't all I do. Let's dive into some of the other things I do, hm?

Persona 6: Genesis

A fan concept for Persona 6. An entire blog dedicated to it, with posts going through the entire plot of the game, character art created, maps planned out, and various other little things. It's been sort of put on the back burner, but it's still fun to look at sometimes.

Obsidian Sea DLC

A similar concept to Genesis, but so far faring better in the fact the actual story of it is in the works of being written. It's a hypothetical DLC for Fire Emblem: Three Houses that introduces three brand new units as part of Jeralt's Mercenaries, and makes Jeralt playable to round out as their fourth. The main plot of the DLC sees Jeralt's Mercenaries, Byleth, and their students going to Brigid to uncover the reason why people keep coming back from the dead with white hair and crests, then proceeding to turn into Demonic Beasts.

Verdant Wind: The Musical Twin AU

A series of videos edited in such a way that comes across as a musical retelling the story of the Verdant Wind route of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. With the idea that there's various parts that are incorrect either due to being lost to history or because of... "artistic vision."

The Gemini

A Persona 5 fangame that adds a social link for Shiho Suzui, making her a romanceable character while exploring her trauma and how she's growing as a person. Technically playable, but incomplete in my vision.

Ultimate Decades Drama

A collection of mini challenges for players of the Sims 4, specifically the Ultimate Decades Challenge. As I'm only a console player, I struggle with playing the challenge itself, but I love watching playthroughs. I heard a few people talk about struggling with stories or directions they wanted to take Sims, so I thought "Hey, I can tell stories. Let's see if I can translate that into something helpful."

Frequently Asked Questions

Technically, I have not had any of those yet. But I see this being updated every so often, so it's fine to leave this here.

In Conclusion...

Sifting through the reblogs, the anime stuff, the mild ramblings... be prepared for what you'll find if you continue down this blog. But you've made it thus far, and for that, I applaud you.

If there's anything you'd like to support, I do have a Kofi though I will be honest about not entirely knowing what I'm doing with it.

But now that you know all my deepest, darkest parts... is there anything else you'd like to know?