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sarahjtv · 3 months

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My Hero Academia is Officially Ending and I'm Fucking Coping 😭

So, it was officially announced early today, June 24th, 2024, by Shueshia and mangaka, Kohei Horikoshi, that My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia will officially end in 5 chapters on Chapter 430. The last chapter will be released at the beginning of August after 10 years of publication in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine if all goes well.

I woke up to this news. I'm sitting here on my laptop typing this as a way of coping tbh. On the outside, I'm numb and stunned. On the inside, I'M SCREAMING, CRYING, THROWING UP, MOURNING LIKE I LOST A LOVED ONE WTF 😭

*sigh* But, this was going to happen eventually. It was only a matter of when. When Horikoshi said that we would have more epilogue to cover, I thought "Maybe he'll give us 10 more chapters!" Turns out it is 6-7 chapters instead... In Horikoshi's defense, 6-7 chapters are much longer than what most mangaka have given us for epilogues to their stories. I'd rather have him give us 5 more chapters of an epilogue than rush it in 1-2. Plus, if possible, we could potentially get 19-20 pages per chapter which might be just enough to wrap everything up. And since final chapters of manga tend to be longer than usual, we could get extra pages in the last chapter to finish everyone's arcs and the story properly.

Still, it's so wild to see a series I have loved for years and have such a strong attachment to end as I am following it. I have been a part of many fandoms before and have stuck around them for years (Pokémon, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Breaking Bad, and many more), but it's not often that I've been there there to see a series come to it's conclusion. Sometimes that can turn out well (Breaking Bad) and other times I've seen it end badly (Supernatural; only read about it and it was not great. I bounced after season 13? and I am so sorry to the fandom). My Hero Academia is one of the very few series I will see through to the end.

I'm really coping here, honestly. I've been a fan of My Hero Academia since 2018. I first heard about the series randomly through the internet, but I didn't fully introduce myself to it until I listened to a cover of The Day on YouTube (I forget the artist, I'm so sorry). I thought the song was so cool and that led to me listening to more covers of MHA OPs (Peace Sign is still GOATed btw). This eventually led me to the manga and the anime where I became truly immersed in the series. I started reading the manga around the Joint Training Arc (I think) which was definitely an interesting time to read the manga because the chapters where so short due to Horikoshi dealing with health and I think moving conflicts at the time. It was still an enjoyable arc and enough to keep me interested in reading from the beginning. I want to say I started the anime around season 3?, but I started at the beginning and worked my way up from there. "Shoto Todoroki: Origin" was the episode that finally solidified my love for the series and is still my favorite episode of the series.

To say that MHA has an important place in my heart is an understatement. (⚠️Warning: very quick mention of suicide) I was very sad and depressed in the latter half of 2018. My life didn't feel like it was going anywhere and I was close to giving up entirely. (⚠️ ). Finding and loving MHA during that time honestly might have saved my life. As strange as it sounds, it was one of the few things that brought me genuine happiness at the time. I had something to look forward to every week and it was thrilling. I still remember debating whether Deku or Shoto was my favorite character. Shoto took the top spot in my heart, but Deku is a very close second 🩵💚.

Seeing MHA end is heartbreaking, honestly. I'm watching something I truly love come to an end. We'll still have the anime, movies, and spin-off series to keep us busy for the next few years, but the manga that started it all is coming to a close. It feels so, so surreal. God, is this how the Haikyuu fandom felt when it’s manga ended? My hope is that this fandom can be kept alive long after the series is over. The MHA fandom DEFINITELY has it's flaws, but it also has a lot of good in it too. I have seen incredible art and fanfics come from this fandom. I have laughed and hyped up some of the best moments of MHA with people who love it too. I know that the fandom is collectively mourning its end and I know we'll all cry bittersweet tears when it ends. If anything, I am glad to see Kohei Horikoshi end his momentous story on his own terms. I hope it ends up being one of the best manga endings in recent Shonen Jump like how Haikyuu's was. I think Horikoshi can do it. Regardless of how it ends, My Hero Academia will be one of my favorite pieces of fiction. I am really glad to be here to celebrate it.

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actualbird · 8 months

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what is your ranking of all the main event stories we have received so far? (as in sott, enduring light, skadi etc)

OHHHH THIS IS A FUN QUESTION, THANK YOU ANON!!! let me go from my highest to lowest.

for this question, im taking "main event stories" to mean the Big 4 SSR Events where the event story involves the entire team all at once (so no xmas events or sotn, or solo or duo events). and i will be judging these events primarily on their event story (so not as much as the gameplay, though thatll also be a factor. but i wont be judging the cards)

OH DANG WHY DID I EXPLAIN IT, THE TOT WIKI DOES A MUCH BETTER JOB AT DEFINING BIG 4 SSR EVENTS, HERE, THIS IS WHAT IM JUDGING

anyhoo, here is my personal ranking!

FIRST PLACE: Mysteries of the Lost Gold

my beloved, my favorite, my perfect shining star. lost gold was the first big event i played and it has yet to be dethroned as my favorite event story of all of tot. absolute homerun of a rich story with intrigue, high stakes, a good balance of tender moments and lighthearted ones, and just SO gripping in terms of all of the story threads coming together, plus the absolutely A+ nxx team interactions. my advice to every new player who comes into my inbox is "PLAY THE LOST GOLD DLC" because i love it so much. i will never shut up about how i love it so much. it has our very first raven!luke sighting. it has marius nearly getting stabbed. it has artem with gun. it has vyn doing that THING with the bow and arrow. LIKE. THIS EVENT IS PERFECT TO ME. it'll take something really really special to dethrone it.

SECOND PLACE: Enduring Light

this isnt recency bias speaking but my real honest thoughts: this story delighted me to no end. i was kept on the edge my seat for every single phase, and the sheer novelty of the story's setup and the gameplay was such a nice change of pace after the previous event formats started to get repetetive. i especially loved that this time, we had to suspect the nxx boys as well because that really added to my enjoyment of this event. it really felt like a mystery that had to be solved by us, and not just a mystery that will unravel by itself as long as we keep playing, if that makes sense? my point is i was immensely immersed in enduring light and i love it lots lots lots. luke looking stupendously hot in his outfit during the entire event was also a huge plus.

THIRD PLACE: a tie between Blizzardous Threads of Red & Mystery of Bakerlon

i really loved BTR and bakerlon!!! both of their murder cases were adequately thrilling for me, though towards the end i could feel the adrenaline wearing off, if that makes sense? like by the 4th phase, things were slotting together already in a way that like lowered the feeling of intrigue. also i know i said i wouldnt judge much based on gameplay, but these two deserve a shoutout for MINIGAMES I WANT TO KILL W MY BARE HANDS. bakerlon's crystal tasks were so repetetive to me, and BTR's TIMED ESCAPE ROOM THINGIES heightened my blood pressure several times HAHA

FOURTH PLACE: To My Beloved: Moonlit Eve (anniv 2)

this has a soft spot in my heart for including all of the old NPCs from main story, and that was very heartwarming. while theres no mystery that needs solving, just seeing the team hang out together and have fun together was such a treat for my soul

FIFTH PLACE: Secrets of the Tomb

sott is where i'd say the event story quality is inching towards the meh scale. the mystery here was interesting but was not particularly gripping to me. it might just be a me thing, but i enjoyed the side stories (the ones you get with the boys when you investigate the artefacts) more than the actual event story itself.

SIXTH PLACE: A Love Poem to Skadi

ahhhhh skadi. psychological and medical malpractice horrors skadi.....HJSVKHSJDFDSF. i will admit, the mystery in this story is HORRIFIC and it was enjoyable to unravel it, but here is where i break my rule again of not talking about gameplay but mAAAAAAN THE GAMEPLAY HINDERED MY ENJOYMENT OF THE MAIN PLOT LOTS. it was rather difficult for me to do all the exploration in that manor and that stalled my absorption of the story too. plus, i think the fact that the story is Over made the story have a bit of a muted quality to it. not in a bad way (i distinctly remember i wrote a semi-analysis post about how i enjoyed that the story was in the Past) but it definitely affected the mood of the gameplay, if that makes sense?

(that is the third time ive said "if that makes sense" in this response, THREE STRIKES AND YER OOOOOUT)

SEVENTH PLACE: Blissful Fete (anniv 1)

be honest with me.....do YOU remember the event story plot of blissful fete? cuz i sure dont. JVSKDHFSJDHSF. i only remember getting very very mad at luke during that fucking minigame where we guess if the card is higher or lower. that being said, if i cant even remember much of the story, then it didnt make an impact on me and couldve been improved.

so thats my ranking! thank u for the ask :D

#asks #anon #lost gold my beloved.....i will never stop loving u....

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catcze · 2 years

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⠀「 Feel my heart 」

Reblogs are greatly appreciated !!

「 FEAT : 」 Diluc. Childe, Kokomi, Thoma (separate) x gn! reader

「 ### : 」 Fluff ! Comfort, cute smooches & just good feels all around. A little ooc? Because of softness. ‘Love’ used to refer to the reader.

Collab entry for my beloved @anantaru & @bluexiao ‘s Sweet N Spice collab ♡

Catch me cramming these like how I crammed my paper last semester lmao

⠀ 「 DILUC 」

Parties ! Absolutely fun and festive ! A grand excuse to dress up and mingle, and the promise of an enjoyable time! And free food ! To everyone except Diluc, maybe. Though he can appreciate a good party, the crowdedness of it (not to mention how his time wasted there could very well be more useful hunting the abyss order) was often a turn off.

Not to you though! The moment you caught sight of the fancy-schmancy party invite at the Goth Grand Hotel that he was prepared to throw out, you asked and asked and asked him to go. Pleaded. Whined. Pulled out every trick in the goddamn book to get him to bring you as his plus one.

“Do you even know how to dance?” You still remember him asking, arms crossed and a quirk in his brow. How naive of him, thinking such a menial thing would deter you. “Nope!” You say, smiling. “But you’re going to teach me.”

And this is how you find yourself getting the crash-iest crash course on dancing for rich people that you’ve ever heard of. Day in and day out for the last three weeks— Diluc Ragnvinder, the supposed love of your life, has put you through some of the most grueling shit you can ever dream of. It almost makes you think twice about going, but no way in hell are you about to see him be smug over you accepting defeat.

But, to be fair, merely three weeks into it, and according to Diluc, you probably won’t get roasted by the other members of society attending the event. Not to your face, at least. Probably. Hopefully.

“Caught your breath?” Diluc asks, approaching your starfished form on the ground. There’s an empty glass of water not to far away— a good sign, despite the almost-corpse of his beloved currently unmoving.

You don’t respond to his question, merely moving to roll away from his voice and grumble some non-savory words under your breath.

“You can always call it quits, you know. There isn’t even any practical need to go.” Even without seeing his face, you can practically hear the amused little quirk at the corner of his mouth, and by the archons, feel free to call it petty, but you feel life rush back through your cold, dead limbs, if only to stick it to the amused redhead looking over you.

Getting to your feet is a chore and a half, and you’re definitely going to pass out the moment you get to bed, but you still manage to get back up. Diluc looks impressed, if anything. Either from your stubbornness or your drive, you’re not entirely sure. At the very least, your short water break had left you slightly better off with less sway in your step.

“You’ve made good progress, love. I think we can try to dance the full length of a song today, just before we finish up,” Diluc says, taking your hands in his.

You perk up at his words, exhaustion momentarily gone. “Really? But… there’s no music, though.”

“Music.”

“I mean— yeah.” You shrug. “It would be good for… for immersion.” Then you double down on your bullshit. “Mhm. Yup. Immersion.” You’re nodding to yourself now, self-assured in your words. Diluc just looks on for a second before he sighs, all too easily bending to you when you want something.

“Alright,” he acquiesces, looking like he’s trying very hard not to drag a hand down his face. “Well, what do you propose we do about this lack of music.”

“Youuu… could sing for me?”

It’s like he visibly blanches at the prospect.

All your exhaustion gone at the opportunity that presents itself, you easily sidle up to him, intertwining your fingers together. “C’mon ‘Luc, please? Just this once, I swear, then we’ll go to sleep and go at it again tomorrow and you won’t have to sing! I promise.”

Another deep breath, and Diluc looking like he’s weighing the choice between doing as you ask and jumping out the window right then and there, but eventually— “Alright, fine. Just once.”

Immediately, your grin is blinding, like you’ve just been hooked up to a power source. You giddily press a kiss to his nose, already spewing out your thanks.

“Just this once, really! You’re the best, Diluc.”

He sighs, knowing that, despite what he’s said, if you ask again, he’s too whipped to ever tell you no. Not that he minds too much, if it makes you so happy. “Love you, too.”

⠀ 「 CHILDE 」

He’s a harbinger— someone who’s made his fair share of enemies and seen his fair share of shit. Undoubtedly, there’s a long list of people that he has to watch his back for.

And now that he’s dragged you into his mess (though you’d argue that you willingly walked into the shitfest that is dating a harbinger) he’s extra jumpy when nighttime comes.

It didn’t bother you at first— it was kind of along the lines of Childe to be like that. But it did become worrisome when you see the bags under his eyes darken, and the weariness in his smile grow.

“Childe,” you call, brows furrowed. “Come inside— it’s late.”

From where he stands at the balcony overlooking the harbor in all its nighttime glory, Childe turns back to smile at you over his shoulder. It would be a pretty picture, you think— the person who treats you right and makes you happy, illuminated by the glowing lights of the beautiful city of contracts. The only thing that detracts from it is the heavy bags under his eyes, visible in even this low light.

“I’ll be right in. Feel free to go to sleep ahead of me,” is what Childe says, and a muscle in your jaw twitches.

Each step you take on the floor is audible in the silence that grows between you. When you’re just a few steps away, you scoff, eyes narrowing. “You look like shit, you know that?” Childe doesn’t even bother to rebut with an easygoing quip, knowing that it’s all too true.

“C’mon, Childe. Even you have to sleep sometime.” Gently, you take a hold of his wrist, tugging him backwards and away from the balcony rail. He doesn’t even bother to put up a resistance— maybe it’s because he’s too tired and he knows you’re all too right, but he lets you pull him back into the warmth of your space and to your bedroom, where you sit him down at the edge of your bed and stand before him. With a concerned frown, you reach up to cup his face and gently rub at the bags under his eyes with your thumb, and he lets you, head going limp against your hold.

“You’re very overdue for some long, uninterrupted sleep,” you tell him matter-of-factly, cradling his head. “Is there any way I can help?”

“Sing for me?” He asks quietly, eyelids already drooping. “That Snezhenayan lullaby that I taught you. Please?”

“I… don’t know,” you tell him. “I doubt I can even pronounce all the words correctly—”

“Please?”

“…I… Alright.”

And by the archons did you try your hardest for him. Despite tripping over some of the more unfamiliar words, and fumbling the tune once or twice, damn it, you tried. And when you stopped for a breath and glanced at your redhead curled up on the bed, you could deem it all worth it— seeing him finally getting some rest was all you ever wanted.

⠀ 「 KOKOMI 」

A visitor to Watatsumi island. That’s all you ever were, at first. A traveling musician making the most of the Sakoku decree being lifted to finally see the entirety of Inazuma. Who would eventually leave to find other sources of inspiration.

That is, though, until the day that Kokomi wanders the streets of Borou Village and comes across the children laughing and dancing. In the center is you, playing your music and singing songs of adventure from far-off lands.

“Feel free to seek me out whenever you’re in need of music, divine priestess,” you had told her that day.

“Good morning, Kokomi— I see you’re once more in need of my songs,” you greet with a smile, easily spotting the figure robed in pink and purple. As you approach, it’s like your very presence brings a song— one that soothes her stresses and has her forgetting the work that she had escaped from.

The divine priestess sighs, her poise slipping from her just the slightest bit. It’s a sight you can never grow tired of, seeing her so relaxed in your presence. “You can certainly say that,” Kokomi replies, already beginning to instinctively walk in the direction of the tree with the nook that she had begun to call her own space. You easily keep stride with her, already familiar with the path after so long. “It seems that there are problems popping up around Watatsumi one after the other. I always try my best to remedy them as soon as possible but alas— there is only so much even a divine priestess can do.”

“And it seems like you’ve still be trying to do more what you can do despite many people telling you to take it easy. Myself included, I’ll have you know.”

The divine priestess laughs, shaking her head, though you both already know that it’s true.

The walk to Kokomi’s hideout is a quick and easy one, and in no time at all you find yourselves at the foot of the beautiful tree. Kokomi finds her place on a fallen log, her view consisting of both you and the sprawling sight of the island.

“So,” you start with a smile, settling down beside her, close enough that your sides touch and you can smell the ocean breeze on her clothes. “What kind of story are you interested in today, dearest priestess?”

As you count off all the stories you know —both ones that you’ve already regaled to her and ones that you haven’t— you count them off on your fingers. “There’s the story of the fair, tragic maiden who used to sing at the fountain in Mondstadt, or the green-clad hunter who once roamed the forests of Sumeru, or, actually, I don’t believe I had told you the story of Guili Assembly yet—“

You’re cut off, though, when Kokomi places a hand on yours, preventing you from holding any more fingers up. Your mouth dries, eyes staring at her in both surprise and intrigue.

“Actually the song I want to hear about today… would be about you, actually. If you don’t mind, of course!” She’s quick to correct herself. “I just realized that you’ve told me so many wonderful stories of the places you’ve been but… I don’t know as much about you as I would like to. A song about yourself— are you… would you sing that for me?”

It takes you a moment— one that you spend staring at her, wide eyed as you process her request. Then you smile, intertwining your hand with hers, reveling in the blush you see grow on her face. “I’d be more than happy to, priestess.”

⠀ 「 THOMA 」

It’s no secret that Thoma is a hard worker. He cooks, he cleans, he attends to the Kamisato Clan to the best of his ability. He does his best, but sometimes even he —the housekeeper extraordinare— falls a bit short.

The days have just been a bit busy, and with another festival coming up, the entire Yashiro commission has been in a tizzy trying to get everything sorted out. It certainly hadn’t been his intention to leave you for so long (even though you told him you understood.)

So as soon as he could, he cleared his schedule for you. Took you out for the afternoon in Inazuma city, spending time together petting the dogs and eating good food, with the intention to end it off watching the stars together in the cliffs by the estate.

“Today was really nice, Thoma,” you tell him, hand in his as you both sit on the cliff, legs dangling in the wind as you gaze upon the stars.There’s a small smile on your face as you glance away from him, too bashful to meet his gaze. “I’m… really glad we did this. I missed you a bunch, you know?”

Thoma gives your joined hands a squeeze, leaning in to place a soft kiss to your cheek that only serves to fluster you even more. “I’m glad too,” he admits, giving you back your space, but not letting go of your hand. “I was scared you’d want to break up with me after all that, y’know?”

At this, you snort, having to reign yourself back from bursting into laughter. “Really? Please, it’s gonna take much more than that to make me wanna break up with you.”

“Like?”

“Like stealing my food for example.”

Now it’s his turn to snort, jokingly shoving your shoulder with his own. “Even if I’m the one paying?”

“Hey, the moment that food is on my side of the table, you lose all custody, my guy.”

He laughs, then, and you join him not a second later. The two of you go back and forth for some time— bantering and joking and (on occasion) stealing quick kisses from the other. It’s something you had missed greatly when he was busy— this ease of being together. How it feels so easy and fun to talk about even the most mundane things with him.

“You know,” Thoma says suddenly, cutting into your previous topic. His eyes are trained on the ocean and the stars that settle in the sky, a wistfulness overtaking him. “When I was still with my mom in Mondstadt, she taught me this song. I only remember bits and pieces of it now, but she said that it was something that my dad had written for her, as a sign of his love.”

“You only remember bits and pieces?” You echo, and he nods. You fall silent for a while, mulling things over. “Can you… sing it for me?”

“Even if it’s not whole?” He asks, tilting his head, though he hadn’t refused.

“Yeah! And I mean—“ there’s the bashfulness again, creeping back in little by little. “I mean, we can… try to fill in the gaps ourselves? Kinda like we’re writing our own song, you know?”

Thoma’s silent for a moment, still as he looks at you, and it’s almost enough to make you nervous and apologize instead. But he takes your joined hand and squeezes it, smiling to himself. “ Our own song… yeah, I’d like that a lot, actually.”

#Diluc x reader #Diluc Ragnvinder x reader #Childe x reader #Kokomi x reader #Sangonomiya Kokomi x reader #Thoma x reader #Genshin Impact x reader #bloru.sweetnspice #「 🐈‍⬛ 」 catcze.desserts #cw gn reader

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honoringthehorrific · 6 months

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Is Late Night with The Devil worth tuning in for?

Don't adjust those sets...spoilers in 5..4..3..2...

First off sorry for not being able to find a gif from the movie! Tumblr gave me a real hard time with that one.

Second off I would like to say I do not support the use of AI art. I think it is abysmal. I watched this movie with my partner after saving up points at our local theater for free tickets. If this still supports the movies we see in some way please let me know and I will be sure to find another way to better watch these movies without supporting their actions...🏴‍☠️🦜 It just may mean you get your reviews a touch later!

Onto the movie. The aesthetics were very enjoyable I could appreciate the ties back to satanic panic and the fascination with the occult. The costuming, the filming of the movie, it all felt right and very few times did I feel my immersion in it break. I feel like maybe there were one or two shots where the actors looked too well made up if that makes sense.

One fun fact my partner pointed out was that you can see the twin towers in the opening shots and the city cut aways because they were built 4 years prior! I really liked that this movie didn't shy away from showing us the towers mostly because I feel like that's something that would have broken the idea we are in the 70s.

While the filming was fitting and awesome the effects were....I would say B tier at points. I think it adds to the charm of course I can always appreciate a homemade effect but it does slightly pull me out of this being something that really happened. Don't get me wrong I know it's not trying to be the next Blair witch "true story" but i feel like there is some level to this that wants the audience to feel that this is real.

My partner notes too that cutting it from a television camera view to the audience view might have helped as well!

Onto the fun stuff, we get hints throughout...sorry no, not hints...we get TOLD throughout the movie that our star of tonight's show, jack delroy, is in a fraternal organization...sorry, i mean cult. He is in the Bohemian Grove cult. We get told there are rumors of this in the opening almost documentary style retelling of Jack's fame and struggles with being as good as Johnny Carson. We'll come back to that.

Tonight is 1977. Halloween night. Sweep week. A night where Jack really needs to scrape in the views. He has no idea that the plans he has this evening will go awry...recently his wife madeline who will be reffered to by her "special nickname" mini has passed away from lung cancer. Tonight's show is also jacks first one back and man is it a doozy. We get to see how he banters with his co-host and honestly kind of berates him. I had this struggle with jack where I wanted to like him but every time I tried I just got these kicks and hints that he was kind of an asshole? But it's show biz, who isn't? His first guest is a medium who intends to commune with the dead. He seems like other shoddy Vegas types until he accurately assess a family who lost their son and brother to suicide. It's later revealed to be a bunch of hooey when the next guest a renowned skeptic chats with the family and realizes they were questioned prior to the show.

The first chilling moment we get that isn't the use of AI art is the medium seemingly becoming possessed by the grieving spirit of mini however no one claims the name and only later does jack reveal he thinks the message was for him.

I'm not gonna foot around it. The use of AI art while not overly used and egregious it's present. Personally it being present feels like an issue. It bugs me and it should bug you. I know many people want to cut it a break for being an indie film but it doesn't take much to put some money towards what was it? 5-6 pieces of art? Yeah some people will have higher rates for working on this but I'm sure they could have found someone to do the art if they felt theirs wasn't up to par. I don't think they're fully evil or anything for it. I don't support AI art but I can understand the other side of the argument. However when you turn a blind eye to one film and it does well it doesn't matter if it's an indie project or not. It makes the big guys think hey we like this. Give the devil an inch and he'll take a mile right?...

That all being said I could ignore the cut aways kind of??...I paid attention for mistakes the first few times before the sight of them just elicited an annoyed eyeroll from me.

As the movie progresses we meet the skeptic. He's offering checks to people who can prove without a doubt that they're the real deal and he says hes not lost a nickel yet. The medium claims he doesn't want the money and when Jack vouches for him and says the last message was meant for him the medium's behavior gets more and more erratic before he finally spews black vomit all over the studio including onto the skeptic.

Little do we know on the way to the hospital our medium turns up dead. This starts to brew panic in the crew and our co-host as our next guests are brought on. June and Lily. Lily was found as a 10 year old by the authorities as the only surviving member of a satanic cult that kind of parodies the satanic church and Anton lavey. Lily is possessed by a demon she calls mr.wriggles. mr.wriggles is an interesting one alright! Wether it's trauma, the demonic possession or my boyfriend's theory- autism. Lily exhibits off behaviors like staring directly into the cameras and seeming very monotone at times. It isn't until Jack pushes for and honestly...kind of corners June on live TV that June and Lily decide to showcase Lily's ability. Man does this demon have something to say.

The demon begins by noting that him and Jack know each other hinting at a tie between the Grove cult again. Before intent focuses again on June. Calling her out for her and jacks relationship and telling her to remember what happened to his last whore. Possession doesn't cease until June slaps the girl. Let me tell you I didn't trust this at all. June goes to undo the straps after some crazy electrical issues and levitation and I just felt uneasy the whole time. That typical feeling while watching these movies of "are you stupid??" Lily in my eyes had a very sinister look to her still that later gets touched on again. We then get the skeptics explanation and recreation with hypnosis. Making our co-host believe his phobia of worms is suddenly real life with them wriggling from his neck stomach and lastly eyeball. Only for us to cut back to reality with his activation phrase and see that none of it was true. They watch the tape back and realize that the whole audience was hypnotized because none of that truly happened on their TV sets. However when watching back what happened with Lily it triggers the girl.

She levitates and glows while her head splits open. She immolates the skeptic when he offers the hefty check in exchange for his life and hangs her guardian/doctor by the necklace meant to keep the demon at bay. And unfortunately our chunky loveable co-host gets his neck snapped when trying to "the power of Christ compels you" the demon away. It isn't until we get this gorgeous dream like sequence after Jack seemingly gets away. Him going through the routine of the show only to try and escape. Him telling us to turn off our sets and stop watching before we get a sequence with the cult and him drinking from a chalice as he meets his wife. She reveals that he sacrificed her health for fame. He didn't know. And this is where I felt sympathetic for him....the entire time he was unaware...he murdered her unintentionally. And so she asks him to murder her in the physical. Take the ritual knife from Lily's old home and finish her off before the cancer can take her....only for him to plunge the knife into her and reveal that the dream was fake. And he has stabbed Lily to death. He stands and we get a heart wrenching scene of him trying to say the skeptics activation phrase to wake up while surrounded by the carnage he somewhat unknowingly caused...

Overall I give this 3 worms out of 5.

The AI made my eyes roll and the effects were corny but the premise and scenery and aesthetics were beautiful. I sort of reccomend it if you can watch it in a non supporting way.

#late night with the devil #not an aesthetic #regurgitated reviews #horror

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piracytheorist · 1 year

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hiiii. this is kinda random but just wanted to say I'm starting to understand you going anime only for SxF. I watched S1 blind, then bcs I craved more I read the manga. Now bcs I know what happens, watching S2 has less exciting effect for me (?) Don't get me wrong I'm still so excited and the animation/voice is stunning, but it would be nice to experience the story for the first time again. anyway it's impressive you got to stay committed to anime only! sorry for rambling in your inbox ;-;

Hi, and no worries, I appreciate the message! Ramble in my inbox whenever :D

And yeah, the feeling you describe is exactly what I fear I'll feel if I go manga first anime second. It even happened with the bullet in butt date episode, since I'd read the chapter already, it impacted my enjoyment of it a bit. I ended up comparing it a lot to the manga and this interfered with my immersion. Funny thing is, any time I read a chapter that I'd already watched in anime, this didn't happen. I was able to enjoy anime and manga both, without interference.

That said, the one other chapter I'd already read before it was adapted was the one where Nightfall visits the Forgers for the first time. While once again I ended up comparing the anime to the manga a lot, after a couple months that feeling went away and now I can enjoy rewatching the episode without making any comparisons. So I'm hoping that after a while I'll be able to enjoy the bullet in butt date episode on its own merit, and maybe it will feel the same for you!

I think it's a testament to the quality and heart of the story, that we want to experience it for the first time all over again. If you're caught up with the manga it'll probably take a few years for the anime to catch up, but if you want to also go anime-only I will probably be here for... well, a long time 😂 one of the worst parts about being anime only is that I have next to no-one to talk about it, and I can't search for posts here or anywhere else because most fans read the manga and avoiding spoilers is impossible, even when you tell people you're avoiding manga spoilers. I'm pretty sure a few of my followers here secretly want to nudge me to catch up with the manga 🤣 So yeah, one of the things that kept me an anime only was the hope that I may provide some company to a fellow anime only 🤣

And look, I totally get you. I'm honestly surprised myself I made it all the way here and only indulged myself once, and only for a couple pages from a certain chapter after I saw some spoilers. When season one ended last December I actually expected I'd break and read through at least a couple arcs into the manga. So the temptation certainly isn't small!

I would say, find the way that makes you enjoy it more and take that. I enjoy the story told through anime more, but not when I get a ton of spoilers here and there, so I have to accept that I will have very limited interactions with fellow fans for years on end, as I don't see the story ending soon, and the anime will need one to two years (if not more) to catch up once the manga ends. So that's something to consider. On the other hand, keeping a distance from chapters you've already read may help you enjoy the respective episodes more. Like, the more time passes from a manga chapter you've read, the more immersed you may be by the adapted anime episode. Idk if you wanted advice, but I thought I could share some thoughts XD In any case, feel free to share with me whenever! I love talking about everything sxf <3

#ask and ye shall receive #Anonymous #sxf

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paradisiagal · 10 months

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2024 SEASON’S GREETINGS

The annual Season’s Greetings preparation has commenced and here is a preview of mine! At the end of every year K-POP groups or artists release a package known as Season Greetings. Each year these packages contain distinctive concepts such as sports-themed, floral, and some even following movie themes. It would include a diary and a calendar as the main inclusion for fans to use for the upcoming year! Additional items such as limited photo cards, posters, and stationaries will vary depending on the theme. According to these themes, idols will be dressed in assigned outfits. What do you think is the theme for 2024? This time’s theme is “Black or White?” with a touch of floral and chic style. I asked a few of you which suited me most, was it Black or was it White? While I was scrolling through the comments, some stated that both are pretty and fit me while some preferred Black more. I was more touched when a fan referred to me as someone who is elegant and beautiful. It makes my heart flutter!

Moving on, the theme includes various outfits. That's why I wore a black sleeve and backless dress with my hair tied down and bangs for the first outfit. Second, a white dress with a hole on the side and a long slit featuring a single strap, my hair still tied down but my bangs going out of the way, adds a touch of glamour and allure to the collection. The third outfit introduces a different aesthetic, with me donning a simple yet sophisticated lavender off-shoulder dress, letting her hair down for a softer look. Lastly, the chic lavender one-shoulder off-sweater ensemble with short hair, bold makeup, and big hoop earrings unveils yet another facet of IU’s persona, showcasing my ability to switch styles seamlessly. Embracing various styles and adapting to change can be an enjoyable experience, especially when it holds the potential for positive outcomes. Just as I envision our connection growing stronger with each step in our journey, I am eager for us to continue flourishing during my upcoming comeback. While I sense your excitement, let’s take a moment to revel in the Christmas spirit and the exciting possibilities the New Year may unfold for all of us.

I encourage my beloved UAENAs to savor moments with their families and friends, mirroring my own plans to cherish these precious times. As we usher in new and promising days, I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you! The highly anticipated announcement of my comeback next year is just around the corner. Can you feel the excitement building? You certainly should, especially since this comeback will feature a collaboration with our esteemed guest from IU’s Palette, V! I’ll delve deeper into this topic very soon. In the meantime, let’s take a collective break and immerse ourselves in the joy of the holidays. Your unwavering support means the world to me, my dear UAENAs, and I want you to know how deeply appreciative I am for each and every one of you. Looking ahead, I am filled with gratitude and anticipation for the journey we are about to embark on together.

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greatbritishsimchallenge · 1 year

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Tag Game for Historical Simblrs! 📖

1. What has been your favourite time period to play in or which one are you most excited for?

The Anglo Saxon era has been my favourite so far. The thrill of working to build Kennedi up to the chief of her own Queendom was very fun.

2. Do you have a favourite piece of historical cc? (CAS or BB)

BB - I don’t know if ‘favourite’ is the right word, but I really value the CC toilets. Having my sims pee/poop in a historically accurate looking toilet somehow really helps with my immersion!

CAS - basically every historical style dress that @sifix has made

3. Who is your favourite sim currently?

I’m very early into playing the Second Estate of the Medieval era so I don’t have one for that Estate yet. Of the Medieval era as a whole, William hands down.

4. What is your favourite world?

I really like Brindleton Bay, but my most used is definitely Henford-on-Bagley.

5. Are you more gameplay or story focused?

I’m going to say gameplay because that is what I use to create the story, but I do enjoy trying to thread together all the little gameplay moments into an enjoyable narrative.

6. Do you like to play with pets in your historical saves?

The Second Estate of the Medieval era is the first time I’m doing it and, I have to say... I’m not a fan so far.

7. What’s your biggest immersion breaking pet peeve with the game?

Townies not being dressed historically. I do periodically go through and dress all the adults, but I can never be bothered with the children or younger and over time I end up with sims walking around in the typical modern, hideous Townie fashion. If anyone knows how to use MCCC or any other mod to get townies to dress themselves historically, please let me know!

8. What’s your favourite in-game historical item? (CAS or BB)

CAS - The Outdoor Retreat outfit for men and women is very useful.

BB - woodworking table to make chairs, tables, bathtubs, toilets etc.

9. What would you like to see as a new pack or asset to the game?

I need to think hard about this one... and I'm drawing a blank

10. What pack do you think is invaluable as a historical simmer?

Expansion pack - Cottage Living

Game pack - Outdoor Retreat

Stuff Pack - Laundry Day

11. Do you have a favourite mod to enhance historical gameplay?

Ye Olde Cookbook kit by @littlbowbub

12. What’s your ideal family size for playing?

My preferred is 4, but I spend most gameplay with 8 because of how many goals require that many sims.

13. Do you use poses?

I used to a lot, but now I only use poses when I cannot find an in-game animation that suitably captures what I am trying to achieve.

14. Do you use any overrides in your game?

Yes. My favourite is by @simverses and is basically an override for all the outfits of the NPC roles - maid, butler, gardener, mailman, bartender etc. It helps with immersion SO much.

15. Do you, or did you, play off-the-grid during your game?

Yes. The challenge required me to for the Iron Age, Roman Britain and some of Anglo Saxon era.

16. What lifespan do you play on?

Normal life span. I wish I could fiddle and make old age much longer, but the the challenge doesn’t allow messing with lifespans.

17. What inspired you to start playing a historically?

Short answer - finding a Sims Forum thread about the History Challenge and then falling down a very deep rabbit hole that ended up with me creating a simblr account.

Thank you for the tag @aheathen-conceivably and @taanoir!

I tag @shelbycompanylimitedd @soulful-simmer just because they haven’t posted their historical stories in a while and I miss them :)

#simblr ask game

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shivvroys · 1 year

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lord, don't let me break this

shivlina oneshot

shiv and karolina, at the RECNY ball

you can also read it on ao3

a/n: surprise bitch, i bet u thought you'd have to wait another month for more shivlina crumbs!! This was initially meant to be a part of my other shivlina fic (you don't have to read that one first, but it would be cool if u did) as a reunion of sorts after Shiv's return from Sweden, but I decided to take that fic in another direction, so I'm just posting this as a oneshot.

Enjoy, muahhh! :XX

lord, don’t let me break this, let me hold it lightly

give me arms to pray with, instead of ones that hold too tightly

“I read the statement. Good one, plausible everything.” Karolina smirks.

“Yeah, Tom’s publicist tried to get us to do a sit down interview, but I told her I’d blow my brains out on live television if I had to smile holding an ATN branded onesie.” she pauses, narrowing her eyes. “That wasn’t you, by the way, was it?”

She smiles at Karolina’s scoff of indignation. On stage, some bottle blonde with long, glistening legs is droning on about the importance of nurturing freedom of self-expression in our youth, while the group of kids dressed in beige rags waiting just in the shadow of the backstage area are sniggering and elbowing each other. She can see them expressing themselves just fine.

“God, no. Fluff pieces are probably the worst part of this job, if I’m being honest.” she replies.

Not the white-collar crime cover-ups? Shiv doesn’t say it out loud. She doesn’t want to put a damper on an otherwise enjoyable night. A surprisingly fun night. The onstage entertainment is typical RECNY bullshit, the same recycled speeches lapped up by uppity cunts patting themselves on the back for throwing crumbs to the poor pathetic art-school students and their future careers. God knows, there are only so many cafés looking for baristas in New York. The world needs improv groups, too! Shiv isn’t paying much attention to the stage, anyway. The lights are just dim enough to feel like she’s getting away with something, and Karolina is warm and loose at her side. Karolina’s only on her second glass of prosecco, but her face is slowly losing its reserved detachment, and her arm brushes firmly against Shiv’s whenever she laughs at one of Shiv’s inappropriate comments.

Turning to the other woman, Shiv finds her quietly contemplating. She looks like she’s deciding whether she can make some bad news go away by not speaking it into existence. Shiv nudges her. Spit it out. Karolina takes a deep breath, rolling her eyes slightly.

“I was just going to say-. Well, just that it wouldn’t have been the smartest option, anyway. Doing the interview.” Shiv frowns. Karolina’s suddenly grown quiet, like she’s steeling herself to get yelled at.

“And why is that?” Shiv asks.

The crowd erupts in applause, and the lights grow dimmer. Some bland electronic instrumental starts playing, as the kids make their way to the stage, all blank faces and languid steps. Shiv doesn’t pretend to be interested in whatever abstract emotion they’re trying to portray as they start flailing their bodies awkwardly. Kendall would eat it up. She focuses her attention back on Karolina, the other woman’s expression now harder to make out in the dark.

“It’s nothing, sorry. I’m crossing the line, forget I said anything.” she watches Karolina take a sip of wine and pretend to immerse herself in the performance on the stage. A scrawny kid with a shitty fade and ear gauges is staring up at the light projectors and flapping his arms. Riveting. Shiv’s not letting her get out of this one.

“I wasn’t aware there was a line. Come on, Novotney, say it with your entire chest.” Shiv doesn’t realize she’d raised her voice until a couple of people turn back to look at them in condescending disapproval. She’d flip them off, but the silent scolding gives her an excuse to huddle closer to Karolina, so she lets it slide, and angles her body towards the other woman. They share a soft chuckle, like school girls caught trading notes during class. Shiv raises a pointed eyebrow, reminding Karolina she was very much still on the hook.

“Well-.” she pauses. Shiv can’t remember the last time she’d seen her struggle so hard to find her words. “Well, purely from a PR perspective, a general representative statement is less…” she trails off. “Binding. Compared to a direct quote.” Karolina turns her head swiftly away from Shiv, a trail of perfume punctuating the end of her sentence. It’s something dark and ambery that briefly sends Shiv’s head spinning. It takes her a minute to process what Karolina’s actually said.

“Uh huh. So what you’re saying is, it would make us look stupid when we have to announce the divorce?”

Karolina had grown accustomed to Shiv’s particular knack for feather ruffling, but she still looks very uncomfortable to be broaching this particular topic. The Tom of it all. They hadn’t done anything, and whatever this was between them, this weird codependent clinging of each other, had been nothing but Christian. The longest Shiv’s held something between her hands without the urge to see it shatter. But still, they had an unspoken agreement that whatever it was, it would remain theirs. Nothing in, nothing out. They could make fun of Frank’s heavy breathing, and Matsson’s latest attempt at rebranding himself by trying to grow out a goatee, they could even share a silent laugh during meetings at Tom’s uncomfortable pep talks. But her marriage remained firmly outside of their thing. This rip in reality, their tiny cave at the edge of the world. And if Karolina was seeing someone, or seeking out someone to see, that stayed out too. Schrödinger's commitments.

If she said i love you in the middle of the night, but there was no one there to hear it, was she breaking a promise?

“I apologize, that was very inappropriate. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

The performance is done, and the lights get turned up a bit. A man with broad shoulders and an arrogant gait makes his way across the stage, the projector lights following him like prey animals. By the look of her, however, the lights might as well have been pointed right at Karolina. She’s gripping the wine flute, and pointedly refusing to look Shiv in the eyes. The dig at her sham of a marriage hadn’t hurt Shiv. If anything, she’s glad to have a chance to drag that elephant out of its corner and pelt it with rocks for a change. No, it’s not the reminder of its failure that bothers Shiv, but the reminder of its existence. That fact that the moment she is in right now is the temporary one out of the two.

She’s holding the thing, like a big shiny marble, and she can feel it slipping away from her grasp, can hear it shattering against the cold floor. Say something.

The man at the podium has a ridiculously wide tie and his teeth shine fluorescent as he laughs at the jokes that have been written for him. Shiv pins him down with her stare, urging him to finish speaking, urging the lights to dim yet again and Karolina to brush her arm against hers again.

“You know, it’s fine.” Karolina’s still refusing to look her way. Shiv leans closer. She can see the tension gathered along the column of Karolina’s throat. “Besides, you’ve got a point.” She watches Karolina swallow. “I appreciate you trying to keep me an honest woman, Novotney. Rotten work, though.”

Karolina finally turns to look at her. She opens her mouth, but doesn’t dare let any thought pass through. Shiv is frozen in her spot, trapped under Karolina’s gaze and hollowed out by the other woman’s perfume. If she moves, she’ll do something they’d both regret. The lights are too fucking bright. Suddenly, Shiv can hear every fucking person in the room breathing. Can hear them shifting in their seats, scraping their forks against their plates, dragging their chairs across the carpeted floor. Can feel her mouth dry out, and the underwire of her bra digging into her chest. She wills it to break skin. The world comes back into view with violent clarity. The thing sits cradled between her palms like a cool, shiny marble, and Shiv’s fingers are twitching.

If she kissed Karolina in a room full of strangers, but she didn’t say i love you, would the fire be worth the burn?

But she can’t do that. Not to Karolina. An honest woman.

So, she pulls back. Grabs her own glass and sips it like communion wine. Sins all cleansed and mortal flesh left unindulged in, she turns to the other woman like she’s suddenly remembered something she’d been meaning to say.

“Hey, you know that on the day of the wedding my mother was going around asking people how long they’d give it? The fucking nerve!” her voice rings hollow, but Karolina gracefully accepts the distraction.

“God, that’s awful.” Karolina laughs. Her arms doesn’t brush Shiv’s this time, but she shakes her head, sending another waft of her perfume to tickle Shiv’s nose.

“Yeah, she is” she says fondly. Then, she leans in conspiratorially. “How would you have answered?”

“Hmm.” Karolina mulls it over for a bit. Once she seems satisfied with the wording, she says: “For as long as you’re both happy.” She doesn’t avert her gaze this time.

Up on the stage, a new presenter is giving the same speech.

Shiv looks down at the marble in her hands, turns it round and round, watches the way the light bounces off of it. She watches Karolina roll her eyes at the presenter’s speech, and feels her grip tighten around the marble.

#succession #shiv roy #siobhan roy #karolina novotney #background failmarriage #found this in my notes app and couldn't bear to let it go to waste #its always me and these fuck ass metaphors dawg #my fics #posting this here too just in case i end up having more scrapped scenes from that fic that're gonna be too small for ao3 #the BTUEU if u will (beneath the underdog extended universe)#shiv x karolina

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azurillturtle · 6 months

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someone had the bad taste to praise the martian where i could see it, and no one actually pays attention to me here and i'm free to be as unhinged as i want, so HERE WE GO: the no-holds-barred explanation of why i hate andy weir with a burning passion and why he's representative of greater problems in the scifi industry.

full disclosure, my only experience with him was reading 1/3 of artemis, which was more than enough for me to declare i'm never touching his works again. it was more than a year ago now, though, so i can't remember everything that upset me.

disliking andy weir is not an unpopular opinion! as far as writing craft goes, you'll generally hear people say that he's not a very good writer. this is partially about that and partially about other stuff specific to me that i didn't like.

as far as i can know, the martian was about a guy stranded on mars having to survive on his own. first person, snarky narrator. very popular. the narrator, whose name escapes me, was very well liked. because it was his first real story, and because there was really only one character on his own, i think a lot of the problems in his writing weren't immediately obvious.

unfortunately for me, the one we tried to read was artemis, widely regarded as the weakest of his books, probably because it shows off exactly how bad he is. and from artemis, this is what i concluded:

andy weir is a scifi writer for people who don't read much and want to feel like they're smart.

there, i said it.

unfortunately i am very much not that target audience. i read enough scifi/fantasy to have a good idea of what goes into a book that i like or dislike; i read enough to drop books that i think are terrible because i've developed standards. i'm also a science major who doesn't usually read hard scifi because i know enough to spot inaccuracies that drive me out of my mind, or at the very least, break immersion. ("that does not work that way.")

weir, for all his "experience," has enough inaccuracies in his writing to earn sideways looks from me. so that's part of it: his "problem solving" isn't realistic enough to be engaging. if it's enjoyable, that may be because you don't immediately spot the flaws in his reasoning.

weir is also a terrible writer. the first thing i said to my coworkers about artemis after i gave it up was that i don't think he's ever spoken to a woman in his life. this is a common criticism. i hear there are only two women in project hail mary, and only for like two seconds, presumably because someone pointed this out to him. they have the same problem.

quite unfortunately, artemis is told from the perspective of a woman. a... twenty-seven year old woman. who i legitimately thought was sixteen based on her maturity and behavior. this is part of a larger problem, which is (from what i've heard), that weir can only write one character voice, which is the protagonist of the martian, which is weir himself. so all the characters cracking snarky sex jokes in artemis were the same person. like, no wonder i was creeped out by the dude making sex jokes to artemis's protagonist in front of his legitimately teenage daughter.

yeah, so, okay--the protagonist of artemis is Mark Anthony or whatever his name was cosplaying as a twenty-something woman. along with not knowing what a woman is, weir's attempts at characterization are atrocious. jazz is always going on about how smart she is, and everyone's always calling her smart, as if we're supposed to believe their words over her own actions. i'm sorry, no. you can have everyone praise your character for being "smart," but if the entire book is a series of her poor life choices, then she's not reading as "smart" to me.

the third point i'd like to make about his writing is that his plot, at least for artemis, is paper-thin. i'm going to spoil the plot, since i sincerely hope no one is going to read it after this post. as part of a get rich quick scheme, said Skeevy Rich Dude hires jazz to sabotage some idk machines mining the moon's surface??, because then the owners will have no choice but to turn to him and he can become rich.

because, you know, if all of your equipment explodes, surely no suspicion will fall on the person who stands to benefit the most from this.

surely.

but no one ever questions the wisdom of this. it's never brought up. i feel like an actual sixteen-year-old could have pointed out the problem here. alas, in this book, major plot points and the reality of how people will act aren't even thought out.

another part of why artemis is generally regarded as weak--and this is extremely hilarious to me--is that weir doesn't know how to write dialogue. at all. every conversation was stilted and full of sex jokes, like that was the fallback when nothing else could be said. this is something that was not immediately evident in the martian, probably because mark anthony (...watney?) was alone and had no one to show off weir's absolutely horrid dialogue writing.

as an example of why there's also like... quite a bit that just read as weird or gross? partly again that weir has never seen a woman in his life, partly that he doesn't know what a real person is. anyway, jazz is a Strong Independent Woman, which in weir's world means she has a lot of sex. this leads to as scene where she asks a Weird Guy Acquaintance for a favor and he says, sure, but in return, can you test something for me? i'm working on a reusable condom, so i want you to try it the next time you sleep with someone.

because you know. this is a conversation that is Totally Normal to have with someone.

what the hell, weir.

unfortunately i did not stop reading there.

i quit when andy weir made it clear he does not know how and why laws should exist, and (by wider extension) the underpinnings of a functional society and how to worldbuild.

this will lead into my last point, but to briefly summarize what infuriated me so much: jazz says offhandedly that there are no statutory rape laws in their moon society. the age of majority is different for every culture, you see, so rather than come to a consensus, they decided it was easiest to go without. if anyone does anything creepy to a girl, weir says, that girl's brothers and father will come beat up the guy, and the problem solves itself.

that was the time i threw the (digital) book in the (metaphorical) trash can, because this is one of those passages that speaks volumes about the author himself.

i shouldn't have to say this, not when there's so much recent discussion about age of consent and child marriage laws, but oh my god no that's not how it works. set aside the vigilantism for a second here, that's not what i'm focused on. laws like that exist to protect the vulnerable. not everyone will have family they trust to come to their defense. not everyone can tell such things to their family. by having no laws, you are saying that it doesn't matter what happens to them, because "it's too hard to come to an agreement between different cultures."

laws are not about convenience. laws are about guarding the safety of the population.

on the one hand, it's another example of weir not thinking through the repercussions of his plot and worldbuilding. on the other, it read so much like something written by a privileged white man, not the Muslim woman protagonist, that to me it says something about andy weir himself.

and that leads into my last point, which is disliking andy weir not because of whom he is, but because of an underlying problem in the writing and publishing industry. it's a known fact that white men have a distinct advantage in publishing, especially in SFF. heinlein held strong for a long time. GRRM waxed poetic about the good ol days at a fairly recent disastrous WorldCon. it was still fairly recent that the Hugos started to see a more diverse group of nominated authors.

and then there's andy weir, who had publishing deals based on the strength of his first novel. andy weir, whose second and third books were optioned for movies iirc before they even came out. andy weir, who is not good at plotting, and not good at worldbuilding, and not good at inventing more than one character, and not good at writing women, and not even always accurate about the science.

why does andy weir of all people get those movie deals?

and would he, if his name was something other than andy weir?

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hojichasunrise · 7 months

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Finally finished NATLA. Thoughts:

They ruined Yue's character. Why would a princess be helping casually in the kitchen. Why would a princess display 0 manners around someone she just met. personality completely different.

They had Yue faint repeatedly just to magically sit back up when they needed an exposition dump, then faint again.

They made Hahn a good person? Why is Yue suddenly a waterbender and traipsing around the spirit world? It doesnt add anything and feels out of place.

The interactions between Pakku and Katara were stilted and forced. In the cartoon she had a training period and earned his trust, but here it was just instantly granted that she was the person to report to during battle, yet she doesnt know AQa's defense layout or anything else because she just arrived.

battle pacing in Agna Qel'a is weird. too much standing around talking.

The dialogue is so Marvelized. quip quip quip quip quip.

Aang is joyless and talking like Iron Man. (not the actor's fault.)

Zuko is perfect, 11/10. Every change they made is perfect.

Combining arc beats (e.g. Jet + mechanist) worked surprisingly well.

They made Bumi into an asshole and his dialogue was repetitive, that arc dragged out way too long.

Wasn't atmospheric enough. everything felt like a set.

How did Momo, half the size of a housecat, push that girl out of the way? physics are not mathing.

Why did they take Momo to the spirit oasis to heal but not any of the battle participants or injured civilians. Scene ate too much screen time and sapped urgency from the battle. Makes AQ'a look stupid.

Jet was perfect.

Multiple issues with logic, too long to post. Writing is shallow.

Azula is snarking to her father too much considering she just watched her brother get half his face melted off for one instance of disrespect.

Pecs. 🙏

not enough in-series justification for why Ozai wanted Zuko out of the way in favor of Azula. We know why, but they aren't standing on their own for this beat and have to lean on the cartoon.

Katara and Sokka getting btfo by Koh felt... really strange. they were just there to job and create stakes.

Kuruk and Kyoshi were great inclusions.

Jee/the 41st was a great detail, best part of series.

Azula being the puppetmaster behind Zhao is strange. She knows things by magic I guess, they made a 14 year old girl not just plausibly cunning but straight up omniscient. Logic breaking keikaku doori with her and Ozai.

Ozai using AQ'a as a distraction to take Omashu makes zero logical sense and I don't want to write an essay so just think about this for 5 minutes. I almost screamed.

bf's contribution: "this feels like it was written during the writer's strike."

Visually it was beautiful and the scenery and costumes were great. Other than Yue and Pakku the actors were all fine. Zuko's actor was beyond perfect and his firebending was next level gorgeous.

Sokka's new backstory was a good inclusion. Sokka got a lot of great scenes and the actor is a perfect fit.

Gyatso was also astonishingly perfect. chef's kiss to the actor, his performance was beautiful.

Very much noticing the Kataang scenes were all removed and we got some Zutara allusions. I ship that so yay.

The Sokka/Suki scenes were spicy. However she removed her makeup in 3 seconds flat and that broke my immersion. Please ask a woman next time. otherwise yes I ship that. Just kiss already!

I like the beautiful older lady they put in charge of Kyoshi Island. Nice to see more females in leadership positions.

The lack of the Azula chime is criminal. Her using feminine charm to lure rebels into a trap was a great scene to introduce her. Glad to see rebels, it makes it feel more politically realistic.

The opening scene in ep 1 had Mulan's opening scene vibes in a good way.

Overall: enjoyable with a few caveats but writing quality falls apart upon critical inspection. Much better than I expected, rewatch-worthy. 8/10.

#natla #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar #atla #avatar live action

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therecordconnection · 9 months

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Ranting and Raving: "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang

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Recently, I started reading The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, a really great book by Jonathan Abrams that came out back in October last year. It’s a thorough work, taking its time to really cover the genre, from all its major landmarks (New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, the Midwest, etc.) and most of its major players are interviewed and represented in it. I really recommend it if you’re someone who doesn’t know a lot of the deep lore surrounding hip-hop’s history (like me) and you’re looking to learn more.

2023 marked the year of hip-hop’s fiftieth anniversary and it’s done a lot of well-earned celebrating throughout. There were tons of retrospectives done, the Grammys held a live concert to honor the occasion, and many Spotify playlists were made to help a new generation of hip-hop lovers go back and become immersed in the full history. It’s a good thing that the fiftieth anniversary had so much dedicated to it and people could enjoy looking back, because this year has been very strange for the genre in terms of mainstream Billboard chart success.

From August 2022 to August 2023, no rap song topped the Hot 100 chart, which hasn’t happened for twenty-three years. Rappers were still very much successful and there were still albums that hit the top of the album charts (Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, Travis Scott’s Utopia, Drake’s For All the Dogs topped it twice) but there was no single song that topped the Hot 100. That dry spell finally ended when Doja Cat managed to break the slump with “Paint the Town Red,” which became a number one hit back in September. In a year where Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift reigned supreme with no end in sight (especially if you’re Taylor Swift), it was almost a good thing that hip-hop was able to focus on looking back and enjoying how far it's come and celebrate all that the genre has achieved in such a short time.

Anyway, as I was reading the first chapters of The Come Up, which focus on hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and how it grew out of New York and out of the block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in 1973, I was captivated. As I kept going though, there was one thing I kept wondering about.

When do the Sugarhill Gang enter into the story?

When I was young, I had always been under the impression that the Sugarhill Gang were among the first rap pioneers, more or less believing they were the first MCs to spit into the mic and bring hip-hop into the world. They... kinda did, but also not really. They were responsible for playing a major part in the genre becoming the cultural juggernaut we recognize it as today, but as for pioneers? Your mileage will vary on that and I hope that’ll become clear soon as we start discussing them.

Now, I want it to be known that being a white guy from Bumfuck Nowhere, Pennsylvania, my hip-hop history knowledge has always had giant gaps in it that I’ve only been starting to fill up in recent years. I imagine for many others like myself, they’re only just now really learning the history of hip-hop’s birth in the Bronx and what the first MCs unleashed. If you’re not much of a reader, Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution is a really great series that covers a ton of that early history. Charlie Ahern’s 1982 film Wild Style also serves as a historical time capsule of that history as it was being written. The Sugarhill Gang get discussed in Hip-Hop Evolution’s second episode, but they’re nowhere to be found in Wild Style.

So, as I was learning about hip-hop and rap’s origins in New York, eventually the Sugarhill Gang did make an appearance. What I ended up learning gave me an entirely new fascination with a song that up until recently I had just found enjoyable and didn’t think too much of. “Rapper’s Delight” is such a fascinating song. Let me count the ways. Why don’t we start with who the Sugarhill Gang are?

The story of the Sugarhill Gang begins with a woman named Sylvia Robinson, often dubbed the “Mother of Hip-Hop.” A shrewd businesswoman, she was the head of All Platinum Records, a label that started in and ran through the seventies (Sugarhill Records, where “Rapper’s Delight” was released, was a subsidiary of All Platinum and formed in order to focus on the emerging rap scene). Robinson was also a musician herself, being one half of the guitar duo Mickey and Sylvia, scoring a hit in 1956 with “Love is Strange” (a song you definitely know if you’ve seen Dirty Dancing). Sylvia herself also had a hit in 1973 with the song “Pillow Talk.” Robinson has lived a life that goes beyond the scope of our subject today, so we’ll stick with knowing her as a businesswoman. If you want to learn more about Robinson’s story, this Billboard piece on her from 2019 is a good place to start.

In 1979, All Platinum was facing bankruptcy and was in desperate need of a smash hit in order to save it. Robinson had agreed to attend a party at Harlem World, a popular disco club in the late seventies and early eighties at 116th & Lenox Ave, in Harlem. Abrams tells the story of how Robinson first discovered the music that could save her label in The Come Up:

“Robinson witnessed Lovebug Starski work the turntables and the crowd into a frenzy with his call-and-responses. Robinson wanted to capture the music and release it commercially. When Lovebug Starski declined the arrangement, Robinson went on a hunt for other artists.”

Robinson’s search for talent, led by her son Joey Robinson, Jr., took them to a pizza parlor in New Jersey. It still exists today. It’s Crispy Crust Pizza in Englewood, NJ (the surviving members of the Gang are interviewed there in Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution). The story goes like this:

The Sugarhill Gang are made up of three guys: Michael Wright (“Wonder Mike”), Henry Jackson (*Big Bank Hank”), and Guy O’ Brien (“Master Gee”). Robinson only came to hear Big Bank spit, but Wonder Mike and Master Gee also auditioned for her. Unable to make a decision on which one to go with, she ultimately decided to say “fuck it!” and made them a trio.

It’s the best decision she could’ve made.

They auditioned on a Friday night and by Monday they were in the studio cutting the track. The three guys just kept passing the mic to one another and eventually the full song wound up being fifteen minutes long.

We’ll get into the rhymes a bit later, but now that we’re familiar with the gang, we should cover what “Rapper’s Delight” ended up being the first of. Hip-hop may have already existed in the Bronx and New York scene for about six years before the gang came along and scored a bonafide hit, but the song does have legitimate cred. It’s the first rap song that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 and the first rap song to break into the Top 40. It paved the way for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to get onto Billboard with 1982’s “The Message” (peaked at #62) and led to eventual chart dominators like Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, which would start sprouting up a few years after the Gang made their mark. The Sugarhill Gang are also some of the first rappers to film an official music video (which is linked above at the top) and be seen performing on pre-MTV television (there are so many videos out there of them performing this on TV shows. It’s nuts).

Listening to it, it’s not hard to understand why this song still gets written into the history books. First, this shit holds the fuck up. Second, it’s probably the easiest example to use if the aliens ever visit and Captain Cleevmorp asks, “W h a t i s t h i s t h i n g y o u c a l l . . . ‘r a p m u s i c’?” It’s ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time (“Good Times” was released June 4th, 1979, “Rapper’s Delight” appeared September 16th, 1979) but at its core, it’s a rap song and nobody could mistake it for anything else. Did I mention this is ripping off a disco song that was barely three months old at the time? I feel like that’s an important part of the story.

Do you like “Good Times” by Chic? If you do, then hoo boy, do I have the song for you! I don’t think I’m blowing any minds here when I say that musically, “Rapper’s Delight” is quite literally just three guys rapping over an instrumental version of “Good Times” by Chic. I feel the need to stress that it is NOT a sample of “Good Times,” though you would be forgiven for thinking it is. “Rapper’s Delight” came out during a time when the technology for rap sampling and looping didn’t exist yet, so the production team behind “Rapper’s Delight” had to bring in session guys to recreate the song from scratch. They did such a good job recreating it, Nile Rodgers (guitarist) and Bernard Edwards (bassist) from Chic threatened to sue them. They eventually settled out of court, getting co-writing credits on the song and, according to the Library of Congress, “a substantial undisclosed amount of money made off of album sales and performances.”

Chic won, but Curtis Brown, better known as New York rapper Grandmaster Caz, didn’t. Now might be a good time to start talking about the lyrics to the song.

For brevity’s sake, we will not be going over all fifteen minutes of this thing (I’ve never made it through the entire song. It just goes on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on). Rather, we’re going to focus on most single/video versions of the song and just cover the most important parts.

Wonder Mike is the first one up. Equipped with a friendly voice and a smooth delivery, he spits some of the most important opening lines in rap history.

I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie The hip hip hop and you don't stop the rockin' To the bang-bang, boogie, say up jump the boogie To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

According to Mike in Hip Hop Evolution, these are the lines he used when auditioning with Sylvia Robinson. Those four lines alone tell you everything you need to know about rap flow and delivery. It’s obviously very primitive compared to what MCs are doing now (and even what MCs were doing when this song got big) but to an unsuspecting audience outside of New York that had no idea what the hell rap was at all, those lines are an immediate attention grabber. I’ve always adored the line that comes after those initial four: “Now, what you hear is not a test I'm rappin' to the beat.” It’s a great way to present something strange and new to an audience without alienating them or scaring them away. People in 1979 had long known about disco and would’ve recognized the music immediately, but the rapping part was a new ballgame and Mike’s delivery in the opening verse lays down the framework for the rest of the song. At its core, “Rapper’s Delight” is a laid back and fun party anthem and he immediately sets that tone with his opening verse. He’s a good straight man compared to the goofy braggadocio that starts immediately once he passes it to Big Bank Hank.

If “Rapper’s Delight” is beloved, it’s because Big Bank comes in and just kills it from the moment he steps up to the mic. The man just sells it and then some. He’s got great flow, a fun loving attitude, tons of style, and a goofy but confident swagger completely on lock. Depending on the version you’re listening to, he’s going for almost two minutes straight with barely any breaks. For one of the first rap songs ever put to vinyl, it’s an impressive feat. He’s got a lot of really great rhymes too.

It’s just a shame he didn’t write a lot of them...

Remember when I said Chic won their lawsuit threat but Grandmaster Caz didn’t end up being so lucky? That’s because a good chunk of the rhymes Big Bank is using are actually Caz’s and it wasn’t a secret to the New York rappers hearing it at the time.

One dead giveaway is in this line: “The women fight for my delight / But I'm the grandmaster with the three MCs.” Three MCs, huh? But there’s only three of you. There would have to be four of you in order for that line to work. It worked when Caz said that as part of the group Cold Crush Brothers, because there were four of them. Another Caz line is near the beginning of Big Bank’s first verse: “Check it out, I'm the C-A-S-A-N, the O-V-A / And the rest is F-L-Y.” “Casanova” was a nickname of Caz’s. Caz reveals more stolen rhymes and where Big Bank got them from when interviewed for The Come Up:

“Sometimes I’ve been misquoted, and then sometimes I’ve made the mistake of saying I wrote all of Big Bank Hank’s lines for ‘Rapper’s Delight.’ What I meant is his verses. I meant his rhymes. But the little bridges, the hook, that’s DJ Hollywood. That, ‘Imp the Dimp, the ladies’ pimp. The women fight for my . . ., that’s Rahiem from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Those two things, I didn’t write, but the full rhymes he says, ‘I’m the C-A-S-AN, the O-V-A from the time I was only six years old’ and then the Superman and Lois Lane, I wrote all of that.”

Whether Big Bank got to see a book of Caz’s rhymes and learn them from reading that is up for debate. Caz claims in both The Come Up and Hip-Hop Evolution that Hank didn’t have to study. He knew them all just from knowing Caz and being around him. If you want to hear Caz get bitter about it (which he has every right to be) he addressed this issue of plagiarism in 2000 with the song “MC Delight” (“the cat who bit this rhyme was my manager, pure treason I'll tell you why...”).

It does take the wind out of the sails a bit when you learn Big Bank cribbed from other rappers for “Rapper’s Delight,” because he’s a very fun and energetic performer with a great voice and great flow, but once you learn the rhymes were stolen from guys who would never get any of the glory of “the first rap hit,” you start to feel bad and look at Big Bank as nothing more than a thief. It blows. New York DJ Grandmixer DXT voices the backlash and problematic nature of getting caught ripping somebody else off in Hip-Hop Evolution:

"Hank was saying a rhyme that we was hearing at the parties already, and he's saying somebody else's rhyme. And for us, that's a catastrophic no-no. There were people who would get beat up for saying somebody's rhyme. And here's a record where this guy bites and actually records it. Like, that was just the worst thing ever."

It goes without saying that the biggest problem with Hank ripping off rap’s founding fathers in the Bronx is that the Sugarhill Gang gets credit for being the first rap stars when one of them is pretty shamelessly ripping off lines from every rapper he heard in New York. There’s no evidence that everything in Hank’s verses are ripped off from somewhere, but there’s evidence of plagiarism all the same. Luckily, Master Gee and Wonder Mike’s parts are both authentic as well as fully written by them. Which is good because once Gee takes over from Big Bank, he takes a little time to get going, but eventually starts feeling himself and really starts delivering some Grade-A stuff. Most of his lines are either about bragging about his status as a ladies man, observations about the listener dancing to the music, and how he’s the youngest member of the three, but can still keep up with the best of them. I do like that his first brag is how he goes by the “unforgettable name” of Master Gee. Personally, I actually think all three of their names are pretty dumb and lame as far as rap names go, but they’re among some of the first rappers so it’s not like they had any way to avoid that.

Master Gee’s most impressive moment is this verse right here, written out in full:

I got a little face and a pair of brown eyes All I'm here to do, ladies, is hypnotize Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on The beat don't stop until the break of dawn Singin' on-and-and-on-and-on-on-and-on Like a hot buttered pop-da-pop-da-pop, dibbie dibbie Pop-da-pop-pop, you don't dare stop Come alive, y'all, gimme whatcha got

It’s stuff that’s downright corny by today’s standards, but Gee’s ability to spit all that without getting tongue-tied is more than I can say for myself. He’s got really great control; all three of them do. Mike, Big Bank, and Gee each deliver their parts like a never-ending party and when you listen to the full version of the song (that fifteen minute monster!) it has the feel of a party where you and your friends are just shooting the shit and passing around a blunt or something to each other. The three of them all seem like friends that are collectively goofballs just having a good time, which is one reason why I think the song has enjoyed the long life it’s had.

I also think the reason this song has lived so long is because white people LOVE this song. Of course they do! It’s a pretty sanitized version of the kind of music that was being made in New York at the time. There’s no message to it, no commentary about social issues, or even using old records in a creative way like the DJs of the day had been doing. Everything about this song was specifically engineered to be commercially viable, right down to completely ripping off a song that had already been a hit less than four months beforehand.

A mainstream audience (read: white) was absolutely slammed with pretty much nothing but disco for most of 1977, all of 1978, and most of 1979 before a bunch of people finally snapped and held a massive bonfire in Chicago about it. “Good Times” was something they already knew and something disco lovers still enjoyed, so you could ease them into this strange new thing called “rappin’ to the beat” and they would understand it without being confused. To most, it was probably just a different style of disco song at the time. It wouldn’t be until the mid-eighties when people would start to begin to understand a better definition for what rap is.

Obviously, the song has a wide appeal and white people really enjoying it isn’t the only reason, but that definitely plays a major factor. You’re looking at the song that inadvertently launched a thousand novelty rap songs in the eighties, all featuring white guys who should’ve never been allowed to be anywhere near a rap song. Rodney Dangerfield with “Rappin’ Rodney,” the Beach Boys with the Fat Boys on “Wipeout,” Joe Piscopo doing “Honeymooners Rap” with Eddie Murphy, and, lest we forget "The Super Bowl Shuffle" by The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew. What I’m trying to get at is this: The Sugarhill Gang made it so that if they, three dorks from New Jersey working in a pizza parlor, can rap, you probably can figure it out too. Adding to the “White People Have Propped This Song Up as a Monument” theory is how many things have referenced this song over the years. Here’s a Homer Simpson toy that raps the song and dances to it. The grandmother from The Wedding Singer famously does it (also adding to the “elderly women rapping” trope). Jimmy Fallon once had somebody cut and splice NBC anchors Brian Williams and Lester Holt rapping the song. Kid Rock’s breakout 1999 hit “Bawitdaba” references the song in its chorus (“Bawitdaba, da bang, da dang diggy diggy / Diggy, said the boogie, said up jump the boogie”). And there’s of course the famous 2002 Las Ketchup song “Asereje,” though you probably know it better as “The Ketchup Song,” which is about someone who goes to the club and asks the DJ to play "Rapper's Delight" and sings along in gibberish because he doesn't know the English lyrics. The point is that this song has been propped up by a lot of people who should NOT be considered rappers (yes, that includes Kid Rock).

I think the first time I ever started to have suspicions that the song wasn’t universally adored was when I watched In Living Color for the first time. There’s a sketch in the first season where Keenan Ivory Wayans plays Jesse Jackson and goes for the joke that everyone used to make about him: That he speaks in rhymes, almost like he’s a real life version of Gruntilda the witch from Banjo-Kazooie. Anyway, there’s a sketch where Jackson is giving his final State of the Union address (in the world of this sketch, he beat George H. W. Bush in ‘92 and has been president for eight years) and gives his address in the most basic AA BB CC rhyme scheme that wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s book. After a few of them, Wayans-as-Jackson breaks and quickly says: “Hip hop, you don't stop the rockin' / To the bang-bang, boogie, the beat,” which I took to be an insult that the rhymes in that song were just as basic as anything Jackson had ever said. The idea that “Rapper’s Delight” was wack was something I think I had already known in the back of my head but didn’t want to say because I thought that would just make me sound like a guy who hates fun. But, upon reading and hearing testimonies from the founding fathers of rap in New York, I realized that the big sin of “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t that it was wack...

Its biggest sin was that it was made by a bunch of posers.

Sylvia Robinson didn’t know anything about the hip-hop and rap scene developing in New York, but she knew it was something that could be monetized if it was done and presented in the right way. Wonder Mike and Master Gee weren’t real rappers with any credibility, they were just guys working in a pizza parlor in New Jersey who were given the opportunity of a lifetime. Big Bank was the only one who could lay claim to having connections in the Bronx. He grew up there, worked the doors at famous Bronx nightclub The Sparkle, and also served as a manager for Grandmaster Caz (whom he would later rip off). “Rapper’s Delight” wasn’t made by starving artists who were pivotal to creating a new scene, it was made by a bunch of posers who had everything to gain from it. New York rappers interviewed in The Come Up knew this and were justifiably pissed about the song. The only testimony that was kind to them came from Kool Moe Dee, who understood the backlash as well as the song being embraced by white America.

“I understood why there was a lot of MCs at the time that didn’t like it, because I just think the social construct of oppression puts us against each other in many ways. In my opinion, many African Americans have a hard time giving other African Americans credit for achieving because so much of white America accepted that record and they started to define it from their perspective. And we’re saying we’ve already been here; it’s not new. So a backlash was on Sugar Hill that wasn’t deserved because they didn’t ask for it. ... So it was never not really hip-hop. We just had gotten more lyrically sophisticated at that time and the record was a great record. And looking back, if it wasn’t for Sugar Hill, we might not have an industry as prominent as we have because of the success of ‘Rapper’s Delight.’”

Kool Moe is right. It wasn’t their fault that “Rapper’s Delight” took off the way it did. Robinson was cashing in on what she saw as “the new thing” and wanted in. The song taking off the way it did happened the way a lot of hits happen: it was the right song with the right artists at the right place at the right time. “Rapper’s Delight” has stuck around the way it has because it captures a beautiful moment where music history is at a crossroads. The golden age of disco is going to be gone when the ball drops on January 1st, 1980, but rap music is only just getting started and by the end of the eighties it will begin its big mainstream explosion and keep going from there.

“Rapper’s Delight” captures rap in its beautiful infancy. What it lacks in authenticity, it makes up for by being representative of what was going on at the time. It’s a time capsule. No matter which version of this song you choose, it sounds like a never ending party that everyone is invited to and a party where everyone is your friend. It’s fun, it’s infectious, and the three hosts are entertaining as hell as they pass the mic back and forth and keep the party going. Mike, Hank, and Gee created a fun rap song for beginners: it’s a very easy song to understand sonically and it’s an easy song to learn how to rap along to. The rhymes aren’t super complicated and the most you’d have to learn and work out is how to get the flow right and how to not trip over the words. If you can master Wonder Mike’s opening lines (if a Homer Simpson toy can do it, so can you!) the rest comes easy. Learning Big Bank and Master Gee’s parts aren’t complicated either and it becomes fun to recite along with them once you start getting it down. The beat of “Good Times” is very easy to keep up with and follow so that helps it as an excellent beginner song. Despite the criticisms against it, “Rapper’s Delight” still stands as a fantastic party song and it’s not hard to see why people still enjoy getting down to it even now. If you play it at the right party, you’ll hear a whole room recite the lyrics and just have fun with it. Hip-hop and Rap started life as block parties DJ Kool Herc was throwing in ‘73 and the Sugarhill Gang continued that tradition by capturing that party on vinyl. The rap world has changed in many ways since the Gang started rappin’ to the beat, but it keeps its status as a legendary rap song because it’s the party rap song that all party rap songs aspire to. Forget authenticity and leave your notions about “what rap really is about” at the door and just let loose. With the Sugarhill Gang, the party goes on-and-and-on-and-on-and-on

And the beat don't stop until the break of dawn.

#original post #ranting and raving #sugarhill gang #music criticism #Youtube

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lovecidik · 1 year

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ask game for historical simblrs!

1. what has been your favorite time period to play in or which one are you most excited for?

so far, i was definitely most excited for the 1910s! although it was definitely fueled by the fashion as i am obsessed with it, i’m still having a lot of fun with it.

i’m super excited for the 1920s though - i have a lot planned for it and only hope i get to execute it well!! ALSO the 80s purely bc of my love of the goth music of the era lol

2. do you have a favorite piece of historical cc? (cas or bb)

right now, absolutely all of katya’s outfits. i can’t choose a favorite, i’m just OBSESSED with all of them

3. who is your favorite sim currently?

quite obvious, but i love and have always loved katya. she’s my little baby and i will cherish her forever!!

i am also loving what i’ve got planned for the crowley children’s future, so all of them are very dear to me :) oh and also miss mystery sim 👀

4. what is your favorite world?

in terms of historical gameplay, probably brindleton bay! henford is a very close second though.

5. are you more gameplay or story focused?

i definitely used to be more of a story-based gameplay person, but i think you can tell in my posts i’ve started focusing on story more! its just more enjoyable for me and i can always play other saves for pure gameplay :) that being said it does vary for me!

6. do you like to play with pets in your historical saves?

not all that much! i like having them around but i tend to forget about them oops

7. what’s your biggest immersion breaking pet peeve in the game?

definitely phones 😭 i know there’s like a notebook override for them but as i also do modern gameplay in my own time i will just struggle with it!!

8. what’s your favorite in-game historical item? (cas or bb)

i really can’t say! i’m such a heavy cc user i barely use items from the game. maybe the wash buckets?

9. what would you like to see as a new pack or asset to the game?

i think i would love some new dances! especially from the 20s. i’d love to throw a big party and have my sims actually accurately dance 😭

10. what pack do you think is invaluable as a historical simmer?

absolutely cottage living! from the gameplay to the build/buy, it’s just such a useful pack. no clue how i did the decades challenge before cows and chickens

11. do you have a favorite mod to enhance historical gameplay?

i don’t actually! i tend not to use many historical gameplay mods for some reason.

12. what’s your ideal family size for playing?

as much as i love having huge families, my current 8 sim household is so overwhelming!! the 1900s 4 sims was definitely ideal.

13. do you use poses?

most of the time, yes! i do tend to use in-game animations sometimes too, but i generally find them too expressive and animated 😭

14. do you use any overrides in your game?

not that i can think of! if i solely played historically, i definitely would.

15. do you, or did you, play off-the-grid during your game?

kind of! i find especially many of the bathtubs i like aren’t off-the-grid compatible, so i just… pretended they didn’t have power and water i guess

16. what lifespan do you play on?

i’m generally on normal, but i switch between long and short to either speed up or slow down my story/game.

17. what inspired you to start playing historically?

i quite literally don’t remember! 😭 i’ve been playing historically on and off for about five years now. a million decades challenges and many others later this is still the farthest time-wise i’ve got. oops

thank you sm for the tag @aheathen-conceivably !! tagging @bardish-cryptid @antiquepixels and anyone else who wants to do this <3

#ask game #simblr ask game

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unrenderedfuture · 11 months

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Back to School Shopping

(A Doctor Who Academy Era and Goth/Borusa Fanfic. Warning it gets gay at the end lmaoo )

“Well first I need to look at the clearance section. I like to get extra stylus’s for the students’ tablets here if they break or damage the few they are issued by the academy.” Cardinal Borusa said pushing the cart that hovered along the floor towards the back of the school supplies store with Cardinal Goth tagging along with him.

“Why don’t the students bring their own extras? Aren’t your students in their 40s and older for the most part?” Goth asked with a confused look. Borusa sighed and and tossed a few marked down multipacks after examining them into the cart.

“Yes, they are older for the most part, but some of them do not come from houses that send them money for these things. My house sent me ten credits a week as an allowance for everything, I could barely afford shampoo. Next is court approved legal pads for the graduate students. ” Borusa explained moving down the aisle immersed in the school shopping

“They don’t provide them to you like they used to?” Goth asked showing Borusa a stylus marked down 90% with a naked Cerulean person with only a ceremonial collar made of leaves.

“That is abhorrent and not going into my classroom. But to answer your question those disgusting members of the school board decided that graduate student supply budgets are not necessary for our planets further policy attorneys.” The professor grumbled grabbing half off ten legal tablets.

“I mean they in theory should be working at least part time. Sendok thinks you mother hen the students too much.” Goth said with a smile.

“I had a student around a century ago attend a preliminary hearing as an intern graduate prosecutor forget to bring a tablet and I was the one to get chewed out by Inquisitor Darkel for being unprepared. I will not be having that happen again.” Borusa sighed rubbing his face at the memory of the ice cold stare the timelady gave him.

“I see. She can be a bit. Temperamental at times.” Goth agreed. He found most Timeladies not enjoyable to find company with.

“Next is clearance decorations and a few extra light bulbs for my desk. Drax stole four of them last year and became furious every time I would produce another.” Borusa chuckled grabbing five light bulbs and placing them into the cart gently.

“Did you discipline him?” Goth asked with a slight look of concern.

“Well of course, he didn’t get the satisfaction of disrupting my day. Besides when he blew up another teachers lab equipment trying to microwave my homework assignment he was in detention for every lunch for the next semester. He stole and did nothing else.” Borusa explained marking off his list.

“You wanted decor to look at next? What decor did you need?” Goth asked. Borusa looked at the section

“Oh I just like to look but I am not finding this age appropriate at all.” Borusa said looking at posters aimed for younger students on “Who Was Lord Rassilon” and “What is the High Council?”.

“Oh? I may purchase this one for the next Prydonian Chapter Meeting” Goth smirked pointing at the poster labeled “Be respectful and listen to your peers!”

“I second that Lord Goth. Place it in the Chancellors office too.”

***

They made their way to the regular priced area of social studies materials. Borusa pushed the cart looking around when he stopped in his tracks spotting a section he hadn’t seen before.

“‘Home schooling materials?’” Borusa asked out loud in horror.

“Oh yes I know a few people who are at least home schooling up to fifth grade and then sending children to the the academy later.” Goth commented.

“What on Rassilon’s great legacy would lead someone to do that instead of sending their child to the best academy in the galaxy!?” Borusa remarked gazing at the work tablets in disgust.

“And to think I spend tax dollars here at this establishment to receive products to nurture my students. I want an explanation to this nonsense!” Borusa said marching to the front desk.

“‘Nurturing?’ Goodness gracious, Borusa please come here. You really do mother them too much. They are not your children and you cannot control and parent every child on the planet yourself.” Goth said shaking his head as he followed with the cart.

“Of course I mother some of them! Some parental figures in these houses are not fit to run an errand to a grocery store successfully, nevertheless a child. It’s our jobs to fulfill that role and establish a bond between the child and state from an early age so that they associate ‘security’ and ‘happiness’ with ‘staying out of prison and listening to authority’” Borusa said as they reached the help desk.

“Hello sirs how may I help you?” The young clerk at the desk asked with a sweet smile. Goth shot Borusa a look to cool his anger.

“Hello there, I was looking to inquire on why this well established and beloved store is selling ‘Home schooling’ materials when we have six excellent academies teaching our citizens paid by the tax dollar already?” Borusa asked nicely, his tone staying polite.

“Oh, well we got that section this year after we ran a market simulation and found that some houses would be interested especially in the Cerulean and Patrexian Chapters. There is a trend on the Matrix social boards that some parents feel their teaching is superior to Professors and TAs at the Academies. We, of course, mean no disrespect towards you. ” the clerk smiled nervously at the two Cardinals at their desk.

“Ah makes sense. Come on Borusa, stop getting emotional over their marketing tactics.” Goth said starting to walk away.

“Well, their research is wrong. The first five years of education is the most important in a Timetots life. Who is the publisher? I want to write them a paper.” Borusa asked.

“Sure, the publisher. Let me see…” the clerk said typing at the holographic screen.

“Yes, it’s Craftstone Academics Inc is the publisher. We only get some homeschooling supplies really from them. They started as a student tablet decorating company.” The clerk said with a nod. Borusa sighed.

“Nothing is sacred, not even pedagogy. I am not mad at you my friend, I fear for this planet.” Borusa sighed. The clerk gave a confused look to Goth who smiled taking a hand around Borusa’s shoulders guiding him away from the spooked clerk.

“Well, I’m sorry our display upset you. I do have a coupon for teacher stamps if you are interested.” The clerk said producing a holographic sheet.

“Ooo Lord Borusa~” Goth grinned with a raised eyebrow.

“Thank you so much, miss?” Borusa asked with a smile.

“Mr. Alek. And you are welcome. I see your cart is full so hopefully this helps.” The clerk responded with a smile

“Yes, thank you!” Borusa smiled with a slight bow before taking the cart and Goth and heading to another section.

“Stamps. I need a dinosaur or if they have one of a human that would be fun. I have a few students interested in Earth Culture.” Borusa explained. Goth looked at the other Cardinal confused.

“Earth? That polluted planet where humans think they came from?” Goth asked. Borusa laughed.

“Yes, and while I am not an expert of humanity I do know that on that planet they call a few species of birds cardinals and I taught it in one of my second year student classes and they were obsessed because I look like the North American Cardinal apparently when I am cross with them.” Borusa explained finding a stamp that read “Excellent work” with a large lizard smiling in the background and put it in the cart.

“You are a Cardinal to a nine year old tot not because you were elected but because you look like an Earth bird that is likely extinct by this point because you get upset when they misbehave.” Goth repeated rubbing his temples.

“Yes.”

“Were we like this at their age? Are you sure this isn’t a de-evolutionary trend recently? Goth asked honestly. Borusa paused his browsing to think of his education and the amount of times Goth would lead their study sessions astray.

“No, you were worse. You still have the attitude of a brute regarding those you find to be in your way. And you wade too close to the line putting your hand so close to my neck in public.” Borusa whispered in a hushed tone. Goth smirked.

“Oh really? I seem to remember you enjoying our hands on study sessions” Goth said softly liking around before moving a piece of hair from Borusas face that was turning red and flushed.

“You have no proof!” Borusa argued softly with his finger pointed at Goth.

“I have evidence at my condo. I have my Borusa folder.” Goth smirked. Borusa’s eyes narrowed as he smiled.

“I have a folder for you too. Just in case.”

“Make sure you send the CIA the good nude photos of me. I’ll try to send ones that don’t have you drooling.”

“You are a B-A-S-T-A-R-D. And disgusting. And a terrible politician. And you were a terrible defense attorney.” Borusa whispered with a smug smile, standing right in front of him attempting to seem dominant despite Goth a few centimeters taller.

“You are a Government branded whore. I could not be happier to have a spoilt rotten Professor who produces the next generation of assholes in the council. I love you.” Goth grumbled back wishing they were not at in public but at home where he could kiss him.

“I love you too.”

#doctor who #doctor who fanfiction #classic who #gallifrey #Gothrusa #Goth/Borusa #Lord Borusa #chancellor goth #school shopping gays #gay #gays in space #shopping #fan fiction

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tzaraat · 2 years

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hey shin :)

firstly i just want to say how much i really like your work! i used to draw a lot with pen and ink back in college and haven’t picked it back up in a while. seeing your work really brought back the enjoyment i found doing it

i’m really interested in your drawings. in particular, your hatching and cross hatching lines really tickle my brain - they seems so effortless and i kinda get lost (positive) looking at all the details, grasping how your markers and pens interact. there’s so much depth and quality of layers, it’s fascinating

i’m fucking awful at describing artwork or technique - as you can tell i waffle and ramble a lot - but i wanted to ask about how you maintain tone with your hatching? areas of shadows and light are really consistent in your pieces, and it feels complete

drawing bodies has always been difficult for me, and i struggle maintaining tone and shadows effectively: i’d draw a single line that felt wrong, and end up doing too much to try and fix it. by then i’d have patchy areas of dark highlighted areas or incomplete shadows. so i’m very curious if you could talk at all about that process?

otherwise, i’m very sorry this got so long and ramble-y, but i look forward to seeing more drawings and pieces you put out! thank you for sharing your work with us, it’s bloody brilliant :)

[sledge] x

first of all, thanks. i really like working in pen and ink.

about the technical questions: long story short, i studied drawing by looking at the works of other artists, copying them while trying to figure out the philosphy, then practicing these specific ideas and techniques on real objects from direct observation. i mostly referenced raphael as a kid. it's a good way to learn anything, really.

longer answer is under a cut, because it's sort of a lot.

i have found that, in my very limited experience, there are three main components to "effective" hatching:

understanding line thickness and quality, as it varies based on your pen, and hand (methodology)

maintaining consistent and steady lattices (tonal range)

understanding your planes (form)

to expand:

the first point mostly hinges upon your familiarity with your pen, ink and hand. i almost exclusively draw with the pens i use for writing, both because it's cheaper and because i understand these pens very well - i know how they respond to my natural movement and the paper and the weather. if you don't know your pen very well, familiarise yourself with it by doing a few tests and sketching something loose.

the second point is mostly about keeping steady. a steady eye is more important than a steady hand. shakes and missed lines can be remedied or ignored pretty easily, but being able to judge the distance and angle of your hatches before making them pretty much makes or breaks your ability to predict your tonal outcome. training your eye means, over time, being able to reproduce the tone you imagine without really having to think about it. on a technical level, it's a good idea to practice various lattices: hatching at multiple angles, quadrilateral lattices (eg square lattice, rhombic lattices at multiple angles) and triangular lattices. observe how the choice of a different lattice affects the perceived tone, angle and texture. if you work densely: figure out moiré, how to avoid it, and how to utilise it.

the third goes alongside understanding the specific objects you want to draw. hatching should follow the direction of the form, and curve with it. if you have a crease, for example, just shading it darker loses some of the dimensionality, and it is preferable to also change your lines' directions in order to trace the fold. i imagine hatching to be a grid superimposed on the surface which determines the direction and curvature of the lines, and which is either washed out or darkened based on the lighting situation.

as for drawing bodies, i have two, superficially conflicting, pieces of advice. the first is to immerse yourself in anatomical study. i like to classify the functions of different fields of anatomical work like so:

the skeleton governs movement and frame;

the muscles govern form and position;

the fat governs shape and weight;

the skin governs texture and creasing.

when i was small i thought i would be a doctor so i studied anatomy a lot. it ended up useful in other ways.

the second is to draw what you see, not what you think. anatomical knowledge can prime your expectations and help you interpret, but it absolutely cannot overpower your visual judgement. "what you see" refers both to reference, whether pictorial or live, and to your mental conceptualisation. you've been around people your entire life, your gut instinct and your visual memory are stronger and more correct than formal theory, always.

it's oftentimes more distracting to try and fix mistakes than to leave them be. they add character, and sometimes turn out useful. try to leave them alone, and instead draw the "correct" line by/over the faulty one without trying to turn back the clock. it's usually pretty insignificant, in the grand scheme of things.

and i think that's all i've got. again, thank you :)

#.asked

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