#it’s a hope rather than expectation

[butch4maryoliver]

the leftist sphere online and its insistence that nuance is critical while it completely waives it and transforms major issues into black-and-white is so….

[sweetnsour-stuff]

So since Ingo's name is a pun with the whole climbing thing in Legends Arceus, Emmet should be in Legends A-Z as head of a mining or underground construction operation or something to also be a pun

[statementlou]

https://www.tumblr.com/louisupdates/754934426217152513/goodbye-faith-in-the-future-world-tour-272024?source=share

did he or did he not lose fans then?

I will answer this because this anon actually brings a concrete question to the table rather than just "hurhur but you're a larrie??" (tell me you can't actually refute any of our points…). Anyway this post shows the decrease in Louis instagram followers between the screenshots taken directly after the release of Faith in the Future in Nov '22, when he changed his bio to promote that album and the tour tickets, and now, when he changed it again to mention the current release. But I'm putting that response under a cut because I'm tired of the actual POINT of all this nonsense getting lost in a sea of made up things people insist are important:

There is no rational argument you can make to say that Louis has less fans now than he did 2, 4, or 6 years ago. You don't need a spreadsheet of details you need to USE YOUR EYES! He has gone from filling theaters to filling arenas and stadiums. His second album made a higher chart position than his first album. His festival has doubled in size EVERY year of its existence. And for that matter: his insta post engagement numbers remain about the same (despite the fact that older posts should have way MORE likes due to having been there longer, even aside from follower counts.) SO WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT HIS INSTA FOLLOWER NUMBER???? Serious question: what does the word "fans" mean if these things aren't what matters? ALL of this quibbling about what he should do to make things better and people can't even see that THINGS AREN'T BAD.

Anyway to address the specific question- (con't......)

NO- HE DID NOT LOSE FANS. HE LOST SOME INSTA FOLLOWERS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. As I said above, literally what does it mean to lose fans if that number change coincides with him having higher sales, more audience members, and higher engagement than ever before? Whatever he lost ISN'T FANS. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant factor was something like a bot purge, but also yes: I'm sure a lot of casuals followed him around the time of his big album release and later unfollowed him. That's extremely normal because that's how casual engagement works, and why the definition of fan really matters. Louis and his team understand this and have referenced it repeatedly, talking about how lucky he is to have *us* specifically, to have the kind of dedicated fanbase he has, to have the KIND of fans he does who will allow him to do what HE wants. @dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram named the issue of depth vs breadth with regard to fans a long time ago, and pointed out why having DEPTH is so much more important. It's like this- artists who are on top 40 radio have more numbers on things like insta follows, and for a time on sales and tickets. But those aren't FANS- they're people with a casual interest. And as soon as that person isn't being forced in their ears 10x a day, those people lose interest and stop supporting them, stop buying stuff and unfollow, and those artists end up doing the 'opener on the jingle ball' circuit rather than their own tours. One Direction as a whole, and Louis maybe most of all or near to at this point, have something MUCH MORE VALUABLE than that- DEPTH FANS. Louis has fans who will support him even if he takes years to release music, or stops parading around with a pretend girlfriend to stay in the headlines at least once a month, or completely changes his image and genre, and that is UNHEARD OF. It's ASTONISHING and worth SO MUCH MORE. And they get that! THAT is why he always bragging about us, why industry people he works with are always so agog about us, why he will do anything for US- not for randos. He is also growing his breadth- and it's OBVIOUSLY WORKING whatever his follower counts are, but that is always going to be secondary to doing things for THE FANDOM because that is his sustainable business model. That is what keeps him onstage and reaching number one. And not coincidentally, the things they do are also working to grow that- much more valuable- commodity. So the fact that that's exactly what these chuckleheads complain about- that he does things that are just fandom facing or serving rather than everything being aimed at recruiting casual fans- does nothing but betray how completely they, unlike Louis and his team, misunderstand the actual drivers of his (actual, existing, happening) success. Luckily for Louis, he and his team rely on their own data harvesting (they do a LOT of it) and growth metrics (they're off the charts) rather than the smug assumptions of random (mostly quite new to this) fans and the few bitter people leading the complaining about everything Louis does.

[yombur]

hava's memories of bellamew will haunt me all my days.

[ahollowgrave]

My queue is nearly full again (almost 1k posts!) so I've up'd the post rate and I also might step back for a few days as well!

[danwhobrowses]

Well another week of Tal and Ashley putting Callowmoore through the emotional ringer. I'm kinda okay with where it's at right now (okay less kinda but I can still see an end goal for them), of course it wasn't the most ideal direction I thought up in my head but it rarely ever is. There's time, there's room, and maybe in 2 3 (again guys? mental torment for 3 again?) weeks time - because no show on Thanksgiving and then Candela Obscura - Tal and Ashley will pull the trigger and not leave me an anxious mess like they have the last month and a half every Friday Morning when I have to work XD

[goatsorcery]

i will say, despite my newfound burst of optimism about this game, a fall 2024 release date feels a bit ambitious, i was honestly expecting spring 2025 at the earliest given the changes the game has gone through in development over the past few years

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

very very tired of all the many many things :')

[significant-narratives]

the fact that medical malpractice is just an accepted part of nhl player management is insane btw

[arsenicflame]

i sometimes get the impression that a lot of people forget that while our flag means death is a comedy, it does know how to handle trauma well within the narrative. we are shown it over and over with the flashbacks for ed and stede and jim. at no point do they play the real trauma of the situation for laughs, its treated with the weight it deserves, while still being part of a comedy show

[infectiouspiss]

when boys take an everything shower we spend 5 minutes washing and 40 minutes fighting the shower demons

[tibtew]

*clutching head* rodya and meursault would have such a good dynamic actually

I wonder if rodya would initially see meursault's indifference as like. a simpler version of her own feigned carefreeness and as a deliberate attempt to place himself as an outsider... only to realise that No, he really Is just Like That. and then she gets annoyed because it turns out that people who don't care about anything don't seem to be any fun.

(ofc he does actually care about a lot of things, just not necessarily his grander place in the world lol)

idk. nihilism vs absurdism. fun duo 👍 rodya would find meursault's genuine comfort with being a speck of dust in the universe baffling, while he would probably find her desire to assert her own importance pointless, but they could probably bond over little things like their shared desire to live in the present and appreciation of/indulgence in earthly joys. and meursault would probably listen if rodya wants to rant about anything without asking any uncomfortable questions. I think they could appreciate each other's presence.

[everymadara]

Chapter 625

[jh-newman-opn]

rosary novena day 29 : sorrowful mysteries

meditation for tonight was on the reciprocal nature of the Passion. Jesus enters into our suffering, and invites us into His, thus effectively re-presenting our own suffering back to us in sanctified form.

It occurred to me at the monastery that mortification as a practice is not about punishing yourself or causing yourself pain because ""that's what you deserve"" in some nebulous sense, or in order to dissociate from the flesh in some hideously gnostic sense, but has to be done with love. An analogy would be a parent shaving their head for their child undergoing chemotherapy, or abstaining from cake because your partner's on a diet, or a pregnant woman delaying treatment for cancer until she can deliver the child safely. Mary practices mortification during the Passion by staying with her Son despite the incredible distress it must have caused her to watch Him be tortured, when Peter and the other disciples couldn't bear it and turned away.

This highlights the fundamental issue with penal substitution and other christologies that present the Passion as punishment rather than love. If Jesus is doing nothing but taking punishment on Himself, the only thing we gain by meditating on it is guilt for what we deserve, and a habit of suffering for its own sake. The Passion is Jesus taking our suffering onto Himself, not because we are so damnable and rotten that we all deserve to be tortured to death, but because we were already suffering, and when you truly love someone, you can't bear to see them suffer alone. Like Mary can't bear to leave Jesus in His suffering, Jesus does not leave us in ours, but enters it, participates in it, and says to us: my love is greater than your pain. In turn, we are invited to love Him more than we fear our own pain.

Catherine of Siena says, it was not nails that held our Lord to the Cross, but His love. The Passion is Christ's great act of mortification for love of us. Compassion, is co-suffering; suffering with.

Simon of Cyrene, and the carrying of the cross illustrates the principle. We are meant to bear our sufferings with Jesus, mutually taking up each other's crosses. Not avoiding suffering altogether, but suffering with and for the one you love.

In a way, I think you could say that Jesus' entire earthly life was His Passion. God suffered the whole mortifying ordeal of being human for love of you. Fulton Sheen has a good sermon on this called Kenosis, in which he explains that God condescending to become human is somewhat comparable to a human condescending to become a dog whilst maintaining a fully human understanding of maths, philosophy, and your capabilities as a human. Suddenly you have to sit and heel and eat out of a bowl on the floor and shit in the garden and all the while knowing the etiquette for meals with several sets of cutlery and what it was like to operate in the world as an adult human person with a job and a bank account and the capacity to talk about the Nicomachean Ethics. And the difference between a human and a dog is infinitely smaller than the great chasmic void between us and God. The only explanation for it is God's incredible love for us, that He would suffer all the little indignities of the human life cycle, culminating in every possible humiliation and agony, just to help us to carry the burden of it all as we go through our little existences.

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Hi, just wanted to ask a honest question because I've seen you post about it a few times and I genuinely don't understand where you're coming from when you say this. How is remake Leon a misogynist?

Most recently I saw you point out him calling Ada heartless, but I don't see how that's him being sexist. He says that in response to her telling him information on where to find Ashley, having previously told him to leave her behind (to presumably die or worse), and I don't think its misogynistic for him to make a jab at her for that. Especially because Leon's big motivation is saving people, of course he wouldn't be a huge fan of anyone telling him to intentionally leave someone to die if he's able to save them. (This is also not to say Ada's a bad person for suggesting that, I love Ada and her character but I also understand why Leon would be upset by such a thing)

If there's anything else in the remakes that I've missed you point out I'm curious to what else makes him misogynistic because I just don't see it.

Also like a sidenote I guess almost all of Leon's misogynistic lines are from original re4 but Luis also has lines like this, so I don't understand why he gets to be distinguished between versions and Leon doesn't when you talk about their characters.

"honest question" and yet, you seem to have already formulated an idea of my answer (and an opinion of me) based off of one post where I casually mentioned it, and you decided to look no further before getting defensive about it. Are you even asking? Do you even care to learn? Or will you just ignore everything I say? And asking anonymously is very funny to me. Literally who are you.

I talked about it here, kinda joked about it here, and I very thoroughly detailed it here, as well as reiterated in the comments. I'm so tired of repeating myself. It's 1am now bc I took the time to find these posts for you lol. Maybe read them before you try attacking a straw man.

But to the Luis point? I absolutely do separate og RE4 Leon and remake Leon… Like literally my entire POINT is that no, remake Leon is still sexist, just differently, and here is why… I really don't understand how you came to this conclusion lmao.

The main idea is, Capcom thinks they've written out Leon's misogyny; but because Capcom itself is a very bigoted company, they perpetrate misogyny in everything they make and they don't even realise it! They genuinely think the way they wrote remake Leon absolves him from the misogyny when it doesn't, it just re-contextualises it in a way that Capcom deems palatable. They still see Ada as an extension of Leon! They still see Ada's worth revolving solely around how Leon feels in response to her actions. It's ridiculous. And the way Leon is written to treat her, the lines he's given towards her, reflect this attitude, and becomes misogynistic when he treats a male character who has done worse than Ada right in front of Leon with respect and empathy.

[blortch]

It's a real 'Duality of Man' situation with the Acolyte Re:View and the Salt Vampire video almost back to back, the two extremes of RLM, too into something they shouldn't be caring about VS too into something thats silly to care about (fun to watch)

Honestly I wouldn't mind at all if all videos of theirs became Salt Vampire-Nukie-etc. with the occasional Re:View. Heck, I'll even let them have their Spitballs passion project. I think the fact that these exist at all show that they possess a good amount of flexibility which I've felt like it's been lacking as of late, with me having the feeling at times like they're stuck in formats they don't quite like anymore, or struggle to stick to their established rules and motions (some HITBs and BOTWs feeling like half-hearted chores).

I think Mike's gotten too far up his own ass at times about having to give his 2 cents about absolutely anything and everything surrounding star wars "because the masses want Plinkett" or any other ideas like that he might have. But alas their channel so far has required of them to keep up more or less with the "important movies" so I get where he's coming from. Even though, the definition as to what said important movies are feels like it's crumbling slightly....and either way, with them having created BOTW after HITB to avoid being cornered into Just watching popular movies they're lent additional support.