#it’s also really funny because i’m not even that much of a fan of canon biana and tam

[vackerary]

it's best to not focus on... whatever that is. it gives headaches. your fave character is obvi Fitz (that's so real) but what's your favorite ship?

i’m not really a ship sort of person. but the closest thing i have to a favorite ship is probably tiana? but nothing about it has anything to do with anything canonical about them. it’s more about the potential

[anim-ttrpgs]

Disabilities and Monsters in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Through a discussion with @vixensdungeon (great blog to follow for TTRPG stuff by the way) it came to our attention that some of our more jokey and memey posts and reblogs may have given some people a slightly skewed idea of what Eureka, and particularly the “urban fantasy” parts of Eureka are really about, and its tone. We like to joke around about it, and the “cute monster girl” angle really sells on tumblr.com, but actually playing these types of characters in Eureka is not exactly a power fantasy. They eat people, and often eat them alive. If you find that cute, funny, and/or sexy, well, Eureka is still probably just the game you’re looking for, but that isn’t the main thing. Eureka uses the fact that many of these characters necessarily subsist off the flesh and/or blood of other people as a loose metaphor for mental and physical disability.

Imagine you need something that everyone else has but you don’t. If you don’t have it regularly, you will literally start to waste away. The only way to obtain this thing is to take it from another human being, who also needs it, and others will deny that you need it, and abhor that you need it. It’s not uncommon for people, even “progressive” people, to say something along the lines of “they need to all be killed for the good of society,” even if they don’t realize that’s what they’re saying. You didn’t choose to be this way. This is the reality of monsters in Eureka, and many people in real life.

And then even when you have that thing you need, for now, there are many facets of society that you just can’t participate in because your condition makes them impossible for you, like if a vampire wanted to take a run on a sunny beach. Monsters in Eureka will be challenged by their supernatural weaknesses at every turn, while hiding their abhorrent needs from society and even the rest of the party, and asking why they have to be this way. Finding clever ways to get around and circumvent their weaknesses is a core part of the gameplay of monster PCs in Eureka. Imagine you and your friends want or need to go somewhere, but that somewhere is on the other side of a river. The river has a well maintained bridge. For everyone else but you, a vampire who can’t cross running water, getting across the river is the simplest task in the world, so much so that no one would even consider it a task, but for you, it’s a challenge, and for gameplay, it’s a puzzle.

It isn’t totally hopeless, as many of the jokes and fan comics show (those aren’t just memes, they’re only showing one side of the coin and not the other). Monsters who accept, or even embrace and celebrate their monsterhood, can and do exist canonically, alongside monsters who can’t bear to do what they do. In some cases, these may be the same monster on different days.

I’m going to conclude this post by posting two excerpts from the rules text itself.

Disabilities are Disabling

So why don’t disabilities grant any advantage? It isn’t too uncommon for RPGs to have some sort of “flaw” system, where during character creation you can give your character “flaws” or some kind of penalty, and usually get that balanced out by being able to add extra bonuses elsewhere. Sometimes, these “flaws” may take the form of disabilities.

One particular high-profile indie TTRPG takes this beyond just character creation, and makes it so that if a PC receives a “scar” in combat that reduces their physical stats, their mental stats automatically go up by an equivalent amount, and proudly imply that to make any mechanic which results in permanent consequences or makes disabilities disabling is ableist. We think you can probably tell what we think of that from this sentence alone, and we don’t need to elaborate too much. 

We do think, in the abstract, “flaw” systems in character creation are not a bad idea. They allow for more varied options during character creation, while preserving game balance between the PCs.

But in real life, people aren’t balanced. The events that left me injured and disabled didn’t make me smarter or better in any way - if anything, they probably made me dumber, considering the severity of the concussion! Some things happened to me, and now I’m worse. There’s no upside, I just have to keep going, trying harder with a less efficient body, and relying more on others in situations where I am no longer capable of perfect self-sufficiency.

A disabled person is, by definition, less able to perform important daily tasks than the average person. To deny this is to deny that they need help, and to deny that they need help is to enable a refusal to help. This is the perspective from which Eureka’s Grievous Wounds mechanic was written.

When a character is reduced to 1 HP (which by design can result from a single hit from many weapons) they may become incapacitated or they may take a Grievous Wound, which is a permanent injury with no stat benefits. Grievous Wounds don’t have to result from combat, they can also be given to a character during character creation, but not as a trade-off for an extra bonus.

“But then doesn’t my character just have worse stats than the rest of the party?” Yes, haven’t you been reading this? There is no benefit, except for the opportunity to play a disabled character in an TTRPG. This character will probably have to be more reliant on the rest of the party to get by in various situations. Is that a bad thing?

Monsters Essay

All investigators in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy are regular people. They can also be a monster, like a blood-sucking vampire or a broom-riding witch. Importantly, this works because despite their unique nature, monsters are still regular people. You can read more about this in Chapter 8, but the setting of Eureka does not have a conspiracy or “masquerade” hiding supernatural people from normal society. Though they are still largely unknown to modern science, they exist within normal society - and a lot of them eat people.

The default assumption in RPGs has been that monsters are just evil by nature, doing evil for evil’s sake. RPGs that seek to subvert this expectation often instead make monsters misunderstood and wrongfully persecuted, but harmless. Eureka takes a wholly different approach.

There are five playable types of monsters in the rulebook right now, and it’ll be seven if we hit all the stretch goals, but for simplicity’s sake this discussion of themes will just focus on the vampire. Despite them applying in different ways, the same overall themes apply to nearly every monster, so if you get the themes for the vampire, you’ll get the gist of what Eureka is doing with its playable monsters in general.

Mundane investigators have to keep themselves going by eating food and sleeping (see p.XX “Composure” for more information). Well, vampires can’t operate the same way. They don’t sleep, and normal food might be tasty for them as long as it isn’t too heavily seasoned, but it doesn’t do anything for them nutritionally. Their main way to keep themselves functioning is fresh living human blood, straight from the source. To do what mundane PCs do normally by just eating and sleeping, vampires have to take from another, whether either of them are happy with this arrangement or not. They do not, of course, literally have to, and a player is not forced to make their vampire PC drink blood, just like you reading this in real life don’t literally have to eat food. You do eat food if you want to live in any degree of comfort or happiness, and vampires do drink blood or they eventually become unable to effectively do anything.

This is numerically, mechanically incentivized and not simply a rule that says something like “this character is a vampire and therefore they must drink blood once every session,” to demonstrate that the circumstances a person faces drive their behavior. In America, there is a tendency to think of criminality and harm done to others as resulting from intrinsic evil, but people do not just wake up one day and decide “I think I’ll go down the criminal life path.” Their circumstances have barred them from the opportunities that would have given them other options. 

People need food; food costs money; money requires work; work requires getting hired; but getting hired requires a nearby job opening, an education, an impressive resume, nice clothes, charisma, consistent transportation, and so on. For people without other options, crime becomes the only method left to meet their basic needs. Would you rather take what you need from other people, or go without what you need? There are people who don’t have the luxury of a third option. Failure to meet the needs of even a small number of people in a society has high potential to harm the entire society, not just those individuals whose needs are unmet.

As their basic need for blood becomes more and more difficult to ignore, a vampire is going to encounter much the same dilemma. There is really no “legal” or “harmless” way for them to get their needs met, even if they do have resources. Society just isn’t set up for that. And no, your kink is not the solution to this, trying to suggest every vampire just find willing participants who are turned on by vampires or being bitten is suggesting sex work. It’s one step removed from telling a girl she should just get an OnlyFans the minute she turns 18, or that women should just marry a rich man and be a housewife that gets their needs taken care of in exchange for sex and housekeeping. Being forced into such a dynamic isn’t ethical or harmless for the vampire or for their “clients.”

“Oh well, then the vampire should just eat bad people!” You mean those same bad people we just described above? Who gets to decide which people are “bad people?” Who gets to decide that the punishment is assault or death?

Playable monsters in Eureka are dangerous, harmful people. They were set up to be.

Society not being set up in a way that allows monsters to make ethical choices brings us to the next theme: monstrousness as disability, and monsters as “takers.”

Vampires have to take from others a valuable resource that everyone needs to live, and the extraction of which is excruciatingly painful and debilitating. No one knows what happens to blood after a vampire drinks it, it’s just gone. Vampires are open wounds through which blood pours out of the universe.

This is a special need, something they have to take but cannot give back. Their special needs make them literally a drain on society and the people around them. In the modern world, there is a tendency to feel that people must justify their right to life, that they must pay for the privilege of existing in society. This leads people to consider “takers” (people who take much more than they give back, such as disabled people) as something that needs to be pruned away for the betterment of everyone else. Even many so-called “progressives,” while they claim not to agree with pruning “useless eaters,” still hold the unexamined belief that people must justify their existence. To reconcile these two incompatible ideas, they instead simply deny that disabled people take more resources than most people, and are capable of giving back less. This sentiment is perfectly illustrated by the aforementioned game’s insistence that disabilities are never a net reduction of a character’s stats.

Vampires and other playable monsters are inarguably “takers,” but in positioning them as protagonists right alongside mundane protagonists, Eureka puts you in their shoes, and forces you to acknowledge their inner lives and reckon with their circumstances. You have to acknowledge two things: first, that they are dangerous, that they are harmful, that they take more than they give - and second, that they are people. Because they are people, Eureka asserts that they have inherent value, a right to exist, and a right to do what they need to do to exist. (We also acknowledge that their potential victims have a right to do what they need to do to exist and defend themselves, but that is a separate discussion.)

One final point to touch on is mental illness. Mental illness is a disability, one pretty comparable to physical disability in a lot of ways, so all of the above points can apply to this metaphor as well, but there are a few unique comparisons to make here.

It’s not the most efficient, but there are a couple of loopholes deliberately left in the rules that allow vampires to sometimes sporadically restore Composure (and thus their ability to function) without drinking blood. Eureka! moments and Comfort checks from fellow investigators can restore Composure.

When writing the rules, we came to a dilemma where we weren’t sure if it was thematically appropriate for monsters to be able to regain Composure in these ways (since it could lessen their reliance on causing harm), but ultimately we decided that yes, they can.

People with mental illnesses may have the potential to be harmful and dangerous, but all the information we have access to has shown that mentally ill people with robust support structures and control over their own lives are much less likely to enact harm, whether through physical violence, relational violence, or violence against the self. This is why we kept that rule in for playable monsters. Being able to accomplish their goals, and having friends who are there for them, makes that person less likely to cause unnecessary harm.

Vampires are especially great for demonstrating this because they’re immortal and they always come back when “killed.” They can’t be exterminated, they aren’t going away, there will always be problem people in society, no matter how utopian or “progressive.” Vampires are a never-ending curse, who will always be a problem whether they like it or not. The question is how you will grapple with their inevitable presence in society and how you will treat them, not how you will get rid of them.

Eureka is as much a study of the characters themselves as it is the mystery being solved by the characters. It is a game about harsh realities, but it is ultimately compassionate. It argues through its own gameplay that yes, people do have circumstances which drive their behavior, people do have special needs that are beyond their ability to reciprocate, many of those people do cause harm or inconvenience to others, and all of them are still valuable. 

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[tesscourtes]

saw you had asks open, not a drawing request but wanted to know if there was any more story to your human bill’s punishment-for-weirdmageddon-is-to-turn-weak-human au, I really like it (sorry if you explained this a while back, I only just watched gravity falls😭I’m a late-comer to the fandom)

it’s just superepiccool to me, how are dipper and mabel about him being human now? Soos n Wendy, Stan and Ford? What was it like for them (especially Ford) when he just turned human? What was it like for Bill?

oh hey don't worry, I haven't really talked much about the details of the AU like ... ever. I just started reviving it because I got my partner into the show (they are also a new fan! yay, new fans! Funny enough I had no idea TBOB was coming out so the timing was mad exquisite.) and they have just been an amazing help shaping my messy thoughts and coming up with new, fun plots! It's also nice to know there's someone out there interested in it, so thank's for asking! Now that I read TBOB I want to change the premise a bit, but the core is still the same.

Let me tell you this AU is silly. I'm aware Billford is toxic and there are many corners to dive into to picture their messy relationship. But I kinda wanna keep the spirit of the show here and make it equally as fun as it is disturbing. Given that Bill canonically is trapped in endless Therapy gives me even more food to work with, he just out there being toxic and people repeatedly telling him to cut it out.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail because I'm actually working on the first comic chapter for this AU, but regarding the characters: Each of the Pines, as well as Wendy and Soos, are not happy seeing him, but individually grow more accustomed to him and with him. I guess going from "most accepting" to "least accepting", Mabel took it the best. I wouldn't say she was quick to forgive, but quick enough to give the guy a chance. And I honestly have to say that, although this is 100% a Billford AU, there's so many plot ideas for just Mabel and Bill and their amazing, chaotic shenanigans. Put these two together and the stories basically write themselves. Wendy is pretty similar, and the most chill in actually helping Bill figure out human stuff.

Naturally, Ford took it the hardest. I'm aiming for slowburn here, haha. They got to figure out some stuff that I'm so ready to put onto pages... Ford is a lot of emotions. Confused, angered, curious... Meanwhile Stan is Bills biggest hater. (There is a lot of bullying in this AU) He just keeps up with it because his Family makes him. He's very protective and tries to kick Bill out several times. Soos sticks with Stan, but he's also Soos and has a big heart, so in Bills eye, he's very gullible and a target he can mess with easily.

Dipper is not a fan either, he has a hard time adjusting to the triangle just getting to ... be there. He's suspicious for the most part and Bill has to try hard to get on his good side. But honestly he might be more upset with Mabel (and later on Wendy) for making friends with Bill so easily, even though he knows that's just their nature. I just recently started thinking about Gideon and how I'd like to include him, but nothing worth mentioning so far yet.

With Bill himself, one my favorite parts trying to portray so far is how he's dealing with his new mortality. He adjusts to the body fine, he knows how to navigate flesh, but he has a hard time accepting that it's his body. His new prison, essentially. If it's gone, he's gone. If he treat's it like shit, he feels like shit. Then we add the psychological aspect of things. And more importantly, we add Ford to the equation. When I tell you, that demon is experiencing psychological damage here, and it's fully his fault. TBOB really pointed out to me that I need to dive into his obsession with Ford. How do you even get a man you fumbled so bad, to even acknowledge you again?

I love yapping about this AU, thanks again for giving me the grounds to do so anon! I'm an insecure writer so it'll probably take another hot minute to choose which script feels best to draw out, haha. But I'm glad you seem to be up for the ride!!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

new fight lines have trey asking sebek to "tell him more about his family", adding more ridiculous crumbs to "sebek's father is distantly related to trey's". makes me feel sure that sebek's home event will have trey as a guest even if just for the further comedic potential.

speaking of sebek's family too: i only recently realized the full implication of a fae marrying a human and having chilldren with them. it's obvious that they are to expect their lover to go first, but somehow it didn't cross my mind that mrs. zigvolt is also going to see her children die first too. as far as we know, sebek's aging just as a regular human; unless there is some lore revelation, his mother seems likely to outlive him (just as lilia's likely to outlive silver now). it's interesting to think about imo, because there is an active choice here to have a family which you know you are doomed to bury yourself instead of searching for someone within your fae species to avoid this. feels like it's saying something about love and grief which a hometown event could (hopefully) explore.

MysteryShopTLs has a post with all new voiced Trouble lines translated! Please check it out. I wanted to give them a shoutout + promo because I’ve unfortunately been seeing tons of people reposting these on Twitter, and even someone using their template, without credit… which they have explicitly said to NOT do 💦 Remember to credit fan translators, guys (preferably in the same post as the tls and not the 2nd/3rd post in a thread, otherwise people won’t actually see the credit).

Trey “I’m so normal about teeth I’m about to beat up and interrogate an underclassman to learn more about his dentist father” Clover 💀 djksbekeheehwi The “Trey is Sebek’s cousin/distantly related relative” thing is dbjsbwjxndlss such a funny crack theory to me 😭 At this point, I wonder if the devs are aware of it and try to throw that crowd (really subtle) bones…

It’d be cool to see Trey in a Sebek’s hometown event! (Preferably as SR and not yet another event R for the poor guy 💦) Trey’d be so hype meeting THE Mr. Zigvolt. I actually wrote a short thing about them meeting here; hopefully if this happens in canon, it’s just as silly.

I’d also really like to see Idia in Sebek’s hometown event. It would just be ironic, because both of them also show up in Harveston… with Idia complaining in front of Sebek that he’d NEVER want to visit a place like BV, which is lacking in wi-fi! Oh, how the tables would turn…

We have no official confirmation as to whether or not a human-fae mixed child would have an extended lifespan or not. I know many fan works like to depict Sebek outliving Silver or the other first years for the ✨ Angst ✨ of it all, but canon hasn’t stated anything of the sort! Personally, I believe that Sebek at least ages like a regular human, since he seems to match the rate at which Silver grows (in their childhood flashbacks). Fae are shown to have much more delayed developments, such as learning to walk at 30 years old rather than the typical 10-18 months that a human would take.

Mrs. Zigvolt really is so strong 😭 Her entire community seems to have been against the marriage but she did it anyway. Baur, too, disapproved and dissuaded her from pursuing this so much. Mrs. Zigvolt actively has to take every opportunity possible to normalize the family she chose for herself to her own father. Even knowing that she might have to bury her own husband and three children someday, she still fights for the life she has, because there’s no other life she wants. I wonder… Was part of the reason why Baur didn’t want his daughter to marry a human (you know, racism aside) because he didn’t want to see her suffer from that grief? Especially considering that Baur himself probably saw many of hid own allies fall in battle 😭 so maybe he wanted to spare his one and only child of that despair… But Mrs. Zigvolt thinks differently than him, she probably believes love is always worth having, even if the community scorns hers, and even if time threatens to steal her family away. We love a woman that knows what she wants 👊

While I’d love for a hometown event to explore this in more detail, I really doubt that they will dedicate tons of time to it 🙂‍↕️ It would be great to have Sebek coming to appreciate his dad more, or realizing the full depth of his mom’s love… Unfortunately, Twst hometowns don’t usually have these extensive narratives, they only lightly touch upon the SSR’s character development in a few scenes.

[kyupidos]

updated 08/02/24: here is a part 2 to this analysis!

i think one of the most disturbing yet funny things about sebek antis is how they manage to twist a well written narration about internalized racism and the struggles of being a mixed person into something relating to “fascism”.

( btw there will be SLIGHTTT b7 spoilers in here but i personally think it’s whatever, no big difference to what we’ve known in the past nothing shocking. )

as his biggest fan AND as an ethnic person i feel as though you HAVE to be brain dead and/or white to not understand any of this. he doesn’t genuinely believe that humans are an inferior race, he has MULTIPLE instances praising human people ( riddle, epel ). and the evidence is in firstly, epel’s school uniform vignette where he praises his apple carving, saying it’s even nice enough to be used as a gift to malleus, and we KNOW how highly he regards him. and not once does he ever say anything like “for a human”, or insult him for “being human”, he appreciates his skill.

then there’s riddle’s ceremonial robes vignette, and while he does look down on him, it’s not really even about being human saying, “i would better be served by weight training than riding with a bunch of amateurs” ( in reference that here we see him initially join the equestrian club ). but once riddle proves his skill, sebek is more than willing to respect him highly.

( a small thing from the harveston event that i’ve been told of from a friend as well, he also holds high respect and love for marja. initially he wasn’t fond of her, but she gave him a squirrel plushie for the plush sled race. because of this he’s basically like, “she’s the only reason i got this far!!” and praises her. i haven’t played the event and this is what my friend says, but i figured to at least include this. )

the most insane part is you don’t even have to scour through every single moment he shows up on screen to know this, it even shows in his WIKI that one of his dislikes/pet peeves is “whining.” to be clear, while admittedly he does make patronizing remarks in regards to humans, it’s never enough to say he has a genuine hatred, and in fact he proves the opposite many times, in both epel and riddle’s case. and, in regards to the personality section, again referencing epel and riddle ( there may be other examples, they just happen to be the ones i found specifically ), he isn’t afraid to acknowledge and respect people for their talent or skills, even if they are human.

and if you’re wondering what i mean by it being ethnically related, fae are canonically ( say it with me now canonically, ) considered to be a minority race. being half human half fae is what makes him mixed, equally canonically so. as far as i’m concerned basically everyone in the fandom knows this but the complexity around this part of his character is just SO undermined that people are willing to call him “openly racist” ( to others, not his internalized racism ) and a FASCIST. are you serious?

we know already that sebek learned a lot of what he thinks now from his grandfather, ( sebek zigvolt wiki, trivia ) considering malleus and lilia commenting that his temper is a trait he gets from him ( scary monsters event story for malleus ), which of course is likely what garners his dislike towards his human aspect and his father for being human, even considering his father outputting, trailing off when noting he is human, while being prideful in his mother who is a fae ( birthday boy vignette ).

and what do we learn about his grandfather? he was in a war against humans, which makes it obvious enough how he would learn this internalized racism and why he would put down that part of his human identity. remember that fae age differently, this war wasn’t even that long ago for them. i think it’s a shame people seem to put so much love into diasomnia but not even recognize its lore that’s rooted so deep yet at the same time is right in front of our face.

but that’s all from me folks. willing to dive deeper into my sebek love and analysis if anyone wants it!

[arsonisticscholar]

Disciple Shen yuan au, but he transmigrated as a pre/early arc reader of pidw. Say in canon he transmigrated at like 22, if pidw was written over the course of a couple of years he might be in his late teens. Innocent pre cucumber era where he had high hopes for pidw and hasn’t totally been stomped down by health issues and frontal lobe development

This is heavily inspired by Sy’s temp transmigration system because it’s a great fic and I love it but I can’t get it out of my head of what if situation is basically the same exept he hasn’t read pidw yet

Maybe he realizes he’s in a book, maybe he even realizes it is pidw (still in early stages, MAYYBE became more mainstream recently due to the start of the abyss arc) based on just seeing things online. But he doesn’t have the same biases about what the characters should be like or the foreknowledge of all the native life

I’m torn between him being the only Shen yuan there so there can be disciple bingyuan or to make cumplanes relationship more interesting by putting in not only another transmigrator, not only one that doesn’t know the world, but one that is literally the (to them, sy would kick anyone who called him this) child version of the most beautiful intelligent cunning bordering cruel wife of the emperor that lbh and sqh have gotten to know

Not only that, but I think it would be really funny if without the bias towards binghe as his blorbo since he hasn’t read pidw yet takes one look at lqg and is just standing in shock (UUUGGGHH FEED MY MULTISHIPPING TENDENCIES) but you cannot tell me he wouldn’t have a big fat crush on him. I think it would be really funny if he also is automatically drawn toward lbh and I think he would be absolutely ecstatic about it but would prob get scared away by their pda after like a week and a half

I also think it would be soooo funny if bingyuan end up adopting teen sy and find out about it and approach him like ‘you are NOT dating that BRUTE’ or some shit and he’s like huh?? Wdym?? I just think he’s really cool for when he saved me that one time and when he let me fly on his sword and gave me a cool fan and also I like watching him train and he’s just objectively pretty anyone would admire a face like that how could I not but Id never want to date him he’s a guy!?!? I’m an ally but I’m obviously not gay??? And bingqiu would just sigh and shake their heads and try to keep him away from lqg

And I think it can also be an interesting point of introspection like if I never met binghe would I really be with lqg? If I didn’t get to shizun first would lqg have stolen him away from me? I think on sqq’s part like so much of what sy does is a source of (first hand? Second?) embarrassment because ohh wow I was an annoying kid or oh my god why is teen me staring at him so much this is embarrassing I have a husband what does this say about me. And for binghe it can become a place of insecurity like if I never came along I’d this how it would end up if I never made it out of the abyss what if shizun leaves me for lqg has shizun ever thought of him that way what if what if what if what if

And i think sy would have an interesting relationship with sqh if he was still in the process of reading the early arcs when it was still mainly exposition and he’s already gotten a taste of the plants and monsters and plot set ups but it hasn’t gone downhill yet into fan service. He would totally gush about how much he’s interested in the story and share his theories and hopes for it and they might even end up brainstorming for another book for sqh to write together. And I love the idea of sqh not only being older post transmigration but also pre like he was a full adult when he STARTED writing and sy was a teen when he started reading and sqh just has the realization of ‘wow I was like 26 beefing with a high schooler online’ but also the fact that sy LOVED pidw pre fan service like you don’t stick with such a long and shitty story if you weren’t obsessed with it at some point. And I think it would give sqh a new perspective on sqq’s criticisms and upset about how it went. Yeah, he chose to keep reading, but he chose that because he had faith in the world airplane created and the character he loved.

He would like immediately out himself as a transmigrator because he went to the new kid ceremony thingy overheard cumplane being dumb and had a really obvious reaction bc wdym these two fantasy men are talking about miku in English in public out loud like what is happening here so they catch on to that, sqq accepts him as his disciple and the three of them have tea together and their interaction goes something like

*all sat at the low table in the bamboo house*

Sqh: so you’re a transmigrator

Sy: uhm I guess so

Sqh *to sqq*: psst Shen yuan bro (or something clearly Shen yuan) say something

Sy: how do you know my name!?!?

And that’s how they find out sqq and sy are the same person they eventually figure out timeline and stuff and sqq is like oh my god this is a child but also child me without pidw knowledge I need to keep him away from any trouble including plot, kidnappings, dangerous beasts, and mystery plants and obviously the most effective way to (not) keep him safe from this is adopt him BINGHEE COME HEREEEE we’re adopting this one now also remember how I came from a different world yeah this is technically me when I was a teenager before I read your story so he has no knowledge of this worlds dangers or customs we must protect him at all costs binghe locks eyes with him and the internal monologues are going in completely different directions binghe is cooing and brainstorming ways to booby trap the house so he can’t leave and sy is just gazing into his eyes like wowww what an objectively handsome guy yk his muscles are very big his hair is very big his eyes are very big,,,, I want to BE him I def don’t want him I want to BE him,,, gym goals fr,,, then he asks who he is and lbh’s like ‘oh my qingqiu’s husband 😊’ and sy just passes out on the spot

I also get the vibe that he would not be a very horny teenager like he might catch himself looking once or twice but I mean sqq didn’t really care about the porn in pidw so either he’s very particular or he’s very time and place so I don’t think his inner monologue for pretty people would be as body oriented as sqq’s is. I also want him to take a liking to yqy since he’s just like his older brother back home and sqq is like ‘no get away from this bad man’ and sy is all ‘but he’s so nice to me 🥺 he doesn’t mean bad’ like bro doesn’t know the lore also he would maybe not quite wifebeam but he would endear himself to like every single peak lord immediately.

I like to think he’d keep his body p much plus dianxia robes And the story is that bingqiu found a magic plant and made a plant son using bingqiu qi or something idk so that’s why they not only suddenly have a kid, a kid that looks similar to sqq and acts pretty similar to him but has no idea about anything in the world. These people think he was born yesterday and they might as well be right with how little he knows about the world or it’s customs

This is all I got for right now but feel free to expand on this or write it because I am a shit writer and boy have I been craving this

[musicalmoritz]

..6,7,10, and 25 of TBHK

(Bestie I wanna hear AAALL the takes ngl)

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

I’m going to be extremely biased here and not hold back, Kou and Nene shippers. I have nothing against the ship itself but the way the shippers vehemently deny Kou’s attraction to men (which they don’t have to do bcuz Kou also likes women) and Mitsukou’s canon status really irritates me. A couple of them have also commented abt their ship on my Aoi x Nene posts which bugs me bcuz like,,,why mention a straight ship on a lesbian ship post?? And honorable mention, people who hate Hanako x Nene bcuz of the SA and then proceed to ship Hanako with Kou…as though Hanako doesn’t also make Kou uncomfortable by bringing up perverted things around him. They promote it as an healthier alternative but if they hate HanaNene bcuz of the SA then shouldn’t they not want Hanako to be with anyone at all??? He is the problem in that situation. Oh and Aoi x Akane shippers who write off Aoinene have just about gotten on my last nerve 

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Hmmmm I don’t actually hate characters that often, and when I do it’s usually because of their canon behavior as opposed to the fans. But I will say Nakahara defenders made me hate him 10x more than I already did. I like to make him kind of a supervillain in my Aoinene fics because I think it’s funny and also because those specific fans who INSIST he’s a good character really piss me off. His only personality trait is being a misogynist, why do you want to defend that so badly??? I could understand if he had even a smidgen of depth but why is that the hill you choose to die on??? I guess some people like his character design but ahhhhh idk, we really don’t need to be doing this much over a blank slate male character

10. worst part of fanon

The homophobic Teru headcanon and the people who genuinely believe it’s in-character for him. It’s such a wild mischaracterization, especially when we see him canonically getting along with his male admirers. Also people who depict Kou as being a total green flag with no faults, it literally removes everything I love about him. And ofc the people who write Tsukasa as nothing more than an abuser. Does Teru x Kou existing count for this section?? Because that also makes me gag, especially when people insist that Teru is weird with Kou in canon

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

The people who won’t shut up about how bad the anime is. Guys, we get it. They cut large chunks out and adapted things weirdly. Boohoo. Try being a Bungou Stray Dogs fan

(In all seriousness tho there are a lot of things I enjoy about the anime)

[azaharinflames]

you’ve had such well-thought out answers to everything 911 and bucktommy so i wanted to hear your take on this. i just came across someone writing that bvddie endgame is corroborated in the overall story and not going there is in bad faith 😵‍💫

i’m sorry but when the showrunners - both tim and kristen - plus the actor who portrays one half of that ship have emphasised over and over again the deep friendship and brotherly bond between buck and eddie…what am i missing here?

there have been numerous instances where the writers have opened up the possibility of buck realising romantic feelings for eddie and every single one of those instances have been clear: it’s always been about TOMMY

I had a long answer to this, and then the blackout happened and I lost it :/ So, trying again!

First of all, thank you so, so much, Nonnie! I really appreciate your words.

I've always thought that there is no stopping from living in delusion, if living there is all you know. But what do I know, lol.

I don't see how Buddie endgame is corroborated in the overall story, I genuinely don't. And I think anyone trying to claim the people not seeing it do it in bad faith are adding to some harmful rhetorics I've been seeing a lot in the fandom. Where if you don't like Buddie, then you're labeled as a racist and a homophobe.

Stop it. Cut that shit.

What they're doing by throwing accusations like those so easily is trivialising some very serious issues, whilst actively engaging in perpetuating those. Meaning, you cannot seriously tell me I am homophobic for not liking Buddie when in the same breath you're saying (with your whole chest, mind you) that Tommy Kinard, a canonically gay man (or Josh, also a canonically gay man), should be run over by a train. It's not a joke. It's not funny. Stop it.

Sorry for derailing there a bit, but it truly annoys me.

Look, to be very blunt here, I don't think 911 has written a single one of their pairings as being corroborated by the storyline. They've hit gold with Henren, Bathena, and Madney, and now with Bucktommy, but honestly? In all cases, it was a product of their luck in having actors that had insane chemistry together without the producers expecting it, in having actors advocating for their characters and the directions they wanted to take them in... I am not undermining the talent of the writers. There is only so much an actor can do without some good material. But I genuinely believe not a single couple of 911 was planned from the start (save Henren, because of obvious reasons), nor did they orchestrate the whole series to fit them.

Bucktommy are an anomaly (affectionate), in the way that, somehow, they fit so well, to the point that the red string theory was born. But we all know they were not planned from the start, and that Tim is probably still in shock at how hard he hit the jackpot with them.

So. For Buddie? Nothing indicates it was them from the start, and I think some small fun tidbits (like the elf in Season 2) that were done to joke around with the fans got taken too far. I'll just put in as simply as I can, I guess:

If the show wanted them to be endgame from the start, their growth would've gone perpendicular. Meaning - the actions of one would constantly be reflected in the other. Furthermore, if they were meant to be endgame, you know what we would've seen? Them acting like they do in fanfics.

Hot take, idc. But I mean it. Because in fanfics, back when I was reading Buddie, I maybe could see it (in the ones that didn't heavily mischaracterize them). A situation where they were fully supportive of each other, where they were each other's number 1 (Chris on a whole other league ofc), where their decisions were heavily influenced by each other, where they shared every big moment with each other.

But that is not what we got. And that is not what we have, for as much as they want to twist it that way.

And they made that even more obvious once Tommy came into play. Once they had Buck leaving his sister's wedding momentarily because he wanted to share that moment with Tommy (who, also, put Buck as his priority the second the emergency was over). Once they had Buck going home to his boyfriend in 710, instead of almost moving in with the Diazes to try to fix Eddie's mess. Once they showed us how Tommy takes care of him in a way no one else will, will put Buck as a priority even when they are not together (yet), will feel Buck's pain as if it were his own.

I feel like this got very long, and that my thoughts are all over the place lol. But to sum it up:

I do not think Buddie endgame is corroborated in the show, nor do I think it would be as amazing as they think it would be. Mostly because we've had Eddie looking about done with Buck several times this season (and in a no-cute way, I'll say), and mostly because after all they've done with Bucktommy, how significant they've made them so far? Yeah... I don't know if they could ever achieve that again without people thinking: Oh, but this is just a copy of Buck and Tommy. Meh.

Sorry for the long ass answer hehe. I was answering this ask shortly before the power outage, so it was on my mind most of the day (whenever I wasn't worried sick lmao)

[strangerthingsfanworkrecs]

Artist Highlight: Jo-Harrington

This week, we're highlighting @jo-harrington! All recs this week will be for her work. @jo-harrington writes for the Stranger Things Fandom, with a special focus on xOC, and xReader fics. She's also a great beta-editor and design all the graphics for her fics! We're highlighting Jo for her incredible world building and strong OCs.

You should check out her Store Manager Verse fics for some great fluff and top-tier retail angst Jo answered some questions about her creative process and her work under the cut

Why Stranger Things?

I’ve been an avid ST Fan since the beginning. My old Store Manager and I watched the first episode in the backroom of our store while folding t-shirts and rest was history. Fic-wise, a certain Metalhead Dungeon Master brought me out of a fanfiction posting hiatus and I haven’t looked back since.

What's your favorite ship (platonic or romantic) to create for?

Platonic is always going to be the Hellfire Club boys. I love writing their adventures. Their friendship is epic and deserves to be explored and celebrated. Romantic…EddiexOC or EddiexReader. I mean, I’ve been an xOC girl since my first fandom. xReader is new for me but it’s almost an extension of xOC. I always joke that I’m allowed ONE epic borbo obsession love of my life per decade and I’ll give them one canon pairing but the rest are OCs.

What's your typical writing process like?

I have an idea, I write it down, I get sick of working on a chapter, I don’t edit, I post. (Which is funny because when I beta, I am a lot more detailed. But for my own work I just need it out of my head.) It might not be the best. It could probably read better or have less typos or mistakes. But it’s always from the heart.

How do you come up with your OCs?

I sit there for a long time and figure out how I can put a part of myself into a story. Oops was I not supposed to say that? Sometimes you think of a character that you just can’t help but want to write. But even if they aren’t a manifestation of your physical self or your personality, they almost always end up being an extension of you in some ways, or something you aspire to be. You also need to add some attributes you hate into them, so that they’re not too perfect and you can throttle them around and make them suffer and not feel too bad/let it become a self hatred thing.

What has been your favorite project so far? Why?

Store Manager Verse. (EMxReader) Retail is who I am and who I’ve always been. I had a mall romance irl that went south. So it was a way to rewrite my past with my comfort character…and also give said comfort character a happy ending as well.

What has been your hardest project so far? Why?

As Above, So Below. (EMxOC) It is a passion project, it is a beast, every chapter takes an emotional toll on me and it takes a month—if not more—to recover. But it has been the single most fulfilling project that I’ve worked on in the 20 years I’ve been writing fanfiction. I've been working on it for about 2 years now. 3 more chapters til the end…I’m gonna be very sad when it’s over.

Have you ever had a creative block? How did you get over it?

My brain is just a beehive that I shake every now and again to get the bees angry. Honestly, the bigger block I get into is self-doubt. I have no problem finding the words, it’s the courage to put them to paper I struggle with at times.

Is there a big source of inspiration for you? Books? Art? Games?

Yes all of the above. But in all seriousness, life experience is the best inspiration. There’s only so much research you can do. Truly for me, the canon characters are the source of inspiration. Then I take from things I’ve done, things I’ve read, places I’ve been in order to take an idea to a fully formed plot.

Is there an upcoming project you're particularly excited about?

Eddie Munson Big Bang. I know you’re gonna hear that a lot. I love creating really ambitious AUs and I think this one is really testing my abilities as a writer. It's a crossover fic, in a way, but with a lot of original plot folded in. I hope I do both fandoms/universes justice.

Is there anything we didn't ask that you'd like to add?

I’m from the Midwest, so thank you for listening to all of my long-winded answers. Haha.

[voltaridylla]

High school Jimmy Valmer headcanons (Matt and Trey give him more scenes I’m begging.)

-Italian-American. Before you ask, yes, it is on his mom’s side. He also has some relatives he’s never met before living over in Italy.

-Smoked medicinal weed for a period in high school to help with his aches because of his cerebral palsy but when asked about it he played it up to be cool. He’s in his head at times so he tries to seem cooler but it works most of the time.

-This guy has like NO enemies. Literally no one has qualms about him, he even gets on with Nathan at some point - not like pals but they talk. They like to roast the hell out of eachother so it’s like frenemies but they have each other’s backs now.

-Considering in canon, I believe he’s one of the first to uh… do it. (💀) So I think in the highschool setting or we tweak canon EVER SO SLIGHTLY, his friends go to him for advice about it and depending on who it is he will either a) make it out to be terrifying and scary just to get a funny reaction or b) actually have a serious sit down chat about it.

-When he is serious, he can give very good advice. We see this in canon anyway but I think it should be mentioned.

-A giant rap fan. Specifically, g-funk and west coast - so like 2Pac, 50 Cent etcetc if you catch my drift. He had THOSE embarrassing phases where he literally mourned the loss of those names as if he was around when the news dropped and acted like he personally knew them (bro wasn’t even born then.) (I did this too with pink floyd actually and it’s really embarrassing… good lord.)

-Plays ukelele. I know this is canon but I like to imagine him playing the spongebob soundtrack songs for fun and like he does it really well.

-Has a letterboxd account and has a long consecutive ranking of the best comedies in his opinion. His reviews are essay style analysis on where the movie shines in slap-stick, line delivery etc. It’s kind of pretentious but he even made a column in the school paper talking about what movies to watch that recently dropped in theatres and it was a success.

-I’ve talked about this before but he is an anime fan. Nothing can convince me otherwise. His favourites are shit like Berserk and One Piece though and he’s super pretentious about it at times. Iykyk he probably quoted the ‘can we get much higher?’ meme too many times. He and Stan rip on each other’s favourite shows.

-Obsessed with Skeptic’s hcs for him too so I’ll snag this one - he likes to put those wired lights around his crutches depending on occassion. It’s Christmas?? Christmas lights on crutches. Prom or graduation? those pure bright lights.

-24/7 on instagram reels and sends the most diabolical ones to the groupchat. He’s knee deep in meme culture and hops on the trends so yeah, he’s seen the minecraft movie and dressed in a suit to see minions: rise of gru.

-I think in the show we see him get attached easily so I think he can be insistent on the gang meeting up often and he’s definitely felt down in the dumps before because some people couldn’t make it to whatever gathering he had planned. In saying that, he would probably be one of the best at throwing parties and highschool reunions because he cares about having a great audience.

-Out of his friends, I think he’s closest to Tolkien, Clyde and Stan. He and Tolkien like to joke together and chat shit (they probably trust eachother the most in their friend group.) Clyde is just funny because Jimmy likes to screw with him since he takes everything he says at face value. He and Stan are both nerds except Jimmy is chill about it and Stan is just a loser - they like to talk about anime and video games.

-Still close friends with Timmy!!! They go to the gym together and complain about the lack of amenities together.

-Smooth with the ladies. Uses the right jokes and by the end of the night he’ll have a girl at the hip. Also if we’re gonna get into my AU that doesn’t exist except in my head hcs, then I like to believe he and Leslie met in their early 20s but at a journalism function and they hit it off. She was more stoic while Jimmy was more expressive so they complimented each other really well. But she lived in California so they stayed long distance and met up here and there for a couple of years but eventually broke up because neither of them were happy and it was costly trying to see eachother often.

-I believe he does go into journalism in the future but actually kickstarts his comedian career because he had many funny comic strips and columns that were a giant hit and people demanded more.

Okay that’s all for now. *yawns*

[nyc3]

hello I recently and after going through it I would like to ask some questions if that’s ok of course and sorry if you perhaps got one of theses questions before

1.what is your general opinion on Shigaraki cause I’m curious as a shiggy fan and just curious in general what other people who don’t like him as much or just in general don’t like him think of him

2. How would you write/rewrite shigaraki just in general or if nine was the main villian and Shigaraki was like a secondary villian and or maybe him joining up with nine

3. What do you think would have happened if nine found tenko

sorry if this ask comes off as annoying or rude I’m just general curious hope you having a good/night

Hello!

It's ok, I would try to answer the question the best I can as english isn't my first lenguage so sorry if you find errors here and there. So let's go:

1_ This may sound strange as my constant comments and critiques about Shigaraki may make look like I hate him, but isn't really the case.

I think is more he's a frustrating character to me because while on paper his concept is fine, I feel his presence ends up being detrimental to the quality of the story because the mangaka didn't know how kept Shigaraki relevant and his solution was artificially increase his status sacrificing other more interesting characters with potential just to elevate Shigaraki, especially Nine and Overhaul.

2_ Honestly I never thought on an in deep rewrite of Shigaraki overall character.

But If I have to say something he did works as a early antagonist considering the initial states of MHA and while I'm not fan of having a singular main villain (because in my ideal story multiple major villains should fight for the power) I think Shigaraki and Nine surely can coexist in the same story. They can even influence each other in fact.

After all an important part of Shigaraki as a character is how he develops a sense camaraderie and tries to became a better leader (even if there's a lot of problems with the execution if that idea in canon).

But Nine already had those qualities since the beginning, he's a good leader who always cared about his teamates and tried his best to protect them. He was a hero for them basically.

So why not make Nine a figure which inspires Shigaraki rather than his rival and Tomura attemps to became a better version of himself while looking what makes Nine a beloved leader, while at the same it time creates a contrast with AFO who was the only prominent figure on his life before.

It would also be funny if AFO didn't see coming how his two attempts of "successors" would became closer allies rather than rivals and join forces, eventually opposing him. Nine would never follow AFO selfish ideals, and he probably will fight to free Shigaraki from his control.

3_ This one is interesting, because I don't think Nine and Shigaraki have a big age difference in the first place.

Despite Nine got a more adult vibe he probably is at best middle 20s, which would make him 4-5 years older than Shigaraki in terms of canon age.

So in a scenario where Nine found Tenko after what happened to his family that day they both will still be kids.

But despite Nine seem to only care about people with stronger quirks and you can think "why he would care about a random kid in the streets?" I actually think Nine has this unconsious instict to protect others in a vulnerable situation regardless of their actual power. After all how he could guess people like Slice and Mummy were strong but he helped them anyway?

That being said I think Nine would do exactly the same for Tenko if he found him that day, extending a hand to him (metaphorically at least lol) and both would escape together while trying to survive on the cruel world of the streets as two orphans without any place to go.

Think about it as Nine being the big bro who tries to protect Tenko the best he can, because he knows Tenko can be a really strong person and both could take on the world someday. Of course Nine won't try to fuel Tenko's trauma unlike AFO, perhaps he will attempt to heal him and Tenko will recover a bit of his own selfless and sweet self with time.

While they grown together as a found family they eventually will meet Chimera, Slice and Mummy like Nine did in canon.

Idk how their lives should continue from there, but pretty sure all them will still fight for create the ideal world Nine always wanted for all of them.

So that's it, I tried my best to answer each question but probably I could've added a lot more but didn't want to make this too long either.

Perhaps one day I will do more post with ideas about how I would like the story to be. It's very fun write about Nine and Shigaraki actually.

Thank you for ask and read!

[houseofstarlight]

matchup for @lost-lonnie

MATCHED WITH SUGAWARA KOUSHI (^▽^)

if you would like a matchup for yourself, please read the guidelines here!

why i chose this character

“my personality has been known as a chaotic, exhilarating, fun mess, but i’m not always like that. my social battery runs out super fast”

— ➴ i headcanon suga as an ambivert, which sounds like your personality type as well, so he’ll match your personality

— ➴ we’ve all seen from the show that he has a good amount of energy, and since he teaches young kids post-timeskip, you know he needs to keep up with those little demonspawns

— ➴ however, i think suga is a very chill person; he’ll nearly always prefer staying in to going out, and he’s generally a pretty quiet guy when you guys are spending time together

— ➴ so all of this is to say that suga would be able to match your energy; he wouldn’t be too hyper, but he also wouldn’t be a total recluse

“i’m the type of friend who teases and makes fun of you! like, editing funny photos of you, never letting you forget something humiliating, and doing things to annoy you”

— ➴ may i introduce you to sugawara koushi, second biggest troll on the karasuno team, bested only by the one and only tanaka ryuunosuke?

— ➴ i think he genuinely finds it fun to tease and roast his friends; of course he’s very conscious about boundaries though

— ➴ but yeah he’s very similar to you in that sense, which is good cause you guys can understand each other in that way

“things i look for in a partner are someone humorous, patient with me, physically affectionate, good banter and taller than me lol”

— ➴ suga’s pretty funny ngl, what a troll he is

— ➴ with suga’s sense of humor and troll-ness will come teasing banter

— ➴ he’s definitely patient because he’s a kindergarten teacher post-timeskip, and like i said above—demonspawns.

— ➴ also suga is like 5’8 or something; not too tall but taller than you

headcanons

— ➴ i could actually see suga liking romance novels

— ➴ or like

— ➴ ya ☠️

— ➴ i think he doesn’t read a lot simply because when he comes home from work he usually doesn’t have the energy to

— ➴ but on the weekends especially, he likes to curl up with you in bed and read a few chapters; you guys could have your own little book club or something

— ➴ baking dates!! i don’t even know if it’s canon that suga likes to bake, but i always associate him with baking christmas cookies with mariah carey playing in the background

— ➴ also imagine dancing with him to christmas music while you’re waiting for the cookies to bake? soooo romantic

— ➴ suga is the mom friend for a reason; he takes great care of everyone around him and it would only be amplified tenfold with his significant other

— ➴ for example, if you take any medications, suga has them all memorized and always remembers to remind you about taking your medicine on time

— ➴ you guys are highkey the menace couple who just goes around trolling all your friends lmao

— ➴ they tremble to see you coming

— ➴ suga also loves naps! actually, it’s not so much naps as just sleeping. i’d imagine running after four year olds all day gets really exhausting, so when he comes home all he really wants to do is flop onto the couch and fall asleep right there

— ➴ suga is a fan of cuddling while you sleep; specifically, he’ll pull you into his arms so your head is on his chest and your legs tangle together (it’s super romantic cause you can listen to his heartbeat!)

— ➴ if you ever fall asleep randomly on the couch or something, i don’t think suga would be the type to carry you to the bed, since he’s afraid he’ll drop you or wake you up

— ➴ instead he’ll bring you all the soft blankets and tuck you in nice and warm to make sure you don’t get sick! it’s a lot like how he treats his students during nap time lol

other characters

— ➴ tanaka ryuunosuke

— ➴ oikawa tooru

a/n: hello! thank you so much for your request, and i hope you enjoyed your matchup 🫶

[punchouthottakes]

Dear everyone that likes Punch Out: YOU ARE NOT RACIST.

No matter how much over privileged youtubers who suck at the games, wanna say you are. Punch Out really isn't even that racist (at least not the wii version). It's literally just goofy stereotypes (which aren't always bad anyway??? Tropes are a writing tool and are meant to be expanded on anyway. It literally gives the fandom more power over the canon). Also, half the time, it's the white people who are getting made fun of. Like boohoo bitch, Aran Ryan's got red hair, womp womp.

Like this attitude is literally why this franchise has been dead for so long bruh

sorry anon but this is genuinely so fucking funny I can tell ur not a POC or you’re just someone whos really young. Won’t go too far about this topic but all I’ll say is, YES punch out has racist characters and is a racist game, but that doesn’t automatically make fans racist. HOWEVER, just because you simply acknowledge that the game is built on racist stereotypes, doesn’t automatically mean you’re NOT racist. It’s about how you go about these stereotypes, not just because “well everyone is a stereotype so it’s automatically okay!”

To answer anon, yes Punch Out does make fun of white people, but that doesn’t really automatically make it better to make fun of minorities. (Also even Irish and Italians weren’t considered “white” at some point in history, they were also treated as minorities. So the Aran Ryan point flops sorry anon)

The thing about goofy stereotypes not “always being bad”, anon you’re missing the point. While not all stereotypes are bad, that still doesn’t make stereotypes good either. (Example: Piston Honda is depicted as an honorable fighter yes, however he is still a parody on WWll Japanese soldiers and kamikaze fighters. In MTPO, he literally wears Japanese propaganda and speaks in broken English.)

Also to combat the whole “the game makes fun of white people”, it should be noted that Punch Out has pretty racist depictions of Asians and Black people. (I’m just gonna list some of them out like a speed run):

Dragon Chan has a pretty racist design, having very prominent buck teeth which is a common stereotype for Chinese people. He’s also conventionally the only boxer to use martial arts in his fighting style.

Great Tiger is pretty orientalist and is about as accurate to Indian culture as Aladdin is, mixing up Indian and Arab/Middle Eastern culture when they are separate cultures. (And before you mention his Wii depiction, yes that version is also pretty inaccurate. They literally gave him a flying magic carpet which is more of a Middle Eastern thing than Indian.)

Old art of MTPO depicted Mike Tyson as a racist caricature (yes he’s a bad person, but the point stands that an actual person was depicted in black face because of the time the game came out) Some also argue that Kid Quick’s design is also racist.

To conclude, I don’t think you’re a bad person for liking any of these characters. (Some of the characters I listed as being pretty racist stereotypes ARE actually my faves lol) But I think it’s important that people do acknowledge that Punch Out IS racist, and acting ignorant to it honestly makes you look worse than if you were actually racist. Like I said, if you acknowledge this and take the time to accurate depict these characters and their respective cultures, then you’re fine. At the end of the day, this is a silly boxing game with hot buff guys, who gaf.

posting this for future reference but please don’t send shit like this 🫶

[indieyuugure]

Hi, Indie! Sorry if I'm bothering you, but I need your help, so to speak. A few months ago, you posted a timeline of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles events, including the dates. I can't remember if it's from your standalone story or from TMNT 2012, or both. The thing is, I'm working on a TMNT 2012 fanfic, and I want to include the date on which such and such a thing takes place. For example: March 11, 2013, was the return of the Pulverizer.

I don't know if I'm making myself clear 😅.

P.S. A few days ago, I saw a video that Create 2 Glorify made about one of your episodes on my TV. I didn't realize my sister was also watching it. She asked me who made the art. I told her about you and your work, and she said that your art is unique and funny. I even gave him the link to your profile so he could see your work.

P.S. 2: A few weeks or a month ago, I sent you two messages: the first is the excitement about the new episode and that if it's traumatic, you'd pay for your fans' therapy; and the other... A bit demanding and strange, and I'm glad you didn't see it because I don't know if you'd respond a bit uncomfortably.

I wish you great success in your future work!

Nah you’re not bothering me! I’ve been pretty busy lately with back to back visits from out of town guests. It’s been incredibly fun, but uh…pretty exhausting 💀

Hm, I think I know what you’re referring to, though it doesn’t include specific dates. It’s just a timeline to figure out how long 2012 canonically depicts. Recently though I’ve fond some issues with it regarding specific contractions in the canon.

Here’s what I know: the Turtles’s birthday is probably in June or July-ish (cause the Chris Bradford sign actually has a date on it), the first Kraang Invasion is in wintertime-ish, there’s a month gap, between the first and second season.

Then the second Kraang invasion takes place in the winter again, there’s a 3 month time skip between the second and third season, they’re at the farm house for approximately 5 months.

There’s also this inexplicable screw up where Mikey thinks he’s 15 when in fact he’s almost 17, and then also there’s absolutely no way that they were in space for 6 months given the line up of certain episodes, so that means that Donnie screwed up his math and they’re actually in space for 18 months but Fugitoid was too nice to correct him or apparently give them a calendar.

but yeah that’s all the evidence I really have for everything, the rest of season 4 is probably like 4-6 months in length and season 5 is pretty much just miscellaneous stories with not much timeline references or connection.

Hopefully that helps you assemble your own timeline, that’s all I know.

P.S: Ha! That’s amazing! Small world I guess 🤣

P.S 2: Hm, that sounds familiar, I may have got it? If it was in the past few weeks though I was probably really busy cleaning and stuff (sorry about that) 💀 but anyway, yes this episode will be angsty and dark, and no I will not pay for your therapy cause I’m an evil ten-dollian-aire 😈

Not sure what “uncomfortable” question you’re talking about—I probably would have remembered an uncomfortable question (hence why anonymous questions are turned off now)—but it’s possible it got lost in the internet tubes, not sure 🤔

But anyway, hopefully that answers your questions, and thank you very much! I wish you luck too!

Good questions! :]

[glade-constellation]

I think I’m starting to realize that Nexus may be one of the most misunderstood characters in the show.

Am I a fan of Nexus? No, not really. I find him funny to watch because, besides EAPS Monty, he says the most out of pocket shit. Never know what to expect when he opens his mouth. But besides that, I just can’t find any interest in him.

That being said, I recently have been doing a deep dive of his character to prove a theory I had, which turned out to be partially canon in today’s episode. I didn’t think Nexus had the Ruin virus, I don’t think he ever had it. After watching one of the introductory episodes in EAPS, I started to theorize that Nexus became what he is purely because he is a Moon. I still think this is true, and was simply sped up by the harvesting of dark star power.

This might be a long post, so strap in.

So. Nexus. I don’t feel dramatic in saying he’s possibly one of the most hated TSAMS characters, or at least most of the fandom’s least favorite. A good bit of the fandom believed he was infected by the Ruin virus, or was just a victim of terrible story writing, because it just didn’t seem possible for him to go this far. Sure, he was deeply traumatized by Solar’s death on top of many other things, but that didn’t seem like it would turn him completely evil. I was also one of the people who believed the Infection theory, as shown by my many posts during Nexus’ corruption arc.

Funnily enough, it was Eclipse of all characters that changed my view of Nexus and who he is. During “Eclipse and Puppet meet the NEW SUN”, Eclipse makes a very big point in relating himself back to the original Moon. It’s something I remembered from Eclipse’s lore, but had never really sat down and thought over. I believe @/samoftheswamp had a post that I 100% agreed with. Eclipse has all the memories of the original Moon before the separation, but is only made up of the kill code and very small fragments of Moon coding-wise. Everything else about Eclipse in that regard was filled in by Sun. He then continued to tear apart his own coding to make Bloodmoon and Lunar. Despite all of this, due to his memories, Eclipse still very much considers himself to be the original Moon.

How does any of this relate to Nexus? Simple. The coding and memories. Despite Eclipse and Nexus being completely opposites in both of those things, Eclipse still falls in line with Moons far more than he does Suns. V4 Eclipse talks a lot about how much his old self, and even current self, acts so similar to Moons. Though he appears as a Sun, Eclipse is a Moon by emotional and psychological standards.

I would also like to point out that Solar specifically say the only reason he was different from most Eclipse’s was due to his Sun’s influence. Everything that happened to Eclipse also happened to Solar up until his Sun decided to try and help him. That means that Solar also falls under the Moon category.

Now that we’ve established who counts as a Moon, let’s get into why this is important. One thing every single Moon has had in common so far is their villain arc. Moon has had several mini ones, mostly influenced by other people. Eclipse was a villain up until very recently. Solar was almost a villain until his Sun stepped in. Killcode was a villain until his change of heart. Bloodmoon was just, a villain. Hell, even Cringe Dimension Moon went evil. And now we have Nexus.

Am I saying all Moons are destined to become villains? Yes, but no. I think all Moons have a possibility of becoming a villain, and it is their choice to be one or not. Every Moon we meet tends to go through some sort of catastrophic event that leads them to this choice. OG Moon was built with a kill code. Eclipse, Solar, KC, and Bloodmoon all were a piece of that kill code in some way, on top of other trauma in some cases. Nexus never had the kill code, but he’s been through several different instances of trauma. He literally woke up to the world under Eclipse’s rule. He also had to witness the death of someone he considered a brother in his very own arms. All of these characters have had an instance where they were able to choose between being good or evil. Solar shows that Eclipse didn’t have to be evil, his coding wasn’t fully controlling his actions. He chose to be a villain. Killcode was evil by design, but chose to become good, whereas Bloodmoon was accidentally created as a murderbot and chose to stay evil.

I really want to focus in on Eclipse and Solar real quick. A lot of these characters are antithesis of each other, but Eclipse and Solar are supposed to be the perfectly representation of “what if”. Solar’s whole existence shows that Eclipse chose the path he went on. Could he have been influenced by the kill code? Yeah, definitely. That’s totally an option. But Solar was just as corrupted by our understanding. The only reason he was able to become good was because someone stepped in. Someone treated him like a person and showed him a different way. Eclipse never had that, and ended up choosing the path of evil since that influence was never given to him.

All this to say, it is completely in character for Nexus to have chosen the path of a villain by his own volition. Moons have always been portrayed to have the ability to turn evil. It has never actually mattered what their coding is or what trauma they have been through, every Moon has had a moment where they have had to make a choice. Will they be a hero, or become the villain they were “destined” to be?

I do not think Nexus was of complete clear consciousness when making this decision. Not because of a virus or kill code, not even the dark star power he may have had a the time. It was simply his mental health. Eclipse and Solar are a perfect example of how mental health can completely change a character. Nexus’ entire life was made up of disaster after disaster, which he felt completely responsible for. When Solar died in his arms, it was his snapping point. He was standing on the edge, teetering between sanity and insanity. He felt as if his family abandoned him, on top of his already present self blame and hatred, and he fell. (It does not help that his family failed pretty spectacularly in helping him, but that is the reality of most situations like this. We as an audience were of sound mind when coming up with ways to help Nexus, but the Celestial family was not. They all had their own things to focus on, and couldn’t give Nexus the help he truly needed, despite them thinking they had. Hindsight is a bitch when it comes to scenarios such as this.)

I don’t like Nexus. The story they seem to be telling with his current character arc is the same as Bloodmoon’s, that some people just aren’t worth saving. I do not believe in this sentiment at all, and also believe Nexus could have been handled much better than he currently is. But I cannot deny that how he is acting is actually incredibly plausible. It is not out of character for him to have become what he currently is, even without outside influences. Him harvesting dark star power just happens to make his fall into insanity even more likely.

(I would like to add that none of what I just wrote was against the writers and/or actors in any way. This is a “forever” roleplay show made using VRChat on YouTube. I am in no way expecting greatness. I enjoy having Nexus and characters like EAPS Monty specifically because they play into my more out of pocket sense of humor. I would also like to reiterate that all of this is simply a theory, and how I view the characters of the show. You are completely allowed to have your own opinion! Also, if you read this whole post, thank you! Even if we don’t agree, I am grateful you put time into reading this extensive post.)

[mushynka]

I have a feeling that people think too much and care too much about some things—and they can't respect others' opinions. Yeah, it's not my first time on the internet, guys, but fr... why do people care so much about sh*t?

So, I was just minding my business and came across a topic about Wolverine. The topic was: Is Wolverine gay?

When I clicked on it, my reaction was like:

Fr, it was entertaining to read. I'm straight and asexual, and personally, I don't give a sh*t about a FICTIONAL character’s sexual orientation. In fandoms, people create different kinds of ships—some more, some less likable. That's cool. Do whatever you want. There are comics where Wolverine dates (even marries) men, and that’s cool too. I always thought he was canonically straight, but tbh... I'm starting to think he's bisexual. And if I say, yeah, Wolverine might be bi—good for him, that's just my opinion. You may kindly disagree with me here.

But the thing is—there was a f*cking war in the comments. And I’m not just talking about ultra-homophobic comments but also ultra-"gay" people acting like they own the entire X-Men franchise. I was laughing my ass off, fr. Why do people care so much? Dude, it's FICTION. Do what you want. If you don’t like a certain type of content—just skip it. It’s that easy.

Personally, I'm not a fan of trans-female Wolverine content, so I just don’t interact with it. But if I see a cool pic of a feminine version of Wolverine with interesting details, I think, Wow, that’s cool. I’m 100% sure people don’t like some of the stuff I enjoy—and that’s fine af because everyone is different.

Now, you might be thinking—why tf am I writing this? Well... I dunno. It’s just funny how we can almost k*ll each other over stuff like this. Yeah, I LOVE X-Men. Yeah, I LOVE Wolverine. I'm very sentimental about it.But at the end of the day... is it really worth hating each other over fiction?The world would be a lot prettier if people just respected each other, fr.

And this is why im thankfull for Tumbrl. People are so far the chilles here and I love it