#its taking a existing concept and going 'ok what would i do with this same concept'

[payaso-pop]

Oh yeah I'm doinng a little Danny Phantom rewrite for fun! I love the show, I just wanna see how I'd go about something because I dunno Ghost Boy story sounds fun

You can read my character ramblings under the cut 💖💖

Danny's been a bit hard, I just don't know what to do with him. He did go through quite a rewrite in my head too, I like him in the show and all I just think he's different to how I would have approached him. Teenage boy dies and comes back Different is such a interesting concept and I wanted to try that out. I'd definitely make the trans thing much more of a Thing, make it a Straight Up thing. I think his story would be mostly about finding out who he is, qhich is lowkey what the show's about. More religious imagery and talking though, lmao. He might get renamed altogether, he looks like a Quinn to me idk

Tucker's been the hardest to do something I have fun with because I never really connected with his character in the show. I see this Tucker as a bit of a obssessor, an otaku if you will. He's a shut in, really really good at video games (rythm and RPGs particularly), he listens to a lot of very different electronic music (buddy's not ready for puggnb, he'd love that stuff). If he's interested in something he'll learn everything about it and buy way too much merch (or make it if he has to, Sam planted a DIY worm in him). He has a lot of fictional crushes, most of the anime girls (and a few boys but he's still deeply in the closet here). His main fixation is technology, particularly computer parts and all the stuff involved with that. When he was little he was known for breaking calculators or whatever gadgets and devices he could because he liked to see how they were made. he later learned to disassemble them without breaking them lmao)

Sam's been the easiest, I understand her character the most tbh. I know a couple of people who are very invested in political and social movements and tbh making her a little too focused on that stuff is interesting (and. Potentially funny). Maybe she takes things too seriously, and ends ip getting herself in trouble. Would focus a lot on her relationship with her family (her mom, specifically). She's super super diy, most of her clothes are thrifted. she has the money for new stuff but refuses (or can't for the most part. She does spend her money on music and has a very impressive CD catalog. She would dilute her style a lot more around her family because as much as she's a punk queen, she doesn't want to hear her family's comments on her clothing and her messy makeup. Sticks and stones and all that but it does hurt to hear someone you're close to negatively comment on something you care about

[left-in-latin-is-sinister]

I think I've realized why there was such a fundamental difference in how Tom perceived Amanda's relationship with Clarissa as the creator of the character (attracted to her but overall not too bothered when she only wanted to be with Mark) and the general fandom perception (she is deeply in love with Clarissa).

It comes down to the way that queer attraction is or is not typically expressed in queer-straight female friendships (or at least, friendships where someone is presumed straight).

(This may well also be true for male friendships, but I wouldn't know enough to speak on that, and also it's irrelevant to this ship.)

For this analysis, I'm going with the idea that either Clarissa is straight or she hasn't explored or shared her non-straightness, due to the way she never once expresses interest in women, and seems very oblivious to Amanda's attraction.

Ok! On to the crux of the issue:

For the most part, homophobia and its effects either don't exist or are very toned down in SFTH plays. And that's for good reason - a comedy show where you're trying to get general audiences to have a good time isn't the best place to seriously explore that topic, and (mostly) straight and cis men probably aren't the best people to tackle it either. So when Tom as Amanda is hitting on Clarissa, he's doing that without worrying about homophobic or similarly negative reactions, because he knows his scene partners won't take the story in that direction, and he wants to portray a corner of the world where that just isn't an issue.

But us as fans are contextualizing what we see in the play from what we know of real life. And so so often, if you're just passively attracted to a straight close friend, especially a best friend since childhood, you won't mention it for fear of changing the dynamics of the friendship, or at worst, having it ruined entirely. There's the risk of true homophobia if you haven't talked about LGBT people (particularly lesbians) enough to know the straight friend's true feelings on them. And there's some people who are totally okay with the concept of gay people, but when someone close to them is attracted to them, suddenly it's gross, and it unearths some deep-rooted homophobia. Even if you think that's an unlikely outcome, just the chance of it is enough to make many people think twice. And then even if you know your friend is 100% not homophobic, there's the risk that knowing one of the people closest to them is attracted to them will still make them less comfortable around you in some ways. Female best-friendships tend to be super close, and bringing one-sided attraction into it has the genuine potential to destabilize it by making certain things, like physical contact, sleepovers, changing in the same room, etc, suddenly seem take on a different layer of meaning once the feelings are out in the open.

So, keeping in mind that risk, for many people, the only thing that would cause them to hit on their best friend as consistently and enthusiastically as Amanda does to Clarissa is being so in love with them that they decide that they want or need to express that. Maybe it's killing them to hide it any longer, or they want to take the chance at a relationship, however small, because if it works the reward would be worth everything. If the attraction wasn't that serious, many people just wouldn't take the risk, or would feel that it wasn't even worth mentioning.

(Disclaimer: of course this isn't always true. There are definitely straight friends who make it clear that this kind of thing 100% would not bother them, or queer friends who are forward enough to take the risk anyway, or friendships where quite intense flirting is the norm. But I'm talking about the statistically common experience, and the experience that so many queer coming of age stories have used as a trope, etc.)

So when the audience, many of them queer, see this portrayal, they're bringing their own experiences as well as the common tropes of the queer experience as context. And that leads them to believe that Amanda is 100% in love with Clarissa, no matter how much she downplays it, or how Tom says that it wasn't his intention with the portrayal of the character.

[frickfatphobes]

This might sound weird but would you say that simply not wanting to exercise it get in shape because it doesn't make you feel good is valid for a very big girl like me (like around 450lbs)?

I've honestly found that my body feels best when I limit how much I move throughout the day. Some may say that the limitations I have on my mobility are a bad thing but honestly as I've put on weight over the past decade but especially since COVID, I haven't really noticed them that much, I've found ways of adapting to my bodies needs such as having a rolling stool so I don't have to stand or walk to do most housework. Despite all that however, I've tried exercising to at least get my mobility up a little and though it did improve some it always came at the cost of making me feel stressed about continuing to exercise and the constant soreness

I guess I'm just a bit lost, I'm honestly ok with my body currently but I just feel a constant pressure from society and even my own family that it's not ok.

Thank you so much for this ask. I want to say upfront that I'm not a doctor, so please don't take what I say as gospel. I can and do make mistakes. However, I have done a lot of research about these kinds of things, so I'll try my best to formulate a response that I hope will bring you clarity.

"Not wanting to exercise to get in shape" is not a moral failing. Getting into shape or becoming thinner is not something you owe anyone. If you want to make healthy choices (many of which will very likely not make you thinner, because health is a nuanced concept that people don’t fully understand), that's completely up to you.

What many people don't know, is the majority of cardiovascular health benefits cap out at twenty minutes of exercise per day. These minutes simply need to raise your heart rate, and they don't even need to be consecutive.

THAT BEING SAID, if exercise still hurts or makes you very uncomfortable, that means there is a detriment to exercise as well. Is it worth getting daily exercise if it means enduring pain or sensory issues every day? It will depend on the person.

When it comes down to it, intentional weight loss is generally much more harmful to your health than just trying to treat your body well without changing its shape. Getting thinner will be much more detrimental in the long term than letting your body be large in the first place. (See the @bigfatscience blog for more of the medical and scientific side of this.)

When I felt pressured to lose weight, I hated exercise of any kind. It was like torture. At least for me, until I stopped treating exercise as an "I have to," I never wanted to do it. I would say, using similar principles as intuitive eating, don't feel forced to exercise or change your body shape, especially if for the most part, you're okay or happy with your body. If you heal your relationship with exercise down the road and change your mind, great. If you don’t, great. Exercise should not be used as a self-torture method for heavier people.

Your body deserves the same love and respect as any thin or "in-shape" body. Making accommodations for oneself is something I will always be happy to hear someone do. And no, you didn’t “let yourself go” because you decided it wasn’t worth being in pain. Please ignore the societal pressures. You should never ever feel like you have to change because strangers don't like something about you, especially since it isn't hurting them. And if your family is pressuring you? Ignore their pressures tenfold. I became atypically anorexic because my mom wanted a thin daughter. If you don't feel like it will make you happy, there is absolutely no reason you should feel like you have to do it.

TLDR: Ignore anyone who thinks they should be allowed to judge or pressure you, do what makes you feel safe and comfortable and happy, and know that you don't exist on this planet to feel unsatisfied with your body until you leave it.

Thank you so much for the ask. I hope you find more peace and safety in your body as it is. You deserve to feel happy without changing first. <3

[signanothername]

penny for your thoughts on dadmare and more fandom takes??

🪙

Tbh Anon you have to be a bit more specific with what fandom takes you want my opinion on cause I genuinely can’t think of any shshhshshs

But for dadmare… hmmmmmmm

It’s… I have complicated feelings about this trope

Like on one hand, I love the exploration of dadmare as a concept and would genuinely love for it to be explored in a deep meaningful way

On the other hand… the fandom never actually explores it in a deep meaningful way so everytime I come across dadmare a part of me dies inside

Like the fandom immediately settles for “tired generic dad trying to control his rowdy kids” and i’m here like :’)

Like i’d love for dadmare to actually be explored in depth, like the shift for Nightmare from being a bitch to being “dadmare” how does Nightmare deal with MTT in a dadmare way while staying true to his character

How did Nightmare develop and change and how does he feel about being “dadmare”, does he struggle to face the consequences of the abuse he put MTT through and how does he make it up to them? but like also for the love of god you can explore this trope without having MTT act like children, they’re literally +30 old men and you don’t have to infantilize them for the trope to work

Also hot take but everytime MTT call Nightmare “dad” unironically an angel loses its wings, it just ruins the vibes for me, like dadmare is a trope yet people genuinely take it too literally, which again just plays into the infantilization of adult characters

Hell, relationships aren’t one sided, how does MTT feel about Nightmare’s shift, do they trust him or do they take it as an opportunity to escape, do they hate Nightmare but warm up to him or do they not care for his change of heart

Like here’s an example, when people write dadmare, they write his ability to absorb MTT’s negativity to relieve them of their pain right? Ok cool, I LOVE THAT! What I hate tho is the fact every single person in the gang seems to “trust” Nightmare with their life and how all of them react the same way

Basically the MTT are reduced to cardboard cutouts that are literally just duplicates of each other, they all have the exact same reaction to anything Nightmare does, like you’re actually gonna sit here and tell me that Killer trusts Nightmare with his soul????? What did Nightmare do to earn that trust, and Killer isn’t a trusting person to begin with

Hell what did Nightmare do in the first place? Even when the interpretation of Nightmare is that he’s kind from the beginning and that he “saved them”, do you honestly believe that Murder would genuinely feel saved? Are you gonna tell me Horror is gonna stay and live with Nightmare by his own volition and abandon his brother where he only goes back to “visit” him? Since when has Nightmare become more important to Horror than Papyrus?

Hell since when can Murder, Killer and Horror communicate well?? Since when were they super close to each other and since when was Murder ok with Killer’s existence considering his very dangerous Determination and Chara-like nature?

Since when was Killer super emotional in stage 2 and since when was his other stages completely forgotten to fit the perfectly happy and healthy family that the fandom is trying to force onto these obviously unhealthy characters with unhealthy relationships and destructive behaviors

Like don’t get me wrong, people are obviously allowed to explore their fave characters however they like, but my point is, I can’t enjoy the trope of Dadmare even tho i want to, cause the fandom just settles for very straight forward answers to every problem, every little problem is immediately resolved with a snap of a finger

Everything is happy and rainbows and roses and any problems the MTT have they just go to dadmare and suddenly they’re no longer self destructive cause dadmare immediately saves them cause he always has the answer!!!

And i’m here still waiting for an interpretation of dadmare that actually pulls me in and actually interests me like

[honey-bee05]

TWST Stranded Alien AU

Okay this may be a bit convoluted, but I’ve had this idea living rent free in my head for a while now and I had to write it down.

So, we know how Twisted Wonderland is a different dimension/ planet from the one Yuu is from, right? I’ve always thought how convenient it was that Yuu is the same as the humans of twst (minus the magic part), spoke the same language, eats the same foods, etc. But what if that wasn’t the case?

What if instead of Twisted Wonderland being just a magical version of Earth, it was well and truly a different planet. Here’s a bit of a brain dump of things that I think would be different:

-Twst humans aren’t biologically the same as Earth humans.

Sure, they look similar, but there are some glaring differences. I like to think that Yuu would give the twst humans sort of an “uncanny valley” feeling, and vice versa. Like maybe the twst humans’ skin is weirdly texturless/ too smooth, or Yuu’s facial expressions are really exaggerated in comparison. I want Yuu to really feel like an alien in comparison. It might also be neat if only humans could easily tell the difference, so Faye and Merpeople and the like may not be able to tell at first.

I also imagine this would extend to things like Yuu having a blood type no one else in twst has (heck, maybe blood types don’t even exist there). Maybe they’re allergic to certain common foods or able to digest things that are poisonous to most twst humans. I could write about this part for days, but I’ll leave it here for now.

-Different Language and Culture

If you were to suddenly find yourself on an entirely different planet, what are the odds that you would speak the same language as the people living there? Pretty much 0, in my opinion. I think an untranslatable language barrier could be a really fun obstacle to play around with, and would add an extra layer of difficulty and frustration to the whole situation. 

I’ve also read a lot of fics where Yuu/ reader tries to navigate cultural differences between them and the non-humans of twst, but what if that were extended to the whole cast? I imagine that because of magic, the evolution of life on Twisted Wonderland happened in an entirely different way than it did on Earth, which would lead to a unique culture for its civilizations.

-The Geography/ Planet Itself is Different

Not sure why, but I’ve always had the headcannon that Twisted Wonderland is significantly smaller than Earth. I know we haven’t seen much of the world map yet, but I imagine what we do have is about ½ to ⅓ the size of the whole planet (Forgive me if I’m wrong, I haven’t finished reading the last chapter or hardly any of the vignettes yet). With that being said, gravity would be much lighter than that of Earth’s which could lead to some funky consequences. 

I also think that the weather would be different, and in my opinion, less extreme. I remember in the masquerade event, when Malleus caused an earthquake after finding out Rollo duped him, the cast was pretty shocked (yes, at the fact Malleus caused it, but it also seemed like they were surprised by an earthquake in general), even though it was quite a light one with little to no real damage done. Natural disasters aren’t really that uncommon in our world, and are often bad enough to take tens to hundreds of lives and cause millions in damages. I mean hell, we even have “tornado/ hurricane season” it's so common. 

-Morality and the Concept of Good vs Evil

Ok this kind of ties in with the culture thing, but I felt it deserved its own category. I think that the difference in how civilization came to be would vastly alter what people think is and isn’t ok. We know that physical/ magical strength is a huge factor in determining class/ hierarchy in twst society, so there might be more of a “survival of the fittest” mentality going on. It’s also interesting to think how having multiple sapient species, as opposed to Earth’s one, would affect things.

These are just some thoughts I’ve had for a while. I love world building so much, I’d be absolutely delighted to write more about this if anyones interested. Also, if you have anything to expand on this, please tell me! I’d love to bounce ideas off one another :D 

Anyways, hope y’all have a great day!

[valenishere]

Hello, I just read your post for the Imposter Au for Sagau involving a certain...beast from DnD, and I have to say I adore the idea, I may not wish to write for Imposter AU but I do enjoy browsing it and your is a wonderful concept.

I have heard the fan song made about that creature's lullaby enough times to picture that haunting melody playing as it hunts down anyone that dares intrude in its domain, steadily growing in power more and more as it feasts and grows.

Imagine it devours one of the Archons, their guard let down for just the most minute of instances as they feel something is wrong, and gains their powers, and with it a taste for their powers, one by one the nations fall into chaos as the False Hydra grows in power, a lullaby echoing across Teyvat.

Until at last it is called to aid its master in deposing the Imposter and throwing the world into chaos. Then and only then does the song fade, as sky scraper sized necks and heads turn towards Celestia, soulless pits for eyes meeting horrified gazes of the Celestial Gods as countless mouths stretch into grins.

At least that is the image that comes to my mind, I apologize if it is a mess but I am quite tired at the moment lol.

That said, stay safe and take care.

Sagau Idea prt2, prt 1.

[oooohhh ok this just gave me an idea (sorry for replying so sooo late)

Read the first part for more context. A bit of a uhh messy context but it works trust. As usual this will not be proofread and will very likely have very bad grammar. An attempt to write semi okay was made here. Also uhh poor attempt at writing smth great i dunno im kronked out

Mentions of injury, implied murders, blood, and implied cult

By now, you've probably figured out, Falseh is in fact, the homebrew monster, the False Hydra. Sings songs that makes people forget it exists and once it eats people, the eaten are forgotten completely too. Like they never existed in the first place.

In the first part, you(the hunted imposter) made Falseh to try and save yourself from getting killed. And it worked! Maybe a little too well. Because after getting a proper meal for the first time in almost a year now, right in the middle of the city of Liyue, AND getting a peaceful bath, your mind turned. And it turned.

And it didn't go to a nice place. How could it?

After having the fear of being impaled engrained into your mind not even an hour of arriving here, months of torture from sleepless nights, paranoia, and starvation, months of being subjected to unbridled hate from the people you loved, the very same people who wishes for your death from the bottom of their heart, and who caused you unbelievable amounts of grief and loss?

You don't want to think anymore. You can't.

They killed your characters. Your beloved characters.

With your last child... you want to find out just how far you can really go.

It was almost laughable how easy it was to get to the palace. That overextravagant palace built in the horizon. So big and shiny. And so out of place. Something that clearly shouldn't even exist at all.

The hailed "Creator" lounges atop their grand throne, rows upon rows of servants waiting at their beck and call. The face they claimed as their own shows naught but satisfaction. They have found a new way to expand their army. After watching what that imposter keeps doing, they thought, why not make their own?

It was brilliant! With twice the amount of pursuers, not even that elusive imposter would escape for long. They've already been informed by the Tianquan herself that the imposter is close to their grasps, and that it won't be long before their head is presented before the throne. Oh they just can't wait. Once that pest is gone, they'll finally be the one and only True God.

However, their thoughts of victory was quickly interrupted by shouts rights outside of the throne room. They click their tongue in irritation.

Which blithering fool dares make a ruckus in the All Creators domain!?

It's you.

You're the one causing a ruckus.

But to think that they'd make this much fuss just because they noticed you for the first time since walking inside. Although to be fair, they probably just thought that no one would just dare to waltz in into THE Creators castle, even if it is unguarded at the front.

Just being in this place grates your nerves. The sparkly hallways, the tacky extravagant furniture and drapes, the vibe, everything. You hate this place just looking at it from the outside, and ever since coming inside, you hate it even more. But you can tell that Falseh is very happy, so you suppose there's that.

He's been having lots of snacks starting from the gates after all.

The way that the guards immediately point their weapons at you to attack, only to disappear the next second makes you laugh a little every time.

And it's extra funny because the people beside them never reacted to their companions disappearing in the blink of an eye. Because to them, there was never anyone beside them in the first place.

You almost feel bad. You think you recognize some of those people. Brightly colored individuals. A flash of dark blue, someone with big ears, some reds, and... some other colors. But you honestly can't care less. You can't tell them apart anymore after all. They all just look... faceless to you.

It isn't long before all sounds ceased, and the creator leaned back against their chair.

The hailed "Creator" lounges atop their grand throne, rows upon rows of servants waiting at their beck and call. The face they claimed as their own shows naught but satisfaction. They have found a new way to expand their army. After watching what that imposter keeps doing, they thought, why not make their own? They could use them as guardsmen to their castle as well! It's brilliant!

However, their thoughts of victory was quickly interrupted as the door to the throne room was thrown open with a loud bang. They click their tongue in irritation.

Which blithering fool dares make a ruckus in the All Creators domain!?

It's you.

You're the one who caused the ruckus.

You took slow steps into the room, surveying your surroundings with disinterest.

'God... just when I thought I couldn't hate this place anymore than I do. I get shown this.'

You recognize some of them this time. The strongest ç̷̼̱̮̔͗̅̿ḩ̵̱̖̪͊̇̀̂͆̄̕a̴͔͎̜͔̾ř̴̡̬̤̱̝̗͚́̽̊͑a̷̦̥̩͈͋̑̾̈́̅̑͑c̴̳͓͕̲̓̔̊͝͠͠t̸̡̧̤̘͓͍͍̎̆̃e̸̢̨͓̾̃̊̃̀̏ŗ̷̮̰̂͐͋̋͝s̵̨̛̩͈͚̹͊̏̚ ý̸̹̦̻̘̱̉̍o̶̧̡̧̧̟̪̺͙͙͓̦̺͈̥̞̠͖͍̣͕͌̓̇̍̈́̀̒́̃̓̔̅̉̇̄̾͆̽̆̾̓͒͂̑̃͌̚͘͘͜͠͝͠ũ̷̟̞̤͚̪̰͚̥̰͇̍̏͐̽̄͛̂͛́̌̓͗̂̽̅̆̄̄̽̿̚͘̕͝ ̶̡̛̫͙̣̗̰͚͍̟̠̟̳̤͕̖͎͎̮͔͍̉͌̇̆̔̿̎̅̇͒͛̐͗̊̋͊́͑̓͊͜͜͝͠b̶̡̢̡̛͖̮͇͓̮̲̘̹͓͈̞̤̻̭̬̻̱̬̗̩͈̤̖̗͖̈́̅͊͌̊̄̂̋̑̓͆̓̈́̈́̈́͊̿̓͛̏͌͐̇̋͆̊̌͘̚͘͠͠͠ú̵̢̝̟͚̥̭̭͚̮͉̟̤̫͇̻̩͓̫̎̌í̴͂̾͗̎͊́̎̉̒͋͛̕͝��̨̛͈͙̥̯̟̖̥̤͎̫͙͉̟̟̫̝̘͚͎̓̋̓̍̈́̇͑̓̓̀̌̇̏̾͝͝ḽ̴̢̡̢̢̲̞͎͕̙͈̝̪̭͓̞̪̼̝̜̈́ţ̸̡̡̛̳͓̭̺͔̠̘͎̲̘̠̺͈̖͓̙̬̤͍̞̦̱͇̞̒̀̿̊͌͒̀̐́̑͂̌͛̄͋̌̎̐̋̾̅̾̇̓̋͘̕̚͜͜͠ people you know, waiting at the feet of someone who'd toss them aside at a heartbeat.

They truly do look pathetic.

Like unloved dogs who has given their undying loyalty to the first scoundrel who tossed them some maggot infested scraps.

They're just painful to̸̡̡̨̝̺̹̫̤̠̼͔͓͓͒̔̾̂̐̃̿͒͆̔̈̆̕͠ l̶̢̨̛̥͎̹̣͕͍͉̱̭̫͈̜̮̪̞̖̞͒̉́̂̊̿̌̑̌̒͑̍̓̅͠͠o̵̧̡̡̝̲͕͚̲̟̞̭̣͎̓̽̓̈́̓͆̓͠o̸͇̍͆͋̕͜k̶̰̩̙̰̩͔͙̽͆́̋͊̓̈͊̀͋̒̑̇̔̊̿͝͝ͅ a̶̢̧̨͈͚̱̙̦̬̺̜̫̮̬͔̖̙͔̖̥̤̥̎͒͑͌͐̍͛́̊̒̈́̏̀̆͒̾̎̈́̐̆́͘͝͠ͅţ̷̢͉̯̯͍̹̩̬͇͓̮̦̯̣̪̺̝̳̹̪̗͔̞̈́̋̍͛̑͌́̂̉͋͛̇̿̓͋͌̃̈́͘͝.

The hailed "Creator" lounges atop their grand throne, the face they claimed as their own showing naught but irritation, their eyes narrowed at the figure standing in the middle of their throne room. There may be no one with them at the moment, but this dirty peasant has the gall to stand before the True God without prostrating themselves!? How utterly despicable!

Who does this blithering fool think they are!?

"Wha̵̢̧̨̛̛̘̤̼͚̪̩̘̯̥̬̞͚̰̼͚̱̘͖̗̍͛͛̿̂̒́͆̑̕̕͝t̴̨̨̨̧̛̪̠̪̲̼̜͖͚͉̤̠̳̰̼͙͙̗͍̰͕͖͔̲̼̖̭̳̮̼̤́̐̀̉̓́̀̆̀̃͂͆̔͆̈̃̋̿́́̿̐́̈́̎̐͘̚̕͘͜͠ͅ-̵̡͈̠̲̳͚̠͎̣̙̙̱̣̟̪͙̪̙̺͇̍̈́̋̔̐͗͗̋̅́͒́̐́̈́̊̔̉͑̀̔̉͆̇̂̅̈̿͌́̆̋̇͂́̿͊̀̓͒̕͜͝-̵̧̧̧̨̛̤͔̯̹͔͇̲̮̙̮̦͕̟̗͚̣̫̪͙͉̟̦͓̫̪̬̜̥͈̭͚̼͎̥̪̼̝̯͎̋͊̂̄̍̂́́̆̋̐͑́̍͑̀͗́̌͗̓̅̽̇͆͒͋́̆̈́̎̆͌̎̕͜͜͝͝͝͝"̸̧̢̛̻͚̗̱͇͍͙͎͔͇̰̗̠̑̓͛̀́̀͗̈̓̇̂̌̃͋͘͜͝͝

The Creator's throne glitters within the light of the throne room, barren and standing tall, awaiting its rightful owner.

A lone figure stood in the middle of the room, looking up at the grand throne with disinterested eyes.

It's you.

You stood there.

You stood in the middle of the empty grandiose throne room, feeling your skin crawl just standing in the presence of such a... symbol of error. A symbol of oppression.

And you know that the longer you stay in here, the more you'd want to keel over and hurl.

So you turn around, walking away from the empty seat.

And you know.

The song has stopped.

And you hear it. All of it.

Bones snapping. Breaking. Flesh, tearing. Squelching as it is bitten through.

Hell you can smell it pretty clearly too.

All around you, you see. Pools of blood. Bloodied weapons with no owners to be found. Dismembered limbs scattered across the floor, which was soon snapped up by tendrils of flesh, teeth grinning as it chews on its food.

The cacophony of grotesque sounds, sight, and smells is most definitely disgusting.

Although oddly enough, it's also somehow comforting.

As you leave, a listless hum leaves your lips, the song that has stuck to your head after being sung in your ears for quite a while now. A few words slips out.

"--... Dulcis puer~... dulcis puer~..."

.

.

.

.

.

.

You stroll across the city, refreshed and with a skip in your step. People looks at you and found themselves smiling as well.

"My isn't that one a jolly fellow."

"They must've had quite a great adventure then."

"Oh for sure! Just look at how happy they look!"

Oh and you sure are. It has been weeks since then, and you still see remnants like statues and temples and shit, but no one has mentioned anything about a higher all true god for so long.

You were a bit worried about the technicalities of Falseh's power, but it seems you have done it. No one is no longer hunting you, the artificial life that were created by them were promptly cleaned up by your kid, and no one remembers anything about them ever existing anymore.

You can go the city, eat wherever you want, talk to whomever you want, without fearing for your life. You still kept your face hidden and adjusted your voice when interacting with people, but as you know, habits die hard.

You have never felt so relieved. Relaxed.

It's finally over. Now you can--

What's that giant float?

You approach one of the workers, looking up at the... extravagant float. Just looking at it is... making your skin crawl.

"Uh, hello. Is there-- is-- is there a festival coming? Looks... lo--looks pretty big."

The worker laughs, patting your shoulder roughly. "No need to be nervous my friend! It is the time for great joy after all!"

You laugh awkwardly, wincing. "And-- and remind me again-- for-- For what? Exact--Exactly?"

"Why, for the celebration of course! Where we pray for blessings and offer up tributes to our one and only God!"

You blink at him, dumbfounded. "... to Morax?"

He laughs again, like you've told the greatest joke. "While we do have celebrations like these for Rex Lapis as well, this is different! This is the day of our reverence to the True God, the Creator! Surely you have a day like this in your country too--"

You felt your stomach drop.

Oh no.

Oh no.

[rassicas]

If a future Splatoon game absolutely HAD to add another playable species (even though it's really not all that necessary) which would you like to see most?

a new species would have to be... -capable of naturally producing ink. weve seen some other species capable of producing "ink" (salmonids, i dont think its literally squid ink but its functionally the same. big man can, but its his toxins and implied to be a special ability for his family and not something rays can normally do. idk what the deal is with master mega and the eels) -have thin skin that lets them shapeshift between 2 forms. we see salmonids and big man dive in ink, and sheldon can hide in his shell but this inky transformation is exclusive to inklings and octolings so far, as they have evolved to be ink based, and have thin skin that allows for this transformation. the evolutionary trade off to this is that they can't go in water because of this thin skin. this is why shapeshifting salmonlings literally cannot exist btw -capable of respawning. splatoon team has been consistent about this being something ONLY the ink-based inklings and octolings can do. when big man and the smallfry "die" they do not explode nor do we see a ghost (in contrast, frye and shiver do die and respawn) . it seems that being truly ink based is what allows for respawning.

-would have to have the same abilities as octolings and inklings, and basically be a reskin of them for the sake of gear. in-universe other species CAN play turf war or ranked, but considering respawning is something limited to inkfish, other species cannot inkily transform, and are fine with water, i'm sure theres some modifications to the rules. like this is fine in-universe, but to splatoon as a game? this sounds like a nightmare. especially if this new species has different abilities than the inklings and octolings? if species choice is no longer fun and cosmetic, but something to consider for meta, thats horrible! btw they wouldnt even put the suckers on the topside of the tentacles for the octolings in swim form despite it being like that in concept art, and it being inconsistent with the humanoid forms. also the tentacle lengths are inconsistent with the enemy octolings. im convinced they made these choices so the swim form wouldnt stand out too strongly against the inklings. so in what universe would we get something like. a playable fishling. lol taking established lore into account as well as gameplay, cuttlefish, another ink-producing cephalopod, are quite literally the only new species id be ok with. keyword "ok with" i dont want a new playable, i just want more customization options for the guys we have

[maxdibert]

Maybe unpopular opinion but I hate the metaphor that blood supremacy = white supremacy, as a poc.

There are character of color in the story so while racism hasn’t been talked about in the movies/books, it would makes sense for racism to already exist since mysoginy does.

Also, do Snape haters realize calling him a racist is implying he is supposed to represent a biracial man with self-hatred, bullied by a bunch of rich white kids who think they are superior to him?… And therefore a victim?

The concept of blood supremacy within the wizarding world makes perfect sense, obviously it’s inspired from real life discriminations but it can also stand on its own.

It's clearly established that race is not an issue of discrimination in the magical world and that no one gives it importance (which I find quite absurd considering that the place is full of muggle-borns, and I don't buy that kids raised in the Muggle world wouldn't have the typical prejudices of that world, BUT OK), and that in fact, only pure-blood wizards care about blood status. And pure-blood wizards are a SOCIAL MINORITY because the vast majority of the population is made up of half-bloods, followed by muggle-borns. Pure-bloods are becoming fewer and fewer, and in fact, it is the proliferation of mixed heritage that bothers them, because it pushes them into a position where they feel cornered and unable to preserve their ideas as freely as they would like.

That said, the comparison with racial issues is absurd because we know that racial discrimination is something visible, people are directly discriminated against because you can tell their race. But it’s not just that; racial discrimination historically and materially involves the relegation of non-white people to political objects, not subjects. Colonialism, imperialism, and slavery have existed. Basic rights — as basic as being considered a SUBJECT rather than an OBJECT — have been denied to them. They have been denied access to property, to education, and to active institutional participation. They’ve been excluded from the labor market, subjected to segregation and apartheid policies.

I mean, until Voldemort shows up, LITERALLY no muggle-born had this problem. They are all registered for school at birth, they all go under the same conditions, they all study with the other students, take the same classes, have the same opportunities for entering the workforce and becoming part of society, and they can marry half-bloods and pure-bloods. So, there’s absolutely no comparison that can be made to historically racialized people, they don’t suffer from any of the historical and social repressions that have occurred in imperialist contexts, it’s just not the case.

Yes, Voldemort shows up and starts messing with them, but until then, THERE IS NO DIFFERENTIAL SOCIALIZATION, IT DOESN’T EXIST. And what happens with Voldemort is during the war, so even the mere comparison strikes me as deeply insulting, and above all, it's not politically, sociologically, or historically accurate. It just isn’t.

[batw1nggg]

hi. im here to kamukoma ramble. ok so i reeaaly hate how all kamumeshi Fan Content (which is basically all kamukoma content) waters down izuru to being the dominant one and servant to being his cute little dog like i feel like its so much more complex then that.

izuru was created to be subservient, to be smart enough to see through manipulation tactics and yet not care enough about himself to do anything to stop them, always doing something to serve someone else’s interests - and even when he does do one thing in his own interest (the killing game), it was largely because of his obsession with junko, so we see her still pulling the strings on him from beyond the grave (emphasized by his convo with her in his udg cameo). he doesn’t have power and he’s been designed not to want it. he’s been robbed of his humanity over and over again and been taught to accept it. he even explicitly states all of this in talent dev plan with taka

komaeda, on the other hand, is always framed with such heavy control over the narrative - he heavily influences dr2’s ending and takes that same puppeteering role in udg too. although he has that inferiority complex, he still holds so much power over everyone else, manipulating them like chess pieces. he is just as dangerous as izuru is, considering he has not only the intelligence but the motivation to act out like this, something izuru lacks.

and so this creates a really cool complexity where servant believes he’s meant to be subservient to izuru but this may not be wholly reflected in the way he acts, and izuru most definitely does not care for/about controlling servant. and, if izuru does take a domineering role, it’s because that’s what servant wants (especially after junko’s death, when he has no one left to place himself beneath), and so izuru’s still letting himself go with whoever the people surrounding him want him to be. he’s not with servant for the power trip, that goes completely against everything he’s ever been - because, in reality, IZURU is the one who exists to serve. to serve his creators, and then junko afterwards, even after her death. his purpose has always been assigned to him, not created by him.

both characters are fucked up and morally grey. both characters are the man, both characters are the god.

this is what i wish people would focus more on when writing their general character development and the development of their relationship. because they barely get any screen time you get lots of creative freedom and you can take this concept in either a “they are going to heal and get better together” route or a “they are doomed to always hurt each other in their codependency” route or some weird thing in between; again, personal preference, and if you want to keep izuru and hajime separate postgame this opens a whole new plethora of dynamics and development to write about after komaeda becomes himself again. the flexibility of their dynamic is whats so intriguing to me - kamukoma is a very complex and fluid idea that i wish more people would mess around with like this join me and we can play with them like putty

[oneatlatime]

The Guru

Happy 2024 everyone and welcome to the first time I managed to type 2024 without first typing 2023! Oh and also a write up of The Guru. That too.

Me too Iroh. Me too.

So Zuko is riding high on that post-crisis 'time to get my life together' buzz that, similar to 3 am life plans, should absolutely not be listened to. Wonder how long before he crashes and burns? There's literally 2 episodes left, so I'm guessing one and a half?

Poor Sokka. My boy's got anxiety.

I don't know if it's a monk thing, an airbender thing, an Avatar thing, or an Aang thing, but I envy his complete lack of nerves.

How is Appa ok with them splitting up for a week after JUST getting them back?

I paused in a funny place. Have bonk-eyed Appa.

I love them comparing heights. What do you want to bet that that guy on the right was one of the youngest allowed to go fight, and Sokka made a big deal about how they're almost the same age and surely that means he can go too, right?

A lot of these Southern Water Tribe people have dreads or braids. That's neat.

Bato's arm is still messed up. That's some good continuity.

I've found the source of Katara's cheek bones. I guess Sokka takes after his mum.

Ok I know this is a really emotional moment (and it is! Sokka's spent two seasons earning this!) but my brain fixated on the furs and briefly thought they were sky bison pelts.

"It's been a difficult week for me." This guy thinks the Kyoshi Warriors are there to provide him therapy. Someone please just crown the bear instead.

He just gave away literally every relevant plot point AND outlined how to make sure all these plot points don't succeed. Crown. The. Bear.

Maybe if these generals spent less time playing with their giant model Earth Kingdom and more time general-ing, the war wouldn't suck so much?

Pretty.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the designs, the colour palette, the music, the sound design of this air temple. I love everything about it. If I had the chance to live anywhere in the Avatar universe, it would be here. Even in its ruined state it's such a refreshing contrast to the claustrophobia of Ba Sing Se. I can feel the freshness of the breeze through the screen.

"A spiritual brother of your people" an adult perspective on a near extinct culture! What a resource!

"and a personal friend of Monk Gyatso" an old as balls perspective. He's got to be at least 130.

Anthropology cul de sac time: this guy is so valuable as a resource on the Air Nomads. There's probably parts of Air Nomad culture that Aang can't ever accurately talk about, because he was a kid when he left, and there was almost certainly stuff that the adults kept to themselves, or only shared with the older Air Nomads. This Guru doesn't seem to be an Air Nomad himself, but there's a good chance that there is knowledge that he has, that Aang doesn't. Aang should be nerding out more about this. I'll do the nerding out for him.

Aang just breezes right by that Gyatso name drop like it's nothing. Huh.

Oh hey Toph. I'd forgotten she was in a box. Tweedle dum and Tweedle dumber really are quite the pair. What's their plan for keeping her fed and watered? Actually, these guys apparently don't know that maps exist, so it's probably never occurred to them that humans need sustenance. They'll rock up to the Bei Fong estate with corpse Toph and wonder why they aren't getting the reward money.

Mai gets called out in-universe for shopping at Hot Topic.

Ty Lee's buttering up of Azula is getting less and less subtle as the season progresses. It's a testament to Azula's lack of awareness that she's hasn't noticed that, and that Ty Lee can get away with it.

Azula's right that it's an extraordinary opportunity. The King gave them quite literally every piece of info required to overthrow his kingdom in a 25 second conversation. I can't blame her for taking advantage of such an easy win.

That's a very effective unimpressed face. And a very impressive beard.

It's funny to see a spiritual concept from the real world pop up in a show that includes things like bending and giant fish possession. The mention of Chakras kind of sticks out. They couldn't invent a Avatar universe version?

"Once you begin this process, you cannot stop until all seven are open." Well that doesn't feel like foreshadowing at all.

This episode should be called "Aang's self-care Journey." It's about time the kid had a me day that wasn't avoidance-based.

Fear: Losing Katara - makes sense. Losing control of his powers via fish possession - makes sense. The Fire Lord - makes sense. But the Blue Spirit? He helped. Doesn't make sense.

Guilt: Running away - makes sense, although I thought he'd worked through that with Katara in the storm. Nuking that idiot General's base - makes sense, but boy did he quite literally ask for it.

This guru is saying some wonderfully accurate, and realistic, things. I love that he's not taking the Katara route of denying anything is wrong. He's going for the acknowledge, then heal route. And yes, it's unfair of me to compare the emotional maturity of Katara to a century+ old spiritual expert.

I'm going to ruin the immersion here and point out that Sokka's dad's voice actor voiced a bunch of characters in season 1. He's doing an excellent job, but couldn't they get a unique voice for a character that's so important (albeit offscreen) to Sokka?

That's an incredibly roundabout way of avoiding pointing out that the Southern Water Tribe are active participants in a bloody war. Sure, we can show multiple characters with visible scarring from horrific burns, but heaven forbid we imply that the Southern Water Tribe sinks ships. The parameters for what is and isn't appropriate on this show sometimes make no sense.

"Aren't you listening? I said the rest of you men get ready for battle." He hasn't seen his boy in two years, but fifteen minutes in his company and he knows exactly what needs to be said and how. That's some top tier parenting. Dad of the year. Dad of the century. Only decent Dad in this show that isn't technically an uncle.

"Follow your passion Zuko, and life will reward you." Great advice for your eight year old audience. Also a great way to end up unemployed.

Positive Sokka creeped me out a few episodes ago. Now positive Zuko is freaking me out too.

Pretty.

Back to Chakras! Shame: Burning Katara - makes sense. But that's it? To have the inner peace of mind of a twelve year old who's somehow only ever done one thing that he's ashamed of.

Is there anyone in the earth kingdom who isn't stupid? Once again wondering at the network's standards. Visible burn injuries are fine, but Mai can't say 'Shut up." It's got to be Shush up. Although I do seem to recall of brief time in the early 2000s when Shut Up was treated as a curse on par with Shit or Fuck. Maybe that was just at my school.

Chakras again! Even for a show that often has an A, B, and C plot, this narrative is ping ponging around a bit much.

Grief: nothing major, just a whole nation. Makes a horrific amount of sense. but I don't buy that he can get over grieving the whole world as he knew it by thinking about his crush. That's way too high a pedestal for Katara to be placed on.

Lies: Not accepting he's the Avatar. Interesting that not accepting that he's the Avatar and not accepting that he's a firebender are two different problems.

I see you reusing the opening credits footage. Your blue filters can't fool me.

PRETTY

Illusion: So we're relearning what we learned in The Swamp. Aang's probably the person currently alive least likely to believe in the rigid separation of the nations anyway. This doesn't feel like an illusion he's subject to?

The way this episode dances between its narrative threads is so great. It's all woven in so beautifully. And this makes perfect sense! Toph's spent her life secretly doing things excellently that everyone says are completely beyond her capabilities. Life has taught her that the statement "you are not able to" doesn't apply. Of course immutable laws of bending physics are treated with the same respect as an adult telling the champion of the Earth Rumble that she's can't earthbend beyond breathing exercises. If you told her that humans can't fly, she'd figure out how within the week.

Plot collision incoming.

Interesting that Katara initially recognises Zuko by his voice rather than his scar.

I'm pretty sure that Zuko and Iroh don't know about the whole brainwashing thing, but wouldn't it be hilarious if Zuko introduced himself to Katara as Joo Dee, and his uncle Joo Dee, welcome to the Jasmine Dragon, can I take your order? That would throw Katara into one hell of a moral quandary.

Katara being framed as the solution for Chakra number four comes back to bite Aang, as she's the problem in Chakra number seven. I knew that pedestal was too high.

I've changed my mind. This episode should actually be called "Half a dozen reasons why everyone should just learn to keep their goddamn mouths shut already."

So is anyone going to let Zuko and Iroh know that they're now in immediate danger and need to leave, like, yesterday?

I think the Guru is going for the whole 'if you love them, let them go, and they'll come back to you' thing. Don't cling, in other words. But for the sake of the plot he's suddenly lost his ability to explain Chakras in a way that makes them seem like the logical thing to do. The only clunky bit of this episode so far.

May I introduce you to our Lord and Saviour Toph?

"I am the greatest earthbender in the world." Yes. Yep. Yeah. That's now a quantifiable fact, and it's correct. Look on ye mighty and despair. She's even got Bumi beat.

Earth Tongue Running is a bit wonky looking but it covers a crazy amount of distance.

What's the range on Toph's earth sense? Can she sense what direction Ba Sing Se is?

I hope those two idiots' horse bird is ok.

"You don't know how much this means to me dad." He does. Very much so.

Every word out of this guy's mouth is precision engineered to make Sokka feel like a million bucks and I for one think it's about time someone built him up. Also, seeing this makes me realise how few good parents there are in this show. It's a trope of kids' adventure shows that the parents fundamentally can't be there, but I also think it's a commentary on yet another thing that this war has messed up.

Hey look! Being a man is knowing where you're needed the most, and right now that's in Ba Sing Se, protecting your sister! I love narratives that tie their themes up with a pretty bow on top.

This is Azula laying a trap, right? Which means that Katara squealed to someone about the exact location of Iroh and Zuko's tea shop. Don't like the implications of that.

Photos taken seconds before disaster.

Final Thoughts

This episode was a lot! I mean that in a good way! But I felt a bit like the Maxell Blown Away Guy, the way I kept getting assaulted by yet another plot thread. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a criticism. I think the switching between plot threads and the amount of info in this episode worked 99% of the time. But I'm kind of in awe at the balancing act the writers pulled off and I'm sort of sitting here blinking a bit trying to fit all this stuff in my head. I'm probably going to forget half the stuff I wanted to talk about in this write up, so here goes nothing.

Given the Azula reveal in at the end of last episode, I thought that this would be the episode where the shit hits the fan. I was wrong. I'm glad I was wrong. An episode of set up is required and is nice breathing room, even an episode as busy as this. And I got to leave Ba Sing Se! But this does mean that next episode is going to be calamity after calamity.

Aang and his Chakras: I'm fascinated by this guru. I hope he comes back. That brings the total number of people who were alive before the war started up to three: Aang, Bumi, Guru Patik.

I'm impressed that the run through of the Chakras rarely felt like an info dump. The onion and banana juice thing didn't work for me, but I'm sure it worked for people in the target age bracket. Kids love burp jokes.

So many shows sprinkle in tragic backstories for flavour and then never have them influence the character in the present. It was a nice contrast to see a show take a whole episode to tell Aang "yeah all that sucked. It's ok to feel down about it. Here's how you move forward."

Sokka and his dad: Love it. Love it so much. I love seeing Sokka built up, and he definitely deserves it, but I wonder if this is the reward for a character arc well done, or the set up for a character arc that's about to start? Is his dad's praise his prize for crossing the finish line, or is it so he's built up with farther to fall?

I loved seeing more of the Southern Water Tribe. I loved the fashion. There's a lot of variety in accessories and variations on a few basic elements like those knee guard things. I loved their hairstyles. I loved how cozy and communal that command tent felt. I loved their ships. I wonder how often these guys work out, that they can make loading ramps that are presumably deployed and stashed out of the way frequently, out of whole logs rather than planks. I have a bone to pick with the child-friendly sea mine. But it provides a good set up for a dad joke, so I'll let it slide.

Zuko and Iroh: Of course the one time Zuko is allowed to be in a good place, it's so that he and Iroh both have farther to fall when the inevitable happens. Poor guy just can't catch a break. I'd be mad at Azula for the party crashing that I'm assuming she'll do next episode, but it's been established that Zuko has all nice things taken away from him as soon as he gets them, and I can't blame Azula for being a tool of the universe.

Azula & Long Feng: Azula's acting in Long Feng's prison cell was miles ahead of what Long Feng was doing in front of the Earth King, so I'm wondering if Long Feng has bitten off more than he can chew. Also: conspiring with the enemy to bring down your own city just so you can reinstall yourself as the power behind the throne that will presumably cease to exist as soon as the Fire Nation takes control? That is both treasonous beyond description and an incredible case of shooting yourself in the foot. What's Long Feng's plan here?

Toph and the Dunderheads: it says something about the consistency of Toph's characterisation from her introduction onwards that she breaks the universe this episode and my reaction was "that's neat." It's obviously a huge moment, but of course Toph can do that. Toph can do anything. More importantly, Toph knows that Toph can do anything, so Toph routinely does do anything, especially things she shouldn't be able to do. If you had asked me a few episodes back which character would be most likely to fundamentally redefine bending, I would have said Toph, since she's already fundamentally redefined bending with her earth sense sonar vision.

Also Toph just breaks stuff. Things that come into contact with her cease to function as intended and instead function as Toph requires. Look at the two idiots: both successful business owners, one also a successful hoodwinker of the richest family around. But they come into contact with Toph and their brains take an extended vacation.

Katara & the Generals: this plot was more like an extension of Azula's plot than its own standalone thing. You can't blame her for spilling the news about Zuko and Iroh to someone she honestly thought was Suki. Not much else to say about it, although it's cute that she asks for a table for two at the tea shop. Momo gets a chair!

I like that there's a theme this episode of things going wrong despite the best intentions. No one's acting maliciously here apart from the Antagonists. The Earth King is having an honest chat with people he thought were friends. Sokka vouched for people he honestly thought were the Kyoshi Warriors. Katara shares information about a presumed threat with people she honestly thought were her allies. You can quibble with the wisdom of some of these decisions, but there were all done with good intentions. The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry and all that. It brings to mind that Star Trek quote about how you can do everything right and still lose. And this set up is going to hit harder when whatever goes wrong next episode happens. And something will go wrong. A few months ago I figured that the Season 2 finale would be a triumph, but all signs are pointing towards a tragedy instead.

This episode was visually stunning, the soundtrack in the Air Temple sections especially was very evocative, and I applaud the minds that could juggle that many plot threads at once without dropping any. This one is definitely going on my rewatch list.

[jmdbjk]

3D

I had to let some time pass before I wrote this. The discourse is heated and polarized.

You say: "ABG ... Asian Baby Girl, doesn't mean the same as it used to" ... it might not for you but it is rooted in misogyny and racism. Does that mean the n-word doesn't mean what it used to? Or the word bitch, cunt or whore? It's ok to use those words too when rapping about women? What about fag or fairy? Ok? No. Not okay.

You do you, Boo, but:

"The ongoing oppression of women is enshrined in religious, legal, political, educational, and employment systems and structures. An equivalent level of systemic and structural oppression has not been experienced by the current generation of white men in America. "

You can read the article this excerpt is from here.

My first impression upon listening/watching the first time: I did not like it because of fugly white boy, Jack Harlow. I've never liked him, I've never liked his lyrics or his vibe. He is the type of overdone, asshole misogynistic male bullshit rap that had become unavoidable for a while.

I don't have ANY problem with JK singing about sex, having sex, shooting his jizz to the sky or any of that. BRING. THAT. ON. I don't care if the song is about phone sex or masturbating on camera or whatever.

What I do have a problem with is a white guy saying one girl (the black girl) is boring but two girls (add the white girl) is cool. I have a problem with the concept of having women lined up ready to fuck as some sort of thing to laud. And they are all dressed alike, so that means he doesn't care about them, they're all the same. Just another pussy to fuck. Diversity, yay. Not.

I will listen to the alternate version of the song but I will never listen to or stream the version with the rap.

I love Jungkook. I love that he's exploring his sound. He is creating music that speaks to him RIGHT NOW in his career. Do I like that he's put this song out? No. But that's my own personal opinion.

I can't speak for Jungkook, a 26 year old Korean man. He has his own systemic and structural oppressions to deal with.

I am not going to second guess him. He will see the feedback and take it into consideration, I don't have to guess on that, I know he will. They all see what goes on.

I wanted to give JK the benefit of the doubt with Seven. I don't have a problem with Seven the song, but its the hype surrounding it that is perpetuated by the fandom that he is being pushed in the western market. This song proves it.

All that being said, BTS and each individual member all exist within an industry that is heavily influenced by the western market.

As such, every song each member releases will add to the colors that the team will be able to use when they come back together as a group. No one will be surprised if BTS utilizes a hardcore western rapper in the future now. It is just one more color in the mix.

But as my friend says: "Shoot for another Coldplay....They don't need to be lifting people up. They need to find peers. Which is why I would support a Lady Gaga collab with Tae. Which is why Hobi asked for J Cole. That's a peer, man. I can handle Pharrell with them.

The benchmark for peers, to me, is another artist who has nothing to gain from collab'ing with them. An artist who holds their own, on their own, and collabs to let each participant have fun, shine, and grow a bit. Not some newbie who needs the boost. The only exception to that would be if they worked with one of their juniors at Hybe."

And now I move on from this.

[gracebethartacc]

What’s the whole rundown of Sombra’s backstory and the downfall of the crystal empire? Yap all you want :]

late to this ask and didn’t proof read but anyway !!

CRACKS KNUCKLES BC I WAS GONNA DO THIS RUN DOWN WHENEVER I ACTUALLY FINISH THEIR REFS BUT IG ILL DO IT NOW LOL (gonna assume u already know my cadence family tree stuff for this bc I don’t fully specify it and if u don’t know it just go to the mlp rw tag i had an ask going over it once lately I know I just don’t feel like grabbing it rn lols)

Ok so basically it’s all just a loosely adapted plot from the og comics alright (if you don’t know the og sombra past um here’s a playlist of a dub and recap I have of the story bc I talk about it here assuming you already know it)

For context sombra is a bat pony in my rw! I’m kindof? Combining the umbrum and bat ponies together? If that makes any sense ok? Ok. (Unsure how specifically like if it’s just a role replacement or a literal combo in that bat ponies have spooky forms idk I need to decide)

So sombra was found in the snow by some of the crystal guards outside the empire, and thus taken to the empress’s (Amore and snowdrop) (Amore is an alicorn while snow is a Pegasus ofc (not a crystal pony like Amore tho!)) 

Sombra becomes fast friends with the princesses (Loving Cadence and Healing Hope, the Mi Amore Cadenza name is a nickname from Amore, so ig in turn Hope would have the matching name of Mi Amore Speranza) 

Basically same events of the canon comics— Sombra and Hope fall in love, they look at their futures in the Heart (which the heart having prophetic abilities was really cool and I wish was adapted into the actual show!! Def wanna play w that in my au more I love it), Sombra is attacked by the crystal heart every crystal faire because of his umbrum status making him be read as a threat, etc same song and dance as canon comics ok

The only difference is my sombra ends up making the alicorn amulet— essentially he fucked around with infusing magic into a gem and through the gem he can use magic now! I’m sure there will be no negative effects to this,,,,,,

Eventually bc of the heart hurting him every year getting worse sombra is like.. hey. If I can infuse magic into a crystal… who’s to say I can’t reverse engineer the spell and take magic Out of a crystal either (looks at the heart) 

So! Plan to sneak to the heart to take away it’s magic so it’ll stop hurting him! The crystal ponies don’t need it they’re all safe (logic of that one post that’s like “why do I have to take ibuprofen for my headaches they usually go away after a while anyway lol” like gee sombra. I wonder why the crystal ponies are safe.) but has a back up plan that if draining its magic doesn’t work he also has a spell handy that can just erase it (subtle foreshadowing) 

Sneaks out and uh oh Amore confrontation like canon, sombra is getting angry and corrupted by the amulet more and more, and leads to Amore being turned to stone n all that ok it’s just canon lol hope comes out and tries to talk sense into him, yada yada we know this lol again i snagged like most of it from canon just w small tweaks

Snowdrop comes out eventually with some help from concord, snow gets hurt tho (and or killed I can see either happening tbh?) so tells con to get the girls to safety, does so with cadence but sombra gets to hope first, guy is just full evil now and basically goes with plan B but on larger scale, so instead of curse to make the heart disappear, he casts it on the entire empire, wiping it out of existence and from memory. (Also the reason the snow storm around the empire is so bad um I point at con bc yeahhhh he would not be happy his friend got injured/died or whatever again idk yet what I wanna do) 

Con brings cadence to tia who ofc doesn’t know who she is bc she doesn’t know of a crystal empire, ISAT has made me a huuuuge sucker for the concept of a mass amnesia/universe rewrital about a specific place, very very cool. I think any scrolls with its name would be redacted, like a burn scorch on the name or any reference to it or the empresses etc 

Tia takes cadence in as a niece and she’d eventually get alicorn status (not sure how tho, probably will adapt her backstory into it somehow? Shrugs I’d love any ideas :3) 

Soooo yeah sombra DOESN'T take over the empire in my version, tho I think he’d try to when resurrected, but I prefer the more mind control idea than the. Yk. Slavery. (The mind control added to by my bat pony lore w flutters stare and sombras stare thing he also does)

But yeah anyway his s3 return would be basically the same plot minus that hope would be included here too but wouldn’t remember anything like the all og crystal ponies do— I can actually see the idea he’s already taken over the castle and has hope captured just kinda hypnotized at his side bc I think that would be a fun visual (then again I’m very biased bc I love me some toxic relationship mind control plots (looks over at AAU)) tho I ALSO think hope being fully into it is also cool I also love that trope of character goes evil and instead of leaving them their partner stays bc they think it’s hot/want in on also being evil LOL so tbh I like both options equally I’d love to get input on that on which one yall like more bc the first one feels more natural but the second is more fun is the thing lols

Anyway Sombra would be defeated like canon and the curse is broken on the crystal ponies, and then later he is brought back by grogar (and Not die this time!) I think would get kinda same plot as comics of hope convincing him to change/improv and they work to find amores shards yippee :3 I don’t wanna say Redeemed sombra but more so that he’s attempting to be better moreso? 

Uhhhh ig that’s all? I prommy that I’ll finish the refs soon,, I have amore/snow and hope/sombra all done! It’s just the cadence family I’m doing now (I have younger ref done I just need to finish wedding, post wedding, and flurry and that’s all) (ig heads up before I eventually post those is I renamed flurry to be snowy heart bc I think it just fits better also bc I changed her fur to white like shining so a more snow specific name fits :3€) 

[2oul2ilver]

One thing that really depresses me is like... of the pokepastas I've read, there's ones that touch on the way Game Freak has handled its early girl trainers - Leaf/Green never being added to the final product, Kris being entirely overwritten by Lyra as a concept in the remakes. And honestly I feel like these are concepts that have potential for some good pokepastas!

The only thing is... every one I've read that delves into these concepts sort of. Falls into the exact trap of the very thing it's warning against/calling out?

I do think there's a merit to that - what's more existentially upsetting than the reality that girls and women alike are forced into situations by the greater system they're forced to live in, after all. Exploring that theme can be a way to catharsize that struggle. So I don't mind that approach on its own.

But none of the ones I've seen let the girl character have any agency, or even the ability to be fallible or nuanced? Ok, ok a lot to ask from a pokepasta, but hear me out.

Yes, the very genre of pokepasta means ultimately all the characters are in Situations and barely anyone has control or agency beyond an extent. But even so there are those that do either via the narrative or as the point of the pokepasta - Strangled Red, Blue Tears, Glitchy Red and Your Friend Silver - to name a couple that just. Allow the protagonist to take some semblance of control, if only for a moment. Usually this "control" is in the form of violence, which like. Is a whole other tangent we don't need to get into.

But when Green/Leaf or (to a lesser extent) Kris are the focus characters? Anything they do is futile, and their fates are forced upon them. And when the narrative is paralleling real world treatment, it just doubles in amount. Oh, so Green/Leaf isn't even meant to exist? Then we'll make the entire direction of the pokepasta be about how the game forcibly erases/deletes her from the story! Nothing remains, and not once do any of her attempts to fight this fate succeed in any way - not that any evidence of her struggle would remain even if she did somehow claim even the tiniest victory.

After seeing a few stories with this same narrative now, it moves past being cathartic and into just plain depressing for me. More examples of media calling out poor treatment of women that just sort of reinforce the treatment.

Like yeah, okay. Pokepastas aren't MEANT to be motivational or feel good. But at least give me a Leaf who takes revenge. Give me a Glitchy Red angle where she overtakes and rewrites the game to delete him instead of vice versa. She's the champion on Mt. Silver even if she's breaking the GSC game to do it. Kris taking over Lyra's place in HGSS and denying that her replacement ever existed. Hell, even just letting the girls lash out and damage/kill the other boys before the game sends them to pixel eeby deeby would be nice. Green gets to take down Red in a final way, but that's when she gets forcibly removed because that's literally the only way the game can prevent her from taking it over at expense of the greater world.

Give them agency, control, power. Make them fearful figures, make them desperate, not in some palatable meek way where they deep down accept their fate, or can only voice their displeasure without acting on it. Let these girls go apeshit for once. If Blue Tears or Strangled Red can have the protagonist kill in cold blood and still be liked and sometimes even sympathized by the fandom, so can these.

Tl;dr aren't you tired of the girl protags being nice? Don't you just want them to go apeshit?

(Also as an important final note - this is NOT bashing any pokepastas for these themes ultimately! It's not a case of any one being poorly written or thought out! I want to call out the consistent Trend as my issue, not say my issue is with the authors or pokepastas that have already done this! Likewise I don't say this as in the male-focused examples I listed are Better - but I'm using them as known examples of tropes that succeed in the genre that AREN'T just Things Happening To The Protag.)

[tachiguin]

If you were Kafka, what would you change in BSD

Sorry, this question has been sitting in my inbox for a very long time. I think it’s kinda hard for me to answer this question, because to a certain degree I’m tempted to say “I wouldn’t change anything at all”. Like, for all that I criticize media like Bungou Stray Dogs for various things, I also think that the media we consume shouldn’t be required to be so perfect that there’s nothing to criticize. If anything, criticism is a major part of what drives discussion in fandoms. Moreover, as much as I may feel “Kafka Asagiri shouldn’t have done X”, I’m not really inclined to want to change X about the series? Maybe it’s just because I approach it from the mindset of a reader, not an author, but I think that its OK for me to disapprove of certain aspects of a series, and still not want anything to change about it. Like, if I was given full control to change anything I wanted, it probably wouldn’t be the same Bungou Stray Dogs at all, starting with Mushitarou’s awful hairstyle, BTW. Honestly I might just kill the guy off if it was up to me, I don’t really like looking at his face……. but I digress!

Having said that, I still do think certain aspects of the series could be changed to better appeal to myself. But again, I don’t want anyone to think that my opinion is more “correct” than what Kafka Asagiri himself decided for the series. This is literally just my personal thoughts on the matter, just like how if it was up to me Oguri Mushitarou and his slimy hair would not exist in Bungou Stray Dogs, even though, objectively, he’s fine and well written and nothing really needs to change about him, except I really want him to sue his plastic surgeon, and his hairdresser, like hello? Way to make a guy look unrecognizable, I guess.

Sorry, I’ll stop trashing on poor Mushitarou. I’m serious though.

The two major changes I’d make are the role of female characters in the series, and also the way that the concepts of self-sacrifice and “honorable suicide” are presented. I think these aspects are the biggest gripes I have with the story, but I also think that, especially in regards to the latter, the series wouldn’t necessarily be the same, or even “better”, if it was changed.

I’ve never really made a post going in depth about how I feel in regards to BSD’s female cast, but I’ve mentioned before that I think the fandom really underrates most, if not all, women in Bungou Stray Dogs. But in retrospect, I can’t really blame it all on the fandom’s general misogyny; the way that Asagiri portrays women in his story doesn’t really do anything to discourage the lack of appreciation for his female cast. The thing is that she’s almost always the side chick. She’s an accessory to hang off of his arm. She’s motivated solely by him, whether that be his goals, or just because she—and it’s never really explained why—is deeply and hopelessly in love with him. Who is this “she”? Who am I talking about, in particular? Literally every female character, barring maybe Yosano, might fit the descriptions I gave above. That’s how bad Kafka Asagiri is at giving his female characters agency.

It’s okay to have a character with a plotline that’s intertwined with another character. It’s okay to have a character that’s motivated by external forces. It’s okay to have a supporting character who doesn’t really do much except move the plot forward. It’s starts to become annoying when all of these characters are women, while their male counterparts get the better end of the deal.

Sometimes I hear people say that Kafka Asagiri is good at writing women, and I think, in response, that shounen anime has truly brought our standards down, six feet under the dirt where every interesting female character to exist in animanga is buried. Yes… Asagiri doesn’t shy away from writing female characters who can fight, and even, gasp! Fight well, but this is literally the bare minimum, especially for a magical setting that takes place in the modern age. Asagiri can create female characters with interesting traits and a lot of potential, then subsequently assign all of her traits to serve a male character’s narrative, while actively sabotaging any potential she had by utilizing her as a plot device.

And maybe I would be less annoyed if it went both ways. Kyouka has saved Atsushi quite a handful of times, why doesn’t he worship the ground she walks on and dedicate his entire life to helping her fulfill her goals? Actually, on this topic, the reason why is because Kyouka doesn’t have any substantial goals outside of being Atsushi’s sidekick for life. Now, I absolutely adore Kyouka and Atsushi’s relationship, found family is still my favorite troupe ever, but it’s noticeable that while Atsushi’s search for self-esteem and a so-called “reason to live” is the literal narrative core of the series, Kyouka, who had found herself struggling with a similar internal conflict, is by comparison, almost never explored further. When was the last time the story checked back up on Lucy, and how she’s feeling? Yeah, she’s in a better place now, but isn’t she still haunted by her years at the orphanage, under the Guild’s thumb, being treated like a pawn on the chessboard, just as so many male characters have been shown to feel in wake of their own traumatic experiences? Doesn’t she struggle to find a new purpose in life, now that she’s no longer stuck doing someone else’s bidding just to survive?

We only ever see a brief glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of BSD’s female cast, before the door slams shut, and they’re relegated to some background role where it doesn’t really matter how she feels, she just wants to help the guy who saved her life, that’s all we really need to know before we can start advancing the plot again. Well, I want to know more. 

It would also be great to have more female characters who are motivated by something other than her desire to help or hurt another—oftentimes male—character. How come he’s allowed to delusionally seek world domination, and she isn’t? How come he’s allowed to desperately want to save everyone in spite of a cruel reality, and she isn’t? How come he’s allowed to be motivated almost solely by his selfish need for the validation of another, and she isn’t?

Which brings me to another avenue to consider: characters like Akutagawa and Rampo are shown to be fanatically devoted to another character, to the point that Dazai or Fukuzawa could say “Jump,” and they’d be in the air even before asking “How high?”. But here’s the thing: Akutagawa’s devotion is entirely self-centric, and it’s examined as such. He doesn’t selflessly want to help Dazai, no questions asked, he craves the peace of mind that Dazai’s affirmation would bring about, and consequently does anything he can to gain that validation. Not only that, but it’s portrayed as unhealthy and a problem when Akutagawa blindly does whatever Dazai asks of him, but somehow, this doesn’t apply to Louisa and Fitzgerald, Teruko and Fukuchi? Hmmmmmm!

Simply put, there’s a double standard here, and I’d like it to change, because BSD really does have a female cast with a lot of potential, if only Asagiri cared to utilize it.

***

In regards to Thing I'd Want To Change #2, I remember tag-dumping about this awhile back, but it somewhat bothers me that in order to pass the Detective Agency’s entrance exam, Atsushi and Kyouka were required to put their lives on the line to save another (even though, in Atsushi’s case, it was all staged). This might not have been a problem for me if the Detective Agency weren’t the good guys in this—or even if it was emphasized in some other manner that it’s OK to save yourself first, like c’mon, that’s just common sense, they teach you such in elementary school during a fire drill. But unfortunately, not only was Kyouka’s feelings on the matter never expanded on, Atsushi continues to believe that he needs to save people to deserve to live.

However, I do think that there’s still room for development here. Bungou Stray Dogs is not a completed work, so who’s to say that Atsushi won’t have a different outlook on life by the final chapter? Moreover, I think that in the situation where Atsushi first reached this conclusion (on the subway with Yosano and Kaji), Atsushi was probably in a worse mindset prior. For him, he felt that he wanted to live, but that he didn’t deserve to, so therefore, in order to justify his own existence, he grasped a “reason to live”, a motivation to not simply give up and perish right then and there, alongside a train full of innocent people. It was a very “in the moment” kind of thing, that would serve as a foundation for later developments. Again, I think it’s fine that this is his way of thinking now, but someone genuinely needs to tell this boy that it’s not a matter of “reasons” or whether he deserves to or not, living is just something we do without really thinking about it, so its okay if that he lives in that kind of unapologetic manner.

Still, the Detective Agency’s exam is kind of harsh, yet I don’t think it’s necessarily something I would do away with completely, as much as I would reframe it to better fit the message I would want to send. The thing is that working at a superpowered organization that regularly gets into scuffles with the local mafia is in no way safe, and your life insurance probably won’t cover it when you get magically killed and dumped in the river. So it is understandable if a minimum requirement for becoming a member is that you’re okay with getting caught in life or death situations on a semi-frequent basis. It may also be a desired trait that you’d be willing to rescue civilian lives at little benefit to yourself, though not necessarily always in the context of self-sacrifice. Sure, it’s a crazy way of interviewing for these attributes, but it’s not like people don’t lie on their resume, and also, the Detective Agency was established early on to be full of crazy people. You must be this bugfuck insane to join, if you fail the vibe check you die, sorry!

In all seriousness, I think the concept of living, and in particular, having a reason to live, are a major part of Bungou Stray Dog’s themes, and changing it to suit my own opinions better would probably drastically uproot whatever message Asagiri wanted to send, whatever feelings and opinions of his own that he injected into the characters of Atsushi, Dazai, Kyouka, and the like. Even if I myself do not fully agree with the narrative, I still think its okay to have media that tells a different feeling, shares a different experience, and presents a different opinion.

Anyway, this got really long, sorry I was too lazy to include many embedded pictures to break up the text walls. If you read this far to the end then I appreciate and love you dearly, hopefully I made some degree of sense and didn’t just sound like I was rambling out of my ass.

[pomelowed]

Just went down a rabbit hole yippee!!

I follow this blog called @/my-kawaii--world because I like the aesthetics and this post came across my feed: https://www.tumblr.com/my-kawaii--world/753409702367477760/hey-this-site-seems-sketchy-af-as-a-lot-of-the?source=share

Those stuffed animals were so cute that I immediately went to the store to order one! But before I did I, like I usually do when finding new online stores, looked around to see what else they sell. I like doing this just to see if the items are really mismatched or if the other listings seem to be lower quality than what I'm trying to order. Well, the store, called Lavender Creations, seemed to offer a lot of items I saw on places like Alibaba or Temu. In fact, the mushroom purse they sell is one my sister bought off of Aliexpress. No worries though, artists oftentimes get their creations ripped off by dropshippers and their ilk so wasn't a death knell but definitely was a red flag. This led me to check it on scamadvisor and whoo boy.

It scored 36/100. The site has existed for years and it has a SSL but I wasn't worried about the site being a scam that'll steal my credit card info, I was just trying to figure out if it was a dropshipper and welp. One of the negative reviews stated that the supposed flash sale was in fact a daily sale (and I can confirm since me writing this post took long enough that the sale that was supposed to end at midnight is still ongoing despite the fact it's currently 1 AM). That was a dead ringer that this site most definitely wasn't the original creator or at least someone reliable. So, google lens it was for a reverse image search aaaaand

yeah ok unsurprising. Will say, none of these listings have the black & white one I was going to buy and that the dandelionevine was the only other one to sell the white version but also it's selling them for $60 which is way more than lavender constellation that sells them for $44 or $30 with the "sale". Also, amazon link is dead unfortunately because it supposedly was being sold for $25, the cheapest yet.

Now, if this was simply just a case of dropshipping then I would've left it at my reblog I made warning others about it BUT there's that first listing, Plush This?? They're the reason I'm making this post.

As far as I can tell they're the original creators! Awesome, great I can purchase him from here even if it isn't the b&w version I wanted, let me just read the full listing to see the specifics,,,,,, wtf

WHAT??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS DESIGNED BY AI????? THIS IS A CAN OF WORMS I DIDNT PLAN TO ENCOUNTER????? Apparently, that's their whole thing: let AI design a plush and then recreate it which is honestly a really cool concept if AI wasn't known for literally stealing others' work (I'm ignoring the fact it would also mean it takes designers' jobs, which is also a shame).

If the AI was ethically trained then I suppose it counts as an original work? It's a bit of a grey area since no one actually owns the likeness of a cat (not yet at least) and plenty of artists create their own works by referencing others. So, who's to say an AI doing the same thing is unethical? I mean, there's a real human effort being put into realizing an imaginary item because this doesn't seem to be the usual AI scam of rendering an image and pretending it's genuine to generate purchases. But that ignores the fact there are limitations to artists on what they can produce (copyright laws exist and fair use clauses do too). So AI shouldn't be exempt from giving its fair dues to the people it should be "inspired" by and it should also be punished if it steals like a human does. Plus, the current state of AI is a lot more like replication than anything near inspiration so really that question cannot be applied in the current generation of AI.

There's one giant elephant in the room I haven't addressed yet: who is to say that the cat plush isn't based on some niche Etsy creator who had their creation ripped off by the AI model? Idk how it was taught so idk if the images were ethically sourced and thus if my money is going into a design that hasn't been stolen in some way. I'm sure they gave the AI a bunch of reference images of a Devon Rex from different angles and told it to make it a stuffed animal. But was the AI fed ethically sourced references of what is a plush? Or was it given Etsy and told to go ham in copying everything??

And, if the AI model WAS trained with stolen images, how awful really is the dropshipping aside from the ungodly prices?? I mean, my usual issues with dropshipping are: they try to sell junk for obscene prices, original works are reproduced without permission, & the profits of the original creator are stolen. But which of those issues are applicable in this scenario? The original work is seemingly high quality as implied with the reviews I see on Lavender Constellations & Plush This, so not all listings are churning out low quality crap, meaning the first issue is resolved. I mean, if people are receiving quality items that they feel is worth the price then there isn't any issue in that department. But those last two issues I have are the kicker, who is the original creator in this scenario?? Is it Plush This or is it the amalgamation of artists that go uncredited?? If the former then, yeah, these sites should not be selling their work. Yet, the latter seems much more in line with what I know about how AI is trained: unabashedly scanning and copying others' works without consent or compensation. Thus, I don't really feel too badly about it being resold on so many stores. It's already stolen work so they're all thieves to me.

Man, idk. It's unfortunate AI isn't simply a tool and the current state of things have festered and spread thanks to the lack of regulations. I imagine the AI models we have today that are made of stolen artworks will just be the concrete foundation and people wont see reparations for their work. Kinda one of those "them's the breaks (brakes?) kid" where laws will come into place that'll prevent AI from stealing others works. The question is will the people it already stole from be repaid? Or will they just have to live with the fact that the AI modules that are common use have stolen their work and wont stop continuing to profit off of that theft into the foreseeable future?

All of this is to say I'm not even sure if Plush This is the real creator!! I know I said I was almost certain they were but that's really only because the whole marketing scheme of their site is that the plushes they create are based off AI generated images and that kind of statement is too specific to only use as a selling point.... right?? Well let me start with this:

So, yes, according to Leila Wang, creator of PlushThis (why no spaces?), everything is AI to physical. Grand. Don't get me wrong, that's a real skill thats being just wasted imo, but back on track. Here's the website for you to check it out yourself: https://plushthis.com/ also they use MidJourney according to this article from last year: https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/503245/introducing-plushthis-worlds-first-ai-generated-plushies-brand-revolutionizing-stuffed-animal-design

Scamadvisor gives it a 90/100 but only gives one review as an example when most of the listings have reviews, which is odd. This part is literally just me putting on a tinfoil hat so take the bit with a grain of salt, but I think they're having their AI write their reviews. They're all very,,, bland? I don't know if anyone has played that website game called "Human or Not" but the reviews are giving AI. As an example, here's the listing for a dragon plush they have:

and then here's a comment under it

It's a strange mix up to have when it's very clearly white. Worth noting they also sell a green dragon plush.

Also, the rest of the comments tend to usually have a comment on how soft they are? And if not that then how high quality the fabric is. And they all have the same grammar with what I think the nail in the coffin being the fact not a single review has missed adding at least a period to the end of the last sentence. Yes, that level of proper grammar isn't uncommon,,,, but for every single review??? Yeah, I'm not buying it. All this added to the fact Scamadvisor only pulled one positive comment out this sea leads me to believe these aren't real reviews and are just HTML code or whatever tf.

Ok, whatever, site is faking reviews with AI and staged photos. Big whoop, just don't buy from them,,,, WELL this is all going back to how I'm not sure PlushThis is the real creator of that cat plush. Tbh what I think is happening is a mix of dropshipping and "orginal" plushes. Why?

This lil blurb states every first image listed is an AI generated image.

Let's look at this guy: https://plushthis.com/products/cute-rabbit-stuffed-animal?_pos=72&_sid=8df0505e5&_ss=r

There's only two images given and when I look him up in reverse image search:

Look at all those. PlushThis doesn't come up despite this image supposedly being AI.

This guy? https://plushthis.com/products/pink-black-racoon-stuffed-animal-toy?_pos=1&_sid=ffe901991&_ss=r

Yeah, only PlushThis matches.

So, what does this mean? I think it means that the cat more than likely IS a dropshipped item THAT THEY DIDNT CREATE??? Which is crazy because the blurb attached to it is one of the few times they mention in a listing that the stuffed animal started as an AI image. In fact, that blurb is what caused me to spiral down into this!! IT ALSO THROWS OUT MY PREVIOUS STATEMENTS ABOUT THE ETHICS OF ALL OF THIS!!! This isn't my only receipt as the cat that started this all is listed here: https://www.dscopilot.ai/products/1005006873166491

It states that the supplier is the whitebeard' store on aliexpress. Now, this could always be a ripoff of PlushThis' original creation but I doubt they're the original creators at this point. Since every creation's first image is AI, that either means they didn't share the AI image, their whole gimmick, or it wasn't designed by AI and thus couldn't provide a generated image. So, the next course of action was seeing if Taihua Toys Hong Kong Co, PlushThis' parent company, is related to any of the sellers on other sites and that's too tall of an order for me. That's a way bigger deep dive than I'm capable of in this moment, but if I ever do try and see if I can confirm my suspicions, I will reply to this. Hopefully soon since a lot of the sites listed when I reverse image searched the cat no longer have it for sale. Is it possibly a parent company trying to clean up the internet and make it less obvious the item is actually cheaply mass produced?? Who knows, not me.

[lucabyte]

HOWDY! *slams pile of papers on the desk* i have Inquiries. OKAY SO-

1.) i know the bridge between infurno and purrgatorio is Ali realizing they cant leave, so like, whats pawradisio???

2.) wtf happens ta Ali durin the 'age ???' section of their design timeline. what type cult stuff do they get involved w and how. its haunting me i needa know

3.) whats with the 3 year memory erasing thing in that one ali purrgatorio relationship chart. Really funny chart ive shared it w a few friends but also im staring intently at it like Huh What O_O

4.) what is mymk's final form? is it gonna be written, a comic, etc?

5.) got any music you associate w any mymk characters/ali? besides like, in canon reasons like Chrome more like any songs/artists/lyrics that remind u of anya em :0??

anyway yeah huge fan! also hope ur vacation's fun!

Hehe hi :)

1. We shall get there when we get there <3 my lips are sealed. Though I will say, there are further books by Dante one can animal-pun the titles of... Though they aren't part of the divine comedy..... (Alludes vaguely to plans that will inevitably take me years)

2. Okay so spoilers for Creature Feature, Ali's home setting (and @samhainian's thing) (because this is all a bit of an open secret) but Ali is, as I've alluded to previously, an Antagonist.

Creature Feature is a real world adjacent setting, set in our modern day, only with all manner of monsters and cryptids living secretly alongside humans. Ali lives in Wraithbrook, a hidden town populated primarily by monsters (albeit, most everyone still upholds a disguise, just in case). Being a (very) small town with an effectively captive population.... The post-high-school ennui tends to set in bad for people. Hope you enjoy the family businesses, kids.

So... This leaves the listless vulnerable. And boy is Ali a bit malleable. A trusted figure in their life takes advantage of this, part of an accellerationist group looking to break these confines, having singled them out as candidate for their most recent attempt to mold a magic user into a weapon to shatter the veil. And, well, if you've got a self-hating isolated guy who is predisposed to a bit of Catholicism already... Why not utilise the concept of the antichrist? They will be bringing a world together, in a way... And when you've been around as long as some immortal librarians have, doing a little bit of time dilation in the later stages of indoctrination isn't thaaaaat hard... Sooooo....

(But don't worry. They get better. Eventually. At least they look it. Everything is A-OK!!!)

(as for if purrgatorio is canon to this timeline....? Yes! But in a fucked up way! Can't make it too easy for the little guy....)

3. Okay so I was coy literally a sentence ago but yeah purrgatorio is set dead on like.. at the exact same time MYMK proper *should* start. Thus, it cannot exist at the same time as the main story... Ali's narrative powers keep them from being subsumed by the universe and just becoming a funny animal themselves.

But should a time come where Ali is *gone*, and the world is similar enough to the moments before they arrived? Well, the narrative can just pretend the time hasn't passed! Just, don't think too hard about your count of how many Halloweens and Christmasses you've had doesn't really line up....

(A normal person would simply name Purrgatorio noncanon, but hey, if Ali's whole thing is that they manipulate reality like a Narrative... Well. May as well use it! So once canon is over for both parties, things can start creeping back in. It's needlessly overcomplicated but I'm having fun)

4. Written with illustrations! An Online picture book, I suppose. I was initially damning myself to a comic, but after playing in the space with Purrgatorio, I realised I prefer prose. I'll probably write the thing in whole and then release it bit by bit as I work on the illustrations? I have a working outline as of right now and it's not a super long story lol. But its likely going to come after some practice with smaller projects like my reworking of Hazeclan and maybe Damonquest (name pending) (the latter featuring a cut main character of mymk lol)

So! ETA: a while. But we stay silly

5. OKAY.... so I can't link character playlists sadly since they don't exist (..... Yet.) and I'll stick primarily to our at present Purrgatorio cast.

I am like. Famously bad with identifying songs (<- usb stick full of songs on shuffle in the car as a kid) but I have been trying to put thought into this recently (my gold standard for this being my friend @teddymedley who's so good with character songs I did ask him for some vibe checks for this even)

So these are messy and some are like, inherited from earlier drafts of the characters so can be a bit off but I'll give a handful and their reasonings. (No links or embeds though I'm on mobile and Tumblr might eat my visibility if I do. I'll reply with some though)

[Ali Alighieri]

1. "Here comes the flood" by the Divine Comedy (self explanatory really, that animatic will exist someday I promise. This is THE big one to me, but @samhainian may have a different top spot opinion lol) Bonus: it has a demo version that also fucks supremely

2. "All the angels (demo)" by MCR. (Ali is not the MCR sibling, they're the P!ATD sibling. But I don't listen to panic lol)

3. "If you could save yourself you'd save us all" by Ween (peak "sorry what was that line just there?" song)

4. "In the meantime" by Spacehog (I like Spacehog. Everyone gets a spacehog song yaaay)

5. "Here comes the sun" cover by Ghost (not their style of music at ALL and you KNOW they're contrarian about the Beatles, but grim irony is such a vibe here)

[Chromium Mono]

1. "Manicure" by Lady Gaga (this is such a flippant "because I said so" choice lol)

2. "Let it grow" by Renaissance (this is such a nice cheesy song. I like to think of this as speaking to the actual nice loving guy chrome can be when he's not being a prickly bitch)

3. Kissing Ancaps by Patricia Taxxon (... GOD this song is way too cool or smart for chrome lol. It's a chrometab song to me because of the big words and cynicism. It's too modern and online for them but I'm attached to it... Also it contains a sample from let it grow)

4. "Run away with me" by Carly Rae Jepsen (more vibes based! Love some ms jepsen. But at least has a coherent theme wrt to eloping lol)

Bonus: oh god I really have to finish the voiceclaim video I was making. Premiere kept melting on me but I should probably let the world know chrome sounds like Donald Glover huh. The marshall lee to live action Simba pipeline.....

Bonus 2: @teddymedley suggested "Ratchet" by Bloc Party, with the phrasing "subject matter younger chrome sound older chrome" which I like!

[Tabitha Boss]

1. "Cable Rat King" by Gem Milsom (this one genuinely feels like a solid choice to me. It's polite and tentative and about depressive spirals, and is from the same album as the Number One Main Labyrinthine song, Pipes. That animatic will exist someday too I promise)

2. "This too shall pass" by OK GO (Preferably the brass band version. I think Tabitha would adore their videos, he'd be delighted by the moving parts and generally light tone. Also, Labyrinthine has a different "this too shall pass", being by Danny Schmidt)

3. "When will you die?" By TMBG (goofy song. But you get it.)

4. "Zeroes" by Spacehog (Spacehog again 👍)

Bonus: Jimmy buffet discography. He is living on island time baby

Bonus 2: @teddymedley assigned "Happy Hour" by Eels and I think the strange upbeat lethargic energy fits

[Lavender Wafeu]

Lavender is really funny because I honest to god don't think she listens to much music. This means I barely associate music with her apparently.

However @teddymedley did suggest "Black Rainbows" from Hawaii: Part 2, and I think that's better than any of my previous notes. Those previous notes being entirely the words "Little shop of horrors". She, Knives and Mafioso do also share an association with "Panda Hero" by Hachi but that's more visual to me?

I have however begun associating some Zelda OST tracks with her though... Hmmm....!

[Markus Felidae]

This poor bastard has shed and gained characterisation recently enough to have shook the MCR out of their system.... I don't have all that much for them.

Now. Hm. I think I'd have to go with some very on the nose musical tracks? My mind immediately goes to the opening track to Disney's Notre Dame, and maybe like, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer from Cats? These are such dreadful picks lol. Sorry buddy, characterisation overhaul syndrome. They probably also would listen to P!ATD same as Ali though so do with that what you will.

Bonus: in Markus' earliest iteration over 10 years ago..hrm. long story short, 121 guns is so fucking unfitting but it's lodged there forever lol

[Lupus Felidae]

Lupus is associated in my head with the kind of dub anime opening best codified by 4kids era Pokémon. Like the ideal song here is that one from Yugioh. "No matter what"? That kind of cheese and boyish power of friendship. "OK!!" From the JP endings of anipoke goes here too it's cute to me.

"I can go the distance" from Disney's Hercules is also up there for the same vibes. She's just silly and having fun!

Bonus: "Don't let's start" by TMBG is a Miao song to me, but in relation to her family. So it's also Lupus and Markus' by association.

[Ess Somil]

The idea of an ess playlist is hysterical to me. I feel like it's a Mother 3 battle theme in that man's head all the time. What's your time signature boy.

Anyway, "Numbers" by Neil Cicierega. Since it is overwhelming enough of a soundscape. Or just "Doctor Worm" by TMBG. For that they live in the soil.

.... And that's probably enough!!! This ask is very long now! Sorry it took a while to answer lmaooo. I've been very busy but it's been nice to chip away at during my downtime! Thank you so much for the questions :)