#legit no hate to the design itself

[soft-leons-art]

That moment when you really don't like the Nexus design choice sm that it temporarily pulls you out of your break and you sit down to make a whole new design

[gartenofbanny]

Barbie Wire..oh boy what a mess she is. Barbie Wire isn't that much of a mess because of how she's written, she's a mess because of how little she has. Out of all the antagonists in Helluva Boss, Barbie Wire has the most missed opportunities, which is sad to even think about. This is a character that has been recognized by the fandom ever since the pilot was released yet in her debut she has lesser screentime than Verosika Mayday. Who knew that Blitzo's ex would get more screentime than Blitzo's actual relative, but screentime isn't the only problem I have with this character. Viv and her crew had a couple opportunities to mention or show Barbie Wire in previous episodes or even outside the show, but they didn't for some reason. Despite Viv stating that Helluva Boss mainly centers around Blitzo and his history, they never expanded on Barbie Wire, who is Blitzo's sister.

The Circus

The Circus was the first episode in Season 2 showing Blitzo and Stolas as children. While most of the episode centered around Stolas and Blitzo, we got to see Blitzo's childhood for the first time. What his occupation was, how his father treated him, his relationship with Fizzarolli, and how he first met Stolas...wait..that's it. Those were the only things we actually saw in The Circus.

Despite literally being Blitzo's twin, Barbie Wire wasn't shown or mentioned once throughout this entire episode. They instead gave that sibling-like role to Fizzarolli who isn't even related to Blitzo at all. Barbie Wire wasn't even mentioned by Cash Buckzo when he tried to convince Blitzo to steal from Stolas' home.

There were people assuming that this character right here is Barbie Wire, but different horn patterns. So an episode showing Blitzo's childhood for the first time doesn't even show Barbie Wire once, what a great start.

Lack of Hype

Barbie Wire had very little hype for her character as time was going on. Viv and the other creators did very little to showcase her or even try to make an attempt to hype her up, the fandom has acknowledged and appreciated Barbie Wire's existence more than the creators themselves have. Let that sink in.

For this section, I'm gonna bring up a character that actually had hype and that's Andrealphus. Now personally, I don't believe Andrealphus was planned until Season 2 was being developed because you'd think a character like him would be mentioned way more especially by Stella in Season 1. Anyway, Andrealphus had some hype surrounding him with his design and role released in February 2022

And in one of the teasers of Western Energy, we actually get a gif of his Frozen-themed birthday cake-shaped manor hyping up his character even more. While he was underwhelming as hell in his debut, people were looking forward to the episode just to see him for the first time.

Are there any gifs featuring Barbie Wire for Unhappy Campers? No, there aren't. The only gifs that advertise Unhappy Campers are three gifs of Moxxie and Millie in their mediocre human disguises.

People only knew that Barbie Wire was going to be in this episode due to a teaser trailer for Helluva Boss that was released last year. I'm pretty sure some folks didn't even know that Barbie Wire was even gonna be in this episode getting into it.

I almost forgot to mention, the latest merch sale for Helluva Boss completely forgot to mention the new Barbie Wire pin that was released. Not sure how the hell they missed that, but I'm pretty sure it was intentional.

Very little screentime

Barbie Wire does not have much screentime and the screentime she does have doesn't really explain much of her character. Half of her screentime consists of her fighting Moxxie and Blitzo and the other half of her screentime consists of her shit talking Blitzo and we don't have a clue as to why she hates his brother.

Barbie Wire has more screen time being mentioned by Blitzo and other demons than she actually appearing in the episode itself. Hell Barbie Wire legit has more screen time just being featured in posters or being mentioned by other characters in previous episodes than she does in her actual appearance in Unhappy Campers overall.

Remember when the robotic version of Fizzarolli was introduced in the beginning of Loo Loo Land and was the antagonist throughout the entire episode. What the hell happened to that? Oh I know, Helluva Boss as of recently loves to maintain two or three plots which makes the pacing out of order which as a result makes the character screen time shorter.

Lady Blitzo

Personality-wise, Barbie Wire is just Blitzo but female. She uses her body to manipulate people to get what she wants, works for an illegal business, hates damn near everybody, is violent as hell, and blames others for her failures. There are very few differences between Barbie Wire and Blitzo, I know that there probably are differences but I don't know what exactly those differences are because we don't know a lot about Barbie Wire. More on that later.

Her Human Disguise

I never had a problem with Barbie Wire's true form because I don't care about her looking exactly like Blitzo. She's literally his twin, why wouldn't they look the same? It is one thing for Crimson and Moxxie to look alike since they're father and son, but it's understandable that Barbie Wire looks like Blitzo.

wait did Barbie Wire get a redesign?

But what isn't understandable or even makes sense is Barbie Wire's human form looks very similar to Velvette as a Sinner.

Why does Barbie Wire, a Hellborn demon from Helluva Boss look somewhat like an older version of Velvette a sinner from Hazbin Hotel? This is the second new character in a row who looks like an already-designed character. And like the 5th character overall who has a design similar to a previously made character.

And why the hell are her forearms so huge but everything else is thin? I know Blitzo has big forearms but isn't he also muscular? It makes some sense with his build but Barbie Wire isn't muscular at all. She's literally a fallen-off pop star junkie.

Vivziepop has been drawing and designing for almost a decade as a hobby and as an occupation yet she can't make a design that doesn't have remnants of an already-made design. Too many characters look similar to each other in both Hazbin and Helluva that sometimes you forget who is who.

They can literally do so much with Barbie Wire's human disguise, but they just made her look like Velvette but skinnier.

Lack of character story

There's..not much to Barbie Wire that actually answers questions that people had. The most popular one being, "Why does Barbie Wire hate Blitzo?" In Unhappy Campers we don't get a reason as to why Barbie Wire hates Blitzo, we just know that she hates him for some reason.

I still can't with Blitzo's puppy dog eyes

At least when Verosika made her debut in Spring Broken we're given a few lines as to why Verosika just despises Blitzo. Blitzo ran away with her car all the way to Wrath and maxed out her credit card on horse riding lessons and possibly never came into contact with her again up until Spring Broken. And in Ozzie's we're given even further clues as to why Verosika hates Blitzo as she literally insults him in the last few lines of her portion of "House of Asmodeus". But with Barbie Wire, Blitzo's blood related twin sister, we get nothing. We just know that she hates Blitzo and never wants to speak with him again.

We don't even know anything about her personally either. What was her relationship with Fizzarolli like? What was her relationship with Verosika like? Why did Verosika insult her? How did she obtain an Asmodean Crystal? All of these questions, no canonical answers. Just fan theories and speculation which..is a huge ass problem with Helluva Boss and to an extent Hazbin Hotel too.

Conclusion

Barbie Wire is unfortunately a wasted potential and a huge missed opportunity writing wise and at this point I'm not even looking forward to the new characters at this point especially the female ones because I know the writers won't do the characters any good. Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day!

[beautifulpersonpeach]

A few days ago I responded to an ask, explaining that Korean K-pop stans overall are the more intense version of whatever you see on the international side, and that one way k-fans perceive international fans is that international k-pop stans are easier to manipulate and rile up.

For anyone who is aware of the subway scare and the supposed link to ARMY and BTS, pay very close attention to what’s happening right now as a case study demonstrating what I wrote, happening in real time.

As a quick overview:

1 - This happened about an hour before Yoongi’s live where he showed his tattoo

*

2 - About an hour after this happened, an ARMY coming back from Yoongi’s concert, watching his livestream on their way home, reacts to his tattoo by screaming while in the subway. They record themselves and post the video on Twitter. The tweet itself is deleted now so I can’t link it, but I’ll link the OG video in point 5.

*

3 - After that ARMY posted their reaction to Yoongi’s tattoo, this Korean k-pop stan claims a fan screamed next to them on the train and caused panic and a stampede. This account’s most recent activity is from 2022, but the first thing they tweet in 2023 is that an ARMY caused a stampede because of Yoongi. Okay.

*

4 - One of the followers of that account then retweets that account to post an edited version of the ARMY reaction video, blurring out the reaction on the train, and further linking the two events (1) an ARMY screaming about Yoongi, (2) a resulting stampede that needed police intervention. This video is then used as the basis for user posts and articles written on k-blogs which then get translated as user posts on Allkpop and Pannchoa.

*

5 - For reference, this is the OG video from that ARMY showing what actually happened on the train. Note how there’s no panic in the train.

***

Basically, two events separated by about an hour are conflated on purpose by linked anonymous accounts on the Korean side, quickly translated into English and spread on the international side through k-pop gossip blogs like Allkpop, which Korean soft media (blogs etc) then picks up and takes as further credit to the underlying claims, though those claims are false.

And voila, a scandal is born.

Now, this isn’t to say BTS, ARMY, and people affiliated with them never do anything wrong and can never have a legit scandal. For example, I think anybody screaming for no good reason in a packed subway train is an idiot and should face some kind of consequence if harm is caused. But that’s not what happened here. What that ARMY did was stupid but harm wasn’t caused and Korean antis instead used it as an opportunity to link BTS with an incident that happened an hour earlier.

Occasionally, some of you might’ve seen me write about ‘manufactured controversy’ before, usually in passing when discussing something else. I remember I’ve mentioned it a few times such as during Jimin’s missed insurance payments scandal, during Jungkook’s Itaewon scandal, and also Min Heejin re: NewJeans (after just 5 minutes of looking at the original claims in Korean. The only thing holding the majority of the claims against MHJ together is sheer willpower and vibes atp). Someone has also asked me about hate ‘slave rooms’ before (context was Twice attacked by slave room hate) and I responded that hate in Korea towards people in the k-pop industry, is incredibly organized and insidious. And the bigger the target, the bigger the fall and the bigger the payout.

Please keep that in mind when you read shit online. Keep your eyes open and your wits about you. Become more media literate and learn how to think for yourself. Seriously. Because in this machine called k-pop, nearly everything about it is designed to suck you in till you have no idea which way is up. Pay attention, please.

2026 is still a long way off and we’ll have many incidents like this before then.

Good luck everyone.

[bibibbon]

What MHA's lacks: world building part 2

I have already talked about this topic before but I mainly focused on the world building of Japan as a society itself .

Now I wanted to talk more about the MHA world building outside of Japan. When it comes to world building outside of Japan all we have are the MHA movies (which are somehow canon but the timeline for them makes no sense to me) and the whole interaction with star and stripes/USA.

Obviously we were gonna get a look into heroics and heroes outside of Japan after the war arc (it was inevitable especially with Japans need for foreign help) but I can't help to say that the little amount of world building outside of Japan that we got was lacking to say the least.

America or star and stripes. It was obvious that we would be getting heroes from around the world but I really hated how the idea of America and American heroes was something that was heavily sterytopical (maybe Iam thinking too deep into it 🤷‍♀️) but I don't like how star and stripes legit had her costume based on the American flag (I know it's supposed to be like all might). To me star and stripes felt like such a rushed plot point who is just the female version of all might that lacks all the character depth and wasted potential that all might has. The idea of America actually having a military is very interesting but it's never expanded on why or how they have a military. How is a military army any different than quirked heroes? We just saw them operate various airships and that's it for them 🤷‍♀️. I personally think we should of gotten an idea or at least a view as to why there is a military for example, America has a military and heroes whereas Japan uses heroes as soldiers and entertainers. Star and stripes should of been introduced way earlier in the series because she is the number one in USA and everything about her is heavily inspired by all might so we could of seen bits of her after all mights retirement and whatever relationship she had with all might because everything about that plot point of foreign American military and heroes was so vague and needed expanding.

I-island. I love the concept of i-island even if it's introduced just in a movie (I think it should of been a canon manga plot point), if you think about it having an island that focuses on the creation and progression of technology and it being like a very high tech island is a very interesting idea. What type of Industries are in i-island? The population is well off due to the island being very neutral in political ideals and is considered a place of education and technology. You could of had it to be an area that has a very low crime rate because everyone is open to the same opportunities and the small population makes it so that people are very connected to eachother. I-island could also be a place where heroes are sent to train and usually go to find a support company to work with.

Other heroes. When it comes to the whole world of MHA there are a lot of heroes from many different places but I don't necessarily like their character design like is it only me who finds it weird that pro hero native (who is a Japanese citizen) has a hero costume that is of native Americans? Or when showing us a hero from Egypt their costume was a literal pharo?. I feel like horikoshi could of been more creative when it came to showing other heros form other parts of the world and their costumes. I am not totally against having heroes that share and represent parts of cultures but if it's done in a way where it's just them wearing a very sterytopical costume then what's the point ?!?!? Sure you can make a character who does wear a very sterytopical costume and profits off other peoples culture to show how hero society is messed up and actually critique something like that but we don't see that and I think that's wasted potential.

Political relations and political differences. Every country is bound to have a variety of different political relations and differences so this could be difficult to explore if you try and include every single place in the MHA world. However, the building up if the war arc and the aftermath we should of seen Japan's political relations with other countries. Did other countries offer aid in anyway? Did they send out something akin to peacekeepers to the field? Or something of the sort. Is there even a party or organisation that connects other countries together in a tien if crisis in MHA and did they refuse to help Japan because they feared AFO or something. I feel like this could of been an interesting plot point to explore but it's never mentioned best thing we get is one panel of a political saying something

Transfer students. I think it was a fantastic plot point to have pony as a transfer students in the heroics course but I just wish we got more of her. For example where did she live? How was her life before she came to Japan? How does she feel about everything? How was it for her and her family when it came to the war in Japan? Or how did they deal with the parent conference when she is a transfer student? Surprisingly, pony has more potential as a character and more plot points to explore than a lot of 1 A character but we don't get much of what goes on with her.

[whetstonefires]

so the op of that anti-voting post DMed me just now, transcript follows:

slash-dot-com

even if all democratic systems were inherently always going to be "inadequate" i think our american democracy is severely flawed in glaring ways, its just literally antiquated and i think there are much better democratic systems. our voting system is not representative of the people either, which almost everybody admits, i'm not saying theres some nefarious mastermind behind it, but it is a design flaw, whether the flaw was made on purpose or on mistake. its easy to quit american democracy because it doesnt even seem to Want you to participate, like from so many factors its difficult to engage with it in any meaningful way

whetstonefires

yeah it's not a fantastic system

it's just also pretty pointless to try to punish it for that by leaving it in the hands of people who hate you

it won't get its feelings hurt and try to woo us back

i used to be really mad about how stupid and ugly it is but the more history i've studied and the older i've gotten the more it's been like, oh human society is a clown show always

slash-dot-com

but for several election cycles the popular vote nor the general will of the people have even impacted the people who are elected, the people who hate us are in power because the system is designed to benefit them

whetstonefires

i mean?? biden did in fact defeat trump, and the democrats did make gains in congress in both the last two cycles

slash-dot-com

my vote in my state genuinely does not matter in federal elections, in local elections yeah sometimes it does, but there needs to be an overhaul on our democracy and its election process so its more reflective of the people. currently its so broken that voting legit doesnt change anything

biden sucks

whetstonefires

he sucks less than trump tho????

like to a screamingly significant extent

slash-dot-com

i'm trying to make a more general and large scale point than one single election cycle and sitting president

whetstonefires

and i've made my counter point which is that not voting is not a constructive response to the problem

slash-dot-com

doing other things than voting is just as effective if not more so than voting, so not voting in a broken democracy isn't nonconstructive

whetstonefires

and in fact the broad tendency of idealists and leftists to be disengaged from the political process because it's dirty and inadequate, especially at the local level, is the *cause* of many of the systemic problems

doing other things can be constructive, but not voting is a non-action

and advocating against voting is a *harmful* action

so it's not constructive

the other things and the voting are independent of one another

slash-dot-com

thats just really ill conceived, i'm honestly just surprised by that response, you should really think more deeply about this. i'm not sure what you think this way of thinking and approaching politics is accomplishing

and then i couldn't send anything else (it was going to be a ?? because that didn't really follow naturally but before they said that i'd been typing a bit listing all the voting-related activism that it made sense to dip on due to alienation from the process, because energy and funding better spent elsewhere etc, but opposing voting itself was not in the same category) because they blocked me, which is just rude. you started this conversation man!

also i can't figure out how to make tumblr let me block them back.

so i made a post about it lmao.

i still don't know what positive good they think arguing against voting is supposed to achieve. like why is that a good use of energy.

[wulvercazz]

grimmichigrimmichigrimmichi >:3333 (pairing meme)

heheh okay- so shiP IT ofc 😂 .. but here's the answers;

What made you ship it?

so... I have a very specific list of qualities I look for when it comes to my favorite male characters. And Grimmjow fit them all 😂💕

When I first watched Bleach the only thing I shipped was IchiRuki, bc naturally that was the only way to go for me tbh, but then Grimm appeared and I was obsessed. When it comes to otps for me, first I find a fave character, then I consider the possible pairings. Not any other way. And with Grimmjow... well the only option for me was Ichigo tbh.

Not to discredit any other Grimmjow ships, I've done a few of them myself, but with how passionately these two throw themselves at each other I truly couldn't look any other way. Lol

So tldr; Grimmjow's got slut potential and I dig that, and they're too into each other for me not to see "gay" plastered all over them 💫

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

Hmmm 🤔maybe how inherently feral it is, canon-wise. Also how harmonious their overall designs are together, there's nothing nicer than a pair that looks good together, at least as an artist. Also how easy they are (for me at least) to write/draw; I have a hard time focusing on one thing for long enough to get good at things (hence the many AUs lol!) so for me to have a ship I draw constantly for more than four years now... is truly astounding lmao. They helped me grow soooo much so they hold a dear dear place in my heart just bc of that alone.

And because of that last one: how easy it is to apply AUs to themmmm ;w;<33333 I can legit think of anything and make an AU out of it and not struggle too much to find the perfect place for them in it.

And also,, sort of fave sort of least fave- that it's not an overly popular ship in general (ik it's popular in the Bleach fandom itself, but rather; not popular like a ship from BNHA or JJK). Why; bc I get to have my quiet space where I draw all the ideas I want and yet have had verY few people throw insults at me for some of my darker stuff 😂 Bigger fandoms I've interacted with (as a viewer mostly) have had issues popping up left and right, people getting upset over dumb shit and letting that grow to huge proportions, "antis" everywhere... yeahhhh no thanks 😖

but also-- it gets verY quiet at times specially for someone who's so picky. Like, if I could find a fandom space like the exclusive bottom Bakugo enthusiasts I followed on twt (and even bought a whole zine about) but for GriMMJOW??? WOOF😭💕 so yeah,,, love-hate situation on this last bit lmaooo

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

A few 😂😭 everyone who's followed my art for a certain amount of time can probs tell how the 'tism really affects how I enjoy ships lmaoooo I have to enjoy them a very specific certain way so... that means I don't partake at all on a good few of the popular tropes for the ship. Some I can think of rn; damsel-in-distress!Ichigo, overly hurtful!Grimm (although this one is more old fandom I think 🤔? I remember, in a lot of fics back then, Grimmjow was portrayed a lot as this violent rapist adgdfddfdff not for me lmaoo), ofc top!Grimm, Grimmjow acting all macho relationship wise, and too much angst (I think this ship (and Ichigo in general lets be honest) can call for a lot of angst in fic so I totally get it- but ...meh, if it's not romaticized/sexualized angst, idc for it adgdfgf I don't like it when they actually suffer 😭)

OOH OH! ALSO --- making them OOC in AUs CAN be great actually (to me at least). I know a lot of people (not just here, but in any ship/fandom/etc) don't love OOC characterizations of their fave characters/ships (hence why it's a tag we use tbh) but I personally love that at times??? I won't do it all the time and all over the place... but AUs where there's space to make Grimm less violent? or Ichigo less friendly/loving??? While still within their canon character potentials--- hecC yes. >:)ccc

Also ofc; that I wish it was still common to tag ships as top-bottom like it is with HoEn/EnHo (bnha), VK/KV /trigun, KRBK/BKKR (bnha) etc or at least tag it some other way along the ship.... it would be sO much easier to filter out stuff i don't want to see instead of having to mute/block a whole person I would still love to see stuff from.

BuT I am aware most have no preference whatsoever lmaO so... yeah nothing I can do there except not follow people pfFFF 😂😭 (and wait until I find peeps with similar tastes aasdfs)

[genericpuff]

I always enjoyed reading LO, though as of late I've gotten more critical of it and aware of the flaws in storytelling, art, pacing, etc (one can still like trash while recognizing it's trash, I guess), and it's been super weird being the only one in my friend group who's not seeing it as this perfect flawless comic anymore. Your retelling so far has been super refreshing and a joy to read, the art and character design is recognizable yet distinct and great on its own (I LOVE YOUR DIONYSUS SO MUCH HOLY CRAP HE'S SO GOOD), and like... I'm interested in where things are going! It's fun reading this! I still do enjoy LO (maybe it's the sunk cost fallacy, idk), but I'm invested in your version so much more now. So thank you for your work, it's really great :)

I know the story is focused more on H&P than the mostly cast of side characters, but are there any other myths that might get revisited as well? Eros/Psyche, maybe Ariadne since Dio is here...?

Absolutely, I say it a lot when the topic of "LO stans vs. LO critics" comes up but none of the criticism is meant to be persuasive debating, while it can be frustrating to voice our criticisms and be met with "yeah well that's just your opinion", we're also not criticizing the comic purely to convince you that it's trash, we're legit just engaging with the comic in our own way. The best way any LO fan can react to it is either to acknowledge the criticisms and move on, or not go out actively seeking the criticism in the first place if it's something that bugs them. But in the end, no one is talking about the comic in this way as a means to strong arm people into riffing on LO, we'll still be talking about it way past everyone's bedtimes regardless of whether or not you chime in and/or agree. I think a lot of people who enjoy LO have a hard time separating those two things because they love the comic so much that any criticism is automatically flagged as "they're trying to make a hater out of me". And yeah, maybe we are a little bit (because it's fun to riff on this comic and the crit community has genuinely some of the nicest and funniest and most creative people I've ever met) but for the most part it's not our goal to make you hate the comic, we can't take your enjoyment of it away from you, even if you do recognize its flaws yourself. By all means, enjoy LO if you want to, we won't try and tell you not to! Just don't think that gives you permission to tell the critics to stop criticizing because that's a double standard we just ain't gonna stand for LMAO

All that aside, I'm glad you're enjoying Rekindled! As for the other stories, I'm trying to reel in Rekindled's plot to focus solely on H x P because I feel like that's what it should have stayed as. One of Rachel's biggest mistakes IMO was when she stated she "wanted to include as many myths as possible" because it's clear it's resulted in her prioritizing low effort Google-level lip service and Marvel-esque nostalgia referencing over telling an actual cohesive story. I'm taking a lot of the additional myths that Rachel tried to do in LO and leaving them on the cutting room floor, but when Rekindled is done, I'm hoping to pick up what was discarded and do them as little side stories after the fact. I feel like that's the best way to do it especially considering so many of the myths Rachel included didn't happen until after Hades and Persephone were married (including Eros and Psyche). I'd especially love to tackle Orpheus and Eurydice, it's one of my favorite myths :) Dio x Ariadne is also one I'm hoping to tackle, though that one I'll probably work more into Rekindled itself as Dio plays a huge role in Persephone's character arc, we'll see !

[franki-lew-yo]

I hate Disney's Mirrorverse so much. I have no words for how much it legit ticks me off and how I think it's an insult to even compare it to Kingdom Hearts, which isn't high art but was at least trying for something.

Kingdom Hearts, House of Mouse and other crossovers that really aren't all that good in retrospect but I find fun AREN'T 'better' because they're from my childhood and so couldn't be garbage. No, they are. The issue I have with Mirrorverse is the same issue I have with that awful Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers movie:

it's Disney selling you you're own fanfiction premises and making it so you don't have to think or be creative, snark on, reinvent or just have with these properties yourself. You have to do it under the lens of something they can sell to you.

Kingdom Hearts was only ever trying to sell you itself and the current Disney thing at the time, which was what was expected of it. House of Mouse was hokey fun with the Mickey gang and the catalogue of classic characters Disney had, which is why so many people like it. It's all made for money and profit and brand recognition come on Disney has always been this way it's what Walt would have wanted.

Mirrorverse is wearing the skin of a heartfelt fan design project to sell you a sandbox game where Disney makes your favorite characters OP Overwatch ripoffs, not you.

As YMS put it, Chip n' Dale is putting on the guise of being self-aware which actually just being references and mean interpretations of it's own characters. The Lonely Island was wasted.

And they're doing all this more than ever to have a deeper stranglehold on their fandom which they know will fork over money to them no matter what. That's what's not just slimey, like it's always been, but sinister about modern Disney.

I refuse to use that asshat Steven Crowder image meme here. You legit aren't changing my mind.

[f-smutt-fitzgerald]

Yo Daddy, you’re pretty messed up so I’m hoping you’ll respond. 😘

How would you reckon the TWST cast would murder someone they absolutely hate? With the intention of getting away with it (very important note)

Also, shower thoughts for Azul, if we vivisect one of his legs off, would he lose one tentacle or 3 or them?

I take it you're in a murder mood, you doin' okay bro...?

Gosh, the whole TWST cast? That's gonna take a lot of thought. Jeez this is going to be a long response... Let's see...

Heartslaybyul: Riddle is pretty studious and well read. I'm sure the murder itself would be one of passion and rage, probably violent and messy, but if no one else is around to witness it, he'd have a good enough knowledge on how to clean it up and properly dispose of the body.

Cater would use his clones to sneak up on and overpower the person, then the clones would help him clean up the scene and dispose of the corpse.

Trey, I'm getting a Sweeney Todd situation for him, bakes them into a pie, cooks up the body parts into different dishes for a feast. Would he ever actually kill anyone? I don't think so, but he's sly/secretly cunning enough to come up with the perfect crime I think.

Ace and Deuce would help eachother clean it up, Deuce probably drops a cauldron on someone or something, then they get caught because it turns out the person isn't actually dead after they think they've disposed of the "body" and/or they leave out like important pieces of evidence.

Savanaclaw: Leona turns them to sand. Like, on a beach.

Ruggie would use his signature spell to walk them off a cliff.

Jack, well he's a good boy, so while I'd see him breaking someone's neck or strangling someone to death in a fit of rage, he'd probably turn himself in right after.

Octavinelle: Gosh, look, if you've read Den of Beasts or Bloodlust, you probably know I've already put a lot of thought into how these fuckers would kill someone/dispose of a body... Lots of sea creatures in the ocean these boys could feed a corpse to. There's a lot of fucked up gangster shit you could come up with for the octotrio. I trust your imagination can come up with something, because the sky is the limit.

Scarabia: Kalim, again, a marshmallow, but hypothetically speaking, if someone *reaaaally* managed to piss him off, he would take them out into the middle of the desert and drown them with his signature magic, then let the elements take care of the body.

Jamil, how wouldn't he kill someone? Lol He'd probably use his signature spell to get the person to kill themself, making it a true and proper suicide that couldn't link back to Jamil.

Pomefiore: Vil, poison. He'd find a way that it wouldn't be traced back to him, maybe pin it on a crazed fan of the person he kills *cough cough* Neige *cough cough*. Even if Vil got caught, he'd use his influence to get out of any actual jail time.

Rook, well, The Most Dangerous Game is all that comes to mind, and given how in chapter 6 we find out how his family has like, actual hunting villas around the world, Rook would probably lure his enemy to a more remote villa and then proceed to hunt them down in a sadistic and fucked up game of cat and mouse. Let's be honest, he's definitely already done this, and his fucked up reasoning would be "your fear and passion to stay alive even in your dying breaths, that is the most beautiful thing any man can experience".

Epel, hit them over the head with a shovel or an axe, feed 'em to the pigs. He's a farm boy through and through, don't need to be more complex than that.

Ignihyde: Idia, ooh, my next story is gonna go into some fun ways Idia could kill people. For the sake of this question... He'd probably design a little assassin robot, maybe something that self destructs after the job is complete.

Ortho: Remember in the first Halloween event when Ortho was legit going to kill and probably vaporize those annoying magicam influencers? Yeah. That.

Diasomnia: I know the least about this dorm, but for Malleus, like, however he fuckin' wants, and like, who's gonna stop him? He could murder someone in broad daylight in front of a crowd of people and no one could do anything about it. Malleus would go home like nothing even happened.

Lilia, he's definitely assassinated people in the past, and murdered plenty in his war days. He could kill someone and leave no trace before flying away.

Sebek would kill anyone who so much as looks at Malleus weird. Disrespect Malleus, lose your life. Lilia would probably clean up after him.

Silver is probably fairly talented with a sword and probably learned a thing or two from Lilia about assassination. Similar to Sebek, he would kill for Malleus's sake, but would do so more out of honor and duty as opposed to blind, annoying devotion.

Now, for your question about Azul, I feel like his merman body would be almost a different entity from his human form, so like, if he lost a leg or tentacle in one form, it wouldn't show in his other form... But for this question, I'd say if he lost half of his human legs, then he'd lose half of his merman tentacles.

[pm1073-b]

Ok, I'm not directing this toward anybody (plus I said it on tiktok) and you can tell me if it's that bad, but i think people are exaggerating when they say the new Clone high episodes are bad.

"All the characters act one beat" almost like they are making fun of modern teen dramas

"They break up and get together so fast" like a teen drama

"Their designs are too bright" almost like how, just an example, modern teen dramas do. because they don't know what teens like to wear (also I'd wear, like, half of that and I'm legit the same age as them)

"All the jokes are about sex" I think at this point you might not have watched the series at all, nor know what TEEN FUCKING DRAMAS ARE

It is wild how many times I hear this shit. Especially after S3, it's like hating it is more interesting than the show itself. To me, I laughed at almost every episode. The jokes were funny to me, and, if they were mixed in with S1 jokes and shown to someone, they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

On top of that, people are hating on it for it being all the things I said (and more I didn't list) when the whole point is, and has been, to mock teen dramas of the time, and their overuse of meta humor.

I legitimately heard someone say "it's as bad as Velma" and I had to sit there for a moment. Velma, the show that is considered one of the worst shows on HBO Max. The show that made panic attacks out to almost (in my opinion) look like Schizophrenia mixed with an asthmatic attack. I have terrible anxiety that makes it impossible to talk to more than maybe five people a day before I shake and begin to tear up, and the worst my panic attacks get is pain in my chest and head. To relate Clone High to that makes me so pissed off.

Again, not directed towards anyone, but I really wish I was able to look at the CH tag without seeing fifty people go "THIS IS SO GARBAGE, WHY IS (Insert anything from the show here) SO BADDDDD?!?!?!?"

Maybe, and this is just a thought, but maybe the reason it's bad for you is because you're treating this show like it needs to be the next Bojack Horseman, when all it is, is Clone High.

[malicedafirenze]

so I finally got done watching S5 of The Dragon Prince and ghgnghghggngh why do I have such a mixed bag love hate relationship with this show (spoilers)

I want to love this show but there's so many things that just don't land and don't work, and yet here I am, hooked once again, because after 8 episodes of cringe humor and weird dialogue it fed me some crumbs of delicious Aaravos content.

I find so many of the accents so goddamn stilted and awkward. The french sun fire elves are the worst. I don't object to french-sounding elves in principle but dear lord does it sound unnatural and strained

SO much of the humor just does not land and the pacing of individual scenes is just ??? ATLA had some very kiddie humor here or there too, and I love the somewhat darker and more mature tone of TDP but jfc it feels like they need to hammer every joke home with so much time that you'd think they were planning for a laugh track

ep 8 and 9 were so much better than the whole rest of the season because once this show lets itself focus on action and drama, it's actually pretty fucking good, but for some reason you need to get through a first half season of awkward goofs.

Terry annoys me so much. Yay trans rep, but why the utterly random coming out out of nowhere (that was S04 I know but I watched it very recently okay) and his whole sounding like a therapist shit towards Claudia, like yes, it could be funny that this random wood elf does aroma therapy on his dark mage gf but everything somehow turns awkward in the execution

The library showdown was generally cool but the framing for why Amaya told them to leave without her was so fucking weird: you have this moment of Dragon Ex Machina, Zubeia wiping away the demon bears with ease, and then suddenly when Amaya is back in the frey after grabbing Bait, they're suddenly out of time and need to leave that instant??? Like I see what they were going for, obviously Zubeia was under real threat from the demon bears, but imo the framing/visualization of that threat did not work at all and I audibly went "WHY" at my screen at the random "you have to leave without me" thing.

That being said there's some shit that goes extremely hard and I'm here for it:

Rayla just fucking dismembering Claudia apparently wtf??

I enjoyed the sexy fish pirate man, I hope he survived getting eaten

I am an utter addict for Aaravos' voice and even the flashback repetitions in Janai's nightmares were legit enough to get my attention again

I am very excited for how someone is going to end up saving Viren's life against his will and I will gladly read fanfic of it

I had the 'our child' thing spoiled by being careless on tumblr but seeing it actually on screen was better than expected, love that for my OTP, toxic af parenthood is just what they needed

I really expected there to be more Aaravos since this show got renamed to Mystery of Aaravos false advertising smh.

They got creative with Dragon designs this season and I support that

out of all the things I found weird and cringe, I am 100% here for Zubaia getting randomly healed by a funky little gnome that calls himself the mushroom mage, 10/10 no notes

young viren hot

Rayla and Callum worked much better for me towards the end of the season when they got more comfortable with each other, love that for them, some delicious drama when the sexy fish man tortures them in front of each other, good for them, that's my shit

Considering all the things I liked about the last 2-3 episodes I feel nitpicky and weird for complaining about the first 7 or so but UGH it was a bit of a pain to get through them tbh. There is so much I deeply, deeply appreciate about what this show tries to do, as a high fantasy kids show with an overarching story, gorgeous visuals and explicit lgbtq and disability rep that I feel like an ass for complaining about it so much, but god damn there are so many things that are just unbearably cringe about it and OH MY GOD I just remembered the god damn "maybe you should express your love like a bee, here just move your tushy like that" scene holy FUCK can someone please give me an edit of this show with about three times the Aaravos screentime and all this second hand embarassment removed

[dam-peace]

Apologies for my very long rant. I have alot to say unfortunately.

So I just read the new teasers for both V.V and A.B.O and holy smokes were they good. I loved your writing before don't get me wrong. It took me by surprise and God's was it very... descriptive lol but I loved it!! And I still do.

I tried every variation of the replies MC could've given and they are all so unique personality wise that I know you put so much work into it. Some dialog made me legit 🤭 I loved how humorous and also deadpan it can be.

Also thank you for adding more available for all gender ROs to V.V not that it's a criticism for A.B.O just as someone that usually romances as a MLM it's just super awkward even fictionally to romance a female RO when you simply just can't relate? When you are romancing the opposite gender. I hope that makes sense. And then on A.B.O I appreciate the secret RO then being a MLM romancer only. Tho with my luck it's gonna end up being a villain 🤣

What else was there... oh when it comes to A.B.O am I right in saying Hex and ghost aren't romancable character? They didn't have any MC romance related info in their details.

Lastly I know this has been a long time in the making and honestly you are a very talented writer. I hope you do realize that when things get a bit much writing wise. I cannot wait to read the demo when you release it and I truly hope you get so much more recognition because your work speaks for itself. You havw a major fan in me. 😇

Have a good evening/ whatever time of the day you end up reading this. ♥️

First of all your "rambling" was incredibly sweet and certainly brought a smile to my face. So please don't apologise and thank you so much for your kind words, it just warms my little heart🥹🩷

Also, I'm happy that I was able to broaden my horizons and give players more access to each RO. And in your case that would be MLM RO's so I'm incredibly happy about that, representation is a really big thing for me. And I'd hate to leave certain groups out of the whole gaming process if I can help it. (Also, the secret M RO couldn't possibly be a villain 😂.....or could be? 😳🫢👀)

And yes you're correct, Hex and Ghost are not RO's they were never designed with that in mind. Which will become evident later on, when it's shown in game that Hex is actually 14 and Ghost is 13. Whilst the MC is 16, as well as the other RO's. Apart from Zero and Viper who are 17, so that's a definite no.

And once again, thank you SO much for sending this message in. Like seriously I almost teared up reading this and I'm very much not a crier. Things have been piling on top of me lately, so it's really nice to have words of encouragement every now and then.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work, for your continued support and just simply by taking notice of a little writer like me. Love you, and have a GREAT day/evening 🩷🩷🩷

[that-bipolar-mood]

Any tips/advice for peeps who just got diagnosed? Searching for information in the void is …. 😵‍💫

Heyhey, let me just say, welcome :) it means a lot that you turned to me. I'll give my best, but keep in mind I'm not an expert (and this could be ten times as long).

Okay, first of all...know that what you're doing (seeking info) is amazing, sadly sometimes rare, so I commend you for that.

I'd go through some legit sources first. I highly reccomend dr. Kay Redfield Jamison's works (especially her autobiography An Unquiet mind, that helped me accept bipolar). And one that really is just a comfort ("comic")book for me is Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney. Another badass woman with bipolar was Carrie Fisher. You can look up her quotes and talks regarding the illness (truly amazing, 100% reccomend).

A good way to track everything (especially at the beginning) is a mood app. There are some designed for bipolar, but I used Daylio (simple and easy).

Then try to identify triggers (this comes gradually). Usually sleep changes are the first indication of an episode (often mania if sleep is reduced). Any sort of change is a potential trigger. Now you have to carefully watch yourself until you find yours (consult with a professional about them, if you can). The thing about bipolar episodes is that they tend to sneak up on you, and unfortunately not recognizing the obvious is in fact a symptom in itself.

Remember: prevention is your best asset. A full blown episode is always harder to treat, leaves more damage and lasts longer.

Find a routine that works best and try to stick to it. And seriously, stay on meds (if you have them prescribed).

...things that possibly await you are: love/hate relationship with medication, idealizing and longing for an episode (commonly euphoric mania), explaining things to people (realizing some are jerks, finding better ones), a vicious cycle of romanticising and cursing this illness, more medication and doctor problems, acceptance, stability, different views of the world, loving communities, awesome memes etc...

And lastly, patience. Honestly, it's hard and chasing stability can seem Sisyphus' work. But it's really just an illness, one part of you that might seem as big as an ocean (but that's a lie). You'll find there's lots of hope out there, wonderful medication and support. You are most certainly not alone, even when it seems so. 46 million people around the world are affected by bipolar disorder, we're all in this together and trust me on this, you'll never fight alone.

If you have any questions about something specific (therapy, "coming out" about it to others, more sources, just conversation...whatever really) don't hesitate to DM me.

Lots of love,

<3

[themetaisawesome]

I just finished the Caped Crusader, and here are my thoughts

The Good

.the overall aesthetics, designs, and lighting is top notch. It’s evocative of og btas without feeling like it’s just coping their homework. They stay pretty damn faithful to their 30s/40s setting and that work pays off.

.The score? Excellent!

.At first, I hated what they were doing with Dent, with his insufferable smugness. I thought they were going for a fully unsympathetic version at first, but they really turned it around. Heck, I wanna do a rewatch just to see how early Dent hints differently with the knowledge of where his story ends up going.

.The use of lesser known villains is great. I don't think they really missed with any of them. I was legit surprised that femPenguin worked as well as she did (almost wish we got more than one episode out of her). I don't want to spoil anything more, but this cartoon handled its villains mostly well.

.Most of the cast does great work

.Even though this show has a TV14 rating, they don't use excessive violence, sex, or swearing as a crutch like you might expect a tv show to do. Hell, there was hardly any of the 1 and 3, and none of 2.

.Thompkins has 4 Robins under one roof? Lol! (but keep them away from this Bruce, he doesn't deserve one yet)

The Mixed

.the script doctor who lives in the back of my head did chirp up a few times, but not too many

.I like the work that they put into Harley, taking the time to do some setup with her. I wish we could've gotten more of her manipulative side, the expert psychologist using the tools of her trade. The way she used Montoya like that? Honestly, one of the more despicable Harleys out there. But at the same time, the justification for this version's harlequin aesthetic is a stretch, and that 'Puddin' felt so damn forced.

.DON'T YOU BE FUCKING RUDE TO ALFRED, YOU GODDAMN EDGELORD BASTARD! Yeah, I know that this version of Bruce really leans into his antisocial mental problems, but still!

The Bad

.I am watching you like a fucking hawk, Timm. I don't care if this version of Barbara is a full adult with no paternal-esque relationship with Bruce, you put in any of that brucebabs shit again and I am dropping this show.

.a noticeable chunk of the animation is pretty stiff, primarily in the staging and movement. There are times in multiple episodes where certain characters look like they're animated in flash.

.Certain plotlines really felt like they needed more time to cook. As such, several emotional payoffs don't land as they should.

.I don't like how they made Bullock a crooked cop. Bullock is rough around the edges, but he's a good man. Imho, they should've used someone else or made an oc (John DiMaggio was a great choice to play him tho).

.I do not like this Batman's voice. There are a couple of aspects to the performance that work, but the voice itself is a dud. At best, it's ignorable when the surrounding episode is good enough

[loregoddess]

Faye from FE for the ask game? :)

First impression: I didn't have any strong feelings for or against her, although I wasn't wildly keen on her writing for my first run, but in the "wow, the writers really messed up" kind of way and not like, "wow this character sucks" kind of way. I did like her as a unit though, she was pretty strong even though I eventually benched her bc I stopped using pegasus knights late-game (which was the class I had her in my first run).

Impression now: One of my favorite FE characters like, ever. Which started off as spite, I will admit, because she got a lot of hate from the fandom, but unlike so many other characters/games where fans criticize the writers, they just went straight for Faye as a character which was ??? bc like, what little writing she gets outside of her crush for Alm is Fine Actually, and again, she's a great unit in battle. So I decided that no actually I'm going to love this character, and then between critically reading her canon writing and coming up with my own headcanons and ideas for expanding her characterization, I ended up genuinely loving her a whole lot. Faye's great.

Favorite moment: This is hard bc again, *vaguely gestures at the game* she doesn't get a whole lot of screentime for anything, although I do appreciate that she comes to terms with her feelings towards Alm being unreciprocated, and is able to forge a friendship with Silque.

Idea for a story: Because I have this rarepair of Faye x Rinea (which was also born out of spite, I swear Echoes is actually tied for my top favorite FE game, I just also have a lot of spite in my heart I guess), I've been kicking around different ideas of how that could work in a mostly-canon but canon-divergent post-game story where Rinea is able to survive, and how Faye would help her along her healing journey while she also recovers from the war and comes to terms with her own feelings about Alm and stuff (and possibly have Faye help Sonya out with her witch recovery efforts in general), although I haven't gotten too far with any specific ideas to have a solid mental outline or anything.

A story exploring her life growing up with the other Ram kids would be pretty interesting too, although I'd probably get sucked into the research rabbit hole trying to learn about things like a complete history of farming and end up stressing about whether the fantasy farming village of Ram seemed like a legit farming community or not.

Unpopular opinion: I kind of feel like loving Faye is unpopular in and of itself, but yeah. Writing aside though, I do genuinely think Faye's a good character, like, from a visual design standpoint and also from a game mechanic standpoint, she's got a lot going for her. The writers did a poor job with her writing sure, but I think there's a lot of potential for her to be an interesting character in her own right.

Favorite relationship: Again, she doesn't get much, but I do like the friendship she has with Silque (and I don't mind the romantic ship of the two either even if it's not my first choice of ship for my own fleet), and I would have loved it if we got more insight into her relationships with the other Ram kids aside from Alm, bc I think there was a lot of missed potential there. Also, because Faye can be recruited to Celica's army instead, I would have loved if Faye had supports with at least Celica to explore what their relationship would have been like (I think they would have gotten along, even if Faye was a bit jealous of Celica at first). And well, of course my wild rarepair of Faye and Rinea.

Favorite headcanon: Hmm, I dunno if I have a favorite per se (since I mean, a lot of trying to expand Faye's characterization is just making stuff up that seems plausible), but I think since she was the only girl in a group of boys growing up that she's got sort of a rougher streak, like, she's willing and capable of throwing someone down in a fight, especially if they were picking on one of the other Ram kids (which could be reflected in her stats in the game, since she's pretty strong all things considered), and also due to Ram being a farming village she isn't really squeamish or icked out by things which some of the high born noble girls would have hated (bugs, dirt, mud, snakes, etc.). Like sure, Faye also enjoys wearing dresses and looking cute (she's very fashionable!) but she's also not really bothered by getting dirty and I'm very sure she probably picked up some critter out of Clair's tent one night with a slightly bored expression and released the poor thing outside. Hell, she'd even put some of the noble men to shame with her lack of fear of things that were normal everyday occurrences bc she grew up with a bunch of guys in a farming village (she's also definitely got some muscles as a result too). Also I think she makes all her own accessories by hand, and that she's overall very handy when it comes to sewing and crafts. I do think she's a bit of a picky eater though, not overly so, but just a bit.

[darthkvznblogs]

Total non sequitur of a question but what do you think of the DCEU?

I like the non sequitur! I hope y'all don't feel like you can only send me asks about the Kverse lol (though of course I'm always happy to answer those!)

I'll give you a very brief review of each:

-Man of Steel: I enjoyed it for the most part. I don't really gel with all the Jesus-y imagery, the bizarre choices with Jonathan, or the incredible amounts of collateral damage (you can't avoid everything but Superman would definitely try to limit it), but I kinda dig the look of all the Kryptonian stuff, I like Henry Cavill's more brooding Superman, and Zod was a cool antagonist.

-Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: wayyy too many things going on. I can't McFucking believe they made Jimmy Olsen a CIA plant and killed him off immediately. I don't completely hate that version of Lex Luthor but he gets grating pretty quickly. The Knightmare stuff is pretty eyeroll worthy IMO (especially once they double down on it later). The titular duel is pretty good, but very short, and leads into some of the worst stuff in the movie. Doomsday sucks!

-Suicide Squad: aside from some cool freaky stuff with Enchantress, and Viola Davis and Margot Robbie being great casting choices, this one's kinda nothing to me. Rick Flagg, Capt. Boomerang and Deadshot are various flavors of decent to good. Tried to do a Guardians of the Galaxy-y thing and failed miserably. Top contender for worst Joker adaptation of all time.

-Wonder Woman: Great, if very simple plot-wise. The Ares stuff at the end really lets the rest of the movie down, but most of the movie's very cool and fun. I still get chills from the no man's land scene! Chris Pine's Steve Trevor is pretty damn good (but Chris Pine is just good in general)

-Justice League (Whedon's version): I actually like the choice to have a more colorful look for a Justice League movie, but yeah, not good. To say nothing of the behind the scenes drama, they tried to do what the MCU did with the Avengers with half the build-up. Doesn't feel earned at all. Some good action and character interactions, but that's about it.

-Aquaman: Pretty fun, I really appreciate the commitment to being just kinda bonkers, from the more comic-accurate looks to the ginormous underwater battle. I don't really love Momoa's Aquaman but I didn't mind him too much on his own.

-Shazam!: One of my favorites in the DCEU. Doesn't overcomplicate itself, doesn't exhaust itself with references to other stuff, just a good story about found families with real heart, some good humor, and a decent villain.

-Birds of Prey: Other than the bizarre choice to give Cassandra Cain's name to a character that couldn't be more different, I fucking love this one. Very fun, great action, and it reminded me I have a crush on Mary Elizabeth Winstead lol

-Wonder Woman 1984: Sucks. I hate to say it, I went in thinking I'd really enjoy it but it was genuinely painful to watch for the most part. Not even the power of Pedro Pascal and Chris Pine combined could save this one.

-Zack Snyder's Justice League: Definitely an improvement overall compared to the theatrical release, but dear lord it did not need to be 4 hours long. Flash's turn-back-the-clock gambit was super cool. Legit kinda ruined by the Joker monologue in the Knightmare, lol.

-The Suicide Squad: Didn't watch it! I saw how bloody and murder-happy it'd be and just shrugged and moved on. I'm sure it's as good as people say, but I'd have to be in a very particular mood to wanna watch it, tbh.

-Black Adam: Enjoyed it quite a bit, though the presence of the JSA in the modern day with very little explanation is a bit jarring. The Rock's Black Adam is a bit too heroic and personable for my tastes but brutal enough that I'm okay with it. Kinda loved Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate (except for the suit design, I hated it)

-Shazam! Fury of the Gods: Haven't watched it yet, but I don't hear great things about it, so not super enthused about it. Probably will watch it eventually.

-The Flash: I categorically refused to watch this one because 1) I got spoiled on what happens to Supergirl and y'all know I love Kara so it pissed me off, and 2) the CGI nostalgia fest felt extremely cynical and cash-grab-y to me. Not particularly interested in watching this one, but maybe someday.

-Blue Beetle: Gods, I really wanted to watch this one in theaters. It was in my town for all of two days and I couldn't go :( I plan on watching this one soon-ish - even if it's really bad I'll probably enjoy it, I'm a Jaime simp haha :P

-Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Genuinely didn't know this one was coming out. Also not particularly interested in watching it, but also not against it, so I'll probably end up putting it on some really boring weekend hahaha.