#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

[upsidedownsmore]

I won't lie I nearly fell into disliking this quest after seeing so much reactionary negative feedback immediately afterwards, but posts like these have helped me appreciate the quest better and calm down from that initial spike in discourse. I know that's still me building my opinions off of the opinions of others, and I really do need to examine my own susceptibility to being easily convinced, but actual constructive discussions and breakdowns over the last few days have helped assure me that no the quest is not some problematic mess actually, as some made it out to be.

I do still believe the somewhat vague writing that Warframe usually has may not do it favors when paired with what can be seen as a harmful trope in other media when viewed from a glance, and the game progression structure/narrative of gathering warframe blueprints and parts to pilot copies of them can be seen as rubbing against the nature of Jade's story in a potentially disturbing way. I think those things could have been handled better with more time to handle those nuances. But in the end, while I feel the empty spaces in the story can be interpreted badly if twisted enough, what the story does say tells a clear message of love and respect in the strangest of circumstances and tragedies, even if it doesn't line up with some of our ideal scenarios or comforts.

I'm glad that, at least personally, my view has stabilized, and it seems that the view of the community here in general has begun to stabilize as well. I'm happy to take in the designs these artists have made with a clearer head, and I hope they have not experienced too much turmoil following the release of their hard work. I'm sure there will still be people unhappy with the quest for a variety of reasons, but I hope people have begun to understand this quest as not some misogynistic fever dream cooked up by the same writers and creative directors and studio that has brought us the rest of Warframe prior.

possible spoilers for Warframe: Jade Shadows ahead

i wish people would stop, take a breath, and actually think about jade shadows from an analytical place before they leave their reviews rather than just going "i think it's icky" because like. obviously it isn't perfect, i don't think anyone's arguing that, but it isn't gross or wrong- it's art, it's evocative, and it's going to resonate differently with everyone. i want to pick apart some common criticisms i've seen here from the perspective of someone who's played a lot of warframe and thought about some of the heavier themes present in the quest quite a lot.

It's weird that Jade is pregnant because I'm afraid of it/it's gross/it's fetishistic

Personal feelings of revulsion are not a reason to judge something on an objective level. It's perfectly valid to come out of Jade Shadows feeling weird about it- I do think that's kind of the point. The quest has a content warning before you begin it, because the subject matter is something that is really uncomfortable for a lot of people- that doesn't mean that the game shouldn't be allowed to explore it. Also, even if it was wrong to include something like this as fetish content, this argument would imply the game has already gone to weirder places. Looking at you, Grendel.

It's weird that they make the operator give birth via transference

This argument has a little more ground, but also kind of misunderstands how transference works. Yes, it is a hand-wavy "linking of the minds," but we do see clearly in quests like The Sacrifice that when linking with the more sentient frames like Umbra for the first time, the Operator is not fully controlling the frame. I think Umbra is the most appropriate comparison- when linking with Umbra properly for the first time, you don't immediately control Umbra- it's a more spiritual "linking souls helping him find peace" thing. I'd also say that even in the case the Operator was fully in control, I don't think what happened was remotely equatable to literally giving birth. Like. She breathed for 20 seconds and then dissolved into light and died, then there was a baby there. I don't know if you've ever seen a birth, but that isn't how it works. I feel like after all the shit our Operator has been through, "giving birth" through transference is kind of a drop in the bucket.

It's misogynistic to have Jade die in childbirth

????????

Ok. So let's pick apart the possible reasons that this would be misogynistic. Maybe fridging the woman? But. Not really, because she isn't really gone- the game even acknowledges that she will live on through you and through the motes in Hunhow's message. You can literally craft her and then boom, she's back. She may not have a gigantic speaking role, but no warframe does- hell, even the Stalker barely grunts out single words.

Another one I see a lot is the argument that her sole role in the quest is the whole "her whole personality is motherhood" situation- and that is fair, her role IS that- but that is the point of the quest. They hid this in the teasers because they wanted the reveal to be significant, not to intentionally obfuscate their misogynistic writing- while I certainly do agree that it is all too common for female characters to be pushed aside and relegated purely to motherhood, particularly in fandom spaces but that's an entirely different discussion. I think Warframe handled the motherhood issue well- a person used as a tool of unjust death for years (remember the Jade Light?) giving her own life to finally bring life into the world rather than taking it away- it clearly had purpose and thought behind it, and Warframe has already spent years providing female characters that don't revolve entirely around motherhood- though they aren't pushed into your face and provided immediately without any exploration, so it makes sense that some people on Tumblr would miss them. Warframes don't generally have fully fleshed-out personality- the more sentient frames like Dante and Umbra are an exception. Jade was on the verge of death, it's not shocking that we didn't see much of her personality. I don't doubt that we'll get some codex entries explaining more of her actual personality and story- the quest was just not the place and time.

At the end of the day, Warframe is a game about love, family, and sacrifice. Jade Shadows ticks all 3 of those boxes, probably in the most on-the-nose way we've seen yet. I'd love to make a post soon lauding the things I liked about it, the real narrative depth it presented, the meaning behind and the significance of the discomfort rooted in its themes, and its connections to Warframe's broader themes, but I've seen more negativity than positivity thus far which is... genuinely shocking. When I played it I had nothing but praise. Warframe's writing is usually a bit clunky, so I hadn't noticed anything particularly out of the ordinary, but a lot of people seem genuinely convinced that this expansion was somehow the worst we've ever seen when that is far from being the case. Operation Belly of the Beast has been a ton of fun, and the seeming finite nature of what's left adds a real gravitas to farming for Jade. I'm not shocked the quest itself felt a bit half-baked, I'm surprised they released this at all with 1999 coming up- I'm just happy to get some new content and a new frame whose concept I really enjoy.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

"gestures & sounds & nonverbal communication is (no tech) AAC. (AAC = augmentative & alternative communication. nonverbal communication = communication without words/language, not communication from nonverbal people)

"texting, writing, posting on social media, all actually accepted versions of AAC."

or thjs very old post from 2023 by assistiveware, an AAC company, creator of proloquo series:

[ID: screenshot of @ AssistiveWare instagram post. post itself is light purple background with dark purple text. bold text read “Social media, texting and tweeting are basically large scale socially accepted AAC systems." below that not bold text say " - Saoirse Tilton, AAC user." at very bottom have AssistiveWare contacts and logo. end ID]

are all things have heard people say when try explain to people who have no idea what AAC is.

is this true? are these AAC? are people who use these thus AAC users?

other AAC users may feel differently, n by no means am dictator of AAC, but as someone who nonverbal full time AAC user, personally really hate this, disagree - or at least disagree w this unnuanced explanation, especially when use with beginners or people who never in their life heard acronym AAC. find it counter productive, even more harm than good.

or, say different, personally: gestures, body language, mouth sounds, drawing, texting, writing, social media, these not AAC by default. in certain situations/context, AAC users may use these as AAC or AAC-adjacent (context-dependent, user-dependent). but saying “all these AAC” without more explain & nuance, false & irresponsible.

because, again, AAC, stand for augmentative and alternative communication. or, put into sentence, typically seen as "non-oral/mouth speech communication that augment (add to) and/or use as alternative to (replace) oral/mouth speech."

(* say "typically" because there people who can't spell thus can't type, who use button-based AAC to replace that. but this typically not what people mainly mean when say "AAC")

but, include & on top of all that, in current world AAC have extra layer of connotation (idea/ feeling/association on top of what it literally mean) of... it not standard. it not typical. it not the norm. it transgressive. people/norm expect something. u giving them another.

for better—me be nonverbal AAC user do make me different than verbal people, do give me different access needs, in world not designed for me. it make me different (unique). n want that difference acknowledged, instead of toxic positivity assimilation "you just the same" out of pity only

or for worse—be treat as second class citizens. oral speech be seen as better than AAC. have communication AAC not listened to or thrown out, which some AAC users have experienced in legal/law/police/abuse report situations. we treated differently (worse).

people whose mouth speak works won't use AAC. AAC is what come next when that not work or may not work.

different (positive). different (neutral). different (negative).

transgressive.

.

people w complex communication needs, n by extension AAC users, we treated horribly by society & by people in society. we get teased, bullied, ignored, abused, abused & not able communicate it, but we not just get mistreated on individual-level. often we denied right to communicate, right to education, n other human rights. many of us forced to live in silence, because we not given communication tools, or support for develop communication. sometimes police, testimonies, & official legal records not see our AAC communication as real communication.

our non-oral speech communication get seen as less legit than oral speech. other people’s oral speech get automatic listened to before our own. we denied communication tools that may help us thrive because people around us want us to speak orally & think any other tool will take away our hypothetical chance to talk fluently reliably via mouth.

everyone communicate in variety of ways. body language on purpose, body language not on purpose, gestures, pointing, vocal sounds, drawing, writing, texting, via showing pictures. for most verbal people, these communication are normalized. no one bat an eye when person giving speech use body language persuade audience, or when you show friend picture of your lunch when you struggling explain it. but us, who can’t fully rely on oral speech, we need rely on these more. heavier. more intentionally. more on purpose. but ours gets dismissed. gets ignored on purpose.

so, really do understand trying to reframe AAC to people who not know what it is, or people resistant to it. that we all use it. that they use it. that they listen to other verbal people who using it. so ours should be listened to, too.

but that’s the thing: everyone communicate in variety of ways. n for most verbal people, those are normalized.

make text post in social media where expect text post norm is text post suppose to write text (may even not have audio option), and, use non-mouth speak communication (or not use mouth speak) in person when all people mouth talk all expect you mouth talk. fundamentally different.

second thing get you ableism. get make fun & mock at best, in conversation get ignored at best. at worst, get hate crimed, get killed, get wrong convicted, or in medical situation see as justify for not need consent or reason ignore what you say or reason declare incompetent.

first thing. well, who get be on social media full of privilege & discrimination, who get heard on social media full of that, who get bully & make fun of for writing "wrong" for content full of that (race, class, dis/ability, etc). but, struggle think of time where act of make text post on social media where expect post text post is.. that.

there difference between writing text post in tumblr or any text-based social media, or text fun friend group where you all miles apart n all texting, vs texting in group chat when sit irl with friend group who all orally talking, different, or person using letter board to spell out everything they want to say.

there difference between showing your friend picture of your dinner when it too complicated to explain n clearer in picture when you bump into eachother n start mouth chatting, vs using symbol based communication in high tech speech generating device or low tech picture cards, or even AAC user having unique relationship with art n see that as way of communicate.

maybe in another world or in future, second group get as normalized as first. but we not there. and AAC users who use most basic, fundamental, narrowest definition of AAC, we exist right now in real life, we not theory or theoretical.

in average face to face situation, even verbal person use more nonverbal communication than verbal ones.

are all communication that not oral speech, AAC?

trying to normalize AAC, but end up erasing our differences (differences can be factual. neutral.), assimilating us, turning a word that have specific meanings for us into something so wide, it useless to those of us who most impacted, those of us who need it.

there better way to explain we all use things other than oral/mouth speech to communicate than “they *are* AAC” for everyone, in every situation. (n yes, people DO say that)

if anyone with similar feelings with simpler way put it, please do. it too complex n abstract in brain, n not have scripts or “table of contents” in brain that already exist for it, so feel like wrote bunch of confusing nothing.

[rewrite of old post for AAC awareness month. so parts that sound bit different, that why (copy paste).]

[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.

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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.

[fantasyinvader]

I think something that clicked for me is the whole teacher angle, as well as how the game handles giving out information. The game asks you to guide your students, and in turn is trying (in spite of the translation) to guide the player as well. That the game itself is a lesson in how to be moral, but rather than spell that out it instead wants the player to figure this out for themselves. We know from the devs interviews they deliberately designed the game and story so that the player would not find out everything in a single playthrough,

The game wants players to piece everything together by working together. Hell, in essence even understanding Houses requires the player to rely on others in defiance of Edelgard's philosophy rather than playing the game over and over again. The game doesn't want to tell us it's moral, it wants us to figure it out by thinking.

Let's look at it with the fact that the devs said they only expected players to finish 1-2 routes of the game. They expected most players to pick the Black Eagles house, either because Edelgard initially was supposed to come off like the obvious hero or because she's a cute girl. However, they said that siding with her is about having different beliefs than the rest of the game and ultimately lead to oppression because, surprise, she's the one playing the part of the villain. How does this work then?

Well, for starters her own route makes it clear that she's a very manipulative person, keeping her allies in the dark while telling them lies to make herself look good. Silver Snow backs this up in Japan, with her actually saying she was attempting to sway the player to her side. This would also explain the inconsistencies between her character arc in Safflower and the route's endings, she effectively faked character growth for PR purposes and even her supports are about her managing to bring people around to supporting her and her ideals. However, what she does in the endings is more in line with the ideals she spouts in Azure Moon during the parley. Those ideals, however, were informed by her understanding of Fodlan's history as well as her experiences with the experiments, which is contradicted by Verdant Wind giving the players and alternate account as well as outright saying Edelgard was manipulated into going to war. This is backed up by Flower, as we learn Edelgard's version of history was passed down to her from her father after Hubert had already revealed that he was an Agarthan puppet and directly contradicted Edelgard's claims about who was behind the experiments and how she should have told you this, which brings us back to her being manipulative and trying to sway the player to her side. On top of that, it shows she misunderstands Fodlan much like Claude, but Claude was able to see that his views were based on first impressions and how wrong it was to hate people without getting to know them.

Rather than saying all that, the game expects us to figure this all out ourselves. That we are supposed to fight Edelgard as the game was written around Silver Snow and it's story. It's why it frames the choices that lead to joining Edelgard, to have different beliefs that the rest of the game, as “changing the story.” Silver Snow is the natural progression of events, on the same level as Moon and Wind. It's the moral path in light of the reveal of what Edelgard has been up to.

You are a freaking teacher. You're meant to guide your students, help them become fine upstanding adults, not let them guide you.

I mean, it still leads to a frustrating game. The reveal happens and then the game pretty much puts Edelgard's real mask back on. Characters will explain things that directly contradict her, or even have legit reasons why joining her would go against their character or backstories. People learn revelations but seemingly forget about them. All because the game wants us to figure it all out ourselves. That it doesn't want to tell us what to think, but rather tell us how to think as pretentious as that sounds. And hell, that's probably the reason why the translators got things so wrong because the game was telling them X but when we were supposed to pick up Y which contradicts it and use it to figure out Z. Convoluted to say the least.

[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