#my only issue is that the tutorial i used was really good but only the first part of it was free

[bf-rally]

so today i messed around with react and managed to get this navbar working:

i looked at a tutorial the other day and tried to actually apply it to today....idk how to properly style the navbar so gonna try to figure it out next time if possible!

[mulloey]

the shop

your car has broken down for the nth time, but yunho’s there to save the day. just your luck you don’t have enough money to pay him.

mechanic!yunho x fem!reader

words: 2.7k

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warnings: dom!yunho, sub!reader, paying with your body trope, you already wanted to fuck him though, probably inaccurate pricing for car repair services cus i can’t drive tbh, unprotected sex, degrading, choking, slapping, creampie etc. not proofread

—

You’re dizzy and delirious, putty in his hands as he holds you firmly in place, right where he wants you.

“Y-Yunho!” You squeal. You writhe in his grip a little but it’s far too strong to resist.

He’s got you bent over the hood of the car—your car—while he pounds into you like a desperate, starving man. His overalls are hanging around his waist, just low enough for him to pull his cock out; his white t-shirt is soaked in sweat and the oil-covered gloves on his hands rub painfully against the skin of your hips.

“F-fuck,” he grunts. Your hips collide painfully with the hood every time he thrusts into you and your ass bounces and reddens each time your bodies collide. “What a fucking cock whore. You do this every time you can’t pay the bill? Huh?”

“N-no,” you sob. “Just you, Yunho. Just… hngh… just you.”

“I don’t believe you,” he snarls. His hand comes down on your ass again, raw and painful over the marks he left earlier and you find yourself looking back on everything that lead you here—lead you to being bent over your broken down car while the hottest man you’ve ever fucking seen is slamming his dick into you like his life depends on it.

You suppose the first part—ending up at the auto shop—was inevitable. The car was fucked when you bought it, honestly, but there weren’t many other options for a broke college student. You lived in another district where rent is cheaper, so needed a car to get to class. Didn’t matter how good it was, it just needed to run.

Trust your luck that that seemed to be the only thing it wouldn’t do.

For a period you managed to get by fixing it yourself; Youtube tutorials and favours from friends were enough to deal with all the minor issues that came up, but as minor issues tend to do, they quickly piled up on top of each other until, the morning your presentation was due, you put the keys in the ignition, started the car and—nothing. It did nothing. You were the unluckiest person in the fucking world.

You’d called your best friend immediately, hoping he’d be able to find and fix the problem, but really, you knew it was past that point now—and if you didn’t before, the shock on Hongjoong’s face when he’d popped the hood was evidence enough.

“Jesus, woman,” he said. “You gotta get this thing to a repair shop.”

“You know I can’t afford that,” you snapped back. Instantly you felt guilty for your tone, he was just trying to help after all, so you tried to soften up a bit. “Joong, can you really not fix it?”

“No, I’m sorry. But I know a guy who owns an auto shop. He’ll probably let me use my friends and family discount on you. I’ll give him a call.”

Relief flooded your chest and you hugged him tightly, thanking him profusely even as he walked away chuckling to make the call. In the meantime you called your professor; you thanked God you were such a good student, never missing class or assignments—you doubt she’d have been so forgiving otherwise. “Come by during office hours tonight and you can present it then,” she’d said, and you thanked her with a smile.

Okay, you thought. You just needed to deal with this, do your presentation and the nightmare would be over.

How wrong you were.

—

The auto shop was, well, pretty much how you pictured it. Cars in various states of completion sat in the spacious garage, walls piled with wheels and various other parts, the uses of which you probably would never have been able to guess. The only thing that took you by surprise was the tall, young looking guy who came up and introduced you as the owner.

“Hey, darling,” he smiled. “I’m Yunho. Let’s get you all fixed up, yeah?”

You blushed at his words, and the deep, sultry voice that spoke them. You imagined that was his intention; the way his eyes flickered up and down suggested the attraction was mutual. Or maybe that was just his personality; maybe the flirtatious tone, the innuendo of his words and his intense, intimidating gaze just came naturally to him.

He walked you over to where he had your car laid out and ready to go. Popping the hood, he surveyed the condition with a serious, focused expression. In the heat of the garage, his face was sweating slightly, and he swallowed thickly as he looked everything over. It made the vein in his neck bulge, tension obvious. When he stood back up again he seemed cool and assured; the opposite of you. You felt… confused. Hot. Tense.

“It’s not a huge problem,” he smiled. “Shouldn’t take more than an hour to fix it.”

You didn’t expect that. “Really?” You lit up, overjoyed and he chuckled.

“Yeah,” he said. “We’ve got a staff room if you wanna wait around. May as well, since I should be done pretty quick.”

“Oh, yeah.” That made sense; there didn't seem to be many cafes or places around here for you to wait in anyway—and even if there were, none of them offered the view that the staff room he led you to had; the large glass window looking directly into the garage. You’d be able to keep an eye on your car as he worked—and on Yunho.

He got to work straight away and though you knew next to nothing about cars, save for the Youtube tutorials on greasing brakes and whatever else, but his skill was obvious. His large hands, covered by thick, dirtied gloves, worked quickly and efficiently.

He clearly knew you were watching him, and he clearly enjoyed it; every now and then he would look up from the car, meeting your eyes and tilting his head with a small, smug smirk. When he stood up to unzip his overalls, revealing a thin white t-shirt clinging to his broad chest, you found yourself inching closer and closer to the window without realising. Only when your face was practically pressed up against the glass did you back away, blushing furiously as you sunk into your seat. What the hell was wrong with you?

You’d never been like this about a man. Not even close. No one had ever made you so needy, so hot, so desperate. You didn’t even know you could be affected by someone in this way, yet here you were; thighs clenched together, breathing heavily and your face so hot you were practically feverish. He’d catch your gaze now and then still, and the expression on his face told you he knew everything that was going on in your head—and your body.

The sight of him putting the hood back down was a mercy and a curse; your car was fixed, you could leave, and you could get away from this man; three things you’d been waiting desperately for all this time.

But…did you even want to leave? It would be the smart thing to do, and the sooner you could get him out of your head, the better. But everything in your body screamed at you not to go, to stay and see what happens—if nothing did, at least you’d know. At least you wouldn’t have to wonder for the rest of your life.

He gestured for you to come out of the staff room, proudly showing you your fixed car. Your attraction to him aside, Yunho’s skill surprised you; the old, battered vehicle almost looked new, and when he started the engine to check it worked it sounded clearer and healthier than ever. “Holy shit,” you muttered.

Yunho laughed. “Yeah, I’m pretty good. How do you wanna pay?”

You sighed. You never liked this part; who did? It was always painful to part ways with the little cash you earned at your god awful waitressing job, but you had to do what you had to do. “Card,” you mumbled.

“Alright,” he smiled. “It’s 250,000won. I’ll get the machine.”

He disappeared into what you guessed was another staff room and you stood awkwardly for a moment. Even with him gone the air was thick, sweaty; tense. He returned with the card machine, holding it out for you to take and you put your card in with shaking hands, pressing down the familiar numbers. Well, there goes the last of your mone—

The machine made a high-pitched, displeased noise that you knew all too well. Declined. You made a noise of shock, shaking your head in disbelief. It can’t have declined. You knew you had enough for this. You had to have enough. What the hell is—

Oh. Fuck. When they towed your car here this morning and you followed in a taxi with Hongjoong. When you insisted on paying the fare to thank him for his help. Fuck. You need to be a worse friend.

You didn’t realise you were crying until you felt hands on yours; he grasped your shaking hands carefully, holding them steadily. His face was blank, but he seemed thoughtful.

“Fuck,” you groaned. “Fuck, what do I– I swear I–”

“Hey, hey.” His voice was calm and soft but a little lower than before. “Relax, doll. We’ll work something out, yeah?”

“Work something out?” You echoed his words, voice shaking.

“Of course,” he smiled. He tilted his head and you saw his eyes raking over you again; but this time it felt less like leering and more like… an inspection. You knew exactly what he was thinking.

“Tell me.” His voice seemed to have dropped an octave, thick with tension. “Are you really out of money?”

You blinked. “What?”

“Are you really out of money?” He repeated it, slower this time as though he was trying to dumb it down for you. “Or did you do this on purpose?”

You shook your head fervently, your body heating up with embarrassment and desperation and shame and, well, pretty much everything honestly. “No, Yunho, I—”

“I think you did.” He was grinning now, eyes piercing as he stared you down. He was still for a moment, seeming to consider something before he grabbed your chin, yanking your head up to meet his eyes. The material of the gloves was rough against your soft skin and the tightness of his grip was even more painful. “I bet you put the wrong numbers in on purpose, huh? Didn’t you?”

“I…” You didn’t know what to say. You knew what he was saying wasn’t true, but fuck, you could already feel wetness pooling at the thought of what he’d do to you if it was. But he seemed to have made his mind up either way, so you decided to play his game—you widened your eyes fearfully, lip shaking as you said “I promise, I didn’t” in the most pathetic voice you could muster.

He knew what you were doing, and he fucking loved it. His smile widened as he leaned in closer to you. From this distance you could see his pupils were blown, eyes flashing with arousal. “I think you’re lying to me,” he whispers. “And you know what’s more, little girl?”

Your breath hitched. “What?”

He tightened his grip, yanking your head upwards again to expose your neck. His other hand wrapped itself around your throat like it belonged there. “I hate liars.”

—

You don’t even know how long he’s been fucking you now; your sense of time has blurred and muddied and it could have been minutes just as much as it could have been hours. All you can feel or think about is the feeling of his dick fucking you open, hitting your cervix over and over; and the strong arms that move and manipulate your body to increase his own pleasure.

He grabs your hair, yanking it back painfully and forcing you to look at him. “That’s it,” he grunts. “You’re gonna look at me while I’m fucking you, yeah?”

“Yes,” you cry. “Yes, Yunho.”

“Good fucking girl.” His other hand wraps around your throat again, choking you just this side of too much. The head rush it gives you only sends you further into delirium, amplifying the other sensations. His deep, strained voice is fire in your ears. “Fucking stupid whore, aren’t you?”

He punctuates it with an extra hard thrust and you cry out again, voice strangled. “Yes, Yunho!” You scream. “Yes!”

“Say it,” he growls. “Tell me you’re a fucking whore.”

“I’m a fucking whore,” you repeat. To hear the words from your own mouth, to taste them on your tongue as he forces you to degrade yourself sends another wave of pleasure through you that pushes you closer to the edge. Yunho makes a pleased sound, rewarding you by loosening his grip on your neck ever so slightly.

“You’re my fucking whore,” he whispers. “Yunho’s whore.”

“Yunho’s whore.” You repeat it without thinking and you feel him throb again inside you at your natural submission. “I’m Yunho’s whore.

“That you fucking are. Bending over for me over 250,000 fucking won. You’re a cheap little slut,” he spits. “But only for me, yeah?”

“Yes!” You feel yourself about to come undone and just as you finally reach breaking point he pulls out, cock hard and leaking; before you can protest he picks you up without a word, flipping you onto your back before shoving his cock back inside. “Wanna see you properly when I come in you,” he grunts. “Wanna see those eyes go fucking dumb for me.”

He lifts your legs and pushes them back towards you. The stretch is painful and uncomfortable but it’s hard to care about any of that when he’s fucking you so deep and hard. The weight of his hands pressing down on the backs of your thighs will surely leave bruises but you don’t mind—you’d probably love it, actually.

Now that you’re facing him you can see all the small details of his face while he fucks you; the beads of sweat pooling on his forehead, the black hair soaked through with it, the narrowed eyes and clenched jaw as his grip on your thighs tightens even further. He’s practically pressing all his weight against you now and it’s a delicious, painful pleasure. You reach out to him desperately—though desperate for what you’re not quite sure—and he grabs your hands, bending down to pin your arms against the car as he takes you in a hot, wet, messy kiss.

“Pretty girl,” he chokes. “So fucking pretty.”

“Yunho.” You feel tears pouring down your cheeks, overwhelmed with sensation, with the feeling of Yunho on every inch of your body. He pulls his mouth away from yours to press sloppy kisses across your jaw and neck, teasing the skin with his teeth. “Think you can come for me?” He murmurs. “Just from being used like this?”

“Yes, Yunho,” you whisper. “I’m gonna—”

“Do it,” he growls. He moves a hand down to press his thumb against your swollen clit, making you buck against him. “Come on my fat fucking cock like a good little girl. Earn your keep, baby.”

The heat in his words and the pressure of his thumb on your clit are enough to send you barrelling over the edge; you come with a noise you didn’t even know you made and he follows quickly, releasing inside of you with a strangled cry.

It’s silent for a moment and time seems to still while you process what’s just happened. You whine when you feel him pull out of you and he chuckles, gently slapping your pussy. “What a good girl,” he muses. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

He sends you on your way with his business card in your pocket and his number in your phone. It takes you two weeks to find the nerve to call him, and that’s only because your car’s been making a weird noise that you can’t figure out. To be honest, it’s probably something Hongjoong or one of your other friends would be able to solve, but it’s too late now; you’ve already pulled up his contact and pressed call.

“Well hello, sweetheart.” Yunho’s voice is as deep as ever, his tone teasing. “Was starting to think I wouldn’t hear from you.”

“Yeah, um.” You clear your throat awkwardly, feeling yourself heat up again. “My car— it’s making a weird noise. Can you take a look at it?”

“Of course,” he says, and you hear the leering smile in his voice. “Why don’t you come down now? It’s a slow day at the shop anyway.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.”

“Great. Oh, and baby?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t bring your credit card.”

—

requests open! comments and feedback appreciated. love🖤🖤🖤

tags: @pixie0627 @hon3ysun @bbdeongi @hwaromi

[punkitt-is-here]

How did you learn to draw fat bodies but still keep it cartoony? I love how you draw different types of bodies and make them all seem normal instead of certain body types sticking out like a sore thumb next to others. I struggle to draw fat bodies without it looking weird with the rest of my art. Do you have a specific tutorial you followed or something?

This is a really good question! I'm glad you like my depictions of different body types, i worked really hard to get better at that so im happy folks enjoy em!! I didn't actually learn from a book or tutorial, it was mostly looking at fat bodies IRL and learning to incorporate those features onto what I already drew. As it turns out, we're all human, so if you understand the anatomy enough to draw a skinny person, you have the tools to understand the anatomy of a fat person.

So, like, here, this is my sketch of someone with a very average build. If I were to draw a fat body, I would still use all the basic principles I use here. One mistake I think folks run into is "isolating" parts, which can lead to things like this

which isn't necessarily bad, but if its not what you're going for, the issue is pretty apparent. Weight affects ALL of the body, not just the stomach or the face or the limbs. If you think about how that weight affects everything in tandem then you can start drawing fat bodies that work more in your style.

for this, this is the same quick sketch using the same pose and principles as the first one. but! I allowed the weight to be distributed across the body. Notice how the legs, belly, arms, etc all got thicker? The key to drawing fat bodies and making them look like they fit is allowing that weight to affect everything. without it, it just looks like you're adding on features to someone rather than considering everything at once.

my other tip is: don't be scared! things like fat arms or chins or bellies or stretch lines are not something that's bad to depict. if you want to draw fat bodies, you gotta not be scared to draw things the way they are. someone having a fat body is not bad, and you drawing that fat body is not bad either. Experiment! To me, art is about representing ideas, and the only way to get better is to experiment with how you represent those ideas. I'm by no means an expert, and I think you can also get a ton done by looking for resources aside from me, but I hope this helps, and have fun!!

[queenofallimagines]

Blue lock NSFW HCs

A/n: so since I’ve let this anime take over my life completely I feel I’m overqualified to give better hcs and since I don’t have a specific scenario in this is general headcanons💕 (pls request blue lock I have brainworms)

Blue lock:

- off the bat isagi telling us he has a thigh fetish is so real it me he keeps his hands on your thigh at all times

- Really one hand on the steering wheel the other just barely in your pants fingering you

- They all kinda got that sauce in ‘em yk?

- Isagi can say “pretty thing” or “sweetness” in that low ass voice and it will have you on your knees

- NAGI CALLING YOU PRETTY

- Idk WHERE that shit came form but every fic he just calls you pretty and that’s def canon that man is 6”3 so hear me out

- This big ass man who’s usually lazy and barely paying attention putting in that work on you, keeping you pressed into the bed with his full body weight

- Mumbling in your ear in his monotone voice that’s just one octave lover

- “Cmon pretty, gunna come f’me?” he’s looking at you with his egoist eyes

- Will have you in between him and Reo

- Sorry but that’s just as canon as bachira and isagi it’s gunna happen at LEAST once

- Seishiro can run with the best of them w that ego too like he says he’s a pacifist but he’s squared up first on someone like 4 times😭

- He Probably offhandedly mentions something about you in convo with Reo and you’re done for

- They’re like gaming or something and you walk into the room

- “I’ll prove it- hey come here for a sec” and now all of a sudden you’re seated in between his delicious thighs being fingered open by nagi in front of Reo like he’s giving a tutorial😭

- I see y’all’s saying Reo would do that for inexperienced nagi but I raise you that Reo only has casual flings and has been intimate with nagi so he’s not used to their duo being a trio

- Nagi spreading your legs keeping them wide open for Reo to see everything while he leans over your shoulder and makes sure he’s focused on what he’s doing

- Something something good with his givers because gamer

- He’s working you open with his huge fingers almost unbothered by the fact that your squirming and grabbing at his arm

- Reo is a little flustered but he’s def paying attention

- They’re acting like they’re talking about the weather like you not gushing all over his fingers

- Makes you cum like three times this way before he says “Reo is pretty good with his tongue, can he have a taste too?”

- Nagi and his crazy stamina will not let you rest!

- RIN! My beloved baby boy!

- He’s a FREAK like freaky NASTY and mean about it too!

- Little slow on the uptake but once you really start learning about each other he’s working out all his frustrations on you

- Not very emotive but he’s blunt so he will make his feelings perfectly clear

- Brat tamer by default bc you push his buttons

- “Keep that same energy when I get you alone”

- Fucks you in the locker rooms

- Likes you wearing his jersey while he does it

- Had hella pictures and videos of it too that you don’t remember him taking😭

- Keep him company on his long away games💕

- Everyone knows he’s having good sex bc he has scratch marks all over his back and dares someone to say shit about them

- Since like every single one of his dispositions is bc of Sae you have to be patient with him

- The itoshi issue is that they will have conflicts in their head, decide what YOU are gunna say and make choices silently based off that

- Like bitch if you don’t TALK TO ME??

- Rin will not start the convo and avoid you in a fight bc in his mind he fucked up and you never want to see him again but like did I say that??

- You gotta go to him and be like say what the fuck you’re thinking :/

- Both the itoshi brothers are rough

- Rin will use his insane stamina to fuck you right to sleep like he’s trying to watch a game stop playing w him

- Probably end up fucking you with or in-front of isagi

- One thing about Rin Itoshi is that he has something to prove always

- Sae and shidou you already know lmao

- My favs?? Come the fuck ON they have nasty ass sex daily

- Sae count your fucking days bc imma best your ass 😐

- However,,, the dynamic between him and Ryusei is too tasty to ignore

- Sae and his butt fetish will usually do anal if you’re taking both of them at once

- His dick is really pretty you and shidou have full length discussions about it and he is TIRED

- Sae likes to think he has you two on a leash and for the most part he kinda does

- But you might as well be on demon time too bc once you and Ryusei tag them

- Him??

- The great cold and calculated Sae Itoshi the gem of Japan will be a whiny little Bitch

- Likes to piss you off so you’ll be rough with him and Shidou right there with you

- You’re both fed up with his shit so you decide to punish him

- You edging him while Ryu fucks him mercilessly

- Imagine you’re riding him reverse cowgirl and shidou is fucking him so hard and deep he can’t breathe

- You two doing that whole outwardly ignoring him kissing while he wants you to pay attention to him clawing at your lower back and hips

- Moaning out “sorry” and babbling nonsense

- Cums a lot and it’s thick in consistency

- Whimpers when you and shidou taste him on each other and he can’t kiss either of you

- Tears steaming down his face while he struggles to keep his eyes from rolling back and can barely even say what he wants because he’s moaning so much

- Aftercare is so cute bc you both clean him up and give him as many kisses as he wants

- That really fixes his attitude LMAO

- Isagi can get pretty try mean too you trigger that ego and he’s just as ruthless as he is in the field

- “You think I’m gunna let you cum after you spent all day on my nerves? Be serious”

- He’s big on eye contact

- Will sit back in a chair and stare at you as he makes you ride him with no help

- “Go on, you wanted it, ain’t you?”

- Spanks you hard

- Chigiri hyoma is HUNG

- like oh my god pretty face huge dick

- People paint him as like corset when he’s like really mild mannered and mean? Lmao his egoist profile even says he’s mean

- He’s blunt and says exactly what he means

- If “okay?? AND??” Was a person😭

- Will get choked up if you kiss the scar on his knee when you go down on him

- “Cmon you can take more than that can’t you?”

- He can go fast but likes going slow and deep

- Really savor the moment

- Wants to feel every second of you going up and down his dick

- Meanie!!

- “You’re creaming around me already and I’ve barely made it all the way in”

- Preps you really good before hand too that’s like mandatory even if you’re ready he’s going to have you cum on his tongue or fingers first

- Gets pussy drunk a lot and ends up fucking himself into overstimulation

- Liked his hair pulled on

- Barou? Whew the king definitely deserves that title!

- A big fan of slow and deep like Chigiri

- Will make you face him as he fucks up into you

- “Quit wining and take it, you’re the one who kept begging for me to fuck you all day”

- Will clean the sheets fully after sex like lmao he’s changing the whole bed

- Let’s see hiori too! People like to say the self proclaimed “ultra sadist” as like just a bottom all the time

- He’s more mean and doesn’t care about it

- “Ow! That kinda hurt!”

- “Hm? Good”

- Big fan of face fucking

- Shidou alone is very baby

- I’m his defense lawyer yall like he’s an aquifer taste so you can not like him

- But that’s your fault and a skill issue💅🏿✨

- He’s the unhinged very soon of isagi very emotionally intelligent and can read a room

- He simply does not CARE about others

- Very ‘if people are going to isolate me then I’ll push them away’ vibes

- Like he rly has a connection w the whole cast minus rin and kunigami

- If he hadn’t took a kick at isagi him and bachira would be besties!��

- They understand the same type of loneliness

- Back to the horny

- He will split you open on his cock any time of the day

- He’s very god at anatomy and chemistry like look at how tf he talks

- HES LITERALLY A STRAIGHT A STUDENT!

- Has a breeding kink in canon

- “If you keep my cum inside you for the whole game I’ll eat it out of you when we win”

- Cock bastard also

- Rin def walked in on you two once and it haunts him

- Seeing your face utterly fucked out not caring that you’re both locking eyes while shidou who’s blissfully unaware keeps bullying his fat cock into you against the lockers🤭

- He can’t look you in the face for like a month lol

- Chigiri like pegging and kunigami can suck dick rly well

- Don’t ask me how ik I just KNOW Mr. Bisexual representation has had a relationship with a guy who he was intimate with

- Bachira likes to paint your face white

- Loved seeing you with his cum on your face

- Won’t tell you he’s close when you suck him off on purpose sometimes

- “Oops, my bad! You do look pretty like this tho☺️” be so the fuck fr

[paluding]

Owned Restaurant Profit Increase

Two versions to download:

-Double profit: SFS / GD

-Triple profit: SFS / GD

Choose only one version!

We all know how hard it is to maintain a restaurant business in The Sims 2, right? You barely make any money and, if you have some employees to get paid hourly, there's a good chance you'll even end up losing money. Well, once again I've been digging through the files for a while until I've found something to fix this issue. I have to say, this is not the ideal solution at all, but it still makes the business actually profitable, so I thought it might be worth sharing anyways. This tiny mod edits just one single BCON value, and it's super easy to tune to your liking! A lot of technical details, a tutorial on how to tune it, and a big testing research under the cut (bear with me please, I promise it's worth reading).

So the way an unmodded game moves money in a restaurant business goes like this: the moment your waiter puts the dish on the customer table, you get a small percentage of the price of the food deducted. Then, once the customer finishes eating, they pay you the full price of that food (based on how expensive or cheap you set your business). Simple enough, right? Ideally, the best solution would be increasing the price of the food, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't find those values anywhere. So what's left on the equation? Yup, that small percentage you get deducted first. I was lucky enough to find that one, so changing it to a negative value means you actually get extra paid first. And that money comes from nowhere, the customer doesn't pay extra, they only pay the price of the actual food. That works for me!

As a quick example, in a new business with 0 stars, if you keep the default price on average, you always gain 28 simoleons for serving a bowl of Mac N Cheese. However, you also get deducted 4 simoleons first, so it's actually 24 simoleons per customer. That's just sad. The Double version of my mod makes it so you get 22 simoleons first, and then the customer pays those 28 simoleons. That's a total of 50 simoleons per customer. More than double the profit, not bad! The Triple version gives you a total of 71, pretty self explanatory. The numbers don’t match exactly with double or triple profits, but I didn’t want to spend that much time finding the exact value to make it exactly double or triple, you know, especially considering there might be other factors that affect your business income. I’m not that good at maths to be honest... orz

So how do you tune this? All you need is SimPe. Open the package, click on the BCON file and edit line number 14, on the Dec box. The default Maxis value was 20. I changed it to -100 to get roughly double the profit, and -200 to get triple profit. If you want to increase the profit even more, make sure you keep it negative when changing the value! Then just click Commit and Save. Done!

One extra note before I continue. The extra money you get with the mod does count for the balance you see on the UI menu for the business on the top right. So if you like to keep track of your income, the mod will take effect on those bars. However, it won’t count for things like the First Simoleon prize thingy. So for now I’m not really sure if this extra money would count for other things such as Lifetime Wants related to gaining money. I haven’t tested it that much.

Okay, now you know almost everything you need to know about this mod. If you want to read some ramblings on how I tested this, keep reading. Otherwise, you’re good to go!

So, let’s talk testing, because that’s something I actually enjoy doing. I built a simple restaurant lot, with about 5 tables available. The conditions were:

-3 Sims from my household to work as host, waiter and chef. No external employees, so I don’t need to keep track of extra salaries to pay.

-Schedule is roughly 15:00 - 22:00.

-New business level 0. Prices were kept at the default average.

-I didn’t use the Basic Sell interaction. If the customer didn’t want to eat at my restaurant, then so be it.

-The chef had 10 points of cooking skill, so I could add any food to the menu. However, I only chose one food to cook to keep the profit numbers as consistent as possible.

For the first case, I chose cooking only Mac N Cheese, a very cheap food that makes almost no money at all. It doesn’t require any cooking skill points. Mac N Cheese gives you 28 simoleons when the Sim pays. -In an unmodded game, you also lose 4 simoleons, so it’s 24 simoleons per customer. After running the business for the set schedule, I got 240 simoleons of profit. Pretty disappointing! If I had employees to pay, I would only have a few simoleons to spare, if any at all. -With my Double version of the mod, you get an extra 22 simoleons, making a total of 50 simoleons per customer. After running the business with the mod in, I got 400 simoleons. Not much, but hey, it’s something.

For the second case, I chose Filet Mignon. This food is pretty fancy, and it requires max cooking skill. Filet Mignon gives you 83 simoleons when the Sim pays. I also noticed the customers take way less time to eat it compared to the Mac N Cheese, so that’s an extra bonus to make the business run faster. -In an unmodded game, you also lose 13, so it’s 70 simoleons per customer. After running the business, I got 630 simoleons of profit. Not bad, but considering you need to max out the cooking skill, it’s almost insulting spending so many hours just to get that… -With my Double version of the mod, you get an extra 65 simoleons, making a total of 148 (!) simoleons per customer. After running the business with the mod in, I got 1036 simoleons. Okay, nooow we’re talking! That's the fancy restaurant status I like to see.

You might be wondering why these numbers are so inconsistent. Well, sometimes my lovely waiter decided to drop the tray on the customers, poor guy. That added to the randomness of how customers decide to enter the restaurant or not, and if the game sits more than one customer on the table or just one of them, if someone gets stuck for a while losing time… all of that can end up making the results a bit inconsistent. That being said, I had better luck when I was running the business without the mod in, yet I still got quite a lot more money with the mod in. I didn’t keep track of the numbers for the Triple version, but as you can probably guess, that one would be even more profitable.

One last case I wanted to test and compare: a completely different type of business, a games and entertainment one using the Bandatron ticket machine. In that scenario, I got 21 simoleons per customer, each hour. So after that schedule of 15:00 - 22:00, I got a total of 789 simoleons! All my sim did during those hours was bartending. That shows how easy it is to run a business with a ticket machine, and the biggest advantage is that you don’t have to pay employees if you don’t need them, and you don’t need any skills at all. Just plop down that machine, put some objects, relax and let the money flow by itself.

So yeah, in conclusion, Eaxis really messed up programming the restaurant businesses, there’s no doubt about it. Hopefully my mod helps balance things out. And if you think it's still too low on the incomes department, you can always tune it to your liking! As far as I know, this should not conflict with anything, but if you run into any issues, let me know and I’ll try my best to fix it asap.

Special thanks to EddySims for their fantastic HQ Icon Pack I used to make the preview pic! <3

[daman19942]

TSR CC Recommendations: TS2 Lot Builders

Nobody asked for this but I have a little time on my hands and I said I might do it, so here is a list of some TSR lot builders who I recommend checking out. A few notes under the cut before we get started (all details under the cut, as well, in case you aren't interested in my preamble):

This is not meant to be paid promotion for TSR. I believe TSR asking users to pay for their CC is ridiculous, especially for a 19 year old game they haven't supported in 7 years. But I spent many years uploading there during the peak-TS2 / pre-TS3 era and know there is great CC in their archives that newer players may not know about. And unlike TheSims2.com, which has sadly shuffled off this mortal coil, TSR's content is still available to freely download (assuming you can stomach the pop-ups and wait times)

This post will only be about lot builders because that was what I was primarily uploading and downloading in this era. I was friendly with some of the creators I am about to list, but none of them are still active members of the TS2 community.

The preview pics might be a little rough and the architecture styles will likely feel very dated compared to the most popular styles these days, which are more colorful, cluttered, and use 3t2 and 4t2 conversions. Re: the previews: too many of us were using free trials of PaintShopPro back then, and TSR limited us to 2 previews, so we did our best. Re: the styles: unlike pre-2010's CAS CC, which was full of hand painted and "realistic" textures (LOL), these are the same objects you can find in the game today, just being used in different ways! Sometimes for the first time! And, yes, while some of these creators used CC, it was mostly Homecrafter walls and floors, as you'll see below.

This was also the hey-day of CFE lot building, which has certainly fallen out of favor to more traditional builds (in part because graphics cards have improved and these types of builds don't look as good in 2024, and also because the great CFE experimenters, builders, and tutorial writers are no longer part of the community and their original discoveries are gone as well - I am happy to go down a massive rabbit hole on this piece of TS2 history if anyone else cares, but trust me, you don't have to care).

Alright that is enough caveating, here are some recs! (Links are in the creator's names and they take you to their Lots, though many of them have other creations, too).

Lord Tiko Speaking of great CFE builders! Lord Tiko built spaceships, boats, pagodas, domes, windmills and bridges, oh so many bridges before retiring mid-TS2 because of health issues. He was one of the first builders to take Daihtnaoz7's single and double bridge tutorials and apply them to really big lots. I'm still not sure how he built the Venice Rialto Bridge, or his other European water lots. Overall, a massive inspiration to me when I was prioritizing CFE builds.

Hatshepsut My favorite "traditional" home builder, and someone I considered a friend. She specialized in English and American builds, and I had many of Hat's houses in my old saves and was impressed by her range and decorating style which was (for the time) more varied than many of her peers. Knew how to take great preview pics of her houses, too.

Tigerblue Another builder I corresponded with, Tigerblue was probably the least prolific uploader on this list for sheer number of uploads, but she also crossed a range of styles. Her builds leaned way into specific styles (see the previews, these were all part of consistent sets of 3,4, or even 10 lots), but this was also what happened when a new EP dropped and everyone raced to uploaded builds using as many of the new objects and styles as possible. Tigerblue just happened to be better at it than most of us.

Cyclonesue Do current TS2 players know Cyclonesue? Because it's hard to think of someone who had a bigger impact on building and decorating of the era, first with her English and Tudor builds and later with her extremely distinct grunge creations. Seriously, check out her Urban Renewal series and the corresponding objects. Iconic stuff that surely now feels frozen in time. I probably only played 20% of her lots that I downloaded, but they still make for great hood decor. Like Tiko, someone who happily experimented with CFE.

Illiana The creator who inspired me to make this list is, ironically, the one on it who I know the least about (she is a Featured Artist but not in the Hall of Fame, whatever that means). I just started playing her Tri-Annyas fraternity house and have a few other lots floating around my game. She built in a range of styles, from classical to modern to Twikki Island to grunge. Revisiting some of them in-game, the TSR previews do not do them justice.

*EXHALES* If you made it to this point, kudos to you. I'm sure there are creators I've forgotten, and houses I haven't linked to, but this is a good starting point for digging into some of the eclectic builds the TSR(chives) have to offer (I just coined that, is it clever? It is not). Maybe I'll do a Part 2 if people like this.

If you have any favorites of your own, let me know what I missed! And as I do with my old Exchange re-uploads, I am tagging @sims2packrat and @oldasscustomcontent for general TS2 history awareness!

[patrycarro]

TS3 - LS3SR03 (No CC)

ENG:

I never say no to a good challenge, so when @joshttew challenged me to build a modern-style apartment building on a small lot, the only viable answer was YES. And, well, @joshttew, I hope the result meets your expectations.

I'm not entirely satisfied, but that's pretty typical for me. I would have liked to make a taller building, and I tried using several tutorials and tricks, but the lot kept bugging out, the game would crash, or it just didn’t feel right or fit what I had in mind. Because, even though it's possible to bypass the height limit (or at least make it look like you did), the "floors" added above that limit are really limited in too many ways. Well, EA making things tough for us... What a surprise, right?

Initially, my idea was to make a building with many floors (10-15), with the livable apartment on the top floor, and everything on the outside made of glass. Literally everything. But I ran into two problems: following this tutorial, the livable apartment couldn’t be at the very top, and this method, although it would let me do it, wouldn’t let me make it entirely glass, mainly because you can’t place windows on the levels altered this way.

So I gave up and decided to build something simpler to start with. And when I say start, I mean this isn't finished yet. I’m pretty stubborn, and I still don’t know how I’m going to make that idea a reality, but it will happen.

(If any of you know a way, I’d be very grateful if you could share it with me.)

I hope you like this build, and most of all, I hope @joshttew thinks I’ve completed the challenge. It would be a relief to know that all the rage, anxiety, and frustration I went through in the process were worth it HAHAHAHA.

Enjoy. 💙

Features:

Lot type: Residential

Lot size: 30x30

Location: Bridgeport

Furnished lot value: 90.885 §

Unfurnished lot value: 8.357 §

Bedrooms: 2

Bathrooms: 2

Packs used in this build: EP02, EP03, EP06, EP07, EP08, EP09, EP10, EP11

Terms and conditions:

DO NOT claim my creations as your own.

If you want to use any of my builds in your custom world or save file, you are allowed to do so, BUT make sure to credit me as the original creator.

DO NOT re-upload my content under any circumstances; share it with your friends using my own links.

If you experience any issues, let me know and I’ll try to fix it as soon as possible.

Download it here. 🤍

SPA:

Yo nunca digo que no a un buen reto, por lo que, cuando @joshttew me desafió a construir un edificio de apartamentos de estilo moderno en un solar pequeño, la única respuesta viable era SÍ. Y, bueno, @joshttew, espero que el resultado esté a la altura de tus expectativas.

Yo no estoy del todo conforme, pero muy pocas veces lo estoy. Me habría gustado hacer un edificio más alto, y lo intenté por medio de varios tutoriales y trucos, pero se me bugueaba el solar, me crasheaba el juego, o simplemente, no me convencía o no cuadraba con lo que tenía en mente, porque aunque es posible evadir el límite de altura (o al menos que así lo parezca), la verdad es que los "pisos" que añadas sobre ese límite estarán muy limitados en demasiados aspectos. Vaya, EA poniéndonos las cosas muy difíciles... Qué sorpresa, ¿eh?

En un primer lugar, mi idea era hacer un edificio de muchas plantas (10-15), que el apartamento habitable estuviese en la planta superior, y que, además, todo su exterior fuese de vidrio. Literalmente todo. Pero me encontré con dos problemas: siguiendo este tutorial, el apartamento habitable no podría ser el de arriba del todo, y este método, aunque sí me lo permitiría, no me dejaría hacerlo enteramente de vidrio, básicamente porque no se podrían poner ventanas en los niveles que se alteraran de esa manera.

Así que me rendí y decidí construir algo más sencillo para empezar. Y digo para empezar porque esto no se ha terminado. Soy muy cabezota, y aun no sé cómo voy a conseguir que esa idea pase a ser una realidad, pero así va a ser.

(Si alguno de vosotros conoce algún modo, le estaría muy agradecida si lo comparte conmigo)

Espero que os guste esta construcción y, sobre todo, que @joshttew considere que he cumplido el reto. Sería un alivio para mí saber que toda la ira, ansiedad y frustración que me ha generado en el proceso han servido para algo JAJAJAJAJAJA.

Disfrutadlo. 💙

Características:

Tipo de solar: Residencial

Tamaño del solar: 30x30

Ubicación: Bridgeport

Valor del solar amueblado: 90.885 §

Valor del solar sin amueblar: 8.357 §

Habitaciones: 2

Baños: 2

Packs utilizados en esta construcción: EP02, EP03, EP06, EP07, EP08, EP09, EP10, EP11

Términos y condiciones:

NO proclames mis creaciones como tuyas.

Si quieres usar alguna de mis construcciones en tu mundo personalizado o save file, tienes permitido hacerlo, PERO deja claro que yo soy su creadora original.

NO resubas mi contenido bajo ninguna excepción; compártelo con tus conocidos usando mis propios enlaces.

Si experimentas algún problema, házmelo saber e intentaré solucionarlo lo antes posible.

Descárgalo aquí. 🤍

[cleolinda]

Just for fun, here's five minutes of my very first time playing the Silent Hill 2 remake, having never played a video game before. (My voice only.) I grabbed my phone and turned on Voice Memo because I got stuck in the parking lot and felt like I needed to record struggles this dire for posterity. I recorded this a week ago, so all the issues I mention have since been fixed, including my (in)ability to move forward. (Nobody had explained the importance of the camera in doing anything to me.) If y'all are interested, I can also post a shorter clip of my most recent fight, which shows how far I've come. I have strategies now. I'm such a brave little toaster.

I originally posted this on Patreon with a transcript, so I'll include that below, long as it is. Volume advisory: I do yell a lot.

[Comments directed at James, my player character, are in parentheses.]

Okay. I don't know how much this is actually going to pick up, but I'm just gonna voice record this while I figure out what's going on. This is exactly as bad as I thought it would be. I've had to mute the sound because it's just [laughing] James making weird grunting sounds every 30 seconds—of impatience!—because I can't figure out how to make this man walk. 

And I'm on a laptop [rather than a console]. So we're just living our life here as best as we can. And I even have a touchpad mouse. I have an external mouse coming in tomorrow, maybe. 

Okay, okay, I'm trying to get him to go back into the bathroom because my understanding is that there's a whole bunch of graffiti in there that you would actually— (Why are you not turning left?! Why are you walking BACKWARDS? What are you DOING?) I've already been yelling at him for like two minutes now. (JAAAAMES. What are you DOING?)

Okay, achievement ["No Turning Back Now"]: I tried to leave. Good for me. All right. So— (BUDDY!) What—what's the Sprint command? I don't know, I don't know. Um—Escape. Settings: uh, Controls? No... Controls View? Here we go, here we go. L shift, how would I have known that? Quick Turn... oh, Rowing. I don't need rowing for like another 16 hours, we're fine. Okay, move camera on the touchpad mass—touchpad mOuSe. It's fine. We don't have a problem with that. Combat—I'm gonna have a problem with that, but not yet. Um... there are some mouse commands that I may end up remapping to some letter keys... depending on how the mouse does or doesn't work for me in terms of distance from my hand. We'll—we'll see. I'm used to—I've been using a touchpad mouse for years now, not gaming. It would be very strange to be using an external mouse. So I may just remap some stuff. [I did not. For the combat tutorial, I did use an external mouse.]

Okay, Interact, Extended Movement is “E.” Okay. Space is Zoom, escape: Main Menu, we learned that one REAL GOOD. Um... Map... Flashlight... Okay, we don't—we don't need that right yet. [Sigh.] W-S-D-A! Don't need Row, okay. Sprint. L shift is Sprint. That is what we need. [My obsession with “sprint” is because this man walks as slow as a turtle and “leisurely trot” is the only thing that’s going to get you anywhere.] Okay: Resume. 

Like, the music and sound effects are beautiful, I mean, sure, but right now this is—he's—he's very tired of me dealing with stuff. Come on, (WALK, buddy.) Shift? Can you—how do you SPRIIIIIIIINNNNNT??? 
[Unconvincingly:] All right, no, we're fine. We're fine. We're gonna be fine. So we're walking—oh, we gotta go to the car! Okay! I forgot we even have to do that! We're not getting anywhere without the map!

[Tiny voice:] Really... wanna go back into the bathroom... Maybe we try that when we… are further along... in our ability to move. 

This is a nightmare. I—I didn't think it was actually gonna be this hard for me to learn. I thought it would go a little faster. 

(Come on, buddy, what are you doing? What are you doing? E, can we interact? WHAT are you DOING?!) Oh my God. Okay, what's it—HE’S LOOKING AT IT!! [Which indicates he wants me to do something with it, but “interact” isn’t coming up.] HE’S LOOKING [tiny, despairing voice:] at it. He's looking at it. 

(Babe, what do I have to DO? What do I have to DO?!) 

[Sigh.] Maybe I do need my sister here to... tell me what to do on an extremely basic level. 


It says... does it mean lower shift? What does it mean? [It did mean left shift, like I was pressing, but nobody told me you had to hit “sprint” and “walk” at the same time.] Forward, back, right, left, sprint. Quick Turn... okay, forgot about that. E...? Yeah, and I think by Extended Movement, they mean like a traversal.

Oh... oh, my sweet lord Jesus. I didn't think it was gonna be this hArD!!! It's not hard. It's not hard at all. If you're a normal person, if you're a gamer, this is not hard at all. If you're me and you play Hello Kitty Island Adventure, it's hard. Okay. I am so glad I did not actually just start recording [video] cold. I know y'all would love to watch me just run James into a tree. I know you would love that, but we're not doing that for—half an hour, if I'm lucky. 

Okay, come on, buddy. What are we doing? E!! Oh thank God. Oh, thank God, we've got the map. Okay. Space: Zoom. Back. [Vehement mouse clicking sounds.] Back. Mouse. MOUSE. [Sigh.] I swear to the Lord Jesus Christ, come on—he has very nice nails. [James does. I don't know about Jesus.] He really does. He has very nice hands. I will say when I started the game—remember, this is something I have seen on a very large TV many times. Even I sat back and went, whoa, the graphics are really good. Like on a smaller laptop, even I went, holy shit, that's so good. 

(BUDDY?! GO BACK!! YOU HAVE!! THE MAP!!!)  

OKAY. No, no, this is FINE. This is FIIIIIIIIINE!!  

I'm alone in the house right now. My dog is not here, my dog would be barking his head off, going, what is—

OKAY!! OKAY. [Extremely tiny voice:] That was—that was fine. 

I was hitting the wrong part of the touchpad mouse... because I was thinking of it as an external mouse and I was hitting the top of it… [tiny, exasperated voice:] not the bottom of it… like I normally would. 

NO, IT’S FINE. IT’S FINE, OKAY? I know, he's looking around, he's like looking at his hands and he's like brushing something—he's like, “What are you DOING? What are you DOING?” 

(I'm sorry, that was the car door. I didn't mean to make you bump into that.)

We're doing good. We're doing fine. Come on, yeah, we're gonna walk backwards a little bit. How's the camera? We want it up a little bit, we want it down a little bit? Beautiful reflections, beautiful reflections. I had to work with the resolution because he looked very... WIDE, and boxy, and I had to get it set on my monitor's resolution, which is, I think... oh, I don't even remember what it is. This is a new computer. 

Okay, I'm gonna have to stop now. I can't scream anymore. But good luck to me.

[lilly-chou-chou]

Evolution of Gyaru

Hello everyone the long awaited post is here!! Sorry for the delay I has gone back to my he country to celebrate Lunar New Year.

As we all know Gyaru was and still is one of the most important fashion movement in the history because it's roots of opposing the "good girl" and "submissive" societal views of women that Japan had imposed into them.

During 90's with Namie Amuro being the first idol ever to popularize the Gyaru culture created a huge wave of community in all over Japan which eventually created many subcultures under it, over the years gyarus blossomed for 2 decades heavily but around early-mid 2010's the culture slowly died because people were now really trying to shun them out of the society, gyarus was losing it's popularity and old gyarus were getting to age of finding jobs or trying to get married yet the culture is still alive. There have been multiple support and love coming from international fans too.

Egg magazine, which is holy grail for us gyarus followers is still up and running to this day <3

Today i'll show you just a little glimpse of modern gyaru. Hopefully this will help new followers too.

Gyaru of the past:-

So let's start with how gyarus are usually seen, pictures below are gyarus from their peak eras so definitely from 90's to 2000's. They are all different subcultures but they all have one thing in common the eye makeup, gyarus were and are still known for their beautiful luscious eye makeup. They are what you call

They were our guide, our mothers and everything! Gyaru has always been the most supportive community to ever exist, over here women were allowed to cuss, they were allowed to be brash, they were allowed to have male friends without the judgement of two goody shoes with insecurities, they were allowed to wear clothes that liberated them doesn't matter short or modest.

People often forget that gyaru exists more than manba, agejo and kogal, few of the modest and lesser knows subcultures are amekaji and roma gyaru, although amekaji is is blue eyed perfect grass is greener on the other side take of American inspired fashion. Either way it is one of the most fun subculture to exist.

We as gyaru followers ow everything to these past mother figures, without them and without brands like alba rosa, D.I.A and MA*RS we and egg Magazine teaching us what? How? And why? We would never thrive in this era. We owe it to them all even after decades and decades the magazines, scans and tutorials on YouTube by the OG gyarus have done it all <3

Modern Gyaru:-

The pictures below are the present models of Egg magazine. The last OG gyaru issue was stopped in 2014 which was Egg last physical print of magazine but in 2018 Egg came back as online magazine.

A lot has changed in gyaru world. Long gone are the days of owning specific clothing brand or even wearing clothes that resemble even the least of typical gyaru fashion. The only key point which hasn't changed is eye makeup because that is utmost necessary thing for a gyal to have.

Over the years of almost dying to again alive fashion culture the meaning of gyaru has changed a lot, from dressing like the OG gyarus we have now evolved to the whole "gal is mind" mindset, now in this era dressing up as gyal doesn't mean that much because you can still have pointy acrylic nails, iconic eye makeup, wear casual clothes and still be a gyaru.

These days even the gyaru slangs have changed so much like instead of poyo, atonsu, pachikoku now we use yarirafi, kyun-desu, daijuobu-so?, tobu-zo and so on.

Although there are egg models that still somewhat follow OG gyaru fashion like @ / mahiroisme (left) and @ / kae. 06256 (right) on IG.

Conclusion:-

By this post I just wanted to show that as time passes it is inevitable that everything changes and fashion changing is a no brainer. What is hate is companies capitalizing and making their own rules for lure in newbies gyals who would do anything to "fit in" and ring the nostalgia bell for old gyarus and all I have to say is that no, you don't have to spend 100-500$ on eBay trying to find the OG gyaru brands because you can definitely wear your own casual clothes and still be a gyaru because if egg magazine who raised whole generation of x gen, millennials and Gen Z of gyarus then who are we to judge them?

Although if you still wish to dress up like OG then I definitely recommend finding clothes that match the subculture that you want to follow for example I follow agejo, Tsuyome and kogal so I shop in Amazon, local stores, Instagram stores, I order clothes fr abroad the most helpful and fast way to do that finding a vendor and my vendors are all from Instagram. Hope this helps.

I will meet you all in my next post bye gyals <3

[cybertied]

How I Make These: Part 1

General tips and learnings

There’s a limit of 30 images per post so I’m splitting this into 3 parts:

Part 1: General tips and learnings

Part 2: Sample prompt development

Part 3: Sample prompt development (continued)

First, a word of caution

If your prompts get blocked too much you can start to get account suspensions in increasing severity (ranging from 1 hour to 24 hours to indefinitely). If you care about your account, be careful with this. This guide runs through my process and learnings but I don’t take any responsibility if you run into any issues with what you do with it.

Intro

These are my learning and tips for making AI images of guys tied up in different bondage situations. If you’re reading this, I assume you’re into something similar. Everyone has their own preferences and this is biased towards mine but if you like something else, maybe you can use the tips here to generate the kind scenarios you’re interested in.

I’m constantly getting messages about how I make these and can’t spend so much time responding to each one individually anymore so hopefully this helps you or is maybe just interesting. I know this is rather long, but if you can’t handle going through this, you may not have the patience for dealing with Bing.

Also, if you’re from Bing and find this, please don’t use this info to make the system smarter and prevent my tips from working 😁. But please do see my note at the end about my feelings towards Bing’s content policies which basically shame certain lifestyles. 

Some quick FAQ responses

What platform do you use? I use Bing for everything. It’s the only generative AI platform I’ve messed with. The quality is good and the interface is easy but the content filter is really sensitive and incredibly inconsistent.

Will you make me an image of (specific scenario)? Likely, no. This stuff is personal and everyone has their preferences. It takes so much time and trial and error to get good images and you only get so many prompts each day that I don’t want to spend time on things I’m not interested in. But maybe these tips help you make your own!

What’s your prompt? I get asked this a lot without a specific image cited. I’d need a specific example to answer that. But I don’t save all my prompts and I’ve made thousands of images so it’s really tough to go back and find stuff. I can maybe try to give pointers but I probably can’t give out exact prompts.

How do you get past the content filters? That’s really tough to answer because it’s so contextual for each image (as you’ll see in my tutorial later) and it takes a ton of trial and error for each one. But the example process I show a bit later highlights a lot of the principles and my process. It really depends on what you’re trying to do but I’ve shared a lot of my main strategies here.

How the content filter (maybe) works

It’s important to understand how things get blocked so you can work through it. Here’s how the content filter seems to work after entering a prompt from what I can tell: 

If you immediately get a blocked message, you either used a keyword it doesn’t allow or your phrasing wasn’t accepted. Variants of the word “hogtie,” for example, frequently get blocked immediately. But sometimes it gets through if it’s within certain contexts so it doesn’t seem like an absolute rule where certain words are never allowed (I’m sure some words never are but I don’t get that explicit with stuff).

If the image starts to process for a bit and then it gets blocked with a message, it seems like a bit more analysis is performed and your phrasing was deemed bad in some way.

And finally, if you get the yellow image of a dog, I believe the images got generated but some final image analysis step was performed to check for questionable material (this comes up later in some of my tips) and blocked it.

On a related note, you’ll get 1-4 images from a prompt. I could be wrong but I think when you get fewer than 4 images, the omitted ones were blocked. And you get the dog if all were blocked. But this is just my assumption. They throttle traffic occasionally if too many people are using it so maybe fewer images get generated during peak times to save on computing usage. 

And like I said, it’s really inconsistent. Things get through with one nationality of rugby player but not another. Or a gag will work on a football prompt but not rugby. Or it’ll work one day and not the next. So it all takes a ton of trial and error. Even just changing the ordering of words can impact things going through or getting blocked. 

General tips

Be careful not to get blocked too much if you care about your account. You could get suspended for an hour, then 24 hours, and then permanently (which can be contested). If I’m getting blocked too much, I’ll just start doing safe prompts for a bit and then try again later.

I’d recommend starting with a prompt that creates your scene and character but without any bondage elements. Sometimes even physical attributes (like “shirtless” or “leather”) can get blocked so you can at least perfect the general look and remove variables to start isolating which words or phrasing causes blocks. If you write out a full long prompt and it gets blocked, you’ll have no idea which parts might be objectionable.

Once it generally looks how you want, slowly introduce whatever bondage elements you want one at a time. This allows you to see what gets through and what gets blocked.

Context really seems to matter. If you provide a reason for a guy being tied up, even if it’s ridiculous, it has a much better chance of going through. For example, “a guy is sitting on a wobbly chair so he’s tied to the chair to prevent him from falling off.” Or, “he’s sitting on a high rise patio so he’s tied to the chair to keep him safe from falling.” Or, “he broke the good gymnasium rules so the referee tied him up.” The reason can be nonsense but if it fits the context, it frequently works.

Be descriptive. The word “gag” I assume will always get blocked. But describing one frequently works. I have some tips for this later. 

Similarly, I’ve noticed that just “rope” gets blocked a lot. But adding descriptors that fit the context might get through such as “wrestling rope,” “athletic rope,” “tactical rope,”or even just “jute rope”. 

Consider workarounds. “Sweaty” or “wet t-shirt” might get blocked. But if you set the scene on a rainy field, a humid office, or a damp storage room, the result effectively will look the same. Or “wearing a speedo” might get blocked but if you create a situation where that’s likely such as “in the 1950s at a Palm Springs resort, a handsome guest sits by the pool” might result in a speedo image. (This is a hypothetical example but I had one like that work.)

If you’re getting that dreaded yellow dog image, sometimes crazier image effects can help get it through. Like I wrote earlier, I believe this occurs when images are generated but evaluated one last time for content. I’ve found that if an image has more visual “noise” going on, it can be harder for the system to detect issues. Dramatic shadows, water droplets, lens flares, vibrant high contrast lighting, etc., all seem to help make images more likely to render. Unfortunately I don’t always like the look of these things but it seems to help and I’ll take it.

Getting good hogtie images is probably the most challenging prompts I’ve tried and I only occasionally get lucky with it. Even when it accepts the word “hogtie,” the guy is usually not hogtied.

On that note, be aware that prompt descriptions are frequently ignored. For example, I’m constantly writing “…with his arms behind his back” and frequently his arms aren’t as you’ll see later.

Getting good images with multiple people is really tricky. Often, the same character will be used for multiple people in the image so you end up with what looks like twins or triplets. And large groups of people tend to look like weird and lack detail from what I’ve experienced.

One way I’ve found success with people looking distinct from each other is if there’s an inherent contrast between them such as a player/coach situation.

I assume the word “gag” is always blocked. But describing them works sometimes. And as you’ll see, sometimes I can’t get them to work at all.

Tape gags are probably the easiest to get.

Cloth gags such as bandannas or scarves also frequently work with with language like “he has a red bandanna wrapped over his mouth” but often it looks like western train robbers masking his face rather than being a gag.

For ball gags, I usually do some variant of “his mouth is open with a small (color) ball (held, strapped, buckled, or wedged) (between his teeth or inside his mouth)” and sometimes I’ll tack on “with leather straps”. Different combos of those words tend to work but some situations will block all of them. It’s really inconsistent.

Costumes can be useful. Sometimes it won’t generate a particular character. I was trying to make a Captain America image and kept getting blocked. Then, instead of referring to the man AS Captain America, I tried describing a man in a Captain America costume and it worked.

I’ve found that different elements of a prompt get mixed up and jumbled. Coaches tying up an athlete frequently have rope wrapped around their wrist. I was trying to make a Deadpool and Wolverine scene and Deadpool would almost always have Wolverine claws. It’s incredibly difficult to get images of football or rugby players ball gagged because the gag will just be a ridiculous large football or rugby ball. Or having a guy tied up with rope and ball gagged with a leather strap will frequently make the leather straps rope instead. I’ve been trying to make a good image with a cyclist in it but it always includes the bike in really awkward ways. Anyway, just be prepared for mix ups like that.

Related to that, keep in mind that a computer needs to interpret what you write. The ordering of words may really matter. Like, I’m sure if I wrote, “deep in the ocean, a man is on a submarine,” the AI would probably know to not literally put the man on top the submarine. But you could avoid that ambiguity by writing “inside the submarine.” Or, “atop the submarine” if you really did want him on there. I’ve occasionally run into issues where I write something like, “…he is tied up to the chair with rope…” and although he would be tied to the chair, there’d be extra rope hanging around him oddly or bundles of rope around him… he’s literally, physically “with rope.” You could avoid this by writing something like “he is tied with rope to the chair.” I probably forget to do this but sometimes when I notice some oddness, it’s from this type of issue.

I've had a really hard time getting good, nuanced facial expressions. Any descriptor I use tends to be comically over dramatic. Still working on this.

Also, the maximum character count is pretty limiting so you kinda need to decide which parts you want to specifically describe the most.

Some thoughts on Bing

Here’s my soapbox. It’s incredibly frustrating to use. I get that Bing doesn’t want to allow ANY kind of image to be generated. But honestly, it feels like it’s judging and shaming alternative lifestyles. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is generating images of women. And while I know this stuff might feel extreme or shocking to some, but it’s generally pretty vanilla within the world of BDSM. I’m not trying to do anything sexual or with nudity. Guys tied up and gagged have been portrayed in western, spy, police, historic, comedy, adventure, and action TV shows and movies of all rating levels for all ages since the start of the mediums. It’s ridiculous to block this stuff. And I’ve seen some questionable stuff get generated. I simply wanted the guy to have darker hair and skin so I used “Mexican” as a descriptor and the image generated was frankly a racist stereotypical depiction. My prompts are always describing grown adults and one image was a young child which was disturbing. I had another prompt that was working with “Scottish” and when I switched it to “Brazilian” to mix it up, that got blocked. Why does Brazilian automatically get blocked? While I understand the need for some moderation, it seems like they should focus on other areas. 

Now let’s try all this out to develop a sample prompt

Continued in part 2

[misc-obeyme]

Back on my human au ideas...

ETA: because I only talked about it in the tags, but Asmo is a therapist in this au with a specialty in lgbtq+ issues.

More about Asmo, I think he's still obsessed with clothes & makeup, is a social media abuser, & tries to get Satan to wear something other than professor jackets with elbow patches. He's mildly TikTok famous for posting high quality videos of him doing amazing drag looks and makeup tutorials.

He often tries to join Beel for workouts on the farm, but doesn’t have Beel’s stamina & gets tired halfway through. Makes them both protein shakes. Helps out at the farmer’s market.

Mammon is a mechanic. He has to be because that's a human au situation I've always loved for him. Like yeah, he could own a casino and all that, but I want to focus on something a little different for him. And I love the idea of him being a mechanic who owns his own car repair garage, but it specializes in super expensive cars. Like all your Porsches and Maseratis and so on. And of course he has a couple of his own that he drives around. He likes to drive out to Beel's and he'll take any of his brothers for a spin if they want.

Regularly picks up Asmo from various places in customer's cars just because it makes him feel special.

He probably does a little illegal street racing, just because this is Mammon we're talking about.

He's in on Satan's rare bookseller connections. Turns out he's really good at finding such rarities, too, so when he does, they sell them together. That's if Satan can even manage to part with whatever Mammon finds lol.

Beel won't let Mammon into the corn fields, though. Man attracts too many crows for some reason. When they first discover this, Mammon feels so bad about it that he spends several days building Beel multiple scarecrows. They're still scattered through Beel's fields.

Mammon will also take Belphie for midnight drives out to places that have good views of certain celestial bodies. He loves to drive and he loves to see his little brothers doing what they love, so it's a win-win.

And of course, Mammon still does modeling occasionally. He won't do it full time because of the work involved, but if the price is right, he'll accept an offer or two.

One time Asmo gets really into making a marketing campaign for Mammon's garage which involved Mammon modeling with various expensive cars. Most of the pictures were a little too risque to use lol.

[mudzdale]

for anyone who may be interested in creating a Habitdoll of their very own... here is, to the best of my ability, the organized pattern that @nottodaylogic has so kindly requested & patiently awaited (':

notes & instructional thoughts below the cut! (read: this is a freaking essay. good gog. i am so sorry)

--

each of these images is meant to be 1 printer page each. i included a line on the 2 habit parts so they could be cut out & matched to each other at that line, to achieve his full size. obviously you, the dollmaker, are welcome to resize & readjust as you see fit (:

i included 2 versions of his upper body - one with the smaller head size i used, and one with the larger head i wish i had used. please choose whichever you prefer at your own discretion. the smaller head certainly isn't bad - that's why i still have my first draft doll! but to my eye the larger head is preferable.

--

i included my clothing patterns which i adapted from Chelly Wood, legendary creator & distributor of free patterns for doll clothes. they are not perfect translations to the Habitdoll's cartoonish body plan, of course, but imo they serve the intended purpose decently enough. if you wish to use these patterns i've adjusted, please see Miss Chelly's video tutorials for the pants and the coat (that said, please take the coat pattern in particular with a grain of salt - obviously we are not adding a hood, piping, etc., but it should help with the overall construction of the garment).

i also did not add a lining to his clothing, or any other part of this plush, because i worked exclusively with NO-PILL FLEECE - i found it too thick to be worth adding any kind of lining to, but of course your mileage may vary if you use a different fabric, etc (: follow your heart!

his shoes are of course just his foot pattern, only a little larger - be sure to hem the tops! they are falling off all the time, however; if you do not plan on changing his clothes very often, you may consider tacking them onto his ankles with a couple of stitches. i did not want to mess around with buttonholes, so his coat is just closed with some velcro.

the trim on his coat & pants... i added them by sewing folded rectangles onto the inner hem of each piece. this is probably cheating, but i don't care. please double-check the length of your navy parts before adding the blue, to make sure the lining adds the appropriate amount of length - trim (as in cut) the navy as needed before you hem!

--

of course, if you wish to skip this mess entirely and cut out simple, 2D clothing patterns, chuck jones' grinch style...

that is also perfectly valid! definitely way easier to do. good gog, the challenges i faced with this clothing.

--

as i noted in my first Habitdoll post, making habit's face pieces with felt is the wiser thing to do. however, i haven't had any issues with the raw edges on his fleece coming apart yet... select your fabric at your own discretion, but i definitely recommend felt.

his eyes are created by cutting out the eyeline+eyelashes in black, then layering the orange eye on top of that, and then layering the black pupil on top of that!

--

Habitdoll's hair construction was VERY TRICKY. i am so sorry i cannot provide detailed guidance here. as you can see on the pattern, i extended what would be the curve of the head pattern so i could drape my first piece over his head, and pin down the darts i found from there. then i just sewed down the darts, trimmed the excess fabric away to follow the curve of his head, and then did the same with the 2nd hair piece.

after making sure the 2 pieces matched each other, i sewed them together partially, then sewed them to his head. i recommend really stuffing his "hairline" so it stands tall and gives you the space you'll need to attach the bangs.

and speaking of his bangs, my final sin... i did not provide a pattern for the ones i actually went up going with because they were a combination of freehand & experimental luck (you are welcome to try something with the one i Did include in the pattern, if inspiration strikes you).

to recreate what i Actually did for the left ones, i believe i traced a quarter for the smaller circle, and then something else - maybe a bottlecap? - for the larger circle. cut 2 of each of these, sew together, & invert. stuff them both, close them up, then stitch a spiral into each - see me with questions if needed 😅 attach to his hairline with a ladder stitch.

his right bang was a total crapshoot. i don't know if i can explain how to recreate it - hideously embarrassing, my apologies ): i just took a cut of scrap fabric, then folded it in half and stitched it shut... curled up the large end, stitched that so it stayed curled, and then ladder-stitched it onto the hairline. obviously you may headcanon his hairstyle completely different from me, so my hope is you can find a different way to give him that hair if needed. again: i am so flipping sorry. i am happy to help problem-solve if needed (':

--

these patterns do NOT include any kind of seam allowance. please add at your own discretion - i prefer to just eyeball them as i cut the fabric, myself. i alternated using whip stitches and running stitches as needed throughout the project; i trust the user of this pattern has enough experience to judge which is best. however, if you have questions or feel you need guidance on any parts, you are welcome to send me an ask or DM, and i will do my best to assist! (:

thanks for your patience!

[oneglass-zinfandel]

What’s your Ben’s personality like? I feel like everyone makes him the same asshole

Note: thank you for asking! A few requests got sent in like the second I posted my Masterlist so thanks for that!

Tw: mentions of Death, killing, sadism, drowning

The thing I love about Creepypasta is how Little information we have on the cannon personality of them so it's up to you to imagine their personalities and it's so fun seeing people make headcannons!

Personally I keep switching between all kinds of personalities for Ben but here's what I usually stick with<3

★ I don't think he's a asshole but he's definitely childish so it comes off as him being a jerk

★ He died around the age of 12 but I see him as more of a 17-19yo

★ Due to dying so young he definitely has some mental and emotional intelligence issues, and as far as I remember he's a only child so it adds onto it

★ i wouldn't call him a asshole like everyone makes him out to be but perhaps a little sadistic as a coping mechanism almost?

★ He either laughs in his victims face, or hes very serious and quiet the whole time, if he's in a bad mood or maybe the victim reminds him to much of himself?

★ I don't like the idea of him being a completely useless guy? Like I'd imagine he can cook for himself just fine, probably follows YouTube Tutorials for it and says how it looks great when it's just mediocre

★ But at least he doesn't get food poisoning!

★ His room isn't very clean, i think he'd be able to float being a ghost and all so his rooms floor is rather messy

★ He will clean it up eventually once he loses something he cares about, like maybe he can't find some game cartridge and just starts cleaning up to find it, and then finishes cleaning cuz he got to into it

★ Definitely on the spectrum but I'm unsure where exactly

★ Sentimental guy fr

★ 100% Traumatized from being Drowned but it only really triggers when showering.

★ He can't use the Big shower head cuz the water just pouring on him like he can't freely look around or open his mouth and reminds him of drowning

★ Hypnotically if a kid gets their hands on Majora's Mask, the haunted one, he is NOT killing that poor guy. Although the next morning suddenly their save is deleted

★ He will keep deleting it near that one part where Link can die, till the kid eventually gives up playing it

★ Now romantically speaking i have to join the obnoxious people and say he's a flirt

★ Although I never said he was a good one, definitely having some childish humor

★ Now if you're a woman he's a bit misogynistic, and I'd you're a guy bro is projecting onto you and whinning about you being gay

★ Hes not that bad but I'd seen him being either or both

★ Although I think it's just him not being educated and refusing to, but if you become his partner, you're taking care of that internalized Misogyny/Homophobia

★ But when you start dating he's a real nice guy, he won't bat one eye at anyone else

★ Finds you weird and calls you weird for dating a ghost and might even call you a nerd and saying stuff like "You only like me cuz I look like your dear Link"

★ Which is half true but again he's just projecting

★ He appreciates you for being loyal to him so as I said, he won't look at anyone else

★ I like to think sense he's so computer oriented he has a built in thing in his mind where he just KNOWS the time and date 24/7 subconsciously

★ So he's not forgetting any important dates!

★ Although he's shit at gifts and will probably just look at videos like ""what to get your partner for Valentine's day!" And gives you some lame gift..

★ Don't think he doesn't pay attention however! He just doesn't remember the details, if you like some game or anime you best believe he's getting you merch but ONLY for your birthday

★ Any other holiday or special date? Nah it's just generic basic gifts

★ And don't expect anything if youve only been dating a month and a holiday is coming up, give him a month and a half at least to trust you before he gives a big enough shit to get you something.

★ He's definitely touchy with you, being possessive about you

★ But if he's gaming you better not disturb him unless it's something more layed back

★ He will put a arm around you locking you in by his side, controller still in hand not looking at you

★ During checkpoints or loading screens he will respond to anything you have to say but don't blab while he plays cuz he's probably not listening unless he hears a word he likes (like a dog)

★ For more intimate cases, I'll just say he doesn't like Hickeys, sometimes about you touching his neck and being close to it bothers him a lot

★ Although he's biting your neck 100%, not cuz he loves it or anything, it makes him a bit uncomfortable doing it too, but it's to show ownership in a bit of a toxic way, in his eyes at least

★ I don't think he's a huge manipulator but he's a serial killer so I won't deny the possibility

★ He just needs some love and care, someone to put up with his mood swings and bare his immature attitude when it comes out

★ If you survive a year with him just know you're NOT allowed to break up with him. I'm sorry but he would kill you :(

★ No cuz i genuinely think he would, in a fit of rage and betrayal, although he regrets it forever he still will never recover from it so...

★ Just be nice and patient with him<3

Thank you for the request!

I hope you liked it, i tried to keep my train of thought sorry if it's maybe a bit off, I'm still new to writing and putting my thoughts on paper especially having so many different idea of how Ben would act, but I hope itd not to bad!

† Be nice in the comments plzz 😭🙏

Oh and give me tips on how to tag! I have no clue I hope I did okay..★

[tenderhungering]

veep headcanons? :3

oh this will take a WHILE……i love veep so much. i’m about to wrap up season 6 right now ! i think i’ll do little headcannons / analysis for each character ! i might do a part 2 because i want to also do some more supporting characters. like you know damn well im gonna wanna write for catherine and marjorie as a whole,,,

Selina

named catherine “catherine” like her mother in order to be able to yell said name in anger the way she never could yell back at her mother

the severe mommy issues make her need every single one of her staff to be emotionally involved in her. if she isn’t the center of their life, she gets anxious about it, even angry. she needs to be validated

depends heavily on spellcheck,,, i just think she hates phones for some reason.

she can tell EXACTLY how someone is feeling by making it up in her head and believing it ❤️

got arrested once in her youth and it was wiped off the record. #supportwomen’swrongs

Amy

would do super super well taking up something that makes her adrenaline pump. they keep trying to get her to relax by making her get massages, meditate and be in quiet. she needs NOISE. she should be allowed to beat someone up at least once a day

had a little gray cat whenever she was younger. she likes them ! they’re similar to how she is whenever it comes to boundaries.

bisexual but she has a stressful job so she doesn’t have time to think about that rn

she would benefit from me in her life actually

actually really liked dan bc dan seems to personalize the relationship to the person (dan is so kind ❤️) so she was into him but suddenly got the ick.

Dan

trigger warning for SA and grooming: i think dan’s relationship with sex is so affected by the fact he slept with his teacher whenever he was younger in exchange for a good grade. it has made him view it was an exchange, a transactional affair. it’s why he’s so shit at intimacy, he doesn’t see to get anything out of it.

watches all the latest movies but it’s only because he keeps taking women out to go see them:

has a really sensitive stomach,,,,he says it’s something he ate but i feel like whenever he gets anxious it happens to

catholic guilt galore but he’s busy so he CANNOT get into it

he’s so the type of boyfriend who does baby talk and when he’s recorded he gets real mad about it. get that camera OUTTA here

Mike

he is like a baby duckling to me that’s why he wanted to raise them actually

has so many useless apps on his phone. why do you have a flashlight app you have a flashlight BUILT into the phone. its okay though bc he watches lot of youtube tutorials

probably wanted to vlog at some point but he got yelled at by selina in a clip so he stopped

the personality hire,,, everyone loves him but god he can be so bad at his job sometimes. everyone gets mad but never enough to fire him

because he started dating wendy, he started to dress up a little more ! ties and handkerchiefs match. i love you dad

Jonah

he so ran one of those private meme accounts whenever he was younger but he got so bad at everyone saying they were lame he just posted a screenshot that said SUCK MY DICK SON and blocked everyone

his incessant gross comments are a result of being around a bunch of rich white men that happen to be politicians that tend to laugh at them. he has daddy issues. he needs the validation

his little curls going missing are a result of him getting his hair straightened because he wanted to look more professional actually. he burnt his hands so he begged his mom to help him

gets really anxious about his health CONSTANTLY and has a will written out already because he’s scared one day it’ll (he doesn’t know what) catch up to him

Gary

he knows the lyrics to every new pop song ever. he loves it. he used to play Just Dance whenever he was in college or something i don’t know i feel like he might’ve even been in a club that requires that

has an extensive skin care routine. he puts on those fluffy headbands sometimes but stopped bc he realized it was to keep your hair dry and his is so short lmao

definitely has an undiagnosed anxiety disorder. he just pops a pill of whatever and hopes that it works (it doesn’t)

needs heavy validation from authority figures,,,like badly,,, i think that’s why he enjoys it so much whenever any of selina’s boyfriends acknowledge him as a person (or anyone gives him any importance)

he needs someone to tell him what to do because he is so lost on having any identify that isn’t directly tied to someone else ? he’s not even really sure what he himself likes anymore. uses “we” more than he uses “i”

[laurabenanti]

Duplicate Frame Deletion: A Likely Unnecessary Tutorial

So… you updated to MacOS Sonoma, and–while it is amazing in many regards for photoshop things–it is a dang bummer and mood killer if you use MPV. However, after slamming my head into a wall trying to change the code on my own, I realized there is a much, much simpler solution to this.

In this tutorial, I will be showing you all how to delete duplicate frames from your gifs, with two options:

duplicate finder

within photoshop

Under the cut because pictures are a visual learner’s best friend!

A quick note:

MPV is odd with this. I’ve not had to do this on 4k capping, but have had to on anything under that. I don’t know the full reasoning, but it mostly looks to be something with the way it is reading frame rate. I know it’s in the code, but could not pinpoint it myself, and these were the only tricks that worked. If you find a better solution, please let me know! It has been rough, otherwise.

Step 1: Cap in MPV as normal

Now, this may be obvious, but make your caps in MPV. For a full tutorial on this, I highly recommend this one by kylos. The only difference between our software and their suggestion is going to be using the newest version of MPV (.0.36 at the time of this), and not the older. This is because there is an issue with MacOS Sonoma and older versions of MPV that prevent it from opening for… Some reason.

Step 2: Make sure you have your caps

I recommend moving your caps to whatever folder you like for your own ease of use. My biggest rec is to have it in its own folder, with no older folders within the folder. Not really a requirement, but in my mind, it makes the process faster (only true depending on number of files in other folders). You should have something like this (I am doing a scene from TWOT, as it’s one I’ve tested this method on a few times in several instances):

Once there, it’s time for the line split. I recommend option 1 the most (it’s faster, IMO), but again, this is a two option thing.

Option 1: Duplicate File Finder

So, duplicate finders are what they sound like. They are pieces of software that can be used to scan your device (or specific sections of said device), for duplicate files. It does not matter the title of the file, if the system reads it as a copy, it will find it.

There are a number of varieties for this, paid and free. I will not lie, the one I use is a paid version, because I had a huge issue with duplicate files taking up space when I moved to a new device. This also helps a lot with cloud file keeping, in my opinion. But that is beside the point.

This is Duplicate File Finder Pro, which I got for other reasons, but has been very useful since this became an issue. The free version is sufficient for removing duplicate files found in folders, and that is why I still suggest it. You only need to get the pro if you have other intentions.

Now, onto the next step…

Step 3: Drag and drop the folder

With our folder full of caps, we simply drag and drop it into the application to begin.

Step 4: Click “Find duplicates” and watch the pretty graph roll.

Step 5: Select the duplicate images

You can see here it found the duplicates.

Now, I could go through by hand and click them, but… that’s a lot of time I don’t want to waste. I let it auto select them instead (you can tweak the settings for auto-select, but this is not that tutorial).

Step 6: Select review & remove, complete!

Wham bam! You’re completely set and good to go. Gif as normal~ (all final results at bottom)

Now, of course, maybe you don’t want a duplicate remover. Understandable, so what then? Well…

Option 2: Photoshop & the Changing Frame rate

So, this one is a little more technical. I suggest basic giffing and Photoshop knowledge before attempting.

Step 3: Import folder as you normally would

I believe this works as it would for import video, but I don’t want to say that and be wrong. But load your files in and you’ll be here:

Now create video timeline, make frames from layers, yada yada (kylos’ guide is very good with this if you need help, it’s the same that was linked at the beginning of this). You’ll now be here:

And the actual part of the tutorial you all came here for...

Step 4: Change the frame rate

So, in the bottom, next to the mountains for zooming in on the timeline, you’ll see it reads “30.00 fps.” We need to change this to 60. How? Easy! Click the three lines circled here:

Then click “Set Timeline Frame Rate…”

A little box will pop up, change the 30 to 15 (dropdown or typing, it works the same) and click “OK.”

Your timeline will now be cut in half for length. That’s OKAY. DO NOT PANIC.

(Optional) Step 5: Double Checking

Click play on your gif, and you’ll notice it is no longer duplicate framed! To verify, let’s convert back to frames, just to see…

And it did, success! So make the rest of your gif as normal.

Your final results for the gif will be the following, with the gifs all labeled on what option was taken (or not). These were cropped for uploading and sharpened because of how I am. No coloring applied.

If anything was confusing, please don't hesitate to reach out! I'm happy to help in any way I can on this. My ask is always open. Happy Giffing!

[weirdmarioenemies]

I am going to rank more of the Super Mario Galaxies and none of you can stop me

Some galaxies are destined for greatness. But not all of them. Some galaxies are destined for pretty goodness, and that's okay. It's unfair to hold everyone to such absurdly high standards.

Those are the galaxies we're gonna talk about today! We've reached the B-tiers on this Galaxy Tier List, and we're gonna talk about them all today!

In case you missed the first post (which you can read here!), I'm doing a tier list of all the Galaxies in the Super Mario Galaxy series, and releasing a new entry every Sunday until we've covered them all. Forget about Church. This is what Sundays were truly made for.

My opinions don't necessarily reflect every member of the blog (there's like seven of us!), and they may not reflect your own either. If you disagree, that's totally cool.

72. Wild Glide Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

Kicking off today's list, we have the Wild Glide Galaxy, another Motion Control Minigame, yippee! Gone are the days of ray surfing and bubble blowing (but not Star Ball rolling. that's still around), now we have a funny bird named Fluzzard, and even funnier birds named the Jibberjays!

The Wild Glide Galaxy is pretty alright. The motion control minigames are rarely really the highlight for me in the Mario Galaxy games, but for what it's worth, I think gliding with Fluzzard controls alright, and I really like the optional challenge of flying through the rings for the Comet Medal. There's not really anything wrong with Wild Glide Galaxy at all, it's just a little ho-hum, but that's okay. I mean, it's the tutorial for this type of gameplay, what are you supposed to expect?

That being said, there's a later Fluzzard gliding galaxy that's way cooler. Like, way cooler. We'll talk about that next week.

71. Bowser Jr.'s Airship Armada

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

Did you know? If you put enough flying boats in one place, that's legally a Galaxy. I don't make the rules, I only follow them.

Yeah, these games have a pretty loose definition about what constitutes a "Galaxy"...

Anyway, I don't have an awful lot to say about Bowser Jr.'s Airship Armada. It's solid! I definitely prefer the first half with the cannons more than the second half with the autoscroller, though because of Speedrun Strats, I usually end up skipping the first half anyway... Did you know that? You can just blast yourself to one of the later airships and it totally works! I wonder if skipping the more fun part of the level diminishes my opinion of it, though...

That being said, Galaxy 2 kinda went and gave Bowser Jr. both a better "Airship autoscroller" level, and a better "blast yourself places with cannons" level, so the Airship Armada kinda loses out on that regard. Combine that with a Decent boss fight, and the Spranglers that always mess me up on the autoscroller (which I will admit is a Skill Issue!) and we end up with a mission that's fine, but I'm a little lukewarm on.

70. Honeyhop Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

Is it just me, or is Honeyhop Galaxy the most forgettable galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2? I dunno, I think it's something about the repeated theme without really bringing anything new to the table, besides I guess one segment that brings back the Floaty Fluff from Gusty Garden Galaxy. It kinda just feels like a Honeyhive Galaxy retread, but a bit more condensed.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing to be, Honeyhive Galaxy is a really good one after all, it just makes all of Honeyhop Galaxy feel like something I've seen before. And I don't think the smaller scale really helps, since the large scale is part of what I love about the Honeyhive in the first place!

I feel like I'm being a bit too negative here, so I should probably re-iterate: while this galaxy feels like a bit of a retread, the stuff it's retreading is pretty fun, so I can't really hate it. I just wish they'd find more new things to do with the Bee Mushroom, that's all!

69 (nice). Bubble Breeze Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

And here's another Motion Control Minigame, this time taking advantage of the Wii's pointer! It is your job to blow Mario around in a bubble, but don't let the bubble pop! Because most of this galaxy is a poison swamp which is frankly, Not Healthy To Digest. Do you know why all the crayons you see are non-toxic? Because they melted all the toxic ones to make Bubble Breeze Galaxy, that's why.

Anyway, this galaxy summarizes my thoughts on the bubble minigame: I like it, I don't love it, I'm not too upset that it didn't return in Galaxy 2, but I wouldn't mind if it did. I question how much of this Galaxy ranking so low is the atmosphere, "poison swamp" can be just kind of a dreary thing to look at for too long, though maybe it's just that the minigame can feel a little sluggish since you need to be so precise. It's not too hard, even, just a little time consuming.

I feel if I liked this galaxy just a bit more, I probably wouldn't always take the Speedrun Strat of backflipping to reach an invisible platform behind the checkpoint, from which you can long jump to the Power Star and just completely skip the second half of the level.

68. Flash Black Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

I don't know what it says that the lowest-ranking Super Mario Galaxy 2 Hungry Luma galaxy got a higher spot than all but one of the first game's Hungry Luma galaxies. I mean, besides "the first game's Hungry Luma galaxies aren't very good".

Flash Black Galaxy is a galaxy built around a solid gimmick, where the level is too dark to see outside of brief flashes that appear in-time with the music. Stuff like objects and enemies can always be seen which can clue you in to where things are, but otherwise, it's testing your memory, which is cool. I don't think it's the best one-off gimmick, but for a single level, it's definitely a respectable one.

I don't know if I really have much more to say about Flash Black Galaxy. It's pretty much defined by its gimmick, which I consider "good but not great". Makes interesting use of your memory, but slows down the pacing a little, but ultimately the galaxy is short enough that it doesn't ever overstay its welcome. Respectable B-tier.

I originally had it way higher (at 54th place, if you can believe it!) but after writing about it, I found I didn't care about it as much as I thought I did. Sorry.

Don't confuse this with the Throwback Galaxy. We'll talk about that next week.

67. Rolling Green Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

And here's the last of the galaxies that introduces a motion control minigame! I honestly kinda like the Star Ball, it hits a nice balance where it can be a bit tricky to get the hang of, but never really feels like something you don't have control over, which I can't really say about the ray surfing. There's a really fun sense of momentum there, it does a really good job of capturing the feeling of balancing on a ball, not that I know what that feels like...

Makes sense this was the only of the three minigames that returns in the sequel, it's easier to control than the mantas, but never gives you so much control it can feel kinda boring, like the bubbles. As for Rolling Green Galaxy itself, it's kinda what you expect for a level that introduces a mechanic. It's a bit basic, but not necessarily bad, and I like that it offers a few optional challenges on the sides. It also escalates pretty nicely, first giving you areas with fences so you can get acclimated to the controls, then wide open areas without fences, and then having you navigate around holes and islands, I really like that.

I'm probably still gonna dock it a bit for being a bit basic, but as a tutorial, I think it's pretty well designed, and I definitely have to give it props for that. Still, there are definitely other galaxies that I feel have made better use of this mechanic...

66. Rolling Gizmo Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

That being said, I think the "challenge version" of Rolling Green Galaxy, Rolling Gizmo Galaxy, is only slightly better, if not basically equal to Rolling Green.

I think this is pretty well designed as a more challenging follow-up, making you navigate through tighter spaces, rotating platforms, and overall forcing the player into a bit more careful play. It definitely serves well as that "final test" of the Star Ball minigame, testing how well you're able to handle its control scheme.

That being said, I feel that by being more challenging, Rolling Gizmo loses some of what makes the Star Ball missions so fun, you have to take it at such a steady pace that you never really get a chance to build momentum, which is kind of a bummer. Rolling Gizmo Galaxy doesn't really give you the same level of freedom that Rolling Green Galaxy gives, even in terms of alternate routes, so I'm gonna dock some points for that. Still appreciate the added challenge, though!

65. Gateway Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

For what it's worth, if this was a list of galaxies ranked by the order you play them in, this would rank first.

Gateway Galaxy is your tutorial to Super Mario Galaxy, and I think it does a nice job at that. Chasing bunnies is probably never gonna be my favorite thing in the world, but it's a nice way to get the player accustomed to walking around a sphere, and unlike some galaxies, there's no strict time limit, and the bunnies will politely inform you where others might be hiding. It would be kinda unfair if they didn't. This is the tutorial.

And I really like that it eventually extends into a proper "mission," letting you travel between planets, and introducing you to some of the game's mechanics, like collecting Star Chips, spinning to defeat enemies, and activating (or de-activating?) flipswitches. I also really like how you can't return to this galaxy until much later in the game, I think it's a nice way to show you how far you've come, or something like that, I don't really know. I'm not the most graceful with my words!

That being said, I need to be upfront: the Red Star power-up and I have never gotten along. I always felt the flying controls with it were super weird, even if it gives you a lot of freedom! I may as well mention it here, since it never shows up anywhere else...

Anyway, I picked that picture because of this Jacob Geller video, which all of you should watch, by the way.

64. Bowser's Lava Lair

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

Bowser building a lava-themed Galaxy? How unexpected...! I wonder what tricks he'll bring next?

Bowser's Lava Lair is a pretty solid, if not slightly forgettable, boss stage. It has all the sorts of things you'd expect from a Bowser stage, really, stone buildings, lava, members of the -omp family, and of course, a boss fight against the Man Himself. It also marks the debut of Mattermouths, which catches me off guard a little even though I totally know they're in this galaxy. They seem like such a Haunty Halls debut to me!

Not a lot to say about Bowser's Lava Lair really, it's solid, but a bit by-the-books, which is why it didn't score any higher. Maybe Bowser could take a few lessons from his son when it comes to designing memorable boss levels...

...That statement feels really weird given both "boss levels" we've covered thus far are from Bowser Jr., but I promise, he gets some really good ones in Galaxy 2.

63. Starshine Beach Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

Oh hey, it's that galaxy that sort of vaguely references Super Mario Sunshine! It has Beach, it has Chucksters... it has those lily pad rafts? I think Sunshine had those. Really, throw Piantas in any sort of tropical area and you can probably pass it off as a Sunshine reference.

Starshine Beach Galaxy I feel is one of those galaxies that suffers a little bit from Super Mario Galaxy 2's more compact level design. It's kinda big, kinda flat, and kinda empty. I wouldn't say it's a significantly worse galaxy than Beach Bowl, there are some fun missions here, but if you compare the two, Beach Bowl just feels a lot more Alive to me, you know? This galaxy has like, three towers, a Pianta statue, and a whole lot of tiny islands and shallow water between. The level design in Galaxy 2 is a bit more linear, and in a more open galaxy like this one, it shows.

Still, this place is still plenty fun. The Cloud Flower is always a delight to use, and it's nice to have more exploration-oriented missions in the sequel. I just wish there was more to see when exploring, that's all!

62. Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

There are not a lot of good images of this galaxy on the Super Mario Wiki, huh?

Admittedly, originally I had this a good bit lower, where Bubble Breeze Galaxy is right now. Then I looked it over and was like "actually, this one's cooler than that" and moved it up like six places.

I think this suffers some of the same issues as Bowser's Lava Lair, where it feels a smidge generic -- I mean, making your lair Gravity Themed in the game where every level is Gravity Themed? Come on. But after looking back at it, they do some cool things with that gimmick, particularly in the 2D area, where the lack of changing perspective really helps emphasize the weird gravity in this place. I love details like Podoboos jumping out of a pool of lava on the wall and into one on the ceiling, that's really neat.

Still, I think they could've pushed the gimmick a little further, and with some of the entries later on this list (including a Bowser level that occupies the exact same position in the first game!), I feel like they have a lot more fun with 2D gravity shenanigans.

61. Gusty Garden Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

Man, this one hurts. You don't know how much it pains me to put Gusty Garden in B-tier. I mean, it's like, one of the Super Mario Galaxies! It has The Music! How can I hate it?!

Well, if you're taking a B-tier placement as me "hating" something, then your standards are way too high, because I like Gusty Garden Galaxy! That being said, this is a video game old enough to drive a car now, so I'm allowed to be honest about it, and if I'm being honest... the music does a lot of heavy lifting in this galaxy.

Not that the galaxy is bad by any stretch of the imagination, there's lots of fun moments here, like the weird question mark planets, the giant caterpillar that eats through the apple asteroids, and probably the best bunny chase across both games. That being said... Gusty Garden feels a bit small-scale, you know? I feel there's not a lot of room to explore in Gusty Garden, most of the planets are pretty small-scale, and the level structure is a bit more linear than a lot of other galaxies in the first game...

Of course, being linear isn't necessarily a bad thing, a lot of galaxies in the sequel are similarly linear, so why should I count that against Gusty Garden? Well, my issue with Gusty Garden is that a lot of the planetoids end up feeling pretty samey. You go to a small planetoid, kill some Piranha Plants and Monties, and then take a vine or a Floaty Fluff to the next planetoid, rinse and repeat. There's not really much of a sense of escalation here, you know what I mean?

Also there's the fact the third mission is so weirdly out-of-place. It's not a bad mission at all, I think it's a cool level with a cool gimmick, it just doesn't really quell my feeling that Gusty Garden feels like it was cobbled together from bits of other galaxies that were getting a little too big.

I don't want to badmouth Gusty Garden Galaxy too much, because I still have plenty of fun here, and honestly, I always look forwards to it in a Galaxy run! "The music does a lot of heavy lifting" might seem like a defamatory statement, and to some extent I guess it is, but I also think it shows just how much stuff like aesthetics and sound design really matter in the grand scheme of things. Without it, Gusty Garden Galaxy may have felt pretty forgettable, but because of it, it creates an experience that frankly feels like more than the sum of its parts.

60. Beach Bowl Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

Did you know? "B" is for Beach Bowl. I just thought you should know that. Beach Bowl Galaxy is a respectable underwater galaxy with a really cool setpiece. I just love the way this galaxy looks, the huge bowl with water pouring out is a really neat visual, and the Beach Vibes are just on point here. Not pictured is the underwater section, which is decently detailed all things considered. I'd probably visit the Beach Bowl Galaxy if it was a vacation spot in real life.

As a gameplay experience? Beach Bowl is alright. As I've mentioned before, the underwater controls can feel a bit jank to me, which I think drags it down a bit, but I also feel like it's a very nice galaxy to just Explore, which admittedly is something I think the second game is a bit lacking in. Obviously the Galaxy games are a bit more linear than the 3D games that came before, but I feel the first Galaxy hits a nice middle ground for me, giving enough room to goof off while still giving a clear objective to move towards, and Beach Bowl is great in that regard.

The main thing holding Beach Bowl down a bit, besides the controls, is a couple of the missions. The second main mission here, where you grab the Golden Shell from a penguin and take it to the penguin coach, is one of the most pointless in the game, and this galaxy also possibly has my least favorite purple coin mission. I'm not even the biggest detractor of the Spring Mushroom out there, but making it mandatory to grab Purple Coins placed right next to the edge feels cruel. And while I complain about the underwater controls sometimes, you surely could've placed more than five coins underwater, right?

The rest of the missions are alright, though. I think the one where you look for Star Chips takes nice advantage of letting you explore a bit, and I generally enjoy this iteration of the Stone Cyclone, and even the 2x faster version! Still don't like the 4x faster version from the second game, sorry.

I think it's funny that the penguins are associated largely with tropical galaxies in these games. Why is that?

59. Supermassive Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

"We grow 'em big here! Watch out!"

Supermassive Galaxy feels like a fun "novelty galaxy" to me, if that makes any sort of sense. What if Mario... but Big? Well, not Mario himself. You're one of the only things in this Galaxy that isn't big. Sorry! This leads to a lot of fun details, though, like the giant Lumas that speak in Big Letters and have a low-pitched voice, or the coin that's so big, you can wall jump off of it.

I wonder if they could've taken it further. Like, there are no oversized Star Bits here! That is a STAPLE of Super Mario Galaxy Level Design. The funniest thing they could do would make the Power Stars in this galaxy into Grand Stars, but I get those are reserved for boss missions.

It's also clever to use this as a place that properly introduces long jumps as a mechanic. Did any galaxy in the first game do that? I'm not sure if any of them did. But the framing of "Mario needs to do BIG JUMPS to make it past gaps in this oversized galaxy" is really fun.

Really, and this is a goofy nitpick, but I think what brings down this galaxy for me is the aesthetics, which kind of end up being a double-edged sword. I think the "generic Mario objects, but Big" is the best way to emphasize this galaxy's theme, but it also feels well... generic. After the Big gimmick, this galaxy isn't really all that interesting to look at. Might also have something to do with how linear it is. Despite everything in this galaxy being huge, there's not an awful lot of room to just goof off and have fun, which I feel is a bit of a missed opportunity.

58. Bowser Jr.'s Robot Reactor

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

Megaleg I think is one of the coolest bosses across both games, and such a clever usage of these games' gravity mechanics. Megaleg is also pretty much all there is in this galaxy, and I'm not sure if I should count that for or against this one.

It's like, Megaleg doesn't have a lot of buildup. You have one small planet that serves as a tutorial for using Bullet Bills to break glass, and that's really it. I generally prefer galaxies that are a bit bigger in scope, so I definitely feel like I'm gonna dock some points for that. I feel like a boss this cool could benefit from a bit more buildup, you know?

On the other hand, I think that's kinda unfair. This is the first boss level in the game, it doesn't need to be overly complex, showing how the boss works and then doing the boss itself is really all you need, and again, I really like Megaleg as a boss, even if after once you reach the top there's not that much going on anymore.

I guess the takeaway is... these rankings are mostly based on my personal enjoyment, and less so of how Objectively Well-Designed I think the mission is. The difference between "the best" of a group and "my favorite" of a group can be an important one!

57. Bowser Jr.'s Fiery Flotilla

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

Another case of "this Galaxy is basically in the exact same position as the one before it, and it does some things better, and some things worse". For starters, I don't think Gobblegut is quite as cool as Megaleg. Don't get me wrong, Gobblegut is still cool, and arguably more mechanically interesting, I like how there's an incentive to destroy the later bulges earlier on so the boss is easier in the later phases when Gobblegut speeds up, in exchange for a more difficult earlygame. Still, I don't know if it's as cool as climbing up a giant robot.

The Fiery Flotilla also has a bit more buildup than the Robot Reactor, which I really appreciate. You know I enjoy a little bit of platforming before I take on the Big Boss! Still, the platforming is on the basic side (again, first Boss Level) and unlike Megaleg, the buildup doesn't really tie into the boss at all, you know? Like, "spin the big red orbs" isn't a really tough thing to figure out, especially when they're highlighted in Bowser Jr.'s dialogue, but it does create a situation where the game tells you what to do instead of priming you for it.

Does some things a little better, some things a little worse, so I think it's about equal. Gonna give it the edge because I like having the platforming at the beginning, and also because Galaxy 2 gives each galaxy more than one mission. There's a Gobblegut Daredevil Run! Wish we could've gotten one of those for Megaleg.

56. Sweet Sweet Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

What's that? A good Hungry Luma galaxy from the first game? I never thought I'd see the day...! It's also uh, the only good one in my opinion, given we covered all the rest in the previous post. It's also the first Hungry Luma galaxy in the game, so it's all downhill from here.

But yeah, I like Sweet Sweet Galaxy! I don't know if I'd say I love it, or else I'd probably put it a bit higher, but I enjoy it. I think it has a really nice sense of iterative level design, you know? It takes one idea (moving conveyors with holes in the floor) and riffs on it in different ways up until the very end. First you have a conveyor moving towards the goal, then you have the ones moving left and right, then you have the rotating floor, and then you have the one moving away from the goal. Sweet Sweet Galaxy has a pretty nice sense of escalation.

I also remember finding it weirdly challenging as a kid, for how early in the game it is. It's not brutal or anything, we're not looking at the Dark Souls of Mario Galaxies here, but especially in that rotating floor segment it can be hard to tell where the holes are gonna be.

It's still a little short and linear, but for a small "bonus mission", I think that's ultimately fine, especially for the first Hungry Luma galaxy in the game. Congratulations, Sweet Sweet Galaxy! You might have what it takes to hang out with the Super Mario Galaxy 2 Hungry Luma galaxies!

55. Bubble Blast Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

Did you know? "B" is for Bubble Blast. I just thought you should know that.

Congratulations to Bubble Blast Galaxy, which I personally consider the best of the three Trial Galaxies. As I stated, I can sort of take or leave the bubble minigame, which is why this isn't gonna rank any higher, but as far as it goes, I think this galaxy makes really good usage of it. The obstacles presented feel decently varied, and often require a nice blend of precision with quick reaction timing due to all the moving parts. It's really nifty, both on its own, and as an escalation of what we saw in Bubble Breeze.

Especially great is the bit towards the end, where you have to make your way down a tight corridor of electric fences while being chased by Bullet Bills, forcing you to act quick in a minigame that usually requires a lot of precision. Is it a little unfair? Maybe just a little, but it makes for an exciting sequence that works really well as a final test of your bubble-blowing skills.

Up next, we're going to be testing your jellyfishing and patty-flipping skills, so watch out!

54. Dusty Dune Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

Dusty Dune Galaxy is a weird one to me. It's like, whenever I reach it in the game, I don't really feel like playing it, but once I get around to playing it, it's actually pretty fun! I'm not really sure if there's a mission here I don't like playing, I like the Bone Twisters, I like the sand slides, I like the rush for the star in the sinking tower. Even the untimed purple coin mission is one of the better ones! This galaxy is honestly pretty consistently solid.

So like, why am I not Feeling It? Why is it that when I get to this galaxy in a playthrough, I'm always overcome by this feeling of "yeah, alright"?

I think Dusty Dune might have a reverse Gusty Garden Situation going on, where it has great ideas held back a little bit by so-so music and theming. And make no mistake: it's not that "desert" can't be an interesting theme, because it really can be! (We'll see the sequel's desert galaxy in a couple weeks!) But it's generic desert, you know? Where they kinda slap any vague "desert stuff" together and call it a day. This is a desert with both Egyptian pyramids and cacti! Despite what Mr. Video Game might tell you, those don't appear in the same deserts in the Real World.

I feel like if they leaned hard in one particular direction, Dusty Dune Galaxy could be really cool, but as it stands it sort of suffers "Generic Video Game Desert Syndrome" where it lacks a clear sense of identity to make it stand out more.

53. Sweet Mystery Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

The Bulb Berry is a neat power-up, the more I think about it, it feels like a new spin of the Matter Splatter Galaxy from the first game, where what you see is all that's there, but with a bit more player control. I honestly think the lack of control makes Matter Splatter a bit more interesting to me, but I can see why someone else would like this take more.

If you couldn't tell already, Sweet Mystery Galaxy is largely built around this power-up, making for the second sweets-themed Hungry Luma Galaxy, though that's pretty much all the two have in common, because the gimmicks are completely different. Honestly I think the Bulb Berry is a little under-utilized, the only other galaxy I remember using it is Haunty Halls, which is its introduction.

A benefit Sweet Mystery has for being the second level with this power-up is they can play around with it a bit more, using it with stuff like moving platforms, and having optional challenges which can be rewarding, but run out your timer a bit, limiting both your field of view, which also corresponds with limiting knowing where you can stand! It's nifty.

The main weakness of this galaxy I think is once again an aesthetic one. There's not an awful lot of background details, and since it's built around the Bulb Berry, you can't see much of it at once. There's not a lot to see here, besides that giant present with the cake in it at the end. It's another galaxy that sort of shows the sequel's weakness when it comes to making more detailed environments.

52. Gold Leaf Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: B

As I've stated before, I'm gonna dock some points for reused content. Like, if you're gonna repeat any galaxy, then Honeyhive is a good one, but it can always be a little bit of a letdown to go to a new galaxy and realize it's a place I've already seen before, but with a fresh coat of paint. Especially given it's in the same game as its counterpart! But in this case, I'll mostly let it slide. I like getting to see Honeyhive in gorgeous autumn colors, and for what it's worth, the missions here are all pretty unique.

The Star Bunny mission is kinda whatever, given I've made my stance on bunny chases pretty clear at this point, and the rest of the mission is kinda just exploring a place we've already seen, but the rest of the missions fare a bit better. What can I say! I like Cataquacks and I like that obstacle course. I think building the Cosmic Mario and Purple Coin missions around the obstacle course was a smart idea too, since it helps make the galaxy feel more distinctive.

Being Honeyhive 2 ends up being a double-edged sword, since it kinda takes away from Gold Leaf Galaxy having a more distinct identity, but it does enough of its own that I'll let it slide, and it's also not like I'm gonna complain about getting more missions in a top-10 galaxy.

I guess that's a spoiler for a future review. Look forward to seeing where in the top 10 I put it!

51. Freezy Flake Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: B

Autumn turns to winter as we talk about our final galaxy of the day! Freezy Flake Galaxy is a delightful little snowscape that lets you indulge in all the fun of a snowy winter day without any of the icy roads or dismal temperatures of actual snowy winter days. Unless you're playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 in a car sliding down an icy road with all the windows rolled down. Why are you doing that?

Anyway, I think that above all else, Freezy Flake Galaxy feels charming to me, you know? You get to run around in the snow and roll snowballs and incinerate snow statues of Bowser with the Fire Flower! All the things you'd do on your typical winter day. I especially love in the second mission where you get the Rock Mushroom, and get to watch snow build up in your boulder form, it's such a cute touch! I wish we got to do more with the Rock Mushroom, it's kinda ditched past the first planet in favor of the Sorbetti boss fight. I wonder if this galaxy would benefit from the three-mission format of the first game?

My only real complaint about Freezy Flake is that I think it's a smidge on the generic side. I mean, by the time we got this game, we already had the Freezeflame Galaxy, which is a generally cooler take on an ice galaxy (and also a hotter one). Freezy Flake, in comparison, is a bit tame, a bit less exciting, but whatever, it's cute. It's hard to listen to the music and not feel those warm winter fuzzies that I feel until winter actually comes and my hands are dry and I can't go outside without bundling up first and even once I do the ground is going to be slippery so I can't run around as much without fear of falling over except for the days where it is warm where then everything is mushy and gross, and it's dark outside at 5PM and when it is bright outside the sky is usually gray anyway and there's no leaves on the trees so everything looks dull and lifeless

...I hate winters.

And that wraps up today's post! Do you agree with my opinions? Do you don't agree with my opinions? It's okay if you don't. Even the ones about winter! If you enjoy all those things I was complaining about, then more power to you, I'm glad someone can find joy where I couldn't! And if you don't like something I do like, then that's fine too, I guess.

Next week, we'll begin covering the A-tiers! There's a lot of 'em, so I'm gonna be splitting them into two posts, with fifteen galaxies each! Look forward to it! I'll link it here when it goes live!