#never been big on most universal IPs

[spectrearia]

hhh found some photos of old disney trips from several years back and it just made me really sad that the parks are nothing like what they were back then anymore. i still feel like it was probably best in the 90s and early 2000s (from what i've seen in videos documenting that time frame, and from the few trips my fam went on as well), but i ended up visiting more often in the 2010s and i still really enjoyed it;;

i miss walking around and just drinking in the atmosphere and theming honestly. sucks that its a mess now and you're paying so dang much for lackluster quality and there's no room for spontaneous flexibility within your visit because of the stupid genie+ app and insane wait times for Everything. the fact that there's no real "off season" anymore because it's Always Busy is a terrible reality as well. *sigh*

[perseidlion]

Streaming in Kaos

Well, it happened. I can't say that I'm surprised that KAOS has been cancelled by Netflix. I am a little surprised at the speed at which it was axed. Only a month after it aired, and it's already gone.

That has me wondering if the decision to cancel was made before the show even aired. We have to remember that marketing is the biggest cost after production. If the Netflix brass looked at the show and either decided (through audience testing, AI stuff or just their own biases) that it wasn't going to be a Stranger Things-level hit, they probably chose at that moment to slash its marketing budget.

That meant there was pretty much no way that KAOS was ever going to hit the metrics Netflix required of it to get a season 2.

What makes me so angry about this (other than the survival of a show relying on peoples' biases or AI) is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you decide before a show is ever going to air that it won't be a success, then it probably won't be. If you rely on metrics and algorithms and AI to analyze art, you will never let something surprise you. You'll never let it grow. You'll never nurture the cult hits of the future or the next franchise.

Netflix desperately needs people behind the scenes that believe in stories and potential over metrics. Nothing except the same old predictable dreck is ever going to be allowed to survive if you don't believe in the stories you're telling.

The networks and streamers have a huge problem on their hands. They need big hits and to build the franchises of the future to sustain their current model (which is horribly broken.) But people have franchise fatigue and aren't showing up for known IPs like they used to. The fact that Marvel content is definitely not a sure thing anymore is a huge canary in the coal mine for franchise fatigue. People aren't just tired of Marvel, they're tired of the existing worlds both on the big screen and the small one. Audiences are hungry for something new.

It is telling that the most successful Marvel properties of the last few years have been the ones that do something different. Marvel is smart to finally pull out The X-Men because that is a breath of fresh air and something people are hungry to see more of.

There's pretty much no one behind the scenes (except for maybe AMC building The Immortal Universe) that is committing to really taking the time to build these new worlds. Marvel built the MCU by playing the long game. That paid dividends for a solid decade even if it's dropping off now. That empire was built not with nostalgia for existing IP (don't forget the MCU was built with B and C tier heroes) but with patience. Marvel itself seems to have forgotten this in recent years.

Aside from that, I think people really want stories that aren't connected to a billion other things. That takes commitment on the part of the audience to follow and to get attached to. People WANT three to five excellent seasons of a show that tells its own story and isn't leaving threads out there for a dozen spinoffs. We're craving tight storytelling.

KAOS could have been that. Dead Boy Detectives could have been that. So could Our Flag Means Death, Lockwood and Co, Shadow and Bone, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Willow, and a dozen other shows with great potential or were excellent out of the gate.

If you look at past metrics, you only learn what people used to like, not what they want now. People are notoriously bad about articulating what they want, but boy do they know it when they see it. Networks have to go back to having a dozen moderate successes instead of constantly churning through one-season shows that get axed and pissing off the people who did like it in a hamfisted attempt to stumble on the next big thing.

The networks desperately need to go back to believing in their shows. Instead, they keep cutting them off at the knees before they ever get a chance because some algorithm told them the numbers weren't there.

[ceilidho]

Do you have any advice on doing a character study for a character before writing them? Stuff like how they’d act/respond 👁👄👁

haha it's quite tricky, I won't lie! it's definitely one of the things I struggle with the most (writing really well-rounded and defined characters). Here are a couple things that I do, but keep in mind that I'm reeaaalllyyyy not an expert on this. I'm still learning so much about characterization every day.

If you're writing fanfiction, watch or read the source material as much as possible, until you can almost hear the way the character sounds in your head. Take time to understand things like their accent and how they speak (do they talk a lot or very little? do they use slang or enunciate everything? do they speak quickly or slowly?). Here, you just want to concentrate on the cadence of their speech / their speech patterns. If they speak plainly or use lots of proverbs or turns of phrases, that sort of thing. If you have that down, you've honestly done half the work. Even I often reread my work and go "fuck, all of these people SOUND the same even though they're saying different things".

This is harder if you're not writing fanfiction and have to create your own universe, but regardless of whether you're writing for an existing IP or your own 'verse, I think understanding your character's cultural and religious background is so crucial to developing them. It's a big part of the lens through which they see the world, whether consciously (if they're a very religious character for example, or raised in a specific country) or subconsciously (for example, I grew up catholic so I relate to the world through that lens, even though I'm not a religious person - it just heavily informed me in my childhood years). For this Bear story, I had to do a bit of research around Baptist theology because I knew Bear would be a religious character (whether or not he's struggling with that religion) and it would heavily inform how he sees the world around him. I listened to some sermons, talked to someone with a Baptist background, and also thought about how that background with tie into his desire to have a family).

Pick like 3-5 words that you think best describe your character and just write them down somewhere. I've never been very successful when I make huge character sheets for my characters or try to write a super detailed background for them, so I try to give myself a bit of grace and be brief about it. You can always expand on it going forward. Like for someone like Bear, I might pick: family-oriented, religious (Christian), gruff, and scrupulous. You can also do this in the reverse way and try to think of what they're not (same example with Bear, I might go: conniving, hedonistic, flighty, and optimistic LMAO). This is a nice way to put like, boundaries around your character.

In the framework of your story, try to pick a trajectory for your character, or a goal. At least have one, but you could have a couple. If they're directionless, that works too! But they should want something or aspire to be something. This counts even if they think that thing they want is beyond them or unattainable - it's still a want/goal pushing them forward. This can also be an unconscious goal by the way -> like a very hedonistic character that likes to party who's slowly getting worn down from that life and doesn't even realize they want to settle down, or vice versa! Someone who feels trapped in their mundane life but thinks that's what's expected of them. The character doesn't have to know they want this goal.

Fatal flaws. This is a big one. What is something that might get in the way of them achieving their goal or might influence how they get it? Easiest way to think of this is just looking at the 7 deadly sins (soooo corny, but it's a good place to start). Characters are never perfect, so give them a reason to struggle.

And honestly lastly? Trial and error, baby. Take your vaguely defined character and figure out what you want them to achieve (whether or not they get it is beside the point), and then work out how they might go about achieving that. If they'd run full throttle towards it because they think they deserve it or whether they'd fight it every step of the way because they either don't think they want it or don't think they deserve it.

I'm sorry if this is very messy!! It also totally depends on you as a writer. When I try to make "character background sheets", it gives me anxiety and I end up not following through with my writing versus when I try to keep it brief and just dive into the writing and slowly change things and edit as I write. But maybe a sheet works best for you!

[mylonelydreaming]

I must be the only one on here who thinks "breaking the cycle" is unnecessary, and unnecessary to even really think about too much.

In the first place, all the cycle lore is, is the in-universe story explanation for something that is actually done for meta reasons. Why is there always Link, Princess Zelda and Ganon etc?

The real reason is characters like Link and Zelda are too iconic to their brand IP for them to even attempt getting rid of, and they will continue to make tloz games.

I think people make the mistake of treating the curse lore like some other franchises probably would, where this tidbit about the curse would be of huge importance later and breaking it would be a big deal. But that isn't it's purpose here. We are never getting a "breaking the cycle" game. The only way to "break the cycle" is if Nintendo stops making games for one of their most profitable franchises.

I also see this misconception sometimes that Tears of the Kingdom "broke the cycle". At no point in totk is the cycle mentioned. Nor is it mentioned that it has been "broken". They gave Mineru dialogue that essentially explains to the audience how Zelda returned to being a human (essentially Link, Rauru & Sonia power of love magic go brrr), so if they had wanted people to know a curse had been broken, someone would have said something about it or it would have been hinted at. The demon king being defeated doesn't mean the curse is over. He's been defeated before. There will be more Zelda games made, so the curse isn't over.

On that point, the next "3D" tloz game will have to necessarily be after totk, because they have made the past of botw/totk extremely messy to work with.They will want to start fresh yet again, and setting a game after tears allows them to do that. And the fact is, there will be a new Princess Zelda, as again, she is too much of an iconic character. Basically their equivalent of the Disney princesses along with Princess Peach. The cycle won't be broken any time soon. So something people need to suck it up on is at some point in the next decade or so it will basically be confirmed botw/totk Zelda had a child at some point, in the same way that WW Tetra is ST Zelda's grandmother, ALTTP Zelda is ALBW Zelda's ancestor, SKSW Zelda is every Zelda's ancestor, etc. It's a pattern at this point.

So... I don't see the point in even caring about the cycle to the level I see others do? I accepted that this is how the series works. And I mean, why would I want a series I love to end anyway? I want to see what they cook up for more Zelda games and new Princess Zelda designs.

[raleighrador]

There is no real Star Wars, it is all real Star Wars

I have never much cared for debates over what "real" Star Wars is.

I don't particularly care what George Lucas (or any author) intended or what he (or anyone else) has said in interviews.

I think this is because I got into Star Wars when I was a literal child and the thought of reading reviews or watching interviews didn't occur to me until I was in way too deep; and I was always a huge fan of the EU - I quite literally read every single published novel - and enjoyed them just as much as the movies.

So for me Star Wars always went beyond some kind of narrow "canon" and was always inclusive of basically whatever published (slop or otherwise) material I could get my hands on.

I have also always been very comfortable picking and choosing what I enjoy and care about. I have no issue with a book or move being bad/not to my taste/not in line with my preferred interpretation and just... not really caring about it.

Any long running & expansive fictional series will inevitably throw up mixed quality and contradictions. Even with a single author. The good thing is literally none of it is real so who cares.

In fact this gives readers/consumers a lot of freedom. We are under no obligation to engage with all of it or try and build some kind of perfectly synthesised "correct" interpretation that takes into account absolutely everything that has ever been portrayed.

No one (despite what it sometimes feels like) is marking your homework. There is no pass or fail. You can't enjoy something incorrectly.

How fandom - and I have in the last few weeks been far more active on Tumblr, the only social media site I post on - interacts with Star Wars does bizarrely feel like some kind of peer reviewed pseudo academic process.

However, it feels like a peer reviewed pseudo academic process which - and this sounds unbearably arrogant so please forgive me - is envisaged by people who have limited experience of how academia treats textual studies.

My majors were history and literature (and I went to Universities in the Global South that were VERY dubious of the distinction between those two). Literally none of the academics I studied under believed in some kind of single correct interpretation of any text.

Any text. Fictional or historical.

So why would the most massive science fiction IP in history that has been consumed by billions of people, which is the aggregate effort of dozens or hundreds of people lend itself to some kind of single correct interpretation?

In fact kind of a big part of academic textual studies is deliberately re interpreting texts through multiple lenses and logics. Just to see if you can. Just to see if it fits.

Historiography is a necessary element of any historical study & you could argue the same is true for fictional texts. We should definitely keep authors biases and intentions in mind when engaging with a text.

But we do not, and cannot, know the inside of their minds. The idea that even what they say in interviews is somehow a perfect articulation of their "true" intention is flawed.

To whit - if you believe an author perfectly expressed the definitive articulation of an idea in an interview (a spoken format where even if they knew the questions before hand they are giving their answer somewhat off the cuff), why do you NOT believe that a movie script or novel manuscript that they have worked and reworked and edited and proof read and reedited and redrafted for hundreds of hours is any less perfect an articulation of an idea?

So all we can do is acknowledge what we think we know of the author and decided if we care and how much weight to give it.

But the text is the text and the evidence is the evidence. We can weight it differently or dismiss it or whatever we want but ultimately we either believe the text itself has independent value or what are we doing here?

We seem committed to prioritising textual evidence over historiographical evidence otherwise we are in a self defeating exercise. We need not watch the movie, we need only watch cast interviews. We need not read books, we need only read the author's blog.

There would be no viable interpretations of Beowulf because we can't speak to the author.

It defeats the very idea of ideas - that they are independent, transmissible, intelligible, far beyond the reach or remit of the people who had them.

Some are good, some are bad, all are out there, and we can pick and choose as we wish.

So do so.

[ordinaryschmuck]

I think the reason why you often see more game/show/movie announcements for a random Marvel character you never heard of where DC primarily focuses on Batman and Batman related characters is because...Marvel built more trust with the obscure.

All the way back when they started the MCU, Marvel didn't have the rights to its more iconic, recognizable, and, more important, marketable characters. Spider-Man went to Sony, X-Men and Fantastic Four went to Fox, and even the Hulk was technically owned Universal. By the time the MCU was being conceived, Marvel only had its C-listers and D-listers. No one even HEARD of characters like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and ESPECIALLY the Guardians of the Galaxy before the MCU. Even characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, characters considered Marvel's big three nowadays, characters who the MCU relied on, weren't as huge as DC's big three. Meanwhile, DC had access to ALL of its characters, relying on its most recognizable IPs like Batman and Superman...And, oh yeah, I guess Wonder Woman was there too...Sometimes.

But the biggest seller was always Batman. Because how could he not be? He looked cool, he had an impressive rogues gallery to make toys of, and is everything for DC as Spider-Man was to Marvel. Both Batman and Spider-Man could sell anything. But Marvel technically didn't have the FULL rights to Spider-Man and DC...didn't bother with its other characters. Batman made bank with his videogames, movies, and TV shows to the point where they could sell a Gotham prequel series to Fox and STILL make a lot of cash. Why bother making a movie about Aquaman or The Flash when it likely won't sell as well as BATMAN. Sure, you got a Green Arrow TV show on the same network as a Superman prequel series, but that didn't change how most of DC's other projects weren't connected to Batman in someway.

Teen Titans was a show that starred Robin, Batman's sidekick. Same with Young Justice. And the only time kids got introduced to other DC characters, it was for a campy show like Batman: The Brave and the Bold where BATMAN teamed up with a hero a week. Which would have been a smart way to bring other characters into the light, but it's still connected strictly through BATMAN. Even now, DC has what is best described as a Batman problem. The Flash was a movie that featured two versions of Batman, one of them bringing in nostalgia through a past Batman movie instead of focusing on an old Flash product. And with the last few years, the only video games were Batman related, with Gotham Knights starring Batman's sidekicks and that Suicide Squad game starring Harley Quinn, a BATMAN villain who goes to kill BATMAN that's actually the same BATMAN from an old BATMAN game.

And yeah...I love Batman. We ALL love Batman. He's the coolest character ever conceived and it's the easiest thing in the world to make a movie about him. It might not be a GOOD movie sometimes, but it's at least a movie that'll make billions. But with this over-saturation of Batman, it left DC unsure if they can make anything big WITHOUT him. Because how can they be sure it'll succeed without their signature character that gave them a shitload of money?

But let's go back to Marvel. Starting a cinematic universe without their most popular IPs was a risk. They SORT of had the rights to the Hulk, but...there was no way Hulk would have made more money than a Spider-Man movie. If they wanted to make a successful franchise, Marvel had to put more faith in its other characters, allowing to make good movies and hope that enough people would be interested to see more. And...it worked. Iron Man was a hit, Thor and Captain America got people interest, and the big pay off was the box office smash that was The Avengers. Everyone started to know these characters and it didn't stop there. Guardians of the Galaxy became popular enough to be another big franchise for Marvel, Black Panther became the most popular Black superhero after Blade (another Marvel character), and people were left BEGGING for Spider-Man and the X-Men to join this universe so they could see their old favorites interact with their NEW favorites. And that just...never stopped. Marvel kept pushing more and more characters to the spotlight, with it paying it off for them.

Before 2014, NO ONE would consider buying a Guardians of the Galaxy game. But due to the MCU's revamping of those characters, it was enough to make people willing to do so. And in a few years, we're getting games based on Iron Man, Captain America and Black Panther, and JUST Black Panther, all because the Marvel had enough faith to turn this C-listers into A-listers. As for TV shows, we've got connected MCU stuff like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, but also a really good and imaginative cartoon with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.

Now, to be fair, it's not paying off for Marvel, especially with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels causing the studio to lose bank. They're even thinking about cutting back on riskier stuff and focusing on their bigger franchises. Which...honestly sounds dumb to me not only because the MCU was founded on taking risks, but also because DC is exactly what you get when you focus on JUST the money makers. We're still getting nothing but Batman and Batman related characters or movies/universes that references nothing but Batman. To the point where I just want DC to retire Batman for a year, maybe TWO tops. Marvel proved that you can make a hit if you let other characters than the most marketable one. Even if it fails like The Marvels did, it's not because Captain Marvel isn't as iconic as Iron Man, it's because the movie wasn't as well-written enough. It was a fun time, sure, but not as strongly written as other MCU films. And that's what DC needs to learn and Marvel to remember: It's not about who's the most popular, it's about strong writing.

Hopefully we get more attention on lesser-known Marvel and DC characters in the future.

[hasufin]

Consigned to memory

You know, it's kind of wild what's been, and lost, online.

And yes, I know about The Internet Archive. It's a wonderful tool and I'm glad it exists. But it's not, you know, complete. It's a privately funded effort by some very dedicated people, but it's not a complete snapshot of any particular point in our cultural history.

So once in a while I think about resources I once had, or just random things I wonder about.

I recall walking by where someone had painted "Cheetah Corner" with a URL in San Francisco. It was just a webcam looking out a window on that intersection, with a big statue of a cheetah in the foreground. No idea what happened to that.

For a long time there was just this one Japanese-English translator online. It wasn't smart the way they are now, but you could put in a word and it would find you a variety of words with a little bit of context as to what each one meant, because there are no direct translations.

I recall entire webcomics just gone - abandoned by their creators, unindexed and unavailable.

I remember End of Innocence and Project Rose Signet, fan works to make English-language transcriptions of the anime Shoujo Kakumei Utena.

And, hell, just try to find HamsterDamned, or even the original Hamster Dance.

Now, most of these things were running on some university's server, or just in a static IP provided to a dorm room. So I get why they're gone. But it feels like nothing really replaced them. TPTB figured out how to commercialize the web, which was the goal, you know? To get everyone to embrace the new technology. But they didn't join us, they colonized, and now there just doesn't seem to be a space for these quirky little labors of love anymore. If it can't sell banner ads, it doesn't exist.

So now I'm thinking about how I'm never going to listen to that unhinged audioplay someone made in '99 which I never got around to downloading, and it's surely on someone's computer but it's not online anymore, and all we have left are Tiktoks which end up deleted because they're interesting but never cross the line into sufficiently profitable to become a business.

[dynared]

Weirdly, I find myself invested in the fate of Rooster Teeth when I stopped watching most of their stuff years ago, save being weirded out at the Justice League crossover with RWBY (and being infuriated Rooster Teeth animated both parts instead of Part 1 in Remnant being done by Rooster Teeth and Part 2 in Metropolis being done by the people handling DC's current batch of DTV animation). Maybe some of that is enjoying the company that made the hate letter to mecha gen:Lock squirm, maybe some of it is the idea that these properties could have been big if someone had zagged when they zigged, went a different way with a story, etc. Maybe, like a lot of other people, I was just disappointed when RWBY Ice Queendom wasn't a full-on remake of the series done by actual animators in SHAFT vs. what I've dubbed "Rooster Teeth Vision", the Blender-animated visuals that pale to visuals from companies like Studio Orange. But I think I'm just attracted to concepts that never got over the hump, the franchises, and films that die in development, the incomplete behind-the-scenes stories, etc.

I think after seeing everyone talk and the discussions of who's interested in buying RWBY from statements and podcasts, I have some good news and some bad news, depending on your opinion on the franchise.

The good news - There is definitely someone interested in buying RWBY (maybe not gen:Lock).

The bad news - Given that Warner is only allowing Rooster Teeth its 60-day sunset period to find a buyer for the IP before taking over proceedings and selling it directly, that potential buyer probably has zero interest in hiring Dillon Goo, the CRWBY, and probably wants to call a do-over on the franchise. A full-on reboot is going to happen if someone buys after the 60 days are up.

I've gone over options in other posts for potential homes for RWBY if Warner declares open season from the likely (Crunchyroll/Sony facilitating a sale to a Japanese partner, given their own disinterest in owning IP vs. being a middleman) to the less-likely but vastly different (A mobile game company turning the IP into the basis for a gatcha game in the vein of Honkai Star Rail or Genshin Impact) to the "Utterly goddamn hilarious but not likely" (Nacelle buying the IP and making RWBY the centerpiece of their shared universe with the likes of the Biker Mice from Mars, the C.O.W.Boys of Moo Mesa, and Sectaurs: Warriors of Symbion). But in pretty much every scenario, from the mundane to the ridiculous, one thing remains consistent.

No one who buys RWBY after the 60-day time period is going to have any interest in continuing the series from where it left off. At most, Dillon Goo seems to be positioning himself as the guy to hire as a showrunner/property steward for the potential reboot no matter who the new owner is.

But that might be a bit of a blessing.

Even if you're a fan of RWBY, I point to the utter disaster that was HBO Max's attempts at continuing gen:Lock after its first season did OK on Toonami, but was a lightning rod for the practices that affected Rooster Teeth, ranging from employee abuse to embezzlement. The second season was an utter disaster. What are the odds that an attempt to pick RWBY up where it left off wouldn't suffer the same issues? To that I say, just reset it rather than let its corpse shamble about.

As for gen:Lock, I'll give you $10 for it. Sell it in the next 72 hours and I'll throw in a keychain absolutely free.

[hannagoldworthy]

So. This got photographed, because I finally blocked the IP address (bye Felicia) but I can’t stop laughing at how little this “anon” has bothered to disguise her writing style. Oh, this asker uses the word Kenobist like it’s a clever insult and writes like Sheev Palpatine having a quick fap over his own perceived superiority between meetings, just WhO cOulD iT bE?

(Golly gee whiz, Domina, that “block” didn’t last very long. I’d bet my left buttcheek you don’t know where the block button is, just as you don’t know how to work the tag or content filters.)

But thanks for confirming that you’ve never darkened the doorstep of any university with a decent engineering department, if any university at all. Nor have you ever spoken with an engineer, because if you had, you’d realize that a decent majority of engineers have Big Himbo Energy. The engineering fraternity house at my college looked like the house in Flubber before the dean made them take their little machines down. I briefly dated an engineering student with a 4.1 Honors GPA who bought a shitbox car and souped it up to drive in drag races on weekends; I broke up with him after the first date because he drove the car up to my parents’ house and showed it off to my entire family while it was literally smoking and leaking oil on their driveway. A meteorologist - basically a weather engineer - who worked with my father once ran out, bare-headed, into a storm of golfball-sized hail because, and I quote him verbatim, “HOT DAMN I WAS RIGHT, LEMME GET A SAMPLE!”

And…you’re saying that’s NOT Anakin Skywalker? “Modified the Twilight until it was practically unflyable for anyone but him” Anakin? “Ran face first into a lightning attack because he didn’t think his strategy through” Anakin? “Did not realize his wife was pregnant after regularly SpaceTiming her for months, lifting her up and twirling her, AND full-body hugging her” Anakin? “Had a prophetic dream where Padme was still having labor pains after giving birth to one baby and interpreted that to mean she was dying and not GIVING BIRTH TO THE OTHER TWIN” Anakin? THAT Anakin, from the high canon Lucas movies, which you have most definitely watched front to back?

You underestimate the power of your own blorbo, Domina. Anakin Skywalker can be both a mentally unstable himbo AND an engineering prodigy, and in fact, HE IS. And I would think that his number-one stan would be the first to point out that those two very different facets of his personality lend depth to his character. But, then again, I am talking to the idiot who drags Obi-Wan Kenobi into every conversation, even in other fandoms, and then accuses everyone ELSE of being obsessed, so I suppose I should not expect that very basic level of perception from you.

Oh, and also? Thanks for that extra boost of motivation! Now my plans to get my computer fixed have been moved up, because I intend to write even MORE Himbokin Skywalker, just to spite you! Mission Failed Successfully, HUZZAH!

[davekat-sucks]

I do have to say that anon who soeculated on Dirk’s role does have a good idea for where the plot may be going and the setup for Dirk’s ultimate session, although I never considered the horrorterror session, generally because I have a hard tike taking it seriously. What’s notable as well is apparently it was 48 players that made the 48 zodiac signs of Alternia, but that got retconned to 288 signs of Hiveswap. What I think Dirk is doing is two-fold.

1. Dirk states in the epilogues this is being done to maintain the existence of their Universe. Homestuck is shoulder-deep in metatextual fuckery so of course the characters treat the in-universe existence of canon as real and like a story they exist in. If the story ends, the characters will decay away into unobserved, undefined, and untended void of irrelevance. Without us, the audience to pay attention to the narrative and characters of Homestuck, Homestuck doesn’t exist. Of course, narratives need conflict, and Dirk makes a new session to run a new overarching story that keeps Dirk and Rose in focus, and in a sense the cast alive. It could have gone a lot of different ways but Dirk is better at abrupt action than long term planning, the real plan comes from the second reason.

Earth C is the Cherub’s birth planet. Billions of years after Earth is ruined, a cherub will lay the egg of Caliborn and Calliope inland a ruined field somewhere on the dead planet, with only communications via a radio tower that transcends the narrative… Hussie’s IP server!

Of course, the earth now orbits a red giant with all the water evaporated and food wasted, so they are cared for by Gamzee who got sucked into the black hole caused by Lord Jack’s big-ass head implosion in [S] collide, giving that version of Jack his one true purpose: to die and transport the cherubim guardian to the right place.

Now the next requirement for Earth C to house the Cherubs is all the immortal Gods to be gone. Inevitably over the course of 3-4 billion years the beta and alpha kids, Kanaya, and Calliope are going to have to leave Earth C and never come back. Something happened for them to be gone. The cause doesn’t matter, only the effect is destiny. Dirk was nesting the Cherubs, he just had to pull their biggest threat off the Earth.

One final addendum, I don’t know what Dirk’s successful species is gonna be, and if the HICU will actually let the species exist and build the new sburb session or fakeout kill them in classic Hussie trolling style. What matters is Dirk gave the species a name: Sartyr, amd looking at sillhouettes it looks to be a bipedal anthromorph, much less a squid creature. I don’t think the HICU has the balls to do the horrorterror session.

They don’t have to, they heavily implied Dirk is dating Rosebot and fans on r/homestuck avoided the topic to talk about how good the art is and how the update is finally getting the ball rolling and how the sequel writing is finally good, stuff we’ve all heard before. The HICU posted another 12 pages of a monthly update where something almost happened and fans ate it up. This is Homestuck now. Where something almost happens, and then we wait a month for something to almost happen again.

That really seems to be the case. Before under Hussie and Whatpumpkin, the bad art and story were noticeable within each update. It's been routed in our brains that every update would be this. James Roach and HICU took advantage of it by getting to focus on the pretty art first before the story because most of us would skim through the text. Nobody would actually pick up on what it is going on until they read it 3-6 more times to let it sink in. It was like this before for many new readers of Homestuck. Most would look at the pretty picture or flash and less reading on the text. Vox's Let's Read at least makes it accessible for those who struggle reading, but even they don't update frequently and are at a certain stopping point where others need to go to the webcomic to continue. And I think a person watching the LR Homestuck and having to go back to the webcomic during ACT 6, is probably not a good experience for those entering the series. It's funny back in MSPA Forums, talks of incest was banned despite the themes of said incest being a common thing in Homestuck. And it was TOBY FOX who made The Baby Is You to troll at the mods that tried to cease the topic of incest. People may have known Toby Fox wrote some crazy funny m-preg song and it got relevance again thanks to a modern Pokemon game, but I don't think people actually knew the context and history behind on WHY he made it in the first place. And now we got people too scared to speak about it openly.

[umichenginabroad]

Week 0: Ireland before the Program!

Hello, hello! It is Declan McGrath here checking in before my program officially starts at UCD in Dublin this Sunday. I am so incredibly excited to begin this program and meet all of the amazing people that are going to be in this program with me as well as other people from around the world and Ireland.

First, a little bit about myself. I am a first-year mechanical engineering undergraduate. I absolutely love to cook and try new foods, read, play videogames, take pictures on my Polaroid cameras (which I will most likely be sharing with you all throughout the program!), and just all around hang out! Up until this point, I have never actually left the United States so this trip is going to be an entirely new experience for me! From trying all the new and different foods to exploring a different culture to meeting new people it is all going to be brand new. The program I am a part of is the IPE: Big 10 STEM and Irish Studies in Dublin at University College Dublin. This program has me taking Physics 2 lecture and lab as well as a History of Modern Ireland course which both meet requirements for my major.

I actually arrived in Ireland two weeks before my program started and have been exploring Ireland a lot! My family has a lot of Irish roots and so when I got confirmation that I was accepted into the program my family almost immediately began planning a family trip there before the program started. We drove from Michigan across the border to Canada to catch a flight alllll the way to Dublin. We landed in Dublin at around 9 AM (incredibly jetlagged) but began to make the most of our time in Dublin by exploring the various pubs, restaurants, and stores throughout the city while also visiting some amazing national monuments and museums. We walked through the rain to the famous Temple Bar Pub in Dublin where I got some amazing Irish fish and chips! All of the food I have had in Dublin has been amazing actually. There are so many ice cream stores in every city and some even have something called “bubble waffle” which is essentially an extra sweet waffle with bubbles in it and coated in ice cream. And the soft serve ice cream they have here is absolutely amazing, probably better than the US’s (and that’s coming from a guy who used to work at a Dairy Queen!).

After a couple days in the city we took a trip out into the Irish countryside to a small AirBnB in Terryglass. We picked up a rental car and I helped navigate my dad out of the city and into the countryside. It was so weird sitting on the left side of the car and not being the one driving and even weirder to see all the cars driving on the opposite side of the road. That is honestly the biggest thing that I do not think I will ever get used to while abroad, so it is probably a very good thing that I will not be driving at all on this trip. While out in Terryglass my family and I made a trip out to Cashel Rock to see the final resting place of Miler McGrath, an ancestor of mine with way too many great’s in front of grandpa for me to type out. It was very cool to see this amazing fort and also learn some things about my heritage. I could keep going on about all these things I did before the program even starts but I don’t want to spoil Ireland for y’all before the program even starts!

I am really, really excited for the program to start and I have been thinking a lot about all of the things I want to do during this program. So much so that I made a list!

Get to know the people on the trip with me! There are a whole bunch of people that I have never met before that are going on this same journey and I want to take the time and get to know all of them. 

Travel! Travel between European countries is supposed to be really affordable and I want to take full advantage of the free time that this program has to offer by taking weekend trips with other program members.

Get some awesome photos with my Polaroids! I brought a lot of film with me on this trip and somehow managed to burn through almost all of it before the program began :’) so I want to buy some more film and continue to take photos of all the amazing sights Ireland has to offer.

Pass my classes! This trip is not just about having a blast in Europe, it is also an opportunity to learn a lot in subjects that I am genuinely interested in. I have always been interested in physics and (from what little I was able to glean from short museum trips) Irish history is fascinating.

I am slightly nervous about adapting to the fast-paced environment of Dublin. The city is always bustling with activity and it can be a little bit hectic but I am ready and excited to face it head on. Though I am also a little nervous about getting lost in the city. I have a habit of slightly getting sidetracked (especially when there are so many cool stores all around) while walking around but hopefully I can make some friends on the program that can help me get from A to B with as few side quests as possible. 

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my blog post! I am so excited for this program to begin, travel to new places, and meet new people. Until next time!

~Declan McGrath

[realorunreal]

Rant about the new title under the cut (TLDR: don’t worry - I am convinced the title means good things are coming):

Honestly I don’t think the title is anything to be concerned about. DD was named as such because Daryl became the lead due to all the issues and changes that occured during the show’s development. It’s not an imaginative title, nor do I like it, but I suppose it works for what S1 has been. They can’t change that title between seasons for marketing reasons!! DD is their IP, unfortunately, so there was never going to be a whole new title for season 2.

Given that, I really expected them to keep just the DD name even after bringing Carol back in as a main character. I’d have been annoyed that yet again the women of the TWD universe were being sidelined, but it would have been understandable given that Daryl’s still currently the main character and the show’s focus going into S2.

Is TWD:DD:TBOC a bit dumb? Yeah. But honestly it’s way way better than I expected. It still meets their need to stick to a recognisable, consistent name season to season (I.e. casual viewers looking for TWD:DD will still be able to easily find that there’s a S2 and recognise the two seasons as being connected), BUT the addition of TBOC puts Carol’s name right up there beside Daryl’s in the title. It really highlights her importance and, as others have pointed out, implies we will be shown Carol’s perspective in S2.

If MMB was being given an out to leave again after a season/not intending to stay for a significant part of the show’s run, they’d have stuck with TWD:DD! Why bother paying to create and market a new name if there was uncertainty about how big a role MMB/Carol would play in the show long-term? They’d have just stuck with DD and the marketing of Daryl as the solo lead in that case, right? And Carol would dip and and out as a supporting character.

I am also reassured by both MMB returning in the first place, and her role as EP. MMB adores Carol. I honestly think playing Carol is way more than just a pay check to her. She’s made her millions and doesn’t need to come back (she was a casting director and seemed content picking up small roles here and there pre TWD, and doesn’t really seem to enjoy fame, so I doubt she’d have come back if she didn’t like the proposed direction of Carol’s story!).

Rather than being a bad omen, I really believe that the title is a positive sign and suggests we’re getting the kind of deep character work for both Carol and Daryl that we’ve been hoping for for years. Obviously it’s still TWD so they can still screw things up, but the fact that MMB and NR are on as EPs (particularly MMB) is a really good sign for their characters. MMB *is* Carol. MMB fighting for Carol to survive early in TWD is the reason she’s still here and one of the most popular characters in TWD history. Other cast members have said that MMB will deliver the best acting they’ve ever seen, blowing everyone away, only to ask if she could do another take because she didn’t think Carol would act that way/it wasn’t quite *Carol*. Of course, MMB isn’t the show runner and doesn’t have the overall say, but I really do trust MMB with Carol and her story. And if the show runners have any sense, they’ll listen to her. I’m the most certain I’ve been in a long time that The Book of Carol will lead to Caryl finally going canon, and will pave the way for the satisfying conclusion to both Carol and Daryl’s stories that we were robbed of in the finale of the flagship show.

-sleep deprived rant over-

CARYL ON.

[cheese-muffin13]

the Megaverse (part 1)

this project idea has been floating around in my head for almost 4-5 years now and has gone through a lot of changes, however I think I’m confident enough to sure my ideas now.

the Megaverse is a project I plan to make that has both multiple fandoms like Scp, Genshin impact, little nightmares and more fandoms I like as well as original stories, concepts and ideas.

however I’ve come to realise that most of this stuff especially if it’s from a IP like Genshin or little nightmares would be copyrighted so I couldn’t make anything out of it, however that was never my main goal to begin with, the actual reason I want to create the Megaverse is because I’m passionate about it, it’s not for money or anything worldly it’s because I enjoy telling stories.

so I’ve created this post to share my ideas and hopefully find some people who might be interested or could give some constructive criticism for it. Without further ado let me tell you about my ideas for what I am planning to create.

It will be split into two phases or as I am calling them ‘generations’ gen 1 is to establish the basic lore and build a foundation (get it) for gen 2 which will be the meat and bones of the story.

the Megaverse has three main universes in it I have titled the Delta, Zoda and beta, originally the Megaverse was one big universe but after a great catastrophe it got split into three separate but still interconnected ones.

fandoms included are the Scp foundation, little nightmares and Genshin impact for the delta, the Zoda has two original stories, a story inspired by famous horror movies like the ring and Friday the 13th, a story drawing and improving upon classic creepypastas and internet horror, and the netflix series brand new animal (weird I know, but please bare with me). Finally the beta has a main timeline as well as two converging timelines, the main timeline has an original story as well as devilman, one of the converging timelines has both the web series created by Darian Quiloy Vita Carnis and Trigun, and the other timeline has a teenage audience based version of the pbs kids show Wordgirl.

this is gonna be a long post so I’m gonna place the stories under the cut.

story one- Scp- the seven warriors

it’s about two cousins named Zira and Lyra hail who have recently joined the Scp foundation like their grandfather before them, they are tasked by a mysterious research woman known as Dr Rina Scarlette to recover the seven spears after a cult raids site 19 and takes them, they encounter 5 other young people working for the foundation and throughout the series are forced to defeat foes from the chaos insurgency, to dangerous cults and even monsters of unknown origins.

I know it’s probably not the best summary but I tried, this is going to be my first story I create so please I would really appreciate some ideas or feedback here.

story two- the arcadians

it’s an original story taking place in a world where there are humans but then there are also supernatural humans (there are multiple different types and subspecies like beastmen (from BNA) but they are usually just seen as a full humanoid species) the main setting for the story is a decently sized island off the coast of the British isles known as Arcadia (inspired by legends from the United Kingdom) which is said to be one of the sacred homelands of the supernaturals, the story follows a girl who lost her mother when she was young, her name is autumn and she has aspirations of becoming a doctor like her father, she eventually gets sent to Arcadia to study and she makes new friends with a bunch of other supernaturals including reuniting with a childhood friend. The story follows autumn and her friends as they slowly uncover the truth about Arcadia and are eventually forced to team up with another group of supernaturals from America known as the Halloween street heroes (read about story three for more details) and they manage to defeat an ancient evil.

story three- the Halloween street heroes

it follows the story of Satako (from the ring) after a powerful witch sacrifices herself to bring her back, she is discovered by a police officer and is soon relocated to Jewel Cove the city mad especially for supernaturals that borders Lake Superior in Michigan, she encounters several other supernaturals including her family on her mothers side The Dalane family (their basically one of the supernatural families that are like royalty) and she meets her cousin Jason (from Friday the 13th), she makes friends with other characters like the granddaughter of Freddy krewger, a version of chucky where he is a supernatural who can possess things or move things around telepathically and of course a young version of ghost face who can summon weapons. They eventually join the arcadians in fighting and defeating the ancient evil.

there are more stories of coarse but that’s all I can really share right now, but I will be making a part two or even three for the other stories so stay tuned.

[autumnaaltonen]

I want to start my Pride Month off by talking about the generational/cultural switch my mother and I have experienced.

Living in Vancouver during the 70s-late 80s, my aunt (my mother's sister) came out as a lesbian around my age. When she was hanging out with her friends (also including my mom) she was considered the 'token gay'. And as said token gay, my mother always looked out for my aunt when things got too overwhelming, and also supported her when she would try to share philosophies about homosexual and lesbian identity to their straight friends. She grew up in a time when it was rare (everyone was still in the closet, I know) to be gay/lesbian, and she never really had a community to go to in order to embrace her identity to the fullest. I remember attending her wedding as a child, and being so surprised when I saw her getting married to another woman. That was the first time I learned about being gay/lesbian, and I didn't even see it coming because it was just not a topic of discussion in my family, nor was it for most families at the time. Thank god, things have changed.

Cut to today, 2023, I'm nearing my end of university and have my own large group of friends. Funny thing is though, there is no 'token gay'. Instead, I am the 'token straight'. Turned tables. The vibe in my group is completely different than from what my mother and aunt experienced growing up. We are four-bisexuals, one lesbian/trans-gendered woman, and one gender-fluid. Sexuality, gender and identity are commonplace topics we discuss without filter. However, I don't have much experience to contribute to the conversation, beyond growing up with my aunt and trans-gendered sister, but I try to include myself none-the-less in order to learn. The difference is, the gay agenda is always welcome, but the straight-centric way I do and say things has been a noticeable sore spot for our group. My opinions on LGBTQ+ issues never ring quite as strong in our talks, or are dismissed entirely. (Be aware I've never said anything hateful. I agree with most everything the LGBTQ+ stands for, and the few areas I disagree on are commonplace issues that are widely debated from all parts of the community.)

But now it's my own cis-straightness that has become an issue, rather than being the one gay/lesbian friend. Even my own identity as a cis/straight woman is constantly put into question by my friends, and it really makes me uncomfortable. I almost always dress away from the binary, but I still identify as a woman. I find fellow women attractive, but I'm only romantically and sexually interested in men. So I must be gender questioning, or I have to still be in the closet, right? If I like to dress in masculine clothing, I should change my pronouns to be inclusive. My issues with dating must revolve around the fact that I'm attracted to straight men, who are total trash, no excuses.

I hope you're sensing my sarcasm here.

Just like when my aunt struggled to express her identity to share the LGBTQ+ community while only having my mother for support, I now struggle to express my ideas to support the LGBTQ+ community while being myself. And it drives a big wedge between my friends and I, just as it did for my mother and aunt in the 70s and 80s.

In no way should we compare LGBTQ+ issues with those of heterosexuals and cis-gendered people, there is simply no comparison to be drawn. But I hope that going into June, we all remember to be respectful of one another when are intentions are directed at lifting the LBGTQ+ up, rather than forcing them back into that dingy closet. Straight, gay, cis, trans or non-binary, we need to encourage conversation in order to progress, or else we're forever doomed to go backwards.

And for all the super right-wing skinheads who come into my DMs whenever I talk about things like this: I will find your IP address, steal your confederate flag, shred it, and turn it into glitter for my sister's wedges. I have done it before, I will do it again.

[endversewinchester]

Harry Potter???? in 2023??? read something else

Actually noonie, if we are being honest I've done HP since I was... 6-7? Which was right around the time prisoner of azkaban (movie) came out and I just never stopped. So yes. In 2023, and most likely for the rest of my life. Why? Core childhood franchise, along with a few others you can guess from looking at my blog.

But before you double down and call me transphobic or accuse me of supporting JKR, let me get ahead of you by saying the books I'm screenshoting on this re read have been with me for at least 6 to 7 years, meaning far before her current behavior. Let me also tell you I own every single DVD since I was 13-14 (as the last movie came out in 2011 and I'm not sure when the DVDs were sold). TLDR; None of what I am doing right now is generating any sort of revenue for JKR, and hasn't for almost a decade at this point.

And not that I owe you any sort of explanation, but what inspired me to read the books again as an adult was people pointing out how horrible they were. And while they were certainly far more problematic than my childhood self remembers and also lacking in several aspects, there is still worth in them. Regardless of her incompetence as a human being and her attempts of rewriting history by saying trans people and their allies are death eaters, that is not the text. The text for HP, even with all their issues, is still about fighting fascism, and prejudice, and not judging others for things beyond their control. That was the meaning child!me took from this, as did millions of people across the globe, and I am very reluctant to let that be erased away by a crazed woman and her followers.

So no. I am not ditching Harry Potter. But lets say I caved and did. Did you see how much money Hogwarts Legacy made? I didn't buy a copy. I don't even have a console. Do you see how crowded the theme parts are? And the reboot is going to be designed for children a lot younger than you and me. Kids the same age I was when I joined the universe. Therefore me not touching HP? Not doing anything. To think you can cancel a franchise this big is a bit amusing to me, and it tells me you are too young to have experienced the "Harry Potter fever" as it was called when the movies were still coming out.

My solution, noonie? First of all. Stop being a creep. Crawling into people's messages won't get you allies for any cause, and allies are what trans people need right now. You aren't just alienating the terfs and other types of weird conservative bs, you are alienating people that are willing to listen and help. Oh and for the love of god. Stop the banning books dialogue. You know who does that? The Catholic Church. And Nazis. Done with that first part? Cool.

HP is massive. So massive a company as big as WB can't afford to buy her out. So what do we do? We use her IP against her.

If instead of trying to bully people you took your time to get them on your side with a fanbase as big as Harry Potter's? The amount of support you'd be able to build up would be absurd. Here in Brazil a trans woman streamer donated all of the profits she made during HL to a reopen a trans shelter for kids that either run away or are kicked out for being themselves. Another one donated 10k for a different shelter. The HP fans are doing a whole lot more activism than you at this point.

In short, anon: No. I will not. And while you keep punching the edge of a knife, I'll find smarter ways to fight AND keep something that meant a great deal to me. Have a lovely day.

[cumbunnywitch]

ITT: Internet Piracy, and the ethics of stealing from large corporations.

So, you recently found a new movie isn't available on any one of the three streaming services you've been conned into subscribing to, out of the ten or so available. You realize that adding any more of them would be more expensive than actually just paying for premium cable TV, and you aren't even sure which service has it. Well, I have the answer for you!

Piracy!

If you still need more encouragement or are just interested in my take, please, keep reading below.

What do you do? Well let me help you get over your fear of Internet Piracy, a concept that was given moral implications by the same companies that bust unions, sue small artists, and who's only interest is importing your money directly from your bank account faster than other companies.

Seriously, that is the point of service-based capitalism. You shouldn't need to pay thousands a year to watch a show that has bounced between Hulu and HBO Max and Disney+ once a season. Did you know Blockbuster, the brick-and-mortar place, used to have on average upwards of 10,000 movies on hand at any given time? Netflix has never come close to that amount, and even it is one of the services that decided not to fuck with commercials.

Just as a tangent, the first time I watched a show on Hulu, there were so many advertisements, I decided to pirate the entire 4k season we were watching. I finished downloading and had it set up to watch by the 4th fucking ad break of episode 1.

Now I get it- not everyone has great internet. You're on rural networks or satellite or dsl. I understand that pain. But, are you really watching uninterrupted? Would you rather spend 3 days watching that progress bar fill as internet users send you their energy like Goku with a Spirit Bomb, or do you want to watch your new favorite show buffer every 6 seconds and the subtitles fail to load? Yea I want that first one, I can be patient when the alternative is making me fucking hate everything.

So! We've got your reasons for wanting to be a Pirate down, what about the moral and ethical implications? Great, I'm glad you asked!

The thing about most studios that put out art like movies and games, is that they've been paid already. Whoever published the thing has paid those workers, and it's really, really unlikely they're going to be getting royalties from sales. So, who do sales actually help?

Publishers, IP holders(also usually the publisher but sometimes not(more later)), and the distribution source. If you by something physical at Walmart, you're paying Walmart, and they pay the publisher to send them more so they can sell more. If you buy it on YouTube, Youtube gets a cut, as well as the IP holder. If you watch something on Netflix or Hulu, they MIGHT go to the publisher and studio and purchase another season, but once it's bought, only the publisher and IP holder get that money.

So let's talk about IP holders now. IP is Intellectual Property. The idea of the thing, the permission to use/license it, etc. IP Holders and places like Disney, HBO, Disney, Sony Pictures, Disney again, Universal Pictures(Comcast). Big-ass corporations. These companies have, and I am not exaggerating, literal fuck-mountain sized shit-loads of money. They have had money for decades, they will outlive the governments of the worlds, I fucking guarantee you. They have "Should I buy my cloned pet White Rhino her own yacht? She doesn't seem to like sharing any of my yachts with the other pets." kind of money.

These companies have so much money in so many countries, they do their best to make sure the candidate they can squeeze the most out of gets elected. They lobby against your rights like a mother-fucker, and I bet you pay more in taxes than any of them. They are the very definition of "I have too much money to consider you a person." So Fuck'em. Steal.

Except... it's not stealing. It's copying. Yes, Piracy on the internet is not taking anything away from any other person. If you attack a cargo ship and take some shipping containers, someone isn't getting those things. If you torrent The Land Before Time, you're not taking someone's long-awaited or well-beloved and oft watched VHS copy. You're making a copy, doing no damage to already existing copies. This isn't like cloning a sheep where you lose something or cause pain to a living creature either. Just an exact replica, now on your computer.

Next, we have malicious IP Holders. There's a game my girlfriend @leahplease loves, Klonoa, which after over a decade, finally got a remake for modern consoles. It's not even a new game. It's the first 2 games, remade. And yes, that sort of thing costs money and requires resources, but Bandai-Namco makes plenty of money, and this isn't even a new iteration of the game. This is what IP Holders do- they hold onto some creative thing, and refuse to give it to anyone else. No one who loves Klonoa can just start making a fan work and make money, or most of the time even distribute it for free. They squat on the rights and then cash in on nostalgia, and then they let it start collecting dust again, until all the people with nostalgia are gone or stop caring, and let it die.

Or, you have people like Just Kidding Rowling and her transphobic, antisemitic, racist series of books, Harry Potter. She's a fucking billionaire, because she retained the rights to her books and someone made a wildly successful series of movies out of them. JK does not deserve billions more dollars, or even one more dollar from her (frankly awful in many ways) YA stiff-upper-lip-apologist fiction. The goblins are jew-coded, Cho Chang is something a 19 year old redneck would say to a homeless Asian while teasing them with a crumpled dollar, and Snape was a fucking Incel.

AAAAGGHH

So anyway. Now we know who we pirate from. Who don't we pirate from?

Small studios, self publishers, short story novelists, bands without labels, independent creators. Do you follow someone on Tumblr that makes cool games? How about NSFW artists that make their money through Patreon, or a SWer that has an OnlyFans/subscribestar? These are the places we try not to steal from.

There is an exception if these people end up being terrible, like they are nazis(punch them then steal their art) or transphobic or racist. Punish them by pirating their shit, fucking go for it. But if they are just trying to make a living and are decent human beings looking to share the things they make at the price they're willing to sell it for, then pay up.

Now, I'm not going to tell you how to be a pirate. There is some risk involved, both in the legal sense and in the sense you may get a virus. Be safe on the internet, because there are bad actors. Cracks aren't always safe, trojans lurk in many places. Get a good idea on what to trust when downloading, find an anti-malware software that you can use, and make sure you back things up. This is just like normal piracy, where getting caught can have consequences.

If you get a cease-and-desist letter, just turn that torrent off, maybe move the content you pirated to a drive that isn't constantly connected to the internet. Most of the time, that's as far as things will go unless you're the main distributor. Let someone else take that fall, don't be a hero.

And if you're safe, have decent internet, and you have private access to your computer, SEED. If you download something popular, seed it until you have at least a 1:1 ratio, but shoot for more. Big numbers feel good. My ratio used to be 80:1 but that got reset and now I'm down to 3:1 and I want my big number back.

Good luck, and happy hunting you pirate you.