#not my fav though i think its overdone

[snikt111]

hi hi hi hi I found out about Hal Jordan TODAY and am going so autistic over him it’s insane can you please give me a rundown on what his deal is I think you’re the Tumblr Green Lantern guy

omg hi, insane compliment btw, tysm! i'm glad to give you a rundown!! also definitely check out @katmaatui for more hal info, red is SUPER knowledgable abt him. @rillette, @catboyollie, @halcarols, @starsapphire and @yellowcorps (along with so many others that i cant think to tag off the top of my head) have some great hal takes too! (edited the post just to tag more ppl)

apologies if this is a bit rushed/messy, i'm doing this while i smelt stone in minecraft LMAO

that being said... i think this will be a long one, so more below the cut :3

(cw for light mentions of pedophilia, abuse, canon typical violence)

okay, so hal jordan is the first human green lantern of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS. it's important to note that there was technically a human green lantern before him (alan scott, originally from earth two/the justice society, but integrated into main DC canon after crisis), but his power comes from a different source- which is a whole different ballpark that would take ages to explain, lol, so i'll move on from that.

hal was originally introduced in a showcase issue in 1959, but ended up getting a solo run in the mid 60s because of his showcase issues doing well. he's been a test pilot, middle brother, compassionate, rule follower (although being surprisingly liberal for the time) with an interesting relationship with star sapphire carol ferris since those first appearances. for the first 20 odd years of his appearances we had no information on his parents, but we got a lot from other family members, such as uncle titus, cousin hal jr (aka airwave), younger brother jim jordan and older brother jack jordan. through the 60s and 70s those members of his family were developed along with him; with the audience learning that jim's wife sue thought jim was green lantern, rather than hal, and hal himself training his cousin, hal jr.

the most known version of how hal got the ring in the first place is probably based off of geoff john's rewrite in the mid 00s, reiterating the original story of abin sur crashing onto earth and dying, leaving hal with his ring to be trained by sinestro and the rest of the glc, while also changing miniscule details that had been developed in emerald dawn 1 & 2 (which was released in the 90s, more on that later). the main premise of abin sur's crash has stayed the same, but the story around hal's current life, job, family and stability keep changing. for instance, the original comic with abin sur in showcase only showed hal getting the ring, the guardians choosing him. the first rewrite i can think of was emerald dawn volume 1, published in 1989 and continued in emerald dawn v2 (1991). here we get the classic hal watches his father die in a plane crash with carol ferris beside him as a pre adolescent, and some of the biggest implications of the mistreatment from his father. we also get introduced to hal, despite his stick to the rules, straight edge attitude, making some serious mistakes and putting people in danger and even death- with the implication of alcohol abuse. the audience HAS known hal used to be in the air force since sometime in the late 60s or early 70s (sorry, i don't remember the exact issue!), but emerald dawn shows us that hal's moved on from the air force and into test piloting, and that his mother keeps having to bail him out for making mistakes. emerald dawn vol 1 shows the abin sur moment, followed by fights that cost hal's friends life, and is followed up by sinestro training hal in emerald dawn vol 2, where we get to see the iconic scenes of hal finding out about sinestro and his... dictatorship.

along with that; how the guardians and rings are treated and hal and the glc's perception of them is vastly changed over time. in the early days of gl in the 60s, the guardians were really never to be seen. hal was repeatedly summoned to them and then had his memory almost fully wiped- only leaving a vague notion of his orders. the guardian's called hal to them at seemingly the worst times, ending up with him almost getting injured, getting in trouble at work, and even ending up jobless and homeless. the chaos of being a green lantern has been around the WHOLE time, but originally, the green lanterns didnt really... fight it. the guardian's were their masters (and even father figures, to hal) and not to be questioned. the rings in the 60s were also much more powerful, despite the yellow weakness (the yellow weakness is the notion that from about the 60s to the mid 90s the green lantern rings were completely unable to be used against anything yellow). time travel, phasing, teleporting, etc were all very viable and common things- as well as forceful shapeshifting, invisibility, mind control, mind reading, etc etc. these days, writers have dampened these powers down to mostly shooting light and constructs.

okay, it's parallax time. the emerald twilight arc from the mid 90s wasn't an arc that was as thoroughly planned out over a long period of time as it probably should have been. a lot of fans at the time (and even now) hated what happened there, and claimed it ruined hal's character entirely. i can understand why! but, at it's core, the parallax arc is a story about a broken man pushed to the limit, fully grieving his home and family (originally, he lost his brother jim in the destruction of coast city, along with a lot of other family members) and being goddamn fed up with how his "masters" treated him and the rest of the corps. the so called "perfect lantern" (no, he wasn't that much of a rebel, despite what johns wants you to think) snapped and essentially tried to gain as much power as he could to bring back coast city. when the guardians stripped him of his powers so he couldn't, hal became enraged and took down every lantern in his path, just to get to the guardians and that power. long story short, he kills the guardians and absorbs all the energy from the central power battery on oa, becoming parallax- essentially a god. this marks the start of zero hour, an event made by dc to restructure and reset; giving the comics a new generation of heroes. hal destroys the world and remakes it, but is ultimately taken down by kyle rayner, the new green lantern, with the help of the jla, jsa and associates. there are a few more run ins with parallax after this, before kyle convinces parallax/hal that he can make up for all of this by reigniting the sun after it went out- aka killing himself. hal does it, is stuck in limbo for awhile and then becomes the spectre to continue to make up for the horrible things he did as parallax. the spectre is the spirit of god's wrath and vengeance, a weapon used to drag sinners to their very own, self made hells, and scare the shit out of people. the spectre, from it's very first appearance, is a ghost like spirit that takes on a host, and is primarily described using christian terms and is used in a very... christian ideology. HOWEVER, the spectre 2001 confirms that hal is jewish (jewish mom, catholic dad) and that belief system, plus his personality as a whole, literally makes him change the spirit of vengeance into the spirit of redemption, for at least as long as they are bonded. the whole parallax to spectre arc is about grief, pain, cycles of abuse and terror, redemption and guilt. it is NOT about a fear bug that possess hal. (im so serious though, the spectre 2001 is one of the best comics ive ever read. amazing. changed my world view) but... geoff johns changed all of it, decanonized the spectre, and ruined the legacy of parallax and hal's growth as a person by releasing green lantern: rebirth in 2004/2005. this retcons hal's breakdown and journey through grief into him BEING POSSESSED BY AN ENTITY CONTROLLED BY SINESTRO THAT FULLY CHANGES PREVIOUS GREEN LANTERN CANON AND IMPLICATIONS. also, fucks up the importance of kyle becoming ion, but whatever. geoff johns writes hal (and even more so, carol) so very wrong, and change their stories so vastly in ways that go against the stories very meanings.

SIGH.

now... time to get started on some rougher stuff. hal jordan misconceptions. i'm saving that arc for last.

- hal jordan wasn't much of a rule breaker or rebel until the 70s/80s, where he BEGAN (very slowly, mind you) to be radicalized by oliver queen during denny o'neil's green lantern/green arrow. hal was painted as more of a conservative during this period (which, admittedly, kind of goes against previous canon... he's always been relatively central to liberal, not to any extremes like ollie though, lol) but gets more and more understanding of how power structures work and how lower classes are mistreated during this time- which ends up opening his eyes a bit to how shitty the guardians are. (this is helped by the guardians literally just. leaving. the green lanterns and kind of disbanding them so they can go fuck the zamarons, lmao). geoff johns tried to change this narrative into making hal a very... maverick-from-top-gun type of character, who punched his way out of the military (when, in reality, the original story during emerald knights in the late 90s was that hal had been framed for stealing a jet and was dishonorably discharged, which he took the punishment for because he knew someone had to) and hits on women constantly and gets ladies and allat (which, funnily enough hal was awful at getting carol to like him for a long time, since carol fell for green lantern rather than hal. not to mention the awkwardness of carol's proposals or hal's many, many failed relationships). hal has always been insecure and lowkey boyfailure, he is NOT a top gun maverick tom cruise sorta guy! fuck you jeremy adams!

- hes not that much of an idiot asshole. hal can be a real dick, he's had that going for him since the beginning, but he isn't what you read in batfam fics. he's not stupid and shouldn't be the laughingstock of the justice league. i assume this idea started from the obsession with batfam and the fact that the jla has quite the history of ignoring hal and his issues (as well as. all of their issues. theyre not so great at work life balance), but it's gone too far. hal isn't making fun of the robins and pissing bruce off bc of that. hal isnt fooling around on the job 24/7 (he takes being a gl and pilot VERY seriously, although he does enjoy some danger and high stakes) or slacking off to get girls. again. not top gun maverick.

- hal has not been a creep since the beginnings. hal was not weird with carol in the 60s. things were weird between them, yeah, but that's based off circumstance and the craziness of star sapphire and green lantern. he was NOT being horribly sleazy! i hate that i even need to say this, but i see this take too much not to

- going off of what was said above, lets discuss the arisia arc. if you want to be a real hal fan, this is unfortunately something you need to know about. in action comics, after crisis and the guardians left to go fuck the zamarons, most of the green lanterns fell apart and seperated. a small group went to earth- led by hal and consisting of hal, john stewart, katma tui, kilowog, salaakk, ch'p and arisia rrab. (also sometimes guy gardner, but that's complicated) previously to this arc, hal treated 14 year old arisia like a beloved little sister, welcoming her and leading her into the corps just like everyone else. things started to change once the timeline gets closer and closer to crisis, where arisia starts showing that she has a crush on hal (who is roughly 30s at this point). any advances made by arisia are shut down by hal at the beginning, because she's a child. now, it's unfortunately a common thing to just call hal a "pedophile" because of what happens in this arc- but it really isn't that simple. still weird and icky, but definitely not to the degree of which some fans like to act like it is- esp to attack hal fans for, which is... an odd choice regarding how many fucked up things every character (esp male characters) did back in the day. arisia ends up using her power ring to artifically age herself up, making her body AND MIND into that of a young adult (the comic makes this very clear). once this happens... hal stops rejecting her. they get together, they kiss. the only person in the group of green latnerns who actually has an issue with it is john (salaakk is meh about it, but he just doesn't like human-esque romance no matter what), and katma even directly encourages their relationship. kilowog ends up crushing on arisia as well, and guy gardner hits on her repeatedly throughout the whole period. eventually, hal and arisia break up, but this legacy (thank so much englehart, for wrtiting this. /sarc) is a big controversy among the comics crowd. "is hal jordan a predator?" personally, and i know a lot of friends/mutuals/other gl fans choose to erase the arisia arc entirely (versus how canon ended up retconning it to be 14 earth years is equal to that of an adult and she didn't really get super ages up, or whatever) and go with the familial relationship between hal and her. that's my preferred version! i know red (@katmaatui) has explored that version as well as an alternate version where the arisia arc did happen, and how it affects arisia in particular, which is really depressing but super interesting. anyway, it's complicated and weird and nuanced, but that whole occurence doesn't mean hal's a bad character or person (cause yk. retcons) and it's certainly not bad to like his character. (definitely ignore any guy gardner fans who try to bitch about this arc. cough cough. guy was ALSO into her and hit on her repeatedly. smfh) most people who bring this up to demonize fans didn't even read the arc, and don't know the nuance or the other weird shit that happens in it. (hal is not a horse, sigh)

OVERALL NOTES!

hal jordan is a super complicated character with an extensive history spanning from the 60s to his worse written appearances in modern age. it's okay to like any version of the character, but it is important to note the changes that have been made, the storylines butchered and lost, and more. he has quite the legacy, and he's particularly interesting as from a moral standpoint. hal's a real sweetie though, when it gets down to it! he's neurodivergent coded (imo at least.. his dad very much gets onto him for being disrtracted, hes kinda shit at social interaction (and then amazing at it the other half of the time) etc etc. "spacecase") and his dad is an abusive asshole, who he desperately doesnt want to be like but thinks he NEEDS to be like!

[cyberfunsupporter]

ranking the red velvet album covers, be warned this’ll be long

halfway through tumblr deleted my draft so um…

1-3 🏆

28 reasons very visually pleasing. the red and the black go so well together and the mirror showing seulgi is just creative genius. absolute fav, i could stare at it forever to be honest. not to mention it perfectly reflects the album’s contents which is a huge bonus for me

the red summer i have a huge soft spot for covers with a lot going on actually. the cover’s fun, very summer and even with vibrant colors that would normally clash in the real world, it’s somehow satisfying. i love all of the details too and the way the members are positioned on the cover. so fun

rbb the positioning of the members + the teeth is just fun to see. it’s definitely different from a lot of their other covers which makes it more interesting for me as well. i also just really like their outfits, especially yeri’s

4-6 🏅

chill kill what’s funny to me about this one is the fact it’s photoshopped like omg they couldn’t even get an ot5 pic wow. but i like the overall vibe of it a lot and it’s a drastic change from red velvet’s typical colorful covers, which also makes this one stand out to me. i also am just a huge fan of this album anyway and think the feeling of it was perfectly executed which obviously extends to the cover since that plays a huge role in the concept anyway

perfect velvet okay actually this used to my favorite album, cover, concept, etc… it’s definitely their prettiest & most visually interesting, but i’ve grown. it’s still really cool and my fav part is the incorporation of the title but i don’t think it’s their absolute best cover regardless of its quality and general appeal LOL. it’s been a bit overdone i think? still a huge fav tho

the red it’s iconic and very pretty. honestly i don’t have much to say because it’s just that good. it really pops. eye candy for me

reve festival is actually not in order of how i’d rank the covers because i have a more pressing criticism regarding the overall trilogy’s design

they’re all meant to be connected, yet finale is randomly like. SO different. it doesn’t even have a rollercoaster that connects through it the way day 1 and day 2 have… sm paid for a cover to be made and couldn’t scrounge up a couple more pennies for a damn rollercoaster 😭 i just hate that disconnect so much because they’re literally MEANT TO GO TOGETHER and they already did that for 2/3 of the albums so idk why finale’s suddenly different. ugh

anyway, onto the actual ranking:

finale it’s the most creative and very cute. i love the house details w the velvets inside + one trapped under the house, as well as the surroundings. typically not a fan of green but this shade is pleasing to my eyes

day 2 the purple is very beautiful especially when combined with the red of the rollercoaster. the “events” on the cover are also really cutely designed and it def appeals to me a lot

day 1 my main complaint is the yellow. i hate the color yellow and this shade in particular is offensive to my eyes. i like the rest of the cover though which is a shame… but that’s why it’s so high for me; everything BUT the background color is great. it’s fun

10-12 🎖️

rookie it’s very eye catching, the blue is wonderful and the positioning of the titles as well as the members is creative and i like it a lot. also having seulgi in the middle is another part i enjoy, simply because she has an interesting pose and i feel like it tells you a lot about the album’s sound

bloom what annoys me is the fact the title seems to be off center? but i like the overall feel of the cover and the doodles are really cute

sappy it’s cute and charming, their styling is unique and i love the colors!!! it does kind of bother me that wendy, irene, and yeri have similar hair colors and then joy and seulgi don’t but it’s just a minor thing. i do love their hair colors it’s just the inconsistency/out of nowhere-ness that can grate me a little bit. but overall very fun and cute

13-15 🎖️

the velvet well this one is just pretty. idk why yeri’s blurred out though 💀

feel my rhythm i like the logo being in the clouds. cute, fun, very springtime, good colors

power up love a good ot5 focused cover. the background is a bit boring but i don’t really care because the velvets make it interesting

16-18 🎖️

the perfect red velvet one of my fav covers however i can recognize it’s not as visually interesting as a lot of red velvet’s covers. i love the fact it looks like a movie poster though so it’s definitely very special to me

birthday UNDERRATED. IDGAF. the pink is perfect, the design is engaging and vibrant… the logo is unique…. very solid cover

ice cream cake see i’m fond of this because it represents when red velvet really began & became 5. however the bg doodles are a bit too pale which makes the cover seem kinda bland otherwise. the drawing of all 5 members is pretty though so

19-21 🎖️

happiness once again i’m very fond of a slightly overwhelming and very colorful cover. the editing is kooky which i enjoy although many people don’t like it, it just radiates 2014 and i just luv what red velvet did with what they had in that time period. it’s so fun!!

queendom i like this cover and the colors are nice but i also think some of the concept photos for this could’ve been better suited to be the cover. i do like that it looks like they’re all just kinda hanging out tho

hello the background is just a boring white but joy’s pose combined with her outfit really makes it pop to me. like my eyes are consistently drawn to it because of that

22-24 🎖️

be natural i like the pose and the monochrome, and the logo is really cool to me and def unique… a yeri-less rbb kinda. the white at the top cutting off the photo can be bothersome though

monster well the colors are just too boring for me but everything else is nice. the pose is good, the feeling radiating off of irene and seulgi is special, etc

wish you hell this one’s nice because it really feels like wendy. the helmet and the tag on the side are sooo cute. however in comparison to other covers it is a bit on the blander side which is why it’s so low, but i really like it!!!!

25-27 🎖️

russian roulette this one is definitely boring since it’s just the logo but i like the logo + combo of colors enough for it to outrank the next couple covers LOLLL. the title going through the heart as an arrow is just so cutesy

cosmic the album’s so vibrant and dreamy yet this cover represents none of that. i don’t get that feeling from this photo at all, not to mention the logo’s just slapped on there. i love the mysterious hotel concept but it was poorly executed which is why the cover falls flat for me despite it utilizing one of my fav parts of the concept… and tbh idk why they didn’t do something more similar to midsommar promo or at least something dreamy like that. just feels weird and a bit disappointing. they’re beautiful though

cookie jar boring & washed out… i love their stylings though which makes me feel better about it. the cover also does actually look like a cookie tin which is charming

… 28 👎

like water i loveee wendy i really do. her voice is angelic, she’s beautiful… but this cover is so boring. boring colors, no pose, not even a title or anything particularly special to make up for it. just wendy standing and a W slapped on there. not to mention the album just is completely not wendy’s vibe or vision so the whole album is just not very entertaining for me. it makes me sad that sm tried to force her into doing ballads forever 😭… so idk i just don’t feel very much for this cover nor the album. i’m so sorry wendy. u are so loved but they did u so dirty w your debut album…

[melodyofthevoid]

Spotify Discovery 10/2

Lot of ukulele tracks in this one, and it’s a mixed bag. I cannot explain for the life of me what makes a ukelele song sound not bad to me but when I crack that code you’ll know.

Generally good though! The bad tracks though I hated more than last time. Also sorry for the delay I had work and a litany of other things (other writing projects) that distracted me lmao.

Good:

Playing on Train Tracks: Very Mountain Goats in its execution, note that it does cover self-destructive behaviors so be wary but the honesty here is captured so well. I love the use of language and metaphor, cutting live wires, standing on the cliff but never jumping, standing on the train tracks, it hits. The simple instrumentals isn’t overly “stripped down” it fits the subject. Good stuff.

What We Have is You: A song from Kipo, a nice little lullaby. Don’t remember what the context of this bit was in the show but I really liked it. Sterling K Brown has a nice voice.

The Dragon of Climate Change: Not one I’ll listen to frequently but I did enjoy the jaunty folk feel combined with the “fuck the rich” vibes. Calling out carbon credits was a good bit. Very bard core.

Lover (take me to the moon): Gives me confused person in love and I think it works. I wish I could really say what makes these sorts of songs click with me vs brush them off as kinda overdone but I’m afraid it’s a mystery to me as well.

Ghost Choir Vocals: Gives the iconic Ghost Choir lyrics in the style of “Mr.Sandman” and the singer is absolutely lovely. Fun and short, always a treat to hear the ghost choir in general and Louie’s instrumentals lend to the singer’s voice.

Davy Jones: I’ve listened to this cover a shit ton on Youtube and still love the vocals. The Davy Jones/Calypso storyline is a fav and there’s just. Mwah. Chef’s kiss vibes. Not much to say here other than absolute banger. (For an improved experience look up the duet version).

Suffering: A dance to agony, it works in a way of celebrating despite it all. The singer is lovely, the guitar is jaunty, and the rhythm is fast and fun. I like it! Gives me Crane Wives vibes and that’s always a plus for me.

Medusa in a Stone Garden: There’s an interesting energy around this one kinda folk rock? I like the Medusa energy, the repetition can wear on at times but other than that? Excellent.

The Water is Fine: Gives me Mariza/Delta vibes, there’s nice overlap on the vocals, there’s energy here too that is fun. A bit Oh Hellos, a bit Amazing Devil.

Anywhere But Here: A lovely little music box style waltz, very romantic. Melancholic too, and just the sort of thing I like to wind down to.

Duet in Death: Another classical piece, I’m sure if I knew more about the webtoon Nevermore I’d have more of an affinity? But a duet between a piano and a violin is one I’m always a sucker for. I adore violins when they’re done well and this one is spectacular.

Devil’s Flesh & Bones: Another WTNV alumni! Eliza Rickman is neat, she’s got a very distinct voice, kinda Cabaret and kinda jazz. This one all works for me.

Neutral:

Rises the moon: The vocal performance of this cover is… a little shaky at times? But I like the song and I think that it’s alright.

Tough to be a Bug: A twee little ukulele ditty, it’s cute but not really one that I’ll listen to. A bit too soft for me ig.

Bird Song: Not the Florence and the Machine song, but a different one. I enjoyed the folk vibes but the chorus has this kinda tropical electronica and that’s just not my vibe? The song has a general montage feel which works for what it is but a meh experience overall.

A Shitty Gay Song About You: The guitar plus the twinkly xylophone and the monotone vocals aren’t… really my vibe. The lyrics are kinda neat, but it’s not for me. I could see someone making a cute animatic to it though.

I think I want to be alone: Relatable but the style is a little too TikTok for me with the playful vibes combined with the depressing lyrics? Doesn’t scratch an itch for me.

Nah

Katarina Josephina: I’m not really sure what to make of this one. It’s got the trappings of a folk story song but it’s got a strange energy to it. Not certain what to say doesn’t work for me, but the trap break definitely does not.

The Spider’s Face: I like the song Nothing from this musical but goddamn this one is too “playful sing song evil” for me. The plucking strings and the vocals… it does not do it for me. Very unpleasant to listen to.

Aisling Song: I do not enjoy listening to children sing. This is a child singing in a very ~dreamlike~ way. I’m sure this works in the movie “Secret of Kells” but without the visuals I would really rather not listen.

PATROCLUS MEETS HIS FATE: I love orchestral stuff, I love video game music, but the artificial strings really take away any of the grandiosity for me. It’s very canned and I’m not a fan.

Typical Me: DSMP song and not a good one. I don’t like the vocals or the lyrics. Very monotone and unpleasant.

Give a Little: The saxophone and vintage swing feel are neat but I reaaaaally don’t like the vocals. They ruin it for me. Sorry CG5 but really not doing it for me.

64 Little White Things: This is Scary Jokes with the vocal style and again. Not a fan of that. There’s something about the vocals that just sets my teeth on edge, the sing/talking style with the modulation and the carnival music… no. Can’t do it.

[dullanyan]

finally beat pikmin 4 :}

spoilers under the cut as i ramble.

first off: my complaints.

biggest issue thats on my mind rn since it was effecting me just now in the final fight: if i throw my pikmin but they arent too far from me, they just come back to me??? i was trying to put them on a ledge so the final boss' heat wave wouldnt kill them. bc some of them like the purples werent thrown far, they kept coming back. that feature kind of sucks!

second: not sure why they made bootleg versions of pikmin 3 captains. i get why they werent in the game (though, they couldve been castaways with a side quest of gathering all the fruit treasures but, whatever) but i dont get why they needed bootleg versions. nelle couldve been an entirely different looking npc, yknow? one of them was even alph's brother...

third: caves werent nearly as long. aside from the final cave being 20 floors (and just like a boss rush for the most part, but also there were some like that in 2 so its fine) every cave was like 1-5 floors. i wouldve appreciated longer caves.. its definitely a possibility since you can choose which sublevel to go to after leaving a cave, so u dont have to do a long one entirely over.

also, the "only 3 pikmin at a time" was a little annoying. im glad you can have more than 3 types in a cave, at least, but you cant bring more than 3 with you which sucks. i get putting a limit, but i think a good limit wouldve been 5. 20 of each to have 100, like pikmin 2 and 3! also probably wouldve let caves be more interesting with more varieties to bring.

just a nitpick at this point but i don't quite understand the "existing enemy but just larger with no visual difference aside from size" trend. sovereign bulblax is slightly visually different, so i can accept that. but the jumbo bulborb and blowhogs, aside from different movesets, were just scaled up models. i think doing something to make them look a little different wouldve been nice, even if it was just a color difference or smth.

final complaint: i love glow pikmin but why must they replace bulbmin :{

the glow seeds are nice... but bulbmin are so everything to me. reserving glowmin 2 night time only and bulbmin in select caves wouldve been nice. i get it but also. i miss them....

---

ANYWAYS. complaints out of the way.

i thought i wouldnt like the "basically back to 1 captain" thing, but it was actually pretty good! oatchi is basically like a captain as well but with more capabilities, so i think it was pretty good. the upgrade system was also real nice imo!! with your character, oatchi and the onions, it was neat. it gives a better feeling of progression, and doesnt make things TOO easy from the beginning, getting as many red pikmin as possible to kill everything.

also i wasnt sold on the series reboot thing, but i think it works fine. i get having to reboot it to integrate the dogs into the story! (i still want to believe pikmin 3 will happen in this timeline sort of. i doubt olimar and louie would be present, but yknow.)

im also happy there were so many areas, and even with ~230 (239?) treasure types, i liked that there were a lot of repeats. without having to make so many different models, we got a ton of treasure to pick up.

the old bosses brought back were fun, too!! submerged castle 2 was really intense and fun. a little unsure why baldy long legs was back, but not shaggy... are they all permanently hairless now?

overall very good game. im not sure if its going to dethrone 2 as my favorite, but its certainly my 2nd fav! (3 being 3rd, 1 being 4th. 1 is very janky and unforgiving, so its just not as fun.)

the platforming elements brought in with the introduction of oatchi were really good. pikmin platforming.. its very cool and works really well! i was worried abt it, but honestly it wasnt too overdone, but not neglected at all. and better than pikmin sidescroller.

at this point, all i can hope for is maybe some free updates for the future... if not, hopefully a substantial dlc that would feel worth paying for. (the dlc for pikmin 3 was kind of a joke.)

dandori stages and battles, as well as night mode were kind of hard for me to adjust to, but once i got it figured out it was really satisfying. still not a big fan of vs dandori, but somehow i managed to at least get bronze and silver on the last 2 on my first try. night mode... that final stage was. a bit much. 2 proggs, 3 emperors i think it was? and a long legs??? it felt a little ridiculous, and i DID have to look up a guide, but i got it.

overall probably a 9/10 for me (even pikmin 2 isnt a 10/10, dont worry). its definitely the longest of pikmin games which i love, i was hoping for a super long game and it delivered pretty well! i think i spent close to 50 hours playing just one file to 100% completion. much better than the few hours you can spend playing pikmin 3.

now im going to start a new file, this time doing a no death run. i only lost 14 pikmin total, so i absolutely can do it!!

[poetryqueer]

what's your favourite poem?

Considering the url of it all I am legally licensed (if not obligated!!) to have several answers to this.

If im being technical about it and we’re counting epic poems, I do stand by the Aeneid as being my favourite work across all bodies of literature. It is five hundred poems in a single work and I’m not talking about the length when I say that. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a major deciding part in my choosing to learn Latin over Greek. It would ruin the art of it all but I would do almost anything to speak to Virgil and ask what the fuck he was doing with it because it haunts me. I’ve only fully completed + reread the Lombardo translation, but I’ve been pecking through and really enjoying Ruden’s over the past few months.

Then longest standing favs that I’ve been consistently returning to for the past 7 years would be Wild Geese by Mary Oliver + Litany in Which Certain Things are Crossed Out by Richard Siken. I am forever hooked on them in a way that I can only embrace at this stage because they were my defining exposures to both poets (though I think small primer was my first Siken?)

Wild Geese is something that really does show some of the best things about Oliver’s writing and maybe it’s overdone, but if rereading a poem makes you stop in your tracks and go. oh. what have I been doing. that is worth the world.

Litany is something that I can + do revisit and find something new in each time. If I could eat a poem, it would be litany. I want to break it down into its basest elements and understand every part of why it ticks the way it does and how it creates the reading experience it does. Something about the way it turns knocks the air out of me each time I read it and I’m going to spend the rest of my life searching for the language to express how it makes me feel.

My current darling though is fateology’s poem Muttnik. Read it + fell in love with it a few years back, but it has been rambling around in my head recently and I really like it :)

[lesbiancarat]

A good question!! Well I do know the game has opened up a survey about feedback and BOY did I give feedback djsjs (funnily enough they didn't have feedback for no free diamond content gee, I wonder why?) And I do recall one of the questions asking if the game should have all artist be grouped together so maybe there is hope? Maybe they will improve on the game because currently Some stuff is confusing lolol. I try to enjoy the game but boy do I just collect my daily stuff and go lol. Maybe those that do play it have more fun with it? I hope so and I hope they do more surveys and proper ones to have fans give feedback!

Welp the teaser videos are finished, the order i think everyone was wrong and we legit have no idea what Is happening (some smart carats under the youtube comments explained their theories which bless the smart beans) and now concept pics and all I can say is I am screaming and not really ready for the day comeback happens. Proper dark svt!? Yes please!

As for the theories and lore, I do agree. I mean one of my favs (another hybe artist lol) has this grand universe lore and it started of simple but then it got into just wildness and imo while it is still interesting they are still continuing it apparently, I do feel like they should have ended it because that is what it seemed like to me but considering how the lore is (or was? Idk anymore) a fan favorite. They milked it imo and it no longer felt interesting per se. I'm still intrigued don't get me wrong but sometimes it should be simple and not overdone which is why I am shocked svt is even having one? Like never thought that could happen but we really don't know how this lore even is so its too early to say pledis is going to mess things up. Maybe its just for this comeback? I do know some groups do this sometimes and just peace out after doing a theory like concept for once haha.

yes, i filled out that survey as well! (even though i haven't been on the app in several weeks lol). i was glad that they were asking if ppl preferred the artists to be separated, it will be interesting to see if it changes. but yeah i was also waiting for like a write in question where i could complain about the diamonds DJLFLFJ i also hope they continue to listen to feedback

i'm really interested to see what the comeback is going to be like, bc an article said it's not refreshing svt, but personally i don't get the vibe that it's going to be super dark either? like after darling and with the first two versions i thought it might be, but now im not sure. im looking forward to it in either case! this comeback has me intrigued. (although i am a bit disappointed that we're only getting 9 songs on the album ;-;)

yeah, i'm hoping that this storyline is only for the comeback. i feel like it might be since the story still seems to be like, a metaphor for svt's own life and experiences, which is what their concepts are usually related to anyway. and we don't necessarily have an indication that it's supposed to be an ongoing storyline, just that we know it's a marketing strategy a lot of companies (including hybe) use for their groups. but i guess we'll find out in the next year or so as we see the next couple comebacks lol. i'm not gonna complain about it too much as long as it's well done, and so far i think they've done a good job with darling and the teasers, so we'll see!

[vohalika]

hello, this is random but.. could u please tell me some of your fav things about vex? i don't often see people who Really Like Vex and we need more of that

Well, well, well, anon.

I have literally no idea how long it has been since you asked this of me, but rest assured I have not forgotten! Well, okay, I had for a while, then I saw it again and was like “oh, right, huh… And would you look at that, I’m about 100 posts away from 100,000… Wouldn’t that be a good one…”

So. Here we are! An unstructured rambling of all the reasons I really, really love Vex, somewhere between superficial and embarrasingly personal, to celebrate this arbitrary number of things I have spread around on this hell site.

Okay, first of all, the only thing Laura had to say to Kit Buss for the official art was “make her hot”. That is a Statement. And boy did Kit and also everyone deliver on that.

Like seriously. I didn’t use to be a fan of feathers in hair or white armor, but good god does she make it work.

Hey, I said this was going to be extremely superficial

Another thing I really didn’t use to like, twins. Overdone and usually poorly executed. But our girl made a Point out of being as different from her twin as she could be while at the same time being completely believable siblings.

I swear to god I’ll do my absolute best to mention Vax as little as possible. This is not about him.

Third thing I really couldn’t stand! The one, usually female, team member with a pet! Closely related to the one with the nature powers! I don’t know, these just always rubbed me the wrong way in media before, probably because I also never really cared for shows or movies about animals. Fight me.

And yet here she is, and she is not the “won’t somebody think of the children animals!” type of gal and Trinket is amazing and it still ties into her personality on a larger scale without being preachy.

I have a fourth thing. I also really don’t care for elves, ever. Everybody hates them. And then she turns around and makes me cry about the elf thing. Good god.

Yes, watching the first episode way back when was an uphill battle. There’s a reason I started with episode 69 and then watched the rest.

Nice.

Vex has the best worst sense of humor. No, really. I’m not even talking about that time she made a comment about the boy with the shot off fingers not having much of a future as a musician. But I’m also talking about that. And that time Scanlan tried having a meaningful monologue about having a daughter now. “I’ve defined most of my life by the people I slept with, and now…” - “Well, technically, this is still kinda defined by that.”

(Shoutout to Percy “I was just thinking that”)

Also, “We don’t do anything with dignity”, “I only serve gods with big dicks”, “You might live forever, but you will still be fucking ugly”? Girl is iconic, even if her sense if humor is usually pretty inappropriate for the given situation, she just can’t help it. I relate.

On a related note, it is so easy to play a similar archetype and have her just be this always dignified and above the humor kind of stuck-up. It’s basically how most people would have written her (and a certain someone did). But not our girl, oh no.

Also, I recently made a post about this, but we really, really don’t talk enough about how she’s just the leader of the party. She is. No, really, lower your bitch sticks, y’all. She’s the one to talk to the most NPCs, she’s the one to usually say go, and everyone just naturally adheres to her. It’s never forced, it’s never an “I, as the leader” moment, and she doesn’t try to wrestle her way into the role. It’s just what happens naturally.

Which also means she’s good at stepping back and letting other people shine for a bit. But still, Vex is the reason they didn’t just flounder around like a chicken without its head after Scanlan left. Laura was late to two sessions in campaign one; the first one was already in an extended battle scene, and the other was literally spent in a bedroom in hell waitinig for Vex to tell them what to do.

This is why scholars are generally of the opinion that Vex is the only Top in VM. And also what intellectuals refer to as Big Dick Energy.

Let’s talk about what the assholes call Greed. Yes, Vex is, out of all of them, the most pre-occupied with gold and loot. But she NEVER hoards anything for herself, never spends any of her own gold on herself even until the timeskip, leave alone the party funds.

She looks out for the interests of the group, makes sure they get the best possible deals and are paid what they are owed. And she’s the only one to ever worry about money, too, whereas everyone else never bothers to think about it. Hence why her and Vax split the cost of paying their staff after the party spent all the funds early on.

Look, I find her worries very indicative of growing up in poverty with her mom, than surrounded by rich and important people but locked out of the loop, and then poor and on the road again with Vax. I find it very relatable, and everyone who claims that looking out for the financial well-being of the party is “greedy” is lucky enough to never have had to worry about eating next month while also making rent.

There’s Safety In A Fist Full Of Diamonds, okay?

No really I need y’all to read that and send it to the annoying bitches who complain.

Vex is literally never stingy when it comes to helping people with the money she made sure they have. Remember how she didn’t even flinch at spending a five digit number to free angel boy slaves?

WHICH LEADS ME TO ANOTHER POINT. Vex. Vex has a serious hoarding problem. But not when it comes to money of earthly possessions. No. When it comes to PICKING UP STRAYS.

It’s how she got Trinket.

It’s how she got the angel babies.

It’s what she tries to do with the grey render baby.

It’s what she suggested they do with the dragon eggs in the Raishan fight

(LET! VEX! HAVE! PET! DRAGONS!)

IT HOW SHE GOT HER OWN GODDAMN HUSBAND OKAY.

I have no idea how she hasn’t adopted her own zoo by the time VM forms. Though I can totally see her opening orphanages in Whitestone, both for people and animals and creatures of all kinds, really.

Remember when she was the only one to protest the punching of a spectral ghost cow?

The hardships of her youth made her, yes, very afraid of being out of money, but also made her compassionate as fuck. She’s always down with helping people even if there’s little to no coin in it, okay? Stop overlooking that, assholes.

SPEAKING OF COMPASSION. Remember what her original beef with the Vasselheim potion seller was? That he took advantage of Grog being intellectually challenged. Which is what he did! Blatantly so! And he wasn’t the least bit sorry about it!

I mean, I bet he is by now, but, you know. Karma.

When Laura says Vex just wanted justice and then everyone else escalated that scene she is goddamn right, rewatch your own footage Matthew.

Oh god do I have to talk about broomgate now. I don’t want to talk about broomgate.

OKAY

Broomgate is literally the only time in the entire series that Vex ever takes something for herself. Was it the morally right thing to do? Maybe not. Though to keep in mind that a) Hardwick is a piece of shit, b) they literally met Gern when he had the skeletons of Kiki’s dead civilization dancing for him; Vax shanked Nothics for less, c) and this was hot off the heels of fighting a necromancer in the last big arc, too, d) they were on a mission to kill dragons. That fly. With no method of flying for the majority of the party. Vex always intended to use the broom for that purpose, so you could make the legal argument of commandeering it instead of stealing, and, finally, e) SHE HAD JUST FUCKING DIED

Why do we never talk about that

Other characters get cut all the slack for what they do after just dying

Other characters get cut all the slack when they steal from other guests

Other characters get cut all the slack when they withhold loot for the party

Other characters DIDN’T GET AN ALIGNMENT DROP FOR DOING WORSE SHIT THAN THIS

WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT BROOMGATE

WHY WAS BROOMGATE EVER EVEN A THING

okay

okay

MOVING ON

Hey, while we’re at dying. Remember how Vex spent the day after she, literally, died, trying to make sure the person who was to blame for her death was okay? She did that. And Percy was uncomfortable with it, visibly so, but also too guilty to call her out here.

And no one. NO ONE. EVER. Bothered to check in on how she felt after dying.

Vax made it all about the sacrifice he made, Percy felt too guilty, NO ONE ELSE CARED.

And what does she do? Soldier on. Try and cheer Vax up and support him in any way she can.

Honestly, learning the Raven Queen book by heart and then telling him that being the champion of a god is really fucking cool? Relatable. Relatable as fuck. You go girl.

And TO THIS DAY. ACROSS TWO CAMPAIGNS. Vex has been the only one. THE ONLY ONE. To EVER check up on someone after they died. Jester might eventually be the second one, but, you know. I am a big advocate for post-death and just post-big-battle-in-general aftercare cuddle piles or whatever. Someone tell the cast to implement that immediately.

And while we’re at death, let’s talk about THE DARKNESS

There are dark facets to her character. Vex never makes her own issues everyone else’s problem and they go largely unadressed, but they’re there.

Saundor brought up the story about how she got Trinket and had to kill for the first time while doing so.

(Sidenote: Saundor doing more research into her character than an actual writer is extremely telling.)

That was definitely traumatic for a young girl and I don’t mean to dismiss that, but that’s also the part I can understand Vax dismissing when they talk about it later on. They do kill a lot of people after that and this was self-defense, so hey, okay. Fine.

HOWEVER

That short story was indicative of many other things that torment Vex. Mostly her low sense of self-worth.

Like, her entire inner monologue is centered around how stupid she was for getting into this situation in the first place (= for being taken advantage of by criminals at the tender age of probably like 15), and how this would never have happened to Vax, who was away in the city to take care of them.

And we see that low sense of self-worth bleeding into Vex’s character throughout the campaign. That’s part of the reason why she spends the day after her first death making sure everyone else is okay. That’s also part of the reason she blames herself for Scanlan leaving and acts like she’s completely fine when he returns just so he’ll stay.

Honestly that short story is so insightful and explains so much about her, I don’t know how anyone could claim to have any grasp on her character without reading it.

(Also, Laura should write more, she’s talented)

Now a significant part of her self-worth issues obviously also ties back into her time at Syngorn. I can just hear people getting out their tiny violins, oh, waaah, she wasn’t one of the rich, cool kids in elf school, poor her.

But that’s not entirely it?

Like, just that is already plenty to fuck a person up. I’ve been there, too.

But let’s just say the fact that her dad was also cold towards them and acted like they were unworthy is a BIG part of what fucked her up. Call it daddy issues if you feel like being dismissive about a genuinely traumatizing upbringing, but that’s how it is.

And don’t get me wrong, if this were the traumatic childhood olympics, it’s not exactly up there and relatively tame for the background of a character in a fantasy story, but it is very true to life and extremely relatable, and Laura just executes it so well. So, so well.

That’s part of what makes the entire stretch of Feywild episodes so great. From what we see of Vax’s reaction later on, Percy is the only person she ever talked to about this - or at least the only one who ever listened - and he immediately got it. And instead of yelling at her about how amazing she is, he did something to make her feel better about herself. Without making it about himself, by the way.

I enjoy a fake married plotline as much as the next gal, but Percy giving her a title she’d have to earn by her own merits is soooo much more meaningful than just putting a fake ring on her, okay?

Yes, at the end of the day, this is basically a Cinderella fantasy. So what? No, really. One of the best things about Vex and her arc is that it validates feeling upset about not measuring up in superficial, material ways. And it validates getting your come-uppance. These are, as mentioned above, experiences that can really mess with a person, but we’re usually supposed to be above it all because money and titles don’t make you happy.

Also something only people who never struggled financially can say/believe unironically and without specifying.

Hell, that’s about 70% of the reason I’m considering getting a Ph.D. if I happen to get the grades.

I’m also not a big fan of the term daddy issues, but I can’t deny that this is a thing here

not the thing they went into the Feywild for, buuuut

ahem

So. Remember when Laura said during the campaign wrap up that Vex thought of Scanlan as a father figure and everyone was like whaaaaat? And I was like ahahahaha, I knew it.

This is so tragic, really. Because she tried so hard so many times to help Scanlan and be nice to him and he just brushed her off. And then she’s the one who volunteers to spend the night all by herself in some dirty pub far, far away after opening up to his daughter about her own issues to bring him back alive, and then gets yelled at, and never apologized to.

And then he comes back and tries to erase her memory and not only is that never even brought up, she also just doesn’t even think she might be owed an apology because a) she still blames herself for him leaving because, you know, they never really talked out what happened there and b) she’s just too happy for at least that father figure returning to them to make much of a fuss about it, and Percy, bless his heart, TRIES, but it’ll take a few more years of marriage to talk through all of her issues

And like. I am not wild about anything that happens after episode 99. If I’m known for anything in this fandom on this platform it’s probably for that time I was really into the Ioun discourse, which I still stand by, btw. And I personally would have preferred for Vex to maybe get someone like Sehanine as her patron, as fitting as giving her yet another unworthy and disapproving father figure in her life might be

But there is also something somewhat gratifying about everyone talking about how great she is. And she had been sort of working for Pelor before that. Also, the headcanons about her having sun spots or starting to glow when she gets emotional after this are amazing.

So I made my peace with that. She deserves better, but hey, she always does.

She is so smart. So extremely smart. People roll their eyes at her battle plans and say it’s all Travis feeding Laura information, but Travis fed her nothing that time she schmoozed up to the Briarwoods while also making herself appear extremely superficial and unthreatening. Honestly. That dinner scene? Prime Vex. Amazing Vex.

Her battle plans are also so good. Pokeball-ing Grog out of the kill box? Using the Goristro against Vorugal to save the party a trip into the abyss? The only plan of Vox Machina that ever worked out basically perfectly? Amazing. And even IF Travis told Laura these ideas, that means literally nothing in relation to how smart Vex is.

And btw I don’t believe that for a second. People just aren’t good with acknowledging that sometimes, D&D playing women might actually have good ideas.

And she just is so street smart. With her skills, her battle plans, and just her way of handling people. There’s a reason she is the natural leader when it’s not someone’s turn in the spotlight at the time.

Like, the two things holding her back were that her class was extremely underwhelming, so much so that it got completely revamped in the Unearthed Arcana to make up for how bad it was in the PHB, and the fact that she just. Has, what. 1.5 episodes of her own storyline? Even Pike got 2. It’s amazing that I can even say this much about her with how little narrative focus she got throughout the series. And most of what she did was literally due to Percy using his plot clout and putting a foot in the door to force her into the spotlight.

Speaking of which. Percy’s best quality, next to being self-aware of how fucked up he is and actively trying to do better and be kept in check, is how he realizes Vex is the coolest, smartest, most amazing person around and treats her accordingly. The way she deserves to be treated.

Oh hey I mentioned to get this far without even mentioning the romance arc. And oh my god THE ROMANCE ARC. The pining. The slow burn. And the fact that we actually saw them together and later married for like 35 episodes. They were so good for each other.

And yes, PERCY WAS GOOD FOR HER. And Vex was not his therapist and manic pixie dream girl. None of that bullshit here. Percy was already firmly on the path to being better before he even considered that crush he has had on her for forever to turn into something more.

And by he was good for her I mean that he actually UNDERSTOOD her and where she was coming from. Refer again to the titling issue, where Vax is just confused and kind of pissed, Percy got it. And that’s important.

Something I have not made a post about so far, by the way, is also something people have called problematic and co-dependant is how Percy shares his darker impulses with Vex in hopes she’ll talk him out of it. Which she does, and it’s never hard, but that also means so much to her? Because he involves her and tells her exactly what is going on with him and values her opinion? And that is just exactly what she needs? And they’re so good? THEY’RE SO GOOD.

WHEN DOES YOUR OTP EVER

HE COULDN’T HAVE ASKED FOR A BETTER DREAM

This is more on Laura, admittedly, but also, it was just so great to see her unapologetically pursuing this romance? There’s a place at the table for a 72 episode slow burn, and she’s gonna go for it, and there’s nothing any of the dudebros who are just here for the fighting can do about it.

And also Vex is just so unapologetically sexual at the same time. From episode 1 onwards, really, and in general and just limited to Percy. And no one ever treats that as weird or bad or anything. It’s just who she is and that’s great.

And she fought. So hard. For that happy ending of hers. Kicking and screaming, against the world and against Taliesin’s determination that Percy is irredeemable and not capable of getting a happy ending. Defy that auctorial intent, my girl. You deserve it.

Seriously. Seeing her get that happy ending against all odds was unfathomably gratifying and validating and I’ve never connected to any single character or narrative at large for that matter this much and this intimately, and considering how I came across this story at one of the darkest times in my life, I probably never will feel so strongly connected to anything ever again.

Which is probably for the best, but hey. 

Aaaand there you go. An almost unstructured, epically long list of reasons I love Vex. Dammit, I talked about other characters way more than I intended, buuuut hey. That’s how it goes when you’ve got an ensemble piece, they’re all kinda interwoven.

Thank you this wonderful ask, anon, and reason to celebrate my 100,000th post on this site in style.

[thepetulantpen]

(Another Valentine’s Day gift to match @fancy-kryptonite and one of her fav ships)

“Kaito?”

Kaito looks up at Shuichi with a grin that dies as soon as his eyes land on the small stack of letters in his hands.

“Uh, what are those?”

“I was hoping you could help me figure it out. You see,” Shuichi doesn’t smile, just considers him in that factual way he does when he’s investigating, “I’ve been getting these messages from... a secret admirer, of sorts. I just can’t figure out who they are.”

Kaito is not sweating and is certainly not nervous. He’s not. As astronaut, he’s got nerves of steel and definitely isn’t intimidated by Shuichi.

“What, uh, are you going to do?”

Shuichi tilts his head, a confused gesture unusual for him. He’s usually the one with the answers, not the one trying get answers.

“Since I’m your sidekick, you said I should always come to you when I need help. I need more information and I think, if you helped me investigate, I could solve the mystery.”

Shuichi frowns, and looks down for a second, hesitating now. “Unless, you’re busy, it can wait, it’s just... Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, you know?”

Kaito is very, very well aware that Valentine’s Day is tomorrow.

“No, no, I’ll,” his mouth twists into a caricature of his normal grin, forced to hide his lies, “of course, I’ll help.”

Shuichi smiles that smile that always gets Kaito, brighter than any star he’s ever seen.

“I knew you’d help! Let me know if you find anything out, I’ll be in my room doing some other research.”

There’s practically a trail of dust as Kaito runs out of the classroom with nothing more than an “mmhm” to the affirmative.

From a desk in the back, Maki rolls her eyes at him.

“This is cruel and unusual punishment.”

“I deserve to use my powers for evil sometimes, ok?”

...

Kaito is regretting his life choices, at the moment. How could he have been so stupid to think that Shuichi, the ultimate detective, would be content to leave a “secret admirer” a mystery?

It’s a miracle that he hasn’t figured it out already, but Kaito was pretty brilliant in not getting caught. He went to great, ridiculous lengths to make sure that nobody saw him leaving the letters in Shuichi’s locker in the middle of the night. He even wore gloves to make sure there was no finger prints and wrote with his left hand to disguise the handwriting.

And, of course, he’s so cool and collected under pressure that Shuichi couldn’t have suspected anything when he asked about the letters. He could’ve been an actor if he wasn’t destined to go to space.

Now that he thinks about it, this’ll probably be fine. He’ll just tell Shuichi he didn’t find anything.

But what after that? Both him and Shuichi will be sad for Valentine’s Day, and, surely, Shuichi won’t ever stop investigating. Kaito supposes he’s meant to confess at some point. Maybe even tomorrow, on the day practically meant for admissions of love.

No. He can’t do that. Shuichi is so smart, he definitely wouldn’t want something as cliche and overdone as a Valentine’s Day confession.

He probably wouldn’t even want Kaito. He’s probably expecting someone more his speed, someone as smart as Kokichi or passionate as Kaede or kind as Kiibo.

Time to face it, Shuichi is out of my league.

Kaito plops down on his pillow, resolving to not move until his problems have gone away, or he’s slipped into a miraculous cryosleep.

...

Shuichi would like, for once, to not know the answer. It would’ve been nice to keep the secret admirer a secret, but he can’t help it, when he sees a mystery he has to solve it. It doesn’t help that Kaito isn’t exactly subtle.

He’s made the best of it though, just relaxing in his room while Kaito runs around on a wild goose chase, hopefully deciding to end the charade and just confess.

Shuichi would love nothing more than for Kaito to admit he loves him.

It’s really hard to be patient and relax when waiting for something so major, something he can’t even guarantee. Maybe he’s wrong. Maybe Kaito doesn’t want to confess.

Shuichi sighs and lays back down, trying to focus on his novel, instead of Kaito.

He fails miserably.

...

Kaito is sprinting down the hallway, barely stopping in time at Shuichi’s door thinking oh shit I’m so late by the time Shuichi starts his fifth lap pacing his room and thinking where is he?.

“Kaito! Did you find anything?”

Kaito showing up, even flustered and out of breath from his run, silences the growing din of thoughts wondering whether he’d chickened out and wouldn’t show all. Now his mind is holding its breath, waiting, poised to investigate as soon as it has more clues.

Is he nervous? Or just sweating from his sprint? Why did he run? Did he forget about Shuichi? What if-

“I, uh, got... caught up investigating! Yeah, I was going around interrogating witnesses and,” Kaito wracks his brain for details from police documentaries, “collecting handwriting samples! But none of them matched.”

“Do you still have them? Maybe I’ll see something you missed.”

“No, I lost the paper. I was running around so much, looking for clues and... yeah. I guess I’m just not as good at this stuff as you.”

Shuichi hums, looking thoughtful and suppressing his smile. “Well, hope is not lost yet. We could still do some investigating, while the night is still young.”

Kaito pales, Shuichi can practically see his mind racing, stuttering and trying come up with excuses where there are none. Perhaps he’ll need a bit more pushing, but that means Shuichi has to be very confident in his conclusion.

I’ve condemned murders, surely this shouldn’t be so hard?

“Don’t hurt yourself, Kaito. I already know who it is.”

“You do?” He really shouldn’t look so surprised, it’s making Shuichi nervous.

“Of course I do. Who else would write ‘you light up my world like Alpha Canis Majoris lights up the Canis Major constellation’? Plus, Maki told on you.”

“Maki saw me? But I was so stealthy!”

“She’s an assassin.”

“Right,” Kaito pauses, and looks down at his fidgeting hands, “what do we do now?”

“I was thinking,” Shuichi looks down too, wishing for the first time in a long time that he had his hat to hide his face, “we could go to this show at the planetarium tomorrow. They’re having some kind of viewing and I bought us tickets because I sort of figured this would happen.”

“Heh. That’s why you’re the best sidekick Shuichi, always planning ahead.”

“Hmph, I was hoping for a bit more than ‘sidekick’.”

Kaito looks to the side, hand in his hair. “Like what?”

“How about just... partners?”

“Partners in crime or partners in love?”

“A little of both.”

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Artists on Twitter are drawing their favorite shipping dynamics for this new meme

Once you've binge-watched enough Netflix shows, you start to see a pattern in the characters you get invested in. You might even notice that certain types of romances have you hitting the "Next Episode" button faster than you can say "I ship it." 

Even if you don't actually read fanfiction in which romantic tropes are clearly defined and amped up to 11 (just check any of the tags on AO3.org or Fanfiction.net), there's at least one fictional dynamic that hits ya right in the feels, every time. 

SEE ALSO: Artist recreates her Pokémon fan art from childhood

Enter the latest meme going around Twitter, which has artists drawing visual depictions of their favorite ships. Would you like a scoop of some unspoken mutual pining? How about a helping of rivals who actually admire each other? Or, my personal favorite, a cup of punlord versus someone who pretends to hate their puns but secretly loves them?  

don't even read fanfiction much anymore but oh boy howdy do I know what dynamics I like pic.twitter.com/OoRc9SVVVi

— Molly Knox Ostertag (@MollyOstertag) April 17, 2019

GUH,,,,god help me if it’s all three at once pic.twitter.com/UgvSSj3IZT

— ✨🐸💖its greer💖🐸✨ (@grakkerss) April 17, 2019

more favorite ship dynamics... and to those wondering, ‘dumbass + dumbass’ isn’t its own category since that’s the foundation of every relationship pic.twitter.com/S6lcCmlNE0

— sang 🤠 (@SangledHere) April 18, 2019

These dynamic memes are like all the best parts of going down a TV Tropes page rabbit hole, with the added benefit of expressive, artistic hot takes. Also, most of the pairs have been drawn genderless, so you can imagine any number of your favorite characters! 

fave shipping dynamics..... im soft okay pic.twitter.com/HQiJBwuPLT

— #1 OC smoocher ✨Commissions: Open ✨ (@Idolomantises) April 16, 2019

I love seeing people's fav ship dynamics so I offer my favourite one for girls pic.twitter.com/ET96ISfxTN

— Chelsey ✨🌻 (@Cheriiart) April 17, 2019

okay, i couldn't resist, here are some of my favorite ship tropes. pic.twitter.com/e7mgxCya0W

— shelby cragg 👽 (@shelbycragg) April 18, 2019

May not be surprising, but my fave ship dynamic is the “unconventionally attractive comic relief with a big personality + the hot, pure of heart guy who is irrationally devoted to them” 💖 pic.twitter.com/cLI22TNDL1

— Nick Sumida (@nsumida) April 17, 2019

i had food poisoning and cant leave my bed pic.twitter.com/MXrlzXIe5H

— Mari🌹Costa (@marinscos) April 17, 2019

oh and a bonus. I don't even know what this is from but I love it pic.twitter.com/VquiZFIGVl

— Molly Knox Ostertag (@MollyOstertag) April 17, 2019

In all seriousness, 90% of my favorite ship dynamics can be summed up by this scene from Night in the Woods pic.twitter.com/9LLlqtgegN

— cryptid (@loopnoid) April 17, 2019

DID SOMEONE SAY FAVOURITE SHIP DYNAMICS?????????? yeah like....all my fav ships fit into these pic.twitter.com/CJZX852DrK

— ( harriet ) (@hattersarts) April 17, 2019

In the cheeky spirit of the original posts, people's favorite "dynamics" seem to get progressively more goofy. Some artists even admitted that their favorite dynamics were just thinly veiled variations of "me + this character who I think is hot." 

But others felt like not everything was such harmless fun, with posts celebrating abusive relationship dynamics right alongside lighthearted ones. Not cute.

Some couple dinamic memes around here are just straight up toxic and abusive and im just THAT NOT CUTE. RUN pic.twitter.com/1PyBrku6Cj

— Moon🌛 (@DestinytoMoon) April 17, 2019

yall are goin too far with the couple dynamic shit just saw one that was a 4-hit combo of abusive relationships with people eating it up

— Alex's Snugglekitty 💫 (@essiecatter) April 17, 2019

I just saw one that was 'I will kill everybody here and then myself for you😳❤❤❤' 'awww' and i just HELLO 911????

— Moon🌛 (@DestinytoMoon) April 17, 2019

You’re really gonna group Bubbline with Reylo huh pic.twitter.com/YIgl6bKzsW

— #1 spy kids 2 fan (@LemonyDickpunch) April 17, 2019

Overall though, we love these these dynamics for a reason — even if the reason why we love them is because they're so overdone. 

10 minutes ago: People are posting their fave ship-dynamics! That's fun, let me pull up pictures of the myriad of diverse, very different ship dynamics I lo— Now: ALL THE SAME THEY'RE ALL THE EXACT SAME I'VE SEEN MYSELF AND THEY'RE ALL THE SAME pic.twitter.com/fTSQwG3h4W

— Josie Campbell (@CozyJamble) April 17, 2019

And also because no one can help but run away with "ship" puns. 

WATCH: Twitter turned this massive fried rice prank into a pretty great meme — All the Memes

[theactivatedspectator]

Interview with Lucas Gabellini-Fava

I had the pleasure of meeting Lucas Gabellini-Fava recently at Paris Photo. Lucas is a recent graduate of Photography at LCC. He has come out of university and landed himself directly in the art scene, interning for Broomberg and Chanarin and directing the emerging artists platform Revolv. I caught up with Lucas via email to enquire  about his continued success after leaving university last year. 

AK: Whilst you were studying, through which channels did you find recognition and artistic connections outside of the learning-institution? 

LG-F: I always mention how I’m adamant that 70% of my education came from trying to find a foothold in the London art scene as quickly as possible - I was absolutely militant about it. I emailed every single artist that came in as a guest lecturer at my university -  asking to work for them, I went to every opening and talk that I could find and I would find artists that were where I wanted to be and then try and find ways to spend time around them. Once I started to work for a few bigger names and know more people, it became much easier for me to not only understand how the art world in London functioned but also what I had to do to try and swing things my way. 

The only recognition I’ve ever received so far has been because I went out and looked for it. I was actively looking for these people to look my way and 95% of the time it didn't work. Honestly, I think the important thing is doing as much as you can... I mean literally until you can’t do anything more. You’ll be rejected and set aside most times but then there’s always that one opportunity that changes something and you feel as though you’re one more step into the right direction. I see it as a ladder and you just have to ensure that you're always finding ways to step up a tiny bit higher. 

AK: How have these evolved since your graduation?

LG-F: I pushed myself too hard for my degree show and being able to realise that has really helped me grow as an artist and has actually helped me make positive changes within my own practice. I’m making work at the moment, which I feel is much more interesting and mature - simply because I’m making more calculated decisions and I've created an environment for myself which allows me to think better. I was trying to go 'big' with my degree show and I realise now that sometimes this is not the best way to do things. I still love the work that I made, but months after I feel as though I understand myself as an artist much better now and I don't need to be big or impressive to make work that stands on its own two feet. 

In terms of my connections, they have improved greatly. The fact that I tried to make so many of these connections whilst I was still studying has helped immensely. I now work for most of these people as a freelancer and I get to learn from them at the same time. They also end up becoming friends, which helps me join the right social circles and in turn helps my own practice. Everyone always says that the most important part of being an artist is being social and I couldn't agree more. Going out and spending time with other artists and creatives has been more important for me than spending time in the library and studying. 

AK: What is your opinion of competitions, spring boards or belly flops? 

Competitions are super important, just ensure that you're not paying £50 for them... So many out there are complete scams. For example, I would consider most BJP competitions scams simply because of the pricetags of their competitions. However, there are some great organisations out there such as Photo Works that are actually worth it. Also, Revolv (which I run alongside another 3 people) put out a few open calls a year and we put a lot of time and love into them. Our website is currently down because it was hacked, but check out the Instagram! 

AK: Which current trends in the art world are you actively following / actively avoiding?

LG-F: I tend to avoid people that are making art that they label 'socially' or 'politically' important, which ends up just being a way for them to grab attention. There's a huge issue with this kind of stuff in the art world - using important issues to try to elevate your work to something that it clearly isn't. With today's social and political climate, this is happening more than ever and it's so infuriating and honestly slightly nauseating. 

I am however open to a lot and I am constantly inspired by other art forms. I'm in love with Lisa Brice at the moment (go see her show at Friedman if it's still on). It's truly what real and important feminist work should make you feel. I'm being a bit careful with technology at the moment because it's very 'in' and annoyingly my current work and research situates intself in the middle of it. The way that the art and technology world are intersecting right now is fascinating, but I'm afraid of how utterly overdone some of these things are becoming. I'm just watching from afar for now and seeing where it all goes.

AK: and finally recommend me something great that you have read :: )

Anything from the goddess herself - Hito Steyerl. This woman has changed everything for me in terms of visual culture! Her writing blows me away. Start by reading 'In Defense of the Poor Image' and work your way through her books and e-Flux essays from there. 

AK: Thanks for your time Lucas!