#okay that’s all I’m contributing to this ‘discourse’

[soldierandawar]

Breaking news! Actor does job.

[puckinghischier]

okay so…not that anyone asked but i have some…thoughts about this discourse surrounding jack’s signing last night

and honestly….i’m sad. i’m so insanely sad that so many people who claim to love this team are so quick to assume jack is a lost cause asshole. i think so much of it is entitlement. and yeah, as people, everyone deserve kindness and overall base level social behaviors. but where is that for jack right now?

where’s the grace and understanding that he’s tired. they likely had a day full of practice and drills and workouts before this signing. i mean, did he even get to go home before he was expected to sit and sign autographs for hours? why was he alone? why didn’t they put him with someone else? i know the answer is likely because he was the most sought after signature there and they didn’t want to make his line even longer, but still. i feel like jack has been very open and intentional with the fact he doesn’t like to do media. he wants to play hockey and go home.

and yeah, he also knew it came with the territory, but it doesn’t matter. if you sign up to be a teacher, you know there’s going to be early mornings, but that doesn’t mean you have to like getting up early. if you agree to work in healthcare, you know there’s going to aspects of the job that are gross and unfortunate, but it doesn’t mean you have to like cleaning up bodily fluids. the same can be said for these guys. they signed up to be professional hockey players, they knew media and signings and events were going to be expected of them, but it doesn’t mean they have to like it.

but back to entitlement thing. i think it has become so normalized to create personas for real people in our heads that people are quite literally unable to separate the fantasy from reality. and i mean, i’ll even say i contribute to the problem. all fanfic writers do. we create these idealized and fictional versions of these men, but the ability to differentiate between the two cannot be lost in the process. but i think it has been. i think there’s this unrealistic expectation thrust upon all of them, but especially jack.

he’s popular, he’s cutie, and he’s good at hockey. of course he’s going to have a mass following. but…he’s just a guy, y’all. he’s a guy that has bad days, good days, who gets tired, who has a social battery. and last night, i think that social battery had just run out. do you know how long he’s been watched and in the media? do you know how long he’s been the most watched hughes, the expectations he’s carried on him for years?

i just think there needs to be some compassion and grace here. going back to the whole “people pay to watch me play” incident is a little excessive, imo. i mean, are we going to hold every single player to everything they’ve ever said in the box? does it define who they are and their character? i have not once seen anyone berate and question quinn’s character when he told someone they were “fucking nothing”. which, if you really want to get down to it, is worse than what jack said.

but no, jack is expected to be this guy with rainbows coming out of his ass all the time, apparently. i think the concept of social cues and situational awareness has been so lost because of the screen culture right now. people do so much communication through screens and phones that they forget, people aren’t always enthusiastic and bright, even if they add an exclamation point to their text. last night was not something jack chose to do of his own accord. he was told to do it, and he did it. he made sure the kids had a good time and felt cared for. he signed everything that came across his table. could he have been a little more chatty? yeah. could he have maybe smiled a bit more? yeah.

but seriously, he knew he was going to have to sign a million different items and see a million different people. the whole point of a signing is just that. if he was even remotely going to get out of there on time, there’s no way he could have had any meaningful conversation with every single person. and i feel like he’s said before he prioritizes/likes kids? i could be wrong, so don’t hold me to that.

but the point is, this whole situation is so sad and such a good example of how gossip blogs only care about getting likes and reblogs and attention. they don’t care about these players, no matter how much they claim to. and people are so quick to take everything they read for fact. personally, i think jack is just…antisocial.

i think he has a persona on the ice because he’s in his element, he’s comfortable, and he’s excited to be there. when he’s with his family and around his friends, he seems to be an overall happy guy. but around strangers? strangers that want to talk about his stats, how he played in this game or that game, that are shoving their items in his face to sign, people that he’ll likely never see again? he doesn’t give too much away.

and before people mention the being snippy and short with the workers, i wasn’t there so i didn’t see what happened. if he was, i’m not defending that behavior, but i don’t think it’s because he thinks he’s above them or thinks he’s “god’s gift to hockey” like i’ve seen thrown around so much today. we have all been snappy with people we shouldn’t have before. it doesn’t mean someone is this terrible person with a high horse attitude. i think it’s a combination of fatigue, stress, and maybe even some anxious energy that had been built up and made its way out.

anyways, i’ve said enough i think, and this will be the first and only time i talk about this, but i had too many thoughts swirling in my brain to just keep them there. be nice. show grace. you’re allowed to be disappointed if you attended last night and felt like he was maybe dry and dismissive, but please step back and put yourself in his shoes. not every person has a social and yappy personality. some people don’t speak unless they have something to say. and that’s okay!!!

and for the love of god, quit giving gossip blogs what they so desperately crave

[bitterkarmaa]

Okay. Alright. I don’t usually get involved in fandom discourse. It’s not my thing, I’ve had severe backlash in the past from doing so, blah blah blah 100 reasons why I try and stay away from the heart of any fandom because the heart is always where all the drama lurks.

BUT!

Kat doesn’t deserve the slander she’s getting. This is a show we are allowed to watch FOR. FREE. She takes(took?) time out of her busy schedule to organize an engaging story for us, and there are some folks who decide that they have a RIGHT to WHINE about that?? Good grief, the entitlement is fucking astonishing to me. She is a very talented writer and storyteller, who voices a character that I, admittedly, was very uncertain of at first. But, now? Earth is probably in my top five favorites! She is very well developed and should be treated as an equal to the rest of her family, just like Kat, as her voice actor, should be treated like the other VAs! The disrespect towards both the characters she voices and herself as a person are so disgusting and makes me extremely disappointed as a part of the community that appreciates all she does.

This is a free show. They take the time to write, organize, and play-out the scenes, despite having lives of their own. There is no perfect story that will ever be written. As a writer, I know that. I’m well aware of it. Kat, Davis, or any of the other writers shouldn’t be held to impossible standards just because some people have gripes with the story they’re telling.

I myself have had some moments where I’m unhappy with the way the story progresses. Maybe, in some ways, I’ve contributed to the excessive hate towards plot changes or advances. And, if I have, I sincerely, honestly apologize for that. I’m not going to make excuses. For myself, or for others that have voiced the same opinions.

The story isn’t written for me.

The story isn’t written for you.

The story isn’t written for any one person.

It’s written for a community. A larger group of people that enjoy the content that is produced. For those that are attacking Kat for helping to produce these stories: you have no right to call yourself a member of this community. Communities are for supporting one another. Stop bringing everyone down with you just because you’re butt hurt about a story that was never made for you in the first place.

[hexfloog]

LMAO. 24, DCMK.

LMAO HIII CIRC I FORGOT I HAD THIS ASK GAME IN THE QUEUE WHOOPS 💀

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

!!salt warning!!

for me it's always the funimation dub. always. make any passing comment about this particular dub around certain pockets of the dcmk crowd and suddenly they can't shut the fuck up about how "awful" it is. actual translation work, acting ability, and casting choices be damned - all that and everything else of potential merit just goes out the window, because some high-up chucklefuck at funimation wanted to have an anime protagonist named "jimmy."

*i've had the opportunity to ask some old guard funimation VAs about this in the last few years, and on at least two separate occasions they've relayed that this was indeed how shinichi ended up being localized as "jimmy" snfsnfnfnf

i’m fully aware i’m in the minority as a detco funi-dub enjoyer, and i'm not going to defend it like parts of it didn't age like milk (westernizing names was a very pre-mainstream anime scene practice but it really shouldn't have been thought to have been necessary in the first place, and it really fucking sucks this practice bled into other localization efforts), but we can point and laugh at those choices now and sequester them from the things that otherwise make the dub an effective one. but no matter the question or conversation about this dub it’s always derailed near-instantly with these useless early 2010s-youtube WTF DID I JUST WATCH-lookin comments. like lmao okay, [1] who fucking asked and [2] did you know the funi-dub names are probably the first rung on the detco iceberg and that your proclivity for loudly hating dubs contributes nothing to any discussion ever?? <- me every single time i watch this transpire in real time

i (begrudgingly) get that weathering the cyclical “funi dub sucks lol” sentiment is just a rite of passage in this fandom at this point but this conversation really does make a resurgence every couple of months, it seems, like some kind of horrible detco lunar cycle. the hate-boner anime purists some people have for this dub is exhausting, especially when you consider that other dubs of the era-- namely yugioh or pokemon-- are looked on affectionately and with significantly less vitriol.

there are things to be said about the shortcomings of this dub, ofc, and you're allowed not to like it, but i think it's gotta be on more than just vibes?? i can't take criticisms of this dub seriously when "conversations" are more of a ritualistic dub-hating circlejerk, and especially when there's significant overlap with people who seem to prefer the bang zoom dub just because they use the original names and is thus the "more accurate translation" or whatever.

i just don't feel like i should have to justify why i like this dub any time it comes up, and my opinions here shouldn't make anyone feel like they have to state why they don't like it, either. (for anyone reading this, please don't comment which you are because i'm just playing an ask game and as previously stated you don't need to defend your preference)

LOL THANKS FOR THE ASK

[godzillabreath]

Clone High S2 thoughts

Discussion/spoilers (if you can spoil a situational comedy lol) under the cut

I first watched the original Clone High when I was in high school, so it’s a little wild to be watching and getting really invested in season 2 15 years later. It’s something I probably never even considered at the time.

I rewatched the first season recently as well, so I would have some context for going into the second season after so long. And the first season is still reliably so funny, so sharp and biting in its commentary. I feel like there is not a single joke that doesn’t still land today. The characters are so hyperbolic and chaotic that every scene is fresh and you never know what to expect from the plot. The geometry of the character design and the backdrops are simple but so effective and stylish, too. Season 1 really is just a good comedy you can watch again and again, and every character contributes to the laughs and momentum of the episodes. Gandhi is especially missed, and I think you can really feel his absence in Season 2 ),:

Okay, so Season 2. I’m gonna be upfront, I don’t think it is written very well. It feels very much like a fan facsimile of the original biting humor. I think I only laughed at a handful of jokes over the course of the entire season, which was definitely disappointing. It falls into the trap that so many reboot adult cartoons fall into in that it devotes so much of its time to rehashing cancel culture and social media as buzzwords, but not actually saying anything interesting or meaningful about them. The show no longer pulls from teen media tropes and contemporary television drams to inform its over-the-top “melancholy adolescent” humor. It feels like the extent of what they brought to the table was “Tiktok exists, isn’t that funny” and “you can’t be problematic!!!!” humor, but without really exploring the ludicrousness and the discourse cycle of the modern internet. It very much feels like the writers didn’t know the topics firsthand, but still wanted to comment on them in a shallow and cursory way. 

Let’s look at the new characters they added. Frida has an incredible design and conceptually I adore her. A mellow artist that skateboards and is hugely gay? All right, I love that. I wish there was a little more to her, though. I wanted to see more of the hyperbolic personality traits that each original character had in season 1. Make her outlandish, make her weirder with regards to her art, I don’t know, you could have gone in so many directions. I just wanted to see MORE.

 And this is an issue I have with all of the new characters and even to some extent the returning characters. I feel like Joan especially lost her weirdness and her edge in the reboot, with only the end scene of her freaking out and sabotaging her friends being something fun and true to her vindictive streak that she had in the original season. Confucius feels like he adds nothing to the plot other than to inform JFK and the audience that the internet exists. He should have been a bombastically internet-addicted clout goblin, constantly cutting content, and as he is now, he’s just falling extremely flat. I wanted the writers to crank the dial to 11 with Harriet and really explore her fear of being incredibly basic, like maybe she has Live Laugh Love text art in her room or her favorite tv show is the Office, idk, but as is she just seems like a Normal, Nice Person. Which is Fine, but it doesn’t make for great comedy. 

Topher is the only character I feel really channels the chaotic core of the original Clone High season, and he’s not even there for many scenes. I love the idea of a manipulative little mentally ill Redditor whelp. It’s relatable, it works well in commenting on modern internet culture, it’s freaky, I like it. I’m surprised they didn’t have Confucius and Topher interacting more because they both are chronically online and I feel like there is so much potential there.

I guess my takeaway opinion is that I’d like to see them amp up the personality of each of the characters by like 200%. And it’s a little late for this now, but I wish they’d have done more of a slow burn on Cleo and Frida’s relationship. It would’ve been cool to see Cleo contending with the fact that she wasn’t the most popular girl in school anymore and what kind of schism that would have created between her and Frida initially. More of an enemies to lovers dynamic would have been fun. 

So those are my thoughts. I could have gone on longer, but... I think this is already getting too long haha. I think I feel so opinionated on it because I can really see the latent stellar potential in the characters, and with a few exceptions, they all feel so underutilized in this season. 

Looking forward to season 3+ to see what they do next, though! 

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 11/05/2024 (The Drake & Kendrick Beef Analysed in Detail. And Dua Lipa, I guess)

Yeah, yeah, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, whatever, we have more pressing issues. Sorry to break the format again so soon, but I don’t really know in what other context I can talk about all of these outside of just dumping it all together so… consider this a prologue, perhaps. I’m cactus, and before we get to the rest of the chart, I guess it’s time to discuss the you-know-whos and whatever impact this has. If you don’t care, skip to the rundown.

Part I: Okay, but what does J. Cole think of all of this?

content warning: language, abuse

The songs did not debut in exact chronological order, so that’s why I’m separating this into a different section - it allows for a cleaner timeline of what’s actually going on and allows me to develop some more cohesive thoughts. I assume everyone reading this already knows what’s going on and has probably heard the tracks or most likely even consumed some opinion pieces on it before, and that’s why I’m not doing a stricter, review-format lyrical analysis like I would for any other lyrical rap songs that appears on the chart. There’s already so much out there, and so many double-triple-quadruple-quintuple entendres on both sides, some vile accusations plastered onto both mens’ legacies and crews, and a concerning amount of discourse surrounding all of it. Am I here to contribute to that discourse? Yes, but even this soon, it just feels a bit tired, right? Pitchfork had Alphonse Pierre writing incessantly about how much he hated it before any woman-beating or child-endangering allegations were in the fold. Rap beef existing in the 2020s, the “thinkpiece era”, I don’t know, it’s exhausting. That doesn’t change the quality of the tracks though, and even that has been discussed to death, including by me - in the past few months, I’ve already reviewed “Like That”, “Push Ups” and “euphoria”, as well as touching upon “6:16 in LA” - so I won’t be retreading my steps, I’ll be attempting to give my unique perspective outside of a timeline or rundown of events, gathering thoughts on ideas I don’t really see brought up as often.

So, where were we? When I last released an episode, it was Friday and the latest diss was Kendrick’s cryptic Instagram posts where he claims he has a mule in OVO feeding him information about Drake and his crew. He’d just dropped “euphoria”, one of the best diss tracks of all time, and whilst “Push Ups” was good, I don’t think Drake really had it in him to respond to such an evisceration. I half-expected him not to acknowledge “euphoria” at all, but sadly, he did, and famously, “meet the grahams” was released just half an hour later to squash the potential legacy of Drake’s new track, which was titled “Family Matters”. The popular consensus seems to be that if Kendrick hadn’t swooped in with something “Story of Adidon” level, Drake’s “Family Matters” would be considered an excellent diss track… and I completely disagree, that shit is trash. Here’s why.

“Family Matters” is a clear emulation of “euphoria” - if Kendrick can release his seven-minute multiple-part diss track, why can’t Drake? He spent as many days as he needed to curate a very similar song - no, I’m not saying Kendrick created the idea of beat switches or long songs, but when the two are dropped directly in relation to each other, it’s difficult to summise from that, that Drake isn’t coming to battle in a very similar way to Kendrick purposefully, using his formula and structure. The problem here is focus. Kendrick, since he’s only focusing on Drake, can outline his issues in such a streamlined and digestible way that offhand remarks are catchy and memorable but hit hard within the context of the full song. All three beats are given room to breathe and transition very smoothly into each other, and the first beat even predicts Drake’s moves over a jazz beat to make the track appear condescending, defining the song’s mood from the start. “euphoria” is a tightly-constructed evisceration of Drake, that Drake simply cannot come back from, because he isn’t fighting one side. He could shut up about everyone else and leave the bars to Kendrick, but he simply doesn’t have enough about Kendrick to do that for a substantially long amount of time, and if he comes back to “euphoria” with just a three minute diss track, he looks like a clown, not that he doesn’t already if he doesn’t acknowledge Rick Ross, Future, Metro, Rocky… or at least he thinks he would look silly not dismissing them, even though realistically, that’s what we all want him to be: focused, not spraying shots at people who no one legitimately wants to see win or fail. Like who cares if The Weeknd wins or fails a rap beef? He’s not even a rapper.

The beats don’t have any thematic purpose, the first beat is one we’ve already heard before, and whilst there are plenty of disses to chew on, a lot of it is actually just completely substanceless garbage. When he’s not repeating himself, he’s whining about how YG or whoever is ACTUALLY gang-banging as if YG wouldn’t hop on “Not Like Us” today. Sure, there’s menace in… the intro, because the only time Drake sounds energetic and venomous is when interrupting his mother - classy - but it’s weak apart from a few lines poking fun at his conscious personality which are somewhat funny if not just… strange considering Kendrick  being private leads to Drake spreading rumours regarding women and children on the idea that well, if Drake says it, everyone will believe it’s true! Also, it’s telling that Drake, after failing in “Push Ups” to prove he was a better rapper or a harder, more authentic image, all he has on Kendrick revolves around women, children and gay jokes towards The Weeknd. He spends damn near a whole beat out of the three on the side characters, which I know must have been, in Drake’s eyes, a demonstration of how he just doesn’t care about those guys… but you still rapped about them for a whole song’s length and the tightest bars come from that section, primarily because they’re easier targets. It also is pretty telling that Drake, who sounds increasingly bored over cheap beats the whole time, attempts to switch the “white boy” insult into a “white flag” wordplay but he still ends up saying “Ross callin’ me the white boy and that shit kind of got a ring to it”, without ever negating it in the punchline. He still ends up calling himself white. What is this?

Regardless, “Family Matters” debuts at #17 on the UK Singles Chart this week. It was produced by Boi-1da, Tay Keith, Fierce, Kevin Mitchell, Dramakid, Preme, Jordan Fox and… Mark Ronson of all people, who I assume had something to do with the third beat, since it’s the only one that actually sounds good. Minutes after Drake dropped, we get “meet the grahams”, produced by The Alchemist and well, it left a lot of people speechless. Once again, Kendrick goes for being condescending and systematic instead of the unfocused slop we get from Drake, directing his disses not for Drake initially, but directly addressing each member of his family. It’s not the most replayable in terms of its beat bouncing or having much in the way of a hook, of course, but it is villainous and deceptively straightforward in ways. The beat is basically one loop from Alc with basic but eerie piano and one of my favourite details in this entire beef: that yelping scream in the distance. For drumless jazz beats like this, those atmospheric intricacies are so necessary, and the instrumental break refrain that separates verses, something Kendrick would do again on the second track, is too cold. I’m not a lyrical analyst, I’m not a sociopolitical analyst, so here’s why “meet the grahams” makes J. Cole look like a fucking idiot, actually.

Cole stepped out of the beef before it got personal, probably because ScHoolboy called him up and said it wasn’t about rap, and since then, if anything, Kendrick has been slightly defending Cole in his raps whilst Drake has been dismissive and insulting. Again, telling! This should make Cole look smart, slick and the bigger man for apologising and not getting himself involved in the personal, frankly gross allegations made by both men against each other, and whilst we’d all like to hear Cole and Kendrick go back and forth on bars alone, what we got was much more impactful and cinematic, something that just wouldn’t fit Cole’s homegrown image. Whilst this is true on the surface, I beg you to go back to Might Delete Later after all of that. After all the talk about how he doesn’t take Ls, about how he’s taking everyone’s girl, about how his bars are like clips or whatever, all of his boast talk - and then he slides out of this beef before shit gets venomous. Then consider all his talk about how he can’t get cancelled like Dave Chappelle and how it’s all politically correct these days, and that trans… “fellas” are still pussies… given what’s been addressed here, with a back-and-forth by the two ACTUAL members of the big three involved essentially TRYING to cancel each other, the mixtape becomes dated and purposeless so quickly that it gives credit to its name. Cole has always seen himself as the “middle child” of rap, but really, his dichotomy isn’t between mumble rap and oldheads, it’s between being pretentious and anti-intellectual, simultaneously. At least Drake embraces that he is an asshole, which is the one reason to root for his character - I don’t like “Family Matters”, but it pretty effectively places himself as the villain of the story, at least if we’re willing to accept this as a narrative, and “meet the grahams” does an even better job at that than Drake could! Cole decided to align himself with the anti-intellectual crowd whilst being all intellectual about that approach, and let’s just say that when Kendrick is winning a beef, it looks really idiotic to be blissfully ignorant. I’m sure Cole has written a few songs about all of this, but what’s telling is that Kendrick and Drake will never delete these records, because they’re a cemented part of history in their careers and really, hip hop culture. I don’t like “Family Matters” or really, “Like That”, but there are moments in those tracks now iconic and quotable that Cole has completely lost out on. Drake got his ass handed to him, but it would be even more of a loss for him economically and in the media to delete those diss tracks. Kendrick, I would assume, somewhat regrets some of the statements made because his last album presented him as slightly above it all, and he does face an increasing number of abuse allegations now that whilst I’m sure he doesn’t sweat too hard, really aren’t great for you to have around. And sure, whilst Drake might be bringing up the size of his penis in “Family Matters” for no reason, the most homoerotic moment in this dick-swinging context might be the fact that Kendrick’s biggest song in years is focused entirely on another man’s sex crimes. Neither come out clean, but they come out with more dignity than the guy who thought he was hot shit and ended the beef with less streams, less name-drops and less tracks on his album because I bet you forgot, but he’s actually started to back track and delete the records. The only person to see this as a genuine stain on the legacy, a genuine piercing of the armour, is Cole, which is why he can’t be in that big three. Because he cares too much to prove he’s there in the first place.

On the UK charts, “meet the grahams” debuts at #28, but it doesn’t matter because the night after, he drops “Not Like Us”, a DJ Mustard banger, beats Drake at his own game and has people all across the world in clubs singing “OV-HOE”. It debuts at #10 and is co-produced with Sounwave and Sean Momberger, but the idea that Mustard is on the beat, giving Kendrick a classic West Coast banger to end out the beef whilst Drake is stuck with a myriad of identity-less tracks (ironically, one wherein he shouts out YG), is a diss in itself. Nobody cares about how much of this is true, if any of it is, because people believe that reckoning with that fact takes us out of enjoying music, which I think it’s silly but also a story for another day. I don’t idolise either of these guys - Hell, I preferred Drake’s last record to Kendrick’s - but through sheer lyrical dexterity and chess moves, Kendrick won the beef and shattered Drake’s PR statement of a comeback, “The Heart Part 6”, into pieces before it could even be rebuilt from the fragments of Drake’s pride. You can’t release a diss track that has you defending yourself against false allegations, if 1.) you yourself made false accusations and 2.) no one cares if the accusations are true, just who says them louder and harder, which is exactly why Kendrick knew “meet the grahams” wasn’t enough and that’s why he needed to drop the Mustard joint. Drake may be calculated, and a master manipulator, but he cannot out-guess the biggest hypocrite of 2015. And 2024. And maybe forever, I don’t know, he could drop something tomorrow. Now let’s shut my hoe ass up and review some charts.

----

Part II: REVIEWING THE CHARTS

content warning: The Chainsmokers

So, Kendrick has four songs in the UK Singles Chart right now as a primary artist, which shouldn’t be allowed according to OCC rules normally, but I guess even the Official Charts Company just wants to see blood. As for the songs that actually dropped out of the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, after spending five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40, we say farewell to “II MOST WANTED” by Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus, as well as Bey’s cover of “JOLENE”, “if u think i’m pretty” by Artemas, “Wasted Youth” by goddard. and Cat Burns (shame that one didn’t reach a higher peak, I really like it), “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and, perhaps most vindictively for this week, “H.Y.B.” by J. Cole featuring Bas and Central Cee. Ha.

We see two kind of inexplicable but also irrelevant returns with “Whatever” by Kygo and Ava Max at #74 and “As it Was” by Harold Styles at #41, but otherwise we do have a handful of notable gains, including “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers once again at #65, now the biggest song ever to never hit #1. It just never dies. Aside from that, there are boosts for Dua Lipa’s “Training Season” at #61 thanks to the album, more on that later, “Love Me JeJe” by Tems at #52 - a little detail I missed with the debut last week is that the phrase in the title was adopted from a well-revered track in Nigeria of the same name by Seyi Sodimu, which I thought was notable enough to consider sn error of research. Whoops. Put that in the corrections column. We also see “Slow it Down” by Bento Box at #23, some boosts for Kendrick as “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin and, Ye I guess now, is at #20 whilst “euphoria” stalls at #11, and finally, Tommy Richman gets his first top 10 with the smash hit “MILLION DOLLAR BABY”. Really can’t complain.

As for our top five, it consists of “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone at #5, “Beautiful Things” by Benny the Butcher at #4, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey at #3, “Too Sweet” by Hozier and #2, and finally, for a second week, Sabrina Carpenter is at #1 with “Espresso”. We still have five new songs debuting this week that aren’t disses, so let’s have some fun with songs that hopefully won’t be as heavy, and we start where every good night of fun starts. With the Chainsmokers.

New Entries

#75 - “Addicted” - Zerb, The Chainsmokers and Ink

Produced by Zerb and The Chainsmokers

Zerb is a Brazilian DJ who’s found his way into a collaboration with everyone’s favourite duo The Chainsmokers and smooth R&B singer Ink, with a Joel Corry remix probably helping this one end up at the bottom of the chart here. Now I do like The Chainsmokers, but not necessarily their work with other vocalists, as they’re not nearly as willing to experiment when it’s not just the two boys embarrassing themselves. Ink, who really just sounds like a BTEC The-Dream on here, doesn’t command much of the track due to that wispy tone, but Zerb being on board probably helps the squibbling synths spiral into more of an intense, detailed drop that traces bassy future house amidst some genuinely weird and oddly full percussive elements and sound effects, especially that incessant shaker in the pre-drop. You can tell these guys are professionals, as the sound design is very intricate and makes so much use of its available space whilst not being too fluid or syrupy, it goes decently hard, and whilst Zerb may not be The-Dream, he gets close. And I like The-Dream. I like this too. It’s a jam. Give it a chance, it kept growing on me like a brain parasite as I was listening.

#71 - “Right Here” - Becky Hill

Produced by Chase & Status

Whilst rap rivalries are brewing, EDM DJ duos seem to be having a good week by sticking together - with Chase & Status on board, this is pretty much confirmed to be at least decent before taking a listen and, well, obviously it’s good. At this point, I might just like Becky Hill’s output overall, at least from this upcoming album, and the decision from the boys to position an 80s pop rock melodrama with the soaring synths and plastic guitar below an absolute rolick of drum and bass feels very much like a throwback to the dancefloor DnB era from the early to mid 2010s, and I may like more atmospheric drum and bass tracks a lot of the time but I’m not above some unabashed pop, and this really has the momentum and kick to justify itself. Sure, the mix is a bit awkward, but the same can be said for a lot of drum and bass, and it’s not like that genre has ever suffered from being loud or overwhelming, especially not in festival mood, and the layering of Becky’s belting over those classic 90s hardcore pianos is an interesting touch compared to what I probably would have done, drowned her in reverb and echo like they sometimes did back in the day. The explosive approach taken here backs up an already infectious hook and results in yet another damn good track by Becky Hill, which would be a foreign idea to me throughout the rest of my time doing this show.

#68 - “The Door” - Teddy Swims

Produced by Julian Bunetta and Ammo

I didn’t even think we’d get a second song from Teddy Swims, but I was wrong about that when it came to David Kushner, Noah Kahan and  that Boonetown Rat over at #4 so maybe this is just the year of the edged-up white boy. I still think “Lose Control” is okay, and in terms of pure singing process, Teddy’s got a lot more soul and presence than them. That’s really carrying this one though, and whilst the groove’s a solid throwback, the reverb dampens its impact and it sounds like he’s recording the whole thing from a cave, but not a vintage chasm like Spector’s best stuff, just… a small cave near a river or some swampland. The songwriting also feels a bit basic, it isn’t all too compelling and goes for some very typical tropes, predictable rhymes, even if the “oh no!” is a bit of a fun inflection. Bunetta and Ammo also don’t let the song progress much, even just from verse to chorus, it feels stuck. I figured that when that soaring disco string section came in, we’d get a proper bridge that made it all feel satisfying, but it does tampers off into a post-chorus and we get a basic repetition of the chorus again. If you’re going to try and replicate a vintage sound, at least show respect to how they composed their tracks too, not just cosplay within their soundfont.

#67 - “Risk” - Gracie Abrams

Produced by Aaron Dessner and Gracie Abrams

Producing for Taylor Swift is the best idea the Dessners had ever. Now these indie folksters are going to have labels calling for them to prop up their attempts at making pop stars - I don’t like The National, like… at all, but get the bag, guys, I prefer them over The Monsters & Strangerz, or God forbid Julia Michaels. The largely-failed Gracie Abrams experiment has been an industry push for five years now, but the daughter of film director J. J. Abrams finally has a hit of her own and… okay, maybe calling her “own” hit was a misnomer, because this has O-Rod and T-Swift written all over it. You could genuinely run the whole thing through a Taylor Swift AI filter and I’d believe you, I imagine this is like hearing the track the “Heart on My Sleeve” guy recorded before he put the Drake effect on. It has Olivia’s wordy teenage anxiety and acoustic tones, but to be fair, Abrams is a lot more optimistic than her inspirations, with her breathy pleading that this relationship is going to work out over acoustic guitars that don’t feel relentless,  but do feel like they never end, just keep going, and the song keeps on adding elements that don’t stop them or alleviate the anxious playing at all. The same thing can be said about Gracie’s vocal take, or the wonky synth subtly placed into the chorus - classic Dessner - and the little lyrical details that make this feel as real as it does - if she’s invested, then damn, so am I, it feels like my friend is rambling or venting to me about the “tea” as the kids say and I’m on the edge of my seat. Surprisingly enough, of all things that sold me on this ballad, it’s the intensity, and the drums ramping up by the end into a rolick makes me forgive how derivative this feels… mostly because it’s doing a better job at this sound and concept than Swift is, statistically, half of the time, and emulates O-Rod’s youthful authenticity a bit less obnoxiously than she typically pulls. I know that’s a feature, not a bug, but I still prefer when it’s patched out. Excellent song.

#40 - “These Walls” - Dua Lipa

Produced by Danny L Harle and Andrew Wyatt

I wasn’t over the Moon with Radical Optimism the way I was with Future Nostalgia, mostly because outside of a nice vibe, the songs felt artifically short, awkwardly constructed and not nearly as adventurous or even cohesive as the people involved, or “Houdini” as a lead single, would have suggested. I wrote about her latest #1 album more at length on my RateYourMusic listening log - account name’s exclusivelytopostown, check it out if you care - but this was an obvious choice for the next single, because it’s one of the album’s tightest, with that psychedelic guitar lick blossoming amidst a mixture of trinkling keys before we slap right into an actually fittingly stiff pop rock groove, with a nice, subtle crunchy drum fill in the mix that I find a really interesting, distorted inclusion. It really helps the song feel claustrophobic and fed up, as the content is about the pre-empting of a breakup wherein both Dua and her partner are stuck in a frustratingly disappointing relationship where the love just… isn’t really there anymore, but they don’t want to face the reality of separation because that might be harder to grapple with than just keeping silent. For once on this album, the bridge doesn’t feel smashed in post-haste, Hell, it might not even need a bridge, and Harle’s attention to detail is on full display here, as the post-chorus keeps the dissonance going by making Dua just slightly off-key, it’s brilliant. A very tightly written and composed pop song, as well as possibly the record’s most vulnerable and honest moment, in an album that otherwise coasts off vibes. I definitely think this one could help a great deal with the record’s success later down the line.

Conclusion

Whoo, that was a lot, huh? Well, Best of the Week goes to Kendrick Lamar, obviously, for both “meet the grahams” and “Not Like Us”, but it was closer than you’d expect for Gracie Abrams who takes the Honourable Mention with “Risk”. This was actually a pretty great week overall for song quality, at least within the new tracks, so despite Teddy trying to hold his ship together, it still sinks and grants him the Dishonourable Mention for “The Door”. As for the Worst of the Week, I’d say I feel bad for Drake considering he got destroyed this week already but if what Kendrick is saying is true, I think I’d rather not say I feel bad for him at all. And if what Drake is saying is true… well, let’s just say “Family Matters”. Thank you for reading, rest in peace to rock engineering legend Steve Albini, Eurovision next week, and I’ll see you then.

[ronanwazlib]

even though i’m no longer as active here, nor do i currently write fic, i’ve wrestled with the repercussions of continuing to engage in the marauders/hp fandoms (such as just leaving this blog up and archiving my older fanworks here or on ao3 with disclaimers) after everything jkr has said and done (and continues to do) despite the extreme importance and comfort they once provided me. obviously, this decision has created a divide both in fan spaces and between average tumblr users over whether one should completely give up everything harry potter altogether or if you can denounce j*anne while still maintaining your presence in the fandom (either as a creator/artist/writer or just an observer) because it does not directly benefit the author monetarily as licensed merchandise and games, box office and book sales, or theme park attractions do.

the author has stated she sees any sort of support for her series as support for her beliefs or approval by fans that she’s justified in her behavior. i personally disagree with this, as i know better than she does how i feel about her politics and her bigotry, despite the fact that there is still an emotional attachment to fanon versions of her characters for me, and i already know she’d see all the ways in which i once enjoyed them as not supportive but mockery or bastardization or something. still, it must be taken into account. i don’t want to speak for minority groups i am not myself a part of on whether each individual is “valid” in reclaiming hp or not as that isn’t my place. as it is, i personally struggle enough with whether it’s okay to retain some sentimentality for the fandom and series at all as a queer person and whether i’m “trans enough” for it to be seen as justified. that is something we all must decide for ourselves and help each other to conclude. so although i’m not here to try and convince you one way or the other, i will recognize there IS an undeniable, tangible (if not financial) impact of creating fanworks and engaging in fandom practices. she has perpetuated so, so much harm, and her series itself was and has always been, rife with problematic themes, imagery, and worldbuilding. it is not enough to simply say you “reclaim” hp and put “jk sucks” in your bio; if you’re going to remain in the fandom you have to actively speak out against the systems she supports and upholds today and be critical of the flaws within the series itself. if you cannot completely let hp go right now, i encourage you to renounce jkr’s beliefs always, entirely stop supporting her through purchases or words, and contribute to lgbt/jewish/bipoc rights through donations to verified charities + legal support and/or their ability to survive and thrive through mutual aid funds so long as you continue to keep the hp series culturally relevant. it’s the least we can do, really.

of course i recognize this viewpoint will likely be upsetting to some who may want to block me. i completely respect that. i also welcome civil discussion in the replies, however i refuse to respond to discourse or trolling as that is a response to conflict i am actively trying to unlearn.

as always, terfs/bigots/homophobes/racists/antisemites are NOT welcome here

[lucky-clover-gazette]

nah, there were two victims who have spoken out. anastasia who dream knew was 17 (she tells him she’s “18 soon”) and amanda who dream talked to (and allegedly sexted) before she was 18 because he sent her money for her 18th birthday. dream also himself admitted the instagram dms are real, in which he gave the fan amanda his private snapchat. he admitted to flirting with his underage fans privately. i encourage you to seek out the evidence yourself, rather than just looking at what his fans say (not sure what “twitter search” that proves his innocence you’re referring to. there’s no proof that he is innocent when he literally admitted his guilt himself.) dream stans are biased and obviously spread whatever misinformation they can create to make him look innocent, just like they did with his racism and countless other controversies and drama. but if you really want to believe groomer stans, that’s your decision.

oh yes, because that last sentence totally implies you’re coming from a balanced place of good faith, unlike those demented stans.

the thing is, power dynamics aside, i don’t see a problem with a 20 year old person consensually flirting with a 17 year old. i was 17 after i graduated high school. if i chose to flirt with a 20 year old college student, or accept their advances, it would have been extremely normal.

obviously at any age, it’s never okay to harass people—but i don’t think that’s what was happening in the screenshots that were actually released? you say yourself that the worst and most extreme accusations (sexting) are only alleged. and sexting, just like flirting and romance and even sex itself, is not an activity that becomes morally correct only after people have turned 18. if a 17 year old, who’s a few months away from being 18, consensually sexts her boyfriend who recently turned 20, it’s a fucking joke to suggest some kind of abuse is occurring for the reason of age alone. sexting is a neutral act within itself, which can be a way people are groomed, but also can just be a way teens and young adults interact with each other.

now, regarding the celebrity power dynamics—let it first be perfectly understood that i am not a dream stan. i’m not really a stan of anyone, as internet fan culture around real people has always made me uncomfortable. i have literally no investment or stakes in this discourse, other than giving a shit in principle about online parasocial hate campaigns. most relevantly, i care about the use of potential misinformation that could contribute to the delegitimization of serious substantiated accusations.

which is not to say that these accusations aren’t objectively true—these girls had text conversations with this guy, it clearly happened. and they may feel regret or discomfort with the power imbalance of interacting with an internet celebrity, which is a feeling i understand! the power dynamics here are far more questionable that the age stuff that twitter discourse mongers parade around. but those dynamics also require nuance, which is clearly not the priority in the spaces you (anon) seem to occupy.

personally, i do think it’s cringey and a little slimy to flirtily dm people you know are your fans for a quick ego boost—but it’s not predation or grooming when the fan is 17 and the celeb is 20. if the fan is 13 and the celeb is over 18, it is. most people are able to recognize the difference between those two situations, even if the numbers on paper seem close.

i’m genuinely sorry to hear that these girls had negative experiences with someone they once respected and trusted. if there was primary evidence of nonconsensual harassment, i would simply put this guy out of my mind and keep his name out of my mouth. but i think i can actually be pretty damn certain there is no substantive evidence of harassment or predation, or else you people would already be plastering my inbox with it.

all harm is not equal, and overstating harm and co-opting certain inflammatory language like “groomer” exposes, more than anything else, a vindictive desire to call for mass shaming. which is how i reached the conclusion that, even if some cringe slimy stuff happened, the harshest accusations and subsequent parroting and harassment are very obviously happening because people just already didn’t like the guy.

i do not care if you like dream. i don’t know dream and i don’t particularly like him myself. i only had a little bit of sympathy because 1) i hated the way people dunked on his appearance like it was some kind of moral crusade and 2) i have a mutual who enjoys his celebrity presence.

i’ve held off on answering these asks directly because i think it’s ultimately just giving nonsense more attention than it deserves, but i am also self-righteous and have many thoughts and opinions that i’m always down to express.

and that last sentence especially pissed me off.

[ohgodimafraud]

snzfet discourse/setting boundaries

This has been bothering me for such a long time, but I haven’t had the time to sit down and write it out, so if you’re not interested in snzfet discourse pls move on. That’s also the theme of this post.

Last month (I think?) I saw a thread about hot takes being taken down by a few people who were saying it’s ruining their safe space. The replies on the thread were like “hot take I like mess.” “Hot take I hate mess.” “Hot take, I hate baby talk in fics.” “Hot take I like stifles or hate them.” “HOT TAKE I LIKE THE CHOO BETTER TTHAN THE AHHH” 

It was people literally expressing their opinions and personal preferences. And people became angry and personally offended.

We are all adults here. If you have problems setting boundaries for yourselves, that is a YOU problem. You don’t get to harass others into taking down a harmless post about general preferences and possibly unpopular opinions. Two people saying they don’t prefer a long buildup or some shit when 60+ other ppl like it should not cause extreme drama. I don’t know who these people think they are like “I feel upset by a topic bc of my own personal issues so YOU and EVERYONE ELSE are the problem.” 

It’s one thing to say hey can we please tag emet in this community since it’s a big trigger for many ppl. That’s so reasonable. Can we tag mental health stuff. Can we tag the panorama discussion. What’s not okay is to say, hey can you not say your personal opinion on Ah Choo bc it makes me feel sad :/ That’s called like scroll past.

I think people don’t understand what setting boundaries is. It’s not telling people what to post. It’s saying to yourself, this upsets me and I will scroll past. I will mute these tags. Maybe I will block this blog for a week. It is your responsibility as a fully grown adult to do this, and if you can’t, then probably you should seek help. i’m in therapy it does gr8 things. I literally hear family members talking about the most queerphobic things constantly and have to set my boundaries by leaving the space or putting in headphones. I don’t want to hear that someone saying i like cough sneezes makes you feel icky inside and the person who said they like it is EVIL

This is tumblr. Everyone is entitled to having their own blog with their own posts, thoughts, stories, and opinions.This is not the sneeze fetish forum. (Also even the sneeze fetish forum had a snake pit for venting and objectively I have never seen anything like that happen on snzblr.) If you want a moderated space, go to the forum. I was a mod for like 5+ years, and there has always been some sort of preference topic, likes/dislikes, turn ons/off topic on the forum. This is nothing new. I swear to god my brain cells were killing themselves reading the discourse around such a mundane topic. Literally go touch grass.

You make your own safe space by following people you like, by contributing positively to the community, by blocking content you don’t like. You make this space unsafe for others when you dogpile them into deleting their content.

[b3achysurfur]

yo hey logang member here

just wanted to lyk i actually dont care if you dislike logan, i have characters i dislike too like thats ok i just feel like this all turned into petty drama that wasnt needed 😭 i disagree with some stuff you said (like that one comment about understanding how logans parents didnt want him) but i guess i just wanted to clarify i myself dont have any true ill intent towards you i just think this whole situation is kinda stupid and wanted to clarify that so have a nice day ig- i blocked immediately because i didnt want to see more drama but here i am lmaoo

i personally like logan because he contributes to the group, keeps a level head in tough situations(like standing up for barons other victim) and can make a decision under alot of pressure (like shooting the phantom) and i think he has alot of potential but feel free to debate

hi , idk what happened but the logang has started interacting with me again. did someone make a post or did y’all js get curious? I genuinely wanna know 😣 but you guys are welcomed here !!

um but yeah I agree. thing is I never started this account to troll or start drama/discourse. the account was so that I could separate my main and sbg content and it’d be more organized. I had been posting Logan hate before hand, and a lot of ppl found my posts funny/agreed so I just continued it here. you guys just got rlly mad for no reason. I get that some of the jokes I made were a little harsh, but at the end of the day it was never that serious. I do apologize if I stressed anyone out, but this whole thing is so silly. I’m use to bigger fandoms being more aggressive, and even the sbg TikTok fandom is pretty blunt, so I didn’t think you guys would take my jokes so personally. but you live and you learn.

also I appreciate you being so kind! I understand that many ppl just blocked me bc they didn’t want to waste their energy on smth silly / js assumed it was bait content. which is totally fair! like I’ve said in other posts, I have no ill will towards anybody I’ve interacted with, regardless of how the conversation we had went down. If I’ve said smth that’s upset you, my dms are always open to chat or js tag me in a post/comment and I’ll talk with you. Sometimes I can be a bit rude, but I promise it’s not personal at all. The only person I hate is Logan fields. Not you guys. Even if your a logang member (funny y’all took a liking to that name btw 😭).

I will continue to post Logan slander, and I can’t promise that I’ll tone my content down all the way, so if that’s not for you then you’re welcomed to block me or the Logan hate tag. I use like the same 4 Logan hate tags so it’s not gonna be a sneak attack. Also even though I post logan hate, I AM ALWAYS OPEN TO DEBATING. I’m very open-minded and will change my opinion if you make a good point that I can’t refute. I just have not run into anyone who could do that yet.

okay now for the fun stuff. You said you like Logan because he contributes to the group, but I disagree. I feel like Logan has contributed least to the group. When you say “he keeps level-headed”, I feel the opposite. Logan is very shy and timid, and he gets scared very easily. Logan is very easy to persuade and intimate, which is why he got bullied in the first place. Although he stood up to Barron, he wasn’t level headed at all. He was clouded with rage (which in part has to do with the phantoms) but shows he cannot control his emotions well. In many offical arts + earlier chapters, Logan is seen crying / hesitating constantly. Yes he has a reason to be terrified, but you cannot say he is level headed. Especially compared to everyone else. I’m not sure how I feel about him being able to make decisions under pressure. I think Logan is good at analyzing situations. Thats why he was able to come up with multiple theories about the phantom world. But I feel like in order to say he makes good decisions under pressure, he’d have to actually put these decisions into action. Logan is still very hesitant though and I don’t want to base his character off of one scene, especially because I’ve talked about why I feel like that scene was a cover up and not genuine. Most of the time Logan follows the instructions and commands of others. He actually buckles under pressure imo. like when they were fighting before getting the car, Logan would’ve never mentioned he was scared if Tyler had not spoken first. He would’ve just followed everyone else due to peer pressure. Logan always acts second. I honestly believe if he had saw Aiden on the roof he would’ve never even considered using his gun because he avoids situations that have a lot of pressure and responsibility. So no, I don’t believe Logan makes good decisions under pressure. Again that’s just my opinion and I’m down to talk about it more! but if you do want to debate pls js reblog this or put another ask in bc the comment word limit is so annoying 😭

[ziskandra]

I posted 3,294 times in 2022

That's 3,140 more posts than 2021!

130 posts created (4%)

3,164 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mxkelsifer

@ithoughteventheboneswoulddoot

@ziskandra

@illusivesoul

@ultraviolet-ink

I tagged 3,177 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#the unreliable q - 2,029 posts

#dragon age - 1,352 posts

#ace attorney - 579 posts

#meredith stannard - 519 posts

#orsino - 225 posts

#mass effect - 171 posts

#about me - 152 posts

#miles edgeworth - 139 posts

#anders - 138 posts

#franziska von karma - 127 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#especially the pro tip about being about differentiating between having empathy for one’s friends and acknowledging that they’re being mean

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Reply to this post for a DRUNKEN EFFUSIVELY COMPLIMENT okay

20 notes - Posted December 3, 2022

#4

you are SO right for autistic Manfred lmao that is also my hc. This dude once screamed at the top of his lungs in the middle of court cause someone interrupted his routine. He's so fucking relatable unfortunately

TRULY. I too want to scream aloud when things don’t go as I’d planned in my head!

Like, there’s the other obvious things: law is clearly his special interest. He’s the kind of person who has a place for everything and everything in its place.

Then there’s the just fucking off-the-wall things, like, he retrained the parrot. Even thinking to ATTEMPT it doesn’t seem like allistic behaviour to me, and by god, Manfred succeeded.

But the biggest thing to me is just how … rigid he can be when things go wrong, and how he really struggles with emotional lability in times of crisis. I know relating villain’s crimes to autistic traits can often be controversial, but I believe in most cases with villains I personally headcanon as autistic, it’s the lack of support in their life and society that contribute to the crimes, not simply being autistic.

Which is why the part about the tragedy of it all — how it hurts more — if Manfred had been trying his best in your meta really hit home to me! I know for myself one of my autistic traits is obsessing over what people tick and what makes them do the things they do. I don’t think anyone’s truly evil, but I do believe that people so often act in the preservation of their own self image and … yeah, it that doesn’t explain Manfred’s actions … perfectly (ba dum tsch).

OH, and there’s also just like, his sense of humour? It’s so arrogant but dry: “My PIN is 0001 because I’m number one!” “My granddaughter’s dog is named Phoenix, are you saying you’re her fiancé?” “Defense attorneys are like bugs to me, needless things, to be crushed.”

God, I love this man.

21 notes - Posted November 29, 2022

#3

introduction!

BASICS. Asha. Late 20s. they/them. autistic & adhd. brown. biracial. bisexual. shift-worker. Fascinated by fictional villains. FANDOMS. Primary: Ace Attorney & Dragon Age Dabbling in: Mass Effect, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Suits, Schitt's Creek (see fave characters and ships list here) LINKS. ziskandra on Ao3 ziskandra on Twitter ziskandra on Dreamwidth ziskandra#7191 @ Discord

Dragon Age Fanfic Masterlist [Ace Attorney & Mass Effect Masterlists TBA] ABOUT THIS BLOG.

I'm a fanfic writer and occasional art doodler & cosplayer from Australia. This is a personal blog, which contains everything from my own rambles about daily life, to reblogs of content I enjoy, to my own fandom creations.

I enjoy fannish meta but am generally disinterested in discourse. To clarify, I'm always down to read other people's takes and interpretations of media, but dislike being told what to think, or that there's only one valid way to perceive something. I'm more than happy to be friends with people who disagree with me over fandom things, if the same courtesy is extended to me in return. As a general rule, I don't talk about international politics in this space. I do, however, talk about Australian politics (#auspol) Big fan of curating one's own space. To that end, if there's anything I'm not tagging which you would like tagged, please feel free to ask! Caveat: I might not agree to do so, but would not hold any hard feelings for the request and/or if you needed to unfollow or block me as a result! Do what you need to for your best experience, as will I.

21 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

#2

ngl but rewatching the first season of the handmaid's tale after watching season 5 is so funny. one of the first things serena says to june is 'i want to see as little of you as possible'. followed up with basically 'if i'm given trouble i'll give you trouble back'

and now they're going to be raising their babies in exile together and you know what. good for them.

22 notes - Posted November 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Fanfic Author Self-Recs!

@haljathefangirlcat tagged me to rec five of my own fanfics with you all — thank you, friend! 💖 I've tried to go with a variety of different fandoms and have mostly focused on older works. I also purposely haven't recommended any of my Dragon Age works as I feel DA has been occupying a lot of my brain space lately, and I wanted to give some of the spotlight to my other fannish interests! I'm gonna tag @mxanigel, @barbex, @joiningthefandomeightyearslate, @chocochipbiscuit and @fandomn00blr to share five of their works with us (if you so desire!) Without any further ado, I present my self-recs: 1. Retrospect - Mass Effect: Andromeda - Alec Ryder/Ellen Ryder (10k, rated M)

They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die and he's about to find out just how right they are.

A series of vignettes exploring Alec Ryder's relationships with his nearest and dearest, and the faltering steps he took to bridge the gaps between them.

Every time any sort of self-recommendation meme comes up, Retrospect is always the first fic that comes to mind. To this day, I still consider it my magnum opus, as I feel it really captures my strengths as an author. Character study of a morally grey, controversial character? Check. Non-linear narrative? Check. Experimental prose? Check. Vignettes? Check. Themes of family and struggling to fit in? Check check. If anyone ever wants to make my entire fucking month, please read this fic and tell me your thoughts on it. You will have my undying gratitude! 💖

2. Grounded - Mass Effect Andromeda - Calvin Kosta/Joelle Kosta (2.2k, rated M)

Calvin remembers the first time he held Liam in his arms. Big baby, nine pounds. His son is an ugly, wrinkly thing and yet also the most beautiful sight in the world. He smooths down the infant’s hair, kisses the soft spot on his head and whispers, “You’re gonna do great things." During the Reaper War, Calvin Kosta reflects on his relationship with his son.

This fic did really well on Tumblr (one of the few times I'd ever gotten over 100 notes on a post), but didn't quite get the same level of traction on AO3, which was quite interesting to me at the time as I'd never had that happen before (or since!) Honestly, it covers a lot of similar themes as Retrospect, but this time focused on Liam's family and how they deal with the Reaper War when they're left behind on Earth. IDK, I'm just obsessed with examining the human drive to live and survive, and what we struggle for, and how both our past experiences and our hopes for the future shape our actions, whether we're willing to admit it to ourselves or not.

3. Best Served Hot - Ace Attorney - Miles Edgeworth/Franziska von Karma (2k, rated E)

Franziska's gloved fingers seized Miles's jaw, digging into the sides of his face. "We were never siblings," she said. "Papa made sure of that. But if I can't best you in any other way, then I will have this."

If Retrospect is my ultimate magnum opus, then Best Served Hot is my franmiles manifesto. It truly is all of my feelings about this complicated and messy relationship dynamic carefully distilled into a fanfic! Anyway, I'm obsessed with the fact that Franziska regularly refers to Miles as her little brother, but Miles never refers to her as his sister.

However, the way that Miles acts with Franziska is SO sibling-like, whereas Franziska's a bit... weirder. She never really had normal familial relationships modeled to her (Miles, on the other hand, at least had something of a normal upbringing before his father's death).

Franziska is also a character who, for lack of a better term, weaponises her femininity. She's so young but she's built this whole aesthetic around tight miniskirts and kitten-heeled boots and carrying and using a fucking bullwhip. So, I 'm particularly fascinated by the cross-section of Franziska's obsession with Miles Edgeworth and her insecurities (and how she over-compensates for them).

Of course, if she stopped to think about it for a minute, she should have realised that Miles Edgeworth is perhaps not the ideal target for her feminine wiles, but Franziska's not exactly known for keeping a cool head in a crisis.

Finally, this fic also explores another point in Franziska's life that I'm fascinated by, which is her reaction to Phoenix Wright's disbarment. Phoenix is the only lawyer who has ever bested her (if she can even admit that much), and I think she would be INFURIATED by the insinuation that he owes his career success to forgery. Franziska von Karma would NOT be bested by a fraud! (And also she would be furious that Klavier Gavin got the chance to do what she's always wanted to do -- that is, defeat Phoenix Wright -- but that's a topic for another fanfic.)

4. Intermission - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Audra Levine/Greg Serrano (2.3k, rated T.)

Recently divorced Audra Levine visits West Covina to provide moral support during her frenemy’s open mic night. Greg has always had a type.

While gregaudra (graudra?) might be something of a random ship, I was really surprised by how well they worked together (although in hindsight, it should have been obvious -- Greg really has a type, huh). I love Audra as a character, and I'm always obsessed with giving her room to grow and move on as a character and determine the shape of her own life, the way she wants, much as Rebecca (and Greg) got to do in the course of the series. (Also, its sequel, Realization, still has one of my favourite lines I think I've ever written: Audra's been busy filing away the parts of her life that don’t spark joy while retaining the parts that do, like she’s Marie Kondo-ing the weight and burden of everyone’s expectations instead of her household possessions.

I so rarely write in contemporary fandoms that it was a fun exercise to write stories where the popculture references actually help ground it in time and place.)

5. Sink or Swim - Harry Potter - Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood (12k, rated T.)

Percy has always struggled to keep his head above water.

(Or: the story of Percy Weasley, from his youth, through to his estrangement with his family, to the end of the war.)

It feels weird to be recommending HP fic in this day and age, but my complicated* feelings towards the fandom aside, I'm still really proud of how this fanfic turned out and how I was able to cram all of my Percy Weasley analysis into a coherent story. I particularly loved delving into how Percy was pushed into positions of responsibility from a young age (and then simultaneously derided for the very same qualities his parents reinforced), and how he struggled with his conflicting desires to fit in but also to succeed and be recognised for his talents and efforts. There's a couple of sentences from the fic which really encapsulate how I see Percy's relationship to his family, which I'll quote here:

In bits and pieces, Percy tells Oliver all about the estrangement to his family: how he’d always gotten along with his dad best growing up, no matter how his mother had doted on him. How when he was younger, he’d wanted nothing more than to be the next Arthur Weasley. How he’d always thought that his dad deserved more.

How it was easier to blame his father’s idiosyncrasies and personality for his family’s struggles with money, than to acknowledge it as a failure of the society he’d been raised in.

How he’d foolishly thought that if he studied enough, worked enough, succeeded enough, he could change it all.

Percy's story really is that of every working-class child who's sought to improve their life (and their family's life) through education and I just... relate to that a lot!!

25 notes - Posted November 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mrsblackruby]

Peeps if u do discourse online or engage in any conversation at all you have to recognize you’re part in the conversation.

You can’t have a discussion with only one person then you’re just talking to yourself.

If you want to put ur perspective out there consider other people’s perspectives be ready to engage or disengage. But I think it’s better to accept this fact! some people try and deny the fact people disagree with you online means they might tumble upon a post or choose to engage with you online opinion . Are you able to handle that engagement? It’s okay if you can’t but engagement is just that engagement. You have agency over yourself and you have reach. I personally don’t think you should try to control others. You can Only try to get them to consider you’re perspective and why expect someone to consider your viewpoint If you don’t consider theirs. You can continuously strive to actively antagonize people or you could try and make amends.

You can do whatever the hell you want. That means you can choose violence if you want to

I’m really confused why people don’t expect criticism, pushback, or by chance to just bump into someone who disagrees with them. Other people online have their own hearts and your heart shouldn’t be the only heart people should be expected to follow through on obeying

It must be privilege I always suspect unfavorable consequences can occur when I speak up About my truth on what confuses or brings suffering to me. I may fail but I’m always try to move and make peace with others.

Sometimes the only true way to make peace with someone is by starting/contributing to the manifestation of  conflict But even then peace is never guaranteed? You just Gotta have hope

[tomwambsmilk]

Okay I might delete that long post bc maybe it is a bit harsh and not altogether accurate. Sorry to keep harping on this tonight, I know it’s not actually a huge deal. It’s just that I used to love writing meta and keep a notebook of thoughts to explore for meta and spend 2-3 hours on each meta post drafting and rewriting and tracking down evidence and honing it into something clear that made sense. And it used to be so much fun! And now all I can bring myself to do is maybe dash off an offhand thought in ~15 minutes, and 3/4 of the time I delete those instead of posting bc I get a bad taste in my mouth when I read them. And I don’t think it’s just creative burnout, it’s very specifically annoyance I feel now when I reread my old meta bc it reads to me as tryhard bs. I just keep reading it like wow I sure sound pretentious (derogatory). I sure sound like I think I’m sooo smart. And my mind immediately goes to all the meta I’ve seen cropping up in the last few months that feels half-baked to me, and I think ‘oh, is THAT what I sound like to other people?’ And yeah, you know what? Maybe that is also a me problem actually. Maybe it’s not fair to put that on other people.

And honestly it’s probably not any one thing but a combination of all the things, y’know? I think I’ve just become exhausted by the fandom in general. I feel like there’s been some kind of culture shift and it’s not any one thing I can pin down. And that’s not necessarily anyone’s fault, it just is what it is. I don’t know how to summarize it other than - it just feels like Too Much. It used to feel like a community and now it feels like Discourse. I don’t put things in the general succession or character tags anymore bc I don’t want to attract the attention (or ire) of people who don’t Get It, for lack of a better term. By which I mean there are so many people with fundamentally different readings of the show, which is fine, but I also think at a certain point your readings are too different to engage, and I hate getting sucked into debates with people where it becomes clear we’re watching 2 different shows. All of that is probably normal for a medium-size fandom, which is not what I’m used to. I just feel like the fandom is not as fun for me as it used to be and that’s why I haven’t really been motivated to contribute much creatively, or even really to engage with what other people are putting out, even the stuff that IS really good. I’m torn between hoping that season 4 will make things fun again and terrified the Discourse will make things even worse. I’m not even sure what I’m saying with this really, beyond like…. Maybe I need to step back a bit? But it sucks bc I still love the show and I do still want to engage with it creatively, so it just feels a bit like a no-win situation

[redheadbigshoes]

Omg I am so sick and tired, I just came across two videos last night supporting “bi/mspec lesbians” and all the comments were about supporting them and how they don’t have the right to tell people how to identify, and although there were some people saying that the label is lesbophobic people were justifying it nonetheless. Some of them were saying that it’s okay because multigender/genderfluid people can be lesbians(which doesn’t mean that lesbians are attracted to men???) and some were even worse in saying that trans men can be lesbians or that lesbians can date trans men. 😭 And they really showed their transmisogynistic colors too by saying that trans women who are still closeted but call themselves lesbians are proof that “men can be lesbians”. One of those videos even said that “I’m sorry that monosexual lesbians think they can exclude mspec lesbians” lol I’m sorry that lesbians think they can exclude bi women who are attracted to men from the community because lesbians do not fucking like men. And the worst part was them saying that WE are chronically online hahaha that made me laugh. “This discourse only exists online” yeah because in real life this shit doesn’t exist lesbian and bi are two separate terms. One of them even said that you can be a bi lesbian even if you only dare men, you really think lesbians deep down like men and are basically giving men the ego trip to harass and rape us Ugh. Oh but I forgot it’s “not their fault” that’s just how they identify!!! 😵‍💫 istg i literally had a dream last night that someone on Tumblr was telling me that I was being an exclusionist who needed to accept that lesbianism includes men I was gonna wake up from my sleep to fight this mf before realizing it was just a dream…I need sleep. I’m so tired of lesbians not being respected. 😢 We don’t like fucking men, what the hell is so wrong with that?

Sometimes it’s better for our mental health to just ignore those videos, I don’t think it’s worth to try to change people’s opinions sometimes.

These people seem to lack the capacity to understand that multigender/genderfluid people are not binary men… So obviously they’re included in lesbianism.

The same people who say trans men can be lesbians and that lesbians can be attracted to them are the ones calling us terfs lol very hypocritical.

I really do think people need to reflect on that mindset and actions because the way they’re obsessed to push men into the lesbian label is very sick and worrying. The way they’re obsessed about our lack of attraction to men isn’t healthy at all. A lot of things to unpack there.

They’re absolutely right about this discourse being chronically online, they just haven’t noticed it’s chronically online because of them lol no one that has a real life and goes outside actually uses that label.

What worries me so much is how they don’t notice and they don’t care how that mindset hurts real lesbians. We’re sexually assaulted and even killed for not being attracted to men and their opinion can contribute to that. And they have the nerve to call themselves feminists… They’re only feminists for cis women who are attracted to men.

Being “exclusionist” is something that really bothers me by that word. I often see people using that on their DNI lists but I never know what they’re talking about, because some of them include being against mspec “lesbians” as being exclusionist.

[biosblades]

No bc that’s the thing, accusations of pedophilia have already been so obviously weaponized by conservatives to attack trans and queer people for just existing. And these people are going to act like labeling something that grosses you out as equal to actual irl csa isn’t actively contributing to that effort.

Newsflash!! Conservatives think lgbt people are gross, morally depraved, perverted, all those same things you feel about whatever group you’ve decided is not okay. They’re using this label that everyone agrees is bad to get everyone else to agree with them.

Falsely accusing innocent people of csa because they like game of thrones or young looking anime characters or any other media is that exact same moral panic that “just seeing that yucky stuff will corrupt your mind” And it’s enabling the concept of pedophilia to become an even more widespread dog whistle.

It’s watering down the severity of ACTUAL csa because now pedo has come to mean anyone you don’t like and it’s allowing that label to be weaponized in order to socially shun and slander vulnerable populations

Be for real, you don’t care about child victims any more than conservative purists do, you just want to be able to morally justify harassing people for posting art or writing that you don’t like. Get over it, you’re the one doing real world harm

Don’t like, don’t fucking read, but don’t you dare go throwing out serious accusations to feel better about yourself over literal shipping discourse and then justify it w/ legality as drag is being actively criminalized on those same grounds of “it’ll allow these nasty degenerates to groom your kids (because why are they into dressing/acting like that if not to trick people into trusting them so they can take advantage of a “safe space made for abusers” -actual thing someone said about online pro ship communities) and just seeing people not being publicly crucified for drag/queerness/whatever I’m squicked out by will turn the children into perverts because they might think it’s okay”

I'm starting to find evidence on twitter of antis encouraging each other to shun friends and family for not being one of them and I am deeply concerned. This is some cult shit.

"should I shun my friend for being proship even though they're my only irl friend?"

"Should I shun my mother for being proship?"

The answer to both of these is GET HELP. You are being brainwashed into thinking that your friends and family are dangerous when you know that they wouldn't hurt anyone. See a therapist, take some time off the internet, reevaluate your situation. Fiction does not take precedence over your loved ones.

I'm tagging this with "antis please interact" because I think they need to see this too, and hopefully it helps someone. Your loved ones are not dangerous because of their taste in fiction.

[dddemigirl]

👄 VENT-ERAN TAG 👄

a tag meme about your time on the Vent app made by PIKO !!

════════════════

✹ Did anyone tag you?

➥ Nah

✹ What's your current Vent UN?

➥ 10thtimelord. I’m quite proud of it.

✹ Do you change your username often? Do you alternate between a few?

➥ No

✹ Do you trade usernames?

➥ No

✹ Do you have any dreamies? Why do you want them?

➥ I really wanted TwilightSparkle for a while.

✹ What was your username when you first joined Vent?

➥ Honestly I’m not sure. It may have been WolfandDragon.

✹ When did you join?

➥ @/L3SBIAN was my original account. As it says there I joined nine years ago. Damn.

✹ Why did you decide to join? How did you learn about Vent?

➥ I don’t remember exactly how but it was likely through Tumblr.

✹ Do you identify as kin? How serious is it?

➥ Yep. Used to have a kin related tumblr blog n everything. It’s never been a huge part of my life but when I consume media related to my kins I get the brainrot again.

✹ Did you identify as kin before joining Vent? Did you know about kin before Vent?

➥ Yes, I learned about it through the hellsite Tumblr of course.

✹ Did you ever buy usernames, back when we could do that?

➥ No

✹ Did you hoard usernames before it was banned?

➥ No. The only username that I’ve kept that I don’t use is @/CHVRCHES because they’re my favorite band. 🩵

✹ Do you have a Vent subscription?

➥ Nah, I’m poor

✹ What is your favourite permanent emotion set? Favourite limited set?

➥ It’s very hard to choose! I really like Werewolf, Solar Eclipse, Sci-Fi, Punk Day, Pride, LGBT+ Pride, Emo Day, Earth Day, Disability Awareness, Digital…

✹ Do you actually choose emotions based on how you feel, or do you choose defaults for an aesthetic?

➥ Both

✹ How important is aesthetic to you on this app? How much time do you spend to choose a nice aesthetic, if you make a conscious effort to do so?

➥ I like when things look nice but sometimes I don’t really put much thought into it.

✹ Were you ever mutuals with "infamous" users? Any stories to tell about mutuals, in general?

➥ Probably but I’ve been on the app for 9 years so I can’t remember who they were.

✹ Have you ever been suspended? Deleted? Banned? Why?

➥ Not that I’m aware.

✹ If you had to guess, how much real money would you say you've put into the mouth app?

➥ I bought some rubber bracelets to support Vent in 2016 or 17. I never received them. I don’t remember how much that they cost.

✹ Have you contributed to Vent culture at all (made tag memes, emotions/emotion sets, caused rule changes, run big groups, etc)?

➥ I think that I made some tag memes but that was it.

✹ Any pet peeves relating to the userbase?

➥ Yeah but it’s not anything different from the rest of the internet that bugs me as well.

✹ Is Vent your primary social media? How often do you post?

➥ No. I don’t use it as often as I used to.

✹ What do you think about Vent staff?

➥ They’re okay.

✹ Has Vent taught you anything, about others, yourself, or the world? What was it?

➥ I knew this before Vent but Vent really cemented this for me; that people will assume the worst about you all of the time. Especially when they’re reacting to something in a knee-jerk way instead of taking time to think before they type.

════════════════

How many of these milestones, dramas, and elements of Vent Culture™ are familiar to you? Place an emoji after each you recognise. Feel free to tell stories! Not in chronological order.

Drew: 🍉

[WTF]:

Jeremy:

Sarahah: 🍉

Thiscrush: 🍉

Crytyping:

"BREADY":

Mark Smith:

Vent merch: 🍉 (see above)

Vent Angels: 🍉

"DEPRESSED":

Sans ketchup:

Johari window:

No dropdowns:

Most Discussed:

"Don't read" posts:

Buying emotion sets: 🍉

The big server move:

"Creative" set created:

Joker kinnie knife attack:

"SALTY" racism discourse:

"Never [SAME] my posts":

No Mutual Listeners setting:

"DNLI double of mutuals' kins":

All emotions had the same ints:

"Privileges & disprivileges" in bio:

Hashtags disabled (again & again): 🍉

A (consistently) working search function: 🍉

"Are you that kid on tumblr with the c*llouts":

"We can't make white emotions!":

"CRISPY" antisemitism discourse:

Removed from the Appstore:

Emotion Suggestions group: 🍉

"SLUSHY" JD discourse:

Rebecca Sugar factkin: 🍉

St*ff Appr*ciation Set: 🍉

Muted words feature: 🍉

Vent Subscriptions: 🍉

Dean's Bald Head:

Nightmode, finally: 🍉

UN hoarding ban: 🍉

App icon change:

Hot Takes Group: 🍉

Therapy Chatbot:

The Grey Area: 🍉

Ventstruggle: 🍉

Colored text: 🍉

V*ntidrama:

"Get to 10":

"Get to 13":

Buying UNs: 🍉

Scottcourse: 🍉

Nyacourse:

Curiouscat: 🍉

#saveVent:

Groups: 🍉

════════════════

✹ Why do you stay on this Hell App?

➥ Old habits die hard

✹ What is the best thing about Vent?

➥ My autism likes the colorful & cute emotion sets. I like pressing the buttons. It’s satisfying.

✹ What is the worst thing?

➥ Cyberbullying, death threats, bigotry, h*rny men

✹ Anyone you wanna tag?

➥ Anyone who’d like to do this

════════════════

thank you for doing my meme! g'dspeed, soldier.