#or just one that i copy/paste into multiple fandoms

[raspberrysmoon]

waiy what if i make a self insert oc or something..... what then

[harmonydiaries]

“but i guess people are fine with it because it’s easier to ignore a character who has been insensitive from the beginning than it is to accept that a kind and easygoing character can have some flaws and aren’t always perfect.” <— CLOCK ITT

oh also, i see a lot of patton hate because "he's mean to logan" when i never saw this kind of sentiment when logan (and roman) was being dismissive of patton and even outright insulting him in s1 and even in recent episodes.

now i love and relate to logan as much as anyone else, but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend like he was perfect from the beginning. he has apologized or tried to make an effort to make it up to patton a couple times, but he still ends up insulting patton and not taking him seriously. so there’s not much progress there but i guess people are fine with it because it’s easier to ignore a character who has been insensitive from the beginning than it is to accept that a kind and easygoing character can have some flaws and aren’t always perfect.

if you’re going to judge patton for talking over logan or revealing his name without his consent (which btw logan didn’t even seem to care about, he never seemed to give that much importance to his name, since he is logic either way) you’re gonna have to judge the other sides whenever they’re being mean as well. criticizing or disliking a character is fine, i’m not gonna tell you how to feel about a character. but it’s the double standards that really pisses me off.

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

Fanfic Thieves on Youtube

A collection of youtube channels have been uploading preexisting fanfictions in videos with little to no credit to the original authors. These are not podfics, these channels copy-paste the fics into text-to-speech readers then upload the unaltered audio over static or unrelated backgrounds, either art that is also stolen or mobile game footage. In addition to not naming the authors, they alter the title to make it that much harder for readers to recognize or find the original uploads. Some go so far as to pretend they themselves are creating the fics in question. Many claim that their stealing actually helps give fics "exposure" despite the intentional steps they take to conceal the origins of the fics they profit off of. However, this practice has lead many authors to discontinue fics after the frustration of having their hard work stolen. Many of these channels claim they will remove videos upon request, but will either argue with the author in order to keep it up, or simply unlist the video for a time until they think the author isn't paying attention anymore. And their solution to receiving strikes against their channels in the past has been to further obfuscate the origins of their content instead of even considering asking first.

”I got caught stealing, so instead of not stealing anymore, I’m doubling down on stealing even more so it’s harder for people to find out and prove I’m stealing. Stealing doesn't count if the specific person I stole from didn't call me out. I am the real victim.”

That, plus the incessant tag scumming in all the videos (spamming unrelated tags in order to appear in more search results) proves to me that these are lazy attention seekers who don't want to put in creative effort when they could just leech off of the passion of others.

In order to report them, go to their channel's "About" page and click the flag icon. Said icon might be behind the three dots in the top bar on mobile. Go to "Report User" at the bottom and tick the "spam and scams" button. This will allow you to list multiple videos as offenders instead of reporting them individually. Youtube's policy states that video spam constitutes:

Massively uploading content that you scraped from other creators.

Auto-generated content that computers post without regard for quality or viewer experience.

If you recognize one of your fics among the stolen, say so in the additional comments box, and perhaps call out the channel directly in the video's comments. If you recognize someone else's fic, please let the original author know so they can report the channel as well. Many have been confronted for stealing previously and refuse to admit wrongdoing.

Most of what I've found has been My Hero Academia fics since that's my fandom and those are the ones I can recognize as stolen, but there are many other channels that steal from other fandoms, so I invite anyone and everyone to reblog this with their own findings.

The reality is that this extremely low-effort content and new youtube channels are both very easy to make, so most likely they'll start new channels once the ones on this list are run through. But hopefully, if we all work together and keep whacking these moles, perhaps we can instill that same defeatism they caused so many creators who didn't deserve it, and eventually they'll give up.

My sincerest thanks to everyone who helped bring additional channels to my attention. A special thanks to ao3 user InArduisFidelis who brought the initial attention to the issue, and @owlf45 whose work was stolen.

Links under the cut.

YurikoFanfics - Not only stole content, but acted in comments as though they were the one writing these stories.

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@YurikoFanfics

What-IF-Anime - Has the exact same "disclaimer" about not being the original author as the one above. Either they're the same person or the thieves are stealing from each other.

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@What-IF-Anime

quirkywhatif7 - Either an alt of the above, or all these people are talking to one another because this one made a community post identical to a comment the one above made in response to being called out (the above screenshots).

https://www.youtube.com/@quirkywhatif7/about

DekuFanfic - It's the same fucking guy again.

https://www.youtube.com/@DekuFanfic/about

InfiniteParadoxfanfics - Nothing notable, same deal as the others.

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@InfiniteParadoxfanfics/about

WhatIfAnimeChannel - Admits in their community posts that other people write the fics they post but still doesn't give credit. Migrated to a new channel after issues with youtube, likely being flagged previously.

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@WhatIfAnimeChannel/about

WhatIfAnimeAll - Alt of above.

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@WhatIfAnimeAll

FWNWorld - Makes sure to tell you that the videogame footage is theirs, but can't bother to credit anyone else.

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@FWNWorld/about

WTFW - Claims to have "[A] team of talented writers, voice actors, and artists work together to create immersive fan fiction stories that are sure to captivate your imagination." Just the same test-to-speech stolen content over videogames. So straight up lying claiming that everything is theirs (and that anything they make is quality).

https://href.li/?https://www.youtube.com/@WTFW

MHA2.0Fanfics - Lots of crossover theft.

https://www.youtube.com/@MHA2.0Fanfics/about

Collerwhatiif - Pretty sure this one is the same guy as the previous 2, also has one for another fandom.

https://www.youtube.com/@Collerwhatiif/about

https://www.youtube.com/@GoJoFanfiction/videos

ko_sensei - Another that claims to have a "team" that makes the stories they steal: " passionate about creating compelling and engaging fanfiction that explores the various "what ifs" in the anime universe."

https://www.youtube.com/@ko_sensei/about

FantasticWhatIf - Multifandom stealing, uses the exact same bs disclaimer as many others.

https://www.youtube.com/@FantasticWhatIf/about

LettuceHeadFanfics - No credit, no acknowledgement of anything. Next one is an alt.

https://www.youtube.com/@LettuceHeadFanfics/about

brocollifanfics - Alt of above, once again admits to stealing with a declaration of "☆If you want to takedown any videos. You can mail us or leave a comment below the video☆"

https://www.youtube.com/@brocollifanfics/about

whatifofficial786 - Focuses on MHA/Naruto crossovers. Identical format.

https://www.youtube.com/@whatifofficial786/about

NotWhatIf - I've lost track of who's an alt of who but yet another identical format, descriptions, and bullshit claims of "enhancing the viewer experience" by putting a robot voice over bootleg fortnite footage.

https://www.youtube.com/@NotWhatIf/about

weebxds - Same again.

https://www.youtube.com/@weebxds/about

ItachiFanfics - Naruto channel, we can at least confirm that this one is run by a human given the rare different descriptions and a real voice at the beginning of videos before the robot comes back.

https://www.youtube.com/@ItachiFanfics/about

WhatIfDN - As if mockingly, a bunch of videos have a "credit" section in their descriptions that is of course blank.

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatIfDN/about

SpiceandBooks and spiceandfiction - Apparently Youtube itself has started picking up on the bullshit, because this multifandom channel is being dinged as ai spam so they started a new one.

https://www.youtube.com/@SpiceandBooks/about

https://www.youtube.com/@spiceandfiction/about

theoriginalastra - Doesn't even bother with disclaimers, the following are multiple alts/potential alts for different fandoms.

https://www.youtube.com/@theoriginalastra/about

SillySenpai12 - Highschool DXD alt.

https://www.youtube.com/@SillySenpai12/about

RosieRealms - Naruto alt.

https://www.youtube.com/@RosieRealms/about

DekuWhatIfs - Potentially another astra alt but not sure, doesn't matter because all these channels do the same thing anyway.

AnimeStark688 - No credits or disclaimers.

https://www.youtube.com/@AnimeStark688/about

Please take the time to report these channels, spread this post around, and reblog with any additional offending channels you find.

[rivkae-winters]

Edit: the app launched and Is down- I have the initial apology video in a post here and I’m working on getting a full archive of their TikTok up ASAP. I’m letting the rest of this post remain since I do still stand by most of it and also don’t like altering things already in circulation.

Warning for criticism and what I’d consider some harsh to outright mean words:

So I’ve just been made aware of the project known of as ‘lore.fm’ and I’m not a fan for multiple reasons. For one this ‘accessibility’ tool complicates the process of essentially just using a screen reader (something native to all I phones specifically because this is a proposed IOS app) in utterly needless and inaccessible ways. From what I have been seeing on Reddit they have been shielding themselves (or fans of the project have been defending them) with this claim of being an accessibility tool as well to which is infuriating for so many reasons.

I plan to make a longer post explaining why this is a terrible idea later but I’ll keep it short for tonight with my main three criticisms and a few extras:

1. Your service requires people to copy a url for a fic then open your app then paste it into your app and click a button then wait for your audio to be prepared to use. This is needlessly complicating a process that exists on IOS already and can be done IN BROWSER using an overlay that you can fully control the placement of.

2. This is potentially killing your own fandom if it catches on with the proposed target market of xreader smut enjoyers because of only needing the link as mentioned above. You don’t have to open a fic to get a link this the author may potentially not even get any hits much less any other feedback. At least when you download a pdf you leave a hit: the download button is on the page with the fic for a reason. Fandom is a self sustaining eco system and many authors get discouraged and post less/even stop writing all together if they get low interaction.

3. Maybe we shouldn’t put something marketed as turning smut fanfic into audio books on the IOS App Store right now. Maybe with KOSA that’s a bad idea? Just maybe? Sarcasm aside we could see fan fiction be under even more legal threat if minors use this to listen to the content we know they all consume via sites like ao3 (even if we ask them not to) and are caught with it. Auditory content has historically been considered much more obscene/inappropriate than written content: this is a recipe for a disaster and more internet regulations we are trying to avoid.

I also have many issues with the fact that this is obviously redistributing fanfiction (thus violating the copyright we hold over our words and our plots) and removing control the author should have over their content and digital footprint. Then there is the fact that even though the creator on TikTok SAYS you can email to have your fic ‘excluded’ based on the way the demo works (pasting a link) I’m gonna assume that’s just to cover her ass/is utter bullshit. I know that’s harsh but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s probably a duck.

I am all for women in stem- I’ve BEEN a woman in Stem- but this is not a cool girl boss moment. This is someone naive enough to think this will go over well at best or many other things (security risks especially) at worst.

In conclusion for tonight: I hope this person is a troll but there is enough hype and enough paid for web domains that I don’t think that’s the case. There are a litany of reasons every fanfic reader and writer should be against something like this existing and I’ll outline them all in several other posts later.

Do not email their opt out email address there is no saying what is actually happening with that data and it is simply not worth the risks it could bring up. I hate treating seemingly well meaning people like potential cyber criminals but I’ve seen enough shit by now that it’s better to be safe than sorry. You’re much safer just locking all your fics to account only. I haven’t yet but I may in the future if that is the only option.

If anyone wants a screen reader tutorial and a walk through of my free favorites as well as the native IOS screen reader I can post that later as well. Sorry for the heavy content I know it’s not my normal fare.

[fairy-writes]

Hi! I saw that your requests are open, would you be down to write any Edward Elric fluff? I just love him and I really like your writing <33

DENIAL

Reblogs and Comments are greatly appreciated!!

__________________________________________________________________________

Fandom(s): Fullmetal Alchemist

Pairing(s): Edward Elric x Reader

Word Count: 2k

Genre(s)/Tag(s): FLUFF, Female!Reader, Alchemist!Reader, mildly sexist behavior from Ed in the beginning (but he gets better)

Notes: This was going to be a songfic but instead is based on the song “Despair” by leo. But now it’s not. Mostly because I couldn’t find a website to copy and paste the lyrics from.

__________________________________________________________________________

Edward met you when he was twelve years old. You looked around his age and, sadly, was a few inches taller than him. You were both in Central Command and waiting for the State Alchemist Exam to start among all the other candidates. You were sat on a chair in the corner, pouring over a small pocket notebook with scribbles and writing that looked worse than his own chicken scratch. 

Of course, he only knew this because he happened to be doing the same thing.

Not because he thought you were pretty. No no. That would be preposterous!

He wished Alphonse could be there. But after they found out there was a physical evaluation, he dropped out and left the prospect of being a State Alchemist up to Edward.

The exam proctor for the written portion of the exam came out and called everyone inside the exam room. You stood, pocketed your notebook, and went inside. Your eyes caught his, and you offered a friendly smile. Edward just scowled back.

He wasn’t here to make friends. 

However, you didn’t let that annoy you, and you took your seat where you were assigned. Coincidentally, it was right in front of Edward. It was obvious that you were both the youngest two at the exam. Everyone else was middle-aged or, at the very least, in their twenties at best.

The exam proctor clapped his hands together, 

“You have two hours. Good luck!” 

Edward flew through the exam. It was reasonably straightforward, with only a few questions mildly stumping him. Most of the questions were multiple-choice, with a handful of essay questions. 

Ha. This written exam was all bullshit if the military thought this would stop him. 

Soon enough, he finished the last question in his best handwriting and turned it in to the proctor at the front of the room. He was the first one done at approximately an hour and eleven minutes. He could feel the glares as he exited the exam hall and found you sitting on a bench, pouring over your notes yet again. 

“You!” He jabbed an accusatory finger. How were you here? He didn’t see you leave! And you had been sitting right in front of him! You look up, startled like a deer in the headlights, but soon, your face smooths to that irritating friendly smile. 

“It’s you again! How did you do on the exam?” You say conversationally, and his brain stalls. 

Something about your voice makes his heart stutter. 

“Uh… what?” Edward fumbles, and you shut your book and slip it into the back pocket of your overalls, stretching your arms above your head. 

“Man, I thought it was hard! Those field questions were tricky!” You forge onward with your rather one-sided conversation, adjusting your shirt under your overalls. You wore dirty overalls, a dirty black long-sleeved shirt, and dirty rubber-soled sneakers. The left one was untied. Overall, you looked… not… very well put together. He was pretty sure you had mud smeared above your eyebrow. Hell, even Edward wore his best clothes, a button-down and some slacks, at Granny’s insistence. 

“The test was easy.” Edward eventually says, and you huff playfully,

“‘Course it was for you. But I still finished first, didn't I?” You tease, and he feels his cheeks flush.

“This isn’t a competition!” At that, you stare with your eyebrows raised,

“Not everyone becomes a State Alchemist, y’know. So it kind of is a competition.” You say, and he throws his hands up and storms away. He didn’t have time for you. He had to go back to his hotel room and prepare for the practical phase.

Edward met you next in Colonel Roy Mustang’s office.

He had just received his certification as the Fullmetal Alchemist when there was a knock on the door. Alphonse turned, his armor clanking slightly as he moved to open the door.

“Come in,” Mustang called, a grin on his face that Edward did not like. “It seems like your partner is here, Fullmetal,” he said as the door opened, and you peeked your head in.

“You!” He jumps up and points yet again. You cringe but recognize him easily enough and jab a finger at him.

“You made it through the exam!” You shriek, and he flinches himself at your volume.

Mustang quirks an eyebrow,

“You already seem acquainted.” He comments almost dumbly, and Edward grits his teeth.

“She finished the exam before me.” He grinds out, and Mustang’s eyebrow raises even higher. He leans his chin on his clasped hands.

“So this is the one who got a perfect score. You don’t look like much,” He muses, and Edward bites back a snippy retort. The fact that he hadn’t gotten a perfect score was a touchy subject. After all, he had missed one question—one!

You give a mock bow and straighten,

“Well, you don’t look like much yourself, sir.” You quip, and Alphonse stifles a laugh. Mustang sighs and mutters under his breath something that sounds suspiciously like, “Great, now there’s two of you.”  He then claps his hands together softly and looks at both of you, gesturing for you to take a seat.

“Now, Fullmetal, I’d like to introduce you to your new partner. This is the Ink Alchemist. Ink, this is the Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric.” He said, and immediately, Edward spotted a problem.

“Partner? No way! I’m not working with some girl!” He snaps and sees you roll your eyes out of the corner of his vision.

“So you’re one of those people?” You sneer, and he bares his teeth.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Before you two can start bickering, Mustang interjects.

“It’s under orders of the Führer himself that you two work together. So I suggest you both put aside your differences and get along.” He says, and you almost snap to attention like a dog looking at its master. Which Edward supposed, in a way, you were. 

Just like he was. 

Dogs of the military.

“So… what kind of alchemy do you do?” Alphonse said awkwardly as you and Edward scowled at each other. You three are on a train, heading toward Resembool to give Granny and Winry the fantastic news of Edward becoming a State Alchemist. But, of course, you had to tag along to “as his partner.” 

Edward was partially tempted to ditch you at a random train station. 

But he had tried that already, and it hadn’t worked. 

You perked up at the question and reached for your long sleeves. Your shirt was at least clean this time.

“Oh wow! That’s beautiful!” Alphonse gasped, and you grinned. 

Even Edward has to admit your transmutation circles are indeed beautiful. 

Extra lines swirl out from the circles themselves, decorating your arms like vines of flowers. He even spies a few doodled flowers in the bare spaces between circles. They dot your arm in varying sizes and intricacy, with the largest being the size of your palm and the smallest being almost the size of Edward’s thumb. Even the tiny ones had an insane amount of detail.

You preen under the attention but soon work your sleeves back down your arms and sit back in your seat next to Edward. 

“I designed ‘em myself! That’s where I got the name the Ink Alchemist!” you say, and when Alphonse asks more questions, you are happy to launch into a lecture worthy of his old school teacher. 

Edward has to admit… you looked really pretty when you were excitedly talking about alchemy with his younger brother. 

Admittedly, Edward’s little “crush” (though he refused to say it was one) grew bigger and bigger each day. Days turned into weeks, turned into months, turned into years. And that meant it grew harder and harder to hide from your keen eyes. You were brilliant—one of the smarter alchemists he knew—and pretty. Even though you were taller than him, he could look past that. 

Alphonse picked up on it, Winry picked up on it, and even Colonel Mustang picked up on it! And truthfully? Mustang was the absolute worst about it. He always watched you and Edward interact with a smug smile as if this was all his doing. 

And Edward had the inkling that it was that you two were paired together. Because why would the Führer pair two prepubescent teens together?

But as the two of you hit eighteen and Edward finally grew past you in height, things changed. 

It was the week before you confronted Father and his plans. 

Edward meandered away from the dying campfire and found you under the stars in a meadow. Darius, Heinkel, and Greed were all presumably fast asleep in their sleeping bags, and it was his turn to keep watch. 

They were in the middle of nowhere. Edward could spare a few minutes from night watch to talk to you.

“Couldn’t sleep?” He asks, and you jump, nearly spilling your pot of ink that was balanced precariously on your knee. You hold a paintbrush in hand and are retracing the many transmutation circles that litter your arms. 

He could never get over how pretty they were. 

“Not really. I wanted to get these redone before… y’know… everything.” You say, and he takes a seat next to you, his automail leg creaking as he does so. He hadn’t maintained it in forever, it was stiffening up. 

“We still have a whole week before the eclipse.” He reminds you, and you look up at the stars, tracing the constellations with your eyes. 

“I know, but I can’t sit here and do nothing.” You reply, and he hums, thinking back to when he first met you. 

“I’m sorry.” He blurts into the night sky and sees you frown and look at him out of the corner of his eye. 

“For what?” You ask, and he shrugs, feeling his cheeks heat up. It wasn’t like him to be so sentimental! What was wrong with him?!

He only got like this when you were around. 

“For how I acted when we first met… Ditching you at the station… refusing to work with you… And—”

“Woah, woah, woah, where’s this coming from?! We aren’t going to die next week, are we?!” You cut him off, panicked, and nearly spilled your ink again. He caught it with his left hand right as you grabbed it, and your fingers brushed. 

“I don’t plan on it… But all these years have had me thinking how awful I was to you. And for no reason other than my pride.” The words come tumbling out, and he gets more and more heated until you kneel in front of him and cup his face. 

That gets him to shut up real quick.

“You were twelve, Ed.” You say gently and he huffs, opening his mouth to speak some more when you put a finger to his lips. Your skin is soft against his mouth, and he can smell the ink staining your fingertips. 

You continue to talk unabashed,

“You were twelve, and I forgave you a long time ago. I care for you a lot. We’ve been working together for what, six years? I know I didn’t make it easy to work with me either.” You finish, and he sighs, ducking his head in embarrassment. Then, before he can stop himself, he pulls you into a tight hug. You return it immediately.

“I have something to tell you after all this is over.” He mumbles and hears you chuckle. His heart, as it always does, skips a beat at the sound. 

Maybe when they defeat Father, he can tell you how he really feels.

Instead of living in denial. 

[thebibliosphere]

I saw your post about ingram, and out of curiosity, is there some advantage to going through the whole self-publishing thing with retailers when you're just starting out? like I mean the way that fandom zines work is that they don't even bother going through ingram or amazon or whatever. they just set up a social media site (usually twitter) to gain followers, open preorders (usually 1-2 months in length) to generate the costs of printing upfront, and then sell anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred copies of their books (usually artbooks, but anthologies exist too). I've seen some zines generate over a thousand orders. they're kind of like pop-up shops, except for books. maybe the sales numbers aren't so impressive to a real author, but the profit generated is typically waaaay more than the $75+ apparently needed for Ingram Spark, so I still feel like new authors could benefit from this method too, especially if they just need some start-up cash to eventually move to ingram if they want to for subsequent runs of their book. I think authors would also have to set aside some of the pre-order money to buy an ISBN number to have printed on their book, and I'm not really sure what other differences there are, but I just wanted to ask about it in case there's some huge disadvantage I'm missing!

So, popup zines work well for some people, and I know some authors who kickstart their work successfully. But for a lot, it's just not feasible as a long-term stratedy. Or even as a means to get off the ground.

Fanzines succeed primarily because an existing fanbase is willing and ready to throw money at something they love. They’ve got a favorite writer or artist they want to support. Supporting all the others is just a happy by-product. They also take a HUGE amount of short-term but intense planning that just doesn’t always jive with how some of us work.

I, for one, would never offer to organize a fanzine. I’ll take part in them as a creator, but I’d rather throw myself off a cliff than subject myself to wrangling that many people and dealing with the legal logistics.

When it comes to authors doing anthologies, it'svery much the same. The success of the funding often hinges on having other big-name authors involved whose existing fans will prop up the project. Or having a huge marketing budget.

Most self-pub authors have zero marketing budget. I’m one of them, and I’m under no illusions that my work would not be as popular and self-sustaining as it is if I didn’t have a large Tumblr blog.

When I thank Tumblr in my forewards, I am utterly sincere. Tumblr brought fandom levels of enthusiasm to an unknown work and broke the Amazon algorithm so hard, that Amazon thought I was bot sniping my way to multiple #1 spots and froze my sales rankings.

That’s not the norm. And while I could probably kickstart my own work as an indie creator, that’s because I’ve put literal decades into building up a readership. I’ve been doing this since I was 16 and realized people thought I was funny. I didn’t know what to do with it or if I’d ever actually write anything, but it meant the groundwork was already there (thank you, past-me). I basically fell upward into my success by virtue of never being able to shut the fuck up and wanting to make people laugh. Clown instincts too strong.

New or first-time authors trying to sell their work without that will find it infinitely harder.

All of that aside, even if an unknown author somehow gets lucky and manages to fund their work, there’s still the question of shipping and distribution logistics. Are you shipping everything yourself? Better hope you’re able-bodied and have the time for it. (for reference, it took me months to ship out 300 patreon hardbacks because of my disabilites. It damaged my back and hands. I couldn’t type for several weeks after I was done.)

Are you going to sell primarily at conventions? Better hope you’re able-bodied, have the time and don’t have cripling anxiety about being in large groups...

Also, will selling a dozen to a few thousand copies in one burst be sustainable in the long run as a career? Not for me. Doing things via Ingram and Amazon means I earn a steady trickle of sales for the rest of my life provided the platforms remain and so long as I keep working and can generate interest in the series, not just when I have funds to pay for physical copies to sell. The one-time (in theory) cost of $75 to distribute through Ingram gets paid off pretty quick that way. And it doesn't require the same logistics as doing the popup/crowdfund.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you are capable of but also the type of work you’re doing. If you’ve got an extended network of fellow creatives who will back you or you’ve got a large following elsewhere, doing it like a popup might work for you.

If you’re an exhausted burnout who can’t fathom the short but intense amount of organization that sort of thing requires, not to mention doing it over and over and over... Ehhhhh. No thank you.

[hypnoneghoul]

'Tis time...my 'tism decided to challenge me and stand me up against the ultimate musical 'tism. Tobias Forge's

Influences in the music of the band Ghost (tributes, nods & inspirations)

Some of them are a very straightforward copy-paste action, some of them are smaller nods towards other artists and some of them are only influences, or even something I personally hear, but not everybody might. They are in order from most obvious to might-be-my-delusion. I didn't include covers because. Kinda obvious.

It is possible that some of these are simply samples, I didn’t look into that, but if I’m being completely honest, I don't think Tobias is a sample guy. Also, there’s couple examples from Impera alone, mostly because he spoke about his inspirations for it a fair amount, which makes it easier to trace, so to say.

This one goes first, because it's literally the same thing! Just reversed. I feel like that's common knowledge in the fandom, but I couldn't skip it. If you didn't know and Deus Culpa always hurts your ears (same), this is why!

(These two are in one file because Tumblr has an audio limit and I had to merge something) Tobias frequently speaks of his love for Metallica's music, as well as its members, so it's honestly no surprise hfhfh. He fangirls hard, and it even got him to open for them as we all know, so that's super cool!

I haven't seen/heard him talking about Opeth that much, but he is and/or used to be close with multiple members so again--no surprise at all.

This one is super interesting, because it's not only similar soud wise.

“[...] we recorded this album [IMPERA] in Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, [...] where ABBA recorded most of their hits. [...] it’s the exact same outboard gear, mixing console, microphones, marimba and piano we had around us. You’d play the piano and it would sound exactly the same as it did on Money, Money, Money.” --Tobias Forge for Guitar World

Not much to say about this one other than hell yeah, Michael Jackson.

This one also has a play on Europe's, which I find super cool! Swedish rock unites. From what I remember Tobias has also mentioned something about Whitesnake being an important influence.

(This one is empty for the first 10 seconds to go around the copyright scan) This is a cute little nod towards Pink Floyd that has Tobias put into live shows, and it's been a thing since 2015.

Another one that Tobias has spoken about for Guitar World.

“The double bass allowed for that Vinnie Paul [of Pantera] thing where there are triplet-feel things on the kick drum. Nothing against Pantera, but what influenced me there was actually a track called Blood Ritual by Samael, which had that feel I wanted to tap into.”

It was said about Watcher In The Sky, but I think same idea guided Twenties as well.

Griftwood was also talked about for Guitar World

“What made the song for me was the fact that there’s this crazy breakdown in what’s otherwise a Sunset Strip kind of thing, which I see as more Van Halen than Ratt.”

No song was mentioned by Tobias, but I had Talkin' 'Bout Love in mind even before I read this article, so I'd say it fits!

Pretty self explanatory, I think.

(This one is empty for the first 10 seconds to go around the copyright scan) Kansas is an absolute gem and to me it does sound like it was the inspiration here. Knowing how much respect Tobias has for rock classics, I'd say it's very possible he had Carry On Wayward Son in mind.

And that's it! Sorry if y'all hoped for more jfgjdfg but anyways, hope you enjoyed my yapping and, as always, any questions are very welcome :3

Taglist: @delusionalbitchinthehouse @0-miles-away @callmeghoulshit @skele-bunny @ratsummer @kentuckyfriedsatan @everybodyshusband @lilhoechlinsbae @jimothybarnes @starling-ghoul @rain-ghoul-appreciator @devilsandstarlight @karmicbias @jazz-bazz @arkeusruin

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

Did you know that you can reblog fics with tags in order to bookmark them?

Okay the replies on this post are kind of sending me to space, so I figured I needed to make a new post.

I know a lot of people are new to tumblr and might not know how to use tumblr properly, and it does just make me go ??? whenever I look on someone's account and they have 0 reblogs and just have a giant wall of fanfiction in their likes. Because I cannot imagine scrolling through endless fanfiction posts in my likes looking for one fic when organizing things with tags is so much better.

First of all, for new people - reposting and reblogging are two very different things. If a writer has "do not repost" as a disclaimer, they are not talking about reblogging.

Reposting is when you copy and paste someone's entire work, make a brand new post, and then post their work under the implication that it is your own.

Reblogging is a function that is built into the website (and app) that comes up in a creator's notifications, showing that you appreciate their work because you interacted with it. Reblogs always have links back to the original poster so people can find them and follow them.

So - when you hit the reblog button (the one next to the like button that is shaped like a recycling symbol) - you are giving the author credit and encouraging them.

Also, you can use tags on your reblog to organize fanfiction for your own use later!

You can tag by genre -> #smut #angst #hurt and comfort

You can tag by a character's name -> #Spencer Reid #Emily Prentiss #Jennifer Jareau

You can tag by a pairing -> #Spencer Reid x Reader #Emily Prentiss x Reader

If you read fanfic from a lot of different fandoms, you can even structure your tags to include multiple elements -> #Spencer Reid x Reader Smut

A lot of people even reblog fanfics and tag them as #TBR or #to be read - in order to bookmark a fic that they are interested in and want to come back to later.

And you can edit the tags on posts you have reblogged at any time, so if you want to edit something that you have already read and update the tags, you can do that.

I think it's a shame that people aren't taking advantage of this websites very useful features (while supporting fanfic writers at the same time). You don't need to keep links to Tumblr fanfiction somewhere else in order to organize them - if you use Tumblr right, you can keep everything organized within Tumblr and it works perfectly.

[jelzorz]

Heads up to any returning fans or to new fans who are joining us for s6: the fandom troll is making the rounds again under multiple new accounts (usually new blogs [named two descriptors and noun as per tumblr's suggested blog names, eg. sparklynerdpirate]*, that are empty except for one or two posts picking a fight with someone or sharing an opinion that shits on Rayla and glorifies Callum). This asshole has has a history of

Harassing people across platforms

Attempting to hack other people's accounts

Copying and pasting passages from other people's work and using them in his own

Shitting on other people's work in his own work

Gifting work he knows will provoke someone to that someone

Sending anon asks to provoke an argument

Reblogging himself from separate accounts to back himself up

Leaving rude comments on AO3 from multiple guest accounts in succession

Using AI to generate fic and art

Circumventing attempts to block him by creating new accounts to continue an argument

Impersonating people

Pressuring artists into commissions by transferring money before an artist has agreed to do the commission

Obviously this is quite a List of Crimes, this jerk does not know the meaning of stop and obviously has enough time and energy to keep this shit up for four years, so please be wary of new blogs with questionable takes. Please keep yourselves safe and sane and DO NOT ENGAGE. Just block and move on, your time is worth so much more than dealing with this bs.

*unsure if this blog name exists and has already been blocked or if I made it up, but I've literally blocked more than 150 sock blogs from this asshole so who knows 🤷🏽‍♀️

[wastingoxygensince1983]

In regards of Thai GL Shows

I truly believe that there's a negative consequence of the Americanization and globalization of concepts like queerness on the internet.

Because a lot of people has made the conclusion to think that every country and every place has the same level of growth regardless of representation in media, with years of development and improvement that the main stories presented in the United States shows and movies are shown.

Even now in 2024, there's situations where shows with sapphic main characters are easily cancelled, the characters killed or there's still story lines that make no sense after decades of having this time to improve(in 2024 there's a show, a very good one apparently that is still presenting a bisexual cheating trope).

I think that is obvious to contemplate and criticize these shows and stories because the writers, producers and everyone involve in these stories has time and ways to learn from previous projects.

Thailand is doing an effort. An effort that started it back in 2022 with Gap the series. It has been just 2 years since Thailand started a fully committed sapphic industry.

And the foundations are not the best, I give you that. The fact that most of the shows are some way to copy paste from the BL shows; somehow they have decided to capitalize in the chemistry of their actresses through in real shipping and the fact that apparently they are adapting the material of a single author(actually I want to send some books to see if they adapt them).

All of these indicates what is happening with the stories so far, that has create a disconnection with some of the main stories with what could be a major international fandom.

But I want to point out how significant they are right now in the idea to produce these shows and movies, and how it seems they want them.

The new freenbecky show and movie has been directly promoted by the government of Thailand(this is not directly a positive aspect but compared how other countries interact with sapphic shows in overall is something at least better).

And they are giving the time to work with them, creating an industry.

Almost all their shows has multiple queer couples and characters.

Besides some specific story lines, some shows has work mostly to focus on women and queer characters.

Even if some shows take a lot of time in other stuff; their focus is the love of the main characters that are sapphic women.

Is there any show besides the L word that has given us those treatments or something that still exists right now?

I don't know, like I said, they are not perfect; but seeing what they are doing and everything they are trying to accomplish; I think they deserve our attention.

[mandokero-eboy]

YET ANOTHER VENEZUELA POST

THIS ONE'S HILARIOUS

Seriously guys, they're not even trying. A National Assembly (that's what we call congress) deputy (that's what we call congresspeople) and third party candidate for Last Sunday's election, Jose Brito went on Venezuelan news network Globovision (which was bought out by government cronies in 2013, but that's another story) to defend the electoral results posted by the government. You can see the clip here:

Community note on twitter says everything but why would you willingly go to twitter when a sexy Canadian/Venezuelan man can explain this to you instead? Ok so what happened is that he got one of those paper receipts the voting machines print and he alleged that his was the real one and it contradicted one of the opposition's.

I've been saying for days that the only thing the government needs to do in order to cast doubt about the opposition's entire evidence base is literally to show receipts. Literally just one, which could be shown to contradict any of the opposition's posted receipts and could be authenticated. There's a series of authentication tools that are printed on each receipt which essentially make these difficult to fake, not to mention there would be a long paper trail backing the authenticity of one set next to the others. The hash-code at the top is based on some information in a server we don't currently have access to. From what I understand the hash is meant to show that the results on the receipt match the results in the tabulation servers. If they altered the results on the receipt they would have to alter results in the servers as well to correct that discrepancy and that would print a different hash code. We don't have access to the tabulation server cause it's controlled by the government and they refuse to show shit (and they are claiming the digital count is compromised anyway). Thankfully there's other paper trails that can be compared to the receipts the opposition are showing to verify their authenticity as well as copies and photos that were taken of them on the day of the election and videos of poll watchers reading out the receipts as well. And of course there's direct testimony from the Poll Watchers themselves.

None of that third party fancy shmancy verification and long process needs to be done in order to disprove that this receipt is fake, however. The receipts also have a QR code which shows the ID of the voting machine which printed it as well as the vote count for that voting center. It is formatted as [voting_machine_ID]![party1_votes],[party2_votes],[party3_votes]... and so on. Must be noted that multiple parties can nominate the same candidate and the votes for each party that nominates a candidate are added together in the final count.

The opposition's receipt that corresponds to the one showed by Jose Brito on TV was this one.

If you scan the QR Code, you will see that the code matches the results on the receipt posted by the opposition originally and does not at all match his own. This shows that the receipt he's holding was altered digitally, in quite a lazy fashion as well. Falsifying a QR Code isn't very hard it would've looked fairly authentic had he done that and pasted it on the thing while he was photoshopping this.

So to summarize

All they had to do was show exactly one receipt that could be authenticated or hell even reasonably believed to be authentic on first glance in order to cast doubt on their integrity.

After almost a week and a half of showing no copies of the receipts they should have in their possession one of them decides to show one and it turns out to be FAKE.

If the government's results hadn't been suspect until now they definitely are now. And all because they were too lazy to fake a QR Code with Photoshop. This is so funny dude. The politics fandom is laughing so hard.

[stromuprisahat]

Sorry to intrude, but since it seems you’re analyzing DitW and it’s about the Darkling’s past, I thought it might be semi-relevant to ask. There’s that theory (not sure if it’s canon, heavily implied, or just a headcanon in the fandom) that Baghra had multiple kids before and possibly after Sasha. If that’s true, why do we not see them? Did she get rid of them/abandon them if they were otkazat’skay or disobedient? I remember having heard that theory, then reading DitW for the first time, and whenever it mentions near the end Baghra being disapproving of Sasha trying to make friends (especially because of how it ended) I thought for sure he was about to get disowned or something. Or worse. But I haven’t heard anyone talking about the theory, so for all I know it’s a figment of my imagination.

Don't be afraid to ask. I sometimes take long to answer, but eventually I will.

Aleksander had indeed many half-siblings. He remembers trying to find some of them once he got too lonely, and likely once it was obvious he and his mother have different wants and emotional needs.

... He’d met his half sister, who had herself passed into legend and Sainthood. He’d searched the world for his mother’s other children, hungry for kinship, for a sense of himself in others. ...

Rule of Wolves- Chapter 33

As for the fate of those children- that's clarified in one of the short stories:

“I remember you,” he repeated. “You were born with a tail. Every summer I’ve come here to study and watch the sea folk, wondering if you might return.” “No,” said Ulla. “No. The sildroher cannot breed with humans. I cannot have a mortal mother.” He gave a slight shrug. “Not entirely mortal. The people of this country would call her drüsje, witch. They would call me one, too. They play at magic, read the stars, throw bones. But it’s best not to show them real power. Your people know this well.” ... Ulla felt the hurt inside her winnow to a hard point. “And did your witch mother care at all for the child she abandoned to the sea?” But the apprentice did not look troubled by her harsh words. “She isn’t one for sentiment.”

The Language of Thorns- When Water Sang Fire

In short any imperfection led to immediate abandonment, and judging from the qualities of the only child she kept, she was trying to make herself a copy. Immortal, Shadow Summoner, maybe even human amplifier to ensure they'll be in the same danger as her, therefore less likely to leave her.

Aside from DitW, we only meet very old Baghra, so perhaps she kept some of the "earlier" experiments until they grew up, and developed codependency only with Aleksander due to his similarity, but as he says- she isn't one for sentiment, to put it mildly. My money's on cold genetic experimentation with clear purpose- creating obedient Baggy 2.0 to share her miserable worldview.

[steddieunderdogfics]

This is a space to celebrate fanfics that may have been lost to how quickly this ship grew!

This may change as the blog grows and the fandom continues to create! This post will stay pinned and be updated when these changes occur. Right now, these numbers come from the first three pages of the Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson tag on Ao3.

Nominate an author for WRITER'S SPOTLIGHT here!

Vote on our next THEME WEEEK here!

Suggest a CHALLENGE for Challenge Mondays here!

Submit a fic through our ASK and/or our SUBMISSIONS!

You can see our previously recommended fics here!

Below the cut, there are some frequently asked questions!

Can I submit my own works?

Absolutely! The more the merrier!

What counts as a popular fic?

Popularity is hard to determine with how many pockets of fandom there are. This is why we're using the metrics to gauge the cut off since people are discovering fics for the first time everyday! What may be the quintessential, most popular fic to you could be entirely new to a new fan or someone in another bubble of the Steddie fandom!

Are there any fics you won't take as recs?

No! All fics should be celebrated and it's easy to miss so many amazing creators and stories. Please refrain from anything that is on the first few pages of the ship tag when filtered by hits, kudos, comments, and/or bookmarks, since those are technically the most popular by numbers. As far as content, as long as the fic is properly tagged, it's okay to recommend!

How should we submit our recs?

There are two ways to submit: through the ask box or the submission tab. Asks: If you chose the ask box, just send the title and author (and if you're able the link, but sometimes tumblr won't let you) and I'll add the template to your response with the rating, tags, and summary! Submissions: In the guidelines, there's a template to copy and paste into your submission. Fill it out, add the links, and then choose the tags that best fit the fic you're recommending!

Can I submit multiple stories in one ask?

If you're rec'ing more than two, please do them separately! In order to give each fic the recognition it deserves, it's best if they're getting a post to itself so they stand out. Two is fine for a post, but anything more than that, please split it up!

Can I submit multiple stories in general?

Please do!!

Where can I see the fics that have been submitted?

You can check our main tumblr for fics organized by title and by author!

[mechstims]

How I make stimboards!

hi! i had a couple of messages asking how i make boards, so i thought i'd make a pretty elaborate breakdown on my methods!! ive been doing this since... probably around 2016/2017 ;w;

may be slightly image heavy and long! but... lets get into it!

Step one: Decide your theme! this part is super easy lol just figure out what your theme is! characters (or objects or whatever) usually go in the middle of the board. if you're using someone elses art PLEASE dont forget to link the source!! directly, not just pinterest!! I try and use official art as much as possible.

Step two: Plan your colours! I use a 3x3 grid for this if im making a traditional sized board!

here it is empty and a filled in example! feel free to save my empty one if you want lol you can just edit it in paint. keeping it balanced is for the best! it makes it more pleasing

some more examples of colour schemes! balance is key!

Step three: finding gifs and setting the board up

DO NOT USE PINTEREST!!! AND DO NOT PUT YOUR SOURCES DOWN AS PINTEREST

and for the love of primus dont put "credit to the gif makers" or "credit to the owners". please.

okay. now ive said that lets get into it. id say tumblr and tenor are two of the places i use the most. its as simple as looking up the type of gif or the colour you want. example would be: pink stim, red stim, food stim, slime stim etc!

dont forget to save the sources!!! try your best to go back to the source as much as possible. this usually means clicking through stim boards which is VERY annoying. but go back to the original gif poster if possible, unless the gif or blog has been deleted :(

this is much easier on PC. i just drag the gifs into a little grid directly on my desktop with the coloured grid above it as a guide for sources i keep a .txt file open to save the sources. the "x" marks spots where i havent filled in a gif yet

lol sneak peek to the skids board im working on for a request >w>"

pro tip: if you're using multiple of the same kind of gifs, make sure to put them on opposite sides for balance.

example! if the yellow square is a slime gif make sure to put it like the grid on the left. the grid on the right is unbalanced and makes it look awkward

does this make sense? basically, balance is key.

also dont be afraid to colour shift if you cant find stuff in the right colour :p speaking of! to crop gifs into squares, edit, change size and colour shift use ezgif.com!

Step four: posting!

upload all your gifs, make sure theyre in order and add sources! the easiest part! to add sources simply highlight the text and click the "inline link" button!

make sure to tag! you can copy and paste these tags if you want a baseline!

stimboard#stim#stimblr#stimmy#stim gifs#visual stim#stim blog

i also tend to add the colours and character names, as well as fandom tags!

i hope this is helpful to anyone whos just learning to make boards!

[coconox]

my 2 cents on the state of whb

i've been contemplating about my thoughts on this game since i never really sat down and processed it, and a month of not playing the game and just keeping up with fandom content/official game news i think i can properly format my words (hopefully idk lol)

if you're looking for a specific section dw i'll properly format everything under the cut so you can just scroll till you find whatever you're looking for (also head's up it's insanely long i'm sorry but kinda not sorry i wanted to just put all my thoughts into one post rather than multiple)

SMALL INTRO

for some context on my experience, i have been playing this game everyday since launch/day 1, i was f2p up until i got juno's card, which i'll talk about later, but just know in advanced that juno was the only case where i've spent money. i uninstalled around the time the announcement was made in regards to no posting full stories of paid content, so almost month ago, and only reinstalled recently to grab certain items to add to the spreadsheet that i've been maintaining since november (aka a month after launch)

i've said it privately to a couple of close friends but i'll say it publicly here: imho, i think they released the game way too early even with the fact that they delayed launch 3 times.

i understand a handleful of bugs are from the fact that the public servers are significantly larger than test servers, but playing this game after the servers kinda stabilized feels like we are the test players, like we're constantly given rough drafts rather than the final copy.

the localization is rough to say the least, but i think i've been so used to it from other gachas that i've played that it didn't really ruin the experience for me,,, except when the text would switch to an entirely different language HJGFDHJGK

from visual bugs to gameplay bugs to voiceline bugs, there's been a lack of communication in terms of what has been fixed and what is still a wip. instead the players just have to "fuck around and find out" in terms of whether something has been fixed or not.

as i continue to state the issues with this game and its direction i'd like to put a disclaimer that i am by no means an expert in any of this stuff lol. i'm just a guy who nerds out over math, spreadsheets, and video games and everything i'll be saying is my personal opinion based on what i've seen/experienced.

THE ISSUE(S)

SOLOMON SEALS AND GACHA

i think the first mistake was them adding solomon seals in the first place. based on what packs in the past looked like, it looked like red keys were originally designed to be for debut characters, but instead they throw a curve ball and add ANOTHER gacha currency that was essentially p2w only up till some point early this year. this ultimately led to there being 2 standard banners, both of which essentially do the same thing except one doesn't have A/B/C-ranks. the fact that now even with realm of seraphim, in order for f2ps to have enough to guarantee with seals, they need to save for a year and a half. that is WAY too long for ONE character. this is of course worst case scenario of needing to hit pity, i'm aware you can get characters early but you should never always expect you'll get early in gacha games, i learned that the hard way during my idk how many years i've been playing gachas lol

i personally think that there's no winning across any of the gacha banners. there's no pity for either of the standards, and debut L/S-ranks have imo too high of a pity for what we're actually receiving per week. we essentially get more or less 1 pull per week in terms of red keys, yellow keys, and seals through dailies/weeklies alone, though of course that can vary cause of the rng key boxes, monthly login rewards, etc.

PANCAKES

there seems to be a general pattern that i've noticed of rather than confronting an issue directly they try to create something new in hoping that fixes the issue instead. an example of that would be the pancake shop.

the old pancake shop was fine as is, we could get a multi for relatively cheap price and get pie boxes everyday (albeit they're rng but pies are pies). what they could've done was add the L-ranks and skip tickets or whatever new thing they wanted to add into that old shop, adjusting the currency wherever necessary. yet instead they just remove the old system entirely and replace it for a new one that no one really asked for? while having the L-ranks in shop are nice, an entirely new system wasn't necessary to make that one relatively small addition. having A+-ranks and lower give gold and books was also not necessary, we have resource stages containing those 2 things and it's very accessible to everyone. what resources we are lacking in however are tears and pies, which are arguably more important than gold and books since those 2 currencies are the core to ascending/lvling characters and their skills.

PIES

i've emailed pb in the past in regards to if there will be other permanent methods for obtaining pies, and their response was holy coin portal and events. those two are NOT stable enough for pie income considering the prices of skills. if there's instances in unholy board where we need to level a character's skills, i'd expect there to be some sort of resource stage that would allow us to get pies so that we can easily obtain that skill level requirement.

"META" GAMEPLAY

i'll explain the quotes in a bit but i do want to put a disclaimer that whb was the first time i've experienced a full on tower defense style gameplay for gachas. i was already familiar with how it works kinda because of neural cloud even though the game as a whole is more like an auto-chess game of sorts, but some story gameplay had tower defense mechanisms and i learned a fair bit from playing that. personally i also haven't played arknights since i'm trying to cut down on the amount of gachas i play but i am aware of its playstyle through friends who like to attempt to drag me into playing it cause of certain characters that i might simp over (*cough flamebringer cough insider cough chongyue cough*)

disclaimer aside, trying to piece together what characters work and what don't genuinely hurts my brain. i put "meta" in quotes because realistically there's only 1: all L-rank light types, ideally at least 1 tank, maybe 1 healer (though a tank can act as both), rest be whatever dps you'd like really (preferably satan considering the fact he can be extremely reliable without his ultimate unlike a few characters). of course, everyone will have a different opinion on what they deem as meta, but that's the general idea i'd personally follow based on what kind of battles have been given to us, what characters are available, etc. the rest tbh are just "cope and seethe" for lack of a better term.

there's a huge type advantage with light and dark types, and i really wish they could buff the other elements more just show they have some spotlight too. i also wish there were more non-light L-ranks. as of making this post, out of the 23 L-rank characters there is currently only 1 non-light L-rank, and it's juno, an L-rank fire marksman.

the part that really "hurts" me the most (don't really know what other word to put here LOL) is the fact that this game is going in a very specific direction of just dps'ing through everything and hope you clear the stage before the enemies kill you.

this game has a huge and imbalanced ratio between dps characters and support characters regardless of element. the fact that we only have 5 healers (NOT including lucifer (victory) considering he's technically a marksman and the healing is from his artifact and not in his skills) and 8 tanks, whereas marksman and close-rangers have twice or thrice the amount is absurd. what pains me more is the fact that for tanks, if you don't have mammon, you're screwed. arguably the best non-mammon option players have that's accessible is bimet. valefor and eligos share the same kit with the fact that their downfall is the possibility that they could be instakilled the second they pop their ult. healers on the other hand are somewhat more lenient. if you don't have lucifer, marbas is your next best, then gamigin (marbas and gamigin can technically be placed interchangeably since their healing differs by 0.1%, it just depends on who you have), then morax, then maybe buer but he only heals 1 unit at a time rather than multiple but i digress. healers still have multiple and very reliable non-L-rank alternatives whilst tanks really only have 1. i really, really hope there's more support units in the future cause man this sucks.

NIGHTMARE PASS

spending $50-$70, on paper, is significantly better than spending ~$400 for a character, and that's really the only "good" thing about it 💀

$50-$70 may feel like nothing to some players, but to a majority, that is a portion of a cost towards food, groceries, rent, etc. basically, i'd assume a majority of people would prioritize surviving than watching pixels on a screen.

i understand at the end of the day pb is running a business, but for kings to be fully locked behind a paywall knowing for a fact that a majority of the player base are 1. casuals/f2ps and 2. are here for the kings is absurd. plus with the fact that typically nightmare pass characters aren't added to standard and aren't always 100% guaranteed to rerun in the future just puts the nail in the coffin for me.

i think it makes more sense for non-kings like juno to be in nightmare pass because it's just additional fun and silly content that arguably won't be tied to the main lore and whatnot, maybe referenced as a silly bit here or there but it'd be more of an easter egg than something important that you absolutely need to know.

personally i bought juno's pass because i love his design, kit, and voice. story was kinda meh for me personally but i really just cared more about the va and gameplay. gameplay-wise, he certainly does not disappoint as a gehenna support unit. but do i regret purchasing him? yes and no. oddly enough this was probably the first i've ever felt guilty in terms of buying something i wanted in a gacha game. yes i regret it in terms of i'm no longer really playing this game anymore, which is unfortunate considering i barely made it through half a year of this game's release. yet at the same time, no i don't regret it because he is a really fun unit. for example, when it's gabriel's rotation in realm of seraphim, juno's, leraye (nostalgia)'s, and leraye's ultimates absolutely DESTROY gabriel in a matter of like <10 or so seconds and it's so satisfying to see. i also just really like his va, scratches a very particular itch in my brain.

anyways before i get sidetracked over appreciating juno, the fundamental flaws of nightmare pass are essentially

you shouldn't need to buy both tiers to get the character. you should realistically need to buy the highest tier and by default it unlocks all previous tiers below it

ui is a bit confusing. i still don't get why f2ps have to unlock parts of nightmare pass that they can't even access/obtain. there should be a clear separation between what f2ps get, what advanced tier gets, and what premium tier gets.

it's too expensive. most bp's i know are ~$10 at the highest tier, though that's considering the fact that bp's i'm familiar with only give cosmetics rather than actual units

from what i've heard through the grapevine, beel (bath) is basically in the same formatting as all the other currently existing bath cards, which are all currently obtainable through gacha. beel has no reason to be in nightmare pass. it genuinely makes no sense as to why pb put him there aside from getting money and that in-turn alienates a majority of the fan base since we can't even view the prologue of card stories if they're a nightmare pass character.

when nightmare pass was first released during christmas, everything was in chaos. the fact that a nightmare pass character needed the other two limited gacha characters gameplay-wise is absurd (mind you, this was before we were given the chance to earn seals through weeklies). everything was too expensive, and rather than an enjoyable christmas event it felt like a "merry christmas, now give us money" kind of situation. i think nightmare pass should not be happening as frequent as it is now. the gap between gabriel and juno was perfectly fine (4 month gap btw), but for a nightmare pass to happen back to back on top of gacha events is too much for both f2ps and p2ws.

the point of buying packs, bp, anything that costs real money in a gacha game is so it makes your gameplay experience easier, paying shouldn't be the main component of your game. personally based on what i've experienced through playing gacha games you should theoretically be able to pull for almost every character on debut just by playing dailies/weeklies/events, yet here we get a bit over a multi per patch (this includes playing realm of seraphim).

DICTATING FANDOM INTERACTIONS

i wholeheartedly believe a fandom is what keeps a game alive. a hindrance to the fan base is a hindrance to the game, which can be seen with the aftermath of pb announcing that legal action will be taken if full stories of paid content are shared publicly. while i understand from a business standpoint that pb would want to enforce the "no sharing full story" thing for paid content since they want players to yk, buy the card, like i mentioned in the previous section, the majority of the player base just cannot afford it.

the people who posted full stories wanted to share to those who cannot afford it, some people may not want only tidbits of the story but rather the whole context, especially those who enjoy dissecting character lore but don't have the irl funds to fully experience it themselves. some people may even want to archive it, cause honestly no one knows how long this game will stay up and we want to archive story so that it's something we can easily look back on. to essentially make players borderline terrified on trying to figure out whether or not it's ok to publicly post stuff in relation to any sort of story content is absurd.

there is also that loophole of what is defined as a paid story. when events end and get put behind a paywall, does that now count as paid story or is that still ok? what about debut L-ranks that are behind seals and there's a 3 month downtime till they're added to standard? or is it just referring to nightmare pass characters? paid stories in the context of the state of the game right now is insanely broad, it's practically at least 50% of this game (i'm exaggerating (or maybe not i wouldn't be surprised if that was actually the case)).

i understand no datamining, while it technically speaking isn't illegal, it's disrespectful to the devs, but a lot of these call to action methods they're announcing are rather extreme imo.

with the most recent cards either being put to standard 3 months after their banner ends or flat out paywalled and not 100% guaranteed to have a rerun, story content as of late has been very sparse. what people want most is a main story update, which we were originally promised to be updated every 3 months and it is now month 6 and we still have nothing.

EVENTS AND EVENT STORIES

event stories being locked behind a paywall after the event ends is probably the first time i've ever seen a gacha game do this. most of the gachas i've played either don't archive event story at all and just rerun it every year, don't rerun or archive the event at all (i.e. if you miss it, cope and seethe), or they archive it for FREE. it feels insanely greedy how EVERY event story needs payment if you ever want to backread an old event.

what also concerns me is the fact like instances like gamigin's event or beleth's event carry so much lore for their respective region and that may never show up in main story, which then screws new players over in not knowing the full context behind every region. events like minhyeok's or bimet's are fine in the sense that it doesn't carry that much lore in comparison to the more recent events. the first few events were like silly banter and getting to know a bit more about the cast.

also changing the event shop from daily pies to a set limit per account was an awful choice it just emphasizes my point earlier of how unstable obtaining pies are in this game.

FULFILLING PROMISES

i think while it was a smart move to list what's gonna be implemented throughout the year, they shouldn't have stated deadlines on when they're doing so.

the following are the things that still aren't implemented yet as of making this post:

new daily chats (expected within february)

friends system (expected within march)

birthday system (more specifically celebrating your bday) (expected within april)

new main story chapter (new chapter expected every 3 months)

if pb were to just say "here's what to expect in 2024" and NOT give specific months, that's fine, but giving these specific months sets an expectation that they would complete it within that timeframe. main story for example is probably the one people have been anticipating the most. by now as of july, if we were to follow the expectation pb gave us, we would currently be on chapter 7, or at the very least chapter 7 would've been released some time this month. we have not even gotten chapter 6 yet. chapter 5 was released in january. it has been 6 months since the last main story update. failing to meet these timeframes will make people upset, because it was mentioned in the announcement that it's 1. a promise (i hope i'm not the only one that takes promises seriously) and 2. in bold yellow text, "what we can realistically expect to see in 2024." the only promises that were fulfilled on-time were the ones in january, the rest have been delayed by at least a month. if you're giving a timeline of what's happening, announce if there's any changes to that timeline, because not doing so will make players believe you were lying to them even though you probably aren't and are instead just falling behind schedule.

i think what hurts more to me is the fact that they aren't publicly communicating these delays. it shouldn't be our responsibility to find out why or when something isn't happening within the timeframe they promised (e.g. by emailing them), it should be up to the devs to communicate that publicly to us. i'm not saying they should overshare what's going on behind the scenes, it can simply just be a simple announcement of "hey, we're very sorry but we're having some technical difficulties with this certain feature and we need more time. here is some compensation in the meantime, thank you for your patience and again, we're very sorry." it's that simple.

FINAL THOUGHTS

i mentioned back in my intro that i feel like this game was released too early purely because the fundamentals of making a bare minimum decent gacha game are just not there. if every patch update has people complaining on what's just recently been added/removed, you're not fully listening to what the audience wants. while i understand pb is a small business, a business is still a business regardless of size and criticism/feedback is necessary especially in a game dev setting.

i've followed this game's news ever since it was teased, which was december of 2022, i've lurked/participated in the fandom (on here at least) ever since september of 2023. i've felt a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions of "omg this is so great" to "why is this even a feature," hoping that over time the game would get better, but the only thing that's improved was server stability (and even that's still a bit rocky 💀).

a huge part of my stay was just being a lurker in the fandom. i genuinely appreciate all the creatives who fulfill asked prompts of characters, make ocs, fanart, write theories, reactions + many more. i love seeing other people's works/opinions and having just a lively fandom made it all more fun.

but at this point this game is just not for me. i've really only stuck around to read mammon's lore but since main story hasn't been updated in 6 months i'll really only chime back in when there's finally an update. it still amazes me to this day that my patience lasted this long. i think i've covered everything i wanted to cover but my memory is swiss cheese so if i forgot something,,, woops 💀

as for the future of the spreadsheet for those who check back on it, it's still being managed by myself and windy, who has been a huge help since day 1 of creating the build lists and team comps and i honestly can't thank her enough for also enduring this pain of a game with me as we've worked on this spreadsheet together hgjdfgh (luv u bestie 🫶). though it's written in the narrative that both of us will eventually quit updating it entirely if this game persists on not having any signs of improvement. when that day comes i'll make sure to post an announcement about it.

as for myself i'm probably still gonna lurk in the fandom/keep an eye out on game news. i doubt i'll be making any fanart anymore unless if i really have the motivation/boredom for it, but currently i'm revamping the "aesthetics" of this account so nothing's really set in stone. maybe i'll make a few whb rambles here or there if some game news really irks me but for the most part i've already been in the process of moving on to other things.

if you've stuck around this long to read this mess of a post, thank you for sticking around and have a cookie, you deserve it 🫴🍪

[lovemyromance]

I don't know why people think the troll is elriel, it clearly is not, not just yours but many other account's post were copy/pasted and it clear it one of them, why will any of us do it?

On top of that i saw one gwynriel post how the "negativity" and "hatred" we post on our tags regarding them is why the troll hates them? are the for serious rn?

Let's just collectively all block every single gwynriel account so they can't come in our spaces to spew shit

Again - I don't know which side it is, could be either side trying to start drama but that's not the point. No side should be acting all high and mighty when there's bad people on every side.

"We don't have hate in our tags" -> pretty sure the anti-Elriel tag exists for a reason. Let's not pretend like their side doesn't shit on elriel as much as we shit on EL/GA

We are not going to sit here and act like every side of this fandom doesn't have bad apples. I've seen heinous things people have said about every single character, ship be damned. I've seen disgusting behavior from BOTH sides.

And I get it - you see a rude anon in your inbox and you automatically assume it's from "the other side". You're allowed to be upset and angry to receive such hate.

What you shouldn't then be doing - is condemning an entire group of people and accusing them of not instantly coming to your aid and defending you with their swords.

Pretty sure we've all blocked each other. Even if I sat here and made 30 posts condemning troll accounts - you wouldn't see a single one. Pretty sure you won't even see this one.

Don't sit here and act like elriels aren't equally as annoyed about the troll account situation. Don't act like we haven't made multiple posts already condemning these accounts. Just because you didn't see them - doesn't mean they don't exist.

We are sympathetic that you received hate, but that sympathy doesn't last long when you turn around and claim we support or encourage or purposefully incite this behavior.

We don't.

And I don't speak for all Elriel as obviously, but i can say most of them do not have the time to start this kind of drama. We have jobs, families, and kids. We're not out here making death threats and trying to dox someone online.

Sure there are a few bad people out there, agents of chaos, if you will. But they don't represent the group.

We also receive these kinds of messages on the daily, you know. We ignore them. We don't make a spectacle out of them and then proceed to shit on every gwynriel in existence for not personally condemning this behavior.

The person stealing troll posts and starting drama isn't going to stop. It's been weeks and they have stolen mine and several other creators' posts and posted them everywhere, even platforms where we're not active on. The solution isn't to sit here and speculate about whether it's a Gwynriel or Elucien or Elriel. They want attention, and you're all giving it to them. They want more drama - and you're giving it to them with every post you make that points fingers at someone else.

Stop giving them any attention, and I'm confident these posts WILL stop.

We're not responsible for other people actions. We are only responsible for our own.

If you're going to sit here and claim Elriels are behind all these troll accounts instead of blocking and ignoring them, if you're going to claim all Elriels don't do anything to condemn this kind of behavior, if you're going to act like you guys don't ALSO make a ton of "anti-Elriel" posts ....

That's hypocritical. And you wonder why we're not rushing to your immediate defense.