#previous years were okay at best imo

[slechterick]

Amsterdam Light Festival is *really fucking good* this year. one show-stopper after the other.

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #22

Best of Wish

I enjoy Irep's grit-teethed remark when he mentions Anti-Fairies can't have godkids. He's just like his dad, for real, for real.

If he's this annoyed at the thought of Anti-Fairies not being allowed godkids, that kinda implies he wants one, which is interesting. Godkids were always one of Anti-Cosmo's interests, but never something Foop pursued on purpose or ever expressed interest in.

Please enjoy this cut Anti-Cosmo dialogue from an early script for "Fairly Oddlympics" that I think about constantly:

btw, there are a lot of funny deleted scenes in the old scripts that I love talking about, especially from this one, so if you find anything that catches your eye and post about it, you should @ me because I would enjoy reading your reactions <3

Plot twist - Irep is doing healthy things to work through his "scary godparent for Vicky" trauma while Peri's reaction to Vicky trauma was to cover his ears, hide behind his mom, and sing "La la la, la la la" to pretend she wasn't there.

Peri said his memories of childhood are blurry. I wonder if Irep remembers his childhood better since he was fully able to talk and comprehend things back then.

"Once a fairy quits, any magical being can take their place!"

I mean... Technically yes, but you used to have to sing for it. lol.

The Pixies, who are literally last in line for godkids below all other magical beings (including pegasi, bigfeet, and lake monsters), watching Irep stroll in like: ???

- which imo was implied to be a punishment for their race after H.P. was godparent to some unconfirmed kid I've been headcanoning was Dale for 7 years-

Actually, I like the implication that Irep was so fast to snipe Dev because he's been stalking them since he found out Peri was assigned a godkid.

Irep: Once a fairy quits, any magical being can take their place! Wanda: Peri didn't quit! He was waiting for you to call! Cosmo: He thought you two were on a break! Me: ... ?????? Peri was waiting for Irep to call and take him back? Run that by me again??

... I legitimately cannot tell if they're addressing Dev or Irep. Irep was the last person to speak, but Dev speaks next. Rewinding and listening to the conversation again, I can use my context clues to see they're probably looking at Dev (who is offscreen), but ?? why would you frame it that ambiguously.

Did anyone else get confused here or was that just me?

Also this has done nothing to disprove my previous "Peri is clingy especially where break-ups are concerned" interpretation.

I like how the very first wish Dev makes in this scene isn't for his dad to love him, but for Bev to love him.

How many kids in this class have names that rhyme with Dev and why is he so determined to befriend them all?

?? Okay, so I was previously confused about Dev's friendships because I was pretty sure I remembered him saying in Episode 1 that he and Trev were friends, but we haven't seen them interact at all. I went back and checked, and here's what he says:

"That's Trev! He's my bud, so he probably won't give YOU the time of day."

I wish we got to see him hanging out with Trev. Did they split after Trev didn't come to his sleepover?

- I just checked; I don't see any evidence of Trev at Hazel's. - Hey, did Winn and Jasmine ever find out Hazel lied to them about living in a 5-star hotel? - In conclusion, we are being ROBBED of the Trev-Dev-Bev friend squad.

Looking back, it's very funny that Dev made an effort to introduce Hazel to people when she was the new kid despite that not being his job... including giving some glowing reviews of a few of their classmates, including "This guy's my bud, this person's cool, and I respect this other guy." He wants to talk...

Also, moon is full in New York.

I keep waiting for Irep's music to drop again, but it never does in this scene. It's stressing me out; why did it only drop in THAT scene?

The version I'm watching unfortunately doesn't include credits and I can't find it after a few quick searches, but if Guy Moon did the music for this episode and remembered how he used to do it for Foop and his alt personality when they would do their switch cues 14 years ago, and so when he saw that body language he did it again, I'm gonna lose it.

Surely not... But he had to do it for at least 3 seasons; maybe it just stuck??

I don't see him credited for A New Wish at all on his own IMBD or Wiki page either. idk who did this episode, but I liked it. Hi, I'm the target audience; it's me.

And Irep's still a leftie! Even after putting both hands on the mace handle to smash it down, it goes back to his left when he takes one hand off.

He even does the "sword fight" with his left hand. It's the boy!!!

?? Is Irep's hair both blue (like both his parents') AND black (the color his tuft was in the OG series)?

Are his roots black, but the color eases to dark blue the farther out it grows? That's fantastic!

I like how Peri's hair looks most like his mom's but with a faint slope implying his dad's influence is there, and Irep's hair best parallels his dad's, but he gets his curl from his mom.

Huh. Looks like we've retired the 5 magic colors and now we're just pink poofs and dark blue lightning. Which I'm okay with; I just wasn't paying attention until now. But I know lightning-shaped Anti-Fairy magic was canon in "School of Crock," maybe others.

This does deprive me of my usual 2nd-watch shtick of reading moods based on color. Alas.

I enjoy Hazel rescuing the news reporter, but letting her know that she's a big fan of her work.

Okay, Irep uses his right hand at the last second, but I consider this a win.

I went back and checked frame by frame because I'm a NERD, and funnily enough... It looks like he changes hands after Cosmo blasts him in the left arm. It's hard to tell with the poof cloud, but when you consider the direction he moved (buffeted backwards), that implies it was a left-side hit. It's probably just coincidence, but that's funny.

I like Dev's silly star shades during this scene:

Peri's back!! Old buddies, ol' counterpart pals... I love that teeny-tiny movement Peri makes with his fingers to symbolize air quotes around "quit."

"I never gave two weeks notice~!!"

Also, this definitely belongs in my collection of counterparts using the same body language for opposite moods. idk if we'll see more of that, but it excites me that my stash grows!

I like Peri patting Dev on the head.

"He's still my godkid! :)"

Ooh, snap. Local cousins (once removed) are here to lay down Da Rules, as von Strangles do.

Aw, I like how undoing Dev's cheating means Hazel ends up with the prize shirt. I guess that makes sense; it just wouldn't have been my first thought.

I'm glad adult Irep makes squeaky sounds when you squeeze him. I seem to remember OG Poof making squeaky sounds when he bounced off walls.

Aw, Peri having a happy hug with his parents again! Instead of him feeling like they're overbearing. That's great.

Peri once again proving he's a jealous, clingy ex. I don't think this kid was okay when he was pried away from Timmy and I don't think he took his parents' leaving him on his own for 10k years very well.

I really enjoy Peri's body language throughout this series. All his little twitches and arm rubs and flicking eyes... It says a million words. You could talk forever about him.

I enjoy Dev and Hazel a lot this series, but I think Peri's my favorite. With all his little anxieties and moments he avoids eye contact, you really get the sense that he's working through a lot of baggage.

I like how his instinct was to be honest with his parents and then he immediately regrets it and closes off his body language, avoiding eye contact. He retracts what he said and says something else that he thinks makes him look better. He's got a lot going on.

The fact that he makes this big, decisive head nod as he changes his story to claim he wasn't "jealously spying on Dev" after quitting as his godparent, but he was instead "very normally and confidently passing by" is fantastic. That's... not how people talk in normal conversation, Peri. But I'm glad you're telling me you struggle with confidence issues.

- I think everything I've seen of you supports that. You've been the biggest anxiety ball ever since you got here. - Peri is the guy who'd be on edge wondering if he did something to make everyone mad.

It took me forever to get the above screenshots so I had to keep rewinding, and I have to say... I'm obsessed with that itty-bitty head tilt he does to the left before he goes full right. Idk why it's there, but I like it. It's like a shrug, or like he's thinking through his lie? I enjoy.

Also that teeny-tiny head squirm when he's enjoying the hug with his parents. He's so cute.

Okay, that's pretty messed-up of Peri to laugh with his parents while Dev is in the background really upset. Like, Peri is literally talking about Dev behind his back

-> I wish they'd snuck hints of purple in the background to indicate Peri was there, like a milk carton or pencil or something.

-> I stand by everything I've previously said about Peri not being emotionally mature enough to godparent. His kid needs comfort after a tough experience! Dev just got snapped at and punished by authority and now he's sitting on the ground looking dejected, and Peri's over there giggling!

-> C'mon, man! Hazel clocked on and she's trying to do your job for you. She shouldn't have to do that! (Though it's nice of her to try comforting her friend).

Oop, Dev just yelled at Hazel (again) and Peri did not discourage or discipline him in any way, and tbh... I don't think he even noticed. Because he was laughing and talking about his godkid with his parents. Dude, get your crown in the game.

I love Hazel throwing her prize shirt in Dev's face and shouting that she "hopes it was worth it" <3

I still don't know how to spell O-pairs and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask.

omg, Dev wants to learn about Anti-Fairies. Are we going to get lore and culture? Drama...

PERI, your godkid's running away!! Oh no, he can't hear us... he's got anxiety...

[momowoah]

Okay but I really think that the worst part is that this is season seven. Unless they're planning to turn 9-1-1 into the new Grey's Anatomy the chances of us being already in the final half of the show are huge. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any drama, but the characters should've started to go forward, and yet nearly all of them feel stuck in the same place they have been for several seasons. Or should I say 2-3 seasons?

tldr: all/most S7 storylines were either useless in the long run or recycles. The only characters who had storylines on the good side of the scale (as in, they helped the characters develop and move to a new place in their lives) were Maddie and Chimney (and maybe Buck but he's on thin ice). All the characters are back to the same place they were in s4/s5. It's probably TM's fault. This shouldn't be happening in a 7th season.

(really long post under the cut but worth it imo)

Bobby and Athena had a whole seven episodes for their storylines and yet it didn't significantly change anything about them or their relationship. The doubts of how they are when they're at peace that were brought up in ep1 ended up not being addressed at all. We started the season with what was supposed to be this huge thing in their relationship and it was just never brought up again! Instead they put bathena through distress again just for the sake of being dramatic. And while I'm extremely glad we got Amir and think there were several high points in his storyline, what difference did it make in the long run? Yes, it brought up interesting things to Bobby's storyline, such as more insight into his childhood and the chance for him to explore another side of the fire he caused, but is it going to change anything? No! Bobby will be reinstated in S8 bc that's just how these things go, and I doubt they'll put any effort to continue the survivors storyline. I'd bet it'll just be ignored in the next seasons.

Hen and Karen have been trying for YEARS AND YEARS to adopt a child and they just can't let them! As a wlw, do you know how awful that is to watch? Seeing them fail time and time again and have their family broken up once again just because??? It was one thing with Nia, she got a happy ending, but that wasn't the case with Mara. The best thing for everyone involved would be for her to stay with Hen and Karen, but they blew it up. I know she's with Madney, but it's not the fucking same. Why do they have to go through this again? Why can't they finally get the family they've spent years fighting for? Why can't the drama be about anything else, why does it have to be about failed adoptions? I've seen this enough times before. Why not let them be able to adopt???? Why? I'm genuinely upset abt this btw, probably more than about anything else that went down.

Buck got to finally come out and it was great but instead of taking it as an opportunity to let him grow into himself they just threw him right back into the hamster wheel of dating people who are either not fully into him or who he's not fully into. (if you like bt probably skip the rest of this paragraph but I'd also be upset about how they're handling them if I liked the ship bc I liked the previous bt and they did something similar to them lol) Tommy's behavior could be explained away at first, but I feel like time and time again the show goes the extra mile to make him uninterested in Buck or just straight up an asshole to him? Instead of taking the small opportunities of portraying them as a healthy happy couple they just consistently screw up their relationship? They're not the couple I support but even then I wanted them to be good together bc I want Buck to be happy, and yet all we get is this?

I don't even have words about Eddie, especially considering what rg has said about him destroying his life and possibly reverting back to military no emotions mode next season. WHY CAN'T HE BE HAPPY? We already saw him break down, WE'VE ALREADY HAD A STORYLINE ABOUT HIM REBUILDING HIS LIFE, but happiness is boring so now he has to ruin his relationship with his son too right? It just pisses me off how they go about his character sometimes. I liked that they were bringing back the Shannon storyline because he was supposed to be able to finally move on, but this wasn't about that. No, it was about retraumatizing Eddie and Chris and splitting them up at a time when they should be leaning on each other and healing, because Chris has also been suffering with the Shannon stuff. We saw it in fucking ep 1. Don't even get me started on the Marisol stuff because idek why she was there at all. Literally don't get it. We had an off-screen breakup anyways. She wasn't relevant at all to anything that happened. Why was she even there? I'm genuinely asking. The only Eddie arc that has some positive potential for next season is him dealing with his relationship with religion (especially if they tie it to the military and the way he lives his life for others' expectations), but tbh I don't trust them not to fuck it up.

Finally, I don't have complaints about madney, except for why tf was Maddie so absent this season? The wedding episode was all about Chimney (who was also maybe kinda missing tbh), and although I love him and his backstory and the opportunity to see Kevin again, I really wanted it to be about their relationship, since it was their wedding, yk. Dispatch was also severely under utilized. We did get the 7x07 Maddie plotline and it might've been bc it was a shortened season but yeah, I'm still not that satisfied.

So, we have all the characters stuck in places they've been before. More specifically, in the place they were in season 4/5. Bathena relationship problems followed by a life threatening situation? Check. Henren struggling with adoption? Check. Buck getting into what was supposed to be a good relationship only for it to end up going really bad? Check. Eddie struggling with relationships and his mental health going to hell? Check. Madney in a good place with a new child and about to have an awful fucking time? Hopefully just check for the first part. And you know which question this makes me ask? It's whether Tim Minear is just reverting everyone to their s4 state out of spite for the seasons he was away. And even if it is a genuine attempt at getting the show back on the track he wanted out of good intentions, it still sucks, because it doesn't change the fact that it is just a repeat of old storylines. I actually complained at this before the show even aired, but (iirc) I ended up deleting my post because I thought that I was just overreacting. Guess what? I fucking wasn't, bc that's EXACTLY what they did.

Now, going back to the start of this post, the reason why all these storylines suck so much is not that they are bad. It's not even that they aren't original. No, it's the fact that we're doing storylines that belong in the fourth or fifth season of a show in its seventh season. Even the Gerrard plotline, which is new to 9-1-1, feels like it came too late, because the split up crew/villain captain storyline tends to happen much sooner in procedurals, and for a reason. Besides the fact that this was never really a big bad type of show and I don't get why they are making it one all of a sudden, and ignoring the fact that Gerrard being brought back as captain, especially to the 118 of all places, makes no fucking sense, that kind of plotline is one that it's obviously always temporary. No one believes he'll still be the captain by the end of 8A, much less by the end of the season. He'll hardly survive the first 3-5 episodes. That's ultimately a filler storyline. It helps the show go on for longer, it might even help in the development of a couple characters, but at the end of the day it doesn't change anything, which appears to be a recurring theme when it comes to 9-1-1 storylines.

The reason I have a problem with this is that we don't need a filler storyline, because no one knows whether the show has the luxury of taking its sweet time. Yeah, it has a huge audience and it is doing good numbers, but it is still a fucking money pit that was already cancelled once and it's unsustainable on the long run. It might not end that soon, but is it honestly going to reach season 14? Does anyone truly think that we've only seen half of it (or less) so far? Because I don't. Not many shows make it that far, and there's a reason for that. We have three huge names who are extremely important to the show. What happens if they get tired? What happens if someone gets a better offer? What happens if we're still revisiting old storylines when that happens? Do we get an incomplete story or a rushed one?

The show should be moving forward, even if there are no plans for it to end soon. We have the drama of the huge disasters 9-1-1 loves. We have the drama of the cases. We have a myriad of new possible dramatic storylines for the characters that show development without being too final. Athena could have so many different job related storylines (from moving up in her career to abandoning it), and her and Bobby's storyline from the beginning of the season about being boring together can be played in a good and dramatic line. Henren and Madney have a whole world of parenting issues that they could go through. Buck and Eddie both still need either an endgame love interest (whether it's each other or not) or to get to the point where they are fine not having one, and we have all of the relationship trouble that comes with that. This show can give us new things, storylines that are good for the characters, without losing the dramatic factor (which, if I'm being honest, would not be a deal breaker for me). Yet, it refuses to, and probably not for a good reason, because it comes down to either Tim wanting to rewrite history or just trying to drag this show for as long as possible (which apparently he only knows how to do by refusing to make the characters happy). And you know what? I'm fucking mad about it, and I think you should be too.

Btw, this is not to say the whole season sucked. We got Madney and Henren together multiple times which was great. We finally got Bi Buck. There were several amazing acting moments for both the main and recurring actors. As a standalone season, it was good. It just doesn't work when you look at the bigger picture.

[acheronist]

can you make sparknotes for the Red Wings players they are all the same person to me (sorry)

dw my darling i got you 🫡 here's the regular 23 man roster we've been skating this szn

forwards (+ this is going to be the number they wear on their jerseys, not their age)

jt compher (37) - won a cup whilst he was on the colorado avalanche (red wings long time beloathed nemesis rivals team), attended umich hockey with larkin and copp. deadpan dry asf tenderhearted weirdo. very good at hockey i like him

andrew copp (18) - 🎶get up and g-get down, 911 is a joke in your town🎶, local michigander boy playing for his hometown team, attended umich with compher and larkin, kind of fuck ugly but he's gritty and has a lot of love in his heart so we like him

alex debrincat (93) - another local michigander boy playing for his hometown team, really good at hockey, we rescued him from the ottawa senators (red wings short term/very recent beloathed nemesis rival team) and he likes it here more, haha lol lmao even. good at hockey!! kind of a sniper. also kind of fighty which is hilarious because he's about 9 inches shorter than the average nhl player. new dad and really loves it, brings his family to games all of the time. and he was our all star games representative this year !

robby fabbri (14) - how are you going to be a short italian-canadian kind of bisexual professional hockey player who mixes metals and has a standing eyebrow appointment. please pick a struggle. won the stanley cup w/ st louis and then got abandoned for being 'injury prone' and was sent to detroit in a 1 for 1 trade (the most humiliating of all nhl player trades imo). he and larkin and rasmussen are the only men left standing from the red wing's historic worst-ever season in 2019 where every game they looked like they were going to kill themselves.

christian fischer (36) - new bestie alert! huge locker room guy. okay at hockey (more of a playmaker than a goalscorer) but he's so fucking sillygoofy and funny i love to see this guy on my team. spent most of his career in arizona iirc, and basically he and gostisbehere came from the coyotes directly to the red wings as a buy one get one free deal.

patrick kane (88) - narcissict. arrogant. flop. old man who can't score anymore. history of assault and violent misdemeanors he never was punished for because he was the nhl's boytoy a decade ago. i hope he contracts sepsis from an unforeseen complication with his hip surgery and takes a long walk off of the rencen's roof and lands in the detroit river where he is frozen and then chopped up by an industrial ship's propeller. fuck this guy.

klim kostin (24) - beloved enforcer. used to skate for the edmonton oilers. his entire game is based around slotting in on the third/fourth line when necessary and whenever someone gets hurt he comes out swinging to establish the fact that the red wings are not to be fucked with. he doesn't start fights but he does finish them. notoriously big hearted and silly with his teammates. coincidentally wearing the same number as the red wings most famous enforcer from the 1980s, bob probert. my guard dog boy i love u

dylan larkin (71) - michigan native, umich grad, was the previous captain's rookie, the beating heart and soul of the team, carrying the weight of a century year old hockey team's legacy and all the ghosts that come along with that, never been to playoffs and hasn't won the cup yet. literally the miserable boyking of metro detroit. he's had to suffer a lot for absolutely no reason, but still manages to come and be our best and most important player every single night.

david perron (57) - he's old by nhl standards i.e. he's in his late thirties and has been playing for like a decade, so he knows his way around an nhl rink. french canadian enough that he's got an accent. big heart and soul guy, which i really wasn't expecting tbh! he's always standing up for teammates and has gotten in a few noteworthy fights (dylan got hurt so badly this szn that dp went rage-blind and ended up getting suspended for six games after fighting the opponents who hurt dylan)

michael rasmussen (27) - big fuck off scary intimidating canadian hockey lad. kind of awkward and bizarre. also kind of a doll if i can b honest. he's very shy and quiet in interviews but always has an insane serial killer look in his eyes whenever he's on the ice. was drafted high and then i suspect he had a lot of mental struggles about not being the player he was advertised/told to be? but the last few years he's stepped away from that role he thought he should be and started being himself and playing in a way that was obviously more comfortable, and he's taken huge huge productive strides and improved a lot. moose ily

lucas raymond (23) - our youngest babiest player!! he was our highest draft pick in a looooooooong time, and immediately went from prospect training camp -> regular nhl player, which is fucking crazy. he's exceptionally good at hockey, and has a reputation for coming in clutch with goals we need to win games. besties with moritz seider + jake walman + joe veleno.

daniel sprong (17) - i had no idea what to think of this guy at first but now i can't believe he's only been here for one season. it feels like he's been a wing for ages. he's one of our sniper goalscorers, except he shoots the puck with a lil too much sauce + with a feral desperation of a man afraid he was never going to score a goal again, every single time, which i love. also he stalks twitter and runs a team GC to forward memes that the fandom makes to the guys

joe veleno (90) - if bambi was a closeted italian canadian hockey player. wears an evil eye bracelet and also a crucifix? very meek and easy to bully, tbh, not our most productive goalscorer but also somehow he's very crucial to the emotional well being of the younger half of the roster? hes sillygoofy and a sweetheart and does his best every night which is all we can ask tbh. besties with lucas raymond + moritz seider + jake walman.

defensemen

ben chiarot (8) - resident manwhore dilf fashionista who knows he's sexy and loves to be a bitch on the ice. loves to be annoying and distracting @ the opponents during plays so the red wings can have space to move.

shayne gostisbehere (41) - escaped florida man turned into an nhler, sleeper agent defensive weapon that people tend to forget about. always busting his ass up and down the blue line. always looks sopping wet and really sad though? loves to shoot the puck and sometimes it even makes it to the net!

justin holl (3) - i'm hesistant to describe him as "good at hockey" but the boys seem to love him + he's silly enough to engage in the locker room antics + i've noticed him dealing out more hits lately which is always good.

olli maatta (2) - very very very steady in the most boring way possible. does his job and not an ounce more than necessary LOL but it's fine because he's good at what he does? a classic defensive defenseman.

jeff petry (46) - not… good? at hockey? but he is also a michigan native playing for the hometown team, and he's a veteran nhler, and he's a gritty sort of guy, so i like having him. he grew up in detroit proper, as well, because his dad played on the detroit tigers baseball team, so there's a lot of michigan sports lore going on in that household. also his kids are silly + love to come to games

moritz seider (53) - my sweet perfect darling defenseman prodigy. won the calder trophy because he was the most special and talented rookie in his first year in the nhl. breaking team records for defensemen at an alarming rate. was dylan's rookie, and is also frequently mentored by red wings defense legends. he's not a rookie anymore but you can still see how much responsibility he's shouldering and how much he takes after dylan's role modeled behavior/team legacy standards. good at handling tough responsibility vs staying silly anyways. hes my shining star and i luv him. generally he's paired up with jake walman on defense and they're a little bit married because of it. besties with lucas raymond + jake walman + joe veleno.

jake walman (96) - another guy who st louis abandoned and then ended up on the red wings and said "i want to spend my entire life and career in this city" . extremely silly. known for hitting the griddy whenever he scores important goals. big on video games + making tiktoks. tremendous locker room vibes guy, and very emotional and serious about proving his place on detroit's blue line. generally he's paired up with moritz seider on defense and they're a little bit married because of it. besties with moritz seider + lucas raymond + joe veleno.

goalies

ville husso (35) - looks like a haunted little porcelain doll. always sopping wet for some reason. very softspoken and european. mid-good level goalie, kind of needs to prove himself a bit now that alex lyon's gone completely off the shits and taken over starter goalie privileges, but i feel like there's no sense of animosity or competition between them? ville just strikes me as genuinely someone who's delighted and proud of his tandem partners for their successes, even if it comes at his expense / losing some of his chances to get ahead

james reimer (47) - idc about this man lol. he's either a very good goalie or an atrociously horrible goalie and you dont know what it'll be until the games already happening. passively homophobic christian behavior as well which i do not like to see. but he's also a veteran nhl player so in the beginning of the szn he was getting more opportunity than alex or ville.

alex lyon (34) - spent his entire career in the minor league/being traded between franchises where there wasn't really a space or need for him. got on the radar after keeping the florida panthers in their playoff race before losing, and then FL traded him to us. we've had goaltending agonies for years and then he's rolled up to detroit with something to fucking PROVE because he thought his hockey career was about to be over so he's skating every night like its do or die. after reimer and husso both were injured tho he finally got his chance to shine and oh baby he's been shining. unbelievably good at goaltending. big heart, very genuine, very funny, basically a male model as well, been to therapy and actually got something out of it, i would go to war for this man if he needed me to

[astroninaaa]

Can I just.... cellbit suing these people on Twitter feels weird to me. Like they were just believing a potential victim and cellbit didn't exactly refute anything she said previously.

Like I fully believe cellbit and feel bad for him, but suing Twitter users that didn't know that sasa was lying is just odd to me. He should just sue sasa no?

okay yes yes yes yes this is a veeeery good point!!!! thats what i was saying in one of my previous posts - imo the BEST defense these people have is they were just trying to believe a victim, he never denied the claims, in some ways he even agreed with them! he admitted to making mistakes, said he got therapy and changed for the better! and he said all that regarding the accusations, so, like. it was easy to draw the implication that he was owning up to it.

the thing is that there was never any proof, never any investigation, never any judicial action taken against him, never even an official accusation, nothing. it was all sasa's words against his silence. and while yes people were just believing a potential victim, there are limits to things. i believed her for years. i didn't, however, harrass him online because of it. i think the only good way of understanding WHY he's suing specific people is to actually see the tweets, so i'll put some under the cut and talk about them:

[TWs: mentions of pedophilia, abuse, racism, sexual assault, domestic violence, suicide]

this says "here cellbit, a fan for you to abuse just like you did with sasa."

erm. erm. erm. i don't think i even NEED to say anything like what the FUCK is this about.

"Cellbit morally harrassed his ex, made nazi and pedo jokes in old minecraft videos and on twitter, now he changed and everyone likes him because he measures his words, why doesn't Forever get the same treatment? It's selective, admit it"

now, analogies to nazism and pedophilia are both crimes in brazil. this person is accusing him of both without even indicating any proof whatsoever? those are both very serious crimes with very serious punishments.

(i don't speak spanish bear with me. pls feel free to correct me if i translate it wrong)

"the hispanic QSMP community should ask itself if it's right to follow and support someone like cellbit, someone who abused his ex girlfriend, who is a racist and a pedophile, never apologized, and his fans say that his ex girlfriend doesnt want to keep talking about the topic but the truth is that she doesn't for people to keep associating her with something like cellbit, not that she wants people to forget what he did or to act like it never happened. being friends with roier doesn't mean he's a good person."

all the racism and pedophilia claims come mainly from a joke made over 10 years ago. again, he never got convicted of or investigated for anything. this is both difamação AND calúnia tbh

"people are calling him [forever] a pedo because he made a nasty joke lmaooo cellbit would beat the fucking shit out of his girlfriend and it doesnt matter, everything's okay lmaoooo i cant believe this"

there are actually quite a few tweets about cellbit supposedly beating his girlfriend up but sasa never claimed that he did that. she accused him of psychological abuse, not physical. so saying they were just "believing the victim" doesn't work with this accusation specifically, because they literally made it up and it doesn't match with any of her claims, specially back at the time when she hadn't accused him of sexual assault yet.

so interesting to see people literally admitting theyre accusing him of abuse without knowing the details

"people juggle like crazy to ignore the fact cellbit hit sasa, now understanding what Authentic said is impossible"

again, she never claimed he hit her. authentic is another minecraft youtuber who got canceled for saying homophobic stuff.

"is cellbit the one who abused sasa? i'm hoping he kills himself"

yeahhhhhhh there's over 200 of these.

the reason he's suing all these people isn't simply because they believed sasa - it's because they harrassed him. harrassed him, actively tried to harm his image, brought him up when he wasn't even a topic (like to defend forever or authentic) just to say he commited crimes without any proof that he actually committed. so while i think people will be able to say they were just believing the victim, the truth is that he has a lot of support to his claims of being accused of shit without proof. he even added documents to his action that prove he's never been investigated or sued for ANYTHING.

finally, regarding him suing sasa: i bet he will. i'm like, 100% he's already suing her. it's probably under judicial secrecy for now, and we might never get access to it, but,,,,, yeah. he's definitely suing her as well, i think he's just also taking action against people who harrass him online after seven years of taking it silently.

that's the overall i hope it made sense and wasn't too long asjkdbkajsbd still open to answer any other questions :)

[vro0m]

Brocedes hasnt been brocedes all year. Its just a lot more ovi now. We got a certified nico lewis situation at merc. Toto picking the wrong guy once again. Whats new?

Okay first of all I wanna say this can't be a Nico - Lewis situation. There will never be a Nico - Lewis situation again. But I guess what you mean is there's an open, direct rivalry at Merc again. Which. Yeah sure. That's usually what happens. I'm not surprised it's happening, we mentioned it before.

(long post)

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Toto picking the wrong guy once again'. If you mean in the context of hiring George, I disagree because George is a very good driver. If you mean in the race, I highly doubt Toto is the one making the strategy calls in the middle of things. At the very most, the strategists tell him the options and he might green-light one of them.

They've been having strategy issues for a while now. That's also something we've talked about before. If anything, I'd say the issue lies with the strategy team rather than Toto or George. We've said the bad calls were hidden by the good car performance before but also I do think it's gotten worse. Back when it was announced that Vowles was leaving, I said not directly replacing him was bullshit. They claimed the rest of the department would just divide Vowles' workload between themselves. Toto said they'd been doing it already during the '22 season (when did the strategy issues ramp up? idk). What I said at the time was "someone is going to have to make the final decision on strategy" and "otherwise it's not gonna work". It might just not be working.

One thing I'll give credit to George for is that he's trying things. Hasn't there been a convo in the last few weeks with people (including me iirc) saying Merc is too conservative with the strategy? That they need to stop acting like they're at the front, defending rather than behind, chasing? Also isn't it kinda boring when the team doesn't give the car that's qualified behind a chance and only uses it to support the other? (Also with his quali performances lately, wouldn't that do more harm to Lewis than George?) I guess it's just the way being a fan goes, but I feel like every race weekend I see fans of either driver defending what or complaining about what they were complaining about or defending the previous race, depending on who they're rooting for the most. It's okay when it's their blorbo only (which again : just being a fan).

Anyway props to George for being a driver, and asking for more. That's his job. Sometimes it annoys me ngl. Sometimes I feel like he's acting too entitled during the races. But as I also said before, it's not particularly unexpected from a young driver. Lewis was really not that different in his days lol. They all have a chip on their shoulder and they are all essentially starving egotistical cunts. The older ones might just have learnt to hide it slightly better through the years. Slightly. Is Lewis being more of a team player? On track, probably so, props to him for that. Don't know how long it's gonna last in these conditions though, given that he's also a starving egotistical cunt. Off track, he's complaining very loudly and unsubtly about not being prioritised by the team in a not-so-great way imo. I'm repeating myself yet again but it's not as easy as just saying here's what needs fixing with the car, then claiming they're not listening to him when it doesn't suddenly work. Merc is truly fumbling with the development, and patience is not Lewis' greatest virtue lol. He's clearly getting frustrated with the performance, understandably so. I'm simultaneously pretty sure that's true for the whole team, not just him. So him saying they're not doing their best and voluntarily just not doing what he wants is probably not helping.

I do think that the team is gonna have to find a way to make it work between them two on track before they take each other out or straight up disobey team orders out of hunger or frustration. But well. Do I have to link the essay again? (Sorry for bringing it up 10 times a week.) It's not that easy managing intra-team rivalries and I see some people claiming they should pick a n°1 driver but how? Right now, Lewis and George are on par in quali (8-8). George has less points for sure but you also gotta take into account that he's had four terrible races in the year, not always by his fault (although sometimes yes). Outside of these four races, their results are very similar. This is not a Max-Perez type of gap by far. Lewis is most probably not gonna stay for 10 more years despite what he sometimes likes to pretend, George might. I'm still rooting for Lewis first and everybody else second but if you look at this realistically, it's not as simple as saying to George "look we're betting on you for the future, someday, but until Lewis retires you'll always be a second thought to us. But you know, still stay with us and take it lying down. Toodles!" He's completely right about it, but it's easier for Lewis to say "we're fighting for the team not for driver points" when he's the one ahead in the standings. Because what? You always always have to do better than your teammate. (Again, sorry for bringing it up constantly.)

In some way the issue with both of them is impatience. Lewis is impatient to have a good car again and he's starting to somewhat take it out on the team which isn't ideal. For all they looove saying we win and we lose together, that's not a supportive behavior claiming publicly they're just not listening to him. George is impatient to get track position and to beat his team-mate and he's rushing the racing too much, making rookie mistakes in the process (see Singapore) and demanding sometimes more than his due during races.

So yeah I think they need to rein them both in — one off track, one on track — but also without rejecting all new ideas and all questioning, both when it comes to the car and when it comes to the race strategy. It's not gonna be easy, but it's definitely gonna be very interesting.

[thaly-does]

Sooo I came [back] to the SPN fandom after many many years of being completely out and [thanks to my dearest] this time I'm going to fully dedicate myself to wincest.

Naturally, I'm a multishipper. I don't care much how many other pairings with my fav chars exist / usually I ship more than one thing per fandom or per character.

But them. Oh, them.

The Winchesters. Sam and Dean. Dean and Sam. I hear how their names merge in my head into something entwisted so much it'll never get unraveled again.

They. Have. Everything.

In my usual little doll plays with the characters I prefer to go rather dark. Rather sick. Sometimes, rather dirty. Not for the sake of general evilness, naturally and inevitably inherent to being an artist, but for the sake of feelings.

The contrast is better where it's darker. The light is brighter. The love is sweeter when there's pain, the hope is luminous when there's despair. The contrast enhances the emotional impact.

But Dean and Sam? Sam and Dean?

They already have it. They have everything and anything. The pitch black and the beam light. It's been made canon, probably, years ago.

Then I thought: what had ever made my brain go full-time crazy mod? What had ever squeezed my heart so tight I couldn't breathe?

Here are some of the best [imo] moment of my other fandom's biggest OTPs. Some ships are canon, some are not. But all of the moments DID canonically happens. [I'm using X & Y so it's more descriptive]

X & Y are constantly being forced to fight each other despite their genuine connection. the forcing power massively prevails their own. that's how their relationship starts... and how it ends, with X finally forced to kill Y. then X has to restart the whole world so they could be together again.

X & Y met when both were mentally down and then spent a horrible amount of time being tortured in the cruelest way alongside each other. later, they could let go of their twisted connection. but they don't.

X silently begs Y to kill him after committing the Literally Worst Crimes Possible for which he'll never forgive himself. Y complies. Y never stops thinking about X.

X spends his whole life protecting Y with growing understanding that Y will never accept his nature.

X sacrifices himself sexually, mentally and physically at once to the person he despises the most - simply in order for Y to get away from that monster.

X (who's kind of been a psycho murderer) went through a terrible experience where half his personality got destroyed. Y takes care of him despite the previous attempt of X to kill Y in cold blood. They end up fixing it (in a way).

X is obsessed with Y to a weird, absolutely not redeemable level. Body dismemberment included.

X is successfuly fighting the massive-level brainwashing so he doesn't hurt Y, although everyone they both knew and loved die around them.

X goes so mental after Y dies that he is committing a terrorist attack suicide so the world could feel their pain.

X goes full on self-sacrifice during a rescue attempt for Y [okay that's way more than one thing but it gets me every time!]

X says "Hey Y, we die together or no way at all". and so they do.

X never recovers after betraying Y and later goes through big torture time with the thought it was deserved for that betrayal.

X & Y [& a kid] slash through an endless amount of enemies so they could be a family together

X & Y are destined to be together but they go "fuck destiny"... and stay together for who they are.

X & Y fight together against a clearly overpowered villain. and win.

X & Y seem to desperately want to finish each other off but never act upon it when there's an opportunity. they're so different that they're the same.

X dies in a stupid accident. Y tries to save his life, and, when it's not possible anymore, dies alongside, refusing to live in a world without him.

X dies and Y can't let go of the corpse. Even when the rotting visibly starts.

X has memory issues but he's done some terrible things (child murder, massacre). There is solid proof. Y does not believe that for a second, because Y knows X to the core.

None, I mean it, none of these is wincest.

But, looking back... How many of them fit to be? How many of them could fit with the right situation? How many of literally (imo) most heart-moving tropes seem to be made for this pairing of brothers whose love trascends any normal limits?

So, yeah... I'm really gonna dedicate myself to wincest these days.

[sequestered-song-skirmish]

Quarterfinals Poll 4

Fang into Vein：　「okay listen.

Not only is this a chilling and beautiful song about vampires (the way he sings "it means nothing to me" the first time?! HOLY SHIT) it also is by someone so fantastic I don't have words for it.

So he is a Trans Elder TM, he is iconic for many reasons but most of all because he transitioned publicly in his mid 40s after having an established career and EXPLAINED THAT HE IS A CHANGELING, that a faerie had lived his life for him under a glamour while he the real boy had been kept in faerieland! It's the best metaphor of all time and he has stuck to it for 15 years no matter how much it baffles cis people. Also he is kind and thoughtful and if he were a spiritual leader I would follow him. Might be too popular for this bracket but this song only has 1.7k plays on youtube (I can't check spotify because I don't have a computer)... so, thank you for your consideration!」

Previous propaganda

hourglass：　「hourglass is a pop-like song written, performed, and produced by one person: yacine! Utilizing a more dream-like feeling in the music production, the lyrics share what's it's like to go through day by day and night by night while bearing the stresses of daily living. yacine! also references their faith as a Muslim person, "Inshallah you'll guide me / Inshallah you'll listen" which represents the faith that helps guide them through their day-by-day.

Also, yacine! is just criminally under discovered as a whole. Imo, she deserves way much more views/listens. (Also, yacine! uses any pronouns!)」

[aghostwithnoname]

DATV GAMEPLAY SPOILERS

In other words, don't read this if you don't want my hot take.

So for the past week, I've fallen off the deep end to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard to avoid whatever the fuck is going on in the world.

First, for the pros.

The game is visually very stunning, and by the gods, the character customization is fucking amazing. The HAIR. The complexions! The scars and the FACT YOU CAN FINALLY BE A FAT HERO. My god, I spent two hours alone just creating my Rook. I LOVE that we finally have a Thedas that actually reflects the diversity of our world.

For the first time in the Dragon Age series, I can actually play as a nonbinary person and have that be recognized by the story!!!! I love that Neve is disabled, and it's not even the main focus of her character! Thank god for finally giving us a cast of companions that aren't white!

Partly why I wanted to support the game, despite knowing about all of its troubled development, was because we need to show as players that we want and support this kind of content and thus will show a demand for it in our capitalist hellscape. (I don't make the rules - that's just how this stupid industry works.)

Now, despite giving us ALL of that, this now brings me to the cons.

Veilguard just doesn't *feel* like part of the Dragon Age franchise.

Maybe it's just me but like 20-30 hours into it and I just... I'm not feeling it, guys. Like it feels like the devs just fired all the writers and threw the flashy battle mechanics of God of War, *some* of the relationship dynamics of BG3, and the user interface of Mass Effect (which for the record, I don't actually like Mass Effect) into a blender and produced... whatever this is.

The dialogue is so... bland. I skip through half of it and I *never* skipped through dialogue in any of the previous games. Progressing on this plot feels like a chore, because there is literally nothing else to do except pursue the main story line. The world deceptively *looks* expansive, but you're really just being funneled from one major plot point to the next with no room to breathe.

What was fun about BG3 is that you could drop down a fucking hole in some random part of the Underdark and the game REWARDED you for your curiosity or your weirdness (lick the spider, goddammit!). By contrast, even though GoW was basically one plot, it was poignant and meaningful because of the excellent dialogue, acting, and relationships - you cared about Kratos and Atreus and Angrboda and Thrud and Thor because they were excellently explored. Imo, BioWare clearly saw these games winning game of the year over the last decade that they've been working on the next DA game, got jealous, tried to mimic these elements to chase the success of these franchises and failed miserably, while also just not understanding the unique idiosyncrasies of the franchise they themselves created.

As someone who has played origins, awakening, da2, and inquisition, at least i felt there was some tonal consistency - despite the fact we can all argue what the "best" game was. Like, your companions are snarky and funny and weird in ways that are completely irrelevant to saving the continent, and we know the Chantry is fucked but so are the apostates and the Qun and the Dalish, and there are no clear "good guys" vs "bad guys", and not EVERYTHING said is plot-relevant.

Sweet Andraste, I think Bellara's said "The Evanuris - you know the elven gods!" like about 50 times already. I get it that they want new people to come into the world and understand what's going on, but it just feels like the devs are holding my hand like I'm a little kid who cannot be trusted to know what's going on or make their own decisions.

Don't even get me started on how Varric is narrating everything, telling me how to feel about what I am going through. It's like on top of all this disjointed gameplay mechanics and narrative design, BioWare is trying to tell me it's all okay, even though it is not.

Maybe the next 60 hours will change my mind... (I haven't even MET my loves Davrin or Taash yet) By the Maker, I hope it does.

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Boy Bands In 5 Minutes (post 2/2)

Part 2! Let's get right into this! (For part 1 go here)

...There's a lot going on with the outfits here, but I'm assuming it's decade/era-appropriate? (I learned from one reaction video that apparently the poncho/jumper/hoodie thing that Geoff is wearing is something that people used to wear to the beach a lot or something?)

Geoff used to wear a bowtie a lot when he had shorter hair (apparently, though I don't watch a lot of VP's older stuff), but this is basically the only time that we see Geoff wearing a bowtie since growing his hair out (well, wearing a tied-up bowtie anyway)

I did a study/analysis thing on the varying positionings/line-up orders of the group during this video (haven't bothered to psot it though), and fun fact: Geoff spends the majority of this video on the left side of the screen!

This guy is Rek Dunn, who was a production assistant and friend of the group for many years, before he sadly passed away in 2021 (the Halo theme cover that Voiceplay did that year is in honour of him)

The only outfit change done phyiscally on camera and not via quick cuts. Pay attention to Layne!

The absolute drama. Iconic, we stan 👌😂

Backstreet Boys time! The outfits are similiar to what they started the video wearing, but with a few changes. E.g. they're wearing white pants rather than black, Eli's wearing a white fedora, and Geoff is wearing a singlet/tank top (one of the first times (if not the first time) that Geoff has been the only one with bare shoulders in a Voiceplay video, and certainly not the last (hey, if you've got it, flaunt it!))

Back to NSYNC, this time for the song "pop". And yes, if you haven't figured it out already, this section is filled with scenes relating to "pop" and all its meanings/connotations. So in this shot the guys are playing with balloons (which can pop), then they're tossing around bubble wrap (which people often enjoy popping), then they're eating bubblegum (which you can blow bubbles with, which can then pop), then dancing in bubbles/using bubble guns (see previous), and then doing a toast/cheers with cans of soda/soft drink, which Americans sometimes refer to as "pop".

This section alone must have taken a bit of time to set up and film each scene for, but I bet they had a really fun time with it (must be a ton of bloopers/outtakes)

According to commenters, Voiceplay are in fact doing the same choreography for One Direction's Best Song Ever as was used in the original music clip.

(Also I saw part of a 1D music video on a public TV screen a couple weeks ago and I was like "okay but why is Harry Styles' appearance here giving me Geoff vibes? 😅" (I think it was partially the hair, and partially the fact that Geoff lives rent-free in my head))

Geoff flossing XD (he also did it at the end of his Monster Mash video, or one of his selves did it at least)

Earl, Eli, and J are absolutely killing it with the fashion here! (I wanna know how many of the clothes used were already owned, and how many were acquired just for the video?)

Eli back at it again with the sunglasses-as-fashion-accessory (without wearing them), and also I just realized his pants are the same that he was wearing in the Pop section of the video just a bit earlier. Also J's shirt reminds me of the blazer/jacket he wore in the Queen Medley.

Also it's about time I acknowledge those light bars/poles that have been in the background the whole time and changing colours for the different scenes. Eli's the lighting whiz of the group, so they were likely his idea/doing (and he is credited with lighting in the description), and they're definitely a brilliant addition to the video!

I don't know how much rehearsal time went into this whole thing, but Voiceplay did an overall fantastic job at the choreography.

(Maybe I would have been fine doing this video as just one post, but better safe than sorry imo) So yeah, amazing video, amazing arrangement, amazing performance. What more can I say? They might not be boys (anymore), but Voiceplay is definitely my favourite band! 😁

[the-halcyon-effect]

copying @jackfromthefairytale again but it's the imminence album this time

come hell or high water: this was honestly my least favorite of the singles, it's good but it's kinda repetitive. i think it's good as an opening song tho

desolation: first song i heard by this band! it's good, and a VERY good description of their sound, but there's not much more new i have to say.

heaven shall burn: 2nd favorite of the singles, behind the title track. eddie is pissed off and i am in danger 👍

beyond the pale: first new track! i have high hopes

ooh that's an architectsy riff. i like it

OOH THOSE VOCAL LAYERS IN THE CHORUS ARE SO GOOD GJEKIDJDOSKEKDPLSKSKDLSK

their architects influence is SHOWING and i am PERFECTLY okay with that

oh it's breakdown time. obliterate me pls

YUP I'M GETTING OBLITERATED

i call these "train breakdowns" because they feel like getting run over by a train OH WE'RE STILL GOING WAIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DEATHCORE NOW‽‽‽‽ and now it's just the chorus again. holy shit

eddie berg how do you do that. just how.

death by a thousand cuts: VERY good track! this is the song i use to describe imminence's sound. wasn't my favorite of the singles but it's still one i put on often bc it's still SO GOOD

come what may: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT INTRO THIS IS HEAVIER THAN CONTINUUM

OH FUCK THAT STACATTO (? forgot the word) VIOLIN IS SO GOOD

GENUINELY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS HOLY SHIT IT'S LONGER THAN THE TITLE TRACK

THIS IS ALREADY BETTER THAN ALL THE SINGLES WHAT oh and now the chugs are broken jesus christ

genuinely how the fuck is this the same band as songs like erase. this is fucking brutal i love it

this one might beat the new mts song as my fav song this year so far

oh no it's breakdown time. i am about to die

oh? maybe not? are we getting a violin solo?? yeah i'm ABSOLUTELY down for that

OH THE DRUMS COMING IN TOO WITH THE GLITCHY SNARE oooouuuughhh (nonsexual)

this is their best song ever. like there's no contest WHAT'S THIS OH THE GUITARS ARE BACK THIS IS SOME SYMPHONIC METAL SHIT

and you're telling me this ISN'T the closing song. wtf

welp that's gonna be on repeat for a while

cul-de-sac: gonna guess this one is an intermission, it's pretty short and also following up whatever that was

yup sounds like it. it's cool tho. kinda reminds me of the intro of viking by stp in a weird way

this album is wild so far. like i'm trying to also level up my d&d character but i can't because i have too much to say

the call of the void: ok the intermission built up at the end so this is gonna hit hard i'm ready

I WAS NOT READY WHAT IS THIS

that's not a guitar. those are bombs.

man. when heaven shall burn came out i thought it was gonna be the heavy one. then continuum came out and i thought it was this one. now eddie is just screaming "RAGE" at me and i am happy

also. very good chorus. i enjoy

it takes some skill to make an album where this ISN'T the best song. like holy shit

breakdown???? i'm in danger

oh we got the low cleans. this is ABSOLUTELY gonna be a breakdown

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

eddie berg is not human. that was a banshee. with bombs.

continuum: while this one was a great single i kinda wish it wasn't released as one. it would have been great to have to process this while still recovering from the previous song. plus there were too many singles for this album imo

l'apelle du vide: tbh i have no idea what to expect here but if i had to guess i think it's gonna be acoustic (like the arabic one on heaven in hiding)

ok yup i was right

this acoustic guitar is beautiful

oh this is GOOD!! this is kinda some ghost atlas shit

are we gonna get vocals on this? it doesn't sound like it but i don't mind that tbh

why is there a boat horn what's happening

oh i guess there are vocals (technically)

OH THE DRUMS

OH THIS IS AMAZING

god i love this band so much

the black: best of the singles, easily. would be best of this album if not for come what may. to be honest, though, i don't think it should have been a single. l'apelle du vide gives a really nice chance to rest and recover from the pure brutality of the previous tracks, and having something new afterwards would have been nice. to be clear, though, this is not a huge problem at ALL and it's frankly the only complaint i have about this song.

le noir: idk much french but i think "le noir" is french for "the black", so i'm guessing this is gonna be an alternate version of the title track but in french (kinda like the spanish version of temptation they did). the only reason i have to doubt that is that that's typically the sort of thing that would be a standalone release or on a deluxe version, but here they have it as the closing track of the album, so idk. we'll see!

oh it's only 3 minutes? maybe i was wrong. this violin is beautiful tho

ok this is interesting. i have no clue where this is going

oh this is fucking beautiful

it's kinda expanding on the melody of the title track, i like it a lot

okay yeah i'm crying now. this is amazing

okay that was an incredible album. final thoughts time!

first, i know this is kinda nitpicky, but there were way too many singles for this one. if it were me, i would have kept continuum and the black unreleased before this. the only new parts in the last part of the album were the acoustic instrumental tracks, which were good, but i would have wanted it to be a fully new experience, especially for the title track itself.

as for the good stuff, where the FUCK do i even begin??? this is somehow simultaneously the heaviest and most emotional this band has ever been, and in my opinion it's also the best. this album really is an emotional rollercoaster, with tracks like heaven shall burn and the call of the void being absolutely brutal, while songs like dbatc and all the acoustic stuff being super emotional, and then there's ALSO songs like come what may that are just both at once. besides the nitpick i had earlier, i never knew even remotely what to expect, and that was fantastic of them. i really wish i could forget every song and listen to the whole thing with fresh ears, because i can only imagine how hard it would hit having not heard any of the singles.

i do also wanna talk about the acoustic stuff specifically, because imminence has always done that SO WELL. i do wish we got a proper acoi track with vocals, though, because that kinda felt like it was missing here. not only did we get one both on turn the light on (love & grace) and heaven in hiding (the arabic one), but they had 3 whole fully acoustic songs, and i feel like it would have been nice if one of them had vocals as well, especially the last one. le noir felt to me more like an intermission than a closing track, and i wish it either had vocals, was longer and had more melody, or was moved to before the title track.

to be clear: this is an AMAZING album. it's gonna have to take something absolutely MASSIVE to beat this for my aoty. the complaints i have don't even come CLOSE to outweighing how masterfully done the album as a whole is, and they're also quite literally the only things i can complain about.

also, i'm not gonna do a full ranking of the tracks from worst to best until i listen to the album more, but come what may is the best track. like there's no contest.

[lululawrence]

After reading your post explaining why 3 concerts in Ohio, I'm curious about your opinion on this. So Louis could have done fewer shows and bigger venues per show (like for example only 1 concert in Ohio but in a big venue) requiring more fans to travel to each concert, and it'll be less effort for him, although I think he enjoys the travelling to new places to see fans. I've been seeing people shade Louis saying he can't sell out MSG like Niall. And I'm here confident Louis can if he put it on his tour schedule and my simple reasoning is that if had fewer concerts around the NY area, it will encourage fans to make a trip to NY for a larger venue show like MSG, but I imagine you know the geography side and ticket buying habits more than me. What are your thoughts?

Oof okay so this is all just my own opinion so people can obviously disagree, but here’s the thing from my point of view. There’s so much more at play than just venue size and geography/demographics to fill it. The larger the venue, the more staff that will be required to put on the show from Louis’ end but also the venue’s end to accommodate the increase in numbers. That often translates to an increase in ticket prices to account for the higher numbers for Louis’ team and their own expenses as well as the cost the venue will pass on to him just to book it etc. something he’s been open about especially in this last round of promo was how he’s making a concerted effort to keep things affordable for the fans, at least as much as he possibly can manage to, and we have a lot of sources telling us that touring costs for the artists only continue to skyrocket (much like everything else right now). So if he chose to do fewer shows but tried to make up for that with larger venues, maybe even booking them for a couple nights to allow people better chances at seeing him there… well you’d basically end up with the residencies Harry did this past year in the US, wouldn’t you? And that was accessible for exactly……….. well. Not very many. Not to totally diss the residencies. As an artist, residencies are big deals and are much easier for them in a lot of ways! I understand the appeal for sure. But if accessibility is your biggest goal, that’s not going to be the way to achieve it.

So could he do that? Yeah absolutely and I’m some cases it would probably be for the best honestly. But he didn’t, at least not here, and I’m personally grateful for that.

So, now we have that lead in, if Louis were to adjust just a few shows and instead do a night at MSG, do I think he could sell it out? Uh, yes. Easily. Like, who the fuck is gonna stop us, right? Lol See, MSG is a special case and a scenario that is different from saying “why not condense the three Ohio shows in smaller amphitheaters to one larger centralized show in nationwide arena?” No one knows what nationwide arena is unless you’re super into Columbus hockey or have attended a previous show there lol it’s not a destination in and of itself or a dream venue anyone has on their list of places to play or attend a concert. For that you need a place like Red Rocks…….or MSG.

So imo announcing a show at MSG alone is going to bring more attention and make people a lot more willing to travel a much further distance than they usually would because… it’s Madison Square Garden. Even my phone knows to capitalize that lol but add to that the fact this is Louis and Louies are not exactly known for being chill or relaxed fans? I have exactly zero doubt that Louis could sell it out. We’d see a higher ticket price most likely due to the larger venue, but I doubt anyone would complain because they’d get the chance to witness Louis on stage in one of the most well known venues out there. That alone seems pretty damn worth it and I think most Louies would agree.

But for now I’m incredibly proud of the guy we all support going out there and doing his best to really get in an easy travel distance for most of the US population in ways almost no other artist has done in recent years all while trying to keep ticket prices at a reasonable level. We truly chose well when we named him our king haha

[alphinias]

If you accept a different argument for Chenford ;) - I actually don't agree with you and your anons about Chenford. Sure Tim almost dying in the last episode was anticlimatic and it had big potential but the scene that followed where they went into a flirty banter with smirking was top notch and showed their chemistry and their good old banter really well. I also think they used that scene to show Aaron's mind and character. He seems to be the one who's clearly onto them, whether he thinks they're together or just have feelings for each other. They've established similar reactions from Tamara and Angela and i think they'll play important role in the upcoming episodes when they'll either come out with the truth or be exposed by someone else.

I also think not all love declarations in fiction need to be big and dramatic. I think fans often want stuff that come across as too dramatic or fanfiction-y. And in Chenford's case they have years of friendship going on. They don't need to dramatically explode, telling each other they're in love. They already know they the other one has feelings based on ep1 and2 when they were about to have sex and then acknowledged it, followed by all the angst in s5. They're actually really good at communicating. Even when Tim doesn't want to show his vulnerability, Lucy always gets it out of him. He doesn't share his stuff with anyone but her. They know each other inside out. So I don't think they needed a more dramatic first kiss. That whole last scene was the sweetest ever - they were both just really content and secure with each other. Could they have done with more angst in the previous episodes? Sure. But i think that's because it's an ensemble cast and there's not enough time (i wish there was less Nolan scenes lol). Right now, let them have a few episodes of pure bliss. Drama will hit them soon enough. And it may not just be work related - there's also Chris, her past relationship with Nolan, Isobel could come back, Lucy could go UC for a longer period and it'd mess with Tim's head due to his history... Also, people want slow burn but this is season 5 already. There's nothing worse than waiting for this long for a ship with the best chemistry to finally happen only for it to be canceled/actors leaving with hardly any happily together time :)

Sure- and honestly I’m happy that the people like you who love it are satisfied and happy with the result of the slow burn they’ve been waiting on. I mean that. I like to see people happy with their ships. And I realize I seem to be in the minority with being underwhelmed with Chendord’s canon. That’s fine. I’m happy for the fandom that I am.

Most of this stuff we just have different opinions on and that’s not gonna change. I have mine so I’m not gonna yammer on for too long about what I think and all the things I think could’ve been better because I already have. I think the scenes needed to have more weight, and you don’t. We just don’t agree. But imo (okay I guess I am gonna yammer a bit) BECAUSE we waited so long for the slow burn, we deserved something more substantial and not just “cute”. They could’ve gotten together at the exact same time and it could’ve been ten times more satisfying, easily. It’s CHENFORD. They deserve a memorable canon scene/turning point and not to get together basically like any old ship on the show.

I respect your views but the only thing I’m gonna totally call BS on is the ensemble cast not having enough time thing. That’s just an excuse and they DID have enough time, had they used it in a different way. Plenty of my favorite ships do not involve the main character and had huge emotional arcs to getting together, like Stydia. It’s the writers’ job to utilize all their characters and scenes in efficient ways.

And just to make it clear, I do think the chenford scenes are cute. Their chemistry is excellent so of course they’re cute. It just feels unsatisfying to me in the lack of impact and fulfilling storyline. You see it as not needing to be fanfic-y, and I see it as it’s a television show and the whole point is to be entertained. These emotional moments between your biggest ship should be a little more magical than real life, and it doesn’t have to be fanficy and stupid to reach that.

[tuiyla]

(return of the s2 quinn anon) oh man ok. i think that her returning to the cheerios and even selling santana out to reclaim her spot as captain made sense. i love when she tells sue off in mattress (“i don’t want to be a member of a team where i only appear to belong, i’d rather be a member of a club that’s proud to have me like glee club”) but there’s more than one glimpse in the back 9 of her wanting the status and power she had once before back. and it makes sense for her to want to reclaim those things after everything she went through the prior year. her and sam are fine. kind of bland imo (i do not ship her w any of these men lmao) but fair enough. another example of her aiming for status with him becoming the new quarterback and gaining popularity. one thing that stuck out to me rewatching the show though is that quinn really doesn’t feel like a major player after the front 13. there’s probably more than one episode in the back 9 where she only has one or two lines of dialogue. i guess she gets more to do in 2A? there’s some interesting stuff at play there with her wanting that popularity, status, and power back. there’s definitely a contrast from the more softened quinn we had in the later half of season 1. but again, makes sense after everything she’s been through. her quitting the cheerios alongside the girls is nice. and then you hit fuinn 2.0 😭 man. she feels like the human equivalent of an obstacle for finchel in 2B. you know those two will inevitably find their way back to each other. i guess it also makes sense quinn would go back to finn once more? thinking about how her relationships with men tend to have that theme of helping her obtain or retain status. they were the picture perfect couple at one point the previous year, bound to be prom king and queen. they look perfect on paper. and god the speech she gives to rachel in original song. the future she has envisioned of her and finn being those high school sweethearts who will settle down, start a family, she’ll become a real estate agent, and rachel is destined for much bigger things. thinking about her last season tearfully telling luck after he learns of the pregnancy revelation that she really thought she had a shot of getting out of lima and now she’s resigned herself to the idea of this future for herself. the obsession with being prom queen. (an absolutely insane line is her going on about how you can get married as many times as you want but you only have one shot at your junior prom 😭 girl) and then the subsequent breakdown when she loses. that bathroom scene with rachel. finn breaks up with her and then the new york breakdown. santana and brittany offer her as much comfort as they can, encourage her to get a haircut, and that’s a wrap on the season. but she’s very clearly not okay, made even more evident the very next season. i don’t think she loved finn but i can imagine she must have felt painfully alone at the end of season 2 and that she inherently had nothing. finn back with rachel, santana and brittany have each other, it didn’t seem like her friendship with mercedes was prevalent at all throughout the year. which is a whole other tragedy. i think it could maybe be argued that she did her absolute best to repress the trauma she went through in season 1 with all of her actions the following year. rejoining the cheerios, regaining her popularity, dating sam, dating finn, wanting to be prom queen. and then it all comes crumbling down at the end. her arc that season makes some sort of sense when you type it all out and look at it from a deeper perspective than the writers themselves probably did but it’s hard to watch at times, especially 2B with cheating on sam, getting back together with finn, the prom queen fiasco. especially feeling that the finn thing in particular was just to cause some drama for him and rachel and reunite those two at the end of the season.

Well damn I'm sorry I passed the ball back to you Anon just to leave you hanging for a month. That's my bad, hope you're still around, hope you're well. Right, so season 2 Qunnie.

I view the shift from late season 1 Quin to season 2 Quinn, in terms of in-universe attitude at least, exactly like you said. As her trying to completely erase her pregnancy and everything she went through. Call it a trauma response/defense mechanism, but whatever it is it really just feels like... she resets. And that becomes a joke with Quinn as even in later seasons she seems to return to square one eyoooo Glee writers what's good. But you, I think in s2 at least it makes sense. And we see how her pretense crumbles after Prom Queen and then the breakdown in New York leading into her skank era. Skank Quinn is just the manifestation of everything she was pushing down in season 2, and she was pushing everything down. (On a Doylist level Quinn's demotion is the writers truly not knowing what to do with her once Santana takes on the Alpha Bitch role.)

I hate that she just exists to be an obstacle for Finchel, too. Fuinn 2.0 makes no sense even if we buy that Finn would be oh so popular and that appeals to Quinn. To be fair, I never bought Fuinn 1.0 either rip so there's that. I can even understand why Quinn would want to convince herself and others through Finn, fine, but why is Finn with her again? I get it man she is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen but you cannot tell me he even likes her, much less loves her. Makes no sense except that the love triangle needs to be revitalized. Bleh. We can make it work for Quinn's ch especially through things like her infamous "get it right" speech (which is so depressing btw, "god that speech" indeed) but she's clearly not taking center stage in her own story. Finchel are. Just as, I'd argue, she wasn't central even in her own pregnancy storyline.

Like you say, that's the hard part. That's what makes it hard to watch because not only is she villainized but she's so sad throughout it all. And it's not even about her! This girl is so clearly just sad and lonely but the show just does not seem to get that. Every time they explicitly tell us how miserable Quinn really is deep down they have to do a 180 and tell us that despite this she doesn't deserve sympathy, for some reason. That reason mostly being that she's our number one Finchel obstacle. Idk if a better course of action would have been keeping her together with Sam. Like you, I don't much care for them. But I guess it's better than Fuinn? Man, almost anything's better than Fuinn. (Crazy how I can see ZERO chemistry with those two because when it's bts videos of Cory and Dianna I'm like, oh! those two! so cute!)

I think the original question was what I think of Quinn's season 2 arc? Haha sorry that OG question was so long ago. But yeah I guess all of this, just forever shaking my head that the writers were never willing to center Quinn. But her season 2 stuff isn't terrible and I wish they did more with her backstabbing Santana and that rivalry. Especially because they then just quit the Cheerios halfway through the season?! And somehow, even though both of them are obsessing over their image in s2B we get not one word of how not being cheerleaders anymore negatively affected their status. And don't tell me it didn't. Anyway that's a Quinntana post for another day.

[magpierrecanarie]

Found the design sheet! Only took me a while to sort through the mess that's my "my stuff 2" folder. I don't even know why I named it that since this laptop is literally my own.

TL;DR: I talk about my Vocaloid Oliver design, show some progress pics and talk more regarding his overall concept.

↓↓ Click here if you'd like to know more! ↓↓

So... if you've been following me for a bit, you'll probably realize that I've changed from posting everyday to posting every other day. Well, about that, it's because I realized that I'll actually run out of artworks at this rate since I'm relatively slow in making art in general.

Which brings me to today's topic! I'd like to talk about some of the process I go through whenever I design a character, or in this case: Oliver.

Like, I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not exactly good at art, sometimes I reuse poses and it ticks me off, othertimes I literally reuse identical character distinctions and it takes me a while before realizing. However, I do always try my best to not have overlapping character designs so that every one of them is unique in their own way. My personal favourite trick is to add something that's awfully big and obvious that makes them look clearly different, even when they're completely shaded over with black (Oliver's tail).

First things first, I try to come up with a doodle with some sort of concept in mind. There were actually a couple more pre-concept art doodles that I made a good 4-5 years ago that isn't included in this post, I'm considering posting it (+ another one I drew up a year ago) in a separate post since it's getting a bit late and I don't feel like digging it up.

Since I'm playing around with an Oliver from a universe where the Vocaloids are an alternate version of their original VPs (more clarification in the previous Oliver fanart), + I mentioned that his specific side-effect was borderlining on life-threatening (also in the previous Oliver post), I decided to draw him as half human, half Nessie the Loch Ness Monster.

There were quite a number of reasons why I chose her compared to other monsters: 1) I've always had the headcannon that the PowerFX Vocaloids were like a big family, not necessarily blood-related but they're spiritually bounded to each other. Since I personally believe that Sweet Ann and Big Al are Oliver's new adoptive parents, I think it'll be nice for him to also be a monster in some way. (+ the amount of Oliver is a monster/half-monster headcannons in the fandom is uhh, hoo boy) 2) Oliver has always reminded me of a sailor. I don't know why and I'm pretty sure his entire costume is based off of a pre-existing choir's outfit, so there's literally no reason for it to have ties to the sea. Maybe it's the colour palette? Or maybe a Vocaloid fanfiction I read a long time ago that I've forgotten since then? Idk, but either way I really like the thought that he came from either a family of sailors or a family that lived close to the sea. 3) Okay, if you know anything about the Loch Ness Monster myth, you'd know that its origin is from Scotland and not you know, Britain, where Oliver's supposedly from. And to that I say, my argument as a South-east Asian is that it's CLOSE ENOUGH... Plus, I don't think there's other Sea Monster myths that are as easily recognizable as Nessie, who ironically enough doesn't even live in the sea, rather, she lives in a fucking lake. But still, the other couple of Sea Monsters/Sea Creatures myths that I think are decently popular are probably the Kraken or the Mermaids + Sirens. The Kraken is eliminated from the selection since this isn't supposed to be the Horror genre LOL, and the Mermaids + Sirens are a bit too far regionally, plus they're a bit basic (sorry to all my Mermaids + Sirens lovers out there) imo.

There are some ugly AF doodles here but it's what you go through when you're me, sadly.

Also, if you noticed but here I finalized the design you saw in the previous Oliver fanart where he was wearing a merge of these two testing designs of his cloak:

The former was partially inspired by the Scottish Kilt Sash, though it's not very obvious since Oli's not Scottish so I just took inspo from the way it's usually framed on one's body. The latter however was inspired by manta rays, they look STUPID as hell and I love them, so as a compromise, I merged the two cloaks together and that's what became of the current one! B)

It's actually getting a bit too long for my laptop to handle so I'll leave it here for now.💀💀

See you on Friday! B) Might be posting an original artwork then so you can look forward to it!

[shinmegamitensei2]

For the SMT ask game, #14.

14. Best soundtrack

how could you Fucking do this to me. this is the most impossible task because almost every smt ost bangs and fucks and rips and i go to bat for 99% of them

but uhhh. i can divvy this up by era i think. and none of this is going to be coherent in any way but i think you should take my word as gospel because i'm right

The Early Years (1988-2000):

Majin Tensei II: SPIRAL NEMESIS

this shit SLAPS. the music in majten2 is, uh, quite frankly incredible on the SNES, and the composers (hidehito aoki, misaki okabe, yoshiyuki ito) were on some next-level shit when they scripted out bangers such as A.D. 1995 Story and Smash Up and remakes of two of the previous game's songs (which already were AWESOME) Flame Up Fragment and Bicarbonate of Face and and and,

idk play majin tensei. i'm about to become a majin tensei blogger and stan. did you know that almost all of the majin tensei manga is translated, and all that's left is the rest of vol 4 and all of vol 5? (grabbing your face) DID YOU KNOW!@!!!!

Shin Megami Tensei II

i mean. okay. you knew i was gonna bring this up. who do you fucking think i am. the whole game is wonderfully done and atmospheric, and even with the odd dumbass-theme playing in the BG i just, i dunno, i think it still gives me chills. loading up the game and watching the text scroll to the Title Demo is a lot, listening to that banging Battle theme is intense in a way that no other smt game has reached since IMO, and the Makai map theme is just... really sorrowful! these are the PSX songs because i prefer them over the muddied instruments they used for the original SNES game, but the original isn't bad either!

Megami Tensei II

i think everyone should bare minimum play Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei (2) at least once in their lives, but replace the ost with the original NES version because ohhh my gooooood holy shit there is SUCH a world of difference between the synths used vs the really muddied KMT instrumentation. that aside, the music is just... Good. the battle theme, Death Match, is incredibly intense, TOKIO Adventurer is a fun song to walk to on the overworld map (even being interrupted by demons every 2 steps), OMEGA is a REALLY good final boss theme... it's a bummer they don't get referenced more often! the last time they were was in Majin Tensei, and then again as a total throwaway in SMT5...

The 2000s (2000-2009):

Digital Devil Saga 2

both games go on this list imo, but i uh, i personally really like 2's ost more than 1's. i have no reason for this i just think it's nice. the battle theme Battle for Survival especially, but i just like the whole thing in general? sorry i have nothing else to say here

uhhh. i don't. have. anything else to put here. the other games in this category are good but their osts don't stand out to me... except for Strange Journey, which i. never finished. oougrhghhgfdnjdfjgdgh explodes IT'S SO GOOD THOUGH SO I?? HEARTILY RECOMMEND IT ANYWAY

The Recent Age (2010-Now):

Shin Megami Tensei V

don't talk to me about 5, but if you DO talk to me about 5, talk to me about its ost. of anything in that game, the music and sound direction REALLY stuck with me, it's probably the best the series has ever had to offer

i REALLY like Strength, and yes that is entirely because it feels like OMEGA of megami tensei 2 fame; but the regular battle theme Da'at is great too, and i spent an uncomfortably long time listening to fan recreations of it from the trailers because it was that fucking good to me. honestly the fact that there's so many different battle themes and they all slap is great, they're all fun to listen to. especially Destruction, like fuck dude did they really have to go that hard? (yes)

Soul Hackers 2

gnawing and chewing on 2's ost. i don't care how many people didn't like it, i did, and i think it's really well-done. very very atmospheric! Karakucho is wonderful, COMP SMITH is the GOAT (and i'm glad so many people agree with me!), and even the idiot theme, Cats and ladle, is... very cute! i never thought it out-of-place whenever the team started goofing off, since the idiot theme was never too jarring

... also, Battle of Devil Summoner is bumpin, i'm glad we got to hear this song so many times over the normal battle theme, because. hot damn

i'm not picking a favorite out of any of these are you kidding. except maybe majin tensei 2 that one is undoubtedly a beast. but like. i think everyone should play all of these games and experience their music and have your taste in music irrevocably changed against your will