#reddit isn’t too far behind

[suncchaser]

It’s impressive how bad 95% of marauders fanon actually is. Just bad take after bad take…

[slutforpringles]

What do you think is actually behind the Danny bashing on social media and Reddit lately?

I find it really puzzling, to put it mildly. As if the decision over an RBR or VCARB seat is simple enough to decide 4 races into a 24-race season, which it certainly isn’t.

Some of the Yuki and Liam fans seem to be really young, and for some of them, there seems to be some sort of weird ageism involved in their anti-Ricciardo ranting.

But some of it seems to be an enjoyment of tearing someone down who’s always been popular, despite him not misusing or abusing that popularity

IDK - what are your thoughts, please?

Hey anon! This is actually a really interesting question, and I’d be really interested to hear other people’s thoughts and opinions on too. I think probably how much time you spend online and on which online platforms does probably affect your viewpoint, and obviously this is just my take on the growing anti-DR sentiment based on what I’ve seen/ experienced. 

I think it’s definitely multi-faceted, which is partly why there’s so much of it at the moment, because multiple situations/things have fed into the Daniel hatred. 

I think a very large percentage of it is simply the influx of new fans into the sport that have only seen Daniel drive from the McL era onwards. 

I think a lot of people are consuming more and more F1 content from non-trustworthy sources (e.g. instagram and twitter update accounts, non-reputable websites) that use clickbait and unsubstantiated rumours to create maximum drama. I think this has been particularly tricky for Daniel, because his popularity has made him a super target since 2021 for this.

I think there's a growing sentiment of annoyance at the limited number of seats available to enter F1, particularly for fans of younger drivers who have watched them go through the feeder series and feel it is unfair that they aren’t being given a chance in F1. I think this has become even louder since F1 rejected Andretti’s bid, and I think struggling or older drivers become a much easier target for expressing that frustration than an entire sport/regulatory body.

I think the more recent wave of fans being more critical of driver’s public opinions and thoughts on social/political/moral issues has probably increased scrutiny on Daniel, too. And while I completely agree with fans expecting more and better from drivers, I think there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy and recency bias when it comes to some very vocal online fans and fanbases, which I think also underscores how many of them are part of the new wave of F1 fans. (E.g. I see ample criticism of Daniel from fans of driver’s who refused to kneel during 2020 that are clearly totally unaware that Daniel was one of the loudest supporters of Lewis during 2020 and BLM protests)

I think it’s also just part and parcel of the growing extreme polarisation of the internet. It seems people are becoming far more used to extreme polarisation in general, and the echo chambers of social media and the wider internet algorithms are only continuing to exaggerate that. People also seem to be less and less civil online, and while places like twitter have been a toxic wasteland for a long time, that toxicity and complete lack of normal human interaction has started to affect other online spaces too.

And yeah I do agree that there seems to be a certain percentage of fans that just seem to enjoy revelling in a driver’s struggles, and love to tear down someone who seems to be a happy bubbly person. And while some of that is maybe inherent sports tribalism (which I’m not really on board with tbh), I really think it’s reached a whole new low.

OK sorry I didn't mean for this to be such a long response! Hope that answers your question and I’d love to hear if anyone else has other thoughts/opinions too!! 🙂

[high-mackrels-musings]

The Parallels of Ki-Adi Mundi and Anakin Skywalker

This is an adaptation on a piece I wrote on reddit seen here.

I have written about Mundi before seen here So it should not surprise anyone to learn that he is amongst my favorite Jedi. And he is far too often demonized amongst the current fan base for actions that are usually taken wildly out of context, or blatant lies perpetuated by ill-informed YouTubers and commentators. 

This video is the bane of my existence. But today I want to talk about something that is so often ignored. And that is the, more than likely unintentional, parallels that the Cerean master has with the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker. To me the parallels have been obvious since I first read the comics of his when I was younger. But I don’t really see them come up all that often. When the truth of the matter is that the two of them are possibly the closest in terms of being alike. And I wonder if Mundi isn’t the Jedi that should have trained Anakin, and the Jedi he should have become. 

The two after all shared a common background. Both arrived to the Jedi temple as older recruits to the order, found by rather eccentric members of the order. An’ya Kuro, The Dark Woman, found Mundi. And Qui-Gon Jinn found Anakin Skywalker. Both seemed to believe that the two younglings would be important figures for the order. Mundi of course went on to be a member of the Jedi Council, and Anakin would go on to be the youngest member to join the council. 

It is this shared background that is the beginning of their parallel lives. Mundi himself would return to Cerea, a freshly made Jedi Knight. He was confident of his skills and returned knowing his family was in need of a Jedi. His family and village were plagued by raiders and gangs. And he returned a Jedi Knight to free them from this trouble. Mundi no doubt remembered these raids from his childhood. Having witnessed his father beaten by these gangs. And like Anakin Skywalker, when the esoteric Kuro took him away. He promised to his father, “I’ll be back, and I’ll be big and strong, and I’ll beat them all up. And they’ll be sorry! You’ll see.” 

Of course, most everyone here should know Anakin’s story well enough to see the parallels. Anakin himself states to his mother the penultimate time they see each other, “I will come back and free you, Mom. I promise.” Both show them that they had a sense of attachment as children. Both having come to the Jedi older than others would have. And of course, both would return to different results. 

Mundi would return to confront the man who tormented his family, only to find a broken half blind man. And Mundi would not take revenge on him saying, “For the former chief, there is no greater punishment than that which he’s brought upon himself- to be rendered inconsequential. Justice has been served.” It is a striking contrast with Anakin, who took revenge and slaughtered the tribe of Tusken’s who tortured and murdered his mother. 

While these two events are not the same, Anakin witnessed his mother die in his arm after all, while Mundi’s family lived. You might perhaps be able to say that this is where their paths diverged. But still one can see where Mundi differs, for when confronted with a choice Mundi chose not to take revenge. It is still one of the chances that the two of them are connected in a way. They have these two parallels.  

Of course, both also suffered from a sense of pride and arrogance. Mundi was Yoda’s padawan. And Yoda notes the arrogance of the young Mundi when he proclaimed that he had no blind spots, only to be tripped by the esteemed master. And indeed, his desire to go alone and attack a whole raider gang camp all by himself shows this sort of arrogance when he denies the need for any help saying to his father, “My lightsaber … The training of my Jedi Master …, And the force are my allies,” A belief that he could do it all at this young age shows his arrogance in his abilities. 

Of course, Anakin is not so far behind in this sense of arrogance. Obi-Wan says that his skills have made Anakin arrogance in Attack of the Clones. And in The Approaching Storm when Barriss Offee remarks off hand that Anakin might match Yoda in skill, Anakin rebuffs this saying Yoda is more teacher than fighter surely. A sign of his belief in his skills. And his decision to attempt to engage to Darth Tyrannus in a fight without waiting for his master shows this arrogance that has been highlighted before. 

Perhaps the most well-known thing to Mundi, besides his large head, is that unlike that majority of Jedi of his era he was married. Mundi had a large family, as per Cerean tradition he had a bond wife, and four honor wives with several daughters. Mundi has been wrongly accused of not caring for his daughter or family. However, this could not be further from the truth as he admitted many times that he loved his daughters. What he was not was attached to his family. 

Anakin of course was also married, having fallen in love with Padme Amidala and married her in secret. Thus, like their shared background and shared arrogance the two of them also share something unique within the Jedi order, even if there are differences to how it is they come about. 

The subject of attachment has been discussed a lot, but it’s important to note that it is not the same as having an attachment to one’s family. It’s a marked contrast to Anakin Skywalker who had difficulty letting go of either of his loved one’s. He’s unable to cope with the death of loved ones and can’t quite understand others who do. Indeed, he believes, in Secrets of the Jedi by Jude Watson, that Obi-Wan couldn’t possibly love Siri Tachi saying: 

“Obi-Wan had stood over the man who had killer her and spared him. If he had loved Siri, could he have done that? … But the way Obi-wan had spoken had been so measured. With a temperament like that, it was impossible to love, Anakin was sure.” 

And of course, we should all know what he does in the pursuit of keeping his wife alive. His inability to let go presents clear and present danger for the galaxy. A noted contrast to the way Mundi reacted to his death. While the intricate details of his grief are not known he stated, “I found it difficult to accept, but I had to if I was going to stay true to our beliefs.” Mundi managed to put aside his grief and move on, as is the Jedi teaching. And it is worth noting that Anakin himself asks Mundi about his family asking how he could have one. Mundi responded, “I cared for them, but I tried to remain unattached. It was always … difficult.” Of course, this leads one back to the idea of how Mundi was able to reconcile his love with his family versus his duty as a Jedi. 

 Shortly after meeting Anakin Skywalker Ki-Adi Mundi wrote of his meeting of Anakin. He spoke of the potential of the child and possibility of the fact that he might be the chosen one. Though he also spoke of his wariness towards him saying:

“Jedi are trained not to feel fear, but I believe that this may be the discomfort I sense from Anakin. No, I’m not afraid of him. He is, after all merely a boy. But as a father myself I can positively attest that children can grow in unexpected ways, and this may be what I fear: not who Anakin Skyawalker is, but what he might become.”

It's interesting to note that Mundi uses his experience as a father to speak about how Anakin might have grown up. And we know he was right to be wary of who Anakin would eventually become. So, often do we hear that Anakin needed a father figure, and it seems to me that Mundi, might have been a better candidate than most to take over that training given his similar background. It is an interesting question to ask then if Mundi was the ideal Jedi to do that. And if he was the Jedi that Anakin might have ideally grown up to be. 

    Sources Used:

    Star Wars Republic: Vow of Justice

    Star Wars Republic: Prelude to Rebellion

    Star Wars Republic: Outlander

    Star Wars Republic: No Man's Land

    Star Wars Attack of the Clones

    Star Wars: The Approaching Storm

    Jedi VS. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Tattletale nodded, “Faultline’s crew does anything short of murder.  You can say her personality sucks, you can say her powers suck, but I’ll admit she’s very good at finding hidden strengths in the people that work for her.  See those two guys?  When it came to powers, they got a bad roll of the dice.  Became freaks that couldn’t hope to pass in normal society, wound up homeless or living in the sewers.  There’s a story behind it, but they became a team, she made them effective, and they’ve only messed up one or two jobs so far.”

5.1 is a pretty textbook exposition chapter, get a round-up of all the other baddies we haven't met yet, get the shape of the villain scene for Brockton Bay - these are the guys that Skitter and Friends are going to be taking on, over time, one by one, or just about.

So as a chapter, it is a bit dry, but it's dry with purpose, and it's good to have a bit of a slower bit, and it's not so dry it feels too lecture-y.

Plus, the earlier bit where Coil walks in (is that a body double? I feel like I read that was a body double somewhere? Like, he has his two-timelines ability and all, but even if he's just staying home doing paperwork in one timeline, if he decides to collapse the paperwork timeline... that paperwork needs to get done again. That's actually got to be annoying as fuck, doing the paperwork twice.

And this is the man who wanted to have like three or four jobs by the end? Coil, PRT director, secret ruler of the city and he's a CEO of something, right? Man, Thomas Calvert things both big and incredibly small. If he wasn't, like Kaisar, so monofocused on one city he could still have a great deal of money and influence across more than that.

Of course, that may be while Cauldron was cool with him having a vial, knowing he'd just focus on one city. Does Cauldron manipulate things to tend to make more villains focused on one locale rather than trying to operate over a broader space?

Another group arrived, and it was like you could see a wave of distaste wash over the faces in the room.  I had seen references on the web and news articles about these guys, but they weren’t the sort you took pictures of.  Skidmark, Moist, Squealer.  Two guys and a girl, the lot of them proving that capes weren’t necessarily attractive, successful or immune to the influences of substance abuse.  Hardcore addicts and dealers who happened to have superpowers. Skidmark wore a mask that covered the top half of his face.  The lower half was dark skinned, with badly chapped lips and teeth that looked more like shelled pistachio nuts than anything else.  He stepped up to the table and reached for a chair.  Before he could move it, though, Kaiser kicked the chair out of reach, sending it toppling onto its side, sliding across the floor. “The fuck?” Skidmark snarled. “You can sit in a booth,” Kaiser spoke.  Even though his voice was completely calm, like he was talking to a stranger about the weather, it felt threatening. “This is because I’m black, hunh?  That’s what you’re all about, yeah?” Still calm, Kaiser replied, “You can sit in a booth because you and your team are pathetic, deranged losers that aren’t worth talking to.  The people at this table?  I don’t like them, but I’ll listen to them.  That isn’t the case with you.”

Ah yes, the most pathetic villains canon ever gave us. Though wtf is this Moist guy? He's never been mentioned anywhere in fic or on reddit. I know about Mush and Trainwreck being Merchants, but who is this guy?

Though is this Skidmark being more presentable than usual, or does his usual reputation for being super filthy and whatnot just standard flanderization? Is it based on much more than this?

Also, really, Skidmark. Really? That the best name he could come up with?

[thecryptidbard]

Idea for a Ghosts plot where Sam gets fed up with the ghosts and instead of just taking away their tv time as a punishment, she decides to take away their choice in what they can watch with their tv time. Oh you wanna watch tv after trying to wire $1000 to an imprisoned prince? Sure. But the only thing you get to watch is PSA videos about internet scams and online safety intended for the elderly. The ghosts all protest, of course, but because they’re essentially spoiled ipad kids at heart they can’t imagine not watching tv for *gasp* a whole week, so they still choose the terrible tv option.

It works so well that it becomes the go-to method of punishing the ghosts. When Hetty makes one too many comments about the good-for-nothing Irish, she’s stuck watching nothing but Ken Burns-type documentaries of the Great Famine and its aftermath. After Thor goes too far with his catty remarks about Alberta’s hat, and Sass keeps trying to egg him on just to cause drama, they both spend the week absolutely fuming as they watch nothing but documentaries about the behind-the-scenes scripting and manipulation of reality tv shows. And when Pete jealously tries (and fails) to possess Mark in order to get Jay to spend less time with him, he’s only allowed to watch tv episodes about the importance of sharing, all of them aimed at preschoolers. (Sam’s first thought is to make him watch home improvement shows about electrical hazards and proper wiring but Jay quickly points out that Pete seems like the type who would actually enjoy watching that stuff, and Pete is so touched at how well Jay knows him that he doesn’t even try to pretend otherwise.)

Sam and Jay very quickly start to have fun with the new punishment system, and it becomes a lot less about actually teaching the ghosts anything than it is about what programming will just be the most ironic and painful to watch. When there’s a big corporate retreat happening at the B&B and Flower keeps walking through guests as a way to protest their company? Well now she’s watching nothing but ‘this is your brain on drugs’ era anti drug specials for a week. Trevor gets into an all-out Reddit war with someone over whether or not the cutting edge is a good movie (all while he’s still banned from the laptop of course) and so he isn’t allowed to watch anything but melodramatic early-2010s Lifetime channel movies about cyberbullying. After Alberta wakes up the livings and several guests playing her music too loud on the Alexa one night, she’s stuck watching YouTube compilations of the worst renditions of old jazz classics for several days. As for Isaac? One word. Hamilton.

The ghosts eventually get their revenge by catching both of the livings lying to each other about big, impractical purchases they made, and demand that, fair is fair, they now get to pick the punishment for Sam and Jay. The livings spend the next week glumly watching nothing but financial planning advice shows, because as it turns out, they too are spoiled ipad kids at heart and can’t make it more than a day or two without tv.

[abalonetea]

hi there! If it isn’t weird or too much of a bother, I saw your reply on a post mentioning how marble hornets fundamentally changed the horror genre, and now I’m super interested. could you share more about that?

nnnnn this isn't weird or a bother, it's one of my absolute favorite topics to discuss! people don't discuss it much, or at least not in the circles that i tend to roam, but it truly changed the horror genre on a multi-platform level.

so! some basic information. YouTube was launched in 2005. four years later, the first video in what would become known as the Marble Hornets series was posted. right now, ARGs (alternate reality style YouTube series filmed as though they are 'real life') are super common, and the Slenderman phase had come and gone; and the indie horror game market is booming!

but when Marble Hornets first came out, only lonelygirl15 was on-going and making an impact. even then, it was only known in very select circles. Slenderman was only discussed on select Reddit threads, and had no solid popularity attached to it yet. and indie horror games were few and far between.

So, it was one of the first of its kind - and the first to truly make any known waves. by the time that the second 'season' came out, even people outside of the main horror circles had heard about it! there was so much discussion at the start as to whether or not it was real, and it hit a level of popularity that no other YouTube series had managed to reach.

the first 26 episodes were made with only $500, Adobe Premier, and Sony Vegas Pro. it was featured as one of the top ten horror fan films in Dread Central, and even got positive reviews from Robert Egbert! but this isn't about the acclaim around the series itself, which is its own separate post.

this is about THE RIPPLE EFFECT.

the ripple effect can be boiled down to several points

*ARGs

*indie horror games

*the slenderman mythos

*horror films

first, the obvious. Marble Hornet's showed people what you could do with a small budget and the still very recent addition of YouTube online. Keep in mind, it had only been about four years since YouTube launched and people were still finding new ways to make use of it. Marble Hornets showed other indie artists what the medium could be used for - and inspired a massive swath of horror ARGs such as tribeONE and everymanHYBRID which took the universe that Marble Hornets created and built off of it.

There were dozens of these. A lot of them fell apart fast, but others ended up being almost as good as their original inspiration!

and then people started to get creative! Daisy Brown, Petscop, Jack Torrence, POSTcontent, and countless others - and they were shown this medium through Marble Hornets series and subsequent success.

next up is the mythos itself.

Up until now, Slenderman had just been a vague concept on the Something Awful forums. Marble Hornet is the series that popularized an actual concept around it, providing the monster in question with the alternate reality base that has since become mostly accepted cannon. it very literally created the larger idea behind the Slenderman mythos - which leads directly into -

the truly massive amount of Slenderman indie horror games that came out en masse right after Marble Hornets became popular! and this was huge! many of the big name indie game developers we see on market today got their start making Slenderman games. it also, same as Five Nights At Freddy's, introduced a new method of gameplay that took the indie gaming community by storm.

suddenly, everyone was not only making a Slenderman game, but they were trying to one up each other, leading to a rapid increase in the capabilities of indie horror game developers, as well as a boom in the market itself. those who did Let's Plays at the time (i'll give a shout out to my favorites, John Wolfe and MrKravin) suddenly had a surplus of short horror games available to them!

and then there's the media sensation! not only did it manage to get its own movie, but it created a very specific genre of movie that took off rapid fire. Butterfly Kisses and Char Man fit into this genre, as examples.

it also took what was a seldom used concept at the time, the disruption of the camera and the audio/video distortions, and introduced techniques that had not been brought into the mainstream viewing.

it was also one of the first YouTube horror phenomena to break containment; a creation that started as a $500 project and rippled out into a genre defining, Slenderman mythos creating, technique inspiring series that to this day can still be seen as the influence in popular games and movies.

it heralded in the creation of so many new projects, inspired a new genre of horror, and reinvigorated an otherwise stagnant game market.

how cool is that?

[mort-the-destroyer]

Ok Reddit refugees I need your help.

This may be too personal but idk what else to do.

About a year ago I matched with this girl on tinder who for privacy’s sake I will call June. June and I hit it off right away and would talk non stop nearly everyday until we finally got to meet in January, something we didn’t get to do because of our conflicting schedules. Anyways we finally go out on a date and it’s lovely! We talk a lot, and even though she’s shy she still opens up and even offers to take me somewhere else after we finish eating. Unfortunately I can’t go because I already had to push work behind to be there but I was flattered none the less.

We plan a second… ok I say date but we never officially said that it was a date nor have we agreed to be exclusive which i suppose is normal. Anyways because June takes classes in the summer and works during the winter and spring we never make it to the second date even though we already picked a place to go because on my last few days in the city she had to reschedule.

So I moved back home which was too far away to get together. We try to meet up on the days where I’m back to get my stuff but it doesn’t work out.

But the entire time we still talk regularly. So we talk less and less which is to be expected but we never ghost each other. But we don’t talk every day anymore, which is expected since we are both working so there isn’t as much to talk about.

So it’s now it’s near the end of august, yeah a long time I know, and I’m at a festival and I send some pictures and try to strike up a conversation. Admittedly I hadn’t talked to her in a few days and she hadn’t with me either, but that was common for us at that point. Anyways I don’t hear anything so I leave it alone.

And a week goes by.

I think maybe she just saw the pictures but didn’t respond so I text her and ask her how she’s doing.

Another week goes by

And another

And another

And now I’m back in the city.

And it had been over a year since we’ve met and over a month since she and I last talked.

I accept that I probably got ghosted, since we talked on Instagram and I can see her stories popping up. I’m sad about it but I just keep doing school work and decide I’m going to give dating sites another try one I get my hair done again since my bangs have grown out and look a bit funky.

And then June texts me back. She says the festival looks fun and apologizes for not texting back because she didn’t see my messages and says they got buried underneath her contacts.

Some friends of mine told me that they don’t really buy that, and it’s hard not to see their point, but I still like June and like an idiot I responded anyways.

We talk about how we both moved apartments, and ironically she is now closer to where I used to be and vice versa. But not much else just ask how the other has been doing.

The thing is, I really like her and I liked spending time with her but I felt really hurt when I thought she ghosted me after talking for a year and when I was finally ready to move on she just texted me back like I was nothing. I’m also worried that if I keep going out with her I’ll be so worried about getting ghosted again I’ll get clingy.

Still, I’ve never gone out with a girl so I’m not sure if I’m just super into her or if I’d be like this with someone else, because she’s super sweet and usually responded quickly before even when it was late and she had just gotten home from work?

[michelleelizabethtanner]

how would you rate the seasons in terms of brio content for you personally?

i think mine would be 4,2,3,1

season 3 gets a bad rap but theres still a lot of good moments with them there

I like your lineup, Anon! And I agree, season 3 is a beautifully angsty season that really drags Brio over the glass shards of their broken relationship to some important realizations and permanent changes to deepen their bond.

My season preferences of Brio content changes almost daily. Depending on mood. There’s just so much to love (and feel frustrated about) in every season! I guess today, my order is like this:

Season 2:

It’s the pivotal Brio season. It really brings into reality what had been only fantasy. Both for the characters and for the viewers. Brio crossed an enormously important line from which they can never come back. Up until their actual sexual entanglement, it was all just pretend. They could have walked away from each other, or killed each other, or any number of relationship-ending scenarios… And it would have stayed over. The events between 2.04, 2.09, and 2.13 cemented them together. There was no going back after that and their bond was forged.

Season 3:

This was one of their most intimate seasons! Sure, it’s angsty. But it’s also full of so much honesty. We see just how far they’re each willing to go in the name of each other. Love or hate – all the hurt and death was done as a sacrifice at the altar of Brio. (I stole that from someone on Reddit.) I think this is when we really see Beth’s transformation into Elizabeth. We see her ability to survive without Rio (or without anyone, really), and her ruthless adaptability. And yet we also see her deep deep want to be seen. A need, really. In 3.06, the way she seeks Rio out to unload onto him. The way she needs him because she has no one else who’s seen behind her mask. It’s downright poetic. I live for their angry bench scene. It’s so intimate. Their second most intimate scene.

Season 4:

There is a lot to love about the first half of this season, as well as the last two episodes. Watching Brio’s forgiveness of each other, and their coming back together is so satisfying. We were given so much! There was a lot wrong, too. The pacing of their relationship and how mercurial Rio was without giving us enough insight into why he was swinging so wildly between emotions was really jarring and I wish the show would have contextualized him better. There were too many mental gymnastics that were needed to really explain all his levels of hurt and anger, mixed with his vulnerability and honesty. Beth stayed pretty straightforward, but that’s because Beth was given endless humanity while we had to only guess at who Rio really was. And while I love their road back to each other, I really mourn what this season could have been for them emotionally.

Season 1:

This is a really cute, innocent season for Brio. Everything here is fantasy. They don’t really know each other, but we can all tell they’re intrigued and attracted. It’s the “good old days.” The simple life. There were still mysteries between them, assumptions made about each other. While I love to watch their flirtation become a part of their relationship, and I love to see their fascination that’s becoming an obsession, this isn’t my favorite dynamic for them. I like the complicated, the painful, the gritty messy reality of who they are. And them choosing each other anyway.

[maylorscardigan]

I noticed you’ve spoken very loudly about Joe and his treatment of Taylor. You’ve discussed controversy with Matty. But I’ve never seen you mention the GG issue. Can’t defend him on that one can you? He’s a disgusting human being for that.

I knew this was bound to come up. I was hoping to save it for my blog I’m building on topics like this. But okay. I’ll address it.

Why am I not outraged by Matty and GG 🌽? Well…

My ex that I have mentioned before was a 🌽 addict. We aren’t talking normal levels of consumption here. We are talking hours spent a day looking for the right material. Self pleasuring 6-8 times a day on a good day. Being abusive towards me because of the addiction. Doing and saying things I would never, ever repeat to anyone. Even when he knew my history… it never stopped it. It just made the things he did to me worse.

I also have spent a lot of time working with victims of sex trafficking. I myself was a victim of it - for a few decades at that.

I know the harsh realities of the 🌽 industry. I know that most of what you see on 🌽 hub or any of the millions of sites - including NSFW Reddit or OnlyFans are trafficking. The fact that someone is verified and seemingly willing to do said things - doesn’t mean they are. It’s amazing what you will be forced to make people believe. All the controllers need is some weakness. Need it be a child to threaten to harm or worse, family, loved ones etc or a slew of other things. Or the fact that deep fake technology is used on even the most basic of materials in order to keep things like their bodies completely unrealistic as well as hide the victims identity better.

And I know what you’re thinking - this should make me even more enraged at him and to hate his guts for it. Is it something I necessarily like about him? No. Not at all.

However - Matty is the type of guy that if he knew the deep underbelly of the industry and what it was really like… he would step away from it as a hole or try to be more conscious about what he consumes.

Remember - we also don’t know what his sex life is actually like. There are people all over the world who engage in that sort of degrading and physically brutal sexual acts by choice - and I am not referring to what he may have been consuming. I am referring to the private of one’s home. He has been in a long term relationship with a woman of colour to which he said he was going to marry one day and again - we have no idea what they did behind closed doors. It could have even been curiosity and someone happened to walk in.

The point is - attacking one man and shaming them is not going to fix the problem. It’s a witch hunt. If we go after Matty for this then we have to go to the men and women around you each and every day of your life. Including family members or friends. Most of the world’s populations have watched and used 🌽 to get off. (I’m talking teenagers and adults) and some of those you interact with day to day have seen things that make GG look innocent and it’s far more popular.

The issue isn’t with one man - because there’s 40,000 other people subscribed to that channel in the hub. The views of these videos are multimillion. But we live in a society where we are told it’s normal and you’re a prude or a liar if you don’t watch it.

Me raging and going after Matty about this is not only going to do nothing to solve the problem but shaming someone is going to make them more likely to do so it. Shame is a driving factor in addictions and 🌽 is no different.

I chose too, instead, educate people on the realities of the industry and how real trafficking is when it comes to that kind world. I fight for change and awareness and I do whatever I can for victims getting out and trying to heal and be out in the world again. I also work with victims of trafficking directly as well as partners of those who have sex / 🌽 addiction.

All any of this is - is a witch hunt. And the people who watch these things casually are not bad or horrible people. They believe whatever you see on sites like 🌽 hub or many others is consensual.

If the people ripping him apart took even a 1/10000 of that rage for one man and put it towards awareness… it might be a very different reality.

[haleigh-sloth]

Hi, I’m someone who follows your blog but I’m shy so I’m on anon lol. I just kinda wanted to vent about how so many BNHA fans want Tomura to have a suicide redemption at the end of the show, or to apologize and then decay himself, or take a bullet for Izuku, etc. I’m struggling to interact with the fandom because it’s triggering for me as someone who had a similar childhood to Tenko in most ways. To me it also misses the point of his character and makes him out to be selfish at his core instead of, y’know, groomed from practical infancy. What are your thoughts on this and do you think this ending is likely? (Don’t answer if it’s triggering for you, I just wanted to ask since you’re the Shiggy guru ><)

Hi! Shiggy guru pls

No I do not think that ending is likely, I don’t think it’s even remotely possible.

I don’t see an ending where any of the redeemable villains die, otherwise the heroes are failures of their own convictions and arcs. This is especially true of Midoriya who, so far, is the only one who has actually outright used the s word—while Shouto and Ochacko haven’t been made to say it quite yet (maybe they won’t, since we’re supposed to understand through Midoriya what they’re wanting to do). Midoriya said “I want to save him”. In BNHA saving means you are safe, not only physically out of harm’s way, but heart and soul.

Look at the Sports Festival arc with his fight with Shouto—AM described Midoriya’s actions as saving Shouto. Look at Shouto wanting to save his mom by rekindling his relationship with her. Look at Mirio and Midoriya wanting to make Eri smile because “she hasn’t been truly saved” until she can smile again. Something that was brought back into play this recent chapter—worth noting. He’s still fighting for someone’s smile. Tomura is right there in front of him, internally crying out Midoriya’s name asking him to come save him. There isn’t a question as to whose smile we’re supposed to be thinking about.

Fighting for Tomura’s smile is ultimately pointless if he dies in the end—even if it’s his own doing by suicide.

Tomura isn’t suicidal, he keeps fighting so hard so he doesn’t get killed. So this doesn’t even make sense to begin with. We do have a canonically suicidal character in the mix and it’s Touya, and it’s not framed as a good thing. It’s something we’re seeing Shouto desperately trying to keep from happening.

Redemption by death is what so many people jump to because they’re lazy and don’t want to think hard about it or how it could work. It’s one of the laziest predictions I have ever seen for a manga that really isn’t that hard to follow on a thematic level. And also for some reason so many people are convinced it’s not possible—which is just stupid. This is why I’m convinced a large part of this fan base is not familiar with manga outside of BNHA, because of this weird adverse reaction to redemption (among other reasons lol). It’s so weird. I truly don’t get it honestly, but it’s not my job to change their minds. But I will be stalking the Reddit subthreads to watch the hilarious melt downs when people are faced with a fantasy Disney-esque ending.

I DO think Tomura will for sure do something to save Midoriya too, in a way. I mean, I expect them it work together, fight with each other, and with that worry about each other and probably pull stupid sacrificial moves out for each other’s sake. But think of the main character—his arc won’t allow for the person he just saved to die for his sake. The entire point of their storyline bringing them together is that they need each other, and one can’t just die and leave the other behind.

Chapter 378 was peak follow up on BNHA themes. There are only a few chapters I feel hit the mark so hard in showing what this manga is truly about. The main two that come to mind are 305 and 378, I’ll have to think of the others when I get home from work.

But yeah, because 378 is so foretelling about what’s to come, and we are very close to the climax of the manga, do expect more rancid takes to come out of the woodwork. I would block liberally and curate your space strictly so that you aren’t faced with upsetting discussions.

I can tell you that whatever you’re seeing is completely devoid of any deep thinking of the manga overall. I’d avoid those spaces.

I am really comfortable with the manga’s direction, Tomura’s arc, and the overall endgame that is set up. I’m really confident in a very, cheesy, happy ending, so I hope that helps!

[trans-wojak]

Saw a Reddit post and was curious too see what your take is on it,

you aren’t gay if you’re not attracted to the same sex. And there are far too many self identifying men reclaiming what being gay actually is.

If you’re on the receiving end of a relationship with a cisgender man, and have vaginal sex, you’re literally just a woman in a straight relationship.

Calling yourself gay and having straight sex is a conundrum.

You can wear a binder, cut your hair short go by he/him pronouns but if your getting fucked like a women what is the point. To feel edgy? Or let’s say you chop your tits off, your just a women with no breasts.

Rapid onset gender dysphoria is very common especially with women who just want to be gay men. There’s far more gay transmen then there are straight transmen, it’s not just a coincidence it’s typicallly coupled together.

The pipeline goes from “I like guys but I don’t want to be straight :(“ So you identify as a man just so you can reclaim what being gay actually is. You’re just a woman cosplaying a dude.

There is no difference between tcutes and bottom gay transmen because they have same idea. They don’t wanna be labeled straight

And this goes for “bisexual” transmen too, typically says they’re bi but have a preference for men. It’s because you aren’t actually gay. Your a women appropriating gay men. Sexualizing us because you’re too uncomfortable being recognized as you are. A straight woman.

This was posted on a transmed page.

I’m a straight trans man so I was a little thrown off as if we don’t exist, Like there are straight trans men who don’t wanna be fucked, it’s not uncommon at all.

I feel like gay trans men and straight trans men aren’t that different other than their preference in relationships which isn’t really anyone’s business, I don’t know why this person is so pressed.

Sounds like it was written by a cis woman pretending to be a gay cis man to be honest. Or maybe a straight self hating trans man who wants to pretend he’s better than everyone else but still identifies as a lesbian lmao. Straight trans men are way more common, they just count tucutes in with gay trans men. “Rapid onset gender dysphoria” is pseudo science, too. It’s literally not real and no actual psychiatric research shows it is. Straight trans men tend to just stop attending LGBT spaces due to wanting to leave that all behind + often there is strong hatred for men, especially straight men in general in lgbt spaces.

I like that they never mentioned the fact that trans men go on hormone therapy and develop male sexual characteristics which makes them actually pass as male.

The way trans people have sex is personal. And this bullshit is just repackaging gender roles “you’re not a man if you’re a bottom” is something that has always existed in society. Sexist gender roles don’t magically go away when it’s a trans person and it’s redundant to apply the same notions of a non dysphoric woman who fetishises gay men onto actual gay trans men. This is why projecting the weird coomer “Transbian” stereotypes onto every trans woman who is lesbian.

The fact of the matter is, gay cis men don’t actually care about this stuff outside a few permanently online ones. The vast majority do not give a fuck that a trans man exists and if he uses his pussy for sex or not. And yes, many aren’t into that or even remotely interested but they misjudge just how much men don’t really.. bother caring so much they need to write full on reddit rant posts. And they misjudge just how much sexuality is fluid for men, too. Everyone goes on about how it is fluid for women but for men it is too. How many blokes are literally bisexual but claim it’s still straight because the guy wore a dress? Women will claim bisexuality purely cause they fantasise but have no desire to act on it. Men will deny bisexuality even tho they literally fuck other men.

Trans people are the exception, not the rule to sexuality.

I struggled with coming to terms with my sexual orientation because I’m older, I came out when trans wasn’t a fad or cool - neither was being gay/bi. Being gay and trans was almost unheard of, it made you questionable because they saw gay man = acting like a woman. It’s really weird. I am a gay man, how I have sex is no one else’s business to choose how to “validate” me. Like, are the only valid trans men who are stone and literally never get any pleasure physically, only from psychologically through using a strap? It’s silly.

The diff between me and tucutes is I actually have gender dysphoria, I have made actual medical interventions to change my sex. I don’t obsess over yaoi, fandom gay ships etc, I don’t act like gay male relationships reflect heterosexual dynamics, I don’t pretend there’s always the “girl” and the “guy” in a homosexual relationship. And gay men actually are attracted to me, aswell lmao.

[crystalelemental]

With the introduction of Ice Zone this month, we have officially done it.  All major types have a Zone.  Except for Normal.  Brace for anniversary, that's all I'm saying.  But with each type now having a Zone, and the introduction of these newfangled rebuffs...how are the types doing?

See, when I started playing, it was pretty well accepted that Fire, Water, and Psychic ruled the meta.   Electric wasn't too far behind, but didn't have the same powerhouses behind it.  As someone on Reddit so eloquently put it back when Second Anniversary pairs were being dunked on: "They don't feel underwhelming because they're bad, they feel underwhelming because they don't abuse field effects.  Every top meta threat has focused on application or abuse of field effects.  It shouldn't be a surprise that these new pairs don't feel as overwhelming when there's nothing to take advantage of." But now, that discrepancy is (mostly) over.  And are those types still top dogs?  Today, I will be going over the types, and how I feel they perform in the current meta.  This will include F2P tools, highest potential, and what I think is missing from the archetype.

18) Poison I mean...is anyone surprised?  The entire type lives and dies by the question "Did you pull Emma?"  Roxie getting an EX at least raises some hope, but I'll be honest, I don't anticipate much.  Their F2P pairs are really bad at damage, and even premium options tend to be a rough time. Their Zone setter, H!Iris, is by far the worst of the bunch, having virtually no utility unless 3/5, where she gets a really crappy debuff rate on a shit-tier move.  Poison is just depressing to think about.

17) Bug Though man, Bug is not far behind.  Here's a fun question: did you pull SC Emmet or SS Hilbert?  No?  Good luck with life, then.  Even Alder feels like a genuine struggle by comparison.  And to be frank, I don't consider SC Emmet that good either.  He's a clean sweep in CS, but in Gauntlet, I think I wind up benching him most times, even with long streaks.  The F2P crowd seems good, but Bugsy and Noland both come with a ton of issues, including "Oops I couldn't quite take out center on second sync, my bad!"  The general pool is also loaded with some of the worst.  Guzma sucks, Burgh isn't great, Lusamine's stupid frail. And of course, SC Ingo is a really bad Zone setter, focused entirely on physical and not doing much else for the team.  It has oddly solid supports in Aaron and Lodge Dawn, but like...Bug is not doing well. 

16) Normal Now to make the sincere argument that Normal, a type who lacks Zone and can never deal the same damage as any other type due to supereffective modifiers. Yet I stand by it.  Normal gets great utility.  SC Steven is absurd.  C!Red's SEUN application was downright unique before Jasmine sniped it from him.  Even among the commons, you get a lot of nice effects for checking Gauntlet gimmicks, ensuring they often get used.  That's more than I can say about Poison and Bug, frankly.  It's not a good position, but I think Normal as a type at least offers better value than the last two, thanks to its range of effects.

15) Flying Flying is so weird to me.  On the one hand, you have Lysandre, who is legitimately great after his expansion, and Kahili, who is one of the best F2P sync pairs for damage, backed by Skyla, one of the best F2P walls.  But on the other.  Anni Steven is the worst Master Fair.  All of the type's options tend to be weirdo gimmicks like P!Elesa.  Nate is there.  Flying has some of the lowest lows the game offers, and just a few standout performers.  Even its top competition often doesn't feel that exceptional.  Like I know intuitively that SS Ethan is strong, but he never quite feels that great in CS or in Gauntlet.

14) Fairy Perhaps another contentious one, given recent additions, but Fairy sucks ass bro.  How do you have three goddamn Zone setters and not one of them helps physical?  I know Rain has similar issues, but Calem at least tries.  I think the main problem is that no one actually fixes the issues present.  Diantha, SS Wally, and Bede are the only good damage dealers, but anything else?  Get out. Valerie got a shit grid, Mina's stats let her down, Lodge Lillie is great for Stall but needs EX to function as a competent syncer.  And there's like no general pool fairies.  Even at the top, NY!Lisia doesn't have a single good Zone setting partner, holding the type back way further than it needs to be. "But Sycamore-" always takes first sync and has serious issues with survival given how many Fairy-weak stages are physical.  Despite having like a billion options to choose from, Fairy still feels like one of the worst types, which is staggering.

13) Steel On the one hand.  Palentine's Marnie is a very good partner to the majority of the Steel type.  On the other.  Gauges are atrocious on literally everyone who isn't Molayne.  Like, why are gauges so hard to work with on this type?  And Marnie being so slow is the biggest problem, it doubles down on the worst aspect of the type.  I do think Steel has some decent if limited performers in the F2P pool, and Gloria popped off but only really takes off under certain conditions.  The type isn't exactly hurting, this is a fair break from the other types I think are just bad, but Steel does not feel like it's doing particularly well.

12) Ice I am going to make the bold declaration that Ice went from the worst type, to #12 overall, solely from Irida's inclusion.  Like, if it were just SS Silver, I think I'd still put this at the bottom.  But the Zone setter for this type went so hard that she's pulling Lorelei to off-type clears.  That is, to put it bluntly, insane.  The type went ballistic with Irida's presence.  But as we're soon to find out, it takes more than one good sync pair to save a type, and when Irida isn't in play, oh my god does this type suck.   It's the only weather to not have a competent support.  All of your damage dealers are bad.  Ghetsis has serious claim to the title of "Worst Legendary Pair," with people like me being entirely serious about Candice seeming better.  The type was in complete shambles, and Irida alone does not make it good.  Moreover, she helps the worst in the type, not the best, so Ice tends to not feel like a standout performer.

11) Ground Ground is blessed with Courtney, a general pool pair with Zone access.  This is unheard of.  She's literally the only one in the general pool with this effect. That's how bad Ground was.  But time has been good to the type, and has resulted in them getting much needed improvement.  SS Giovanni was a CS killer, Cynthia's expansions popped off, Maxie remains relevant, and Bertha and Courtney offered legitimately good general pool ground-type damage.  These are the traits that put it above Ice.   The trait that holds it back is that your F2P pairs are garbage.   Naomi's good, but she's limited F2P, so that's not counted. Hapu and Clay were like the only Ground types most players had in my day, and are still the only really accessible options.  And they are trash.  They are absolute trash.  Even with advances in the meta, they fail constantly.  Ground succeeds by virtue of being less pigeonholed into a single option to make the type function, but it's definitely not good.  I think it just needs a seriously good Lodge Striker in the type, and we'll call Ground much better.

10) Rock Rock is like Ice, if Ice had some competent independent performers.  The type lives and dies now by the good graces of SS Diantha, who is the only way to salvage SS Brock, Grant, and Kukui.  Again, you can't rely on one option, but thankfully it wasn't.  Olivia was a great CS striker with her absurd sync, and the triple premium options of C!Blue, Emmet, and SC Hilda carried well enough to work.  Rock wasn't as down and out as Ice was at its lowest point.  But it's also never really risen to fame.  There's not a great Rock-type solution.  Emmet relies entirely on Sandstorm, Blue is the awkward physical sync/special DPS, and SC Hilda's technically weaker than both but more consistent, if reliant on setup support for attack and speed.  They have options but nothing exceptional yet. Roxanne alt when?

9) Dragon Dragon has some of the better damage dealers in the game, so why am I being mean?  Because they're not that great.  Unless you are the combination of SS Brendan, Lucas, and SS Serena, Dragon is not doing so hot.   Lance's expansion was good but not Cynthia tier, and C!Iris is falling off really hard.  The bottom of the barrel picks are so bad as to be laughable (Sorry Iris and Clair, I love you but oh my god), and the free legendary pairs are awkward.  Cyrus has better Water damage than Dragon, and Zinniquaza has a lot of competing demands.  The type functions.  It does well enough, but truthfully I consider it like the exact middle of the road type.  Good enough that it's not struggling, but not so good it's standing out.

8) Fighting If Fighting succeeds at anything, it's having two exceptional Zone setters.  Fairy may have three, but they're all super limited.  Fighting is not so limited.  On the one hand, Aura Cynthia is perfect godwall that emphasizes DPS play on a type with a ton of high-DPS options.  On the other, NC Hop is fantastic debuffing potential and manual Zone, to let allies sync as needed.  These are insanely strong tools that give the type relevance.  Add to it, they have a standout performer in SC Diantha, who is so good that Cynthia not supporting her sync was considered a knock against Cynthia.  And among F2P options, Bruno is fairly competent.  But you'll note the issue.  Each side only has one competent actor to follow up.  A!Cynthia does not fully support the offensive buff needs of a pair like Brawly or Marshal.  Hop can take a different support, but he's the type of Zone setter that eclipses the significance of any possible partner, which I consider a detriment.  Why have other options if Hop is just better than all of them?  So Fighting exists in a space with some real standouts, but there are very few of them, and don't ask about the rest.

7) Ghost Oh yeah, Ghost type.  When I started, Anni Lillie was the big name.  Ghost was considered one of the worst types, just no competent damage dealers.  But when Lillie showed up, suddenly it was relevant.  And I feel like every step since has been trying to make everyone better so Lillie is worse.  Lillie had serious, notable limitations, and SS Korrina doesn't seem nearly as limited by comparison.  Fantina and Shauntal are exceptional damage dealers on a cheaper budget, and Agatha is one of the best technical supports with Sleep and tremendous gauge control.  Renegade Cynthia as their Zone setter could be better, but has a lot of beneficial tools for her type as well.  Even for support, BP Morty and Lodge Morty are some of the best F2P pairs you can grab, while SC Lillie is the most efficient Sp Atk/Crit buffer around. While there are still some pairs that really struggle, Ghost is a type significantly improved, with a lot of viable options that compete.

6) Electric Electric was the forgotten child when I started playing.  The three great types of Fire, Water, and Psychic had their field effects, and were known for crazy offensive potential because of them.  But Electric also had one, dangit!  Why weren't they as relevant?  Well, it's because N had some glaring setup and gauge issues, and Marnie was a Tech with relatively limited DPS.  Electric Terrain had no one to big up.  Nowadays, Electric has the best sync pair in the game with SST Red, and the highest DPS by miles in Ash.  So why isn't it top 5? Because its F2P game still sucks.  Marnie and N got huge improvements, but when you look outside of premium?  Elesa's fine but not exceptional.  Hau, Sophocles, Surge, and BP Surge are all atrocious.  Volkner's fairly poor as a terrain setter, Hau's Buddy move makes his terrain much worse off, and SST Red is so stupid good that partners are optional.  The lower class in this type suck and need help, and their help is not helping.  Electric is a type that, to this day, when I opt for more F2P budget runs, is the type I hate facing most.  The options outside of premium are just so bad.  It's like dying for a good Lodge striker.

5) Psychic At this point, I want to preface by saying I play a certain way, and pick favorites based on utility.  Among the Three Great Types, Psychic fell off the hardest in the damage meta.  You know it's bad when Lear, a sync pair nearly two years old, is still like the best sync nuker.  Electric decisively has stronger options.  But. Psychic's F2P and general pool game is immaculate, and while they're on longer top performers, premium pairs still put in exceptional work.  Moreover, you have the blessing of Lucian, the supreme general pool unit, Giovanni's insane power, and Mesprit as the best Master BP pair.  Psychic maintains relevance, but I feel like it's on the cusp of slipping really hard if it doesn't step up its game.  Yes, C!Bede as the best support in the game is a massive win for it, but what it's really looking for as a specific archetype is the Terrain Supporter.  It wants its SS Morty.  So far we're getting Bianca, who's fine but falling off; Anni May, who's alright but got a bad expansion; and SS Lana, who frankly just makes CS conditions more annoying by removing the option for Physical Damage Reduction 8.  I think the Terrain setters have, over time, been revealed to be really bad.  They're far more focused on damage than utility, and it's to the type's detriment.

4) Water When I started, Water was the de facto best type.  Archie ruled the meta with an iron fist, and having both Roxanne and May in his corner just made the whole situation perfect.  It's been two years since those days, and in a meta with NC Serena and SS Lysandre, why do I think Water fell from grace?   Well, a few reasons.  While Water has one of the highest potential ceilings for damage, and some really standout performers...its F2P game kinda sucks ass.  No, I'm sorry, we need to talk about this.  Unless you have EX Siebold, F2P Water is handled by Cyrus, a Dragon.  Your actual Water pairs are garbage.  Lodge Rosa and Lodge Silver are terrible at their jobs.  Lodge May struggles ridiculously to compete.  Barry has really difficult sync conditions to fulfill.  Crasher Wake needs the foe to be flinched which is a death sentence.  Water lives and dies by its premium fare, and while that includes many a busted damage dealer and one of the best supports to ever do it, their floor is quite low.   Moreover, three Rain supports, and not one of them perfectly helps SS Grimsley.  Poor dude.  Water has a lot of support behind it, so it's definitely in the upper echelon of types.  But I think time and an evolving meta has made Water less versatile.  It's all high DPS premium stuff while anything below that seems to struggle without SS Kris' presence.

3) Fire Fire, as one of the Three Great Types with Water and Psychic, succeeded based on having a field effect that was easily accessed.  Only four types did, but Fire was considered one of the best, due to the routine application of some of the dumbest DPS units available in SS Red and Leon.  Fire never let up on that particular gas, producing constant offensive powerhouses with fairly efficient self-setup.  The reason I think Fire adapted better than Water, however, is that Fire has SS Morty.  See, Fire figured something out.  Instead of raw DPS and pumping that higher, Morty offers the alternative: I've got enough firepower, what I need is survival.   And they hired someone immortal.  Fire feels more versatile than Water now, and better able to handle the nonsense that's thrown their way.  Moreover, every Fire type, barring like Flint I guess, benefits from Morty.  There are Water types that don't mesh with Kris.  But every Fire type that doesn't cap crit, handles offense well enough.  And if they don't (Leon), Eevee Lucas filled the gap.  Fire is just...consistent and efficient and flexible.  I think they got it all down pat.  But they also don't reach the same plateau that Water does.  There's no obscene damage comp like Dual Frogs + SS Lysandre.  SS May is great, but not as good as Dojo Gloria.  Water one-ups Fire's damage, but I think Fire just offers better utility.

2) Grass Grass types recently went ballistic.  SS Lyra was the first popping off.  Not only did they get Grassy Terrain to finally join the field effect meta, but Lyra's guaranteed flinch rate with easy quad queue made literally anything viable, without Lyra completely overshadowing her teammates offensively.  Grass had some odds and ends additions, including the incredibly fun SC Rosa, but largely kinda held back as a consistent but decisively okay type.  And then SS Acerola showed up, and packed the most consistent physical DPS stacking you could imagine.  And now we got Adaman, who's offering absurd damage with no gauge cost, and permanent Sun.  Grass was already doing well, but it's exploded recently.  I think it's still in a position overall where it would really like some better special support, but it's hard to find fault with Grass.  Moreover, it carries the same general benefits as Psychic, thanks to a wide array of supporting tools.  Sleep Powder Ramos, Stall Master BP Erika, Gauntlet Master base Erika, SS Leaf's shenanigans going through the roof, SC Rosa's fascinating debuff combination.  Grass just offers a lot of value, and some generally unstoppable team compositions.

1) Dark But nobody is doing it like Dark.  For a while, Dark was one of my least favorite types.  You just had like nothing good to work with.  Nanu wasn't damage, BP Karen just died, base Karen struggled like hell, Grimsley was there.  But man, things have changed.  Not for Grimsley.   He's still a mess.  But like...SS Cyrus came in as a great disruptive tool with Zone.  He didn't specifically boost damage of allies, but the AoE sleep was valuable on literally any team, making him one of the better Zone setters.  Champion Calem then came in with tremendous benefits to the physical side of the type, while offering some support to special.  Then SC Zinnia came in, perfectly complemented his needs, and packed some of the funniest broken nonsense available, including shutting down all buffs for the enemy team for a duration, and a 70% flinch rate and zero gauge cost on unbuffed foes.  And of course, NC Marnie comes in with Ash-like survival, sacrificing his absurd Buddy move DPS for more consistent damage and a 50-60% flinch rate.  Dark is riding high, and it's incredibly hard to find a flaw in the type.  Even among F2P pairs, Nanu got an insanely good grid, base Karen popped off on her expansion and it turns out my fear around BP Karen was unfounded because damn she gets a job done.  Dark currently feels like the strongest and most well-rounded team composition.  It actually leads the sync damage leaderboard, though Dark-type NC Serena.  Dark's just been on a roll lately.

[abiiors]

hi! i’m the one who sent the (or one of) the anon about Brad. it’s essentially just what the other person in your ask box said about making fun of the fan base (mainly the female part.) he made a few reddit post to which everyone in the comments made fun of Brad for doing, along with the mods who deleted the post and told him to stop trying to drum up unnecessary controversy. i’m happy i now know more people are tired of his blatant misogyny towards the female fan base. i didn’t mean to cause any worry or upset towards Matty, i don’t know how much he contributes to Brad’s post. i just have been finding it strange that all Brad does is find videos of swifties/75 fans to make fun of them (Taylor herself too.) and that’s essentially his entire schtick/job. a lot of people in the reddit thread summed up my thoughts better than this could’ve. i don’t use twitter so i don’t know what people are saying there. either way i don’t think any of this is Matty’s fault, i think Brad kind of sucks and it just so happens Matty works with him here and there.

this might be a stupid place to say this, but tumblr is a lot kinder then reddit/twitter. does anybody else not like this whole thing with brad troemel? i don’t know why matty likes him/employs him. he set up a “the 1975 fan union” on instagram and posted about it on 3 or 4 reddits. majority of his post are so directly making fun of the female fan base. i understand the making fun of chronically online people who are deranged but this is just annoying. also him bringing up / posting about taylor swift (also strange if her and matty actually did date, to post about this man you work for ex-girlfriend.) sooo often. also he just says the most obvious things that anybody who has had a phone for longer than 3 days would know. he just post annoying infographics that has been all regurgitated stuff matty has been saying since like 2017 (start of abiior era.) i love matty and stuff but this era of infographics, what’s real/what’s fake, joking about what’s happening in the middle east/how there’s nothing he can do about it, and brad troemel era is so annoying. his cynicism in the start of the bfiafl era was very interesting and thought-provoking. now it’s just reusing the same boomer logic over and over. again this isn’t hate towards any fans or matty himself, just an observation from a huge fan.

combining both your asks into one, i hope you don't mind <3

i've seen a lot of opinions about this flying around, and i want to point out that we don't know for sure who's behind it but at the same time it does reek of brad and just also... a lot of misogyny in general.

i don't mind matty making fun of us in a haha light hearted way like sure some people do really take it too far and end up being the butt of the joke but someone else coming out the woodworks and making fun of people who literally only want to support their fav artists and enjoy their art and music feels like a slap in the face.

i don't want to jump to conclusions and say that matty knew or he's encouraging it or whatever because obv we don't know any of the behind th scenes but if it is really brad then i find it hard to believe that matty/the band won't know.

you, and a lot of other people have said that satvb got old really fast and to some it also feels like a shadow of atvb which i don't want to comment on because 1) i have never seen any of the shows live and 2) i feel like it's still an evolving thing and i don't want to have a fixed opinion of it until we have the full picture, i.e. the end of the tour. that's not to say tht your opinion isn't valid, i completely see where you're coming from.

based on what i know about brad from others, yeah i'm not a huge fan either but at the same time i'm not at all familiar with his art outside of his connection to the band.

anyway if it is actually him -- loser behaviour. i hope he has explosive diarrhea while proposing to the love of his life.

that's all, my apologies for the plethora of typos, i'm too hungover to correct them rn

[fishnamedsushi]

On the nocturnal habits of Hamsphire’s elusive owls (Pt. 1)

[In which I cannot wait 3+ years for the Jane Austen flashbacks we *better* be getting in Season 3, so I made up my own.

Featuring, in no particular order: a secret smuggling ring, Aziraphale annoying the local wildlife, and Crowley making a new friend.]

In the remarkable quiet of her rather unremarkable Hampshire cottage, Miss Jane Austen had taken a defensive position behind her writing desk. Her quill, having downed one too many pints of ink, was weaving a delightful drunken waltz across parchment, breathing life into the characters of her latest work, although somewhat against its own will. However, even as her hand was forced to document the scandalous affairs of society balls and romantic mishaps, her keen mind was having a party of its own somewhere else.

Resting on a random corner of her desk, as if it had just wandered off from a dull social gathering, was a letter. While about as inconspicuous in appearance as a piece of parchment could be, the letter, much to the annoyance of her fictional characters, was the real protagonist in Jane's thoughts. With the execution of a final full stop, she finally allowed herself to eye the letter with her full attention.

"An intriguing little fellow, isn't it?" she mumbled to the four walls. Her fingers gingerly navigated the unfamiliar terrain of the fine linen paper with a hint of the trepidation you'd feel before opening a suspiciously ticking box. It wasn't the typical love letter from a fan or a persuasive piece from a money-hungry publisher. No, it had all the trappings of a secret thriller, without any of the appropriate background music.

Without further ado, she rose, pushing the chair back with the aplomb of a magician revealing his final trick. She tread across the room, the wooden floorboards protesting beneath her feet. At the fireplace, a fire, the warmth of which was doing a poor job of countering the cool British draught, crackled in varying degrees of discontent.

She reached above the mantelpiece, where an innocent-looking set of her books sat. She selected one - a copy of 'Emma', rather fitting considering the meddling she herself was about to conduct. The book, in reality, was not a book at all, but a cleverly disguised secret box. It opened to reveal a fine selection of ciphering tools, looking as if they belonged more in the hands of a learned detective than a gentlewoman of her standing. But then, appearances could be as deceiving as a flattery-spouting suitor.

Settling back at her desk, she retrieved the coded message and the cipher from 'Emma's' secretive interior, the two entities meeting like old friends who had many a scandalous tale to share. Her quill, recharged after its dramatic performance earlier, dived headfirst into the decoding process. Decrypting was a favorite pastime, her mind working as smoothly as a well-oiled conspiracy theory, and with far more proficiency than the Reddit-that-would be. This was a world that operated in the shadows, where Miss Austen, the revered author, metamorphosed into "J" the underappreciated secret agent.

"Why, this is most bewildering," she muttered. Words emerged, and altogether made no sense: consignment, midnight, rookery? 

Then, like the striking of a well-tuned piano, it hit her. "A gathering of local intelligentsia?" she read aloud, her eyes widening with recognition. An idea began to form, as enticing as a plot twist in a novel, as she connected the dots.

"Mrs. Norris, we are off to a soirée!" she announced to her cat, who responded with the kind of disdain only felines and dowager countesses can muster.

In the next room, a clock chimed the eleventh hour, its sound seeming as out of place as a cucumber sandwich at a demon's feast. Time, it seemed, had a knack for making itself known when least welcome, much like a nosy neighbor who'd decided to 'pop by' right when you're in the middle of something terribly important.

"Dear me, look at that," Jane tutted. "Agent Austen, it seems your services are once again required." It was less a murmur and more of a statement that demanded a whimsical score in the background. With the decoding done, she reached for a bottle of disappearing ink. She quickly scribed a response, her hand elegantly conveying her words of acknowledgement and confirmation, weaving in coded phrases as easily as Mr. Bingley danced at a ball.

Her task complete, she sealed the letter with a wax emblem. The insignia, a simple-looking quill, was as deceptive as the rest of her evening had been. She surveyed her work, a smug satisfaction twirling in her eyes. "Just a night in the life of Jane, the novelist slash spy for King and country," she announced, to the distinct lack of applause from her audience of one.

She then returned her attention to the half-written manuscript, her mind shifting from dangerous intrigue to witty banter at a society ball. "Why, Miss Austen, you are as enigmatic as a heroine in one of your own novels," she mused, adjusting her bonnet with a flourish. Just as well, Jane thought, exiting her chair, there was never a dull moment. As she often noted, life was a lot like her favorite stories. It was full of twists, turns, and drama. Except, life also had a tendency to go off script and demand rewrites at the oddest times. 

She left her home with a bounce in her step, off to mingle with the intelligentsia and perhaps unmask a plot as twisted as any she could pen.

Mrs. Norris, left to her own devices, merely yawned and settled into a comfortable slumber, unimpressed by the human propensity for drama. After all, real intrigue involved strategically knocking objects off shelves, not gallivanting off to gatherings with intellectuals.

[Part 2 coming soon]

[funkii4-blog]

It’s honestly heartbreaking seeing the unraveling of this game in real time.

(This is really long sorry I’m just passionate about pcotr)

I initially just started playing Paladins in late 2018 as a sort of substitute since Overwatch hadn’t come out on Switch yet; however i very quickly got really attached and have grown to love this game more than I could ever love OW. I used to play nonstop in high school (which isn’t really that far behind me but still). I have a bunch of core memories related to it, like when i sat on my floor in the middle of the night watching io’s reveal trailer and how proud i was when i 100% completed the community pass, quests and all.

But sadly that all feels so distant now. The game has changed so much it’s not really recognizable, and it feels like it’s suffering and being suffocated by its own developers. This update made that clearer than ever to me and its devastating to watch. U/mesprizero made a post on Reddit that explains it pretty well but i still wanna share some opinions of my own.

I never did much with the bounty store so I don’t mind that being gone, i got maybe 5 skins i liked from it total. Indifferent.

The first thing that irked me about this update was the departure of the Trials, i liked doing those to get rewards since the short format of the current event passes gives so little, especially for players that don’t pay for the full pass. One major change I’d make is bring the 100-level battle pass format back for sure. It feels like there’s next to nothing to work towards with how things are now.

I know we’ve all complained about how painfully basic Nyx’s design is (she’s the Queen of the Abyss for crying out loud), but her damage output is horrendous as well. I get she’s a tank and not DPS focused but even most tanks can sustain decant damage rates on their own. And her voice literally sounds exactly like Octavia’s, there’s nothing unique about her in that regard.

That brings me to the part of the update that was by far the most infuriating to me; the total removal of the splash arts. My discovery of that made me so angry; Thunderbrush and all the artists that worked on those with/before him spent so much time on the thousands of existing arts and they just casually all get shelved and replaced with incredibly lazy render screenshots of the models. It’s unbelievable, truly. I can’t properly put into words how much this pisses me off especially.

The new UI is fine, it could obviously use some polishing since its new but its not particularly bad to me. Indifferent.

Another thing that made me irrationally upset, the fact that Payload mode is straight up not available on the Switch at all. It’s pretty obvious the devs have seriously neglected its Switch players (textures don’t load most of the time & the game has reached a point where it constantly crashes), but this feels particularly disrespectful in a weird way. I never got to play Payload during its original run so i was excited to try it for the first time, only for the official twitter to state THE DAY BEFORE THE UPDATE that its not available on there, too bad. That just feels like a kick to the face as a Switch player, y’know? I know what you’re thinking, ‘just play on another platform’, that’s the thing, i don’t have another platform to play the game on. Switch is my only option. Not everyone can afford a gaming PC or another console, i certainly can’t. If you’re gonna make a game multi/cross-platform, please make everything on all the platforms the same. Is that too much to ask lmao

If i need to add stuff later i will, but i think thats it for now. As much as i don’t want to give up on this game I’ve held dear for so long, it’s become practically impossible in it’s current state. I have no hope left for it’s future. :((

[the23rdnerd]

Day 1 of Demon’s Souls

So I started playing Demon’s Souls since I finished Elden Ring (not SOTE, still have to play that), and thought I might catalog my experience here. I’ve been having fun so far, but oh boy is it different. So the first world wasn’t too bad, as far as first levels in souls games go. Get killed by boss, unlock hub area, find some good weapons, get lost in castle. You know, the usual. I picked the Royalty class since I gravitate towards spellcaster builds and Reddit said it was better than magician. They weren’t lying- that one starting spell can oneshot plenty of the pathetic scrub enemies in the start and still holds up well after that. I do wish the lock-on system had more range since most of the time I have to get closer than I would like to target someone, but it isn’t too bad of an issue. Overall the first world, the Greedy King or whatever it’s called, wasn’t too bad so far. I haven’t progressed past the archdemon fog gate after the Tower Knight, but overall a fun level. The bosses (Phalanx Demon and aforementioned Tower Knight) were challenging enough to be enjoyable without being overly frustrating. On that note let me say:

FUCK THE ARMORED SPIDER SEND IT STRAIGHT TO HELL OH MY GOD

Arguably the third boss in the game, this stupid fucking son of a bitch is just plain bullshit- trapped in web, pelted with fireball until death. If you somehow make it past the tunnel into the arena, you contend with its massive fuck-you piercing legs and its ability to tar and combust 95% of the fucking floor- if you’re too close to it and it does that, you’re fucked. It took me so long to even get to this motherfucker because there’s no saving or anything beforehand- the nearest save point is AT THE START OF THE LEVEL, meaning you have to have the runback route down to a fucking science just to fight this thing again. I ran out of healing items and had to go restock. The best way to cheese this boss according to the folks on the internet is hiding behind the corpse on the right wall and pelt it with arrows until it dies. Unfortunately the first time I tried this I brought too few crossbow bolts, and while I ALMOST killed it with my sword i died just one hit away from sweet victory. That was probably more my fault, but didn’t help my inhuman anger any. I took a break by farming the guys just before the Tower Knight arena, which was actually pretty calming because I was listening to Crystal Castles and noticed that the two knights alternate their starting attacks (if one opens with a sword thrust the other will use a shield bash, and vice versa- I just found that interesting). Anyway I eventually killed the spider. Giant Enemy Spider? Pain in my ass. Flamelurker and the Dragon God were thankfully much less frustrating to fight. The runback on Flamelurker was pretty bad, but the fight itself is simple- avoid melee range and pelt him with spell until death. His design was pretty awesome too. Dragon God has less horrible runback because its arena is right after Flamelurker and therefore has a save point right before it, and the required stealth is fair once you get the hang of it. The fact that if you mess up it one-shots you is also beneficial in a way, because it saves you from wasting healing items. So far, a pretty fun game (except for Armored Spider)! The boss design and gameplay is challenging but enjoyable (except for Armored Spider) and it’s a nice change of pace from Elden Ring (except for Armored Spider). Also the Moonlight Greatsword isn’t a magic weapon? I looked it up because I wanted to use it and it scales with faith in this game instead of magic?? And it’s the only game to do this??? Why???????

More updates will be coming irregularly as I progress more in the game, for anyone who reads this. P.S. Fuck you Armored Spider. Burn in hell.