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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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OPINION: The Life and Times of an Indian Otaku

Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You marked a historic first in my anime watching career. Contrary to popular belief, being the first anime to be released in Indian theaters is not the historic first in question (that honor goes to Shinchan: Bungle in the Jungle). Rather, Weathering With You would become the first film I'd ever watch on opening day — "first day first show" as we Indians call it. In the mad scramble to get tickets, I'd emerged a winner. Was it worth the struggle?

An emphatic yes. It was so good I went on to rewatch it twice.

To fans in India: I’m so happy to tell that ‘Weathering With You’ (Tenki no ko) will release in India this October! We have licensed the Indian distribution rights to PVR Pictures and BookMyShow backed company Vkaao.

— 新海誠 (@shinkaimakoto) August 10, 2019

The Indian theatrical release of Weathering With You in 2019 marked an important moment in the history of the Indian anime fandom. The story of how Shinkai noticed (and fulfilled) an online petition by Indian fans asking for its release here is already the stuff of legend. Because access to anime (especially in theaters) was so scarce in India, even in 2019, fans sought to have the film legally released in theaters. And thanks to Shinkai, it worked. To Indian anime fans, this represented the moment Japan — and the rest of the world — recognized our existence in the fandom. But Indian otakus didn't spring up overnight. Anime has had nearly three decades of history here. It just looks a little different than the rest of the world. The origins of anime in India go back to the '90s. Prior to the economic reforms of 1991, we had one — yes, only one — TV channel, the state-owned Doordarshan. The post-1991 wave of private TV channels brought with it a flood of international TV shows, among them anime like Robotech (which aired on the newly-created Star Plus). Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, the anime adaptation of the Indian mythological epic of the same name, was released in 1992 and had a long and troubled production history, but the end product was a grand success, with its all-star Hindi cast and catchy songs turning it into a TV fixture for well over a decade. It even received a US release, with Bryan Cranston voicing the lead role. The remainder of the '90s would see various anime achieve varying degrees of success, from Nippon Animation's 1989 adaptation of The Jungle Book — which became a nationwide hit — airing in India starting in 1993, to late-night anime like You're Under Arrest and Gunsmith Cats. Despite this, there wasn't yet an actual fandom surrounding anime at the time. That would all change upon the turn of the century.

Cartoon Network revolutionized the Indian anime market when the channel arrived in 2001. The launch of dedicated anime programming block Toonami brought with it two anime that would permanently shape the future of the fandom: Dragon Ball Z and Cardcaptor Sakura (albeit in its heavily-edited Cardcaptors form). While I never watched Dragon Ball Z (compared to all my friends at school), I did watch some Cardcaptors with my sister, which would actually be the very first anime I watched. My own viewing habits notwithstanding, DBZ was very much the anime of the moment. Schoolkids would frequently shout out famous lines from the iconic English dub. We'd even invented various hand games based on attacks and moves from DBZ. In 2003, another monumental shift would come as the childhood classic Pokémon hit the small screen, followed closely by Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Beyblade. The merchandise associated with these franchises turned them into smash hits with a younger audience. All the cool kids had Pokemon cards and Beyblade tops. Battling with them at school was the stuff childhood was made of. To this day, these toys continue to sell well. Beyblade tournaments are still very much a thing. While many of my schoolmates were avid fans of DBZ, there were other trends in anime that could be observed, trends that had to do with language. From my experience, certain anime were only available dubbed in Hindi — a language spoken largely by the northern half of the country. Coming from a south Indian city with a significant north Indian population, I could observe a clear trend wherein Hindi-speaking north Indians grew up with these Hindi-dubbed anime, while people in the south (who spoke other languages) largely grew up with titles that were available in English (or Tamil, as fans of DBZ's Tamil dub can testify). Interestingly, these Hindi dubbed anime tended to be ones that were popular in Japan but not so much in the West — stuff like Doraemon, Shin-Chan, KochiKame, and Case Closed. This gave the north Indian anime scene a rather unique flavor. An even more interesting case is that of India's northeastern region (comprised of states like Nagaland, Manipur, and Meghalaya). Being culturally different from the rest of India, these states have had a history of consuming Korean and Japanese media, and they embraced anime and manga in a way the rest of the nation had not. Anime-related cosplay is huge in the northeast, with some of the best cosplay conventions in the nation taking place there and becoming a part of the local fashion scene. The general acceptance of otaku culture in the region continues to be high.

Eventually, anime would become a little more accessible to all. The launch of dedicated channel Animax in 2004 represented another watershed moment in the fandom. The shows Animax brought over were unlike anything we'd seen in the medium. Shows like Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Inuyasha, and K-On! redefined what anime meant for Indian audiences who had previously seen anime as a childhood interest and no different from other cartoons. As the channel slowly began to shift its focus to the older teen/young adult demographic, more mature anime like Cowboy Bebop, Hell Girl, Akira, and Welcome to the NHK challenged our conservative notions of what was acceptable to air on TV, especially considering these shows aired in daytime slots rather than late-night. This honeymoon period did not last. Animax was delisted by service providers in 2012. The years to come would be some of the most frustrating for us anime fans, as availability was at its most inconsistent and uncertain. While the channel attempted to make a comeback later on in 2016, it eventually disappeared for good in 2017. Despite all these problems, I look back on Animax fondly. Thanks to it, we became aware of the existence of the entity known as "anime." We began to actively seek out anime over other forms of animation. In short, it resulted in the formation of an actual fandom centered around anime. Anime fan clubs began to pop up in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata. Widespread conventions outside of the northeast region came next. Anime Con India was started in 2010, followed closely by Delhi Comic-Con in 2011. Anime conventions in India are a curious thing. They are very unlike the sprawling, sophisticated conventions of the West. The funds simply aren't there for that sort of thing. I don't recall a single Indian anime convention that was attended by a voice actor, animator, or the like. So what are Indian cons about? In an interview with The Citizen, Anime Con India founder Nitesh Rohit talked about his reason for starting the con: "like any other belief and faith they all needed a temple to congregate (at)." This statement really resonates with me, and sums up what Indian cons are about. What they lack in scale and facilities, they make up for in intimacy and a feeling of togetherness. They are more or less small-scale events for anime fans to find other fans, to network with them, and basically feel less alone. Because feeling alone was part of the original Indian otaku experience. The early fandom was largely an urban phenomenon, as going to cons wasn't an option for everyone and the internet wasn't what it is today. So, you had these disconnected pockets of fans. People around you were unlikely to share your interest in anime and may have even judged you for it. The general consensus in India was (and still is) that animation is a medium for children. And remember, for a long time, anime accessibility varied by region. So, if you were lucky enough to find a kindred otaku, there was no guarantee they were into (or had even heard of) the same titles as you. This meant that we hadn't really had the ability to develop any sort of unique culture or traditions of our own. Things like going to cons, renting anime DVDs, memes and in-jokes — these things didn't exist for the vast majority of early fans who were school-going kids or college students of little means. A culture of our own wouldn't arise until much later — when that generation grew up.

Of course, it wasn't just us who grew up — technology did, too. The internet became more ubiquitous. Social media and forums enabled us to network with each other regardless of location, in ways we'd never have imagined. To the scattered fandom of the early days, this has been nothing short of a blessing. The other big change ushered in by the internet was the era of streaming. Until then, most of our anime viewing took place on television and as previously stated, was not always very consistent. Accessibility improved greatly with the launch of Netflix in 2016. In today's India, Netflix is a household name, with a significant portion of young adults having access to a subscription. With a catalog of over 200 anime, Netflix has been responsible for pulling in many new fans. Plenty of people "come for the movies, stay for the anime." Series like My Hero Academia, Death Note, and One-Punch Man have become mainstream successes in this fashion, with a significant following even among non-anime fans. Another streaming service that is beginning to make inroads into the Indian market is Crunchyroll, with simulcasts like Boruto and originals like Tower of God, and the fact that it is free makes it accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Most Indian anime fans I know of have heard of Crunchyroll, and as more titles get licensed it is inevitable that its popularity will rise. And us otakus are doing plenty to help it do just that.

The success of Weathering With You is a shining example of the tight-knit nature of the Indian anime fandom. All it took was one person (an anime fan named Divishth Pancholi) to create a Change.org petition asking for its release in Indian theaters. The petition went viral, getting over 50,000 signatures and attracting the attention of Shinkai and the producers, resulting in its release here. Today, that event is seen as a smaller part of a greater Indian anime movement that is pushing for increased availability and acceptance of anime in India. Hashtags like #IndiaWantsAnime frequently make their presence felt on social media. This fandom isn't without its problems — it isn't the most inclusive when it comes to non-male fans, the "animation is for kids" specter hasn't been fully shaken off, and I'd love for anime BluRays/DVDs to be more widely available here. But I am grateful for the fandom's existence for getting me into anime in the first place. Without them, I'd have never been sitting in a movie theater on October 11, 2019, watching Weathering With You.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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wendell-or-something · 5 years ago

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a rant on the importance of archiving:

there was a post that went by the other day that was talking about why the people who are still on tumblr didn't move to twitter. and there's a glaringly obvious reason that I'd like to address.

a lot of people cite things like twitter being difficult to use, or not understanding the etiquette of the site, or being irritated by the limitations of post formatting. but I would say that these are things that could be creatively overcome, to a certain extent, given enough time to learn to work around them.

but what can't be ignored is the complete inability to effectively archive anything.

let me make this super clear: twitter was not built for saving things. you don't have a blog, you have a profile page with endless scrolling. only option. you have a tiny character limit. you don't have a literal button that says "archive" on it, which you can click to see every single thing you've ever posted or shared.

and many sites are like this. facebook is useless in terms of formatting, honestly, I literally never figured out the etiquette of facebook before the format irritated me into giving up on it. deviantart actually used to be excellent for this until their attempts to give their site a new look broke everything and it became useless... but it was meant to specifically archive artwork, so I mean, it makes sense that it'd be good for that. youtube is youtube.... instagram. I have no real experience with instagram, but I'm told it's not as irritating as I think it is.

the point is. tumblr's archive system is more multimedia friendly and user friendly than any of these. you can post long blocks of text, photos, videos, audio, gifs... and then it lets you store them on a page where it's easy to find them later. you can even develop your own organization system via tags. it is SO FUCKING BASIC. but literally no other site has figured it out.

the reason why people were upset when they banned adult content (besides it being like, the actual stupidest way to handle the problem they were trying to solve) is not just because they can't see porn anymore... there are plenty of avenues to find that, like, even if you want specifically drawn porn, you can find it on twitter. the reason it was upsetting was because it was hard to follow specific people, and find an archive of what they had done.

literally, I could ask you to go find the first post you ever put on your blog and you could do it. it'd be easy. even if you've been on tumblr since 2013, you could just go to your archive and navigate to the correct month and year, everything is there.

and this is why posts have longevity in tumblr's system. like. how do you find new people to follow on tumblr? you go to their blog, right? you scroll through their recent stuff to see if they reblog stuff you wanna see... and you'll often see repeats of the same post on multiple blogs, or a post that you remember from eons ago that's resurfaced. all it takes is one recent reblog and people will start passing it around again.

and this is because anyone could, on a whim, go to any blog on their dashboard, at any time, and go to, say, May of 2017 on that blog and see what was happening then. you're a few clicks away from doing that right now. this is how artists have their work recirculating every once in a while, this is how old memes maintain ridiculous longevity... this is why, every once in a while, someone will dig up "imagine how is touch the sky" like, the original post, and hold it up like "hey guys remember this?" and yeah, we do. this is why this site has so many in jokes... it keeps its humor history alive long enough for that to happen.

I'm not trying to romanticize tumblr here by any means... this is more of a rant about how I want to kick the ass of every other wretched site that doesn't give me this. fucking TUMBLR, with all its inadequacies, and all of its constant brokenness, and all of its changed community guidelines that indiscriminately deleted SO fucking much of its own history, leaving a HUGE hole in our knowledge of what the internet was like in the mid 2000s (fuck them, fuck them, FUCK THEM for that)......... EVEN THESE CLOWNS GAVE US A DECENT FUCKING ARCHIVE SYSTEM.

NO OTHER SITE HAS THIS.

like, somebody. please fill the niche. tumblr's popularity exploded because you could put such a wide variety of media online, and have it organized and archived well. you could post everything from dumb memes, to the sistine chapel ceiling, to dumb tiktok memes about the sistine chapel ceiling, all in one place, and find it all with alarming ease, months later.

archiving is important. when will the site design bastards learn.

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juliabohemian · 5 years ago

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Nostalgia Bias

I recently came across a meme on Facebook, posted by a friend. The meme consisted of a reactionary joke about how Millennials don't know how to drive stick shifts or read in cursive, and that if we want to keep them quarantined, we should put them in cars with manual transmissions and give them the directions in cursive.

Ordinarily, I would keep scrolling past something as inane as this. Actually, that's not true. Ordinarily, there wouldn't be anyone on my friend's list, on any social media platform, who would post reactionary humor. I was truly surprised to see it at all, especially coming from this person, who has always seemed reasonably intelligent.

The first thing wrong with that joke is that it suggests that the generation struggling the most with staying quarantined are the Millennials. Which we know is not true. It is the Baby Boomers. Though Gen-X appears to be adapting best to the whole mess. Go team.

The second thing wrong with that joke is that we still teach children to write in cursive, in elementary school, as of 2020. The third thing wrong with that joke is that there are plenty of Millennials who know how to drive a stick shift.

One could just as easily say the best way to keep Boomers quarantined would be to lock them inside and hook up everything in their homes to smart devices. Ha ha. Isn’t that hilarious? Because old people can’t use technology, right. Yeah, except for all the ones who do. Betty White and Patrick Stewart, for instance.

I couldn't help myself, of course. I had to make a comment. Why? Because I genuinely thought that the person who posted the meme would realize that it was bullshit and be willing to acknowledge that. Needless to say, that's not how it went. I got the answer that I have gotten so many times in the past "yeah, I mean, that's TRUE I guess...but that doesn’t matter because it was rude of you to point it out.”

Was it, though? Ruder than the joke itself? Is politeness to a single individual more important than the feelings of an entire generation of people being maligned by a bad joke? I believe it was Dr. House who posed the question:

"What would you prefer, a doctor who holds your hand while you die or one who ignores you while you get better? I suppose it would particularly suck to have a doctor who ignores you while you die."

Now, I would like to point out that, as someone on the autism spectrum, I don’t socialize in the traditional sense. I relate to people by exchanging information. For me, that takes the place of socializing. That's probably why I am an educator. I like to teach people things. When I see something that I know is absolute bullshit, and I think there's a chance that it can turn into a valuable teaching moment, I cannot resist. Because it isn't just the person who posted it that is going to see my comment, but many other people as well.

Social media is wrought with misinformation. It’s pretty hard to avoid it. I cringe whenever I hear people using words like autistic or schizophrenic to describe the behavior of an ordinary, neurotypical person. Those are conditions for which there are specific diagnostic criteria. The same goes for diabetes, which you definitely cannot get from eating a bag of candy.

So, what is it that makes people behave this way? Why would perfectly NICE, well meaning people willfully and knowingly spread misinformation? The simple answer is, they don't know it's misinformation. Which is the result of something called bias.

Bias affects our critical thinking skills. It allows us to hold views that are completely incorrect and even harmful to others. And as we share misinformation that is based upon our bias, even via a format as harmless as a meme, it spreads. And it affects other people's views and behavior.

The primary source of reactionary humor, such as that which I referenced above, is something called nostalgia bias.

Nostalgia is basically the belief that things from a previous era are superior to their modern counterparts, without the benefit of any objective analysis. Why are they better? Because they're old, obviously. No further analysis is required.

There are two types of nostalgia, historical and personal. The simplest way to differentiate between the two would be to consider historical nostalgia to be the product of anything that happens outside of yourself and to the larger group, such as your community, state or country. Personal nostalgia refers to that which affects you personally, your immediate family, your extended family unit, your school or workplace.

Psychologists have found that personal nostalgia (as opposed to historical nostalgia) can be a stabilizing force that anchors people emotionally and helps them to overcome trauma and loss. But on the flip side, historical nostalgia is likely to prevent people from being open to change by making them dependent on the memories of an idealized past.

I can't even count the number of times I have found myself on YouTube, watching a music video for a song that is (at least) 20 years old or more, and I made the mistake of scrolling down to read the comments. Because, inevitably, there will always be someone in there saying something to the effect of "they don't make music like THIS anymore" and/or "the music they make these days is crap!" And I roll my eyes because such a declaration is purely nostalgic and pretty much the antithesis of critical thinking.

I am 42 years old. I remember hearing people say that “new music sucks” in 1984. Which is a relatively long time ago for me. But comparatively speaking, a mere hiccup for mankind. I suspect that people have been making such sweeping statements since long before I came into existence. They were bullshit then and they’re bullshit now.

There has always been bad music. Always. Just as there has always been good music. But what does it mean for music to be good or bad? Well, unless you’ve been academically trained in music theory or have acquired decades of performance experience, not a whole lot. For the average person it means that you either like it or you don’t. If you like it, it’s good. If you don’t, it’s bad. Really it’s only a valid measurement for the individual in question. Even if you manage to find 500 people who agree with your opinion, it's still not an objective measurement. Because art cannot be objectively measured.

It's important to consider the fact that genuinely bad music rarely survives to be appreciated by future generations. Meaning that the music that does survive represents the most popular, most commercially successful, most critically acclaimed work of that era. There's a reason why you aren't hearing Milli Vanilli on the oldie's station. Although, I suspect that is more likely related to the whole lip syncing scandal, but I digress.

It's also important to consider why people like or dislike things. Is it actually because they’re good or bad? Unfortunately, no. It's entirely a matter of personal taste. There are things that I like that I know are probably bad. Low budget, found footage horror films, for instance. No award winners among them. Some of them are comprised of video taken with a cell phone. But I love them all the same.

Like all art, music is very personal. We can hear a song and are immediately transported back to a specific time or place. For many of us, music is an escape from reality, or a window to another world. Thus, music is very much connected to our memory of events and the feelings that we attach to those memories. This is what contributes to our skewed perception that something is better because it is old. In actuality, it is better for us, personally, because it represents memories and feelings that we enjoyed or that we still enjoy. As more and more time passes, those memories become increasingly idealized in our minds. So much so that nothing new could possibly compare.

The arts are important to society. It is not logical to suggest that newer generations are producing inferior art, simply because their art does not appeal to older people. New art doesn’t need to appeal to older people, because it’s not really FOR them. They aren’t the intended audience. It’s not a reflection of their generation's interests, values or struggles.

For some older people, new art is a reminder of mortality. It is a reminder that they are aging, or that they are no longer as relevant to society as they once were. And they deal with the discomfort of that by rejecting or invalidating new things. Which is a miserable way to live.

So, think critically, my friends. Even when you’re assessing something as harmless as a meme. Look for bias and when you see it, don’t be afraid to call it out. And as you get older, try to stay as open minded as possible. Or else, someday, someone might lock you inside a car with a manual transmission and give you an instruction manual written only in cursive.

#nostalgia #nostalgia bias #reactionary bias #rosy retrospection #cognitive bias #willful ignorance #self deception #juliabohemian #I hate everyone #yeah I have autism #juliabohemian rant #juliabohemianrant

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niamhmedialogs · 5 years ago

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Deconstructing a Meme - My investigation of a potentially harmful meme

About a year ago, I came across a new meme that took Tiktok by storm. The meme started with a person filming themselves in the mirror saying, “this is my voice a day of *insert anything*” progressively their voice would change over time. The meme although a simple concept was quite funny as people created unique concepts. The first one I remember seeing was. “This is my voice one day of living in soviet Russia” where the guy's voice progressively turned into a thick Russian accent over a year. I decided to look deeper into the meme. Finding out who started this meme? What sparked its popularity? Why did people find it so funny? From my internet deep-dive, I discovered the meme’s harmful origins and how it affected many people.

First I researched the origins of the videos, who created this meme and put it on Tiktok? The first video posted to Tiktok On December 1st, 2018, YouTuber Totallionelml uploaded a video of TikTok of her voice progressively changing “after watching anime”. The video gained traction but really blew up 16 days later, when popular YouTuber Akame Hyuna, Reuploaded Toallioneml’s video. Within two weeks, the video gained over 218,000 views and over 500 comments. After the TikTok trend became viral. Scrolling through you could find versions of this meme. To get an idea of this popularity I went onto google trends and was able to form a graph from the number of google searches of the meme. (linked down below).

I found the simple meme quite enjoyable. The Tiktok concept, for the most part, seemed like light-hearted humor. When further research I found the meme’s true origin. I was shooked to find out the videos were based on ones made by the trans-community. As testosterone progression videos amongst the trans community were widely popular. These videos often depicted them in the camera saying “this is my voice 1 week on testosterone” and showing the overall progression of their voice. I was shocked to find this out. Was this meme covertly taking a jab at the trans community?

I decided to look into what the trans community had to say about this meme. I found a Reddit thread that was titled “This is my voice a month on ___" TikTok meme: is this offensive? “ This thread encouraged trans people to open up about their feelings towards this meme. I pulled out some comments from the thread. A person by the handle of “lietkeynes” commented, “I mean it's stupid and cruel but I feel like the best thing to do is ignore it. They want a reaction- don't waste your energy on them. Or support trans YouTubers who are documenting their transitions.” Reddit user “Penn215” commented, “I think that's super fucked up and transphobic.” another person by the handle of “Reservoirdogging” wrote, “I do feel a bit weird about people outside our community referencing that, but I watched half the video and to be fair some are pretty funny, and they’ve just taken the format to make unrelated jokes”. From what I saw, many found the meme quite offensive, as testosterone progression videos are significant in the trans community. Twisting those videos into a meaningless meme was quite appalling to them. What I found interesting was many of the people in the comments said not to bother with the meme. It was just a meme and was going to blow over eventually. Some even realized that most people that were contributing to the meme were completely oblivious to its roots and had no intention of mocking the Trans community.

Researching this meme was an eye-opening experience. It was able to show me that memes, ones I gave a chuckle and a like to, could hurt people. As we consume media in a shallow and empty way, we fail to look deeper into a post. Posts are fleeting parts of our experience online, as soon as we scroll past them they leave our mind. We should begin to take a moment to question is this meme or post harmful to someone? Many times it is, and we don’t even know.

youtube

(Example of some Tiktoks compared to Trans artist Chella man’s testosterone progression video).

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mattskeebah · 6 years ago

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PLEASE READ

I know how much y’all hate “your fave is problematic” posts...but it’s necessary.

Summary: Matt Skiba, singer of the band Alkaline Trio and member of Blink-182, has nazi tattoos, is a fan of nazi bands, made tasteless nazi related paintings, is best friends with Boyd Rice, and in fact, owns nazi insignia. Matt claims to be a feminist but likes countless scantily clad pics of young models and sex workers and follows actual porn actresses on IG. Also, he never distanced himself from Asia Argento and still sells t-shirts with her face on them in his webstore. Matt supports the police and the military and he has a weird gun fetish. He attacked fans who criticized his behavior and his problematic associations.

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WHY I STOPPED BEING A FAN OF MATT SKIBA

He supports the police as an instutition, specifically Chicago PD. He made a post on Instagram in favor of CPD which ofc received backlash from fans but he ignored the negative comments and brushed it off as “there are bad people in every profession” and then he deleted the post. Thanks to a Tumblr user who screencapped it: [x] please notice the tiny blue (lives matters) heart. Also, here are some “cute” pics of him wearing police-related stuff [x] [x] and check out this post of him “repping” new CPD merch on his car [x] (he disabled the comments).

He supports the military, which might be because his parents served in the Vietnam war, but that doesn’t make it less shitty. Examples for his military-support can be found all over his Instagram. [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] and so on... and in this post he’s delighted that a soldier in Afghanistan is wearing an Alkaline Trio patch. [x]

He’s close friends with Asia Argento / or had possible romantic relationship with her and he still sells t-shirts with her face on them in his merch shop. For those of you who don’t know her, she was one of the leaders of the #metoo movement but then it was revealed that she herself had sex with an intoxicated 17-year-old (!) and her bf Anthony Bourdain gave the boy money so he would keep his mouth shut about the incident, ((later Bourdain committed suicide))

Story of a fan who gave Matt a letter criticizing him for being friends with Argento, and the same night he posted a picture of her on IG (I think it was this post)… which seems like a subtle F*CK YOU at the person who gave him the letter. (he can’t take criticism, can he?)

His IG activity is .. something else. Matt’s major interests are motorbikes, cars, and young, attractive, half-naked models and strippers. One of his recent likes (nudity and bruises cw) [x] [x] [x] [x]….that one is an actual porn actress he follows and thirsts over: (more nudity cw) [x] he commented ‘cool butt momma. miss you xoxo’ [x] [x] (liked)…and my “personal fave” a picture with a sex worker [x] he deleted the picture ofc

HE LOVES GUNS (+said that he would use them) he has quite a big gun collection: SIG SAUERs, a Morning Star, many knifes, a shotgun, a Desert Eagle gun, a samurai sword, a faux snakeskin baton, and more stuff I can’t remember, he posted his collection on November 5th 2018 on IG, but unfortunately I didn’t take a screenshot!! but he posted them individually on IG. [x] [x] [x] [x] etc. and a recently deleted pic at the shooting range [x] ……also this pic exists.. edgelord (tw gun to the head).

In the comments of the same post (I swear on my life it’s real, you have to trust me) a user commented that he’s a Trump supporter but he would still defend Matt, even if he’s “politically left”. Matt’s answer: “I would defend you too, my man!”. o k a y. then Matt said he identifies as “quite a bit left” o K AY. MATT. Just so btw. the user also had a name including “88″ ( is a code phrase commonly used in fascist circles for “Heil Hitler”) or he just meant the year 88. but I saw some racist “memes” on his IG too.

Matt has a weird obsession with WW2. He literally watched a holocaust docu on HIS FUCKING BDAY (or at least he posted about it) and he said he collects WW2 books. Theoretically, nothing wrong with being interested in history, but in the context of everything… bad vibes……….

He really loves Nordic/Scandinavian-related stuff, like jewelry of the Hammer of Thor etc and he even uses MS runes for his merch. Runes are popular among occultists but they also have a really problematic history concerning WW2 and the nazis. Considering one of his most favorite bands Death in June mentions runes in their lyrics and they are a REALLY REALLY questionable band flirting with nazi imagery and being openly affiliated with fascist and far-right satanists, I have every right to question Matt’s intentions.

He literally has a crutch cross tattoo on his chest (which was used as the symbol of Austro-Fascism, and is also the logo of the neo folk - nazi band Blood Axis) PHOTO 1, PHOTO 2 and an EDELWEISS tattoo [x], which is the national flower of Austria and is considered a magical flower in occult circles. Nothing wrong with having a flower tattoo but it was used a lot in the context of nationalsocialism and “traditional values”. To add, it was also used as a symbol of the 1st Mountain division “Gebirgsjäger” in WW2 (Hitler’s elite formation of the Wehrmacht who were involved in large scale war crimes).

Matt OWNS NAZI INSIGNIA. He is wearing a WW2 Edelweiss patch in this pic [x] and here [x] combined with a crutch cross patch (Alk3 used an iron cross backdrop at their concerts 2014ish and a crutch cross symbol on their guitar picks btw.)

He owns several Death In June patches, their merch [x] [x] [x] [x] etc. and other patches and buttons featuring nazi-related symbols. [DIJ WIKI]. He is also friends with their singer. Matt’s a huge DIJ fan, attended their concerts [x] and Douglas P. reads the intro of the Alkaline Trio song “I Found Away”. DIJ uses fascist symbols and “aesthetics” for the band, including an SS Totenkopf logo.

Matt painted the same logo and exhibited it at an art show [x]

HE LITERALLY DID PAINTINGS REFERENCING DOLLFUSS AND MUSSOLINI and another piece of “art” called “surf nazis” [x] what the actual f u c k .. and here he is with his painting of Mickey Mouse as Hitler [x]

HE IS BEST FRIENDS with Boyd Rice, (here’s a picture of them holding Wolfsangels, a nazi symbol) they are REALLY CLOSE. According to Rice’s IG they meet every week and hang out and Rice considers Matt “family”… the entire Boyd Rice shit can be read in this post (important please read). Matt even attacked fans that were calling him out and called them stupid.

The first liked video on his Youtube channel is a video about neo-nazi biker gangs in Germany....... [x]

He is friends with Kat von D, she did a few of his tattoos and she appeared in the Alk3 video “Help Me”.

He collabed with Jeffree Star on a violent song [x]

He was at an art show of a friend who used nazi symbols (!)

posts like these [x] [x]

In this interview [x] he’s pretty much romanticizing that people got stabbed back then at concerts and that there was a big skinhead scene (he wasn’t “stoked” about the violence happening BUT “the energy surrounding” was “very ATTRACTIVE” to him. Make of that what you will.)

When he was a sophomore in HS (and on acid) he beat up a classmate who threw a U.S. flag on the floor. [x]

Matt made a racist remark a few years ago about Chinese people [x] and according to him //or he’s joking// he has a tattoo on his dick that says “welcome to Jamaica” which can be interpreted as racist.

Many of the movies he praises blatantly depict violence against women, like Blue Velvet, Funny Games, A Clockwork Orange (it has almost 3 rape scenes in the first 15 minutes), lyrics like “Radio” can be seen as misogynist, he literally wishes that his ex-GF (/or someone’s ex-gf) should take a bath with a radio and get electrocuted.

A person on IG commented that his ex-girlfriend accused him of domestic violence, I have no proof for that but he deleted the comments ofc and then a few days later he donated money to a women’s shelter in LA… which seems like he’s trying to avoid a shitstorm…

He compared L.A. women to zoo animals in this interview [x].

He cheated on his ex-gf(s) which I think should go on this list too.

Matt used to be a member of the Church of Satan, just leaving this here. you can argue if it’s good or bad but there seems to be a connection between satanists and neo-nazis .. sadly.

He listed the song* “Los Angeles” by X among his faves in this interview [x] (*edit: Someone has reached out to me and explained that the song was not racist, antisemitic or anything but from the *perspective* of a racist. However, we don't know Matt's reason for liking the song and considering his WW2 fetish, it's sketchy that he would consider the song as one of his favorites. Maybe he likes it because the song openly says things out loud under the veil of "sarcasm" that would be criticized under different circumstances. See also: [Oscar Wild was right.] Matt still listened to the band in 2014 and was at a concert of them [x], even months after their singer spew right-wing conspiracy theories concerning (school) shootings.

THIS FUCKING PICTURE OF HIM WITH A CHARLES MANSON DOLL AND A SW*STIKA. He still had the doll in other pictures [x] [x].

This picture I found on a fansite. It’s supposed to be Matt as a child.. where does that even come from and why is he wearing a military hat with something that vaguely looks like an eagle (?)

I can’t be the only one who noticed that but Matt had a vaguely ~nazi haircut thoughout the years and even some sort of nazi / white power aesthetic~ going on, even fans recognized it as such [x] [x] [x] and in the context of him hanging out with Boyd Rice like this in this picture [x] it’s safe to say he was EXACTLY GOING FOR THAT LOOK.

When he was in Germany during the Blink-182 tour 2017 he proudly posed at a famous Third Reich location in the Alps. Yk. nothing wrong with visiting historical locations but in the context of everything mentioned in this post. IT LOOKS REALLY BAD.

…probably more.. this man is a walking disaster

- - -

In this post I listed a lot, there are probably some things you would consider “minor” because they happened years ago but I thought I’d mention them anyway. Also, I’m not saying he has those beliefs but he definitely doesn’t distance himself from nazi(-sympathizing) scum like Boyd Rice and keeps being BFFs with him. And what’s up with the problematic tattoos and WWII insignia? I can’t be the only one who thinks this is not okay!!!

Thanks for reading.

#I never thought I would write this... he meant so much to me.. he was my inspiration. wtf #RECEIPTS #PLEASE DONT IGNORE THIS!!!!!#matt skiba #alkaline trio #blink-182 #blink182

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unfortunate-stranger-losers · 6 years ago

Text

Six Baudelaires AU, Part One: Reference Guide

A quick guide for everything I intentionally referenced in The Six Siblings, Part One: There’s No Happy Endings, Not Here and Not Now.

{ao3} {tumblr}

Without further ado...

Chapter One / Prologue - in which the Baudelaires make a Fort

“Mother and Father are gone again, and we can’t get Sunny to shut up.” [...] “Where are Mom and Dad?”

This is relevant throughout the entire fic; the Netflix!Baudelaires (Violet, Klaus, Sunny) refer to their parents as “Mother and Father”, while the Movie!Baudelaires (Lilac, Nick, Soli) refer to them as “Mom and Dad.” This is because they did so in their respective adaptations.

In case you missed the origin of the Movie!Baudelaires names:

Lilac is also a purple flower, similar to Violet.

Nick and Klaus are both diminutives of Nicholas.

Solitude and Sunny are both popular candidates for S Theodora Markson’s first name in the prequel series, All the Wrong Questions.

Lilac said, moving up next to the crib and smiling as some hair fell out of her ponytail and into her face- ugh, she’d have to braid it back before breakfast.

obvious reference to the fact Movie!Violet has four braids at any given time.

Lilac sighed. “Vi, can you pass the hone- is that my sweater?” Violet glanced down at her outfit, and then glared at her sister. “Well, it’s not like you were going to wear it.” “That’s mine, Nancy gave it to me for my birthday!”

“Nancy” is a lowkey reference to goth movie character Nancy Downs, from The Craft (1996).

But there were Klaus and Nick, sitting in the corner. Klaus was covering his ears and rocking back and forth, while Nick was grabbing blankets out of a box and putting them over him, nervously fiddling with the edges and bouncing up and down as he ran.

Most of the Baudelaires’ reactions to the storm are referencing the fact that they’re autistic and/or adhd, and the loud thunder is overstimulating for Klaus and Solitude especially. [I also used this as a reference in part two of my Stranger Things crossover, If I Go (There Will Be Trouble), with Klaus and Sunny.]

As Lilac dictated what to do, Violet grabbed some rope out of a box, and threw blankets over it as Lilac tied it to loose planks and metal structures. They kept doing that, until the blankets made up a small enclosed area. Lilac dug some pillows out of another box, using those and the extra blankets to fill in the floor of the blanket fort.

obvious reference to the blanket fort scene in the 2004 film.

“Music box.” Lilac explained, and she grabbed something on the side, winding it up and then opening it. Slowly, notes started playing, sounding a bit like a jazz song.

Reference to Ellington’s music box in All the Wrong Questions, which was probably playing either “Black, Brown and Beige” or “Solitude.”

“Snahpro.” Solitude said, which meant, “I’d rather [Mom and Dad] were here with us.”

Hint: spell “snahpro” backwards. ;)

Rest of the fic under the cut.

Chapter Two - in which the Baudelaires receive some Distressing News

“But I was reading about tide pools yesterday,” he said, “And I’d like to see what’s here.” “Hopkins,” said Solitude, which probably meant, “Let him look at the tide pools, we’ve got time.”

“Hopkins” is a reference to Kailey Hopkins, the American Girl doll Girl of the Year 2003-2004, whose story centered around tide pools.

“Lilienthal,” Sunny said, which meant, “Or the hang-glider.”

Otto Lilienthal was the first person to make repeated successful flights with gliders.

[Lilac] said there was “always something” that could be done to better any item, any piece of trash. Anything could be useful… except Violet’s ugly clothes, nobody could fix that disaster.

obvious reference to Movie!Violet’s catchphrase.

[Solitude] would have the same smile while succeeding in finishing a puzzle as she did when she was playing fetch with Nick- “fetch” being a word which here meant that he would throw whatever was closest to him and she would catch it and bite it.

obvious reference to the short scene in the 2004 movie.

“Ready.” Nick said. “Asill.” said Soli and Sunny.

“Asill” is a combination of the words “As I’ll”, aka the popular phrase, “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“They just get back from a trip.” Violet said. “Maybe they needed to follow up on something today?” “What would they need to follow up on that we couldn’t be there for?” Nick asked. “Maybe they’re just-”

Lowkey, Nick was going to suggest that maybe their parents kicked them out of the house so they could have “alone time” together. He’s lucky he didn’t get to finish this thought, as Lilac probably would have throttled him.

“How do you do?” Violet asked. “How do you do?” Klaus asked. “Odo yow!” Sunny and Soli both said. Nick stared at them. “You all sound like robots.” he said, before turning to Mr Poe. “It’s nice to see you, Mr Poe.”

a reference to the popular meme format:

Klaus and Nick stared at the burnt pages, while Violet made her way over to a broken grandfather clock she had spent hours of her life repairing and fixing and adding additions too; it was almost completely shattered.

A reference to her clock/toaster in The Bad Beginning, Part One.

“Nick,” Lilac said, glancing at Solitude, who she was currently holding, “You’re scaring her.” “I’m scaring her? Lilac, our parents are dead! We’re going to be shoved to the first person who might be related to us, and til then we have to sleep on the floor. We don’t have anything, our house is gone-”

Nick’s freakout is a reference to a deleted scene from the 2004 film that goes similarly.

“Deciduous,” Soli said, which probably meant, “Can I bite it?”

“Deciduous” is a term used for when leaves are shedded from trees.

What [Lilac] didn’t say, was that while she couldn’t remember seeing it before, or the Eye on top, it looked… it looked familiar, somehow. But she couldn’t say where she might’ve seen it before.

A reference to Book!Violet being able to vaguely remember VFD activity. Lilac takes that subplot in this fic.

Chapter Three - in which a wild Count Olaf appears

“Which one is the eldest?” Olaf asked. Poe paused, glancing between Violet and Lilac. “Well, they’re twins, so I don’t believe it matters.” “We’re the twins.” Nick said, gesturing to himself and his brother. “Lilac and Violet are not.”

Start of a running joke where Lilac/Violet and Solitude/Sunny are confused for the set of twins, as they look more similar to each other than the fraternal twins Nick and Klaus.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Nick said, “Well, I’ve got a good feeling about this.” “Nick-” Lilac warned. “No, really, he seems like a great guy.” Nick said, dropping Solitude on the ground and starting to wander around the room. “I mean, the house is falling apart, sure, but I’m sure it’s nothing. We probably won’t die the second a storm comes around. Oh, and I’m sure we can just find some rat traps lying around, I thought I saw a mouse on the way up.” He paused, glancing to the side, and then said, “Ooh, one bed, fantastic.”

Once again, a reference to the deleted 2004 film scene.

“Hey, maybe we could take off that wallpaper.” Violet suggested after they all worked for a few minutes, glancing at a part that had already peeled off. [...] Klaus turned slightly, smiling at Nick and saying, “It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please.” While Soli and Sunny stared in confusion, Nick laughed, and Lilac and Violet also smiled slightly. Nick then continued, “For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow.” “The wallpaper’s not yellow, though.” Lilac noted, though she still smiled. “Don’t be a spoilsport.” Violet said, before continuing the quoting from a short story the older children all enjoyed. “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”

The siblings are referencing the 1892 short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which was written to highlight the "medical, professional, and societal oppression against women at the time.”

Chapter Four - in which Nick and Klaus finally get into a Library

“They don’t have anything more recent than twenty years ago, and the Librarian doesn’t say anything, other than asking me if I’ve been good to my Mother.”

reference to a VFD codephrase as revealed in The Unauthorized Autobiography; a librarian will ask “Well, young lady, have you been good to your mother?” which means “I have a message for you.” The message will be given if the volunteer replies with, “The question is, has she been good to me?”

“Hmm?” Soli asked. “I don’t remember that.” “That was before I liked you.” Nick said, grinning over at the toddler. “Remember? Took me six weeks, and then we were best friends.” “You tried to throw her off the roof.” Violet reminded him. “That’s just sibling bonding.”

Reference to the best movie of all time, Addams Family Values (1993), in which Wednesday and Pugsley take a dislike to their new baby brother and attempt to throw him off of the roof.

“Tagenon.” Sunny said quietly. “I wish we had pancakes, this oatmeal has no flavor.”

Foreshadowing to Sunny’s future interest in cooking.

“Pasta Puttanesca.” she said, holding up the cookbook she’d been flipping through. “That sounds Italian.” Lilac noted. “I wonder what it means.” Klaus said. “I think it means ‘very few ingredients.’” Nick said. “That’s great.” Lilac said, looking like she didn’t care at all. Klaus considered a moment. “I don’t think that’s right.” “I don’t think you’re right.” Nick retorted.

Reference to both Movie!Klaus and Netflix!Klaus’s reactions to “Puttanesca” - “that’s Italian for ‘very few ingredients’” vs “I wonder what that means in Italian.” Fun fact: “Puttanesca” roughly translates to “prostiitute.”

Chapter Five - in which Dinner goes Badly

“Vanukas.” Sunny said. “And Chocolate Pudding for desert.”

“Vanukas” is Finnish pudding.

Chapter Six - in which the Baudelaires are Cast in a Play

Sunny raised a small hand. “Caedis,” she said, which meant, “We could just kill him.”

derivation of the Latin verb “caedo”, which means “to cut, beat, kill, defeat”

“Funus.” Soli laughed. “I could hide the body.”

derivation of the Latin noun “funus”, meaning “funeral, death.”

“Standoffish” was not a word the children would use to describe Count Olaf. Lilac would have been more inclined to use “pure evil” had she not been worried something might happen to her siblings if she did.

Reference to one of Movie!Violet’s lines.

Slowly, Count Olaf got to his feet, walking around so he was standing beside Lilac, and he reached forwards and stroked her on the chin, staring deep into her eyes. “You will participate in this performance. I would prefer it if you…” he smiled darkly, “Volunteered to perform, but I believe you orphans are familiar with the term in loco parentis. That is a phrase that here means that I can order you to participate, and you must obey.”

Reference to VFD.

Chapter Seven - in which the Baudelaires read up on Inheritance Law

“I mean…” Klaus paused. “She couldn’t be scared, could she? Lilac doesn’t get scared.” Nick glanced over at him. “Klaus, we’re all-”

Reference to a line from The Bad Beginning, Part One that is quoted directly in the next chapter: “We’re all frightened, Klaus.”

Chapter Eight - in which Lilac and Violet attempt a Rescue

Soli sniffled. “Parvula,” she said, which meant, “I had to move out of the crib, but I didn’t care, I was just happy to have someone to play with.”

Feminine form of the Latin noun “parvulus”, meaning “infancy, childhood.”

Lilac nodded. “When… when Mom and Dad brought you home, boys, and Soli, and Sunny, they told me… they told me, ‘you are the eldest Baudelaire child. And as the eldest, it will always be your responsibility to look after your younger siblings.’” Violet flinched, glancing away, and Soli sniffled a little.

The reason Lilac does not mention Violet is simply because she would’ve only been eleven months old when Violet was born, not old enough to remember anything her parents told her. Violet flinched because her parents had never told her the same thing, or at least not to the extent of Lilac, which just feeds into her inferiority complex.

“Devil’s tongue knot.” Lilac nodded; they’d both memorized the knot when they were younger, after reading about the female Finnish pirates that invented them in the fifteenth century. Violet had thought it’d be useful to know a knot that twisted in such a complicated and eerie way, and while Lilac agreed, she’d honestly learned it because she thought it’d be a good way to impress a female Finnish pirate, should they ever meet one.

Baby Lilac was a baby gay for female Finnish pirates.

Lilac froze a moment, and then her eyes darted towards Violet, whose face fell into a look of horror the second she realized what Olaf was implying. Then Lilac turned back to the Count, a darkness and hate behind her eyes as she spoke in a growl of fury her siblings had never heard come from her voice before. “Don’t fucking touch her.”

A running joke is Lilac constantly reprimanding her siblings for their language, though she swears herself on occasion. However, she herself will say “fuck” almost exclusively when Olaf is threatening her siblings- especially Violet, who, as another teenage girl, is in just as much danger as Lilac- and when she is threatening him right back.

Chapter Nine - in which Violet has a Plan

“If we fail-” “We won’t.” Violet gripped tighter onto her sister’s hands, and she stared her in the eyes. “You’re Lilac goddamn Baudelaire, and you are not giving up here.”

this is a reference to me being salty at the ending of the 2004 film.

“God, we should’ve just murdered Olaf on day one.” Nick said. “Just all dogpiled on him and punched him til he stopped moving, and then claim we don’t know what happened.”

a reference to the original shitpost that inspired this au.

“Then we better get moving.” Nick said. “I saw the troupe member Violet said was guarding the stairs in the crowd, so we might be able to get up that way. We won’t have to climb the tower.” “Good, cause I can’t climb for shit.” Klaus said, wiping his face with his sleeve. “We wouldn’t do as good as Lilac or Violet anyway.” Nick shrugged. “If we had to make something.”

Once again, a reference to me being salty at the ending of the 2004 film.

Chapter Ten - in which the Baudelaires crash a Wedding

Softly, Violet looked over at her, and grinned slightly. “Your makeup’s ridiculous.” she said, giggling.

You may have noticed a pattern in me being salty towards the ending of the 2004 film.

Chapter Eleven - in which the Baudelaires meet their next Guardian

“What sort of scientist is he?” Lilac asked[...] The siblings all looked out the windows, and after a pause, Nick said, “Well, Li, there’s your answer.” As Poe’s car pulled up to the steep gravel driveway to the enormous stone house before them, they could see a vast, green lawn, covered in shrubs and hedges that had been trimmed to resemble long serpents.

A reference to Movie!Violet asking what kind of scientist Monty is while walking beside several hedges shaped like snakes.

“Sayonara.” Soli giggled, meaning, “Good riddance.” “Yeet.” Sunny said.

In The Reptile Room book, it is mentioned that “yeet” is one of Sunny’s ways of saying goodbye. But also it’s funny because of a recent meme.

Solitude looked up curiously. “Serpentium?” she asked, meaning, “What reptile room?”

“Serpentium” is a derivative of the Latin noun “serpens”, meaning “snake.”

The second Nick entered, he glanced down at Solitude to see her eyes light up completely.

And Solitude’s interest in Herpetology has begun.

“That is one of the smallest frogs in our collection.” Monty said. “But size is no guarantee of power, is it, Solitude? That frog is very long-living, can switch genders at will, and is incredibly adaptable. You can name them if you like.” Solitude looked like Monty had just given her the world, and the tiny frog hopped onto her shoulder. She giggled as it curled up against her, as if preparing to fall asleep on her sleeve. "Babbitt!" she cried with delight.

The introduction of Solitude’s pet.

Babbitt is named after Natalie Babbitt, the author of the book Tuck Everlasting, which features a toad as an important character.

Babbitt is based on a Wood Frog, though they are not an exact correlation; while they display many behaviors/physical similarities, Babbitt’s ambiguous species has some unique traits, such as genderfluidity and a longer lifespan.

Chapter Twelve - in which Sunny makes a Friend

“Ink!” Sunny said, meaning, “And I can play with the Incredibly Deadly Viper!”

A reference to Inky’s name, which is revealed in The End.

“Okay.” she finally said. “Um… Sunny, say goodnight to your siblings.” “Nocte!” Sunny yawned.

“Nocte” is derived from the Latin noun “nox”, meaning “night.”

Nick fell asleep quickly, too, but Klaus stayed up a bit more, playing with the cylinder in his hands and occasionally staring towards the window, where he could’ve sworn he heard something outside, but… it must have been nothing.

A reference to the VFD code phrase, “If there’s nothing out there, then what was that noise?”

Chapter Thirteen - in which Monty receives a New Assistant

While Solitude was slightly jealous that Sunny had befriended such a large snake, she had her own pet; she’d named her tiny frog Babbitt, and the small animal tended to jump onto her shoulder or into her dress pocket whenever they had the chance.

See the reference list for Chapter Eleven for notes on Babbitt.

“Cheup!” Sunny called to the crocodile in the corner of the room. “Don’t be sad! Uncle Monty will be back soon!” “Sun! Cor!” Solitude called, meaning, “Sunny, the broken-hearted crocodile just sounds like it’s saying ‘woe is me,’ he’s not actually sad at the moment.”

“Cheup” is a combination of the words “cheer up.”

“Cor” is the Latin noun for “heart.”

“You were just reading about alligators.” Klaus said. “They’re different.” “Not really.” “Sinensis.” Solitude said. “Klaus is right, actually.”

“Sinensis” is part of the scientific name for a subspecies of alligator, the alligator sinensis.

“Serpe?” Sunny asked, looking over. “Can we bring the Incredibly Deadly Viper?”

“Serpe” is derived from the Latin verb “serpo”, meaning “to crawl”

Chapter Fourteen - in which the Baudelaires go to the Movies

“We’re fine.” Violet said. “What was screaming?” “Nothing.” Nick said. “If that was nothing,” Violet glared at him, “What was that noise?”

A reference to the VFD code phrase, “If there’s nothing out there, then what was that noise?”

“How did he find us?” Klaus asked. “That’s the wrong question.” Violet said, and they stepped back again as they heard more pounding on the door. “What do we do?”

A quote from the Netflix show that is most likely a reference to All the Wrong Questions.

“Propositum,” Solitude said, meaning, “He must have some scheme, we just don’t know what it is.”

“Propositum” is a derivative of the Latin verb “propono,” meaning “to make known, declare.”

The movie itself was very confusing for the children; it had subtitles in the same language it was spoken in, the characters all spoke in stilted and unrealistic dialogue, and whenever a bell rung, Nick and Klaus would hear Monty count every eighth word, write it onto his ticket, and then look at the confused, unrelated jumble of words and erase the sentence, muttering something about paranoia.

Monty knows there is a message in this movie for him in Sebald code (see: The Unauthorized Autobiography), but he is counting every eighth word instead of every eleventh. Thus he does not get the message.

“Poliziotto?” Sunny asked, which meant something like, “Do you think Uncle Monty called the police?”

“Poliziotto” is the Italian noun for “police officer.”

Chapter Fifteen - in which the Baudelaires crash a Car

“Video!” Sunny shouted, which meant, “Anyone could see that!”

“Video” is a Latin verb meaning “to see.”

“He’s an actor, he could’ve-” Lilac began. [...] “How’d he get rid of his tattoo?” Klaus asked quietly. “Makeup, it has to be.” Lilac said. “He’s an actor, he’d know where to get some.”

A reference to the fact the Movie!Baudelaires realized he could have used makeup faster than the Book and Netflix!Baudelaires.

“Omicido?” Sunny asked, which meant something like, “Do you think he’d kill Mr Poe?”

“Omicido” is an Italian noun for “murder.”

“Squamate,” Solitude said, cuddling Babbitt to her face, which meant, “I would rather see more reptiles.”

“Squamate” is a derivative of “Squamata,” the scientific name for the largest order of reptiles.

Chapter Sixteen - in which Solitude leads a Jailbreak

“Okay, that was clearly one of his troupe members.” Klaus said. “The- I’m not quite sure what their gender is.”

A reference to the fact the Netflix!Baudelaires pick up on disguises faster than their Book counterparts.

As Babbitt hopped out of her pocket and across the floor, she said, “Recente,” which, in this case, meant, “It was in the newest one, so it should be on one of the ends.”

“Recente” is a derivative of the Latin adjective “recens”, which means “new, recent.”

“Or we could just have Sunny bite us a lockpick.” Violet said. “I don’t think she can do that.”

A reference to Sunny biting Violet a lockpick in The Reptile Room, Part Two.

Lilac said, hiking up her skirt and starting to tie it back; she remembered, briefly, how her Mother had taught her how best to tie back long dresses and skirts if she planned to run in them.

actually useful information

“Would you rather break open the lock with a flamethrower?” “Yes! Was that an option?”

A reference to this incorrect quote, which is, of itself, a reference to a line from the television show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, episode 3x10, “Yippie Kayak.”

“Lilac?” Violet asked, watching as Solitude tried to squirm out of Nick’s arms to reach a cage that was being carried by. “Do we know an Aunt Josephine?” “I…” Lilac shut her eyes. “I think I vaguely remember the name.” “Josephine Anwhistle.” Poe said. Lilac considered. “Yeah. Auntie Josephine. Fierce Auntie Josephine.” “We have an Aunt Josephine?” Klaus asked. “Yeah.” Lilac said. “I… it must’ve been before you boys were born, but I do remember someone saying ‘Fierce Auntie Josephine’... I must’ve met her when I was young.”

A reference to Book!Violet being able to vaguely remember VFD activity. Lilac takes that subplot in this fic.

Nick placed Soli onto the floor as he started shoving books into his suitcase, trying his best to fill it up, and she wandered around the room, crouching by the corner a moment as the screeching iguana was carried away over her head. When he finally picked her up, she cried a bit quieter, putting her head on his shoulder and keeping her hands in her pockets.

This is when Solitude puts Babbitt into her pocket to smuggle out of the Reptile Room.

“Bye, Ink!” Sunny called. “Amo! Mox!” This meant, “I love you! I hope to see you soon!”

“Amo” is a Latin verb, meaning “to love.”

“Mox” is a Latin adverb, meaning “soon.”

Chapter Seventeen - in which Aunt Josephine is no longer Fierce

“What do you remember about Aunt Jo, Lilac?” Nick asked.

The Movie!Baudelaires call Aunt Josephine “Aunt Jo.”

Soli bit her lip. “Timor,” she whispered to Nick, meaning, “Someone’s been to crazy-town.”

“Timor” is a Latin noun meaning “fear.”

“Sunny doesn’t speak fluently yet.” Klaus said. “She does know some English words.” “And Italian.” Nick said. “Mom taught her some of that.” “And Father taught us some Latin.” Klaus added. “But Sunny and Soli mostly just use baby talk.”

Italian and Latin are the languages I use most for Soli and Sunny’s speech.

Beatrice knew Italian from here career in the opera.

Solitude, who had bent down to look under her crib, sat back up and said, “Cooke,” which meant, “It kind of sounds like a Rattlesnake.”

The journalist Alistair Cooke recommended cooking rattlesnakes.

Should also be noted that Solitude bending down to “look under the crib” was her hiding Babbitt under there.

“Dorel,” Solitude said, pointing at the crib. “I’m too old for that, I moved out of cribs back when Sunny was born.”

Dorel Industries is a Canadian manufacturing company that makes cribs.

They stared for a moment, and then Nick said, “Well, I’m gonna go disassociate in front of the fridge.”

y’all are never gonna let me live this post down and honestly keep going i love it

“Hirudinea!” Solitude threw up her arms. “Then who cares?”

“Hirudinea” is the subclass that leeches belong to.

Chapter Eighteen - in which the Baudelaires break into a safe

Klaus eventually got bored of the grammar books, and he was dismayed to find that the only non-grammatical book that Aunt Josephine didn’t have put away somewhere was Anna Karenina, which he’d already read twice.

Anna Karenina is required reading for VFD.

Solitude spent most of her time finding a new room to hide in, as she’d seemed to tire of Nick never letting her out of his sight, but she felt very bad about this; whenever they found her, she’d look very guilty, and she’d apologize for worrying them.

She’s sneaking out to play with Babbitt.

“Scripto,” Solitude huffed, petting Babbitt, “Not actually paying attention to things we like.”

“Scripto” is a Latin verb, meaning “to write.”

“Roh.” Solitude said, also taking a photo to show Babbitt. “Wrestling.”

ROH (Ring of Honor Wrestling Entertainment, LLC) is an American wrestling promotion.

Chapter Nineteen - in which Aunt Josephine gets a date

Before Lilac could stop him, [Nick] reached forwards and grabbed Olaf’s leg, pulling on it and pulling back the pant to try and show the tattoo. Violet and Klaus screamed as their older sister raced forwards and pulled him back, but before she could, Nick stared, wide-eyed, at a peg leg, instead of an ankle.

A reference to a similar scene in the 2004 film.

Lilac pushed Nick behind her, terror filling her as she shouted, “Nick Liam Baudelaire, what the hell was that?”

Nick’s middle name is taken from his actor, Liam Aiken.

Chapter Twenty - in which Lilac gives her siblings allergic reactions

“Dead fly.” Solitude said, but thankfully none of the adults heard her and asked why she’d want something like that, nor why her dress pocket was squirming.

While this is an obvious reference to Soli wanting to feed Babbitt, it is also a reference to a similar request made by Wednesday Addams in the 1964 sitcom The Addams Family, episode 1x10, “Wednesday Leaves Home.”

Chapter Twenty-One - in which the House falls

“So what do all these mistakes mean?” Violet said. “It’s substitution, isn’t it?” Nick said, figuring it out. “The k is supposed to be a c, so c is the first letter.”

Nick figuring it out before Violet is a reference to how fast Movie!Klaus figured out the code in the 2004 film.

“Raef.” Sunny shuddered. “Scared, but alright.”

“Raef” is “fear” spelled backwards.

Chapter Twenty-Two - in which Violet steals a Sailboat

“Irma?” Sunny shrieked, meaning, “Did you miss the fact there’s a hurricane?”

A reference to Hurricane Irma.

Aunt Josephine looked down at the photo, and they were surprised to see her face soften. “Ah, Lucky Smells Lumbermill. In Paltryville!” she sighed. “It’s not far from here, maybe a day’s drive. I remember the day this photo was taken. We were all so young. Look! There’s Ike. Isn’t he handsome? Oh, and Gregor! Of course that was before… well…”

“That was before” Gregor and Ike had a falling out and Gregor was killed in an arson.

Chapter Twenty-Three - in which the Baudelaires go Off-Book

“That won’t matter.” Lilac shut her eyes tight. “I’ll sing us to sleep.”

A reference to the song “Asleep”, performed by Emily Browning, Movie!Violet’s actress. The perfect depressing song to end The Wide Window on.

Chapter Twenty-Four - in which the Baudelaires break and enter

“Well…” Nick bit his lip. “Remember what Mother said? ‘Do the scary thing first…’” “‘Get Scared Later.’” Violet nodded.

A quote from Lemony Snicket in All the Wrong Questions.

Nick bringing it up is a lowkey reference to the fact that Movie!Klaus’s actor, Liam Aiken, narrated the audiobooks to All the Wrong Questions.

They looked at each other and then Sunny said, “Sondheim,” meaning, “Let’s travel through the woods, and follow the road from there; can’t be that much of a walk.”

“Sondheim” is a reference to Stephen Sondheim, the composer of Into the Woods.

Nick and Soli clapped, and Lilac hissed, “Violet Malina Baudelaire, I am going to slaughter you.”

Violet’s middle name is taken from her actress, Malina Weissman.

Chapter Twenty-Five - in which the Baudelaires are put to work

“Good, we could get Nick new glasses.” Lilac said. “I don’t need glasses!” Nick huffed. “I can see just fine!” “Yeah, outta one eye.” Klaus said. “What happens if your good eye gets scratched or burnt or something?”

Nick has amblyopia.

“Parvum!” Sunny shouted. “We’re not midgets, we’re children!”

“Parvum” is derived from the Latin adjective “Parvus”, meaning “small.”

Klaus, Lilac and Sunny seemed the most bothered by this; Lilac kept flinching whenever the pots clanged, Sunny would sometimes hide on one side of the log to cover her ears, and Klaus kept shutting his eyes in a struggle to hold back tears of frustration and overstimulation.

Lilac, Klaus and Sunny are incredibly overstimulated by their environment.

Chapter Twenty-Six - in which Klaus goes to the optometrist

“Simitu!” Solitude said. “We can’t just let him off by himself!” “Oculus!” Sunny said. “That eye building is creepy!”

“Simitu” is a Latin adverb meaning “at the same time, together.”

“Oculus” is a Latin noun meaning “eye.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven - in which Klaus is acting Very Strange

No major references in this chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Eight - in which there is an accident at the Lumbermill

“Records.” he whispered. “Timbales?” Sunny asked. “Any Tito Puente?” “Egieb?” Solitude asked. “Or Duke Ellington?”

Timbales are an instrument used by Tito Puente.

“Egieb” spelled backwards is “Beige,” a reference to Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige.”

That song, as well as the reference to Duke Ellington himself, are a reference to All the Wrong Questions, which took a lot of names from things associated with Duke Ellington.

Chapter Twenty-Nine - in which Sunny has a Swordfight

“Ubi?” Sunny asked. “Where could he be?”

“Ubi” is a Latin word meaning “where.”

Georgina looked furious. “As if this is all about some fortune!” she shouted, swinging her sword and only barely missing the infant Baudelaire’s cheeks. “As if you don’t know what this is about, what with your parents’ role in-”

“Your parents’ role in VFD.” (as well as some crimes they committed for VFD, such as the assassination of Olaf’s parents.)

Chapter Thirty / Epilogue - in which the Baudelaires are enrolled in a School

“Next guardian?” Poe coughed. “Oh, no, I couldn’t find a single person willing to take you in after what happened to your last guardians. But I have a place to put you until I can convince someone. It’s a lovely school, one of my associates just dropped off two twin orphans there a few weeks ago.”

A reference to the fact Esme was in charge of thee Quagmire estate in book!canon, meaning she was probably left in charge of Duncan and Isadora and left them at Prufrock. Both her and Poe work in the financial sector, they could possibly know each other.

They went into the building, and Nick walked up to the first student he came across. “If I was a bathroom,” he asked, “Where would I be?”

A quote from book one of All the Wrong Questions.

Nick saying it is a lowkey reference to the fact that Movie!Klaus’s actor, Liam Aiken, narrated the audiobooks to All the Wrong Questions.

“Your new Vice Principal is waiting for you in his office. You will wait for him on the bench outside.” Poe said, taking them down a hall. “And I will see you once I have found a guardian. Please behave yourselves as you would at a normal school.” “Our normal school burned down with our parents inside.” Nick said.

The Baudelaires were homeschooled before the fire.

They all fell silent, and then Sunny looked up at Lilac. She was still tired, and she whispered, “Browning?” which meant something similar to, “Will you sing us to sleep?”

Once again, a reference to the song “Asleep”, performed by Emily Browning, Movie!Violet’s actress.

She was changing the words slightly to an old tune they used to hear on the radio when they were bored, and on a music box that was given to the boys when they were toddlers by a relative they hadn’t liked much before she was trampled by horses, and playing in a coffeeshop their Father had to duck into one time they were heading to the train station to pick up their Mother from a journey.

The relative they hadn’t liked being trampled by horses is a reference to Lemony Snicket line from The Wide Window, Part One: “The expression ‘You can't lock up the barn after the horses are gone’ was a favorite of a woman who meant a great deal to me, even after she was trampled."

There is also an implication in the last line that the Baudelaires may have been to Stain’d-by-the-Sea, stopping at Black Cat Coffee before going to the Stain’d Train Station to pick up Beatrice.

#asoue #asoue netflix #asoue movie #a series of unfortunate events #six baudelaires au #six baudelaires official fic #six baudelaires reference guide #mine #six baudelaires bonus

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disregardcanon · 5 years ago

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end of year writing meme

Total Stories Written: 27

Total Words Written: 147413 Average Words Per Story: if you do the mean, then it’s 5,459 Shortest Story: the aftermath of rebirth at 338 words Longest: Paint a New Horizon at 23,673 words

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?

I wrote fewer stories than I expected, but they were far longer than I expected. I wrote a lot of 11k fics.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most?

pairing: Sansa/Margaery (throwback to 2015 omg)

genre: I don’t feel like I had a certain genre I wrote a lot of tbh.

fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?

THE POKEMON GAMES! Like, oh my god. I wrote fanfiction about soul silver. I wrote fanfiction about POKEMON WHITE. what. the fuck. Like, technically the first fic i ever wrote was about pokemon but i never expected to do it again.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

I wrote 2 very long asoiaf fics about difficult subject matter. Combined, they add up to more than 40 thousand words of fic.

Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year?

Fanfiction wise, I would like to finish up some of my wips and try to improve.

In general, I would like to figure out more what I want my writing to look like moving forward and how to go about that. I’m experiencing some growing pains, so I need to reassess my style and strategy and see what I need to readjust moving forward.

From the past year of writing, what was your…

Best story of this year: Paint a New Horizon

This feels like a bit of a cop out since it’s the longest, but I am very firmly the most proud of this fic out of anything I wrote this year. I feel like the emotional bits were satisfying, the romance worked nicely, and the action kept me interested in a way that almost never does. I was able to commit to TWENTY THREE THOUSAND WORDS and put my ALL INTO IT! that is. monumental for me. I’ve written long fics in the past, but those were chaptered and frankly, not as good as this one was or as much work.

I love this verse so well that I might actually go back and write more in it later when I have time. I have the beginnings of a sequel ruminating around in my drats.

Most popular story of this year: normally I split this up into multiple categories, but by hits, kudos, OR comment threads The Times They Are a Changin’ comes out on top. The mcu fandom really went nuts over Carol and Maria, didn’t they?

Personal favorite:

Washing Machine Heart is a fic that I hold close to my heart. 1. I wrote this one when I was on a study abroad in Latin America, which is the coolest thing that I have ever done 2. it’s just. really well done. I’ve never written something quite so messy and unpleasant in a realistic way before. It’s ugly in the way that Steven Universe: Future is ugly right now. In exactly the way that “Washing Machine Heart” should imply 3. oh god was it cathartic

Most under-appreciated:

Maternal, Paternal at 71 kudos, I know I shouldn’t call this one “under-appreciated”, but it’s in a few VERY happening tags, in a very happening fandom with a VERY popular set of characters. I’d think that people would be more interested in reading “Endeavor is an asshole and eventually Dabi kills him” but like. it’s whateves I guess XD

Most fun to write:

We Could Be Heroes both semesters that I had during 2019 were. super fucking stressful. the only times that I’ve had that were productive for fic was January break, summer vacation, and December break.

Last April on my birthday, though, I rewarded myself and after I got home from hanging with some friends I just sat down at my laptop and didn’t think about literally anything. I just wrote. I took a format that I knew I liked and didn’t have to think about (talk show format with an OC I already made for a different story) and then 3 characters I was very interested in then (Melissa Shield, Monica Rambeau, and Tahani Al-Jamil) and then I just. ran with it. I wrote and wrote and wrote and it was amazing. I didn’t think about it being good or about my homework or literally anything other than this talk show lady talking to these three cool characters.

It was wonderful. 10/10 would do it again.

Story with the single sexiest moment:

Familiarity. It is literally the only thing I wrote this year with ANY sex in it, so it’s automatically the sexiest. Way to go Margaery you did it.

Most “holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story:

Um. Just Souring Grapes in general.

Most challenging to write:

Biggest disappointment:

Shouto Todoroki Joins the Supervillain Dads Club I hoped to finish this fic last year in January. It’s currently December and I haven’t been able to look at the thing since.

I think it’s mainly because I just lost the drive, but it’s also kind of because wips stress me the fuck out. And also I had 2 stressful semesters so that doesn’t help. Favorite character to write: my favorite characters to write this year were both Todorokis! Dabi and Fuyumi are both a joy to write, I swear

Favorite opening lines:

Serena falls down at the kitchen table feeling as cold and distant as the room does. The harsh lines and open floor plan were supposed to show a minimalism only possible with wealth, but to Serena it's always felt empty.

A Woman’s Place

Surprisingly, Theon’s life does not change much either way after Maron is taken to the Greenlands. Balon does not magically start paying attention to him, even though he’d prayed every night to the Drowned God that he would.

Pretty Little Thrall

The Twins are a grand fortress spanning the width of the Green Fork. A great stone tower stands on each side of the river, with a greater bridge running in between. The Frey stable boys have taken their horses, and Jeyne walks as close to the river as she dares as they make their way to the tower. She watches the river rush beside her in awe. She’s never seen a river run so wild before. It seems like the very waters rushing beside her want to rise up and drown her themselves.

Good Family

Favorite closing lines:

That's what she gave up fighting the Kree for, and Carol will do everything that she can to bring them back. She's stopped fighting for some things, but she'll never stop fighting for this. If the times don't change on this one, she'll make them. She'll rip that gaudy fucking glove off of that bastard's grape crush colored hand and shove it up his ass if that's what it takes to get her family back.

The Times They Are a Changin’

"Alright, then. Let’s do this together,” you say, “as a team.” You think that you really like this "being friends" thing. Maybe after you beat Red, you and Silver can go to Hoenn- or Sinnoh. Unova even. Somewhere new and exciting with new people to beat. It’s nice to have a partner who’s not a Pokemon, for once. You think that, together, you could be the best trainers that ever lived.

Maybe the best friends too.

no silver medals (when you get the gold together)

The stars spread out above you- the universe expanding outwards onwards and upwards, excelsior.

Excelsior

Other favorite lines:

What does a grape do under pressure? Grapes tend to shrivel in the sunlight. Turn to raisins, actually. She doesn’t remember what poem that was from, but she remembers reading something like that in English class once. Some poem that she didn’t understand really, and might not have gotten even if it were in Japanese. She doesn’t think that’s what she’s doing.

Does it ferment, like wine? Her father always joked about her mother aging like a fine wine, growing more beautiful every year, growing stronger. But Miné isn't gaining strength, not really. Not right now. Maybe she’s just souring, getting more and more bitter about things that she can't have. Maybe she's just souring grapes.

Souring Grapes

“The authorities confirmed that Endeavor was not even in the state during the accident, and Shouto’s doctors confirmed that the burns were consistent with boiling liquid, not an open flame.” Superman looks visibly relieved to hear that.

“But that does not mean that I trust him,” Batman says, “I would prefer to keep an eye on him.”

“Why would you want to keep an eye on him, he’s a superhero ,” Captain Marvel says, with none of The Wisdom of Solomon but all of The Innocence of a Ten Year Old, “that means that he’s a good guy, right?”

Shouto Todoroki Joins the Supervillain Dads Club

The thought stabs into his brain like a needle, like the scent of pine, like the memories he’s never wanted back. Robb was the one person who ever cared about him, and Theon betrayed him to parade around as a prince and become Ramsay Bolton’s broken little toy. He swore himself to the little boy who took him by the hand when he came to Winterfell as a scared little boy and never let go. And then Theon betrayed him.

“Theon,” the trees whisper,” Theon.” The crows in the branches take flight, cawing his name, and he feels something else take flight too. His heart, beating somewhere deep inside his chest.

“Theon,” it throbs, “Theon, Theon.”

He wants to do something, something reckless, something brave. Something that makes him redeemable.

He can’t save Robb, but he can save someone . He can save Robb’s fake sister. Theon can save Jeyne from some of her pain.

If You Believe in Me (I’ll Still Believe)

She dared a glance forward and met Margaery’s eyes- a deep, chocolate brown. They were warm and inviting and Margaery’s little curly bangs framed her face like a heart. Margaery’s head went over the back of the booth and it seemed to almost be floating against the flowery wallpaper. It looked like Margaery was lying out in a field of flowers- the Maiden gazing up at the clouds and trying to make shapes of them.

She could imagine Margaery telling her that this one is a flower, like Tyrell, and this one’s a deer, like Baratheon, and this one’s a dick, like Joffrey. She giggled nervously again and felt her cheeks flush. She’d never felt this giddy and unsteady in her whole life.

“Are you alright, Sansa?” Margaery asked cautiously. She reached across the table and laid a hand over Sansa’s own. The touch was warm and tender, and Sansa felt the blush from her toes to the tip of her head.

“I’m perfect!” Sansa nearly screeched. Margaery laughed at that, but her look was kind.

“Yes, darling,” she said with a smile that was wide and fond, “I think that you are.”

Lesbian. The word wasn’t supposed to fill her with such a warm, hopeful feeling, was it? She wiggled awkwardly in her chair, trying to get situated and stop feeling so silly and excited and vulnerable, but it didn’t fix anything. She felt Margaery’s leg brush against hers under the table. It sent a jolt through her.

Lesbian.

Sansa took a shaky breath. She thought to herself that there might be something to that.

Paint a New Horizon

#end of year writing meme #writing meme #sunkelles writes #2019 writing meme

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illegiblewords · 5 years ago

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I posted about this in the past, but 1) can’t find it 2) got new followers since, so going to try again in case there’s interest.

Since the FFXIV month of writing prompts has wrapped up, I figure now might not be a bad time to let writers know about the kink meme.

For folks who don’t know--despite its name, kink memes are not necessarily raunchy. The basic premise is, on the kink meme you can anonymously (or not) request a story within a fandom. Can be a romance, can be gen, can be erotic, whatever. If there’s something you want to read but don’t feel like writing yourself, you’re basically putting that idea (or prompt) up for adoption. Writers who watch the kink meme pick up the concepts that spark their interest. The prompt giver gets a free story that they wanted to see. The prompt’s writer (or filler) gets a high likelihood of making someone happy and knowing their work stands a solid chance of getting seen.

The biggest rule for the kink meme is no shaming. On the one hand this is because raunchy stuff is allowed. On the other it’s because the nature of the beast is, by necessity, for people to feel comfortable asking for and providing stories. For that reason there needs to be a no-harassment policy in place.

Even if a prompt makes you uncomfortable (heaven knows there have been times stuff seemed icky to me), when it comes to kink meme you just gotta scroll past it. Make a prompt that you prefer instead!

The format for kink memes (in many fandoms) goes sort of like this:

FOR PAIRINGS

TITLE LINE: Character A/Character B, Roughly 1-4 Words On Premise, Content Warnings (If Applicable), State if Alternate Universe/AU

PROMPT: Description of what you want to see. Can be elaborate or simple, long or short, really whatever. Just be clear and keep in mind you’re trying to appeal on some level to writers.

FOR GEN/NON-ROMANTIC

TITLE LINE: Character A + Character B (or just Character A if applicable), Roughly 1-4 Words On Premise, Content Warnings (If Applicable), State if Alternate Universe/AU

PROMPT: Description of what you want to see. Can be elaborate or simple, long or short, really whatever. Just be clear and keep in mind you’re trying to appeal on some level to writers.

Some examples so people can see how formats work:

WoD/G'raha Tia, Embarrassing Jokes

Saying the Crystal Exarch’s real name is a good way to get him weepy, but lewd comments from the Warrior of Darkness about his “Crystal Tower” gets a similarly dramatic (if different) reaction.

F!WoL/Emet-Selch, Post-Canon Happy Ending

Without going against what happened in the game as much as possible, I just want to see a story where Emet-Selch survives and romance with the Warrior of Light happens. Female is preferred and I’d like her to be Midlander if possible, but if the writer has a different idea in mind that’s okay! I’d just like a happy ending. I don’t mind if there’s angst, comedy, fluff, horror, or sex. Anything would be great!

Yotsuyuu/Yugiri, Witch and Spy

Alternate canon, Yugiri infiltrates Yotsuyuu’s inner circle as a spy and feeds information to her allies so they can overthrow the Garlean occupation. However, while fulfilling her mission Yugiri catches sight of a softer side to the Witch of Doma. Despite everything, the maiden from Sui-no-Sato finds herself entering a romance with the tyrant.

No noncon or dubcon. (Noncon = Non-consent/Rape, Dubcon = Dubious consent)

Can end happily or tragically but court intrigue would be great!

Gen or Emet-Selch/Reincarnated!WoL, Ascians win

The Warrior becomes a Lightwarden. The First falls and is rejoined to the Source. In the end, Elidibus and Emet-Selch are able to complete the Rejoining and perform the exchange needed to get their brethren back. The Terminus Event doesn’t resume and the Ancients who gave themselves to Zodiark are not corrupted or otherwise worse for the wear. It’s the best-case scenario for the Ascians.

Except Lahabrea is dead while Elidibus and Emet-Selch have been so wrecked by solitude, hardship, and the horrors they themselves committed that they can no longer relate to the world they’ve returned to. They are celebrated as heroes by a populace with no idea what it cost or how long it took.

Maybe the Warrior is reincarnated and maybe not, but if they are I actually think things become more interesting if 1) they remember pieces of their past lives 2) the Ascians opt against vilifying the Warrior, or even saying what they did. There’s no point. It’s over. The world is whole again. The sacrifice has been made.

Tataru/Wedge, High School Sweethearts, Cannibalism, Modern AU/Darkfic

Tataru is the most popular girl at Eorzea High, and shy Wedge has been working up the courage to ask her out with encouragement from his friend Biggs. He doesn’t care that the other students seem to have a deep and abiding fear of her, his lalafell heart belongs to her and no other. However, things take a turn for the dark when it comes out that the reason Tataru is single to begin with is because she’s enjoyed all her past lovers with some fava beans and a glass of chianti if you know what I mean.

Bonus Points if Wedge, upon realizing Tataru’s taste for human flesh, offers to be the Mrs. Lovett to her Sweeney Todd and helps supply her with deliciously seasoned corpses instead.

Extra Bonus Points if Nero knows and is desperately trying to tell people but no one believes him.

...

But yeah haha, it’s pretty fast and loose.

Other common tendencies in kink memes include stuff like if you see a prompt you like but it wasn’t yours and you don’t want to write it yourself, it’s good to reply to the prompt with “Seconded”, “Thirded”/“Also Seconded”, etc. because that lets writers know if something is in-demand and could get a bigger audience.

The last really important thing, when a writer begins to fill usually at least one version will be shown in replies to the initial prompt. It’s okay to link to Ao3 or somewhere else at the end if that version is more polished, but you want the prompters to see what you did!

If anyone is interested but has questions feel free to let me know. ^^

#final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #ffxiv #shadowbringers #ff14

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bloojayoolie · 5 years ago

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A Dream, Bad, and Bruh: ACTUALLY, IT'S A HEY, LOOK, GREG HAS A PURSE! E. EMBROIDERED BOOKBAG. Hehehehe, Frank Griffin here! I am here to explain this funny may-may I found while browsing through the site "r/Loded Diper", place where fellow may-may experts like me share their best funny jokes about Diary of a by Wimpy Kid, a cartoon novel written hohe other than Jeff Kinney. Now, what do have here? If youre familiar with the book, youll recognize that there is Greg Heffley the middle, the protagonist of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. In the original image, Greg stitched a purse, but called it an embroidered handbag" so he won't lose his dignity. However, it doesn't work and he gets called a girl for it. this image Now that the background has been cleared up, let's look It has been posted by u/ThatSippyChicken the 18th 2019 oh may (by UTC time). This means it's very recent, compared to the even funnier Minion memes I share with my grandkids. Greg is surrounded by two unknown teenagers. The short-haired kid the left is pointinga finger having a speech bubble over him (This implies he's saying something.). to the right (probably at Greg) and The text on the speech bubble says "HEY, LOOK, GREG HAS A", and then "EMBROIDERED BOOKBAG" below, but distorted. Greg reacts with saying "ACTUALLY, ITS ONLY A PURSE!" followed by blank space ow. The last kid with acne has a nearly empty speech bubble, only saying "E". Diary of a Wimpy Kid artstyle. Oh, Greg is holding the purse I talked about previously in the image!If you look closely, you at the end. Everything is drawn in the typical thing I forgot to mention: ohe can even see that the word "Grea" is stitched on it- IS Okay, the description of the image is over. Now, let's get the analysing part. I examined every part of the image and compared it with other maymays from around the same time and site. But then, I couldn't believe what I found out! This maymay on r/LodedDiper falls under the category of modern internet memes. You may have heard of the word from your kids, maybe grandkids, and that's because it's a Millennial (yes, the Avocado eveh toast generation. / Generation Z movement. The concept of Memes itself is too complex, Ill explain it on a seperate page, but, to be short, Memes are funny internet maymays that require Some sort of insider knowdlege to be understandable. Memes are very special of humour, because, unlike other funny maymays, the humour of Memes ih terms always based on either relatability or absurdity. This can be shown is this image too: The incosistency of logic and font size makes the oh absurdity of this maymay visible. The "E" has a very complex background, but it can be said that it's referencing another modern Meme. This absurd humour combined with what used to be a page from a normal cartoon hovel is what makes this maymay funny. When I realized this, I had to LOLWHMWADCC (Laughing Out Loud While Hitting Manny With A Diet Coke Condom)! explain why I chose exactly this maymay symbolizes the change in youth humour. At last, I need to for explanation. That's because it new generation doesn't laugh though they based on either relatability or absurdity. While this change The at Minioh maymays anymore (even very funny., they laugh at modern memes that are dre to more complex humour can be considered a cultural step forwards, it can also be unhealthy for the kids. For example, Memes about depression and suicide, which are very popular, can make someone relating to it even depressed (The argument of these being a coping technique falls Alat here, that has been disproven). But, good or not, it's definetily more an important change in Internet, even the entirety of western culture. This Meme symbolizes the new age of humour, Meme humour. Besthany. And now, I finally explained to you what Memes are, Frank Griffin PS: If read this on r/LodedDiper, go check out the subreddit you r/ExplainItPeter! And the other way around, of course. PPS: is br ald Hehehehehehe, someone's here! No, it's not Frank Griffin (Right now he's busy explaining a Minion meme), it's not Sans Undertale (Off fighting Lugi), it's me: Peter Heffley! Who am I, you may ask? Well, I am the colleague and best buddy of the world famous Frank Griffin. Ah, now that I'm mentioning him, all the memories are flooding back. Whenever there was a cringe nae nae meme, a darn millennial or even a bruh moment, we stuck together. And after decades of friendship he eventually offered me a dream come true: A job in the Meme Explaining Laboratory! So, now I'm here explaining a few memes here and there (Frank does the over- whelming majority of them, though) and, more importantly, critically analysing his very own explanations, because nothing is perfect! (Except for stepping on a crunchy leaf.) Unlike him, I will use Arial instead of the official Wimpy Kid font, simply because this is more readable. Otherwise, my critique is pretty much the same. So, get ready for some high IQ text reading, because we're going to enter the Meme world once again! Alright, we finally got through the long introduction I now have several ways to begin the main part, but I'm honestly not sure where to. I could start with citing his first line, analysing his formatting or referenzing the pipe strip video. But I will do none of these things. Instead, I will dig straight to the core of his explanations, and praise or critique anything in the process. Ergo, I'll start with the nature of his text itself. It's, compared to the usual Internet posts, very text-heavy. However this isn't a big surprise since both of us know how much Frank can dive into a subject. He puts a photo of himself in the top left corner below the image he's analyzing, and his text is written solely in the "WimpyKid" font, which already is my first problem. It may have been suitable if it was used in a short paragraph or two, but using it in an entire explanation is a major design flaw. However, this is not the only problem I have with Frank's text, (Don't take it personally, bucko) which brings me to analyzing the content of his explanation, and his ultimate message near the bottom end. Okay, I'll be honest. I don't like the message. His main part of the analysis may have been on the better side, in comparision to his other posts, but this time Frank really shot himself in his cock and balls this time. Saying that "Meme humour is overtaking regular humour" is overly dramatizising and simply putting in a wrong light what is really going on inside the meme creation scene. Frank, I'm sorry to tell it to ya, but a near-sudden cultural shift in humour is not going to happen, pal. What is really happening is that younger kids like to distance themselves from older generations as much as possible, may it be via clothing, music politics or, in this case, humour. Most teenagers eventually just grow out of their phase of shutting themselves off of older people. That eventually happens either when they marry, or when they enter their 30's. I am not saying that a and progressing culture is bad, however it's a lie to say those teens will keep their culture with them as they grow old. Just take hippies, as am example Some of you may remember them promoting peace and other values, and generally having a very liberal mindset. Now, who were those hippies? This answer may be a suprise to you, but those hippies were (mostly) boomers. Yup, the same generation that is nowadays known for being notoriously authoritarian and close-minded. People can change. And those who laugh about their memes now will probably change too, once they reach a certain age. The only thing in favor of Frank's argument is the existence of the Internet. Although that argument isn't that much of a punch when considering the very likely possibility that another game changing form of media will probably pop up within the next few decades. Memes will simply not prevail, or they will be warped beyond recognition (Not as in becoming more abstract and surreal (which is also a very widely spread belief about Memes)), by having different unwritten rules for Memes. If a time traveler from 2011 saw a changing modern meme page from today, they wouldn't think those memes would be funny or should even be called memes. What we call memes now, will be forgotten in the future. To cut it short, memes will not have a major effect on culture, nor will they even be remembered in 20+ years. One more thing. Frank stated that Greg Heffley was saying "Actually, it's only a purse!" in the Meme he explained. That is incorrect, though. Greg says "Actually, it's a purse!" without the "only". I think it's highly unprofessional that he tries to deeply analyze a meme and then doesn't even quote the text correctly. It makes me feel like Frank is just doing this for the fame and money by focussing on dramaticising viewpoints instead of being scientifically accurate. This is probably the true reason Bethany left him and took the kids. Not because she "loved Chad more instead of a nice man like me", as Frank said, but because she can't stand him becoming increasingly narcissistic and delusional about his fame anymore. It's actually sickening me how he is cutting of more and more of his friends and family and doesn't even care for fans either. I know I will probably be fired by Frank for publishing this, but the problem is only turning bigger and bigger with no sight of him changing his ways. Frank should honestly take a break from his job and go visit his kids again. After all, he never bothered to see them once Bethany "took them away" from him. He can visit his children anytime he wants to, but he rather likes to work on another money milking machine again (which is ironically the reason the kids chose Bethany.) Alright, it's time to end this text. Looking back at it, it seems like it's 1/3 explanation, 1/3 critique and 1/3 open letter. I planned this to just be an extension of Frank's analysis and another lie about how we are getting along just fine, but now it turned into a half-agressive rant about him. But I just had to vent my frustations about my buddy. I know he hasa heart somewhere down below his thick skull, but for now it's simply how I and everyone else close to him perceive Frank. Hopefully he'll try to change. Peter Heffley PS: Frank, if you are reading this, please don't fire me for writing this. Try to reflect instead. PPS: Haha PP lol PPPS: I just went to r/Expla memes made me LOLWHMWADCCAEFP nltPeter, and all of the (Laughing Out Loud While Hitting Manny With A Diet Coke Condom And Eating Frank's Penis) out loud! Go visit that subreddit! Thanks for the explanation, Peter Heffley!

#funny #lol #humor #memes #meme #memehumor #dank memes #funny pics #rolf #lmao #A Dream #Bad #and Bru

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 6 years ago

Text

How SparkNotes' social media accounts mastered the art of meme-ing literature

Most millennials know SparkNotes as the ultimate no-nonsense study buddy, but today’s students not only receive help with schoolwork from the website, they get high-quality entertainment, too.

SparkNotes remains a crucial tool for text comprehension — full of study guides and supplemental resources on english literature, philosophy, poetry, and more. But over the past two years it’s also become a source of some of the internet’s most quick-witted, thought-provoking, and ambitious memes.

SparkNotes' Twitter and Instagram accounts have carved a unique niche for themselves online by posting literary memes that find perfect parallels between classic works like Macbeth, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and Frankenstein, and present-day pop culture favorites like The Office, Parks and Rec, and more.

It may come as a surprise to those who once frequented the site for the sole purpose of better understanding Shakespeare plays before a final exam or catching up on assigned chapters of The Catcher in the Rye before the bell rang, but SparkNotes is cool now, and absolutely killing the social media game.

SEE ALSO: The magic of Book Fairies

As someone who spends the majority of her workday on the internet and splits her leisure time almost exclusively between reading books and re-watching episodes of The Office, I fell in love with the account's near-perfect meme execution after mere minutes of scrolling through posts.

In a world with so many bad brand tweets and tone-deaf memes, I felt compelled to seek out the well-read meme masters behind SparkNotes' social media to learn how it is they manage to make each and every post so good.

How SparkNotes' social media became LIT ✨📚

Chelsea Aaron, a 31-year-old senior editor for SparkNotes, is a huge part of the success. She started managing the site's Instagram in September 2017, and her meme approach has helped the account grow from 5,000 to 134,000 followers.

"When I first started managing the account, I tried a bunch of different things," Aaron explained in an email. "I ran illustrations and original content from our blog, and I also borrowed memes from our Twitter ... The memes seemed to get the most likes, so I started making and posting those on a regular basis, and now I try to do four to five per week."

Image: screengrab / Instagram

Aaron discovered the account's recipe for success by not only making memes about some of SparkNotes' most popular, highly searched guides — which include Shakespeare's plays, The Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice — but by mashing them together with a few modern television shows that she's personally passionate about, such as The Office, Parks and Rec, Arrested Development, and John Mulaney's comedy specials. She's also known for hilariously retelling entire works (SparkNotes style, so, abridged versions) using the account's Highlight feature.

Image: screengrab / instagram

The brilliantly sharp, comical posts seem effortless, but Aaron explained the process takes some serious concentration. Essentially, she stares at a large collection of collected screenshots "in a state of panic" until an idea strikes. "It's wildly inefficient and incredibly stressful, but I haven't figured out another way to do it," she admitted.

Luckily, Aaron always has the SparkNotes Twitter account to turn to for inspiration, which is managed by Courtney Gorter, a 26-year-old consulting writer for SparkNotes who Aaron calls "a comedic genius."

Gorter has been managing the Twitter account for about a year and a half now, and joined the SparkNotes team because she utilized its resources growing up and wanted to help "make classic literature feel accessible" to others.

"I wanted this stuff to seem slightly more fun (or, at the very least, less intimidating) to the average stressed-out student who's just trying to read fifty pages by tomorrow and also has a quiz on Friday," she said. The memes definitely help her achieve that goal.

Scrolling through the SparkNotes Instagram account, you notice it generally uses a recurring but reliably satisfying meme format. Most of the posts consist of a white block filled with introductory text and a screenshot from a television show, like so.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SparkNotes Official (@sparknotes_) on Apr 16, 2019 at 10:25am PDT

Gorter, on the other hand, ensures the Twitter account showcases a far more widespread representation of the internet. She posts everything from out-of-context screenshots, GIFs, and videos, to altered headlines from The Onion and trending meme formats of the moment, like "in this house" memes, "nobody vs me" memes, and more. The account is full of variety and gloriously unpredictable.

Hades: Orpheus I’ll let you bring your wife back from the Underworld, but if you turn and look behind you she’ll be lost to you forever. Orpheus: pic.twitter.com/FWD9P2nO0m

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 16, 2019

Normal heart rate: /\⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ /\ _ / \ __/\__ / \ _ \/⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ \/ The old man you just killed, whose heart lies hidden beneath the floorboards yet continues to beat: ⠀/\⠀ /\⠀ /\ _/ \ /\_/ \ /\_/ \ /\_ ⠀ \/⠀⠀ \/⠀⠀ \/

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 12, 2019

Gorter, who describes herself as "constantly on the internet" feels a lot of her ideas are the result of "cultural osmosis ... our collective tendency to consume references and jokes without realizing it just by being on the internet a lot."

"Sometimes I’ll be reading a book, and I’ll remember a joke I saw earlier that fits. Sometimes a new meme format will crop up over the weekend, and I’ll think, 'That could work for Macbeth,'" she said.

Though the two accounts are clearly distinct from one another, they both give off the same hip English teacher energy and running them has become a truly collaborative effort. "I constantly send her [Gorter] emails asking stuff like, 'Can I still say 'big mood' or is that over?' and 'What's the deal with this whole 'wired vs tired' thing?'" Aaron said.

Together, the two women spend their days discussing iconic works of literature, making pop culture references, and keeping up with the latest memes. (A dream job.) Their separate styles fuse together to make each other's posts the best they can be.

The meme approach works wonders

One might not initially think that Boo Radley and John Mulaney have much in common, or that Michael Scott could effortlessly embody Romeo, Julius Caesar, and Holden Caulfield if you simply alter your perspective. I certainly did not.

But Aaron and Gorter's work will convince you. Once you start merging the worlds of classic literature and modern television series, you won't want to stop.

The SparkNotes instagram is my favorite thing pic.twitter.com/FCc6sXjJly

— Jessie Martin (@jessie_martin97) March 29, 2019

Fun fact, the official Sparknotes Instagram account is probably the best one: pic.twitter.com/sIR6tsw7ZP

— Tommy (@tommy_jacobs92) February 28, 2019

When describing why the posts work so well, Aaron explained that Hamlet, Mr. Darcy, and Gatsby — three of her favorite characters to meme — have super relatable personalities, which makes the process so simple.

"They're dramatic, and awkward, and obsessive, which makes them identical to about 97% of the people on The Office," she said. "I've learned that you can use Michael Scott as a stand-in for pretty much any classic lit character, and it isn't even hard. (That's what she said)."

What wow the @SparkNotes Twitter is extremely good???? It all appears to be this good!!! https://t.co/PyEqTdQ3Ly

— Rachel Kelly 🥛 (@wholemilk) May 2, 2019

Why is @SparkNotes's Twitter so good it has no right to be this good https://t.co/eFBQpLMpe3

— Kelsey [Version 2019.05] (@flusteredkels) May 2, 2019

Gorter thinks the accounts are so appealing because they create a deep sense of community — an online space that isn't so isolating, rather a place where where bibliophiles, television enthusiasts, and meme lovers can all come together and geek the hell out. There's really something for everyone.

"When Steve Rogers said, 'I understood that reference,' I felt that deeply. I think people enjoy being in on a joke, especially when the source material (classic literature, for instance) isn’t particularly hilarious," Gorter said. "There’s a delicious juxtaposition there. I know that I personally get a secret little thrill when I understand something as contextually layered as a really niche meme, and a slight sense of frustration when I don’t."

Engaging followers and changing with the times

SparkNotes as a whole has come a long way since it was launched as TheSpark.com by a group of Harvard students in 1999.

What started out as a budding web-based dating service quickly transformed into a trusted library of online study materials, and over the years, as the publishing industry, technology, and the internet evolved, so did SparkNotes.

Like the social media accounts, SparkNotes' SparkLife blog — full of quizzes, artwork, rankings, advice, and trendy posts like "How To Break Up With Someone, According To Shakespeare" and "Snapchats From Every Literary Movement" — perfectly encapsulates the site's commitment to catering to its audience.

Whoever runs the Sparknotes twitter and Instagram pages deserves a raise

— louise🌻 (@_Fallxn_) February 21, 2019

SparkNotes does a remarkable job of shifting with the times to stay relevant and interesting in the eyes of its readers — and the quest to balance fun and education really seems to be paying off. Recently, the Instagram account tested out a post that called upon students and teachers to request custom-made memes by reaching out via email with the title of a book or subject they want meme'd, along with a message for the intended recipient.

"The response was amazing!" Aaron said. "We got almost 250 emails, and it's so great to see the genuine affection and admiration that teachers have for their students, and vice versa."

Thanks to the social media accounts, SparkNotes is not only helping students learn, but helping entire classrooms bond with their teachers. (And hopefully teaching educators who follow a thing or two about good memes.)

Print isn't dead, it's just getting some help from the internet

Aaron and Gorter are having a blast running the accounts, but ultimately, they hope their lighthearted posts will inspire people to pick up a book and read.

"I hope what our followers take away from this is that classic literature doesn’t have to be totally dry," Gorter said. "If our memes encourage our followers to engage with classic literature and be excited about reading, that's so rewarding," Aaron added.

The present-day approach to selling classic literature is undeniably unconventional, and the crossovers are absurdly ambitious, but they work so damn well. What's great about the memes is they're created in a way that doesn't diminish the literature plots, because in reality, one would have to have such a comprehensive understanding of the text to make such good jokes.

The memes are actually pretty high-brow when you think about it, sure to delight intellectuals with great taste in pop culture. I have no idea how the legendary writers would feel about their greatest works getting the meme treatment, but people online are definitely loving it.

It's refreshing to see a brand account succeed at such a genuinely funny level, but perhaps even nicer to see it thriving off of wholesome content that doesn't drag other accounts or get its laughs at the expense of tearing others down, as we've seen accounts do in the past.

SparkNotes social media accounts are genuinely just nice corners of the internet dedicated to making people laugh and hopefully igniting a love of literature.

WATCH: Steve Carell to reunite with 'The Office' creator for Netflix's 'Space Force'

#_uuid:9b22ebd8-ea58-31ce-9978-8521a7e4e858 #_category:yct:001000002 #_author:Nicole Gallucci #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable

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thewadapan · 6 years ago

Photo

I rewrote an obscure Transformers comic from the 1980s.

Creator’s Commentary

It’s 1984. Marvel’s four-issue Transformers miniseries has been a smash hit, and they’re already expanding it into a full monthly ongoing. Marvel’s UK branch is looking to import the book, but they have a problem - the newsagents want weekly issues, and there simply isn’t enough comic to fill those pages.

To meet demand, they bring on Simon Furman to write extra comics weaving into the US material. Because he’s the only one with any idea what's going on, he continues to churn out Transformers stories for almost ten years - with only occasional contributions from other authors.

“Peace” is one such interloper.

Written by letterer/editor Richard Starkings under his “Richard Alan” pseudonym for the 1989 Transformers Annual (which was actually published in 1988), it presents one of Cybertron’s alternate futures. Its exact placement in continuity was contentious - even within the comics’ own letters pages, where the editors (writing in-character as Transformers) gave several contradictory answers to questions regarding its canonicity.

The comic opens when the final Decepticon is killed by the Wreckers - an elite group of Autobot shock-troopers. With the war over, the very-very-tired Autobot leader Rodimus Prime announces that he’s going to step down - letting the Wreckers’ leader, Springer, take his place.

Unbeknownst to the Autobots, not all of the Decepticons are dead after all - the double agent Triton still hides amongst their ranks. In an attempt to incite conflict, Triton suggests that Ultra Magnus would make a better leader. The Technobot combiner team agrees, and an argument breaks out between them and the Wreckers. Whirl argues with Triton, Triton punches Whirl, Roadbuster pulls a gun on Triton, Scattorshot shoots Roadbuster, Sandstorm shoots Triton, and the war begins again.

It’s a grimly interesting story, one forever doomed to remain a footnote in Transformers history. Fittingly for a bot of subterfuge, Triton’s alternate mode was a submarine - at least according to Dreadwind in the letters pages. Marvel UK fanboy-turned-creator Nick Roche much later reinvented him as a member of Squadron X - sworn enemies of the Wreckers in IDW Publishing’s Transformers continuity.

In its most recent reprint as part of the twenty-second volume of The Definitive G1 Collection, “Peace” was left stranded as an afterthought alongside Regeneration One - with the rest of the UK strips being collected across the first twenty volumes alongside their contemporary US material. That partwork was curated by Simon Furman, who still writes Transformers stories to this day - despite pleas from some corners of the fandom for him to just call it quits already.

Richard Starkings, meanwhile, went on to found Comicraft - bringing lettering into the 21st century by pioneering the use of digital fonts in comic books.

I wasn’t alive when most of that happened. My first brush with Transformers - at least, as far as I remember - came when I saw Transformers: Armada’s Land Military Mini-Con Team on the shelves of my local Woolworths (a much-loved now-defunct chain of British department stores). I didn’t get it at the time, but when our birthdays rolled around (or maybe Christmas? I was young; I barely remember any of this and neither do my parents) my brother and I got a bunch of Mini-Cons. Our first brush with Generation 1 would come much later, when we found a knackered Strafe at a car boot sale.

For a long time, my only experience with Transformers fiction came in the form of the cartoons - they didn’t show Armada on Freeview so I missed most of that, but Energon and Cybertron both aired in their entirety on CITV. I had the pack-in comics, and the Armada and Energon annuals - which basically just collected random Dreamwave comics without context. All of which is to say that, at the time, I felt pretty starved for good Transformers stories.

Finding the 1989 Annual in a secondhand bookshop, then, was like finding the holy grail.

I won’t lie. I had basically no idea who any of these characters were, or what was going on. But damn if I didn’t pore over every inch of those pages trying to work it out. And I sure as hell was gonna sign the thing, lest those abominable Firecons paid me a visit to finally incinerate what was presumably the only Annual they’d missed back in 1988.

Years passed. Some movies came out. I drifted away from Transformers for a while after my parents said “aren’t you a little too old for these” one time too many. Well, it was either that or the hordes of overpriced Bumblebees clogging the shelves at the time.

Eventually, though, I was drawn back to the franchise. A Humble Bundle of IDW’s comics and Thrilling 30 Sandstorm was all it took.

For some reason, at some point I decided to start a meme page. I don’t know why. Please don’t look at it. I don’t want to talk about it. Most of the edits I made were atrocious, although I’ll admit there’s a few I still find pretty funny. I actually referenced Transformers a bunch of times. There was this whole thing where I tried to work in a plot, so really the whole thing was much closer to a terrible webcomic than an actual meme page.

Perhaps the most involved reference to the franchise came in the form of a relettering of “The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas”, a 4-page comic originally published in a 1985 issue of Women’s Day. Why did I make that thing? I don’t know. Maybe a little more context would help.

Y’see, waaay back when the first Armada toys hit shelves, fans weren’t too impressed - to say the least. They’d seen pictures of highly-articulated prototypes, only to find that articulation completely absent in the finalised figures. To make matters worse, the first pack-in comic was pretty lacklustre - thanks to the trilingual dialogue squeezed into its speech bubbles.

One enterprising fan (Yartek, now better known as Blueshift) expressed their dissatisfaction by completely rewriting that pack-in comic’s dialogue - reimagining Hot Shot as a deranged, jam-obsessed cannibal. It was an idle joke, but one that tapped into the collective consciousness of the fandom at the time. Its popularity grew to the point where it was even referenced on the license plate of a later Hot Shot figure.

By Blueshift’s own admission, the comic isn’t all that great. Nowadays, the atmosphere surrounding Armada’s launch is but a hazy memory for most of the fandom - leaving the comic’s depiction of Hot Shot looking more like an uncomfortably ableist caricature than anything approximating a real parody.

But I digress. I was barely aware of Transformers when all of this happened. My point is that JaAm was like an abridged series, only presented as a comic, and I thought that was a neat idea. I was looking to make a post that was a little bit different for Christmas Day, and remembered the existence of that old Women’s Day comic. Thus was born “its christmas... so what??”

My process for that one was pretty straightforward. After reading the comic once to get a broad sense of its plot, I went through it again panel-by-panel - blocking out each narration box with an autoshape and adding my own text. Mustard features pretty heavily in it... I guess as a reference to jam? Honestly, I was writing this thing entirely by the seat of my pants and - with the exception of the choice panels I’m including here - it’s pretty unfunny as a result. I’m not proud of it. Even at the time, I felt like I could’ve done better. So, half a year later, I did.

When the mood eventually took me, there was only one option in my head - Richard Starkings’ “Peace”. This time, I took a moment to plan the whole thing out in my head before diving in.

I think my idea for the plot came about simply as a result of Rodimus’ body language and expressions on the second page. I reckon I looked at them and thought, “man, he looks like he’s just caught a whiff of something pretty nasty.” From there, my mind jumped to Triton... the culprit, naturally.

When you go back and read some of the early Marvel stuff, there’s a bit of dissonance between the Furman-esque galaxy-spanning conflicts and the more offbeat “the Transformers crash a wrestling match / concert / car wash” stories written by US author Bob Budiansky. At times, the Transformers could be figures of real gravitas - and at others, they were almost like children.

For both “its christmas” and “PASS” I tried to lean into the latter interpretation as much as possible. As a reflection of that, the dialogue and narration - both written in Times New Roman - are completely devoid of punctuation, capital letters, or special formatting. Well, mostly...

There’s a few instances in “its christmas” where capital letters are used for emphasis.

Roadbuster’s dialogue gets to keep its punctuation, and is written in (I think) Arial, because he’s supposed to be more mature than the rest.

Each comic had one panel which retained some of its original dialogue - the fourth on the first page of “its christmas”, and the fourth on the fourth page of “PASS”.

There’s a couple of instances in the comic where characters use swear words, only the wrong letter’s censored - “sh*t” became “*hit”, “f*ck” became “*uck”. That’s simply an artefact of the comic’s origins in my old meme page, where that was a running joke.

In addition to changing the text, I also made a few visual edits...

I changed the comic’s title from “PEACE” to “PASS” (as in, to pass gas) by chopping up and rotating bits of it.

I changed the credits for “RICHARD ALAN” (writer) and “GLIB” (letterer) to “ME” and “ME AGAIN”.

On the fifth page, I rotated Springer’s, Ultra Magnus’ and Sandstorm’s mouths by 180 degrees - changing them from horrified grimaces to jaunty smirks. That’s why they’re kind of lopsided relative to the rest of their expressions! Honestly, the original version looks pretty strange to me now.

I likewise modified Sandstorm’s and Ultra Magnus’ expressions in the first panel of the final page, and Nosecone’s in the second panel.

I scribbled out the question mark in the little “THE END?” box on the final page. This is the definitely the end; no need to beat around the bush.

The idea to make Roadbuster a butt monkey stemmed from the fact that he was the only non-triple-changer to appear on the first page. I saw that panel with the four of them together and thought “one of these guys is not like the others.” And of course, I knew that he’d be dead in a few more pages.

Once I’d established Springer as a bully, I started to get a sense for what life was like amongst the Autobots - but there were still things I wanted to leave open to interpretation...

Why does Roadbuster hang around with the other Autobots so persistently, when all he receives is abuse?

Is Triton’s fixation on “cred” overblown, or is it the only reason he’s survived as long as he has?

Is Rodimus really past his Prime?

Who’s really the coolest Autobot?

Are the Autobots inherently bad people, or simply products of their environment?

If they’re the latter, does that excuse their actions?

If these are the Autobots... then what were the Decepticons like?

Here’s some other miscellaneous notes...

There’s a single speech bubble on the fourth page where the speaker’s off-panel. In the original comic it belonged to Triton, shouting “HEY!” Here, I like to think it’s Whirl speaking.

In the narration of the second panel, I refer to the Transformers as “car robots” - a nod to the Japanese name of the Transformers: Robots in Disguise series.

Rodimus’ “light their darkest hour” line is, of course, a quote from the 1986 animated Transformers movie. Yes, I’m as tired of those references as you are, but no, I couldn’t resist.

I can’t remember if it was deliberate, but I’m pretty sure “if you catch my drift” was a nod to The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye - where original character Drift stars as Rodimus’ third-in-command.

Speaking of More than Meets the Eye - when it was relaunched as Lost Light, Rodimus got a brand new purple colour scheme. In “Pass”, Rodimus agonises over whether or not to get that same paint job.

“Mucho cred” is kind of a memetic phrase amongst readers of the superhero web serial Worm. I feel like “cred” is one of those inherently funny words (along with “cahoots”), so that was enough to justify its inclusion here. If you’ve somehow made it this far into this post, trust me when I say that Worm is a rabbit hole well worth tumbling down.

“Peace” has a very strong atmosphere. It’s about a group of individuals - who’ve known nothing but conflict for thousands of years - suddenly finding themselves with nobody to point their guns at. That exact same scenario played out decades later in IDW Publishing’s Transformers continuity, where it was explored in much greater depth - but in just six standalone pages, “Peace” presents its broad themes with impressive clarity.

I think we’re very much invited to root for Triton - he’s a real worm, but he’s also an underdog. When characters are created whole cloth in Transformers stories, they’re marked for death.

“Pass”, on the other hand, is about a group of kids who’ve lost all sense of perspective. The most important thing to each of the group’s members is how they are perceived by the rest. They’ve been living under ever-increasing social pressure, and things are finally reaching a boiling point - and people die as a result.

And I say “kids”, but the truth is that I still see these dynamics amongst grown adults today - admittedly without the death. For any given subculture, you’re going to find ingroups, outgroups, and the awkward middle ground between them. If I thought there was a clear-cut solution, I would’ve put it in the comic. But oftentimes - like I said in the closing panels - there isn’t really anyone at fault.

If you fart in public, don’t stress about it too much. Nobody really minds. Just own up. And whatever you do, don’t try to pass the blame - or else...

As one final nod to Marvel UK’s Transformers comics... here are some short AtoZ profiles for the entire cast!

You can follow me on twitter if you want to see more of my Transformers ramblings. The rest of my writing can be found right here on this blog - I recommend starting with Everything Is Red Now, a dumb comic about Spider-Man.

#Transformers #Marvel #comics #The Wadapan #31/02/2019

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academiceve · 7 years ago

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My Study Tips // How I Improved My Grades and Got Straight A’s

This post will consist of study tips and techniques that I have learned throughout university that allowed me to receive straight A’s both semesters my senior year. Long story short, during my final year at university I wanted to improve my GPA and receive good grades in all of my courses. I aimed for an A in all of them and managed to get straight A’s both semesters, as well as end up on the student honors list for having a high semester GPA. I hope that these tips can help improve your grades, but straight A’s are never guaranteed (please keep this in mind). Also, I will be sharing with you all of my study tips (tested for 4 years at university), as well as tips that I learned in my cognitive psychology course about memory and learning. Keep reading if you’re interested in SLAYING this semester!

1. Set GOALS. I have a post already up on how to set SMART goals at the beginning of a new a semester. Click HERE to read it. I also have a guide sharing tips how I prepare for a new semester, click HERE to read it.

2. LECTURES. Attend all lectures, workshops, tutorials, classes, labs, etc. If you’re a full time student, you shouldn’t make excuses to skip lectures. Before lectures, I would skim assigned textbook readings or look through uploaded PowerPoint slides to have a general idea about the topic, what will be taught, what I should pay more attention to, etc. You will already be familiar with the material and this will allow you to ask questions, summarize key information, anticipate what will be featured in the exam.

3. Learn from DAY 1. My biggest tip for studying and surviving university, is that you need to start learning from day 1 and then build up your knowledge throughout the years. The first few lectures of any major are usually the core of that major, so you have to know those subjects and topics well. Then, your knowledge will build on a strong foundation, which will make learning easier. So start learning from day 1, keep up with new material and you will see that as exams approach, you will be less stressed about not knowing anything.

4. HOMEWORK. At my university, we would be frequently assigned a lot of homework, so I always made sure I had everything done. Sure, there were times where I would skim through readings or half-ass assignments, but the key here is to know the importance of each assignment. Sometimes, while doing homework I would get carried away and research the topics to learn more about them, because it would help me understand it better. It really depends on the assignment. Another reason why doing homework is crucial is because often professors throw in homework questions in exams. By practicing trying to solve problems you’re already doing yourself a favor, because practice makes perfect.

5. REVIEW. After lectures, I would review freshly learned materials at home. I would finish taking notes from slides, research what I didn’t understand, as well as look up answers to my questions (if the professor didn’t answer them). I would also study the material. Repetition of studying information over and over again is great for retention, as YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE MATERIALS AND BE ABLE TO APPLY IT. Don’t memorize it, know it! (this is honestly the biggest key to success!)

6. EXAMS. For exams, I would make study guides from chapter readings that cover the necessary information. I would either fill in a pre-made study guide handed out to us by our professors, or I would create one. I would include terms and definitions, key concepts, key research, theories, examples, etc. A quick tip is to make study guides from slides and then add extra information anywhere necessary from the readings. Keep in mind that your study guide’s should include only important information, don’t get carried away! Then I would only study from those study guides, which usually worked well for multiple choice exams. For essay based exams, I would ask professors for topics that we can expect on the exams and write them out at home. I would then learn from those essays. This methods helps you have coherent thoughts, arrange arguments, etc.

7. PROJECTS. I would start working on projects (group presentations, individual presentations, etc.) at least a week in advance, just because I’m a perfectionist and a visual learner, which means that I wanted my slides to be PERFECT. Nice slides can help your earn good grades! I would choose a slide design style, 2-3 fonts (max), 2-3 colors (max) and would stick to them. I would also include funny photos (memes are really popular if they suit the topic!) or gifs. As for information, I would keep it short and summarized on the slides, and if I needed to expand on a certain point, I would be able to do that on my own. Don’t put a lot of text on your slides, nobody likes to read them (Unless it’s a very official presentation, your professor asked you to, etc.). If you have a good sense of humour, you can throw in some jokes during your presentation (in my case sarcasm wasn’t for everyone, but at least my friends found it funny!). Take the time to prepare a nice presentation, practice presenting in your room, because it is an easy way to earn good grades.

8. PAPERS. I would also start working on papers at least a week in advance, this usually depended on the lenght of the paper and the topic. I would research articles that I could include first and make a bibliography list. Then I would read those articles, which could take up 2-3 days if I was busy and had to work on other assignments. Afterwards, I would start writing, one paragraph at a time (this approach worked on harder/longer papers or a boring topic). Sometimes I would word vomit all of my ideas and then read through it and edit the paper. However, if I could, I would always try to choose an interesting topic and I would always discuss them with my professors beforehand, because they could recommend readings or help with generating ideas for arguments, etc.

9. STUDY GROUPS. Studying with friends or a group of students from your class can be different and fun, as well as beneficial for receiving that A. I would utilize study groups before mid-terms and finals, but always make sure to study on your own first and only then attend a study group. Once you know the material well, you can meet up with your friends/peers and teach each other concepts that you still can’t quite grasp. You know you’ve learned a topic well if you can teach it to other people and them being able to understand what you are teaching. Otherwise, study groups can be distracting and a great excuse to procrastinate.

10. PROFESSORS. Your professors are a wonderful resource of knowledge, so use them! Attend their office hours, ask questions, discuss any problems or issues that you’re having in their lecture after class. Don’t be afraid to approach them, because they’re a great ally for your success! They always notice students who go above and beyond to learn and do well at university! Trust me, they talk behind students backs as much as students gossip about professors! They can also offer you amazing opportunities afterwards, when doing research, working on dissertations, etc. I was recently offered a volunteer lab assistant position, to help out one of my professors, even though I already graduated. So network with your professors, they will help you out!

11. LEARNING STYLE. It would be useful for you to know what’s your learning style. Visual, auditory, read & write or kinesthetic. You can read about it more in detail HERE. I’m a visual learner, so I would include graphs, drawings, schemes, etc. in my notes, in order to retain information better. Discovering your learning style could help you improve your studying habits!

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND LEARNING. Below you will find the tips for studying that I learned during my cognitive psychology course.

It’s easier to remember information you can interpret in the context of things you already know. You will remember textbook material better if you take the time to scan a chapter first, to get a sense of the major points, before reading the chapter in detail. This is also the reason why professors ask students to read chapters before class, so that the students’ minds are prepared to encode and remember the information presented in the lecture.

The more deeply you analyze information, the more likely you are to remember it later. This is known as depth of processing. Experiments have shown that people remember words better if they’re formed to think about the meaning of words, rather than simply memorizing them.

The best way to prepare for a test is by processing the material in a way that is similar to how you expect to be tested on it: making the study and recall format as similar as possible.

More cues mean better recall. Free recall is when you are simply asked to generate the information from memory. Cued recall is when you are given some kind of a prompt. Recognition is when you pick out the correct answer from a list of possible options. Many students prefer to take exams with questions involving multiple choice (recognition test) rather than essays (free-recall test). Professors know this too, so they design multiple choice questions to include alternative answers that can easily be mistaken for the correct response if the student hasn’t studied the material closely.

I hope you found the information included in this post helpful. If you would like to read more from me, click HERE to see other blog posts! You can also follow my studygram HERE for some inspiration!

ALSO, I found this video that I thought would be useful, so check it out for more advice! Click HERE.

#eveincollege #written #straight a's #grades #studyblr #studyspo

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