#reworded from an anti

[pidovespost0519]

🫵

It is always morally correct to imagine ur F/O as fatter and hairier than they appear in canon.

[niigoloving]

shoutout to sleepy/tired selfshippers. no matter why you’re sleepy, your f/o will tuck you into bed and cuddle you if you so desire.

[etaleah]

I think a lot about the fact that the real genius of Hbomberguy’s plagiarism video was not just the exposé aspect of it but the fact that it so effectively demonstrated WHY plagiarism is bad.

When teachers warned against plagiarism in school, they made it seem like the reason it was bad was because it got you out of doing work. Plagiarism was bad because it was lazy. And that is (1) not a very strong deterrent to students who are only taking this class and writing this paper because they’re forced to and therefore don’t care about the work, and (2) missing the real harm behind the action.

On some level, yeah, plagiarism is bad because it will prevent you from learning how to write well on your own. There’s a real fear that a generation of kids won’t know how to write (which means they won’t know how to think) because they’ll be so used to having an “AI” machine do it for them that they’ll be helpless without it. That is very much a concern. But it’s far from the only issue. Harry laid out the other problems really well:

1. Plagiarism is enshittification. When you have to reword stuff to hide that you’re stealing it, the writing will be clunkier, wordier, more awkward, and less natural-sounding. This makes the piece worse, which isn’t good for anyone. Who needs more bad writing in the world?

2. Plagiarism spreads misinformation. Again, stealing stuff usually requires having to reword things to get around plagiarism checkers. That can make it very easy to (accidentally or purposely) rewrite a sentence to now be false instead of true. This is made worse by the fact that hiding the source of the information makes fact-checking impossible.

3. Plagiarism is anti-educational. If the audience doesn’t know where something came from, they can’t go visit that source to learn more about the topic. They’re prevented from finding any additional knowledge, which makes research—and therefore progress—difficult.

4. Plagiarism makes it impossible for creators to earn a living, thereby making it impossible to create. Funnily enough, this means less material for plagiarists to steal from, so the whole scam is really just a snake eating its own tail. Like all scams, it can’t last long. When plagiarists can make huge profits by stealing and putting out content faster because they’re stealing, the real creators who actually do the work have no chance. They can’t compete because they can’t create as fast as a plagiarist can steal. So they don’t make as much money, which means they can’t live off their work, which in turn means they can’t create anymore. This keeps going until all that’s left is stolen garbage.

There’s a lot to love about that video, but this part in particular is my favorite by far.

[olderthannetfic]

Sending this to you specifically because I feel like you're the only normal brained person about this series.

I read Captive Prince a couple of years ago and liked it fine, as someone who doesn't have a strong preference for or against m/m and therefore isn't well-versed enough in its clichés to notice whether it reads like something full of cliché fanfic tropes. I really liked the use of language, some of the historical/political stuff, some of the ways that the characters are made complicated or unreliable.

The problem is, I've since coincidentally read most of the books that were Pacat's inspiration and. Well. Like 80-90% of the stuff in there has direct parallels in one of those. I'm not sure if there are more than three original thoughts in there.

I am not joking, if you read 1. The Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolò by Dorothy Dunnett; 2. The Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling and 3. The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, you will find that some of the scenes were ripped off beat for beat, many jokes were taken and just lazily reworded, a lot of the character beats and arcs are at best a mashup of 2 or maximum 3 things from those books with the serial numbers filed off really poorly. There's a scene where some characters discover a suicide victim whose structure and descriptions are completely ripped off from another series, except Pacat fails to see what made the original scene so impactful. A lot of the pretty use of language is also directly copied from those, including some really really specific descriptors. It's so blatant!

And I don't see how people are okay with this! I know people who are fans of several of these works and they're totally cool with it! And honestly if it were some rando's unpublished original project I'd be cool with it too, but as a published beloved worldwide phenomenon with rabid fans? C'mon.

And another thing is, all of the other series mentioned above are balls to the wall insane. She just... she just made it bland. She took off most of the edge and reshuffled the elements into a fairly straightforward MLM love story with some light kink thrown in. It's not a BAD series, but I feel like I'm disappointed that someone read all my favourite books and THAT was their takeaway?

--

I started reading, got to the name of the series and burst out laughing.

And, wow, you brought up something totally new that I hadn't thought about! I'm impressed. Genuinely. Usually, I rant about all the reasons I hate the series while debunking the standard anti talking points.

--

I've read the Vampire Chronicles, but that was in the 90s and I read Captive Prince in like 2016 or after. I had zero recollection of common points. I haven't read The Lymond Chronicles despite years of hurt/comfort fans bugging me to do so, and I think I got like a chapter into the Nightrunner series before getting distracted...

The reason I found Captive Prince annoying and derivative is that it also reads exactly like the original m/m that was available when it was first being written, most notably the work of P.L. Nunn who was extremely famous for horny fan art but who also wrote some original m/m fantasy novels. The scene where they finally bone reminds me heavily of the one from... uh... what's the P.L. Nunn one where the prince creeps on that archer dude and he gets raped because of course and then the prince has to be ~patient~ and it's peak boring 2000s rape recovery tropes?

The rape backstory is not only lifted from Fushigi Yuugi (the author's fandom at the time) but is shared with basically 100% of original m/m from that era. It's sometimes the uncle, sometimes the stepfather. One single time that I can think of, it was the foster brother, but mostly it's that "funny uncle" type. Unless it's gang rape from a bad Gundam Wing fic. That was also everywhere.

Once somebody told me the author had previously shipped Tamahome/Nakago, I realized that they'd taken what would be a kind of unusual anime ship and made it a thousand times more boring by dumbing down the scary, tall general with the tragic backstory into an uke-appropriate waif.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there may be some inspiration you aren't familiar with, but it's the same story as what you said above: this is the blander remix.

--

As for why people are okay with this... honestly, most of the people who really adore the series whom I've talked to point to how it encapsulates the exact tropes and tone they loved in anime fic circa 2000.

As a fellow weeb, I loathed the tone of said anime fic circa 2000 and could not wait for tastes to change, so Captive Prince is a hideous blast from an unlamented past for me.

I think most people who love the series aren't familiar with its inspirations. Those that are may have consumed them quite a while ago and don't realize quite how direct the parallels are. Or, for the inspirations that aren't overtly canon m/m, the lure of it being Exactly Right may overshadow other things.

(They also mostly haven't read 90s fantasy doorstops that actually contain political intrigue, tactics and strategy. Captive Prince is a piss poor entry into this genre and should be recced for m/m, not this other stuff people constantly think is in there. None of these characters can reason their way out of a paper bag.)

More than any of that, there's a lot of love left over from when the series was a serialized original story on Livejournal in an era when we had vanishingly few original m/m works, especially long ones in a fantasy alternate world.

I think that is what gets it a pass when a new m/m novel presented as "m/m romance" or posted on one of the webnovel sites would be mocked for unoriginality. Many Captive Prince fans aren't (or weren't when they read it) all that familiar with the smorgasbord of original m/m available today. Many are unfamiliar with anime fanfic circa 2000, so this feels adjacent to the fic they've read but a little fresher... instead of like the week-old sardine tin I found it to be.

[jinnaizaemon]

There it is, the Big Tsudoi Post!

I reordered by theme and translated claims that were originally compiled on this page. Said page was edited with time, some info reworded or removed, so I used the wayback machine to make it as exhaustive as possible. I've read more facts browsing boards, and I might add them to this list in the future. But this page is the most well-known, and the facts listed here are what comes up most often in discussion and fanworks.

What is tsudoi? It just means meet-up, and it refers to the fan gatherings with the author of Rakuran, Amako Soubee, which used to occur every 2 years. What's relevant here is the Q&A and discussions with the author that led to plot points, trivia, bits that she hadn't included in the story yet or can't include at all, being mentioned during those meets. None of these meet-ups were recorded, so all the info we know about them comes from word of mouth, forum messages, and blog reports. As such, these facts should be taken with a grain of salt, and while a lot of them turned up to be canon (either in the manga, anime, or musicals) in the long run, they are not canon. Consider them food for thought for possible development and lore for the characters if you want, or just context for discussion and fanworks you might encounter in the fandom. There haven't been any such meetings in a good decade, so you'll notice a lot of that info is obsolete or eventually became canon. Additionally, while there's a lot of overlap with the anime, these concern the manga.

Under the cut, you'll find my translation. The text in black is directly translated from the people who reported those facts, and I tried to offer context and additional information in blue text.

Ninjutsu Academy

In general

Among the students of Ninjutsu Academy, there are orphans other than Kirimaru.

In Ninjutsu Academy, students keep the same class and same teachers for six years.

Uniform colors do not depend on the year, meaning that the 1st year will keep the criss-cross and circles patterned uniform until graduation. This was retconned / not true for the anime and musicals. Flashbacks showed the current sixth years wearing the blue patterned uniform in their first year, and the purple one in their fifth year.

Tomesaburou, Sakubei and Kazuma were established as mob characters at first, but the author made them join the main cast after a group of fans begged her to. It’s funny when you look up discussions about this, there’s a lot of anti-fujo sentiment going on because it seems those fans were from a BL doujin circle. Some people claim they nearly harassed the author about giving these 3 bigger roles.. err… I assume Amako Soubei is grown up enough to decide by herself…

There are kunoichi upperclassmen too, but these characters won’t appear or the cast would get too out of hand.

The family situation and number of siblings of upperclassmen (except for Takamaru) hasn’t been really decided yet. Nowadays Tomesaburou, Koheita, Heisuke, and Shuichirou’s family situation are known in canon. Saburou’s family background is mentioned within tsudoi, and his name implies he has two older brothers. (the characters in ‘saburou’ means ‘third son’) 

It’s a coincidence that “Taira” no Takiyashamaru and “Minamoto” Kingo ended up in the same P.E Committee. Sensei said she didn’t think about it at all. “Taira” and “Minamoto” are two major clans from Japanese history, whose rivalry would cause the Genpei War, concluding with the fall of the Taira Clan, the victory of the Minamoto Clan, and the end of the Heian Period and beginning of the Kamakura Period. 

Classmates share a bedroom in the dormitory. Monjirou and Senzou, Chouji and Koheita, Tomesaburou and Isaku, Saburou and Raizou, Kihachirou and Takiyashamaru are roommates. Has been canon for a long time now! 31-69 explains why Saburou and Raizou are rooming together without their classmate Hachizaemon.

1st years

Rantarou is kind, so he won’t be able to perform assassination and such, and won’t become an elite ninja.

Just like his father, he will become a half low tier ninja-half farmer in the future.

Kirimaru lost his parents in the war, and was picked up by a certain monk who raised him until he entered Ninjutsu Academy.

Kirimaru used to have an older brother.

Kirimaru’s spring clothes were originally Doi’s. Doi cut his clothes and patched them up to fit Kirimaru.

Kirimaru is 140cm tall.

Shinbei’s future is not decided yet.

He might drop out in the 4th year because he has to take over his family business.

In a more recent meet-up, Shinbei dropping out was retconned, and instead all of the 1-ha class will graduate together. (Since Doi-sensei and Yamada-sensei are in charge of them!)

Shouzaemon will become an anaushi ninja, acting like a relay of information for everyone. Anaushi refers to ninja infiltrating a given space by living a regular civil life with a regular job, gaining information by earning the enemy’s trust over a long amount of time. This is why ninja have to learn many skills and crafts, to assume different identities and work different jobs. Senzou takes a pottery class because of this in 18-43, and there is such a ninja in 24-66.

Rantarou, Kirimaru and Shinbei always make sure to give the best seats to the teachers, because “it’s more important to be a polite person than a top student.” This refers to an aspect of Japanese etiquette where everyone is expected to know their seating positions in a given room based on social hierarchy. The most important people will sit the furthest away from the entrance door into the room (or into the most comfortable seat). In a tatami room of feudal Japan, this would be the warmest place, and also safest in case of attack. I assume this works as Rankirishin’s justification for sitting closest to the door in the classroom!

The “The lord who visited me last night~” song that Rantarou and the others sing is actually pretty suggestive, but they still sing it since they don’t understand the meaning of the lyrics :

From volume 42. Doi-sensei is blushing and saying “Come on, now…” Phonetically, the kids are singing: “Yufubekita yobahidono akai fundoshi otoshita Otoshitayara wasuretayara Mata koyouto oitayara” Written properly, it becomes, and is translated as the following: 昨夜来た夜這い殿 The lord who visited me (a woman) last night, 赤い褌を落としていった Dropped his red loincloth. 落としたやら、忘れたやら、 Did he drop it, did he forget it, また来ようと置いていったやら Or did he leave it behind so he can come see me again?

Danzou does not usually wear pants, but he carries a pair around with him.

Maybe due to the influence of his parents, Sanjirou might have some sixth sense when it comes to the supernatural.

Tsurumachi Fushikizou’s “So thrilling!” catchphrase comes from a pair of older sisters being suspected of a crime in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. This doesn’t specify if it’s from a novel or the script of a TV adaptation, and older sisters being suspected of a crime in a Hercule Poirot story does not ring a bell, sadly. 

The 1st years’ uniform is flashy so that in case of emergency, the teachers can find them easily. Contradicting the retconned fact that uniforms don’t change by year.

The Equipment Committee stinks of pee because the 1st year members often pee their pants. In the anime, Heita is the sole responsible of this. I'm pointing fingers.

Underclassmen

Shirobei is stupid enough to get yelled at by even Koheita. (ow)

Tounai’s front bangs aren’t curly, it’s bed hair.

Because of bad luck (and being forgotten), Kazuma’s name wasn’t properly introduced. In the anime, he introduces himself in 16-11 after his fellow committee members ask him “Who are you again…?”

4th years

Kihachirou thinks of Takiyashamaru as trash. Kiiiind of retconned with 32-61.

Kihachirou’s grades are average.

Takiyashamaru will find an early death.

5th years

Hachizaemon’s quirk of going “Oho!”, comes from a line spoken by Mifune Toshirou’s character Kikuchiyo in the movie Seven Samurai, pronounced as he was watching approaching enemies. Timestamp is 2:29:55. I think. Kikuchiyo makes a lot of funny noises.

Hachizaemon is a natural optimist.

Heisuke was modelled after what Doi Hansuke would be like in his younger days.

Heisuke is 165cm tall, the same as Monjirou. Hachizaemon has a bigger build than Heisuke.

Heisuke is an airhead. The original text says 天然キャラ tennen kyara, literally an “airhead character”, but when a real person is called a tennen kyara it means they are Pretending to be an airhead for attention/to be cute/etc. I assume OP meant it as in a character who fits the “tennen” trope. Tennen evokes an airhead personality but also someone who goes at their own pace, is eccentric, has trouble reading the room, etc.

Heisuke has “excellent grades”, a “sharp mind”, and is “accomplished at both the pen and the sword”.

Heisuke is a better student than Kanemon, but Saburou is a better student than Heisuke.

Raizou and Saburou will find work in the same castle as sounin, showing effort and success. 双忍 sounin, literally “a pair of ninja”, or ninja working together! Love wins.

Saburou’s actual hair is silky straight. On day offs, he walks around town maskless, and no one recognizes him.

His father is alive and well, and is also a master of disguise, apparently even more skilled than Saburou.

Even though some of them weren’t introduced into the story yet, some 6th years sneak out at night to meet with girls. They get in trouble if teachers catch them. 

Sensei looks disappointed that Hachiya Saburou’s name is spelled 蜂屋 hachiya in the anime, and would like it to revert back to 鉢屋 hachiya somehow.

Hachiya might be a discriminating word against burakumin in some regions?

The name 鉢屋 Hachiya was taken after the real life Hachiya-shu ninja clan. The original poster seems unclear on this, so let me add context even though it’s a bit long. This is a huge speedrun and burakumin has a complex history which deserves better than being taught through ninja cartoons, so I really urge you to read about them.  In the anime, Hachiya is spelled with the characters 蜂 hachi (bee) and 屋 ya (seller, store, house). Hachiya with that spelling is also the name of a variety of persimmon. In the manga, Hachiya is spelled with the characters 鉢 hachi (bowl) and the same 屋 ya (seller, store, house), and has a richer history. Burakumin are historically stigmatized people in Japan. Back in Muromachi, they would live separately from the rest of society in their own settlement, and were considered lesser due to the jobs they occupied. These mostly involve work deemed “unclean” by Buddhist teachings, relating to blood, rot, and death: they were famously executioners, butchers, and leather workers. It also includes popular, “vulgar” entertainers, opposed to noble entertainment such as noh theater. 鉢屋 hachiya (with the “bowl” character) in relation to burakumin refers to followers of Kuuya’s teachings. Kuuya was an itinerant monk involved in “unclean” practices, such as burying the dead or praying while dancing for the people. His religious dance, nembutsu odori, found more practitioners in the San’in region (North-west of Hyougo Prefecture), living secluded in their own villages called Hachiya. These people worked with bamboo to craft items such as tea whisks, but were marginalized due to their dancing performances. They went door-to-door chanting prayers and making sound by tapping a bowl, and this gave them the nickname 鉢叩き hachitataki (who hits a bowl) or 鉢ひらき hachiaraki(who presents a bowl). Like this, hachiaraki became synonymous with “to beg for money”. 鉢屋 hachiya (still with the same “bowl” character) also refers to a group of entertainers in the same region turned ninja associated with the Amago clan during the Sengoku period. They’re famously known for taking Gassantoda Castle (Izumo Province, nowadays Shimane Prefecture) with an extravagant scheme involving a spectacular parade of dancers and musicians passing through the main gate of the castle, with weapons hidden under their clothes. The ninja who led this attack was named… Hachiya Yanosaburou! 

6th years

According to the meet-up in 2006, all the sixth years except Isaku come from a background of the Koga school of ninjutsu. When this was stated, Tomesaburou was still a background character and not properly established, so his background is unclear. The school of Koga is a type of ninjutsu from the Koga region (now Koka City, Shiga Prefecture). The Koga region had sou, villages that were allowed to self-govern (sou are mentioned in Nintama movie 2) in exchange of helping out the local Rokkaku Clan during wartime. They specialized in guerrilla warfare and handling of medicinal herbs and poison, and after retaking Koka Castle from Shogun Ashikaga to the Rokkaku Clan, they started working as ninja for said Rokkaku Clan. This would be pretty modern history by the time Nintama takes place, making the sixth years’ family, except Isaku’s, having a recent history of being farmers/samurai mercenaries recently turned “professional” (in Nintama terms) ninja. Interestingly, we don’t know the sixth years’ family situation in canon, except for the fact Koheita has an army of siblings living in a household large enough to belong to the samurai class (31-65), and that Tomesaburou has two older brothers that are warriors, making him likely to be samurai as well (30-34)

6th years ranked by height:Chouji > Koheita > Tomesaburou > Monjirou > Isaku = Senzou.

Even though some of them weren’t introduced into the story yet, some 6th years sneak out at night to meet with girls. They get in trouble if teachers catch them. 

Senzou is the most popular among the town girls. Isaku is the most popular among kunoichi, because he’s easy to deceive.

Among the 6th years, Senzou has the best grades. Isaku has the worst ones.

Koheita is so bad at studying people wonder, “how did you even make it to the 6th year?”. But because of his bad luck, Isaku’s grades are still worse overall.

Koheita has had that kind of personality since the second year. Kind of retconned? He’s shown being his cheery ikedon self back in 1st year in 30-33.

Chouji used to laugh a lot as a kid, but gradually stopped as he got wounded while practicing using the jouhyou rope dart, because the scars on his face hurt him. Also shown in 30-33.

Chouji might be an eccentric person, but he’s kind.

Monjirou has been acting as a hardcore gingin ninja since he was little.

Monjirou’s left and right eyes are different shapes. One is pine-nut shaped, the other almond shaped.

The speech Monjirou makes before and after his meal to pay respect comes from Enryakuji Temple on Mount Hiei(?) or some other very famous temple (I[OP] can't remember exactly). This refers to vol 42 of the manga. In the anime, he recites this speech in 16-56. OP says they don’t remember well, but Enryakuji is a very likely candidate as it’s the head temple of the Tendai sect, and this speech comes from Tendai meal etiquette. As found on Tendai’s website, here’s the complete speech: われ今幸に、仏祖の加護と衆生の恩恵によって、この清き食を受く。つつしんで食の来由をたずねて、味の濃淡を問わず。その功徳を念じて品の多少をえらばじ。いただきます。 I am now blessed to receive this pure food, granted by the divine protection of the Buddhas and the grace of all living beings. I will humbly reflect on the origin of this food, regardless of its rich or mild flavor. I will pray for its merits without thinking about the quantity. Thank you for this meal. Monji omits the “granted by the divine protection of the Buddhas and the grace of all living beings”, but otherwise recites it word for word! 

Monjirou and Tomesaburou often disguise themselves as Rokubu (I[OP] don’t know the kanji spelling, but it’s pronounced rokubu), itinerant monks who travel to offer copies of the Lotus Sutra in 66 different temples. But even while in disguise, they can’t stop bickering. Over things such as whether to take the right path or the left path, etc. OP spelled it right, it’s 六部 rokubu. As they explained, they are monks going on a pilgrimage across the country to offer copies of the Lotus Sutra, the most important scripture in Buddhism, to 66 temples, looking to expiate their sins.

Monjirou and Tomesaburou make good teammates, and when push comes to shove they are able to work together like in the Sonoda Village arc.

Tomesaburou is regarded by fans as handsome, but Sensei didn’t particularly try to draw him in a cool way. But while trying to keep his face consistent with the profile that appears in volume 22, he ended up looking handsome.

Tomesaburou might be manly and handsome, but he’s stupid.

Tomesaburou gets caught up in Isaku’s bad luck because they are roommates.

Tomesaburou and Isaku’s bedroom is split in two. The front of the room is Isaku’s area (that is turning into a small infirmary), the back of the room is Tomesaburou’s (that is turning into a small equipment storehouse).

Their room is the most cluttered with their respective luggage, so it has been divided in two.

Since Tomesaburou’s side of the room doesn’t have an entry door, there’s a little corridor made with a partition screen on Isaku’s side at the front of the room, leading to the back.

As a consequence, Isaku’s area is smaller than Tomesaburou’s. His part of the room being more narrow is also because of his bad luck.

Whether other students partitioned their room the same way or not is unknown. (Or rather than unknown, she worded it more like “it’s not decided yet”.)

(Seemingly from a more recent report.) All the sixth years seem to have a lot of clutter due to their respective committee, so their room is partitioned as well.

Isaku’s name comes from the baptismal name of one of Sensei’s friend, “Isaac”. 

Someone asked why Isaku often trips on his feet or into pitfalls, and was told that “He might have a bad leg.” 

In the first drafts, instead of being known as the Unlucky Health Committee, it was known as the Poop Committee, so Isaku wasn’t the Unlucky Committee President but the Poop Committee President.

Isaku caring for others comes from an instinct typical of those involved in medical care.

After graduation, faithful to the mentality of the Health Committee, Isaku becomes a “battlefield doctor” who treats people without taking sides. Kinda like Doctors without Borders. 

Isaku’s weapons are drugs and poisons, but he can use weapons like swords. He doesn’t seem proficient at using any specific weapon (apart from drugs), as he’s shown using different ones in every fight scene ; swords, bandages, …pebbles…… But he’s also shown having interest in getting better at the sword in 27-13.

Staff

Doi-sensei’s personality is unfit for a ninja. Same for Isaku.

To Doi-sensei, cheese feels the same as nerimono (fish paste products), so he can’t eat it. After the Heian period, due to the rise of the samurai class, the need to transport people and supplies, and war in the larger sense, raising horses became a priority over raising cattle. People didn’t consume dairy anymore until the late Edo period where it was regarded as medicinal food, and it only became an everyday food during Meiji. Who the heck tried to feed Doi cheese? Castella-san’s cheese harassment episode when…

Doi-sensei is 175cm tall. Studies of remains from the early Edo period suggest that the average height of people was 157cm for men, and 145cm for women. Since Nintama takes place before Edo, it makes Doi an exceptionally tall person for the times. 

Yamada-sensei recommended Doi-sensei as a teacher to Ninjutsu Academy. Shown in 32-64.

Doi is from a powerful family in the Seto Inland Sea, which fell in the war.

Doi's father was named Tokikuni, and he was a person of character.

He was killed in a sneak attack by someone named Sadaakira.

Just before passing, Tokikuni told Doi “Do not avenge me”. Doi’s backstory is based on Hounen, founder of Jodo Buddhism. It ended up being explicitly mentioned in vol 50. Hounen was born in a powerful clan in Mimasaka province (now Okayama prefecture), and his father, Uruma no Tokikuni, was a military chief who was assassinated at night by a warrior named Sadaakira, sent by the emperor to govern the province. In the manga, Doi’s backstory is merely referred to through Hounen’s own story. It’s kept vague how similar the two actually are. In Ninmyu 12, the father entrusts baby Doi to a servant, so there is no “do not avenge me” bit. The servant runs away but is killed by Kaentake ninja, who pick up Doi and raise him under the name Yogiri. Later, when he learns Kaentake killed his family, Doi runs away, and the story becomes similar to the anime where he is found by the Yamada family. 

After the current 1-ha class graduates, Doi will quit teaching and open an orphanage.

Kirimaru, now independent, will sometimes come to help care for the kids. 

A Komatsuda fan once told the author “I’d be happy to see him return as an office worker [for the school] or something”, to which the author replied “That sounds fun” and eventually made it canon.

Tasogaredoki Castle

Currently, Tasogaredoki is the strongest antagonistic ninja army.

There’s a ninja village in Tasogaredoki Castle.

Zatto is 180cm tall. Like I said earlier with Doi, that makes him Extremely tall for the time period.

Zatto has between 50 and 100 men under his command. (At first, Sensei said 100 men, to which a fan reacted like “Huh?! So many?!” in surprise, so she lowered it to 50.)

While doing his bandages, Isaku saw Zatto’s unmasked face.

“He might be covering burns?”, Sensei said. Confirmed in volume 50. 

After the accident that caused Zatto’s burns, his engagement was called off.

That accident happened when Zatto saved Sonnamon’s father.  Shown in 32-63.

Zatto is deaf in his left ear. This is reflected in the second movie, when Zatto reports information to his lord on Jinbei’s right side, but then has to turn to his left to listen to Jinbei’s reply.

Kousaka was Zatto’s chigo. Chigo mostly refers to children left in Buddhist temples to receive an education from monks. Because of the sexual exploitation they could be subjected to in exchange for that education, they are portrayed in art and described as graceful, attractive young men often dolled up like little girls. As far as we know Zatto doesn’t come from a specifically religious background, so his relationship to Kousaka might have been that of chigo and master in the secular sense, so that of a wakashuu (“young folk” ; prepubescent boys considered genderless/not men yet) and a samurai master who offers him apprenticeship, be it in academics, religion, martial arts, etc. Those were purely contractual relationships, supposed to end once the boy comes of age, and weren’t necessarily sexual. …But sexual relationships were prevalent enough that the samurai’s sexual practices with young boys has a name, wakashuudo. As for the nature of Zatto and Kousaka relationship, nothing is specified canonly.

Zatto’s subordinate, Moroizumi Sonnamon, got his name when Sensei told herself “Isn’t something like that good?” Sonnamon’s name is spelled with the kanji characters 尊奈門 sonnamon, individually meaning 尊 son, respect, 奈 na, quince fruit, and 門 mon, gate. I already explained the etymology of his name in another blog post. “Sonnamon” spelled in the phonetic hiragana alphabet, そんなもん sonnamon, means “that’s how it is”, “that’s like that”, “that’s it”... So when she said “Isn’t something like that good?”,  it sounds like そんなもんでいいんじゃないの, sonnamon de iinja nai no?, or “Isn’t “sonnamon” good?” .

Sonnamon is 19 years old.

Sonnamon is Zatto’s subordinate number two, and Zatto’s favorite. 

Hyougo Navy

The Hyougo Navy crew is modeled after the real Murakami Navy. They were devoted to war lords and close to the samurai class. Suigun directly translates to “navy”, but is an historical term. It refers to groups of pirates robbing goods meant as official taxes, who eventually gained enough power and influence to control a given area at sea. They became sort of “samurai of the sea” when daimyo (feudal lords) contracted them to provide security, transporting goods, set up checkpoints, collect fees, etc. The Murakami Navy operated in the Seto Inland sea, the body of water separating the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. 

Atoi is tall because he’s Gilyak. His name comes from the word “atuy” in Ainu language, which means “sea”. Gilyak, or Nivkh people, are an indigenous ethnic group living in the northern Sakhalin Island (north of Japan) and the adjacent Russian coast, by the river Amur. In the Muromachi period, they traded with the Chinese, Japanese, and Ainu people. Ainu are another ethnic group inhabiting the north of Japan, Kuril Islands, and southern Sakhalin Island. The Ainu language is written either in latin characters or Japanese katakana alphabet, making the word for “sea” spelled atuy or アトゥイ. Atoi’s name is written 網問 in Japanese, the kanji characters are used for phonetics rather than meaning: 網(a), 問(toi).

 Suiren, the dedicated swimmers/divers of the Hyougo Crew, also perform during battle. This ended up being shown in 31-57, Shige and Miyoshimaru dive to stick explosives under enemy ships.

Whales were luxury goods, offered as a valuable present.

Whale fishing was used as practice for naval battles.

Yoshimaru has a woman in every port.

Kagerou’s eye was shot with an arrow, and when he pulled it out both the arrow and eye came out together.

Kagerou suffers from landsickness (oka-yoi) and vomits going bluuurgh (gerogero), so that’s why his name is Kagerou. 

Pirates who got landsick were an actual thing. It is an actual thing for sailors, yes. It’s called Mal de débarquement syndrome.

Kameko will inherit the Fukutomi family business.

Kameko admired Chouji, but will marry Onigumomaru.

Onigumomaru will manage the import and export of goods, while Kameko will work staying on land.

Sekibune are fast, but not sturdy. It can reach a speed of about 16.2 km/h when rowed by hand. Given that the current ships of the Japan Coast Guard can reach roughly twice that speed, achieving this speed with a hand-rowed boat is impressive.

Atakebune have high defense, but are slow. About 2 knots. Sekibune and Atakebune are two types of warships used during the Sengoku period. Atakebune is the larger one. 2 knots is about 3,7km/h.

The price to hire pirates as bodyguards is absurdly high. They’d ask for something like ⅓ of the cargo one is carrying, but there’s no substitute for safety.

In the Hyougo Crew, Yoshimaru is the first to attack during battles. Explained in 20-79, part of the Hyougo Crew Audition Arc.

Others characters

After Doi-sensei ruined the Yamada family’s picnic, little Rikichi felt “damn him!” since he was a cheeky kid. But later, just like how an elementary school student grows affection for his teacher, he became attached to Doi-sensei.  Doi-sensei crashing the Yamada’s picnic appears in 30-35.

Rikichi wasn’t a student of Ninjutsu Academy.

A long time ago in the rakuran doujin world, it was believed that Yamada Denzou gave Rikichi a spartan education, this fact being apparently written in an answer letter to a fan by Amako-sensei. 

But it’s actually his mother who taught ninjutsu to Rikichi. Shown in 32-62.

Rikichi goes through a seriously turbulent phase in his twenties. The original wording uses the verb 荒れる, “to become violent, out of control”, “to get wild”, “to come to ruin”, implying physical and mental instability.

Rikichi will leave a child he got from making a housemaid pregnant in Doi’s care.

That child will look a lot like Rikichi.

They had a talk kind of like, “That child looks a lot like you.” “...S/He’s an orphan.” 

Yoshirou and Kisanta are close friends. Initially, Yoshirou was designed with a short bun, making him look even more similar to Tomesaburou.

Back when the anime’s production started, Sensei asked the staff “Please make sure to give Shousei-san a cool voice, okay?”.

The reason why Shousei-san has such a sexy voice is that since he uses matchlocks regularly, the smoke that comes out of the fuse gets to his throat. Because of this, his voice became lower.　　　　　

Satake’s rifle corps will eventually go under, as every army will have their own rifle corps in the future.

Shousei knows this, but keeps silent as he watches over his men.

In the near future, Satake and Fukutomi will be in conflict, because Fukutomi will do business selling guns to every military commander for the war. While no specific date is mentioned in Nintama, we know it takes place during the Sengoku period, which overlaps with the Muromachi period. “Muromachi” is often brought up within the series, and this period corresponds to the Ashikaga Shogunate, which ends in 1573. The use of firearms, which will become even more widespread in the future of the series, seems to indicate we are near the end of Muromachi, when the matchlocks imported from Portugal in the port of Sakai were imitated and perfected by Japanese blacksmiths. Oda Nobunaga equipped his army with firearms in 1549, slowly setting a standard as they got further improved in the following years.Meaning the story is probably set after 1549 but before 1573!

Komatsuda Yuusaku is not married. He really wants to marry, but he’s still dealing with a recent heartbreak.

Kitaishi Teruyo’s age was a fan’s idea.

She is 19 years old. That makes her a mature woman for the era.

Kitaishi Teruyo is in a position similar to Fujiko Mine, except she always ends up making a mistake at a critical moment, resulting in failure. Not sure what their connection is…. Fujiko Mine is a femme fatale kind of character, from the franchise Lupin the III. A female character working solo amongst an overwhelmingly male cast…?

General setting stuff, misc info

The salary of foot soldiers was between 60~70 mon per day. Meaning that hiring 100 foot soldiers for a month would cost 300,000,000 yen nowadays. At war, one battle would cost 3,000,000,000yen, so Dokutake Castle is pretty rich.

Linen fabric cost 100 mon, making clothes very expensive at the time. As a consequence, laborers such as horse riding couriers wore little to no clothes. Characters like Seihachi or Danzou don’t wear pants when riding horses so as to not damage expensive clothes.

Couriers load heavy luggage on a pole they carry on their shoulder. When that happens, they’d remove their clothes to avoid damaging them. When that happens to Seihachi, he ends up wearing no pants and no top, leaving him looking all sexy. (lol. Oh... Seihachi.)

At the time, wood planks were valuable. Half of Rantarou’s house has bamboo flooring.

Because the wood plane wasn’t invented yet, wood planks would look uneven. The beams of Doi-sensei’s house have that uneven finish to them. Kanna, the japanese wood plane (the tool used to make planks even), has been developed mid-Muromachi, making it a new invention by the time Nintama takes place. Before that, yariganna, a curved blade attached to a handle, was used to work wood. The labor intensity came at cost, meaning advanced carpentry was first for samurai houses, temples etc.

The age of characters is expressed according to the western style of counting ages, not the traditional Japanese one. Rantarou, Kirimaru, Shinbei, and all the 1st years are 10 years old. The western way of counting age is what you’re familiar with: a just born is 0 year old, and will turn 1 after fully completing one year, etc. The traditional Japanese way of counting ages comes from China, and faded out of use after the Meiji era. A baby would be considered 1 year old when born,  and everyone would get one year older during the New Year. So for example, all the first years are considered 10 years old in modern times, but would have been considered 11 back in the days.

The pattern on Shou-chan’s clothes is called “suhama”. Literally "sandy beach". It’s a symbol representing a shoreline. 

The pattern on Kisanta’s clothes is called “shikiriki”. I couldn’t find any information about this, so I wonder if it was misheard. The “shi” part might come from 四 shi, “four”, the first letter in 四角 shikaku, “square”.

The pattern on Ooki-sensei’s clothes is called “karigane”. It refers to the clothes he wears in the manga, since it’s different in the anime. The twisty shape evokes the wings of a goose. Karigane is originally used as a family emblem, kamon, and it features the bird’s head on top of the twisty shape.

The screentone used for the 6th years’ uniform is “Tone No. 654 LETRASET JAPAN”.

And that's it for now! Phew! Thank you for reading this far!

[transmutationisms]

hiii caden, any chance you could simplify/reword this post? as written it is rather difficult for me to parse. <3

hiya, sorry, stuck this in drafts and forgot it was in there 🙈 let me try to rephrase

there's a common issue i see (not just on here) where people try to make blanket statements about how motherhood / parenthood / children are valued socially, but they're thinking only in terms of individual attitudes and misunderstanding why the relevant politics result in statements that might seem contradictory at first. so for example, someone observes that there is, broadly, pressure to have and raise one's biological children. however, someone else points out that this logic doesn't apply to all people equally: in particular, racialised people and poor people are actively discouraged from having children, including by overtly eugenic means like forcible sterilisation (this still happens today!) and welfare policies.

what i was saying in the post was that there is not actually a contradiction between these two positions, despite one appearing 'pro' natalist and one appearing 'anti'. the trick is that the politics that drives both positions (the state's efforts to manage and exploit its population; a politics of human beings as biological resources; hence, what foucault termed 'biopolitics') demands not just the reproduction of a labour force and military reserve, but also the designation of subaltern populations who are considered as a biological threat to the nation / race / national future, and who must therefore be discouraged from reproducing and ultimately eradicated. the politics that highly values one population (eg, the white / 'native born' / able bodied / straight / cis couple and their biological children) is the same politics that inherently also devalues all others (indeed, the attributes that are valued are defined in part through the process of comparison/contrast; these are political designations in the first place).

it's just a common frustration of mine that people try to discuss this as a matter of personal attitudes and are therefore unable to connect natalist and eugenic policies to the biopolitical logics that drive them. it leads to really pointless conversations where people just kind of throw up their hands and act like these attitudes are contradictory or internally inconsistent; they're not. the consistency is not in a uniformly 'pro' or 'anti' position wrt childbearing; it's in the logic that demands and prizes certain bodies and populations, and scapegoats and attempts to eradicate others.

[dc-polls]

Starting Saturday!

Biggest DC Misconception

- Tournament Bracket -

Round One Misconception Matches:

"Damien" Wayne vs Damian talks super polite

Bernard is a great partner for Tim vs Tim was a stalker and unaccompanied minor

Jason was revived by the Lazarus pit vs Jason Todd has an autopsy scar

Jason tried to force Bruce to kill the Joker vs Batman is a dick to poor people

Tim Drake grew up next door to the Waynes vs Stephanie Brown is from Crime Alley

Dick and Jason wore pants as Robin vs Any Robin uses a Bo staff

Round Two Misconception Matches:

Round 1 winner 1 vs Damian has tried to kill Tim Drake multiple times

Cass only uses ASL vs Cass Cain is butch/masc

Round 1 winner 2 vs Dick wanted to send Tim to Arkham

Harley is a good guy now vs No Metas in Gotham

Round 1 winner 3 vs Roy Harper and Jason Todd are best friends

WFA is a good way to get into the world vs Nightwing is a slut/Himbo

Round 1 winner 4 vs Jason has Lazarus Pit Madness

Guy's personality in BTBATB is lacking vs Guy Gardner is an asshole

Round 1 winner 5 vs Tim is addicted to coffee or energy drinks

Wally is funny vs The joker is insane

Round 1 winner 6 vs Batfam calls each other by many nicknames

Pain-Free Life Superman vs Clark Kent is Kon El's Dad

John Constantine fucked a shark / everything vs John Constantine adopts *insert character here*

Orion (New Gods) is a huge douchebag vs The Anti-Life equation is a death equation

Dinah Lance is a psychologist for the other heroes vs Green Arrow cheated on Black Canary with Shado

John Stewart is boring vs The Question is a crazy conspiracy theorist in the comics

A couple quick notes:

I had to reword some titles to fit the grammar we're using

There were an overwhelming number of Batfam related entries, so they take up the first round to thin them out

I tried to match up similar entries throughout, as that seems to have worked well in past tournaments

[lovebvni]

i believed in shifting faithfully for about 3yrs until i sat and realized that its hard to find tips or an explanation of the validity of shifting that actually hold weight. How do u determine whether something is misinformation when there isn't any concrete info to compare and differ it from? I'm not an anti-shifter or anything and i believe in the possibility of multiverse etc but it's hard to navigate whether i am being fed someones shifting perception as fact or genuine information. i want to continue my journey with shifting but the shifting community is constantly rewording or denouncing what they once spread as fact & its hard to find anything reliable and that makes rediscovering my spark with shifting difficult. Any tips? Loll

i feel like the main reason things change in the shifting community is because we are all breaking out the toxic mindset of shifttok.

we are more evolving than changing, growing rather than becoming something different.

to regain my spark, i usually watch my material in shifting to, or read it, or idk man 😭😭 LMAO

besides that i talk to friends, make a new dr, or manifest a bit. just anything to be a pick me up. maybe drawing, listening to music while visualizing, or get a reading from me when they r open!! :D the basic thing you need to know about reality shifting is that the mutliverse is real and we are active in all places at the same time. like a tree, we have roots under ground and leaves above, but the roots aren’t any less than the branches. if anything conflicts with that (such as “you can’t do this because of this”) then you will know it’s misinformation. anything is possibly in any way you want to do it.

i hope this helped and i answered it correctly! sorry for getting to this late too 😭😭

[imptwins]

Why making any concessions to puritan rhetoric is a bad idea

(note for the uninitiated: 'anti' is short for 'anti-shipper', 'anti-ship', or 'anti-fan'; in this context it refers to people who get very vocally militant about opposing dark kinks/problematic ships in media, especially creative fandom spaces. Proship is simply the opposite, people who vocally believe people should be free to make/indulge in whatever as long as a line is drawn between fiction and reality.)

(note 2: this was written for cohost, i cbf rewording it lol)

I very often see people - both websites and individuals - making a concession to the people who come up to them yelling about problematic kinks and guilt by association and 'why didn't you block this person' blah blah blah. It's happened with a few BNFs (big-name fans) in the UTDR scene lately, I've seen it from artists I respect, from friends, hell I used to be in this camp myself. And, of course, it happened to this website about a year back, and the conversation has come up again recently due yet another tumblr exodus.

It makes sense. The most common stuff that antis go after is stuff very few people are into: lolisho/cub, ferals, heavy gore, heavy noncon. It's niche, the real-world applications are unquestionably vile, it's very easy to just say 'I also find this icky regardless of whether I really believe that all people into it are secret criminals, so, I'll just block the people who they say are bad and move on.' I can't tell you the amount of times I've seen someone respond to proship/antiship discourse with "I'm an adult with a job." Going to bat for this content is high risk, low reward. You're not going to make friends, you're going to lose them. YOU WILL LOSE SUBSCRIBER, etc. As a result of all this it's very easy to assume that anyone defending it must be into it.

But I'm not. I'm a writer who often deals with darker subjects, but most of the first-on-the-list anti stuff, I'm not into at all. I'm not into ferals or gore period, noncon I like purely as character exploration, lolisho I can enjoy from the perspective of what I call 'trauma repair.' There's probably a proper term for it. But the tl;dr is I've never been actively aroused by any of these things, not in fantasy and especially not otherwise. Whenever I write them, it's just fascination or character analysis. Whenever I have a 'this character can be any age you want' fic, in my head, they're 18+. Writing noncon is a weird challenge for me because I'm constantly battling with the alternate ending in my head where the victim breaks free, beats the shit out of their captor, etc. This isn't me trying to claim virtue through this, just stating my position.

So… Why do I go to bat for these things? Why do I get annoyed when websites block lolisho, when artists have 'proship DNI' in their bio, etc? It's lost me a couple friends, it's certainly cost me followers and general reach, it's gotten me blocked by countless people I respected the work of. It's earned me a few callout posts, multiple with 1k+ followers, and one particular obsessed stalker who tells anyone who will listen that I actually groomed a child (despite all evidence otherwise). It's caused me a really significant amount of trouble. Why die on this hill?

The answer's kind of simple, when you boil it down: fictional fantasies either affect reality, or they don't. This is why I go to bat for things I'm not into, but it's also why whenever you see someone making concessions to antis, it's never enough. Cohost banned lolisho last year (I believe it's still banned?? Unclear), but the antis still make constant callout posts about this site and its owners. Some of the team have even gone out of their way to state very firmly that they're against these things, they've gone above and beyond just 'ban the bad thing' and broadcast their views about the morality of it. You'll frequently see artists write some huge apology or clarification when a callout post hits, usually involving some variation of 'I do not condone x y z and think it's disgusting.'

It's never enough.

But it makes sense, when you think about it. By drawing a line, you have essentially agreed with the core angle of the people screaming at you: that a fictional fantasy affects reality. That it's dangerous. You will, by necessity, now have people start to work down the list. Incest, ferals, gore, noncon, sure. Any relationship with any kind of skewed power dynamic. Sibling-coded, minor-coded, postminor nonsense. All of these things are less easily agreed to than lolisho, I've seen countless porn artists concede with the core idea that lolisho is immoral, then they act like it's unreasonable that people just keep going until they're being told that a knot on a furry is bestiality, or a 23 year old dating an autistic 21 year old is pedophilia. These are genuine examples of things I've seen people dogpiled for. Seriously look up "postminor" if you want to see how bad this can get, on top of being absurd it's one-for-one the kind of gross ableist shit that Autism Speaks gets into.

But YOU AGREED TO THEM. You agreed with the core concept, that the fantasy must reflect reality. Of course they're going to keep demanding more; by the logic you used to agree with them, you are doing immoral things. If fictional lolisho is immoral, so are the rest of them. It's way easier to look at your average pic on baraag or inkbunny and go 'oh, eugh, vile,' but at the end of the day the cutesy played-for-laughs sleeping kiss, the dubcon bondage that you don't call dubcon, or the meet-cute where they're a bit too drunk, they're all immoral fantasies.

That's not even to get into non-sexual stuff. If the lolisho fantasy is wrong, so is running down civilians in GTA. Suddenly your notifs are full of 16 year-old Jack Thompsons with rainbow flags in their bios.

This really is an all-or-nothing debate. If fictional fantasies affect reality, then even the immoral fantasies that you're personally comfortable with, the cutesy coy playful ones, must be immoral. If fictional fantasies don't affect reality, then even the ones that make you uncomfortable, the ones that have you scrambling to close your browser in case the feds are looking, must be fine.

It should have become very obvious over the last decade that you cannot fence-sit on this. There's a huge internal disagreement going on among progressive/queer/compassion-minded people, on whether these kind of things affect reality, or whether they don't. You can learn to apathetically dismiss stuff that squicks you, or you can learn to sanitize everything you ever make so there's not a trace of contentious theming left. Immoral fantasies are immoral, or only immoral actions are immoral.

You're going to have to pick one.

[thestobingirlie]

i've seen ppl talk about steve leaving nancy at the party as proof that he behaved just as badly as nancy during their relationship and it confuses me sm. like from what we know, steve stepped out for a minute bc he was v upset after their argument then asked jonathan to take her home. esp given the context of the scene where nancy and jonathan (ie nancy seeking out jonathan to find out what really happened bc she doesn't remember) it would be so weird if jonathan was just lying about steve asking him to do that, which i've seen a lot of ppl say. like what reason would jonathan have to do that when nancy is already upset and confused (so it likely wouldn't be to spare her a painful truth which would be kind of ooc for jonathan imo) and specifically wants to know what actually happened? it doesn't even make sense from a colder point of view bc we know jonathan wants to be w nancy so why would he lie about something that would make steve look bad if he just told the truth. also i just cannot see steve, no matter how upset he is, leaving nancy there completely w/o knowing she had a way to get home when she's drunk; considering steve is consistently protective i think it would be extremely ooc for him to do that. like he was bitchy the next day w not picking her up but those are two v different situations.

people love to make things up to hate on the pretty girl.

jonathan, who has no reason to make steve look good, and actually doesn’t like him, says that steve asked him to take nancy home. he also tells nancy that steve was upset, and seems to know the barebones of the argument. which implies that he and steve had a little chat.

we see steve leave the house, while crying, but we don’t see him leave the party. i absolutely believe he went outside to cry (because why would he sob right in front of nancy, or everyone in his year?), and then either came in and got jonathan, jonathan followed him and spoke with steve, or he and jonathan had a conversation as jonathan was carrying nancy out the house.

he knew jonathan took her home!! he has to have at least seen them, and that means he didn’t actually leave the party.

and i think it’s so dumb, all those anti steve posts that try and reword all of steve’s actions as terribly as they can, and try to minimise nancy’s. it’s embarrassing. they both fucked up, but their fuck ups weren’t equal. why can these people not seem to admit that??

[pidovespost0519]

Remember!

You can totally make a selfship au that is as highly specific as you want <3 you and your F/O(s) will find each other in every universe! Doesn’t matter how many you make, how niche, odd or highly specific it happens to be, just that you have fun :]

[dr-giggle-touche]

MY CARMEN SANDIEGO ESSAYYY/BIOGRAPHY note that this is just the base, I'MMA turn this to my teacher then she'll let us actually make it to an essay

Introduction Statement: The life of Carmen Sandiego, a glamorous life, the greatest chase.

Thesis Statement: Carmen herself had countless obstacles in her life, only benefitting the person she grew to be.

First Supporting Idea: The beginning of Carmen, a true mystery.

Born & found in Buenos Aires, Argentina, possibly in the 90’s.

She lived on an island, being carousel-cared for by 5 crime masters.

She started at the island’s crime school, VILE, while nearly graduating at the age of 16.

Second Supporting Idea: The life of a worldwide thief, “La Femme Rouge”.

In her early days, she gained her current crew of Zach, Ivy & Player.

She spent her life running from a worldwide anti-crime organization called ACME, soon even joining them for a short while.

Eventually, being kidnapped by her ex-caretakers to be made back into the criminal she studied to be

Third Supporting Idea: A world of red, hearts and minds changed by a coat and fedora.

Carmen’s known talent was to be a sneaky thief, yet using such quirk to benefit the world for good

She touched hearts to “fight the good fight” and changed, come of her ex-classmates/criminals, to leave that life of crime behind and be better

Her legacy remains as being a mystery, yet doing so much for her world by keeping valuable history safe

Closing Statement: My own opinion stands that, she is a true legend, a person to aspire to be, an inspiration

Reworded Thesis: Despite various hardships in her life, she’s stood her ground, her obstacles only assisting in her soaring life

[akisayas]

stolen from an anti and heavily reworded

btw proshippers in the selfship community this one goes out to you!

💗 ily, and so do all your f/os! <3

💫 you dont enable pedophilia and abuse, you shouldnt be disgusted in beliving fiction doesnt affect reality

💗 we wants you in this community and you dont bring anything bad the table, its not pathetic that we steal posts from antis

💗you deserve to be welcome in your community(s) and you dont deserve any harassment <3

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

Welcome to LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown

What’s currently going on:

Finals will drop January 20.

When will the showdown get started:

This showdown will be started on April 10 around UTC 14:00

Round 2 will start on June 8.

Round 3 will start on July 18.

Revival Rounds ran from October 16 to November 8.

Round 4 will start November 9.

Round 5 will start November 23.

Quarterfinals will start December 31.

Semifinals will start January 10.

Finals will start January 20.

General Showdown Information:

For this showdown the characters don’t have to be canon LGBTQ+ or disabled. As such if you see a character and are like why do they qualify, there is reasoning for it, and we can tell you why we included them. As a quick note, some qualifications/propaganda has been reworded to avoid using outdated language. Any changes like that will be denoted as so: [change]. Anything that is in italics is probably mod input, but without brackets nothing has been changed. If we miss any awkward/offensive terminology please let us know. The block button exists for a reason, please be civil.

Information for Round One:

Links to each wave: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six

Polls will drop 16 in each wave, one wave each day. Polls will start on the 10th and go to the 15th. They will drop around UTC 14:00-15:00

Information for Round Two:

Links to each wave: One, Two, Three

Polls will drop 16 in each wave, one wave each day. Polls will start on June 8th and go to June 10th. They will drop around UTC 14:00-15:00

Information for Round Three:

Links to each wave: One, Two

Polls will drop 12 in the first wave, 13 in the second. Polls will start on July 18th and go to July 19th. They will drop around 15:00-17:00 UTC.

Information for Revival Round:

Revival Round 1

Revival Round 2

Revival Round Finals

The first round of polls will drop on the 16th, in matchups of four. Further matchups will drop the next weeks as matchups of two until we are left with 7 characters coming back.

Information for Round 4:

Links to each wave: One, Two

Polls will drop 8 each wave, starting November 9 going to November 10. They will drop around 16:00-18:00 UTC

Information for Round 5:

Link to matchups: here

8 polls will drop on November 23. They will drop around 16:00-18:00 UTC

Information for Quarterfinals:

Link to matchups: here

4 polls will drop on December 31 at some point.

Semifinals: link to matchups here, polls will drop at some point.

Finals: link to final poll and battle for fourth here.

Propaganda:

If you would like to send in propaganda you can do that via ask. We may also reblog propaganda on posts themselves, as long as they are text based (not tags), and aren’t heavy with undescribed images. Please don’t send in anti propaganda.

Random Information:

Here is a link to our FAQ that’s mostly about organizational type stuff.

Here is a link to our FAQ that’s more about us.

We’ll probably make a new one that’s a bit more organized but that won’t be for a while.

Contacting Us:

Feel free to send us asks about literally anything, as long as it’s vaguely related to this showdown.

[gameshowtrainwreck]

How to Rig a Game Show (Covering the 'How' and 'Why,' and a little 'How Come'), With Relevant Social Commentary

I'm trying to type up this big effort-assed essay on the American quiz show scandals and the part they played in why we are now where we are.

Nutshell is that, apart from Charles Revson, there was never really one single, abjectly malevolent actor in the whole thing, it was a series of people making small rationalizations and little moral compromises that ended up snowballing into something big enough, heavy enough, fast enough, and out of control enough that the whole thing plowed right tf into the court of public opinion and clobbered a hell of a lot of people.

And in a weird way, it serves as part of an explanation on why some of the shit that happened recently has happened. Let's examine the mechanisms in place that let it happen, how it took place, and who benefitted from it.

The punchline from all of that is that as a consequence of the whole fracas is those who produce game shows are legally mandated to hold a higher ethical standard than any producer for any segment of any news outlet operating within these borders. Neither a complaint nor a complement, just a description of the state of play as on the field.

But here is the complaint: 'Yellow Journalism' never really stopped being a thing with the American press, they just managed to shunt that image off to the tabloids and celebrity gossips, while rewording some of their more-blatant examples to appear more respectable. Even though 'if it bleeds, it leads' was the operative slogan of my day (at any rate), such sentiments were begrudgingly pooh-poohed by those trying to maintain a veneer of integrity. The information age has gone to demonstrate to everybody that engagement has always ranked higher than any proclaimed allegiance to objective fact.

Hell, look at how the US press was quick to call the recent clashes in Amsterdam as anti-Semitic attacks before everybody else found out it was a case of a bunch of out-of-towners literally trying to start shit with locals and the locals reminding the out-of-towners they were both unarmed and without air support. I don't think anybody who originally reported it as motivated by anti-semitism have bothered updating everybody on the newer developments, and if they did, they probably included it as a side note on an unrelated story, below the fold.

Yet some poor, dumb sumbitch of a college undergrad intern is looking at a nickel, minimum, in a federal penn if they bullshit the MSRP on a can of soup.

But despite the exaggeration of the stakes and the consequences involved, there are about three ways I can think of for cheating a game to happen (as in a deliberate and willful effort towards influencing what is presented as a genuine competition towards a pre-determined outcome), depending on who is involved with the deception, and the direction in which it is applied:

"Top-Down Bias:" This was the type of rigging that happened with The $64,000 Question and it's spinoff, The $64,000 Challenge. The shows' producers would meet with Revlon CEO Charles Revson, who would make thinly-veiled comments about the state of the contestants on the show, with producers adjusting material to be friendlier or more antagonistic in their questions for them based on those meetings.

The fault in this approach is that while any plan can be foolproof, there is no plan out there that is capable of being goddamned foolproof. As much as Charles Revson fuckin hated Dr Joyce Brothers' guts as a contestant, there really wasn't a way for the writers to get around her memorizing the literal encyclopedia of boxing they gave her, even to the point of asking her about people who were referees of notable fights.

"Bottom-Up Bias:" Contestants try to exert influence on the outcome of a game by means of outside assistance. Possibly the rarest instance of rigging a game that I've seen or studied-- it's only happened twice in all of history (that I know of). Charles Ingram's incredibly unsubtle coughing code on the UK's Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was the most-recent incident of this I can think of happening in real life.🎤

(please note: I do not consider Michael Larsen's exploitation of the big board on Press Your Luck to be an example of this; he wasn't the only one to notice the board had a set pattern, Bill Carruthers made mention of other people after Larsen thinking they had figured out the same system he had done. Larsen was just the quickest to spot and exploit it. Exploiting a bug in a game as it is designed is not cheating, that's on the production for not smoothing out that particular wrinkle at the start. Old Man Goodson liked to shit hisself over an episode of the pre-scandal chat-quizzer Two for the Money when a question came up that read something like "name a word that ends in the letters -TH;" The team figured out a lot of ordinal numbers could end that way, and ended up taking about five grand in early-1950s dollars in a game whose average payout was usually ≤ $750)

"Broadband Bias:" This was the most-common type of rigging that took place during the scandals. Frank Cooper's Dotto was the first show to be canceled on account of rigging but also involved just about every program in Jack Barry & Dan Enright's primetime catalog (Twenty One, Tic Tac Dough, High-Low, The Big Surprise, hell, let's throw Juvenile Jury in on that even though it wasn't a game show) and ultimately came to a head with Charles Van Doren's Senate testimony. Broadband Bias refers to the idea that you don't have to worry about an outcome that would lie beyond your control if you plan it all in advance and give contestants their instructions for each game.

To hear word from Barry and Enright themselves, they acted independently of Geritol's influence, What happened was that Twenty One had it's very first game end the show on a zero-zero tie. Reps with Geritol told B&E point-blank that they never wanted to see another episode like that ever again. The message Enright took from that was to prep the contestants.💰 Jack stated he had no idea what Dan was doing behind the scenes, but I think that was Jack and Dan's strategy to help soften the impact for each other's roles in it all. Not hatin', just statin'.

The plan was that losers would get a little extra in consolation prize money and/or spots on other quiz/panel shows B&E operated for their taking the dive, winners kick back some money to the production to help cover the losers' extra pay. Nobody the wiser would think anything truly wrong was taking place, they were entertainers, they were there to entertain, this was the check drawn from their performances.

The problem with this lies in the sheer number of participants you have to involve in order to keep the deception going: promises made to participants were not promises kept. Enright painted himself into a corner he couldn't get himself out of, and was exiled to Canadian TV for a decade as a result of it.

Does that mean that game shows are inherently more moral content than anything else out there?🍀 Absolutely not-- considering how much quid-pro-quo that Enright was running just for Twenty One (and this was a scheme Dan had apparently done across multiple shows), a cynical person could argue that the bulk of the reforms in the wake of the 1960 amendment to the Communications Act of '34 to address This Sort of Thing was not just to ensure honest competitions kept and maintained a paper trail (to show how they kept everything honest), but it also lead to one of the first instances of security theater in this country.

It's one thing to have a bank manager on stage talking about leaving questions sealed in a safe deposit box for a week (like on $64k), it's another to guide contestants through a bureaucratic process that could be presented in such a manner that contestants get the feeling that they would have no standing to launch proceedings if they had a grievance anyway.

Not that any of that excuses the predatory gaming that producers participated in during that rash of call-in-and-lose 'live game show' scams that were a thing for a handful of years during the first decade of the 22nd century. The three examples of game rigging I spoke of here were with the consideration of 'the contestant' vs 'the house' as parties ultimately neutral to one another; the house actually taking money from contestants📺 is something altogether different. I do hold the Call-In-and-Lose games as responsible for what would be every negative trope associated with mobile game ads (purposely terrible game demo, simplistic ruleset presented, little to no thought at all put into them, ad astra, ad infinitum).

And despite all of that, the public really wouldn't have cared if those accused had told everybody it was rigged to begin with. Case in point: Chuck Barris' The $1.98 Beauty Show had Johnny Jacobs announce it was fake at the beginning of every episode. Every episode straight up carried a disclaimer roughly saying "this is a satire. please do not think in any way that the participants are actually involved in any kind of competition because this is a satire. Please do not inquire about being a contestant on The $1.98 Beauty Show, even if you live in or plan to visit the Los Angeles area, because this is a satire. There are much better uses of your dignity that are worth considerably more than $1.98 because this is a satire." And that was on the screen for longer than the rest of the show's credits.

I mean, they didn't really say that in roughly that way, but I think you get the point.

I do believe that the that extra scrutiny that was incorporated into American game shows as a result of the scandals was a factor in why Mike Richards was cut loose from Jeopardy! as quickly as he was after Alex Trebek's passing. Going by accounts from those who had complaint against him while he was the executive producer at The Price is Right, one could not help but come away with the idea that Richards was trying to be the same type of business-as-usual Hollywood producer that empowered Harvey Weinstein to go hogg wild for as long as he did. Not a big deal in any other sector of the entertainment industry, apparently, but in a subsector of entertainment where you literally cannot do Business-as-Usual (including the regular charge of acting like a Goodson/Todman Producer towards Goodson/Todman Models that Bob Barker liked to pull), that is an absolute non-starter. If Sony Pictures Entertainment had their Standards & Practice rep go over the allegations, they likely saw an established pattern that did not carry good omens for Sony's fiscal futures if they allowed him to carry on. And remember, this was the company that released Mobius to theaters twice.

Unless you've sworn a life debt to them (and why the fuck would you ever go and do a fool thing like that in fuckin Hollywood of all places?), there are no bosses or coworkers that are really worth going to prison over, particularly when it comes to anything that would be highlighted by hand within the pages of "Legally Established and Enforceable Precedents About Which On Game Shows You Do Not Fuck Around (Even as a Joke Between Good Good Good Friends), Rev 5th Ed, Now With New Ingram's Rule"🏛️

It is possible to rig a game show, but if you wanna stay out of prison you gotta tell everybody it's rigged. There are three ways I have found to put a thumb on the scale if you wanted to but there really isn't a need to, because the money straight up ain't in it like it used to be. Pat Weaver at NBC (Sigourney's pa) had pushed for the 'magazine' style of sponsorship for programs for years before this happened in order to reduce sponsors' control of programming, and that was before the march of technology increased the number of competitors through the internet.

You can control the outcome of a closed system; nobody gives a shit that pro-wrestling is scripted because no promoter will suddenly decide to allow random members of the audience to participate in a royal rumble; but if your pitch is that anybody can play, then anybody should be able to win, and you should be able to show the receipts backing that up.

If you want to make a game show, make one that requires leaving the things that need to be left up to chance left up to chance. Trust your audience and your contestants, give them a game that builds tension organically.

Footnotes and bonus content:

🏛️ [it's an actual book, ask your Standards and Practices representative to show it to you the next time you're a contestant on a game show; some of them will even take the time to read it to you, and slowly because you're supposed to read that in your contestant agreement when you signed at the bottom saying that you understood it and their paychecks really depend on your having understood it.]

🎤[about the only other time I can think of something like that happening in the English-speaking world was, funnily enough, a plotline on The Phil Silvers Show— Fred Gwynne was a guest star as somebody previously attached to an Antarctic weather expedition and only had a guide to North American birds to read, and so he remembered all eight thousand-plus birds and went crazy because of it. Sgt. Bilko gets him on as a contestant on The $64,000 Question despite his protests and the bulk of the episode involves their trying to sneak Bilko and a walkie-talkie into the isolation booth to get Gwynne over that last hurdle (given a "now what?!" amnesia plot on Gwynne's part).

Beyond the anglosphere, there was an incident in the 1990s on Italy's 'Telemike' (named for the host, Mike Bongiorno. He hosted the Italian version of Jeopardy! back in the seventies for RAI; when a competing network managed to get him signed, they brought it back under a different name). A contestant tried to sneak in notes to help her out during the double-or-nothing final round and Mike caught her trying to look down her own blouse.

The point is that it hardly ever happens in fiction, and happens with the same apparent frequency as it does in real life.]

💰[Martin Scorsese's character in Quiz Show even mentioned as much to Rob Morrow's character, and more or less explained everything that would happen as a result of the scandals. When Jack Barry talked a little about it on the Dick Cavett Show, he still spoke about the stakeholders involved in the manner someone would assume somebody still intending to draw a paycheck in 'this town' would speak of them would say, which I don't fault one bit. And to his credit, Jack could have just as easily left Dan twisting in the wind when The Joker's Wild took off, but he didn't. I have to give the man props for that.

And while I'm on it, Goodwin's role in the scandals is given a little more impact in the portrayal because he's good friends with Robert Redford. Not hatin', just statin'; I'm sure you'd do the same if you directed a movie about a day in the life at your friend's job]

📺 [Not that I think setting up a game to be impossible to win is "rigging" like how I have attempted to discuss it; there have been several game shows that made a giant performance about the top prize being offered, and then you watch the show and realize there's no likely possibility that anybody would be lucky enough to collect on the amount as advertised. Just because you could win $50k at Plinko does not mean anyone has actually won it.

As a personal bit of advice to any quiz producers out there: don't do that shit. The game is the thing, make a good game and the prizes will take care of themselves]

🍀[lmao a Turkish crossword quizzer some time back got cancelled immediately after they had a whole round of questions making fun of President Erdoan on a live broadcast. News channels here wouldn't dare try to jeopardize their access like that]

[feastfic]

I had a moment and wrote down a whole lotta nonsense with Popcorn and I accidentally made myself feel really hard with it so. I might as well haha

Tw for drug use and (NONGRAPHIC) mentions of sex.

Okay so, where to begin hah. A lot of this was spawned from indulgent things and so I'm going to try and reword a lot of what I wrote down to make it more general.

• To me she is the pinnacle of "making everything a joke to push away the fact that she is deeply fucked up". To her it's just easier to never address anything and play it off as just a bit or something unimportant if somehow, someway, someone approaches her about it.

• Her avoidance has lead to an unstable relationship with substance use — it's a cycle of getting high and getting a whitey, and then getting hungover and being back at the base of "feeling the things she literally just got high over to not handle". Keeping herself busy with hosting (as precarious as it is, given that her contestants aren't exactly the most empathetic bunch about her case) is one of the only means for her to dodge herself, in a sense. So it sure isn't a good alternative, but it's better than y'know, whiting out...right?

• Literally everything she has is undiagnosed and she isn't about to get her shit checked out. (ADHD, BPD, MDD and Crohn's.) The majority of the folks around her aren't really versed in Why she decides to act like she does; they just think she's egotistical, big-headed and a dick overall.

• If for whatever reason somehow there was someone who was wholeheartedly genuine with themselves and with everyone around them...she'd actually kind of hate them. Literally they could do nothing wrong but she would be skeeved about the fact that they can just essentially gallivant around with their heart on their sleeve. It's like an anti-her, you get me.

• To add onto the last point, she's made herself so distant that if there was anyone that would try to actually talk to her and y'know, be a basic human being (or, well, object being) she wouldn't know how to reciprocate that in the slightest. Because she does want closeness but that kind of thing is deeply unsettling to her, and she would engage in what she guises as just "casual" sex; to her it's the only feasible way to actually figure out how exactly she feels about someone. It's just an empty feeling spawned from an innate guilt at this being the only way she can achieve basic positive social interactions and anger — less at herself and instead projecting it onto the other person for, in a twisted and cruelly roundabout way: leading her into this situation in the first place.

• She doesn't really cry — it's just...hard for her to be able to. "Feeling miserable" isn't how she'd describe it but there's no real way to really say it otherwise. Pretty much everything gets bottled up, both good and bad, and it can sometimes (unfortunately) seep through into her actual hosting job.

• If somehow she came across Airy, he would genuinely be one of the only people she could tolerate. He's so similar and yet could not be more different. Both apathetic but in his case he just... legitimately doesn't really seem to express that he cares. It's like if Popcorn were a firecracker and Airy was a bundle of wet sticks — they can exist next to each other without friction that would spark either of them.

• On MUCH much lighter notes: somehow she managed to get her 3D glasses to be prescription. She cannot see without those things but also you just Cannot take them off; if you lift them up there's just an endless amount of others underneath the pair(s).