#shoutout to the target audience for this post

[zorciarkrildrush]

Opening a la vache qui rit and accidentally pulling a thing that's not the red bit but it works and opens but in a strange and unfamiliar way and it's like what is this... maintenance access... la vache qui rit fastboot menu

[doctorwhommm]

got silly with this one ◡̈

[sernik-krakowski]

Took a break from working on my break trio highschool era designs to do some self indulgent silliness

[front-facing-pokemon]

[dailysanta]

CHRISTMAS NINJA COMING FOR YOU

[sunb0ts]

ALSO IN OTHER NEWS I AM OVERJOYED TO REPORT THAT THERE ARE ONCE AGAIN MULTIPLE PEOPLE LIKING MY RECENTLY GHOSTED METTATON ART WITH CARTOONISHLY RELEVANT HANDLES LIKE METTATONLOVER AND MTTFAN41 ETC

[noonbeam17]

funniest thing about that yiik vocaloid cover i made nearly two months ago [which i apparently never even posted here] is that that was the first time that i had the right to say "Ah. It Appears That This Post Has Reached Its Target Audience" because im gonna be honest i didnt even expect for it to get even 1 comment let alone 8. im gonna have to get used to getting comment jumpscared when i post stuff there more HKASFVJN

anyway i might as well post it here now HJADFKSVGJN

[riacte]

every time someone goes through the space opera au tag after reading one of my shitposts i grow a little stronger <3

[kakibot]

This post has a very narrow target audience, Lucanis romancers who chose the "I also love coffee!" option during the Treviso coffee date.

A big shoutout to everyone else who has baked the Nevarran Hazelnut Torte before me because they made me panic less when I reached the "why is this just a big ole lump" stage. 🖤

[milk-lover]

Hate when I’m at a place and I get advertisements for that place. Like, bitch, I’m already here?!? Do you want me to leave??

[mxtxfanatic]

While flipping through mdzs to verify some stray thoughts of mine, I happened to fall into a translation discrepancy that I feel really, really emphasizes how important it is to have a proper grasp on the language you are translating before translating for a public audience.

Now before we get too deep into this, I want to reiterate that I am someone who does not understand Mandarin in any form but has been reading translations (both by humans and machines) for a few years now. However, because I have been reading translations that tend to follow the Mandarin more closely in grammar and because I haven't shied away from reading machine-made or bad human translations, I have noticed some places where mistranslations from Mandarin to English are common: pronouns, verb-subject matching, negatives, prepositions, and conjunctions. For this post, we will be focusing on the latter two.

In the lead-up to the Wen invasion of Lotus Pier, we are given a scene where Madam Yu whips Wei Wuxian, and in this scene, we are given a glimpse as to Madam Yu's average punishments towards the young ward.

While Madam Yu always pelted him with hostile words, she’d never really hit him hard before—two or three lashes at most, or being made to kneel or confined indoors, and it never took Jiang Fengmian long to release him from that.

—Vol. 3, Chapt. 12: Sandu: The Three Poisons, 7seas

In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded. He’d also be let out by Jiang FengMian soon later.

—Chapt. 57: Poisons, exr

Reading these back-to-back, it should be very clear that though the same section is being translated from the same exact source, these translations do not say the same thing. The official stresses that Madam Yu had never hit Wei Wuxian "that hard" before, as well as saying that his punishments were a few lashes OR being made to kneel OR being confined, three separate punishments never taken together according to this diction. The exr translation, however, states that Madam Yu had "never truly been cruel to him" (emphasis mine) and that him being whipped was in addition to being confined. The emphasis on the strength of her lashings is absent, but an emphasis on the intent behind her actions—that she never meant to be honestly cruel to her ward—is established in its stead. (While this section as translated by exr does not mention kneeling, later scenes reflecting on Wei Wuxian's childhood in Lotus Pier do.)

Both of these translations... are wrong.

If we give exr the benefit of the doubt by virtue of being the original completed English translation of mdzs, then the official 7seas release should automatically raise red flags for the ways it seems to directly contradict the narrative that has existed for a few years before the novel was licensed. It doesn't help that the official has been riddled with many mistranslations and omissions from the very first volume, lowering any credibility it would otherwise have to stand on. But if we were to examine the rest of the exr translation, then the emphasis on Madam Yu's intent also rings false given the fact that we are told over and over again in this same translation that 1) Madam Yu is, in fact, unnecessarily, illogically, and erratically mean-spirited and cruel, and 2) Wei Wuxian knows this even at this time in his life (shoutout to the Lotus Pod Seeds extra) and understands her actions as targeted cruelty. What does the actual text say, then?

Although Madam Yu always spoke ill of him before, her hand had never been this viciously cruel. At most, she whipped him two or three times and ordered him to kneel down and be confined to his room, and he would be released by Jiang Fengmian sometime later.

—@jiangwanyinscatmom (emphasis mine)

Madam Yu has never been "as cruel" as in that moment when whipping Wei Wuxian, because normally she only whips him 2-3 times. She would whip him a few times and send him to the ancestral hall to kneel and be in confinement, which matches up to the memories that Wei Wuxian reflects on in other parts of the novel. This translation gets rid of the character inconsistencies that the other two translations create. So how did we get here? Remember how I pointed out those common Mandarin-to-English translation mistakes? Well, both the exr and 7seas translations fall into the trap of confusing conjunctions and prepositions. That's how we get a list of punishments rather than an order of events for a singular punishment type. That's how we get "not truly cruel" instead of "not as cruel." That's how we get these sections contradicting what we know about Madam Yu's personality and behavior from the rest of the novel through those two translations. Unfortunately, both translation teams just happened to flub in the same area in slightly different ways, and while I'm willing to give a multi-lingual grade-school student translating in their spare time the benefit of the doubt, a paid translator with a translation team hired by a professional publishing house should have better quality control than a spare-time hobbyist.

Also, just in case anyone wants more proof on what mxtx meant for us to take away about Madam Yu's treatment of Wei Wuxian from this scene, it was also apparently so important to mxtx for readers to know that Madam Yu was truly cruel to Wei Wuxian during his childhood that the act of her routinely whipping him whenever he was in her presence was something that was added into the revised mdzs. It was not in the original unedited version of the novel.

In the past, although Lady Yu always insulted or patronized him, she never laid a hand on him. At worst, she’d make him kneel for prolonged periods of time, but he’d always get bailed out by Jiang FengMian after a while.

—Chapt. 57. Act 12: Sandu/Three Poisons, Part 2, qinghe-nie

[metroid-fusion]

regarding the post reading "if zun did it you can too: make all of your characters women" and the tag "i'm doing this but in the opposite direction bc im transmasc and gay"

i love transmascs. shoutout all transmascs. they all deserve so much love n safety. heres an opinion i posted once, for context.

"why are you doing all this disclaiming io?" because before i turned off rbs on that post, people were saying stupid shit like "making your characters transmasc and gay is boring" which i cant abide. literally if ur trans and gay and ur making characters to explore & celebrate that, im supporting u so much. so if youre gonna say some shit disparaging that on here i dont respect your opinion; that said, this post is to address the other half of the arguing that went on on that zun post: "actually commenter was fine i dont get the big deal"

(i recognize that im preaching to the choir here, the target audience REALLY is the CHOIR'S followers not mine but hey)

my post was one that i made advocating for something which was IN THE MINORITY. which is a story with only women. there are many MORE stories with characters that are only men. so the question one must ask before leaving a tag or replying: what REASON do you think i, op, had to post a post like that?

what factors were influencing the post? what media environment led to the posts creation? what do u think the reason is that the post had such a clearly defined call to action? im doing some critical reading question shit to you right now. do you think me being transfem and lesbian have anything to do with it? im gonna show you these numbers

so if you have come to a conclusion about why i probably made the post, and what my post was meant to say, and you extrapolate, what does leaving a comment that says "im doing this but with men" IMPLY wrt those factors? what effect does it have? theyre UNINTENTIONAL effects, this commenter had no ill intent and was just trying to relate their own experiences. but nothing exists in a vacuum and one MUST consider the purpose of a post before leaving ANY kind of comment.

i guess thats all. i just want people to understand why myself and others were peeved by an innocent comment like that yknow. just consider what your comment implies in relation to what it was posted on

[littledesertfox]

Historical Fiction Recommendation

A bit of an unusual post, but I recently learned about the existence of the Desert Peach comic series created by Donna Barr and I need more people to know about it because it's a true gem. A big shoutout goes to @darksideoftwenty who introduced me to this comic, otherwise I may have never even knew that it existed!

To put it simple, the story is about Rommel's fictional gay younger brother called Pfirsich (sidenote, this is literally just the German word for peach and not actually used as a name, but it's still cute😅). He is the leader of a small support unit of the Afrika Korps, which consists mostly of people that are considered "misfits" in other parts of the army. The individual stories consist of all sorts of adventures and shenanigans but also have overarching plot points.

I think it's important to not let yourself fool by the potential first impression with this comic. At first glance, Pfirsich may seem like the absolute stereotype of the effeminate gay man, but there's actually so much more to him. This applies to the other characters too, as the story goes on and we get to know more about them, their personalities just become more and more well-rounded. At least since issue 3 I've been absolutely hooked.

For a comic that was written in the 80s and 90s, I was also extremely impressed how delicately it touches on and handles topics that are still relevant today, and manages to balance chaos and silliness with more serious and darker moments. Of course, not everything may be politically correct by today's standards and you should keep that in mind, but honestly I think there are pieces of media that are far more recent and still did things like this much worse.

The comic is available entirely for free on Webtoon, so if WW2 fiction is something you're into you should definitely give it a try. Apparently there was also a musical made back in the 90s that was based on the comics, but I could barely find anything related to it, I wish there existed recordings😭 Please note that although there aren't really depictions of sensitive content - injuries and (partial) nudity may occur but are usually quite simplified thanks to the art style - but due to the subject matter, it is targeted at adult audiences.

I'm currently at issue 18 and can't wait to continue reading! Here's just one small excerpt showing Pfirsich and Erwin (dancing together and I love how small it makes Erwin look xD), their brother relationship is hilarious and just absolutely adorable <3

[hanbindans]

ALL THIS TIME. YOU HAD A TATTOO???? 🎤🎤

zb1 reacts to reader having tattoos a/n: back on my random zb1 drabble bullshit (I'm struggling with a longer post + I have a test at 8 am tomorrow. yes this is my coping mechanism). this is also for a potentially very small target audience but shoutout to my tattooed zeroses I love y'all!!

jiwoong

"did they have accreditation?? was it a legit studio??" needs to know you're not going to get an infection, otherwise he kind of doesn't care. if it's not his style he will tell you but in a ~mature and nice way~ ("I wouldn't get it personally but it looks good on you").

zhang hao

"🤨🤨 you know that's going to be on your body for the rest of your life right?" he's not judging you for having tattoos, but he IS checking the lines and colouring to judge if you had a good tattoo artist or not. I feel like he will tell you you overpaid (doesn't matter how much you actually paid. he thinks it's too much).

hanbin

wants to see your artist's other work on their social media. starts discussing tattoo styles and designs he thinks are cool and/or wants to get. shows you the ones he has and wants your opinion on them. you guys are tattoo besties now.

matthew

kind of unfazed tbh. like he wants to see them and inspect to see the artistry but after that he doesn't really care. would ALSO ask about the price because he wants to know if you got a good deal. thinks his are cooler than yours but he doesn't tell you that.

taerae

loses his MIND. just stares at your tattoo in complete silence with his jaw on the ground. after the initial shock he has a million questions. tell him everything. he is equal parts intrigued, fascinated and terrified. he thinks you're 10 times cooler now.

ricky

congratulations- he thinks you're the coolest person ever. probably has some decent knowledge on tattoos in general but wants to know EVERYTHING about your design, when you got it, how it was. also immediately attracted to you probably but that's a can of worms for another day.

gyubin

congratulations- you broke his brain. ngl I think he is too scared of tattoos to ever consider getting one himself so he is v fascinated. wants to touch them but worries it will hurt youuu 💔 wants to know about the meaning of the design and all that jazz.

gunwook

"omg that must have really hurt :((" genuinely concerned, like isn't it dangerous?? what if it leaks out?? is it really in your skin forEVER?? they kind of scare him at first ngl but when he figures out they aren't going to attack him he wants to trace them all the time.

[clairedaring]

Thank you for always writing the posts to share information from the creators/writers' point of view of Spare Me Your Mercy. But what is your opinion on their approach?

Hi nonnie 🥰

Aww thank you for enjoying my posts ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ when I'm really just spreading machine translations of interesting stuff I find (huge shoutout to @recentadultburnout who actually provided us with many fansub videos from the promotion cycle of SMYM). Hmm... Good question nonnie. I'm assuming you're referring to screenwriter Lux's 'we tried not to put NC scenes in this so fans will focus on euthanasia rather than the romance' so I'll focus my thoughts on that for this ask.

I think I'm a rather emphathetic person so I have a tendency to try to put myself in their shoes to try and understand what the writers aim at conveying so I do get what they tried to do. While I appreciate how they did to present the topic of euthanasia, I think the scriptwriting kind of undermined the beloved novel!Wasan I had known prior. Actually both characters kinda suffered from the writing choices that were made but Wasan/Tew definitely got a bit more undermined.

Had they have more times/episodes, I would have loved to see the mindset change of Wasan and how he came to terms with Kan's reasons for euthanasia and his principles. Like I know it's very cliche, very cheesy, very HEA for Sammon to write like that for novel!Wasan but it's what audience wants to read no? If the characters started out with a clash of ideals and they're expected to be romantically involved by the end, since it's only natural for characters to undergo character development.

The series wrote itself into a corner where with its set up and the characterisation they had given Kan and Tew, the only logical and natural ending is the one we got in EP.8.

But from the interview with Lux, I could tell this was her (and Wo's) passion project which they spent five years developing. I could see that she tried to challenge herself to write two characters who had feelings for each other (i don't dare to use the word 'love' because i know many people will contest that) even if there were little to no ROMANTIC (i wouldn't even use NC because they deprived us of romance in general, not nc/explicit scenes) scenes.

I'm not Thai but being chronically in Thai twitter sphere, I think their approach has worked for their intended mainstream audience with many online discussions generated about Kan's actions, about euthanasia, about the living will, about health care inequality, about health problems caused by air pollution. Not to say that their approach is to be credited for this at all, I personally think a well developed romance would have elevated the script.

In fact, a good comparison for me would be between another OneD original Thicha, which is a revenge story that surface-levelly touched on human trafficking through the narrative of the protagonist, while Spare Me Your Mercy is a PSA-like series for euthanasia with an investigative storyline and characters' relationship as plot driving catalysts or plot devices. I like the comparison between these two vastly different stories because with similar runtime (8 episodes), you can see in Thicha - how a well written the romance between the leads (with only two episodes) can effectively drive its plot forward but at the same time when the revenge part isn't well thought out/executed, the ending can feel rather flat and as if there were no justice served for the antagonist/human trafficker.

On the other hand, SMYM had a thinly developed romance but it managed to cover more about the targeted social issue it aimed to raise public awareness on than Thicha did. SMYM conveyed multiple views of a resentful ableist who misunderstood that euthanasia can be used to free relatives from caring for terminally ill people, the ungrateful children who are sick of taking care of their parents, the people whose loved ones had chosen euthanasia, the palliative doctor who is helpless at the sight of his patients in suffering... Different approaches to peaceful deaths like Kan with Wasan's mom where you can see a proper and principled case of euthanasia for him or with the monk who doesn't need euthanasia to pass away peacefully.

Not all views are presented equally or sophisticately, but it's enough to instigate public discussions, which I can understand is their biggest end goal through this series.

funnily enough both series had foreshadowed their sad/open endings but i still ate these oned originals up like it's breakfast ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

tldr: i think that 8 minute final confrontation scene between kan and tew effectively conveyed whatever they wanted to say on euthanasia/health care/rule of law and their approach made smym a very decent psa-filled series without going into preachy territories as they had promised at the start of the promotion cycle for smym. i will forever be in mourning of the beautiful romance between novel!kanwasan but it'll always be there for me to revisit. this series had its own agendas and they served it well.