#thats just a bunch of people competing to win at the end

[gifti3]

Someone just explained some reverse harem dynamics to me on reddit and so many things are starting to make sense to me

[luvhughes43]

https://www.tumblr.com/luvhughes43/759352301265797120/we-should-talk-about-blake-and-jack-being-twins?source=share

OK hear me out on some of these!!!

Jack and Blake are generally pretty smart individually, like they both have a good amount of common sense that comes with maturing really early for their respective sports. But you put them within a 5km radius of each other? That common sense goes out the window. They're both instigators though! Jack has definitely convinced Blake it was a good idea to lint roll the sunburn off his back at one point. And Blake probably once convinced Jack to jump off a roof with her.

They went through a phase when they were really young where they were convinced that they were identical and would often try to switch places to see if people noticed. People did but pretended not to because they were kids. It was cute and fun until they tried to do it at school so that Blake could take Jack's math test (they were convinced it would work) and Ellen and Jim had to be called into the office. But thanks to that whole experience, they have practically the same mannerisms it's actually uncanny.

In relation to the previous HC, they're super in synch. They walk in synch (same foot per step, same arm per swing), their heads move in the same direction at the same time when they laugh (they also have the same laugh), they speak the same things at the same time constantly. Everyone's kind of gotten used to it, but it still kind of freaks Nico out.

Their twin telepathy is really strong. On numerous occasions Jack has told Nico to stop by the pharmacy after practice to get Blake some pain meds because he had "a feeling" that she'd need them for her back pains that night. And Blake has called Luke a bunch of times after morning skate ends to prepare an ice pack for Jack after practice because she "felt like he'd need it that day."

There was a time where they were always dressed in matching clothes and they lowkey miss it. They try to feel out what the other is wearing so that they'd match (even if it's just the color scheme).

Blake got higher grades in school and Jack has always been salty about it because "I was actually IN school while you were competing abroad. How the hell did you do better than I did???"

They keep each other grounded. Blake was on constant calls and meetups with Jack during his rookie year when he felt like he wasn't living up to the hype the team put on him. Jack was always the first person in and the last person out when Blake was in the hospital after her injury.

They constantly tell each other that they "should've eaten you in the womb." But make no mistake, if anyone else agrees with that statement, it's on sight.

After her Olympic win, Blake was asked who her biggest inspiration was and she said "My twin brother, Jack." He would never admit it, but he started bawling after she said that.

When the Devs win their first cup in years, Jack shouts out "Blakey this one's for you!" She cries even harder than she already was.

thank u for this ask!!!! 🫂🤍

oh they 100% don't have any common sense when they're with each other. they're always trying stupid trends they've seen online or theyre trying to invent life hacks. blake convinces jack to jump off a roof and into a pool with her one time and even tho it worked it was not the best idea they've ever had ! (quinn scolds them like the older sibling he is)

this is sooo😭😭 they seriously thought they were identical for awhile because everyone would go along with their "switching-places" schemes. when their teaches confronted them about their switching they absolutely refused to believe they were caught. they never broke character and thats when their parents were called to the school !

them being in sync is honestly so scary !! theres many a compilations on tiktok catching these moments. nico had never really noticed how in sync blake and jack were until him and blake started dated and... it took awhile to get used to! many times the phrase "oh they're just like that," was uttered by friends.

blake will be at the store and decide to pick up extra pain meds / a sweet treat etc. for jack because she had "a feeling". he does the same for her and its really sweet.

as kids they were always matching !!! especially with the identical twins phase like they took their matching SO seriously. now that theyre older they just call each other to see what the other is gonna wear when going out which sometimes ends up in the matching fits.

JACK IS SOO SALTY ABOUT THEIR GRADES !!!! he claims her grades dont actually count because she wasn't physically in class.

!!!!!!!! they're so supportive of each other. theyre always checking in on each other and are always there for each other during rough times. they definitely have planned sibling outings for this very reason. also, the nurses at the hospital definitely have had to stop jack from sneaking into blakes room after visiting hours were over.

nobody can talk shit about the twins but them !!

😭😭 this is so sweet and so true. he denies the tears but theres a few clips of him wiping his tears away in the stands at the olympics.

an interviewer asks who his inspiration was after winning the cup and he pays back his dues and says blake !! then after the interviews over hes heard shouting "this ones for you!!" directed at blake.

[creacherkeeper]

okay re: disability in pyre because im somehow not the only person interested in this 

first off disclaimer that obviously people get different dialogue in their games so im coming from what i got in mine about disabled!reader which was honestly NOT MUCH but some people may have gotten more that i dont know about. if you have more info about stuff, please respond! i’d love to hear it. or honestly just thoughts in general like im so up for a convo about this 

but its just so fascinating to me having a game that is built around physical competitions - sports for an easier term - where the basic concept is that this sport is how individual worth is determined and the status of citizen is restored 

and that game having an explicitly disabled protagonist who is unable to participate physically in those sports 

i’d like to clarify up front that i don’t think this is done badly in the game at all. my game didn’t talk about it much but i think this explanation in universe for why your PC doesnt play makes sense. i just want to chew on what this means. super ramble under the cut  

its explored multiple times how “right” the scribes actually are. obviously theyre held in high esteem, but were the rites really the correct or best way to go about things? are they a true test of worth or do they cause needless suffering and competition? is a workable option built in a corrupt system worth anything in the end? i think everything about the scribes & the rites is really interesting because its heavily coded as religion whereas it works more as a legal system. this is less about sin and more about societal exoneration. which brings us to the commonwealth 

we know the reader was exiled for being literate and is ALSO disabled. i think there’s a line in there that the disability is not new, which means being disabled is not in itself illegal in the commonwealth. which like. given everything that IS ILLEGAL thats like. honestly kind of surprising? even moontouched girl, who is heavily coded as autistic/ND, was exiled because no one claimed responsibility for her (i did not actually get her backstory in game though so i might be missing something there, again please let me know). there’s nothing i got in the game that says disability is really seen as a negative inherently. which makes it VERY STRANGE that the rites, the one way to regain freedom, is a test of physical ability 

we know from volfred (and possibly brighton too) that readers arent banned from participating in the rites. from what i got of volfred, it seems he filled both reader & participant roles at once. which means that truly the only thing stopping the player character from participating, and ultimately winning their freedom (from what we know up until the end) is that they are physically disabled. so what does that say about worth & value in the downside? the rites are how one is judged as worthy of freedom - does that therefore mean that those unable to play are not worthy of even being judged? does that mean that their worth is a complete nonfactor? or that they “deserve” to be in the downside without question? 

its really interesting that the rites weren’t introduced by the commonwealth themselves, the people who would be receiving those exiles BACK. if it was, i would be much more likely to say “this is their way of limiting the number & influence of disabled citizens”. but it wasn’t ... they were formed by the scribes, exiles themselves, in the downside. they were raised in a corrupt system, but ultimately they sought to reform it. so why then, in their process, would they make it MORE limiting? we see characters pushing themselves to compete way past the point where they should probably stop (you’ll live forever in my heart old dog man) and even that competing can cause illness. it’s obviously a strain on the body. it’s interesting too that the downside itself changes people physically - common folk turned into demons are bigger and stronger than they were before, but also much slower. im sure for just as many folk turned demons, who found themselves more powerful from their time in the downside, there were even more who found themselves disabled because of it. why did the scribes feel those people were not worth getting back? 

the one physically disabled character (from how i remember, please correct me if theres more!) that we see participating in the rites at all is sandra. obviously she’s not in the real things, but she does play & is good at it. however, sanda is a highly trained operative who received a lot of training even after she was blinded. so that does introduce the whole aspect of exceptionalism. physically disabled people are able to compete, but they have to work that much harder to “””overcome their disability””” to be on the same level 

and, obviously, its a video game, so the player character does have to be the “most important” and the one making decisions. but its also interesting that, because of that, in such a narrative heavy game, the character who cant compete is also the one holding the team together. did the scribes never anticipate a possibility like this? that a person unable to play could still be so important and influential? the very basis of the game is that people come together to form teams based on common values - did none of those values include situations of disability? or is that what the final rite is for? the 1 in 28 chance, with all the teams, that a disabled person could go free? that their team, again, would have to be the Very Best, and willing to choose the disabled member? and our player character is also A READER, one of the most vital things to have in the rites. would physically disabled people, with limited options for work and hobbies, not be more likely to turn to mental activities like learning to be literate? 

honestly this has no conclusion because its just a bunch of thoughts thrown at the page but i DID only finish this game yesterday. if anyone got more dialogue about this in their games please let me know!!! or if you just want to have a convo :0 brain is in Pyre Thoughts Only mode right now 

[wackology]

Dumb HBCU/WR movie ramblings

Ok so I've been thinking a bit about the HBCU and a potential Wacky Races movie in development a bit and I got a lot of shit to say about this so buckle your seatbelts and hold on to your hats as you witness my incoherent ramblings and fanon headcanons.

So it pretty much agreed upon that any next installment of the HBCU is gonna take a while to come out considering how WB has put the HBCU in standstill for their dr seuss cinematic universe and liveaction-animation hyprid movies. Hell even the director of Scoob said that. The possibility of us getting another cinematic HB film in the next 5 years are close to none but if we were to get a movie it would probably be wacky races themed. Why? Cuz the Scoob film left off with Dick escaping prison with the wacky races on his mind (or in this case, his prison cell) and it would make sense for WB to continue the HBCU (which they probs don't plan to) with a character we are pretty familiar with and the only likable character in Scoob. Which begs the question, where would the plot go narrative wise?

Dick probably won't be the main character of the story but I can practically guarantee it will be Penelope Pitstop. I mean they already got concept art and i think they have models too that were unused and the people on scoob said they didn't add her to the film because they planned for her to be part of something bigger. Basically, I bet my left arm that the protag will be penny because apart from dick and muttley, she was the most memorable character of the show. We must also consider how they would tie up other hanna barbera characters and properties into a WR film thats part of an HBCU installment.

So basically, with this in mind I have created a few theoretical plots/premises that might happen in a WR movie

1. A Hooded Claw driven girl power film

Claw is an og and classic antagonist for penny, and if they really wanted to make a film centered on her the hooded claw is the perfect character to play the bad guy. I feel like the plot would go a bit like this: In order to kill penny and get her inheritance, Claw sponsored/set up the wacky races to kill penelope under the guise that good ol uncle sylvester was supporting Penny's girl power dreams to be a racer. Basically, he acts all supportive and shit for her to chase her dreams and enter this new race but under the mask actually set the whole thing up as an elaborate plan to kill her.

He lets the most deranged, insane and wacky people enter the race, from a gangster mob, to literal monsters to a pilot racer and a military tank duo with guns and canons thinking that Penny's survival chances in this race will be close to none, especially with it being a sausage fest and him not believing  in girl power. He even hires a professional mercenary with an evil dog to help kill penny in the WR (yes, dick, and yes he was sucessful at killing the pigeon in the scoobverse so he is actually considered quite the exceptional and competent villian in universe).

The rest of the film would be her racing and doing good despite all the odds and ends at her winning the grand finale, much to the frustration of Claw.Basically a film of empowerment for young girls to enjoy. This plot would probably be the most faithful to the original WR and most likely be a prequel to Scoob since the movie implies that Dick was doing all the skull shit after the wacky races sooo yeah.

There could also be a peter/penny subplot, perhaps not as romantic interests but as platonic friends or just some flirty exchanges between them, as well as a dick subplot with him not liking to race much at first and doing it for just the money but coming to love it as the film progresses. This plot would also probably be the least HBCU type film since it is mostly WR based and by nature would already have a ton of characters but they might try to replace some of the less memorable characters with other HB characters that are a bit more memorable than the boring racers but not as well known to have their own films (could see the country bears replace luke and blubber bear as well as any other character replace the lumberjack guy).

2. The Great Race inspired film

So we kinda get the idea in scoob that dick hasn't been in the Wacky races for a while after muttley disappeared and all the skull business happened but as we all know, dick was the character who made the races actually interesting. So the execs couldnt just have the wacky races without dick so what did they do ? They got a doppleganger of course, that being this boyyyy

Basically, the Wacky Races executives used Dick's way less famous twin brother  the Dread Baron and his dog friend Mumbly to fill in for the two once they realized Dick wasn't going to come back after prison. They were wrong of course but dick doesnt know he's been replaced and escapes thinking he was going to join the races again but when he does find out it bruises his ego a lot.

This idea technically serves better as a subplot and could be woven into the hooded claw story above if we just changed a few elements( make it happen after scoob instead of before, perhaps DB and Mumbly were hired by claw to kill penny and dick has to begrudgingly help penny and peter to get his place back in wacky races). After plot stuff happens it ends with dick being in the WR again and DB finding employment elsewhere in the Laffalympics which can easily tie into the established HBCU since it has the yogi gang, mystery gang, captain caveman and the teen angels gang and blue falcon and dynomutt.

Does this theoretical plot draw a lot from my personal desire to see DB just once. Yes. But do i care. No

3. The super HBCU plot(probs the most likely)

So the end credits basically tell us that after the scoob movie that the mystery gang and other HB characters joined the falcon force and are fighting baddies and crap.

Dick has escaped so they will probably start looking for him and in order to do so they get tangled up in the wacky races. Dick isnt the main antagonist tho( he's either trying to sabotage the other wacky racers because he is salty af or begrudgingly has to help out the heros or main antagonist) but the falcon/scooby gang discover a huge conspiracy happening within the wacky races that goes something like this: this race was set up kind of like a scavenger hunt across the world or the US to find mcguffins that are actually really powerful and crap when assembled, which is what the villain was trying to do because evil reasons. Basically wacky raceland done funnier or just Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Steel Ball Run.

In this premise not only would the og wacky racers and scoob cast be in it but i bet there would also be a bunch of cameos and references to other HB characters and they might even join in on the action and be racers too. I have no real clue on who the main baddie would be but I think it would be a johnny quest bad guy or something:( in the end credits they are teaming up with Quest industries after all).

I feel like the entire vibe of a premise like this would be very mad max like but without all the apocalypse stuff and just pure unrefined insanity. I kinda based these ideas off some of the unused concept art in scoob and I'm pretty sure the gang and the falcon force would team up with penny cuz they were planning to do so in the og concept art.

I have a few other ideas in my head but those arent fully developed but I might post them one day lol. But yeah, thanks for listening to my dumb shit lol

[kissjane]

I actually think its fun that you fuck around with us and our boys. And that you only reblog petitespaceling's snippets and she yours. It's like you two are each other's biggest support nothing wrong with that!!! I've yet to read her work but clearly, you hold it in high regards so it must be absolutely fantastic.

Also, you are right, it doesn't matter if other content creator's reblog your work and give it love, it doesn't mean you have to needlessly reblog, comment, or leave a note on their's just for coutesy sake! That's stupid. It should be a matter of you wanting to for the sake of wanting to because it is fantastic. You're not on here for meaningless notess and thats great! Other people are and I guess there is a whole bunch on self esteem issues and want of their fav blogs to recognize them but that's not your problem. You aren't put here to cater to that!

Just keep doing you!

Hi precious!

Can't deny I love fucking around. I should only be so lucky to do that with our boys. 😋

I don't *just* share @petitspaceling's work... but yeah, she teases me with awesome ideas so I get excited. There's other people I reblog, but it seems I have gotten a bit lazy recently. I like to think though that the people whose work I admire know that. I mean I do try to tell them, so. Or write a fic for them as a thank you. That's probably nicer than just liking some posts, no? And even if it's not I hope it will at least make more people happy. I don't know.

I doubt I'm such a big fish that people want recognition from me. But if that's the case - hey, come over, and *talk to me*. Let's be friends. Your art is probably better than mine, or it will be when you've been at it for as long as I have (I've been writing since I was five. Chances are I've had more practice than a lot of people here. And I suck at visual art so even if you just slap a filter over a screenshot you're better than me already.).

Self esteem is important. I promise you it gets easier to like yourself and what you do. We all have skills and talents and creative outlets. And if you wanna sell more books than Rowling one day, I'll cheer you on with everything I have. But you don't have to be the best at something you love. I read this analogy one day where somebody said they loved playing tennis after work. Nobody told them they should think about going pro. Nobody told them they should put videos of them playing tennis online and compete to get more views than other people playing tennis. Nobody told them they weren't a real tennis player if they did never play Wimbledon. So why are we turning our hobbies into competition? Why do we feel sad if another fic gets more comments than ours? Why do we devour advice on how to get our work published? It's a hobby! We do it for fun! And *of course* it is nice when people tell you they love what you made. Hell, I got sad the other day because I thought I hadn't received any kudos on ao3 all day. But in the end, I had fun writing my fics. If nobody likes them, I will still have had fun writing them. Win for me.

I do like to think of me as mostly nice. I'm not *trying* to be mean or excluding people or whatever. So if I offend you or hurt you inadvertently, *please* let me know. Otherwise, yeah, I think I'll just do me.

TL;DR: Thanks for your pep talk, precious. Sorry this turned into yet another rant.

[dumbhypmicheadcanons]

minecraft headcanons

no one asked for this but i find i have strong opinions on the hypmic boys and minecraft and i found it necessary

first things first: it was the buster bros who started it. ichiro bought a copy of minecraft and he enjoyed it so he forced his brothers to join as well. eventually ichiro had a plan. he convinced samatoki to get minecraft so they could have pvp matches and samatoki accepted because that’s just more opportunity to fight. ichiro started a server where he, his brothers, and samatoki all coexisted. samatoki thought it was unfair that ichiro had two people helping him out so he forced jyuto and rio to get accounts. eventually the fights and weird shit going on in minecraft began making their way onto twitter and ramuda was like “hmm whats this tea i want in” so ramuda got himself an account and forced ichiro to hand over the ip. ramuda was having a good time so he forced dice and gentaro to join (and bought dice a shitty laptop from walmart so he could play. it is kept in gentaro’s care so it doesn’t get gambled away). ramuda wanted to be problematic so he forced jakurai to get an account. doppo and hifumi joined shortly afterwards because everyone else, including sensei, was playing minecraft and they didn’t want to be left out.

ichiro and samatoki started off by having pvp matches, but these soon grew really boring. they eventually moved onto a system where they would both get rid of all of their belongings and spawn themselves into random places in the world. they would then compete to see who could defeat the ender dragon the fastest. every time someone wins, they would respawn her and try again. sometimes saburo and jiro tried to help out ichiro, but ichiro wouldn’t accept it because he wanted to prove he was better on his own.

saburo? redstone god. he spends all of his time building really complicated structures and is constantly one-upping himself and proving himself better. he’s disappointed that the group’s server is survival mode but he treats it like a challenge. he’s constantly making flying machines, piston doors, resource farms, etc. everything he does is beyond extra and he’s always bragging about how impressive his inventions are

jiro does not understand redstone but he does understand tnt. his favorite hobby is making tnt cannons to blow up all of saburo’s shit. he can also be found griefing everyone else’s houses, stealing everyone else’s shit, building terrible dirt houses in the carefully constructed cities, and generally pissing everyone off. at first the only one he didnt troll was ichiro, but he has extended that liberty to samatoki after ichiro went on a rant about how it wasn’t fair and made the competition too easy.

jyuto doesn’t know how to play minecraft. he doesnt know about the end or the nether, he doesnt really understand that diamonds are good, and he’s just existing. he’s just trying his best to survive in the world with his square wooden house. he’s slowly getting better at killing monsters.

rio? rio is a survivalist. he doesnt have a house. he constructs square dirt rooms filled to the brim with chests that are filled with wood and stone and ores and monster drops. he doesn’t do anything with these, he simply collects. he doesnt have armor or weapons. he punches everything to death. he recently found out from saburo that he can create minecarts and he is now on an expedition to link all of his item collections together by railroad. he has given everyone free access to use his railroads and resources because he does not need them, he simply has them and wants them to be used. he accidentally found the nether one time because he found one of samatoki’s portals and he has been stuck there for about 6 days someone please rescue him

ramuda is in creative mode. he really shouldnt be, its a survival server and ramuda shouldnt be opped but somehow he is??? ichiro tried unopping him once but when he woke up the next day not only was ramuda opped again, he had also left several extremely graphic death threats so ichiro decided not to do that again. ramuda’s main hobby is designing extremely aesthetic houses in a variety of styles, he’s an extremely good builder who adds so many details and terraforming and texturing and it’s so nice??? but also if you build something that he finds aesthetically unappealing (so if you build anything, ramuda only likes his own builds) he will come by in the middle of the night and either a) rebuild your house entirely and make it aesthetically pleasing (and steal your stuff) or b) blow it up. 

gentaro builds scenes and locations that he’s written about in his novels, he also builds things that he’s planning on writing so he can try to plan out a scene better. gentaro tried to start a roleplay group once and he got jyuto and ichiro to join but jiro blew up all of their buildings so he gave up. gentaro also lives in a village and he’s always trading with the villagers who he has adopted as his friends. he’s also really into farming and has bred a lot of animals that he refuses to kill because he’s attached to them.

dice has a dirt house that he keeps making bigger. dice is really, really good at finding and mining for ores so he has chest after chest full of them. he agreed to trade his ores to saburo in exchange for a working redstone casino, which saburo has been working on for weeks. he has made a working slot machine that dice abuses the fuck out of. there are no stakes but dice has an addiction to it

jakurai did not know how to punch for the first few weeks of playing. he started off slowly, not really understanding the basics. then he found out about the wiki and how there are walkthroughs for literally everything and now? jakurai is so fucking good at minecraft. it’s gotten to the point that ichiro and samatoki have tried to ban jakurai from their server because he kept beating the ender dragon in the middle of their competitions. like one time ichiro and samatoki randomly spawned really close to each other and both got to the end at pretty much the same time and jakurai? was already there??? and he had beaten the dragon with a bunch of snowballs???????? like this 35 year old man with a steve skin beat the dragon faster than these two idiots who have been doing this for months? thats illegal;;; but then jakurai was disappointed about it on twitter and they felt bad so they unbanned him

hifumi and doppo live together. they have this cute house in the mountains in the middle of nowhere and they keep adding to it to make it seem more like a home;;; its fully decorated and has a kitchen and a bedroom and everything even though none of its necessary. hifumi really likes building and he has a bunch of crops and animals and just a really nice farm and also a flower garden that he’s always tending to even though the flowers dont need anything? and he’s built a really cute pond area and a bunch of waterfalls and its all adorable. doppo meanwhile is out fighting monsters and mining for resources and he’s just trying to make life easier for hifumi. one time jiro came by and instead of fucking up their house, he just replaced all of hifumi’s cows with mooshrooms. no one knows how he got this many mooshrooms or where he found them or why he decided to do this but it happened. at first hifumi was deeply upset because the mooshrooms were staring into his soul but doppo adored them so hifumi grew to appreciate their mushroom friends.

if you disagree with me on any of this we can throw hands in the parking lot tomorrow 3pm

[roxannepolice]

Long asks anon again, here to offer my opinion on the current wank. Rey as a character is rather blatantly breaking sw story rules and nothing is going to get SFF fans hackles up like rule breakage. This is root of both the MarySue accusations and current wank. Rey has a tragic backstory thats doubling as the only failure she can call her own. But its a) damn near entirely offscreen and b) serves as convenient justification for why shes competent at near everything that comes up.

Reys instantly good at the force because of a convenient force download that to the best of my knowledge only occured in the noncanon KOTOR II and quite frankly cant blame most of the general audience for not getting because without prior knowledge or the novelizations why would they? She has darkness in her but as so far used and touched it consequence free and its almost entirely symbolically externalized on the Kylo (and in SW symbolism is Real in a way it isnt in other narratives) Shes strong in the force because Light rises to meet Dark but to quote the current crop of movies ‘thats not how the force works) or at least thats never how it worked before. Shes the first SW protagonist to go behind enemy lines and come out with both hands in the second movie. For ppl wondering how come Luke and Ani never get labeled MarySues, this is why, they got thier asses handed to them, Rey hasnt. There /is/ something /off/ in Reys story, and ppl pick up on it. if you can make a post (w/ over 1k notes!) about how great it is that a character meant to prop up 7hrs worth of movies has little to no character development to go through, somethings off. If multiple ppl can make posts about how its neat Rey can tap into the darkside (still characterized as evil in ST) consequence free (with some quite frankly stupid justifications, 'shes disciplined’ really? jedi lacked a lot of things thats not one of them) somethings off and again, if the only failure your main heroine has is /entirely retroactive something’s off/. If the story were getting with the is the story most ppl think we are, a 'female empowerment’ (i dont feel particularly empowered by being told I have an equal chance at being a deus ex machina but ok) than well, her story is over and theres no need for IX (hell it could have been over in TFA, most ppl assumed she had accepted her place as the future jedi in that one) and no need for reylo The ST was always gonna deconstruct all that came before it purely by virtue of being a sequel. The tragedy of anakin skywalker is now a farce, the happy ot ending now a tragedy, and the mythopoetic structure shot to shit in the name of serialization and perpetual warfare. this stand true for all the sequel characters including rey and ben. the only question is are we going to get anything out of it? I compare it to home renovation. You can knock out a wall and the walls gone, but new opportunities arise. With Benlo, I’m reasonably confident that there will be at least some attempt to take advantage of the new space. With rey and the resistance kids? not so much. it just feels like they knocked down a blue wall to rebuild it as pink one and at the point it just feels like a waste of time because ive seen this before. Ive seen pure cinnamon roll desert orphan reform jedi order If this was all youre going to do that the fuck was the point? which circles around to my problem with team good guy this go around and That Scene. JJ twisted the story into a pretzel to justify the winners of the last round being the underdogs again and then rian twisted so much further the storys head may as well be up its own ass. And then at the very end he shoots it all to shit and rushes to reassure us its all gonna be okay. He removes the entire point of the underdog trope /the tension that comes from the fact that they might lose/. I mean there wasnt a whole lot of that to begin with already but really? So theres no tension that Reys gonna win so her journey feels frictionless, and theres no question where shes gonna end up so full offense why give a shit? Thats where the whole 'can rey lose a fight?’ thing comes from. Ppl want conflict in her arc to justify its existence and give us a reason why this her story to begin with. if the only character going through growth for all three movies is ben, if the only characters whos fate is up in the air is ben, and if all the tension in the reylo relationship comes from ben, then why is this /reys story/? why not just make it about the character actually driving all the drama and thus, the story?   As a final thought, im going to add that having Kylo be aware and insecure that hes never gonna be as Iconic as Vader was a great story choice, regardless of where ends up. Current Rebels, on the other hand, seems to have not gotten the memo that they are never gonna be as iconic as Original Rebels, and the story itself seems to being trying to sell them to me as being better. Rey is Luke but better, Poe/Finn are Han wo the smuggler grit, and id be lying if i said it didnt piss me off.

&

Long asks anon to kick down ur door again, AND ANOTHER THING. SW is a lotta things. Subtle aint one of them, and St hasnt changed in that regard. If you have to debate it chances are either a) ur arguing counter to the text in which case mor power to you but not really helpful for predictions or intended meaning or b) /it aint there. A bunch of ppl didnt like anidala, but nobody doubted we were supposed to think they were in love by the end of AOTC, bunch of ppl didnt like poes arc, but no one doubts he fucked up by not listening to holdo was the intended take away. Which brings to rey and flaws or lack there of. Were told rey has flaws but she has yet to suffer any real consequences from them with the exception of The Damn Parentage Wank, which again, pulls the double duty of making her hyper competent at everything. Because rey has no consequences for her flaws, from a story function pov there aren’t any. If rey did have a flaw to overcome, we would all agree what it was

Now won’t you all just look at this beautiful, spot on rant which has been lagging in my askbox since the last time Rey’s flaws or lack thereof were the discourse’s focus (November, I believe?) and suddenly became a thing again, courtesy of Tweetgate. I think you really summed up the crux of this debate wonderfully, anon.

I particularly agree with the part about Rey not getting narratively punished for whatever flaws we’d like her to have (great point about returning from behind the enemy lines with both arms still in place), when SW don’t stay away from allowing characters to get “punished” even for otherwise applaudable features - vide Padmé, whose idealism is what Palps manipulates into gaining more power (this is why Padmé will never come off as a Mary Sue or too perfect, btw). But I’ll say even more - Rey doesn’t even get called out on her flaws, except for by Ben, who’s mostly dismissed as a baddie like Palpatine saying Luke was foolish to rely on his friends. Let’s just consider one thing - both Anakin and Luke get called out on their flaws by Yoda (Anakin repeatedly and by lots of other people for that matter) whereas with Rey, the same grumpy-yet-jolly senex pops up from the afterlife to further inform us what a great jedi material she is.

TBH, I have a very cynical theory as to why Rey is being pushed as the main character while it’s difficult to deny that it’s Kylo Ben who does all the plot heavy lifting. I’m pretty sure Ben’s arc was the first one DLF thought out (and the big question is, was it the only one they thought out) and only later on decided to make Rey the main character, which also involved much less spontaneous writing. Mind you, it’s not as if benepemption didn’t have a manufactured subtaste to it, but with Rey’s heroine’s journey stiff structure occasionally substitutes any in-world explanations of her actions (this is why I have to hope renperor has some narrative purpose rather than happening because lovers need to be separated and anti-hero needs to achieve what he wanted in 2nd act). I feel as if whatever potential her character had (and hopefully still has, pending IX) got smothered by layer upon layer of making her likable by everyone, which largely relied on negative characterization: she’s not helpless, she’s not too naive, not cynical, not too emotional, not too emotionless, not morally corruptible, not anything you’ve ever complained about regarding any SW character, not falling for the bad boy, not not not - and in the end it’s kinda difficult to say what Rey is like and while the goal of making her widely likable was achieved, it also made it almost impossible to view her as loveably flawed/annoying like the classic characters. And on top of all this is the matter of making her a nobody just like you!, as DLF appears to say with uncle Sam’s gesture (which also kinda assumes the existence of a Star Wars fan as some uniform entity? because if you identify with her, good for you, I just don’t understand why the franchise assumes I’ll identify with her by the grace of being a SW fan alone), because, as you excellently put it, the message here is that everyone can be chosen by God - which again, it’s not as if the saga ever contradicted this, so why the hell make a case of it? I can’t agree that it’s made into Rey’s flaw, though, imo her low birth only serves to further frame her as an oppressed virtue. And I definitely agree regarding too much of her growth being left off-screen, or before the story ever begins. The problem here isn’t even that it is left off-screen (it’s not as if we had huge insight into any of the pt or ot characters) but rather that her characterizations is left off-screen while being depicted as at least untypical (unique to put it bluntly) for her situation (same goes for Finn). A hopeful, kind person growing up on her on her own in slavery under a nicer name is a rarity and DLF makes a case for it being a rarity - and this sparks up curiosity in her past, as if market pandering to Re/sky wasn’t enough. So from this pov her un-reveal being frustrating isn’t just a case of not wanting to love her or her self only a potentially deeper psychological question getting answered with well, light.

I should add, Ben’s arc feels like the most spontaneous one (though Finn’s may yet be a masterpiece) and he’s the one to admit his fear of not living up to Vader’s legacy, because I think he’s the character serving as the creators’ vessel, more or less like Luke was Lucas’ avatar in ot. In his fear regarding Vader’s legacy one can feel Disney’s fear due to having bought popculture’s holy grail and not being entirely sure what to do with it. On this background, Rey (a literal scavenger of OT’s pieces) and rebels 2.0 repeatedly blessed by Leia come off as what DLF would want to be. And the result is that the character which was supposed to be Vader 2.0 proves the most original and surprising one, whereas “breaths of fresh air” come off as room aromatizers with “fresh” written on them.

And as far as the plot being bended into a pretzel and then disappearing up it’s own ass, well, a part of me is still hoping that taking virtually the same villains as before is a mythological-psychoanalitical metaphor of a nigredo repeating itself until the unconscious gets accepted by the conscious…. but, tbh, as the leaks flow this hope is withering.

[survivorreelsmagicwithin]

Episode 1B - “I'm praying to Yoncé I survive and don't get first boot.”-Jess

no words.

LITERALLY

NO WORDS.

Two points. TWO FUCKING POINTS.

I'm praying to Yoncé I survive and don't get first foot. That ain't a cute look xoxox

i'm already forgetting to search for the idols, i'm already getting paranoid about if i need to start making alliances instead of just enjoying the really cute convos i'm having with ruthie lily and kevin (max is kinda dry and annoying but... we'll try to make it work ig).... and i'm already hating every challenge we do especially this one although i actually really liked the challenge it was so creative and fun, i just hated that i have bad luck and am stupid with the deduction things, HENCE why i havent looked for the idol yet. LOL. so.... tl;dr - things are going perfectly! this hufflepuffle is workin exactly as he should!

I just wanna say we really are the hufflepuffs. 114 moves in like 5 hours, but we did it.  Really proud of Ruthie, Landen, Kevin, Max, and I! Sending positive vibes to slytherin. Hope they are okay in this madness.

Yo my tribe? Kinda dope. I think that everyone worked really well together today! I think Joanna kinda took the lead and some of her ideas were... a choice. But! It got us first place! I think that this tribe has a good shot of getting to swap unscathed.

With Slytherin going to tribal, I really hope that someone I don’t know goes, but at the same time I’d be okay with Jess going? I feel like she’s such a sleeper threat in most games I’m in with her and I really just don’t want to compete with that this time around.

I kind of snapped and got myself an idol good until final 6 teehee.

I knew that the Snape's letter or writing or whatever that freak was up to was SOMETHING. Did I get lucky... hell fucking yeah.

A crackhead like me SHOULD NOT have all this POWER.

I also gave Jacob literally the worst clue ever because we are sharing clues ladies xoxoxo

The clue was:

"Snape is taken aback. “That wouldn’t be any business of yours now would it? I wouldn’t want to find out you are spreading false information. I trust you won’t have any issue with that”. Congrats! You’ve discovered Snape Storyline 2! That’s all for the moment, and will end your search for this round."

BOTH ARE HALF TRUE. Just in case he doesn't put 2 and 2 together and now I went from place to place on purpose. He's gonna think now I gave him something of value and I know he's gonna think "No way someone go an idol on day fucking 3".

CONFESSIONAL 1.1 — Walking into the Great Hall, I saw a few familiar faces... for not good reasons!

First Jacob, who I know from tengaged. He and I were in a similar friend group for a short period before he left it, but we had a rocky relationship. We flirted a bit (blame 16-year-old Nicholas), but that is in the past.

Secondly, Jess... who I just directly sent home in Eve’s The Challenge: Fresh Meat. She did not have great words to say to me (such as I’m condescending), so I was very wary and, honestly, unhappy with her being here.

But, as Kylie Minogue says, it’s better the devil you know.

Flash forward to the Sorting Ceremony, and I’m so happy to be.. Slytherin? I told Mister Vintage (Sammy) and Mister Heinen (Caeleb) that I’m either a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, but I suppose I’ve been lying to myself.

Then, I see my tribe: both Jess and Jacob are present. This is a curse wrapped in a blessing wrapped in an enigma. And, I love it.

I hate, hate, hate conflict and bad vibes, so I directly spoke to both. Jacob did not easily recognize me, but remembered me fondly; so, a successful reacquaintance. Jess, on the other hand, was definitely more apprehensive (as was I), but I made one thing clear: the past is the past, and I am declaring my loyalty.

I have been hurt in previous games by shoving the past aside while the other is still grudgingly aiming for revenge, but I feel Jess is different. She apologized to me about her words, which did hurt, and I apologized to her. What I said was honest, so I’m glad to see a fateful blossoming.

The first reward challenge is revealed, and honestly, I’m really bad at participating in pre-merge competitions, because I do not mind tribal. However, I do want to, since we are such a small tribe, focus on maintaining our numbers in case of a swap. We came in second this reward, and honestly, I’m glad to have eaten cupcakes (although I hate cherry). The fact we all chose a dessert and were privately messaged makes me assume someone received an advantage, but who knows...

What I DO know is that I had two separate relationships, so I wanted to lock a trio down (Me, Jess, Jacob), but I obviously did not want to gamebot this early and make the chat day one. So, naturally, i waited until after immunity.

Speaking of immunity... I took charge, because I like it, but also, I wanted to be able to take blame if we lost. I hate the whole “let’s vote someone out cuz they cost us a virtual challenge” this early in the game, it’s a cheap way to vote. I want to vote on loyalty and activity instead. That’s why I am probably going to target Jessie or Vi, but I‘m unsure as to which will be my vote. On one hand, Vi is much less social, but she also contributed a lot to the challenge. I do not want to judge a book by it’s cover, so I will reach out to her and assess her vibe.

I like going to tribal first, because my philosophy is that it’s better to test loyalties now, rather than guess loyalties later.

Regarding other players, Jules and Juls just played in a mini with me and sheeped the majority alliance to screw me over, so I’m not feeling them right now. Bitterness doesn’t exist in my mind: play well and I respect it; sheep and be stupid, and I will gladly dish out the karma. 

I’m satisfied with the happenings of this game so far, and I hope to make it further!! This is one of my first real orgs so, I’m em definitely excited. x. nick

Yay we won immunity. Raffy do be carrying our tribe though!

WELL WELL WELL!!!!!!! as far as my relationships go which is where i left off last round, really nothing much has changed about how i feel about or view my tribemates, but in exciting news... we won immunity!! i am not going to be first boot that is so nice, and im hoping that we can keep winning immunity until a swap so I can feel more secure. I think I could stand a shot if we lost on this tribe but i think if so the vote would split 3-2 i dont think i can get a unanimous vote on anyone unless its myself which is NOT WHAT WERE TRYNA DO HERE !! if anything i feel like i have the best chance to wiggle myself in with the girls (lily and ruthie) Max would probably be my ideal first vote if we ever lose an immunity because I know landen can be useful in challenges, but he YET AGAIN addressed me with a name that does not sit well with me he called me a "challengewhore" yet another reference to TS 2020, so this is not a good sign. Ideally I could get landen out and still be set but i know he has a relationship with juls who i also have a relationship with and wish to continue to have in this game, and us going against each other could make that more stressful than it needs to be because i know landen avenged beck for voting juls out maybe juls would do the same for him? Much to think about, but thankfully i dont have to think about it all that hard because yet again we ARE SAFE !!! woo, anyways thats pretty much it hopefully we can keep winning :D

Ahhhh safety feels so nice, I’m glad that I’m not in danger of being the first boot. Also I love the fact that ravenclaw won the first challenge with so little moves HAHA!

I want to go far in this thing with lily and with kevin, my goal right now is to get to merge and owen be alive so I can work with him!

I am very happy to have won this immunity challenge. We barely won, but I managed to pull my tribe to a victory. Emphasis on the "I" part. I am very frustrated with my tribe's lack of challenge activeness and ability. If the time did not work for them, then I do not know why they even suggested doing it at 2 PM. This challenge would have gone faster if I had done everything myself. In the end, though, I hope this helps in me staying in the game because I am a necessity if they want to ever win a challenge in first place. I highly doubt that they could do it without me.

So I’m currently writing this with one hand because my cat decided to lie on my other one  anyways Nobody is really talking about the vote which means it’s probably me going but I’ll see what I can do to change that

Here's a breakdown of my first few experiences since I am writing this a few hours before the first tribal council.

FIRST I was cast in this game along with a BUNCH of people that are icons across different formats of Tumblr Survivor - so that's intimidating. Mostly because my play style is kinda vanilla in comparison. I gotta find a way to stand out or I'm going to be thrown out fast.

SECOND There's a twist that will probably have some major effect at some later point in the game where everyone is added to the Great Hall. I think that it's for convenience of posting things like results and challenges so it only has to be sent to one chat... but also so that we can feel THEMATIC which is a lot of fun.

The game started in the Great Hall and we got sorted into our houses and the implication was that it's random but.. I don't think it's entirely true if I can read into what the hosts said to me once I was sorted into Gryffindor (something about running out of room in Hufflepuff) - because I definitely didn't say Gryffindor in my application.

THIRD My tribe has the following people: Joshua, Juls, Raffy, Autumn, and myself. 

I do not know how many of theme said Gryffindor when they applied but also did not want to bring it up to them as I am masquerading as a brave idiot. :D

Anyway, I started conversations with all of them and they all seem very sweet!!

I've played in a game before with Raffy where he was super snakey but also a great ally until he tried to snake me. So there's that... he's also an "over the top" type of person so he takes charge a lot of the time and voices his opinions about everything. I hope we can create some sort of working relationship in the game, but I think that he will tell me the truth if he does align against me.

Autumn is super chill and super strategic-minded. She puts lots of thought into all of her decisions and makes calls that benefit her getting to the end while trying to align with the right people. If I can't get to the FTC of this game... TBH I want to make sure she gets there. I played with her in one game and we both were tossed out one after another when the game turned on our "side". I don't think that relationship will factor into this game as it was forever ago and we both kinda play "new" every time we start a game but I'm hoping she will want to try and play with me just because I've seen how great she is at the game.

Juls is a very fun person who seems to always be having a great time! I found out she lives in Texas too and that she was excited to get to know me because we are from the same state. I was like.. do I know you? Because when she messaged me the way she did implied that she knew who I was and I was thinking OH NO what have people said.

Joshua seems really sweet. He hasn't added incredibly much to conversations so far with him but he has contributed some fun things. I love that he tries to be entertaining, but as I see it so far he's the first person I'd be willing to vote out if it came to our tribe going to council... though of course, having said that I bet they've all declared me their first choice.

FOURTH The reward challenge was the Letter plus Number challenge so as predicted...

I did terribly and earned 0 points for our tribe and was SO happy it was not for immunity.

The immunity challenge was a Choose Your Own Adventure Puzzle.

We got a slow start in that I feel like everyone was afraid to make a move because that would put a target on whoever "failed for the team". Then me and Raffy kind of got things rolling with him taking the main leader role and me taking on a secondary role either agreeing with his suggestions or contributing a suggestion for what we should do.

There was a misunderstanding with the competition and we ended up making a whole bunch of extra moves because it was unclear to us that the letters we found at a later part of the challenge were able to be changed into numbers at a lockbox so we did a bunch of extra stuff... and I was resigned to the fact we were going to the first tribal when we go surprised that Slytherin... DID WORSE!!! O_O

Anyway... I still have no alliances or confirmed "working game" relationships and I really don't feel like starting those conversations at the moment so if I am out of the ones established or on the bottom of one that will add me to "pick me up" for later votes then I blame myself for not trying hard enough in that category.

FIFTH I definitely didn't just now search for the idol and waste two days that I could have searched other times. Nope! Not me!! :)

Anyway I went on a trip to Hagrid's Hut because I love me some Hagrid and I figured he'd let me in since I"m a Gryffindor and he loves us the best (you know, like a reverse Snape)... I dug through all of his junk and found his umbrella. Apparently I liked that it was pink and then left his hut. 

To be honest, I probably should have taken his dragon's egg and turned him in... maybe could have gotten him fired.

Someone finally got me to come out of retirement- can you believe it

It's been cute so far and I have no complaints, probably cause the hosts wisely put me, Owen, and Dan in separate corners lmao. Yooo if we all make it to merge?? Hell hath no fury. But we will cross that bridge when we get there! And for now I enjoy the calm before the storm. I deadass forgot how to be an org so I need all the time I can get to socialize and reacclimate. Me checking Skype more than once a year? Don't remember ever doing that. I love Raffy, it's always good to see Chips, I think I like Juls, and I'm not sure how I feel about Joshua but it's fine. I like Gryffindor cause we have no beef and I hope it stays that way.

ok so my tribe lost :( big sad. but im def ok bc jess is soooo close to me and we made a threesome with nick so. i think jessie is an easy first boot bc shes not around as much as vi. but really its our decision at the end of the day!

here’s the hot goss.. i’m a little upset i didn’t get anyone i Know on my house/tribe but also grateful HSBSNSNN all i know is that so far i’ve been doing pretty solid in securing relationships with those on my team (at least.. i hope so :flushed:) and i’m hoping they all like me hehe. kinda praying to just mist my way to merge where i can be united with people who like me enough to keep me around still.. >:D 

[womenofcolor15]

Gabby Douglas Thanks Fans For Encouraging Words After Sharing Traumatic Hair Journey + Women's Health Cover Girl Gabrielle Union Talks Wearing Natural Hair For The First Time On A Cover

Gabrielle Douglas thanks fans for encouraging words after she got candid about her bittersweet hair journey. Peep her touching posts, plus find out what Gabrielle Union said about her “flawless” hair care journey inside….

The 2012 London Olympics was a bittersweet moment for history making Olympian Gabrielle Douglas. At the age of 16, the YBF gymnast became the first African-American woman to win a gold medal in the team competition and the individual all-around. Unfortunately, her amazing accomplishment was overshadowed with vicious and unneccesary criticism of her HAIR! Of all things.

August 2, 2012 — Gabrielle Douglas won an Olympic gold in women’s gymnastics. pic.twitter.com/9RRZIYXBAR

— MoorInfo (@MoorInformation) August 2, 2020

They did the same thing when she was competing in the 2016 Olympics.  Sadly, she broke down in tears when she addressed the hate during the Olympics a few years ago.

Now, she’s 24. And her hair is FLOURISHING, honey.

The Olympic gold medalist took to her social media to open about her traumatic hair journey where she explained how pulling her hair into tight ponytails to do gymnastics damaged her hair completely.

"I had bald spots on the back of my head,” she said. “I was so embarrassed and self-conscious that I put a bunch of clips over the spots to try and cover them up, but it was still noticeable.”

Gabby's hair then began to grow, but she ended up having to cut it all off because it was so damaged. After cutting it, she became self-conscious to the point where she didn’t even want to go to the gym anymore.

”My hair grew a little, but shortly after, I had to cut all of my hair off because it was so damaged,” she wrote. “I cried and cried and cried. most days I didn’t even want to go to the gym because I felt so embarrassed that all my hair was gone.”

Despite the hair drama, she kept giving her hair tender love and care. And now, her hair is the healthiest its ever been.

"Fast forward to the both Olympics and my hair was the topic of conversation," she said. "Now here I am today - no extensions - no clip-ins - no wigs - no chemicals - all me."

Peep her natural tresses below: 

        View this post on Instagram

                  from the heart from a very young age i always had to put my hair in a tight ponytail to do gymnastics and due to that my hair became completely damaged. i had bald spots on the back of my head. i was so embarrassed and self-conscious that i put a bunch of clips over the spots to try and cover them up, but it was still noticeable. my hair grew a little, but shortly after, i had to cut all of my hair off because it was so damaged. i cried and cried and cried. most days i didn’t even want to go to the gym because i felt so embarrassed that all my hair was gone. i used to think: why can’t i have healthy hair? despite yet another challenge, i kept going. fast forward to the both olympics and my hair was the topic of conversation now here i am today - no extensions - no clip-ins - no wigs - no chemicals - all me.

A post shared by Gabby Douglas (@gabbycvdouglas) on Sep 3, 2020 at 1:39pm PDT

Fans flooded Gabby with positive and encouraging comments, praising her for being brave enough to open up about her hair struggle.

”First off I just want to say that I’ve been reading your comments on my last post and I want to thank you for all of your kind & supportive words,” she wrote. “It really means a lot. It’s not easy opening up and being true and vulnerable about certain things, especially in this day and age. not gonna lie... you guys can be BRUTAL,” she shared.

”But in that, I have developed thick skin. I am forever grateful to have this platform to inspire and encourage u all. hopefully one day i will have the courage to share my FULL story with you.”

Check it:

        View this post on Instagram

                  first off i just want to say that i’ve been reading your comments on my last post and i want to thank you for all of your kind & supportive words. it really means a lot. it’s not easy opening up and being true and vulnerable about certain things, especially in this day and age. not gonna lie... you guys can be BRUTAL lol. but in that, i have developed thick skin. i am forever grateful to have this platform to inspire and encourage u all. hopefully one day i will have the courage to share my FULL story with you. nothing but love for u on my side. hope u all had a great week. x

A post shared by Gabby Douglas (@gabbycvdouglas) on Sep 7, 2020 at 2:32pm PDT

Aww!

Now, share that hair routine, Gabby!

Speaking of Gabby and hair...

          View this post on Instagram

                  These are #bts pics from my @womenshealthmag shoot. It was the 1st time feeling truly like myself in front of the camera.The me that my loved ones see everyday. The me that fights daily for my peace and the peace of others. The imperfect warrior thats lost more battles than I've won, but still keeps on fighting. At this grown ass age, I feel like I'm finally ME. And I can breathe. And as long as I have breath, my ass can keep fighting. @flawlessbygu got me rocking my own curls and feeling like a #flawlessbeauties

A post shared by Gabrielle Union-Wade (@gabunion) on Sep 3, 2020 at 9:08am PDT

  As we tread waters into a more “woke” society, Gabrielle Union has been on the front lines advocating for black hair acceptance. Over the years, the “Being Mary Jane” star – who recently did a PSA for the CROWN ACT – has been vocal about how Hollywood REFUSES to hire black hairstylists and she shared horror stories about non-black people totally jacking her hair up on set. It got SO bad, she decided she would go get her hair done on her own time to at least look presentable on camera.

Earlier this month, the multi-hyphenated star partnered up with celeb stylist Larry Sims to re-vamp her haircare line, “Flawless by Gabrielle Union,” which in its new iteration is majority Black-owned after it was originally launched in 2017.

More and more, Gabby is embracing her natural tresses. For the cover of Women’s Health magazine’s October 2020 issue, she shared how it felt so freeing to shoot a magazine cover rocking her natural hair for the first time.

”These are #bts pics from my @womenshealthmag shoot. It was the 1st time feeling truly like myself in front of the camera,” Gabby shared. “The me that my loved ones see everyday. The me that fights daily for my peace and the peace of others. The imperfect warrior thats lost more battles than I've won, but still keeps on fighting. At this grown ass age, I feel like I'm finally ME. And I can breathe. And as long as I have breath, my ass can keep fighting. @flawlessbygu got me rocking my own curls and feeling like a #flawlessbeauties.”

That wasn’t her only “first” experience…

          View this post on Instagram

                  My @womenshealthmag cover is out now!!! My 1st cover shot by a Black woman @djenebaaduayom and the 1st time I've worn my own natural hair for a cover AND been able to have my profile written by the brilliant @rebeljunemarie Such a powerfully beautiful and peaceful experience! Check it out, its available now.

A post shared by Gabrielle Union-Wade (@gabunion) on Sep 2, 2020 at 8:40am PDT

  The 47-year-old entertainer said this was her first magazine cover shot by a Black woman. Woot!

While the black community isn’t anywhere near where we should be as far as representation in society, things are started to shift. And we’re here for it.

By the way, Gabby also opened up about losing her hair during IVF treatments and how her "Flawless" hair care line saved her edges. Get those deets HERE.

Photo: Salty View/Shutterstock.com

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/09/10/gabrielle-douglas-thanks-fans-for-encouraging-words-after-sharing-traumatic-hair-journey-

[vehlika-pelican]

WARNING FOR LONG POST!

I really want Tucker to be friends with Thel'Vadam and Rtas'Vadum.

But I think it’d be really fun if Thel saw the Project Freelancer Faux-Spartan armor as a hereditary thing. My headcannon is that Sangheili design their armor after their clan or family and blue team unwittingly followed this tradition when making Junior’s armor with Tucker (and Doc’s) paint/scrap so as far as the Arbiter knows Tucker is the immediate family of a spartan or a spartan-in-training and has continued the family-armor-aesthetic with his own sangheili son.

Anyway, Thel knows that Spartans are rare and few in number so Tucker must be part of this prized warrior pedigree if he’s wearing the unmistakably Spartan armor, right? But who’s kin could he be? Those that Thel knows are either old or part of the newer generations, but in the Sangheili tradition armor color is important to denote bloodlines with more respected family members in darker, richer colors and younger ones in lighter, brighter colors. Tucker is bright as fuck blue-ish green! And he’s in solid color, no accents or anything so maybe Tucker’s only interested in claiming relation to his green family. Who is the only Spartan who wears dark green armor without accents? Who is old enough to possibly be an uncle if not his father?

Master Chief. John-117. SIERRA MIST OF DEATH HIMSELF. And Thel has stated in canon that Chief is his friend and ally. So when Tucker shows up on Sangheilios to be an ambassador and learn about his son’s people Thel just speculates that this Little Spartan (Tucker’s 5'10" in my headcannon which is short for a Spartan as Chief is canonically 6'7"-6'8" out of armor) is related to his friend in some way and should be treated well. But he mentions it in passing to Rtas'Vadum and maybe some others and it turns out the Sangheili are lousy gossips! If it isn’t classified it’s fair game.

And then Tucker’s being avoided/catered to because Old Ones help them if the Demon finds out his kin has been mistreated while visiting their planet. Peace with the humans is a fragile thing!

Tucker didn’t even want to be an ambassador! He just wanted to learn the language and culture for his son because he’s trying to be a good dad. The rumor took off though, and now the Demon’s kin is here- Little Demon and Little Demon the Second Coming of Lavernius! And then the warriors all want Junior to like their clans so when he’s older he petitions for membership because who DOESN’T want the infamous Demon’s bloodline to merge with theirs?! So Junior gets an army of friends his age as the adults push their offspring into potentially beneficial bonds but its okay because the kids are actually nice and Junior’s cool and his dad’s sword is cool and he knows the Arbiter and Rtas and the Swords of Sangheilios and he’s got the best stories about silly warrior humans.

When the UNSC gets word, oh hey we can totally use this to better interspecies relations! Wham bam thank you Ambassador Tucker. Which only adds to the problem as he has Rank and Title so if he is the Demon’s kin well now he’s coming into his own! The human Master Chief and the Arbiter are friends so of course the Demon would entrust his family with securing the peace.

Thel learns the truth from Tucker who is tired of this wishy-washy too-in-my-face and then not-helping-me-at-all behavior the sangheili keep switching between due to respect and fear for a man who Tucker doesn’t know and isn’t even related to. But it’s gotten out of hand so they need Tucker to just go with it.

As an apology, Thel helps him learn the language and how to use his key-sword while teaching him the history about the ancient Sangheili. Rtas shows up one day while they’re training and no Arbiter the bet way to kill a Brute in tight quarters is like THIS- and soon enough the Swords of Sangeilios, warriors hand-picked by the Arbiter, are putting Tucker through his paces. BAMF!Competent!Tucker is best Tucker.

Then they learn that the Covenant is investigating a temple in the desert supposedly built by the ancients which means Tucker’s sword can probably access it so then send him and a mixed squad of humans and sangheili. They die getting Tucker into the Temple to protect it and he manages to call the nearest Red base where Donut is so he joins him and later goes looking for help and we all know the rest.

On the Hand of Merope Tucker calls Rtas to catch him up but also inform the sangheili embassy of his impending arrival but holy shit the ship crashed. Later on Chorus, Rtas personally comes looking for Tucker only to find out his mentee/annoying friend has been stabbed and betrayed but uncovered a conspiracy and who else but the Demon’s kin would be put through such a trial (maybe he knows the truth but still likes to tease Tucker about it) and come out alive. Tucker regains consciousness enough to ask for the Sword’s help in liberating Chorus and of course the sangheili leap at the opportunity.The beam that’s been pulling down ships doesn’t target sangheili-built ships so Rtas and his men bypass it repeatedly in order to bring in troops and weapons and food. Damn this’ll look good for interspecies relations! and they’ll reclaim ancient sangheili ruins as well so win-win. Rtas struggles to speak english due to his severed mandibles so Tucker’s practically glued to his side translating sangheili like a pro. But then the warriors see that Tucker’s got a bunch of adolescent humans wearing his color on their armor so the Little Demon has been protecting the clan younglings and thats why he not yet returned! And of course this means that Tucker’s team must all be related to the Demon too, and more sangheili come and eventually there’s so many that individual members of Tucker’s “family” have eight foot tall alien guards following them around (mostly protecting them from Jensen’s driving). If Palomo thought Tucker was cool before you need a new word for the kind of admiration he feels for the captain now.

Carolina doesn’t like the Elites and certainly doesn’t trust them but haha, the only adult human female in Tucker’s colors must be his mate or kin and they say that she has nothing to worry about they’ll protect her hatchlings with their lives and they mean it to appease her but it just makes her angry and she chases Tucker down because she thinks he’s spreading rumors about them being together. He’s not because he likes his blood to stay inside of his body and has to spend a whole week explaining sangheili armor color family relations. She doesn’t end up hating it all that much because being mistaken for Tucker’s family/wife means that the sangheili obey her commands second only to Rtas, like Tucker. She does hate being called ‘brood-mother’ and the constant updates on the state of her and Tucker’s “hatchlings”- and does she approve of Palomo’s intended female from the red clans?- but the sangheili presence means that the army is running like a proper military outfit so she tolerates it. (she does like that the closest english translation of “brood-mother” is “Matriarch” so the english speaking aliens call her Matriarch Carolina). Epsilon fears she will go mad with power. The sangheili think Tucker has good instincts choosing the strongest, smartest, deadliest female for his mate and by the Old Ones she must be fertile for Tucker’s brood is plentiful and strong. And if the younglings are weak it is only because Matriarch Carolina is so strong her offspring can afford to be weak. What a luxury. And if they try to sell her up to Kimball because they can smell the mutual interest and think she’s just nervous and needs the help- which she doesnt but okay- then they are more than happy in securing the Demon clan another powerful female.

With the sangheili there in force, the army finds the second key-sword which is supposed to go to Wash because he has knife/blade experience but Palomo grabs it on accident and oh it must be a sign that the best of Tucker’s brood is a holder of the key! Rtas laughs in Tucker’s face. But this gets some of them to try and wing-man Palomo to Jensen because he’s Meant for Greatness and aaaahhhhhh its adorable. Eight foot saurian aliens delivering flowers (and fresh-meat) to Red Team Patriarch Colonel Sarge (its difficult to tell the different red shades apart and Simmons isn’t exactly authoritive) for Jensen, and listening to Palomo’s bad poetry and giving advice like you should emphasize her strong legs and uniquely dappled skin and her metal fangs! (she’s faster than him, freckles, and braces respectively). They especially like her metal fangs- maybe their hatchlings will get them!

The army chases Charon forces off planet and we get the epic sword fight between Tucker and Felix that we deserved, and the Swords of Sangheilios put the fear of god in Locus for daring challenge Matriarch Carolina. When Hargrove arrives the Swords and RedsandBlues fight his Mantis mechs and storm the Staff of Charon and Tucker doesn’t need a fancy suit in order to be awesome. They arrest him and finally lay ALL of Project Freelancer’s loose ends to rest.

Tucker takes Blue Team and Palomo to sangheilios and reunites with Junior and Junior tells him about teaching his friends how to play basketball and is it true you’re a hero dad? and its great.

BAMF!Competent!GoodDad!Tucker for the all the money.

uuhh cant you tell this got away from me? i love tuckington but i think i would make this gen.

[survivor-rebelsvsroyals]

EPISODE 1-Well here the f*ck we are again! - Trace

As the game begins and everyone gets used to their new camps, personalities clash together. In the first challenge of the season, a mistake and a fumble causes Keaton a big loss but merges alliances together.

I want to die

ITS SO MUCH EASIER TO TALK TO SURVIVOR PEOPLE THAN BIG BROTHER PEOPLE. I’m in IHOS right now and they’re so overly dramatic, it’s not funny. I already feel good about this tribe- such cuties! Also, I hope I’m the first confessional.

I'm about to be devoured alive on this tribe. I don';t know anyone here. But I peep icons like RTP, Dana, and Ruthie on the other tribe

I don’t trust any of these people, HAHA. I am really excited though. Right now I’m trying to talk up Linus and Seamus because I don’t trust EITHER and I want to be in their good sides. I also want to get in good with Amanda and Pippa. I feel like Glo and I are good and I want to get a solid bond with RTP but... we’ll see! IM NOT putting all my eggs in one basket! On the plus side I think we have a real solid team! There are still a few people I need to talk to but... I’m being more social this season already than I’ve been on some of my others.. heh

lmao can i mutiny?? Earlier this year i had a falling out with some ex friends and one of them is in this game and the other one has a bestie thats in this game and honestly its exhausting. I wouldnt mind being here if they kept things game related but i know that they're going to make things personal and they're going to continue to spread lies about me.

tell me WHY my favorite person i have talked to so far (linus) is a STRAIGHT MAN. why am i hoe for the straight men. i have become the very thing i swore to destroy. i literally hate myself.

As of right now, I want to do either paintball or bottles because I don't want to be the SOLE reason we lose in one of those individual challenges. Also, I think I'm pretty good at endurance challenges for paintball so it'll be fine. My tribemates seem to be an active, ok bunch. I like most of them. I'm getting really good vibes from Dan, Chloe, and Trace. They would be the people I'd add to an alliance. I haven't talked to LAchie or Kwaton yet so maybe they'll be my target if we lose. Nic is pretty cool. I think we'll get along well. Still trying to sus him out. Everyone else is just fine in my eyes. But they're all just obstacles in my way

*a little while later*

The tribe call was initially about the challenge, but now it has become something greater: an alliance. I always try to get alliances early within tribe calls. It makes the pre-merge a lot easier for me. I actually really enjoyed the company of John and Chloe. I didn't think I would, but here I am. If Brien was on a little longer then he would've been in it too. Oh well. Maybe he'll be in the next alliance I create.

*even later*

I really fucked that one up. Jesus christ. I did terrible. Hopefully my tribe can carry the other challenges because doing that badly is almost first boot worthy. Ugh I fucking hate myself

*the camera man keeps recording but is losing consciousness*

I truly do not know how my tribe can be this messy with challenges this early on. Keaton is seemingly going to fuck up the puzzle since he GAVE HIS LAPTOP AWAY. We're a mess. The first challenge isn't even done. Jesus, if we go to tribal, I am praying that they will not want me gone. It'd be terrible

I meant to send this last night but I think Ryan got himself out on purpose.  Did he or did he not... that is the question! So I’m getting along really well with Linus, Amanda and Anabel at the moment. I love Glo but I feel like people will be down to vote her off if we lose. Hopefully my people winning the paintball match will mean all four of us will be safe but people are crazy so... we’ll see!

I'm kind of frustrated with my tribe right now. It seems like none of them know what they are doing in the challenge. "I can't find the puzzle." "I don't know the phrase." "What's the order?" Y'all should have figured this out a day ago. But whatever. I guess we'll lose and I'll have to cut out some weak links. I'm very over the absolute unprofessionalism of this tribe. 

YAAAAAS I’m so happy we won the first immunity challenge. I’m pretty sure if our tribe loses then I’m going to be the first person to leave the game. Literally NO ONE is talking game with me, I even tried to form an alliance with Anabel today and she just like laughed it off fkfkfkfkfkf. IM SO FICKED

Well here the fuck we are again! The rebels tribe is cute tbh. I know Nic, we played together well in Chamonix. Lachie and I made it to the final of ILM a couple years ago. Chloe and I didn't work well together in Kuwait but we have a similar sense of humor so I have a good feeling about it. I hosted Dan and Keaton in MB and have good relationships with both. I don't know Brien but he already basically told me he has my back, and I do trust him even though he is a bit of an outcast. I don't really trust Raffy, he's kinda hard to talk to. Everyone else is basically irrelevant. I was so convinced that we were going to flop and flop HARD in the challenge, and we did. But at least Chloe, John, and I flopped the least and got us our one point. Now nobody can hold that against me! Tbh I wouldn't be mad sending Keaton out of the game. He's all over the place and didn't even compete in the challenge. So idk, we shall see. I feel pretty good about my place in the game but lord knows shit always hits the fan for me the second I have to talk strategy. So fingers crossed ladies!

We really got our asses handed to us HUH!? Honestly, I feel okay? I think I’ve chatted a bit with everyone and had meaningful convos, but that means nothing. I lost my wave so why should I feel super safe? I mean Keaton should be worried for sure, but I love him, so I’m just trying to see if there’s another option. I personally can’t fucking stand Raffy, BUT everyone seems to enjoy his twinky shady ass. Can’t relate!! I’m just gonna work on my growing bond with Asya and Nic and see where that takes me (: Here’s a list of who I trust from most to least so far! 

 1. Asya 

 2. Nic 

3. Lachie 

4. Trent 

5. Chloe 

6. Keaton 

7. Brien 

8. John 

9. Raffy

Losing the challenge sucks. Especially since we got stomped on. My target for this tribal is Trace. I don't really talk to him, and he just didn't do the challenge. That's a liability in my eyes. So, he has to go. However, I'm trying to avoid spreading his name so early until a few hours before tribal. People are being hesitant to throw out names because they don't want to be "That Guy." It's scary out here. I feel like I should be fine since I'm relatively social and active. Talking with people last night, I think I managed to make Trace an ally of mine. I suggested working together and he accepted. So, hopefully that pans out in the future. It just adds another person to my ranks. It's extremely important that I make these solid connections to protect me in case of a swap or once we get to merge.

I’m in rebels vs royals WHOO these royals are going down. We lost the first challenge but it’s okay it gives us time to trim the fat on the tribe and see where everyone stands. I like mostly everyone so far but I think it’s the honeymoon phase now and things will get real soon when we all ruthlessly target each other. I played with Keaton before and we agreed to have each other’s back and I would love to work with him for the long road and even be loyal to take him to the end with me even if I was definitely gonna lose. I’m trying to flip the way I play with friends and not be selfish and stick my neck out for them. It’s completely a transformation for me because my first season I betrayed my best friend cause I didn’t want to go to rocks but when I’m reality I was selfish. Raffy- seems cool but he is also a likable player that I have to have on my radar to not let get that far 

John- I love John I know it’s early but if I had to pick my final 3 now it would be me him and Keaton. He might be playing me but he is just such a great person I hope we can work well in this game. 

 Aysa- Idk how I feel about her she seems nice however she also seems shady granted everyone is but I can’t let her get to far. 

 Lachie- my first target we don’t mesh well in our conversation and that’s a sign to me early on that we won’t work well in this game. He is my number one target at this first tribal we have to go to. 

 Trace- I like trace but he seems like a poser and I think he’ll say whatever he has to in order to finally snatch the win in his 8th time. 

Nic- he is quiet but could also be deadly he was playing up that he hasn’t played in a while and doesn’t want to go first and I get that but i know it’s just a play for him to integrate himself in the tribe. 

 Chloe- she is nice but idk where she stands strategy wise but I like her and I can certainly see it being hard getting her out. 

 Dan- I almost forgot about dan he is so UTR I don’t trust him and if I can’t get lachie I would love to get him out at the first tribal. Now I know people have past season connections but I can’t really do much about it I just have to hope they implode on themselves and then I can find a crack within all the ruins. I’m certainly playing this game differently then before I’m gonna be as loyal and honest as I can and i know it’s a marathon not a sprint and I have to treat this game as such.

I’m so glad to be safe this round! I fell asleep really early last night and I’m glad we aren’t on the chopping block because when I scramble I look like an egg head. I wonder who is going home on the other tribe hmmm

So.....I am ELIZA levels paranoid, even though it’s the first vote. Trace is my number 1 so far because we worked together in a previous game and he’s just cool. So I trust him. I also know Dan, but the way we left things in our last convo before the game was darksided...but we promised to work together this time. I am somewhat confident in that. I like Lachie a lot even though I don’t know him, and Brien seems like a strong player. I think this first vote is coming down to Keaton or Raffy. I am kinda wanting Keaton because I feel like Brien has him under his wing and if Keaton goes then Brien will be weaknened and maybe be easier to control? Keaton is saying Raffy is a strong player for some reason and we should get him out as soon as possible. So...idk. BUT...I am a paranoid mess, so this could all just be a big plot to get me out!!! Who knows??

Ok so basically I know almost everyone on both tribes which really fucking shocks me?! I was expecting to know like one person and then not be very invested but I was wrong luv. Because I’ve played with basically everyone before I like actually want to do well lmao, imagine me actually trying in a game. That being said I did so bad in the flag comp thing, I literally didn’t understand the rules at all whoops. She really thought it had to be all red, the only reason I didn’t draw it was because I was imagining having to fill in the background red after and I GAGGED. I luv Asya, trace and Nic. Last time I played with dan we both got to like final 7 but I barely spoke to him and I’m p sure he’s the reason why kate and I left. But I’ve been speaking to him more In this game and we have like A LOT in common. I’ve also been trying to talk to Chloe a lot because we played a Facebook game together once and she rlly thought I hated her and made so many vls about me, so I’m trying to like be more active in her pms.

A lot of people in this cast don't like me. Dan, Dane, Pippa. To name a few. With Dane it's very personal. He hurt me and I don't think he gets that I'm still super sad about it. We havent talked since March. We have so many inside jokes im reminded of and I laugh and I always just instantly wanna text him but I can't cause then I remember. I'm not going to throw his name out ever. If people come to me with it then yeah i'll do it. Anyway. I love RTP we've never really gotten to play together something always happens. Love Amanda. She's slaughtered me before but it's always been fun so I hope we can be an amazing team. I think shes still really good friends with Dan which might cause huge problems. Anyway later skater

oh shit a rat oh wait thats just my reflection hihi i was gonna do a video but i hate my face so we're typing today girls. so. i like my tribe!!!! i think everyone is like smart which is scary bc i have approximately 1 brain cell that i share w trent and it is VERY obvious that i am not in possession of said brain cell. i keep saying crackhead things to people and i dont know why, i guess im just on meth or something i dont know... maybe the ppl at my local ice cream joint(tm) slipped something into me bc i am in the mood to get WILD!!! i think as of rn i am ssn 90's sweetheart and everyone loves me and YES i am COCKY but i have a right to be bc i am fucking POPULAR!!!! my ranking is as follows, anyone who disagrees with me sucks ass. 

1. linus 2. dane 3. amanda 4. seamus 5. ruthie 6. gloria 7. ryan m 8. ryan p 9. pippa 

 i will not explain these rankings bc i am right, u r wrong, shut the fuck up

Pippa doesn’t respond to me, feels bad man. Everyone else is pretty dope though, I’m definitely getting along with Anabel the best, she’s probably gonna win the game. Honestly the big story is just how Keaton’s opening was so cocky, yet called us cocky but then he abstained and likely will be first boot based on the abstain. Fantastic storyline making a full circle in the period of just 3 days. Sorry this is probably lame, I’m in a shitload of pain, I really just need to sneak by until I’m not suffering from my tonsil removal and then I can really tear things up. Oh, also Hoodie Ryan is the only epic gamer on my tribe so I hope he goes far so we can rise up together.

so far I am getting to know Seamus Pippa and Linus and other but dan;t think of their names lol. Had fun doing bottles challenge then messed up  but our tribe rocks and we still won challenge. Where I stand I think I am liked by several so far. Wonder where it  will go who knows <3 GLO <3

Am about to be first boot and I’m not even surprised lol xx

I’m just like an emotional wreck? Idk. I’m trying to keep plugging along but I have so much stuff taking up time in my personal life. Like rear ending a car tonight :~) soooo I think the vote is Keaton, but honestly who the fuck knows. Everyone could be pulling a fast one on me. I tried pitching an alliance with Asya, Chloe, and John but it went no where so look at me booboo the fool. I just feel like I don’t have much traction yet and I don’t wanna be caught off guard by a blindside tonight. I’m always just so paranoid at first tribal. Why didn’t we just kill the royals in the comp. fucking flop ass tribe.

Okay so THESE PEOPLE WANNA KILL ME. I thought I would be good with Chloe, Dan, and Trace but they all ran to the kingpin, Nic. I tried to throw Raffy under a bus, but Lachie and Asya protect, John didn't wanna talk, and Brien...I'm sorry Weber. You better fuckin kill it this game. Time to do what I do best though...cause an absolute shitton of chaos....for you Weber.

[survivor-kuwait]

Episode 4 - “I'm tryna figure out this vote like magnifying glass emoji." - Matt S

So naturally I’m panicking because I’m so sure I’m going to warzone, and the last thing I wanna do is be the swap vote out. I’m enjoying the Ma’an Tribe and just being able to talk to people, especially Kait and Owen. So far I only have individual conversations but maybe tribal will actually allow me to make alliances. I hate saying that cause I would never ask to go to tribal unless I really had to.

Challenge update. I think i have decent scores. Will they keep me from the bottom 5? Who knows but im trying my best. Im trying hard in the first game because i think thats the lowest score. Also FUCK multitask. That is very hard. I just want to be safe this round and figure shit out with Nehe, Stephen, and Trace. I have a little rant about Nehe coming up soon. 🤭 Oo I wanted to scream to Renee not to say anything till the votes were read. I knew she was gunna say something when it was a 3-3 tie and she unmuted. It was a big MOOD tho. I just hope she is able to stay safe. I do trust her a lot.

So we recently switched and I still don't know who is on my tribe lol. I am still with Kait which is great! I am with Owen, Stevie and Madison who I spoke to briefly, Matt who I just met, Chloe who I have always wanted to meet, and some new faces such as Timmy, Renee, and Jacob. I always love a tribe with a bit of everything.

Hello diary room how are you? I am making money moves. Connecting to my “tribe” members. Even Trace. The only bitch i don’t care to be friends w is Maynor bc he stinks of Renee’s brainwash. As we all know, Renee hates me and wants me out etc etc. I am doing what I can to protect myself if I end up going to tribal. All i can hope for is that, if renee is at tribal, maynor isn’t as I would have 4 who would have my back from my tribe. That’s 5 votes. If I can get Matt or Madison or someone else on the other tribe to come with, it’s Au Revoir René. I don’t think I’ll be immune as I only had about 3 hours to work on these 5 flashgames but who knows. I trust Adrian. I hate to say that but I do! I quite like Ian and want to trust him but it’ll take time. I believe Devon has my best interest at heart. Okay that’s all for today x

- - -

Just played Axon and I hate this game soooooo much. I play Minecraft all day and spam click all the time but this game is gonna give me carpal tunnel I sware. My arm hurts so much. I guess it’s time to go to multitask

I have been trying to beat my scores in these flash games and i cant. I dont think they are good enough to keep me from the bottom 5. I’m really nervous to be in warzone with people i havent worked with before. Jshdiw i hope i couls find that idol tonight. Ill feel better if I have it in my hands. Nehe rant. So like he said he was down to work with me and have my back. And once again for some reason has happened again. He lied to me about voting for doodle (also willing to do Stevie) because he voted for Renee, my partner! His reasoning was cuz he told me that he was told thats were the majority was so even tho he told me he trust mr, he didnt believe me when insaid that it was going to be doodle when it switched. He still wantsbto work with me so thats good and i have leverage i culd use because he told me he wanted trace gone so i could throw him under the bus if i feel like i cant trust him. Idk if i should be upset about this cuz ppl liebin survivor but in this twist trust is way more important now than in a regular season.

Immunity or tribal it doesn't matter the game presses on. The benefit of immunity is to just build relationships with people without the risk of going home or burning my idol(side note fuck all you bitches when you inevitably turn against me an make me burn my favorite piece of jewelry). Corey has really grown on me, talk game of thrones with me and I'm alliance putty in your hands! I was happy to see Maynor again, I feel there is something there that can be fostered,  Cullan is a bit of an ignima to me still. I'll crack him though one way or another. Trace and I have begun chatting so I'm still up in the air on him and really most my tribe and people in this game. I honestly expected to be on the low end of scores for this challenge but I wasn't? Idk, double elimination means retrograde and please, please don't let it be Chloe vs Willow, I want them both to stick around and be valuable allies. If they can't keep the votes off them then as Walder Frey once said, " I'll find another."

This warzone where 2 people are leaving is just not cute. I was not happy when I saw that. I knew I was going to be here because I did each of the flash games like once or twice and called it a day so I knew I was going to be here and I accepted that. When I saw who else was there I thought "okay, I think I can probably find people to vote with and stay safe this time around" and then BAM it's a double elimination with the vote and it totally changes the strategy of the vote. Could be more difficult to navigate. All I know is that I need to step up my social game because I haven't chatted much with people and I need to start building relationships so if I end up here again I have people that have my back. I am just struggling with the idea of working with Nehe. Longevity I don't think I want to do. Short term, sure. But I don't think I want to deal with that for the whole game. Been there, done that and I am over it. I was talking to Adrian last night and my god that was an infuriating conversation. Adrian had no idea how the warzone was operating because he hadn't been there and I just wanted to say "sis, read an effing post you lazy ass and it will make sense" It's not that hard to understand, it is just different from normal. I just hate when people don't know things because they don't want to read a post. Going back to this double elimination tribal; it is really hard to choose two targets. Being on tribes that don't seem to matter because we get scored individually makes it almost a moot point to target people for poor challenge strength because it is a pretty individual game. I guess that would be incentive to get out strong challenge performers but all of those people won so again, not a good strategy. Also everyone has just encountered different people and no one is being put together with the same people as someone else so there are a bunch of different dynamics between players, more varied than normal because we aren't forced to interact with the same people for an extended period of time. These votes have just been a lot more nerve wracking than votes normally are and making it out alive feels like more of a feat than normal. I'd say I like the extra challenge to step up the strategy because it's different, but I honestly don't. I don't need this extra anxiety about votes, no thank you. I just hope I survive this!

New tribes yay... I miss maynor and it’s overwhelming to actually be forced to talk to more than one person lmao. But other than that it’s good and I’m safe and immune and so far everyone here seems cool... even if I can’t trust anyone because of those 3 votes I got last tribal!!!! Doodle and Stephen and maybe nehe better watch OUT

Now that the game has finally sped up a little bit, I'm excited because I feel like I can actually play the game more. I am also ECSTATIC that I am not at this double tribal thing, because that sounds stressful and I know that avoiding it completely was the best case scenario for my game right now. I really really like Corey. Him and I have hit it off and I can see us working together really well deep into the game. I'm glad that he is safe this round too because he is probably the person I am closest to on this tribe of people I am kind of afraid of. Ian came to me and started talking as well, but something just doesn't sit well with me about him. He blew everyone out of the water in the challenge, so that will have to be something I need to think about down the line when I decide who I want to vote out. Nehemiah talked to me a lot before he went into the war zone, trying to apologize to me about voting Renee. He made it seem like I was withholding information from him which could not be further from the truth. Classic erratic Nehe again making shit up and trying to pin it on me. I want his ass out and I want it out soon. I feel like I finally have some footing in this game. Timmy and I are tight, Corey and I are tight, and I made good relationships with Renee, Madison, and Owen in the last war zone. Hopefully if I do end up going to the war zone again I'll be able to have at least a few people to work with, because right now I don't feel very comfortable on my tribe if this game were normal and we voted each other out.

I am feeling FUCKEN PAN-tastic!! I was working last night so just read the post quickly and it said I was in the Warzone. I felt really sad and nervous but there was an error and I was actually immune. I was so happy that work didnt suck. It was a double too so Im super duper happy that I didnt end up going to tribal. I need to talk more to Ian because Me and him are talking most than others. Im also talking to Trace since he is Timmy’s partner and I want to work with him. Ive been talking to Corey for a bit. I need to make stronger connections while im safe so I can rely on them to want to work with me in the future warzones.

I am so happy to be safe this round! I'm kind of just glossing over the tribe swap because it's barely like we're on tribes since we're competing against them. Just hoping it's 2 from the other tribe gone so that way we still have 5 people to be safe. But also it'll probably be 1 and 1. Either way someone is coming back because retrograde is activated every round 2 people leave so that's going to be interesting. Them and Nehe can start a club...unless it's Nehe again lol. Honestly let it be Nehe again because it means he won't win in the end. Like who would vote for the person who was voted out twice, once has happened, but twice, idk if people would respect that. It would be he hasn't been playing a good game since it was easy to take him out. I'm just excited that I don't have to attend tribal and I can talk to people without the stress of making plans. Matt and I have been talking and he's pretty cool. He is definitely someone I can see myself working with since he's easy to talk to so far.

Well this twist is proving chaotic as it was intended. It appears we have a split but who the hell onows with this round. I do feel a little vulnerable with short repossess from some. I mean anyone could go home tonight.

i will write something longer when I'm home but I'm shook???? that I won the flash game thing. Matt is my fave and I hope my boring Scorpio person goes home thx

Do I trust that these people are gonna give me the correct information when its only 15 minutes before tribal? Not for a fucking MOMENT! But I haven't heard my name and people are like swimming between 2 names and I love both of them equally. Like this is sooooo hard. No me gusta.

I got meself an alliance AND I somehow still haven’t gone to tribal... why am I more stressed now than I was before??? I think the fact that the game is becoming super real is what’s making me really nervous, and as much as having a solid 3 with Owen and Kait makes me extremely happy, considering I trust them more than I’ve trusted an alliance in most games, there’s still so much game left to be played, and I remember in Solomon getting swapped away from my allies and it screwing me over.... I’m shaky!

Oop. Tribal is going to be soon. I wonder who the two that will be going. I just hope it isnt someone Ive been talking to. 2 people will be leaving so i think its going to trigger retrograde and one will be back.This warzone is really messing up strategy in this game.

I missed two round confessionals which suck but to quickly basically sum what y’all missed. I formed the voters pact that plan was throw challenges to get to the warzone but that in it self failed cause they didn’t all throw and then doodle was voted off the next round. I also kinda got lied to about the vote so like boo. This round  in the warzone I kinda like this batch and it’s now how do we navigate the double vote out thing. I have a personal vendetta with Adrian cause I don’t trust him and Chloe is basically a non factor . So the plan since last night was always to go for those two it was just how do we go about it. I decided to make a group of 5 because it made it easier for them to willingly “choose” who they wanted to vote. And thankfully we lead them into voting chloe and Adrian. Now it’s just navigating who votes who and if the plan stays the plan. Fucking Devon is chaotic switching shit. He tried to switch the vote to willow to succumb to Thomas but who gives a fuck what Thomas is voting. I just care about the finale vote tally. I’m afraid definitely if it’s gonna be me for the fact that I don’t want to go back to the retrogade but it can easily be me. Like personally I feel like I’m always able to get people to groove in the direction I want but then I let them mingle and shit happens. I always make sure to have a hand in with everyone sonthey don’t want to turn on me but really the people I truly trust is stevie, Devon and maybe Stephen. Stephen is weirding me out shady vibes but we’ll see.

Immunity never tasted so good! I need Adrian to be safe. I need Madison and Jacob to be safe bc I think they’re at tribal? I would like Renee and Maynor gone but they’re both safe boo hoo. I am socializing w everyone. I love Trace, Adrian, Ian. I would like Cullan gone sooner rather than later as he is hard to socialize with but I like his partner, Willow. That being said, I think everyone likes Willow. Her leaving wouldn’t be the worst thing tonight but I do stan.

I have no sins I’m literally just sitting !!!! Kisses!!!!! Made an alliance with Matt and Kait. But you know how this is gonna turn out....? Kait and Matt are gonna get closer and at some point she will pick HIM over ME!!!! Heksjd this CYS flashback. But for now I like them. Glad that Timmy and madison are on my tribe even tho Timmy considered voting stevie.... speaking of Stevie zzzz boy rlly almost didn’t save himself Lol. But yeah I’m happy the game has shaken up and I’m excited to see what happens at this tribal. I need to really step my social game up tho so I have numbers when I’m down in that bottom ten

I’m tryna figure out this vote like magnifying glass emoji

It sucked thay Willow went. Hopefully she is able to come back because I feel like i had a good connection with her. Madison and Stephen survived so that was good. Right now Im hoping that i can be part of the live challenge. So I have hit M4 N4 O4 P4 and Q4. Im hoping R4 is the last one and i get something tonight at 11:30pm. I keep forgetting to do a reminder for idol guess so it keeps going back further n further.

so happy we voted out two girls, no offense but this warzone twist makes it impossible to backstab nehe and co. effectively. Its fine, hopefully itll be over soon and I can vote his ass out. No offense to the guy but he just very controlling.

Willow, nothing against you, but I really wanted you gone. I hated that you made it to FTC of another ORG without anything besides an idol play and I can say I am not fulfilled. Sadly, Chloe went to and it sucks because I always wanted to play with her but sadly it was short lived, for now. Hopefully Chloe wins her way back into the game!

Of fucking course it's Chloe and Willow in the retrograde. Bastards are voting off the people I know for sure would mess up and leak it to me if I needed to play my idol. I told Corey about how Cullan is short with me and he confirmed he is short to him as well, it must just be how Cullan is. That's fine and all but makes it hard to get a read on him. Corey and I continue to get along from my perspective, more good news, I did not fuck up while I was completely wasted last night and tell someone about my idol. I have a bad track record of getting drunk and laying all my cards on the table to people. I'm not only playing against everyone in the game but also drunk Ian, and that guy is a prick.

I did my next hit and it sunk the ship!! It’s my first time actually finding something in these idol searches. It may not have been an idol but a vote steal is a good item to have when you just need that one more vote. Im not going to tell anyone I have it. Its going to be a secret until it is used to take a big target/threat in this game.

so far in this game im just working on building my connections! i havent gotten a vote yet which is good but i want to try and not go to tribal as much anymore bc eventually i will become a target. i feel as though my best alliance is with madison obvi since we started together and are good friends. other than that im glad adrian stayed because she is someone i could see myself working with

Fuck this I’m tired and my fingers hurt and ugh

Im waiting to found the retrograde duel and hopefully willow is able to come back because I have some part of connection with her. That is all for today. Oop. Bulbasaur in detective Pikachu was the cutest!!

I got voted out bc I had a busy 2 days and I don't think my score for retrograde is very high goodbye

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

in case u don’t wanna watch voltron anymore, but are still curious about the third season, here’s a list of notable things

Allura pilots a lion! she ends up with blue, and it seems like the reason because of this is that she’s learning to open up about her feelings, but mainly what she tells us is that she doesn’t want to be a bystander to a war thats affected her so much

lotor’s a lot more conniving than his dad. he’s not as blinded by his desire to pilot black, tho he clearly has his own agenda thats more than just “go, fight, win”

since keith pilots black now everything’s been kind of keith centric, though lance gets a lot of development adjacently, since he’s the first to accept keith as team leader & helps him out throughout the season

most of lance’s development is just underlining his issues with feeling inadequate as a paladin, but no one like, directly tells him they appreciate him as a team

Shiro might be a clone but he;s probably mind controlled and either way he wakes up in a galra base again & makes his way back, but even thought black helps find him, she refuses to accept him as her pilot

hunk’s had a lot less jokes about food & etc this season and actually does a bunch of science stuff w pidge. pidge doesnt really do much

we see the past paladins, how the lions were made, and basically the context for how the galran war started

apparently haggar is zarkon’s wife and she’s an altean scientist that Alfor knew who started working in quintessance research and multidimensional research and basically wanted to make herself immortal 

speaking of alternate dimensions, there’s a dimension where Allura didn’t get frozen and instead defeated the galra & her people decided to spread a message of peace across the galaxy by stripping entire species of their free will and making them serve their empire. reminder: all alteans are people of color.

lotor’s plan is kind of vague but i think it involves wanting the galra to have the ability to make wormholes? most likely to other planets, and possibly other realities as well

also all his generals are girls and for a moment i assumed he had taken all the galra woman in his personal army because he’s a weirdo and a guy but the girls r cool and v competent. one of them is the galra keith saw in the balmara

[tumblunni]

Tell us things about Team Galactic that you love. Tell us what it is about the commanders and leader you love!

Oh man, where do I start! Where do i end?? XDI’ll just list random stuff!

* I started off liking Team Galactic just because they’re very silly in an endearing way. I unironically love the over-the-top designs for everyone!!* But I also gained even more appreciation for them as the game progressed! They’re like... CRAZY competant! They manage to succeed A LOT at all of their goals, and even though they’re an eccentric lot their leader is a terrifying badass and their ultimate hidden goals are some of the darkest in the series. And it’s a great duality! And I love how its actually aknowledged in-universe as a plot point! People underestimated them because of their outward silliness. And Cyrus deliberately kept the full truth from all of his underlings, so even they didn’t know exactly what they were helping him do. There’s a lot of theories that this is even why he selected the people he did for the job, he picked a bunch of easy-to-manipulate dopes who would craft a harmless goofy image for his team. I don’t think that’s entirely fair though, I don’t think the commanders and grunts are STUPID, even if they can come off as space cases sometimes. I just like to think that cyrus subconciously recruited a bunch of ragtag goofballs who had similar mental illnesses to him, out of a repressed desire for companionship...* ALSO I LIKE HOW I CAN THINK WAY TOO MUCH INTO THE HEADCANONS OF THIS TEAM, OK LOL* Oh and I REALLY REALLY like how the vast majority of the grunts are 100% good guys. Everyone thinks their boss is gonna save the world, and everything is justified in the name of that. And a lot of them are such softhearted goofballs! They were one of the earliest teams to have so much absolute comedy to them, and a sense of being a big ‘ol family. They’re like the beta of what also made me love Team Skull a lot!* An important point to consider: Team Skull does not have an Official Evil HQ Nap Room. Thus they can never truly win.* ALSO CONSIDER: seriously, this big grumpy emotionally-repressed evil bossman ranting about how friendship is futile, as he draws up the plans for the official evil HQ nap room. And the tv room. And the family kitchen. And the glow in the dark star pattern wallpaper. And then hugs his crobat.* I unironically love the turquoise bowl cuts and wanted forever to dye my hair and now my hair is not exactly that colour of turquoise but its blue at least. LIFE GOALS ACHIEVED!

ABOUT THE COMMANDERS:

* I love them much!! I think i’m in the minority here, but i liked them even more than cyrus! This gen was also the first gen that had such heavy personality writing for the admins. Gen 3 introduced admins with names, but the aqua and magma ones had the same dialogue just with a few words swapped here and there. My only complaint is that the commanders didnt get as much screentime as they could have, the games hadnt hit that era yet. I hope if we get remakes their roles can be expanded as much as tbe gen 3 admins were!* Another unpopular opinion: grumpy grandpa is best. I will sit here in the tiny charon fandom forever! And cry forever at the potential plotline of him once being childhood friends with a rotom before he turned evil. That whole journal is just WARM AND FUZZY FEELINGS and then it gets so sad when you think about where he ended up after like 50 years! Gramps, go back and hug your pokemon again, ok?* I think Jupiter is unfairly underrated, cos she’s a badass and a cool team mom! And I like to headcanon her as kinda buff and athletic so i was happy she was drawn that way in the pokespe manga. I feel like she’s the heavy hitter of the team in both pokemon and actual punches! While being hella elegant and full of sass! And also I like to imagine she loves poison type pokemon and treats them like pampered poodles, cos that is a cute mental image. I always thought it was funny that such a stylish lady has a giant fart skunk as her signature pokemon! The most fashionable fart skunk in all of sinnoh~* Mars is awesome and badass and cute and awesome and I LOVE that her pokespe personality aligned perfectly with my headcanons somehow?? I like her as a perpetually cheerful kinda-unhinged mad bomber type warrior that has everyone fleeing in fear. She’s adorable and tough and EVEN SCARIER cos her toughness is done in an adorable way! Like.. basically, harley quinn??? (But without the uncomfortable abusive boyfriend plot) I think personality-wise she’s the most engaging of the main commander trio, and she fits super well as the one who gets the most battles during the main game. She always feels like the face of team galactic to me, more than Cyrus even!* And saturn is just cool and cute and his personality might be a bit less developed in the games cos he only gets one battle scene, but he’s still awesome! Its just a shame that all the adaptations gave wildly different ideas of what his personality might be, and I can never decide which one I prefer. So I like to just imagine they’re all canon, and he can be a calm and collected serious dude with a secret grumpy goofball streak. I feel like thats better cos then he’s just as eccentric as the rest of the team and he can stand out just as much, yknow? Oh, and also I liked his design the most as a kid! He was the one I wished I could look like!

OK LOL IM SORRY I RAMBLED SO MUCH

[fluffi]

i think it was because god's menu was released around the same bp and svt made their comebacks. same thoughts tho on gm > bd and i was also glad that bd got the wins gm didn't. and same with the streaming mvs while studying : ] ahh, the easily distracted people we are. (reading cut and litol font bc poor ppl who see this on the dash TT)

i've heard chinese ballads (usually osts of films and from a chinese friend) and their songs really tend to tug on my heartstrings. i hope sm gives shotaro more stuff to do soon :[ with some of the units being active and sungchan being an mc on a weekly show, it makes me wonder what he's doing. do you think nct will form a new subunit?

no, i'm not lactose intolerant so it really took me by surprise. it was a one-time thing. hopefully it doesn't happen again. i can't really say i'm a big fan of ice cream but it's good occasionally yk as a treat to yourself. and ahhh, i miss drinking smoothies. my favorite stall has been closed for nearly two years now, idk if they ever re-opened since our city mall burned down :[

i think it's an nct thing? it's why i never get tired of them bc they're always active in a way. you should've seen how things went down last year! march 127 album, april dream mini-album, may 127 repackage, june wayv album and the whole nct 2020 thing. it was a wild year. about the track, i listened to it once and forgot about it. might give it a few more listens but it might not grow on me at all. yes! wasn't a big fan of hot sauce at first too bc i thought the intro was weird (not jaemin's part, like the first thing that plays). and yes, that hook loops in my head 24/7. i even made it my instagram bio.

stray kids world domination indeed! and i agree that their performances were really impressive (specially the deadpool one, best one yet) but sometimes i would fancy ateez' more. i didn't watch kingdom too bc it stressed me out as a multi. always caught between being happy for one group and being sad for the others. and atz and tbz! you're still getting into nct and you're thinking of adding 19 more boys! judging from what i know your taste in music is, i think you'll like tbz's music better since there are a lot more soft songs there than in atz. but do give both discographies a listen in the future!

oh izone! i've only heard of them at music shows and dance choreo compilations bc of them being in sync. they're really satisfying to watch! i thought their title tracks were catchy as well! quite unfortunate that i never got into them really. but again, i dont think i can handle stanning temporary groups.

i'm starting to see a pattern in your biases :D i wouldn't be too surprised if you'll be drawn to jeno at some point in your dream venture. dream is soooo easy to love so if you really end up ulting them, i would understand why. and also, YES PLEASE WRITE FOR DREAM AND TAG ME IF YOU WILL. THANK YOU ><

thank you! :c don't get your hopes up tho, the masterlist must've been interesting to browse but are the fics truly worth it? XD i think not. since you already know koe, i'm reccing users @/rouiyan, @/nsheetee and @/loonacitys. i don't have that much fluff in my ficrecs blog. i think, i've heard of lvdsc before (maybe even read a fic or two) but i can't find their blog now. be careful in privating your works, you might end up losing them forever if you don't keep track of their links...(?) that's what happened to the works that i privated :/ take me with you if you move blogs ;n;

seungmin frequently left updates abt what he was doing, left good nights and good mornings, the occasional i miss you. he called fans 'baby' once. not sure if it was a mistranslation, or really just a one-time endearment. other than that, nothing beyond the usual. seung vlives always make me cry ;n; he always look so adorable and precious. also the gif, the fic was more on fake head-butting really but yes you could say it was also a fake nose boop bc it sounds cuter. i'll make sure to tag you on future seung content on the dash. (time to officially claim him as your ult, yes. dont make him secret anymore :3)

sorry it took me a while. tumblr went batshit. the ' werkl;' stopped working midway and i got busy with school yesterday. also haechan birth today and i'm so emo abt it. it's literally just a boy turning 21.

little font and cut saga lets go!!

(just kidding, i cant do little font typing for long periods of time, makes my eyes go beserk haha.)

true true, im afraid for txt on music shows now because theyre going against some big names (literally bts like whatj jsdf what was hybe thinking). yeah, streaming mvs while studying aka watching mvs on loop lmao. i still want to stream skzs final kingdom performance on instinct but i remember that theyve already won!! hehe

ah chinese ballads always make me emo, i like to scream out lyrics to the songs at the top of my lungs and sit there on the verge of tears. its a cultural thing maybe *sobs*. ooh, what show is sungchan mc-ing in? ill check it out. i thought sm would make nct japan for sungtaro (i heard sungchan speaks japanese) so it was a shocker when they made...nct hollywood lmao. given the current circumstances we're probably not going to get a new subunit anytime soon :( hopefully taro will have stuff to showcase during that period of time.

burned down?? oh my, what happened to your mall? that sounds terrifying. i remember when the front of my school caught on fire and we were all ushered out but we thought it was a drill and didnt find out till years later lmao.

oh true, since theyre such a big pack too. constant comebacks and promotions haha, nctzens never catch a break with 23 members. i listened to the new track again (ive forgotten the name already) but i cant- i cant do it. its just not my style hhh. i rewatched the mv for the godly visuals though. i dont know if youre talking about that 'bibididibibidiododo' part by that female morphed voice at the beginning of the song, because i wasnt a fan of that too. it grew on me though.

same, actually! im not an atiny and dont stan any other group in the show besides skz but i watched each groups performance and ranked them haha. at times ateez would rank over skz, it was wild. also yeah, my other multi friend was freaking out about kingdom and ended up abandoning the show because she was so scared of the fanwars and having to deal with her 'conflicting feelings'. about the stanning thing, in my defense, i have a list of groups i want to stan and ive recently added tbz and atz. the list is long, i have a long way to go! also yeah, i dont prefer ateez's songs and i have a bunch of tbz title tracks in my playlist but if i approach their discography like i did with nct then i think i would like at least five songs.

izone are my queens. theres a reason why theyre the only girl group who made it to my ult list haha! super talented and filled with variety and visuals, a perfectly concocted group (literally, sobs in pd48 scandal). ah, temporary groups. yeah i cried about their disbandment for like 3 days straight, it was bad.

a pATTERN?? INTERESTING. DO ELABORATE. jeno, oh my gosh hes like bang chan. an intimidating-looking bear whos actually filled with love and softness on the inside. im currently having a jaemin run though, his make a wish fancam is doing some wacky things. also yeah, dream is really easy to love. i fell for them so hard, theyre all talented and cute and adorable and the team ambiance is so nice. really rising up my stan list now. i mightt write for dream! ill have to see, hehe.

personally i think the fics are going to be worth it. i can feel it in my boOOnes. ooh, recommendations! fun :D ill check them (and yours) out after i finish this 30k jisung fic. ive been trying to finish it since yesterday but i keep getting sidetracked. also, i made a mistake. its luvdsc with a 'u', maybe thats why you couldnt find it? ahh. thank you for the privating tip though! will keep in mind. and of course ill take you with me if/when i move blogs. we're friends now! <3

SEUNGMIN CALLED STAYS 'BABY'???!!@)(@#*()! I SHOULDVE BEEN THERE ASKDFJDF. im exciting for the fake nose boop drabble!! i love soft couple moments hehe. also yeah maybe its time to make him my ult...hes going to have to compete against jake my beloved ope.

dont worry about being 'late' or anything! we all have our own stuff to do. also yeah tumblr is weird asf sometimes. if you havent realized i typically answer longer asks around the same time everyday, when i get to sit in front of my computer and pull out my clickity-clackity keyboard. super relaxing.

AND YES HYUCKIE DAY!!! HES SO ADORABLE HONESTLY. im in love with all seven members of dream, my fic rec blog is currently filled with fics for them haha.

[criticalotterstudies]

Without much on-console competition to speak of, this bubbling online community is where North America’s Smash 64 arms race really took place. New techniques and strategies were discovered, giving early adopters a leg up until those techniques spread through the server and became the norm. Depending on who you ask and which players you watch, the game Smash 64 can be either blood-pumpingly physical or maddeningly slow. That comes down to the one thing 64 has that no other game in the series replicated: long and deadly combos.

“High-level 64 is almost like an MMA fight, where there’s so much spacing and trying to study your opponent,” says Jason “Darkhorse” Brody, a high-level Smash 64 player, commentator, and tournament organizer. “But once contact is made, it’s on. It’s a little less like traditional boxing where you get some tags in, you back off, get some tags in, you back off. That kind of playstyle is something you see a lot more in Melee, where people take a bunch of hits and then recover. In 64, you have to be so careful because those touches are so dangerous. They get that one touch on you, and then you’re in an armbar and you tap out and that was it.”

Because contact can be so costly, potentially leading to a lightning-fast single combo knockout, the best 64 players are often also the most careful. Tune into the finals of a modern national tournament, and it’s not uncommon to see the players sizing each other up for long stretches at a time, feigning attacks, and fishing for an opening that might lead to that decisive blow. For some viewers, the lulls are just too much to overcome. But they are the result of mind games and a tense battle for positioning.

“No non-baseball fan wants to see a one-nothing game,” Brody said. “It could be the best pitching the universe has seen, but that’s boring to them, because they don’t appreciate the nuances of the game. And I kinda look at Smash 64 like that, and really most fighting games in general.”

Smash 64’s competitive scene, small as it is, has persisted despite the release of multiple sequels. One reason is that the game has remained so different from its descendants — in the way its combos function, in the way it moves, and in the relative simplicity of its controls and advanced techniques. The people who’ve poured years of their lives into it and continue to play it at mind-boggling levels do so simply because they prefer its idiosyncrasies over those of Melee or Smash for Wii U. There’s no doubt that top-level players in any competitive game love the game they play. You have to if you’re going to devote so much of yourself to it. But with very little money or fame in store for its best players, the Smash 64 community is almost entirely defined by unbridled, undying passion for this overlooked original.

[...]

Growth or no growth, money or no money, time or no time, the community has proven that people aren’t going to stop playing Smash 64. They love the game too much. It’s why Isai gave up on all those Melee winnings to travel the world and become the patron saint of 64. It’s why Superboomfan, bored by “beating everybody with ease and being at the top” for so long keeps searching for different ways to play like “Boomputer mode” where he connects with people online and uses a GameShark code to control the CPU characters in the challenger’s single-player game. It’s why 20-year-old Smash wunderkind Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett still plays both Melee and 64 at many tournaments, even though he recognizes devoting time and brain power to the older game is probably holding back his Melee play. (To be fair, it hasn’t stopped him from becoming one of the 10 best Melee competitors in the world.)

And it’s why way back in 2011 a determined JaimeHR left his terrified parents and carpooled to a 22-person tournament 600 miles away in another country. He ended up placing third that weekend — not bad for his first console tournament ever. It won him a whopping $33, barely enough to recover food costs for the trip and $882 less than what the third-place finisher in Melee brought home. But for Rodriguez, that adventure was never about prize money. He went to finally meet the friends he’d made playing Smash online, to see the faces behind the Kaillera usernames he’d competed against over the last seven years. He and the only two players to beat him that weekend — Isai and Superboomfan — would travel way farther than that in the next seven years just to play this game, and only this game, against the rest of the world’s best.

Wykowski wagers their dedication, and the dedication of 64’s other adherents, won’t be dying any time soon.

“It’s never going to change,” he said. “These are the same guys who’ll be playing it 50 years from now. I’ll be shocked if they weren’t.”

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/2019/01/07/inside-the-secret-world-of-competitive-smash-64/