#the best RTX I've ever been too

[lieutenant-mcmuffin]

I have...a lot of thoughts about the series finale.

I'm about to turn 26, and I've been watching RVB since I was around 11. Tucker was always my favorite character. His character development was some of the best I've ever seen (not that I'm an expert, but), and his relationship with Wash, whether it was more than friends or not, was always my favorite dynamic too. With that said, I'm really disappointed in how little we saw of Tucker despite the incredibly devastating situation he was in, AND how little we saw at the end after he was saved.

I also find it very strange that Wash and Tucker did not have one single interaction, especially with all they'd gone through together prior to this. Wash asks Doc/Carolina if he's okay and that's it. It felt like RT had a limited runtime allotted and wanted to finish Grif and Simmons' storyline more than they wanted to finish anyone else's. I get it, because the show started with them so it should end with them, but I think with even just ten more minutes, we could've gotten a resolution for everyone. Maybe.

Anyway, I loved it regardless, because it made me laugh and it made me cry, and it gave me one last piece. Red vs. Blue got me through some of the hardest times of my life.

I got to tell Jason one time at RTX in 2014 that I loved his work as Tucker, and I wish I could tell him now how much it's meant to me all these years.

The RT logo was my first ever tattoo when I was 16, and the RVB tattoo came a couple years later.

Bow-chicka-bye-now 🥲

[onewomancitadel]

Okay if you guys are scared about RWBY renewal this is a collection of thoughts which may or may not be reassuring:

CR was never a good choice. Finding alternate funding opportunities is preferable e.g. ideally not cutting a deal with a streaming service which subsequently leads to cut episodes. Streaming services are conservative to the point that successful shows do not often get renewed as it is. There are other issues there like I don't think the CR audience was ever one to crossover enough with the RWBY one.

RT seems to be looking at more local funding opportunities (drawing in sponsorships for RVB; RVB renewal playing on drawing back fans in - I know I haven't watched it consistently since Season 13). They've cut back on RTX (major money drain - events such as these tend to just about break even, speaking generally, if not work at a loss) and this was likely a decision made at the beginning of the previous fiscal year, which was around when CR did not renew RWBY. They've explicitly said they're looking at getting more sponsorships lol. Raise your hand if you cancelled yours because you thought they didn't own RWBY anymore

From what I can see a lot of people are concerned about the silence regarding renewal and from my personal perspective is that there are NDA's involved (I know for a fact that Miles has this in his Tumblr description, or at least did at some point), the year-long exclusivity with CR, etc. as well as the fact that with this type of money that RWBY is throwing around now as what is effectively more of a serious production than it was six, seven years ago means that you can't really admit to too much weakness in public (speculative investors), nor can you speak strategy. I'm not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, but just potentially par for the course, especially because I'd argue the closeness RT had with its audience did not end up being for the best for many different reasons.

It's probably very likely that based on the success or failure of the new RVB, RWBY will or won't be renewed. I'm not saying you are personally responsible for making RVB succeed. There's no responsibility of the fan here. But if we look at the avenues they've taken to draw in money: crossovers (comic book audience), manga, novels, anime (Beacon era nostalgia), the CrunchyRoll audience of honest otakus, etc. they've cycled through to trying to re-establish their RT fanbase to offset RWBY production. RWBY fans are good for RT and RT fans used to be good for RWBY. RWBY was made because Season 10 of RVB was very successful.

It's no coincidence that RT's relative decline in years (I stopped watching around 2015, if that's anything) has led to this. I'm kind of at the point where I wouldn't even say any of this is really RWBY's fault because it's a very weird production (I say this as a fan). There are plenty of influences I've failed to cover here because I'm trying to keep this contained to my honest assessment - there's obviously something not quite adding up with the numbers of how many RWBY fans there are vs. its renewal dangling in the balance. They struggled with monetising way back when during the adpocalypse on YouTube which led to episodes not being uploaded on there anymore. RWBY has been a cult sensation and it owes its success not just to a loyal fanbase but taking risks. RWBY itself was a risky endeavour. I'm not sure if people remember but by that point RT was doing pretty well, but not corporate money well, and its flagship show was a Halo machinima. They were doing crowdfunding/Patreon before it was a thing, they were doing podcasts before they were a thing (obviously radio existed, but you know what I mean). When Fullscreen acquired them I remember thinking 'hm this feels weird' and I was about right.

I don't have any conclusive remarks here but I would say that I would really start to doomer worry by the end of this year. I imagine that between the exclusivity of a year (and how much that does or doesn't influence contract negotiation with other funding sources) and RT currently overhauling its strategy we won't really know until six months from now, let's say optimistically. It probably does in part hinge on RVB and getting back that sponsor base, but I'm not sure I perfectly understand it because I would sign up for sponsor if I knew we'd be getting RWBY, or something specific to RWBY only on RT - which is seemingly not possible right now. I don't know the full ins-and-out.

Of what's going on behind the scenes, we know less than drop. It's six to one, half a dozen the other, but my overall summary would be that CR was always the wrong move and RT needed an overhaul in its approach to sponsorships and funding as well as establishing its brand and regaining audience trust/transparency. RWBY should have stayed on RT and other sources of revenue needed to be pursued. I couldn't even figure out how to buy DVD's of the show a few years ago because it was so hidden. (Am I even suggesting something like Patreon here? Hell, maybe). We're not going to see the result of their developed strategy for some time. This is my tentative speculation.

[tastyfishistasty]

13 years on Tumblr retrospective

Having looked through all the posts I personally made since 2010 I can see so many changes and so many things that have stayed the same. It's been sad and interesting and also some good bits!

The world spins ever on.

Followers and Following

My lovely lovely mutuals and followers have always been so kind and so helpful 💜💜💜, so many posts and conversations that I forgot, but were like little treasures to find!

It makes me so sad to know some of the people I interacted with so often are no longer here and I have no way of finding them. I miss them and I hope they are happy and doing well.

I've still never broken into having 100 followers, but those that do follow me are the best 🎉

Fandoms etc

I miss some of the fandoms I used to care so much about! Merlin, Bluestone 42, HTTYD, supernatural, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Brooklyn 99, Narnia...

Some I will watch occasionally, some not with a barge pole.

Then of course the big two that I can't touch anymore that make me sad because people are awful.

There's a post I saw about the first RTX UK which I couldn't go to in the end and I'm gushing about you know who and it makes me sick to remember how much I loved them. I watch Jeremy on twitch and I love him, but I can't watch the back catalogue anymore and I used to watch them on repeat.

I used to have the tag "Achievement Hunter is saving my life". And it did. It gave me things to look forward to and it was good and happy and positive and safe. But it wasn't. It's ruined and it's never coming back.

For the other one... I wrote fan fic, it was how I got into fandom at all! I made my own fandom merch (embarrassing as fuck now), but all that care and effort was not deserved by the creator and I hope she rots away and stops hurting people I care about.

Dragon age has been around for me such a very long time and I wish it worked on my old laptop now EA has updated their app thing.

My MCs have really changed and grown and I see so many mistakes and misunderstandings in my own view of the world, seeing how they've changed and I've changed is really rewarding!

Me!

Looking back at some of my OG posts, I was so good at hiding that I was ace. I assumed I was normal, I'd had a serious boyfriend!

Yeah no. You can track my nonsense as I figure it out, the "thirst" posts disappearing and my Sherlock phase was getting worse (yes, that's how I figured out what Asexual was, when someone said Sherlock Holmes was... the shaaaaaaame 🤦).

And by "thirst" posts, I mean "isn't X pretty? I like his face". That's it.

My dude, that is aesthetic attraction not romantic or sexual. You are asexual as fuck, stop trying to not be.

Then there's the "I'm double A not triple A, what a shame!" posts. Shockingly, wanting to be Agender too but feeling it can't be you, because it's only for people who know exactly what they are... is a sign you might actually be Agender.

It's both more complicated and not complicated at all with my gender, but Agender works and I like being a tiny battery, so I got here eventually.

Most recently there's the mental health side. I use a side blog for that, but it's still on Tastyfishistasty. It's so sad to look and see me trying so hard to fight my "atypical cyclic depression" and feeling so lazy and broken.

It was ADHD and emotional dysregulation, doc, not a fancy depression.

If my ear doctor hadn't said anything, I don't know if I'd ever have realised. It's scary to know how much of myself was revealed because I didn't actually have hearing problems, I have attention problems and auditory processing issues...

Thank you to anyone that has been on this journey with me, either my lovely followers and mutuals or just for reading this long post!

I'm not going anywhere unless they kick me out as they close the building, this post was born from finally receiving the "made 100 posts" badge and wanting to see how many I'd actually made. (It's 210 original and 15,090 reblogs... so Tumblr needs to learn to count.)

I wish I had time to back this blog up, or at least go through and find the important stuff I don't want to loose, but that's a lot of work and Tumblr does not like me going too far on my own blog, so unless there's a way to put it somewhere else to look... who knows.

Anyway

Thanks everyone 💜

And Tumblr:

[optimus-prime-advice]

Blogmin (blog admin) motivation post!!

So I never speak directly here besides in my intro post, but I decided I'm gonna come out to talk for a change, because I want y'all to know:

It really does get better.

That's me. I'm a disabled man who's autoimmune in at least 5 ways, possibly more than that, I can barely walk and I mostly limp, and I usually have to use a walking stick. I suffer from chronic pain, PTSD, and far more.

But today, I got my tax return. I decided I was going to treat myself, and visit the thrift store to see what all was there, maybe get a new shirt and a plushie or something.

Yet I found something FAR better than any of that combined.

I found an Xbox 360.

I'm 24 currently. When I was a young kid, the Xbox was THE console to have. I had nothing but a computer, and some disks with games. My parents were not wealthy at all. They struggled to get money for groceries. And all my friends, all my classmates, they had Xbox 360s left and right, my neighbor had 3 or 4 of them, my friend also had at least 3, and yet there I was with... nothing. Nothing at all. No Gamecube, no Wii, no Xbox, no Playstation, no PSP, no GBA, and so on.

Eventually, years later, my parents did save enough money to buy my siblings and I a Playstation 2 for Christmas, and we proceeded to play it so much that, within 3 years tops, it broke.

I was devastated. I had no way to play games yet again.

That year, for my birthday, my friend had a PS2 that he no longer used, and his brother had bought the PS3. Thus, for a present, I got my friend's old PS2. I was SUPER happy, and my eyes lit up like Christmas lights. I spent many hours after school for a long time playing Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.

As I grew into an adult, more consoles came out. However, I grew up mostly PC gaming, and after my little brother built himself a PC, I decided I would do the same. I worked overtime with more than 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job while in college, for many months straight, and got the parts I needed. To this day, it's my best gaming platform with top-of-the-line hardware including a 2070 super RTX graphics card, and 5TB of space, of which 3TB is on SSDs. I live for playing games on my PC, and have multiple triple A titles. I've got a dual monitor setup with one 32in monitor on the bottom, and a 24in curved monitor on top, a cheap camera, cheap soundbar that's surprisingly good quality for just $35, and a cheap standing mic.

This past winter, in December, my mother had to go in for open heart surgery. During November on Thanksgiving day, she suffered a heart attack. When she went in for the surgery, it was supposed to be a one and done situation. One "quick" surgery turned into 2 near death experiences, being airlifted to another hospital, another 2 surgeries, then 3 more, and over 40 nights of hospital stays across 4 months.

On the same day I nearly lost my mother last, I nearly lost my good friend to ending himself, and had to stay awake until well past 3am trying to get authorities to help him. That same day, too, I almost lost my sister to the same thing.

And the day after that? I lost my only job.

Weeks later, I lost my insurance coverage, and couldn't get medical help as my chronic pain flared to the absolute worst it's ever been, I began getting chronic intense migraines every morning I woke as well, and I only just got the insurance back recently.

Needless to say, I've been scraping by desperately for months now.

But today, I got my tax return. And I decided, to treat myself, I was going to go to the thrift store.

And there, sitting on the shelf amongst a bunch of printers, literally blending in to the white of the shelf itself, was an Xbox 360. I would not have known it was there had I not picked it up to see what its weird grey piece sticking out was.

Immediately, I snagged this. With the wires connected, the entire package was $14. I had a 360 compatible controller sitting around for my PC, but I never used it. So there, I had everything I needed. And I walked the store looking for anything else I might need or want, carrying that SUPER heavy console and chargers in my arms for dear life. It sincerely felt like a dream I'd wake from, only to find myself in my bed sad and empty and defeated. The impossible childhood dream coming true... Could it be?

As I checked out, the man at the line smiled and told me he played Xbox 360 himself growing up, and that I'd caught a GREAT find. I was happy. VERY happy.

Carefully, I loaded the console into my car's trunk. I drive an old black car covered in bird poop and pollen regardless of how often I clean it, and most of the time, I can't even get said poop off at all. The front bumper is busted. At any given time, I have no more than half a tank of gas. There's no fancy features, just a radio and a CD port. I've jerryrigged bluetooth with a wired adapter that's always coming out of the socket, and plugged it to a cigarette lighter with a charger so the adapter never dies. I can only play audio from my phone, but I can't make calls or answer them while driving.

Nonetheless, with this console inside my car, I drove home, fearful that I was still dreaming, and would wake any moment.

But I made it home safely, and when I opened the trunk, the Xbox was still there.

I smiled. I smiled A LOT.

Tonight, I went ahead and plugged it in to my TV. With a deep breath, I turned it on, and...

It works. The Xbox 360 works beautifully, minus the fact that it's currently black and white because I've hooked the adapters wrong. I'll fix that tomorrow since it's well past 3am now.

I'm not sure who brownie71985 is, but whoever they are, their old Xbox has now made a former poor kid, now disabled and struggling, depressed adult, VERY happy. They've made his life COMPLETE.

Though my mental health has taken many turns for the worst over the last few months, I kept telling myself it will get better. It will get better. It will get better... But when?

Today. That's when.

I lived long enough to see my childhood dreams come true. The impossible thing of all impossible things to me as a kid, is now achieved as an adult. :) And I lived to see it.

It's always worth it to make it. To keep going. Better days are ahead, and you'll keep asking yourself when they're going to come. But that day could be today! You don't know because you haven't lived to see it yet. So go. Live today. And tomorrow. And every day after that. You're going to find your better at some point if you keep living. I promise. :)

[thiswillbetheshowwevewaitedfor]

RTX 2017 Highlights for me

Summary: This was the best RTX I’ve ever been to.

THE RWBY PANEL

The 2 RWBY Chibi episodes they showed

THE WEISS TRAILER

The news that there will be 2 more BEFORE Volume 5 and NOT before Volumes 6 and 7.

Also that those trailers won’t all be combat based which has me thinking Blake’s will be her talking with Sun or her parents and her plans to defeat and restore the Black Fang to it’s former less terrorist organization roots. Yang’s could also be an extended scene of her talking with her dad right as she’s about to leave in the Vol 4 finale.

Being a VIP for the first time and getting fantastic seats for every panel and not needed to wait in line for every panel.

Sitting F E E T away from MurderofBirds during the 1st RWBY panel

The official announcement about Pumpkin Pete’s cereal and how insane it is that Rooster Teeth sells food now

The announcement of Wave 2 of the Funko POP-esque RWBY figures (Team JNPR (not out yet) and the Beowolf which was available in the RT Store in the Expo Hall and I TOTALLY got one)

THE GEN:LOCK ANNOUNCEMENT

The other RWBY merch which premiered in the physical RT Store such as the puzzle that’s the image of the Vol 4 poster which I also got

How much I splurged at the Expo Hall

When they introduced metal detectors and a line in order to get into the Expo Hall and a lot of people complained so they ended up moving that whole process into it’s own special room instead mid-con. (And by a lot of people, I mean I heard that a lot of people got mad.) 

 How many new people were there this time

The guy in front of my group who was super negative and constantly complained the entire time we were in line for Pre-Registration (Why tho)

Ok back to the Expo Hall. They had an Artist Alley this year and I found an artist who I think is my aesthetic because I wanted almost E V E R Y T H I N G at their booth. Shoutout to @asunnydisposish I bought 3 Overwatch prints and a Dva plush from her and it’s just all so adorable and gorgeous and just U G H so goood!

I also bought a Flash print from someone else but I couldn’t find out who they were but whoever you are, your art looked great too.

Also shoutout to the Funko POP booth that was there last year but it got bigger this year and I bought like 11 HELP ME

I also splurged at the RT Store because I’m a fiend when it comes to collectables and whatnot

The Red v Blue panel that legit gave me both chills and nightmares from the episode they showed. (I don’t watch RvB but this is the 2nd time I’ve gone to the RvB panel and both times I think I should REALLY watch it)

My brother forced me to go to a signing for James and Elyse which ended in what I predicted being an awkward interaction but not as bad as it could have been so I’ll give myself props for that

Going to the RT Community Reacts panel and seeing my favorite RT YouTubers talking and having fun

The only bad thing about that panel was when Kiaxet keep bringing up the 53 minute reaction video Megan Salinas and her did for an RvB episode for different questions people had and I was like please choose something else

The audible gasp everyone had when MurderofBirds said he was on Season 6 of RvB and everyone in the room being on high alert not to spoil him

Him covering his ears every time everyone else wanted to talk spoilers and at one point he went “This panel is so fun!”

Them talking about their favorite/saddest moments in the RWBY Vol 3 and 4 finales

The Lazer Team 2 panel and the tons of footage they showed. 

That footage being a full length “teaser” trailer, 1 full scene, and 1 1/5 of a scene

Talking about the development and parts of the plot they could talk about for the movie

How HYPE it’s gonna be

Getting clarification about the teaser poster they put out and the new character who I really liked from the footage they showed

The HISHE panel and remembering how fun that panel is

They showed A TON of stuff in that panel

MARIO PARTY SATURDAY

Having never watched a Game Attack video before and having a fantastic time watching the episode they put on while people were waiting and watching them play live. I’m definitely gonna watch a lot of Game Attack videos now

Going to the RTAA panel which was great but not as great as last years which is fine

L O V I N G the discussion during The Future of Comic Book Movies panel and the talk about what’s gonna happen during Infinity War and how it will affect the MCU afterward as far what movies and characters will come into play after and what the mainstream audience will think of having characters they’ve come to love die and potential new characters like Bucky Cap and Iron Patriot as Iron Man. 

Also talking about the mass saturation of superheroes nowadays and when people won’t want superhero movies anymore

Another good point was how much of Justice League will be influenced by the good response from Wonder Woman and how much of an effect it’ll have on Aquaman

Another great point was about how Universal’s Dark Universe probably won’t end up happening

TheOdd1sOut panel and how that was fun but not as fun as it could’ve been

Overall, this was the best RTX I’ve ever been to and I can’t wait to go to the (probable) gen:LOCK panel next year.

[nuttyrabbit]

End of the Decade Reflection

Both my dash and my timeline have been full of people reflecting on the past decade, talking about the things or events that influenced them the most, and I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring.

Initially I thought it'd be hard to really pin down the thing that really reflected the immense change I've went through over the past 10 years, whether it be my personal life, my social life, or even my tastes, but I think I finally found it.

Nothing else this decade, whether real or fictional, has fundamentally changed my life as much as Archie Sonic has over these past 6 years.

Growing up, I was vaguely aware of the comics, picking up one or two issues over the years but never really being aware of what was going on or looking into it any more than that.

But in early 2014, that changed with a little thing called "The Ride". "The Ride" was a series of threads on the /v/ board of 4chan dedicated to one thing: storytiming every single issue of Archie Sonic on a daily basis from 6PM EST to 12AMEST

While I initially stumbled into it by sheer accident, I soon became utterly enthralled by it, hopping aboard the bandwagon. It couldn't have come at a better time too, since within the past year I had moved halfway across the United States and entered a public high school. I was lonely, I had little to no friends, and I was just struggling all around to adapt. In the midst of all of this, having something like The Ride to consistently look forward to every day helped me more than you could imagine.

But it wasn't just that. It was that for the first time in my life, I got to talk to people who were just as passionate about Sonic as I was. We shared memes, poked fun at the bad stuff, got hype over the good stuff, and shared a ludicrous amount of porn. and it was just a great time, and these were just random anons on a fucking Mongolian panhandling board.

But it didn't even stop there, as soon enough, a cytube was set up, and there I would meet my first real friends in the fandom, who themselves got me into a whole bunch of shit (including D&D and OC creation. My first OC was Derek and we NEVER SPEAK OF HIM EVER)

From there, I joined Tumblr, met even more friends, met the person who would become my gf, joined Discord, made even MORE friends, got heavily into OC stuff, and well, the rest is just sorta history.

Hell, almost every trip I've gone on this year was to hang out with someone I've met through these comics, whether it be to Iowa to chill with my gf, New York to hang with another friend of mine, or even Austin to crash RTX with two of my best friends.

Every little bit of joy and friendship and just plain success I've had these past few years can all, in some way, be traced back to this thing. It helped me embrace who I was and what I loved, it helped me improve on so many things in so many ways, and it go me through some seriously tough times, whether they be high school, almost dropping out of college, or just other misc shit. This comic, and almost everyone I've met through it, has changed my life for the better in some way.

This is a heavily abridged, shittily summarized version of events, but I hope you all can at least somewhat understand the impact this stupid little kid's comic had on my life.

The future looks scary as hell, but it also looks brighter than it's ever been before. Here's hoping the next decade has some great shit in store, and here's to the little comic that got me through the last one.

[greekletters]

update on all things GL

hey everyone, 

this post is prolly going to be long so I'll put it under a cut. 

figured I would make a post about my recent absences. I have been struggling to find time and motivation to dedicate to my online life lately. this includes my writing, participating in the discords I'm a part of, and over all.. anything having to do with the fandoms I'm a part of. 

I thought switching from a retail job to a corporate job would provide me a schedule that would be more conducive to writing and I would just be power housing through my ideas left and right. but turns out that spending 8hrs a day on a computer really kills your desire to sit in front of a computer some more to write. so I've been decompressing and spending my time playing video games when I'm not handling my real life issues. 

I recently welcomed a nephew, my first of hopefully a few more to come, so that’s been exciting, even though I live halfway across the country from my family, I still enjoy the pics and video calls. I also was in a car accident a few months ago that led to me needing some dental work over the past few weeks and it has drained me of productivity, and left me not feeling my best. 

also, I may have gotten too into a relationship and realized that maybe it wasn’t near as serious as I had thought/wished/hoped/etc. so I had to pull back on that as well before I got too invested and ended up getting my feelings hurt. 

just a lot of life things going on for me all at once. but I am trying to come out the other side of it and keep going. 

in terms of my projects, I definitely plan on finishing Redamancy. the total chapter count is going to hover around 40. I currently have 32 outlined and already written or ready to be written. I just can’t bring myself to sit and write them. which is my fault for breaking my own rules and publishing the content before I had finished it completely, as I have done before with all my fics. but I am going to finish it. my one always true and unwavering promise is that none of my stories will ever go unfinished. I may also do a few one shots and some short little fics to try and build up my monos game again. I think the lack of rwby news has also contributed slightly to my lack of productivity for them as well. but only a little bit. 

if there is anyone in the fandom interested, I will also be going to RTX this year. I've always wanted to go, I even got a badge last year, but then covid brought the event back to an online only venue. but this year, I'm hoping that I'll be taking my fully vaccinated and boosted self to RTX. I'm fortunate to live in Austin, so I don’t have to travel to attend. but if anyone would want to say hi, can always let me know. 

lastly, in terms of when I'll be picking back up on fic updates, I just bought Elden ring this week, and haven’t gotten to play it yet, so it may be a little bit of time before I can get back into writing, since I'd like to play a bit of Elden ring this upcoming weekend. figured I'd also share my gamertag here for anyone as well, I have xbox and playstation, and it is the same on both platforms. you can find me playing destiny, apex, elden ring, etc. feel free to add me, if you would like. my tag is WeissPrivilege (I know, I know) I also have a switch and am huge into breath of the wild, but that’s a story for another time. 

hope you all are well. and I will hopefully see you all with new content/updates sooner rather than later. my DMs are always open if anyone wants to send me a message/leave a comment/complain/vent/all of the above.