#the most enjoyable part

[bibleofficial]

getting bitched at for being on crutches, getting bitched at for being in a wheelchair - or NOT in a wheelchair - getting bitched at for WALKING TOO SLOW ON A CANE like my family needs to fuck off and leave me ALONE

[velidewrites]

That one Calvin Klein ad but make it Lucien Vanserra

I got some new rendering brushes today and I’m really enjoying trying them out! Figuring out my art style is such a journey but I kind of like where this is going so far ☀️

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what particularly annoys me with the "zelda was always gameplay before story" is that... it's not true? At least I don't think it's true in the way people mean it.

Zelda games were always kind of integrating story based on the standards of the time. When game stories were in game pamphlets, Zelda's stories was in the pamphlets. ALTTP tried to tell a pretty complicated stories with the limitations of the time. OoT was actively trying to tell an epic, cinematic tale packed with ambiance and expand what 3D could offer that 2D games struggled with. Majora's Mask is deeply character-driven in many, many ways. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are both pretty concerned about their stories, down to the point that some people were bored by TP's cutscenes in particular. Skyward Sword, from what little I have played it, is very very invested in its characters and their journey (and 2D Zeldas have Link's Awakening, Minish Cap... None of them are visual novels, but they are concerned with emotional journeys, character arcs, mysteries about their own world...)

What is true is that the narrative wraps around the mechanics, and not the other way around. The mechanics drive themes, aesthetics, emotional beats and character journeys; and that's great. The world is a puzzle, and the world is delightfully absurd when it needs to be, full of heart when it calls for it, dark and oppressive when it suits the player experience.

That does not mean the games aren't invested in their stories. Even BotW has a pretty complicated story to tell about an entire world rather than one specific tale or legend --all of it at the service of the gameplay, which is exploration and mastery of your environment.

So. Yes, none of the Zelda games are million-words long visual novels that care deeply about consistency and nuance; but stories don't need consistency or deep lore to be meaningful and serve an emotional journey. Again: gameplay is story. The two cannot be so easily parsed from each other.

And Zelda as a franchise obviously care deeply about story, characters and setting (and still does right now --otherwise there wouldn't be a movie), even if it doesn't try to imitate prestige narrative-driven games, which is great and part of why I love this series so much. Doesn't mean it couldn't have done better in the past, it obviously could have, but I feel like pretending that nobody ever cared about story or character is just... false? It's a huge disservice to the devs too. Some of them obviously cared immensely.

The "gameplay above story", at least in the extent to which it is paraded today to defend TotK, mostly, is a really recent development. And I think it's one that deserves to receive some pushback.

[ink-the-artist]

Dude some of those popular so-bad-its-good movies are unironically outsider art and I don’t think they get enough appreciation for that

[andromeddog]

angrboda, designated cowgirl

[foldingfittedsheets]

So I love a rom com. Especially a rom com where the leads have no romantic chemistry at all. And essentially in a rom com they’re just pretty shitty people so you don’t feel too bad about the hijinks they get into.

My beloved had me watch You’ve Got Mail, an old one I’ve never seen. It starts out pretty strong on them being terrible people because the leads Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are both emotionally cheating on their partners with each other via email correspondence.

Then it turns out he owns the chain bookstore that puts her quaint family owned store out of business. They suggest a meet up and he realizes her identity but doesn’t clue her in to his. He still keeps corresponding with her knowing she hates his guts because again, he destroyed her business, the legacy left to her by her dead mother that she had hoped to pass down to her hypothetical child.

Then he decides he loves her anyway, they both dump their respective partners.

Now here, a grand gesture would have been enough to bridge this very hurtful gap. Buying the shop, converting it into something new as a gift to her perhaps. This man is exaggeratedly rich and would have the money easily.

But instead. He goes to befriend her as himself while still messaging her. He makes her double guess the emails he himself is sending and plants all kinds of seeds, they go on a montage of outings while only talking about his hidden alter ego, the mysterious man she’s been emailing.

Then he shows up at the park to confess. At this point I said aloud, “This is psychopath behavior. This is what psychopaths do.”

But Meg Ryan said she’d been hoping her mysterious suitor was Tom Hanks, the man who, can’t state enough, ruined her life and finances. And they kiss and smarmy music plays.

7/10

[lgbtlunaverse]

Now maybe this is too salty of me but I actually think the people complaining about farcille enjoyers "only caring about romance" are more detrimental to the general ecosystem of people trying to understand and ruminate on dungeon meshi's themes than the afformentioned farcille enjoyers.

[angelhummel]

my most persistent toxic trait is that i wholeheartedly unironically think glee is a good show

[kelocitta]

"But if we dont get reblogs and likes than why bother creating at all" Did you never doodle in your notebook in class. Did you never have a notebook of cringe doodles you never wanted people to see but got filled anyway. Was this never something you did because it was a tool of personal comfort.

[ambrosiagourmet]

The ideal Laios/Kabru for me is extremely slow burn and takes the form specifically of Kabru deeply, deeply longing to be known and understood Laios. He doesn’t even know it’s attraction at first there’s just this ache in his gut to have his flaws seen and accepted. To be messy but safe. He’s too deep into yearning to be smart about it but it’s too quiet and complex to be an overwhelming force it’s just this voice in the back of his head that’s says “I want. I want. I want.”

[maxphilippa]

Hey. Listen. II fandom. Look at me RIGHT NOW.

Just because you hate a character, that won't mean that you can ignore their growth and arcs, and deny that they had any of those in the story, or actually changed in the end. You are allowed to not like a character, but denying that they did get better/denying their arc is bullshit, and ultimately not really getting that the point of the story is changing to be better, or losing yourself in your own misery. ESPECIALLY with characters that thought that what they were doing was okay because of UNDERSTANDABLE REASONS and got to understand that they were wrong, and wanted to fix that.

AND ALSO.

Just because you like a character, it doesn't mean that their actions are immediately justified/or that they were just misunderstood, they still did do all of that shit and portraying them as innocent or well intentionated, and missing the whole point of a character in the process, doesn't help either. MUCH LESS when the character in question was fully aware of what they were doing too, saying that "they didn't mean it" or anything is not getting the point

Go big or go home.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Tangentially related to the last Beast sskk post, just something that has been going through my mind A LOT in the last period:

There's this tendency I see of characterizing post-Beast sskk as being on very bad terms with each other, keeping on hating each other even after Dazai's death, and I personally can't relate with that interpretation. To me the canon Beast sskk development is, more or less, a warming up to each other speedrun. All the issues they used to have, about being on opposites sides, about having contrasting ethics, were already sorted up in canon, violently and unmercifully, but most importantly thoroughly and definitely. I find it very easy to believe they'd get along post canon, because everything they had to sort out between them, they already did fully.

When I say that Beast sskk is more or less a warming up to each other speedrun, it's also in the perspective of Beast sskk being a general speedrun to what sskk are in the canon timeline: because I do believe sskk's is a progression towards warming up to each other¹, and in a lot of ways it's already visible in canon, through Atsushi helping Akutagawa in the cannibalism arc despite allegedly hating to work with him, through Akutagawa dying so that Atsushi could escape, through Atsushi wearing Rashomon and Akutagawa letting him wear it and everything that entails. The thing is, when it comes to them, Beast sskk have already seen each other bare; they HAVE seen each other at their lowest point already. If there ever was a peak of hate between them, they've already reached it, and that means the tension is only going to plummet from there. There's nothing left for hate anymore, only for understanding and compassion and love.

“More or less” of a speedrun, that is, because honestly? Beast sskk never needed to warm up to each other, because they didn't start from hating, wholly and sincerely, each other like their canon counterparts did. Beast sskk started from a place of common ground, of genuine sympathy and liking for each other. When they started fighting, I think they were both pained from having to fight each other, who shortly beforehand they had found so easy to relate to and most importantly who they felt understood from. If they hated each other at some point - which, everything accounted, is still realistic, especially given the threat they both posed to their little sisters and more generally to their weaknesses and insecurities -, all accounted it was still brief (literally. didn't last more than half a day), and likely easy to leave behind. In the end I just think for Beast sskk it's going to be easy - spontaneous, even -, to go back to the warm acceptance and understanding they shared on their first meeting; because, differently from their canon counterparts, they know that in normal circumstances they get along, and that's something they can't lie about to themselves and pretend it's not true. They can't lie to themselves about hating each other like canon sskk do; so really, Beast sskk is left no other choice than to get along.

As a final note, I think it would also be easier for Beast sskk to get along because Beast Atsushi doesn't feel to be on an higher moral pedestal like his canon counterpart does, so a lot of moral conflict between Atsushi and Akutagawa simply doesn't happen in Beast.

¹ In a way that, for comparison, skk aren't, who remained more or less frozen on the stance of “hating you (that is also loving you)”. Regarding that, I agree with the interpretation of canon some people offered that the manga is the story of sskk's progression, while skk's relationship is already fully developed.

[westwing19]

A Hanoi!PM design concept, Revolver 2.5, and Anime Hair™

[hidingoutbackstage]

The problem with wanting to watch a lot of horror movies is that you do have to subject yourself to the bad ones. That’s also a positive of it though. But watch out

[whumpshaped]

stoic whumpee enjoyers and enthusiasts can u tell me why u enjoy stoic whumpees. its for science

[age-of-moonknight]

“Systemic Approach (Conclusion),” Avengers Unlimited (Vol. 1/2022), Infinity Comic, #65.

Writer: Mat Groom; Penciler and Inker: Caio Majado; Colorist: Pete Pantazis; Letterer: Joe Sabino