#they're the most likely candidate imo

[impactrueno]

Beetlejuice and Lydia (everyone grown and consenting of course) are similar to the dynamic of Nelson and Lisa yes?

oh you went for the throat with that one LMAO

i know why you're saying it but no, i don't think so. i guess it highly depends on which beetlejuice and lydia we're talking about here.

"to be loved is to be changed" is a fav trope of mine that i like to see applied to antagonistic characters because i'm a huge sucker for redemption arcs. i like to apply it to nelson and lisa, but i've also been applying it to cartoon beetlejuice's friendship with lydia because this works platonically too! and in a very sweet way i think. they might've introduced me to the concept actually, now that i think about it.

there's something very comforting about a character who's antisocial or generally disliked by everyone and hates everyone back...but has a soft spot for the one person who can stand them and sees the good in them despite their rough exterior. this person can be anyone; a friend (their only friend most likely,) a younger sibling, adopted or found family, a lover, a secret crush, hell even a loyal pet. seeing characters gradually change for that one person because they realize they don't want to let them down or just by positive influence, is SOOOO GOOODDDDDD

ok but circling back to your question. i know you said grown and consenting implying like a romantic thing but the only ones i could see having anything remotely close to a romance are movie bj and lydia and they...don't really have that type of dynamic at all. i don't think, at least. i haven't actually given it much thought. i've been seeing them a particular way for 20 years and now the sequel comes and flips the whole thing on its head so i'm trying to process that still. i've been working with their dynamic as close to the movies canon as i can, and in canon lydia doesn't see any good in him, actually, probably the opposite lol. he saved her daughter and kicked rory's ass but she still wants nothing to do with him. so they're out of the question for that type of dynamic.

so let's talk platonically because, again, it's a dynamic that works for any type of relationship imo. i think musical bj is a great candidate for "to be loved is to be changed" but not with lydia....because this lydia doesn't really care to "fix him" or anything. she's a bit wicked herself, so i'm thinking if he became "good" she would find him boring and wouldn't want to hang out anymore LMAO

so that leaves cartoon bj and lyds, which like i said, pretty much introduced me to the concept. i think lydia and lisa are very similar. bj and nelson are also both the type to laugh at others misfortune but kick your ass if you mess with the people they care about, while being softies on the inside. lydia and lisa both try to keep bj and nelson in line because they care about them (in lisa's case she's also controlling,) but sometimes they can be let down because of how untamable they can be sometimes. "to be loved is to be changed" but you can't try to change the one you love. the concept is only worth doing if the person who changes does so organically on their own, sometimes even without realizing. by the time they realize things are different, it's already too late, they're already too devoted to this person who somehow managed to make them less of a piece of shit.

to sum up, yes they are similar, specifically in the cartoon, but not in a romantic way. and yes i have a huge soft spot for this trope

[thewrongblues]

is it just me who doesn't think jude OR phil should be england captain after kane? they're both young and neither have much experience captaining their senior clubs, let alone england.

it feels like people are saying their names just because they're both very talented, but that isn't what makes a captain.

jude continues to get angry at the refs (which isn't that big a deal right now, but would not necessarily be a good trait for a captain to have)

phil has little to no experience captaining, and doesn't start enough games for england at the moment for it to work. captaining also doesn't seem to be one of his priorities at the moment.

captaining should be about who can take control of a game and do it calmly, with the best interests of the team. it is about your attitude on AND off the pitch, not just your skill. kane wasn't chosen because he was the best striker we had, he was chosen because the team and management saw leadership in him.

imo the choice to captain stonesy, no matter how much we all joked about it, made more sense than captaining jude or phil. he's been playing for the senior england squad for ten years and clearly has a close relationship with most of the players. he had shown interest in captaincy for not only city, but england too.

it would be amazing to see either of them captain at some point, but we have to look past our biases for them (no matter how talented they are) and look at this objectively. they aren't there yet, and thats fine.

now for a personal (more subjective) opinion; i do still believe john has it in him to be captain, but he needs to be given the opportunity to prove it. the greece game was a shitshow in general, but a captain should be able to keep their head clear even during a game like that.

if not john, there are for sure other candidates. this might be an unpopular opinion but grealish has captained for villa, and is an option (even if people think he would be too immature, he has the experience).

TLDR; i think people get overexcited about their favourite players and want them to achieve literally everything as soon as they can. both jude and phil have years left to accomplish a captaincy for england, and they should do it when it's the right time for them and england.

[unorcadox]

feel free to disregard if you dont feel comfortable answering / if its a sensitive topic, but what are the social dynamics like within your system? is everyone friends, or do different alters argue / fight with each other? is it difficult to agree on decisions that would impact all of you?

to be candid uh, most alters do not know or care about each other like. the vibe is very much if you took two random coworkers from across a nationwide corporate brand and asked them what they feel about each other like. they're working for a common goal and could probably cooperate but don't know much.

there's been only one documented pair that actively dislike each other, it was really early on and both still tried to get shit done they just were like I Do Not Like Your Vibes at each other and that's whatever imo. there are a couple of alters in mind rn (ba dum tiss) that like... others might find a little offputting or alien to them, but like there isn't a lot of active hostility. on the other side though, there's a decent number of active friendships :) although probably less than you'd expect.

personally uh, a lot of the alters who aren't as prominent/important don't mind just deferring to the more central alters in the system with regard to decision making-- it's not like a Hierarchy per se, but like a random subsystem member from 2009 that fronts like once every 6 months is very ambivalent (or outright neutral to the point of silence) about what we at the center of the system are doing with our irl lives.

tbh in general i think like system scales make things very different function-wise when comparing large and small systems respectively like, i've never strongly related to the like "my alters have very strong personalities and want to have lives outside of me" aspect of system-related angst like... yeah some of them wouldn't mind existing separately from me or having more time out, but they do not actively interfere with what the collective is doing often. in that way i guess we're a lot closer to a hivemind than anything else, we kinda just act collectively and defer to the collective's wishes where our own can't coexist. a lot of us simply do not have the strong wills and presences required to pretend like we have major influence on the system as a whole, especially at this size.

[doodlemancy]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhh

so here's the deal re: this fucking horseshit. god i hate this.

i, personally, have mostly given up on trying to dodge inclusion in AI datasets. the stuff i make generally isn't what they're looking for anyway and there's no real way to 100% avoid being scraped short of becoming entirely invisible online, which would um, lead to me having no money and dying. that's part of the cruelty of all this, but also, in a way, it's the same risk artists online have always taken; if you want people to see your work, you have to post it knowing that some of those people are fucking lowlife piece of shit scumbags who will try to resell it on redbubble or something for a quick buck. AI is just a new and exhausting way for garbagey people to stink worse. i am not in any way excusing that behavior or trying to imply people should not be mad about it or that we shouldn't condemn this move and fight back. "if you don't want your work stolen, don't put it online" is the kind of shitty Internet Tough Guy talk i've always hated since my dA days. it's as useless and heartless as telling people that if they don't want their bikes stolen, they shouldn't leave them at the bike rack. i'm saying that i, personally, will not let a bunch of soulless thieving shitheads drive me offline. i belong here. they belong in a wifi-proof dumpster.

nightshade and glaze eat my artwork alive. they make it look terrible. when you have to sell things on the basis that they look nice, it's a big problem when protective measures make them look like dogshit. my work is not a good candidate for these processes. even if that weren't the case, i don't have the stamina, especially right now while my chronic pain is flaring for the third month in a row and my adhd meds are scarce, to go back and shade/glaze everything, and it wouldn't work on reblogs anyway. given the way midjourney and its equally stinky siblings have already scraped years and terabytes' worth of image data from popular websites, it doesn't seem worth my time. if you think it is worth yours i am not going to like, yell at you. i am just one person. but i want to be clear about the kind of situations some of us are being forced into.

i think some of the doomsaying about AI and what it will do to us has been overblown-- they need you, for marketing purposes, to believe that someday their shitty robot will be as good at "drawing" and as practical to work with as a human-- but the consequences of "AI" (which is not even actually AI) are already real and visible and obvious to anyone paying attention. i unfortunately am not infinitely wise and powerful and therefore do not have an ideal all-encompassing solution to this deeply stupid problem that the Most Unlikeable Manbabies On Earth have imposed on us after NFTs fizzled out.

what i do have is a very large repository of nice anime and game screenshots i've taken, knowledge of many archives of nice public domain images, a computer that can run nightshade overnight or while i'm off doing other things, and, most importantly, near-infinite capacity for pettiness. i do kinda feel like the jury is still out on how well nightshade/glaze will work in the long run, but in the meantime, i suppose it wouldn't cost me a lot to... perhaps... every time i get Mad About AI™, channel that anger into dumping some thoroughly-but-not-spammily-tagged, high-quality, inconspicuous poison onto this godforsaken hellsite via a secret side blog. i could make a batch of poison ahead of time, keep it on my phone, use my Toilet Scrolling Time or my Public Transit Time to post and tag up an image here and there. it could be a fun challenge to try to make some pretty robot poison that some humans will still enjoy.

the other thing we need to poison at this point, IMO, is the word "AI" itself, by being loudly and mercilessly critical of any company that dabbles in it, the same way we all clowned on any company that pushed their luck with NFT/crypto shit a couple of years ago. we need to have every corporation terrified that association with AI will tank their sales and hurt their brand. AI must = number go down and lots of people screaming at you. companies will fuck around. we must provide the finding-out. we shouldn't have to. but we can!

so make sure to let tumblr know you hate this. maybe you could include this interesting link (tw child abuse) about how Stable Diffusion was trained on some extremely serious crime. or these screenshots of Midjourney devs just sort of admitting what their whole thing is, which i got here but which have kinda been spread all over since January.

spite and anger can be forms of hope. that's all i have to say, or at least all i'm willing to type with my left hand tonight.

[3rddimension]

Since the holiday season is around the corner and 2023 will end soon, what have been the biggest Shourtney highlights for you this year?

This year was super eventful for us Shourtney shipper since they started to opening themselves up. Here's my list of top 10:

Bucca di Beppo front and centered IG post. It's feeling like a hard launch to me tbh and the most affectionate smile that I ever saw from both of them. 💚💙

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Creator Crash 2 Afterparty red carpet. First red carpet since 2019. That's enough said. (Also the candid video is soooooooooo cute.)

Court wearing Shayne's ASU sweater. This one definitely caught a lot of people off guard because it's his signature sweater that he loved to wear on a lot of Smosh video and a lot of hardcore Smosh fan definitely would notice this one instantly. It's pretty much seal the deal for a lot of people that's still doubt that they're together for sure.

Family Guy Reunion. I mean the plot doesn't required them being touchy but they still did it anyway is super iconic and making us scream the whole way. lmfao

Edinburgh drunk karaoke with fans. Probably the first time we saw Shayne being the touchy one with Court in the fan video. Which make so much sense. lmao

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All the shirt swapping in official Smosh video. I never thought we would see it officially on Smosh video but here is at least 2 videos that Court swapped his shirts.

A subtle hint of "our" cats & Shayne's arm in Court's vlog. It's very subtle because it's pretty much blink and you miss it but you can see Shayne's arm during her ads read. Also the first time (I think) that Court mentioned anything related to their cat as "our". Which as you know she has been slipping up even more lately.

Smosh Games Livestream. The lego sleepover live one. Probably the first time we see them being silly to each other and with so many BF/GF coded moment in just one livestream. Probably the most out of all this year livestream imo.

Anthony Is Dead Livestream promo picture. Them posing for promo picture is already hot in itself but doing it as Bikini Girl & The Chosen with his top off?!?!?! So iconic it's insane that if you tell us last year that it would happen we would call you nuts. lmfao

[atopvisenyashill]

What do you think is driving Corlys's thinking about his succession, in the show? Especially not liking Joffrey or Rhaena as potential heirs? Is it to do with blood or age or gender? Or about his perceived idea of what an heir should be? Or all? Or something else?

UGH okay so I want to start this off by saying Corlys is one of my favorite characters from the Dance, I think he's soooo well conceived as a parallel/a play on the same trope as like Tywin, Tyrion, Bloodraven (ish), and I think Corlys' story is going to be massively important to how Tyrion's endgame plays out so I definitely feel like I look at his writing with a much more critical eye. That plus him being one of the only characters of color in both shows that is a main character, and also being the darkest skinned person of them all by far, in general, I just think about him a lot lol.

SO.

I think his writing is soooo confusing most of the time. I'm not sure that they really think about what Corlys is feeling and moreso they think about him in terms of what his role is. They see his endpoint and they force him to get there and aren't quite as in tune with WHY. It's frustrating to me because I think there's a very easy way to get him to where he is at the end of the Dance emotionally while still playing with the story about gender the way they want but they just....once again, do Not have the time to do it with the amount of episodes they have and so he gets shuffled to the side.

I think his drive is more about what an heir should be like. He wants someone who is similar to himself - someone who can Play The Game, someone is a self starter, who is willing to take a risk and watch it pay off rather than sit on the sidelines and play it safe. He wants, above all, someone he can groom. I don't mean in the sexual sense, I mean he wants someone he can train, he wants a protege (*qimir voice* he wants an acolyte). That is why, imo, he was so willing to accept Luke despite everything. He had years to train Luke to act the way he wanted, or years for Daemon and Rhaenys and Laenor to train Luke to be a proper Velaryon. I think Corlys is very aware of his age and is thus not looking any longer for an heir he has to train to be bold, he wants someone who is already bold, already a fighter. Joffrey is much too young. Rhaena is much too feminine, and I don't even think Rhaena registered to him as a potential heir because she's Laena's daughter and not Laenor's daughter. I think he offered it to Baela because Baela has ~that spark~ he wants in his heir, and I think he's drawn to Alyn for that same reason. They're both stubborn, willing to fight, but they're never stupid about the fights they pick.

Do blood and gender play a role in his mind? Yes, absolutely. In fact, I think him bypassing Joff and Rhaena is in part for those reasons. He knew Luke, he loved Luke, I don't think Corlys has that connection to Joffrey and it's part of why he's not fond of the idea of naming Joffrey heir. As for Rhaena - again, I think he feels she's too soft, too feminine. It's crazy to me (*benoit blanc voice* it makes no sense) that Baela didn't push for Rhaena but I get why Corlys doesn't even think of her. Corlys never sees Laena as a viable heir, it was always Laenor and Laenor's kids no matter what. If Laenor had a daughter, I think Corlys might have arrived at that conclusion earlier. But Rhaena is the daughter of a daughter. She's not fierce and skilled with weapons like Baela, she's not a dragon rider, and I do think in Corlys eyes that makes her a bit lesser even though she's the perfect candidate as Laena's daughter who doesn't have any inheritance at all because Luke is dead. But I think because she doesn't have (what he views as) Rhaenys' fire, she's not a candidate.

[austinslounge]

The fourth PR Girl’s message here.

I see a lot of you get confused/frustrated, but I’ll take my time to zoom back into reality tomorrow, because it’s too late in my country and I just want to go to sleep already. I made a small plan of everything I want to say about all of this, so I won’t forget anything. So, expect another long ass message from me. I just want to say, guys, don’t panic, everything is just as it was before. I don’t actually see any contradictions in everything that is happening, because nothing groundbreaking has happened that would debunk that Kaustin is probably on the rocks.

I would recommend y’all to treat all of this as a simple fan encounter, nothing more.

P.S. Why can’t anybody just send you screenshots as a message not an ask, so you can post them separately? I think everyone would appreciate that. I hope that when I wake up something new will come out, as I hate analyzing recycled information, it sucks and it’s just a game of “he said, she said”.

Haha I hope you're able to get some rest tonight and this nothing info doesn't keep you up at night! 😄

Like you said, it's not a big deal. If they are still together, okay, fine? As I have mentioned on my blog before, Hollywood romances are notoriously known for not lasting. Most of them do not last.

Also, while this "fan" had a nice conversation with Austin, and maybe he may have mentioned his gf, and maybe he may have mentioned the Gerbers, that still doesn't negate the fact of what we've been seeing with our own eyes this year:

Austin and Kaia looking miserable not only in pap photos, but also in candid snuck photos with fans

Kaia disappearing with Marcello for 20 mins and being "all over each other and like they're the only ones at their table" at a restaurant.

Pics of Kaia and Marcello partying it up and being kinda close 👀

Kaia following new It-Boy Nicholas Chavez, and him following her back

Austin and Kaia not being spotted together in over a month, even though, Kaia has been in NYC

Austin liking IG posts about "toxic relationships" and "your gf hates you"

Presley unfollowing Austin, and has re-followed Ayo a while ago, but still has yet to re-follow Austin again... his sister's bf 👀

Pictures of Kaia making out with other people posted online for the world to see. 🤨

Media outlets all over the place talking about there being trouble in their relationship all throughout this year

Austin telling interview magazine that he is craving "human connection" 😔

The list goes on and on...

So, while we can freak out about a random fan sighting, how can we explain all of this other stuff above if they are supposed to be this happy, "in love" couple?

Things just don't add up imo.

But hey, maybe it's just me.

[altocat]

as of the most recent chapter of first soldier, glenn is for sure the best friend sephiroth’s ever had, imo. sephiroth is definitely closer to genesis and angeal, but they leave sephiroth behind without any explanation, which is a pretty significant betrayal. the only reason why i wouldn’t pick zack over glenn is because it seems like, canonically, sephiroth kept zack at an arm’s length.

Angeal and Genesis have the benefit of being friends with Sephiroth the longest. So if we were thinking objectively in terms of personal intimacy, they're probably the best candidates. And personal bias aside, I really do think CC kind of lightly implies that Sephiroth and Genesis might have once been very close. Hence why Gen's betrayal at Nibelheim stings so much. Sephiroth talks about Genesis way more than Angeal and his worries seem more directed at Genesis specifically.

That said, Glenn so far has done the MOST for Sephiroth onscreen, at least on an emotional level. I mean Glenn is the first character we've ever seen to hug Seph, encourage him, and push him to open up to others. Glenn's actions on Rhadore aside, his interactions with Sephiroth are, so far, much needed. Sephiroth has never had anything like this. Glenn presents him with a healthier way of interacting with people, as well as the emotional validation he very likely isn't getting from Hojo. So despite the fact that he's stuck in a stupid mobile game, Glenn is incredibly important.

I think Zack probably would have been the best combination in the LONG RUN if he and Sephiroth had been together longer. But circumstances kept them distant. What moments of unity they had were very chummy, and the mini cutscenes imply that they hung out way more than CC led us to believe. They just needed things to be different.

[windandwater]

political ramblings from a recovering news junkie (I had to stop following this stuff, it was giving me health problems)

anecdotally it seems like a lot of people are/were sick of trump and don't want him back, and they just needed a new candidate to actually be excited about.

everyone's takeaway from 2016 was that America just hates women too much to elect one over a racist white man but I said from the beginning that the problem was Hilary herself, whom everyone had too many reasons to hate. imo mostly imagined reasons especially compared to the egregiousness of her opponent. but democrats really underestimated how much people in red states still carry a grudge against her, leftover from the 90s.

but due to America's still-real hatred of women,and racism, I've been wondering whether Kamala really can win against this jackass and I keep thinking about something my boss (another politics wonk, NOVA grown and has worked in journalism and interned in the white house) says, which is that America hates losers, and trump has proved himself a loser--and a criminal, in the actual courts, which the right can try to spin as politically motivated but I think to anyone not following every move it just looks bad. same thing as what happened with the emails investigation with Hilary--people just assume that if there's smoke there's fire. and I don't think most people's mouths are wrapped around the fox news hose of information tight enough to be able to justify every bad thing that happens to republicans to themselves. so I think people have been waiting for an energetic challenger to trump for a long time and they're jumping on this moment. all over the country, not just in what we think of liberal outposts. and I think most Americans are capable of seeing a candidate and not a scary person who doesn't look like them, especially since she's so charismatic and genuinely fun.

I also think we need to reckon with the effects of gerrymandering and really do something to combat it if we get any kind of administration and congressional change because the majority of Americans are not represented at all. you see that in the polling but I've also seen it firsthand when leaving my little liberal city and talking to people in supposedly blood red states. we agree with each other on a lot of things and if we went back to the old way of compromising on bills and issues and stopped this crap of one party being up the ass of corporations and the death cult of the evangelical right, we'd see a lot of real progress. but since that's not really an option, steamrollering over them over and over until the party is destroyed and a new one emerges is the only option for the future here, I think. and to do that we gotta have representative districts. because I think it will happen naturally if Americans are represented.

all of the above applies to voting rights as well.

I like Kamala Harris even though she's not the candidate I would pick. but I also don't think necessarily the progressive base of the party should pick the presidential candidate, in this race we clearly need someone who can pull the party together and build coalitions and it looks like that's her. it's been really interesting to see the country agree with me when normally I don't think I'm on the same page as moderates in this country. maybe the center of the country is finally moving left? or maybe the far right radicalism/fascism has finally hit its breaking point?

I feel the way I did in 2016; absolutely terrified of the election. but it's mixed with the way I felt in 2008; that maybe there's light in the world.

[ming-sik]

Thoughts on Veronica and how most fanfics seem to blame her well... *gestures to everything about her* this because of her 'lack of education' and not how she (and her siblings) may or may not have been targeted by the Lesiegang faction due to her lineage?

Ik most fanfics make it out that she's insaine for wearing veils while in the fanfic Ahrensbach wears veils to 'protect themselves from sun's rays' and treat it like canon and for importing spices from Ahrensbach as this huge threat to the duchy because (insert 100+ medical reasons) and honestly? It reads like someone who's wanting to become a bit closer to their dead mother by practicing things her dead mother practised (and don't get me started on how yucky I feel everytime when Rozemyne superiorly tells everyone how spices are ruining their stomachs and the amounts of spice they eat is 'unsafe', conveniently ignoring how spicy South Asian food can get yet not many over there's forming stomach ulcers or on the verge of death because they smell 1 tokbokki-)

Anyways, I'd really like to know your thoughts on this!

So previously I did not know that much abt aob fanfic but.

IMO the answer is that AOB is classist/misogynist/xenophobic and fans end up either picking up on that or being drawn to it. It's a pretty simplistic answer but it explains a lot of the really strange behavior that goes on.

Veils are pretty clearly an attempt to invoke hijab which is by itself fine, YS is actually desperately lacking cultural differences between duchies, and if that's a Lanzenavian custom that's been imported to Ahrensbach that'd actually mimic how wimples are at least believed to originate from hijab. However even the way canon treats veils is really weird. Veils shielding you from the sun is actually mentioned in p5v6 during this Detlinde pov chapter

but since Detlinde and Georgine are veiled indoors, they're also almost definitely worn for cultural reasons. All of which is again fine... except that they're the evil duchy. The veiled characters we see are Detlinde, Georgine, Veronica, and Aurelia(Fraularm and Alstede aren't veiled, so this is presumably an optional cultural practice). Three of them are villains, while Aurelia's reason is that she's ashamed of strongly resembling Veronica and wants to hide her face, which would be an absurd thing to expect of her, except that Ferdinand never shuts the fuck up about Detlinde looking like Veronica so she probably would face discrimination for resembling someone in her family. There is not a single even neutral female character... well, in Ahrensbach, but also specifically who wears a veil except Aurelia who's wearing hers for a very specific reason unrelated to her being from Ahrensbach.

Aurelia also gets discriminated against for wearing a veil, which would've been a decent way to show a conflict where a likeable character ISN'T portrayed as the unambiguous good party except that the story doesn't seem to think this is strange. No characters really push back on the validity of this suspicion and Aurelia herself seems to accept it as a matter of course. The fact that fans have obviously picked up on the fact that veils are meant to be a strange exotic cultural practice and are writing characters that way themselves is pretty telling.

As you say, it's fine to veil. There are a lot of reasons to do it from the utilitarian sun protection to propriety to her being proud of being from Ahrensbach, which is in itself neutral unless you accept the premise that Ahrensbach is the evil duchy or you think veils are inherently suspicious.

Veronica's lack of archduke candidate education is obviously irrelevant because she managed to scheme enough to create the Veronica faction. The women had a phd in machinations and knowledge of enough archducal matters to function as the Aub's first wife, so either she got an archducal education once she was married or she just didn't need it which could be how it works because unlike female aubs, female archducal wives aren't expected to take over their husband's work when their husbands are pregnant. Even if she was uneducated enough that she struggled with handling administrative duties, how this would lead to her abuse is a problem we apparently have our strongest misogyny soldiers working on because those two things are unconnected. In canon characters outside of Rihyarda are pretty uninterested in why Veronica or Gabriele are the way they are, but most people aren't evil because they're stupid, they're evil because they have what they believe to be a completely valid motivation for whatever heinous thing they're doing, and the way YS treats faction politics definitely could've been a major source of her desperation to solidify her power alongside her stated internalized misogyny. (Her internalized misogyny isn't necessarily the story's misogyny, but it is strange that this isn't really pushed back on and the only victim who gets much spotlight is Ferdinand despite Veronica seeming to target women much more harshly.)

None of this is a defense of Veronica, I disagree with the thing where she systemicatically abused and ostracized a massive portion of the duchy and my condolences to her victims, but the ways AOB chooses to signal that especially female characters are villains is notable and by notable I mean falls into some patterns. This is mainly that damnable Ferdinand's fault because he 1) will not shut the fuck up about how everyone he dislikes is basically his mommy reincarnated and 2) hates women so much it's unreal, so the fact that he's Rozemyne's main source for a lot of characters colors that. You could argue that this is him and other characters intentionally being written as unreliable narrators, but if that's true then it's a little strange that the fandom is so united on taking his word as gospel, and when read it does not come off that way. Veronica's deal being attributed to stupidity might come from how Ferdinand treats Detlinde if I had to find a reason for it, but honestly the machinations of the AOB fandom are in some ways incomprehensible to me.

The spice thing is just straight up racist. It's racist in canon, the way that all spices are lumped together when both nutmeg and chili peppers are "spices" despite having wildly varying flavors and effects is in itself racist. We don't get a single named spice. Are they talking about peppercorns? Chili peppers? Nutmeg? Cumin? What about ginger? Even assuming we're talking about specifically capsaicin, spicy food causing ulcers is mostly pop science, and the health risks beyond short-term pain pale in comparison to, like, alcohol. Spice tolerance is a thing and Rozemyne might not like a ghost pepper, but shockingly yeah cultures with a lot of spicy food aren't pretending to enjoy it as an elaborate bit(tteokbokki are Korean but I know what you're getting at). If Ahrensbach people eat food flavored with fantasy bird's eye peppers from a young age they're not gonna experience any problems from eating spice unless they have unrelated health issues.

As with everything the defense of this is probably that the characters are unreliable narrators. I've spent a lot of time arguing with people on this so at some point I just have to say that if every sympathetic character in the story is parroting something and no conflict ever arises from the fact that they're incorrect then the story is just having a character say something that is true in universe, and the fact that Ahrensbach and by proxy Lanzenavian culture are treated the way they are is xenophobic in Ahrensbach's case and racist in Lanzenave's. Fans are Like That because they pick up on this stuff and either uncritically accept it as just a thing that's true about AOB's worldbuilding that's neutral or were already prejudiced and therefore had no conflict when the story confirmed those prejudices. Which is another thing. If these characters are meant to be unreliable narrators, you'd think the fandom wouldn't uncritically accept character testimony so often!

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 2/20/2024

i don't usually use these writeups as a memory aid, but this week it's good bc most of last week was a blur of applying to jobs and playing breath of the wild

listening

i have several playlists that are several hours long with a couple different flavors of the really specific kind of instrumental music i need to do mass quantities of data entry. these are now all poisoned by horrible memories of my last two jobs so i'm slowly building new ones. a great candidate is OASIS, off the REDLINE soundtrack. REDLINE (2009, dir. Koike) is an extremely horny anime movie about driving really fast, being true to yourself in spite of corporate overlords, sports betting, and fucking.

i think this was a scene with background club or cafe music? electronica instrumental with a little bit of a groove and a very particular mid-aughts sound. you know when powder coating is extremely matte but also extremely sparkly? spotify.

-

reading

Samantha Cole (previously Vice, co-founder of 404 Media) has a beat that's focused on sex tech, sex work, deplatforming of sex work, and kink community beefs that manages to be both detached and very, very kind. i trust her to write about any kink community in a respectful and fair way, and even when she visibly doesn't understand the appeal of a kink she writes about them in a respectful and fair way. a great example of this is the furry adult baby diaper community being deplatformed by patreon.

but her most recent investigation, "can this shitty vibrator actually give you malware?" is fascinating. any job that can legitimately claim vibrators as a buisness expense and perform a teardown is fascinating to me.

what a tremendous and endlessly fascinating world we live in.

-

watching

there are many movies on tubi that i have like. name recognition of but have never actually seen, so i'm starting to work my way through things that aren't noir or obscure westerns. like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, dir. Lee).

the practial effects in this movie are insane. the wirework is insane. wirework insane. this is the dreamiest and most beautiful chase/fight scene i've ever seen and they're zipping around a bamboo forest.

we're going to have to live with this imperfect screenshot ok this laptop is Extremely old. the interior sets often look like theater sets (complimentary). just a stunningly beautiful movie with the sickest action scenes you’ve ever seen. plot a little choppy but forgivable imo. i know this is regarded as one of the finest movies of all time, not just one of the finest martial arts movies of all times, so saying anything feels a little like giving it a dollar store plastic trophy. i liked it and i had fun. watching a critically acclaimed non-american good movie is good for the brain steeped in lackluster american westerns, i think.

-

playing

much like in real life, in breath of the wild i am refusing to do much towards the main quest and am mostly puttering around looking for shit to upgrade my outfits.

unlocked rudania, did not go inside.

what's with this little. sword graveyard??? on the northeastern edge of the caldera??? the only thing on that island is an octorok?? did it kill like eight guys???

finished richard scarey's tarreytown :) including that horrible rich guy who wanted me to kill some guardians for ??? reasons. i am pretty confident about killing hinox (is the plural of hinox, hinox?), wizzrobes, and most lizalfos if i can get the drop on em but i am Not confident about killing actively moving guardians without guardian arrows, which is an expensive way of doing business. due to reliably one-shotting the wizzrobes with revali's bow, i am running into the interesting problem of always having a glut of magical weapons. which leads me to go fuck around the extreme hot and cold areas those magic weapons are good for. and less fucking around the normie areas i actually want to fuck around.

got the good sword at thirteen hearts, i stopped short at twelve hearts gone and the deku tree called me a pussy. i unfontunately did not screenshot that. hey did you know there's a korok on the deku tree's head whose life's purpose seems to be riddles?

:(

and now for quite a lot of horse talk.

dodged like four lynels taking Ganon's horse up the northern edge of the map to get a pic of the leviathan.

caught the white horse, we are such pretty pretty princesses together. i think it's very funny that the gerudo fanciest weapons and hylian royal regalia look so similar. purple and gold eternal.

did you know if you feed your horse an endura carrot you get extra spurs???

i was looking for a 5 star speed horse but after catching and releasing four different solid black horses this is the best one (4 str, 4 speed, 5 stamina) i found. maybe I’ll shoot for a bright chestnut with lots of chrome for my speedy horse, the equine equivalent of a red convertible.

very funky conincidence on the grasslands behind the lord of the mountain's spring. not identical, bc the lead horse doesn't have facial markings, but what are the odds of that huh. i wish grays in this game didn't look so chalky and washed out, i love a gray horse in real life.

i think it's some bullshit that you have to fight your way into this spring, get told "go get a dragon scale", deal with all that, fight your way BACK into the spring, and then be presented with a Major Test of Strength shrine. c'mon just give it to me!!!

game continues to be very bad at spitting out riders next to horses or donkeys EXCEPT!!! for this doctor. i didn't know hyrule had traveling doctors! i quite honestly didn't think they had the techonology, given that the state of medicine in hyrule is very mortar and pestle based!

the game gave me a tooltip like "make friends with dogs! they'll lead you to treasure!" and i was like What but it does actually work, you just have to target them in the camera first and then feed them several hunks of meat. bonkers game. how many other goddamn mechanics are there that i've missed???

next steps: shrine hunting. i have like 50 out of 120 which is wild to me. i played this game two years ago, got to about a hundred shrines, and managed to forget where they all fucking are. yes my shrine sensor is always on. there's probably at least twenty in central hyrule, which is not a place i touched much on my list playthrough, also the last two memories i need are in there. i have filled out a good chunk of the compendium (completely filled the materials pages) but idk if i will be a completionist about it. there are so so so so so many weapons variants. i am cheating a bit and looking up the animals i missed (mostly a lot of bugs and fish) but one of the entries is for patricia, the royal sand seal. i would not have ever thought to take a picture of the named sand seal, i'm sorry game but that's a bit obtuse.

-

making

not much progress on the cross stitch or job fronts, but since i finally have a balcony, i planted peas and beans from @shiny-good-rock and basil from @morrak than have been languishing in a box for several years, the basil had an okay germination rate so my fingers are crossed re: peas and beans.

i am a bit annoyed about marigolds. maybe it's a bit too early for them here, or maybe they're not as popular as they were in the northeast? i tried like five different big box stores and indie nurseries, only one indie nursery had any and they were very pest-ridden. i would like marigolds, as friends for my tomatoes.

it is currently 11:40 PM CST as i type this so tomorrow i'll add something with a garden layout and what varieties i planted.

[jyndor]

I'm not gonna punch left ever. like yes do I have both strategic and ideological disagreements with some leftists? yeah obviously since leftist infighting and disagreement is the feature not the bug.

I'm still not saying I'm voting for kamala but I do think she will be a better opponent than trump. I believe in strategic voting so tbh if your district is a swing district, if you are in a swing state, I think voting democratic is smart because they are at least able to be beaten into some concessions from the left when we are organized. one big issue is the liberals who see any criticism as support for the republicans, and they're gonna be annoying as hell but I do think more people are aware that the democrats suck now than they did during the obama years.

that said, it is totally understandable for people in the global south to be hostile to any us president. and it is reasonable for them to hate us for anything we do politically because all these freaks have done material harm to millions of people globally. so I'm not offended as a white queer us american woman that a third world maoist might hate that I am considering voting for kamala harris. it's cool, they're not wrong to be angry with us americans' selfish politics.

and at this same time imo there is no real path forward for a third party candidate in the us. and it's deeply frustrating to me that so many amazing activists use their time and resources on what is to me a herculean task, running for president as a third party candidate and not even for a party like the greens which has name recognition. I'd rather they focus on local politics and even statewide politics, where they have more of a chance. I also don't think they're wreckers though, I just don't agree with their strategies. and they can call me a liberal or whatever for saying that, that's fine whatever lol I'm not going to punch leftists doing important work.

it is one thing to disagree on strategy, even on ideology and politics. but to assume that they are not genuine in their politics... it's just gross and dismissive. you do not know what you're talking about. I don't love the PSL for a few different reasons but I respect the activism they do, and I'm not gonna disrespect leftist activists doing far more than I ever will, even if I don't agree with everything they do.

tumblr is full of white liberals who might in fact have access to financial resources that many others do not have, and that's important for us to understand because it does impact how we view politics. it does. it's so easy for you vote blue folks to call ANYONE who criticizes democrats bots or russian ops or whatever. it does you no favors politically. you do not want to negatively polarize potential allies by constantly treating them like they've got ulterior motives for not supporting the democratic party.

but most people who for instance supported the uncommitted campaign and who were working to get biden out of the race all these months are likely doing so because we WANT to vote against trump. not that everyone in the free palestine movement is a democratic voter or even is in favor of electoralism, but a lot are in the states. so... it's weird to me that liberals treated us like ignorant wreckers who don't care about abortion or queer rights or voting rights etc, or somehow PALESTINIAN RIGHTS LMFAO I mean I'm trying to stay nice and call these libs racist cunts for speaking down to voters of color in particular but that's what it is.

do you really think the people who are the most tapped into politics are not going to vote??? really???? some won't but most will. especially those in swing districts. do you think that someone like me, who has been politically active since I was TWELVE, does not understand the utility of voting???

as always, your job is not going to be speaking down to people so politically engaged that they are threatening to WITHHOLD THEIR VOTES BECAUSE OF FOREIGN POLICY. IN THE UNITED STATES OF NOBODY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT FOREIGN POLICY. they're doing the work you should have been doing this whole time. you will have to sit with your complacency at some point.

your job is going to be getting off your ass and convincing everyone you know who is not registered to vote because they don't care about politics or don't like politics or whatever that they need to be invested in our political system.

bad news: you will not do that by shaming them for being ignorant or apathetic.

good news: a lot of people are very easy to get on board with shit like rent caps (which biden was just talking about the other day, 5% caps on rent federally! that's amazing and would help so many people - we should pressure kamala to adopt that policy) and reproductive justice. a lot of apathetic people care about this shit, they just don't know how it impacts them or where to start engaging with this shit.

do not pull the smug liberal shit, do not speak down to them, meet them where they are at! ask them about the things that they are bothered about, things like potholes and shit. that matters to people. get them registered, drive them to the polls. you will do more good than shouting at lefties on tumblr dot com. otherwise you're just preaching to the choir.

[lesbiantoaster]

Modern (Academic) AU - Nevermore

This modern AU is my extension of modern AU headcanon* where Lenore and Annabel are PhD students in rival research groups at the university of two rival faculties (Physics and Mathematics) that need to share a building because of low funding. Since PhD school is kinda like purgatory on its own so it's quite a fitting setup imo.

>> Lenore's a physicist (specialization: Particle Physics and Programming), while Annabel's a mathematician (specialization: Statistics and Algorithms)

>> They met just before the start of the PhD programs while volunteering as counsellors at a summer science camp organized by their university for high school students

>> They shared a room and bonded over the excitement of beginning the PhD programs, their academic interests, their love for games etc. But it wasn't long before their relationship evolved into something more and soon after they started dating

>> Lenore's style could be described as edgy/rebel but started to dress smarter (like a nice shirt and pants and sometimes a tie too) for the job, while Annabel's is more preppy with floral accents and always wears a small raven-shaped necklace Lenore's got her for their second date

>> Since starting dating Annabel, Lenore started incorporating floral motives into her wardrobe as well (like floral patterned shirts, ties, socks etc.)

>> Lenore's out and proud but her parents disowned her at the beginning of her studies. Luckily she has some rich grandma/grandpa who could financially support her. Her older brother Theo used to be in the same PhD program but before graduation, he disappeared.

>> Annabel is still in the closet.

>> They're both super talented and are soon deemed rising stars of their departments

>> In Lenore's team there are also four other PhD students: Duke, Berenice, Eulalie and Pluto, and they all share the same workroom at the University

>> Duke is Lenore's closest friend; their desks are next to each other and they hit the gym together on a regular basis

>> Annabel's team consists of another PhD student Prospero (who is this stereotype of math purist that looks down on other fields because "Mathematics is the purest form of science" 🤢) and Will, annoying secretary Ada who thinks she's better because she's working at university (she handles the documents and other papers for real scientist but she still thinks she's the next Marie Skłodowska-Curie). There's also a postdoc Monty, who no one likes and no one is sure who hired him (he's a little shady). There's also a Master's degree student Morella (who did her Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Physics -and she knows the gang from Lenore's group - but switched for Master to Mathematics)

>> Both of their groups research quantum computing but because of the lack of funding they have to fight with each other for the money and rivalry evolves into people despising each other

>> The Deans don't want to do anything with that because they find this whole drama entertaining.

>> Both girls want to go to the same Institute in Europe for their postdocs so Annabel comes up with a plan to get them both jobs at that Institute that includes them pretending to hate each other

>> Everyone knows about the beef of unknown origin between the two most promising PhD candidates

>> Lenore is that kind of TA that gives off an "older sibling"/"cool uncle"/"bad boi" vibe, she rides a cool motorbike every day and the students simply adore her! Some even have an obvious crush on her and try to flirt with her but Lenore is really awkward and such a simp for Annabel lee she interprets it as them being nice/buttering her up for a better grade

>> Annabel on the other hand is pretty much a "ice queen" of the department she's respected for her work but also people low-key (high-key) fear her. She also (but you didn't hear it from me) tends to go harder on students she knows who tried to hit on her pet. But you can't prove her anything.

>> Once a week Lenore has the whole work room for herself and that's when Annabel sneaks out for lunch dates with her gf to talk about each other's day, hold hands and steal a kiss or two

>> However one day Eulalie almost walks in on them but Annabel quickly dived under Lenore's desk. Lenore tried to act normal while Eulalie was looking on her own desk for some papers she forgot earlier.

"You must be really hungry today, Lenore." Said Eulalie.

"Wha- Why would you think that???" All but shouted flustered Lenore.

"Because you're eating chocolate pancakes AND a chicken sandwich" Eulalie pointed to the two meals on Lenore's desk "Weird combination if you ask me... But if you like eating that way I guess that works too." then she leaves.

>> Both Annabel and Lenore are gamers but of a different kind. Annabel loves every strategy game and streams her gameplay in her free time. She is also an international champion in online chess. She and Lenore often play chess together but Annabel always wins. They make a deal that if Lenore would ever win against Annabel the loser will grant a winner one wish.

>> Lenore on the other hand loves tabletop games - especially RPGs. And she DMs a homebrew D&D campaign for the gang + Morella.

>> (Of course when Lenore asked the gang to name their D&D party they chose "Misfits")

>> Lenore feels guilty for lying to her friends and tells Annabel so, to which her gf responds by hugging her and saying something like "I'm sorry, pet, I know it's hard for you but it has to be done... Our future dream jobs depend on it. We are doing this for us and after all... they still are our competition on the job market... no matter how much we might like them or not."

>> After the first year they move in together into the small apartment

>> And they have these cute moments like cooking together, making lunches for one another, Annabel helping Lenore to tie a tie in the morning, Lenore giving Annabel massages when she comes back home all sore after a whole day walking in heels, both girls pulling all-nighter grading students' tests or doing some studying themselves and taking turns making coffee, etc.

>> Now that Lenore's got her own place she hosts most of the D&D sessions for the gang (to not raise any suspicions).

>> Before every session the girls need to clean their apartment of any evidence of their relationship and when the gang comes over Annabel stays in her streaming room playing games/doing some work. Lenore tells her friends that she has this weirdo-roommate that almost never leaves their room and they're better not to be bothered with.

>> All this work, however, goes in vain, when Pluto unexpectedly comes over to Lenore's flat to ask for help with some work before his first conference. To make things worse the girls were expecting the delivery guy to bring them their food that evening. Imagine Pluto's surprise when the person who opened the door was no other but the Ice Queen herself wearing sports shorts and a worn-me-down t-shirt and behind her Lenore was sitting on a sofa.

>> After a while girls manage to calm hyperventilating Pluto down, they ask him to keep it a secret. Pluto wasn't too keen on lying but Annabel managed to persuade him not to tell anyone. He agreed but only if Lenore will come clean about her and Annabel lee relationship.

>> So before the next session Lenore finally tells the rest of the gang the truth. There's feeling of betrayal, some tears and lots of shouting because they (especially Duke) are hurt that Lenore has lied to them.

>> There's some drama and silence treatment towards Lenore for a couple of weeks but it made everyone even more miserable so they eventually all reconcile.

>> At first the gang remains sceptic towards Annabel lee but after some time they welcome her to the group. She occasionally joins them for D&D sessions or board game nights (when everyone fights to be with her in the same team because Annabel gets really competitive and her team always wins no matter the game).

>> Annabel finally has a support system she so needed in her life and that's so wholesome

>> Annabel and Lenore's third anniversary was at the same time as a conference in Cambridge both girls were selected to represent their teams on

>> During free time Annabel took Lenore on a walk around Trinity Colledge (the place where Isaac Newton - a great mathematician and physicist - studied) and proposed to Lenore there (she of course said "yes")

>> Later on that day Lenore asked Annabel to play chess with her to which Annabel gladly agreed

>> Lenore wins

>> Annabel asks "Very well done, pet. I'm impressed with your strategy. So what do you wish for?" Lenore takes Annabel's hand and looks her straight in the eyes and answers with a sly grin slowly forming on her face "For the Queen's hand in marriage" She pulls the ring box with her other hand "... if she agrees, of course". Annabel almost leaps over the table with the chess board to kiss her soon-to-be-wife.

The end.

It was in my head for a while and I wanted to share it somewhere. I just thought what if instead of repressed Victorians they all were just giant nerds and this is a result of my thinking.

*inspired by this post by @incorrect-nevermore and @spoopy-nevermore-dump (so thank you, guys! I had lots of fun making this shit up XD)

Bonus:

>> Lenore's supervisor is an older detached from reality professor who can't for the life of his remember the names of his assistants, so he calls Lenore "Lenny", Duke "David/Damian", Eulalie "Eugene", Berenice "Veronica" and Pluto "Matthew" (for some unknown reason). At first, the gang was annoyed by it but it quickly transformed into an inside joke between the misfits and they even have each other's contacts saved under those names.

[neallo]

Umm what are your meronia divorce headcanons? 😇 Yes I am baiting you into posting those tags you wrote because they were SO CORRECT

HGFDSJFSDFSD <3 <3 <3 GIVING ME AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT THEM AS EXES... BLESS YOU...

Okay. So. BROADLY. Here is how I imagine they break up:

Mello, being literally so fucking bad at understanding Near and also being so bad at being normal in general and ALSO being bad at seeing his own value... I could see him suggesting breaking up as a way to test if Near really cares about him (this is deranged but so is he) and getting DEEPLY hurt when Near is not sobbing screaming crying on the floor pleading for him to stay. IMO Near is actually genuinely gutted in pretty much any situation where they part ways, but he sees that as his problem to deal with. He's not going to attempt to coerce Mello into staying in a relationship that he's (evidently) not happy in. There are. UM. Exceptions to this. But we won't get into that (<- lazy and also IDK if I can do it without spoiling a future story).

The biggest problem here is that even when Mello realizes he's miserable without Near etc etc etc he's wayyyy too proud to actually admit he made a mistake ending their relationship. I do think, however, that he would struggle to long-term stay away from Near fully. His impulse control is pretty bad so, like. Y'know.

I'll, uh. Refrain. From belaboring the point here [<- already plagued empress with the most disorganized thoughts imaginable yesterday about this ghsgjfsfhsdf] but I love the idea of a situation where they're exes because of Mello being chaotic and terrible and then he continues to be chaotic and terrible by starting to sleep with Near on a multiple-times-a-week basis again without actually acknowledging that they're effectively dating.

Like he's not fucking anyone else, he tells people he's not single, but he will NOT ask Near to get back together. He will however take literally one shot of tequila and just leave the bar or party & walk to Near's. "Ohhh I was just in the area" <- he had to walk 30 minutes to get there and climb up three stories of fire escape to do this. And he WOULD walk further if that was what was required.

Near is very nice and pretends like this is normal behavior because IMO he on some level realizes Mello is profoundly dysfunctional and is trying to figure out how he's supposed to deal with the whole thing (but is still in love enough and sufficiently used to Mello's deranged nature to put up with it <3 ).

Bonus points in my mind if this is a college AU or s/t and Near is roommates with Gevanni, who Mello fucking HATES on principle (read: is attractive and in Near's general vicinity, therefore must die). He has only met George (<- intentionally gets Gevanni's name wrong) a handful of times, but he was REALLY annoyed to find out that Gene didn't even know who he was bc CERTAINLY Near would have mentioned him. Gerald should really pay better attention :/ [Near is an undergrad student, Gevanni is a PhD candidate who desperately needed to sublet somewhere cheap and thought he lucked out w/ the most relaxed quiet tidy roommate Ever until this rude blonde guy started showing up and having loud sex with Near 2-3x a week]

[thecoramaria]

Hello! I was wondering if you could give some tips on how to make fanfic chapters longer. I see a lot readers tend to like chapters around the 4k word mark or even more, but it's a feat if I write a chapter longer than 2k. The content I write is still good (imo) but I want to do more and am stuck on what to add that would benefit the fic and not be pointless filler. Thanks 🩷💛

Hey, Nonny!

First I'd just like to say that chapter length preferences among readers depend a lot on things like the type of fanfic and the platform you post on. For example, short chapters and frequent updates tend to be the standard on Wattpad. They're also pretty typical of episodic and/or slice-of-life stories. Because they rely on pre-established stories or worlds that the characters are familiar with, you just don't need to use as many words to move the plot forward every chapter (and in the case of an episodic story, you don't need to move an overarching plot forward at all, but from your ask, I don't get the vibe that you're trying to write that kind of thing).

Point is, sometimes short chapters work better for the story you're trying to tell, and they can also serve to make your story more binge-worthy (since it's easier to justify reading one more chapter), but they could lessen the experience for people following update-to-update, particularly if you don't update often. It's like the difference between being given a single piece of chocolate vs a full bar, you know?

If you really are set on posting longer chapters and believe this will make your story better, then here are my tips:

Figure out why your chapters are short in the first place. Is it because you make each scene its own chapter? Is it because your pacing flies past? Is it because it's light on details, or doesn't get specific enough? (E.g. "He set a tasty breakfast before her. She dug in with gusto." vs "He set a plate of steaming sunny-side-up eggs and crackling bacon before her. One wiff of the smokey, savoury aromas, and she snatched up her fork, shovelling it in. The salty crunch. The burst of creamy yolk. It was heaven.")

Combine chapters. If two or three chapters tie together nicely because they're part of the same arc, or take place in the same location, picking up where the other left off, those are good candidates to combine. Also if a chapter has an ending that doesn't give the reader a good reason to keep reading, but the next scene adds a jolt of tension back into the plot, that's also a good candidate for combining scenes/chapters.

Ask yourself what you can add to enhance what you already have there. For example, if you have a plot twist planned, is there a way you can include more foreshadowing? Is there an opportunity to flesh out your characters more? (If we mostly see a character put on a strong front, it'll tug our hearts when we see them show some vulnerability.) Is there an aspect of your worldbuilding that could use some explanation or showing off? (For example, if your plot involves saving the world, it's definitely a good idea to get your readers attached to said world.) Are there more obstacles you could add to the story that might also serve the previous purposes? Do you have a lot of high-tension back-to-back scenes that could use some quiet breather scenes in-between?

When editing, I've adopted the philosophy of "Cut as much as possible without sacrificing anything that enhances the story" as well as "Concise and precise" which means "say The Most with as few words as possible. To me, this is the key to avoiding filler in my own work, and how I create long stories that don't drag. I think that as you make your chapters longer, these are the ideas you should keep in mind, as these will help you determine if you're lengthening your story will pointless filler or adding something with value.

If you still struggle to make that distinction though, maybe find a beta-reader or a buddy who doesn't mind being spoiled for your work. You can soundboard your ideas with them to get a second opinion, because sometimes that's what you really need when you feel like there's something "wrong" with your work but you can't quite put your finger on it.

[kooki914]

Just finished your video about the secret bosses. Curious for your take on Catti and Jockington, who a) are the only other students in Kris' class to have dialogue sprites, and b) are partners with each other, seemingly implying Toby has plans for them as a pair in some future chapter, a la Noelle and Berdly. I never see ANYONE mention them, in theories or otherwise, though.

I've seen them explored a lot in fanworks (I've seen a LOT of people make Dark World designs for them and they all seem very fun), and it's definitely a possibility that they'll show up in a future dark world, but I'm not entirely convinced either way. For me, the argument swings in two directions. Either they have talksprites because they'll show up prominently in a future chapter's dark world (which would then imply burgerpants, catty, bratty, sans, alphys, undyne and rudy "are likely candidates" as well, which seems a bit far fetched imo), OR they have talksprites because they're significant people in Kris' life (unlike monster kid who isn't even named and seems at most lukewarm to Kris, Catti and Kris have a shared history, and she's even close with Noelle, while Jockington has One (1) talksprite possibly because he's generally just a popular person around town so Kris would see him as significant, at least to an extent).

It's the problem of looking for concrete patterns when we only have two available chapters at the moment. We don't know Toby's internal rules, or why certain characters are preferred over others, so for me it's too early to guesstimate concretely as we're all working with our own personal biases. Eg. I diehard believe Asgore will be present in the ch3 dark world and if he isn't I will riot. It would definitely be interesting to explore Catti some more (her friendship with Noelle and her connection to the occult contrasted to Deltarune's religious themes has me particularly intrigued), but as of right now I'm not really that invested in her or Jockington. Not for any particular reason, just... I don't see a lot TO them right now. I tend to have a bit of tunnel vision and character bias so it can be hard to make me invested in side characters, sadly. I even struggle to be invested in Rudy's side plot, so, that should tell you plenty about my opinions on most of the NPCs and side cast.