#this is BASICALLY the same as last year's but i made a few lil tweaks!

[yooniesim]

Honestly, I feel like the reason these people get away with these poor quality meshes and shady tactics is because most people don’t realize that it’s not all that good in the first place. You sit there and think “WOW! Look at this person who made their own items for the game!” and since you don’t know how to do it yourself and you’re on the outside looking in, it all seems impressive. I can definitely pinpoint the moment I realized that it’s as good as it seems.

I was too poor to buy packs so I used CC to fill the gaps , but then I discovered the Seven Seas of the Internet. Suddenly, I had all the packs at my disposal and I was so excited going through all these CAS items that I only ever saw in pack reviews on YouTube. But, that feeling faded quickly because I realized that I had seen most of them already in the form of CC mesh edits. I think what really put the nail in the coffin was seeing the DHD Items and realizing how many creators made their mesh edits and put them under early access w/o mentioning that they were just barely tweaked versions of an EA item.

I definitely had to take a step back from downloading CC after that, because I couldn’t view the creators I had admired so much in the same light as I had previously. All their creations were just kinda meh now that I had realized that they didn’t really create them at all and had just chopped it up and sold it as theirs. It was like finding out an artist you liked was just tracing everything and presenting it as theirs just because they changed the hairstyle.

Anyways, thanks for letting me ramble and keep on being awesome!

Nonny, I agree with everything you said. I went through this same thing as I realized more about cc creating and really how simple and repetitive some of my favorite cc was. I would be thinking a creator had super high quality work and was good at replicating EA's style... just to find out it was literally EA's meshes & textures just slightly tweaked. Considering how EA is (justifiably) shit on and used to be considered worse than cc creators, the situation has really taken a turn with maxis match creators. I really feel sorry for people that started simblrs in the last few years bc they will never know how you used to have 10x more content for FREE after a pack would drop, there would be repeats bc everyone was scrambling to make these little edits. Now the same 4-5 creators horde them under "add on" packs for extra money after people already paid EA for the pack. It's really just more microtransactions but it's from people that used to (seem to) care about the community & having fun but now just see dollar signs. I really honestly think they take those preview pics we get of all the items in a pack and seriously plan what they're going to slice and dice before the pack even comes out. And I think it's funny to criticize EA's every move (which i agree with tbh) when you're pretty much just a leech grabbing the work of the devs and stretching it as far as you can for your own gain. And they KNOW it's shady, that's why they hide and only pop in to post their cc, that's why they're super defensive, why they only talk to each other and have their lil secret discords where they pass around peoples names and get them banned from all their patreons while immediately chain blocking the people that criticize them on tumblr. The first minute I criticized early access (before I ever mentioned anyone by name), I got chain blocked by 5-8 big creators within a day, and i'm even blocked by maxismatchccworld by the same exact reason. They 1000% block out anyone they can and just collect a check every month off their basically- let's call it what it is- stolen work.

[dogsuffrage]

Here is my updated review of every game I have completed in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise. Have not yet completed Ishin, because it just wasn't the sort of combat I was into at the moment, but will definitely revisit. I always complete every substory. Reviews of 0-6 are pulled directly from my old review a few years ago, adding in the games I have played since.

1) Yakuza 0: obviously the most unique setting. Finally you can play as ol’ Mad Dog Majima. A consistently good story with good side content and I love the cabaret club. The pinnacle of the old engine combat. 80s!!!

2) Like a Dragon: They are actually so bold for switching to turn-based combat but it very much works. Great story, great mini games, and very fun combat that could use some tweaks but it's their first turn-based game so obviously. Dragged down only by the fact that I could like Yokohama more. But that's really only a slight dock against it, still extremely good.

3) Gaiden: Yes I'm putting the fucking spin off as 3rd place. Amazing blend of Yakuza and Judgment style combat. Really fun without feeling ridiculous. Coliseum was very fun. Story was my favorite so far. That one scene at the end broke me.

4) Yakuza 5: FIVE CITIES???? I feel like I went on a vacation. And FIVE CHARACTERS??? I love them all. Saejima’s is a lil boring. But there is so much variety. I love the bold choice to become a dancing game midway through for a bit. Made me cry a lot. Very close to being as good as 0. Love the diverse side stories.

5) Lost Judgment: Improves on Judgment in every way. Still honestly just not into Yagami, but I really enjoyed the school stories and Kaito Files.

6) Kiwami 2: Dragon Engine is controversial but I enjoy the shift to a style that makes you feel way more powerful. First person exploration literally changes the game. Super immersive, gorgeous. A technical marvel. Brought back the cabaret club!! Massive improvement from 6.

7) Judgment: This game showed off the new philosophy of combat that would be seen in this, Lost Judgment, and Gaiden, and I really enjoy how it balances strategy while still feeling insanely OP. That said, I found myself pretty bored with the story and Yagami's character. Not enough quality side cases or mini games to keep me engaged. The opposite of 3 in that I didn't care that much for the story but the combat rules.

8) Kiwami: it’s fine. rides on 0’s coattails. only good bc 0 was so good and the gameplay is basically identical. the OG story also helps. nishiki :(

9) Yakuza 6: First Dragon Engine game! Love the immersion and first person exploration and I enjoy the story follows 0 in diverging from the narrative mold the games tend to fall in but... it’s not a very good story. It definitely has its high moments tho. The characters are fun... but it’s blatantly unfinished. The baseball side story is very fun to me as is the bar conversation one, but it’s missing so many minigames and the combat is easily the most bland and uninspired in the series. It’s really poorly made combat wise. Kamurocho isn’t even finished. But I do love Onomichi. First fully fleshed out small town. Overall great potential but they literally did not finish it. You can feed stray kittens and rescue them though.

10) Yakuza 4: same as 5 in that I love having multiple characters. Great minigames. Honestly not much to write home about. This would be last if 3’s combat wasn’t so bad.

11) Yakuza 3: Listen. I love Ryukyu. I love Morning Glory and spending time with the kids. Also Rikiya my baby boy. It is the softest game in that sense. It beats 4 in both narrative and substory content. But the combat and leveling system sucks so hard man. That’s all.

12) Dead Souls: Not really sure why they made this one. Still enjoyed it but it's the worst one.

[jinxviolets]

hi friends!! i’d like to celebrate the end of 2021 (bizarre and not-so-spectacular as it was) by spreading some positivity. that’s why i’m bringing back this lil blogratey compliment thing to kick off 2022 with as much positive energy as i can! i’ll be doing aesthetic blogrates, traditional blogrates, character blogrates, and/or blog compliments 💞

if you want one:

you don’t have to be following me but if you wanna check out my blog that’d be cool!

reblog this post to spread the love!

send me an ask with:

🎉 for a traditional blograte

🎇 for an aesthetic blograte

✨ for a character blograte

💛 for a blog compliment

or any combo 2 blogrates + blog compliment (if you want one!)

(bonus: add your creations tag alongside any of these and i’ll choose a recent one i really like & tell you why!!)

blacklist #b:2022blogrates if you don’t want to see these!

i will be continuing this through january 3, 2022. if enough people want to participate at least lmao

blograte formats under the cut! happy new year, everyone!!

🎉 traditional blogrates

url: i missed the reference but good for you | ooo that’s cute | love love love | incredible, i’m jealous | KATE BISHOP

mobile theme: cute!! | omg so pretty | stunning what the heck | um sorry who allowed such beauty | YENNEFER

icon: nice nice | beautiful! | i’m in love | you didn’t have to go that hard but you did | VILLANELLE

theme: default | nice! | oh i vibe w this | very much dig it!! | MAEVE MILLAY

posts: not my thing but go you | heck yeah | koala tea content | absolutely gr9!! | FENNEC SHAND

following: no, but you’re wonderful! | i am now! | um duh of course | yes and ilysm!!!

🎇 aesthetic blogrates

color: deep blue | turquoise | lilac | sunset pink | poinsettia red | forest green | dandelion yellow

season: summer | fall | winter | spring

weather: rainy | foggy | sunny | snowy | dewy | windy | stormy

in the sky: sun | moon | stars | planet | comet

goddess: artemis | athena | hecate | persephone | aphrodite | demeter

creature: griffin | siren | sphinx | pegasus | dragon | phoenix

scent: firewood | cut grass | sea air | citrus | petrichor | cinnamon | pine | coffee

music genre: jazz | indie | folk | pop | lo-fi | rock | showtunes

✨ character blogrates

marvel: shang-chi | mj | sam | sylvie | monica | kate

star wars: luke | anakin | obi-wan | din | poe | finn | rey

ted lasso: ted | rebecca | keeley | roy | jamie | sam

schitt’s creek: david | alexis | johnny | moira | stevie | patrick

the good place: eleanor | chidi | tahani | jason | michael | janet

the witcher: geralt | jaskier | yennefer | ciri | triss | fringilla

merlin: merlin | arthur | gwen | morgana | gwaine | lancelot

[ckret2]

Alright let’s talk GVK spoilers!!!

My reactions as best I can remember them!

- love how Kong is humanized from the very first scene, like every time he shows up he’s humanized so much more than other titans are. If that was at the expense of other titans being made likable I wouldn’t enjoy it so much, but like, Godzilla is made pretty lovable over the course of Monsterverse, Mothra is too, and all the titans featured for long are given recognizable emotions that let us see them as more intelligent and feeling than “just” animals; so all of them are made understandable/likable/sympathetic. But of them all, Kong is the only one really humanized. Which makes sense, because like, big monkey! Basically our distant cousin!

- And they kept playing, like, normal songs for him, which cracked me up.

- I really appreciated how you could SEE the titans in this movie. After all the weather effects to hide the titans in KOTM, there was such a clear difference in this one from the very start. Kong in the daylight! Godzilla makes his first attack at night, and even then you can see him much more clearly than you can for most of KOTM! Nice!

- after the Iwi were portrayed as silent stoic witnesses in Skull Island, I really appreciated that they took an Iwi character, made her a main character, and gave her dialogue and a real role to play in the story while also keeping her deaf/mute. I think that was a good way to improve on the way that the Iwi got got sidelined in the last movie while still maintaining the worldbuilding!

- I didn’t appreciate so much that, y’know, they murdered the rest of her people off-screen in order to do it. Couldn’t they have gone “her parents died so she got adopted by a Monarch agent that was close to her family, but like, the rest of her tribe is fine”? Or at the very least “their island got fucked up so they had to be evacuated but like they’re settling in somewhere else”? “They’re living under this island dome with Kong and they know what’s up and Monarch’s keeping them in the loop and they decided they’re chill with their new dome home, but this one girl likes to go on adventures with Monarch”? Something? Did we have to kill them all off? Y’all make up an entire fictional indigenous culture and then murder them off-screen when you don’t need them? Just let them live.

- a few minutes in I was like “hold on, we’ve got two characters that speak sign language, we’ve got a giant gorilla, gorillas learn sign language, is there any reason they can’t teach Kong?” and then later I was like “OOOOOH!!” Humans and titans learning how to communicate with each other has been one of my favorite themes to explore in Monsterverse fanfic so I was absolutely tickled to see it getting explored in canon, too.

- That said I think it’s hilarious that the girl managed to teach Kong to sign without, like... anybody seeing. Kong’s hands are above the tree line and there are cameras everywhere, how did NOBODY with Monarch see him signing.

- Bernie’s weaponized being an annoying coworker to such a degree it can only be called an art, and I really appreciated it.

- Godzilla’s extra chonky in this movie and I dig it. Roomie noted he was extra crocodilian and I dig that too.

- “There’s been no confirmed titan sightings in three years” I don’t buy that for a minute. They’re BIG. Rodan NESTS IN VOLCANOES. They found a MOTHRA EGG. Humans have A SCARILY WELL-FUNDED ORGANIZATION DEDICATED SOLELY TO FOLLOWING TITANS AROUND. Like, most of the lore in GVK that I don’t personally like, I can be like “eh... I can tweak it just a little bit with headcanons to make it work for me...” but NO confirmed titan sightings? You expect me to believe ALL of them moved underground when we’d previously seen them all prefer to live above ground? You expect me to believe that now that they’re all AWAKE, they learned how to HIDE?? Uh-uh. And at the end of KOTM there was stuff in the credits about using titan droppings as biofuel, obviously they’re still walking around up top! Can’t take that from me. Nope.

- Who the FUCK is Ren Serizawa and how is he related to Ishiro Serizawa? IS he related? Maybe they just dropped the surname as another “yeah this is a Godzilla movie for Godzilla fans” easter egg but I have a hard time believing that he can’t be somehow related to the other character with the Very Important Last Name who was so important in the last two Godzilla movies. If he is related I’m sure it’s been explained in a tie-in comic or the novelization or something, I’ll look it up later.

- I had to look up how much weight huge battleships can carry while writing a KOTM fic where Ghidorah hitches a ride on one, and y’all, I had to pull weird gravity-negating magic to get him to ride on that boat. Godzilla and Kong woulda sunk that boat like a rock. All I could think during that scene is “this wouldn’t work and I know that because I DID THE RESEARCH and I wasn’t even getting PAID.” I’ll choose to believe that Monarch gets special heavy duty ships designed to carry titans but nobody mentioned it because it wasn’t relevant to Kong’s journey.

- The bit where they could see where Godzilla was swimming because he’d got half a ship hooked to him that was bobbing around on the surface, didn’t Jaws do something like that with a buoy? It’s been ages since I’ve seen Jaws. Anyway good reference.

- Insert “they’re gonna need a bigger boat” joke

- I LOVED the part where they shut down all the ships to get Godzilla to leave. Both because, one, it’s a spectacular callback to KOTM’s “turn off all the guns so he knows we’re not a threat” that makes it seem like now that’s just what Monarch knows what to do to get G to chill out, and two... we know that Godzilla backs off either when he’s killed his enemy or when his enemy has yielded to him. At the end of KOTM—and the end of GVK—the act of yielding is presented as very ceremonial and uniform across species: everyone lowers anything they’ve got that could be dangerous (claws, fangs, beaks, axes) and bows to show Godzilla they’re not gonna fight. Battleships, obviously, can’t bow, but even without being inducted into whatever secret titan cultural intricacies might be going on, humans have figured out their own way to “bow” to Godzilla: cut all the power, so their ships can’t move and can’t use weapons. I know the movie presented it as “playing dead,” but c’mon, if Godzilla could hear MechaG power up from halfway around the planet then he could hear that Kong’s heart was still beating, and he’s been around enough boats to know humans can turn them off and on when they want. The humans bowed to Godzilla. He accepted that they yielded and left.

- Mark Russell looked like such a dad in this movie, like he’s retired 100% from being a rugged action hero and now he’s just Pure Dad. I like him better when he’s a dad, it’s a good development for him. He got like 3 lines and I’m like “I appreciate this character development.”

- Despite all my qualms about how conspiracy theories and extremist groups are handled in Monsterverse (and WHICH conspiracy theories they decide to reference), I really love Madison and Bernie’s dynamic. The adult man who’s the excitable wide-eyed believer in every BS conspiracy you can possibly imagine; and then the serious, severe Teenage Girl On A Mission who’s hypercompetent because she was raised for five years by a friggin doomsday cult militia; and despite having wildly different personalities they’re just, in total agreement about everything. Handled just a BIT differently (like, leaving out the more gross IRL conspiracies) they would be a wildly fun comedic duo—especially with Josh the Only Sane Man coming along as the hapless sidekick. And they all play off of each other so well! Both in a comedic sense, and in more serious moments—when Bernie talked about his wife, there was a real moment of empathy between him and Madison with very little said. I’d watch an entire movie just about the three of them. I’d watch a TV show.

- On the one hand I wasn’t too much of a fan of KOTM’s “all titans... are inherently In Tune With Nature... nature has a Balance, because that’s a Real Thing and not an anthropocentric concept to describe how we like nature to act, and they automatically restore it... because they’re like, some kinda borderline divinities or something... we should probably be worshipping them...” thing; but, now that it was totally absent in GVK, I sorta miss it. Like I feel like there needs to be a balance, a few humans who are like “i lowkey worship these dudes?” and a few others who are like “they’re cool but like, that’s a lil extreme” and that neither side be presented as Right in how they regard titans’ relationship with nature.

- “All titans come from THE HOLLOW EARTH” nah I don’t buy that it’s silly. Basically, what I object to is the idea that all titans have some sort of intrinsic similarity (they all come from the same hitherto-unknown location; they all are part of the same pack that has the same alpha; they all are fueled/fed by the same energy source; etc) rather than letting them be SEPARATE species whose only unifying traits are “they’re all big enough to fuck everything up everywhere they go” and “they’re big enough that the typically-insurmountable barriers between different biomes (mountain ranges, valleys, long distances with terrible weather) aren’t insurmountable for them, so even if they’re specialized in different environments they still all have to deal with each other pretty often.” I’ll make some exceptions for convergent evolution (i.e., claiming multiple titans developed similar traits that are relatively easy to spontaneously evolve and a prerequisite for a creature to survive at such a large size). But I can’t buy “this big gorilla has more biologically in common with this big crocodile-iguana than he does with, say, gorillas,” or most of the other “all these titans have THIS IN COMMON” claims that Monsterverse makes, including “everyone’s from hollow earth.” So I’m tossing that out the window and substituting my own headcanons. Some might’ve evolved there but some evolved on the surface. Maybe a majority of them like ducking in and out of the hollow earth like some kind of titan shortcut system. Kong’s species, I can buy, IS native to hollow earth, considering that they built a whole-ass society down there with tools and architecture.

- I’m SO curious about the little underground Kong home, the Godzilla motif in the floor, and the axe that appeared to be made with a Godzilla scute. What’s the story there??? We know Godzilla’s species and Kong’s species are ancient rivals. Is it because Kong’s species hunted Godzilla’s to steal their scutes to make weapons, seeing them as a valuable resource the way, like, early humans considered woolly mammoths a valuable resource—thus making that Godzilla on the floor equivalent to cave art of mammoths made by people who hunted them—until the Godzillas got pissed and started fighting back en masse? Or were Godzillas and Kongs already enemies when Kongs decided to start making weapons out of their corpses? Did they use to be allies, fighting together, with Godzillas voluntarily offering shed scutes and/or bones of their deceased members to Kongs, and that place used to be a shared home until they started fighting?

- What about that power source, is it something that was already there that both Kongs and Godzillas started to deliberately harvest for technology/atomic breath? Or did Godzillas automatically channel that stuff and Kongs exploited/borrowed/traded with Godzillas to utilize it too? Or is the power from Godzillas who collaboratively poured a bunch of power into the place thus that Kongs were able to use it too? I doubt Godzilla’s species CREATED all that weird energy but the question remains of whether, like, they channel it FROM underground, or naturally produce the same thing in their own bodies, or what.

- Godzilla using his atomic breath to dig a hole STRAIGHT TO KONG just to KICK HIS ASS is hilarious. How lucky that Hong Kong just HAPPENS to be straight over Kong’s house! Were all the tunnels to the hollow earth made by pissed off Godzillas who wanted to kick monkey ass??

- I loved the aesthetic of the battle scene in Hong Kong, with the brightly colored neon building outlines, VERY cool look. The choreography of the battle scene was great too, especially

- we literally broke into applause when Kong shoved the axe handle in Godzilla’s mouth. Love it, perfect callback, that was the ONE thing from the original King Kong Vs Godzilla I was hoping to see referenced and there it was.

- You could really see a difference in how Kong and Godzilla fought—Kong doing a better job at using tools and the environment, Godzilla fighting more like a reptile. They seemed to emphasize Godzilla’s more animalistic behaviors in this movie to accomplish that contrast—he was down on all fours and moving like a crocodile more often, he was clawing at Kong’s chest—but even though it seemed a bit different of a combat technique it also didn’t seem out of place compared to how he fought in prior movies. And we’ve already seen that if Godzilla’s involved in a fight and one of the combatants knows how to use the environment, it’s typically not gonna be Godzilla. (See: Ghidorah using the reflection in a building’s windows to see what’s behind him, and recognizing a nearby power source and biting it to juice himself up.)

- So many of Godzilla’s enemies seem to have specialized in negating his atomic breath in order to combat him! The MUTOs directly suppress his ability to use it—and it makes sense that that’s an inborn ability they have, since they evolved to use Godzilla’s species as prey. Kong has a weapon that both acts as a shield to absorb the breath and turn it back against Godzilla’s species—they didn’t evolve to counter Godzilla, but they developed tools once a rivalry happened. Ghidorah’s the exception—which makes sense, since he came from space—but even at that we see him using tactics specifically to take into account Godzilla’s most powerful weapon (such as keeping one head on lookout for when he starts glowing so that they know when they need to dodge).

- LOVED the reveal that MechaG was based off of Ghidorah’s brain, it has vibes of both the Kiryu Saga and the way that Heisei MechaG is based off of Mecha-King Ghidorah. Not the most surprising plot twist, since we’d theorized that they might use San to make MechaG, but I wasn’t 100% sure they were gonna go with it until they finally did. Even when I was going “huh, the mecha pilot’s chamber looks weirdly organic” I didn’t make the connection to WHY until the reveal, lol.

- “Ghidorah’s necks are so long that the heads have to communicate with each other telepathically” that’s COMPLETELY WILD but I love it, it follows very well from their prior portrayal as telepathic empaths in Heisei, it lines up with their emphasis on electricity (because BRAINWAVES AND ELECTRICITY, hey ho movie monster pseudo science!), and it very much compliments my own private headcanon that they’ve got some psychic/mind control abilities.

- The movie ended with both “Godzilla won, technically” but also “since they teamed up as equals, the ending doesn’t FEEL like ‘Godzilla wins, Kong loses’ but rather ‘they both won against a common foe’” and since I’m on both Team Godzilla and Team They Should Be Friends, I’m happy with this outcome. Plus since the last time they fought, the Japanese movie company graciously let the American monster win, so it’s only polite that the American movie company graciously let the Japanese monster win.

- There were just a few too many humans in this movie. I was intrigued by Ren but we didn’t get much out of him, but like I guess somebody had to be in the pilot’s seat other than the Apex CEO. Didn’t care for the author of the hollow earth book, I feel like his role was superfluous. Didn’t need the Apex CEO’s daughter there at all, coulda done without her. How about this, combine all three roles. Instead of having a whole-ass author who knows about the hollow earth, just casually reference that Rick from KOTM wrote a book about it since he was the expert, and (since he wasn’t in this movie) say that he tragically died going to explore the hollow earth himself, and that way we’ve got the book with the “titans are from there” theory AND an excuse to share the “humans die when they go underground” info. Now, have Ren be working for Apex as a pilot for Mechagodzilla, but have him be MechaG’s pilot because he’s also a good pilot in general, and can fly those HEAV things. Have Apex send him to Monarch to be like “hey, you guys trust me right, since I’m Ishiro Serizawa’s relative? We at Apex have heard all about your failed hollow earth expedition, and due to Ishiro I’ve got some past ties to Monarch so I’ve got high clearance with y’all, so I could bring over this useful Apex tech that’d let you go underground and use what I know about hollow earth from my past time at Monarch to help guide things.” Once they’ve got the little chunk of energy stuff and go topside, he hustles it straight to Apex and straps into his seat to run MechaG. Bam, you’ve combined “person who knows enough about hollow earth to help the expedition,” “person who represents Apex’s interests and gets the energy,” and “person who pilots MechaG” into one character, in a way that takes three flat/underdeveloped characters and turns them into a single interesting character with a lot going on and some intriguing ties to the rest of the cast.

I think that’s everything?? Hoo.

[taonsil]

end of year fic summary \o/

this is copied over from dw so isn’t a tagging thing, but please do take it if you want~ it was in shareable format originally.

dhjfd I set my w/c goal at half of what my actual output was last year because I hoped to do more art, I didn’t realise it was gonna be because of the block from hell. but! the last minute burst of enthusiasm at the end of the year got me there, just makes for a pretty repetitive summary orz

january: - february: autochoris yeol, chansoo drabble march: april: may: june: round trip july: watch the time cause no one's watchin' august: september: october: suyeol drabble november: sparkle dust, unbeleafable december: useless husbands wip!

total number of fics (edited and reuploaded drabbles included): 7

total word count: 61k

favorite: gonna have a lot of same-y answers this year as there's less to pick from OTL but favourite, definitely unbeleafable. I really had a love-hate relationship with creating it, but I'm so pleased with the final result. It's a 'verse I'd happily have continued writing if there hadn't been a deadline

the best: unbeleafable. maybe it was due to lack of practice or coming out the other side of a massive writers block, but my style changed a little and I think it really benefited this fic! but also it was my first real attempt at writing explicitly nd characters and a plot that revolved around those themes. I'm the first to hold my hands up to my first attempts at other subjects having been clumsy, so I feel like I spent months just tweaking and editing it;; I really bonded with the characters in this (and the sideplots/supporting characters) n, yeah, it's just something I'm really proud of

most underappreciated by the universe: round trip! it's probably the only true gen fic I've ever written, and pokemon au. I found it very fun and cutesy to work on and (again, probably bc of the block that was getting me down most of the year) I was pretty happy with how the details worked into it. it's not super interesting, but I did hope it would be enjoyed ;u;

most fun to write: sparkle dust and unbeleafable. sparkle dust was ripped from a draft I created around march, and it was awful. it was when I could barely string a sentence together. it got real fun rewriting it once I felt back on my feet and feeling more confident of the direction it was going in, and that it's on a subject I enjoy, as well as knowing it was a gift for cat :'D unbeleafable was much the same - I started it in may, dusted it off in october and basically rewrote the entire thing at a personal best speed once I felt connected to it and comfortable with how the writing was going (and I enjoyed adding in little details so much, I was honestly laughing like a loser at some scenes while I was working on them). also the gross husbands wip I’m working on rn, it’s 6k in and I’m enjoying it a lotttt

sexiest: I mean..it's sparkle dust bc its the only one with actual sex in lol (if it could go to a character it would be tao in watch the time though, before he knows that yeol isn't up for anything his dialogue and actions are pretty sexual). and the wip but I can’t really talk about it cause it’s not up yet D:

“holy crap that’s wrong even for you”: everything was just standard Me this year imo.. it's not /wrong/ in any way, but writing an explicitly autochoris fic was pushing my own boundaries wrt comfort writing a subject. I mean I guess a sloppy blowjob wasn’t very Me but

fic that shifted my own perception of the characters: unbeleafable and watch the time. watch the time because that was also lifted from an old (2015) work, and writing the 'verse in more detail changed the character's attitudes. it's the first time I've written a tao who is so charming, mature and relationship driven, while cy is softer and more anxious (where as previously he was usually my filler character when I needed someone loud). and unbeleafable was just uh..honestly jm's depression was an afterthought. it wasn't in the original outline (which in fairness was only aiming for a 4k meet-cute, not the extensive slow burn it turned into). that his depression started to become detailed and was then a major plot point basically developed as I wrote, and I was backtracking to adjust earlier details to fit it. that jm really defined himself and I had to catch up;;

hardest to do: watch the time, god. I think I spent four months on it. I can't even words how terrible my block was this year, it really got me down. even when I was writing stuff that I can look back at now and see was ok, it was like I couldn't even tell if what I was reading made sense. it's the slowest I've ever worked on something and it was a really painful process, but I loved the idea of it so it felt like something good to work on when I was in a bad spot. (unbeleafable caught some of that too - I was poking around the same 5k of it for several months and considered dumping it so many times orz)

biggest disappointment: sparkle dust..a bit..bc I'm still terrible at smut lmao even with the context of the scene I just feel I could have done it better

most telling: I mean, everything. watch the time is chantao, ace themes, gender themes, (there's even a mention of tao's tattoo) it's a very very Me fic. a few people guessed unbeleafable was me. in a different sense that was telling, because I wanted yeol to be so loveable and worked hard to portray issues that matter to me in good lights

a thing I’m surprised at: that my w/c is as high as it is all considered djhf but no like, really the biggest surprise I've ever had in all my time writing fic was how positive the response to unbeleafable was. I was so genuinely shocked, I was even saving screenshots of some of the comments in case they were deleted or something. I still am surprised tbh.

what pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you never would have predicted in January? chantao and chansoo were probably the only thing I did expect tbh. pokemon au, subaek smut, suyeol..none of that was exactly what I anticipated, considering last year and previous was mostly focal around suchen and sutaohun

story with single sweetest moment? hnnn the lil chansoo drabble about yeol cutting his hair is overall entirely affection based. and there's two scenes in unbeleafable - when cy hugs jm after their sort-of-date and jm buries into it, and when cy offers jm his sleeve to hold while they're talking. (djhfd also this marrieds wip. they’re Very married, there’s a lot of gross husband-ing)

the story that made you cry: unbeleafable 🌿 the entire theme of it is personal to me, both yeol's autism and jm's depression. at times I was letting it write itself, and I got quite upset when they reached the point of being unsure if their communication issue would resolve. it was hard writing those scenes, because I absolutely couldn't change yeol's character to make it easier, but at the same time I really felt for how desperate and hurt jm was. (also in a nice-cry kinda way when they resolved things I was just, YES ; A;) (hmm also watch the time a lil bit when they had the confrontation and yeol was sure they’d have to break up)

easiest story to write: round trip was kind of a breakthrough wrt the block, after a lot of struggling it came pretty easy and got done in a day or two~

most overdue story: watch the time. I've wanted to write about sex repulsion for a long time but always skirted around it. also literally, seeing as it took me months longer to complete than intended :'D

did you take any writing risks this year? what did you learn from them? mmm kind of, in the subjects I chose. writing about an autochoris experience and writing a repulsed ace wasn't uncharacteristic for me but my confidence was very low at the time and I felt very uncomfortable about it. and unbeleafable honestly terrified me, I felt so vulnerable waiting for that to post and probably wouldn't have done it if it weren't for the fact it was anon initially. for me it felt like a big risk posting something that I felt could get a bad reception to an fest. I nearly contacted the mods at one point to ask them if it was even a good idea orz (also I feel my style just..changed somewhere, idk, but I decided to go with it instead of trying to change it back. its going ok ??)

in regards to writing, what did you learn this year: dghfd that blocks do end and that forcing yourself to produce has varied success. most importantly, I learned that sometimes bad things /dont/ happen :P

do you have any fanfic goals for the new year? I'm gradually working through my list! from last year I've achieved 4k+ averages for smaller fics and also writing 15k+ longer ones. and even managed something rated :P hmm idk though. I've always said 'more plot and a chaptered fic', but I wonder if I even want to do that anymore? it was more just something to tick off than a personal goal. I kinda would still like to write something plot driven but I'm accepting that my niche is what it is and it's probably what I'm best at/won't get bored doing. it feels like it's taken me until now to really decide and gain the confidence to write about the kind of people I want. so a very gentle goal for the new year would just be regaining my confidence, getting around to making that inspiration/techniques page I've always meant to have, continuing to polish up my style, and enjoying! writing!! again so I can get back to having fun !! upping suyeol’s page count also sweats

[saranel]

Do you think UraYoru has lil parallelism with IchiRuki bond and chemistry ???? 😊😆🐕🎩 🐇🍓✨

Tagging @cocosy who asked the same question

I think they have some big differences in terms of dynamic, seeing as how the personalities and combinations involved are quite dissimilar, but I can definitely see ways in which they are alike.

Fights against Yammy are pretty romantic, I guess?

(more under the cut)

1. Chemistry

Okay, let’s start with the obvious one! There’s a reason both are such popular pairings (the most popular for each character by far), and chemistry has a lot to do with it.

Anyone who’s ever done any creative writing can attest to this, but certain characters simply take over and do the work for you, so to speak, once you become familiar enough with them.  I’ve only ever written the one IchiRuki fic, but when I tried to write dialogue for them, it just… flowed.  Same with Kisuke and Yoruichi.  I may have to tweak and polish to get the final result feeling as IC as I can make it, but the way they interact with each other feels natural and easy to replicate on paper.

And it’s all due to the fact that these two pairs have been set up in canon to work so well together.  Both Ichigo and Kisuke interact with plenty of other characters in the story with fun results, but when they interact with Rukia and Yoruichi respectively?  That’s when we get sparks. 

2. Bond

As a pair with such a long history, Kisuke and Yoruichi have an understandably deep connection.  There’s little doubt in my mind that they ‘clicked’ from the start, whenever that may have been, but there’s no denying that their centuries-spanning relationship contributes to their intimacy (both platonic and romantic).

For earlier adopters of the manga, I imagine the wait from the moment Yoruichi first gave the audience a glimpse of her shared past with Kisuke, to seeing them share panel time again must’ve built a lot of hype.  Kubo went on to be a tease for years concerning those two.  The nature of their relationship was even brought up in Kisuke’s Radio Kon interview, so this was obviously something the readers were wondering about from early on.  

And I think that one of the earliest events of the Arrancar arc was basically Kubo’s response to the audience’s rising curiosity:

Kisuke and Yoruichi were a big mystery to us at that point (NOT TO MENTION ELEVEN YEARS LATER), and Kubo displays some tremendous, economical storytelling here by giving us a succinct, yet rich answer as to what exactly Kisuke and Yoruichi are to each other:

Partners.

In every sense of the word.

I’ve often seen fans talk about the shadier aspects of Kisuke’s character and exclaim, aghast, “Does Yoruichi even know about this?!!!” and it always makes me laugh.  Because honestly, does anyone truly believe there is a single thing Yoruichi doesn’t know about him by this point?

Yoruichi knows exactly who this man is and she accepts him, warts and all. And vice versa. 

They know each other well enough that words are hardly ever needed:

And this is why it astounds me that Ichigo and Rukia reach such a level of understanding in only a few short months.  

Like I said, I firmly believe that Kisuke and Yoruichi were also a pair that developed a deep bond very fast, but given their long-standing relationship, they serve as an example of an unbreakable bond in the manga.  No one in their right mind is going to dispute those two are close, so when it becomes easy to draw a comparison between them and other pairs in the manga, that’s when you know it’s real:

^^^ What she actually says is more along the lines of: “Well I thought I might as well use this piece of crap you made so you wouldn’t whine, but without it, I would’ve dodged just fine!”  which is a tsundere’s way of saying ‘I love you’

And now you know why Kisuke wears that little half-smile in that panel ;)

3. Personalities

A few months ago, I made this super long post about the bond between mentor and student, and in writing it, I was surprised to discover ways in which Kisuke and Ichigo are alike that I hadn’t considered before. 

I like to think that this is one of the reasons Kisuke chose to mentor Ichigo: because he sees everything good about himself in his student, but none of his worse qualities. He sees a version of himself that was once more optimistic and a little less pragmatic, fiercely protective in a way that bordered on carelessness. 

Kisuke was a lot like Ichigo before the events of TBTP and his exile, and though he learned to trust in his subordinates and colleagues, his more sentimental side always shines through when someone he loves is in danger, façade and common sense be damned.  He couldn’t stop himself from following Hiyori, and he couldn’t stop himself from rushing to Yoruichi’s aid, either, instead of joining Ichigo against Yhwach.  

Similarly, Ichigo is the ‘softie’ of the pair to contrast Rukia’s stricter, more militaristic personality.  It’s Ichigo who found a little ‘sister’ to protect in the middle of the damn Hueco Mundo desert, Ichigo who will fiercely defend and show concern for people who were once his enemies:

It’s Kisuke and Ichigo who will drive away even the people they love in order to protect them (it’s worth noting that Rukia also does this at a certain point, but the circumstances are different and I’ll get to why shortly):

And it’s a similarity Kisuke himself remarks upon:

That’s not to say that Rukia and Yoruichi are cold in comparison, or not just as protective; not by a long shot.  But perhaps because they were both raised as nobility, they often fight a visible war with their own feelings:

In Yoruichi’s case, this is far more pronounced, to the point that she appears borderline emotionally stunted at times (see: tsundere).  Yoruichi was most likely taught that emotions are a weakness since she was a child (see: Byakuya, too).  I have this headcanon (last section) that Yoruichi must’ve been a very lonely child before she met Kisuke, carrying the immense weight of a legacy on her shoulders from a very young age.  And if, as I suspect, she had to compete with other candidates to earn the title of Clan Head, she was forced to sacrifice many things about herself in the altar of duty.    

Rukia’s upbringing for the first few years of her life was radically different, but we know for a fact that she was forced to grow up fast, in order to survive on her own in the Rukongai.  When she lost every single friend but Renji, she was the one who kept on pressing forward, the one who suggested entering the Academy.  And in a perfect storm of terrible events, her own feelings of inadequacy were only exacerbated when she was adopted by the Kuchiki Clan and treated so abysmally by Byakuya.  Rukia has been swallowing her own feelings since she could crawl: she swallowed the pain of being alone for a big part of her childhood so she could toughen up and survive, she swallowed the pain of losing her friends, the pain of under-performing in the academy, of being so blatantly ignored by Byakuya, the tremendous guilt over what happened with Kaien. 

What’s fascinating to me is that despite all this pressure, despite their loyalty and recorded sense of duty to the Gotei, both these women are in possession of a heart that always steers them in the right direction when it matters:

At this point, even Rukia has resigned herself to the fact that Ichigo is going to die.  She doesn’t think there’s any chance of survival, and yet instead of begging and pleading for forgiveness, for mercy, she doesn’t hesitate to make matters even worse for herself. She is literally throwing her life away just so she can be there for him in his final moments.

And then, of course, there’s this:

Do I even need to say anything here?

Yoruichi was a woman who had everything: beauty, wealth, status, respect, power, a family, friends, apprentices, and she left it all behind without a moment’s hesitation, when she didn’t even have to.

Both these women seem to struggle with expressing affection at times, but their actions always speak louder than words.  And when it comes to giving their men a swift kick up the ass when they desperately need it, they don’t hesitate even for a second:

4. Bonus: Design

It’s a well-known fact that Kubo’s original concept art for Bleach (then ‘Snipe’) had Ichigo in glasses, with black hair, but he famously changed the design specifically so it would match Rukia’s:

“Before the story was decided a Shingami uniform popped up into my mind. Unlike the design we have now it was like a uniform from Catholic school where they wore a black jacket over a white blouse with a black bowtie… and they carried a huge scissors. I thought that was what Shinigami was like. After that, to match Rukia’s design I changed Ichigo’s character design. Like Rukia had black hair so it’s best if Ichigo didn’t have black hair.”  

– Tite Kubo

And I just… I live for this kind of crap in fiction, because when it’s applied to a pair that already works well on so many different levels, it becomes the icing on the cake:

THEY LOOK SO DAMN GOOD TOGETHER.  

I love that they’re opposites in many ways, but still similar in plenty of others.  There’s always a great deal of love for pairs that are completely opposite, but from personal experience, these kinds of relationships aren’t built to last.  Give me pairs that complement each other, not pairs that are always in disagreement.  Pairs that challenge each other, but can still coexist harmoniously.  Ichigo and Rukia have their moments of tension, there’s spark, there’s passion, but they’re on the same wavelength where it counts.

And I can’t help but feel this also applies to Kisuke and Yoruichi to a T.

Kubo never made a similar declaration about Kisuke and Yoruichi’s design, but looking at this panel*** makes me think that he applied the same design philosophy here as well.

Black hair, fair hair; dark skin, pale skin; black uniform with white obi, white uniform with black obi; black turtleneck, white undershirt.

Even in their color versions, they are created to look harmonious: the pale yellow of Kisuke’s hair is complementary (i.e. opposite on the color wheel) to the purple undertones in Yoruichi’s; her golden eyes are similarly complementary to his bluish grey eyes; green, purple and orange form a color triad:

Yoruichi shows up early enough in the manga (albeit in her cat form) to make me think that Kubo conceived of Kisuke and Yoruichi as a pair from the beginning.  They were designed to look good together, and they do.  

*** Not to mention that in the manga, this panel is framed in black, making it a memory.  And since it’s Yoruichi speaking, this is her memory.  Notice how Kisuke looks on ahead, looking happy and lively, while Yoruichi is the one who’s looking at him, showcasing a gentle, affectionate smile we’ve never seen before or since in the manga.  

She’s always been a happy, laid-back person, but expressions of open, genuine affection are extremely rare from her, and the fact that she looks at him with such pride, smiles at him so softly, is really all the proof I need, tbh.

[throughbrookeseyes-blog]

Capstone 2: Rhetorical Analysis From Hell

"25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going" is an article edited by Nitsuh Abebe.  This article is a long and complicated collage of abstract essays written by 25 different authors.  This article is more like an art exhibit showcasing 25 pieces of work with multiple different outlooks, but Abebe is the curator taking the initiative to display these pieces of work in this journal exhibit of sorts.  These 25 essays concern the musical artists, their public images and their backgrounds, rather than the music itself like the title implies.  Not only is Abebe's title misleading, but his thesis lacks clarity to what his main point of the article is.  After reading this article in its entirety, it's still not clear to me as a reader where music is going.  Abebe's attempt at editing this multimodal article is overall unsuccessful because he lacks organization and structure in the piece.  As a curator of written and visual works, Abebe lacks a clear thesis and connectivity of his main point to his supporting evidence.  

There is hardly any cohesion or connectiveness throughout the article, from its weak thesis all the way to the voice and style of all the different authors.  The biggest problem regarding cohesion was the lack of a strong and clear thesis. Even after reading this multiple times, I'm not sure what Abebe's main point really is.  He implies that it's about identity, but whose identity?  Is it the music’s cultural identity, the artists identity and their background, or the identity of the audience? This is the only clue Abebe provides his readers in the introduction to what the main point really is:

“This is what we talk about now, the music-makers and the music-listeners both. Not the fine details of genre and style — everyone, allegedly, listens to everything now — but the networks of identity that float within them.”

Even though the thesis is not clear enough for formulate an opinion, one thing I am positive of is that this article has nothing to do with where music is going.   Not having a clear thesis brings the credibility of his article down a notch and confuses the reader.  I'm not implying that because Abebe has a weak thesis that his article is altogether awful; there is still some strong evidence present. However, the good parts get lost in the shuffle because he doesn't make the proper connections to clarify his main point whatever it may be. 

Another confusing aspect of this article is how scattered the voices and styles are; this is to be expected when you use so many different authors as examples but it doesn't make it less confusing. This is yet another reason why Abebe needs to provide more of his own voice and style in the piece.  He can achieve this through transition paragraphs and a conclusion, so the reader can have some consistency in the voice and style.

One main structural issue is the lack of transitions between essays. The article jumps from one piece of evidence to the next offering absolutely no flow.  This makes the piece quite confusing and choppy.  By providing transition paragraphs Abebe could connect his evidence together and clarify his main point, which would clear up some of the readers’ confusion.  For example, the ending of the 7th song “One Night” by Lil Yachty and the beginning of the 8th song “Rewind” by Kelela have no transition between them to ease this shift in evidence that the different authors provide.  The last paragraph of the 7th essay written by Jamie Lauren Keiles states:

“It might all be a gimmick, but it doesn’t feel random. If rap music is founded on a process of layering — autobiography with references and samples — then Yachty does the same for the rap career itself, mixing what’s trending with the right group of friends and tying it together with the loose thread of a sound. If it isn’t good rap, then it’s the perfect kind of music for those of us barely treading water in the zeitgeist, who can’t understand new music by ear. Yachty had to do his research, just like the rest of us.”

This paragraph focuses on how Yachty constructs his music through research and meticulous planning, then Abebe completely switches gears to Kelela’s musical aesthetic and public image in the beginning of the 8th essay written by Jenna Wortham:

“The 33-year-old musician Kelela favors the kind of fashion aesthetic that science-fiction films sometimes use to signify characters from the future: gravity-defying materials in iridescent or metallic colors...She raised her hands and gave a hard stare to the crowd. ‘My mission tonight,’ she said, ‘is to show the breadth of R.&B. music. It has influenced every genre, pretty much, so anyone who thinks it is basic or rudimentary has another thing coming.’”

Abebe could improve his article immensely if he just provided his readers transition paragraphs between the essays, connecting the beginning of one essay to the ending of the previous one.  This would not only help him to tie his evidence back to his original thesis and strengthen his argument, but also to shift more smoothly to his next piece of evidence which would help to reduce the overall choppiness and clear up some of the confusion.  To make this clear, Abebe is simply the editor or the curator of this article not the actual author.  So therefore he needs to provide some guidance to his audience in the form of transition paragraphs, like how art exhibits provide the viewers with descriptive plaques explaining what each piece is and the relationship to exhibits theme.    

Another structural problem is how long the article is, and since there are no transitions to connect the pieces together, the main point is completely lost by the end.  Abebe make a big mistake when he provided absolutely no conclusion to finalize and wrap up his ideas.  Instead the piece just abruptly ends leaving the reader quite confused to what just happened.  He could also improve his article by changing the title because the current one is misleading.  Abebe probably used this title to draw readers in but the introduction might have made them stop reading altogether when they realized his main point is actually concerning identity rather than the songs themselves.

Lastly, the multimodality of the article was enjoyable yet still had its problems. One aspect that was thoroughly enjoyable was the accessibility of the music playlist on the side of the page.  It provided all the songs at the tips of the readers fingers, so the reader didn’t have to scroll for hours trying to find a particular song to refer back to.  Abebe also provided the same access at the beginning of each essay.  The song, artist, and the ability to play the song were all displayed, along with the title of the essay and the authors name.

However, even with these few easily accessible parts, the rest of the article was harder to navigate.  For instance, the pictures used are far too big, some even take up the whole screen and you still have to scroll to see the whole picture. The picture of Kelela in the 8th song is a perfect example of this issue.  Another issue is the consistency of the song introductions at the beginning of each essay, some are small and minimal while others color blocked the whole page. The difference can be seen very clearly between the 18th  song “Fade” by Kanye West and the 19th song “Trolley Song” by Cecile McLorin Salvant. One last aspect that is unenjoyable is how the music plays out of nowhere when you scroll through the article, there should be some type of warning for the readers so they don’t receive such a shock.

Perhaps Abebe could clarify the main point of this article by changing the title but also by being more deliberate in his introduction, since that is the only place where his voice is truly heard. Overall Abebe needs to actively include his voice more into this piece, through the use of integrating a conclusion and transition paragraphs.  This is important so the article isn’t seen as just a collage of essays, but rather a methodically planned assortment of essays concerning the identity of music.  The changes that need to happen on the multimodal aspect of the article are minor problems compared to the far superior complications of structure and cohesion.  These multimodal issues can be tweaked after the structural ones are dealt with, like rearranging the spotlights after the art is set in proper place at this hypothetical journal exhibit curated by Abebe.