#this is completely out of context but I think it’s still a banger of a sentence

[rippeanuts1950-2000]

ugh, favorite sentence i’ve written so far

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

For @orange-artist ‘s ASL god AU DTIYS! (congrats on the milestone!)

This was really fun, I absolutely love drawing ethereal designs

Additional notes 👇

So i adjusted the original designs ... a bit... To draw in my style means that i have to make everything extra, sorry.

Ace:

I like the base design for Ace a lot! i looked at other posts to get more context to these outfits and i say this draping billowy pants design that i liked a lot more, so I used that instead of the ones he has in the picture.

I love his cute little star crown, i think it looks dope as hell. I wanted to bring it to other parts of him too, so I gave him an arm cuff with it, too! If i had drawn the front of him, you would also see that crown design around his waist as a belt, too.

i originally had him in a pose similar to the one he has in the original, but after i sketched out the other two poses i found he looked a little two flat, so i brought his hand out to the foreground.

I like the choice for his hair to gradient out to look like a comet! I had a lot of trouble trying to make it look Just Right, but i think I nailed it

Luffy:

I didn't change much about his design, I really just made him a little more yellow than he was before. Its hard to improve an already banger design. He's my ethereal silly guy...

I really love the idea of Luffy's scars looking like gold, that's really cool.

I wish I could've added that cold crown he has around his head, but i didn't know how to without it looking sloppy so i had to leave it out.

Sabo:

I changed so much about Sabo's design, i would like to send out a formal apology for it, I admit I went a little too ham. I had already completed the picture before i went back to look at the original post and saw the comments about how Sabo was supposed to look... discreet...... I... Did Not Make Him Discreet. In The Slightest. :DDD ehe

I needed help for Sabo's pose because i was having so much trouble with the hand, i called upon my good website friend JustSketchMe to get it right. I had this idea for the pose because i wanted the claw to look like a crescent moon, I think it looks pretty good.

I would've given him normal snakebite piercings too but i felt that the ring piercings looked more Crescent-like, so i went with that.

Moon belt. i want that moon belt. I have no outfits it would go with. but i still want it.

I love Sabo's whispies that he has in the original design, but when I put them in the art i had, it cluttered up the piece too much and I had to get rid of them. A moment of silence for the fallen whispies...

Noticing now I forgot Sabo's Cane..... oops.

General:

I shaded Luffy to be lighted by the sun, Sabo the moon, but i made Ace be the light for himself. There's some deep meaning to that, but I cant think of one right now.

I had a lot of fun drawing this, i hope i was failthful enough to the original designs even though i changed everything a lot :)

Drinking game: take a shot everytime I used the word "I", take a double shot each time i forgot to capitalize it, too. You will be Dead by the end of the post, though.

[zettaireido-emotion]

Camus character analysis: games VS anime

If you finished the Uta no Prince-sama anime and your opinion of this man is "wow, he's kinda terrible," I don't blame you. in fact I've seen a lot of people say this

In this post, I want to talk about his characterization in the games and give my two cents on what the anime was trying to do with him, especially in his single focus episode Saintly Territory (S3E6).

Disclaimer: I wrote this on a whim because I'm sick and stuck at home so if anyone reads this, sorry I might go all over the place

Spoilers for all of the games!

The "be my slave" thing

Starting with Anime Camus's most egregious crime: treating Haruka like a servant/slave (however you want to translate it)

Basically in his focus episode, Haruka is tasked with writing a song for Camus. She wants to learn more about him in order to write it, but Camus will only let her follow him if she acts as his servant. She accepts without complaining, Cecil is rightfully angry, Haruka continues anyway and the song gets completed.

Now, am I about to say that Game Camus would never do this? No because he literally does lmao.

The anime doesn't pull this "servant" plotline out of nowhere, here's the context in his route:

Haruka accidentally overhears Camus talking about a plot to assassinate Saotome on the phone. When he notices that she heard everything, he basically tells her that he has to kill her now. But if she served him, he'd be able to keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't leak anything, so she could escape death.

Okay uh "work under me or DIE" isn't exactly better, nor is it a good start to a love story, but I'm not finished!!

(A side note: I have to add that the anime made him look like an even bigger asshole and borderline dumb when it came to the things he made her do. Like he expected her to know that snapping your fingers means you want coffee without prior explanation. bro

^This might have been for comedic effect but I promise he can be actually funny and endearing.)

What the anime couldn't cover

The Camus episode wraps up with Haruka pulling through and writing a song that makes Camus "sincere," he says it's cool at the very end and that's the episode. I think the problem is that we technically didn't see him being sincere or what that even means to him, besides when he was singing (banger song btw)

It's a shame because in a 20-minute episode you really can't show the game experience of slowly piecing together what this man's problem is.

First of all, in Debut and AS you'll be quick to notice that he always has homeland and duty on the mind, constantly reminding himself that he's in Shining Agency/Japan for a reason, and it's NOT to have fun or make friends

The truth is, he slowly starts to appreciate the banter with his colleagues, music, and working there in general.

But because of his initial mindset, he has to rationalize & justify every connection he forms, like "it's just for work" or worse: "actually it was ALL A LIE and I NEVER ENJOYED A SECOND OF THE TIME WE SPENT TOGETHER, I'm such a great actor haha"

He uses that to fool himself and to push the other person away so it doesn't happen again. This scene is probably the best example:

(I'll be using google lens because it's faster but I checked that the tls were okay)

He also does this in the Non-Fiction drama, which may or may not have actually happened, but I think it's still a pretty good reflection of what could happen in reality because he tells Ranmaru their bond was a lie, then mopes around in his guilt thinking about the good times and wondering why he's sad, and THEN later doubles down on the "it was a lie, I don't care about you" because he just can't let himself get attached to anything.

Basically, he's terrified at the thought of forming actual bonds because he genuinely thinks he's nothing if he stops being a cold weapon:

At one point he does admit he sucks (as a love interest)-

-which is pretty huge by utapri standards. I love these games, but the amount of times where a male lead does something icky, and everyone, including Haruka, acts like it's normal or like it's Haruka's fault is ehhh but I digress

Upbringing

Of course he's very proud of his homeland and status, but sometimes it's to the point of thinking he can't be anything other than his title. So why is he like this?

We got to hear about his childhood from Camus himself a few times, and it often ended with Haruka thinking "wait? that's kinda messed up?" and Camus insisting it's nothing/it's normal so yeah that's something...

His parents were in an unhappy arranged marriage, and his mother was forced to birth an heir which traumatized her so much that she can't see Camus without falling ill. Overall it's a pretty tragic situation since what happened to her was horrible, though not Camus's fault either. Even now she refuses to see him, and I wouldn't say that makes him sad because he never really met her, but simply knowing of her sacrifice probably adds a lot of pressure. As in, he only exists for this one purpose (inheriting his father's title and serving the country), so if he doesn't play his part correctly, it would have all been for nothing.

He was raised by his father not as a child or son but as the heir, always treated and judged as an adult (even during physical training apparently, make of that what you will)

When Haruka asks about childhood memories he has a very hard time finding something that doesn't have to do with his duties or the nation. And then admits he didn't truly have a "childhood" since he was never treated like a child

As for the queen, I think his love for her is sincere: she taught him a lot of things growing up, and according to him, she's also a victim trapped by her duties so he wants to ease the burden.

So hypothetically, if he found things or people that made him happy in Japan, he would feel obligated to lock them away because that happiness is incompatible with his life: he'll have to leave when his mission ends, he shouldn't be spending time on things that aren't "useful" as he doesn't have the free will to pursue them

In his mind he's completely tied down by the fact that he was born and raised for a single reason, and the fact that he does want to serve the queen.

(This is Saotome describing him btw)

Also it might sound ridiculous to bring his self-worth into question because of how pretentious he is, but I've counted a few situations where he seemed to have complete disregard for his own life, only worrying about Haruka and Cecil's safety in scenes when they were present. And he thinks wanting to be loved unconditionally is a childish thought he shouldn't have.

"Double Face" was a lie. There's like at least 10 layers

On the surface he does have two personas, his perfect polite butler act for the media, and his cold bitchy attitude off camera. But honestly, even when he's not acting as a butler, he's often putting up a front to hide any form of vulnerability (from himself as well)

His main struggle is finding who he is outside of what he's being told to do. Before, he never actually stopped to think about what he WANTS because it just never occurs to him, or if it does he ignores it.

That's why realizing that he has his own desires is essential to his character development, and him staying with Quartet Night (and Haruka in his routes) is so important. It's why Reiji feels the need to reach out and when he does, Camus either freezes up or tears up;

This all makes him the opposite of Ranmaru (being true to yourself and sincere), and similar to Ai (gradually learning to view the world in a less cold and logical way), but I kind of want to save that for another post lmao

He is especially hard on Cecil because Cecil says & does whatever he wants, and everything still works out for him, which is a way of life that Camus can't imagine for himself at all (despite maybe wanting it?)

That he can realize this and eventually admit out loud, despite all his pride, is also one of my favorite things about him

Season 2 does hint at something, so that's pretty cool!

Side note, I really love that his theme in the new Oracle series is "Change," the melting of ice.

So what was the anime supposed to do??

Of course there's no way to show all this in a single episode or even during the runtime of the anime, and I never expected them to because the story is very surface-level (that goes for all characters).

It's just unfortunate since the anime is the most accessible and well-known utapri media in the western fandom, and the character's main episode is bound to leave the biggest impression.

I understand the choice of being laser-focused on the servant plotline, it's supposed to be funny (?) and waters him down to a trope that's easy to understand at first glance (the step-on-me guy I guess)

Still, I can't help but compare it to Ranmaru's episode, who was also hard to work with in the games but was chill in S3E7 and got to pet cats. Anime onlys will never know how much Camus loves to dote on his dog smh.....

[two-dolla-bills]

Top 10 mechanisms songs that you can get away with playing at a retailers without too many side eyes

I got a job in retail and I felt inspired lol

Disclaimer: this is not a list of the best mechanisms songs/the ones I think deserve to go "mainstream", they're just the ones that would blend in the best

1. Sirens

This song is probably the mechanisms' least "centered" song. It doesn't mention any characters, it has no narration, and out of context it just sounds like A Song that you might hear on the radio. Sirens is to the mechanisms as you're the one that I want is to grease, you know?

2. Trial by song

THIS one. It's in the same category to me as Sirens; you can listen to it by itself and not suspect much. Unlike Sirens which can be completely separated and still make sense, this one is more like a whole new world from Aladdin. There are parts that make it obvious that it's from a larger whole, but if you just so happen to catch the "safe" parts you won't suspect much.

Points were deducted due to Mr. Soldier's unique vocals. (Unique as in not very common in mainstream music)

3. Empty trail

This is no offense to Dr. La Cognizzi, but sometimes when she sings it's hard to make out what she's saying, which works in her favor in these circumstances. It sounds country/rock, which help it blend in with some dad rock songs. If I remember correctly, the melody was actually taken from a Led Zeppelin song, so if you aren't paying attention to what's ACTUALLY being said you can get away with claiming it's a cover.

4. Ties that bind

Although this one does mention many plot points, many fans have stated that they had no idea what the fuck was being said until the have looked for the lyrics (myself included) this, combined with it's jazzy rythm, make it able to blend in with other songs, similarly to empty trail

5. Odin

The most "normal" song out of the entirety of The Bifrost Incident. This song made it to the top five because it has similarities with Roam by the B-52's, but had points deducted due to it clearly being about an awesome space train

6. Lost in the cosmos

This might just be personal opinion, but it sounds like a church song. You can pull off the effect of it being about earth Jesus and not space robot Jesus if you have particularly bad quality speakers and a busy store w/lots of noise. Again, the lyrics kinda give it away as to not being entirely main stream

7. Stranger

Look it's a banger, ok? Many of the lyrics could be taken as just being metaphors, but I feel like you have to squint to "see" it. Pay too much attention and shit gets a little weird. Also, points deducted because it's two men singing together and not a man and a woman, which throws a wrench into the works. At kohl's it might raise some eyebrows but in like hot topic it'll blend in a little better

8. Redeath

You would think a song about a sphoenix (space phoenix) would be lower on the list but you'd be wrong. It's a really pretty song with a good original melody, and it's something that can be drowned out by a particularly rowdy crowd. Like Stranger, it would blend in better at a hot topic than at kohl's, but only slightly.

9. Elysian Fields

The melody in Elysian Fields is taken directly from the song wayfaring stranger, which has been coverd by Jonny Cash, Ed Sheeran, Poor Man's Poison, and The Longest Johns, AS WELL HAS having been featured in the movie 1917 and in the video game The Last of Us II, which make it very recognizable. Because of this recognizability, people who know the original song may be caught off guard by hearing it in a Walmart with completely different lyrics. It was originally in 7th place, but the popularity of the original takes off many points

10. Once and future king

It's a banger, don't get me wrong, but it also very heavily and clearly mentions plot points from the album, which itself is heavily base on Aurtharian mythology; something very well known in the western world (also the names are not common at all and most haven't been in fashion in centuries). In a crowded, busy space with not very good quality speakers it could potentially blend in, but one or two names might sneak out. The only reason it's on the list is because of the instrumental outro, which sounds normal enough

[averagecontentenjoyer121]

Ships I’ve seen on my FYP since I’ve started posting about Epic the Musical, also I’ve learned how to color text after 8 months of having Tumblr.

Canon:

Odysseus x Penlope

Eurylochus x ctimene

Telemachus x Nausicaa: I think that’s it

Calypso x Odysseus: put this because, kinda, and I don’t remember the context for the post just remember seeing

Circe X Odysseus

Ares X Aphrodite

Perimedes X Elpenor

Crack ships:

Odysseus x Poseidon x Zeus: this is completely my fault one of my friends told me about @anniflamma’s "manwhore au" and I though, "There's no way this is real," only now to be living the akira meme whenever pops up on my FYP

Antinious x Calypso: first saw this on @irunaki’s blog, but the supports do make a good argument for it. Quote, “they match each other’s freak.” Can’t argue with that

Diomedes x Odysseus: Idk how this started or who first subjected me to this, but I know why I’ve seen it. I made ONE, say it again ONE post with Diomedes and Odysseus hanging out as friends and the algorithm said, “you wanna see them kiss don’t you.” Either way pop off I guess and have fun DioXOdy fans out there.

Polites X Odysseus: once again kinda makes sense, or atleast I can see how this started, because the song cut song Your Light 100% gives of gay vibes

Hermes X Odysseus: I think I’ve see like one post regarding this, but still.

Artemis X Aeolus: Once again Don’t know who started this one but I remember first seeing this on @irunaki’s blog. Also, one of my favorite pieces of art comes from @sloanslone because it’s so cute.

Aeolus X Hermes: Don’t remember if this is an actual ship or not but it does have a ship name. Coming from another banger piece art by @sloanslone there relationship is called Cinnamon I believe

I feel like I’ve seen some with Apollo X someone, but don’t remember.

Siren X Athena: this Banger comes from @coquexari and I absolutely love this one. It’s just been presented in such a cute way that I love it. And the art she’s made for it is also really cute.

Circe X Calypso: Once again first saw this one on @irunaki’s blog, but I will say I haven’t seen it since the wisdom saga came out.

Eurylochus x Ares: by @thequeenofthedisneyverse

Eurylochus x Zeus

Eurylochus x random guy that gets eaten by Scylla: by @calciumyum

Aeolus X Apollo

Telemachus x antinious: It does exist, but I don’t remember where I’ve seen it

Diomedes x Odysseus x Penelope: Hi @wolfythewitch

Also I’ve seen Femboy Telemachus

Gotten Hades (game) ship art

Etc etc.

[cantcompetewhereudontcompare]

A complete deconstruction: Louis Tomlinson is a terrible songwriter. Part I

For years Louis' fans, spurred by the man himself, have been pedaling this lie that Louis was a "crucial" part of 1D's success through his songwriting and that, in turn, that made him a great, legendary songwriter. The best out of 1D.

That is a bold face lie that relies on people not fact-checking anything whatsoever and pulling stuff out of context.

Let's deconstruct the lie.

This first part will focus on certain things his fans (and he) say and why they're not true. It's not meant to be very fun because it's a bunch of numbers and statistics. It's meant to give you tools to debunk the lies by Louis' fans.

The fun part of this deconstruction will come in the second and third parts, which I intend to post immediately after this one.

FIRST POINT: Louis wrote most One Direction songs

No. He didn't. By any definition of the word.

most adjective 1 - in the greatest quantity, amount, measure, degree, or number: To win the most votes. 2 - in the majority of instances: Most operations are successful. 3 - greatest, as in size or extent: The most talent.

Definition #1 and #2 imply >50% of One Direction songs should have his name in the credits, correct?

Well, they don't. Louis has writing credit in 37 songs out of 91, which is 40%. It's a high number, for sure (very deceitful, but let's go with it for now), but it's not upwards of 50%, ergo, he didn't write "most One Direction songs."

Definition #3 would mean that if he had written in the most songs, as in, the largest amount among everyone, even if his percentage didn't surpass 50%, we could say that, to some degree, he's the one who wrote "the most" (still, very deceitful).

Alas, that would still be false. Two of the members of the band's songwriting team, Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, have written more songs than Louis. Julian has credit in 41, and John in 39.

You can fact check these numbers in this link.

I want to clarify, that even if Louis had written in the most songs (by any definition), it would've been largely irrelevant because of context. Zayn is on the record saying that all his ideas were dismissed and he felt side-lined.

So of course he'll have the least amount of writing credits (11 total, none of them as the sole contributor from the band).

Harry is also on the record saying he didn't want to "share" his songs. That he felt weird having other people singing about his innermost experiences, so he kept songs for himself (case in point, Two Ghosts).

[Happily is not the first time his name was on the songwriting credits, but we'll get on with that and why what he's saying isn't actually wrong at a later date]

Niall hasn't explained why he wrote fewer songs, but considering he writes all his tracks now and he actually can play instruments, and could all throughout the band, I hardly think that he was incapable of writing more. For whatever reason he chose not to.

So, Louis and Liam writing more in this context is completely meaningless. The others either weren't allowed to contribute or chose not to. It's not that Louis and Liam wrote more by virtue of being better songwriters. They wrote more by virtue of the others not writing.

Their lengthy songwriting credits are meaningless for more reasons that we'll explore soon, too, but the point I'm making here is that even devoid of all this context, the whole "Louis wrote most songs" assertion is simply not true.

SECOND POINT. "And remember, if it's a banger and by One Direction I probably wrote on it"

I know most people who would read this post already know this, but just in case, that's something Louis himself tweeted. He's wrong.

First, let's define "a banger." In this context, it would mean a hit. Their biggest songs. The most famous. The ones people consume and bop to the most.

What metrics can we take for this? Multiple. Such as:

Chart peaks (particularly in the US and the UK, their biggest markets)

Chart longevity

Certifications

Total sales

Total streams

Of course, to fact check this, I have to go by their singles. Those songs will be promoted and pushed the most, and those songs will be tracked for their stats.

Louis wrote in 6 singles, Liam in 5, Harry in 3, Niall and Zayn in 2. Who wrote "the most" singles is largely irrelevant (see the point I made above). One Direction released seventeen singles, so none of them wrote even close to "the most," and we've already established that the other three weren't really even trying.

But when Louis said that if it's a banger by 1D he probably wrote on it, in its face that would mean he has written 1D's most known and popular songs. The songs everyone bops to and instantly recognize. And as I said, this is flat out wrong.

This next bit will be largely statistical and a long list of names. I apologize because it's not super interesting, but it's kind of crucial to debunk the nonsense Louis said.

I'm listing every 1D single and its songwriters, which you can absolutely skip, I'll signal the huge block of text before and after. I want the information to be here, so you can glance at it if you need so, but it's not something you have to read in detail.

To make it a little more interactive, I'm color-coding it, going by their 1D microphones.

Green = Harry Blue = Louis Red = Liam Orange (the Irish flag) = Niall Pink (there's no yellow) = Zayn

The purple songs are the lead singles. I'm adding the album they belong to in brackets.

I know this sort of list is boring, you can just skip it and glance at it, or read the parts that you find particularly interesting, but I figured it'd be a good idea to have it all written down.

+ What Makes You Beautiful: (UAN) Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha

+ Gotta Be You: (UAN) Augusto Rigo, Steve Mac

+ One Thing: (UAN) Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha

+ More Than This: (UAN) Jamie Scott

+ Live While We're Young: (TMH) Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha

+ Little Things (TMH) Ed Sheeran, Fiona Bevan

+ Kiss You (TMH) Albin Nedler, Bonn, Carl Falk, Kristian Lundin, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, Shellback

+ One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) (charity single) Debbie Harry, John O'Neill, Nigel Harrison

+ Best Song Ever (MM) Ed Drewett, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Wayne Hector

+ Story Of My Life (MM) Ed Drewett, Harry Styles, Jamie Scott, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Wayne Hector, Zayn Malik

+ Midnight Memories (MM) Jamie Scott, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson

+ You & I (MM) Jamie Scott, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta

+ Steal My Girl (Four) Ed Drewett, John Ryan, Jonathan Cain, Julian Bunetta, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Wayne Hector

+ Night Changes (Four) Harry Styles, Jamie Scott, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik

+ Drag Me Down (MITAM) Jamie Scott, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta

+ Perfect (MITAM) Harry Styles, Jacob Kasher, Jesse Shatkin, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Louis Tomlinson, Maureen Anne McDonald

+ History (MITAM) Ed Drewett, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Wayne Hector

END OF THE HUGE BLOCK OF TEXT

Okay, so did he write 1D's most iconic and recognized songs? Well, no.

Color availability on tumblr is low so I have to change coding for the next bit. Pink is all five writing on the song, red is Louis + Liam, green is Louis + Harry.

I'll use top 10 for each metric.

Biggest singles overall according to Chart Masters:

* Chart masters is a website that aggregates sales and streams. It's not 100% accurate but it's the best approach we can get to the sales figure.

What Makes You Beautiful – 4,700,000

Story of My Life – 2,410,000

One Thing – 2,210,000

Little Things – 2,030,000

Live While We’re Young – 1,930,000

Best Song Ever – 1,810,000

Kiss You – 1,710,000

Drag Me Down – 1,450,000

Steal My Girl – 1,410,000

Night Changes – 1,150,000

More certifications worldwide:

What Makes You Beautiful: 9,368,000

Story Of My Life: 6,110,000

Drag Me Down: 3,793,000

Live While We're Young: 3,043,000

Little Things: 3,040,500

One Thing: 2,879,500

Best Song Ever: 2,507,500

Steal My Girl: 2,452,500

Perfect: 2,322,000

Night Changes: 2,147,500

Most viewed music videos:

What Makes You Beautiful: 1.5 billion

Drag Me Down: 1 billion

Story Of My Life: 1 billion

Night Changes: 878 million

One Thing: 808 million

Best Song Ever: 806 million

Live While We're Young: 745 million

You & I: 623 million

Perfect: 570 million

Kiss You: 563 million

UK chart peaks (longevity in brackets):

What Makes You Beautiful #1 (79 weeks)

Drag Me Down #1 (31 weeks)

Little Things #1 (27 weeks)

One Way Or Another #1 (17 weeks

Story Of My Life #2 (30 weeks)

Best Song Ever #2 (28 weeks)

Perfect #2 (20 weeks)

Live While We're Young #3 (25 weeks)

Steal My Girl #3 (22 weeks)

Gotta Be You #3 (7 weeks)

US chart peaks:

Best Song Ever #2 (21 weeks)

Drag Me Down #3 (20 weeks)

Live While We're Young #3 (16 weeks),

What Makes You Beautiful #4 (34 weeks)

Story of my Life #6 (32 weeks)

Perfect #10 (20 weeks)

Midnight Memories #12 (3 weeks)

Steal My Girl #13 (18 weeks)

One Way Or Another #13 (8 weeks)

Night Changes #31 (20 weeks)

If we average all of these different metrics, the order would be this (in case of a tie, whichever song has more streams on Spotify goes first):

What Makes You Beautiful 5 metrics, 1.6 average

Story of my Life 5 metrics, 3.4 average

Drag Me Down 5 metrics, 3.4 average

Best Song Ever 5 metrics, 5.2 average

Live While We're Young 5 metrics, 5.4 average

Perfect 4 metrics, 7.75 average

Night Changes 4 metrics, 8.5 average

Steal My Girl 4 metrics, 8.5 average

Little Things 3 metrics, 4 average

One Thing 3 metrics, 4.67 average

One Way or Another 2 metrics, 6.5 average

Kiss You 2 metrics, 8.5 average

Gotta Be You 2 metrics, 9.5 average

Midnight Memories 1 metric, 7

You & I 1 metric, 8

History No metrics

More Than This No metrics

Of the three singles Louis and Liam wrote together, only one makes the top 10 at 8. And that single is the lead for Four, remember what I said about leads being the songs that have a better chance at charting and selling well? Steal My Girl is by far the least successful lead single 1D has released at #8 (all the other four lead singles are in the top 5). I think it's actually kinda funny, ngl.

So far his "banger" assertion isn't really making that much sense, is it? He didn't write on even close to a majority of the singles, and the ones he did write, aren't really the biggest hits either...

There's a way for us to do this sort of assessment of "bangers" with non-singles. For that, the only tool we really have are Spotify streams.

I'll add a disclaimer that I think is important: ONE DIRECTION WASN'T ACTIVE IN THE STREAMING ERA.

The streaming era is largely regarded to start in 2015, when Billboard (the company that tracks the US charts) started including streams in their formulas, but it didn't really kick into gear until a couple of years later.

Look at this chart of Spotify active users from the first quarter of 2015 on. There were 68 million in 2015 vs 615 million in 2024. And this doesn't include 4 out of the 5 years 1D was active in.

1D actually got a lot of new streaming bests after Liam's passing, because of course people started to listen to their catalog there actively for the first time.

What I'm going to use streaming for is for their non-singles. There's no way to know how many units those songs sold unless you have access to their raw data (which only their team has), so streaming is as close of a guess as we can have as to which non-singles are popular.

Something I haven't detailed yet is the total amount of written songs by all members of the band. Let me do that:

List of writing credits:

Zayn - 11 9 tracks, 2 singles

Niall - 16 14 tracks, 2 singles

Harry - 21 18 tracks, 3 singles

Liam - 34 29 tracks, 5 singles

Louis - 37 31 tracks, 6 singles

Since there's such disparity in the number of songs written, let's do an average per track (excluding singles, since those have been analyzed already)

Zayn: 93,953,458 Niall: 102,031,790 Liam: 129,623,606 Louis: 137,115,106 Harry: 157,811,404

Harry has by far the largest average, Louis trails behind by 20M+ with Liam somewhat closer.

Just for shits and giggles, I wondered how many of the songs they'd written were above 100M:

Zayn 2/9 = 22%

Niall 6/14 = 43%

Liam 13/29 = 45%

Louis 14/31 = 45%

Harry 9/17 = 53%

Well, well, well... isn't that very curious?

IDK I think that it's starting to sound like if it's a banger by One Direction Harry probably wrote on it

I'm absolutely joking, btw, if it's a banger by One Direction Julian Bunetta probably wrote on it. But I will say, quantity <<<< quality.

I think it's safe to say that Louis didn't write 1D's bangers and he's full of himself.

THIRD POINT. "Louis was the main songwriter and the most important one in the band"

Louis wrote most of his songs by committee, so this is absolutely ridiculous to say. I mean, all five of them had a lot less say in the sound of 1D than fans would like to believe, but nobody is claiming any of the others were the "key member" because of their songwriting, so...

Aside from Zayn, who always wrote with at least two other members of the band + several other co-writers, we can actually look at who they were writing with and determine how important each member was for each song.

I'm taking these songs out of the equation because all five wrote on them, and that fully neutralizes them as an argument.

Night Changes

Story Of My Life

Fool's Gold

Taken

Summer Love

Change Your Ticket

Same Mistakes

Everything About You

Irresistible

Also taking out AM and Back For You, because while Zayn didn't write in them, all the other four did, and I'm not going to consider Zayn for this part of the point.

To make it more visually impactful, I'm color-coding the list. Red will be the most common number of co-writers, orange the mid, and green the low.

LOUIS - 26 tracks

Two with 2 co-writers.

Five with 3 co-writers.

Nine with 4 co-writers.

Six with 5 co-writers.

Two with 6 co-writers.

Two with 7 co-writers.

Average 4.3 co-writers per song

---

LIAM - 23 tracks

One with 2 co-writers.

Two with 3 co-writers.

Twelve with 4 co-writers.

Five with 5 co-writers.

One with 6 co-writers.

Two with 7 co-writers

Average 4.2 co-writers per song

---

NIALL - 5 tracks

Two with 3 co-writers.

Three with 4 co-writers.

Average 3.6 co-writers per song

---

HARRY - 10 tracks

Four with 2 co-writers

Three with 3 co-writers

One with 4 co-writers

One with 5 co-writers

On with 6 co-writers

Average 3.2 co-writers per song

Louis usually wrote with 4 or 5 other people, so did Liam. Niall usually wrote with 4 or 3. Harry usually wrote with 2 or 3. I think that is EXTREMELY telling.

How important can you be for a song if you're writing it with several others? And this, this is the crux of the issue.

It's why this whole argument about how "important" Louis was for 1D and how he was such a great songwriter is utter bullshit.

This is the climax of this very boring post. The most important part.

I'm going to try to simplify this as much as I can. Try to bear with me.

When you write a song, you have to register the songwriters to get royalties (to get PAID). When a song has multiple songwriters, (most of the time) each one will get paid according to what they did on the song. In most cases, someone will have come up with the melody, which is a key part. Someone will have written most of the lyrics. Someone else might just get credit for suggesting adding an instrument or changing a part of an arrangement, switching a line, whatever

Each of these people will have songwriting credit, but not all of them will have contributed equally. And that's something that in most cases is actually divided when you register the credits of a song. You agree with your co-writers on who gets what % of the credits and that's how you register it. So when you get paid for it (what's called "royalties") each person gets compensated fairly for their contributions.

Whoever wrote the most will get paid the most, and so forth.

So how does this happen? Well, I have to explain something else very briefly. In order to get paid royalties, you have to register in a company that collects them (they collect from radio, from streaming services, from your song being used on TV, etc). The companies that do this are called Performance Rights Organizations, shortened to PRO.

There are multiple different PROs that you can get signed to. Different countries will have different PROs. In America the two most common ones are ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.). There are other PROs in America, and there are other PROs in other countries.

In 1D, Zayn is signed to BMI, Liam, Louis, and Niall are all signed to PRS (Performing Rights Society), which is a British pro, Harry is signed to GMR (Global Music Rights), which is a newish American PRO founded by Irving Azoff.

BMI and ASCAP created Songview in 2020. Songview is a platform that allows you to search their databases and see their catalogs in an organized way. Songview will typically tell you if BMI or ASCAP control a song and what percentage of it they control.

One thing to keep in mind, foreign PROs (such as PRS) will collect royalties through an American PRO, typically either BMI or ASCAP (but it could be another one, such as SESAC or GMR), and that will depend on the individual arrangement the songwriter has. In Songview, royalties for those PROs will show up under either BMI or ASCAP, even if the songwriters aren't signed to them.

If the song is under another American PRO that isn't BMI or ASCAP, Songview will just show it as "other."

Songview isn't 100% infallible. There can be mistakes. You can access it through either ASCAP or BMI's website and the information will largely be the same. It's possible one of the two will have more details (usually BMI is friendlier to navigate). There can be mistakes, but they're rare.

Now, since what we're analyzing is the songs written while the guys were in 1D, I have to add another disclaimer. While the guys were in the band, all their songs were under a publisher (I'm not going to explain this, it's too much, you can look it up). The publisher's name was PPM Music LTD. All of 1D's songs went through that, regardless of who wrote them. So, if all five wrote on a song (like on Story Of My Life), we can't get their individual %. The individual % exists, but it's impossible to discriminate unless you have access to the filing information, which we do not.

PPM Music was signed to PRS and collected through BMI. I use past tense because, while it still collects their royalties, nobody is registering their songs through it anymore.

What's the point of all this? Well, we can do a little logic-guesswork-looky and get an estimate of the % of songwriting credits the guys have in several songs they've written for 1D.

For instance, let's look at Back For You, which is a song 4 members of 1D (everyone except Zayn) wrote for their second album, alongside Savan Kotecha (ASCAP), Rami Yacoub (BMI), and three Swedish songwriters called Carl Falk, Albin Nedler, and Kristoffer Fogelmark. These three Swedish songwriters are signed to STIM (which literally translates to Swedish Performing Rights Society).

The breakdown of this song is 85% for ASCAP, 10% for BMI, and 5% for "other."

We don't know any of this for sure, but most likely scenario, one of the STIM songwriters is collecting through an American PRO that isn't BMI or ASCAP (hence "5% other"), while the other two + Savan are collecting through ASCAP (85%).

Rami Yacoub + the 1D guys are all collecting through BMI and they divide the 10% controlled by it. Most likely scenario, Rami has 5% and the 1D guys split the remaining 5. Why? Because he was a professional songwriter and the 1D guys were teenagers who were just dipping their toes in music? Hahaha.

But aside from that, keep one thing in mind that's important. Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, and later on Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, and Jamie Scott were hired by their label to write music for 1D. They weren't going to sit for hours on a studio only to write 1% of a song. Typically, if you have a team of professional writers on a song, they'll either split credits evenly (because they do it as a 9 to 5 job) or there'll be one or two (usually the producers) who get slightly more credit.

But, okay, this is for their second album. The 1D guys were still finding their footing, right? Surely they'll contribute more down the line, once Louis TOOK CHARGE!

Okay, so here's Fool's Gold, which was written for their fourth album.

There's only one ASCAP writer (Maureen McDonald), but she has 40% of the writing credit. The remaining 60% is divided between all five members of the band + James Needle.

As per what I said above, James Needle probably had 40% as well, meaning the remaining 20% is divided in 5, which each member getting 4%.

But maybe I'm making assumptions! Alright. Let's go to History, Ed Drewett is with ASCAP and he has 32% of the writing credit. Leaving 68% to be divided by John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Liam, and Louis. Considering Julian and John also PRODUCED the fucking song they most likely had equal parts or more than Ed Drewett. If we assume equal, that's 96% songwriting credit for Ed, Julian, and John and 4% to be divided between Liam and Louis.

We don't really have the luxury of knowing exact breakdowns because sadly, most songwriters involved with 1D are signed to BMI. We have to resort to this sort of guesswork, but it's pretty straightforward thinking. Julian and John (and a lot of the time, Jamie Scott as well) were instrumental in most 1D songs. They won't have less writing credit than Ed Drewett.

I'll do a breakdown song by song without all the commentary next, but keep in mind that there are a lot of songs in which 100% of the credits belong to BMI because every songwriter is signed to it. In that case I can't do any sort of breakdown. It's impossible to tell.

Those songs are...

From Midnight Memories: - Alive, Better Than Words, Diana, Does He Know?, Don't Forget Where You Belong, Little Black Dress, Midnight Memories, Something Great, Story Of My Life, Strong, Through The Dark

From Four: - Clouds, Illusion, Fireproof, Illusion, Night Changes, Ready To Run, Spaces, Steal My Girl

From Made In The AM: - Home, Long Way Down, Never Enough, Olivia, Walking In The Wind

The following songs are not filed on BMI or ASCAP: - Still The One, What A Feeling, and Wolves

Okay, so onto the ones I can sort of break down. Keep in mind I'm making EDUCATED GUESSES. I'm not including any more screenshots because it's getting annoying, but you can look it up here.

I'm going in order by album and tracklist

TAKEN (Up All Night)

Lindy Robbins 37.5% (ASCAP) Toby Gad 37.5% (ASCAP) Harry Styles 5% Liam Payne 5% Louis Tomlinson 5% Niall Horan 5% Zayn Malik 5%

EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU (Up All Night)

Stephen Robson 40% (ASCAP) Wayne Hector 40% (BMI) Harry Styles 4% (BMI) Liam Payne 4% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 4% (BMI) Niall Horan 4% (BMI) Zayn Malik 4% (BMI)

SAME MISTAKES (Up All Night)

Stephen Robson 20% (ASCAP) Wayne Hector 20% (BMI) Harry Styles 12% Liam Payne 12% Louis Tomlinson 12% Niall Horan 12% Zayn Malik 12%

LAST FIRST KISS (Take Me Home)

This one is flat out wrong. Harry and Niall didn't write on this song. Also PPM Music isn't listed in the publishers. If you search the song on ASCAP, PPM Music is mentioned and Harry and Niall aren't in it, so that would be correct, but the percentages are different which confuses me further. My guess is that there's some sort of mistake in the filing on BMI, but I can't break down the percentages.

BACK FOR YOU (Take Me Home)

Already broke it down!

SUMMER LOVE (Take Me Home)

This one is complicated, there's an "other" that I can't place. So I'm gonna leave it up to god.

IRRESISTIBLE (Take Me Home)

I actually can't break this one down. There must've been a bunch of changes in societies that I can't track down.

HAPPILY (Midnight Memories)

Savan Kotecha 33.34% (ASCAP) Carl Falk 33.34% (STIM) Harry Styles 33.34%

RIGHT NOW (Midnight Memories)

I have to add screenshots here. This song was written by Harry, Liam, and Louis alongside OneRepublic frontman, Ryan Tedder. Ryan is signed with Global Music Rights (GMR, Harry's PRO that I mentioned earlier).

BMI says that they control 10% of the songwriting and 15% of the publishing, while "other" (GMR) controls 75%

But GMR says they control 70%

PPM Music LTD isn't listed as a publisher on BMI, which already happened with Last First Kiss. The difference here is that it's also not listed on ASCAP, so I don't think it's a mistake. My guess is that when Ryan moved his publishing of this song to GMR (he signed with GMR a couple of years ago), they also somehow moved Harry's rights as well, so that 70% is both Ryan and Harry's rights, and the remaining 30% is Liam and Louis'. In that case the breakdown would be:

Ryan Tedder 55% (GMR) Harry Styles 15% Liam Payne 15% Louis Tomlinson 15%

LITTLE WHITE LIES (Midnight Memories)

Ed Drewett 20% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 20% (BMI) John Ryan 20% (BMI) Wayne Hector 20% (BMI) Liam Payne 10% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 10% (BMI)

WHY DON'T WE GO THERE? (Midnight Memories)

Stephen Robson 25% (ASCAP) Wayne Hector 25% (BMI) Claude Kelly 25% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 25%

WHERE DO BROKEN HEARTS GO? (Four)

Ruth Cunningham 20% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 20% (BMI) Teddy Geiger 20% (BMI) Ali Tamposi 20% (BMI) Harry Styles 20%

FOOL'S GOLD (Four)

Maureen McDonald 40% (ASCAP) James Needle 40% (BMI) Harry Styles 4% (BMI) Liam Payne 4% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 4% (BMI) Niall Horan 4% (BMI) Zayn Malik 4% (BMI)

NO CONTROL (Four)

In this one, the only non-BMI songwriter has minimal credit, which doesn't allow me to distribute the remaining 90%. It could be split evenly 18% each, or it could be 20% for the professionals and 15% for Louis and Liam, or any other division. I can only guess so much.

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME (Four)

Something similar to what happened with No Control. Johan Carlsson only has 10% of the writing credit, so I have to divide 90% between Julian Bunetta, John Ryan, and Harry. It could be even or Julian and John could have more. No way of knowing.

CHANGE YOUR TICKET (Four)

Samuel Martin 10% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 20% (BMI) John Ryan 20% (BMI) Harry Styles 10% (BMI) Liam Payne 10% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 10% (BMI) Niall Horan 10% (BMI) Zayn Malik 10% (BMI)

PERFECT (MITAM)

Jacob Hindlin 17.67% (ASCAP) Maureen McDonald 17.67% (ASCAP) Jesse Shatkin 17.67% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 17.67% (BMI) John Ryan 17.67% (BMI) Harry Styles 5.83% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 5.83% (BMI)

END OF THE DAY (MITAM)

Ed Drewett 17% (ASCAP) Jacob Hindlin 17% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 17% (BMI) John Ryan 17% (BMI) Wayne Hector 17% (BMI) LunchMoney Lewis 5% (BMI) Liam Payne 5% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 5% (BMI)

IF I COULD FLY (MITAM)

Johan Carlsson 33.33% (ASCAP) Ross Golan 33.33% (BMI) Harry Styles 33.33%

LOVE YOU GOODBYE (MITAM)

Jacob Hindlin 40% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 40% (ASCAP) Louis Tomlinson 20% (BMI)

HISTORY (MITAM)

Ed Drewett 32% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 32% (BMI) John Ryan 32% (BMI) Liam Payne 2% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 2% (BMI)

TEMPORARY FIX (MITAM)

Peter Kelleher 16.67% (ASCAP) Benhamin Kohn 16.67% (ASCAP) Wayne Hector 22.22% (BMI) Thomas Barnes 22.22% (BMI) Niall Horan 22.22% (BMI)

AM (MITAM)

Ed Drewett 20% (ASCAP) Julian Bunetta 20% (BMI) Wayne Hector 20% (BMI) Harry Styles 10% (BMI) Liam Payne 10% (BMI) Louis Tomlinson 10% (BMI) Niall Horan 10% (BMI)

----

Anyway, what's the conclusion here? Well, that if they were writing in big groups, then they most likely had very little say in terms of songwriting. We're talking 10% or less writing credit each. It's only when they go into smaller groups that they get a little bit more say and that's in very few songs.

I'm being extremely fair in these guesstimates and applying the same logic to everyone. Aside from very few examples (Why Don't We Go There? and Love You Goodbye, in Louis' case, Happily, If I Could Fly, and Where Do Broken Hearts Go? in Harry's, Temporary Fix in Niall's) where they have even splits in smaller groups, none of them were really the driving force in terms of songwriting.

Conclusion: Louis wasn't the key anything.

This idea that Louis was crucial for 1D's success because of his writing is fucking ridiculous by literally all metrics. He didn't write the most songs, he didn't write on most songs, he didn't write the biggest bangers or the most popular songs (not singles and not album tracks either), he wasn't the main songwriter on a single song he did write, in fact, more often than not his contribution was 10% or less of a song.

Can we end this debate for once?

We'll talk about the fact that he actually can't fucking write in the next post. I know this one was probably a little boring, but we needed to get this out of the way to get to the fun part. Which is coming next!

[zomtart]

At Least Out Loud (Karen Page x Fem!Reader)

Here's my day 2 of Tuna-Tober! Finally wrote something for the love of my life Karen Page

Sorry it ends on a sort of cliffhanger, I am trying to keep these as short as I can manage so I can get through more! Maybe I'll write a part two🤭 Also title is a reference to the absolute BANGER of a song I Won't Say I'm In Love, which hits so much harder in a sapphic context if you ask me <3

Tuna-Tober Day 2: “I’m in love with you, and that scares me.” + A Hug That Lasts A Little Too Long

Pairing: Karen Page x Fem!Reader

Warnings: mentions of alcohol, sapphic yearning, platonic matt and reader

Word Count: 1.1k

Karen slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to refrain from spitting out her drink at Foggy’s joke. You had failed that challenge, but managed to get it back in your cup as the entire table erupted into laughter. It was a much needed break for all of you, the end of a long week and long work hours. Foggy and Matt at their firm, you and Karen at the Bulletin. You hadn’t been able to spend time together with all four of you in so long. It felt so right, like coming home, and you never wanted it to end. Foggy’s jokes, Matt’s smile, and…Karen. Everything about Karen.

The low lighting of Josie’s gave you courage, or maybe just the ability to hide from the truth. No matter what, at the end of the night in the run-down dive bar, you always were left with that feeling in your stomach. A feeling that felt suspiciously like butterflies.

“Okay, okay, I need to…” Karen let out a few more giggles before running a hand through her stupid, perfect hair. “Need to go. Got a meeting tomorrow morning.”

There was a unisonous groan across the table.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday!” Foggy protested.

“Yes, Foggy, I know. I’m not looking forward to getting up early on a weekend either, but this is when Julia Dayton can meet for an interview.” she explained as she shrugged her bag onto her shoulder.

“Let me know how it goes,” you smile up at her. “That’s gonna be one hell of an article.”

“All thanks to you,” she laughs a little bit. “You helped me finish up my editorial in time.”

You waved a hand in dismissal as she hugged Matt and Foggy goodbye. You stood up too, grabbing your bag. “Walk you home?”

She shook her head. “I called an Uber.” 

“Oh. You sure you’re good going by yourself?”

She smiled knowingly. “I’ll text you when I’m back safe. Okay?” she pulled you into a hug, the faint scent of roses and shitty tequila washing over you as you gently gripped her shoulders. 

“Okay.” you responded, your voice far too small. You briefly wondered how long you should make the hug…were you hugging for too long? Were you making it weird? 

You tried to pull back, but then she held on, and you just about melted in her arms. You weren’t sure if it was the alcohol, or the way her thumb was ever so slightly moving back and forth on your arm, but you felt entranced. If this was where you stayed for the rest of your life, you’d be completely fine with that.

When the hug finally broke you forced your expression into what you hoped was nonchalant, giving her a small smile. Then she was gone, leaving you to watch her walk out the bar door.

A beat of silence passed before you heard a snort from behind you. You turned around to see Matt and Foggy, trying to hold in smirks.

“What?” you were immediately on the defensive, practically stomping back to your seat. 

“Nothing, nothing. Sorry.”

~

You tried your best to enjoy the rest of the night, but the feeling in your stomach wouldn’t go away. A note of roses still lingered in the air, clouding over every other thought in your head. 

You tell yourself it’s the alcohol.

“Alright, guys. I gotta call it a night.” Foggy sighed, standing up with a slight wobble. 

Matt laughed at the slur in his friend’s voice and his lack of balance. “Yeah, I think that’s for the best, buddy.” 

Foggy shooed him away, huffing as he mumbled something about the King of England being his uber driver.

“It says George the third…” you heard him tell Matt as he walked him out to the car. You laughed to yourself, finishing off the rest of your glass. You weren’t sure how many drinks that had added up to, but for the sake of your sanity you didn’t look at the bill before giving Josie your card. By the time you paid, Matt was back at the table, pulling his jacket around his shoulders.

“Ready to go?” He wasn't nearly as drunk as Foggy, and you couldn’t blame him. After learning about his heightened senses, you could understand how being drunk could be unpleasant for him.

You nodded, starting to force a smile before deciding not to bother. He would tell you’d be faking it, anyway. It almost seemed that he noticed you starting to fake it. You felt him focusing on you as you took his elbow and walked out of the bar.

After a block of heavy silence you pursed your lips and turned to look at him. “Do you have something to say? Or are you just going to keep counting my heart rate or whatever you’re doing?” 

He laughed a little at your remark. “I don’t need enhanced senses to realize you’re upset.”

“I’m not upset.” you said immediately, but there wasn’t any conviction to it. You were too tired, too drunk. He just sighed, because he knew you were lying, and you knew he knew you were lying.

He murmured your name gently, before saying, very quietly, “You can’t keep running from it.” 

The words hit you like a freight train. He was right. That’s what you were doing. You were running from this. That’s what you always did. The tightness expanded in your chest, moving past your ribcage, making your whole body feel like it was under ice water. Tears pricked at your eyes and you furiously wiped at them, turning away from him.

“She’s my best friend, Matt. I…I don’t want to lose her.”

“Do you really think you’d lose her?” he stopped you walking with a gentle hand on your shoulder. “Honestly. Do you think if she somehow doesn’t feel the same, that she would treat you any differently?”

You rolled your eyes, shaking your head. “N-no, no, of course not but it’s…I can’t just…” you struggled to find the words. “It’s not that easy, Matt, I’m…I’m terrified. I’m in love with her and that--that scares me. I don’t like feeling like this. Like I could just give her everything and she could just…say no. Or worse--she says yes. And then I…then I have to find some way to be enough for this beautiful, ambitious, amazing woman.”

Matt frowned. “That’s not how love works. It’s not a business exchange. If she loves you, which I--” he sighed. “Which I really think she does…then you’re already enough for her. It’s why she loves you." He gently placed a hand on your shoulder. “I’m not saying you have to tell her if you’re not ready. I’m just saying that…” he trailed off, searching for the words. “If anyone is going to be gentle with your heart, it’s Karen.”

@tunatober

[crazysodomite]

i study gamedev and today's lecture was on the origins of the stealth genre... got to nerd out about constantine's mansion 😁 i mostly know abt the series from watching a friend play thru the first game but it was still very heartwarming to see it discussed! i have special permission from my prof to help and edit his presentations for future students (bc im a game history n genre nerd) and given ur the resident tumblr thief expert in my eyes, i wanted to ask what interesting facts should we mention abt the series' mechanics and their influence on the genre? what would a true thief fan like to not be overlooked in the genre wide discussion? sorry if it's a confusing question, i just like hearing people nerd out either way...

also just seeing u mention it in any context makes me very happy inside, brings back good memories :] did you know the stealth genre started with a prototype game about shoplifting? it then got bought by taito and turned into the 1980 lupin iii game!

umm i feel like im too doopid to really do thief and its mechanics justice... i dont think im a thief expert just a thief fan... i haven't played a lot of other stealth games except thief so it's hard for me to judge and compare!

one of my favorite analysis videos on thief from a person who just uploaded this banger and was never seen again...

i think nowadays the 'safe bet' is to not create anything too difficult or challenging for the player, sometimes rudimentary stealth mechanics are included to 'be an option' but stealth as an actual genre is pretty dead right now.

it's hard to imagine a game being created nowadays focused mostly on stealth, with complex mechanics and large sprawling levels without a minimap and objective marker pointing you where to go.

i think a lot of these things can be accessibility features or just things developers include to avoid player frustration. after all someone is probably going to get upset and quit the game if they spend hours walking around the map not understanding where they're supposed to go.

but in the end the levels themselves should be constructed to be able to be navigated without objective markers and minimaps. for example i rarely even look at the included map when im completing a thief level because i just kinda expect to complete the level and figure out what to do simply by exploring, listening to conversations, reading notes, paying attention to the environment, etc. though i do really appreciate being able to see which room i'm currently in on the map like in thief 2...

and i'm not even gonna lie i looked up guides for certain levels in thief because i couldn't figure out what to do, but i would rather have this point of frustration instead of a game i can just turn my brain off and press buttons at random to complete, that doesn't respect my intelligence at all. and thief games are far from perfect, especially since the devs were rushed and the company ended up going bankrupt, that's why its especially sad to not see any real thief successors or even an actual demand for a good stealth gaming experience.

there's a reason the community around thief is still going strong, developing FMs, discussing the game, creating huge campaigns, porting the game mechanics to a newer engine, etc. if the skeleton of thief wasn't good enough to warrant such a long lifespan none of that would happen! thief is so good, despite being a game literally older than me, that people would prefer to play a thief fm instead of whatever 'stealth mechanics' the newest AAA game cooked up. anyways heres my santances i hope you like them.

i would love for mechanics introduced in thief to be built upon with newer technology. for example more robust dynamic light mechanics like those introduced in deadly shadows (not pushed far enough sadly... but the possibilities are so exciting) as well as more robust audio and various other improvements that could be made if there was actual interest in stealth games anymore... i mean hell a lot of people who made FMs for thief went on to make other games (dishonored) but then those games still don't really hit like thief does.

okay im just gonna highlight some points bc i genuinely do not possess the capability to write in english. gets scared

I think an interesting comparison can be made between the light gem from thief and like, the 'detection meter' some games with 'stealth mechanics' have nowadays. What does the light gem do? It shows which light level you're currently in. There is predictability and consistency in how enemies react to you at different light levels. Your Actual Skill matters, not what perks you chose on the progression tree or what 'stealth skill' you used on your character. If you're at the lowest 'hidden' light level you are basically safe from enemies unless they walk into you and you can plan your next movement, if you're in a higher light level you need to pay close attention to enemies to not get spotted. Can you actually play the game without the light gem? I think yes, since your detection is mostly sound-based cues, and the light gem simply gives the player concrete information to play better and get predictable, skill based results. The 'detection meter' is there because most games don't really have light/shadow mechanics or robust stealth-based enemy AI. You need to visually show the player they've been spotted because in most games the sound design is not catered to stealth and you won't hear an enemy seeing you, or the level design is constructed in a way where you will be spotted by someone looking at you from across the map and not understand where that came from, etc. Frankly in most games you're not even put in situations where you can weave your way around enemies, follow them, sneak around them, etc. You can either press a button to knock them out from behind, or you 'discover' a passage that allows you to bypass all enemies since stealthing 'on the ground' is literally not possible because of the AI that like, spots you based on proximity and nothing else. Or there's like, a meter that goes up the longer you stay around the enemy before they spot you, etc.... You don't feel like you make your own stealthy way, using the tools and circumstances you've been given, and instead you just 'discover' the pre-determined 'stealthy way' intended by the devs.

Sound. I probably can't even name a game where sound matters more than in thief. Sound information is as important as visual information in thief. You can tell which specific level of alertness an enemy has simply by their voicelines. Different floor materials make different sound levels (which may not be super realistic, but it's a sacrifice thief makes for the sake of gameplay), different speeds you move at make different levels of sound, your items and arrows make sound, enemies can use sound to alert each other, etc. An enemy doesn't need to see you to be alerted, and you can hear how many enemies are in a room, what direction they are coming from, and if it's safe to come out of a room based on sound proximity. Also you can press your ear against a door to listen. I genuinely can't name another game that utilizes this.

Okay ummm.... Thief mechanics are robust enough to allow for all kinds of different playing styles. You can use your tools or you can not use any of them at all, you can knock everyone out or go completely undetected by anyone, the thief community makes up their own rulesets for playthroughs not intended by the devs at all, but those are still possible and fun to do.

Stop with the 3rd person view camera. More leaning from a corner and listening to your enemies, less 3rd person camera where you can see enemies while being completely safe and undetected. The first person view is extremely important to thief in my opinion, and adds an incredible amount of immersion. Also, thief never fucking takes away control from you to play an animation or a quick time event!!! It's infuriating when games do that !!!

Even dishonored, a game i actually really enjoyed, is still really lacking in stealth. You spend most of your time perched up on weirdly placed objects above your enemies that make it safe for you to basically teleport from place to place while being undetected by enemies. Dishonored has more of a focus on actually engaging and killing enemies, which imo is really unnecessary. I should actively avoid engaging with enemies in any way in a stealth game. In a perfect stealth game, no enemy sees or hears me at all, while i can still weave around them and pick their pockets, complete all my objectives while exploring a wide map that makes sense and is rewarding to explore, and be able to get out unscathed...

here are my new sentences 😁

[loverofstufflof]

Airing out my LMK trailer/S5 thoughts cause u gotta do this somehow

Most glaring, animation. It’s not bad, by any means. I’d certainly be proud of myself if I were able to come up with it.

However, I think it’s important to consider the context of the show’s style, and how it’s been improving significantly over instalments. Also, it’s Flying Bark. Flying Bark is just gonna make banger animation.

Am I a bit disappointed when comparing it to Emperor’s Wrath? Yeah. Especially when we’ve been waiting a full year for this—twice as long as usual.

But I’m not saying I won’t be watching the show because of it. I still love this story. Fuck, my favourite series is Epithet Erased. The show that’s best described as JPEGs wiggling around your screen for 2 hours. I can handle less than expected animation if it’s made up for by good writing.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people attacking invisible fans that claim they’re going to boycott the show because of this. Respectfully, source? The most aggressive criticism I’ve seen is “man that’s disappointing ig, still excited tho”. Who are you guys even fighting lmao. (Unless this is something happening on other platforms and you’re just venting on here which, valid)

Nevertheless, as I’ve said before, it’s not bad animation, just not up to the standard we’re used to. People are allowed to be disappointed. Let them be. This show isn’t flawless.

It’s looking to be real, all things considered. We’ve never gotten a fan leak this elaborate before, and it contains a lot of elements that were just recently revealed. Unless they’ve been getting announcements much earlier than we have (considering this fanbase’s sleuth skills, I’d doubt it) then there’s no other explanation other than it being official.

Official, however, doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to look that way the whole time. The animation is being done by another studio, yes, but only partially. Flying Bark is still here for the fun. This other studio also isn’t incompetent, they’re behind things like Carmen Sandiego. They know what they’re doing.

They’re also primarily handling additional material, means promotions, meaning trailers. Listen, it’s a bit of a stretch considering the fact that all trailers so far have been taken directly from the show, but also it’s industry standard to make a trailer before you’re even done, meaning you gotta cut some corners for the scenes you’re showing until you polish them up in post.

We know LEGO has a habit of keeping LMK things in their vault until they need to, this may be something they had lying around from early prod and released to maintain hype.

Any which way, this development is very much temporary, only applying because the team is currently working on a movie and need to momentarily lessen their workload. Even if the odds are against us and S5 looks like a PowerPoint presentation, it’ll likely go back to normal later.

Biiig animation rant aside, I am a tad bit sad about the direction the story is going in (namely the abandonment of Red Son) and the fan service is a bit much, but honestly what else are we expecting from JTTW fanfic.

I’m stoked to see more Macaque though—he’s looking to be becoming a proper protagonist, which is great for angst! Yippee!

One thing I haven’t seen anyone talk about is the complete lack of Nüwa. You know, the character they’ve been teasing this whole time? Where is she? Not in the trailer. Not in the posters.

Makes me wondering if this is a part of the new season, teasing the next one, the one Nüwa’s in, later.

[wyrmmaster]

I decided to watch a bit of the new Bleach anime as a "might as well" type deal. I got like 10 minutes in before I closed it and was like "I am not getting back into Bleach".

So then I reread Bleach over the past few days.

It holds up pretty well. I was a bit surprised at how just being able to hit "next chapter" on a cliffhanger really takes the edge off a lot of the more meandering and frustrating parts. The first half was still pretty great. The more iconic fights are still absolutely bangers (Grimmjow and Ulquiorra in particular), a lot of the plot is less ass-pull than "huh, actually, that kinda makes sense if you think about it" because you just read the ~context like an hour ago as opposed to a year. The emotional beats are still decently impactful. Also, watching Kubo's art improve over a 15 year period in a couple days was fascinating. I enjoyed myself.

The main takeaway though, what I actually got from the whole thing:

This one?

Still Best Girl. It's not close. Teenage me was right and I still Absolutely Would The Antelope.

Adult Nel has like 100 panels total screentime but it doesn't matter, bro. Someone mentions Bleach and I think of Ichigo first but .0002 seconds later it's the 3 on Nel's back. I got to the point in the Hollow World arc where her kid form shows up with her dumbass servants and was just kind of vibrating waiting for The Thing

to happen. This is AFTER Ulquiorra nearly kills Ichigo (effortlessly) and sends him into complete despair by showing he's only #4, and being pushed to his absolute limit by #6 who was actually playing fair and being amicable. It was obvious she was a bit more important than just Random Child simply because she was an arrancar but #3? Even after the (ostensible) power increase of the 10 from her time it was a wild jump

The past visions of her being arrogant and superior to the weak ass misogynistic loser Nnotria (along with that arrogance being her downfall because she refused to take him seriously on principle - him working with Szayelaporro was Entirely out of her scope of what he was willing or able to do). The instant mood swings from cold and in control to Ichigo Must Be Tackle Hugged. Her absolutely dunking on present-day Nnoitra is still legendary despite the outcome because she was weakened from the get-go and if she'd been slightly more ruthless to what she still saw as a weakling she'd have ended it before her time ran out

Then 380 chapters later she finally reappears and is just her usual goofy affectionate self with a side of casually Asserting Dominance on Grimmjow for telling her what to do. Queen shit. Deserved so much more spotlight.

The funny part is Kubo seems to agree. Apparently he's spent the post manga years simping for her, making her co-ruler of the hollows with Harribel despite the latter being the top dog previously (and implicitly stating if Grimmjow fucked around he'd find out), making her super important to the politics of the setting by being the one the shinigami want to use to make a peace deal with the hollows, and even giving an alt of her a second stage of her Resurrección (that fucks)

Buddy even retroactively declared her the curviest woman in the series over Rangiku and says his swimsuit alts of her in Brave Soul are the greatest swimsuit art to exist.

... He might not even have been using marketing hyperbole.

[batsplat]

reading your post about vale and marc mind games bc it came up on my dash and thinking about your point about how athletes like vale must convince themselves of certain things but also know the truth. and i guess with vale’s insistence that marc was never a fan of his, that he tricked him, that everything was a lie, when there are videos from marc at age seven naming vale as his hero, videos from him at age nineteen talking about collecting vale’s bikes, etc, things that would appear as “proof” i wonder if there’s some difference between what vale has convinced himself of and the (apparent) reality/truth that exists. obviously there is no way of knowing and it’s imo harder to figure out the “truth” of an emotional and personal situation that both parties were deeply hurt by than a sporting one. but it’s interesting because in 2015 the personal and sport elements were intertwined too

(x) hm yeah, I love the subjectivity of the whole thing, how it's all founded so much around these 'emotional' truths... there's this kind of fun tension where in late 2015/early 2016 both 'sides' are attempting to prove they're right with data, hrc is promising press conferences to present conclusive evidence, everyone's waving around sheets of paper with telemetry and obsessing around helicopter shots... but you won't actually be able to prove anything one way or the other, because this isn't something that can actually be 'proven'. this is about minds and it's about hearts - you can't find conclusive evidence for what's in either of them. that doesn't mean studying the events is pointless... but it can only ever tell you so much. valentino's initial allegation was couched in the language of facts, he wanted his audience to believe that you could read marc's intentions in a few numbers. but even if marc had wanted to sabotage him, you never would have found that in those numbers... and at the end of the day, valentino was using those numbers to tell a much bigger story

this is the difference to, say, qatar 2004, right? because if you're concerning yourself with what 'really' happened at qatar, then you can find a 'truth' of sorts - it should be possible in theory to know whether sete gibernau was involved in valentino's penalty or not. how that penalty came to exist is knowable. you can still do with this information what you want, argue about what sete was attempting to achieve with his actions, argue about what valentino knew or did not know and what he chose to do with that information - but the central 'conspiracy' is one that is based on real events. what marc wanted of valentino that year, the full spectrum of possibilities from completely innocuous to ragingly malicious, is not knowable in a similar way. even marc and valentino themselves won't completely understand their own intentions that year... nobody is knowable even to themselves, right? they've narrativised this to death and back in their own heads, including what happened in the races themselves... marc and valentino both going over the events again and again, in argentina, in assen, in phillip island, in sepang, in valencia... thinking about what they did, what the other did - the level of reflection that can obscure as much as it reveals. even isolated racing events that should be relatively straightforward are still essentially ambiguous, and continue to be enthusiastically debated to this day. the protagonists hold diametrically opposed views, and even there we can only guess at what they really believe

I'll include the autobiography bit again because it really is a bit of a banger

obviously, the context itself is a different one (and if you want to read more about 2003-05 then. well here you go). but it's such a good description... especially this bit

But then again, we riders always say all sorts of things. Sometimes we believe what we say, even when it sounds crazy, other times we’re just being hopeful and, still at other times, it’s all an exercise in self-delusion. We try to convince ourselves of something, because ultimately, every time you step on the track, words don’t matter, and it’s just you, the bike and your opponents.

"at other times, it's all an exercise in self-delusion". you don't say! "we try to convince ourselves of something"... valentino does have a reasonable understanding of his own working process, I think. it's very true what you say about the intertwining of the personal and the sporting processes, and this post contains some speculation about how valentino may have also changed in how he approached interpersonal relationships to his rivals over time. if you buy into this theory, you have a shift to the purely 'professional' rivalries with casey and jorge, where he was fairly conscious and deliberate in manipulating both that dynamic and how he felt within that dynamic. giving himself a target was all well and good, but it's all part of the game, all about attempting to get a competitive edge over his new challengers... it took a bit of a perfect storm for that friendship with marc to even be possible in the first place. maybe marc and valentino would have always ended up enemies - but not in every universe do they start out as friends

of course, the main story valentino ended up telling himself was that marc was out to destroy him. now, this is very much the topic for another post, but it is broadly reasonable to argue that marc approached his rivalry with valentino differently than he did any of his others. it's also not stretching things too far to suggest that marc was perhaps a little more focused on valentino than was competitively reasonable, that he seemed to take defeats to valentino particularly poorly... further into grey areas, was marc deliberately messing with valentino specifically? did he want to beat valentino at all costs, knowing he was pushing things, knowing it might cost valentino the title? where we get into even murkier territory is the question of what marc's preferred outcome for the title that year was, and whether he was really as disinterested as he said he was. it is just around up until this area where you can still more or less get to in a reasonable way, without too much delusion required - where the theory jumps off the cliff edge is by proposing that marc was deliberately orchestrating the phillip island race in order to hand jorge the title. that bit does not work. in a way, though, it's just the conspiratorial scaffolding for an emotional truth. this 'truth' that valentino felt very strongly is that marc had it out for him. once he was convinced of that, he basically just... arranged the facts to suit this narrative, but really the phillip island thing was a lot about having something a bit more 'solid' to grasp onto. it is where he makes the leap from 'malice' to 'conspiracy'. then, he blows shit up at sepang, and obviously from then on you do have marc essentially strengthening this narrative within valentino's mind. that's where we make the step to self-delusion, right...

that being said - the childhood hero thing. "is it true that he’s been my fan? is it true that he had a poster with me in his bedroom? I would like to check." now, in all honesty, I do think valentino knows marc was a fan. this is just my personal read, but to me that line was meant to twist the knife in, rather than being completely literal. the contentious bit, right, isn't that marc at one stage was a valentino fan, it's what this means. what valentino is asserting here is that this stance of marc's, where marc still claims a particular fondness for valentino as a result of how he's always been a fan of valentino, is fundamentally dishonest. valentino knows for a fact that just having a poster of someone in their room isn't enough to stop a rivalry from eventually going sour. let's bring in another autobiography excerpt:

The funny thing is that a few years earlier, when I was fourteen I had had a poster of Biaggi in my room. It was one of many posters on my bedroom wall and it showed Biaggi on the Honda 250. Nothing strange in that: he was Italian and I supported all the Italian riders. Besides, he was an aggressive rider and I always had a lot of respect for those riders who went on the attack. But, back then, I did not know him personally. It was only when I started to listen to his interviews and read what he said in the papers that my opinion changed. With Biaggi, no matter what happened, it never seemed to be his fault, there was always something wrong with the bike or the tyres. I thought he said a lot of things that I believed simply couldn't be true.

the thing is, almost all of these riders are going to have someone on their bedroom wall - and if you're marc's age, there's a pretty good chance that someone is going to be valentino rossi. it's not even valentino's first experience with a feud starting up with someone who had once been his fan... look at casey, who repeatedly said he was a fan of his, had admired him - yes, obviously, completely different degree to marc, but the point is he still publicly said it before that rivalry turned ugly. and jorge who was both a valentino anti-fan and a fan and was kinda actively weird about the whole thing. valentino made reference to this himself in 2010 when those two and him started sniping at each other when he was out with the leg break, saying that at least they were being honest now. like... in blunt terms, if you're valentino rossi, you do kinda expect most people to be a fan of you. so many of these younger riders have some childhood photo of themselves with valentino floating around. marc wasn't particularly special in that regard. the fact that he was a valentino fan isn't why valentino felt so warmly towards him. it wouldn't have been enough in itself for valentino to treat him in any way differently from his other rivals. valentino's been in this game for too long to get sentimental over that - at the end of the day, you need to ensure you're thinking about your rivals in whatever way you need to in order to give yourself the best possible chance to win. the posters weren't the reason why valentino lowered his guard around marc. so, keeping all that in mind, would it really be thar=t hard for valentino to believe that marc was at one stage a fan of his? seriously?

there's also this from uccio in that infamous 2016 interview:

if even uccio implicitly acknowledges the poster bit isn't fake, is valentino really not going to believe that marc had a poster of him at some stage?

now, this isn't the same thing as arguing that valentino had an accurate understanding of how marc felt towards him. it's entirely plausible to say that, yes, he wasn't being entirely literal about the childhood bedroom stuff... but he also didn't get what that hero worship actually meant to marc. you can be a fan of someone and you can be A Fan, and marc was A Fan. this wasn't just a reference point for marc... this was someone he deeply admired. someone he very much idolised. it's not just 'a poster', right - showing valentino marc's childhood bedroom probably doesn't achieve that much. it's something that valentino just interprets differently... to him, this doesn't mean anything in and of itself. which he's broadly right about - except he wasn't entirely aware of what level of fandom marc was actually operating on

so, why does he say it if he's not literally doubting the existence of any posters? first of all, he's just trying to be cruel here. he knows why it stings, right - he's calling the very foundation of their relationship a lie. marc had this pretence up the whole time, and now valentino is finally forcing him to drop it. marc's being dishonest - and how better to argue his case than by saying not even the posters were real? the second reason is that it's an act of erasure. I talk in the sete post about how he does this with that rivalry... most noticeably by excluding sete almost entirely from his autobiography. here, valentino takes a slightly different approach over the years, but as the other feud with deep interpersonal repercussions it's broadly coming from the same playbook. this is the most radical way you can cut ties, right... you can argue the bond never existed in the first place. if it was all just a lie, then the relationship isn't just over - it was never really there. it's the most brutal and complete way you can burn your bridges. marc isn't just denied valentino's friendship... valentino isn't even allowing him to be his fan. he's attempting to erase the continuity between them entirely, how marc isn't just his successor in literal terms of his results but also in the more abstract sense of how he modelled himself after valentino. it's this bit that indicates the finality in valentino's decision perhaps better than anything else. this is the end, in all the ways that matter most

[exoticalmonde]

Part I. Hortus de Escapismo Dr. Evealia's Reaction

Ah, finally.

Hortus de Escapismo

Garden of Escapism

Full experience includes waiting for 19837364 endless hours for the servers to open, rewatching the PV (English Version)

The animated PV

And listening to the biggest banger of a boss music without knowing any context. Including to whatever this splash art is meant to be about why does he look so... sad?

The following contains only the aftermath of the gacha and me being real chatty about the way characters look + expectations, so if you're looking for commentary of the story, please refer to Part II!

Hortus de Escapismo is on the horizon and Dr. Lundi is a radiant and unavoidable ball of excitement during the pulls. How could she NOT be??? Six months of saving, an ungodly ammount of pulls and a surprising eagerness of Executor to arrive home later (i.e. the fact out of eight 6*, only two were strangers).

Speaking of strangers, an obscure horse wandered into the pulls to remind her that he's still her number one husband and Executor comes second. Most likely because to summon Federico she changed Mlynar on her homescreen to Executor normal version and he got a little worried, the old man.

Among the 4 Doctors there's always 7 pots of each Elite, so it's no wonder the other one went to Dr. Pinkie before pity, which pretty much concluded our pulls. I don't know what happened to Dr. Kryo, but I personally didn't pull because Hoederererer is on the horizon four months from now and I am BEHIND because of Silverash Kernels.

Fastest character build ever in the world. I think maxing out characters ASMRs have to exist. It's so nice to see it happen so fast. Aesthetically pleasing, complete and right.

But since I'm giving statements that are already unrequested, I just want to say that Executor is not my type. I don't like stiffly blunt and I am also on the side of Sarkaz, so just Sanktas in general are a little... off for me. Except Enforcer, Enforcer is my baby and I would kill for him.

Go on, TRY and convince me this isn't one of the coolest arts ever. I need old 6* characters to get a revamp on their E2 art, because compared to this few can truly compare. God is behind him, holding the scythe, the statue is half a robot for whatever reason???? And it's so cool???

Not to mention that he looks exactly the same face-wise versus his E0 art, which cannot be said about, I don't know, SilverAsh, who looks like he was born in a wet cardboard box all alone in an alley.

His token is also so so so so cute, I don't know what the overall experience with listening to him talking into your ear feels like, but just-- just read this:

'A wireless earpiece. The latest of the Lateran Curia's tech products, and the same model that Executor himself currently uses. Is he giving this to you so you can stay in contact with him at any time, perhaps?'

??????????????????????????????

Cutie patootie.

Base skill not all that impressive. For some reason while looking into it Dr. Pinkie expressed surprise, because she couldn't find any other operator who gives productivity for EXP cards, but by complete accident I saw FEater is another one.

Insider's splash looks great, he's the embodyment of that one weirdo who always gets in trouble for some reason. Might be the spiky hair. Might be the army of pigeons following him.

Their voice actors are amazing so far as I heard, so we wait and see what he's like personality wise.

HIS POTENTIAL IS ABUBUBUBU

'A handwritten dessert recipe. With proportions finetuned to Insider's own personal tastes, the sugar content ABSOLUTELY exceeds recommended guidelines! This one's a pick-me-up!'

Ma'amn...

Not me. Not with that look.

Jail.

'A user manual for precision machinery. Though the only thing inside is a special phone number, since she thinks telling you what to do directly is easier. (But sometimes she'll teach you wrong on purpose–depends on her mood.)'

JAIL FOR YOU

[lil-tachyon]

For the last couple years I've been keeping a handwritten list of good horror stories I've read. I guess the most recommendable ones are The Music of Erich Zann by Lovecraft, The Stolen Body by Wells, Mimic by Wollheim, The Thing in the Weeds by Hodgson, Cyclops by Leiber, The Screaming Man by Beaumont, and The Open Window by Saki. I might type up and post the whole list on my blog after I've done some more reading (my list of things I still need to read grows much faster than the other list).

Including your other suggestions so I can tackle them all in one post.

I wasn't sure I was going to get to all these but I ended up being kinda knocked out by a nasty cold this week and had time to lay up in bed reading through all of them. Which was an absolute pleasure! Thank you for putting this list together. For fun I thought I'd do a mini-review of each story.

For context, I'm the kind of guy that's read probably every H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith story ever published. I had devoured most of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells by the time I was 14. What I'm trying to say is that I'm already a nerd pre-disposed to loving any Weird Fiction or early sci-fi/horror. If that kind of stuff isn't your speed, then adjust your expectations accordingly.

Also SPOILERS AHEAD for 50-100+ year old short stories.

"The Music of Erich Zann" - H. P. Lovecraft - 1921: This was always going to get a recommendation from me, I just enjoy Lovecraft too much. I'm glad I re-read it though, it had been a while and I think this might be one of my favorite of his stories now. The thing that stood out to me this time around was the exploration of the relationship between Zann and the anonymous protagonist. Feels uncharacteristic of a Lovecraft story to focus so much on the interactions between two human characters and it's done with a fair bit of depth. Bonus: no Lovecraftian racism in this story! Also check out this thrash/prog banger from the Mekong Delta album named after this story.

"The Stolen Body" - H. G. Wells - 1898: So when I opened up my copy of A Dream of Armageddon: The Complete Supernatural Tales (a misnomer it turns out, because it didn't contain the other Wells story on this list) I was surprised to find a bookmark exactly halfway through "The Stolen Body" from where I must've stopped the last time I tried reading this anthology over a decade ago. And I can understand why I would've stopped there because this story is kind of a slog. The premise is fine- a man severs his consciousness from his physical body in the course of an experiment in astral projection and is alarmed to find that when he attempts to return to corporeality another spirit has already taken possession of his frame. The problem is that this story is recounted twice- first from the perspective of a friend where, in spite of their incomplete information, it's pretty obvious what has transpired, and then a second time from the astral-projecting protagonist himself. In the protagonist's telling there's an interesting account of his journey through a kind of vapid hell where body-less spirits wander through eternity suffering of boredom and only able to interact with the physical world via mediums but the concept isn't explored in any depth and is recounted in a painfully "tell, don't show" manner. Can't say I recommend, but it's an interesting artifact of a time when late 19th century occultic beliefs showed up in sci-fi. Kind of like how a lot of 50s-70s sci-fi features psychics.

"Mimic" - Donald A Wollheim - 1942: My favorite story from the list. It's weird, compelling, and extremely brief. I won't summarize it because I think you should just read it. Surprised I hadn't heard of it before, especially since there's apparently a Guillermo Del Toro film adaptation of it? Also surprisingly difficult to track down the text. There are a few incomplete versions of it floating around but if you want the full story, I found it as part of this anthology on archive.org.

"The Thing in the Weeds" - William Hope Hodgson - 1913: - Before this, my only exposure to Hodgson had been "The House on the Borderland" (great story by the way), and reading the "The Thing in the Weeds" has me thinking I should dig a bit deeper into his bibliography. Conveys a sense of claustrophobia and anxiety that feels like classic "Weird Tales" fare while dealing with much lower stakes than unnameable cosmic beings. Maybe more horror stories should be set on the open sea...

"Cyclops" - Fritz Leiber - 1965: This is not a story, this is Leiber's idea for a cool vacuum-dwelling space creature dressed up as a story. Dialogue feels totally unnatural, characters are blank slates, tension is set at zero. But the creature is pretty darn cool and the story is very short. So if you want to just read about a neat alien, go ahead!

"The Howling Man" - Charles Beaumont - 1959: I had already seen the Twilight Zone adaptation of this story a while back so I knew the outline of the plot already, but that in no way diminished my joy in reading this. Beaumont's prose is highly engaging and contains a surprising amount of humor that I don't remember being present in the television version. The only real weak point is the ending. I think a bit more ambiguity over whether and to what the extent the Howling Man and the Abbott were lying to the protagonist would've demanded more introspection from the reader. The idea that releasing the Howling Man / Satan is the direct cause of WWII feels a little too simplistic and also depends on this weird assertion that the early Weimar Republic was experiencing an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity that I'm pretty sure doesn't hold up to historical scrutiny. Still highly recommend, a very fun read!

"The Open Window" - Saki / H. H. Munro - 1914: Less a horror story and more a... silly story? I don't know how to describe it other than it feels like the kind of thing you would have to read and analyze for a single high-school English period. Didn't really do anything for me but it's like a 5-minute read so check it out if you want. Does make me wish I could go on one of those "retreats to the countryside for my nerves" that turn-of-the-century English gentleman and ladies are always going on.

"In the Abyss" - H.G. Wells - 1896: A much better Wells story! And I was lucky enough to find this in the other print Wells anthology I own. (I have an addiction to bringing home old paperbacks I don't need but it's a cheap addiction and I don't have the heart to break it. Plus they're all on shelves and alphabetized so my wife can't get mad at me. Anyway, it's the shelves and shelf space that gets expensive...) It can be a little bit "gadget fiction-y" in its description of the submersible but overall it's well-paced with some good tension and a truly weird exploration of an underwater world. Recommend if you're looking for something outright odd or you like specifically underwater sci-fi. Don't recommend if you don't like thinking about the ways you might die in a submersible.

"The Stone Ship" - William Hope Hodgson - 1914: An interesting and definitely weird story, again about strange happenings on the open sea. Stretches the premise a bit too much, both in the actual length of the story and in my willingness to suspend my disbelief of the "scientific" explanation given at the end. I enjoyed it, but for a spookier and shorter take on a similar premise I'd recommend Lovecraft's "Dagon."

Anyway, thank you again @siryl for your recommendations, I had a blast reading through them!

[rawliverandcigarettes]

One thing that becomes clearer and clearer every time I dare to dip back into The Empire of Preys, is that it's a story for... almost nobody.

(beware: I express a ton of feelings regarding the series under the cut, not all of them positive --and I talk a little bit about my current relationship to the Mass Effect fandom)

Don't get me wrong: I adore it, I am still extremely puzzled at how my brain even began to conceive a story like that, and the first chapter is a complete banger in my honest opinion, and the characters are uncomfortable in a very interesting way, and the worldbuilding is extremely dense with things I hope are meaningful, but.

It's also... pretty hostile to readership? By that I mean: I don't think it can be read passively. A big part of reading TEoP is, first, to understand how systems function normally; and then, understand how these systems interact altogether, how they can be abused, how they are actually abused, and what chain of events these systems will lead to. I am really proud of this interconnectivity --at the same time, it is incredibly dense and demand work. For all the fun and games I can try to inject in there, there are basic principles that can't skip being understood well for the plot to make sense; it's a politically driven story in the dryest possible way --with disaster bisexuals and fashionistas sprinkled on top to lush it up a little, but at heart it is a story about systems interconnecting from the bottom to the top, and it's a tangled mess in there.

So it's... If I'm being honest, and in spite of my genuine love of it, I have to admit it is a little hard to dedicate myself to pushing it further to the degree of polish that it needs. Not to say I won't do it --I will-- but it's impossible not to notice how *barren* the Mass Effect community has gotten in the last couple of years, this year being particularly bad. The readership was barely there anymore when Halfway Home got out, and I'm like... who's even left in there to read 200k worth of words of salarian/turian/asari politics in excruciating detail? Who's even interested in peeling up that toxic system of governance and how soft imperialism manifests in that universe? I still am, because I am invested in that version of Mass Effect and the characters I have put together in that context. But who else?

Of course, there's always this thing of "don't write for an audience, write for yourself", and I'm an absolute follower of that mentality. However.

However.

(oops here comes a condensed version of that Halfway Home post-mortem I promised six months agoooo)

Halfway Home was *hard work*. It's work I decided to go through on my own, and I knew from the start it wouldn't reach that large of an audience --on virtue of being stupid long, about an OC (and a salarian at that, who cares), and having a trigger warning list longer than most people would find reasonable. I am happy that I did the work, and that I chewed the text over until I was absolutely sick of it --but it was basically the best version of what 7 years worth of change and growth and experimentations could get to before absolute burnout. And I am even happy about the readership! I had wonderful comments and I am truly honored that some people invested in that story to the degree they did, and I am fully aware that stories that take much more work get even less attention on the daily. But I would lie to say that I kind of felt... drained, when I saw that I had, indeed, taken too much time to complete it, and the fandom was basically dried up when I finally released it. Watching seven years of my life disappear down the Ao3 drain felt... Well, I won't lie. It felt kind of bad. It felt kind of like grief.

At the end of the day, it is true that nobody ever cares more about your story than yourself --and again, I am neither fishing for attention nor am I really complaining, even. It is a difficult story to sell and to read through, and I always knew the readership would be extraordinarily slim (and it did find it, and I am beyond uwwuuuuwuwu about it, truly ;;). I knew all of that going in. But I also won't lie that fandom timing was... horrendous --and it is even worse today. The fact that I have *barely* seen a hint of speculation on my dash from the latest N7 trailer does kind of say something as well. Sometimes, things come and go. And I suppose that's okay.

But what of The Empire of Preys? What of my deep care for the characters? What of my (I think, understandable) reluctance about jumping in to the next installments, knowing *for sure* that I'll be lucky if I graze 500 hits on Ao3? And that's me being beyond generous, honestly? I wish I didn't care about that, but I guess I do, a little. I also think it's understandable, wanting to work on things and see an impact from whatever you do --even if it comes from love and care. I'm glad I got to do it once, but do I want my literal masterpiece (I know the wording is strong, but I genuinely think TEoP is the best thing I ever did, counting my professional work that will be experienced by a *much* larger audience, and I have zero ideas how I could top it off conceptually given it felt like everything was being served to me in a trance-like state) being sandwiched between futanari porn and a story about a... certain main pairing being plastered absolutely everywhere and tending to suck all the oxygen in the room. No hate to either concept in particular, I actually like the coexistence of everything, it's part of what's cool about fanfiction! But, also. Also.

I suppose it is the curse of having a brain that works best creatively in the context of fandom --and daring to believe in the importance and necessity of creativity for its own sake, without monetary gain. But also, the very human entitlement thing of... not wanting to pour all of its life energy into a black hole.

It's complicated. I do not have a good answer as of now, at least regarding TEoP. I will keep on working passively on it as of now, once in a while, rediscovering it's genuinely really good from time to time and then moving away from it somewhat, until next time. I'm still doing Zelda stuff as of now, which... has been way more rewarding creatively, not gonna lie. It's a fandom full of lifeblood, with ideas bouncing around, people wanting to meet up, boundless creativity. I have written a micro-trilogy this year (it's here if that interests you), and, while in the same ballpark of attention than Halfway Home, it was undeniably more rewarding. I think I also needed to change mediums --I am currently experimenting with animatics, visual storytelling and extremely humble 2D animations, and I'm having a blast.

So... Yeah. I am fairly certain I will complete The Empire of Preys, because I love it deeply and I want to complete it, for its own sake if anything. But in regards to a timeframe... I'm not promising anything. It will happen. Not sure when! I'm following where creativity feels the more urgent at the moment.

But one day, this is a story that will exist, at the very least, and I think I'll love it deeply as well no matter how it's received. But I think I need a little bit of a positive feedback loop right about now, and so to work on projects that like... will be read. Or watched. Or played. Or experienced. And I'm not positive The Empire of Preys will be that for me, at least right now.

[theforesteldritch]

I tried picking up honkai star rail again and fuck I miss the belobog arc and belobog, I genuinely feel like the way the game is structured rn is ruining the chances of a similarly great world and questline in the future. Nothing in the game since has made me feel like I did playing through belobog, I feel like it was the best the game's offered so far and idk if they'll do anything on its level again. I love the quest, the pacing is decent, though the story can be somewhat predictable it's still solid and really well executed and makes you feel, the worldbuilding is great, the characters are all complete and fleshed out and their motivations and personalities seem complete and well thought out, the areas in it are gorgeous and so well done and exactly hit the right vibe and the music is amazing, and the boss fight (and its music, Wildfire is a banger especially given context) was great because you were invested in it and the outcome and future of Belobog. The story makes sense and feels like a complete arc rather than a disjointed series of quests. Most importantly it was both engaging and fun.

Penacony and the Luofu just haven't delivered the same way and aren't nearly as compelling. The game's fallen into a cycle of monthly small updates and pumping out new shiny gacha characters as fast as they can without putting in the effort to give them what made the Belobog arc characters so good. And the worst part is you can't really go back and get that feeling again in Belobog because once you've cleared the content there's nothing to do in the area. No interactivity, no reason or incentive to revisit your favourite areas because there's nothing to do but run around and that gets stale.

The game's lost what made it charming and have heart to it in my opinion. I guess I should expect it at this point with shitty gacha games but I genuinely thought that the game was trying to be a game beyond that and continue with the beautifully high bar set by the Belobog arc and that just hasn't happened at all. It's dissapointing tbh, especially given how much I loved and still do love belobog and the astral express, but unless this gets better and the devs remember what made it so good at the start I don't think I can bring myself to keep playing.

[neeeeet2]

I love Hazbin Hotel! finished all episodes and rewatched it again. Animation is good but some of the story are quite rushed. Whats your thoughts? do you think it’s too fast paced? they should really make it 11 episodes for one season lol

Yeah!! I’ve rewatched quite a few times with different friends lol

I agree, I find the plot itself is a bit rushed and would’ve done better with more buildup for the arcs and such- and the songs, while absolute bangers, don’t exactly line up with what we’ve been shown.

“Out of Love” for example is an amazing song that I’d listen to over and over, but put in the context of the show it doesn’t quite fit- it’s meant to be Camila guiding Vaggie to a different way of thinking to defeat angels, and it does that well, but the problem is that Vaggie’s thinking doesn’t match what Camila initially thinks it is.

She says that Vaggie is “out for vengeance”, when really she’s not- not at all were we led to believe Vaggie was fighting for anything other than Charlie in the first place because we’ve never seen her as a vengeful character. Based on the show itself, it would make more sense that Vaggie is already fighting for love because the whole reason she’s even talking to Camila is for Charlie and the hotel, yet the song would assume otherwise.

As another example; the Vee’s part in the finale doesn’t quite make sense, even under the pretence of them not knowing Alastor is still alive.

They speak of a power vacuum, which would be a completely fair assumption if Lucifer wasn’t also on the hotel’s side. Plus, Alastor was already gone for seven years, why wasn’t there a power vacuum then if there’s one now?

Hazbin Hotel would’ve likely been better paced if they didn’t reveal Adam’s true intentions to the audience so soon, have the idea of “is it possible to redeem a sinner at all?” brewing as the main focus for a little bit more, as it would allow for more character focused episodes.

As a side note: it probably would’ve been really cool if Adam was revealed to be genocidal near the end of season one, and possibly make a gateway into the main plot of season two being defense against the excorists.

I honestly wouldn’t mind if there were a few filler episodes as well, in the sense of them attempting to or actually improving as the series went on since it lets us, the viewer, get more attached to the characters at a slower pace and truly get to know them. They don’t necessarily need to do practice exercises every episode, but every now and then would be nice (again, under the pretext of Hazbin season one ranging much more than 8 episodes).

A few filler episodes might’ve also allowed us to witness more world building at a slower pace if the hotel group went to different areas within the Pride Ring as a sort of field trip.

Another issue is that without the pilot we have no idea where these characters came from, why they’re in the hotel, or even why they “agreed” to help at all- and considering the pilot isn’t considered entirely canon anymore that’s quite a big problem.

It feels like as if we’ve missed an entire episode if you watch the series without the pilot- and yes starting shows like this is possible and it works, but considering what we had in the pilot already explained to us where they came from and their initial intentions, they probably should have incorporated at least some of it into episode one. Many people who find Hazbin for the first time will not know there’s a pilot on youtube if they only scroll on Amazon. Because of this, they would be missing key factors of the characters and their initial introduction for the rest of the show.

Overall, I think Hazbin Hotel was great song-wise and absolutely amazing animation-wise, but the writing should’ve been more character focused. As one of my friends said to me: Vivzie’s strength is in character writing and allowing the characters to move the plot, not the plot moving the characters.

But we also have to keep in mind that creating a new show on a streaming platform no doubt has quite a few restraints, and many of these problems could’ve come from that- and if this is true, then hopefully now that Hazbin has done so well they’ll be able to better stretch out future episodes and make seasons longer. This is also under the assumption that Hazbin Hotel will be much longer than two seasons, though.