#this is literally all I've got on commentary for this one lmao-

[spotlightstudios]

Utau posting tonight, I guess! Did this bad boy ^ all on one layer besides the background, just as a fun challenge to myself!

Honestly refreshing to just make a fun piece of the base character! (Cross of Xtale of course is by Jakei 👌)

I haven't been keeping up w/ content for this cuz I kinda just fell out, but I plan to eventually circle back around!

[eloise-t-g]

i think for me, the watcher situation comes down to this:

it's absolutely respectable that the watcher team wants to grow and produce better quality content. it's respectable that they don't want to stagnate and end up pushing the same content out over and over again. that's not satisfying for them creatively, i get that.

however, if higher quality, more heavily produced content is not what your fans are asking for, then you can't ask them to fund it.

this all-or-nothing method they've gone for is frankly bizarre. it feels like they leap-frogged all other alternatives to improving their finances and ended up here, alienating and frustrating the majority of their fanbase (the fanbase they thanked for getting them to where they are).

i think this could have gone a lot better if they:

Hadn't hyped up this video for a week.

Hadn't announced the worth it successor just beforehand.

Hadn't put out a wishy-washy, "boo hoo we're so sad about this", over-produced video.

Hadn't made it $6/month (more in a lot of countries given exchange rates).

Had considered that this means fans in specific countries literally cannot pay for the subscription due to geo/region-locking.

my ideas for improving their funds, aka things they could have tried before blowing their brand up: create their own website with two options - a free version with ads and a paid version without ads, OR make better use of their patreon/make their website extra content, not all their content, for example:

Put the ghost file debriefs on there.

Put shows like survival mode on there (or even shift that show from pre-recorded video to live-stream - live stream access to patrons and VOD access to everyone, maybe).

Put episode commentaries there.

Do reaction videos to their old buzzfeed content, talk about memories and BTS, and put that there.

Put one/two episodes of each show, per season on there (and ONLY there).

Put the episodes up there a few days early.

Make specific, website only content (that's not your main and most popular series aka ghost files and puppet history).

Record the live, in-person shows and put those VODs up there.

EDIT (thought of something else lmao): put extended or even uncut versions of ghost files on there. Paranormal Detour on Detune's twitch channel has shown that people will willingly sit through 6+ hours of a ghost investigation.

EDIT: idk, do livestreams once a week where you watch scary movies with fans on discord or twitch.

(side note: the fact that they're not taking down their patreon and instead shifting all of their podcast content on there, something the patreons who have been loyally giving them money for years didn't ask for, is ridiculous and greedy. add to this the fact that they don't even get a free sub to the new website, instead get 40% off - a measly 10% more than anyone else who subs before the official launch).

the thing for me is that they're claiming they want to make "television" and "television-grade content". that's completely fine. what's not completely fine is acting like your four episodes a month is equal to netflix's entire catalogue.

this really felt like it should have been something they told us they were progressing towards, not something they revealed to be on the imminent horizon. idk, it just feels out of nowhere. no, they don't owe us all of the info about their company. but something had to be better than this.

final thought - it's okay and valid to be upset at the team for this. for a lot of people, it's a complete betrayal (especially the comment that $6 a month is something "anyone and everyone can afford", i mean yikes). i do think some people's anger got the best of them, and some of the comments i've seen across youtube, twitter, and tumblr are plain bullying, racism, and harassment. until we have the whole story, we can't decide that one founder (aka steven in a lot of people's minds) is solely responsible. i know a lot of these awful things are only coming from a small minority of the fandom, but they still get seen.

at the end of the day, all three of them got up in front of a camera and made this video, together. that can only lead us to the conclusion that they made this decision together. acting like these men in their 30s couldn't stand up against it if they truly wanted to, is so strange and parasocial lmao.

tl;dr there were much better ways of going about this announcement, if it even needed to be made at all. however, that doesn't excuse the hateful shit being spewed at the team. for now, all we know is the three founders decided they were done with youtube, and done with their loyal youtube audience.

(i have so many more thoughts on this but i need to stop lmao. however i do wonder how different things could have been if 1. they had hired someone with actual business experience as their CEO from the jump, and 2. this video was more of a "hey we're broke! this is a last-ditch effort to save our company!". guess those questions will remain ... well ... you know ...).

[sanflawoah]

Black Myth: Wukong

More brainrot commentary because I'M NOWHERE NEAR DONE WITH GOING INSANE OVER THIS MONKE GAME.

Cursed texts and massive spoilers bellow. Lots of random bits and wee woo wee woo.

First of all, YEEESSS to everything well written big budget media with heavy cultural elements that isn't western centric. Love it 👏, a thousand more like this please.

HONESTLY can't get enough of the character designs. Watching the old tv show in my childhood got me imagining the JTTW characters as these cute human with animal ears. But since the game took a more serious and darker tone they took the character design to 1000. So many memorable characters with distinct style, drip, and combat.

Ok so whose idea was it to make some of the plants sentient and will beat your ass for daring to pick them up. I now have trust issues with ginseng and mushrooms

The toad bosses reminds me of Gamabunta. For a moment they also gave me a war flashback of Jedi Survivor's Oggdo-Bogdo, I want those things vaporised from earth 🔫🔫

Kang-Jin darkening the environment during her second stage, I legit thought it was a problem with my screen, until I found out other players had it too lmao. Also looove her design, silver loong with holographic glow, prettiest loong in the game

Boss musics are so LIT, I've been looping them for weeks

The Scorpionlord. First I saw him I was like HANZO HASASHI :DD??? But instead of hellfire, this time he uses venom. And the fact that the environments have autumn palette, connects me to MK 11 Shirai Ryu fire garden arena lol

an NPC called Starved Abomination. The name really sends me because ngl it's a relatable concept, I too became an abomination whenever I'm starving.

To punish Wukong for his lifetime worth of trash-talking, the game now choose The Destined One as shy and doesn't talk much except for when he screams during fights. All my grievances of expecting him to be chatty and noisy actually works out the more I understand the story. And turns out it was all part of his journey, you are meant to complete him by collecting Wukong's scattered senses. Lil introverted fur-ball of scream I love you so much. Since the NG+++ Wukong stance actually gave him voicelines, I'm guessing the Destined One is going to complete his development in actually becoming Wukong in the DLC.

Everyone and I mean EVERYONE had a beef with Wukong and now we gotta pick up after his mess. My poor Destined One walked into an area completely clueless and suddenly everyone is jumping on him because "REMEMBER THE THING YOU DID TO ME A FEW HUNDRED YEARS AGO??? WELL FUK YOU, NOW DIE."

~

🐱Yin Tiger🐱. First time I met him I was like ohhh who are you, you look so cool and kinda cute tho, look at those big boba eyes, pspspsps.

He's all busy with his hammer and zabuza sword, thinks you're so annoying for bothering his work. Then there's this "challenge" option and suddenly he rose and casually tossed his hammer to the ground, I was like wait I was just joking aYO I WAS JUST JOKING-, then proceeds to delete my HP in 30 seconds. Anyway I love how he appears big and heavy and yet moves so swiftly. Of ALL the tiger bosses in this game, imo he's the coolest and THE SANEST. I still can''t get over the Tiger Vanguard and Mad Tiger trauma, those orange cats are on a whole new level of insanity.

🕷️Fourth Spider Sister🕷️. I'm actually so INVESTED in her mystery, like why are you helping me? Why do you look so sad? Are those tear stains on your cheeks?? Why did the Immortal Crane said that I'm giving you "false hopes"? What were we in the previous life?

"Think about her, won't you? Should you feel like stirring trouble in your next life." WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, TELL ME. SHE SEEMS SO NICE THO, she's just a sad goth girl what did she do?? What did WE do?? And her journal entry is so interesting.

🐉Yellow Loong🐉. LISTEN.... I literally had to pause for a moment when I saw him. Cutscene plays and I was like Oohh it's going to be that type of charismatic character reciting monologue, and then I saw his name and it's THE YELLOW LOONG??? This suave horned man is The Yellow Loong??

Well damn I have to say that's one handsome loong. He's one of those elegant style fighters, my favourite genre, up there with Whiteclad Noble and Erlang Shen.

👁️Erlang Shen⚡. The way I turned up the volume when I heard Andrew Koji's Erlang voice.....It's just so.......pleasant to hear. Something about the way he did his voice, the smug taunts, the gentle almost-whispers, and the gROWLS???

I can't even with the entirety of Erlang's character design in this game, because dAMN BOI what a BEAUTY. I thought the game was going to make his appearance more mature looking, or even scarier, because that's just how it is with game character design formula, especially in games like this. But NOOOOO..... they made him ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. His face, his voice, HIS MOVESS, the way they designed his martial arts so elegantly. When you perfect dodge everything with him, it really feels like a dance. I have to note that when sometimes you tried heavy attack on him aND HE SIMPLY JUST-.... took one step to the side.... THE ABSOLUTE SLAYYY DISRESPECT💅💅. Welcome back Isshin from Sekiro.

Also I just found out that depending on what transformation you're using, he's going to react differently on each. Particularly interesting one was when you use Azure Dust. Most of the time, when you transform, he's going to transform too and chances are he's going to one-shot you out of the transformation. He doesn't do that with Azure Dust for some reason, instead he got amused because Lmao returning back to your origin?. And this line, "Walking his path is no easy feat, it will test you relentlessly". SOMETHING SOMETHING ABOUT ERLANG HAVING THIS HIDDEN BURDEN THROUGHOUT THE PLOT IS DRIVING ME INSANE, I NEED THE DLC TO EXPLORE HIS CHARACTER MORE I'M BEGGING YOU GAME SCIENCE. You can't leave me hanging with his journal entry please I want him to have some peace and closure.

Powerful quiet character with hidden struggle, the bane of my existence, my beloved.

☂️🐉The Four Heavenly Kings🎸🗡️. MAN I love these guys, their fight feels so rewarding somehow, because after all those struggles with Erlang, they feel more like a reward battle for visual entertainment.

Aside from being relatively easy, they're just so fun to watch. I keep wanting to stall the fight just to see what move sets they could perform because their coordinated attacks are just SO COOL.

South king throwing the sword at us, joined by the West king throwing punches, and then the West king passing the sword back to South king. That brief moment of them passing weapons, they need to do more of that, so sick.

The North king combo with every other kings. The West jumping up using the North's umbrella, summoned the dragon, the South yeeting the sword, and the East buffing up the umbrella thrust attack with his Pipa magic. I'd hate to be a normal human citizen under them during that scene GODDAMN. I'd say the West is the game's favourite king because he's the one with the most screentime. He's the one with distinct glowing eyes and he was the most visible behind Erlang during the opening. The North being the coolest because WTF WAS THAT TYPHOON UMBRELLA WITH THE WEST'S DRAGON ROLLING WITH IT, AND THE MUSIC QUE, ABSOLUT CINEMA. The East probably being the chillest of them all because my man was just serenading the fight yo, I like how his fingers actually moves accurately playing the BGM. I know they're on the heaven's side, but for some reason I want them to be on our side if it's possible in the DLC. If we could get Erlang, then surely we can get them? They're too epic not to have.

🐒THE GREAT SAGE'S BROKEN SHELL🐒

THE MONKEY, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND. SUN. WU. KONG. THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT WHEN THIS MF SHOWED UP ON SCREEN. TEARFUL CHEER AND AND UNIMAGINABLE TERROR. AND WITH THAT BITS OF THE OG TV SHOW THEME MOTIF PLAYING WHEN HE SUMMONED JINGU BANG.

Who would've thought that we're going to fight our former self as a literal your greatest enemy is yourself concept. Like yO IT'S THE G HIMSELF WUKONG but now FUK I HAVE TO FIGHT HIM?? Look, sir, Mr. Great Sage, I know I've been playing around as you and I don't even know what I'm doing, I'M SORRY.

So now we're fighting zombie Wukong. He's literally soulless inside and his voice sounds demonic. YET STILL he radiates that lively asshole energy. You try pillar stance to get away from him, he does the same but his pillar is TALLER than yours. You try to walk off calmly, he does the same but then taunts you for it, eats a peach and then flicks the seed to your head. Kicks you to the sky and transforms his jingu bang into a pillar and plants it to the ground with you under it. He cheats by summoning kintoun and body slammed you. He summoned his clones to kick you in all directions only for the original Wukong to wait on the side yawning, then he kicks your jingu bang back at you like "pick it up bitch", and taunts you with his hand gesture to come at him. Ok now you're raging and you tried to pillar stance heavy attack at him, he's like "shut yo bitch-" and GRABBED YOUR JINGU BANG WITH YOU STILL HOLDING ON TO IT AND STARTS USING YOU AS A FLY SWATTER. Just as you think that these suffering couldn't get any worse, you tried to heal and he IMMOBILISED YOU, SNATCHED YOUR GOURD AND TOOK A SIP, decided that it tastes like shit and threw it back at you. Now THIS is the little shit that I know and love.

The whole time you tried to do a move against him, he returned the favour but better. You think your staff extension is long? Ok he'll extend his staff to a kilometer, and that's STILL him holding back. You can do ring of fire? His is bigger in diameter and burns brighter. The game had to nerf out his lore accurate skills because it's just so atrociously OP.

Ok so you finally defeated him? Just as he got dusted away he still managed to croak a last laugh.

Que good ending animated cutscene with the JTTW plot in reverse serenaded with Celestial Symphony. Happy onions, happy onions tearing up the eyes. Crank the volume up, it's all coming together. That's Ba Jie, that's Sanzang, that's Wujing, that's horse.

MMMMMMM MONKE.

[cuephrase]

from the questionnaire:

are there any results that really surprised you or that you didn't expect?

oooooh good question!! for me personally, no, not really? at least nothing that automatically comes to mind, so yk, don't quote me on that if i share data later and say "this surprised me/i didn't expect this!!" lmao

ummmm, hmmm. well actually okay, so i did expect Tim to be the Most Disliked Robin, but not by such a margin, if that makes sense? more like, logically one of them was going to be the most disliked even if only like 10 people disliked a Robin and my bet was that Tim would have the most votes, by process of elimination/other hypotheses. i wasn't upset by the results, if you've seen the post you know i was incredibly entertained.

there were definitely some results that were a relief? like they aligned with my personal predictions, but it was still really nice to see them.

oh, something that did surprise me was the amount of commentary i got on batcest!! there is zero discussion of shipping in the questionnaire, which is mainly why i wasn't expecting so much commentary, and there's not really a whole lot of ship discussion apart from batcest stuff that i remember- i did think i might get a couple mentions of it but i got a lot more than a couple lmao.

in favor of and against, to be clear, and to be even clearer to anyone reading- this is not an invitation to share your thoughts about batcest with me, i truly do not care. not to be rude, either, like i don't care if you love it or hate it, i just have zero interest in discussing it since a) my blog is mostly gen and b) i don't see any benefits in engaging in discourse about batcest 🫶

on the individual response level, there were some things that surprised me in isolation, but made perfect sense in the context of the responder's answers, like for instance one person said they didn't see Dick as brothers with any of the boy Robins except for Damian, because "he doesn’t really interact with a lot of the other robins in canon", that being said, the only eras they said they read were pre-crisis and rebirth. makes a lot more sense in that context. like i was thrown for a loop, but then i saw the full picture and i was like, "oh. okay."

let this be your daily reminder that the statement "i read comics" means basically nothing lmao. and i don't mean that as a dig at that responder, not at all, just that if you're someone who reads comics you cannot assume that someone else also reading comics means that you guys will be on the same wavelength. not because canon is nebulous and unknowable imo, but just because there's a lot of it!!

also!! a decent amount of people said i was brave?? that freaked me out a little, because i hadn't really...i didn't think i was stepping into shit, okay? in hindsight, i realize that that was naive of me, but idk. i wasn't thinking about the results in that way, and i also really didn't think i was going to get much interaction either- i was floored by the engagement the questionnaire got. but yeah, idk, i was just genuinely curious to see if my theory had any weight, i wasn't thinking about the broader implications of what the data might reveal. whoops.

and here's what surprised my wonderful data-crunchers:

@chinajousama: Hmm, I think one thing that did surprise me was how little the types of Robin media actually impacted the results [of the Most Disliked Robin]. Aside from that pocket of Jason hate from the post-Crisis fans, everyone was remarkably consistent. Also, it wasn't really a surprise, but it was extremely funny to see how big the gap between tim and literally anyone else was, dislike wise.

(we got an ask about if the media/eras consumed impacted which Robins were disliked, so that math has been done, but i haven't shared the results yet, sorry!!)

@tevyaa: Lots! Off the top of my head: - I was sure that the clear winner of the most disliked Robin poll would be Damian. He's the only one I've ever really seen hate for - probably because I entered fandom through Tim-centric whump fic 😂. I was shocked that it's actually Tim who the fandom is most annoyed with. - I was surprised how much of the fandom does actually read comics! I would have guesstimated that the comics/non-comics fans were something like 50/50, and was shocked to find out that only 15% of fandom doesn't read comics (and only about 4% doesn't interact with canon at all, including comics/ games/ animation)

(dw, we haven't released any data apart from the MDR yet, but you'll be able to see the breakdown of comics read/canon interaction eventually!!)

ty for the ask, anon!! i hope you enjoyed the answer!!

[verysium]

what do you read in your spare time? you’re one of the most eloquent users i know, id love to hear how you find the media you consume and what your favorites are

omg ei 😊 welcome back to the inbox! thank you for your sweet words although i'm probably not qualified enough to be considered the full definition of eloquent. i am going to preface this post by saying that i definitely don't read as much as i should, so this list is not going to be comprehensive whatsoever. the last time i even visited an in-person library was like half a decade ago, and since then my spare time has been nonexistent lmao. anyways, here are some of my favorite/most recent reads as listed by author:

POETRY

richard siken: i think siken is already well-known both in the literary world and in whatever booktok deems is popular culture. if you don't already know him though, he is best known for his poetry collection crush, which delves into themes of obsession, gay love, and violent eroticism. i actually read this chapbook unknowingly. as in i was hounding sketchy pdf download sites at 3 AM and saw a man with bloodied lips on the cover and decided to read it. he basically became my summer fever dream after that. the way he juxtaposes images is seamless, smoother than water. only richard siken can talk about violence without making it sound violent. i also enjoyed his other poetry collection war of the foxes, especially "portrait of fryderyk in shifting light." i think light is a common motif throughout most of his poems, and he manipulates it effortlessly. the most recent piece i read from him is "piano lesson." i have nothing left to say that he didn't already say, so i would just recommend reading it for yourself. he is the og big brain when it comes to word play.

ocean vuong: he's unforgettable, and i mean that literally because nobody forgets a person named ocean. time is a mother was exactly what the name suggests: an exploration of grief, loss, and the rewind of time after his mother's death. some of the poems are almost cinematic in quality. "künstlerroman" is my favorite because it feels exactly like watching a video tape in reverse. i think his most famous work is "someday i'll love ocean vuong." it was the first piece i ever read from him, and to this day, it remains my comfort poem.

silas denver melvin: i only recently discovered him through his chapbook grit. i think he's also on tumblr @/sweatermuppet. he writes a lot on the trans experience, and his work gives me a mix of southern gothic and country vibes. would definitely read his other publications if i had the time.

chen chen: one thing about chen chen is that he always comes to devour. my favorite works from him are "self-portrait as so much potential" and "song of the anti-sisyphus." you have to put on your thinking cap for some of his poems, but once you grasp the meaning, everything makes sense all at once.

franny choi: "disaster means without a star" was the entire inspiration behind my first rin fic. i relate to her more personally in regards to the diaspora experience, but her collections are worth reading in general because of the sheer quality.

pages matam: his poem "piñata" was what got me into slam poetry. his work mostly consists of political commentary which i feel is particularly relevant in today's social climate. "on learning america's english" also resonates with people who have encountered the entire losing/learning immigrant tongues experience.

laura lamb brown-lavolie: i've only read one spoken word poem from her, and tbh i only needed to read one. "on this the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the titanic, we reconsider the buoyancy of the human heart" is my two-headed calf poem. one day i will get this tattooed.

brendan constantine: once again, this was the result of me being chronically online coupled with the boredom of an august heat wave. i found "the opposites game" through TED. honestly, i was a bit unsure about it at first, but it's a cute little poem that makes you really delve into the intricacies of craft.

TEEN POETRY & PROSE

yasmeen khan: she could mouth her words onto every square inch of my body, and i would still be coming back for more. ingraining them into flesh is not enough. "movie stars" is by far my favorite work from her. she writes about femininity and womanhood so profoundly. it's tragic, but really i wouldn't have it end any other way.

kaya dierks: her writing is basically middle-of-nowhere small town stoner teenage life but personified. "crushed" is my favorite piece from her. the soundtrack for this work was definitely by ethel cain, and you cannot convince me otherwise.

FICTION

madeline miller: i was first introduced to her when i read the song of achilles. let's just say that book had me nonverbal for the greater half of three months. it was my metaphorical hatchet. i buried it once, and i never want to dig it up again. i read circe a few years later. the first time was during the blue hour at an airport, right between one red-eye flight and another transfer. i don't even remember that experience because i was heavily sleep-deprived. i read it again recently for a literature course, this time for academic analysis. overall, i enjoy the the heroine-centric narrative. typically, i'm a bit wary of novels with heavy feminist themes because they either project their agenda too strongly or they run the risk of misrepresentation. circe doesn't exactly have that problem. it was more about empowerment and less about exercising power over others.

charlotte brontë: as a historical figure, brontë was questionable, but jane eyre most certainly was not. that book rewired my brain, and that is saying something because i have never read any classic by choice. and it is so important to me that jane was the ugliest, plainest girl you could ever imagine. also cus i unironically enjoy angst, and this book was full of dramatic misunderstandings.

yoko ogawa: i love japanese literature, so there is no reason not to include this one here. "a peddler of tears" is one of my favorite short stories. i did not expect the ending at all, but it was welcome. something about violence, body gore, and dismemberment being framed as romantic and semi-erotic just gets to me. sign me the hell up. hotel iris is a hit-or-miss with some people. either you like the fact that art makes you uncomfortable or you shut it down completely. for me, i was alright with exploring some of its darker themes, but read at your own discretion.

NONFICTION

ross gay: he lives up to his name both in optimism and in carefree joy. probably one of my favorite creative nonfiction authors simply based off the accessibility of his writing style. easy to read and understand but still hits you with the full force of a semi-truck. i would recommend his book inciting joy. it's a collection of essays that delve into grief, but since this is ross gay, he makes it seem like a quintessential part of life.

paul kalanithi: sixteen-year-old me was mind blown by him cus before that doctors were shrewish old men with bald spots and sterile coats, not poetic surgeons who dissected the anatomy of word and recited t.s. eliot in the most heart-wrenching way possible. he is everything i want to become in both life and death. when breath becomes air literally does take your breath away.

[demonsfate]

maybe somewhat controversial but saw somethin on a confessions blog saying this and i guess i do kinda miss when rping felt... sillier at times? like with both the existence of magic anons & dash commentaries. things just feel Stricter or More Serious now? not sure how to put it. dash commentaries do still happen, but not as frequently as i used to. like GOSH, i remember 5+ years ago, i'd have my character saying something bizarre and it would BLOW the entire dashboard up. like almost all my mutuals would be commenting on it, a lot of "silly drama" would happen because of it. some would agree with my muse, some would prosecute them. that doesn't really happen anymore. though, i also understand. i get that ppl have boundaries, but sometimes it really feels like you have to walk on eggshells lest you upset somebody.

i recalled one time this character was just being AWFUL to mine (mine who has done nothing wrong lol) just hurling insults, mistreating them, whateves. so y'know, there were dash commentaries about this and it eventually lead to the other mun getting very upset that their character was being "villainized". and it's like ... don't ... write an antagonistic muse if you don't want that? or the very least, don't write them BEING antagonistic toward innocent people? i mean, when ppl's muses & anons used to bully abaddon, i actually loved it. because indeed deserved it, he's a horrible horrible person who mistreats and kills the innocents. and plus it's just fun ok? i love conflict - regardless if it's angsty, serious, or silly conflict.

and magic anons... i get it can be a flawed concept. (ppl can send their Thinly Disguised Fetishes in it - not that i care but obvs other ppl would rightfully care) but i still thought it was very fun because it's like temporary or mini aus. it plunges characters into otherwise impossible scenarios and then give you new thread concepts based on those scenarios. i'd say even to this day, i still accept magic anons. but that feels pointless to say because they're virtually nonexistent anymore.

this was all i was gonna discuss in this post, but i can also understand why the rpc is often... less engaging anymore? why we have a problem with communication, why we have a problem with less anons being sent out. this isn't a generalization, of course - there are other reasons why this happens. but this is something i've personally experienced in the past, and it makes me think it could be the same for other people. it's just the fear of being blown up at, again - upsetting somebody.

i've seen people be legit hateful towards the anons they get A LOT. like an old rper i've stopped writing with would literally call the anons "assholes" and trying to "ruin fun" because the anons would just comment on the threads or ask questions regarding the threads? and it's like i thought that was supposed to be a common thing... anons like that just help add insight to how the muse is feeling regarding a thread or somethin. but the way they reacted was so unnecessary hostile? when they could've politely told anons to stop or just... fucking deleted the anons like lmao. and it's not just this too but i've seen other people just react bitterly to certain anons they get. or this one time where somebody REQUESTED for CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM and i sent an anon giving my criticism, can't remember quite what it was but obvs i said nothing mean or insulting - i just told them a problem i noticed and gave tips on how they could possibly improve (AGAIN, THEY ASKED FOR THIS) and they later went on their blog talking about how they got ANON HATE???? HELLO????? so yeah, i understand not liking certain anons you get or whatever. but ppl react to them with so much hostility, that it makes everyone else afraid to send anons anymore because they'd rather say nothing than upset the user, especially if they're gonna be potentially villainized for something that is virtually harmless.

then there is just talking to people ooc. hell, i've had somebody who followed one of my old blogs (this was like a few years ago iirc?) and their rules had that blood was one of their triggers. so i told them that i tag that so they don't have to worry and they literally said something like "I didn't ask you to :/" and that's it??? and then they were just rude to me the entire convo until we eventually unfollowed lol. not to mention all the skype & discord contacts i add over the years and then we just stop talking in no time...

anyway, i'm not saying everyone is like this at all! there are MANY super cool people in the rpc, many people i have a lotta fun writing with here. but when you look back at all the bad experiences, or even looking at the bad experiences at are currently unfolding, it makes more and more sense why a lotta the "silly" rp aspects that ceased to exist. why there are no more magic anons, and why dash commentary & anons in general are becoming more and more scarce.

it was this post that inspired me to talk about this. which i actually don't agree with everything op said. in fact, i wouldn't even say the primary issue of current threads is romance or smut. more so, i noticed that fluff / slice of life threads with no conflict is what makes up for most threads nowadays it seems lmao. which is also understandable, because again - it's a popular known issue within the rpc that it's hard to have conflict in threads, lest somebody legit gets their feelings hurt OOC!!! hell, this has happened to me a few times because i often play antagonistic muses. which again, is another issue that makes people feel like they're constantly walking on eggshells. but anyway, it just inspired me to think about and discuss this.

[batsplat]

your posts are as illuminating as always thank u for ur work... i was watching route 46 route 93 from 2021 recently and sete showed up in that (as in, they gave vale an ipad and made him watch a video of sete lmao) and i thought of you.. i loved that even in that vale is still.. agitated about qatar... ends the segment with "if i had to give sete some advice... it's better if he hadn't done it." about qatar lmfao

omgggg I love this soooo much..... I haven't been able to watch that documentary so I'm immediately incorporating this into all my lore about them... like yes!! see!! he's STILL not over it, he can joke and laugh in the press and pretend this whole thing of 'oh I've actually made up with all my rivals With One Notable Exception' but he hasn't!! certainly not with sete, because that's valentino's whole deal - okay it's one thing to have a rival who kinda annoys him, but a friend who crossed him? oh it's over

this randomly reminded me, there's a bit of the mugello 2006 race commentary I find fascinating (in between all the bits where they were talking about how if sete beat valentino at his beloved mugello then it'd be the 'greatest day of his life' and 'better than any christmas present' which is very funny to me) (obviously he did not beat valentino):

I'm sorry that's a BONKERS level of feuding, like apart from valencia 2015 and cota 2018 even valentino and marc managed to sit next to each other - and even there it was dorna who were like 'yeah no we can't do this lads' not them.... the commentators didn't even mention a specific precipitating event, they just hated each other that much. "they didn't feel comfortable around each other" okay?? what does that MEAN. why are you even letting them decide this. is this not a little silly. remember these men used to go on holidays together!!

thing is I do understand why valentino has mostly shut up about this rivalry when he's not being shown sete's face on an ipad, but also he is giving up on insane bragging rights. I do think the most horrifying aspect of sete's fall beyond the literal 'no more race wins for you buddy' is the kind of... god, he never got revenge! nothing! every time they got close to each other after jerez 05 it was always 'oh sete wants revenge so badly' and he never got it! idk about sete gibernau but I'd be FUMING, even the thought makes me shudder. valentino detonated that entire relationship and sete never even finished ahead of him for the rest of 2004 and 2005. in 2006, he technically did so twice with two valentino dnf's, but was himself in ninth and eighth - when they both finished a race he was not ahead of valentino once after qatar 2004. can you imagine losing that rivalry that badly? no wonder he couldn't bear to see valentino's face for a while there

anyway the fact that valentino's going 'oho he shouldn't have done that!!' about qatar in 2021 and sete's going on three hour long podcast interviews to air his jerez grievances in 2023 does make it kinda funny they were posing together for photos together in 2009 to pretend like war was over. like you people did not mean this come on

[splendidbadger]

I read the tags on the ROTTMNT villains reblog, do you have more any scenarios and ideas for the villians? ANYTHING will do, they’re so fun and intriguing but the fandom overlooks them constantly.

Oh, I'm so glad you asked!!! I love the villains sooo much that I'm making an Ask blog revolving around them opening a bar lmao. I'm happy to see others who are invested.

Headcanons

Repo Mantis

I feel he was the first to be mutated with normal he acts like he gives no shit he's a mutant and we see him deal with humans. In my AU it's due to the fact he was mutated years before ROTTMNTs start. I mean he is not weirded out by the boys, he clearly knows Yokai exists. I have it set so he started doing work in the Hidden City and Draxum saw a nice unmutated human to experiment on and bam mantis man.

Repos trans too, idk man he's my favorite outside of Todd and you know? He's like me frfr. Repo def doesn't strike me as a top surgery guy, but also I feel his mutation helped his dysphoria a LOT because like I mean I've felt that.

Man is also very obsessed with his hair, and uses a lot of products. Doesn't care he's greying but he DOES care how healthy it is.

Repo can and will do drag. (Warren helps with his makeup and wig due to his claws getting in the way)

Hypno

Here's a lil angst one.

Hypno doesn't realize he fused with Doug. I can't remember the episode name, but it's the one in the botanical gardens where we get the flower mutant. We see that humans can literally be fused with plant life and possibly animal life. Also since we know Hypno wants to bring Doug back to life, hes passed away. Given that Doug was Hypnos hippo, and was most likely with him when he was bit, he doesn't realize he's been fused with his buddy.

He just knows his buddy is gone and he'll never see him again. That or he fully knows but is in denial. Warren buys him merch based on Doug as a way to make him feel better, since he's not the greatest at comforting people.

and some non angst headcanons

Hypno doesn't really have a label. He knows he's queer but doesn't care to label himself. He likes who he likes, and that's all that matters.

Hypno does drag a lot!!!! He LOVES doing drag! It's fun for him, and how he expresses himself!

A lil senario thing

Imagine that Repo was actually a fan of Warren Stone as an anchorman, imagine he enjoyed his jokes and commentary. Repos devastated he went missing, and genuinely invested in keeping up with anyone trying to find him. When he discovers his favorite anchors alive and not dead he's thrilled.

Due to the fact we know everyone Warren knew pre-mutation abandoned him he doesn't trust Repo, not at first. After all Hypnos is the only one who takes him seriously or seems to give a shit about him especially after he bungled everything with April. (He feels guilty about that gauntlet situation I will die on this hill.) So naturally he doesn't believe Repo at first. Repos pretty hurt, but man he gets it. These changes are big but he promises he's a fan and even knows other fans too.

Repo ends up taking Warren and Hypno to meet the others, sure they met when Draxum "hired" them but it was just a job and they didn't really to much time to talk after they got into action. I like to think Warrens was genuinely touched to see he has a fan base. I'm fully convinced post Warren and Hypno Sitting in a Tree Todd got Warrent a job as a Hidden City news anchor. Sure it's not what he had, but it IS something, and these yokai? They love him even if he's a worm-

[sehtoast]

Is it me or not many people simp for Homelander compared to other villains? It’s like people can’t say they find him hot without getting jumped and i just don’t understand why? There’re villains who have done way worse and people still like them so why is it any different with Homelander, he is literally fictional and never harmed anyone in real life. What do you think is the reason?

Prepare yourself. This is gonna be a long one lol:

For what it’s worth, I feel like a lot more people do simp for him than are open about it for exactly what you just said. I’ve rarely seen fandoms respond to people liking a character the way people jump at us for liking Homelander.  The amount of hate mail I've received and seen others get and the genuinely FOUL things that have been said are just absolutely crazy. Like I’ve seen less kickback for people simping for real-world mass shooters and serial killers than I have for fans of Homie, which is WILD but yeah!!

I think it’s because Kripke decided to make him a Trump allegory that makes people so quick to jump us over it honestly. I feel like if he wasn’t, a LOT more people would openly like him too. 

More below the cut:

90% of the criticisms I see toward Homie fans is “he’s LITCHERALLY TRUMP” and/or something about Stormfront.  Some people go the “he’s a r*pist” route, which, sure, valid, but then this is not the same energy a lot of fans of r*pist characters have gotten.  I remember with shows like GoT, where characters could be any number of awful things (including r*pists), there wasn’t necessarily as much vilification of people for liking those characters, and, even though I didn’t watch much of the show, I know daaaaamn well we got some qualifiers in there.  That’s just an example, and there’s certainly others that prove the point. Soldier Boy was downright HORRIBLE to the women he was around, but we barely see criticism there and it's pretty heavily implied he's ignored consent many times in his own time given the way he treats women - plus we know he s*xually abused Gunpowder. Anyway, if that energy isn’t being directed in nearly the same capacity there or elsewhere, then it’s primarily likely to be either reason one or two, and I definitely would put my money on number one.  And like, being a Homelander enjoyer has not made me a Trump enjoyer. In fact, I have a pretty visceral reaction of disgust every time I see that rat bitch on the news lmao.  

Being a Homelander simp certainly does not mean we approve of his every act, but media morality police think this is not the case. I think a lot of people– and this was 100% exacerbated during covid shutdowns imo– have started to see media consumption as a form of morality and feel as though your enjoyment of something is a perfect spreadsheet of who you are as a person.  I mean, there have always been people like this, but it’s gotten worse and significantly more annoying in recent years.  I think the death of media literacy is also contributing heavily here because there being a lack of critical thinking associated with media consumption has so many people painting everything in a purely black and white context. Like this is good, this is bad, there is no middle ground in which people can consume this or appreciate that without it being a moral violation.  Which is… increasingly concerning lol.   

All media has problematic elements somewhere/somehow, and basically all characters do as well.  However, very few have the director jerking off and going “i’m SOOOOO smart for comparing him to trump omfg” and constantly shoving shoehorned political and social commentary into the script the way Kripke does (ask me how I felt about the transphobia ‘commentary’ this season and I will write you a thesis paper about how bad, ineffective, and mostly insulting to trans viewers it was). He’s so fired up to make the two a mirror image that even Antony Starr has said he’s sometimes checking Kripke and telling him that taking it too far reduces the character to one or two dimensional at best unless the comparisons directly relate to the narrative of the character.   The allegories have been effective in keeping people (for the most part) from viewing Homelander as a hero, but it’s also created a lot of senseless vitriol for people who actually do enjoy the character whether strictly because of the character himself or because they’re simping (I do both 😂).

So uh… that’s my extremely long two-cents. Hopefully it makes sense as I’m a little sleep deprived at the moment and just got out of a two hour long lecture lol

[tezerenotameiki]

story about the C-ta at GDQ picture: I was doing commentary for a run (I'm in the left picture in the foreground on the left, half cut off) and I was nervous, so cha-momile said "I'm gonna wear your C-ta cosplay so that C-ta can be there to support you!" it's extremely funny and based of him. it looks better on him than it does on me anyway lmao.

also apparently a technician came up to him and said "I don't know what's going on [gesturing at his costume] but I've made sure that you're in frame on camera" XD. so if you watch the Manifold Garden run on the gdq youtube, you can see C-ta in the background occasionally throwing 🫶 at the camera.

we were talking about it and we decided that a-ya appearing in an event like this would be a nightmare scenario for c-ta because it would give a-ya too much respect, so he'd have to be nearby to make sure to "help" a-ya out, but also c-ta doesn't want to be anywhere near a camera where he can be seen 😅

anyway yes we need more shuuenpro speedrunning content. c-ta speedruns cooking mama and cries on stream. also b-ko is one of those girls who plays call of duty and destroys anyone who even gets near her and also she only even started playing it as a joke and now she likes it too much. if there was a shuuenpro video game i'd speedrun it right now.

THANK YOU FOR THE LORE this is so incredible…. thank you to the tech and your friend for making GDQ history. this is literally so cool ive been meaning to catch up on GDQ runs and now knowing that a mutual did commentary too.. wrow….. literally a dream i’ll have to watch it during my YT meal rotation

BUT THE SHUUENS AS SPEEDRUNNERS so real a-ya at GDQ would be an absolute nightmare for c-ta…. all that attention on a-ya….. oh oops coincidentally looks like someone broke the only game cartridge!! looks like his slot would have to be skipped! shame

ok also i got ur ask as i was typing

@cha-momile for you

[futuregws]

Okay so since today is the new years and there's quite a few new names, I thought I would take some time to update the list of Lando's "girlfriends" like I said I was going to. Unfortunately I couldn't find the original post I made about it so I'm gonna have to redo it hopefully I don't forget some of the original, wouldn't want to do that. Anyway let's go (I'm gonna also add some commentary bc why not):

- Lily Rowland (they clearly have the same friend group they so far have hung out like once other than that it was all likes but apparently that's veryyyyy relevant)

- Magui Corceiro (someone he literally hung out a few times but there were also times where they were in the same country but didn't even get anywhere near each other, and on top of that he literally went out of his way to call out fans and say how he's allowed to have girl friends, when pictures of them first came out)

- Emilia (literally all there ever was were likes I'm pretty sure they never hung out)

- Kelsey (fatherkels) (once again just likes, just like Emilia they were in the same place at least once, didn't even hang out)

- Nicola (surprise surprise it started bc of likes)

- Cyrielle (likes....that's it...do you see the pattern)

- Olivia Ponton (they hung out before like once?? Idk, but lately?? All Instagram likes

And now onto the updates, I hope y'all are prepared:

- Olivia Grivas (allegedly they hung out like once and do I even need to say the other reason)

- Cindy Mello (yeah I'm not even saying it anymore, bc you already know)

- Tate Mcrae (he said she's cute, apparently he also said the same about Margot Robbie and I mean I love him but let's be real 🤦🏼‍♀️ oh and bc of likes....shocking)

- Azra (I think you can guess + they were in the same place, where?? You might ask, fucking London, you know?? that very popular place?? yeah)

- Luísa Oliveira (this one is not new but it got "worse" recently so I thought it would make more sense to add here, oh and why?? Bc they dated AND bc she still has a photo of them on her board of photos with friends)

- Jennie Dimova (same reasons as Lily)

- Ida Zeile ( same good old reason, let me know if somehow you don't know I'll give you a hint, read the ones above)

- Claudia (I have no idea the last name, but I'm pretty sure the reasons are the same lmao)

- Katerina (?) (was literally just sitting next to her)

I hope you enjoyed, and also I hope my commentary helped you see how stupid this is. And the worst part?? I've definitely forgotten someone.

[dykeseinfeld]

not to sound like a 13 year old but i've got particular beef with the idea of the districts of panem lining up with the geography of north america like i Get it i've seen the maps i understand the intent of the author and how it makes sense culturally but deep down inside it just feels wrong to me and i can't do it.

it's like u say "nuclear war wiped out most of the planet" and that's supposed to make me accept that the extraordinarily strong culture of american statehood just collapsed into 12 regional districts like that?? fine i guess if we account for a long long gap of time between nuclear war and the original inception of panem. maybe.

but also. the way it's described clearly implies each district is able to gather its entire population in one square on one day for reaping day and honestly strongly implies that each district + the capitol are comprised of only one urban center (of varying sizes) each implying that the area of these districts Has to be so much fucking smaller than it appears on any of the maps that float around. where is all the empty space. the north american landscape is Huge even with the amount of coastline taken away due to oceans rising and that space is like. a huge huge factor in living here. there is not that sense of geographic scale and empty spaces between districts except like. the forests outside of 12 (speaking of like. katniss is able to walk the entire fence by herself in less than a day to check for weak points. these districts are small. even if 12 is smaller than say 11. that's ridiculously tiny all of these districts have to be small and definitely not entire regions of the continental united states)

also many many other ppl have made this point lmao but. the foreign policy of panem is not mentioned except for those vague notions of a nuclear war in the distant past and it is just. stretching imagination beyond belief to imagine that if panem truly is north america president snow literally is only concerned with domestic policy even the most isolated authoritarian regimes on earth today still have to deal with foreign policy on some level (and north america is lucky to have near self sufficiency w resources bc oil and such but. we do not have rare earth metals to sustain the technology level of panem. i'd be willing to discuss the hypothetical that panem has zero computers and batteries it's not impossible but.)

all in all it's very clear that culture/resources of 12 is inspired by and modeled on appalachia and that the more extreme repression/resources of 11 are inspired by and modeled on agriculture and racist government styles of the deep south etc etc and that makes sense bc like. suzanne collins is deeply entrenched in american culture and so is the hunger games as a series and she absolutely nails the culture and political connections bc it's an extremely adept commentary on modern american society but. the geography just doesn't make sense and raises too many questions and i wish you all would accept like me that it takes place in a fantasy land of pure allegory

[skysometric]

so i tried to clickbait. here's how it went

clickbait is not a regular thing for me, because i'm not somebody who wants to "grow my channel." in all honesty, i really just want the video i invested time into making to hit something like 100 views. that, to me, is what "success" looks like – i've hit it with over half of my stream highlight reels so far, and all i want to do is maintain that same momentum. (any more views and the comment section starts to become a source of anxiety.)

unsurprisingly, my "successful" videos are about games that people actually want to watch. think like Mari0 having a niche creator community, or people who look up the true final boss in the latest Kirby game. videos that aren't as successful are about over-represented games like Splatoon, or games that are too niche or out-of-date like Frogger.

typically i have the luxury of making whatever videos i want, because i'm not trying to "grow." but the latest video i put out was a bit of a special case – i knew upfront that practically nobody would want to watch it, and i most likely wouldn't hit my usual 100 views. but i was also highly confident that this video would be fun to watch, a breezy 8 minutes of good laughs and silly commentary.

so i asked myself: how do i get people to watch a video that i'm really confident in, when that video is about Eragon for the PS2?

i really hope i never have to look at this box art again.

let's be honest – no layperson would actually sit down and watch a video about Eragon: The Movie: The Game. if i put that in the title, no matter how much i dress it up with "This Is A Bad Game Lmao," it's going to be crickets.

people who watched the stream or heard me talk it up would absolutely be interested! but that's not enough by itself to reach 100 views; previous videos have proven this, and i only have so many friends. if i want more eyes on it, i have to play the algorithm game – and i am not well-versed in the youtube meta, so i'm flying blind here.

i got to thinking. it's a video i'm confident in. it's short, snappy and sassy, exactly my style. i think people would love it, if they clicked on it. how do i get people to click on it?

…why not just be honest?

i can feel my blood pressure rising just looking at this.

it's a kind of heavy-handed title, honestly. it's a little too on the nose, a little too disrespectful of the viewer's tastes. it is also – or at least i hoped it was when i wrote it – extremely earnest about its intentions, and surprisingly compelling in an anti-invitation kind of way. "come see what is so bad that i would not dare speak its name." that kind of thing.

the thumbnail is also cute, which helps take the edge off. should've made the text bigger, but Oh Well. it's not like that's the most important part here – it's the title that carries this one.

but did it work?

it's complicated.

i mean, i hit my goal of 100 views! that's worth celebrating! it worked just enough to reach my usual metric of success. but only just.

to see exactly what i'm talking about, we need to look at watch time, rather than views.

views and watch time, respectively, for the first 24 hours of the video.

here's the stats for the first 24 hours of the video, before the algorithm picked it up. on the watch time graph (bottom) you can see a very strong stair-step pattern; each step is somebody who watched the whole video, while the tiny bumps show people who watched the first few seconds and clicked away.

now, the wild thing is… my stats are so low that i can see this at all! i can literally go and count the number of people who have watched the whole video. it has the effect of making me rather neurotic about my analytics, but that's a discussion for another day…

either way, the point is that we can see 10 or 11 people actually watched the whole thing, out of 35 views in the first day. this is a really strong proportion, and it's mostly because my friends are the first to watch the videos i put out. (i'm really glad you people like my nonsense 💙)

as mentioned, though, i don't have 100 friends. that's fine, youtube will find more eyes for my video once the algorithm picks it up.

the full set of impressions and views, respectively, with a line marking the first 24 hours.

by looking at the impressions you can see youtube's algorithm slowly kick in; it was quite the slow burn this time, and i think that's because i released the video on a weekend. regardless, we can see views tick up at the same rate as impressions, more or less, gaining almost 100 more views on top of the 35 views it got in the first 24 hours.

these views were mostly driven by the home screen:

by the way, which of you weirdos have notifications enabled for my channel? i mean, thanks! but why?

this means that people went out of their way to click on it; they were interested enough by my clickbait to say, okay fine, let's see what this nonsense is about. the clickbait more or less worked…

except that it didn't translate to watch time at all.

the full set of watch time, with a line marking the first 24 hours.

after the first 24 hours, a grand total of six people have watched the whole thing, out of the 100 more views it's gotten since! that's a lower proportion than most of my other highlights videos get on average.

we can break this down even further by looking at watch time specifically from people who found the video on their home screen, because YouTube lets you look at that:

kinda scary how granular you can get with this, honestly!

unlike the stair-step pattern mentioned earlier, the big slope in the middle of this graph is made of a bunch of people who only watched bits and pieces of the video. in other words, the slope represents all the people who clicked on it, figured out what the game was, and then stopped watching. so the clickbait did work, but it translated to very little meaningful engagement.

now, this could be for any number of reasons! folks who watched the video know that i started with a hook in the first 30 seconds, kept my introductory explanation brief, and then followed that up with all the best parts of the stream. i do think that, as a highlights reel, this is one of the strongest ones i've ever put together.

crucially, though, the title does not state that it's a stream highlights reel. and highlights reels are not everyone's cup of tea! maybe they were expecting a video essay, or some other kind of scripted video – something that was more discussion rather than reaction. maybe people got mad at the clickbait, so they clicked on it just long enough to get an answer and left out of spite! or maybe somebody gave my video a fair shake and just didn't like my style. i mean, it's whatever. people can like what they like.

like i said at the beginning, i'm not trying to Grow My Channel or make an empire out of this. all i really care about is one thing: if i put some effort into something and show it off to the world, i want a few people to see it and enjoy it. that's it! so when it comes to analytics i'm not looking at raw numbers, those don't matter to me. i'm looking for evidence that people like what i spent all that time making.

so my takeaway from this experiment is that clickbait is for people who like raw numbers. it'll get you clicks, sure, but those clicks are as vapid as clicks get. views don't mean much in the long run if viewers don't actually want to watch the video in the first place.

anyway, now that the algorithm has run its course, i've switched the video back to a standard title and thumbnail.

as you can see, eragon was an early adopter of youtuber face syndrome~

i like this way better, personally… but would anyone have clicked on it? who can say for sure.

this was a worthwhile experiment, though, and it reminded me of the whole reason i make videos in the first place – not to Build An Audience, but to preserve my memories in amber! i do this to collect and archive all the good times where i got to share joy with my friends – no matter whether that joy is because of the game, or in spite of it.

i'd say this title and thumbnail do a better job preserving those memories than some clickbait does.

[ad-hawkeye]

posing you a potentially difficult task:rate artem’s year three worst to best(when you get the time ofc)

anon this was difficult on my soul. but i did it. mostly. because there's one or two i haven't watched in full myself, and one of those i legit have heard nothing about in terms of quality, i will mark them with a star.

i will also be including some of the upcoming third year cards i've read the translations of.

with that disclaimer out of the way, here's my list! worst from best.

ocean’s enchantment [summer splash] - i have no clue how they made a card that i consider worse than artem's second anniversary card but. by god did they do it. never say anything is impossible. at least artem was dressed nice in his second anniversary card. and also shitfaced. literally nothing is in this card's favor. also artem knowing how to surf is mind numbingly stupid i'll say it. lavish invitation [second anniversary] - i've bitched and moaned about this card for nearly two years now. you all know the takes on this one. third anniversary - this one nearly put me to sleep! 2/10. despite some weird short lived ooc moments, not as bad as artem's second anniversary card. its main sin is being a chore to get through. i was fighting against the urge to skip forward. mediocre art. top up cello ssr - ugh. i got so annoyed by this one i stopped watching a few minutes before the end. it's yet another "omg no way artem is a master at this random ass hobby?!?!?!?!??" card that year three LOVES and the explanation for it is so convoluted. really pretty art though. always happy to see rosa's canonical violin skills mentioned. calm as the night [billiards] - this one was fine. i guess? first of the cards i don't actively dislike. epic highs (omg this part made me smile like a year one/two card!) and epic lows (why are they licking each other's arms) velocity of desire [racing]* - i'd rank this one equal to artem's billiards card. one of the ssrs i mentioned that i haven't actually read, but i've seen people have generally indifferent to positive commentary on. better handling of jealousy. the actual event this came with was super cute though. love for the ages [3rd birthday] - cute art, serviceable if not a teensy bit convoluted story. an enjoyable time. this ranking is NOT about the birthday event it came with which, imo, sucked major ass. enshrouded sunglow - to the surprise of no one the au cards are going to wind up topping this list. funny enough i think this is artem's weakest au card. it's afraid to take risks and was a bit more boring than the other aus. still ages better than most of year three though. cutie ollie - mind boggling how this card where artem "isn't used to this kind of physical touch" in regards to mc playing with his hair, comes AFTER the daddy dom sex god ssr. anyways this one is very cute. i'm convinced it was supposed to be a year two card bc the only mention of second anniversary is a quick mention of an engagement ring. lmao. stormy enigma [bakerlon] - bakerlon my beloved. save me bakerlon save me. one of artem's better au cards, but i still wouldn't rank it first. also celestine is in it! a win! belle nuit d'amour - further evidence to my claim that tot's personal story cards rarely if ever suck. some good character stuff, the closest we've seen to artem fucking up a case, really good art. would recommend. or maybe not idk i haven't actually read the global version but i can't imagine it's too different from the fan translation i read. dragonsbreath - this one ties with the weeds for my favorite artem au card story. neil is in this one. fun plot. good art. good characterization.

[UNRANKED] voice of comfort* - i have not read this one nor have i ever seen anyone talk about it like. ever. or maybe i did read it and just fucking forgot. idk. don't really have the energy to read it regardless. the art is kinda mid. if anyone wants to message me their thoughts on this one, i can tentatively adjust my ranking on it

*i have not personally read either of these. any ratings are done via word of mouth or summary. regard these ratings tentatively.

[maah-long]

I read TSaTS, and loved every second of it

I disappeared from social media to do that, and seeing things now, apparently people are hating on the book??? I honestly have no idea why, and honestly, it makes me sad. I wrote those notes as I read it, and never felt the book was weak or messy, and I'll stand on that boat, 100%. I LOVE this book with my entire existence now, and what people are thinking about it won't affect that, I truly hope.

And I've been binge reading all of Riordanverse in the last month, so everything is fresh on my mind.

Anyways, I'll just leave the notes I did here while I read it. Of course, SPOILERS! I read it without getting even one spoiler, and that made the experience unique and much more enjoyable than others I had in the past.

• I LOVED the silly star war discussion in the beginning, even not quite understanding it xD It was so cute and genuine, maybe with some probably thinking it’s cringy!

• WILL TALKING ABOUT HIS PAST 🫶🫶🫶🫶 I really wanted to see more of him and his story, so they just there, chilling and talking about things, forgetting, even if for only a few seconds, how their situation is so cruel… It made me really happy! Hope they’ll be back soon to just relax and be cute… (haha...)

• I hope the tiny snippets about the water Nymph will have its own scene!!! I was dying to know how their love story start, so it needs its own full chapter!!! (now finishing it, that didn't happen, but the scenes got longer!!! So, victory!!!)

• Now the first POV switch (ch 10) …. Sus. Is pretty weird that the what they see does not seem reliable, and right after it each one of them shares a vision were they’re suffering, but the other one is being kinda “selfish”, and not like themselves. I totally think what they’re “living” is not true, but I don’t know when they stopped seeing things right, or what happened to them. Where? Weird. I do know Will wouldn’t just give up, “I can’t be here”, or Nico going “Coward!”. The POVs don’t match, and I’m CONFUSED.

• Of course it’s a demon! And I do think it hilarious how they’re discussing gender norms while the demon is trying to strangle Nico…,,, normal day, I guess? And Will immediately saying sorry to them like, LMAO

• Man, playing Hades and seeing Nyx like this on the Riordanverse is PAINFUL. She’s so gorgeous (STUNNING), calm and mother-like there. And she always has this kinda insane-y vibe here.

• Ah, “‘I’ll always be here”. There it is, they’re getting separated.

• AGAIN? “if Nyx wants your darkness so bad, you can just leave some of it with her! That wouldn’t be so bad.’”. IDK man, I’m thinking this will be more true than they think, I just feel it 😭😭 And more literal than that, too. (here I was thinking about Nico leaving his powers there. I was pretty wrong on that xD)

• I think that addressing Will’s irk towards the underworld is pretty important. I really like how both of them are on different, but pretty understandable sides. After everything we know about the UW, it’s hard to be open and accepting to it. Nico is super related to it, and he knows his father’s palace, so he has a completely different view of it. Will is all about life and light, so it should be even less appealing to him. Man, he NEEDS sun to live, it's literally part of his being. It’s easy to understand his side. But there are good people and beings living there too. It’s almost another universe. It’s Nico home, past, family and history. It probably hurts a lot to see his boyfriend being so contrary to it, basically negating a part of him, and kinda making his thoughts of Will “ignoring the “””bad and scary””” “ parts of him to be able to accept Nico hold place. It’s sad, hope this will get a good development and closure. Too bad I’m pretty sure it won’t be soon….

• Okay! The farm commentary! That made me sad. I think here Nico was a tiny bit too much. I felt the “People farm here?” from Will was genuine confusion. I would picture on my mind automatically growing crops underground. Hey, I killed (and it still saddens me) succulents by keeping them inside my no-that-sunlit bedroom. How would people grow things successfully on the underworld? That totally very much probably is not included in common sense! Will most certainly was not trying to stab Nico or the UW life, just would like some explanations.

•The Mythomagic story in Nico’s past 😭😭😭 The feels, I swear. It was pretty relatable, poor boy. And that was on the last century, too, and I can't imagine how hard it would be to deal with being queer at that age.

•But hey, is Will talking about Hermes’ card there? Does he play Mythomagic?? Do they together?? That would be cute as hell, I hope they do.

•The canoe scenes make me so happy! I loved SO MUCH how they put them in between some painful scenes. It made it easier to breathe and take on the hard parts. One of the things I wanted the most was the backstory of their relationship, and being given ALL the details like that was definitely not what I expected. They’ve been amazing, super super cute.

• And hey, Paolo is queer?? He’s one of my fave background characters, and I really liked that 🫶🫶 Nice rep for us Brazilians, I really appreciate that, lol Really missed seeing more of him! Seeing a mention on this book was unexpected, but nice! Hope he’s getting better at communicating with everyone, hahah

• I LOVE MENOETES! The way this book is showing the nice parts of the underworld too, on contrary of house of hades that was pure hOrOR and pAIN. It was not what I was expecting, and I totally appreciate it, it’s cute. And wait does he grow the nectar and ambrosia? That’s genuinely impressive. He's a pretty cool guy.

• BUT HEY, GERYON? Sorry friend, I’m judgin here. Do hope you’re right saying he’s a changed man……,,,

• Now Persephone’s Garden…. One more time, they’re showing the nice parts of the underworld, and that’s super interesting.

• And the Persephone’s scene? I LOVED it, I think it was so necessary. My image of her was kinda bad ngl, remembering about her older appearances. She seemed a little crazy. But at that scene, the way she spoke with fondness and clarity… It was exactly what Will needed to hear, and it makes me happy to see that she’s much more accepting of Nico. Good times.

• But Anphistemis? That was one hard scene. They getting separated and all, but the worst part was the chaos when they reunited, and how the poor guy was used. I totally see why Will did that, hell, I’d do the same or worse, when it comes to surviving. I just hope that that was not the last time we see Amphitemis.

• COCOA PUFFS!! I love them too!! I kinda thought they were cute since they first appeared, and that made me feel weird. Good to see that they really are nice and petable!!

• The last fight made me so anxious. I'm just happy it's over. I really wanted for Nyx to chill and find some other purpose at the end, but I don't think that would be believable. Kinda sad. And I always liked those children of hern on their other book appearances too!!! Especially Nemesis.

• Bob, oh Bob. He's precious. I truly like this crew SO MUCH. Him, Small Bob, Nico, Will and and the Puffs. They just finally relaxing, free. Oh, that was so rewarding. Good for them!

• I CRIED with Nico's dream. All of his family... That was so warm. Nico deserved that, I really loved it. And good to know Amphis was not forgotten!!

• Nico hugging Chiron!!!! Mr D. being actually super nice!!!! Aw really, I loved this entire ending too. Everyone happy, talking, healing. Endings make me worried, sometimes my judgment of the work changes completely if the ending is bad. This one? No. It was a super nice wrapping.

• PIPEEERRRR!!!! Nico and Piper friends ? I'm super behind that, I love them a lot. I missed Piper! And her talk was so genuine. Full of worries that are pretty relatable too. Very sweet, wish the best to her too. I thought it was me expecting too much to see Piper, but I'm glad to be proved wrong.

• I'm sad Bob already left... I hope it'll still be possible for them to meet sometimes, Bob deserves the best in this new chapter of his life!! While writing this I noticed I didn't mention anything about the trogs. I guess my main impressions about them happened already on Apollo Trials, hahah. But I like them a lot too!!! I was very happy to see they're happy building their little world and society, and making even tastier dishes. Hiss-Majesty is amazing too, and I loved their closure working at the farm xD

• Plus Nico and Will at the ending. Very heart warming moment. Their relationship is super healthy, and I do NOT believe in anyone who says the contrary. Both of them clearly saw where they failed, communicated about that, and deeply, honestly, said that they would seek to do their best. Isn't this the most important thing of it all? They're super happy together, love each others' presence, and looking at their future together fills them with hope. Man, they just left TARTARUS. And now they're stronger, filled with joy about what is to come.

And that's it. Been reading through some other people's thoughts, and well. Sometimes I even wonder if we read the same book. Like people saying the writing is the worst thing they ever read. I literally spent the last 3 days finishing the 3 last ToA books and this one. My friends, it was NOT that different. In particular, comparing to HoO, of course, because of the third person narration.

The only thing different for me was the direct approach about feelings, and about being queer too (probably thanks to Mark Oshiro), and I definitely enjoyed those. Probably because of seeing myself in them too.

I think people are being way too judgemental of Will. You can for sure say he was too impulsive when he was so determined and stubborn about going to a place that would be literally poison to him. But people complaining he was already drained before getting to Tartatus, as going though everything he did was easy? That place was his antithesis. I was actually shocked he didn't crumble at the first step into the Underworld. But he went through it, with Nico always on his mind. I don't know, I can't understand the hate. And of course they would not be bubbly and fun, they were going though HELL. Did anyone really expected them to be on their best there?

And I think both of them are very misunderstood characters. I was in the fandom for like, almost no time, thus, idk much about the fanon interpretation of them. But after everything I read about Nico and Will on the books, nothing felt out of place here, no. And it reminded a lot of ToA too.

All in all, awesome book, was even more awesome than what I was expecting, and I was totally not disappointed. I will hold this book dear, close to my heart, and I wish people were more accepting of it. There's even an anti tag for it? I made the mistake of scrolling through it (I'm the type of person that gets sentimental when people attack something I love), and yes, people definitely have different experiences while going through works.

[lea-andres]

I need to talk about Veil (Espio's dead older sister who's haunting him and MST3K-ing his dumb ass because she doesn't want to move on without him and has literally nothing better to do because she's DEAD) more often.

Have a couple bare minimum if any context spoilers on what happens to her in my lore:

-Espio eventually learns how to see the dead, and thus is able to see and hear Veil. The commentary about what a moron he is gets worse from this point onward lmao.

-Veil and Tikal eventually meet while shit gets super fucked and they get fruity. To the dismay of Knuckles, because most of this is usually going down on Angel Island and he wants Espio's chaotic ass dead sister off his island so bad.

-This is like 10 long stories wrapped up into one but TL;DR a couple mutuals and I made a whole ass pantheon and Tikal, Chaos, Fleetway (ANOTHER LONG STORY) and Chip/Light Gaia got Veil ascended to godhood because they all agreed she was silly and wanted to keep her. So guess who announced this to her brother by kicking his fucking door down with NO warning and busting loudly into his fucking house like:

I've posted this before but have the @hansuart art of the silly again.