#this was originally posted on Twitter in September 2022

[realtimefanduboutofcontext]

bit of an odd request, but you know how in penny and ryan's playthrough off the password game the yt timestamp they needed was 29:41? you should go to 29:41 in your favorite dub and post the clip you get

Here is 29:41 in the Super Mario Bros. fandub from RTF [YouTube / Patreon $]

[u3pxx]

alas 🌙🏹✨

originally drawn for day 7: truth for klapollo week 2022 like this art? it's a print here, babey!

❤️💜 day 1: hair | day 2: brothers | day 3: fantasy | day 4: fake dating | day 5: comfort | day 6: love languages | also, happy klapollo day! (2/9) <3

girl help i already put the timelapse for this one on my hard drive so all i have right now for posting is the one i downloaded from my twitter LMAO sorry, once i have my drive with me i'll edit it, but in the meantime!!! happy klapollo day that i made up (9/2)!!!! (explanation here)

i forgot to draw them last september (ddon't worry about it, i lost track of dates orz) and i don't have any new art, free time, nor have my tablet pen with me to draw smth new so have this old klapollo week art from 2022 (3 YEARS AGO!!! SCARY!!!!!!) that i haven't crossposted here yet!!!!

ok, enough talking from present-day me, here's 2022 den talking about drawing this (bc i barely have my memory of the process now lmao)

fun fact! this was the first one i've drawn for this week! always plenty emotional about all the things these two have been through. loosely inspired by "the death of hyacinthos" by jean broc. i don't often paint so i have to reteach myself how when i do bc i forgot pft

and other bonus stuff from this people might've not realized, but klavier holding an arrow to his side is a reference to constance courte!!!!! dies!!!!!

i wasnt much of a digital painter back then like i am now (thank you art of disco elysium) but i remember how much GRIEF rendering klavier's hair gave me. this one was like an amalgamation of lineart and somewhat painterly stuff, i do also remember i that i wasn't confident enough to paint over my lines but i still think it looks neat! still sort of obsessed with how i lovingly rendered klavier's dress shirt.

also, the art i did for the previous days! (when i remembered to do them, that is 😅)

[irestuffs]

Rising up against evil paint the city green!

Instagram | Twitter | Stickers | Ko-fi

originally posted September 06, 2022

[ai-art-thieves]

they're calling us ableist for pointing out ai art XD

Ok. Let me understand what's going on here

You try to alert someone about this, but it didn't go too well and now rjalker is demanding for a witchhunt for anyone that goes against crippled-peeper.

And I thought shit like this only happens on twitter....

Might as well clear my name and debunk the claims present here.

To clarify, transmisic is not a misspelling of transmisogynic. It is another word for "transphobic".

First of all, I had never interacted with crippled-peeper before I got the tip from anon. At all.

I never even heard of that user before in my life.

I probably bet that the users that rjalker claim to be ableist or transmisic have never heard of or interacted with crippled-peeper either.

Next point:

Let me answer rjalker's question with a question. Have you ever seen JPEG artifacts before?

And, more specifically, do you know the difference between ai pixel art and regular pixel art?

The fact that it don't show evidence/proof that the icon is not ai generated and shows examples of jpeg artifacting clearly shows that its post is a reactionary response. (I know this sentence structure sounds kind of weird, but I'm trying my best with the pronouns that I have been provided.)

Luckily, I can debunk that claim right away because I am quite familiar with pixel art myself.

I have done my fair share of sprite edits.

And before this user claims that I'm stealing another person's art, no. I am not. My main account is @magicalmysteryperson, and here is the proof.

Here's links to the pieces as well.

Now, with that out of the way, allow me to prove why rjalker's claims make no sense.

By redrawing the image from scratch. Here's the image.

here's the original, for reference

Already something is amiss.

There are a whole bunch of varying line weights and splotches that are considered by most sprite artists as serious faux pas.

Some parts of the image are blending with each other.

The gradients with both the floor and the wall are way too smooth for an image like this.

And the small leaves on the soil are an extremely big give away that the image was ai generated.

I am not demonizing the person for ai generating their icon.

Yes, ai art is bad, but some people do use it, even disabled artists.

I'm not going to demonize someone just because they play with that tool.

It's the dishonesty that is the main issue here.

Remember: their story behind this icon was that they made it over three years ago.

And their stance on AI on September 25th, 2024:

However, the claim that they made the image over three years ago is put into question when in 2021, 2022, and 2023, they had various other icons... as well as using ai art constantly.

The images in the latter two screenshots have not been archived by the wayback machine, and these posts have been scrubbed by the user. Again, everything prior to 2023 is scrubbed from the account.

I will also do what rjalker did and provide wayback machine links. here, and here, and here, and especially here.

Now, let's tackle the second claim: "It's JPEG compression".

Here's both the png and the jpeg files of the plant I drew.

Note that with the jpeg compression, you can also see that even though the image looks softer, there is still a form of pixelation. It's still made up of little squares, not rounded splotches.

You can simply look up "compression artifacts" and find that what's going on in crippled-peeper's image is not the result of jpeg compression artifacting.

If you want to see what my image looks like in a bigger form, here you go.

I have also did numerous forms of jpeg compression to see if I could replicate what crippled-peeper did.

I wasn't able to.

I just got more cronch and more pixels.

And before rjalker claims that the icon was an ai upscale of a jpeg...

I upscaled my own images on various sites to check if that claim even had any legs to stand on.

While some of the effects were present, it wasn't enough for me to replicate what crippled-peeper did unless I made the same thing with an ai image generator.

Until crippled-peeper has proof that the image was made over three years ago and made on a tablet in the hospital, the allegations presented here stand.

And please, do not harass rjalker.

I get that it made a post that, while it had the best intentions, was poorly researched and reactionary.

But I don't want that post to ruin its life.

I want that post to be used as a teachable moment.

To think before you type or post.

Don't let your gut control you. Just stop and think.

You don't want to post a call out post that completely backfires and hits you instead.

Not that it matters, they already blocked me.

[jikooklove9795]

JIKOOK & NOV 8th 2015

In South Korea couples have a unique and delightful way of celebrating anniversaries marking special milestones. They commemorate these milestones by exchanging personalized gifts, going on romantic dates, by wearing matching clothes or by sharing photos documenting their relationship. This is done in recognition of their continuous love and appreciation.

Now let's dive into see how Jikook celebrates a special a date in their relationship.

On Nov 8th 2015 Jikook posts their first video together on twitter

Exactly 100 days after Nov 8th 2015 Jungkook made a tweet about the importance of lyrics in a song and uploaded his cover of Nothing Like Us by Justin Bieber

One year later on Nov 8th 2016 Jimin posts a video of Jungkook and him sitting together on a plane

On Nov 8th 2017 Jungkook releases his first ever GCF. It was video documenting Jimin and Jungkook's private trip to Japan in 2017. A trip Jungkook planned and arranged as a birthday gift to Jimin

On Jan 26th 2018, which is 811 days from Nov 8th 2015 Jimin posted this pic. Do you see the black & white reference at the foot of the champagne glass? Interesting right??!!

On August 2018 BTS were in Malta filming BV Season 3.

1000 days after Nov 8th 2015 Jungkook posted a selca while in Malta at 10:13 local time which is Jimin time

And on the 1500the day from Nov 8th 2015 Jimin posts a selca at 1:50

Now before we move on let's take a moment to remember that Jimin won the Search King Challenge question where BTS had to find the 2000th day from the first episode of Run BTS. He used the NAVER Anniversary Calculator. Jungkook was not far behind. He was about to answer but lost by a few seconds to Jimin. Hoseok had no idea about the calendar while Namjoon went for Google. So, this shows Jimin often uses the calculator for finding important dates and anniversaries

Okay, now back to our main topic.

BTS PTD Seoul Concert in March 2022. And during the concert...

He said "This is Jimin from grade 2 class 3 number 15". Cause March 10th 2022 was exactly 2315 days from Nov 8th 2015.

Remember the rectangular Maison Margeila pendant which Jimin wears? He wears the one where the number 11 is encircled.

Let's take out 11 and add all the other numbers on this pendant.

10+12+13+14+15+16

And we get 80

So, what do we have

11/8

On Feb 21 2022 Jungkook posted a video on his IG highlighting 23:08 which is basically 11:08 however the story was originally posted at 1 am

On October 26th 2022 (which is 13 days after Jimin's birthday and 13 days to Nov 8th) while in Qatar Jungkook posted a pic on his IG at 11:08 pm KST

There are a myriad of references to 11/8 from song covers, song recommendations ending at the 1:18 mark to pics posted by both Jimin and Jungkook.

Both Jungkook and Jimin has shown how they are serious about these numbers relating to their relationship or those about each other. Reminds me of how Jimin started a live on Sept 1st 2023 wearing a 1997 model watch adjusted to Jungkook's birth time

Nov 8th 2024 marks their 9 years of togetherness.

So, let me conclude this post by wishing the couple a

"Happy Anniversary"

💛💜

Credits to the owner of the video

[justacynicalromantic]

In early 2014, Ukraine was a neutral country, with a pro-Russian president, and with 70% of Ukraine's population against NATO membership. Yet Russia bluntly violated Ukraine's neutrality and annexed Crimea, then launched a covert invasion of Ukraine in the east.

Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election later in 2014 having promised a settlement with Russia, keeping a special status of the Russian language in Ukraine. He was initially sceptical regarding NATO accession, underlined Ukraine must rely on its own strength to provide security.

Did Putin meet Poroshenko halfway? Not at all. The regular Russian army entered the Ukrainian territory in mid-2014 to fight the Ukrainian troops, which led to the Minsk-1 agreement signed in September 2014.

Further text - down under the cut, or you can follow the Twitter link to the original post:

Few weeks later, Ukraine's parliament adopted a law that would guarantee the then Russia-controlled part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions additional economic, financial and cultural powers.

How did Putin react? Russia staged sham local elections in the occupied Donbas, and then sent the regular army again to Ukraine in early 2015, which led to the Minsk-2 agreement signed in February 2015.

Zelensky was even more sceptical regarding NATO accession. Asked about NATO, he once famously said he never pays anyone a visit if he has not been invited. He won the presidential election promising to compromise with Russia - to stop shooting, sit down with Putin and talk.

Did Putin meet Zelensky halfway? Not at all. He actually raised the stakes by issuing the Russian passports on the occupied territories of Ukraine even before Zelensky assumed the office, putting him in a difficult political position since the start.

Zelensky was ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid in an exchange for the Russian troops withdrawing from Ukraine. The talks were held already before 2022. What did Putin do? He launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the first weeks of the invasion, Zelensky was yet again ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid. But he wanted to obtain international security guarantees. What did Putin do? He demanded that Russia must be consulted before any aid would be given to Ukraine in the event of aggression.

To sum up, Ukraine has consistently tried to reach a deal with Russia over the last decade, and was open to giving up on its NATO bid in exchange for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukraine. Russia never reciprocated, never showed a good will, kept raising the stakes.

Both Poroshenko and Zelensky were initially sceptical regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. Both wanted to get a deal with Putin. And Putin himself pushed both of them to seek NATO membership out of no other viable alternatives.

Up till now, Putin has shown absolutely no willingness to compromise with Ukraine. His war aims remain maximalist - subjugating Ukraine and changing its regime. He seeks Ukraine's partition, and will turn what is left of Ukraine into Russian protectorate.

Russia's imperial self-conception is that of Russian elites at large, and not just Vladimir Putin. The Russian leadership simply cannot reconcile with the existence of a sovereign Ukrainian statehood.

Therefore any sustainable Ukrainian-Russian compromise is currently not possible unless the Russian cost-benefit calculus changes. Only credible risk to the stability of the Russian regime would impact this calculus. The easiest way goes through defeating Russia in Ukraine.

[lurkiestvoid]

You're being targeted by disinformation networks that are vastly more effective than you realize. And they're making you more hateful and depressed.

(This essay was originally by u/walkandtalkk and posted to r/GenZ on Reddit two months ago, and I've crossposted here on Tumblr for convenience because it's relevant and well-written.)

TL;DR: You know that Russia and other governments try to manipulate people online. But you almost certainly don't how just how effectively orchestrated influence networks are using social media platforms to make you -- individually-- angry, depressed, and hateful toward each other. Those networks' goal is simple: to cause Americans and other Westerners -- especially young ones -- to give up on social cohesion and to give up on learning the truth, so that Western countries lack the will to stand up to authoritarians and extremists.

And you probably don't realize how well it's working on you.

This is a long post, but I wrote it because this problem is real, and it's much scarier than you think.

How Russian networks fuel racial and gender wars to make Americans fight one another

In September 2018, a video went viral after being posted by In the Now, a social media news channel. It featured a feminist activist pouring bleach on a male subway passenger for manspreading. It got instant attention, with millions of views and wide social media outrage. Reddit users wrote that it had turned them against feminism.

There was one problem: The video was staged. And In the Now, which publicized it, is a subsidiary of RT, formerly Russia Today, the Kremlin TV channel aimed at foreign, English-speaking audiences.

As an MIT study found in 2019, Russia's online influence networks reached 140 million Americans every month -- the majority of U.S. social media users.

Russia began using troll farms a decade ago to incite gender and racial divisions in the United States

In 2013, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a confidante of Vladimir Putin, founded the Internet Research Agency (the IRA) in St. Petersburg. It was the Russian government's first coordinated facility to disrupt U.S. society and politics through social media.

Here's what Prigozhin had to say about the IRA's efforts to disrupt the 2022 election:

"Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once."

In 2014, the IRA and other Russian networks began establishing fake U.S. activist groups on social media. By 2015, hundreds of English-speaking young Russians worked at the IRA. Their assignment was to use those false social-media accounts, especially on Facebook and Twitter -- but also on Reddit, Tumblr, 9gag, and other platforms -- to aggressively spread conspiracy theories and mocking, ad hominem arguments that incite American users.

In 2017, U.S. intelligence found that Blacktivist, a Facebook and Twitter group with more followers than the official Black Lives Matter movement, was operated by Russia. Blacktivist regularly attacked America as racist and urged black users to rejected major candidates. On November 2, 2016, just before the 2016 election, Blacktivist's Twitter urged Black Americans: "Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it's not a wasted vote."

Russia plays both sides -- on gender, race, and religion

The brilliance of the Russian influence campaign is that it convinces Americans to attack each other, worsening both misandry and misogyny, mutual racial hatred, and extreme antisemitism and Islamophobia. In short, it's not just an effort to boost the right wing; it's an effort to radicalize everybody.

Russia uses its trolling networks to aggressively attack men. According to MIT, in 2019, the most popular Black-oriented Facebook page was the charmingly named "My Baby Daddy Aint Shit." It regularly posts memes attacking Black men and government welfare workers. It serves two purposes: Make poor black women hate men, and goad black men into flame wars.

MIT found that My Baby Daddy is run by a large troll network in Eastern Europe likely financed by Russia.

But Russian influence networks are also also aggressively misogynistic and aggressively anti-LGBT.

On January 23, 2017, just after the first Women's March, the New York Times found that the Internet Research Agency began a coordinated attack on the movement. Per the Times:

More than 4,000 miles away, organizations linked to the Russian government had assigned teams to the Women’s March. At desks in bland offices in St. Petersburg, using models derived from advertising and public relations, copywriters were testing out social media messages critical of the Women’s March movement, adopting the personas of fictional Americans.

They posted as Black women critical of white feminism, conservative women who felt excluded, and men who mocked participants as hairy-legged whiners.

But the Russian PR teams realized that one attack worked better than the rest: They accused its co-founder, Arab American Linda Sarsour, of being an antisemite. Over the next 18 months, at least 152 Russian accounts regularly attacked Sarsour. That may not seem like many accounts, but it worked: They drove the Women's March movement into disarray and eventually crippled the organization.

Russia doesn't need a million accounts, or even that many likes or upvotes. It just needs to get enough attention that actual Western users begin amplifying its content.

A former federal prosecutor who investigated the Russian disinformation effort summarized it like this:

It wasn’t exclusively about Trump and Clinton anymore. It was deeper and more sinister and more diffuse in its focus on exploiting divisions within society on any number of different levels.

As the New York Times reported in 2022,

There was a routine: Arriving for a shift, [Russian disinformation] workers would scan news outlets on the ideological fringes, far left and far right, mining for extreme content that they could publish and amplify on the platforms, feeding extreme views into mainstream conversations.

China is joining in with AI

[A couple months ago], the New York Times reported on a new disinformation campaign. "Spamouflage" is an effort by China to divide Americans by combining AI with real images of the United States to exacerbate political and social tensions in the U.S. The goal appears to be to cause Americans to lose hope, by promoting exaggerated stories with fabricated photos about homeless violence and the risk of civil war.

As Ladislav Bittman, a former Czechoslovakian secret police operative, explained about Soviet disinformation, the strategy is not to invent something totally fake. Rather, it is to act like an evil doctor who expertly diagnoses the patient’s vulnerabilities and exploits them, “prolongs his illness and speeds him to an early grave instead of curing him.”

The influence networks are vastly more effective than platforms admit

Russia now runs its most sophisticated online influence efforts through a network called Fabrika. Fabrika's operators have bragged that social media platforms catch only 1% of their fake accounts across YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Telegram, and other platforms.

But how effective are these efforts? By 2020, Facebook's most popular pages for Christian and Black American content were run by Eastern European troll farms tied to the Kremlin. And Russia doesn't just target angry Boomers on Facebook. Russian trolls are enormously active on Twitter. And, even, on Reddit.

It's not just false facts

The term "disinformation" undersells the problem. Because much of Russia's social media activity is not trying to spread fake news. Instead, the goal is to divide and conquer by making Western audiences depressed and extreme.

Sometimes, through brigading and trolling. Other times, by posting hyper-negative or extremist posts or opinions about the U.S. the West over and over, until readers assume that's how most people feel. And sometimes, by using trolls to disrupt threads that advance Western unity.

As the RAND think tank explained, the Russian strategy is volume and repetition, from numerous accounts, to overwhelm real social media users and create the appearance that everyone disagrees with, or even hates, them. And it's not just low-quality bots. Per RAND,

Russian propaganda is produced in incredibly large volumes and is broadcast or otherwise distributed via a large number of channels. ... According to a former paid Russian Internet troll, the trolls are on duty 24 hours a day, in 12-hour shifts, and each has a daily quota of 135 posted comments of at least 200 characters.

What this means for you

You are being targeted by a sophisticated PR campaign meant to make you more resentful, bitter, and depressed. It's not just disinformation; it's also real-life human writers and advanced bot networks working hard to shift the conversation to the most negative and divisive topics and opinions.

It's why some topics seem to go from non-issues to constant controversy and discussion, with no clear reason, across social media platforms. And a lot of those trolls are actual, "professional" writers whose job is to sound real.

So what can you do? To quote WarGames: The only winning move is not to play. The reality is that you cannot distinguish disinformation accounts from real social media users. Unless you know whom you're talking to, there is a genuine chance that the post, tweet, or comment you are reading is an attempt to manipulate you -- politically or emotionally.

Here are some thoughts:

Don't accept facts from social media accounts you don't know. Russian, Chinese, and other manipulation efforts are not uniform. Some will make deranged claims, but others will tell half-truths. Or they'll spin facts about a complicated subject, be it the war in Ukraine or loneliness in young men, to give you a warped view of reality and spread division in the West.

Resist groupthink. A key element of manipulate networks is volume. People are naturally inclined to believe statements that have broad support. When a post gets 5,000 upvotes, it's easy to think the crowd is right. But "the crowd" could be fake accounts, and even if they're not, the brilliance of government manipulation campaigns is that they say things people are already predisposed to think. They'll tell conservative audiences something misleading about a Democrat, or make up a lie about Republicans that catches fire on a liberal server or subreddit.

Don't let social media warp your view of society. This is harder than it seems, but you need to accept that the facts -- and the opinions -- you see across social media are not reliable. If you want the news, do what everyone online says not to: look at serious, mainstream media. It is not always right. Sometimes, it screws up. But social media narratives are heavily manipulated by networks whose job is to ensure you are deceived, angry, and divided.

Edited for typos and clarity. (Tumblr-edited for formatting and to note a sourced article is now older than mentioned in the original post. -LV)

P.S. Apparently, this post was removed several hours ago due to a flood of reports. Thank you to the r/GenZ moderators for re-approving it.

Second edit:

This post is not meant to suggest that r/GenZ is uniquely or especially vulnerable, or to suggest that a lot of challenges people discuss here are not real. It's entirely the opposite: Growing loneliness, political polarization, and increasing social division along gender lines is real. The problem is that disinformation and influence networks expertly, and effectively, hijack those conversations and use those real, serious issues to poison the conversation. This post is not about left or right: Everyone is targeted.

(Further Tumblr notes: since this was posted, there have been several more articles detailing recent discoveries of active disinformation/influence and hacking campaigns by Russia and their allies against several countries and their respective elections, and barely touches on the numerous Tumblr blogs discovered to be troll farms/bad faith actors from pre-2016 through today. This is an ongoing and very real problem, and it's nowhere near over.

A quote from NPR article linked above from 2018 that you might find familiar today: "[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we'd surely be better off without voting AT ALL," a post from the account said.")

[ducktracy]

the first clip for "the day the earth blew up" was posted on twitter. can you spare us your thoughts?

@aadrawings: So uh how about that new Looney movie clip?

I MOST CERTAINLY CAN SPARE MY THOUGHTS! TWIST MY ARM! first, i'll link it here in case anyone hasn't seen it:

FIRST (and most obvious) THING'S FIRST: I'M SOOOOOOOOO EXCITED UUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHH!!! the film JUST started premiering in Annecy as we speak and my heart is literally pounding MY FINGERS LITERALLY SHAKING. so i apologize if this turns into a discombobulated mess i'm so so so excited and trying to keep an eagle eye out for any and all details. BUT ANYHOO

IT LOOKS GREAT!!! this is a fully rendered clip of the roughs that were uploaded back in September of 2022, so i'm already pretty familiar with this since i gushed over it to hell and back then, too. i had a few teeny tiny neurotic nitpicks that i would not take too seriously--honestly me nitpicking anything modern LT is a good sign because it means i'm ENGAGED and actively thinking and engaging with the material. there are a lot of modern LT adaptations i cannot say the same for. so it's all out of a labor of love and i also realize that most of these nitpicks are very.. you guys know my level of fanaticism. don't take it too seriously. my standards for this series AND THESE TWO KNUCKLEHEADS IN PARTICULAR who are my favorite characters of all time are so high that even the classics don't meet those expectations half the time. we all know i'm insane. BUT ENOUGH BLUFFING

my biggest critique is that it's going to take me quite a bit to get used to Eric Bauza's Porky. i LOVE Bauza, he is such a sweet guy (he sang me happy birthday as Daffy Duck and i almost exploded) and so talented and it's been really great seeing him rise up the ranks. i used to only know him as "the guy who voiced Stimpy in APC" and so i'm VERY glad to see he's gone on to greener pastures LOL.

but, with that said, the first time i saw these roughs i actually thought Porky's lines were scratch audio. there isn't enough stuttering--it's important for me to note that people give Porky's stutter WAY too much prevalence, in terms of how he sounds and just characterization as a whole. a stutter is not a personality. BUT, in the clips above, he doesn't really sound like Porky unless he's stuttering. it moreso sounds like Daffy talking to himself. Mel Blanc had Porky speak (and even sing!) in full sentences all the time, but it's never noticeable unless pointed out because Porky still sounded like Porky and Blanc knew how to make his personality come out in his voice beyond the vocal fluff of a stutter.

part of it is because i'm so used to Bob Bergen. and, even THEN, if i watch too much LTC or Duck Dodgers in one sitting, i need to "recalibrate" with the originals and hear Blanc. Bergen's Porky is much different than Mel's, more formal, the stutter more concrete in its formula (fun fact: Blanc's Porky has a southern twang in his voice if you listen for it depending on who's voice directing and i love it so much. biggest giveaway is how his "i"'s will often sound like an "ah" instead, not thinking of the stutter. I WARNED YOU we are getting into super pedantic territory here), but, much like how Joe Alaskey's Daffy is a much different interpretation than Blanc's Daffy, he was able to really make it his own. i think Bauza's Porky is still in a little bit of a limbo in finding its identity with that regard. but, also, keep in mind we've only heard him in this clip and Space Jam 2 and i have no plans of revisiting SJ2 to make a point here. sorry

THAT'S MY BIGGEST CRITIQUE i'd say! others are small, such as the design of the landlady is fun but reads like something out of the 2020 Animaniacs than anything based in the LT design philosophy, and you could argue that the fluidity is more Richard Williams-esque in its visual fluffiness and perhaps even excessiveness than, again, anything relating to LT. but i take less stock in that last one because the animation is STILL GORGEOOOOOOOOOOOOUS WHAT THE HECK!!!! so many fluid arcs and i really love that scene of Daffy talking to the landlady. the subtle twitching on Porky's cheek as a secondary action made me laugh.

other than that... you guys know that I. LOVE. LTC. i have been tracking it before it released, and there are posts on this blog (i think i saw one even dating back to its initial announcement in 2018, though it may have been a 2019 post of the 2018 upload. dunno.) dating back before i was even into LT at ALL. i've been keeping an eagle eye on every single development. the day they premiered i watched the entire batch 3 times in a row. i streamed it for you guys too! some people reading this may have been in that room.

ALL THIS TO SAY, i LOVE LTC SO MUCH and it's been the most excited i've been for anything in a very long time. i also have my fair share of nitpicks, but, as i've expressed above, they all come out of a place of love. some of the Porky and Daffy shorts in the LTCs i would have handled differently if i had my hands on them. Porky and Daffy are two characters who are deeply special to me, everyone knows me as The Porky And Daffy person including my coworkers and bosses, my friends who worked on the show and film have told me many times they're eager for my thoughts. the pig and duck are literally a part of my identity. so my critiques come more out of a place of fanaticism and love for the characters and wanting to do them justice and wanting people to see what i see in them, rather than an actual dig at the product

THAT ALL BEING SAID. there are some pitfalls and little traps the P+D (and a lot of LTC in general) shorts run into that i'm expecting to be in the movie as well. there's a little bit here with the screaming and some lines of dialogue that i probably would have shaved off (like "our roof?"). months ago i started typing up mini reviews of each LTC short that i may compile here someday--my Max subscription was about to run out and i wanted to watch all the LTCs one last time while i could. and then i renewed because i couldn't watch quickly enough and now need to return LOL--and it allowed me to lay out some of the nitpicks i have with the series more clearly, which i am fully expecting to also be in the movie. and that's okay!

ALLLL OF THIS RAMBLING IS TO SAY: I AM SO EXCITED. i've been tracking every single detail of this movie and this SERIES like a hawk since it was announced. i was even asked to work on the film back in 2021, but turned it down because i wasn't secure enough in my abilities and didn't know what job security would look like after i finished on the film. i'm glad i stuck with the decision as i did, because i figured i can draw those two any time i want, and the fact that i got asked meant that there are eyes on my work and i may get asked with other LT related offers (which turned out to be true!). needless to say, turning down the offer was genuinely one of the most excruciating things i've ever done and it seriously sent me into a pretty big funk for the next few days and weeks.

so, with all that said, it is ESPECIALLY important for me to see how this movie is and celebrate it and keep my fanatical obsessive eagle eye out. i'm so glad i get to live in a world where this is a movie that is happening and coming out. i've already got plans to see it with a best friend who i've shoved the agenda of the pig and duck down her throat many times. i am so excited to cheer on all my friends and colleagues who worked on this film. it's the most excited i think i have ever been for anything actively coming out in my life.

[milligramspoison]

Let’s connect the dots, we’re gonna theorize real quick 😵‍💫

Obviously back in August, Frank posted a fortune cookie, which seemingly hinted (or confirmed, however you wanna take Frank’s story as) that something was coming at some point in the future.

Obviously, the last time Frank posted a fortune cookie, which was in February 2022, we got Foundations three months later in May 2022.

The miracle we witnessed was them dropping Foundations a few months after this was posted.

And of course, this isn’t the first time he’s done this either- he hinted at the mini MCR reunion in May 2017 with a fortune cookie, MCR’s first time spotted together since the breakup in 2013.

Now let’s go back to Frank’s August 2023 fortune cookie- what are we waiting for exactly?

Well, there’s a few things, actually- MCR5, LOTMS2 announcement, another tour announcement, Eagles as the next single, etc.

Starting Tuesday night, I and some other MCR blogs got the same exact ask at the same exact time.

We all received this ask asking us if we’re seeing MCR at WWWY in 2024. Of course, as of writing this, the 2024 WWWY lineup has yet to be announced.

We all had received more similar asks asking us pretty much the same thing but worded differently and also gave us some info- I’ll show the ones I got personally that gave us info.

No one had heard anything at this point in time as far as I’m aware! So we were all pretty convinced that we were getting trolled.

Earlier today, a mutual of mine on tiktok came across this screenshot below on twitter.

This seems to be the origins of those asks we received on Tuesday night.

Of course, we knew MCR was gonna tour again, Gerard’s expressed a shit ton of interest for it at various of shows throughout the tour.

And based on the fact Frank remained in LA from late August to early September after the Dunes tour ended and also posted the fortune cookie while he was there, we can assume that they were more than likely in the studio together.

But let’s connect this discord message to Frank’s August 2023 fortune cookie.

“Let’s finish this up now, someone is waiting for you on that.”

That’s what Frank’s fortune cookie said. And like I stated earlier, we’re waiting for MCR5, LOTMS2 announcement, another tour announcement, Eagles as the next single, etc.

The discord message is stating an announcement from MCR could come within the next 2-3 weeks.

While that would dismiss the Friday the 13th theory, as that’s 7 days away as I’m writing this, it makes the Halloween theory more possible.

Halloween is a little over 3 weeks away and is one of the theorized dates of MCR doing something, whether it’s an announcement of some sort or them dropping a single.

Frank, like he’s done in the past with fortune cookies, was telling us something. And if this announcement does happen in the next 2-3 weeks, whether it’s a tour announcement, an announcement of a surprise single like Foundations was, etc, that’s what Frank was possibly telling us through his fortune cookie.

Of course, this is a theory, so this could all be wrong. And we don’t know how true the discord message and the anonymous asks some of us received are, so of course, take this all with a grain of salt.

[ask-serendipity-sky]

1108: Facts and observations

•Day 0

1108 started on the 8th of November of 2015.

Jimin uploaded a video of him and Jungkook to twitter:

On the 26th of January 2016, Jk uploaded a small snippet of a song he was covering.

•Day 100

And on the 15th of February of 2016, Jk uploaded the entire song Nothing Like Us and noted to listen to the lyrics as they were expressing what he wanted to say:

In Korean culture, parents celebrate 100 days after a child is born. This is to indicate that the child made it through the first vulnerable phase in their life. In the same manner, the 100 days are celebrated by Korean couples.

And this is what Jk had to say 100 days after the 8th of November of 2015:

There's nothing like us There's nothing like you and me Together through the storm There's nothing like us There's nothing like you and me together, oh

•Day 366 (1 year)

On 08/11/2016, a year later, Jimin posted another video of them:

•Day 732 (2 years)

On Oct. 28, 2017, Jungkook treated Jimin to a trip to Tokyo. It was because of this trip, that Jungkook released gcfTokyo on Nov. 08, 2017.

A fan used the images in the video and was able to determine the hotel and room jikook stayed at. It was room number 1108.

The video also used the song There For You by Troye Sivan:

Boy, I'm holdin' onto something Won't let go of you for nothing I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you There was a time that I was so blue What I got to do to show you? I'm runnin', runnin' just to keep my hands on you

Day 811

On the 26th of January 2018, in a Japanese fancafe, Jimin gifted Jungkook a drawing of a set of champagne glasses and a bottle. Note the details of the glasses.

•Day 900

On the 25th of April 2018, a day before the 900 day milestone, Jimin had a vlive where it was obvious he wasn't alone in the room. He kept looking to the side, laughing shyly and explained:

After he said this, you can hear someone whisper, "Jimin."

Day 1000

On August 3rd 2018, Jk posted a selfie while they were all filming BV3:

During BV3, jikook were able to look around the city alone, and have a boat date under the moonlight.

Day 1013

As you all may know 10:13 is also known as Jimin ssi, or Jimin time. It only makes sense that this day would be special to jikook too.

On the 16th of August 2018, Jimin tweeted a series of 3 tweets:

Jungkook was the only member that appeared in the photos with Jimin. It is also interesting to note the 2 butterfly temporary tattoos he had on his hand.

This is the same time when they had the photoshoot with the inflatable unicorn:

The next day, Jimin uploaded a tweet with the caption "Love Ya", and one of the photos was him and Jk.

•Day 1141

On the 22nd of December 2018, when fans uploaded their selfies on fancafe, the fans let Jk know that Jimin had uploaded his own:

This prompted Jk to type "JIMINNNN" and he signed off. He later uploaded a song that he stopped at 1:18:

You take my mind away When you touch me that way This place, your face It gets hard to breathe I know you're feeling me now You're all I see Almost like we're dreaming

•Day 1394

On the 1st of September 2019, Jk made 2 tweets. One in which uploaded a snippet of Decalcamonia, which he also ended on 1:18:

•Day 1500

On the 16th of Dec 2019, Jimin posted a good night tweet:

The time he uploaded this was at 1:50.

•Day 2300

On Feb 22, 2022, Jk uploaded a story on insta where he is in a car, listening to So Good by Joan. The story was labeled 23:08 even though he uploaded it at 1:24 am.

You and me Got a lotta tension, not even to mention Ooh, that night, just two weeks ago It was half past ten Thinking about living, suddenly when you walked it You took my breath away

•Day 2315

On March 10, 2022, during the Permission to Dance Concert, Jimin used the 2315 numbers and stated the following:

2315 days had passed since November 8, 2015.

•Day 2545

On the 26th of October 2022, Jk uploaded a photo of himself while he was in Qatar. He uploaded the photo at 11:08 Korea time and, 5:08 Qatar time.

•Day 2643

On the 2nd of February 2023, Jimin answered a question on weverse at exactly 23:08. The question is now deleted.

•Day 2684

During Jungkook hosted a series of lives on White Day, 14th of March 2022. His first live was started at 8:11 pm:

During these lives, Jk changed to various outfits and had an extensive playlist. One of the songs that was included was There For You.

•Day 2855

On the 1st of September 2023, Jk hosted a short live to thank the fans for being present with him during so many birthdays. He ended his live quickly and it lasted 8:56 minutes:

My impressions

Based on Korean customs, celebrating different day milestones is typical in a Korean couple.

While some may think that jikook started dating on the 8th of November 2015, I think that's when they decided to be intimate with each other.

I feel like a jikook kiss had already happened since the last time Jimin asked Jk for a kiss publicly was in September 2015 for Jk's birthday. From there, one can only think that things proceeded quite quickly.

I think that in recent years, we have observed less mentions of 1108 because of BTS' popularity and so many fans expecting something from jikook.

It's possible that jikook has decided to not make these milestones known like they did before, but every now and then, they still reference that number. Who knows when they will do it again.

But who is counting, right?

[charmac]

If you don’t mind my asking, which live show(s) did you attend?

I went to Night 1 of the Philly September 2022 show. I didn't have this blog at the time so there's nothing really on here from that show but I did tweet a few things, like Charlie trying and failing to flip one singular cup and Rob managing after a second, and this iconic moment:

I deleted all the videos I took cos I had shitty seats and thought they would upload the full show to the TASP Youtube channel, but then they never did... lol. But the show was kinda weird and aimless because they didn't actually plan anything other than "let's do what we do in the studio live" so there wasn't a lot of info or moments to share other than small things I tweeted.

In contrast, the 2023 shows were absolutely awesome and I went to both of the ones in NYC. They had a real format and put on a show that was 100% worth the money and then some with the amount of content we got. Both nights were basically completely different shows. All of my posts from/regarding those shows are under #sunny live shows on my blog here.

There's a few videos I didn't post here (cos there was just a lot) so I will use this ask to preserve links to those videos on Twitter:

Night one: the Law&Order crossover intro Meg made, the origin of Ongo Goblogian, the in Memorium dedication video, Mary Elizabeth coming out on stage, Glenn completing the "sweaty hog" line, and this video of drunk Glenn taking selfies

Night two: Brian Unger's intro video as The Lawyer, Rob's Occular Pat down, RCG singing Birds of War, Friday the 13th Super Cut, The origin of Frank's Little Beauties, Meg and Glenn talking about Dennis removing his makeup in Dee Day, Bad parents compilation, RCG talking about watching Sunny with their families, Glenn saying "pee pee", Charlie rat compilation, Bryan Cranston continuing the MitM joke, Mary Elizabeth with eggs, Glenn as the 5th wheel, Glenn and the incorrect buzzer, Rob talking about Sunny personally, MEE and Kaitlin kissing

Ok.. there's a lot I didn't post here wow lol.

[animesavior]

“That gloomy sea, and that Sinister lighthouse. Insidious mountains and looming cityscape. every inch of this place gets under my skin. Wait, that's it. This town is driving me insane, winding me up. It's making me spiral. Everywhere I look, spirals are taking over.” -          Shuichi Saito, Uzumaki (Ep. 01)

This Toonami Trending Rundown is for the month of September 2024. After first being announced in 2019, and going through four years of delays, this month that would culminate in the world premiere of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.

For the night of September 7, #Toonami would trend in the U.S. alongside Demon Slayer. #Toonami would also trend on Tumblr alongside One Piece and My Hero Academia. On September 14, #Toonami trended in the United States and on Tumblr, with One Piece also trending on Tumblr. For the night of September 21, Toonami trended in the US on Twitter and on Tumblr, while Demon Slayer also trended in the USA. Finally, September 28th would see the premiere of Uzumaki, and as result of the buzz, both Uzumaki and Rick and Morty: The Anime would trend in the USA on Twitter, while Uzumaki also trended on Tumblr.

Meanwhile for Toonami Rewind, #ToonamiRewind would trend on both September 13 and 27. Sailor Moon would also trend on the 13th. Full trending statistics can be seen below.

The feature for September 14 was a new Toonami ID titled “Doppelganger.” You can check it out below.

On September 28, Toonami released a new Criminal Threats/Building You a Better Cartoon Show promo. You can check it out below.

The production for Uzumaki has not been easy and has since seen significant delays from its original release date since the show’s announcement at Crunchyroll Expo 2019. First from 2020, then to October 2022 thanks to the pandemic, until Toonami just stopped giving out an ETA release date altogether. During SDCC 2023, Toonami creator and Uzumaki producer Jason DeMarco noted that the reason for these delays, among other things, is “Because it turns out it’s very, very hard to replicate Junji Ito’s lines faithfully, but that hasn’t stopped us from continuing to work on it.” It wasn’t until 2024 that we finally got the news that the show was ready to go.

While Uzumaki’s first episode aired without a hitch, episodes 2, 3, and 4 on the other hand, saw some recognizable hitches in regards to the animation quality. According to show producer Jason DeMarco in a now deleted Bluesky post, he mentioned that they were “screwed over” during the show’s production, which ultimately played a major role in the show’s delays and animation quality dip. Unfortunately, the choices given to the Uzumaki production team in the end were to either cancel the production and call it a total loss (and presumably see the production written off in a similar fashion to Coyote vs Acme), only release Episode 1 and leave the series incomplete, or to release the series despite its flaws. The latter of the three was ultimately the decision chosen.

Jason couldn't point fingers to who was responsible for Uzumaki's production issues, though it surely wasn’t helped that this miniseries was produced during the ongoing upheaval with Warner Bros Discovery, with CEO David Zaslav infamously going on a cost cutting and tax write off spree to make up for WBD’s post-merger debts. And given that this series was announced at the now-defunct Crunchyroll Expo, its likely this series would have been available to stream on Crunchyroll as well, had Sony not burn bridges with WBD.

Oftentimes, if a show has such animation quality issues due to a rushed schedule, it tends to be smoothed out for the Blu-ray release and reruns. However, it is unknown if and when Production I.G and Cartoon Network plans on fixing these mistakes for a BD release, much less if we will have a Blu-ray release at all. Regardless of what happened and what happens going forward, Toonami, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros Discovery as a whole will no doubt need to get their acts together on this front, especially if Lazarus, Rooster Fighter, and other future Toonami originals are to be the smash hits fans are hoping will be.

Unfortunately, Uzumaki’s case is not unique in the anime world. From Attack on Titan, to Dragon Ball Super, to One Punch Man, to Zom 100, to anything made by Studio MAPPA, no small amount of anime titles in the modern era have seen frequent delays and are occasionally rushed out the door with animation flaws. A big reason for that is a shortage in manpower. From the high demand for anime productions from domestic and international licensors alike, to the low pay and grueling work conditions of its animators, production cast and crews, and manga artists (not to mention Japan’s declining birth and immigration rates), the anime industry has backed themselves into a corner with less and less people being able to get into the industry as a viable career path. It’s a big reason many anime series don’t go beyond 12-14 episodes a season nowadays. And it certainly played a role in the Great Anime Crash of 2008 and is playing a role in the current anime dark age we’re seeing today.  For more on that, check out my Op-Ed “The 2020’s Anime and Streaming Service Bubble Burst.”

As previously mentioned, due to personal reasons, I’m unfortunately running a bit late on posting Trending Rundowns, so expect the editions for the rest of 2024 to be posted in the coming weeks. Apologies for the inconvenience. Until next time, stay gold as always.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

September 7-8, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#10]

#DemonSlayer [Trended with #Toonami]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [3,008 tweets]

#DemonSlayer [3,777 tweets]

#OnePiece [35.6k tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#1]

#one piece [#4]

#my hero academia [Trended with #bnha]

#boku no hero academia [Trended with #bnha]

#bnha [#6]

September 13, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#9]

#SailorMoon [#27]

Tweet Counts:

#SailorMoon [1,291 tweets]

September 14-15, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#13]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [2,137 tweets]

#DemonSlayer [3.206 tweets]

#MyHeroAcademia [10.1k tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#7]

#one piece [#3]

September 21-22, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#22]

#DemonSlayer [Trended with #Toonami]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [2,097 tweets]

#DemonSlayer [2,136 tweets]

#MyHeroAcademia [11.1k tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#6]

September 27, 2024 Toonami Rewind Trends

United States Trends:

#ToonamiRewind [#23]

September 28-29, 2024 Toonami Trends

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#13]

#Uzumaki [#4]

#RickAndMortyTheAnime [Trended with #Uzumaki]

Tweet Counts:

#Toonami [3,627 tweets]

#Uzumaki [3,790 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#6]

#uzumaki [#9]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to PayPal.Me/DanielLimjoco.

Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ewan Palmer at Newsweek:

Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul and owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has changed his profile name on the site to "Kekius Maximus" on Tuesday. Newsweek has reached out to Musk via the X press office for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Musk, who boasts nearly 210 million followers on X, of which he changed the name, has seen his posts become increasingly influential, not to mention dissected, since he purchased the platform in a $44 billion deal in 2022. The tech billionaire is to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency��in the upcoming Donald Trump administration.

What to Know

As of Tuesday, Musk's profile name on X is Kekius Maximus. His avatar features Pepe the Frog, a popular online character, dressed in ancient Roman attire and holding a video game controller. The Kekius Maximus image and name appears to be a blend of Pepe the Frog and Maximus Decimus Meridius, a character played by Russell Crowe in the 2000 film Gladiator. Pepe the Frog rose to prominence on the message board site 4chan during President-elect Donald Trump's first presidential campaign. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) listed Pepe the Frog a hate symbol in September 2016, calling it the "Alt Right's favorite meme." The term "kek" originated in online gaming as a variation of "LOL," which stands for "laugh out loud." Musk referenced Kekius Maximus in a Tuesday post on X, stating he would reach level 80 in "Path of Exile 2," a video game Musk is known to play.

Far-right X CEO Elon Musk took a page out of the mid 2010s-era Alt-Right playbook by renaming his X display name “Kekius Maximus.”

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

Hey so idk if you would know this but where did the term canyon in reference to Izzy fans come from? I feel like I just started seeing it like three days ago but everyone seems to already know what it means

lol so disclaimer that this ask has been in my inbox since september 23rd and alsoooo i might not be the best person to ask bc i am belothed by many who consider themselves part of the izzy canyon (which is their right). so if you asked an izzy fan about this you would probably get a different answer. also from what i can tell the term originated on twitter and i don’t go there.

the tl;dr that i heard secondhand from someone who identifies as izzy canyon is that at some point last year (summer or fall-ish i think) a lot of izzy fans were blocking so many people who didn’t like izzy that a lot of them ended up being unaware of general fandom trends and it became a running joke among them that izzy fans were isolated from the rest of the fandom in an "izzy canyon." and then allegedly the term expanded to just mean "if ur not a dick abt ppl liking izzy u can be in the canyon." THAT BEING SAID there are other ppl who had a very different experience with how "the canyon" originated and what kind of fan space it tends to be.

(slightly longer explanation below)

the thing with The Canyon is that to understand its origin and also why some fans have a problem with it, you gotta know two things:

there are annoying puriteen anti types on the internet who think liking certain characters make you a bad person. from what i can tell theyre mostly on twitter and tiktok. these people are annoying but also in my experience they're usually pretty easy to block and ignore.

the popularity of izzy hands is disproportionate to his narrative role in the show, and the popular fanon interpretation of izzy hands casts him not only as a principal character but as a much more sympathetic, righteous character than he is in canon. THIS DOES NOT MEAN I THINK ANYONE IS A BAD PERSON FOR LIKING IZZY. this DOES mean that i think ppl who think ed is izzy's domestic abuser are wrong. and also this is part of an age old fandom trend of fandom favoring a masc white guy who is often a side character and also often an antagonist.

so from what i can tell. in the early days of the ofmd fandom (spring-summer 2022) there was a lot of #1 going around on twitter, screaming about how if you liked izzy hands then you're a racist abuse apologist or something. at one point a throwaway account tweeted a callout for a popular izzy fan and said "we know they live in this area and work for this company, so these are the locations where they might work. everyone should call these numbers and tell their job to fire them. also we're gonna target these izzy fans next" and like, obviously this account was pretty quickly taken down. but it was a pretty scary thing and left a lot of izzy fans pretty paranoid, hence the blocking everyone who didnt like izzy.

(there was also a "izzy hater group chat" twitter account that was literally just a small group of mostly minors posting memes and also abt izzy that got accused of being connected to that whole mess. but afaict those guys have nothing to do with harassment of izzy fans they just dont like izzy)

so the thing is now that all of that has been used to justify shutting down any type of conversation about #2, or writing off anyone who posts meta about izzy that isnt like, "he works so hard and is so unappreciated despite everything he's done for ed" as an "izzy anti." analyzing izzy critically and posting this in the #izzy hands tag on tumblr is likened to genuine harassment.

oh lol and speaking of harrasment: there was also a problem with ppl on tumblr getting anon hate, and izzy fans will tell you that the anon came from an izzy hater who was targeting izzy fans bc the anon messages use "izzy critical rhetoric." however as someone who has posted "izzy critical" metas or whatever, i have actually gotten the same harassing messages accusing me of being an izzy stan and a racist abuse apologist. that's not what a targeted harassment campaign looks like. that's all been less of a problem ever since tumblr made it so you need to be logged in to an account to send anonymous messages.

anyway my stance on all of this:

i don't hate anyone for liking izzy. i am critical of certain comments/behaviors i often see from ppl who identify as izzy fans, but izzy fans are rarely the only ones who have this problem. from what i've seen tho, a lot of it comes from izzy fans.

before i ever saw even a hint of harassment against izzy fans, i saw izzy fans coming onto my posts and to posts by fans of color trying to argue that these posts were contributing to their harassment. from my perspective, it looked a lot like fans of a white character were trying to shut down conversations abt their favorite guy, especially when those conversations were being had by fans of color. i was very skeptical and oftentimes pretty dismissive abt the existence of this harassment.

since then tho ive done a pretty deep dive into the anon harassment on tumblr, and also looked at takes from different perspectives on the whole thing, and my conclusion is that there is harassment of izzy fans, however it is on the same base-level shittiness that most people experience from just... being on the internet. death threats and insults and slurs are literally just part of being on the internet. and yes, it SUCKS and it's wrong and nobody should have to put up with it, but izzy fans are not victims of specific targeted harassment. theyre victims of being on the internet and having to put up with general internet shittiness. and im sympathetic to that up until ppl start using "ive been harassed for being an izzy fan" as an excuse to be incredibly nasty (check out this tumblr acct for examples of what i mean lol). the ofmd fandom is annoying and parts of it are toxic but like, by no means is this the most toxic fandom to ever exist. we're not at "undertale fan giving out cookies with needles in them at a convention" levels just yet.

finally, tangentially related: i am inherently wary of fandom sub-groups that like, name themselves?? in my experience, the more people make being a Type Of Fan part of their identity the more it tends to lead to problems. this goes for fans who label themselves "antis" or "anti-antis" or whatever the fuck. i've personally been called an "izzy anti," an "izzy hater," and an "izzy critical fan" but like, i dont really call myself that?? it just seems weird to me idk. it gets to be very "us vs them" on default with little nuance and ive never found this kind of thing to be like, productive in fandom spaces. but that's just me.

[magicalgirlsandcerulean]

A somewhat overdue update

Under the cut because this story might get long...

I started to boycott Twitter (now X) in mid-September 2023 because of the potential paywall I heard about around then. To this end, I deleted my original Twitter account some time around then (either end of September or November, I can't recall). This boycott obviously impacted my ability to be "Boueibu reporter", as I used to call it.

Somehow, the Japanese-language anime fandom has held on after that and I had to create a burner account after a certain point, since I'm still in the Hypnosis Mic fandom (and still regularly following/translating tweets for the mobile game in particular - see here for those).

I went back to the Boueibu Twitter account to see if I needed to turn notifications on for said burner account...Surprisingly, I did need to. The account had carried on without me, albeit with far less activity than it used to have - it's mostly merch and cake tweets now.

It's been almost 10 years since Boueibu's heyday (the first Boueibu update I can recall dates to late November 2014). I've changed, Twitter's changed, Tumblr's changed and most of the Boueibu fandom has scattered to other fandoms.

In early 2024, I'm making it as a professional translator, but feedback I've gotten is proving, once again, I'm extremely imperfect as one. You could argue it's time for me to move on.

On the other hand, I failed the JLPT in 2022 and attempted it again in 2023, but results for this latest attempt aren't out for at least a week. I also don't have enough confidence to throw a bunch of money - several times the JLPT amount - to attempt a national translation qualification test.

Basically, I've come to a crossroads: continue translating Boueibu tweets, or not? Out of nostalgia and a continual need to improve, I say "I'll continue". However, out of a commitment to translation ethics (which I learnt about in the almost-decade since starting mg&c) and a final optimal product, I'll be more thorough this time. (e.g. I intend to provide links to original texts out of transparency.)

(I'm not going to tell you my burner account's handle in case it goes down.)

Also, the Fairy Ranmaru blog posts. I still intend to work on those (I'm still on Balletta's first post...it's been years since episode 3 first aired, so I might have to edit it thoroughly before I post it to make it match my current level of translation skill), but they're a very low priority and, as previously announced, are on a different blog. TL;DR:

There are tweets missing from mg&c from Sep. 2023 - Jan. 2024 due to changes on Twitter. I intend to translate these missing tweets in a slightly revamped way to what I used to do previously, so expect them soon. After that, I'll keep looking out for Boueibu tweets, but they will become a lower priority.

Fairy Ranmaru blog posts are still going ahead on the Animanga Spellbook.

[fallloverfic]

Comics, art, and non-canon extras for "ENNEAD" by Mojito

There are a number non-canon side comics and extras that Mojito has put out for her boy's love manhwa ENNEAD. Some are available in the official release online and in the physical edition of season 1, and others are only available via Mojito's twitter. I'll summarize about them and link to what I can below. If you'd like to read the manhwa, I have a Tumblr post and carrd for how to do that.

Seth and Anubis hiding from Nephthys

This is seemingly the only canon side comic, and relates to Anubis' character interview (discussed below). Seth and Anubis hide from Nephthys around Heliopolis, and fall asleep. It's available in full in Korean on Mojito's postype (scroll down past the Anubis interview). It was also included in the Korean and Taiwanese print editions of season 1.

Character Interviews/Question & Answer

Mojito did a series of interviews/Question & Answers for the ENNEAD cast based on reader survey questions from August 24, 2020-September 27th, 2020 through WitchComics' twitter and the Naver website. Seth, Horus, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and demigod Anubis were all "interviewed" for this. Part of Seth's interview is available in Korean on Mojito's postype, along with part of Anubis' interview. These were included in the Korean and Taiwanese print editions of season 1.

Season 1 Extra non-canon comics

At the end of ENNEAD season 1, Mojito posted two non-canon short story AUs, one for each version of the manhwa. The manhwa has a censored (15/16+) version and an uncensored (18/19+, mature) version. The numbers stand for age ratings. Tiny AU is episode 74 of the censored version, and R19 AU is episodes 74-75 of the uncensored version.

Season 1 Uncensored Version Extra: R19 AU/Dark King Horus AU

The R19 AU (named because the uncensored version is rated for 19+) is about an older draft of the main story where Seth is colder and Horus hates him. After the trial, Horus takes Seth as his prisoner and tortures him.

Season 1 Censored Version Extra: Tiny Seth AU

The Tiny Seth AU has Maat punishing Seth at his sentencing by making him tiny. Horus keeps him as a prisoner and mostly messes around with him (sometimes with Isis joining in).

The Cat with God as Butler

Mojito created a series of non-canon comics featuring Anubis adopting a female cat named Simba, who was also generally adopted by Seth and Nephthys. The comics featured hijinks involving the cat's adventures, mostly with Seth (but also sometimes involving Anubis, Nephthys, Osiris, and Bastet). The first comic is available on Mojito's twitter in Korean. The series was originally published physically around 2017 or earlier, and planned to be re-released in full online, but ultimately cancelled by March 8, 2022. But, Mojito announced on March 18th, 2023, that the complete The Cat with God as Butler would be put out again, seemingly on sale, after completion/full publication of ENNEAD Season 2. Simba has also appeared in the canon on a wall in Khemmis in Season 1, Episode 60.

Art by Mojito of Simba from 2022:

Nephthys/Isis Comic

Mojito released a short comic with Nephthys/Isis on her twitter to commemorate 1.5 million views on ENNEAD.

Maat/Thoth Comics

Sometime before July 2021, Mojito made at least three black and white comic strips focused on Maat and Thoth, starting with how they fell in love, them walking past each other, and Thoth leaning on Maat while she works. They are not currently available officially anywhere.

Parody of Sky Castle

Mojito released a two-part comic featuring the ENNEAD cast in a parody of the drama Sky Castle, located in full on Mojito's twitter. (Part 1, Part 2)

Parody of Heungbu and Nolbu

Mojito released a two-part comic featuring the ENNEAD cast in the folktale Heungbu and Nolbu, located in full on Mojito's twitter. (Part 1, Part 2). It was translated into English officially for the first time for the release of volume 2 of ENNEAD in English, with Seven Seas.

Extra Art

Mojito has released a great deal of extra art over the years, for fun or to commemorate events. Most of these are available on her twitter. Some art was made into official merchandise, which you can still buy via Koonbooks, which is an overseas official vendor.

Tarot Card Set

In 2019, Mojito made an ENNEAD tarot set, which was released in limited amounts by Seoul Comics, and has been sporadically released by them over the years as rewards for contests that are largely only available to Koreans. It was put up for order in January 2025, as well. The art was also used for the "Which ENNEAD character are you?" quiz that mcomics put up a while back.

This is different from the fan-created set by Studio Papyrus, an ENNEAD fanworks group.

Modern Short Hair Seth

Mojito drew a modern version of Seth in 2021, with short hair.

Art of Seth to commemorate the release of the simplified Chinese translation of ENNEAD

Chibi versions of the Horus lettuce marriage proposal

Seoul Comics also turned this into enamel pins. These are based on the myth where Horus comes on some lettuce/Isis spreads his seed on some lettuce, which Seth eats, as a way to show Horus' dominance in the trial for the throne of Egypt.

Horus and Seth in tennis skirts

Art to commemorate the work done on/for the Japanese translation of ENNEAD

The full art for posters featuring Horus and Seth that have been sold as merchandise

Anuseth contest art

There was a contest in June 2022 for readers to vote on one of the four tops (Osiris, Horus, Foreign God, and Anubis) for Mojito to draw art of with Seth. Anubis won, and the resulting artwork is available for free on the Korean version of the manhwa between Season 2, Episode 44 and Season 2, Episode 45. Mojito also released sketches of the piece: Sketch 1, Sketch 2

Four siblings as teletubbies with Ra as the sun

Mojito drew the four siblings as teletubbies with seemingly her icon as a cookie and Ra as the sun.

Horus/Seth, Anubis/Seth, and Osiris/Seth couple checklist as answered by Mojito

Sometime prior to March 22, 2021, Mojito answered couple checklists for Horus/Seth, Anubis/Seth, and Osiris/Seth in Korean, essentially explaining how the characters act in a relationship. It's unclear where she answered these, but it was likely on her postype. Screengrabs included below. The original posts have seemingly been taken down.