#those aren't even all the ships i have. I will pretty much like any piece of fanart if i find it cute ( and most of the time i do!! )

[cindergarten]

what are your kg ships? can be ships you absolutely love or also ships you think are cute.

I absolutely love 🩷Cindix💙 x100000

it grew on me and now it's like my biggest ship! 🫶 But it's also the only "popular" ship I have cuz I like lots of lesser known ships like:

💚Emindy🩷 and 💜Austix💙

( those two coexist in my mind. If I'm not shipping Cindy with Felix, I'm most likely shipping her with Emmy. Same goes for the boys. Listen, you just gotta see the vision )

Now for some that I like but I'm not as crazy about as the ones above: Perla, Bindy, Felonty, oooh and I really like Austemmy!! and a bunch of others. And I mean a BUNCH.

But yeah I'm veeery open minded when it comes to ships, the joy of being a multishipper ^^

[olderthannetfic]

So, you mentioned low standards of research in podcasts. I don't listen to podcasts or watch a lot of videos about fandom analysis, but I have seen error corrections happening in the wild for what I have listened to, so I can only imagine how annoying it is when you know your shit.

Do you have any resources that come to mind as things everyone who likes fandom should be comfortable with, or specific essays on uniquely important fandoms (such as Sherlock Holmes or Star Trek) that everyone should read? Obviously the OTW resources are up there; what else?

Aside from resources, do you think there are any skills that are especially vital for getting to the bottom of fandom trends? Interview skills are probably pretty high up there.

Any pitfalls you see a lot of young fans falling into?

(I do a lot of fandom history research. It is the thing that gives me joy in fandom; other people like shipping or AUs, I like my little mini-anthropology sandbox and watching how ideas spread. I'm not necessarily good at it, but it's fun!)

--

Well... it's the usual things.

For example, a lot of fans claim to love fandom stats, but the ones that get passed around come from like three people. The people doing those stats, including me, don't usually have a statistics background, which doesn't automatically make them bad, but it really seems like people are just trusting anything with a pie chart.

We've recently seen people discover that those year-end AO3 ship stats have a seriously weird methodology. They don't show the thing their fans are actually trying to find out. People were pissed. But most of the time, they don't even bother asking what the methodology is or trying to do anything themselves.

There's far too much sitting back and waiting for some BNF to spoon feed one publicly-available information.

--

The big failings aren't usually the math itself but, of course, not knowing what question to ask, so it pertains to history research, not just stats.

You'll see a lot of stuff on shipping that looks at AO3 because AO3 shipping numbers are easy to pull... But AO3 shipping numbers don't just happen to be easy to pull: that is both an effect and a cause that is directly related to AO3's content. Someone interested in meta shouldn't be asking "What do AO3's numbers show?" as their first question. They should be asking "Why is this metadata available or not available and what does that mean on a sociological level?"

--

Thing two is the eternal I Have Apparently Never Heard of Anime problem. A fuckton of people theorizing about fandom trends seem to know fucking nothing about whole massive sectors of fandom or treat them as afterthoughts. This is okay if you're writing a history of Media Fandom. It is criminally stupid if you're trying to talk about what makes a piece of media have fic when another doesn't, what kinds of websites make fandoms take off, etc. Those kinds of broad questions need a broad understanding of what's out there.

It's not anime-specific, and I'm not asking for a high degree of knowledge.

I have routinely had people tell me that best friend ships and mystery/crime as a genre aren't popular, and that's why AO3 has this or that pattern... Meanwhile, buddy cops are the bedrock of oldschool slash fandom and make up basically all of the longest-running Western m/m fandoms that aren't Star Trek. CSI slop tends to have legions of future canon het shippers, and they make plenty of fanworks. It's just that some of this is more visible on FFN or older places, not AO3.

I'm always seeing things like someone speculating about how this and that anime fandom thing or bit of mid-00s FFN community drama led to this other thing on AO3, not realizing that AO3 came out of LJ Western fandom slash culture. To them, FFN is so central that it must be the main reference point, not the bajillion and one archives AO3 founders ran or Usenet or mailing lists or LJ.

I once saw someone asking on twitter about where a prominent Ranma fic might have been posted in the mid-90s. People claiming "My professor is an authority!" came out of the woodwork in droves to blither about K/S zines and then LJ. Not only was this entirely wrong, but the right answer was blindingly obvious if you knew enough to interpret the google results. I can only assume that the person tweeting had never heard of Usenet and didn't recognize the acronym for the big anime fanfic group that literally everything like this was first posted to.

I'm talking people insisting that fandom only goes for white characters when it's very obvious that fandom goes for majority leads who are not othered. All the bawwing in the world about "People assume anime characters are white" won't get rid of The Untamed or Kpop thirsters or whatever.

I'm talking sweeping pronouncements about gender and fanfic writers where the person hasn't even heard of FIMFiction or SpaceBattles or Dark Lord Potter cheesefests.

I've been in fandom for a long time, but I wasn't in all these parts, and I wasn't around for 80s zines. You don't need deep knowledge until you pick a research topic. But it's shocking how little shallow, broad knowledge a lot of people have when they're writing their Theory Of All Of Fandom History.

--

People are stupid as shit about survivorship bias, and fandom history is no exception. They're also dumb in the opposite direction, assuming that the thing they like now has always existed in this exact form.

For example, someone got mad at Fanlore for supposedly not documenting the history of f/f zines. Others have searched and searched for the zines of their old show they got into last year and are bewildered to not find any. The reality is that Fanlore editors are attempting to document every Media Fandom zine and have combed through old adzines looking for any mention of anything. Because of the methods of distribution—because it was expensive—small fandoms often had no zines at all.

Femslash fandom doesn't seem to have gotten enough critical mass to do much until Xena. The internet has really democratized things, but even the early internet was still somewhat in that old mindset where only certain popular things have a fandom. I think Yuletide itself, which started in 2003, really helped spread the idea of rare-but-existing fandoms being a thing. FFN and perhaps some other multifandom archives like Media Miner played a huge role.

Nowadays, we think of fic as just how you respond to media, any media, even if there are only two fics for that one car commercial, but that isn't how people saw things in every era—or at least it's not how fandom infrastructure worked. A lot of the time, the big hosting spots were single-fandom archives, often with restrictive content rules. Finding somewhere to post a m/m/f OT3 fic used to be hard. Never mind early zines when photocopiers didn't even exist yet and you had to sell out your print run of 500 to make a go of it.

All good research starts with a lot of preliminary investigation to figure out what you're even trying to look for.

Actually bothering to look for fans talking about their own history or casually chatting with your interview subjects before the formal interview will put a person miles ahead of many of the cringeworthy fandom ~papers~ I've seen.

The biggest mistake people make is going "Okay, these numbers aren't perfect, but some numbers are better than no numbers".

Bullshit.

As soon as there's a pie chart of the false numbers, everyone's brain turns off and they never look at the chart subtitle, never mind the research notes.

Bad numbers are often worse than no numbers.

Look at the logic behind the methodology first. Look at the social context. Basic understanding of human nature and familiarizing oneself with the shape and hangout locations of a community will get you most of the way there before you sit down for a specific interview or try to collect any specific numbers.

--

None of this is a fandom thing. Research is research. It's just that most people think "research" means watching a tiktok that the algorithm likes and were never taught how to evaluate a source for reliability.

Evaluating sources is a skill. I had explicit lessons on it in school. Lots of people don't, and that sucks.

Honestly, watching the more thoughtful debunking content on non-fandom topics, like Miniminuteman's stuff on pseudo-archaeology or Dan Olson's... everything, is a good window into critical thinking, and that's most of what's missing from bad fandom history.

--

But more than any of that, more is more. Not the crap stats, but the narrower, more personal accounts, the interviews. The more fans who investigate their little corner that isn't the same old AO3 site-wide "Why is there so much m/m?" ship stats or the same canned "Everything comes from K/S" history, the better.

What I object to is not amateur efforts but efforts that pull from the same small pool of data or that just reblog a tiny handful of supposed authorities.

--

If people are going to read just one thing... hmm... go try to look up a history of rec.arts.anime.creative, not because I think it's the most important fandom history out there but because it's at the nexus of things a lot of current fandom history work miss.

[sonicasura]

Every time I remember an Autobot or Decepticon bitch about being stuck on Earth, Animated and Prime are the most frequent, it makes me laugh thinking how easy they got it. Imagine any iteration ending up on a version that is much more chaotic than the norm. Especially if the dangers are hidden or completely normal to humans.

We got JoJo's Bizarre Adventure where you literally can't trust even a simple POWER OUTLET. From stone masks that could turn people into eldritch vampire, pieces of Jesus Christ could give people powers, and martial arts which either turn the circulatory system into a sunlight generator (Hamon) or using the Golden Ratio to shred even dimensions (Spin).

I'm not forgetting about Stand Users either. Every sentient creature could become a Stand User, someone who can project a psychic manifestation of their fighting spirits that could look like anything with abilities that range from giving positive encouragement to stopping time. That weird individual on the street could dissect Megatron into pieces with fucking zippers through their Stand.

How about Resident Evil where the constant threat is viral infections? I'm not talking about the standard zombie virus either. We got mutant undead creating ones, parasitic worms/insects, to fucking hivemind mold. All guaranteed to least spawn mutants like giant man eating salamanders, evolving fanged blobs and even an eldritch dinosaur.

They have to constantly decontaminate base than just troops as a simple small strain could turn a rat into a dog sized menace. Plus all those zombies guts and blood they have to clean up if an infected did get inside. I'm pretty damn sure humans are no longer the gross squishies compared to that.

Last best addition to add is the 'Kaiju Series' i.e Kaiju No. 8, Godzilla/King Kong Monsterverse, and Pacific Rim. Normal Earth fauna doesn't cause much compared to this as kaiju practically made themselves home here. The bots aren't exactly prepared for megafauna being a constant presence and frequent threat.

Kaiju are territorial so their respective ships will get attacked if spotted too close to the creatures' home. Some may also feed on metal and think either faction are potential food. The humans here could potentially kick their afts like Kaiju No 8's Defense Force or Pacific Rim's Jaeger Pilots.

Never take what you have for granted. In the Autobots and Decepticons cases, that is a normal simple Earth. The other possibilities could be much worse.

[radioapplerevue]

See a lot of questions scattered about regarding "Why do people even ship Lucifer or Alastor? They hate each other/Lucifer's married/Alastor's ace etc etc etc." And while I doubt most people are asking in good faith, I figured I'd give my answer anyway! In part because these two in conjunction with each other fascinate me and I want to talk about it.

First off, you have Alastor, this character whose whole shtick is trying to convince everyone around him all the time that he's the most mysterious and most dangerous person around. And... he's not. We know he's not. Hell, he's not even in tier 3 of "dangerous people in Hell." But it's very important to him that he is perceived that way, and he goes to great lengths to manufacture and maintain that image.

Then you have Lucifer, who is the most dangerous person in Hell, power-wise, by far. But he doesn't seem to give a shit about that at all. His power means little to him, he didn't want the throne, he doesn't do anything with this position that Alastor would do everything to have. Lucifer is a deeply broken individual whose only concern is his family, and he's not intimidated by Alastor in any way, and never will be.

So he was pretty much tailor-made for Alastor to hate. This guy who has everything Alastor wants, but doesn't give a shit about having it, who he can't scare. Ever. The only way he can get under Lucifer's skin is by digging into his emotional sore spots, and boy howdy does Lucifer have a lot of those. And here's the fun thing! Or one of the fun things, anyway. Most people, even in Hell, would never dare to try and upset Lucifer. Upset the King of Hell? That's suicide, right?

But Alastor knows it's not, because he sees two things right off the bat: one, Lucifer wouldn't do anything to hurt Charlie, and hurting Alastor would do that -- and two, it's just not in Lucifer's nature to do so. Surprising for the King of Hell, but nonetheless true. Lucifer's a showy guy, but he's not a violent guy -- even against Adam, he only toyed with him until Adam made the mistake of going directly for Charlie a second time. Needless to say, it takes a lot to make Lucifer get violent, and it's unlikely to be anything that only targets himself.

And thus sets the stage for what is already a really fun and interesting dynamic, and one that can become even more so with time. Because these are two characters who treat each other in a way that nobody else can or will. Alastor can poke and prod and peel back Lucifer's scars and peer directly at his insecurities. Lucifer can give as good as he gets and challenge Alastor and there's nothing Alastor can do to scare him off. In short, they can make each other confront things that right now just aren't likely for other people.

I like to think eventually, once they get over the initial "how dare he, this isn't allowed, I hate everything about this" stage, they begin to actually... enjoy it. Enjoy the back and forth, enjoy hitting the ball to each other's court, enjoy having someone around who won't back down. And Lucifer is, at his core, sweet. How unsettling it must be for Alastor, to see this extremely powerful man who is also just. Good. How over ten millennia of pain haven't changed that, even as they crumbled his heart into little pieces.

I think Lucifer would fascinate Alastor. And I think Alastor, with all his idiosyncrasies, and his ballsy manner of never backing down from a challenge, would fascinate Lucifer too. And there are so, so many ways you could go from there. Darker ways, softer ways. But there's so much potential, and I am finding it an absolute blast to explore.

As for the ace thing, hello, hi! I'm aroace. And on the sex repulsed side, even! I shouldn't have to reveal this in order for people to get off my back, but hey, there you have it. Now please stop expecting people to volunteer their sexual orientations just so you can be sure they have the... what? Right? To ship things? I enjoy this ship in all flavors. A lot of people have been taking the time to explore asexuality in their fanworks with Alastor, and it's been a delight to see! But in the end, fandom is a sandbox, and I don't care how you are smashing your dolls together as long as you're having fun. And if seeing them in a particular configuration is uncomfortable for you, there's nothing wrong with that, either... just back out, and move on to things more pleasant.

And goodness, don't go after real actual people in defense of fictional ones.

[pinkyjulien]

I did not expect hostility over my Flat Chest mod, so I'll half acknowledge it and kill some of the assumption before they take roots in other people's minds

No, I did not make this mod *because* I refuse to support Na's flat chest mod

Initial Mod idea was a working "binder" for Fem, something you'd equip to flatten the chest- like a real life binder, basically. It's part of my To-Do list of June, for Pride

The mod evolved as I got more ideas, I also started working on a body replacer, it's basically ready to ship as well, but I decided against it; not to step on toes and causing confusion with two "flat chest" body mods, knowing there is also another one in the work from a fellow modder

(the binders themselves will come much later, and will be available for both fem and masc body frames!)

Again, the mod started as a "binder"- I mentioned it multiple times, either in servers where I started sharing the idea, and in the tags of my mod post

"Binders" are not costumes. They are gender affirming aid, something a lot of person use; I've made a couple of "wearable" / "switchable" body parts mods in the past already, including a trans masc vagina, I really hope you don't see this as a costume as well?

In the universe of Cyberpunks, implants and synth skin are used by everyone, for all kind of purpose; GNC people, trans people and gender-fluid people would probably use implants and cyberware to sculpt themselves, feel comfortable in their body

Who's to say some rich citizen wouldn't have some fancy switchable body pieces- hell it's even canon in game, Mr.Stud and Mrs.Midnight? Switchable boobs are already a thing, I don't see what's wrong with switching up for a flatter chest

The survey's results aren't out yet, so I couldn't know. But that's beside the point, as my mod isn't a "bandaid" for any issue this fandom may have

If the name is causing trouble, I'm open to changing it; but the main goal, again, was to flatten the vanilla fem V chest, and I think "flat chest" is pretty straight forward for nexus users

Mmmh. Sorry but, no

Everyone is different and handle their own space differently, and I do not want to support people who did me, or my friends, any serious mental health damage. Be it from harassement, witch hunt and whatnot

I won't be dragging in there old drama from 2 years ago, but I simply won't support someone who tried to get a friend of mine fired from their work place, threatening to send a 30+ pages google doc to their leads and boss, and dragging all of their personal beefs to the public on multiple social medias. They ruined my friend's mental health, and I simply won't forgive nor forget.

That is my right. And I wish people would accept and respect that.

I won't tell anyone who to support or what mod to use/not use, NOBODY should tell you what to do, what to support, who to like or dislike; and nobody can control who I must support and what I must do. Simple as that

And I'm glad the flat chest body mod exist for people who wish to use it! I'm offering another option that I'm sure some people will find useful

Thank you :)

People already gave me trouble in the past for "doing work that already exist"

Those past few weeks has been eventful when it comes to "drama" especially involving Zwei, who's notorious for having a modding monopol and gatekeeping ideas in general

Let's not bring that same mindset here, yeah?

Everyone is free to mod what they want, whatever body they want, to refit what they want!

Again, just to point it out, mod isn't there to fix a problem, that's just a mod I wanted to make

It's a brand new mod, meaning it needs refiting; I did not test the flat chest bodymod, nor tried the already existing vanilla refit. And I won't, for the reasons I cited aboved a few lines before.

I'm glad you agree! Nobody has to do things they don't want to

You call it disingenuous, and I call it having principles/self respect; again, crazy how different people are from one another, and how we just can't assume everyone work and react the same as we do

I see, I see, the name is a big issue; I'm open to suggestion, feel free to leave a reply and I'll see what catches my eyes

Cause It's still my mod, so I get to decide

Anyway, hope this cleared up a few things, and sorry this made people upset!

For everyone else, thank you for the support 🧡

[rose-arwen-padme]

The Jedi Council waited respectfully so he could walk down the ship's ramp first.

Technically, the first boots that met the plaza floor were those of his new guard. New to him—not new to the position. Each of these stone-faced men was already tall, but the black plumes jetting out from their helmets added to their imposing frames. Neither the movement of their uniformed march nor the innocent wind could bend the stricken feathers. The uneducated eye would think these virile men in their metallic armor were the more formidable unit, in stark contrast to the variably aged Jedi Masters hanging behind in their soft, unassuming robes.

Their weapons were on full display. This was about presentation as much as it was about protection. The guards covered as much vertical air as the Neimoidians with their own high hats, yet in their bearing the sentries possessed none of the defeat or cowardliness.

He didn't look at the failed oppressors when he strolled right past them; there wasn't even an acknowledgment of their existence. Perhaps that should have been a sign, but clues are more difficult to spot when you aren't aware you should be looking for them. He was nothing but grins and celebration. Puffed sleeves swung left to right as he traveled forward. This was when he still infused his wardrobe with welcoming blues and browns in the fashion of Naboo's wealthiest—carryovers from decades spent representing them. Long fabrics in charcoal, black, and blood red came later.

I observed from afar as he cordially greeted Obi-Wan. The mild distance and the breeze prevented a clear listening, but I heard him say something about bravery. Then his eyes shifted to the blond-haired boy idling at the Jedi's hip. No amount of space between me and the trio could filter the beaming smile that spread till maxed, nor could I miss the way his eyes went from polite automation to enthralled.

Then I watched—as a pleased spectator to this event, and as a friend—when the new leader of the Galactic Republic placed his hand on Ani's shoulder. The boy was just as worthy of adoration and admiration as anyone, but I recognized what a special moment this was. Though he was so much more than his background, Ani was a former slave from the Outer Rim, only recently indoctrinated into our Republic's fold. Yet the Supreme Chancellor—the most powerful figure in the galaxy; a demon who knew exactly what he was doing—placed a hand of friendship and blessing on the very tunic Ani had worn in his slavery.

Claiming him. Publicly claiming him in front of all of us—the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan, and although I was the unexpected chess piece no one saw coming at the time, he even claimed Anakin right in front of me.

None of us realized what we had just witnessed. When we felt the breeze snake through our ranks, we never suspected it was Fate infiltrating the show. Brushing up against our shoulders. Whispering condolences behind our ears. I remember the weight of my black gown, donned for mourning. I remember the relief I felt at his victory with the Senate, though Naboo had already secured hers without it. I remember the paleness of his hand as it briefly rested next to the boy's tan neck. A bloodless beast touching the sun god heir.

Still grinning, he paraded next towards my group, success at his public and private triumphs electrifying his eyes. Congratulations were exchanged between us like tokens. He smiled at me, and he spoke pretty words for "peace" and "prosperity."

I smiled back and welcomed him inside the palace. Later that evening, we stood side-by-side as Qui-Gon Jinn burned.

If I'd known then what I know now, I would have run forward while Palpatine was still disembarking from the ship, put my body between him and Ani in order to shield the boy, and screamed.

Read more of Suppression, a fanfic telling the story of AOTC from Padmé’s POV, at Archive of Our Own.

[utilitycaster]

"There is zero attempt to extend anything but bad faith."

standing ovation for tidily describing this fandom in a nutshell tbh

Thanks, but I'm talking about a particular subset, the handwringy overwrought appeals to emotion crowd for whom the gods can never under any circumstances be redeemed, so unless you are also talking about that specific small piece of the fandom, I disagree! I actually think the fandom at large has been pretty receptive to the story as it's being told. And honestly, even when I've been in fandoms that frustrated me greatly with widespread bad faith interpretations (Midst and WBN have both had problems here)* they've come around when more obvious evidence came about. Better late than never.

I do think that an issue in this fandom, and fandoms at large, is not so much bad faith but as someone else said, motivated reasoning (though in the case of something the motivated reasoner dislikes, will become bad faith). A lot of people decide how they want to the story to go very early, often in a manner that validates their own existing real-world politics (even if they're not super applicable to the situation at hand) or personal preferences. I mean, that's in the end the source of a good number of shipping bad takes - people decide two characters must be in love and so even if they start dating other people and not talking to each other anymore, the motivated reasoning shipper decides that ACTUALLY this is all a front and the actor's blinks are in secret code and the relationship will definitely break up and the True Love was Always Endgame no matter how many times the creators say "no, it never was our intention to have those characters get together." But even then I think the silent majority of most fandoms are just. vibing and happy to be here. It's just that motivated reasoning people are loud.

And I'm not setting myself apart here; I'm loud and I'm certainly not without bias. My motivated reasoning tends to be based on foregone conclusions that I think are more likely to actually play out, I think, and I try to be self aware about it, but like, I do tend to assume stories will be good and follow some narrative lines and use the hints they drop, and that is itself an assumption because some stories are poorly made. Like, for example, with the gods, I do think that there is very little chance Matt is going to tell a story that's like "hey, Ashley, you know your first ever TTRPG character, who brought you into this friend group and whose life's purpose is to restore worship in the Everlight? Bad news, Everlight's a genocidal cunt and she's gotta die." That's obviously not my only evidence here. We've got the whole opening scene. We've got the fact that the non-Aeorian NPCs who aren't divine companions we've spent time with have been a sickly old man granted peace in death, a gnomish woman granted solace after being cruelly mocked by Aeorian forces, and the beggars who didn't have food despite wagons of supplies going to Aeor, whereas the Aeorian NPCs have been guards, slimy bureaucrats, teens badly beaten for minor crimes, and a drunk cop; the defaced and forgotten temple in a poor neighborhood that is heavily surveilled from afar because its laborers are unwelcome. Hell, as I said before it aired, the fact that the main PCs are gods and not Aeorian mages is a very deliberate and telling choice on its own. But yeah on some level, while I think Bells Hells have the space to decide to kill the gods since they are those same cast members (thought I doubt that is what they will do), I do not think Matt will tell an earlier story that says "hey, everyone at the table except Marisha? your beloved character(s) whom you played for all or most of a campaign followed a rotten-to-the-core lie."

Going off the meta of creators is a bit risky - a lot of dumb D20 discourse is based on assuming Brennan's leftism is the same as Very Online I Do Not Dream Of Labor Leftism and not his actual "the BBEG is the exploitation and undervaluing of labor and the dehumanization of others; labor itself can be deeply fulfilling, you just shouldn't be forced to rely on your capacity to do labor to the exclusion of all other things to be housed and fed" leftism and reasoning from there - but it's certainly more reliable than going off reasoning of "I as a random private individual want the gods to die for whatever the fuck reason and therefore that is the correct thing to happen and any other outcome is bad."

This is very rambly because I just got up and maybe it's that it's a nice morning and I can actually enjoy a leisurely breakfast before going into work unlike most of last week and much of the rest of this week, but for all I proudly identify as a hater, I am very much a lover of fiction and I want it to succeed and I want it to not just validate me. Like, if I hate on something it's because I wish it were better, but I don't hate on something just because it presents a different viewpoint than the one I already held. And I think you have to bring that good faith to fandom as well. If people are being idiots and assholes then yeah you don't need to keep acting like they're valid for that (I mean, they're valid in that everyone has the right to their opinions, but not in the sense that you need to grant those opinions intellectual consideration on par with thoughtful and evidenced meta and theories) but I do not actually go in assuming the fandom is going to be wrong and dumb and disappointing, and I think that's why I've found such enjoyment in it. Most people are chill! Chill people just tend not to loudly say WOW I'M SO CHILL AND THIS STORY IS GREAT.

*one bit of salt to cut the sweetness here but also still weirdly positive: the way I've dealt with that and specifically WBN is that I am trying to write one piece of meta after each episode that doesn't attack people or anything, just lays out my thoughts respectfully. Be the change you wish to see. I think a lot of people in fandom see someone disagreeing with them and go "OH YOU CAN'T LET US HAVE ANYTHING" and frankly this is the cause of almost all fandom unpleasantness I've experienced (in the sense of people seeing me say I don't like something and acting like I shut them down instead of simply didn't vibe), but it's important to remember that isn't how it works. Even if you do think the fandom has widespread bad opinions, you can change this by being thoughtful and patient and putting forth better ones. I mean there's limits, and if a fandom is genuinely hateful, get out, but if it's just surface-level takes for something that should be deeper? Be the one who shows the depth.

[polaroid-steam-room]

for the gimme a character, what abt vanoss?

It's been a hot while since I made that reblog, so this was a (very nice) surprise, happy to answer nonetheless.

Not sure if Vanoss could be categorized as a "character", i.e. excluding his online "persona", but hey, I got thoughts anyway!

Sorry if this post is funky+huge, I'm pretty private/shy when I talk about my own thoughts and opinions verses hearing other folks out.

How I feel about Vanoss: Love him, hate him, he's a funny owl that can throw you off if you aren't familiar with his (recent) humor. As a viewer that can sometimes be the target of a joke or bit, I laugh at them as much as I do give an eye squint at (depending on & neutrally speaking). If I had to be honest about my immediate thoughts, Vanoss kinda comes off as a camera man that quips up from behind but is far from boring when he does. I like Vanoss because in my eyes, he is someone that enjoys a game or its moments with friends without having to commentate "just for the sake of"TM. That, and I find his kind of humor and commentary similar to mine sometimes, my favorite example is his, "Everybody remain calm. Go to your happy place."

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxb_vUyLW7Uw5NXzrOvmHhKcBoq62Ep_PB?si=clkl_UI5kfmiFzWG

It's kinda obscure, as in, even my own little brother, who's watched all his videos back to front, will raise eyebrows at me even if it's recent. (On) top of making these idiolects Vanoss will do that I'll repeat on end, which can either infect my brother too or just remain an echo for a few weeks. Clearly, I'm a parrot counterpart to Vanoss, just training to take over his channel when he mysteriously dies (/j).

Shippings with Vanoss: I actually don't, mainly because a) I hold a huge Persona vs IRL mindset when it comes to shipping IRL folks, had it since sweet 2015, so it's definitely affect my perspective on it. And b) I don't know too many shippings with Vanoss (and I was on Wattpad and Quotev reading books on these guys back then, which says a lot.) that did stand out to me, minus the more popular H2OVanoss pairing. So, hey, if anyone seeing this posted some obscure Vanoss x pairing on those sites, chances are I definitely read it though. I may not ship the folks you write about, but I'd be damned if the prompt or potential went to waste in my eyes, I hear "hear me outs" for a reason. So, I get it, really get it, and I'll 400% read or look at art (especially when it COOKS), I just don't PERSONALLY ship anyone in the group. One guarantee is that I'll feen over any lovely art piece I see. It is a curse to love art and to not be normal about liking it. Am everyone's #1 supporter (AS LONG AS IT IS HEALTHY AND NOT CONTROVERSIAL OR WACKAWACKOS)

Friendship Duo pairings with Vanoss: That being said about my pervious point, with this one for me is H2O Delirious, Terroriser, Lui Calibre, and an odd one, BigJigglyPanda. With Delirious, he knows how to go along with a joke, or at the very least, knows with Vanoss something will be amidst with Elmer's glue and C4 wires covering their hands by the end of it. Him and Vanoss's dynamic is strong, and it's made proven when the other has a plan and egging the other to follow. At most, they're always looking for the other to be around and I think that really means a lot when you're given the opportunity to be with someone in a room full of others. The same -or similiar- thing can be said with Terroriser, I think the key difference is that Terroriser is easier to piss off/reactive compared to Delirious, when they're being messed with Vanoss. Another thing is their shared sense of humor and planning. When it's Delirious and Vanoss you could expect something annoying and inconvenient at most, the exact opposite of those two is straight Nuclear Destruction (/hj). Do NOT put these two in a room with explosives in game, they will rig it perfectly for the moment someone takes 4, specifically 4, steps into the room and desecrate the person in question. These two don't compare in light to Lui and Vanoss, my favorite duo pair for horror games. Vanoss is so terrified yet Lui is insanely collected (as one can be in a horror setting [seriously, go watch the "Dude I'm Not Scared" series]), but is enthusiastic enough to play with Vanoss. I think it works out, because (I think, take this as you will) I remember Terroriser saying something how he'd definitely get mad at Vanoss if he were to play a horror game with him. Either way, there's a sort of patience you gotta have, regardless if you play with a horror game with anyone in specific, and Lui being the main man to be there for Vanoss is great. I think which does point back to the more collected side of Lui when playing (excluding semi-jumpscares/jumpscares). Vanoss is Just Like Me FR TM, we would definitely not be scared but have our assigned guardian friend to be scared with if we got a horror game we want to play. For BigJigglyPanda, it's a more simple one, or at least, not as mouthy to talk about, maybe that's just me. But, I think you can very much tell how appreciated his presence is, not just by Vanoss himself, but basically the whole group. Panda makes plenty of crude jokes, but I think his delivery is what makes them great to me, on top of his own laugh, which gets its own fit of giggles out of the others, including Vanoss! I don't think there's ever much of a point where Vanoss didn't get a laugh by the Panda Man, minus if Vanoss was distracted or busy elsewhere. Maybe it's just me projecting, don't care, need more Panda Man (/lh).

My unpopular opinion on Vanoss: I think that Vanoss is an interesting kind of artist that I don't see too many folks talk about, but more specifically, the way he thinks. It's more because of my own empathy in how he wants to go about things from an angle he uniquely envisions. Maybe certain bits that need retakes, references that others don't get whether they're popular or not, expressing for more creative liberty and distaste when he is limited to be appropriate for a general audience (Alpha Betas), and, if I overthink it too hard, perfectionism. He has a vision, he wants the vision to work, but it's HARD to convey that to someone in a way that makes sense with either a limited vocabulary that can't describe it or isn't just, That FeelingTM. I think it's why (as I'm writing at this time), we haven't gotten a new album or single from his music persona, Rynx, is that he cares that it is good, but that it represents him, what his vision is, his art piece and craft that's uniquely his alone. (I'd say his thing of music videos is a semi-idea of that embodiment). If Vanoss ever became a director, I would not be surprised is all I'm saying, boy's got some creative juices in him and I get a decent impression of the mindset he has, or the vibe of, probably.

One thing I wish would happen with Vanoss: RYNX NEW SONG DROP PLEASEEEEE. Vanoss/Rynx is the only artist that I have ever listened to completely and actually actively want to hear more of than just passively like some other artists I follow. I have been patiently waiting for the last 4 years, going onto 2025 with no new music ;-;

Seriously, I genuinely enjoy the music he made, that's the only thing I want out of anything Vanoss might do. I don't doubt that he might post something soon... Maybe??? I don't know, I don't get my hopes up too much, all my Hollow Knight: Silksong homies would know the feeling, and I can't remember the last time he posted on his Instagram (on his personal acc) stories with him just stringing out his own tunes. I have repeated his songs so many times that he's gotten to my top 5 for three years on spotify, the man has a chokehold on me 😭

Closing thoughts: Not much besides he's been a childhood staple for me, I wouldn't change that part of my life if I was given the opportunity to. I love Vanoss and his gang, they've built some pieces of my humor and are the few youtubers from 2016 that keep me engaged with their videos. I know I ain't gonna stop watching them for a longgggg time that's for sure lol

Thank you for your ask! It was fun responding to this, though it's taken me a few days to properly format my thoughts into words. It was refreshing to type all this out, going from mobile to 'puter because all the fancy stuff (literally colors) would mold over the way my breakdown is built, definitely out of my own norm in a good way.

(UPDATE: so. uh. When I initially "finished" this response, it was two days, maybe? before Vanoss's music update post on his twitter account LMAOAO. My jaw physically dropped when I saw the post [courtesy of beepbananabus, because I do not have a twitt]. I wanted to get back to finish this response [I had a couple prompts WIP after I typed closing], got distracted as all good humans do, and remembered like a war flashback and am here now. Sorry for the wait, hope this was worth some of it at most, but I'm grateful nonetheless to have had this ask in my inbox and respond to! :})

[hideawayfairy]

Debunking the Fizz Cheated on Ozzie Theory (Because It Hurts Me 😭)

With any ongoing show, there are bound to be theories that come about and theories can be a lot of fun to read up on. Even if you don't agree with a theory or can disprove one, you're at least bound to find it entertaining. When it comes to Helluva Boss, there was a theory I heard from a couple of people that goes like this: "Fizz actually did make out with Blitzo after they reconciled and feels guilty about cheating." And while I know this show isn't exactly new to having characters who cheat/make questionable decisions regarding their romantic partners, this theory makes me feel uncomfortable. And I'm saying this as someone who ships both Fizz and Ozzie as well as Fizz and Blitzo. But allow me to attempt to ease my own anxiety by making the argument as to why I don't think this theory is possible. This is gonna be long, so strap in.

Let's start by going over the hints people use to support this theory. So we all know the set-up is from this classic line of Blitzo:

For the most part this moment is meant to be taken as more of a joke. But what has people thinking that Fizz actually took Blitzo up on his offer is when we see him do this upon entering Ozzie's office:

Fizz wipes his mouth even though we never saw anything happen to him in the mouth prior to this moment. It's not as if he got punched or was still duck taped. What doesn't help is when Fizz gives this expression as he and Oz are riding the elevator:

This expression has been interpreted in many different ways, but for the sake of this theory, we're going with the interpretation that Fizz looks guilty, especially since he seems to avert his gaze from Ozzie's.

I will grant the theory this in that these aren't bad pieces to use. Again, Helluva Boss has never shied away from showing messy relationships. So what's my counterargument to this theory?

To start off with, I don't believe Fizz would do anything to jeopardize his relationship with Oz. As we see in the next episode, Fizz was too afraid to even not participate in Mammon's Clown Pageant because one of his biggest fears is losing Ozzie.

I would think that if Fizz and Ozzie were in an exclusive relationship with one another, Fizz wouldn't want to cheat on Ozzie because he values him too much. That would be an instant deal breaker to what they have going on.

Furthermore, while Fizz does hide some aspects of himself even with those he loves, it's pretty obvious to tell what he's feeling. When Blitzo comes with him to the pageant, he seems more annoyed than worried about Blitzo's presence.

And to help support this further, we do see how Fizz would react when having Blitzo around could potentially ruin him.

He explicitly calls him out for making fun of his boss. At no point in this episode is Fizz ever worried about what Blitzo could directly do to harm his relationship with Ozzie. If anything, he's more afraid of what Mammon could do to their relationship when Mammon tries to blackmail Ozzie into not letting Fizz quit.

I'm not sure if my counterargument is good or even holds up in fully debunking this theory, but I knew I had to say something for my own peace of mind. And it's not the fault of whoever made this theory or those that believe it. I'm just someone who feels passionate about Fizz and Ozzie and I want to believe the best of their relationship. But I want to know what you think. Do you believe this theory is possible? Do you agree or disagree with my points? Regardless, thanks for reading!

[brisquad-unit-4402]

IM LOSING IT OVER YOUR RECENT IKE FIC. LIKE OH MY GOD. its so sweet and heartwrenching i felt just as nervous and anxious as reader the entire time, and when ike reciprocated my heart MELTED AHHH his freckles!!! how kind and beautiful he is, and his confusion turning into acceptance and his SQUEALSSS AAAA. i cant take it this is my fav ike and probably luxiem fic of all time. all of your hard work paid off so well, it was so well structured and emotional and everyone felt so real!! like they arent characters, theyre actual people!!

ahh, now i wish i knew ike's perspective during those stream moments and his reaction to pen and paper ship content HAHA. i imagine he swiftly bookmarks it on his private account but he keeps blushing and his hands shake whenever he sees any fanart WAAAH. maybe one time he sees pen and paper kissing and he cant properly look at the notifications from reader's chat without FLUSHING RED i love them so bad

i love whenever i'm reading a fanfic and it's so sweetly emotional that you feel your own emotions kicking in. so whenever i hear my work has that effect on someone else it's one of the nicest feelings in the world and WHAT DO YOU MEAN FAVORITE IKE AND/OR LUXIEM FIC EVER. that's super high praise thank youuuuu sobsobsob

i mean this is the kindest most /posi way possible but "they aren't charcters, they're actual people" is the scariest compliment i've ever heard. like on one hand i'm genuinely happy! i worked really hard on keeping multifaceted personalities in mind even for the minor characters! but also Oh No. I'm Writing Vtubers. We Need To Play This So Carefully And So Conscious Of The Creator/Audience Boundary Or My Ass Is GONE

real talk one of my most favorite ike things is when he squeals at something cute or because he's embarrassed ahhhh. and his speaking voice gets so high pitched and soft when he's flustered too like?? it's probably my favorite charm point of his

the ogs remember the poll i ran like a month ago about if ike should have freckles or not. shoutout to the landslide victory, if i remember correctly 97% of voters wanted ike with freckles! so glad that worked out, it works so well with the star theme and the difference between an online friendship meeting irl, and how reader loves them because it's a reminder that they have so much to learn about ike and are ready/willing, and also, freckles are just plain adorable. ike is just plain adorable. put them together and if i were richer and thirstier i'd be commissioning an artist

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

real talk tho i feel like ike goes from 1 to 100 whenever he catches himself simping over reader before the off-collab. either he's really good at acting composed, being normal, just interacting with his best friend like best friends do... or he's a stuttering, blushy mess that wavers like jell-o.

ike's the type of guy to sleepily check twitter before going to bed and whenever he sees pen and paper on his fyp it's like he snaps awake. maybe even squeaks or goes "a!" if it's especially.... you know. sometimes he can't even comprehend that people want him and reader to. well. his mouth goes dry.

and then he feels so dirty and embarrassed just because it's there, but... he's still looking at it. is it bad he's still looking at it? it definitely is but it's captivating, in a way. somehow. the artists are so talented, and somehow they nail your body language to a t, and the way your hair swoops above your eyes, and draw you with the cutest little expressions, and—

ah, who is he kidding.

in moments of weakness it triggers something in him to bury his face a little deeper in his blankets, pretend the screen's light would cool the heat pooling over his cheeks, and search the hashtag himself.

not even three pieces of fanart later, he has to throw his phone face-down on the mattress, cover his blush with a pillow, and now he's definitely squealing. it's healing and it makes him ill. it's... pretty. you're pretty. and he's pretty dumb for letting a silly crush distort itself like this.

the worst part is that some of these line up a little too well with daydreams he wanted to lock away until the end of time. he likes when he takes the lead. the stunned, puppyish expression so rare it only shows up on your face during the biggest plot twists during a stream, but coated in a darkened blush as he pecks them on the cheek, elegant and composed. calm.

ohhhh, this can't be good for his heart. especially when ike himself is so red-faced just thinking of it. calm, his foot.

still with the pillow over his flush, ike feels around for his phone and sets it on his nightstand. he chides himself. that's enough internet for the day, eveland! now quit acting like a shoujo high schooler in love and go to bed already, it's not going to happen!

he sets his face into a determined frown as he lifts the pillow and sets it aside. with any luck, he'd go the rest of the night without thinking of reader and his feelings for them.

the frown eases as he nestles into his blankets and tucks himself in. soft sheets and warm comfort greet him as he shuts his eyes, and he enters the fluffy haze of sleep as he slips into dreamland...

...is what he'd like to say, but not even ten seconds later his eyes snap open and jerks upright in bed. wait, i'm acting like i'm in love?!

he sits with the thought seeping through his brain like a corrosive acid, filing through every little moment he daydreamed about you, and when those don't paint him a picture he likes, he tries to recall the moments he shared with you instead. those are even fonder, and even worse.

he slaps his hands over his face and sighs, and when it sounds lovesick he sighs even more.

✧. ┊ masterpost ✧. ┊ kofi

[sapphire-weapon]

Not to rattle the cages, but for all of their so called, "sexual tension", Leon and Ada have a startling lack of intimacy. Everything they find out about each other most likely is learned from reading sterile, impersonal dossiers and not from any meaningful conversation.

And the only quality time they did have with each other took place completely off-screen and it's not even entirely clear what happened because it was only referenced in a single blink-and-you'll-miss-it throwaway line of dialogue in Damnation. (I'm willing to concede that it's likely they banged, but it's also just as likely that Ada blueballed him and ran off, because her follow-up question of "You're angry with me, aren't you?" doesn't make sense if he actually came LMAO But that's beside the point.)

But... at the same time... I don't think it's that simple. There's more to it than that.

God, I'm really about to make a case for Aeon, aren't I? Damn my dedication to this series's canon. Let's think of this post as the Aeon haters' guide to understanding Aeon, because it's fucking canon whether we like it or not. Goddamn it.

To start off, there's a difference between knowing someone well and being intimate with them. I've talked in the past about how intimate Luis's death scene was in RE4make, and Leon and Luis knew barely anything about each other at the time of his death. But that doesn't take away from the intimacy of the scene.

I feel like a similar principle applies to Leon and Ada.

Ada was with Leon throughout the majority of what was objectively the worst night of his life. Nothing else comes close to Raccoon City in terms of what it did to Leon -- no matter how much greater of a threat he faces logistically, it's still not as bad as what happened to him in Raccoon City. So, Ada knows Leon in ways that no one else in the series does.

Claire got a glimpse of the old Leon -- arguably, the "real" Leon -- but that's all it was. A glimpse. They weren't together long enough for her to really get to see what made him tick or to understand the perspective he was bringing into the city with him -- but Ada got to see all of that. And there's an intimacy to that all on its own -- especially when you consider that, after RE2, Leon starts building walls around himself made of machismo and bad one-liners that eventually wash away beneath a sea of liquor, which then dampens and darkens everything around it.

But no matter how fast he tries to run from himself, or how many walls he tries to put up, or how hard he tries to become someone else, there's still one person in his life who has seen and remembers who Leon S. Kennedy really is, and her name is Ada Wong.

He's allowed himself to be weak in front of her, to fail in front of her, to get frustrated and angry and overwhelmed around her -- and there is a real intimacy in that kind of vulnerability. And not once has she ever judged him for it or held it over his head or tried to harp on him about how he's changed -- because, to her, he hasn't changed. She can see through all of those new defense mechanisms he's put in place and knows that the core of who he still is is still intact. So, she silently allows him to work through whatever it is that he needs to work through while still trusting that he'll always be who he's always been -- and that's pretty fucking powerful, honestly.

And that's why he feels like he can't let her go -- because he's afraid that, if he does, he'll be letting go of the very last piece of himself that's still alive and holding on from before all the trauma set in.

The sad reality of the ship, though, is that that's not true. If Leon were to let Ada go, he wouldn't be letting go of his old self. Because, while Ada has seen the old Leon -- has met and known and spoken with him -- she is not what's keeping the memory of the old Leon alive; she is not the actual bearer of his legacy. Sherry is.

Even though Sherry wasn't around Leon nearly as much as Ada was and didn't get to know him the same way, that doesn't matter. What Leon doesn't see is that he didn't give up who he was because of Ada. He gave up who he was because of Sherry. He did it for her sake -- to save and protect and take care of her.

That's why he almost breaks down and cries when he sees her for the first time in RE6, when he's never done that when reuniting with Ada. It's because Sherry is carrying with her so many of the pieces of Leon that he left behind in order to properly fill the role of a federal agent. Doing what he did for her makes him more of a father to her than William Birkin ever was, and Sherry knows this. That's why she didn't think twice about following in his footsteps and jumping at the opportunity to become an agent herself -- and, to do that, she trusts Derek goddamn Simmons when she really shouldn't have, but she does it because she's still carrying the old Leon's optimism and trustfulness and faith in humanity. Again: she's following in Leon's footsteps, and the old Leon is the only Leon she ever really knew. Even if she didn't know him nearly as well as Ada did.

I think, on some unconscious level buried deep within his psyche, Leon knows this -- but it's a reality that's too painful to face, so he doesn't. Instead, he projects all of that shit onto Ada, because it's easier that way. Besides, he's been doing it for so long already, so why stop now? There's comfort in the familiar, and Ada is nothing if not familiar.

But, to go back to what I was saying earlier about Ada trusting that Leon will always be who he's always been -- that's also why he believes in her in RE6 when no one else does. Part of it is his projections about his past self and all that bullshit, but there's also an element of... "she would do the same for me." Because she has. She's been doing it for years.

And in that specific regard, there is a real maturity to their relationship that doesn't really get enough attention or praise from the fanbase. The whole "sexual tension" thing is stupid, and you're right to point it out in your ask as being stupid, because Leon and Ada's relationship isn't about sex -- and it shouldn't be! And that's why that line in Damnation is so fucking pointless and stupid AND I HATE IT lmao Leon and Ada's relationship is about two people who accept and trust each other without judgement, even when they really shouldn't.

NOW.

WITH ALL THAT BEING SAID.

EVERYTHING I JUST WROTE OUT IN THAT HUGE WALL OF TEXT IS ONLY APPLICABLE TO THE OG STORYLINE. THE REMAKES DO SOMETHING VERY, VERY DIFFERENT WITH LEON AND ADA. And honestly, the massive changes to their relationship are really the #1 major reason why I believe the remakes are a completely different timeline of events -- because so much of what I just said is not fucking true for the remake versions of Leon and Ada. It's just straight up not true.

Remake Leon does not accept Remake Ada for who she is (he literally asks her to fucking change, for god's sake!! LMAO), and he definitely does not fucking trust her. RE4make basically erased the canonicity of Leon/Ada as a romantic relationship. It's not there anymore; it's no longer a canon romance; it's gone. If it's anything still at all, it's one-sided unrequited Ada having fallen for Leon, and him not being able to get away from her fast enough.

But that doesn't mean that their relationship is lacking in intimacy.

We've talked before about how Remake Leon is touch-starved as fuck -- and touch seems to be his love language. And while Leon is greedy and sneaky with the touches he steals from Ashley in RE4make, none of those little touches that the two of them pass back and forth come anywhere close to Ada's touches in RE2make.

The scene between them on the shuttle is very intimate -- and not just because she kisses him. It's the way she sits so close to him, the way she leans into him, the way she keeps a hand on his knee and gently caresses it with her thumb. It's the way they both speak in more hushed tones, the way she tries to be soothing with the tone of her voice. It's how she kisses him -- close-lipped and gentle, meant only to ease his anxiety and quiet his mind (and also get him to shut the fuck up for two goddamn seconds. god I respect her so much for this LMAO).

And not just that scene, but it's also present in the way she patches him up after he gets shot. We don't get to see it, but if you look again at Leon's bandages? She had to strip him the fuck down in order to do that LMAO home girl was sitting there unbuttoning his shirt and going "this sucks he's unconscious this isn't even fun. pain in the ass." And when he wakes up? Sure, she's gone, but he definitely knows that she had to have been all up in his business in order to do what she did -- and she left her coat behind with him as a fucking blanket and I'm sorry but that's so cute. IT'S CUTE. I'LL ADMIT IT. But it was probably a moment for him of "Wow. She really cares." -- because, again, touch is his love language. AND BOY DID SHE DO THAT A WHOLE FUCKIN LOT.

So, basically.

What I'm trying to say is.

Leon and Ada's relationship is poorly written and poorly executed and I hate it for a myriad of reasons, most of which involve the fact that it limits Ada's character and waters her down to a really unnecessary degree, but... I can't bring myself to say that there's no there there. Are they the hot and sexy spy vs spy ship that the director of Damnation desperately wanted us to believe they are? Absolutely fucking not. Is the ship predicated on only semi-resolved sexual tension? Also fucking no.

Does any of that actually matter...? Again... No. It doesn't matter. There is something to it. Even if they are still mostly strangers to each other, knowing facts about each other isn't what's important about their relationship. It's knowing who the other is at their core that's important.

At least, in OG.

In Remake, Leon can't fucking stand her by the time of RE4. And if anyone tries to say otherwise, they're fucking delusional.

Though I honestly believe that if either version of Ada learned more about who Leon was in the day-to-day, she'd probably like him a whole lot less. Leon, shave your face and stop drinking and why are the fucking Beastie Boys playing in your car when you're driving to work and holy shit are you really watching Casino for the third time this week oh my god

[fourseasonsfigs]

Harper's Bazaar Game

I have enough Bazaar figs at this point to fill up more than one fig stand - but I'm still happy to get more. With any luck, I might manage to put together the whole shoot at this rate!

The inspiration for this fig set are these pictures from the official Harper's Bazaar x 山河令 issue:

And since the photos aren't quite enough, here's one of the official videos, featuring our favorite extremely charged weiqi game:

The scene with the crossed arms is at 1.08.

I do feel you need a pic with the full body outfits for fig comparison pics, so let me rustle up another one...

Didn't mind going back to this pic one bit! In fact, the less frequently posted but just as good second pic in this set...

We deserve it! Side note...I do NOT have a fig set of this scene yet, which seems like a grave oversight. That's all. I'm just saying. Please and thank you fig makers!

These two arrived safely in their polystyrene boxes. I have to say at this point, I'm pretty sold on these boxes as a protection mechanism - I've had extremely good look with them. I used to air bubble wrap everything, but these days I don't, which not only dramatically reduces the shipping volume, therefore saving me expensive ship costs, but dramatically increases my will to live when staring down huge boxes of solidly taped shut bubble wrap.

Here's a close up of these figs - please note the Zhehan socks and woven leather shoes combo and Gong Jun's big stompy boots, I love them.

Here's their benches too. The benches are nice and stable, no wobbles here.

And here they are! Look at those FACES. You know how much I love that sideways smile! This is the fig maker that always does the beauty marks on the ears too, which is always a nice touch.

These are just too perfect. I like the poses quite a bit, with Zhehan's hand on the bench and Junjun's on his knee.

Those are some shorter shorts there, gentlemen. I'd say they were at least mid-thigh length.

I ended up gluing them down as they didn't balance at all on the seats. I have learned (the hard way!) that fig stickers only work if the figs are pretty perfectly balanced to begin with.

This is time for my obligatory comment on how much I love Zhehan's hair in this style. Just amazing, my all time favorite.

You can see how the chairs are quite stable here - all four legs on the ground for each one!

I'm so happy these delicate pieces survived shipping intact!

This is a nice shot of Zhehan's curling-up smile.

And we're back around! What cuties. The fig maker did such a nice job with these - the eyes and expressions are just top notch.

I feel like the fig makers have really dialed in the process at this point! We get such good quality and such good detail.

Nice and flat undersides here, so they sit firmly in the chairs - at least once they have a little bit of glue.

Their feet are even posed differently (and cutely!) no replication of body types here.

I'll say once again how much I love Zhehan's hand on the bench. Adorable.

One last shot of them posing in their picture shot - I guess I should have scooted them in a little bit more so their wrists would have crossed!

Our very beautiful fig cards.

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 462

Scene Count: 31 (I already used this little scene before!)

Rating: Our favorite game

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[cosmicjoke]

This isn't a question but you know, you're right about how fandom tends to focus on shipping a lot. I noticed it myself in the statistics of some of the stuff I post on ao3. The data for this really short, whimsical romance work that popped in my head as a spontaneous idea is significantly higher than the non-romantic, character-study-like work I'm writing, yet I put a significantly greater amount of effort into the latter work. Obviously, it's not the same in things like genre or length, so it probably isn't very accurate in comparison, but somehow I feel the point still stands. It was pretty disappointing to see, and I wonder if you've noticed a similar pattern in your own ao3 works.

100%. My romance based stories consistently get more views and comments than my stories that focus on other things. For "Attack on Titan" specifically, I've written a lot of stories that focus on Levi's life growing up in the Underground, or his relationship with Furlan and Isabel, and those stories get way fewer hits and comments than my AoT stories that pair Levi romantically with someone. And then there's levels to that, too. Like my story that pairs Levi with Onyankopon gets way fewer hits and views, on average, than my eruri stories, for example. And my Levi/Onyankopon story doesn't even really focus primarily on romance, so much as it does Levi's disabilities post-canon. But yeah, it is disappointing, because for me, personally, character studies are way more interesting to read than some generic romance story, lol. Especially if you've put a great deal more effort into a piece of writing than another, but it's the one you put less effort into that gets the most attention. But people are preoccupied with romance and shipping, so what can you do? A lot of people read fanfic to indulge in their sexual fantasies it seems. The vast majority of stories on a03, at least in the AoT fandom, seem to focus on smut, and majority wise, a lot of that is Xreader fiction, or again with Levi specifically, the most popular ship outside of LeviXreader fiction is Levi/Eren, which... yeah, no thanks, lol.

I think in other fandoms, maybe it isn't so prevalent. I have a few stories in other fandoms that aren't heavily focused or at all focused on shipping, and they're more popular and get more hits and comments than any of my AoT stories. I feel like the AoT fandom in general has a shipping problem, which is so bizarre, since AoT has almost nothing to do with romance as a theme at all.

[atopearth]

Norn9: Last Era Part 1 - Prelude

I have been wanting to play this fandisc ever since I finished the main game, but I had to finish Amnesia: Later first so I literally had to stop myself from dropping everything for it hahaha. Anyway, to say I'm excited is an understatement because I am SO ready. Personally, I'm planning on starting with Senri or Heishi because they're my least favourites but I'll see, I might alternate with guys I kinda like so I don't get bored haha. Nagisa is pretty! I'm actually so glad we're getting more background on Masamune and the island because we basically knew nothing about it in the original game. As for Masamune's uncle, definitely a genius scientist for making the hiyoko-san! Who doesn't want adorable little chicks cleaning and cooking and even navigating a ship?! I mean if it's going to be functional and practical, why not be cute as well?! I believe in the importance of cuteness and I approve. Anyway, it's nice to finally see "adults" in this world aside from Yuiga. Lmao at Masamune being surprised at how many hiyoko there actually were on the ship hahahah. I find it amusing that the Hiyocook wasn't actually good at cooking tasty food until Masamune gave it a cook book haha. It's also interesting but sad to know that the hiyoko actually can't remember too many things and that Masamune actually has to delete recipes if he wants Hiyocook to cook something else. They're robots, but seeing stuff like Hiyocook getting dejected that Masamune didn't like its' cooking and then becoming happy when Masamune said the food is delicious, isn't that enough for you to care about them?

I guess it's nice to know that just as everyone else came on the Norn unsure of what to expect and how to interact with others, Masamune was also worried about talking to people outside of the island. I think it was sweet of him to be considerate towards Kakeru and want him to be able to relax here. Ooh so you have to go through the whole Prelude with all the characters perspectives before you can go to the individual story! I like that because it's very interesting to me right now. Is the sister Masamune is talking about Nagisa, and her brother is Natsuhiko? I never thought about it until now but their hair colour is the same isn't it! I know people aren't that fond of Masamune but I really love him. I love how he prioritises others before himself without any hesitation, and I think it's exactly because of that, that Kakeru can't help but open up and like him for who he is as well. Since there's only nine squares, I assume we won't get to the girls' perspectives, which is sad because I would have liked to see their initial impressions too even if some bits and pieces may have already been shown.

Even though Mikoto is harsh as usual, seeing her so concerned and worried about Sakuya reminds me of how much I liked them together. I can see why Kakeru has always been irked by Mikoto considering her attitude when she first arrived on the Norn, especially when he cooked for everyone and she didn't appreciate it at all and instead said pretty harsh words. I can't blame him for disliking her at all haha😅 Both Sakuya and Mikoto are stubborn, but I like seeing Sakuya who usually dotes on Mikoto and would do anything for her be strict with her and not budge on her ruining her health by not eating. Mikoto is a true tsundere that cares about people too much for her own good even if she doesn't express it well. Honestly, I never really thought too deeply about the story of Rapunzel but I do agree with Sakuya to an extent that the witch was "protecting" Rapunzel in her own way whether those were her true intentions or not. Natsuhiko, Setsu and Ron chilling on the ship together was such a nice CG, I actually quite like their relationship. I didn't expect Ron and Natsuhiko to have known each other for eight years! It's sad to think about how tough Natsuhiko's life was after leaving the island and how his desire to stop the Reset was the only thing fuelling him. Lmao at Natsuhiko being so sweet and packing Ron's bags for him when he leaves for the Norn, it's so funny how he packs stuff like cold medicine haha, he's too cute! Natsuhiko really is like a mother or wife haha, I love how he told Ron to keep his hands to himself and wear pajamas to bed🤣 I thinks it's nice to see that just as Natsuhiko was interested in Mikoto after seeing photos of her during his investigation, Ron was also interested in Nanami even though it's mainly because he knew she had the power to erase memories.

Personally, I will always agree with Natsuhiko's thoughts and feelings towards the Reset because it's ridiculous to control how the world should be, it's egotistic and forces your own ideals on the world itself. Also, in the end, the fact that they keep doing multiple Resets already goes to show it does nothing but merely reset things to a certain time but humans don't change how they act and the decisions they make. If they don't remember, they won't learn and if they don't learn, they will always do the same thing thinking it's the right way. Ron throwing away the bag Natsuhiko so thoughtfully prepared was so sad but so him. I didn't expect Ron's name to come from Mahjong though lol. Lmao, I can't help but love Hiyocook, it's so dedicated to cooking and gets dejected when it's Akito's turn now that he's come aboard the ship hahahaha.

I really enjoy seeing the guys interact and learn things from each other considering their various different backgrounds, especially Sakuya, I'm happy for him that he gets to experience a bit more of the world with Kakeru and Akito teaching him things. Lmao at Akito scared of cracking eggs because he's worried a little chick will come out of it🤣🤣 HAHAHA, Akito being scared of birds because he met a peacock who ended up trying to court him by following him 24/7 and leaving him bugs and stuff on his doorstep is so silly!!🤣🤣 Akito meeting Senri for the first time in six years and not being able to call out his name because Senri didn't remember him broke my heart. It was obvious that Akito was good at cooking because he wanted to cook delicious food for Senri but hearing him say it really warms my heart. He's always done everything he could to protect and love Senri but they were forced to be separated in such a terrible way. It was so sweet how Akito actually talked to Hiyocook and swapped shifts so he could cook for Senri, poor Akito faced his fears did Senri! Even though I do acknowledge that Kakeru can go a bit too far sometimes (also Senri's fault sometimes tbh), when he got Senri to say that the food was delicious louder so Akito could hear it, I was so happy for Akito. And honestly, if Kakeru wasn't so drastic, Senri really might just stay in his room forever being babied by Masamune and them who would bring him food.

I feel bad for Mikoto, can totally understand why she was scared of Itsuki, his first impression is definitely the worst haha. Lmao, I love how Ron's comment about thinking that Itsuki was some sort of prostitute made all the girls avoid him🤣 Legit ruined his reputation with one word. HAHAHA, Itsuki definitely deserved the flying kick from Sakuya when he asked Mikoto to meow🤣 LMAO at Itsuki thinking Senri was a zashiki warashi (child ghost) because he never realised he existed😂😂 I've always wondered about Senri's tattoo on his face but since they never addressed it, I just thought of it as some sort distinction to make him look less plain haha, but knowing that the adults in the village basically did it to brand him and always recognise him so he can never run away just makes me all the more disgusted with them. They tried to kill Akito and branded Senri for their livelihoods thinking that just because they needed them to live, it was all right to do these things because it was a matter of life and death. It was actually pretty funny how when Sakuya wasn't feeling good after seeing the future, Senri got Ron to help and Ron was basically useless and just kept wondering how he should pull himself together and be a proper adult like Senri told him he should hahahha.

I was actually wondering why it felt so quiet, I completely forgot about Heishi! I can't remember if it was ever told, but I really didn't realise that Heishi was part of a travelling entertainment troupe playing the flute before he came on the Norn! I can see why Itsuki cares for Heishi so much in his route now. He was the one who gave Itsuki the push he needed to see his sister's grave and make him realise that there are things more important than just listening to The World and going along with things using excuses like it can't be helped. It's also nice to see Nanami get to break out of her shell with Heishi because he just does whatever he wants. I always felt like Heishi was the one who helped Nanami get out of her shell the most so I was disappointed when I actually didn't like his route, but hopefully this will be better considering I'm really enjoying the Prelude! I really like how the three hour train ride (one way) was how the three of them started playing cards together and getting along haha! I knew Itsuki's sister's body wasn't in the grave but I never thought that it was because her body got incinerated since people didn't know what her illness was and thought it might be contagious. That is certainly something cruel to have to face with every time he visits the grave, it must hurt to think he couldn't stop it and couldn't even save the house or their belongings, that is so terrible. They basically razed everything that reminds him of his life with his sister. I think it was really sweet of Heishi's Grandpa and Seiji to give Heishi so much money in hope that he could run away and live a free life for himself instead of being shackled to The World. It's sad to think that Heishi has nothing important to him so he thinks it's pointless to run away to somewhere he doesn't even know, but I think his decision is right in that by being beside Mikoto and them, there's a chance he'll find a way of life he wants to live, and that by interacting with others who understand and know his powers, he can learn to accept that it's a part of him instead of just calling it an illness. I've always liked how Heishi gave his tie to Nanami, it's so cute. I liked how Masamune scolded them for coming back so late and Kakeru called him a dad hahaha. I think I especially liked it because Nanami, Itsuki and Heishi have never really experienced something like that where their parents would be so worried about them coming home so late and shout at them, it's endearing haha, not everyone gets to experience that normal concern and love.

Overall, I really liked the Prelude! I kinda hoped to see more of Masamune's part with the scientists but oh well, I still enjoyed seeing everyone's perspectives. I personally enjoyed seeing how Heishi, Itsuki and Nanami's relationship developed from the beginning the most, but I think it was also really cute to see how Kakeru always flusters Masamune and what kind of feelings Masamune had as the first one on the ship waiting for everyone to board. But yeah, I really just enjoyed watching everyone pop up one by one filling up the ship as they all became the rowdy bunch they were when Koharu joined. The extra insight into everyone's thoughts and feelings as they all left things behind once they stepped on to the Norn for their various reasons was interesting to watch and I honestly can't wait to see more of their stories!

[fyx-ation]

A Meandering Ramble on FFXVI

Firstly, if you haven't played the game yet or haven't finished the game yet, I suggest scrolling on. If you want a recommendation to play it, the best I can give you is a 7/10. Worth playing. Not the best thing on the market in the same territory but refreshing (I might use that word a lot going forward) and holds interest very well. Like a page-turner of a book.

That said, the rest of my ramble will be behind the cut to spare spoiling others.

Huh. What a strange little game. I actually just finished it, though I do need to go finish the chronolith things at some point. But I wanted to strike while the iron is hot, so this might be all over the place. I usually try to provide some essay-like structure when I write about a game... But I'm not really feelin' it since I've been working 5am shifts for a while and my brain is fried.

I have not read or watched any other reviews or summaries or impressions of the game. I didn't want my opinion to be tainted by bias because some creator or another loved or hated it.

It is Very Pretty. But perhaps not in a PS5 sort-of rock your eyeballs way. It handles like the Witcher III and Final Fantasy had an off-putting love-child. By that, I mean just the walking around and interacting with things reminds me of Witcher. Casual conversations are overheard from NPCs, and occasionally one that will actually speak to you (Clive) even if they aren't offering a quest or incentive. Facial animations, weather/landscape animations. Very Pretty but maybe a smidge outdated? How is that possible? Everything is lovely! But a little stiff if it's not an important, scripted, you-can't control your character here, sort of scene. The ones that aren't separately rendered cutscenes but still have extra polish? Yeah, not those.

You know what else this game reminds me of? Mass Effect (or Dragon Age). There's no open world to explore. There are pocket maps that you can return to from your Normandy Hideaway, but usually you're just sent there to do a mission quest or hunt or something.

So, let's deconstruct that a little. I think and hope that the producers of this game looked at what has been working and what has landed with the fan-base like a sopping wet diaper. Open world fatigue? Absolutely real. Stamina bars? Fuck right off. Pacing the game out with enormous, unskippable BS like a car ride because the plot is paper thin? Nope!

Does it work for a Final Fantasy game, though? See, this is where the conversation gets choppy. (While I didn't interact with reviews, I did see some plumes of smoke on the horizon in the form of thumbnails and the like). Some people are ride or die "this ain't MY final fantasy." Worse, some are like "this isn't a JRPG q_q."

Personally, I let that ship sail years ago. I loved the old turn-based games, don't get me wrong. I lament there aren't that many on the market anymore. But I've moved on. 16 is probably the biggest departure so far from that. Excluding the online games, they've been moving away from that format since 12. 13 was the last to have party members who you can actually control. (I'm not counting the 7 remake here, either) 16 doesn't have a party system. You can't swap Thane Krios (my space boyfriend) in when you fast travel from your hideaway to the next story beat. It's just the protag and whatever side piece is relevant at the moment, and that side character just does their own thing.

Do I like it? Ehh.... yes and no. Clive doesn't talk to himself or them much, so I feel like a lot more banter was needed. I could see why they left it out on the battle maps ("Hey, Clive, remember when were playing checkers and mom kicked the board because oh hello Mr. Behemoth."). But in city hubs? More banter, please. Even more conversations like the newer God of War games have would be most welcome.

And controlling just Clive? It's fine. I am A-okay with it. Combat's really fun, even when I'm not playing at my best and half-dozing on the couch. It's better than holding down the circle button (15 shaming is my kink). It's all amazingly refreshing in comparison to SE's other departures from turn-based battles. It's the first one so far (again excluding ff7r) to actually succeed at doing something different.

But I would not recommend the game to anyone on that alone. If they were looking for a hack n' slash pew pew magic pew game, I'd suggest the newer God of Wars first.

This is where I'm on the fence about how to judge the game as a whole because it isn't SPECTACULAR. It's good. Combat's good. Story is decent. Side characters are interesting (though some are woefully under-cooked, including Jill, whom I often compared to a piece of cardboard while talking to friends). Pacing a HUGE improvement from previous installments, though the last few hours of the game are weirdly smooshed into sidequests which aren't really sidequests because they are invaluable to the story and the game expects you to do them.

However. The world-building, which is very nice, is padded with lore directories just to clarify shit to people who have no idea what the fuck is going on or who have maybe missed or forgotten details that flesh out the motivations of everyone on the two continents. Did you forget who was fighting who while Clive was was off kicking boxes? Boy, do we have the right solution for that: it's LORE DUMP MAN and his faithful sidekick MAP TIMELINE WOMAN. I'm not saying they are bad things... just... odd. Heavy-handed? I love it when games offer some sort of journal to keep me on track or remind me of things, and yet they feel like they were put in this game because things are a bit blurry for the first third. They throw a lot of names at you, a lot of factions, and a lot of talk of different battles that you don't even witness so the only way to clarify all that is to be given Baby's First Overview. I think that might be indicative of a small failing on the game's part. Lots of telling with little showing often leads to lore dumps in RPGs, because it's critical that you understand for the sake of the story. Weirdly, there actually aren't a lot of exposition dumps in the actual gameplay. I guess they couldn't find a happy medium.

It's late. Gotta get up at 4, so I'll bring this ramble to a close for now. I'll talk about tone and themes later, probably.

Is it worth $70 and satisfying? Mostly. If you like button mashing combat and fantasy, sure. If you're a die-hard FF person, sure, but bolster your expectations as it doesn't really fit that mold. Anyone else that's curious, I'd say wait for a sale or promotion.

TBC

[acourtofthought]

Sarah said that her favorite tropes are enemies to lovers and marriage of convenience. She's shows us that through her books plenty of time. She might not have directly done marriage of convenience but she does that more with mating bonds -> Nessian could be an example.

Sarah never said anything about couples that have liked each other from the start. She often tells us she loves banter and tension and that.. well, it doesn't happen with El/riel. (I swear to god, if one of them comes out and says "But now they have tension and conflicts because the bonus chapter-" I will slap them with their own words "tHe bOnUs cHapTeR iS iRReLeVaNt")

You could pretty much say elucien have the marriage of convenience (mating bond of convenience?). So between Elucien and El/riel, if we go with what she's said and written- I think it's a pretty obvious answer.

Seriously. No one gives a damn if El/riel like each other for a long time. If they don't seem right to Sarah, she won't take their route. Sjm likes her characters to explore first and see where they take her to. To claim that because El/riel like each other for a long time and Elucien aren't on great times, it will forever stay like that shows us that these people don't know Sjm well.

She never talked about El/riel except for that one Interview when she had legit says she sees El/riel as brother and sister (2017 or 2028 Interview). The clips that they claim as "El/riel proof" are just Sarah talking about Nessian or other couples "She said Sjm hates it when her fav ship aren't endgame! That's El/riel proof because El/riel has been there for a long time!" Did Sjm tell you that El/riel is her fav ship? You assume because she had written romantic scenes for them, that seals the deal? Have you already forgotten that Feylin, Chaoleana, Moriel, Dorleana etc. Where there first? That they had done far more than El/riel? You see what happened to them. She talked about ships that she likes from other authors and also talked about Nessian. If she isn't a fan of one ship she'll either sink that ship immediatly -> Lucien and Nesta. Or she'll wait until the time is right and mislead the readers. That's how she is with her books. She had made heacanons about Elucien and claimed El/riel are like siblings (After acowar was out, mind you).

But yeah sure. If your ship isn't endgame then scream "fanservice" all you like, since you like to believe sinking a ship that has been on great terms is impossible 🤷🏾‍♀️

The fact alone that they have convienced themselves El/riel is Sjm fav ship just because they have romantic scenes... 💀 As if the whole tog series and acomaf doesn't exist? The bonus chapter has pretty much shown us El/riel might not be her fav ship after all, but they've also convienced themselves that only couples that had romantic scenes and sexual tension are winning.. the fall will hurt, I tell you that.

Also.. Sjm is evil. This lady came back after 3 years to drop a book that caused the biggest shipwar and then immediatly pieced herself out again for another... what? 5 years? Like ma'am, please just end our misery.

Not to mention there's a big different between tension and banter and two characters being nearly physical when neither character has let themselves be truly vulnerable to the other versus E/riels POV scene. Elain had done nothing to Az. She hadn't lashed out at him, snarked at him, etc. before their kiss. I'm not saying she was wanting to engage with Az because she has real feelings for him, I don't think Elain knows what she's doing at this point because she still hasn't confronted her losses (and no, even her attempts at moving forward aren't proof of overcoming the past. Until we see her work through those things on page from her own POV, she's not fully recovered because any therapist will tell you processing things inside without actually talking about them isn't the healthiest way to go about it). But she did go into that kiss with more of an innocence than we saw from Nessian's near kiss (not to mention neither Nesta or Cassian needed to get over past LI's yet Cassian STILL addressed his past with Mor before that happened) or even Feysands first hookup scene. And the way Az told her it was a mistake is not comparable and not "snark and banter". He caused her actual hurt considering she was putting herself on the line after Graysen rejected her. Again, I'm not saying she had real feelings for Az but they had a friendship (ish) of sorts and she allowed herself to be vulnerable, opening herself up to kissing someone for the first time after the loss of her fiance (someone who also didn't want her). I so wish someone had a clip of that interview where she said E/riel were like brother and sister. Not saying that she couldn't have changed her mind but it would at least prove to E/riels that E/riel wasn't ALWAYS the plan like they argue. And I would bet money that E/riel is not remotely close to being SJMs favorite ship. Rhys is the thing she said she'd taken to a deserted island and she has been beside herself with excitement over talking about Nessian. I think at one point she actually said Cassian is the kind of male she'd go for and I do know she said Nesta was a gift to her. Those ships have that extra spice that SJM loves in her romances and E/riel is bland in comparison. I'm not even saying that as an Anti E/riel at this point. There is nothing exciting about E/riel, they read as a very YA first relationship kind of pairing and if you really pay attention to every other couple SJM has written about, they don't match up. I'll never understand why people in the fandom try to self insert into the authors preferences. We can all like what we like but what good does it do to ignore what the author likes in order to prove what we want to happen? She has never spoken of E/riel. She doesn't speak of enjoying friends to lovers as a favorite trope. She has never spoken of liking couples who tiptoe around one another and she ALWAYS has her MMC or FMC first address (from their POV) that they are truly over their past love interests before moving on to their endgame person and that alone should be enough to prove to them why E/riel isn't in love, that their kiss was not when either was in the right state of mind and why it's a good thing Az doesn't consider Gwyn a friend at this point.