#trying to be vague just in case

[lollybliz]

Hi Lolly!

How is tears of the kingdom going for you?

Hi hi!

I have. Not made it very far fhdjskdjdj I've activated my first tower on the surface and finally gotten the paraglider back. And then I got sidelined by a half dozen other things and being at work too much 🤣😭💀 its a Beautiful game and I hope i get the time to sit down with it more soon, there's So Much I want to s e e want to get my hands on want to poke and prod and blow myself up with aaaaaaa

[spoonsisland]

MePhone 4 after learning about nonbinary people midway through season 2: OHHHH so THAT’S the word i was looking for [updates Paintbrush’s toyhouse page]

[ask-fan-ii]

GUESS WHO'S BACK!

That's right! It's me, Fan!!! And as many of you may be wondering, where have I been!? Well, my absence may or may not have been caused by dying due to bad decision-making, but the important thing is that I'm back to greet all my loyal fans!! Thank goodness for MePhone4's MeLife- am I right, folks?

Ask box is open once again.

[somnimagus]

you are worth all the struggle and bloody mess

[id in alt text]

[lo-fi-charming]

so i've been keeping up with TMP as it's airing, which has been fun, it's actually really nice to experience this kind of story weekly since i came into TMA late and listened up to the s4 finale in like, a month or two. i've been enjoying the new characters and statements, and while i was worried i'd have trouble actively listening (my attention span/executive functioning can be really variable when it comes to podcasts), it's been surprisingly easy for me to actually listen to each new ep the day it drops publicly

all this to say im enjoying the show! but i've found myself feeling increasingly frustrated with a couple things i keep seeing when it comes to discussions of it

to me, it seems... there's been a pervasive reluctance to take TMP as what it is. and i do understand that. it'd be stupid to pretend TMP doesn't exist exclusively because of TMA and that show's success, that it's a successor that was pitched as being similar. it's a story being written by the same people (plus guests), in the same universe (roughly), going for about the same tone and maybe themes.

i just feel like it's a bit of a shame, though, that so many folks seem unwilling not to carry TMA with them when they're engaging with TMP

i don't know where or when it was said, but i swear there was a comment made by jonny and/or alex about how TMP will have some commonality with TMA in terms of world-building, but also, people who listened to TMA first may find themselves theorizing in the wrong direction because we're judging things based off what is no longer concrete, reliable information; things are going to work differently in the world of TMP, and since we have preconceived notions on what is relevant or how things work, that's going to influence how we engage with information presented in TMP if we let it. and that's not even considering the fact that they've been explicit in conveying the idea that TMP was written so you can experience it fully without having listened to any of TMA at all!

i'm very much someone who tries to engage with media on its own terms, largely taking things at face value until i'm given reason to suspect otherwise. that's something i'm trying my best to still do with TMP, even though obviously, i've also listened to TMA and am basing some of my thoughts and personal theories on what we know from that

but that's what i mean to say i guess, it's something you have to actively choose to do. and it feels like, just based on what i've been seeing in fandom spaces, that a lot of people are having a bit of an odd time with TMP because of a reluctance to do that?

i think the easiest way to explain what i mean is to point to a general acceptance, already on the level of fanon it seems, to interpret the computer voices as Our Jon and Martin (+ Jonah/Elias, maybe). now obviously we have the actual real world reason why their voices are present in TMP, because of course jonny and alex were going to come back as voices in the show in some way. and i 100% agree it's a perfectly logical conclusion to then interpret their inclusion as being related to Jon and Martin somehow. i'm personally very into the theory that it is in no way them - not in any way that matters - but specifically their voices that have been stolen (by the Web?) as a means to help spread fears in other realities. but that's really not how i've been seeing people play with the concept? it seems largely 1:1. and again, i totally understand where people are coming from with that - especially when you consider how it can be a super fun concept for horror and angst, or even just the fact that folks want an excuse to carry their favorite characters into this new show and still play around with them. i promise i don't mean to bring this up as a means of making anyone feel bad or like, chastised for interpreting things a certain way and playing in the space!

it's the biggest example of what i mean though, and was a huge point of frustration for me when we were first being presented with TMP. it's not just that i don't want the voices to be Jon and Martin proper (i am very into their Ambiguous End, i believe it's best to leave that as a space for fans to play in); in all honesty, i think it's kind of a shame and maybe even a bit boring (im sorry!) to be engaging with TMP this way

and it's not just stuff like that - i've been seeing a fair amount of people expressing frustration and feeling disappointed with how TMP is hitting, but i mean, i feel like that's inevitable when you're going into it expecting More TMA? i saw at least one person basically say "ive been waiting for it to make me feel the way TMA made me feel, and it hasn't yet", and i really just feel like that's setting yourself up to be dissatisfied! beyond the fact that we're only 5 episodes in and the story has barely gotten a chance to happen yet, a huge element of this new show is that it's being approached as a largely collaborative effort, it seems, with lots of guests coming in to help shape the story and more writing and plotting influence that isn't jonny

obviously it's fine to not be super into that! undoubtedly it's a question of taste. but you do have to acknowledge that that's the case and adjust your expectations accordingly, or else you're not going to have a great time

i really like TMA, i had a great time with it, but even if TMP is a sequel to its parent podcast, it's not the same thing - and personally, i don't want it to be! i do hope that's a sentiment that is able to be more widely felt by some fans as we gain more distance from TMA while TMP is airing. i just think more people would be able to enjoy it that way, and come up with more interesting theories and interpretations of things! but those are really just my own personal thoughts

[cloudabserk]

wait i recently heard that in the books armand was like 12 when he was kidnapped (and that’s how he had a whole job and everything as a monk beforehand) ? (i haven’t read the vampire armand i’m going off rumor)

see that wouldn’t be surprising but in the vampire lestat i remember lestat being like “he was a small child with no awareness of anything other than mother and father and god and the devil”. which implied to me he was like 8 or 9 at most.

but maybe lestat is just culturally ignorant and obtuse about children? he’s looking at a short 11 year old with a strong belief in god and going “ok so he’s like 7 and not that bright”

[totalspiffage]

i love digging up ancient posts i made about my old dragon age theories that end up being PRETTY CLOSE TO BEING RIGHT. I had to go rant in my server about how happy i am about it lmao

[theblackdog552]

Attention proshippers and antis its actually not illegal to ship minors with adults, technically its only illegal to draw minors in quote en quote, “obscene” ways (and even then the line is very vague on what obscene actually is.) theres actually no limitations of writing fic of minors in the united states.

A lot of people who were arrested for owning explicit drawings of fictional minors were also connected to real life exploitation of minors, which is why they were arrested in the first place. The fictional stuff came second is most cases.

So go write that fanfic, draw that age gap art, and go enjoy your problematic ships! legally theres nothing stopping you. :)

[quietsamurai98]

I have to say... I was kind of dreading Dot and Bubble, mostly because I thought it was going to be a boomeresque "Phone Bad™" episode based on the trailers. So, so glad that the Phone Bad™ plotline was subverted and used to reinforce the episode's real cultural critique.

[bythehearts]

not to bring tiktok drama on tumblr but like every time a ‘scandal’ comes out with one of these ‘production companies’ that make fan films i always hope we’re finally gonna discuss how they professionalize something that should be an hobbyist endeavor… and yet every single time i’m disappointed.

[loveguts]

i’m not a transandrophobia truther in the slightest don’t get me wrong, but i think some people on here really need to realize and comprehend the fact that cis women, way WAY more often than not, hold extremely significant social and political power over trans men the vast majority of the time in our day to day lives

[vaya-writes]

quick question for the second person girlies. the words "Your cheeks blaze." I'm using it to mean blushing and implying warmth. It's a common phrase in my arsenal.

Just checking though. Does anyone get the impression that 'blaze' in this context means to turn red?

[priafey]

things the US needs to address:

the collective psychosis that leads people to make posts like these

[recurring-polynya]

I think it would be the funniest thing in the world if the bleach anime decided to clarify that kyouraku is not, in fact, nanao's uncle

[cacw]

I think online mutual culture is killing some of you

[philosophiums]

to everyone who is complaining about the rapid ending of jjk and the decisions being made on how it's finishing i would like to say:

A. in order for these decisions to be different and also not feel cheesy as shit, there would have had to have been vastly different story decisions made wayyyy earlier in the manga. i'm talking culling games or before. a lot of the things that people want to see happen have no backing in the prior story. we all just spent an entire arc (rightfully imo) criticizing like... "oh of course sukuna has the perfect, previously unmentioned, incredibly niche skill to counteract this specific ct," but now you want more impossible things to happen that have not been foreshadowed or set up in-universe and you super pinky promise that this one won't make you upset? get real

B. one of the reasons the manga is being wrapped up so quickly is bc the fanbase is full of disrespectful vengeful assholes who sent gege death threats bc of his decisions to kill "their husbands." i wouldn't want to keep putting effort and energy into a story if that was the fan response either. gege is better than me bc my ass would have just stopped writing

C. one of the other reasons the manga is being wrapped up so quickly is bc of gege's health issues

D. all of the decisions make perfect sense for a plot-driven story. the plot that was laid out is coming to an end. and this has been, as gege has stated, a plot-focused story. he hasn't focused on character, so things that are happening now are not going to focus on character

now do i think that the story would have been better if it was character-driven yes. do i think it's good and smart and healthy for fans to criticize their favorite media yes. have fans been criticizing and complaining about their favorite media since the dawn of time obviously. but i also firmly believe that every criticism should come from a place of understanding and realization and not just "this is what i thought would/should happen and now im fucking pissed bc it didn't"